Freshpet Inc (FRPT) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to Freshpet's second quarter 2024 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Rachel Ulsh, Vice President and the Investor Relations. You may begin.

問候。歡迎參加 Freshpet 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。我現在將會議交給負責投資者關係的副總裁 Rachel Ulsh。你可以開始了。

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Freshpet second quarter 2024 earnings call and webcast. On today's call are Bill Cyr, Chief Executive Officer; and Todd Cunfar, Chief Financial Officer; Scott Morris, President and Chief Operating Officer, will also be available for Q&A.

謝謝。早安，歡迎來到 Freshpet 2024 年第二季財報電話會議和網路廣播。出席今天電話會議的有執行長比爾‧西爾 (Bill Cyr)；坎法爾（Todd Cunfar），財務長；總裁兼營運長史考特·莫里斯也將出席問答環節。

Before we begin, please remember that during the course of this call, management will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements related to our long-term strategy 2027 goals and pace in achieving these goals, prospects for growth, timing of Freshpet Kitchens expansion and new technology and 2024 guidance.

在我們開始之前，請記住，在本次電話會議期間，管理階層將做出1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性聲明。相關的聲明這些目標、成長前景、Freshpet Kitchens 擴張的時機和新技術以及 2024 年指引。

Words such as anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, guidance, intend, may, project, will, or similar conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. 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 including those associated with such statements.

預期、相信、能夠、估計、期望、指導、打算、可能、預測、意願或類似條件表達等詞語旨在識別前瞻性陳述。這些陳述是基於管理階層目前的預期和信念，涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述中所述的結果（包括與此類陳述相關的結果）有重大差異。

Please refer to the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the company's press release issued today for a detailed discussions of risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made today.

請參閱該公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-K 表格年度報告以及該公司今天發布的新聞稿，以了解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的詳細討論今天做的。

Please note that on today's call, management will refer to certain 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.

請注意，在今天的電話會議上，管理層將提及某些非公認會計準則財務指標，例如 EBITDA 和調整後 EBITDA 等。雖然該公司認為這些非公認會計準則財務指標為投資者提供了有用的信息。此資訊的呈現不應被孤立地考慮或作為根據 GAAP 呈現的財務資訊的替代品。

Please refer to today's press release for how management defines such non-GAAP measures, why management believes such non-GAAP financial measures are useful, a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable measures prepared in accordance with GAAP and limitations associated with such non-GAAP measures.

請參閱今天的新聞稿，了解管理階層如何定義此類非GAAP 衡量標準、為何管理階層認為此類非GAAP 財務衡量標準有用、非GAAP 財務衡量標準與根據GAAP 制定的最具可比性衡量標準的調節表以及相關限制與此類非公認會計準則措施。

Finally, 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. Management's commentary will not specifically walk through the presentation on the call, rather it is the summary of the results and guidance they will discuss today.

最後，該公司製作了一份演示文稿，其中包含本次電話會議將討論的許多關鍵指標。該演示文稿可以在該公司的投資者網站上找到。管理層的評論不會具體介紹電話會議的演示，而是他們今天將討論的結果和指導的摘要。

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

說到這裡，我想將電話轉給執行長比利·西爾 (Billy Cyr)。

Thank you, Rachel, and good morning, everyone. The message I would like you to take away from today's call is that we are on track to deliver the disciplined growth we committed to achieve this year. As you know, we aspire to deliver category-leading growth with outsized improvement in profitability. But as we've learned over the past few years, carefully managing our growth to about 25% enables us to drive operating improvements and manage cash more effectively, making Freshpet an even more attractive business.

謝謝你，雷切爾，大家早安。我希望大家從今天的電話會議中傳達的訊息是，我們正在實現今年承諾實現的有序成長。如您所知，我們渴望實現業界領先的成長，並大幅提高獲利能力。但正如我們在過去幾年中了解到的那樣，謹慎地將成長控制在 25% 左右，使我們能夠推動營運改善並更有效地管理現金，從而使 Freshpet 成為更具吸引力的業務。

That is our definition of disciplined growth. And if we do that well, consumers will win, customers will win, and our shareholders will win. Our second quarter results demonstrate the strong progress we are making towards delivering that disciplined growth.

這就是我們對有紀律的成長的定義。如果我們做得好，消費者就會贏，客戶就會贏，我們的股東也會贏。我們第二季的業績表明，我們在實現有序成長方面正在取得強勁進展。

We delivered our 24th consecutive quarter of net sales growth over 25% and did it within our existing capacity limits, so we maintained exceptional customer service and strong fill rates that enabled us to operate very efficiently and effectively, so we expanded our adjusted gross margin and adjusted EBITDA margin.

我們連續24 個季度的淨銷售額增長超過25%，並且是在我們現有的產能限制內實現的，因此我們保持了卓越的客戶服務和強勁的填充率，使我們能夠非常高效和有效地運營，因此我們擴大了調整後的毛利率和調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率。

The bulk of the operating improvements came in our key focus areas of input cost quality and logistics totaling 770 basis points of improved operating improvements. Those operating results, specifically adjusted gross margin, input quality and logistics costs exceed some of the key elements of our 2027 goals. As a result, we are in an even stronger position to achieve or exceed our full set of 2027 targets as well as raise our guidance for this year.

大部分營運改善來自我們的投入成本品質和物流等關鍵重點領域，營運改善總計 770 個基點。這些經營業績，特別調整後的毛利率、投入品質和物流成本超過了我們 2027 年目標的一些關鍵要素。因此，我們更有能力實現或超越 2027 年的全套目標，並提高今年的指導。

We still need to prove that we can achieve these results consistently before we adjust our long-term targets. However, another quarter of strong performance has made us even more optimistic. These results were driven by broad-based strength on the key business fundamentals. First, our growth in the second quarter, it was entirely driven by volume growth, there was no impact from pricing or mix this quarter.

在我們調整長期目標之前，我們仍然需要證明我們能夠持續實現這些成果。然而，另一個季度的強勁表現讓我們更加樂觀。這些業績是由關鍵業務基本面的廣泛實力所推動的。首先，我們第二季的成長完全是由銷售成長所推動的，本季沒有受到定價或組合的影響。

Further, we have been seeing a steady trend towards consumers buying larger pack sizes, which slightly reduces the price per pound, but improves the efficiency of our production lines and our distribution systems. This consumer behavior is a positive indication that value-seeking consumers move up to larger sizes of Freshpet rather than reducing the size or amount they buy.

此外，我們已經看到消費者購買更大包裝尺寸的穩定趨勢，這略微降低了每磅的價格，但提高了我們的生產線和分銷系統的效率。這種消費者行為是一個積極的跡象，表明追求價值的消費者會購買更大尺寸的 Freshpet，而不是減少購買的尺寸或數量。

Second, from a household penetration perspective, our growth rate is where we need it to be to hit our 2027 target of 20 million households. We are growing households in the low to mid-20s and increasing the buying rate in the low single digits. That combination results in mid-20s growth rates, which is our targeted level. More encouragingly, our heaviest users are growing even faster than the total user base.

其次，從家庭滲透率的角度來看，我們的成長率達到了實現 2027 年 2,000 萬戶家庭目標所需的水準。我們正在增加 20 多歲到二十歲左右的家庭，並以較低的個位數提高購買率。這種組合導致成長率達到 20 多歲，這是我們的目標水準。更令人鼓舞的是，我們最大用戶的成長速度甚至超過了總用戶群的成長速度。

Third, our media plan is also delivering the way we had hoped. It is driving strong household penetration gains in line with our long-term model and at a healthy customer acquisition cost that is comparable to the costs we had prior to the price increases we took over the past two years. Additionally, by balancing our media investment more evenly across the year, we have been able to deliver strong growth while living within our capacity limits.

第三，我們的媒體計畫也正在按照我們希望的方式進行。根據我們的長期模式，它正在推動家庭滲透率的強勁增長，並且客戶獲取成本健康，與我們過去兩年提價之前的成本相當。此外，透過全年更均勻地平衡我們的媒體投資，我們能夠在滿足能力限制的情況下實現強勁成長。

Fourth, consumers continue to believe that Freshpet represents a good value. The desire for value is being expressed as a quality for the price, not just price. We believe consumers find value in a truly differentiated product that is why it appears that much of the category growth is now coming from the fresh frozen segment where Freshpet is a leader.

第四，消費者仍然相信 Freshpet 具有良好的價值。對價值的渴望表現為價格的質量，而不僅僅是價格。我們相信消費者會在真正差異化的產品中找到價值，這就是為什麼現在大部分品類成長似乎來自新鮮冷凍領域，而 Freshpet 是該領域的領導者。

Further, our growth is fastest among our heaviest users another strong indicator of the differentiated value of Freshpet represents even in an environment where consumers are looking for ways to stretch their dollars.

此外，我們的成長速度在我們最重的用戶中是最快的，這是 Freshpet 差異化價值的另一個強有力的指標，即使在消費者正在尋找方法來節省開支的環境中也是如此。

Finally, taking a step back, our growth continues to be still supported by the long-term trend towards the humanization of pets. The pandemic created a pet adoption bubble, but we are now back on the same long-term population growth trends, we have seen for more than a decade. And our volume growth comes from expanding household penetration, which is the model that has worked for us since we first launched our Feed The Growth strategy in 2017.

最後，退一步說，我們的成長仍然受到寵物人性化長期趨勢的支持。這場流行病造成了寵物收養泡沫，但我們現在又回到了十多年來所看到的長期人口成長趨勢。我們的銷售成長來自家庭滲透率的擴大，這是自 2017 年我們首次推出「促進成長」策略以來一直對我們有效的模式。

Now I'd like to provide some highlights of the second quarter. We have strong momentum and made great progress against our long-term plan, and you can see that in our financial results. Second quarter net sales were $235.3 million, up 28% year-over-year, all of it being volume driven as I said earlier. Second quarter adjusted gross margin was 45.9% above our long-term target for the second consecutive quarter compared to 39.8% in the prior year period.

現在我想提供第二季的一些亮點。我們勢頭強勁，長期計劃取得了巨大進展，這一點您可以從我們的財務業績中看到。第二季淨銷售額為 2.353 億美元，年成長 28%，正如我之前所說，所有這些都是由銷售驅動的。第二季調整後毛利率連續第二季高於我們的長期目標 45.9%，去年同期為 39.8%。

Second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $35.1 million, an increase of approximately $26 million year-over-year. From a retail perspective, we are having a solid year of retail availability growth. Store count growth is in line with our long-term rates. More importantly, some of our larger customers are engaging with us on potential plans to add second and third fridges in high-velocity stores.

第二季調整後 EBITDA 為 3,510 萬美元，較去年同期增加約 2,600 萬美元。從零售角度來看，我們今年的零售供應量成長強勁。商店數量的成長與我們的長期成長率一致。更重要的是，我們的一些較大客戶正在與我們討論在高速商店中添加第二台和第三台冰箱的潛在計劃。

That is where we expect to see the bulk of our growth. You will see that in TDP growth exceeding ACV growth as we go forward. Specifically, we placed 790 fridges in the second quarter, including new stores, upgrades and second/third fridges, bringing us to a total of 35,602 fridges at retail or more than 1.8 million cubic feet of retail space.

這是我們預計將看到大部分成長的地方。隨著我們的前進，您將看到 TDP 的成長超過了 ACV 的成長。具體來說，我們在第二季度放置了 790 台冰箱，包括新店、升級和第二/第三台冰箱，使我們的零售冰箱總數達到 35,602 台，零售空間超過 180 萬立方英尺。

As of June 30, 2024, Freshpet can be found in 27,497 stores, 22% of which now have multiple fridges in the US. Fill rates continued to be strong and were in the high 90s throughout the quarter, supporting fridge placement and store growth.

截至 2024 年 6 月 30 日，Freshpet 在美國有 27,497 家商店銷售，其中 22% 的商店擁有多台冰箱。填充率持續強勁，整個季度都保持在 90 多歲的高位，支持了冰箱的放置和商店的成長。

Now I will provide an update on KPIs we track for our mainstream, main meal, more profitable plans, or what we refer to as our main and more. Focusing on the idea of mainstream. Freshpet is becoming increasingly mainstream, but still has a long runway for growth. According to Nielsen Omnichannel data, which includes e-commerce and direct to consumer as of June 29, 2024, total US pet food is a $53 billion category.

現在，我將提供我們追蹤的主流、主餐、更有利可圖的計劃或我們所說的主食等 KPI 的最新資訊。關注主流思想。 Freshpet 正變得越來越主流，但仍有很長的成長空間。根據尼爾森全通路數據（包括截至 2024 年 6 月 29 日的電子商務和直接面向消費者的數據），美國寵物食品總額達 530 億美元。

We only have a 3% market share within the $36 billion dog food segment, which is the majority of our business today. Within the fresh frozen subcategory in measured channels, Freshpet has a 96% market share. Fresh continues to outperform the broader pet food category and many retailers believe it is the future of pet food.

在價值 360 億美元的狗糧領域，我們只佔有 3% 的市場份額，而這正是我們今天業務的主要部分。在已測通路的生鮮冷凍子類別中，Freshpet擁有96%的市佔率。生鮮食品的表現繼續優於更廣泛的寵物食品類別，許多零售商相信這是寵物食品的未來。

As a result, Freshpet is now in 66% ACV in Nielsen XAOC, and we continue to add distribution breadth and depth with second and third fridges. Our household penetration gains also demonstrate that we are well on our way to making Freshpet more mainstream. Household penetration at the end of the second quarter with 12.8 million households, up 25% year-over-year and on track to meet our target of 20 million households by 2027.

因此，Freshpet 目前在 Nielsen XAOC 中的 ACV 佔比為 66%，我們將繼續透過第二台和第三台冰箱增加分銷廣度和深度。我們家庭滲透率的提高也表明我們正在努力使 Freshpet 變得更加主流。第二季末家庭滲透率達到 1,280 萬戶，年增 25%，可望實現 2027 年 2,000 萬戶的目標。

Our high-profit pet owning households or HIPPOH's for short are growing even faster, up 31% versus the prior year period. In short, the humanization of pets is a mainstream idea and now it is our job to make fresh food the standard way to feed your pets.

我們的高利潤寵物飼養家庭（簡稱 HIPPOH）成長得更快，比去年同期成長了 31%。簡而言之，寵物人性化是一種主流理念，現在我們的工作就是讓新鮮食品成為餵養寵物的標準方式。

Turning to the main meal part of the strategy. Freshpet sales are increasingly concentrated in our heaviest users HIPPOHs. Currently 37% of Freshpet users are HIPPOHs, and they represented 89% of our sales in the second quarter, even more encouraging, about 300,000 of our users or less than 3% of our total users by more than $1,000 of Freshpet per year, and this group grew 47% over the past year.

轉向策略的主餐部分。 Freshpet 的銷售越來越集中在我們最重要的用戶 HIPPOH 上。目前，37% 的Freshpet 用戶是HIPPOH，他們占我們第二季銷售額的89%，更令人鼓舞的是，每年Freshpet 銷售額超過1,000 美元，約占我們用戶的300,000 名，佔總用戶的比例不到3%，且該群體在過去一年中增長了 47%。

They now represent about 27% of our business. If there is a significant opportunity to increase this percentage and grow our total business. The key driver to convert more consumers to use Freshpet as the main part of their pets meal is advertising. We need to educate consumers on the benefits of fresh food for their pets. Multi-packs and larger pack sizes can also help reinforce the idea that our product can be your pet's main meal and we'll in turn help increased buy rate, which was approximately $100 at quarter end, up 3.3% versus the prior year period.

他們現在約占我們業務的 27%。如果有很大的機會增加這個百分比並發展我們的總業務。讓更多消費者使用 Freshpet 作為寵物餐點主要部分的關鍵驅動因素是廣告。我們需要教育消費者了解新鮮食品對寵物的好處。多件裝和更大的包裝尺寸也有助於強化我們的產品可以成為您寵物的主​​餐的理念，反過來我們也將有助於提高購買率，季度末購買率約為100 美元，比去年同期增長3.3%。

Adding unique value added SKUs helps do that. Based on total US Pet Retail Plus data from Nielsen, we currently have an average of 18.4 SKUs per point of distribution, up from 16.1 SKUs one year ago. Since we have a finite amount of space in our fridge as we increase the number of second and third fridges, we can increase the number of SKUs amplifying our visibility and marketing impact, widening our product assortment and broadening the appeal of our brands.

添加獨特的增值 SKU 有助於實現這一目標。根據尼爾森的美國 Pet Retail Plus 總數據，我們目前每個分銷點平均有 18.4 個 SKU，高於一年前的 16.1 個 SKU。由於當我們增加第二台和第三台冰箱的數量時，我們的冰箱空間有限，因此我們可以增加SKU 的數量，從而擴大我們的知名度和營銷影響力，擴大我們的產品種類並擴大我們品牌的吸引力。

Now to the more part of main and more, more profitable. We had another strong quarter of margin improvement. Adjusted gross margin improved 60 basis points versus the strong results we posted in Q1 to 45.9%, and we ended the second quarter with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.9%. The key items that drove this improvement were first quality. Our team continues to execute well. We still have lots of opportunity for further improvement that our team has been able to reduce both the number of issues we have to manage and also the size of any issues.

現在以更多的部分為主，更多，更有利可圖。我們的利潤率又一個強勁的季度改善。與第一季公佈的強勁業績相比，調整後毛利率提高了 60 個基點，達到 45.9%，第二季末調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 14.9%。推動這項改進的關鍵因素是第一品質。我們的團隊繼續表現良好。我們仍然有很多進一步改進的機會，我們的團隊已經能夠減少我們必須管理的問題數量以及問題的規模。

Second, input cost and yield. We've returned to our historic level of input costs as a percent of net sales through a combination of price increases, commodity cost management, and meaningful improvements in our production yields. Further, we believe there is an opportunity to continue to improve efficiency in this area through formulation work, supplier diversification, operating improvements and new technologies.

第二，投入成本和產量。透過漲價、商品成本管理和生產產量的顯著提高，我們的投入成本佔淨銷售額的百分比已恢復到歷史水準。此外，我們相信有機會透過配方工作、供應商多元化、營運改進和新技術繼續提高該領域的效率。

Third, logistics. We are clearly benefiting from some macro factors on freight, including lower lane rates and fuel costs. But our 99% fill rate in the quarter, the expansion of the service area for our Dallas DC behind increased production in Ennis, and new tools we have put in place to more effectively bid our lanes and improve our customer service are the primary drivers of the improved performance.

第三，物流。我們顯然受益於貨運的一些宏觀因素，包括較低的車道費率和燃料成本。但本季 99% 的填充率、恩尼斯產量增加背後達拉斯 DC 服務區的擴大以及我們為更有效地競標車道和改善客戶服務而採用的新工具是主要驅動因素改進的性能。

Turning to an update on our capacity. We have a disciplined approach to managing capacity and continue to execute on our expansion plans while also improving throughput and yields on existing lines. In Ennis, the fourth line is still on track to start up by the end of Q3 2024. We began commissioning the line in July and feel good about the test run so far.

轉向我們產能的最新情況。我們採用嚴格的方法來管理產能，並繼續執行我們的擴張計劃，同時提高現有生產線的吞吐量和產量。在恩尼斯，第四條生產線仍有望在 2024 年第三季末啟動。

In Bethlehem, the team is focused on increasing capacity utilization or OEE and our seventh line on that campus will test new technology and its expected startup in the second half of 2025. In Kitchens South, we continue to evaluate ways to add more lines and or shifts. We continue to evolve our capacity expansion plans to drive greater capital efficiency.

在伯利恆，該團隊專注於提高產能利用率或OEE，我們在該園區的第七條生產線將測試新技術，並預計在2025 年下半年啟動。或輪班。我們繼續發展產能擴張計劃，以提高資本效率。

As we've discussed previously, we are intensely focused on one, maximizing the throughput of our existing lines; two, maximizing the capacity of our three existing sites; and three, developing and implementing new technologies that generate more throughput per line.

正如我們之前所討論的，我們高度關註一件事：最大限度地提高現有生產線的吞吐量；第二，最大限度地提高我們三個現有站點的容量；第三，開發和實施新技術，以提高每條生產線的吞吐量。

While we've come a long way since our first facility in Quakertown, PA, the manufacturing systems to make fresh pet food are still not where we'd like them to be. We've invested and we'll continue to invest heavily in both technology and talent to make our production more stable, reliable and efficient. We've made tremendous progress, but still believe the opportunities for improvement are sizable.

儘管自在賓州奎克敦建立第一家工廠以來，我們已經取得了長足的進步，但生產新鮮寵物食品的製造系統仍然達不到我們想要的水平。我們已經並將繼續在技術和人才方面進行大量投資，以使我們的生產更加穩定、可靠和高效。我們已經取得了巨大進步，但仍然相信改進的機會很大。

In summary, I think we are making good progress at delivering the disciplined growth we promised at the beginning of this year. We are highly focused on managing the business to live within our capacity and believe this has led to the progress we've made on our profitability. We believe our model works very well at approximately 25% growth, generating the right balance of growth, capital investment, and cash generation.

總而言之，我認為我們在實現今年年初承諾的有序增長方面取得了良好進展。我們高度專注於管理業務，使其在我們的能力範圍內生存，並相信這使我們在盈利能力方面取得了進步。我們相信，我們的模型運作良好，成長率約為 25%，在成長、資本投資和現金產生之間實現了適當的平衡。

And we are increasingly confident that we will be free cash flow positive by 2026. I'm incredibly proud of the progress we have made and the results we have delivered, especially since Ennis is still sub-scale, and we have some exciting new technologies under development that could meaningfully enhanced the economics of our bags business. Now we need to continue to execute at a high level and keep raising the bar.

我們越來越有信心，到2026 年我們將實現正自由現金流。興奮的新技術正在開發中，可以有意義地提高我們箱包業務的經濟效益。現在我們需要繼續高水準執行並不斷提高標準。

Before I turn it over to Todd, I want to point out that the press release announcing our earnings today has a dateline of Bedminster, New Jersey instead of our previous home in Secaucus. We've outgrown our corporate offices in Secaucus and have moved into a temporary office space in Bedminster, New Jersey, while our new purpose built leased corporate office is under construction right down the road in Bedminstern.

在我把它交給托德之前，我想指出，今天宣布我們收益的新聞稿的日期是新澤西州的貝德明斯特，而不是我們之前在錫考克斯的家。我們在錫考克斯的公司辦公室已經無法容納，並搬到了新澤西州貝德明斯特的臨時辦公空間，而我們新的專用租賃公司辦公室正在貝德明斯特的道路上建設。

We expect to move into the new office in the first half of next year. Our new location in Bedminster will allow us to attract and retain the top marketing and finance talent we need while making it much easier for our team members to go back and forth to our technical base in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, enabling much closer collaboration and planning. Our new office will embody our Pets, People, Planet mantra, and we look forward to sharing it with you when it opens next year.

我們預計明年上半年搬進新辦公室。我們在貝德明斯特的新地點將使我們能夠吸引和留住我們所需的頂尖行銷和財務人才，同時使我們的團隊成員更容易往返於我們位於賓州伯利恆的技術基地，從而實現更密切的合作和規劃。我們的新辦公室將體現我們的「寵物、人、地球」口號，我們期待在明年開業時與您分享。

Now let me turn it over to Todd to walk through the details of the Q2 results and our updated guidance. Todd?

現在讓我將其交給托德，詳細介紹第二季的結果和我們更新的指導。托德？

Thank you, Billy, and good morning, everyone. As Billy mentioned, we are very pleased with the second quarter results, particularly our ability to deliver on profit improvement. Now I'll give you some color on our financials and updated guidance for the year.

謝謝你，比利，大家早安。正如比利所提到的，我們對第二季的業績非常滿意，特別是我們實現利潤改善的能力。現在，我將向您介紹我們今年的財務狀況和最新指導。

Second quarter net sales were $235.3 million or 28% year-over-year. Nielsen measure dollar growth was 24% versus the prior year period with broad-based consumption growth across channels. We saw 26% growth in XAOC, 24% in US food, 9% growth in pet specialty and over 100% growth in the unmeasured channels.

第二季淨銷售額為 2.353 億美元，年增 28%。尼爾森衡量，與去年同期相比，美元成長率為 24%，各通路的消費成長基礎廣泛。我們看到 XAOC 成長了 26%，美國食品成長了 24%，寵物專業成長了 9%，未測量通路成長了 100% 以上。

It is important to note that Nielsen IQ has expanded our coverage beyond what we previously called the Nielsen MegaChannel to a new US pet Retail Plus channel that has online sales via Amazon, Chewy neighborhood pet retailers and farm and feed stores. Wherever possible, we will use the expanded definition to provide the most comprehensive view of our business and the category. We estimate that this new channel covers more than 85% of our US business today.

值得注意的是，Nielsen IQ 已將我們的覆蓋範圍從我們之前稱為Nielsen MegaChannel 的內容擴展到新的美國寵物Retail Plus 頻道，該頻道透過亞馬遜、Chewy 社區寵物零售商以及農場和飼料商店進行線上銷售。只要有可能，我們將使用擴展的定義來提供我們業務和類別的最全面的視圖。我們估計這個新管道涵蓋了我們目前美國 85% 以上的業務。

Second quarter adjusted gross margin was 45.9%, up 610 basis points year-over-year. This was driven by improvement in input cost, yield, throughput and quality costs. Specifically input costs as a percent of net sales improved 460 basis points with better yields, throughput and lower commodity costs, while quality cost improved by 90 basis points.

第二季調整後毛利率為45.9%，較去年成長610個基點。這是由投入成本、產量、產量和品質成本的改善所推動的。具體而言，投入成本佔淨銷售額的百分比提高了 460 個基點，產量、吞吐量提高，商品成本降低，而品質成本提高了 90 個基點。

Second quarter adjusted SG&A was 31% of net sales compared to 34.9% in the prior year period. We spent 12.2% of net sales on media in the quarter, down from 14.8% net sales in the prior year period. Total media investment was up 6% year-over-year. Recall our media plan is less front-loaded this year than in years past so that we can manage our growth to live within our capacity limits.

第二季調整後的 SG&A 佔淨銷售額的 31%，去年同期為 34.9%。本季我們將淨銷售額的 12.2% 花在了媒體上，低於去年同期的 14.8% 淨銷售額。媒體總投資年增 6%。回想一下，今年我們的媒體計畫比往年少一些，因此我們可以在容量限制內管理我們的成長。

Logistics costs continued to improve and were 5.8% of net sales in the second quarter, a decrease of 220 basis points compared to the prior year period. Like Billy stated, the majority of the impact of the improvement was due to strategic actions we have taken to increase bill rates, reduce miles, driven by increasing the number of states served by our second distribution center and negotiate with vendors with the remainder being macro driven with more favorable lane rates.

物流成本持續改善，佔第二季淨銷售額的 5.8%，較去年同期下降 220 個基點。正如比利所說，改進的大部分影響是由於我們採取了戰略行動來提高賬單費率，減少里程，增加我們的第二個配送中心所服務的州數量，並與供應商進行談判，其餘的都是宏觀的以更優惠的車道費率行駛。

Other SG&A, which was 13% of net sales, increased 90 basis points driven by higher incentive compensation. Please note that our GAAP P&L includes an $11.1 million true-up of noncash share-based compensation based on multi-year share based awards granted in fiscal year 2020. This year's unexpectedly strong profit performance has increased the likelihood of greater vesting on those awards. Excluding this charge, we would have generated $9.4 million of net income.

其他銷售、管理及行政費用 (SG&A) 佔淨銷售額的 13%，在激勵性薪酬提高的推動下增加了 90 個基點。請注意，我們的 GAAP 損益表包括根據 2020 財年授予的多年股權獎勵調整的 1,110 萬美元非現金股權薪酬。除去這筆費用，我們將產生 940 萬美元的淨利潤。

Second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $35.1 million or 14.9% of net sales compared to $9 million or 4.9% of net sales in the prior year period. This improvement was primarily driven by higher gross margin as well as improved logistics costs. Capital spending in the second quarter was $48.3 million. Operating cash flow in the second quarter was $42.4 million, and we had cash on hand of $251.7 million at the end of the quarter. We continue to believe that we have adequate cash to fully fund our growth through 2025 and will be free cash flow positive in 2026.

第二季調整後 EBITDA 為 3,510 萬美元，佔淨銷售額的 14.9%，而上年同期為 900 萬美元，佔淨銷售額的 4.9%。這項改善主要是由於毛利率提高以及物流成本改善所致。第二季資本支出為 4,830 萬美元。第二季的營運現金流為 4,240 萬美元，季末我們手頭現金為 2.517 億美元。我們仍然相信，我們有足夠的現金來為 2025 年的成長提供充足的資金，並將在 2026 年實現正自由現金流。

Our strong improvement in adjusted EBITDA this year also makes it unlikely we will need additional capital. Now turning to guidance for 2024. We are updating our outlook to reflect our outperformance in the second quarter as well as our conviction in our ability to execute in the second half. We are raising our net sales guidance from at least $950 million to at least $965 million or growth of at least 26%.

今年調整後 EBITDA 的強勁改善也使得我們不太可能需要額外的資本。現在轉向 2024 年指引。我們將淨銷售額指引從至少 9.5 億美元提高到至少 9.65 億美元，即成長至少 26%。

We are able to do this because of the strong improvements in our operating efficiency, particularly in Bethlehem and Kitchen South that will allow us to sell a bit more this year and still maintain strong customer service. However, we still need the new roll line in Ennis to start-up by the end of September and ramp up production in order to have the supply we need to meet demand. We are also keeping in mind the capacity needed to support next year's growth and do not want to get too far ahead of our original plans.

我們之所以能夠做到這一點，是因為我們的營運效率得到了顯著提高，特別是在伯利恆和廚房南部，這將使我們今年的銷量增加一些，同時仍然保持強大的客戶服務。然而，我們仍然需要恩尼斯的新軋製線在九月底之前啟動並提高產量，以便提供滿足需求所需的供應。我們也牢記支持明年成長所需的產能，並且不希望超出我們最初的計劃太多。

As far as cadence, we continue to expect net sales to have sequentially lower percentage growth throughout the remainder of the year. As we intentionally manage our growth rate while expanding capacity. Our more balanced first half second half media investment this year has been critical to delivering the growth we have experienced while also living within our capacity constraints as the first half media really dictates the demand we have in the second half of this year. And the second half media investment will drive the demand we experienced in the first half of next year.

就節奏而言，我們繼續預期今年剩餘時間內淨銷售額的成長率將依次下降。我們在擴大產能的同時有意識地管理成長率。我們今年上半年、下半年更加平衡的媒體投資對於實現我們所經歷的成長至關重要，同時也滿足我們的產能限制，因為上半年的媒體確實決定了我們今年下半年的需求。下半年的媒體投資將推動我們明年上半年的需求。

For this reason, our second half media investment will be significantly larger than the investment we made in the previous year. For adjusted EBITDA, we are raising guidance from at least $120 million to at least $140 million to reflect the over-delivery in Q2. We now expect adjusted gross margin to expand by approximately 500 basis points for the full year compared to 300 basis points previously.

因此，我們下半年的媒體投入將明顯大於去年的投入。對於調整後的 EBITDA，我們將指引值從至少 1.2 億美元提高到至少 1.4 億美元，以反映第二季的超額交付。我們現在預計全年調整後毛利率將擴大約 500 個基點，而先前為 300 個基點。

Capital expenditures are now projected to be approximately $200 million compared to approximately $210 million to support the installation of capacity to meet demand in 2025. The modest reduction is due to the timing of certain expansion projects.

目前預計資本支出約為 2 億美元，而用於支援產能安裝以滿足 2025 年需求的資本支出約為 2.1 億美元。

In summary, the second quarter results demonstrated disciplined growth and our ability to execute the strategy we laid out. We are very pleased to see our investments in capacity and organizational capabilities are paying off and we are gaining significant scale advantages. That concludes our overview. We will now be glad to answer your questions.

總而言之，第二季的業績展示了有序的成長以及我們執行所製定策略的能力。我們很高興看到我們在能力和組織能力方面的投資正在得到回報，並且我們正在獲得顯著的規模優勢。我們的概述到此結束。我們現在很高興回答您的問題。

As a reminder, we ask that you please focus your questions on the quarter guidance and the company's operations. Operator?

謹此提醒，我們要求您將問題集中在季度指導和公司營運上。操作員？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Ken Goldman, JPMorgan.

肯‧戈德曼，摩根大通。

Good morning. Thank you. When it comes to the outlook for '27, I think you you're skating about as close as possible to raising it without efficiently doing so if that's fair. Can you just please remind us on or update us rather on the guideposts you're looking for that will allow you to -- I guess, proverbially pull the trigger. I'm also asking what gives you pause? Today that makes you maybe think you can't necessarily deliver some of these results consistently. I think some people are hoping that within the next couple of quarters, you'll raise that outlook is kind of what I'm getting at?

早安.謝謝。當談到27年的前景時，我認為你正在盡可能接近提高它，但如果公平的話，你並沒有有效地做到這一點。您能否提醒我們或更新我們，而不是您正在尋找的路標，這將使您能夠——我想，眾所周知，扣動扳機。我還想問是什麼讓你猶豫不決？今天，這可能會讓您認為您不一定能夠始終如一地交付其中一些結果。我認為有些人希望在接下來的幾個季度內，您會提出這樣的前景，這就是我所要表達的意思嗎？

Yes, Ken, thanks. The way we're looking at it is we would -- we feel really good about the progress that we've made, particularly on the operations side. And at the same time, we're very mindful that we operate in a fairly volatile environment. So we'd like to see is we'd like to see us deliver the full year at the rates that would be embedded in our 2027 targets.

是的，肯，謝謝。我們看待這個問題的方式是——我們對所取得的進展感到非常滿意，特別是在營運方面。同時，我們非常注意我們是在一個相當不穩定的環境中運作的。因此，我們希望看到我們以 2027 年目標中包含的速度實現全年目標。

And we get to that point, we'll take a look at it and say what makes sense going forward. But we'd like to see the see us deliver the full year in a consistent way in ways that could support those 2027 targets, and that particularly on the operations side. On the net sales side, we feel really good about where we are. As we said in the comments, we're trying to drive our growth to live within the capacity limits and [plan capacity]. We plan capacity out 18 to 24 months.

到了這一點，我們將對其進行研究並提出未來有意義的內容。但我們希望看到我們以一致的方式實現全年目標，以支持這些 2027 年目標，特別是在營運方面。在淨銷售額方面，我們對自己的處境感到非常滿意。正如我們在評論中所說，我們正在努力推動我們的成長，以適應容量限制和[計劃容量]。我們計劃 18 至 24 個月的產能。

So you should expect us to be very, very close to the guidepost as we go from here through 2027 and expect that on a long-term basis that is going to our growth rate is going to be driven by our ability to add capacity in the rate at which we want to add capacity.

因此，從現在到 2027 年，您應該預期我們將非常非常接近路標，並預計從長期來看，我們的成長率將由我們增加產能的能力驅動。

Thank you. And then a follow up. Billy, you haven't really talked I think, in specifics about where your capacity will be, next year in a little while, I mean where you expect sales to exactly be, although I think people still expect kind of a 25% increase there. Can you just give us a little bit of an update perhaps on path ahead for the next year or two, as you see it in terms of capacity versus sales. What is there a rough utilization rate we should think about? I think one thing that kind of confuses investors a little bit and there's not much confusing about the story right now given how well everything's going is just starting to kind of think about those pads ahead in terms of capacity versus expected sales and how they may track each other in general?

謝謝。然後進行跟進。比利，我認為你還沒有真正談論過明年一段時間後你的產能將在哪裡，我的意思是你期望銷售額到底在哪裡，儘管我認為人們仍然期望那裡有 25% 的增長。您能否提供我們一些關於未來一兩年的最新情況，正如您在產能與銷售額方面所看到的那樣。我們應該考慮的粗略利用率是多少？我認為有一件事讓投資者有點困惑，考慮到一切進展順利，現在的故事並沒有太多令人困惑的地方，只是開始考慮未來的產能與預期銷售以及它們如何跟踪這些墊子彼此一般？

Yeah. Historically, we've talked about it in the context of total capacity but we're at the point now where it really is driven by capacity for bags versus capacity for rolls. So for example, this year, the capacity limitation that we've had to work with has been on our rolls lines and as we're starting up another roll bolt line in Ennis in this quarter, we had to keep our total business or total net sales underneath the limit that rolls capacity imply.

是的。從歷史上看，我們在總容量的背景下討論過它，但現在它實際上是由袋子容量與捲筒容量驅動的。例如，今年，我們必須處理的產能限制一直在我們的軋製生產線上，當我們本季在恩尼斯啟動另一條軋製螺栓生產線時，我們必須保留我們的總業務或總產量淨銷售額低於滾動產能所暗示的限制。

As soon as that line is up and running, we flip it over and then the next capacity limit that will run into probably in the first half of next year is bags. And so we have new bank lines coming on in the first quarter of next year. And so I don't think of it in terms of total capacity, I tend to think of it in terms of the limitations that we have on bags or rules, and we kind of flip-flop back and forth between the two.

一旦該生產線啟動並運行，我們就會將其翻轉，然後可能在明年上半年遇到的下一個容量限制是袋子。因此，我們將在明年第一季推出新的銀行額度。所以我不會從總容量的角度來考慮它，我傾向於從我們對行李或規則的限制來考慮它，我們在兩者之間來回翻轉。

But in a very steady cadence and if we keep adding capacity at the steady rate that we plan, we keep improving capacity utilization on the existing line and operate really well. We feel very comfortable about our ability to deliver the net sales growth that's embedded. And I think people who look for us to go way above that are missing the fact that we're trying to stay very disciplined and very close to the guidepost that our capacity provide. That's really where we're focused

但以非常穩定的節奏，如果我們繼續按照計劃的穩定速度增加產能，我們就會不斷提高現有生產線的產能利用率，並且運作得非常好。我們對自己實現淨銷售額成長的能力感到非常滿意。我認為那些期待我們超越這一點的人忽略了這樣一個事實：我們正在努力保持非常自律，並且非常接近我們的能力提供的路標。這才是我們真正關注的地方

And Ken, to be clear, we have next month and the new line coming up in Ennis and we have a line of bag line coming up at our Kitchen South facility in Q1. We're also going to add some shifts to some existing lines in Kitchen South. And then we're anticipating better performance and a ramp up in Ennis across the entire facility. So we feel very good about the amount of capacity we will have for next year.

肯，需要明確的是，我們下個月將在恩尼斯推出新生產線，第一季我們的廚房南工廠將推出一條袋裝生產線。我們還將對廚房南區的一些現有線路添加一些班次。然後我們預計埃尼斯在整個設施中會有更好的表現和提升。因此，我們對明年的產能感到非常滿意。

But as Billy pointed out, we're not going to get too far ahead of our SKUs and we're trying to manage the cash flow capacity, earnings top line all together, and that's the trick. But we literally have review this every month and we have a clear strategy and path to get to our 1.8 billion in 27.

但正如比利指出的那樣，我們不會在 SKU 上走得太遠，我們正在努力管理現金流能力、收入頂線，這就是訣竅。但我們實際上每個月都會對此進行審查，並且我們有明確的策略和路徑來在 27 年內實現 18 億美元。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

Bill Chappell, Truist Securities.

比爾‧查普爾 (Bill Chappell)，Truist 證券公司。

Thanks. Good morning.

謝謝。早安.

Good morning.

早安.

Just a follow-up on your comment about the consumer buying more for larger sizes and trying to understand we hear so many mixed signals over the past response to what the consumer is doing. Are you seeing a real change or is that more reflective of just your recent expansion in the club channel with naturally they're buying much bigger bod?

只是對您關於消費者購買更多尺寸更大的評論的後續評論，並試圖了解我們在過去對消費者行為的反應中聽到瞭如此多的混合信號。您是否看到了真正的變化，或者這更多地反映了您最近在俱樂部渠道的擴張，他們自然會購買更大的身體？

Clearly, there's some piece of that in it, but we do see it across the Board that there is a migration towards --the slight migration towards the larger sizes. The way I think about it if you're taking a step back on the macro market, if you have consumers who are value seeking and you are in the staples business, meaning consumers want to buy your product and every day they need to keep it in their pantry or in inventory, you should expect to see them migrate to larger sizes because that's the way they exercise value-seeking behavior.

顯然，其中有一部分，但我們確實全面看到了向更大尺寸的輕微遷移。我的想法是，如果你在宏觀市場上退後一步，如果你有追求價值的消費者，而你從事的是必需品業務，這意味著消費者想要購買你的產品，並且每天都需要保留它在他們的食品儲藏室或庫存中，你應該會看到它們轉向更大的尺寸，因為這是它們追求價值行為的方式。

If on the other hand, during the impulse purchase business, you should expect to see consumers moving to smaller sizes as a driver. But in our business, we view ourselves as a staple or part of the everyday diet of the dog. And so we see consumers moving up into larger sizes. It's not a huge shift, but it is enough of a shift that is noticeable.

另一方面，如果在衝動購買業務期間，您應該會看到消費者轉向更小尺寸的驅動力。但在我們的業務中，我們將自己視為狗狗日常飲食的主食或一部分。因此我們看到消費者開始購買更大尺寸的產品。這不是一個巨大的轉變，但足以引起人們的注意。

Got it. And then just bigger picture, obviously, we hear a lot of noise from the direct-to-consumer new players in the market, mainly it's frozen direct-to-consumer. And frozen has been fairly stagnant categories since even before you started to exist. And so I'm just trying to understand, are you seeing anything new or is it a threat? Is it an opportunity? Just as you look at the other players that are certainly making more noise from the advertising front, I'm not sure from on the sales front, if they're having much impact.

知道了。然後，從更大的角度來看，顯然，我們聽到了市場上直接面向消費者的新參與者的許多噪音，主要是直接面向消費者的凍結。甚至在你開始存在之前，冷凍食品就一直是相當停滯的類別。所以我只是想了解一下，你看到了什麼新的東西還是威脅？這是一個機會嗎？正如你看到其他在廣告方面確實製造了更多噪音的玩家一樣，我不確定他們在銷售方面是否產生了很大的影響。

Hi, Bill. So look, we're always keeping a really close eye on everything that's going on in the market and kind of where the new entrants are coming in. How it's playing. We're testing basically different types of direct-to-consumer in three and four different ways. We think it's really interesting. We love our model and long term, we really feel positive about the way our model is developing and progressing.

嗨，比爾。所以看，我們總是密切關注市場上正在發生的一切以及新進入者的進入。我們正在以三種和四種不同的方式測試基本上不同類型的直接面向消費者的方式。我們認為這真的很有趣。我們喜歡我們的模型，從長遠來看，我們對我們模型的發展和進步方式感到非常積極。

Okay. Thanks so much.

好的。非常感謝。

Robert Moskow, TD Cowen.

羅伯特·莫斯科，TD·考恩。

Hi, thank you. Bill, you might have kind of answered this question already, but I wanted to fast forward beyond 2027, I mean, if your growth rates continue at a rapid pace and what's the implication for capital deployment and therefore, cash flow. Could you foresee like having to take a step backward on your cash flow momentum in order to fund another tranche of significant growth? What's the appetite for that?

你好，謝謝。 Bill，你可能已經回答了這個問題，但我想快轉到 2027 年後，我的意思是，如果你的成長率繼續快速成長，這對資本部署和現金流有何影響。您能否預見到必須在現金流勢頭上後退一步才能為另一筆顯著增長提供資金？對此有何興趣？

And then secondly, I had a question about the buying rate, the numerator data. It looks like last year got restated. It's not by a lot, but compared to first quarter, it's down a little. And then your buy rate growth this year is 3%. I think last quarter it was 5%. So small numbers, but I want to know if you're watching that if you have any reason for those changes?

其次，我有一個關於購買率、分子數據的問題。看來去年又重述了。雖然增幅不大，但與第一季相比，還是有所下降。那麼今年你的購買率成長率是 3%。我認為上個季度是 5%。數字如此之小，但我想知道您是否正在觀看，是否有任何理由進行這些更改？

Yeah, Rob. We do -- on the first question, we do look at the capacity planning out through. In fact, we go out to 2030 and beyond and we pay very close attention to it. We have construction and line installation projects going on right now on all three of the campuses that we operate. And we're very comfortable that we have adequate capacity to meet the demand that we can reasonably project through 2027 and beyond on those sites.

是的，羅布。關於第一個問題，我們確實會研究容量規劃。事實上，我們對 2030 年及以後的目標非常關注。我們運營的所有三個園區目前正在進行施工和線路安裝項目。我們非常放心，我們有足夠的能力來滿足我們可以合理預測到 2027 年及以後這些地點的需求。

The thing that we've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out is at what point does our existing footprint require us to go and add a new site which would be a fairly sizable capital expense. And at this point, we don't see that happening inside of the 2027 window and probably out of the 2030 window, where we wouldn't we would not require it because we can get enough capacity through technology improvements and adding lines to the existing sites. So we feel very good about it.

我們花了很多時間試圖弄清楚我們現有的足跡在什麼時候需要我們去添加一個新站點，這將是相當大的資本支出。目前，我們沒有看到這種情況在2027 年窗口內發生，也可能在2030 年窗口外發生，在這種情況下我們不會需要它，因為我們可以透過技術改進和向現有的線路添加線路來獲得足夠的容量。所以我們對此感覺非常好。

And as a result, and I can comment on the cash flow that comes from that. But we feel pretty good about the cash generation capability of the business and it more than able to meet the needs of the capacity planning expansion we have. Let me just jump to the numerator piece for a second. On the numerator piece, numerator, restates the data literally every month. And so they readjust their panel.

因此，我可以評論由此產生的現金流。但我們對該業務的現金產生能力感到非常滿意，並且完全能夠滿足我們產能規劃擴張的需求。讓我先跳到分子部分。在分子部分，分子每月都會重述數據。因此他們重新調整了面板。

So you should always expect the numbers to move a little bit. And that's why the previous periods will change. What you can also expect is that a year ago we had some pricing that was in the 52-week numbers. This year, there's no pricing in the 52-week numbers because we've lapped all that pricing. So you should expect that the buy rate is not benefiting from anything other than consumers migrating to higher value products.

因此，您應該始終預期數字會略有變化。這就是為什麼之前的時期會改變。您還可以預期的是，一年前我們的一些定價是 52 週的數字。今年，52 週數據中沒有定價，因為我們已經採用了所有定價。因此，您應該預料到，除了消費者轉向更高價值的產品之外，購買率不會從任何其他因素中受益。

Your -- or their increased purchases of the product, it is not benefiting from pricing. We feel really good about the combination of household penetration growth in our buy rate and the fact it's running slightly hot right now versus where we would have expected the being feel very, very good about it. You should expect that we will always run in the call it, low-20s on penetration and low single digits on buy rate, and that will get us our total growth rate.

您或他們增加的產品購買量並沒有從定價中受益。我們對購買率中家庭滲透率的增長以及目前的運作情況與我們預期的情況相比略顯熱這一事實感到非常滿意。你應該預料到我們將始終保持在20多歲的滲透率和低個位數的購買率上，這將為我們帶來總成長率。

I don't know, if Todd to give you any more commentary on the cash flow?

不知道托德是否可以給您更多關於現金流的評論？

Yes. I mean, look, it's a really valid question, Rob. Look, we're very bullish on this business growing nicely over the next several years. Do I think we're going to grow 25% clip in 2035? Probably not, it's possible. But even under that scenario, we will be generating enormous amounts of EBITDA effect that will come into fruition and plenty of operating cash flow to cover what could be a lot of CapEx based on those kind of growth in dollars year over year, which is, I think where we are getting at.

是的。我的意思是，聽著，這是一個非常有效的問題，羅布。看，我們非常看好這項業務在未來幾年內的良好成長。我認為 2035 年我們的產量會成長 25% 嗎？或許不是，有可能。但即使在這種情況下，我們也將產生大量的 EBITDA 效應，並將實現這一效應，並產生大量的營運現金流，以覆蓋基於美元逐年增長的大量資本支出，即，我想我們現在已經到了哪裡了。

But it also goes to we're spending so much time we know we have to get better on operating efficiencies at our plants. That's why we spend so much time looking at new technologies to make the ROIC on new capacity better and better as we go in the future. And look, we will need a new facility at some point in time. We are not averse -- we're looking at every possible scenario, whether it's another greenfield like Ennis. We're very comfortable with working with partners that can minimize the amount of capital out there. But we will manage that cash flow impact very, very closely.

但這也取決於我們花了太多時間，我們知道我們必須提高工廠的運作效率。這就是為什麼我們花這麼多時間研究新技術，以使新產能的投資報酬率在我們未來的發展中越來越好。看，我們在某個時間點將需要一個新設施。我們並不反對——我們正在考慮每一種可能的情況，無論是像恩尼斯那樣的另一塊綠地。我們非常願意與能夠最大限度地減少資本金額的合作夥伴合作。但我們將非常非常密切地管理現金流影響。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Brian Holland, D.A. Davidson.

布萊恩·霍蘭德，D.A.戴維森。

Yeah, thanks. Good morning. I guess just to start with media spend of which looks like still projecting to grow in line with the top line. I know year on year higher in the second half, and it was prior year. Trying to square that with the consumer acquisition costs, which once again down sequentially this quarter, continued progress there back to pre-price increase levels.

是的，謝謝。早安.我想首先是媒體支出，看起來仍將與營收成長一致。我知道下半年同比更高，而且是去年。試圖將其與本季再次環比下降的消費者採購成本相平衡，繼續恢復到價格上漲前的水平。

And I guess maybe that was a part of me that was anticipating sort of a lower revision of media that's out there and I had missed it, forgive me. But just help me think about the cadence for media as we start to think about 2025 and how quickly we can kind of come in line that seems to be the one metric that we're still a bit off from what your 2027 target is?

我想也許那是我內心的一部分，期待對現有媒體進行較低的修訂，但我錯過了，請原諒我。但是，當我們開始考慮 2025 年時，請幫我想想媒體的節奏，以及我們能以多快的速度實現這一目標，這似乎是我們距離 2027 年目標還有一點距離的一個指標？

Brian, so the thing that's I think really exciting about this is -- the way we think about it, the growth model is really, really well intact. I know you've watched it for many, many years. We focus on it sounds like the number of consumers that are coming in, what's costing to get us those consumer. It is definitely right within a band of exactly what it was this year a year ago, three years ago, five years ago and even longer than that.

布萊恩，所以我認為真正令人興奮的是——我們思考它的方式，成長模型確實非常完好。我知道你已經看了很多很多年了。我們關注的是進來的消費者數量，以及吸引這些消費者的成本。它絕對與今年、一年前、三年前、五年前甚至比這更久的情況相符。

So I think that one of the things that's really important to communicate it, it demonstrates the potential of this idea. It demonstrates the potential of the change that we're making in the category. And the deeper we're getting further and further, we're getting into our TAM, we're not seeing increased cost on our CAC -- that's extraordinary. And I think that's incredibly unique from what else we're hearing from other people trying to come into kind of fresh and frozen. So I think that we feel really terrific about that.

所以我認為傳達這個想法非常重要的一件事是它展示了這個想法的潛力。它展示了我們在該類別中所做的改變的潛力。隨著我們越來越深入，我們進入了 TAM，我們沒有看到 CAC 成本增加——這是非常了不起的。我認為這與我們從其他人那裡聽到的試圖進入新鮮和冷凍食品的情況相比是非常獨特的。所以我認為我們對此感覺非常好。

If you look at our media spend this year, it was literally constructed to make sure that we stayed within bounds for the growth that we wanted for the year. It is lower -- and if you look at the overall year, it will be a fairly significant increase in overall media spend. But the front half will be a much lower increase versus year ago.

如果你看看我們今年的媒體支出，它實際上是為了確保我們今年的成長保持在我們想要的範圍內而建構的。這個數字較低——如果你看一下全年情況，你會發現整體媒體支出將出現相當顯著的成長。但上半年的增幅將比去年同期低得多。

It was about a 16% increase versus year ago. In the back, you're going to see a significant increase. But the back half media is all about making sure that we're in a great spot and setting ourselves up for another terrific year in 2025. And if you ask that, if you think about talk to people in the company and the work that we're doing now, it's all about what do we need to do over the next six months to put ourselves in a terrific position for '25. And I think we're incredibly fortunate that we have the ability to plan in that way, think that way and kind of put our resources against that.

與去年同期相比增加了約 16%。在後面，你會看到顯著的增加。但後半部分媒體的重點是確保我們處於有利位置，並為 2025 年又一個輝煌的一年做好準備。正在做的事情，都是關於我們在接下來的六個月裡需要做什麼，才能讓我們自己在25 世紀處於一個絕佳的位置。我認為我們非常幸運，我們有能力以這種方式進行計劃，以這種方式思考，並投入我們的資源。

Appreciate the color, Scott. And then maybe Todd just thinking about what's implied in the guidance over the second half of the year? We set aside the top line, the biggest driver of upside was obviously the gross margin over-delivery in the first half. Anything to be mindful of in the second half that would compress the kinds of gross margins we've seen in the first half.

欣賞這個顏色，斯科特。然後也許托德只是在思考下半年的指導意見意味著什麼？我們撇開營收不談，上漲的最大推動因素顯然是上半年的毛利率超額交付。下半年需要注意的任何事情都會壓縮我們在上半年看到的毛利率。

Is there any reason they couldn't be mid-40% or better mindful that we've had six consecutive quarters of sequential gross margin improvement?

他們有什麼理由不能達到 40% 左右或更好，因為我們已經連續六個季度毛利率連續改善？

Yeah. I mean, look, there's a couple of headwinds. We're feeling great about the start of the year. Obviously, we'd like to replicate the gross margin we had in the first half in the second half, but we're going to do our best to hit those marks. But there are some a couple of expenses that will hit that are legitimate, here in the second half after the startup of the fourth-line antennas that will add costs and very low volume coming out of that new line.

是的。我的意思是，看，有一些阻力。今年年初我們感覺很好。顯然，我們希望下半年能夠複製上半年的毛利率，但我們將盡最大努力達到這些目標。但有一些費用會受到影響，這是合理的，在下半年第四線天線啟動後，這將增加成本，並且新生產線的產量將非常低。

We are adding some additional shifts at Kitchen South to prep us up for next year's growth and reliance on bank capacity that will add some costs there as well. We did not the deloading our inventory, obviously, that was a big Q1 benefit of about 100 basis points, no impact in Q2. We could see that happens still in the second half of the year, that's still a watch out.

我們正在南廚房增加一些額外的輪班，為明年的成長做好準備，並依賴銀行能力，這也會增加那裡的一些成本。顯然，我們沒有釋放庫存，這是第一季的一個巨大收益，約 100 個基點，對第二季度沒有影響。我們可以看到這種情況在下半年仍然會發生，這仍然值得警惕。

But look, we're going to -- we're obviously feeling great about the start. We are about 90% covered on commodities. We don't see much happening there at this point. But it is the new capacity coming online in the second half, that will be a slight headwind.

但是看，我們將——我們顯然對開始感覺很好。我們的商品覆蓋率約為 90%。目前我們還沒有看到發生太多事情。但下半年上線的新產能將是一個輕微的阻力。

Appreciate it. Thank you.

欣賞它。謝謝。

Mark Astrachan, Stifel.

馬克·阿斯特拉坎，斯蒂菲爾。

Yeah, thanks. And morning, everybody. I wanted to go back to this larger pack size comment and trying to understand it a little bit better. So the price mix was flat, but you're selling larger packs in Costco at a higher price point. How does that factor in I guess what you're selling at a lower average price per unit, but excludes what the consumers buying would just be bigger dollar amounts and bigger volumes.

是的，謝謝。早安，大家。我想回到這個更大的包裝尺寸評論並試圖更好地理解它。因此，價格組合持平，但你在 Costco 以更高的價格出售更大的包裝。我猜你以較低的單位平均價格出售的商品，但不包括消費者購買的金額更大、數量更大的商品，這對我有何影響？

And obviously you have more sales cost Costco today than you did 12 months ago. So would that be mix accretive in terms of contribution to the top line? That's the first question.

顯然，今天 Costco 的銷售成本比 12 個月前還要高。那麼，就對營收的貢獻而言，這會帶來混合增值嗎？這是第一個問題。

Hi, Mark. So I think the way to think about this is if you look across our portfolio, we are definitely developing and pushing larger pack sizes as Freshpet becomes more of a main meal lead.

嗨，馬克。因此，我認為思考這個問題的方法是，如果你縱觀我們的產品組合，我們肯定會開發和推動更大的包裝尺寸，因為 Freshpet 越來越成為主要的膳食主角。

The other thing we did you may remember a year or so ago, we brought a product called Complete Nutrition in a 1.5 pound size. And we also got really sharp before the value was as much of a discussion, we got really sharp on our one-time pricing, like we actually tightened it up just a little bit. And we did that intentionally because we started hearing a little bit of the storm cloud where people were concerned about value.

您可能還記得大約一年前我們做的另一件事，我們帶來了一種名為“完整營養”的產品，重量為 1.5 磅。在對價值進行大量討論之前，我們也變得非常敏銳，我們對一次性定價非常敏銳，就像我們實際上收緊了一點點一樣。我們故意這樣做是因為我們開始聽到一些人們擔心價值的風暴雲。

So you have people coming in on one side and buying some of the smaller size items and the complete nutrition, which is a good opening price point, but very solid margins. And you have the other side where we have these larger packs at some of the -- not only in mass, but also in the clubs, et cetera.

因此，人們會從一側進來購買一些較小尺寸的物品和完整的營養品，這是一個很好的開盤價，但利潤非常可觀。另一方面，我們在某些​​地方有這些更大的包包——不僅是在群眾中，而且在俱樂部等等。

The things -- it's interesting that we're seeing the largest growth -- you look at across our developed items, the things that are growing the fastest are large packs, which are the most expensive items we have. So there's a lot going on. There are a lot of pieces to it. And when we set the strategy forward going into the market.

有趣的是，我們看到了最大的成長——你看看我們開發的產品，成長最快的是大包裝，這是我們擁有的最昂貴的產品。所以發生了很多事情。它有很多部分。當我們制定進入市場的策略時。

We intentionally wanted to make sure we cover basically products for as many different people on how they want to use it and how they think about our brands and our products. So there are sizes. There's price points to go from low to high, as you know. And I think what we've done is we've done a nice job developing a really good portfolio and consumers appreciate it. And there is a lot of action. There's a lot of movement all through that.

我們有意確保我們的產品基本上涵蓋了盡可能多的不同人群，了解他們想要如何使用它以及他們如何看待我們的品牌和產品。所以有尺寸。如您所知，價格有從低到高的變化。我認為我們所做的就是我們在開發一個非常好的產品組合方面做得很好，並且消費者很欣賞它。並且有很多行動。整個過程中有很多動作。

So some of this on sizes and some of it's on trade up to the larger sizes. But some of it's a lot of new people are coming in on this 1, 1.5 pound sizes. We see that's the single fastest area where people are coming into the business.

因此，其中一些是針對尺寸的，一些是針對更大尺寸的。但其中有許多新人開始購買 1、1.5 磅的尺寸。我們發現這是人們進入該行業最快的領域。

Got it. So it's just a lot of moving parts, I guess, beyond kind of what sort of -- sort of related to that because I had another question, but just as a follow-up to that. So is Costco still an incremental consumer? I mean, is the larger pack size, more people just consuming more of the product? Is that the right way to think about this?

知道了。所以我想，這只是很多移動部件，超出了某種與此相關的範圍，因為我還有另一個問題，但只是作為該問題的後續問題。那麼Costco仍然是增量消費者嗎？我的意思是，包裝尺寸越大，是否意味著更多的人會消費更多的產品？這是思考這個問題的正確方式嗎？

Yes. So we -- the interesting thing is we are seeing a lot of new consumers come in through not only club, but also even our larger sizes in all retail. I mean, it is interesting. We do see some people go for it and actually, you'll start up with a [6 pound] roll. So we definitely see that dynamic going on. And then what we started to put out these multipacks, not only in club, but we're also starting to see these multi packs that are starting to go into regular retail, and they're starting to get a little bit of early traction. We knew it was going to be slower, but it's part of a long-term plan to make sure people are using us as a main meal product.

是的。因此，有趣的是，我們看到許多新消費者不僅透過俱樂部進入，甚至透過我們所有零售業的較大規模進入。我的意思是，這很有趣。我們確實看到有些人願意這樣做，實際上，您將從 [6 磅] 卷開始。所以我們肯定看到這種動態正在發生。然後我們開始推出這些多件裝，不僅在俱樂部，而且我們也開始看到這些多件裝開始進入常規零售，並且它們開始獲得一些早期的關注。我們知道它會變慢，但這是長期計劃的一部分，以確保人們將我們用作主要膳食產品。

And Mark, one other thing, as we said in the comments that if you think about where our fastest growth has been this month, the HIPPOHs so the heavier users and we also mentioned the ultra-users and people buying over $1,000 a year. They're growing at even faster rate. So we are seeing an increasing number of consumers who are moving up into that higher purchase amounts and oftentimes that comes with buying larger pack size.

馬克，還有一件事，正如我們在評論中所說，如果你想想本月我們成長最快的地方，HIPPOH 就是重度用戶，我們也提到了超級用戶和每年購買超過 1,000 美元的人。他們的成長速度甚至更快。因此，我們看到越來越多的消費者開始增加購買量，而且通常會購買更大的包裝尺寸。

Got it. Okay. That's super helpful. I'll leave it there. Thank you.

知道了。好的。這非常有幫助。我會把它留在那裡。謝謝。

Peter Benedict, Baird.

彼得·本尼迪克特，貝爾德。

Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. First one is just around -- I mean a lot of talk about capacity, what might be needed going forward. You did mention the new production technologies seem to be proving out here. I think you said second half of '25 where you like to have that fully up and running. Can you kind of remind us what's going on there? And kind of what the plan would be to, I guess, retrofit your existing lines with those technologies? Just thinking of ways to improve or continue to improve your output without a new facility, that type of thing. That's my first question.

早安，夥計們。感謝您提出問題。第一個即將到來——我的意思是很多關於容量的討論，以及未來可能需要什麼。您確實提到新的生產技術似乎在這裡得到證明。我想你說過 25 年下半年你希望完全啟動並運行。你能提醒我們那裡發生了什麼事嗎？我想，用這些技術改造現有生產線的計畫是什麼？只是想辦法在沒有新設施的情況下提高或繼續提高產量，諸如此類。這是我的第一個問題。

Hey Peter, I think the way to think about this is there's three major pieces to us improving the capacity on our lines. The first one is basically just like OE improvement, and we have a long way to go and a lot of opportunity, and the team is doing an extraordinary job there. I mean like hats off to the guys and the work that they've done. And they're significant that will be significant, and that will change the cadence that we need to open new lines, and it will improve profitability from the existing network, okay? That's the first one.

嘿，彼得，我認為思考這個問題的方法是，我們可以透過三個主要部分來提高生產線的容量。第一個基本上就像 OE 改進一樣，我們還有很長的路要走，也有很多機會，團隊在那裡做得非常出色。我的意思是向這些人和他們所做的工作致敬。它們意義重大，將會意義重大，這將改變我們開設新線路所需的節奏，並將提高現有網路的獲利能力，好嗎？這是第一個。

The second one is, I'll call it, kind of updating and like minor modifications to the existing lines with some new technology and new equipment. We've been able to start proving that out, and we're seeing pretty significant, we're not going to share anything at this point, but we're seeing significant progress in that area. We're really we're excited and enthusiastic about potential that just by making some small improvements and some investments in the lines that the amount of upside there is.

第二個是，我稱之為更新，就像用一些新技術和新設備對現有生產線進行細微修改。我們已經能夠開始證明這一點，我們看到了相當重要的成果，目前我們不會分享任何內容，但我們在該領域看到了重大進展。我們真的對潛力感到興奮和熱情，只需做出一些小的改進和一些投資，就能獲得巨大的上升空間。

And the third one is basically I would call it almost it's not evolution. I would say it's somewhat of a revolution of our back technology and it is a kind of more developed future state of where we believe the bag production will be. Now we'll start to see that next year, but it will be very small.

第三個基本上我會稱之為幾乎它不是進化。我想說，這在某種程度上是我們背部技術的革命，也是我們相信包款生產未來更發達的狀態。現在我們明年就會開始看到這一點，但規模會很小。

And the intent is that that will take as we prove that technology out, it will start taking place as we expand our lines in the future. But at this point, that's really far out. And that's not something that like we are we can get too far into it just like we can't predict exactly the future. I'll say we are confident that that technology will work. The question is exactly when and then the exact impact on kind of our expansion and our capacity across our network.

我們的目的是，當我們證明技術成熟時，隨著我們未來擴大生產線，它就會開始發生。但目前看來，這還很遙遠。這不像我們可以走得太遠，就像我們無法準確預測未來一樣。我想說的是，我們有信心這項技術能夠發揮作用。問題在於我們的擴張類型和整個網路的容量會在何時以及之後受到確切的影響。

Well, fair enough, Scott. That's a good perspective. And then my follow-up question, look, you guys have made enhancements to the management team over the last couple of years. You're obviously executing very well. Billy, you talked about the new corporate headquarters in Bedminster, New Jersey, I think you mentioned marketing and finance as maybe some areas where you'd be looking to attract additional talent. Just wondering if you could expand on that, your thoughts around the organization, who you might or what areas you would be focused on, maybe continuing to build as you support the growth in the business? Thank you.

好吧，很公平，斯科特。這是一個很好的視角。然後我的後續問題是，看，你們在過去幾年對管理團隊進行了改進。顯然你執行得非常好。比利，您談到了位於新澤西州貝德明斯特的新公司總部，我認為您提到了行銷和財務，這可能是您希望吸引更多人才的領域。只是想知道您是否可以擴展您對組織的想法，您可能是誰或您會關注哪些領域，也許在您支持業務成長的同時繼續發展？謝謝。

Yeah, and Peter, as we're growing, obviously, we have growth opportunities and needs in virtually every area in the company. That's what happens when you're growing at the rate that we're growing. And the most important lesson we've learned in the last couple of years is you can't get behind on adding talent.

是的，彼得，隨著我們的成長，顯然，我們在公司的幾乎每個領域都有成長機會和需求。當你以我們的成長速度成長時，就會發生這種情況。過去幾年我們學到的最重要的教訓是，在增加人才方面不能落後。

So you can see us leaning into acquiring the necessary talent in the places that will make the biggest difference. And you'll see it in a wide range of areas. And as you've seen in the last 18 months, the amount of talent that we've hired has been fairly significant.

因此，您可以看到我們傾向於在能夠產生最大影響的地方獲得必要的人才。你會在很多領域看到它。正如您在過去 18 個月中所看到的，我們聘用的人才數量相當可觀。

I don't want to get into any specific areas other than to just say that you should think about as we add scale to the company, it gives us opportunities to add capability in areas where we may have been a generalist before, and we can become a specialist, where we can get high level capabilities in an area where we've previously been operating, but probably haven't had the sophistication and capability that's needed for a business that's $1 billion or $2 billion or $3 billion in sales.

我不想討論任何具體領域，只是想說，當我們擴大公司規模時，你應該考慮一下，這讓我們有機會在我們以前可能是通才的領域增加能力，而且我們可以成為專家，我們可以在我們以前經營過的領域獲得高水準的能力，但可能不具備銷售額為10 億美元、20 億美元或30 億美元的企業所需的複雜程度和能力。

So you're going to see us continue to add people to add bench strength to help us grow the company and it's just going to be an ongoing part of our process.

因此，您將看到我們繼續增加人員來增加後備力量，以幫助我們發展公司，這將成為我們流程中持續的一部分。

All right. Good to hear. Thank you.

好的。很高興聽到。謝謝。

Rupesh Parikh, Oppenheimer.

魯佩什·帕里克，奧本海默。

Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. So let me maybe just start out with the EBITDA cadence. Just anymore color. How you guys think about Q3 versus Q4? And then I have one follow-up.

早安，感謝您提出我的問題。那麼就讓我先從 EBITDA 節奏開始吧。只剩下顏色了你們如何看待第三季和第四季？然後我有一個後續行動。

Yeah. Obviously, don't give specific guidance, but just big picture. We'll have more EBITDA in Q4 than Q3 just because of the amount of media spending. We'll see a similar as we pushed media from the first-half to the second-half this year. You'll see a similar amount of media spend in Q3 as you did in Q2, that's unusual for us. But then there will be a drop-off in Q4, still a very sizable increase versus prior year, but there'll be a drop off, and that will allow additional EBITDA in Q4.

是的。顯然，不提供具體指導，而只是提供整體情況。由於媒體支出的數量，我們第四季的 EBITDA 將高於第三季。當我們將媒體從今年上半年推到下半年時，我們會看到類似的情況。您會看到第三季的媒體支出與第二季相似，這對我們來說很不尋常。但第四季將會出現下降，與去年相比仍然有非常大的成長，但會出現下降，這將允許第四季度產生額外的 EBITDA。

Great. And one follow-up question just on the categories. So one of your retail customers highlighted, they're seeing green shoots in the pet category on the pet adoption side. Just curious what you guys are seeing right now from a pet adoption perspective.

偉大的。還有一個關於類別的後續問題。因此，您的一位零售客戶強調，他們在寵物收養方面看到了寵物類別的萌芽。只是好奇你們現在從寵物收養的角度看到了什麼。

Rupesh, I think the way to think about this is -- I mean, the category always goes through ebbs and flows. And there is definitely a little bit of a post COVID trough. We think it's going to come back to much more normalized rate. But I think that there's looked at if you look at the category, there are tons of headwinds going on. And I think when you're kind of dealing in a single like late single digits, you're going to kind of really focus on some of those either headwinds or tailwinds.

Rupesh，我認為思考這個問題的方法是——我的意思是，這個類別總是會經歷潮起潮落。新冠疫情後肯定會出現一些低谷。我們認為它將恢復到更正常化的水平。但我認為，如果你看看這個類別，你會發現有大量的阻力。我認為，當你處理像後期個位數這樣的單數時，你會真正注意其中的一些逆風或順風。

We've been very fortunate that we haven't had to really focus on those trends and that we're winning within. If you're let's say, almost any retailer, you're kind of looking across the category and you're looking across segments.

我們非常幸運，我們不必真正關注這些趨勢，而且我們正在贏得勝利。比方說，幾乎所有零售商，您都會跨類別、跨區隔市場進行研究。

And then you're kind of looking across brands. And we have really been like the absolute clear winner, and it creates even more opportunity for us into the future to work with them and develop the business. So I know your question was specific around adoption rates. I would say, look, we're looking at this stuff on quarterly and six months' basis and things are ebbing and flowing a yes, it's off a little bit.

然後你就會跨品牌尋找。我們確實是絕對明顯的贏家，這為我們未來與他們合作並發展業務創造了更多機會。所以我知道你的問題是關於採用率的。我想說，看，我們正在每季和六個月的基礎上研究這些東西，事情正在起起落落，是的，有點偏離。

This has been a significant trend of more societal trends where people are treating pets, more like people and people are having less kids and more pets. And they become an important part of our lives. And we think that that's going to continue over the long term.

這是更多社會趨勢的重要趨勢，人們對待寵物，更像是人，而且人們養的孩子越來越少，寵物越來越多。它們成為我們生活的重要組成部分。我們認為這種情況將長期持續下去。

Great. Thank you for the color.

偉大的。謝謝你的顏色。

Bryan Spillane, Bank of America.

布萊恩·斯皮蘭，美國銀行。

Thanks, operator. Good morning, guys. Just one question for me. I think you started this year or went into this year with a plan to -- be more measured, I guess, right in terms of growth and you're not wanting to overheat on your manufacturing network.

謝謝，接線生。早安，夥計們。只是問我一個問題。我認為你們從今年開始或進入今年的計劃是——我想，在成長方面更加謹慎，而且你們不想讓製造網絡過熱。

And so I guess just curious this year, right, given how good the demand has been if you've had if capacity was not a question, right. If you could make as much as you could -- would your sales have been higher, I guess is there is there more interest in from retailers and consumers than maybe what we're seeing in the results.

所以我想今年只是好奇，對吧，考慮到如果容量不是問題的話，需求會有多好，對吧。如果你能賺盡可能多的錢——你的銷售額會更高嗎？

I would say if we would spend at the sort of comparable growth rate on media to what we had last year, in other words, grow media in the first half at the same rate of sales growth, you would have seen more demand, but we knew we couldn't supply that. And for us, it's really really important to keep the growth within the capacity limit and also to execute our capacity expansion plan in a very measured and orderly fashion.

我想說，如果我們在媒體上的支出與去年的成長率相當，換句話說，在上半年以相同的銷售成長率成長媒體，你會看到更多的需求，但我們知道我們無法提供。對我們來說，將成長保持在產能限制內，並以非常謹慎和有序的方式執行我們的產能擴張計劃，這真的非常重要。

And we feel good about it. Our team has gotten really good at designing, constructing and starting up a line. We want to do that reliably. We want to provide very high level of customer service because we know we provide high level of customer service. Our costs are lower. Our fridges are full, the sales are better, customers are happy, consumers are happy.

我們對此感覺良好。我們的團隊非常擅長設計、建造和啟動生產線。我們希望可靠地做到這一點。我們希望提供非常高水準的客戶服務，因為我們知道我們提供高水準的客戶服務。我們的成本更低。我們的冰箱滿了，銷售量更好，顧客高興，消費者高興。

So I think for us, it's really important that we measure and manage the growth to live within the capacity. We add the capacity at a very disciplined rate. And if that all works together, we think everybody wins and you should expect to see that from us going forward.

所以我認為對我們來說，衡量和管理成長以使其在能力範圍內是非常重要的。我們以非常嚴格的速度增加容量。如果這一切共同發揮作用，我們認為每個人都會贏，你應該期待我們未來會看到這一點。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Michael Lavery, Piper Sandler.

麥可萊弗里、派珀桑德勒。

thank you, good morning. You talked about adding shifts at Kitchen South, I guess, maybe two-part question. how is the relationship with the Kitchen South, like if there's better overhead absorption or efficiencies from that or kind of at least in an operating leverage way? Do you benefit from that on the cost? And then I guess the other part of it is, do you have opportunities on any of your own lines to ad shifts as well or at least reduce changeovers and maybe do extended runs. How should we think about that as part of an opportunity for you?

謝謝你，早安。我想，你談到了在南廚房增加輪班，這可能是由兩部分組成的問題。與南廚房的關係如何，例如是否有更好的管理費用吸收或效率，或至少在營運槓桿方面？您能從中受益嗎？然後我想它的另一部分是，你是否有機會在自己的任何一條線上進行廣告轉換，或者至少減少轉換，也許可以延長投放時間。我們應該如何看待這對您來說是一個機會的一部分？

Sure. The Kitchen South relationship is terrific. They're performing exceptionally well. We could not be more pleased with the performance coming out of that operation. They've been terrific this year. There is a little bit of leverage as we add some shifts there. It's not dramatic. Just the way the arrangement is set up, we do get a little bit of leverage.

當然。南廚房的關係非常好。他們的表現非常出色。我們對此行動的表現非常滿意。他們今年表現太棒了。當我們在那裡添加一些班次時，會有一點槓桿作用。這並不戲劇性。就安排的方式而言，我們確實獲得了一點影響力。

So we'll continue to lean in there just not on shifts. But as I mentioned earlier, we have another line coming in Q1, and then we have room for a few more lines if both partners choose to go that route in that facility as well. So we look forward to many more years of great performance and additional capacity coming out of that facility.

因此，我們將繼續依靠那裡，只是不輪班。但正如我之前提到的，我們將在第一季推出另一條線路，如果雙方都選擇在該設施中選擇這條路線，那麼我們還有空間容納更多線路。因此，我們期待該設施能夠在未來的許多年裡保持出色的性能和額外的容量。

And is there room to add extent or add shifts on any lines that Ennis or Bethlehem?

恩尼斯或伯利恆的任何線路上是否有增加範圍或增加班次的空間？

Bethlehem is pretty tight at this point and is yes, there is room and we will not -- we'll add more shifts. We'll get the efficiencies in the facility ramped up over the next year or two. So there is some capacity there.

伯利恆目前非常緊張，是的，還有空間，但我們不會——我們會增加更多班次。我們將在未來一兩年內提高該設施的效率。所以那裡有一定的能力。

Michael, think about it is our operating model is that when we install a line, we ramp it up by putting on one shift where in essence, you have capacity utilization for a period of time. And then as the demand grows and the production efficiency underlying grows, we ultimately take it to a 24/7 operation. And that happens typically before you bring on the next one.

邁克爾，想想我們的營運模式是，當我們安裝一條生產線時，我們透過增加一個班次來提高它的產量，本質上，你可以在一段時間內利用產能。然後，隨著需求的成長和生產效率的提高，我們最終將其轉變為 24/7 營運。這通常發生在你帶來下一個之前。

So at the same time, we're doing all that. We are working as we increase the number of lines in our system to make some more lines more specific or some specialized, and it reduces the number of changeovers that we have to do and allows us to deliver higher throughput or higher output per hour of operation and also extended some of our runs depending on what some of the products are and where they're being produced. So there are significant benefits that we gain in each of our operations as we gain scale.

所以與此同時，我們正在做這一切。我們正在努力增加系統中的生產線數量，以使更多的生產線更加具體或專業化，這減少了我們必須進行的轉換次數，並使我們能夠在每小時的操作中提供更高的吞吐量或更高的產量並根據某些產品的類型和生產地點延長了我們的一些運行時間。因此，隨著規模的擴大，我們的每項業務都會獲得顯著的效益。

Okay. That's helpful. And just a follow up on. You mentioned on that in the prepared remarks, the Dallas DC, I think the way you phrased it was it expanded its coverage area. I guess I hadn't realized that maybe wasn't it stripping all of what it could or it was meant to is that now optimized or is there room for even more optimal service area?

好的。這很有幫助。只是後續行動。您在準備好的演講中提到了這一點，達拉斯特區，我認為您的措辭方式是它擴大了覆蓋範圍。我想我沒有意識到，也許它不是剝奪了所有它可以做的事情，或者它本來就是現在優化的，或者是否有空間提供更優化的服務區域？

Right now, the Dallas DC exists to take the product that's produced in Ennis and ship it to the state that it that it can serve. So as we add production in Ennis, the Dallas DC is able to supply more states. So for example, we're right now in the process of converting the states like Utah and Colorado over to being shipped out of the Dallas DC.

目前，達拉斯特區的存在是為了將恩尼斯生產的產品運送到它可以服務的州。因此，當我們增加恩尼斯的產量時，達拉斯特區就能夠向更多的州供貨。例如，我們現在正在將猶他州和科羅拉多州等州從達拉斯特區運出。

Ultimately, when Ennis is up and running to its full 10 lines of production, the Ennis or the Dallas DC should be supplying more than half of the United States. Think of it as everything west of the Mississippi and probably parts of the Southeast. So we will continue to get great efficiencies from the Dallas DC, but they're 100% connected or linked to increasing the amount of output from the Ennis facility.

最終，當 Ennis 的全部 10 條生產線全部投入運行時，Ennis 或達拉斯特區應該為美國一半以上的地區供貨。可以將其視為密西西比河以西的一切，也可能是東南部的部分地區。因此，我們將繼續從達拉斯特區獲得巨大的效率，但它們 100% 與增加恩尼斯設施的產出有關。

So that's helpful. Thank you.

所以這很有幫助。謝謝。

Jon Andersen, William Blair.

喬恩·安德森，威廉·布萊爾。

Good morning, everybody. Thanks for the question. I just have one. I wanted to come back to an earlier comment on distribution. I think, Bill, you mentioned that we should expect to see TDP growth exceeding ACV growth moving forward?

大家早安。謝謝你的提問。我只有一個。我想回到之前關於發行的評論。我想，比爾，你提到我們應該預期 TDP 成長將超過 ACV 成長？

I guess my question is, are you now seeing that your brand is represented in the stores that you need to be in from a coverage perspective? And at the same time, are you seeing more of your large accounts, particularly in FBM proactively moving to add second and third fridges.

我想我的問題是，從覆蓋角度來看，您現在是否看到您的品牌在您需要進入的商店中有代表？同時，您是否看到更多的大客戶，特別是 FBM 主動增加第二台和第三台冰箱。

I'm just trying to understand that kind of a little bit more context around that comment. Thank you.

我只是想了解更多該評論的背景資訊。謝謝。

Hey Jon, so I made a brief mention of it before, but I think as retailers are looking and they're starting to think about like their growth in the category, not only this year, but next year, I think they are clearly recognizing that Freshpet is delivering on not only our growth, but now we actually have nice scale behind it.

嘿喬恩，所以我之前簡短地提到過這一點，但我認為隨著零售商正在尋找並開始思考他們在該類別中的增長，不僅是今年，而且是明年，我認為他們清楚地認識到Freshpet 不僅促進了我們的成長，而且現在我們實際上擁有了很大的規模。

I mean if you look at the last 26 weeks and measure it, we've added $100 million in growth to the category, which is by far the leader of any brand by far, which is really exciting. So now they start looking forward and just going about next year, what do you do? We know we need to tighten the mix of the products that we have in existing fridges, but we're also having, I would say, really productive conversations about second fridges and expanding distribution only in stores we're not in, but also in second fridges and even some cases where it's third bridges.

我的意思是，如果你看看過去 26 週並進行衡量，我們已經為該類別增加了 1 億美元的增長，這是迄今為止所有品牌中的領先者，這確實令人興奮。所以現在他們開始展望明年，你會做什麼？我們知道我們需要加強現有冰箱中的產品組合，但我想說的是，我們還就第二台冰箱進行了真正富有成效的對話，並僅在我們不在的商店中擴大分銷，但也在我們的商店中進行了非常富有成效的對話。

So I think that's what we'll see going forward. There's also a couple -- very few scenarios where there are some retailer or so that has bought some of their own fridges, and we may be going into some of that space over time, too.

所以我認為這就是我們未來會看到的情況。還有一些情況——很少有零售商購買了自己的冰箱，隨著時間的推移，我們也可能會進入其中的一些領域。

Okay. If I could squeeze one more on the media front. Can you talk a little bit about how not the level of spend, but maybe how you're changing and that are evolving the type of media that you're aiming using and the messaging? And is it working because I think you've taken some different approaches over the past 12 months or 18 months maybe than you have in the past, but an update on that would be helpful. Thank you.

好的。如果我能在媒體面前再擠一擠就好了。您能否談談支出水平如何，但也許您正在如何改變，以及您打算使用的媒體類型和訊息傳遞的演變？它是否有效，因為我認為您在過去 12 個月或 18 個月中採取了一些與過去不同的方法，但對此進行更新會有所幫助。謝謝。

Yes. So I think let me start with great work by the marketing team and overall across the entire marketing team. And the work has been done, not only on creative, but also packaging. It's not dog food, it's been a tremendous campaign for us. It's producing incredibly well. We're seeing great performance from the creative.

是的。所以我想讓我從行銷團隊以及整個行銷團隊的出色工作開始。而且工作已經完成，不只是創意，還有包裝。這不是狗糧，這對我們來說是一場巨大的活動。它的生產非常好。我們看到了創意人員的出色表現。

We're seeing also a great performance from the buying and how we're planning our media, and we continue to expand opportunities to place it in different spots that are like actually, on the face, more expensive, but the productivity has been so strong. That's what we can deliver on that really consistent CAC range that we're talking about earlier.

我們還看到購買以及我們如何規劃媒體的出色表現，並且我們繼續擴大將其放置在不同位置的機會，這些位置實際上從表面上看更昂貴，但生產力一直如此強的。這就是我們可以在我們之前討論的真正一致的 CAC 範圍上提供的。

So we're seeing visits to the site up. We're seeing conversions up every metric that we track is performing really, really well. And it really goes back to the work that the things done across both the creative and also the media buying.

所以我們看到該網站的訪問量有所增加。我們看到我們追蹤的每個指標的轉換都表現得非常非常好。這實際上可以追溯到創意和媒體購買方面所做的工作。

So yeah, we continue to kind of expand out different targets. We've also recognized that we've pushed into sports. You're seeing us kind of pushing the sports a little bit more. Every one of those has worked really well.

所以，是的，我們繼續擴大不同的目標。我們也認識到我們已經推動了體育運動。你會看到我們在某種程度上推動了體育運動的發展。其中每一項都非常有效。

And the way we typically think about it is we want to test now and then we really want to see the productivity of that and then we want to buy that in the future. So the next quarter or next year, it's when we're getting into a bigger pie on that. So we're constantly in that mode.

我們通常的想法是，我們現在想要進行測試，然後我們真的想要看到它的生產力，然後我們想要在未來購買它。因此，下個季度或明年，我們將在這方面做更大的蛋糕。所以我們一直處於這種模式。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Tom Palmer, Citi.

湯姆·帕爾默，花旗銀行。

Good morning and thanks for the question. I wanted to first just follow up on the fridge count discussion. As we look at the next couple of years, it sounds like you have kind of some visibility both for maybe new stores and adding the second units, which one becomes the bigger driver here over the next couple of years?

早安，謝謝你的提問。我想先跟進冰箱計數的討論。當我們展望未來幾年時，聽起來您對新商店和添加第二個單元都有一定的知名度，哪一個將成為未來幾年更大的推動力？

Yeah. The clear driver longer term is going to be second fridges. It's actually an interesting point. But if you look at the productivity that we get out of the first four feet now, we are one of the most productive four feet in the pet aisle. And when you can demonstrate that and have category leading margins, that's really great cocktail for expansion into a second fridge. And we get in the second fridge, the number we typically quote is within six months. It's running about 60% of the first fridge. It's really productive for us.

是的。從長遠來看，明顯的驅動因素將是第二台冰箱。這實際上是一個有趣的點。但如果你看看我們現在從前四英尺中獲得的生產力，我們是寵物通道中生產力最高的四英尺之一。當你能夠證明這一點並擁有類別領先的利潤時，這確實是擴展到第二台冰箱的絕佳雞尾酒。我們進入第二台冰箱，我們通常引用的數字是六個月內。第一台冰箱的運作率約為 60%。這對我們來說確實很有成效。

The capital investment is great. The sales is great. And then once that levels off, now you have an ongoing annuity that typically will increase on a double-digit sales growth into the next year and years going forward. So the retailers that moved with us earlier are seeing a compounding effect on the growth that they're seeing on Freshpet.

資金投入龐大。銷量很大。然後，一旦這種情況趨於平穩，現在您就擁有了持續的年金，通常會在明年和未來幾年以兩位數的銷售增長而增加。因此，早期與我們合作的零售商看到了 Freshpet 成長帶來的複合效應。

Okay. Thanks for that. And then just on this year's sales guidance, you did note a new line in Ennis this quarter, but also we're opening this quarter, but then also the continued ramp of prior lines and the added on shifts, I guess just thinking about this year's growth, how reliant, if at all, is that new Ennis line to hitting your guidance that was just updated today?

好的。謝謝你。然後就在今年的銷售指導中，您確實注意到本季度恩尼斯有一條新生產線，而且我們也在本季度開業，而且之前的生產線持續增加，並且增加了班次，我想只是在考慮這一點今年的成長，新的恩尼斯系列對達到您今天剛更新的指導的依賴程度如何？

I mean, we've in order to continue to support the growth that we already have, we need that rolls line in Ennis to come online. We're very confident that it's going to come online. The qualification is going very, very well.

我的意思是，為了繼續支持我們已有的成長，我們需要恩尼斯的軋製生產線。我們非常有信心它將上線。資格賽進展得非常非常順利。

But if for some reason that, that didn't happen, we would be very short on rolls for the balance of the year. We're very comfortable with our bags production capacity right now and our ability to meet the bag demand for the balance of the year.

但如果由於某種原因，這種情況沒有發生，那麼我們今年剩下的時間就會出現非常短缺的情況。我們對目前的箱包生產能力以及滿足今年剩餘時間箱包需求的能力感到非常滿意。

Bags becomes an issue at our current rate of growth as we head into the first quarter next year, which is why we're bringing on new shifts and new lines at Kitchen South later this year and then the new line actually starts up in the first quarter of next year.

隨著我們進入明年第一季度，以我們目前的成長率來看，包款成為一個問題，這就是為什麼我們今年晚些時候在Kitchen South 引入新的班次和新的生產線，然後新的生產線實際上在第一季啟動明年一個季度。

So we are constantly in a position where we're growing into the existing capacity. We need to bring on the line in a reliable fashion on time. When we do that, we can support the high fill rates that we've had with our customers and the business keeps growing very, very nicely. So it's a really nice cadence that we're developing, but we've got to execute well.

因此，我們始終處於不斷擴大現有產能的情況。我們需要以可靠的方式準時上線。當我們這樣做時，我們可以支援客戶的高填充率，並且業務不斷增長。所以我們正在開發一個非常好的節奏，但我們必須執行得好。

All right. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Marc Torrente, Wells Fargo.

馬克‧托倫特，富國銀行。

Good morning, and thank you for the questions. And just one for me. Non-tracked channels continue to grow over 100%. How much of total does this represent now what areas here, most incremental and any other new distribution whitespace as starting to gain traction for you guys? Thanks.

早安，謝謝你的提問。只給我一個。非追蹤管道持續成長超過 100%。現在，這代表了這裡的哪些領域、增量最多的領域和任何其他新的發行空白開始吸引你們的注意？謝謝。

Hi, good morning, So yeah, we are seeing really nice growth in some of the untracked channels. And it's a lot of it is work that's been going on for multiple years that's now coming to fruition. You're going to see longer term continued growth there, and we're hoping to see like really great performance from both Canada and the UK next year, albeit small.

大家好，早安，是的，我們看到一些未追蹤管道的成長非常好。其中許多工作已經持續多年，現在正在取得成果。你將看到那裡的長期持續成長，我們希望明年加拿大和英國都能看到真正出色的表現，儘管規模很小。

We think there are tremendous opportunities to continue to expand there also. And the other thing that we have a tremendous opportunity in and you may have heard us talk about this in the past. But from a kind of a digital standpoint, where someone could sit down to the computer and buy us, we are very, very underdeveloped.

我們認為那裡也存在著繼續擴張的巨大機會。我們擁有巨大機會的另一件事，您過去可能聽過我們談論過這一點。但從數字的角度來看，有人可以坐在電腦前購買我們，我們非常非常不發達。

Approximately 8%, 9% of our sales are through some type of digital and that includes click and pick, et cetera. We think that the opportunity there is tremendous, and we would like to see really leading growth in that area over the next kind of 12 to 18 months. There's a lot of our focus is there. We're just not as developed as many brands in digital or in e-commerce in any way.

我們大約 8%、9% 的銷售額是透過某種類型的數位管道實現的，其中包括點擊和挑選等。我們認為那裡的機會是巨大的，我們希望在未來 12 到 18 個月內看到該領域真正領先的成長。我們的許多關注點都在那裡。我們只是在數位或電子商務方面不如許多品牌那麼發達。

And Marc, just one call out. Obviously, that non-measured growth has been tremendous in the first half of the year at about [5 points] in Q1, [4 points] in Q2. As we start to lap some of the store growth that we got last year in the second half, we anticipate that growth will probably only at about 2 points in the second half of the year, still tremendous growth. And as Scott pointed out, we're seeing some really nice gains here in the e-com world, which we think is going to really flow into '25 as well. But that growth in the non-measured is still be really, really strong, that will get me wrong, but it will slow in the second-half

馬克，只需一聲呼喊。顯然，今年上半年的非衡量成長非常巨大，第一季約為 [5 個百分點]，第二季約為 [4 個百分點]。當我們下半年開始恢復去年的一些商店成長時，我們預計下半年的成長可能只會在 2 個百分點左右，但仍然是巨大的成長。正如斯科特所指出的那樣，我們在電子商務世界中看到了一些非常好的成果，我們認為這也將真正流入 25 年。但非衡量成長仍然非常非常強勁，這會讓我誤會，但下半年成長將會放緩

Okay. Thanks for the color.

好的。謝謝你的顏色。

We have reached the end of our question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節已經結束。我想將電話轉回管理層以供結束語。

Thank you. Thanks, everyone, for your interest. I leave you with one thought. Dogs teach us a very important lesson in life, the mailman is not to be trusted. That's from Sean Ford to which I would add, but if the mailman carries fresh fat turkey bacon treats, he will be most loved and anticipated visitor you could have. Thank you very much for your interest.

謝謝。謝謝大家的關注。我留給你一個想法。狗狗在生活中給我們上了非常重要的一課，郵差是不值得信任的。我要補充的是肖恩福特的說法，但如果郵遞員攜帶新鮮的肥火雞培根，他將是您最受喜愛和最期待的訪客。非常感謝您的關注。

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路，感謝您的參與。