通用磨坊 (GIS) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the General Mills Second Quarter Fiscal 2023 Earnings Q&A webcast. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, Tuesday, December 20, 2022. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jeff Siemon, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

您好，歡迎收看 General Mills 2023 財年第二季度收益問答網絡直播。 （操作員說明）提醒一下，本次會議將於 2022 年 12 月 20 日星期二進行錄製。我現在想將會議轉交給投資者關係副總裁 Jeff Siemon。請繼續。

Thank you, Kelly, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today for the Q&A session on our Q2 fiscal '23 results. I hope you all had the time to review the press release, listen to our prepared remarks and view the presentation materials, which are made available this morning on our IR website.

謝謝你，凱利，大家早上好。感謝您今天加入我們的 Q&A 環節，了解我們的 23 財年第二季度業績。我希望大家有時間閱讀新聞稿，聽取我們準備好的評論並查看今天上午在我們的 IR 網站上提供的演示材料。

Please do note that in our Q&A session, we may make forward-looking statements that are based on our current views and assumptions. Please refer to this morning's press release for factors that could impact forward-looking statements and for reconciliations of non-GAAP information, which will be discussed on today's call.

請注意，在我們的問答環節中，我們可能會根據我們當前的觀點和假設做出前瞻性陳述。請參閱今天上午的新聞稿，了解可能影響前瞻性陳述的因素以及非 GAAP 信息的對賬，這些將在今天的電話會議上討論。

I'm here with Jeff Harmening, our Chairman and CEO; Kofi Bruce, our CFO; and Jon Nudi, Group President of our North America Retail segment. Let's get to the first question, Kelly. So please get us started. Thanks.

我和我們的董事長兼首席執行官 Jeff Harmening 一起來的；我們的首席財務官 Kofi Bruce；以及我們北美零售部門的集團總裁 Jon Nudi。讓我們回到第一個問題，凱利。所以請讓我們開始吧。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Andrew Lazar with Barclays.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Andrew Lazar。

I think just to kick it off, I guess I appreciate that capacity constraints can often lead to a gap between shipments and retail takeaway, but obviously, the differential in Pet was far greater than anticipated. So I'm trying to get a sense of why would retailers pull back on orders when capacity is constrained and demand remains so strong and does this pose any risk ultimately to the demand side of the equation? And then I've just got a quick follow-up.

我想只是為了開始，我想我理解容量限制通常會導致出貨量和零售外賣之間的差距，但顯然，Pet 的差異遠遠大於預期。因此，我試圖了解為什麼在產能受限且需求仍然如此強勁的情況下零售商會撤回訂單，這最終會對等式的需求方構成任何風險嗎？然後我得到了一個快速跟進。

Yes. Sure, Andrew. Thanks for the question. I would say, ironically, in the second quarter, a lot of what occurred in pet we anticipated, including retail sales and the fact that we were capacity constrained. And as we look ahead, we guided to double-digit growth for the second half of the year, by which I mean starting in Q3, given the strong level of innovation we have and the fact capacity is online, and we've got really good advertising and marketing support.

是的。當然，安德魯。謝謝你的問題。具有諷刺意味的是，在第二季度，我們預期寵物會發生很多事情，包括零售銷售和我們產能受限的事實。展望未來，我們預計下半年將實現兩位數的增長，我的意思是從第三季度開始，因為我們擁有強大的創新水平，而且產能在線，而且我們真的有良好的廣告和營銷支持。

The 1 thing that was different than we expected was a drawdown in retail inventory you pointed out to. But we don't -- first of all, most importantly, we don't think that this is a long-term trend. We think it is something to happen this quarter. In terms of the rationale why, I would say, in general, the retailers have carried a little bit less inventory across the board during this time only because with inflation, what you don't want to do is carry a lot of working capital. And so -- but certainly not 8 points worth of differential.

與我們預期不同的一件事是您指出的零售庫存減少。但我們不——首先，最重要的是，我們認為這不是一個長期趨勢。我們認為這是本季度要發生的事情。就原因而言，我想說的是，總的來說，零售商在這段時間內全面減少庫存只是因為通貨膨脹，你不想做的是攜帶大量營運資金。所以——但肯定不是 8 分的差異。

The other reason I would say is that because we lack capacity, there are a lot of categories like treats, for example, where normally we would merchandise a lot during this time of year, but we couldn't do that. And so not only do we not -- were we not able to service demand, but we had to pull back on merchandising. And a lot of times, retailers carry more inventory when they're going to merchandise. And so you really see that in our treats business.

我要說的另一個原因是，由於我們缺乏產能，所以有很多類別，例如零食，通常我們會在每年的這個時候大量銷售商品，但我們不能這樣做。因此，我們不僅不能——如果我們無法滿足需求，而且我們不得不縮減商品銷售。很多時候，零售商在銷售商品時會攜帶更多庫存。所以你真的在我們的零食業務中看到了這一點。

And then the third reason is we had a couple of big retail customers and the -- have a more mass merch orientation that didn't take inventory coming into the season because the -- that warehouses full of other things. It's a little bit different customer set than our North America Retail business, for example. And so that's why we don't see it on the North America retail side. So those are really the laundry list, if you will, of reasons why inventory was less. But as you can imagine, we've done a very deep dive on inventory levels by customers. And I can tell you, we don't think there's going to be a repeat performance of that nature in the third quarter. In fact, that's why we're comfortable guiding up double-digit sales growth again.

然後第三個原因是我們有幾個大的零售客戶，並且 - 有更多的大眾商品定位，沒有庫存進入這個季節，因為 - 倉庫裡裝滿了其他東西。例如，它的客戶群與我們的北美零售業務略有不同。這就是為什麼我們在北美零售方面看不到它的原因。因此，如果您願意的話，這些實際上就是庫存減少的原因清單。但正如您可以想像的那樣，我們已經對客戶的庫存水平進行了非常深入的研究。我可以告訴你，我們認為第三季度不會重演這種性質。事實上，這就是我們樂於再次實現兩位數銷售額增長的原因。

And then I think you were looking for flattish gross margins or so for the full year, if we were thinking about last quarter's conference call. Obviously, with the upside to gross margins in this quarter despite the pet constraints on profitability. Could we see gross margins likely up year-over-year for the full year at this stage?

然後，如果我們考慮上一季度的電話會議，我認為你正在尋找全年持平的毛利率左右。顯然，儘管盈利能力受到寵物限制，但本季度的毛利率仍有上升空間。我們能否看到現階段全年的毛利率可能同比增長？

Sure. Andrew, it's Kofi. Thanks for the question. Certainly, as we look at our revised guidance, that's within the range of possibilities. And while we're not giving specific guidance on gross margin, we're very comfortable we're making good progress against our long-term goal of getting our margins back to pre-pandemic levels. We're still about 150 basis points back of there. So we're going to continue to drive at the things that will help us improve the margin profile as we go forward.

當然。安德魯，我是科菲。謝謝你的問題。當然，當我們查看修訂後的指南時，這在可能性範圍內。雖然我們沒有就毛利率給出具體指導，但我們很高興我們在實現將我們的利潤率恢復到大流行前水平的長期目標方面取得了良好進展。我們仍然落後大約 150 個基點。因此，我們將繼續推動有助於我們在前進過程中改善利潤率的事情。

Our next question comes from Ken Goldman with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Ken Goldman。

I wanted to just ask, you seem confident understandably why the deload won't happen again, and thank you for the clear explanation, Jeff, on what the drivers were. I'm just curious, as you progress into your third quarter, it might be a little early to ask because we're still not at Christmas. But are you seeing any refilling of inventory levels by retailers, if you addressed this already, forgive me, but just trying to get a sense of sort of more real-time data as to what's going on.

我只想問，你似乎有信心可以理解為什麼不會再次發生卸載，感謝你對驅動程序的明確解釋，Jeff。我只是很好奇，隨著你進入第三季度，現在問這個問題可能有點早，因為我們還沒到聖誕節。但是你是否看到零售商對庫存水平進行了任何補充，如果你已經解決了這個問題，請原諒我，但只是想了解更多關於正在發生的事情的實時數據。

Yes. I think a couple of points, Ken. Yes, we are early in the quarter. Having said that, there are a couple of things that give us confidence in our forecast for the third quarter. The first I would start with Life Protection Formula, which is our biggest dry business. And we've seen over the last 6 weeks, we've seen demand really rebound quickly. And that's important because that's the first business that we could bring back up to appropriate service levels. And so that gives us confidence.

是的。我認為有幾點，肯。是的，我們在本季度初。話雖如此，有幾件事讓我們對第三季度的預測充滿信心。首先，我將從生命保護配方開始，這是我們最大的干業務。在過去的 6 周里，我們看到需求確實迅速反彈。這很重要，因為這是我們可以恢復到適當服務水平的第一筆業務。這給了我們信心。

In addition to that, we -- I did tell you we were going to grow double digits in the third quarter. And I can report that we're only about 3 weeks into December. So it's -- but 3 weeks is not nothing. And I can tell you, we're on track to deliver what we said we're going to do in the third quarter, which again gives us more confidence that we're going to be able to do what we say we're going to do and that we've seen the pipeline of inventory start to refill itself because we're able to service the business better, and it's especially true on treats.

除此之外，我們 - 我確實告訴過你我們將在第三季度實現兩位數的增長。我可以報告說我們距離 12 月只有大約 3 週了。所以它是——但 3 週並不是什麼都沒有。我可以告訴你，我們正在按計劃在第三季度實現我們所說的目標，這再次讓我們更有信心，我們將能夠實現我們所說的目標去做，我們已經看到庫存管道開始自行補充，因為我們能夠更好地為企業提供服務，在零食方面尤其如此。

And Ken, I'd add just to put some numbers on it, this is Jeff Siemon. For Life Protection Formula, the movement in Nielsen measured channels in the last month is up almost 20% and volume has been positive and accelerating recently now that we've gotten service back in the [90s]. So just to put some dimensions on it, it's been encouraging to see that business grow basically in line with or even ahead of where the category is growing overall.

肯，我想補充一些數字，這是傑夫西蒙。對於 Life Protection Formula，上個月 Nielsen 測量渠道的變動增長了近 20%，並且由於我們在 [90 年代] 恢復了服務，因此最近銷量一直在增長。因此，僅從一些方面來看，令人鼓舞的是，業務增長基本上與該類別的整體增長保持一致，甚至領先於整體增長。

And then a quick follow-up. Just how do we think about the impact of adding more production from co-manufacturers and maybe re-stepping on the marketing pedal, for your pet food business in the third and fourth quarters. Obviously, hopefully, there will be a better volume turnaround, and that will help as well. I'm just trying to get a general sense of, I guess, how to model those margins given all the puts and takes.

然後快速跟進。我們如何考慮增加合作製造商的產量以及可能重新踩下營銷踏闆對第三和第四季度寵物食品業務的影響。顯然，希望會有更好的成交量周轉，這也會有所幫助。我想我只是想大致了解如何在給定所有看跌期權的情況下對這些利潤率進行建模。

So let me start and then Kofi can give you some more thoughts on the margin. I would say how to think about the whole basket. I would say, clearly, we anticipate our reported net sales to improve to double digits in the second half of the year behind all of the activity we talked about. Given that we went -- we've gone externally both in treats and more importantly, in dry dog food for -- to get capacity sooner, that obviously helps our service levels, external capacity doesn't tend to be as profitable. So I wouldn't anticipate our gross margins to rise as proportionately as our sales would rise.

那麼讓我開始吧，然後 Kofi 可以給你更多關於邊緣的想法。我會說如何考慮整個籃子。我想說的是，我們預計下半年我們報告的淨銷售額將在我們談到的所有活動之後提高到兩位數。鑑於我們去了——我們在零食方面和更重要的是在幹狗糧方面都在外部——為了更快地獲得產能，這顯然有助於我們的服務水平，外部產能往往不會那麼有利可圖。因此，我預計我們的毛利率不會像我們的銷售額增長那樣成比例地增長。

But the benefit is that we're getting back, and we're satisfying pet parents sooner. The other thing I would say is that to the extent that we increase advertising in the third quarter, and I think we have some really nice advertising. We're going to increase that double digits in the third quarter. I wouldn't expect our operating profit margin to rise as fast, I mean it should get better, a lot better, but it probably won't rise as fast as the sales growth in the near-term, but that's a choice that we're making. And our choice is to get back to growth first and making sure we can get that flywheel going again.

但好處是我們回來了，我們很快就讓寵物父母滿意了。我要說的另一件事是，我們在第三季度增加了廣告，我認為我們有一些非常好的廣告。我們將在第三季度增加兩位數。我不希望我們的營業利潤率增長那麼快，我的意思是它應該變得更好，更好，但它可能不會像近期的銷售增長那樣快，但這是我們的一個選擇正在製作。我們的選擇是首先恢復增長，並確保我們能夠讓飛輪再次運轉。

So Kofi, you want to add any color to that?

那麼 Kofi，你想給它添加任何顏色嗎？

Yes. And that said, we do expect profit growth on our pet business in the back half of fiscal '23. Some of the key things you'll see is we'll expect price/mix to catch up with inflation. We've got another effectively round of pricing coming through at the beginning of calendar year '23. We don't expect the pressure on supply chain to be as acute. So we won't see as much sort of drag from other cost of goods sold.

是的。也就是說，我們確實預計 23 財年下半年寵物業務的利潤將增長。您將看到的一些關鍵事項是我們預計價格/組合會趕上通貨膨脹。我們在 23 日曆年年初進行了另一輪有效的定價。我們預計供應鏈的壓力不會那麼嚴重。因此，我們不會看到其他商品銷售成本的拖累。

And of course, we're not expecting the inventory depletion and the pressure that and deleverage that comes with that headwind. So as a result, we would expect our second half top line growth should give us still a solid profit growth even if it's slightly behind the top line growth.

當然，我們並不期望庫存枯竭以及隨之而來的逆風帶來的壓力和去槓桿化。因此，我們預計下半年的營收增長應該會給我們帶來穩健的利潤增長，即使它略微落後於營收增長。

Our next question comes from Max Gumport with BNP Paribas.

我們的下一個問題來自法國巴黎銀行的 Max Gumport。

Thanks for the question, and happy holidays. And going -- sticking with pet, you just mentioned another round of pricing you expect to come online in CY '23, I believe, and there's a narrative that the pet food industry in the U.S. could be on the horizon of getting more competitive due to potential supply/demand imbalances. I'm wondering if you can provide any color on what you're seeing on that front?

感謝您的提問，祝您節日快樂。繼續 - 堅持寵物，你剛剛提到了你希望在 CY '23 上線的另一輪定價，我相信，並且有一種說法是美國的寵物食品行業可能會變得更具競爭力，因為潛在的供需失衡。我想知道你是否可以提供你在前面看到的任何顏色？

Yes, Max, thanks for the question. As we -- when you say more competitive, first of all, I would say that pet category is always competitive. There are a lot of great competitors in the category. Having said that, I suppose the question comes down to, you're talking about price competitive or something like that. What I would say is that we continue to see the premium end of the category growth. And we see Blue Buffalo is [present] life protection formula, again, continue to accelerate once we get supply back online.

是的，Max，謝謝你的提問。正如我們——當你說更具競爭力時，首先，我會說寵物類別總是具有競爭力。該類別中有很多強大的競爭對手。話雖如此，我想問題歸結為，你在談論價格競爭力或類似的東西。我要說的是，我們繼續看到高端類別的增長。我們看到 Blue Buffalo 是 [目前] 生命保護配方，一旦我們恢復供應，它就會繼續加速。

And in general, we see the premium part of the category doing quite well. And it's a category that really lends itself is a fairly inelastic category. And that's because pet parents really, really care about what they feed their pets. And so I don't anticipate between the nature of the category and the fact that we're still seeing inflation. Our inflation for the company in the back half of the year will be up double digits. And so it's not as if we're answering into a deflationary environment. We're all still making -- we're all still kind of recovering service levels.

總的來說，我們看到該類別的高端部分錶現相當不錯。這是一個真正適合自己的類別，是一個相當缺乏彈性的類別。那是因為寵物父母真的非常關心他們餵養寵物的東西。因此，我預計該類別的性質與我們仍在看到通貨膨脹的事實之間存在差異。我們公司下半年的通貨膨脹率將上升兩位數。因此，我們並不是在應對通縮環境。我們都還在做——我們都在恢復服務水平。

So the supply chain, we're not in an overcapacity situation. Supply chains are still have some catching up to do. So because we see inflation, because of the nature of the consumer, because of the nature of the supply chain, even though it's always a competitive category, I wouldn't see it getting more competitive in terms of pricing in the near-term only because of all of those factors.

所以供應鏈，我們沒有處於產能過剩的情況。供應鏈仍有一些工作要做。因此，由於我們看到了通貨膨脹，由於消費者的性質，由於供應鏈的性質，儘管它始終是一個競爭類別，但我認為它不會僅在短期內在定價方面變得更具競爭力因為所有這些因素。

Great. And one follow-up. So you mentioned that you expect the price elasticities to remain below historical levels during the remainder of FY '23 and also that there particularly benign in North America retail. I'm wondering what you're seeing on this front in your international businesses, particularly European Cereal as we've heard some commentary of a return to normal levels of elasticities in those markets from other industry participants.

偉大的。和一個後續行動。因此，您提到您預計在 23 財年的剩餘時間裡價格彈性將保持在歷史水平以下，而且北美零售業的彈性尤其良性。我想知道您在國際業務中看到了什麼，尤其是歐洲穀物，因為我們從其他行業參與者那裡聽到了一些關於這些市場彈性恢復到正常水平的評論。

Yes. I guess I would say, in general, not commenting on cereal specifically, I guess, but in general on Europe. First of all, we say the economic situation in Europe is more challenging than it is here, particularly driven by energy prices and unemployment, that's a little bit higher than it is in the U.S. So I would start with that.

是的。我想我會說，總的來說，我想不是專門評論穀物，而是一般評論歐洲。首先，我們說歐洲的經濟形勢比這裡更具挑戰性，特別是受到能源價格和失業率的推動，這比美國要高一點。所以我會從這個開始。

The second, I would say, is that elasticities in Europe tend to be a little bit higher than they are in the U.S. normally, and we're seeing that in this environment as well. And that kind of plays itself out [across] categories. And so whether it's cereal or bars or ice cream. So we -- so I would say the situation in Europe is a little more challenging than it is here, but it really has to do with a combination of macroeconomic backdrop, combined with elasticities in general, tend to be a little higher. But I would say directionally, we're seeing the same kinds of things there that we see here.

第二，我想說的是，歐洲的彈性往往比美國通常高一點，我們在這種環境中也看到了這一點。這種情況在[跨]類別中發揮作用。因此，無論是麥片、酒吧還是冰淇淋。所以我們 - 所以我想說歐洲的情況比這裡更具挑戰性，但這確實與宏觀經濟背景以及總體彈性相結合，往往更高一些。但我會定向地說，我們在那裡看到的東西和我們在這裡看到的是一樣的。

Our next question comes from Robert Moskow with Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Robert Moskow。

You mentioned some new pricing actions in pet. Do you expect to take more pricing actions in North America retail as well? The public comments from the grocers sound increasingly concerned about higher pricing and the impact on their consumers. So I wanted to know if there's any blowback on that.

你提到了 pet 的一些新定價行為。您是否希望在北美零售業也採取更多定價行動？雜貨商的公眾評論聽起來越來越擔心價格上漲及其對消費者的影響。所以我想知道這是否有任何反吹。

And then also, in the past, there's been unusual deloading in January by some retailers to protect balance sheets. I think you mentioned it here today. Do you see any risk of that happening as well?

然後，在過去，一些零售商在 1 月份不尋常地減產以保護資產負債表。我想你今天在這裡提到了它。您是否也看到發生這種情況的任何風險？

So Rob, I would say as it relates to pricing, I mean, we've announced some pricing on pet. So we've announced that to our retail customers already to take effect, I think, February 1. So we've announced that already. In terms of -- but I will also remind you that when we started the year, we said that for most of this fiscal year, we've taken most of the pricing that we need to take in the market already for this fiscal year. So that also remains true.

所以 Rob，我想說這與定價有關，我的意思是，我們已經宣布了一些寵物定價。所以我們已經向我們的零售客戶宣布，我想是在 2 月 1 日生效。所以我們已經宣布了。就-但我也會提醒你，當我們開始這一年時，我們說過在本財政年度的大部分時間裡，我們已經採取了本財政年度我們需要在市場上採取的大部分定價。所以這也是正確的。

But I will also say in the back half of the year, we're expecting double-digit inflation. So it's not as -- it may decelerate from where it is now, but then decelerating to double digits is not exactly zero. And even as we look across a longer horizon, I don't want to play Nostradamus with inflation rates. What I will say, though, is even looking out past 6 months, it's pretty clear to us that we'll still see an inflationary environment. It may or may not be as robust as it is now, but it will still be an inflationary environment, driven quite a bit by wage increases. So it's hard for us to see an environment where we don't see inflation.

但我還要說，在今年下半年，我們預計會出現兩位數的通貨膨脹。所以它不是——它可能會從現在的位置減速，但然後減速到兩位數並不完全是零。即使我們放眼更長遠，我也不想在通貨膨脹率問題上玩諾查丹瑪斯。不過，我要說的是，即使展望過去 6 個月，我們也很清楚，我們仍將看到通脹環境。它可能會像現在這樣強勁，也可能不會像現在這樣強勁，但它仍將是一個通貨膨脹的環境，這在很大程度上是由工資增長驅動的。所以我們很難看到沒有通脹的環境。

Even if that inflation -- those inflationary levels may not be exactly what we've experienced over the last 6 months. And so as we look at our business, we'll continue to look at pricing. But the key is that the pricing has to be justified. And which has always been the case. But it has to be justified based on the cost that we're seeing. And we find with our retail customers if we can justify the cost that we're seeing and that they know that we're investing in the growth of our categories, which we are through double-digit consumer spending increases, launches like minis and cereal and like the innovation we have in Pillsbury and Blue Buffalo, then the conversations are a lot more productive than otherwise.

即使通貨膨脹——那些通貨膨脹水平可能不完全是我們在過去 6 個月中所經歷的。因此，當我們審視我們的業務時，我們將繼續關注定價。但關鍵是定價必須合理。一直都是這樣。但它必鬚根據我們看到的成本來證明是合理的。我們與零售客戶一起發現，如果我們能夠證明我們所看到的成本是合理的，並且他們知道我們正在投資於我們類別的增長，我們通過兩位數的消費者支出增長，迷你和穀物等推出就像我們在 Pillsbury 和 Blue Buffalo 的創新一樣，對話比其他方式更有成效。

So that's, I guess, what it was a long-winded answer to a fairly straightforward question on pricing. With regard to retailer inventories, I would say we have seen a little bit less retail inventory because of this inflationary environment. But I would say as we look forward, we've probably seen -- I wouldn't -- I don't think that's a risk to our go forward either on Blue Buffalo or our business in general. So that's kind of some generalities.

所以，我想，這是對一個相當簡單的定價問題的冗長回答。關於零售商庫存，我想說由於這種通脹環境，我們看到零售庫存有所減少。但我會說，當我們展望未來時，我們可能已經看到——我不會——我認為這不會對我們在 Blue Buffalo 或我們的整體業務上的發展構成風險。所以這是一些普遍性。

Jon Nudi, anything you want to add to that?

Jon Nudi，你想補充什麼嗎？

No, I think you hit it. I would just say that our SRM capability is something I'd point to is much more sophisticated than it was a few years ago. So as inflation continues to come, we'll leverage the entire toolbox. So it's not just list pricing, it's promotional optimization and mix and pack price architecture. And by leveraging all those tools, we believe that we'll be able to combat inflation as we move forward as well.

不，我想你中了它。我只想說，我要指出的是，我們的 SRM 能力比幾年前要復雜得多。因此，隨著通貨膨脹繼續到來，我們將利用整個工具箱。所以這不僅僅是定價，它是促銷優化以及混合和包裝價格架構。通過利用所有這些工具，我們相信我們也能夠在前進的同時對抗通貨膨脹。

And in terms of retailers, as Jeff mentioned, I mean, is pricing has never been easy. And even over the last couple of years that we've seen significant inflation. But if we can bring in a strong market basket story, we have had success moving pricing through the market.

就零售商而言，正如傑夫提到的那樣，我的意思是，定價從來都不是一件容易的事。甚至在過去幾年中，我們也看到了嚴重的通貨膨脹。但是，如果我們能夠引入一個強大的市場籃子故事，我們就已經成功地通過市場推動定價。

Can I ask a follow-up? In the past, have you been able to go to retailers and show labor inflation internally and use that as a rationale for raising price. It seems like that's something new.

我可以問後續嗎？過去，您是否能夠去零售商那裡展示內部勞動力通脹，並將其作為提價的理由。好像這是個新鮮事。

Yes, Rob, I think the scale of the inflation is different today, right? So we're seeing a double-digit inflation. And historically, over the last decade or so, we haven't seen a lot of inflation has been low single digits. So it really hasn't been a conversation because there really hasn't been enough inflation to take significant action. I think with the scale of the inflation we're seeing today and the sophistication, as I mentioned as well, we're able to really break down where we're seeing inflation and some things are starting to moderate. But at the same time, you're seeing things like labor, certainly, sprout remains sticky, and it's in the equation.

是的，羅布，我認為今天的通貨膨脹規模不同，對吧？所以我們看到了兩位數的通貨膨脹。從歷史上看，在過去十年左右的時間裡，我們沒有看到很多通貨膨脹率都處於低個位數。所以這真的不是一場對話，因為確實沒有足夠的通貨膨脹來採取重大行動。我認為，隨著我們今天看到的通貨膨脹的規模和復雜性，正如我也提到的那樣，我們能夠真正打破我們看到通貨膨脹的地方，有些事情開始緩和。但與此同時，你會看到諸如分娩之類的事情，當然，發芽仍然很粘，而且在等式中。

And we've gotten more sophisticated but our retailers have as well. So again, I think we have really good constructive conversations that are really based on facts at this point.

我們變得更加成熟，但我們的零售商也一樣。因此，我認為我們在這一點上進行了真正基於事實的非常好的建設性對話。

Rob, or where we see that impacting us is not so much our own labor, but it's the labor at our suppliers, which translates through their pricing to us. So yes, there's labor inflation in our own facilities, et cetera, but the much bigger aspect of labor is upstream at the supplier base.

Rob，或者我們看到影響我們的地方與其說是我們自己的勞動，不如說是我們供應商的勞動，通過他們的定價轉化為我們。所以是的，我們自己的設施中存在勞動力膨脹等等，但更大的勞動力方面是在供應商基地的上游。

Our next question comes from Michael Lavery with Piper Sandler.

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

I just wanted to come back to the elasticities and maybe understand a couple of things better. You say you don't expect to sort of revert to more normal levels over the second half. I guess -- or just at least over the year? And is that just because half the year is done? Or what are you seeing something different maybe structurally what -- what's driving that expectation? And what would you consider a more normal level to be?

我只是想回到彈性，也許可以更好地理解一些事情。你說你不希望在下半場恢復到更正常的水平。我猜——或者至少在一年內？那隻是因為半年結束了嗎？或者你看到了什麼不同的東西，也許在結構上是什麼 - 是什麼推動了這種期望？您認為更正常的水平是多少？

I think what drives our assumption, Michael and [Frank] look is an assumption is that we still see the conditions for inelasticity -- relative inelasticity, not complete inelasticity, but relative inelasticity in the marketplace. And those conditions are a continuation of inflation. And even if they're not what we experienced in the first half, they're still double digit.

我認為推動我們假設的因素，Michael 和 [Frank] 看起來是一個假設，即我們仍然看到缺乏彈性的條件——相對缺乏彈性，不是完全缺乏彈性，而是市場中的相對缺乏彈性。這些情況是通貨膨脹的延續。即使他們不是我們在上半場所經歷的，他們仍然是兩位數。

The second is supply chain, the supply chain still having supply chain disruptions. Again, our service level is in the high 80s. So that's certainly a lot better than they were a year ago, which were they were in the 70s, but it's certainly not at 98% either. So a continuation of supply chain challenges. And also, consumers to be under pressure. In fact, it's highly possible consumers will be under more pressure over the next 6 months. And when that happens, consumers tend to eat at home more rather than eat out more. And so -- it's very possible we'll see -- continue to see trading into food eaten at home.

第二個是供應鏈，供應鏈仍然存在供應鏈中斷。同樣，我們的服務水平處於 80 年代的高水平。所以這肯定比一年前好很多，那是他們在 70 年代的時候，但肯定也沒有達到 98%。因此，供應鏈挑戰的延續。而且，消費者也承受著壓力。事實上，消費者很可能在未來 6 個月內承受更大的壓力。當這種情況發生時，消費者往往會更多地在家用餐，而不是外出就餐。因此——我們很可能會看到——繼續看到在家裡吃的食物進行交易。

So those are the factors that we see and drive our assumptions that there won't be a significant change in elasticities over the next 6 months. But look, those are the assumptions based on what we see right now.

因此，這些是我們看到並推動我們假設彈性在未來 6 個月內不會發生重大變化的因素。但是看，這些是基於我們現在所見的假設。

Okay. Great. That's helpful. And I know China is fairly small, but just would love to get an update on maybe what you're seeing there. Obviously, in the second quarter, there were some of the lockdown, I guess, pressure or the -- certainly, food service challenges from those restrictions. As it's kind of evolving there, any update on the latest of what you're seeing in China and how we should think about that?

好的。偉大的。這很有幫助。我知道中國相當小，但很想了解您在那裡看到的最新情況。顯然，在第二季度，我猜有一些封鎖壓力，或者——當然，這些限制帶來的食品服務挑戰。隨著它在那裡的發展，關於你在中國看到的最新情況的任何更新以及我們應該如何考慮？

Well, there's been a fairly significant policy change by the Chinese government on COVID and Zero COVID. And it's going to be a ride, I think, for the next few months because we've had a population that's gone from relatively no COVID to quite a bit of COVID in the marketplace. And so that now people on lockdown as much. But I think when you have as much COVID as they have, we'll see not as many people venturing out, which is very good for our Wanchai Ferry dumpling business, which is half of our business and not as good for our Haagen-Dazs business.

好吧，中國政府在 COVID 和零 COVID 方面發生了相當重大的政策變化。我認為，在接下來的幾個月裡，這將是一段旅程，因為我們的人口從相對沒有 COVID 到市場上有相當多的 COVID。因此，現在人們也同樣處於封鎖狀態。但我認為當你有像他們一樣多的 COVID 時，我們會看到沒有那麼多人冒險出去，這對我們的灣仔小輪餃子業務非常有利，它占我們業務的一半，但對我們的哈根達斯來說卻沒有那麼好商業。

And so I want to think about that business over the next few months, I think it's going to be a wild ride. But I would think that our dumpling business will do quite well. And our Haagen-Dazs business will maybe be a little bit more challenging over the next few months, but they're about equal in size.

所以我想在接下來的幾個月裡考慮這項業務，我認為這將是一段瘋狂的旅程。但我認為我們的餃子生意會做得很好。在接下來的幾個月裡，我們的哈根達斯業務可能會更具挑戰性，但它們的規模大致相當。

Since they pivoted on policy, they've conveniently stopped giving information on case counts. But so I guess, yes, it -- is it pretty chaotic there? I mean, I guess we're just in for a few months of some uncertainty, but it sounds like you're positioned while (inaudible) started that pretty well.

由於他們以政策為中心，他們很方便地停止提供有關案件數量的信息。但我想，是的，那裡很混亂嗎？我的意思是，我想我們只是經歷了幾個月的不確定性，但聽起來你的定位很好，而（聽不清）開始得很好。

I think so. I think in the grand scheme, it won't be material for General Mills, the shift from one to another. It may be a little more material for our Chinese market, but it won't be for the company in aggregate. In terms of the case counts, I don't know, but they're clearly going up, and they're going up, they're going up rapidly for the moment.

我認同。我認為在宏偉的計劃中，從一個到另一個的轉變對通用磨坊來說並不重要。對於我們的中國市場來說，它可能會更重要一些，但對於公司而言，它不會是整體的。就案件數量而言，我不知道，但它們顯然在上升，而且還在上升，目前正在迅速上升。

Our next question comes from Pamela Kaufman with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Pamela Kaufman。

I wanted to come back to the Pet segment. And just to revisit what gives you confidence that you can return to double-digit growth in pet in the second half of the year? And can you decompose how you're thinking about the drivers of that growth? I mean, can you grow volumes with the capacity that you've secured? Or do you expect volumes to continue to decline with the growth driven predominantly by the pricing?

我想回到寵物部分。只是回顧一下是什麼讓您有信心在今年下半年寵物業務恢復兩位數增長？你能分解一下你是如何看待這種增長的驅動因素的嗎？我的意思是，您能否利用已獲得的容量來增加容量？還是您預計銷量會隨著主要由定價驅動的增長而繼續下降？

So the -- so Pam, what gives me confidence are a combination of factors. And I think the key -- the first key factor is the restoration of our supply chain and of our capacity. And this particularly important in our treats area. And -- but it's also important for dry dog food and cat food as well. But I would start with treats and then go to dry dog and cat food. So the first piece of confidence is that we've -- we have gained enough capacity to actually to be able to grow volumes in the second half of the year on both of those platforms. And so that's the first piece.

所以 - 所以帕姆，給我信心的是多種因素的結合。我認為關鍵 - 第一個關鍵因素是恢復我們的供應鍊和我們的能力。這在我們的零食區尤為重要。而且——但它對乾狗糧和貓糧也很重要。但我會先吃零食，然後再吃乾狗糧和貓糧。因此，第一個信心是我們已經 - 我們已經獲得了足夠的能力，實際上能夠在今年下半年在這兩個平台上增加銷量。這就是第一部分。

The second, though, then it has to be backed up by good marketing. I feel really good about our innovation, really good about what we're doing on the Wilderness brand, I feel good about our change to Tastefuls and cat dry food. I feel very good about our partnerships with our retail customers to get our treats business kick started again. We have great products on treats. We've rebranded a lot of what we had bought from Tyson to Blue Buffalo. And so the branding is really good. We've got good programs with our retail customers. So I feel good about our ability to drive our treats business. And then we're going to increase our brand building by double digits.

其次，它必須得到良好營銷的支持。我對我們的創新感覺非常好，對我們在 Wilderness 品牌上所做的事情非常滿意，我對我們對 Tastefuls 和貓乾糧的改變感覺很好。我對我們與零售客戶的合作夥伴關係感到非常滿意，以重新啟動我們的零食業務。我們有很棒的零食產品。我們已經將很多從泰森購買的產品重新命名為 Blue Buffalo。所以品牌真的很好。我們與零售客戶有很好的計劃。因此，我對我們推動零食業務的能力感到滿意。然後我們將以兩位數的速度增加我們的品牌建設。

And we've actually already seen a return to volume growth on Life Protection Formula, and we didn't have innovation on that. We didn't have advertising increases on that. All we had a supply. So I feel like the key is supply and then building on top of that really good innovation, strong in-store execution on treats and good advertising at good levels on top of that, that gives me quite a bit of confidence that we'll be able to turn around the Blue Buffalo business in short order.

事實上，我們已經看到 Life Protection Formula 的銷量恢復增長，而我們在這方面沒有創新。我們沒有為此增加廣告。我們都有供應。所以我覺得關鍵是供應，然後在真正好的創新、強大的店內執行和良好的廣告水平之上，這給了我很大的信心，我們會能夠在短期內扭轉 Blue Buffalo 的業務。

And as we've seen through this whole time, even though our second quarter was not what we wanted and not what you all expected, the brand remains really good. And we've done a lot of brand -- a lot of brand testing. The brand remains really good. The trends towards humanization are really good. So the tailwinds in the category are still there for us behind a good brand and increased supply and marketing.

正如我們一直以來所看到的那樣，儘管我們的第二季度不是我們想要的，也不是你們所有人所期望的，但該品牌仍然非常好。我們做了很多品牌——很多品牌測試。這個品牌仍然非常好。人性化的趨勢真的很好。因此，在良好的品牌和增加的供應和營銷背後，該類別的順風仍然存在。

That's helpful. And you pointed to a lot of innovation that's coming within the Pet segment. Is there anything in particular that prompted your plans to step up innovation or were these initiatives already in the works? And how should we think about the margin impact of the innovation? You mentioned you're adding more meat to Wilderness. How are you planning to offset these costs? And what is the margin profile versus the existing portfolio?

這很有幫助。你指出了寵物領域的許多創新。有什麼特別的事情促使您計劃加強創新，或者這些舉措是否已經在進行中？我們應該如何考慮創新的邊際影響？你提到你正在為荒野添加更多的肉。您打算如何抵消這些成本？與現有投資組合相比，利潤率是多少？

Well, I would say on the innovation front, we've been we've had innovation that we've been willing to put in the marketplace for some time. But obviously, we haven't been able to supply the base business were 1 or 2. So adding innovation on top of that is probably not a good idea. In fact, I think the people listening should take a sign of confidence that we can supply our business better because we're bringing this innovation to the market -- marketplace. And we certainly wouldn't do that if we didn't think we could supply it. That would be my first point of innovation. So we've had this plan for a while.

好吧，我想說在創新方面，我們已經有了我們願意投入市場一段時間的創新。但顯然，我們無法提供 1 或 2 個基礎業務。因此在此基礎上添加創新可能不是一個好主意。事實上，我認為聽眾應該表現出信心，我們可以更好地提供我們的業務，因為我們正在將這種創新推向市場——市場。如果我們認為我們無法提供，我們當然不會這樣做。那將是我的第一個創新點。所以我們已經有了這個計劃一段時間了。

When it comes to the product renovations themselves, I mean, Wilderness is a high-priced, high-margin business. And so to the extent that the pet parents want more meat in the product, which they do, and we're giving that to them. That's to do wonders for our margin profile. In fact, I would tell you the most important thing that we can do to enhance our margins in pet is to grow [pounds]. And so to the extent that we have the supply and the news on a high price, high-margin brand, that should be just what the doctor ordered for the margins for the pet business.

談到產品翻新本身，我的意思是，Wilderness 是一項高價、高利潤的業務。因此，寵物父母希望在產品中加入更多的肉，他們確實這樣做了，而我們正在為他們提供。這對我們的利潤率狀況來說是奇蹟。事實上，我會告訴你，我們可以做的最重要的事情就是增加寵物的利潤，增加[磅]。因此，就我們擁有高價格、高利潤品牌的供應和新聞而言，這應該正是醫生為寵物業務的利潤所訂購的。

Our next question comes from Chris Growe with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Chris Growe。

Good morning. I want to start first, if I could, with a question on the gross margin, perhaps for Kofi, but just to understand, the sequential change in the gross margin from 1Q. And again, your gross margin was up nicely year-over-year, and that's been quite unique in the industry. I just want to get a sense of any factors that are worth considering that occurred sequentially. And obviously, the 1 that stands out, I think, would be around Pet. Was that 1 of the sequential drivers of the softer gross margin absolute performance or any other factors that are worth noting there, if you could, please?

早上好。如果可以的話，我想先問一個關於毛利率的問題，也許是針對 Kofi，但只是為了了解，從第一季度開始毛利率的連續變化。再一次，你們的毛利率同比增長很好，這在業內是獨一無二的。我只想了解按順序發生的任何值得考慮的因素。顯然，我認為最突出的 1 將圍繞 Pet。如果可以的話，那是毛利率絕對錶現疲軟的連續驅動因素之一還是其他值得注意的因素？

Sure, Chris. You have the plot. Certainly, Pet is a contributing factor, but there are also some other structural things around mix of our business as we move from Q1 to Q2. We have a lot more volume from businesses such as soup and baking products, which is, as you know, are heavily merchandised in that seasonal window, so those tend to drive us to a structural step-down in margin as we move from Q1 to Q2.

當然，克里斯。你有陰謀。當然，Pet 是一個促成因素，但隨著我們從第一季度轉向第二季度，我們的業務組合還有一些其他結構性因素。我們有更多的業務來自湯和烘焙產品，如您所知，這些產品在那個季節性窗口中大量銷售，因此隨著我們從第一季度到第二季度，這些往往會促使我們的利潤率結構性下降Q2。

And the other factor, as you rightfully noted, was the acute pressure on Pet margins in this quarter.

正如您正確指出的那樣，另一個因素是本季度 Pet 利潤率面臨的巨大壓力。

Okay. And I just had one more follow-up on the Pet profit. And you had indicated that the second quarter would be a little softer. You had some costs related to getting third parties and co-manufacturing ready, some inventory and warehousing costs. I guess I just want to get a sense of this second quarter Pet profit performance was unique. You plan on some of that occurring. So are a lot of those costs then sort of embedded in the business? Do you have any ongoing costs related to the co-manufacturing outside just that's a lower margin way to supply your business?

好的。我剛剛又對寵物利潤進行了一次跟進。你曾表示第二季度會更溫和一些。您有一些與讓第三方和聯合製造準備就緒相關的成本，一些庫存和倉儲成本。我想我只是想了解一下第二季度寵物利潤的表現是獨一無二的。您計劃其中一些發生。那麼，這些成本中有很多會嵌入到業務中嗎？您是否有任何與外部合作製造相關的持續成本，只是這是一種較低利潤的方式來供應您的業務？

Sure. So I would expect some of those costs to be structural for sure as we go forward. We'll have external supply chain costs related to the step-up in volume that we're getting. But not all of those costs will carry forward. Some of these costs were related to disruption and enrollment of additional warehousing capacity in that window. So we would expect in aggregate that the drag from those costs will reduce as we step into Q3 and Q4 for this year, which is part of the reason why we also expect profit growth and profit margin improvement as we step into those quarters.

當然。因此，我希望隨著我們的前進，其中一些成本肯定是結構性的。我們將有與我們獲得的數量增加相關的外部供應鏈成本。但並非所有這些成本都會結轉。其中一些成本與該窗口中額外倉儲容量的中斷和註冊有關。因此，我們預計總體而言，隨著我們今年進入第三季度和第四季度，這些成本的拖累將減少，這也是我們預計進入這些季度時利潤增長和利潤率改善的部分原因。

Our next question comes from David Palmer with Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 David Palmer。

Just another angle on that gross margin question. If we look at this quarter, your gross margin is still down maybe 80, 100 basis points from pre-COVID levels, tons of cross currents there, but I'm wondering how you're thinking about that gap and your ability to get back to pre-COVID levels on gross margin. And the things I'm thinking about are you mentioned the supply chain friction costs but there's going to be maybe be some categories out there where you're going to be pricing to protect profit dollars. And so there's some math going against you. So I'm wondering if you'll need to see some easing in some key commodities in certain categories.

關於毛利率問題的另一個角度。如果我們看一下這個季度，您的毛利率可能仍然比 COVID 之前的水平下降 80、100 個基點，那裡有大量的交叉電流，但我想知道您如何考慮這種差距以及您恢復的能力到 COVID 前的毛利率水平。我正在考慮的事情是你提到了供應鏈摩擦成本，但可能會有一些類別在那裡你要定價以保護利潤美元。所以有一些數學對你不利。所以我想知道你是否需要看到某些類別的一些關鍵商品有所放鬆。

But the other thing I'm also thinking about is you've had some very strong growth in some of your highest margin categories. So I could imagine a scenario that you'd be -- particularly as you're doing as well as you're doing with dough that you could be above past peak as you get past some of these friction costs. So any commentary there would be helpful.

但我也在考慮的另一件事是，你在一些利潤率最高的類別中取得了非常強勁的增長。所以我可以想像你會遇到的一種情況——特別是當你做的和你做的麵團一樣好，當你克服了一些摩擦成本時，你可能會超過過去的峰值。所以那裡的任何評論都會有所幫助。

Sure, sure. I'll try to do justice to your question. So as you think about the path forward, obviously, you hit on the first thing and sort of one of the precedent conditions will be a return to something that is a much more stable and closer to historical level of supply chain disruptions. We're still probably running about 2x our historic levels well off of the peak of 6x to 7x where we were last year, but still enough to be meaningful and significant.

好的好的。我會盡量公正地回答你的問題。因此，當您考慮前進的道路時，顯然，您首先想到的是先決條件之一，即恢復到更穩定、更接近供應鏈中斷歷史水平的狀態。我們的運行速度可能仍然是歷史水平的 2 倍左右，遠低於去年的 6 到 7 倍的峰值，但仍然足夠有意義和重要。

And we would also expect that once we get out of a short supply environment, it will be easier to get at HMM and more fully utilize that lever. And that we would expect some of the pandemic [era] costs related to servicing the business in a more stable environment will become easier and lower. So structurally, we view our job to kind of claw back about 150 basis points of margin versus our sort of pre-pandemic level. I think the stable environment from a supply chain standpoint, will be one of the first and the most important things.

我們還預計，一旦我們擺脫供應短缺的環境，就會更容易進入 HMM 並更充分地利用這一槓桿。而且我們預計與在更穩定的環境中為企業提供服務相關的一些大流行[時代]成本將變得更容易和更低。因此，從結構上講，我們認為我們的工作與大流行前的水平相比可以收回大約 150 個基點的利潤率。我認為從供應鏈的角度來看，穩定的環境將是首要也是最重要的事情之一。

And then second, it will be probably a return to more historic levels of inflation, moderation of inflation, which -- who knows when that's coming. But we're certainly positioning our business to make sure that we're taking the cost out as we -- as we have the opportunity to do so.

其次，它可能會回歸到更具歷史意義的通脹水平，通脹放緩，誰知道它什麼時候會到來。但我們肯定會定位我們的業務，以確保我們在有機會這樣做的時候減少成本。

And just a separate follow-up. You talked about investments in your prepared remarks in digital and other capabilities. Could you just give us a sense about what you think the benefits will be from those investments and when and where we'll see that.

並且只是一個單獨的後續行動。你談到了對你準備好的數字和其他能力的投資。您能否告訴我們您認為這些投資會帶來什麼好處，以及我們將在何時何地看到這些好處。

Sure. So a lot of the focus of our investments in digital and technology to enable our marketing activity and as well our supply chain efficiency. So we'll see benefits both in gross margins, and we would expect to see that deliver on growth. And then I'll ask Jon if he wants to weigh in since we're seeing a lot of investment in our North America retail business.

當然。因此，我們在數字和技術方面的投資重點是支持我們的營銷活動以及我們的供應鏈效率。因此，我們將在毛利率方面看到收益，並且我們希望看到這會帶來增長。然後我會問喬恩，他是否想參與進來，因為我們看到了對北美零售業務的大量投資。

Yes, absolutely. So as Kofi mentioned, supply chain is a big focus and there's a lot of opportunity for efficiency there. Now on the marketing side is really something we call connected commerce, and it's really the funnel -- the top of the funnel is how we generate demand and in a digital world, more and more of our marketing is becoming digital marketing, performance-based marketing. So we've invested heavily to acquire first-party data and really make sure that we have a strong marketing engagement platform that we can then serve up relevant messaging at scale and really customized for our consumers, we're seeing really incredible returns from that.

是的，一點沒錯。因此，正如 Kofi 提到的那樣，供應鍊是一個重點，那裡有很多提高效率的機會。現在在營銷方面，我們稱之為互聯商務，它實際上是漏斗——漏斗的頂部是我們如何產生需求，在數字世界中，我們越來越多的營銷正在變成基於績效的數字營銷營銷。因此，我們投入了大量資金來獲取第一方數據，並真正確保我們擁有一個強大的營銷參與平台，然後我們可以大規模地提供相關消息，並真正為我們的消費者量身定制，我們從中看到了令人難以置信的回報.

Further down the funnel, at the bottom was actually the transaction that we're kind of ambivalent whether it's in-store or online. The margins are the same. We actually over-index from a share standpoint online. But we've developed quite a few digital tools to really understand the digital shelf. We grew up in a world that a bricks-and-mortar world that we understand Nielsen and the drivers of our business. Digital is different, right? So we had to develop the dashboards for our team to really look at the metrics that matter, make sure the digital shelf is correct, make sure that our search metrics where they needed to be.

在漏斗的更下方，底部實際上是交易，我們對它是在店內還是在網上有點矛盾。邊距是一樣的。實際上，從在線共享的角度來看，我們的指數過高。但是我們已經開發了很多數字工具來真正了解數字貨架。我們在一個我們了解尼爾森和我們業務驅動因素的實體世界中長大。數字是不同的，對吧？因此，我們必須為我們的團隊開發儀表板，以真正查看重要的指標，確保數字貨架是正確的，確保我們的搜索指標在他們需要的地方。

And a lot of that is now digitized. It's on our leaders, computers every day in a dashboard form, and they're making real-time adjustments to the business. So I think you're seeing it actually translate into strong performance in the market today, and will continue to become even more sophisticated as we move forward and continue to invest in this capability.

其中很多現在已經數字化了。它每天都以儀表板的形式出現在我們的領導者和計算機上，他們正在對業務進行實時調整。所以我認為你看到它實際上轉化為當今市場的強勁表現，並且隨著我們前進並繼續投資於這種能力，它將繼續變得更加複雜。

Our next question comes from Cody Ross with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Cody Ross。

Can you just clarify or quantify how much the retailer inventory reduction was in Pet this quarter? And then also, I apologize if I missed it, which channels or retailers was the inventory reduction in?

您能否澄清或量化本季度 Pet 的零售商庫存減少量？然後，如果我錯過了，我很抱歉，庫存減少是在哪些渠道或零售商？

I'll answer the first part of that question for you. The second one, I'll take a polite pass. But the -- on the first part, our retail sales, Cody, were about -- up about 8% during the quarter, and our reported net sales were flat. And so the difference between that 8 percentage points was a reduction in retailer inventory for the variety of reasons that I stated earlier. In terms of which customers and retail, I'm not going to get into a customer-by-customer kind of dissection of that.

我會為你回答這個問題的第一部分。第二個，我會禮貌地通過。但在第一部分，我們的零售額 Cody 在本季度增長了約 8%，而我們報告的淨銷售額持平。因此，由於我之前提到的各種原因，這 8 個百分點之間的差異是零售商庫存減少。就哪些客戶和零售而言，我不會逐個客戶地進行剖析。

Understood. And then you mentioned in your prepared remarks adding capacity in fruit snacks and in pet treats and dog food. Can you just discuss holistically across your business? How much capacity you are adding? And can you walk us through the planning and analysis that is done to determine which categories that you choose to add more capacity in?

明白了。然後你在準備好的評論中提到增加水果零食、寵物零食和狗糧的容量。您能否就您的業務進行整體討論？您要添加多少容量？您能否向我們介紹一下為確定您選擇在哪些類別中添加更多容量而進行的規劃和分析？

Yes. From a high level, I mean the what I would tell you, the best returns that we can generate as a company are adding capacity on platforms that we already know and that are already growing. And the litmus test for me is that if they're growing before the pandemic and they're growing during the pandemic make the chances they grow after a pandemic are quite a bit higher. And you see that in our Pet food business. You see that in Fruit Snacks. You see that in Totino's, you see that in Old El Paso. And so we have a variety of businesses. You've seen that in our Cereal business. And so we have a variety of businesses that we've seen continued growth, and we've run out of capacity.

是的。從高層次上講，我的意思是我要告訴你的是，作為一家公司，我們可以產生的最佳回報是在我們已經知道並且已經在增長的平台上增加容量。對我來說，試金石是，如果它們在大流行之前生長並且在大流行期間生長，那麼它們在大流行之後生長的機會要高得多。你在我們的寵物食品業務中看到了這一點。你在水果零食中看到了這一點。你在 Totino's 看到了這一點，你在 Old El Paso 看到了這一點。所以我們有各種各樣的業務。您已經在我們的穀物業務中看到了這一點。因此，我們有各種各樣的業務持續增長，而且我們的產能已經耗盡。

And frankly, as soon as we've generated capacity, I think Fruit Snacks is a good example. We've added capacity and you will probably need more given the high level of demand. So that's kind of how we look at it. We make sure that all of these growth investments are value enhancing for our shareholders. But to the extent there are growth businesses and they are good margin businesses and all of the above or meet that criteria, then we're more than happy to invest in our own internal capacity.

坦率地說，一旦我們產生了能力，我認為 Fruit Snacks 就是一個很好的例子。我們增加了容量，鑑於高水平的需求，您可能需要更多容量。所以這就是我們的看法。我們確保所有這些增長投資都能為我們的股東增值。但是，如果有成長型企業，它們是利潤豐厚的企業，並且滿足上述所有條件或符合該標準，那麼我們非常樂意投資於我們自己的內部能力。

Okay. I think that's all the time we have for this morning. So Kelly, I think we can go ahead and wrap up. Thanks, everyone, for the time and the good questions, and happy holidays to everyone.

好的。我想這就是我們今天早上的所有時間。所以凱利，我想我們可以繼續並結束了。謝謝大家抽出寶貴的時間和提出好的問題，祝大家節日快樂。

Thank you. That does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation, and we ask that you please disconnect your lines.

謝謝你。這確實結束了今天的電話會議。我們感謝您的參與，我們請求您斷開您的線路。