億滋國際 (MDLZ) 2018 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Mondelez International First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is scheduled to last about 1 hour, including remarks by Mondelez management and the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

各位來賓，歡迎參加億滋國際2018年第一季財報電話會議。本次電話會議預計持續約1小時，包括億滋管理階層致詞及問答環節。 （操作說明）

I'd now like to turn the call over to Mr. Shep Dunlap, Vice President, Investor Relations for Mondelez. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我將把電話交給億滋國際投資者關係副總裁謝普‧鄧拉普先生。請您發言，先生。

Thank you. Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us. With me today are Dirk Van de Put, our Chairman and CEO; and Brian Gladden, our CFO.

謝謝。下午好，感謝各位的到來。今天陪同我出席的還有我們的董事長兼執行長德克·范德普特先生，以及我們的財務長布萊恩·格拉登先生。

Earlier today, we sent out our press release and presentation slides, which are available on our website, mondelezinternational.com/investors.

今天早些時候，我們發布了新聞稿和演示文稿，這些內容可在我們的網站 mondelezinternational.com/investors 上找到。

During this call, we will make forward-looking statements about the company's performance. These statements are based on how we see things today. Actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the cautionary statement and risk factors contained in our 10-K and 10-Q filings for more details on our forward-looking statements.

在本次電話會議中，我們將就公司績效做出前瞻性陳述。這些陳述是基於我們目前的判斷。由於風險和不確定性，實際結果可能與這些陳述有重大差異。有關前瞻性陳述的更多詳情，請參閱我們提交的10-K和10-Q文件中包含的警示性聲明和風險因素。

Some of today's prepared remarks include non-GAAP financial measures. Today, we will be referencing our non-GAAP financial measures unless otherwise noted. You can find the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations within our earnings release and at the back of the slide presentation.

今天準備的發言稿中部分內容涉及非公認會計準則（非GAAP）財務指標。除非另有說明，我們今天將使用非GAAP財務指標。您可以在我們的獲利報告中以及幻燈片簡報的末尾找到GAAP與非GAAP的調節表。

And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Dirk.

接下來，我將把電話交給德克。

Thank you, Shep. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us.

謝謝你，謝普。下午好，感謝你加入我們。

I'm pleased to say that 2018 is off to a good start. We have improving top line momentum as well as continued margin and EPS expansion. Specifically, we delivered an organic net revenue growth of 2.4%, which was underpinned by positive volume growth and pricing. We also benefited from the timing of Easter and Chinese New Year. In addition, several of our Power Brands performed well, including Cadbury Dairy Milk, Oreo and Milka. Each was up mid- to high single digits. On the bottom line, our adjusted operating income margin expanded to 16.7%, driven by lower SG&A costs and productivity savings, while the adjusted EPS increased nearly 10% at constant currency.

我很高興地宣布，2018 年開局良好。我們的營收成長動能強勁，利潤率和每股盈餘也持續提升。具體而言，我們實現了 2.4% 的有機淨營收成長，這主要得益於銷售成長和價格策略的最佳化。此外，復活節和春節的銷售旺季也為我們帶來了一定的收益。同時，我們的幾大主力品牌表現優異，包括吉百利牛奶巧克力、奧利奧和妙卡，都實現了中高個位數的成長。在獲利方面，由於銷售、管理及行政費用降低以及生產效率提升，我們的調整後營業利潤率增長至 16.7%，而按固定匯率計算，調整後每股收益增長了近 10%。

We are also encouraged by snacking category growth, especially in emerging markets where we generate about 40% of our net revenue. While we certainly have opportunities for improvement, we're moving in the right direction with competitive advantages that set us apart from many of our peers: first, we have a strong stable of iconic brands; second, our geographic footprint is favorably balanced, with about 3/4 of our revenues coming from outside of North America; and third, we maintain leading positions in snacking, where global category growth trends are improving. With these powerful assets, I remain confident that our company is well positioned to succeed.

零食品類的成長也令我們倍感鼓舞，尤其是在新興市場，我們約40%的淨收入都來自這些市場。儘管我們仍有提升空間，但我們正朝著正確的方向前進，並擁有諸多競爭優勢，使我們從眾多同行中脫穎而出：首先，我們擁有眾多標誌性品牌；其次，我們的地域佈局均衡，約四分之三的收入來自北美以外地區；第三，我們在全球零食品類增長趨勢日益改善的背景下，保持著領先地位。憑藉這些強大的優勢，我對公司未來的成功充滿信心。

As I outlined at CAGNY in February, I believe the key to unlocking more value for shareholders is based on a couple of simple concepts. First, we need to put the consumer at the center of everything we do. That means we need to evolve our understanding of when and why consumers snack and how we best deliver on those needs, and second, we must execute with excellence every day.

正如我二月在紐約消費者權益大會（CAGNY）上所闡述的，我認為為股東創造更多價值的關鍵在於兩個簡單的理念。首先，我們需要將消費者置於一切工作的中心。這意味著我們需要不斷加深對消費者何時以及為何吃零食的理解，以及如何才能最好地滿足這些需求；其次，我們必須每天都做到卓越。

Over the past few years, our focus has been on significant margin improvement through restructuring, and as we've implemented changes, we have opportunities to improve how we function on a day-to-day basis. These 2 simple mandates are critical to delivering our 2018 plan, and they will underpin the strategic framework to deliver further sustainable growth over the long term that we will talk about in September.

過去幾年，我們一直致力於透過重組大幅提升利潤率。隨著各項變革的實施，我們也迎來了提升日常營運效率的機會。這兩項簡單的任務對於實現我們的2018年計畫至關重要，它們將為我們9月份即將討論的、旨在實現長期可持續成長的策略框架奠定基礎。

So let me now illustrate with a few examples from the quarter where we're winning in the marketplace. I'll start with Europe where we delivered excellent results in both biscuits and chocolates, driven by strong volume mix.

現在讓我舉幾個本季我們在市場上成功的例子來說明。首先是歐洲市場，我們憑藉著強勁的銷售組合，在餅乾和巧克力領域都取得了優異的業績。

Across the region, we continue to build our fast-growing chocobakery platform which is up more than 20%. Chocobakery is a franchise that uniquely leverages our strength because it lives at the crossroads between our iconic chocolates and biscuit brands. Combining Milka or Cadbury chocolate with Oreo cookies or Ritz crackers is a consumer proposition that is hard to beat. In addition, our European team executed well on our Easter plans and expanded our gifting and premium platforms in many key markets.

在整個區域內，我們持續發展快速成長的巧克力烘焙平台，成長率超過20%。巧克力烘焙是一項獨特的特許經營業務，它巧妙地融合了我們標誌性的巧克力和餅乾品牌，充分發揮了我們的優勢。將Milka或吉百利巧克力與奧利奧餅乾或Ritz餅乾結合，為消費者提供了難以匹敵的美味體驗。此外，我們的歐洲團隊也出色地完成了復活節計劃，並在許多重點市場中拓展了禮品和高端產品平台。

Switching to the U.K. Our chocolate business grew double digits, and here also, our chocobakery platform continued to shine, supported by the launch of Cadbury Freddo biscuits.

轉戰英國市場，我們的巧克力業務實現了兩位數的成長，而且，在吉百利 Freddo 餅乾的推出支援下，我們的巧克力烘焙平台也繼續大放異彩。

In Russia, our business was up mid-teens, with strong results both in biscuits and in chocolates. In fact, our chocolate business recently achieved the #1 position in this growing market. It was fueled by recent Alpen Gold Dark and Milka Dark new product launches which increased our market share by nearly 3 percentage points.

在俄羅斯，我們的業務成長了15%左右，餅乾和巧克力業務都表現強勁。事實上，我們的巧克力業務最近在這個蓬勃發展的市場中榮登榜首。這主要得益於近期推出的Alpen Gold Dark和Milka Dark兩款新品，使我們的市佔率提升了近3個百分點。

I also want to highlight the great progress of our Cocoa Life sustainable sourcing program which is especially important to many of our consumers in Europe. We know that as we grow our business, we can also grow the positive impact have on people and on the planet, and Cocoa Life is a great example of doing exactly that.

我還想重點強調我們「可可生活」永續採購項目的巨大進展，這對我們在歐洲的許多消費者來說尤其重要。我們深知，隨著業務的成長，我們也能擴大對人類和地球的正面影響，「可可生活」計畫正是這一理念的絕佳例證。

Cocoa Life is a holistic and integrated program that not only has helped to increase cocoa yields but it's also helping farmers in cocoa communities achieve sustainable livelihood. By the end of last year, we reached more than 120,000 cocoa farmers in nearly 1,100 communities in 6 origin markets, and what's more, 35% of our cocoa is now sustainably sourced. So just last week, we announced that our Milka brand in Europe will join Cocoa Life with chocolate tablets displaying the Cocoa Life logo starting from August. Milka will now join other brands that contain sustainably sourced Cocoa Life cocoa, including Cadbury Dairy Milk in the U.K. and Ireland, Côte d'Or in Belgium and France, and Freia and Marabou in the Nordics, and Oreo cookies across Europe.

「可可生活」是一個全面全面的項目，它不僅幫助提高了可可產量，還幫助可可種植社區的農民實現了可持續的生計。截至去年底，我們已涵蓋六大原產地市場近1,100個社區的12萬多名可可種植者，更重要的是，我們35%的可可豆都來自永續來源。就在上週，我們宣布，自8月起，歐洲的Milka品牌將加入「可可生活」項目，推出帶有「可可生活」標誌的巧克力片。 Milka將與其他使用永續來源「可可生活」可可豆的品牌一起，包括英國和愛爾蘭的吉百利牛奶巧克力、比利時和法國的Côte d'Or、北歐的Freia和Marabou，以及遍布歐洲的奧利奧餅乾。

In addition to Europe, our emerging markets also performed well this quarter, building on the positive trends from the second half of last year. Volumes increased and we gained market share in several important markets. And once again, India was a standout, with revenue up double digits behind strong volume gains. We also increased distribution across the country and coupled that with improved in-store execution and a number of successful new product launches such as Cadbury 5Star and Lickables, which all drove market share gains. And biscuit growth also continued to be strong which was led by Oreo.

除了歐洲市場，我們的新興市場本季也表現出色，延續了去年下半年的好動能。銷售成長，我們在多個重要市場提升了市場佔有率。印度市場再次表現突出，在強勁的銷售成長推動下，營收實現了兩位數成長。我們擴大了在印度的分銷網絡，並改進了店內執行，同時成功推出了一系列新產品，例如吉百利5星巧克力和Lickables巧克力，這些都推動了市場份額的成長。餅乾業務的成長也持續強勁，其中奧利奧餅乾的銷售成長尤為顯著。

In China, we delivered mid-single-digit growth, bolstered by improved sales execution, a good Chinese New Year and strong results from our recent Oreo relaunch. In addition, China's e-commerce net revenues doubled in the quarter. This contributed to another quarter of healthy growth in our global e-commerce net revenues. They were up more than 40%.

在中國，我們實現了中等個位數的成長，這得益於銷售執行力的提升、良好的春節銷售業績以及近期奧利奧產品重新上市的強勁表現。此外，中國電商淨收入在本季翻了一番。這推動了我們全球電商淨收入連續第二季保持穩健成長，增幅超過40%。

South East Asia delivered its 10th consecutive quarter of growth, up high single digits. It was led by a strong performance in Indonesia, driven by Oreo innovation and route-to-market expansion.

東南亞市場連續第十個季度實現成長，增幅接近兩位數。印尼市場表現強勁，主要得益於奧利奧的創新和市場通路的拓展，帶動了整體成長。

And in Latin America, we delivered mid-single-digit growth in Mexico, led by strength in candy, while Brazil biscuits improved, driven by success in our chocobakery business with products such as our new Lacta cookies.

在拉丁美洲，我們在墨西哥實現了中等個位數的成長，這主要得益於糖果業務的強勁表現；而巴西的餅乾業務也有所改善，這主要得益於我們巧克力烘焙業務的成功，例如我們新推出的 Lacta 餅乾等產品。

However, these highlights were tempered by our performance in North America. We acknowledge the challenging dynamic in the market, as you're hearing from other CPG companies, but I would emphasize that we're bullish on the long-term strength of our North American franchise and remind you that it represents only 25% of our net revenues. The fundamentals in the region got better last quarter, with positive volume growth and sequential improvements in biscuit consumption and market share. In fact, the demand for our brands was strong. That said, our supply chain has had challenges effectively meeting all that demand, and this, along with our gum mix and overall trade destocking, drove the weaker revenue in North America. As a consequence, higher operating costs are impacting our margins.

然而，我們在北美市場的表現沖淡了這些亮點。我們承認市場動態充滿挑戰，正如您從其他消費品公司所了解的那樣，但我必須強調，我們對北美市場的長期發展前景充滿信心，並提醒您，北美市場僅占我們淨收入的25%。上個季度，該地區的基本面有所改善，銷量實現正增長，餅乾消費量和市場份額也環比提升。事實上，市場對我們品牌的需求十分強勁。儘管如此，我們的供應鏈在有效滿足所有需求方面仍面臨挑戰，加上口香糖組合和整體貿易去庫存的影響，導致北美地區的收入下滑。因此，營運成本上升正在影響我們的利潤率。

I'm pleased to say the North American team is squarely focused on improving execution, and our customer service levels have significantly improved over the past couple of months. I would also note that we're starting to see the competitive advantage that our TST system provides, and we are increasingly confident in its ability to contribute to share gains as our service levels improve. As we said in our last call, we expect gradual progress in North America to continue over the next few quarters.

我很高興地告訴大家，北美團隊正全力以赴提升執行力，過去幾個月我們的客戶服務水準顯著提高。同時，我們也開始看到TST系統帶來的競爭優勢，隨著服務水準的提升，我們越來越有信心該系統能夠幫助我們提升市場佔有率。正如我們在上次電話會議中所說，我們預計未來幾季北美地區的業績將繼續穩定成長。

With that, I'll hand it over to Brian to review our quarterly performance in more detail.

接下來，我將把工作交給布萊恩，讓他更詳細地回顧我們本季的表現。

Thanks, Dirk, and good afternoon.

謝謝你，德克，下午好。

We're pleased with our topline growth in Q1 as we saw improved momentum across much of our business. Organic net revenue increased 2.4%, driven primarily by volume. Three of our 4 regions delivered solid profitable growth with strength in Europe and AMEA. Our top line grew on a reported basis by 5.5% as the benefits of a weaker U.S. dollar versus the euro and British pound are now providing a tailwind to our growth. Power Brand performance remains the driver of our organic net revenue growth, delivering a 2.8% increase, with strong results from brands like Cadbury Dairy Milk, Milka and Oreo.

我們對第一季的營收成長感到滿意，因為我們的大部分業務都呈現出強勁的成長勢頭。有機淨收入成長2.4%，主要得益於銷售成長。我們四大區域中有三個實現了穩健的獲利成長，其中歐洲和中東、非洲地區表現尤為突出。以報告基準計算，我們的營收成長了5.5%，美元兌歐元和英鎊走軟為我們的成長提供了助力。強勢品牌依然是我們有機淨收入成長的主要驅動力，實現了2.8%的成長，其中吉百利牛奶巧克力、妙卡和奧利奧等品牌表現尤為強勁。

Continuing the trends we saw in the second half of last year, emerging markets performed well, increasing 5.5%, with a good balance of volume and pricing. Given this represents nearly 40% of our revenues, this is good news for us.

延續去年下半年的發展趨勢，新興市場表現良好，成長5.5%，銷售量和價格均保持良好平衡。鑑於新興市場占我們總收入的近40%，這對我們來說無疑是個好消息。

On balance, we're seeing positive pricing for the global business. Increased prices in emerging markets are more than offsetting some negative pricing in developed markets. In Europe, minor price actions have helped contribute to good volume growth, and in North America, pricing is slightly down but consistent with the market dynamics we've seen for the past year or so.

整體而言，全球業務定價呈現正面態勢。新興市場價格上漲足以抵銷已開發市場的部分降價。在歐洲，小幅的價格調整促進了銷售的良好成長；而在北美，價格略有下降，但與過去一年左右的市場動態相符。

On a regional basis for the quarter, Europe's organic net revenue increased 4.7%. This volume-driven growth was broad based, with strength in both chocolate and biscuits in the majority of the region. We did see a benefit from Easter phasing that will reverse in Q2, but the business is performing well.

從區域層級來看，本季歐洲有機淨收入成長了4.7%。這一成長主要由銷量驅動，且成長覆蓋率廣，巧克力和餅乾在大部分地區均表現強勁。我們確實受益於復活節的銷售週期調整，但這種影響將在第二季逆轉，不過目前業務整體表現良好。

AMEA posted growth of 3.6%, with double-digit growth in India, strength in Southeast Asia and solid results in China, which benefited from a good Chinese New Year and the timing of the holiday.

AMEA地區成長3.6%，其中印度實現兩位數成長，東南亞表現強勁，中國市場業績穩健，這得益於春節期間的良好形勢和假期時間表。

Latin America grew 2.2%, behind the mid-single-digit growth in Mexico, strength in Brazil biscuits and currency-driven pricing in Argentina.

拉丁美洲成長了 2.2%，落後於墨西哥的個位數中段成長、巴西餅乾的強勁表現以及阿根廷受匯率影響的價格。

North America declined 1.8%, driven mostly by trade inventory reductions and gum weakness.

北美市場下滑1.8%，主要受貿易庫存減少和口香糖疲軟的影響。

Now let's review our margin performance. We delivered a 20 basis point improvement in adjusted OI margin to 16.7%. These results were primarily driven by ongoing SG&A reductions.

現在我們來回顧一下利潤率表現。經調整後的營業利益率提高了20個基點，達到16.7%。這項成果主要得益於持續的銷售、管理及行政費用削減。

Gross margins were pressured by 3 key factors: unfavorable mix, primarily driven by gum weakness; higher commodity costs, with benefits from lower cocoa pricing expected to positively impact our second half margins; and higher supply chain costs in North America.

毛利率受到 3 個主要因素的壓力：不利的產品組合，主要是由於口香糖銷量疲軟；商品成本上漲，預計可可價格下跌將對我們下半年的毛利率產生積極影響；以及北美供應鏈成本上漲。

While the mix challenge will continue, the other 2 pressures should subside as we move into the second half of the year. These dynamics, along with our strong net productivity plans, give us confidence that gross margins will improve as we move through the year.

儘管產品組合方面的挑戰依然存在，但隨著我們進入下半年，其他兩個壓力應該會有所緩解。這些因素，加上我們強而有力的淨生產力提升計劃，使我們有信心毛利率將在今年逐步提高。

On a regional basis, cost execution drove margin improvements in 3 of 4 regions. Europe margins grew 50 basis points to 19.2%, AMEA increased by 150 basis points to 16%, and Latin America increased 270 basis points to 18.5%. North America was down 210 basis points to 18.7% as we incurred higher supply chain costs, including freight and logistics inflation.

從區域來看，成本控制推動了四個區域中三個區域的利潤率提升。歐洲利潤率成長50個基點至19.2%，AMEA地區成長150個基點至16%，拉丁美洲成長270個基點至18.5%。北美利潤率下降210個基點至18.7%，原因是供應鏈成本上升，包括貨運和物流成本上漲。

Now let me provide some category highlights. The snacking category continues to show some encouraging momentum, building on what we saw in the second half of 2017. In fact, growth from snacking was approximately 6%. Adjusting for the timing of the Easter holiday season, however, we estimate underlying consumption growth of approximately 3.4%.

現在讓我重點介紹一下各個品類的情況。零食品類延續了令人鼓舞的成長勢頭，在2017年下半年的基礎上進一步提升。事實上，零食品類的成長約為6%。但考慮到復活節假期的影響，我們估計其潛在消費成長率約為3.4%。

Our Biscuits business grew 2.7%, with strength in France, Brazil, Russia and China and positive growth in the U.S. Approximately 75% of our year-to-date revenue grew or held share in this category.

我們的餅乾業務成長了 2.7%，其中法國、巴西、俄羅斯和中國市場表現強勁，美國市場也實現了正成長。今年迄今為止，我們約 75% 的收入成長或維持了該類別的市場份額。

In Chocolate, our global business remains strong, growing 4.8%. The U.K., India and Russia all delivered double-digit growth in the quarter. Approximately 70% of our revenue grew or held share in this category.

巧克力業務方面，我們的全球業務依然強勁，成長4.8%。英國、印度和俄羅斯在本季均實現了兩位數成長。該品類約70%的收入實現了成長或市佔率保持穩定。

Gum & Candy was flat as the gum business remains challenged. About 15% of our year-to-date revenue in this business gained or held share.

口香糖和糖果業務表現平平，口香糖市場仍面臨挑戰。該業務今年迄今的收入中，約有15%實現了成長或市場份額保持不變。

Turning to earnings per share. We delivered another quarter of strong adjusted EPS growth, up nearly 10% on a constant-currency basis. These results were driven by interest cost favorability, the impact of share repurchases and our operating performance. We returned more than $800 million in capital to shareholders in total. We repurchased $500 million in stock and paid approximately $300 million in cash dividends as we increased our quarterly dividend by 16%.

接下來談談每股收益。我們再次實現了強勁的調整後每股盈餘成長，以固定匯率計算成長近10%。這一業績主要得益於有利的利息成本、股票回購的影響以及我們良好的營運表現。我們總共向股東返還了超過8億美元的資本。我們回購了價值5億美元的股票，並支付了約3億美元的現金股息，季度股息提高了16%。

Turning to free cash flow. Although Q1 is typically a negative cash flow period for us, driven by our business seasonality, we delivered positive free cash flow in the quarter. The approved cash flow was partially driven by the timing related to our year-end working capital balances.

接下來談談自由現金流。雖然受業務季節性影響，第一季通常是我們的現金流為負的時期，但我們本季實現了正的自由現金流。核准的現金流量部分得益於我們年末營運資金餘額的時間節點。

Our team remains focused on generating approximately $2.8 billion in free cash flow for 2018.

我們的團隊仍然專注於在 2018 年創造約 28 億美元的自由現金流。

Overall, we're maintaining our outlook for the full year. We're encouraged by our top line progress as both our categories and our revenue growth are a bit better than we had anticipated coming into the year. But it's still early as this is just one quarter. However, we would say that the cost environment is tougher than we planned. That's especially true in North America with the rest of our business well positioned on margins. We're still confident that our overall gross margins will improve as we move through the year, and we remain committed to delivering adjusted OI margins of approximately 17% as well as double-digit adjusted EPS growth. You'll see in our presentation that we've lowered our view on the expected tax rate to the low 20% range for the year. Looking ahead to the second quarter, we expect top line growth to be higher than Q1 as we lap the negative impact of the malware incident from last year. I'd also remind you that the second quarter is seasonally more challenged in terms of margins. This year will be also impacted by continued commodity cost headwinds and cost pressure in North America. Given these dynamics, we expect Q2 adjusted OI margins to be sequentially lower than Q1 but in line with our expectations for how the year would play out.

整體而言，我們維持全年業績預期。我們對營收成長感到鼓舞，各品類和營收成長均略優於年初預期。但目前僅是一個季度，因此現在下結論還為時過早。然而，我們認為成本環境比預期更為嚴峻。尤其是在北美地區，儘管我們其他業務的利潤率狀況良好。我們仍然相信，隨著年內業績的推進，整體毛利率將會提升，並將繼續致力於實現約17%的調整後營業利潤率以及兩位數的調整後每股收益增長。您將在我們的簡報中看到，我們已將全年預期稅率下調至20%左右。展望第二季度，我們預計營收成長將高於第一季度，因為我們將逐漸擺脫去年惡意軟體事件的負面影響。同時，我也想提醒各位，第二季通常是利潤率面臨更大挑戰的時期。今年，大宗商品成本持續上漲以及北美成本壓力也將對業績產生影響。鑑於這些因素，我們預計第二季調整後的營業利潤率將環比下降，但與我們對全年業績的預期基本一致。

Now let me turn it back to Dirk for some concluding remarks.

現在，我把麥克風交還給德克，讓他做些總結性發言。

Thanks, Brian.

謝謝你，布萊恩。

So I would say Q1 performance was good. We saw improved category growth and consumption trends and we had solid performance from our Power Brands. We are optimistic, but it's early in the year, and we still have work to do as we focus on executing on our 2018 plan with excellence.

因此，我認為第一季的業績表現良好。我們看到品類成長和消費趨勢都有改善，主力品牌也取得了穩健的表現。我們對此持樂觀態度，但現在才年初，我們仍需努力，全力以赴地執行2018年計畫。

As it relates to the bigger picture, we feel encouraged about many of the trends we're seeing in some of our biggest markets outside of the U.S. With an international business that represents 75% of our net revenues, we believe we are well positioned to take advantage of these trends over the coming quarters.

從更宏觀的角度來看，我們對在美國以外的一些最大市場中看到的許多趨勢感到鼓舞。我們的國際業務佔淨收入的 75%，我們相信我們已做好充分準備，在未來幾季利用這些趨勢。

Before I conclude, I'd like to update you quickly on the status of our strategic review. As I've told you a few times, we're taking a fresh outside-in look at everything we do. We want to best position ourselves to generate sustainable value creation in the years to come. We are making good progress with the process, and we remain on target to complete this work at the end of the summer. So we'll share more details with you at that time.

在結束發言之前，我想簡要地向大家報告我們的策略評估進展。正如我之前多次提到的，我們正在以全新的視角，從外部審視我們所做的一切。我們希望能夠更好地定位自身，以便在未來幾年創造可持續的價值。目前，評估工作進展順利，我們仍有望在夏季結束前完成。屆時，我們將與大家分享更多細節。

With that, let's open the line for questions.

接下來，我們開放提問環節。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Lazar with Barclays.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Andrew Lazar。

I was hoping we could start, I guess, with North America just because despite modest expectations coming in, it's probably the segment that was still weaker than most had modeled. I was hoping you could provide us a bit more detail on why, I guess, organic sales would have decelerated sequentially in the region even though we're almost a year out from the initial sort of malware incident. And my sense that with respect to some -- I think you made a comment around some inventory deloading. I guess I was under the impression that, that was harder to sort of get into a problem with the DSD organization, where there's not as much sort of inventory sitting around, so hopefully, that would be the first part of North America.

我希望我們能先從北美市場開始，因為儘管預期不高，但北美市場的表現可能仍然比大多數人預測的要弱。我希望您能更詳細地解釋一下，為什麼即使距離最初的惡意軟體事件已經過去將近一年，該地區的有機銷售額仍然會環比下降。另外，您之前提到過一些庫存清倉的問題。我原本以為，對於DSD（直接送到府上）模式來說，這種情況不太容易發生，因為DSD模式的庫存積壓較少。所以，希望北美市場的狀況能從這裡開始分析。

Okay, all right. Thanks, Andrew. Well, before I go a little bit deeper, I would like to say that we feel strongly about the North American business. We think it's well positioned for long-term profitable growth. And the reason that I'm saying that is -- first of all, we are the #1 player in the biscuit market. I think we have great brands with Oreo, belVita, Chips Ahoy! We do have a differentiation from DSD, and we are improving our supply chain capability and performance. We're including recent investments. And we have new leadership in place with Glen Walter, and we are quite pleased with how much progress he is making in the operations. We do see the challenging environment. There's retail pressures as you know. There's changing channel dynamics, shifting more of the business into different channels, and as everybody has talked about, this higher logistics cost. But we're seeing very positive signs as it relates to the consumer in the market. The spending is strong. The snacking categories have been improving. Our consumption is increasing above the market, and we see no real dramatic change in the pricing environment. So Q1, the pricing change is similar to the rest of 2017. So first of all, why is the top line growth negative still? First -- the first reason you'd have to see with mix, we have a mix between gum and biscuits mainly, and the gum business is still in decline. Secondly, these retailers are decreasing inventories. And the reason why we are also experiencing that is they're switching to automatic systems. So our DSD group or sales force cannot necessarily influence that. And thirdly, the pricing, while similar in trend, is still going down roughly about 0.5 percentage point. So pricing wise, as I said, that's in line with what we've seen in the past years. But the -- and we also did some trade promotional spending in a few isolated spaces that had pretty good returns on it. And we're seeing, as a consequence, biscuit consumption and share improvement, so our consumption is up in the market. We don't quite yet see that in revenue because of what I was explaining. So those are largely the reasons I would say that we still are seeing that lag in our revenue.

好的，謝謝安德魯。在我深入探討之前，我想先說明一下，我們對北美業務充滿信心。我們認為它已做好長期盈利增長的準備。我這麼說的原因是──首先，我們是餅乾市場的領頭羊。我認為我們擁有奧利奧、belVita、趣多多等眾多優秀品牌。我們與直接配送（DSD）模式存在差異化，並且我們正在不斷提升供應鏈能力和績效。這其中也包括我們近期的投資。此外，我們任命了格倫·沃爾特擔任新的領導職務，我們對他為公司營運所取得的進展感到非常滿意。我們確實看到了充滿挑戰的市場環境。如您所知，零售業面臨壓力。通路格局正在改變，越來越多的業務轉移到不同的管道，而且正如大家所討論的，物流成本也在不斷上漲。但是，我們看到了與消費者相關的非常積極的跡象。消費者的支出強勁，零食品類也不斷改善。我們的消費成長高於市場平均水平，而且我們預期價格環境不會發生顯著變化。因此，第一季的價格變動與2017年其他季度類似。首先，為什麼營收成長仍然是負值？首先，原因在於產品組合，我們的產品組合主要由口香糖和餅乾組成，而口香糖業務仍在下滑。其次，零售商正在減少庫存。我們之所以會遇到這種情況，是因為他們正在轉向自動化系統。因此，我們的直接送貨團隊或銷售人員無法對此施加影響。第三，雖然價格走勢相似，但仍在下降約0.5個百分點。因此，正如我所說，價格方面與我們過去幾年的情況一致。此外，我們還在一些特定地區進行了一些貿易促銷支出，並取得了相當不錯的回報。因此，我們看到餅乾的消費量和市場份額都有所提高，所以我們的市場消費量有所增長。正如我剛才解釋的，我們目前還沒有在營收方面看到這種變化。所以，這些主要是導致我們營收成長落後的原因。

Got it. One for Brian, as a follow-up would just be, I think, on the last call you had mentioned that your expectation would be that overall gross margin would be -- expand for the full year. Would that still be your expectation? Obviously, I think it would be more second half loaded at this point. But would that still be a reasonable expectation, and if so, kind of what's the key driver there?

明白了。還有一個問題想問布萊恩，我想問的是，上次通話中你提到過，你預計全年毛利率會成長。你現在還是這麼預期嗎？顯然，我認為下半年的業績會更突出。但這個預期現在還合理嗎？如果合理，那麼關鍵驅動因素是什麼？

It is, Andrew. We still expect that. We fully expected lower margins in the first half and -- as we built our plans and rolled them out. But in the quarter, what I would say the drivers of gross margin were we had some unfavorable mix, and Dirk talked about gum on a global basis. That's one of the challenges. It's higher profitability as you know. I think that'll continue. That's a headwind that we knew about coming into the year and it's about what we expected. Commodity cost is really a timing challenge given the hedge positions we had, given inventory levels in cocoa, especially, but also in dairy and packaging. And as you know, we've been raising prices in the cheese business because of dairy inflation, and we'll begin to sort of lap or get ahead of the inflation in the second quarter. And then the higher supply chain costs in North America. And again, as Dirk said, I mean, I think we believe we'll see sequential improvement there as we work on supply chain cost as we get ahead of freight inflation that you're seeing across the business. So I'd say the biggest driver is the expectation, and frankly, we know it because of where we are in hedge positions. But commodities in the second half will be significantly better than the first half, and then again, getting ahead on supply chain costs in North America. And we're making progress there and we feel good about that. So maybe another way to think about gross margins, I'd say, on an aggregate total global basis, pricing, net productivity and volume leverage were contributors to improving gross margin. So they helped gross margins in the quarter. And then the mix and commodity costs were pressures to gross margin in the quarter. And even though net productivity was helped and positive, it was lower than expected because of the North America dynamic. So we do see that gross margins should improve sequentially as we move through the year, and for the total year, we still believe they should be up.

是的，安德魯。我們仍然預期會如此。我們完全預料到上半年的利潤率會下降——因為我們制定並實施了相關計劃。但就本季而言，我認為影響毛利率的因素是我們產品組合不太理想，德克也談到了全球的口香糖問題。這是挑戰之一。如你所知，更高的獲利能力至關重要。我認為這種情況會持續下去。這是我們年初就預料到的不利因素，而且基本上符合我們的預期。考慮到我們採取的對沖策略，以及可可（尤其是乳製品和包裝）的庫存水平，大宗商品成本確實是一個時間上的挑戰。如你所知，由於乳製品價格上漲，我們一直在提高起司業務的價格，我們將在第二季開始逐步跟上或超過通膨水準。此外，北美地區的供應鏈成本也較高。正如德克所說，我認為隨著我們努力控制供應鏈成本，並趕上整個業務範圍內普遍存在的運費上漲，我們將看到供應鏈成本的逐步改善。所以我認為最大的驅動因素是預期，坦白說，我們從目前的對沖部位就能看出這一點。下半年的大宗商品價格將顯著優於上半年，此外，北美供應鏈成本的降低也讓我們看到了希望。我們在這方面取得了進展，對此我們感到樂觀。或許我們可以換個角度來看毛利率，我認為，從全球整體來看，定價、淨生產力和銷售槓桿效應都對毛利率的提升起到了促進作用。因此，它們在本季對毛利率有所提升。而產品組合和大宗商品成本則在本季對毛利率構成了壓力。儘管淨生產力有所提升，但由於北美市場的特殊情況，其數值仍低於預期。因此，我們預計毛利率將逐年改善，我們仍然相信全年毛利率會上升。

Your next question comes from the line of Bryan Spillane with Bank of America.

你的下一個問題來自美國銀行的布萊恩‧斯皮蘭。

I guess, I wanted to ask about -- you had very good margin expansion in Latin America and AMEA, and I'm assuming some of that is because you had good organic net revenue growth. You had some volume leverage, sales leverage. But can you just talk about the factors there that are sort of helping to improve the margins? And maybe, as we are thinking about going forward, was there something about the first quarter that was just unusually favorable? Or if you continue to sort of pace that similar sort of organic sales growth, would we expect that type of margin expansion for the balance of the year?

我想問的是──你們在拉丁美洲和AMEA地區的利潤率擴張非常顯著，我猜想部分原因是因為你們實現了良好的內生性淨收入成長。你們也利用了銷售槓桿和銷售槓桿。能否具體談談有哪些因素有助於提高利潤率？展望未來，第一季是否存在一些特別有利的因素？如果你們繼續保持類似的內生性銷售成長速度，我們是否可以預期今年剩餘時間也能實現類似的利潤率擴張？

Yes, Bryan. I would say, in general, volume is helpful and margins, and it was -- it's good to see some volume growth back in the business. I think when it gets down to it, it's really about executing on net productivity, executing on our net -- our SG&A programs across the company but especially in these markets. And as you know, some of our supply chain work has been -- it was initially more focused in the developed markets, and the latter stages was more in AMEA and Latin America. And you start to see some of that really begin to benefit the business, and we expect some of that to continue. So I think the volume was good. And obviously, there's a bit of a benefit from Easter and some timing and phasing in the quarter, but that is -- it is a help to the P&L and help to the margin rates.

是的，布萊恩。總的來說，銷量和利潤率都有幫助，而且——很高興看到業務銷量回升。我認為歸根究底，關鍵在於有效提升淨生產力，有效執行我們公司，尤其是這些市場的銷售、管理及行政費用（SG&A）專案。如你所知，我們的一些供應鏈工作——最初更側重於已開發市場，後期則更集中在亞太、中東和非洲地區以及拉丁美洲。你會看到這些工作開始真正惠及業務，我們預期這種勢頭會持續下去。所以我認為銷量表現不錯。當然，復活節以及本季的一些時間安排和階段性因素也帶來了一些好處，但這確實有助於損益表和利潤率的提升。

Okay. And just one quick follow up to Andrew's question. Consumption in North America was up in the first quarter. Could you just give us a sense for where the consumption was versus sort of your organic net decline?

好的。我再快速補充一下安德魯的問題。北美地區的消費在第一季有所成長。您能否簡要說明一下，這一消費成長與你們的有機淨下降幅度相比如何？

Yes. The biscuit category was up 2.2% in Q1. That's about 1.2% higher than in Q4. And we held share, and our consumption increased by 2.5%. So contrast that with our decline of 1.8% in our revenue.

是的。第一季餅乾類別成長了2.2%，比第四季高出約1.2%。我們維持了市場份額，消費量成長了2.5%。相較之下，我們的營收卻下降了1.8%。

Yes.

是的。

Your next question comes from the line of Ken Goldman with JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Ken Goldman。

Dirk, I'm sure one of the things that you're looking at in your strategic review is what to do with some businesses that perhaps are not core or maybe not contributing to growth. And as we look at gum, it's been in free fall. I hope that's not too strong of a term for this company, for years now. It's really only brought up on earnings calls when explaining why North America isn't doing maybe as well as expected. And so it's almost an afterthought, it feels, to at least for some of us on the outside. What would it take for Mondelez to keep this business rather than divesting it? And if it does decide to keep it, what needs to happen to turn this business around? Because it feels like it's been a challenge for the company for so many years at this point.

德克，我相信你在策略評估中肯定考慮過如何處理一些非核心業務或對成長貢獻不大的業務。就拿口香糖業務來說，它已經連續多年處於自由落體式下滑。我希望用「自由落體式下滑」來形容這家公司不會太過分。它幾乎只在財報電話會議上被提及，用來解釋為什麼北美地區的表現不如預期。所以，至少對我們這些局外人來說，它幾乎成了無關緊要的附屬品。億滋國際究竟需要做些什麼才能保留這項業務而不是剝離它？如果它決定保留，又需要採取哪些措施才能扭轉局面？因為感覺多年來，它一直是公司面臨的一大挑戰。

Yes, I'll take it. I'll take it, Ken. I'd say, as you see in the quarter, it's down low single digits for the company. We're not seeing signs of improvement in developed markets. We've tried obviously innovation, and we've taken some cost out of the business. We've invested in advertising and consumer spending. Emerging markets, the gum business is actually up high single digits with volume-based growth. And there's some good markets like Turkey, Brazil, South Africa that are contributing to that in a good way. So there are some pockets of improvement that we feel pretty good about. It is -- as you would know, it's relatively small. It's about 7% of revenue now. Obviously, good profit margins gives us -- and I think one of the challenges is it gives us scale in some important markets. And as we think about the strategic decision or what we might do in the long term, we obviously have to consider that. There would obviously be stranded costs. There's obviously a short-term dilution associated with the transaction. So I think it's one where it's obviously going to be one of the topics that we spend some time on as we do our strategic work and -- but again, it's -- in the short term, I think you'll see some innovation in a few markets this year. I think we're generally optimistic about some of those. We're taking actions to reduce the cost structure given the growth profile. And as we've talked about, we continue to shift resources, focus to candy and to mints which I think are obviously markets that are growing faster and have equally attractive margins for the business. So it's a complex process and I think it's one that we are working on.

是的，我接受。我接受，肯。正如你在本季看到的，公司業績下滑幅度很小，只有個位數。我們在已開發市場沒有看到任何改善的跡象。我們當然嘗試了創新，也削減了一些業務成本。我們也投資了廣告和消費者支出。在新興市場，口香糖業務實際上實現了接近兩位數的成長，銷量也實現了成長。土耳其、巴西、南非等一些市場表現良好，為這一成長做出了積極貢獻。因此，我們對一些領域的改善感到相當滿意。如你所知，這部分業務規模相對較小，目前約佔總收入的7%。顯然，良好的利潤率能夠——我認為其中一個挑戰是，它能讓我們在一些重要市場中獲得規模優勢。當我們考慮戰略決策或長期發展方向時，顯然必須考慮到這一點。這筆交易顯然會產生擱淺成本，也必然會導致短期股權稀釋。所以我認為這顯然會是我們制定策略時需要花點時間研究的議題之一。而且，短期來看，我認為今年你會在一些市場看到一些創新。我們對其中一些市場持樂觀態度。鑑於目前的成長態勢，我們正在採取措施降低成本結構。正如我們之前討論過的，我們將繼續把資源和精力轉移到糖果和薄荷糖市場，我認為這些市場的成長速度更快，而且利潤率同樣可觀。這是一個複雜的過程，我們正在努力前進。

Your next question comes from the line of Alexia Howard with Bernstein.

你的下一個問題來自 Alexia Howard 與 Bernstein 的對話。

So 2 quick questions. The first one, you mentioned that the snack category is now reaccelerating which is encouraging. Could you give us some color on where and maybe why that's happening? And then I guess the second question is, you're expecting a strengthening of the top line next quarter and yet you kept the guidance for the full year, the organic revenue growth at 1% to 2%. Are you actually expecting a deceleration in the back half perhaps against tougher comps or are you just being cautious at this point? I would just love to hear some commentary about whether there's something in the back half that might make that tougher.

兩個問題，請問一下。第一個問題，您提到零食品類正在重新加速成長，這令人鼓舞。能否具體說說成長的驅動因素和原因？第二個問題是，您預計下個季度營收將有所成長，但同時又維持了全年1%至2%的有機營收成長預期。您是否預期下半年成長會放緩，例如受基數較高影響？還是您只是目前比較謹慎？我很想聽聽您對下半年可能出現的挑戰的看法。

Thank you, Alexia. I'll do the first part and then Brian will take the second part of your question. So overall, the snacks category improved by 3.4% in the first quarter, and that excludes the Easter timing. In the second half, the comparison will be a little bit more difficult because last year we already saw an improvement of the category in the second half. So we're pretty thoughtful about our targets and the top line. We need to see North America stabilize. And as I've said, the market there also is showing some acceleration. As I look at the world as it relates to snacking, I would say that the emerging markets are -- continued and accelerated. They're now growing high single digits. And then the developed markets also are now low single digits but also an improvement versus 2017. So we see it a little bit across the board. Europe had some very strong growth. U.S., as I talked about. We also saw good results in China. We saw India doing quite well. Mexico, as we talked about. So it's sort of, at this stage, across developed and emerging markets that we are seeing the improvement of the growth of the snacking market.

謝謝Alexia。我先回答第一部分，然後Brian會回答你問題的第二部分。總的來說，零食品類在第一季成長了3.4%，這不包括復活節期間的銷售額。下半年的比較會比較困難，因為去年下半年該品類已經有所改善。所以我們對目標和營收預期非常謹慎。我們需要看到北美市場趨於穩定。正如我之前所說，北美市場也呈現出一定的成長動能。就全球零食市場而言，我認為新興市場持續成長並加速發展，目前成長率已達到接近兩位數。已開發市場目前的成長率也達到了接近兩位數，但與2017年相比也有所改善。因此，我們看到整體趨勢有所改善。歐洲市場成長非常強勁。正如我之前提到的，美國市場也表現良好。我們在中國市場也看到了不錯的業績。印度市場表現相當出色。墨西哥市場也是如此。因此，在現階段，無論是在已開發市場或新興市場，我們都看到了零食市場成長的改善。

Yes, Alexia, on the total year outlook as it relates to revenue, I think we obviously are maintaining our outlook for the year at the 1% to 2%. I'd say we would acknowledge some potential upside to the top line if the trends that we're continue. As Dirk just talked about, category growth rates and our top line trajectory are both a bit above what we would have expected. But we want to really watch the global category growth as we normalize for Easter and move to Ramadan. And then our North America business, we want to stabilize that as well. So I think to your question around the second half, I think the second half -- it won't be negative. I think we will see positive growth in the second half. And we'll lap, as we've said, a little bit more challenging comps in the second half. So in general, we're just being a little bit thoughtful and maybe prudent on the top line, and we'll look at it as we move through the year.

是的，Alexia，關於全年營收展望，我認為我們顯然維持1%到2%的全年預期。如果目前的趨勢持續下去，營收成長可能會有一些潛在提升空間。正如Dirk剛才提到的，品類成長率和營收成長軌跡都略高於預期。但我們希望密切關注全球品類成長情況，尤其是在復活節和齋戒月期間。同時，我們也希望穩定北美業務。所以，對於你提出的下半年業績問題，我認為下半年不會出現負成長，而是會達到正成長。正如我們之前所說，下半年的同店銷售額會略有下降。總的來說，我們對營收預期持謹慎態度，並將根據全年情況進行調整。

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Growe with Stifel.

你的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Chris Growe 一線。

Just had a question for you, a bit of a follow-on. In terms of this quarter and the benefit from Easter, how much of that -- can you give us an idea of how much some of that kind of shifts between 2Q and 1Q around that phenomenon?

我有個問題想問您，算是後續跟進。關於本季以及復活節帶來的收益，您能否大致估算一下，在第二季和第一季之間，受此現象影響，業績會發生多大的變化？

For our revenue, it's in the range of about 50 basis points that moves from -- that you would adjust the first quarter growth by.

對於我們的營收而言，其波動幅度約為 50 個基點——也就是您需要對第一季成長進行調整的幅度。

Okay, that's great. And then just as a follow-up question then on -- there was a comment about kind of the timing of SG&A spending. So just a general question about SG&A and degree to which that has -- there's some savings in there certainly, but was that depressed a bit for any reason in the quarter? I guess, I'm curious about that. And then how do you balance promotional spending and A&C spending in the quarter? Was there a move more towards promotional spending versus A&C? Just curious how that balance went for the quarter.

好的，太好了。接下來還有一個問題──之前提到銷售、一般及行政費用（SG&A）的支出時間表。我想問一下關於SG&A的總體情況，以及它在多大程度上——當然，這方面肯定有一些節省，但本季度SG&A是否因為某些原因有所下降？我很好奇這一點。另外，本季您是如何平衡促銷支出和廣告及商業支出（A&C）的？促銷支出是否比廣告及商業支出多？我只是好奇本季這兩項支出的平衡情況如何。

Yes. Look, I think we've put some trade promotional spend in play in both North America and in Europe. You would've seen that. It's one of the contributors to the pricing dynamic. I think we feel pretty good about -- as you look at the consumption results in both of those regions that it seemed to pay back good returns, and we'll continue to look at that. I'd say on A&C, no real change to our posture. I'd say on the total year we expect to be about flat. I think there's a little -- it looks a little down in the first quarter and that's mostly driven by phasing of how we would have booked those costs over the last year in 2017. So I'd say relatively flat on A&C and a little bit more on trade promotional spend, and you saw how it played out in consumption in the top line.

是的。你看，我們在北美和歐洲都投入了一些貿易促銷支出。你應該已經看到了。這是影響價格走勢的因素之一。從這兩個地區的消費數據來看，這些支出似乎都帶來了不錯的回報，我們對此感覺相當不錯，我們會繼續關注。至於廣告和消費支出，我們的策略基本上保持不變。預計全年基本持平。第一季略有下降，這主要是因為我們在2017年對這些成本的計入方式有所不同。所以，廣告和消費支出基本上持平，而貿易促銷支出略有增加，正如你所看到的，這些支出最終體現在了營收的消費成長。

Your next question comes from the line of Robert Moskow with Credit Suisse.

你的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的羅伯特·莫斯科。

Dirk, I guess 2 questions. One was, I think you made a comment that Glen Walter was making progress at Nabisco and that you're pleased with the progress. Can you give me some more specifics as to what he's -- like the top 2 or 3 things that he's focused on. That will be helpful. And then also I think there's a comment here that delivery and service costs will start to ease in the second half of the year. And can you give me a sense of what's driving that easing of pressure?

德克，我想問兩個問題。第一個問題是，我記得你提到格倫沃特在納貝斯克取得了進展，你對他的進展感到滿意。能具體說說他目前的工作重點嗎？例如他最關注的兩三件事？這會很有幫助。第二個問題是，我記得你提到下半年配送和服務成本會開始下降。你能說說是什麼因素促成了這種壓力的緩解嗎？

Yes. So it started really with the malware deduction last summer, which threw us off, and we were several weeks without really having a clear view on where our inventory was and how much we were selling to our clients. On top of that, we've had issues in our North American plant as it relates to waste. We were having too much waste, and so they were not really running as expected. And then the third thing that came in there is that we saw, as I mentioned, the demands increasing. So those 3 factors were the ones that influenced us at the end of last year and also still in the beginning of this year. We are returning to good service. We're back to where we should be. We also have reestablished normal inventory, but we did that by incurring extra costs. So things we had to do was increase manpower, but also going to more overtime just to make sure that we assure the right service, we have the right inventories and we have solved our system problems. The issue that we had with our clients at the end of last year resulted in some returns and a charge of some allowances since we didn't provide the right service into the first quarter of this year. And then on top of that, you've seen the higher freight and logistics cost that we talked about. So we're back, but the costs are still there. They're improving. We still need to get our plant performance under control. So when I said that Glenn is doing well, the first thing that he was focused on is make sure that we get our customer service back in line and that we are delivering what we should be delivering which is happening. The second thing he is doing is focusing on our performance in our plants and making sure that we get that improved. And the third thing that he is working hard on is to make sure that our plans, as it relates to our brands, are clear and that we assure an excellent execution during the rest of the year. So those are the 3 things that he's working on. He's very operationally oriented, and I can clearly see the progress we're making.

是的。事情的起因是去年夏天的惡意軟體攻擊，這讓我們措手不及，有好幾個星期我們都無法清楚地了解庫存情況以及對客戶的銷售量。除此之外，我們在北美的工廠也遇到了廢料處理的問題。廢料過多，導致工廠無法如預期運作。第三個因素，如我之前提到的，是需求的成長。這三個因素在去年年底和今年年初都對我們產生了影響。現在，我們的服務正在逐步恢復正常，一切都回到了正軌。我們也重新建立了正常的庫存，但這需要額外的成本。我們不得不增加人手，並增加加班，以確保提供優質的服務，擁有充足的庫存，並解決系統問題。去年底我們與客戶之間的問題導致了一些退貨，並且由於我們未能在今年第一季提供應有的服務，因此也產生了一些補償費用。除此之外，正如我們之前提到的，貨運和物流成本也上漲了。所以，我們現在恢復了正常運營，但成本仍然存在。不過，成本正在逐步降低。我們仍然需要控制工廠的運作效率。我之前說格倫做得很好，他首先關注的是確保客戶服務恢復正常，並確保我們能夠交付應有的服務，而這方面他正在努力。其次，他關注的是工廠的營運效率，並確保我們能夠提升營運效率。第三，他正在努力確保我們與品牌相關的計劃清晰明確，並確保在今年剩餘的時間裡能夠出色地執行這些計劃。以上就是他正在努力的三件事。他非常注重運營，我能清楚地看到我們正在取得的進展。

Okay. And what's driving the cost improvement on service and freight?

好的。那麼，服務和貨運成本的降低主要是什麼因素推動的呢？

The cost improvement on service and freight, well, the one thing that we will certainly do is improve our performance and our waste in our plants. The freight and logistics, we are working on negotiating better -- using private shipment as much as we can and switching to rail. But we will still see an effect of the cost of freight and logistics.

關於服務和貨運成本的改進，我們肯定會做的一件事是提高工廠的生產效率並減少浪費。至於貨運和物流，我們正在努力改善談判條件——盡可能多地使用私人貨運，並逐步轉向鐵路運輸。但貨運和物流成本仍會對我們產生影響。

Your next question comes from the line of David Driscoll with Citi.

你的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 David Driscoll。

I wanted to ask a little bit more about Europe. Organic revenues up very strong in the quarter, but I didn't -- I don't think you said what the Easter impact was in Europe. I think you answered Growe's question and said it was about 50 basis points to the full company in the first quarter, comes out of second quarter. But specifically to Europe, can you quantify that number? And then really where I want to go with this is I want to just understand that 4.7% and how you think about the kind of ongoing growth rate in Europe.

我想再多問一些關於歐洲的問題。本季有機收入成長非常強勁，但您似乎沒有提到復活節對歐洲市場的影響。我記得您回答了Growe的問題，說第一季對公司整體的影響約為50個基點，這部分影響是從第二季反映出來的。但具體到歐洲市場，您能否量化一下這個數字？另外，我真正想了解的是，您是如何看待歐洲市場持續成長的4.7%這個數字的，以及您如何看待這種成長率。

Yes, so the organic net revenue growth that we saw in Europe was close to 5%. We saw an Easter effect in there, so I would say that you're in low single digits as it relates to our real growth. The volume and mix continues to be quite solid, and so we also continued to gain share in several of our markets. And the reason why that is happening is that we are having solid execution and we're having very good growth opportunities in -- particularly in 2 areas. One is the segment that we call chocobakery which is sort of in between our chocolate and our biscuit brands, and that is growing over 20%. And seasonals where we are every year executing better on our seasonal range. And so that has driven a margin expansion of about 50 basis points. Obviously, the -- if you dive a little bit deeper, it's -- the chocolate category, which is doing -- well, growing better than the biscuit category, although we're very happy with our biscuit performance, too, we're seeing quite good volume mix there. That category is now high single-digit growth. If you exclude Easter, we are probably mid-single digits. And our share is increasing, particularly in the U.K., which is our biggest market, but also in a market like Russia for instance.

是的，我們在歐洲的有機淨收入成長接近5%。由於復活節的影響，我認為實際成長率只有個位數。銷售和產品組合依然保持穩健，我們在多個市場的份額也持續成長。這得益於我們高效的執行力，以及在兩個領域——尤其是巧克力和餅乾品牌之間——的良好成長機會。一個是巧克力烘焙類別，它介於我們的巧克力和餅乾品牌之間，成長率超過20%。另一個是季節性產品，我們每年都在不斷提升季節性產品的執行力。這推動了利潤率提升約50個基點。顯然，如果深入分析，巧克力類別表現特別突出，其成長速度超過了餅乾品類。當然，我們對餅乾的表現也非常滿意，其銷售和產品組合都相當不錯。目前，巧克力類別的成長率已達到接近兩位數。如果排除復活節假期，我們的市佔率可能只有個位數。而且我們的市場份額正在成長，尤其是在我們最大的市場英國，在俄羅斯等市場也是如此。

Yes, David. I would -- as you would expect, Europe is our biggest region impacted by Easter, and it's in the range of -- 2.5 points of the growth was driven by Easter.

是的，大衛。正如你所料，歐洲是受復活節影響最大的地區，復活節推動了我們經濟成長的2.5個百分點。

And that just comes straight out of the second quarter for modeling purposes?

這只是直接取自第二季的數據，用於建模嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Okay. One last for me is just on inflation. Can you quantify, Brian, your expectation for inflation for 2018? And then I think I heard you right that you said cocoa would actually be favorable in the back half of the year. Can you marry that up with the spot cocoa market and the very dramatic inflation that we see in cocoa prices?

好的。最後一個問題是關於通貨膨脹的。布萊恩，你能量化一下你對2018年通貨膨脹的預期嗎？還有，我好像聽錯了，你說可可價格在下半年會比較有利。你能把這一點和現貨可可市場以及我們看到的可可價格大幅上漲的情況聯繫起來嗎？

Yes. So in terms of commodities, in general, I mean, as I said, they were unfavorable versus the prior year in the first quarter. Most of that came from higher dairy, higher packaging costs. And as we said, one of the drivers of our gross margin weakness was this dynamic. We've been pricing for the dairy inflation, and again, we get through that as we get through the middle of the year. Our -- as it relates to cocoa, our all-in cost for the first quarter net of hedges was up from -- versus the prior year. So that would be different than obviously what you see in the spot market. And that's driven by hedges that we've had in place from last year and obviously inventory we entered the year with. We do see the cocoa costs helping in the second half, but it's still a little bit of a challenge in the second quarter given hedges that again that were put in place last year. So wouldn't necessarily match up with what you see in the spot market. So it's really all about the timing of when we put hedges on. And we've got pretty much the rest of the year locked and we know what that is, and we know it's going to be favorable year-over-year and favorable sequentially.

是的。就大宗商品而言，正如我所說，第一季的情況與去年同期相比不利。這主要是由於乳製品和包裝成本上漲所造成的。正如我們所說，毛利率疲軟的原因之一就是這種動態。我們一直在根據乳製品價格上漲進行定價，而且隨著年中到來，這種情況會逐漸好轉。至於可可，我們第一季扣除避險後的淨成本高於去年同期。這顯然與現貨市場的情況有所不同。這主要是由於我們去年進行的避險以及年初的庫存造成的。我們預計下半年可可成本將有所下降，但考慮到去年進行的避險，第二季仍面臨一些挑戰。因此，這未必與現貨市場的情況相符。所以，關鍵在於我們進行避險的時機。我們已經基本確定了今年剩餘時間的安排，我們知道具體情況，也知道與去年同期相比以及環比都會是有利的。

Your next question comes from the line of John Baumgartner with Wells Fargo.

你的下一個問題來自富國銀行的約翰·鮑姆加特納。

Dirk, I wanted to ask about chocolate. I mean, the market share performance, 70%, where you're holding or gaining. I think it's the best you've had dating back to the Mondelez-Kraft days. So can you speak a bit more to what's underpinning this between normalized price gaps, redistribution, maybe the innovation? And then with the new innovation, which is presumably at a positive mix, is the portfolio's complexion changing to an extent where can you preserve these market share gains as you go to the next upswing in the cost inflation and pricing?

德克，我想問關於巧克力業務的問題。我是說，你們的市佔率表現如何？ 70%，是保持住了還是在成長？我認為這是自億滋國際收購卡夫以來你們取得的最佳成績。能否詳細談談支撐這項成績的因素，例如價格差距的正常化、市場重新分配，或是創新？隨著新的創新產品（想必目前佔比很高）的推出，你們的產品組合結構是否發生了變化，以至於在成本上漲和價格上漲的下一輪衝擊下，你們能夠保住目前的市場份額？

Yes. So obviously, Europe is our biggest chocolate market. And in relation to the question before, I've gone through that. So pricing was pretty good for us as it relates to chocolate. The category itself, as I talked about, grew about 11.9%. If you exclude Easter, we think it's about probably 5%. And our revenue growth, which, of course, has a lag versus the consumption growth, was around 5%, 4.8%. So yes, it is true that this is probably our highest sort of maintaining and -- or increasing, sorry, share, which was 65% in Q4. I would say the reasons -- I need to go a little bit around the world to give you the reasons why that is happening. In the U.K., we have very strong execution. As I talked about in the previous call, we're sponsoring the Premier ship. We launched a new campaign, and we're seeing share increases there. So we feel that, that is something that is going to continue. We've repositioned the brand, and that seems to be working quite well for us. If I go to India, which is another big chocolate market for us, where we have sort of 2/3 of the market, our shares are increasing quite strongly there. And that is a mixture of new launches that we've done, something called 5Star 3D or some new varieties on our Silk, which is our premium range. We are also getting some traction on our product we call Lickables, which is a combination of chocolate and a toy. And we're also expanding our distribution there because of the potential that we still have in the traditional trade. So that's giving us double-digit increases. If I switch to Russia, which is another big chocolate market, there, we also are gaining several share points. That is driven by the launch of 2 brands of dark chocolate at the end of last year, Alpen Gold and Milka. So just like in U.K. and India, I would think that the Russian momentum is also going to continue. And then we have, as another big market, is Australia for us. Again, more than 1%, almost 2 share points gain. There, I would say it's driven by a strong Easter execution. It's probably not that repetitive. I think we just executed well, and the market there is doing well for the first part of the year. But in general, it's a slower market. And then the other big market that we have, but there, we are losing share, that's in Brazil because there's very aggressive competitor promotions. The category is growing largely by price increases, but there, we are -- we have lost some market share. And that's the only market of the big chocolate markets where we are present that I would say that we are losing share. And in the others that I talked about, I do believe we have momentum and that we will be able to maintain that for the rest of the year.

是的。很顯然，歐洲是我們最大的巧克力市場。關於之前的問題，我已經解釋過了。就巧克力而言，我們的定價策略相當不錯。正如我之前提到的，整個品類成長了約11.9%。如果排除復活節，我們認為成長率可能在5%左右。而我們的營收成長（當然，營收成長會落後於消費成長）約為5%到4.8%。所以，是的，這可能是我們迄今為止最高的市場份額（或者說成長份額），第四季度達到了65%。至於原因，我需要從全球範圍來解釋一下。在英國，我們的執行力非常強。正如我在上次電話會議中提到的，我們贊助了Premier郵輪。我們推出了一項新的行銷活動，並且看到了市場份額的成長。因此，我們認為這種勢頭將會持續下去。我們重新定位了品牌，而且效果似乎相當不錯。如果我把目光轉向印度，那裡是我們另一個重要的巧克力市場，我們佔據了大約三分之二的市場份額，我們的市場份額正在強勁增長。這得歸功於我們推出的一系列新產品，例如5Star 3D巧克力，以及我們高端系列Silk巧克力的幾款新口味。此外，我們的一款名為Lickables的產品也獲得了一定的市場認可，這是一款將巧克力和玩具結合在一起的產品。同時，由於我們在傳統通路仍擁有巨大的潛力，我們也正在擴大在印度的通路。這些因素共同促成了我們兩位數的成長。如果我把目光轉向俄羅斯，那裡也是一個巨大的巧克力市場，我們的市佔率也穩定提升。這主要得益於去年底推出的兩款黑巧克力品牌：Alpen Gold和Milka。因此，就像在英國和印度一樣，我認為我們在俄羅斯的成長勢頭將會持續下去。此外，澳洲也是我們的一個重要市場。同樣，我們的市佔率也成長了超過1%，接近2個百分點。我認為，在巴西，強勁的復活節促銷活動是推動成長的主要因素。這可能並非重複行銷策略。我認為我們執行得當，而且今年上半年當地市場表現良好。但整體而言，巴西市場成長放緩。我們在另一個大型市場——巴西——也面臨市場佔有率下滑的問題，因為競爭對手的促銷力道非常大。雖然整個巧克力類別主要依靠價格上漲來成長，但我們在巴西的市佔率卻有所下降。在我們涉足的大型巧克力市場中，巴西是唯一一個市場份額下滑的市場。至於我提到的其他市場，我相信我們目前保持著成長勢頭，並且能夠將這種勢頭延續到年底。

Yes, John, I would just say, if you look over the last 2 years, maybe 2.5 years, we've been pretty close to 60%, 70% gaining holding and gaining share mostly in this category. So once we lap the pricing that was required with the last round of cocoa inflation 3 years ago, I think we've been in great position and we've seen good momentum in chocolate across the board.

是的，約翰，我想說的是，如果你回顧過去兩年，或許兩年半的時間，我們在這個品類中一直保持著接近 60% 到 70% 的市場份額，並且不斷擴大。所以，一旦我們克服了三年前可可價格上漲帶來的成本壓力，我認為我們就處於非常有利的地位，而且我們看到巧克力市場整體發展勢頭良好。

Great. And then Brian, just a quick one on gross margin outlook. Is there anything that's impactful for you in 2018 in terms of transactional FX?

好的。布萊恩，關於毛利率前景，再問一個問題。 2018年交易外匯方面，有哪些因素對你影響較大？

Not really. For the most part, as you would expect, we have our exposures hedged on the transactional side, and most of the year is already locked in. So it's incorporated in our outlook, and I'd say it's relatively minor.

其實不然。正如您所料，我們大部分風險敞口都已在交易層面進行了對沖，而且今年大部分時間的交易安排都已鎖定。因此，這部分風險已納入我們的預期，我認為影響相對較小。

Your next question comes from the line of David Palmer with RBC Capital Markets.

你的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的戴維‧帕爾默。

I don't want to beat the dead horse on chocolate and Europe, in particular. But you mentioned that your cocoa inputs were going to be down the second half. We see commodity prices for cocoa up lately, up significantly, kind of bouncing from the bottom. Are you in a position to be taking perhaps less price than the competition, perhaps not having to lead in your pricing like you did in the past and perhaps in a good spot with your own contracted costs?

我不想老生常談巧克力和歐洲市場。但您提到下半年可可投入量會下降。我們看到最近可可大宗商品價格上漲，漲幅相當可觀，像是從低點反彈了。您是否有可能接受比競爭對手更低的價格，不必像過去那樣在定價上領先，而且自身合約成本也處於有利地位？

Yes, look, I don't -- we're not going to get into specifics around what we might do on pricing, David. I think, again, we feel like we're in a good position in terms of our cocoa costs as we look at, at least the next -- the rest of this year. I think as you see, we're managing the chocolate business for growth right now. But again, we feel like we've got the right cost position, and we'll manage that as we go through the year. But nothing specific on pricing.

是的，聽著，我們不打算——我們不打算具體討論定價策略，大衛。我認為，至少就今年剩餘時間而言，我們感覺可可成本控制得很好。正如你所看到的，我們目前正在努力推動巧克力業務成長。但我們仍然認為成本控制得當，並且會在今年持續優化成本。不過，目前不會透露任何具體的定價策略。

And Dirk, you've talked about executing with excellence, and I think people have in their mind the U.S. DSD in the wake of the malware issue as an area of potential improvement in the near term. But you probably are talking about some other potential wins there, some other areas of near-term improvement that you have in mind. What other areas would you point to for an opportunity there?

德克，你之前談到要追求卓越執行，我想大家在惡意軟體事件之後，都把美國DSD視為近期需要改進的領域。但你可能指的是其他一些潛在的改進方向，一些你認為近期需要改進的領域。你認為還有哪些領域有改進的機會？

I would say, in general, it's the shift in focus that we are going to go through as a company where in the last 3, 4 years, we have been very focused on our margin improvement. And we've restructured, we've closed plants, we've revamped our organization, we went through MBS. And so that takes a lot of energy in a company, and we've done well. But now, we're getting to the end of that. And so we are -- as a company, we see the potential now to really start focusing more on the relationship with our clients, the execution in the stores and so on. So that I would say is one of the biggest shifts. As I think about other areas that is for us possible, one of the areas that I talked about is waste. We have a lot of waste in 2 areas, in the plans, mainly in North America, but also commercial waste, meaning that we have inventories that we need to destroy sometimes or we don't execute as well on the plans that we have and that leads to some loss of opportunities. So that's another area where I would expect us to do much better going forward. And then in general in emerging markets, it's a game of gaining distribution and being excellent in thousands of stores. And that is sort of a day-to-day execution, almost, you have to do it like an army. And we are -- continue to increase our focus on that. And India, as an example, shows that if we do that well and we compare it with increase of distribution, that we can have quite some progress from that. Those would be 3 examples of where I see excellence in execution really coming through.

總的來說，我認為我們公司即將經歷的重心轉變，是過去三、四年我們一直專注於提升利潤率。我們進行了重組，關閉了工廠，調整了組織架構，也完成了抵押貸款支持證券（MBS）專案。這些都需要公司投入大量精力，而我們也做得很好。但現在，我們即將完成這些工作。因此，作為一家公司，我們看到了現在的潛力，可以真正開始更加關注與客戶的關係、門市的執行情況等等。我認為這是最大的轉變之一。說到其他可能的發展領域，我之前提到的一個領域是浪費。我們在兩個方面有大量浪費：一是計劃方面，主要集中在北美；二是商業浪費，這意味著我們有時需要銷毀庫存，或者我們未能很好地執行計劃，這導致了一些機會的錯失。所以，這是我期望我們未來能夠做得更好的另一個領域。總的來說，在新興市場，關鍵在於拓展分銷管道，並在成千上萬家門市中做到卓越。這幾乎需要日復一日的執行，就像軍隊一樣有效率地運作。我們將繼續加大這方面的投入。以印度為例，如果我們在這方面做得好，並結合通路的拓展，就能取得顯著的進步。以上三個例子充分展現了卓越執行力的重要性。

And our last question comes from the line of Rob Dickerson with Deutsche Bank.

最後一個問題來自德意志銀行的羅伯‧迪克森。

Dirk, I just had a question regarding Power Brands versus non-Power Brands. And I think specifically, I've heard you say before, as you go through this strategic review, like there may be areas and brands where you might want to lean into a little bit per se that maybe aren't your larger Power Brands. And I'm just curious, is that -- I guess the direct question is, like, why does that logic work if your Power Brands continue to outgrow your non-Power Brands, number one? And number two, if a large amount of the capital allocation we've seen over the last 3 years, your restructuring program, goes into these lines in the future, why not scale back some of the kind of secondary, tertiary brands and just go all Power Brands?

德克，我有個關於強勢品牌和非強勢品牌的問題。我記得你之前說過，在進行策略評估時，可能會有一些領域和品牌需要專注於發展，即使它們不是你的主要強勢品牌。我很好奇，直接的問題是，如果你的強勢品牌持續成長超過非強勢品牌，那麼這種邏輯為什麼行得通呢？其次，如果過去三年我們看到的大量資本配置，也就是你的重組計劃，未來都將投入到這些領域，為什麼不縮減一些二線、三線品牌的規模，而只專注於強勢品牌呢？

Yes. I would say by deciding on focusing on the Power Brands, what we've done is we've distorted some of the spending. And so internally, our portfolio now, you have on one hand the Power Brands, which are doing well, but we have also the non-Power Brands, which are probably declining more than they would if they would get a little bit of support. And some of these -- and I would probably call it the tail brands at the moment, that category, we can still split up. That is brands that are really old and it's difficult to revamp them. There's other brands which are usually very important in the different countries around the world that we have and that because of our focus on Power Brands, we have neglected it a little bit. And those brands still have a lot of potential. And what we want to do is re-shift a little bit more of the spending of the Power Brands back into these, what I would call local heritage brands. And where we have done that modernizing the packaging, modernizing the communication, using much more digital, we have seen quite interesting growth. And so as a consequence, we're starting to see a little bit of better growth coming out of that group of brands. So we're expecting to explore further that direction. It still will mean that we are going to remain very focused on our Power Brands, but we believe that there are ways in which we cannot have the same decline in the rest of the portfolio and get some growth out of some of the brands there. And the overall mix we see is going to be better if we do that.

是的。我認為，我們決定專注於強勢品牌，導致部分支出出現偏差。因此，就我們目前的內部組合而言，一方面是表現良好的強勢品牌，另一方面是表現欠佳的非強勢品牌，它們的下滑幅度可能比獲得一些支持後更大。其中一些——我目前可能會稱之為“尾部品牌”，這個類別我們仍然可以細分。這些品牌歷史悠久，難以重塑。我們還有一些品牌，它們在世界各地通常非常重要，但由於我們專注於強勢品牌，我們忽略了它們。這些品牌仍然擁有巨大的潛力。我們希望將更多原本用於強勢品牌的支出重新轉移到這些我稱為本土傳統品牌的品牌。我們已經透過包裝現代化、傳播現代化以及更多地運用數位化手段，在這些品牌上取得了相當可觀的成長。因此，我們開始看到這組品牌呈現出略微好轉的成長動能。所以我們計劃進一步探索這個方向。這意味著我們仍將高度重視我們的強勢品牌，但我們相信，我們可以找到方法，避免其他品牌也出現同樣的下滑，並讓其中一些品牌成長。如果我們這樣做，整體產品組合將會更加完善。

Okay, great. Very helpful. And then quick one for you, Brian. In terms of the KDP transaction, I think you mentioned before that it should be somewhat accretive. I'm just -- is that baked into your guidance for this year? Or should there -- should we expect accretion from that transaction on top of current guidance whenever that deal closes?

好的，太好了，很有幫助。布萊恩，我還有一個問題想問你。關於KDP交易，你之前好像提到它應該會有一定的獲利成長。我只是想問一下——這筆成長是否已經包含在你今年的業績指引中了？或者說，我們是否應該預期這筆交易完成後，會在現有業績指引的基礎上帶來額外的獲利成長？

Yes. Look, we said it's accretive in the first full year, which -- as we expect that, that's -- that'll be half of it this year, half of it next year. I would say it's immaterial to the current outlook. It's not that much of an accretion that you would see it in the numbers, but it is slightly accretive.

是的。你看，我們說過它在第一個完整年度會帶來收益成長，正如我們預期的那樣，今年會成長一半，明年成長一半。我認為這對目前的展望影響不大。收益成長幅度不大，從數字看不出來，但確實略有成長。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation, and we ask that you please disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝各位的參與，請各位斷開連接。