Leslie's Inc (LESL) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the fiscal third-quarter 2025 earnings conference call for Leslie's. (Operator Instructions) And as a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay later today on the company's Investor Relations website.

大家下午好，歡迎參加 Leslie's 2025 財年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次電話會議正在錄音，並將於今天晚些時候在公司投資者關係網站上重播。

I would now like to turn the call over to Elizabeth Eisleben, Senior Vice President, Investor and Public Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

現在我想將電話轉給投資者和公共關係高級副總裁伊麗莎白·艾斯萊本 (Elizabeth Eisleben)。請繼續，女士。

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us to discuss our fiscal third quarter ended June 28. I'm joined today by Jason McDonell, our Chief Executive Officer; and Anthony Iskander, our Interim Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Following their prepared remarks, we will open the call to address your questions.

下午好，感謝您加入我們討論截至 6 月 28 日的第三財季。今天與我一起出席的還有我們的執行長 Jason McDonell 和我們的臨時財務長兼財務主管 Anthony Iskander。在他們準備好發言之後，我們將開始回答你們的問題。

As a reminder, our comments today may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed. Please refer to our most recent 10-K, 10-Q and other SEC filings for more information. Additionally, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings press release and on our Investor Relations website.

提醒一下，我們今天的評論可能包括前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受風險和不確定性的影響。實際結果可能與討論的結果有重大差異。請參閱我們最新的 10-K、10-Q 和其他 SEC 文件以獲取更多資訊。此外，我們也將參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標。在我們的收益新聞稿和投資者關係網站上可以找到這些指標與最直接可比較的 GAAP 指標的對帳。

Now I will turn the call over to Jason.

現在我將把電話轉給傑森。

Thanks, Elisabeth. I want to begin by thanking our entire team for their hard work and resilience during what proved to be a challenging third quarter. As we face persistent macro pressures, unusual weather patterns across key markets and an increasingly competitive landscape, the team responded with urgency, focus and a relentless commitment to transform Leslie's.

謝謝，伊麗莎白。首先，我要感謝我們整個團隊在充滿挑戰的第三季所表現出的辛勤工作和堅韌的精神。當我們面臨持續的宏觀壓力、主要市場的異常天氣模式和日益激烈的競爭環境時，團隊會以緊迫感、專注力和不懈的承諾來改變 Leslie's。

Before we discuss our third quarter performance and actions we're taking to accelerate our transformation, I want to welcome Amy College, who joined Leslie's last month as our Chief Merchandising and Supply Chain Officer. In addition to her significant retail, merchandising and general management experience, Amy brings a unique blend of strategic vision and operational expertise that I am confident will help us accelerate our progress and position Leslie's for long-term profitable growth.

在我們討論第三季的業績和為加速轉型而採取的行動之前，我想歡迎艾米·科爾科利 (Amy College)，她上個月加入萊斯利 (Leslie) 擔任我們的首席行銷和供應鏈官。除了豐富的零售、銷售和整體管理經驗外，艾米還帶來了獨特的戰略眼光和營運專業知識，我相信這將有助於我們加快進步，並使萊斯利實現長期盈利增長。

As you saw from our preliminary results from the fiscal third quarter, we faced significant challenges in both our top and bottom line that were below our expectations. The much cooler temperatures and significant precipitation across our top geographies disrupted the peak pool season, resulting in quarterly sales down 12% compared to the prior year quarter.

正如您從我們第三財季的初步業績中看到的那樣，我們的營收和淨利潤都面臨著低於預期的重大挑戰。我們主要地區的氣溫大幅下降且降雨量較大，擾亂了游泳池旺季，導致季度銷售額與去年同期相比下降了 12%。

In addition, later in the quarter, we saw heightened competitive pressure in certain categories. I will discuss these in more detail shortly. As customers delayed pool openings, we saw a meaningful reduction in our residential traffic in stores of nearly 11% in the quarter.

此外，在本季後期，我們發現某些類別的競爭壓力加劇。我很快就會更詳細地討論這些問題。由於顧客推遲開放泳池，我們發現本季門市的住宅客流量大幅減少了近 11%。

Moving to our third quarter results. As mentioned in prior quarters, we are aiming to perform while we transform. During this quarter, our team acted with urgency to offset headwinds we faced as a result of the softer top line and mitigate the bottom-line impacts where possible, including making tough but necessary decisions around cost control and strategically deferring select investments to protect our financial performance.

轉向我們的第三季業績。正如前幾季所提到的，我們的目標是在轉型的同時實現績效。在本季度，我們的團隊採取緊急行動，以抵消因營業收入疲軟而面臨的不利因素，並儘可能減輕對利潤的影響，包括在成本控制方面做出艱難但必要的決定，並策略性地推遲選擇性投資以保護我們的財務業績。

As I mentioned briefly at the start of this call, we had significant headwinds to retail traffic and residential sales in the quarter. With that said, through the expertise of our store team and improvement in reliability, we continue to deliver growth on conversion rate, which improved approximately 70 basis points versus the prior year period.

正如我在本次電話會議開始時簡要提到的那樣，本季我們的零售流量和住宅銷售面臨巨大的阻力。話雖如此，透過我們商店團隊的專業知識和可靠性的提高，我們繼續實現轉換率的成長，與去年同期相比提高了約 70 個基點。

In addition, utilizing our AccuBlue water test technology, after a water test is performed in store, conversion rate increased by more than 550 basis points versus the prior year period. While sales were challenged through targeted efforts on growth and expansion, we are improving our customer proposition with the Pro segment. I am confident that our team's disciplined approach to enhancing relationships with existing Pro customers while also expanding to new customers can help us return to growth in this business.

此外，利用我們的AccuBlue水質檢測技術，在店內進行水質檢測後，轉換率與去年同期相比提高了550多個基點。雖然透過有針對性地努力實現成長和擴張，銷售面臨挑戰，但我們正在透過 Pro 細分市場改善我們的客戶主張。我相信，我們團隊在加強與現有 Pro 客戶關係的同時，也拓展新客戶的嚴謹方法可以幫助我們恢復業務成長。

Importantly, the team has already surpassed the full year goal for new Pro partner contracts, increasing our total Pro partner contracts by 12% in the first three quarters compared to the prior year period. As we look at our top line in more detail, it is important to look at both category and regional performance to fully understand the impact that weather had in the quarter.

重要的是，該團隊已經超越了新的專業合作夥伴合約的全年目標，與去年同期相比，前三個季度我們的專業合作夥伴合約總數增加了 12%。當我們更詳細地審視我們的營收時，重要的是要同時關注類別和區域表現，以充分了解天氣對本季的影響。

Specific to category performance, chemical sales, including both core and specialty chemicals were down nearly 15% as a direct result of the cooler temperatures experienced across much of the United States. For instance, with pool water temperatures below 70 degrees, this has a direct impact on the chemical needs of a pool. Specifically, the demand for specialty chemicals such as algaecide is significantly reduced. In the quarter, algaecide and water clarifiers were down 22% and 19%, respectively.

具體到類別表現，由於美國大部分地區氣溫下降，包括核心化學品和特種化學品在內的化學品銷售額下降了近 15%。例如，當泳池水溫低於 70 度時，這會直接影響泳池的化學需求。具體而言，對除藻劑等專用化學品的需求大幅減少。本季度，除藻劑和淨水劑的銷量分別下降了 22% 和 19%。

Moving to regional performance. The impact of cooler temperatures was most evident in the non-Sunbelt markets, predominantly in our North region. Historically, the North represents a large portion of our third quarter sales due to the concentration of peak demand in this region.

轉向區域表現。氣溫下降的影響在非陽光地帶市場最為明顯，主要是我們的北部地區。從歷史上看，由於高峰需求集中在北方地區，因此北方佔據了我們第三季銷售額的很大一部分。

Of note, during the two weeks surrounding Memorial Day weekend, which is historically the height of the season for this region, sales were down approximately 30% as temperatures were below average. With the start of what is historically peak season being disrupted in most areas of the country, the pricing dynamics in our industry changed late in our third quarter. We believe the aggressive pricing action on key SKUs late in the quarter was a result of competitors working to reduce excess inventories on hand throughout the industry.

值得注意的是，陣亡將士紀念日週末前後兩週，由於氣溫低於平均水平，該地區的銷售額下降了約 30%，而這兩週歷來是該地區的旺季。隨著全國大部分地區歷史旺季的開始受到干擾，我們行業的定價動態在第三季末發生了變化。我們認為，本季末對主要 SKU 採取的激進定價行動是整個產業的競爭對手努力減少過剩庫存的結果。

This had a direct impact on our residential sales as we closed the quarter, and we believe led to residential share loss. With all that said, the unique industry dynamics at play this season related to weather and the inventory levels in the market clearly highlighted price value opportunities in some of our categories. Therefore, we are acting with urgency and conducting deep customer research to thoughtfully address these opportunities while working to recapture and grow Leslie's share.

這對我們本季末的住宅銷售產生了直接影響，我們認為這導致了住宅市場份額的損失。綜上所述，本季與天氣和市場庫存水準有關的獨特產業動態清楚地凸顯了我們某些類別的價格價值機會。因此，我們緊急採取行動並進行深入的客戶研究，以周到地應對這些機會，同時努力重新奪回並擴大 Leslie 的份額。

Now shifting to transform and our strategic initiatives underway. As we have said before, we are acting with urgency to transform our business. We remain centered on four strategic pillars: customer centricity, convenience, asset utilization and cost optimization. Despite top line challenges in the quarter, we are beginning to see encouraging signs that the foundational changes we are making are beginning to take hold.

現在我們正在轉向轉型，我們的策略舉措正在進行中。正如我們之前所說，我們正在緊急採取行動來轉變我們的業務。我們始終圍繞著四大策略支柱：以客戶為中心、便利性、資產利用率和成本優化。儘管本季面臨營收挑戰，但我們開始看到令人鼓舞的跡象，表明我們正在進行的基礎性變革開始發揮作用。

Let me walk you through some of our early progress under each pillar as well as additional opportunities we have identified to help accelerate profitable growth in our business. Starting with our pillars of customer centricity and convenience. As we introduced last quarter, we are moving forward with the launch of same-day delivery service with our Uber partnership.

讓我向您介紹我們在每個支柱下取得的一些早期進展，以及我們發現的其他有助於加速業務獲利成長的機會。從以客戶為中心和便利性這兩個支柱開始。正如我們在上個季度所介紹的那樣，我們正在與 Uber 合作推出當日送達服務。

Our team has been working diligently on the technology integration and are excited for our test market to go live, furthering our transformation as an omnichannel retailer. With a firm commitment to improve customer experience and Leslie's overall value proposition, we successfully launched our enhanced Pool Perks loyalty program in the third quarter.

我們的團隊一直在努力進行技術整合，並對我們的測試市場上線感到興奮，進一步推動我們作為全通路零售商的轉型。我們堅定致力於改善客戶體驗和 Leslie 的整體價值主張，並於第三季成功推出了增強型 Pool Perks 忠誠度計畫。

Through the program enhancements, we are improving our targeted marketing efforts as well as personalized communications to build deeper relationships with our customers. We expect this tiered program to help increase share of wallet with existing customers while attracting new pool owners to Leslie's. Importantly, the introduction of tiers provides a cost savings while allowing us to reinvest in marketing initiatives to drive traffic and incentivize customers to increase their loyalty with Leslie's.

透過該計劃的改進，我們正在改善我們的目標行銷工作以及個人化溝通，以與我們的客戶建立更深的關係。我們期望這個分級計畫能夠幫助增加現有客戶的錢包份額，同時吸引新的泳池業主來到 Leslie's。重要的是，引入分級制度可以節省成本，同時使我們能夠重新投資於行銷計劃，以推動流量並激勵客戶提高對 Leslie's 的忠誠度。

In addition to our longer-term customer centricity pillar, we recognize the urgency with which we must act and improve traffic trends at Leslie's. As the experts in pool care, coupled with our focus on personalization, we are providing custom offers on our quality products while highlighting our free water testing capabilities through our AccuBlue technology. This includes leveraging the expertise of our store team members as well as our zero-party data capability to connect directly with customers to increase traffic.

除了我們長期的以客戶為中心的支柱之外，我們還認識到必須採取行動並改善 Leslie's 的客流量趨勢的緊迫性。作為泳池護理專家，我們專注於個人化，為我們的優質產品提供客製化服務，同時透過我們的 AccuBlue 技術突出我們的免費水質檢測能力。這包括利用我們商店團隊成員的專業知識以及我們的零方資料能力直接與客戶聯繫以增加流量。

Further, through our detailed customer work, which includes a mix of qualitative and quantitative research on a localized level, we have identified and began implementing regional offers to meet the needs of their specific pool market. I'm pleased with the team's work in this critical area and look forward to sharing more on the improvement of our traffic trajectory.

此外，透過我們詳細的客戶工作（包括本地化的定性和定量研究），我們已經確定並開始實施區域優惠，以滿足其特定泳池市場的需求。我對團隊在這個關鍵領域的工作感到滿意，並期待分享更多關於改善我們交通軌蹟的資訊。

Moving to the next pillar of asset utilization. We have seen continued benefits from our local fulfillment centers. We believe they are improving in-stock rates and accelerating fulfillment speed, especially in high-volume markets. Importantly, they also provide us the flexibility to better manage inventory and reduce working capital. Our team remains committed to optimizing inventory across our asset base, including the continued focus on our never-out SKUs that are most critical for serving both residential and professional customers.

轉向資產利用的下一個支柱。我們已經看到了在地履行中心持續帶來的好處。我們相信他們正在提高庫存率並加快履行速度，特別是在大批量市場。重要的是，它們還為我們提供了更好地管理庫存和減少營運資金的靈活性。我們的團隊始終致力於優化整個資產基礎的庫存，包括繼續專注於對服務住宅和專業客戶至關重要的永不缺貨的 SKU。

In stores in the third quarter, we achieved more than 99% in-stock levels in our top-selling never-out SKUs. This is a 140-basis point improvement compared with the prior year period and is a key factor in our ability to improve conversion rates.

在第三季度，我們的門市最暢銷的永不缺貨 SKU 的庫存水準達到了 99% 以上。與去年同期相比，這提高了 140 個基點，也是我們提高轉換率的關鍵因素。

Importantly, while improving in-stock rates, we continue to reduce inventory by 9.6% versus the prior year period. Through further progress in the third quarter, we are increasing our previous estimate for inventory reduction this year by $5 million and now expect to end the year at least $20 million lower than the prior year-end. We are confident this will help improve cash flow and support our top capital priority of reducing debt.

重要的是，在提高庫存率的同時，我們繼續將庫存減少 9.6%，與去年同期相比。透過第三季的進一步進展，我們將今年庫存減少的先前估計提高了 500 萬美元，現在預計今年年底的庫存減少將比去年年底減少至少 2000 萬美元。我們相信這將有助於改善現金流並支持我們減少債務的首要資本重點。

Finally, as we look to optimize all assets and drive efficiency, in the third quarter, we began the process of closing our warehouse in Denver, which we expect to be completed in the coming weeks. Once this is closed, we believe we can seamlessly transfer shipping demand to other distribution centers and reduce annual costs by approximately $800,000. As mentioned in our prerelease, our comprehensive operational and strategic review includes the productivity assessment of all assets across Leslie's footprint. Looking forward, we expect to share more on the optimization of all assets to help improve our omnichannel efficiency. including plans to reduce our fixed cost base, which is the primary driver of our deleverage.

最後，為了優化所有資產並提高效率，我們在第三季開始關閉位於丹佛的倉庫，預計在未來幾週內完成。一旦解決這個問題，我們相信我們可以將運輸需求無縫轉移到其他配送中心，並減少每年約 80 萬美元的成本。正如我們在預發布中所提到的，我們全面的營運和策略審查包括對 Leslie 足跡範圍內所有資產的生產力評估。展望未來，我們希望分享更多關於所有資產優化的信息，以幫助提高我們的全通路效率，包括降低固定成本基礎的計劃，這是我們去槓桿的主要驅動力。

In addition, this review includes the evaluation of other core and noncore assets to help optimize productivity, drive efficiency and maximize profitability. We look forward to sharing more on the optimization of assets to position Leslie's for long-term growth. Now on our fourth pillar of cost optimization. I'm pleased with the early progress. We have already identified savings in indirect procurement and are continuing to evaluate our entire asset base for further efficiency opportunities.

此外，此次審查還包括對其他核心和非核心資產的評估，以幫助優化生產力、提高效率和實現盈利能力最大化。我們期待分享更多有關資產優化的信息，以幫助 Leslie 實現長期成長。現在我們來談談成本優化的第四個支柱。我對早期的進展感到滿意。我們已經確定了間接採購中的節省，並正在繼續評估我們的整個資產基礎以尋找進一步的效率機會。

We brought on additional external resources in the quarter that are helping us supplement internal talent and accelerate this critical initiative to identify and remove excess direct and indirect costs from the business. While the quarter presented challenges, we are taking action swiftly and decisively. We remain focused on executing our strategy with discipline, continuing to improve conversion, optimizing inventory and leaning into digital capabilities.

我們在本季引入了額外的外部資源，幫助我們補充內部人才並加速這項關鍵舉措，以識別和消除業務中多餘的直接和間接成本。儘管本季面臨挑戰，但我們正在迅速果斷地採取行動。我們將繼續專注於嚴格執行我們的策略，繼續提高轉換率，優化庫存並依靠數位化能力。

In addition, our robust strategic and operational review is focused on assessing the performance across our business. Our direct and indirect cost structure as well as other initiatives we believe helps deliver improvements in working capital and profitability. We are committed to the acceleration of this review and plan to share details on additional actions we're taking following the completion of the review in the coming months.

此外，我們強有力的策略和營運審查專注於評估我們整個業務的績效。我們相信，我們的直接和間接成本結構以及其他措施有助於提高營運資金和獲利能力。我們致力於加快此次審查，並計劃在未來幾個月審查完成後分享我們將採取的其他行動的詳細資訊。

Most importantly, we remain committed to maximizing cash flow, reducing debt and building a stronger Leslie's for long-term profitable growth. We expect to share more on each of these areas discussed today, including the corrective actions and expected financial benefits for the business in our November earnings call. There is significant opportunity ahead for Leslie's, and we look forward to sharing the path forward with enhanced transparency.

最重要的是，我們仍然致力於最大化現金流、減少債務並打造更強大的 Leslie's 以實現長期獲利成長。我們希望在 11 月的財報電話會議上分享更多關於今天討論的各個領域的信息，包括糾正措施和預期的業務財務收益。Leslie's 的未來面臨著巨大的機遇，我們期待以更高的透明度分享前進的道路。

Now I will turn the call over to Tony.

現在我將把電話轉給托尼。

Thanks, Jason, and good afternoon. I want to reiterate what you heard from Jason and express my gratitude to the team for their diligence in the quarter, taking action to mitigate costs despite the difficult sales environment.

謝謝，傑森，下午好。我想重申傑森所說的內容，並對團隊在本季的勤奮工作表示感謝，儘管銷售環境艱難，他們仍採取行動降低成本。

We reported net sales of $500 million in our third quarter, down 12.2% versus the prior year period, primarily driven by weather-related headwinds, reduced traffic and heightened competitive pressure, as you heard from Jason.

我們報告第三季淨銷售額為 5 億美元，比去年同期下降 12.2%，主要原因是天氣相關的不利因素、客流量減少和競爭壓力加劇，正如 Jason 所說。

Gross profit was $197.9 million compared with $228.8 million in the prior year. Gross margin in the quarter declined 62 basis points year-over-year, primarily driven by inventory adjustments and occupancy costs, partially offset by improved product margin and lower distribution expenses.

毛利為 1.979 億美元，而上年為 2.288 億美元。本季毛利率年減 62 個基點，主要原因是庫存調整和入住成本，但產品利潤率提高和分銷費用降低部分抵消了這一影響。

SG&A was $129.6 million compared with $131.1 million in the third quarter of the prior year. The year-over-year reduction was primarily due to variable expenses associated with lower sales, including store labor and e-commerce-related fees. On a rate basis, SG&A as a percent of sales were elevated, primarily due to a softer top line.

銷售、一般及行政費用為 1.296 億美元，去年同期第三季為 1.311 億美元。年比下降主要是由於銷售額下降導致的變動費用，包括店面人工費和電子商務相關費用。從費率來看，銷售、一般及行政費用佔銷售額的百分比上升，主要是因為營業收入疲軟。

Turning to working capital. We ended the quarter with inventory of $273.2 million, which was down approximately $29 million or 9.6% year over year. Our precision inventory strategy and continued investment in analytics, coupled with our LFCs are helping to build healthier inventory positioning, which we believe will continue to benefit cash flow.

轉向營運資金。本季末我們的庫存為 2.732 億美元，年減約 2,900 萬美元，即 9.6%。我們的精準庫存策略和對分析的持續投資，加上我們的 LFC，正在幫助建立更健康的庫存定位，我們相信這將繼續有利於現金流。

As we highlighted in our pre-release last week, we paid the revolver balance of $20 million in full subsequent to quarter end. We currently have no borrowings under our revolving credit facility and reducing debt remains our top capital allocation priority. In addition, as Jason mentioned, we are increasing our inventory reduction commitment and now expect to reduce inventory by at least $20 million year over year with additional runway into 2026.

正如我們上週在預發布中所強調的那樣，我們在季度末之後全額支付了 2000 萬美元的循環信貸餘額。我們目前沒有循環信貸額度下的借款，減少債務仍然是我們資本配置的首要任務。此外，正如 Jason 所提到的，我們正在增加庫存減少承諾，現在預計庫存將比去年同期減少至少 2000 萬美元，並在 2026 年之前增加額外的跑道。

Before turning to balance of year expectations, I want to share an update on our cash and liquidity. We ended the quarter with $42.7 million in cash. And after repaying the remaining outstanding balance on the revolver, we remain confident in our ability to execute the transformation of Leslie's, and we believe we have sufficient liquidity to enable it.

在談到年度平衡預期之前，我想先分享我們的現金和流動性的最新情況。本季末我們的現金為 4,270 萬美元。在償還了循環信貸的剩餘未償餘額後，我們仍然對實現 Leslie's 轉型的能力充滿信心，並且我們相信我們有足夠的流動資金來實現這一目標。

Based on year-to-date performance and current business trends, we now expect full year sales of $1.210 billion to $1.235 billion. Net loss of $57 million to $65 million, adjusted net loss of $31 million to $39 million and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $50 million to $60 million. As a reminder, our fiscal 2025 includes a 53rd week and is included in our expectations provided today. We expect capital spend of approximately $30 million.

根據年初至今的業績和當前的業務趨勢，我們預計全年銷售額將達到 12.10 億美元至 12.35 億美元。淨虧損為 5,700 萬美元至 6,500 萬美元，調整後淨虧損為 3,100 萬美元至 3,900 萬美元，調整後 EBITDA 在 5,000 萬美元至 6,000 萬美元之間。提醒一下，我們的 2025 財年包括第 53 週，並且包含在我們今天提供的預期中。我們預計資本支出約為 3000 萬美元。

Now, I will turn the call back to Jason for closing thoughts.

現在，我將把電話轉回給傑森，請他發表最後的演講。

Thanks, Tony. We recognize that we are operating in a tough environment, but I remain confident in our path forward. Our team continues to rise to the challenge, taking ownership, driving change and serving our customers with care. As we move into the final quarter of the fiscal year, we remain focused on executing with discipline, maximizing peak season performance and driving incremental progress across our transformation agenda.

謝謝，托尼。我們認識到我們正處於艱難的環境中，但我對我們的前進道路仍然充滿信心。我們的團隊不斷迎接挑戰，承擔責任，推動變革，並竭誠為客戶服務。隨著我們進入財政年度的最後一個季度，我們仍然專注於嚴格執行，最大限度地提高旺季業績，並推動我們的轉型議程取得逐步進展。

Thank you for your continued support and time today. We will now open the line for your questions.

感謝您今天持續的支持和時間。我們現在將開放熱線回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Kate McShane, Goldman Sachs.

（操作員指示）高盛的凱特·麥克沙恩。

I wanted to ask a little bit more about what happened when you started to see the promotions pick up in the third quarter. Did you not meet the promotional environment when competitors started to get more aggressive on price? And if you did, just what did that look like?

我想進一步詢問一下，當您看到第三季促銷活動開始回升時，發生了什麼事情。當競爭對手開始在價格上採取更激進的措施時，您是否沒有遇到促銷環境？如果你這樣做了，那看起來是什麼樣子的呢？

And do you have any commentary on what quarter-to-date trends look like? And if you've seen any improvement since the third quarter?

您對本季迄今的趨勢有何評論？自第三季以來您是否看到任何改善？

Yeah. Thanks, Kate, for the question. Overall, in the quarter, as I mentioned, one of the key things that we identified and we saw going through the quarter is the impact of weather in the quarter and obviously, the impact of the excess inventories when we have a bit of a disruptive weather season. In the quarter, overall, on a price per pound basis, we made investments throughout the quarter mid-single digits in price. but we also saw some aggressive pricing still in the marketplace.

是的。謝謝凱特提出這個問題。總體而言，正如我所提到的，在本季度，我們發現並觀察到的一個關鍵因素是本季度天氣的影響，顯然，當我們遇到一些破壞性天氣季節時，過剩庫存的影響也很大。在本季度，總體而言，以每磅價格計算，我們在整個季度中以個位數的價格進行了投資。但我們也看到市場上仍然存在一些激進的定價。

So we still have an opportunity for us as we look forward to take a really good look at the strategic pricing approach as to how we look at the business going forward. It's one of those items that we are putting into -- putting a specific plan against.

因此，我們仍然有機會，我們期待著認真審視策略定價方法，以了解我們如何看待未來的業務。這是我們正在考慮的項目之一——制定具體計劃。

And I mentioned some of that in the prerecorded comments. We've done obviously some good amount of research and discipline and understanding, looking at our zero-party data and how do we be more personalized with each one of our customers and then being very local and regional in how we do it.

我在預先錄製的評論中提到了其中的一些內容。我們顯然做了大量的研究、訓練和理解，研究了我們的零方數據，以及如何為每個客戶提供更個人化的服務，然後在如何做到這一點時更加本地化和區域化。

As it goes for in this quarter so far, we're seeing an improvement in terms of traffic. We've actually -- but that being said, it's not where we need it to be and an improvement versus traffic versus -- the versus quarter three, but it is not where we need it to be. So we are putting those actions in place and looking to try to -- looking to change the trajectory of our traffic going forward. And the team is very committed to that and acting with urgency and diligence.

從本季至今的情況來看，我們看到流量方面有所改善。事實上，我們已經——但話雖如此，它還沒有達到我們需要的水平，與第三季度相比，流量有所改善，但還沒有達到我們需要的水平。因此，我們正在採取這些行動，並試圖改變我們未來的交通軌跡。團隊對此非常投入，並採取緊急和勤勉的行動。

Jonathan Matuszewski, Jefferies.

喬納森·馬圖謝夫斯基，傑弗里斯。

My first one was a follow-up just on Kate's question. I think you mentioned the mid-single-digit price investment on the chemical side. I wanted to better understand what you're seeing in terms of competitive pressures maybe on the equipment side of the business. That's my first question.

我的第一個問題是針對凱特的問題的後續問題。我認為您提到了化學品方面的中等個位數價格投資。我想更了解您在業務設備方面所面臨的競爭壓力。這是我的第一個問題。

Yes, from an equipment standpoint, we were down in the quarter, obviously, with traffic being down as we articulated specifically on the residential side of the business. From an equipment standpoint, we sort of saw a difference in two areas from an equipment performance standpoint.

是的，從設備的角度來看，本季我們的業績明顯下滑，正如我們在住宅業務方面所具體闡述的那樣，客流量也出現了下滑。從設備的角度來看，我們從設備性能的角度看到了兩個方面的差異。

One is our core equipment basis was down mid-single digits. We were -- where we saw the total equipment being down similar to where we were in residential number was mainly through a lot of the automatic pool cleaners and some of those other areas where we saw some declines.

一是我們的核心設備基礎下降了中等個位數。我們看到整體設備數量下降的情況與住宅數量下降的情況類似，主要是因為許多自動泳池清潔器和其他一些我們看到數量下降的領域。

So not as challenged as chemicals, as we talked about in our pre-comments, mainly because of weather. But that being said, the traffic obviously did hurt us on some of those core elements in equipment.

因此，不像化學品那樣具有挑戰性，正如我們在前言中談到的，主要是因為天氣。但話雖如此，交通顯然確實對我們的一些核心設備造成了損害。

Understood. And then just a question on gross margin. Obviously, some of these results are being impacted by the promotional intensity in the industry. But maybe if you could just give us a sense of kind of the recovery in gross margin going forward as we look out to next year.

明白了。然後只是一個關於毛利率的問題。顯然，這些結果中的一些受到了行業促銷強度的影響。但也許您能讓我們了解一下明年毛利率的復甦情況嗎？

I know you're not ready to provide guidance for the fiscal year, but just buckets that we should think about in terms of helping the trajectory of the current gross margin move towards historical norms over time.

我知道您還沒有準備好為本財年提供指導，但我們應該考慮一些方面，以幫助當前毛利率的軌跡隨著時間的推移向歷史標準邁進。

Yes. Jonathan, this is Tony. So a couple of things on that. So one, as we saw and we've talked about in the past, we have a fixed cost deleverage that we deal with in this business. And as sales declined, we saw just a decline in our overall gross margin rate.

是的。喬納森，這是東尼。關於這一點，有幾件事需要說明。因此，正如我們所看到並在過去討論過的，我們在這個業務中處理的是固定成本去槓桿。隨著銷售額的下降，我們的整體毛利率也隨之下降。

What we're doing now is we've talked a lot over the last several quarters around our asset utilization pillar. Jason made mention of that during our prepared remarks. We do know that we have costs to take out in this business, and we will address those as we continue to assess the overall network of our company.

我們現在正在做的是，過去幾季我們圍繞著資產利用率支柱進行了大量討論。傑森在我們準備好的發言中提到了這一點。我們確實知道我們在這項業務中需要承擔成本，我們將在繼續評估公司的整體網絡時解決這些問題。

Yes. So as we articulated earlier in prior elements, we've had 2 key pillars that were critical to us in our transformation. One was the asset utilization pillar. The other one is the cost optimization pillar. And what's critical about those items is we believe that we have a significant amount of fixed cost deleverage within the P&L.

是的。正如我們之前在前面的要素中闡明的那樣，我們有兩個對我們的轉型至關重要的關鍵支柱。一是資產利用支柱。另一個是成本優化支柱。這些項目的關鍵在於，我們相信我們在損益表中擁有大量的固定成本去槓桿。

And therefore, we need to make sure that we're putting actions in place to do it. And that's why we mentioned in our prepared remarks, the strategic review that we're doing, both with our internal resources, but also supplementing with external resources to help build that build that plan and act on that plan and work quickly to put those actions in place, and we look forward to be sharing that in the November meeting.

因此，我們需要確保採取行動來實現這一目標。這就是為什麼我們在準備好的發言中提到，我們正在進行戰略審查，不僅利用我們的內部資源，還補充外部資源，以幫助制定該計劃並根據該計劃採取行動，並迅速將這些行動落實到位，我們期待在 11 月的會議上分享這一點。

Steven Forbes, Guggenheim.

史蒂文福布斯，古根漢美術館。

Maybe just a higher-level question, right? As you look back on the third quarter performance here, I guess, externally, looking at the performance versus others that have reported, I think the question right is, like is the business executing, I guess, in the field at the level it should? Or is there opportunity to sort of improve field level execution?

也許只是一個更高層次的問題，對嗎？當您回顧第三季的業績時，我想，從外部來看，與其他已報告的業績相比，我認為正確的問題是，業務執行情況是否達到了應有的水平？或是是否有機會改善現場級別的執行？

Like where are the biggest areas to sort of close the market share gap? Or as you sort of said before, is it very much just price value proposition?

哪些領域最能縮小市佔率差距？或者正如您之前所說的，這僅僅是價格價值主張嗎？

Yeah. Thanks for the question. One of the key pieces I'm very pleased with is the team's response to the executional excellence in the marketplace, challenged with some key areas that we were putting in place. So we asked the team to make sure that we drive for a much better in-stock performance, and we've been in such a great position all year in terms of our level of in-stocks at greater than 99% around our never-out performance.

是的。謝謝你的提問。令我非常滿意的關鍵因素之一是團隊對市場執行卓越性的回應，以及我們正在實施的一些關鍵領域的挑戰。因此，我們要求團隊確保我們努力實現更好的庫存表現，就庫存水準而言，我們全年都處於非常有利的地位，庫存水準超過 99%，從未缺貨。

Our conversion rates in the stores and then also with water test and post the water test conversion, that's all in the store from an execution standpoint, and I feel very good about that as well as I'm really pleased as we continue to monitor NPS scores and how we are connecting with customers and get feedback from customers, I think that's -- we're doing well there.

我們在商店的轉換率，以及水測試和水測試後的轉換率，都是從執行的角度來看在商店進行的，我對此感到非常滿意，而且我很高興我們繼續監控 NPS 分數以及我們如何與客戶聯繫並獲得客戶的反饋，我認為這是 - 我們在那裡做得很好。

For us, to your point, Steve, as we -- for us is we need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to really change the trajectory of our traffic. And we believe the combination of truly the value equation by looking at it as a numerator and a denominator.

對我們來說，正如你所說，史蒂夫，對我們來說，我們需要確保我們正在盡一切努力真正改變我們的交通軌跡。我們相信，透過將其視為分子和分母，其組合才是真正的價值方程式。

Obviously, the numerator is how do we make sure that we're communicating the great values that we provide to -- for Leslie's to our customers in a very meaningful way, such as the expertise that each one of those store members is bringing at store level, the quality of our water testing, our in-store experience, the product quality that we have and at the same time, taking a strategic pricing approach.

顯然，分子是我們如何確保以非常有意義的方式向我們的客戶傳達我們為 Leslie's 提供的巨大價值，例如每個商店成員在商店層面帶來的專業知識、我們的水質檢測質量、我們的店內體驗、我們的產品質量，同時採取戰略定價方法。

And the strategic pricing approach is where it is maybe more competitive on some SKUs, we're going to take a full basket approach. And that's one of the benefits from an execution standpoint of our field sales team because they can really -- as we're looking to make sure that we're really competitive on some key SKUs, they can also help in terms of building that basket.

而策略定價方法可能在某些 SKU 上更具競爭力，我們將採取全籃子方法。從執行角度來看，這是我們現場銷售團隊的優勢之一，因為他們可以真正地——當我們希望確保我們在一些關鍵 SKU 上真正具有競爭力時，他們也可以在建立購物籃方面提供幫助。

So it's a total value proposition, and I'm really pleased with the execution. We just have to make sure that we're converting that to increase in traffic.

所以這是一個完全的價值主張，我對它的執行感到非常滿意。我們只需要確保將其轉換為流量的增加。

And maybe following up on that value proposition comment, right, we're sort of in a net inflationary environment for goods pretty broadly. Clearly, you made the investment in chemicals, right, during the quarter, pricing-wise. But any sort of way to frame up how your Leslie's outlook for average unit cost or product cost is going to trend here versus sort of the need for investment?

或許根據價值主張的評論，我們整體上處於商品淨通膨環境中。顯然，從定價角度來看，您在本季度對化學品進行了投資。但是，有沒有什麼方法可以說明 Leslie 對平均單位成本或產品成本的展望將如何變化，以及投資需求如何變化？

I mean, are there other funding mechanisms? Or is the funding for the investment solely going to be in the back of Leslie's.

我的意思是，還有其他融資機制嗎？或投資資金將完全由 Leslie 提供。

Hi, Steven, it's Tony. There's a couple of things in that. So one, I'll go back to some of our strategic pillars, specifically our asset utilization. As we focus in on our fixed cost and the high deleverage that we've seen, we believe that will give us the benefit in certain areas to -- that will benefit price that will help the value proposition while we continue to grow the business.

嗨，史蒂文，我是托尼。其中有幾件事。首先，我將回顧我們的一些策略支柱，特別是我們的資產利用率。當我們專注於固定成本和我們所看到的高去槓桿率時，我們相信這將為我們帶來某些領域的好處 - 這將有利於價格，這將有助於價值主張，同時我們將繼續發展業務。

Shaun Calnan, Bank of America.

美國銀行的肖恩卡爾南 (Shaun Calnan)。

I just wanted to focus on market share a little bit here. So sales were down a little more than we expected even with the weather headwinds and some of that could be geography. But do you think pool owners are just moving away from DIY towards the Pro? Or are you seeing any changes in buying patterns from the DIY customer?

我只是想在這裡稍微關註一下市場佔有率。因此，即使受到天氣不利因素的影響，銷售額仍比我們預期的下降幅度要大一些，其中一部分原因可能是地理位置原因。但是您是否認為泳池業主只是從 DIY 轉向專業化？或者您看到 DIY 客戶的購買模式發生了任何變化？

I do not -- so from a market share standpoint that you're asking in terms of the development of Pro or DIY, there's nothing from a marketplace telling me that there's a difference in migration between those two channels necessarily. For us, in particular, I'm pleased with the progress the team is making on our Pro business.

我沒有——所以從你所問的 Pro 或 DIY 發展的市場份額角度來看，市場上沒有任何證據表明這兩個管道之間的遷移存在差異。對我們來說，我對團隊在專業業務上的進展感到特別高興。

If you remember the last couple of quarters, I mentioned that we were putting a specific focus in that area where we had 100 Pro stores out there in the marketplace, and we're making sure that we're going after Pro customers in all 1,000 stores. We've increased our Pro contracts by about 12%, and the team is making really good efforts with that. And then it links to our strategic priorities around building the -- actually shifting some of the stores to LFCs so that we can make sure that our never-outs are good for our Pro customer and our in-stocks are there.

如果您還記得前幾個季度，我曾提到過，我們特別關注市場上有 100 家 Pro 商店的領域，並且我們確保在所有 1,000 家商店中都爭取到 Pro 客戶。我們的專業合約增加了約 12%，團隊為此做出了巨大的努力。然後，它與我們圍繞建設的戰略重點相關——實際上將一些商店轉移到 LFC，以便我們能夠確保我們的永不缺貨對我們的專業客戶有利，並且我們的庫存充足。

So we feel good there. It's the residential side that we believe is just -- is our area of opportunity. And that's the spot that we are making sure we're putting the action plans in place with and literally leveraging our Pool Perks program. We have over 85% of our transactions are through our loyalty program. We have the ability to get very customized in terms of our offers.

所以我們在那裡感覺很好。我們相信住宅領域正是我們的機會領域。這正是我們要確保實施行動計劃並真正利用我們的 Pool Perks 計劃的地方。我們超過 85% 的交易都是透過我們的忠誠度計劃完成的。我們有能力提供高度客製化的服務。

So I'm not seeing a difference in Pro versus DIY there, but for us, our actions are clear and one that we're focused on with urgency.

因此，我沒有看到 Pro 和 DIY 之間的區別，但對我們來說，我們的行動很明確，而且我們迫切地關注這一點。

Okay. Got it. And then the guidance implies that 4Q sales are down about 7% at the midpoint. Can you just talk about some of those drivers? And is that where sales are currently trending?

好的。知道了。該指引暗示第四季銷售額中位數下降約 7%。您能談談其中的一些驅動因素嗎？這就是目前的銷售趨勢嗎？

Or do you expect them to improve or get worse throughout the summer?

或者你預計他們整個夏天的表現會有所改善還是會變得更糟？

Hey, Shaun, it's Tony. So our current expectations for the full year contemplate what we are seeing in the fourth quarter and opportunity that we can capture within the quarter as well. So obviously, we're not pleased with our performance, but we are focused in on the fundamentals that we need to for the balance of the year, many of which Jason mentioned in his prepared remarks.

嘿，肖恩，我是東尼。因此，我們目前對全年的預期是考慮到第四季度的情況以及我們在本季可以抓住的機會。顯然，我們對自己的表現並不滿意，但我們會把重點放在今年剩餘時間所需的基本面，傑森在他的準備好的發言中提到了很多。

Ryan Merkel, William Blair.

瑞安·默克爾、威廉·布萊爾。

I wanted to start with a big picture question. What is your forecast for the pool retail industry sales in '25? I'm just trying to get a sense of how much share loss there might be this year.

我想從一個宏觀問題開始。您對 25 年泳池零售業的銷售額有何預測？我只是想了解今年的份額可能會損失多少。

Yes. Ryan, it's Tony. Good to talk to you again. So we've looked at a couple of things. So for us, in terms of market share, you heard Jason's comment just a second ago.

是的。瑞安，我是托尼。很高興能再次和你交談。所以我們研究了幾件事。因此，對於我們來說，就市場份額而言，您剛剛聽到了傑森的評論。

But really, as we look at the market, we looked at it from both the weather analytics and impact and then the value proposition that Jason mentioned. And we've modeled the expectations for the balance of the year around both of those, what we see in our current business trends and what we're expecting in terms of just pools in general for the proximity to our stores over the next several weeks.

但實際上，當我們觀察市場時，我們會從天氣分析和影響以及 Jason 提到的價值主張來觀察。我們根據這兩點對今年剩餘時間的預期進行了建模，即我們在當前業務趨勢中所看到的，以及我們對未來幾週內靠近我們商店的游泳池的總體預期。

Okay. So just to clarify, your view is that the industry sales this year are down almost 10%, high single digits?

好的。所以澄清一下，您認為今年行業銷售額下降了近 10%，或者說是高個位數？

No, no. If you look at ours and you take in the commentary that we put in based on where we saw weather impacts versus value price proposition, it would be more single -- low single digit -- low to mid-single-digit decline, not 10% or more.

不，不。如果您查看我們的報告，並考慮到我們根據天氣影響與價值價格主張所做的評論，您會發現降幅將更大，從個位數（低個位數）到中個位數，而不是 10% 或更多。

Got it. Okay. And then you mentioned reducing costs, you're cutting labor hours. How much cost do you plan to take out in '25? And you mentioned closing the DC. Are you planning store closures?

知道了。好的。然後您提到降低成本，減少工時。您計劃在 25 年節省多少成本？您提到要關閉配送中心。您打算關閉其他門市嗎？

Yes. So we reacted really well. Our team took the opportunity and reacted when we saw sales decline in the quarter, similar to Q2 as well. And we are not contemplating store closures in this year and those are not built into our current expectations or guide that we've provided. What we've provided is a very rigorous view of what we expect to achieve for the balance of the year.

是的。所以我們的反應非常好。當我們看到本季銷售額下降時，我們的團隊抓住了機會並做出了反應，與第二季的情況類似。我們今年沒有考慮關閉門市，而且這些也沒有納入我們目前的預期或我們提供的指導中。我們對今年剩餘時間的預期目標給了非常嚴謹的看法。

There's the additional $5 million to $10 million that we've talked about in cost optimization, and we expect to achieve those beginning next year.

我們談到了在成本優化方面額外投入 500 萬至 1000 萬美元，我們預計明年就能實現這一目標。

Simeon Gutman, Morgan Stanley.

西緬古特曼，摩根士丹利。

This is Lauren Ng on for Simeon. Our first question is around leverage. Your leverage ratio is now in the low double digits. Just curious how this is maybe impacting your ability to execute on the plan you want and any thoughts around there?

我是勞倫吳 (Lauren Ng)，為 Simeon 表演。我們的第一個問題是關於槓桿。您的槓桿率現在處於兩位數的低點。只是好奇這會如何影響您執行計劃的能力以及您對此有什麼想法？

Yes. Lauren, so a couple of things on that. So we are focused in on our top capital allocation priority, which is reducing our debt. To do so, we have to work on many of the strategic pillars that we are working with urgency, including our cost optimization and including our network optimization through our asset utilization pillars. We are focused on those, as you saw during Q3, while we are not pleased with the results, we are pleased with our team's ability to react quick to take out excess costs where we did not need to.

是的。勞倫，關於這一點，我有幾點想說。因此，我們專注於最重要的資本配置重點，即減少債務。為此，我們必須緊急進行多項策略支柱工作，包括成本優化以及透過資產利用支柱進行網路優化。我們專注於這些，正如您在第三季度看到的那樣，雖然我們對結果並不滿意，但我們對我們的團隊能夠快速做出反應以消除不必要的多餘成本的能力感到滿意。

We continue to focus in other areas. Jason also provided in his prepared remarks, the areas where we bought in extra help to help achieve these and accelerate these initiatives. And we believe in these initiatives under our four strategic pillars to drive long-term growth for the business.

我們繼續關注其他領域。傑森還在準備好的演講中介紹了我們在哪些領域獲得了額外的幫助，以幫助實現這些目標並加速這些舉措。我們相信，四大策略支柱下的這些舉措將推動業務的長期成長。

And I think building off the prior question and on this question is in regards to us making sure that why we put those four key strategic pillars out there is we need to make sure that we are doing the due diligence and taking this with urgency on the review around some of those key items, especially in the areas of asset utilization and in cost optimization. That being said also around direct change in the trajectory in traffic. We understand the importance of improving the flow-through from a P&L standpoint to EBITDA as well as the importance, obviously, to deliver against the top capital priority of paying down the debt. We look forward to sharing a road map and a view of this in November in our November meeting.

我認為，基於上一個問題，這個問題是關於我們要確保我們提出這四個關鍵戰略支柱的原因，我們需要確保我們正在盡職盡責，並緊急審查其中一些關鍵項目，特別是在資產利用和成本優化領域。這也直接改變了交通軌跡。我們了解從損益表角度改善 EBITDA 流通量的重要性，以及明顯實現償還債務這項最高資本優先事項的重要性。我們期待在 11 月的會議上分享路線圖和觀點。

Yes. And Lauren, one thing I would see on top of that is we continue to maintain sufficient liquidity to meet all of our liabilities. We have -- like we said, we repaid the $20 million of the revolver subsequent to Q3, and we began the year with $109 million. Couple that with a full revolver availability as needed, we believe we have the liquidity we need to execute on this transformation agenda.

是的。勞倫，我最希望看到的是，我們將繼續保持足夠的流動性來償還所有債務。正如我們所說的，我們在第三季之後償還了 2000 萬美元的循環信貸，而今年年初我們的循環信貸額為 1.09 億美元。再加上根據需求提供的全額循環信貸，我們相信我們擁有執行此轉型議程所需的流動性。

Okay. Great. That's helpful. And our follow-up is, are you seeing any supply constraints? And are you getting the inventory you want?

好的。偉大的。這很有幫助。我們的後續問題是，您是否看到任何供應限制？您得到想要的庫存了嗎？

Just any color around this?

周圍有什麼顏色嗎？

We've had minimal in terms of what we've been doing. Anything that you see in regards to the commitments we're making regarding our inventory has been something with the specific efforts that we are making in the market -- in the field and with our type of organization as being inventory optimization -- from an inventory optimization standpoint. So I'm really proud of the teams. The teams have had the challenge of how do we improve in-stocks at a great rate, at the same time, continue to drive inventory optimization. And as Tony mentioned, we were down in the quarter, I think, 9.6% in inventory, down $29 million.

就我們所做的工作而言，我們做得很少。您所看到的有關我們對庫存所做的承諾都與我們在市場上所做的具體努力有關——在現場以及從庫存優化的角度來看，我們的組織類型是庫存優化。所以我真的為這些團隊感到驕傲。團隊面臨的挑戰是如何快速提高庫存，同時繼續推動庫存優化。正如東尼所提到的，我認為本季我們的庫存下降了 9.6%，下降了 2900 萬美元。

And then in addition, we just moved up our -- how much inventory reduction we're going to do on the year from $15 million to $20 million. That has not -- that has to do with purposeful actions here at Leslie's versus anything external in terms of supplier fill.

此外，我們還將今年的庫存削減計劃從 1500 萬美元提高到了 2000 萬美元。這與 Leslie 的有目的的行動無關，而是與供應商填補方面的任何外部因素有關。

Justin Kleber, Baird.

賈斯汀·克萊伯，貝爾德。

irst one for me. Just I know weather was not helpful during the quarter, particularly in these northern markets. So can you comment on how sales performed in these year-round markets like the Sunbelt region, where weather was presumably less of an issue for you?

對我來說是第一個。我只是知道本季的天氣狀況並不好，特別是在這些北方市場。那麼，您能否評論一下陽光地帶等全年市場（天氣對您來說可能不是太大的問題）的銷售表現？

There's -- as mentioned in the prepared remarks and as you know, is that the North was obviously much cooler in temperature as you even got through Memorial Day. What we even found in some of the Sunbelt region is we saw cooler temperatures than usual in a variety of different key locations in the Sunbelt as well. So we did get improved performance in some of the key Sunbelt regions.

正如準備好的演講中所提到的，而且正如你所知，即使在陣亡將士紀念日期間，北方的氣溫也明顯要涼爽得多。我們甚至在陽光地帶的部分地區發現，該地區各個不同關鍵位置的氣溫也比平常低。因此，我們確實在一些主要的陽光地帶地區取得了業績提升。

That being said, water temperatures were not where they normally were, and that did impact chemicals as well in some of those regions as well. So it wasn't enough to offset the challenges in the North.

話雖如此，水溫並不像往常那麼高，這也對某些地區的化學物質產生了影響。因此這還不足以抵銷北方面臨的挑戰。

But that being said, the team is working diligently right now to make sure that we're doing everything we can for our customer base. We're reaching out to those lapsed users or those lapsed customers from a Leslie standpoint, and we have the capabilities to do it. So that's what we have in action right now, and we have those plans in action now.

但話雖如此，團隊目前正在努力工作，以確保我們為客戶群盡一切努力。我們正在從萊斯利的角度接觸那些流失的用戶或流失的客戶，我們有能力做到這一點。這就是我們現在正在採取的行動，我們現在正在實施這些計劃。

Okay. And then just trying to square the implied fiscal 4Q guide with the comments around traffic improving in July. If I back out the extra week from 4Q, the guidance seems to imply a similar level of comp decline. And I wouldn't think weather has been a headwind in July.

好的。然後嘗試將隱含的第四季度財政指南與七月份交通改善的評論相協調。如果我從第四季度中剔除額外的一周，那麼指導意見似乎意味著類似程度的薪酬下降。我認為七月的天氣不會是不利的。

So I'm just trying to understand, are you planning the business just assuming no change for fiscal 3Q? Or have you not really seen much of a pickup? It just was a little bit unclear to me in terms of what you're seeing quarter-to-date.

所以我只是想了解一下，您是否只是假設第三季財報沒有變化就規劃業務？或者你真的沒看過皮卡嗎？就本季迄今所看到的情況而言，我有點不清楚。

Yes. Just for clarity, the one piece I want to make sure and then I'll pass it to Tony is just from a traffic standpoint so far in the quarter in terms of your question, we're seeing improvements versus the prior quarter. And as I mentioned, it's still an area of change that we need to require. So I want to make sure that, that's clear. That's something we're working against. But I'll pass it to Tony for the rest of the question for sure.

是的。為了清楚起見，我想確認的一點是，然後我會把它傳遞給托尼，從本季度到目前為止的流量角度來看，就您的問題而言，我們看到與上一季度相比有所改善。正如我所提到的，這仍然是我們需要要求改變的領域。所以我想確保這一點是清楚的。我們正在努力反對這種現象。但我肯定會將其餘問題轉交給東尼。

Yes. So to clarify that, if you peel the 53rd week from the guide in the assumed midpoint, there is a continued decline year-over-year, but it is not a continued growth versus Q3 -- I'm sorry, decline versus Q3 either. Yes. We expect -- we actually expect it to improve in Q4.

是的。因此需要澄清的是，如果從假設的中點指南中剝離出第 53 週，就會發現同比繼續下降，但與第三季度相比並不是繼續增長——對不起，也不是下降。是的。我們預計—我們實際上預計第四季度情況會有所改善。

David Bellinger, Mizuho.

瑞穗的戴維·貝林格。

First one, even if we look back a few quarters and absent all these weather discrepancies across the country, is there sort of a wide band of store performance where some of the top-performing regions versus the bottom performing regions has widened out to some degree.

首先，即使我們回顧幾個季度，並且不考慮全國各地的天氣差異，商店業績是否存在較大的波動，其中一些業績最好的地區與業績最差的地區之間的差距在某種程度上已經擴大。

Just help us understand what the potential is for some of these lower-run stores to improve over time and catch up to sort of just the average across the whole chain.

只需幫助我們了解這些低營業額商店隨著時間的推移而改進的潛力，並趕上整個連鎖店的平均水平。

Good question. One of the things that I'm based on with the team is how we look at the store performance on a perpetual basis. The team does a really good, detailed analysis of that as we're working across -- in addition, what I'm pleased with is the -- as I mentioned earlier, the level of store performance and the focus around the key trends of the controllables that the teams are executing against.

好問題。我與團隊合作的原則之一就是我們如何持續關注商店的表現。在我們開展工作時，團隊對此進行了非常好的、詳細的分析——此外，令我滿意的是——正如我之前提到的，商店的績效水平以及團隊正在執行的可控因素的關鍵趨勢的重點。

As part of our strategic review that we are doing, we are obviously looking and reviewing the entire footprint that we have as we think about what the future of Leslie's is from being an omnichannel player, including our stores and our distribution centers to evaluate their performance and to go deep on their performance, especially through this year, as you mentioned.

作為我們正在進行的策略評估的一部分，我們顯然正在審視和審查我們所擁有的整個足跡，思考 Leslie's 的未來將如何成為全通路參與者，包括我們的商店和配送中心，以評估他們的表現並深入了解他們的表現，特別是今年的表現，正如您所說。

And I look forward to sharing more about that in November as we look at that because asset utilization and making sure we're getting most out of our assets is such a critical element for us to make sure that we're improving our gross margin, obviously improving EBITDA and then paying down the debt. So hopefully, that helps.

我期待在 11 月分享更多相關信息，因為資產利用率和確保我們最大限度地利用資產對於我們確保提高毛利率、明顯提高 EBITDA 並償還債務至關重要。希望這能有所幫助。

Yes. Got it. And then just the next logical question here. You mentioned some of these inventory optimization. I think the $5 million of cost outs coming next year.

是的。知道了。接下來是下一個合乎邏輯的問題。您提到了一些庫存優化。我認為明年的成本支出將達到 500 萬美元。

Just curious as to why we haven't seen a more formal cost-cutting program in place. I know you mentioned not touching the store base for now. But is that something we can expect that [Webwood] comes out with a more formal cost-cutting outlook from here?

只是好奇為什麼我們沒有看到更正式的成本削減計劃。我知道您提到暫時不觸及商店基礎。但是，我們是否可以期待 [Webwood] 從現在起提出更正式的成本削減前景？

Yes, really good question. I think the -- first and foremost, from an asset base, I think it's important, especially on the stores. Stores are critical cash-generating assets, and this is such a critical time of the year for us in quarter three and quarter four as we're going through those.

是的，這確實是個好問題。我認為——首先，從資產基礎來看，這很重要，尤其是在商店方面。商店是重要的現金產生資產，對我們來說，第三季和第四季是一年中的關鍵時刻，我們正在經歷這些。

As we get -- as we are doing this operational and strategic review. Some of those -- obviously, two critical key pillars that we've identified in asset utilization and cost optimization are areas of where we've brought in both -- actually have a combination of internal resources as well as supplementing with external resources to help and review and then bring some of those thoughts or actions that you're suggesting or mentioning is that we're going to bring some of those forward in the November meeting. So I look forward to sharing those at that time.

正如我們所得到的——正如我們正在進行這項營運和策略審查一樣。其中一些 — — 顯然，我們在資產利用率和成本優化中確定的兩個關鍵支柱是我們引入的領域 — — 實際上結合了內部資源以及補充外部資源來幫助和審查，然後提出您建議或提到的一些想法或行動，我們將在 11 月的會議上提出其中的一些。所以我期待到時候分享這些。

Thank you all for the time today. That was our last question, I believe, (inaudible) so we appreciate your support. We recognize it was a challenging quarter, and we're working hard to turn around the trajectory of the business. Have a nice afternoon.

感謝大家今天的寶貴時間。我相信這是我們的最後一個問題（聽不清楚），因此我們感謝您的支持。我們意識到這是一個充滿挑戰的季度，我們正在努力扭轉業務軌跡。祝您下午愉快。

Thank you very much, Ms. Eisleben. And again, ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's third quarter 2025 Leslie's conference call. Again, thanks so much for joining us, and we wish you all a great day. Goodbye.

非常感謝您，艾斯萊本女士。女士們、先生們，今天的 2025 年第三季 Leslie 電話會議到此結束。再次感謝您的參與，祝福大家有個愉快的一天。再見。