Murphy USA Inc (MUSA) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Murphy USA third-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)

感謝您的耐心等待。此時此刻，我謹代表 Murphy USA 向大家歡迎參加 2025 年第三季財報電話會議。（操作說明）

I would now like to turn the call over to Christian Pikul, Vice President of Investor Relations and FP&A. You may begin.

現在我將把電話交給投資者關係和財務規劃與分析副總裁 Christian Pikul。你可以開始了。

Hey, good morning. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Jeannie. With me are Andrew Clyde, Chief Executive Officer; Mindy West, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Donnie Smith, Chief Accounting Officer and Interim Chief Financial Officer.

嘿，早安。謝謝大家。謝謝你，珍妮。與我一同出席的有：執行長 Andrew Clyde；總裁兼營運長 Mindy West；以及首席會計官兼臨時財務長 Donnie Smith。

After some opening comments from Andrew, both Mindy and Donnie will provide an overview of the financial results, operating performance, and a review of our 2025 guidance metrics before we open the call to Q&A. Please keep in mind some of these comments made during this call, including the Q&A portion, will be considered forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

在 Andrew 發表一些開場白之後，Mindy 和 Donnie 將概述財務表現、營運表現，並回顧我們 2025 年的指導指標，之後我們將開放問答環節。請注意，本次電話會議期間的一些評論，包括問答環節，將被視為 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》中定義的前瞻性陳述。

As such, no assurances can be given that these events will occur or that the projections will be attained. A variety of factors exist that may cause actual results to differ. For further discussion of risk factors, please see the latest Murphy USA Forms 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, and other recent SEC filings.

因此，無法保證這些事件將會發生，也無法保證預測結果能夠實現。多種因素可能導致實際結果有所不同。有關風險因素的進一步討論，請參閱 Murphy USA 最新的 10-K、10-Q、8-K 表格以及其他近期提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件。

Murphy USA takes no duty to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. During today's call, we may also provide certain performance measures that do not conform to generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. We have provided schedules to reconcile these non-GAAP measures with the reported results on a GAAP basis as part of our earnings press release, which can be found on the Investors section of our website.

Murphy USA 不承擔公開更新或修改任何前瞻性聲明的義務。在今天的電話會議中，我們也可能提供一些不符合公認會計原則（GAAP）的績效指標。我們在獲利新聞稿中提供了調整表，以將這些非GAAP指標與按GAAP準則報告的結果進行核對，該新聞稿可在我們網站的投資者關係部分找到。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Andrew Clyde.

接下來，我將把電話交給安德魯·克萊德。

Thank you, Christian. Good morning, and thank you all for joining today's call. I'm quite positive. This is a call I will always remember as I expect it to be my last earnings call as Chief Executive Officer of Murphy USA. It has been an incredible honor to serve as Murphy USA's leader, and doing so has been the pinnacle of my professional career. For those joining live today or reading the transcript later, I would encourage you to take away three things from today's call: continuity; resilience; and momentum.

謝謝你，克里斯蒂安。早安，感謝各位參加今天的電話會議。我相當樂觀。這將是我作為墨菲美國公司執行長的最後一次財報電話會議，我將永遠銘記這通通話。能夠擔任 Murphy USA 的領導者，我感到無比榮幸，這無疑是我職業生涯的巔峰。對於今天參加直播或稍後閱讀文字稿的各位，我鼓勵你們從今天的電話會議中記住三件事：連續性；韌性；以及勢頭。

In terms of continuity, yesterday's announcement signaled both continuity in Murphy USA's leadership and continuity in our long-term capital allocation strategy. Having foretold this day to investors as a hypothetical in the past, we certainly appreciate the need to be as clear about future strategy and capital allocation as we are about future leadership.

就延續性而言，昨天的公告既標誌著墨菲美國公司領導層的延續，也標誌著我們長期資本配置策略的延續。過去我們曾以假設的形式向投資人預言過這一天，因此我們當然明白，我們需要像明確未來的領導階層一樣，明確未來的策略和資本配置。

And as both our 50-50 strategy, and Mindy are well known to investors, we believe this announcement sends a clear message about what Murphy USA will continue to deliver and what investors should continue to expect. At the end of our Murphy USA Board meeting last Thursday, I officially notified the Board of my intent to retire as President and CEO at the end of the year. The timing reflects a very thoughtful, intentional, and multiyear CEO succession plan, which led to Mindy's appointment as Chief Operating Officer back in February of 2024.

由於我們的 50-50 策略和 Mindy 都為投資者所熟知，我們相信這一公告清晰地傳達了 Murphy USA 將繼續提供什麼以及投資者應該繼續期待什麼。在上週四舉行的墨菲美國公司董事會會議結束時，我正式通知董事會，我打算在年底卸任總裁兼執行長一職。這項時間安排體現了一項經過深思熟慮、精心策劃的多年執行長繼任計劃，該計劃最終促成了 Mindy 於 2024 年 2 月被任命為營運長。

And after almost two years in the current structure, we are ready to make the final transition. As you saw in yesterday's press release, Mindy becomes President of Murphy USA immediately and will become CEO and a member of the Board of Directors on January 1, 2026, and I'll remain as adviser to the company through February 2027.

在目前的架構下運行了近兩年之後，我們準備進行最終的過渡。正如您在昨天的新聞稿中看到的那樣，Mindy 將立即成為 Murphy USA 的總裁，並將於 2026 年 1 月 1 日成為執行長和董事會成員，而我將繼續擔任公司顧問至 2027 年 2 月。

Mindy and I took this company public in 2013, and she has been by my side every step of the way through the peaks and the troughs, through the campaigns that made the business better, through the major inflection points like COVID and the Walmart transition that shape the business we run today, leading by example in establishing a winning culture. In short, she is well positioned to lead Murphy USA into its next chapter, providing the continuity that all our stakeholders will value from a successful transition.

2013 年，我和 Mindy 將公司上市。從那以後，無論公司處於高峰還是低谷，她都一直陪伴在我身邊，參與了讓公司業務變得更好的各種活動，經歷了像新冠疫情和沃爾瑪轉型這樣塑造我們今天業務的重大轉折點，她以身作則，引領公司建立成功的企業文化。簡而言之，她完全有能力帶領墨菲美國公司進入下一個階段，為所有利害關係人提供成功過渡所帶來的連續性。

In terms of continuity in our capital allocation strategy, the Board took this opportunity to authorize a new $2 billion share repurchase program as we were about 80% through the existing $1.5 billion program, while at the same time renewing our dividend policy at its four-year anniversary where we have naturally increased the cash pool for dividends.

就資本配置策略的連續性而言，董事會藉此機會批准了一項新的 20 億美元股票回購計劃，因為我們已經完成了現有的 15 億美元計劃的約 80%，同時，在股息政策實施四周年之際，我們更新了股息政策，自然而然地增加了用於股息的現金池。

Having repurchased about 60% of the share since the spin ahead of target dates and increasing dividends at a compounded annual growth rate of 20% since inception of the dividend, Murphy USA is committed to the continuity of its capital allocation approach to reward long-term investors. Complementing our 50-50 approach is the Board's commitment to new-to-industry store growth and reinvestments within the existing network, and Mindy will touch on both sides of the 50-50 strategy in her remarks as she will carry this very bright torch into the future.

自分拆以來，Murphy USA 已提前回購了約 60% 的股份，並且自分紅以來，股息的複合年增長率達到了 20%。 Murphy USA 致力於延續其資本配置方法，以回報長期投資者。為了配合我們 50-50 的策略，董事會致力於發展新店，並對現有網路進行再投資。 Mindy 將在演講中談到 50-50 策略的兩方面，因為她將把這支明亮的火炬帶向未來。

In terms of resilience, Murphy USA's third-quarter results speak for themselves. Despite earning $0.02 per gallon and less on fuel margins, we generated the same EBITDA as Q3 a year ago due to the underlying improvements made to the business and the enduring strength of our core category capabilities that yielded outsized results.

就韌性而言，墨菲美國公司第三季的業績足以說明一切。儘管每加侖燃油利潤僅為 0.02 美元甚至更少，但由於業務的根本性改進以及我們核心品類能力的持續強勁，我們實現了與去年第三季度相同的 EBITDA，並取得了超額收益。

Updated guidance metrics for the full year highlight the team's efforts as merchandise contribution is expected to be in the upper end of the guidance range as exceptional Q3 results and Q4 momentum more than offset first half temporal effects. And OpEx and G&A expenses are both expected to finish positively below the low end of our guidance due to ongoing initiatives in our previously announced staff restructuring.

更新後的全年業績指引指標突顯了團隊的努力，預計商品銷售額將達到指引範圍的上限，這得益於第三季度出色的業績和第四季度的強勁勢頭，足以抵消上半年的暫時性影響。由於我們先前宣布的人員重組計劃正在持續推進，預計營運支出和一般及行政費用都將低於我們預期的下限。

With regards to fuel, in our most recent investor meetings, we described the low price, long supply and consequently low volatility environment is a trough, the most challenging for an EDLP fuels retailer and contrasted it to the 2022 peak.

關於燃料，在我們最近的投資者會議上，我們將低價、供應充足以及由此導致的低波動性環境描述為低谷，這是EDLP燃料零售商面臨的最具挑戰性的時期，並將其與2022年的峰值進行了對比。

Ultimately, how a firm responds in a trough speaks to its true resilience and whether it can sustain its commitment to an EDLP strategy and emerge a winner on the other side when the cycle normalizes. And Murphy USA has done just that. Through capabilities that strengthen its competitiveness and enhanced customer stickiness, we are performing significantly better than in the prior trough environment, and we continue to lean into value.

最終，一家公司在低谷時期如何應對，體現了它真正的韌性，以及它能否堅持 EDLP 策略，並在周期恢復正常後成為贏家。而墨菲美國公司正是這樣做的。透過增強競爭力和提高客戶黏著度，我們的表現比之前的低谷時期要好得多，我們將繼續注重價值。

Most importantly, we continue to see the structural component of the retail fuel margin grow as the marginal retailer remains challenged and passes through to customers its higher breakeven requirements. This does not only supports Murphy's ability to lean into price in the current low price environment, but highlights the upside potential for when margins normalize, and we certainly expect the cycle to normalize.

最重要的是，我們看到零售燃油利潤的結構性因素持續成長，因為邊際零售商仍面臨挑戰，並將更高的損益平衡要求轉嫁給客戶。這不僅支持了墨菲在當前低價環境下採取價格策略的能力，而且突顯了利潤率恢復正常時的潛在上漲空間，我們當然期待週期能夠恢復正常。

In fact, over the life of any 25-year store investment, one should expect three peaks every six to eight years and three troughs based on the last 25 years experienced with normalized periods in between. And when we invest, we are basing our economics on mid-cycle factors, noting there is significant upside over time from the consistently increasing structural component of the margin.

事實上，根據過去 25 年的經驗，任何 25 年的店鋪投資在其生命週期內，每 6 到 8 年都會出現三個高峰和三個低谷，中間穿插著正常時期。我們在投資時，會根據週期中期的因素來制定經濟策略，並注意到利潤率中不斷增長的結構性因素會帶來顯著的上漲空間。

In terms of momentum, while Q3 merchandise results are exceptional, we would argue that on an annualized basis, the performance reflects ongoing trends that we expect to continue. For example, nicotine promotional dollars have grown at an impressive 12% CAGR since 2020. While we will never be able to predict exactly what products are being promoted in which quarter, our capabilities to engage consumers in the category are unparalleled.

就發展動能而言，雖然第三季商品銷售業績非常出色，但我們認為，從年度來看，這一業績反映了我們預計會繼續保持的持續趨勢。例如，自 2020 年以來，尼古丁促銷支出以驚人的 12% 的複合年增長率成長。雖然我們永遠無法準確預測哪個季度會推廣哪些產品，但我們吸引消費者參與該品類的能力是無與倫比的。

In other areas, QuickChek reported its fourth successive quarter of same-store food and beverage sales growth, and total center store categories grew by 5%, while same-store operating expenses moderated, increasing by only 2.8% for the quarter, and ongoing campaigns are designed to further this momentum. New store openings are now projected to be over 45 for the year with a strong pipeline supporting 50-plus stores in 2026 and into the future.

在其他方面，QuickChek 報告稱其同店食品和飲料銷售額連續第四個季度增長，中心商店總類別增長了 5%，而同店運營費用有所放緩，本季度僅增長了 2.8%，正在進行的營銷活動旨在進一步鞏固這一勢頭。預計今年新店開幕數量將超過 45 家，並且有強勁的發展勢頭，到 2026 年及以後將有 50 家以上的新店開業。

Currently, nearly 40 stores are under construction that will open in Q4 and early Q1 of 2026. While the newest stores ramping do not have the same subsequent year EBITDA impact of stores further into the ramp, getting this first group of about 50 stores under our belt creates a line of sight to future earnings growth as new build classes come on board.

目前，近 40 家門市正在建設中，將於 2026 年第四季和第一季初開業。雖然最新開業的門市對後續一年的 EBITDA 影響不如開業時間更長的門市那麼大，但首批約 50 家門市的開幕為我們未來的獲利成長奠定了基礎，隨著新店陸續開業，獲利成長前景更加光明。

Before handing over the call to Mindy and Donnie for additional remarks, on a personal note, my announcement comes with a great sense of accomplishment for what the Murphy USA team has achieved together in the past 13 years and a deep appreciation for an opportunity one can only dream about. As I noted in our internal announcement yesterday, the most resilient for us in our business is our team members, the people who make it all happen each and every day. I cannot begin to express my appreciation for their leadership and followership as we have strived to make the business better.

在將電話交給 Mindy 和 Donnie 補充發言之前，就我個人而言，當我宣布這一消息時，我對 Murphy USA 團隊在過去 13 年中共同取得的成就感到無比自豪，並對這個只能夢想的機會深表感激。正如我昨天在內部公告中提到的那樣，我們公司最有韌性的是我們的團隊成員，是他們日復一日地讓一切成為可能。我無法用言語表達我對他們的領導和追隨的感激之情，我們一直努力使公司變得更好。

Their efforts and sacrifices are too numerous to name, and provide the inspiration and energy for future initiatives to keep on making the business better. They define the winning spirit culture at Murphy USA, and I believe it is one of the greatest hallmarks a company can have. And for that, I'm both internally grateful and exceptionally proud. So it is with confidence of an enduring business model, a robust growth and capital allocation strategy and a winning Murphy USA spirit reflected in our future leader and leaderships and team members that I'll look forward to in my next chapter, both personally, professionally and as a Murphy USA shareholder.

他們的努力和犧牲不勝枚舉，為未來的各項舉措提供了靈感和動力，使企業不斷進步。它們定義了墨菲美國公司（Murphy USA）的必勝精神文化，我認為這是一家公司所能擁有的最偉大的標誌之一。為此，我內心充滿感激，也感到無比自豪。因此，我對我們持久的商業模式、穩健的成長和資本配置策略以及墨菲美國公司未來領導人、領導層和團隊成員所體現的必勝精神充滿信心，並期待著我的下一個篇章，無論是在個人生活、職業生涯還是作為墨菲美國公司的股東方面。

I'll now turn the call over to Mindy to review some highlights around our capital allocation strategy and third-quarter results. Mindy?

現在我將把電話交給 Mindy，讓她回顧一下我們資本配置策略和第三季業績的一些亮點。明迪？

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. But before I start, it has been a great ride, Andrew, with a lot of ups and downs. You built the foundation of this very successful public company and have improved it in every type of environment which is just remarkable. And I want you to know, I truly appreciate your wisdom, your mentorship, and your friendship. You will be missed.

謝謝大家，大家早安。但在此之前，我想說，安德魯，這段旅程精彩紛呈，充滿了起伏。你為這家非常成功的上市公司奠定了基礎，並且在各種環境下都對其進行了改進，這真是令人欽佩。我想讓你知道，我真心感激你的智慧、你的指導和你的友誼。我們會想念你的。

But it is not goodbye because you know that I'm going to be calling you. For those of you who don't know much about me, I joined Murphy Oil, the same year in which we opened our very first Murphy USA store. I was also here by Andrew's side as we launched this company as a public entity. And at that time and since, we highlighted five key value pillars still relevant today, one of which investing for the long term has been illustrated through our continued commitment to our 50-50 capital allocation, balancing growth and share repurchase. So with our new Board authorization, as you said, I am happy to carry the torch into the future.

但這並不是永別，因為你知道我會打電話給你的。對於那些不太了解我的人來說，我加入墨菲石油公司的那一年，我們開了第一家墨菲美國門市。我也曾陪伴在安德魯身邊，見證了公司上市的整個過程。當時以及此後，我們強調了五個至今仍然適用的關鍵價值支柱，其中之一就是長期投資，這體現在我們持續致力於 50-50 的資本配置，平衡成長和股票回購。正如您所說，在獲得董事會新授權後，我很高興能夠接過接力棒，帶領公司走向未來。

Now let's talk about third-quarter results. As Andrew alluded to, we are pleased with the third-quarter. As mentioned, third-quarter EBITDA was $285 million, virtually flat to the prior year despite all-in margins running about $0.02 lower. This is a significant achievement and is representative of our philosophy that especially during challenging times, we dig in and make the business better. So when the next peak environment presents itself, the earnings power and operating leverage will be that much stronger for longer-term investors.

現在我們來談談第三季業績。正如安德魯所暗示的那樣，我們對第三季的業績感到滿意。如前所述，第三季 EBITDA 為 2.85 億美元，與上年基本持平，儘管綜合利潤率下降了約 0.02 美元。這是一項重大成就，也反映了我們的理念，尤其是在充滿挑戰的時期，我們會深入鑽研，努力讓業務變得更好。因此，當下一個高峰期到來時，長期投資者的獲利能力和經營槓桿將會更加強勁。

Let me break down fuel performance just a little more, which remains strong despite that low price, low volatility environment. Average per store month volumes were down 1.8% in the third-quarter and down 0.7% on a two-year stack. However, all-in margins of $0.307 including retail margins of $0.283 are stronger than one might expect in this environment.

讓我再詳細分析燃油性能，儘管價格低廉、波動性小，但燃油性能依然強勁。第三季平均每家店每月銷量下降 1.8%，兩年累計銷量下降 0.7%。然而，包括零售利潤率 0.283 美元在內，總利潤率為 0.307 美元，這在當前環境下比人們預期的要好。

If we compare to peak all-in margins of $0.343 that we experienced in 2022, that included roughly $0.04 of impact attributable to that once and every six-year falloff in prices in the third year of 2022, coupled with about $0.015 to $0.02 of margin attributable to the tight supply and high volatility environment, and then further adjust for the $0.02 we are now investing to short volumes in the current low price environment. Given all that, we might expect all-in margins to be in the $0.26 to $0.27 range.

如果我們與 2022 年經歷的 0.343 美元的最高綜合利潤率進行比較，其中包括 2022 年第三年每六年一次的價格下跌造成的約 0.04 美元的影響，以及供應緊張和高波動性環境造成的約 0.015 美元至 0.02 美元的利潤率，然後進一步調整我們現在在當前低價環境下做空的 0.02 美元的利潤率，然後進一步調整我們現在在當前低價環境下做空的價格。考慮到所有這些因素，我們可能會預期總利潤率在 0.26 美元到 0.27 美元之間。

So to reiterate, we firmly believe the current margin structure includes $0.03 to $0.04 of structural uplift since 2022, which would translate to materially higher fuel contributions in a return to normal environment for Murphy USA.

因此，我們重申，我們堅信，目前的利潤結構包含了自 2022 年以來 0.03 至 0.04 美元的結構性提升，這將轉化為 Murphy USA 在恢復正常環境後燃料貢獻的顯著增加。

Important to note, fuel margins are highly correlated with the environment in which we are operating. While investors frequently ask why margins are lower year-over-year, why can't they see more of a structural uplift, our answer continues to be that current results are largely attributable to the low volatility and low price environment, which is masking the potential of our business in a normal environment where we believe we would experience several pennies of incremental margin opportunity.

值得注意的是，燃料利潤率與我們所處的環境高度相關。儘管投資者經常詢問為什麼利潤率同比下降，為什麼看不到更大的結構性提升，但我們的回答仍然是，目前的業績很大程度上歸因於低波動性和低價格環境，這掩蓋了我們在正常環境下的業務潛力，我們相信在正常環境下，我們本可以獲得幾美分的額外利潤機會。

Turning to merchandise. Total margin contribution dollars were up $24.4 million or 11.2% in quarter three. There are two key drivers of these exceptional results. First, nicotine categories are up over 20%, driven by strong promotional activity and center of the store categories grew approximately 5%. Through the continued evolution of Murphy Drive Rewards and other capability building initiatives, Murphy USA has dramatically increased the efficacy of our promotional efforts across the store, especially when it comes to executing needle-moving product offers to support our vendor partners.

轉向商品區。第三季總利潤貢獻額成長了 2,440 萬美元，增幅達 11.2%。這些卓越成果主要有兩個驅動因素。首先，在強勁的促銷活動推動下，尼古丁類產品成長超過 20%，而商店中心類產品成長約 5%。透過 Murphy Drive Rewards 的不斷發展和其他能力建設舉措，Murphy USA 顯著提高了我們在整個商店的促銷活動的有效性，尤其是在執行能夠促進銷售的產品優惠以支持我們的供應商合作夥伴方面。

While promotional opportunities of this size do not show up every quarter, when they do, manufacturers recognize our ability to execute. We don't always know when or how these opportunities will arise. But when combined with our team's innovative and creative approach to optimizing promotional impact, it's important to recognize the third-quarter margin benefit is not one time.

雖然這種規模的促銷機會並非每季都會出現，但一旦出現，製造商就會認可我們的執行能力。我們並不總是知道這些機會何時或如何出現。但是，結合我們團隊在優化促銷效果方面所採取的創新和創意方法，我們必須認識到，第三季的利潤成長並非一次性的。

For instance, while not a data point we would otherwise go out of our way to provide, in the third-quarter, we also saw strong promotional activity in the traditional smokeless products that drove double-digit margin growth in that category. So taken together across a wide variety of products over time, the collective impact of nicotine promotional dollars has been both significant and sustainable. In fact, since 2020, nicotine promotional dollars have grown at a very impressive 12% CAGR, as Andrew mentioned, and performance that we would expect to replicate going forward.

例如，雖然這不是我們通常會刻意提供的數據點，但在第三季度，我們也看到傳統無菸產品進行了強有力的促銷活動，推動了該類別兩位數的利潤成長。因此，從長遠來看，尼古丁促銷資金對各種產品的整體影響既顯著又可持續。事實上，正如 Andrew 所提到的，自 2020 年以來，尼古丁促銷支出以令人矚目的 12% 的複合年增長率增長，我們預計未來這一業績將繼續保持。

Turning to center of the store, where total margin dollars were up about 5%. We saw strength across the board, driven by mid-single-digit gains in our largest categories, packaged beverages, general merchandise, candy, and lottery, where the $1.9 billion Lotto jackpot did help to drive traffic and transactions. Total food and beverage sales were up 2.7% in the third-quarter. Margins remained pressured, though, down 2.2%. At QuickChek, we continue to focus on price and value for our customers, which is propping up sales and traffic and translating to better performance across the rest of the store.

轉向商店中心區域，那裡的總利潤額增加了約 5%。我們看到各方面都表現強勁，這主要得益於我們最大的幾個類別（包裝飲料、一般商品、糖果和彩票）的個位數中段增長，其中 19 億美元的樂透獎金確實有助於推動客流量和交易量。第三季食品和飲料總銷售額成長了2.7%。不過，利潤率仍然承壓，下降了 2.2%。在 QuickChek，我們繼續專注於為顧客提供價格和價值，這有助於提升銷售額和客流量，並轉化為商店其他方面的更好業績。

Excluding food and beverage, total non-nicotine sales, and margin at QuickChek were both positive for the first time in 2025, up 3.1% and 5.8%, respectively. Of course, merchandise sales do not happen in a vacuum. To grow sales and effectively execute promotional opportunities, the store has to look good, be well stocked and in functional working order, in addition to being properly staffed. Yet per store operating expense was only up a modest 2.8% in the third-quarter or 5.6% on an absolute basis, two-thirds of which is attributable to new and bigger stores.

剔除食品和飲料，QuickChek 的非尼古丁產品總銷售額和利潤率在 2025 年均首次實現正成長，分別成長 3.1% 和 5.8%。當然，商品銷售並非個別發生的。為了促進銷售並有效執行促銷活動，商店除了需要適當的人員外，還必須外觀良好、貨物充足、運作正常。然而，第三季每家門市的營運費用僅小幅增加了 2.8%，絕對值也僅成長了 5.6%，其中三分之二的成長歸功於新建和規模更大的門市。

So we continue to enforce restraint in our expense profile, controlling what we can control to ensure the network is running as efficiently as possible. We are making significant strides in reducing loss prevention year-over-year and holding labor expense study, which is helping to reduce our overall cost structure.

因此，我們繼續嚴格控制支出，控制我們能夠控制的因素，以確保網路盡可能有效率地運作。我們在減少年度損失預防方面取得了顯著進展，並進行了勞動力成本研究，這有助於降低我們的整體成本結構。

Bottom line, Murphy USA is performing at a fundamentally different level than it was in the prior trough due to the capabilities we have built and our ability and commitment as a management team to make the business better.

總而言之，由於我們建立的能力以及我們管理團隊改善業務的能力和決心，墨菲美國公司目前的表現與之前的低谷時期相比已經發生了根本性的改變。

As a result, we are improving our competitive position through best-in-class promotional execution and relentless discipline around maintaining a low cost structure, both at the store level and the home office. I am highly confident in the resilience and durability of our business model. And as noted in the capital allocation update we released in conjunction with our third-quarter earnings, we are taking action to strengthen shareholder distributions and help maximize shareholder value as we navigate towards the next peak in the cycle.

因此，我們透過一流的促銷執行和在門市和總部層面堅持不懈地保持低成本結構，提高了我們的競爭地位。我對我們商業模式的韌性和持久性充滿信心。正如我們在與第三季收益一同發布的資本配置更新中所指出的那樣，我們正在採取行動加強股東分紅，並在邁向下一個週期高峰的過程中幫助股東價值最大化。

First and foremost, we remain steadfastly committed to new store growth, primarily through our acceleration of our new-to-industry store program to 50-plus stores and opportunistic supplementing organic growth with small-scale M&A opportunities as they arrive.

首先，我們將繼續堅定不移地致力於新店成長，主要透過加快我們面向行業的新店計劃，將其規模擴大到 50 家以上，並在機會出現時抓住小規模併購機會，以補充有機增長。

Second, we have received board authorization to begin executing against a new $2 billion repurchase program through 2030 once we close out the remaining $337 million on the existing $1.5 billion authorization.

第二，我們已獲得董事會授權，在完成現有 15 億美元授權中剩餘的 3.37 億美元後，即可開始執行一項新的 20 億美元回購計劃，該計劃將持續到 2030 年。

Third, we expect to continue to grow the dividend payout 10% annually, starting with an additional 10% increase or $0.63 per share for the dividend payable on December 1 of this year.

第三，我們預計將繼續每年提高股息支付額 10%，從今年 12 月 1 日支付的股息開始，每股股息將額外增加 10% 或 0.63 美元。

Lastly, we will explore other reinvestment opportunities in the network to help improve the customer offer and reinvigorate the same-store base, while maintaining a leverage ratio at or below 2.5 times for the long term. I'll close out my comments with a little color around October's performance.

最後，我們將探索網路中的其他再投資機會，以幫助改善客戶服務並重振同店客流量，同時長期保持槓桿率在 2.5 倍或以下。最後，我再補充一些關於十月份表現的細節。

Preliminary October fuels results continue to reflect the strong fundamentals I mentioned earlier, despite the transitory impact of low prices and low volatility. Average per store month volumes are running 98% of prior year at retail-only margins approximating $0.32, exhibiting resilience amidst an otherwise lackluster price profile.

儘管受到低價和低波動性的暫時影響，但10月份的初步燃料市場結果繼續反映出我之前提到的強勁基本面。平均每家店的月銷量達到去年同期的 98%，僅零售利潤率約為 0.32 美元，在其他方面價格表現平平的情況下，展現出韌性。

Here is another important takeaway for October. Even at these lower absolute price levels, when we saw prices fall early in the month and margins ran up to the mid-$0.30 level, we were able to put some of that on the Street to create separation against our peers, and in that environment, we saw volumes at about 100% of prior year.

這是十月份的另一個重要訊息。即使在這些較低的絕對價格水平下，當月初價格下跌，利潤率上升到 0.30 美元左右時，我們能夠將部分利潤用於市場，從而與同行拉開差距。在這種環境下，我們的銷售量達到了去年同期的 100% 左右。

The run-up in prices towards the end of October mitigated some of that impact, resulting in slightly lower volumes. But the point is, the team is executing extremely well against our strategy and the fundamentals are supportive when a little volatility in margin shows up even if only for a brief period. So that business is behaving as we would expect and October results reflect underlying strength that would be even more apparent in a higher price, higher volatility environment.

10 月底價格的上漲緩解了部分影響，導致銷量略有下降。但關鍵在於，團隊在執行我們的策略方面做得非常出色，即使利潤率出現一些波動（即使只是短暫的），基本面也能夠支撐這個策略。因此，該業務的運作符合我們的預期，10 月的業績反映了其潛在的強勁勢頭，在價格更高、波動性更大的環境下，這種強勁勢頭會更加明顯。

With October largely behind us, we do have a higher degree of confidence in our 2025 guidance metrics, which we updated in our earnings press release. So I will now turn the call over to Donnie.

隨著 10 月基本過去，我們對 2025 年的業績指引指標更有信心，我們在獲利新聞稿中更新了這些指標。現在我將把電話交給唐尼。

Thanks, Mindy, and Andrew. Starting with our new store development program. We are continuing to make excellent progress. During this quarter, we brought 8 new stores into service, along with another 11 raze-and-rebuilds, bringing the year-to-date total as of September 30 to 22 and 20, respectively. In Q4 2025 and Q1 of 2026 combined, we expect to open roughly 40 new stores, all of which are currently under construction.

謝謝Mindy和Andrew。首先，我們將啟動新的門市開發計畫。我們持續取得優異進展。本季度，我們新增了 8 家門市，同時拆除重建了 11 家門市，截至 9 月 30 日，今年迄今的門市總數分別為 22 家和 20 家。預計在 2025 年第四季和 2026 年第一季度，我們將開設約 40 家新店，目前所有新店都在建設中。

This figure includes a small package of four stores we purchased in the Denver market that should be opened by year-end, an example of an opportunistic small-scale real estate play in an attractive market where we want a bigger presence. This gives us line of sight to at least 45 new store openings in 2025 as we continue to grow the new store pipeline, positioning us for 50-plus stores in 2026 and beyond.

這個數字包括我們在丹佛市場收購的四家門市，這些門市應該會在年底前開業。這是我們在一個有吸引力的市場中進行的小規模房地產投資的一個例子，我們希望在這個市場中獲得更大的影響力。隨著我們不斷拓展新店業務，這讓我們有信心在 2025 年開設至少 45 家新店，並為 2026 年及以後開設 50 多家門市做好準備。

For fuel volume, we expect 2025 volumes to come in below the low end of our original guided range, which was 240,000 to 245,000 gallons per store month. Year-to-date through the third-quarter, average per store volumes are approximately 236,000 gallons per month, reflecting both the Q1 storm impact and the lower relative price sensitivity of customers in a low absolute price environment as we have discussed in previous calls.

對於燃料銷量，我們預計 2025 年的銷量將低於我們最初指導範圍的下限，即每家門市每月 240,000 至 245,000 加侖。今年截至第三季度，每家門市的平均每月銷售量約為 236,000 加侖，這既反映了第一季度風暴的影響，也反映了在絕對價格較低的環境下，顧客對價格的相對敏感度較低，正如我們在之前的電話會議中所討論的那樣。

Based on current trends and our expectations for the remainder of the year, we're adjusting our full year fuel volume guidance to between 235,000 to 237,000 gallons per store per month. For merchandise contribution dollars, as previously discussed, third-quarter results highlighted the strength of our promotional engine, causing us to tighten our full year guidance at the upper end of the range to between $870 million and $875 million.

根據目前的趨勢和我們對今年剩餘時間的預期，我們將全年燃油銷售預期調整為每家門市每月 235,000 至 237,000 加侖。如前所述，商品貢獻額第三季業績凸顯了我們促銷引擎的強勁勢頭，因此我們將全年預期收緊至區間上限 8.7 億美元至 8.75 億美元之間。

On the expense side, if you've seen us on the road over the last six months, you've probably heard us talk about self-help and how we're actively managing our costs and driving savings across the organization to help improve performance amidst the challenging fuel environment. Our efficiency initiatives continue to demonstrate benefits as evidenced by the new labor model we rolled out in the spring that has helped ensure we have the right people in the store at the right time, which is also controlling labor costs and reducing overtime.

在支出方面，如果您在過去六個月裡見過我們，您可能已經聽我們談論過自助，以及我們如何積極管理成本，並在整個組織內推動節約，以幫助在充滿挑戰的燃料環境下提高績效。我們的效率提升措施持續展現成效，例如我們在春季推出的新型勞動力模式，該模式有助於確保我們在適當的時間讓合適的人員到店，同時也有助於控制勞動成本和減少加班。

Similarly, we are seeing benefits in loss prevention where in-store training and other investments have paid dividends through reduced shrink. Collectively, these efforts are making an impact, resulting in a lower projected monthly per store operating expense range of $36,200 to $36,600 per store month, down from our original guided range of $36,500 to $37,000 per store months.

同樣，我們在防損方面也看到了成效，店內培訓和其他投資透過減少損耗獲得了回報。這些努力共同產生了影響，使得預計每家門市每月營運費用範圍從最初的每家門市每月 36,500 美元至 37,000 美元降至每家門市每月 36,200 美元至 36,600 美元。

On the home office side, as noted in the press release, we completed an organizational restructuring during the quarter, which will help streamline our workflows and processes and eliminate technical redundancies while preserving our agile, data-driven decision capabilities.

在總部方面，如新聞稿所述，我們在本季度完成了組織結構重組，這將有助於簡化我們的工作流程和程序，消除技術冗餘，同時保持我們敏捷、數據驅動的決策能力。

As such, our 2025 SG&A guidance range is being adjusted lower to $230 million to $240 million for full year 2025, which is exclusive of the restructuring charge. From a tax perspective, year-to-date income taxes have come in lower than planned due to some discrete state tax refunds we received and acquisition of some federal energy tax credits. As such, we are tightening the all-in expected effective tax rate to between 23.5% to 24.5% for the full year.

因此，我們將 2025 年全年銷售、一般及行政費用指導範圍下調至 2.3 億美元至 2.4 億美元，該範圍不包括重組費用。從稅務角度來看，由於我們收到了一些州稅退款以及獲得了一些聯邦能源稅收抵免，今年迄今的所得稅低於預期。因此，我們將全年綜合預期有效稅率收緊至 23.5% 至 24.5% 之間。

When you input all this into the models and use $0.30 per gallon as a fuel margin placeholder for the full year 2025 versus the $0.295 year-to-date through Q3, you should end up somewhere pretty close to $1 billion of adjusted EBITDA, which likely shouldn't surprise anyone, given how we framed our original 2025 guidance in January.

當你把所有這些數據輸入模型，並以每加侖 0.30 美元作為 2025 年全年的燃油利潤佔位符，而不是截至第三季度的 0.295 美元，你最終應該會得到接近 10 億美元的調整後 EBITDA，考慮到我們在 1 月份對 2025 年的最初指導，這可能不會讓任何人感到驚訝。

At that time, the midpoint of our ranges suggested adjusted EBITDA of about $1.06 billion at $0.315 a gallon. At $0.30 and about 5 billion gallons, $0.015 variance in margins would generate plus or minus $75 million, all else being equal. As we look at year-to-date performance, we have more than offset the impact of lower volumes with improved merchandise performance, OpEx efficiencies and G&A cost savings. With that, I'll hand the call back to Andrew.

當時，我們預測範圍的中點表明，以每加侖 0.315 美元計算，調整後的 EBITDA 約為 10.6 億美元。假設每加侖汽油售價為 0.30 美元，產量約為 50 億加侖，那麼在其他條件相同的情況下，每加侖汽油利潤 0.015 美元的波動將產生正負 7500 萬美元的利潤。從今年迄今的業績來看，我們透過提高商品銷售業績、營運效率和節省一般及行政成本，已經完全抵銷了銷售下降的影響。這樣，我就把電話轉回給安德魯了。

Thanks, Donnie, and Mindy. And let me close out the call by thanking the analyst community and our investors for your support, your challenge, and your candidness over the last 13 years. Your questions early on about a business that wasn't necessarily well understood when we spun off really pushed us to think more deeply about our unique way of creating value, allocating capital and building a flywheel that played to our strengths, helping us win with all our stakeholders.

謝謝唐尼和明迪。最後，我要感謝分析師群和投資人在過去 13 年給予我們的支持、挑戰和坦誠。你們在公司成立初期就提出的關於這項當時並不為人所知的業務的問題，促使我們更深入地思考我們獨特的價值創造方式、資本分配方式以及構建能夠發揮我們優勢的飛輪機制，從而幫助我們贏得所有利益相關者的認可。

Your challenges around future potential headwinds and the sustainability of fuel margins pushed us to think more analytically about industry structure and the behavior of the marginal retailer. I can probably point to less than a handful of slides over 13 years across all our conferences and meetings where over 90% of our discussions focused around.

你們提出的關於未來潛在不利因素和燃料利潤永續性的挑戰，促使我們更理性地思考產業結構和邊際零售商的行為。在過去 13 年的所有會議和研討會中，我大概只能指出寥寥幾張投影片，而超過 90% 的討論都集中在這些投影片上。

I would like to thank our conversations that helped to shape the broader narrative, not just for Murphy USA, but for the convenience industry as a whole. Thank you for being a catalyst, a partner with us and keep pushing us in the years ahead. We'll now turn the call over to questions.

我要感謝我們的對話，這些對話不僅有助於塑造更廣泛的敘事，對墨菲美國公司，而且對整個便利商店行業都大有裨益。感謝您成為我們的催化劑和合作夥伴，並在未來幾年繼續推動我們前進。現在我們將把通話交給提問環節。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

Ed Kelly, Wells Fargo.

艾德凱利，富國銀行。

Andrew, congrats on your retirement. So I wanted to start just on fuel margins. It sounds like the quarter is off to a good start on the margin front, rack prices have been down. But the data would suggest that's -- and I think you're telling us that maybe that's fading a bit. Any color on the cadence in terms of fuel margins so far in the quarter and maybe what you're seeing in the last week?

安德魯，恭喜你退休。所以我只想先從燃油利潤率著手。聽起來本季利潤率方面開局不錯，貨架價格已經下降。但數據顯示——而且我認為你的意思是說，這種情況可能正在逐漸消失。能否就本季迄今的燃油利潤率走勢以及過去一周的情況提供一些資訊？

And then I just wanted to follow up on something that you mentioned about investment to drive volume. Obviously, you've seen some elasticity on more of the recent work. So what is that telling you about your plans moving forward in terms of putting some money on the Street to drive better volumes in this environment?

然後，我想就您剛才提到的關於透過投資來推動銷售成長的問題做個後續討論。顯然，在最近的一些作品中，你已經看到了一定的彈性。那麼，這說明你接下來有什麼計劃，例如在當前環境下投入資金來推動市場交易量的成長？

Thanks, Ed. I'll take that question. Yes, as I said for the month of October, we did see a run-up in prices towards the -- we did see a run up in margin at the beginning of October. That spike kind of normalized itself as we ended the month. So while the impacts were short lived, the market did behave exactly as we would expect during that time.

謝謝你，埃德。我會回答這個問題。是的，正如我之前所說，10 月我們確實看到價格上漲——10 月初我們確實看到利潤率上漲。隨著月底的臨近，這一高峰逐漸恢復正常。因此，儘管影響是短暫的，但市場在那段時間的表現完全符合我們的預期。

And so when you talk about your questions about investing for traffic, we absolutely know on a site-by-site basis where we need to be versus our key competitors and where the right pricing position is. And so really, our margins are more a function of the low -- and our volume are really more a function of just this low price environment where our customers are just not as price sensitive and are going to go to a more convenient location. It doesn't mean we leak off every trip, but assuming we may leak off one of every three, one of every four, that certainly starts to have an impact.

因此，當您談到有關流量投資的問題時，我們完全知道，就每個網站而言，我們需要與主要競爭對手相比處於什麼位置，以及正確的定價策略是什麼。因此，實際上，我們的利潤率更取決於低價環境——而我們的銷量更取決於這種低價環境，因為我們的客戶對價格不太敏感，他們會去更方便的地方購物。這並不意味著我們每次出行都會漏稅，但假設我們每三次出行就會漏稅一次，或者每四次出行就會漏稅一次，那肯定會產生影響。

When I look over this last quarter, the thing that sticks out to me most was it was remarkable for its flatness, which really resulted in little volume or margin creation opportunities. And just to illustrate the lack of volatility as I looked at this with my analyst group a couple of days ago, post-COVID, we have never seen a quarter where every month's retail margin was pretty much exactly the same.

回顧上個季度，最讓我印象深刻的是其成長的平緩，這實際上導致成交量或利潤率的提升機會非常有限。為了說明波動性的缺乏，正如我幾天前與我的分析師團隊研究的那樣，在新冠疫情之後，我們從未見過一個季度每個月的零售利潤率都幾乎完全相同。

And in fact, you can add May and June to that list because they weren't that different either. So essentially five consecutive months of flat margin. So when we look at the margin side, despite very low volatility, fuel margins are remaining strong at $0.30 all in.

事實上，五月和六月也可以加入這個名單，因為它們之間也沒有太大的差異。所以基本上連續五個月利潤率持平。因此，從利潤率來看，儘管波動性很低，但燃油利潤率仍然保持強勁，總計為 0.30 美元。

So that's showing that even in an environment entirely unproductive and value capture opportunities or volume capture opportunities, what we managed to do was actually pretty impressive and really speaks to that structural component still being in there. And then as I said, in October, when we saw that brief price run-up, we executed, we generated the margin and volume recovery you would expect.

所以這表明，即使在完全沒有生產力、沒有價值獲取機會或沒有銷售機會的環境中，我們所取得的成就實際上也相當令人印象深刻，這真正說明了結構性因素仍然存在。正如我之前所說，10 月份，當我們看到價格短暫上漲時，我們採取了行動，實現了預期的利潤率和交易量恢復。

So what I would say is the fuel engine isn't broken. It just needs to jump start to get things moving. We saw them in October. It wasn't long lived, but we will see it again, and we will be there to capitalize on that.

所以我想說的是，燃油引擎並沒有壞掉。它只需要啟動一下，讓事情運轉起來。我們十月見過他們。雖然這種機會持續時間不長，但我們也會再看到它，我們會抓住機會，從中獲利。

Great. And just maybe a follow-up on the ZYN promo in the quarter. Obviously, a nice event for you. Can you just maybe talk about your execution of that event and what differentiates you there, the traffic benefit that you saw? And then looking out the potential for additional similar promos or events that you might see that I think you're indicating that you don't see it as a one-off. So just more color there.

偉大的。或許本季還會推出 ZYN 促銷活動的後續報導。顯然，這對你來說是一件很不錯的事。您能否談談您如何執行那次活動，以及您在這方面有何獨特之處，還有您看到的流量成長效果？然後，你還要考慮未來是否有其他類似的促銷或活動，我認為你的意思是，你不認為這只是一次性的。所以這裡顏色比較豐富一些。

Yes, great question. And we don't get into the details of any particular promotion. I'm sure you can appreciate, in any given quarter, as we say, there are dozens that contribute to our results. Some are more material than others. Obviously, this one was material. So I do appreciate your question because I think what's important about this one is it really does showcase the strength of our ability to execute for our vendor partners.

是的，問得好。我們不會透露任何具體促銷活動的細節。我相信您能夠理解，正如我們所說，在任何一個季度，都有數十個因素會影響我們的業績。有些比其他更注重物質享受。顯然，這是一件重要的事情。我很感謝你的提問，因為我認為這個問題很重要，因為它真正展現了我們為供應商合作夥伴執行專案的強大能力。

This is really more about a strategic partner investing to drive share, utilizing our large and very loyal nicotine customer base. It also provided the added benefit for us growing awareness in an already growing category and driving traffic to the store and utilizing our operations, just outstanding ability to execute and deliver on a promotion. We will expect that to continue as manufacturers are going to continue to invest and reduce risk products. And Murphy USA can be an important catalyst to that because when you think about it, we sell five times the industry average volume. Our promotions also have about four times the industry average upsell.

這實際上更多的是策略合作夥伴投資以推動市場佔有率成長，利用我們龐大且非常忠誠的尼古丁客戶群。它還為我們帶來了額外的好處，即提高我們在一個已經不斷增長的類別中的知名度，為商店帶來客流量，並利用我們的運營能力，展現了出色的促銷執行和交付能力。我們預計這種情況會持續下去，因為製造商將繼續投資並降低產品風險。而 Murphy USA 可以成為這一趨勢的重要催化劑，因為仔細想想，我們的銷量是行業平均水平的五倍。我們的促銷活動追加銷售額也大約是業界平均的四倍。

So that makes us 20 times more effective using their money. And we also are able to measure that halo effect of promotions because of our loyalty engine that really major in nicotine. So when the promotions come, and they will, we're happy to execute on their behalf, and we have the engine in the store with the sales culture that is very strongly reinforced, our manufacturers know that we can deliver.

這樣一來，我們利用他們的資金效率就提高了20倍。而且，由於我們的忠誠度引擎主要針對尼古丁，我們也能衡量促銷活動的光環效應。所以，當促銷活動到來時（而且一定會到來），我們很樂意代表他們執行，我們店內擁有強大的銷售引擎，銷售文化也得到了強有力的強化，我們的製造商知道我們能夠交付。

So while this one, yes, was maybe a one time this year and really material impact, we certainly expect there to be other promotions throughout the sweep of time and continue to propel that CAGR of promotional dollars going forward.

所以，雖然這次促銷活動可能是今年唯一一次，而且確實產生了實質性的影響，但我們當然預計在未來一段時間內還會有其他促銷活動，並繼續推動促銷資金的複合年增長率。

Bonnie Herzog, Goldman Sachs.

邦妮·赫爾佐格，高盛集團。

Congratulations to all of you. Andrew, you're going to be missed. So stay in touch, but happy for you in this next chapter. I had a quick follow-on question on ZYN. You guys just raised your merch contribution guidance for the year after, I guess, pointing to the low end of the range last quarter.

恭喜各位！安德魯，我們會想念你的。所以請保持聯繫，也為你開啟人生新篇章感到高興。我還有一個關於 ZYN 的後續問題。你們剛剛提高了今年的商品銷售貢獻預期，我猜，這指的是上個季度預期範圍的下限。

So obviously, expectations improved and you had good performance in the quarter. Should we assume most of that's driven from this ZYN promotion in September? Or were there other drivers that give you the confidence to kind of raise your merch contribution guidance for the year?

顯然，預期有所提高，你們本季的業績也很好。我們是否可以認為這大部分是由9月的ZYN促銷活動所推動的？或者有其他因素讓您有信心提高今年的商品貢獻預期？

Bonnie, I'll take that one. It does definitely include ZYN. When we think about the first half of the year, the timing of cigarette promotions and also the Lotto jackpots resulted in comps kind of below our expectations, which we talked to in the last call. Those did turn around in the second half. Obviously, this one promotion was part of that.

邦妮，我要那個。它肯定包含 ZYN。當我們回顧上半年時，香菸促銷活動和彩券大獎的開獎時間導致贈品數量低於我們的預期，我們在上一次通話中也談到了這一點。下半場他們的狀態有所改善。顯然，這次促銷活動也是其中的一部分。

But also one key data point I'll share. Nicotine pouch volumes were growing around 45% in promotion. In October, we have seen that jump to 120% of prior year volumes, and we will likely see that halo effect continue on into November. And also, just as importantly, noncombustible nicotine products have fully offset our decline in cigarettes, but it's also not just a nicotine story. We have seen growth in the center of our store categories, as I said, up 5% in margin dollars, and importantly, also saw strength across the board.

但我還要分享一個關鍵數據點。促銷期間，尼古丁袋的銷量成長了約 45%。10 月份，我們看到銷量比去年同期成長了 120%，而且這種光環效應可能會持續到 11 月份。而且同樣重要的是，非燃燒型尼古丁產品已經完全抵消了香菸銷售量的下降，但這不僅僅是尼古丁的故事。正如我所說，我們商店的核心品類實現了成長，利潤率成長了 5%，更重要的是，所有品類都表現出了強勁的成長勢頭。

It wasn't just in one place. It was in packaged bev, it was in general merch, it was in candy. So I think that highlights the underlying strength of our offer in addition to the nicotine.

它並非只出現在一個地方。它存在於包裝飲料中，存在於一般商品中，存在於糖果中。所以我認為這凸顯了我們產品除了尼古丁之外的根本優勢。

Bonnie, one thing I will add here is if you think about some of the investments we talked about a year or so ago, our digital transformation initiative and the expected impact on sustainable center of store growth, we're seeing all that benefit, and we've been seeing it for the last few quarters. The relaunch of QuickChek Rewards driving food and beverage same-store sales growth there and investing in value through that advanced program suddenly driving the food and beverage, but also the center of store.

邦妮，我還要補充一點，如果你想想我們大約一年前討論的一些投資，我們的數位轉型計劃以及對門店中心可持續增長的預期影響，我們正在看到所有這些好處，而且在過去的幾個季度裡，我們一直都看到了這些好處。QuickChek Rewards 的重新推出推動了當地食品和飲料同店銷售的成長，並透過該先進計畫進行價值投資，突然推動了食品和飲料以及門市中心的銷售成長。

So these are some of the investments that we've highlighted over the last couple of years that in this environment are really flowing through across categories. So it's just coming together in a really nice way.

所以，這些是我們過去幾年重點關注的一些投資，在當前的環境下，這些投資正在各個領域蓬勃發展。所以一切都朝著非常好的方向發展了。

Okay. That's helpful. And if I may, I wanted to ask about capital allocation. You raised your quarterly dividend by an impressive 19%. And the Board also authorized a new share repurchase program. So it does seem like you're increasing returns of cash to shareholders.

好的。那很有幫助。如果可以的話，我想問一下關於資本配置的問題。你們將季度股息提高了令人矚目的 19%。董事會也批准了一項新的股票回購計畫。所以看起來你們確實在提高股東的現金回報。

So how should we think about that relative to your ability to grow the business? I mean, should we assume growth moving forward might be more moderate and maybe you're seeing a bigger opportunity to return more cash to shareholders versus reinvesting? Just any color there would be helpful.

那麼，我們該如何看待這與你拓展業務的能力之間的關係呢？我的意思是，我們是否應該假設未來的成長可能會更加溫和，並且您認為與其進行再投資，不如將更多現金返還給股東，這樣會有更大的機會？任何顏色都可以。

Yes, Bonnie, let me take this one. When we say our 50-50 capital allocation, I mean, we mean 50-50. We've done strategic work over the last couple of years to test the bookends of that. And we're really confident at that level of balanced capital allocation that makes sense. If you remember, when we initiated a dividend four years ago, we benchmarked it against peers at about a 0.67% yield.

好的，邦妮，讓我來吧。當我們說我們的資本配置是 50-50 時，我的意思是，我們指的是 50-50。過去幾年，我們進行了策略性工作，以檢驗這個問題的兩端。我們對這種合理的均衡資本配置水準非常有信心。如果你還記得的話，四年前我們開始派發股息時，我們以同業的收益率為基準，約為 0.67%。

We haven't kept up with that yield because of the outstanding share price performance. And so with this auto pilot program, where the cash pools raised 10% every year and the quarterly dividends simply then a function of the shares outstanding, we simply took this as an opportunity to increase that, to bump up the yield for long-term investors who are holding the stock, especially when the stock is a little bit in a trough.

由於股價表現優異，我們未能跟上收益率的步伐。因此，透過這項自動駕駛計劃，現金池每年增長 10%，季度股息則取決於流通股數量，我們藉此機會提高了股息，從而提高了持有股票的長期投資者的收益率，尤其是在股票價格略微低迷的時候。

If you think about the incremental $4 million from that extra 10% in the pool, that's one store, right? And we're going to more than make that up given the growth pipeline that we have in front of us. The other thing I would note, the bonus depreciation benefits that we're going to get from the One Big Beautiful Bill is over 10 times that amount, and that's going to go back into reinvesting in the stores, whether it's remodels, maintenance programs with dispensers or future raze-and-rebuild growth in out years.

如果把資金池中額外增加的 10% 所帶來的 400 萬美元看作是一家商店的裝置容量，對吧？鑑於我們面前的成長前景，我們一定會彌補這部分損失。我還要指出一點，我們將從「一項偉大的法案」中獲得的額外折舊收益是該金額的 10 倍以上，這些資金將重新投入到商店的建設中，無論是翻新、配備分配器的維護計劃，還是未來幾年的拆除重建發展。

So the dividend is just simply a way to recognize long-term shareholders holding the stock. When we model out the business at the 50 store a year growth in a normalized environment, we're generating significant excess free cash flow in years in the future that more than allow us to do that, take care of the balance sheet, take care of the share repurchase program.

所以，分紅只是對長期持有股票的股東的回饋方式。當我們以每年 50 家門市的成長速度在正常環境下模擬業務發展時，未來幾年我們將產生大量的自由現金流，這不僅足以讓我們實現這一目標，還能改善資產負債表，並支持股票回購計畫。

And so as we complete the end of a $1.5 billion program, we heard loud and clear from investors, it's really important as you think about the transition to be just as clear about future strategy and capital allocation. So it's really important to send this message at the same time that we're committed to this balanced growth and returns to shareholders, and we'll continue to maintain that balance as well as our conservative balance sheet.

因此，在我們完成一項耗資 15 億美元的計劃之際，我們清楚地聽到了投資者的呼聲，在考慮轉型時，明確未來的策略和資本配置至關重要。因此，我們非常有必要傳達這一訊息，即我們致力於實現平衡成長並為股東帶來回報，我們將繼續保持這種平衡以及我們穩健的資產負債表。

Irene Nattel, RBC Capital Markets.

艾琳·納特爾，加拿大皇家銀行資本市場。

I'll echo the congratulations, Andrew, and it's been great. Just a couple of follow-up questions, if I may. You talked about the halo effect on in center of store of the ZYN promo. If you kind of dissect out the transactions from those -- from the customers that benefited from the promo versus those that maybe didn't because they just don't use nicotine, was there any difference in consumer behavior? I guess in other words, how much was the growth really just a halo from the promotion versus the rest of the customer base?

我也要向你表示祝賀，安德魯，這真是太棒了。如果可以的話，我還有幾個後續問題。你談到了ZYN促銷活動中商店中心的暈影效應。如果你把這些交易分開來看——從促銷活動中受益的顧客和那些可能因為不使用尼古丁而沒有受益的顧客，他們的消費行為有什麼不同嗎？換句話說，這種成長究竟有多少是促銷活動帶來的光環效應，又有多少是其他客戶群實際成長帶來的？

I'm not sure, Irene, that we're fully able to parse that out. But what I will tell you is that the uptake for the ZYN offer were largely customers that were already coming in there to purchase another nicotine product anyway. So it wasn't necessarily an extra trip or incremental traffic that we were driving. It was just kind of an and to a visit they already had. So I think that, that speaks well to the center of store because I think that that category was increasing on its own, and we would have seen that even despite the nicotine promotion.

艾琳，我不確定我們是否能夠完全理解這一點。但我可以告訴你的是，購買 ZYN 產品的顧客大多是原本要來這裡購買其他尼古丁產品的顧客。所以，我們開車行駛的不一定是額外的行程或增加的交通流量。這只是對他們之前已經進行的一次訪問的補充而已。所以我認為這很好地說明了商店中心區域的情況，因為我認為該類別本身就在增長，即使有尼古丁促銷活動，我們也能看到這一點。

Obviously, the Lotto jackpot helps us as well because we know that, that also is a factor that can drive an incremental trip into the store. But for the ZYN only, I would say that there may have been some secondary impact on center of the store, but I think it would have been very small as those customers were in the store to buy nicotine anyway.

顯然，彩券頭獎對我們也有幫助，因為我們知道，這也是促使人們額外進店消費的因素。但就 ZYN 而言，我認為可能會對商店中心區域產生一些次要影響，但我認為影響會非常小，因為這些顧客本來就是來商店購買尼古丁的。

Yes. And one thing to add to that, Irene, is we talked about the temporal effects of the lottery and the nicotine promotion in the first half of the year, we are reporting a really strong Murphy-only center of store activity in the first half of the year. So this as many says, this maintains that momentum. It offsets the temporal effects for the first half of the year. And when you look at it over any 12-, 24-month period, it's a really steady cadence despite some lumpiness from quarter-to-quarter that we saw this year.

是的。艾琳，還有一點要補充的是，我們討論了今年上半年彩票和尼古丁促銷活動的暫時性影響，我們報告稱，今年上半年墨菲門市的活動非常強勁。正如許多人所說，這保持了這種勢頭。它抵消了上半年的暫時性影響。從任何 12 個月、24 個月的週期來看，儘管今年出現了一些季度間的波動，但整體節奏仍然非常穩定。

That's great. And then coming back to the whole capital allocation discussion. I'm wondering what level of EBITDA or free cash flow underpins that $2 billion program if you want to keep your leverage at around 2.5 times because if we kind of look at current consensus numbers and we assume that 50-50, the $2 billion implies about $400 million a year over five years, let's say. And it's a little -- you're kind of getting a little tight there.

那太棒了。然後我們再回到資本配置的討論上來。我想知道，如果要將槓桿率保持在 2.5 倍左右，那麼支撐這項 20 億美元計劃的 EBITDA 或自由現金流水平是多少？因為如果我們看一下目前的普遍預期，並假設 50/50 的比例，那麼 20 億美元意味著五年內每年大約 4 億美元。而且有點——你那裡有點緊張了。

Yes. So we'll lean into the balance sheet, as we've talked about, in '26, '27 with the cadence of the new stores and the expectations from those which are ahead of our projections in terms of returns. We expect that to turn the other side. So just like we did with the $1.5 billion program, we gave ourselves five years to do it. We're completing it in just a little over three, given ourselves five years to do the $2 billion at current equity prices.

是的。因此，正如我們之前討論過的，我們將在 2026 年和 2027 年重點關注資產負債表，因為新店的開業節奏以及那些在回報方面領先於我們預期的店舖的期望值都會受到影響。我們預期情況會朝另一個方向發展。所以就像我們之前對那個15億美元的專案所做的那樣，我們給自己五年時間來完成它。我們計劃在三年多一點的時間內完成，以目前的股票價格，我們給自己五年時間來完成這 20 億美元的投資。

We can see ourselves doing that quicker as well. So you're right, it gets a little tighter. We've always said we can go over 2.5 times. Our covenants aren't hit until 3 times, 2.5 times is a longer-term target that we expect to stay within. So if we bump above it for a short period of time to take advantage of some downward pressure, we'll absolutely lean into that and the balance sheet that we've established.

我們也能更快做到這一點。你說得對，確實會更緊一點。我們一直都說我們可以超過2.5倍。我們的契約要達到 3 次才算生效，2.5 次是我們預期能夠維持的長期目標。因此，如果我們在短時間內突破該水平，利用一些下行壓力，我們絕對會利用這一點以及我們已經建立的資產負債表。

Pooran Sharma, Stephens Inc.

Pooran Sharma，Stephens Inc.

Just wanted to say, hey, congratulations, Andrew. I know we'll probably interact a few more times here, but wanted to say it's been a pleasure working with you and wish you nothing but the best in the future. My first question, maybe just for Mindy. Mindy, you've talked about how you've been with the company really from the beginning and I just maybe wanted to focus on your prior positions.

只是想說，嘿，恭喜你，安德魯。我知道我們以後可能會在這裡互動幾次，但還是想說，和你一起工作非常愉快，祝你未來一切順利。我的第一個問題，可能只問Mindy。Mindy，你之前說過你從公司成立之初就在這裡工作，我可能更想了解一下你之前的職位。

I mean I think you held the CFO role. You were put into the COO role. Can you maybe talk about how that kind of prepared you or how that has prepared you to take on the CEO role coming this new year?

我的意思是，我想你曾擔任過財務長一職。你被任命為首席營運長。您能否談談這段經歷如何幫助您做好準備，或者說這段經歷如何讓您為在新的一年裡擔任執行長一職做好準備？

Great question. And you're the first one that's asking that. So I'll be thinking through my response here. I think I have a great background for this role. One, I grew up in this business, so very familiar with our culture and the way that we do things and the way that we work.

問得好。你是第一個問這個問題的人。所以我會好好想想該怎麼回答。我認為我具備勝任這個職位所需的背景。第一，我從小就在這個行業長大，所以我非常熟悉我們的文化、做事方式和工作方式。

Through the CFO lens, especially at spin Andrew and I got to take this company public. And so we're taking public a company that existed within a subsidiary of a subsidiary of what used to be a fully integrated oil and gas company that was investment grade. So it kind of got to incubate under that environment in a very entrepreneurial way, which was fantastic. But obviously, when you think about taking something public, suddenly you need to have a lot of discipline. You need to have guardrails in place.

從財務長的角度來看，尤其是在公司分拆階段，我和安德魯得以帶領這家公司上市。因此，我們將一家曾經是投資級完全一體化石油天然氣公司的子公司的子公司推向市場。所以它在這種環境下以一種非常具有創業精神的方式得到了孵化，這真是太棒了。但很顯然，當你考慮將某件事公諸於世時，你需要很強的自律性。你需要安裝護欄。

You're now no longer investment grade, so every penny matters. Everything that wasn't material in that business before, now suddenly became material. So that gave me a great basis for what does it take for a public company? What do we really need to care about? How do we manage our performance?

你的信用評級不再是投資等級，所以每一分錢都很重要。以前在這個行業裡無關緊要的事情，現在突然變得重要了。這讓我對上市公司需要具備哪些條件有了很好的了解？我們真正需要關心的是什麼？我們如何管理績效？

How do we make commitments to our shareholders and keep those and at the same time, balance our growth prospects and ambitions with maintaining a very solid and resilient balance sheet? So I think from the financial aspect, I have that pretty much down. I don't remember exactly what year it was that Andrew decided to add fuels to my CFO role. I want to say it was around 2017, 2018. And so that got me a real feel for one of the main engines of growth within this company, one of the main drivers of EBITDA fuels.

我們如何對股東做出承諾並履行承諾，同時又能平衡成長前景和雄心壯志與保持穩健且富有韌性的資產負債表之間的關係？所以我覺得從財務方面來說，我已經基本掌握了。我不記得安德魯決定將燃料業務納入我的財務長職責的具體年份了。我想說大概是 2017 年、2018 年左右。因此，這讓我真正感受到了這家公司的主要成長引擎之一，也是 EBITDA 成長的主要驅動力之一。

Obviously, a very complex department as well. And so that gave me some exposure to some of the more commercial aspects of the business, especially the main commercial aspects of our business. So I got to season in that for a while. But then when you think about, okay, what was missing, it was really that connection with the customer because I had never done anything that was business to customer. It was only business-to-business from the commercial side.

顯然，這也是一個非常複雜的部門。因此，這讓我接觸到了一些業務的商業方面，特別是我們業務的主要商業方面。所以我有一段時間可以慢慢適應。但仔細想想，好吧，到底缺少的是什麼，其實是與客戶的聯繫，因為我從來沒有做過任何企業對客戶的業務。從商業角度來看，這只是企業對企業之間的交易。

So bringing the COO role underneath me gave me one exposure to what we sell inside the store, so the merch category for the first time, but also a real understanding of the mission that we are serving for those value-conscious customers, how much they really count on us to be able to get through their lives on a month-by-month basis.

因此，讓我擔任營運長一職，讓我第一次接觸到店內銷售的商品類別，也讓我真正理解了我們為那些注重性價比的顧客所服務的使命，以及他們每個月在生活中多麼依賴我們。

And so that experience really rounded me out because now, I understand absolutely the financial discipline side, I understand the commercial aspect side, but I also understand that connection with the customer and also the connection with the staff that is actually serving that customer and how much we absolutely expect from them and how we need to make sure that whatever we do, we're simplifying their ability to serve our customers every day. So hope that answers your question. That's the first time anyone has ever asked me that, but I think that, that all three of those roles really did serve to round me out and prepare me in this journey to become CEO.

所以，那段經歷讓我變得更加全面，因為現在，我不僅完全理解了財務紀律方面，也理解了商業方面，而且我還理解了與客戶的聯繫，以及與實際服務客戶的員工之間的聯繫，以及我們對他們的期望有多高，以及我們需要如何確保我們所做的一切，都能簡化他們每天服務客戶的能力。希望這能解答你的疑問。這是第一次有人問我這個問題，但我認為，這三個職位確實讓我變得更加全面，也為我成為執行長的這段旅程做好了準備。

Yes. No, absolutely. I appreciate the color there. I guess on my follow-up, maybe just wanted to focus on costs. I think in the past, we're following a peak margin environment. You've been known to focus on costs and take them out. And so with this earnings release, we saw a reduction in store OpEx and SG&A.

是的。不，絕對的。我喜歡那裡的顏色。我想，在我的後續跟進中，或許我只想專注在成本上。我認為過去我們一直處於利潤率高峰階段。你一向注重成本控制並努力降低成本。因此，透過此次財報，我們看到門市營運支出和銷售、管理及行政費用有所下降。

Just wanted to get a sense of how much opportunity is there ahead? Do you see like a good amount of opportunity to take out cost in 2026 and 2027 if you need to? Just wanted to get a sense of potential magnitude there.

我只是想了解未來有多少機會？如果需要的話，您認為在 2026 年和 2027 年是否有很多機會降低成本？只是想了解那裡的潛在規模。

Obviously, this onetime restructure with order of magnitude far above what we would be able to do in the future because this was intended to be kind of a onetime reset of SG&A costs. But look, we're going to continue to optimize our business. So what you saw at this restructure, we streamlined our operations to scale the business properly and to force us to do more with less.

顯然，這次一次性的重組規模遠遠超過了我們未來所能做到的，因為這原本是打算對銷售、一般及行政費用進行一次性重置。但是，我們會繼續優化我們的業務。所以，在這次重組中，你們看到的是我們精簡了營運流程，以便更好地擴大業務規模，並迫使我們用更少的資源做更多的事情。

So we've now made us leaner, but I think now we're uncovering opportunities, identifying what are those other opportunities for automation, for consolidating resources where it makes sense to streamline the workflow, to look at some of the overlaps in the business where we're not as efficient as we could be. So now that we've become leaner, I think the next step is how do we get more efficient.

所以我們現在變得更加精簡了，但我認為我們現在正在發現機會，確定其他自動化機會，在合理的情況下整合資源以簡化工作流程，並審視業務中一些我們效率不夠高的重疊部分。既然我們已經精簡了人員，我認為下一步是如何提高效率。

And so I do think that there is more to come there. And then we're going to continue to optimize the performance of our existing store network. I think we're off to a great start with our store productivity excellence initiative and other ones. And so we will continue to hold the line on costs. It's obviously really important now when the external macro environment for fuels is a bit of a challenge.

所以我認為那裡還有更多值得探討的地方。然後我們將繼續優化現有門市網路的營運績效。我認為我們在提升門市生產力以及其他方面都取得了良好的開端。因此，我們將繼續控製成本。顯然，在當前燃料外部宏觀環境面臨挑戰的情況下，這一點尤其重要。

But it also will reap benefits for us in the future when that does turn around and does normalize because we will be able to bank more of that extra margin because of the efforts and diligence that we're applying now. So do I think that it's going to be order of magnitude in a one time, one sell swoop, what it was in this quarter? No. But there are certainly plenty of opportunities that we already do see, and I'm sure we'll uncover new ones as we go forward.

但當這種情況好轉並恢復正常時，我們也將從中受益，因為我們現在付出的努力和勤奮將使我們能夠獲得更多額外的利潤。所以我認為，一次性拋售的規模會比本季大一個數量級嗎？不。但我們已經看到了很多機會，我相信隨著我們不斷前進，我們也會發現新的機會。

Bobby Griffin, Raymond James.

博比·格里芬，雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

My congrats to both of you guys as well on the new roles. Andrew, it's been a pleasure to work with you and get to know you over the last years. And Mindy, I look forward to continuing the relationship. I guess, first, I wanted to circle back. It was a comment in both of you guys' prepared remarks, and it's the nicotine promo CAGR over the last five years, I believe, 12%, which is pretty notable on a five-year basis. And during that time, we start to see the evolution of the nicotine category with alternate nicotine.

也祝賀你們兩位榮升新職。安德魯，過去幾年能與你共事並認識你，我感到非常榮幸。Mindy，我期待著繼續這段關係。我想，首先，我想先回到原點。這是你們兩位在事先準備好的演講稿中提到的一點，我認為是過去五年尼古丁促銷活動的複合年增長率為 12%，這在五年內相當顯著。在此期間，我們開始看到尼古丁產品類別的演變，出現了替代尼古丁產品。

So I'm just kind of curious, as you think about that type of environment over the next five years, what does the change of the category and the composition of the category would alter nicotine due to that type of opportunity from promo dollars? Is altering nicotine going to, in your view, be accretive to that, make it look even better or less? Or just kind of curious how you think about that changing of the category.

所以我很好奇，在未來五年裡，當您考慮這種環境時，品類及其組成的變化會如何改變尼古丁市場，以及促銷資金帶來的這種機會會帶來什麼影響？你認為改變尼古丁含量會對這種情況產生正面影響，使其效果更好還是更差？或者只是有點好奇你對類別變更的看法。

Absolutely, Bobby. Yes, we look at that as an opportunity because we own that customer. We know that customer better than anyone. And so again, just to our knowledge and ownership of that customer, along with our ability to execute, along with our loyalty program which majored and nicotine, we are ideally suited to help the manufacturers move those customers down the risk spectrum and incidentally moving them into what are higher-margin products. So we would absolutely expect that to continue because they get a great ROI. They know what they are getting when they invest with us.

當然，鮑比。是的，我們認為這是一個機會，因為我們擁有這位客戶。我們比任何人都更了解這位客戶。因此，憑藉我們對該客戶的了解和所有權，以及我們的執行能力，再加上我們以尼古丁為主的忠誠度計劃，我們非常適合幫助製造商降低這些客戶的風險等級，並順便將他們引導至利潤更高的產品。因此，我們完全有理由相信這種情況會持續下去，因為他們能獲得很高的投資報酬率。他們知道自己投資我們能獲得什麼。

Yes. Bobby, I think back over the last 13 years, and some of the things that have surprised me the most and someone who pays attention to industry structure and how that influences performance and competition. If you think about the tobacco category, it's a fairly concentrated industry amongst the manufacturers. And you can put the packaged beverage companies in the same category, yet the amount of innovation we've seen over the last decade is phenomenal from what you would expect to see in a concentrated industry, right? So you're seeing this continuum of risk introduce new products. You're seeing the different players making investments.

是的。鮑比，我回想起過去 13 年，有些事情讓我感到非常驚訝，尤其是對於像我這樣關注產業結構及其對績效和競爭影響的人來說。如果你考慮一下菸草業，你會發現這是一個製造商高度集中的行業。你可以把包裝飲料公司歸為同一類，但是過去十年我們看到的創新量，與你在一個集中度很高的行業中所期望看到的相比，簡直是驚人的，對吧？所以你會看到，在推出新產品的過程中，風險是持續存在的。你可以看到不同的參與者都在進行投資。

Some working, some not working as well. Making acquisitions, some working, not working as well. And there's actually pretty good competition amongst those players. And as they introduce new products, new brands within those products, et cetera, part of their go-to-market strategy has to be through retailers who can get their product in front of customers.

有些有效，有些則不太有效。進行收購，有些成功，有些則不太成功。而這些球員之間的競爭其實相當激烈。隨著他們推出新產品、產品中的新品牌等等，他們進入市場的策略之一就是透過零售商將產品推向消費者面前。

And on the nicotine side, as Mindy noted, we're the only retailer in the space who intentionally build a loyalty platform around the nicotine category. And so the benefits that we're able to provide to these manufacturers who continue to innovate, which we are very thankful for, I think is just going to continue to evolve. There's also a lot of upstarts in the category, right?

正如 Mindy 指出的那樣，在尼古丁方面，我們是該領域唯一有意圍繞尼古丁品類建立忠誠度平台的零售商。因此，我們能夠為這些不斷創新的製造商提供的好處（我們對此非常感激）將會不斷發展。這個領域也有很多新興企業，對吧？

So as others try to get a toehold into nicotine pouches where the top three players might control 90%, there's companies out there that want a shot, and they just have to look at packaged beverage like energy drinks to see well, Celsius was one of those small players. And you know what, they finally got a toehold in the category.

因此，當其他公司試圖在尼古丁袋市場站穩腳跟時（前三名公司可能控制著 90% 的市場份額），有些公司也想分一杯羹，他們只需要看看能量飲料等包裝飲料市場就會明白，Celsius 就是其中一家小公司。你知道嗎，他們終於在這個領域站穩了腳步。

So there's a lot of Davids out there looking at the Goliaths, and they, too, realize the only way they can get the customers' attention, right, is going to be through the broader capabilities we have, especially the store upselling capabilities because they're not going to get the preferred shelf space where the customer can see it in the back bar, they're going to get it because of the upselling.

所以，許多像大衛一樣的商家都在關注著像歌利亞一樣的商家，他們也意識到，要想吸引顧客的注意力，唯一的辦法就是利用我們更廣泛的能力，特別是門店追加銷售的能力，因為他們不可能獲得顧客在後吧台就能看到的優先貨架位置，他們只能通過追加銷售來獲得。

So I'm really excited about the future of these categories, but even more excited about our capabilities as we continue to hone them for both packaged beverage and nicotine providers.

因此，我對這些品類的未來感到非常興奮，但更讓我興奮的是，我們將繼續提升自身能力，為包裝飲料和尼古丁供應商提供服務。

Very good. That's helpful. And I guess lastly for me, when you think about the $0.02 that you guys referenced, a margin on the Street to help drive volume, and the potential of that going away where you could keep it or not have to do that, is that purely just a volatility pricing environment returns to more normal, or is there also a competition aspect in certain key markets for you guys that is basically independent of the underlying commodity environment? So that would actually have to behave differently, too, for you to be able to get those $0.02 back.

非常好。那很有幫助。最後，我想問的是，你們提到的 0.02 美元，也就是華爾街為了推動交易量而給予的利潤空間，以及這種空間可能消失，你們可以保留它或者不必這樣做，這僅僅是波動性定價環境回歸正常水平，還是在某些關鍵市場中，你們也面臨著與基礎商品環境基本無關的競爭因素？所以，要拿回那 0.02 美元，它的表現也必須有所不同。

Probably I would say yes and yes, kind of. So when I think about your first scenario, it's really more a function of just this low price environment, especially given that we're sub $3 because prices do matter. People just, for whatever reason, are just not as price sensitive, are not willing to go across -- drive across town to save $0.02 a gallon when prices are below $3 versus above $3.

我大概會說是，也算是吧。所以，當我想到你的第一種情況時，這實際上更多是當前低價環境造成的，尤其是考慮到價格低於 3 美元，因為價格確實很重要。不管出於什麼原因，人們就是對價格不太敏感，不願意為了省下每加侖 0.02 美元而開車穿過整個城市，尤其是在油價低於 3 美元的時候，而不是高於 3 美元的時候。

So really, the phenomenon that would need to change would be the overall price profile being higher. With regard to competition, that obviously has an impact, especially in key markets where we're seeing competitive intrusion because really good competitors are going to act the same way that we do when we go into a new market, which is the price load to gain share.

所以真正需要改變的現象就是整體物價水準上漲。至於競爭，這顯然會產生影響，尤其是在我們看到競爭入侵的關鍵市場，因為真正優秀的競爭對手在進入新市場時會採取與我們相同的策略，即透過價格戰來獲取市場份額。

That's not actually irrational, that's a very rational thing to do. And what happens is when everybody gets their share, then everybody raises prices and plays nice. So over the sweep of time, that doesn't have an impact, but in certain key markets during certain months, absolutely. But we disrupt the market in the exact same way when we open our site. So that's why I say, yes and yes, kind of because, yes, there will be a competitive response for those new-to-industry sites, but it only lasts for a few months for just a short period of time.

這其實不是不理性，而是一種很理性的做法。結果就是，當每個人都分到一杯羹之後，大家就會提高價格，然後互相遷就。從長遠來看，這不會產生影響，但在某些關鍵市場的特定月份，絕對會產生影響。但是，當我們開設網站時，我們擾亂市場的方式也正是如此。所以，我之所以說“是，某種程度上是”，是因為，是的，對於這些行業新網站來說，競爭將會非常激烈，但這只會持續幾個月，時間很短。

And Bobby, the only two cents I would add there, no pun intended, is -- and we've always seen competitive entry. And I think what we're seeing now is just kind of more isolated in locales, as Mindy said, that dissipates. It's not like there's the big play like where Walmart rolled out so many neighborhood markets in a period, and you saw that effect more at scale.

鮑比，我唯一想補充的是──我們一直都看到了競爭激烈的市場。我覺得我們現在看到的只是像 Mindy 所說的那樣，零星分散在各地的情況，這種情況會逐漸消散。這不像沃爾瑪那樣，在一段時間內推出大量社區超市，從而在規模上產生更大的影響。

I think another thing when we talk about peak to trough, fundamental difference between, I would say, kind of the low price trough we're in now versus the one post 2014 is when we had $0.16 all-in margins and you had significantly lower margins after your variable cost, putting $0.01 or $0.02 on the Street was a significant, much more significant part of your available gross margin. And so if you go back to those periods, the volume impact that we witnessed is significantly more impactful than what we're seeing now.

我認為，當我們談到價格從峰值到谷底時，另一個根本區別在於，我們現在所處的低價谷底與 2014 年之後的谷底之間的根本區別在於，當時我們的總利潤率為 0.16 美元，扣除可變成本後利潤率要低得多，將 0.01 美元或 0.02 美元投入市場是可用部分利潤中相當重要的一部分。因此，回顧那些時期，我們當時所目睹的交易量影響要比我們現在所見的要大得多。

And so in this type of environment, you can put $0.02 on the Street because partly, you're getting a couple of cents every year from the structural dynamic that happened then, but not at the same level of inflection. And at $0.30 margins, the variable margin that's left is significantly greater. And so it's much more beneficial to maintain that volume, even if it's at 98%, 99%, no one in the higher price, more normalized environment, the customer goes back to their more normalized behavior and you get that back.

因此，在這種環境下，你可以把 0.02 美元投入華爾街，因為部分原因是，你每年能從當時發生的結構性動態中獲得幾美分，但轉折點並不在同一水平上。而當利潤率為 0.30 美元時，剩餘的可變利潤率就明顯更高了。因此，即使銷量只有 98%、99%，保持銷量也是更有益的。在高價、更正常的消費環境下，顧客會恢復到他們更正常的消費習慣，你就能重新獲得這些顧客。

So those are the kind of trade-offs, and I'd say this trough, we're doing much better than the prior one for a whole set of reasons. But part of it is the fact that the higher structural margins we're enjoying allows us to make some different decisions with respect to price-volume trade-offs.

所以這些都是權衡取捨，而且我認為，由於種種原因，我們這次的低谷期比上一次好得多。但部分原因是，我們享有的較高結構性利潤率使我們能夠在價格與銷售的權衡方面做出一些不同的決定。

Jacob Aiken-Phillips, Melius Research.

Jacob Aiken-Phillips，Melius Research。

I guess congrats is in order to all three of you given the next -- you've taken a new step in your professional journeys. So I guess to start off, a little bit more on fuel. I'm curious. The run-up in early October, were you also putting a couple of cents back on the Street? And can you give a little more color on what drove the increase in October?

我想應該祝賀你們三位——因為你們在職業生涯中邁出了新的一步。所以我想先從燃料方面說起。我很好奇。10月初的上漲行情中，你是否也投入了幾分錢給華爾街？能否更詳細說明一下10月成長的原因？

Then also the updated guidance seems to imply that you'll have positive fuel gallons and maybe positive same-store fuel gallons in 4Q. So any thoughts generally on that?

此外，更新後的指導意見似乎暗示，第四季燃油銷量將實現正成長，同店燃油銷量也可能實現正成長。那麼大家對此有什麼看法呢？

Yes, I'll take that question, Jacob. Thanks for your question. The tightness in the market was due to a refinery that was briefly offline for a week or two. But in a well-supplied environment, it all normalized pretty soon. The pipeline was reversed in order to get product back up into the Midwest and so it ride itself quickly.

是的，我會回答這個問題，雅各。謝謝你的提問。市場供應緊張是由於一家煉油廠短暫分娩了一兩週造成的。但在物資供應充足的環境下，這一切很快就恢復正常了。為了將產品重新輸送到中西部地區，管道進行了反向輸送，因此它很快就恢復了正常運作。

But during the course of those couple of weeks, that was literally the most sustained run-up that we had seen in a while. So that allowed the market to completely restore. We restored with it, which then allowed us to create some separation and essentially achieve some really nice margin and get 100% of our volume.

但在那兩週的時間裡，這確實是我們一段時間以來看到的持續時間最長的上漲行情。這樣一來，市場便得以完全恢復。我們用它進行了恢復，這使我們能夠拉開差距，並最終獲得非常可觀的利潤，達到我們100%的交易量。

Carrying that forward, I can't extrapolate that into the rest of the fourth-quarter because we really haven't seen that yet. I was just giving that as an example of when we do see that happen, we are able to respond. The market is also responding in the way that we would expect it to, which will then allow us to create time periods in which we can get outside margin and as well as volume.

由此推斷，第四季剩餘時間的情況還為時過早，因為我們還沒有看到結果。我只是舉個例子，說明當我們遇到這種情況時，我們能夠做出應對。市場也按照我們預期的方式做出了反應，這將使我們能夠創造時間段，從而獲得額外的利潤和交易量。

But this past quarter was just essentially flat, which we've always said is the worst environment for us from a fuel standpoint. We did see some pickup in October. I hope we see it going into Thanksgiving. That would certainly be nice to carry some high margins over the holiday period. But not ready to extrapolate the rest of the quarter that we're going to be at 100% of last year's volume.

但上個季度基本上持平，我們一直認為，從燃料角度來看，這是對我們來說最糟糕的環境。10月份確實出現了一些成長。我希望我們能在感恩節前看到它。如果能在假期期間保持較高的利潤率，那當然很好。但我們目前還不能斷定本季剩餘時間銷售量將達到去年同期的 100%。

Got it. That's helpful. And then sorry to ask another question on capital allocation. But you reaffirmed the 50-50 and the share buybacks and increased the dividend. I'm just curious, it seems like you're trying to accelerate new store growth to 50 plus next year, maybe some accelerated R&Rs and perhaps some other remodels or other smaller projects.

知道了。那很有幫助。很抱歉，我還要問一個關於資本配置的問題。但您重申了 50/50 的股權分配方案和股票回購計劃，並提高了股利。我只是好奇，看起來你們似乎想加快新店開業速度，明年達到 50 家以上，也許還會加快一些門市的翻新改造，以及一些其他的改造或其他小型項目。

So I'm just curious how we should think about CapEx next year? And if that number is elevated, should we expect repo to be up or is that more balanced over the next few years?

所以我很好奇我們明年應該如何考慮資本支出？如果這個數字上升，我們是否應該預期回購價格上漲，還是未來幾年情況會更加平衡？

We haven't given our CapEx guidance for next year, we're finalizing our plan on that, certainly as part of our ramp to get to the 50. This year, we had real estate that goes into that. So one of the things we're clearly looking at is the trade-off between more raze-and-rebuild versus remodels and maintenance programs. We do expect significant bonus depreciation benefits from One Big Beautiful Bill, that can actually address a lot of that incremental capital that we're talking about and using those tax benefits for reinvestment.

我們還沒有給出明年的資本支出指導，我們正在最終確定這方面的計劃，這當然是我們實現 50 億美元目標的一部分。今年，我們有房地產投資也包含在內。因此，我們顯然正在考慮的問題之一是，拆除重建與改造和維護計劃之間的權衡。我們預計《一項偉大的法案》將帶來顯著的額外折舊收益，這實際上可以解決我們正在討論的許多新增資本問題，並將這些稅收優惠用於再投資。

And as we said on the share repurchase, we'll continue to be disciplined and also opportunistic on that given we've got the balance sheet we can lean into should we want to take advantage of particular opportunities.

正如我們在股票回購方面所說，我們將繼續保持謹慎，同時也抓住機會，因為我們擁有雄厚的資產負債表，可以在需要時利用這些資金來把握特定的機會。

So we look at this like anything over a 3 to 5 year period, not just the next 12-month period. And that's why we remain very bullish about the business as we think about where we're going to be, '28 to 2030, where we view the fuel margins to normalize, where we look at our store count, where we look at EBITDA and look where the outstanding share count is.

因此，我們看待這個問題應該著眼於 3 到 5 年的時間跨度，而不僅僅是接下來的 12 個月。這就是為什麼我們對公司業務仍然非常樂觀，展望 2028 年至 2030 年的發展前景，我們預計燃油利潤率將恢復正常，我們將關注門市數量、EBITDA 以及流通股數量。

So we expect to see attractive returns, both on new stores to reinvestment capital as well as the share repo over that period. And we'll be back -- actually, Mindy will be back in February with the guidance for 2026, which will include that capital. So I think this wraps up today's call.

因此，我們預計在此期間，無論是新店的再投資資本或股票回購，都將獲得可觀的回報。我們還會回來的——實際上，Mindy 將在 2 月帶著 2026 年的業績指引回來，其中將包括這筆資金。今天的電話會議就到此結束了。

I've enjoyed these earnings calls. I talked to CEO peers, they kind of speak to me, my gosh, we got our earnings call coming up or we've got the investor meetings or whatever. Spending time with the analysts and investors has been one of the most fun parts of this job. We've had an incredible story to tell. We've had incredible people to tell the story with.

我很喜歡這些財報電話會議。我和其他CEO同行們聊過，他們跟我說，天哪，我們馬上就要召開財報電話會議或是投資者會議之類的了。與分析師和投資者交流是這份工作中最有趣的部分之一。我們有一個精彩的故事要說。我們很幸運能與這麼多優秀的人一起講述這個故事。

We have an incredible talented group of team members that actually live the story where we get to be the chief storytellers, and we're really proud of that, but also the capital allocation discipline that we know investors care about. And I think this message coupled with continuity of leadership with Mindy succeeding me and clearly knowing the business and the people and the team and how we create value and our capital allocation approach positions this company in excellent shape for the near term as well as the longer term.

我們擁有一支才華橫溢的團隊成員隊伍，他們親身經歷了公司的故事，我們成為了故事的首席講述者，我們為此感到非常自豪，同時也為資本配置紀律感到自豪，因為我們知道投資者非常關心這一點。我認為，這一訊息，再加上領導層的連續性，由 Mindy 接替我，她清楚地了解業務、人員和團隊，以及我們如何創造價值和我們的資本配置方法，這使得公司在短期和長期內都處於非常有利的地位。

I look forward to seeing some of you on the road or one-on-one calls as we kind of wrap up some year-end investor discussions. And thank you again for supporting Murphy USA and me as CEO during this tenure. Thank you very much.

我期待在路上或與你們進行一對一的電話會議時見到你們中的一些人，以便我們能夠結束一些年終投資者討論。再次感謝您在任期內對墨菲美國公司和我作為執行長的支持。非常感謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝各位的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。