1-800-Flowers.Com Inc (FLWS) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the 1-800-Flowers.com Fiscal 2023 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded.

早安，歡迎參加 1-800-Flowers.com 2023 財年第四季和年終收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在記錄此事件。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Andy Milevoj, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

我現在想將會議交給投資者關係高級副總裁安迪·米萊沃伊 (Andy Milevoj)。請繼續。

Good morning, and welcome to our fiscal 2023 fourth quarter and year-end earnings call. Joining us today are Jim McCann, Chairman and CEO; Tom Hartnett, President; and Bill Shea, CFO.

早安，歡迎參加我們的 2023 財年第四季和年終財報電話會議。今天加入我們的是董事長兼執行長 Jim McCann；湯姆·哈內特，總裁；和財務長比爾·謝伊。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that some of the statements we make on today's call are covered by the safe harbor disclaimer contained in our press release and public documents. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements with predictions, projections and other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those contained in our press release and public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements that may be made or discussed during this call. Additionally, we will discuss certain supplemental financial measures that were not prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in the tables of our earnings release. And now I'll turn the call over to Jim.

在開始之前，我想提醒您，我們在今天的電話會議上發表的一些聲明包含在我們的新聞稿和公開文件中包含的安全港免責聲明中。在本次電話會議中，我們將做出前瞻性聲明，包括對未來事件的預測、預測和其他聲明。這些陳述基於當前的預期和假設，這些預期和假設存在風險和不確定性，包括我們的新聞稿和向美國證券交易委員會提交的公開文件中包含的風險和不確定性。本公司不承擔更新本次電話會議期間可能做出或討論的任何前瞻性陳述的義務。此外，我們還將討論某些未依照公認會計準則制定的補充財務措施。這些非公認會計原則財務指標與最直接可比較的公認會計原則指標的對帳可以在我們的收益發布表中找到。現在我將把電話轉給吉姆。

Thanks, Andy, and good morning, everyone. It's great to be with you today. Many of you know me. And for some of you who I don't know, I look forward to getting to know you as well. Since our last earnings call, we announced that my brother Chris was stepping down as CEO for personal health reasons. I want to take this opportunity to thank Chris for all of his contributions to our company over the many years that he and I have worked together. Chris played an integral role in overseeing our rapid growth and enhancing our market-leading position of the company. You always look beyond the short line to see what's next, where the consumer was going and ensured we always embraced the coming waves of technology. Whether it was expanding our business from a 1-800-Flowers phone number to the Internet to mobile commerce to social commerce and now the AI technologies, Chris made sure we were ahead of the curve.

謝謝安迪，大家早安。今天很高興和你在一起。你們很多人都認識我。對於一些我不認識的人，我也期待著認識你們。自從上次財報電話會議以來，我們宣布我的兄弟克里斯因個人健康原因辭去執行長職務。我想藉此機會感謝克里斯在我和他一起工作的多年來為我們公司做出的所有貢獻。克里斯在監督我們的快速成長和增強公司市場領先地位方面發揮了不可或缺的作用。您始終超越短線，看看接下來會發生什麼，消費者會走向何方，並確保我們始終擁抱即將到來的科技浪潮。無論是將我們的業務從 1-800-Flowers 電話號碼擴展到網路、行動商務、社交商務，還是現在的人工智慧技術，克里斯都確保我們處於領先地位。

We as a company have a rich history of innovation in embracing new technology and will continue to play a vital role in solving the relationship needs of millions of customers. We're grateful that Chris will -- who is currently taking a leave of absence remains on our Board of Directors. And after his leave of absence ends, we expect him to return in new capacity to help us navigate the coming waves of innovation.

作為一家公司，我們在擁抱新技術方面擁有豐富的創新歷史，並將繼續在解決數百萬客戶的關係需求方面發揮至關重要的作用。我們很感激目前正在休假的克里斯將繼續留在我們的董事會。在他的休假結束後，我們期望他以新的身份回歸，幫助我們駕馭即將到來的創新浪潮。

I want to take this opportunity to highlight the depth of our talent bench and the role that Tom Harnett has played in our organization. Tom, who many of you know, has been with us for over 30 years and was promoted to President of the company just last year. Tom has played a critical role in overseeing the successful execution of our strategic initiatives and leads our talented management team as we collectively continue to execute our strategy to be a top destination for our customers' celebratory and gifting needs.

我想藉此機會強調我們人才庫的深度以及湯姆·哈內特在我們組織中發揮的作用。大家都知道 Tom，他已經在我們工作了 30 多年，去年剛晉升為公司總裁。湯姆在監督我們策略計畫的成功執行方面發揮了關鍵作用，並領導我們才華橫溢的管理團隊，讓我們共同繼續執行我們的策略，成為滿足客戶慶祝和禮品需求的首選目的地。

In a moment, I'll turn the call over to Tom who will provide a business update. But before I do that, let's take a moment to look at where we've been and where we are and where we're going. Over the past couple of years, we, along with many companies faced numerous challenges beginning with operating the business during the pandemic, then significant disruptions in the global supply chain and labor shortages followed by inflationary pressure and meaningful change in consumer behavior. This significantly affected many aspects of our business, but in particular, our gross profit margin and profitability.

稍後，我會將電話轉給湯姆，他將提供業務最新資訊。但在此之前，讓我們花點時間回顧一下我們曾經去過哪裡、現在在哪裡以及要去哪裡。在過去的幾年裡，我們和許多公司一樣面臨著眾多挑戰，首先是在大流行期間經營業務，然後是全球供應鏈的嚴重中斷和勞動力短缺，隨後是通貨膨脹壓力和消費者行為的有意義的變化。這極大地影響了我們業務的許多方面，特別是我們的毛利率和獲利能力。

Over the past fiscal year, we saw an improving macro environment on several fronts, including ocean freight rates that have approached their pre-pandemic levels and certain commodity costs that have come off their highs. These macro forces, combined with our own efforts to increase efficiencies, including our automation investments and logistics optimization efforts led to the margin improvement we began to experience in fiscal '23.

在過去的財年中，我們看到多個方面的宏觀環境有所改善，包括海運費已接近大流行前的水平，以及某些大宗商品成本已從高位回落。這些宏觀力量，加上我們自己提高效率的努力，包括我們的自動化投資和物流優化工作，導致我們在 23 財年開始實現利潤率改善。

As a pendulum continues to swing back in fiscal '24, we expect to continue to benefit from the lower ocean freight costs, commodity costs that continue to revert closer to the mean and our efforts to improve efficiencies. As we look a little further down the road, say, the next year 2 or 3, we expect our gross margin to continue to benefit from these factors and return to its historical 10-year average of approximately 42%, which we experienced prior to fiscal '22. This is sort of a story of a reversion to the mean.

隨著 24 財年的鐘擺繼續擺回來，我們預計將繼續受益於較低的海運成本、繼續接近平均水平的商品成本以及我們提高效率的努力。當我們進一步展望未來時，例如明年第二年或第三年，我們預計我們的毛利率將繼續受益於這些因素，並恢復到約 42% 的歷史 10 年平均水平，這是我們之前經歷過的財政'22。這是一個回歸均值的故事。

While it is very difficult to predict precisely when we will see more favorable environment for consumer discretionary spend, we believe that with regard to revenue growth and margin recovery, it's a question of when, not if.

雖然很難準確預測何時會看到對消費者可自由支配支出更加有利的環境，但我們認為，就收入成長和利潤率恢復而言，這只是時間問題，而不是是否會出現的問題。

The actions we have taken to enhance the customer experience, improve margins and optimize expenses combined with an improved consumer environment will enable us to achieve our historical sales growth, gross profit margin and EBITDA margin rates. For these reasons, we remain very optimistic about our prospects and are confident that we are positioned well to perform and grow our company while building shareholder value. I'll now turn the call over to Tom for an update on the business.

我們為增強客戶體驗、提高利潤率和優化費用而採取的行動，加上消費者環境的改善，將使我們能夠實現歷史銷售成長、毛利率和 EBITDA 利潤率。基於這些原因，我們對我們的前景仍然非常樂觀，並相信我們有能力在創造股東價值的同時實現公司的業績和發展。我現在將把電話轉給湯姆，以了解業務的最新情況。

Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. Our fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA improved over $10 million from the prior year as we continue to successfully navigate an ever-changing and complex consumer environment. We entered fiscal 2023, we anticipated that consumers would be challenged by ongoing inflationary pressures, which was further exacerbated by rising interest rates and increasing fears of a recession. As we move from the holiday period during our fiscal second quarter into the second half of our fiscal year, we saw consumers pull their purse strings even tighter, especially outside of the holiday gifting periods. As a result, our fourth quarter sales declined 14.8% and on a full year basis, they declined 7.9%, excluding the impact of the 53rd week a year ago. However, we believe it's important to place this in the proper context.

謝謝吉姆，大家早安。隨著我們繼續成功應對不斷變化和複雜的消費者環境，我們第四季度調整後的 EBITDA 比前一年增加了超過 1000 萬美元。進入 2023 財年，我們預期消費者將面臨持續通膨壓力的挑戰，而利率上升和對經濟衰退的擔憂加劇進一步加劇了這種壓力。當我們從第二財季的假期進入財年下半年時，我們看到消費者更加緊縮錢包，尤其是在節日送禮期間之外。結果，我們第四季的銷售額下降了 14.8%，全年銷售額下降了 7.9%，排除去年第 53 週的影響。然而，我們認為將其置於適當的背景中非常重要。

While sales declined 8% for the fiscal year, this was against the backdrop of an almost doubling our sales since fiscal 2019. Despite the challenging macro environment, we're able to retain the majority of the revenues that we gained over the last few years.

雖然本財年銷售額下降了 8%，但這是在自 2019 財年以來銷售額幾乎翻倍的背景下進行的。儘管宏觀環境充滿挑戰，我們仍能夠保留過去幾年獲得的大部分收入。

In fiscal 2023, we had revenues of $2 billion and over 11 million customers spent more than 25 million gifts. Simply put, we are a bigger, better, stronger company today than we were just a few years ago. By focusing on the frequency and retention of our existing customer base, sales from existing customers represented 70% of our revenue in fiscal '23. While we were focused on marketing efficiency in a softer consumer environment, we nonetheless added 4.8 million new customers during fiscal '23.

2023 財年，我們的營收為 20 億美元，超過 1,100 萬名客戶消費了超過 2,500 萬件禮物。簡而言之，與幾年前相比，今天我們是一家更大、更好、更強的公司。透過專注於現有客戶群的頻率和保留率，現有客戶的銷售額占我們 23 財年收入的 70%。儘管我們專注於疲軟的消費者環境中的行銷效率，但我們在 23 財年仍增加了 480 萬新客戶。

As a consumer-facing company, growing our customer base will always be important, but we see tremendous opportunity increasing and increasing the lifetime value of our existing customer base by converting them into multi-brand customers. Multi-brand customers currently represent approximately [13%] of our customer base, yet they account for approximately 28% of our revenue.

作為一家面向消費者的公司，擴大我們的客戶群始終很重要，但我們看到了透過將現有客戶群轉變為多品牌客戶來增加和提高其終身價值的巨大機會。多品牌客戶目前約占我們客戶群的 [13%]，但他們約占我們收入的 28%。

Additionally, we have over 1.3 million Celebrations Passport members who are encouraged to use their benefits across our family of brands. We've already implemented several initiatives to increase these metrics. This includes highlighting our family of brands across our websites and enhancing our search function to provide relevant gifting ideas from our portfolio of brands on a single results page. And by leveraging our brand-agnostic warehouse facilities, we can offer unique bundles for customers to create a truly special one-of-a-kind gift.

此外，我們擁有超過 130 萬 Celebrations Passport 會員，我們鼓勵他們在我們的品牌家族中使用他們的福利。我們已經實施了多項措施來提高這些指標。這包括在我們的網站上突出顯示我們的品牌系列，並增強我們的搜尋功能，以便在單一結果頁面上從我們的品牌組合中提供相關的禮品創意。透過利用我們與品牌無關的倉庫設施，我們可以為客戶提供獨特的捆綁包，打造真正特別的獨一無二的禮物。

Throughout fiscal '23, we continue to see strong growth in our higher price point cross-brand bundles as customers continue to gravitate towards these higher-value offerings. As a result, our AOV increased approximately 6% for the year. We will continue to expand our price points, both lower and higher to provide gifting options for all our customers. This includes providing free digital products to help our customers stay connected with the important people in their lives. Great examples of this include our free MomVerse and Dad Joke GPT offerings that encouraged customers to use our generative AI-powered tools to create a special poem or lyric for their mothers and a historical joke for their fathers.

在整個 23 財年，隨著客戶繼續傾向於這些更高價值的產品，我們繼續看到高價位跨品牌捆綁產品的強勁成長。因此，我們的 AOV 全年增長了約 6%。我們將繼續提高我們的價格點，無論是降低還是提高，為所有客戶提供禮品選擇。這包括提供免費的數位產品，幫助我們的客戶與生活中重要的人保持聯繫。這方面的一個很好的例子包括我們免費的MomVerse 和Dad Joke GPT 產品，它們鼓勵客戶使用我們的人工智慧生成工具為他們的母親創作一首特殊的詩歌或歌詞，為他們的父親創作一個歷史笑話。

We are further integrating this generative AI technology into many facets of our customer engagements. For instance, at checkout, we will use this technology to help customers who may be lost of words, express their sentiments and craft thoughtful messages for their gift recipient. In addition to these initiatives, we also expanded our offerings both organically and through acquisitions in fiscal '23.

我們正在進一步將這種生成式人工智慧技術整合到客戶互動的許多方面。例如，在結帳時，我們將使用這項技術來幫助可能失語症的顧客表達他們的情感，並為他們的禮物接收者精心製作深思熟慮的訊息。除了這些措施之外，我們還在 23 財年有機地和透過收購擴大了我們的產品範圍。

On the acquisition front, we acquired Things Remembered in January and launched a new website on our platform in April. A perfect example of a tuck-in acquisition that enables us to further expand our leadership position and product offerings in the personalization category in the B2B gifting space. This addition, much like Shari's Berries, demonstrates how our e-commerce platform was built for rapid growth as we seamlessly incorporate complementary brands into our platform by essentially just purchasing their IP.

在收購方面，我們於 1 月收購了 Things Remembered，並於 4 月在我們的平台上推出了一個新網站。這是一次收購的完美例子，它使我們能夠進一步擴大我們在 B2B 禮品領域個性化類別中的領導地位和產品供應。這項新增功能與Shari's Berries 非常相似，展示了我們的電子商務平台是如何建構以實現快速成長的，因為我們基本上只需購買其智慧財產權即可將互補品牌無縫整合到我們的平台中。

Turning to our margins. As we had anticipated, we continue to see our gross margin improved during the fourth quarter and our entire organization did a great job of managing operating expenses that helped to offset the revenue decline. As Bill will discuss in more detail, our fourth quarter gross margin improved significantly. We also continue to manage the business well in this environment. Our efforts to operate more efficiently, coupled with our decision to focus more on nurturing our existing customers enable us to reduce operating costs by $18.7 million during the fourth quarter and by $51.7 million for the fiscal year, excluding the impairment charge taken in the third quarter.

轉向我們的邊緣。正如我們預期的那樣，我們的毛利率在第四季度繼續提高，我們整個組織在管理營運費用方面做得很好，這有助於抵消收入的下降。正如比爾將更詳細地討論的那樣，我們第四季的毛利率顯著提高。我們也在這種環境下繼續管理好業務。我們努力提高營運效率，再加上我們決定更加重視培育現有客戶，這使我們在第四季度減少了1,870 萬美元的營運成本，在本財年減少了5,170 萬美元的營運成本（不包括第三季的減損費​​用） 。

As we turn to fiscal 2024, we will continue to leverage our tremendous portfolio of brands to encourage multi-brand shopping and focus our efforts to grow everyday gifting across our brands to support the top line. Simultaneously, we are focused on enhancing the customer experience, improving margins and optimizing expenses.

進入 2024 財年，我們將繼續利用我們龐大的品牌組合來鼓勵多品牌購物，並專注於增加各品牌的日常禮品，以支持營收。同時，我們專注於增強客戶體驗、提高利潤和優化費用。

Now I'll turn it over to Bill to provide the financial review.

現在我將把它交給比爾提供財務審查。

Thanks, Tom. As Tom highlighted in his discussion, our fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA came in better than our expectations. Many of the trends that we experienced throughout the fiscal year persisted into the fourth quarter. This included continued pressure on our top line, which was mitigated by our improvement of our gross margin that began in the second quarter and by our continued efforts to optimize expenses and operate more efficiently.

謝謝，湯姆。正如湯姆在討論中所強調的那樣，我們在第四季度調整後的 EBITDA 好於我們的預期。我們在整個財年經歷的許多趨勢一直持續到第四季。這包括我們的營收面臨持續的壓力，但我們從第二季開始改善毛利率以及我們不斷努力優化費用和提高營運效率，緩解了這種壓力。

Let's take a moment to review each of these. Throughout the fiscal year and continuing into the fourth quarter, our top line continues to be pressured by a complex consumer environment. As consumers were challenged by ongoing inflationary pressures, escalating interest rates and higher credit card debt, they reduced their discretionary spending. As a result, our fourth quarter revenue declined 17.9% or 14.8%, excluding the impact of the 53rd week in the prior year.

讓我們花點時間回顧一下其中的每一個。在整個財年並持續到第四季度，我們的營收繼續受到複雜的消費者環境的壓力。由於消費者面臨持續的通膨壓力、利率上升和信用卡債務增加的挑戰，他們減少了可自由支配的支出。因此，排除去年第 53 週的影響，我們第四季的營收下降了 17.9% 或 14.8%。

We experienced stronger performance during our holiday periods, principally Christmas, while we saw the pullback in consumer spending impact demand for everyday gifting.

我們在假期期間（尤其是聖誕節）經歷了更強勁的表現，同時我們看到消費者支出的回落影響了日常禮品的需求。

Now let's turn to our gross profit margin, which is a much more interesting story for us. As we had anticipated, we began to experience an improvement in our gross margins beginning in the second quarter. Gross margin benefited from our strategic pricing initiatives, lower ocean freight costs and during the back half of the year, a decline in certain commodity costs and lower inventory write-offs. As a result, our gross margin improved 90 basis points during the second quarter, 80 basis points during the third quarter and accelerated to 340 basis points during the fourth quarter. For the fiscal year, our gross margin improved 30 basis points to 37.5% as this annual number was weighed down by our first quarter results.

現在讓我們看看我們的毛利率，這對我們來說是一個更有趣的故事。正如我們預期的那樣，從第二季開始，我們的毛利率開始有所改善。毛利率受益於我們的策略性定價措施、海運成本的降低以及下半年某些商品成本的下降和庫存沖銷的降低。結果，我們的毛利率在第二季度提高了 90 個基點，在第三季度提高了 80 個基點，在第四季度加速至 340 個基點。本財年，我們的毛利率提高了 30 個基點，達到 37.5%，因為這個年度數字受到第一季業績的拖累。

It is important to highlight that as we look forward, we expect our gross margin to continue its return to historical levels in the low 40s percent range. In light of the top line challenges, our team has been focused on controlling the variables we can control and has been steadfast in optimizing expenses. We reduced operating expenses by $18.7 million or 9.8% for the quarter as compared to the prior year and $51.7 million or 6.6% for the full year, excluding the impairment charge that was recorded during the third quarter. As a result, our fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA improved by $10.2 million to a loss of $6.6 million as compared to the prior year despite the top line pressure.

需要強調的是，展望未來，我們預計毛利率將繼續恢復到 40% 左右的歷史水準。鑑於營收挑戰，我們的團隊一直專注於控制我們可以控制的變量，並堅定不移地優化費用。與去年相比，本季營運費用減少了 1,870 萬美元，即 9.8%，全年營運費用減少了 5,170 萬美元，即 6.6%（不包括第三季記錄的減損費用）。因此，儘管面臨營收壓力，第四季調整後 EBITDA 仍比前一年增加 1,020 萬美元，虧損 660 萬美元。

On a full year basis, our adjusted EBITDA was $91.2 million, representing a decline of $7.8 million, primarily due to the aforementioned revenue decline. However, it should be noted that since the first quarter, our year-over-year adjusted EBITDA has improved by nearly $15 million. Net loss for the quarter was $22.5 million or $0.35 per share, compared with a net loss of $22.3 million or $0.34 per share in the prior year period. Adjusted net loss was $17.8 million or $0.28 per share compared with an adjusted net loss of $21.8 million or $0.34 per share in the prior year period.

全年調整後 EBITDA 為 9,120 萬美元，減少 780 萬美元，主要是因為上述收入下降。但值得注意的是，自第一季以來，我們的調整後 EBITDA 年比提高了近 1500 萬美元。本季淨虧損為 2,250 萬美元，即每股 0.35 美元，而去年同期淨虧損為 2,230 萬美元，即每股 0.34 美元。調整後淨虧損為 1,780 萬美元，即每股 0.28 美元，而去年同期調整後淨虧損為 2,180 萬美元，即每股 0.34 美元。

For the fiscal year '23, the net loss was $44.7 million or $0.69 per share, which includes an after-tax noncash goodwill and intangible asset impairment charge of $57.8 million or $0.89 per share, compared with net income of $29.6 million or $0.45 per diluted share in the prior year period. Adjusted net income for the year was $13.4 million or $0.21 per diluted share compared with an adjusted net income of $32.9 million or $0.50 per diluted share in the prior year period.

23 財年，淨虧損為4,470 萬美元，即每股0.69 美元，其中包括稅後非現金商譽及無形資產減損費用5,780 萬美元，即每股0.89 美元，而淨利為2,960 萬美元，即每股攤薄收益0.45 美元上一年期間的份額。本年度調整後淨利為 1,340 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.21 美元，而上年同期調整後淨利為 3,290 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.50 美元。

Now let's review our segment results. In our Gourmet Food and Gift Baskets segment, revenue for the quarter was $120.7 million, declining 18.7% compared with $148.4 million in the prior year period. Gross profit margin improved 490 basis points to 28.1% compared with 23.2% in the prior year period. The improvement was led by our strategic pricing initiatives, lower ocean freight costs and improvement in certain commodity costs and lower inventory write-offs.

現在讓我們回顧一下我們的細分結果。在我們的美食和禮品籃部門，本季營收為 1.207 億美元，比去年同期的 1.484 億美元下降 18.7%。毛利率較去年同期的 23.2% 提高 490 個基點至 28.1%。這項改善得益於我們的策略性定價措施、海運成本的降低以及某些商品成本的改善以及庫存沖銷的降低。

Segment contribution margin loss was $13.4 million compared with a segment contribution margin loss of $23.7 million in the prior year period, reflecting the aforementioned improvement in gross margin as well as more efficient marketing spend.

分部邊際貢獻損失為 1,340 萬美元，而上年同期分部貢獻邊際損失為 2,370 萬美元，反映了上述毛利率的改善以及更有效的行銷支出。

For the year, revenue in this segment decreased 3.9% to $965.2 million compared with $1 billion in the prior year. Profit margin for the year was 34.9% compared to 34.2% in the prior year. And adjusted segment contribution margin for the year without the third quarter impairment charge was $77.5 million compared to $64.9 million in the prior year, in large part due to the results of the fourth quarter.

今年，該部門的收入下降了 3.9%，至 9.652 億美元，而前一年為 10 億美元。本年度利潤率為 34.9%，上年度為 34.2%。在扣除第三季減損費用後，調整後的當年分部貢獻率為 7,750 萬美元，而去年同期為 6,490 萬美元，這在很大程度上歸功於第四季的業績。

Our Consumer Floral and Gift segment. Revenue for the quarter was $248.3 million, declining 17% compared with $299 million in the prior year period. Gross profit margin improved 260 basis points to 40.6% compared with 38% in the prior year period. And segment contribution margin was $30.7 million compared with segment contribution margin of $26.5 million in the prior year period. For the year, revenues decreased 13.1% to $920 million compared with $1.06 billion in the prior year. Gross margin was 39.5% compared with 39.3% in the prior year. And segment contribution margin was $95.5 million compared with $104.3 million in the prior year.

我們的消費花卉和禮品部門。該季度營收為 2.483 億美元，比去年同期的 2.99 億美元下降 17%。毛利率較去年同期的 38% 提高 260 個基點至 40.6%。部門貢獻邊際為 3,070 萬美元，而上年同期部門貢獻邊際為 2,650 萬美元。今年營收為 9.2 億美元，較前一年的 10.6 億美元下降 13.1%。毛利率為 39.5%，上年度為 39.3%。該部門貢獻利潤率為 9,550 萬美元，而上一年為 1.043 億美元。

Now BloomNet segment. Revenue for the quarter decreased 22.1% to $30 million compared with $38.5 million in the prior year period. Gross profit margin was 42.6% compared with 39.6% in the prior year, primarily reflecting ocean shipping costs as well as product mix. Segment contribution margin was $7.4 million compared with $10 million in the prior year period. [For the] year, revenue decreased 8.6% to $133.2 million compared with $145.7 million in the prior year. Gross profit margin was 42.7% compared with 42.3% in the prior year, and segment contribution margin for the year was $37.2 million compared with $42.5 million in the prior year.

現在是 BloomNet 部分。本季營收為 3,000 萬美元，較去年同期的 3,850 萬美元下降 22.1%。毛利率為 42.6%，去年為 39.6%，主要反映海運成本以及產品組合。部門邊際貢獻為 740 萬美元，去年同期為 1,000 萬美元。本年度營收為 1.332 億美元，較上年的 1.457 億美元下降 8.6%。毛利率為 42.7%，上年度為 42.3%；本年分部貢獻利潤率為 3,720 萬美元，上年為 4,250 萬美元。

Regarding free cash flow. For the year, we generated free cash flow of $70.7 million, an improvement of over $130 million from the prior year. This primarily reflects our efforts to bring inventory more in line with operations as we sold through nonperishable inventory we purchased a year ago when we faced supply chain constraints.

關於自由現金流。今年，我們產生了 7,070 萬美元的自由現金流，比前一年增加了 1.3 億美元以上。這主要反映了我們為使庫存更符合營運情況所做的努力，因為我們透過一年前面臨供應鏈限制時購買的不易腐爛的庫存進行銷售。

Before I turn to our balance sheet, I wanted to highlight that we amended and extended our credit agreement on June 27. And entered into a 5-year $425 million credit agreement comprised of a $200 million term loan and $225 million revolving credit facility, which further enhances our strong balance sheet.

在討論我們的資產負債表之前，我想強調一下，我們在6 月27 日修訂並延長了我們的信貸協議。並簽訂了一項為期5 年、價值4.25 億美元的信貸協議，其中包括2 億美元的定期貸款和2.25 億美元的循環信貸額度，其中進一步增強我們強勁的資產負債表。

Turning to our balance sheet. At the end of fiscal '23, our cash and investment position was $126.8 million compared with $31.5 million at the end of fiscal '22. Inventory declined $56.3 million to $191.3 million. The increase in cash reflects the working capital benefit of selling through nonperishable inventory, the reduction in CapEx and closing the new credit facility. As a reminder, in the prior 2 fiscal years, capital expenditures were elevated to support our investments in automation at our Hebron, Ohio and Atlanta facilities.

轉向我們的資產負債表。 23 財年末，我們的現金和投資部位為 1.268 億美元，而 22 財年末為 3,150 萬美元。庫存減少 5,630 萬美元至 1.913 億美元。現金的增加反映了透過不易腐爛的庫存進行銷售的營運資本效益、資本支出的減少以及關閉新的信貸安排。提醒一下，在過去的兩個財年中，資本支出有所增加，以支持我們在希伯倫、俄亥俄州和亞特蘭大工廠的自動化投資。

In terms of debt, we had $196.4 million in term debt and no borrowings under our revolving credit facility. And our net debt position improved by $61 million to $70 million compared with $131 million a year ago.

就債務而言，我們的定期債務為 1.964 億美元，且循環信貸安排下沒有借款。與一年前的 1.31 億美元相比，我們的淨債務狀況改善了 6,100 萬美元，達到 7,000 萬美元。

Regarding guidance for fiscal '24. As we turn to fiscal '24, there are several factors that contributed to our guidance. First, we expect consumers to continue to moderate their spending in the current environment, impacted by higher interest rates, higher credit card balances and the resumption of student loan repayments. We expect revenues to remain pressured during the first half of the fiscal year and begin to rebound during the holiday period and into the second half.

關於 24 財年的指導。當我們轉向 24 財年時，有幾個因素影響了我們的指導。首先，我們預計，在當前環境下，受利率上升、信用卡餘額增加和學生貸款償還恢復的影響，消費者將繼續減少支出。我們預計本財年上半年收入仍將面臨壓力，並在假期期間和下半年開始反彈。

Second, we expect our gross margins to continue to improve as we benefit from ocean freight rates that are approaching pre-pandemic levels, certain commodity costs that continue to revert to their mean and efficiencies from our automation investments. As a result, we expect our fiscal '24 margins to be just north of 39% compared to 37.5% in fiscal '23.

其次，我們預計我們的毛利率將繼續提高，因為我們受益於接近大流行前水平的海運費、某些商品成本繼續恢復到其平均水平以及自動化投資的效率。因此，我們預計 24 財年的利潤率將略高於 39%，而 23 財年的利潤率為 37.5%。

Just as a reminder, there are seasonal variations on our quarterly gross margin due to sales mix. Third, our guidance assumes increased compensation expense, which includes a full bonus payout in fiscal '24 compared with a partial bonus payout in fiscal '23. This amounts to approximately $13 million increase. Based on these assumptions, we expect total revenues on a percentage basis to decline in the mid-single digits as compared to the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $95 million to $100 million and free cash flow to be in the range of $60 million to $65 million.

提醒一下，由於銷售組合的原因，我們的季度毛利率存在季節性變化。第三，我們的指引假設補償費用增加，其中包括 24 財年的全額獎金支付，而 23 財年的部分獎金支付。這相當於增加約 1300 萬美元。基於這些假設，我們預計總收入以百分比計算與前一年相比將出現中個位數下降。調整後的 EBITDA 為 9,500 萬至 1 億美元，自由現金流量為 6,000 萬至 6,500 萬美元。

Bill, let me ask you to do something here. When we were prepping for this, you had an interesting summary of where we were last year as compared to this year. Maybe it would help if you ran through that again briefly.

比爾，我請你在這裡做一件事。當我們為此做準備時，您對我們去年與今年的情況進行了有趣的總結。如果您再次簡單地回顧這一點，也許會有幫助。

Sure, Jim. As we began to prepare for today, it was really striking to me to reflect on where we were just a year ago and where we are today. The supply chain challenges and labor issues that we discussed a year ago have dissipated. We were able to manage our operations and reduce our inventory by $56 million. We generated positive free cash flow of $70.7 million this year as compared to a negative $61.2 million last year. Our gross margin trend inflected during the second quarter and its improvement continued throughout fiscal '23, which will continue in fiscal '24 and beyond.

當然，吉姆。當我們開始為今天做準備時，回想我們一年前的情況和今天的情況，讓我感到非常震驚。我們一年前討論的供應鏈挑戰和勞工問題已經消失。我們能夠管理我們的營運並減少 5600 萬美元的庫存。今年我們產生了 7,070 萬美元的正自由現金流，而去年為負 6,120 萬美元。我們的毛利率趨勢在第二季度發生了變化，並在整個 23 財年持續改善，並將在 24 財年及以後繼續改善。

We were able to efficiently operate our business and reduce operating costs by over $50 million, and we secured a new 5-year credit facility that further enhances our already strong balance sheet, a critical accomplishment in these complicated times. While the consumer environment remains challenging, our company has never been better positioned to serve them when they are ready to shop. And we are well positioned to achieve our historical revenue growth, gross margin and adjusted EBITDA margin rates over the longer term.

我們能夠有效地經營我們的業務，並將營運成本降低超過5000 萬美元，並且我們獲得了新的5 年期信貸額度，進一步增強了我們本已強勁的資產負債表，這在當前複雜的時期是一項關鍵成就。儘管消費者環境仍然充滿挑戰，但我們公司從未像現在這樣能夠在他們準備購物時更好地為他們提供服務。從長遠來看，我們有能力實現收入、毛利率和調整後 EBITDA 利潤率的歷史成長。

With that, I'll turn the call back to you, Jim.

這樣，我會把電話轉回給你，吉姆。

Thanks, Bill. I think that summary paints a picture sometimes you need to step back a little bit to see what you've been able to accomplish in the year. And the tonality last year was obviously very different. So I think you can get a picture from Bill's summary there, from Tom's comments about why we have confidence that the year or 2 or 3 ahead, barring the unforeseen, and there is always the unforeseen looked quite attractive for us because of the steps we've taken and because of the benefits of the macro environment reverting more to the mean.

謝謝，比爾。我認為總結描繪了一幅圖畫，有時你需要退一步看看你在這一年中所取得的成就。而去年的調性顯然有很大不同。所以我想你可以從比爾的總結和湯姆的評論中了解到為什麼我們對未來一年或兩三年充滿信心，除非出現不可預見的情況，而且總有不可預見的事情看起來對我們很有吸引力，因為我們採取了步驟已經採取，並且由於宏觀環境的好處更多地恢復到平均水平。

I think it's appropriate now that we open the call for questions. So I'll ask the operator if you could please restate the instructions for those interested in asking a question.

我認為現在我們開始提問是合適的。因此，我會詢問接線員是否可以為有興趣提問的人重述說明。

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Michael Kupinski with NOBLE Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自 NOBLE Capital Markets 的 Michael Kupinski。

A couple of questions here. You talked a little bit about your labor, and I was just wondering if you can give us a little bit more color on maybe the pricing for labor? I know that there has been some significant increases in years prior. And then also the ability to fill the spots that you have, and given your improvement in production and distribution facilities, I was wondering if you can talk a little bit about how many people you needed this year versus years past. And I just have a couple of quick follow-ups.

這裡有幾個問題。您談到了您的勞動力，我只是想知道您是否可以給我們更多關於勞動力定價的資訊？我知道前幾年有一些顯著的成長。然後還有填補現有空缺的能力，並考慮到生產和分銷設施的改進，我想知道您是否可以談談今年與過去幾年相比需要多少人。我只有幾個快速跟進。

Michael, it's Jim here. To tackle your questions. On the labor front, Bill will give you details, but just from a broader perspective, 2 factors. One is costs have gone up on labor. So let's focus first on entry level, logistics and warehouse kind of labor. So 2 years ago, our costs there were about $12 an hour, and now they're -- now they're closer to $20 an hour. Last year, not only do we have the cost of labor, we had availability issues when I say last year, a year ago.

麥可，我是吉姆。來解答你的疑問。在勞工方面，比爾將為您提供詳細信息，但只是從更廣泛的角度來看，有兩個因素。一是勞動成本上升。因此，讓我們首先關注入門級、物流和倉庫類勞動力。兩年前，我們的成本約為每小時 12 美元，而現在接近每小時 20 美元。去年，我們不僅面臨勞動成本，而且當我說去年、一年前時，我們還面臨可用性問題。

So this past Christmas, Christmas of 2022 we were able to build all of our temporary holiday positions. The year before, we weren't able to. The benefit this year was, yes, we had higher labor cost. But by being able to fill every position, we didn't run the real high overtime cost when we had to ask people to work extra. Bill, Michael also asked about efficiencies. And you have an example there in terms of the automation and a number of packages we could ship out maybe in particular, talk about our Ohio distribution facility.

因此，在剛剛過去的聖誕節，即 2022 年聖誕節，我們能夠建立所有臨時假期職位。前一年，我們沒能做到。今年的好處是，是的，我們的勞動成本更高。但由於能夠填補每個職位，當我們必須要求人們加班時，我們並沒有承受真正高的加班成本。比爾、麥可也詢問了效率問題。你有一個關於自動化和我們可以運送的一些包裹的例子，特別是談論我們俄亥俄州的配送設施。

Yes, Michael, if you recall, we automated our Ohio facility 2 years ago, but it was late because the supply chain challenges are getting steel in. So we moved about 125,000 packages on a peak day this past Christmas out of that facility versus the year prior, we were in like about 80,000, 85,000, and we did it with less labor.

是的，邁克爾，如果你還記得的話，我們兩年前就實現了俄亥俄州工廠的自動化，但為時已晚，因為供應鏈挑戰正在進入鋼鐵。因此，我們在去年聖誕節的高峰日從該工廠搬出了約125,000 個包裹，而一年前，我們大約有 80,000、85,000 人，而且我們用的勞動力更少。

And we did it first, so [100] used to be the peak before that would be 1 day. And I think this year, we did 6 days in a row of over 100,000 packages. So -- and we did that Bill was it a 1/3 less labor?

我們首先做到了，所以 [100] 曾經是 1 天之前的高峰。我想今年，我們連續 6 天處理了超過 10 萬個包裹。那麼 - 我們這樣做了，比爾，勞動力減少了 1/3 嗎？

Not quite bad, but we did -- we certainly did it with less labor. And now what we implemented last year, so we'll have -- this upcoming year will be the third year of that facility. So we'll get more efficiency out of that facility. It will be the second year of our Atlanta facility that came on the automation. Last year in November, again, because of supply chain challenges. So we have that as the second year. And we also put some automation efforts into our [Medford] facility, which went live last year as well. We'll get the second year of that. So our efficiency will continue to improve in fiscal '24 because just having more experience and having a kind of [laid in] for a full year on 2 new facilities.

還不錯，但我們做到了——我們確實用更少的勞動力做到了這一點。現在我們去年實施了，所以我們即將到來的一年將是該設施的第三年。因此，我們將從該設施中獲得更高的效率。這將是我們亞特蘭大工廠自動化的第二年。去年11月，由於供應鏈挑戰，再次出現。所以我們把它當作第二年。我們還在我們的[梅德福]設施中投入了一些自動化工作，該設施也在去年投入使用。我們將迎來第二年。因此，我們的效率將在 24 財年繼續提高，因為我們擁有更多的經驗，並在 2 個新設施上部署了一整年。

Michael, it's Tom. Just to add on, just I think what your question is partially going is what are we seeing going forward for the holiday season and our ramp. And right now, we're seeing a pretty good environment. We think we'll be fine in getting the folks we need and talking to our partners. And also, while we don't expect rates to diminish, we don't expect them to rise either. So we think we're in good shape here for the -- at least where we stand today.

邁克爾，是湯姆。補充一點，我認為你的問題部分是我們在假期季節和我們的坡道上看到了什麼。現在，我們看到了一個非常好的環境。我們認為我們可以很好地找到我們需要的人員並與我們的合作夥伴交談。而且，雖然我們預期利率不會下降，但也不會上升。因此，我們認為我們的狀態良好，至少我們今天的情況是這樣。

So when we talk about a reversion to the mean, we have no illusion, Michael, about the fact that labor rates aren't going to return to pre-pandemic levels. So they are permanent. So we're very glad we made the investments over the last 3, now 4 years on the automation side of things where that brings the benefit of needing less people and being more productive with those you have.

因此，當我們談論回歸均值時，邁克爾，我們對勞動力價格不會回到大流行前水平這一事實不抱任何幻想。所以它們是永久的。因此，我們很高興過去 3 年、現在 4 年在自動化方面進行了投資，這帶來了需要更少人員並提高現有人員生產力的好處。

And is there a way to determine how much of the revenue impact that was due maybe to a shift in lower-priced products?

有沒有辦法確定有多少收入影響可能是由於低價產品的轉變所造成的？

So we didn't see much of a shift to lower-priced products. As Tom pointed out in his comments, we actually had an increase in our average order size. So we think that the lower end of the funnel shopper just wasn't there on those everyday occasions like they might have been during the pandemic. So it's -- it wasn't a result of selling lower price items. In fact, Tom mentioned in his comments, too, that we both want to increase our average ticket in terms of the range of products that we offer. So we have plans to introduce some more lower-priced items. At the same time, we're beginning to think that we have the opportunity to increase some higher-priced items too. So you'll see our range expand.

因此，我們沒有看到太多轉向低價產品的情況。正如湯姆在評論中指出的那樣，我們的平均訂單量實際上有所增加。因此，我們認為，漏斗購物者的低端並不像疫情期間那樣出現在日常場合。所以這不是銷售低價商品的結果。事實上，湯姆在他的評論中也提到，我們都希望在我們提供的產品範圍方面增加我們的平均票價。所以我們計劃推出一些更低價的產品。同時，我們開始認為我們也有機會增加一些高價商品。所以您會看到我們的產品範圍不斷擴大。

Michael, I think the lower end -- the customers on the lower end of the income scale was where we saw discretionary income suffer in -- so we saw some of those lower price point products drop out.

邁克爾，我認為低端——收入水平低端的客戶是我們看到可自由支配收入受到影響的地方——所以我們看到一些價格較低的產品退出了。

And finally on the company has been successful in making acquisitions during periods of economic uncertainty and some of your best acquisitions I think were during those periods. I was wondering in this environment, are there acquisitions in the pipeline? Can you just talk about the acquisition in M&A environment?

最後，該公司在經濟不確定時期成功地進行了收購，我認為你們最好的收購就是在這些時期進行的。我想知道在這種環境下，是否有收購正在進行中？能談談併購環境下的收購嗎？

Michael, Jim, again. On the M&A side of things, yes, you have seen us in the past when times get tougher, more opportunities present themselves. That's why we're pleased and a little lucky that Bill and team secured the financing with our long-term banking relationships because we're told that we did our deal at the very end of June. And we're told that even the syndication market is having some tightness in it now, quite a bit of tightness in it now, which doesn't bode well for companies that aren't profitable, don't have the history, don't have the relationships that we're fortunate enough to have.

麥可，吉姆，又來了。在併購方面，是的，您過去見過我們，當情況變得更加艱難時，就會出現更多機會。這就是為什麼我們很高興並且有點幸運，比爾和團隊透過我們的長期銀行關係獲得了融資，因為我們被告知我們在六月底完成了交易。我們被告知，即使是銀團市場現在也有些吃緊，現在相當吃緊，這對於那些不盈利、沒有歷史、沒有盈利的公司來說不是一個好兆頭。我們沒有足夠幸運擁有的關係。

So yes, that might create some opportunities. We've only done -- it's hard to even call them acquisitions. We had Things Remembered and SmartGift with the 2 most recent acquisitions of sorts that we've done. But what you see there is low risk done with cash, acquisitions, primarily of intellectual property and capabilities. SmartGift, we think, will become a terrific addition for us. It helps individuals, but mostly businesses plan their gifting and access to our portfolio of products. So that's just a few people, very talented engineers that came with that and a company we've been working with for a few years on a contract basis. So we knew it well.

所以，是的，這可能會創造一些機會。我們只是做了——甚至很難稱其為收購。我們最近完成了兩項收購，其中包括 Things Remembered 和 SmartGift。但你看到的是，透過現金、收購（主要是知識產權和能力）進行的風險較低。我們認為，SmartGift 將成為我們的絕佳補充。它可以幫助個人（但主要是企業）規劃送禮和使用我們的產品組合。所以這只是幾個人，非常有才華的工程師，以及我們已經在合約基礎上合作了幾年的公司。所以我們很了解這一點。

The second one was Things Remembered, and there, again, we've got the intellectual property, the URLs and the 2 million person customer list that came with that. We put that on top of our platform of personalization capabilities, which is really state-of-the-art and really well done. And we have 3 different doors into that capability now. We have Personalization Mall, which was an acquisition, we have Personalization Universe, which was a de novo start-up that we did ourselves.

第二個是“Things Remembered”，我們再次獲得了智慧財產權、URL 以及隨之而來的 200 萬人客戶名單。我們將其置於我們的個人化功能平台之上，該平台確實是最先進的，並且做得非常好。現在我們有 3 個不同的途徑來實現這項功能。我們有 Personalization Mall，這是一個收購，我們有 Personalization Universe，這是我們自己創辦的新創公司。

And now with the addition of Things Remembered, which we're particularly excited about, we just did our brand review out in Chicago with the team at Personalization Mall with the Things Remember team, and we can really grow that business nicely. And there's a perfect example, Michael, where we see the range of price points, the quality of the products that we can bring to our consumer under Things Remembered brand with its history. I was shocked to learn at one time there are 1,400 stores at their peak, which was striking to me.

現在，隨著 Things Remembered 的加入，我們對此感到特別興奮，我們剛剛在芝加哥與 Personalization Mall 的團隊和 Things Remembered 團隊一起進行了品牌審查，我們真的可以很好地發展這項業務。麥可就是一個完美的例子，我們看到了價格點的範圍，以及我們可以在 Things Remembered 品牌及其歷史下為消費者帶來的產品品質。我很震驚地得知，最高峰時有 1,400 家商店，這讓我震驚。

So what we did was we picked up IP that we can sit on top of infrastructure that we already have and grow it out in a very deliberate fashion, appealing to a broader range of customers, especially in that wedding and new baby space and, of course, holiday as well.

因此，我們所做的就是我們獲得了智慧財產權，我們可以將其置於我們已有的基礎設施之上，並以一種非常審慎的方式對其進行擴展，吸引更廣泛的客戶，特別是在婚禮和新生兒空間​​，以及當然，假期也是如此。

The next question comes from Alex Fuhrman with Craig-Hallum.

下一個問題來自 Alex Fuhrman 和 Craig-Hallum。

And first of all, I just want to say, Chris, it's been such a pleasure getting to know you over the years and I really hope you are back at 1-800-Flowers soon. I wanted to ask you guys about revenue growth, obviously, has been challenging here. What gives you confidence that it is a matter of when and not if you get to revenue growth? Are there any kind of new kind of product launches or marketing campaigns? I know you mentioned a big uptick in kind of multi-branded gifting, but would love to just get a sense of where that confidence comes from that revenue growth will resume at some point in the future.

首先，我想說，克里斯，這些年來認識你真是太高興了，我真的希望你很快就能回到 1-800-Flowers。我想問你們關於收入成長的問題，顯然，這裡一直充滿挑戰。是什麼讓您確信收入成長只是時間問題，而不是是否實現？是否有任何新的產品發布或行銷活動？我知道您提到多品牌禮品種類大幅增加，但我很想了解這種信心來自何處，即收入增長將在未來某個時候恢復。

Well, we didn't mean to sound confident, Alex -- just kidding. The things that we point to internally are the challenge has been in the everyday business, and I'll ask Tom to give you some more color on that. The everyday business where it's purely discretionary we think, and we've seen historically that when it comes to the important milestone holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas at the end of the second fiscal quarter for us, it's not really discretionary. There's a discretionary element, but people you want to buy gifts were going to be there all the time with the range of products we have, with the behavior of our Passport customer, which has become a very big and important part of our mix, and historical patterns that we can go back to. So I think what -- as Bill mentioned in his summary here, if you look back, pre-pandemic, we had 10 years of CAGR compounded growth rate, obviously, of 12%. That was a combination of organic growth and some of the small acquisition tuck-ins that we've done.

好吧，我們並不是故意要顯得自信，亞歷克斯——只是開玩笑。我們在內部指出的問題是日常業務中所面臨的挑戰，我會請湯姆為您提供更多關於這一點的資訊。我們認為，日常業務完全是自由裁量的，而且我們從歷史上看到，當涉及到重要的里程碑假期時，例如我們第二財季末的感恩節和聖誕節，這並不是真正的自由裁量。這是一個可自由裁量的因素，但你想購買禮物的人會一直在那裡，提供我們擁有的一系列產品，以及我們的Passport 客戶的行為，這已成為我們產品組合中非常大且重要的一部分，並且我們可以回顧的歷史模式。所以我認為，正如比爾在他的總結中提到的，如果你回顧一下，在疫情大流行之前，我們有 10 年的複合成長率，顯然是 12%。這是有機成長和我們所做的一些小型收購的結合。

As we look back over that time, we also had a 42% gross margin during that same period will give or take 50 basis points year-to-year without it being a straight linear rise. So those are the 2 metrics we're looking to get back to. But from a sales point of view, that will be an important ingredient. Tom, why don't you touch on where you think we've anchored our forecast for the future and why we have that confidence.

當我們回顧那段時期時，我們同期的毛利率也達到了 42%，年比上升或下降 50 個基點，但並不是直線上升。這就是我們想要回顧的兩個指標。但從銷售的角度來看，這將是一個重要的因素。湯姆，您為什麼不談談您認為我們對未來的預測的基礎以及我們為什麼有這樣的信心。

Yes. So first, I mean, as we look into this 2024 year, we are expecting our sales to begin to rebound during the holiday period as we have seen better results during the holiday periods than the everyday periods, as Jim mentioned. We believe the user experience investments we've made, the increasing visibility of our family of brands, our extended array of products that Jim had mentioned earlier, that includes marketplace products and organic products, we continue to build beyond the acquisitions. And what we're seeing is a deeper relationship with our existing customers, and we're seeing good results and focus there, and we think we have a lot more opportunity. As well as Bill mentioned that in the second half of the year, we will -- we do have plans that will be increasing our marketing expense in order to drive more demand, again, as appropriate and prudent in the management.

是的。首先，我的意思是，當我們展望 2024 年時，我們預計我們的銷售額將在假期期間開始反彈，因為正如吉姆所提到的那樣，我們在假期期間看到的結果比日常期間更好。我們相信，我們所做的用戶體驗投資、我們品牌系列知名度的提高、吉姆之前提到的一系列產品的擴展（包括市場產品和有機產品），我們將繼續在收購之外進行建設。我們看到的是與現有客戶建立了更深入的關係，我們看到了良好的結果和關注點，我們認為我們有更多的機會。除了比爾提到的，在今年下半年，我們將——我們確實有計劃增加我們的行銷費用，以推動更多的需求，再次，在管理上適當和謹慎。

We've all been here for many years, we've seen pullbacks in the economy, et cetera. And we think history is a great guide for us. So that gives us confidence that we can't predict when exactly the consumer is going to return, but we do see a lot of indications and other means where the consumers have it to have returned from pre-pandemic levels. And so that along with many other factors give us confidence that the consumer will return.

我們已經在這裡很多年了，我們已經看到了經濟的衰退等等。我們認為歷史對我們來說是一個很好的指南。因此，這讓我們有信心，我們無法準確預測消費者何時會回歸，但我們確實看到了許多跡象和其他方式，表明消費者已從疫情前的水平回歸。因此，加上許多其他因素，我們相信消費者會再次光顧。

The next question comes from Anthony Lebiedzinski with Sidoti & Company.

下一個問題來自 Sidoti & Company 的 Anthony Lebiedzinski。

Welcome back, Jim, and the best wishes to Chris for a speedy recovery. So yes -- so I guess just a follow-up on the previous question. As far as the everyday gifting business obviously has been challenged. As far as main demand levers that you're looking to put in place to get that business to do better, I know you mentioned some multi-branded bundles. I mean -- as far as your comment about increasing marketing spending in the back half of the year, is there maybe perhaps a reason why you're waiting until the back half to do that? Or I know there's a fine line that you're looking to navigate there. But I mean if you can actually pull off better revenue with better -- more spending, why not do it sooner?

歡迎回來，吉姆，並祝克里斯早日康復。所以是的——所以我想這只是上一個問題的後續。就日常禮品業務而言，顯然受到了挑戰。至於您希望採取哪些主要需求槓桿來讓業務做得更好，我知道您提到了一些多品牌捆綁銷售。我的意思是，就您關於下半年增加行銷支出的評論而言，您是否有可能等到下半年才這樣做？或者我知道你想在那裡導航。但我的意思是，如果你真的可以透過更好的支出獲得更好的收入，為什麼不早點這樣做呢？

I think Bill will comment on that. But as we look at marketing efficiencies, Tom and his team are working on that over time. We see veins of opportunity. And frankly, during this period, it's -- let's be prudent, let's keep our powder dry, let's continue to manage our costs as best we can. But that one place that we now have the ability to step on the gas pedal, frankly, is in marketing. And those plants take some time to build and the materials, plus there are some capabilities we have that we think we can build on top of that will come more fully online as we get closer to the end of this calendar year. So it's a question of timing, when do you fire your guns when you have the best opportunity and frankly, by overspending now as we've seen some competitors in all different categories doing, we see themselves spending themselves into oblivion. And frankly, we're quite happy to see them continue to do that.

我想比爾會對此發表評論。但當我們審視行銷效率時，湯姆和他的團隊正在努力解決這個問題。我們看到了機會的脈絡。坦白說，在此期間，讓我們保持謹慎，讓我們保持乾燥，讓我們繼續盡最大努力管理我們的成本。但坦白說，我們現在有能力踩下油門的一個地方是行銷。這些工廠需要一些時間來建造，材料以及我們認為可以在此基礎上建造的一些能力將在接近今年年底時更加全面地上線。所以這是一個時機問題，當你有最好的機會時，你什麼時候開槍，坦率地說，透過現在的超支，就像我們看到一些不同類別的競爭對手所做的那樣，我們看到自己把自己花在了被遺忘的地方。坦白說，我們很高興看到他們繼續這樣做。

Okay. All right. That makes sense. Oka. And then...

好的。好的。這就說得通了。好吧。進而...

Bill, do you want to add something to that?

比爾，你想補充點什麼嗎？

Yes. I just think the consumer is going to tell us a little bit more, too, as we get through the holiday period. This is our slow season to begin with, a lot of messages in the marketplace the consumer is still struggling at this point in time. We always do better at the holiday, and we believe coming off the success that we'll have this holiday, that will be the time for us to invest. But we'll continue to monitor and operate this business efficiently based on what the macro trends are.

是的。我只是認為，隨著假期的結束，消費者也會告訴我們更多。首先，這是我們的淡季，市場上有許多消息稱，消費者此時仍在苦苦掙扎。我們總是在假期裡做得更好，我們相信在這個假期中取得成功，那將是我們投資的時候。但我們將繼續根據宏觀趨勢有效地監控和營運這項業務。

We are always in market and iterating based upon where we see customer acquisition costs, segments, et cetera. So if there are veins that Jim said, we will be taking advantage of those opportunities.

我們始終處於市場中，並根據我們看到的客戶獲取成本、細分市場等進行迭代。因此，如果吉姆所說的有靜脈，我們將利用這些機會。

Anthony, I think you've reported on and we've seen ourselves that for consumer-facing businesses, particularly those who are in e-commerce arena, but not just the customer acquisition cost has gone through the roof for most companies. So we're able to pull in our hands on an advertising basis when that is very expensive or make it more expensive for others and rely on our existing customer base, our Passport customers and our ability to stimulate the existing base with offers beyond our primary brand of introduction. So that's why we're able to -- you've seen our costs come down so much. So we're sort of continuing that rope-up until the opportunities are better, and that's when people are more in market for gifting occasions like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

安東尼，我想你已經報道過，我們也看到了，對於面向消費者的企業，特別是那些處於電子商務領域的企業，但對於大多數公司來說，不僅僅是客戶獲取成本已經達到了頂峰。因此，當廣告非常昂貴或對其他人來說更加昂貴時，我們能夠在廣告基礎上拉動我們的手，並依靠我們現有的客戶群、我們的Passport 客戶以及我們透過超越我們的主要優惠來刺激現有客戶群的能力品牌介紹。這就是為什麼我們能夠——您已經看到我們的成本下降了很多。因此，我們會繼續這種聯繫，直到機會更好，人們更願意在萬聖節、感恩節和聖誕節等場合送禮。

All right. That makes a lot of sense. So as far as Passport members, are you still seeing them spend 2 or 3x more than nonmembers? Has that trend more or less continued?

好的。這很有意義。那麼，就 Passport 會員而言，您是否仍然看到他們的支出是非會員的 2 或 3 倍？這種趨勢或多或少還在持續嗎？

It has continued, Anthony. We have seen that stable and in fact, multi-brand customers, Passport customers, we're seeing the AOV tick up a little bit with those customers, too, for the year.

事情還在繼續，安東尼。我們已經看到穩定的、事實上的多品牌客戶、Passport 客戶，我們看到這些客戶的 AOV 今年也略有上升。

Got you. Okay. And then you also talked about seeing lower cost for certain commodities. So where have you seen the most relief and where are you seeing the most pressure points?

明白你了。好的。然後您也談到某些商品的成本會降低。那麼，您在哪裡看到了最大的緩解以及您在哪裡看到了最大的壓力點？

Well, Bill is our expert on commodities. He spend a lot of time on the farm with the chickens. We bake and make a lot of product, Anthony, Cheryl's, Harry & David, Wolferman's. And there, we use lots of eggs and lots of butter. And those have been stubborn, but we are starting to see the trends improve there. They tripled in cost within 4 or 5, 6 months. You had to hold chicken shortage from a flu that went through, cocoa costs for all our chocolates, all of those commodities were high build. Did they peak it almost triple and where are we trending now?

嗯，比爾是我們的商品專家。他花了很多時間在農場養雞。我們烘烤並製作很多產品，安東尼、謝麗爾、哈利和大衛、沃爾弗曼。在那裡，我們使用大量的雞蛋和黃油。這些一直很頑固，但我們開始看到趨勢有所改善。他們的成本在四、五、六個月內增加了兩倍。你必須應對流感造成的雞肉短缺，我們所有巧克力的可可成本，所有這些商品都是高品質的。他們的峰值幾乎是三倍嗎？我們現在的趨勢在哪裡？

Yes. So eggs have come all the way back and eggs are back to their kind of historic mean as butter and all types of nuts, cashews, almonds, that we use a lot of. The ones that haven't are wheat due to some of the macro and geopolitical issues. Corn continues to be high. Sugar and cocoa continue to be extremely high. So we have a mix of commodities that some have already reverted back to their historical means from a cost basis. Others are still at very high levels.

是的。因此，雞蛋一路回歸，雞蛋又回到了歷史上的平均水平，如黃油和我們經常使用的各種堅果、腰果、杏仁。由於一些宏觀和地緣政治問題，小麥沒有上市。玉米價格持續走高。糖和可可的含量仍極高。因此，我們擁有多種商品，其中一些商品已從成本基礎恢復到歷史水準。其他人仍然處於很高的水平。

On the other side of the cost kicking ahead we got last year, we pointed out the team, Chris and Bill and Tom pointed out that ocean freight was the real shocker. Now we use ocean freight, both in BloomNet and in our Food Brands, particularly with bringing in packing materials, container shipping materials and nonperishable cell. And Bill, what were our increased unbudgeted costs there last year were $16 million...

另一方面，去年我們的成本不斷上漲，我們團隊指出，克里斯、比爾和湯姆指出，海運才是真正令人震驚的。現在，我們在 BloomNet 和我們的食品品牌中都使用海運，特別是引入包裝材料、貨櫃運輸材料和不易腐爛的細胞。比爾，去年我們增加的預算外成本是 1600 萬美元…

So we've historically spent around $10 million kind of pre-rise, that raised up at peak to about $50 million. We're back down to those historical levels now.

因此，我們歷來在預募資金方面花費了大約 1000 萬美元，在高峰時籌集了大約 5000 萬美元。我們現在又回到了歷史水準。

That's -- we told you, Anthony, that we don't think labor will revert. We think the inflation of labor is stalling, but we don't think -- we certainly aren't going to go backwards in our labor rate, which is a good thing for people and good thing that we've been able to adjust. But ocean freight has now come back to just very close to pre-pandemic level. So we went from a high of a container or something in a $25,000 range back down to $5,000, maybe the low with pre-pandemic was [$4,000]. So we're very close to pre-pandemic levels there. But on the labor side, we're not expecting huge inflation there, but we're not expecting it to come down either. So that's why automation, being able to fill the jobs and not incurring big overtime costs as we prep for the holiday to burden us any in this year.

那就是——我們告訴過你，安東尼，我們認為勞動力不會恢復。我們認為勞動力通膨正在停滯，但我們不認為——我們的勞動力價格肯定不會倒退，這對人們來說是一件好事，也是我們能夠調整的一件好事。但海運運費現已恢復到非常接近大流行前的水平。因此，我們從 25,000 美元範圍內的貨櫃或其他東西的最高價格回落到 5,000 美元，也許大流行前的最低價是 [4,000 美元]。所以我們非常接近大流行前的水平。但在勞動力方面，我們預計不會大幅通膨，但也不會下降。這就是為什麼自動化，能夠填補工作崗位，並且在我們準備假期時不會產生大量加班成本，給我們帶來今年的負擔。

Understood. And my last question, I guess, for Bill, what's the CapEx outlook for fiscal '24?

明白了。我想，對比爾來說，我的最後一個問題是，24 財年的資本支出前景如何？

Yes. We think CapEx will be at or below last year's level. So if you remember, because of a lot of the automation efforts and some of the technology spend, fiscal '21 and '22, we had elevated CapEx of $55 million and $65 million, respectively. This past year, we brought it back down to about $45 million. And for fiscal '24, we expect to be in that $40 million range.

是的。我們認為資本支出將達到或低於去年的水準。因此，如果您還記得的話，由於大量的自動化工作和一些技術支出，21 財年和 22 財年，我們的資本支出分別增加了 5500 萬美元和 6500 萬美元。去年，我們將其降至約 4500 萬美元。對於 24 財年，我們預計將在 4000 萬美元的範圍內。

But it was good prudent spending, obviously, because CapEx on automation really helped the throughput and helped us on where labor was really challenged.

但顯然，這是非常謹慎的支出，因為自動化方面的資本支出確實有助於提高吞吐量，並幫助我們解決勞動力真正面臨的挑戰。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Jim McCann for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回吉姆·麥肯 (Jim McCann) 發表閉幕詞。

Thank you, and thank you for your interest and your time today. I appreciate all the good questions. We're getting ready for a holiday weekend at the end of this summer. So I hope it's a good and fun one for you and your families. If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us, and Bill and Andy and Tom are available to handle any of your question or chat. So we look forward to addressing those in the days ahead and certainly after the holiday weekend. So best of the weekend to you.

謝謝您，也謝謝您今天的興趣和時間。我感謝所有好的問題。我們正在為今年夏末的周末假期做準備。所以我希望這對您和您的家人來說是一件美好而有趣的事情。如果您有任何其他問題，請隨時與我們聯繫，比爾、安迪和湯姆可以處理您的任何問題或聊天。因此，我們期待在未來幾天以及假日週末之後解決這些問題。祝你周末愉快。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。