J & J Snack Foods Corp (JJSF) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the J&J Snack Foods Fiscal 2023 Fourth Quarter Conference Call.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加強生休閒食品 2023 財年第四季電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker today, Norberto Aja, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

我現在想把會議交給今天的發言人，投資者關係部門的諾貝托·阿賈 (Norberto Aja)。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the J&J Snack Foods Fiscal 2023 Fourth Quarter Conference Call.

謝謝接線員，大家早安。感謝您參加強生休閒食品 2023 財年第四季電話會議。

We will start in just a minute with management's comments and your questions. But before doing so, let me take a minute to read the safe harbor language. This call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements made on this call may not relate to matters, historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including statements regarding management's plans, strategies, goals, expectations and objectives as well as our anticipated financial performance.

我們將在一分鐘內開始提出管理層的評論和您的問題。但在此之前，讓我花一點時間閱讀安全港語言。本次電話會議包含1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。本次電話會議中所做的所有陳述可能與事實無關，歷史事實應被視為前瞻性陳述，包括有關管理層的計劃、策略、目標、期望和目標以及我們預期的財務表現。

These statements are neither promises or guarantees that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

這些陳述並非涉及已知和未知風險、不確定性和其他可能導致結果、績效或成就與前瞻性陳述所明示或暗示的任何未來結果、績效或成就存在重大差異的重要因素的承諾或保證。

Factors discussed in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2023, and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made on this call today. Any such forward-looking statements represent management's estimates after the date of this call, November 16, 2023.

我們在截至2023 年9 月30 日的年度10-K 表格年度報告以及我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中討論的因素可能會導致實際結果與本次電話會議中前瞻性陳述所表明的結果存在重大差異今天。任何此類前瞻性陳述均代表管理階層在本次電話會議日期（2023 年 11 月 16 日）之後的估計。

While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause expectations to change. In addition, you may also reference certain non-GAAP measures on the call today, including adjusted EBITDA, operating income or earnings per share, all of which are reconciled to the nearest GAAP measures in the company's earnings press release, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website.

雖然我們可能選擇在未來某個時候更新前瞻性陳述，但我們不承擔任何這樣做的義務，即使後續事件導致預期發生變化。此外，您還可以在今天的電話會議上參考某些非GAAP 指標，包括調整後的EBITDA、營業收入或每股收益，所有這些指標均與公司收益新聞稿中最接近的GAAP 指標進行了調整，這些指標可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分。

Joining me on the call today is Dan Fachner, our Chief Executive Officer; along with Mr. Ken Plunk, our Chief Financial Officer. Following management's prepared remarks, we will go ahead and open the call for a question-and-answer session.

今天和我一起參加電話會議的是我們的執行長 Dan Fachner；以及我們的財務長 Ken Plunk 先生。在管理階層準備好發言後，我們將開始召開問答環節。

With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Dan Fachner, J&J Snack Foods Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Dan.

現在，我想將電話轉給強生休閒食品公司執行長 Dan Fachner 先生。請繼續，丹。

Thank you, Norberto, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us this morning to discuss J&J Snack Foods Fiscal 2023 Fourth Quarter and Full-Year Results. J&J had a great ending to our fiscal year. We delivered record high net sales and profitability for both the 3- and 12-month periods with improved gross profit margins. Our results underscore the tremendous progress we are making across the organization, thanks to the dedicated efforts of our employees and the positive impact of the strategic initiatives undertaken over the past 2 years.

謝謝諾伯托，大家早安。感謝您今天早上加入我們討論強生休閒食品 2023 財年第四季和全年業績。強生公司為本財年畫下了圓滿的句點。我們在 3 個月和 12 個月期間的淨銷售額和獲利能力均創歷史新高，毛利率有所提高。我們的業績突顯了我們在整個組織中取得的巨大進步，這要歸功於我們員工的不懈努力以及過去兩年採取的策略舉措的積極影響。

Our topline results marked the sixth consecutive quarter and the third consecutive year of double-digit net sales growth, totaling $443.9 million, up 10.8% for the quarter and $1.56 billion, up 12.9% for the year, reflecting $178 million in incremental sales. More importantly, our results were driven by continued growth across all 3 of our business segments on both a quarterly and a full-year basis, highlighting the health of our business and consumer appeal for our products and brands. I am pleased with the success of our work to improve margins and drive profitability.

我們的主要業績連續第六個季度和連續第三年實現兩位數的淨銷售額增長，季度淨銷售額總計4.439 億美元，增長10.8%；全年銷售額達到15.6 億美元，增長12.9%，銷售額增量為1.78 億美元。更重要的是，我們的業績是由我們所有三個業務部門的季度和全年持續成長所推動的，突顯了我們業務的健康狀況以及消費者對我們產品和品牌的吸引力。我對我們在提高利潤率和提高盈利能力方面取得的成功感到高興。

Gross margin improved at 32.8% and 30.1% for the quarter and year, respectively, and we lowered distribution expense as a percentage of revenue for both periods. This led to operating income and adjusted EBITDA increasing by 93% and 55.2%, respectively, for the fourth quarter and 77.2% and 46.3%, respectively, for the whole year. Ken will review our financial performance in more detail in just a few minutes.

本季度和本年度的毛利率分別提高至 32.8% 和 30.1%，並且我們降低了這兩個時期的分銷費用佔收入的百分比。這導致第四季營業收入和調整後 EBITDA 分別成長 93% 和 55.2%，全年分別成長 77.2% 和 46.3%。肯將在幾分鐘內更詳細地審查我們的財務表現。

As I reflect on the year, our company has never been more aligned in its vision and strategy. We ended this year with strong momentum across our business segments, guided by 5 core strategies: grow and protect our brands; dominate core categories; sell across the portfolio; invest in our future; and embrace our culture. We are collaborating better than ever and finding new sales opportunities across our portfolio. This strategy is aligned to our financial goals to grow sales above the market, create expense leverage and grow profits faster than sales. I would like to highlight a few of the successes from the fourth quarter that support our strategy.

當我回顧這一年時，我們公司的願景和策略從未如此一致。今年結束時，我們的業務部門在 5 項核心策略的指導下取得了強勁的發展勢頭：發展和保護我們的品牌；主導核心品類；出售整個投資組合；投資我們的未來；並擁抱我們的文化。我們的合作比以往任何時候都更好，並在我們的產品組合中尋找新的銷售機會。這項策略與我們的財務目標一致，即銷售額成長高於市場水平，創造費用槓桿，利潤成長速度快於銷售額。我想強調第四季度支持我們策略的一些成功。

Let me start with our focus on our strategies to grow our core brands, and products and how we are collaborating and cross-selling across the organization. We increased our marketing investment and added new production lines to support growing opportunities with SUPERPRETZEL. In the fourth quarter, we launched filled jalapeno nuts nationwide with a major theater customer and introduced a private label Bavarian Pretzel with a major food service distributor.

讓我先專注於我們發展核心品牌和產品的策略，以及我們如何在整個組織內進行協作和交叉銷售。我們增加了行銷投資並增加了新的生產線，以支持 SUPERPRETZEL 不斷增長的機會。第四季度，我們向一家主要劇院客戶在全國範圍內推出了夾心墨西哥胡椒堅果，並與一家主要食品服務分銷商推出了自有品牌巴伐利亞椒鹽捲餅。

In retail, I am pleased to report that we gained a SUPERPRETZEL availability with Walgreens, while also expanding PretzelDogs with new retail customers. In addition, we launched frozen SUPERPRETZEL Bavarian sticks with major grocery and mass merchant customers. Looking ahead to fiscal 2024, we are planning to launch a system-wide Pretzel Croissant with a strategic convenience customer. We also expect to be able to further expand frozen SUPERPRETZEL products among major retailers throughout the year and have plans to add fresh baked SUPERPRETZEL Bavarian sticks and buns to the in-store bakery category of several strategic customers.

在零售方面，我很高興地報告，我們與 Walgreens 合作獲得了 SUPERPRETZEL 的供貨，同時也擴大了 PretzelDogs 的新零售客戶。此外，我們也向主要雜貨店和大眾商家客戶推出了冷凍 SUPERPRETZEL 巴伐利亞棒。展望 2024 財年，我們計畫向策略便利客戶推出全系統椒鹽捲餅羊角麵包。我們也預計全年能夠在主要零售商中進一步擴大冷凍 SUPERPRETZEL 產品，並計劃將新鮮出爐的 SUPERPRETZEL 巴伐利亞棒和麵包添加到幾個戰略客戶的店內烘焙類別中。

Moving on to our ICEE brand. I'm so proud of our frozen beverage team for delivering a record quarter and year of sales and profitability. We continue to make progress growing consumption and placement of our ICEE and SLUSH PUPPIE brands in amusement, mass merchandisers and restaurants. Also, the theater industry continues to gain momentum, and our Mexico team delivered another stellar quarter and year. As we look forward, our team is rolling out a self-serve program to a major club store customer in early fiscal 2024, and we continue to have positive momentum with tests in QSR and family entertainment channels.

繼續我們的 ICEE 品牌。我為我們的冷凍飲料團隊創造了創紀錄的季度和年度銷售和盈利能力感到自豪。我們繼續在增加 ICEE 和 SLUSH PUPPIE 品牌在娛樂場所、大型商場和餐廳的消費和投放方面取得進展。此外，戲劇產業繼續保持強勁勢頭，我們的墨西哥團隊在季度和年度中表現出色。展望未來，我們的團隊將在 2024 財年初向俱樂部商店的主要客戶推出自助服務計劃，並且我們在 QSR 和家庭娛樂渠道的測試中將繼續保持積極的勢頭。

Turning to Hola! Churros. We are really pleased with the success of this brand in its first year. Sales grew over 23% for the year and 8% for the fourth quarter. With the production capacity we added this year, we have a strong pipeline of growth opportunities. This quarter, we convinced the retail rollout of Hola! brand Churros in the Northeast with several regional grocery retailers. We also successfully completed a market test with a major QSR sandwich chain for Churros that will begin to roll out system-wide in early calendar 2024.

轉向你好！油條。我們對這個品牌第一年的成功感到非常高興。今年銷售額成長超過 23%，第四季銷售額成長 8%。隨著我們今年增加的產能，我們擁有強大的成長機會。本季度，我們說服了 Hola! 的零售推出！東北地區的油條品牌與多家地區雜貨零售商合作。我們也成功完成了對一家大型 QSR 三明治連鎖店的 Churros 市場測試，該測試將於 2024 年初開始在全系統範圍內推出。

The best example of how we are executing product development and leveraging cross-selling opportunities is in Dippin' Dots. You may recall, we closed the acquisition of Dippin' Dots in June 2022. In the first year under J&J's ownership, the brand achieved all-time record high sales and profitability, growing over 13% and 80%, respectively. We are bringing new flavors to the market like the recently launched ICEE Cherry and Blue Ras ICEE flavor, the best smooth flavor launch in Dippin' Dots' history. And we are looking forward to next year's launch of a new cookie dough offering called Frozeti Dough. Our rollout for regal theaters is almost complete, and we are adding test locations for 2 other major theater chains and expect to continue building our presence in the theater channel in 2024.

Dippin' Dots 是我們如何執行產品開發和利用交叉銷售機會的最佳範例。您可能還記得，我們​​在2022 年6 月完成了對Dippin' Dots 的收購。在強生收購的第一年，該品牌的銷售額和盈利能力創下了歷史新高，分別增長了13% 和80% 以上。我們正在向市場推出新口味，例如最近推出的 ICEE Cherry 口味和 Blue Ras ICEE 口味，這是 Dippin' Dots 歷史上推出的最順滑的口味。我們期待明年推出名為 Frozeti Dough 的新餅乾麵團產品。我們對豪華影院的部署已基本完成，我們正在為另外 2 家主要連鎖影院添加測試地點，並預計在 2024 年繼續在影院頻道中建立影響力。

Also, we are testing a vending program in amusement parks, clubs, theaters and entertainment venues and have an in-store freezer test with a major convenience store. We also remain laser-focused on improving our go-to-market strategies, including finding added cross-selling opportunities, securing new client wins and entering and growing in new geographic markets.

此外，我們正在遊樂園、俱樂部、劇院和娛樂場所測試自動售貨計劃，並與一家大型便利商店進行店內冷凍測試。我們也繼續專注於改善我們的進入市場策略，包括尋找更多的交叉銷售機會、贏得新客戶以及進入新的地理市場並在其中發展。

We are excited about the opportunities ahead of us in the international markets, such as Mexico. We have recently added an international business development leader to identify opportunities to expand key products and brands like SUPERPRETZEL, Hola! Churros and Dippin' Dots into new markets.

我們對墨西哥等國際市場面臨的機會感到興奮。我們最近增加了一位國際業務開發領導者，負責尋找擴大 SUPERPRETZEL、Hola! 等關鍵產品和品牌的機會。 Churros 和 Dippin' Dots 進入新市場。

Our product portfolio extends across over a dozen product categories from soft pretzels, churros and handhelds, the bakery goods, dog treats, italianized and frozen beverages. We also sell into more than a dozen distinct venues, including school cafeterias, theaters, amusement parks, airports, stadiums and supermarkets as well as restaurants and convenience stores. Our team is aligned and focused on driving plans to leverage our portfolio of products to add growth across our many channels and customers.

我們的產品組合涵蓋十多個產品類別，從軟椒鹽捲餅、油條和手持設備、烘焙食品、狗糧、義大利和冷凍飲料。我們也向十多個不同的場所銷售產品，包括學校食堂、劇院、遊樂園、機場、體育場館和超市以及餐廳和便利商店。我們的團隊團結一致，專注於推動計劃，利用我們的產品組合來促進我們眾多管道和客戶的成長。

As we've discussed for the last couple of years, one of our core strategies is to build capability and invest in our future. Let me begin with our warehousing network. I am pleased to report that we now have 2 new regional distribution centers open, one in Texas and the other in New Jersey. We are on track to open the third RDC in Arizona in early calendar 2024. The 3 RDCs will be used to store and distribute most of our products as we decrease our points of distribution from over 30 to less than 10.

正如我們過去幾年所討論的那樣，我們的核心策略之一是建立能力並投資於我們的未來。讓我從我們的倉儲網路開始。我很高興地向大家報告，我們現在開設了 2 個新的區域配送中心，一個位於德克薩斯州，另一個位於新澤西州。我們預計在 2024 年初在亞利桑那州開設第三個 RDC。隨著我們將分銷點從 30 多個減少到 10 個以下，這 3 個 RDC 將用於儲存和分銷我們的大部分產品。

This will include added freezer storage capacity for Dippin' Dots, which is really the key to our growth plans for that brand. It will also result in improved customer service and lower distribution costs. We expect this initiative to provide at least $10 million in annual cost savings as we ramp up over the next 2 years.

這將包括增加 Dippin' Dots 的冷凍儲存容量，這確實是我們該品牌成長計劃的關鍵。它還將改善客戶服務並降低分銷成本。我們預計，隨著我們在未來 2 年內持續擴大規模，這項措施每年可節省至少 1,000 萬美元的成本。

As you know, we are partnered with NFI over a year ago to manage our logistics and transportation network and are seeing efficiency improvements that are lowering shipping, handling and storage costs. NFI now manages all of our transportation network, improving truck capacity and routing and enhancing customer service. We are also just beginning to leverage the 6 recently added state-of-the-art production lines as we add production capacity to our core products, such as pretzels, churros and frozen novelties. And not only do these lines provide more capacity, they are creating production efficiency and higher output metrics through better automation.

如您所知，我們一年多前與 NFI 合作來管理我們的物流和運輸網絡，並看到效率的提高，從而降低了運輸、裝卸和儲存成本。 NFI 現在管理我們所有的運輸網絡，改善卡車運力和路線並增強客戶服務。我們也剛開始利用最近新增的 6 條最先進的生產線，為我們的核心產品（如椒鹽捲餅、西班牙油條和冷凍新奇食品）增加產能。這些生產線不僅提供了更多的產能，還透過更好的自動化創造了生產效率和更高的產出指標。

Transitioning to M&A. We continue to be highly disciplined in our approach. We are evaluating opportunities that complement our brand portfolio and business model and that offer attractive shareholder returns. Financially, we have the resources and the balance sheet to invest in growth when opportunities align.

過渡到併購。我們在我們的方法中繼續保持嚴格的紀律。我們正在評估能夠補充我們的品牌組合和業務模式並提供有吸引力的股東回報的機會。在財務上，我們擁有資源和資產負債表，可以在機會出現時投資於成長。

In summary, our momentum is strong, and we are aligned on a strategy that positions us well for continued success in fiscal 2024 and beyond. I am so proud of the J&J teams and their relentless focus on satisfying the consumer every time they enjoy one of our products. Our focus on cross-selling is opening up new opportunities in channels, which creates new selling opportunities across our portfolio.

總之，我們的勢頭強勁，我們的策略一致，使我們能夠在 2024 財年及以後繼續取得成功。我為強生團隊感到非常自豪，他們不懈地致力於讓消費者每次享受我們的產品時都感到滿意。我們對交叉銷售的關注是在通路中開啟新的機會，從而為我們的產品組合創造新的銷售機會。

The diverse nature of our business, along with the power of our brands and the affordable price point of our products is something that we are confident will continue to serve us well. We believe this momentum, together with improved operational efficiencies, positions J&J to deliver long-term value to our employees, partners and shareholders. Our success is anchored by a winning culture, and I want to thank our J&J employees for their efforts to deliver a record 2023 year.

我們業務的多元化性質，以及我們品牌的力量和我們產品的實惠價格點，我們有信心將繼續為我們提供良好的服務。我們相信，這股動能加上營運效率的提高，將使強生能為我們的員工、合作夥伴和股東帶來長期價值。我們的成功以獲勝文化為基礎，我要感謝我們的強生員工為實現創紀錄的 2023 年所做的努力。

With that, I would now like to pass the call over to Ken to review our financial performance in more detail. Ken?

現在，我想將電話轉接給 Ken，以更詳細地審查我們的財務表現。肯？

Thank you, Dan. To echo Dan's comments, J&J ended fiscal 2023 on a strong note, including record fourth quarter and annual net sales and profitability. I'd like to take a few minutes to walk you through the results.

謝謝你，丹。為了呼應丹的評論，強生公司以強勁的業績結束了 2023 財年，包括創紀錄的第四季度和年度淨銷售額和盈利能力。我想花幾分鐘時間向您介紹一下結果。

Net sales for the quarter totaled $443.9 million, a 10.8% increase versus the prior year, and sales for the full year totaled $1.56 billion, a 12.9% increase versus full-year fiscal 2022. Our sales results this quarter and fiscal year included an extra week compared to the prior year and contributed an estimated 6.8% and 2% to sales growth, respectively.

本季淨銷售額總計 4.439 億美元，比上年增長 10.8%，全年銷售額總計 15.6 億美元，比 2022 財年全年增長 12.9%。我們本季和財年的銷售業績包括額外的銷售額與去年同期相比，銷售額成長預計分別為6.8% 和2%。

Foodservice, our largest segment saw Q4 '23 sales exceed Q4 '22 by $13.5 million to $270.3 million or an increase of 5.3%, including approximately $35.2 million in sales from the amusement acquisition of Dippin' Dots. We saw continued strong sales across all of our product lines, including a 14.6% increase in pretzels, 9.7% increase in frozen novelties and 8.1% increase in churros and a 2.2% increase in bakery. Dippin' Dots sales increased almost 12% in the quarter.

餐飲服務是我們最大的細分市場，其23 年第4 季的銷售額比22 年第4 季高出1,350 萬美元，達到2.703 億美元，即成長5.3%，其中包括收購娛樂公司Dippin' Dots 帶來的約3,520 萬美元的銷售額。我們所有產品線的銷售持續強勁，其中椒鹽捲餅成長 14.6%，冷凍新奇食品成長 9.7%，油條成長 8.1%，麵包食品成長 2.2%。 Dippin' Dots 本季銷售額成長了近 12%。

Handheld sales decreased 21.8% driven primarily by contractual cost true-up agreement. Volume for core Foodservice handheld increased for the quarter. This led to Q4 '23 Foodservice segment operating income of $17.5 million or an increase of 175.8% versus the prior year period, reflecting topline growth as well as improvement in margins and added leverage from lower distribution expenses.

手持設備銷售量下降 21.8%，主要是因為合約成本調整協議所致。本季核心餐飲服務手持設備的銷售量增加。這導致 23 年第 4 季餐飲服務部門營業收入達到 1,750 萬美元，較上年同期成長 175.8%，反映了營收成長、利潤率改善以及分銷費用降低帶來的槓桿作用。

Moving to our Retail segment. Q4 '23 retail sales increased 21.2% to $64.8 million compared to Q4 '22. Retail sales were driven by a 205.5% growth in handheld sales, a 32% increase in biscuit sales and a 16.7% increase in frozen novelties sales, led by Luigi's, Dogsters and ICEE sticks. So pretzel sales grew by 6.7% versus the prior year period, led by the expanded placement of SUPERPRETZEL Bavarian sticks by the Mini Dogs with several retail customers. This resulted in Q4 '23 Retail segment operating income of $3.6 million or an increase of 237% versus the prior year period, driven by topline growth as well as improvement in margin and lower distribution expenses.

轉向我們的零售部門。與 22 年第 4 季相比，23 年第 4 季零售額成長 21.2%，達到 6,480 萬美元。手持裝置銷售成長 205.5%，餅乾銷量成長 32%，冷凍新奇產品銷售成長 16.7%，其中以 Luigi's、Dogsters 和 ICEE 棒為主導，推動零售額成長。因此，椒鹽捲餅銷量較上年同期增長了 6.7%，這得益於 Mini Dogs 向多家零售客戶擴大了 SUPERPRETZEL Bavarian 棒的投放。這使得 23 年第 4 季零售部門的營業收入達到 360 萬美元，比上年同期成長 237%，這得益於營收成長以及利潤率改善和分銷費用下降。

As it relates to our third segment, Frozen Beverages segment sales were $108.7 million and beat Q4 '22 sales by 20.6%. Beverage sales grew 24.8% or $14.2 million higher than Q4 '22, led by double-digit volume growth and in healthy consumer trends across key channels, including convenience, amusement parks, mass merchants, restaurants and theaters. The Barbenheimer effect drove strong theater performance of growth above pre-pandemic levels as well as higher food and beverage consumption per visit.

與我們的第三個細分市場相關，冷凍飲料細分市場的銷售額為 1.087 億美元，比 22 年第 4 季的銷售額成長 20.6%。飲料銷售額比 2022 年第四季成長 24.8%，即 1,420 萬美元，這得益於兩位數的銷量成長以及便利商店、遊樂園、大型商家、餐廳和劇院等主要管道的健康消費趨勢。巴本海默效應推動劇院表現強勁，成長超過疫情前的水平，每次參觀的食品和飲料消費量增加。

Machine service revenues increased 6% versus the prior year period, reflecting strong maintenance call volumes, while equipment sales increased 33.2%, representing our second largest year ever and was driven by strong growth from new clients in convenience customers. Q4 '23 operating income in the Frozen Beverage segment had also improved to a record $20.6 million, a $6.4 million increase compared to Q4 '22. Overall, we've made significant progress including gross margin and distribution expenses. Our focus on improving gross margins through an improved mix of core products, better calibration cost and price and cost of goods efficiencies is clearly benefiting our results.

機器服務收入較上年同期增長 6%，反映出強勁的維護呼叫量，而設備銷售額增長 33.2%，是我們有史以來第二高的一年，這得益於便利客戶新客戶的強勁增長。 23 年第 4 季冷凍飲料部門的營業收入也提高至創紀錄的 2,060 萬美元，比 22 年第 4 季增​​加了 640 萬美元。總體而言，我們在毛利率和分銷費用方面取得了重大進展。我們專注於透過改進核心產品組合、更好的校準成本以及價格和商品成本效率來提高毛利率，這顯然有利於我們的績效。

For the quarter, gross profit totaled $145.7 million, a 25.8% increase compared to Q4 '22. This led to a gross margin of 32.8%, favorably comparing to 28.9% in Q4 '22. This allowed us to reach our goal of 30% gross margin for the full year, a marked improvement from 26.8% for the full year in 2022.

本季毛利總計 1.457 億美元，較 22 年第四季成長 25.8%。這使得毛利率達到 32.8%，優於 22 年第 4 季的 28.9%。這使我們能夠實現全年毛利率 30% 的目標，較 2022 年全年毛利率 26.8% 顯著提高。

Overall, we experienced slight deflation for the quarter. The cost of key ingredients, including flour, oil, dairy and meats have declined. So we are still experiencing double-digit inflation in sugar sweeteners, which continues to impact products such as frozen novelties and baked goods.

整體而言，本季我們經歷了輕微的通貨緊縮。麵粉、油、乳製品和肉類等關鍵原料的成本下降。因此，我們仍面臨糖甜味劑兩位數的通貨膨脹，繼續影響冷凍新奇食品和烘焙食品等產品。

Looking at expenses. Total operating expenses increased $9.8 million or 10.4%, representing 23.4% of sales for the quarter compared to 23.5% in Q4 '22. Distribution cost was 2.8% of sales in the quarter, much improved compared to 12.4% in the prior year period. Marketing and selling expense represented 7% of sales versus 6.4% in the prior period, driven primarily by incremental promotional and marketing support on core brands and new products. Administrative expenses were 5% in sales in Q4 '23 compared to 4.3% in Q4 '22, attributable to higher performance-based bonus payments compared to the prior year and investments and capability.

看看費用。總營運支出增加了 980 萬美元，即 10.4%，佔本季銷售額的 23.4%，而 2022 年第四季為 23.5%。本季分銷成本佔銷售額的 2.8%，與去年同期的 12.4% 相比大幅改善。行銷和銷售費用佔銷售額的 7%，而上一期為 6.4%，這主要是由於對核心品牌和新產品的促銷和行銷支援不斷增加。 23 年第4 季的管理費用佔銷售額的5%，而22 年第4 季的管理費用佔銷售額的4.3%，這歸因於與前一年相比基於績效的獎金支付以及投資和能力的提高。

This led to an operating income of $41.7 million or a 93% increase compared to $21.6 million in Q4 '22. Adjusted operating income was $45.8 million or a 77.8% increase compared to Q4 '22. For the quarter and the year, the extra lead contributed an estimated $2 million in operating profit.

這使得營業收入達到 4,170 萬美元，與 2022 年第四季的 2,160 萬美元相比成長了 93%。調整後營業收入為 4,580 萬美元，與 22 年第四季相比成長 77.8%。在本季和本年度，額外的領先優勢預計貢獻了 200 萬美元的營業利潤。

After the impact of income taxes of $11.3 million compared to $3.9 million in Q4 of fiscal '22, net earnings increased to $30.4 million, resulting in reported earnings per share of $1.57 or $4.08 for the full year. This compares to $0.90 which -- $2.40 in the prior year period. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $1.73 for the quarter and $4.50 for the full year compared to $1.05 and $2.76 in the prior year periods.

與 22 財年第四季的 390 萬美元相比，所得稅影響為 1,130 萬美元，淨利潤增加至 3,040 萬美元，導致全年報告每股收益為 1.57 美元或 4.08 美元。相比之下，去年同期為 0.90 美元，即 2.40 美元。調整後稀釋後每股盈餘本季為 1.73 美元，全年為 4.50 美元，而去年同期為 1.05 美元和 2.76 美元。

Adjusted EBITDA increased 55.2% to $62.2 million from $40.1 million in the prior year period, and our effective tax rate was 27% in the fourth quarter. Looking at our liquidity position, I'm pleased with our ability to quickly delever on the back of the Dippin' Dots acquisition. We were able to reduce our debt from approximately $125 million when we acquired Dippin' Dots to $27 million at the end of fiscal Q4. The focus will continue to be on maintaining a healthy balance sheet and prudent leverage positioning, which positions us to continue investing in the growth of our business and returning value to our shareholders. Our cash and marketable securities at the end of the quarter were $49.6 million. In addition, we have ample availability under our revolver of approximately $188 million in additional borrowing capacity.

調整後 EBITDA 成長 55.2%，從去年同期的 4,010 萬美元增至 6,220 萬美元，第四季的有效稅率為 27%。看看我們的流動性狀況，我對我們在收購 Dippin' Dots 後快速去槓桿化的能力感到滿意。我們能夠將債務從收購 Dippin' Dots 時的約 1.25 億美元減少到第四財季末的 2,700 萬美元。重點將繼續放在維持健康的資產負債表和審慎的槓桿定位上，這使我們能夠繼續投資於業務成長並為股東回報價值。截至本季末，我們的現金和有價證券為 4,960 萬美元。此外，我們的左輪手槍還擁有充足的可用資金，約為 1.88 億美元的額外借款能力。

In summary, we are confident that the decisions we are making and the steps we are taking to transform our company are driving results and laying the foundation for future success.

總之，我們相信，我們為公司轉型所做的決策和採取的步驟正在推動成果，並為未來的成功奠定基礎。

I would now like to turn the call over to the operator for Q&A.

我現在想將電話轉給接線員進行問答。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

And our first question is going to come from the line of Jon Andersen with William Blair.

我們的第一個問題來自喬恩·安德森和威廉·布萊爾。

Congrats on the quarter. I wanted to -- you mentioned in the prepared comments that I think it was kind of a forward-looking thought around maybe an algorithm -- longer-term algorithm. You mentioned sales growth above that of your principal end markets, expense leverage and earnings growth as a result above rate of sales. Could you talk a little bit more about that?

恭喜本季。我想——你在準備好的評論中提到，我認為這是一種圍繞演算法的前瞻性想法——長期演算法。您提到銷售成長高於主要終端市場的成長，費用槓桿和獲利成長高於銷售率。能多談談嗎？

Did I read that right? As maybe kind of a new way to communicate how you think about the growth of the business, top and bottom line going forward? And perhaps then kind of narrow in on 2024 using that as a framework and how you're thinking about end market growth, your own growth and perhaps margin expansion?

我沒讀錯嗎？這也許是一種新的方式來傳達您對業務成長、未來頂線和底線的看法？也許然後以 2024 年為框架，您如何考慮終端市場成長、您自己的成長以及可能的利潤擴張？

Jon, this is Ken. Great question. Yes, we've been operating kind of under this, what I call, financial formula for really the last couple of years. And probably as I stated, as we did in the script, that it really gets to what I talked about before is we're focused on the entire P&L. And we've kind of foundationally set the goal that sales-wise, we want to drive our business to grow sales faster than the market. As we're doing that and as we're investing in capabilities and efficiencies, our job is really to leverage the P&L.

喬恩，這是肯。很好的問題。是的，過去幾年我們一直在按照我所說的財務公式運作。可能正如我所說，正如我們在腳本中所做的那樣，這確實符合我之前談到的內容，即我們專注於整個損益表。我們從根本上設定了銷售目標，我們希望推動我們的業務以比市場更快的速度成長銷售。當我們這樣做並投資於能力和效率時，我們的工作實際上是利用損益表。

As those sales grow at that pace, that obviously provides you a better ability to do that. At the same time, a lot of the initiatives that we've undertaken have been done to improve, say, distribution expenses as a rate of sales to figure out how we can operate more efficiently in our plans. So day in and day out, we kind of operate under that kind of financial formula to think about how we should kind of hold ourselves accountable to managing this business, both now and yes, going forward.

隨著這些銷售額以這樣的速度增長，這顯然會為您提供更好的能力來做到這一點。同時，我們採取的許多措施都是為了提高分銷費用（例如銷售費用），以找出我們如何在計劃中更有效地運作。因此，日復一日，我們在這種財務公式下運作，思考我們應該如何讓自己對管理這項業務負責，無論是現在還是未來。

And then that's helpful. And as we look ahead to fiscal '24, I mean, it sounds like you have a tremendous amount of new business activity, a lot of cross-selling going on, a lot of new distribution for, I guess, new items in -- both in Foodservice and Retail, ICEE placements in food away from home venues, et cetera. I mean, how should we be thinking broad strokes about what are your growth expectations for 2024, given just kind of the -- what seems like a really strong pipeline. And then could you talk also about maybe price and volume. Are you still benefiting from price right now? And would you expect, going forward, that the growth is going to largely be volume driven?

這很有幫助。當我們展望 24 財年時，我的意思是，聽起來你們有大量的新業務活動，大量的交叉銷售正在進行，我猜，新產品的大量新分銷——無論是在餐飲服務還是零售領域， ICEE 都在遠離家鄉的食品場所進行安置，等等。我的意思是，考慮到似乎有一個非常強大的管道，我們應該如何大致思考 2024 年的成長預期。然後您能否談談價格和數量。現在您還受益於價格嗎？您是否預計未來的成長將主要由銷售驅動？

Good questions, Jon. We're feeling good about and you saw that in my comments, feeling really good about the momentum that we have going into 2024. We've talked a lot about the different areas of our business that we're working on. And one of those is the cross-selling effect across our businesses. We have such great relationships in different areas that we're able to bring other sides of our businesses in and introduce the products. And we really see that working. And as I talked about, we have a really nice pipeline coming into 2024.

好問題，喬恩。我們感覺很好，您在我的評論中看到了這一點，對我們進入 2024 年的勢頭感覺非常好。我們已經談論了很多關於我們正在開展的業務的不同領域。其中之一是我們業務的交叉銷售效應。我們在不同領域擁有如此良好的關係，因此我們能夠將我們業務的其他方面引入並介紹產品。我們確實看到了這一點。正如我所說，我們在 2024 年有一個非常好的管道。

So we're feeling pretty good about that. From a price and volume standpoint, we were fortunate in this past quarter. We see volume really increase across our categories, just about all of them. And we think that there's an opportunity for us to continue to do that. I'll let Ken talk about the pricing, but I think we've pretty well lapped that pricing effect now, and we'll be looking at some additional pricing in some of the areas in 2024 as well.

所以我們對此感覺很好。從價格和銷售的角度來看，我們在上個季度很幸運。我們看到我們的類別（幾乎所有類別）的銷量確實有所增加。我們認為我們有機會繼續這樣做。我會讓 Ken 談談定價，但我認為我們現在已經很好地適應了定價效應，我們還將在 2024 年考慮在某些領域進行一些額外的定價。

Yes, Jon, if you recall from prior calls, the last pricing increase we took was last kind of call it September, October, so we've lapped -- the other 2 is certainly lapped and we've lapped portions of that. But there was a little bit of price increase benefit in the past, in this quarter, Q4. But it really gets -- as Dan said, is much more of that growth is coming from volume, particularly in retail and frozen beverages had really nice volume quarters. And yes, you're correct. Given where the kind of the inflation, deflationary environment is right now, as we look forward, we really expect probably more of our growth to be from volume than from price as we look to the next year.

是的，喬恩，如果你還記得之前的電話，我們最後一次提價是在九月、十月，所以我們已經完成了——另外兩個肯定已經完成了，我們已經完成了其中的一部分。但過去，在本季度，第四季度，有一點價格上漲的好處。但正如丹所說，成長的大部分來自銷量，尤其是零售和冷凍飲料，季度銷售非常好。是的，你是對的。考慮到目前的通膨、通貨緊縮環境，正如我們展望的那樣，我們確實預計明年的成長可能更多地來自數量而不是價格。

Okay. One more for me, and I'll get back in the queue. You were able to achieve kind of your gross margin, I guess, near-term or medium-term gross margin objective of getting to 30% in this fiscal year. And you finished really strong in the back half, north of, I guess, in the second half of the fiscal, probably north of 33%, And I know there's some seasonality in there, et cetera.

好的。再給我一份，我會回到隊列。我想，你們能夠實現本財年的毛利率目標，即達到 30% 的近期或中期毛利率目標。你在後半段的表現非常強勁，我猜，在本財年的後半段，可能超過 33%，我知道其中存在一些季節性因素，等等。

But I guess not to put you under the gun, but what's the -- is there kind of a new interim targets? Or should we -- is there more room to move in a constructive direction in terms of gross margin? I'm just thinking about your commentary around 6 new production lines that are scaling more efficient to focus on core brands and the mix of your business and that being beneficial. It would just seem there's more room for improvement on that gross margin line, but I don't want to get ahead of myself in thinking about that.

但我想不是要把你放在槍口之下，但有什麼新的臨時目標嗎？或者我們應該－在毛利率方面是否有更多的空間朝著建設性的方向發展？我只是在考慮您對 6 條新生產線的評論，這些生產線正在更有效地擴展，以專注於核心品牌和您的業務組合，這是有益的。毛利率似乎還有更大的進步空間，但我不想超前地思考這一點。

Right. Another good question. And you know we've been talking about this now for over a couple of years. And our goals that Ken and I have wanted to drive the business to and to get to that 30% gross profit margin. Really proud of the teams to follow the strategies to allow us to get there. And yes, Jon, we might be a little even more bullish there. We think our strategies are working. We think some of the new lines allow us to make products more efficiently.

正確的。另一個好問題。你知道我們已經討論這個問題好幾年了。 Ken 和我一直希望推動業務達到 30% 的毛利率。為我們的團隊遵循策略而實現這一目標感到非常自豪。是的，喬恩，我們可能會更樂觀一些。我們認為我們的策略正在發揮作用。我們認為一些新生產線使我們能夠更有效率地生產產品。

We think our teams are working hard in every facet and are starting at that 30% as a floor and which we can grow from. How quickly? Again, we have some seasonality to it. We're coming off the back end of the summer months where Dippin' Dots and ICEE are a big part of our sales and as we get into the winter months that isn't as strong, but we think we can continue to grow from where we landed this year for sure.

我們認為我們的團隊在各個方面都在努力工作，並以 30% 為基礎，我們可以從中成長。太快了？同樣，我們有一些季節性。夏季即將結束，Dippin' Dots 和 ICEE 是我們銷售的重要組成部分，進入冬季後，銷售量就不那麼強勁了，但我們認為我們可以繼續增長我們今年肯定登陸了。

Our next question is going to come from the line of Connor Rattigan with Consumer Edge.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Connor Rattigan 和 Consumer Edge 的線。

So Dan, I think I just heard you mentioned that you're expecting some pricing next year. And -- so if I'm not mistaken, you guys are pretty much back to pre-pandemic margins with deflation at commodities. I guess just how do you -- the customers to sort of push that pricing through while they know you're experiencing deflation?

丹，我想我剛剛聽到你提到你預計明年會有一些定價。而且，如果我沒記錯的話，隨著大宗商品通貨緊縮，你們的利潤率幾乎回到了大流行前的水平。我想，當顧客知道你正在經歷通貨緊縮時，他們是如何推動定價的呢？

And I guess maybe could you provide a little color into your visibility into your input costs for next year? And maybe any hedging you have in place? And I guess should we kind of expect that deflation to continue next year?

我想也許您可以提供一些關於明年投入成本的可見性的信息嗎？也許您有任何對沖措施？我想我們是否應該預期通貨緊縮明年還會繼續？

Good question, Connor. And we are experiencing deflation in some of the areas that we are having double-digit inflation in others like sugar and sweeteners. And that impacts some of our business pieces like the ICEE side or the Dippin' Dots side or pieces of our frozen novelties. And so there will be some areas that we will be able or will be taking price increase in, and probably need to, maybe needed to already. And yet, there will be other areas that will be taken a look at, and I'm sure we'll be challenged in and we're prepared for those areas as they come. So there will be some pricing that will take. ICEE is pretty consistent about doing that at the first year. And I believe that we're scheduled for that again. And Ken, do you want to mention the other piece of that?

好問題，康納。我們在某些​​領域正在經歷通貨緊縮，而在糖和甜味劑等其他領域正在經歷兩位數的通貨膨脹。這會影響我們的一些業務，例如 ICEE 方面或 Dippin' Dots 方面或我們的冷凍新奇產品。因此，在某些領域，我們將能夠或將會接受價格上漲，而且可能需要，也許已經需要了。然而，還會有其他領域需要考慮，我確信我們會面臨挑戰，我們已經為這些領域的到來做好了準備。因此，將會有一些定價。 ICEE 在第一年就一直這樣做。我相信我們會再次安排這一點。肯，你想提另一件事嗎？

Yes. Connor, in terms of kind of covered or contracts, I couldn't say enough good things about the procurement organization, so whether it's flour, whether it's sweeteners, whether it's something like eggs or whatever, I think they're managing that very well. In some cases, we've got contracts out for the next 3 months. In some cases, it would be 6 to 9 months, but I think we're really well positioned kind of maintain and manage and minimize any other inflation or maximize deflation in that and how we buy.

是的。康納，就承保範圍或合約而言，我對採購組織的評價再好不過了，所以無論是麵粉、甜味劑、雞蛋還是其他什麼東西，我認為他們管理得很好。在某些情況下，我們會簽下未來 3 個月的合約。在某些情況下，這將是 6 到 9 個月，但我認為我們確實處於有利地位，可以維持和管理並最大限度地減少任何其他通貨膨脹或最大限度地提高通貨緊縮以及我們的購買方式。

In terms of the outlook, I mean, it's always hard to say. You've seen different political and just international things happen that can drive things pretty quickly, whether it's the Ukraine situation. So those wild cards, I think, are still out there, but absent any of that. I think it's going to be a pretty stable environment. I mean I don't see a lot of significant more deflation, but I think most of these categories will hold pretty well and we expect to see a lot of inflation. CPI, I think, came out yesterday at around 2%. Production, CPI generally about 100, 150 basis points higher than that because there's a bit of a trail there. As we look forward, I think the forecast on inflation is in that 1.5% to 2% range. So that's probably how we kind of feel about it and how we're trying to manage what we do in terms of procuring materials and how we do that.

就前景而言，我的意思是，這總是很難說。你已經看到了不同的政治和國際事件的發生，這些事件很快就會推動事態發展，無論是烏克蘭局勢。所以我認為那些通配符仍然存在，但沒有任何一個。我認為這將是一個非常穩定的環境。我的意思是，我沒有看到更多的通貨緊縮，但我認為這些類別中的大多數都將保持良好狀態，我們預計會看到大量通貨膨脹。我認為昨天公佈的 CPI 約為 2%。生產、CPI 一般比這高出 100、150 個基點，因為那裡有一點痕跡。展望未來，我認為通膨預測在 1.5% 至 2% 的範圍內。這可能就是我們對此的感受，以及我們如何嘗試管理我們在採購材料方面所做的工作以及我們如何做到這一點。

Okay. Perfect. Very thorough. And then I guess just one more for me. So Dan, in your prepared remarks, you mentioned targeting international growth, especially down in Mexico. I guess, first, can you remind us if you currently have any international operations? And I guess is this more of an exploratory project or should we expect this to be a tangible 2024 impact? And then I guess, just kind of stepping back as well, we've seen a lot of CPGs that are U.S. focused kind of attempt to migrate to international markets, and which really run into issues, gaining distribution and also experiencing some profitability challenges, given the skew to more traditional retail and also there's a lack of scale. I guess just sort of what is the plan in place to sort of drive that distribution growth to maybe minimize those profitability headwinds?

好的。完美的。非常徹底。然後我想我還需要再做一件事。丹，在您準備好的演講中，您提到了瞄準國際成長，尤其是墨西哥。我想，首先，您能提醒我們一下您目前是否有任何國際業務嗎？我想這更像是一個探索性項目，還是我們應該期望這會在 2024 年產生實際的影響？然後我想，退一步來說，我們看到很多專注於美國的快速消費品試圖遷移到國際市場，但它們確實遇到了問題，在獲得分銷的同時也遇到了一些盈利挑戰，考慮到偏向更傳統的零售業，而且缺乏規模。我想，有什麼計劃可以推動分銷成長，以盡量減少獲利能力的不利因素？

Down in Mexico, our operation is really centered around ICEE today, and they really had a tremendous year. They had a record year in both sales and profits and proud of what that team is doing down there. We're going to be able to expand on some of their business. We want to be able to maybe take some of our products that they aren't operating with today. And expand them down there, such as Dippin' Dots or some of our snack food items and think that there's a real opportunity for us to grow.

在墨西哥，我們今天的營運確實以 ICEE 為中心，他們確實度過了輝煌的一年。他們在銷售和利潤方面都創下了創紀錄的一年，並為團隊在那裡所做的事情感到自豪。我們將能夠擴展他們的一些業務。我們希望能夠採用一些他們目前尚未使用的我們的產品。並在那裡擴展它們，例如 Dippin' Dots 或我們的一些休閒食品，並認為這對我們來說是一個真正的成長機會。

We do, do a little bit of this, internationally today. And feel like there's an opportunity for growth for us. And so for kind of really the first time we brought on an international business leader to help us identify that and to do some steps along that way. I don't see that being impactful to our 2024 year.

今天，我們在國際上做了一些這樣的事。感覺我們有成長的機會。因此，我們第一次聘請了一位國際商業領袖來幫助我們識別這一點並採取一些措施。我認為這不會對我們的 2024 年產生影響。

I think it will build over a period of time. And we have enough experience to know -- to be careful about how we do that. And so we're excited about the opportunity of bringing on this business leader and I had some experience with him in the past and think that he will hit the ground running for us. But I probably would caution not to be overly optimistic about that in 2024.

我認為它會在一段時間內建立起來。我們有足夠的經驗知道如何做到這一點。因此，我們對聘請這位商業領袖的機會感到很興奮，我過去與他有過一些合作經驗，並認為他會為我們提供幫助。但我可能會提醒大家不要對 2024 年的情況過於樂觀。

Our next question is going to come from the line of Todd Brooks with The Benchmark Company.

我們的下一個問題將來自 The Benchmark Company 的 Todd Brooks。

Congrats on a strong quarter and a strong year.

祝賀強勁的季度和強勁的一年。

Thank you very much, Todd. It's a great way to end the year, for sure.

非常感謝你，托德。當然，這是結束這一年的好方法。

Dan, I want to start off, when you started rattling off new opportunities for '24, and Jon kind of hit on this. It was quite the laundry list. I don't necessarily remember that much internal momentum at J&J. Could you maybe highlight for us the 2 or 3 most impactful opportunities as you see it for '24 that investors should be most focused on?

丹，我想從你開始滔滔不絕地講述 24 世紀的新機會開始，喬恩對此很感興趣。這真是一份待洗衣清單。我不一定記得強生有那麼大的內在動力。您能否向我們強調一下您認為投資者應該最關注的 24 年最有影響力的 2 到 3 個機會？

Yes, we really do have a great pipeline. Our Snack Foods side led Bjoern Leyser is doing such a good job identifying opportunities as we are building capabilities to be able to grow within some of our core markets. You've heard that talked about in our core strategies. And so some of the great opportunities we have are right within our core. I love what we're doing.

是的，我們確實有一個很棒的管道。我們的休閒食品部門領導 Bjoern Leyser 在尋找機會方面做得非常出色，因為我們正在建立能夠在一些核心市場中發展的能力。您已經在我們的核心策略中聽說過這一點。因此，我們擁有的一些絕佳機會就在我們的核心範圍內。我喜歡我們正在做的事情。

We released our SUPERPRETZEL sticks this past quarter, and they sold really, really well. I'm not surprised by that either, Todd. I knew that was going to be a good hit and it was. And I think we have some great opportunities there within the retail environment. Also within the retail environment, we released the Hola! Churros and early readings on that are strong, and I think that will continue to grow, alongside the growth of the SUPERPRETZEL hotdogs that we make that, I think, have a real opportunity. So some really good things inside retail.

我們在上個季度發布了 SUPERPRETZEL 棒，它們賣得非常非常好。我對此也不感到驚訝，托德。我知道這會很受歡迎，而且確實如此。我認為我們在零售環境中擁有一些巨大的機會。同樣在零售環境中，我們發布了 Hola！西班牙油條和有關它的早期讀物很強大，我認為這將繼續增長，隨著我們製作的超級蛋糕熱狗的增長，我認為，它有一個真正的機會。所以零售業裡有一些非常好的東西。

On the Foodservice side, you heard me touch on a test that we had over this past quarter with a large sandwich chain that is going to roll out come January of 2024. I think that has a really big impact that can make a difference for us in this coming year. Again, able to do those things because we've built that capacity out there.

在餐飲服務方面，您聽到我談到了我們在上個季度對一家大型三明治連鎖店進行的一項測試，該連鎖店將於2024 年1 月推出。我認為這會產生非常大的影響，可以為我們帶來改變在未來的一年。再說一次，能夠做這些事情是因為我們已經建立了這種能力。

On the bakery side, I love what they're doing there. We've been reshaping that piece of our business, but we're going to be able to release some of our core products, the sticks and the buns inside the bakery and think that has some real opportunities for growth in 2024. And ICEE is chugging alone. ICEE has an opportunity to win a club store to move our machines from a pre-served to a self-serve and early tests on that, and we've been in the test mode for a while are really strong.

在麵包店方面，我喜歡他們在那裡所做的事情。我們一直在重塑這部分業務，但我們將能夠在麵包店內發布一些核心產品、麵包棒和麵包，並認為這在 2024 年有一些真正的增長機會。ICEE 是獨自咕噥著。 ICEE 有機會贏得一傢俱樂部商店，將我們的機器從預置式轉為自助式，並且對此進行了早期測試，我們已經處於測試模式一段時間了，效果非常好。

And a great impact on those sales, and they're in test with a couple of QSR chains that I think, have the opportunity to come through for this coming year. So I love where we're heading. The pipeline looks good. The sales teams on -- led by [John] on Snack Foods and Aaron Winkelman in the ICEE side and Matt Inderlied on Dippin' Dots side are all kind of hitting on all cylinders. It had a sales meeting last week and had the 3 of them on stage it was really impressive to see the kind of pipeline they have built. And so it gives us good confidence going into 2024.

這對這些銷售產生了巨大的影響，他們正在與幾家快餐連鎖店進行測試，我認為這些連鎖店有機會在未來一年取得成功。所以我喜歡我們前進的方向。管道看起來不錯。由 Snack Foods 的 [John] 和 ICEE 方面的 Aaron Winkelman 以及 Dippin' Dots 方面的 Matt Inderlied 領導的銷售團隊都在全力以赴。該公司上週舉行了一次銷售會議，他們三人登上了舞台，看到他們建造的管道真是令人印象深刻。因此，這讓我們對進入 2024 年充滿信心。

That's great. And a follow-up, you talked about the 6 new lines that have been put in place for the core products over the course of this year. I don't think you've ever sized the revenue unlock that those lines could represent for J&J. But can you maybe at least talk on a percentage basis, how much of the benefit was realized in fiscal '23 versus how much of that benefit you could see harvested in '24 and '25? Just looking at the overall opportunity.

那太棒了。接下來，您談到了今年為核心產品推出的 6 條新生產線。我認為您從未計算過這些產品線可能為強生帶來的收入。但您能否至少以百分比的形式談談，在 23 財年實現了多少收益，以及您可以在 24 財年和 25 財年收穫多少收益？只是看整體機會。

Yes. '23, not so much. We're kind of building those out during 2023. And it really was much of it came even in the back half of the year. So not too impactful in the 2023 year. Feel like we have a chance for it to grow in 2024 with the pipeline that I just talked about. Some of those opportunities require those investments that we made in the 6 new lines. And so happy with where they're at there.

是的。 '23，沒那麼多。我們將在 2023 年期間完成這些工作。而且其中大部分工作甚至是在今年下半年完成的。所以在2023年影響不大。感覺我們有機會透過我剛才談到的管道在 2024 年實現成長。其中一些機會需要我們對 6 個新生產線進行投資。對他們現在的處境非常滿意。

I think what we have said before, Todd, is that the opportunity of those 6 new lines allows us to grow sales by $150 million or above, right? And so I think that's where we're really shooting for. And I think that we see a piece of that come through in 2024 with those opportunities that I just talked about.

托德，我想我們之前說過，這 6 條新產品線的機會使我們的銷售額增長了 1.5 億美元或以上，對嗎？所以我認為這就是我們真正的目標。我認為我們會在 2024 年看到其中的一部分透過我剛才談到的機會實現。

Great. And then one for Ken, and I'll jump back in queue. Jon kind of pointed out the seasonal nature of gross margins. I just wanted to see if we could maybe level set for our modeling purposes. I know last year, we saw basically a 300 basis point-ish gross margin dip in the first half of the fiscal year versus second half of '22. We're obviously working off a higher base. Would you expect that magnitude of retrenchment in the first half of fiscal '24 modeling, so kind of down to that 30% level from the 33% you put up in the back half year?

偉大的。然後是給肯的，我會插回隊列。喬恩有點指出了毛利率的季節性特徵。我只是想看看我們是否可以為建模目的設定水平。我知道去年，我們看到本財年上半年的毛利率與 22 年下半年相比基本上下降了 300 個基點左右。顯然我們正在建立一個更高的基礎。您是否預期 24 財年上半年的緊縮幅度會從下半年的 33% 降至 30%？

Yes. That's a good question, Todd. I think the way to think about that is you're right. As we got towards the end of this year, we got our mix humming and we got price caught up, inflationary was a bit more as our friend than it was early in the year, you started to see us get to those marks that we set the goals -- we ended up finishing the full year at 30.1% gross margin. And I think, Dan and I talk about -- that was kind of the floor. We had to get back there. And I think we expect to be able -- as this goes forward to get beyond that number. But yes, there is a seasonal impact.

是的。這是個好問題，托德。我認為思考這個問題的方式是你是對的。當我們接近今年年底時，我們的產品組合嗡嗡作響，價格上漲，通貨膨脹比年初更加成為我們的朋友，你開始看到我們達到了我們設定的目標我們的目標是全年毛利率達到30.1%。我想，丹和我談論的是──這就是地板。我們必須回到那裡。我認為我們希望能夠——隨著這個數字的不斷發展，我們將超越這個數字。但是，確實存在季節性影響。

So as you look at Q1 and Q2, I think the way to think about that is the trajectory of being better than the prior year should continue. But we're not all of a sudden going to do 30% in Q1 because of the slowdown in winter time so some of those high-margin areas like Dippin' Dots and ICEE. But we should on kind of an equivalent basis be better than we were Q1 of a year ago and Q2 of a year ago. And then probably as we get into the back half of the year, you probably see gross margins probably pretty similar to what they were in Q3 and Q4 of this year.

因此，當您查看第一季和第二季時，我認為思考這個問題的方法是，比前一年更好的軌跡應該繼續下去。但由於冬季經濟放緩，我們不會突然在第一季實現 30% 的成長，因此一些高利潤領域，如 Dippin' Dots 和 ICEE。但在同等基礎上，我們應該比一年前的第一季和一年前的第二季更好。然後，當我們進入今年下半年時，您可能會看到毛利率可能與今年第三季和第四季非常相似。

And our next question is going to come from the line of Andrew Wolf with CL King.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Andrew Wolf 和 CL King 的關係。

Dan, congratulations on your election of Chairman of the Board. So I wanted to ask, given the current grocery environment, you guys were having good volume growth, particularly shipping and on the shelves, I assume. But as you look to the current planning year, fiscal '24, is it fair to say the predominant or maybe even all of the planned volume is going to come from new doors and new distribution, maybe line extensions? Or are you guys planning any velocity gains as you kind of ramp up the marketing spend as well?

丹，恭喜您當選董事會主席。所以我想問一下，鑑於當前的雜貨環境，你們的銷量增長良好，尤其是運輸和貨架上，我認為。但是，當您展望當前的規劃年度（24 財年）時，是否可以公平地說，主要甚至全部計劃銷售將來自新門和新分銷，也許是產品線延伸？或者你們是否計劃在增加行銷支出的同時提高速度？

I think we'll have a little bit of both. I do think we have some great opportunities for continued expansion on some of our core products, like what we talked about, the pretzel sticks, I believe that will continue to grow. I think Luigi's is continuing to grow. Our ICEE, frozen novelties is growing well. So I think we'll have that continue. Dogsters is doing really well. Dogsters did well in the fourth quarter and think that we have some good opportunities for new outlets with that. But I also think that we'll see a little bit of increase in some of our core products too.

我想我們兩者都會有一點。我確實認為我們有一些很好的機會來繼續擴展我們的一些核心產品，就像我們所說的椒鹽捲餅棒，我相信它會繼續增長。我認為路易吉的業務正在持續成長。我們的 ICEE（冷凍新奇產品）發展良好。所以我想我們會繼續這樣下去。 Dogsters 的表現確實不錯。 Dogsters 在第四季度表現出色，我們認為我們有一些開新店的好機會。但我也認為我們的一些核心產品也會有一點成長。

I think we're pretty niche in an area that allows us to be able to do that. We're watching that consumer really closely and watching what others are saying and doing and we'll be prepared for whatever headwind comes our way. But we think we have some good opportunities for continuing to not just grow volume with what we have today, but by garnishing new outlets as well.

我認為我們在一個能夠做到這一點的領域相當有優勢。我們正在密切關注該消費者以及其他人的言論和行為，我們將為我們遇到的任何逆風做好準備。但我們認為，我們有一些很好的機會，不僅可以繼續增加現有的銷售量，還可以透過開設新的門市來繼續成長。

Okay. And I also wanted to kind of follow up to Todd's question on the unlock. When you get the third RDC open, on Dippin' Dots, you've referenced a few times you really -- that business needs national frozen capability to be fully distributed. Any chance you could help us a feeling for how much investable market increases or what really -- what it does for the business either quantitatively or qualitatively in terms of how much more of the market you can go after?

好的。我還想跟進托德關於解鎖的問題。當你在 Dippin' Dots 上開放第三個 RDC 時，你確實提到過幾次——該業務需要國家凍結能力才能完全分配。您是否有機會幫助我們了解可投資市場成長了多少，或者從數量或品質上來說，它對業務的真正作用是什麼，即您可以追求多少市場？

I would love what the team is doing at Dippin' Dots. We had the best year sales and profits in its history and feel like we're still just scratching the surface. The team is really gelling together, fit really nicely. Synergies from their organization to ours is just really fit good. I love what they have in test today. I talked about this in the opening. The Regal Theater now is pretty much completely rolled out. A couple of other big theater chains expanding their tests. And the team is out there knocking on a lot of doors and having some great success. I think that will continue to grow nicely for us. Love what they're doing, really happy with that acquisition. Ken, I don't know if you want to add any color to that at all?

我很喜歡 Dippin' Dots 團隊所做的事情。我們取得了歷史上最好的一年銷售額和利潤，但感覺我們只是觸及表面。這個團隊真的很團結，非常融洽。他們的組織與我們的組織之間的協同作用非常適合。我喜歡他們今天測試的內容。我在開場就談到了這一點。富豪劇院現已基本全面鋪開。其他幾家大型連鎖影院也在擴大測試範圍。該團隊已經敲開了很多門並取得了一些巨大的成功。我認為這對我們來說將繼續良好成長。喜歡他們正在做的事情，對這次收購感到非常滿意。肯，我不知道你是否想為此添加任何色彩？

Yes. I think, Dan summarized it well. I think the thing to think about Dippin' Dots is, one, we just came out of having been for a full year. We'll have -- I think we even mentioned this double-digit growth in that business. We would expect to be able to grow that business next year double digits. Production capacity, we have plenty of capacity to hit those numbers and produce that.

是的。我認為，丹總結得很好。我認為關於 Dippin' Dots 需要考慮的事情是，第一，我們剛剛結束了一整年的工作。我想我們甚至提到了該業務的兩位數成長。我們預計明年該業務能夠達到兩位數成長。生產能力，我們有足夠的能力來達到這些數字並生產它們。

It was really the freezer and store space that we had to address to be able to move faster and keep up with that growth. And with the added freezer space at Taro and at Woolwich, the 2 facilities that are now open and we feel really good about, really meeting any kind of opportunity in the foreseeable future. I don't have an exact number on what that means. All I can tell you is it's a part of the enablement of helping us continue to grow this business double digits.

我們實際上必須解決冷凍櫃和儲存空間問題，以便能夠更快地行動並跟上這種成長。隨著塔羅和伍爾維奇增加的冷凍空間，這兩個設施現已開放，我們感覺非常好，在可預見的未來真正滿足了任何類型的機會。我沒有確切的數字來說明這意味著什麼。我所能告訴你的是，這是幫助我們繼續以兩位數成長這項業務的一部分。

Okay. Fair enough. And the last thing is for you, Ken, as well. Could you just size up the true-up expense that you had to record against sales and tell us that, that was also full flow through as a reduction to earnings as well, the cost plus arrangement and the handhelds?

好的。很公平。最後一件事也適合你，肯恩。您能否根據銷售額來衡量必須記錄的調整費用，並告訴我們，這也是收入、成本加成安排和手持設備減少的全部流量？

Yes, the way to speak to that, I think we may have said this before, Andrew, is we have an agreement with a customer that would make -- for where we pass on any cost increases or decreases. It's a quarterly true-up for that customer, as you can probably appreciate, really benefited us and we're going through 20-plus percent inflation.

是的，安德魯，我想我們之前可能已經說過了，我們與客戶達成協議，我們將轉嫁任何成本的增加或減少。這是針對該客戶的季度調整，您可能會意識到，這確實使我們受益匪淺，而且我們正在經歷 20% 以上的通貨膨脹。

And -- but now that we've had deflation, we've passed those cost reductions back to that customer, but the profit of that stays home. We continue to make the same profit because we're kind of locked into a profit margin contract and the volume of those core SKUs continues to grow.

而且——但現在我們已經出現了通貨緊縮，我們已經將這些成本削減轉嫁給了客戶，但利潤卻留在了家裡。我們繼續賺取相同的利潤，因為我們被鎖定在利潤率合約中，而這些核心 SKU 的數量持續成長。

Okay. So that was all inter-quarter, it wasn't for previous accrual rates that were too high?

好的。那麼這都是季度間的，是不是之前的應計利率太高了？

No. That was inter-quarter. That will happen. Each quarter, give or take, if things stay stable, then you wouldn't see much of a movement there.

不，那是季度間的。那將會發生。每個季度，如果情況保持穩定，那麼你就不會看到太多的變化。

So handheld sales down this quarter and last quarter basically because of deflation and the contract arrangement? Or is there other reasons the sales dollars for that?

那麼本季和上季手持設備銷售下降主要是因為通貨緊縮和合約安排嗎？還是有其他原因導致銷售額下降？

The sales dollars are mainly down because of the contractual pass-through of those costs back to the customer.

銷售額下降主要是因為這些成本依照合約轉嫁給了客戶。

Our next question is going to come from the line of Robert Dickerson with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題將來自羅伯特·迪克森和傑弗里斯的對話。

So I'm just curious, I mean, maybe you fill me, but I didn't really know if there was going to be a 53rd week. So once we back out the 53rd week, right, you get to sales growth about 4% in the quarter. So while I respect that you always break out kind of pricing volume relative to other companies. I'm just curious if you could maybe add some color, would you say of the 4%, like most of that still is pricing. I'm just trying to gauge kind of volume trajectory, especially vis-a-vis kind of the overall backdrop we're seeing right now in kind of market -- in the U.S.?

所以我只是好奇，我的意思是，也許你讓我滿意，但我真的不知道是否會有第 53 週。因此，一旦我們退出第 53 週，對吧，本季的銷售成長約為 4%。因此，雖然我尊重你們總是會列出相對於其他公司的定價量。我只是好奇你是否可以添加一些顏色，你會說 4%，就像其中大部分仍然是定價一樣。我只是想衡量成交量軌跡，特別是相對於我們現在在美國市場看到的整體背景？

Yes. Let me kind of explain it this way. And there's a lot into that in terms of really trying to narrow down the puts and takes of one extra week. And so we summarized that in the release based on our business overall. But if you take 2 parts of our business, retail and frozen beverages, both up over 20%, you back out the extra week. Both of those businesses were up double digits, and both would have been at or near double-digit volume growth. So very healthy quarters there.

是的。讓我這樣解釋一下。真正嘗試縮小額外一周的看跌期權和拿走期權的範圍有很多內容。因此，我們根據我們的整體業務在發布中總結了這一點。但如果你把我們的兩個業務部分——零售和冷凍飲料——都增長了 20% 以上，你就取消了額外的一周。這兩項業務均實現了兩位數成長，且銷售成長均達到或接近兩位數。那裡的宿舍非常健康。

If you look at Foodservice, giving the 5.3%, but you get handheld negative against that, that I just explained to Andrew, which was really more of a cost pass-through, not a volume. They start to break that out, Foodservice would have grown 8.5% without that effect, if you focus on the core categories in Foodservice, pretzels, churros and frozen novelties, those were up 11.5%. So you start to see, even peeling back the extra week, a very strong quarter and really volume is up across the board, probably other than bakery, and that's really a part of what we've been talking about. And bakery would then dialing in on SKUs and getting out of some SKUs that weren't profitable. So that's probably the best way to kind of think about each of those segments and the 53rd week.

如果你看看餐飲服務，給 5.3%，但你會得到手持負數，我剛剛向安德魯解釋過，這實際上更多的是成本轉嫁，而不是數量。他們開始指出，如果沒有這種影響，餐飲服務將成長 8.5%，如果你專注於餐飲服務、椒鹽捲餅、油條和冷凍新奇食品的核心類別，這些成長了 11.5%。所以你開始看到，即使是額外一周的時間，一個非常強勁的季度，而且銷量確實全面上升，可能除了麵包店之外，這確實是我們一直在談論的一部分。然後，麵包店會增加庫存量單位 (SKU) 的投入，並淘汰一些無法獲利的庫存量單位 (SKU)。所以這可能是思考每個部分和第 53 週的最佳方式。

Okay. Great. So net-net still positive volume growth kind of despite pricing you've taken kind of overall...

好的。偉大的。因此，儘管您採取了總體定價，但淨銷量仍然呈正增長...

Yes. Absolutely.

是的。絕對地。

Okay. And then -- that's great. And then I guess just kind of more broadly speaking, just kind of want to get your feel around current consumption behavior, like what you've been seeing, right? We've heard some, let's say, some concession companies that might say, well, maybe we've seen a little recent pressure and consumers might be shopping to the store or maybe they're looking for products that are more satiating and quality. Everyone is shopping for more value. There's some channel shifts a lot. Walmart, this morning, saying last couple of weeks of the quarter definitely saw some pressure.

好的。然後——那太好了。然後我想更廣泛地說，只是想了解一下您對當前消費行為的感受，就像您所看到的那樣，對吧？我們聽到一些特許經營公司可能會說，好吧，也許我們最近看到了一些壓力，消費者可能會去商店購物，或者他們可能正在尋找更令人滿意和更高品質的產品。每個人都在購買更多的價值。有一些頻道轉換很多。沃爾瑪今天早上表示，本季的最後幾週肯定遇到了一些壓力。

But it sounds like kind of given the positive volumes for consumers are still kind of walking into a Wawa buying a snack, they're going movie theaters getting an ICEE drink. So I'm just kind of curious kind of what your feel is around consumption behavior? What's your product? Like why are you still able to generate this volume because it's the value proposition, right, that takes -- satiating -- anything you have looks very helpful.

但這聽起來有點像考慮到消費者仍然走進 Wawa 購買零食，他們會去電影院購買 ICEE 飲料。所以我只是好奇你對消費行為有何看法？你的產品是什麼？就像為什麼你仍然能夠產生這本書，因為它是價值主張，對吧，需要——滿足——你擁有的任何東西看起來都非常有幫助。

I think it's a great question and kind of expected to anticipated to get something along that line. We're watching the customer and the consumer really, really closely and watching that behavior. We faced a lot of headwinds since we've been in this position. We're prepared as a company to kind of be able to pivot in any direction that we need to pivot. We've talked a lot about the resiliency of the J&J portfolio.

我認為這是一個很好的問題，並且預計會得到一些沿著這條線的東西。我們正在非常非常密切地觀察客戶和消費者的行為。自從我們處於這個位置以來，我們遇到了很多阻力。作為一家公司，我們已經準備好向我們需要轉向的任何方向轉變。我們已經多次討論了強生投資組合的彈性。

Partly we sell across a lot of different channels with a lot of products, many of them with tremendous brand that people follow and use as a treat or a reward. And I really believe it's that diversification that we have across channels, across brands that allows us to be resilient during times like this, right? You watched it even as -- we've been in charge here and led the organization.

部分原因是，我們透過許多不同的管道銷售大量產品，其中許多產品都擁有巨大的品牌，人們會追隨並將其用作一種享受或獎勵。我真的相信，正是我們跨通路、跨品牌的多元化使我們能夠在這樣的時期保持彈性，對嗎？你甚至在我們負責並領導這個組織的時候就看到了它。

There's been times when the theater business is down, but the retail is way up, right? And then we go through a year like last year, where theaters are way up and we're challenged in other areas. We're really proud of the diversification that we have and the products we have and the following that the brands are. And I think that allows us to withstand periods like this.

有時候，劇院業務下滑，但零售業卻大幅成長，對嗎？然後我們經歷了像去年一樣的一年，劇院大幅上升，而我們在其他領域面臨挑戰。我們對我們擁有的多元化、我們擁有的產品以及品牌的以下內容感到非常自豪。我認為這讓我們能夠經得起這樣的時期。

And I would now like to turn the conference back over to Dan Fachner for any closing remarks.

現在我想將會議轉回丹法赫納（Dan Fachner）發表閉幕詞。

Great. Thank you very much. In closing, in 2023, we delivered the strongest year in the history of the company. It took tremendous hard work, perseverance and agility from every one of our employees and partners, and I could not be prouder of what we've accomplished or more excited about what lies ahead. We expect to deliver another year of strong sales and earnings growth in fiscal 2024 as we invest in our amazing portfolio of brands, additional capacity and capabilities. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the new year. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season. Thank you very much.

偉大的。非常感謝。最後，2023 年是我們公司歷史上最強勁的一年。這需要我們每一位員工和合作夥伴付出巨大的努力、毅力和敏捷性，我對我們所取得的成就感到無比自豪，對未來的發展感到無比興奮。隨著我們對令人驚嘆的品牌組合、額外產能和能力的投資，我們預計 2024 財年將實現另一個強勁的銷售和獲利成長。我們期待向您通報新的一年我們的進展。祝您有個美好的感恩節和假期。非常感謝。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。