達登餐飲 (DRI) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the Darden Fiscal Year 2024 First Quarter Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) This 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.

歡迎參加達頓 2024 財年第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員指示）本次會議正在錄製中。如果您有任何異議，請此時斷開連接。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. Those risks are described in the company's press release, which was distributed this morning and in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

謝謝你，達裡爾。大家早安，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執行長 Rick Cardenas；和財務長 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。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。

We are simultaneously broadcasting a presentation during this call, which is posted in the Investor Relations section of our website at darden.com. Today's discussion and presentation include certain non-GAAP measurements and reconciliations of these measurements are included in the presentation. Looking ahead, we plan to release fiscal 2024 second quarter earnings on Friday, December 15, before the market opens, followed by a conference call.

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。今天的討論和簡報包括某些非 GAAP 衡量標準，簡報中還包括這些衡量標準的調整。展望未來，我們計劃於 12 月 15 日星期五開市前發布 2024 財年第二季收益，隨後召開電話會議。

During today's call, any reference to pre-Covid when discussing first quarter performance is a comparison to the first 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，在討論第一季度業績時對新冠疫情爆發前的業績的任何提及都是與2020 財年第一季度的比較。此外，今天電話會議中所有提及行業業績的內容均指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 first fiscal quarter, industry same-restaurant sales increased 0.9% and industry same-restaurant guest counts decreased 4.2%. This morning, Rick will share some brief remarks on the quarter and Raj will provide details on our financial results.

在我們的第一財季，行業同店銷售額成長了 0.9%，行業同店客人數量下降了 4.2%。今天早上，里克將分享一些有關本季的簡短評論，拉傑將提供有關我們財務業績的詳細資訊。

Now I'll turn the call over to Rick.

現在我將把電話轉給里克。

Good morning, everyone. Thanks, Kevin. We had a strong quarter as we continued to outperform the industry benchmarks for same-restaurant sales and traffic. For the quarter, total sales were $2.7 billion, an increase of 11.6% and adjusted diluted net earnings per share were $1.78. We also opened 10 new restaurants in 9 different states during the quarter. Our ability to drive profitable sales growth is a testament to the strength of our business model and adherence to our strategy. We continue to strengthen and leverage our 4 competitive advantages of significant scale, extensive data and insights, rigorous strategic planning and a results-oriented culture, while our restaurant teams remain intensely focused on executing our Back-to-Basics operating philosophy anchored in food, service and atmosphere.

大家，早安。謝謝，凱文。我們的季度表現強勁，因為我們在同餐廳銷售和客流量方面繼續超越行業基準。本季總銷售額為 27 億美元，成長 11.6%，調整後稀釋每股淨利為 1.78 美元。本季我們還在 9 個不同的州開設了 10 家新餐廳。我們推動獲利銷售成長的能力證明了我們業務模式的實力和對我們策略的堅持。我們繼續加強和利用我們的四大競爭優勢，即巨大的規模、廣泛的數據和洞察力、嚴格的策略規劃和以結果為導向的文化，而我們的餐廳團隊仍然高度專注於執行我們以食物為基礎的回歸基本營運理念，服務和氛圍。

This focus on being -- growing with the basics continues to drive strong guest satisfaction. In fact, our internal guest satisfaction metrics remain at or near all-time highs across all our brands. Additionally, several of our brands continue to rank #1 among major casual dining brands in key measurement categories within Technomic's industry tracking tool, including LongHorn Steakhouse for food quality and taste and Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen for value.

這種對基礎的關注繼續推動著賓客滿意度的提高。事實上，我們所有品牌的內部賓客滿意度指標均維持或接近歷史最高水準。此外，我們的幾個品牌在 Technomic 行業追蹤工具的關鍵衡量類別中繼續在主要休閒餐飲品牌中排名第一，包括在食品品質和口味方面的 LongHorn Steakhouse 以及在價值方面的 Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen。

Our team members bring our brands to life each day and we know engaged team members are vital to creating great guest experiences. That's why our brands are focused on leveraging their unique cultures to strengthen team member engagement. For example, LongHorn Steakhouse created the Grill Master Legends program that honors grill masters who have grilled more than 1 million steaks throughout their career, which typically takes more than 20 years for a team member to accomplish. 5 Grill Master Legends were honored during the quarter, bringing the total to 25 team members who have received this recognition.

我們的團隊成員每天都在為我們的品牌注入活力，我們知道敬業的團隊成員對於創造卓越的賓客體驗至關重要。這就是為什麼我們的品牌專注於利用其獨特的文化來加強團隊成員的參與。例如，LongHorn Steakhouse 創建了「燒烤大師傳奇」計劃，旨在表彰在整個職業生涯中烤過超過 100 萬塊牛排的燒烤大師，而這通常需要團隊成員 20 多年才能完成。本季有 5 名 Grill Master Legends 獲得表彰，使獲得此殊榮的團隊成員總數達到 25 名。

Also during the quarter, Yard House completed its first Best On Tap competition. Known for having more than 130 beers on tap, the Yard House tested its bar tenders from every restaurant, giving them the opportunity to showcase their beverage knowledge, bartending expertise and service skills. Congratulations to this year's winner, Alyssa Hurley, from the Yard House in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, who was named Best On Tap. Programs like these give us an opportunity to celebrate team members who play a critical role in the guest experience and who serve as torchbearers for their brand's culture.

同樣在本季度，Yard House 完成了第一屆 Best On Tap 競賽。 Yard House 以擁有 130 多種桶裝啤酒而聞名，對每家餐廳的調酒師進行了測試，讓他們有機會展示自己的飲料知識、調酒專業知識和服務技能。恭喜今年的得獎者，來自賓州 Willow Grove 的 Yard House 的 Alyssa Hurley，她被評為「Best On Tap」。此類計劃讓我們有機會表彰在賓客體驗中發揮關鍵作用並作為品牌文化火炬手的團隊成員。

One of the most significant ways our brands drive culture is through their annual leadership conferences, which provide the opportunity to get in front of every general manager and managing partner across all our restaurants to discuss the plans for the year and generate excitement among our operators. I was pleased to see the high levels of engagement and strong alignment on what our restaurant teams must do to continue creating exceptional guest experiences across each of our iconic brands.

我們的品牌推動文化的最重要方式之一是透過年度領導力會議，會議提供了與我們所有餐廳的每位總經理和管理合夥人討論年度計劃並在我們的經營者中激發興奮的機會。我很高興看到我們的餐廳團隊必須做的事情的高度參與和強有力的協調，以繼續在我們每個標誌性品牌中創造卓越的賓客體驗。

To further strengthen our brands, we are focused on highlighting what makes each one unique. That's why when it comes to marketing, any activity our brands undertake is evaluated through 3 filters. First, it needs to elevate brand equity by bringing the brand's competitive advantages to life. Second, it should be simple to execute. We will not jeopardize all the work we have done to simplify operations which allows our teams to consistently deliver memorable guest experiences. And finally, it will not be at a deep discount. We are focused on providing great value to our guests but doing so in a way that drives profitable sales growth.

為了進一步強化我們的品牌，我們專注於突出每個品牌的獨特之處。這就是為什麼在行銷方面，我們品牌所進行的任何活動都會透過 3 個濾鏡進行評估。首先，它需要透過發揮品牌的競爭優勢來提升品牌資產。其次，它應該易於執行。我們不會危及我們為簡化營運所做的所有工作，這使我們的團隊能夠始終如一地提供令人難忘的賓客體驗。最後，它不會有很大的折扣。我們專注於為客人提供巨大的價值，但這樣做的方式可以推動盈利的銷售成長。

A great example of this activity was the Capital Grille's Generous Pour event that took place during the quarter. This specially curated wine experience allows guests to sample award-winning wines that pair with items on the Capital Grille menu. And in the second quarter, Olive Garden is bringing back Never Ending Pasta Bowl, which brings to life its competitive advantage of never-ending, abundant, craveable Italian food. Olive Garden's eClub members received a special invitation to begin enjoying NEPB this week. This guest favorite returns for everybody on Monday and will be offered at the same price point as last year.

這項活動的一個很好的例子是本季度舉辦的 Capital Grille 的慷慨倒酒活動。這種特別策劃的葡萄酒體驗讓客人可以品嚐與 Capital Grille 菜單上的菜餚搭配的屢獲殊榮的葡萄酒。在第二季度，Olive Garden 將重新推出“Never Ending Pasta Bowl”，這將體現其永無止境、豐富且令人垂涎的意大利美食的競爭優勢。 Olive Garden 的 eClub 會員收到了特別邀請，可以在本週開始享受 NEPB。這款深受客人喜愛的產品將於週一回歸，價格與去年相同。

Turning to Ruth's Chris. Since the day we announced the completion of the acquisition, we have been guided by 3 key objectives. First, we want to preserve the team member experience and the brand's unique culture. Ruth's Chris has many long-tenured team members and we are committed to ensuring this is a people-focused process. The team is engaged and we have strong buying across the executive and operations leadership levels, all of which helps ensure a smooth transition.

轉向露絲的克里斯。自我們宣布完成收購之日起，我們一直遵循 3 個關鍵目標。首先，我們希望保留團隊成員的經驗和品牌獨特的文化。 Ruth 的 Chris 擁有許多長期任職的團隊成員，我們致力於確保這是一個以人為本的流程。團隊積極參與，我們在執行和營運領導層擁有強大的支持，所有這些都有助於確保平穩過渡。

Next, we want to maintain and even strengthen the guest experience. Ruth's Chris is an incredibly strong brand and it ranks as one of the top brands across multiple metrics within Technomic's industry tracking tool. We now expect to realize more synergies than we originally anticipated and we plan to reinvest some of them in the guest and team member experience. Raj will provide more details during his remarks.

接下來，我們希望維持甚至加強賓客體驗。 Ruth's Chris 是一個非常強大的品牌，在 Technomic 的行業追蹤工具的多個指標中被列為頂級品牌之一。我們現在期望實現比最初預期更多的協同效應，並計劃將其中一些重新投資於賓客和團隊成員的體驗。拉吉將在演講中提供更多細節。

And last, we want to successfully migrate Ruth's Chris under the Darden platform. The team leading the integration is wrapping up the planning stage and we're about to embark on the hardest part, the actual conversion to new systems and processes. We know that it's not easy, which is why we plan to complete it in phases over the next 9 months to limit disruptions as much as possible.

最後，我們希望將 Ruth 的 Chris 成功遷移到 Darden 平台下。領導整合的團隊正在完成規劃階段，我們即將開始最困難的部分，即向新系統和流程的實際轉換。我們知道這並不容易，因此我們計劃在未來 9 個月內分階段完成，以盡可能減少干擾。

Looking across our entire portfolio, I am pleased with the quarter. Our strategy is working, we continue to grow share, strengthen margins and make meaningful investments in our business while returning capital to shareholders. And while I'm proud of our continued success, there is a larger purpose to what we do and that is to nourish and delight everyone we serve, not just within the 4 walls of our restaurants but in the communities that our guests and team members call home.

縱觀我們的整個投資組合，我對本季感到滿意。我們的策略正在發揮作用，我們將繼續增加份額，提高利潤率，並對我們的業務進行有意義的投資，同時向股東返還資本。雖然我為我們不斷取得的成功感到自豪，但我們所做的事情還有一個更大的目的，那就是滋養和愉悅我們所服務的每個人，不僅是在我們餐廳的4 堵牆內，而且是在我們的客人和團隊成員所在的社區中打電話回家。

September is Hunger Action Month and we are uniquely positioned to help fight hunger. This marks the 20th anniversary of our Harvest program. Since 2003, our restaurants have collected excess nutritious food that was not served to guests and prepared it for weekly donation to local nonprofit partners. Over the life of the program, we have donated the equivalent of more than 113 million meals. And for the past 13 years, we have partnered with Feeding America to help fight hunger. Over that time, the Darden Foundation has donated more than $16 million to support their network of more than 200 food banks.

九月是“飢餓行動月”，我們在幫助戰勝飢餓方面具有獨特的優勢。今年是我們的 Harvest 計劃實施 20 週年。自 2003 年以來，我們的餐廳收集了未提供給客人的多餘營養食品，並準備每週捐贈給當地的非營利合作夥伴。在該計劃實施期間，我們已捐贈了相當於超過 1.13 億份餐點。在過去 13 年裡，我們與 Feeding America 合作，幫助對抗飢餓。在此期間，達頓基金會已捐贈超過 1,600 萬美元來支持其由 200 多家食物銀行組成的網路。

Last week, together with our partners, Penske Truck Leasing and Lineage Logistics, we added 10 more refrigerated trucks for mobile food pantry programs at 10 local food banks. To date, we have added a total of 35 trucks across Feeding America food banks in 18 states. Our ability to make a difference in the fight against hunger would not be possible without the efforts of our 190,000 team members and their passion to nourish and delight everyone we serve. I'm grateful for everything you do to help make our company successful.

上週，我們與合作夥伴 Penske Truck Leasing 和 Lineage Logistics 一起，為當地 10 家食品銀行的移動食品儲藏室項目增加了 10 輛冷藏卡車。到目前為止，我們已在 18 個州的 Feeding America 食物銀行增加了總共 35 輛卡車。如果沒有 190,000 名團隊成員的努力以及他們為我們所服務的每個人提供營養和快樂的熱情，我們就不可能在對抗飢餓的鬥爭中發揮作用。我感謝您為幫助我們公司取得成功所做的一切。

Now I will 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 first quarter were $2.7 billion, 11.6% higher than last year, driven by the addition of 77 company-owned Ruth's Chris Steakhouse restaurants, same-restaurant sales growth of 5% and 46 legacy Darden net new restaurants. Our same-restaurant sales for the quarter outpaced the industry by 410 basis points and same-restaurant guest counts exceeded the industry by 430 basis points.

謝謝你，瑞克，大家早安。第一季總銷售額為 27 億美元，比去年增長 11.6%，這得益於公司自營的 Ruth's Chris Steakhouse 餐廳增加 77 家、同店銷售額增長 5% 以及 46 家傳統 Darden 淨新餐廳。本季我們的同店銷售額超出行業 410 個基點，同店客人數量超出行業 430 個基點。

First quarter adjusted diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations were $1.78, an increase of 14.1% from last year's reported net earnings per share. We generated $388 million of adjusted EBITDA and returned approximately $300 million of capital to our shareholders with $159 million in dividends and $143 million of share repurchases. As we look at pricing and inflation during the quarter, we had total pricing of approximately 6% which was 300 basis points above total inflation of roughly 3%.

第一季持續經營業務調整後稀釋每股淨利為 1.78 美元，比去年報告的每股淨利成長 14.1%。我們產生了 3.88 億美元的調整後 EBITDA，並向股東返還了約 3 億美元的資本，其中包括 1.59 億美元的股息和 1.43 億美元的股票回購。當我們觀察本季的定價和通膨時，我們的總定價約為 6%，比約 3% 的總通膨高出 300 個基點。

Now looking at our margin analysis compared to last year. Food and beverage expenses were 130 basis points lower driven by pricing leverage. While beef inflation continues to track in line with our expectations, most other categories are seeing slight favorability. As a result, total commodities inflation of approximately 1% was better than our expectations. Restaurant labor was 40 basis points better than last year, driven by productivity improvements. We expected these productivity improvements to start materializing in the second quarter but we began realizing them sooner.

現在來看看我們與去年相比的利潤分析。在定價槓桿的推動下，餐飲費用下降了 130 個基點。雖然牛肉通膨繼續符合我們的預期，但大多數其他類別的牛肉價格略有上漲。因此，商品總通膨率約為 1%，優於我們的預期。由於生產力提高，餐廳勞動力比去年好 40 個基點。我們預計這些生產力的提高將在第二季開始實現，但我們開始更早實現它們。

Pricing and labor inflation were roughly equal at 6%. Restaurant expenses were 10 basis points favorable as leverage from higher sales more than offset elevated repairs and maintenance expense. Marketing expenses were 20 basis points higher than last year consistent with our plan and including impacts from Ruth's Chris. All of this resulted in restaurant level EBITDA of 19%, 170 basis points higher than last year.

價格和勞動通膨率大致相等，均為 6%。餐廳費用上漲了 10 個基點，因為銷售成長帶來的槓桿作用足以抵消維修和保養費用的增加。行銷費用比去年高出 20 個基點，與我們的計劃一致，其中包括露絲的克里斯的影響。所有這些使得餐廳水平 EBITDA 達到 19%，比去年高出 170 個基點。

G&A expenses were 110 basis points above last year, driven by 3 primary factors. First, higher incentive compensation due to significant growth in sales and EPS for the quarter and wrapping a very low incentive accrual in the first quarter of last year. Second, approximately $9 million of stock-based compensation expenses related to the immediate expensing of equity awards for retirement-eligible employees. And third, the addition of Ruth's Chris.

由於 3 個主要因素的推動，一般管理費用比去年增加了 110 個基點。首先，由於本季銷售額和每股盈餘的顯著成長以及去年第一季非常低的應計激勵，激勵薪資更高。其次，約 900 萬美元的股票補償費用與符合退休資格的員工的股權獎勵的立即支出有關。第三，增加了露絲的克里斯。

Impairments were 30 basis points unfavorable to last year. We're wrapping on a $5 million gain from last year and we incurred $3 million of impairments related to a handful of closings anticipated for this year. Interest expense increased 30 basis points versus last year due to the financing expenses related to the Ruth's Chris acquisition. And for the quarter, adjusted earnings after tax was 7.9% of sales, flat to last year.

減損幅度較去年下降了 30 個基點。我們去年獲得了 500 萬美元的收益，並且由於今年預計關閉的幾家工廠而產生了 300 萬美元的減損。由於收購與 Ruth's Chris 相關的融資費用，利息費用比去年增加了 30 個基點。本季調整後稅後利潤佔銷售額的 7.9%，與去年同期持平。

Now turning to our segments. Sales increased at Olive Garden and LongHorn driven by same-restaurant sales and traffic growth. This sales growth, along with labor productivity and higher overall pricing relative to inflation drove segment profit margin increases of 230 basis points at both Olive Garden and LongHorn. Fine Dining segment total sales increased with the addition of Ruth's Chris company-owned restaurants but same-restaurant sales were negative at both Capital Grille and Eddie V's, consistent with what we indicated on our earnings call last quarter. This resulted in lower segment profit margin for fine dining than last year.

現在轉向我們的細分市場。受同店銷售額和客流量成長的推動，Olive Garden 和 LongHorn 的銷售額有所成長。這種銷售成長，加上勞動生產力和相對於通貨膨脹而言更高的整體定價，推動 Olive Garden 和 LongHorn 的部門利潤率成長了 230 個基點。隨著Ruth's Chris 公司自營餐廳的增加，高級餐飲部門的總銷售額有所增加，但Capital Grille 和Eddie V's 的同店銷售額均為負值，這與我們在上季度財報電話會議上表示的情況一致。這導致高級餐飲部門的利潤率低於去年。

As we anticipated, the year-over-year same-restaurant sales decline in our Fine Dining segment was the result of wrapping on a resurgence of demand in the first quarter last year that drove traffic retention to 107% of pre-Covid levels. Fine dining traffic retention in the first quarter of this year was 100% of pre-covid levels more in line with the retention levels for the prior 3 quarters.

正如我們預期的那樣，我們的高級餐飲部門的同餐廳銷售額同比下降是去年第一季需求復甦的結果，導致客流量保留率達到新冠疫情前水準的 107%。今年第一季的美食客流量保留率為新冠疫情前水準的 100%，與前三個季度的保留水準更加一致。

The Other business segment increased sales driven by positive same-restaurant sales and the addition of Ruth's Chris franchised and managed locations royalty revenue resulting in 140 basis points of segment profit margin growth. As a reminder, all of our franchise operating results are included in the Other business segment.

其他業務部門的銷售額成長得益於同店銷售額的成長以及 Ruth's Chris 特許經營和管理場所特許權使用費收入的增加，導致該部門的利潤率增長了 140 個基點。提醒一下，我們所有的特許經營業績都包含在其他業務部門中。

Now I'd like to provide an update on Ruth synergies. As Rick mentioned, we've identified more synergies than we had initially expected and are choosing to reinvest some of them in the guest and team member experience at Ruth's Chris. Previously, we anticipated $20 million in annualized run rate synergies. We now expect approximately $35 million of gross run rate synergies and other cost savings and we anticipate investing approximately $10 million into the business, resulting in annualized net run rate synergies of approximately $25 million. And for fiscal 2024, we now expect approximately $12 million of net synergies.

現在我想提供有關露絲協同效應的最新資訊。正如 Rick 所提到的，我們發現了比我們最初預期更多的協同效應，並選擇將其中一些重新投入到 Ruth's Chris 的賓客和團隊成員體驗中。此前，我們預計年化運行率協同效應將達到 2000 萬美元。我們現在預計總運行率協同效應和其他成本節省約為 3500 萬美元，我們預計向該業務投資約 1000 萬美元，從而實現年化淨運行率協同效應約 2500 萬美元。對於 2024 財年，我們目前預期淨綜效約為 1,200 萬美元。

Finally, as shared in the press release distributed this morning, we are reiterating our full year financial outlook for fiscal 2024. Our outlook still anticipates adjusted diluted net earnings per share from continuing operations of $8.55 to $8.85, including Ruth's Chris operating results but excludes approximately $55 million of pretax transaction and integration-related costs.

最後，正如今天早上發布的新聞稿中所分享的那樣，我們重申了2024 財年的全年財務展望。我們的展望仍然預計持續經營業務的調整後攤薄每股淨利潤為8.55 美元至8.85 美元，包括Ruth's Chris 的營運業績，但不包括約5,500 萬美元的稅前交易和整合相關成本。

And with that, we'll take your questions.

接下來，我們將回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first questions come from the line of Andrew Charles with TD Cowen.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Andrew Charles 和 TD Cowen 的線路。

Your Olive Garden and LongHorn showed impressive performance in 1Q, while fine dining saw headwinds as you previously warned. And I guess I'm curious, what led the decision to keep full year same-store sales guidance despite 1Q strong result? And -- are you perhaps seeing something in September that gives you positive outlook for the balance of the year. I know restaurant investors have been keen that industry data seems to be taking a breather.

您的 Olive Garden 和 LongHorn 在第一季度表現出色，正如您之前警告的那樣，高級餐飲遇到了阻力。我想我很好奇，儘管第一季業績強勁，是什麼導致我們決定維持全年同店銷售指引？而且，您是否會在 9 月看到一些讓您對今年餘下時間充滿樂觀前景的事情？我知道餐廳投資者一直熱衷於行業數據似乎正在暫停。

Andrew, so let's start with the guidance, right? So as you think about our first quarter performance, that was actually from a top line perspective, it was pretty consistent with our plan. We were within 10 basis points of our same-restaurant plan we had. So the year from a top line is playing out the way we expected. So as far as -- and so that's really the crux behind how -- why we're not changing the guidance for the year. And now look, we're 1 quarter in, there's a lot of uncertainty out there. There's 3 quarters to go and we had a range to begin with. And while we outperformed our expectations on the bottom line, we feel like it gives us a little bit of a head start but it still puts -- the point estimate is still within the range we provided at the beginning of the year.

安德魯，讓我們從指導開始吧？因此，當您考慮我們第一季的業績時，實際上從營收角度來看，這與我們的計劃非常一致。我們與同一家餐廳的計劃相差不到 10 個基點。因此，從營收來看，這一年的表現符合我們的預期。就我們為何不改變今年的指引而言，這確實是背後的癥結所在。現在看，我們已經進入第一個季度了，還有很多不確定性。距離比賽還有 3 個季度，我們一開始就有一個範圍。雖然我們的利潤超出了我們的預期，但我們覺得這給了我們一點領先優勢，但它仍然表明——點估計仍在我們年初提供的範圍內。

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

我們的下一個問題來自布萊恩·比特納 (Brian Bittner) 和奧本海默公司 (Oppenheimer & Co.)。

Congrats on strong results. I just want to follow up with Andrew's question a little bit. There is a lot of anxiety, I think, out there regarding how the evolving macro could impact industry sales trends moving forward, specifically for casual dining as the benefits of pricing normalize. Just based on all your insights, do you believe that the current health of the consumer remains strongly intact? And can you help us understand what weapons you do have to keep traffic within your full year guidance range of flat to down 1.5% if the macro does deteriorate relative to your original expectations?

祝賀取得了優異的成績。我只想稍微跟進一下安德魯的問題。我認為，人們對不斷變化的宏觀經濟將如何影響行業未來的銷售趨勢感到非常焦慮，特別是隨著定價的好處正常化，對於休閒餐飲而言。根據您的所有見解，您是否認為消費者目前的健康狀況仍然完好無損？您能否幫助我們了解，如果宏觀經濟確實相對於您最初的預期惡化，您有哪些武器可以將流量保持在全年指導範圍內（持平至下降 1.5%）？

Brian, this is Rick. Overall, we think the consumers continues to be resilient but there seems to be a little bit more selective. We are seeing a little softness versus last year with household incomes above $125,000 and that primarily affects our fine dining brands but it does affect all of our brands. Now this could be because the increase in luxury travel, particularly international travel, which you've heard a lot of people talk about. But as I've said before, many times, there is attention to really what people want to pay and what they can afford and they're going to continue to seek value, not always about low price. They're making trade-offs and food away from home is one of the most difficult things they can give up.

布萊恩，這是瑞克。整體而言，我們認為消費者仍然保持彈性，但似乎更具選擇性。與去年相比，家庭收入超過 125,000 美元，我們看到了一些疲軟，這主要影響了我們的高級餐飲品牌，但也確實影響了我們所有的品牌。這可能是因為豪華旅行的增加，特別是國際旅行，您已經聽到很多人談論過這一點。但正如我之前多次說過的，人們真正關注的是人們想要支付的費用以及他們能夠負擔的費用，他們將繼續尋求價值，而不總是追求低價。他們正在做出權衡，遠離家鄉的食物是他們最難放棄的事情之一。

So again, what does that mean for our brands? We believe that operators who deliver on their brand promise and value will continue to appeal to consumers. And so we're going to keep doing that. We're going to deliver our promise. We're going to execute our brands and we're going to keep doing that and deliver value to our guests. And I'm confident we're well positioned for whatever we have to deal with. Thanks to the breadth of our portfolio and the outstanding team members in our restaurants who are committed to exceptional guest experiences.

再說一遍，這對我們的品牌意味著什麼？我們相信，兌現品牌承諾和價值的營運商將繼續吸引消費者。所以我們將繼續這樣做。我們將兌現我們的承諾。我們將執行我們的品牌，並將繼續這樣做，為我們的客人提供價值。我相信我們已經做好了充分準備來應對我們必須應對的任何問題。由於我們廣泛的產品組合以及我們餐廳的優秀團隊成員，他們致力於提供卓越的賓客體驗。

Our marketing programs, we told you what we're going to do with marketing, in the prepared remarks. It's again -- whatever we do is going to elevate brand equity. It's not going to be deep discount and it's going to be simple to operate. And if it means that our traffic is at the lower end of our guide, then it's at the lower end of our guide, we're not going to do things that are going to impact us in the long term just for short term.

我們的行銷計劃，我們在準備好的演講中告訴您我們將如何進行行銷。再說一次——我們所做的一切都是為了提升品牌資產。它不會有很大的折扣，而且操作起來很簡單。如果這意味著我們的流量處於指南的下端，那麼它就處於我們指南的下端，我們不會只在短期內做那些會長期影響我們的事情。

And Raj, just my follow-up is on the commodity costs, they were up 1% in the first quarter, which is obviously below your full year guidance of up 2.5%. And you did suggest that some non-beef items have been a bit more favorable. What's driving the reiteration of the 2.5% commodity guide? Is it just conservatism after 1 quarter? Is there anything offsetting the recent favorability as we move throughout the rest of the year?

Raj，我的後續行動是大宗商品成本，第一季上漲了 1%，這顯然低於您全年指引的 2.5% 上漲。你確實建議一些非牛肉食品更優惠一些。是什麼推動了2.5%商品指導價的重申？ 1季後只是保守主義嗎？隨著今年剩餘時間的推移，有什麼因素可以抵消近期的有利影響嗎？

Yes, Brian. So if you think about our inflation expectation for the first quarter, we were about 1 point better than we thought, mostly driven by, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, other categories. The -- beef is still -- a lot of uncertainty around beef and you saw from our coverage that we don't have a lot of coverage beyond, especially as we get into the holidays and past. So there is some uncertainty around it.

是的，布萊恩。因此，如果你考慮我們對第一季的通膨預期，我們會比我們想像的好大約 1 個百分點，這主要是由其他類別推動的，正如我在準備好的發言中提到的那樣。牛肉仍然存在著許多不確定性，從我們的報導中可以看出，我們沒有太多的報道，特別是當我們進入假期和過去的時候。所以它存在一些不確定性。

Now that favorability in the first quarter helps us a little bit. So what that might mean is that we might be a little bit lower in that guidance range we provided of approximately 2.5%. So maybe it's a little bit south of that. But there's 3 more quarters to go and beef is really -- I mean, there's a lot of risk with beef. So...

現在第一季的好感度對我們有一點幫助。因此，這可能意味著我們提供的指導範圍可能會稍微低一些，約為 2.5%。所以也許它有點偏南。但還有 3 個季度，牛肉真的——我的意思是，牛肉有很大的風險。所以...

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。

My question is about the guidance as it relates to Olive Garden. And sort of been curious how you're thinking about the second quarter, which is typically a seasonally low volume period for the industry. Historically, there's been a bit of a step down in revenue in Olive Garden from 1Q to 2Q but last year was a little bit different with the return of the pasta bowl. So perhaps you can help us think about how to model that second quarter relative to your guidance and your own expectations, whether you see that fiscal second quarter revenue increasing or decreasing sequentially?

我的問題是關於與橄欖園相關的指導。我有點好奇您如何看待第二季度，這通常是該行業的季節性低銷量時期。從歷史上看，橄欖園的收入從第一季到第二季略有下降，但去年隨著義大利麵碗的回歸，情況略有不同。因此，也許您可以幫助我們考慮如何根據您的指導和您自己的預期對第二季進行建模，無論您認為第二財季的收入會連續增加還是減少？

Look, I think it's -- I don't -- we don't expect a huge quarter-to-quarter sequential change. Obviously, we are relaunching Never Ending Pasta Bowl that does help and that's part of the reason why we do it in the second quarter is, with the back-to-school and there's a little bit of a lull and a slowdown in the casual dining. And that's really the time frame. And basically, that's within our range. I mean, I think as we look at last year to this year, there's going to be some nuances with respect to pricing being a little bit lower this -- as we get into the second quarter than first quarter. But I don't want to contemplate exactly what it's going to look quarter-to-quarter.

聽著，我認為——我不認為——我們預計不會出現巨大的季度環比變化。顯然，我們正在重新推出“永無止境的意大利麵碗”，這確實有幫助，這也是我們在第二季度這樣做的部分原因，因為回到學校，休閒餐飲有點平靜和放緩。 。這確實是時間框架。基本上，這在我們的範圍之內。我的意思是，我認為，從去年到今年，當我們進入第二季度比第一季定價時，定價會稍低一些，會有一些細微差別。但我不想具體考慮每季的情況。

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。

Maybe just on the Ruth synergies, what were some of the additional things that you found? And then when you talk about reinvesting, would that primarily kind of be in staffing? Or are you also referring to kind of food and menu? Where would we kind of see that impact?

也許只是在露絲的協同作用上，你發現了哪些額外的東西？那麼，當您談論再投資時，主要是在人員配置上嗎？還是您還指的是食物和菜單的種類？我們會在哪裡看到這種影響？

Yes. So Ruth synergies, generally, where we're getting them is between both the entire supply chain as well as in the G&A, right? So we initially started with an estimate, as we go through the year, we're finding that -- as we are now in the process, we've been able to identify more and it's in both places.

是的。所以露絲協同效應，一般來說，我們在整個供應鏈以及一般管理費用之間獲得協同效應，對嗎？因此，我們最初是從估計開始的，隨著這一年的發展，我們發現——正如我們現在所處的過程一樣，我們已經能夠確定更多的信息，而且在這兩個地方都有。

So from a investment perspective, we have a long history of investing in the guest and team member experience across our brands. And so we're investing some of these additional synergies and cost savings in a similar manner with investments that the Ruth's guests and team members will notice and appreciate.

因此，從投資的角度來看，我們在投資品牌的賓客和團隊成員體驗方面有著悠久的歷史。因此，我們正在以類似的方式對這些額外的協同效應和成本節約進行投資，露絲的客人和團隊成員會注意到並欣賞這些投資。

Okay. Raj, also just with your prior comments about kind of G&A for the year and kind of the quarterly progression, is that still kind of valid? It sounds like maybe that piece -- some piece of stock-based comp was onetime in the first quarter. But could you just comment on kind of the G&A outlook?

好的。 Raj，您之前對今年的一般管理費用和季度進度的評論是否仍然有效？聽起來也許是這樣的——一些基於股票的比較在第一季曾經出現過。但您能否評論一下一般管理費用的前景？

Yes, sure. Yes, as was mentioned, a couple of things, right. G&A was higher than we expected for the first quarter. Part of that was driven by our outperformance on the bottom line. I mentioned earlier that while sales were more in line, we did outperform on the bottom line that helped that caused a little bit more incentive comp. And then stock-based comp, that is truly a onetime. I mean that's more of a timing but it's pulling forward some from future years, right?

是的，當然。是的，正如前面提到的，有幾件事，對吧。第一季的一般管理費用高於我們的預期。部分原因是我們在獲利方面的出色表現。我之前提到，雖然銷售額更符合預期，但我們的淨利潤確實優於其他公司，這有助於帶來更多的激勵補償。然後是基於股票的比較，這確實是一次性的。我的意思是，這更多的是一個時機，但它把未來幾年的時間提前了一些，對吧？

But as we look at the full year, G&A is likely to be a little bit higher than what we talked about last quarter. So I think last quarter, we talked about closer to [$430 million]. I would say, at this point, it's probably closer to [$440 million] on the year.

但當我們審視全年時，一般行政費用可能會比我們上個季度談論的要高一些。所以我認為上個季度，我們談到了接近 [4.3 億美元]。我想說，目前來看，今年的收入可能接近 [4.4 億美元]。

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。

I was wondering, Rick, if you could talk about how you're thinking about unit growth for the next several years. And I know at one point, you were trying to push unit growth towards the high end of your annual targets. And I'm wondering if that's still your desire and perhaps, Raj, if you could give us an update on what you're seeing on returns and build costs, that would be helpful.

里克，我想知道您是否可以談談您對未來幾年單位成長的看法。我知道，您曾經一度試圖將單位成長推向年度目標的高端。我想知道這是否仍然是您的願望，也許，拉傑，如果您能給我們有關您所看到的回報和建設成本的最新信息，那將會有所幫助。

David, in regards to development and unit growth, we do want to get to the top end of our long-term framework of 3% sales growth from new restaurants. As we've said in the past, there's still some permitting delays. We're seeing a little less on the utility connections and those kind of things but we're still -- it's still taking a little longer to get permits.

大衛，在發展和單位成長方面，我們確實希望達到新餐廳 3% 銷售額成長這個長期框架的上限。正如我們過去所說，仍然存在一些允許的延遲。我們在公用事業連接和此類事情上看到的東西有點少，但我們仍然 - 獲得許可仍然需要更長的時間。

We also are being a little selective, especially where inflation and costs have made the economics of the deals a little less attractive. And we generally like to have good margin of error with our projects. And so we've turned down a few projects that -- just because costs are a little higher than we wanted them to be. And we've done that in the past and we've been able to get back to those same projects at the costs that are more reasonable for us. So we're willing to wait a little bit to get the costs back more in line.

我們也有一點選擇性，特別是在通貨膨脹和成本使交易的經濟吸引力降低的情況下。我們通常希望我們的專案具有良好的誤差範圍。因此，我們拒絕了一些項目——只是因為成本比我們想要的要高一些。我們過去曾經這樣做過，並且能夠以對我們來說更合理的成本重新開展這些項目。因此，我們願意等待一段時間，以使成本更加合理。

That said, we believe inflation has peaked and we are starting to receive more bids that are in line with our project budgets and some even actually below our project budgets. So that gives us some good feelings for the future. We still believe we have the opportunity to grow close to the high end of our framework and we are actively building that pipeline.

也就是說，我們認為通貨膨脹已經達到頂峰，我們開始收到更多符合我們專案預算的投標，有些甚至實際上低於我們的專案預算。這讓我們對未來有了一些美好的感覺。我們仍然相信我們有機會接近我們框架的高端，並且我們正在積極建造該管道。

And David, on the returns, we are -- our returns are still pretty strong. We are -- any project we approve has to be net present value accretive to us. And as Rick mentioned, we generally like to have a little bit of headroom within our margin of error as we approve projects. Maybe that buffer is not as high as it used to be. But when we look at actual performance on average, we exceed our internal hurdles by quite a bit.

大衛，就回報而言，我們的回報仍然相當強勁。我們批准的任何項目都必須為我們帶來淨現值增值。正如里克所提到的，我們通常希望在批准專案時在誤差範圍內留有一點空間。也許緩衝區不像以前那麼高了。但當我們觀察平均實際表現時，我們遠遠超出了內在障礙。

And David, I'm going to add one more thing. If you think about us saying that we'd like to see a little bit of a buffer in our net present value over our cost of capital, that's because we have all the capital we need and so we're going to be selective in projects. And the thing that's going to keep us from growing way faster than our long-term framework unit growth is having people ready to run those restaurants. And that's what we focus on as well. We're focusing on developing people and we think we've got a great pipeline of people as well.

大衛，我還要補充一件事。如果你認為我們說我們希望看到我們的淨現值超過我們的資本成本有一點緩衝，那是因為我們擁有我們需要的所有資本，所以我們將在專案中進行選擇性。阻止我們成長速度超過長期框架單位成長速度的因素是讓人們準備好經營這些餐廳。這也是我們關注的重點。我們專注於人才培養，我們認為我們也擁有大量人才。

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。

Just a follow up, this was asked before but I'm not sure I quite got the answer. Given where food costs and Ruth synergies are coming in, we were surprised that you're not also increasing the low end of your EPS guidance for the year -- fiscal year. What are the potential offsets to what we're seeing in terms of what looks like upside to your plan on the EPS and the EBITDA line?

只是跟進，之前有人問過這個問題，但我不確定我是否已經得到答案。考慮到食品成本和露絲協同效應的影響，我們感到驚訝的是，您沒有提高本財年每股收益指引的下限。就您的 EPS 和 EBITDA 線計劃的看似上行而言，我們所看到的潛在抵銷是什麼？

Yes, David, I think it's a fair question. But we're just 1 quarter in, right? So there's 9 months to go. There's been mixed data on the consumer. We're trying to understand what's going to happen. And so we felt like it was too early to really come off of the range we provided. As I said earlier, our point estimate from the beginning of the year to now has moved up a little bit. I mean that's because of our performance in the first quarter but that doesn't mean we're outside the range. So we didn't feel like we're at a place where we needed to change the guidance range.

是的，大衛，我認為這是一個公平的問題。但我們才剛過四分之一，對吧？那麼還有9個月的時間。關於消費者的數據好壞參半。我們正在嘗試了解將會發生什麼。因此，我們覺得現在真正脫離我們提供的範圍還為時過早。正如我之前所說，我們的點估計從年初到現在有所上升。我的意思是，這是因為我們第一季的表現，但這並不意味著我們超出了範圍。所以我們不覺得我們處於需要改變指導範圍的地方。

And there's -- so to your question around uncertainty, there are a few things. The primary biggest risk is obviously on the consumer, what happens with the consumer. Second is on the commodities. We're trying to understand what's going to happen, especially with beef, 22% of our basket is beef. So there's some risk there. Now the pricing in beef has remained pretty high because of the supply being down in the mid-single digits. We're starting to see some additional imports that might help on the beef front but it's too early. So I guess all things considered at this point, we felt like it was prudent to stay with the guidance we provided.

對於你關於不確定性的問題，有幾件事。主要的最大風險顯然是在消費者身上，以及消費者身上發生的事情。其次是在大宗商品上。我們正在努力了解將會發生什麼，尤其是牛肉，我們的購物籃中 22% 是牛肉。所以那裡存在一些風險。現在，由於供應量下降了中個位數，牛肉的價格仍然相當高。我們開始看到一些額外的進口可能對牛肉生產有所幫助，但現在還為時過早。因此，我想目前考慮到的所有因素，我們認為堅持我們提供的指導是謹慎的做法。

I know you were not going to give the game plan for the company in terms of marketing, in ways that you might pivot. But I'm wondering, just generally speaking, if we're seeing the industry trend worse than the flattish type trend that would be consistent with your guidance given your current gaps in [apps]. If your traffic is down more than just modestly or you see it going that way, how can -- how would you adjust? I mean, what are the ways -- and Rick said, you're not going to go deep discount route but what ways do you think you would adjust with your major brands?

我知道你不會以你可能會轉向的方式給出公司在行銷方面的遊戲計劃。但我想知道，一般來說，我們看到的行業趨勢是否比扁平型趨勢更糟糕，考慮到您目前在[應用程式]方面的差距，這是否與您的指導一致。如果您的流量下降幅度不僅僅是小幅下降，或者您發現它正在朝著這個方向發展，您將如何調整？我的意思是，有哪些方式 - 里克說，你不會走深度折扣路線，但你認為你會透過哪些方式調整你的主要品牌？

Yes, David, you're right. We're not going to give you too much information on what we would do. But just understand that we believe that the best long-term health of our business is to keep our strategy of overall pricing below inflation, running better restaurants and not getting into huge deep discounting to buy guests. We think that brings in the guests that just come in that are a little bit less core to our business. And we're going to continue to operate our restaurants to drive one more visit from our core guests. And if that means that others start doing some heavy discounting, we're going to stick to our strategy. And even if it means that it's a short term -- it impacts us a little bit in the short term because we think we'll be better off in the long term if we stay with where we're going.

是的，大衛，你是對的。我們不會向您提供太多有關我們將做什麼的資訊。但請理解，我們相信，我們業務的最佳長期健康狀況是保持我們的整體定價策略低於通貨膨脹，經營更好的餐廳，並且不為顧客提供大幅折扣。我們認為，這帶來了剛進來的客人，他們對我們的業務來說不太核心。我們將繼續經營我們的餐廳，以吸引我們的核心客人再次光臨。如果這意味著其他人開始大幅折扣，我們將堅持我們的策略。即使這意味著這是一個短期的——它在短期內也會對我們產生一點影響，因為我們認為，如果我們堅持我們的目標，從長遠來看我們會過得更好。

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傑弗裡·伯恩斯坦。

Great. Two questions. One, just on the competition. Rick, I know you were pretty clear that you're not keen to start being more aggressive with discounting, doesn't benefit you long term. But are you seeing any changes in the broader competitive behavior? I think there are some that are concerned of an uptick in promos and discounting to drive traffic, especially with the commodity inflation easing. So contrary to your strategy, just wondering what you're seeing across the broader landscape? And then I had 1 follow-up.

偉大的。兩個問題。一，就競爭而言。里克，我知道你很清楚，你不熱衷於開始更積極地打折，這對你長期沒有好處。但您是否看到更廣泛的競爭行為發生任何變化？我認為有些人擔心促銷和折扣的增加以增加客流量，特別是在大宗商品通膨緩解的情況下。與您的策略相反，只是想知道您在更廣闊的前景中看到了什麼？然後我進行了 1 次跟進。

Yes, Jeff. One thing, yes, commodities might be easing but labor is still pretty high. It's not -- it's getting a little bit better. But even if commodities are deflationary, there's still net inflation, at least in our business and I'm guessing in other business too. That said, we have seen a slight increase in promotional activity but particularly with 1 bar and grill competitor and in the family dining segment. We're really not seeing a whole lot of competitive -- increase in competitive activity in kind of the Olive Garden range and above other than, as I said, that 1 bar and grill competitor that seems to be ramping up a little bit.

是的，傑夫。有一件事，是的，大宗商品可能正在寬鬆，但勞動力仍然相當高。不是——情況正在好一點。但即使大宗商品出現通貨緊縮，仍然存在淨通膨，至少在我們的業務中是這樣，我猜其他業務也是如此。也就是說，我們看到促銷活動略有增加，特別是在 1 家酒吧和燒烤競爭對手以及家庭餐飲領域。我們確實沒有看到大量競爭——橄欖園系列及以上產品的競爭活動有所增加，正如我所說，除了一家酒吧和燒烤餐廳的競爭對手似乎有所增加之外。

With that said, Olive Garden is usually one of the top brands in share of voice. So no matter what this competitive activity is and television activity, Olive Garden is usually one of the top few brands in share of voice but our message is about more and more and more. Come into Olive Garden for more, more food, more value, more refills. And that's what we're talking about. And as I said, we'll stick to our strategy. And I'd tell you, that's reinforced Never Ending Pasta Bowl. So Never Ending Pasta Bowl is about never-ending, craveable, abundant Italian food at a great value and it's right on our plan. We're doing exactly what we planned for at the beginning of this fiscal year with Never Ending Pasta Bowl, nothing new.

話雖如此，橄欖園通常是聲音份額最高的品牌之一。因此，無論這項競爭活動和電視活動是什麼，橄欖園通常都是聲音份額排名前列的幾個品牌之一，但我們的訊息是越來越多。來到橄欖園，享受更多、更多食物、更多價值、更多補充。這就是我們正在談論的。正如我所說，我們將堅持我們的策略。我告訴你，那是強化的永無止境的義大利麵碗。因此，「永無止境的義大利麵碗」是關於永無止境、令人垂涎、豐富、物超所值的意大利美食，這正是我們的計劃。我們正在按照本財年年初的計劃進行“永不停歇的意大利麵碗”，沒什麼新鮮的。

Got you. And then just to follow-up. I know earlier you mentioned something about seasonality. I know you're referring specifically to fine dining relative to last year. But as you think about broader casual dining historically, I get the feeling like sales slow in September, post maybe a stronger summer and battling now back-to-school. But I feel like in the past couple of years, there was a lot of pent-up demand post-COVID and therefore, maybe there was no seasonality. People were willing to go out even during this time frame and therefore, less seasonality.

明白你了。然後只是跟進。我知道您之前提到過一些有關季節性的內容。我知道你特別指的是與去年相比的美食。但當你考慮到歷史上更廣泛的休閒餐飲時，我感覺到九月份的銷售放緩，可能是在經歷了一個強勁的夏季之後，現在又回到了學校。但我覺得過去幾年，疫情過後有很多被壓抑的需求，因此，可能沒有季節性。即使在這個時間段內，人們也願意外出，因此季節性較少。

I'm just wondering, should we now expect a return to seasonality that maybe could explain if you were to see a slowdown in coming weeks? I'm just wondering how you kind of think about that if seasonality were to return, how you decipher whether it's traditional seasonality or slow in consumer? Any thoughts there around that would be great.

我只是想知道，我們現在是否應該期待季節性回歸，這也許可以解釋未來幾週經濟放緩的情況？我只是想知道，如果季節性回歸，您如何看待這是傳統季節性還是消費緩慢？任何關於這方面的想法都會很棒。

Yes, Jeff. We actually do think seasonality is getting back to historic trends. And the data we talked about for fine dining with getting back to kind of 100% of pre-COVID levels. We're seeing the same thing. I'm not saying at a 100% but the same kind of trends back towards similar trends of pre-COVID levels now, where last year, we do think there was a little bit of pent-up demand. And so we're going to watch it. We're going to see what happens for the rest of this month and the rest of next month. But it appears like now we're getting much closer to what the seasonal patterns were.

是的，傑夫。事實上，我們確實認為季節性正在回歸歷史趨勢。我們討論的美食數據已恢復到 100% 新冠疫情前的水平。我們看到同樣的事情。我並不是說 100%，但現在同樣的趨勢回到了新冠疫情前水準的類似趨勢，去年，我們確實認為存在一些被壓抑的需求。所以我們要觀察它。我們將看看本月剩餘時間和下個月剩餘時間會發生什麼。但現在看來我們已經越來越接近季節性模式了。

Our next questions come from the line of Joshua Long with Stephens.

我們的下一個問題來自約書亞·朗和史蒂芬斯的對話。

When we think about the trends you reported here in the first quarter, I understand that the strength was largely in line with what you were expecting. Curious if you could dive into any sort of comments around pacing, geographic performance, daypart, day of week, anything there or perhaps sales channel kind of in the to-go business for Olive Garden?

當我們考慮您在第一季報告的趨勢時，我了解到這種實力在很大程度上符合您的預期。好奇您是否可以深入了解有關 Olive Garden 外送業務的節奏、地理表現、時段、星期幾、任何內容或銷售管道的任何評論？

Yes, Josh, I think from a geography perspective, we're seeing more strength in New England, Northeast. We're seeing some softness or at least below company average in California, Texas and Florida when we look at the entire portfolio. Now brand by brand, there's a little bit of variability. But when you look at across our portfolio, that's the areas where we're seeing in terms of regional differences.

是的，喬什，我認為從地理角度來看，我們在新英格蘭和東北部看到了更多的實力。當我們審視整個投資組合時，我們發現加州、德州和佛羅裡達州出現了一些疲軟或至少低於公司平均值。現在，不同品牌之間存在一些差異。但當你縱觀我們的產品組合時，我們會發現這些領域有地區差異。

Most others are kind of in between and so kind of closer to the company average, if you will. But definitely seeing strength in the Northeast and especially New England area overall. From a daypart perspective, we are seeing some -- lunch getting better at casual brands. And so that's really it. Outside of that, I don't know that there's any additional color we can provide on the sales detail.

如果你願意的話，大多數其他人都介於兩者之間，並且更接近公司的平均水平。但絕對可以看到東北部，尤其是新英格蘭地區的整體實力。從白天的角度來看，我們看到休閒品牌的午餐變得更好。就是這樣。除此之外，我不知道我們可以在銷售細節上提供任何其他顏色。

That's helpful. And then 1 point of clarification, Raj, there. When we think about maybe California, Texas, Florida being a little bit softer on a relative basis, do we think about that just from a kind of base of comparison? It feels like they were probably stronger over the last couple of years. So maybe it's just a kind of point of comparison. And then maybe, Rick, when you think about just that opportunity to drive the marketing and messaging, I would totally agree about the opportunity for the balance of operational execution and value to be a big key component in the second half of the year. It doesn't sound like you need to lean in or change the messaging. Is that correct? I mean you feel good with how you're communicating that and it's about going out and executing it.

這很有幫助。然後有一點需要澄清，Raj，就在那裡。當我們考慮加州、德州、佛羅裡達州可能相對而言要軟一些時，我們是否只是從某種比較的基礎上考慮這一點？感覺他們在過去幾年可能變得更強了。所以也許這只是一種比較點。然後，里克，當你想到推動行銷和訊息傳遞的機會時，我完全同意營運執行和價值的平衡機會成為下半年的一個重要組成部分。聽起來您不需要傾斜或改變訊息傳遞。那是對的嗎？我的意思是，你對自己的溝通方式感到滿意，而這就是走出去並執行它。

Okay. So let me -- you're right on the year over rate. It's really driven by a function of last year on the softness I'm talking about in those markets or the strength because last year, they were in a different place. So that's a 1 year -- truly a 1-year thing and then I'll let Rick comment on the marketing.

好的。所以讓我——你對年利率的看法是正確的。這實際上是由去年我所說的這些市場的疲軟或強勢所驅動的，因為去年，它們處於不同的位置。所以這是一年——確實是一年的事情，然後我會讓里克評論行銷。

Josh, I think now that we're seeing that we think we're getting back to more seasonal patterns, we look at our traffic trends versus pre-COVID. They're fairly consistent across the last 4 quarters, across most of our brand -- actually, in most of our segments. And so we believe what we're doing is getting us to exactly where we were before without a bunch of marketing with maybe slightly lower traffic levels because of that marketing. And so we're going to stick to what we're doing and see if the patterns dramatically change. And if they do, we have levers to pull that aren't necessarily deep discounts. And one of them that we just pulled with Never Ending Pasta Bowl was to give our eClub members a preview of Never Ending Pasta Bowl, which again was always in our plan. It was in our plan at the beginning of this fiscal year. It's not something we're doing differently. We're doing it to learn.

喬希，我認為現在我們看到我們正在回到更多的季節性模式，我們會比較我們的流量趨勢與新冠疫情之前的情況。在過去 4 個季度中，在我們的大部分品牌中——實際上，在我們的大部分細分市場中，它們都相當一致。因此，我們相信我們正在做的事情是讓我們完全回到之前的狀態，而無需進行大量行銷，並且由於行銷而可能導致流量水平略有下降。因此，我們將堅持我們正在做的事情，看看模式是否會發生巨大變化。如果他們這樣做了，我們有槓桿可以拉動，但不一定是大幅折扣。我們剛剛推出的“永無止境的意大利麵碗”項目之一就是讓我們的 eClub 會員預覽“永無止境的意大利麵碗”，這也一直在我們的計劃中。這是我們本財年年初的計畫。這不是我們所做的不同的事情。我們這樣做是為了學習。

If we give our eClub members a little bit more reason to be in the club without giving them a discount to be in the club, then maybe that's going to drive more. So we're still learning and we're looking at digital marketing and other things that we've done and we've learned throughout COVID. And if we do anything, we could use those levers but not necessarily deep discounts.

如果我們給我們的 eClub 會員更多一點加入俱樂部的理由，而不給他們加入俱樂部的折扣，那麼也許這會帶來更多的動力。因此，我們仍在學習，我們正在研究數位行銷以及我們在整個新冠疫情期間所做的和學到的其他事情。如果我們採取任何行動，我們可以使用這些槓桿，但不一定會大幅折扣。

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)。

Wondering if you could speak a bit more or a bit to the dining room traffic levels broadly across the portfolio or even at Olive Garden specifically. And sort of how you think about where those dine-in traffic levels are currently, where they can go relative to the to-go business? Have we normalized? Or is there still an opportunity to see more dine-in recovery gains on the traffic side at this point?

想知道您是否可以多談談整個組合中餐廳的客流量水平，甚至特別是橄欖園的客流量水平。您如何看待目前的堂食客流量水準以及相對於外送業務的流量水準？我們已經正常化了嗎？或者說，目前客流量方面是否仍有機會看到更多就餐恢復收益？

Yes, Dennis, our off premises has gone quite a bit from where we were before COVID. So from a traffic perspective, yes, we're probably in that 80s range in terms of traffic relative to pre-COVID at our largest brand, in Olive Garden. But from a sales perspective, we're probably closer to where we were before COVID.

是的，丹尼斯，我們的辦公室與新冠疫情爆發之前相比已經發生了很大變化。因此，從流量角度來看，是的，相對於新冠疫情之前，我們最大的品牌 Olive Garden 的流量可能處於 80 年代的範圍內。但從銷售角度來看，我們可能更接近新冠疫情之前的水平。

Now with that said but part of that is, as we talked about, we made a conscious decision to pull back a lot on promotional activity, couponing and marketing dollars that we spend at Olive Garden. So we're a healthier business. And so we like where we are. From the -- but also -- it also gives us opportunity, right? There is capacity in the dining room, which provides us more opportunity but we're going to go at it in a way that's durable. That is actually not a onetime get people in the door but we want to build it over time. That's why we're so focused on core menu, everyday value and executing at the highest levels we can so that we can slowly build back.

話雖如此，但正如我們所說，我們有意識地決定大幅削減在橄欖園花費的促銷活動、優惠券和行銷費用。所以我們是一家更健康的企業。所以我們喜歡我們現在的處境。從——而且——它也給了我們機會，對吧？餐廳有足夠的空間，這為我們提供了更多機會，但我們將以持久的方式進行。這實際上不是一次性讓人們進來的，但我們希望隨著時間的推移而建立它。這就是為什麼我們如此專注於核心菜單、日常價值和盡可能最高水準的執行，以便我們可以慢慢重建。

That's helpful, Raj. And then just one quick one, just on the quarter itself. Anything notable to call out, either traffic or on the mix side of things at Olive Garden or LongHorn?

這很有幫助，拉傑。然後是一個快速的，就本季本身而言。在 Olive Garden 或 LongHorn，有什麼值得注意的地方，無論是交通狀況還是混合方面？

Well, I would say our traffic was actually a little bit better than we thought going into the quarter but our mix was a little bit worse. So what we're seeing is, from a check perspective at Olive Garden and LongHorn, a little bit of pullback in alcohol sales and some entrée mix -- negative entrée mix. But that's really what I can share at this point.

好吧，我想說我們的流量實際上比我們想像的要好一點，但我們的組合有點差。因此，從 Olive Garden 和 LongHorn 的檢查角度來看，我們看到的是，酒類銷售略有回落，並且出現了一些主菜組合——消極的主菜組合。但這確實是我現在可以分享的。

Our next questions 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）。

Can you comment on the level of absolute pricing you're facing versus your local peers? And why is it a prudent strategy for Darden to be increasing prices above inflation? I know that you spoke several times about how you might deviate from pricing below inflation in specific period. But why now? Is it a prudent strategy?

您能否評論一下您與當地同行相比所面臨的絕對定價水平？為什麼達頓將價格提高到高於通膨水平是一個謹慎的策略？我知道您多次談到在特定時期如何偏離低於通膨的定價。但為什麼現在呢？這是一個謹慎的策略嗎？

So Danilo, let me start with saying where we are from a pricing standpoint. Our overall pricing in the quarter was about 6%, as we said. We expect the full year to be closer to mid-3s, maybe closer to 3% to 4% -- 3.5% to 4%. That said, when you look at where we are related to pre-COVID, our pricing over that time frame is in that 17% to 18%, including this quarter that we just talked about is 18%. Where the peers are, on average, are about 600 to 700 basis points higher than us over that time frame, which means that we have created a gap.

達尼洛（Danilo），讓我先從定價的角度談談我們的處境。正如我們所說，我們本季的整體定價約為 6%。我們預計全年將接近 3% 左右，可能接近 3% 至 4%——3.5% 至 4%。也就是說，當你看到我們與新冠疫情之前的相關情況時，我們在那個時間範圍內的定價在 17% 到 18% 之間，包括我們剛才談到的這個季度的 18%。在此期間，同行的平均水平比我們高出約 600 至 700 個基點，這意味著我們已經創造了差距。

Now most of our pricing this quarter is a wrap from pricing actions we took last year. In fact, I think the impact from this year -- the actions this year make up less than 10% of our total pricing. So we -- the carryover from last year represents 3%. So overall, from a pricing strategy perspective, we feel like we're in a great place. We feel like we have created that gap to our competitors and that gap is not going to get any narrower. We don't expect that when we end the year that -- maybe quarter-to-quarter, there may be tens of basis points of delta to our peers. But when we look at it overall, we feel like we're going to be still ahead of competition.

現在，我們本季的大部分定價都是去年採取的定價行動的總結。事實上，我認為今年的影響力——今年的行動占我們總定價的不到 10%。所以我們去年的結轉額佔 3%。總的來說，從定價策略的角度來看，我們感覺我們處於一個很好的位置。我們覺得我們已經創造了與競爭對手的差距，而且這種差距不會再縮小。我們預計，當我們年底時——也許是季度與季度相比，我們的同業可能會出現數十個基點的增量。但當我們整體來看時，我們覺得我們仍將領先競爭對手。

Part of that is because our inflation that we experience is better than most of our peers and we try to target our own inflation in terms of how we price. But our inflation because of our scale ends up being generally much, much less than especially some of the local peers you're talking about.

部分原因是我們經歷的通膨比大多數同行，我們試圖透過定價來瞄準自己的通膨。但由於我們的規模，我們的通貨膨脹最終總體上遠低於你所談論的一些當地同行。

Extremely clear. And one more question, if you don't mind. So can you comment on the pace of integration efforts, especially in the light of the new synergies that you have found, do you think there is a potential to accelerate the full integration? And if so, is there any timing upside to the EPS accretion in fiscal '24 and '25?

極為清晰。如果您不介意的話，還有一個問題。那麼您能否評論一下整合工作的步伐，特別是考慮到您發現的新協同效應，您認為是否有可能加速全面整合？如果是這樣，24 財年和 25 財年的每股盈餘成長是否有任何時機上行空間？

Danilo, as we mentioned earlier, we are -- finished the planning process and we're about to embark on the hardest part but it's only going to take us 9 months. So think about integrating 80 owned and operated Ruth's Chris restaurants, thinking about the franchise systems, getting all of our operated restaurants on our point-of-sale system, on our payroll system and all of the other systems. We don't want to go too much faster than 9 months just because that's a lot of disruption in the restaurant. So we're going to pace it at the right level.

Danilo，正如我們之前提到的，我們已經完成了規劃過程，即將開始最困難的部分，但這只需要 9 個月的時間。因此，考慮整合 80 家擁有和經營的 Ruth's Chris 餐廳，考慮特許經營系統，將我們所有經營的餐廳納入我們的銷售點系統、工資系統和所有其他系統。我們不想比 9 個月快太多，因為這會對餐廳造成很大的干擾。因此，我們將把它調整到適當的水平。

We've already -- as we've said, we've brought our synergy estimate up for this year from $5 million to $10 million, I believe, to $12 million this year about and that includes reinvesting some of the synergies that we found. So that would tell you that we got a little bit faster. But we wanted to make investments just like we do in our other brands. So if we get even faster on some of the synergies, however we see, that the synergies are even higher than we've just analyzed, then we may make more investments. And so we'll do what is right for the long-term health of the business but we're not going to try to integrate too fast, and we're going to stay at our pace.

正如我們所說，我們已經將今年的協同效應估計從 500 萬美元提高到 1000 萬美元，我相信今年將達到 1200 萬美元，其中包括對我們發現的一些協同效應進行再投資。所以這會告訴你我們的速度更快了一些。但我們希望像投資其他品牌一樣進行投資。因此，如果我們在某些​​協同效應方面取得更快的進展，無論我們看到什麼，協同效應甚至比我們剛剛分析的還要高，那麼我們可能會進行更多投資。因此，我們將採取有利於業務長期健康發展的措施，但我們不會嘗試整合得太快，我們將保持現有的節奏。

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。

Great. Some big picture casual dining questions. So some of the KNAPP data, some of the other traffic source data show that casual lining traffic growth slowed in August, has slowed into early September. You guys were obviously taking a lot of market share. But again, bigger picture from your perspective, what sort of consumer or macro factors are contributing most to that softening traffic trend for that casual dining consumer?

偉大的。一些大局休閒餐飲問題。所以KNAPP的一些數據，其他一些流量來源的數據都顯示休閒襯裡流量成長在8月份放緩，到9月初已經放緩。你們顯然佔據了許多市場。但同樣，從您的角度來看，哪一種消費者或宏觀因素對休閒餐飲消費者客流量的疲軟趨勢影響最大？

Yes, Jeff, I'm going to start with seasonality. As we've talked a couple of times, this is -- September is typically the low seasonal pattern. Last year, it wasn't. The same thing with August. And so I would start by saying seasonal patterns are getting back -- more back to normal. When you compare all of our segments to pre-COVID levels, over the last 4 quarters, we've been pretty consistent. And so the other thing, as we've already mentioned, is there is -- the consumer is starting to have a little bit less confidence and they're a little bit more selective. And so we're going to continue to work on what we've worked on.

是的，傑夫，我將從季節性開始。正如我們多次討論過的那樣，九月是典型的淡季模式。去年，情況並非如此。八月也是如此。因此，我首先要說的是，季節性模式正在回歸——更多地回歸正常。當您將我們所有細分市場與新冠疫情爆發前的水平進行比較時，您會發現在過去 4 個季度中，我們的表現非常穩定。因此，正如我們已經提到的，另一件事是──消費者的信心開始減弱，而且他們的選擇性更強了。因此，我們將繼續致力於我們已經進行的工作。

But I think that pricing in the industry may have caused a little bit of this but we've been pricing well below the industry and we feel good about where our pricing position is compared to everybody else. And we're just going to execute.

但我認為行業定價可能造成了一些影響，但我們的定價遠低於行業，我們對與其他公司相比我們的定價地位感到滿意。我們只是要執行。

All right. That's very helpful. And then just a follow-up on pricing. So pricing is 6% in 1Q. You guys are guiding to that 3.5% to 4% for the full year '24. But what is that -- how should we be thinking about pricing moving forward, just sort of the cadence. So it's 1% -- or 6% in 1Q. What theoretically would Darden blended pricing look like in 2Q, 3Q, et cetera?

好的。這非常有幫助。然後是定價的後續行動。因此第一季的定價為 6%。你們的目標是 24 年全年成長 3.5% 到 4%。但這是什麼——我們應該如何考慮未來的定價，只是節奏。所以第一季是 1%——或 6%。理論上，第二季、第三季等的達頓混合定價會是什麼樣子？

Yes, let's say we're looking at probably closer to 5% in the second quarter, 3-ish by the time we get to third quarter and probably closer to 2% or below 2% by the time we get to fourth quarter.

是的，假設我們預期第二季的成長率可能接近 5%，到第三季時可能接近 3%，到第四季時可能接近 2% 或低於 2%。

Our next questions come from the line of Jon Tower with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自喬恩‧塔 (Jon Tower) 與花旗集團的電話。

Great. I guess going a little bit off the (inaudible) here but curious to get your thoughts. California is changing or potentially changing the way that it pays its employees in the fast food side. I would argue it's going to have some implications for the broader industry in California and perhaps beyond that. So I'm curious to get your thoughts; one, on how will you handle an environment where aggregate labor inflation starts taking off pretty dramatically in 1 state, perhaps spilling elsewhere? And then two, I'd be curious to get your thinking around how the industry evolves either in that market or more broadly? And do you see this as an opportunity to accelerate share in that market even though costs might be moving a little bit higher? I would think that some independents in that market, in particular, might have to shut down given the cost to operate will be a little bit beyond reasonable levels?

偉大的。我想這裡有點偏離（聽不清楚），但很想知道你的想法。加州正在改變或可能改變快餐業員工的薪資方式。我認為這將對加州更廣泛的行業產生一些影響，甚至可能不止於此。所以我很想知道你的想法；第一，你將如何應對這樣一種環境：總勞動力通膨在一個州開始大幅上升，甚至可能蔓延到其他地方？第二，我很想了解您對該行業在該市場或更廣泛範圍內如何發展的思考？即使成本可能會稍高一些，您是否認為這是一個加速市場佔有率的機會？我認為，鑑於營運成本稍微超出合理水平，該市場中的一些獨立企業可能不得不關閉？

Yes, John, let me start by saying the FAST Act you're talking about in California. I know it impacts fast food first and that could lead to higher wages across other segments of the dining experience. Our employment proposition is great. We've got a great employment proposition. As we talk about and I think we've mentioned before, our average wages, including tips are over $22 now across the country. But when you look at in California, it's higher than that. And so I think as labor costs continue to grow, we've had that in other markets where we've seen minimum wages grow or we've seen a reduction in the tip credit and we've been able to execute and continue to gain share there.

是的，約翰，讓我先談談您在加州談論的《快速法案》。我知道它首先影響快餐，這可能會導致餐飲體驗其他部分的工資上漲。我們的就業建議很棒。我們有一個很好的就業建議。正如我們所談論的（我想我們之前已經提到過），我們現在全國的平均工資（包括小費）超過 22 美元。但當你看看加州時，你會發現它比這個還要高。因此，我認為，隨著勞動力成本持續增長，我們在其他市場也看到了這種情況，我們看到最低工資增長，或者我們看到小費信貸減少，我們能夠執行並繼續獲得收益在那裡分享。

So if this does impact restaurants, it's probably going to impact the ones that have a little less capital and a little less the ability to withstand that. Just like we've seen in other markets where wages have grown really fast, we've been able to pick up share because we're still there. So we're going to focus on what we can control, which is providing a great guest experience and trying to continue to price below inflation. And if inflation is higher, others are going to have to price more and we'll be able to gain share by taking a little less price. We're going to stick to our strategy.

因此，如果這確實影響了餐館，那麼它可能會影響那些資本較少、承受能力較差的餐館。就像我們在薪資成長非常快的其他市場看到的那樣，我們能夠獲得份額，因為我們仍然存在。因此，我們將專注於我們可以控制的事情，即提供良好的賓客體驗並努力繼續將價格低於通貨膨脹率。如果通貨膨脹率更高，其他人將不得不定價更高，而我們將能夠透過稍微降低價格來獲得份額。我們將堅持我們的戰略。

Got it. So the idea of taking potentially more price in that market later this year is not off the table given that inflationary pressure.

知道了。因此，考慮到通膨壓力，今年稍後在該市場提高價格的想法並非不可能。

Nothing is ever off the table, if things change dramatically on inflation. What we talked about with the pricing actions that we've already taken, most of our pricing is already built in. But that 2% that Raj said in Q4 could be higher if things change. And it's highly unlikely, it could be lower but it could be higher, if things change.

如果通貨膨脹情況發生巨大變化，一切都是可能的。我們談到的定價行動是我們已經採取的，我們的大部分定價已經是內建的。但如果情況發生變化，拉傑在第四季所說的 2% 可能會更高。而且這種可能性極小，如果情況發生變化，它可能會更低，但也可能會更高。

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。

A question on margins and then a quick one on marketing. The restaurant level margins, better than we had expected. But I guess given the pricing, the gap between pricing and commodities, even with labor inflation and I think the mid-high single digits, maybe then in that context, the margin expansion wasn't quite as high. I guess given that pricing is going to roll off and inflation is, I think it could shift higher. Are there any kind of dynamics that I should be thinking about with respect to that margin performance? I think you had said in the past that we should expect it to moderate but a pretty wide gap between commodity inflation and price this quarter and offset, I think, by mix and some other factors.

一個關於利潤的問題，然後是一個關於行銷的快速問題。餐廳的利潤率比我們預期的要好。但我想考慮到定價、定價和大宗商品之間的差距，即使勞動力通膨，我認為中高個位數，也許在這種情況下，利潤率擴張並沒有那麼高。我想，考慮到定價將會下降，而通膨也在下降，我認為價格可能會走高。對於利潤率表現，我應該考慮哪些動態？我認為您過去曾說過，我們應該預期本季大宗商品通膨和價格之間的差距會有所緩和，但我認為，這一差距會被混合因素和其他一些因素所抵消。

Is anything -- any different dynamics that we might expect to see through the quarter, the quarters to come? And could you talk about whether the fine dining, whether there was an impact from Ruth's in terms of just sort of negative mix versus just with the negative comps that might have delevered.

我們預計本季和未來幾季會出現什麼不同的動態？您能否談談精緻的餐飲是否會產生影響，露絲餐廳是否會產生某種負面組合的影響，而不僅僅是可能去槓桿化的負面補償。

Yes, Sara. So let me try to make sure I answer all the aspects of that question. So let's start with the margins. So from a margin perspective, Yes, you're right. If you just look at absolute pricing and commodities inflation or overall inflation and you could say, well, you didn't get the full delta between the pricing and inflation. The things we have to think about are a few things. One, there is a negative mix.

是的，薩拉。因此，讓我嘗試確保我回答了該問題的所有方面。那麼讓我們從邊距開始。因此，從利潤角度來看，是的，你是對的。如果你只看絕對定價和大宗商品通膨或整體通膨，你可能會說，好吧，你沒有得到定價和通膨之間的完整增量。我們必須考慮的事情有幾件事。第一，存在負面混合。

First of all, let's start with the brand mix. When you have negative comps at our -- some of our high-margin brands that has a negative impact on our overall blended margin. And you saw that LongHorn and Olive Garden had 230 basis points each of segment profit margin, which is really what -- where you're seeing the most strength. The decline in fine dining, part of that is driven by incremental costs they have year-over-year. Their pricing is starting to catch up. But also, there was some negative mix. On a 1-year basis, there was a lot of negative mix on alcohol.

首先，讓我們從品牌組合開始。當我們的一些高利潤品牌出現負面競爭時，會對我們的整體混合利潤產生負面影響。您將看到 LongHorn 和 Olive Garden 的細分市場利潤率分別為 230 個基點，這正是您看到的最強實力。高級餐飲的下降，部分原因是其逐年增加的成本。他們的定價開始迎頭趕上。但同時也存在一些負面影響。在一年的基礎上，酒精方面存在著許多負面影響。

When we look at what's happening with -- at fine dining, there is trading down to lower-priced wines and other alcohols on a 1-year basis. However, when we look at it versus where we were pre-COVID, we don't see a big falloff. So this feels like there was -- clearly goes back to that exuberance that existed a year ago, that we're wrapping on. And so part of that margin impact is from that.

當我們觀察高級餐廳的情況時，就會發現，一年內人們都會轉而購買價格較低的葡萄酒和其他酒類。然而，當我們將其與新冠疫情爆發前的情況進行對比時，我們並沒有看到大幅下降。因此，這感覺就像——顯然可以追溯到一年前存在的那種繁榮，我們正在總結這一點。因此，部分利潤率影響就是來自於此。

And then the last piece I'd say is, some of the restaurant expenses still have high inflation, whether it's repairs and maintenance. We're running mid-single-digit inflation on those lines. And so that's part of that. Last piece is utilities. We had a record summer -- record heat. So that caused tremendous usage, much more -- we've ever has seen historically in terms of electric usage and that translated into some incremental cost too.

最後我要說的是，有些餐廳的費用仍然處於高通膨狀態，無論是維修還是保養。在這些線上，我們的通膨率處於中個位數。這就是其中的一部分。最後一塊是公用事業。我們度過了一個創紀錄的夏天——創紀錄的高溫。因此，這導致了巨大的使用量，甚至更多——我們在歷史上見過用電量方面，這也轉化為一些增量成本。

That's very helpful. You did hit all the parts. And then just on the marketing, you said your top line was pretty much as expected, maybe traffic a little bit better. I know you took up marketing as a percentage of revenues by, I think 20, 30 basis points. Could you just talk about kind of the returns you're seeing on that in that context of in line and maybe a bit better traffic, how you're feeling about that ratio versus going back to the lower one or hedging it higher?

這非常有幫助。你確實擊中了所有部分。然後就行銷而言，您說您的營收與預期基本一致，也許流量會好一點。我知道您將行銷佔收入的比例提高了 20、30 個基點。您能否談談您在排隊和交通流量可能有所改善的情況下看到的回報，與回到較低的比率或對沖較高的比率相比，您對該比率有何感受？

Yes, Sara. Our marketing versus prior year was up 20 basis points, about half of that was just Ruth's mix. So bringing Ruth's into the mix. Our marketing was a little bit higher. And the other [1/10] was already in our plan. So the planned performance included the 1/10 in marketing. So we believe we are getting an ROI on that. And we've learned over -- during the COVID times how to -- we've been able to analyze marketing better because when you completely eliminate it and you start adding back, you can really see the impact of it versus when you have a lot of it and you add a little bit, it's harder to see. So we're able to read the marketing, much better in the ROIs and marketing and we believe there is one.

是的，薩拉。與去年相比，我們的行銷成長了 20 個基點，其中大約一半是露絲的組合。所以把露絲的加入進來。我們的行銷有點高。另一個[1/10]已經在我們的計劃中了。因此，計劃的績效包括行銷中的 1/10。所以我們相信我們正在獲得投資回報。我們已經學會了——在新冠疫情期間——我們能夠更好地分析行銷，因為當你完全消除它並開始添加回來時，你可以真正看到它的影響，而不是當你有一個很多，再加一點點，就很難看到了。因此，我們能夠更好地解讀行銷活動，尤其是投資回報率和行銷活動，我們相信這是有的。

Our next questions come from the line of Peter Saleh with BTIG.

我們的下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Peter Saleh。

Great. I just wanted to come back to the conversation around menu mix. I think you mentioned some declines in alcohol mix at some of the fine dining brands. But you also mentioned something similar at the core brands, some alcoholic mix and entrée mix that was a little bit less than you'd expect it. Can you elaborate a little bit more on that, on what you're seeing? Is this the first time you've seen this pull back in this -- change in consumer behavior since pre-COVID?

偉大的。我只是想回到關於菜單組合的對話。我想你提到了一些高級餐飲品牌的酒精含量有所下降。但您也提到了核心品牌中類似的東西，一些酒精混合物和主菜混合物比您預期的要少一些。能詳細說明一下您所看到的情況嗎？這是您第一次看到自新冠疫情爆發以來消費者行為發生的這種回落嗎？

Yes, Peter, I would say on the casual brands, we're only seeing it at Olive Garden and LongHorn and it's not alarming. What we're talking about is tens of basis points of negative mix. So it's not at a point where we're like, hey, we're missing check by quite a bit. But it's about -- in an environment where you have a pricing in that 6% range in the -- take example, in the last quarter, to have maybe 50 basis points of negative mix, it doesn't feel like it's a huge impact but it was a little bit worse than we expected. But we're not reading too much into that, primarily because when we look at what's happening at Cheddar's, we're not seeing a negative mix there.

是的，彼得，我想說的是，關於休閒品牌，我們只在 Olive Garden 和 LongHorn 看到它，這並不令人擔憂。我們談論的是數十個基點的負面組合。所以現在我們還沒有意識到，嘿，我們錯過了很多檢查。但這是關於 - 在定價在 6％ 範圍內的環境中 - 舉個例子，在上個季度，可能有 50 個基點的負面組合，感覺不會產生巨大的影響但比我們預期的要差一些。但我們並沒有對此進行太多解讀，主要是因為當我們觀察切達乾酪發生的情況時，我們並沒有看到負面的混合情況。

So -- and the other part of it is, we have introduced some menu items that are more -- at LongHorn, for example, we have some items that are better margin, pricing difference yield there might be causing people to trade down but it's not hurting our margins. So we're actually okay with that some negative entrée mix we're seeing. So it's too early to draw too much into the or to kind of read too much into this negative mix that we're seeing on the check at the casual brands.

因此，另一部分是，我們引入了一些更多的菜單項，例如，在 LongHorn，我們有一些利潤率更高的項目，那裡的定價差異收益率可能會導致人們進行交易，但它不會損害我們的利潤。因此，我們實際上對我們所看到的一些負面主菜組合感到滿意。因此，現在過度關注或過度解讀我們在休閒品牌支票上看到的這種負面組合還為時過早。

From fine dining, yes, we truly believe it is a function of exuberance last year. We were seeing a huge positive mix last year and that's going away. I mean we've actually had that for 4 or 5 quarters until -- I think until we got through to the second quarter of last year. And so now we're starting to see things normalize. And this is -- that's why when we wanted to look at it versus pre-COVID and when we looked at it through that lens, we did not see any big drop off at the fine dining.

從美食來看，是的，我們確實相信這是去年繁榮的結果。去年我們看到了巨大的正面組合，但這種情況正在消失。我的意思是，我們實際上已經經歷了四、五個季度了，直到——我想直到去年第二季。所以現在我們開始看到事情正常化。這就是為什麼當我們想要將其與新冠疫情之前的情況進行比較時，當我們透過這個鏡頭觀察時，我們沒有看到高級餐廳有任何大幅下降。

And then, Rick, I think you mentioned that labor obviously is still inflationary but has improved. Can you give us a little bit more color on what you're seeing on the labor side? Is it just more availability of labor, are starting wages flattening out or coming down? Any more detail on that front would be helpful.

然後，里克，我想你提到勞動力顯然仍然存在通貨膨脹，但已經有所改善。您能否向我們介紹一下您在勞動力方面所看到的情況？只是勞動力的供給增加，起薪是否持平或下降？關於這方面的任何更多細節都會有所幫助。

Yes. We're seeing it much easier to hire than we have in the last few years. We've gotten much more applicants for every job than we've had before. If you think about the employment proposition we've mentioned, it includes a minimum wage of $12 an hour, including gratuities. And as we're seeing, yes, wage inflation is up but our starting wage inflation is lower than our overall inflation. So it seems like it's getting a little bit easier to hire people and we don't have to hire at such a high rate, just to get people in the door. We're fully staffed. Our turnover is getting -- coming down. And so our starting wage inflation is much lower -- or our entry-level wage inflation when people come to work for us is lower than our overall inflation, which is a good thing.

是的。我們發現招聘比過去幾年容易得多。我們每項工作都收到了比以前更多的申請者。如果您考慮我們提到的就業建議，您會發現它包括每小時 12 美元的最低工資，包括小費。正如我們所看到的，是的，薪資通膨上升，但我們的起始薪資通膨低於整體通膨。因此，招募人員似乎變得更容易了，我們不必以如此高的速度招聘，只是為了讓人們進來。我們人員齊全。我們的營業額正在下降。因此，我們的起始薪資通膨要低得多，或者說，當人們為我們工作時，我們的入門級薪資通膨低於我們的整體通膨，這是一件好事。

Our next questions come from the line of Gregory Francfort with Guggenheim Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自古根漢證券公司的格雷戈里·弗蘭克福特。

Rick, I think you made a comment earlier on the call about maybe the -- if you're seeing a little bit of softness, it's more in the over $125,000 income consumer. And I guess that's just surprising because I think a lot of the concern is more on the lower income side of things. And I'm curious what you think might be driving that?

Rick，我想您早些時候在電話會議上發表過評論，如果您看到了一點疲軟，那麼更多的是收入超過 125,000 美元的消費者。我想這令人驚訝，因為我認為很多擔憂更多的是低收入方面。我很好奇你認為是什麼推動了這種情況？

Yes, Greg, I think a couple of things. One, if you look over the last few years, wage growth has been higher at the lower income level than at the higher income level and inflation while it impacts the lower income more, their wages had grown faster than inflation over time. And I kind of mentioned it. I think a little bit of it now is the exuberance from last year and actually this summer, there was a lot of international travel. You saw that when airlines talked about adding routes internationally and that could have been part of the reason maybe that our Florida and California markets weren't as strong because maybe people weren't traveling here, they were traveling outside the U.S. because they hadn't been able to do that for a few years. I know anecdotally, I've talked to quite a few folks that have had international travel plans in their sights for 2 or 3 years but they were just not doing it because of COVID and they did it this summer. So it could be because we've had a lot of that. We're not reading too much into it.

是的，格雷格，我想有幾件事。第一，如果你看看過去幾年，低收入水準的薪資成長高於高收入水準和通貨膨脹，而對低收入的影響更大，隨著時間的推移，他們的薪資成長速度快於通貨膨脹。我也提到過這一點。我認為現在有一點是去年的繁榮，實際上今年夏天，有很多國際旅行。你看到，當航空公司談論增加國際航線時，這可能是我們的佛羅裡達和加利福尼亞市場不那麼強勁的部分原因，因為也許人們沒有在這裡旅行，而是在美國境外旅行，因為他們沒有'幾年來我一直沒能做到這一點。據我所知，據我所知，我曾與不少人交談過，他們在兩三年內就已經制定了國際旅行計劃，但他們只是因為新冠疫情而沒有這樣做，而他們在今年夏天就這樣做了。所以這可能是因為我們經歷過很多這樣的事。我們並沒有對此進行太多解讀。

That said, we're going to watch and monitor and see and see if something dramatically changes but we're not too concerned right now. We just wanted to make sure that you understood that the $125,000 and up is something that we're seeing a little softness in or at least we did in the first quarter.

也就是說，我們將觀察、監控、看看是否會發生巨大的變化，但我們現在並不太擔心。我們只是想確保您了解 125,000 美元及以上的價格是我們看到的有點疲軟的情況，或者至少在第一季是這樣的。

Got it. And maybe just one other. As you look at the mix of Ruth's franchise versus company-owned, do you think that will go higher or lower over time, you have a goal of that increasing or decreasing or kind of things more stable?

知道了。也許只是另一個。當您查看露絲的特許經營權與公司所有的組合時，您認為隨著時間的推移，特許經營權會更高還是更低，您的目標是增加或減少還是更穩定？

Yes, Greg, I want to start by saying we're really -- we're -- our focus is integrating our current restaurants. We've got 81 company-operated restaurants into Darden, our Ruth's Chris franchise, these are valued partners to us. If they have growth opportunities and they want to continue to grow and it makes sense, then we'll let them grow with us. But we expect to grow our own Ruth's restaurants as well. So I would anticipate that over time, the mix of Ruth's company-owned or company-operated compared to franchise will go down. It doesn't necessarily mean that franchise -- number of franchises will go down, it's because we're going to open more restaurants at Ruth's. And so that's how we're going to stick to it.

是的，格雷格，我首先想說的是，我們真的——我們——我們的重點是整合我們現有的餐廳。我們的 Ruth's Chris 特許經營店 Darden 擁有 81 家公司經營的餐廳，這些餐廳是我們的重要合作夥伴。如果他們有成長機會並且他們想要繼續成長並且這是有意義的，那麼我們會讓他們與我們一起成長。但我們也希望發展我們自己的露絲餐廳。因此，我預計，隨著時間的推移，露絲的公司擁有或公司經營的組合與特許經營權相比將會下降。這並不一定意味著特許經營數量會減少，這是因為我們將在露絲餐廳開設更多餐廳。這就是我們要堅持的方式。

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 in the past, we've talked about some different traffic performance from the under 35 consumer and the over 55 consumer. And it is interesting, especially for some of your older consumers who may be on fixed incomes actually could be benefiting from the increase in interest rates. But conversely, the sub-35 consumer, based on where their incomes are, the student loan repayments might actually affect them the most. Maybe it's a little bit of a real term question but I wonder if you're beginning to see behavior differences not just from an income cohort but from an age cohort and how you see that influencing your business?

我知道過去我們討論過 35 歲以下消費者和 55 歲以上消費者的一些不同流量表現。這很有趣，特別是對於一些可能擁有固定收入的老年消費者來說，他們實際上可能會從利率上升中受益。但相反，對於 35 歲以下的消費者，根據他們的收入狀況，學生貸款償還實際上可能對他們影響最大。也許這是一個有點實際的問題，但我想知道您是否開始看到不僅來自收入群體的行為差異，而且來自年齡群體的行為差異，以及您如何看待這對您的業務的影響？

Yes, John. Actually, we are continuing to see actually the consumers below 35 be actually continuing to grow as a mix. In fact, when we look at versus last year versus last quarter and as well as versus pre-COVID, consumers below 35 are still trending better. In fact -- and then 55 plus, especially 65-plus is still below pre-COVID and actually a slight decline from last quarter to this quarter. So we -- so it feels like from a mix perspective, we're seeing more younger consumer. And we're kind of seeing something along the lines of what Rick mentioned on the income spectrum too, where a lower income makes up a bigger percentage of our guest base today than it did before COVID.

是的，約翰。事實上，我們繼續看到 35 歲以下的消費者群體實際上正在繼續成長。事實上，當我們在比較去年、上季以及新冠疫情之前的情況時，35 歲以下的消費者的趨勢仍然更好。事實上，55 歲以上，尤其是 65 歲以上的人口仍然低於新冠疫情之前的水平，而且實際上比上季度到本季略有下降。所以我們——所以從混合的角度來看，我們看到了更多的年輕消費者。我們也看到了一些與里克提到的收入範圍類似的情況，與新冠疫情之前相比，今天我們的客人群體中收入較低的人所佔的比例更大。

But we're not seeing any cracks in that, those trends because we've been tracking that for a few quarters now and it seems to be holding up pretty well. Now is something going to change in the future, we can't -- and at this point, we don't have any insight to say whether that's going to change or not.

但我們沒有看到這些趨勢出現任何裂縫，因為我們已經跟踪了幾個季度，而且它似乎保持得很好。現在，未來將會發生一些變化，我們不能——而且在這一點上，我們沒有任何洞察力來判斷這種情況是否會改變。

And in terms of reattracting that 55- or 65-year old, I mean because -- I mean, if I would have told you that 4 years ago, we would have said, gosh, that's a big change for your business, especially at Olive Garden. Is there a way to kind of reattract that consumer? I assume it wouldn't be specific to your brands that it would be broadly but is that an opportunity to maybe re-add that subset of customers?

就重新吸引55 歲或65 歲的人而言，我的意思是因為——我的意思是，如果我在4 年前告訴你這一點，我們會說，天哪，這對你的企業來說是一個巨大的變化，尤其是在橄欖花園。有沒有辦法重新吸引消費者？我認為這不會是針對您的品牌的，而是廣泛的，但這是否是重新添加該客戶子集的機會？

John, if you think about reattracting any consumer, we're trying to add one more visit from our loyal guests and we had a lot of loyal guests above 65. I do believe that they were a little bit more spooked on the COVID side and they should have been, COVID impacted them a little bit more. And we're going to continue to focus our efforts. And if we can do some targeted marketing to them, we've got a big eClub. We can use our eClub to talk to them and say, "Hey, come back to Olive Garden". But I don't think we're going to do some dramatic things because we've actually seen a pretty big increase in our younger consumer. And I think if people would have asked us 5 years ago, I'd would have said, "Hey, we don't have enough younger consumers." They would have thought, "Wow, I can't believe how many consumers you've had on the younger side". So we actually like that consumer. We think that consumer is going to be a strong consumer for us but we value all of our customers, including those over 65 and we'd love to see them come back more frequently.

約翰，如果您考慮重新吸引任何消費者，我們正在努力增加我們的忠實客人的再次光臨，我們有很多 65 歲以上的忠實客人。我確實相信他們對新冠病毒方面更加感到害怕，並且他們本應該如此，新冠肺炎對他們的影響更大一些。我們將繼續集中精力。如果我們能夠對他們進行一些有針對性的行銷，我們就擁有了一個大型 eClub。我們可以使用 eClub 與他們交談並說：「嘿，回到橄欖園吧」。但我不認為我們會做一些戲劇性的事情，因為我們實際上已經看到年輕消費者的大幅成長。我認為如果人們在 5 年前問我們，我會說：“嘿，我們沒有足夠的年輕消費者。”他們會想，「哇，我不敢相信你們有多少年輕消費者」。所以我們其實喜歡那個消費者。我們認為該消費者將成為我們的強大消費者，但我們重視所有客戶，包括 65 歲以上的客戶，我們希望看到他們更頻繁地回來。

And I want to clarify something that I said to Greg, I said that our operated restaurants will be lower in mix for Ruth's and not, it's actually higher. So it should be higher in the future. Sorry about that.

我想澄清一下我對格雷格說的事情，我說過我們經營的餐廳的露絲餐廳的組合會更低，但實際上不是，它實際上更高。所以未來應該會更高。對於那個很抱歉。

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。

Just 2 quick data items, if you could. Could you share what off premises mix was for Olive Garden and LongHorn in the quarter? And I know it will be in the 10-Q but maybe also what was traffic for each of those brands in the quarter?

如果可以的話，只需 2 個快速資料項。您能否分享本季 Olive Garden 和 LongHorn 的場外組合情況？我知道它將在 10 季出現，但也許該季度每個品牌的流量是多少？

Brian, so Olive Garden was about 22%, a little over 22%. So that's about a couple of points lower than where we were a year ago. This is not one of the high quarters. And then from a LongHorn perspective, they were about 13% off premises.

Brian，所以 Olive Garden 大約是 22%，略高於 22%。因此，這比一年前的水平低了幾個百分點。這不是高級住宅區之一。然後從 LongHorn 的角度來看，他們的成本大約是 13%。

From a traffic perspective, I'd say Olive Garden was low single digit -- or slightly positive. It might have been [0.3%, 0.4%]. LongHorn was in the 1.5% range for traffic.

從流量的角度來看，我認為橄欖園的流量較低，或略為正值。可能是[0.3%, 0.4%]。 LongHorn 的流量處於 1.5% 的範圍內。

Okay. And then just following up quickly on the Ruth's acquisition. If you've had a chance to dig further in the customer segmentation, could you just elaborate on the differences you see in Ruth's customer base versus other fine dining brands? And I'm curious on the reinvestments you're making there. What are some of the key areas you see an opportunity to improve the guest experience?

好的。然後快速跟進露絲的收購。如果您有機會進一步挖掘客戶細分，您能否詳細說明您在露絲的客戶群中看到的與其他高級餐飲品牌的差異？我對你們在那裡進行的再投資很好奇。您認為哪些關鍵領域有機會改善賓客體驗？

Yes, Brian. On the Ruth's customer base, a lot of our customer research is based on data that we get through our PoS, and we haven't done the integration of PoS. So I'm just using some data that we have from the past. It's a slightly different consumer than we see at Capital Grille and at Eddie V's. And as we've mentioned before, we have very little overlap in the consumer for Ruth's Chris and the consumer for Capital Grille and Eddie V's. So that's a good thing. We're reaching a consumer for a different need than they've had before. Ruth's is a little bit more suburban than the other brands that we've mentioned. And so we're going to continue to learn more about that consumer.

是的，布萊恩。在露絲的客戶群上，我們很多客戶研究都是基於我們透過PoS得到的數據，我們還沒有做PoS的整合。所以我只是使用我們過去獲得的一些數據。這與我們在 Capital Grille 和 Eddie V's 看到的消費者略有不同。正如我們之前提到的，Ruth's Chris 的消費者與 Capital Grille 和 Eddie V's 的消費者幾乎沒有重疊。所以這是一件好事。我們正在滿足消費者與以往不同的需求。 Ruth's 比我們提到的其他品牌更偏向郊區。因此，我們將繼續更多地了解該消費者。

In regards to the investments that we've made or that we're going to be making, as Raj said, we have a history of making investments in our team and in our food. And those are the kind of investments we're going to be making with these additional synergies, more on the food side but still some investments on the team side. I don't want to get into the exact investments that we're making now.

至於我們已經進行或即將進行的投資，正如拉吉所說，我們有對團隊和食品進行投資的歷史。這些就是我們將利用這些額外的協同效應進行的投資，更多是在食品方面，但仍然在團隊方面進行一些投資。我不想談論我們現在正在進行的具體投資。

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

我們的下一個問題來自 Jake Bartlett 和 Truist 的對話。

I'm hoping you can give us a little perspective on your expectations for the resumption of student loan payments. I imagine you've done some work on it. What do you think the impact could be on your brands and maybe even just the casual dining space in general?

我希望您能給我們一些關於您對恢復學生貸款支付的期望的看法。我想你已經做了一些工作。您認為這會對您的品牌甚至休閒餐飲空間產生什麼影響？

Yes, Jake. As we've said before, the restaurant industry is impacted really more by discretionary spending. We don't expect consumer repayment of student loans is going to be a material impact to Darden over time. And recall that a lot of these have already started being made. So I think in the month of August or -- month of August, it was about $1 billion a week. And that could be because some people are just deciding to pay off their entire student loan before the interest rate starts back up. And so the expectation was it's going to be about $80 billion or so a year in student loan repayment and we're almost at that run rate now.

是的，傑克。正如我們之前所說，餐飲業受可自由支配支出的影響更大。我們預計，隨著時間的推移，消費者償還學生貸款不會對達頓產生重大影響。請記住，其中許多已經開始製作。所以我認為在 8 月份，每周大約有 10 億美元。這可能是因為有些人剛決定在利率開始回升之前還清全部學生貸款。因此，預計每年學生貸款償還金額約為 800 億美元左右，而我們現在幾乎處於這個運行速度。

So -- and I also know I've read and seen and I think you've all read that a lot of these student loan payments are the folks that are above $125,000. So maybe that's part of it as well. Maybe they've started to pay off their student loan. So we want to see how this progresses over time. But as we've said, we don't think it's going to be a meaningful impact to our business. On the margins, it could be an impact but it's not going to be a meaningful impact to our business. Discretionary spending is a bigger impact.

所以——我也知道我讀過並看到過，我想你們都讀過，這些學生貸款付款中有很多是超過 125,000 美元的人。所以也許這也是其中的一部分。也許他們已經開始償還學生貸款了。所以我們想看看隨著時間的推移，情況會如何進展。但正如我們所說，我們認為這不會對我們的業務產生有意義的影響。就邊際而言，這可能會產生影響，但不會對我們的業務產生有意義的影響。可自由支配支出的影響更大。

Okay. Great. I'm going to go with kind of an odd question but I think it's -- I think it's something that investors are focusing more and more on and I'm not sure how valid it is or not. But I'm wondering your perspective on GLP-1 drugs and the impact on restaurant demand, maybe Darden's restaurant demand. I'm not going to ask your average BMI for your customers but any perspective there, any perspective? I know it's something that's on investors' minds, so I figured I'd ask.

好的。偉大的。我將提出一個奇怪的問題，但我認為這是投資者越來越關注的問題，但我不確定它是否有效。但我想知道您對 GLP-1 藥物以及對餐廳需求（也許是達頓餐廳需求）影響的看法。我不會問你的客戶的平均體重指數，但有什麼觀點嗎？我知道投資者也關心這個問題，所以我想我應該問一下。

Yes. I didn't mean to laugh. But when you talked about my BMI I'm not going to get into that.

是的。我不是故意笑的。但當你談到我的體重指數時，我不會談論這個。

I know yours as well.

我也知道你的。

I don't know about that. Let me start by saying full-service dining occasions are driven by desire to connect with family and friends. Our -- if you think about the frequency of our full-service dining guests, it's a couple of times, 2 to 3 times a year, for a good guess. So over the years, we have spent a lot of time designing our menus to ensure guests have a wide range of choices to suit their individual needs. And we're going to react to whatever happens but we don't think it's going to be a meaningful impact to us because of the celebratory nature with -- of people, why people come out to eat. And if it suppresses appetite a little bit, they're still going to eat. So we're going to be there for them when they do.

我對此一無所知。首先我要說的是，提供全方位服務的用餐場合是出於與家人和朋友聯繫的願望。如果您考慮我們提供全方位服務的用餐客人的頻率，您可以猜測，每年 2 到 3 次。因此，多年來，我們花了很多時間設計菜單，以確保客人有多種選擇來滿足他們的個人需求。我們將對發生的任何事情做出反應，但我們認為這不會對我們產生有意義的影響，因為人們的慶祝性質，為什麼人們會出來吃飯。如果它稍微抑制食慾，他們仍然會吃。因此，當他們這樣做時，我們將在他們身邊。

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。

Can you guys just talk about the margin recovery at LongHorn kind of in face of beef inflation? And I guess, should we expect that to tail a little bit worse as we kind of move through the year?

可以談談面對牛肉通膨，LongHorn 的利潤恢復嗎？我想，隨著這一年的推移，我們是否應該預期情況會變得更糟？

So john, I think we -- what we talked about, if you recall, a year ago, was there was opportunity to get some margin back at LongHorn. Part of that was, we had made -- LongHorn's team had made some strategic choices along the way to make investments in food quality and invest well below -- at pricing well below inflation as they were growing traffic. And LongHorn, by the way, does have significant -- actually positive traffic in the dining room relative to pre-COVID. And so we're at a place where we now can pivot a little bit back to getting some of the margin that we wanted to get and so LongHorn team has done a great job, extract -- getting some of that margin growth.

所以約翰，我想我們——如果你還記得的話，一年前我們談論的是，有機會在 LongHorn 獲得一些利潤。其中一部分是，我們做出了——LongHorn 的團隊一路上做出了一些戰略選擇，對食品品質進行投資，並以遠低於通貨膨脹的價格進行投資，因為他們的流量不斷增長。順便說一句，與新冠疫情爆發前相比，LongHorn 餐廳的客流量確實很大，實際上是積極的。因此，我們現在可以稍微回歸到獲得我們想要獲得的一些利潤，因此 LongHorn 團隊做得很好，摘錄 - 獲得了一些利潤增長。

And we feel like we're at a much better place from a overall business model perspective, especially given the top line momentum they have to be able to see the margins where they are. It's just -- it provides strong returns within our portfolio.

我們覺得從整體商業模式的角度來看，我們處於一個更好的位置，特別是考慮到頂線動力，他們必須能夠看到他們所在的利潤率。它只是——它為我們的投資組合提供了強勁的回報。

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。

I just had 2 quick ones for me. The first is on your commodity basket. It looks like you have less locked than you did with the last update. Now I'm just wondering if that's typical. Is it intentional or things getting a little bit more difficult there with those conversations with suppliers. So that would be the first question. The second one, on the off premises numbers that you gave in terms of the mix, it sounds like you think that's seasonality or due to the kind of lower volume nature of the quarter. I mean -- we know that delivery also is softening up a little bit across the industry. Do you think that there's more shifting to food at home or any other dynamics that might be at play there?

我只準備了 2 個快速的。第一個是在您的商品籃子上。看起來您的鎖定程度比上次更新時的鎖定程度要少。現在我只是想知道這是否是典型的。是故意的還是與供應商的對話讓事情變得有點困難。這是第一個問題。第二個，根據您提供的混合方面的場外數據，聽起來您認為這是季節性的，或者是由於該季度成交量較低的性質。我的意思是——我們知道整個產業的交付也有所放緩。您是否認為家裡的食物或任何其他可能在其中發揮作用的動力發生了更多的轉變？

Okay. Let me first start with the coverage. So yes, you pointed out, we have about 55% coverage for the next 6 months, which is actually the same as what we had a year ago but a bit lower than what we would have had before COVID. In terms of the ability to get coverage, I would say at this point, it's still difficult to secure long-term coverage at the prices we like for beef. And that's really the primary driver.

好的。讓我先從報道開始。所以，是的，您指出，我們未來 6 個月的覆蓋率約為 55%，這實際上與一年前相同，但比新冠疫情爆發前的覆蓋率略低。就獲得保險的能力而言，我想說，目前仍然很難以我們喜歡的牛肉價格獲得長期保險。這確實是主要驅動力。

If you look at our coverage, we don't have as much coverage in beef as we would have liked to at this point in time. And then the other point, as poultry, you see that we have about 65% covered but normally, we're much more covered in that. Part of that is because we renewed -- we started a contract last year in December that actually just expires this December. So we're in the midst of trying to renegotiate that. And so that's kind of the reason why we're a little bit lower. But yes, you're right. I mean, we would like to have a little bit more coverage. But as I mentioned, beef is still not where it is, we would like it to be, especially going past the holidays, it's hard to lock -- or getting into the holiday, December and past, it's hard to lock-in at prices we like.

如果你看一下我們的報道，你會發現我們目前對牛肉的報道還沒有我們希望的那麼多。然後另一點，作為家禽，你會看到我們大約有 65% 的覆蓋率，但通常情況下，我們的覆蓋率要高得多。部分原因是我們續簽了合約——去年 12 月我們開始了一份合同，實際上今年 12 月就到期了。所以我們正在嘗試重新談判。這就是我們的排名稍微低一些的原因。但是，是的，你是對的。我的意思是，我們希望有更多的報道。但正如我所提到的，牛肉仍然沒有達到我們希望的水平，尤其是假期過後，很難鎖定——或者進入假期、12 月及過去，很難鎖定價格我們喜歡。

So from a dining room perspective, both LongHorn and Olive Garden had traffic growth in the quarter, right? So that means that some of the guests -- this off premises question you asked, it's shifting to the dining room. So we're not concerned because, yes, off premises was down a couple of points at Olive Garden year-over-year but that means the dining room grew by more than 2 points. And that's -- we're happy with that. We actually prefer to have guests in the dining room.

那麼從餐廳的角度來看，LongHorn 和 Olive Garden 在本季都有流量成長，對嗎？所以這意味著一些客人——你問的這個場外問題，正在轉移到餐廳。所以我們並不擔心，因為，是的，Olive Garden 的場外餐廳同比下降了幾個百分點，但這意味著餐廳增長了超過 2 個百分點。我們對此感到滿意。實際上我們更喜歡在餐廳裡招待客人。

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Kevin Kalicak for any closing comments.

我們的問答環節已經結束。我現在想請凱文·卡利卡克先生發表最後評論。

Thank you. That concludes our call. And I'd like to remind you that we plan to release second quarter results on Friday, December 15, before the market opens with a conference call to follow. Thank you for all for participating in today's call.

謝謝。我們的通話到此結束。我想提醒您，我們計劃在 12 月 15 日星期五開盤前發布第二季業績，並隨後召開電話會議。感謝大家參加今天的電話會議。

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。