1-800-Flowers.Com Inc (FLWS) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the 1-800-Flowers.Com fiscal 2024 fourth quarter and year-end earnings call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. (Operator Instructions) After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded.

早安，歡迎參加 1-800-Flowers.Com 2024 財年第四季和年終財報電話會議。所有參與者將處於僅聽模式。（操作員說明）今天的演示結束後，將有機會提問。（操作員說明）請注意此事件正在被記錄。

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 2024 fourth quarter and year-end earnings call. Joining us today are Jim McCann, Chairman and CEO; Tom Hartnett, President; Bill Shea, Chief Financial Officer; and James Langrock, Chief Administrative Officer.

早安，歡迎參加我們的 2024 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；比爾‧謝伊，財務長；和首席行政官詹姆斯·蘭洛克。

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.

在我們開始之前，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。

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.

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。

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.

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。

And now I'll turn the call over to Jim.

現在我將把電話轉給吉姆。

Thanks, Andy, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Before we dive into our review, I wanted to begin with this morning's announcement that Bill Shea has confirmed his plans to retire this December. First and foremost, I'd like to congratulate Bill on his upcoming retirement and to thank him for his three decades of tireless commitment to our company. Bill has been a terrific partner to me and a tremendous asset to our company during a period of incredible growth and transformation.

謝謝安迪，大家早安。感謝您加入我們。在我們深入討論之前，我想先從今天早上宣布的消息開始，比爾謝伊 (Bill Shea) 已確認他計劃於今年 12 月退休。首先，我要祝賀比爾即將退休，並感謝他三十年來對我們公司孜孜不倦的奉獻。比爾一直是我的出色合作夥伴，在我們公司令人難以置信的成長和轉型時期也是一筆巨大的財富。

Bill was instrumental in overseeing our financial operations, fostering great relationships with our lending partners, and maintaining a strong balance sheet. During Bill's tenure, our company grew from a multichannel floral retailer with approximately $150 million in revenue to a technology platform for thoughtful gifting comprised of an all-star roster of brands with over $1.8 billion in revenue.

比爾在監督我們的財務營運、與貸款合作夥伴建立良好關係以及維持強勁的資產負債表方面發揮了重要作用。在 Bill 任職期間，我們的公司從一家收入約 1.5 億美元的多通路花卉零售商成長為一個由全明星品牌組成的貼心禮品技術平台，收入超過 18 億美元。

Bill, thank you for all that you've done for 1-800-Flowers.Com. We wish you all the best on your retirement and hope your retirement is filled with joyous times with your family and friends.

Bill，感謝您為 1-800-Flowers.Com 所做的一切。我們祝福您退休後一切順利，並希望您的退休生活充滿與家人和朋友的歡樂時光。

I also wanted to take this opportunity to introduce James Langrock, who joined our company as Chief Administrative Officer earlier this year and will become our CFO upon Bill's retirement. James came to us with tremendous industry in financial background, having been CFO of other public companies involved both in the food and technology industries.

我還想藉此機會介紹 James Langrock，他於今年稍早加入我們公司擔任首席行政官，並將在 Bill 退休後成為我們的財務長。詹姆斯來到我們這裡時擁有豐富的行業金融背景，曾擔任食品和科技行業其他上市公司的財務長。

We're glad to have James on-board to help lead the next chapter of our company's growth. James will get to know many of you in the days ahead.

我們很高興詹姆斯加入，幫助引領我們公司發展的新篇章。在接下來的日子裡，詹姆斯將會認識你們中的許多人。

And now let's turn to our performance. As we turn our sights on the fiscal year ahead, we think it's important to begin by reflecting on our performance and execution against our strategic initiatives over the past year and how it sets the stage for fiscal '25 and beyond.

現在讓我們轉向我們的表現。當我們展望未來財年時，我們認為首先要根據過去一年的策略性舉措反思我們的業績和執行情況，以及它如何為 25 財年及以後奠定基礎。

This includes a macro consumer environment that's been -- that we've been navigating, the resilience that we've demonstrated in our results, and how we positioned ourselves for the future. Top-line challenges for fiscal '24 certainly persisted longer than anticipated during this year.

這包括我們一直在應對的宏觀消費者環境、我們在業績中表現出的韌性，以及我們如何為未來定位。今年 24 財年面臨的首要挑戰肯定比預期持續的時間更長。

If we were to rewind the clock back 12 months, broader conversations were focused on how many rate cuts we'd have to -- we see throughout fiscal '24. Instead, we're still waiting for the first rate cut and we experienced a macro environment that remained challenging for many, especially lower-income households, who were the most impacted by the higher interest rates and persistent inflation.

如果我們將時間倒回 12 個月，更廣泛的討論將集中在我們必須降息多少次——我們在整個 24 財年都看到了這一點。相反，我們仍在等待第一次降息，而且我們經歷的宏觀環境對許多人來說仍然充滿挑戰，尤其是低收入家庭，他們受到高利率和持續通膨的影響最大。

While our revenues declined in the face of those macro conditions, our gross margin was a real story in fiscal '24, having rebounded significantly. This is a testament to our focus on cost management and operational efficiencies, combined with the reversion to the mean of certain commodity costs.

儘管我們的收入在這些宏觀條件下有所下降，但我們的毛利率在 24 財年卻是真實的，並顯著反彈。這證明了我們對成本管理和營運效率的關注，以及對某些商品成本平均值的回歸。

Our ability to adapt quickly to changing market conditions has been crucial in this regard. As a result, our year-over-year EBITDA grew to $93 million. As we look to the future, we remain optimistic.

在這方面，我們快速適應不斷變化的市場條件的能力至關重要。結果，我們的 EBITDA 年成長至 9,300 萬美元。展望未來，我們保持樂觀。

Our gross margin recovery is well underway and our efforts to operate more efficiently are now evergreen. We've also been investing in our business. And this morning you'll hear how we plan to harvest these investments in fiscal 2025 to improve our top-line trends.

我們的毛利率復甦正在順利進行，我們提高營運效率的努力現在已成為常青樹。我們也一直在投資我們的業務。今天早上，您將聽到我們計劃如何在 2025 財年收穫這些投資，以改善我們的營收趨勢。

While acknowledging a consumer discretionary spending environment that remains challenging, we believe that our strategic investments in key areas differentiate us and will increase frequency and retention as customers come to us as their gifting destination of choice. We are committed to driving long-term growth, pursuing innovation, and enhancing shareholder value.

儘管我們承認消費者可自由支配的支出環境仍然充滿挑戰，但我們相信，我們在關鍵領域的策略性投資使我們脫穎而出，並將提高客戶選擇我們作為禮物目的地的頻率和保留率。我們致力於推動長期成長、追求創新並提高股東價值。

And now I'll turn the call over to Tom for a business update to discuss some of the opportunities that we're focused on to improve our revenue trends in fiscal '25 and drive our longer-term value creation.

現在，我將把電話轉給 Tom，詢問業務最新情況，討論我們重點關注的一些機會，以改善 25 財年的收入趨勢並推動我們的長期價值創造。

Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. Today I'll provide an update on our business performance as well as an update on our Relationship Innovation developments, which encompasses new or enhanced product offerings, our merchandising efforts, as well as our user interface enhancements. Through these initiatives, we continuously evaluate our offerings, pricing, and bundling opportunities to ensure we have appropriate price points for each of our customer segments and that we are actively managing the pricing elasticity of our product portfolio.

謝謝吉姆，大家早安。今天，我將提供有關我們業務績效的最新資訊以及我們關係創新發展的最新信息，其中包括新的或增強的產品供應、我們的銷售工作以及我們的用戶界面增強。透過這些舉措，我們不斷評估我們的產品、定價和捆綁機會，以確保我們為每個客戶群提供適當的價格點，並積極管理我們產品組合的定價彈性。

Turning to our performance. Heading into fiscal 2024, we anticipated that the broader macro environment would improve as the year progressed, in turn improving our top-line trends. Additionally, we anticipated a sizable improvement in our gross margin. While our expectations for top-line improvement have not occurred as quickly as we had anticipated, our gross margin recovery on the other hand occurred at a faster pace than initially expected.

轉向我們的表現。進入 2024 財年，我們預計更廣泛的宏觀環境將隨著時間的推移而改善，從而改善我們的營收趨勢。此外，我們預計毛利率將大幅提高。雖然我們對營收改善的預期沒有像我們預期的那麼快，但另一方面，我們的毛利率恢復速度比最初預期的要快。

Our gross margin recovery benefited from our efforts to operate more efficiently combined with the decline of certain commodity costs. As a result, we're able to grow adjusted EBITDA to $93.1 million despite the decline in revenues. In fiscal '24, we had over 10 million customers and approximately 1.1 million Celebrations Passport members. By focusing on the frequency and retention of our existing customer base, sales from existing customers represented 74% of our revenue in fiscal 2024.

我們的毛利率回升得益於我們努力提高營運效率以及某些商品成本的下降。因此，儘管收入下降，我們仍能夠將調整後 EBITDA 成長至 9,310 萬美元。在 24 財年，我們擁有超過 1000 萬客戶和大約 110 萬 Celebrations Passport 會員。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 2024 財年營收的 74%。

We continue to believe there is tremendous opportunity in 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.

我們仍然相信，透過將現有客戶群轉變為多品牌客戶，存在著巨大的機會來提高他們的終身價值。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%。

As we discussed in some detail, over the past year, we saw a sizable stratification between our lower and higher-income consumers, with our lower-income consumers being more affected by higher interest rates, higher credit card debt, and persistent inflation. In response, we've been leaning into our pricing elasticity efforts to ensure we have gifts for customers throughout the income spectrum.

正如我們詳細討論的那樣，在過去的一年裡，我們看到低收入消費者和高收入消費者之間存在相當大的分層，低收入消費者更容易受到更高利率、更高信用卡債務和持續通膨的影響。作為回應，我們一直在努力提高定價彈性，以確保我們為各個收入範圍的客戶提供禮物。

Beyond pricing, we're focused on expanding our product portfolio both organically through the launch of adjacent products such as introducing Wolferman's New York Bagels and Cheryl's Ice Cream, as well as through acquisitions such as the Card Isle acquisition that further propelled us into the greeting card category.

除了定價之外，我們還致力於透過推出相鄰產品（例如推出Wolferman's New York Ba​​​​gels 和Cheryl's Ice Cream）以及透過收購Card Isle 等收購來有機地擴展我們的產品組合，這進一步推動我們進入問候語領域卡類。

We now have a thoughtful and personalized greeting card mailed to someone through our platform for essentially the same price as buying a greeting card at a convenience store.

現在，我們透過我們的平台向某人郵寄一張貼心且個人化的賀卡，價格與在便利商店購買賀卡的價格基本上相同。

As we turn to fiscal 2025, we expect our top-line trends to benefit from our relationship innovation efforts and the acquisitions that we have made over the last couple of years that have expanded and enhanced our platform. As an example, we believe there is an opportunity to grow our corporate gifting business through our SmartGift initiative.

當我們轉向 2025 財年時，我們預計我們的營收趨勢將受益於我們的關係創新努力以及我們過去幾年進行的擴大和增強我們平台的收購。例如，我們相信有機會透過我們的 SmartGift 計劃來發展我們的企業禮品業務。

Although the consumer environment remains complex and dynamic, we believe we can leverage these investments which when combined with marketing investments, can contribute to an improvement in our top-line trends. Additionally, we expect our wholesale revenue to grow based on the orders our partners have placed for the upcoming holiday season.

儘管消費者環境仍然複雜多變，但我們相信我們可以利用這些投資，將其與行銷投資結合，有助於改善我們的營收趨勢。此外，我們預計我們的批發收入將根據我們的合作夥伴為即將到來的假期季節所下的訂單而增長。

Let's take a moment to discuss some of the revenue driving initiatives in more detail. As I mentioned earlier, in fiscal 2024 we experienced a bifurcation of our customer file by income level. In response, we further examined our pricing elasticity efforts and broadened our price points to ensure we are satisfying our customers' gifting needs.

讓我們花點時間更詳細地討論一些收入驅動計劃。正如我之前提到的，在 2024 財年，我們的客戶檔案按收入水平出現了分歧。作為回應，我們進一步檢查了我們的定價彈性工作並擴大了我們的價格點，以確保我們滿足客戶的禮品需求。

For our customers who are more price-sensitive, we are providing more value offerings. A great example of this is our Bouquet of the Month offering. This new offering features a bouquet of flowers for the all-in price of $50, which is inclusive of our shipping fees. This program enables us not only to provide great value for our customers but also provides a new way for us to partner with our farmers and provide more value to them by further leveraging our supply chain.

對於對價格更敏感的客戶，我們提供更多價值的產品。我們的本月花束產品就是一個很好的例子。這款新產品包含一束鮮花，總價為 50 美元，其中包含我們的運費。該計劃不僅使我們能夠為客戶提供巨大的價值，而且還為我們提供了一種與農民合作的新方式，並透過進一步利用我們的供應鏈為他們提供更多價值。

On the other end of the income spectrum, we will continue to lean into higher-value bundles in some of our higher-end brands. Since acquiring Things Remembered, we successfully integrated the brand onto our platform and have been building out its product portfolio which appeals to a more affluent customer. With that in place, we plan to accelerate the sales growth that we've experienced since the acquisition.

在收入範圍的另一端，我們將繼續傾向於一些高端品牌的高價值捆綁產品。自從收購 Things Remembered 以來，我們成功地將品牌整合到我們的平台上，並一直在建立吸引更富裕客戶的產品組合。有了這些，我們計劃加速收購以來的銷售成長。

To further enhance our product portfolio, in July, we acquired Scharffen Berger, a producer of high-end extraordinary chocolates. This was another great tuck-in acquisition for us. We plan to grow Scharffen Berger by introducing their legendary brand, which is well known to chocolatiers to our customers by including their chocolate in our gift assortments from our family of brands.

為了進一步增強我們的產品組合，我們在 7 月收購了高端非凡巧克力生產商 Scharffen Berger。這對我們來說是另一項偉大的收購。我們計劃透過將 Scharffen Berger 的傳奇品牌介紹給我們的客戶來發展 Scharffen Berger，該品牌在巧克力製造商中廣為人知，將他們的巧克力納入我們品牌系列的禮品系列中。

Additionally, as I mentioned on our last call, we continue to lean into one of our main differentiators last mile delivery. Beyond flowers and Shari's Berries, we will continue to expand the availability of additional products from our family of brands such as Cheryl's Cookies and 1-800-Baskets to offer more gifting options for those last-minute occasions. I look forward to keeping you apprised of these and our other initiatives throughout the fiscal year.

此外，正如我在上次電話會議中提到的，我們繼續致力於最後一英里交付的主要優勢之一。除了鮮花和 Shari's Berries 之外，我們還將繼續擴大 Cheryl's Cookies 和 1-800-Baskets 等品牌系列的其他產品的供應範圍，為最後一刻的場合提供更多禮物選擇。我期待在整個財年向您通報這些舉措以及我們的其他舉措。

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, and good morning, everyone. Fiscal 2024 proved to be the year of our gross margin recovery. On a fiscal year basis, our gross margin increased 260 basis points, bringing us to 40.1% for fiscal '24. For the fourth quarter, our gross margin improved to 38.4%, increasing 130 basis points as we began to lap the improvement of a year ago.

謝謝，湯姆，大家早安。事實證明，2024 財年是我們毛利率復甦的一年。以財年為基礎，我們的毛利率成長了 260 個基點，24 財年達到 40.1%。第四季度，我們的毛利率提高至 38.4%，增加了 130 個基點，開始追隨一年前的改善。

We've now recovered a meaningful portion of our gross margin that had been eroded over the last few years due to supply chain challenges and higher ocean freight, commodity costs, and labor costs. But the job is not done.

我們現在已經恢復了過去幾年由於供應鏈挑戰以及更高的海運費、商品成本和勞動力成本而受到侵蝕的毛利率的很大一部分。但工作還沒完成。

Over the next few fiscal years, we expect to return to our historical gross margin rate in the low 40% range as certain commodity costs continue to revert to their mean and our evergreen Work Smarter initiatives focused on operating more efficiently continues to yield future benefits.

在接下來的幾個財年中，隨著某些商品成本繼續恢復到其平均水平，以及我們專注於更高效運營的常青「智慧工作」計劃繼續產生未來效益，我們預計將恢復到40%的歷史毛利率水準。

Our gross margin recovery helped mitigate the dynamic consumer environment that we have been navigating throughout fiscal 2024. As Jim highlighted, we had expected the broader macro environment to become more supportive as fiscal 2024 progressed, which did not occur and had a disproportionate impact on our lower-income customers.

我們的毛利率恢復有助於緩解我們在 2024 財年一直面臨的動態消費環境。正如 Jim 所強調的那樣，我們原本預計隨著 2024 財年的進展，更廣泛的宏觀環境將變得更加有利，但這一情況並未發生，而且對我們的低收入客戶產生了不成比例的影響。

As a result, our revenues declined 9.5% and 9.2% for the fourth quarter and fiscal year, respectively. As more price-sensitive consumers continued to pull back, our higher-income customers comprised a greater portion of our revenues and they gravitated towards our higher-priced items, that led to a 2.9% increase in our AOV for the quarter and 2.7% for the fiscal year.

因此，我們第四季和本財年的營收分別下降了 9.5% 和 9.2%。隨著更多對價格敏感的消費者繼續退出，我們的高收入客戶在我們的收入中所佔的比例越來越大，他們傾向於購買價格較高的商品，這導致我們本季的AOV 成長了2.9%，全年成長了2.7%。

As a component of our Work Smarter initiatives, our organization remains steadfast in managing expenses and despite the inflationary environment we are operating within, we reduced operating expenses by $22.2 million for the fiscal year when excluding our impairment and other non-recurring charges, as well as the impact of our non-qualified deferred compensation plan in both periods.

作為我們「智慧工作」計畫的一部分，我們的組織仍然堅定地管理費用，儘管我們所處的通貨膨脹環境，我們在排除減損和其他非經常性費用的情況下，在本財年減少了2,220萬美元的營運費用。

As a result of our gross margin recovery and expense optimization efforts, our fiscal '24 adjusted EBITDA improved $1.9 million to $93.1 million, offsetting the decline in revenue.

由於我們的毛利率恢復和費用優化工作，我們 24 財年調整後的 EBITDA 提高了 190 萬美元，達到 9,310 萬美元，抵消了收入的下降。

For the fourth quarter, the adjusted EBITDA loss increased by $2.2 million to $8.8 million. Net loss was $20.9 million or $0.32 per share, and $6.1 million or $0.09 per share for the fourth quarter and fiscal year, respectively. For the quarter, the adjusted net loss was $21.8 million or $0.34 per share. And the adjusted net income for the fiscal year was $11.6 million or $0.18 per share.

第四季度，調整後 EBITDA 虧損增加 220 萬美元，達到 880 萬美元。第四季和本財年的淨虧損分別為 2,090 萬美元或每股 0.32 美元，以及 610 萬美元或每股 0.09 美元。本季調整後淨虧損為 2,180 萬美元，即每股 0.34 美元。本財年調整後淨利為 1,160 萬美元，即每股 0.18 美元。

Now let's review our segment results. For the fourth quarter, our Gourmet Foods and Gift Baskets segment revenues declined 12.8% to $105.2 million. Gross profit margin increased 190 basis points to 30%, benefiting from lower freight costs, the company's inventory and labor optimization efforts, as well as a decline in certain commodity costs.

現在讓我們回顧一下我們的細分結果。第四季度，我們的美食和禮品籃部門收入下降 12.8% 至 1.052 億美元。毛利率成長190個基點至30%，受益於貨運成本下降、公司庫存和勞動力優化工作以及某些商品成本的下降。

As a result, the segment contribution margin loss was $14.4 million compared with a loss of $13.4 million in the prior year period. For the full fiscal year, revenues declined 9.4% to $874.3 million. Gross profit margin increased 340 basis points to 38.3%, once again benefiting from lower freight costs, the company's inventory and labor optimization efforts, as well as a decline in certain commodity costs.

因此，分部邊際貢獻損失為 1,440 萬美元，而去年同期為損失 1,340 萬美元。整個財年，營收下降 9.4% 至 8.743 億美元。毛利率成長340個基點至38.3%，再次受益於貨運成本下降、公司庫存和勞動力優化工作以及某些商品成本的下降。

Adjusted segment contribution margin increased to $85 million compared with $77.5 million in the prior year. For the fourth quarter, our Consumer Floral & Gifts segment revenues declined 6.7% to $231.6 million. Gross profit margin increased 20 basis points to 40.8%, improving on lower fulfillment costs and our logistics optimization efforts.

調整後的部門邊際貢獻增至 8,500 萬美元，而上一年為 7,750 萬美元。第四季度，我們的消費花卉和禮品部門營收下降 6.7% 至 2.316 億美元。毛利率成長了 20 個基點，達到 40.8%，這得益於較低的履行成本和我們的物流優化工作。

As a result, segment contribution margin declined to $25.7 million compared with $30.7 million in the prior year. For the fiscal year, revenues decreased 7.7% to $849.8 million. Gross profit margin increased 130 basis points to 40.8%, benefiting from lower fulfillment costs and our logistic optimization efforts. As a result, segment contribution margin was $87.7 million compared with $95.5 million in the prior year.

因此，部門邊際貢獻率下降至 2,570 萬美元，而上一年為 3,070 萬美元。本財年，營收下降 7.7% 至 8.498 億美元。由於較低的履行成本和我們的物流優化工作，毛利率增加了 130 個基點，達到 40.8%。因此，部門邊際貢獻為 8,770 萬美元，而前一年為 9,550 萬美元。

Turning to our BloomNet segment. Revenues for the quarter and fiscal year were impacted by the lower order volume processed by BloomNet, which included an expected decline in orders by one of our business partners following their merger with a competitor.

轉向我們的 BloomNet 部分。本季和財年的收入受到 BloomNet 處理的訂單量減少的影響，其中包括我們的一個業務合作夥伴與競爭對手合併後訂單量預計會下降。

For the fourth quarter, revenues declined 18.7% to $24.4 million. Gross profit margin increased 710 basis points to 49.7%, also benefiting from lower ocean freight costs as well as product mix. As a result, segment contribution margin was $7.8 million compared with $7.4 million in the prior year period.

第四季營收下降 18.7% 至 2,440 萬美元。毛利率成長 710 個基點至 49.7%，這也得益於海運費成本和產品組合的降低。因此，部門邊際貢獻為 780 萬美元，而去年同期為 740 萬美元。

For fiscal year, revenues decreased 19.1% to $107.8 million. Gross profit margin increased 550 basis points to 48.2%, primarily reflecting lower volume of lower margin orders, lower ocean freight costs as well as product mix. Adjusted segment contribution margin was $33.8 million compared with $37.2 million in the prior year.

本財年，營收下降 19.1% 至 1.078 億美元。毛利率成長 550 個基點至 48.2%，主要反映利潤率較低的訂單量減少、海運費降低、產品組合下降。調整後的分部邊際貢獻率為 3,380 萬美元，而上一年為 3,720 萬美元。

Turning to our balance sheet, at fiscal year-end. Our cash and investment position was $159.4 million compared with $126.8 million a year ago. Inventory declined to $176.6 million compared with inventory of $191.3 million at the end of last fiscal year.

轉向我們財年末的資產負債表。我們的現金和投資部位為 1.594 億美元，而一年前為 1.268 億美元。庫存下降至 1.766 億美元，而上一財年末庫存為 1.913 億美元。

And in terms of debt, we had $190 million in term debt and no borrowings under our revolving credit facility. As a result, our net debt was $30.6 million compared with $73.2 million at the end of last year.

就債務而言，我們有 1.9 億美元的定期債務，並且在循環信貸安排下沒有借款。因此，我們的淨債務為 3,060 萬美元，而去年年底為 7,320 萬美元。

Now let's turn to our fiscal '25 guidance. Over the last few years, our company has made investment to significantly expand our offerings and improve the customer experience through organic growth and acquisitions. In fiscal '25, we expect our top-line trends to benefit from these investments that have expanded and enhanced our platform.

現在讓我們來看看我們的 25 財年指導方針。在過去的幾年裡，我們公司進行了投資，透過有機成長和收購顯著擴大了我們的產品範圍並改善了客戶體驗。在 25 財年，我們預計我們的營收趨勢將受益於這些擴大和增強我們平台的投資。

While it's difficult to predict when consumers will increase their discretionary spending, we plan to leverage our pricing elasticity to ensure we have gifts to serve each of our customer segments. Additionally, our wholesale business is expected to rebound as our partners have already placed and increased their gift basket holiday season orders as compared to fiscal 2024.

雖然很難預測消費者何時會增加可自由支配的支出，但我們計劃利用我們的定價彈性來確保我們有禮物來服務每個客戶群。此外，與 2024 財年相比，我們的合作夥伴已經下達並增加了禮品籃假日季節訂單，因此我們的批發業務預計將出現反彈。

Following a significant rebound in fiscal 2024, we expect our gross margin to continue to improve, but at a slowing rate of improvement. We expect the improvement to be in the 10s of basis points, which is on top of the 260 basis points improvement in fiscal 2024. This reflects the cross currents we are experiencing in the commodities markets.

繼 2024 財年大幅反彈後，我們預計毛利率將持續改善，但改善速度放緩。我們預計在 2024 財年改善 260 個基點的基礎上，改善幅度將達到 10 個基點。這反映了我們在大宗商品市場中所經歷的逆流。

Certain commodity prices have reverted to their mean while others remain relatively high, including cocoa prices which have actually increased. Additionally, we plan to increase our marketing spend to further enhance our relationship innovation investments.

某些商品價格已恢復到平均水平，而其他商品價格仍然相對較高，包括實際上上漲的可可價格。此外，我們計劃增加行銷支出，以進一步加強我們的關係創新投資。

Lastly, our guidance assumes increased incentive compensation expense in fiscal '25 as compared to a partial bonus payout in fiscal '24. Based on these assumptions, we expect total revenue on a percentage basis to be in the range of flat to a low single-digit decline as compared with the prior year.

最後，我們的指導假設與 24 財年的部分獎金支付相比，25 財年的激勵補償費用增加。基於這些假設，我們預計總收入將按百​​分比計算與前一年相比將保持持平至個位數的低幅下降。

We expect our revenue trends to improve as the year progresses, with some minor sequential improvement in Q1 of fiscal '25 that accelerates as the year progresses. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $85 million to $95 million and free cash flow will continue to be strong in an expected range of $45 million to $55 million.

我們預計我們的收入趨勢將隨著時間的推移而改善，25 財年第一季的一些小幅連續改善將隨著時間的推移而加速。調整後 EBITDA 預計在 8,500 萬美元至 9,500 萬美元之間，自由現金流將繼續強勁，預計在 4,500 萬美元至 5,500 萬美元之間。

Before I turn the call back to Jim for his closing remarks and Q&A and to follow up on Jim's comments earlier on this call, I'd like to take a moment to say thank you to everyone at 1-800 Flowers for so many great years and memories. I'd also like to thank many of you who I have come to know quite well over the many years that we have worked together. It's been an absolute honor to work for such a great company whose mission is to bring people together and deliver smiles.

在我將電話轉回給吉姆聽他的結束語和問答，並跟進吉姆早些時候在本次電話會議上的評論之前，我想花點時間向1-800 Flowers 的每個人表示感謝，感謝你們這麼多年的努力和回憶。我還要感謝我們多年來一起工作中所認識的許多人。在這樣一家偉大的公司工作是我的榮幸，該公司的使命是讓人們團結在一起並傳遞微笑。

I'd also like to take this moment to welcome James on-board. James is a tremendous addition who brings a wealth of experience to 1-800-Flowers leadership team. I'll be partnering with James over the next four months to ensure a seamless transition as he takes over the CFO role upon my retirement at the end of December.

我還想藉此機會歡迎詹姆斯的加入。James 是一個巨大的補充，他為 1-800-Flowers 領導團隊帶來了豐富的經驗。我將在接下來的四個月內與 James 合作，以確保順利過渡，因為他將在 12 月底我退休後接任財務長。

Now I'll turn the call back to Jim for his closing remarks before we open it up for Q&A.

現在，在我們開始問答之前，我將把電話轉回給吉姆，讓他作結束語。

Thank you Bill, and thanks again for your great partnership over these several decades now. But before I turn the call over for our Q&A, I'd like to briefly ask James if you take this opportunity to introduce yourself to our investor community. James?

謝謝比爾，並再次感謝你們這幾十年來的良好合作關係。但在我轉交電話進行問答之前，我想簡單地問一下詹姆斯，您是否藉此機會向我們的投資者社區介紹一下自己。詹姆斯？

Thanks, Jim. And good morning everyone. I'd like to start by saying how excited I am to be part of the team. I look forward to meeting many of you in the months ahead, as well as reconnecting with those whom I know from my prior roles. The entire 1-800-Flowers organization has been incredibly welcoming since my arrival. I look forward to partnering with Bill and the rest of our management team as I transition into the CFO role.

謝謝，吉姆。大家早安。首先我想說的是，我對成為團隊的一員感到多麼興奮。我期待在接下來的幾個月裡見到你們中的許多人，並與我在之前的職位上認識的人重新建立聯繫。自從我到達以來，整個 1-800-Flowers 組織都非常熱情地歡迎我。當我過渡到財務長職位時，我期待與比爾和我們管理團隊的其他成員合作。

Since joining this organization, I observed the growth-oriented mindset of the entire enterprise, providing our customers with a growing number of opportunities to express their sentiments and stay connected with the most important people in their lives.

自從加入這個組織以來，我觀察到整個企業以成長為導向的心態，為我們的客戶提供了越來越多的機會來表達他們的情感並與他們生活中最重要的人保持聯繫。

Over the last few months, I've been visiting our various facilities to get a much deeper appreciation of the scope of our businesses, including how we harvest pears and peaches from our own orchards, make many of our own goods, create personalized products within hours of an order being received, and partner with thousands of florists to help deliver smiles.

在過去的幾個月裡，我一直在參觀我們的各種設施，以更深入地了解我們的業務範圍，包括我們如何從自己的果園收穫梨子和桃子，製造許多我們自己的商品，在內部創造個性化產品收到訂單後的幾個小時內，與數千家花店合作，幫助傳遞微笑。

Through these visits, I quickly saw how a market-leading family of brands combined with our cutting-edge technology, positions us very well to be the gifting destination of choice for our customers and for continued long-term growth. I look forward to keeping all of you apprised on our performance and progress.

透過這些訪問，我很快就看到市場領先的品牌系列與我們的尖端技術相結合，如何使我們成為客戶首選的禮品目的地並實現持續的長期成長。我期待著向大家通報我們的表現和進展。

Now back to Jim.

現在回到吉姆。

Thanks, James. It's great to have you on-board. As we go through this transition period, Bill and James will both be on the next earnings call toward the end of October. And then James will lead the following earnings call that we host toward the end of January.

謝謝，詹姆斯。很高興您的加入。當我們經歷這個過渡期時，比爾和詹姆斯都將參加 10 月底的下一次財報電話會議。然後詹姆斯將主持我們在一月底舉行的下一次財報電話會議。

And with that, I'll open the call up for questions and invite the operator to please give instructions now.

接下來，我將打開電話詢問問題，並邀請接線員立即給予指示。

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

我們現在開始問答環節。（操作員說明）

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Sidoti.

安東尼·萊別津斯基，西多蒂。

Good morning, everyone. And Bill, congratulations on your pending retirement. Certainly, enjoyed working with you for many years. And James, I look forward to working with you as well. So I guess first, just looking at the quarter here. So GFGB revenue decline of 13% was more surprising to us and Harry & David is the largest brand within that segment which generally targets a higher income consumer.

大家早安。比爾，恭喜你即將退休。當然，很高興與您合作多年。詹姆斯，我也期待與你合作。所以我想首先看看這個季度。因此，GFGB 收入下降 13% 對我們來說更令人驚訝，而 Harry & David 是該細分市場中最大的品牌，通常針對高收入消費者。

So you guys talked about seeing weakness in lower income consumers which is understandable. But just wanted to kind of like, if you look at the different brands, maybe could you just talk more a little bit as far as where you're seeing the biggest kind of weakness and then where you're seeing some signs of strength?

你們談到看到低收入消費者的疲軟，這是可以理解的。但只是想，如果你看看不同的品牌，也許你能多談談你在哪裡看到了最大的弱點，然後在哪裡看到了一些強勢的跡象？

Good morning, Anthony. Thanks for your question. It's Jim. By the way, the best pronunciation of your last name we've ever heard.

早安，安東尼。謝謝你的提問。是吉姆。順便說一下，這是我們聽過的你姓氏的最佳發音。

Great.

偉大的。

I'll ask Tom to start the answer and Bill will want to contribute too.

我會請湯姆開始回答，比爾也願意貢獻。

Yeah. I think part of it, Anthony, was just the shift in the Easter placement. So Q3 was stronger with just the Easter placement and with...

是的。安東尼，我認為部分原因是復活節安排的轉變。因此，第三季的表現更加強勁，僅僅因為復活節的安排以及…

You'll remember that Easter was the last -- the Easter itself was the first day of the fourth quarter. So all of the sales that happened in GFGB before Easter happened in the third quarter. So that'll skew it some. But Tom?

你會記得復活節是最後一個——復活節本身是第四季的第一天。因此，復活節前 GFGB 發生的所有銷售都發生在第三季。所以這會造成一些偏差。但是湯姆？

And I think the other part of it, as we were moving into the holiday -- I mean, moving into the fourth quarter, we were seeing a lot of our advertising efforts not be formative and working as well as we liked on the GFGB side. And so we chose to make certain adjustments in our marketing schedule in order to focus there on the bottom line there.

我認為另一部分是，當我們進入假期時——我的意思是，進入第四季度，我們發現我們的許多廣告工作都沒有達到我們在 GFGB 方面所希望的效果。因此，我們選擇對行銷計劃進行某些調整，以便將重點放在利潤上。

Yes. Anthony, I think if you take a bigger picture of where our revenue trends are pretty comparable year over year, down about 9% both years. But if you pull out wholesale, because wholesale, we had a very good year and...

是的。安東尼，我想，如果你從更大的角度來看，我們的收入趨勢與去年同期相當，兩年都下降了約 9%。但如果你退出批發，因為批發，我們度過了非常好的一年...

Which is disproportionately in GFGB.

這在 GFGB 中是不成比例的。

Yeah, right. But wholesale was strong year in '23, a down year in '24, and then we have it bouncing back in the upcoming '25 year. If you look at e-comm pull out of wholesale and you look at kind of just the e-commerce trends, we were down 9.8% in '23. We were down 7.5% this past year.

是的，對。但批發在 23 年表現強勁，在 24 年下滑，然後我們在即將到來的 25 年反彈。如果你看電子商務退出批發市場的趨勢，你會發現我們在 23 年下降了 9.8%。去年我們下跌了 7.5%。

And if you break up and we've talked about this a lot, you got to almost look at us as two different halves of the year, the first half of the year and the second half of the year. E-commerce in the first half of the year was down 7.9%. E-commerce actually overall in the second half of the year was down 6.8%.

如果你分手了，而我們已經談了很多次，你幾乎會把我們視為一年中的兩個不同的一半，上半年和下半年。上半年電子商務下降7.9%。下半年電子商務整體下降了 6.8%。

So wholesale kind of distorts the numbers a little bit, but the e-commerce trend is actually improving in the second half of the year versus the first half of the year.

因此，批發有點扭曲了數字，但與上半年相比，下半年的電子商務趨勢實際上正在改善。

Got it. All right. That's very helpful. And just to follow up on the wholesale side. So glad to hear that you expect that component of your revenue to be up in fiscal '25. As far as timing of that, I know that can fluctuate between 1Q and 2Q. What is your general sense as to when you'll see that pickup in revenue, whether it's going to be more 1Q or 2Q or is it too early to say for sure?

知道了。好的。這非常有幫助。只是為了跟進批發方面。很高興聽到您預計 25 財年這部分收入將會增加。就時間而言，我知道可能會在第一季和第二季之間波動。對於何時會看到收入回升，您的整體感覺是什麼？

Yeah. It would definitely be Q2. There's always the timing at the end of Q1 into Q2. So we're still -- and that's sometimes dictated by the big box guys. But the growth will all be in Q2. A large majority of those revenues are in Q2 anyway.

是的。這肯定是第二季。總是有從第一季末進入第二季的時間。所以我們仍然——這有時是由大盒子傢伙決定的。但成長將全部發生在第二季。無論如何，這些收入的大部分都來自第二季。

So the good news is, we know it's coming because we've already booked the business. It's just a question of shipping dates that they request. And that's right around the end of the first quarter. So, as Bill says, you're going to see the improvement that we budgeted for, planned, and now have come in the second quarter.

所以好消息是，我們知道它即將到來，因為我們已經預訂了這項業務。這只是他們要求的發貨日期的問題。那是在第一季末左右。因此，正如比爾所說，您將看到我們預算、計劃和現在在第二季度實現的改進。

Got you. Okay. And then just overall, in terms of the different initiatives that you've laid out. I mean, I guess, how would you rank them as far as being the most impactful for you guys as far as how revenue will improve as the year progresses? Maybe you could just kind of walk us through and prioritize -- like give us a sense as to like, which of the initiatives will be the most impactful and so on.

明白你了。好的。然後就總體而言，就您提出的不同舉措而言。我的意思是，我想，就收入如何隨著時間的推移而改善而言，您對它們的影響力如何？也許你可以引導我們完成並確定優先順序——例如讓我們了解喜歡哪些舉措最有影響力等等。

Well, overall, I'd say that the things that the initiatives that we have the most promise in and are betting behind the most are all around our Relationship Innovation efforts. The way that we interact with our customers, the way they interact with us, a lot of it on the direct marketing side, so that's the engagement efforts we have. It's the tools we're introducing throughout this fiscal year to give them more and more sophisticated tools in terms of managing the relationships and the life.

嗯，總的來說，我想說的是，我們最有希望和最投入的舉措都是圍繞著我們的關係創新工作。我們與客戶互動的方式，他們與我們互動的方式，很多都是在直接行銷方面，所以這就是我們的參與努力。這是我們在本財政年度推出的工具，為他們提供越來越複雜的工具來管理人際關係和生活。

So I would say primarily the improvements that we see going forward will be Relationship Innovation side. Of course, we're always focused, and Bill will touch more on some of the operating efficiency efforts we have. Our Work Smarter initiatives.

所以我想說，我們未來看到的改進主要是關係創新方面。當然，我們始終專注，比爾將更多地談論我們在營運效率方面所做的一些努力。我們的「智慧工作」舉措。

Work Smarter initiatives is as we described in the opening remarks, we now consider evergreen. And Bill will be focusing a lot of his time leading up to his retirement on really revving up our Work Smarter initiatives. Bill, you want to touch on some of those?

正如我們在開場白中所描述的那樣，「智慧工作」舉措現在被認為是常青樹。比爾在退休前將把大量時間集中在真正加快我們的「智慧工作」計畫上。比爾，你想談談其中的一些嗎？

Yeah. But even with back on the revenue side, just the pricing elasticity that we've been efforting both on the high end but also on the value-oriented. Tom made some comments in his formal remarks about the $50 kind of all-in-floral bundles, but we have a lot more products to address kind of the value -- consumer that's out there that has struggled the most.

是的。但即使回到收入方面，我們一直在高端和價值導向方面努力提高定價彈性。湯姆在他的正式演講中對 50 美元的全花套裝發表了一些評論，但我們有更多的產品來解決這種價值——那些最苦苦掙扎的消費者。

With respect to Work Smarter, we're continuing to implement initiatives, automation initiatives in our distribution centers using AI on both the front end of the website to create a better customer journey and really on the back end with our customer service platform to reduce labor and be more efficient. With that said, as Jim and Tom have indicated, those are kind of evergreen initiatives that will continue to generate savings for us going forward.

關於“更聰明地工作”，我們將繼續在配送中心實施自動化舉措，在網站前端使用人工智慧來創建更好的客戶旅程，並在後端使用客戶服務平台來減少勞動力並變得更有效率。儘管如此，正如吉姆和湯姆所指出的那樣，這些都是常青計劃，將繼續為我們未來節省開支。

Got you, okay. And then lastly for me, before I pass it on to others. So you made a small acquisition of a high-end chocolate company. Can you comment as far as like how to think about the impact of that and plus also, what is your appetite for additional acquisitions?

明白你了，好。最後對我來說，在我將其傳遞給其他人之前。因此，您對一家高端巧克力公司進行了小額收購。您能否評論一下如何考慮這一影響，此外，您對額外收購的興趣是什麼？

Sure, Anthony. Our appetite -- I'll start. Well, our appetite is kind of robust and the buffet is getting nicer. What I mean is, because of the capital environment we're in, companies that have struggled to find a bottom line and don't have very close prospects of turning profitable, as you would well imagine, are struggling to find capital, that's made the inbound efforts to us quite robust of late.

當然，安東尼。我們的胃口——我要開始了。嗯，我們的胃口有點大，自助餐也越來越美味了。我的意思是，由於我們所處的資本環境，那些一直在努力尋找底線並且沒有非常接近盈利前景的公司，正如你可以想像的那樣，正在努力尋找資本，這使得最近我們的入境力度相當強勁。

So I think there'll be some opportunities. I'm certain there'll be some opportunities. We always have to manage our efforts there to see if they really do pay off for us. There's always integration risk, there's obviously the capital side of things. But I think there's going to be a robust set of opportunities.

所以我認為會有一些機會。我確信會有一些機會。我們總是必須管理我們在那裡的努力，看看它們是否真的為我們帶來回報。整合風險總是存在的，顯然還有資本方面的風險。但我認為將會有一系列強勁的機會。

What we've done in the last year and a half or so on the acquisition side is buy things that really do rev up our primary initiatives. Our Work Smarter initiatives and our platform they lever our platform.

我們在過去一年半左右的時間裡在收購方面所做的就是購買那些真正能夠加速我們主要計劃的東西。我們的「智慧工作」計畫和我們的平台充分利用了我們的平台。

So let me turn to the one you mentioned, Scharffen Berger. This is a brand frankly, I looked at 15 years ago because of its terrific brand position, its uniqueness, its high-quality product offerings. Another company beat us to the punch there and bought that company.

那麼讓我來談談你提到的沙芬·伯傑（Scharffen Berger）。坦白說，我在 15 年前就關注過這個品牌，因為它出色的品牌地位、獨特性和高品質的產品。另一家公司搶先我們一步，收購了那家公司。

Fortunately for us, it came back around. So it's very small. But everything about the story, everything about the brand, everything about its recipes, its unique product are still intact, has great people there. And coincidentally, it's only 10 minutes away from our facilities in Medford, Oregon, where it was most recently located. So very easy for us to tuck in.

對我們來說幸運的是，它又回來了。所以它很小。但關於故事的一切，關於品牌的一切，關於它的食譜的一切，它獨特的產品仍然完好無損，那裡有很棒的人。巧合的是，它距離我們最近所在的俄勒岡州梅德福工廠僅 10 分鐘路程。所以我們很容易塞進去。

And what do they need? They need the things that we have. Our huge customer base, our e-commerce marketing capability, or what we call house media, Anthony. So what I mean by that is inexpensive marketing opportunities that we have that are already a part of what we do, including them in our email communications, on our other websites, putting their products in our packaging that we're already working on where it's needed and necessary.

他們需要什麼？他們需要我們所擁有的東西。我們龐大的客戶群，我們的電子商務行銷能力，或我們所說的自媒體，安東尼。所以我的意思是，我們擁有廉價的行銷機會，這些機會已經成為我們工作的一部分，包括在我們的電子郵件通訊中，在我們的其他網站上，將他們的產品放入我們已經在努力的包裝中需要的和必要的。

So our Gift Baskets, when they need a component of a high end chocolate product, guess who it's going to be. So we have a number of ways of growing that brand. So we take a Kernel that is a great brand, great recipes, great history. We have -- they have a good facility, but it can handle much more volume than the couple of million dollars that they do now.

因此，當他們需要高端巧克力產品的某個成分時，我們的禮物籃就猜猜會是誰。因此，我們有多種方式來發展該品牌。所以我們選擇了一個偉大的品牌、偉大的食譜、偉大的歷史的核心。我們——他們有一個很好的設施，但它可以處理比他們現在處理的幾百萬美元更多的交易量。

We happen to have a million square foot facility down the road with state-of-the-art, very highly automated equipment that can take their very unique recipes and do it in high scale volume with no additional capital cost to us. So we have the things that they need.

我們碰巧擁有一百萬平方英尺的設施，配備最先進、高度自動化的設備，可以採用他們非常獨特的配方，並進行大規模生產，而無需為我們帶來額外的資本成本。所以我們有他們需要的東西。

And in terms of scale, that was the first part of your question that will be a double or a triple right out of the gate in terms of top-line, but it's inconsequential when you think about our size. But in the three to five years from now, that will become a substantial business and be done capital efficiently with very little in marketing spend because we're able to lever the things we already do.

就規模而言，這是你問題的第一部分，就營收而言，這將是兩倍或三倍，但當你考慮我們的規模時，這並不重要。但從現在起的三到五年內，這將成為一項重要的業務，並且可以在行銷支出很少的情況下高效地完成資本，因為我們能夠利用我們已經做的事情。

That's a perfect example of the kind of things that are coming in more frequency to us now and makes us very excited because they're low-risk, great extensions for our consumer. Our existing customer base wants a product like that and we have the wherewithal to make it grow very efficiently and grow it into a substantial business.

這是一個完美的例子，說明現在我們越來越常看到這種事情，這讓我們非常興奮，因為它們對我們的消費者來說是低風險、偉大的擴展。我們現有的客戶群想要這樣的產品，我們有足夠的資金使其非常有效地發展並將其發展成為一項可觀的業務。

If we don't see a path to get a business on our platform to $50 million to $100 million business in a five-year timeframe, then we probably wouldn't spend any time on it. But I think that brand has the opportunity to grow over time to be a substantial contributor.

如果我們看不到在五年內讓我們平台上的業務達到 5000 萬至 1 億美元業務的途徑，那麼我們可能不會花任何時間在這上面。但我認為該品牌有機會隨著時間的推移而成長，成為一個重要的貢獻者。

Yeah. So, Anthony, this year it's going to be introduced to a lot of our customers via inclusion in the Gift Baskets that we sell. So, kind of modest this year, but then growing, as Jim indicated, we believe substantially over the future.

是的。所以，安東尼，今年我們將透過將其納入我們銷售的禮品籃中向我們的許多客戶介紹。因此，正如吉姆所指出的那樣，今年的成長有點溫和，但隨後有所成長，我們對未來充滿信心。

Thank you very much, and best of luck.

非常感謝，祝你好運。

Thanks, Anthony.

謝謝，安東尼。

Michael Kupinski, NOBLE Capital Markets.

邁克爾·庫平斯基 (Michael Kupinski)，NOBLE 資本市場。

Thank you and good morning, everyone. And Bill, let me offer my congratulations on your retirement. I can tell you that it's been a tremendous pleasure working with you over the years, and I'm going to miss you. And I want to welcome James as well. I look forward to working with you more closely, James.

謝謝大家，早安。比爾，請允許我祝賀你的退休。我可以告訴你，這些年來與你一起工作非常愉快，我會想念你的。我也想歡迎詹姆斯。我期待著與你更密切地合作，詹姆斯。

A couple of questions. In terms of your guidance for 2025, consumer confidence has always been a metric that we've always looked at in terms of revenue growth. And if you look at the consumer confidence has most recently been improving and at the same time, your revenue growth for at least your initial guidance was pretty positive and constructive on looking for rate decreases.

有幾個問題。就 2025 年的指導而言，消費者信心一直是我們在收入成長方面一直關注的指標。如果你看看消費者信心最近一直在改善，同時，你的收入成長至少在你最初的指導中是相當積極的，並且對尋求利率下降具有建設性。

And it now appears that we're going to have rate decreases a little bit more timely. Now, it looks like the timetable has been set -- relatively set. I was wondering in terms of what gives you pause in terms of your revenue outlook for 2025, given those metrics that we've more closely watched in the past.

現在看來，我們將更及時地降低利率。現在看來時間表已經確定了——相對確定了。我想知道，考慮到我們過去更密切關注的這些指標，是什麼讓您對 2025 年的收入前景猶豫不決。

Thanks, Michael. It's Jim. I think the main thing that gives us pause is we were feeling pretty good until last three weeks when we heard everybody else be so cautious about the fourth calendar quarter or second fiscal quarter. So just psychologically it caused us to say, should we feel as good as we do? And, but, Bill, why don't you give Mike a little more color? What went into the recipe for our guidance?

謝謝，麥可。是吉姆。我認為讓我們猶豫的主要事情是我們感覺很好，直到過去三週我們聽到其他人對第四季度或第二財季都如此謹慎。因此，從心理上來說，這讓我們問，我們應該感覺良好嗎？但是，比爾，你為什麼不給麥克多一點色彩呢？我們的指導配方中有哪些內容？

Yes. So our guidance is really based upon all the initiatives that we've been outlining and discussing over the last year or so that we think start coming to fruition this year. It's not based on an improvement in the macro-economy. Certainly, when consumer confidence is high, companies like us that sell discretionary products do better, but we have not built that into our guidance. It really is based on our initiatives.

是的。因此，我們的指導實際上是基於我們在過去一年左右概述和討論的所有舉措，我們認為今年將開始實現。它不是基於宏觀經濟的改善。當然，當消費者信心高漲時，像我們這樣銷售非必需品的公司會做得更好，但我們並沒有將其納入我們的指導中。這確實是基於我們的倡議。

Yeah. I'll just layer on their Michael, it's Tom. Again, I think our focus here in what we put forth is based upon our Relationship Innovation efforts, those things that we -- were within our control, our category expansion, our broadening price points, our increase in same-day delivery of products, our user experience, all those things are what is giving us confidence where we're portraying and putting forth our recommendation for this forthcoming year.

是的。我就放在他們的麥可身上，這是湯姆。再說一次，我認為我們提出的重點是基於我們的關係創新努力，那些我們在控制範圍內的事情，我們的品類擴張，我們擴大的價格點，我們增加當天交付的產品，我們的用戶體驗，所有這些都讓我們對來年的描述和建議充滿信心。

But we do believe, Michael, that this is going to build as the year goes on. The trend lines in -- we're not expecting much change in the trend lines in Q1 versus what we saw in the second half of last year But as we build towards holiday and we always do better at holiday and into the second half of the year, we feel the trend lines will be much better.

但邁克爾，我們確實相信，隨著時間的推移，這種情況將會逐漸發展。與去年下半年相比，我們預計第一季的趨勢線不會有太大變化，但隨著我們朝著假期邁進，我們總是在假期和下半年表現更好今年，我們感覺趨勢線會好很多。

Got you. And then regarding margins, obviously you're expecting some improvement, even though not as much as what we've had more recently. But some of the commodity prices, as you mentioned, have been kind of stubbornly high, cocoa, milk, eggs, and so forth. And I was just wondering in terms of commodity prices specifically, what are your thoughts in terms of how that goes into 2025?

明白你了。然後關於利潤率，顯然您期望有所改善，儘管不如我們最近的改善那麼多。但正如你所提到的，有些商品的價格一直居高不下，例如可可、牛奶、雞蛋等。我只是想知道具體到大宗商品價格方面，您對 2025 年的情況有何看法？

Yes. I mean, certain commodity costs, as you mentioned, have reverted back to their mean wheat, corn, actually eggs, even sugar has come down and reverted back to their mean. But you also mentioned cocoa. Cocoa is at all-time highs or was at all-time highs. We luckily did lock in some pricing. It's an increase year-over-year, but we've locked in pricing for the two -- next two holiday seasons at more modest increases, but it is an increase.

是的。我的意思是，正如您所提到的，某些商品成本已恢復到平均水平，小麥、玉米、實際上是雞蛋，甚至糖也已經下降並恢復到平均水平。但你也提到了可可。可可處於歷史高點或曾經處於歷史高點。幸運的是，我們確實鎖定了一些定價。這是同比增長，但我們已經鎖定了這兩個假期的定價——接下來的兩個假期季節的增長幅度會更小，但這是增長。

Fuel continues to be high and inbound and outbound freight continue to be -- cost us more year-over-year. The inbound freight, again, we've locked in pricing that are competitive but the spot market is very high now. So it's hard if you go outside your contractual volumes in a particular month not to have increases on the inbound volume.

燃油價格仍居高不下，進出港運費仍比去年同期更高。入境貨運方面，我們再次鎖定了具有競爭力的價格，但現貨市場現在非常高。因此，如果您在某個特定月份超出了合約數量，那麼入境數量就很難不增加。

So we factored all those items into the guidance for margin improvement, but much more modest than we saw last year. Again, last year we increased 260 basis points, well ahead of our original plan. So we already achieved over 40% gross margin.

因此，我們將所有這些項目都納入了利潤率改善的指導中，但比我們去年看到的要溫和得多。去年我們再次增加了 260 個基點，遠遠超出了我們最初的計劃。所以我們已經實現了40%以上的毛利率。

So we said it wouldn't be a linear march to return to our historical gross margins. We had a big jump last year. We'll have a small improvement in gross margin this year. And Bill gave you the factors on the commodity impacts. In addition, we're going to spend more money on marketing this year because we think the opportunity there is to improve our overall revenue trends, and that's going to be at the expense of more marketing spend.

因此我們表示，恢復歷史毛利率不會是線性過程。去年我們有了很大的飛躍。今年我們的毛利率將略有改善。比爾向您提供了影響商品的因素。此外，今年我們將在行銷上投入更多資金，因為我們認為有機會改善我們的整體收入趨勢，但這將以增加行銷支出為代價。

Got you. Those were my major questions. I appreciate it. Thank you.

明白你了。這些是我的主要問題。我很感激。謝謝。

Thank you, Michael.

謝謝你，麥可。

Thank you, Michael.

謝謝你，麥可。

Alex Fuhrman, Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

亞歷克斯·福爾曼，克雷格-哈勒姆資本集團。

Hey guys, thanks very much for taking my questions. Bill, congratulations on your retirement. It's been great getting to know you over the last decade or so. Wanted to ask you guys, what have you been seeing in terms of customer acquisition costs?

嘿夥計們，非常感謝您回答我的問題。比爾，恭喜你退休。在過去十年左右的時間裡認識你真是太好了。想問一下你們，在客戶獲取成本上你們看到了什麼？

Obviously, there's been a lot going on this year with the Olympics and now the election. Curious if you think there might be an opportunity to accelerate efforts to go after new customers after the election.

顯然，今年奧運和現在的選舉發生了很多事情。很好奇您是否認為選舉後可能有機會加快努力爭取新客戶。

I think that's very much the case. We've -- looking historically, we've been at this for a long time. Elections, especially when they're very contentious and I can't remember the last one that wasn't -- or distraction. They're a distraction from a public attention point of view.

我認為情況就是如此。從歷史上看，我們已經在這方面研究了很長時間。選舉，尤其是當它們非常有爭議的時候，我不記得上一次沒有爭議或分散注意力的情況。從大眾的角度來看，它們會分散人們的注意力。

And there's so much money pouring into the markets to buy media space in radio, TV, and certainly in every online media. So we're not expecting much of a change in our trend lines before the election. But we do think there's a significant opportunity post-election for us to step into the market more meaningfully.

大量資金湧入市場購買廣播、電視、當然還有所有線上媒體的媒體空間。因此，我們預期選舉前的趨勢線不會有太大變化。但我們確實認為選舉後我們有一個重要的機會更有意義地進入市場。

Overall, I think, as we said, our marketing spend is budgeted to be up this year. And we think there's real good reason, a real opportunity there. We continue to gain market share in our core businesses, and I think the cost of acquisition of customers is one of the reasons for that because it is historically high and likely to stay there.

總的來說，我認為，正如我們所說，今年我們的行銷支出預算將會增加。我們認為這確實有充分的理由，也有真正的機會。我們繼續在核心業務中獲得市場份額，我認為獲取客戶的成本是原因之一，因為它處於歷史高位，並且可能會保持在這個水平。

Okay. That's really helpful.

好的。這真的很有幫助。

Yes. We see -- Alex, we see it moderating, but it won't be universally moderating. We -- I mean, obviously, we have a tremendous amount of lines in the water all the time, and we're measuring each one of those activities. So we have a pretty good idea what our playbook is going to be, post-election year.

是的。我們看到——亞歷克斯，我們看到它正在緩和，但它不會普遍緩和。我們——我的意思是，顯然，我們一直在水中有大量的線，我們正在測量每項活動。因此，我們非常清楚選舉後我們的策略是什麼。

That's really helpful. Thank you both.

這真的很有幫助。謝謝你們倆。

Doug Lane, Water Tower Research.

道格·萊恩，水塔研究。

Yeah. Hi. Good morning, everybody. And congratulations, Bill, on your retirement. Just want to drill down on guidance here a little bit. The wholesale orders are encouraging for the December quarter. It's important for that quarter. And you mentioned the first quarter.

是的。你好。大家早安。比爾，恭喜你退休。只是想在這裡深入了解指導。十二月季度的批發訂單令人鼓舞。這對該季度很重要。你提到了第一季。

The September quarter is likely to be sort of continuing the trends of the second half of the last fiscal year. So that implies we'll see hopefully positive signs in front of some sales numbers in the last three quarters of this fiscal year. Do you think it could be as soon as the December quarter?

九月季度可能延續上一財年下半年的趨勢。因此，這意味著我們將有望在本財年最後三個季度的一些銷售數據中看到積極的跡象。您認為最快可能在 12 月季度實現嗎？

Yeah, we thought -- we expect that the trend lines will start -- will improve in the second quarter. Yes.

是的，我們認為——我們預計趨勢線將在第二季開始改善。是的。

I mean, actually to have positive sales growth or is that more of a back-half phenomenon?

我的意思是，實際上是銷售正成長還是這更像是後半段現象？

Yeah, we don't really break it down. I think it could be a meaningful improvement in the trend.

是的，我們並沒有真正分解它。我認為這可能是趨勢的有意義的改善。

Okay.

好的。

We're not ready to declare victory yet, though.

不過，我們還沒準備好宣布勝利。

No, right, I get it. It's still a very uncertain environment out there. And also on the margins, I think it was asked earlier about commodity costs. And certainly, in the June quarter, the margins in the Gourmet Foods & Gift Baskets were below what I was expecting.

不，是的，我明白了。外面的環境仍然非常不確定。另外，我認為早些時候有人問過有關商品成本的問題。當然，在六月季度，美食和禮品籃的利潤率低於我的預期。

I just wondered how much of that was because the sales were lower than expected or how much of that is because of some sort of a rise in the input cost front that you were unexpected -- that you were not expecting?

我只是想知道其中有多少是因為銷售額低於預期，或者有多少是因為投入成本方面的某種上升是您意料之外的——您沒有預料到的？

Well, again, I would say margins came in where we were expecting it. The top line was softer than we hoped for. But margins, for the year came in very nicely. We're comping against in the fourth quarter already nicely improved margins a year ago in the fourth quarter.

好吧，我再說一遍，利潤率達到了我們的期望。頂線比我們希望的要軟。但今年的利潤率非常好。我們第四季的利潤率已經比一年前第四季的利潤率有了很大提高。

So the moderation of the improvement was expected on our side. Certainly, as with greater sales, there's some leverage of fixed costs that help margins, but much more the impacts of margins are everything from commodity costs, inbound and outbound, freight, labor, et cetera.

因此，我們預計改善會有所放緩。當然，隨著銷售額的增加，固定成本的一些槓桿作用有助於提高利潤率，但利潤率的影響更廣泛，包括商品成本、進出成本、貨運、勞動力等。

Okay. And then looking at the '25 guidance, with sales flat down and your EBITDA at or below this year's number, it seems like you're not really expecting much EBITDA margin improvement this year, maybe even some degradation despite modest gross margin improvements.

好的。然後看看25 年的指導，銷售額持平下降，您的EBITDA 等於或低於今年的數字，似乎您並沒有真正期望今年EBITDA 利潤率有太大改善，甚至可能會出現一些下降，儘管毛利率略有改善。

So am I reading this right, that there's going to be an increase in marketing expenses over and above what you're going to gain from the gross profit margin improvement?

那麼我的理解是否正確，行銷費用的增加將超出毛利率改善所帶來的利益？

I think it's fair to say, Doug, that's fluid. We have -- we given our guidance and we've been broadening our range because we think there's some opportunity for growth. We're not able to exactly book the gain from that increased marketing spend. So you don't see much of that in there at all. So there is upside to what we're saying. It all depends on what the yield from that increased marketing spend will be.

我認為可以公平地說，道格，這是流暢的。我們已經給出了指導，並且一直在擴大我們的範圍，因為我們認為存在一些成長機會。我們無法準確記錄增加的行銷支出所帶來的效益。所以你根本看不到其中的太多內容。所以我們所說的有正面的一面。這完全取決於增加行銷支出的收益。

Okay, fair enough. Yeah, that makes sense. And then you haven't really talked about PersonalizationMall. That was a big acquisition for you, maybe it hasn't worked out quite as well as you anticipated, but still a big business. Can you just comment maybe, Tom, on how PersonalizationMall is going? What your outlook is there for fiscal '25?

好吧，很公平。是的，這是有道理的。然後你還沒有真正談論過 PersonalizationMall。這對你來說是一筆大收購，也許效果沒有你預期的那麼好，但仍然是一筆大生意。湯姆，您能否評論一下 PersonalizationMall 的進展？您對 25 財年的展望如何？

Yeah. So certainly the PersonalizationMall brand was more impacted than many of our brands by the stratification of customers where we did have -- we do have a higher portion of customers who are in that lower household income, who are -- for customers in PersonalizationMall.

是的。因此，當然，PersonalizationMall 品牌比我們的許多品牌受到客戶分層的影響更大——對於 PersonalizationMall 的客戶來說，我們確實有較高比例的家庭收入較低的客戶。

We've been starting to see that gain traction and I think the introduction of Things Remembered in the product portfolio where both brands, and even though we go to market with both brands as separate brands, the product line is pretty fluid between those brands.

我們已經開始看到這種趨勢越來越受歡迎，我認為在兩個品牌的產品組合中引入了“記住的事情”，即使我們將兩個品牌作為獨立品牌進入市場，這些品牌之間的產品線也相當流暢。

And that's where we've also seen a nice pick up here. So it provides some more aspirational products for the PersonalizationMall customer. And then like we said, we're seeing great promise for the Things Remembered brand and products in general.

這也是我們在這裡看到的一個不錯的回升。因此它為 PersonalizationMall 客戶提供了一些更理想的產品。正如我們所說，我們看到了 Things Remembered 品牌和產品的巨大前景。

So we go to market with the Personalization business with a few different brands. With Things Remembered being the most recent addition there, Doug. And it's very much like Scharffen Berger. All we got was the IP, the intellectual property, the brand, the URL, the database of past customers, and a couple of terrific people who came over to us.

因此，我們透過幾個不同的品牌進入個人化業務市場。道格，《記憶中的事》是最新加入的內容。這很像沙芬·伯傑。我們得到的只是 IP、智慧財產權、品牌、URL、過去客戶的資料庫，以及一些來到我們這裡的很棒的人。

The PersonalizationMall brand and business that we acquired, yes, a larger acquisition that we did, that struggled, as Tom said, a little bit more than the rest of the house brands because of its focus on a more modest income customer.

我們收購的 PersonalizationMall 品牌和業務，是的，我們進行的一次更大的收購，正如湯姆所說，它的處境比其他自有品牌要困難一些，因為它專注於收入較低的客戶。

But with the introduction of Things Remembered, Tom and his team have positioned that as a more aspirational higher-end brand. And so what we had is we got the box, the facility, the high tech, very well run facility, and we were able to take an intellectual property acquisition bolted on the front of that. And as we've had time now to source the inventory, get it into stock, use that same efficient, very well-run machine, we're able to grow that.

但隨著「Things Remembered」的推出，湯姆和他的團隊將其定位為一個更有抱負的高端品牌。所以我們擁有的是盒子、設施、高科技、運作良好的設施，我們能夠在其前面進行智慧財產權收購。由於我們現在有時間來採購庫存，將其存入庫存，使用同樣高效、運作良好的機器，我們能夠增加庫存。

So Tom and all of us are optimistic about our personalization businesses this year, but it's a multi-brand strategy using one core asset and facility to grow those businesses inexpensively in the same way we do in Scharffen Berger and with differentiation between brands.

因此，湯姆和我們所有人都對今年的個人化業務感到樂觀，但這是一種多品牌策略，利用一項核心資產和設施以低廉的成本發展這些業務，就像我們在Scharffen Berger 所做的那樣，並在品牌之間進行差異化。

Okay, fair enough. Thank you.

好吧，很公平。謝謝。

Thanks, Doug.

謝謝，道格。

Linda Bolton Weiser, D.A. Davidson.

琳達·博爾頓·韋瑟，D.A.戴維森。

Yeah, hi. So, Bill, congratulations on your great career, and I certainly will miss you as well. And welcome to James in the new role. So I was curious about just two questions for me on BloomNet. Can you remind us kind of when that impact of the loss of that customer or partnership or whatever, when does that anniversary like, what's the timeframe when that will be anniversary?

是的，嗨。所以，比爾，恭喜你取得了偉大的職業生涯，我當然也會想念你。歡迎詹姆斯擔任新角色。所以我對 BloomNet 上的兩個問題感到好奇。您能否提醒我們，失去客戶或合作夥伴關係或其他什麼造成的影響是什麼時候，週年紀念日是什麼時候，週年紀念日的時間範圍是多少？

And then my second question is what your outlook is for kind of like the holiday labor situation this year, both in terms of rates and availability. Thanks.

然後我的第二個問題是，您對今年假期勞動力狀況的展望如何，無論是在費率還是可用性方面。謝謝。

Linda, on the first one, basically January 1. That contract ended December of last year. So we expect -- so the first two quarters BloomNet will be down because of the lower orders. We're building more flaw orders into BloomNet and we think second half of the year BloomNet will grow.

琳達，第一個，基本上是 1 月 1 日。該合約於去年 12 月結束。所以我們預計，前兩季 BloomNet 將因訂單減少而下降。我們正在 BloomNet 中建立更多缺陷訂單，我們認為 BloomNet 將於今年下半年成長。

With respect to the labor situation we've had last year it's been -- it was strong and we're anticipating it being strong again. Early signs are that it is that seasonal labor force will be readily available for us.

就去年的勞動力狀況而言，它一直很強勁，我們預計它會再次強勁。早期跡象表明，我們將很容易獲得季節性勞動力。

And we've already begun our harvest just about eight days ago now on our pear crop. Peaches are coming to an end. So we already have our labor in place and it seems as good as last year.

大約八天前，我們已經開始了梨子作物的收穫。桃子快要結束了。所以我們已經做好了準備，看起來和去年一樣好。

And with steady economics, I guess, is the other piece of the...

我想，隨著經濟的穩定，另一部分是...

That's right.

這是正確的。

Question you're asking.

你問的問題。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Thank you, Linda.

謝謝你，琳達。

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, folks. And any additional questions, we're here to engage with you and help you in any way we can. I just want to add my thanks again. Appreciate all of you expressing your congratulations to Bill on his retirement.

謝謝你們，夥計們。如果有任何其他問題，我們將竭盡全力與您聯繫並為您提供協助。我只想再表達我的謝意。感謝大家對比爾退休表示祝賀。

But enough about Bill, seriously Bill has been my partner now for more than three decades. He's been a terrific partner and he's done a terrific job of helping us source his replacement, re-energize and reorganize our finance team, so we're in awfully good shape.

關於比爾的事已經說得夠多了，說真的，比爾已經成為我的合作夥伴三十多年了。他是一位出色的合作夥伴，在幫助我們找到繼任者、重新註入活力和重組我們的財務團隊方面做得非常出色，所以我們的狀況非常好。

James, you come into an easy role because everything's already set up for you. So you can coast in your first year in the role because Bill's put us in terrific shape. So thank you, Bill, congratulations and welcome James.

詹姆斯，你的角色很容易，因為一切都已經為你準備好了。所以你可以在擔任這個職位的第一年輕鬆自如，因為比爾讓我們處於極好的狀態。謝謝你，比爾，恭喜並歡迎詹姆斯。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you all, again. We look forward to engaging with you on any questions or follow-up you may have.

再次謝謝大家。我們期待與您就您可能遇到的任何問題或後續行動進行交流。

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。