卡夫亨氏 (KHC) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Kraft Heinz Company Second Quarter Results. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Anne-Marie Megela, Head of Global Investor Relations.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎來到卡夫亨氏公司第二季度業績。 （操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。現在我想將會議交給今天的發言者、全球投資者關係主管 Anne-Marie Megela。

Thank you, and hello, everyone. Welcome to our Q&A session for our second quarter 2023 business update. During today's call, we may make forward-looking statements regarding our expectations for the future, including items related to our business plans and expectations, strategy, efforts and investments and related timing and expected impacts. These statements are based on how we see things today, and actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties.

謝謝大家，大家好。歡迎參加我們的 2023 年第二季度業務更新問答環節。在今天的電話會議中，我們可能會就我們對未來的預期做出前瞻性陳述，包括與我們的業務計劃和預期、戰略、努力和投資以及相關時間安排和預期影響相關的項目。這些陳述基於我們今天對事物的看法，由於風險和不確定性，實際結果可能存在重大差異。

Please see the cautionary statement and risk factors contained in today's earnings release, which accompanies this call as well as our most recent 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K filings for more information regarding these risks and uncertainties.

請參閱今天的收益發布中包含的警告聲明和風險因素，該聲明與本次電話會議一起提供，以及我們最近的10-K、10-Q 和8-K 文件，以了解有關這些風險和不確定性的更多信息。

Additionally, we may refer to non-GAAP financial measures which excludes certain items from our financial results reported in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to today's earnings release and the non-GAAP information available on our website at ir.kraftheinzcompany.com, under News and Events for a discussion of our non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the comparable GAAP financial measures.

此外，我們可能會參考非公認會計原則財務指標，這些指標將某些項目排除在根據公認會計原則報告的財務業績之外。請參閱今天的收益報告以及我們網站 ir.kraftheinzcompany.com 上新聞和活動下提供的非 GAAP 信息，了解我們的非 GAAP 財務指標以及與可比 GAAP 財務指標的調節情況。

Before we begin, I'm going to hand it over to our CEO, Miguel Patricio, for some brief opening comments.

在我們開始之前，我將把它交給我們的首席執行官 Miguel Patricio，讓其發表一些簡短的開場評論。

Thank you, Anne-Marie, and thank you, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Before opening the call for questions, I would like to thank the entire Kraft Heinz team. We have proven again that our strategy works, generating top line growth fueled by the 3 pillars while reinvesting margin gains into the business.

謝謝你，安妮瑪麗，謝謝大家。感謝您今天加入我們。在開始提問之前，我要感謝整個卡夫亨氏團隊。我們再次證明我們的戰略是有效的，在三大支柱的推動下實現收入增長，同時將利潤收益重新投資到業務中。

And while we did lose share in the quarter as price gaps have stayed wider for longer than we would have liked, we are managing the business for the long term, and still generated mid-single-digit top line growth within the range of what we expected.

雖然我們在本季度確實失去了份額，因為價格差距持續的時間比我們希望的要長，但我們正在長期管理業務，並且仍然在我們的預期範圍內實現了中個位數的營收增長。預期的。

As you may remember on the last earnings call, we introduced 4 action plans to drive share. We have seen those plans take hold, and they have led to improving results each month within the quarter, building momentum into the second half of the year. The continued execution of these action plans and the lapping of last year's pricing are expected to drive improving volume trends in the second half of 2023, and into 2024.

您可能還記得在上次財報電話會議上，我們推出了 4 項行動計劃來提高份額。我們已經看到這些計劃得到落實，並導致本季度每個月的業績有所改善，為下半年奠定了動力。這些行動計劃的持續執行和去年定價的調整預計將推動 2023 年下半年至 2024 年銷量趨勢的改善。

Our results give me continued confidence in our strategy and in our business, and I'm pleased to reiterate our full year guidance.

我們的業績讓我對我們的戰略和業務持續充滿信心，我很高興重申我們的全年指導。

With that, I have Andre and Carlos joining me. Rafa is on a well-deserved vacation with his family. So let's open the call for Q&A.

就這樣，安德烈和卡洛斯加入了我的行列。拉法與家人一起度過了一個當之無愧的假期。那麼讓我們開始問答環節吧。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Our first question comes from Andrew Lazar with Barclays.

我們的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的安德魯·拉扎爾。

I was hoping to dig into the promotional environment a little bit and some of the comments from your prepared remarks about branded competitors promoting at a higher level than Kraft Heinz. In your view, are branded competitors either overpromoting or promoting in what you see as sort of in irrational way or is it more that KHC has not been able to ramp up its own merchandising activity yet to the extent needed given some of the supply constraints and leading of the pricing actions.

我希望深入了解一下促銷環境，以及您準備好的關於品牌競爭對手在比卡夫亨氏更高水平上進行促銷的評論中的一些評論。在您看來，品牌競爭對手是否過度促銷或以您認為的非理性方式進行促銷，或者更多的是考慮到某些供應限制和 KHC 尚未能夠將自己的營銷活動提升到所需的程度。主導定價行動。

I guess in other words, would you still expect the industry promotional levels to settle in below '19 levels or is there some concern building internally that competitive behavior could return to previous levels or beyond and that pricing could actually go negative at some point? Just trying to put some context around all of this.

我想換句話說，您是否仍然預計行業促銷水平會穩定在19 年水平以下，或者內部是否存在一些擔憂，認為競爭行為可能會回到之前的水平或更高，並且定價實際上可能在某個時候變為負值？只是想為這一切提供一些背景信息。

Andrew, thanks for the question. I will ask Carlos to answer since I believe it's related to the U.S. retail.

安德魯，謝謝你的提問。我會請卡洛斯回答，因為我相信這與美國零售業有關。

Andrew, the way kind of I look at it is that if you look at the industry as a whole, today, promotional levels are, as you said, still below 2019, what we are seeing is that our branded competitors are actually closer to those levels. And what we are working on is how do we continue to make sure that we act with a sort of protecting our margins and build in the virtuous cycle as we continue to improve on our marketing, continue to improve our services, our innovation, and importantly that we stay focused on driving the revenue management needed in order for us to be rational in terms of the effectiveness of our promotions.

安德魯，我的看法是，如果你從整個行業的角度來看，今天的促銷水平，正如你所說，仍然低於 2019 年，我們看到的是，我們的品牌競爭對手實際上更接近那些水平。我們正在研究的是，當我們繼續改進我們的營銷、繼續改進我們的服務、我們的創新，更重要的是，我們如何繼續確保我們的行為能夠保護我們的利潤，並建立良性循環。我們繼續專注於推動所需的收入管理，以便我們在促銷活動的有效性方面保持理性。

So if you look at our promotions this year, we actually have been very effective and efficient. We actually are generating attractive ROIs on investments. I think the numbers right now are up 50 points versus 2019. And that's true because the focus that we have on those agile AI-driven revenue management tools that we are applying to making sure that every promotion does have that kind of true ROI return.

所以如果你看看我們今年的促銷活動，我們實際上非常有效和高效。實際上，我們正在產生有吸引力的投資回報率。我認為現在的數字比2019 年上升了50 個點。這是事實，因為我們專注於那些敏捷的人工智能驅動的收入管理工具，我們正在應用這些工具來確保每次促銷都有真正的投資回報率回報。

Now on top of that, we're also making sure that we are working to maximize the opportunity on those promotions. So the quality of our merchandising, especially when you look at displays continued to improve, and in fact, our share of displays continued to see increasingly improvements over the first quarter. So I think all together, what I would say is our focus continues to be being very much leveraging our revenue management tool, continue to focus on driving the investments in terms of marketing innovation, which you'll know we'll make sure that improve our view as we go into the second half of the year and on to 2024.

現在最重要的是，我們還確保我們正在努力最大限度地利用這些促銷機會。因此，我們的商品銷售質量，尤其是當你看展示時，不斷提高，事實上，我們的展示份額比第一季度繼續不斷提高。因此，我認為總的來說，我想說的是，我們的重點仍然是充分利用我們的收入管理工具，繼續專注於推動營銷創新方面的投資，您會知道我們將確保改善我們在進入下半年和2024 年時的觀點。

Our next question comes from Ken Goldman with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的肯·戈德曼。

You mentioned that the second half's organic sales growth rate will be more in line with the long-term algo. Not to put too finer point on it, just so we can model more accurately, I was just curious, does this mean you expect it to be within that 2% to 3% range, that's your long-term algo or just getting somewhat closer to it.

您提到下半年的有機銷售增長率將更符合長期算法。不要說得太細，只是為了我們可以更準確地建模，我只是很好奇，這是否意味著您期望它在 2% 到 3% 的範圍內，這是您的長期算法或只是更接近到它。

Thank you, Ken. Andre, please.

謝謝你，肯。安德烈，請。

As we had said in prepared remarks, we expect to gradually go towards the long-term model. It might happen that we're going to reach there between Q3 and Q4, but you should expect like revenue to be gravitating towards that, yes.

正如我們在準備好的發言中所說，我們預計將逐步走向長期模式。我們可能會在第三季度和第四季度之間達到這一目標，但你應該預期類似的收入會被吸引到這一點，是的。

Okay. I'll follow up on that. And then I wanted to ask a follow-up about capital allocation priorities. Paying down debt, I think, #3 on that list ahead of portfolio management. You highlighted that leverage is, I guess, more or less at your target, does debt paydown thus move down a notch in importance? And I guess what I'm getting at is, is there a scenario in which you might maybe start to buy back some stock again?

好的。我會跟進此事。然後我想詢問有關資本配置優先事項的後續問題。我認為，償還債務排在投資組合管理之前的第三位。我想，您強調槓桿率或多或少達到了您的目標，債務償還的重要性是否因此下降了一個檔次？我想我的意思是，是否有一種情況你可能會開始再次回購一些股票？

Andre?

安德烈？

Yes. We have not changed our capital allocation policy now. So as we said, our priority has been to fund the business organically, people have been doing that very consistently. We, for us, should maintain the dividend that we have, which provide a very attractive yield, is critical. And I think we feel good about our rating now, above the grade we had in the past 15 months. M&A, as we said before, continues to be something that we actively look at. I'd like to -- as Miguel mentioned that multiple times. So we have been very disciplined in how we're doing that. But there is no change at this point. I mean, we're always taking into consideration market dynamics and our capital structure, but we don't have anything to say at this point.

是的。我們現在沒有改變我們的資本配置政策。正如我們所說，我們的首要任務是為業務提供有機資金，人們一直在這樣做。對我們來說，維持現有的股息至關重要，這提供了非常有吸引力的收益率。我認為我們對現在的評級感覺良好，高於過去 15 個月的評級。正如我們之前所說，併購仍然是我們積極關注的事情。我願意——正如米格爾多次提到的那樣。所以我們在做這件事上一直非常自律。但目前沒有任何變化。我的意思是，我們一直在考慮市場動態和我們的資本結構，但目前我們沒有什麼可說的。

Our next question comes from John Baumgartner with Mizuho.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞穗銀行的約翰·鮑姆加特納。

Thanks for the question. I wanted to stick with North America and the comments on promotions, but more so on delivery. Is there -- Carlos, you highlight the ROIs you're seeing. You touched on the quality promos a bit. But to dig inside a bit more deeply versus history, how are you seeing the lift sort of changing from quality promo programs, the feature of the display relative to the pre-inflation era? Are you seeing a greater role for price reductions going forward? Does quality programs still have the same degree of lift in terms of the influence of those drivers. Just trying to get a sense for, as you lean into promo more in the back half in the programming, does pricing need to be a larger driver at the margin than you would have thought relative to the feature in display a couple of quarters ago.

謝謝你的提問。我想堅持北美和促銷評論，但更重要的是交付。卡洛斯，你強調了你看到的投資回報率嗎？您稍微談到了質量促銷。但是，為了更深入地挖掘歷史，您如何看待質量促銷計劃的提升，即相對於通貨膨脹前時代的展示特徵？您認為未來降價將發揮更大的作用嗎？就這些驅動因素的影響而言，質量計劃是否仍然具有相同程度的提升？只是想了解一下，當您在節目的後半部分更多地傾向於促銷時，定價是否需要成為比您在幾個季度前展示的功能所想像的更大的利潤驅動因素。

John, thanks for the question. I would say, I think some of the parts were a little hard to understand, but I think I got the gist of your question. Related to the second half, we think about promotional level, and we have said this in prior calls, and is within our guidance, there is a step-up that we will do in promotional levels as we go into the second half of the year, in selected categories, but always with a disciplined approach of positive returns.

約翰，謝謝你的提問。我想說，我認為有些部分有點難以理解，但我想我明白了你問題的要點。與下半年相關，我們考慮促銷水平，我們在之前的電話會議中已經說過，並且在我們的指導範圍內，進入下半年後，我們將在促銷水平上採取進一步措施，在選定的類別中，但始終以嚴格的方法獲得正回報。

What I would add to is that one of the things that we're able to do with our promotional investment to improve the effectiveness of those things, but that investment is to make sure we leverage an entire portfolio and that we are thinking through how do we make sure we have the right product selection to the right audiences.

我要補充的是，我們能夠通過促銷投資來提高這些事情的有效性，但這項投資是為了確保我們利用整個投資組合，並且我們正在考慮如何我們確保為正確的受眾提供正確的產品選擇。

So for us, when you look at our -- whether it's barbecue season and we combine the different kind of categories that we can bring together, as we think about back-to-school in which we can bring in Lunchables and our Capri Sun business together, that idea of us being able to kind of go into the retail environment and actually leverage the entire scale of our business allows us to be more effective in terms of the returns of those promotions.

所以對我們來說，當你看到我們的——無論是燒烤季節，我們都會結合我們可以匯集的不同類別，因為我們考慮回到學校，我們可以引入午餐和我們的卡普里太陽業務總之，我們能夠進入零售環境並實際利用我們整個業務規模的想法使我們能夠在這些促銷活動的回報方面更加有效。

So it's both looking at the true ROI through the AI management tools that we have as well as maximizing our presence in-store, leveraging our scale. The last thing I would say is, as we think about going into the second half of the year, we're also seeing consumers behaving in a way in 2 different kind of camps. They are the consumers who are going to be looking for those, the more I would say, larger packs, it was to kind of look for the value by looking at the total size of the products that they're going to get and why we are introducing more products in the club type of packages, whether that is in a Mac & Cheese, in our Lunchables. And you see that, that is focused on driving that particular type of behavior and with consumer effectiveness.

因此，我們既要通過我們擁有的人工智能管理工具來查看真正的投資回報率，又要利用我們的規模來最大限度地提高我們在店內的影響力。我要說的最後一件事是，當我們考慮進入今年下半年時，我們還看到消費者有兩種不同的行為方式。他們是那些會尋找這些產品的消費者，我更想說的是，更大的包裝，這是通過查看他們將獲得的產品的總尺寸以及為什麼我們來尋找價值。我們正在推出更多俱樂部類型套餐的產品，無論是通心粉和奶酪還是我們的午餐。您會看到，重點是推動特定類型的行為和消費者有效性。

There's also going to be a number of programs specifically to making sure that we are keeping consumers who are also focused on the cash flow within our categories, which is why we also have been introducing more of the smaller package, more of the dollar type of products that allows us to maintain our consumers within the category for longer. So we're approaching that in 2 prongs, at the same time, always looking at making sure we have the right ROI in every investment that we make.

我們還會有一些專門的計劃來確保我們留住那些同樣關注我們類別內現金流的消費者，這就是為什麼我們也一直在推出更多更小包裝、更多美元類型的產品。讓我們的消費者更長時間地留在該類別的產品。因此，我們同時從兩個方面著手實現這一目標，始終確保我們所做的每項投資都有正確的投資回報率。

I apologize for my connection there. But just to clarify, if we think about price promotions versus sort of non-price, the quality of the feature of the display, have you seen any sort of changes in terms of how deep you may have to go on price reductions going forward? Or do you think that kind of quality promo you'll still see attractive lift. You don't really have to get deeper on pricing?

我為我在那裡的聯繫道歉。但澄清一下，如果我們考慮價格促銷與非價格促銷、顯示器功能的質量，您是否看到了未來降價幅度方面的任何變化？或者您認為這種高質量的促銷活動仍然會帶來有吸引力的提升。您真的不需要深入了解定價嗎？

What we have said, Andre here, what we have seen throughout these past 3 years is that we can have very attractive lifts without having to go as deep. And I think that whether you look across at least based on data from IRI, that's what we have been observing for ourselves. And I think that still remains true moving forward.

我們說過，安德烈，過去三年我們所看到的是，我們可以擁有非常有吸引力的電梯，而不必走得那麼深。我認為，無論你至少根據 IRI 的數據來看，這都是我們自己觀察到的。我認為這一點在未來仍然是正確的。

The other thing that, as Carlos mentioned, that I think moving forward, we're going to start to see more and more increasing importance of mix vis-a-vis only doing more promotions or reduce these prices. So I think we're going to be hearing a lot more about mitigative actions.

正如卡洛斯提到的另一件事，我認為展望未來，我們將開始看到混合的重要性越來越大，而不是僅僅進行更多促銷或降低價格。所以我認為我們將會聽到更多有關緩解措施的信息。

Our next question comes from Bryan Spillane with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Bryan Spillane。

I had just 2 questions. First one, just the clarification. I think we talked about margins in the prepared remarks that fourth quarter margins will be higher than the third quarter. I just want to clarify, was that a comment on gross margin or EBITDA margin?

我只有兩個問題。第一個，只是澄清。我想我們在準備好的發言中談到了利潤率，即第四季度的利潤率將高於第三季度。我只是想澄清一下，這是對毛利率還是 EBITDA 利潤率的評論？

And that being both, but it's driven by the gross margin. And it is mostly a seasonal factor because in Q4 we typically sell products -- we overinvest in products with higher margin. If you look Q2 is higher than Q3 because we ship a lot in rainy season, which has higher margin, we ship for summer. And then in Q4, we have items like Grilled Cheese, Gravy, and other items like that, they have very high-margin deserts. So that's why it's just mix related.

兩者都是，但它是由毛利率驅動的。這主要是季節性因素，因為我們通常在第四季度銷售產品——我們過度投資於利潤率較高的產品。如果你看第二季度高於第三季度，因為我們在雨季發貨很多，利潤更高，我們在夏季發貨。然後在第四季度，我們有烤奶酪、肉汁和其他類似的產品，它們有利潤非常高的甜點。這就是為什麼它只是混合相關的。

Okay. And then second question, and I guess maybe this is related to what John Baumgartner was just asking. But maybe just more simplistically, I think coming out of the first quarter, you talked -- in this -- we're talking about North American retail that one of the issues or one of the drivers of share losses was just price gaps, right, that competitors, whether it's private label or branded, in certain categories hadn't followed your pricing. And so I guess I have 2 questions.

好的。然後是第二個問題，我想這可能與約翰·鮑姆加特納剛才問的問題有關。但也許更簡單地說，我認為從第一季度開始，您談到 - 在此 - 我們正在談論北美零售業，股票損失的問題之一或驅動因素之一隻是價格差距，對吧，競爭對手，無論是自有品牌還是品牌，在某些類別中都沒有遵循您的定價。所以我想我有兩個問題。

One is, have price gaps narrowed or your share gains that you've seen sequentially over the last couple of months happened without the price gaps closing? And then when we think about your -- the comments about expectations for volume growth in '24, right, is that dependent also on kind of normalized price gaps? I guess what I'm trying to understand is like can you drive volume without those price gaps closing because you really can't control what your competitors do.

一是，價格差距是否已經縮小，或者您在過去幾個月中連續看到的股票收益是否在價格差距縮小的情況下發生了？然後，當我們考慮您對 24 年銷量增長預期的評論時，對吧，這是否也取決於正常化的價格差距？我想我想要理解的是，你能否在不縮小價格差距的情況下提高銷量，因為你真的無法控制競爭對手的行為。

Andre?

安德烈？

I think there's a couple of things. If we look versus the quarter within the last 2, 3 months we have seen the price gaps narrowly moving favorably to us, so getting closer. So there is a certain contribution coming from that. And also all the other actions that we outlined in the prepared remarks, right? So we had still some pockets of challenges in service that is now getting behind us. I think the only big remaining item is Cold Cuts that, as we said, are going to be recovered by end of Q3, early Q4. We have innovation started to ramp up, I think Carlos can give more color on that.

我認為有幾件事。如果我們對比過去 2、3 個月內的季度，我們會發現價格差距正在縮小，對我們有利，因此越來越接近。所以這是有一定貢獻的。還有我們在準備好的評論中概述的所有其他行動，對嗎？因此，我們在服務方面仍然面臨一些挑戰，但現在這些挑戰已經過去了。我認為唯一剩下的大項目是冷切，正如我們所說，它將在第三季度末、第四季度初恢復。我們的創新開始加速，我認為卡洛斯可以在這方面提供更多的色彩。

Bryan, what I would add is that, first of all, on the comment on private label, private label shares trends actually have been flat since you look at it, in fact, since second half of 2022, even with the increase in price gaps that we had after our price impact in February. So we have taken that pricing to protect our margins and some branded competitors have not followed. But at the same time, we continue to stay diligent on the way we think about the business.

布萊恩，我要補充的是，首先，關於自有品牌的評論，事實上，自 2022 年下半年以來，自有品牌股票的趨勢實際上一直持平，即使價格差距擴大這是我們在二月份受到價格影響後的情況。因此，我們採取這樣的定價是為了保護我們的利潤，而一些品牌競爭對手卻沒有效仿。但與此同時，我們繼續努力思考業務。

Now in the point that Andrew just mentioned in terms of, as we think about going forward, why is it that we see the moderation of our improvement, I'll give you 3 reasons in the way kind of I look at it as we go into the second half of the year into 2024 in the U.S. retail. Number one, we invested more in marketing, we're launching more innovation and we are lapping the pricing actions as we go into second half of the year.

現在，安德魯剛才提到，當我們考慮前進時，為什麼我們看到我們的改進有所放緩，我將按照我在前進過程中看待它的方式給你三個原因美國零售業將進入2024 年下半年。第一，我們在營銷方面投入了更多資金，我們正在推出更多創新，並且在進入下半年時我們正在採取定價行動。

And just to unpack it one more level, if you think about the innovation that we are seeing right now, we are actually building momentum as we go into the year, as we are following this kind of two-pronged strategy innovation. First, you're going to see us continue to launch more disruptive innovation platforms, and that includes things like our NotCo line of plant-based offerings, the new Crisp from the Microwave, which delivers great taste and all the convenience and the restaurant to retail platform, and you see that already with things like the IHOP coffee line.

再進一步展開，如果你考慮一下我們現在看到的創新，我們實際上正在進入這一年，因為我們正在遵循這種雙管齊下的戰略創新，因此我們正在積蓄動力。首先，您將看到我們繼續推出更具顛覆性的創新平台，其中包括我們的 NotCo 系列植物性產品、新的微波爐脆片（Crisp from the Microwave）等，它為您提供美味和所有便利以及餐廳零售平台，你已經在IHOP 咖啡系列等產品上看到了這一點。

The second part of the innovation is also how do we take our existing brands into new spaces. Already, we introduced a new frozen Mac & Cheese. We are expanding our Delimex and Taobao into more spaces within Mexican meals, and as we speak, we're also launching new Oscar Mayer Scramblers, as we continue to expand on the breakfast platform. So you see us comprehensive in terms of how we are approaching innovation in order to continue to shape the categories as we increase its shelves space and quality displays as we go forward. And that's really paying us. And in fact, just to give you a factoid, if you look at our Lunchables we are creating a new golden wall in Lunchables as we go into the second half. And we are seeing that in some of our top customers, that increases about 40% our spaces in the shelf. So again, it's not only thinking through the kind of promotional event, but also what we're doing in terms of our driving -- volume driving activities that are important as we go forward.

創新的第二部分也是我們如何將現有品牌帶入新的空間。我們已經推出了新的冷凍通心粉和奶酪。我們正在將 Delimex 和淘寶擴展到墨西哥美食的更多領域，就在我們發言的同時，隨著我們繼續擴展早餐平台，我們還推出了新的 Oscar Mayer Scramblers。因此，您會看到我們在如何實現創新方面非常全面，以便在不斷增加貨架空間和質量展示的過程中繼續塑造品類。這確實給我們帶來了回報。事實上，只是為了給你一個事實，如果你看看我們的 Lunchables，當我們進入下半年時，我們將在 Lunchables 中創建一堵新的金色牆。我們發現，在一些頂級客戶中，我們的貨架空間增加了約 40%。再說一次，這不僅要考慮促銷活動的類型，還要考慮我們在推動方面所做的事情——對我們前進來說很重要的數量推動活動。

Our next question comes from Pamela Kaufman with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的帕梅拉·考夫曼。

In North America, you pointed to your organic sales growth below consumption in certain parts of the portfolio, like the GROW platform, Taste Elevation, Easy Meals, what's driving that gap? And are you seeing a change in how retailers are managing inventory levels or shelf space for your brands?

在北美，您指出產品組合某些部分的有機銷售增長低於消費，例如 GROW 平台、Ta​​ste Elevation、Easy Meals，是什麼推動了這一差距？您是否發現零售商管理品牌庫存水平或貨架空間的方式發生了變化？

Carlos?

卡洛斯？

Thanks for the question. Let me start with the second part of that, which what we've seen right now is if you look at the second quarter and what we know today, we believe retail inventory is actually in pretty good shape. In fact, on average, retail inventory for us were flat across the North America business. And what it did happen, it was in truly in isolated pockets and earlier in the quarter, so that we actually saw that through the quarter to continue to improve. And so there's no -- I will see that as an ongoing situation as we go forward, and that has been proven as we go through the quarter. I'm sorry, the first part of your question then was what?

謝謝你的提問。讓我從第二部分開始，我們現在看到的是，如果你看看第二季度和我們今天所知道的，我們相信零售庫存實際上處於相當好的狀態。事實上，平均而言，我們整個北美業務的零售庫存持平。而它確實發生了，它確實是在本季度早些時候發生的，所以我們實際上看到了整個季度的持續改進。因此，在我們前進的過程中，我將把這種情況視為一種持續的情況，並且在我們整個季度中已經證明了這一點。抱歉，您問題的第一部分是什麼？

Why were your sales below consumption across some of your platforms?

為什麼您的某些平台上的銷售額低於消費量？

Yes. No. Thank you. I think if you look at our GROW platforms, which continue to drive our priority and our strategy, those actually in consumption remained very strong. If you think about Taste Elevation, growing 8% for the quarter, Easy Meals growing 6% in the quarter. In those cases, the difference between organic and our consumption, we're specifically in Easy Meals, well there was an inventory deload in the beginning part of the quarter that, as I said earlier continued to improve as we go forward. And I think for us is that remains -- our strategy remains -- the fact that the consumption continued to improve as we go through the quarter and the performance we saw on those, I think supports our continued focus on that strategy as we go into the second half of the year.

是的。不，謝謝。我認為，如果你看看我們的 GROW 平台，這些平台繼續推動我們的優先事項和戰略，那麼實際消費中的平台仍然非常強勁。如果你考慮口味提升，本季度增長 8%，簡易餐本季度增長 6%。在這些情況下，有機食品和我們的消費之間的差異，我們特別是在便餐方面，本季度初出現了庫存負擔，正如我之前所說，隨著我們的前進，這種情況繼續改善。我認為對我們來說，這一點仍然存在——我們的戰略仍然存在——事實是，隨著我們進入本季度，消費持續改善，以及我們在這些方面看到的業績，我認為支持我們在進入該戰略時繼續關注該戰略。下半年。

Okay. And just a follow-up question on your outlook for volumes improving in the back half. You pointed to moderating pricing growth as one of the drivers. But in the second quarter, pricing already moved past its peak, although volumes still softened. So why do you think that volumes will get better from here considering the competitive environment and some of the macro headwinds you highlighted like the student loan repayment resuming. And I guess just related to that, how much of a driver do you think that the innovation that you talked about can be for volumes?

好的。接下來的問題是關於下半年銷量改善的前景。您指出價格增長放緩是驅動因素之一。但在第二季度，儘管銷量仍然疲軟，但價格已經超過了峰值。那麼，考慮到競爭環境以及您強調的一些宏觀阻力（例如恢復學生貸款償還），您為什麼認為銷量會從現在開始變得更好。我想與此相關的是，您認為您所談論的創新對銷量有多大的推動力？

Yes. Look, our price in Q2, as you saw, was close to 11%. The reason why we saw higher elasticity and higher volume decline, as I said before, it becomes expanded price gaps. Now moving forward, these price gaps are not getting worse. If anything, they are slightly getting better. So as you head into the second half, as we continue through that price, we still have a relevant price that happened last year, so that we're going to be lapping. We started now in Q3 and even -- and we had another one that was implemented Q4 last year, so we had 2 rounds of prices in the United States alone. So beyond the pricing side, there are other things linked to our action plans that will help us to step up this year relative to today. I think Carlos can speak about that.

是的。看，正如您所見，我們第二季度的價格接近 11%。正如我之前所說，我們之所以看到更高的彈性和更大的成交量下降，是因為價格差距擴大了。現在展望未來，這些價格差距並沒有變得更糟。如果說有什麼不同的話，那就是他們正在稍微好一點。因此，當你進入下半年時，當我們繼續通過該價格時，我們仍然有去年發生的相關價格，因此我們將進行研磨。我們現在從第三季度開始，甚至在去年第四季度實施了另一項計劃，所以我們僅在美國就進行了兩輪價格調整。因此，除了定價方面之外，還有其他與我們的行動計劃相關的事情將幫助我們今年相對於今天取得進步。我認為卡洛斯可以談論這一點。

The one thing I guess I would add to that, too, is that if you think about innovation, it's not just kind of the launching innovation, but what the innovation allows you to actually perform in market. So when I mentioned things like us being able to improve our presence and expanding our shelving on things like Lunchables because of the innovation and in Lunchables for example, we are going to new locations. So we're doing -- already announced yesterday, we're doing pilots and taking Lunchables into the product section. We're launching innovation within schools. We are expanding our presence in vending. All that actually helps us strengthen our overall kind of performance in stores.

我想我還要補充的一件事是，如果你考慮創新，它不僅僅是啟動創新，而是創新讓你在市場上實際表現。因此，當我提到我們能夠通過創新來改善我們的存在並擴大午餐類食品的貨架時，例如在午餐類食品中，我們將前往新的地點。所以我們正在做——昨天已經宣布，我們正在進行試點，並將 Lunchables 納入產品部分。我們正在學校內發起創新。我們正在擴大我們在自動售貨領域的業務。所有這些實際上都有助於我們增強商店的整體績效。

We also are doing that in Philadelphia Cream Cheese. If you think about our -- a year ago, this is actually going to be the first holiday season in which we're going to go into the holidays with full service on Philadelphia Cream Cheese and that's true for the last several years. So now we have an opportunity to actually truly kind of leverage our power of our brand, make sure we build the kind of our share of display, as we go into this, one of the most important seasons for Philadelphia business.

我們也在費城奶油奶酪中這樣做。如果你想想我們——一年前，這實際上將是我們將在假期中提供費城奶油奶酪全套服務的第一個假期，過去幾年都是如此。因此，現在我們有機會真正利用我們品牌的力量，確保我們在進入費城商業最重要的季節之一時建立我們的展示份額。

And we also see -- that's true with coffee. I mentioned earlier the fact that we had a new line with IHOP in terms of bringing coffee and IHOP coffee into the stores that actually allows us to also expand our coffee category into the stores and actually win additional spaces as we go into the second half of the year.

我們還看到——咖啡也是如此。我之前提到過，我們與 IHOP 合作推出了一條新產品線，將咖啡和 IHOP 咖啡帶入商店，這實際上使我們能夠將咖啡類別擴展到商店，並在進入下半年時贏得更多空間。那一年。

So the innovation plays couple of roles in both attracting consumers and shape the category to grow, but it also helped us expand our presence in order to increase the volume as well. So volume expected to improve as a function of lapping prices from last year, we had 2 rounds to lap. Innovation ramping up, shelf resets in the fall that they would be favorable to us, that's an expectation, and service level recovery, particularly in Cold Cuts.

因此，創新在吸引消費者和塑造該類別的增長方面發揮著雙重作用，但它也幫助我們擴大了我們的業務，以增加銷量。因此，預計銷量會隨著去年的繞圈價格而有所改善，我們有兩輪要繞圈。創新不斷加強，秋季貨架重置，這對我們有利，這是我們的預期，服務水平也有所恢復，尤其是在冷盤方面。

Our next question comes from Cody Ross with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的科迪·羅斯。

Just want to focus on gross margin, specifically your inflation outlook, what's driving you to move your inflation outlook lower this year?

只是想關注毛利率，特別是您的通脹前景，是什麼促使您今年下調通脹前景？

So commodities, in general, continue to come down. And as hedges roll off and our contracts get adjusted, some of them are based on indexes. We are seeing costs continue to move favorably which has been allowing us to expand the gross margin and by consequence has been allowing us to accelerate the investment behind the business, particularly in marketing, R&D and technology.

因此，大宗商品總體上繼續下跌。隨著對沖的結束和我們的合約的調整，其中一些合約是基於指數的。我們看到成本繼續有利地變化，這使我們能夠擴大毛利率，從而使我們能夠加快業務背後的投資，特別是在營銷、研發和技術方面。

Any particular commodities?

有什麼具體商品嗎？

That are declining?

那些正在下降？

Yes. That you would call out that's driving that?

是的。你會說這是驅動因素嗎？

I don't think there is a particular one, I mean our portfolio is so large, so many commodities are part the business, there is a general movement of commodities coming down, in reference to that say tomato, potato they had bad crops and sweeteners. Other than that, we are seeing generally commodities moving favorably.

我不認為有一個特定的，我的意思是我們的投資組合如此之大，如此多的商品是業務的一部分，商品的總體走勢正在下降，就番茄、土豆而言，他們的收成不好，甜味劑。除此之外，我們普遍看到大宗商品走勢良好。

Understood. And then in light of the declining commodities or your outlook for inflation, do you think you took too much price given you said you took price ahead of competitors and they have not followed. And then I'll pass it on.

明白了。然後，鑑於大宗商品價格下跌或您對通脹的前景，您是否認為您採取的價格過高，因為您說您領先於競爭對手而他們沒有跟進。然後我會把它傳遞下去。

No. I would say -- let me answer that one. I would do everything again. I mean, we had very high inflation and we are leader in the vast majority of categories where we play, and it's our role as a leader to try to compensate these price increases with -- this inflation with price increases. So I would do everything again. I mean we can always go back on price if we think we have to or when we have to, but we had to lead price increases. So yes, I -- that would be my answer to you.

不，我會說——讓我來回答這個問題。我會再次做一切。我的意思是，我們的通貨膨脹率非常高，我們在我們所涉足的絕大多數類別中都是領先者，而我們作為領導者的角色就是試圖用這種通貨膨脹與價格上漲來補償這些價格上漲。所以我會重新做一切。我的意思是，如果我們認為必須或當我們必須這樣做時，我們總是可以取消價格，但我們必須主導價格上漲。所以，是的，我——這就是我對你的回答。

And the only thing I would say is remember that we have been very systematic in terms of pricing to offset the inflation. And that's what we have done. We have not priced ahead of inflation. If you look at our gross margin in Q2, it's still slightly below 2021 levels.

我唯一要說的是，請記住，我們在定價方面非常系統化，以抵消通貨膨脹。這就是我們所做的。我們沒有提前定價。如果你看看我們第二季度的毛利率，它仍然略低於 2021 年的水平。

And the other thing that is worth mentioning is the gross margin, we showed that in prepared remarks, our efficiency plan is trending very well. And we are ahead of -- we are pacing ahead of the $500 million that we have said we will deliver by yearend, some other good news.

另一件值得一提的是毛利率，我們在準備好的評論中表明，我們的效率計劃趨勢非常好。我們已經領先了——我們正在加速實現我們所說的將在年底前交付的 5 億美元，還有其他一些好消息。

Let me build on that point from Andre. I think that the only sustainable way to keep increasing our investments behind the brand and to grow our volumes and shares for the future is by improving gross margins and investing back in marketing, R&D and technology, which is exactly what we are doing because we had very high -- very good gross margin this quarter, we could increase marketing this quarter by 23%. We could increase R&D by 10%. We could increase our investments in technology. And as Andre said, that was possible because in one side, yes, we had price increases. But on the another side, because we are every month delivering more and more efficiencies in supply. We're excited with that part as well.

讓我以安德烈的觀點為基礎。我認為，持續增加品牌背後的投資並增加未來銷量和份額的唯一可持續方法是提高毛利率並投資於營銷、研發和技術，這正是我們正在做的，因為我們有非常高——本季度的毛利率非常好，我們可以將本季度的營銷增加23%。我們可以將研發增加 10%。我們可以增加對技術的投資。正如安德烈所說，這是可能的，因為一方面，是的，我們的價格上漲了。但另一方面，因為我們每個月都在提高供應效率。我們也對這部分感到興奮。

And expect a notable difference as well in how it's operating because we have been patiently opting to use those resources to put back in the long term behind market and the technology. We could have opted to be adding more promotions. So that would not make sense because the added promotions show low return. We are thinking about the long-term view. I hope people notice that difference on how it has been -- Kraft Heinz plays very differently.

預計它的運作方式也會出現顯著差異，因為我們一直耐心地選擇利用這些資源來長期支持市場和技術。我們本可以選擇增加更多促銷活動。所以這是沒有意義的，因為增加的促銷活動回報率很低。我們正在考慮長遠的觀點。我希望人們注意到這種差異——卡夫亨氏的做法非常不同。

And that will wrap it up for today's Q&A session. Thank you all for your questions. I will turn it over to Miguel, who will just kind of wrap up the call for us.

今天的問答環節就到此結束。謝謝大家的提問。我會將其轉交給米格爾，他將為我們完成通話。

I just want to thank you all for the time and for the attention and the patience with us. So thank you so much, and hope to talk to you and to see you very soon.

我只想感謝大家的時間、對我們的關注和耐心。非常感謝您，希望很快能與您交談並見到您。

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

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。