Performance Food Group Co (PFGC) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to PFG's Fiscal Year Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

美好的一天，歡迎來到 PFG 的 2023 財年第三季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the call over to Bill Marshall, Vice President of Investor Relations for PFG. Please go ahead, sir.

我現在想把電話轉給 PFG 投資者關係副總裁 Bill Marshall。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, and good morning. We're here with George Holm, PFG's CEO; and Patrick Hatcher, PFG's CFO. We issued a press release regarding our 2023 fiscal third quarter results this morning, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at pfgc.com.

謝謝，早上好。我們與 PFG 的首席執行官喬治·霍爾姆 (George Holm) 一起來到這裡；和 PFG 的首席財務官 Patrick Hatcher。今天上午，我們發布了有關 2023 財年第三季度業績的新聞稿，可在我們網站 pfgc.com 的投資者關係部分找到。

During our call today, unless otherwise stated, we are comparing results to the same period in our 2022 fiscal third quarter. As a reminder, in the second quarter of fiscal 2022, we changed our operating segments to reflect how we manage the business. The results discussed on this call will include GAAP and non-GAAP results adjusted for certain items. The reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures can be found at the back of the earnings release.

在我們今天的電話會議中，除非另有說明，否則我們將結果與 2022 財年第三季度的同期進行比較。提醒一下，在 2022 財年第二季度，我們更改了運營部門以反映我們管理業務的方式。本次電話會議討論的結果將包括針對某些項目調整的 GAAP 和非 GAAP 結果。這些非 GAAP 措施與相應的 GAAP 措施的對賬可以在收益發布的後面找到。

As a reminder, in the fiscal first quarter of 2023, we updated our segment reporting metrics to adjusted EBITDA from the prior EBITDA metric. Accordingly, the segment results for the third quarter of 2022 have been restated to reflect this change. Our remarks on this call and in the earnings release contain forward-looking statements and projections of future results. Please review the cautionary forward-looking statements section in today's earnings release and our SEC filings for various factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements and projections.

提醒一下，在 2023 財年第一季度，我們更新了分部報告指標，將之前的 EBITDA 指標調整為調整後的 EBITDA。因此，重述了 2022 年第三季度的分部業績以反映這一變化。我們在此次電話會議和收益發布中的評論包含前瞻性陳述和對未來結果的預測。請查看今天的收益發布和我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中的警示性前瞻性陳述部分，了解可能導致我們的實際結果與我們的前瞻性陳述和預測存在重大差異的各種因素。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to George.

現在我想把電話轉給喬治。

Thanks, Bill. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. I'm excited to speak to you today about our fiscal third quarter results and outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year.

謝謝，比爾。大家早上好，感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。我很高興今天能和你們談談我們第三財季的業績和本財年剩餘時間的展望。

Once again, our organization executed at a high level, producing strong financial results. Sales growth in high-quality channels and disciplined cost control drove double-digit profit growth and very strong cash flow in the quarter. This allowed us to invest behind growth initiatives and pay down debt, preparing us for the future and improving an already strong balance sheet position. In June, we laid out 3 key strategic priorities: consistent profitable top line growth, adjusted EBITDA margin expansion and leverage reduction. I am pleased with how organization has internalized these initiatives and made rapid progress on all 3. We are achieving these goals with contributions from each of our 3 reportable segments. In a moment, I will highlight the success in each of these units and discuss why we believe we are well positioned to grow our business and deliver significant shareholder value over the long term.

我們的組織再一次以高水平執行，產生了強勁的財務業績。優質渠道的銷售增長和嚴格的成本控制推動了本季度兩位數的利潤增長和非常強勁的現金流。這使我們能夠投資於增長計劃並償還債務，為未來做好準備並改善本已強勁的資產負債表狀況。 6 月，我們制定了 3 個關鍵戰略重點：持續盈利的收入增長、調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率擴張和槓桿率降低。我很高興組織如何將這些舉措內部化並在所有 3 個方面取得快速進展。我們正在實現這些目標，我們的 3 個可報告部分中的每一個都做出了貢獻。稍後，我將強調每個部門的成功，並討論為什麼我們相信我們有能力發展我們的業務並在長期內為股東創造重大價值。

As you saw in our press release this morning, our adjusted EBITDA in the fiscal third quarter was once again ahead of our guidance. As a result, we are raising and tightening our adjusted EBITDA guidance range for the full year. In a moment, Patrick will provide additional details on our financial performance and outlook.

正如您今天早上在我們的新聞稿中看到的那樣，我們在第三財季調整後的 EBITDA 再次領先於我們的指導。因此，我們提高並收緊了全年調整後的 EBITDA 指導範圍。稍後，Patrick 將提供有關我們財務業績和前景的更多詳細信息。

Our financial success in the fiscal third quarter was achieved despite decelerating inflation in the Foodservice business. Over the long term, we believe normalized inflation is healthy for our company, our customers and consumers and look forward to a period of stable, low single-digit inflation. This will bring back the market to a more typical operating condition. In the meantime, we have been able to offset a lower inflation benefit through market share gains within highly profitable channels, rapid growth in high-margin products and disciplined cost controls. We are very pleased to see our organic volume growth accelerate in the fiscal third quarter. This reflects strong market share gains in the independent restaurant channel, solid growth at Vistar and consistent progress selling food and foodservice into the Convenience channel.

儘管餐飲服務業務的通脹放緩，但我們在第三財季取得了財務上的成功。從長遠來看，我們認為正常化通脹對我們的公司、我們的客戶和消費者都是健康的，並期待一段穩定的低個位數通脹期。這將使市場恢復到更典型的運行狀態。與此同時，我們已經能夠通過高利潤渠道內的市場份額增長、高利潤產品的快速增長和嚴格的成本控制來抵消較低的通貨膨脹帶來的好處。我們很高興看到我們的有機銷量增長在第三財季加速。這反映了獨立餐廳渠道的強勁市場份額增長、Vistar 的穩健增長以及向便利渠道銷售食品和餐飲服務的持續進展。

It is not a coincidence that each of these areas are also where we generate the highest returns, best profit margins and significant operating cash flow. There are several factors helping our improved volume performance. In addition to our typical best-in-class sales and service levels to customers, we continue to see a tailwind from improving inbound and outbound fill rates, particularly at Vistar and Convenience. Foodservice fill rates are essentially back to normalized pre-pandemic levels. As fill rates at Vistar and Convenience continue their steady march forward, we would expect it to support further volume gains.

這些領域中的每一個領域也是我們產生最高回報、最佳利潤率和大量運營現金流的領域，這並非巧合。有幾個因素有助於我們提高音量性能。除了我們為客戶提供典型的一流銷售和服務水平外，我們繼續看到進出貨填充率提高的順風，特別是在 Vistar 和 Convenience。餐飲服務填充率基本上恢復到大流行前的正常水平。隨著 Vistar 和 Convenience 的填充率繼續穩步前進，我們預計它將支持進一步的銷量增長。

Let's review several highlights from each of our reportable segments, and then I will provide my thoughts on the current environment. As I mentioned earlier, we were very pleased with the progress in our case growth during the fiscal third quarter. In Foodservice, this was led by our independent business, which saw organic case growth of 8.3% year-over-year.

讓我們回顧一下我們每個可報告細分市場的幾個亮點，然後我將提供我對當前環境的看法。正如我之前提到的，我們對第三財季案例增長的進展感到非常滿意。在餐飲服務方面，這是由我們的獨立業務引領的，該業務的有機案例同比增長 8.3%。

Some of the outperformance was certainly due to the benefit of an easier comparison due to the Omicron impact early in the third quarter of last year. However, we were encouraged by the resiliency of independent case growth in March when comparisons were much more difficult. As we discussed on the past few earnings calls, our independent case growth has been driven by new accounts, more so than increased penetration in existing accounts. This trend continued to a large extent in the fiscal third quarter though we did see an increase in cases per account year-over-year.

一些出色的表現當然是由於去年第三季度初 Omicron 的影響使比較更容易。然而，我們對 3 月份獨立病例增長的彈性感到鼓舞，當時比較困難得多。正如我們在過去幾次財報電話會議上討論的那樣，我們的獨立案例增長是由新客戶推動的，而不是現有客戶滲透率的提高。儘管我們確實看到每個賬戶的案例同比有所增加，但這種趨勢在第三財季在很大程度上仍在繼續。

With that said, new account growth was even faster in the fiscal third quarter than it had been in the prior 2 quarters and was just behind total case growth. Rapid growth in total new accounts, coupled with year-over-year increases in cases per account, should be a strong combination for our case growth in future periods. This is also reflected in our market share momentum, which remains robust. Our data shows consistent market share improvement in the independent channel, both on a case and dollar basis.

話雖如此，第三財季的新客戶增長甚至比前兩個季度更快，僅次於總案例增長。新賬戶總數的快速增長，加上每個賬戶案例的同比增長，應該是我們未來期間案例增長的強大組合。這也反映在我們仍然強勁的市場份額勢頭上。我們的數據顯示獨立渠道的市場份額持續提高，無論是在案例還是在美元的基礎上。

As you know, we define an independent restaurant as an operator with fewer than 5 locations. We have remained consistent in this definition. We are very pleased with the progress that Foodservice team has made with our independent restaurant business, which goes beyond the headline case growth numbers and include solid factors underpinning that growth, which we believe will produce long-term gains. This is not only profitable to our bottom line, but good for the long-term positioning of our Foodservice segment.

如您所知，我們將獨立餐廳定義為營業地點少於 5 家的經營者。我們在這個定義上保持一致。我們對餐飲服務團隊在我們的獨立餐廳業務方面取得的進展感到非常高興，這超出了總體案例增長數字，包括支撐增長的堅實因素，我們相信這將產生長期收益。這不僅對我們的利潤有利，而且有利於我們餐飲服務部門的長期定位。

Moving to Vistar. This segment has continued to perform well over the past several quarters. The fiscal quarter of 2023 was no exception as Vistar reported nice revenue gains and adjusted EBITDA growth versus the prior year period. Vistar's success was broad-based with double-digit case growth in vending, office coffee, theater and concessions. There are several factors driving this success, including continued recovery in several of these channels as consumers increasingly revert to their pre-pandemic behaviors. We're also seeing a nice lift from improved fill rates, as I mentioned in my earlier remarks. This is encouraging as the benefit is already being recognized despite fill rates still below historic levels. As the supply chain moves closer and closer to healthy fill rates, we expect the case in dollar sales lift to persist.

搬到維斯塔。該細分市場在過去幾個季度中繼續表現良好。 2023 財年也不例外，因為 Vistar 報告了可觀的收入增長和調整後的 EBITDA 增長與上年同期相比。 Vistar 的成功基礎廣泛，在自動售貨、辦公室咖啡、劇院和特許經營方面的案例增長達到兩位數。有幾個因素推動了這一成功，包括隨著消費者越來越多地恢復到大流行前的行為，其中幾個渠道的持續復甦。正如我在之前的評論中提到的那樣，我們還看到填充率的提高帶來了很好的提升。這是令人鼓舞的，因為儘管填充率仍低於歷史水平，但收益已經得到認可。隨著供應鏈越來越接近健康的填充率，我們預計美元銷售額提升的情況將持續存在。

Vistar is an important growth area for PFG, not only contributing to our sales momentum, but also accretive to our profit margins and returns. We are optimistic that Vistar will benefit from the combination of continued channel recovery and organic growth into existing channels along with entry into new channels. Our push into the Convenience channel continues unabated with another quarter of double-digit Foodservice sales growth. We are potentially pleased with the pace of profit growth in Convenience, driven by strong results from higher-margin products along with like-for-like margin improvement across both nicotine and non-nicotine businesses.

Vistar 是 PFG 的一個重要增長領域，不僅促進了我們的銷售勢頭，還增加了我們的利潤率和回報。我們樂觀地認為，Vistar 將受益於持續的渠道復甦和現有渠道的有機增長以及進入新渠道的結合。我們進軍便利渠道的力度繼續有增無減，餐飲服務銷售額又實現了四分之一的兩位數增長。我們可能對 Convenience 的利潤增長速度感到滿意，這得益於高利潤產品的強勁業績以及尼古丁和非尼古丁業務的同類利潤率改善。

As we have discussed with you in the past, the sales cycle for the Convenience business tends to be long. However, we have a stable pipeline of new business opportunities, which we expect to drive sales and profit growth over the long term and produce nice shareholder returns on our investment in Core-Mark.

正如我們過去與您討論的那樣，便利業務的銷售週期往往很長。然而，我們擁有穩定的新商機渠道，我們預計這將長期推動銷售和利潤增長，並為我們對 Core-Mark 的投資帶來可觀的股東回報。

Before turning it over to Patrick, who will provide additional detail on our financial results, I wanted to briefly discuss the recent inflation trends. As expected, we have seen inflation rates move lower month by month. On a consolidated basis, the pace of disinflation has been roughly in line with our model, which is the basis for our guidance. However, there has been divergence segment by segment. Inflation in Foodservice has fallen quicker than anticipated, while Vistar and Convenience have continued to experience persistently elevated year-over-year inflation rates.

在將其轉交給帕特里克之前，他將提供有關我們財務業績的更多細節，我想簡要討論一下最近的通貨膨脹趨勢。正如預期的那樣，我們看到通貨膨脹率逐月下降。在綜合基礎上，通貨緊縮的步伐大致符合我們的模型，這是我們指導的基礎。但是，細分市場之間存在分歧。餐飲服務業的通脹下降速度快於預期，而 Vistar 和 Convenience 的通脹率同比持續上升。

We feel very comfortable with our businesses' ability to manage through the environment, demonstrated by our strong third quarter results. Over time, we would expect Foodservice inflation rates to stabilize in a more normal low single-digit range with Vistar and Convenience inflation rates beginning to move lower over the next few quarters.

我們對我們企業管理環境的能力感到非常滿意，我們強勁的第三季度業績證明了這一點。隨著時間的推移，我們預計餐飲服務通貨膨脹率將穩定在更正常的低個位數範圍內，而 Vistar 和便利通貨膨脹率在未來幾個季度開始走低。

In summary, all 3 of our reportable segments had an excellent start to the calendar year, finishing our fiscal third quarter with strong volume momentum, favorable profit mix and tight cost controls. This led to a strong bottom line result, very solid cash flow generation and continued progress fortifying our balance sheet.

總而言之，我們所有 3 個可報告的部門在日曆年都有一個良好的開端，以強勁的銷量勢頭、有利的利潤組合和嚴格的成本控制結束了我們的第三財季。這導致了強勁的底線結果、非常穩健的現金流產生以及不斷加強我們的資產負債表的進展。

I'll now turn the call over to Patrick, who will provide additional detail on our financial performance and outlook for the future. Patrick?

我現在將電話轉給帕特里克，他將提供有關我們財務業績和未來展望的更多詳細信息。帕特里克？

Thank you, George, and good morning, everyone. As George discussed, we had an outstanding fiscal third quarter, making progress on our 3 main objectives and putting our business in a position to drive shareholder value over the long term. Once again, our adjusted EBITDA result came in above our guidance, resulting from better-than-anticipated gross profit performance and tight operating cost controls. As a result, we are raising and tightening our full year adjusted EBITDA guidance range.

謝謝你，喬治，大家早上好。正如 George 所討論的那樣，我們的第三財季表現出色，在我們的 3 個主要目標上取得了進展，並使我們的業務能夠長期推動股東價值。由於好於預期的毛利潤表現和嚴格的運營成本控制，我們調整後的 EBITDA 結果再次高於我們的指導。因此，我們正在提高和收緊全年調整後的 EBITDA 指導範圍。

I will walk through our guidance in more detail shortly. We are also very pleased with our organization's ability to convert these profit results into cash flow. Operating cash flow generation provides us the flexibility to invest behind value-creating growth projects, which we believe will produce sustainable revenue growth in the years ahead. Meanwhile, we have used our excess free cash flow to reduce our outstanding debt on our ABL revolving credit facility. That, coupled with our adjusted EBITDA growth, moved our leverage to the midpoint of our target range.

稍後我將更詳細地介紹我們的指南。我們也對我們組織將這些利潤結果轉化為現金流的能力感到非常滿意。運營現金流的產生使我們能夠靈活地投資於創造價值的增長項目，我們相信這些項目將在未來幾年帶來可持續的收入增長。同時，我們使用過剩的自由現金流來減少 ABL 循環信貸額度的未償債務。再加上我們調整後的 EBITDA 增長，將我們的槓桿率提高到目標範圍的中點。

Let's walk through a few specifics on our cash flow and leverage. Through the first 9 months of fiscal 2023, PFG generated $657.2 million of operating cash flow. After accounting for $177 million of capital expenditures, PFG generated $480 million of free cash flow over the past 9 months. We are very pleased with this cash flow result, which reflects strong cash generation during the fiscal third quarter.

讓我們來看看我們的現金流和槓桿的一些細節。在 2023 財年的前 9 個月，PFG 產生了 6.572 億美元的運營現金流。在計入 1.77 億美元的資本支出後，PFG 在過去 9 個月中產生了 4.8 億美元的自由現金流。我們對這一現金流結果感到非常滿意，這反映了第三財季強勁的現金生成。

Our operating and free cash flow is up significantly compared to the prior year in both the 3- and 9-month periods. This is a testament to our strong underlying fundamentals along with disciplined working capital management. We have also stepped up our capital expenditures to match the current and future growth prospects of our organization. Much of the spending goes towards building new capacity to support long-term growth across all 3 reportable segments. These facilities are equipped with updated equipment and technology, making our business more efficient in addition to supporting our rapid growth.

在 3 個月和 9 個月期間，與去年同期相比，我們的運營現金流和自由現金流都有顯著增長。這證明了我們強大的基本面以及嚴格的營運資金管理。我們還加大了資本支出，以適應我們組織當前和未來的增長前景。大部分支出用於建設新產能，以支持所有 3 個可報告細分市場的長期增長。這些設施配備了更新的設備和技術，除了支持我們的快速增長外，還使我們的業務更加高效。

Over the past 9 months, we paid down our ABL facility by about $380 million. As a result, at the end of the third quarter, our leverage ratio was 3.0x net debt to adjusted EBITDA on a trailing 12-month basis. Our leverage is now right at the midpoint of our 2.5 to 3.5x target range. At the end of our fiscal third quarter, about 79% of our outstanding debt was at a fixed rate, including swaps we have in place against a portion of our floating rate ABL facility. We believe this is a very healthy position, particularly given the interest rate environment today. We expect to continue to manage our leverage within our target range, while keeping optionality for potential M&A and other value-creating activities.

在過去的 9 個月裡，我們支付了大約 3.8 億美元的 ABL 貸款。因此，在第三季度末，我們過去 12 個月的槓桿率為調整後 EBITDA 淨債務的 3.0 倍。我們的槓桿率現在恰好處於 2.5 至 3.5 倍目標範圍的中點。在我們第三財季末，我們約 79% 的未償還債務是固定利率的，包括我們針對部分浮動利率 ABL 工具進行的掉期。我們認為這是一個非常健康的立場，特別是考慮到當今的利率環境。我們希望繼續將我們的槓桿率控制在我們的目標範圍內，同時保持對潛在併購和其他創造價值活動的選擇權。

I want to take a moment to update you on our digital ordering platform, Customer First. As a reminder, Customer First is our new digital platform designed to provide customers across our businesses with a better online ordering experience. We have made significant progress in the rollout. At this time, 90% of Foodservice locations are in some stage of deployment and 100% of Vistar locations have access to Customer First. We expect this platform to result in increased order sizes, improved customer retention and generate new business wins.

我想花點時間向您介紹我們的數字訂購平台 Customer First 的最新情況。提醒一下，客戶至上是我們新的數字平台，旨在為我們所有業務的客戶提供更好的在線訂購體驗。我們在推出方面取得了重大進展。目前，90% 的 Foodservice 地點處於部署的某個階段，100% 的 Vistar 地點可以訪問 Customer First。我們希望該平台能夠增加訂單量、提高客戶保留率並贏得新的業務。

It also leverages the entire PFG platform and is expected to generate cross-selling opportunities. Feedback from the customers using the platform has been very positive, and we continue to convert accounts. PFG has expertise across food away-from-home channels and Customer First allows our organization to unleash that potential. We are very excited about the progress we've made and expect much more to come.

它還利用整個 PFG 平台，有望產生交叉銷售機會。使用該平台的客戶的反饋非常積極，我們將繼續轉換帳戶。 PFG 在外賣食品渠道方面擁有專業知識，客戶至上讓我們的組織能夠釋放這種潛力。我們對我們取得的進展感到非常興奮，並期待更多的進展。

With that, let's quickly review some highlights from our fiscal third quarter. PFG total company net sales increased 5% in the third quarter to $13.8 billion. Our net sales performance was driven by strong case growth, somewhat impacted by lower levels of year-over-year inflation in Foodservice. Total organic case volume increased 3.1% in the third quarter, driven by growth of independent restaurants, performance brands as well as gains in Vistar. Our total case growth was an acceleration from the prior 2 quarters, where organic cases were flat for the total company year-over-year.

有了這個，讓我們快速回顧一下我們第三財季的一些亮點。 PFG 公司第三季度總淨銷售額增長 5%，達到 138 億美元。我們的淨銷售業績受到強勁案例增長的推動，在某種程度上受到餐飲服務同比通脹水平較低的影響。在獨立餐廳、性能品牌以及 Vistar 增長的推動下，有機案例總量在第三季度增長了 3.1%。我們的總案例增長比前兩個季度有所加快，前兩個季度有機案例與去年同期持平。

Organic independent cases were up 8.3% in the fiscal third quarter, again, an acceleration from the prior 2 quarters when organic independent case growth was in the mid-4% range. Outperformance in independent case volume continues to reflect market share gains and new business wins in that important high-margin business. Total PFG gross profit increased 12% compared to the prior year quarter. Gross profit per case was up about $0.55 in the third quarter compared to the prior year period.

有機獨立案件在第三財季再次增長 8.3%，與前兩個季度相比有所加速，當時有機獨立案件增長在 4% 的中間範圍內。獨立案件數量的出色表現繼續反映出市場份額的增長和在這一重要的高利潤業務中贏得的新業務。與去年同期相比，PFG 總毛利增長了 12%。與去年同期相比，第三季度每箱毛利增加了約 0.55 美元。

In the third quarter, PFG reported net income of $80.3 million and adjusted EBITDA increased 32% to nearly $315 million. Inflation continues to impact our business and continued to moderate due to lower year-over-year inflation in the Foodservice segment. Total company cost inflation was 7.2% in the quarter. This was the first period with single-digit inflation since the first fiscal quarter of 2022. The deceleration was driven by our Foodservice segment, which experienced 3.5% inflation in the fiscal third quarter.

第三季度，PFG 公佈的淨收入為 8030 萬美元，調整後的 EBITDA 增長 32% 至近 3.15 億美元。通貨膨脹繼續影響我們的業務，並由於餐飲服務部門的同比通貨膨脹率下降而繼續放緩。本季度公司總成本通脹率為 7.2%。這是自 2022 年第一財季以來首次出現個位數通脹。減速是由我們的餐飲服務部門推動的，該部門在第三財季經歷了 3.5% 的通脹。

Vistar inflation remained at the mid-teen level in the quarter, while Convenience experienced another quarter with inflation just above 10%. Once again, inflation for both Vistar and Convenience were very similar to what they experienced in the prior 2 quarters. As George mentioned, we continue to expect lower levels of inflation through the remainder of fiscal 2023, which is the assumption embedded in our outlook.

Vistar 通貨膨脹率在本季度保持在中等水平，而 Convenience 經歷了另一個季度，通貨膨脹率略高於 10%。 Vistar 和 Convenience 的通貨膨脹再次與前兩個季度的情況非常相似。正如 George 所提到的，我們繼續預計 2023 財年剩餘時間內的通脹水平較低，這是我們展望中的假設。

As we've discussed on prior calls, decelerating inflation produces a short-term headwind from inventory holding gains. In the fiscal fourth quarter of 2023 and the fiscal first quarter of 2024, holding gain comparisons will be elevated. With that said, our track record of offsetting this impact over the prior 2 quarters gives us confidence in our ability to manage through it. Once we reach fiscal second quarter of 2024, the comparisons ease substantially.

正如我們在之前的電話會議上所討論的那樣，通脹放緩會對庫存持有收益產生短期不利影響。在 2023 財年第四季度和 2024 財年第一季度，持有收益比較將會提高。話雖如此，我們在前兩個季度抵消這種影響的記錄讓我們對自己的管理能力充滿信心。一旦我們到達 2024 財年第二季度，比較就會大大緩解。

Total company third quarter adjusted EBITDA margins increased 47 basis points compared to the prior year period. We remain very pleased with our ongoing margin improvement, demonstrating our organization's commitment to strong profit results despite challenges related to lower levels of inflation. Diluted earnings per share was $0.51 in the third quarter and adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.83. As you saw in our earnings release, we have tightened our full year 2023 revenue outlook and raised and tightened our full year adjusted EBITDA range.

公司第三季度調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率與去年同期相比增加了 47 個基點。我們仍然對我們持續的利潤率改善感到非常滿意，這表明我們的組織儘管面臨較低通脹水平的挑戰，但仍致力於實現強勁的利潤結果。第三季度稀釋後每股收益為 0.51 美元，調整後的稀釋後每股收益為 0.83 美元。正如您在我們的收益發布中看到的那樣，我們已經收緊了 2023 年全年的收入前景，並提高並收緊了我們全年調整後的 EBITDA 範圍。

For the full year, we now anticipate net sales in the range of $57 billion to $57.5 billion. This range incorporates our strong case growth momentum, somewhat offset by lower levels of year-over-year inflation. Adjusted EBITDA now is anticipated to be in the range of $1.34 billion to $1.36 billion, an increase from our prior $1.27 billion to $1.35 billion range. This 2023 expectation keeps us on track to achieve our 3-year fiscal 2025 targets we set at our June Investor Day.

對於全年，我們現在預計淨銷售額在 570 億美元至 575 億美元之間。這一範圍包含了我們強勁的案例增長勢頭，但在一定程度上被較低的同比通脹水平所抵消。調整後的 EBITDA 現在預計在 13.4 億美元至 13.6 億美元之間，高於我們之前的 12.7 億美元至 13.5 億美元的範圍。這一 2023 年預期使我們能夠實現我們在 6 月投資者日設定的 2025 財年 3 年目標。

To wrap up, we are very encouraged by our third quarter results, which saw continued progress on our 3 focus areas: sustained profitable sales growth, adjusted EBITDA margin expansion and lower leverage despite challenges in the external environment. We generate significant operating and free cash flow, which allowed us to pay down debt and move to the midpoint of our leverage target range. Our organization is executing our strategy, and we believe we are well positioned to continue to create value for our shareholders over the long term.

總而言之，我們對第三季度的業績感到非常鼓舞，我們在三個重點領域取得了持續進展：持續的盈利銷售增長、調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率擴張和儘管外部環境面臨挑戰但槓桿率降低。我們產生了大量的運營和自由現金流，這使我們能夠償還債務並移動到我們的槓桿目標範圍的中點。我們的組織正在執行我們的戰略，我們相信我們有能力繼續為我們的股東創造長期價值。

Thank you for your time today. We appreciate your interest in Performance Food Group. And with that, we'd be happy to take your questions.

謝謝你今天的時間。感謝您對 Performance Food Group 的關注。因此，我們很樂意回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) We will take our first question from John Heinbockel with Guggenheim Securities.

（操作員說明）我們將從古根海姆證券公司的 John Heinbockel 那裡回答我們的第一個問題。

George, I want to start with the sales force, right, and the share gains. Because I think you disclosed at CAGNY, right, the sales force growth is into the low double digits, which I don't think we've ever seen before. So maybe talk about that effort. Do you think that industry demand softens from here? And then does that sort of give you confidence that because of what you've done with sales, you can sustain, let's say, mid-single digit or better growth in independent cases even in a slowdown?

喬治，我想從銷售人員開始，對，還有份額收益。因為我認為你在 CAGNY 披露過，對，銷售人員的增長是低兩位數，我認為我們以前從未見過。所以也許可以談談這種努力。您認為行業需求會從這裡走軟嗎？然後，這是否讓您相信，由於您在銷售方面所做的工作，即使在經濟放緩的情況下，您也可以在獨立案例中維持，比方說，中個位數或更好的增長？

Yes. Look, we're quite confident and adding the salespeople, I think, was a big key for us. We've been real consistent on our increase in customers over the previous year, all through this year, 6% to 7% is about where we've been running. And we've had inconsistent month-to-month sales growth. So the way we look at it is that we're in a pretty consistent mode right now. And the variability that we have kind of week-to-week, month-to-month in sales growth is all macro.

是的。看，我們非常有信心，我認為增加銷售人員對我們來說是一個重要的關鍵。與去年相比，我們的客戶增長一直保持一致，今年全年，6% 到 7% 是我們一直在運行的地方。而且我們的月度銷售增長不一致。所以我們看待它的方式是我們現在處於一個非常一致的模式。而且我們每週、每月的銷售增長的變化都是宏觀的。

And if you look at the quarter that we just finished, we had extremely strong January because of light comparisons to Omicron. February certainly not as good as January, but good. It softened some in March. I think that was some cabin fever last year and just a real strong March last year. But that consistency of the 6% to 7% growth in the number of customers held all the way through that period of time. We've also seen that so far in this quarter. We have kind of an odd calendar mismatch where last year, we had Cinco de Mayo, which is real big for us, and Mother's Day, which, of course, is big, the same week last year.

如果你看看我們剛剛結束的那個季度，由於與 Omicron 的輕微比較，我們在 1 月份表現非常強勁。二月肯定不如一月，但也不錯。它在三月份有所軟化。我認為那是去年的一些幽閉症，而去年只是一個真正強勁的三月。但在那段時間裡，客戶數量一直保持 6% 到 7% 的增長。到目前為止，我們在本季度也看到了這一點。我們有一種奇怪的日曆不匹配，去年我們有 Cinco de Mayo，這對我們來說真的很重要，而母親節當然很重要，去年的同一周。

So this week that we're in right now, we're running unusually high growth, but I think it's just because we're up against the week after Mother's Day, and we have Mother's Day. So it's hard to comment on this quarter, but the consistency is around that continued increase in number of customers. And our hope is that, that number continues to kind of be stable where it's at now. And I think we're headed for maybe a more normal macro market, and we should be able to match that customer growth with case growth.

所以我們現在所處的這一周，我們的增長異常高，但我認為這只是因為我們在母親節後的一周，我們有母親節。所以很難對本季度發表評論，但一致性是圍繞著客戶數量的持續增長。我們的希望是，這個數字在目前的水平上繼續保持穩定。而且我認為我們可能正在走向一個更正常的宏觀市場，我們應該能夠使客戶增長與案例增長相匹配。

Okay. And then maybe a follow-up to that, right? So one of the things that has to happen here, I think, if inflation moderates and the top line moderates, labor, right -- productivity has got to pick up and the labor drag has to get better. Some of that's, I guess, natural. But where are we on that process? And do you think we're at a point here where labor productivity gets substantially better in the next 3 to 6 months?

好的。然後也許是後續行動，對吧？因此，我認為，這裡必鬚髮生的事情之一是，如果通貨膨脹緩和並且頂線緩和，勞動力，正確的 - 生產率必須提高並且勞動力拖累必須變得更好。我想，其中一些是自然的。但是我們在這個過程中處於什麼位置？您是否認為我們正處於勞動生產率在未來 3 到 6 個月內大幅提高的地步？

I think it will continue to get better. I don't know that we'll get back to pre-COVID numbers or not. We're certainly not there yet, but it does get better and it gets better on a very consistent basis. For us, we've had kind of a lull. But if you look at it, we've really had a lull in case both for normally where we're at, and that's because our national account business continues to be negative from a case growth standpoint. And I think it gave us some time to get stable, get our workforce more stable, and we feel like we're positioned to continue to get better productivity and hopefully, with that, get better growth as well. But the labor market is improving.

我認為它會繼續變得更好。我不知道我們是否會回到 COVID 之前的數字。我們當然還沒有到那一步，但它確實會變得更好，而且會在非常一致的基礎上變得更好。對我們來說，我們有點平靜。但如果你看一下，我們通常在我們所處的位置上確實有一個平靜的情況，這是因為從案例增長的角度來看，我們的國民賬戶業務仍然是負數。我認為這給了我們一些時間來穩定下來，讓我們的員工隊伍更加穩定，我們覺得我們有能力繼續提高生產力，並希望藉此也能獲得更好的增長。但勞動力市場正在改善。

It is improving?

它在改善嗎？

Yes, it is.

是的。

We will take our next question from Edward Kelly with Wells Fargo.

我們將與富國銀行一起接受愛德華凱利的下一個問題。

Nice quarter. I wanted to start on gross profit per case, up $0.55. It's still very impressive despite lapping inventory gains. What looks like actually in Foodservice, it seems like there's some maybe sequential deflation in Foodservice. I was just hoping that you could unpack the drivers of this. Is there still any unusual inventory gain running through this because I know you always have some inventory gains in some of these business, but what you would classify as unusual? And then how are you thinking about the outlook for gross profit per case in the coming quarters against all this?

不錯的季度。我想從每箱毛利開始，增加 0.55 美元。儘管庫存增加，但它仍然令人印象深刻。 Foodservice 中的實際情況看起來像是 Foodservice 中可能存在一些連續通貨緊縮。我只是希望你能解開它的驅動程序。在此過程中是否還有任何不尋常的庫存收益，因為我知道你在其中一些業務中總是有一些庫存收益，但你會把什麼歸類為不尋常？那麼您如何看待未來幾個季度每箱毛利的前景？

Yes. The inventory gains last year in that fiscal Q3, we had a very good quarter for inventory gains. We made some wise buys. It was particularly in Convenience and Vistar. And we were able to overcome that through just increased gross profit per case and some growth. That number gets bigger in Q4. And then in Q1 of next year is when it peaks and then it normalizes after that. So we're cautious around those quarters because of the amount of those gains. But of course, the quarter that we just finished gives us a lot of confidence going into that. We will have somewhat of a -- when -- I think when we get our budget together and our guidance together for the August call, we'll probably present something that looks a bit like a hockey stick where this year, we were a reverse hockey stick. But we look at where we sit today, and we have a lot of long-term confidence.

是的。去年第三財季的庫存收益，我們有一個非常好的庫存收益季度。我們做了一些明智的購買。尤其是在 Convenience 和 Vistar。我們能夠通過增加每箱毛利和一些增長來克服這個問題。這個數字在第四季度變得更大。然後在明年第一季度達到頂峰，然後恢復正常。因此，由於這些收益的數量，我們對這些季度持謹慎態度。但當然，我們剛剛結束的那個季度給了我們很大的信心。我們將有點——當——我認為當我們為 8 月的電話會議制定預算和指導時，我們可能會提出一些看起來有點像曲棍球棒的東西，而今年我們是相反的曲棍球棒。但我們看看我們今天的位置，我們有很多長期的信心。

As far as gross profit per case goes, a lot of our increase in gross profit per case is mix related, both channel mix and customer mix. Any time we have our independent growing at such a significant amount more than our national account business, we're going to increase our gross profit per case. And Vistar, they've just been real consistent with that increase. And then we have that fulfillment business where we don't have the revenues, what we have is that gross profit per case. And that has some unusual effects on the business, but for the most part, positive.

就每箱毛利而言，我們每箱毛利的增長很大程度上與渠道組合和客戶組合有關。任何時候我們的獨立增長都比我們的國民賬戶業務高得多，我們將增加每箱的毛利潤。而 Vistar，他們一直與這種增長保持一致。然後我們有我們沒有收入的履行業務，我們擁有的是每箱毛利潤。這對業務有一些不同尋常的影響，但在大多數情況下是積極的。

I don't see a great deal of upside in our gross profit per case. I think that our profit per case will get better as we see better productivity, but we made some significant gains there. And I don't see these $0.50, $0.55 gains per case as we get into next year.

我認為我們的每箱毛利潤沒有太大的上升空間。我認為隨著我們看到更高的生產力，我們的每箱利潤會變得更好，但我們在那裡取得了一些重大進展。當我們進入明年時，我看不到每箱 0.50 美元、0.55 美元的收益。

That's helpful. I guess maybe just a follow-up to that, George, you reiterate the fiscal '25 outlook today. I think investors are kind of taking a step back and they're looking at what they think is some slowing in industry demand, a pretty sharp slowdown of inflation trends. And your outlook implies about maybe, at the midpoint, 8% kind of EBITDA growth over the next couple of years. And I think there's some concern in the ability to achieve that against that backdrop. Can you just maybe talk about your confidence in the ability to do that? And I know it's early on '24, but is there any like '25 waiting to that? Just any thoughts that you can provide maybe to give investors a little bit of comfort around that.

這很有幫助。我想這可能只是一個後續行動，喬治，你今天重申了 25 財年的前景。我認為投資者有點退後一步，他們正在關注他們認為的行業需求放緩，通脹趨勢大幅放緩。你的前景暗示未來幾年的 EBITDA 增長率可能在中點達到 8%。而且我認為在這種背景下實現這一目標的能力存在一些問題。你能談談你對這樣做的能力的信心嗎？而且我知道現在是 24 年初，但是有沒有像 25 年那樣的等待？您可以提供的任何想法都可以讓投資者對此感到些許安慰。

Well, we feel we're trying to be pretty cautious around the macro. We're, I would call us, confident around the range that we've given today, unless there was just something really unusual from a macro standpoint. We've got a real good sales funnel. As we mentioned, in the Convenience area, it's a long sales cycle, but we have a particularly good funnel there, and we've been fairly quiet as far as pursuing national account type of business. And we'll be a little bit more aggressive there now that we feel like we've got our arms around the labor and we have a pretty good idea of what our cost structure is going to look like moving forward. And we're hopeful that we can get -- we don't have anything large from an M&A standpoint that we're looking at right now, but we're hoping that we can get a little bit of M&A in there as well. So all those things put together, I think we're pretty confident.

好吧，我們覺得我們正試圖對宏觀非常謹慎。我們，我會稱我們，對我們今天給出的範圍充滿信心，除非從宏觀角度來看確實有一些不尋常的事情。我們有一個非常好的銷售渠道。正如我們提到的，在便利領域，這是一個很長的銷售週期，但我們在那裡有一個特別好的漏斗，而且就追求國民賬戶類型的業務而言，我們一直相當安靜。既然我們覺得我們已經掌握了勞動力，並且我們對我們的成本結構將如何向前發展有了很好的了解，我們就會在那裡更加積極進取。我們希望我們能得到——從我們現在正在研究的併購角度來看，我們沒有任何大的東西，但我們希望我們也能在那裡得到一些併購。所以所有這些東西放在一起，我認為我們非常有信心。

You might want to comment on that, too?

你可能也想對此發表評論？

Yes. I'll just jump in. I mean, as you mentioned, we did reiterate our 3-year guidance. And as George just mentioned, we do really expect inflation to normalize. And I would call out the things that we called out in Investor Day, our strategy is working. We are expanding margin. We're reducing leverage. We're growing sales. So we feel confident that, that range that we've given for the 3-year guidance is absolutely something we can still hit. And where we're growing, we're showing really quality earnings, again, with independent restaurants, Vistar, Foodservice and to Convenience. So we feel good about certainly the '25 targets.

是的。我只是插手。我的意思是，正如你提到的，我們確實重申了我們的 3 年指導方針。正如喬治剛才提到的，我們確實希望通貨膨脹正常化。我會說出我們在投資者日所說的話，我們的戰略正在發揮作用。我們正在擴大利潤率。我們正在降低杠桿率。我們正在增加銷售額。所以我們有信心，我們為 3 年指導給出的範圍絕對是我們仍然可以達到的範圍。在我們成長的地方，我們再次展示了真正優質的收入，包括獨立餐廳、Vistar、Foodservice 和 to Convenience。因此，我們肯定對 25 年的目標感到滿意。

We'll take our next question from Alex Slagle with Jefferies.

我們將與 Jefferies 一起接受 Alex Slagle 的下一個問題。

Congrats on all the success. A question on the assumptions for the fourth quarter reflected in the guidance update. I guess how much of the more modest revenue outlook at the midpoint kind of comes from the lower Foodservice inflation versus lower tobacco sales view or other dynamics there? And is the Foodservice inflation, is that actually flipping to slightly deflationary in the 4Q? Or is it still off the bet?

祝賀所有的成功。關於第四季度假設的問題反映在指導更新中。我猜想中點較為溫和的收入前景有多少來自較低的餐飲服務通脹與較低的煙草銷售觀點或那裡的其他動態？餐飲服務通脹是否真的在第四季度轉向輕微通貨緊縮？或者它仍然沒有賭注？

I think both Patrick and I will comment on that. Your comment with the tobacco area, that's certainly going to continue to be soft. And there are very large revenues there. We feel that, that will be the case, but we also feel that our Core-Mark division will continue to manage their way through that. The inflation residing, I guess, going to really some deflation in Foodservice is part of it. And then there's a third component, and that's that we're modeling our national account customers in aggregate to be soft. And they're continuing to run low single-digit negative cases. And we don't want to model anything that shows that any difference. So I would say that would be the things around the revenue area.

我想 Patrick 和我都會對此發表評論。你對煙草領域的評論肯定會繼續保持溫和。那裡有非常大的收入。我們認為情況會是這樣，但我們也認為我們的 Core-Mark 部門將繼續設法解決這個問題。我猜，存在的通貨膨脹實際上會導致餐飲服務業出現通貨緊縮，這是其中的一部分。然後是第三個組成部分，那就是我們正在將我們的國民賬戶客戶總體建模為軟的。而且他們繼續運行低個位數的負面案例。而且我們不想對任何顯示任何差異的東西進行建模。所以我想說的是收入領域的事情。

I'm going to comment a little bit more on inflation before I turn it over to Pat. But like a lot of things with us, we have such a varied customer mix that the inflation has come at different times. So in Foodservice, we're actually running much better case growth than sales growth right now. We think that will turn back around, and we'll start running moderate inflation. And that hits pretty immediate. When you get to our national account business and particularly the big casual dining chains, the inflation hit later there. They all have different cycles, but they tend to lock pricing in for fairly lengthy periods of time.

在我把它交給帕特之前，我將對通貨膨脹發表更多評論。但就像我們的很多事情一樣，我們的客戶組合如此多樣化，以至於通貨膨脹發生在不同的時間。所以在餐飲服務方面，我們現在的案例增長實際上比銷售增長要好得多。我們認為情況會好轉，我們將開始運行適度的通貨膨脹。這非常直接。當你進入我們的國民賬戶業務，尤其是大型休閒餐飲連鎖店時，通貨膨脹率後來才出現。它們都有不同的周期，但它們往往會在相當長的時間內鎖定定價。

So that inflation came choppy. Some of it was fairly soon, depending on their cycle. And when that's going to go away is when they go through that next cycle, and then we expect that to be just low single-digit type customized where a lot of the dollars are in the tobacco area. Obviously, that's going to show continued inflation, pretty regular price increases. And everything else has been through, in some cases, an additional price increase. In some cases, they just moved up when they normally do a price increase. And as we get to a normal environment and we start to lap those increases, I think we'll see that come down to kind of low single digit.

因此，通貨膨脹來勢洶洶。其中一些很快，這取決於他們的周期。當他們經歷下一個週期時，這種情況就會消失，然後我們預計這將是定制的低個位數類型，其中很多美元都在煙草領域。顯然，這將表明持續的通貨膨脹，相當規律的價格上漲。在某些情況下，其他一切都經歷了額外的價格上漲。在某些情況下，當他們通常提價時，他們只是上漲了。當我們進入一個正常的環境並開始應對這些增長時，我認為我們會看到它下降到某種低個位數。

And then even within all that, okay, which is complicated enough, we've had such a mix change in our Foodservice business, where our business has just moved more and more towards higher case cost products, and our cheese business has been particularly robust as has our center of the plate business. So a lot of moving parts, but we think things are eventually going to look a lot like they did pre-pandemic.

然後即使在這一切中，好吧，這已經足夠複雜了，我們的餐飲服務業務發生了這樣的混合變化，我們的業務越來越多地轉向更高成本的產品，而我們的奶酪業務特別強勁我們的板材業務中心也是如此。有很多變化的部分，但我們認為事情最終會看起來很像大流行前的樣子。

Yes. I'll just make a couple of quick comments. I mean, again, we're really excited about our ability to raise guidance this morning. We've done this periodically throughout the year, and we're really positive about where we're growing our business, again, independent restaurants, Vistar, Foodservice and Convenience. But I'll say when it comes to our guidance for Q4, I mean, as George just described, we do have some headwinds, specifically what's going on with inflation and then that year-over-year inventory gains. And then there's just some macroeconomic concerns out there. So I think we're just being prudent with the guidance.

是的。我將簡單地發表一些評論。我的意思是，我們對今天早上提出指導意見的能力感到非常興奮。我們全年都定期這樣做，我們對我們的業務發展方向非常樂觀，再次是獨立餐廳、Vistar、Foodservice 和 Convenience。但我要說的是，當談到我們對第四季度的指導時，我的意思是，正如喬治剛才所描述的那樣，我們確實遇到了一些不利因素，特別是通貨膨脹和庫存同比增長的情況。然後就是一些宏觀經濟問題。所以我認為我們只是謹慎對待指導。

That makes sense. Again, all the mixed benefits have been really impressive. I wanted to ask on the Convenience business, Core-Mark, and any commentary there on the new business pipeline? Any kind of surprises this continues to build and maybe expected timing of when maybe you'd see some new business come online?

這就說得通了。同樣，所有的混合收益都非常令人印象深刻。我想問一下便利業務、Core-Mark，以及對新業務管道的任何評論？這會繼續產生任何驚喜嗎？也許您會在什麼時候看到一些新業務上線？

I think that when we get to August, we'll be a better time for us to comment on that. What I will say is that we feel real good with it. We -- once again, long sales cycle. We have some things that we feel are actionable. We've got to get some capacity in for some of it, physical capacity. And I think we'll have a little bit more comments when we get to August. But thanks for the question. It's a great question.

我認為到了 8 月，我們將是對此發表評論的更好時機。我要說的是，我們對此感覺非常好。我們——再一次，銷售週期很長。我們有一些我們認為可行的事情。我們必須獲得一些能力，物理能力。我想我們到 8 月時會有更多意見。但是謝謝你的提問。這是一個很好的問題。

We will take our next question from Kelly Bania with BMO Capital Markets.

我們將接受 BMO Capital Markets 的 Kelly Bania 的下一個問題。

I guess I had 2 questions, both on Vistar and Convenience for those 2 segments. One, can you just help us understand the magnitude of the volume or case growth you still see from service levels just normalizing back to maybe typical levels? And can you just help us be a little bit more clear on the magnitude of the inventory gains that you'll be cycling in the coming quarters for those channels as well?

我想我有 2 個問題，關於這兩個部分的 Vistar 和 Convenience。第一，您能否幫助我們了解您仍然從服務水平中看到的數量或案例增長的幅度，只是恢復到典型水平？您能否幫助我們更清楚地了解您將在未來幾個季度為這些渠道循環的庫存收益的大小？

Yes. I'll start with the service levels. They've continued to be well below pre-pandemic. They are both businesses in Vistar and Convenience, where you don't necessarily lose the sale. They may put another SKU in there. So that's not necessarily the case. So it's hard to determine what benefit we're getting as the service levels or fill rates get back to normal. The other thing is that many suppliers reduce the number of SKUs that they offered during that period of time, and we are starting to see some of that come back, which we feel could help sales. But once again, they just didn't leave a slot open because something wasn't available, they put something in there. So I think that's probably real hard to determine.

是的。我將從服務水平開始。他們繼續遠低於大流行前。他們都是 Vistar 和 Convenience 的企業，您不一定會失去銷售。他們可能會在那裡放另一個 SKU。所以不一定是這樣。因此，很難確定隨著服務水平或填充率恢復正常我們將獲得什麼好處。另一件事是，許多供應商減少了他們在那段時間提供的 SKU 數量，我們開始看到其中一些恢復了，我們認為這有助於銷售。但再一次，他們只是沒有留下一個空位，因為有些東西不可用，他們把一些東西放在那裡。所以我認為這可能真的很難確定。

As far as inventory gains and what they were, we really would prefer not to get into that level of detail because we don't want to be in that level of detail forever. Inventory gains are part of our business, particularly in Convenience and in Vistar, and it can be a significant part of the profit that we get from certain product areas because that's the time when it's -- when you produce your profit. Otherwise, you're just moving cases.

至於庫存收益和它們是什麼，我們真的不想進入那個細節級別，因為我們不想永遠處於那個細節級別。庫存收益是我們業務的一部分，特別是在 Convenience 和 Vistar 中，它可能是我們從某些產品領域獲得的利潤的重要組成部分，因為那是你產生利潤的時候。否則，您只是在搬家。

Pat, I don't know if you have any other comments with that?

帕特，我不知道你對此是否還有其他意見？

Yes. Kelly, I'll just refer you back to our Q1 when we had a beat, we did say on the call that the inventory gains helped that they were not the majority of the beat. So I'll just refer you back to that quarter.

是的。凱利，當我們有一個節拍時，我只是讓你回到我們的第一季度，我們在電話會議上確實說過，庫存增加有助於他們不是節拍的大部分。所以我只會讓你回到那個季度。

Okay. That's helpful. And I guess just maybe another question on inflation, a lot of investor questions on inflation. I presume it's falling quicker at the Foodservice side of the business, because of the fresh categories and the exposure there versus the more shelf-stable categories that have started in Convenience. But I'm just wondering if you could just walk us through what you're seeing in terms of elasticity as those fresh categories maybe come down and what you're seeing in the volume response as a result as well as just the competition, are you seeing any change in the competitive environment as some of those fresh categories that had been elevated are really coming back down?

好的。這很有幫助。我想也許只是另一個關於通貨膨脹的問題，很多投資者對通貨膨脹的問題。我認為它在業務的餐飲服務方面下降得更快，因為新鮮的類別和那裡的曝光率與從便利店開始的更耐儲存的類別相比。但我只是想知道你是否可以向我們介紹一下你在彈性方面看到的情況，因為這些新類別可能會下降，以及你在音量響應中看到的結果以及競爭，是您是否看到競爭環境發生任何變化，因為一些已經提升的新類別真的正在回落？

Well, those perishable areas, it's always real competitive, everybody through the cycle has to move the product. So I wouldn't say it's any different than it was before. And that is the bulk of the deflation that we're seeing is from perishable product. There's also some deflation that really isn't the food itself, but container loads, particularly when you get to imported product, the freight was so elevated for a while. We do a significant volume, particularly from Italy of imported products. And the cost for shipping a container has gone from as high as $20,000 down to as low as $3,000.

好吧，那些易腐爛的領域，它總是真正的競爭，每個人都必須通過這個週期來移動產品。所以我不會說它與以前有什麼不同。這就是我們看到的大部分通貨緊縮來自易腐爛的產品。還有一些實際上不是食品本身的通貨緊縮，而是集裝箱裝載量，特別是當您購買進口產品時，運費在一段時間內如此高漲。我們做了大量的進口產品，特別是來自意大利的進口產品。一個集裝箱的運輸成本從高達 20,000 美元降至低至 3,000 美元。

And when you spread that over the amount of cases, that appears as if it's deflation, but it's not product deflation, it's just the supply chain getting back under control. But for the most part, when you get into further processed products, they fight very, very hard to get price increases through the system, and they're not going to lower pricing. They may take less of a price increase in their normal cycle, and they may even skip a year. We don't know what they're going to do, but certainly reducing prices is not something that is commonplace.

當你把它分散到案件數量上時，這看起來像是通貨緊縮，但這不是產品通貨緊縮，它只是供應鏈重新受到控制。但在大多數情況下，當你進入深加工產品時，他們會非常非常努力地通過系統提高價格，而且他們不會降低價格。他們可能會在正常週期中接受較少的價格上漲，甚至可能會跳過一年。我們不知道他們要做什麼，但降價肯定不是司空見慣的事情。

We will take our next question from Brian Harbour with Morgan Stanley.

我們將與摩根士丹利一起接受 Brian Harbour 的下一個問題。

I just wanted to come back to the point you made earlier on kind of labor productivity. And what do you think would prevent that from getting back to pre-COVID levels? And what additional work do you think there is still to be done on the productivity side?

我只想回到你之前關於勞動生產率的觀點。您認為什麼可以阻止它回到 COVID 之前的水平？您認為在生產力方面還有哪些額外工作要做？

I think it's just learning curve is the biggest. A warehouse job is not extremely difficult other than the physicality of it, but there's still a learning curve and people climb the early stages of that learning curve very quickly and -- but they continue to get better at what they do, and they continue to get more accurate. And I think we have more benefit to get from that. And the drivers, it was very short gone into COVID. As far as being able to get drivers, it was quite a shortage. And it's probably right now similar to what it was pre-COVID not as bad as it was during the pandemic, but those people also, they get better and better as drivers. And they learned the job and they just get quicker and they get more accurate. And we just have -- got to have the patience to work people through that. And I think that we should be able to get back to the pre-COVID kind of productivity, and that will mean a lot for us.

我認為這只是學習曲線是最大的。倉庫工作除了體力之外並不是特別困難，但仍然存在學習曲線，人們很快就會爬上學習曲線的早期階段，而且 - 但他們會繼續做得更好，而且他們會繼續變得更準確。我認為我們可以從中獲益更多。而司機們，進入 COVID 的時間非常短。就能夠獲得司機而言，這是相當短缺的。它現在可能與 COVID 之前的情況相似，不像大流行期間那麼糟糕，但那些人也作為司機變得越來越好。他們學會了這份工作，他們變得更快，他們變得更準確。我們只是 - 必須有耐心讓人們度過難關。而且我認為我們應該能夠恢復到 COVID 之前的那種生產力，這對我們來說意義重大。

Okay. And then, George, I think in the past, you've commented just on some of the different customer segments within independents. What's kind of -- where are you doing the best right now? You're also big in pizza, of course. I think would just be curious to know what you're seeing in kind of the pizza segment, for example.

好的。然後，喬治，我想在過去，你只是對獨立人士中的一些不同客戶群發表了評論。什麼樣的——你現在在哪裡做得最好？當然，你也很擅長披薩。例如，我想很想知道您在比薩餅部分看到了什麼。

Pizza, we continue to do well. The segment itself is not doing as well as it did certainly during COVID. But we're continuing to run single-digit growth, pretty much mid-single-digit growth, not where we would like to be, but we're pleased when we get our market share information. We're doing very well in Hispanic. We're doing better than we've done in the past in fine dining area. It's not a huge percentage of our business, but it's doing very well, particularly center of the plate. We've always done well in the independent casual diner and we're doing very well there. And that would be the categories where we're doing the best.

披薩，我們繼續做得很好。該細分市場本身的表現不如在 COVID 期間表現出色。但我們將繼續保持個位數增長，幾乎是中等個位數增長，而不是我們希望達到的水平，但當我們獲得市場份額信息時，我們感到很高興。我們在西班牙裔方面做得很好。我們在美食區的表現比過去更好。這在我們的業務中所佔的比例並不大，但它做得很好，尤其是在板塊的中心。我們在獨立休閒餐廳一直做得很好，我們在那裡做得很好。那將是我們做得最好的類別。

We will take our next question from Mark Carden with UBS.

我們將與瑞銀一起接受馬克卡登的下一個問題。

So you guys have posted some pretty strong private label results in recent quarters. Are you guys seeing any changes in adoption as inflation comes down? Is it very much by cuisine type? Or at this stage, is your brand equity just strong enough that you're continuing to see similar improvements in penetration?

所以你們在最近幾個季度發布了一些非常強勁的自有品牌結果。隨著通貨膨脹的下降，你們是否看到採用率有任何變化？是不是很受美食類型的影響？或者在這個階段，您的品牌資產是否足夠強大，以至於您繼續看到類似的滲透率提升？

Well, we are continuing to see the percentage of our sales that our brands grow, and it's -- I mean, it's consistent month to month. And we put a pretty big emphasis on that. But we put the biggest emphasis on making sure that we get the customer what they want. It's our center of the plate that's done really well. And when you get to a large category for us, like pizza, that's by far our highest percentage, our brand goes into that customer base. And we incent our people pretty well to sell our brand. I think that if the macro gets worse, it will probably help everyone in our business with their brand because the Foodservice distributor tends to have a better price value on their brand than a national brand, and we'll benefit from that. We're pleased with where we're at. If we continue to see the month-to-month higher percentages that would be better yet, but we're real pleased with where we're at.

好吧，我們繼續看到我們的品牌增長佔銷售額的百分比，而且它 - 我的意思是，它每個月都是一致的。我們非常重視這一點。但我們把最大的重點放在確保我們得到客戶想要的東西上。這是我們做得非常好的板塊中心。當你為我們提供一個大類別時，比如比薩餅，這是迄今為止我們最高的百分比，我們的品牌就會進入該客戶群。我們很好地激勵我們的員工銷售我們的品牌。我認為，如果宏觀經濟變得更糟，它可能會幫助我們業務中的每個人使用他們的品牌，因為食品服務分銷商的品牌價格往往比全國品牌更好，我們將從中受益。我們對我們所處的位置感到滿意。如果我們繼續看到逐月更高的百分比，那會更好，但我們對我們所處的位置感到非常滿意。

Makes sense. And then you guys have put together some pretty strong numbers once again in the independent market segment. How are you thinking about the health of the independent restaurants, industry-wide macro backdrop? And related, how are you thinking about the resiliency of the segment if we enter into a longer recession?

說得通。然後你們在獨立市場領域再次匯集了一些相當強勁的數字。您如何看待獨立餐廳的健康，整個行業的宏觀背景？與此相關的是，如果我們進入更長時間的衰退，您如何看待該細分市場的彈性？

Well, I'm going to speak more to what our customer base is, but our independent customers are doing so much better than our chain customers are. And I think that we've been able to push them up to quality ladder as much as you can in this type of macro environment, and they move fast and they can make changes. And I feel real good about the independent restaurant here. And I think that there's some great chains out there, but a lot of people just -- they want to go to something unique. They want a unique experience. They get some unique menu items. I just think it's resilient. And I think it's going to continue to do very well.

好吧，我將更多地談談我們的客戶群是什麼，但我們的獨立客戶比我們的連鎖客戶做得好得多。而且我認為我們已經能夠在這種宏觀環境中盡可能多地將他們推向質量階梯，並且他們行動迅速並且可以做出改變。我對這裡的獨立餐廳感覺很好。而且我認為那裡有一些很棒的連鎖店，但很多人只是 - 他們想要做一些獨特的事情。他們想要獨特的體驗。他們得到一些獨特的菜單項。我只是覺得它有彈性。而且我認為它會繼續做得很好。

We will take our next question from Andrew Wolf with CL King.

我們將與 CL King 一起接受 Andrew Wolf 的下一個問題。

I wanted to ask about operating expense growth in broadline business, which decelerated nicely, but it's still above case growth. And there are some things to unpack there. One, I assume it's a lot more expensive overall for the supply chain just to deliver to an independent. And beyond that, since your mix is more to new independents, that adds another layer of expense. Could you give me a sense of -- or as to the expense of how satisfied you are where you are now? When you talk about macro normalization, I assume it means the cost structure. How much more there is to come and what the timing of that is?

我想問一下寬線業務的運營費用增長，該業務減速得很好，但仍高於案例增長。那裡有一些東西要打開。第一，我認為供應鏈向獨立供應商交付的整體成本要高得多。除此之外，由於您的組合更適合新的獨立人士，這又增加了一層費用。你能告訴我 - 或者關於你對現在的滿意程度的代價嗎？當你談到宏觀規範化時，我假設它指的是成本結構。未來還有多少，時間是什麼時候？

Yes. I think there's 2 things there. I think that our productivity isn't where we need it to be, and we're investing in people. So we have more -- our percentage increase in drivers and warehouse people exceed the increase in cases, and we're really pushing the productivity and we're pushing down the amount of overtime that they have. And then we've invested heavily in this cycle in our sales force. We've slowed that down some because we've had a good bit of training to do, but we're still close to double digit over last year in a number of salespeople. And that's a big expense to carry when you're not growing at quite that rate. So I would say it's those 2 things. And we feel good about where our expense ratios are headed, though. Our productivity keeps getting better, and we have a confidence level around the new salespeople and the productivity that we'll be able to get from them.

是的。我認為那裡有兩件事。我認為我們的生產力沒有達到我們需要的水平，我們正在投資於人。所以我們有更多 - 我們在司機和倉庫人員中的百分比增加超過了案件的增加，我們真的在提高生產力，我們正在減少他們的加班時間。然後我們在銷售人員的這個週期中投入了大量資金。我們已經放慢了一些速度，因為我們有很多培訓要做，但我們在銷售人員的數量上仍然接近去年的兩位數。當你沒有以那麼快的速度增長時，這是一筆巨大的開支。所以我會說這是這兩件事。不過，我們對費用率的走向感到滿意。我們的生產力不斷提高，我們對新的銷售人員以及我們能夠從他們那裡獲得的生產力充滿信心。

Okay. If I could I'd like to follow up on some of your sales commentary. You said for the quarter, there was some penetration, but what I heard it was obviously, Omicron helped a lot with that. But is there anything sustainable with -- I think if I get the [ICR] conference, you were saying taste growth at same restaurants was not that good, lackluster or worse. Is there anything either changing in the market that maybe is improving or more likely something you're doing with sales management that perhaps penetration might improve from here? Or is it just kind of vary with how your independents are doing?

好的。如果可以的話，我想跟進您的一些銷售評論。你說這個季度有一些滲透，但我聽到的很明顯，Omicron 在這方面幫助很大。但是有什麼可持續的——我想如果我參加 [ICR] 會議，你會說同一家餐廳的口味增長不是那麼好、乏善可陳或更糟。市場上是否有任何變化可能正在改善，或者更可能是您在銷售管理方面所做的事情可能會從這裡提高滲透率？或者它只是隨著您的獨立人士的表現而有所不同？

Well, I think a lot of it is just how our customers are doing. As I mentioned earlier, we have this consistency around increasing customers. We're not getting a lot of penetration into the customers as far as dollars. I mean, their purchases versus the previous year and a case is a better way to look at it. And what we are seeing, though, when we get to the end of the month and run a report, we're adding SKUs. Those SKUs aren't showing up as more line items on the average order because the items that they -- maybe they typically ordered it once a week, and now they're ordering it 3x a month or whatever. If they were using 15 cases of French fries before, maybe now to 13.

好吧，我認為其中很大一部分就是我們客戶的表現。正如我之前提到的，我們在增加客戶方面具有這種一致性。就美元而言，我們並沒有深入了解客戶。我的意思是，他們的購買量與前一年相比，一個案例是更好的觀察方式。然而，我們看到的是，當我們到月底並運行報告時，我們正在添加 SKU。這些 SKU 並沒有在平均訂單中顯示為更多的訂單項，因為它們 - 也許他們通常每週訂購一次，現在他們每月訂購 3 次或其他。如果他們以前使用 15 箱炸薯條，現在可能是 13 箱。

As we see more restaurants come back online, I've mentioned this several times with these truly are single-purpose buildings, and it is very, very rare that when a restaurant is vacant that something comes into that space other than a restaurant. And I think that will all come together and level out as well, and that will once again look like pre-COVID and you won't have this number of new restaurants coming online. And I think that the good operators are going to start running growth over the previous year as to where now, I mean, we see it in a big scale with our chain customers, they're just not running same-store sales growth. I mean, there's exceptions to that, certainly. But for the most part, they're not. And I think the restaurant world is a lot more like it did pre-COVID soon.

隨著我們看到越來越多的餐廳重新上線，我已經多次提到這些確實是單一用途的建築，而且當餐廳空置時，除了餐廳之外的其他東西進入該空間是非常非常罕見的。而且我認為這一切都會匯集在一起並趨於平穩，這將再次看起來像 COVID 之前的情況，你不會有這麼多新餐廳上線。而且我認為，優秀的運營商將開始在過去一年中實現增長，現在，我的意思是，我們在連鎖客戶中大規模看到它，他們只是沒有實現同店銷售增長。我的意思是，當然也有例外。但在大多數情況下，他們不是。而且我認為餐廳世界更像是 COVID 之前的情況。

Okay. And finally, George, you spoke about sales funnel coming into Convenience. I think you said with some national change. Is that things that are -- are either in a bid process? Or are you more something a little more solid where you kind of in the last stages of writing contracts and stuff? Like how good do you feel about getting some -- customers there?

好的。最後，George，你談到了銷售渠道進入 Convenience。我想你說的是一些全國性的變化。那些東西是 - 是否在投標過程中？還是在撰寫合同和其他內容的最後階段，您會更加紮實一些？就像你對在那裡獲得一些 - 客戶感覺有多好？

I think just to comment that we have a really good sales funnel, and it's a long sales cycle, and that's really about all we can say. And once again, that we feel good about where we're at.

我想只是評論一下我們有一個非常好的銷售漏斗，這是一個很長的銷售週期，這就是我們所能說的。再一次，我們對自己所處的位置感覺良好。

We will take our next question from Jeff Bernstein with Barclays.

我們將從 Jeff Bernstein 和 Barclays 提出下一個問題。

This is (inaudible), on for Jeff. You've spoken about chain business declines in the past couple of quarters. Just wanted to understand if that's something you're consciously shedding some unfavorable accounts? Or is it a scenario where you see chains actually experiencing some decline that would be perhaps contrary to what we've heard from restaurants that have reported the past couple of weeks? And then I have a follow-up.

這是（聽不清）傑夫。您曾談到過去幾個季度的連鎖業務下滑。只是想了解這是否是您有意識地擺脫一些不利賬戶的事情？還是您看到連鎖店實際經歷了一些下降，這可能與我們從過去幾週報告的餐廳中聽到的情況相反？然後我有一個後續行動。

Yes. Well, as far as what restaurants are reporting, we have our stable mix of business. And in aggregate, they are running negative. And as far as shedding business, that's pretty rare for us to do. We've done some of that. Sometimes, we just feel like we need a certain fee to continue with the customer and pretty much we lose the business. It's just rare for us to fire a customer. But we're in a position right now, our business is pretty stable. We don't sell many people that we didn't sell a year ago and almost everybody we had a year ago, we have now. So they're pretty good comparisons, and we would like to be more aggressive than we are now. Part of that was getting a handle on where our expenses are, and we've had some real good improvement there. And probably nothing more to say. Obviously, we're not going to comment on any customer, particularly, but we have some good wins. We have some that are good accounts, and they're a good operator and they're just going through a difficult period right now.

是的。好吧，就餐廳報告的內容而言，我們擁有穩定的業務組合。總的來說，它們呈負增長。就剝離業務而言，這對我們來說是非常罕見的。我們已經做了一些。有時，我們只是覺得我們需要一定的費用才能繼續與客戶合作，而我們幾乎失去了業務。我們很少解僱客戶。但我們現在處於一個位置，我們的業務非常穩定。我們不會賣掉很多一年前沒有賣掉的人，一年前幾乎所有的人，我們現在都有了。所以它們是很好的比較，我們希望比現在更積極。其中一部分是處理我們的開支在哪裡，我們在那裡取得了一些真正好的改進。大概沒什麼可說的了。顯然，我們不會特別對任何客戶發表評論，但我們取得了一些不錯的勝利。我們有一些很好的客戶，他們是一個很好的運營商，他們現在正在經歷一段困難時期。

Got it. Makes sense. And then I could pivot to M&A, you've deleveraged nicely over the past few quarters, and it looks like you're comfortably in your leverage range. So seemingly you have a lot of dry powder. Could you talk about the current environment and your opportunity to perhaps accelerate M&A when your smaller peers are presumably more challenged in the [slowing] macro?

知道了。說得通。然後我可以轉向併購，你在過去幾個季度很好地去槓桿化，看起來你在槓桿範圍內很舒服。所以看起來你有很多乾粉。您能否談談當前的環境以及當您的小型同行可能在 [放緩] 宏觀經濟中面臨更大挑戰時您可能加速併購的機會？

Yes. I would think that this would be a real good time for us to do some M&A. I can't say that we have anything that's imminent. We're trying hard. I think it's also a time where it's difficult for somebody in private equity to do it the way that debt markets are, and they've been a competitor. So it's probably less competitive, but you still need 2 willing parties. And we're working hard at it. And I don't have anything I can report that we have coming, but we do feel like that we're in a position where so much of our debt is fixed, and we have a good balance sheet we're where we need to be. And we just need to get willing parties, I guess that would be the way to put it. I think I covered everything? Yes.

是的。我認為這將是我們進行併購的好時機。我不能說我們有任何迫在眉睫的事情。我們正在努力。我認為這也是一個私募股權公司很難像債務市場那樣做的時代，他們一直是競爭對手。所以它的競爭力可能較低，但您仍然需要 2 個願意參加的派對。我們正在為此努力。我沒有任何可以報告我們即將到來的事情，但我們確實覺得我們的大部分債務都是固定的，我們有一個良好的資產負債表，我們需要是。我們只需要讓各方願意，我想這就是表達方式。我想我涵蓋了一切？是的。

(Operator Instructions) We will take our next question from Lauren Silberman with Credit Suisse.

（操作員說明）我們將接受瑞士信貸勞倫西爾伯曼的下一個問題。

Just first, you talked about new customer acquisition being consistent at that 6% to 7% rate. Is the wallet care of penetration with these new customers consistent with what you see with historical cohort, so to speak? And then second to that is, are you -- do you see the -- how long, I guess, does it take for that new customer to mature is, I guess, full wallet penetration, which I think you said before is close to 30% on average?

首先，您談到新客戶獲取率始終保持在 6% 到 7% 之間。可以這麼說，這些新客戶的錢包滲透率是否與您在歷史隊列中看到的一致？其次是，你是——你看到了嗎——我想，新客戶成熟需要多長時間，我想，完全滲透錢包，我想你之前說過接近平均30%？

Yes, it's an interesting question because it's different than it has been in the past. We've been running a report every week where we look at new customers that we hadn't sold before and what their average order size is not much different than our existing customers, which typically in the past, there has been a maturity about it. You tend to get a weaker position in the account to start and grow it from there. But right now, and it's an anomaly for us versus our past, but they're about the same size customer. And remember that 6% to 7% is a net numbers. So we also have, unfortunately, accounts that we lose. But the new ones we're bringing on, they're coming on as fairly mature-looking accounts.

是的，這是一個有趣的問題，因為它與過去不同。我們每週都會發布一份報告，其中我們會查看我們之前沒有銷售過的新客戶，以及他們的平均訂單量與我們現有客戶的平均訂單量沒有太大差異，這通常在過去已經成熟.您往往會在帳戶中處於較弱的位置，以從那裡開始並發展它。但現在，與過去相比，這對我們來說是一個反常現象，但他們的客戶規模差不多。請記住，6% 到 7% 是淨值。因此，不幸的是，我們也有丟失的帳戶。但是我們正在推出的新產品，它們是作為相當成熟的帳戶出現的。

Very helpful. And then just a follow-up. The 3% case growth in the quarter benefited from outsized January. I know there's a lot of moving pieces between independent chains and other parts of the business. But can you help us understand, just putting it all together, how you're thinking about total company case growth next quarter and just as we think ahead?

很有幫助。然後只是跟進。本季度 3% 的案例增長得益於 1 月份的超額增長。我知道獨立連鎖店和業務的其他部分之間有很多變動的部分。但是你能幫助我們理解嗎，只是把它們放在一起，你是如何考慮下個季度公司總案例增長的，就像我們未來的想法一樣？

So much that us that is around that word mix, we -- I mean a 3% case growth quarter can be very, very good for us and it could be very bad for us depending on how that affects the mix of business. But we're modeling in that basically 3% to 5% at -- and that's about what we're looking at right now, and we want to continue to get that case growth in the segments where we have heavier focus and heavier profitability.

這麼多我們圍繞這個詞組合，我們 - 我的意思是 3% 的案例增長季度對我們來說可能非常非常好，這對我們來說可能非常糟糕，這取決於它如何影響業務組合。但我們的模型基本上是 3% 到 5%——這就是我們現在所看到的，我們希望在我們更加關注和盈利能力更強的細分市場中繼續實現案例增長。

And we will take our next question from Joshua Long with Stephens, Inc.

我們將接受來自 Stephens, Inc. 的 Joshua Long 的下一個問題。

I was curious if we could dive into some of the digital technology tools that you have. You mentioned your Customer First platform is largely rolled out across Foodservice at 90% and maybe 100% at Vistar. Just curious where you are in terms of being able to leverage that? And now that it's largely rolled out and then as we think about kind of down the road, is there an opportunity to also leverage that across the Convenience side as well?

我很好奇我們是否可以深入了解您擁有的一些數字技術工具。你提到你的客戶至上平台在 90% 的 Foodservice 中大量推廣，在 Vistar 可能是 100%。只是好奇您在利用它方面的進展如何？現在它已經基本推出，然後當我們考慮某種方式時，是否有機會在便利方面也利用它？

Yes. That's a great question, and I appreciate it. One, as you mentioned, we talked about how it's rolled off over 90% of Foodservice and 100% of Vistar. We're -- I do want to reiterate, we're very early in the process of onboarding customers. Foodservice is coming along nicely, and Vistar is doing a very good job of onboarding these new customers. And again, the feedback from the customers was very positive. So we're really focused on providing them a great experience and allowing them to continue to work with their salesperson even more closely as they use this digital tool to continue to buy more products.

是的。這是一個很好的問題，我很感激。第一，正如你提到的，我們談到了它是如何在 90% 的 Foodservice 和 100% 的 Vistar 上推出的。我們 - 我確實想重申，我們在入職客戶的過程中處於非常早期的階段。餐飲服務進展順利，Vistar 在吸引這些新客戶方面做得很好。再一次，客戶的反饋非常積極。因此，我們真正專注於為他們提供出色的體驗，並允許他們在使用此數字工具繼續購買更多產品時繼續與銷售人員更緊密地合作。

On Convenience, absolutely, we just wanted to get this -- we're doing this in a step process. So first, it was Vistar, then Foodservice and then eventually, we will target Convenience as well. And then that really is when we can unlock some of those cross-selling opportunities across all 3 segments with our customers.

關於便利性，絕對是，我們只是想得到這個——我們正在一步一步地做這件事。所以首先是 Vistar，然後是 Foodservice，最後，我們也將瞄準 Convenience。然後才是我們真正可以與客戶在所有 3 個細分市場中釋放一些交叉銷售機會的時候。

Got it. That's very helpful. I appreciate that. And then one follow-up for me. George, when we think back to your comments about fill rates were getting back towards pre-pandemic levels, it's perhaps on lower breadth of SKUs. Has that maybe get back to -- from a SKU perspective back to where we were pre-pandemic? Is that a positive? Does that introduce incremental challenges from an operational perspective? Just how do you kind of interpret that? Or how would you -- what context could you add there just in terms of what it means from an operational or business perspective to see that SKU count start to rise again?

知道了。這很有幫助。我很感激。然後是我的後續行動。喬治，當我們回想你關於填充率回到大流行前水平的評論時，它可能是在較低的 SKU 範圍內。這是否可能回到——從 SKU 的角度回到我們大流行前的狀態？那是積極的嗎？從運營角度來看，這是否會帶來更多挑戰？你是怎麼解釋的？或者你會如何——從運營或業務的角度來看，你可以添加什麼背景來看到 SKU 數量再次開始上升？

Well, we haven't had a significant change in Foodservice. So that is more towards Core-Mark and Vistar. And I think that, all in all, I would consider it a positive as they bring back SKUs. But obviously, if they were real slow-moving SKUs, we would probably look at that as maybe a slight negative. I just don't think that, that's going to have a material change. We would rather see a supplier that's still struggling to get the supply chain right on the SKUs that they have today and then move from there into some additional SKUs. But we are still experiencing fill rate issues, particularly with the large CPG suppliers that we have.

好吧，我們在 Foodservice 方面沒有發生重大變化。所以這更傾向於 Core-Mark 和 Vistar。而且我認為，總而言之，我認為這是積極的，因為他們帶回了 SKU。但顯然，如果它們是真正滯銷的 SKU，我們可能會將其視為輕微的負面影響。我只是不認為，這會發生重大變化。我們寧願看到一家供應商仍在努力讓供應鏈正確地使用他們今天擁有的 SKU，然後從那裡轉移到一些額外的 SKU。但我們仍然遇到填充率問題，尤其是我們擁有的大型 CPG 供應商。

It appears we have no further questions on the line at this time. I will turn the program back over to Bill Marshall for any additional or closing remarks.

看來我們目前沒有其他問題了。我會將程序轉回 Bill Marshall 以徵求任何補充或結束語。

Thank you for joining our call today. If you have any follow-up questions, please contact us at Investor Relations.

感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。如果您有任何後續問題，請通過投資者關係聯繫我們。

This does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.

今天的節目到此結束。感謝您的參與。您可以隨時斷開連接。