Helen of Troy Ltd (HELE) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to Helen of Troy Limited Third Quarter Fiscal '23 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Jack Jancin, Senior Vice President of Corporate Business Development. Thank you. You may begin.

你好。歡迎來到 Helen of Troy Limited 第三季度 23 財年收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在錄製此會議。我現在將會議轉交給公司業務發展高級副總裁 Jack Jancin。謝謝你。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Helen of Troy Third Quarter Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. The agenda for the call this morning is as follows: I'll begin with a brief discussion of forward-looking statements. Mr. Julien Mininberg, the company's CEO; and Noel Geoffroy, the company's COO, will comment on business performance of the quarter, Project Pegasus and current trends. Then Mr. Matt Osberg, the company's CFO, will review the financials in more detail and provide an update on our financial outlook for fiscal 2023.

謝謝你，運營商。大家早上好，歡迎來到海倫特洛伊 2023 財年第三季度收益電話會議。今天上午的電話會議議程如下：首先我將簡要討論前瞻性陳述。公司CEO Julien Mininberg先生；公司首席運營官 Noel Geoffroy 將對本季度的經營業績、Project Pegasus 和當前趨勢發表評論。然後，公司首席財務官 Matt Osberg 先生將更詳細地審查財務狀況，並提供我們 2023 財年財務展望的最新信息。

Following this, we will take questions you have for us today. This conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectation with respect to future events or financial performance. Generally, the words anticipates, believes, expects, in other words similar are words identifying forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause anticipated results to differ materially from the actual results. This conference call may also include information that may be considered non-GAAP financial information. These non-GAAP measures are not an alternative to GAAP financial information and may be calculated differently than the non-GAAP financial information disclosed by other parties. The company cautions listeners not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or non-GAAP information.

在此之後，我們將回答您今天向我們提出的問題。本次電話會議可能包含某些基於管理層當前對未來事件或財務業績的預期的前瞻性陳述。一般來說，預期、相信、期望，換句話說，相似是識別前瞻性陳述的詞。前瞻性陳述受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致預期結果與實際結果存在重大差異。此電話會議還可能包含可能被視為非 GAAP 財務信息的信息。這些非 GAAP 措施不能替代 GAAP 財務信息，並且計算方法可能與其他方披露的非 GAAP 財務信息不同。公司提醒聽眾不要過分依賴前瞻性陳述或非 GAAP 信息。

Before I turn the call over to Mr. Mininberg, I'd like to inform all interested parties that a copy of today's earnings release has been posted to the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.helenoftroy.com. The earnings release contains tables that reconcile non-GAAP financial measures to their corresponding GAAP-based measures. The release can be obtained by selecting the Investor Relations tab on the company's homepage and then the Press Releases tab. I will now turn the conference call over to Mr. Mininberg.

在我將電話轉給 Mininberg 先生之前，我想通知所有感興趣的各方，今天的收益發布副本已發佈到公司網站 www.helenoftroy.com 的投資者關係部分。收益發布包含將非 GAAP 財務指標與其相應的基於 GAAP 的指標相協調的表格。可以通過選擇公司主頁上的“投資者關係”選項卡，然後選擇“新聞稿”選項卡來獲取新聞稿。我現在將電話會議轉交給 Mininberg 先生。

Thank you, Jack. Good morning, and thanks to everyone for joining us. Today, I would like to provide you with an update on Project Pegasus, discuss our third quarter results, and the consumer and retail trends we saw during the quarter. As discussed in our October call, Pegasus is a comprehensive restructuring program launched this past summer with the goals of significantly strengthening and accelerating our platform for operating margin expansion, reducing inventory, improving ROIC and improving cash flow. Pegasus is a multiyear initiative with a 3-year arc designed not only to improve profitability but also provide additional investment fuel to more efficiently leverage our proven value creation flywheel as we return to growth.

謝謝你，傑克。早上好，感謝大家加入我們。今天，我想向您介紹 Project Pegasus 的最新情況，討論我們第三季度的業績，以及我們在本季度看到的消費者和零售趨勢。正如我們在 10 月份的電話會議中所討論的那樣，Pegasus 是去年夏天啟動的一項全面重組計劃，其目標是顯著加強和加速我們的運營利潤率擴張平台、減少庫存、提高 ROIC 和改善現金流。 Pegasus 是一項為期 3 年的多年計劃，旨在不僅提高盈利能力，而且提供額外的投資燃料，以便在我們恢復增長時更有效地利用我們久經考驗的價值創造飛輪。

Pegasus goes well beyond the typical belt tightening exercise with the macro environment not indicative of a rapid reacceleration due to higher inflation, higher interest rates, uncertainty about the future financial health of consumers and foreign exchange headwinds, we used this summer to take a hard look at ourselves. We zeroed in on ways to accelerate efficiency projects already underway and identify a comprehensive set of new savings opportunities. The key initiatives in Pegasus include optimizing our brand portfolio, accelerating and amplifying cost of goods savings projects, enhancing the efficiency of our supply chain and distribution network, optimizing our indirect spending, streamlining and simplifying the organization and reducing inventory.

由於通貨膨脹率上升、利率上升、消費者未來財務狀況的不確定性以及外匯逆風，Pegasus 遠遠超出了宏觀環境的典型緊縮措施，我們在今年夏天認真審視了這一情況在我們自己。我們專注於加速已經在進行的能效項目並確定一系列全面的新節約機會的方法。 Pegasus 的主要舉措包括優化我們的品牌組合、加速和擴大商品成本節約項目、提高我們的供應鍊和分銷網絡的效率、優化我們的間接支出、精簡和簡化組織以及減少庫存。

Pegasus also includes initiatives to return to operating margin expansion and improve our organic growth rates. Over the past few months, we have made significant progress. All work streams are underway, leaders and teams are in place and they're focused on speed and on executional excellence. I have asked our Chief Operating Officer, Noel Geoffroy, who walked through that progress. Beyond Pegasus, Noel is also working closely with the business segments and operations, so she will also join Matt and I in the question-and-answer section on both Pegasus and the business segments.

Pegasus 還包括恢復營業利潤率擴張和提高有機增長率的舉措。在過去的幾個月裡，我們取得了重大進展。所有工作流程都在進行中，領導者和團隊都已到位，他們專注於速度和卓越執行。我問過我們的首席運營官 Noel Geoffroy，他介紹了這一進展。除了 Pegasus，Noel 還與業務部門和運營部門密切合作，因此她也將與 Matt 和我一起參與 Pegasus 和業務部門的問答部分。

Thanks, Julien. Today, we are sharing details on the progress across several Pegasus initiatives, including streamlining and simplifying the organization, optimizing our brand portfolio and further sharpening our investment choices. Specifically on the organization, we are announcing 3 major structural changes. The first is to consolidate from 3 business segments to 2. The second is to create a North American regional market organization that will be responsible for sales and go-to-market for the United States and Canada. And the third is to further centralize our global shared services for operations and finance. Let's go through each of the 3 areas.

謝謝，朱利安。今天，我們將分享 Pegasus 多項計劃的進展細節，包括精簡和簡化組織、優化我們的品牌組合以及進一步明確我們的投資選擇。具體在組織方面，我們宣布了 3 項主要的結構變化。一是將3個業務板塊整合為2個。二是創建北美區域市場組織，負責美國和加拿大的銷售和上市。第三是進一步集中我們的全球運營和財務共享服務。讓我們逐一瀏覽這 3 個區域。

Starting with the consolidation from 3 business segments to 2. We are combining our current Health and Wellness and Beauty segments into one and renaming it, Beauty and Wellness. Our other business segment will continue to be Home and Outdoor. Both segments will be even more focused on delighting consumers with outstanding brands and products that people trust and adore. They will retain and use their deep understanding of the brands, consumers and competitors in each category focusing on developing even more outstanding consumer-centric innovation and marketing programs that will further differentiate our world-class brands. The second major organizational change is to create a North American regional market organization, very similar to the RMOs we already operate in EMEA, Latin America and Asia Pacific. The new North American RMO will capture the benefits of increased focus on sales and go-to-market with further retention to shoppers in the United States and Canada. The North American RMO will also create new savings and new capabilities, both externally and internally.

從 3 個業務部門合併為 2 個業務部門開始。我們正在將我們目前的健康與保健和美容部門合併為一個，並將其重新命名為美容與保健。我們的其他業務部門將繼續是家庭和戶外。這兩個細分市場將更加專注於以人們信任和喜愛的傑出品牌和產品取悅消費者。他們將保留並利用他們對每個類別中的品牌、消費者和競爭對手的深刻理解，專注於開發更出色的以消費者為中心的創新和營銷計劃，進一步區分我們的世界級品牌。第二個主要的組織變革是創建一個北美區域市場組織，與我們已經在歐洲、中東和非洲、拉丁美洲和亞太地區運營的 RMO 非常相似。新的北美 RMO 將獲得更多關註銷售和上市的好處，並進一步留住美國和加拿大的購物者。北美 RMO 還將在外部和內部創造新的儲蓄和新的能力。

Like our other RMOs, the North American RMO will be responsible for go-to-market activation on all brands and channels. We'll capitalize on the scale of Helen of Troy's diversified brand portfolio and leverage the strong strategic customer relationships we have worked so hard to build over many years. New savings will come from increased speed, eliminating duplication, streamlining interfaces with shared service functions, and standardizing processes. The North American RMO is being staffed with an emphasis on continuity of key sales leaders and maintaining the needed category and channel specialization in areas such as Outdoors and Prestige Beauty where there is less overlap. There will be no change to the international RMO and they will continue to be led by our President of International.

與我們的其他 RMO 一樣，北美 RMO 將負責所有品牌和渠道的上市激活。我們將利用 Helen of Troy 多元化品牌組合的規模，並利用我們多年來努力建立的強大戰略客戶關係。新的節省將來自提高速度、消除重複、簡化具有共享服務功能的接口以及標準化流程。北美 RMO 的工作人員重點是關鍵銷售領導的連續性，並在戶外和 Prestige Beauty 等重疊較少的領域保持所需的類別和渠道專業化。國際 RMO 不會有任何變化，他們將繼續由我們的國際總裁領導。

The third change is to further centralize operations and finance. This is a continuation of the theme of shared service centralization we started in Phase 1 for IT, Legal and HR. As always, our shared services are designed to support our business segments and RMOs with their expertise to gain speed and efficiencies from applying best practices, eliminate duplication, standardize processes, streamline interfaces and better leverage scale. We are further centralizing operations under our Chief of Global Operations, who will now own all sourcing and supplier relationship and will create a center of excellence on supply and demand planning to help improve forecast accuracy and inventory management.

第三個變化是進一步集中經營和財務。這是我們在第 1 階段開始的 IT、法律和人力資源共享服務集中化主題的延續。一如既往，我們的共享服務旨在通過他們的專業知識支持我們的業務部門和 RMO，以通過應用最佳實踐、消除重複、標準化流程、簡化接口和更好地利用規模來提高速度和效率。我們進一步將運營集中在我們的全球運營總監之下，他現在將擁有所有採購和供應商關係，並將創建一個卓越的供需計劃中心，以幫助提高預測準確性和庫存管理。

In finance, we are reconfiguring our finance leadership support to match our new organization structure, centralizing our global accounting function and aligning reporting for the full global finance organization under our CFO all at a reduced headcount versus today. The new structure will reduce the size of our global workforce with impact across all business segments, departments and shared services. Our overall global workforce will shrink by approximately 10%. The majority of the role reductions will be completed by March 1, and the savings will largely be realized in fiscal '24. Nearly all the rest will be completed before the end of fiscal '24. We did not take this decision lightly. Our global leadership team has worked very carefully on the new organizational structure and on the specific staffing for each role. We all have immense respect and gratitude for the highly talented associates who will be leaving us.

在財務方面，我們正在重新配置我們的財務領導支持以匹配我們新的組織結構，集中我們的全球會計職能，並在我們的首席財務官的領導下調整整個全球財務組織的報告，所有這些都與今天相比減少了人數。新結構將縮減我們全球員工隊伍的規模，並對所有業務部門、部門和共享服務產生影響。我們的全球員工總數將縮減約 10%。大部分裁員將在 3 月 1 日完成，節省的資金將在 24 財年大部分實現。幾乎所有其他項目都將在 24 財年結束前完成。我們沒有輕易做出這個決定。我們的全球領導團隊在新的組織結構和每個角色的具體人員配置方面都非常謹慎。對於即將離開我們的才華橫溢的員工，我們都懷著無比的敬意和感激之情。

We have been careful to ensure continuity of leadership and expertise in the new organizational design. The 2 business segments, International and the new North American RMO will each be led by proven current presidents who will continue to report to me. Nearly all shared service functions, including operations, finance, IT, legal and corporate business development will operate under the current proven leaders who served with me on Julien's global leadership team.

我們一直小心翼翼地確保新組織設計中領導力和專業知識的連續性。國際和新的北美 RMO 這兩個業務部門將分別由久經考驗的現任總裁領導，他們將繼續向我匯報工作。幾乎所有共享服務職能，包括運營、財務、IT、法律和公司業務發展，都將在與我一起在 Julien 全球領導團隊中任職的現任領導者的領導下運作。

Turning now to our initiatives to optimize our brand portfolio. We have 3 specific Pegasus work streams to highlight. They include sharpening our discretionary spending choices, SKU rationalization, and assessing which brands might be good candidates to exit. As always, our objective is a portfolio with faster growth than fleet average, better ROIs on our spend and higher margins. While it is still too early to share our specific choices today, here is an update on each. The first action focuses on making more targeted investment choices, investing disproportionately in businesses that deliver superior value as differentiated market leaders with higher margins that have the most compelling growth adjacencies and that are the most asset efficient. Under Pegasus, we are creating more rigorous tools to better determine which brand's innovations and channels will get the most focus and support, which ones to maintain a steady performers and which ones will receive less focus.

現在談談我們優化品牌組合的舉措。我們有 3 個特定的 Pegasus 工作流要強調。它們包括加強我們的可自由支配支出選擇、SKU 合理化以及評估哪些品牌可能是退出的良好候選者。一如既往，我們的目標是打造一個增長速度快於機隊平均水平、支出投資回報率更高和利潤率更高的投資組合。雖然今天分享我們的具體選擇還為時過早，但這裡是每一個的更新。第一個行動側重於做出更有針對性的投資選擇，不成比例地投資於提供卓越價值的企業，這些企業作為差異化的市場領導者俱有更高的利潤率，具有最引人注目的相鄰增長和最具資產效率。在 Pegasus 的領導下，我們正在創建更嚴格的工具，以更好地確定哪些品牌的創新和渠道將獲得最多的關注和支持，哪些將保持穩定的表現，哪些將獲得較少的關注。

The second action is a Pegasus work stream focused on simplifying our SKU assortment by prioritizing better selling items that have the highest growth potential and best margins. This includes eliminating hidden costs and long-tail complexity to improve the efficiency of assets such as inventory, distribution centers, new product development teams and supply chain teams. We believe these first 2 actions will translate into more robust support for our highest potential brands and a more efficient product assortment for omnichannel distribution. The third action area is acquisition and divestiture. We have demonstrated our ability to use accretive acquisitions to enter new growth areas where we can add value. We have also demonstrated our ability to divest good businesses that were no longer a long-term priority for Helen of Troy or shutdown significant underperformers. We will update you with specific news as this evolves under Pegasus. Now let me turn the call back to Julien to discuss the third quarter and the external trends we are seeing.

第二項行動是 Pegasus 工作流，重點是通過優先考慮具有最高增長潛力和最佳利潤的暢銷商品來簡化我們的 SKU 分類。這包括消除隱藏成本和長尾複雜性，以提高庫存、配送中心、新產品開發團隊和供應鏈團隊等資產的效率。我們相信，這前兩項行動將轉化為對我們最具潛力的品牌的更強有力支持，以及為全渠道分銷提供更有效的產品分類。第三個行動領域是收購和資產剝離。我們已經證明了我們有能力利用增值收購進入我們可以增加價值的新增長領域。我們還證明了我們有能力剝離不再是特洛伊的海倫長期優先考慮的優秀業務，或關閉表現不佳的重要業務。隨著 Pegasus 的發展，我們將向您更新具體消息。現在讓我把電話轉回 Julien，討論第三季度和我們看到的外部趨勢。

Thanks, Noel. Our third quarter financial performance was better than the outlook we provided in October. The result was primarily due to higher sales from what has so far been an above average cold and flu season and some pull forward of sales from the fourth quarter into the third quarter of this fiscal year. On a fiscal year-to-date basis, core's net sales are up 33% on a 3-year stack versus the pre-COVID base of fiscal year '20. Over those same 9 months, core adjusted and diluted earnings per share is up 6.6% on a 3-year stack despite the negative impact this fiscal year from inflation, higher interest rates and lower operating leverage.

謝謝，諾埃爾。我們第三季度的財務業績好於我們在 10 月份提供的展望。這一結果主要是由於迄今為止高於平均水平的感冒和流感季節的銷售額增加，以及本財年第四季度和第三季度的銷售額有所增加。從年初至今的財政年度來看，Core 的 3 年淨銷售額與 20 財政年度 COVID 前的基數相比增長了 33%。在這同樣的 9 個月裡，儘管本財年受到通貨膨脹、利率上升和經營槓桿下降的負面影響，核心調整後和攤薄後的每股收益在 3 年內增長了 6.6%。

During the third quarter, consumers continued to tighten their purchasing patterns in some categories in response to high inflation and higher interest rates. As consumption slowed, some retailers continued their conservative repurchase patterns to further reduce their inventory. Our promotions across online and in-store channels were slightly elevated on certain parts of our business, such as Beauty and Health and Wellness, helping to support the consumer trends we are seeing and helping our retail partners better reach their inventory reduction goals. The holiday season started off slower than expected with discretionary categories generally under pressure from these trends. In some categories, performance improved in late December, ending largely in line with our expectations.

第三季度，消費者繼續收緊某些類別的購買模式，以應對高通脹和高利率。隨著消費放緩，一些零售商繼續採用保守的回購模式，以進一步減少庫存。我們在某些業務領域（例如美容、健康和保健）的在線和店內渠道促銷活動略有提升，有助於支持我們看到的消費趨勢，並幫助我們的零售合作夥伴更好地實現他們的庫存減少目標。假日季的開局比預期的要慢，可自由支配的類別普遍受到這些趨勢的壓力。在某些類別中，12 月底的業績有所改善，大致符合我們的預期。

Looking at our business segments, I'll start with Health and Wellness. As highlighted in the media, there has been a marked increase in the various viruses that cause the symptoms our products help relieve such as fever, coughs, runny noses, congestion and sore throat. While it was still early in the season during our third quarter, we are seeing elevated incidents of these conditions from cold, flu and the latest Omicron COVID subvariants. Symptoms this year have further been raised by a surge of other respiratory infections in both children and adults. The result has been strong sell-through of our thermometers, humidifiers and inhalants under the Vicks and Braun brands. Since U.S. retailers generally had sufficient inventory on hand from last season, elevated incidents did not translate into year-over-year shipment growth during our third quarter, but it did quickly reduce inventory for our major retailer customers and even led to out of stocks for some, especially in humidifiers. Internationally, we saw shipment growth, especially in thermometers.

看看我們的業務部門，我將從健康和保健開始。正如媒體所強調的那樣，導致我們的產品幫助緩解症狀的各種病毒顯著增加，例如發燒、咳嗽、流鼻涕、充血和喉嚨痛。雖然在我們的第三季度仍處於季節初期，但我們看到感冒、流感和最新的 Omicron COVID 亞變體引起的這些情況的事件有所增加。今年的症狀因兒童和成人中其他呼吸道感染的激增而進一步加劇。結果是我們的 Vicks 和 Braun 品牌的溫度計、加濕器和吸入器銷量強勁。由於美國零售商從上個季度開始通常手頭有足夠的庫存，因此事件增加並沒有轉化為我們第三季度的同比出貨量增長，但它確實迅速減少了我們主要零售商客戶的庫存，甚至導致缺貨一些，特別是在加濕器中。在國際上，我們看到出貨量增長，尤其是溫度計。

As we start the fourth quarter, replenishment orders from retailers have been much stronger, especially on humidifiers and we are forecasting strong shipments of our cold and cough-related products this quarter. The exact amount will depend on how long symptoms persist, how aggressively retailers replenish and our ability to serve the increased demand. Turning to Home & Outdoor. Total sales, including Osprey, declined 7% versus a very tough comparison to the prior year when the segment grew 10.7%.

隨著第四季度的開始，零售商的補貨訂單強勁得多，尤其是加濕器，我們預測本季度感冒和咳嗽相關產品的出貨量強勁。確切的數量將取決於症狀持續的時間、零售商補貨的積極程度以及我們滿足不斷增長的需求的能力。轉向家庭和戶外。包括 Osprey 在內的總銷售額下降了 7%，而去年該部門增長了 10.7%。

OXO continues to see POS below peak prior year levels at brick-and-mortar as the overall home category continued to slow. Importantly, total POS for OXO remains solidly ahead of pre-pandemic levels as we focused on our marketing to introduce the brand to new consumers. OXO performed very well at our largest online retailer during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period. Hydro Flask continues to hold its #1 position at our largest online retailer, where sales almost doubled during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period compared to the same period last year. This helped to offset the broader POS decline at brick-and-mortar in the quarter.

隨著整體住宅類別繼續放緩，OXO 繼續看到實體店的 POS 低於去年的峰值水平。重要的是，由於我們專注於營銷以將品牌介紹給新消費者，因此 OXO 的總 POS 仍然遠遠領先於大流行前的水平。 OXO 在黑色星期五和網絡星期一期間在我們最大的在線零售商中表現出色。 Hydro Flask 繼續在我們最大的在線零售商中佔據第一的位置，與去年同期相比，黑色星期五和網絡星期一期間的銷售額幾乎翻了一番。這有助於抵消本季度實體店 POS 的更廣泛下滑。

Turning to Beauty. Core segment sales declined 12.2% in the third quarter. Primary driver was the overall Beauty appliance category decline from the high base of fiscal '22 in both online and the U.S. mass merchandisers, it was partially offset by some pull forward of orders in the third quarter ahead of this year's holiday period. Even though consumers continue to trade down to lower-priced appliances, our market share is at the largest online retailer and the brick-and-mortar retailers that make up the majority of our sales are now showing growth over the past 52 weeks. The Revlon One-Step Volumizer continues to be, by far, the #1 selling item in the category, selling at twice the rate of the #2 seller across nearly all retail customers. In Prestige liquids, which are among our most profitable businesses, both Drybar and Curlsmith achieved solid performance.

轉向美容。第三季度核心部門銷售額下降 12.2%。主要驅動因素是在線和美國大型零售商的整體美容電器類別從 22 財年的高基數下降，但部分被今年假期前第三季度訂單的一些提前所抵消。儘管消費者繼續購買價格較低的電器，但我們的市場份額是最大的在線零售商，占我們銷售額大部分的實體零售商在過去 52 週內呈現增長態勢。到目前為止，Revlon One-Step Volumizer 仍然是該類別中銷量第一的商品，在幾乎所有零售客戶中的銷量是排名第二的賣家的兩倍。在 Prestige 液體業務中，這是我們最賺錢的業務之一，Drybar 和 Curlsmith 都取得了穩健的業績。

Turning to International. Results were ahead of expectations with net sales up 15.3% and particular strength in EMEA and Asia. Contributions from the acquisitions of Osprey and Curlsmith were the main drivers. All 3 Home and Outdoor brands performed above expectations internationally with Osprey doing very well in Europe. Braun outperformed as we were able to partially overcome supply shortages to help meet the increased thermometer demand in EMEA and in Asia. Regarding Pegasus, I would like to say that the workforce reduction we announced today is one of the hardest things I have done in my entire career. We have an exceptional team and a team that has delivered outstanding results over many years. My respect for the people who will be leaving us and the work that they have done is immense, as is my gratitude. Changes we are announcing today are the right ones. They are a natural evolution of the major themes we have been focused on from the start of our transformation. While change is never easy, I want to reiterate how encouraged I am about the progress on all of the Pegasus work streams.

轉向國際。結果超出預期，淨銷售額增長 15.3%，歐洲、中東和非洲和亞洲表現尤為強勁。收購 Osprey 和 Curlsmith 的貢獻是主要驅動因素。所有 3 個家居和戶外品牌在國際上的表現均超出預期，其中 Osprey 在歐洲的表現非常出色。 Braun 表現出色，因為我們能夠部分克服供應短缺，幫助滿足 EMEA 和亞洲不斷增長的溫度計需求。關於 Pegasus，我想說我們今天宣布的裁員是我整個職業生涯中做過的最艱難的事情之一。我們擁有一支卓越的團隊，以及一支多年來取得優異成績的團隊。我對即將離開我們的人以及他們所做的工作表示敬意，我也非常感激。我們今天宣布的變化是正確的。它們是我們從轉型之初就關注的主要主題的自然演變。雖然改變絕非易事，但我想重申我對所有 Pegasus 工作流的進展感到多麼鼓舞。

Helen of Troy has an outstanding track record of adapting to change and transforming itself with significant positive results. We have done it 3 times in the recent past, has proven in Phase 1 of our transformation, as demonstrated further in the first 3 years of Phase 2, both before and also during the pandemic and in our Beauty segment under the Refuel initiative. Rather than grind through the present challenges, we greatly prefer to proactively shape our future through Pegasus and then build on it with Phase 3. With regard to timing, we see fiscal '24 as a transition year. From a macro standpoint, we see a very challenging near-term economic backdrop. We are focused on Pegasus on launching our pipeline of consumer-centric innovation, on executing our commercial plans for fiscal '24. The faster we secure our Pegasus efficiencies, the more that we can invest in accelerating revenue growth and building market share for our most promising brands.

特洛伊的海倫在適應變化和自我改造方面有著出色的記錄，並取得了顯著的積極成果。我們在最近的過去做了 3 次，在我們轉型的第一階段得到了證明，正如在大流行之前和期間的第二階段的前 3 年以及 Refuel 計劃下的美容部門進一步證明的那樣。我們更願意通過 Pegasus 積極塑造我們的未來，然後在第 3 階段的基礎上再接再厲，而不是克服當前的挑戰。關於時間安排，我們將 24 財年視為過渡年。從宏觀角度來看，我們看到了一個非常具有挑戰性的近期經濟背景。我們專注於 Pegasus 啟動我們以消費者為中心的創新管道，執行我們 24 財年的商業計劃。我們越快確保 Pegasus 效率，我們就越能投資於加速收入增長和為我們最有前途的品牌建立市場份額。

With the largest portion of Pegasus savings slated for realization in fiscal '25, we expect to generate fuel to invest in the value creation flywheel further. As we execute the full suite of Pegasus initiatives over the 3-year arc, I am confident we can return to growth on the top line, lower our input costs, expand operating margins, improve cash flow and further reduce inventory. I look forward to sharing further progress on Pegasus as well as our fiscal '24 outlook when we report our fourth quarter results on our normal timing in late April. And with that, I'd like to hand the call over to Matt.

由於計劃在 25 財年實現 Pegasus 節省的最大部分，我們預計將產生燃料以進一步投資於價值創造飛輪。隨著我們在 3 年內執行全套 Pegasus 計劃，我相信我們可以恢復收入增長，降低投入成本，擴大營業利潤率，改善現金流並進一步減少庫存。當我們在 4 月底的正常時間報告第四季度業績時，我期待分享 Pegasus 的進一步進展以及我們的 24 財年展望。有了這個，我想把電話轉給馬特。

Thank you, Julien, and good morning, everyone. I would like to begin with an overview of our third quarter results, then review our updated fiscal '23 outlook, provide an update on Project Pegasus and conclude with some high-level thoughts on fiscal '24. Looking at the third quarter, results were ahead of our expectations as we benefited from a more severe start to the cough, cold and flu season, driving higher-than-expected sales in certain health-related categories such as thermometry and humidification as well as the benefit of the shift of approximately $10 million of sales that occurred in the third quarter that were forecasted to occur in the fourth quarter and lower interest expense.

謝謝朱利安，大家早上好。我想首先概述我們的第三季度業績，然後回顧我們更新的 23 財年展望，提供 Pegasus 項目的最新情況，並以對 24 財年的一些高層思考作為結尾。展望第三季度，業績超出了我們的預期，因為我們受益於咳嗽、感冒和流感季節開始時更為嚴重，推動了某些與健康相關的類別（例如測溫加濕器）的銷售額高於預期，以及受益於第三季度發生的約 1000 萬美元的銷售額（預計將在第四季度發生）和較低的利息支出。

These factors were partially offset by holiday selling season that did not start off as strong as expected as macroeconomic pressures continue to impact consumer purchasing behavior, a more unfavorable gross profit margin, particularly in Beauty and Health and Wellness and a higher effective tax rate. Our consolidated net sales decreased 10.6% in the quarter as organic sales were impacted by lower consumer demand, unfavorable shifts in consumer spending patterns and reduced orders from retail customers due to higher trade inventory levels.

由於宏觀經濟壓力繼續影響消費者的購買行為、更不利的毛利率（尤其是美容、健康和保健領域）以及更高的有效稅率，這些因素部分抵消了假日銷售旺季的開局不如預期。我們的綜合淨銷售額在本季度下降了 10.6%，這是因為有機銷售額受到消費者需求下降、消費者支出模式的不利轉變以及零售客戶訂單因較高的貿易庫存水平而減少的影響。

The net sales comparison was also unfavorably impacted at a pull forward of approximately $15 million into the third quarter of last year as retailers accelerated orders to try to avoid supply chain disruption during the holiday season. The contributions of Osprey and Curlsmith partially offset the decline in organic sales. GAAP consolidated operating margin for the quarter was 13.8% of net sales. On an adjusted basis, operating margin declined by 0.4 percentage points to 16.6%, primarily driven by unfavorable operating leverage, the unfavorable impact of less Beauty segment sales within our consolidated net sales revenue and a less favorable product mix within the Home & Outdoor segment due to the acquisition of Osprey.

淨銷售額比較也受到不利影響，去年第三季度提前約 1500 萬美元，原因是零售商加快訂單以避免節日期間供應鏈中斷。 Osprey 和 Curlsmith 的貢獻部分抵消了有機銷售額的下降。本季度 GAAP 綜合營業利潤率為淨銷售額的 13.8%。在調整後的基礎上，營業利潤率下降 0.4 個百分點至 16.6%，這主要是由於不利的經營槓桿、我們綜合淨銷售收入中美容部門銷售額減少的不利影響以及家居和戶外部門的產品組合較差的不利影響所致收購 Osprey。

These items were partially offset by higher gross margin due to a more favorable customer mix within the Home & Outdoor segment and a more favorable product mix within the Beauty segment primarily due to the acquisition of Curlsmith as well as lower annual incentive compensation expense.

這些項目被較高的毛利率部分抵消，原因是家居和戶外部門的客戶組合更有利，美容部門的產品組合更有利，這主要是由於收購 Curlsmith 以及較低的年度激勵補償費用。

Net income was $51.8 million or $2.15 per diluted share. Non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS decreased 26.1% to $2.75 primarily due to lower adjusted operating income, higher interest expense and an increase in the effective income tax rate, partially offset by lower weighted average diluted shares outstanding. We generated $125 million of operating cash flow in the third quarter, primarily driven by a sequential decline in our inventory levels from the end of the second quarter of $106 million.

淨收入為 5180 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 2.15 美元。非 GAAP 調整後攤薄每股收益下降 26.1% 至 2.75 美元，這主要是由於調整後營業收入下降、利息支出增加以及有效所得稅率上升，部分被較低的加權平均攤薄流通股所抵消。我們在第三季度產生了 1.25 億美元的運營現金流，這主要是由於我們的庫存水平比第二季度末的 1.06 億美元連續下降。

We are now at lower inventory levels than the end of fiscal '22 and we continue to expect a further decline in inventory in the fourth quarter. Our new expectation is to reach approximately $500 million of inventory by the end of fiscal '23.

我們現在的庫存水平低於 22 財年末，我們繼續預計第四季度庫存將進一步下降。我們的新預期是到 23 財年末庫存達到約 5 億美元。

Even with this accelerated improvement in inventory levels versus our previous expectations, we continue to expect slightly negative free cash flow for the full fiscal year. We ended the quarter with total debt of $1.08 billion, a decrease of $89.3 million from the second quarter as we used our positive cash flow to pay down our debt. This brought our net leverage ratio down to 3.1x compared to 3.16x at the end of the second quarter. We continue to expect our leverage ratio to decline in the fourth quarter and to end fiscal '23 with a leverage ratio in the range of 2.75 to 3.0x.

即使庫存水平比我們之前的預期加速改善，我們仍然預計整個財政年度的自由現金流量會略微為負。我們在本季度結束時的總債務為 10.8 億美元，比第二季度減少了 8930 萬美元，因為我們使用正現金流來償還債務。這使我們的淨槓桿率從第二季度末的 3.16 倍降至 3.1 倍。我們繼續預計我們的槓桿率將在第四季度下降，並以 2.75 至 3.0 倍的槓桿率結束 23 財年。

Now turning to our revised outlook for the current fiscal year. As outlined in our earnings release, we have raised the lower end of our full year outlook for fiscal '23 for both sales and adjusted diluted EPS while maintaining the top end of the range. Given the volatility and uncertainty we have experienced this year, coupled with the current trends in the market, we remain cautious in our outlook for the fourth quarter.

現在轉向我們對當前財政年度的修訂展望。正如我們在收益報告中所概述的那樣，我們已經提高了 23 財年銷售額和調整後攤薄每股收益的全年展望的下限，同時保持了該範圍的上限。鑑於我們今年經歷的波動和不確定性，再加上當前的市場趨勢，我們對第四季度的前景保持謹慎。

The consumer continues to feel the impact of inflation, and as we have seen during the holiday period, was seeking to buy discounted or promotional items. We are seeing positive signs that inventory at some key customers is beginning to rebalance, and we will continue to monitor closely as retailers finish their holiday season.

消費者繼續感受到通貨膨脹的影響，正如我們在假期期間看到的那樣，他們正在尋求購買打折或促銷商品。我們看到一些主要客戶的庫存開始重新平衡的積極跡象，隨著零售商結束假期，我們將繼續密切關注。

Our revised outlook reflects several factors, including the timing shift of sales into the third quarter versus our previous expectation of those sales occurring in the fourth quarter. Higher sales in our Beauty segment due to an improved outlook for Curlsmith and a less-than-expected category decline in hair appliances and higher sales in our Health and Wellness segment due to a more severe start to the flu season. These factors are offset by lower-than-expected consumption trends in our Home and Outdoor segment and our assumption of lower customer replenishment orders impacting the fourth quarter following the slower start to the holiday season.

我們修改後的前景反映了幾個因素，包括銷售時間轉移到第三季度，而我們之前預計這些銷售發生在第四季度。由於 Curlsmith 的前景改善以及美髮器具類別下降低於預期，我們的美容部門銷售額增加，而由於流感季節開始時更加嚴重，我們的健康和保健部門銷售額增加。這些因素被我們的家居和戶外部門低於預期的消費趨勢以及我們假設在假期開始較慢後影響第四季度的客戶補貨訂單減少所抵消。

Although we are seeing a more severe start to the flu season, it is unclear how the remainder of the season will progress. Additionally, due to our strategic initiative to decrease inventory levels and our previous expectation of a flu season in line with pre-COVID historical averages, we will be somewhat limited in our ability to supply at elevated demand levels in certain categories in the fourth quarter. Our adjusted diluted EPS outlook is being impacted by our expectations for sales, a more unfavorable gross margin, particularly in Beauty and Health and Wellness, higher marketing expense, lower interest expense and a higher effective tax rate.

儘管我們看到流感季節的開局更加嚴峻，但尚不清楚該季節剩餘時間的進展情況。此外，由於我們降低庫存水平的戰略舉措以及我們之前對流感季節與 COVID 前歷史平均水平一致的預期，我們在第四季度某些類別的高需求水平供應能力將受到一定限制。我們調整後的攤薄每股收益前景受到我們對銷售的預期、更不利的毛利率（尤其是美容、健康和健康）、更高的營銷費用、更低的利息費用和更高的有效稅率的影響。

For fiscal '23, we now expect consolidated net sales revenue in the range of $2.025 billion to $2.05 billion, which implies a consolidated decline of 8.9% to 7.8% and a core decline of 7.5% to 6.4%. By segment, we now have the following net sales expectations. Home and Outdoor growth of 2.5% to 3.5%, including net sales from Osprey of $180 million to $185 million, a Health and Wellness decline of 11% to 10% and the Beauty core business decline of 18.5% to 17.5%, including net sales from Curlsmith of $35 million to $40 million for the 10-month period of ownership in fiscal '23.

對於 23 財年，我們現在預計綜合淨銷售收入在 20.25 億美元至 20.5 億美元之間，這意味著綜合下降 8.9% 至 7.8%，核心下降 7.5% 至 6.4%。按細分市場，我們現在有以下淨銷售額預期。家居和戶外用品增長 2.5% 至 3.5%，其中 Osprey 的淨銷售額為 1.8 億美元至 1.85 億美元，健康與保健業務下降 11% 至 10%，美容核心業務下降 18.5% 至 17.5%，其中包括淨銷售額在 23 財年的 10 個月所有權期間，Curlsmith 從 3500 萬美元到 4000 萬美元。

As a reminder, the fourth quarter of last year included accelerated sales from certain retailers securing additional supply ahead of expected price increases, the favorable sales impact of health-related products from the initial Omicron wave and approximately 2 months of sales from the Osprey acquisition. Despite the macroeconomic challenges we have faced this year, we are particularly pleased to see Osprey continue to hold the sales outlook we provided at the beginning of the year and to be able to increase our sales outlook for Curlsmith.

提醒一下，去年第四季度包括某些零售商的加速銷售，確保在預期價格上漲之前獲得額外供應，健康相關產品從最初的 Omicron 浪潮中產生的有利銷售影響以及 Osprey 收購帶來的大約 2 個月的銷售。儘管我們今年面臨宏觀經濟挑戰，但我們特別高興地看到 Osprey 繼續保持我們在年初提供的銷售前景，並能夠提高我們對 Curlsmith 的銷售前景。

We now expect consolidated GAAP diluted EPS of $4.82 to $5.11 and consolidated non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $9.20 to $9.40, which implied a consolidated decline of 25.6% to 23.9% and a core decline of 24.5% to 22.8%. This includes an adjusted diluted EPS contribution from Osprey of approximately $0.35 to $0.40 and a pro rata fiscal '23 contribution from Curlsmith of approximately $0.20 to $0.25. We continue to expect to slightly expand gross margin in fiscal '23 and consolidated adjusted operating margin is now expected to decline approximately 100 to 120 basis points, with roughly the same year-over-year decline in each of our segments.

我們現在預計綜合 GAAP 攤薄每股收益為 4.82 美元至 5.11 美元，合併非 GAAP 調整後攤薄每股收益在 9.20 美元至 9.40 美元之間，這意味著綜合下降 25.6% 至 23.9%，核心下降 24.5% 至 22.8%。這包括 Osprey 調整後的攤薄每股收益約為 0.35 美元至 0.40 美元，以及 Curlsmith 按比例分配的 23 財年貢獻約為 0.20 美元至 0.25 美元。我們繼續預計 23 財年的毛利率將略有擴大，合併調整後的營業利潤率現在預計將下降約 100 至 120 個基點，我們每個部門的同比下降幅度大致相同。

The consolidated adjusted operating margin decline is expected to be driven primarily by unfavorable operating leverage, the net dilutive effect of inflationary price increases, the dilutive impact of the Osprey acquisition in the Home and Outdoor segment and an unfavorable product mix in the Health and Wellness segment. Our outlook for the estimated after-tax impact of incremental inflationary costs declined slightly to approximately $50 million to $55 million or approximately $2.10 to $2.25 of adjusted diluted EPS.

綜合調整後營業利潤率下降預計主要是由於不利的經營槓桿、通貨膨脹價格上漲的淨攤薄效應、家庭和戶外部門收購 Osprey 的攤薄影響以及健康和保健部門不利的產品組合所致.我們對增量通貨膨脹成本的估計稅後影響的前景略有下降至約 5000 萬至 5500 萬美元或調整後攤薄每股收益約 2.10 至 2.25 美元。

Our outlook for interest expense declined to approximately $42 million to $43 million, while we still expect the Fed to increase interest rates by 450 basis points in calendar year '22, we benefited from previous assumptions on the pace of rate increases, our ability to pay down debt and the forecasted amount of capitalized interest related to the construction of our new distribution center. During the quarter, we made good progress on our Project Pegasus initiatives as we reduced inventory levels, improved cash flow and advanced many other work streams that we believe will create future operating efficiencies, expand our margins and provide a platform to fund future growth investments. We believe we are on track to achieve the total savings and timing objectives that we introduced in our second quarter call and that we reiterated in today's earnings release.

我們對利息支出的預期下降至大約 4200 萬至 4300 萬美元，而我們仍然預計美聯儲將在 22 年日曆年將利率提高 450 個基點，我們受益於之前對加息步伐的假設，我們的支付能力減少債務和與我們新配送中心建設相關的資本化利息的預測金額。在本季度，我們的飛馬項目計劃取得了良好進展，因為我們降低了庫存水平、改善了現金流並推進了許多其他工作流，我們相信這些工作流將創造未來的運營效率、擴大我們的利潤率並為未來的增長投資提供資金平台。我們相信我們有望實現我們在第二季度電話會議中提出並在今天的收益發布中重申的總節省和時間目標。

As Noel discussed in her remarks, changes to the structure of the organization in connection with Project Pegasus will include the Beauty and Health and Wellness operating segments being combined into a single reportable segment, which will be referred to as Beauty and Wellness. Therefore, beginning with our fiscal '23 Form 10-K, our future disclosures will reflect the 2 reportable segments, Home and Outdoor and Beauty and Wellness with historical period segment information recast to be on the same basis. Additionally, when we issue our fourth quarter earnings release, we will provide 2 years of historical quarterly segment data on a comparable basis.

正如 Noel 在她的評論中所討論的那樣，與 Project Pegasus 相關的組織結構變化將包括將美容、健康和健康運營部門合併為一個單一的可報告部門，這將被稱為美容和健康。因此，從我們的 23 財年 10-K 表開始，我們未來的披露將反映 2 個可報告的細分市場，即家居和戶外以及美容和健康，歷史時期的細分市場信息將在相同的基礎上進行重鑄。此外，當我們發布第四季度收益報告時，我們將在可比基礎上提供 2 年的歷史季度數據。

Looking ahead to fiscal '24, there remains considerable uncertainty in the near-term macroeconomic and consumer outlook. We expect that many of the same macroeconomic factors that made calendar '22 so challenging may persist into calendar '23 as well as the compounding effect of the uncertainty of a potential recession and whether or not the Fed can execute a soft landing. These factors continue to make the ability to forecast consumer behavior patterns difficult.

展望 24 財年，近期宏觀經濟和消費者前景仍存在相當大的不確定性。我們預計，使 22 年日曆如此具有挑戰性的許多相同宏觀經濟因素可能會持續到 23 年日曆，以及潛在衰退的不確定性和美聯儲是否可以執行軟著陸的複合效應。這些因素繼續使預測消費者行為模式的能力變得困難。

We believe that fiscal '24 sales growth will be challenged and highly dependent on the health of the consumer and that the variability of these factors could drive a wide range of potential outcomes which would be impacted by the depth and length of any potential recession. As previously discussed, we also expect to face a number of cost headwinds in fiscal '24, which include higher interest expense as we annualize the increase in interest rates in fiscal '23, incremental depreciation related to our new $225 million distribution center which we expect to put in service at the beginning of fiscal '24 and higher annual incentive compensation expense as we reinstate expense associated with our estimates to achieve fiscal '24 compensation targets.

我們認為，24 財年的銷售增長將受到挑戰，並且高度依賴於消費者的健康狀況，並且這些因素的可變性可能會產生廣泛的潛在結果，這些結果將受到任何潛在衰退的深度和持續時間的影響。如前所述，我們還預計在 24 財年將面臨一些成本逆風，其中包括更高的利息支出，因為我們將 23 財年的利率增長年化，與我們預計的 2.25 億美元新配送中心相關的增量折舊在 24 財年開始時投入使用，並增加年度激勵補償費用，因為我們恢復了與實現 24 財年補償目標的估計相關的費用。

We do expect fiscal '24 tailwinds from healthier retailer inventories and more aligned sell-in and sell-through sales patterns, savings from Project Pegasus initiatives and lower ocean freight and product costs. However, the benefit from freight and product costs are generally expected to be realized in the second half of our fiscal year as we move through the cycle of purchasing new inventory and turning it through cost of goods sold. While our fiscal '24 may be a transition year as we see macroeconomic rebalancing and navigate some cost headwinds, I am confident that the strength of our brands, efforts of our associates, strategic growth investments and the initiatives we are executing under Project Pegasus will help position us to return to sustained long-term growth as we look to fiscal '25 and beyond. And with that, I would like to turn it back to the operator for questions.

我們確實預計 24 財年的順風來自更健康的零售商庫存和更一致的銷售和銷售模式，Project Pegasus 計劃的節省以及更低的海運和產品成本。然而，運費和產品成本的好處通常預計將在我們財政年度的下半年實現，因為我們正在經歷購買新庫存並將其轉化為已售商品成本的周期。雖然我們的 24 財年可能是一個過渡年，因為我們看到宏觀經濟再平衡並應對一些成本逆風，但我相信我們的品牌實力、我們員工的努力、戰略增長投資以及我們在 Pegasus 項目下執行的舉措將有助於在我們展望 25 財年及以後的財年時，使我們能夠恢復持續的長期增長。有了這個，我想把它轉回給接線員提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Rupesh Parikh with Oppenheimer.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Rupesh Parikh 和 Oppenheimer。

So I guess I'll just start at the Hydro Flask brand. Just curious what's driving the disconnect between what you guys are seeing online versus some of the weakness you're seeing at brick-and-mortar. And then as you look at Hydro Flask, is that gain or losing share at this point from your perspective?

所以我想我會從 Hydro Flask 品牌開始。只是好奇是什麼導致了你們在網上看到的東西與你們在實體店看到的一些弱點之間的脫節。然後，當您查看 Hydro Flask 時，從您的角度來看，此時的份額是增加還是減少？

Yes. Rupesh, nice to talk to you and glad for everyone that we're out of our quiet period and able to speak openly. Noel, could you fill in on this topic?

是的。 Rupesh，很高興和你交談，很高興我們已經結束了安靜的時期，可以公開發言了。諾埃爾，你能談談這個話題嗎？

Sure. Rupesh, thanks for joining us today. When we look at Hydro Flask, we do see channel shift, and you touched on that in your question. We see a lot more sales transitioning to online where we are performing very strongly, as Julien outlined in the script, leading share brand in the leading online retailer. I think that's a function of shoppers to shifting more and more to online, especially for items like this, like Hydro Flask. As we look at Hydro Flask over a 2-year stack, we do see the brand growing and strong. And so we still are very excited about Hydro Flask performance.

當然。 Rupesh，感謝您今天加入我們。當我們查看 Hydro Flask 時，我們確實看到了渠道轉移，您在問題中提到了這一點。正如 Julien 在劇本中所概述的那樣，我們看到更多的銷售轉移到線上，我們的表現非常強勁，是領先在線零售商的領先品牌。我認為這是購物者越來越多地轉向在線的一個功能，尤其是對於像 Hydro Flask 這樣的商品。當我們審視 Hydro Flask 超過 2 年的堆棧時，我們確實看到該品牌不斷壯大。因此，我們仍然對 Hydro Flask 的性能感到非常興奮。

Yes. My only build there. Thanks, Noel. My only build there is that on a share basis, if you look at the last 3 or 4 years in total, Hydro Flask is roughly flat, call it, 4 years ago basis. So there's been some ups and downs along the way. And in the case of the channel shift, my only build on that particular topic, is that we've been active in the area. We disclosed, I think, a quarter or 2 ago that we went from a third-party manager of our online sales at the biggest online retailer to first party, and that made a big difference for us. And DTC in general is a big investment area for us. We've been very clear that we have major initiatives in that area. And we're very pleased actually with the progress. It did not change the online retailer results during the quarter, but it is influencing our DTC. We mentioned that DTC did extremely well during the [35] Cyber Monday period in our prepared remarks, and we have much more to come on the subject of DTC on very short timing for Hydro Flask and other brands.

是的。我在那裡唯一的建築。謝謝，諾埃爾。我唯一的構建是，在份額的基礎上，如果你看看過去 3 或 4 年的總數，Hydro Flask 大致持平，可以稱之為 4 年前的基礎。所以一路上有一些起伏。在渠道轉移的情況下，我唯一建立在那個特定主題上的是，我們在該領域一直很活躍。我認為，一兩個季度前，我們披露了我們從最大在線零售商的在線銷售第三方經理轉變為第一方，這對我們產生了重大影響。總的來說，DTC 對我們來說是一個很大的投資領域。我們一直非常清楚，我們在該領域有重大舉措。我們對取得的進展感到非常高興。它沒有改變本季度在線零售商的業績，但它正在影響我們的 DTC。我們在準備好的評論中提到 DTC 在 [35] 網絡星期一期間表現非常出色，並且我們在非常短的時間內為 Hydro Flask 和其他品牌提供更多關於 DTC 的主題。

Our next question is from Bob Labick with CJS Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 CJS 證券公司的 Bob Labick。

Happy New Year.

新年快樂。

Yes. Bob. Happy New Year to you, too.

是的。鮑勃。也祝你新年快樂。

I just want to follow up on some of your comments as it relates to the outlook. Obviously, you guys said and we've heard from many companies that visibility into calendar '23 is lower than normal due to the inventory corrections at retail and also the potential recession next year. So the question is, what changes operationally in a low-visibility environment for you? What do you do differently in it if anything? And how can this impact the year overall? What are the kind of issues that it could impact the year as a result?

我只想跟進您的一些評論，因為它與前景有關。顯然，你們說，我們從許多公司那裡聽說，由於零售庫存調整以及明年可能出現的經濟衰退，23 年日曆的可見性低於正常水平。所以問題是，在能見度低的環境中，您的操作會發生什麼變化？如果有的話，你有什麼不同的做法？這對全年有何影響？它可能會影響今年的哪些問題？

Yes. Let me just say a little, and then I'll pivot to Matt and Noel because I think they can help on this one. First, just a general comment, and this is for everybody. We're at that funny time of year when I think everyone is extremely interested in calendar '23 or our fiscal '24, which starts on March 1, and yet our normal cycle is to go through the rest of our budget process, prepare the last of our year and then disclosing in April. So we won't be in a position to put specificity. I know that people were asking even as recently -- as long ago as October, and we were laughing a bit saying, well, I guess people knew about 18 months from now. I know you're not asking for that kind of specificity. You're asking at the macro level of what you do in a lower visibility environment. So going to that question, the key answer for me is about focusing on the controllables. We mentioned the specific ones in the prepared remarks.

是的。讓我簡單說一下，然後我將轉向 Matt 和 Noel，因為我認為他們可以在這方面提供幫助。首先，只是一般性評論，這是針對所有人的。我們正處於一年中那個有趣的時刻，我認為每個人都對從 3 月 1 日開始的 23 年日曆或 24 年財政年度非常感興趣，但我們的正常週期是完成預算流程的其餘部分，準備我們今年的最後一年，然後在四月披露。所以我們無法具體說明。我知道人們最近還在問——早在 10 月，我們就笑著說，好吧，我想人們知道大約 18 個月後。我知道你不是在要求那種特殊性。您是在宏觀層面詢問您在較低能見度環境中所做的事情。所以對於這個問題，對我來說關鍵的答案是關注可控因素。我們在準備好的評論中提到了具體的。

The first is Pegasus, of course, and we talked quite a lot about that. That's the source of fuel. It's also the source of additional efficiencies, and it will help us in all the ways I talked. Now the second big controllable is our significant pipeline. Now we're a winner on innovation. Our products are winning awards all over the place, and we might be able to speak to a little of this. We have some market share wins, actually a few market share losses. But in general, consumers not only prefer our products but buy them. And the result is that we are continuing to focus on innovation, and we're investing in innovation and that's a controllable for us. We love consumers. We love the lighting consumers and kicking but in the marketplace on that topic is a control. In the -- the third controller is just commercial plans and Noel can speak to a little bit about some of them, but the idea is to focus on controllables.

第一個當然是 Pegasus，我們就此談了很多。那是燃料的來源。它也是額外效率的來源，它將以我所說的所有方式幫助我們。現在第二大可控是我們重要的管道。現在我們是創新的贏家。我們的產品到處獲獎，我們或許可以談一談。我們贏得了一些市場份額，實際上失去了一些市場份額。但總的來說，消費者不僅喜歡我們的產品，而且會購買。結果是我們繼續專注於創新，我們正在投資創新，這對我們來說是可控的。我們熱愛消費者。我們喜歡照明消費者和踢球，但在市場上這個話題是一個控制。在--第三個控制器只是商業計劃，Noel 可以談一談其中的一些，但這個想法是專注於可控的。

As far as inventory, we can control what we buy. We can't control what retailers choose to buy, but we do work very closely with them on helping to manage their inventory. So you heard us say in the prepared remarks, that in this environment, we're extremely focused on making sure that retailer inventory is healthy. We're helping where we can. We're being careful with consumers to be sharp on price and we are bringing our own inventory down in a big way. That's a [whole another] controllable for us. And the last is around cost and footprint kind of the things where we've been pretty aggressive. On the marketplace, we've not given up, we believe, in the economy. We believe in the consumer, and we believe in the long-term health of people's interest in improving their lives. So we're making that bet. There's just a choppy period ahead where we don't have that kind of visibility and it does create a fairly broad set of potential outcomes. So for Matt or Noel, I don't know if there's any further specificity that we might want to put there, but the key message is controllable.

至於庫存，我們可以控制我們購買的東西。我們無法控制零售商選擇購買什麼，但我們確實與他們密切合作，幫助他們管理庫存。所以你聽到我們在準備好的評論中說，在這種環境下，我們非常專注於確保零售商庫存健康。我們正在力所能及的地方提供幫助。我們對消費者保持謹慎，在價格上保持敏銳，我們正在大幅降低我們自己的庫存。這對我們來說是一個 [whole another] 可控的。最後一點是關於成本和占地面積的事情，我們一直非常積極。我們相信，在市場上，我們並沒有放棄經濟。我們相信消費者，我們相信人們改善生活的長期健康利益。所以我們打賭。未來只是一個動蕩的時期，我們沒有那種可見性，它確實創造了相當廣泛的潛在結果。因此，對於 Matt 或 Noel，我不知道我們是否想進一步說明具體情況，但關鍵信息是可控的。

Yes. And Happy New Year, this is Matt. Bob, the only thing I would add to what Julien said is you talked about focusing on our controllables and what we do differently. I think Pegasus is part of that, too, right? I mean so we've already put Pegasus in place, and I think that will help generate some things that will give us some headwinds for next year. The other is, I think you can just take a general planning approach as you go in, which we've done before in similar years where there is more uncertainty where you take a little bit more of a conservative spending approach, cash management approach and then what I call spend into success, right? So as you see the sales develop, maybe more positively than you would have gone in, you are ready with plans to start spinning into the success. And I think as we look at our budgeting approach for fiscal '24, that's kind of the mentality we're taking is planned for maybe a more conservative approach, but then be ready with alternative plans as we see success to be more aggressive and capitalize on it.

是的。新年快樂，我是馬特。 Bob，對於 Julien 所說的，我唯一要補充的是你談到了關注我們的可控因素以及我們所做的不同之處。我認為 Pegasus 也是其中的一部分，對吧？我的意思是，我們已經將 Pegasus 部署到位，我認為這將有助於產生一些東西，這些東西會給我們明年帶來一些阻力。另一個是，我認為你可以在進入時採取一般規劃方法，我們之前在類似的年份做過，那裡有更多的不確定性，你會採取更多的保守支出方法、現金管理方法和那麼我所說的花費成功，對嗎？因此，當您看到銷售發展時，可能比您預期的更積極，您已經準備好開始轉向成功的計劃。而且我認為，當我們審視我們的 24 財年預算編制方法時，我們正在採取的這種心態可能是一種更保守的方法，但隨著我們看到成功變得更加積極和資本化，然後準備好替代計劃在上面。

Yes. The only other build I have to what Julien added is just -- and it builds on what Matt said is prioritizing where we do spend as we do that. So really using the budget season that we've got upon us to think about which of those brands that we think have the best growth potential, the best profitability, the best momentum in the marketplace and leaning in there and then kind of treating some of the other brands, it's more steady stronghold that maintain their position. And that allows us to make sure we get the very most and the best out of the best parts of our portfolio.

是的。我對 Julien 添加的唯一其他構建是——它建立在 Matt 所說的基礎上，即在我們這樣做時優先考慮我們確實在哪里花費。因此，真正利用我們遇到的預算季來思考我們認為哪些品牌具有最佳增長潛力、最佳盈利能力、市場最佳勢頭，然後靠在那裡，然後對待一些品牌其他品牌，則是更穩固的據點，維持著自己的地位。這使我們能夠確保我們從我們的投資組合中最好的部分中獲得最多和最好的。

As Julien said, we do continue to innovate. We've got some great innovations. We've earned a lot of awards not only on design, but also from some of the preeminent women's magazines on many of our products. So we know that our consumer-centric innovation continues to resonate. And commercially, we also continue to do very close joint business planning with our major customers, making sure that our distribution and assortment is appropriate for kind of this given time horizon where the economic uncertainty is there for consumers. And it's one of the magics of Helen of Troy's diversified portfolio. We have things that cover a broad range of price points to enable us to do that.

正如 Julien 所說，我們確實在不斷創新。我們有一些偉大的創新。我們不僅在設計方面獲得了很多獎項，而且我們的許多產品還獲得了一些傑出女性雜誌的獎勵。所以我們知道我們以消費者為中心的創新繼續引起共鳴。在商業上，我們還繼續與我們的主要客戶進行非常密切的聯合業務規劃，確保我們的分銷和分類適合這種給定時間範圍內的消費者經濟不確定性。這是特洛伊海倫多元化投資組合的魔力之一。我們擁有涵蓋廣泛價位的產品，使我們能夠做到這一點。

By the way, on that award thing, people might think, "Oh, we might be talking more about all those Volumizer rewards or the traditional industrial design awards that OXO would win." There was a pretty healthy [slate] in Health and Wellness quite recently in some pretty major international ones. And even in Beauty, by the way, and not in the Volumizer area, the dual plate straightener, the one that has the four plates, looks like a tuning fork. You've seen it from us before on hot tools, where we extended it from the original Revlon, just won a Cosmopolitan Holy Grail Award for 2022, like a week or 2 ago.

順便說一句，關於那個獎項，人們可能會想，“哦，我們可能更多地談論所有那些 Volumizer 獎勵或 OXO 將贏得的傳統工業設計獎項。”最近，在一些相當重要的國際機構中，健康與保健領域出現了相當健康的 [名單]。順便說一句，即使在美容領域，而不是在豐盈區，雙板直發器，即有四個板的直發器，看起來像一個音叉。您之前在我們的熱門工具上看到過它，我們從原來的露華濃擴展了它，剛剛贏得了 2022 年的 Cosmopolitan Holy Grail Award，就像一兩週前一樣。

Our next question is from Olivia Tong with Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題來自 Olivia Tong 和 Raymond James。

Great. My first question is first a clarification on the consolidation of Beauty and Health and Wellness divisions into one. It sounds like it's both the cost savings maneuver to reduce [time] count, but also you're expecting it to help with brand development, innovation, focus on marketing, at least it's what it does in the press release. I'm trying to understand the savings component is fairly straightforward. But can you talk about how you expect that consolidation to help you drive innovation and presumably faster sales growth over time to start.

偉大的。我的第一個問題是首先澄清美容、健康和健康部門合併為一個部門。聽起來這既是減少 [時間] 計數的成本節約策略，但你也希望它有助於品牌發展、創新、專注於營銷，至少它在新聞稿中是這樣做的。我試圖了解儲蓄部分非常簡單。但是您能否談談您期望這種整合如何幫助您推動創新，並可能隨著時間的推移實現更快的銷售增長？

Yes. Olivia, good to talk with you again. We do -- the cost savings aspect of it is obvious, but we do see significant additional synergy by combining Beauty and Health and Wellness. The 2 business units have the largest overlap of core customers. Of course, we've got Drybar and Curlsmith that are more prestige beauty. But when you think about mass merchandisers, the drug mass, et cetera, there's a lot of overlap there. So good synergy there as we get our North American RMO up and running.

是的。奧利維亞，很高興再次與你交談。我們這樣做——它的成本節約方面是顯而易見的，但我們確實看到了通過結合美容、健康和健康產生的顯著的額外協同作用。這兩個業務部門的核心客戶重疊度最大。當然，我們有 Drybar 和 Curlsmith，它們是更有聲望的美女。但是當你想到大型銷售商、毒品質量等等時，那裡有很多重疊之處。當我們啟動並運行我們的北美 RMO 時，那裡的協同作用非常好。

And then many different synergies in the cost area, some third-party manufacturers, a lot of common plastics and resins. So when you think about some of the cost of goods work streams that we have on that side of things. We see a lot of synergies there, plastic and resins as well as common motors and blowers, those sorts of things. So there's really a lot of areas. It may not be obvious on the surface, but when you really dig down into it, there's a lot.

然後在成本領域有許多不同的協同作用，一些第三方製造商，很多常見的塑料和樹脂。因此，當您考慮我們在這方面的一些商品成本工作流時。我們在那裡看到了很多協同效應，塑料和樹脂以及普通電機和鼓風機，諸如此類。所以真的有很多領域。表面上可能不明顯，但當你真正深入研究時，就會發現很多。

And then the other place is just when you have fewer business units, not only do need less overhead or less people as you have talked about, but just the streamlined interfaces as we get our shared services even more centralized, interfacing with 2 business units versus 3 is more efficient. Our processes can be more standard and be more efficient. So those would be some of the areas that we see as beneficial as they kind of come together as a new Beauty and Wellness business unit.

然後另一個地方就是當你有更少的業務部門時，不僅需要更少的管理費用或更少的人，因為我們讓我們的共享服務更加集中，與 2 個業務部門交互而不是3效率更高。我們的流程可以更標準、更高效。因此，這些將是我們認為有益的一些領域，因為它們作為一個新的美容和健康業務部門聚集在一起。

Got it. That's helpful. And then my second question is on inventory and consumer demand. And can you talk about where you stand on retailer inventory within key categories particularly those that benefited from outsized demand, obviously, in the last 2, 3 years. And kind of your view on when sell in and sell-through more or less converge and then the other side is then on your own inventory, getting to $500 million, great progress over this year, of course. But what's the end goal? Because even if we adjust upwards for acquisitions, inflation, et cetera, inventory is still a fair bit higher than pre-pandemic levels. So what's the end goal? Maybe a little bit of color on that after that $500 million.

知道了。這很有幫助。然後我的第二個問題是關於庫存和消費者需求。您能否談談在過去 2、3 年中您在關鍵類別中的零售商庫存情況，尤其是那些受益於超大需求的類別。你對銷售和銷售何時或多或少趨於一致的看法，然後另一方是你自己的庫存，達到 5 億美元，當然是今年的巨大進步。但最終目標是什麼？因為即使我們向上調整收購、通貨膨脹等因素，庫存仍比大流行前水平高出很多。那麼最終目標是什麼？在那 5 億美元之後，也許會有一點色彩。

Yes, Matt, could you start us off on this one, please?

是的，馬特，你能從這件事開始嗎？

Yes. Olivia. Yes, so good questions. Obviously, we're very pleased with the amount of [projects] we've been able to make in the quarter, and bring down our inventory levels and get to $500 million this year. And then to your point, I think there is some adjustment for some of the acquisitions that we've done. As I look forward, I think a good measure for us, we're going to be looking at is turns. And so inventory levels are the leading indicator in terms of the lagging indicator just because of the look back and how you calculate it. We work a lot closer to 3 turns in the past, and we've drifted down to the low 2s at this point in time. We really want to get back to the 3 turns level. I think that I don't know if we'll get there next year because of the lag impact of it and what happens with the macroeconomic environment. But I think as we look forward, we definitely want to get to 3 and then above 3 on a more long-term basis. I think that will be really efficient.

是的。奧利維亞。是的，這麼好的問題。顯然，我們對本季度能夠完成的 [項目] 數量感到非常滿意，並降低了我們的庫存水平，今年達到 5 億美元。然後就你的觀點而言，我認為對我們已經完成的一些收購進行了一些調整。當我展望未來時，我認為對我們來說是一個很好的衡量標準，我們將關注的是轉彎。因此，就滯後指標而言，庫存水平是領先指標，只是因為回顧和計算方式。過去我們的工作更接近 3 圈，此時我們已經下降到低 2 圈。我們真的很想回到 3 回合的水平。我認為我不知道我們明年是否會到達那裡，因為它的滯後影響以及宏觀經濟環境會發生什麼。但我認為，在我們展望未來時，我們肯定希望在更長期的基礎上達到 3，然後超過 3。我認為這將非常有效。

Our new distribution center, the consolidation of our distribution footprint will be a lot of things that can help us be more efficient in inventory. And so I think that, that will help us get to that turns level, I definitely think we want to get down much more below $500 million just from an inventory level perspective, and we'll have to look at what that means by the end of next year. But I'd say overall focus on turns and we'll need a little bit more time to get to that 3x turn and then beyond. But for us, I think there's a lot of good tailwinds for us that are going to help us get there over time.

我們新的配送中心，我們配送足蹟的整合將是很多可以幫助我們提高庫存效率的事情。所以我認為，這將幫助我們達到周轉率水平，我絕對認為我們希望僅從庫存水平的角度進一步降低到 5 億美元以下，我們必須在最後看看這意味著什麼明年的。但我要說的是，總體重點放在轉彎上，我們需要更多時間才能達到 3 倍轉彎，然後再轉彎。但對我們來說，我認為對我們來說有很多有利的順風將幫助我們隨著時間的推移實現目標。

Yes. One example on that one is, remember, we've spoken a lot about balancing between China sourcing and rest of world sourcing, including in the Americas and especially Mexico, which leads to near-shoring for the U.S. and Canadian market and even in Latin American markets. That nearshoring has the obvious benefit of shorter lead times. Shorter lead times by definition mean less inventory. And it also has less exposure to the sea freight market. And so lots of reasons why those initiatives, which are much bigger than just the speed of turn -- sorry, it's been the sourcing or the comments that Matt is making will help us bring the speed of turns up. On the retailer inventories -- sorry, I want to say one other thing about this about our hours, which is you heard us talk about SKU rationalization in Pegasus and Noel might mention this because that's going to help us on the topic of not just how much inventory we carry, but how quickly it turns. And on the retailer inventory, Noel, I don't know if you might speak to that and also any other builds on how our inventory will continue to come down.

是的。關於這一點的一個例子是，請記住，我們已經談了很多關於中國採購和世界其他地區採購之間的平衡，包括在美洲，尤其是墨西哥，這導緻美國和加拿大市場甚至拉丁美洲的近岸外包美國市場。這種近岸外包的明顯好處是交貨時間更短。根據定義，更短的交貨時間意味著更少的庫存。而且它對海運市場的敞口也較小。這些舉措的原因有很多，而不僅僅是轉向速度——抱歉，馬特所做的採購或評論將幫助我們提高轉向速度。關於零售商庫存——抱歉，關於我們的工作時間，我想說另一件事，就是你聽到我們談論 Pegasus 中的 SKU 合理化，Noel 可能會提到這一點，因為這將幫助我們解決這個問題，而不僅僅是如何我們持有多少存貨，但它的周轉速度有多快。關於零售商的庫存，諾埃爾，我不知道你是否可以談談這個以及任何其他建立在我們的庫存將如何繼續下降的基礎上。

Yes, sure. Starting with our inventory, as Julien mentioned, SKU rationalization, in a really robust comprehensive way through Pegasus will help us, I think, on inventory. If you start to simplify your lineup and really look to focus on your most productive items, both from a consumer and a retailer perspective and cut out some of that long tail complexity, that's going to help us from an inventory management standpoint and from a forecasting standpoint, which also then helps inventory. From a retailer inventory standpoint, what I would say, Olivia, is it does still vary category by category and retailer by retailer as you might expect. We play -- we have a diverse portfolio. We play across a lot of retailers but we are clearly in a better place now than what we were in the last quarter and the quarter before that. We do continue to see some retailers in certain categories ordering less than consumption suggesting that we do still have some pockets of higher inventory in retail than we might like. We continue to partner closely with our retailers on the right commercial programming to move through that. But we are pleased to see those kind of sell in and sell out, kind of get closer to one another as we progress through the year. So that's kind of where we stand there.

是的，當然。正如 Julien 提到的，從我們的庫存開始，SKU 合理化，通過 Pegasus 以一種非常強大的綜合方式，我認為將幫助我們解決庫存問題。如果您開始簡化您的產品陣容並真正希望從消費者和零售商的角度關注您最有生產力的產品並削減一些長尾複雜性，這將從庫存管理的角度和預測方面幫助我們立場，這也有助於庫存。從零售商庫存的角度來看，我想說的是，奧利維亞，它是否仍然像您所期望的那樣因類別和零售商而異。我們玩——我們有多樣化的投資組合。我們與很多零售商打交道，但我們現在的處境顯然比上個季度和上個季度要好。我們確實繼續看到某些類別的一些零售商的訂購量低於消費量，這表明我們的零售庫存確實比我們希望的要高。我們將繼續與我們的零售商密切合作，制定正確的商業計劃，以實現這一目標。但我們很高興看到這種銷售和銷售，隨著我們一年的進步，彼此之間的關係越來越近。所以這就是我們站在那裡的地方。

One quick thought before we move from this one, Olivia, is things change quickly. And what I mean by that is we just saw it in the cold and flu numbers. And yet, I think people are used to, whether it's because of the consumer buying pattern shifts from the pandemic or the retailers having swollen inventories in the last 6 to 9 months. People are used to this narrative that the inventory needs to turn slowly and the consumer is down for the count. Things turn quickly. So just now when people have a need like in the cold and flu we're in a situation where we literally just can't ship enough humidifiers, right this minute. In the case of thermometers, everyone knows what it was like during the pandemic, air purifiers a little bit later in the pandemic. And so things change quickly. Our products are diversified. So when needs come, we do have what people want, whether it's in health-related category or home-related category and outdoor-related category. And when the need is there and consumers go for it, not only do they prefer our products, but things change quickly for us.

奧利維亞，在我們離開這個話題之前，有一個快速的想法是事情變化很快。我的意思是我們剛剛在感冒和流感數據中看到了這一點。然而，我認為人們已經習慣了，無論是因為消費者購買模式從大流行病轉變還是過去 6 到 9 個月零售商的庫存增加。人們已經習慣了這種說法，即庫存需要緩慢周轉，而消費者正在減少計數。事情轉得很快。因此，就在現在，當人們在感冒和流感中有需求時，我們現在確實無法運送足夠的加濕器。就溫度計而言，每個人都知道大流行期間的情況，而空氣淨化器在大流行期間稍晚一些。所以事情變化很快。我們的產品多元化。所以當需求來的時候，我們確實有人們想要的，無論是與健康相關的類別還是與家庭相關的類別和與戶外相關的類別。當有需求並且消費者願意為之時，他們不僅更喜歡我們的產品，而且對我們來說情況會迅速發生變化。

Our next question is from Linda Bolton-Weiser with D.A. Davidson.

我們的下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Linda Bolton-Weiser。戴維森。

Happy New Year. I just had a question kind of about maybe the bigger picture longer term, thing here. When you look at your operating margin for this year, I don't know, I guess I haven't updated it here, but it's around 15% or so, give or take. And that's actually not down a ton from your high from your peak margins. You've achieved really good margins through all your hard work. And I guess, as mostly a durable goods company with like a 15%-ish operating margin, I guess the question I get a lot from people is like, well, what's the potential long term? I mean one would argue that that's already high. And so I'm just curious if this Pegasus restructuring, is it kind of like to stem further decline? Or is it actually to drive that margin to even new highs? I guess I just want to understand kind of what your thoughts are there?

新年快樂。我只是有一個關於從長遠來看可能更大的問題，這裡的事情。當你查看今年的營業利潤率時，我不知道，我想我還沒有在這裡更新它，但它大約在 15% 左右，或多或少。這實際上並沒有從你的最高利潤率下降一噸。通過所有的辛勤工作，你們獲得了非常可觀的利潤。而且我想，作為一家經營利潤率大約為 15% 的耐用品公司，我想我從人們那裡得到的很多問題是，嗯，潛在的長期是什麼？我的意思是有人會爭辯說這已經很高了。所以我很好奇 Pegasus 的重組是否有點像阻止進一步下滑？或者它實際上是為了將利潤率推向新高？我想我只是想了解你的想法是什麼？

First the former than the latter, and Noel, please put some color on the margin trajectory for Pegasus.

首先是前者而不是後者，Noel，請在 Pegasus 的邊緣軌跡上塗上一些顏色。

Yes. I think, again, we've talked about various different work streams in Pegasus and many of them do look at improving our margins. I just talked about SKU rationalization in the prior question and that's a good example of it. When you do that kind of work, you're really looking SKU by SKU and looking for those opportunities to prune any items that maybe aren't as productive and aren't as profitable and the margins aren't as good. And so that starts to help. From a margin standpoint, we're looking at all the different cost of goods savings projects.

是的。我認為，我們再次討論了 Pegasus 的各種不同工作流，其中許多確實著眼於提高我們的利潤率。我剛剛在前面的問題中談到了 SKU 合理化，這是一個很好的例子。當你做那種工作時，你實際上是在逐個 SKU 尋找 SKU，並尋找機會修剪任何可能不那麼高效、利潤不高且利潤率不高的項目。所以這開始有所幫助。從保證金的角度來看，我們正在研究所有不同的商品成本節約項目。

So there's many different aspects of Pegasus that will help. And when we think about it, we also want to reinvest with Pegasus. So I would say we certainly don't look at Pegasus to only improve our operating margin over time. We're looking as we generate the savings to be able to reinvest back in the business and drive growth for us in the future. And that's a big part of it. The faster we can get from these projects going and turning through cost of business inventory, as Matt mentioned, the faster we'll be able to reinvest back in the business. So Matt, if you want to build.

因此，Pegasus 的許多不同方面都會有所幫助。而且我們想想，我們也想再投資Pegasus。所以我想說我們當然不會看 Pegasus 只是隨著時間的推移提高我們的營業利潤率。我們正在尋找我們產生的儲蓄，以便能夠重新投資於業務並推動我們未來的增長。這是其中很大一部分。正如馬特提到的，我們從這些項目中獲得的速度越快，越快通過業務庫存成本，我們就能越快地重新投資於業務。所以馬特，如果你想建造。

Yes. The only build I would have, Linda. I think you kind of got the margin outcome this year. We guided today in my comments to down 100 to 120 basis points. But to your point, within that us getting to that approximately 15%. Like you said, there's a lot of deleveraging. I mean with the amount of sales decline that we had, there's a lot of deleveraging in that number. So if you just, let's say, snap your fingers and take out the deleveraging impact and you get to some growth next year and you get a little -- even got for a bit of favorable leverage, that's a building block.

是的。我唯一想要的建築，琳達。我認為你今年得到了保證金結果。我們今天在我的評論中指導下調 100 至 120 個基點。但就你的觀點而言，我們達到了大約 15%。就像你說的，有很多去槓桿化。我的意思是，隨著我們的銷售額下降，這個數字有很多去槓桿化。所以，如果你打個響指，消除去槓桿化的影響，明年你會實現一些增長，你會得到一點——甚至是一些有利的槓桿作用，這就是一個基石。

And then what Noel was saying on Pegasus is there's an opportunity for Pegasus to create margin improvement and that could be dropping some of the cost savings, it could be lower product cost. It could be making space to reinvest and drive leadership brand growth, which are going to drive better mix. I mean think about -- we've had a huge favorable impact this year from Curlsmith. And although it's not the biggest brand we have, it really punches above its weight in terms of mix. And so being able to invest in those brands that we've purchased over the past couple of years that are going to drive higher mix. I think there's a lot of tailwinds when you look at our operating margin trajectory. And of course, we'll have to fight cost headwinds like everybody else, and we've got some big ones' next year. But I think if you look in the longer term, I think there's still a lot of tailwinds on our ability to continue to expand margins.

然後 Noel 在 Pegasus 上說的是，Pegasus 有機會提高利潤率，這可能會降低一些成本節約，可能會降低產品成本。它可能會為再投資和推動領導品牌增長騰出空間，這將推動更好的組合。我的意思是想一想 - 今年 Curlsmith 對我們產生了巨大的有利影響。雖然它不是我們擁有的最大品牌，但它在組合方面確實超越了它的重量。因此能夠投資於我們在過去幾年購買的那些將推動更高組合的品牌。當您查看我們的營業利潤率軌跡時，我認為有很多順風。當然，我們必須像其他人一樣應對成本逆風，明年我們會有一些大逆風。但我認為，如果你從長遠來看，我認為我們繼續擴大利潤率的能力仍有很多不利因素。

Yes, I couldn't agree more. And then I'm so glad you asked this question. And for your question and for all, frankly, on this call, there's a message from us. And the message from us is that the best is yet to come over time on margin from Helen of Troy. In the short term, there is pressure, you just heard it described, the minus 100 points. I think everyone on the call knows that Helen of Troy is up several hundred points on margins over the course of the transformation years. To lose a 100 or even a 120 basis points during this fiscal year is extremely painful, and we have certainly taken our meeting on that topic, so for the short-term folks, they're right that that's painful.

是的，我完全同意。然後我很高興你問了這個問題。對於你的問題和所有人，坦率地說，在這次電話會議上，我們收到了一條消息。我們要傳達的信息是，隨著時間的推移，特洛伊的海倫會帶來最好的結果。短期是有壓力的，你剛才聽過，負100點。我想電話中的每個人都知道，在轉型期間，特洛伊的海倫 (Helen of Troy) 的利潤率提高了數百個百分點。在本財政年度損失 100 甚至 120 個基點是非常痛苦的，我們當然已經就這個話題召開了會議，所以對於短期的人來說，他們是正確的，這是痛苦的。

For the long-term picture and not just Pegasus, but also the Phase 3 plan, which will follow it. The intention is to not only return to the margin peak that we saw last year, which was in, I think, the 16% range for adjusted operating margin but to surpass it. So we're not making a particular Phase 3 promises. We're not putting a specific long-term goal out today, but there's a message. And the message is we've made several hundred bps of progress. We've lost about 100 of them. We not only intend with Pegasus to quickly try to earn it back, but to surpass it in Phase 3 using the fuel from Pegasus to reinvest in the flywheel.

從長遠來看，不僅僅是 Pegasus，還有第三階段計劃，緊隨其後。目的不僅是回到我們去年看到的利潤率峰值，我認為調整後的營業利潤率在 16% 的範圍內，而且要超過它。所以我們沒有做出特定的第 3 階段承諾。我們今天沒有提出具體的長期目標，但有一個信息。消息是我們已經取得了數百個基點的進展。我們已經失去了大約 100 個。我們不僅打算與 Pegasus 一起快速嘗試賺回它，而且在第三階段使用 Pegasus 的燃料重新投資飛輪來超越它。

Okay. That's very helpful. And then can I just ask about in the Health and Wellness, we all know the whole story in the past about the EPA relabeling issue, et cetera, et cetera, and you had lost some sales from that. It actually looks in the IRS data like you're actually gaining back a lot of share. Is that the case? And are you kind of catching up and now that you're able to reship, are you actually gaining a lot of share as well as the cough/cold/flu season helping. I mean is that kind of what I'm seeing going on there?

好的。這很有幫助。然後我可以問一下健康和保健方面的問題，我們都知道過去關於 EPA 重新貼標籤問題的整個故事，等等，等等，你因此失去了一些銷售。它實際上在 IRS 數據中看起來就像你實際上重新獲得了很多份額。是這樣嗎？你是不是有點趕上來了，現在你可以重新發貨了，你真的獲得了很多份額以及咳嗽/感冒/流感季節的幫助嗎？我的意思是我看到的是那種情況嗎？

Yes, Linda, as we touched on in the prepared remarks and you see it all over the news, this is a particularly high illness season and the products that we have, in many cases, really help with the symptoms. So our humidifiers, for example, is one where Julien just said it, we obviously -- they're selling very well. Our share is very robust there. we look very positive in that regard. And frankly, we don't have necessarily enough to meet all of the elevated demand from a supply standpoint. Thermometers is another place. Now there's a lot of ups and downs in thermometers. Since we've kind of come out of COVID, we've had various different participants come in, but that's another place where we see strength. So we do see strength in a few of our share positions in Health and Wellness in this most recent time period.

是的，琳達，正如我們在準備好的評論中提到的那樣，你在新聞中也看到了這一點，這是一個特別高的疾病季節，在許多情況下，我們擁有的產品確實有助於緩解症狀。因此，例如，我們的加濕器就是 Julien 剛才所說的，我們顯然——它們賣得很好。我們在那裡的份額非常強勁。我們在這方面看起來非常積極。坦率地說，從供應的角度來看，我們不一定有足夠的能力來滿足所有增加的需求。溫度計是另一個地方。現在溫度計有很多起伏。自從我們從 COVID 中走出來以來，我們已經有各種不同的參與者加入，但這是我們看到力量的另一個地方。因此，在最近一段時間內，我們確實看到了我們在健康和保健方面的一些股票地位的優勢。

We were also down pretty hard in air purifiers because of the EPA matter. So yes, it's true that we've bounced back in part. It's quite competitive these days. There is a lot of inventory out there. So there's more promotion than I think anybody would like. But in that battle to see our chair improve and hold our own, that's good news but the idea that we're back to pre EPA positions that would not be the case in market share for air purifiers.

由於 EPA 問題，我們在空氣淨化器方面也表現不佳。所以是的，我們確實部分反彈了。這些天競爭非常激烈。那裡有很多存貨。所以有比我認為任何人都想要的更多的促銷活動。但是，在看到我們的主席改進並保持我們自己的那場戰鬥中，這是個好消息，但我們又回到了 EPA 之前的位置，而空氣淨化器的市場份額不會出現這種情況。

Our next question is from Susan Anderson with Canaccord.

我們的下一個問題來自 Susan Anderson 和 Canaccord。

Nice to see the improved inventory position. I'm curious just on the M&A environment. Just kind of what you're seeing out there, potential acquisitions starting to become more attractive from a valuation perspective. Then also if you could give us an update just on your thoughts on leverage. It sounds like you still expect to be to 2.75 to 3x at the end of the year. I'm curious how you're thinking about, if there's any early thoughts on next year, if you're happy with that level. And then also any other thoughts on just the floating rate debt and maybe moving that to more of a fixed rate.

很高興看到庫存狀況有所改善。我只是對併購環境感到好奇。就像你在那裡看到的那樣，從估值的角度來看，潛在的收購開始變得更具吸引力。然後，如果你能告訴我們你對槓桿的想法的最新情況。聽起來您仍然希望在年底達到 2.75 到 3 倍。我很好奇你是怎麼想的，明年是否有任何早期的想法，你是否對那個水平感到滿意。然後還有關於浮動利率債務的任何其他想法，並可能將其轉移到更多的固定利率。

Yes. First of all, Susan, and welcome. We're very pleased that you initiated coverage, and I believe this is the first call since you did so. We're out of our quiet period, so very nice to meet you. We're looking forward to meeting you in person next week. So this is great news. Let me say just a little [at our end] from Jack on the subject of M&A and Matt on the topic of debt levels. Our general goal is as we've been talking quite a lot in the last few months is to improve our cash flow, reduce our inventory, bring down our debt and invest in the most important initiatives that's where our money has been going. It's been our strategy for a while now.

是的。首先，蘇珊，歡迎。我們很高興您發起了報導，我相信這是您發起報導以來的第一個電話。我們已經過了安靜期，很高興認識你。我們期待著下週與您見面。所以這是個好消息。讓我（在我們這邊）稍微談談傑克關於併購的話題和馬特關於債務水平的話題。我們的總體目標是，正如我們在過去幾個月中一直在談論的那樣，是改善我們的現金流、減少我們的庫存、降低我們的債務並投資於我們資金流向的最重要的計劃。一段時間以來，這一直是我們的策略。

In the case of the progress, you heard it reported today, and thanks for your comment, we did make progress on inventory. We made progress on debt a little bit actually, not much. And on the subject of cash flow also progressed despite the investments in the big new distribution center. With regard to M&A and debt levels, maybe allow for Jack first and then for Matt.

至於進展情況，您今天聽到了報告，感謝您的評論，我們確實在庫存方面取得了進展。實際上，我們在債務方面取得了一點進展，但進展不大。儘管對大型新配送中心進行了投資，但在現金流方面也取得了進展。關於併購和債務水平，也許先考慮傑克，然後再考慮馬特。

Sure. Susan. So on the M&A side, we are actively looking at a number of different projects. What I can tell you is that we're not really seeing the types of assets that we would like that will fit our criteria. We're rather picky with selecting and bringing new assets in. They need to sweeten our mix and we also look to ones that we can make better but also can help make us better. So at this point in time, we're continuing to look, but we're not seeing anything that is getting us to lean in at least at this point in time. But hopefully, there will be something in the near future, and when we do, we will have something to share about it.

當然。蘇珊。因此，在併購方面，我們正在積極研究許多不同的項目。我可以告訴你的是，我們並沒有真正看到我們想要的符合我們標準的資產類型。我們在選擇和引入新資產方面相當挑剔。他們需要使我們的組合更加甜蜜，我們也期待那些我們可以做得更好但也可以幫助我們變得更好的資產。所以在這個時間點，我們正在繼續尋找，但我們沒有看到任何讓我們至少在這個時間點傾斜的東西。但希望在不久的將來會有一些東西，當我們這樣做時，我們會有一些東西可以分享。

By the way, valuations to your comment, they are coming down, right? The money is not as cheap and there is a different marketplace that many people are selling into. So we're keenly aware of that. You were not following us at that time, but you probably saw our comments when we bought Curlsmith. We bought an extremely strong prestige name with a significant position in its unique space of textured hair for roughly 10 times and that's unheard of in the prestige space.

順便說一下，你評論的估值正在下降，對吧？錢並不便宜，而且許多人都在不同的市場上銷售。所以我們敏銳地意識到這一點。你當時沒有關注我們，但你可能在我們購買 Curlsmith 時看到了我們的評論。我們購買了一個非常強大的聲望名稱，在其獨特的紋理頭髮空間中佔據重要位置大約 10 次，這在聲望空間中是聞所未聞的。

So we took advantage of that opportunity. It's been good for us, as you've heard us say. And as we see others that have the right mix of better together, as Jack always says, and the sweet spot on valuation and then put that together with the cash flow and debt story not only why not, but that's our entire track record as a company. We've doubled this company in the last 10 years in terms of sales and a portion of that came from acquisition, and many of those were outstandingly good financial deals.

所以我們利用了這個機會。正如您聽到我們所說的那樣，這對我們有好處。正如我們看到的那樣，其他人將更好的組合結合在一起，就像傑克總是說的那樣，以及估值的最佳點，然後將其與現金流和債務故事放在一起，不僅為什麼不這樣做，而且這是我們作為公司。在過去 10 年裡，我們將這家公司的銷售額翻了一番，其中一部分來自收購，其中許多都是非常好的金融交易。

Susan, this is Matt. I'll just add on to the leverage component of it. Obviously, if you look back our history, the amount of cash flow we'll generate this year, free cash flow is much lower than we've done in the past. And as you look into next year, I think we've got tailwinds for being able to continue to reduce our inventory levels as well as we're not going to spend the $150 million of CapEx on our new distribution center we're going to spend this year.

蘇珊，這是馬特。我將添加到它的槓桿部分。顯然，如果你回顧我們的歷史，我們今年將產生的現金流量，自由現金流量遠低於我們過去所做的。當你展望明年時，我認為我們有能力繼續降低庫存水平，而且我們不會將 1.5 億美元的資本支出用於我們將要建立的新配送中心度過這一年。

So just take those 2 things and put them together and that's a big tailwind for us from a cash flow perspective. So we expect to be able to continue to bring down our leverage. One thing for us is we typically generate more of our cash flow in the third and fourth quarter than the first and second quarter. So as we kind of look at our general cash flow cadence, I'd expect more of the reduction in our leverage to occur in the second half of the year than the first half of the year.

因此，只需將這兩件事放在一起，從現金流的角度來看，這對我們來說是一個很大的推動力。因此，我們希望能夠繼續降低我們的槓桿作用。對我們來說，一件事是我們通常在第三和第四季度產生比第一和第二季度更多的現金流。因此，當我們審視一下我們的總體現金流節奏時，我預計今年下半年我們的槓桿率會比上半年下降更多。

And our final question is from Anthony Lebiedzinski with Sidoti & Company.

我們的最後一個問題來自 Sidoti & Company 的 Anthony Lebiedzinski。

Happy New Year to all. So first -- so given some of the trade down comments, Julien, that you said as well as the current state of the economy, does that make you guys maybe rethink your product strategy? Or do you think just the low-end type of products are just too commoditized. I just would love to get your thoughts on that.

祝大家新年快樂。所以首先 - 朱利安，考慮到你所說的一些降價評論以及當前的經濟狀況，這是否會讓你們重新考慮你的產品策略？或者您認為只是低端類型的產品過於商品化了。我很想知道你對此的想法。

Yes. There's a sweet spot, Anthony, and Happy New Year to you too. There's a sweet spot where the products can differentiate the brands and justify their excellence, their pricing and delight the consumers. They're below that sweet spot, the commoditization comment starts to kick in, and that world of opening price point, much like the world of private label products, it's fully undifferentiated. And that's not a place where brands distinguish themselves. It's not a place where innovation is rewarded. It's a place where people who just want to spend less money will buy. I would say this too shall pass, but I think that's a bit too dismissive.

是的。有一個甜蜜的地方，安東尼，祝你新年快樂。有一個甜蜜點，產品可以區分品牌並證明其卓越性、定價和取悅消費者。它們低於那個最佳點，商品化評論開始出現，開價點的世界，就像自有品牌產品的世界一樣，完全沒有差異化。這不是品牌與眾不同的地方。這不是一個獎勵創新的地方。這是一個只想花更少錢的人會購買的地方。我會說這也會過去，但我認為這有點太不屑一顧了。

There's simply a shift for a short time, and this happens when there are economic cycles like this. So what we've done about it, as we talked in the last call, is to make sure, especially in Beauty appliances that we have some lower-priced products in the mix. And while that's not as good for margins, it does help on this topic. We also spoke about our -- in the world of good, better, best, are our better thermometers like the Vicks stick-type of thermometers, which picked up share when we last reported it which I believe was last quarter, helped during the trade down area. And so you can see us navigating in this area.

只是在短時間內發生了轉變，當出現這樣的經濟周期時就會發生這種情況。因此，正如我們在上次電話會議中談到的那樣，我們所做的就是確保，尤其是在美容電器方面，我們有一些價格較低的產品。雖然這對利潤率來說不是那麼好，但它確實有助於解決這個問題。我們還談到了我們的——在好的、更好的、最好的世界裡，我們更好的溫度計，比如 Vicks 棒式溫度計，當我們上次報告它時它獲得了份額，我相信是上個季度，在交易期間有所幫助下區。所以你可以看到我們在這個區域航行。

So it's diversification not just in category, but in the world of good, better, best, but not all the way down to the commoditized opening price point. And all that said, Noel, if you might comment just because we have like a moment left before the call will break the thoughts in the hair appliance categories especially at large mass merchandisers, where there's an opportunity to improve the mix a bit in the direction Anthony is talking about.

因此，它不僅在品類上多樣化，而且在好、更好、最好的世界中，但不是一直到商品化的開盤價。綜上所述，諾埃爾，如果你可能只是因為我們在電話會議之前還有片刻的時間發表評論，這將打破美髮用品類別的想法，尤其是在大型大型超市，那裡有機會在方向上稍微改善組合安東尼在說。

Yes. As mentioned, that was a place to really make sure that our assortment was as robust as possible to cover the good, better, best range that Julien just referred to. So we've done that in mass, in particular, the channel where that consumer and that shopper tends to shop. We have rounded out our assortment in that regard, and that helped us in this quarter, and that's part of what helped our share in the Beauty appliance category, and we look to continue to do that as appropriate during the time when we need to meet that full broad range of consumer and shopper needs.

是的。如前所述，這是一個真正確保我們的分類盡可能強大的地方，以涵蓋 Julien 剛才提到的好、更好、最好的範圍。所以我們已經大規模地做到了這一點，特別是消費者和購物者傾向於購物的渠道。我們已經在這方面完善了我們的分類，這在本季度幫助了我們，這是幫助我們在美容電器類別中佔有份額的一部分，我們希望在我們需要滿足的時候繼續這樣做廣泛的消費者和購物者需求。

Yes. So we'll see some improvements in that area in upcoming distribution planogram as our expectation as well and it just helps balance it all. If you have the question of, are we strategically going to shift, go down market and become commoditized and then duke it out on price where people sell their mother for a nickel, the answer is no.

是的。因此，我們在即將到來的分佈貨架圖中看到了該領域的一些改進，這也是我們的期望，它只會幫助平衡這一切。如果你有這樣的問題，我們是否會在戰略上轉變，進入低端市場並變得商品化，然後在人們為了五分錢賣掉他們的母親的價格上一決高下，答案是否定的。

This will conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for closing comments.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回管理層徵求結束意見。

Yes. Well, I know we've run just a minute or two long, so I'll be very brief. First of all, just a thanks to everybody. It's a New Year. There's a lot going on, and we're grateful for people to continue to follow and take interest in where we're going. We're in a very special point in our career. You see -- sorry, in our trajectory, you hear all the things that we said today. So you know what I'm talking about. We look very much forward to seeing quite a few of you actually in person next week and then virtually over the next week or 2 in the upcoming conferences. I know we have a number of other meetings scheduled with you. So looking forward to it and with the analysts as well. It's an exciting time for us, and we're very happy to communicate. Thanks very much, and appreciate you joining today.

是的。好吧，我知道我們只講了一兩分鐘，所以我會非常簡短。首先，感謝大家。這是新的一年。發生了很多事情，我們感謝人們繼續關注我們的發展方向並對我們的發展方向感興趣。我們正處於職業生涯的一個非常特殊的時刻。你看——抱歉，在我們的軌跡中，你聽到了我們今天所說的所有事情。所以你知道我在說什麼。我們非常期待在下週與你們中的許多人實際見面，然後在接下來的一周或 2 週即將舉行的會議上以虛擬方式與大家見面。我知道我們還安排了一些與您的其他會議。所以很期待它，也很期待分析師。這對我們來說是一個激動人心的時刻，我們很樂意交流。非常感謝，感謝您今天加入。

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.

謝謝你。今天的會議到此結束。您此時可以斷開您的線路，感謝您的參與。

Great. Thank you, operator. Bye-bye.

偉大的。謝謝你，運營商。再見。

Thank you.

謝謝你。