McCormick & Company Inc (MKC) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. This is Faten Freiha, VP of Investor Relations. Thank you for joining today's fourth quarter earnings call. To accompany this call, we posted a set of slides on our IR website, ir.mccormick.com. With me this morning are Brendan Foley, President and CEO; Mike Smith, Executive Vice President and CFO; and Kasey Jenkins, Chief Growth Officer.

早安.我是法登‧弗雷哈 (Faten Freiha)，投資者關係副總裁。感謝您參加今天的第四季財報電話會議。為了配合本次電話會議，我們在 IR 網站 ir.mccormick.com 上發布了一組投影片。今天早上與我在一起的是總裁兼執行長布倫丹·福利 (Brendan Foley)；麥克史密斯，執行副總裁兼財務長；和首席成長長凱西·詹金斯 (Kasey Jenkins)。

During this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. The nature of those non-GAAP financial measures and the related reconciliations to the GAAP results are included in this morning's press release and slides. In our comments, certain percentages are rounded. Please refer to our presentation for complete information.

在本次電話會議中，我們將提及某些非公認會計準則財務指標。這些非公認會計準則財務指標的性質以及與公認會計準則結果的相關調節均包含在今天早上的新聞稿和幻燈片中。在我們的評論中，某些百分比是四捨五入的。請參閱我們的簡報以獲取完整資訊。

Today's presentation contains projections and other forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those projected. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or other factors. Please refer to our forward-looking statements on Slide 2 for more information.

今天的演示包含預測和其他前瞻性陳述。實際結果可能與預測有重大差異。本公司不承擔公開更新或修改任何前瞻性陳述的義務，無論是由於新資訊、未來事件或其他因素。請參閱投影片 2 上的前瞻性陳述以了解更多資訊。

I will now turn the discussion over to Brendan.

我現在將討論轉交給布倫丹。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Let me start by sharing what we will cover in the morning's call. I will begin with an overview of our fourth quarter year-over-year results, focusing on top line drivers. Next, I will briefly reflect on our full year 2023 performance and share our plans and building blocks to improve volume in 2024. Mike will then go into more depth on the fourth quarter financial results and the details of our 2024 financial outlook. And finally, before your questions, I will share some closing comments, including our key priorities as I begin my first full year as CEO.

大家早安，感謝您加入我們。讓我先分享我們將在上午的電話會議中討論的內容。我將首先概述我們第四季的年比業績，並專注於營收驅動因素。接下來，我將簡要回顧我們2023 年全年的業績，並分享我們在2024 年提高銷量的計劃和構建模組。然後，邁克將更深入地介紹第四季度的財務業績以及我們2024 年財務前景的詳細資訊。最後，在大家提問之前，我將分享一些結束語，包括我作為執行長的第一年開始時的主要優先事項。

Turning now to our results on Slide 4. I want to start by acknowledging that our top line results for the fourth quarter did not meet our expectations as volume trends decelerated relative to the third quarter. There was greater-than-expected pressure on the consumer that drove changes in their behavior, which impacted our growth. We did, however, see sequential improvement in several key areas within our portfolio, underscoring that our strategies and initiatives are working, as I will highlight in a moment.

現在轉向投影片 4 上的結果。首先，我想承認我們第四季的營收結果沒有達到我們的預期，因為銷售趨勢相對於第三季有所放緩。消費者承受的壓力超出預期，導致他們的行為發生變化，進而影響了我們的成長。然而，我們確實看到了我們投資組合中幾個關鍵領域的連續改進，這突顯了我們的策略和舉措正在發揮作用，正如我稍後將強調的那樣。

That said, we do recognize that consumers are exhibiting even more value-seeking behavior, they are increasing shopping trips, reducing basket size and making just-in-time purchases, creating further uncertainty in the consumer environment. I want to be clear that we are dedicated to improving volumes. We have refined our plans and are prioritizing our investments to drive impactful results and return to differentiated and sustainable volume-led growth, and you should expect improvement over the coming year and into 2025 and beyond.

儘管如此，我們確實認識到消費者正在表現出更多的價值追求行為，他們增加了購物次數，減少了購物籃的大小並進行了及時購買，從而為消費環境帶來了進一步的不確定性。我想明確的是，我們致力於提高銷量。我們已經完善了我們的計劃，並正在優先考慮我們的投資，以推動有影響力的成果，並回歸差異化和可持續的數量主導型增長，您應該期待來年以及 2025 年及以後的改善。

Now let's review our fourth quarter performance in more detail. Turning to Slide 5. In our fourth quarter, sales increased 3%, including a 1% favorable impact from currency. In constant currency, sales grew 2%, reflecting a 5% contribution from pricing, which was partially offset by a 3% decline in volume and product mix. As expected, the benefit from the China recovery was fully offset by the impact of our strategic decisions to exit DSD, direct store delivery, of our bagged Hispanic spices in the Americas, and the exit of a private label product line and the divestiture of a small canning business, which was part of our Giotti Flavor Solutions operations in EMEA.

現在讓我們更詳細地回顧一下我們第四季的業績。轉向投影片 5。第四季的銷售額成長了 3%，其中包括匯率帶來的 1% 的有利影響。以固定匯率計算，銷售額成長了 2%，其中定價貢獻了 5%，但銷量和產品組合下降 3% 部分抵消了這一增長。正如預期的那樣，中國復甦帶來的好處被我們戰略決策的影響完全抵消了，即退出 DSD、我們在美洲的袋裝西班牙香料的直接商店交付、以及退出自有品牌產品線和剝離小型罐頭業務，是我們在歐洲、中東和非洲地區Giotti Flavor Solutions 業務的一部分。

Starting with where results differed from expectations. In Americas Consumer, we expected volume declines in the prepared food categories that we participate in, like frozen and Asian. But the decline was greater than we anticipated due to the more challenging macro trends and was broadly consistent with the performance of these categories. For mustard in the Americas, extremely low price points in private label impacted our consumption and is driving down category dollars. We plan to improve our volume trends in 2024 by narrowing price gaps, increasing promotions and, importantly, through distribution wins. Recipe mixes in the Americas showed increased stress from crossing key price points due to previous pricing actions. We have a plan to address these to return to volume growth.

從結果與預期不同的地方開始。在美洲消費者中，我們預期我們參與的預製食品類別（例如冷凍食品和亞洲食品）的銷售量會下降。但由於宏觀趨勢更具挑戰性，降幅超出了我們的預期，並且與這些類別的表現大致一致。對於美洲的芥末來說，自有品牌極低的價格影響了我們的消費，並壓低了該類別的美元。我們計劃透過縮小價格差距、加大促銷力度，以及更重要的是透過贏得分銷來改善 2024 年的銷售趨勢。由於先前的定價行動，美洲的配方組合顯示出跨越關鍵價格點的壓力越來越大。我們有計劃解決這些問題，以恢復銷售成長。

In our Flavors product category, some of our consumer packaged food group customers experienced greater softness in volumes within their own business, more than we expected in both the Americas and EMEA. Finally, our growth of quick service restaurants and Flavor Solutions was impacted by slower-than-expected restaurant traffic in EMEA and Asia Pacific. Within Asia Pacific, some of our customers are experiencing boycotts in Southeast Asia related to geopolitical events. We are monitoring this situation and anticipate continued softness in these customer's volume to continue into 2024.

在我們的調味品產品類別中，我們的一些消費包裝食品集團客戶在自己的業務中經歷了更大的銷量疲軟，超出了我們在美洲和歐洲、中東和非洲的預期。最後，我們的快餐服務餐廳和風味解決方案的成長受到歐洲、中東和非洲和亞太地區餐廳客流量低於預期的影響。在亞太地區，我們的一些客戶在東南亞遭遇了與地緣政治事件相關的抵制。我們正在監控這一情況，並預計這些客戶數量將持續疲軟到 2024 年。

Turning to what met our expectations in the quarter. We drove volume growth for our second quarter in a row in America spices and seasonings. In branded food service, our growth was strong across the portfolio driven by volume. In Asia Pacific Consumer, our recovery from COVID-related disruptions in China was in line with the expectations we had at the beginning of the quarter. Outside of China, for the quarter, our volume growth was strong across all categories. In EMEA Consumer, consistent with the third quarter, pricing actions contributed to double-digit growth, which pressured volumes.

談到本季符合我們預期的情況。我們連續第二季度推動了美國香料和調味料的銷售成長。在品牌食品服務方面，我們的整個產品組合在銷售的推動下成長強勁。在亞太消費者領域，我們從中國新冠肺炎相關中斷中恢復過來的情況符合我們在本季初的預期。在中國以外的地區，本季我們所有類別的銷售成長均強勁。在歐洲、中東和非洲消費者領域，與第三季一致，定價行動促成了兩位數的成長，這對銷量造成了壓力。

Now I'd like to further build on some of the initiatives within our growth levers, notably increased brand marketing, targeted price gap management, new products and packaging renovation, which have already proven to strengthen our volume trends in key areas. We have intentionally chosen our investments in these areas as we believe they will generate the most significant returns. We are confident our investments will continue to drive improved results in '24, and we expect to invest more, positioning us further for success in 2025 and going forward.

現在，我想進一步加強我們的成長槓桿內的一些舉措，特別是增加品牌行銷、有針對性的價格差距管理、新產品和包裝創新，這些已經被證明可以加強我們在關鍵領域的銷售趨勢。我們有意選擇在這些領域進行投資，因為我們相信它們將產生最顯著的回報。我們相信，我們的投資將繼續推動 24 年業績的改善，並且我們預計將進行更多投資，為我們在 2025 年及未來取得成功奠定進一步的基礎。

First, Americas spices and seasonings is a priority investment area for us, given our category leadership and its profitable growth potential for both McCormick and our customers. Our initiatives are driving U.S. branded sales volume growth, with strength during the fourth quarter in holiday performance. And looking at consumption, we continue to sequentially improve share trends again in the fourth quarter both in terms of dollars and units. We continue to activate initiatives of price gap management, innovation, packaging and a meaningful step-up in brand marketing support for Americas spices and seasonings. And the results have begun to materialize, demonstrating that we have the right plans and are taking the right actions to grow in this attractive category.

首先，鑑於我們的品類領導地位及其對味好美和我們客戶的獲利成長潛力，美洲香料和調味料是我們的優先投資領域。我們的舉措正在推動美國品牌銷售的成長，第四季度假日表現強勁。就消費而言，我們在第四季度繼續繼續改善份額趨勢，無論是在美元還是單位方面。我們持續啟動價格差距管理、創新、包裝等舉措，並大力加強對美洲香料和調味料的品牌行銷支援。結果已經開始顯現，這表明我們有正確的計劃並正在採取正確的行動來在這個有吸引力的類別中實現成長。

The renovation of our U.S. core everyday herb and spice portfolio, which began in the second quarter of 2023, continues to roll out according to plan. At the end of the fourth quarter, we had shifted about 75% of our renovated SKUs. And notably, products that have fully transitioned on shelf experienced stronger velocity. We are pleased with our results to date, which increased our confidence that this renovation will be a strong contribution to our growth in 2024 as our customers' shelves continue to transition.

我們於 2023 年第二季開始對美國核心日常藥草和香料產品組合進行改造，並將繼續按計劃進行。截至第四季末，我們已經轉移了約 75% 的翻新 SKU。值得注意的是，已經完全上架的產品經歷了更快的速度。我們對迄今為止的成果感到滿意，這增強了我們的信心，隨著客戶貨架的不斷轉變，這次改造將為我們 2024 年的成長做出強有力的貢獻。

We are making progress on restoring distribution that was lost due to past supply issues. We have secured wins and new distribution. We expect to largely start seeing the impact of our actions in our results mid-2024, coinciding with most of our customers' shelf resets. Overall, we have a robust set of initiatives in flight and anticipate making progress throughout the year. I would expect growth in share gains, in units and volume to lead our trends.

我們正在恢復因過去供應問題而損失的配送方面取得進展。我們已經贏得了勝利並獲得了新的分銷。我們預計將在 2024 年中期開始看到我們的行動對業績的影響，這與我們大多數客戶的貨架重置時間一致。整體而言，我們有一套強而有力的措施正在實施，預計全年都會取得進展。我預期份額收益、單位數量和數量的成長將引領我們的趨勢。

Spending a moment on spices and seasonings and other key markets. Similar initiatives as in the U.S. are driving volume growth and share gains in Canada, France and Australia. We also renovated our spice and herb portfolio in Southeast Asia with the same innovative packaging as the U.S. and EMEA and began shipping the new products in the fourth quarter. We are supporting this transition with increased marketing spend in the first quarter.

花點時間了解香料和調味料以及其他主要市場。與美國類似的舉措正在推動加拿大、法國和澳洲的銷售成長和份額成長。我們還使用與美國和歐洲、中東和非洲地區相同的創新包裝翻新了東南亞的香料和香草產品組合，並於第四季度開始發貨新產品。我們透過增加第一季的行銷支出來支持這一轉變。

Next, in branded foodservice, we achieved strong volume growth across all customer segments. Our foodservice operators continue to expand their value menu options, and they are turning to our products to deliver great taste for a fraction of their costs. We drove share gains in spices and seasonings as well as our hot sauce share of tabletop, with expanded distribution, new products, customer wins and increased menu penetration as well as our expertise in heat.

接下來，在品牌餐飲服務領域，我們在所有客戶群中實現了強勁的銷售成長。我們的餐飲服務業者繼續擴大其超值菜單選擇，他們正在轉向我們的產品，以較低的成本提供美味佳餚。透過擴大分銷、新產品、贏得客戶、提高菜單滲透率以及我們在熱方面的專業知識，我們推動了香料和調味料的份額增長以及桌面辣醬份額的增長。

Heat continues to be a growth accelerator globally for total McCormick, outpacing the rest of the portfolio as customers and consumers alike continue to drive demand in this flavor profile. New products contributed to fourth quarter growth. For instance, in the U.S., our Cholula salsas in the Mexican aisle are building distribution and bringing new consumers to the category. And our branded foodservice items, Frank's Mild Wing Sauce and Frank's Nashville Hot continue to perform well.

隨著客戶和消費者等繼續推動對該口味的需求，Heat 繼續成為整個味好美公司在全球範圍內的成長加速器，超過了其他產品組合。新產品推動了第四季的成長。例如，在美國，我們在墨西哥的 Cholula salsas 正在建立分銷管道，並為該類別帶來新的消費者。我們的品牌餐飲服務產品 Frank's Mild Wing Sauce 和 Frank's Nashville Hot 繼續表現良好。

In the U.K. and Australia, we are driving hot sauce category growth with Cholula gaining momentum on shelf. In the U.S., we secured new hot sauce distribution during the quarter. And in the first quarter, we are launching new Frank's RedHot dips and popular flavors in a squeeze bottle format as well as our national launch of Frank's Dill Pickle. We are well positioned going into our Super Bowl merchandising period.

在英國和澳大利亞，我們正在推動辣醬類別的成長，Cholula 的上架勢頭強勁。在美國，我們在本季度獲得了新的辣醬分銷。在第一季度，我們推出了新的 Frank's RedHot 醬料和擠壓瓶形式的流行口味，以及全國推出的 Frank's Dill Pickle。我們已做好進入超級盃行銷期的有利準備。

In summary, our investments in the key areas I just highlighted favorably impacted both our volume and margin performance for the quarter.

總之，我們在我剛才強調的關鍵領域的投資對我們本季的銷售和利潤表現產生了有利的影響。

Moving to gross margin. We are pleased with our performance, which continued to improve as the year progressed. Our results reflect effective price realization, the optimization of our cost structure and favorable product mix, driven by our portfolio optimization and focus in key areas. While confident in our ability to return to our historical margin profile in the near term, we will use improvements in our profitability to fuel continued investments in our business to drive our top line.

轉向毛利率。我們對我們的業績感到滿意，隨著這一年的進展，我們的業績持續改善。我們的績效反映了在我們的投資組合優化和對關鍵領域的關注的推動下，有效的價格實現、成本結構的優化和有利的產品組合。雖然我們對短期內恢復到歷史利潤水平的能力充滿信心，但我們將利用盈利能力的改善來推動對業務的持續投資，以推動我們的營收。

We are in a strong position to benefit from the virtuous flywheel of margin expansion given the work that's been done throughout the business, and we are able to intentionally focus our investments on areas that we expect will have the greatest impact on improving volume performance and driving sustainable profit growth.

考慮到整個業務所做的工作，我們處於有利地位，可以從利潤擴張的良性飛輪中受益，並且我們能夠有意識地將投資集中在我們預計將對提高銷量績效和推動增長產生最大影響的領域。利潤可持續增長。

Reflecting on our full year 2023 performance, I am proud of the progress we made in advancing our business in the right direction, and our team is focused on returning to our long-term growth algorithm, strengthening our margins, significantly improving our cash flow, paying down our debt and reducing our leverage ratio. All have put McCormick in a position of strength to further invest with a focus on growth.

回顧我們 2023 年全年的業績，我對我們在朝著正確方向推進業務方面取得的進展感到自豪，我們的團隊專注於回歸長期增長演算法，增強我們的利潤率，顯著改善我們的現金流，償還我們的債務並降低我們的槓桿率。所有這些都使味好美公司有能力進一步投資，並專注於成長。

Our foundation is strong. We have proven and powerful brands, and the results we are seeing from our refined and strengthened plans provide confidence in the effectiveness of our strategies and investments. Our initiatives will take time to materialize, and we expect volume trends to improve throughout the year and volume growth during the second half, notwithstanding any new macroeconomic headwinds. The pace of margin recovery to historical levels will take time as our focus is on investing to drive sustainable sales growth to generate quality earnings for years to come. I also want to highlight on share performance, that we are approaching our plans differently with an even greater competitive posture and more intentionality towards driving growth in our key categories.

我們的基礎很雄厚。我們擁有久經考驗的強大品牌，我們從完善和強化的計劃中看到的結果讓我們對我們的策略和投資的有效性充滿信心。我們的舉措需要時間才能實現，儘管存在任何新的宏觀經濟阻力，但我們預計全年銷售趨勢將有所改善，下半年銷售將有所增長。利潤率恢復到歷史水準的速度需要時間，因為我們的重點是投資以推動可持續的銷售成長，以在未來幾年產生優質的收益。我還想強調股票表現，我們正在以不同的方式實施我們的計劃，以更大的競爭姿態和更多的意圖來推動我們關鍵類別的成長。

Now let me highlight some ways in which we will drive growth through category management, brand marketing, new products, our proprietary technologies and our differentiated customer engagement. Starting in our Consumer segment with category management, where a key capability is revenue management. We have been building our discipline in revenue management for several years and have a history of optimizing pricing on shelf to benefit both McCormick and the retailer. As you would expect, this has become even more important in recent years. In the current environment, we are taking a surgical approach to managing our price gaps to private label and branded competitors, accelerating our efforts across various products and are seeing results.

現在讓我重點介紹一下我們將透過品類管理、品牌行銷、新產品、專有技術和差異化的客戶參與來推動成長的一些方法。從我們的消費者細分市場開始進行品類管理，其中一項關鍵功能是收入管理。多年來，我們一直在建立收入管理方面的紀律，並擁有優化貨架定價以使味好美和零售商雙方受益的歷史。正如您所料，近年來這一點變得更加重要。在當前環境下，我們正在採取外科手術式的方法來管理我們與自有品牌和品牌競爭對手的價格差距，加快我們在各種產品上的努力，並正在看到成果。

In our spices and seasonings category, we selected individual items we believe would be the most responsive based on the elasticities we were experiencing. For instance, in our iconic Black Pepper and Vanilla product lines, our actions proved to be effective. We are recapturing buyers, increasing household penetration and are driving profitable volume growth that is outpacing the category volume growth in these product lines.

在我們的香料和調味料類別中，我們根據我們所經歷的彈性選擇了我們認為反應最靈敏的單一項目。例如，在我們標誌性的黑胡椒和香草產品線中，我們的行動被證明是有效的。我們正在重新吸引買家，提高家庭滲透率，並推動獲利銷售成長，其速度超過了這些產品線的類別銷售成長。

As I mentioned earlier, we crossed key price points in Americas recipe mixes and are also leaning into our revenue management execution in this category. For example, in the fourth quarter, we focused on gravy as a key holiday item, which drove results, contributing to our successful holiday season. We expect to see further results from our actions as we work through the portfolio. Across all markets, our diverse portfolio allows us flexibility to optimize our pricing effectiveness. We look at both our everyday price and our promotional returns as well as use innovation, including price pack architecture to drive growth.

正如我之前提到的，我們跨越了美洲配方組合的關鍵價格點，也傾向於我們在這一類別中的收入管理執行。例如，在第四季度，我們將肉汁作為關鍵的節日食品，這推動了業績，為我們成功的節日做出了貢獻。我們期望在整個投資組合的工作過程中看到我們的行動取得進一步的成果。在所有市場中，我們多樣化的產品組合使我們能夠靈活地優化定價效率。我們專注於日常價格和促銷回報，並利用創新（包括價格包架構）來推動成長。

These investments we make in price gap management result in greater volumes and improved margins over time. Importantly, customers that are adopting our recommendations are seeing better category performance, and McCormick is driving volume and share growth in their respective businesses. We are prioritizing brand marketing, connecting with consumers and fueling growth with our increased investments. We have a history of investing behind our brands and did so again in 2023.

隨著時間的推移，我們在價格差距管理方面的投資會帶來更大的銷售和更高的利潤。重要的是，採用我們建議的客戶看到了更好的品類表現，味好美正在推動各自業務的銷售和份額成長。我們優先考慮品牌行銷、與消費者建立聯繫並透過增加投資來推動成長。我們有投資品牌的歷史，並在 2023 年再次這樣做。

We plan for a strong start to 2024, with aggressive first quarter brand marketing investments, which are well underway. We expect a significant increase for the year, concentrated to the first half. We will continue to invest across various channels. We plan to further drive household penetration and increase buy rates with additional focus in retail media.

我們計劃在 2024 年有一個良好的開端，第一季積極的品牌行銷投資正在順利進行。我們預計今年將大幅成長，主要集中在上半年。我們將繼續透過各種管道進行投資。我們計劃進一步提高家庭滲透率並提高購買率，並進一步關注零售媒體。

Our first quarter plans include an increased Christmas holiday campaigns in all regions, increasing our value-focused messaging for our everyday spices and seasonings and recipe mix in the U.S. Also supporting our packaging renovations that I mentioned earlier in both the U.S. and Southeast Asia and promoting our new products in EMEA.

我們的第一季計劃包括在所有地區增加聖誕假期活動，增加我們在美國的日常香料和調味料以及食譜組合中以價值為中心的信息傳遞。還支持我之前在美國和東南亞提到的包裝翻新，並推廣我們在歐洲、中東和非洲地區的新產品。

Turning to new products, which are a key growth driver in both our Consumer and Flavor Solutions segments. In the Consumer segment, our 2023 launches are expected to substantially contribute to growth in 2024. For instance, in EMEA, we are thrilled with the early results from our range of Schwartz seasonings and recipe mixes that we launched with Nadiya Hussain, a British celebrity chef, as we entered the fourth quarter. We are expanding our household penetration and bringing in new and younger households into the brand. The recipe mixes in this range contributed along with other new products and expanded distribution to our fourth quarter growth in U.K. recipe mixes, which was double the category rate.

轉向新產品，這是我們的消費者和風味解決方案領域的關鍵成長動力。在消費者領域，我們2023 年推出的產品預計將為2024 年的成長做出重大貢獻。例如，在歐洲、中東和非洲地區，我們與英國名人Nadiya Hussain 合作推出的Schwartz 調味料和配方混合物系列的早期結果令我們感到非常興奮廚師，當我們進入第四季時。我們正在擴大家庭滲透率，並將新的、更年輕的家庭引入該品牌。該系列的配方組合與其他新產品一起做出了貢獻，並擴大了我們第四季度英國配方組合的成長，這是該類別成長率的兩倍。

In Flavor Solutions, collaborating with our customers on innovation continues to be a key driver of success. Across the portfolio, our customers continue to focus on innovation to meet the consumers' needs. We are winning in flavors with better-for-you products and on-trend flavors and in branded foodservice with our heat platform and value-oriented products for foodservice operators. We are pleased with our 2023 performance from new products, which contributed to our sales growth and accelerate compared to the prior year, as we expected. Importantly, we have a strong lineup of new products spanning heat, freshness, value, convenience and flavor exploration in our Consumer segment for 2024, which we will share more about at CAGNY in February.

在風味解決方案中，與客戶在創新方面的合作仍然是成功的關鍵驅動力。在整個產品組合中，我們的客戶繼續專注於創新，以滿足消費者的需求。我們憑藉更適合您的產品和流行口味在口味領域獲勝，並透過我們的熱平台和為餐飲服務業者提供價值導向的產品在品牌餐飲服務領域贏得勝利。我們對 2023 年新產品的表現感到滿意，這推動了我們的銷售成長，並且與前一年相比，正如我們預期的那樣加速成長。重要的是，我們在 2024 年消費者細分市場擁有強大的新產品陣容，涵蓋熱度、新鮮度、價值、便利性和風味探索，我們將在 2 月在 CAGNY 上分享更多相關資訊。

And in Flavor Solutions, we are also carrying a robust pipeline of new products into 2024, positioning McCormick and our customers for success. We are leveraging our proprietary technologies in Flavor Solutions to support our innovation to win share in attractive high-growth categories and to attract new customers. In addition, with our differentiated customer engagement approach, we are intentionally targeting a mid-market customer base, who are category leaders in high-growth innovators, as well as diversifying our customer base to drive share gains across our portfolio and profitable growth.

在風味解決方案方面，我們也將在 2024 年推出一系列強大的新產品，為味好美和我們的客戶成功奠定基礎。我們正在利用我們在風味解決方案中的專有技術來支持我們的創新，以在有吸引力的高成長類別中贏得份額並吸引新客戶。此外，透過我們差異化的客戶參與方法，我們有意瞄準中端市場客戶群，他們是高成長創新者中的類別領導者，並實現客戶群多元化，以推動我們產品組合的份額成長和獲利成長。

Our actions are yielding results. For instance, in the fourth quarter, our volume growth in performance nutrition significantly outpaced the market. And in the beverage category, we drove sales growth even though the category decelerated, partially by targeting high-value and high-growth segments within beverage. With our flavor leadership and continued investments, we are fully committed to vigorously fuel category growth with our differentiated portfolio. We have confidence in our plans, which we'll build throughout the year and yield volume growth during the back half of the year.

我們的行動正在產生成果。例如，在第四季度，我們的功能營養品銷售成長明顯超過市場。在飲料類別中，儘管該類別增速放緩，但我們仍推動了銷售成長，部分原因是瞄準了飲料中的高價值和高成長細分市場。憑藉我們的風味領導地位和持續投資，我們完全致力於透過我們的差異化產品組合大力推動品類成長。我們對我們的計劃充滿信心，我們將在全年制定該計劃，並在下半年實現產量成長。

We are dedicating more resources to categories where we have the right to continue to win. We are seeing our actions drive momentum and solid results in areas where we have focused. We believe that the execution of our growth plans will be a win for consumers, our categories and McCormick, which will differentiate and strengthen our leadership.

我們正在將更多資源投入到我們有資格繼續獲勝的類別中。我們看到我們的行動在我們重點關注的領域推動了勢頭並取得了紮實的成果。我們相信，我們成長計畫的執行將是消費者、我們的品類和味好美公司的雙贏，這將使我們脫穎而出並加強我們的領導地位。

Now before I turn it over to Mike to provide more details on our fourth quarter financial performance and 2024 outlook, I would like to comment on recent changes in our Board of Directors. Freeman Hrabowski, who has served as a Director for 27 years, will be retiring from the Board as of the end of March. I am grateful for his service and contributions, which has significantly benefited McCormick, and we will miss him.

現在，在我將其交給 Mike 提供有關我們第四季度財務業績和 2024 年前景的更多詳細資訊之前，我想對我們董事會最近的變化發表評論。擔任董事 27 年的 Freeman Hrabowski 將於 3 月底從董事會退休。我感謝他的服務和貢獻，這使麥考密克受益匪淺，我們會想念他的。

I also want to welcome Terry Thomas, who has joined our Board. Terry brings extensive global consumer product industry expertise through his current role as Chief Growth Officer for Flowers Foods and his experience at Unilever prior to that. I look forward to working with Terry and the contributions he will make to McCormick.

我還要歡迎 Terry Thomas 加入我們的董事會。 Terry 透過目前擔任 Flowers Foods 首席成長長的職位以及先前在聯合利華的工作經驗，帶來了廣泛的全球消費品產業專業知識。我期待與特里合作以及他將為麥考密克做出的貢獻。

Thanks, Brendan, and good morning, everyone. Starting on Slide 10. Our top line constant currency sales grew 2% compared to the fourth quarter of last year, reflecting 5% of pricing benefit, offset by a 3% volume mix decline. As Brendan mentioned, our volume performance was impacted by changes in consumers' behavior. In our Consumer segment, constant currency sales were flat, reflecting a 4% increase from pricing actions, offset by a 4% volume decline. The benefit from our recovery in China and the Hispanic product DSD exit to optimize margins netted to no overall impact for the total Consumer segment.

謝謝，布倫丹，大家早安。從投影片 10 開始。與去年第四季相比，我們的頂線固定貨幣銷售額成長了 2%，反映了 5% 的定價優勢，但被銷售組合下降 3% 所抵銷。正如布倫丹所提到的，我們的銷售表現受到消費者行為變化的影響。在我們的消費者細分市場，以固定匯率計算銷售額持平，反映出定價行動帶來 4% 的成長，但被銷售量下降 4% 所抵銷。我們在中國的復甦以及西班牙產品 DSD 退出以優化利潤所帶來的好處對整個消費者細分市場沒有整體影響。

On Slide 11, consumer sales in the Americas decreased 4% in constant currency, with the DSD exit I just mentioned driving 2% of that decline. The remaining sales decline was due to lower volume and product mix in several areas of the portfolio, including, as Brendan mentioned, prepared foods, mustard and recipe mixes, which was partially offset by volume growth in spices and seasonings, which was driven by our investments. In EMEA, constant currency consumer sales increased 9%, with a 13% increase from pricing actions, partially offset by a 4% volume decline.

在投影片 11 上，以固定匯率計算，美洲的消費者銷售額下降了 4%，其中我剛才提到的 DSD 退出導致了 2% 的下降。剩餘的銷售額下降是由於產品組合的幾個領域的銷量和產品組合下降，包括，正如布倫丹所提到的，預製食品、芥末和食譜混合物，這部分被香料和調味料的銷量增長所抵消，而香料和調味料的銷量成長是由我們的推動的投資。在歐洲、中東和非洲地區，以固定匯率計算消費者銷售額成長了 9%，其中定價行動帶來 13% 的成長，但部分被銷量下降 4% 所抵銷。

Sales growth was broad-based across markets and categories. We remain at an elevated pricing environment in EMEA, and we expect volumes to improve as pricing [wins] in 2024. Constant currency consumer sales in the APAC region increased 31%, driven by a 26% volume increase, primarily due to the expected recovery in China. Outside of China, we also drove double-digit sales growth with strong volume and broad-based growth across all categories and markets.

各市場和品類的銷售成長都有廣泛基礎。我們在歐洲、中東和非洲地區的定價環境仍然較高，我們預計隨著2024 年定價的勝利，銷量將有所改善。在銷量成長26% 的推動下，亞太地區的固定貨幣消費者銷售成長了31%，這主要是由於預期的復甦在中國。在中國以外，我們也以強勁的銷售量和所有類別和市場的廣泛成長推動了兩位數的銷售成長。

Turning to our Flavor Solutions segment on Slide 14. We grew fourth quarter constant currency sales 5%, reflecting a 7% increase from pricing, offset by a 2% decrease from volume and product mix. Our growth momentum in this segment was exceptional through the third quarter. And even with a deceleration in the fourth quarter, our sales growth for the year was strong. In the Americas, Flavor Solutions constant currency sales rose 6% driven by pricing, as volume and product mix was comparable to the prior year. Sales growth was broad-based across the portfolio and led by branded foodservice.

轉向幻燈片 14 上的風味解決方案部門。第四季度按固定匯率計算銷售額增長了 5%，反映了定價增長 7%，但被銷量和產品組合下降 2% 所抵消。第三季我們在這一領域的成長勢頭非常出色。即使第四季成長放緩，我們今年的銷售成長仍然強勁。在美洲，Flavour Solutions 按固定匯率計算的銷售額在定價的推動下成長了 6%，銷售量和產品組合與前一年相當。整個產品組合的銷售成長基礎廣泛，並以品牌餐飲服務為主導。

In EMEA, constant currency sales increased 2%, with pricing actions contributing 14%, partially offset by a 3% impact from the divestiture of the Giotti canning business, a 9% decline in all other volume due to softness in some of our customers' volumes within their own businesses and a 1% impact from exiting a private label product line.

在歐洲、中東和非洲地區，以固定匯率計算銷售額增長了2%，其中定價行為貢獻了14%，部分被剝離Giotti 罐頭業務帶來的3% 的影響所抵消，而由於我們的一些客戶的疲軟，所有其他銷售量下降了9%。自己企業內的銷售量以及退出自有品牌產品線造成的 1% 的影響。

In the APAC region, Flavor Solutions sales grew 5% in constant currency, with a 6% contribution from pricing, offset by a 1% volume decline. Our business in China delivered strong growth. Outside of China, sales were negatively impacted by geopolitical boycotts in some of our quick service restaurant customers, as Brendan mentioned.

在亞太地區，風味解決方案銷售額按固定匯率計算增長了 5%，其中定價貢獻了 6%，但被銷量下降 1% 所抵消。我們在中國的業務實現了強勁成長。正如布倫丹所提到的，在中國境外，我們的一些快餐店客戶的地緣政治抵制對銷售產生了負面影響。

As seen on Slide 18, gross profit margin expanded 320 basis points in the fourth quarter versus the year ago period. Drivers in the quarter included favorable product mix in both segments and our CCI and GOE programs as well as effective price realization. Additionally, we [lapped] elevated costs related to some discrete issues in Flavor Solutions operations. Overall, we ended 2023 meeting the cost recovery plans we set as we entered the year. We are pleased with our gross margin expansion for the quarter and the year.

如投影片 18 所示，第四季毛利率比去年同期成長了 320 個基點。本季的驅動因素包括兩個細分市場的有利產品組合以及我們的 CCI 和 GOE 計劃以及有效的價格實現。此外，我們也增加了與風味解決方案營運中一些離散問題相關的成本。總體而言，我們在 2023 年結束時實現了進入這一年時制定的成本回收計劃。我們對本季和全年的毛利率擴張感到滿意。

Now moving to Slide 19. Selling, general and administrative expenses, or SG&A, increased relative to the fourth quarter of last year as higher employee incentive compensation expenses were partially offset by CCI and GOE cost savings. Brand marketing also increased compared to the fourth quarter of last year, and we expect to invest further in 2024 to support our brands. As a percentage of net sales, SG&A increased 190 basis points. Sales growth and gross margin expansion, partially offset by higher SG&A cost, resulted in a constant currency increase in adjusted operating income of 11% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.

現在轉到投影片 19。銷售、一般和管理費用（SG&A）相對於去年第四季有所增加，因為較高的員工激勵薪資費用被 CCI 和 GOE 成本節省部分抵銷。與去年第四季相比，品牌行銷也有所成長，我們預計 2024 年將進一步投資以支持我們的品牌。 SG&A 佔淨銷售額的百分比增加了 190 個基點。銷售成長和毛利率擴張（部分被較高的 SG&A 成本所抵消）導致調整後營業收入與 2022 年第四季相比持續成長 11%。

In constant currency, adjusted operating income in the Consumer segment was flat. And in Flavor Solutions, adjusted operating income increased 73% in constant currency. We remain committed to restoring Flavor Solutions' profitability. And in the fourth quarter, as expected, we drove significant margin expansion versus prior year in this segment. For the total company, we expanded our adjusted operating margin by 130 basis points in the fourth quarter and 100 basis points for the year, which reflects our commitment to increase our profit realization and positions us well to make investments early in 2024 to fuel top line growth.

以固定匯率計算，消費者部門調整後的營業收入持平。在風味解決方案領域，調整後營業收入以固定匯率計算成長了 73%。我們仍然致力於恢復風味解決方案的獲利能力。正如預期的那樣，第四季度我們在該領域的利潤率較上年大幅成長。就整個公司而言，我們在第四季度調整後的營業利潤率提高了130 個基點，全年提高了100 個基點，這反映了我們提高利潤實現的承諾，並使我們能夠在2024 年初進行投資以推動營收生長。

Turning to interest expense and income taxes on Slide 20. Our interest expense increased significantly over the fourth quarter of 2022, driven by the higher interest rate environment. And quickly touching on tax, our fourth quarter adjusted effective tax rate was 22.3% compared to 23.1% in the year-ago period. Both periods were favorably impacted by discrete tax items, with a more significant impact this year. Our income from unconsolidated operations in the fourth quarter reflects strong performance in our largest joint venture, McCormick de Mexico. We are the market leader with our McCormick branded mayonnaise, marmalade and mustard product lines in Mexico, and the business contributed meaningfully to our net income and operating cash flow results.

轉向幻燈片 20 上的利息支出和所得稅。在較高利率環境的推動下，我們的利息支出在 2022 年第四季大幅增加。說到稅收，我們在第四季調整後的有效稅率為 22.3%，而去年同期為 23.1%。這兩個時期都受到離散稅項的有利影響，今年的影響更為顯著。我們在第四季度未合併業務的收入反映了我們最大的合資企業 McCormick de Mexico 的強勁業績。我們是墨西哥味好美品牌蛋黃醬、果醬和芥末產品線的市場領導者，該業務對我們的淨利潤和營運現金流做出了重大貢獻。

At the bottom line, as shown on Slide 22, fourth quarter 2023 adjusted earnings per share was $0.85 as compared to $0.73 for the year ago period. The increase was attributable to higher operating income driven by gross margin expansion and the results from our McCormick de Mexico joint venture I just mentioned.

從底線來看，如幻燈片 22 所示，2023 年第四季調整後每股收益為 0.85 美元，而去年同期為 0.73 美元。這一增長歸因於毛利率擴張以及我剛才提到的麥考密克墨西哥合資企業的業績推動了營業收入的增加。

On Slide 23, we've summarized highlights for cash flow and the year-end balance sheet. Our cash flow from operations was strong in 2023, $1.2 billion, nearly double our cash flow of $652 million in 2022. The increase was primarily driven by higher operating income and working capital improvements, including lower inventory. We returned $419 million of cash to our shareholders through dividends and used $264 million for capital expenditures in 2023. Our capital expenditures include projects to increase capacity and capabilities to meet growing demand, advance our digital transformation and optimize our cost structure.

在投影片 23 中，我們總結了現金流量和年末資產負債表的要點。 2023 年，我們的營運現金流強勁，達到 12 億美元，幾乎是 2022 年現金流 6.52 億美元的兩倍。這一增長主要是由於營業收入增加和營運資本改善（包括庫存減少）推動的。我們透過股息向股東返還4.19 億美元現金，並在2023 年使用2.64 億美元用於資本支出。我們的資本支出包括旨在提高產能和能力以滿足不斷增長的需求、推進數位轉型和優化成本結構的專案.

Our priority remains to have a balanced use of cash, funding investments to drive growth, returning a significant portion to our shareholders through dividends and paying down debt. We remain committed to a strong investment-grade rating. We expect 2024 to be another year of strong cash flow driven by profit and working capital initiatives. We are well positioned to continue paying down debt and coupled with ending 2023 with a leverage ratio slightly above our 2024 year-end target of 3x. We are pleased to be deleveraging faster than expected.

我們的首要任務仍然是平衡使用現金，為投資提供資金以推動成長，透過股息和償還債務向股東返還很大一部分。我們仍然致力於維持強勁的投資等級評級。我們預計 2024 年將是在利潤和營運資本計畫的推動下現金流強勁的另一年。我們有能力繼續償還債務，並且在 2023 年底槓桿率略高於我們 2024 年底目標的 3 倍。我們很高興去槓桿化速度快於預期。

Now turning to our 2024 financial outlook on Slide 24. Our 2024 outlook reflects our prioritized investments in key categories to strengthen volume trends and drive long-term sustainable growth, while appreciating the uncertainty of the consumer environment. We are well positioned with our cost savings programs to fuel investments for volume growth as well as generate operating margin expansion. The balancing of margin expansion and investments to drive growth is critical to our success, not only in 2024, but also into 2025 and beyond as we remain committed and confident in our long-term algorithm.

現在轉向投影片 24 上的 2024 年財務展望。我們的 2024 年展望反映了我們對關鍵類別的優先投資，以加強銷售趨勢並推動長期永續成長，同時認識到消費環境的不確定性。我們的成本節約計劃處於有利位置，可以推動投資以實現銷售成長並擴大營業利潤。平衡利潤擴張和投資以推動成長對於我們的成功至關重要，不僅是在 2024 年，而且在 2025 年及以後，我們仍然對我們的長期演算法保持承諾和信心。

Turning to the details. First, currency rates are expected to unfavorably impact sales, adjusted operating income and adjusted earnings per share by approximately 1%. On the top line, we expect constant currency net sales to range between a decline of 1% to growth of 1%. We expect a favorable impact related to the wrap of last year's pricing actions, most significantly in the first half, partially offset by our price [gap] management investments that will drive volume growth.

轉向細節。首先，匯率預計將對銷售額、調整後營業收入和調整後每股收益產生約 1% 的不利影響。在營收方面，我們預計以固定匯率計算淨銷售額將下降 1% 至成長 1%。我們預計去年定價行動的結束將產生有利影響，尤其是在上半年，但我們的價格[缺口]管理投資將部分抵消，這將推動銷售成長。

We expect several factors to impact our volume and product mix over the course of the year. First, we expect to drive improved volume trends as the year progresses through the strength of our brands and the intentional and targeted investments we are making. Our initiatives will take time to materialize, and we are expecting to return to volume growth during the second half of the year, notwithstanding any new macroeconomic headwinds.

我們預計今年有幾個因素會影響我們的銷售和產品組合。首先，我們預計隨著時間的推移，透過我們品牌的實力以及我們正在進行的有意和有針對性的投資，推動銷售趨勢的改善。我們的舉措需要時間才能實現，儘管有任何新的宏觀經濟阻力，但我們預計下半年將恢復銷售成長。

We have made strategic decisions to optimize our portfolio for profitable growth that will also impact volumes during the year. We decided to exit DSD of our bagged Hispanic spices in Americas Consumer and to exit a private label product line in EMEA Flavor Solutions, both will impact the first quarter. And we divested the Giotti canning business, which will impact us through the third quarter. We expect to continue to prune lower-margin business through the year as we optimize our portfolio, the impact of which will be reflected within the natural fluctuation of sales.

我們已經做出了策略決策來優化我們的產品組合以實現獲利成長，這也將影響今年的銷售量。我們決定退出美洲消費者市場中袋裝西班牙香料的 DSD，並退出歐洲、中東和非洲風味解決方案中的自有品牌產品線，這兩項都會影響第一季。我們剝離了喬蒂罐頭業務，這將影響我們整個第三季。我們預計，隨著我們優化投資組合，全年將繼續削減利潤率較低的業務，其影響將反映在銷售的自然波動中。

And finally, in China, our food away-from-home business, which is included in APAC Consumer, is expected to be impacted by slower demand in the first half of the year, and as such, we expect China Consumer sales to be comparable to 2023 for the full year. While we recognize there has been volatility in demand in China, we continue to believe in the long-term growth trajectory of our China business.

最後，在中國，我們包含在亞太地區消費者中的外賣業務預計將受到上半年需求放緩的影響，因此，我們預計中國消費者銷售額將與2023年全年。儘管我們認識到中國的需求存在波動，但我們仍然相信我們中國業務的長期成長軌跡。

Moving to gross margin. Our 2024 gross margin is projected to range between 50 to 100 basis points higher than 2023. This gross margin expansion reflects favorable impacts from pricing, product mix and the cost savings from our CCI and GOE programs, partially offset by the anticipated impact of a low single-digit increase in cost inflation and our increased investments. Additionally, we expect to begin reducing our dual running costs related to our transition to the new Flavor Solutions facility in the U.K. in the back half of the year.

轉向毛利率。我們2024 年的毛利率預計將比2023 年高出50 至100 個基點。毛利率的成長反映了定價、產品組合以及我們的CCI 和GOE 計畫節省的成本的有利影響，但部分被低收入的預期影響所抵消。成本通膨和我們的投資增加了個位數。此外，我們預計將在今年下半年開始降低與過渡到英國新風味解決方案工廠相關的雙重運作成本。

Moving to adjusted operating income. We expect 4% to 6% constant currency growth. This growth is projected to be driven by our gross margin expansion as well as SG&A cost savings from CCI and GOE programs, partially offset by our investments to drive volume growth, including brand marketing. We expect our brand marketing spend to increase high single digits in 2024, reflecting a double-digit increase in investments, partially offset by CCI savings. And we expect our increased investments in brand marketing to be concentrated in the first half of the year and weighted more to the first quarter.

轉向調整後的營業收入。我們預計貨幣成長率為 4% 至 6%。這一成長預計將由我們的毛利率擴張以及 CCI 和 GOE 計劃節省的 SG&A 成本推動，但部分會被我們為推動銷售成長（包括品牌行銷）而進行的投資所抵消。我們預計我們的品牌行銷支出將在 2024 年實現高個位數成長，反映出投資的兩位數成長，但部分被 CCI 節省所抵消。我們預計在品牌行銷方面增加的投資將集中在上半年，並且對第一季的比重更大。

Overall, based on the flow-through of our volume expectations and the timing of our investments, we expect our profit to be less robust in the first half and anticipate strong profit growth in the second half of the year. Our 2023 adjusted effective income tax rate projection of approximately 22% is based upon our estimated mix of earnings by geography as well as factoring in discrete items. We expect our rate to be higher in the first half of the year compared to the second half of the year. We expect a mid-teens increase in our income from unconsolidated operations, reflecting the strong performance we anticipate in McCormick de Mexico.

整體而言，根據我們的銷售預期和投資時機，我們預計上半年利潤將不那麼強勁，預計下半年利潤將強勁成長。我們對 2023 年調整後有效所得稅率的預測約為 22%，這是基於我們按地區劃分的收入組合以及離散項目的估計。我們預計上半年的成長率將高於下半年。我們預計來自未合併業務的收入將出現十幾歲左右的成長，這反映了我們對墨西哥麥考密克公司的強勁業績的預期。

To summarize, our 2024 adjusted earnings per share projection of $2.80 to $2.85 reflects a 4% to 6% increase compared to 2023, or 5% to 7% in constant currency. As Brendan noted, we are dedicated to improving volumes. We are prioritizing our investments to drive impactful results and return to differentiated and sustainable volume-led growth. We remain confident in the underlying fundamentals of our business and delivering on the profitable growth reflected in our 2024 financial outlook.

總而言之，我們對 2024 年調整後每股收益的預測為 2.80 美元至 2.85 美元，較 2023 年增長 4% 至 6%，以固定匯率計算增長 5% 至 7%。正如布倫丹所指出的，我們致力於提高產量。我們正在優先考慮我們的投資，以推動有影響力的成果，並回歸差異化和可持續的數量主導型成長。我們對我們業務的基本面以及實現 2024 年財務展望中所反映的獲利成長仍然充滿信心。

Thank you, Mike. Before moving to Q&A, I would like to provide some closing comments on Slide 25.

謝謝你，麥克。在開始問答之前，我想對投影片 25 提供一些結束語。

Our business is moving in the right direction. We strengthened our margins, significantly improved our cash flow and are deleveraging ahead of expectations. From a top line perspective, volume trends improved sequentially through the third quarter, but fourth quarter performance was disappointing. Parts of our portfolio grew underscoring that our strategies and initiatives are working. In areas that were challenged, we know the drivers and are addressing those that we control. And combined with the initiatives we have in place, we fully expect we will drive improved trends and build to volume growth during the second half of 2024.

我們的業務正在朝著正確的方向發展。我們提高了利潤率，顯著改善了現金流，並且去槓桿化的速度超出了預期。從營收角度來看，第三季的銷售趨勢持續改善，但第四季的表現令人失望。我們的部分投資組合的成長突顯了我們的策略和舉措正在發揮作用。在面臨挑戰的領域，我們了解驅動因素，並正在解決我們控制的領域。結合我們已經採取的舉措，我們完全預期我們將在 2024 年下半年推動趨勢改善並實現銷售成長。

We are committed to recovering our margins in both segments to historical levels, while making investments to drive sustainable top line growth. The fundamentals that have driven our historical performance remain in place, and we are as diligent as ever in driving value for our employees, consumers, customers and shareholders in 2024 and beyond.

我們致力於將這兩個領域的利潤率恢復到歷史水平，同時進行投資以推動可持續的營收成長。推動我們歷史績效的基本面仍然存在，我們將一如既往地努力為 2024 年及以後的員工、消費者、客戶和股東創造價值。

I am excited for the year ahead, which will be my first full year as CEO. I plan to drive an ambitious agenda with greater competitive posture and more intentionality that capitalize on our strong business fundamentals as well as the value of our brands and capabilities and have driven our past success.

我對未來的一年感到興奮，這將是我作為執行長的第一個完整的一年。我計劃以更強的競爭態勢和更強的意圖來推動一項雄心勃勃的議程，利用我們強大的業務基礎以及我們的品牌和能力的價值，並推動我們過去的成功。

McCormick is a growth company, a global leader in flavor, with a long-term orientation and a strong culture. I am committed to advance our leadership and our differentiation. Our strategic pillars: growth, performance and people, remain consistent. I am energized to further incorporate my mark on our growth plans. In a fast-changing global environment, we need to build on our competitive strengths and opportunities to remain a differentiated market leader. As such, I would like to share the 5 priorities that the entire McCormick organization is rallying behind as we enter 2024.

味好美是一家成長型公司，是調味料領域的全球領導者，擁有長遠的發展方向和濃厚的文化。我致力於提升我們的領導地位和差異化。我們的策略支柱：成長、績效和人員保持一致。我有動力進一步將我的印記納入我們的發展計畫。在快速變化的全球環境中，我們需要鞏固競爭優勢和機會，以維持差異化的市場領導者地位。因此，我想分享整個味好美組織在進入 2024 年時所支持的 5 個優先事項。

First, strengthen our global leadership in core categories. That means growing volume and market share in herbs, spices and seasonings and condiments, strengthening our leadership in heat and increasing the global scale of our flavors business and expanding our branded foodservice business. Second, drive profitable growth and higher returns on investments. We want to restore the operating margin we have lost the last several years. But importantly, do so in a measured way, using our cost savings and operating leverage to fuel top line growth in the near term that will drive sustainable profits for years to come.

一是強化核心品類全球領先地位。這意味著增加香草、香料、調味料和調味品的銷售和市場份額，加強我們在熱力方面的領導地位，擴大我們的香料業務的全球規模，並擴大我們的品牌餐飲服務業務。其次，推動獲利成長和更高的投資回報。我們希望恢復過去幾年失去的營業利益率。但重要的是，要謹慎行事，利用我們的成本節約和營運槓桿來推動短期內的營收成長，從而推動未來幾年的可持續利潤。

Third, accelerate our digital transformation to enhance how we serve consumers and customers to work faster and more efficiently and to strengthen decision-making by further leveraging data and insights. Fourth, continue to elevate our power of people culture and build the next generation of leaders and capabilities that will drive McCormick's success well into future years.

第三，加速我們的數位轉型，以增強我們為消費者和客戶提供服務的方式，讓他們更快、更有效率地工作，並透過進一步利用數據和洞察來加強決策。第四，繼續提升我們的人才文化力量，培養下一代領導者和能力，推動味好美公司在未來取得成功。

And finally, all these contribute to our fifth priority, which is to strengthen and expand our system of competitive advantages to make McCormick even more effective in the marketplace. Our advantages are critical to ensuring we deliver on our growth potential. Simply put, I am committed to harnessing the collective expertise of our talented McCormick team with a renewed sense of urgency and speed to deliver on these priorities, resulting in long-term, sustainable profitable growth that will be industry-leading.

最後，所有這些都有助於我們的第五個優先事項，即加強和擴大我們的競爭優勢體系，使味好美在市場上更有效。我們的優勢對於確保我們發揮成長潛力至關重要。簡而言之，我致力於利用我們才華橫溢的味好美團隊的集體專業知識，以新的緊迫感和速度來實現這些優先事項，從而實現行業領先的長期、可持續的盈利增長。

While 2024 is an important year of investments, we are confident in our capabilities and enthusiastic about some early signposts of success. And we are committed to returning to the type of growth that investors expect from McCormick. The foundation has been laid and building blocks are in place, and I look forward to sharing more about them at CAGNY in February. As I said, I am excited for the year ahead and delivering on our long-term objectives.

雖然 2024 年是重要的投資年，但我們對自己的能力充滿信心，並對一些早期成功的跡象充滿熱情。我們致力於恢復投資人對味好美公司的期望成長類型。基礎已經奠定，建造模組也已就位，我期待二月份在 CAGNY 分享更多相關資訊。正如我所說，我對未來的一年以及實現我們的長期目標感到興奮。

Finally, before turning to your questions, I want to recognize McCormick employees around the world for their contributions in 2023, and the momentum they are carrying into 2024, and reiterate my confidence that, together, we will drive the profitable growth reflected in our 2024 outlook.

最後，在回答您的問題之前，我想對世界各地的味好美員工在2023 年做出的貢獻以及他們為2024 年帶來的動力表示認可，並重申我的信心，即我們將共同推動2024 年的獲利成長外表。

Now for your questions.

現在回答你的問題。

(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安德魯·拉扎爾（Andrew Lazar）。

Great. Maybe to start off, given where you ended 2023 and coupled with your commentary on investing in the business, I guess, can you tell us a bit about how you're thinking about volume as you progress through '24, and I guess how you would be positioned going into '25?

偉大的。也許首先，考慮到你在2023 年結束的情況，再加上你對投資該業務的評論，我想，你能否告訴我們一些關於你在24 年進展過程中如何考慮銷量，我猜你是如何考慮的？進入'25會被定位嗎？

Well, Andrew, thanks for the question. Let me start by commenting on how we ended '23 from a volume perspective. While 4Q -- the fourth quarter was below our expectations, there were bright spots because our actions are working in a number of categories that are critical for us. And for the challenging areas, we know what the issues are, and I'm pleased with the speed and urgency with which the team is addressing them. I guess just to step back, pre-pandemic, we consistently drove volume growth across our business in both segments.

嗯，安德魯，謝謝你的提問。首先讓我從成交量的角度來評論我們如何結束 23 年。雖然第四季的業績低於我們的預期，但也有一些亮點，因為我們的行動在許多對我們至關重要的類別中發揮了作用。對於具有挑戰性的領域，我們知道問題是什麼，我對團隊解決這些問題的速度和緊迫性感到滿意。我想退一步來說，在大流行之前，我們一直在推動這兩個領域業務的銷售成長。

And the macro dynamics of the last several years disrupted this. And so we see 2024 as an important moment to get back there as soon as we can. We do have a bias towards even greater investment on the business. And as I've said, we're approaching our plans differently with even greater competitive posture, greater intentionality towards driving volume growth and share in those key and really attractive categories.

過去幾年的宏觀動態擾亂了這一點。因此，我們認為 2024 年是盡快回到這一目標的重要時刻。我們確實傾向於加大對業務的投資。正如我所說，我們正在以不同的方式實施我們的計劃，以更大的競爭姿態，更積極地推動銷售成長，並在這些關鍵且真正有吸引力的類別中佔據份額。

I think where we stand at this point in 2024 is we appear to be moving beyond those macro dynamics. Yet at the same time, we recognize the uncertainty of the environment, and therefore, I'm taking a cautious view on that outlook. From a consumption standpoint, we do expect to exit 2024 in a stronger position than how we exited in 2023. And importantly, though, we're also entering 2024 in a position of strength in terms of our ability to invest in the business and expand margins. So we're able to intentionally focus those investments on areas that we expect will have the greatest impact on improving volume performance and driving sustainable profit growth.

我認為，到 2024 年，我們似乎正在超越這些宏觀動態。但同時，我們認識到環境的不確定性，因此，我對這一前景持謹慎態度。從消費的角度來看，我們確實預計在2024 年退出時會比2023 年退出時處於更有利的位置。但重要的是，就我們投資業務和擴張的能力而言，進入2024 年時我們也處於更有利的位置邊距。因此，我們能夠有意識地將這些投資集中在我們預計將對提高銷售表現和推動永續利潤成長產生最大影響的領域。

We expect our volumes to improve as we progress through the year and to drive the volume growth during the second half. This momentum is expected to continue into 2025, notwithstanding any new surprises on sort of the macroeconomic headwinds that might be out there. And I believe our investments will drive quality earnings growth and will put us on a trajectory of -- on that long-term algorithm. So those are the -- that's the way we're thinking about exiting '23, how we're thinking about '24 and as we go into '25.

我們預計，隨著今年的進展，我們的銷售量將會有所改善，並推動下半年銷售的成長。儘管宏觀經濟逆風可能會出現新的意外，但預計這種勢頭將持續到 2025 年。我相信我們的投資將推動高品質的獲利成長，並使我們走上長期演算法的軌道。這就是我們考慮退出 23 年、考慮 24 年以及進入 25 年的方式。

And then I guess a good segue to that is how is that you're able to make investments to drive the top line and yet still improve margins. I was hoping you could help us a bit with that perspective.

然後我想一個很好的解決方案是你如何能夠進行投資來推動收入，同時仍然提高利潤率。我希望你能從這個角度幫助我們一些。

Well, as I said, we're entering '24 in a position of strength after navigating these dynamics over the last several years. And I'll turn it over to Mike just to give some context, and I'll wrap it up with a few other thoughts.

嗯，正如我所說，在經歷了過去幾年的這些動態之後，我們進入了 24 年，處於強勢地位。我會將其交給邁克，只是為了提供一些背景信息，然後我將用一些其他想法來總結它。

Yes. Andrew, yes, as you saw from our results, we ended the year with strong operating margin performance, and for the full year, up 100 basis points. A big key to our recovery was recovering the cost increases through pricing. Obviously, 20% cost increases 2 years ago, over 10% last year, there was a big job to do that. So we're able to do that in 2023, which helped our margins. Our CCI and GOE programs, we've talked about a lot, really performed and give a strong momentum, frankly, into 2024.

是的。安德魯，是的，正如您從我們的業績中看到的那樣，我們以強勁的營業利潤率結束了這一年，全年增長了 100 個基點。我們復甦的一個重要關鍵是透過定價來彌補成本增加。顯然，兩年前成本增加了 20%，去年增加了 10% 以上，要做到這一點需要付出很大的努力。所以我們能夠在 2023 年做到這一點，這有助於提高我們的利潤。坦白說，我們的 CCI 和 GOE 計劃已經討論了很多，並且確實發揮了作用，並為 2024 年提供了強勁動力。

2024, as you think about this year, we're showing some margin improvement about 80 basis points. And with low single-digit inflation, and you think about 4 or 5 years ago when we had low single-digit inflation, CCI really works for us. You take a little bit of pricing, and we're having some pricing wrap in 2024 and then you can decide what to do with CCI. And CCI, some of it drops to the bottom line through margin improvement, we're making those increased revenue price gap investments, which we've always done to some degree of that, but also our brand A&P up double digits is another way we're using that CCI this year. So it's kind of a sweet spot for us at low single-digit inflation environment as we think about it.

到 2024 年，正如您想像的那樣，我們的利潤率將提高約 80 個基點。在低個位數通膨的情況下，想想 4 或 5 年前，當我們的通膨率較低時，CCI 確實對我們有用。您進行一些定價，我們將在 2024 年進行一些定價包裝，然後您可以決定如何處理 CCI。 CCI，其中一些透過利潤率提高而下降到底線，我們正在進行那些增加收入價格差距的投資，我們一直在某種程度上這樣做，而我們的品牌 A&P 成長兩位數是我們的另一種方式今年正在使用CCI。因此，在我們看來，在低個位數通膨環境下，這對我們來說是一個最佳時機。

And the portfolio optimization we've talked about last year, which -- a bit of that continues into this year. So again, helping drive our margins up. We want to recover over time the gross profit margins we had pre-pandemic, but we're doing it judiciously.

我們去年討論過的投資組合優化，其中一部分將持續到今年。再次強調，這有助於提高我們的利潤率。我們希望隨著時間的推移恢復到疫情前的毛利率，但我們的做法是明智的。

Mike said on sort of this portfolio optimization, we really do see that working. So we did make a couple of intentional moves as you know. That's really, I think, allowing us to invest even more in the part of the portfolio, which we know will be the strongest. And then we did make a lot of targeted investments in '23. So that's yielding results. We like where that's going. And it's achieving high ROIs, and that's carrying us into '24. So I do believe this intentional investment in those categories that are core to us will really be the biggest drivers of profitable growth. And we should see that margin accretion from that mix of sales. So we really do believe we're operating in a position of strength there.

麥克說，在這種投資組合優化方面，我們確實看到了這種做法。如您所知，我們確實採取了一些有意的舉措。我認為，這確實讓我們能夠對投資組合中最強大的部分進行更多投資。然後我們確實在 23 年進行了很多有針對性的投資。這樣就產生了結果。我們喜歡這樣的發展方向。它正在實現高投資回報率，這將我們帶入“24”。因此，我確實相信，對我們核心類別的有意投資將真正成為獲利成長的最大推動力。我們應該會看到這種銷售組合帶來的利潤增加。因此，我們確實相信我們在這方面處於優勢地位。

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

我們的下一個問題來自肯‧戈德曼 (Ken Goldman) 與摩根大通 (JPMorgan) 的對話。

I wanted to ask about Consumer Americas. In particular, you spoke today about managing price gaps, maybe a bit more tightly ahead. We've started to hear from some other food producers that in the U.S., maybe some promotional lifts aren't working quite as well as expected. I guess I was just curious if this is a dynamic you've experienced as well. And I really am trying to get a sense just how much more investment is needed to narrow the price gaps you mentioned. And if in general, really consumer behavior in the U.S. is, in some way, more difficult to navigate than what it's been in past challenging times or kind of pretty much what you expect to see as consumers tighten their wallets a little bit.

我想問一下美洲消費者的情況。特別是，您今天談到了管理價格差距，也許更緊密。我們已經開始從其他一些食品生產商那裡聽說，在美國，一些促銷活動可能沒有達到預期的效果。我想我只是好奇你是否也經歷過這種動態。我確實想了解需要多少投資才能縮小你提到的價格差距。總的來說，在某種程度上，美國的消費者行為確實比過去充滿挑戰的時期更難駕馭，或者在消費者稍微收緊錢包時，你會看到這樣的情況。

Okay. Let me kick off and -- you had a couple of questions in there. The first, I think, had to do with just promotional lifts and what we're seeing, and I'm not necessarily trying to compare to the comments of other companies. But what we're seeing right now in our business today is we're not seeing huge declines or sort of reduced significant lifts of promotion. But there's an important consideration there, which is we're really a heavy base business. We don't have a ton of, if you think about our percentage of consumption. We're in the 90% range in terms of base consumption, and the rest is really coming through promotions.

好的。讓我開始——你們有幾個問題。我認為，第一個問題與促銷活動和我們所看到的情況有關，我不一定要與其他公司的評論進行比較。但我們目前在業務中看到的是，我們沒有看到促銷活動大幅下降或大幅減少。但有一個重要的考慮因素，那就是我們確實是一家基礎業務。如果你考慮一下我們的消費百分比，我們並沒有太多。就基本消費而言，我們處於 90% 的範圍內，其餘的實際上是透過促銷獲得的。

So we're not overly reliant there. And I would just say that it's probably an area that I don't know that it's fair to draw a ton of correlation between our performance and others. Now price gap management, in terms of how we're approaching that, we're looking across our portfolio. And just in the case of like spices and seasonings, it's a really broad portfolio with many subcategories underneath there. And each and every items, I mean, you take compare Black Pepper to Montreal Steak, they all have different price elasticities and where the consumer is willing to go.

所以我們並沒有過度依賴那裡。我只想說，這可能是一個我不知道在我們的表現和其他人之間得出大量相關性是否公平的領域。現在，就我們如何處理價格差距管理而言，我們正在審視我們的投資組合。就像香料和調味料一樣，它是一個非常廣泛的產品組合，下面有許多子類別。我的意思是，你將黑胡椒與蒙特利爾牛排進行比較，它們都有不同的價格彈性以及消費者願意去的地方。

And so we have been surgically looking at this at a SKU level to make sure that we're doing the right thing to really drive overall growth in volume and unit consumption. And so that's allowed us to really, I think, be very, very sharp about how we drive this investment in a targeted way to make sure that we're starting to drive volume growth.

因此，我們一直在 SKU 層面上嚴格審視這個問題，以確保我們正在做正確的事情，真正推動銷售和單位消耗的整體成長。因此，我認為，這使我們能夠非常非常敏銳地了解如何有針對性地推動這項投資，以確保我們開始推動銷售成長。

In 2023, we saw a lot of improvement in parts of our business where we started to apply this. And I think like I said on the call, a good example was Black Pepper or Vanilla, and we started to really see the -- not only the volume of the unit share gain. And so that gave us really, I think, a lot of kind of stair-step into those investments. And that's the way we're going to do it in '24 too. We're expanding that investment. We're going to continue to look at the line, we assess it, honestly, every month and taking a look at where we see the individual products perform across the shelf, and then we decide what we need to do from a revenue and category standpoint.

2023 年，我們在開始應用此技術的部分業務中看到了很大的改進。我認為就像我在電話會議上所說的那樣，黑胡椒或香草就是一個很好的例子，我們開始真正看到——不僅僅是單位份額增益的數量。我認為，這確實為我們在這些投資方面邁出了很大的一步。這也是我們 24 年將要採取的方式。我們正在擴大投資。我們將繼續關注這條生產線，每個月我們都會誠實地評估它，看看我們在貨架上看到的各個產品的表現，然後我們根據收入和類別來決定我們需要做什麼立場。

But I wanted to put on top of that, we're applying more A&P to the business, too, at the same time. And I think that's really important. We are seeing really good performance from A&P, and it encourages us to continue to spend more on the business. And so you'll see more of that from us, I think, going forward. I'm not sure if I captured all your questions there, but let me know if I did.

但我想最重要的是，我們同時也在業務中應用更多的 A&P。我認為這非常重要。我們看到 A&P 的業績非常出色，這鼓勵我們繼續在業務上投入更多資金。所以我想，未來你會從我們身上看到更多這樣的事。我不確定我是否回答了您的所有問題，但請告訴我是否回答了。

I think 2, maybe 1 point. As we get the price differentials right, the advertising is even more effective. And that's important. And we're happy with the ROIs on our A&P, but it gets even better when you have the right price differential, as we've seen with Black Pepper, Vanilla and other categories.

我認為2分，也許1分。當我們獲得正確的價格差異時，廣告就會更有效。這很重要。我們對 A&P 的投資回報率感到滿意，但當你有合適的價差時，它會變得更好，正如我們在黑胡椒、香草和其他類別中看到的那樣。

No, that's helpful. And just a very quick follow-up. I wasn't quite sure I picked up on what you think the most important tactics may need to be to get momentum rolling in your China Consumer business to the extent you want, and maybe how quickly some of those actions can start to take effect.

不，這很有幫助。並且只是一個非常快速的後續行動。我不太確定我是否理解了您認為最重要的策略可能需要什麼，才能使您的中國消費者業務發展勢頭達到您想要的程度，以及其中一些行動可能多快才能開始生效。

On China, just a little bit of context here, our food away-from-home business, which is included in Asia Pacific Consumer, it definitely will -- we expect to see slower demand, especially sort of in the first half of the year. But we do expect overall China sales in 2024 to be comparable to 2023. But maybe for some more additional context. Mike and I spent a week in China in early January, just actually a few weeks ago, just visiting our teams there and assessing business conditions.

關於中國，這裡只是一點背景信息，我們的外食業務（包含在亞太消費者中）肯定會——我們預計需求會放緩，尤其是在今年上半年。但我們確實預期 2024 年中國的整體銷售額將與 2023 年相當。但也許還有更多其他背景。麥克和我在一月初在中國待了一周，實際上就在幾週前，只是拜訪了我們在那裡的團隊並評估了業務狀況。

And I would say, broadly, our outlook for the Chinese consumer does remain cautious. There's a number of indicators that kind of point to this. There's high unemployment with young adults, low consumer confidence. We see consumers with a reluctance to spend. And uniquely in our business, we tend to serve the smaller independent restaurants, particularly in Central China, and we see them losing traffic to larger chains and QSRs because they're really driving either really strong value, or they're winning on just even more store growth overall.

我想說，總的來說，我們對中國消費者的前景仍然保持謹慎。有很多指標都顯示了這一點。年輕人失業率高，消費者信心低。我們看到消費者不願意花錢。在我們的業務中，我們傾向於為較小的獨立餐廳提供服務，特別是在華中地區，我們看到他們的客流量被大型連鎖店和快餐店奪走，因為他們確實在推動真正強大的價值，或者他們只是在均勻的基礎上獲勝整體商店增長更多。

And so we see this playing out in the retail category there, especially with the modern trade. Just to share a quick anecdote, as we were there, I took one afternoon just to walk around and, actually, I forgot to pack a tie. So I had to go buy a tie, go to an apartment store. And what struck me was really a lot of movement in people outside than on the streets. And I want to go get a cup of coffee. It's kind of empty. Go to the department store, not spoke with anybody almost. And so there's just not really a lot of active spending. We see a lot of people out and about the mobilities there, and it's returned, but we're not seeing the spending. And I think it's broadly sort of an example of what we are observing as we were in the market there.

因此，我們看到這種情況正在那裡的零售類別中發揮作用，尤其是在現代貿易中。只是為了分享一個小軼事，當我們在那裡時，我花了一個下午的時間四處走走，實際上，我忘了帶領帶。所以我不得不去買一條領帶，去一家公寓商店。令我印象深刻的是，外面的人比街上的人流動得多。我想去喝杯咖啡。有點空虛。去百貨公司，幾乎沒有跟任何人說話。因此，主動支出並不多。我們看到很多人外出，了解那裡的交通情況，然後又回來了，但我們沒有看到支出。我認為這大致是我們在市場上觀察到的情況的一個例子。

Having said that, though, like we do in other regions, we do have plans to really address the change in trends with the Chinese consumer. And we do expect our Flavor Solutions business to be a bit stronger this year just due to the QSR trends. But we do expect a gradual recovery in China, starting probably more in the second half of '24. And the exact pace of growth will really be determined by how that macroeconomic parameter kind of plays out and consumer confidence plans over the next few quarters. But we really do continue to believe in the long-term growth trajectory of this market and are working to strengthen those plans as we go through '24.

儘管如此，就像我們在其他地區所做的那樣，我們確實有計劃真正應對中國消費者的趨勢變化。我們確實預計，由於 QSR 趨勢，今年我們的風味解決方案業務將會更加強勁。但我們確實預期中國將逐步復甦，可能在 24 年下半年開始復甦。確切的成長速度實際上將取決於宏觀經濟參數的表現以及未來幾季的消費者信心計劃。但我們確實繼續相信這個市場的長期成長軌跡，並在 24 年期間努力加強這些計劃。

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

我們的下一個問題來自亞歷克西婭·霍華德和伯恩斯坦的對話。

Okay. So your sales algorithm for 2024 is obviously below where it would normally be at minus 1% to plus 1%. Can you quantify how much of a headwind are these deliberate decisions to exit the DSD business, to divest canning, to exit low-margin business in Europe? We just want to get a sense for how much is you choosing to exit versus what the underlying numbers are.

好的。因此，您 2024 年的銷售演算法顯然低於通常的負 1% 到正 1% 的水平。您能否量化這些退出 DSD 業務、剝離罐頭業務、退出歐洲低利潤業務的深思熟慮的決定有多大阻力？我們只想了解您選擇退出的金額與基本數字是多少。

Alexia, yes, it's around 1% for Q1, but then it really peters out the rest of the year. So very small the rest of the year, but 1% for Q1 as we lapped the decisions we made last year.

Alexia，是的，第一季的成長率約為 1%，但在今年剩餘的時間裡它確實逐漸消失。今年剩餘時間的影響很小，但第一季的影響很小，因為我們放棄了去年做出的決定。

Got it. Okay. And then the market share trends in U.S. measured channels are obviously what everybody seems to have their eye on right now. Do you have a view, given your price gap management and the marketing spending investments, the innovation pickup, when we might start to see that improve sequentially and when we might even start to see that turn positive again? Just wondering how long it's going to take to start to see those benefits in the share line.

知道了。好的。美國測量通路的市場佔有率趨勢顯然是現在每個人都在關注的。考慮到你們的價格差距管理和行銷支出投資以及創新的加速，你們是否認為我們什麼時候可以開始看到這種情況連續改善，甚至什麼時候我們可能開始看到這種情況再次轉為正值？只是想知道需要多長時間才能開始在共享線路中看到這些好處。

Well, Alexia, thanks for the question. We never really project exactly what to expect and share because there's just a lot of dynamics that might happen at the shelf. But I would point to how we're talking about volume and our outlook on volume as we think about the first half, the second half and as we expect to kind of grow volume in the back half of the year. That certainly will have an influence on what we see play out in share performance. But we tend not to sort of specifically tell you. I don't think that there is a specific quarter I can tell you when that's going to happen.

好吧，亞歷克西婭，謝謝你的提問。我們從來沒有真正準確地預測預期和分享的內容，因為貨架上可能會發生很多動態。但我想指出的是，當我們考慮上半年、下半年以及我們預計下半年銷量會有所增長時，我們如何談論銷量以及我們對銷量的展望。這肯定會對我們看到的股票表現產生影響。但我們往往不會具體告訴您。我認為我無法告訴你具體的季度何時會發生這種情況。

Our next question comes from the line of Max Gumport with BNP Paribas.

我們的下一個問題來自法國巴黎銀行的馬克斯‧岡波特 (Max Gumport)。

With regard to cadence on the top line, it sounds like you've got volume trends that could improve as you go through the year with even growth in the second half, but then you've got the impact of last year's pricing actions, which will wane as we go through the year. Would you expect those 2 factors to roughly offset each other, such that organic net sales growth is relatively consistent through the year? Or is there any net sales cadence we should be keeping in mind?

就營收節奏而言，聽起來銷售趨勢可能會隨著全年的成長而改善，下半年甚至會出現成長，但你會受到去年定價行為的影響，這隨著這一年的過去，它會逐漸減弱。您是否預期這兩個因素會大致相互抵消，從而使全年有機淨銷售額成長相對穩定？或者我們應該記住什麼淨銷售節奏？

I mean the pricing, Max, is really focused on the first half a bit more in the first quarter based on the timing of our pricings. I mean the volume growth is sequential across both segments. And as you know, based on our fourth quarter performance, Flavor Solutions is exiting the year a little better trajectory than -- or at least base than Consumer. So as you model those things, you think about sequential improvement to get to that 0 to negative 2 volume growth kind of the first half, second half story. And then pricing is really heavily weighted to the first half, primarily the first quarter.

我的意思是，Max，根據我們的定價時間，定價實際上更多地集中在第一季的上半年。我的意思是兩個細分市場的銷售成長都是連續的。如您所知，根據我們第四季度的業績，風味解決方案今年的表現比消費者要好一些，或者至少比消費者的基礎要好一些。因此，當您對這些事物進行建模時，您會考慮連續改進，以實現前半部分和後半部分故事中 0 到負 2 的銷量增長。然後，定價實際上對上半年（主要是第一季）影響很大。

And then as a follow-up, you've characterized your outlook as embedding a more cautious view regarding 2024, a few times now. It sounds like much of that conservatism is around your underlying assumptions on volume. You talked about the value-seeking behavior in the U.S. and flat sales growth in China. But I was hoping you could dive a bit deeper into some of those more cautious use you're taking and also they're impacting your gross margin commentary as well.

然後，作為後續行動，您已經多次將您的前景描述為對 2024 年抱持更加謹慎的看法。聽起來保守主義很大程度上是圍繞著你對交易量的基本假設。您談到了美國的價值追求行為和中國的銷售成長持平。但我希望您能更深入地了解您正在採取的一些更謹慎的用途，它們也會影響您的毛利率評論。

Max, I'll maybe kick it off with some context around your question on sales and consumption and sort of the state of the consumer, and I'll pass it over to Mike for commentary on -- I think you had a question there with regard to margin. But I think we are taking a cautious view with regard to where the consumer is right now. And that's really informed by what we saw in Q4. We just saw a little bit more shifting, particularly as you think about how the quarter played out, and if you think about consumption trends, we saw consumers really pulled back in September and October, and then really wait until right before the holidays to really make a lot of their purchases. And we even see -- saw similar indications leading up to Christmas.

麥克斯，我可能會先介紹一下您關於銷售和消費以及消費者狀態的問題的背景，然後我會將其轉交給邁克進行評論 - 我認為您有一個問題關於保證金。但我認為我們對消費者目前的處境持謹慎態度。我們在第四季度看到的情況確實說明了這一點。我們只是看到了更多的轉變，特別是當你考慮本季的表現時，如果你考慮消費趨勢，我們看到消費者在9 月和10 月確實有所減少，然後等到假期前才真正開始消費。進行大量購買。我們甚至在聖誕節前看到了類似的跡象。

So what's underneath that, I think, is people were certainly holding off there -- making a lot more trips to the store, buying a lot fewer items and units. And maybe even smaller units actually started to come true, I think, from a consumer trend standpoint. And I think we just have to acknowledge that this is a little bit different than what we saw in the summer. It was a little bit more pronounced. Certainly, it affected our trends as we kind of been really clear about. And so it's prudent for us to just take a cautious view where the consumer is going to be going here in early '24.

因此，我認為，背後的原因是人們肯定會推遲購買——更多地去商店，購買更少的商品和單位。我認為，從消費者趨勢的角度來看，甚至更小的單位實際上也開始成為現實。我認為我們必須承認這與我們夏天看到的情況有些不同。這是更明顯一點。當然，它影響了我們的趨勢，因為我們已經非常清楚了。因此，我們謹慎地看待消費者將在 24 年初來到這裡的情況。

And so we felt like it was best to recognize that in our outlook, particularly as we think about the first half of the year. But we're also going to be putting in more investment in the business, more A&P. So we expect also to be able to meet the consumer where they are right now and really try to focus on our game plan, which is to drive volume growth.

因此，我們認為最好在我們的展望中認識到這一點，特別是當我們考慮今年上半年時。但我們也將在業務上投入更多投資，更多的 A&P。因此，我們也希望能夠滿足消費者現在的需求，並真正努力專注於我們的遊戲計劃，即推動銷售成長。

Mike, do you want to add?

麥克，你想補充一下嗎？

Yes. Would you mind repeating the margin question, I didn't quite get that.

是的。您介意重複一下保證金問題嗎，我不太明白。

I was wondering if the conservatism that you discussed, that really is just focused on the commentary you just discussed on volumes, or if it applies to gross margins as well. But there's some more cautious outlook embedded in the gross margin guidance as well.

我想知道您所討論的保守主義是否真的只集中於您剛剛討論的關於銷量的評論，或者它是否也適用於毛利率。但毛利率指引中也包含了一些較謹慎的前景。

Yes. I mean we're confident in our CCI and GOE programs. I mean we've baked -- low single-digit inflation environment, like I said before, which we have good line of sight generally for the rest of the year, gives us more confidence there. First quarter is going to be our highest cost increase, and we see it petering down after that, and our pricing is going to be the highest in the first quarter, too. Generally, I think what I'd say, if you think about last year with our GOE programs, we met our targets. Actually, we exceeded a bit our external targets. We were a bit prudent because -- but we met our internal target.

是的。我的意思是，我們對 CCI 和 GOE 計劃充滿信心。我的意思是，我們已經迎來了低個位數通膨環境，就像我之前所說的那樣，我們在今年剩餘時間裡總體上有良好的視野，這讓我們更有信心。第一季將是我們成本增幅最高的季度，之後我們看到成本增幅逐漸下降，我們的定價也將是第一季最高的。一般來說，我想我想說的是，如果你想想去年我們的 GOE 計劃，我們就達到了我們的目標。事實上，我們有點超出了我們的外部目標。我們有點謹慎，因為——但我們達到了內部目標。

So I would say being prudent is the word of the day and love to over-deliver if we could. But we also realized in this environment, making investments on price gap management and A&P is really important. So we'll assess that as the year goes on.

所以我想說，謹慎是當今的流行語，如果可以的話，我們願意超額交付。但我們也意​​識到，在這種環境下，對價格差距管理和廣告及費用進行投資非常重要。因此，隨著時間的推移，我們將對此進行評估。

Our next question comes from the line of Steve Powers with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的史蒂夫鮑爾斯（Steve Powers）。

So it sounds like at the enterprise level, pretty minimal pricing in the back half. I think that implies -- as I listened to the commentary and kind of do the math and think about the price gap management, I think that implies negative pricing in the Consumer business at least in the U.S. in the back half. I wonder if you can talk about that, how deep those kind of above-the-line investments may need to be or how you're thinking about that. And whether there's a risk that at the enterprise level pricing actually, this negative, as we flow through the year in pursuit of this volume recovery.

因此，聽起來在企業層面，後半部的定價相當低。我認為這意味著——當我聽了評論並進行數學計算並思考價格差距管理時，我認為這意味著至少在美國後半段消費者業務中的負定價。我想知道你是否可以談談這個問題，這種線上投資可能需要多深，或者你是如何看待這個問題的。當我們在這一年中追求銷售復甦時，是否存在企業層面的定價實際上存在負面風險。

Yes, Steve, it's Mike. I'll take that. And if Brendan has any comments, he'll layer then in. I mean we talk about pricing for the full year being around 1%, and that includes our price gap management, too. So don't miss that point. And as you think about the first quarter, as I said before, that's the majority of the lapping of last year's pricing. First quarter, first half, that's where a lot of the price gap activities come through, so less so in the second 6. So I'd say that for the full year, we're comfortable with pricing at 1%. I don't know what math you're looking at to make it negative, but I don't see that, honestly, for the full year. And from a -- and really by segment, too, you've got to think about it, too. I mean Flavor Solutions is going to be a bit higher than 1%. Consumer is going to be a little bit lower from a pricing perspective. So we're managing it very closely, and we're comfortable with the full year guidance.

是的，史蒂夫，是麥克。我會接受的。如果 Brendan 有任何意見，他會逐一補充。我的意思是，我們討論全年定價約為 1%，其中也包括我們的價格差距管理。所以不要錯過這一點。當你想到第一季時，正如我之前所說，這是去年定價的大部分。第一季、上半年，這是許多價格差距活動發生的地方，因此後 6 年的情況較少。所以我想說，對於全年來說，我們對 1% 的定價感到滿意。我不知道你在考慮什麼數學來讓它變得消極，但老實說，我不認為全年都會出現這種情況。從一個角度來看，也確實是按細分市場，你也必須考慮這一點。我的意思是風味解決方案將略高於 1%。從定價角度來看，消費者的價格會稍微低一些。因此，我們正在非常密切地管理它，並且我們對全年指導感到滿意。

Okay. Okay. Fair enough. I guess in Flavor Solutions, can you help with just maybe a little bit more perspective on what you're assuming both in terms of Flavor's customer volume trends and restaurant traffic both in the U.S. and overseas, where you've seen some softness of late? Just want to get a little perspective there on that segment.

好的。好的。很公平。我想在風味解決方案中，您能否就您在美國和海外的風味客戶量趨勢和餐廳客流量方面的假設提供更多的視角，您最近在這些地方看到了一些疲軟的情況？只是想了解一下該細分市場的一些觀點。

Sure, Steve. Our growth momentum in Flavor Solutions was pretty exceptional, I think, throughout the year in '23 with double-digit growth in the first 3 quarters and slight volume growth there. But even with the deceleration in the fourth quarter, we had pretty strong organic growth throughout '23. And we do expect to continue to make really good progress there, although we're not going to be at double digits, I think, in '24, but still making really good progress.

當然，史蒂夫。我認為，我們在風味解決方案領域的成長勢頭非常出色，23 年全年，前三個季度實現了兩位數成長，銷量略有成長。但即使第四季經濟減速，我們在整個 23 年仍然實現了相當強勁的有機成長。我們確實希望繼續在那裡取得非常好的進展，儘管我認為在 24 年我們不會達到兩位數，但仍然取得了非常好的進展。

So I'll give you maybe more of a regional consideration as I think through the portfolio. In the Americas, we continue to drive strong branded foodservice volume. And in flavors, particularly in a number of the categories that we tend to have some strong performance and like performance nutrition and beverage, we see continued strong performance in volume. And I think that we would expect that to continue into '24. Across the rest of the flavor product category, a lot of our growth was impacted by the softness of our customers' performance in the market with regard to units and volume. And we saw a little bit more drop than we would have expected, not inconsistent with our own Consumer business.

因此，當我對產品組合進行思考時，我可能會更多地考慮區域因素。在美洲，我們繼續推動強大的品牌餐飲服務量。在口味方面，特別是在我們傾向於表現強勁的一些類別中，例如高性能營養品和飲料，我們看到銷售量持續強勁表現。我認為我們預計這種情況將持續到 24 年。在其他風味產品類別中，我們的成長很大程度上受到客戶在市場上單位和數量方面表現疲軟的影響。我們看到的下降幅度比我們預期的要大一些，這與我們自己的消費者業務並不矛盾。

And so while we're disappointed in that softness, we still believe our results are pretty good in this area. I think that's the chance of that continuing to '24, probably likely. In EMEA, as we mentioned in our third quarter call, that our customers there are, both for packaged goods and also quick serve restaurants, are experiencing softness in their volumes within their business, too. And we anticipated that in the fourth quarter. However, there's even maybe a little bit more than what we expected. So almost like a similar theme to what I said about the U.S. And so we expect some softness related there as we enter in Q1.

因此，儘管我們對這種疲軟感到失望，但我們仍然相信我們在這一領域的結果相當不錯。我認為這種情況很有可能持續到 24 年。在歐洲、中東和非洲地區，正如我們在第三季電話會議中提到的那樣，我們的客戶，無論是包裝商品還是快餐店，都經歷了業務量的疲軟。我們預計第四季會出現這種情況。然而，甚至可能比我們預期的要多一點。因此，這幾乎與我所說的美國的主題類似，因此，當我們進入第一季時，我們預計那裡會出現一些疲軟的情況。

But we're optimistic, again, that we'll continue to sort of improve every quarter as we go through '24. And then in Asia Pacific, our growth there was impacted by slower-than-expected restaurant traffic. Some of that really had to do with just unrelated matters, but some boycotts issues that we're seeing in Southeast Asia. But we saw some nice performance in China, so I would expect that to continue in '24 and some trends. So that's just some context around Flavor Solutions.

但我們再次樂觀地認為，在 24 年期間，我們每季都會繼續取得進步。然後在亞太地區，我們的成長受到餐廳客流量低於預期的影響。其中一些確實與不相關的問題有關，但有些是我們在東南亞看到的抵制問題。但我們在中國看到了一些不錯的表現，所以我預計這種情況會在 24 年繼續下去，並會出現一些趨勢。這只是風味解決方案的一些背景資訊。

Our next question comes from the line of Adam Samuelson with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的亞當·薩繆爾森。

Yes. I wanted to come back to the Consumer segment and maybe at a higher level. As we think about where the business and the specific categories are today versus where they were pre-COVID. Obviously, there's enough number of consumption and occasion changes in terms -- and distribution changes with inflation through the pandemic. But where are we today in your business and your key categories, as you think about price elasticity, as you think about price gaps and where there actually has been a lasting consumption change versus consumer behavior pre-pandemic.

是的。我想回到消費者領域，也許是在更高的層次。當我們思考今天的業務和特定類別與新冠疫情之前的情況。顯然，在疫情期間，消費數量和場合都發生了變化，分配也隨著通貨膨脹而變化。但是，當您考慮價格彈性、價格差距以及與大流行前的消費者行為相比，實際上存在持久的消費變化時，我們今天在您的業務和關鍵類別中處於什麼位置。

Well, with so much has changed since 2019, I think that -- if I think about the entirety of all the different levers and variables that you were talking about, whether it's price elasticity or volume and where the consumer is, there's been reasonably enough significant change that as we take a look at our categories, we're taking a look at in terms of how they're performing today and where we need to go in order to drive volume growth. And as we said earlier, that's a component of increased A&P. A lot of that advertising focused on talking about value, parts of our portfolio, we know that price gap management can have a really effective impact on turning around unit volume trends. And so I think that's an indication of where the consumer is right now. If you look at unit volume performance, either in our business or probably the category, pricing has had an impact, and we have to acknowledge that.

嗯，自 2019 年以來發生瞭如此多的變化，我認為，如果我考慮一下您所談論的所有不同槓桿和變量，無論是價格彈性還是數量以及消費者在哪裡，都已經足夠合理了這是一個重大變化，當我們審視我們的品類時，我們會關注它們今天的表現以及我們需要採取哪些措施來推動銷售成長。正如我們之前所說，這是增加的 A&P 的一部分。許多廣告都集中在談論價值，這是我們投資組合的一部分，我們知道價格差距管理可以對扭轉單位銷售趨勢產生真正有效的影響。所以我認為這顯示了消費者現在的處境。如果你看看單位銷售表現，無論是在我們的業務還是在該類別中，定價都會產生影響，我們必須承認這一點。

Having said that, though, if I compare our business organically, and product mix, compared to 2019, our total organic volume is about the same as 2019. We haven't really lost significant volume or on product mix since pre-pandemic. And so I think that's one sort of consideration to have is, while there's been a lot of change and many ups and downs, I think, if you think about all these macro dynamic impacts we've been going through, we find ourselves in a similar volume position as we were in 2019. I don't -- I think I might have provided the context that you're looking for.

儘管如此，如果我對我們的業務和產品組合進行有機比較，與 2019 年相比，我們的有機總銷量與 2019 年大致相同。自大流行前以來，我們並沒有真正損失大量銷量或產品組合。所以我認為這是一個需要考慮的因素，雖然發生了很多變化和很多起起落落，但我認為，如果你考慮一下我們所經歷的所有這些宏觀動態影響，我們會發現自己處於一個與2019 年類似的成交量位置。我沒有——我想我可能已經提供了您正在尋找的背景。

Okay. No, that's helpful. And then as we think about Flavor Solutions moving forward, just how do you think about -- you see the competitive position of the portfolio today, what you're seeing from your customers, the categories you're in and the competitive set, do you feel like you have the breadth of portfolio? Do you think that the categories that are growing with your customers or you're properly positioned to participate there? Or do you think that, as you look at kind of the peer -- your peers, that there's room to narrow the growth gap?

好的。不，這很有幫助。然後，當我們考慮風味解決方案的未來發展時，您如何看待 - 您看到今天產品組合的競爭地位，您從客戶那裡看到的內容，您所在的類別以及競爭環境，您覺得自己的投資組合很廣泛嗎？您認為這些類別是否與您的客戶一起成長，或者您是否適合參與其中？或者，當您觀察同行時，您是否認為還有縮小成長差距的空間？

Well, as I think about our competitive posture in Flavor Solutions, I feel really good about it. It starts with having great capabilities in technology and a great team. And I think we do have a differentiated approach towards driving growth, particularly in flavors and seasonings in that part of our business. From a technology standpoint, we continue to win and sort of there's -- a lot of categories that we operate in there that we're targeting because they're positive and high growth.

嗯，當我想到我們在風味解決方案方面的競爭態勢時，我感覺非常好。首先是擁有強大的技術能力和優秀的團隊。我認為我們確實有一個差異化的方法來推動成長，特別是在我們業務的這一部分的口味和調味料方面。從技術的角度來看，我們繼續獲勝，我們在那裡經營的許多類別都是我們的目標，因為它們是積極的、高成長的。

And we also tend to get a good mix of large customers and moderately in small-sized customers who tend to be characterized by much even higher growth. As we think about that as a portfolio mix of customers, we're seeing a lot of a lot of strength coming from that. And I would just point to our going trends throughout '23. And as we think about '24 to be an indication of how we think we're performing relative to the market there overall. And so those are some indications.

我們也傾向於獲得大型客戶和小型客戶的良好組合，這些客戶往往具有更高的成長速度。當我們將其視為客戶組合時，我們看到了從中產生的許多力量。我只想指出我們整個 23 年的發展趨勢。當我們考慮「24」時，我們認為我們相對於整個市場的表現如何。這些是一些跡象。

Now the other one on top of that would be heat. And we continue to see growth through heat. We continue to see that as the part of that portfolio, if you will, it tends to grow at an even higher rate just due to where consumers are. And we talked a lot about heat extensively in terms of how popular it is. And so that's another reason to believe that we feel like we're competitively poised in this part of our business. It's an exciting part of our business. It's one that's receiving a lot of increased investment, too, as we think about building capacity, technology and really growing to global scale.

現在除此之外的另一個因素是熱量。我們繼續透過熱量看到增長。我們繼續看到，作為該投資組合的一部分，如果你願意的話，它往往會因為消費者所在的位置而以更高的速度成長。我們廣泛討論了熱量的受歡迎程度。因此，這是我們相信我們在這部分業務中處於競爭優勢的另一個理由。這是我們業務中令人興奮的一部分。當我們考慮建立能力、技術並真正發展到全球規模時，它也獲得了大量增加的投資。

Our next question comes from the line of Matt Smith with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自馬特史密斯和史蒂菲爾的對話。

I wanted to dive in a little bit on the guidance. If we look at it from a high level, it includes roughly 80 basis points or so of operating margin expansion. Can you talk about the margin expansions for each business as we look at fiscal '24? Is Flavor Solutions expected to have an outsized contribution again as margin continues to recover there? And can the margin expand in the Consumer business, even as you step up investments to manage price gaps and absolute price points?

我想深入了解指南。如果我們從高水準來看，它包括大約80個基點左右的營業利潤率擴張。您能否談談 24 財年各業務的利潤率擴張？隨著利潤率持續回升，風味解決方案是否有望再次做出巨大貢獻？即使您加大投資來管理價格差距和絕對價格點，消費品業務的利潤率還能擴大嗎？

Matt, it's Mike. I mean they're not materially different between segment, to be honest, so the 50 to 100 basis points at the gross margin line and approximately 80 at the OP margin line. To your point, there are some price gap management items within the Consumer business, but there's also portfolio optimization, the GOE and CCI numbers, which hit both segments. So I would say not materially different.

馬特，是麥克。我的意思是說，老實說，不同細分市場之間的差異並不大，因此毛利率線為 50 到 100 個基點，營業利潤線約為 80 個基點。就您而言，消費者業務中有一些價格差距管理項目，但也有投資組合優化、GOE 和 CCI 數字，這對這兩個細分市場都有影響。所以我想說沒有本質上的不同。

And a follow-up on the price gaps and absolute price points that you're talking about managing. One thing we're seeing in the U.S. measured channel data is that the share losses McCormick is seeing in spices and seasonings, only about 1/4 of that is going to private label. Can you talk about the branded environment? Are you seeing a pickup in competitive pressure there? Or is this really a product of price gaps that you believe you can manage to?

以及您正在談論的管理價格差距和絕對價格點的後續行動。我們在美國測量的渠道數據中看到的一件事是，味好美在香料和調味料方面看到的份額損失，其中只有約 1/4 流向了自有品牌。能談談品牌環境嗎？您是否看到那裡的競爭壓力增加？或者這真的是您認為自己能夠克服的價格差距的產物嗎？

Largely, I think it's a product of price gaps that we can manage to. But I think your observations would align with ours, in that it isn't strictly an issue regarding private label or other branded competition. I think it's really an attractive category that has always received new competitors and new entrants. And so we look broadly, when we think about competition in that part of our portfolio as being -- and at the shelf is both watching those gaps versus private label and also branded competitors.

在很大程度上，我認為這是我們可以設法克服的價格差距的產物。但我認為您的觀察結果與我們的觀察結果一致，因為嚴格來說這並不是一個關於自有品牌或其他品牌競爭的問題。我認為這確實是一個有吸引力的類別，總是吸引新的競爭對手和新進入者。因此，當我們考慮我們產品組合中該部分的競爭時，我們會放寬視野，並在貨架上觀察這些與自有品牌和品牌競爭對手的差距。

Our next question comes from the line of Robert Moskow with TD Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 Robert Moskow 和 TD Cowen 的對話。

Just a couple of follow-up questions, Brendan and Mike. In the past, you used to give a global flavor category growth rate, and I remember it being around 4% to 6%. Do you still keep track of that globally? And do you know where it is right now? And just -- and then I have a follow-up.

布倫丹和麥克，還有幾個後續問題。過去你們曾經給出一個全球風味類別的成長率，我記得大概是4%到6%左右。您還在全球範圍內跟踪這一情況嗎？你知道它現在在哪裡嗎？然後我有一個後續行動。

We do. I mean we look at that annually and it's part of our strategic (inaudible). And so yes, we do spend time making sure we understand how that's performing. But I think your 5% to 7%, I think, is -- or actually you said 4% to 6%, but I would tell you it's generally around those same numbers. We tend to think about it is 5% to 7% at a global level.

我們的確是。我的意思是，我們每年都會審視這一點，這是我們策略的一部分（聽不清楚）。所以，是的，我們確實花時間確保我們了解其表現如何。但我認為你的 5% 到 7% 是——或者實際上你說的是 4% 到 6%，但我會告訴你，通常是在這些相同的數字左右。我們傾向於認為全球水準是 5% 到 7%。

Okay. So the global demand for flavor really hasn't changed. It's just that -- but your top line guide is around 0. So is the message here today that nothing's really changed in the consumer demand for flavor? Because it sounds like you're also saying there's a lot of trading down going on or cautious consumer spending, so I thought that would mean that the category is a little bit weaker, too.

好的。所以全球對風味的需求確實沒有改變。只是這樣——但你的頂線指南大約是 0。那麼今天的訊息是消費者對風味的需求沒有真正改變嗎？因為聽起來你也說有很多交易正在進行或消費者支出謹慎，所以我認為這意味著該類別也有點疲軟。

No, I would urge you not to take away that as an indication that the category is weaker. This is still a very attractive category, but also appreciate if the category at the global level has also gone through a lot of inflation in pricing and similar factors, but we still see this as a very attractive category for the total company. And so that is not the view that we take, particularly with the data that we look at. And so I think maybe get at the heart of your question.

不，我強烈建議您不要將這一點視為該類別較弱的跡象。這仍然是一個非常有吸引力的類別，但如果全球範圍內的類別也經歷了很多定價通膨和類似因素，我們也會讚賞它，但我們仍然認為這對整個公司來說是一個非常有吸引力的類別。因此，這不是我們所持的觀點，尤其是我們所查看的數據。所以我想也許可以抓住你問題的核心。

Yes, certainly. And then the follow-up is, you said that you shipped 75% of your new packaging to retailers so far. But do you have any way of quantifying what percent of the ACV has implemented your resets? I thought some of it would happen in 2023. It sounds like a lot will happen in mid-2024. But do you have a way of quantifying it that way?

是的，當然了。接下來是，您說到目前為止，您已將 75% 的新包裝發送給零售商。但是你有什麼方法可以量化有多少 ACV 實施了你的重置嗎？我原以為其中一些會在 2023 年發生。聽起來很多事情會在 2024 年中期發生。但是你有辦法量化它嗎？

It's harder to quantify because it's -- we know how much we're shipping out in terms of our total portfolio that's getting this new package. And so as I said, that number is at 75%. And that, we feel that's -- we're pretty accurate about that. But now the reflection on shelf, as all this inventory is flowing in on shelf, that's happening on a lag to that 75% number. We expect it to just continue to increase through the first half of the year.

量化比較困難，因為我們知道我們在獲得這個新套餐的總投資組合中運送了多少。正如我所說，這個數字是 75%。我們認為，我們對此非常準確。但現在貨架上的反映，由於所有這些庫存都流入貨架上，這種情況發生在 75% 的數字滯後的情況下。我們預計今年上半年這一數字將持續成長。

I think through the first half of the year, we should largely be caught up to that number to [specific] standpoint, too. If you walk into a store today, you're going to see on the shelf some of the old package, some of the new package, and that's just maybe an indication of how you might think about flow-through overall. However, I will tell you that as we do look at specific accounts and locations where we know we're seeing a lot of that flow through already have occurred, we are seeing a nice pickup in velocity as we would have expected to be the case because we've seen this package perform in EMEA in a similar way.

我認為，從[具體]的角度來看，今年上半年我們也應該在很大程度上趕上這個數字。如果您今天走進商店，您會在貨架上看到一些舊包裝，一些新包裝，這可能表明您如何看待整體流通。然而，我會告訴你，當我們確實查看特定的帳戶和位置時，我們知道我們已經看到大量的流量已經發生，我們看到速度有了很好的提升，正如我們預期的那樣因為我們已經看到該軟體包在EMEA 中以類似的方式執行。

And it really does deliver on the SKUs for freshness for consumers and really kind of takes it up a notch in terms of the overall benefit and offering that we're providing consumers. So we feel pretty good about that. What you'll also hear us talk about is we're going to start to move other parts of the product line into this package, too, beginning in the back half of 2024. So we're not done. But this part of our line that we've been speaking about since mid-last year is still in the process of flowing through on shelf.

它確實為消費者提供了新鮮的 SKU，並且在我們為消費者提供的整體利益和產品方面確實提升了一個檔次。所以我們對此感覺很好。您還會聽到我們談論的是，從 2024 年下半年開始，我們也將開始將產品線的其他部分轉移到這個包中。所以我們還沒有完成。但我們自去年年中以來一直在談論的這部分產品線仍在貨架上流通。

That gives us belief in the sequential building of volume during 2024 into the second half, as you alluded to.

正如您所提到的，這讓我們相信 2024 年下半年銷售將持續增加。

Right. I'm sorry, one last question. I appreciate the plan to increase brand building this year. Can you tell us how much it increased in 2023 when it was all said and done?

正確的。抱歉，最後一個問題。我很欣賞今年加強品牌建立的計畫。您能否告訴我們，到 2023 年，當一切都塵埃落定之後，它增加了多少？

I think we were, Rob, if I'm not mistaken the 3...

我想我們是，羅布，如果我沒記錯的話，那三個…

3% to 4% range, yes.

3% 到 4% 的範圍，是的。

3% to 4% range for 2023. Know that underneath that, we tend to see working media grow a lot faster than that because we're also offsetting it with other productivity and taking out more nonworking investments. But '23 is in that range. Now '24, though, is in the double-digit range. And we feel really good about that where we're putting that investment.

2023 年的成長率為3% 到4%。要知道，在此之下，我們往往會看到工作媒體的成長速度比這要快得多，因為我們還用其他生產力來抵消它，並進行更多的非工作投資。但 '23 就在這個範圍內。但現在'24'已經進入兩位數範圍了。我們對投資的方向感到非常滿意。

Our final question this morning comes from the line of Rob Dickerson with Jefferies.

今天早上我們的最後一個問題來自羅布·迪克森和傑弗里斯的對話。

Great. Maybe if we could just touch quickly on kind of Q1 because I think kind of throughout the call, I've heard you say maybe slightly higher cost relative to the full year in Q1 and then also sounds like A&C is a little front half loaded. And then I think maybe volumes, given, hopefully, they improved of the year would imply that there'd be a little bit more pressure in Q1, especially given the divestment. So just curious if there are certain moving pieces in Q1 that you would clearly like us to consider. So that's the first question.

偉大的。也許我們可以快速談一下第一季的情況，因為我認為在整個電話會議中，我聽到你說相對於第一季度全年的成本可能略高，而且聽起來 A&C 有點前半部分負載。然後我認為，考慮到今年的銷售量有所改善，可能意味著第一季的壓力會更大，特別是考慮到撤資。因此，我只是好奇第一季是否有某些您希望我們考慮的移動部分。這是第一個問題。

Yes, that's great. Let me take that one, Rob, and maybe summarize it all for you. And as you've pointed out, the sequential improvement in volume we see from the fourth quarter, also considered, Consumer starting at a slightly lower place than Flavor Solutions. So as you model that, build that into your model and build throughout the year. Pricing actions are primarily first -- the lapping of that, primarily first half related, may be concentrated, I'd say, in the first quarter. However, cost in the first quarter, we're still seeing high single-digit inflation. It does go down to averaging of low single-digit inflation for the year, but there is a spike -- not a spike, but the highest level will be in the first quarter at high single-digit inflation.

是的，那太好了。羅布，讓我來為您總結這一切。正如您所指出的，我們從第四季度開始看到銷售的連續改善，也考慮到消費者的起點略低於風味解決方案。因此，當你建模時，將其構建到你的模型中並全年構建。定價行動主要是首先發生的——我想說，主要與上半年相關的定價行動可能會集中在第一季。然而，從第一季的成本來看，我們仍然看到高單位數通膨。它確實會下降到今年平均低個位數通膨，但會出現峰值——不是峰值，但最高水平將出現在第一季高個位數通膨的情況下。

We get a bit of favorable product mix in the first quarter due to some of the initiatives we're talking about, but we're also seeing some of the negatives from an investment in price gap initiatives in Q1 primarily. So as we think about pricing, a bit of that will be offset within the price gap management activities. GOE had a little bit of favorability to the wrap from last year in the first half, a bit in the first quarter, too. And then as you mentioned, brand marketing up double digits in the first quarter is something that we're really driving toward. And not to forget tax, sometimes we do with tax. It's 22% for the year, but we see a higher tax rate in the first quarter and getting better as the year goes on. And don't forget, unfavorable FX throughout the whole year of about 1%.

由於我們正在討論的一些舉措，我們在第一季度獲得了一些有利的產品組合，但我們也看到了主要來自第一季價格差距舉措投資的一些負面影響。因此，當我們考慮定價時，其中一部分將在價格差距管理活動中得到抵銷。與去年上半年相比，GOE 對包裝有一點好感，第一季也有一點好感。正如您所提到的，第一季品牌行銷實現兩位數成長是我們真正努力的目標。不要忘記稅收，有時我們會涉及稅收。今年的稅率為 22%，但我們看到第一季的稅率更高，並且隨著時間的推移會變得更好。並且不要忘記，全年不利的外匯約為 1%。

Okay. Perfect. That's very helpful. And then quickly, just on Flavor Solutions. Clearly, if we look back a few years ago, we speak to the margin recovery now kind of coming out of the post-pandemic cost inflation environment, really kind of the main driver of kind of your somewhat depressed margin now relative to history, still from Flavor Solutions, maybe a little less so. I mean, clearly, you're not optimize or maximize on consumer, but there is a little bit more pressure on Flavor Solutions.

好的。完美的。這非常有幫助。然後很快，就在風味解決方案上。顯然，如果我們回顧幾年前，我們所說的利潤率復甦現在有點來自大流行後的成本通膨環境，這確實是現在相對於歷史而言有些低迷的利潤率的主要驅動因素，仍然來自風味解決方案，也許少一點。我的意思是，很明顯，你並沒有對消費者進行最佳化或最大化，但風味解決方案面臨的壓力更大一些。

So I'm just curious, I remember going back 15 years or so, right, and there was a strategy to increase margin in Flavor Solutions, and that didn't happen, but then it actually really did happen. And now it's just not happening again. So I'm kind of curious, as you think longer term, right, kind of margin profile of McCormick, kind of given the initiatives you've been discussing even today, on improving that side of the business, what kind of does get you back there, right? I mean it's just volume and mix? Or it just seems like that recovery has maybe been a little bit slower? That's all.

所以我只是很好奇，我記得大約 15 年前，對，有一個增加風味解決方案利潤的策略，但這並沒有發生，但後來它確實發生了。現在這種事再也不會發生了。因此，我很好奇，正如您所認為的，從長遠來看，味好美公司的利潤狀況，考慮到您今天一直在討論的舉措，在改善業務方面，您會得到什麼回到那裡，對嗎？我的意思是這只是音量和混音？或者只是看起來恢復速度可能有點慢？就這樣。

Rob, it's Mike. I'll start and Brendan can add. You're right. We've been on a journey with Flavor Solutions. I can remember, it wasn't 15 years ago, but we were at a 6% OP margin. And we really, through focused cost initiatives, portfolio management, we're able to get that to over 14% pre-COVID, pre-pandemic. And we had aspirations for higher because our peers in the flavor industry are higher than that. And we still do aspire to those higher numbers, obviously, COVID, the pricing costing relationship, that took over 300 basis points as we priced to cost. We did margin up. That took -- that's over a 300 basis point impact on our margins there.

羅布，是麥克。我先開始，布蘭登可以補充。你說得對。我們一直在探索風味解決方案。我記得，那不是 15 年前，但我們的營業利益率為 6%。事實上，透過集中成本計劃和投資組合管理，我們能夠在新冠疫情、大流行之前將這一比例提高到 14% 以上。我們有更高的願望，因為我們調味品行業的同行比這更高。我們仍然渴望獲得更高的數字，顯然，新冠疫情，定價成本關係，在我們按成本定價時佔據了 300 個基點以上。我們確實提高了保證金。這對我們的利潤率產生了超過 300 個基點的影響。

So we've said we're going to build that back over time through initiatives like CCI and things like that. We've had early success. I mean with the pricing initiatives we had last year in 2023, we took our operating margin from 8% in '22 to 10% and '23, granted still below where we were, but we see positive movement this year as we think about our total margin. I said both segments will see positive operating margin improvement. And we're in the process -- for Flavor Solutions, it's a pretty large number. As we are transitioning our large U.K. manufacturing facility, '24 and '25, you'll see some favorable tailwinds there, which will help Flavor Solutions' margin. But to your point, and Brendan talked about, the focus on those great growing categories in the flavor side of the business, those are generally higher margin, they're stickier. That is our strategy that will help us drive our margins going forward.

所以我們說過，隨著時間的推移，我們將透過 CCI 等措施來恢復這一點。我們已經取得了早期的成功。我的意思是，透過我們去年在2023 年採取的定價舉措，我們將營業利潤率從22 年的8% 提高到10% 和23 年，當然仍低於我們的水平，但當我們考慮我們的業務時，我們看到今年出現了積極的變化總保證金。我說過，這兩個部門的營業利潤率都會出現正面的改善。我們正在這個過程中——對於風味解決方案來說，這是一個相當大的數字。當我們正在對我們的大型英國製造工廠“24”和“25”進行轉型時，您會看到一些有利的推動因素，這將有助於風味解決方案的利潤率。但就你的觀點而言，布倫丹談到，重點關注業務風味方面那些不斷增長的類別，這些類別通常利潤率更高，粘性更強。這是我們的策略，將幫助我們提高利潤率。

The only thing I'll add on top of what Mike just said with regard to just that constant focus against improving margin. We're also -- as we continue to shift customers to higher-margin product lines, more insulated technology, et cetera, it allows us to continue to grow margin, too. But I think Mike pretty much nailed it there. And that's our outlook on it. It's still pretty positive, and it's just going to take us a little bit longer as we've been calling out really ever since, I think, last year.

除了麥克剛才所說的關於持續關注提高利潤率之外，我還要補充一點。我們也—隨著我們繼續將客戶轉向利潤率更高的產品線、更絕緣的技術等，這也使我們能夠繼續提高利潤率。但我認為麥克幾乎做到了這一點。這就是我們對此的看法。這仍然是相當積極的，只是我們需要更長的時間，因為我想，從去年開始我們就一直在呼籲。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question-and-answer session. I'll turn the floor back to Ms. Freiha for any final comments.

謝謝。女士們先生們，我們的問答環節到此結束。我將把最後的意見轉回給弗雷哈女士。

Thank you all for joining today's call. If you have any further questions regarding today's information, please feel free to contact me. And this concludes this morning's conference call. Thank you.

感謝大家參加今天的電話會議。如果您對今天的資訊還有任何疑問，請隨時與我聯繫。今天上午的電話會議到此結束。謝謝。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。