Grocery Outlet Holding Corp (GO) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings and welcome to the Grocery Outlet Q4 and full-year 2024 earnings results conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorde

問候並歡迎參加 Grocery Outlet 2024 年第四季和全年收益結果電話會議。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次會議正在錄製中

d. It is now my pleasure to introduce you to your host, Christine Chen, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you, Christine. You may begin.

d.現在我很高興向你們介紹主持人、投資者關係總監 Christine Chen。謝謝你，克里斯汀。你可以開始了。

Good afternoon and welcome to Grocery Outlet's call to discuss financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 28, 2024. Speaking from management on today's call will be Eric Lindberg, Chairman of the Board; Jason Potter, President and Chief Executive Officer; Chris Miller, Chief Financial Officer; and Dorian Bertsch, SVP of Strategy and Finance.

下午好，歡迎參加 Grocery Outlet 的電話會議，討論截至 2024 年 12 月 28 日的第四季度和財政年度的財務業績。在今天的電話會議上，管理層發言者是董事會主席 Eric Lindberg；傑森·波特（Jason Potter），總裁兼首席執行官；克里斯·米勒 (Chris Miller)，首席財務官；以及戰略和財務高級副總裁 Dorian Bertsch。

Following prepared remarks from Eric, Jason, and Chris, we will open the call for questions. Please note that this conference call is being webcast live and the recording will be available via telephone playback on the Investor Relations section of the company's website. Participants on this call may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities Law.

在 Eric、Jason 和 Chris 發表準備好的發言後，我們將開始提問。請注意，本次電話會議將進行網路直播，錄音可透過公司網站投資者關係部分的電話重播取得。本次電話會議的參與者可以根據《聯邦證券法》做出前瞻性陳述。

All statements that address future operating financial or business performance or the company's strategies or expectations are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. Description of these factors can be found in this afternoon's press release, as well as in the company's periodic reports filed with the SEC, all of which may be found on the Investor Relations section of the company's website or on SEC.gov.

所有涉及未來經營財務或業務表現或公司策略或預期的陳述均為前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述受各種風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與這些陳述有重大差異。這些因素的描述可以在今天下午的新聞稿以及公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的定期報告中找到，所有這些報告都可以在公司網站的投資者關係部分或SEC.gov上找到。

The company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements or information. These statements are estimates only and not a guarantee of future performance. During today's call, the company will also reference certain non-GAAP financial information, including adjusted items. Reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures, as well as the description, limitations, and rationale for using each measure may be found in the supplemental financial tables included in this afternoon's press release and the company's SEC filing.

該公司不承擔修改或更新任何前瞻性陳述或資訊的義務。這些陳述僅為估計值，並不保證未來的表現。在今天的電話會議上，該公司還將引用某些非 GAAP 財務訊息，包括調整後的項目。在今天下午的新聞稿和該公司提交給美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 的文件中附帶的補充財務表內，可以找到 GAAP 指標與非 GAAP 指標的對照表，以及使用每項指標的描述、限制和理由。

And now I'd like to hand it over to Eric.

現在我想把它交給 Eric。

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We had a solid fourth quarter and are pleased with the progress we're making on our biggest areas of focus. We delivered on key value metrics and were able to generate comps that were above expectations, driven by customer count, demonstrating that our model continues to resonate.

大家下午好，感謝大家的參與。我們的第四季表現穩健，我們對我們最關注的領域所取得的進展感到滿意。我們實現了關鍵價值指標，並能夠產生超出預期的業績，這由客戶數量推動，表明我們的模型繼續產生共鳴。

As you know, Grocery Outlet is known for delivering unbeatable value, a unique treasure hunt experience, and amazing customer service. On the surface, this is a simple business that performs very well when operations are executed properly. Due primarily to our system's conversion, 2024 was a year in which many critical operational elements were out of sync, which was further exacerbated by trying to do too much too fast. But we're working urgently to get back on track.

如您所知，Grocery Outlet 以提供無與倫比的價值、獨特的尋寶體驗和令人驚嘆的客戶服務而聞名。從表面上看，這是一項簡單的業務，如果操作正確執行，其表現會非常好。主要是由於我們系統的轉換，2024 年是許多關鍵營運要素不同步的一年，而試圖在太快地做太多事情進一步加劇了這種情況。但我們正在緊急努力，以重回正軌。

As Interim CEO, my intention was to slow things down; focus on executing the basics really, really well; and to reevaluate some of our strategic initiatives that were impacting our execution. We have made great progress on many fronts, but there's still more work to be done. As we discussed in our last earnings call, my immediate focus was around a few key areas, namely appointing key leaders to take us forward, improving our value proposition, progressing on systems transition work, and reviewing our strategic initiatives and priorities.

作為臨時首席執行官，我的意圖是放慢速度；專注於非常好地執行基本任務；並重新評估一些影響我們執行的策略舉措。我們在許多方面已經取得了巨大進展，但仍有許多工作要做。正如我們在上次財報電話會議上討論的那樣，我當前的重點是幾個關鍵領域，即任命關鍵領導人帶領我們前進，改進我們的價值主張，推進系統轉型工作，以及審查我們的戰略舉措和優先事項。

Let me provide you with a brief update on each one of these. We have put in place a talented and experienced team to drive the mission and vision of the company forward. I'm really excited to welcome Jason Potter as our new CEO. Jason brings over 30 years of experience growing and scaling successful grocery concepts, including franchise-driven models. I spent a lot of time with Jason recently, and his vision, values, and hands-on leadership style align well with our goals and our culture.

讓我向你們簡要介紹一下每個問題的最新進展。我們已組建一支才華橫溢、經驗豐富的團隊來推動公司的使命和願景向前發展。我非常高興歡迎 Jason Potter 擔任我們的新任執行長。Jason 擁有 30 多年發展和擴展成功的雜貨概念（包括特許經營驅動模式）的經驗。我最近花了很多時間與 Jason 在一起，他的願景、價值觀和親力親為的領導風格與我們的目標和文化非常契合。

Since he just started at the beginning of February, he won't have a big role on the call today, but I wanted to take this opportunity to have him introduce himself and say a few words. Jason?

由於他二月初才開始工作，所以在今天的電話會議上他不會扮演重要角色，但我想藉此機會讓他自我介紹一下並說幾句話。傑森？

Thank you, Eric. I'm thrilled to join the team here at the Grocery Outlet. The Grocery Outlet has a unique business model that combines the capability of opportunistic buying at scale with the potential for nimble execution by local independent operators. I was attracted to this business because the Grocery Outlet team has, over many decades, developed this differentiated concept, creating an incredible customer experience that generates that feeling of the thrill of the treasure hunt.

謝謝你，埃里克。我很高興加入 Grocery Outlet 的團隊。Grocery Outlet 擁有獨特的商業模式，將大規模機會性購買的能力與本地獨立業者靈活執行的潛力相結合。我之所以被這項業務吸引，是因為 Grocery Outlet 團隊在過去幾十年中發展出了這一差異化理念，創造了令人難以置信的客戶體驗，讓客戶感受到尋寶的刺激。

We have so much opportunity to grow this business, which creates very exciting opportunities for our team, customers, suppliers, and our shareholders. As Eric has pointed out, while we have some near-term challenges related to systems implementation and new store performance, these challenges are actively being addressed and will be overcome. These challenges and opportunities are familiar territory for me as I've spearheaded multiple turnarounds across many grocery models.

我們有很多機會發展這項業務，這為我們的團隊、客戶、供應商和股東創造了非常令人興奮的機會。正如Eric所指出的，雖然我們在系統實施和新店業績方面面臨一些近期挑戰，但這些挑戰正在積極應對並將被克服。這些挑戰和機會對我來說都是熟悉的領域，因為我已經率先扭轉了許多雜貨模式。

In each case, we were successful in driving sales, profitability, and ultimately returns for all stakeholders by improving collaboration, execution, and the customer experience. Earlier this month, I hit the ground running with the support of the GO Board. We are aligned on the core objective of delivering consistent and disciplined growth. I understand what it takes to lead and scale this business, and I look forward to working with the team, our independent operators, the Board, and our suppliers to maximize the full potential of the Grocery Outlet.

在每種情況下，我們都透過改善協作、執行和客戶體驗，成功地推動了銷售、獲利能力並最終為所有利害關係人帶來回報。本月初，在 GO 董事會的支持下，我開始全力工作。我們的核心目標是實現持續、有序的成長。我了解領導和擴大這項業務需要什麼，我期待與團隊、我們的獨立營運商、董事會和我們的供應商合作，最大限度地發揮雜貨店的潛力。

Thanks, Jason. In addition to Jason, we also welcomed our new CFO and CIO in January. Chris Miller joined as CFO and has over 40 years of finance and accounting experience, including 20 years of public company experience in wholesale and retail industries, with a great track record of delivering on execution and profitability objectives.

謝謝，傑森。除了傑森之外，我們還在一月份迎來了新任財務長和資訊長。克里斯·米勒 (Chris Miller) 加入公司擔任首席財務官，擁有 40 多年的財務和會計經驗，包括 20 年批發和零售行業上市公司經驗，在實現執行和盈利目標方面有著出色的記錄。

Lindsay Gray, who's been serving as our Interim CFO for the company since March of last year, will continue in a role as Senior Vice President, Accounting, and Principal Accounting Officer, which she held prior to and during her appointment as Interim CFO. I'd like to thank Lindsay for stepping up and leading us during a pivotal year for the business, and we are very fortunate to have her continued leadership over our accounting and reporting function moving forward.

Lindsay Gray 自去年 3 月以來一直擔任公司臨時首席財務官，她將繼續擔任會計高級副總裁兼首席會計官一職，在擔任臨時首席財務官之前和期間她一直擔任這些職務。我要感謝 Lindsay 在公司業務的關鍵一年挺身而出並領導我們，我們非常幸運能夠繼續得到她對我們會計和報告職能的領導。

Next is Kumar Mishra. He joined as our CIO and has 25 years of experience in IT leadership, including extensive experience implementing and fixing SAP, and will be instrumental as we continue our systems conversion journey. Most recently, he was the VP of Information Technology at Reynolds Consumer Products and also has worked at Nielsen and the OLAM Group.

接下來是庫馬爾‧米甚拉 (Kumar Mishra)。他加入我們並擔任資訊長，擁有 25 年的 IT 領導經驗，包括實施和修復 SAP 的豐富經驗，並將在我們繼續系統轉換之旅時發揮重要作用。最近，他擔任雷諾消費品公司的資訊科技副總裁，並曾在尼爾森和 OLAM 集團工作。

Now moving on to our value proposition, comparable store sales increased 2.9% in the fourth quarter, driven by a 3% growth in comp count as customers responded to our healthy assortment of WOW! items featuring our deepest discounts. Our value metrics are all improving, and we continue to take advantage of the tremendous availability of opportunistic products that are available in the marketplace.

現在談談我們的價值主張，第四季度同店銷售額增長 2.9％，這得益於同店顧客數量增長 3％，因為顧客對我們健康的 WOW 品種做出了積極的反應！享受我們最大折扣的商品。我們的價值指標都在不斷提高，我們將繼續利用市場上大量的機會性產品。

While we're beginning to see value move in the right direction, we can do more to best communicate our industry-leading value to our customers. Our marketing team is working on a more targeted approach with some exciting new messaging during the first quarter that centers on value and weekly deals. Meanwhile, our operations team is focusing on supporting our IOs with in-store merchandising on items with our deepest value.

當我們開始看到價值朝著正確的方向發展時，我們可以做更多的事情來向客戶最好地傳達我們行業領先的價值。我們的行銷團隊正在製定更有針對性的方法，在第一季推出一些以價值和每週優惠為中心的令人興奮的新訊息。同時，我們的營運團隊正致力於支持我們的IO，對最具我們價值的商品進行店內銷售。

Next, we've made steady progress improving and enhancing base functionality across the business in our operator, our buying, and our back-end finance systems and tools. We have line of sight for enhancing other functionalities that are necessary for our inventory planners and operators to optimize inventory management at both the store and the warehouse level. We have made progress towards launching our upgraded real-time order guide, which we expect to begin phasing in during the second quarter.

接下來，我們在營運商、採購以及後端財務系統和工具等業務的基礎功能改進和增強方面取得了穩步進展。我們致力於增強庫存規劃人員和操作員所需的其他功能，以優化商店和倉庫層面的庫存管理。我們在推出升級版即時訂單指南方面已取得進展，預計將在第二季開始逐步推出。

As I mentioned on the last call, this is the critical merchandising and inventory management tool for our independent operators, and we'll take the right amount of time that it takes to get this working the way it should. In addition, we continue to work on improving the speed and the visibility into key operational data and better reporting. This includes tools for operators to make decisions and manage the business more efficiently, and more automation to resolve back-office inefficiencies. Our new CIO has his team focused on fully delivering all of the functionality that maximizes our efficiency.

正如我在上次電話中提到的，這是我們獨立運營商的關鍵商品銷售和庫存管理工具，我們將花費適當的時間來使其正常運作。此外，我們繼續致力於提高關鍵營運數據的速度和可見度並提供更好的報告。這包括為營運商提供決策和更有效管理業務的工具，以及更多自動化來解決後台效率低下的問題。我們的新任資訊長帶領他的團隊致力於全面提供所有功能，以最大限度地提高我們的效率。

As I mentioned previously, we were trying to do too much, too fast. We implemented a major new system, completed a significant acquisition that increased our store count materially, rapidly expanding into new markets, and we began executing on a capacity-increasing supply chain initiative. We know we have a vast addressable market and tremendous long-term growth opportunities.

正如我之前提到的，我們試圖做的事情太多，而且速度太快。我們實施了一個重要的新系統，完成了一項重大收購，大大增加了我們的商店數量，迅速擴展到新市場，我們開始執行一項增加產能的供應鏈計劃。我們知道我們擁有廣闊的目標市場和巨大的長期成長機會。

To best take advantage, we need to simplify and take a more rigorous and disciplined approach to how we allocate incremental capital. With that in mind, we've been evaluating our recent new store openings, infrastructure, and growth initiatives. This work is ongoing, but I wanted to share a few key areas that we're addressing.

為了最大限度地利用優勢，我們需要簡化並採取更嚴格、更規範的方法來分配增量資本。考慮到這一點，我們一直在評估最近開設的新店、基礎設施和成長計畫。這項工作正在進行中，但我想分享我們正在解決的幾個關鍵領域。

First, we are reassessing our new store opening strategy. We know that when we open a new store in an existing market where we have brand recognition and distribution support in close proximity, these stores typically ramp faster than a store in a less developed new market. For new markets, clustering openings and adjacency to existing markets is important for brand recognition, for marketing, and for operational synergies, all of which contribute to how quickly a new store can ramp.

首先，我們正在重新評估我們的新店開設策略。我們知道，當我們在現有市場開設新店時，如果我們的品牌知名度和分銷支援力度都比較大，那麼這些商店的成長速度通常會比在欠發達的新市場開設商店更快。對於新市場，集中開店和與現有市場的相鄰對於品牌認知、行銷和營運協同效應非常重要，所有這些都有助於新店快速發展。

As we looked at our opening schedule for the next two years, I saw that we were trying to open too many stores and too many new markets, which don't perform as well as existing markets or new adjacent markets. Thus, we are narrowing the focus in our future new store openings to target existing markets and a smaller set of high-priority adjacent new markets, and that will help us improve new store sales productivity and the return on invested capital.

當我們審視未來兩年的開幕計畫時，我發現我們試圖開設太多商店和太多新市場，而這些新市場的表現不如現有市場或新的鄰近市場。因此，我們將未來新店開設的重點縮小到現有市場和一小部分優先順序較高的鄰近新市場，這將有助於我們提高新店銷售效率和投資報酬率。

In addition, a more narrowed focus to new store openings will allow our infrastructure to more effectively support our expansion efforts. Lastly, we have experienced increasing pressure on build-out costs, and while we're focused on ways to value engineer these costs down, it will take us some time to test and achieve a lower-cost store build. Therefore, we believe that it is prudent to approach our new store growth goals at a more disciplined and measured pace, which will allow us to execute better and drive long-term sustainable growth with improving ROIC.

此外，更加關注新店開業將使我們的基礎設施更有效地支持我們的擴張努力。最後，我們面臨越來越大的建設成本壓力，雖然我們專注於透過價值工程降低這些成本的方法，但我們需要一些時間來測試並實現更低成本的商店建設。因此，我們認為以更嚴謹、更有節制的步伐實現新店成長目標是明智之舉，這將使我們能夠更好地執行，並透過提高投資回報率來推動長期可持續成長。

When we last spoke, we had over 50 leases signed for 2025. As a result of our narrowed focus, we expect to open 33 to 35 net new stores in 2025 and exit leases with suboptimal locations, which Chris will discuss a little bit more in detail later. While we are tempering our near-term unit growth expectations, I want to reiterate that we believe our white space remains vast, with the potential to open over 4,000 stores across the United States.

上次我們談話時，我們已經簽署了 50 多份 2025 年的租約。由於我們的關注範圍縮小，我們預計在 2025 年將開設 33 至 35 家新店，並退出位置不太理想的租約，Chris 稍後將更詳細地討論這一點。雖然我們正在調整近期單位成長預期，但我想重申，我們相信我們的空白空間仍然巨大，有潛力在全美開設超過 4,000 家門市。

Next, in terms of supply chain, we've reassessed our infrastructure and taken a closer look at the most efficient and cost-effective way to scale our warehousing and distribution network. In order to support long-term expansion of our business, we need to continue investing in our supply chain. We spent a lot of time looking at the best use of capital to optimize our distribution network and to support our growth and have decided not to pursue an expansion into multi-temperature distribution, which would have added complexity and required a much higher level of capital investment.

接下來，在供應鏈方面，我們重新評估了我們的基礎設施，並仔細研究了擴大倉儲和配送網路的最有效和最具成本效益的方式。為了支持我們業務的長期擴展，我們需要繼續投資我們的供應鏈。我們花了很多時間尋找最佳的資本利用方式，以優化我們的分銷網絡和支持我們的成長，並決定不進行多溫度分銷的擴張，因為這會增加複雜性並需要更高水準的資本投資。

We believe that we can simplify our regional supply chain strategy to drive operational efficiencies, improve inventory management, and support our growth in a more capital-efficient way. For example, in February, we opened a new 680,000-square-foot ambient distribution center in Vancouver, Washington to increase the warehouse capacity in the Pacific Northwest that will support our growing business in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

我們相信，我們可以簡化我們的區域供應鏈策略，以提高營運效率，改善庫存管理，並以更具資本效率的方式支持我們的成長。例如，2 月份，我們在華盛頓州溫哥華開設了一個佔地 680,000 平方英尺的全新環境配送中心，以增加太平洋西北地區的倉庫容量，從而支持我們在華盛頓、俄勒岡和愛達荷州不斷增長的業務。

This DC will consolidate all or part of five warehouse facilities in the greater Portland area into a new and more modern facility with room to grow and is optimally located to more efficiently service stores across the Northwest. We are phasing in capacity by category and location and expect to be fully scaled in this warehouse by the end of 2025. Consolidating our Pacific Northwest distribution into one facility is expected to increase efficiencies and lower DC costs in the region over the long term. This facility will also offer better service and efficiencies for operators in that region.

該配送中心將把大波特蘭地區的五個倉庫設施全部或部分合併為一個新的、更現代化的設施，該設施具有發展空間，並且地理位置優越，可以更有效率地為西北地區的商店提供服務。我們正在按類別和地點逐步擴大產能，預計到 2025 年底倉庫將全面擴大規模。將我們的太平洋西北地區分銷中心整合到一個設施中，預計將長期提高效率並降低該地區的配送中心成本。該設施還將為該地區的營運商提供更好的服務和效率。

Finally, as an initial step to reassessing our G&A cost structure, we have implemented a reduction in the workforce. This reduction is a prudent step in building a more scalable cost structure. We're continuing to explore additional opportunities to further scale G&A through automation and process improvements over the longer term as we add new capabilities to the business.

最後，作為重新評估我們的一般及行政成本結構的初步步驟，我們實施了裁員措施。此次削減是建立更具可擴展性的成本結構的明智之舉。隨著我們為業務增加新的功能，我們將繼續探索透過長期自動化和流程改進進一步擴大 G&A 的更多機會。

As we took a long, hard look at these areas over the last three months, it was clear that these were necessary steps to building a stronger foundation from which to scale in the future. We're taking these steps to grow the business profitably and allocate capital in a manner which we expect will generate solid returns. We know that we have tremendous long-term growth potential and believe we're taking the right steps to drive sustainable growth, profitability, and ROIC going forward.

在過去三個月裡，我們對這些領域進行了長期而認真的審視，顯然，這些都是為未來擴大規模奠定更堅實基礎的必要步驟。我們正在採取這些措施來實現業務獲利成長，並以我們預期將產生可觀回報的方式分配資本。我們知道我們具有巨大的長期成長潛力，並相信我們正在採取正確的步驟來推動未來的永續成長、獲利能力和投資報酬率。

In closing, it's been a busy and rewarding four months for me serving as Interim CEO. As I step back into my role as Chairman, I wanted to share a few final perspectives on where we're going as a company. First, for me, it all starts with leadership, and Jason and Chris are the right people for the job. Their wealth of experience, coupled with their proven track records of driving operational execution, will take this already differentiated business to the next level.

最後，對我來說，擔任臨時執行長的四個月是忙碌而有意義的。當我重新擔任董事長職務時，我想就公司的未來發展談幾點最後的看法。首先，對我來說，一切都始於領導力，而 Jason 和 Chris 正是這份工作的合適人選。他們豐富的經驗加上其在推動營運執行方面的良好記錄，將把這個已經差異化的業務推向新的高度。

Second, our focus on new store return economics, prudent capital deployment, and building a scalable cost structure are the right steps to ensure that we drive sustainable growth going forward. There is still more work to be done, but we're on the right path. Third, being back in the day-to-day execution of this business is only reaffirmed by conviction in Grocery Outlet. Our recent financial performance reflects temporary impacts from systems conversions and executional challenges, but I remain as confident as ever in the long-term potential of this business to drive industry-leading long-term value for all of our stakeholders.

其次，我們專注於新店回報經濟學、審慎的資本配置和建立可擴展的成本結構，這是確保我們未來推動永續成長的正確步驟。雖然還有更多工作要做，但我們已經走在正確的道路上。第三，只有透過對 Grocery Outlet 的信心，才能重新回到日常業務的執行上。我們最近的財務表現反映了系統轉換和執行挑戰的暫時影響，但我仍然一如既往地相信這項業務的長期潛力，能夠為我們所有利益相關者帶來行業領先的長期價值。

Before handing things over to Chris, I'd like to thank the team and our independent operators for all of their hard work during this challenging period. Your commitment to our stores, your commitment to our communities, and your commitment to our mission of touching lives for the better inspires me every single day.

在將工作交給克里斯之前，我想感謝團隊和我們的獨立運營商在這段充滿挑戰的時期所做的所有努力。您對我們商店的承諾、對我們社區的承諾以及對我們改善生活的使命的承諾每天都激勵著我。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Chris. Thank you.

說到這裡，我想把電話轉給克里斯。謝謝。

Thanks, Eric. And good afternoon, everyone. Let me start by saying that I'm incredibly excited to be part of Grocery Outlet and to partner with Jason and team to drive the business forward. The main reason I joined Grocery Outlet is for its unique business model and the significant growth opportunity it presents. We believe we have the right priorities and strategies in place to optimize that model. And combined with our strong balance sheet, I believe we can grow profitably while driving higher returns on capital over the long term.

謝謝，埃里克。大家下午好。首先，我要說的是，我非常高興能夠成為 Grocery Outlet 的一員，並與 Jason 和團隊合作推動業務發展。我加入 Grocery Outlet 的主要原因是其獨特的商業模式及其帶來的巨大成長機會。我們相信，我們已經制定了正確的優先事項和策略來優化該模型。結合我們強勁的資產負債表，我相信我們可以實現獲利成長，同時在長期內提高資本回報率。

We are pleased with the progress we made during the fourth quarter. We delivered on our key value metrics and traffic continued to drive comp, demonstrating that our model remains very relevant with consumers. We continued to see significant availability of opportunistic goods, and our buyers were able to execute on driving value for our operators and customers. This drove comps ahead of our guidance and earnings that was within our guidance. With that overview, I'll now share our fourth-quarter results in more detail, then review our outlook for 2025, which includes a 53rd week.

我們對第四季的進展感到滿意。我們實現了關鍵價值指標，流量繼續推動成長，顯示我們的模式仍然與消費者息息相關。我們繼續看到大量機會性商品的供應，並且我們的買家能夠為我們的營運商和客戶創造價值。這使得同店銷售額超出了我們的預期，且獲利也在我們的預期之內。有了上述概述，我現在將更詳細地分享我們第四季度的業績，然後回顧我們對 2025 年（包括第 53 週）的展望。

Net sales increased 10.9% to $1.1 billion for the fourth quarter due to new store sales and a 2.9% increase in comparable store sales, which represents 5.6% comp growth on a two-year basis. Comp transactions increased 3%, while average basket was flat. We opened five new stores during the quarter, ending the year with 533 locations, which is approximately 14% unit growth for the year.

第四季淨銷售額成長 10.9% 至 11 億美元，得益於新店銷售和可比店銷售額成長 2.9%，相當於兩年內可比成長 5.6%。同店交易量成長了 3%，而平均交易籃持平。我們在本季開設了 5 家新店，年底門市總數達到 533 家，全年單位成長率約 14%。

Our fourth-quarter gross profit increased 8.4% to $323.9 million. The gross margin was 29.5%, a decline of 70 basis points year over year. While an increase in opportunistic sales positively impacted margins for the quarter, this was more than offset by lower margins realized in our deli category, mainly from a significant ongoing issue with the supply and pricing of eggs. In addition, higher inventory shrinkage related primarily to continued systems issues negatively impacted margins for the quarter.

我們第四季的毛利成長8.4%至3.239億美元。毛利率為29.5%，較去年同期下降70個基點。雖然機會性銷售的成長對本季的利潤率產生了積極影響，但這被熟食類別的利潤率下降所抵消，這主要歸因於雞蛋供應和定價方面持續存在的重大問題。此外，持續存在的系統問題導致庫存減少，從而對本季的利潤率產生了負面影響。

SG&A expenses increased $32.6 million, or 11.6%, to $312.5 million compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. The increase in SG&A expenses was driven primarily by $15.9 million in restructuring charges, increases in store-related expenses and depreciation offset by lower incentive compensation. Regarding the aforementioned restructuring charges, approximately $9.2 million is related to our decision to exit store leases in certain new markets, as Eric mentioned, and the remaining $6.7 million is related to supply chain expansion projects we will not be moving forward with.

與 2023 年第四季相比，銷售、一般及行政開支增加了 3,260 萬美元，即 11.6%，達到 3.125 億美元。銷售、一般及行政開支的增加主要由於1,590萬美元的重組費用、門市相關開支和折舊的增加，但被激勵性薪酬的減少所抵消。關於上述重組費用，正如 Eric 所說，約 920 萬美元與我們決定退出某些新市場的門市租約有關，剩餘的 670 萬美元與我們不會推進的供應鏈擴展項目有關。

Net interest expense was $7 million, an increase of $5.5 million over the fourth quarter last year. The increase in interest expense was driven primarily by higher average principal debt to enable share repurchases and capital spending to support the continued growth of the business after the acquisition of United Grocery Outlet or UGO. Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 47.4% compared with 19.3% for the fourth quarter last year. The increase was driven primarily by lower excess tax benefits related to the exercise of stock option and non-deductible costs related to the acquisition of UGO.

淨利息支出為 700 萬美元，較去年第四季增加 550 萬美元。利息支出的增加主要是由於平均本金債務增加，以便進行股票回購和資本支出，以支持收購 United Grocery Outlet 或 UGO 後業務的持續成長。我們本季的有效稅率為 47.4%，而去年第四季的有效稅率為 19.3%。成長的主要原因是行使股票選擇權相關的超額稅收優惠減少，以及與收購 UGO 相關的不可扣除成本減少。

Net income for the fourth quarter was $2.3 million or $0.02 per fully diluted share. Adjusted net income was $14.5 million for the quarter or $0.15 per fully diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA increased 12.5% to $57.2 million for the quarter, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 5.2% of net sales. Turning to our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $62.8 million of cash and an inventory balance of $394.2 million, which is an increase of 12.6% over the prior year.

第四季淨收入為 230 萬美元，即每股攤薄收入 0.02 美元。本季調整後的淨收入為 1,450 萬美元，或每股攤薄收入為 0.15 美元。本季調整後 EBITDA 成長 12.5% 至 5,720 萬美元，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為淨銷售額的 5.2%。回顧我們的資產負債表，本季末我們的現金餘額為 6,280 萬美元，庫存餘額為 3.942 億美元，比上年增長了 12.6%。

We made progress in bringing inventory down in the fourth quarter, and there's further opportunity to optimize inventory as we restore systems and tools throughout the year. We generated $112 million in cash flow from operations, which was used primarily to fund capital investments, which totaled $185.7 million net of tenant allowances in fiscal 2024. The majority of our capital investments were in new stores, store maintenance, systems, and infrastructure-related projects.

我們在第四季度在降低庫存方面取得了進展，並且隨著我們全年恢復系統和工具，還有進一步優化庫存的機會。我們從經營活動中產生了 1.12 億美元的現金流，主要用於資助資本投資，2024 財年的淨租戶津貼總額為 1.857 億美元。我們的大部分資本投資都用於新店、店鋪維護、系統和基礎設施相關項目。

Total debt net of issuance cost was $477.5 million at the end of the fourth quarter, with net leverage of 1.75 times adjusted EBITDA. During the fourth quarter, we repurchased approximately 1.5 million shares of stock, totaling $25 million at an average price of $16.62. For the year, we repurchased 3.98 million shares at an average price of $20.23 per share for a total cost of $80.4 million. As we announced previously, our Board approved a new $100 million share repurchase plan in November.

第四季末，扣除發行成本後的總負債為 4.775 億美元，淨槓桿比率為調整後 EBITDA 的 1.75 倍。第四季度，我們回購了約 150 萬股股票，總額 2,500 萬美元，平均價格為 16.62 美元。今年，我們以每股 20.23 美元的平均價格回購了 398 萬股，總成本為 8,040 萬美元。正如我們之前宣布的那樣，我們的董事會在 11 月批准了一項新的 1 億美元股票回購計畫。

Now turning to our guidance for fiscal 2025, as a reminder, this year is a 53-week year. Sales from the 53rd week will be excluded from our same-store sales calculation. For the full year, we expect comp store sales growth to be between 2% to 3%. For the first quarter, we expect comparable store sales to be flat, which reflects the timing of the Easter holiday in addition to impacts from overall general economic trends. Recall that last year, Easter was March 31; while this year, Easter is April 20. We expect this shift to impact comps by approximately 100 basis points.

現在談談我們對 2025 財年的指導，提醒一下，今年是 53 週。第 53 週的銷售額將被排除在我們的同店銷售額計算之外。我們預計全年同店銷售額成長率將在 2% 至 3% 之間。對於第一季度，我們預計同店銷售額將持平，這不僅反映了復活節假期的時間，也反映了整體經濟趨勢的影響。回想一下，去年復活節是 3 月 31 日；而今年的復活節是4月20日。我們預期這項轉變將對同店銷售額造成約 100 個基點的影響。

We expect to add between 33 and 35 net new stores this year, fairly evenly distributed across the quarters. We expect total net sales for fiscal 2025 of between $4.7 billion to $4.8 billion, which includes about $75 million from the 53rd week. For the full year, we expect gross margins to be in the range of 30% to 30.5% and first-quarter gross margins in the range of 29.5% to 30%. While we expect to continue to benefit from increased value penetration, egg prices and inventory shrinkage will continue to pressure margins for at least the first half of the year.

我們預計今年將新增 33 至 35 家新店，平均分佈在各季度。我們預計 2025 財年的總淨銷售額將在 47 億至 48 億美元之間，其中包括第 53 週的約 7,500 萬美元。我們預計全年毛利率在 30% 至 30.5% 之間，第一季毛利率在 29.5% 至 30% 之間。雖然我們預計將繼續受益於價值滲透率的提高，但雞蛋價格和庫存縮水將至少在上半年繼續對利潤率造成壓力。

As Eric mentioned earlier, we are still working to improve tools, processes, and outcomes to further improve shrink, which although improved on a year-over-year basis is still tracking at higher levels than before the system's conversion. Our inventory planners and operators still need better solutions and tools to optimize inventory management at both the store and warehouse level, so we expect this will continue to have some impact on margins.

正如 Eric 之前提到的，我們仍在努力改進工具、流程和結果，以進一步改善收縮情況，儘管與去年同期相比有所改善，但仍比系統轉換前處於更高的水平。我們的庫存規劃人員和操作員仍然需要更好的解決方案和工具來優化商店和倉庫層面的庫存管理，因此我們預計這將繼續對利潤產生一定影響。

In addition, we continue to work on process improvements related to our utilization of SAP and refining the tools that we and our operators use to manage the business, which should benefit gross margins in the long term. We expect to incur additional restructuring charges in 2025 in the range of $36 million to $45 million. This includes $30 million to $37 million from exiting store leases, $1.6 million in the first quarter related to organizational restructuring, and between $4.5 million to $6.5 million in professional fees. We expect the majority of these charges to be recognized in the first half of this year.

此外，我們繼續致力於改善與 SAP 使用相關的流程，並改善我們和我們的營運商用於管理業務的工具，這將有利於長期提高毛利率。我們預計 2025 年將產生 3,600 萬美元至 4,500 萬美元的額外重組費用。其中包括退出門市租約的 3,000 萬至 3,700 萬美元、第一季與組織重組相關的 160 萬美元，以及 450 萬至 650 萬美元的專業費用。我們預計這些費用大部分將在今年上半年確認。

For the full fiscal year, we expect adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $260 million to $270 million, and we expect first-quarter adjusted EBITDA between $45 million to $50 million. For the year, we expect depreciation and amortization of about $130 million, driven primarily by CapEx spending, net of tenant allowances of approximately $210 million. This includes investments in store openings and remodels, our distribution centers and systems, as well as store maintenance projects.

就整個財年而言，我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 在 2.6 億至 2.7 億美元之間，而我們預計第一季調整後的 EBITDA 在 4,500 萬美元至 5,000 萬美元之間。我們預計今年的折舊和攤提約為 1.3 億美元，主要受資本支出驅動，扣除約 2.1 億美元的租戶津貼。這包括對商店開業和改造、我們的配送中心和系統以及商店維護項目的投資。

For the year, we expect net interest expense to be approximately $38 million, an increase of approximately $16 million compared with 2024. As I mentioned earlier, our debt increased last year to support share repurchases, capital spending, and the acquisition of UGO. We expect to invest the majority of our cash flow from operations in growing and maintaining the business, and thus we do not expect to reduce our debt load in 2025.

我們預計今年的淨利息支出約為 3,800 萬美元，較 2024 年增加約 1,600 萬美元。正如我之前提到的，去年我們的債務增加了，以支持股票回購、資本支出和對 UGO 的收購。我們預計將大部分經營現金流投資於業務的成長和維護，因此我們預計在 2025 年不會減少債務負擔。

We expect share-based compensation of approximately $24 million, a normalized tax rate of 32%, and average fully diluted shares outstanding for the year of approximately $99 million. Thus, we expect full-year adjusted EPS to be in the range of $0.70 to $0.75 per fully diluted share and first-quarter adjusted EPS of approximately $0.05 to $0.10. This reflects the impacts of higher depreciation and amortization and interest expense as previously mentioned.

我們預計股權激勵費用約為 2,400 萬美元，標準化稅率為 32%，全年平均完全稀釋流通股數約為 9,900 萬美元。因此，我們預計全年調整後每股收益在 0.70 美元至 0.75 美元之間，第一季調整後每股收益約為 0.05 美元至 0.10 美元。這反映了前面提到的折舊和攤提以及利息支出增加的影響。

In closing, Grocery Outlet has a long history of consistent growth and a tremendous amount of white space still in front of it. We are highly focused on executing on our strategic priorities and better enabling our passionate independent operators to serve our communities. I believe with our renewed focus, we will be successful in generating meaningful profitability and returns on capital over the long term. I look forward to providing updates on our progress going forward.

最後，Grocery Outlet 有著長期持續成長的歷史，眼前仍有大量的空白空間。我們高度專注於執行我們的策略重點，並更好地讓我們熱情的獨立運營商為我們的社區服務。我相信，憑藉我們重新聚焦的目標，我們將能夠在長期內成功創造有意義的獲利能力和資本回報。我期待提供有關我們未來進展的最新消息。

We will now open the call up to your questions. Operator?

我們現在將開始回答你們的提問。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Krisztina Katai, Deutsche Bank.

(操作員指示) 德意志銀行的 Krisztina Katai。

Hi, good afternoon. And welcome, Jason and Chris. So I have a three-part question. One, just starting with the leadership appointments, I'd be curious if you could discuss what attracted you to Grocery Outlet. Two, just within the 2025 outlook, can you just bridge for us the adjusted EBITDA to EPS outlook? I think you cited higher interest expense, but does the bottom line also include the restructuring charges? And then lastly, just on the more narrowed focus with the new store openings, is that indicative of a change in the go-forward algorithm as well? Thank you.

嗨，下午好。歡迎 Jason 和 Chris。我的問題分為三個部分。首先，從領導層任命開始，我很好奇您能否討論一下是什麼吸引您加入 Grocery Outlet。二，僅在 2025 年展望中，您能否為我們提供調整後的 EBITDA 與 EPS 展望？我認為您提到了更高的利息支出，但底線是否還包括重組費用？最後，隨著新店開業，關注點更加狹窄，這是否也預示著未來演算法的變化？謝謝。

Good afternoon. Thanks for the warm welcome. It's Jason here. I guess the first part of the question I'll answer. Many things attracted me to Grocery Outlet. But first and foremost, it's got a fantastic, differentiated business model. The culture here, the people involved, a record of winning, all give me great confidence in the potential this business has.

午安.謝謝你們的熱烈歡迎。我是傑森。我想我會回答問題的第一部分。很多東西都吸引我來到 Grocery Outlet。但最重要的是，它擁有出色的、差異化的商業模式。這裡的文化、參與其中的人員、成功的記錄都讓我對這項業務的潛力充滿信心。

I think the model itself, when you -- when I learn more about it, this opportunistic supply that generates this thrill for customers as they shop really paired with this opportunity for local operators to execute is a really interesting and powerful combination. And my experience, I guess my background also, I really -- I'm excited to help and help drive change here and results. I think that was the first part of your question. The second part I'll pass to Chris. I think he can best answer that.

我認為，當我更多地了解該模型時，就會發現這種機會性供應在顧客購物時為他們帶來刺激，再加上當地運營商的執行機會，這是一個非常有趣且強大的組合。而且我的經驗和我的背景也是如此，我真的很高興能夠幫助並推動這裡的改變和成果。我想這是你問題的第一部分。第二部分我將交給克里斯。我認為他最能回答這個問題。

Yes, hi. Yes, you cited interest, and that is certainly one of the reasons why EPS is not growing at the same rate as adjusted EBITDA. The adjusted EPS does not include the restructuring charges. So the other component that's impacting EPS is higher depreciation and amortization. So between those two items, that's why EPS is growing at a lower rate.

是的，你好。是的，您提到了利息，這當然是 EPS 沒有以與調整後的 EBITDA 相同速度增長的原因之一。調整後的每股盈餘不包括重組費用。因此，影響每股盈餘的另一個因素是更高的折舊和攤提。因此，這兩項因素導致了 EPS 成長率較低。

Yes. Hey, Christina, it's Eric. I'll take the third part. We think the number that we've chosen for this year is going to help us address the executional challenges that we have. So think about it. We're going to go to work on two things. One's the new store in kind of new market, non-adjacent market underperformance. And then second is sort of this creeping higher cost that we've seen.

是的。嘿，克里斯蒂娜，我是艾瑞克。我要選擇第三部分。我們認為，我們今年選擇的數字將幫助我們解決所面臨的執行挑戰。所以考慮一下。我們將著手做兩件事。一種是新市場中的新店，非鄰近市場表現不佳。其次，我們看到成本逐漸上升。

We need to better execute, and we think this is a year to do that, give the team the time to go and open 33 to 35 stores. As a reminder, we were probably on a plan to open something more like 55 to 60 stores, which I think would have been a mistake. So this will help us get out and execute and have some wins in those markets. And I think it's right now.

我們需要更好地執行，我們認為今年可以做到這一點，讓團隊有時間開設 33 到 35 家商店。提醒一下，我們原本計劃開設 55 至 60 家商店，我認為這會是個錯誤。因此，這將幫助我們走出去，在這些市場中執行並取得一些勝利。我認為現在就是時候。

(Operator Instructions) Anthony Bonadio, Wells Fargo.

（操作員指示） 安東尼·博納迪奧（Anthony Bonadio），富國銀行。

Yes. Hey, guys. Thanks for taking our questions. So I just wanted to talk about the gross margin and the systems issues. It looks like the gross margin came in quite a bit softer than guidance. So can you just talk a little bit more about what changed on the system side versus what you said on the last call, how you're thinking about the path to recovery there? And then anything you can do to quantify the impact in Q4?

是的。嘿，大家好。感謝您回答我們的問題。所以我只想談談毛利率和系統問題。看起來毛利率比預期低很多。那麼，您能否再多談系統方面發生了哪些變化，與您上次通話中所說的相比，您如何看待系統方面的復甦之路？那麼您可以做些什麼來量化第四季的影響？

Yes, hi, Anthony. It's Chris. So the Q4 margin, as I mentioned in my remarks, we did see better value in the fourth quarter, which helped margins. But offsetting that was the impact of eggs and pricing and supply, which had about a 50-basis-point impact for margin in the quarter. And then as you point out, the inventory shrinkage and continued issues around our systems and not being able to drive down shrink, that was the other component for the fourth quarter.

是的，你好，安東尼。是克里斯。因此，正如我在發言中提到的那樣，第四季度的利潤率確實有所提高，這有助於提高利潤率。但抵銷這一影響的是雞蛋定價和供應的影響，這對本季的利潤率產生了約 50 個基點的影響。正如您所指出的，庫存收縮和系統持續存在的問題以及無法降低收縮幅度，這是第四季度的另一個因素。

Robbie Ohmes, Bank of America.

美國銀行的羅比‧奧姆斯 (Robbie Ohmes)。

Thanks for taking my question. My question is maybe for Eric. With the phase-in in the second quarter of the improved tools for the operators, will it -- when you get everything phased in, you want the systems working the way you want. Will the systems be better for the IOs than the old systems were? Or will they just be better than -- obviously, they're under performance now. And have you lost any IOs due to the system disruption?

感謝您回答我的問題。我的問題可能是針對艾瑞克的。隨著第二季度為營運商改進的工具的逐步實施，當一切都逐步實施時，您希望系統能夠以您希望的方式運作。與舊系統相比，這些系統對 IO 會更好嗎？或者他們會比——顯然，他們現在的表現不佳。您是否因係統中斷而丟失了任何 IO？

Yes. Hey, Robbie. It's a great question. I'll take the second part first. I don't think we've lost operators due to the system. I think it was a tough year. We all know starting in '23 and then getting to '24, those were just challenging times. And just as a reminder, the overall turnover was kind of right in where it's been for historical last 10 years or so.

是的。嘿，羅比。這是一個很好的問題。我先講第二部分。我認為我們並沒有因為這個系統而失去操作員。我認為那是艱難的一年。我們都知道，從 23 年開始到 24 年，那都是充滿挑戰的時期。需要提醒的是，整體營業額與過去 10 年左右的歷史水準基本一致。

We are moving towards getting most of the systems back by Q2 that we had before. And that will enable us to call the system, the environment, efficient, effective, stabilized, pick the word you'd like. And then we go to work on the enhancements that will make the system better than it was August of 2023. We were on a legacy system that was unsupported, and we chose a new system, and obviously we know the history on that.

我們的目標是在第二季之前恢復大部分之前的系統。這樣我們就可以稱該系統、環境為高效的、有效的、穩定的，選擇你喜歡的字。然後我們開始進行改進，使系統比 2023 年 8 月更好。我們之前使用的是不受支援的舊系統，所以我們選擇了一個新系統，顯然我們知道這個系統的歷史。

We are hoping to be able to tell you by end of this year that we're there, which is things are working; we're back to being as efficient; we have some new tools in the arsenal, both for operators and internally, that's the buyers and the financial team, that will make us better, more efficient, and more effective. So all eyes on that, and I feel like we're making pretty good progress against it.

我們希望能夠在今年年底之前告訴您我們已經到達目標，也就是說一切正在順利進行；我們又恢復到以前那麼有效率了；我們擁有一些新工具，既可供運營商使用，也可供內部使用，即買家和財務團隊使用，這些設備將使我們變得更好、更有效率、更有效。因此，所有人的目光都集中在這一點上，我覺得我們在這方面取得了相當大的進展。

Oliver Chen, TD Cowen.

奧利佛陳（Oliver Chen），TD Cowen 公司。

Hi, it's Tom Nass on for Oliver. I was wondering if you could discuss the pace of comps throughout the quarter as well as the exit rate. And then how should we think about the balance between investing in price versus prioritizing margin consistency for the year ahead?

大家好，我是湯姆·納斯，取代奧利佛。我想知道您是否可以討論一下整個季度的業績成長速度以及退出率。那麼，我們應該如何考慮投資價格與優先考慮未來一年的利潤一致性之間的平衡呢？

Hey, Tom. This is Eric. So Q4 felt pretty good, sort of the near-term comp standpoint. I'd say customer count continued to be healthy and solid. In fact, transactions were positive across all geographies. That's great news. We think a lot of that is directly attributable to the work that the buyers did in terms of restoring value and really shifting back to value. That's what we talked about in the last call.

嘿，湯姆。這是埃里克。因此，從近期比較角度來看，第四季表現相當不錯。我想說顧客數量持續保持健康穩定。事實上，所有地區的交易情況都是正面的。這真是個好消息。我們認為，這在很大程度上直接歸因於買家在恢復價值和真正回歸價值方面所做的工作。這就是我們在上次通話中談論的內容。

And then following that was messaging the value in a different way than we did most of 2024. We do have some work to do in the basket. Obviously, if you just look at the composition, we think that's addressable in assortment and in some merchandising initiatives, which we're starting now. Transfer to Q1, I would say the first quarter has started out a little softer than we'd like.

接下來，我們以與 2024 年大部分時間不同的方式傳達價值。我們確實還有一些工作要做。顯然，如果你只看構成，我們認為這可以在分類和一些商品推銷計劃中解決，我們現在正在開始這些計劃。轉到第一季度，我想說第一季的開局比我們預期的要疲軟。

If you go and look at the data reported for other retailers, sort of the all-outlet data, we're following the same sort of trend. That is January, a little stronger, and then there's a deceleration in February. That's exactly where GO is, looking at our Jan and Feb. We believe some of that's just tied to sort of general economic trends, but we have more variability in those numbers than across the geographies that we like. So we have some work to do. And then as Chris mentioned, the guide for the quarter is all around that start, plus that Easter swing is going to cost us about 100 bps against the quarter.

如果你去看看其他零售商報告的數據，例如所有門市的數據，我們會發現同樣的趨勢。一月稍微強勁一些，二月則開始減速。這正是 GO 所處的位置，請看看我們的 1 月和 2 月數據。我們認為其中一些只是與總體經濟趨勢有關，但這些數字的變化比我們喜歡的地區要大。因此我們還有一些工作要做。然後正如克里斯所提到的，本季的指導都是圍繞著這個開始的，再加上復活節的波動將使我們在本季度損失約 100 個基點。

Mark Carden, UBS.

瑞銀的馬克卡登（Mark Carden）。

Good afternoon. Thanks so much for taking the questions, everyone. And welcome, Jason and Chris. So to start, Jason, you led a turnaround at Fresh Market, which serves a bit of a different end market, but at the same time, it's a smaller grocer with a unique go-to-market proposition. I know it's early days, but have you seen any parallels between the two organizations; and along those lines, opportunities to address similar improvements or low-hanging fruit off the bat?

午安.非常感謝大家回答問題。歡迎 Jason 和 Chris。首先，傑森，你帶領 Fresh Market 實現了扭虧為盈，這家公司服務於略有不同的終端市場，但同時，它是一家規模較小的雜貨店，擁有獨特的市場定位。我知道現在還為時過早，但你是否看到這兩個組織之間有任何相似之處？沿著這個思路，是否有機會立即實現類似的改進或實現唾手可得的成果？

Yes, I've spent the first three weeks or so here listening, learning, gathering information. Clearly, that's going to help inform my thinking for the long term. My experience recently at the Fresh Market was a total team effort. We were proud to say we grew both sales and profitability and obviously returns for the shareholders in a pretty substantial way by focusing on a few things.

是的，我在這裡花了大約三個星期的時間聆聽、學習和收集資訊。顯然，這將有助於我形成長期的思考。我最近在新鮮市場的經驗完全是團隊共同努力的成果。我們自豪地說，透過集中精力做好幾件事，我們的銷售額和獲利能力都得到了顯著提高，顯然股東的回報也得到了相當可觀的提高。

One, improving execution, focusing on the guest experience. We worked hard there to build a service culture and really working as a team on a clear defined strategy. And so there's some things there to take away and to utilize here. Clearly, when you execute at a high level, at least my experience at the Fresh market, we were able to really shift the guest experience.

一、提高執行力，注重賓客體驗。我們在那裡努力建立服務文化，並真正作為一個團隊按照明確的策略開展工作。因此，這裡有一些東西可以帶走並利用。顯然，當你高水準執行時，至少根據我在新鮮市場的經驗，我們能夠真正改變客人的體驗。

And maybe as evidenced that our, at that time -- during my time there, we were able to achieve Reader's Choice Award at USA Today for '21, '22, and '23, best in America. And for sure, those are things that I'll take forward in my thinking here. But as Eric said, the near-term priorities are clear, and we've got to make sure we're focused on the key focus priorities as we go forward.

也許有證據表明，在我任職期間，我們能夠在 21、22 和 23 年內獲得《今日美國》讀者選擇獎，成為美國最佳。當然，這些都是我會繼續思考的事情。但正如艾瑞克所說，近期的優先事項很明確，我們必須確保在未來的行動中集中精力於關鍵的重點優先事項。

John Heinbockel, Guggenheim.

古根漢的約翰·海因博克爾。

Hey, Eric, two quick things. Historically, you guys have picked up market share in tougher macros. Is the issue now with UPT just level of inflation, right, versus what you might have seen historically? So it's not you as much as it is macro? And then secondly, where are we with UGO in terms of moving that to an IO model? Is it possible -- could you use a company-operated model in certain geographies and just keep it company operated and not IO, or you don't believe in that?

嘿，艾瑞克，有兩件事。從歷史上看，你們在更嚴峻的宏觀形勢下已經獲得了市場份額。與您歷史上見過的情況相比，UPT 現在的問題是否只是通貨膨脹水平？所以這與其說是你的問題，不如說是宏觀問題？其次，在將 UGO 轉變為 IO 模型方面，我們進展如何？這是否可能——你是否可以在某些地區使用公司營運模式，並保持公司運作而不是IO，或者你不相信這一點？

Yes, let me touch on the first one, and then maybe a couple of us can talk about UGO just philosophically. Yes, look, you guys have looked at our basket. We're blessed by traffic, transaction, customer account, what you want to call it. It has been really healthy for a lot of years. We have some work to do on the basket.

是的，讓我談談第一個問題，然後我們幾個人可以從哲學上談論 UGO。是的，看，你們已經看過我們的籃子了。我們受到流量、交易、客戶帳戶等各種因素的祝福。多年來它一直非常健康。我們在籃子方面還需要做一些工作。

We probably have more questions than we have answers, to be quite honest. It's been a lot of fun and very engaging to have Jason here asking a lot of questions that, frankly, we need to do some deeper work on. So let us put a pin in that one and come back with a better thought, perhaps next quarter or in a separate call.

坦白說，我們的問題可能比答案還多。傑森在這裡問了很多問題，這很有趣也很吸引人，坦白說，我們需要對這些問題進行更深入的研究。因此，讓我們先解決這個問題，等到下個季度或在單獨的電話會議中再提出更好的想法。

But UGO, philosophically, the magic of having an operation that is different than the operator model is that you can test and learn. We don't have a hard date that tells us we need to go execute the IO plan today. I would say that it is in the plan as we integrate into the future.

但是，從哲學上來說，UGO 的神奇之處在於，它不同於操作員模型的操作，你可以測試和學習。我們沒有一個確切的日期告訴我們今天需要執行 IO 計劃。我想說這是我們融入未來的計畫。

We've got 41 stores, we've got distribution, we've got a DNA that's very much steeped in buying opportunistic, we've got a pretty good following in the Southeast, and we think we've got lots and lots of opportunities from our playbook that we've learned over 400-plus stores to go and apply there. Relative to other UGO integration, Dorian, you may want to just sort of give the one, two, threes of where we are.

我們有 41 家商店，有分銷管道，我們擁有根深蒂固的購買機會主義 DNA，我們在東南部擁有相當多的追隨者，我們認為，我們從我們的劇本中獲得了無數機會，我們已經在 400 多家商店中學習並應用這些機會。相對於其他 UGO 集成，Dorian，您可能只想給出我們所在位置的一、二、三。

Yes, just a couple of main things we're working on there, as we've talked about before. First, store refreshes; second, product introductions; really expanding assortment; and then broader integration that Eric alluded to. Good progress the back half of the year on refreshes, so completed about five across the network, seeing a nice uplift in sales there.

是的，正如我們之前談到的，我們正在進行一些主要的工作。一、店鋪刷新；第二、產品介紹；真正擴大品種；然後是艾瑞克提到的更廣泛的整合。下半年的更新進展順利，整個網路完成了大約五次更新，銷售額有了很大的提升。

We continue to introduce new products really on a weekly basis that includes both some of our everyday assortment that were gaps in the UGO assortment before, as well as introductions to vendors that we've been doing business with for a long time but maybe have not done business with UGO. So feeling good there. And then to Eric's point, we've got some work to do there first to really drive sales, and then over time integrate more broadly, including the operator model.

我們每週都會繼續推出新產品，包括我們日常銷售的一些之前在 UGO 商品種類中存在空白的產品，以及一些我們已經合作很長時間但可能沒有與 UGO 做過生意的供應商的介紹。感覺很好。然後回到艾瑞克提到的，我們首先需要做一些工作來真正推動銷售，然後隨著時間的推移進行更廣泛的整合，包括營運商模式。

Corey Tarlowe, Jefferies.

傑富瑞 (Jefferies) 的科里‧塔洛 (Corey Tarlowe)。

Great, thanks. I guess my question is to Eric. Eric, does the restructuring plan cause you to think differently about the right cadence of store openings and/or margin profile over the long term?

非常好，謝謝。我想我的問題是問艾瑞克的。艾瑞克，重整計畫是否會讓您對開店的正確節奏和/或長期利潤率有不同的看法？

Yes, hey, Corey. I wouldn't say the restructuring plan made me think differently. I would say the execution of the business made me think about we needed to do something different. To me, we have to address the sub-performance, and we need to do something different than we were doing before. And when I talked in the last call, I talked about reducing the priorities. Let's narrow down to the things we can execute well. We're going to start with value. We need to fill the leadership team.

是的，嘿，科里。我不會說重組計劃讓我改變了想法。我想說，業務的執行讓我想到我們需要做一些不同的事情。對我來說，我們必須解決表現不佳的問題，而且我們需要做一些與以前不同的事情。我在上次通話中談到了降低優先事項。讓我們縮小範圍，看看我們能夠執行得好的事情。我們將從價值開始。我們需要補充領導團隊。

But in that was -- look, we were going to try and open too many stores in too many new markets that did not have connections to adjacent markets. And that's really hard to do. You start with sort of four or five things that you need to be successful, market awareness. You need people power, meaning you've got to be able to recruit them and train them and support them in region. You need some distribution and marketing synergies. And then you've got to have the messaging that's going to hit in a market with lots and lots of stores. And we were not doing that.

但那是——你看，我們試圖在太多與相鄰市場沒有聯繫的新市場開設太多商店。但這確實很難做到。要想獲得成功，你必須從四、五件事開始，那就是市場意識。你需要人力，這意味著你必須能夠在地區招募他們、訓練他們並支持他們。您需要一些分銷和行銷協同效應。然後你必須傳達出能夠在擁有大量商店的市場中引起轟動的訊息。但我們並沒有這麼做。

So that execution informed, I think, the start of the -- look at the reorg and the real estate, then we can go a little deeper on supply chain. And then at home here for SG&A, we worked with some really talented outside folks on costs, and we made cuts where we're actually pulling back on priorities. So we sort of put the three of them together. That's the way we think about it.

因此，我認為，執行情況通知了開始——看看重組和房地產，然後我們可以更深入地了解供應鏈。然後，在銷售、一般及行政管理方面，我們與一些非常有才華的外部人員就成本問題進行了合作，並削減了優先事項。因此我們將他們三者放在了一起。我們就是這樣思考的。

Anthony Chukumba, Loop Capital Markets.

安東尼·楚庫姆巴（Anthony Chukumba），Loop Capital Markets。

That's Chukumba, but that was close enough for government work. So first off, let me just add my welcome to Jason and Chris as well. I guess my question was on how you feel about your value. And I ask the question because I remember, on the last earnings call, you were talking about the fact that you felt like maybe the value wasn't as compelling as it has been historically in the second and third quarter.

那是楚孔巴語，但對於政府工作來說已經足夠接近了。首先，我要向 Jason 和 Chris 表示歡迎。我想我的問題是關於你如何看待自己的價值。我之所以問這個問題，是因為我記得在上次財報電話會議上，您談到這樣一個事實，您覺得第二季和第三季的價值可能不像歷史上那麼引人注目。

But you felt like you were getting that back. And certainly, our pricing work showed that we saw very compelling value pricing relative to a very large company in Bentonville, Arkansas. But we just love your perspective in terms of where you are on values and whether you are where you want to be. Thank you.

但你感覺你正在將其奪回。當然，我們的定價工作表明，與阿肯色州本頓維爾的一家大公司相比，我們看到了非常有吸引力價值定價。但我們只是喜歡你對價值觀的看法以及你是否處於你想要的位置。謝謝。

Yes, this is Dorian. Let me talk a bit about value. So first off, really pleased with the value progress we made through Q4. If you remember back to the last call, really talked about a couple of different measures that we used to gauge value. The first overall basket, the value we deliver on a basket, we target 40% savings versus conventional grocer, 20% versus discounters. Feeling good about where that is.

是的，這是 Dorian。讓我來談談價值。首先，我們對第四季的價值進展感到非常高興。如果您還記得上次通話，我們確實討論了我們用來衡量價值的幾種不同標準。第一個整體籃子，即我們在一個籃子中提供的價值，我們的目標是與傳統雜貨店相比節省 40%，與折扣店相比節省 20%。對那裡的感覺很好。

Second, the share of sales that we generate from items with 60% or greater savings versus conventional, think of this as the extreme value treasure hunt, driving items that people tell their friends and families about. This is where we said last call we had some work to do, and we really improved that throughout the course of the quarter.

其次，與傳統產品相比，我們節省 60% 或更多的商品所產生的銷售份額，可以將其視為極具價值的尋寶活動，推動人們向朋友和家人推薦這些商品。這是我們上次說我們有一些工作要做的地方，而且我們在整個季度中確實取得了進步。

The last piece is price parity with discounters on a targeted list of commodity items and where we want to be there. So feeling good about the value delivered versus conventional and discount retailers. We feel that's translated into traffic as well in Q4 with the 3% traffic increase. So continuing to focus on those, and then also looking at execution now of that value as well. How do we just get all the credit for those great deals throughout the supply chain, in our stores, through marketing? That's a focus now.

最後一點是，在目標商品清單上與折扣店實現價格平價，以及我們想要達到的價格。因此與傳統零售商和折扣零售商相比，我們對所提供的價值感到滿意。我們認為這也轉化為第四季的流量，流量增加了 3%。因此繼續關注這些，然後也考慮該價值的執行情況。我們如何在整個供應鏈、在我們的商店、透過行銷獲得這些優惠的榮譽呢？這是現在的重點。

Joe Feldman, Telsey Advisory Group.

喬‧費爾德曼 (Joe Feldman)，Telsey 顧問集團。

Thanks, guys, for taking the question. So I wanted to follow up the CapEx budget for the year. I think it's a little bit above this past year. And I'm wondering, with the reduction in stores, maybe you could share some thoughts as to where you're allocating the CapEx dollars?

謝謝大家回答這個問題。所以我想跟進今年的資本支出預算。我認為這個數字比去年略高一些。我想知道，隨著商店數量的減少，您是否可以分享一些關於如何分配資本支出的想法？

Yes, sure. I'll take that. So you're right, our guidance is for $210 million in CapEx for this year versus the $185 million or $186 million last year. It's actually more stores because we opened 26 stores last year, and then of course we had the UGO stores acquired, and we're looking at 33 to 35 this year. So that's driving a big part of it, as well as some CapEx related to our new distribution center in the Pacific Northwest. Those are probably the two main drivers of the increase overall.

是的，當然。我接受。所以您說得對，我們預計今年的資本支出為 2.1 億美元，而去年為 1.85 億美元或 1.86 億美元。實際上門市數量更多，因為去年我們開了 26 家門市，然後當然，我們也收購了 UGO 門市，今年我們計劃開 33 到 35 家門市。因此，這推動了其中很大一部分，以及與我們在太平洋西北地區的新配送中心相關的一些資本支出。這可能是整體成長的兩個主要驅動力。

Mike Baker, D.A. Davidson.

麥克貝克，地區檢察官戴維森。

Thanks. I just wanted to follow up on a previous question and ask about the long-term margin profile. This had always been a 6%, even mid-6% EBITDA business. You're obviously below that now. All these changes you're doing, focusing on existing markets, all the supply chain savings you're doing, et cetera, is the idea that that gets you back to that 6% range? Does that get you above that 6% range, or is that range sort of not in the cards anymore?

謝謝。我只是想跟進之前的問題並詢問有關長期利潤率狀況。這一直是一項 EBITDA 為 6% 甚至 6% 左右的業務。顯然，現在你的水平已經低於這個水平了。您所做的所有這些改變，包括專注於現有市場、所做的所有供應鏈節約等等，是否能讓您回到 6% 的範圍？這是否會使您超出 6% 的範圍，或者該範圍已經不再可行？

Yes, so we believe we've got a lot of opportunity in front of us. Eric talked about the amount of white space, and this company has performed very well historically. We've put out our guidance for this year. We're not really prepared to talk about past that and future years, so I think we're just going to leave it at that at this point.

是的，所以我們相信我們面前有很多機會。Eric 談到了空白的數量，這家公司歷史上的表現非常出色。我們已經發布了今年的指導方針。我們還沒準備好談論過去和未來的事情，所以我想我們現在就到此為止。

Leah Jordan, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的利亞喬丹 (Leah Jordan)。

Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. I just wanted to talk about the comp guide of 2% to 3% because this is below your historical run rate of mid-single digit, which you typically do in a normalized food environment, which we appear to be in right now. And we've talked about a lot of the puts and takes you guys are working through around restructuring.

午安.感謝您回答我的問題。我只想談談 2% 到 3% 的同比指引，因為這低於你們歷史上中等個位數的運行率，這通常是在正常化的食品環境中才會出現的，而我們現在似乎就處於這種環境中。我們已經討論了你們在重組過程中遇到的許多問題和困難。

But I guess my bigger question is, has anything changed in the competitive environment today that makes it more challenging for you to maybe get back to your older algo over time, as it sounds like we've still had a year plus of issues. But we're still needing to advertise more, improve our value, and then now I'm hearing about increased merchandising efforts as well. So any color there would be helpful. Thank you.

但我想我更大的問題是，今天的競爭環境是否發生了任何變化，使得您可能隨著時間的推移更難回到舊的演算法，因為聽起來我們仍然面臨一年多的問題。但我們仍然需要做更多廣告，提高我們的價值，現在我還聽說我們還在加大商品推銷。所以任何顏色都會有幫助。謝謝。

Yes, let me jump in quickly on competition. Nothing we feel has fundamentally changed in the competitive environment. Promotional environment remains pretty rational. Data suggests it's back around pre-COVID levels. Obviously, promotional environment changed in 2020 and for a couple of years. We continue to aim for prices, 40% on the basket, 70% plus on our best deals.

是的，讓我快速進入競賽話題。我們認為競爭環境並沒有發生根本性的改變。促銷環境仍較為合理。數據顯示，它已恢復到疫情之前的水平。顯然，促銷環境在 2020 年以及接下來的幾年發生了變化。我們繼續以價格為目標，籃子價格為 40%，最佳交易價格為 70% 以上。

I feel like we're delivering that, so our relative value proposition feels like it's good. Again, our model, really flexible to deliver in different competitive environments as they change. We've proven that over the last many years to do that well, and we'll continue to do so. So nothing on the competitive side that makes us feel differently about comps this year going forward.

我覺得我們正在實現這一點，所以我們的相對價值主張感覺很好。再次強調，我們的模式非常靈活，能夠隨著變化而適應不同的競爭環境。在過去的許多年裡我們已經證明這一點，而且我們將繼續這樣做。因此，從競爭方面來看，沒有什麼能讓我們對今年的比賽有不同的看法。

Simeon Gutman, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的西緬古特曼 (Simeon Gutman)。

Good afternoon. Welcome to everyone new. I wanted to ask first on systems. I guess at one point, we thought that it was temporal. It seems like they're continual. And at what point in '25 are systems issues behind the company? That's part one.

午安.歡迎各位新朋友的到來。我想先詢問有關係統的問題。我想，在某一時刻，我們認為它是暫時的。看起來它們是連續不斷的。那麼，在 25 年的什麼時候，公司的系統問題才得以解決？這是第一部分。

And then, Eric, you mentioned something that was intriguing. You said Jason's asking a lot of questions, and we need to, I guess, zoom in on them a bit. Can you hypothesize the kind of things that you're looking at as far as -- I don't know if it's merchandising, because you mentioned you have the footsteps, but you're not getting the basket or the conversion, localization value. What are these questions and what are you probing? Thank you.

然後，艾瑞克，你提到了一些有趣的事情。你說傑森問了很多問題，我想我們需要對這些問題進行深入探討。您能否假設您正在關注的事情——我不知道這是否是商品推銷，因為您提到您有腳步，但您沒有得到籃子或轉換，本地化價值。這些問題是什麼？您正在探究什麼？謝謝。

Yes, let me take the first one. We have made a lot of progress. I think '25 is going to be a completion year and then put us in a position to harness the capabilities that we've installed. Systems are working, the financial visibility that we talked about, some of the kinks from 2024 behind us. Systems, functional. We still do not have all the tools that we need to execute as efficiently or as cost-effectively as before, but those are coming.

是的，讓我選第一個。我們已取得很大進展。我認為 25 年將是一個完成年，到那時我們將能夠利用我們已經安裝的功能。系統正在運轉，我們談論的財務可見性，以及 2024 年的一些問題已經過去了。系統、功能性。我們仍然沒有像以前一樣有效率或具有成本效益地執行所需的所有工具，但這些工具正在不斷出現。

Some of the critical tools specifically are ones that we need to manage the inventory holistically, but really for operators to optimize opportunistic product and their inventory management in the stores. So you've heard us talk a little bit about inventory shrink. So that's something that's getting better, but it's not improved to 100% of where it was. So there's still some fixes, but we are feeling very good, very confident.

具體來說，一些關鍵工具是我們需要整體管理庫存的工具，但實際上是為了幫助營運商優化機會性產品及其商店的庫存管理。您已經聽到我們談論了一些有關庫存減少的問題。所以說，情況正在好轉，但還沒有完全恢復到原來的水準。因此仍有一些需要修復的地方，但我們感覺非常好，非常有信心。

I'll take a shot at some of the things that I'm seeing from Jason and maybe he can add to it. He is asking a lot of questions around trip, why people are shopping at Grocery Outlet, how we improve the trip, how do we improve the execution of the stores. I've never seen someone more comfortable out in a store looking at how we make money, challenging what we do, how we do it, doing it from an operator-friendly or centric perspective because he has managed franchise operations.

我會嘗試 Jason 提出的一些觀點，也許他可以做出補充。他問了很多有關行程的問題，為什麼人們在 Grocery Outlet 購物，我們如何改善行程，我們如何改善商店的執行情況。我從未見過有人能如此自在地在商店裡觀察我們如何賺錢、挑戰我們所做的事情、我們如何做，並且從運營商友好或以運營商為中心的角度來做這件事，因為他曾管理過特許經營業務。

In fact, there was a day he wanted to be an operator of his own store. So he thinks about the store and how we make money, and that lens comes across as he's going to dig very deep on how we operate. The second piece I'd say, and then I'll turn it over to him, is all about data: data integrity, data management, starting with the truth.

其實有一天他也想過要當自己店舖的經營者。因此，他考慮商店以及我們如何賺錢，當他深入研究我們的營運方式時，這種視角就顯現出來了。我要說的第二部分，然後我會把它交給他，都是關於資料的：資料完整性、資料管理，從事實開始。

And then you can do a lot, and I would say our data is still somewhat imperfect, but it is on the list of things to get done this year. But connecting the insights from a retailer who's been very, very successful to the data that we have, I think, is going to be pretty powerful. So those are a couple examples from me.

然後你就可以做很多事情，我想說我們的數據仍然有些不完善，但它在今年要完成的事情清單上。但我認為，將非常成功的零售商的見解與我們擁有的數據結合起來，將會產生很大的作用。以上就是我舉的幾個例子。

Thanks, Eric. Yes, I guess I'm just really curious at this stage. So as I mentioned, I'm going on a learning mode and a listening mode and a gathering-information mode to make sure that I have everything I need to make quality decisions on behalf of everyone that touches this business, including the shareholders. I'm very excited about what I see for opportunity here.

謝謝，埃里克。是的，我想我現在只是真的很好奇。正如我所提到的，我將進入學習模式、聆聽模式和收集資訊模式，以確保我擁有代表涉及此業務的每個人（包括股東）做出高品質決策所需的一切。我對這裡看到的機會感到非常興奮。

Just to be clear, I think we have a lot of upside in the future with, at least, the way I see the business, and there's a lot of fantastic things going on here. But there's also things that I know we can work on and get answers to and find new ways to drive the business in successful ways. So it's been a really interesting three weeks, and we intend to work hard to make progress every day here. So thanks for the question.

需要明確的是，我認為至少從我的角度來看，我們未來有很多上升空間，而且這裡有很多奇妙的事情正在發生。但我知道，有些事情我們可以努力去解決，得到答案，找到新的方法來成功推動業務發展。這真是有趣的三個星期，我們打算努力每天都進步。感謝您的提問。

Jeremy Hamblin, Craig Hallam Group.

克雷格哈勒姆集團的傑里米·漢布林 (Jeremy Hamblin)。

Hey, guys. Will on for Jeremy. Thanks for taking my question. I'm just curious about the progress you've made with the private label penetration. And then as a follow up, I'm wondering if you can share how the private labels are performing versus the rest of the business. And then maybe any specific categories or items you've seen the strongest response to so far? Thanks.

嘿，大家好。將會代替傑里米。感謝您回答我的問題。我只是好奇你們在自有品牌滲透方面的進展。然後作為後續問題，我想知道您是否可以分享一下自有品牌相對於其他業務的表現。那麼到目前為止，您看到過最強迴響的特定類別或項目嗎？謝謝。

Yes, happy to chat a little about that. So overall, pleased with the performance of a private-label product that we've introduced so far. Customers responded positively. And while it's still a small portion of our business, a lot of these items are becoming top sellers in their categories. We launched about 180 items by the end of last year. That's ahead of our original plan when we were thinking more 100. We'll launch another 150 or so this year as well.

是的，很高興聊一下這件事。總體而言，我對我們迄今為止推出的自有品牌產品的表現感到滿意。顧客反應積極。儘管這仍只是我們業務的一小部分，但許多此類產品已成為其類別的暢銷品。截至去年年底，我們推出了約 180 個產品。這比我們最初計劃的 100 個以上還要早。我們今年還將推出另外 150 款左右。

In addition, we think we're hitting the mark on better value to the customer, more consistent inventory, which is something our customers have told us they want. And these initial products are delivering some margin incrementality as well over some of the items that they're replacing. So that's benefiting both Grocery Outlet and our operators.

此外，我們認為我們在為客戶提供更高價值、庫存更一致方面達到了目標，而這正是客戶告訴我們他們想要的。這些初始產品與其所取代的部分產品相比，也帶來了一些利潤增量。這對 Grocery Outlet 和我們的經營者都有利。

In the future, plan to introduce -- continue to introduce items, differentiated items as well. Right now, we're focused a lot on core necessities, but we'll continue to put in some differentiated items that we think can add to the treasure hunt experience even more as we continue to grow this area of the business.

未來計畫繼續推出新品，以及差異化新品。目前，我們主要專注於核心必需品，但隨著我們繼續發展這一業務領域，我們將繼續投入一些差異化物品，我們認為這些物品可以進一步增強尋寶體驗。

Jacob Aiken-Phillips, Melius Research.

Jacob Aiken-Phillips，Melius Research。

Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. I wanted to ask another one on the unit growth. So I understood that about 20 stores were reduced this year in the new markets, but I'm curious how you're thinking about building up the pipeline for new stores in -- to the future beyond 2025? What's the timeline for that? And then also, I assume that there's a pipeline for independent operators. How is that affected, and what's the pipeline for building up that as well?

大家好。午安.我還想問另一個關於單位成長的問題。因此，據我了解，今年新市場中大約減少了 20 家門市，但我很好奇，您如何考慮在 2025 年以後建立新店通路？時間表是怎樣的？而且我還假設存在一條針對獨立運營商的管道。這會產生什麼影響？建立這機制的管道是什麼？

Yes, pipeline's healthy on both sides. Obviously, we had access to what we needed to open for '25 and '26, so we did the reduction. I think the gate that we're going to go through is execution, and we're going to have to test some things. We've got some things underway. We reduced some of the, I'd say, non-adjacent markets so that execution risk goes down and performance goes up. So those will play out this year.

是的，兩側的管道都很健康。顯然，我們擁有 25 年和 26 年開業所需的一切，因此我們進行了削減。我認為我們要邁過的門檻就是執行，而且我們必須測試一些東西。我們正在進行一些事情。我們減少了一些不相鄰的市場，這樣執行風險就降低了，業績也上升了。這些都將會在今年實現。

Relative to IOs, it's still far north on the top end of the funnel of what we need if we're recruiting approximately 100 operators a year or so. Selectivity should be the name of the game in drawing in the most capable operators, training them, and deploying them successfully. But I would say, no issues on the top-line funnel for either new storage, real estate, nor operators. This is all about what we're going to execute, what we're going to choose to do so that we can improve the ROIC in the model.

相對於 IO，如果我們每年招募大約 100 名營運商，那麼它仍然處於我們所需管道的頂端。在吸引最有能力的作戰人員、訓練他們並成功部署時，選擇性應該是關鍵。但我想說，無論是新儲存、房地產還是營運商，營收管道都沒有問題。這完全取決於我們要執行的操作、我們要選擇執行的操作，以便能夠改善模型中的 ROIC。

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to pass the call back over to Eric for any closing remarks.

謝謝。目前沒有其他問題。我想將電話轉回給 Eric，讓他做最後發言。

Thanks, Haley. Thanks, everyone, for your questions, your input, your interest. I'm really excited to spend some more time with you and Chris and Jason. So we will be on with you in a few moments with follow-up calls. So thank you, operator. Thanks, everyone. Bye-bye.

謝謝，海莉。謝謝大家的提問、意見和興趣。我非常高興能與您、克里斯和傑森一起度過更多時光。因此，我們稍後會繼續與您進行後續電話溝通。所以謝謝你，接線生。謝謝大家。再見。

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的電話會議到此結束。現在您可以斷開您的線路。感謝您的參與。