克羅格 (KR) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to The Kroger Co. Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Rob Quast, Director, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

早上好，歡迎來到克羅格公司 2021 年第四季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意正在記錄此事件。我現在想將會議轉交給投資者關係總監 Rob Quast。請繼續。

Good morning. Thank you for joining us for Kroger's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Earnings Call. I am joined today by Kroger's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rodney McMullen; and Chief Financial Officer, Gary Millerchip.

早上好。感謝您參加 Kroger 的 2021 年第四季度和全年財報電話會議。今天，克羅格的董事長兼首席執行官羅德尼·麥克馬倫 (Rodney McMullen) 加入了我的行列；和首席財務官 Gary Millerchip。

Before we begin, I want to remind you that today's discussions will include forward-looking statements. We want to caution you that such statements are predictions, and actual events or results can differ materially. A detailed discussion of the many factors that we believe may have a material effect on our business on an ongoing basis is contained in our SEC filings. The Kroger Co. assumes no obligation to update that information.

在開始之前，我想提醒您，今天的討論將包括前瞻性陳述。我們想提醒您，此類陳述是預測，實際事件或結果可能存在重大差異。我們認為可能對我們的業務持續產生重大影響的許多因素的詳細討論包含在我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中。 Kroger Co. 不承擔更新該信息的義務。

We are excited to see that many of you will also be attending, either virtually or in person, our 2022 Business Update tomorrow in Florida when we will share additional details and answer questions about our long-term strategy and growth initiatives. More information about virtual registration for this event can be found at ir.kroger.com. After our prepared remarks, we look forward to taking your questions. (Operator Instructions) Additionally, we would ask that you focus today's questions on our fourth quarter and full year 2021 results as well as our 2022 guidance. Now I will turn the call over to Rodney.

我們很高興看到你們中的許多人也將通過虛擬方式或親自參加明天在佛羅里達州舉行的 2022 年業務更新，屆時我們將分享更多詳細信息並回答有關我們的長期戰略和增長計劃的問題。有關此活動的虛擬註冊的更多信息，請訪問 ir.kroger.com。在我們準備好發言之後，我們期待著回答您的問題。 （操作員說明）此外，我們希望您將今天的問題集中在我們的第四季度和 2021 年全年業績以及我們的 2022 年指導上。現在我將把電話轉給羅德尼。

Thank you, Rob. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. Our strategy of Leading With Fresh and Accelerating With Digital propelled Kroger to record performance in 2021 on top of record results in 2020. We are incredibly proud of our associates who continued to deliver for our customers through the pandemic. During 2021, our team delivered for all stakeholders by, first of all, achieving positive year-over-year identicals without fuel against very strong identicals last year and a 2-year stack of 14.3%.

謝謝你，羅布。早上好，感謝您今天加入我們。我們以新鮮事物領先和以數字方式加速的戰略推動克羅格在 2020 年創紀錄的業績基礎上在 2021 年創下業績記錄。我們為在大流行期間繼續為我們的客戶提供服務的員工感到無比自豪。在 2021 年，我們的團隊為所有利益相關者提供服務，首先，在沒有燃料的情況下實現了與去年非常強勁的相同產品的正同比增長，以及 14.3% 的 2 年堆棧。

Also by connecting with customers through expanding our seamless ecosystem and remarkable, consistent delivery of full fresh and friendly customer experience for everyone, plus investing more than ever before in our associates to raise our average hourly rate to $17 and our average hourly rate to over $22 when you include [compensation] and benefits as well. We balance all of these investments by achieving cost savings of greater than $1 billion for the fourth consecutive year, and alternative profits contributed an incremental $150 million of operating profit as well.

此外，通過擴展我們的無縫生態系統和卓越、一致的為每個人提供全面新鮮和友好的客戶體驗與客戶建立聯繫，加上比以往任何時候都更多地投資於我們的員工，將我們的平均小時費率提高到 17 美元，將我們的平均小時費率提高到超過 22 美元當您還包括 [補償] 和福利時。我們通過連續第四年節省超過 10 億美元的成本來平衡所有這些投資，替代利潤也貢獻了 1.5 億美元的增量營業利潤。

As we look to 2022, we expect the momentum in our business to continue, and we have confidence in our ability to navigate a rapidly changing operating environment. We are leveraging technology, innovation and our competitive moats to build lasting competitive advantages. Our balanced model is allowing us to deliver for shareholders, invest in our associates, continue to provide fresh, affordable food for our customers and support for our communities.

展望 2022 年，我們預計我們的業務勢頭將持續下去，我們對自己駕馭快速變化的運營環境的能力充滿信心。我們正在利用技術、創新和我們的競爭護城河來建立持久的競爭優勢。我們的平衡模式使我們能夠為股東提供服務，投資於我們的員工，繼續為我們的客戶提供新鮮、負擔得起的食品，並為我們的社區提供支持。

We remain confident in our growth model and our ability to deliver total shareholder return of 8% to 11% over time. Kroger is leading with fresh. Our fresh departments outpaced total company identical sales, excluding fuel, during the fourth quarter. Kroger remains the #1 retailer in many exciting areas such as specialty cheese, sushi and floral. As the world's largest florist, we sold over 76 million floral stems for Valentine's Day alone. And the smiles that came along with that for our customers and associates were free.

我們對我們的增長模式以及隨著時間的推移實現 8% 至 11% 的總股東回報的能力仍然充滿信心。克羅格以新鮮事物領先。在第四季度，我們的新部門銷售額超過了公司相同的銷售額（不包括燃料）。在特色奶酪、壽司和花卉等許多令人興奮的領域，克羅格仍然是排名第一的零售商。作為世界上最大的花店，我們僅在情人節就賣出了超過 7600 萬朵花莖。隨之而來的為我們的客戶和員工帶來的微笑是免費的。

We advanced our fresh strategy and strengthened our fresh offerings in 2021 by launching our Go Fresh & Local Supplier Accelerator, supporting our commitment to small businesses. As a result of the launch, we have brought a number of new products to customers, and the initial results have exceeded our expectations. We are still early in the program, and we will continue to partner with small businesses to expand our pipeline of new products. We also remain a leader in innovation through exciting partnerships with companies like Kitchen United and Kipster. We've completed the initial test phase of our End-to-End Fresh initiatives focused on bringing more days of freshness to our customers and are confident in its scalability and with plans to expand to targeted stores across the country.

我們在 2021 年推進了我們的新戰略並加強了我們的新產品，推出了 Go Fresh 和本地供應商加速器，支持我們對小企業的承諾。由於推出，我們為客戶帶來了多款新產品，初步效果超出了我們的預期。我們仍處於該計劃的早期階段，我們將繼續與小企業合作，擴大我們的新產品線。我們還通過與 Kitchen United 和 Kipster 等公司的激動人心的合作夥伴關係，保持創新的領先地位。我們已經完成了端到端新鮮計劃的初始測試階段，重點是為我們的客戶帶來更多新鮮的日子，並對它的可擴展性充滿信心，併計劃擴展到全國的目標商店。

Our brands continue to resonate strongly with customers and maintains a culture of innovation, launching over 660 new items during the year. More than half of those new items were within our Simple Truth and Private Selection portfolios. We accelerated Home Chef's incredible milestone of becoming a billion-dollar brand, our fourth greater-than-$1 billion brand, which is pretty special. As a reminder for everyone, we merged with Home Chef in 2018. At the time, we knew our customers were looking for ways to make meal time easier without compromising on taste or freshness.

我們的品牌繼續與客戶產生強烈共鳴，並保持創新文化，年內推出超過 660 款新品。這些新項目中有一半以上在我們的 Simple Truth 和 Private Selection 產品組合中。我們加速了 Home Chef 成為十億美元品牌的令人難以置信的里程碑，這是我們第四個超過 10 億美元的品牌，這非常特別。提醒大家，我們在 2018 年與 Home Chef 合併。當時，我們知道我們的客戶正在尋找在不影響口味或新鮮度的情況下讓用餐時間更輕鬆的方法。

While Home Chef originated as a pure-play e-commerce offering, we saw immense potential to integrate and leverage it across our seamless ecosystem, scaling it within our stores and continuing to grow online. The success of this integration demonstrates our ability to integrate and scale solutions that provide value to our customers and grow our competitive moats.

雖然 Home Chef 起源於純粹的電子商務產品，但我們看到了在我們的無縫生態系統中整合和利用它的巨大潛力，在我們的商店內擴展它並繼續在線發展。這種整合的成功證明了我們整合和擴展解決方案的能力，這些解決方案為我們的客戶提供價值並發展我們的競爭護城河。

Kroger is focused on delivering a seamless experience that requires 0 compromise by customers, and I think that's a really important point, 0 compromise required by customers. And what that means is the freshest products at competitive prices and flexible lead times. Yael will go into a lot more detail tomorrow on what 0 compromise means for our customers at our business update.

Kroger 專注於提供需要客戶 0 妥協的無縫體驗，我認為這是非常重要的一點，客戶要求 0 妥協。這意味著以具有競爭力的價格和靈活的交貨時間提供最新鮮的產品。 Yael 明天將在我們的業務更新中詳細介紹 0 妥協對我們的客戶意味著什麼。

The strength in our top line sales in 2021 demonstrates our ability to meet our customers no matter how they choose to engage with us, whether it's in-store or online. At the same time, we are actively encouraging customers to engage with us on our digital platforms, even when shopping in store. That's because when a customer engages with us digitally, they spend more with Kroger within all modalities.

我們在 2021 年的頂線銷售實力證明了我們有能力滿足我們的客戶，無論他們選擇如何與我們互動，無論是店內還是在線。與此同時，我們積極鼓勵客戶在我們的數字平台上與我們互動，即使是在實體店購物時也是如此。這是因為當客戶以數字方式與我們互動時，他們會在所有形式的 Kroger 上花費更多。

We continue to attract new customers to our digital platforms. During the quarter, we saw new seamless pickup and delivery to household acquisitions increased 25% compared to the third quarter. We remain committed to doubling digital sales and profitability by 2023, which was announced in 2021. We look forward to sharing our glide path to this goal with you tomorrow. We do not expect digital growth will be linear, especially as we cycle the sales spike in 2020 and customers become more comfortable shopping in store again.

我們繼續為我們的數字平台吸引新客戶。在本季度，與第三季度相比，我們看到新的無縫取貨和送貨到家庭的收購增加了 25%。我們仍然致力於到 2023 年將數字銷售額和盈利能力翻一番，這一目標於 2021 年宣布。我們期待明天與您分享我們實現這一目標的捷徑。我們預計數字增長不會是線性的，尤其是隨著我們在 2020 年循環銷售高峰以及客戶再次在店內購物變得更加舒適。

We are incredibly proud of the new digital modalities we launched during 2021, including Kroger Delivery Now, our Boost membership program and the rollout of new customer fulfillment centers, all of which we expect to contribute meaningfully to our long-term goals. Yesterday, we announced a new customer fulfillment center for the Cleveland region, following on heels of our announcement of a cross-dock spoke facility that will serve Oklahoma City. And just a few weeks ago, we opened our third customer fulfillment center in Forest Park, Georgia and are leveraging learnings from Monroe and Groveland to drive efficiencies and scale in the new facility. Customers are loving this new offering, and we continue to be pleased with the initial rollout of our facilities in Groveland and Monroe, and we look forward to sharing additional insights tomorrow.

我們為我們在 2021 年推出的新數字模式感到無比自豪，包括 Kroger Delivery Now、我們的 Boost 會員計劃和新客戶履行中心的推出，我們希望所有這些都能為我們的長期目標做出有意義的貢獻。昨天，在我們宣布將為俄克拉荷馬城服務的跨碼頭輻條設施之後，我們宣佈在克利夫蘭地區建立一個新的客戶履行中心。就在幾週前，我們在喬治亞州森林公園開設了第三個客戶履行中心，並正在利用從 Monroe 和 Groveland 的經驗來提高新設施的效率和規模。客戶很喜歡這個新產品，我們對我們在格羅夫蘭和門羅的設施的首次推出感到滿意，我們期待明天分享更多的見解。

Now turning to the supply chain. Our teams across our stores, warehouses, plants and offices have been incredible in working together to supply fresh food and necessities for our customers while addressing the rapidly changing environment. During the quarter, industry challenges continued within the supply chain, and we remain confident in our ability to navigate these challenges. Within our supply chain, we continue to deploy a wide array of tools, including our owned and operated fleet. We are also partnering with our suppliers to improve product availability using the strength of our data science teams to provide insights that shorten lead times and optimize inventory flow across the extended supply chain.

現在轉向供應鏈。我們在商店、倉庫、工廠和辦公室的團隊在為客戶提供新鮮食品和必需品的同時應對瞬息萬變的環境方面表現出色。在本季度，供應鏈中的行業挑戰繼續存在，我們仍然對我們應對這些挑戰的能力充滿信心。在我們的供應鏈中，我們繼續部署各種工具，包括我們擁有和運營的車隊。我們還與我們的供應商合作，利用我們的數據科學團隊的實力來提高產品可用性，以提供縮短交貨時間並優化整個擴展供應鏈中的庫存流動的見解。

We continue to focus on expanding our transportation contracts and attracting carriers from outside our industry, which has kept product flowing predictably across our network. The teams are doing a great job managing the increased costs, and the trends within our costs are improving sequentially. We are using our data and supplier data plus leveraging technology to support future growth. We expect the supply chain to continue to improve throughout the year as a result of our actions.

我們繼續專注於擴大我們的運輸合同並吸引來自我們行業之外的承運人，這使得產品在我們的網絡中可預測地流動。團隊在管理增加的成本方面做得很好，我們的成本趨勢正在逐步改善。我們正在使用我們的數據和供應商數據以及利用技術來支持未來的增長。由於我們的行動，我們預計供應鏈將在全年繼續改善。

When I visit our stores, I often hear from our associates that what they love most about their job is that they can positively impact the lives of our customers, communities and each other every day. And it's also what I love about our business too. And it's what makes our purpose, to Feed the Human Spirit, so vital for our people. One way we live our purpose is through progress toward our ESG goals and our commitments. As part of our Zero Hunger | Zero Waste social and environmental impact plan, last year, Kroger donated 499 million meals, that's right, 499 million meals, to feed hungry families across America. And we continue to make progress toward our goal of 0 waste.

當我參觀我們的商店時，我經常從我們的員工那裡聽到，他們最喜歡自己的工作的是，他們每天都能對我們的客戶、社區和彼此的生活產生積極影響。這也是我對我們業務的喜愛。這就是我們的宗旨——養活人類精神——對我們的人民如此重要的原因。我們實現目標的一種方式是朝著我們的 ESG 目標和承諾前進。作為我們零飢餓的一部分 |零浪費社會和環境影響計劃，去年，克羅格捐贈了 4.99 億份食物，沒錯，4.99 億份食物，用於養活美國各地飢餓的家庭。我們繼續朝著 0 浪費的目標前進。

As part of our commitments to helping people live healthier lives, we've administrated almost 11 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine through Kroger Health. For our more than 450,000 associates, we strive to create a culture of opportunity, and we take seriously our role as a leading employer in the United States. Kroger has provided an incredible number of people with their first jobs, new beginnings and lifelong careers.

作為我們幫助人們過上更健康生活的承諾的一部分，我們通過 Kroger Health 管理了近 1100 萬劑 COVID-19 疫苗。對於我們超過 450,000 名員工，我們努力創造機會文化，我們認真對待我們作為美國領先雇主的角色。克羅格為無數人提供了他們的第一份工作、新的開始和終生的職業生涯。

As we continue to operate in a challenging labor market, we are dedicated to attracting and retaining the right talent across the organization to be able to continue delivering for our customers. We are investing more than ever before in our associates by expanding our industry-leading benefits, including continuing education and tuition reimbursement, training and development, health and wellness as well as the continued investment in wages that I mentioned earlier. This is enabling us to navigate current labor conditions while continuing to provide America with the freshest food at affordable prices across our seamless ecosystem.

隨著我們繼續在充滿挑戰的勞動力市場中運營，我們致力於在整個組織內吸引和留住合適的人才，以便能夠繼續為我們的客戶提供服務。通過擴大我們行業領先的福利，包括繼續教育和學費報銷、培訓和發展、健康和保健以及我之前提到的對工資的持續投資，我們比以往任何時候都更多地投資於我們的員工。這使我們能夠駕馭當前的勞動條件，同時在我們無縫的生態系統中繼續以可承受的價格為美國提供最新鮮的食物。

We are cultivating an environment where all associates are able to thrive. For the fourth year in a row, Kroger earned top score in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2022 Corporate Equality Index, the nation's benchmark in measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality. Last year alone, we provided more than $5 million to support associates through unexpected hardships through our Helping Hands Fund. This includes providing critical funds for disaster relief for nearly 1,300 associates.

我們正在營造一個所有員工都能茁壯成長的環境。克羅格連續第四年在人權運動基金會的 2022 年企業平等指數中獲得最高分，該指數是美國衡量與 LGBTQ+ 工作場所平等相關的企業政策和實踐的基準。僅去年一年，我們就通過我們的“援助之手”基金提供了超過 500 萬美元來支持員工度過意想不到的困難。這包括為近 1,300 名員工提供重要的救災資金。

2021 was an incredible year for Kroger, and we are committed to continued growth. One of Kroger's greatest strengths is our relentless focus on learning and improving every day. I believe this has been a key on navigating our business successfully in every operating environment. We remain customer-obsessed and focused on operational excellence to deliver for our customers, associates, communities and shareholders. And now I'd like to turn it over to Gary. Gary?

2021 年對克羅格來說是令人難以置信的一年，我們致力於持續增長。克羅格最大的優勢之一是我們每天堅持不懈地學習和提高。我相信這是我們在每個運營環境中成功開展業務的關鍵。我們始終以客戶為中心，專注於卓越運營，為我們的客戶、員工、社區和股東提供服務。現在我想把它交給加里。加里？

Thank you, Rodney, and good morning, everyone. Kroger continues to execute at a high level and is delivering exceptional results while navigating a rapidly changing environment. Before I get into our results in more detail, I would like to start by echoing Rodney's appreciation to our fantastic associates. Their dedication to serve our customers and support each other throughout the pandemic has been nothing short of incredible.

謝謝你，羅德尼，大家早上好。 Kroger 繼續保持高水平的執行力，並在快速變化的環境中提供卓越的成果。在我更詳細地討論我們的結果之前，我想首先回應羅德尼對我們出色的同事的讚賞。他們在整個大流行期間為我們的客戶服務和相互支持的奉獻精神簡直令人難以置信。

Our performance last year clearly highlights the strength of Kroger's go-to-market strategy as we achieved positive identical sales without fuel and adjusted EPS growth on top of record results in 2020. We also continued to invest in our customers and associates to ensure Kroger is well positioned for future success. These investments were balanced with over $1 billion in cost savings and $150 million of incremental operating profit from alternative profit streams.

我們去年的表現清楚地突顯了克羅格進入市場戰略的實力，因為我們在 2020 年創紀錄的業績基礎上實現了無燃料的相同銷售額和調整後的每股收益增長。我們還繼續投資於我們的客戶和員工，以確保克羅格是為未來的成功做好準備。這些投資與超過 10 億美元的成本節約和 1.5 億美元的來自替代利潤流的增量運營利潤相平衡。

I will now provide additional color on our full year results. We delivered adjusted EPS of $3.68 per diluted share, up 6% compared to last year. Identical sales, excluding fuel, were positive 0.2% and digital sales on a 2-year stacked basis grew by 113%. Our adjusted FIFO operating profit was $4.3 billion, up 6% over 2020. Gross margin was 22% of sales for 2021. The FIFO gross margin rate, excluding fuel, decreased 43 basis points compared to the same period last year. This decrease primarily related to higher supply chain costs and strategic price investments, partially offset by sourcing benefits and growth in alternative profits.

我現在將為我們的全年業績提供額外的顏色。我們的調整後每股攤薄收益為 3.68 美元，比去年增長 6%。不包括燃料在內的相同銷售額增長了 0.2%，而以 2 年為基礎的數字銷售額增長了 113%。我們調整後的 FIFO 營業利潤為 43 億美元，比 2020 年增長 6%。毛利率為 2021 年銷售額的 22%。不包括燃料的 FIFO 毛利率與去年同期相比下降了 43 個基點。這一下降主要與較高的供應鏈成本和戰略價格投資有關，但部分被採購收益和替代利潤的增長所抵消。

The OG&A rate decreased 61 basis points, excluding fuel and adjustment items, reflecting a reduction in COVID-related costs and cost saving initiatives, partially offset by significant investments in our associates.

OG&A 利率下降了 61 個基點，不包括燃料和調整項目，反映了與 COVID 相關的成本和成本節約舉措的減少，部分被我們對聯營公司的重大投資所抵消。

Turning now to our fourth quarter results. Adjusted EPS was $0.91 for the quarter, up 12% compared to the same quarter last year. Kroger reported identical sales without fuel of 4%, our strongest quarter of the year, with fresh departments leading the way. Kroger's FIFO gross margin rate, excluding fuel, increased 3 basis points compared to the same period last year. The stability in our gross margin rate reflects effective management of cost inflation and sourcing benefits, offset by strategic price investments and higher supply chain costs. The OG&A rate, excluding fuel and adjustment items, increased 7 basis points. This was driven by significant investments in our associates, including a year-end associate thank you reward and various asset impairments, offset by decreased COVID-related costs, sales leverage and cost saving initiatives.

現在轉向我們的第四季度業績。本季度調整後每股收益為 0.91 美元，與去年同期相比增長 12%。克羅格報告沒有燃料的相同銷售額為 4%，這是我們今年最強勁的季度，其中新部門處於領先地位。克羅格的 FIFO 毛利率（不包括燃料）與去年同期相比增加了 3 個基點。我們毛利率的穩定反映了對成本膨脹和採購收益的有效管理，被戰略性價格投資和更高的供應鏈成本所抵消。不包括燃料和調整項目的 OG&A 利率上升了 7 個基點。這是由對我們員工的大量投資推動的，包括年終員工感謝獎勵和各種資產減值，但被 COVID 相關成本、銷售槓桿和成本節約舉措的下降所抵消。

The LIFO charge for the fourth quarter was $20 million compared to an $84 million credit in the same period last year and represented an $0.11 headwind to EPS in the quarter. The year-over-year increase was attributable to higher inflation in most categories, with grocery and meat being the largest contributors. One of Kroger's greatest strengths is our ability to successfully navigate many different operating environments, and our team is doing an excellent job managing the current higher inflationary environment. We continue to leverage our data and work closely with our suppliers to minimize the effect on our customers and our financial model. We are investing where it matters most to our customers using our proprietary data to be strategic in our pricing and personalization.

第四季度的 LIFO 費用為 2000 萬美元，而去年同期為 8400 萬美元，這對本季度的每股收益構成了 0.11 美元的逆風。同比增長是由於大多數類別的通貨膨脹率較高，雜貨和肉類是最大的貢獻者。克羅格最大的優勢之一是我們能夠成功駕馭許多不同的運營環境，我們的團隊在管理當前的高通脹環境方面做得非常出色。我們繼續利用我們的數據並與我們的供應商密切合作，以盡量減少對我們的客戶和我們的財務模型的影響。我們正在使用我們的專有數據在對我們的客戶最重要的地方進行投資，以便在我們的定價和個性化方面具有戰略意義。

Our brands is also an important differentiator for Kroger in this environment, offering customers an unmatched combination of great quality and great value. Our strategic approach is helping our customers manage their grocery budgets more effectively and is allowing Kroger to maintain a strong price position relative to our key competitors.

我們的品牌也是克羅格在這種環境下的重要差異化因素，為客戶提供無與倫比的高品質和高價值組合。我們的戰略方法是幫助我們的客戶更有效地管理他們的雜貨預算，並使 Kroger 相對於我們的主要競爭對手保持強勁的價格地位。

Fuel also remains an important part of our overall value proposition for our customers, and we continue to invest in our fuel program in 2021. Customers that redeem fuel points spend, on average, 4x more at Kroger and visit 4x more frequently. Our investment in fuel rewards, which is reflected in our supermarket gross margin, also helps customers stretch their dollars further and allowed us to achieve gallon growth of 5% in the fourth quarter, outpacing market growth. The average retail price of fuel was $3.30 this quarter versus $2.20 in the same quarter last year. Our cents per gallon fuel margin was $0.44 compared to $0.33 in the same quarter in 2020.

Fuel 仍然是我們為客戶提供的整體價值主張的重要組成部分，我們將在 2021 年繼續投資於我們的燃料計劃。兌換燃料積分的客戶在 Kroger 的平均消費增加了 4 倍，訪問頻率增加了 4 倍。我們對燃料獎勵的投資（反映在我們的超市毛利率中）也幫助客戶進一步擴大資金，使我們在第四季度實現了 5% 的加侖增長，超過了市場增長。本季度燃料的平均零售價為 3.30 美元，而去年同期為 2.20 美元。我們每加侖燃料的利潤率為 0.44 美元，而 2020 年同期為 0.33 美元。

Turning now to cash flow and liquidity. Our operating results generated exceptional free cash flow in 2021, which resulted in a further strengthening of our balance sheet and liquidity. Kroger's net total debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio is now 1.63 compared to our target range of 2.3 to 2.5. We were also disciplined in accelerating the return of cash to shareholders in 2021. In total, Kroger returned $2.2 billion to investors via a combination of share repurchases and dividends.

現在轉向現金流和流動性。我們的經營業績在 2021 年產生了非凡的自由現金流，從而進一步加強了我們的資產負債表和流動性。克羅格的淨總債務與調整後 EBITDA 比率現在為 1.63，而我們的目標範圍為 2.3 至 2.5。我們還在 2021 年加快向股東返還現金方面受到紀律處分。克羅格通過股票回購和股息的組合向投資者返還了 22 億美元。

I'd now like to take a few minutes to discuss our continued commitment to investing in our associates and our deep experience with collective bargaining. Wages at Kroger grew before and during the pandemic. As you know, we committed to significant associate wage investments when we launched our Restock Kroger program at the end of 2017. Kroger has invested an incremental $1.2 billion in associate wages and training over the last 4 years. In addition, we have committed to invest over $1.8 billion during the same time period to help address underfunding and better secure pensions for tens of thousands of associates.

我現在想花幾分鐘時間來討論一下我們對投資員工的持續承諾以及我們在集體談判方面的豐富經驗。克羅格的工資在大流行之前和期間都在增長。如您所知，當我們在 2017 年底啟動 Restock Kroger 計劃時，我們承諾對員工工資進行大量投資。在過去 4 年中，Kroger 在員工工資和培訓方面的投資增加了 12 億美元。此外，我們承諾在同一時期投資超過 18 億美元，以幫助解決資金不足的問題，並為數万名員工提供更好的養老金保障。

Wage, health care and pensions are included in all of the more than 350 collective bargaining agreements that cover approximately 66% of our associates. These contracts are regularly negotiated by our professional labor relations team. Our objective is to negotiate contracts that balance competitive wage increases and affordable health care for associates with keeping groceries affordable for the communities that we serve. Our obligation is to do this in a way that maintains a financially sustainable business. If negotiations do become contentious, we have contingency plans in place to continue to support our communities.

工資、醫療保健和養老金都包含在 350 多項集體談判協議中，這些協議涵蓋了我們約 66% 的員工。這些合同由我們的專業勞資關係團隊定期協商。我們的目標是談判合同，以平衡有競爭力的工資增長和員工負擔得起的醫療保健，同時讓我們服務的社區負擔得起雜貨。我們的義務是以維持財務可持續發展的方式來做到這一點。如果談判確實變得有爭議，我們將製定應急計劃以繼續支持我們的社區。

During the fourth quarter, we ratified new labor agreements with the UFCW for associates in Fred Meyer, King Soopers and our Michigan division, covering more than 20,500 associates. For 2022, we have contract negotiations with the UFCW for store associates in Las Vegas, Southern California, Seattle, Indianapolis, Portland, Columbus, Fort Wayne, Chicago and Toledo, in addition to continued negotiations with the UFCW for store associates in Houston, Little Rock and Memphis. We are actively proposing generous wage increases over the life of the various contracts we are negotiating, and these increases are included in our financial model and our guidance for 2022.

在第四季度，我們與 UFCW 為 Fred Meyer、King Soopers 和我們密歇根分部的員工批准了新的勞動協議，涵蓋 20,500 多名員工。 2022 年，我們與 UFCW 就拉斯維加斯、南加州、西雅圖、印第安納波利斯、波特蘭、哥倫布、韋恩堡、芝加哥和托萊多的門店員工進行合同談判，此外，我們還將繼續與 UFCW 就休斯頓、利特爾的門店員工進行談判搖滾和孟菲斯。我們正在積極提議在我們正在談判的各種合同的有效期內大幅增加工資，這些增加包含在我們的財務模型和 2022 年的指導中。

We are also communicating to local unions that coming to the table with unrealistic proposals, proposals that do not balance associate investments with keeping groceries affordable for our customers is untenable and undermines our shared goal of growing the company to create more jobs and advancement opportunities for more associates.

我們還與當地工會溝通，提出不切實際的建議，不平衡聯合投資與讓客戶負擔得起的雜貨的建議是站不住腳的，並破壞了我們發展公司以創造更多就業機會和晉昇機會的共同目標。同事。

In closing, let me now provide additional color on the 2022 guidance that we released this morning. While we recognize there remain a number of uncertainties in the economic and geopolitical outlook, we believe the strength of Kroger's go-to-market strategy and our ability to manage multiple levers within our financial model will allow us to continue to build momentum within our business in 2022. We have shared previously that we expect to emerge from the pandemic stronger, and our guidance for 2022 creates a new baseline for FIFO net operating profit that is some $900 million higher than the midpoint of our TSR model would have projected when we announced it in 2019.

最後，讓我現在就我們今天早上發布的 2022 年指南提供額外的顏色。雖然我們認識到經濟和地緣政治前景仍存在許多不確定性，但我們相信克羅格的上市戰略的實力以及我們在財務模型中管理多個槓桿的能力將使我們能夠繼續在我們的業務中建立動力在 2022 年。我們之前曾分享過，我們預計會更強大地擺脫大流行，我們對 2022 年的指導為 FIFO 淨營業利潤創造了一個新的基線，比我們宣佈時 TSR 模型的中點高出約 9 億美元它在 2019 年。

Our plans contemplate meaningful investments in associate hourly rates as well as investments in delivering greater value for our customers and enhancing our digital capabilities. We expect these investments and the impact of cycling COVID-19 vaccine revenue will be fully offset by tailwinds in our model and allow us to grow adjusted net earnings per diluted share to between $3.75 and $3.85.

我們的計劃考慮對員工小時費率進行有意義的投資，以及為我們的客戶創造更大價值和增強我們的數字能力的投資。我們預計這些投資和循環 COVID-19 疫苗收入的影響將被我們模型中的順風完全抵消，並使我們能夠將調整後的每股攤薄淨收益增長到 3.75 美元至 3.85 美元之間。

The tailwinds in our 2022 plan includes sales leverage from growing identical sales without fuel between 2% and 3%. We also expect to deliver cost savings of $1 billion, incremental alternative profit growth largely in line with 2021 and underlying improvement in Kroger Health profitability, excluding vaccine income. Fuel profitability is expected to be relatively flat year-over-year as gallon growth is offset by slightly lower fuel margins.

我們的 2022 年計劃中的順風包括將相同銷售額增長 2% 至 3% 的無燃料銷售槓桿。我們還預計將節省 10 億美元的成本，增量替代利潤增長與 2021 年基本一致，以及 Kroger Health 盈利能力（不包括疫苗收入）的潛在改善。由於加侖增長被略低的燃料利潤率所抵消，預計燃料盈利能力將與去年同期相比相對持平。

In terms of quarterly cadence for identical sales of our fuel and EPS growth, we expect identical sales without fuel in quarter 1 and quarter 2 will be above the midpoint of our 2% to 3% range as we expect heightened inflation will continue in the first half of the year. We would expect our second half identical sales without fuel to be below the midpoint of our range as we expect the inflation to moderate later in the year as we cycle higher inflation from the second half of 2021. Regarding adjusted EPS, we would expect quarter 1 to be above the annual growth rate range of 2% to 5%, quarter 2 to be below the range and the second half of the year to be within the range.

就我們燃料和每股收益增長的相同銷售額的季度節奏而言，我們預計第一季度和第二季度無燃料的相同銷售額將高於我們 2% 至 3% 範圍的中點，因為我們預計通脹將在第一季度繼續加劇半年。我們預計下半年不含燃料的相同銷售額將低於我們範圍的中點，因為我們預計通脹將在今年晚些時候放緩，因為我們從 2021 年下半年開始循環更高的通脹。關於調整後的每股收益，我們預計第一季度高於2%至5%的年增長率範圍，第二季度低於該範圍，下半年在該範圍內。

Turning briefly to our capital priorities. We will continue to be disciplined with capital allocation. As you heard this morning, we are increasing capital investments to $3.8 billion to $4 billion in 2022. This reflects some catch-up from the last 2 years, where spend was below original guidance due to COVID-related constraints as well as an acceleration of our strategic initiatives that will drive longer-term earnings growth. At the same time, we expect to generate free cash flow of between $2 billion and $2.2 billion. And consistent with our TSR model, we will continue to return excess cash to shareholders as evidenced by the acceleration in share buybacks over the last 6 months.

簡要談談我們的資本優先事項。我們將繼續遵守資本配置。正如您今天早上所聽到的，我們將在 2022 年將資本投資增加到 38 億至 40 億美元。這反映了過去 2 年的一些追趕，由於與 COVID 相關的限制以及加速我們將推動長期盈利增長的戰略舉措。同時，我們預計將產生 20 億至 22 億美元的自由現金流。根據我們的 TSR 模型，我們將繼續向股東返還多餘的現金，過去 6 個月股票回購的加速就是明證。

And finally, we are looking forward to spending more time with you at our business update tomorrow when you will hear from key members of our leadership team about our strategic priorities and our path to deliver total shareholder returns of 8% to 11% over time. With that, I'll turn it back to Rodney.

最後，我們期待在明天的業務更新中與您共度更多時間，屆時您將聽取我們領導團隊的主要成員關於我們的戰略重點以及我們隨著時間的推移實現 8% 至 11% 的股東總回報率的途徑。有了這個，我會把它轉回給羅德尼。

Thanks, Gary. Kroger is operating from a position of strength, and we have a variety of levers and growth opportunities to continue to build on this strength. As we reflect on 2021, we are incredibly proud of our ability to navigate both a rapidly changing operating environment and evolving customer behaviors.

謝謝，加里。克羅格的經營處於強勢地位，我們有各種槓桿和增長機會來繼續建立這種優勢。回顧 2021 年，我們為能夠駕馭快速變化的運營環境和不斷變化的客戶行為而感到無比自豪。

We are obviously in an inflationary environment. Our teams are managing it well. And as Gary talked about, we are doing everything we can to keep prices low for customers, including our award-winning customer rewards program, which includes fuel rewards, our amazing and high-quality Our Brands products and personalized offers and savings for each customer individualized.

我們顯然處於通貨膨脹的環境中。我們的團隊管理得很好。正如 Gary 所說，我們正在盡一切努力為客戶保持低價，包括我們屢獲殊榮的客戶獎勵計劃，其中包括燃料獎勵、我們令人驚嘆的高品質 Our Brands 產品以及為每位客戶提供的個性化優惠和節省個性化。

As we look to 2022, we are confident in our ability to continue to differentiate ourselves, serve our customers in new and exciting ways and continue to change the definition of what it means to be a grocery retailer while never losing sight of what's most important to our customers. And when we do this, we have a clear path to delivering on our commitment of 8% to 11% total shareholder returns over time for our shareholders.

展望 2022 年，我們有能力繼續讓自己脫穎而出，以令人興奮的新方式為客戶服務，並繼續改變對雜貨零售商的定義，同時永遠不會忽視對自己最重要的東西。我們的顧客。當我們這樣做時，我們就有了一條清晰的道路，可以為我們的股東兌現 8% 到 11% 的股東總回報率的承諾。

Now we look forward to your questions. As Rob shared at the top of the call, we would like to focus all questions on our quarter 4 and full year 2021 results as well as 2022 guidance. We look forward to sharing additional details about our long-term strategy tomorrow at our 2022 Business Update. So with that, we'll turn it over for questions.

現在我們期待您的提問。正如 Rob 在電話會議頂部分享的那樣，我們希望將所有問題集中在我們的第 4 季度和 2021 年全年業績以及 2022 年指導上。我們期待明天在 2022 年業務更新中分享有關我們長期戰略的更多細節。因此，我們將把它翻過來提問。

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

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

Congrats on a really strong quarter. So I guess just starting out, just on the gross margin line, pretty significant improvement in gross margins on a 1- and 2-year basis. What are the key changes? Maybe some more color in terms of what drove that improvement versus what we saw in Q2 and Q3.

祝賀一個非常強勁的季度。所以我想剛開始，就在毛利率線上，1 年和 2 年的毛利率有相當顯著的改善。有哪些關鍵變化？與我們在第二季度和第三季度看到的相比，推動這種改進的因素可能會更多色彩。

Yes. Thanks, Rupesh. As we mentioned in the prepared remarks and Rodney covered in a moment ago, really proud of the team in the way that we managed the business in Q4 and some of the changes that were happening. From I think what the team did, we're obviously laser-focused on how can we continue to be effective in managing the sourcing approach to how we are leveraging the relationships with our suppliers and using our data.

是的。謝謝，魯佩什。正如我們在準備好的評論和羅德尼剛才提到的那樣，我們為團隊在第四季度管理業務的方式以及正在發生的一些變化感到非常自豪。從我認為團隊所做的事情來看，我們顯然專注於如何繼續有效地管理採購方法，以及我們如何利用與供應商的關係和使用我們的數據。

We've been very effective in using our personalization and promotional activities to really sort of target the offers to the customer to make sure that they're seeing the value but that we're also then able to manage those cost increases effectively in the business.

我們非常有效地使用我們的個性化和促銷活動來真正針對客戶的報價，以確保他們看到價值，但我們也能夠有效地管理業務中的這些成本增加.

I think mix is also another important trend that the team is really focused on is how do we ensure that we're upselling customers to better quality products and premiumized products and whether it's adding the cedar plank to the salmon or the seasoning to the shrimp. And some of those opportunities are really important in how the merchandising team are really focused on recognizing some consumer trends in how many of our customers are moving to more meal solutions as well as continuing to look value -- look for value.

我認為混合也是團隊真正關注的另一個重要趨勢是我們如何確保我們向客戶追加銷售更優質的產品和優質產品，以及是否在鮭魚中添加雪松板或在蝦中添加調味料。其中一些機會對於銷售團隊如何真正專注於識別一些消費者趨勢非常重要，因為我們有多少客戶正在轉向更多的膳食解決方案以及繼續尋找價值——尋找價值。

So overall, we feel really good around the way the team managed our gross margin during the quarter. As we think about going forward into 2022, we continue to focus on, of course, the same elements and continue to manage those pieces tightly while also wanting to make sure we're continuing to deliver value for our customers. And I think to us, really, we look at it more of how do we manage the model overall across gross margin, OG&A and pulling the different levers.

因此，總體而言，我們對團隊在本季度管理毛利率的方式感覺非常好。當我們考慮進入 2022 年時，我們當然會繼續關注相同的元素，並繼續嚴格管理這些部分，同時還希望確保我們繼續為客戶創造價值。我認為對我們來說，真的，我們更多地關注我們如何在毛利率、OG&A 和拉動不同槓桿方面整體管理模型。

And certainly, I think we look at 2022 and think that we'll continue to invest in the customer. We'll continue to manage those different levers. I would suspect that we'll see continued investment in gross margin in 2022 and continued operating leverage in OG&A. But I think the fourth quarter is a good example of where we wouldn't expect to see some of the major volatility or the gap in gross margin and OG&A that we saw across the whole year, for example, in 2021.

當然，我認為我們著眼於 2022 年，並認為我們將繼續投資於客戶。我們將繼續管理這些不同的槓桿。我懷疑我們將在 2022 年看到對毛利率的持續投資以及 OG&A 的持續經營槓桿。但我認為第四季度是一個很好的例子，說明我們預計不會出現像 2021 年那樣的全年毛利率和 OG&A 的一些重大波動或差距。

Yes. Just a couple of additional things. During COVID, as we've mentioned several times, people have learned how to cook again. And what they're finding is that they can have restaurant-quality food that they prepare at home. And in numerous categories like the specialty cheese that I mentioned, but there's numerous categories where customers have traded up to higher-quality product. And everything that we're seeing, they continue with that. And the other thing, I think, that's always important to remind all of us is that our fresh departments grew faster than the center store departments. And our fresh departments have a higher gross rate as well versus the center store. So just a couple of additional things. Thanks, Rupesh.

是的。只是一些額外的事情。正如我們多次提到的那樣，在 COVID 期間，人們又學會瞭如何做飯。他們發現，他們可以在家裡準備餐廳品質的食物。在許多類別中，例如我提到的特色奶酪，但在許多類別中，客戶已經購買了更高質量的產品。我們所看到的一切，他們都會繼續這樣做。另一件事，我認為，提醒我們所有人總是很重要的是，我們的新鮮部門比中心商店部門增長得更快。與中心商店相比，我們的新鮮部門的毛利率也更高。所以只是一些額外的事情。謝謝，魯佩什。

Great. And then maybe just one follow-up. So with a lot of inflation out there in the marketplace, how do your price gaps look today versus maybe where they were a few quarters ago?

偉大的。然後也許只是一個後續行動。因此，在市場上存在大量通貨膨脹的情況下，您今天的價格差距與幾個季度前的價格差距如何？

If you look at overall, it's pretty close to the cost increases we've incurred. If you look at -- in a couple of departments strategically, it's not -- the retail price hasn't increased as much as cost, and we've been able to balance all of those pieces. But we really are using our data to make sure that we understand the elasticity of everything.

如果你從整體上看，它非常接近我們所產生的成本增加。如果您從戰略上看 - 在幾個部門中，它不是 - 零售價格沒有像成本一樣增加，我們已經能夠平衡所有這些部分。但我們確實在使用我們的數據來確保我們了解一切的彈性。

We are starting to see customers engaging in coupons a little bit more aggressive than before and doing other things in terms of starting to move to our brands where they don't have to compromise on quality and they can save money as well. So we are starting to see the beginning of some behavior changes as well, but really early.

我們開始看到客戶比以前更積極地使用優惠券，並開始轉向我們的品牌，他們不必在質量上妥協，也可以省錢。因此，我們也開始看到一些行為變化的開始，但非常早。

Yes. Maybe the only thing to add, Rodney. Certainly, as you know, Rupesh, the customer, as we look at our data, defines value in multiple ways. So part of it is the everyday price, part of it is the promotions. It includes our fuel rewards and all the personalization that we offer. And I would say, if we look at our position as we end the year from where we started, we feel very good about the way in which we've been able to deliver value for the customer. And when we look at our price position, we feel we've been able to maintain a very strong position with the customer in terms of how they would perceive the value of the Kroger basket and the value that Kroger's delivering.

是的。也許唯一要補充的是，羅德尼。當然，如您所知，當我們查看數據時，客戶 Rupesh 以多種方式定義價值。所以一部分是日常價格，一部分是促銷。它包括我們的燃料獎勵和我們提供的所有個性化服務。我想說，如果我們從開始的那一年結束時審視我們的立場，我們對我們能夠為客戶創造價值的方式感覺非常好。當我們查看我們的價格定位時，我們覺得我們已經能夠在客戶如何看待 Kroger 籃子的價值和 Kroger 提供的價值方面保持非常強大的地位。

The next question is from Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的西蒙·古特曼。

A nice quarter and guide. My question is the comp guide is solid for next year. And we're a little surprised at how good the EBIT flow-through or the margin still looks, given all the cost pressures on the wage side. You mentioned some things on the gross margin. You mentioned tailwinds, but I wanted to put it to you holistically and hear your reaction to this question.

一個不錯的季度和指南。我的問題是明年的比賽指南很可靠。考慮到工資方面的所有成本壓力，我們對息稅前利潤或利潤率仍然看起來有多好感到有些驚訝。你提到了毛利率的一些事情。你提到了順風，但我想從整體上把它告訴你，聽聽你對這個問題的反應。

Yes. I'll start and let Gary get into some more of the details. I think one of the things that's -- to me, your question is great. But the thing that I think is really important to remember is the things that we continue to do to take costs out of our system all across everything. And we would expect to be able to take another $1 billion of cost out. And as you know, last year, we took over $1 billion out and that was the fourth consecutive year.

是的。我將開始，讓 Gary 了解更多細節。我認為其中一件事——對我來說，你的問題很好。但我認為要記住的真正重要的事情是，我們將繼續做的事情，以在所有方面從我們的系統中降低成本。我們預計能夠再節省 10 億美元的成本。如你所知，去年，我們拿出了超過 10 億美元，這是連續第四年。

So through process change and really, it's becoming a capability that the organization has, that's really critical to be able to afford to do some of the things that we're doing. The other thing is alternative profit and some of the other things related to that continues to change the fundamental business model in a positive way, that inflation doesn't affect the same way and the profitability of that part of the business is significantly higher than the traditional grocery store would be as well. Gary, any additional stuff?

因此，通過流程變革，實際上，它正在成為組織所擁有的能力，這對於能夠負擔得起我們正在做的一些事情真的至關重要。另一件事是替代利潤，與此相關的其他一些事情繼續以積極的方式改變基本的商業模式，通貨膨脹不會以同樣的方式影響，這部分業務的盈利能力明顯高於傳統的雜貨店也是如此。加里，還有什麼額外的東西嗎？

Well, I think you summarized it well, Rodney. I think, Simeon, we feel about it as you look at our 2021 results and then you think about our guidance '22, it really demonstrates the strength in that, the overall diversity of our model now and the different levers that we're able to pull to make sure that we're investing in our associates, investing in our customers and still able to deliver a strong return for our shareholders.

好吧，我認為你總結得很好，羅德尼。我認為，Simeon，當您查看我們 2021 年的結果時，我們會對此有所感受，然後您會考慮我們的 22 年指導方針，它確實展示了這方面的力量，我們現在模型的整體多樣性以及我們能夠使用的不同槓桿拉動以確保我們投資於我們的員工，投資於我們的客戶，並且仍然能夠為我們的股東帶來豐厚的回報。

And we would agree with you that 2022 is a year where we do expect to make significant investments, whether it's around continuing to support the customer and drive growth in our business, investing in our associates, investing in digital. And of course, we will be cycling some COVID vaccine revenue that will be lower in 2022 than '21. But Rodney mentioned the cost savings and alternative profit benefits that we see within the model. We do continue to expect, obviously, to generate sales leverage in our model as well. And as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, health and wellness will certainly have some headwinds from COVID vaccines, but we believe there's continued opportunity to improve the underlying profitability in health and wellness as well in 2022.

我們同意你的觀點，2022 年我們確實希望進行重大投資，無論是繼續支持客戶和推動我們的業務增長，還是投資於我們的員工，還是投資於數字化。當然，我們將循環使用 2022 年將低於 21 年的一些 COVID 疫苗收入。但羅德尼提到了我們在模型中看到的成本節約和替代利潤收益。顯然，我們確實繼續期望在我們的模型中產生銷售槓桿。正如我在準備好的講話中提到的那樣，健康和保健肯定會受到 COVID 疫苗的一些不利影響，但我們相信，到 2022 年，健康和保健的潛在盈利能力也將繼續有機會提高。

And maybe related, the value-conscious customer, are you seeing any signs of trade down? Are you seeing customers trade out? Are you seeing any decisions in the store that lead you to see that the customer is feeling a little more pinched?

也許相關的，注重價值的客戶，您是否看到任何交易下降的跡象？您是否看到客戶進行交易？您是否看到商店中的任何決定讓您看到客戶感到更加緊張？

Yes. What the customers are telling us is that they're changing their spend behavior outside of food more than food, which obviously makes sense. They also have found that eating at home is a lot more affordable than going out to restaurants. They're able to stretch their budget this way -- that way as well.

是的。客戶告訴我們的是，他們正在改變他們在食物之外的消費行為，而不是食物，這顯然是有道理的。他們還發現，在家吃飯比去餐館便宜得多。他們能夠以這種方式——也以這種方式來擴展他們的預算。

And as I mentioned a second ago, we are seeing people starting to engage in coupons and some of those things a little more than before. But nothing substantial so far, and we really feel good about the way we're positioned with the customer. And if you look at our connection to that customer segment, it actually improved in the fourth quarter versus prior year. And what customers are finding is our fresh departments are a huge strength, and then they're able to get personalized rewards and engage with us on promotional items and things like that.

正如我剛才提到的，我們看到人們開始參與優惠券和其中一些事情比以前多一點。但到目前為止還沒有什麼實質性的東西，而且我們對我們與客戶的定位方式真的感覺很好。如果您查看我們與該客戶群的聯繫，它實際上在第四季度與去年相比有所改善。客戶發現我們的新部門是一個巨大的優勢，然後他們能夠獲得個性化的獎勵，並與我們就促銷項目等進行互動。

The next question is from John Heinbockel with Guggenheim Securities.

下一個問題來自古根海姆證券公司的約翰·海因博克爾。

So Rodney, I want to start with, if you look at the $1 billion of cost takeout, right, how does that roughly break out between COGS and O&A? And how has that changed over the last 3 or 4 years? Has it shifted more to O&A or it stayed relatively consistent?

所以羅德尼，我想首先，如果你看一下 10 億美元的成本外賣，對，COGS 和 O&A 之間的大致情況如何？在過去的 3 或 4 年裡，情況發生了怎樣的變化？它是更多地轉向 O&A 還是保持相對一致？

Yes. The -- if you look at overall, it would be more cost-driven. Now goods not for resale, do you put it in cost or do you put in COGS because you can argue either one. But it's more driven by process change and eliminating work. Obviously, sourcing is an important component of it. Goods not for resale is incredibly important as well. If you look at the mix, the mix has been pretty consistent over the last 4 years. If you look at our expectations for 2022, Gary, it would be pretty similar to 2021. I mean, it might be 5% difference but not much, right?

是的。 - 如果你從整體上看，它會更受成本驅動。現在商品不是轉售的，你是把它計入成本還是把它計入銷貨成本，因為你可以爭論任何一個。但它更多是由流程變化和消除工作驅動的。顯然，採購是其中的重要組成部分。非轉售商品也非常重要。如果你看一下組合，你會發現在過去的 4 年裡，這種組合非常一致。如果你看看我們對 2022 年的預期，加里，它會與 2021 年非常相似。我的意思是，可能會有 5% 的差異，但差別不大，對吧？

Yes. No, I think the only thing, John, that's really accelerated over the last couple of years, I completely agree with Rodney around the sourcing benefits and the taking cost out of the operation. The one thing that, as you know, we've talked about is we invested in digital to ensure that we're winning the customer to build that $10 billion business that we talked about. And we did that sometimes, recognizing that there'll be some inefficiency in our model.

是的。不，我認為約翰，在過去幾年中，唯一真正加速的事情是，我完全同意羅德尼關於採購利益和運營成本的看法。如您所知，我們談到的一件事是我們投資於數字化，以確保我們贏得客戶來建立我們談到的價值 100 億美元的業務。我們有時會這樣做，因為我們認識到我們的模型會存在一些效率低下的問題。

And so I think one of the areas that we've been able to accelerate is taking cost out of the digital sort of cost to serve a customer, if you like, as we can leverage more efficiency in that scale. And that's become a tailwind this year and will be -- or was last year and will be in 2022 as part of the cost structure. That's probably the one area that's maybe changed a little bit over the last couple of years, but I completely agree with Rodney. On the balance, it's pretty consistent.

因此，我認為我們能夠加速的領域之一是將成本從為客戶服務的數字成本中扣除，如果你願意的話，因為我們可以在這種規模上利用更高的效率。這已成為今年的順風車，並且將是 - 或者是去年，並將在 2022 年作為成本結構的一部分。這可能是在過去幾年中可能發生了一些變化的一個領域，但我完全同意羅德尼的觀點。總的來說，它非常一致。

John, Gary's last point to me is incredibly important. And everybody on the call, you've all heard us talk about job 1 is don't lose the customer as they switch to being a combination of digital and in-store. And then over time, we'll figure out a way to make that customer just as profitable as a customer that traditionally shopped in the store. So I think Gary's last point is really important.

約翰，加里對我的最後一點非常重要。通話中的每個人，你們都聽過我們談論工作 1 是不要失去客戶，因為他們會轉變為數字和店內的組合。然後隨著時間的推移，我們將找到一種方法，使該客戶與傳統上在商店購物的客戶一樣有利可圖。所以我認為加里的最後一點非常重要。

And then maybe talk about the how fuel rewards performs in an environment where price per gallon may be approaching $4, right? How it performs? And then do you do anything differently? I don't think the plan -- the program construct would change. But does it -- or does your marketing change? Because you would think in this environment, fuel rewards is way more important than it was a year or 2 ago?

然後也許可以談談在每加侖價格可能接近 4 美元的環境中燃料獎勵的表現，對吧？它表現如何？然後你有什麼不同的做法嗎？我不認為計劃——程序結構會改變。但它 - 或者你的營銷改變了嗎？因為你會認為在這種環境下，燃料獎勵比一兩年前重要得多？

Your belief and comment is correct. What we find is customers find it very helpful and as fuel prices go up, they engage in the fuel rewards more. Obviously, we continue to leverage fuel rewards in ways that make sense for different customer segments because different segments engage differently in fuel rewards. Obviously, we would prefer for fuel not to be at $3 or $4 a gallon, but we're going to do everything we can to help the customer stretch their budget as much as we can.

你的信念和評論是正確的。我們發現客戶發現它非常有幫助，隨著燃料價格的上漲，他們更多地參與燃料獎勵。顯然，我們繼續以對不同客戶群有意義的方式利用燃油獎勵，因為不同的細分市場參與燃油獎勵的方式不同。顯然，我們希望燃油價格不要達到每加侖 3 美元或 4 美元，但我們將盡我們所能幫助客戶盡可能地擴大預算。

The next question is from Greg Badishkanian with Wolfe Research.

下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Greg Badishkanian。

This is Spencer Hanus on for Greg. I just want to follow up on the FIFO adjusted gross margins for a minute. Did you see any change in the competitive environment that allowed you to pass through more costs? We know that Walmart's U.S. gross margins were up 54 basis points last quarter. So curious if that provided an opening for you guys. And then should we look at the 4Q performance as a good run rate for 2022?

這是格雷格的斯賓塞漢努斯。我只想關注 FIFO 調整後的毛利率一分鐘。您是否看到競爭環境的任何變化使您能夠承擔更多成本？我們知道沃爾瑪在美國的毛利率上個季度增長了 54 個基點。很好奇這是否為你們提供了一個機會。然後我們是否應該將第四季度的表現視為 2022 年的良好運行率？

Yes. The first part of that, I wouldn't say that we saw it really change any differently. Obviously, Walmart is one competitor but there's numerous competitors out there. And what we're trying to do is to make sure that we're balancing inflation and helping the customers stretch their budget as much as we can. And we've continued to invest in pricing in areas that matter most to customers. So we really are -- we wouldn't consider it easier or harder. It's just part of the overall managing the business. In terms of looking forward, Gary, I'll let you answer that part.

是的。第一部分，我不會說我們看到它真的發生了任何不同的變化。顯然，沃爾瑪是一個競爭對手，但那裡有許多競爭對手。我們正在努力做的是確保我們平衡通貨膨脹並幫助客戶盡可能地擴展他們的預算。我們繼續在對客戶最重要的領域進行定價投資。所以我們真的 - 我們不會認為它更容易或更難。這只是整體管理業務的一部分。就展望而言，加里，我會讓你回答那部分。

Yes. Thanks, Rodney. Spencer, as you know, we don't tend to give detailed guidance on the puts and takes in gross margin rate and OG&A rate because we much more view it as how do we manage the business as a whole to drive sustainable earnings growth. I would say that I mentioned it in one of the earlier responses, that we would expect to continue to invest in the customer in 2022. And we'd also actually expect to see some accelerated advertising costs too because we're going to obviously continue to grow the business and we'll talk about it tomorrow, some of the digital growth opportunities that we're focused on as well.

是的。謝謝，羅德尼。斯賓塞，如您所知，我們不傾向於對看跌期權和毛利率和 OG&A 利率給出詳細指導，因為我們更多地將其視為我們如何管理整個業務以推動可持續的盈利增長。我想說，我在較早的回復之一中提到了這一點，我們預計將在 2022 年繼續投資於客戶。我們實際上也預計會看到一些加速的廣告成本，因為我們顯然會繼續為了發展業務，我們明天將討論它，我們也關註一些數字增長機會。

So I think as we look at the total year, we still expect some investment in gross margin in 2022, but we'd also continue to expect to see significant OG&A leverage as well in many areas through the cost savings that Rodney mentioned. And certainly, we wouldn't expect the gap between those 2 to be anywhere near as wide as it was when you look at the full year results in 2021. So I wouldn't take the fourth quarter as the sort of the number to use, but I would certainly expect us to be tightly managing those. And we do believe, as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, all the work the team has done around sourcing, connecting with customers, driving our strategy to deliver value for customers gives us confidence in the overall guidance that we shared for next year.

因此，我認為，從全年來看，我們仍預計 2022 年對毛利率的一些投資，但我們也繼續期望通過羅德尼提到的成本節約在許多領域看到顯著的 OG&A 槓桿。當然，我們預計這兩者之間的差距不會像您查看 2021 年全年業績時那樣大。所以我不會將第四季度作為要使用的數字，但我當然希望我們能夠嚴格管理這些。我們相信，正如我們在準備好的評論中提到的那樣，團隊圍繞採購、與客戶建立聯繫、推動我們為客戶創造價值的戰略所做的所有工作，讓我們對明年分享的總體指導充滿信心。

Got it, that's helpful. And then fuel profitability is up significantly versus 2019 despite the rising prices, which is typically a headwind to that -- to profitability. So I understand that you expect profitability to be down this year a little bit. But how sustainable do you think it is, this step-up versus '19? And then could you just remind us how much operating profit the fuel business contributed in 4Q just so we can better back into how the core performed?

明白了，很有幫助。儘管價格上漲，但燃料盈利能力與 2019 年相比顯著上升，這通常是對盈利能力的不利因素。所以我知道你預計今年的盈利能力會有所下降。但是，您認為與 19 年相比，這種升級的可持續性如何？然後你能否提醒我們燃料業務在第四季度貢獻了多少營業利潤，以便我們能夠更好地回到核心的表現？

Sure. Yes, it's a great question on fuel. As you know, we talk about this each year, and we used to base our assumptions on a sort of a 3- to 5-year trend. And if you look at the last 3 to 5 years, really, fuel profitability has continued to improve pretty consistently as we look at the trends in our business and how our fuel reward program is connecting and what a great job our team has done in managing fuel margins. I do think there's a little bit of left pocket, right pocket in some of that, of course, as well because we spend a tremendous amount of money in rewarding customers, giving up to over $1 a gallon off for discount for customers that are highly engaged in the program.

當然。是的，這是一個關於燃料的好問題。如您所知，我們每年都在談論這個問題，並且我們過去常常將我們的假設建立在一種 3 到 5 年的趨勢之上。如果你看看過去的 3 到 5 年，真的，當我們看到我們的業務趨勢以及我們的燃料獎勵計劃如何联係以及我們的團隊在管理方面做得多麼出色時，燃料盈利能力一直在持續提高燃料利潤。我確實認為其中有一些左口袋，右口袋當然也有，因為我們在獎勵客戶方面花費了大量資金，為高度重視的客戶提供每加侖超過 1 美元的折扣。參與了該計劃。

So I think it's important to remember that there are 2 dimensions to it, and we recognize that in our gross margin on the supermarket business and don't flow through on the fuel side because the redemption of those points is tied to when you spend at Kroger in the store online, not tied to specifically the fuel usage. So that's an important factor to remember.

所以我認為重要的是要記住它有兩個維度，我們認識到在超市業務的毛利率中，不要流向燃料方面，因為這些積分的兌換與您在克羅格在網上商店，與燃料使用量無關。所以這是一個需要記住的重要因素。

We believe that the fuel business has sustained improvement in profitability, so we're less focused on the historical trends now because we believe the industry has changed structurally. And we'd expect that to be maintained for us and also because of the strength in our value proposition with the customer. We don't specifically call out details on fuel and total profitability. I would say that actually, broadly speaking, the tailwind on fuel in the fourth quarter largely align with the headwind in LIFO, so the 2 of those pretty much offset each other during the quarter.

我們認為燃料業務的盈利能力持續改善，因此我們現在不太關注歷史趨勢，因為我們認為行業已經發生結構性變化。我們希望為我們維護這一點，也因為我們對客戶的價值主張具有優勢。我們沒有特別提到燃料和總盈利能力的細節。我想說的是，實際上，從廣義上講，第四季度的燃料順風在很大程度上與 LIFO 的逆風一致，因此這兩個在本季度幾乎相互抵消。

One other thing on fuel that our team -- 2 or 3 years ago, we restructured our procurement team in fuel, and they've also made progress relative to the market on cost of goods, which has been helpful for that business as well.

我們團隊在燃料方面的另一件事 - 2 或 3 年前，我們重組了燃料採購團隊，他們在商品成本方面也取得了相對於市場的進展，這對該業務也有幫助。

The next question is from Michael Lasser with UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Michael Lasser。

How much did inflation contribute to IDs in 4Q? And how much do you expect inflation to contribute to IDs in a year ahead? And as part of that, it does look like you're expecting IDs to still be positive in the second half of the year. Does that mean you expect this total number of new occasions in the second half of the year, number of new occasions at home, to remain positive?

第四季度通脹對 ID 的貢獻有多大？您預計未來一年通脹對 ID 的貢獻有多大？作為其中的一部分，看起來您確實期望 ID 在今年下半年仍然是積極的。這是否意味著您預計今年下半年的新場合總數，即在家中的新場合總數，將保持正數？

If you look at -- as Gary mentioned, we would expect inflation in the second half of the year to moderate just because it's cycling the inflation from the second half of this year -- or last year, I guess, now. Overall, as you know, we operate successfully in every operating environment, whether it's inflationary or deflationary. And we're doing everything we can to minimize the impact on our customers.

如果你看一下——正如加里所說，我們預計今年下半年的通脹將放緩，只是因為它正在從今年下半年開始循環通脹——我猜現在是去年。總體而言，如您所知，我們在各種運營環境中都能成功運營，無論是通貨膨脹還是通貨緊縮。我們正在竭盡所能，盡量減少對客戶的影響。

If you look at overall, we would expect the business to continue to grow. And part of that is really the seamless ecosystem. Altogether, what we're finding is we get a bigger part of their overall household spend. We also -- if you look at total households, we had good numbers on total households for the fourth quarter versus 2020 and 2019. And we would -- and what we find is that once we get a new customer, we're able to move them up the loyalty ladder over time because of the experience they get from our associates on the customer experience, the seamless ecosystem, fresh and good value, plus we're able to start personalized rewards for them. So we would expect to be able to move those new customers up the loyalty ladder, which would help -- be helpful in identicals as well. I don't know, Gary, anything you want to add?

如果您從整體上看，我們預計業務將繼續增長。其中一部分實際上是無縫生態系統。總而言之，我們發現我們在他們的整體家庭支出中獲得了更大的一部分。我們還 - 如果你看一下總家庭數，我們在第四季度與 2020 年和 2019 年的總家庭數比較好。而且我們會 - 我們發現，一旦我們有了新客戶，我們就能夠隨著時間的推移，他們從我們的員工那裡獲得的客戶體驗、無縫生態系統、新鮮和良好的價值，以及我們能夠開始為他們提供個性化的獎勵，讓他們在忠誠度階梯上上升。因此，我們希望能夠將這些新客戶提升到忠誠度階梯上，這將有所幫助 - 對相同的客戶也有幫助。我不知道，加里，你想補充什麼嗎？

No, I think you covered it well.

不，我認為你覆蓋得很好。

My follow-up question is, Rodney, the percentage of gross units that are on promotion is still about 500 basis points below where it was prior to the pandemic. And prior to the pandemic, that metric for the industry has been very consistent over time. So why is it that the industry is just going to be less promotional moving forward than it has been in the past?

我的後續問題是，羅德尼，促銷中的總單位百分比仍比大流行前低約 500 個基點。在大流行之前，該行業的指標隨著時間的推移一直非常一致。那麼，為什麼這個行業的促銷活動會比過去少呢？

Yes. Relative to the industry, I wouldn't have as much detail on that. If you look at our revenue, our sales on promotion, it's pretty much very similar today as it was before the pandemic. It's really -- it's something we track every week or whatever. During the pandemic, there were promotions we didn't do just because there were some items you couldn't get product. And obviously, you don't want to promote an item where you don't have enough inventory to support the product. In some cases, that's still the case. But overall, our promotional activity is pretty similar to what it was before the pandemic.

是的。相對於行業，我不會有太多細節。如果你看看我們的收入，我們的促銷銷售額，今天的情況與大流行之前非常相似。真的——這是我們每週或其他什麼時候跟踪的東西。在大流行期間，我們沒有做促銷活動只是因為有些商品您無法獲得產品。顯然，您不想宣傳沒有足夠庫存來支持該產品的商品。在某些情況下，情況仍然如此。但總體而言，我們的促銷活動與大流行之前非常相似。

I think, Michael, just to add that I think that Rodney's comments are really what causes us to believe that when we talk to our customers and look at our data, we feel we're in a very good position relative to the value that customers receiving from Kroger in this environment and our ability to continue to deliver value for our customers and maintain a strong perception as customers continue to evolve into 2022 and beyond.

邁克爾，我想補充一點，我認為羅德尼的評論確實讓我們相信，當我們與客戶交談並查看我們的數據時，我們覺得相對於客戶的價值而言，我們處於非常有利的位置在這種環境下從克羅格那裡獲得收益，以及隨著客戶繼續發展到 2022 年及以後，我們有能力繼續為客戶創造價值並保持強烈的認知。

And one of the things that I think it's important to remember, we would track internally on sales on promotion, not items on promotion. So it's volume weighted as well, I think, is an important point too.

我認為重要的是要記住一件事，我們將在內部跟踪促銷的銷售，而不是促銷的項目。所以我認為它的體積加權也是一個重要的點。

The next question is from Edward Kelly with Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Edward Kelly。

I wanted to ask you about labor because you brought it up on the call. But can you just provide a little bit more color on sort of like what's going on, on the labor front right now? I mean, you have a very strong history of being fair, right? Like I think if we take an objective view here, that seems to be the case. But as we saw with Denver, these renewals now can be costly and there are other big contracts coming up. I guess how has the dialogue been? It does seem like you're poised to see some acceleration of inflation. I wonder if you agree with that and if you can quantify. And then what are you doing to offset that pressure, things like automation, in addition to some of the cost save stuff?

我想問你關於勞動的事，因為你在電話中提到了它。但是，您能否就目前正在發生的事情，在勞工陣線上提供更多色彩？我的意思是，你有很強的公平歷史，對吧？就像我認為，如果我們在這裡採取客觀的看法，情況似乎就是這樣。但正如我們在丹彿看到的那樣，這些續約現在可能代價高昂，而且還有其他大合同即將到來。我猜對話進展如何？看起來你已經準備好看到通脹加速了。我想知道您是否同意這一點，以及您是否可以量化。然後，除了一些節省成本的東西之外，您還採取了哪些措施來抵消這種壓力，比如自動化？

Yes. As you know, when we embarked upon Restock Kroger several years ago, we made the commitment that we would accelerate our associate wages. And as Gary mentioned, now we -- incrementally, it's about $1.2 billion per year that we are investing in supporting our associates. We think supporting our associates is incredibly important. And what we're always trying to do is to make sure that we have solid wages, strong wages and industry-leading benefits, which we do have and making sure that we're keeping food affordable for customers.

是的。如您所知，當我們幾年前開始 Restock Kroger 時，我們做出了我們將提高員工工資的承諾。正如加里所提到的，現在我們 - 逐漸地，我們每年投資大約 12 億美元來支持我們的員工。我們認為支持我們的員工非常重要。我們一直在努力做的是確保我們擁有穩定的工資、豐厚的工資和行業領先的福利，我們確實擁有這些，並確保我們讓客戶能夠負擔得起食品。

And it's a balance that we're always trying to do. Obviously, we work with the unions, but it's -- we want to make sure that our business is sustainable for the long term and we're creating jobs long term and we're creating career opportunities. And if you look at our store directory, 70% started out as an hourly associate. If you look at department heads, almost all started out as hourly part-time associates, and those are things that are incredibly important.

這是我們一直在努力實現的平衡。顯然，我們與工會合作，但我們希望確保我們的業務長期可持續，我們正在長期創造就業機會，我們正在創造職業機會。如果你看一下我們的商店目錄，70% 的人一開始是小時工。如果你看看部門負責人，幾乎所有人都是從小時兼職員工開始的，這些都是非常重要的事情。

So it's obviously a balance. We've strategically, several years ago, decided to invest more in wages because we thought it was important to do. And what we find is, over time, it also reduces turnover. And when you have turnover reduction, obviously, the productivity of somebody that's been working for us for a couple of years is higher than a new hire.

所以這顯然是一種平衡。幾年前，我們戰略性地決定在工資方面進行更多投資，因為我們認為這樣做很重要。我們發現，隨著時間的推移，它也會減少營業額。顯然，當您減少人員流動時，為我們工作了幾年的人的生產力要高於新員工。

It really gets back to the cost saves that Gary and I both talked about. Literally, you're looking for every single thing where you can stock something in a different way because if you save a second across our company, it's about $14 million. So it's -- you're looking for every single thing that you can do anywhere in the store, anywhere in a plant or a warehouse to be able to eliminate waste. And we believe that we have a core competency now on how to do that. And those are things that are allowing us to make the investments in our associate wages. I think, Gary, over the last, what, 4 years, our average hourly rate is up 22%. And we've been able to obviously do that at the same time on significantly lowering our OG&A expense.

這真的回到了加里和我都談到的成本節約上。從字面上看，您正在尋找可以以不同方式存貨的每一件東西，因為如果您在我們公司節省一秒鐘，它大約是 1400 萬美元。因此，您正在尋找可以在商店的任何地方、工廠或倉庫的任何地方做的每一件事，以消除浪費。我們相信我們現在擁有如何做到這一點的核心競爭力。這些都是使我們能夠對員工工資進行投資的東西。我想，加里，在過去的 4 年裡，我們的平均時薪上升了 22%。我們顯然能夠在顯著降低 OG&A 費用的同時做到這一點。

Yes. Maybe just a couple of things to add, Rodney. When Rodney talked about the last 4 years and the investment we've made, I wouldn't think of that as being the end of the journey when we announced our TSR model. We were actually fully expecting, as we look out towards 2025, that we will continue to invest in our associates and our model when we announced the TSR model of 8% to 11% growth. We actually did expect that we would continue to invest not just over '18, '19 and '20 but continue to invest '21 through 2025.

是的。羅德尼，也許只有幾件事要補充。當羅德尼談到過去 4 年和我們所做的投資時，我不認為這是我們宣布 TSR 模型時旅程的終點。實際上，當我們展望 2025 年時，我們完全期待當我們宣布 8% 至 11% 增長的 TSR 模型時，我們將繼續投資於我們的員工和我們的模型。實際上，我們確實希望我們不僅會繼續投資 18 年、19 年和 20 年，還會繼續投資 21 年到 2025 年。

So it's always been something that we contemplated in our model. We kind of felt that this was something that would come. And now admittedly, the last 12 months obviously have changed the landscape a little bit. So I would say we've pulled forward some of that thinking. And we would fully expect within our guidance that we've shared, 2022 will be a higher number in wage investments than 2021 was. So we are fully contemplating that with the guidance that we shared, and we expect that growth in wage to continue. And again, it was fully part of our TSR model.

所以這一直是我們在模型中考慮的東西。我們有點覺得這是會發生的事情。現在不可否認，過去 12 個月顯然已經改變了一些情況。所以我想說我們已經推進了一些這種想法。我們完全期望在我們分享的指導下，2022 年的工資投資數量將高於 2021 年。因此，我們正在充分考慮與我們分享的指導，我們預計工資增長將繼續。再一次，它完全是我們 TSR 模型的一部分。

We'll talk a little bit about tomorrow. But to Rodney's point, one of the reasons that we're increasing our capital investments in 2022 beyond the sort of catch-up of some of the things that were slowed down by COVID is we are going to be investing more in technology. We still feel like as proud as we are of the $1 billion-plus we've saved for the last 4 years, we still think there's a lot of opportunity to use technology even more effectively to take more cost out of the business. And it's one of the reasons that we're accelerating capital because we believe it will help support -- continue to increase efficiency over the next few years as we continue to invest in average hourly rates. And Mary Ellen Adcock will share a little bit more color on that when we see you tomorrow as well.

我們明天再談一點。但就羅德尼而言，我們在 2022 年增加資本投資的原因之一是我們將在技術上進行更多投資，而不是趕上一些因 COVID 放緩的事情。我們仍然為過去 4 年節省的 10 億多美元感到自豪，我們仍然認為有很多機會可以更有效地利用技術來降低業務成本。這也是我們加速資本的原因之一，因為我們相信這將有助於支持——隨著我們繼續投資於平均小時費率，在未來幾年內繼續提高效率。當我們明天見到你時，瑪麗·艾倫·阿德考克也會分享更多的色彩。

Your next question is from Michael Montani with Evercore ISI.

您的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Michael Montani。

The first question I had was just around the ID sales that you reported. I was wondering if you could discuss what kind of cost increases you all were seeing in terms of a percentage and how much you were able to pass through. And then also what your outlook would be for that same basis for 2022?

我的第一個問題是關於你報告的 ID 銷售。我想知道您是否可以討論一下您所看到的成本增加的百分比以及您能夠通過多少。然後你對 2022 年的相同基礎的展望是什麼？

If you look within the quarter, it was pretty consistent. Obviously, you'll have -- in the fourth quarter especially, you'll have some weather that drives it. If you look at so far this quarter, it would look pretty similar to last -- to the fourth quarter on IDs. Overall, on cost increases, for the most part, they were passed through but not every area within the department. So it's really balancing all of the different pieces in terms of cost increases and trying to minimize the impact on the customer.

如果你看這個季度，它是相當一致的。顯然，你會有 - 特別是在第四季度，你會有一些天氣推動它。如果您查看本季度到目前為止，它看起來與上一季度非常相似 - 到第四季度的 ID。總體而言，在成本增加方面，在大多數情況下，它們都通過了，但不是部門內的每個領域。因此，它確實在成本增加方面平衡了所有不同的部分，並試圖最大限度地減少對客戶的影響。

And then I guess just the outlook for '22, like if we look at the U.S. FDA, they're calling for, I think, 2.5% to 3.5% full year inflation for this year. Is that a good benchmark for us to use without any better information, would you say?

然後我猜只是 22 年的前景，就像我們看看美國 FDA 一樣，我認為他們要求今年的全年通脹率為 2.5% 至 3.5%。這是一個很好的基準，我們可以在沒有任何更好信息的情況下使用，你會說嗎？

Well, yes, we would be using the same data source. But we would expect within the year, it would be meaningfully higher in the first half versus the second half. But somebody on Gary's team probably have gotten a PhD on the amount of time that he's spent on trying to estimate inflation. And at the end of the day, you basically end up in that spot.

嗯，是的，我們將使用相同的數據源。但我們預計，在今年上半年，與下半年相比，它會顯著提高。但加里團隊中的某個人可能已經獲得了關於他在試圖估計通貨膨脹上所花費的時間的博士學位。歸根結底，您基本上會到達那個位置。

We would expect SNAP, just a pure number of SNAP households, to be a headwind. But what we find on SNAP is some people switch to buying items with credit card, cash and other things as well. And the other piece of our guidance would reflect in our health and wellness business. There's some third-party plans that weren't profitable that we also are going to move away from or have moved away from that's impacted our number on our guidance as well.

我們預計 SNAP，僅僅是 SNAP 家庭的數量，將成為逆風。但我們在 SNAP 上發現有些人轉而使用信用卡、現金和其他東西購買商品。我們指導的另一部分將反映在我們的健康和保健業務中。有一些沒有盈利的第三方計劃，我們也將遠離或已經遠離，這也影響了我們對我們指導的數量。

The only other thing I would add that -- Rodney shared this earlier in the Q&A, but we are seeing customers tell us that as inflation is certainly higher in food, which obviously we're all focused on, but inflation is obviously higher pretty much everywhere in the economy right now. And actually, whereas maybe a few months ago, customers were telling us they were eating more food at home because of concerns around COVID, some of that shifted more to -- while food at home inflation is higher, actually relative to other inflation and how I need to manage my budget, food at home is more attractive in terms of helping me be able to manage my budget and manage my dollars.

我唯一要補充的是——羅德尼早些時候在問答環節中分享了這一點，但我們看到客戶告訴我們，食品的通貨膨脹率肯定更高，顯然我們都在關注這一點，但通貨膨脹率顯然要高得多現在在經濟的各個地方。實際上，雖然可能幾個月前，顧客告訴我們，由於對 COVID 的擔憂，他們在家吃的食物更多，但其中一些更多地轉移到了——而家庭食品的通貨膨脹率更高，實際上相對於其他通貨膨脹率以及如何我需要管理我的預算，就幫助我能夠管理我的預算和管理我的錢而言，家裡的食物更具吸引力。

So there's a lot of -- I think a lot of factors that are impacting that outlook that we're obviously using the best information we can to forecast and feel good about the guidance that we've shared and our ability to manage different levers if things change. But we recognize our crystal ball isn't perfect and we'll just continue to be dynamic in the way we manage it.

所以有很多 - 我認為有很多因素會影響這一前景，我們顯然正在使用我們可以預測的最佳信息，並對我們分享的指導以及我們管理不同槓桿的能力感到滿意，如果事情會改變的。但我們認識到我們的水晶球並不完美，我們將繼續以我們管理它的方式保持活力。

Great. And just the follow-up question in terms of expense outlook was in light of the $1 billion-plus of gross cost-out, is there a certain kind of ID sales level that you would need probably to leverage that you could discuss? And how much vaccine contribution did you have in '21 that needs to cycle now in '22?

偉大的。考慮到超過 10 億美元的總成本支出，關於支出前景的後續問題是，您是否可能需要利用某種 ID 銷售水平來進行討論？你在 21 年有多少疫苗貢獻需要在 22 年循環？

As Gary mentioned on the vaccines, that is something we factored into the guidance overall and it's just part of the total puzzle. We would also expect some of that to be offset because we're able to provide more of the regular vaccines that we always have. And some of that focus that went on vaccines, we'll be able to acquire additional customers to offset some of that. So all of that is factored into the guidance we gave. On the identical sales, right now, as long as we can continue to get the cost out, we're able to leverage a pretty modest amounts of identical in terms of being able to leverage.

正如加里在疫苗上提到的那樣，這是我們在總體指導中考慮的因素，這只是整個難題的一部分。我們還希望其中一些能夠被抵消，因為我們能夠提供更多我們一直擁有的常規疫苗。而其中一些重點放在疫苗上，我們將能夠獲得更多的客戶來抵消其中的一部分。因此，所有這些都納入了我們提供的指導。在相同的銷售額上，現在，只要我們能夠繼續降低成本，就能夠利用槓桿而言，我們能夠利用相當適度的相同數量。

Yes, there's lots of puts and takes, as you heard us mention in our 2022 guidance overall, and we would expect there to be cost increases, obviously, from our investment in average hourly wage. And we continue to invest in the customer experience. But overall, factoring in all the elements of our model, we would expect to generate leverage and our OG&A rate would improve in 2022 over 2021 based on all the different pieces coming together in our model. So within 2022, specifically with that 2% to 3% IDs, we would expect to be able to improve the OG&A rate in the year.

是的，正如您聽到我們在 2022 年總體指導中提到的那樣，有很多看跌期權，顯然，我們預計平均小時工資的投資會增加成本。我們繼續投資於客戶體驗。但總體而言，考慮到我們模型的所有元素，我們預計會產生槓桿作用，並且我們的 OG&A 率將在 2022 年比 2021 年提高，基於我們模型中的所有不同部分。因此，在 2022 年，特別是 2% 到 3% 的 ID，我們預計能夠提高 OG&A 率。

This will be our last question, and it comes from Ken Goldman with JPMorgan.

這將是我們的最後一個問題，它來自摩根大通的 Ken Goldman。

I'll make it quick. Just to build on Ed's question. Can you elaborate a bit, if possible, on how we should think about the risk of labor this year? I was struck a little bit by how much time Gary spent on the subject and a little bit of the tone. It kind of felt like a warning to investors, frankly. So if there's any data you can provide on what percentage of your workers are up for renegotiation this year or whatever metric is appropriate, that would be great.

我會盡快處理的。只是以 Ed 的問題為基礎。如果可能的話，您能否詳細說明一下我們應該如何考慮今年的勞動風險？加里在這個主題上花了多少時間和一點點語氣讓我有點震驚。坦率地說，這有點像對投資者的警告。因此，如果您可以提供任何數據，說明今年有多少員工需要重新談判，或者任何合適的指標，那就太好了。

Yes. If you look at labor overall, it's something that we're proud. We're one of the largest union employers in the United States. And we're focused on providing additional -- we go in with the ability and assumption that we're going to continue to invest in our associates. And we have industry-leading benefits and we support their ability to come for a job and make it a career by feeding your future, providing tuition reimbursement and other things to help people continue to achieve a career.

是的。如果你從整體上看勞動力，這是我們引以為豪的事情。我們是美國最大的工會雇主之一。我們專注於提供額外的服務——我們有能力和假設我們將繼續投資於我們的員工。我們擁有行業領先的福利，我們通過滿足您的未來、提供學費報銷和其他幫助人們繼續實現職業的東西來支持他們來找工作並使其成為職業的能力。

So we're always balancing all of the pieces. So our associates are critical to our future success. We invest in our associates and I want to make sure that we have a strong, sustainable business so that they're able to support their families as well. And there's nothing more inspiring than when you're in a store and somebody talks about -- the other day, I was at Ralph's and somebody was talking about how they were able to send 4 of their kids to college and 1 was a doctor and 1 was an attorney. And those are the kind of things that is incredibly inspiring to hear our associates talk about.

所以我們總是平衡所有的部分。因此，我們的員工對我們未來的成功至關重要。我們投資於我們的員工，我想確保我們擁有強大、可持續的業務，以便他們也能夠養家糊口。沒有什麼比當你在商店裡有人談論時更鼓舞人心的了——前幾天，我在 Ralph's，有人談論他們如何能夠送 4 個孩子上大學，其中 1 個是醫生1是律師。聽到我們的同事談論這些事情會非常鼓舞人心。

And Ken, I think just one thing to add. We are obviously trying to listen to feedback carefully, and we've got a sense that there was a desire to hear more about our overall strategy. As we shared in the prepared comments, we feel really good about the investments we have made and are continuing to make in our associates. And we have a team that's very experienced in managing those relationships. But we wanted to make sure, as we had some feedback that you'd like more color, that we try and listen to investor feedback and wanted to make sure we addressed that in the prepared remarks.

肯，我想只有一件事要補充。顯然，我們正在嘗試仔細聽取反饋，並且我們感覺到人們希望了解更多關於我們整體戰略的信息。正如我們在準備好的評論中所分享的那樣，我們對我們已經進行並且正在繼續對我們的員工進行的投資感到非常滿意。我們擁有一支在管理這些關係方面非常有經驗的團隊。但我們想確保，因為我們有一些反饋表明您想要更多顏色，我們嘗試聽取投資者的反饋，並希望確保我們在準備好的評論中解決了這個問題。

Thanks, Ken. Thank you all for attending today's call. We look forward to engaging with all of you again tomorrow at our business update in Florida. As I always do, I would like to conclude our call by taking a moment to address our associates who many listen in. I'm extremely proud of the things we have accomplished this year and we celebrated many significant milestones. Thank you on behalf of all our team for making Kroger better every day. I'm so proud of you.

謝謝，肯。感謝大家參加今天的電話會議。我們期待明天在佛羅里達州的業務更新中再次與大家互動。像往常一樣，我想在結束我們的電話會議時花一點時間向我們的許多傾聽的員工講話。我為我們今年所取得的成就感到非常自豪，我們慶祝了許多重要的里程碑。代表我們所有的團隊感謝您讓克羅格每天都變得更好。我很為你驕傲。

As America's grocer, Kroger is taking action to show our support and solidarity with Ukraine. Today, we are sending emergency food assistance to support refugees through a grant from the Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation to the UN World Food Program Ukraine Emergency Fund. We will match all gifts made by our associates and customers up to $250,000. That concludes our earnings -- fourth quarter earnings call. Thank you. And as I said before, we look forward to seeing many of you tomorrow. Take care.

作為美國的雜貨商，克羅格正在採取行動表明我們對烏克蘭的支持和聲援。今天，我們通過克羅格公司的贈款發送緊急糧食援助以支持難民。 零飢餓 |聯合國世界糧食計劃署烏克蘭緊急基金的零廢物基金會。我們將匹配我們的員工和客戶製作的所有禮物，最高可達 250,000 美元。我們的收益到此結束——第四季度收益電話會議。謝謝你。正如我之前所說，我們期待著明天見到你們中的許多人。小心。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連接。