Energizer Holdings Inc (ENR) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Joanna, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Energizer's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

早安.我叫喬安娜，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線生。此時此刻，我謹代表勁量公司歡迎各位參加2025財年第四季及全年財報電話會議。（操作員說明）提醒您，本次通話正在錄音。

I would now like to turn the conference over to John Poldan, Vice President, Treasurer and Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

現在我將把會議交給副總裁、財務主管兼投資者關係負責人約翰·波爾丹先生。您可以開始會議了。

Good morning, and welcome to Energizer's fourth quarter and fiscal 2025 conference call. Joining me today are Mark LaVigne, President and Chief Executive Officer; and John Drabik, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

早安，歡迎參加勁量電池第四季及2025財年電話會議。今天與我一同出席的有總裁兼執行長馬克·拉維涅，以及執行副總裁兼財務長約翰·德拉比克。

In just a moment, Mark will share a few opening comments, and then we'll take your questions. A replay of this call will be available on the Investor Relations section of our website, energizerholdings.com. In addition, please note that our earnings release, prepared remarks and a slide deck are also posted on our website.

稍後，馬克將作幾句開場白，之後我們將回答大家的問題。本次電話會議的錄音重播可在我們網站energizerholdings.com的「投資者關係」欄位中找到。此外，請注意，我們的獲利報告、準備好的演講稿和簡報也已​​發佈在我們網站上。

During the call, we will make forward-looking statements about the company's future business and financial performance, among other matters. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. We do not undertake to update these forward-looking statements. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements are included in the reports we file with the SEC. We also refer in our presentation to non-GAAP financial measures.

在本次電話會議中，我們將就公司未來的業務和財務表現等事項發表前瞻性聲明。這些聲明是基於管理層目前的預期，但存在風險和不確定性，實際結果可能與這些聲明有重大差異。我們不承諾更新這些前瞻性陳述。可能導致實際結果與這些聲明有重大差異的其他因素已包含在我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的報告中。我們的簡報中也會提及非GAAP財務指標。

A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP measures is shown in our press release issued earlier today, which is available on our website. Information concerning our categories and estimated market share discussed on this call relates to the categories where we compete and is based on Energizer's internal data, data from industry analysis and estimates we believe to be reasonable.

我們今天稍早發布的新聞稿中列出了非GAAP財務指標與可比較GAAP指標的調節表，該新聞稿可在我們的網站上查閱。本次電話會議中討論的有關我們產品類別和預計市場份額的信息，均與我們所處的競爭類別相關，並基於勁量內部數據、行業分析數據以及我們認為合理的估計。

The Battery category information includes both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce retail sales. Unless otherwise noted, all comments regarding the quarter and year pertain to Energizer's fiscal year and all comparisons to prior year relate to the same period in fiscal 2024.

電池類別資訊包括實體零售和電子商務零售銷售。除非另有說明，所有關於季度和年度的評論均指勁量公司的財政年度，所有與上一年的比較均指 2024 財年的同期。

With that, I would like to turn the call over to Mark.

接下來，我想把電話交給馬克。

Good morning, and thanks for joining us today. We delivered strong earnings in fiscal 2025 by staying agile and focused in the face of a disruptive environment and shifting trade policies. We moved quickly, capitalized on opportunities and executed with discipline to achieve outstanding results.

早安，感謝您今天收看我們的節目。面對動盪的環境和不斷變化的貿易政策，我們保持靈活和專注，從而在 2025 財年實現了強勁的盈利。我們行動迅速，抓住機遇，並以嚴謹的態度執行，取得了卓越的成果。

Our decisive actions to reshape our operational footprint, combined with strategic investments and strong execution, have established an elevated earnings base, positioning Energizer to win as we close 2025 and move into 2026. Let me share a few highlights that define our progress in 2025.

我們採取果斷行動重塑營運佈局，加上策略性投資和強有力的執行，建立了較高的獲利基礎，使勁量公司能夠在 2025 年末和 2026 年取得成功。讓我分享幾個能夠體現我們2025年發展進程的亮點。

We grew net sales in a challenging environment, driven by significant growth in e-commerce, international expansion and meaningful innovation in Auto Care. We made necessary changes to our network and executed targeted pricing to mitigate tariffs and preserve margins. Project Momentum achieved over $200 million in savings to date.

在充滿挑戰的環境下，我們實現了淨銷售額的成長，這主要得益於電子商務的顯著成長、國際擴張以及汽車護理領域的重大創新。我們對網路進行了必要的調整，並實施了有針對性的定價，以降低關稅並保持利潤率。「動力計畫」迄今已節省超過 2 億美元。

As we announced this morning, we have extended it into a fourth year, focused on increased operational efficiency and the integration of Advanced Power Solutions. Our innovation pipeline is robust, designed to drive category growth and strengthen our leadership across Batteries and Auto Care.

正如我們今天早上宣布的那樣，我們已將該專案延長至第四年，重點是提高營運效率和整合先進的電源解決方案。我們的創新產品線實力雄厚，旨在推動品類成長，並鞏固我們在電池和汽車護理領域的領先地位。

And finally, through this transformation and strategic investments, we have established a stronger earnings foundation for the future. For the year, net sales grew 2.3% to nearly $3 billion. Adjusted earnings per share increased 6% to $3.52, supported by organic growth, disciplined cost management and manufacturing production credits enabled by our investments in US production. We also returned $177 million to shareholders in fiscal 2025 through dividends and share repurchases, reducing our outstanding shares by roughly 5%.

最後，透過這項轉型和策略性投資，我們為未來建立了更強大的獲利基礎。本年度淨銷售額成長2.3%，接近30億美元。調整後的每股盈餘成長 6% 至 3.52 美元，這得益於內生成長、嚴格的成本管理以及我​​們在美國生產方面的投資所帶來的製造生產信貸。2025 財年，我們也透過股利和股票回購向股東返還了 1.77 億美元，使我們的流通股減少了約 5%。

The macro environment continues to evolve. Tariffs have increased our costs, consumer demand softened late in the year and supply chains required rapid rebalancing. We responded quickly, realigning our manufacturing footprint to minimize tariff exposure and executing pricing actions to protect margins. These steps weren't easy, but they were necessary and created a solid foundation for future growth. As we enter fiscal 2026, we know that first quarter will be transitional.

宏觀環境持續演變。關稅增加了我們的成本，年底消費者需求疲軟，供應鏈需要迅速重新平衡。我們迅速做出反應，調整生產佈局以最大限度地減少關稅風險，並採取定價措施來保護利潤率。這些步驟並不容易，但卻是必要的，並為未來的發展奠定了堅實的基礎。進入 2026 財年，我們知道第一季將是過渡時期。

It will reflect a challenging sales comparison, transitional tariff-related costs and moderating consumer sentiment. But beyond Q1, the benefits of our actions, including network realignment, accelerated APS integration and Project Momentum, savings will build, and we expect these initiatives to drive double-digit adjusted earnings per share growth over the final three quarters of the year.

這將反映出嚴峻的銷售對比情勢、過渡性關稅相關成本以及消費者信心的減弱。但從第一季開始，我們的各項舉措（包括網路重組、加速APS整合和「動力計畫」）帶來的效益和節省將會不斷累積，我們預計這些舉措將在今年最後三個季度推動調整後每股收益實現兩位數增長。

In short, fiscal 2025 was a year of resilience, agility and progress. We faced a challenging environment head on, made bold decisions and strengthened our foundation for the future. I want to thank our colleagues, suppliers and customers for their collaboration that helped us overcome these headwinds and deliver.

簡而言之，2025 財年是充滿韌性、靈活應變和不斷進步的一年。我們迎難而上，做出了大膽的決定，並為未來奠定了堅實的基礎。我要感謝我們的同事、供應商和客戶，感謝他們的合作幫助我們克服了這些不利因素並取得了成果。

This year-over-year growth reflects disciplined execution and the strength of the partnerships built on trust and shared commitment to solving challenges together. Thank you for your continued confidence in Energizer. Together, we are ready to compete, win and grow.

這一年的成長反映了嚴謹的執行力以及建立在信任和共同致力於解決挑戰基礎上的牢固夥伴關係。感謝您一直以來對勁量電池的信任。我們齊心協力，準備競爭、獲勝和發展。

With that, let's open the call for questions.

接下來，我們開始接受提問。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

Peter Grom, UBS.

Peter Grom，瑞銀集團。

Great, thank you. Good morning guys. Hope you're doing well. So I wanted to pick up on that last point and just on the phasing end of the year, specifically just kind of the ramp needed to hit the full year following a challenging first quarter.

太好了，謝謝。各位早安。希望你一切都好。所以我想就最後一點談談年底的過渡階段，特別是經歷了充滿挑戰的第一季後，如何逐步恢復到全年水準。

So can you maybe just speak to the degree of confidence or maybe the visibility you have on the implied ramp just given how difficult and dynamic the operating environment continues to be? And then just related, I mean, what's the level of flexibility or cushion you've kind of embedded in the outlook at this stage? thanks.

鑑於目前營運環境的持續困難和多變，您能否談談您對預期成長的信心程度或可見度？另外，我想問的是，在這個階段，你們在前景規劃中預留了多大的彈性或緩衝空間？謝謝。

Thanks, Peter. Let me start. I'm going to hand it to John, and then I'll maybe finish in kind of how we were -- how we approach providing outlook for the year. I mean, look, we acknowledge that we expected a stronger Q4, but I still think we want to take a step back, at least as we get started, and really reflect and be proud of what the organization achieved in '25. And to do that, I think you have to go back to when we launched Project Momentum three years ago.

謝謝你，彼得。我先開始。我要把這個交給約翰，然後我可能會以我們過去的方式——我們如何展望今年的發展——來結束我的發言。我的意思是，你看，我們承認我們原本期望第四季度業績會更好，但我仍然認為我們應該退後一步，至少在開始的時候，認真反思並為公司在 2025 年取得的成就感到自豪。而要做到這一點，我認為必須回顧三年前我們啟動「動力計畫」的時候。

And the objective behind that was to restore gross margins, enhance free cash flow and strengthen the balance sheet. We have delivered across all of those metrics over that three-year period with $200 million in savings. We've recovered 350 basis points in gross margin. And momentum has enhanced free cash flow or played a part in enhancing free cash flow. We delivered more than $740 million of free cash flow over that time period.

背後的目標是恢復毛利率、提高自由現金流並加強資產負債表。在過去三年裡，我們在所有這些指標上都取得了成果，並節省了 2 億美元。我們的毛利率已恢復了350個基點。而市場動能提升了自由現金流，或者說在提升自由現金流方面發揮了作用。在此期間，我們實現了超過7.4億美元的自由現金流。

The result over that time period is nearly 5% EPS growth on average over that time period and over 3% EBITDA growth. As we started Momentum, we understood the need for supply chain agility, and FY25 put that to an early test. And with the tariff and trade policies, we needed to adjust fast and we did. We overhauled our network. We preserve margins in '25, and this will get, Peter, to your question.

在此期間，平均每股盈餘成長近 5%，EBITDA 成長超過 3%。在創辦 Momentum 之初，我們就意識到供應鏈敏捷性的必要性，而 2025 財年則對此進行了早期考驗。面對關稅和貿易政策，我們需要迅速做出調整，而我們也做到了。我們對網路進行了全面改造。我們在 2025 年保持了利潤率，彼得，這就能回答你的問題了。

We'll essentially do that in '26 once you incorporate kind of the APS margin integration that we're going to go through. So there is a transitional period, which we saw in Q4, you're going to see in Q1, but the pieces are in place and the plans are mostly complete for the ramp that John is going to describe.

一旦我們將要進行的 APS 利潤整合納入其中，我們基本上會在 2026 年實現這一點。所以會有一個過渡期，我們在第四季度看到了，你們將在第一季度看到，但各項準備工作已經就緒，約翰將要描述的這條發展路徑的計劃也基本完成。

So it's really been a remarkable transformation, as you said, in a really disruptive volatile environment over the last three years, which ended in a sort of six-month sprint where we needed to rebalance our network to make sure that we took into account new trade policy. So as we exit that sprint at the end of Q1, we were really set up from Q2, Q3 and Q4 to get back to more historical wells of performance from a financial perspective. So John, do you want to talk through the ramp?

正如您所說，在過去三年充滿動盪和混亂的環境中，這確實是一項了不起的轉變，最終以六個月的衝刺告終，我們需要重新平衡我們的網絡，以確保我們考慮到新的貿易政策。因此，隨著我們在第一季末結束衝刺階段，我們已經為第二季、第三季和第四季做好了充分準備，從財務角度來看，我們將恢復到更接近歷史水平的業績。約翰，你想隔著坡道談談嗎？

Yeah. Let me start with the first quarter and then we can kind of go into what we see Q2 through Q4. So on the top line, in the first quarter, we're getting -- we've got both that storm comp and the shift in display timing that we called out. Both of those we view as onetime or timing in nature. And then kind of as you look at the rest of it, the category overall, we're calling down for the quarter about 300 to 400 basis points.

是的。讓我們先從第一季開始，然後我們再來看看第二季到第四季的情況。所以，從第一季的整體情況來看，我們既看到了風暴的影響，也看到了我們之前提到的顯示時間的變化。我們認為這兩者都是一次性的或具有時效性的。然後，當你縱觀其他方面，整個類別整體而言，我們預計本季將下降約 300 至 400 個基點。

But we see that improving as we kind of go throughout the quarter and then into the rest of the year. So our outlook for the full year on the category kind of contemplates back to roughly flat in the back half. And then we're going to lean into other areas for growth that have been driving us for the last year or two, and that's really international markets as well as transitioning that APS business into our Energizer branded portfolio. That's a big driver in the back half of our fiscal year. And then we're going to continue to see growth in e-comm and some of the innovation that we expect to launch this year.

但我們看到，隨著本季的進展以及今年剩餘時間的到來，這種情況會逐漸改善。因此，我們對該類別全年的展望是，下半年將大致保持穩定。然後，我們將著力發展過去一兩年來一直推動我們成長的其他領域，這實際上就是國際市場，以及將APS業務過渡到我們的勁量品牌產品組合中。這是我們財年下半年的一大驅動因素。然後，我們將繼續看到電子商務的成長，以及我們預計今年將推出的一些創新產品。

So when you put those in place, I think we're going to get past the first quarter and start to see better growth in the back half of the year, really starting in Q2. And then gross margin is also getting impacted in the first quarter.

所以，當這些措施到位後，我認為我們將度過第一季度，並在下半年，特別是從第二季度開始，看到更好的成長。因此，第一季的毛利率也受到了影響。

So as we get past the first quarter, we should benefit from getting past the transitional operational inefficiencies that we really generated over the summer and into the fall as we kind of moved our supply chains around to offset the tariffs. And it will further benefit from transitioning the APS business to our branded portfolio. So I think that will help us on the margin side.

因此，隨著第一季的結束，我們應該能夠克服夏季和秋季期間為了抵消關稅而調整供應鏈時產生的過渡性營運效率低下問題。將 APS 業務過渡到我們的品牌產品組合中，也將進一步有利於公司發展。所以我認為這對我們的利潤率有幫助。

So as we look at kind of Q2 through Q4, I think, low single-digit top line growth and normalized gross margins with some of the momentum savings should allow us to generate that EPS growth of kind of low double digits.

因此，展望第二季度到第四季度，我認為，在維持低個位數營收成長和正常化毛利率的基礎上，加上一些持續的成本節約，應該能夠實現低兩位數的每股盈餘成長。

And then, Peter, to wrap up on your final question, how do we approach '26? I mean, look, there's a lot of stuff we can't control. And so what we try to do is be really clear about what we're seeing in the environment today. We didn't rely on anything necessarily changing except for the progression that we'll talk about from a category standpoint. But we basically said the Battery category is going to be down roughly 2% for the year.

最後，彼得，為了總結你的最後一個問題，我們該如何看待 2026 年？我的意思是，你看，有很多事情是我們無法控制的。因此，我們努力做到的是，真正清楚地了解我們今天在環境中看到的情況。除了我們將從類別角度討論的發展趨勢之外，我們並沒有指望任何事情一定會改變。但我們基本上預測，電池類別的銷售額今年將下降約 2%。

Trade policies are going to stay in place. So things that -- macro factors, we basically took them as they are and rolled them forward. And so if you look at our EPS call, there is growth at the higher end of our range. And as we were contemplating it, we felt it was appropriate to build in some downside just so that we can absorb some shocks to the system, which we've seen over the last couple of years and not having to change our outlook. So we were a little bit conservative in terms of the EPS growth.

貿易政策將持續維持不變。所以，對於宏觀因素，我們基本上是複製它們原樣並加以應用。因此，如果您看一下我們的每股盈餘預期，您會發現它達到了預期範圍的上限。在考慮這個問題時，我們覺得有必要預留一些下行風險，以便能夠吸收系統受到的一些衝擊（我們在過去幾年中已經看到了這些衝擊），從而不必改變我們的預期。因此，我們在每股盈餘成長方面採取了較保守的策略。

We didn't build in anything out of our control to cooperate over the year. And so I think we feel like it's an appropriate call and one that we can achieve as we go through the year, and that's going to inevitably change along the way.

在過去一年裡，我們沒有安排任何超出我們控制範圍的合作。因此，我認為這是一個合適的決定，也是我們可以在今年內實現的目標，但隨著時間的推移，情況必然會改變。

Got it. That makes a ton of sense. I'll pass it on thank you so much.

知道了。這很有道理。我會轉達的，非常感謝。

Thank you, Peter.

謝謝你，彼得。

Lauren Lieberman, Barclays.

勞倫·利伯曼，巴克萊銀行。

Great thanks so much good morning Just wanted to take a step back maybe and like a bigger picture look. Consumer slowdown, softening, just want your perspective on maybe what's changed since we last spoke, both August and then you were at our conference, sort of what's changed? What hasn't? And how are you thinking about the consumer and cost environment from here? Thanks.

非常感謝，早安！我只是想退後一步，從更宏觀的角度來看問題。消費放緩、疲軟，我想聽聽您對我們上次談話以來（上次談話是在八月份，當時您參加了我們的會議）可能發生了哪些變化的看法？還有什麼沒有？那麼，您如何看待當前的消費者和成本環境？謝謝。

Yeah, Lauren, I think -- so if I start with gross margin, we saw the landscape changing. We had plans in place. So I would say the gross margin projection largely as we expected. We knew Q4 was going to get hit by some of these transitory costs.

是的，勞倫，我想——如果我從毛利率說起，我們看到市場格局發生了變化。我們已經制定了計劃。所以我認為毛利率預測基本上符合我們的預期。我們知道第四季會受到這些暫時性成本的影響。

We expected them to continue into '26. They have, but we've also executed the plans to make them go away as we exit Q1. I would say the biggest change, as we've just seen, is a softening consumer sentiment. You've heard it from a lot of our peers. You've certainly seen it in some of the macro data that as we progress from August to September and into October, you really did see softening consumer sentiment, and we're seeing it in the category data for Batteries.

我們預計這種情況會持續到 2026 年。他們確實存在這種情況，但我們也已經執行了計劃，讓這些問題在第一季末消失。正如我們剛才看到的，我認為最大的改變是消費者信心的減弱。很多同行都這麼說過。從一些宏觀數據中，您肯定已經看到，隨著我們從 8 月進入 9 月再到 10 月，消費者信心確實有所減弱，我們在電池品類數據中也看到了這一點。

We are seeing some of the -- more recent time period some improvement in that. But we didn't feel like it was appropriate to rely on that continuing to ramp up. Long term, we're still very bullish on the Battery category. We expect it to be kind of a low single-digit grower, but we're going through a disruptive time. And I think it's important to call that from a consumer standpoint as we have.

我們看到，在最近這段時間裡，這方面有所改善。但我們認為依靠這種持續成長是不合適的。從長遠來看，我們仍然非常看好電池產業。我們預期它的成長率會比較低，只有個位數，但我們正經歷著一段動盪時期。我認為從消費者的角度來看這個問題很重要，就像我們所做的那樣。

Gross margin, we've controlled what we can. Overall, for the year, again, I just mentioned in Peter's question, down 2% is our call for value, but we're going to be able to offset that with some growth in other areas of our business.

毛利率方面，我們已經盡力控制了我們能控制的部分。總的來說，就今年而言，正如我在彼得的問題中提到的，我們預計將下降 2%，但我們能夠透過業務其他領域的成長來抵消這一損失。

Okay. Okay. Great. So just -- it does... Yes, sorry.

好的。好的。偉大的。所以，確實如此…是的，抱歉。

Go ahead.

前進。

As we progress through the year, and this is one thing I failed to mention. So the category, we're assuming is down 3% to 4% in the first quarter. As we progress, we are expecting stabilization in the category. We're going to start to lap some softer comps that you saw in '25. I failed to mention that.

隨著時間推移，有一件事我卻忘了提及。因此，我們假設該類別在第一季下降了 3% 至 4%。隨著事態發展，我們預期該類別將趨於穩定。我們將開始超越你在 2025 年看到的一些較軟的比賽。我忘了提這件事。

Okay. Okay. And that's a big part of the driver of the sort of projected improvement in trends after 1Q or the comp? Thank you so much.

好的。好的。而這正是推動第一季或同店銷售後趨勢預期改善的重要因素之一？太感謝了。

Thanks, Lauren.

謝謝你，勞倫。

Rob Ottenstein, Evercore.

Rob Ottenstein，Evercore。

Great. I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about channel dynamics, obviously, weaker consumer? How is the consumer responding in this environment in terms of which channels they are going to and shopping? What is going on at Amazon with you and the category? And how are you responding to these different changes in consumer dynamics and shopping patterns?

偉大的。我只是想問您能否稍微談談通路動態，尤其是弱勢消費者群？在這種環境下，消費者會選擇哪些通路購物？他們的反應如何？你和亞馬遜的這個品類之間有什麼進展？您如何應對消費者動態和購物模式的這些不同變化？

Hey, good morning, Robert. Consumers are certainly seeking value. They're cautious. They're very comfortable shifting channels to be able to find the value of the product to meet their needs. That manifests itself in a lot of different ways. You've got brands, pack sizes, as you mentioned, channel.

嘿，早上好，羅伯特。消費者當然是在追求性價比。他們很謹慎。他們非常樂於轉換管道，以便找到能夠滿足自身需求的產品價值。這體現在許多不同的面向。正如你所提到的，還有品牌、包裝規格、管道。

Certainly, e-commerce is a big part of that channel shifting that's going on. It's been a point of emphasis for us to make sure that we win in e-commerce. We had a really strong Q4 in e-commerce. We saw our e-commerce business grow more than 35% in Q4. We saw a growth of 25% for the year.

當然，電子商務是這種通路轉變的重要組成部分。確保我們在電子商務領域取得成功一直是我們的工作重點。我們在第四季的電子商務表現非常強勁。我們的電子商務業務在第四季度成長超過 35%。我們全年實現了 25% 的成長。

As we look ahead to '26, we expect 15% growth off of that as we go into '26. So it's been an area we've invested in. It's an area where we're winning. And over that time period, if I look in the aggregate, over a 4-, 13- and 52-week period, we're winning with consumers because Energizer is gaining share over each of those time periods. So as consumers are seeking value, our broad portfolio of premium and value brands are there to meet consumers where they are.

展望 2026 年，我們預計到 2026 年將比上年增長 15%。所以，這是我們一直在投資的領域。這是我們正在取得優勢的領域。在那段時間裡，如果我從整體來看，在 4 週、13 週和 52 週的時間段內，我們贏得了消費者的青睞，因為勁量電池在每個時間段內都在獲得市場份額。因此，隨著消費者追求價值，我們廣泛的高端和經濟型品牌組合能夠滿足消費者的需求。

And we're capturing consumers.

我們正在贏得消費者的青睞。

Great thank you very much.

非常感謝。

Thanks, Robert.

謝謝你，羅伯特。

Andrea Teixeira, JPMorgan.

Andrea Teixeira，摩根大通。

Hi, this is Shavana Choudhury on for Andrea. Thanks for taking our question. On your management commentary, one of the levers to restore gross margin includes optimizing US manufacturing to maximize your future benefits from production credits. As such, can you give us a sense of the magnitude of incremental benefit from your prior estimate of $35 million to $40 million annually?

大家好，我是Shavana Choudhury，為妳報道Andrea。感謝您回答我們的問題。在您的管理評論中，恢復毛利率的手段之一是優化美國製造業，以最大限度地提高您未來從生產信貸中獲得的收益。因此，您能否讓我們了解一下，與您先前估計的每年 3,500 萬至 4,000 萬美元相比，新增收益的規模有多大？

Yeah, we are continuing to invest in domestic production to drive those credits. We think there could be upside of $15 million to $20 million over what we've generated to date per year. So that's where we'll continue to focus and try to recoup those.

是的，我們正在繼續投資國內生產，以推動這些信貸成長。我們認為，與我們迄今為止每年創造的收入相比，可能會有 1500 萬至 2000 萬美元的成長空間。所以我們會繼續集中精力，努力彌補這些損失。

Thank you. And quickly, just to clarify, and is that something that would be a benefit starting fiscal '26 possibly? Or is that like more a fiscal '27 onward story if you get this incremental benefit?

謝謝。另外，請快速澄清一下，這是否會從 2026 財年開始帶來好處？或者說，如果能獲得這種增量收益，那更像是從 2027 財年開始的故事？

Yeah, that's -- we anticipate that in 2016, so kind of that level.

是的，我們預計 2016 年會達到那個水準。

Sounds good thanks I'll pass it on.

好的，謝謝，我會轉達的。

William Reuter, Bank of America.

威廉‧羅伊特，美國銀行。

Hi, my first question on the weakness that you're seeing in consumers, do you expect that they're just reducing the amount of product that they have in their pantries? Or do you believe that their behavior is changing such that they're utilizing devices that need batteries less? I'm just kind of trying to dig a little more into your expectation that the category is down by 2% or 3% or 4% this year, and then it bounces back for future years?

您好，關於您觀察到的消費者疲軟的現象，我的第一個問題是，您是否認為他們會減少家中食品櫃裡的商品數量？或者您認為他們的行為正在改變，以至於他們開始使用耗電量較小的設備？我只是想更深入地了解一下，您為什麼預期該類別今年會下降 2%、3% 或 4%，然後未來幾年會反彈？

Consumers are changing. I mean what we see is consumers will typically drain household inventory. The consumers will typically maybe skip a purchase cycle. And so you see that play out over a multiple quarter period. But then everything stabilizes and consumers go back to that historic low single-digit growth that we expect to see out of the category.

消費者的觀念正在改變。我的意思是，我們看到的情況是，消費者通常會消耗掉家庭庫存。消費者通常可能會跳過一個購買週期。因此，你會看到這種情況在多個季度內逐漸顯現。但隨後一切都趨於穩定，消費者又回到了我們預期該品類將出現的歷史性低個位數成長水準。

So we believe these are temporary behaviors out of consumers. It also manifests itself with channel shifting, with pack size changes and other things that come through in the category data, but we do expect a reversion back to more normalized behavior as we head into '26.

因此我們認為這些都是消費者的暫時性行為。這也體現在通路轉移、包裝尺寸變化以及其他在類別資料中體現的事情上，但我們預計隨著進入 2026 年，情況會恢復到更正常化的狀態。

Got it. And then just a follow-up for me. I think that there had been an algorithm of an expectation of kind of 0.5 turn of deleverage annually? And if I kind of look back over the last handful of years, leverage really hasn't moved a whole lot. So I guess what is your expectation for that deleveraging path?

知道了。然後我還有一個後續問題。我認為之前存在著一種演算法，預期每年去槓桿化幅度約為0.5倍？回顧過去幾年，槓桿率其實並沒有太大變化。所以我想知道您對去槓桿化路徑有何預期？

And I guess, in that context, how will you think about allocation relative to share repurchases, which you guys did $90 million this year?

那麼，在這種情況下，您會如何考慮股票回購的分配呢？你們今年回購了 9,000 萬美元的股票。

Yeah, Look, first priority is going to be to pay down debt. We think we can get back to resumption of normalized cash in '25 -- or cash flow in '25. We were down, and that was really largely due to our plastic-free packaging transition in North America. We invested in both inventories, so working capital was way up for the year.

是的，首要任務是償還債務。我們認為我們可以在 2025 年恢復正常的現金流。我們當時的業績下滑，主要是因為我們在北美地區推行無塑膠包裝。我們對庫存和營運資金都進行了投資，因此今年的營運資金大幅增加。

And we invested in a lot of CapEx, frankly, to make that product. That should normalize, both of those, as we head into '26. So we think that we can get to kind of somewhere north of 10% on free cash flow. We would focus on paying down $150 million to $200 million of debt. I think the offset from a leverage perspective will be where the earnings ends up.

坦白說，我們投入了大量資本支出來生產這款產品。隨著我們邁入 2026 年，這兩種情況都應該會恢復正常。所以我們認為自由現金流可以達到 10% 以上。我們將集中精力償還 1.5 億至 2 億美元的債務。我認為從槓桿角度來看，最終的收益將決定抵銷因素。

So we'll have to see where that comes in, but it won't probably be all the way to 0.5 turn. It would be something less than that if the earnings fall off. I will say that we generated decent cash as we finished up the fourth quarter, and we paid down about $80 million of debt so far in the first quarter. So we're making good progress, and we'll continue to push there.

所以我們還得看看情況如何，但可能不會達到 0.5 圈。如果獲利下滑，實際金額會比這少。我想說的是，我們在第四季末產生了相當可觀的現金流，並且在第一季迄今償還了約 8,000 萬美元的債務。所以我們取得了不錯的進展，我們會繼續努力。

Great, that's all for me thank you.

好的，我的情況就這些了，謝謝。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

Brian McNamara, Canaccord Genuity.

Brian McNamara，Canaccord Genuity。

Good morning guys. Thanks for taking the question. I'm curious how your retail partners are behaving as it relates to channel inventories? We've heard a variety of takes from other companies, but the predominance has generally been, they've been pretty tight on inventories heading into the holiday season. I'm curious how your categories are being impacted by that?

各位早安。感謝您回答這個問題。我很想知道你們的零售合作夥伴在通路庫存方面的表現如何？我們從其他公司聽到了各種各樣的說法，但總體而言，他們進入假期季節時庫存都非常緊張。我很想知道你們的分類會受到怎樣的影響？

Good question, Brian. I think that, that plays a part to kind of our Q4, Q1 dynamic that we were highlighting today. So we saw displays going at the end of Q4 that were -- we thought were going to go into Q1. And then obviously, with some softening in the consumer sentiment in the category, you saw -- you've seen lighter replenishment as we've gotten into Q1 simply because they're managing inventory more tightly. We've expected that.

問得好，布萊恩。我認為，這在一定程度上解釋了我們今天重點提到的第四季度和第一季之間的動態變化。所以我們看到一些展品在第四季末展出——我們原以為它們會持續到第一季。然後很明顯，隨著消費者對該品類信心的減弱，我們看到——隨著第一季的到來，補貨量有所減少，這僅僅是因為他們對庫存的管理更加嚴格。我們早就預料到了。

For purposes of what the outlook we're providing, we're expecting that to continue for the balance of this year. I think we do expect tighter inventory management as we progress through '26.

就我們提供的展望而言，我們預計這種情況將在今年剩餘時間內持續下去。我認為隨著2026年的推進，我們預期庫存管理會更加嚴格。

Great, my other question was already asked, so thanks, appreciate it.

太好了，我的另一個問題已經有人問過了，謝謝，感激不盡。

Thank you. We have no further questions. I will turn the call back over to Mark Levine for closing comments.

謝謝。我們沒有其他問題了。我將把電話轉回給馬克·萊文，請他做總結發言。

Thanks, everyone, for joining today. Have a good rest of the day.

感謝各位今天的參與。祝你今天餘下的時間過得愉快。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating, and we ask that you please disconnect your lines.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與，請您斷開線路。