達登餐飲 (DRI) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. Welcome to the Darden Fiscal Year 2023 Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, the conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time.

早上好。歡迎參加達頓 2023 財年第四季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）謹此提醒，會議正在錄製中。如果您有任何異議，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凱文·卡利卡克先生。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Thank you, Daryl. 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 risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections.

謝謝你，達里爾。大家早上好，感謝您參加今天的電話會議。今天加入我的是達頓商學院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，本次電話會議期間發表的評論將包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》中定義的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述受到風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與我們的預期和預測存在重大差異。

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.

這些風險在該公司今天上午發布的新聞稿以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中進行了描述。我們在本次電話會議期間同時播放演示文稿，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 2024 first quarter earnings on Thursday, September 21, before the market opens, followed by a conference call.

今天的討論和演示包括某些非 GAAP 衡量標準，演示文稿中還包括這些衡量標準的調節。展望未來，我們計劃於 9 月 21 日星期四開盤前發布 2024 財年第一季度收益，隨後召開電話會議。

During today's call, any reference to pre-COVID when discussing fourth quarter performance is a comparison to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 and any reference to annual pre-COVID performance is a comparison to the trailing 12 months ending February of fiscal 2020. Additionally, all references to industry results today 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，在討論第四季度業績時，任何提及新冠疫情前的業績都是與 2019 財年第四季度的比較，任何提及新冠疫情前的年度業績都是與截至 2020 財年 2 月的過去 12 個月的比較。今天所有提及的行業業績均指 Black Box Intelligence 的休閒餐飲基準，不包括 Darden，特別是 Olive Garden、LongHorn Steakhouse 和 Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen。

During our fourth fiscal quarter, industry same-restaurant sales decreased 0.7%, and industry same-restaurant guest counts decreased 7%. And during our full fiscal year 2023, industry same-restaurant sales increased 2.7% and industry same-restaurant guest counts decreased 5.5%.

在我們的第四財季，行業同店銷售額下降了 0.7%，行業同店客人數量減少了 7%。在 2023 年整個財年，行業同店銷售額增長 2.7%，行業同店客人數量減少 5.5%。

This morning, Rick will share some brief remarks recapping the fiscal year. Raj will provide details on our fourth quarter and full year financial results and share our fiscal 2024 financial outlook. And then Rick will close with some final comments.

今天早上，里克將分享一些回顧本財年的簡短言論。 Raj 將提供有關我們第四季度和全年財務業績的詳細信息，並分享我們 2024 財年的財務展望。然後里克將以一些最後的評論作為結束。

Now I'll turn the call over to Rick.

現在我將把電話轉給里克。

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. We had a solid quarter to conclude what was a very strong year despite an environment, we significantly outperformed the industry benchmarks for same-restaurant sales and traffic and met or exceeded the financial outlook we provided at the outset of the year. For the full fiscal year, we grew sales by 8.9% to $10.5 billion, delivered diluted net earnings per share of $8 and opened 57 new restaurants.

謝謝你，凱文，大家早上好。儘管環境不佳，但我們仍然有一個堅實的季度來結束今年非常強勁的一年，我們的同餐廳銷售和客流量顯著優於行業基準，並達到或超過了我們在年初提供的財務前景。整個財年，我們的銷售額增長了 8.9%，達到 105 億美元，攤薄後每股淨利潤為 8 美元，並開設了 57 家新餐廳。

We also opened 9 new international franchise restaurants in 6 different countries, which is the most we have ever opened in a fiscal year. The market responded positively to our performance, leading to a total shareholder return of 32.6% for the fiscal year. We have consistently delivered strong long-term shareholder returns. In fact, since Darden was spun off from General Mills 28 years ago, a period which spans multiple business cycles, the company has achieved an annualized TSR of 10% or greater over any 10 fiscal year period.

我們還在 6 個不同國家開設了 9 家新的國際特許經營餐廳，這是我們在一個財年開設的最多的餐廳。市場對我們的業績反應積極，導致本財年股東總回報率為 32.6%。我們始終如一地為股東帶來強勁的長期回報。事實上，自從達頓公司 28 年前從通用磨坊公司分拆出來以來（這一時期跨越了多個商業周期），該公司在任何 10 個財年期間都實現了 10% 或更高的年化股東總回報率。

Our restaurant teams continue to execute at a high level by remaining focused on our back-to-basics operating philosophy anchored in food, service, and atmosphere. Our brand's ongoing efforts to drive execution through simplification, enable our restaurant teams to create guest experiences as evidence by a record level of performance we saw from many of our brands on key holidays throughout the year.

我們的餐廳團隊繼續以高水平執行，繼續專注於我們以食物、服務和氛圍為基礎的運營理念。我們的品牌不斷努力通過簡化來推動執行，使我們的餐廳團隊能夠創造客戶體驗，我們從我們的許多品牌在全年的關鍵假期中看到的創紀錄的績效水平證明了這一點。

Nowhere is it more apparent than at Olive Garden, which achieved the highest sales day and sales week in their history during the week of Mother's Day. This focus on being brilliant with the basics leads to strong guest satisfaction scores, and our internal guest satisfaction metrics remain at or near all-time highs across our brands.

沒有比 Olive Garden 更明顯的了，該公司在母親節當週創下了歷史上最高的銷售日和銷售週記錄。這種對基礎知識的專注導致了很高的客戶滿意度得分，並且我們的內部客戶滿意度指標在我們的品牌中保持或接近歷史最高水平。

At LongHorn Steakhouse, one of their most important metrics is their stakes will correctly score, which is at an all-time high. To continue to drive results, LongHorn recently completed their sixth Steak Master Series, which is their annual grilling competition and training program. Over the course of 2 months, thousands of culinary team members competed in this highly engaging training program for the right to be Crown Champion and received $15,000 gram price. Congratulations to this year's Steak Masters champion.

在 LongHorn Steakhouse，他們最重要的指標之一是他們的賭注能夠正確得分，這是歷史最高的。為了繼續取得成果，LongHorn 最近完成了第六屆牛排大師系列賽，這是他們的年度燒烤比賽和培訓計劃。在 2 個月的時間裡，數千名烹飪團隊成員參加了這個高度參與的培訓項目，爭奪皇冠冠軍的權利，並獲得了 15,000 美元克的價格。恭喜今年的牛排大師賽冠軍。

Kelly Hall from the LongHorn Steakhouse in Frigette Tennessee. I am particularly proud of everything the teams in our restaurants and at the support center accomplished in fiscal 2023. For example, Olive Garden successfully introduced Never earning possible, which leverage their iconic brand equity was much simpler to execute and significantly improve margin while still providing tremendous value for their guests. Throughout the year, several of our brands ranked #1 among major casual dining brands in key measurement categories within Technomics industry tracking tool, including LongHorn for food quality and Cheddar Scratch Kitchen for value.

田納西州弗里蓋特 LongHorn 牛排館的凱利·霍爾 (Kelly Hall)。我對我們餐廳和支持中心的團隊在 2023 財年所取得的一切感到特別自豪。例如，Olive Garden 成功推出了“永遠不可能賺錢”，利用其標誌性品牌資產更容易執行，並顯著提高利潤率，同時仍然提供為客人帶來巨大的價值。全年，我們的多個品牌在 Technomics 行業跟踪工具的關鍵衡量類別中在主要休閒餐飲品牌中排名第一，包括食品質量方面的 LongHorn 和價值方面的 Cheddar Scratch Kitchen。

And several of our brands were recognized as industry leaders in employment practices by Black Box Intelligence. Olive Garden, the Capital Grille and Seasons 52 were honored with the Employer of Choice Award and LongHorn and EDVs received the Best Practices award.

我們的多個品牌被 Black Box Intelligence 評為就業實踐方面的行業領導者。 Olive Garden、Capital Grille 和 Seasons 52 榮獲最佳雇主獎，LongHorn 和 EDV 榮獲最佳實踐獎。

Throughout fiscal 2023, our strategy served us well. In addition to our back-to-basics operating philosophy driving strong execution in our restaurants, Darden's 4 competitive advantages of significant sale, extensive data and insights, rigorous strategic planning and results-oriented culture, enabled our brands to compete more effectively and provide even greater value to their guests.

整個 2023 財年，我們的戰略都發揮了良好作用。除了我們回歸本源的經營理念推動餐廳的強大執行力外，達頓的四大競爭優勢，即顯著的銷售額、廣泛的數據和洞察力、嚴格的戰略規劃和以結果為導向的文化，使我們的品牌能夠更有效地競爭，並提供更優質的服務。為客人帶來更大的價值。

Our significant scale allowed our teams to successfully manage through the highly unpredictable inflationary environment while continuing to underprice inflation over the long term. All 4 of our advantages are unmatched within the restaurant full-service industry. These advantages are leveraged by our portfolio of iconic brands, all generating high average unit volumes with extensive geographic footprint. Our strategy is the right one for our company, and our advantages were further strengthened last week with the completion of the acquisition of Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

我們的龐大規模使我們的團隊能夠成功地應對高度不可預測的通脹環境，同時繼續長期低估通脹。我們的這四項優勢在餐廳全方位服務行業中都是無與倫比的。我們的標誌性品牌組合充分利用了這些優勢，所有這些品牌都產生了較高的平均銷量和廣泛的地理覆蓋範圍。我們的戰略對於我們公司來說是正確的，隨著上週完成對 Ruth's Chris Steakhouse 的收購，我們的優勢得到了進一步加強。

Ruth's Chris enhances our scale advantage, our culture, and complements our portfolio of iconic brands. We are so thrilled to have such an outstanding brand and high-caliber talent, and our experienced team is working hard to integrate Ruth Chris into Darden with as little disruption as possible. I'm proud of the results we achieved in fiscal 2023, and we will continue to execute our strategy to drive growth and long-term shareholder value.

Ruth's Chris 增強了我們的規模優勢和文化，並補充了我們的標誌性品牌組合。我們很高興擁有如此出色的品牌和高素質人才，我們經驗豐富的團隊正在努力將露絲克里斯融入達頓，盡可能減少干擾。我對我們在 2023 財年取得的成果感到自豪，我們將繼續執行我們的戰略，以推動增長和長期股東價值。

Now I'll turn it over to Raj.

現在我將把它交給 Raj。

Thank you, Rick, and good morning, everyone. Total sales for the fourth quarter were $2.8 billion, 6.4% higher than last year, driven by same-restaurant sales growth of 4% and the addition of 47 net new restaurants. Our same-restaurant sales for the quarter outpaced the industry by 470 basis points, and same-restaurant guest counts exceeded the industry by 540 basis points.

謝謝你，瑞克，大家早上好。第四季度總銷售額為 28 億美元，比去年增長 6.4%，這主要得益於同店銷售額增長 4% 以及淨增 47 家新餐廳。本季度我們的同店銷售額超出行業 470 個基點，同店客人數量超出行業 540 個基點。

Diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations increased 15.2% from last year to $2.58. We generated $472 million in EBITDA and returned $183 million to shareholders.

持續經營業務攤薄後每股淨利潤較去年增長 15.2%，達到 2.58 美元。我們產生了 4.72 億美元的 EBITDA，並向股東返還了 1.83 億美元。

Total inflation slowed meaningfully this quarter to 4.4%, 270 basis points less than the third quarter, while the rate of pricing decreased from last quarter to 5.9%.

本季度總通脹顯著放緩至 4.4%，比第三季度低 270 個基點，而定價率則較上季度下降至 5.9%。

Turning to the fourth quarter P&L compared to last year, food and beverage expenses were 30 basis points better, driven by pricing about commodities inflation of roughly 3%. Chicken and seafood experienced deflation this quarter, helping offset high single-digit beef and beat inflation.

與去年相比，第四季度損益表中，食品和飲料費用上漲了 30 個基點，這是由於大宗商品通脹率約為 3%。雞肉和海鮮本季度經歷了通貨緊縮，幫助抵消了高個位數的牛肉並擊敗了通貨膨脹。

Restaurant labor was 40 basis points better, driven by productivity improvements. Expenses were 30 basis points better than last year, driven by sales leverage. Marketing expense was 1 point of sales, consistent with our expectations and 3 basis points higher than last year. All resulted in restaurant-level EBITDA being 80 basis points to 20.7%.

在生產率提高的推動下，餐廳勞動力提高了 40 個基點。在銷售槓桿的推動下，費用比去年好 30 個基點。營銷費用為 1 個銷售點，與我們的預期一致，比去年高 3 個基點。所有這些都導致​​餐廳層面的 EBITDA 上升 80 個基點，達到 20.7%。

Our general administrative expenses was 40 basis points higher than last year driven by the timing of our incentive compensation accrual as well as unfavorable year-over-year mark-to-market expense on our deferred compensation. Due to the way we had this expense, this unfavorability is largely offset in a client.

我們的一般管理費用比去年高出 40 個基點，原因是我們的激勵薪酬應計時間以及遞延薪酬按市場計算的費用與去年同期相比不利。由於我們支付這筆費用的方式，這種不利因素在很大程度上被客戶抵消了。

Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 10.4%, and we generated $316 million in earnings from continuing operations, which was 11.4% of sales.

本季度我們的有效稅率為 10.4%，持續運營收入為 3.16 億美元，佔銷售額的 11.4%。

Looking at our segments, Olive Garden, LongHorn (inaudible) same restaurant sales by 4.4%. -- going at our other segment significantly on the industry -- the strong same-restaurant sales performance drove segment profit margin at each of these segments higher than last year, especially at LongHorn, where segment profit margin of 18.6% was 70 basis points higher than last year.

從我們的細分市場來看，Olive Garden、LongHorn（聽不清）同一家餐廳的銷售額增長了 4.4%。 ——我們的其他細分市場在行業中佔有重要地位——強勁的同餐廳銷售業績推動每個細分市場的利潤率高於去年，尤其是 LongHorn，該部門的利潤率達到 18.6%，比去年高出 70 個基點比去年。

Same-restaurant sales at our Fine Dining segment decreased by 1.9%, still outperforming the Black Box Fine Dining benchmark, excluding Darden, by more than 200 basis points. This resulted in segment profit margin below last year at the Fine Dining segment. This year-over-year sales decline was more the result of a wrapping on resurgence of demand in the fourth quarter of last year, which drove traffic retention to 108% of pre-COVID levels.

我們的高級餐飲部門的同店銷售額下降了 1.9%，但仍比 Black Box Fine Dining 基準（不包括達頓）高出 200 個基點以上。這導致高級餐飲部門的利潤率低於去年。銷售額同比下降更多是去年第四季度需求復甦的結果，這使得客流量保留率達到新冠疫情前水平的 108%。

Looking at traffic retention trends over the past few quarters, fine dining has been consistently between 101% to 102% of pre-COVID levels. We expect continued year-over-year traffic softness in our Fine Dining segment as we wrap on the first quarter traffic in fiscal 2023, that was at 107% of pre-COVID traffic levels. We expect traffic to stabilize on a year-over-year basis after the first quarter.

從過去幾個季度的客流量保留趨勢來看，精緻餐飲一直保持在新冠疫情前水平的 101% 至 102% 之間。我們預計，隨著 2023 財年第一季度的客流量結束，我們的高級餐飲細分市場的客流量將繼續同比疲軟，為新冠肺炎疫情前客流量水平的 107%。我們預計第一季度後流量將同比穩定。

As we look at our annual results for fiscal 2023, we had strong same-restaurant sales of 6.8%, which outperformed the industry by 410 basis points, and our same-restaurant traffic was 510 basis points above the industry. Strong top line performance drove $1.6 billion in EBITDA from continuing operations. We returned $1.1 billion to shareholders and ended the year with $368 million of cash.

從 2023 財年的年度業績來看，我們的同店銷售額高達 6.8%，比行業高出 410 個基點，同店客流量比行業高出 510 個基點。強勁的營收業績使持續運營帶來了 16 億美元的 EBITDA。我們向股東返還 11 億美元，年底現金達 3.68 億美元。

Looking at our fiscal 2023 full year results compared to pre-COVID, operating income margins have grown 140 basis points. Food and beverage as a percent of sales increased 380 basis points driven by investments in food quality and pricing well below commodities inflation. Offsetting this unfavorability were improvements in labor productivity, reduced restaurant, and marketing expenses and G&A efficiencies. Our strong operating margin generate significant and durable cash flows. Since 2018, we have delivered approximately 8% annualized EBITDA growth. At the end of fiscal 2023 our balance sheet was well positioned at just 1.8x adjusted debt to EBITDA, well below our targeted range of 2 to 2.5x.

與新冠疫情爆發前相比，我們的 2023 財年全年業績顯示，營業利潤率增長了 140 個基點。由於食品質量投資和遠低於商品通脹的定價，食品和飲料佔銷售額的百分比增加了 380 個基點。勞動生產率的提高、餐廳和營銷費用以及一般行政費用的減少抵消了這種不利因素。我們強勁的營業利潤率產生了大量且持久的現金流。自 2018 年以來，我們實現了約 8% 的年化 EBITDA 增長。截至 2023 財年末，我們的資產負債表狀況良好，調整後債務與 EBITDA 之比僅為 1.8 倍，遠低於我們 2 至 2.5 倍的目標範圍。

And when we look at our performance compared to our long-term framework over the last 5 years, we've been able to achieve annualized total shareholder returns of 14.2% as measured by EPS growth plus dividend yield. This is near the high end of our target and was driven by annualized earnings after-tax growth of 10.2% above the high end of our framework. Cash returns were 4%, which is at the middle of our framework. As we look to the future, we still believe that over time, our 10% to 15% target for total shareholder returns is appropriate. However, we're increasing the share repurchase range to better reflect the impact of our share price appreciation since we last updated the framework 5 years ago. The updated share repurchase range is $300 million to $500 million.

當我們將我們的業績與過去 5 年的長期框架進行比較時，我們已經能夠實現 14.2% 的年化股東總回報（以每股收益增長加上股息收益率衡量）。這接近我們目標的高端，是由年化稅後收益增長 10.2% 高於我們框架的高端推動的。現金回報率為 4%，處於我們框架的中間位置。展望未來，我們仍然相信，隨著時間的推移，我們 10% 至 15% 的股東總回報率目標是合適的。不過，我們正在擴大股票回購範圍，以更好地反映自 5 年前上次更新框架以來股價上漲的影響。更新後的股票回購範圍為3億至5億美元。

Before we get into our outlook for fiscal 2024, I want to provide an update on the acquisition of Ruth's Chris, which we completed last week. This was financed through a $600 million term loan and cash on our balance sheet bringing our adjusted debt to EBITDA to approximately 2x. As we move forward into 2024, sales and profits from Ruth Chris company owned and operated locations will be included in our Fine Dining segment, while revenues and profits from the franchise locations will reside in our other segment, consistent with the treatment of our existing franchise locations. However, Fine Dining same-restaurant sales results will not include Ruth Chris until they have been owned and operated by us for a period of 16 months.

在我們展望 2024 財年之前，我想先介紹一下我們上週完成的收購 Ruth's Chris 的最新情況。這是通過我們資產負債表上的 6 億美元定期貸款和現金籌集的，使我們的調整後債務與 EBITDA 之比達到約 2 倍。隨著我們進入 2024 年，Ruth Chris 公司擁有和經營的門店的銷售額和利潤將納入我們的高級餐飲部門，而特許經營店的收入和利潤將歸屬於我們的其他部門，這與我們現有特許經營權的處理方式一致地點。然而，Fine Dining 同餐廳銷售結果將不包括 Ruth Chris，直到該餐廳由我們擁有和經營 16 個月為止。

As we mentioned in our conference call in early May, we expect to achieve run rate synergies of approximately $20 million by the end of fiscal 2025, primarily through supply chain and G&A savings. We also expect Ruth Chris will be accretive to our earnings per share by approximately $0.10 to $0.12 in fiscal 2024 and $0.20 to $0.25 in fiscal 2025. We anticipate total acquisition and integration-related expense of approximately $55 million pretax.

正如我們在 5 月初的電話會議中提到的，我們預計到 2025 財年末將實現約 2000 萬美元的運行率協同效應，主要通過供應鍊和管理費用節省。我們還預計 Ruth Chris 將使我們的每股收益在 2024 財年增加約 0.10 至 0.12 美元，在 2025 財年增加 0.20 至 0.25 美元。我們預計收購和整合相關費用總額約為稅前 5500 萬美元。

Now turning to our financial outlook for fiscal 2024, which includes Ruth Chris operating results, but excludes the aforementioned acquisition and integration-related expense, we expect total sales of $11.5 billion to $11.6 billion, driven by the addition of Ruth Chris to our portfolio, same- restaurant sales growth of 2.5% to 3.5% and approximately 50 gross new restaurant openings, including 4 relocations. Capital spending of $550 million to $600 million. Total inflation of approximately 3% to 4%, which includes commodities inflation of approximately 2.5% driven primarily by beef and produce, while most other categories are flat to deflationary. And hourly labor inflation in the mid-single digits. An annual tax effective tax rate of approximately 12% to 12.5% and approximately $121.5 million diluted average shares outstanding for the year, all resulting in diluted net earnings per share between $8.55 and $8.85. And finally, our Board approved an 8% increase to our regular quarterly dividend to $1.31 per share, implying an annual dividend of $5.24.

現在轉向我們對 2024 財年的財務展望，其中包括 Ruth Chris 的運營業績，但不包括上述收購和整合相關費用，我們預計總銷售額將在 115 億美元至 116 億美元之間，這得益於 Ruth Chris 加入我們的投資組合，同店銷售額增長 2.5% 至 3.5%，新開餐廳總數約為 50 家，其中 4 家搬遷。資本支出為5.5億至6億美元。總通脹率約為 3% 至 4%，其中包括主要由牛肉和農產品推動的約 2.5% 的商品通脹率，而大多數其他類別則持平至通貨緊縮。每小時的勞動力通脹率為中個位數。年度稅收有效稅率約為 12% 至 12.5%，稀釋後平均已發行股票約為 1.215 億美元，所有這些都導致​​稀釋後每股淨利潤在 8.55 美元至 8.85 美元之間。最後，我們的董事會批准將定期季度股息增加 8%，達到每股 1.31 美元，這意味著年度股息為 5.24 美元。

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

有了這個，我會把它轉回給里克。

Thanks, Raj. All of us at Darden continue to work together in pursuit of our higher purpose to nourish and delight everyone we serve. During the year, we served more than 410 million guests. We also promoted nearly 1,300 hourly team members into our manager and training program and promoted 320 managers to General Manager or managing partner positions. And we continue to invest in our team members' development with new programs like Fast Fluency, which allows them to learn English for free, and our next course scholarship program that awarded post-secondary education scholarships worth $3,000 each to nearly 100 children or dependents of Darden team members.

謝謝，拉吉。達頓的所有人繼續共同努力，追求更高的目標，滋養和愉悅我們服務的每個人。年內，我們服務旅客人數超過4.1億人次。我們還將近 1,300 名小時團隊成員晉升為經理和培訓計劃，並將 320 名經理晉升為總經理或管理合夥人職位。我們繼續通過新計劃投資於我們團隊成員的發展，例如 Fast Fluency（讓他們可以免費學習英語），以及我們的下一個課程獎學金計劃，該計劃向近 100 名兒童或家屬提供每人價值 3,000 美元的高等教育獎學金。達頓團隊成員。

We also remain committed to nourishing and delighting the communities we serve through our ongoing efforts to fight hunger. As part of our Darden Harvest Food Donation program, our restaurants donated 4.4 million meals to local food banks in fiscal 2023. We also continued our successful partnership with Feeding America with another $2 million donation from the Darden Foundation that help provide mobile food truck to 10 different Feeding America food banks, bringing the total 25 food banks across the country.

我們還繼續致力於通過不斷努力抗擊飢餓來滋養和取悅我們所服務的社區。作為達頓豐收食品捐贈計劃的一部分，我們的餐廳在 2023 財年向當地食品銀行捐贈了 440 萬份餐食。我們還繼續與 Feeding America 建立成功的合作夥伴關係，達頓基金會又捐贈了 200 萬美元，幫助為 10 名兒童提供移動食品車不同的 Feeding America 食品銀行，使全國共有 25 個食品銀行。

The addition of Ruth Chris gives us the opportunity to nourish and delight even more guests, more team members, and more communities. As I said earlier, they are an excellent addition to our portfolio. And I want to welcome Cheryl Henry and the nearly 5,000 team members from Ruth Chris. We are excited that you are now officially part of the Darden family.

露絲·克里斯的加入使我們有機會滋養和取悅更多的客人、更多的團隊成員和更多的社區。正如我之前所說，它們是我們產品組合的絕佳補充。我要歡迎 Cheryl Henry 和來自 Ruth Chris 的近 5,000 名團隊成員。我們很高興您現在正式成為達頓家族的一員。

I also want to thank our team members and our restaurants and our support center for their outstanding efforts throughout the year. We are fortunate to have the best people in the industry, and I am proud of their commitment to caring for our guests and each other. Now we'll take your questions.

我還要感謝我們的團隊成員、我們的餐廳以及我們的支持中心在這一年中所做的出色努力。我們很幸運擁有業內最優秀的人才，我為他們致力於照顧我們的客人和彼此而感到自豪。現在我們將回答您的問題。

We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Our first questions come from the line of Jon Tower with Citigroup.

我們現在將進行問答環節。 （操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自花旗集團的 Jon Tower 線路。

I guess to start off, I'm curious to -- you had mentioned in your release the idea that the environment has gotten a little bit choppier in the fourth quarter. So I'm curious to see what you would -- if you could articulate what exactly you saw in the backdrop with respect to consumer behavior, specifically at your own brands and perhaps industry-wide? And then I got a follow-up on that, please.

我想首先，我很好奇——您在新聞稿中提到了第四季度環境變得有點不穩定的想法。所以我很好奇你會怎麼做——如果你能清楚地表達出你在消費者行為的背景下到底看到了什麼，特別是在你自己的品牌，也許是整個行業？然後我得到了後續的情況，請。

John, this is Rick. I mean as we talked about the choppiness of Q4, it was really fine dining going up against last year's very strong bounce back from Omicron. And so this quarter, as we alluded to at the end of -- in the third quarter was this quarter was going to be a little bit tougher for fine dining because of how they bounce back. And actually, Raj already alluded to the Q1 will probably be the same kind of toughness because of the bounce back last year.

約翰，這是瑞克。我的意思是，當我們談論第四季度的波動時，與去年 Omicron 的強勁反彈相比，這確實是一頓美味的晚餐。因此，正如我們在第三季度末提到的那樣，本季度對於高級餐廳來說將變得更加困難，因為它們的反彈方式。事實上，拉傑已經暗示，由於去年的反彈，第一季度可能會表現出同樣的韌性。

But that said, the consumer seems pretty strong overall. And within the restaurant industry, and based on our internal and external data sources, there appears to be only minimal switching between lower-priced occasions at this point, not all a lot of switching but some. And overall, we're not seeing anything concerning.

但話雖如此，消費者總體看來相當強勁。在餐飲行業內，根據我們的內部和外部數據源，目前低價場合之間的切換似乎很少，不是全部切換，而是一些切換。總的來說，我們沒有看到任何令人擔憂的事情。

What I will say, as you think about mix, we've talked about this before. We're not seeing material changes in our check trends across our core casual brands. There's no negative mix at Cheddar's. And we are watching add-ons and trying to understand if there's some cracks there, but we don't see any real cracks there. And -- but one area we're seeing a little bit of check management is with alcohol sales primarily at our higher-end brands, and we think part of this is because of a function of last year, similar to the guest count trends we saw in last year. There was probably a little bit of euphoria in check last year. So that's kind of where we think about the consumer, and we didn't really think the quarter was chopped. We expected that to happen, and that's what happened.

我要說的是，當你想到混合時，我們之前已經討論過這個問題。我們沒有看到我們的核心休閒品牌的格紋趨勢發生重大變化。切達干酪沒有負面的混合。我們正在觀察附加組件並試圖了解那裡是否存在一些裂縫，但我們沒有看到任何真正的裂縫。而且 - 但我們看到一些檢查管理的一個領域是主要在我們的高端品牌的酒類銷售，我們認為部分原因是去年的一項功能，類似於我們的客人數量趨勢去年看到的。去年的興奮情緒可能受到了一些抑制。這就是我們對消費者的思考，我們並不真正認為這個季度會被削減。我們預計會發生這種情況，結果也確實發生了。

Got it. Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate it. Just curious on the unit growth outlook as well. It looks like you're expecting slower unit growth openings versus what you had previously thought that's just a function of integrating Ruth at the same time, CapEx went a little bit here. So could you explain what's going on there as well?

知道了。感謝您的澄清。我很感激。只是對單位增長前景感到好奇。看起來您預計單位增長速度會較慢，而您之前認為這只是整合露絲的功能，同時資本支出在這裡增加了一點。那麼你能解釋一下那裡發生了什麼嗎？

Yes. It's not necessarily integration of Ruths. You think about what we're seeing on openings, CapEx was higher, and we wanted to be prudent. As Raj said in the last call, we want to be prudent and making sure that we're earning a return that we really want to earn in our restaurants. And we've had some contractors starting to come back in and bid for sites that they're stating for during the pandemic and even after the pandemic, which should make bidding more competitive. We're starting to see that. And so we wanted to be prudent and make sure that we have the right returns. And we still have great returns in all of our restaurants. And that's kind of where it is. It's not really because of Ruth.

是的。這不一定是露絲的整合。你想想我們在空缺方面看到的情況，資本支出更高，我們希望保持謹慎。正如拉傑在上次電話會議中所說，我們希望保持謹慎，確保我們在餐廳中獲得真正想要的回報。我們已經有一些承包商開始回來競標他們在大流行期間甚至大流行之後聲稱的場地，這應該會使競標更具競爭力。我們開始看到這一點。因此，我們希望保持謹慎，確保獲得正確的回報。我們所有的餐廳仍然獲得了豐厚的回報。這就是它所在的地方。這並不是真的因為露絲。

Our next questions come from the line of Chris O'Cull with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Chris O'Cull 和 Stifel 的線路。

Raj, I had a question about the guidance. I'm just thinking if you exclude the $0.10 to $0.12 earnings accretion expected from Ruth in the guidance, it looks -- it would seem to imply EPS growth below your longer-term outlook, particularly at the low end. Are you seeing any indications today that the underlying business could be softening, I guess, or are you expecting it to soften over the course of this year? I'm just curious if you can give some color as to why the underlying business seems to be growing at a slower rate.

Raj，我對指導有疑問。我只是在想，如果你在指導中排除露絲預計的 0.10 至 0.12 美元的收益增長，那麼看起來——這似乎意味著每股收益增長低於你的長期前景，尤其是在低端。我想，您今天是否看到任何跡象表明基礎業務可能會疲軟，或者您預計它在今年會疲軟？我只是好奇你能否解釋一下為什麼基礎業務似乎增長速度較慢。

Yes, Chris, I think, look, we're taking into consideration all the information we have, right? We think we build a plan based on all the information we have today. And if you look at what the consensus economic forecast is for the next year, it's flattish GDP. And that in a year -- if you look at last year where GDP was growing, the industry was still had negative traffic, right?

是的，克里斯，我想，看，我們正在考慮我們擁有的所有信息，對吧？我們認為我們根據今天掌握的所有信息制定了一個計劃。如果你看看明年的普遍經濟預測，你會發現 GDP 持平。一年後，如果你看看去年 GDP 增長的情況，該行業仍然出現負流量，對嗎？

So -- and while we are performed quite a bit and we expect to continue to outperform, we're taking that into consideration as we build a plan. But if you look at the midpoint of our guide, you do get to a decent base business growth. And that's kind of how we build a plan and then the guidance range is to incorporate some variability around that. And that's how we really think about it.

因此，雖然我們的表現相當不錯，並且我們預計將繼續表現出色，但我們在製定計劃時會考慮到這一點。但如果您查看我們指南的中點，您確實會獲得不錯的基礎業務增長。這就是我們制定計劃的方式，然後指導範圍是圍繞該計劃納入一些可變性。這就是我們真正的想法。

So you're seeing any softening today, you're just kind of keeping more conservative outlook based on what the predictions are for the economy over the next 12 months?

所以你今天看到了任何疲軟，你只是根據對未來 12 個月經濟的預測保持更加保守的前景？

Yes. Well, I would say that it's not softening today. I mean if you look at the last few weeks, I think our gap industry is fairly similar. But as we talked about Q1, we do expect some softness in fine dining. That's just a function of wrap. But outside of that, we're not seeing any trends that would -- any recent trends that would indicate that there's a major change in the underlying environment for us.

是的。好吧，我想說今天的情況並沒有軟化。我的意思是，如果你看看過去幾週，我認為我們的差距行業非常相似。但當我們談論第一季度時，我們確實預計精緻餐飲會出現一些疲軟。這只是一個包裝功能。但除此之外，我們沒有看到任何趨勢——任何最近的趨勢表明我們的基本環境發生了重大變化。

Our next questions come from the line of Eric Gonzalez with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 KeyBanc Capital Markets 的 Eric Gonzalez。

Sure. And Raj, just regarding the comp guidance, the 2.5% to 3.5%, can you maybe talk about what level of pricing you're embedding within that outlook and how that compares to the -- to where you visited fiscal '23, which I think was around 6%? And then also do you have an underlying assumption for the industry's growth rate for the year.

當然。 Raj，就比較指導而言，即 2.5% 至 3.5%，您能否談談您在該前景中嵌入的定價水平以及與您訪問 23 財年的情況相比如何？認為是 6% 左右？然後，您對該行業今年的增長率是否有一個基本假設？

Yes, Eric. So the way we think about it is our comp guidance of 2.5% to 3.5%, we expect to have pricing in the 3.5% to 4%, which would imply a traffic of flat to negative 1.5% for the year for us. That range would imply that. You can extrapolate from that what they implied industry can be. We're not expecting our gap to be significantly different going into the year, but we focus a lot more on things we can control. And we look at all the factors we have year-over-year and taking into consideration the macro environment and then just build a plan that way.

是的，埃里克。因此，我們的想法是我們的補償指導為 2.5% 至 3.5%，我們預計定價為 3.5% 至 4%，這意味著我們今年的流量將持平至負 1.5%。這個範圍就意味著這一點。你可以從中推斷出他們所暗示的行業可能是什麼。我們預計今年的差距不會有很大不同，但我們會更多地關注我們可以控制的事情。我們逐年審視所有因素並考慮宏觀環境，然後以此方式製定計劃。

As far as exiting the pricing, yes, we exited the quarter with closer to 6%, as we said, and -- but we expect that to tick down throughout the year. So start with that, call it, 6%. But by the end of the year, by Q4, we get closer to the 2%. Now a lot of the pricing actions we took last year already impact next year's by about 3%. So the carryover from prior year is probably close to 3%. And so that's really where we are.

就退出定價而言，是的，正如我們所說，我們以接近 6% 的價格退出了本季度，而且 - 但我們預計這一數字將在全年中下降。所以從這個開始，稱之為 6%。但到今年年底，也就是第四季度，我們會更接近 2%。現在，我們去年採取的許多定價行動已經對明年產生了約 3% 的影響。因此，上一年的結轉可能接近 3%。這就是我們現在的處境。

Got it. And then just maybe as a follow-up to that. As you think about the industry's traffic remain challenging, and you mentioned GDP being flattish potentially this year. Have you noticed any significant uptick in promotional activity thus far? And as the year progresses, how you think your promotional strategy might evolve? And what levers could you pull if that's needed?

知道了。然後也許只是作為後續行動。當您想到該行業的流量仍然充滿挑戰時，您提到今年的 GDP 可能持平。到目前為止，您是否注意到促銷活動有顯著增加？隨著時間的推移，您認為您的促銷策略可能會如何演變？如果需要的話，你可以使用什麼槓桿？

Eric, this is Rick. We look at what the competitor is doing, and you're seeing some promotional activity and competitors. We've got one major competitor that has launched a little bit more TV or jump back on to TV. But that said, our strategy remains the same on the marketing side. We're going to continue to be -- to have advertising in Olive Garden because it's a big competitive advantage for Olive Garden, but we're going to continue to use our filters, first, elevating brand equity by bringing the brand's competitive advantages to life. It's simple to execute, and it's not do deep discount.

埃里克，這是瑞克。我們關注競爭對手在做什麼，您會看到一些促銷活動和競爭對手。我們有一個主要競爭對手推出了更多的電視節目或重新回到電視節目。但話雖如此，我們在營銷方面的策略保持不變。我們將繼續在 Olive Garden 做廣告，因為這對 Olive Garden 來說是一個巨大的競爭優勢，但我們將繼續使用我們的過濾器，首先，通過將品牌的競爭優勢帶到生活。執行起來很簡單，而且不會大幅折扣。

So as we talked about in the last call, we're going to stick to our strategy of core guest count growth. We'll react accordingly if something really changes, but when we increase our marketing spend, if we do, we expect it to earn a return. So we don't necessarily expect us to go back into the deep discount, Chris. And that's our strategy and we're going to try to stick to it.

因此，正如我們在上次電話會議中談到的那樣，我們將堅持核心客人數量增長的戰略。如果事情真的發生變化，我們會做出相應的反應，但當我們增加營銷支出時，如果我們這樣做，我們期望它能獲得回報。因此，克里斯，我們不一定期望我們會再次享受大幅折扣。這就是我們的策略，我們將努力堅持下去。

Our next questions come from the line of Brian Bittner with Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題來自布萊恩·比特納和奧本海默的對話。

I'd like to just go back to the 2024 EPS guidance and kind of as a follow-up because as Chris suggested, yes, when you strip out root, you do have this lower implied core business earnings growth relative to your long-term framework. But the same-store sales guidance is slightly above the framework. So I just want to dig in there a little bit more. Is it being driven by underpricing inflation?

我想回到 2024 年每股收益指導，作為後續行動，因為正如克里斯所建議的，是的，當你剔除根時，相對於你的長期而言，你的隱含核心業務盈利增長確實較低框架。但同店銷售指導略高於框架。所以我只是想再深入一點。是由抑價通脹推動的嗎？

I know you said kind of pricing at 3.5% to 4%, but inflation, 3% to 4%. So it doesn't seem like you're planning on underpricing inflation that much. Just again, trying to understand those dynamics a little better, given the comp guidance is above your long-term framework.

我知道你說的定價是 3.5% 到 4%，但通貨膨脹是 3% 到 4%。因此，您似乎並不打算對通脹進行如此低估。再次強調，鑑於薪酬指導高於您的長期框架，請嘗試更好地理解這些動態。

Yes, Brian, I think the way we look at it is, if you look at our framework, our actually, even excluding Ruth's of the middle of the guidance for Ruths $0.11 accretion. If you take that out, we're still in that TSR, that's north of 10% at the middle of our -- at the middle of the guidance range.

是的，布萊恩，我認為我們看待它的方式是，如果你看看我們的框架，我們實際上甚至排除了露絲 0.11 美元增值指導的中間部分。如果你把它去掉，我們的股東總回報率仍然在我們的指導範圍中間的 10% 以上。

Now one of the things I want to point out is we haven't been able to buy back shares for almost 3 months now because of trading blackout. And so that has an impact on EPS for next year. But even with that, like as we said, we still get to that double-digit TSR when you incorporate the dividend yield and the EPS growth.

現在我想指出的一件事是，由於交易封鎖，我們已經近三個月無法回購股票了。這會對明年的每股收益產生影響。但即便如此，正如我們所說，當你將股息收益率和每股收益增長納入考慮時，我們仍然可以達到兩位數的股東總回報率。

Okay. And follow-up just as it relates to the total cost inflation outlook, 3% to 4% obviously realized commodities are up 2.5% within that total framework of 3% to 4%. Can you just touch on some of the other assumptions that's pressuring the inflation to be above the commodity outlook?

好的。後續正如與總成本通脹前景相關的那樣，3%至4%的明顯實現商品在3%至4%的總體框架內上漲了2.5%。您能否談談其他一些迫使通脹率高於大宗商品前景的假設？

Yes, Brian, it's really labor. I expect the hourly wage inflation to be in that, call it, mid-single digits. And then the salary to be also closer to that. And some of that is a function of how we choose to pay our people. We are -- our merit increases have been above the industry, and we think that's prudent. We want to continue to do that. That's the type of investment we make to help us sustain the types of performance that we've been able to deliver. You look at a 400, 500 basis point gap to the industry, that doesn't happen magically. There are a lot of things that go into that, and we are very thoughtful about how we make those (inaudible).

是的，布萊恩，這確實是勞動。我預計每小時工資的通脹率將達到中個位數。然後工資也接近這個水平。其中一些取決於我們選擇向員工支付工資的方式。我們的薪資漲幅高於行業，我們認為這是謹慎的。我們想繼續這樣做。這就是我們為幫助我們維持我們已經能夠提供的績效而進行的投資類型。你看看與行業的 400、500 個基點的差距，這不會神奇地發生。其中涉及很多事情，我們對如何製作這些內容非常深思熟慮（聽不清）。

Our next questions come from the line of David Palmer with Evercore.

我們的下一個問題來自 David Palmer 和 Evercore。

I wanted to ask you about your assumptions on same-store sales through the year. And in particular, if you have any thoughts about, we're often a concern about multiyear trends slowing over this next fiscal year and how you're thinking about that potential in your guidance.

我想問一下您對全年同店銷售額的假設。特別是，如果您有任何想法，我們經常擔心下一個財年的多年趨勢放緩，以及您如何在指導中考慮這種潛力。

Yes. The way we are thinking about -- in terms of how we build the plan is that we expect retentions levels to be fairly similar to moderate a little bit relative to pre-COVID from where we were this fiscal year. So not a significant drop-off, but a little bit. But then I think from a same restaurant sales perspective, it's going to be driven by the pricing differences.

是的。我們考慮的方式——就我們如何制定計劃而言，我們預計保留水平與本財年新冠疫情爆發前的水平相當相似，甚至略有下降。所以下降幅度不是很大，只是一點點。但我認為，從同一餐廳銷售的角度來看，這將是由定價差異驅動的。

The fact that we're going to start off with a higher price and then the price moderates down to -- the rate of pricing goes down to 2% by closer to 2% by Q4, that will have an impact on same-restaurant sales. As we think about guest counts, as I mentioned, the retention, we expect it to be fairly consistent quarter-to-quarter relative to last year.

事實上，我們一開始的價格會較高，然後價格會逐漸下降——到第四季度，定價率將下降至 2%，接近 2%，這將對同餐廳銷售產生影響。當我們考慮客人數量時，正如我提到的，保留率，我們預計每個季度與去年相比將相當一致。

And with regard to advertising, what sort of assumptions are embedded into your earnings guidance for advertising spend?

關於廣告，你們的廣告支出收益指引中包含了哪些假設？

We basically are assuming somewhere in the 10 to 20 basis points more than what we spent last year in total marketing. So that's kind of not that different from what we did in fiscal '23.

我們基本上假設比去年的總營銷支出多 10 到 20 個基點。所以這與我們在 23 財年所做的並沒有什麼不同。

Our next questions come from the line of Andrew Charles with TD Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自安德魯·查爾斯 (Andrew Charles) 和 TD Cowen 的對話。

Given the slow macro forecast for 2024, I'm curious how that impacts your thinking around never ending post at Olive Garden, the one value-oriented promotion that fits your promotional framework I guess the question is, are you open to changing the time of the promotion or perhaps you running it at 2 different times during the year to keep pace in the potentially slowing macro backdrop?

鑑於 2024 年宏觀預測緩慢，我很好奇這會如何影響您對 Olive Garden 永無休止的職位的思考，這是一個適合您的促銷框架的以價值為導向的促銷活動，我想問題是，您是否願意改變促銷活動，或者您可能在一年中的兩個不同時間進行促銷活動，以跟上可能放緩的宏觀背景？

Andrew, for competitive reasons, we're definitely not going to talk about planned details. We do believe that never any possible is a really strong promotion for us, especially with the changes we made last year. And so we'll look at EPV and if there's things that we can do with it. But definitely not going to talk about if we're going to do it twice.

安德魯，出於競爭原因，我們絕對不會談論計劃中的細節。我們確實相信，對我們來說，任何可能都不是真正強有力的晉升，尤其是考慮到我們去年所做的改變。因此，我們將研究 EPV 以及我們是否可以用它做一些事情。但絕對不會談論我們是否要做兩次。

Okay. And then Raj, can you just help us what's embedded within 2024 guidance for G&A?

好的。 Raj，您能否幫助我們了解 2024 年 G&A 指南中包含的內容？

Yes. I think -- so especially with Ruth's coming in, you should -- we ended the fiscal year with closer to $390 million. I'd say at this point, our best estimate is probably still maintaining closer to that 3.7% of total sales, which would get you closer to the, call it, $430 million for the year, obviously, plus or minus $10 million there, but just -- that would be the number we would -- that is embedded in our guidance.

是的。我認為——尤其是隨著露絲的加入，你應該——我們在本財年結束時獲得了接近 3.9 億美元的收入。我想說，在這一點上，我們的最佳估計可能仍保持在總銷售額的 3.7% 附近，這將使您更接近全年 4.3 億美元，顯然，其中正負 1000 萬美元，但這只是我們的指導方針中所包含的數字。

By the way, as we talk about G&A, just -- I just want to clarify one other thing. We do expect the cadence to be a little different. So Q1 is probably going to be the highest level, call it, closer to $115 million. And then kind of take down $5 million a quarter throughout the -- for the next few quarters is how we think about it just from a cadence standpoint. So there are some things that -- certain specific variables that are influencing Q1 to be higher.

順便說一句，當我們談論一般行政費用時，我只想澄清另一件事。我們確實希望節奏會有所不同。因此，第一季度可能會達到最高水平，接近 1.15 億美元。然後，從節奏的角度來看，我們在接下來的幾個季度中每個季度都會減少 500 萬美元。因此，有些事情——某些特定變量正在影響 Q1 更高。

Our next questions come from the line of Chris Carril, RBC Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場部的克里斯·卡里爾 (Chris Carril)。

So just returning to the same-restaurant sales growth guidance for '24. Can you provide any more detail on how you're thinking about your largest brands, Olive Garden and LongHorn, and how they fit into this? You've been pretty clear so far on fine dining and how you expect comparisons to impact that segment in the very near term? But just curious if you could provide any additional thoughts on your largest brands and how they factor into the comp guide.

因此，我們只是回到 24 年的同餐廳銷售增長指導。您能否提供更多詳細信息，說明您如何看待您最大的品牌 Olive Garden 和 LongHorn，以及它們如何融入其中？到目前為止，您已經非常清楚地了解高級餐飲，以及您預計比較在短期內會如何影響該細分市場？但只是好奇您是否可以對您最大的品牌以及它們如何納入比較指南提供任何其他想法。

Yes. I would say the way we think -- we're thinking about it is our core casual brands are probably closer to the -- I guess, let's just go through the big brands, right? Olive Garden is probably would be in that middle of the range is our expectation going in. And then LongHorn would be outside of the range to the upside primarily because of stake inflation on the pricing there is probably a little bit higher, would need to be. And then fine dining to be a little bit south of that. And that's really how we're thinking about it.

是的。我想說的是，我們的想法是——我們正在考慮的是我們的核心休閒品牌可能更接近——我想，讓我們來看看大品牌，對吧？ Olive Garden 可能會處於我們預期的範圍中間。然後 LongHorn 將超出該範圍，主要是因為定價上的股權通脹可能會稍高一些，需要。然後在稍南一點的地方就可以享用美食。這就是我們真正的想法。

Okay. Great. That's really helpful. And then you mentioned productivity improvements helped to drive the improvement in labor in the 4Q. So how are you thinking about productivity improvements from here maybe in the context of Ruth's and then ex-Ruth's? And just how much of a tailwind that could be in '24?

好的。偉大的。這真的很有幫助。然後您提到生產率的提高有助於推動第四季度勞動力的改善。那麼，您如何考慮在露絲和前露絲的背景下從這裡提高生產力？ 24 年的順風車到底有多大？

Yes, Chris, as we've said before, over the last years, our brands have done a great job improving productivity. We would expect to continue to have some productivity improvements over time, but not to the extent that we had during COVID. As we continue to look at improving training, having turnover come down, that should help productivity a little bit.

是的，克里斯，正如我們之前所說，在過去的幾年裡，我們的品牌在提高生產力方面做得很好。我們預計隨著時間的推移，生產力會繼續有所提高，但不會達到新冠疫情期間的程度。隨著我們繼續考慮改進培訓，人員流動率下降，這應該會對生產力有所幫助。

We're not going to have to the discuss Ruth's right now. We've only owned them for 8 days. So we'll have to just get through the -- getting through integration is going to actually probably be a productivity downer for them for a little bit. So let us get Ruth's under our belt for a little bit longer than 8 days before we talk about the details there. But as I said, labor productivity, we should expect it to tick better as the year progresses, as we continue to improve on our turnover and as we continue to improve our training.

我們現在不必討論露絲的事情。我們只擁有它們 8 天。因此，我們必須完成——完成集成實際上可能會稍微降低他們的生產力。因此，讓我們先花 8 天多一點的時間來了解 Ruth's，然後再討論那裡的細節。但正如我所說，隨著時間的推移，我們的營業額不斷提高，我們的培訓不斷改進，我們應該期望勞動生產率會變得更好。

Our next questions come from the line of David Tarantino with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自大衛·塔倫蒂諾和貝爾德的台詞。

Rick, I wanted to ask your thoughts on the current macro environment. And I guess your comments that the consumer seems pretty strong right now don't actually line up with what the industry is seeing in terms of traffic. I mean traffic down 7% -- we haven't seen those types of numbers since maybe '08 and '09. So I'm just kind of wondering what are your thoughts on traffic. And I know Darden's been outperforming, but I think even your traffic was slightly negative in the quarter. So I guess what's your thoughts on what's weighing on the traffic and the overall environment?

Rick，我想問一下您對當前宏觀環境的看法。我猜你所說的消費者現在似乎相當強大的評論實際上與行業在流量方面所看到的情況並不相符。我的意思是流量下降了 7%——也許自 08 年和 09 年以來我們就沒有見過這樣的數字了。所以我只是想知道你對交通有什麼看法。我知道達頓一直表現出色，但我認為即使你們的流量在本季度也略有下降。那麼我想您對影響交通和整體環境的因素有何看法？

Yes, David, thanks for the question. I did say earlier that we have not seen an impact in the consumer as much as maybe that our competitors have. And I think there's a couple of reasons for that. There's a tension between what people want and what they can afford. And even in a slowing economy, consumers really continue to seek value. And it's not always about low prices. It's about execution, it's about what the experience they get in the restaurants or wherever they are.

是的，大衛，謝謝你的提問。我之前確實說過，我們沒有看到對消費者的影響像我們的競爭對手那樣大。我認為這有幾個原因。人們想要的東西和他們能承受的東西之間存在著緊張關係。即使在經濟放緩的情況下，消費者也確實在繼續尋求價值。而且這並不總是與低價有關。這關乎執行力，關乎他們在餐廳或任何地方獲得的體驗。

They're making spending trade-offs. And as I said before, food away from home is really difficult to give up if you're executing and -- so what we think about is what it means to our brands, what it means to what we do every day. And we believe that operators that can deliver on their brand promise and the value that guests -- that appeals to guests despite economic challenges is what's going to get you to win. And that's what we've been doing.

他們正在進行支出權衡。正如我之前所說，如果你正在執行，遠離家鄉的食物真的很難放棄——所以我們考慮的是它對我們的品牌意味著什麼，它對我們每天所做的事情意味著什麼。我們相信，即使面臨經濟挑戰，仍能兌現品牌承諾和客人價值的運營商才能贏得勝利。這就是我們一直在做的事情。

So whatever has been happening to the consumer and the economy and the restaurant space, we're going to control what we can control. And what we can control is the experience that our consumers get in the restaurants every day and the value we provide. And we continue to hope that we're going to buck the trend of guest counts that the industry has, and we would expect to have a gap to the industry.

因此，無論消費者、經濟和餐廳空間發生什麼，我們都將控制我們能控制的事情。我們能控制的是我們的消費者每天在餐廳獲得的體驗以及我們提供的價值。我們仍然希望我們能夠扭轉行業現有的客人數量趨勢，並且我們預計與行業存在差距。

Great. Maybe just one follow-up on that. I mean do you think pricing for the industry has become one of the issues as it related traffic? I know you've priced a little less than the industry, but I think -- do you think that consumers are becoming more price sensitive in today's economy?

偉大的。也許只是對此的一個後續行動。我的意思是，您認為該行業的定價是否已成為與流量相關的問題之一？我知道你們的定價比行業要低一些，但我認為，在當今的經濟形勢下，您是否認為消費者對價格變得更加敏感？

I think there might be some price sensitivity in consumers overall, whether it's in the restaurants or what have you. But if you think about GDP trends. So for the last 4 quarters, GDP has continued to tick down. And that would mean that traffic would tick down everywhere, whether it's at a restaurant or it's in a retail establishment wherever it is, as GDP continues to tick down, you would get traffic to tick down.

我認為整體消費者可能對價格有一定的敏感性，無論是在餐館還是在其他地方。但如果你考慮一下 GDP 趨勢。因此，在過去的四個季度中，GDP 持續下降。這意味著到處的客流量都會下降，無論是在餐館還是在零售店，無論在哪裡，隨著 GDP 持續下降，客流量也會下降。

Yes, the industry saw a little bit more of a hit to that. And I do believe part of that was because of the bounce back from Omicron last year in Q4. I don't think we were the only ones that benefited from that. I think others did. And so -- let's see how this all plays out. We've given you our guidance for the year, which does assume negative traffic and actually assumes less negative traffic than the industry. So that should tell you we think there is a little bit of softness there. But we're going to continue to perform and do the things that we do every day to bring guests into our restaurants.

是的，該行業受到的打擊更大一些。我確實相信部分原因是 Omicron 去年第四季度的反彈。我不認為我們是唯一從中受益的人。我認為其他人也這麼做了。那麼，讓我們看看這一切是如何進行的。我們已經向您提供了今年的指導，該指導確實假設了負流量，並且實際上假設的負流量比行業要少。所以這應該告訴你我們認為那裡有一點柔軟。但我們將繼續執行我們每天所做的事情，以吸引客人進入我們的餐廳。

Our next questions come from the line of 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。

The first one just on cash usage. The share repurchase as part of your long-term algorithm is, I guess, the midpoint going up by like $200 million, and you bumped the dividend by close to 10% and the CapEx is going up a little bit more than perhaps what you previously thought. Just wondering what's going in the other direction.

第一個只是關於現金使用。我猜，作為你們長期算法一部分的股票回購，中點上漲了 2 億美元左右，你們將股息提高了近 10%，資本支出的漲幅可能比你們之前的要高一些。想法。只是想知道另一個方向發生了什麼。

And I think about in the context of M&A, I mean, I know you've returned to the market with the Ruth acquisition. I'm wondering whether you're seeing potential for more, maybe the valuation challenges that you previously noted have been easing? Any thoughts there would be great. And then I had one follow-up.

我認為在併購的背景下，我的意思是，我知道你已經通過收購露絲回到了市場。我想知道您是否看到了更多的潛力，也許您之前提到的估值挑戰已經緩解？任何想法都會很棒。然後我進行了一項後續行動。

Yes. Let me talk about the cash, and then I'll turn it over to Rick for the M&A commentary. So as far as cash usage, if you look at our business, we generate somewhere around $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion our guidance would imply in terms of cash -- operating cash flow. So between the dividend and the CapEx and with the share repurchase, we still would be building cash, maybe a -- if you take all the midpoints of all of those ranges, we would still build a cash balance of, call it, maybe close to $100 million.

是的。讓我談談現金，然後我將把它交給Rick 進行併購評論。就現金使用而言，如果你看看我們的業務，我們會產生大約 17 億至 18 億美元的收入，我們的指導意味著現金——運營現金流。因此，在股息、資本支出以及股票回購之間，我們仍然會積累現金，也許 - 如果你採用所有這些範圍的所有中點，我們仍然會建立現金餘額，稱之為，也許接近至 1 億美元。

So we're really not tapping into any borrowings or that to meet these commitments we have embedded in here. As far as the long-term framework share repurchase range that is really to reflect the change in our share price from 5 years ago because we haven't updated the framework for 5 years. So all that change as much as it feels like it's double, that's basically reflecting that our share price has doubled during that time frame. And so now with that, I'll just turn it to Rick.

因此，我們實際上並沒有利用任何借款或資金來履行我們在此嵌入的這些承諾。就長期框架股票回購範圍而言，它實際上反映了我們股價與5年前相比的變化，因為我們已經5年沒有更新框架了。因此，所有這些變化就像感覺翻了一番一樣，這基本上反映了我們的股價在這段時間內翻了一番。現在，我將把它交給里克。

And I'll just add something to that. If you look at -- think about the cash flow or EBITDA, we recovered our EBITDA was about $1.2 billion. And today, based on what Raj is saying is $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion. So that gives us a lot more cash to do those things and increase our share buyback. And M&A so if you think about -- we've talked about M&A off an M&A adds to our scale, which is our biggest advantage. And we continue to talk to our Board, management continues to talk Board about our best uses of capital and M&A is one of those.

我將添加一些內容。如果你看一下現金流或 EBITDA，我們的 EBITDA 約為 12 億美元。今天，根據 Raj 的說法，這一數字為 17 億至 18 億美元。因此，這給了我們更多的現金來做這些事情並增加我們的股票回購。如果你想一想，併購會增加我們的規模，這是我們最大的優勢。我們繼續與董事會討論，管理層繼續與董事會討論我們資本的最佳用途，而併購就是其中之一。

And so -- but we just got done with the Ruth's deal. So let us do a little bit there. It doesn't mean that we wouldn't be back in the market down the road. But we've got plenty of cash. We've got plenty of debt capacity. Raj said, we're at basically 2x adjusted debt to adjusted EBITDA, and that's at the low end of our range. So we have plenty of capacity to do more things.

所以——但我們剛剛完成了露絲的交易。讓我們在那裡做一點事情。這並不意味著我們不會在未來回到市場。但我們有足夠的現金。我們有充足的償債能力。 Raj 表示，調整後債務與調整後 EBITDA 的比率基本上是 2 倍，這是我們範圍的低端。所以我們有足夠的能力做更多的事情。

Got it. And then just a clarification. The -- just wondering if you're going to provide pro forma restated maybe Darden results for the quarters of fiscal '23 as if you own roof the entire year. I know it's tough for us to model with a different quarter and year-end and with Ruth operating a 50-50 company franchise model. Just trying to get some color as to whether you'll provide any help from a modeling perspective or any pro forma type results to give us better insight into the growth rate going forward?

知道了。然後只是澄清一下。 - 只是想知道您是否打算重述達頓商學院 23 財年各季度的業績，就好像您全年都擁有屋頂一樣。我知道我們很難在不同的季度和年末進行建模，並且露絲經營著 50-50 家公司的特許經營模式。只是想了解一下您是否會從建模角度或任何形式結果方面提供任何幫助，以便讓我們更好地了解未來的增長率？

Really, the fiscal calendars, when you look at the quarters, we're only a month off. We don't plan on restating the history. I think -- and I also want to think about how material it is to the overall garden P&L.

確實，從財政日曆來看，當你查看季度時，我們只休息了一個月。我們不打算重述歷史。我想——而且我還想考慮它對整個花園的損益有多大影響。

Our next questions come from the line of Sara Senatore with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自 Sara Senatore 與美國銀行的電話。

First, a clarification, which is -- you talked about the cadence of pricing over the course of the year. Is it fair to assume that you're thinking the cadence of input inflation or follow through in the sense of kind of rolling off over the course of the year? Or is there a reason to believe that maybe the gap between pricing and inflation might look different. And therefore, the implications for margins might be different over the course of the year. So that's the first question, and then I'll have another one about Ruth, please.

首先，需要澄清的是，您談到了這一年中的定價節奏。假設您正在考慮投入通脹的節奏或在一年中的某種滾動意義上的跟進是否公平？或者是否有理由相信定價與通脹之間的差距可能看起來有所不同。因此，全年對利潤率的影響可能會有所不同。這是第一個問題，然後我再問一個關於露絲的問題。

Great question. As we think about inflation, we don't expect the cadence to be significantly different. I think we have a little bit more in the first quarter, but not a huge difference. We're talking about 50 to 60 basis points, maybe different from quarter-to-quarter. So that 3% to 4% range is what we provided for the overall. You can expect first quarter to be closer to 4% and then the other quarters might be a little bit less than that. But then there's really not a meaningful difference between quarters. So that would imply that year-over-year, there is a little bit of delta in pricing versus inflation because we are starting with a higher price as we get out of Q4 where we exited the Q4 level. So I know you also said you had a second question, so I'll wait for that.

很好的問題。當我們考慮通貨膨脹時，我們預計節奏不會有顯著不同。我認為第一季度我們有更多的進步，但差異並不大。我們談論的是 50 到 60 個基點，可能每個季度都有所不同。因此，我們為總體提供了 3% 到 4% 的範圍。您可以預期第一季度接近 4%，然後其他季度可能會略低於此水平。但季度之間確實沒有顯著差異。因此，這意味著，與去年同期相比，定價與通脹之間存在一些增量，因為當我們走出第四季度的水平時，我們將從更高的價格開始。我知道你也說過你還有第二個問題，所以我會等待。

Yes. And then actually, just to clarify on that one and then I'll ask the question, which is -- so is the implication that by the fourth quarter, you'll be needing to find more productivity gains or something else, if you have less price, but sort of level loaded inflation over the course of the year?

是的。實際上，只是為了澄清這一點，然後我會問一個問題，這意味著到第四季度，你將需要找到更多的生產力提升或其他東西，如果你有的話價格降低，但全年通貨膨脹率達到一定水平？

Yes. I think we do expect the gap to reverse by the time we get to the back half. In fact, the way we look at -- when we look at our quarterly earnings that are embedded in our guidance, the cadence, it's -- while it's more balanced than last year, we do see Q2 providing the highest growth while Q4 providing the lowest from an earnings standpoint. And Q1, Q3 more in line with the annual growth that we provided.

是的。我認為，當我們進入後半場時，我們確實希望差距能夠扭轉。事實上，我們看待的方式——當我們審視我們的指導中所包含的季度收益時，節奏——雖然比去年更加平衡，但我們確實看到第二季度提供了最高的增長，而第四季度則提供了最高的增長。從收益的角度來看是最低的。 Q1、Q3 更符合我們提供的年度增長。

Okay. And then just a question. I know, Rick, you said you've only had room for 8 days, but presumably, there's a lot of diligence that went in ahead of that. So I know you mentioned $20 million roughly by the end of fiscal 2025, primarily coming through supply chain and G&A. If I look at the restaurant level margins for Ruth versus like you're fine dining, is that -- is supply chain or cost of goods? Is that the primary difference as I think about the potential to bridge that gap?

好的。然後只是一個問題。我知道，Rick，你說過你只有 8 天的空間，但想必在此之前需要進行大量的努力。我知道您提到到 2025 財年末大約將達到 2000 萬美元，主要來自供應鍊和一般行政費用。如果我看看露絲的餐廳水平利潤率與您的高檔餐廳的水平利潤率，是供應鏈還是商品成本？當我考慮彌合這一差距的潛力時，這是主要的區別嗎？

Well, we've said in the past that most of our synergies come from G&A and supply chain. So when we've in the past it's about half and half, whenever we've done acquisitions before. So yes, Ruth should get in the long-term benefits from cost of sales. Now that said, we may reinvest some of those cost of sales and our other brands will get some of the benefits, too. So it won't off loaded Ruth's.

嗯，我們過去說過，我們的大部分協同效應來自一般管理費用和供應鏈。因此，當我們過去進行收購時，大約是一半一半。所以，是的，露絲應該從銷售成本中獲得長期利益。話雖如此，我們可能會再投資一些銷售成本，我們的其他品牌也將獲得一些好處。所以它不會減輕露絲的負擔。

I will say that there are many brands in the industry that we could acquire that actually improve our EBITDA margin, at the restaurant level and Ruth does. So across Darden. Now they might not be as high, depending on how you look at it as Capital Grille. They might be higher, a little bit lower depending on your definition of restaurant margin, but they're pretty close. And so -- and because Capital Grille is higher than Darden's average margin, Ruth's helps Darden's margin. So that's a pretty good deal for us.

我想說的是，我們可以收購該行業的許多品牌，這些品牌實際上可以提高我們餐廳層面的 EBITDA 利潤率，露絲就是這麼做的。所以穿過達頓。現在它們可能沒有那麼高，這取決於你如何看待 Capital Grille。根據您對餐廳利潤的定義，它們可能會更高，也可能會更低一些，但它們非常接近。因此，由於 Capital Grille 的利潤高於達頓的平均利潤，露絲的利潤有助於提高達頓的利潤。所以這對我們來說是一筆非常划算的交易。

Our next questions come from the line of Jeff Farmer with Gordon Haskett.

我們的下一個問題來自傑夫·法默和戈登·哈斯克特。

Just following up on modeling post Ruth acquisition. You shared some information on G&A, but -- anything you can share as it relates to how we should be thinking about both interest expense and G&A moving forward?

只是跟進露絲收購後的建模工作。您分享了一些關於一般管理費用的信息，但是，您可以分享任何與我們應該如何考慮利息支出和一般管理費用有關的信息嗎？

Yes, Jeff, I'd say interest expense is likely going to be, I think, for year-over-year, we're probably looking at a total of $50 million, of which $40 million is related to Ruth acquisition. And then the other is just the lease interest and other short term interest rate exposure we have. So that's the thing on the interest.

是的，傑夫，我想說，利息支出可能會是，我認為，逐年計算，我們可能會看到總計 5000 萬美元，其中 4000 萬美元與收購露絲有關。另一個就是我們擁有的租賃利息和其他短期利率風險。所以這就是利息的問題。

And the DNA, I would just really take into consideration the Darden and then layer on Ruth's from what you have. There will be some purchase accounting that we're working through. So we'll have some updates on that. But that will be more of a geography more so than a huge impact. We've embedded some incremental step-up in our valuation and in our P&L, and that's incorporated in our guidance, but we're not ready to share those details yet.

至於DNA，我會真正考慮達頓商學院，然後根據你所擁有的，在露絲的DNA上分層。我們正在處理一些採購會計工作。所以我們將對此進行一些更新。但這更多的是地理因素，而不是巨大的影響。我們已經在估值和損益表中嵌入了一些增量升級，並將其納入我們的指導中，但我們尚未準備好分享這些細節。

Okay. And just one more. One of your named competitive advantages over the last several years has been this extensive data and insights. But can you share maybe 1 or 2 examples of how you were able to leverage that data in '23 and potentially some untapped opportunities as you moved forward in terms of (inaudible) really analyzing that data moving forward?

好的。還有一個。您在過去幾年中提到的競爭優勢之一就是廣泛的數據和見解。但是，您能否分享 1 或 2 個示例，說明您如何在 23 年利用這些數據，以及在您在（聽不清）真正分析該數據方面取得進展時可能發現的一些未開發的機會？

Yes, Jeff, this is Rick. You think about what we're starting to do with data, where you're starting to use a lot of AI machine learning to help guest count forecast and help our restaurants forecast their business better and that would move all the way down through the company, right? So if you forecast your traffic better, you order better, you receive better you schedule better. That's one of the big things that we've looked at is using machine learning and AI -- but you got to remember, one of the things that we do every year is we use data to help look at what our guest patterns are, what we think about guests and how do we market to our guests, we also improved operations execution with the data that we have.

是的，傑夫，這是里克。你想想我們開始如何處理數據，你開始使用大量的人工智能機器學習來幫助客人計數預測並幫助我們的餐廳更好地預測他們的業務，這將在整個公司中一路向下， 正確的？因此，如果您更好地預測客流量，您就能更好地訂購、更好地接收、更好地安排。我們關注的最重要的事情之一是使用機器學習和人工智能——但你必須記住，我們每年做的事情之一是我們使用數據來幫助了解我們的客人模式是什麼，什麼我們考慮客人以及如何向客人進行營銷，我們還利用我們擁有的數據改進了運營執行。

But I would say, if you're asking for one big thing is analytics through pricing, too. So we've got a great analytics team here that does help with our pricing. They look at restaurants, they look at categories, they look at items. They look at elasticity, and we can do all that in-house because of our scale.

但我想說，如果你要求一件大事，那就是通過定價進行分析。因此，我們這裡有一支出色的分析團隊，可以幫助我們定價。他們看餐館，看類別，看商品。他們著眼於彈性，而由於我們的規模，我們可以在內部完成所有這些工作。

Our next question has come from the line of Danilo Gargiulo with Bernstein.

我們的下一個問題來自達尼洛·加吉烏洛（Danilo Gargiulo）和伯恩斯坦（Bernstein）。

I'm wondering what is the integration timeline that you are embedding in your EPS integration expectations? And how is the previous acquisition of Cheddar's impacting the timeline that you are expecting? And what will it take for this integration to accelerate. And I'm talking even beyond the 2024 timeline that you said today.

我想知道您在 EPS 集成預期中嵌入的集成時間表是怎樣的？之前對 Cheddar's 的收購對您預期的時間表有何影響？怎樣才能加速這種整合？我說的甚至超出了你今天所說的 2024 年時間表。

Danilo, we're still working through the steps, but our expectation is a lot of the stuff happens over the next 12 to 15 months. And so that's why some of those synergies come later because we're not trying to -- we're trying to be prudent. We're going to be thoughtful. We got to design this right, make -- do this right because we want to set it up for success long term.

Danilo，我們仍在完成這些步驟，但我們期望在接下來的 12 到 15 個月內發生很多事情。這就是為什麼其中一些協同效應會出現得較晚，因為我們並沒有試圖這樣做——我們只是在努力保持謹慎。我們要深思熟慮。我們必須正確地設計、製造、做正確的事情，因為我們希望為長期成功做好準備。

We're and we want to make sure we minimize the disruption to operators. And so everything we're doing, we have a great team working on it. That's actually being very thoughtfully phasing in these parts of integration and how we integrate different parts of the business. And we've learned a lot from our Cheddar's acquisition. Obviously, Cheddar's was more complicated with essentially 3 different businesses being brought under one roof. With Ruth's, it's not -- it shouldn't be as complicated, but a lot of the learnings we have from our prior acquisitions are incorporated into -- are actually taking into consideration as we plan for this.

我們現在並且希望確保盡量減少對運營商的干擾。因此，我們所做的一切，都有一個優秀的團隊在努力。這實際上是非常深思熟慮地分階段進行整合的這些部分以及我們如何整合業務的不同部分。我們從切達干酪的收購中學到了很多東西。顯然，切達干酪的情況更為複雜，基本上將 3 種不同的業務集中在一個屋簷下。對於露絲來說，它不應該那麼複雜，但我們從之前的收購中學到的很多知識都被納入我們的計劃中，實際上我們正在考慮這一點。

And what set of factors would prompt you to drive higher unit growth versus the data 50? I know you mentioned more competitive bidding is actually starting to happen. But have there been any internal discussions on potentially international expansion given your recent quarter and also the recent acquisition of Ruth?

與數據 50 相比，哪些因素會促使您推動更高的單位增長？我知道你提到更具競爭性的投標實際上已經開始發生。但考慮到你們最近一個季度以及最近收購了 Ruth，是否有關於潛在的國際擴張的內部討論？

Danilo, if you think about our pipeline for this year, most of the pipeline, you have to have already started construction by the time the year -- almost by the time the year started to get them open. -- because it takes a little longer to open a restaurant or build a restaurant today than it did before COVID.

達尼洛，如果你想想我們今年的管道，大部分管道，你必須在今年的時候就已經開始建設——幾乎在今年開始開放的時候。 ——因為現在開一家餐館或建造一家餐館的時間比新冠疫情之前要長一些。

So if it's not started by the end of Q1, it probably doesn't open this year. Maybe even if it doesn't start until -- by July, it's hard to open this year. So that's why we've got our kind of guide of about 50 gross openings. When we talk about international, that doesn't incorporate -- that's not incorporated in our unit count because we are committed to staying a company-owned model only in the U.S., not that we wouldn't have franchise in the U.S., but will be only franchise outside the U.S. and Canada.

因此，如果在第一季度末還沒有開始，今年可能就不會開放。也許即使要到七月份才開始，今年也很難開業。這就是為什麼我們有大約 50 個職位空缺的指南。當我們談論國際時，這並沒有納入我們的單位數量中，因為我們致力於僅在美國保持公司所有的模式，並不是說我們不會在美國擁有特許經營權，而是說我們會在美國擁有特許經營權。是美國和加拿大以外的唯一特許經營權。

So all of our restaurants outside the U.S., the ones that we opened last year were all franchised. And anything that we open going forward is likely to be franchised as well.

因此，我們去年在美國以外開設的所有餐廳都是特許經營的。我們今後開設的任何商店也可能會獲得特許經營權。

Our next questions come from the line of Brian Harbour with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自布萊恩·哈伯 (Brian Harbor) 與摩根士丹利 (Morgan Stanley) 的對話。

I had a question just about fine dining sales. Is that really just kind of about the lapping dynamic? Or could you provide any comments on kind of some of the different customer sets, whether it's business type of customers versus like a more aspirational customer, if you're seeing anything different there?

我有一個關於高級餐飲銷售的問題。這真的只是關於研磨動態嗎？或者您能否對某些不同的客戶群提供任何評論，無論是商業類型的客戶還是更有抱負的客戶，如果您發現其中有什麼不同的話？

Yes, Brian, I'd say, first of all, as we said in the prepared remarks, we actually saw a fairly consistent retention related to pre-COVID for the last 3 quarters at fine dining. What we're seeing is we are seeing a little bit of pullback on the alcohol sales. And we still think that's also a function of wrapping on a significant increase a year ago. Now as we just generally speaking, what we're seeing with the demographics is consumers below 35 or above pre-COVID, but they're below last year.

是的，布萊恩，我想說，首先，正如我們在準備好的評論中所說，我們實際上在過去三個季度的高級餐廳中看到了與新冠疫情之前相關的相當一致的保留率。我們看到的是酒類銷售略有回落。我們仍然認為這也是對一年前大幅增長的總結。現在，我們一般來說，我們所看到的人口統計數據是新冠疫情爆發前 35 歲以下或以上的消費者，但這一數字低於去年。

And then whereas 55-plus is still below pre-COVID, but they're similar to last year. So there's a different dynamic year-over-year where you're seeing the younger demographic pull back a little bit year-over-year. And then -- and similarly, on the income side, we're seeing that lower income is above pre-COVID but still below last -- but below last year, whereas higher income is flattish to last year or similar to last year, but they are still below pre-COVID. So those are some of the insights I can share on fine dining.

然後，雖然 55 歲以上的人口數量仍低於新冠疫情之前的水平，但與去年相似。因此，逐年出現不同的動態，您會看到年輕人口逐年有所回落。然後 - 同樣，在收入方面，我們看到較低的收入高於新冠疫情之前，但仍低於去年 - 但低於去年，而較高的收入與去年持平或與去年相似，但它們仍然低於新冠疫情之前的水平。這些是我可以分享的關於美食的一些見解。

Okay. And then maybe just on kind of the labor line. Did you comment on what labor inflation was in the most recent quarter, it sounds like it was still like mid-single-digit range. And is there any kind of like slowing in that pace assumed through the course of this year? Or is it going to be pretty steady? Or how do you kind of expect that to play out?

好的。然後也許只是在勞工線上。您是否評論過最近一個季度的勞動力通脹情況，聽起來仍然處於中個位數範圍。今年的增速是否會放緩？或者說會很穩定嗎？或者你預計結果如何？

Yes. Our labor did -- overall labor inflation ticked down about 100 basis points from Q3 to Q4. We were at 6% in Q4. That included wage inflation close to 7%. And -- so that's also a tick down from prior quarter, a meaningful step down. And that's actually was a little bit better than we thought going into the quarter.

是的。我們的勞動力做到了——整體勞動力通脹從第三季度到第四季度下降了約 100 個基點。第四季度我們的增長率為 6%。其中工資通脹率接近 7%。而且——所以這也比上一季度有所下降，這是一個有意義的下降。這實際上比我們在本季度的預期要好一些。

Now as we look to the future, as we said, so we ended the year with 6.9% total labor inflation and we said we expect that to step down by about 100 basis points as we go to next year. That's why we talked about that mid-single-digit inflation.

現在，正如我們所說，展望未來，我們年底的總勞動力通脹率為 6.9%，我們預計明年這一數字將下降約 100 個基點。這就是我們談論中個位數通脹的原因。

Our next questions come from the line of Dennis Geiger with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的丹尼斯·蓋革 (Dennis Geiger)。

Raj, I'm just curious if there's any update to share on how you're thinking about continued margin gains longer term. I know you've spoken a bit more to the long-term total shareholder return algorithm of late. But just curious if anything new on long-term margin considerations and of 10 to 30 bps annually is kind of the right way to think about it still?

Raj，我只是好奇是否有任何更新可以分享您如何看待長期持續利潤增長。我知道您最近對長期股東總回報算法談得更多了。但只是好奇，在長期保證金考慮方面以及每年 10 至 30 個基點的新變化是否仍然是正確的思考方式？

Yes, Dennis, we do think that 10 to 30 bps is the way to think about it from where we are starting this fiscal year. So that's why we restated our framework. And the only change we made is to the share repurchase because we still believe that 10 to 30 bps is a good target for us to have for the foreseeable future.

是的，丹尼斯，我們確實認為 10 到 30 個基點是從本財年開始的角度考慮的方法。這就是我們重申我們的框架的原因。我們所做的唯一改變是股票回購，因為我們仍然相信 10 到 30 個基點是我們在可預見的未來的一個很好的目標。

And then just on the to-go sales across the portfolio to some extent. Just curious sort of where you sit now? And if any kind of latest thoughts on what that could look like, either growth there, sales mix opportunities as we look to '24?

然後在某種程度上只是整個產品組合的外銷。只是好奇你現在坐在哪裡？如果有任何關於這可能是什麼樣子的最新想法，無論是增長，還是我們展望 24 世紀的銷售組合機會？

Well, so our to-go sales are actually pretty consistent with where we were in Q3. So I think we're still running at Olive Garden close to 25%, LongHorn around 14% and Cheddar's at 12%, which is not that dissimilar to what we had a quarter ago. And we're doing that without third-party delivery. And we continue to see that we're able to kind of still get overall sales growth and outperformance versus the industry, while not tapping into these other channels and actually, we're managing the experience better.

嗯，所以我們的外賣銷售額實際上與第三季度的情況非常一致。因此，我認為 Olive Garden 的利用率仍接近 25%，LongHorn 的利用率約為 14%，Cheddar’s 的利用率為 12%，這與一個季度前的情況並沒有什麼不同。我們在沒有第三方交付的情況下做到這一點。我們繼續看到，我們仍然能夠獲得整體銷售增長和優於行業的表現，同時不利用這些其他渠道，實際上，我們正​​在更好地管理體驗。

We feel like we have opportunity to continue to execute on that. As we've said before, this is higher than we would have expected a couple of years ago but we're very happy with it. And our teams are focused on executing at the highest level possible to make sure that we can sustain and grow from here.

我們覺得我們有機會繼續執行這一點。正如我們之前所說，這比我們幾年前的預期要高，但我們對此感到非常滿意。我們的團隊專注於盡可能最高水平的執行，以確保我們能夠在此基礎上維持和發展。

Our next questions come from the line of John Ivankoe with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的約翰·伊万科。

I know you have actually famously done a lot of brand level customer segmentation work. You used to talk about that in Analyst Day as many years ago. So I guess using that data or using your current thinking, can you explain how you think about the upcoming repayment of student loans, something that you've been asked about today, it's coming, I think, in September, obviously, the press itself has kind of gotten smart that's something that's coming and actually might be fairly significant change for at least some cohort of the population. Can you think of -- is there any impact to Darden specifically, have you thought through that? And what might potential responses be?

我知道您實際上做了很多品牌級客戶細分工作，這一點是眾所周知的。多年前，您曾在分析師日談論過這一點。所以我想使用這些數據或使用你當前的想法，你能解釋一下你對即將償還的學生貸款的看法嗎？今天有人問你這個問題，我想，它會在九月到來，顯然，媒體本身有點聰明了，這是即將發生的事情，實際上至少對於某些人群來說可能是相當重大的變化。你能想一下——這對達頓有什麼具體影響嗎？你考慮過嗎？潛在的反應可能是什麼？

John, yes, we think through that all the time. And we do still do those consumer segmentation studies, and we still do market structure studies. We don't necessarily talk about them externally because we don't want everybody else to see them. But thinking about the student loan impact, yes, they'll start being repaid in, I guess, September around there, but it shouldn't be a material headwind. It will be a headwind. Any time you take money out of consumers' pockets, it's a headwind, but it shouldn't be material because student loan payments are a very small component of GDP and it's probably already baked into the economic forecast for GDP growth that we use for our plan.

約翰，是的，我們一直在思考這個問題。我們仍然進行消費者細分研究，我們仍然進行市場結構研究。我們不一定要對外談論它們，因為我們不希望其他人看到它們。但考慮到學生貸款的影響，是的，他們將在 9 月份左右開始償還，但這不應該是一個重大阻力。這將是一個逆風。任何時候你從消費者的口袋裡掏錢，都會是一種逆風，但這應該不是實質性的，因為學生貸款支付只佔GDP的很小一部分，而且它可能已經融入到我們用於我們的GDP增長的經濟預測中。計劃。

And just in terms of like that specific cohort, I mean, whether it's 25 to 44, what have you. I mean I know Olive Garden historically is kind of skewed older. But is there anything that you can kind of help us with us just saying, hey, you have some big percentage of the customer base that's just not going to be affected by all. Is there a little bit more information you can kind of give us as you triangulate it?

就特定群體而言，我的意思是，無論是 25 歲還是 44 歲，都有什麼。我的意思是我知道橄欖園歷史上有點偏舊。但是，您有什麼可以幫助我們的嗎？我們只是說，嘿，您有很大比例的客戶群，不會受到所有人的影響。在進行三角測量時，您可以向我們提供更多信息嗎？

Sure. I think Raj talked about our consumer demographics a little bit ago. We're still above pre-COVID on our consumers in the 35-age range or below 35, which is probably the ones that are in their student loan repayment period. And the 55 plus or below pre-COVID last year. So there's probably still some room for some of those 55 plus to come back, and I'm doubting that they're paying student loans back unless they're paying it for their kids.

當然。我想拉傑剛才談到了我們的消費者人口統計數據。我們的 35 歲或 35 歲以下消費者的消費水平仍高於新冠疫情前的水平，這些消費者可能正處於學生貸款償還期。以及去年新冠疫情爆發前 55 歲以上或以下的人口。因此，那些 55 歲以上的人中的一些人可能還有一些空間可以回來，而且我懷疑他們是否會償還學生貸款，除非他們正在為孩子償還貸款。

And if you think about our population, we still have a high percentage of our consumers that are above $100,000. So hopefully, a student loan repayment wouldn't impact them too much.

如果你考慮一下我們的人口，我們仍然有很高比例的消費者的收入超過 100,000 美元。因此，希望學生貸款償還不會對他們產生太大影響。

Our next questions come from the line of Andrew Strelzik with BMO.

我們的下一個問題來自 BMO 的 Andrew Strelzik。

Two for me. The first one is on the commodity side. I'm curious if you feel like your visibility into the food cost outlook is improving or the duration to which you have visibility is improving just as the rate of inflation is moderating here? And then the second question is on the unit growth side. You talked about the bidding side and some favorability potentially there. I'm just curious in terms of permitting supply chain equipment. Are there green shoots on that side? Or how are you seeing that evolve.

給我兩個。第一個是大宗商品方面。我很好奇，您是否覺得您對食品成本前景的了解正在改善，或者您對食品成本前景的了解持續時間正在改善，就像這裡的通貨膨脹率正在放緩一樣？第二個問題是關於單位增長方面的。您談到了投標方面以及潛在的一些優惠。我只是對供應鏈設備的許可感到好奇。那邊有綠芽嗎？或者你如何看待這種演變。

Andrew, this is Raj. So on the commodity side, we do have better visibility today than we did a year ago. We actually have, for the first time, I think, in 4 years, probably have coverage that is actually pretty similar to the way we used to before COVID. I think we have -- as we talked about for the first half, we have a total coverage of 65% of our basket covered and call it closer to that 25% to 30% in the back half cover, which is, again, pretty much back to the levels we used to have pre-COVID.

安德魯，這是拉傑。因此，在大宗商品方面，我們今天的能見度確實比一年前更好。我認為，四年來，我們實際上第一次擁有了與新冠疫情爆發之前的覆蓋範圍非常相似的覆蓋範圍。我認為我們已經——正如我們在上半場談到的那樣，我們的總覆蓋率達到了籃子覆蓋率的 65%，並稱其更接近於後半場覆蓋率的 25% 到 30%，這再次相當漂亮。回到了新冠疫情之前的水平。

So we definitely feel like we have a lot more visibility today than we did before. And then as far as the development side, we are starting to see some signs of improvement. Rick talked earlier about some of the bids coming in better or multiple bids coming in. There's still some delays in permitting and utility connections with local agencies and stuff like that. But all that said, we do see some green shoots. We think that we believe that the inflation on the construction side has peaked it's still elevated, but it's not going -- continuing to go up. And in fact, I think we -- the last few bids we've had last few construction starts we've had, they were in line with our budget or better. So just make -- starting to see some positive signs there.

所以我們確實覺得今天的知名度比以前高得多。就開發方面而言，我們開始看到一些改善的跡象。里克早些時候談到了一些更好的投標或多個投標。在許可和與當地機構的公用事業聯繫等方面仍然存在一些延誤。但儘管如此，我們確實看到了一些萌芽。我們認為，建築業的通脹已經見頂，仍然處於高位，但不會繼續上升。事實上，我認為我們最近幾次開工的投標都符合我們的預算或更好。因此，開始看到一些積極的跡象。

Our next questions come from the line of Brian Vaccaro with Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題來自布萊恩·瓦卡羅 (Brian Vaccaro) 和雷蒙德·詹姆斯 (Raymond James) 的對話。

I just wanted to circle back on the strength at LongHorn -- it seems like the brand took another step up at least through the lens of average weekly sales volumes, which I think are now up in the mid-30s versus pre-COVID levels. I know the brain has gained a lot of share through the pandemic, but anything incremental worth highlighting that you think is driving this incremental uptick?

我只是想回顧一下 LongHorn 的實力——至少從平均每週銷量的角度來看，該品牌似乎又向前邁進了一步，我認為與新冠疫情之前的水平相比，現在的銷量已經上升到了 30 多歲。我知道大腦在這場大流行中獲得了很大的份額，但是您認為有什麼值得強調的增量正在推動這種增量增長嗎？

Yes, Brian, LongHorn has been executing well for the last few years. And I keep -- I want to comment Todd and his team, they've been on this journey in quality, simplicity, and culture. That's what Todd talks about every day, investing in quality and portions that continue to pay off. They had almost 7.1% same-restaurant sales growth in the quarter. That was driven by some pricing. They've had more inflation, but they also have had record weekly sales and Mother's Day week, and yes, they're 34% above pre-COVID levels in sales versus Q4. And traffic is positive over pre-COVID.

是的，Brian，LongHorn 在過去幾年中一直表現良好。我想對托德和他的團隊發表評論，他們在質量、簡單性和文化方面一直在這段旅程中。這就是托德每天談論的內容，投資於質量和份量，持續獲得回報。該季度同餐廳銷售額增長近 7.1%。這是由一些定價驅動的。他們的通貨膨脹率更高，但他們的每週銷售額和母親節週的銷售額也創歷史新高，是的，與第四季度相比，他們的銷售額比新冠疫情前的水平高出 34%。與新冠疫情爆發前相比，客流量呈積極增長趨勢。

So I can't tell you it's any silver bullet and we've talked about that in the past that there aren't silver bullets here. It's about having great execution, investing in your team, investing in your product to drive profitable same-restaurant sales growth. And that's what they've been doing.

所以我不能告訴你這是任何靈丹妙藥，我們過去已經討論過這裡沒有靈丹妙藥。這是關於擁有出色的執行力、投資於您的團隊、投資於您的產品，以推動可盈利的同餐廳銷售增長。這就是他們一直在做的事情。

All right. And then I also just wanted to circle back on the Ruth's acquisition and your customer segmentation work. Could you elaborate a little bit on the overlap or maybe more interestingly, the key differences between Ruth's customer base versus your other fine dining brands or any other differences you think are worth highlighting regarding the brand.

好的。然後我也想回顧一下露絲的收購和您的客戶細分工作。您能否詳細說明一下重疊之處，或者更有趣的是，露絲的客戶群與您的其他高級餐飲品牌之間的主要差異，或者您認為值得強調的有關該品牌的任何其他差異。

Yes, Brian. Let me talk about differences and why we believe that there's not a whole -- a lot of overlap between the Ruth's customer and Capital Grille customer. But I will preface this by saying, we've only owned them for 8 days. And before we closed the deal, we were not allowed to see their consumer data, right? We were still competitors, and we couldn't see their consumer data other than looking at third-party data that we would have.

是的，布萊恩。讓我談談差異以及為什麼我們認為 Ruth 的客戶和 Capital Grille 的客戶之間不存在整體 - 有很多重疊。但我首先要說的是，我們只擁有它們 8 天。在我們完成交易之前，我們不被允許查看他們的消費者數據，對吧？我們仍然是競爭對手，除了查看我們擁有的第三方數據外，我們看不到他們的消費者數據。

So we want to start looking at their data to understand it a little bit better. But one of the primary reasons is geography. If you look at -- they have 150-ish restaurants, including the franchise system, and they have restaurants in markets that Capital Grille doesn't have restaurants in. And even in restaurants to capital, even in markets that Capital Grille has restaurants in, they're not necessarily close to each other in a lot of those markets. So there isn't as much overlap as you would expect. And that's a good thing for us, and that's a good thing for Ruth Chris, and it's a good thing for Capital Grille.

因此，我們想開始查看他們的數據，以便更好地理解它。但主要原因之一是地理位置。如果你看一下——他們有 150 家左右的餐廳，包括特許經營系統，而且他們在 Capital Grille 沒有餐廳的市場上也有餐廳。甚至在首都的餐廳裡，甚至在 Capital Grille 有餐廳的市場上也有餐廳。 ，在許多這樣的市場中，它們不一定彼此接近。因此，沒有您期望的那麼多重疊。這對我們來說是一件好事，對露絲克里斯來說是一件好事，對 Capital Grille 來說也是一件好事。

And -- but then I would add that if you think about ADBs and Capital Grille, we've had this kind of scenario for many years where ADBs guests may go to Capital Grille, but they go for different occasions. And we want to learn a little bit about that at Ruth's on the occasion differences. And then finally, I think Capital Grille is a little bit more, going back to geography, a little bit more mix in urban than Ruth Chris, an urban core versus Ruth Chris, where Ruth Chris, for example, if you have a restaurant in Birmingham, we don't have -- or in Destin, Florida. There's the Ruth Chris. We don't have Capital Grille there. So there's reasons that there isn't as much overlap as you would have thought.

然後我想補充一點，如果你想想 ADB 和 Capital Grille，我們多年來一直遇到這種情況，ADB 的客人可能會去 Capital Grille，但他們去的場合不同。我們想在露絲家了解一些有關場合差異的情況。最後，我認為 Capital Grille 比露絲·克里斯 (Ruth Chris) 更融合一點，回到地理上，城市核心與露絲·克里斯 (Ruth Chris) 相比，例如，如果你在露絲·克里斯 (Ruth Chris) 有一家餐廳，伯明翰，我們沒有——或者在佛羅里達州德斯坦。那是露絲·克里斯。我們那裡沒有 Capital Grille。因此，重疊並不像您想像的那麼多，這是有原因的。

Our next questions come from the line of Jake Bartlett with Truist Securities.

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

Mine was on labor productivity. You mentioned that you expect some labor productivity improvements in '24, but not a whole lot. And I guess my question is around turnover. I would have thought that just the improving labor environment, staffing is kind of, I think, back to pre-COVID levels, but turnovers going down, so productivity should be going way up. In terms of -- at your brands, have you already benefited? I mean, I guess, maybe was your turnover not so bad before that's why you're not going to get much of an incremental benefit. If you could just talk about how the labor dynamics and what that could or couldn't do to labor productivity.

我的主題是勞動生產率。您提到您預計 24 年勞動生產率會有所提高，但不會很大。我想我的問題是關於營業額的。我本以為，只要勞動環境和人員配備有所改善，我認為就會回到新冠疫情前的水平，但人員流動率會下降，因此生產率應該會大幅上升。就您的品牌而言，您已經受益了嗎？我的意思是，我想，也許你之前的營業額並沒有那麼糟糕，這就是為什麼你不會獲得太多增量收益的原因。如果您能談談勞動力動態如何以及它對勞動生產率的影響或不影響的話。

Yes, Jake. Yes, you would expect that as turnover goes down, productivity gets better. And we've started to see that already this year. So our turnover is improving and our productivity is getting better. So it's not like we're going from the highest turnover we've ever had to the lower turnover next year. We've actually started gradually moving to it. And one of the places that gets you the biggest productivity loss is the turnover in the first 90 days. And that's had a very big improvement for us.

是的，傑克。是的，您會期望隨著營業額下降，生產力會提高。今年我們已經開始看到這一點。所以我們的營業額正在改善，我們的生產力也在提高。因此，我們不會從有史以來的最高營業額下降到明年的較低營業額。我們實際上已經開始逐漸轉向它。導致生產力損失最大的地方之一就是前 90 天內的人員流動。這對我們來說是一個非常大的改進。

So you don't -- you have less productivity loss if you have less 90-day turnover. And so we've seen an improvement in turnover. We're still above pre-COVID levels, but we're a lot closer to our pre-COVID levels than we were just last month and the last month before that, the month before that. And we'll continue to improve I don't know if we'll ever get back to pre-COVID level turnovers. But if we do, then that should give us even more productivity enhancements.

所以，如果您的 90 天周轉率較少，那麼您的生產力損失就會較少。因此，我們看到營業額有所改善。我們仍然高於新冠疫情前的水平，但比上個月和上個月、前一個月更接近新冠疫情前的水平。我們將繼續改進，我不知道我們是否能回到新冠疫情前的營業額水平。但如果我們這樣做了，那麼我們的生產力將會得到更多的提高。

Great. And then I have a follow-up on unit growth, and you gave guidance for 2024. A couple of years ago, you had mentioned your expectations kind of moved towards the higher end of the range. So closer to 3% from the 2% to 3% range. Is that still valid kind of going forward, and it's going to be lower in '24, but longer term, should we think of the higher end of the range is the right point? Or are we kind of getting back into maybe the middle of the range longer term?

偉大的。然後我對單位增長進行了跟踪，您給出了 2024 年的指導。幾年前，您曾提到您的期望有點向范圍的高端移動。所以從 2% 到 3% 的範圍更接近 3%。未來這仍然有效嗎？24 年它會更低，但從長遠來看，我們是否應該認為該範圍的高端是正確的點？或者從長遠來看，我們是否會回到中間區間？

Yes, Jake, our goal is still to get towards the higher end of the range. It might take us a little bit more time to get there than we originally thought. COVID slowed a lot of stuff down in development. The permitting that Raj talked about, equipment that Raj talked about, those things are getting better than all the way back. It would be great if we could get permits as fast as we used to get them. It would be great if we can get utilities turn down as fast as we used to get them. That's just not come back anywhere near where we need it to be.

是的，傑克，我們的目標仍然是達到範圍的高端。我們到達那裡可能比我們最初想像的要花更多的時間。新冠疫情減緩了很多東西的開發速度。拉傑談到的許可，拉傑談到的設備，這些事情都比以前更好了。如果我們能像以前一樣快地獲得許可，那就太好了。如果我們能夠像以前一樣快速地關閉公用事業服務，那就太好了。那隻是沒有回到我們需要的地方。

And as we think about construction costs, getting back to a more normal level, Raj mentioned that we've had the last few contracts that we've bid out have come in better than what we expected. And that's a good sign for us. So that will help us get back to that higher end of our framework. And I would also remind people, we don't talk about this very much, but that framework includes M&A. And while we would like to get to the high end of the framework just with organic growth, M&A is part of the framework.

當我們考慮建築成本，回到更正常的水平時，拉傑提到我們最近投標的幾份合同的表現比我們的預期要好。這對我們來說是一個好兆頭。這將幫助我們回到框架的高端。我還要提醒人們，我們不太談論這個，但該框架包括併購。雖然我們希望通過有機增長達到框架的高端，但併購是該框架的一部分。

And the thing is when we shared that framework earlier today, the 5-year delta, the 5-year impact to the framework, had no M&A in it. And we were still within our -- within probably the mid-range of our unit growth. So M&A is part of that. It is part of our capital allocation. So -- but we would still like to get to the high end without M&A.

問題是，當我們今天早些時候分享該框架時，5 年增量，即對框架的 5 年影響，其中沒有併購。我們仍然處於單位增長的中間範圍之內。所以併購是其中的一部分。這是我們資本配置的一部分。所以——但我們仍然希望在不進行併購的情況下達到高端。

Our next questions come from the line of John Parke with Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行約翰帕克的電話。

I guess as we think about the segment profitability into '24, are there any segments that you guys see as outliers either in terms of improvement or pressure that you're expecting?

我想當我們考慮 24 年的細分市場盈利能力時，你們是否認為有任何細分市場在您期望的改善或壓力方面是異常值？

Well, I think it's fair to expect that, as we talked about, fine dining is going to have a tough ramp in the first quarter. So -- but as far as how we think about year-over-year, we expect all our segments to get a little bit better. That's kind of how we plan the year, and that's what we push our teams to do.

嗯，我認為，正如我們所討論的那樣，可以合理地預期，第一季度高檔餐飲將出現艱難的增長。所以，但就我們如何看待同比而言，我們預計所有細分市場都會變得更好一些。這就是我們今年的計劃，也是我們推動團隊去做的事情。

Got it. And then kind of just on the pricing side, so I guess in the beef inflation that you're seeing, is it fair to assume the LongHorn and (inaudible) pricing is above that range and Garden and Cheddar's is below?

知道了。然後就定價方面而言，所以我想在您所看到的牛肉通脹中，假設長角牛和（聽不清）的定價高於該範圍而花園和切達干酪的定價低於該範圍是否公平？

Yes. That's a fair assumption.

是的。這是一個合理的假設。

Our last question will come from the line of Gregory Francfort with Guggenheim.

我們的最後一個問題將來自格雷戈里·弗蘭克福特和古根海姆的血統。

I just have 2 quick follow-up on labor. The first is, I guess, within that 5% labor inflation that you're expecting, how much of that's going to be statutory this year? And how much of it maybe still market pressure. And then maybe a correlated question is, as you guys are going out there at a higher new work is you're talking about turnover, the wage that it costs to hire somebody new today -- have you seen a break in that or a material break in that way? I'm just curious as I think about how much easier it's not for you guys to hire people.

我剛剛對分娩進行了 2 次快速跟進。我想，第一個問題是，在您預期的 5% 勞動力通脹率內，今年其中有多少是法定的？其中有多少可能仍然是市場壓力。然後也許一個相關的問題是，當你們從事更高的新工作時，你們談論的是人員流動率，即今天僱用新人所需的工資——您是否看到了這方面的突破或材料就這樣打破嗎？我只是很好奇，因為我想你們僱用員工並不容易。

Greg, so just let me start by clarifying. We did not say it's 5%. We said mid-single digits, and I want to make sure that it's not treated as a 5%. I think our plan actually assumes a little bit north of that, but our guidance range embeds something closer to that 6% for wage inflation. So I just want to clarify that.

格雷格，讓我先澄清一下。我們沒有說是5%。我們說的是中個位數，我想確保它不會被視為 5%。我認為我們的計劃實際上假設了一點，但我們的指導範圍包含了更接近 6% 的工資通脹率。所以我只想澄清這一點。

And then as far as the regulatory piece, the minimum wage impact, that's about just under 2%, I think, for the full year, maybe 1.5% to 2% is what we have there. And then beyond that, it's just the normal merit increases and other stuff. Now as far as the comment -- the question around wages and, clearly, the environment has gotten a lot better, we are doing a lot fewer out-of-cycle adjustments than we were doing even 6 months ago. So from that perspective, there is clearly a lot of, I would say, for lack of a better term, positive science in hiring environment, in the starting wages, all those things getting a lot better than where it was couple of quarters ago.

然後就監管部分而言，最低工資的影響大約略低於 2%，我認為全年可能為 1.5% 到 2%。除此之外，這只是正常的功績增加和其他東西。現在就評論而言——圍繞工資的問題，顯然，環境已經好多了，我們所做的周期外調整比六個月前要少得多。因此，從這個角度來看，我想說，由於缺乏更好的術語，在招聘環境、起薪方面顯然有很多積極的科學，所有這些事情都比幾個季度前好得多。

And if I can just add one thing to that. If you think about our turnover coming down, that means we don't have as many people we're hiring as we were before. So we didn't have to hire as many people now than we did before. And so the wage, even if the wage break didn't happen, it's still not as big a deal for us, but the wage break is starting to happen. But the fact that we don't have to hire as many people helps us as well.

如果我能補充一件事的話。如果你考慮到我們的營業額下降，那就意味著我們招聘的員工數量沒有以前那麼多了。所以我們現在不需要像以前那樣僱用那麼多人。所以工資，即使沒有發生工資中斷，對我們來說仍然不是什麼大事，但工資中斷已經開始發生。但我們不必僱用那麼多人這一事實也對我們有幫助。

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to hand the call back over to Kevin Kalicak for closing remarks.

謝謝。目前沒有其他問題。現在我想將電話轉回給凱文·卡里卡克（Kevin Kalicak）做總結髮言。

Thanks. That concludes our call for today. I'd like to remind you that we plan to release our first quarter results on Thursday, September 21, before the market opens with a conference call to follow. Thanks again for participating in today's call and have a great day.

謝謝。我們今天的呼籲到此結束。我想提醒您，我們計劃於 9 月 21 日星期四開盤前發布第一季度業績，並隨後召開電話會議。再次感謝您參加今天的電話會議，祝您有美好的一天。

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與。此時您可以斷開線路。享受你一天剩下的時間。