Performance Food Group Co (PFGC) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day and welcome to PFG's fiscal year Q2 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)

大家好，歡迎參加 PFG 2025 財年第二季財報電話會議。（操作員指令）

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

現在，我想將電話轉給 PFG 投資者關係副總裁 Bill Marshall。先生，請繼續。

Thank you and good morning. We're here with George Holm, PFG's CEO; Patrick Hatcher, PFG's CFO; and Scott McPherson, PFG's COO.

謝謝，早安。我們今天邀請到的是 PFG 的執行長 George Holm； PFG 財務長 Patrick Hatcher；以及 PFG 的營運長 Scott McPherson。

We issued a press release this morning regarding our 2025 fiscal second quarter results, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at pfgc.com. During our call today, unless otherwise stated, we are comparing results to the results in the same period in fiscal 2024.

我們今天早上發布了一份關於 2025 財年第二季業績的新聞稿，可在我們網站 pfgc.com 的投資者關係部分找到。在今天的電話會議中，除非另有說明，我們都將結果與 2024 財年同期的結果進行比較。

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 in the back of the earnings release.

本次電話會議討論的結果將包括根據某些項目進行調整的 GAAP 和非 GAAP 結果。這些非 GAAP 指標與相應的 GAAP 指標的對帳表可在收益報告的後面找到。

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.

我們在本次電話會議和收益報告中的評論包含前瞻性陳述和對未來結果的預測。請查看今天的收益報告和我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中關於警告性前瞻性聲明的部分，以了解可能導致我們的實際結果與我們的前瞻性聲明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.

謝謝，比爾。大家早安，感謝大家今天參加我們的電話會議。

Our company remained active during the fiscal second quarter, continuing to build upon our underlying business momentum while adding new avenues for growth through targeted acquisitions. I'm very pleased with the results and believe we are well positioned to accelerate our growth through the back half of the fiscal year.

我們公司在第二財季保持活躍，繼續鞏固我們的基本業務勢頭，同時透過有針對性的收購增加新的成長途徑。我對結果非常滿意，並相信我們有能力在財年下半年加速成長。

This morning, I will review some of the high-level trends in our business and industry and touch upon our early accomplishments, integrating both Jose Santiago and Cheney Brothers. I will then turn the call over to Scott, who will review details of our segment results for the quarter. Finally, Patrick will review our financial position, key priorities and guidance for the balance of fiscal 2025.

今天上午，我將回顧我們業務和行業的一些高層趨勢，並談論我們早期的成就，包括整合何塞·聖地亞哥和切尼兄弟。然後，我將把電話轉給斯科特，他將審查我們本季分部業績的詳細資訊。最後，帕特里克將回顧我們的財務狀況、主要優先事項以及 2025 財年餘額的指導。

Let's begin with an overview of our second quarter results and the industry factors influencing performance. We are pleased to see an acceleration in our underlying organic growth in the fiscal second quarter through a combination of steady market share gains and an improving consumer backdrop.

讓我們先概述一下我們的第二季業績以及影響業績的行業因素。我們很高興地看到，透過市場佔有率的穩定成長和消費者環境的改善，我們第二財季的基礎有機成長加速。

In particular, our organic independent restaurant case volume grew 5% in the quarter, stepping up from the 4.3% we reported in the fiscal first quarter. Keep in mind, this result includes a difficult year-over-year comparison in December primarily due to calendar differences compared to the prior year.

具體來說，我們有機獨立餐廳營業額在本季度增長了 5％，高於第一財季報告的 4.3％。請記住，該結果包括 12 月困難的同比比較，這主要是由於與前一年相比的日曆差異。

In October, November combined, our organic independent restaurant case volume was up over 7%. As we move through January, our case volume reaccelerated, in part due to easier comparisons but also reflecting the strength of our underlying business. I continue to believe we can achieve fiscal year '25, 6% independent case growth with some help from the macro.

10月和11月合計，我們的有機獨立餐廳營業額增加了7%以上。隨著一月份的到來，我們的案件數量再次加速成長，部分原因是由於比較容易比較，同時也反映了我們基礎業務的實力。我仍然相信，在宏觀因素的幫助下，我們能夠實現25財年6%的獨立個案成長。

My confidence is underpinned by several factors, including the excellent work of our Foodservice team. We continue to build our organization through targeted hiring of talented salespeople and have increased the pace of sales force hiring.

我的信心來自於多種因素，其中包括我們餐飲服務團隊的出色工作。我們透過有針對性地招募優秀銷售人員來繼續建立我們的組織，並加快了銷售團隊的招募步伐。

Turning to our Vistar segment. Business picked up modestly in the fiscal second quarter following a challenging start to the year. Total cases grew 1.4% for Vistar in the fiscal second quarter with broad growth across many channels. In particular, the vending, office coffee services and corrections channels saw positive case in sales growth in the quarter.

轉向我們的 Vistar 部分。在經歷了年初的艱難時期後，第二財季業務略有回升。Vistar 財年第二季的案件總數增加了 1.4%，多個管道的案件數量均實現了普遍增長。特別是，自動販賣機、辦公室咖啡服務和懲罰管道在本季的銷售成長表現積極。

Theater box-office revenue was strong in the final months of the calendar year, reflecting high demand content. This by itself is encouraging for the long-term health of the movie theater channel.

去年最後幾個月影院票房收入強勁，反映出電影內容的需求量大。這本身對於電影院通路的長期健康發展是令人鼓舞的。

As we discussed last quarter, we anticipate a better back half of the fiscal year for Vistar due to improving consumer sentiment and easier year-over-year comparisons. Similarly, our Convenience business is building momentum on both the top and bottom lines.

正如我們上個季度所討論的那樣，由於消費者信心改善和同比比較更容易，我們預計 Vistar 財年下半年的表現會更好。同樣地，我們的便利商店業務在營收和利潤方面都呈現成長動能。

As we have discussed on prior earnings calls, the convenience industry has been challenged largely due to significant inflationary pressure in candy and snacks. However, we remain encouraged by Core-Mark's ability to win market share and outpace key categories compared to industry peers. Foodservice into Convenience remains a large driver of our performance, but candy and other key non-nicotine categories have also boosted volume performance through low single-digit growth.

正如我們在先前的收益電話會議上所討論的那樣，便利商店行業面臨的挑戰主要是由於糖果和零食的巨大通膨壓力。然而，與同行相比，Core-Mark 贏得市場份額和超越關鍵類別的能力仍然令我們感到鼓舞。餐飲到便利商店仍然是我們業績的主要推動力，但糖果和其他主要的非尼古丁類別也透過低個位數成長提升了銷售表現。

As our legacy business continues to perform well, our integration team has been hard at work welcoming the teams from both Jose Santiago and Cheney Brothers. Early in the fiscal second quarter, we closed on the Cheney Brothers acquisition, have included their results in our numbers beginning on the closing date.

由於我們的傳統業務持續表現良好，我們的整合團隊一直在努力歡迎來自 Jose Santiago 和 Cheney Brothers 的團隊。在第二財季初期，我們完成了對 Cheney Brothers 的收購，並從交易完成之日起將他們的業績納入我們的數據中。

As we discussed when we announced the deal, we have high expectations for Cheney and I have admired their success for many years. I am pleased to say that they have made substantial progress in the months since becoming part of PFG, and early results have been very strong. The past few months have not been without challenges, particularly in the Southeast markets that have been impacted by weather, including hurricanes, and a slow recovery from the consumer.

正如我們在宣布該協議時所討論的那樣，我們對切尼抱有很高的期望，多年來我一直欽佩他們的成功。我很高興地說，自從成為 PFG 的一部分以來，他們在幾個月內取得了實質進展，而且早期成果非常強勁。過去幾個月並非沒有挑戰，特別是東南市場受到了颶風等天氣的影響，以及消費復甦緩慢。

However, the Cheney Brothers team is proving to be formidable at managing through these challenges and continues to grow at a brisk pace. Jose Santiago has performed well. This organization joined PFG early in the fiscal year, and we remain pleased with the results. We believe Puerto Rico will be an increasingly important market, and Jose Santiago's strong market position provides an excellent platform for growth.

然而，切尼兄弟團隊證明自己有能力應對這些挑戰，並繼續快速發展。何塞·聖地牙哥表現出色。該組織於財政年度初加入了 PFG，我們對其結果感到滿意。我們相信波多黎各將成為一個越來越重要的市場，而何塞聖地牙哥強大的市場地位為其成長提供了絕佳的平台。

We are excited to see what the future holds. Keep in mind that both Cheney Brothers and Jose Santiago have slightly different seasonal patterns than legacy PFG with strong winter selling season. As a result, we expect nice contribution to our top and bottom lines, particularly in our fiscal third quarter.

我們很興奮地看到未來會發生什麼。請記住，Cheney Brothers 和 Jose Santiago 的季節性模式與傳統的 PFG 略有不同，冬季銷售旺季強勁。因此，我們預計這將對我們的營收和淨利潤產生良好貢獻，特別是在第三財季。

Taken together, PFG had an excellent fiscal second quarter with contribution from all three of our business segments. Our diversification strategy across the food-away-from-home market continues to pay dividends and provides significant areas of growth opportunity for the long term, which we believe is unique to PFG.

整體而言，PFG 的第二財季表現十分出色，得益於我們三個業務部門的貢獻。我們在外出用餐市場的多元化策略繼續帶來紅利，並為長期成長機會提供了重要的領域，我們認為這是 PFG 獨有的。

I'd now like to turn the call over to Scott McPherson. In December, we announced Scott's promotion to Chief Operating Officer effective at the beginning of the calendar year. We were thrilled to welcome Scott to our team through the Core-Mark acquisition, and we greatly value the high-level management expertise he has brought PFG. In addition to running Core-Mark, in 2023, Scott assumed oversight of the Vistar segment and in 2024 was named our Chief Field Operations Officer, giving him responsibility for all three business segments.

現在我想將電話轉給史考特·麥克弗森。12 月，我們宣布史考特將於年初晉升為營運長。我們非常高興透過 Core-Mark 收購歡迎 Scott 加入我們的團隊，我們非常重視他為 PFG 帶來的高階管理專業知識。除了營運 Core-Mark 之外， Scott 還於 2023 年負責 Vistar 部門的監督，並於 2024 年被任命為我們的首席現場營運官，負責所有三個業務部門。

In the role of COO, Scott will continue to oversee our business segments and strengthen his influence across our organization and industry. I've asked Scott to join our earnings call to provide additional insight into our business operations.

作為首席營運官，斯科特將繼續監督我們的業務部門並加強他在整個組織和行業的影響力。我已經邀請斯科特參加我們的財報電話會議，以便對我們的業務運營提供更多見解。

He will also be available to take your questions during the Q&A portion of our call. Scott assumed the Chief Operating Officer role from Craig Hoskins. I cannot speak highly enough about the contributions Craig has made to our organization.

在我們電話會議的問答環節中，他也會回答您的問題。史考特接替克雷格·霍斯金斯擔任營運長。我對克雷格對我們組織的貢獻讚不絕口。

Craig was the VP Sales of Multifoods Distribution Group in 2002, which was our first acquisition, which later became Vistar. He also served as the CEO of our Performance Customized division and then also CEO of our Performance Foodservice division before ascending to three years as the President and Chief Operating Officer of PFG.

2002 年，克雷格擔任 Multifoods Distribution Group 的銷售副總裁，該公司是我們收購的第一家公司，後來更名為 Vistar。他還曾擔任我們性能定制部門的首席執行官，後來又擔任我們性能餐飲服務部門的首席執行官，之後又擔任了三年的 PFG 總裁兼首席營運官。

Craig did an excellent job onboarding Scott into his new role. I'm thrilled to have Craig as our Chief Development Officer, as we announced in December. In this role, Craig will work closely with Jose Santiago and Cheney Brothers as we integrate those organizations into PFG.

克雷格出色地幫助斯科特適應了新職位。正如我們在 12 月宣布的那樣，我很高興 Craig 擔任我們的首席開發長。在這個職位上，克雷格將與何塞·聖地亞哥和切尼兄弟密切合作，將這些組織整合到 PFG 中。

I'll now turn the call over to Scott McPherson.

現在我將電話轉給史考特·麥克弗森。

Thank you, George, and good morning, everyone. I'm excited to join today's call and share some insights into our performance, the broader market and some of the initiatives that will help PFG maintain our long track record of growth and operational execution.

謝謝你，喬治，大家早安。我很高興參加今天的電話會議並分享一些關於我們的業績、更廣泛的市場以及一些有助於 PFG 保持長期增長和營運執行記錄的舉措的見解。

Before I jump in, I want to reflect on my journey to the [CFOO] role over the past three years. Coming to a company through acquisition is not always the easiest transition, but it quickly became evident why PFG excels in this space.

在開始之前，我想先回顧過去三年擔任[CFOO]職務的歷程。透過收購進入一家公司並不總是最容易的轉變，但很快就顯而易見為什麼 PFG 在這一領域表現出色。

We target well-run companies and leverage that talent and knowledge they possess for the betterment of the broader organization. This approach has created a culture that embraces growth, welcomes change and inspires people to go the extra mile.

我們的目標客戶是經營良好的公司，並利用他們所擁有的人才和知識來改善整個組織。這種方法創造了一種擁抱成長、歡迎改變並激勵人們付出更多努力的文化。

During the past year, I've had the opportunity to interact with PFG associates across our entire business platform. I've seen firsthand the dedication that our associates bring to work every day, which is instrumental in our ability to exceed the high expectations we set for ourselves.

在過去的一年裡，我有機會與整個業務平台上的 PFG 同事互動。我親眼目睹了我們的同事們每天對工作的奉獻精神，這對我們超越自己設定的高期望起到了重要作用。

I want to highlight a few examples of the talented and dedicated associates that make PFG different. In our Vistar segment, Jose Luis Arias started as a sanitation specialist with our organization over 50 years ago, advancing to become a CDL driver, and this year will eclipse the 3 million mile-mark accident-free.

我想重點介紹幾個才華橫溢、敬業奉獻的員工的例子，正是他們讓 PFG 與眾不同。在我們的 Vistar 部門，Jose Luis Arias 50 多年前在我們組織擔任衛生專家，後來晉升為 CDL 司機，今年將無事故行駛 300 萬英里。

Our Core-Mark SVP of HR, Ali Marciano, was named a Top Woman in convenience, one of the industry's top honors. And at PFS, Jasmine Dan was the recipient of the 2025 Women's Foodservice Forum Changemaker Award. It's individuals like Jose, Ali and Jasmine that inspire our 40,000 associates to come to work every day with a passion to succeed.

我們的 Core-Mark 人力資源資深副總裁 Ali Marciano 被評為便利產業傑出女性，這是業界最高榮譽之一。在 PFS，Jasmine Dan 獲得了 2025 年女性餐飲服務論壇變革者獎。正是像 Jose、Ali 和 Jasmine 這樣的角色激勵著我們的 40,000 名員工每天懷著對成功的熱情來上班。

Now let's take a deeper look into our three operating segments, starting with our Foodservice business. Foodservice had an outstanding second quarter driven by case volume growth across our independent and chain account, solid margin improvement and expense control. Both Cheney Brothers and Jose Santiago contributed nicely to these results, producing double-digit top and bottom line performance for the segment.

現在讓我們深入了解我們的三個營運部門，從餐飲服務業務開始。餐飲服務在第二季表現出色，這得益於我們獨立和連鎖帳戶的箱量成長、利潤率穩定提高和費用控制。切尼兄弟和何塞·聖地亞哥都對這些業績做出了巨大貢獻，為該部門創造了兩位數的營收和利潤表現。

Stripping out the benefit of these two acquisitions, our underlying business momentum was strong. Organic independent case growth of 5% and low single-digit case increases in our chain business produced approximately 3% total organic case growth for Foodservice and we are pleased to see our chain business adding top line growth and anticipate even better performance in the second half of the year due to new business wins and signs of stabilization from some of the more challenged accounts.

除去這兩筆收購帶來的好處，我們的潛在業務動能強勁。5%的有機獨立案例成長率和連鎖業務的低個位數案例成長為餐飲服務帶來了約 3% 的總有機案例成長，我們很高興看到連鎖業務實現了營收成長，並預計下半年業績將更加出色，這得益於新業務的贏得和一些挑戰較大帳戶的穩定跡象。

We also continue to pick up new independent accounts. Our 5% organic independent case growth was driven by a 5% growth rate in new accounts as penetration across the full quarter was flat. With that said, excluding the difficult December calendar comparison, penetration was up in the independent and total Foodservice in October and November. While we're certainly not back to normalized levels of restaurant performance, we are seeing early signs of stabilization.

我們也會繼續招募新的獨立帳戶。由於整個季度的滲透率持平，我們 5% 的有機獨立案例成長是由 5% 的新帳戶成長率推動的。話雖如此，但排除困難的 12 月日曆比較外，10 月和 11 月獨立和整體餐飲服務的滲透率都有所上升。雖然我們的餐廳業績還沒有恢復到正常的水平，但我們看到了穩定的早期跡象。

Within our independent business, PFG's company-owned brands continue to be a significant growth driver. These brands account for nearly 53% of total sales in the independent channel. As we've discussed in the past, brands growth is a key strategy as they provide high quality and great value to our customers, enhance our margins and increase customer retention. Expansion of our brand portfolio will continue to be a key strategic initiative going forward.

在我們的獨立業務中，PFG 旗下的品牌持續成為重要的成長動力。這些品牌佔獨立通路總銷售額的近53%。正如我們過去討論過的，品牌成長是一項關鍵策略，因為它們為我們的客戶提供高品質和巨大的價值，提高我們的利潤率並增加客戶保留率。擴大我們的品牌組合將繼續成為我們未來的重要策略舉措。

Also key to our growth is continuing to attract talented sales associates which help drive our independent case growth. In the second quarter, our sales force head count increased nearly 7% as we added over 200 new sales associates compared to the same period last year.

我們成長的另一個關鍵因素是繼續吸引優秀的銷售助理，這有助於推動我們獨立案例的成長。第二季度，與去年同期相比，我們增加了 200 多名新銷售人員，銷售人員數量增加了近 7%。

From a profit perspective, positive mix shift due to faster independent growth, along with more profitable chain business, drove gross margin performance in the quarter. Our focus on operating metrics, including reducing shrink and workforce efficiency, produce leverage to our gross profit performance, leading us to a 29.4% growth in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter.

從利潤角度來看，獨立業務成長加快以及連鎖業務利潤率提高帶來的積極組合轉變推動了本季的毛利率表現。我們專注於營運指標，包括減少損耗和提高勞動力效率，這對我們的毛利表現產生了槓桿作用，使我們本季的調整後 EBITDA 成長了 29.4%。

In our Convenience segment, the underlying industry fundamentals remain challenged as anticipated. However, a combination of new account growth and market share gains resulted in a positive total volume in the period, outpacing the industry in key product categories. The declines in cigarette carton sales were a drag to top line performance, though these declines have had minimal impact on our bottom line results.

在我們的便利商店領域，正如預期的那樣，基礎產業基本面仍然面臨挑戰。然而，新帳戶成長和市場份額提升的共同作用，使得該期間的總量呈正增長，在關鍵產品類別中超過了行業水平。儘管香菸條銷售量的下降對我們的利潤結果影響甚微，但對營收表現造成了拖累。

Our Convenience team continues to roll out new foodservice offerings for customers, which is becoming a key part of our growth story. In the fiscal second quarter, the foodservice cases in the Convenience increased at a mid-single-digit pace with sales growing at a high single-digit clip.

我們的便利團隊持續為顧客推出新的餐飲服務，這正成為我們成長故事的關鍵部分。在第二財季，便利商店的餐飲服務案例以中等個位數速度成長，銷售額以高個位數速度成長。

Importantly, this growth is coming from some of the largest accounts, including double-digit sales growth in three of the top five accounts we service. The number of turnkey convenience foodservice this program sold has grown steadily since the beginning of fiscal 2024.

重要的是，這一成長來自一些最大的客戶，其中我們服務的前五名客戶中有三個實現了兩位數的銷售成長。自 2024 財年伊始，該計畫銷售的交鑰匙便利食品服務數量一直穩定成長。

We are proud of the progress our Core-Mark team has made and believe there is much more to come down the road. These efforts produced another double-digit performance for the Convenience segment with adjusted EBITDA of 28.5% in the second quarter on a purely organic basis. At our Investor Day in late May, we will cover the progress Core-Mark has made since being acquired, which will highlight strong profit growth.

我們為 Core-Mark 團隊所取得的進步感到自豪，並相信未來還會有更大的進步。這些努力使便利商店部門再次取得兩位數的業績，第二季調整後 EBITDA 純有機成長至 28.5%。在五月下旬的投資者日上，我們將介紹 Core-Mark 自收購以來的進展，其中將突顯強勁的利潤成長。

Finally, Vistar made progress in the second quarter despite some difficult industry dynamics. Case growth from some of Vistar's largest channels, including office coffee services, theater and corrections, produced low single-digit case increases for the segment.

最後，儘管行業形勢嚴峻，Vistar 在第二季仍然取得了進展。Vistar 一些最大管道的案件增長，包括辦公室咖啡服務、劇院和懲教服務，為該部門帶來了低個位數的案件增幅。

Vistar's largest channel, vending, also saw case increases year-over-year. The legacy vending machine business declines continue to be offset by growth in micro markets, which we include in our vending channel reporting. We are optimistic about the micro channel, which is not only a growth area for the industry that allows for a wider product assortment, and ultimately, higher profit realization for Vistar.

Vistar 最大的銷售通路自動販賣機的銷售量也較去年同期成長。傳統自動販賣機業務的下滑繼續被微型市場的成長所抵消，我們將其納入自動販賣機報告中。我們對微信持樂觀態度，它不僅是產業的一個成長領域，可以讓產品種類更加豐富，最終為Vistar實現更高的利潤。

The theater business also had a strong quarter despite heightened competition in the market. We are pleased to see strong box-office results with high-quality content and believe it is a positive sign for the long-term health of the channel. With that said, we do expect some near-term volatility due to competitive pressures and a lighter box-office slate in the fiscal third quarter. This is all included in our projections.

儘管市場競爭加劇，但影院業務本季表現依然強勁。我們很高興看到高品質內容帶來強勁的票房成績，並相信這對該頻道的長期健康發展是一個積極信號。話雖如此，由於競爭壓力和第三季票房不佳，我們確實預計短期內會出現一些波動。這些都包含在我們的預測中。

Taken together, all three segments contributed a strong second quarter, and the outlook is bright. We are pleased with the stand-alone results at each segment but are even more excited with the power we generate when our businesses join forces to serve our broad spectrum of accounts.

總體來看，三個部門都為第二季度做出了強勁貢獻，前景光明。我們對每個部門的獨立業績感到滿意，但更讓我們興奮的是，當我們的業務聯合起來為廣泛的客戶提供服務時，我們產生的力量。

I will now turn the call over to Patrick, who will review our financial performance and outlook. Patrick?

現在我將電話轉給帕特里克，他將審查我們的財務表現和前景。派崔克？

Thank you, Scott. I'm excited to share some of the financial details from our second quarter and first half of fiscal 2025. As George and Scott have detailed, our business is executing well, driving strong operational results. This translated into another quarter of robust financial performance.

謝謝你，斯科特。我很高興分享我們 2025 財年第二季和上半年的一些財務細節。正如喬治和斯科特所詳述的那樣，我們的業務執行良好，推動了強勁的營運表現。這意味著本季的財務業績又一次表現強勁。

Both our sales and adjusted EBITDA came in above the upper end of our guidance ranges we laid out three months ago. Furthermore, we continue to use our cash flow and balance sheet to drive long-term shareholder value.

我們的銷售額和調整後的 EBITDA 均高於我們三個月前製定的指導範圍的上限。此外，我們繼續利用現金流量和資產負債表來推動長期股東價值。

Let's review some highlights from our fiscal second quarter. PFG's total net sales grew 9.4% in the quarter. Our result was aided by the addition of both Jose Santiago and Cheney Brothers. However, excluding the acquisition benefits, all three of our segments produced positive organic case growth in the quarter. In particular, total independent restaurant cases were up 19.8% in the period. Excluding the acquisition benefit, organic independent cases were up 5% for the quarter.

讓我們回顧一下第二財季的一些亮點。PFG 本季的總淨銷售額成長了 9.4%。我們的成果得益於 Jose Santiago 和 Cheney Brothers 的加入。然而，除去收購收益，我們三個部門在本季度都實現了正的有機案例成長。其中，獨立餐廳案件總數上漲了19.8%。除去收購收益，本季有機獨立案件數量上漲了 5%。

We are pleased with our organic independent case growth result, which was an acceleration from the prior two quarters despite a very difficult December comparison due to calendar differences. As George described, combining October and November, our organic independent case growth was more than 7%.

我們對我們的有機獨立案例成長結果感到滿意，儘管由於日曆差異，與 12 月相比非常困難，但與前兩個季度相比仍有所加速。正如喬治所描述的，合併 10 月和 11 月，我們的有機獨立案例成長率超過了 7%。

Early in the fiscal third quarter, we saw faster underlying case growth in our independent restaurant business. We remain optimistic with respect to our growth, though we would note that January was impacted by a number of factors, including an easy comparison due to tough weather last year, somewhat offset by a choppy start to calendar 2025 due to unusual weather across various regions of the United States.

在第三財季初期，我們看到獨立餐廳業務的基本案例成長更快。我們對我們的成長保持樂觀，但我們注意到，1 月份受到了許多因素的影響，包括由於去年惡劣的天氣而導致的容易比較，但由於美國各個地區天氣異常導致 2025 年日曆開局不順，在一定程度上抵消了這一影響。

Looking past the January noise, which is typically the smallest volume month of the year, we are optimistic for the balance of fiscal 2025. Total company cost inflation was about 4.6% for the second quarter, slightly lower than the 5% we reported in the first quarter.

回顧一月份的波動（通常是一年中交易量最小的月份），我們對 2025 財年的平衡持樂觀態度。第二季公司總成本通膨率約為 4.6%，略低於我們報告的第一季的 5%。

Foodservice cost inflation was 3.2% in the quarter, moving down sequentially and roughly in line with our expectation for long-term inflation rates. We would note elevated year-over-year inflationary prices in poultry, cheese and beef, three of our largest categories in Foodservice.

本季餐飲成本通膨率為 3.2%，季減，大致與我們對長期通膨率的預期一致。我們注意到，食品服務中最大的三個類別——家禽、起司和牛肉——的通膨價格比去年同期都有所上升。

Cost inflation for Vistar was roughly 2% in the quarter, while Convenience experienced cost inflation of 6.7%. Keep in mind that Convenience inflation is typically boosted by cigarette and other nicotine pricing, which is typically in the mid- to high single-digit range.

Vistar 的成本通膨在本季約為 2%，而 Convenience 的成本通膨為 6.7%。請記住，便利性通膨通常是由香菸和其他尼古丁定價推動的，而這些定價通常處於中高個位數範圍。

Sequential inflation produced a modest year-over-year inventory holding gain benefit in the second quarter, though within the normal range of holding gain variances. Given our current projections, we are modeling very little year-over-year holding gain impact over the back half of the fiscal year.

連續通膨導致第二季庫存持有收益同比略有增加，但仍在持有收益差異的正常範圍內。根據我們目前的預測，我們預測本財年下半年的年比持有收益影響將非常小。

Total company gross profit increased 14.4% in the fiscal second quarter, representing a gross profit per case increase of $0.29 in the quarter as compared to the prior year's period. We have continued to see excellent cost control, producing another quarter of double-digit profit performance from our Foodservice and Convenience segments. Both Foodservice and Convenience produced 29.4% and 28.5% adjusted EBITDA growth in the quarter, respectively.

第二財季公司總毛利成長 14.4%，與去年同期相比，本季每箱毛利增加了 0.29 美元。我們繼續看到出色的成本控制，使我們的餐飲服務和便利商店部門再次取得了兩位數的利潤。本季度，餐飲服務和便利商店的調整後 EBITDA 成長率分別達到 29.4% 和 28.5%。

Vistar's adjusted EBITDA growth turned positive year-over-year, though the segment continues to be impacted by lower foot traffic and customer-specific challenges in some channels. We continue to anticipate Vistar's results will improve in the back half of the fiscal year.

Vistar 的調整後 EBITDA 年成長至正值，儘管該部門繼續受到客流量減少和某些通路客戶特定挑戰的影響。我們繼續預計 Vistar 的業績將在本財年下半年有所改善。

In the second quarter of fiscal 2025, PFG reported net income of $42.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 22.5% to $423 million, above the high end of the guidance we announced last quarter. Diluted earnings per share in the fiscal second quarter was $0.27, while adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.98, an 8.9% improvement year-over-year. Our effective tax rate was 25.2% in the fiscal second quarter. We anticipate a higher tax rate in the back half of the fiscal year closer to our historical range.

2025財年第二季度，PFG報告淨收入為4,240萬美元。調整後的 EBITDA 成長 22.5% 至 4.23 億美元，高於我們上個季度宣布的預期最高值。第二財季每股攤薄收益為 0.27 美元，調整後每股攤薄收益為 0.98 美元，較去年同期成長 8.9%。我們第二財季的有效稅率為 25.2%。我們預計本財年下半年的稅率將更高，更接近歷史範圍。

Turning to our financial position and cash flow performance. In the first six months of fiscal 2025, PFG generated $379 million of operating cash flow. After adjusting for $204 million of capital expenditures, PFG delivered free cash flow about $175 million.

談談我們的財務狀況和現金流表現。在 2025 財年的前六個月，PFG 產生了 3.79 億美元的營運現金流。在調整 2.04 億美元的資本支出後，PFG 實現了約 1.75 億美元的自由現金流。

We have selectively invested in inventory of candy and tobacco through the first half of the year in anticipation of potential price increases in those categories. Still, the team did an excellent job managing working capital to drive the strong cash flow performance in the period.

由於預計糖果和菸草產品的價格可能會上漲，因此我們在今年上半年有選擇地投資了這些產品的庫存。儘管如此，該團隊在管理營運資金方面做得非常出色，從而推動了該期間強勁的現金流表現。

Our capital spending levels remained fairly steady over the first two quarters of the fiscal year with a run rate of approximately $100 million per quarter. In our legacy business, we expect to maintain a similar level of spending over the next several quarters to maintain our growth investments in facilities, fleet and other technology.

在本財年的前兩個季度，我們的資本支出水準保持相當穩定，每季的支出率約為 1 億美元。在我們的傳統業務中，我們預計在接下來的幾個季度中保持類似的支出水平，以維持我們在設施、車隊和其他技術方面的成長投資。

We will then layer in some additional capital expense to support growth projects at both Cheney Brothers and Jose Santiago. These capital projects are important to the long-term growth of our company and typically generate a high rate of return.

然後，我們將投入一些額外的資本支出來支持 Cheney Brothers 和 Jose Santiago 的成長項目。這些資本項目對我們公司的長期發展至關重要，通常會產生高回報率。

During the fiscal second quarter, we drew down our ABL facility by approximately $2 billion to fund the Cheney Brothers acquisition, which closed in early October. As we discussed last quarter, this pushes our net leverage above the top end of our 2.5 times to 3.5 times target range. We feel very comfortable with our current leverage and the available liquidity of our ABL facility.

在第二財季，我們動用了約 20 億美元的 ABL 融資來資助 Cheney Brothers 的收購，該收購於 10 月初完成。正如我們上個季度所討論的那樣，這將使我們的淨槓桿率超過 2.5 倍至 3.5 倍目標範圍的上限。我們對目前的槓桿率和 ABL 工具的可用流動性感到非常滿意。

Still, as we highlighted in November, we expect to prioritize debt reduction in the short term to move our leverage back within our target range over the next several quarters. We believe this is the best use of capital at this time and will position us to look at additional M&A and share repurchases opportunistically in the future.

不過，正如我們在 11 月所強調的那樣，我們預計將在短期內優先減少債務，以便在接下來的幾個季度內將我們的槓桿率拉回到目標範圍內。我們相信這是目前資本的最佳利用方式，並將使我們在未來有機會尋找更多的併購機會和股票回購。

In fact, our M&A pipeline is very robust. PFG has a history of successful acquisitions to drive growth, and we expect that to continue. At the same time, we will apply our typical high standards and robust due diligence to target high-quality acquisition opportunities.

事實上，我們的併購管道非常強勁。PFG 有著透過成功收購來推動成長的歷史，我們預計這種情況將會持續下去。同時，我們將運用我們一貫的高標準和嚴格的盡職調查來尋找高品質的收購機會。

Opportunistic share repurchases also remain an important component of our capital allocation strategy. As we prioritize debt reduction and look out for value-creating M&A, we will likely repurchase fewer shares in the near term. However, all of our capital allocation decisions are based on marketplace conditions, and we envision a return to higher levels of share buybacks in the future.

機會性股票回購仍然是我們資本配置策略的重要組成部分。由於我們優先考慮減少債務並尋找創造價值的併購，因此我們短期內可能會回購較少的股票。然而，我們所有的資本配置決策都是基於市場條件的，我們預計未來股票回購將恢復到更高的水平。

Turning to our guidance for fiscal 2025. For the full fiscal year, we now expect net sales to be within a $63 billion to $64 billion range, which is a $500 million increase on both ends from the $62.5 billion to $63.5 billion range we discussed last quarter. Our net sales have been trending favorably, and we anticipate this to continue in the back half of the fiscal year.

談到我們對 2025 財年的指導。就整個財年而言，我們目前預計淨銷售額將在 630 億美元至 640 億美元之間，比我們上個季度討論的 625 億美元至 635 億美元範圍高出 5 億美元。我們的淨銷售額一直呈現良好趨勢，我們預計這種趨勢將在本財年下半年持續維持。

We also see upside to our profit forecast. We now anticipate full year 2025 adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $1.725 billion to $1.8 billion, an increase to the bottom end of our previously disclosed target. Our increased outlook to both sales and adjusted EBITDA is based on strong underlying fundamentals of our three business segments, a modestly improved consumer outlook and strong early results from both Cheney Brothers and Jose Santiago.

我們的獲利預測也存在上行空間。我們現在預計 2025 年全年調整後 EBITDA 將在 17.25 億美元至 18 億美元之間，這將達到我們先前披露的目標的底線。我們提高銷售額和調整後 EBITDA 的預期是基於我們三個業務部門強勁的基本面、適度改善的消費者前景以及 Cheney Brothers 和 Jose Santiago 強勁的早期業績。

For the third quarter of 2025, we anticipate net sales to be in a $15.2 billion to $15.6 billion range with adjusted EBITDA in a $390 million to $410 million range. As you can see from our third quarter projections, the addition of both Cheney Brothers and Jose Santiago helps smooth out some seasonal volatility our business has historically experienced. As George mentioned earlier, both Cheney Brothers and Jose Santiago typically experience stronger winter months due to their geographies.

對於 2025 年第三季度，我們預計淨銷售額將在 152 億美元至 156 億美元之間，調整後的 EBITDA 將在 3.9 億美元至 4.1 億美元之間。從我們的第三季預測中可以看出，切尼兄弟和何塞·聖地亞哥的加入有助於平滑我們業務歷史上經歷的一些季節性波動。正如喬治之前提到的，由於地理位置的原因，切尼兄弟和何塞·聖地亞哥通常都會在冬季遭遇更強勁的攻擊。

To summarize, PFG built upon a strong start to fiscal 2025 with better-than-anticipated second quarter growth on both the top and bottom lines. Our financial position is strong, and we are generating substantial cash flow, which we are investing behind growth initiatives and debt reduction. We also believe both additional M&A and share repurchase equity will play important roles in creating long-term shareholder value.

總而言之，PFG 在 2025 財年開局強勁，第二季營收和淨利的成長均優於預期。我們的財務狀況強勁，並且正在產生大量現金流，我們將這些現金流投資於成長計畫和減債。我們也相信，額外的併購和股票回購權益將在創造長期股東價值方面發揮重要作用。

The integrations of both Cheney Brothers and Jose Santiago are going well, and we are on pace to achieve the financial targets we set out for these deals. We are optimistic for the back half of the fiscal year, allowing us to increase our full year guidance.

切尼兄弟和何塞·聖地亞哥的整合進展順利，我們正在穩步實現為這些交易設定的財務目標。我們對本財年下半年充滿樂觀，這使我們能夠上調全年業績預期。

Our diverse business model spanning a wide range of food-away-from-home channels provides growth opportunities that our teams are actively pursuing, and we are hiring talented salespeople to capture this growth.

我們多元化的業務模式涵蓋了廣泛的外出用餐管道，這為我們的團隊提供了積極尋求的成長機會，我們正在招募有才華的銷售人員來抓住這一成長機會。

Thank you for your time today. We appreciate your interest in Performance Food Group. And with that, George, Scott and I would be happy to take your questions.

感謝您今天抽出時間。感謝您對 Performance Food Group 的關注。因此，喬治、斯科特和我很樂意回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Kelly Bania, BMO Capital.

（操作員指示）Kelly Bania，BMO Capital。

Just was curious if you could comment a little bit more in depth about which segments are contributing to the higher sales outlook. Is that kind of broad-based across the three segments or the M&A? And maybe you can fold into that just more specifics and -- on the comments that you made about signs of stabilization for the consumer and some signs of stabilization in some of the challenged accounts. I think that was in regard to Foodservice, but any elaboration there?

只是好奇您是否可以更深入地評論哪些部分對更高的銷售前景做出了貢獻。這種廣泛的範圍是否涵蓋了三個部分或併購部分？也許您可以將更多具體資訊融入其中——關於您關於消費者穩定跡象和一些有爭議的帳戶穩定跡象的評論。我認為那是關於餐飲服務，但有什麼詳細說明嗎？

Kelly, this is Scott. Yeah, on the segment sales piece, obviously, really happy with how our trends look on independent growth. We're up in AM head count about 7%. We're up in new accounts about 5%. And the other thing that we feel really good about is our lines per order on our existing accounts continue to go up. So we feel like if the macro swings back a little bit, we're in a really good position.

凱利，這是斯科特。是的，就分部銷售而言，顯然，我們對獨立成長的趨勢感到非常滿意。我們的 AM 員工人數增加了約 7%。我們的新客戶數量增加了約 5%。另一件讓我們感到非常高興的事情是，我們現有帳戶的每筆訂單的賠償額度持續上升。因此我們覺得，如果宏觀經濟稍微回升，我們就處於非常有利的位置。

The other thing I'd say that was optimistic in the food space was our chain accounts. Our national chains were up as well, which is a little bit of a rebound from what we've seen in the past. On the Convenience side, I would say we just continue to take share and outperform the macro in Convenience, and we expect that to continue. And we feel like really, in both of those, we have a really solid pipe as well as we finish out the back half of the year. Anything else? Go ahead, Patrick.

我想說的食品領域另一件令人樂觀的事情是我們的連鎖帳戶。我們的全國連鎖店也出現了成長，與過去的情況相比略有反彈。在便利性方面，我想說我們將繼續佔據市場份額並在便利性方面超越宏觀經濟，我們預計這種情況將持續下去。我們真的覺得，在這兩方面，我們都擁有非常堅固的管道，我們將在下半年完成這些工作。還要別的嗎？繼續吧，派崔克。

Yeah. I would say that we're going to see some continued challenges in Vistar the rest of this fiscal year, although we're up against some easier comparisons. So we see several of the channels that will show some good growth, but that will be kind of our laggard from a sales growth standpoint, the rest of this fiscal.

是的。我想說，在本財年的剩餘時間裡，我們將看到 Vistar 繼續面臨一些挑戰，儘管我們面臨的是一些更容易的比較。因此，我們看到多個管道將顯示出良好的成長，但從銷售成長的角度來看，這將是我們本財年剩餘時間內的落後者。

Okay. That makes sense. And there was a comment about cost of goods optimization and procurement efficiencies. Can you just elaborate on that? It doesn't seem like that has been a focus of the organization as much in the past. Maybe I'm wrong, but can you just tell us about the work you're doing on cost of goods optimization and also which segments that should impact?

好的。這很有道理。還有關於商品成本優化和採購效率的評論。能詳細解釋一下嗎？這似乎不是該組織過去的重點。也許我錯了，但您能否告訴我們您在商品成本優化方面所做的工作以及這將影響哪些部分？

So Kelly, this is Scott. Yes, I would say it's been something that has always been maybe something we haven't talked about as much but always something that's been in play. I would say that we worked a lot harder in collaborating across the segments over the past 12 to 18 months, which has helped us gain some traction, both in driving sales growth but also in cost of goods optimization.

凱利，這是斯科特。是的，我想說這一直是一件我們可能沒有談論太多但始終在發生的事情。我想說的是，在過去的 12 到 18 個月裡，我們在各個部門之間進行了更努力的合作，這幫助我們獲得了一些進展，既推動了銷售成長，也優化了商品成本。

So definitely something we're focused on. We'll continue to focus on and just part of our strategy around growing margins.

所以這絕對是我們關注的重點。我們將繼續關注提高利潤率這項策略的一部分。

Edward Kelly, Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的愛德華‧凱利。

I wanted to start on the Foodservice business and just your thoughts on sort of like underlying momentum of the business. You grew EBITDA, obviously, very well in the quarter. I was curious if you could help us with the underlying EBITDA growth of the business.

我想從餐飲服務業務開始，並談談您對該業務潛在發展勢頭的看法。顯然，本季您的 EBITDA 成長非常好。我很好奇您是否能幫助我們實現業務的基本 EBITDA 成長。

I think if you take out the deals, kind of thinking like maybe mid-single-digit EBITDA growth on about 3% organic case growth. Just curious if that's right and how you think about that performance. And then looking forward, to get the 6% independent organic growth for the year, you probably need to do 7% to 8% in the back half. Just color on your confidence in that outlook?

我認為，如果剔除這些交易，EBITDA 可能會實現中等個位數成長，而有機個案成長率約為 3%。只是好奇這是否正確以及您如何看待那場表演。展望未來，為了實現今年 6% 的獨立有機成長，可能需要在下半年實現 7% 到 8% 的成長。您對此觀點有信心嗎？

Yeah. You're correct that it's going to take a 7% to 8% increase, the back half. And at least our internal measurements, how we look at the marketplace and what information we get from outside of our company, it appears there was probably a 2% maybe reduction in traffic, which is probably where independent was. So if that got just back to normal, we would be running in that 7% to 8% increase in cases.

是的。您說得對，後半部將增加 7% 到 8%。至少根據我們的內部測量結果、我們對市場的看法以及從公司外部獲得的信息，流量可能減少了 2%，這可能與獨立流量相同。因此，如果一切恢復正常，病例數將增加 7% 至 8%。

We do expect that to get better, have not seen that yet. We thought we would have easier comparisons in January, and our January growth looks pretty similar to Q2, and we thought it would be better. But we had bad weather in both years. Just the fact that this year, we were able to do a little better job of overcoming that bad weather, I think, bodes well for us also.

我們確實希望情況會有所改善，但目前還沒有看到。我們認為 1 月的比較會更容易，而且 1 月的成長看起來與第二季非常相似，而且我們認為會更好。但這兩年的天氣都很糟。我認為，今年我們能夠更好地克服惡劣天氣，這對我們來說也是一個好兆頭。

But I would say, for us to get to that 6% for the year, we're probably going to need some help from the industry and see a little better macro backdrop than what we see today. But we just see signs that that's coming.

但我想說，為了實現今年 6% 的成長目標，我們可能需要業界的幫助，並且需要比今天更好的宏觀背景。但我們只是看到了一些跡象，預示著這種情況即將發生。

Also, the other thing that gives us a lot of confidence is that we're growing our SKUs, our line items at a much faster rate than we're growing our cases. So we're penetrating better within the customer. They're just not buying as much of the product as they were a year ago. So that gives us some confidence, too, should the industry get a little bit vibrant.

此外，另一件讓我們非常有信心的事情是，我們的 SKU 和產品線的成長速度比我們的箱子的成長速度要快得多。因此，我們可以更好地滲透到客戶內心。他們購買的產品數量不如一年前那麼多了。因此，如果行業變得活躍起來，這也會給我們一些信心。

And then as far as underlying, I would call our EBITDA. We were very close to double digit, but not quite without Jose Santiago and without Cheney. And by the way, as was mentioned by Patrick, those two are performing well. And I would say that Cheney is really performing exceptional.

就基礎而言，我會稱之為我們的 EBITDA。我們非常接近兩位數，但是在沒有何塞·聖地亞哥和切尼的情況下仍未實現。順便說一句，正如帕特里克所說，他們兩個表現都很好。我想說切尼的表現確實非常出色。

Great. And then just a quick follow-up. I wanted to ask you about inventory holding gains. Just curious if you could provide any color on the second quarter and year-over-year change there. Was that a material benefit at all?

偉大的。然後只是快速的跟進。我想問你關於庫存持有收益的問題。只是好奇您是否可以提供關於第二季度以及同比變化的詳細信息。這到底是物質利益嗎？

And then in terms of the guidance, you said that -- I think this is what you said, that there's -- you're not anticipating material holding gains in the back half. But then I think after, you said you invested in candy and tobacco inventory ahead of price increases. So is that opportunity, I guess, versus guidance if those price increases happen?

然後就指引而言，您說 - 我想這就是您所說的 - 您預計下半年不會出現實質性的持有收益。但後來我想了一下，你說過你在價格上漲之前投資了糖果和菸草庫存。那麼，我想，如果價格上漲，這是否是機遇，而不是指導價？

Yeah. Thanks, Ed. This is Patrick. I'll address those questions. So in the second quarter, we did see some benefit of inventory holding gains, as we mentioned. But I do want to stress all of these gains are managed, so there's nothing outsized about them.

是的。謝謝，埃德。這是派崔克。我將解答這些問題。因此，正如我們所提到的，在第二季度，我們確實看到了庫存持有收益的一些好處。但我確實想強調的是，所有這些收益都是可管理的，因此並沒有什麼特別大的。

We did invest in inventory. But for the back half of the year, we do not expect between Q3 and Q4 to really experience any substantial holding gains. And for the full year, the total holding gains, we expect to be very minimal. So there's little quarter-to-quarter differences. But other than that, it's really manageable and relatively immaterial.

我們確實對庫存進行了投資。但對於今年下半年，我們預計第三季和第四季之間不會真正出現任何實質的持有收益。我們預計全年總持有收益將非常小。因此季度間差異很小。但除此之外，它確實是易於管理且相對不重要。

John Heinbockel, Guggenheim.

古根漢的約翰·海因博克爾。

A couple of things on the independent case growth, right? So the penetration in lines, is that more center store, not simply, right, the non-fresh? Or are you sort of eating into specialty competitor market share? Curious because that seems like a big opportunity.

關於獨立案例增長有幾件事，對嗎？那麼，線上滲透率是不是更多的是中心商店，而不是簡單的非新鮮商品？還是你正在蠶食專業競爭對手的市佔率？我很好奇，因為這似乎是一個很大的機會。

And then when you think about -- let's say, if you pick up -- if you can pick up another 200 basis points or 300 basis points in case growth, do you think that's more -- you break it down, is it more new accounts, lines or actually cases per line? Where do you think that comes from? Where are you most optimistic?

然後當您考慮 - 假設如果您能夠提高 - 如果您能夠提高案例增長的另外 200 個基點或 300 個基點，您是否認為這會更多 - 您將其分解一下，是增加新帳戶、新線路，還是實際增加每條線路的案例？您認為這是從何而來的？您最樂觀的是什麼？

Well, we're still fairly reliant on new customers. We were running about 5% more as far as new customers go. lines, we're doing a couple of points better than we're doing in case growth. So I would say that part of the upside for us would be if they start buying more cases of what they're already using.

嗯，我們仍然相當依賴新客戶。我們的新客戶數量增加了約 5%。線，我們做得比案例增長方面好幾個點。因此我想說，如果他們開始購買更多他們已經在使用的產品，那麼對我們來說部分有利。

And that, of course, is going to mean that the market has to get a little stronger. I think we'll continue to do well from a line standpoint, and we'll continue to do well with new accounts. I'm also going to have Scott make a couple of comments there.

當然，這意味著市場必須變得更加強勁。我認為從線路角度看我們會繼續表現良好，而且從新帳戶角度看我們也將繼續表現良好。我還會讓斯科特在那裡發表一些評論。

No, I agree, George. I think I look at the new accounts as right now being primarily the driver of our growth. I think we've done really, really well with same-store penetration. And as we see the macro pick up, we feel like that's positioned us extremely well.

不，我同意，喬治。我認為新帳戶目前是我們成長的主要動力。我認為我們在同店滲透率方面做得非常非常好。當我們看到宏觀經濟回升時，我們覺得這為我們帶來了極好的地位。

And then maybe for you, Scott, right, since you know the Convenience store business so well. I'm curious, if you look out over the next -- I know the contracts, right, are lengthy. But you look out over the next, I don't know, three to five years, maybe talk to the opportunity to win a lot of these RFPs. Because it would just seem like your product lineup lines up really well with what most C-stores want. So I would think there's an opportunity to meaningfully move the dial on, on top line as those RFPs come up.

那麼也許對你來說，斯科特，對吧，因為你非常了解便利商店業務。我很好奇，如果你看一下接下來的——我知道合約很長。但展望未來，我不知道，三到五年，也許有機會贏得很多這樣的 RFP。因為看起來您的產品陣容與大多數便利商店的需求非常吻合。因此，我認為，隨著這些 RFP 的出現，有機會在營收方面取得顯著進展。

No, I think you made some great points, John. And we've worked really hard to combine our strength in Foodservice and Convenience to create an offer that's really compelling to our national chain customers but also to the independents as well.

不，我認為你提出了一些很好的觀點，約翰。我們非常努力地結合我們在餐飲和便利方面的優勢，創造出對我們的全國連鎖客戶和獨立客戶都具有吸引力的產品。

So to your point on top line drivers, most of our contracts are three years, some of them are five years. We feel like we have a really strong pipeline. We worked really hard jointly across our segments to create a compelling offer, and we feel like we're going to win our fair share as those come available.

關於你提到的頂尖車手，我們的合約大部分是三年，有些是五年。我們覺得我們擁有非常強大的管道。我們各部門都共同努力，打造出引人注目的產品，我們覺得，隨著這些產品的推出，我們一定能贏得應有的份額。

I should also mention that we're doing well within Core-Mark in the Foodservice business, but we're actually growing even faster in Performance Foodservice, where that operator is using a broader assortment of items than we can handle, particularly in the freezer and cooler out of Core-Mark. So those products are being delivered on performance who serves trucks and show up in our Performance Foodservice sales.

我還應該提到，我們在 Core-Mark 的餐飲服務業務中做得很好，但實際上，我們在 Performance Foodservice 中的增長速度更快，因為操作員使用的物品種類比我們能夠處理的要廣泛，特別是在 Core-Mark 的冷凍機和冷藏機中。因此，這些產品是透過卡車運送的，並出現在我們的高性能餐飲服務銷售中。

Mark Carden, UBS.

瑞銀的馬克卡登（Mark Carden）。

So to start, how are you thinking about the inflation outlook at this point over the next few quarters in Foodservice? We've seen egg prices really tick off recently, for example. And then how do you think about the potential impact if tariffs ultimately go into effect on Mexico or Canada?

那麼首先，您如何看待未來幾季餐飲服務業的通膨前景？例如，我們最近看到雞蛋價格大幅上漲。那麼，您如何看待如果關稅最終對墨西哥或加拿大生效可能產生的影響？

Yeah. Mark, this is Patrick. On inflation, we're really thinking what we saw in Q2 is what we're expecting to experience by segment going forward and for the latter half of the year. So again, just very similar for Foodservice to be in those low to mid-single digits.

是的。馬克，這是派崔克。關於通貨膨脹，我們確實認為，我們在第二季度看到的情況預計在未來以及今年下半年各部分都會經歷。因此，餐飲服務的情況非常相似，都處於低到中等個位數。

Vistar in the low single digits and Convenience more in those mid-single digits. And that's really what we're projecting for the back half of the year. And that's -- for us, that's a really good place to be. We can manage this inflation, and we think it's good for the industry.

Vistar 的價格處於低個位數，而 Convenience 的價格則是中等個位數。這正是我們對今年下半年的預測。對我們來說，那真是一個好地方。我們可以控制通貨膨脹，我們認為這對產業有利。

Now on the question of tariffs, there's a lot of discussion also going on around this. We certainly can't predict what's going to happen, which countries, which products, those type of things. But I think if you take a step back and think about this just holistically, we kind of view tariffs similar to inflation.

現在關於關稅問題，也有很多討論。我們當然無法預測會發生什麼，哪些國家、哪些產品等等。但我認為，如果你退一步並從整體上考慮這個問題，我們會發現關稅與通貨膨脹類似。

It's going to potentially increase the cost of goods, but we're largely a pass-through organization. And so it's a little bit of a simplistic view, but right now, that's how we're viewing it because we don't have any details on it. So just like inflation, we'll manage it, and that's pretty much how we're going to handle it.

這可能會增加商品的成本，但我們基本上是一個直通組織。這是一種過於簡單的觀點，但目前我們就是這樣看待它的，因為我們還不掌握任何關於它的細節。所以就像通貨膨脹一樣，我們會對它進行管理，這就是我們處理它的方法。

Great. That's helpful. And then you guys talked about an acceleration in independent case volume in January. I understand it's a small month, but are you able to quantify, at least for January, the impact on the winter storms? And then just how did Cheney hold up given its Southeastern footprint?

偉大的。這很有幫助。然後你們談到了一月份獨立案件數量的加速成長。我知道一月份很小，但您能量化至少一月份對冬季風暴的影響嗎？那麼，考慮到切尼在東南部的影響力，它的表現如何？

Yeah. January is not a very important month in the year, certainly the least important as far as how it impacts sales results. So I think for us, it's going to be more about February and March as far as the third quarter goes.

是的。一月並不是一年中非常重要的月份，就其對銷售業績的影響而言，肯定是最不重要的月份。因此我認為對我們來說，就第三季而言，更多的是專注於二月和三月。

Now Cheney obviously impacted by the hurricanes, recovered very quickly. And still some impact on the West Coast, primarily of Florida, where we have many restaurants that are still closed down. But all in all, I mean, their sales growth has been great. And they just seem to work their way through this. They're very experienced dealing with hurricanes, and they did a great job.

現在切尼明顯受到了颶風的影響，恢復得很快。這對西海岸，主要是佛羅裡達州，仍然產生一定影響，那裡仍有許多餐廳處於關閉狀態。但總的來說，他們的銷售成長很快。他們似乎只是在想辦法解決這個問題。他們在應對颶風方面經驗豐富，而且做得非常出色。

Alex Slagle, Jefferies.

傑富瑞 (Jefferies) 的亞歷克斯‧斯拉格爾 (Alex Slagle)。

Had a follow-up sort of along the lines of what Mark was getting to and maybe the potential implications for the industry and PFG specifically related to maybe the potential immigration enforcement actions under the new administration. I mean, again, a lot of unknowns there, but just curious your initial views there.

對馬克所說的內容進行了跟進，也許對行業和 PFG 有潛在影響，具體涉及新政府可能採取的移民執法行動。我的意思是，這裡再次有很多未知數，但只是好奇你對此的初步看法。

It's Patrick again. I think, yes, just it's obviously very important. All of our employees are documented, and we can't really speak to what's going to go on with the immigration as well. But we don't see an impact to our company, but there are obviously popular impacts that we just can't predict at this moment. So that's where we are.

又是派崔克。我認為，是的，這顯然非常重要。我們所有員工都有證件，我們無法確切知道移民狀況如何。但我們沒有看到對我們公司的影響，但顯然存在一些我們目前無法預測的普遍影響。這就是我們現在的狀況。

And maybe just one tag on to that. We're in a position right now where we've got kind of record-low overtime and temp expense. Our workforce is in great shape. Safety performance is really strong and feel like we've kind of created a work culture where people want to be. So we feel really good about being able to navigate in a tough environment.

也許只有一個標籤。我們目前的加班費和臨時工費用處於歷史最低水準。我們的員工隊伍狀況良好。安全性能確實很高，感覺我們已經創造了一種人們願意接受的工作文化。因此，我們很高興能夠在艱難的環境中航行。

I also wanted to ask on your views on new restaurant formation and, I guess, the focus on new customer acquisitions. Are you seeing any signs of slowing or anything changes in certain regions as we move further past the closures from years ago and facing higher build costs, and obviously, still a tough traffic environment for the industry?

我也想問一下您對新餐廳成立的看法，以及對新客戶獲取的關注。隨著我們逐漸擺脫幾年前的關閉狀態並面臨更高的建設成本，而且顯然該行業的交通環境仍然嚴峻，您是否看到某些地區出現放緩或變化的跡象？

Yeah. There continues to be new restaurants, obviously, coming around. I think the effect of COVID is pretty much gone. I think that most of those restaurants have gone from dark to maybe not vibrant but open. And there's been a considerable amount of closings of particularly casual-dining chain restaurants.

是的。顯然，新的餐廳不斷湧現。我認為 COVID 的影響基本上已經消失。我認為大多數餐廳已經從昏暗變得不再熱鬧，而是開門營業。有大量休閒餐飲連鎖店關門了。

So I think those buildings are single-purpose as well and will eventually be occupied by a restaurant. So I see continued increase in particularly the independent restaurants, and then there are some chains that are growing faster right now and are putting up units at a risk pace, and we're selling some of those.

所以我認為這些建築也是單一用途的，最終將被餐廳佔用。因此，我看到獨立餐廳的數量持續增長，同時一些連鎖店目前增長較快，並且正在以冒險的速度開設門市，我們正在出售其中一些。

Jay Aiken Phillips, Melius Research.

艾肯‧菲利普斯（Jay Aiken Phillips），Melius Research。

Congrats, Scott. So I wanted to ask a little bit more about Cheney. Last quarter, you raised guidance like $100 million, which seems a little low when you prorate like the $160 million trailing 12-month numbers. And I understand there is some volatility with the hurricanes. So just curious if you're still thinking about contribution for Cheney the same as you were last quarter.

恭喜，斯科特。所以我想多問一些有關切尼的問題。上個季度，你們將指導金額上調至 1 億美元，但以過去 12 個月的 1.6 億美元數字按比例計算，這個數字似乎有點低。我也知道颶風會帶來一些不穩定因素。所以只是好奇您是否仍然考慮像上個季度一樣為切尼做出貢獻。

Yeah. Jacob, this is Patrick. On the guidance, I mean, again, we felt really good about how we performed in the first half of the year. And as we mentioned, we took up the sales guidance by $500 million both on the top and bottom end.

是的。雅各布，這是派崔克。就指引而言，我的意思是，我們對今年上半年的表現感到非常滿意。正如我們所提到的，我們將銷售預期的上限和下限都提高了 5 億美元。

And I would say that was the area where we were maybe a little more conservative because we're looking at a lot of different factors, and we've seen things improve, as we mentioned on the call, with our early comments.

我想說，這是我們可能更保守的領域，因為我們正在考慮很多不同的因素，而且我們已經看到情況有所改善，正如我們在電話會議中提到的，以及我們早期的評論。

And then on EBITDA, we brought up the bottom end by $25 million. So again, a beaten raise. It's a very clean, beaten raise. And we were probably feeling we had the EBITDA numbers a little tighter and -- but we feel really comfortable about the improvement in the guidance.

然後，對於 EBITDA，我們將底端提高了 2500 萬美元。因此，再次加薪失敗。這是一次非常乾淨、成功的加註。我們可能覺得 EBITDA 數字有點緊張——但我們對指引的改善感到非常滿意。

And it's still a little early in the year in terms of -- we've got another six months or -- as you mentioned, there's been some choppiness to January, and there's a few other things. So we feel really good about our results, and we'll continue to adjust accordingly.

現在對於今年來說還為時過早——我們還有六個月的時間——正如你提到的那樣，一月份出現了一些波動，還發生了其他一些事情。因此，我們對於自己的業績非常滿意，並且會繼續進行相應的調整。

Yeah. I should add with Cheney that they're being very aggressive around hiring. And I think they're making some really wise investments in people, particularly in salespeople, and we want that to continue to happen.

是的。我應該補充一點，切尼在招募方面非常積極。我認為他們對人才，特別是銷售人員進行了非常明智的投資，我們希望這種情況能夠繼續發生。

That said, obviously, we're going to be running higher expense ratios than they were before because of that. But that said, they're still performing very, very well on that EBITDA line. And we don't see anything that gives us any concern moving forward with Cheney.

這就是說，顯然，由於這個原因，我們的費用率將比以前更高。但話雖如此，他們的 EBITDA 表現仍然非常出色。我們沒有發現任何讓我們對與切尼的合作感到擔憂的事情。

And then could you talk about any learnings you have on the private label over Cheney? I know it's been underpenetrated compared to like the PFG legacy business. I think you said 15% last quarter and that you're maybe looking into what their products you want to keep and which PFG products you want to implement there.

然後可以談談您對 Cheney 的自有品牌有什麼看法嗎？我知道，與 PFG 傳統業務相比，它的滲透率還不夠高。我記得您上個季度說過是 15%，而且您可能正在研究想要保留他們的哪些產品以及想要在那裡實施哪些 PFG 產品。

Yeah. The number that we gave for our percentage of independent in our brand, that was an organic number without the two acquisitions. I would suspect that for a while, both of those acquisitions are going to be a lower percentage of our brand than what we typically had with any of our acquisitions.

是的。我們給出的品牌獨立百分比數字是未計入兩次收購的有機數字。我猜測，在一段時間內，這兩次收購占我們品牌的比重都會低於我們通常進行的任何一次收購所佔的比重。

And there's good reasons for that. Part of it is Cheney's go-to-market strategy that they've had. And we certainly want to do well with our brands there, but we also don't want to disrupt how they go to market.

這是有充分理由的。部分原因在於切尼的行銷策略。我們當然希望我們的品牌在那裡做得很好，但我們也不想擾亂它們進入市場的方式。

They also have some brands of their own, and we're in the process of determining which of those we're going to consider to be our brands and move forward with those. Then when you get to Jose Santiago, it's a different structure in Puerto Rico.

他們也擁有一些自己的品牌，我們正在確定哪些品牌作為我們的品牌並繼續推動這些品牌的發展。當你到達何塞聖地亞哥時，你會發現波多黎各的結構已經有所不同。

There's exclusivity that is part -- it's a law where you can have exclusivity on a national-branded product. They're doing well with those items. And I envision us continuing to market ourselves in Puerto Rico the way Jose Santiago has always marketed themselves.

其中有排他性——這是一項法律，規定你可以對國家品牌產品擁有排他性。他們對這些物品的處理很到位。我希望我們能繼續在波多黎各推銷自己，就像何塞聖地牙哥一直推銷自己一樣。

Congrats on the quarter.

恭喜本季取得佳績。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Jeffrey Bernstein, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的傑弗裡·伯恩斯坦。

Two questions. The first one just on the broader consumer outlook. I'm just keen to clarify your view. I think you mentioned October and November trends were encouraging. And you seem confident in improvement to come for the rest of the year, but I think you mentioned that you're maybe not seeing it yet.

兩個問題。第一個只是談論更廣泛的消費者前景。我只是想澄清你的觀點。我記得您提到過十月和十一月的趨勢令人鼓舞。您似乎對今年剩餘時間的進步充滿信心，但我想您提到您可能還沒有看到進步。

So I'm just wondering what has you confident? Are there some metrics that you view as leading indicators or otherwise? But if the consumer doesn't improve as you're anticipating your level of confidence in that guidance because it does seem like you mentioned you need to see a little bit help from the consumer. And then I had one follow-up.

所以我只是想知道是什麼讓您有信心？您是否將某些指標視為領先指標或其他指標？但是，如果消費者的信心水平沒有像您預期的那樣改善，因為您似乎確實提到過，您需要從消費者那裡獲得一點幫助。然後我進行了一次後續行動。

Yeah. I'm going to look backwards a little bit here before I answer the question going forward. If you look at October and November, it was very encouraging, but where December had difficult comparisons. November had very easy comparisons because Thanksgiving changed from year-to-year, and that's a low month. So October is probably more effective number to use to project forward, but it's also ways back.

是的。在回答接下來的問題之前，我將先回顧過去。如果你看看十月和十一月，這是非常令人鼓舞的，但十二月卻很難與之相比。十一月很容易進行比較，因為感恩節每年都不一樣，而且這是一個低潮月份。因此，十月可能是預測未來的更有效的數字，但它也是回顧過去的一種方式。

January, I think, is a real hard month to use because last year was heavily affected by weather and so is this year. But if we look at October's number, which we think is more reflective of the marketplace -- and we put some improvement in there, which we're expecting from the market. I don't know that we have real clear reasons that we can give for that. It's just something that we feel today. And that gives us encouragement for that second half of the year.

我認為一月真的是一個很難度過的月份，因為去年受到天氣的嚴重影響，今年也是如此。但如果我們看一下十月份的數據，我們認為該數據更能反映市場狀況——而且我們發現該數據有所改善，這是我們對市場的預期。我不知道我們是否能給出真正明確的理由來解釋這一點。這只是我們今天感受到的。這給了我們下半年信心。

And the other thing with it, too, is we've got more people coming off non-competes. We've continued to hire aggressively in this marketplace. And then on the national account area, we got some business going out, but we have much more coming in, in the rest of this fiscal year. So you just put those things together, we feel real good with it.

另一件事是，我們有更多的人脫離了競業禁止的局面。我們一直在這個市場積極招募人才。在國家帳戶領域，我們有一些業務外流，但在本財政年度的剩餘時間裡，我們的收入會更多。所以只要把這些東西放在一起，我們就會感覺非常好。

Then when we look at the Convenience part of the business, that's a very challenged segment today. We continue to do well. We've added several new accounts. We have several coming on board and some that are pretty sizable. So we feel real good about the growth there.

當我們審視業務的便利部分時，我們發現這是當今面臨巨大挑戰的領域。我們繼續表現良好。我們新增了幾個新帳戶。我們已經有幾個客戶加入，其中一些客戶的規模相當大。因此，我們對那裡的發展感到非常滿意。

Now in that business, a couple of percentage points in growth when you consider what's happening in the tobacco world, that's great growth. And we can leverage a couple of points in growth to very good earnings growth, and we feel we're on a path to get to that couple of points.

現在，在這個行業中，如果你考慮到菸草界的情況，那麼幾個百分點的成長率就是巨大的成長。我們可以利用幾個成長點來實現非常好的獲利成長，我們覺得我們正走在實現這兩個成長點的道路上。

Understood. And then just following up on the M&A commentary, clearly, it's been a busy year or so. And Scott, I think you mentioned the pipeline is very robust. But at the same time, I know you mentioned your leverage levels are elevated and you're looking to pay that down.

明白了。然後繼續跟進併購評論，顯然，這是忙碌的一年左右。斯科特，我認為你提到管道非常強大。但同時，我知道您提到您的槓桿水平很高，而且您正在尋求降低槓桿率。

So wondering, first, if you could just share what that leverage level is. And does it temper the appetite for further M&A in the near term, especially with the big West Coast opportunity? Just trying to gauge how you think about that if an opportunity were to present itself.

所以首先想問一下，您是否可以分享一下槓桿水平是多少。這是否會抑制短期內進一步併購的興趣，尤其是在西海岸存在巨大機會的情況下？只是想判斷一下，如果有機會的話，您會如何考慮。

Yeah, Jeffrey, it's Patrick. Leverage, as we mentioned, I mean, obviously, we've stated obviously, our goal is to be between 2.5 times and 3.5 times. And we're outside that leverage range, and we expect to be back within that leverage range within the next several quarters. In terms of additional M&A, I mean, George can comment on this as well. I mean, obviously, we're always looking. We did comment that it's very active. But right now, our focus is on reducing that leverage.

是的，傑弗裡，我是派崔克。槓桿率，正如我們所提到的，我的意思是，顯然，我們已經明確表示，我們的目標是在 2.5 倍到 3.5 倍之間。我們目前處於該槓桿率範圍之外，預計未來幾季內將回到該槓桿率範圍內。關於額外的併購，我的意思是喬治也可以對此發表評論。我的意思是，顯然我們一直在尋找。我們確實評論說它非常活躍。但現在，我們的重點是減少這種影響力。

Yeah. We spent a lot of time talking about this because we have so many opportunities today. We would certainly like to have lower leverage. I think it makes M&A more appealing to us when our leverage is lower. I don't think that as an organization that you should ever pass up an opportunity like Jose Santiago and an opportunity like Cheney. They don't come along very often.

是的。我們花了很多時間討論這個問題，因為今天我們有很多機會。我們當然希望降低槓桿率。我認為，當我們的槓桿率較低時，併購對我們來說就更有吸引力。我認為，作為一個組織，你不應該錯過像何塞·聖地亞哥和切尼這樣的機會。他們不常來。

At the same time, we want to keep our pipeline growing. We want to handle our debt responsibly. We're trying to balance those things. But I think that you'll see continued M&A from us, but we'll be very cautious about how we're handling our capital structure.

同時，我們希望保持我們的產品線不斷成長。我們希望負責任地處理我們的債務。我們正在努力平衡這些因素。但我認為你會看到我們繼續進行併購，但我們會非常謹慎地處理我們的資本結構。

And then I also should add that -- I mean, we've now been a public company for 10 years, but we've dealt with much higher levels of leverage than we have today, and we've dealt with that effectively. Now I'm not sending a signal that we're going to get our leverage higher, not by any means, but I just want to make sure that people understand that this is not a high leverage for the type of business that we're in and the type of company that we are.

然後我還應該補充一點——我的意思是，我們現在已經是一家上市公司 10 年了，但我們已經處理了比​​現在高得多的槓桿水平，而且我們已經有效地處理了這個問題。現在我並不是在發出我們將提高槓桿率的信號，無論如何都不會，我只是想確保人們明白，對於我們所從事的業務類型和我們的公司類型來說，這並不是一個高槓桿率。

Can you clarify just what that leverage level is today versus the 2.5 times to 3.5 times?

您能否澄清一下，相對於 2.5 倍到 3.5 倍，目前的槓桿率是多少？

Yeah. It's in the high-3s.

是的。它在 3 秒高位。

Hello.

你好。

Good morning.

早安.

Yes. I didn't hear the introduction.

是的。我沒聽見介紹。

Yeah, we didn't too. Go ahead.

是的，我們也沒有。前進。

So I wanted to do a couple of follow-ups, if you will, on the increased, it seems, pace of hiring of salespeople. Is that kind of opportunistic or is it kind of more intentional, like putting the run our playbook into Cheney Brothers? Like how should we think about why you increased the sales rate -- sales personnel rate?

因此，如果您願意的話，我想對銷售人員招募速度似乎加快的情況進行一些後續調查。這是否是一種機會主義行為，還是更有意圖的行為，就像把我們的劇本運用在切尼兄弟身上？例如，我們該如何思考為什麼你要提高銷售率──銷售人員率？

Andrew, this is Scott. I'll take that. Let me start by saying I did come back a couple of weeks ago from our VP of Sales meeting that we have nationally every year. The focus of that meeting was really fine-tuning our hiring process, our training process, and I walked away from that highly encouraged with what we have on the street as far as availability of hiring great AMs and bringing those people through the company.

安德魯，這是斯科特。我接受。首先我要說的是，幾週前我確實參加了我們每年在全國各地舉行的銷售副總裁會議。那次會議的重點是對我們的招募流程和培訓流程進行微調，會議結束後，我對我們在招募優秀 AM 以及將這些人帶到公司方面所做的努力感到非常鼓舞。

Historically, we've always been in that mid- to high single-digit hiring target range, now about 7%. So we feel good about that. And really, that's what's fueling our growth right now. If you look at same-store comps are basically flat.

從歷史上看，我們的招募目標一直處於中高個位數範圍，現在約為 7%。因此我們對此感到很高興。事實上，這正是當前推動我們成長的動力。如果你看一下同店銷售額，你會發現其基本上持平。

Our AM head count is up 7%, but our new stores are up 5%. And so that's really what's driving our case growth. So we'll continue to be opportunistic and look to hire great AMs on the street and get them trained up and continue to drive case growth.

我們的 AM 員工數量增加了 7%，但新店增加了 5%。這才是真正推動我們案件成長的因素。因此，我們將繼續抓住機會，尋求在街上聘用優秀的 AM，對他們進行培訓並繼續推動案件成長。

Yeah. And I'll also say that we try hard to have a pretty consistent growth in the number of salespeople and have kind of a consistent cadence there. But we did make those decisions. So we have companies that I would say today, if I were managing it, I would be tapping the brakes a little bit on the number of salespeople, and they need to really dig into who they have.

是的。我還要說的是，我們努力保持銷售人員數量的持續成長，並保持一致的節奏。但我們確實做出了這些決定。因此，我想說，今天如果我們來管理這些公司，我會稍微限制銷售人員的數量，他們需要真正了解自己擁有哪些銷售人員。

And then we have people that are behind and should have more salespeople. So we nudge and we talk to them and we try to have a real good cadence. But these are -- decisions are made in the field, and we don't really have any desire to change that.

然後我們的人員就落後了，應該增加更多的銷售人員。因此，我們會推動他們，與他們交談，並嘗試保持良好的節奏。但這些都是在現場做出的決定，我們確實不想改變這一點。

Yes, we can train better. So when you're doing it across a big organization, so we try to get some commonality there around what we do. Some of our people operate where they bring in four, five larger companies, maybe as many as 8 at one time to make it more collaborative type of training. And you get to our legacy Roma companies, and they're probably seldom going to hire more than one person at a time.

是的，我們可以訓練得更好。因此，當你在一個大型組織中執行此操作時，我們會嘗試在我們所做的事情中找到一些共通點。我們的一些人會引進四、五家大公司，甚至可能同時引進多達八家公司，以使培訓更具協作性。而你可以了解到我們傳統的羅馬公司，他們可能很少會同時僱用超過一人。

So there aren't ground rules, I guess, with this. But we can tell from what our people are doing from what they tell us, the confidence level that they have right now, I think we're going to continue in this kind of 7%, maybe a little more, world as far as increases in salespeople.

因此，我猜，這方面沒有什麼基本規則。但我們可以從我們的員工所做的事情和他們告訴我們的情況以及他們目前的信心水平看出，我認為就銷售人員的成長而言，我們將繼續保持這種 7% 甚至更高的成長。

Okay. Do you have a sense of whether that's sort of the proportion of folks coming from the industry versus folks you've got to really train up? Has that shifted at all?

好的。您是否知道來自業界的人員與需要您真正培訓的人員的比例是多少？這有改變嗎？

Yeah. Right now, it's almost entirely people that are from the industry.

是的。現在，幾乎全部都是來自業界的人。

Okay. Just one more follow-up on the -- what sounds like a pretty nice uptick in Foodservice sales into the Convenience channel. I just want to kind of underline that because I know you've had kind of fits and starts. Is that driven by salespeople and better -- just more effective selling or some -- or do you have like new or better Foodservice programs that are gaining traction?

好的。再問一次－聽起來便利商店通路的餐飲服務銷售額出現了相當不錯的成長。我只是想強調這一點，因為我知道你曾經有過這樣的反覆。這是由銷售人員推動的嗎？

Yeah. Andrew, we have really two pathways into Convenience. One of those is through our convenience channel. And I think the biggest advantage that came with the acquisition of Core-Mark is PFG's ability to bring turnkey food solutions and food supply to Convenience. And so our convenience channel, that's our fastest-growing category in Convenience. And they continue to do a good job, but I think we're still in the early innings there.

是的。安德魯，我們實際上有兩條通往便利的途徑。其中之一就是透過我們的便利管道。我認為收購 Core-Mark 的最大優勢是 PFG 能夠為 Convenience 提供統包食品解決方案和食品供應。因此，我們的便利通路是便利領域中成長最快的類別。他們繼續做得很好，但我認為我們仍處於早期階段。

And then the second pathway into convenience is through our traditional broad line, and that's growing significantly. And again, that's just the capability of having turnkey solutions, having a broad array of products and really making it a focus. And so we're kind of hitting it from both sides and having nice success, and I still think it's early on.

然後，實現便利的第二條途徑是透過我們傳統的廣泛產品線，而且這一途徑正在大幅增長。再說一遍，這只是擁有交鑰匙解決方案、擁有廣泛產品並真正使其成為焦點的能力。因此，我們從兩個方面進行嘗試，並取得了不錯的效果，但我仍然認為現在還為時過早。

That's good. So it's -- I'm sure the vendors and everybody is focused in that direction. So it just sounds like it's a lot of incremental movement.

那挺好的。所以——我確信供應商和每個人都在關注這個方向。因此，這聽起來就像是大量的增量運動。

Yeah. No, there's been a lot of focus on it.

是的。不，人們對此關注頗多。

Brian Harbour, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的布萊恩哈伯 (Brian Harbour)。

Just maybe as a cleanup question. I think people aren't necessarily calibrated, right, on like interest expense and maybe just on depreciation and amortization. On that, do you think the prior quarter rate is good? And do you have sort of a range that you'd expect near term for interest expense? I appreciate that you have variable rate debt, but I don't know if you have some sense.

或許只是一個清理問題。我認為人們不一定會對利息支出或折舊和攤銷進行校準。就此而言，您認為上一季的成長率是否良好？您預計近期的利息支出範圍是多少？我知道你有浮動利率債務，但我不知道你是否明白。

Yeah. Brian, it's Patrick. It's a great question, and I know this has come up a couple of times. I think if you -- obviously, as we mentioned, we closed the acquisition of Cheney Brothers in October 8, after the end of our first quarter. And that's when we drew down the ABL $2 billion. That's what's really driving the change in interest expense. And I would say that the Q2 numbers are definitely a good baseline to use going forward for both interest expense and depreciation.

是的。布萊恩，我是派崔克。這是一個很好的問題，我知道這個問題已經出現過幾次了。我想如果你——顯然，正如我們所提到的，我們在第一季結束後的 10 月 8 日完成了對 Cheney Brothers 的收購。就在那時，我們動用了 20 億美元 ABL。這才是利息支出變動的真正原因。我想說，第二季的數據絕對可以作為未來利息支出和折舊的良好基準。

Okay. Sounds good. When I look at sort of inorganic versus organic independent case growth also, is that kind of the gap we should expect going forward? Or is there anything unusual about sort of the contribution that those two drove in the second quarter? Could you just sort of comment on that?

好的。聽起來不錯。當我觀察無機與有機獨立案例成長時，這是我們未來應該預期的差距嗎？或者說他們兩人在第二季做出的貢獻有什麼不尋常之處嗎？您能對此發表一下評論嗎？

Yeah. There may be a little bit more of a spread in Q3 with both Jose Santiago and Cheney busier. That's particularly February, March are big months for them. And then the spread will probably narrow again in Q4.

是的。由於 Jose Santiago 和 Cheney 都比較忙，第三季的差距可能會更大一些。尤其是二月和三月，對他們來說都是重要的月份。到第四季度，利差可能會再次縮小。

And of course, as we get into next fiscal year, we would have lapped the Jose Santiago right at the beginning of the fiscal year, and we'll still have another 14 weeks of Cheney's impact. Yeah, in Q1, that will -- it will really narrow quite a bit. That's not the peak time of the year for Cheney.

當然，當我們進入下一個財政年度時，我們會在財政年度開始時就涵蓋何塞·聖地亞哥事件，我們將在接下來的 14 週內感受到切尼事件的影響。是的，在第一季度，這個數字將會縮小很多。對切尼來說那並不是一年中的巔峰。

Jake Barlett, Truist Securities.

傑克·巴利特（Jake Barlett），Truist Securities。

Mine was just on the 2005 [2025] guidance. And sales was increased by more than the beat from the midpoint in the second quarter. But EBITDA was raised by the same amount. So essentially, you beat -- you included that beat but really didn't raise the back half of the year on EBITDA.

我正遵循 2005 年 [2025] 指導方針。銷售額比第二季中期成長了更多。但 EBITDA 卻增加了相同的金額。因此從本質上講，你超出了預期 — — 你包括了這一超出預期的結果，但實際上並沒有提高下半年的 EBITDA。

So I'm just trying to understand what drove that? Is there -- are there some incremental pressures, maybe some less profit flow-through that we should expect for some reason in the back half?

所以我只是想了解是什麼導致了這種情況？是否存在一些增量壓力，也許由於某種原因我們應該預期下半年利潤流會減少？

Yeah. Jake, thanks for the question. I mean, again, when we look at what we raised on the top line, we're really confident in how the segments are performing in their sales performance that gives a lot of confidence to raise it by $500 million both on top and bottom.

是的。傑克，謝謝你的提問。我的意思是，當我們再次查看我們在營收上所籌集的資金時，我們對各部門的銷售業績非常有信心，這給了我們很大的信心將營收和利潤分別提高 5 億美元。

When you look at the $25 million increase to the bottom on the EBITDA, again, we felt more confident in our EBITDA numbers. And again, we saw opportunity, but at the same time, there are some macro things out there that always leave us to make sure we're being a little bit more prudent.

當您看到 EBITDA 底部增加了 2500 萬美元時，我們再次對我們的 EBITDA 數字更加有信心。我們再次看到了機遇，但同時，也存在一些宏觀因素，迫使我們必須更加謹慎。

And then also, we saw a little choppiness in January. So again, lots of confidence in our numbers. And we'll continue to look at this closely. And again, into next quarter, we'll hopefully come up with some updated guidance for you.

而且，我們在一月也看到了一些波動。所以，我們對我們的數字充滿信心。我們將繼續密切關注此事。再次，到下個季度，我們希望能為您提供一些更新的指導。

Got it. And then I just had a question as well on just the drivers of the top line increase in guidance. And I guess, versus your prior expectations, is your product cost inflation expectations, has that gone up? It seems like it probably likely did. So I'm just wondering to what extent the increased top line guidance is really product cost inflation being higher than expected or whether it's kind of underlying case growth.

知道了。然後我還有一個問題，關於指導收入成長的驅動因素。我想，與您先前的預期相比，您的產品成本通膨預期是否上升了？看起來很有可能確實如此。所以我只是想知道，增加的營收預期在多大程度上實際上是產品成本通膨高於預期，還是某種潛在的成長。

No, it's really the latter. It's really the underlying case growth. Each of the segments performed well. We really strong performance in Foodservice that we've talked about quite a bit. And obviously, Cheney and Jose continue to perform.

不，確實是後者。這確實是潛在的病例增長。每個部分都表現良好。我們在餐飲服務方面的表現確實非常出色，這一點我們已經討論過很多次了。顯然，切尼和何塞將繼續表演。

But it was really -- and then as Scott alluded to, we have a really strong pipeline, both in Foodservice national accounts and in Convenience. So all these things are giving us -- not only have we seen great results year-to-date, but also giving us confidence in the balance of the year.

但確實如此——正如斯科特所提到的，我們擁有非常強大的管道，無論是在餐飲服務全國帳戶還是便利商店方面。因此，所有這些事情不僅讓我們看到了今年迄今為止的出色業績，也讓我們對今年的平衡充滿信心。

All right. And building just on the question that was asked before, but can you give us a sense as to what percentage of sales and EBITDA for Cheney and Jose Santiago come in the third quarter? You've mentioned it's a really big quarter for them. Just trying to frame it out just so we can kind of understand the organic versus the growth drivers in the third quarter.

好的。基於先前提出的問題，您能否告訴我們，切尼和何塞·聖地亞哥的銷售額和 EBITDA 在第三季度佔比是多少？您曾提到，這對他們來說是一個非常重要的季度。只是嘗試將其框定出來，以便我們能夠了解第三季度的有機成長與成長動力。

Yeah. I'm -- we don't have that number at our fingertips. It's probably something we should have calculated.

是的。我--我們還沒有這個數字。這或許是我們該計算的事情。

Yeah. What I can tell you, Jake, it's their largest quarter is Q3. Typically, historically, it would have been one of our [better] performance.

是的。我可以告訴你，傑克，他們最大的季度是第三季。通常，從歷史上看，這應該會是我們表現較好的一次。

Peter Saleh, BTIG.

彼得·薩利赫（Peter Saleh），BTIG。

Most of my questions were asked and answered, but I did want to ask on the chain business. I think you've seen some improvement there. Can you just elaborate on what you're seeing in chains? And maybe what's changed in the recent past? And then I have a follow-up.

我的大部分問題都得到了回答，但我確實想問連鎖業務方面的問題。我認為你已經看到了一些進步。您能詳細講述一下您在鎖鏈中看到的情況嗎？也許最近發生了什麼變化？然後我有一個後續問題。

Yeah. So Peter, this is Scott. So definitely, we -- I think there's a couple of things going on with chains. One is we have three or four chains that are really performing well, seeing double-digit growth out of them and really help to drive our national account business.

是的。彼得，這是史考特。所以可以肯定的是，我認為連鎖店正在發生一些事情。一是我們有三、四家連鎖店表現良好，而且都實現了兩位數的成長，這對推動我們的全國帳戶業務確實有幫助。

And I'd say the other thing is we've had a little bit of a shift where we've had some national account business that wasn't great-performing that we've traded out for national account business that is much better performing. So a little shift in our mix of customers across the national portfolio. So we feel really good about how that's progressing. Did you say you had a second one?

我想說的另一件事是，我們發生了一些變化，我們有一些表現不佳的全國帳戶業務，我們將其換成了表現更好的全國帳戶業務。因此，我們在全國範圍內的客戶結構發生了一些變化。因此，我們對這一進展感到非常滿意。你說你有第二個嗎？

Yeah. And then just a follow-up. I know you commented a little bit on the seasonality of Cheney and Jose Santiago, but just curious on the synergies that were laid out maybe several quarters ago, when should we expect to start to see some of those synergies come to fruition, particularly on the Cheney's side?

是的。然後只是後續行動。我知道您對切尼和何塞·聖地亞哥的季節性做了一些評論，但我只是好奇幾個季度前提出的協同效應，我們什麼時候可以期待看到其中一些協同效應取得成果，特別是在切尼方面？

Yeah. And -- Peter, this is Patrick. It's obviously very early since we just recently purchased Cheney Brothers, but I can tell you the integration efforts are in full swing, and we really are doing excellent job. Both teams are working very well together.

是的。而且──彼得，這是派崔克。顯然現在還為時過早，因為我們最近才剛收購了切尼兄弟公司，但我可以告訴你，整合工作正在全面展開，我們確實做得非常出色。兩個團隊合作得非常好。

We did announce that we'd have $50 million of synergies at the end of the third year post acquisition. So I would expect that the synergies will come later in the cadence. So we'll see some synergies in the first year, but we'll see more synergies in year two and three. But that's all the detail we have for you right now.

我們確實宣布過，收購後第三年末我們將實現 5,000 萬美元的綜效。因此我預期協同效應將在後續的節奏中出現。因此，我們會在第一年看到一些協同效應，但在第二年和第三年我們會看到更多的協同效應。但這就是我們現在為您提供的全部詳細資訊。

(Operator Instructions) Carla Casella, JPMorgan.

（操作員指示）摩根大通的卡拉·卡塞拉。

A couple of quick follow-ups. You talked about debt paydown being the focus. And it looks to me like there's over a couple of billion drawn on the revolver. So is that what you're focusing on paying down? Or would you consider taking out the '27 bonds, which are now callable at par ahead of maturity?

一些快速的後續行動。您剛才談到償還債務是重點。在我看來，這把左輪手槍上的錢已經超過幾十億美元。所以這就是你要償還的重點嗎？還是你會考慮購買'27債券，這些債券現在可以在到期前以面額贖回？

Yeah. Carla, it's a great question. Obviously, our initial focus will be right now to pay down the ABL, but we'll certainly look at those '27 bonds as well. But we tend to use the ABL as our main focus.

是的。卡拉，這個問題問得很好。顯然，我們現在的首要重點是償還 ABL，但我們當然也會考慮那些 27 年債券。但我們傾向於將 ABL 作為我們的主要關注點。

Okay. Great. And then I may have you disclosed how much Performance Brands products represent now of your Foodservice business and if there's -- if it's kind of at a target level, if there's no more opportunity there?

好的。偉大的。然後我可能會讓您透露 Performance Brands 產品現在在您的餐飲業務中所佔的比例，以及如果它處於目標水平，如果那裡沒有更多的機會？

Well, we -- the number we give is what our brands are as a percentage of our independent business, and that's the overwhelming percentage of our brands. When you get outside of our independent restaurant business, most all of our business are chain restaurants that typically don't use many of the distributor brands.

嗯，我們給出的數字是我們的品牌占我們獨立業務的百分比，而這佔了我們品牌的絕大部分百分比。如果你看一下我們的獨立餐飲業務，你會發現我們的業務大多是連鎖餐廳，這些餐廳通常不使用很多經銷商品牌。

We've made some progress there, but not what I would call meaningful. So we do very little business in health care, in lodging or in contract feeding that tend to use the distributor brand. So it runs right around 53%, I think it was 52.9% last quarter. We think that's a good number. We do see that being reduced as we add in Cheney Brothers and Jose Santiago.

我們在那裡取得了一些進展，但我認為這些進展還不是很有意義。因此，我們在醫療保健、住宿或合約供餐領域很少開展傾向於使用經銷商品牌的業務。所以它的運行範圍大約是 53%，我認為上個季度是 52.9%。我們認為這是一個不錯的數字。我們確實看到，隨著切尼兄弟和何塞·聖地亞哥的加入，這一數字有所減少。

But once it recalibrates for that, we think we can march up from there. We do have several of our companies that are over 60% right now. So we do see that there's room for improvement. And if you get into our legacy Roma companies, many of those are over 60%.

但一旦重新調整，我們認為我們就可以從那裡前進。我們確實有幾家公司目前的比例超過了 60%。所以我們確實看到還有進步的空間。如果你了解我們傳統的羅馬公司，你會發現其中許多公司的比率都超過 60%。

Okay. Great. And that's all 60% to 2.9% of the independent business?

好的。偉大的。這就是獨立業務的全部 60% 和 2.9% 嗎？

That's correct.

沒錯。

There are no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back to Bill for any closing remarks.

目前沒有其他問題。我將把電話轉回給比爾，請他做最後發言。

Thank you for joining our call today. If you have any follow-up questions, please reach out to Investor Relations.

感謝您今天參加我們的電話會議。如果您有任何後續問題，請聯絡投資者關係部。

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

謝謝。今天的節目到此結束。感謝您的參與。您可以隨時斷開連線。