Freshpet Inc (FRPT) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, greetings, and welcome to the Freshpet Inc. Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

女士們，先生們，問候，歡迎來到 Freshpet Inc. 2022 年第三季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）作為提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。

It is now my pleasure to introduce you your host, Jeff Sonnek from ICR. Please go ahead.

現在很高興向您介紹您的主持人，來自 ICR 的 Jeff Sonnek。請繼續。

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to Freshpet's Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Call and Webcast. On today's call are Billy Cyr, Chief Executive Officer; and Dick Kassar, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Scott Morris, Chief Operating Officer, will also be available for Q&A.

謝謝你。下午好，歡迎來到 Freshpet 的 2022 年第三季度財報電話會議和網絡直播。今天的電話會議是首席執行官 Billy Cyr；和臨時首席財務官迪克·卡薩（Dick Kassar）。首席運營官 Scott Morris 也將參加問答環節。

Before we begin, please remember that during the course of this call, management may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC and the company's press release issued today for a detailed discussion of the risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made today.

在我們開始之前，請記住，在本次電話會議期間，管理層可能會做出聯邦證券法含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述基於管理層當前的預期和信念，涉及可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述中描述的結果大不相同的風險和不確定性。請參閱公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-K 表格年度報告和公司今天發布的新聞稿，詳細討論可能導致實際結果與任何前瞻性陳述中明示或暗示的結果存在重大差異的風險今天。

Please note that on today's call, management will refer to non-GAAP financial measures such as EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, among others. While the company believes these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information for investors, the presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to today's press release for how management defines such non-GAAP measures, a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable measures prepared in accordance with GAAP and limitations associated with such non-GAAP measures.

請注意，在今天的電話會議上，管理層將參考非公認會計準則財務指標，例如 EBITDA 和調整後的 EBITDA 等。雖然公司認為這些非公認會計原則財務措施為投資者提供了有用的信息，但這些信息的呈現並不旨在孤立地考慮或替代根據公認會計原則呈現的財務信息。請參閱今天的新聞稿，了解管理層如何定義此類非 GAAP 措施、非 GAAP 財務措施與根據 GAAP 編制的最具可比性措施的對賬以及與此類非 GAAP 措施相關的限制。

Finally, as previously disclosed, during the second quarter call, beginning with this third quarter of 2022, the company is no longer adding back plant start-up and launch expenses in this definition of adjusted EBITDA. The company has provided those costs in a table at the end of its press release to assist in your analysis of the results under both methodologies. Additionally, the company has produced a presentation that contains many of the key metrics that will be discussed on this call. That presentation can be found on the company's investor website.

最後，如前所述，在第二季度電話會議期間，從 2022 年第三季度開始，該公司不再在調整後 EBITDA 的定義中添加工廠啟動和啟動費用。該公司在其新聞稿末尾的表格中提供了這些成本，以幫助您分析兩種方法下的結果。此外，該公司還製作了一份演示文稿，其中包含將在本次電話會議上討論的許多關鍵指標。該演示文稿可以在公司的投資者網站上找到。

Management's commentary will not specifically walk through the presentation on the call, rather is a summary of the results and guidance they will discuss today. Additionally, we'd ask that your questions remain focused on the performance of the business and the results in the quarter. Management will not discuss or speculate on other topics beyond what is being reported here today.

管理層的評論不會具體介紹電話會議的演示文稿，而是他們今天將討論的結果和指導的摘要。此外，我們希望您的問題仍然集中在業務表現和本季度的結果上。管理層不會討論或推測除了今天在這里報告的內容之外的其他主題。

With that, I would like to turn the call over to Billy Cyr, Chief Executive Officer. Billy?

有了這個，我想把電話轉給首席執行官比利·西爾。比利？

Thank you, Jeff, and good afternoon, everyone. The message I would like you to take away from today's call is that we had a solid, on-plan quarter and that we are taking concrete steps to deliver on the enormous potential of Freshpet by addressing the most critical issues we outlined in our September organization change announcements.

謝謝你，傑夫，大家下午好。我希望您從今天的電話會議中得到的信息是，我們有一個穩健的、按計劃進行的季度，我們正在採取具體措施，通過解決我們在 9 月組織中概述的最關鍵問題來發揮 Freshpet 的巨大潛力更改公告。

Those actions include: one, continuing to drive the strong and consistent top line growth that Freshpet has demonstrated for the past 6 years. We delivered 41% growth in the latest quarter and are on track for our sixth consecutive year of accelerating growth. We are also well ahead of the pace needed to achieve our 2025 net sales goal of $1.25 billion.

這些行動包括：第一，繼續推動 Freshpet 在過去 6 年中表現出的強勁且持續的收入增長。我們在最近一個季度實現了 41% 的增長，並有望連續第六年實現加速增長。我們也遠遠領先於實現 2025 年 12.5 億美元的淨銷售額目標所需的步伐。

Second, executing on our operational improvement plan to drive margin expansion, in particular, the quality, logistics and commodity cost management issues. I will provide more detail on our actions and progress on those in a few minutes. Third, aligning long-term growth with prudent capital expenditures. Our goal is to build a very large and comfortable cash buffer in order to optimize our liquidity and financial flexibility. We've made good progress on this so far, and we are fully confident that we have adequate resources to meet our growth goals with the cash we have on hand, available credit and the cash flow from operations.

其次，執行我們的運營改進計劃以推動利潤增長，特別是質量、物流和商品成本管理問題。我將在幾分鐘內提供更多關於我們的行動和進展的細節。第三，將長期增長與審慎的資本支出相結合。我們的目標是建立一個非常大且舒適的現金緩衝，以優化我們的流動性和財務靈活性。到目前為止，我們在這方面取得了良好進展，我們完全相信，我們有足夠的資源來利用我們手頭的現金、可用信貸和運營現金流來實現我們的增長目標。

I will touch on that in more detail in a few minutes as well, but the headline is that we are now projecting that our CapEx spending over the 2-year period of 2022, 2023 will be reduced by $100 million versus our last projection with no change to our near-term growth or our 2025 net sales targets.

我也會在幾分鐘內更詳細地談到這一點，但標題是我們現在預測，我們在 2022 年和 2023 年的 2 年期間的資本支出將減少 1 億美元，而我們上次的預測沒有改變我們的近期增長或我們的 2025 年淨銷售目標。

Additionally, I want to highlight that we are rapidly building the organizational capability needed to deliver the results we need. Today, we announced 2 important additions to our team. First, Todd Cunfer will be joining Freshpet on December 1 as our new CFO. Todd is a proven public company CFO with experience in a high-growth food business. He has been the CFO of Simply Good Foods for the past 5 years and delivered exceptional performance there. Prior to that, he worked in a wide variety of finance roles at Hershey for more than 20 years. We are thrilled to welcome him to our team.

此外，我想強調的是，我們正在迅速建立交付所需結果所需的組織能力。今天，我們宣布了我們團隊的 2 個重要成員。首先，Todd Cunfer 將於 12 月 1 日加入 Freshpet，擔任我們的新首席財務官。 Todd 是一位久經考驗的上市公司首席財務官，在高增長食品業務方面擁有豐富的經驗。在過去的 5 年裡，他一直擔任 Simply Good Foods 的首席財務官，並在那裡取得了卓越的業績。在此之前，他曾在 Hershey 擔任過各種財務職務超過 20 年。我們很高興歡迎他加入我們的團隊。

We are also welcoming Dirk Martin to our team as VP of Customer Service and Logistics. Dirk is coming to us from Lamb Weston where he managed a large network of third-party distribution centers and a complex supply network of both brokered and direct freight in the U.S. and abroad. In total, he has spent more than 20 years in supply chain, inventory management and logistics roles in a variety of industries and brings much needed expertise to our team. Dirk will begin at Freshpet this coming Monday.

我們還歡迎 Dirk Martin 加入我們的團隊，擔任客戶服務和物流副總裁。 Dirk 是從 Lamb Weston 來到我們這裡的，他在那裡管理著一個龐大的第三方配送中心網絡以及一個複雜的美國和國外代理和直接貨運供應網絡。總的來說，他在各個行業的供應鏈、庫存管理和物流方面工作了 20 多年，並為我們的團隊帶來了急需的專業知識。 Dirk 將於下週一在 Freshpet 開始。

Now let me turn to the results for the quarter. I will start with a few key highlights of our strong top line performance. As I said, our net sales growth was 41% in the quarter. This was driven by 37% growth in Nielsen-measured consumption and approximately 4% growth from our efforts to replenish trade inventory. We built market share in all classes of trade and are now the #4 brand of dog food in the Nielsen Mega Channel and closing in on #3 and #2. We are also the #1 brand of dog food in grocery despite having only 70% ACV distribution in that channel.

現在讓我談談本季度的結果。我將從我們強勁的頂線表現的幾個關鍵亮點開始。正如我所說，我們本季度的淨銷售額增長了 41%。這是由尼爾森衡量的消費增長 37% 以及我們為補充貿易庫存所做的努力帶來的約 4% 的增長推動的。我們在所有類別的貿易中建立了市場份額，現在是 Nielsen Mega Channel 中排名第四的狗糧品牌，並在排名第三和第二。儘管在該渠道中僅 70% 的 ACV 分銷，我們還是雜貨店中排名第一的狗糧品牌。

Freshpet velocity, i.e., dollars per point of distribution in grocery, is now 50% greater than the second highest velocity dog food brand. That makes Freshpet an incredibly valuable brand to retailers. According to scanner data, unit growth in the quarter was approximately 18%, and with the remaining 19 points of consumption growth coming from price increases.

Freshpet 流通速度，即雜貨店每個分銷點的收入，現在比流通速度第二高的狗糧品牌高出 50%。這使得 Freshpet 成為對零售商來說非常有價值的品牌。根據掃描儀數據，本季度單位增長約18%，其餘19個消費增長點來自價格上漲。

Price sensitivity has stabilized behind the large price increase we took in February at levels that are considered very attractive in the world of packaged goods. We've just begun to see the third much smaller 2.6% September price increase show up at retail but have not seen any indications of significant price sensitivity behind that increase and don't expect to see much. As anticipated, household penetration continued to grow now that we are back in stock, and media is on the air.

在我們 2 月份大幅提價之後，價格敏感性已經穩定在被認為在包裝商品領域非常有吸引力的水平。我們剛剛開始看到 9 月份零售價格出現第三次小得多的 2.6% 漲幅，但沒有看到任何跡象表明該漲幅背後有明顯的價格敏感性，因此預計不會看到太多。正如預期的那樣，由於我們的庫存恢復，並且媒體正在播出，家庭滲透率繼續增長。

In the most recent 52-week period of Nielsen household panel data, Freshpet household penetration was up 14% and buying rate was up 19%. It will take some time for the rolling 52-week measure to reflect our improved growth rates, but we are well on our way. It is also interesting to note that the rate of growth amongst heavy and super heavy users is even stronger, suggesting that we are succeeding at converting more households to using Freshpet as the main meal item.

在最近 52 週的尼爾森家庭面板數據中，Freshpet 家庭滲透率上升了 14%，購買率上升了 19%。滾動 52 週的措施需要一些時間來反映我們提高的增長率，但我們正在順利進行。值得注意的是，重度和超重度用戶的增長率甚至更高，這表明我們正在成功地將更多家庭轉變為使用 Freshpet 作為主要膳食項目。

Going forward, we will be transitioning our reporting to data provided by Numerator as it provides a larger panel with more in-depth demographic information and provides better coverage of all channels. We will reconcile the old reporting and the new reporting when we make that transition.

展望未來，我們將把我們的報告轉換為 Numerator 提供的數據，因為它提供了一個更大的面板，包含更深入的人口統計信息，並提供了對所有渠道的更好覆蓋。當我們進行過渡時，我們將協調舊報告和新報告。

Now I'd like to turn to the operational plan to drive margin expansion that we've outlined previously, with particular focus on logistics, commodity cost management and quality. Let me start with our commodity cost management. As a reminder, this issue has been the result of a mismatch between the timing of when we incur increased input costs as compared to when we can pass on those higher costs to our customers. In 2022, we estimate that lag cost us approximately $19 million.

現在我想談談我們之前概述的推動利潤率擴張的運營計劃，特別關注物流、商品成本管理和質量。讓我從我們的商品成本管理開始。提醒一下，這個問題是我們產生增加投入成本的時間與我們可以將這些更高成本轉嫁給客戶的時間不匹配的結果。到 2022 年，我們估計滯後成本約為 1900 萬美元。

Given the magnitude of this headwind, our entire organization is focused on this, and it is an area that we have already taken some action on. In the near term, we've gotten closer to our suppliers so that we can better understand the variables driving their costs so we can better anticipate cost increases.

鑑於這種逆風的嚴重程度，我們整個組織都在關注這一點，我們已經在這個領域採取了一些行動。在短期內，我們與供應商的關係更加密切，以便我們能夠更好地了解推動其成本的變量，從而更好地預測成本增加。

Additionally, we put in place a more rigorous system of tracking underlying cost drivers, adjusting the frequency and duration of our supply commitments and are working with our suppliers to find ways to create greater cost certainty that works for them and for us. We are already in discussion with some potential partners about hedging a wider range of our commodity costs and have locked 75% of our natural gas exposure for next year and are looking at other items such as diesel.

此外，我們建立了一個更嚴格的系統來跟踪潛在的成本驅動因素，調整我們供應承諾的頻率和持續時間，並正在與我們的供應商合作，尋找方法來創造對他們和我們都有效的更大的成本確定性。我們已經在與一些潛在的合作夥伴討論對沖更廣泛的商品成本，並已鎖定明年 75% 的天然氣敞口，並正在研究柴油等其他項目。

In total, we have contracted for inputs totaling 25% of our costs already and expect to have significantly more committed prior to the beginning of the year. The point is that we are seeing headwinds sooner and using that information to take more timely price increases. As a result, we have now taken a hard look at our anticipated cost for 2023, roughly 2 months sooner than we have in previous years and have concluded that the basket of input costs will go up in the near term. And in response to that work, we've already announced a 5% price increase to go into effect in early February. That increase is designed to protect our margins and to greatly reduce the impact of any timing mismatch.

總的來說，我們已經簽訂了總計 25% 成本的投入合同，並且預計在今年年初之前承諾的投入將大大增加。關鍵是我們更快地看到了逆風，並利用這些信息更及時地提價。因此，我們現在仔細研究了 2023 年的預期成本，比前幾年提前了大約 2 個月，並得出結論，一攬子投入成本將在短期內上升。作為對這項工作的回應，我們已經宣布將價格提高 5%，將於 2 月初生效。這種增加旨在保護我們的利潤並大大減少任何時序不匹配的影響。

On logistics, as I mentioned previously, we've just announced the hiring of a new VP of Logistics, who has extensive experience with the cold supply chain in the U.S. and abroad during his time with Lamb Weston. His focus will be to help us more efficiently grow into our expanded distribution network and drive out the elevated costs we have absorbed over the past year. Additionally, we are making good progress with the start-up of our second DC, but do not expect to see the benefits of that until sometime in late Q1 of 2023 or early Q2.

在物流方面，正如我之前提到的，我們剛剛宣布招聘一位新的物流副總裁，他在 Lamb Weston 任職期間在美國和國外的冷供應鏈方面擁有豐富的經驗。他的重點將是幫助我們更有效地成長為我們擴大的分銷網絡，並消除我們在過去一年中吸收的高成本。此外，我們在啟動第二個 DC 方面取得了良好進展，但預計要到 2023 年第一季度末或第二季度初的某個時候才能看到它的好處。

In the area of quality, I don't want to go into too much detail because we view the improvements we make in this area to be highly proprietary in a source of long-term competitive advantage. But I can say, we are already rolling out 1 new technology we developed over the past 3 years that we believe can make a sizable impact and have 2 more under development. Improvements in this area will take time but will also provide a meaningful extension of our formidable long-term competitive moat. In addition, we have very strong candidates under consideration for the new leadership roles in this area.

在質量領域，我不想談太多細節，因為我們認為我們在這一領域所做的改進是高度專有的，是長期競爭優勢的來源。但我可以說，我們已經推出了我們在過去 3 年中開發的 1 項新技術，我們認為這些技術可以產生相當大的影響，並且還有 2 項正在開發中。這方面的改進需要時間，但也將為我們強大的長期競爭護城河提供有意義的延伸。此外，我們有非常強大的候選人正在考慮擔任該領域的新領導職務。

In Q3, our quality costs, i.e., disposals and secondary processing costs, both declined versus Q2, the disposals cut in half, and we're off to a good start in Q4. We see this as a big opportunity for both cost improvement and proprietary advantage and are resourcing it as such. The accompanying presentation contains details on these efforts and a few additional efforts we are undertaking to enhance margins.

在第三季度，我們的質量成本，即處置和二次加工成本，與第二季度相比均有所下降，處置減少了一半，我們在第四季度開局良好。我們認為這是提高成本和獲得專有優勢的大好機會，因此正在為其提供資源。隨附的演示文稿包含有關這些努力的詳細信息以及我們為提高利潤率而正在進行的一些額外努力。

In summary, we have a deep appreciation for the importance of rebuilding credibility with you and our team's ability to execute on our operational plan to drive margin expansion will be a primary proof point. I want to impress upon you the focus and determination we have, we have made good progress on each of these efforts since we identified them early in Q3. We have lots of work left to do. The path is clear, and we are doing that work.

總之，我們非常理解與您重建信譽的重要性，我們的團隊執行我們的運營計劃以推動利潤增長的能力將是一個主要的證明點。我想給你留下深刻印象，我們的專注和決心，自從我們在第三季度早些時候確定它們以來，我們在每一項努力上都取得了良好的進展。我們還有很多工作要做。道路是明確的，我們正在做這項工作。

Now I'd like to discuss how we are aligning our net sales growth goals with prudent capital spending to grow capacity. Let me start by providing some context. Our primary motivation over the past several years was to build as large of a consumer franchise as possible before competition arrived. We described this as a land grab, and we were determined to get as big as we could, as fast as we could. And while this is no easy task in a normal operating environment, it was made doubly difficult by the pandemic and the related supply chain and labor issues for the past 3 years.

現在我想討論一下我們如何將我們的淨銷售額增長目標與審慎的資本支出相結合以增加產能。讓我首先提供一些上下文。過去幾年我們的主要動機是在競爭到來之前建立盡可能大的消費者特許經營權。我們將其描述為土地掠奪，我們決心盡可能快地擴大規模。雖然這在正常的運營環境中並非易事，但在過去 3 年中，大流行以及相關的供應鍊和勞動力問題使這變得加倍困難。

Over the past year, however, that situation has begun to change. While we have continued to increase our scale, the latest competitive entry from a leading competitor and with the support of a very large retailer has made a little progress. We're out selling that competitor [7 or 8:1] in the stores where both our brand and theirs is distributed. This provides another proof point for how significant our competitive advantage is and how much of a head start we have.

然而，在過去的一年裡，這種情況開始發生變化。在我們不斷擴大規模的同時，來自領先競爭對手的最新競爭進入並在一家非常大的零售商的支持下取得了一些進展。我們在銷售我們品牌和他們品牌的商店中銷售該競爭對手 [7 或 8:1]。這為我們的競爭優勢有多麼重要以及我們擁有多少領先優勢提供了另一個證據。

Executing a Freshpet food program is extremely difficult. We've learned that the hard way at times, but our potential competitors also have to contend with a complex moat that we have created over the past 16 years, which covers the formidable combination of manufacturing know-how, fridge placement and management, fresh food distribution and more. In that context and with the successful completion of the Ennis facility, we are well positioned to balance growth and margins with our increased scale and do so within a prudent financial and investment framework.

執行 Freshpet 食品計劃非常困難。我們有時會經歷艱難的歷程，但我們的潛在競爭對手也必須應對我們在過去 16 年中創造的複雜護城河，其中涵蓋製造技術、冰箱放置和管理、新鮮食物分配等等。在這種情況下，隨著 Ennis 設施的成功竣工，我們已經準備好在增長和利潤與我們不斷擴大的規模之間取得平衡，並在審慎的財務和投資框架內做到這一點。

As a result, we are revising our expansion plans and can smooth our CapEx spend to enhance liquidity and financial flexibility, while still achieving our robust growth expectations. We have already shifted a few projects that we believe we won't need until further down the road. We aren't ready to provide the full impact of those decisions yet, but we can say that our expected CapEx spending this year and in 2023 will be approximately $100 million less than we previously anticipated, with a $30 million CapEx reduction in 2022 and $70 million next year.

因此，我們正在修改我們的擴張計劃，並可以平滑我們的資本支出，以提高流動性和財務靈活性，同時仍然實現我們強勁的增長預期。我們已經轉移了一些我們認為在進一步發展之前不需要的項目。我們還沒有準備好提供這些決定的全部影響，但我們可以說，我們今年和 2023 年的預期資本支出將比我們之前預期的少約 1 億美元，2022 年資本支出減少 3000 萬美元和 70 美元明年萬元。

As noted, importantly, we remain confident in our 2025 net sales target. We have the resources and capacity to achieve that target, and we believe we are well on track to deliver it. For perspective, with Ennis up and running, we will have enough installed capacity to support more than $1 billion in net sales before any of the technology improvements previously mentioned were added investments in capacity.

如前所述，重要的是，我們對 2025 年的淨銷售額目標仍然充滿信心。我們擁有實現這一目標的資源和能力，並且我們相信我們正在順利實現這一目標。從長遠來看，隨著 Ennis 的啟動和運行，我們將有足夠的裝機容量來支持超過 10 億美元的淨銷售額，而之前提到的任何技術改進都不會增加容量投資。

Finally, before I turn it over to Dick to provide more detail on the quarter, I want to comment on the start-up of our Ennis Texas Kitchen. We are already producing very high-quality rolls on our first line. We will be able to ship those rolls once we have completed our final validation on the building security and process controls. Our priority there is to produce the widest range of SKUs rather than the maximum volume because that enables us to make full utilization of our Dallas DC. To date, we have qualified 12 SKUs, and we will continue our projected ramp-up, which is on track having already shifted to 24/7 production on the roll line.

最後，在我將其交給迪克以提供有關本季度的更多詳細信息之前，我想評論一下我們的 Ennis Texas Kitchen 的啟動。我們已經在第一條生產線上生產了非常高質量的軋輥。一旦我們完成了對建築安全和過程控制的最終驗證，我們將能夠運送這些卷。我們的首要任務是生產最廣泛的 SKU，而不是最大數量，因為這使我們能夠充分利用達拉斯 DC。迄今為止，我們已經有 12 個 SKU 合格，我們將繼續我們預計的產能提升，該產能已經轉移到軋製線上的 24/7 生產。

For context, that is about 6 months faster than we were able to hit that milestone in kitchens too. The number of SKUs we have qualified is similarly ahead of the pace we have delivered on previous start-ups. That is largely due to the extensive planning and training we did in advance of this start-up, including the significant investment we made to train our production team in PA for up to a full year.

就上下文而言，這比我們在廚房實現這一里程碑還快了大約 6 個月。我們合格的 SKU 數量同樣領先於我們在以前的初創企業中交付的速度。這主要是由於我們在啟動之前進行了廣泛的規劃和培訓，包括我們為培訓我們在賓夕法尼亞州的生產團隊長達一整年所做的大量投資。

The second line in Ennis, a bag line, will begin test runs in January, about 1 to 2 months later than previously indicated, and we expected to begin shipping product about 1 to 2 months after that. This added time is designed to ensure that we have completed the optimization of the rolls line start-up, where we have a greater need for the capacity. We have adequate bag capacity in our system to meet the current level of demand, so this delay will not impact our growth. However, it will delay the full utilization of the Dallas DC until later in Q1 or early Q2.

Ennis 的第二條生產線袋裝生產線將於 1 月開始試運行，比之前預計的晚約 1 到 2 個月，我們預計在此之後約 1 到 2 個月開始發貨。增加的時間旨在確保我們已經完成了軋輥生產線啟動的優化，我們對產能有更大的需求。我們的系統有足夠的行李容量來滿足當前的需求水平，因此這種延遲不會影響我們的增長。但是，它將延遲達拉斯 DC 的充分利用，直到第一季度末或第二季度初。

Once those 2 lines are operating, we believe that we will have enough capacity to fully support our growth for 2023, enabling us to provide exceptional service to our customers and consumers and support the aggressive growth plans we are aiming for in 2023. We also believe that at scale, Ennis will be our most efficient plant. The Ennis facility has the capability to have higher throughputs with less labor and longer run times as a result of greater automation, some technology improvements and through enhanced (inaudible) design. Additionally, the on-site chicken processing will offer improvements in quality and cost versus what we experienced in Bethlehem.

一旦這兩條生產線投入運營，我們相信我們將有足夠的產能全力支持我們在 2023 年的增長，使我們能夠為我們的客戶和消費者提供卓越的服務，並支持我們在 2023 年制定的積極增長計劃。我們還相信在規模上，Ennis 將成為我們最高效的工廠。由於自動化程度更高、技術改進和增強（聽不清）設計，Ennis 設施能夠以更少的勞動力和更長的運行時間獲得更高的吞吐量。此外，與我們在伯利恆所經歷的相比，現場雞肉加工將提高質量和成本。

In summary, we are seeing evidence that the foundation we have laid over the past year is paying dividends and will continue to do so in the coming months and years. We have our largest and most efficient capacity project completed, and it will begin shipping product in a week or 2. That gives us a long runway for growth and margin expansion. We have started up our second DC, which will ultimately shorten the distance our product travels to customers and reduce our freight costs.

總之，我們看到有證據表明我們在過去一年奠定的基礎正在派發股息，並將在未來幾個月和幾年內繼續這樣做。我們已經完成了我們最大和最高效的產能項目，它將在一周或兩週內開始發貨。這為我們的增長和利潤擴張提供了很長的跑道。我們已經啟動了我們的第二個配送中心，這最終將縮短我們的產品到達客戶的距離並降低我們的貨運成本。

We've restored retail conditions and the household penetration growth is on track to support our long-term net sales goals. We have proven that Freshpet has the pricing power needed to offset rising costs and still deliver strong growth and will ultimately produce attractive margins. We are executing on a multifaceted operational improvement plan to drive margin expansion over time. We are also taking a more prudent approach to CapEx and have reduced expected CapEx spending substantially.

我們已經恢復了零售條件，家庭滲透率增長有望支持我們的長期淨銷售目標。我們已經證明，Freshpet 具有抵消不斷上漲的成本所需的定價能力，並且仍能實現強勁增長，最終將產生可觀的利潤。我們正在執行一項多方面的運營改進計劃，以隨著時間的推移推動利潤增長。我們還對資本支出採取了更謹慎的方法，並大幅減少了預期的資本支出。

We are tracking the caliber of talent we need to address our challenges and support our growth, and we have strong support from our customers and consumers. We are improving the quality of our execution and look forward to demonstrating the cash generation that this business is capable of delivering. That is what we are focused on.

我們正在跟踪我們需要的人才才能來應對我們的挑戰並支持我們的發展，我們得到了客戶和消費者的大力支持。我們正在提高我們的執行質量，並期待展示該業務能夠產生的現金產生。這就是我們所關注的。

Now let me turn it over to Dick for a more detailed review of our financials, including a discussion of the change in the reporting method. Dick?

現在讓我把它交給迪克，以更詳細地審查我們的財務狀況，包括討論報告方法的變化。迪克？

Thank you, Billy, and good afternoon, everyone. Let me start by outlining the change in our reporting method before I share the results. As we indicated last quarter, we will no longer add back plant start-ups or launch expenses in determining our adjusted EBITDA. It is important to note, however, that these changes do not reduce the data that we make available. Our published financial results always quantified all of the elements of the new adjusted EBITDA definition.

謝謝你，比利，大家下午好。在分享結果之前，讓我先概述一下我們報告方法的變化。正如我們上個季度所指出的，在確定調整後的 EBITDA 時，我們將不再加回工廠啟動或啟動費用。然而，重要的是要注意，這些更改不會減少我們提供的數據。我們公佈的財務結果始終量化了新調整後 EBITDA 定義的所有要素。

We are simply changing the definition of adjusted EBITDA to bring greater focus on our cash generation capability. Since it's the first quarter of good new definitions, I'll try to bridge the measures for you as we go along. In that context, quarter 3 was a solid on-plan quarter. Net sales grew 41%, and we are now 39% of the year ago for the year-to-date. Under the new definition of adjusted EBITDA, our adjusted EBITDA is $3.5 million since we have not added back the $8 million of plant start-up expenses and $1.5 million of launch expense for a total of $9.5 million that we incurred in the quarter.

我們只是改變了調整後 EBITDA 的定義，以更加關注我們的現金生成能力。由於這是新定義的第一季度，我將在我們進行過程中嘗試為您彌合這些措施。在這種情況下，第三季度是一個穩健的計劃季度。淨銷售額增長了 41%，今年迄今為止，我們現在是去年同期的 39%。根據調整後 EBITDA 的新定義，我們調整後的 EBITDA 為 350 萬美元，因為我們沒有加回本季度產生的 800 萬美元的工廠啟動費用和 150 萬美元的啟動費用，總計 950 萬美元。

We incurred a total of just $1.2 million of such costs in the year ago period. We added 374 new stores in the quarter and are on track to add 1,400 stores this year. While it does not impact our launch expense, we also added 408 new upgrades and 382 second/third fridges for the year-to-date.

去年同期，我們總共只產生了 120 萬美元的此類費用。我們在本季度增加了 374 家新店，今年有望增加 1,400 家店。雖然它不會影響我們的啟動費用，但我們今年迄今還增加了 408 台新升級和 382 台第二/第三台冰箱。

Adjusted gross margin for the quarter was 34.5% under the new method, 530 basis points lower than it would have been under the old reporting method. As you know, in quarter 3, we had significant preproduction expenses in Ennis, Texas, and we will have those again in quarter 4 as we ramp up production on multiple lines and multiple items. We experienced significant inflation in cost in the quarter and have now taken price increase to cover those costs. However, we did not take the pricing soon enough to deliver the gross margins we should expect in a more stable market. That mismatch costs us approximately $5 million or 340 basis points of adjusted gross margin in quarter 3.

在新方法下，本季度調整後的毛利率為 34.5%，比舊報告方法下低 530 個基點。如您所知，在第 3 季度，我們在德克薩斯州恩尼斯市有大量的前期生產費用，隨著我們增加多條生產線和多個項目的生產，我們將在第 4 季度再次產生這些費用。我們在本季度經歷了顯著的成本通脹，現在已經採取價格上漲來彌補這些成本。但是，我們沒有盡快定價以提供我們在更穩定的市場中應該預期的毛利率。這種錯配使我們在第三季度損失了大約 500 萬美元或 340 個基點的調整後毛利率。

As Billy indicated, we have already announced another round of pricing to offset the higher cost we anticipate in 2023. While we anticipate that our chicken prices will be flat to slightly lower next year, other costs, including energy, packaging and grain-based inputs are expected to go up in the near term, so we are proactively taking the pricing now to avoid another significant pricing mismatch. That price increase will average about 5% and will go into effect with orders on February 6, 2023.

正如比利所說，我們已經宣布了另一輪定價，以抵消我們預計 2023 年的更高成本。雖然我們預計明年我們的雞肉價格將持平或略低，但其他成本，包括能源、包裝和基於穀物的投入預計短期內會上漲，因此我們現在正在積極定價，以避免再次出現重大的定價錯配。該價格漲幅將平均約為 5%，並將於 2023 年 2 月 6 日開始生效。

We continue to drive G&A leverage in the third quarter, generating 220 basis points of adjusted SG&A leverage, excluding media and logistics. This is consistent with our long-term trend in our 2025 goals. Our logistics costs in the quarter continued at an elevated level as we've been both starting up a second warehouse where we incur significant costs to move product between warehouses and have been unwinding some of the warehouse congestion created by the product quality issues we had in quarter 2. That situation is now improving quite a bit.

我們在第三季度繼續推動 G&A 槓桿，調整後的 SG&A 槓桿率達到 220 個基點，不包括媒體和物流。這與我們 2025 年目標的長期趨勢一致。我們在本季度的物流成本繼續處於較高水平，因為我們已經啟動了第二個倉庫，我們在倉庫之間移動產品需要承擔大量成本，並且一直在緩解由於我們遇到的產品質量問題造成的一些倉庫擁堵第 2 季度。這種情況現在有了很大改善。

Freight rates have dropped, and our fill rates are now running in the mid- to high 80s. So we expect to begin seeing improvement in logistics costs going forward, beginning immediately in the fourth quarter. However, until Ennis is producing the full range of both bag and roll SKUs, we will incur above average freight costs until we can fully utilize the new Dallas distribution center, which is like to occur in quarter 1 or early quarter 2 of 2023.

運費已經下降，我們的裝貨率現在處於 80 年代中高點。因此，我們預計從第四季度開始，物流成本將開始有所改善。但是，在 Ennis 生產全系列袋裝和卷裝 SKU 之前，我們將產生高於平均水平的運費，直到我們能夠充分利用新的達拉斯配送中心，這就像在 2023 年第一季度或第二季度初發生。

We invested $73 million in capital in the quarter and expecting to spend a combined total of $520 million over full years 2022 and '23. And year-to-date, we have spent $168 million of that total. The performance of our ERP system continues to improve, and that has resulted in a reduction in working capital. While inventory levels are still higher than we would ultimately like them, our receivables improved by $14 million or approximately 10 days of sale. Operating Cash flow used in the first 3 quarters was $54 million. We did not draw on our borrowing facility in the quarter. Looking forward, we continue to believe we are on track to meet or exceed our net sales guidance for the year.

我們在本季度投資了 7300 萬美元的資本，預計在 2022 年和 23 年全年總共花費 5.2 億美元。年初至今，我們已經花費了其中的 1.68 億美元。我們的 ERP 系統的性能不斷提高，這導致營運資金減少。雖然庫存水平仍高於我們最終希望的水平，但我們的應收賬款增加了 1400 萬美元或大約 10 天的銷售。前三個季度使用的經營現金流為 5400 萬美元。我們在本季度沒有動用我們的借貸便利。展望未來，我們仍然相信我們有望達到或超過我們今年的淨銷售額指引。

Our net sales were up 39% year-to-date through quarter 3. We have a much tougher compare in quarter 4 than we had in quarter 3. But overall, we feel very good about where we are in net sales. Similarly, we are reaffirming our previous underlying guidance, but adjusting the guidance to reflect our new accounting method for determining adjusted EBITDA, which now includes the impact of $29 million of start-up plant expenses and $4 million of launch expenses. Subtracting this $33 million of expense from the $48 million underlying guide, you arrive at our new adjusted EBITDA guidance, which reflects the new reporting method of greater than $15 million.

到第三季度，我們的淨銷售額今年迄今增長了 39%。與第三季度相比，我們在第四季度的比較要艱難得多。但總的來說，我們對淨銷售額的狀況感覺非常好。同樣，我們重申我們之前的基本指導，但調整指導以反映我們確定調整後 EBITDA 的新會計方法，其中現在包括 2900 萬美元的啟動工廠費用和 400 萬美元的啟動費用的影響。從 4800 萬美元的基本指南中減去這 3300 萬美元的費用，您將得到我們新的調整後 EBITDA 指南，它反映了超過 1500 萬美元的新報告方法。

In closing, we remain very optimistic about Freshpet's future. We have strong demand, significant new capacity in state-of-the-art facility, intense focus on improving logistics, quality and commodity cost management and strong retailer support. We appreciate the support we have received from our investors and look forward to creating significant shareholder value in the years ahead.

最後，我們對 Freshpet 的未來仍然非常樂觀。我們有強勁的需求，在最先進的設施中擁有重要的新產能，高度重視改善物流、質量和商品成本管理以及強大的零售商支持。我們感謝投資者對我們的支持，並期待在未來幾年創造重要的股東價值。

That concludes our overview. We will now be glad to take your questions. As a reminder, please focus your questions on the quarter and the company's operation. Operator?

我們的概述到此結束。我們現在很樂意回答您的問題。提醒一下，請將您的問題集中在本季度和公司的運營上。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Bill Chappell from Truist Securities.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Bill Chappell。

Sorry, I'm going to go off opposite what Dick asked, but just a simple one of exciting on the new hires and certainly seems like solid adds. But how do the conversations go when you're attracting management when there is an active shareholder involved and kind of strategic alternatives thrown out there? I mean how do you give them comfort and attract additional talent from here?

抱歉，我將與迪克的要求相反，但這只是一個簡單的新員工令人興奮的問題，而且看起來肯定是可靠的補充。但是，當你吸引管理層時，如果有一個積極的股東參與其中，並且會拋出一些戰略選擇，那麼對話會如何進行呢？我的意思是你如何給他們安慰並從這裡吸引更多的人才？

Bill, I provided an overall comment, but I would prefer not to talk about any of the issues related to activist investors. What I would say is that we're very happy with the quality of the talent we're getting, and they would be a very good indicator of our ability to continue to attract very high-quality talent. So I just -- I think the proof is in the talent that we've attracted.

比爾，我提供了總體評論，但我不想談論與激進投資者有關的任何問題。我想說的是，我們對所獲得人才的質量感到非常滿意，這將是我們繼續吸引高質量人才能力的一個很好的指標。所以我只是 - 我認為證據在於我們吸引的人才。

Okay. I'll leave it at that. The second, just a follow-up. On the price increase next year, I mean, I guess what we've been hearing is retailers have been, I guess, reluctant but okay with most pricing taken in '22, but there's been more and more pushback about pricing in '23. So have you seen any of that? Or is there -- has this been harder to get through than prior ones? Any color there would be great.

好的。我就這樣吧。第二個，只是一個後續。關於明年的價格上漲，我的意思是，我想我們一直聽到的是零售商一直，我猜，不情願但對 22 年的大多數定價還可以，但對 23 年的定價有越來越多的反對。那你見過嗎？還是有——這比以前的更難通過嗎？任何顏色都會很棒。

Scott, do you want to take that?

斯科特，你想接受嗎？

Yes. Bill, so we -- I think we've been very open with all the retailers as we've done all the pricing over time. We've explained to them our strategy and how we're trying to make sure that we're making a handful of SKUs as accessible and approachable to as many consumers as possible and that we want to continue to drive the growth that they're looking for.

是的。比爾，所以我們 - 我認為我們對所有零售商都非常開放，因為我們已經隨著時間的推移完成了所有定價。我們已經向他們解釋了我們的戰略，以及我們如何努力確保我們讓少數 SKU 對盡可能多的消費者來說是可訪問和平易近人的，並且我們希望繼續推動他們的增長尋找。

And I think they realize and recognize that we have been very constrained in putting pricing through. And I think when we came in with this one and we explained exactly where it is, they were incredibly receptive quite honestly. And I think part of it is they've seen consistent improvement in the business and the velocity growth over the year and the fill rate over the year. And I think they're also looking at what we've done on pricing and what the rest of the category has done on pricing. And we have been slightly behind what the majority of the category has done.

我認為他們意識到並認識到我們在定價方面受到了很大限制。而且我認為，當我們帶著這個進來並準確解釋它在哪裡時，他們非常誠實地接受了。我認為部分原因是他們看到了業務的持續改善以及一年中的速度增長和一年的填充率。而且我認為他們也在關注我們在定價方面所做的工作以及該類別的其他部門在定價方面所做的工作。我們已經略微落後於大多數類別的完成。

So I think that they felt it was justified. We've had conversations with a lot -- majority -- or many of the top retailers. And I think they've been, again, very receptive to the conversation. And we don't anticipate it being a challenge.

所以我認為他們認為這是合理的。我們已經與很多 - 大多數 - 或許多頂級零售商進行了對話。我認為他們再次非常樂於接受談話。我們預計這不會是一個挑戰。

Our next question comes from the line of Anoori Naughton from JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Anoori Naughton。

Could you perhaps parse out for us the composition of the $100 million reduction in the CapEx outlook? And which projects have you delayed? And how much of the $100 million now falls into ['24, '25] versus how much reflects capital projects and savings that [you've done] from things like lower construction costs?

您能否為我們分析一下資本支出前景減少 1 億美元的構成？你推遲了哪些項目？現在 1 億美元中有多少屬於 ['24, '25] 與多少反映了資本項目和 [你已經完成的] 從降低建築成本等方面的節省？

Anoori, we're going to come out with a more detailed look at this when we -- our current plan is, as soon as we get Todd on board and get his feet on the ground, we'll kind of restate what the long-term targets look like in light of all the inflation and the change or the impact that has had. But what I can tell you is that we took $30 million out of this year. So the [million] previous outlook would be more like $290 million, and we took $70 million out of next year.

Anoori，當我們——我們目前的計劃是，一旦我們讓 Todd 加入並讓他腳踏實地，我們將重新詳細說明這一點鑑於所有通貨膨脹和變化或影響，長期目標看起來像。但我可以告訴你的是，我們今年花了 3000 萬美元。因此，[百萬] 之前的展望將更像是 2.9 億美元，而我們從明年拿出 7000 萬美元。

Some amount of that would push back into the later years. But because we're relooking at all the different projects, I wouldn't cast anything in stone in the out years because we're still doing a fair amount of work on what is exactly the right amount of capacity. And we also are working on some new technologies that might have some potential to alter what capacity we actually put in. So I would take the (inaudible) the numbers for the next 2 years, meaning 2022 and 2023, and we'll come back to you probably in early January with the plans for years beyond that.

其中一部分將推遲到晚年。但是因為我們正在重新審視所有不同的項目，所以在接下來的幾年裡，我不會把任何事情都定下來，因為我們仍在做大量工作來確定合適的產能。我們還在研究一些新技術，這些技術可能會改變我們實際投入的容量。所以我會採用未來 2 年（即 2022 年和 2023 年）的（聽不清）數字，我們會回來的可能在 1 月初給你，還有以後幾年的計劃。

Okay. Great. And then for my follow-up, could you update us on what the expected time line is to get to full production at Ennis? And where do you stand today with staffing and equipment for Lines 2 and 3?

好的。偉大的。然後對於我的後續行動，您能否向我們介紹 Ennis 全面生產的預期時間表？您今天在 2 號線和 3 號線的人員配備和設備方面處於什麼位置？

Yes. So we're fully -- Line 1, as we said in the call, is running 24/7 at this point. We have the staffing already for Line 2 for a 24/7 operation that's all been fully qualified and trained. And that line is expected, as we said in the call, to begin running product in January, and we'll be shipping that product within 1 to 2 months after that. And all that equipment is installed, plus or minus a little piece here or there.

是的。所以我們完全——正如我們在電話中所說的那樣，第 1 行目前正在 24/7 運行。我們已經為 2 號線配備了人員，可進行 24/7 全天候運營，這些人員都已完全合格並經過培訓。正如我們在電話會議中所說，預計這條生產線將在 1 月份開始運行產品，我們將在 1 到 2 個月內運送該產品。所有這些設備都安裝好了，在這里或那裡加上或減去一小塊。

The third line, all the equipment exists, meaning it's all in Ennis, Texas, but it has not yet been installed. And we have not hired the staffing for that yet because we really need to see how the volume unfolds. But knowing we have the equipment, the installation time is obviously a lot less than construction time is. And because we already have staffing on the ground there for 2 lines for 24/7 operation, it's relatively easy for us to do the staff up because what you do is you spread some of the talent you already have around, and you hire the new people on to put some of them on your existing lines. So we feel very comfortable. We don't have a specific date for that start-up of that line, but I think of it as being sometime towards the middle part of the year.

第三條線，所有設備都存在，這意味著它都在德克薩斯州的恩尼斯，但尚未安裝。我們還沒有為此招聘人員，因為我們真的需要看看數量是如何展開的。但是知道我們有設備，安裝時間顯然比施工時間少很多。而且因為我們已經在當地為 2 條生產線配備了 24/7 運營的人員，所以對我們來說，增加人員相對容易，因為你所做的就是分散一些你已經擁有的人才，然後僱傭新的人們將其中一些放在您現有的生產線上。所以我們覺得很舒服。我們沒有該生產線啟動的具體日期，但我認為它是在年中的某個時候。

Our next question comes from the line of Mark Astrachan from Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Mark Astrachan。

Yes. I guess, just a few questions from my standpoint. First, on the pricing regardless of -- or not necessarily commenting on '23 outlook. But in terms of what you've seen so far, you commented in the presentation about heavy and super heavy buyers continuing to increase. Do you see any impact on the recruitment of new households or consumers from the pricing actions? Do you think that what you've done in terms of limiting the lower-priced items has helped trial or has not hurt trial, maybe is a better way to put it? Then I've got a follow-up, please.

是的。我想，從我的角度來看，只是幾個問題。首先，關於定價，無論 - 或不一定評論 23 年的前景。但就您目前看到的情況而言，您在演示文稿中評論說重型和超重型買家繼續增加。您認為定價行為對新家庭或消費者的招募有什麼影響嗎？您認為您在限制低價商品方面所做的事情有助於試用還是沒有損害試用，也許是更好的說法？那我有後續了，拜託。

Scott, do you want to take that?

斯科特，你想接受嗎？

Mark. Yes, so we track it incredibly closely. Literally, like every couple of weeks, we're really dissecting it. Where we have seen a modest, modest impact is in, I would say, on the lower income groups at this point. But on our kind of average and higher income groups, there's literally been no impact that we've been able to see and kind of growing penetration among those groups. And I think the main reason is because the category has risen so significantly. And again, it's kind of some of the comments I was mentioning when I was addressing Bill's question.

標記。是的，所以我們非常密切地跟踪它。從字面上看，就像每兩週一次，我們真的在剖析它。我想說的是，在這一點上，我們看到了適度的、適度的影響。但在我們這種平均收入和更高收入的群體中，我們實際上並沒有看到任何影響，而且這些群體的滲透率也在不斷提高。而且我認為主要原因是因為該類別已經顯著上升。再說一次，這是我在回答比爾的問題時提到的一些評論。

But we are -- like if you look at the value of where we are versus where the category is, we've actually been almost a slight advantage to some extent. And we want to continue to like -- continue to represent that and show that as we're doing these price increases and keeping things as affordable as we can. So we really have not seen any significant impact or slowdown.

但是我們是——如果你看看我們所處的位置與類別的位置的價值，我們實際上在某種程度上幾乎是一個輕微的優勢。我們希望繼續喜歡 - 繼續代表這一點並表明我們正在做這些價格上漲並儘可能保持價格實惠。因此，我們確實沒有看到任何重大影響或放緩。

And the other thing is, when we're looking at the components of the business and the [build] that we have over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, and we look at all those different things stacked up, we feel really confident to be able to continue to drive penetration. And I can elaborate on some of that at some point if you're interested.

另一件事是，當我們查看業務的組成部分和我們在接下來的 12 到 18 個月的過程中所擁有的 [構建] 時，我們會看到所有這些不同的東西疊加在一起，我們覺得真的有信心能夠繼續推動滲透。如果您有興趣，我可以在某個時候詳細說明其中的一些內容。

That's great. I appreciate that. Just -- the follow-up question would be just on the new lines and the thoughts on the lines kind of going forward, not commenting specifically on the reductions that you outlined in CapEx. But maybe just taking a step back, how do you think about the ability and opportunity to improve productivity of the lines that you've put in recently and we'll be putting in kind of over the next 12 months from both the ability to produce greater revenues and to do it at a lower cost?

那太棒了。我很感激。只是 - 後續問題將只是關於新線路和關於這些線路的想法，而不是具體評論您在資本支出中概述的減少。但也許只是退後一步，您如何看待提高您最近投入的生產線生產力的能力和機會，我們將在未來 12 個月內投入生產能力更大的收入並以更低的成本做到這一點？

Yes. Let me take a shot at that, and Scott might want to add something. But each time we put in new lines, we obviously look for what improvements we make versus the previous lines. The facility in Ennis, the lines have more automation than the lines in Bethlehem, the way I would describe it is if you think about the move from Kitchens 1 to Kitchens 2 as sort of a quantum leap forward for us. The leap from Kitchens 2 to Ennis is the same magnitude, maybe even a slightly bigger magnitude of leap forward in terms of the automation.

是的。讓我試一試，斯科特可能想補充一些東西。但是每次我們加入新的生產線時，我們顯然都在尋找與之前的生產線相比有哪些改進。恩尼斯的設施比伯利恆的生產線自動化程度更高，如果你認為從廚房 1 到廚房 2 的遷移對我們來說是一種巨大的飛躍，我會這樣描述它。從 Kitchens 2 到 Ennis 的飛躍是相同的，在自動化方面甚至可能是更大的飛躍。

And so we're expecting to be able to have higher throughput per line per hour with less labor than what we have in Bethlehem. And we've documented in Bethlehem that Kitchens 2 operates at a significantly higher gross margin than Kitchens 1 does. So we'd expect to see a similar kind of improvement for Ennis.

因此，我們希望能夠以比伯利恆更少的勞動力實現每條生產線每小時更高的吞吐量。我們在伯利恆記錄了 Kitchens 2 的毛利率明顯高於 Kitchens 1。所以我們希望看到 Ennis 有類似的改進。

At the same time, though, as you know, we've been -- we hired some people starting back in 2019 that were working on process improvements for us. And we've got a couple of things that are starting to pan out. We're not ready to declare victory nor disclose what they are other than to say that automation isn't the only driver of efficiency gains for us. There are other possible drivers that we can get that will improve efficiency pretty significantly. And those things are in varying stages of testing and scaling up.

但與此同時，如您所知，我們一直在 - 我們從 2019 年開始聘請了一些人，他們正在為我們改進流程。我們有幾件事開始出現了。我們還沒有準備好宣布勝利，也沒有透露他們是什麼，只是說自動化不是我們提高效率的唯一驅動力。我們可以獲得其他可能的驅動因素，這些驅動因素將顯著提高效率。這些東西正處於測試和擴大規模的不同階段。

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Holland from Cowen and Company.

我們的下一個問題來自 Cowen and Company 的 Brian Holland。

Forgive me if you addressed this, but those start-up costs that you're no longer adding back appear to be in aggregate about $10 million above what was in my model and, I guess, $10 million or so above the first half. Can you just explain what's behind maybe that uptick? Perhaps your comfort that you framed it correctly for 4Q and when we can expect that to roll off?

如果您解決了這個問題，請原諒我，但是您不再加回的那些啟動成本似乎比我的模型中的總成本高出約 1000 萬美元，我猜，比上半年高出 1000 萬美元左右。你能解釋一下上升的背後原因嗎？也許您對您為第 4 季度正確構建它感到滿意，我們何時可以預期它會滾落？

Dick, do you want to take that?

迪克，你想拿那個嗎？

Sure. The increase in plant start-up costs, we had a slight delay in getting Ennis up and running. Early on when we put the plant together, we expected a September startup, and now it's squeezing towards the next couple of weeks. So a lot of people were hired earlier, and they trained in Pennsylvania, and they're all part of plant start-up costs. So we -- that expense is now behind us for Line 1 and 2.

當然。由於工廠啟動成本的增加，我們在讓 Ennis 啟動和運行方面略有延遲。在我們組裝工廠的早期，我們預計 9 月份會啟動，現在它正在緊逼接下來的幾週。所以很多人早早就被雇傭了，他們在賓夕法尼亞州接受培訓，他們都是工廠啟動成本的一部分。所以我們 - 現在 1 號線和 2 號線的費用已經過去了。

In Line 3, we (inaudible) hiring. We haven't hired Line 3 yet. We still have more plant start-up costs in quarter 4 because Line 2 will be coming up, as Billy indicated, in some time in the first quarter. So -- and at that point in time, 2 lines were running. The plan is eventually to have 10 lines sitting in Ennis and we'll have plant start-up costs behind each line, and now we're budgeting for it as part of our GAAP reporting.

在第 3 行，我們（聽不清）招聘。我們還沒有租用 3 號線。我們在第 4 季度仍有更多的工廠啟動成本，因為正如比利所說，第 2 號線將在第一季度的某個時間建成。所以 - 在那個時間點，有 2 條線路正在運行。該計劃最終是在恩尼斯擁有 10 條生產線，我們將在每條生產線後面都有工廠啟動成本，現在我們正在為其編制預算，作為我們 GAAP 報告的一部分。

Appreciate the color, Dick. And then forgive me for peaking ahead to next year, but my model assumes you're spending less than $2.5 million on media 4Q. I can appreciate why that might not necessarily impact sales in 4Q. But presumably, that would weigh on growth at least in 1Q '23. Is that fair? And just help us understand to what extent there might be some impact as we roll into next year?

欣賞顏色，迪克。然後請原諒我提前到明年達到頂峰，但我的模型假設您在媒體第四季度的支出不到 250 萬美元。我可以理解為什麼這不一定會影響第四季度的銷售。但據推測，這至少會在 23 年第一季度對增長造成壓力。這公平嗎？並且只是幫助我們了解當我們進入明年時可能會在多大程度上產生一些影響？

Scott, do you want to take that?

斯科特，你想接受嗎？

Yes. So Brian, historically, we have not been spent anything significant in Q4 from a media standpoint. And we've been able to maintain good momentum, not only through Q4 very often, but also right into Q1. Now I will tell you, we're going to get started in Q1 pretty aggressively right from the beginning. The best time for us to spend media dollars is early on in the year. We get the best return on that, and it helps us carry throughout the year.

是的。所以布賴恩，從歷史上看，從媒體的角度來看，我們在第四季度沒有花費任何重大費用。而且我們已經能夠保持良好的勢頭，不僅經常通過第四季度，而且一直到第一季度。現在我要告訴你，我們將從一開始就非常積極地在第一季度開始。我們花費媒體資金的最佳時間是年初。我們在這方面獲得了最好的回報，它幫助我們全年進行。

We also have -- I mean there's a lot of benefits and I think kind of wind, I would say, that's carrying us. We're going to have better fill rates. We're going to have great product innovation. We're going to have really strong distribution in addition to the media spend and strong creative in addition to some things that we're doing that Billy was mentioning on quality. I think that with all of those aspects together, I think that's going to put us in a good spot going into next year.

我們也有——我的意思是有很多好處，我認為有一種風，我會說，它載著我們。我們將有更好的填充率。我們將有偉大的產品創新。除了媒體支出和強大的創意之外，我們還將擁有非常強大的分銷能力，以及比利提到的質量方面我們正在做的一些事情。我認為將所有這些方面結合在一起，我認為這將使我們進入明年的一個好位置。

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Lavery from Piper Sandler.

我們的下一個問題來自 Piper Sandler 的 Michael Lavery。

Just curious, as you think about Florida and the hurricane impact there, it sounds like it was obviously quite manageable. But is there any -- you showed the inventory build, the trade inventory -- a little bit of a trade inventory build in the quarter. Was there much impact from the hurricane, obviously, having some homes without electricity and different things like that? And if so, how should we think about 4Q and pacing, your guide implies a little bit of a deceleration? Is that reflected? Or is it more just conservatism? Maybe just help -- help us think about the fourth quarter top line.

只是好奇，當你想到佛羅里達和那裡的颶風影響時，聽起來它顯然是可以控制的。但是有沒有 - 你展示了庫存增加，貿易庫存 - 在本季度有一點貿易庫存增加。颶風有沒有很大的影響，很明顯，有些家庭沒有電和類似的事情？如果是這樣，我們應該如何考慮 4Q 和起搏，您的指南暗示了一點減速？有反映嗎？還是只是保守主義？也許只是幫助 - 幫助我們考慮第四季度的收入。

Yes. As bad as Hurricane Ian was, it did not seem to have the magnitude of the impact of the hurricanes of 2017. So there was some impact, but it wasn't as significant as the 2017 pieces. As we look and roll to Q4, as we said in the comments at the beginning, Q4 just has a tougher comp than Q3 does. And so that's what we're looking at. There's a -- we had a much stronger start of Q4 last year and a little bit of a catch-up versus the Q3, we had a warehouse issue in the beginning of Q3 last year. And so Q4 had a little bit of benefit from that.

是的。與伊恩颶風一樣糟糕，它似乎沒有 2017 年颶風的影響程度。所以有一些影響，但沒有 2017 年的影響那麼大。正如我們在開始的評論中所說的那樣，當我們查看並滾動到第四季度時，第四季度的陣容比第三季度更艱難。這就是我們正在研究的。有一個 - 我們去年第四季度的開局要強勁得多，並且與第三季度相比有一點追趕，我們在去年第三季度開始時遇到了倉庫問題。因此，第四季度從中受益匪淺。

So it's just more of a tougher comp that we're looking at as we head into Q4. And we're also, as you remember, we took a price increase in September. So we just want to see how everything settles through. We have another price increase coming in February. We just wanted to get a good handle on it, but as Dick said, we feel very good about where we sit right now for Q4 and frankly, are very bullish on where we're going to start the year next year.

因此，當我們進入第四季度時，我們正在考慮的只是一個更艱難的組合。而且，您還記得，我們還在 9 月份進行了價格上漲。所以我們只想看看一切如何解決。我們將在 2 月份再次提價。我們只是想很好地處理它，但正如迪克所說，我們對第四季度的現狀感到非常滿意，坦率地說，我們非常看好明年我們將在哪裡開始。

Okay. That's helpful. And just a follow-up on your slide in the presentation about some of the working capital you've got what looks like ERP driven improvement there. It sounds like you've characterized some of it as needing to catch up to kind of get to a normalized level, but is there more upside in terms of that improving even further? Just trying to understand how to model some of the working capital piece as we think about the balance sheet.

好的。這很有幫助。並且只是在演示文稿中的幻燈片上跟進一些營運資金，您在那裡獲得了看起來像是 ERP 驅動的改進。聽起來您已經將其中一些描述為需要趕上某種標準化水平，但是在進一步改善方面是否還有更多好處？只是想了解如何在我們考慮資產負債表時對一些營運資金部分進行建模。

I'll hand it to Dick in a second. Let me -- but let me just say that we think there's still more room on the receivables. And certainly, there's a fairly significant amount of room, we believe, on the inventory side as well. But Dick, do you want to give them the details?

我馬上把它交給迪克。讓我 - 但我只想說，我們認為應收賬款還有更多空間。當然，我們相信，在庫存方面也有相當大的空間。但是迪克，你想告訴他們細節嗎？

Yes, we're running with $40 million finished goods. We had -- so that's about 1.5 weeks more than we would prefer more or like 4 weeks of inventory versus 6 weeks. We've also brought a lot of ingredients upfront and the recent -- (inaudible) department did a great job trying to get a little bit ahead of rising costs. So when you look at our ingredients level and our finished goods level together with packaging materials is kind of in a $60 million range.

是的，我們正在運行 4000 萬美元的成品。我們有 - 所以這比我們更喜歡 4 周而不是 6 週的庫存多出大約 1.5 週。我們還提前準備了很多材料，最近（聽不清）部門做得很好，試圖在成本上升之前提前一點。因此，當您查看我們的成分水平和成品水平以及包裝材料時，大約在 6000 萬美元範圍內。

Our finished goods probably should be about 1.5 weeks less. And as we get Ennis up and running and we have 2 warehouses and we -- our distribution supports each warehouse, our inventory will come down to about 4.5 weeks of finished goods. The ingredients is really just dependent on how the market looks and what kind of positions we want to take.

我們的成品可能應該少約 1.5 週。隨著 Ennis 的啟動和運行，我們有 2 個倉庫，而且我們 - 我們的配送支持每個倉庫，我們的庫存將下降到大約 4.5 週的成品。成分實際上僅取決於市場的外觀以及我們想要採取的立場。

Our next question comes from the line of Robert Moskow from Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Robert Moskow。

Do you have any color for us on what to expect for plant start-up expenses next year? And is it fair to say that it's going to be pretty constant for a while, while you're continuing to build out? And then I had a quick follow-up.

你對我們明年的工廠啟動費用有什麼看法嗎？公平地說，它會在一段時間內保持不變，而你會繼續擴大規模嗎？然後我進行了快速跟進。

I'll take that, Billy. The plant start-up expense this year was related to 2 lines coming on and also the actual plant being built. So early on, we were looking to be finished earlier in the year, and it's now coming in, as Billy indicated, in the next couple of weeks. We already have the 2 lines staffed. The next line that we haven't hired yet. But we do have to hire 90 days in advance, so we can train people and get them in-house. But the building and all the expenses associated with the building prior to those first 2 lines coming up have been -- it was charged.

我會接受的，比利。今年的工廠開工費用與即將開工的兩條生產線以及正在建設的實際工廠有關。這麼早，我們希望在今年早些時候完成，現在正如比利所說，在接下來的幾週內完成。我們已經配備了 2 條生產線。我們尚未僱用的下一條生產線。但我們確實必須提前 90 天僱用，這樣我們才能培訓人員並讓他們在內部工作。但是在前兩條線路出現之前，建築物以及與建築物相關的所有費用已經被收取了。

So you're going to pay for all the utilities and everything else associated with the building, the security and everything. And as new lines come up, that basis -- that base has been covered by the 2 lines. And as the third line towards the 10th line comes up, each line will have less of a hit as you allocate it across the number of lines in place.

因此，您將支付所有公用事業以及與建築物、安全和一切相關的一切費用。隨著新線的出現，該基礎——該基礎已被兩條線覆蓋。隨著第 10 行的第三行出現，當您將每行分配到已到位的行數時，每行的命中率都會降低。

Okay. Well, maybe I'll follow up on that. The second question was, in the past, you've said that it's been very difficult to get your full selection of products into the fridges and stores and have them be filled on a consistent basis. Where do you think you're at in that journey? I haven't heard about it lately and I want to know -- I heard your fill rates, but I'm not sure about your -- getting that full selection in.

好的。好吧，也許我會跟進。第二個問題是，在過去，您曾說過很難將您選擇的全部產品放入冰箱和商店並始終如一地裝滿。你認為你在那個旅程中處於什麼位置？我最近沒有聽說過，我想知道——我聽說了你的填充率，但我不確定你的——得到完整的選擇。

Yes. Let me take a shot. You'll see in the deck that we attached, there's a chart that shows what our TDPs are, which is not a specific measure of in-stocks, but it's the closest measure you can get from the publicly reported data, and it shows we're at an all-time high.

是的。讓我拍一張。您會在我們附加的演示文稿中看到，有一張圖表顯示了我們的 TDP，這不是庫存的具體衡量標準，但它是您可以從公開報告的數據中獲得的最接近的衡量標準，它表明我們'處於歷史最高水平。

If you break -- decompose that into the ACV and the average SKUs in distribution, it's like 15 SKUs in distribution on a 60.3% ACV or something like that. So it's good, but there are still a couple of holes that are sporadically empty that it's just -- we've got to get the right product produced at the right time and in the right warehouse and there's just a logistical challenge for us that we've got to work our way through. But we're getting better every week, and I would hope that once we get these lines and then up and running and shipping that, that problem is invisible.

如果你把它分解成 ACV 和分佈中的平均 SKU，它就像在 60.3% ACV 或類似的東西上分佈的 15 個 SKU。所以這很好，但是仍然有幾個空洞，只是偶爾會出現空洞——我們必須在正確的時間和正確的倉庫中生產正確的產品，這對我們來說只是一個後勤挑戰，我們我們必須努力通過。但是我們每週都在變得更好，我希望一旦我們有了這些生產線，然後啟動並運行並發貨，這個問題就看不見了。

But I would point out that our in-stock position today is better than it's been in years, and our fill rates today are on par or better than most of our leading competitors in the pet food space.

但我要指出的是，我們今天的庫存狀況比往年好，我們今天的填充率與寵物食品領域的大多數領先競爭對手相當或更好。

Our next question comes from the line of Peter Benedict from Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Baird 的 Peter Benedict。

First, just on the efforts to enhance margins. You talked about fixing some costs for next year. Can you give us a sense, Billy, for maybe the visibility you have into kind of improved profitability next year, just simply based on stuff that, I guess, falls off from this year that you've already locked in? That's kind of my first question.

首先，只是努力提高利潤率。你談到為明年解決一些成本問題。比利，你能不能給我們一個感覺，也許你對明年盈利能力提高的可見性，只是基於我猜你已經鎖定的今年有所下降的東西？這是我的第一個問題。

Think of it this way, Peter, we talked about this year having a $19 million gap at the scale that we have in net sales this year, which is sort of the timing mismatch. We expect to have a very minimal timing mismatch in 2023 because of the pricing actions and the commodity purchasing management that we're doing today. So you can take a significant portion of that away.

想想看，彼得，我們談到今年的淨銷售額與今年的淨銷售額相比存在 1900 萬美元的差距，這在某種程度上是時間不匹配。由於我們今天正在進行的定價行動和商品採購管理，我們預計 2023 年的時間錯配將非常小。所以你可以拿走其中很大一部分。

You can also take a look at what happened. We described the issues in logistics, it's costing us $20 million at this year's scale. I'm not going to say that it's all going to go away all-in-one fell swoop. But as Dick said in our comments, our fill rates are consistently getting better. We're running in the high 80s, and so we're taking away a significant portion of that inefficiency that we had, and we expect that once we get that second DC up and running, in Dallas with a full line of items produced locally, meaning in Texas that we end up cutting the miles pretty significantly. So there's a big opportunity there.

你也可以看看發生了什麼。我們描述了物流方面的問題，按今年的規模計算，它耗資 2000 萬美元。我不會說這一切都會一舉消失。但正如迪克在我們的評論中所說，我們的填充率一直在提高。我們在上世紀 80 年代運行，因此我們正在消除我們所擁有的低效率的很大一部分，我們希望一旦我們在達拉斯啟動並運行第二個 DC，並在當地生產全系列產品，這意味著在德克薩斯州，我們最終會大大減少里程。所以那裡有很大的機會。

The cost on the quality side, we've got some things that we're rolling out now that we're not ready to describe the benefit of them. But the opportunity pool is of the same size as the opportunity pool was on logistics and the commodity mismatch. And we think we can make a meaningful dent in it probably more towards the back half of the year than versus the first half of the year.

質量方面的成本，我們現在正在推出一些東西，我們還沒有準備好描述它們的好處。但機會池的大小與物流和商品錯配的機會池大小相同。我們認為，與今年上半年相比，我們可能會在今年下半年更有效地減少它。

Okay. That's helpful. And then I'm just curious, it looks like still you have 1,400 locations that are coming on this year. Just curious, your conversations with retail partners, how those are going right now? What you think the momentum is as you look into next year? Is adding a similar amount of [the assumption]? Or what's the view there?

好的。這很有幫助。然後我很好奇，看起來今年仍有 1,400 個地點即將開業。只是好奇，您與零售合作夥伴的對話，現在進展如何？您認為明年的勢頭如何？是否添加了相似數量的[假設]？或者那裡有什麼景色？

I think we're going to have a strong back of the year here, and I think we're going to have a very good year next year.

我認為我們將在今年獲得強勁的支持，我認為明年我們將有一個非常好的一年。

Our next question comes from the line of Rupesh Parikh from Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默的 Rupesh Parikh。

So I just had one question, just on your consumption by channel. So big box pet [deceled] pretty significantly sequentially. So just some more color there in terms of what's happening and then how you guys think about the recovery there or the strong -- potentially stronger growth going forward in that channel?

所以我只有一個問題，只是關於您的渠道消費。所以大盒子寵物[減速]相當顯著順序。因此，就正在發生的事情而言，還有更多的色彩，然後你們如何看待那裡的複蘇或強勁的 - 可能在該渠道中更強勁的增長？

Yes. So we have never quite smoothed out. There's a couple of factors going on. We have never quite gotten the supply chain as smooth as we would like. We went a little longer and had some additional product shorts than we have had in a couple of other channels. But I would say the biggest single factor there has been, I'd say, the channel has been slightly slower from a growth standpoint and a traffic standpoint.

是的。所以我們從來沒有完全平滑過。有幾個因素在發生。我們從來沒有讓供應鏈像我們想要的那樣順暢。與其他幾個渠道相比，我們花了更長的時間並獲得了一些額外的產品短褲。但我想說最大的單一因素是，從增長的角度和流量的角度來看，渠道稍微慢了一點。

And I don't know -- I'm not -- I don't know the exact dynamics, but I don't know if it would as gas rose, people were making fewer trips, I mean, we've seen some data around that. And I think it maybe had a disproportionate impact on the pet channel. We've seen these things cycle through over time. I think that the work that we're doing, and I think the work that the channel is doing overall, we will see this kind of move through and get to a more normal balance and growth in that channel over time.

而且我不知道——我不知道——我不知道確切的動態，但我不知道它是否會隨著汽油的上漲，人們的出行減少，我的意思是，我們已經看到了一些周圍的數據。而且我認為它可能對寵物頻道產生了不成比例的影響。我們已經看到這些事情隨著時間的推移而循環。我認為我們正在做的工作，以及整個渠道正在做的工作，我們將看到這種轉變，並隨著時間的推移在該渠道中實現更正常的平衡和增長。

Now the important thing for you to take into consideration is today, pet specialty is 14% to 15% of our sales. I have not looked at it in the most recent period, but it's definitely a smaller piece of business but obviously a very important one that we want to continue to develop.

現在您需要考慮的重要一點是，今天，寵物專賣店占我們銷售額的 14% 到 15%。最近一段時間我沒有看過它，但這絕對是一個較小的業務，但顯然是我們想要繼續發展的一個非常重要的業務。

Okay. Great. And then maybe one additional question. Just given some of the, I guess, concerns in Europe, just any update in terms of what you're seeing in the U.K. market as well.

好的。偉大的。然後也許還有一個問題。只是考慮到歐洲的一些擔憂，以及你在英國市場上看到的任何更新。

Yes. Our business in the U.K., as you know, is very small relative to the U.S. business. It's more in the exploratory phase. We are obviously very mindful of the very rapid inflation that exists there. And so we are taking pricing there and have taken pricing there. We'll also see that in -- while we don't have a huge cost base there because our product is produced in the U.S., we will have wage inflation for the team that we have there as well that's going to have to keep up with the market.

是的。如您所知，我們在英國的業務與美國業務相比非常小。更多的是探索階段。我們顯然非常注意那裡存在的非常快速的通貨膨脹。所以我們在那裡定價並在那裡定價。我們還將看到——雖然我們在那裡沒有龐大的成本基礎，因為我們的產品是在美國生產的，但我們在那裡的團隊也會出現工資上漲，這將不得不跟上與市場。

But in terms of the consumer dynamics there, so far, they've been holding together pretty well. We haven't seen any significant negative impact on our business trends but recognized we're a relatively small scale there and sort of in the ramp-up phase. So I'm not sure we would necessarily see it the way someone who has significantly more scale would see it.

但就那裡的消費者動態而言，到目前為止，它們一直很好地結合在一起。我們沒有看到對我們的業務趨勢有任何重大的負面影響，但我們認識到我們在那裡的規模相對較小，並且處於起步階段。所以我不確定我們是否會像擁有更大規模的人那樣看待它。

Our next question comes from the line of Ben Bienvenu from Stephens.

我們的下一個問題來自斯蒂芬斯的 Ben Bienvenu。

Jim Salera on for Ben. I wanted to ask a question on the in-stock rates. As you guys get the operations side buttoned up, does that have a noticeable impact on the velocity with your retail partners? And then maybe as like a part 2 to that question, do your retail partners have a certain velocity threshold that they want to hit before they'll put in a second or a third fridge?

吉姆·薩萊拉替補本。我想問一個關於庫存率的問題。當你們搞定運營方面的問題時，這對零售合作夥伴的速度有明顯影響嗎？然後可能就像該問題的第二部分一樣，您的零售合作夥伴是否有一定的速度閾值，他們希望在他們放入第二個或第三個冰箱之前達到某個速度閾值？

So I'll answer the -- let me answer the velocity one first. So 10 years ago, we were actually below the average for the category and especially on like a sales per linear foot is a very often metric. We actually literally go down to the inches when we look at our fridge, we are actually typically in the top 20% of the category at this point. We're typically the leader in the category from a velocity standpoint. So we've well overcome the velocity hurdle that we had years and years ago because we have consistent same-store sales growth.

所以我會回答——讓我先回答速度問題。所以 10 年前，我們實際上低於該類別的平均水平，尤其是每線性英尺的銷售額是一個非常常見的指標。當我們查看我們的冰箱時，實際上我們實際上是精確到英寸，此時我們實際上通常位於該類別的前 20%。從速度的角度來看，我們通常是該類別的領導者。因此，我們已經很好地克服了多年前的速度障礙，因為我們的同店銷售額一直在增長。

So I think that has not really been a challenge. So the other part of your question was like we have not had full fridges for a very long period of time for -- it's been almost 3 years since we've had really full fridges with every product in there. And we're still kind of into the -- we're in the 80s at this point. We should typically be -- we used to be years ago, best-in-class in the high 90s, and that's where we would expect to be going back to over the course of Q1.

所以我認為這並不是一個真正的挑戰。因此，您問題的另一部分是，我們已經很長一段時間沒有裝滿冰箱了——我們已經有將近 3 年沒有真正裝滿所有產品的冰箱了。而且我們仍然處於 - 我們現在處於 80 年代。我們通常應該是 - 我們曾經是幾年前的頂級 90 年代，這就是我們期望在第一季度回歸的地方。

When we see that -- when we're in-stock on all of our items every single day, there will be a factor where that being -- having full fridges, there will be a significant kind of benefit to sales in a real kind of multiplier effect on our efforts across the board. So it's probably -- we need to do some -- I would like to do some additional math before putting (inaudible) there on that, but we have seen it over time that as we have continued to get better fridge fills, it does help velocity by (inaudible) points.

當我們看到這一點時——當我們每天都有所有商品的庫存時，會有一個因素——擁有完整的冰箱，對真正的銷售會有很大的好處對我們全面努力的乘數效應。所以它可能——我們需要做一些——我想在把（聽不清）放在那里之前做一些額外的數學運算，但隨著時間的推移，我們已經看到，隨著我們繼續獲得更好的冰箱填充物，它確實有幫助（聽不清）點的速度。

I would just add one point to that, which is that we also have this phenomenon where one of the items that has been most frequently shorter is the one where we had the quality issue in the end of Q2. And that has thus been in the shortest of supply as we've kind of worked our way through all the challenges that come in the wake of that. When that is out of stock, consumers trade down to our (inaudible) item. When it gets back in stock, they trade back up. So we may see the same unit purchases, but we see higher dollars per pound or higher total dollars as a result of getting us fully in stock. So there's a trade-up phenomenon that happens for us when we are fully in stock.

我只想補充一點，那就是我們也有這種現象，其中最常縮短的項目之一是我們在第二季度末遇到質量問題的項目。因此，這是供應最短缺的，因為我們一直在努力克服隨之而來的所有挑戰。當缺貨時，消費者會降價購買我們的（聽不清）商品。當它有庫存時，他們會重新交易。因此，我們可能會看到相同的單位購買量，但由於我們的庫存充足，我們會看到每磅更高的美元或更高的總美元。因此，當我們有充足的庫存時，就會發生換貨現象。

And that's (inaudible) Fresh From the Kitchen item Billy was referring to.

這就是比利所指的（聽不清）剛從廚房裡拿出來的東西。

Got it. Maybe if I can ask the second part of the question in a different way. Do your retail partners have any key metrics that they look at when you're looking to add a second or a third fridge (inaudible) before you get the green light for that?

知道了。也許我可以用不同的方式問問題的第二部分。當您希望在獲得批准之前添加第二個或第三個冰箱（聽不清）時，您的零售合作夥伴是否有任何關鍵指標可供參考？

You know what the single biggest one has been over the past 24 months or even longer. It has been -- there's no way when I have half empty fridges that you can ask me to add another fridge. And I think now that we -- they start to see really strong, very consistent progression, which is what we've told them time and time again, what we were going to do as we laid out these plans, I think that there's real confidence and comfort in adding additional fridges. That has been -- that has been the single biggest governor on us adding significant numbers of fridges. And we're now at a point where when you start to hit going from the 50s to the 60s to the 70s and now in the 80s, and they literally are seeing these new lines come up and start to operate. It gives them great confidence to be able to add additional fridges.

您知道過去 24 個月甚至更長時間內最大的一次是什麼。已經——當我有一半空的冰箱時，你不可能要求我添加另一個冰箱。而且我認為現在我們 - 他們開始看到非常強大、非常一致的進展，這是我們一次又一次告訴他們的，我們在製定這些計劃時將要做的事情，我認為這是真正的增加額外冰箱的信心和舒適感。那一直是 - 這是我們增加大量冰箱的最大單一州長。我們現在正處於從 50 年代到 60 年代到 70 年代再到 80 年代開始流行的地步，他們確實看到這些新生產線出現並開始運作。這讓他們非常有信心能夠添加額外的冰箱。

Great. Great. And if I could just ask one housekeeping question, and I apologize if I missed this somewhere in the slide deck. What was advertising spend in the quarter?

偉大的。偉大的。如果我能問一個家政問題，如果我在幻燈片的某個地方錯過了這個問題，我深表歉意。本季度的廣告支出是多少？

You can see it in the deck, it's imputed in there on the SG&A slide.

您可以在演示文稿中看到它，它已在 SG&A 幻燈片上估算。

$14 million.

1400萬美元。

Yes.

是的。

$14 million, you said?

你說1400萬美元？

Yes.

是的。

Our next question is from the line of Jon Andersen from William Blair.

我們的下一個問題來自 William Blair 的 Jon Andersen。

I wanted to ask -- Billy, you referenced competition in the prepared comments. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more broadly about competition. You mentioned the one new entrant, I think, in the refrigerated space in store. What are you seeing on a direct-to-consumer basis? And as you bring up this kind of the new capacity and address some of the capability challenges, should we expect kind of a renewed effort in direct-to-consumer from Freshpet?

我想問——比利，你在準備好的評論中提到了競爭。我想知道你是否可以更廣泛地談論競爭。你提到了一個新進入者，我想，在商店的冷藏空間裡。您在直接面向消費者的基礎上看到了什麼？當你提出這種新的能力並解決一些能力挑戰時，我們是否應該期待 Freshpet 在直接面向消費者方面做出新的努力？

Scott?

斯科特?

Yes, so I'll jump in on that. Jon. So I think here's the best way for -- there are a lot of folks coming into this space and kind of how you want to define it and look at it. There's been a lot of folks that have entered retail that have frozen cooked items and some people that have come into fresh. So if I add all of that together, and I think, Jon, we've shared a slide once before with you, and I just updated it. If you add all of the competition and all the activity together, it looks like a lot. But we're still 96% of the sales in fresh and frozen cooked foods. So we are -- we're by far like the enormous piece. And we've been maintaining share there. So I think we're really proud of the results there.

是的，所以我會加入。喬恩。所以我認為這是最好的方式——有很多人進入這個領域，你想如何定義和看待它。有很多人進入零售業，冷凍熟食，有些人進入新鮮食品。因此，如果我將所有這些加在一起，我想，喬恩，我們之前曾與您分享過一張幻燈片，我剛剛更新了它。如果你把所有的比賽和所有的活動加在一起，看起來很多。但我們仍佔新鮮和冷凍熟食銷售額的 96%。所以我們 - 我們到目前為止就像巨大的一塊。我們一直在那裡保持份額。所以我認為我們為那裡的結果感到非常自豪。

And look, we know over time that there is a real chance that competition continues to make progress. We think the end state of this category, as we've talked before, is in the many billions of dollars in the $4 billion or $5 billion range, and we know we're not going to be alone in that. But our goal is to have as much share as we possibly can of that $4 billion to $5 billion. And I love what Gatorade is done after 30 or 40 years. And I think that would be our target too. So I think that's one of them.

看，隨著時間的推移，我們知道競爭有可能繼續取得進展。正如我們之前所說，我們認為這一類別的最終狀態是在 40 億美元或 50 億美元範圍內的數十億美元，我們知道我們不會孤單。但我們的目標是在這 40 億到 50 億美元中盡可能多地分得一杯羹。我喜歡佳得樂在 30 或 40 年後所做的事情。我認為這也是我們的目標。所以我認為這是其中之一。

On the DTC piece, we recognize that there is a really interesting market. There are a group of consumers. Now it's a small group, but it's an important and high-value group of consumers that really appreciate not only customized but also very convenient meals that are coming to their homes for their dogs. And we are -- we continue to evaluate that and look at ways that we can make our product even more customized and more convenient. And I think we'll continue to update people over time. I don't think we're quite ready to share exactly what we're looking at. But I think we have a solution that utilizes our best assets and capabilities to give a consumer a great proposition.

在 DTC 方面，我們認識到有一個非常有趣的市場。有一群消費者。現在它是一個小群體，但它是一個重要且高價值的消費者群體，他們真正欣賞的不僅是定制的而且非常方便的餐食，這些餐食可以送到他們家為他們的狗。而且我們 - 我們將繼續評估這一點，並研究如何使我們的產品更加定制和更方便。我認為我們會隨著時間的推移繼續更新人們。我認為我們還沒有完全準備好分享我們正在查看的內容。但我認為我們有一個解決方案，可以利用我們最好的資產和能力為消費者提供一個很好的建議。

Okay. And just a follow-up. I think in reference to the 2025 plan in the prepared comments, it was mentioned that you have a lot of confidence in the sales target for 2025. I didn't hear -- I don't think -- I may have missed it, any reaffirmation of kind of an EBITDA margin target? Any thoughts or willingness to update that?

好的。只是一個後續行動。我想在準備好的評論中提到2025年計劃，提到你對2025年的銷售目標很有信心。我沒有聽到——我不認為——我可能錯過了，是否重申了某種 EBITDA 利潤率目標？有什麼想法或願意更新嗎？

Well, Jon, what we were trying to say was we freely recognize that because of all the inflation that we've had in the past year and the impact that it's had on buying rate, potential impacts on household penetration or customer acquisition costs and then also on our margin structure. We didn't really want to address the net sales, EBITDA margin in 2025. We'll come back and do that in January and kind of level set from what we see at that point.

好吧，喬恩，我們想說的是，我們自由地認識到，由於過去一年的通貨膨脹以及它對購買率的影響，對家庭滲透率或客戶獲取成本的潛在影響，然後也在我們的保證金結構上。我們真的不想解決 2025 年的淨銷售額和 EBITDA 利潤率。我們將在 1 月份回來做這件事，並從我們當時看到的水平設定。

But we didn't want people to think that the change in the CapEx spending we were doing was going to, in any way, impact our ability to get to that number. And so that's what we are trying to say is we're just trying to make sure people understood that CapEx changes are not going to impact our ability to get to the $1.25 billion.

但是我們不希望人們認為我們正在做的資本支出支出的變化會以任何方式影響我們達到這個數字的能力。所以這就是我們想說的，我們只是想確保人們理解資本支出的變化不會影響我們達到 12.5 億美元的能力。

Our next question comes from the line of Cody Ross from UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Cody Ross。

I just want to focus a little bit on gross margin here. You called out inflation and quality issue as 2 of the leading headwinds to gross margin in the quarter. Can you quantify the impact on the quarter? And when do you expect the quality issue to no longer be a headwind?

我只想在這裡稍微關註一下毛利率。您將通貨膨脹和質量問題稱為本季度毛利率的兩大不利因素。您能否量化對本季度的影響？您預計質量問題何時不再是不利因素？

Dick, do you want to take a shot at that?

迪克，你想試一試嗎？

Sure. Yes, we've never broken out quality before. So -- but we certainly suffered consequences from a margin standpoint, not only for the quarter, but year-to-date, we did disclose, I think, in the last quarter, $3.5 million for one of our roll issues. And we're working on improving the quality. As Billy described earlier, we have some strategies going on, and we feel good about how they're going to impact the latter part of 2023. So I'm not so sure I really want to break that out at this point in time.

當然。是的，我們以前從未打破過質量。所以 - 但從利潤的角度來看，我們當然遭受了後果，不僅是本季度，而且是年初至今，我認為，我們確實在上個季度披露了 350 萬美元用於我們的一個滾動問題。我們正在努力提高質量。正如比利之前所描述的，我們正在製定一些策略，我們對它們將如何影響 2023 年下半年感到滿意。所以我不太確定我是否真的想在這個時間點打破它。

Yes. I wouldn't break it out. And just to add to what Dick said, we're pretty comfortable that the impacts on quality, which is growing at our rate, and we are the pioneers in this space. We will find issues before anybody else will because as added scale, things that happen at a smaller chance of happening will show up at some point. Our challenge is to minimize the size of the impact whenever something does show up that we had not properly anticipated. So that means make it less time, impact less product, results in less disposals. Our rolls are very robust. We feel very good about that. The focus is on making the bag products as robust as they can be.

是的。我不會打破它。補充一下迪克所說的，我們對質量的影響感到非常滿意，質量正在以我們的速度增長，我們是這個領域的先驅。我們會在其他人之前發現問題，因為隨著規模的增加，發生概率較小的事情會在某個時候出現。我們面臨的挑戰是，只要出現了我們沒有正確預料到的情況，就將影響的規模降到最低。因此，這意味著減少時間，減少對產品的影響，減少處置。我們的捲非常堅固。我們對此感覺很好。重點是使手袋產品盡可能堅固。

And then just switching gears a little bit to fill rates here. You mentioned fill rates are in the high 80s right now. What are your biggest challenges today? And when do you anticipate fill rates going back to normal levels? I think I might have heard 1Q '23, is that correct?

然後只是稍微切換一下齒輪來填充率。你提到填充率現在處於 80 年代的高位。你今天最大的挑戰是什麼？您預計填充率何時會恢復到正常水平？我想我可能聽說過 1Q '23，對嗎？

Yes. The biggest impact on the fill rates in the like literally in the immediate moment is just getting caught up on our Fresh From the Kitchen product, which is where we had the product quality issue earlier this year. It's taken a while to kind of sort our way through that and get caught up. We are starting to make fairly significant progress on that. So I see that closing and may even close by the end of this year.

是的。從字面上看，對填充率的最大影響是剛剛趕上我們的新鮮廚房產品，這是我們今年早些時候遇到產品質量問題的地方。我們花了一段時間來整理我們的方式並趕上。我們開始在這方面取得相當大的進展。所以我看到了關閉，甚至可能在今年年底關閉。

But as we've said all along, rolls capacity has gotten tight, and we needed the Ennis line to come on in order to ensure that we could keep up with the demand on our roll side. So as long as Ennis production goes at the rate at which we're hoping it will go, we should be able to fill any of those holes that we'll have on the rolls. And as Scott said earlier, I feel pretty good about our total capacity position as we head into Q1. I mean, it should get progressively better from where we are now in the mid- to upper 80s. But as our standards -- our markets to be well above 95%, we think we'll be there in Q1.

但正如我們一直所說的，軋輥產能已經吃緊，我們需要 Ennis 生產線來確保我們能夠跟上軋輥方面的需求。因此，只要 Ennis 的生產以我們希望的速度進行，我們就應該能夠填補我們將在捲軸上出現的任何漏洞。正如斯科特之前所說，當我們進入第一季度時，我對我們的總產能狀況感到非常滿意。我的意思是，它應該會從我們現在處於 80 年代中上端的位置逐漸變得更好。但按照我們的標準——我們的市場遠高於 95%，我們認為我們將在第一季度實現這一目標。

Our next question comes from the line of Peter Galbo from Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Peter Galbo。

I'll be pretty quick. I guess, Billy, I just kind of want to clarify the time line with Todd and Dirk stepping in later this year, it seems like maybe you're thinking about reassessing and presenting something to us in January. But I just wasn't sure if with them coming on, is that really enough time to assess or reassess if plans need to be adjusted? Or is there maybe a more extended time line once they come in to reevaluate?

我會很快的。我想，Billy，我只是想澄清一下 Todd 和 Dirk 在今年晚些時候加入的時間表，看起來你可能正在考慮在 1 月份重新評估並向我們展示一些東西。但我只是不確定隨著他們的到來，是否真的有足夠的時間來評估或重新評估是否需要調整計劃？或者一旦他們進來重新評估，是否有更長的時間線？

Yes. It's a good question. Our current target is to do it sometime in January, ICR would be a logical place for us to do it, but we aren't going to do it if we're not ready. Having said that, the work has already started and it's well along at this point on all the pieces that we need to put together because the rest of the team has been working on this for some time. But we do want to make sure that the new talent has a chance to get in, kick the tires and fully [vet] it.

是的。這是個好問題。我們目前的目標是在一月份的某個時候進行，ICR 對我們來說是一個合乎邏輯的地方，但如果我們還沒有準備好，我們就不會這樣做。話雖如此，工作已經開始，目前我們需要整合的所有部分都進展順利，因為團隊的其他成員已經為此工作了一段時間。但是我們確實希望確保新人才有機會進入，踢輪胎並完全[審查]它。

Dirk starts off this coming Monday. So he'll get his arms around the work pretty quickly. One of the things I would point out about these 2 new hires is, in both cases, they're ready to go on Day 1. This is not a new industry. It's not a role that they haven't played before. They know most of the key players involved in the industry. So they're going to hit the ground running from Day 1, and we feel very good about it.

德克將於下週一開始。所以他會很快地把他的手臂放在工作上。關於這兩名新員工，我要指出的一件事是，在這兩種情況下，他們都已準備好在第一天就職。這不是一個新行業。這不是他們以前沒有扮演過的角色。他們認識該行業的大多數主要參與者。所以他們將從第一天開始就開始運作，我們對此感覺非常好。

Todd starts on December 1. That doesn't mean we won't be feeding him lots of information between now and December 1, so that he is fully up to speed and ready to go on, on December 1. So I feel like we're giving ourselves room, but we will not come out with something unless they've had a chance to wrap their arms around the sections that they have responsibility for and feel good about what they're communicating because we want them to make the same level of commitments that we make.

托德從 12 月 1 日開始。這並不意味著從現在到 12 月 1 日期間我們不會向他提供大量信息，以便他完全跟上進度並準備好在 12 月 1 日繼續前進。所以我覺得我們'正在給我們自己空間，但我們不會提出任何東西，除非他們有機會擁抱他們負責的部分，並對他們正在交流的內容感到滿意，因為我們希望他們做同樣的事情我們做出的承諾的水平。

Okay. No, that's helpful. And then, Dick, if I could just ask 2 really quick clarifying questions. I think you mentioned in the prepared remarks that gross margins were roughly $5 million under what you would have thought. I think that was a price cost comment that maybe would catch up in 4Q. I just wanted to clarify that. And then on the lower CapEx spend that you guys are talking about for this year and next year, obviously, some of the projects, but is there any impact just on cooler placements as a result of that lower CapEx? Or is it solely kind of on production side?

好的。不，這很有幫助。然後，迪克，如果我能問兩個非常快速的澄清問題。我想你在準備好的評論中提到，毛利率比你想像的低了大約 500 萬美元。我認為這是一個價格成本評論，可能會在第四季度趕上。我只是想澄清一下。然後是你們正在談論的今年和明年的較低資本支出，顯然是一些項目，但由於較低的資本支出，是否會對較冷的展示位置產生任何影響？還是只是在生產方面？

Yes, it's production sites, not on coolers. And in the margin, we said we had a 2.6% price increase effective the first week of September, but by the time it ships. So it will impact the 2.6% will pick up for the whole fourth quarter, which adds about 130 basis points against fourth quarter sales, which is part of it. And we do have some commodities that have moved in our direction. So we feel that the margin improvement in the fourth quarter should pick up nicely.

是的，它是生產現場，而不是冷卻器。在利潤方面，我們說從 9 月的第一周開始，我們的價格上漲了 2.6%，但到了發貨時。因此，它將影響整個第四季度 2.6% 的增長，這比第四季度的銷售額增加了約 130 個基點，這是其中的一部分。我們確實有一些商品朝著我們的方向發展。因此，我們認為第四季度的利潤率改善應該會很好地回升。

Am I just -- am I correct in thinking that the $5 million -- you were like $5 million behind price cost, though, in the third quarter, is that what you had said earlier?

我是否只是——我認為 500 萬美元——你比價格成本低了 500 萬美元，但是，在第三季度，這就是你之前所說的嗎？

Yes. And if you think about it, the 2.6% impacted it along with some onetime issues in disposals and quality.

是的。如果你仔細想想，這 2.6% 的影響以及處置和質量方面的一些一次性問題。

Our next question comes from the line of Connor Rattigan from Consumer Edge Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Consumer Edge Research 的 Connor Rattigan。

Just one for me. So I was hoping to touch on the [trip] consolidation and pack mix issue that popped up last quarter. So from the data we've seen, it appears some of that may still be going on despite meaningfully lower gas prices versus last quarter. Have you seen any improvement or, I suppose, a return to normalcy on that front with the consumer returning to their typical shopping habits and smaller pack sizes?

只給我一個。所以我希望能談談上個季度出現的 [trip] 整合和打包組合問題。因此，從我們看到的數據來看，儘管與上一季度相比汽油價格顯著下降，但其中一些可能仍在繼續。你有沒有看到任何改善，或者，我想，隨著消費者恢復他們典型的購物習慣和更小的包裝尺寸，這方面的恢復正常？

Scott, do you want to take that?

斯科特，你想接受嗎？

Sure. Sorry, I missed a bit of it somewhere in there. It was about focused on pack sizes and return to pack sizes, is that right?

當然。抱歉，我在某處漏掉了一點。它是關於關注包裝尺寸並返回包裝尺寸，對嗎？

Yes, yes, that's correct.

是的，是的，這是正確的。

Foot traffic. You can -- talking about foot traffic and people (inaudible) pack sizes as a result of that.

步行交通。因此，您可以談論人流量和人（聽不清）包裝尺寸。

Yes. So there has been a -- it's really been interesting to watch. There's a pretty amazing dynamic going on in the category where people have been -- so here's what we've been seeing. In the category, we're definitely seeing where people are trying to stretch things a little further as much as possible.

是的。所以有一個 - 觀看真的很有趣。在人們曾經去過的類別中，有一種非常驚人的動態——所以這就是我們所看到的。在該類別中，我們肯定會看到人們試圖在哪些方面盡可能地進一步擴展。

There are -- there have been some pack size changes. There has also been some trade down from one item to another item within a brand. We have really weathered this quite well. I mean, amazingly well. And I think it's given us increased confidence of what the portfolio is capable of. And I think it's given us really strong confidence in doing the pricing again next year.

有 - 有一些包裝尺寸的變化。在一個品牌中，也有一些從一件商品到另一件商品的交易。我們真的很好地經受住了這一切。我的意思是，非常好。而且我認為這讓我們對投資組合的能力有了更大的信心。我認為這讓我們對明年再次定價充滿信心。

I'm not saying this is a -- we can be -- we can -- we don't need to be really diligent and thoughtful about it. But we really have not seen the impact in the rest of the category, and we consistently look at growth rates and -- not only on dollars but also on pounds, equivalized units, et cetera. And it just gives us, I guess, really good confidence going into the changes we're making with the other components we have helping the business continue to progress forward.

我並不是說這是——我們可以——我們可以——我們不需要真正勤奮和深思熟慮。但我們真的沒有看到其他類別的影響，我們一直在關注增長率——不僅是美元，還有英鎊、等值單位等。我猜，它只是讓我們對我們正在使用其他組件進行的改變充滿信心，幫助業務繼續向前發展。

Our next question comes from the line of John Lawrence from Benchmark.

我們的下一個問題來自 Benchmark 的 John Lawrence。

Billy, would you comment just a minute on the decision today on the CapEx? Am I reading it right that as you look at the margin improvement plan as you go toward '25, does this allow pushing out some of those projects a little bit? Will that allow that margin to expand a little bit earlier, maybe in '23, '24 without the dilution from the projects, is that fair?

比利，您能否就今天關於資本支出的決定發表評論？我是否讀對了，當您在邁向 25 年時查看利潤率改進計劃時，這是否允許將其中一些項目推出一點點？這是否會使該利潤提前一點擴大，也許在 23 年、24 年沒有項目稀釋的情況下，這公平嗎？

We're going to go into the detail on the projects probably when we roll out the longer-term plan. But part of what we figured out how to do is take some of the innovation projects that we're working on, and we found a more efficient way to produce them that requires us to spend less CapEx upfront. And to the extent that, that has an impact on margin, that would flow through.

我們可能會在推出長期計劃時詳細介紹這些項目。但我們想出的部分方法是採用我們正在開展的一些創新項目，我們找到了一種更有效的方式來生產它們，這需要我們預先花費更少的資本支出。在某種程度上，這會對利潤率產生影響，這將通過。

But I would say that the margin piece in the CapEx, while they're obviously related when we're not using adjusted gross margin. But on an adjusted gross margin basis where we don't include depreciation, I don't think there'll be a whole lot of connection, Dick could be the expert on that. I think, though, that what you're going to see going forward is the more of our volume that we can have loaded into the Ennis facility, the more margin improvement you see on the total business.

但我想說的是資本支出中的利潤率部分，而當我們不使用調整後的毛利率時，它們顯然是相關的。但在我們不包括折舊的調整後毛利率基礎上，我認為不會有很多聯繫，迪克可能是這方面的專家。不過，我認為，您將看到的未來是我們可以加載到 Ennis 設施中的數量越多，您看到的整體業務的利潤率提高就越大。

And so as we look at how we lay out the CapEx plan and the resources, our bias is to put as much volume in that facility as we possibly can because it is the advantage facility from a margin perspective. And our capital spending plans will mirror that.

因此，當我們查看如何佈置資本支出計劃和資源時，我們的偏見是盡可能多地投入該設施，因為從利潤率的角度來看，它是優勢設施。我們的資本支出計劃將反映這一點。

On a GAAP basis, we would suffer depreciation on that $100 million, assuming it was completed by the end of '24, it would have hit '25 and now pushing that out does help on a GAAP basis, but not on an adjusted gross profit basis.

根據公認會計原則，我們將承受這 1 億美元的折舊，假設它在 24 年底完成，它會達到 25 年，現在將其推出確實有助於在 GAAP 的基礎上，但對調整後的毛利潤沒有幫助基礎。

Our next question comes from the line of Corey Grady from Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Corey Grady。

I just want to ask 2 quick follow-ups. First on pricing, do you expect to be in line with the industry or taking another round of pricing? And then have you seen any change in the industry in terms of promotionality?

我只想問2個快速跟進。首先在定價上，您希望與行業保持一致還是採取新一輪定價？然後你有沒有看到行業在促銷方面的任何變化？

It's interesting. I was literally just looking at promotion, and I was waiting for promotion to start getting more aggressive. It really hasn't moved at all. It's -- it actually looks like it might have contracted a tiny bit across the industry. And again, when I'm looking at it, I'm looking at wet and also in dry foods. So it's not a direct competitor, obviously, but they are calories in the category. So we haven't seen that action come out yet.

這真有趣。我實際上只是在看升職，我在等待升職開始變得更加激進。它真的一點都沒有動。它 - 實際上看起來它可能已經在整個行業中收縮了一點點。再一次，當我看它時，我看的是濕的和乾的食物。所以它顯然不是直接競爭對手，但它們是該類別中的卡路里。所以我們還沒有看到那個動作出來。

When we do take our next price increase, we will still be below what most of, I would say, the wet part of the category has taken and will be in line or a bit above some of the dry. And there is a pretty big range by manufacturer on what the pricing has been from what we've been able to see. We're just looking at retail prices, but there's been some pretty dramatic moves on a lot of brands here. So I would say we'll still be -- we'll be below wet even when we take this price increase and then in line or slightly above a couple of the dry brands, but in a good spot, really in a good spot overall.

當我們進行下一次價格上漲時，我們仍將低於該類別中大部分潮濕部分的價格，並將與乾燥部分一致或略高於部分乾燥部分。製造商對我們所看到的定價範圍有很大的影響。我們只關注零售價格，但這裡的許多品牌都有一些非常引人注目的舉措。所以我會說我們仍然會——即使我們採取這次價格上漲，然後與幾個乾品牌一致或略高於幾個乾品牌，我們也會低於濕狀態，但處於一個好位置，整體上確實處於一個好位置.

Got it. That's helpful. And then I just wanted to follow up. So the update on your heavy and super heavy users. You've talked about 25% of Freshpet customers using Freshpet as a full meal replacement in the past. Can you give us an update on what percentage of your customers use Freshpet as a meal replacement?

知道了。這很有幫助。然後我只想跟進。因此，您的重度和超重度用戶的更新。您談到過去有 25% 的 Freshpet 客戶使用 Freshpet 作為全餐替代品。您能否告訴我們您的客戶中有多少百分比使用 Freshpet 作為膳食替代品？

I have not -- Billy, it may have been in one of those decks. I do not remember -- I may be able to find it, but I do not have it off the top of my head, quite honestly. It's something that we can look at. I don't think it's changed. Go ahead.

我沒有——比利，它可能在其中一個套牌中。我不記得了——我也許能找到它，但老實說，我並沒有想到它。這是我們可以看的東西。我不認為它改變了。前進。

Putting -- when you reported on a sales basis, so what percentage of our sales are from people who are doing that, it's north of 50%. But when you look at it as a percentage of the universe, it's a much smaller percentage.

放——當你以銷售為基礎報告時，我們的銷售中有多少百分比來自這樣做的人，它在 50% 以上。但是，當您將其視為宇宙的百分比時，它的百分比要小得多。

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And now I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Billy Cyr, from -- Chief Executive Officer, for closing comments.

女士們，先生們，問答環節到此結束。現在，我想將會議轉交給首席執行官 Billy Cyr 先生，以發表結束語。

Thank you very much for your interest. We feel very good about what we've delivered, and we feel like we delivered a strong on-plan quarter. We look forward to continuing the strength for the balance of the year. I want to leave you with one thought, as I always do, according to Canadian author and historian, Charlotte Gray, "A dog desires affection more than its dinner. Well - almost" to which I would add, if you feed them Freshpet, the dinner will win hands down. Thank you very much, and we look forward to following up with you later. Thank you.

非常感謝您的關注。我們對我們交付的東西感覺非常好，我們覺得我們交付了一個強勁的按計劃季度。我們期待在今年的餘額中繼續保持強勁勢頭。根據加拿大作家和歷史學家夏洛特·格雷的說法，我想給你留下一個想法，就像我一直做的那樣，“一隻狗比晚餐更渴望愛。好吧 - 幾乎”如果你餵牠們 Freshpet，我會補充說，晚餐將贏得勝利。非常感謝您，我們期待稍後與您聯繫。謝謝你。

Thank you. The conference of Freshpet Inc. has now concluded. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

謝謝你。 Freshpet Inc.的會議現已結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開線路。