Performance Food Group Co (PFGC) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to PFG's Fiscal Year Q3 2025 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

大家好，歡迎參加 PFG 2025 財年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）

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

現在我想將電話轉給 PFG 投資者關係高級副總裁 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. We issued a press release this morning regarding our 2025 fiscal third quarter results, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website at pfgc.com.

謝謝，早安。我們今天邀請到的是 PFG 執行長 George Holm； PFG 財務長 Patrick Hatcher；以及 PFG 的營運長 Scott McPherson。我們今天上午發布了一份關於 2025 財年第三季業績的新聞稿，可在我們網站 pfgc.com 的投資者關係部分找到。

During our call today, unless otherwise stated, we are comparing the results in the same period in fiscal 2024. 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.

在我們今天的電話會議中，除非另有說明，我們都在比較 2024 財年同期的結果。本次電話會議討論的結果將包括根據某些項目調整後的 GAAP 和非 GAAP 結果。這些非 GAAP 指標與相應 GAAP 指標的對帳可以在收益報告的背面找到。

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陳述的部分，以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. We have a good deal of material to cover this morning. I'm going to provide a high-level overview of the current market conditions and the strategic measures we have prioritized during the volatile time. Scott McPherson will then provide some color around our segment's performance during the third quarter, and Patrick will follow with our financial performance and guidance.

謝謝，比爾。大家早安，感謝大家今天參加我們的電話會議。今天早上我們要討論大量的內容。我將概述當前的市場狀況以及我們在動盪時期優先採取的策略措施。隨後，斯科特·麥克弗森 (Scott McPherson) 將介紹我們部門在第三季度的表現，帕特里克 (Patrick) 將介紹我們的財務表現和指導。

The fiscal third quarter provided some challenges to our industry, mainly due to difficult macroeconomic environment and adverse weather in January and February. We saw a decent recovery in March as the weather improved. Still it appears that the underlying consumer performance remains muted. Interestingly, April results rebounded nicely and we grew our sales and profit through the month.

第三財季為我們的產業帶來了一些挑戰，主要是由於宏觀經濟環境困難以及一月和二月的惡劣天氣。隨著天氣好轉，我們在三月看到了不錯的復甦。但看起來，潛在的消費者表現依然低迷。有趣的是，四月份的業績強勁反彈，整個月我們的銷售和利潤都有所成長。

The first week of May was stronger yet producing a record sales week for Foodservice, Convenience and total company. At PFG, we recognize that we cannot control the external macroeconomic environment. However, we do determine how we approach our markets, customers, associates and suppliers. We do not know the exact path the economy will take; however, we are prepared for a range of scenarios. First is worth reminding you that our company has experienced several difficult periods through our history, including the '08, '09 great recession and the pandemic in 2020. These experiences provide a playbook for the actions we can take in more difficult times to not only protect our business but align our operations, so we will come out strong on the other side.

五月的第一週表現更為強勁，餐飲服務、便利商店和整個公司的銷售額均創下歷史新高。在 PFG，我們認識到我們無法控制外部宏觀經濟環境。然而，我們確實決定了我們如何對待我們的市場、客戶、合作夥伴和供應商。我們不知道經濟將走向何方；然而，我們已經為一系列的情況做好了準備。首先值得提醒的是，我們公司在歷史上經歷過幾個困難時期，包括 2008 年、2009 年的經濟大衰退和 2020 年的疫情。這些經驗為我們在更困難的時期可以採取的行動提供了劇本，不僅可以保護我們的業務，還可以協調我們的運營，因此我們最終會變得強大。

This is exactly what we have done in the past and what we intend to do now. Even in our soft February, our share gains were consistent with our usual performance. At our Investor Day on May 28, you will hear our detailed strategy that looks to capture both top and bottom line growth by being a diversified food away-from-home distributor. We have a powerful story and our momentum continues to build and get stronger. I'm excited for what the future holds for PFG and believe we are positioned to capture growth over the long term.

這正是我們過去所做的，也是我們現在打算做的。即使在表現疲軟的二月份，我們的股價漲幅也與往常一致。在 5 月 28 日的投資者日上，您將聽到我們的詳細策略，該策略旨在透過成為多元化的戶外食品分銷商來實現營收和利潤的成長。我們擁有強大的故事，我們的勢頭持續增強並變得更加強勁。我對 PFG 的未來充滿期待，並相信我們有能力實現長期成長。

Before turning it over to Scott, a few high-level comments on recent trends. As I mentioned at the beginning of my comments, the operating environment has been dynamic to say the least. When we last reported earnings, I believe we could achieve 6% organic independent case growth for fiscal 2025.

在將話題交給斯科特之前，我想先就最近的趨勢發表一些高層評論。正如我在評論開始時提到的那樣，營運環境至少可以說是動態的。當我們上次報告收益時，我相信我們可以在 2025 財年實現 6% 的有機獨立案例成長。

Our run rate through January, along with easier year-over-year comparisons for the balance of the fiscal year made that objective a reasonable target for our organization. However, the challenges we faced in February have made this target harder to reach. At the same time, as I mentioned earlier, we did see a rebound as we entered the fiscal fourth quarter with our organic independent restaurant case growth hitting 6% in April.

我們截至一月份的運作率，以及財政年度餘額的同比更容易比較，使得該目標成為我們組織的合理目標。然而，我們在二月面臨的挑戰使得這個目標更加難以實現。同時，正如我之前提到的，進入第四財季，我們確實看到了反彈，4 月份我們的有機獨立餐廳案例增長率達到 6%。

Despite the market challenges, our broad-based structure provides stability to our bottom line results during market challenges. We believe that gauging the health of the consumer is difficult at this time. However, I have the utmost confidence in our company's ability to execute at a high level, capture market share and deliver revenue and profit results that drive shareholder value. With that, I'll turn it over to Scott McPherson for more details on our segment results in the quarter. Scott?

儘管面臨市場挑戰，但我們廣泛的結構仍為我們的底線表現在市場挑戰期間提供了穩定性。我們認為，目前衡量消費者的健康狀況很困難。然而，我對我們公司高水準執行、佔領市場份額以及創造可推動股東價值的收入和利潤結果的能力充滿信心。接下來，我將把話題交給斯科特·麥克弗森 (Scott McPherson)，以了解有關本季各部門業績的更多詳細資訊。史考特？

Thank you, George, and good morning, everyone. As George mentioned, it's been a dynamic year from a trend perspective. We had a strong start to fiscal Q1, and we're progressing well through November. However, in December and through much of the third quarter, we faced disruption, including calendar shifts, adverse weather conditions in both the current year and last year period comparison and of course, a dynamic macroeconomic and consumer backdrop. February posed challenges for our industry as we experienced significant weather disruptions and a consumer reacting to economic uncertainty.

謝謝你，喬治，大家早安。正如喬治所說，從趨勢角度來看，這是充滿活力的一年。我們第一財季開局強勁，11 月的進展也十分順利。然而，在 12 月以及整個第三季的大部分時間裡，我們面臨幹擾，包括日曆變化、今年與去年同期相比的惡劣天氣條件，當然還有動態的宏觀經濟和消費者背景。二月給我們的行業帶來了挑戰，因為我們經歷了嚴重的天氣幹擾以及消費者對經濟不確定性的反應。

We've seen steady improvement through March. And in April, we finished the month with solid top and bottom line results. While April's outcome is certainly encouraging and shows signs consumer trends are improving, we remain hyper-focused on what we can control. As George said, we have a broad and diverse business that has proven resilient in challenging operating environments. For us, we remain laser-focused on our strategic priorities, starting with driving growth through our sales associates across all operating segments continuing to leverage our proprietary brands and procurement synergies to expand gross margins and leverage technology to drive efficiency throughout our supply chain.

截至三月份，我們已經看到穩步改善。四月份，我們取得了穩健的營收和淨利績效。儘管四月份的結果確實令人鼓舞，並顯示出消費趨勢正在改善的跡象，但我們仍然高度關注我們能夠控制的事情。正如喬治所說，我們的業務廣泛而多樣，已證明在充滿挑戰的營運環境中具有韌性。對我們來說，我們仍然專注於我們的策略重點，首先是透過所有營運部門的銷售人員推動成長，繼續利用我們的專有品牌和採購協同效應來擴大毛利率，並利用技術來提高整個供應鏈的效率。

Now let's take a deeper look into our 3 operating segments, starting with our Foodservice business. Overall, Foodservice growth was strong, benefiting from the addition of Cheney Brothers and Jose Santiago in the period. As George mentioned, organic independent case growth took a step back in February, growing 3.4% over the full third quarter. These results reflect steady market share gains with independent customer account growth, increasing 3.9% year-over-year and lines growing at 4.3% as we continue to broaden our offerings to customers.

現在讓我們深入了解我們的三個營運部門，從我們的餐飲服務業務開始。整體而言，餐飲服務成長強勁，受益於該時期 Cheney Brothers 和 Jose Santiago 的加入。正如喬治所提到的，有機獨立案例成長在 2 月有所回落，整個第三季成長了 3.4%。這些結果反映了市場份額的穩定成長，獨立客戶帳戶年增 3.9%，線路成長 4.3%，因為我們繼續擴大向客戶提供的服務。

Performance brands sold to independent restaurants were 53% in the quarter, continuing our strong momentum in creating value for our customers with our company-owned brand portfolio. As we emphasized last quarter, these metrics show that while we cannot control the industry backdrop, we can arm our organization with the products and resources to provide our customer base a differentiated value proposition. Shifting to our chain restaurant business. We grew cases by 1.5% in the quarter, an excellent result given the current backdrop. The growth for our chain business was boosted by the onboarding of new business, which has been ongoing since the second quarter and continues into the fourth quarter.

本季度，銷售給獨立餐廳的績效品牌佔 53%，延續了我們利用公司自有品牌組合為客戶創造價值的強勁勢頭。正如我們上個季度所強調的那樣，這些指標表明，雖然我們無法控制行業背景，但我們可以用產品和資源武裝我們的組織，為我們的客戶群提供差異化的價值主張。轉向我們的連鎖餐廳業務。本季我們的案件數量增加了 1.5%，考慮到目前的情況，這是一個非常好的結果。我們的連鎖業務的成長得益於新業務的加入，這一成長從第二季開始一直持續到第四季。

We expect these new business wins to boost fourth quarter results providing incremental case growth and favorable profit profile versus our legacy chain business. Sales and margins were helped by pricing inflation in the quarter. Current inflation rates in Foodservice remain in a range that we consider very manageable. We are closely watching the broad commodities market and preparing for any increases driven by recent tariff considerations. We have not experienced any disruption from tariff actions to date.

我們預期這些新業務的成功將提升第四季的業績，帶來增量成長以及與我們的傳統連鎖業務相比更有利的利潤狀況。本季的價格上漲促進了銷售額和利潤率的提高。我們認為，目前餐飲業的通膨率仍處於非常可控的範圍內。我們正在密切關注大宗商品市場，並為近期關稅考慮引發的任何價格上漲做好準備。到目前為止，我們尚未受到關稅行動的任何干擾。

We continue to assess our exposure, which is currently not looked at as material. However, we're working closely with our suppliers and customers on contingency plans in the event inflation moves meaningfully higher. One inflation strategy we are focused on is positioning our high-quality company-owned brands as the best value proposition for our customers. Again, our sales force continues to win new accounts and gain share despite the difficult operating environment. We have steadily increased our sales force headcount through the year, attracting talent from across the Foodservice landscape.

我們將繼續評估我們的風險敞口，目前這些風險敞口還不被視為重要。然而，我們正在與供應商和客戶密切合作，制定應急計劃，以防通貨膨脹大幅上升。我們重點關注的一個通膨策略是將我們高品質的公司自有品牌定位為客戶的最佳價值主張。儘管經營環境艱難，我們的銷售團隊仍繼續贏得新客戶並增加市場份額。我們全年穩定增加銷售人員數量，吸引來自整個餐飲服務領域的人才。

Fiscal year-to-date, our Foodservice sales force headcount increased by 250 associates or 8% year-over-year. This is roughly the pace of hiring we anticipate for the balance of the year, assuming we continue to see positive signs from the consumer. From a profit perspective, the Foodservice segment continues to experience positive margin momentum driven by favorable mix shift, profitable chain business growth and procurement synergies. These factors, in addition to the contributions of Cheney Brothers and Jose Santiago drove 29% segment adjusted EBITDA growth in the quarter, translating to 25 basis points of margin expansion.

本財年迄今為止，我們的餐飲服務銷售團隊人數增加了 250 人，年增 8%。假設我們繼續看到消費者的正面訊號，這大致是我們預計今年剩餘時間的招募速度。從利潤角度來看，在有利的組合轉變、獲利連鎖業務成長和採購綜效的推動下，餐飲服務部門持續保持積極的利潤率動能。這些因素加上切尼兄弟和何塞·聖地亞哥的貢獻推動了本季度部門調整後 EBITDA 成長 29%，相當於利潤率擴大 25 個基點。

Turning to our Convenience segment. The narrative for the convenience industry has remained consistent throughout the fiscal year. Despite a challenging volume backdrop, Core-Mark continues to win new business, take market share and expand within existing customers through new offerings, particularly in Foodservice. In the third quarter, the Convenience segment's volume grew by approximately 1%, well above the industry performance. Through the full fiscal year, the Convenience industry, key categories, including snacks, candy and health and beauty have declined at a mid-single-digit rate, while most other key categories are down low single digits. Over the same time frame, Core-Mark has grown each of these areas by low single digits except candy, which is flat.

轉向我們的便利部分。在整個財政年度，便利產業的情況一直保持一致。儘管面臨嚴峻的市場形勢，Core-Mark 仍繼續透過新產品（尤其是在餐飲服務領域）贏得新業務、佔領市場份額並擴大現有客戶。第三季度，便利商店業務的銷量成長了約 1%，遠高於產業表現。整個財年，便利產業的關鍵類別，包括零食、糖果、健康和美容，都以中等個位數的速度下降，而大多數其他關鍵類別的降幅也都在低個位數。在同一時間段內，Core-Mark 除了糖果業務保持平穩外，其他所有業務都實現了低個位數成長。

More recently, we remain cautiously optimistic about sales performance in April, which was notably better than recent periods. While too early to call it a trend, it is certainly a positive indicator. We are very excited about our pipeline of new business in Convenience. We have found that our proposition as a consolidated Convenience and Foodservice distributor provides a competitive advantage and has been one of the key reasons that we continue to add new accounts at a fast pace. We will expand more on this topic at our Investor Day.

最近，我們對 4 月份的銷售業績保持謹慎樂觀的態度，該月份的銷售業績明顯優於近期。雖然稱其為趨勢還為時過早，但這無疑是一個積極的指標。我們對便利商店領域的新業務感到非常興奮。我們發現，作為一家綜合便利和食品服務分銷商，我們的定位具有競爭優勢，這也是我們持續快速增加新客戶的關鍵原因之一。我們將在投資者日上進一步探討這個主題。

Finishing up our segment commentary with Specialty, formerly known as our Vistar segment. Total net sales for Specialty were roughly flat in the third quarter on a low single-digit volume decline in the period. As expected, the third quarter was difficult for both theater and value channels due to the lack of content and competitive activity in the theater and consumer challenges for the Value segment.

我們以 Specialty（以前稱為 Vistar 部分）結束部分評論。第三季特種產品部門的總淨銷售額基本上持平，當季銷售出現個位數低幅下滑。正如預期的那樣，由於影院缺乏內容和競爭活動以及價值部門面臨消費者挑戰，第三季度對於影院和價值管道而言都十分困難。

On the positive side, we have seen stabilization in our vending and office coffee business, benefiting from the return-to-office trend. Our small parcel business has improved as we build upon our small but rapidly growing e-commerce business. Something you hear more about at our Investor Day.

從積極的一面來看，受益於重返辦公室的趨勢，我們的自動販賣機和辦公室咖啡業務已經趨於穩定。隨著我們規模雖小但成長迅速的電子商務業務的發展，我們的小包裹業務也得到了改善。您可以在我們的投資者日上聽到更多相關資訊。

In conclusion, total PFG operating companies weathered a difficult backdrop. From a competitive positioning standpoint, we grew share across all three segments. We have continued to make progress in our mix and margins and are performing well operationally. We feel good about our positioning to drive growth and deliver on our customer value proposition. I'll now turn the call over to Patrick, who will review our financial performance and outlook.

總體而言，PFG 營運公司總體度過了艱難的時期。從競爭定位的角度來看，我們在所有三個領域的份額都有所增長。我們的產品組合和利潤率不斷取得進展，營運表現良好。我們對我們的定位感到滿意，即推動成長並實現客戶價值主張。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。

Patrick?

派崔克？

Thank you, Scott. This morning, I will review our financial results from our third quarter, provide some color on our financial position. I'll review our guidance for the balance of the year. Before jumping into our results for the quarter, we have 2 housekeeping items to address.

謝謝你，斯科特。今天上午，我將回顧我們第三季的財務業績，並對我們的財務狀況提供一些說明。我將審查我們今年餘下的指導方針。在了解本季的業績之前，我們有 2 個內部事項需要解決。

First, as noted in our press release, our Vistar segment has been renamed as Specialty to align our naming conventions across the 3 operating segments. We did not add or remove any operations from this segment in our financial reporting. It is simply a name change. As we always do, we will continue to assess our segment reporting structure to align with how we operate the business.

首先，正如我們的新聞稿中所述，我們的 Vistar 部門已更名為 Specialty，以符合我們 3 個營運部門的命名約定。我們沒有在財務報告中增加或刪除該部門的任何業務。這僅僅是一個名稱的改變。像往常一樣，我們將繼續評估我們的分部報告結構，以符合我們的業務運作方式。

On that front, also noted in our earnings press release, during the fiscal third quarter, we moved a few small items from corporate and all other into the Foodservice segment. These changes are immaterial to our results and are reflected in both the current and year ago periods for comparability. As you've already heard from George and Scott, it's a dynamic time for our industry in the broad economic landscape. For this reason, we believe it is as important as ever to maintain a strong financial position.

在這方面，我們在收益新聞稿中也指出，在第三財季，我們將一些小型專案從公司和所有其他部門轉移到了餐飲服務部門。這些變化對我們的結果並不重要，並且反映在當前和去年同期的可比性中。正如喬治和史考特所說的那樣，對於我們的產業來說，在廣闊的經濟格局中，這是一個充滿活力的時期。因此，我們認為保持強勁的財務狀況比以往任何時候都更加重要。

We believe that our balance sheet and cash flow not only insulate us from external shocks, but also allow us to take advantage of market dislocation. As George described, supporting our associates, customers and vendors, through difficult times has allowed us to build upon the strong foundation of our business position. This was only possible because we had the financial resources to invest behind our organization. In the first three quarters of our fiscal year, we have used our balance sheet and cash flow to finance growth initiatives, including two attractive acquisitions, Cheney Brothers and Jose Santiago and over $300 million in capital projects. We believe that these initiatives put us in a strong position to thrive in a range of operating environments.

我們相信，我們的資產負債表和現金流量不僅可以使我們免受外部衝擊，還可以讓我們利用市場錯位。正如喬治所描述的，在困難時期為我們的同事、客戶和供應商提供支援使我們能夠鞏固我們的業務地位。這之所以成為可能，是因為我們有足夠的財力來投資我們的組織。在本財政年度的前三個季度，我們利用資產負債表和現金流為成長計畫提供資金，包括兩項頗具吸引力的收購，即切尼兄弟 (Cheney Brothers) 和何塞聖地亞哥 (Jose Santiago)，以及超過 3 億美元的資本項目。我們相信，這些措施將使我們在各種營運環境中處於有利地位並蓬勃發展。

Let's review our third quarter business results. PFG total net sales grew 10.5% in the quarter due to the addition of Jose Santiago and Cheney Brothers as well as volume growth and net price realization. Our total independent restaurant cases grew 20% in the quarter or 3.4% on an organic basis. Organic independent case growth was lower than we had hoped entering the quarter. However, as Scott detailed, the underlying metrics, including market share, new account growth, and lines per account reflects strong execution. While it is still early, our April results improved noticeably.

讓我們回顧一下第三季的業務成果。由於 Jose Santiago 和 Cheney Brothers 的加入以及銷售成長和淨價實現，PFG 本季總淨銷售額成長了 10.5%。本季度，我們的獨立餐廳總數成長了 20%，有機成長了 3.4%。進入本季度，有機獨立案例成長低於我們的預期。然而，正如斯科特所詳述的那樣，包括市場份額、新帳戶成長和每個帳戶線路在內的基本指標反映了強勁的執行力。雖然現在還為時過早，但我們四月的業績已經明顯改善。

Total company cost inflation was about 4.9% for the third quarter, an uptick from our prior period but steady year-to-date. Foodservice product cost inflation was 3.7% in the quarter while Specialty cost inflation was 2.8% year-over-year and Convenience increased 6.7%. We are closely watching input cost inflation, particularly with the implementation of tariffs and have not yet seen an impact from tariffs. Importantly, we source the majority of our inventory from domestic suppliers. At the same time, we believe we are well positioned in the event of an acceleration in inflation and are maintaining close communication with customers and suppliers. We have a proven track record of managing inflation and expect to navigate the current market using the similar playbook.

第三季公司總成本通膨率約為 4.9%，較上一季上升，但今年迄今維持穩定。本季度，餐飲產品成本通膨率為 3.7%，而特色食品成本通膨率為 2.8%，便利食品成本通膨率為 6.7%。我們密切關注投入成本的通膨，特別是關稅的實施，但尚未看到關稅的影響。重要的是，我們的大部分庫存都來自國內供應商。同時，我們相信，在通膨加速的情況下，我們處於有利地位，並與客戶和供應商保持密切溝通。我們在管理通貨膨脹方面有著良好的記錄，並希望使用類似的策略來應對當前的市場。

Total company gross profit increased 16.2% in the fiscal third quarter, representing a gross profit per case increase of $0.39 in the quarter as compared to the prior year's period. Strong operating expense control and productivity efforts produced adjusted EBITDA growth for the Foodservice, Specialty and Convenience segments. In particular, our Specialty segment, despite a difficult top line environment, produced 6.9% adjusted EBITDA growth. In the third quarter of 2025, PFG reported net income of $58.3 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 20.1% to $385.1 million.

第三財季公司總毛利成長 16.2%，與去年同期相比，本季每箱毛利增加 0.39 美元。強有力的營運費用控制和生產力努力為餐飲服務、特色菜和便利商店部門帶來了調整後的 EBITDA 成長。尤其是我們的專業部門，儘管面臨困難的營收環境，但調整後的 EBITDA 仍成長了 6.9%。2025 年第三季度，PFG 報告淨收入為 5,830 萬美元。調整後 EBITDA 成長 20.1%，達到 3.851 億美元。

Diluted earnings per share in the fiscal third quarter was $0.37, while adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.79. Our effective tax rate was 25.8% in the third quarter. We anticipate a higher tax rate in the fourth quarter closer to our historical range.

第三財季每股攤薄收益為 0.37 美元，調整後每股攤薄收益為 0.79 美元。我們第三季的有效稅率為25.8%。我們預計第四季的稅率將上升至更接近歷史範圍。

Turning to our financial position and cash flow performance. In the first 9 months of fiscal 2025, PFG generated $827.1 million of operating cash flow. After $332.7 million of capital expenditures, PFG delivered free cash flow of about $494 million. Diligent working capital management and our operating results contributed to the strong cash flow result through the fiscal year. As we described last quarter, our capital spending levels for our legacy business have remained fairly steady over the first three quarters of the fiscal year at a run rate of approximately $100 million per quarter. The increase we experienced in the third quarter was largely related to the addition of capital expense to support Cheney and Jose Santiago businesses as expected. We anticipate an increase to our capital expenditures in the fourth quarter, which is typical for our company.

談談我們的財務狀況和現金流表現。2025財年的前9個月，PFG產生了8.271億美元的營運現金流。在 3.327 億美元的資本支出後，PFG 實現了約 4.94 億美元的自由現金流。勤勉的營運資本管理和我們的經營業績促成了整個財政年度強勁的現金流結果。正如我們上個季度所描述的，我們傳統業務的資本支出水準在本財年的前三個季度保持相當穩定，運作率約為每季 1 億美元。我們在第三季經歷的成長主要與預期增加的資本支出有關，以支持 Cheney 和 Jose Santiago 業務。我們預計第四季度的資本支出將會增加，這對我們公司來說很正常。

While we remain committed to capital investment in capacity and fleet to support our growth, we are closely following the external landscape and we'll take appropriate steps to adjust our spending if necessary. At this time, however, we feel good about the level of investment we are undertaking. During the third quarter, we began to pay down debt through reduction in the outstanding balance of our ABL facility, in line with our stated near-term objective of reducing debt. During the quarter, we also repurchased about 138,000 shares of our stock at an average cost of $76.82 per share for a total of $10.6 million. While we are prioritizing debt reduction, we also take various marketplace conditions into account when determining our capital allocation strategy.

雖然我們仍然致力於對運力和船隊進行資本投資以支持我們的成長，但我們也在密切關注外部形勢，並在必要時採取適當措施調整我們的支出。然而，目前我們對正在進行的投資水準感到滿意。在第三季度，我們開始透過減少 ABL 貸款的未償餘額來償還債務，這符合我們所述的減少債務的近期目標。本季度，我們也回購了約 138,000 股股票，平均每股成本為 76.82 美元，總計 1,060 萬美元。在我們優先考慮減少債務的同時，我們在確定資本配置策略時也會考慮各種市場條件。

This means that we have and expect to continue to opportunistically repurchase our shares during market downturns. This is supported by our financial position and cash flow. The M&A pipeline is robust, and we continue to evaluate strategic M&A. As always, we will apply our high standards and due diligence process in the evaluation of these acquisition opportunities. Turning to our guidance for fiscal 2025.

這意味著我們已經並且預計將在市場低迷時期繼續擇機回購我們的股票。我們的財務狀況和現金流支持了這一點。併購通路強勁，我們將持續評估策略併購。像往常一樣，我們將運用高標準和盡職調查流程來評估這些收購機會。談到我們對 2025 財年的指導。

Today, we are narrowing our sales and adjusted EBITDA guidance, primarily flowing through the results from the third quarter. We now expect net sales to be in a $63 billion to $63.5 billion range, adjusting the top end of the range by $500 million and leaving the bottom end unchanged. Our adjusted EBITDA guidance for the fiscal year is now a range of $1.725 billion to $1.75 billion, narrowing the upper end by $50 million. As we enter the final months of the fiscal year, we feel confident in these targets and each of these ranges suggest full year 2025 results in line or above the three-year plan we set at our Investor Day in 2022. In a few weeks, we will provide more color around our successful execution of the long-term plan and discuss our vision for the next three years.

今天，我們縮小了銷售額和調整後 EBITDA 指引，主要反映了第三季的業績。我們現在預計淨銷售額將在 630 億美元至 635 億美元之間，將範圍的上限調整 5 億美元，下限保持不變。我們對本財年的調整後 EBITDA 預期目前為 17.25 億美元至 17.5 億美元，上限縮小了 5,000 萬美元。隨著我們進入財政年度的最後幾個月，我們對這些目標充滿信心，並且每個範圍都表明 2025 年全年業績與我們在 2022 年投資者日制定的三年計劃一致或更高。幾週後，我們將詳細介紹我們成功執行的長期計劃，並討論我們對未來三年的願景。

To summarize, PFG successfully navigated a difficult environment in the third quarter and is prepared to maintain strong growth in a range of economic scenarios. Our financial position is strong, and we have a balanced capital allocation plan to generate long-term shareholder returns. We're excited about what the future holds in our investing capital to sustain our growth.

總而言之，PFG 成功度過了第三季的艱難環境，並準備在各種經濟情景下保持強勁成長。我們的財務狀況良好，並且擁有均衡的資本配置計劃，可以為股東帶來長期回報。我們對未來投資資本如何維持我們的成長感到興奮。

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。喬治、史考特和我很樂意回答你們的問題。

(Operator Instructions) And your first question comes from the line of Mark Carden with UBS. Please go ahead, your line is open.

（操作員指示）您的第一個問題來自瑞銀的馬克·卡登。請繼續，您的線路已開通。

This is Mathew Rothway on for Mark Carden. Glad to hear that trends are improving a little bit of late, although it sounds like maybe still a little weak in the independent channel. Just curious if you could help us understand a little bit more what you're seeing with consumer demand behavior. Are you seeing any trade down or trade out? Any shifts in cuisine types from consumers? Any additional color would be great.

這是 Mathew Rothway 為 Mark Carden 主持的節目。很高興聽到最近趨勢有所改善，儘管聽起來獨立管道可能仍然有點弱。我只是好奇您是否可以幫助我們進一步了解您所看到的消費者需求行為。您是否看到任何交易減少或減少？消費者的飲食類型有變化嗎？任何額外的顏色都很好。

Yes, I'll take that. This is Scott. So first off, talking about just independent demand and our independent case volume. As we talked about, if you think about the quarter, we had -- at the beginning of the quarter was pretty strong. We were mid-single digit in January.

是的，我接受。這是斯科特。首先，我們來談談獨立需求和獨立案件數量。正如我們所討論的，如果你考慮一下這個季度，你會發現——本季初我們的表現相當強勁。一月我們的收入處於個位數中段。

Obviously, February was the big setback for everybody in the quarter. And then March kind of back to that mid-single-digit range. And as George mentioned, we were up to 6% in April.

顯然，二月對於本季的每個人來說都是一個巨大的挫折。然後三月又回到了中等個位數範圍。正如喬治所提到的，4 月我們的成長率已達到 6%。

So I feel really good about how that's progressing. When I think about any trade down, we really didn't see -- obviously, on a same-store basis, restaurants were pretty flat. We performed well from a penetration and growing account standpoint, which really is what drove our independent volume. And I'd say the last piece is from a segment standpoint. Our Mexican segment did really well. And also our Convenience segment did really well from a Foodservice standpoint.

所以我對於事情的進展感到非常滿意。當我想到任何交易下降時，我們確實沒有看到——顯然，在同店基礎上，餐廳的銷售額相當平穩。從滲透率和帳戶成長的角度來看，我們的表現良好，這確實是推動我們獨立銷售成長的因素。我想說的最後一點是從細分的角度來說的。我們的墨西哥分部表現非常好。而且從餐飲服務的角度來看，我們的便利商店部門表現非常出色。

Yes. And I know we've been repeating ourselves, but I think it's important to stress February was the month that really changed our quarter. But when we track our business, we track it closely by what our new business is and our lost business and our penetration. And virtually all of the difference in February was penetration. And it wasn't just in our independent, it was in the chain business.

是的。我知道我們一直在重複，但我認為必須強調的是，二月是真正改變我們這個季度的月份。但是，當我們追蹤我們的業務時，我們會密切追蹤我們的新業務、我們失去的業務以及我們的滲透率。2 月的差異幾乎全部來自於滲透率。這不僅存在於我們的獨立業務中，也存在於連鎖業務中。

And also, it was in Convenience. Then it just showed that people weren't out there. We didn't see it in our Specialty business or our Vistar business. And a lot of that is kind of logical. People are at work when these weather issues happened. If they were able to get to work, they didn't go out to lunch. They hit the micro market, they hit the vending, and it was actually a positive for that part of our business. But it was all about February.

而且，它也很方便。然後它就表示那裡沒有人。我們在專業業務或 Vistar 業務中沒有看到它。其中很多都是合乎邏輯的。當這些天氣問題發生時，人們正在工作。如果他們能夠去上班，他們就不會出去吃午餐。他們進軍微型市場，進軍自動販賣機市場，這實際上對我們業務的這一部分產生了積極影響。但這一切都與二月有關。

Great. And then as a follow-up question. Just curious to get your outlook on food inflation as we go through the year here. Sounds like maybe a little early for any tariff-related inflation, but would you see any opportunities for prebuys if you do start to see inflation, particularly with your Specialty and Convenience segments?

偉大的。然後作為後續問題。我只是好奇地想知道您對今年食品通膨的看法。對於任何與關稅相關的通貨膨脹來說，這聽起來可能有點早，但如果您確實開始看到通貨膨脹，特別是在您的專業和便利領域，您是否會看到預購的機會？

Yes. Mathew, this is Patrick. I'll start with that and maybe Scott wants to add a little more detail. But when it comes to how we're looking at inflation, again, as we reported, very much in line for Q3, very similar to what we saw in Q2 with a little bit of an uptick in Foodservice, but Vistar and Convenience especially staying pretty close to where they've been. And as we look into Q4, we'll expect -- we're at least modeling that, that will be very similar, that Foodservice will be in that mid-single digits and Vistar will be very similar to what they were in Q3 and Convenience also around 7%.

是的。馬修，這是派崔克。我將從此開始，也許斯科特想添加更多細節。但是，當談到我們如何看待通貨膨脹時，正如我們所報導的，通貨膨脹與第三季度的情況非常一致，與我們在第二季度看到的情況非常相似，餐飲服務略有上升，但 Vistar 和便利商店尤其保持與之前水平相當接近。當我們展望第四季時，我們預計——我們至少可以建模出非常相似的數據，餐飲服務將處於中等個位數，Vistar 將與第三季非常相似，便利商店也將達到 7% 左右。

It's too early to really understand what's going on with tariffs, to be honest with you. And as far as the opportunity to prebuy, we'll just have to look at that. That's really going to be as more information becomes available.

說實話，現在真正了解關稅的情況還為時過早。至於預購的機會，我們只需要考慮一下。隨著更多資訊的出現，情況確實會如此。

Yeah, the only tag on to that I would have is when we think about tariffs, I would say that first off, our biggest concern with tariffs is just the macro environment, and consumer share a wallet, and if, automotive or some of those industries have big impacts, how does that affect the food away from home space? When it comes to cost of goods and our actual cost of goods, very minor impact. We import less than 10% of our goods, and especially with Mexico and Canada with the USMCA, it sounds like there's not going to be much of a tariff impact there, and that really minimizes what we think the impact will be to us domestically.

是的，我唯一想說的是，當我們考慮關稅時，我想說，首先，我們對關稅最大的擔憂只是宏觀環境，消費者共用一個錢包，如果汽車或其中一些行業產生重大影響，那麼這會對外出就餐空間產生什麼影響？當涉及到商品成本和我們的實際商品成本時，影響很小。我們的商品進口量不到 10%，尤其是與簽署了 USMCA 的墨西哥和加拿大，聽起來關稅不會對它們產生太大影響，這確實最大限度地減少了我們認為的對我們國內的影響。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Edward Kelly with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead where the line is open.

謝謝。您的下一個問題來自富國銀行的愛德華凱利 (Edward Kelly)。請前往線路暢通的地方。

Yeah, hi, good morning, and thanks for all the color. I wanted to follow up on organic independent case growth trends. I mean it sounds like a pretty robust recovery in April, especially off probably what was a pretty rough February. And maybe even a better end of April, sort of like early May. Just curious, George, to the extent that you think that's a good run rate for the business currently, are there things that we need to consider maybe around comparisons there? And then given that the Q4 guidance at the midpoint did come down by $10 million, I guess, despite the strong start. So is that just incremental conservatism on your part? Or is there anything else to consider there?

是的，你好，早安，謝謝你帶來的所有色彩。我想追蹤有機獨立案例的成長趨勢。我的意思是，聽起來四月份的復甦相當強勁，尤其是擺脫了可能相當艱難的二月。甚至可能四月底會更好，有點像五月初。喬治，我只是好奇，就您認為目前這對業務來說是一個良好的運行率而言，我們是否需要考慮一些事情來進行對比？然後，我想，儘管開局強勁，但第四季度的預期中期確實下降了 1000 萬美元。那麼這只是您採取的漸進式保守主義嗎？或是有其他需要考慮的嗎？

Well, we're going to be real cautious around the macro environment. What we are seeing now is a real positive, but there's been some calendar differences. These are 2 really good weeks for us all the time, the week before Cinco de Mayo and Mother's Day week. This week, so far, we are having a really strong week. And last week was our first week that we had ever done, exceeded $1.3 billion in sales.

嗯，我們將對宏觀環境保持謹慎。我們現在看到的確實是一個積極的情況，但也存在一些日曆差異。對我們來說，這兩個星期一直都是非常好的，就是五月五日節前一週和母親節前一週。到目前為止，本週我們過得非常順利。上週，我們的銷售額首次突破 13 億美元。

And like I said, this week is better. I don't know that we can take a victory lap around it yet. We'll just have to see what comes up in the month of June. And I look at what is a good run rate. If you go back and you look at this quarter, we just ended our fiscal third quarter.

正如我所說的，本週情況會更好。我不知道我們是否能為此慶祝勝利。我們只需看看六月會發生什麼。我會關注什麼是良好的運行率。如果你回顧這個季度，我們剛結束了第三財季。

If the market was down about 3%, which seems to be what people think, we would have been well above our 6% target, I guess. I don't think that the market is necessarily any stronger today than it was just a matter of a few weeks ago because we don't see it in our national accounts. We've seen a nice uptick in our independent, but the national account looks a lot like April.

如果市場下跌約 3%（這似乎是人們的想法），我想我們的業績將遠高於 6% 的目標。我認為，今天的市場並不一定比幾週前更強勁，因為我們在國民帳戶中沒有看到這一點。我們看到獨立帳戶出現了良好的上升趨勢，但全國帳戶看起來與四月的情況非常相似。

The other thing I would like to mention as far as total case with performance, we are very, very large in the casual dining area. We have one that's doing exceptional right now. We have another one that's doing okay. But for the most part, they are really struggling and we've been able to overcome that with other business and obviously, with some growth from independent. So from a top line standpoint, we feel real good going into next fiscal year.

就整體表現而言，我還想提一下另一件事，我們在休閒餐飲區的規模非常大。我們目前有一個表現出色的。我們還有另外一個，一切正常。但在大多數情況下，他們確實在苦苦掙扎，我們已經能夠透過其他業務克服這一困難，而且顯然透過獨立業務也取得了一些成長。因此，從營收角度來看，我們對進入下一個財年感到非常樂觀。

And then in our Convenience business, which I'll have Scott comment, but we have had some real good wins there, and we are expecting to see much greater growth next fiscal year than we're seeing this fiscal year. Now I'll turn it over to Scott for a minute.

然後在我們的便利業務中，我會讓斯科特發表評論，但我們在那裡取得了一些真正的良好勝利，我們預計下一財年的增長將比本財年大得多。現在我將把時間交給史考特。

Yes. Just to reflect a little more on the Convenience piece that George mentioned. First off, as I said in the prepared remarks, the macro there has been tough. A lot of the center store categories have been down mid-single digits and our Convenience segment has outperformed that consistently quarter-over-quarter. And then we've talked a lot about pipeline opportunities in the selling cycle and Convenience being a little slower but we have felt really good about our positioning.

是的。只是想再多思考喬治提到的便利部分。首先，正如我在準備好的發言中所說，那裡的宏觀經濟形勢嚴峻。許多中心商店類別的銷售額都出現了中等個位數的下降，而我們的便利商店部門的業績卻逐季優於其他類別。然後，我們談了很多關於銷售週期中的通路機會，便利性雖然有點慢，但我們對我們的定位感到非常滿意。

And over the last few weeks, we've had three or four big wins. Those are wins that will roll on over the course of the next -- well, through the balance of the calendar year. But as George said, I think Convenience is really well positioned. We'll see some more growth out of them into next year. And operationally, they've done a great job in margin-wise as well.

在過去的幾周里，我們取得了三、四次重大勝利。這些勝利將會在接下來的一年裡繼續延續——好吧，在接下來的一年裡。但正如喬治所說，我認為便利商店的定位確實很好。明年我們將看到它們取得更多成長。從營運角度來看，他們在利潤方面也做得很好。

Then maybe just a follow-up as it pertains to the middle part of the P&L. Gross profit dollar growth despite weaker case volumes were, I think, better than most for modeling. I mean, I don't know about you guys. And it seems like SG&A was maybe a little bit higher but just curious how SG&A played out relative to your expectations? Was there anything within that, that came in unexpectedly higher? And is there anything there that maybe translates into Q4?

然後可能只是後續內容，因為它涉及損益表的中間部分。儘管案件數量較少，但我認為毛利成長比大多數建模都要好。我的意思是，我不知道你們是怎麼想的。看起來銷售、一般和行政費用可能有點高，但我好奇銷售、一般和行政費用相對於您的預期如何？其中是否存在出乎意料的高收入？其中是否有任何內容可能轉化為 Q4？

Well, February was our difficult sales month. It was also a difficult expense month. We shipped a lot of product out that turned around and came back, and that impacts your payroll, but it impacts your shrink. It's just really difficult to go through a period like that, but that is behind us. And the other thing we've continued to do, Scott mentioned that we have 8% more salespeople.

嗯，二月是我們銷售困難的一個月。這也是一個支出困難的月份。我們運送出去的許多產品又被退回，這不僅會影響您的薪資單，還會影響您的損耗。經歷那樣的一段時期確實很艱難，但那已經過去了。斯科特提到，我們繼續做的另一件事是我們的銷售人員增加了 8%。

And we've just made the decision that we're looking at that the way we always look at it. And even though it's a slow market for us to back off from continuing to move forward there, it's just going to hurt us in the future.

我們只是做出決定，我們將以我們一貫的方式看待這個問題。儘管市場發展緩慢，我們還是無法放棄繼續前進，但這只會對我們未來的發展造成傷害。

So we're living with -- if you look at just from a percentage standpoint, when you're growing your people 8% and you're growing your case is 3.4% looking backwards, that's going to cost you some money and we're willing to spend that money, and we think we're making the right decision there.

因此，我們面臨的情況是——如果僅從百分比的角度來看，當你的員工人數增加 8% 時，回顧一下，你的成長率是 3.4%，這將花費你一些錢，我們願意花這筆錢，我們認為我們做出了正確的決定。

Thank you.

謝謝。

And your next question comes from the line of Alex Slagle with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

您的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Alex Slagle。請繼續。您的線路已開通。

Thanks, good morning. I think you talked about Convenience trends in April, underlying trends may be improving? And maybe you kind of clarify that and whether that had to do it. Fuel costs moderating, if that's starting to be any kind of tailwind? I know it's been challenging. And then on Convenience, I know the 4Q lap is really tough. Maybe some color on how we should think about that dynamic as we go through modeling and trying to see whether that can grow year-over-year.

謝謝，早安。我認為您在 4 月談到了便利趨勢，潛在趨勢可能正在改善？也許您可以澄清一下這一點，看看是否必須這樣做。燃料成本正在下降，這是否會成為一種順風？我知道這很有挑戰性。然後談到便利性，我知道 4Q 圈真的很艱難。當我們進行建模並嘗試查看是否能夠逐年增長時，也許我們可以對應該如何思考這種動態提供一些見解。

Yes. I wouldn't say, Alex, that we've seen any improvement in the industry itself. We just have a little better penetration, and we've got some nice new business coming on. So that's what gives us the confidence. We are certainly hopeful that the industry itself is going to improve. But that's not something that we've seen at this point.

是的。亞歷克斯，我不會說我們已經看到這個行業本身有任何改善。我們的滲透率略有提高，而且我們也有一些不錯的新業務正在湧現。這就是讓我們充滿信心的原因。我們當然希望這個行業本身會有所改善。但目前我們還沒有看到這種情況。

Yes. And Alex, I'll just add on the Q4 Convenience, thanks for pointing that out. I think if they didn't have that lap from prior year and have to (inaudible) seeing close to double-digit or double-digit EBITDA growth in the fourth quarter. So we're still very happy with the trends that Convenience has been able to deliver on the bottom line and that will continue into the fourth quarter except for that comp that he brought up.

是的。亞歷克斯，我只想補充 Q4 便利性，謝謝你指出這一點。我認為，如果他們沒有像去年那樣取得這樣的成績，那麼（聽不清楚）第四季的 EBITDA 成長將接近兩位數或兩位數。因此，我們仍然對便利商店在盈利方面所取得的趨勢感到非常滿意，而且除了他提到的那個比較之外，這種趨勢將持續到第四季度。

Okay. And then with the restaurants, were there any changes between kind of underlying volume dynamics in the chains versus independents worth calling out? I think you touched on it, I didn't catch that.

好的。那麼對於餐廳來說，連鎖店和獨立餐廳的潛在銷售動態之間有什麼值得注意的變化嗎？我想你已經提到了這一點，但我沒聽懂。

Well, we're certainly seeing -- once again, this is just the last few weeks, but we're seeing the independent doing better. I don't know that, that reflects on the industry or reflects on our customer base. Unfortunately, we haven't seen any real improvement in casual dining. We do have some QSR business that has been doing fairly well. Any comments beyond that, Scott, I think that probably come..

嗯，我們確實看到——再說一次，這只是過去幾週的情況，但我們看到獨立公司表現得更好。我不知道這是否反映了行業狀況或反映了我們的客戶群。不幸的是，我們還沒有看到休閒餐飲有任何真正的改善。我們確實有一些 QSR 業務做得相當不錯。除此之外，還有什麼評論嗎，史考特，我想可能會有…

I think that covers it.

我想這就涵蓋了。

Thanks for that.

謝謝。

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of John Heinbockel with Guggenheim. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

謝謝。您的下一個問題來自古根漢美術館的約翰·海因博克爾 (John Heinbockel)。請繼續。您的線路已開通。

I wanted to start with cases per account or cases per line rather, right? So if lines were up 4% or so, and I think you said comp locations flat. So is that right, the cases per line down 4%, drop size kind of flattish? And are we seeing an inflection in drop size, right? Because I think you were down, but now it looks like April and go forward, you might actually be up.

我想從每個帳戶的案例或每行的案例開始，對嗎？因此，如果線路上漲 4% 左右，而我認為您說的是可比位置持平。那麼，每行的案例數量下降了 4%，下降幅度有點持平，這是對的嗎？我們是否看到了液滴尺寸的變化，對嗎？因為我認為你之前處於低谷，但現在看來，從四月開始，你實際上可能會上升。

Another one of those. Yes. Another one of those, John, it's February. And in the month of February, we didn't see that much of a decline in lines, but we saw a big decline in cases per order.

又一個。是的。又一個，約翰，現在是二月。在二月份，我們沒有看到排隊數量大幅下降，但我們看到每份訂單的箱數大幅下降。

Okay. But I mean point being, have we seen now a sort of an inflection in drop size, right? Because if drop size can now increase, right, because lines per account are up, whatever, three or four cases per line are flat or down slightly. Are we now seeing an inflection there in drop size?

好的。但我的意思是，我們現在是否看到了液滴大小的某種變化，對嗎？因為如果下降幅度現在可以增加，對吧，因為每個帳戶的線路都在增加，無論如何，每條線路的三到四個案例都持平或略有下降。我們現在是否看到液滴尺寸出現拐點？

Yes, John, as you pointed out, clearly, our lines are up per account, but our drop sizes remain relatively flat. So when you think about our growth, almost 100% of our independent growth is driven by new accounts and driven by lines per order. I mean that's really what's getting us there. It's really the new account growth. So the stops aren't getting bigger right now.

是的，約翰，正如你所指出的，顯然，我們的每個帳戶的賠付線都在上漲，但我們的跌幅仍然相對平穩。因此，當您考慮我們的成長時，幾乎 100％ 的獨立成長都是由新帳戶和每筆訂單的行數推動的。我的意思是這才是我們真正實現這一目標的原因。這確實是新帳戶的成長。因此，目前停損點還沒有變大。

And one last thing for Scott, right? When you think about the opportunity on the Convenience side, I'm curious what percent of your base has now adopted all of your -- or most of your prepared food programs, right, pizza, chicken, et cetera? And then do you think you're getting a mid- to high single-digit lift on those accounts that do adopt those programs in prepared food?

對斯科特來說還有最後一件事，對吧？當您考慮便利性方面的機會時，我很好奇現在有多少比例的顧客已經採用了您的全部或大部分預製食品計劃，例如披薩、雞肉等等？那麼，您是否認為在預製食品領域採用這些計劃的帳戶會獲得中高個位數的成長？

Yes, John, the way I'd answer that is I'd say we're still in the second or third inning as far as Foodservice goes. The number of concepts that we place is growing significantly. Every month, every quarter, we add a lot of turnkey concepts into Convenience. But when you think about 50,000 stores that we have, we've got a long runway ahead of us. I think we're getting better at it.

是的，約翰，我的回答是，就餐飲服務而言，我們仍處於第二或第三階段。我們發布的概念數量正在顯著增長。每個月、每個季度，我們都會在「便利」中加入許多交鑰匙概念。但當你想到我們擁有 50,000 家商店時，你會發現我們前面還有很長的路要走。我認為我們在這方面做得越來越好了。

Our Convenience segment is doing really well there. And to your point, in Foodservice, whether it be coming out of Convenience or whether it be coming from PFS into Convenience, we're growing in that mid-single to low double-digit range on a pretty consistent basis.

我們的便利商店業務在那裡表現得非常好。正如您所說，在餐飲服務領域，無論是從便利商店轉型還是從 PFS 轉型到便利商店，我們都在以相當穩定的速度成長，成長率在個位數中段到兩位數低段之間。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Kelly Bania with BMO Capital. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

謝謝。您的下一個問題來自 BMO Capital 的 Kelly Bania。請繼續。您的線路已開通。

Hi, good morning, thanks for taking our questions. George, I was just wondering how you are seeing smaller competitors and other competitors react to this environment? Obviously, February was very tough, but it feels like it could remain volatile here. And so just is -- are you seeing others react more with respect to costs and service levels? And is that creating any areas where you can lean into from a market share perspective?

大家好，早安，感謝您回答我們的問題。喬治，我只是想知道您如何看待較小的競爭對手和其他競爭對手對這種環境的反應？顯然，二月非常艱難，但感覺這裡仍可能持續動盪。那麼，您是否看到其他人對成本和服務水準的反應更強烈？從市場佔有率的角度來看，這是否會創造任何您可以依賴的領域？

Well, I would say that the market is more competitive than it has been really in quite a while, probably going back to the great recession. And I think that's normal when you have volume harder to get. I think things are going to get more competitive. As far as smaller competitors, if you consider the information (inaudible) as far as how the restaurant part of the industry is doing versus what we see on our Circana report, I think it shows that the large distributors are continuing to get a bigger market share than the smaller ones would be getting.

嗯，我想說的是，市場競爭比相當長一段時間以來都要激烈，可能可以追溯到大衰退時期。我認為，當你的音量難以獲得時，這是正常的。我認為競爭將會變得更加激烈。就規模較小的競爭對手而言，如果您考慮餐飲業部分的表現資訊（聽不清楚）與我們在 Circana 報告中看到的情況相比，我認為大型分銷商繼續獲得比小型分銷商更大的市場份額。

And I guess on that note, just on competition, are you seeing any change in competition for the sales force in terms of the talent you're able to hire, the cost of hiring that talent? Any color on that front?

我想就這一點而言，就競爭而言，您是否看到銷售隊伍的競爭在能夠聘用的人才以及聘用該人才的成本方面發生了任何變化？前面有顏色嗎？

We're not seeing any change there at all. We are -- we have a great pipeline of salespeople that are available that have experience. And that's why we're part of why we're continuing to grow our sales force at the rate we're growing it.

我們根本沒看到任何改變。我們擁有一群經驗豐富的優秀銷售人員。這就是為什麼我們繼續以現在的速度擴大我們的銷售團隊的原因之一。

That's very helpful. And last one for me. I know you have the Analyst Day coming up in a couple of weeks here, but lots of questions on what that guidance could look like. And just curious if you wanted to give us any bit of a teaser for how to think about your plans for the next several years?

這非常有幫助。對我來說這是最後一個。我知道幾週後這裡就會舉行分析師日，但很多人對這份指引會是什麼樣子有疑問。我只是好奇您是否願意向我們透露一下您未來幾年的計劃？

Kelly, this is Patrick. I'll just jump in here. We're very excited to see all of you at Investor Day, and we'll be really happy to share the guidance at that time.

凱利，這是派崔克。我就直接跳到這裡。我們非常高興在投資者日見到大家，我們也非常樂意在那時分享指導。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you, and your next question comes from the line of Brian Harbour with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead, your line is open.

謝謝，您的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Brian Harbour。請繼續，您的線路已開通。

Yeah, thanks. Good morning, guys. George, that comment about competition. I mean is that -- is it sort of like changes in price at the margin? Is that what you're referring to? Or like how does that manifest itself?

是的，謝謝。大家早安。喬治，關於競爭的評論。我的意思是──這有點像邊際價格變動嗎？這就是你指的嗎？還是它是怎麼表現出來的？

Well, I think that we're in an industry that's pretty rational, but we all want to grow. And I think that when growth is hard to come by, I think people get more competitive. We're certainly looking closely at our pricing, looking closely at our cost structure all the time. And then I would say that the prepaying or upfront monies are certainly something that has become more commonplace in our industry. Other than that, I really don't see changes.

嗯，我認為我們所處的行業非常理性，但我們都希望成長。我認為，當成長難以實現時，人們就會變得更具競爭力。我們當然一直在密切關注我們的定價，並密切關注我們的成本結構。然後我想說，預付款或預付款在我們的行業中肯定已經變得越來越普遍了。除此之外，我真的沒有看到任何改變。

Okay. With Vistar, I guess, Specialty now, did you sort of expect it to be a bit slower quarter there? I guess -- and also just as we think about kind of the future growth rate, would 4Q look similar? And have you seen kind of recovery in that business too? I know the comparison is a little bit different, but could you talk about your expectations there?

好的。我想，現在 Vistar 和 Specialty 的業績會稍微慢一些，您是否預計該季度的業績會稍微慢一些？我想——而且當我們考慮未來的成長率時，第四季的情況會相似嗎？您是否也看到該行業出現復甦跡象？我知道比較起來有點不同，但你能談談你的期望嗎？

Sure. I'll take that. This is Scott. We called out last quarter in our remarks that we knew we were going to have a pressured quarter for Vistar, particularly in the theater space. Q3 is traditionally not a great theater quarter. Also, we had some pressure in the value channel as well, which we expected. As we've moved into March and into April, similar to the other segments, theaters had great content. Theater looks like Q4 is going to be really strong content as well. But beyond theater, Vistar is a very diverse business.

當然。我會接受的。這是斯科特。我們在上個季度的評論中指出，我們知道 Vistar 將面臨一個壓力季度，特別是在劇院領域。傳統上，Q3 並不是一個出色的劇院季度。此外，我們在價值管道也面臨一些壓力，這是我們預料到的。進入三月和四月，與其他時期類似，戲院也上映了精彩的電影。劇院看起來第四季也會是一部非常精彩的作品。但除了劇院之外，Vistar 還是一個非常多元化的企業。

We feel really good about the pipeline we have with our e-commerce platform. And then also with return to work, we're starting to see some real signs there in our office coffee and our vending. So we're really optimistic about Vistar, and they had a couple of tough quarters to start the year. Obviously, had a nice EBITDA quarter this quarter, and we'll start to see some growth out of that segment. So really feel good about where they're headed.

我們對我們的電子商務平台的管道感到非常滿意。隨著人們重返工作崗位，我們開始在辦公室咖啡和自動販賣機中看到一些真正的跡象。因此，我們對 Vistar 非常樂觀，儘管他們在今年初經歷了幾個艱難的季度。顯然，本季的 EBITDA 表現不錯，我們將開始看到該部門的一些成長。所以我對他們的前進方向感到非常滿意。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Jake Bartlett with Truist Securities. Please go ahead, your line is open.

謝謝。您的下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Jake Bartlett。請繼續，您的線路已開通。

Great, thanks for taking the question. I'm sorry to go back to some of the near-term dynamics, but I just want to make sure I understood what's happening in April. And one question is whether spring break shift along with Easter, seems like that could have had a pretty big impact. So I just want to make sure that that's not what's partially driving the better April. And also, just looking back at last year, I believe you started the quarter with a fairly solid April. And so the question is what your compares are like in the next couple of months? And then I have another question.

太好了，謝謝你回答這個問題。很抱歉再次談論一些近期的動態，但我只是想確保我了解四月份發生的事情。問題是，春假和復活節的輪班是否會產生很大的影響。所以我只是想確保這不是推動四月經濟好轉的部分原因。而且，回顧去年，我相信你們四月的業績表現相當穩健。那麼問題是，未來幾個月您的狀況如何？我還有一個問題。

Well, that's part of why we're being cautious. As far as the change in Easter and Easter being later, we're (inaudible) Easter for both years has gone. The week after Easter is always a light week for us. So our April, although a good month, was very choppy. And when we did have -- we were up against the end of Easter, those were tough comparisons. I don't think the shift mattered really. It just all washed out, and I don't think it mattered. And we're in a little different time here, too.

嗯，這就是我們謹慎行事的原因之一。至於復活節的變化和復活節延期，我們（聽不清楚）兩年的復活節都已經過去了。復活節後的一周對我們來說總是輕鬆的一周。因此，四月雖然是一個好月份，但卻非常不穩定。當我們確實面臨復活節即將結束時，這些都是艱難的比較。我認為這種轉變其實並不重要。一切都消失了，我認為這並不重要。我們現在所處的時代也有些不同。

I mean Cinco de Mayo was always a great week for us and Mother's Day is always close to Cinco de Mayo. And we had a real good week last week, and we didn't expect this week to start out as big as it did, but I think a lot of people didn't bring their product in for Cinco de Mayo until Monday. And those are just all the reasons I think you're bringing up is why we're cautious right now. There has been all year, really, there's been some calendar challenges and even a small thing having Valentine's Day on the weekend had a big impact on our sales because you didn't get that extra really good night during that week.

我的意思是，五月五日節對我們來說總是一個美好的一周，而母親節總是與五月五日節很接近。上週我們過得非常好，我們沒想到本週的開局會這麼好，但我認為很多人直到週一才把產品帶到五月五日節。我認為您提出的所有原因是我們現在保持謹慎的原因。事實上，全年都存在一些日曆挑戰，即使是週末的情人節這件小事也會對我們的銷售產生很大的影響，因為你在那一周沒有得到額外的美好夜晚。

Great. That's helpful. And my next question is about your margin expectations in the fourth quarter. And if I'm doing the math right, it looks like you're expecting fairly minimal EBITDA margin expansion in the fourth quarter. The question is whether that's just due to the compare, the really strong expansion you had last fourth quarter.

偉大的。這很有幫助。我的下一個問題是關於您對第四季度的利潤率預期。如果我沒算錯的話，你預期第四季的 EBITDA 利潤率成長幅度會相當小。問題是，這是否僅僅是因為比較而言，去年第四季的擴張確實非常強勁。

But also, if you can talk to some of your productivity measures, how you feel like you're doing in terms of your productivity and efficiencies? And just anything we should think about in terms of what you're proactively doing to just protect your margins.

但是，如果您可以談談您的一些生產力衡量標準，您覺得您的生產力和效率如何？我們應該考慮您採取哪些主動措施來保護您的利潤。

Yes. First off, the biggest color I'd add to have on EBITDA margins in the quarter. I think we've talked a little bit about Convenience. They had a pretty sizable gain in Q4 last year. So that's one call out. When I think about margins overall, really pleased with how all three segments are operating from a margin standpoint.

是的。首先，我要補充的最大亮點是本季的 EBITDA 利潤率。我想我們已經談論了一些關於便利性的話題。他們在去年第四季獲得了相當可觀的收益。這就是一次呼籲。當我考慮整體利潤率時，我對所有三個部門從利潤率角度的運作感到非常滿意。

It really comes down to a few things. One of those is mix across all three segments. I think we've done a great job with mix and are growing independent cases. We've done a really nice job with chain margins in Foodservice as well. And that's really just as we looked at that portfolio of customers, we've got some great customers that we've onboarded. So we feel really good about how we're progressing margin-wise in Foodservice.

這實際上歸結於幾件事。其中之一就是三個部分的混合。我認為我們在混合方面做得很好，並且正在增加獨立案例。我們在餐飲服務連鎖利潤方面也做得非常好。當我們查看客戶組合時，我們發現了一些優秀的客戶。因此，我們對餐飲服務利潤率的進步感到非常滿意。

Convenience has done well. And a lot of that is just our growth in key categories. I think about Foodservice and some of those categories that drive higher margins. And similarly, in Vistar as well, in our Specialty segment, some of the segments that are growing tend to be our higher-margin segments.

便利性做得很好。其中很大一部分只是我們在關鍵類別上的成長。我考慮餐飲服務以及一些可以帶來更高利潤的類別。同樣，在 Vistar 的專業領域中，一些正在成長的領域往往是利潤率較高的領域。

The last thing I'll call out around margins is just procurement strategies. We talked a little bit about it last quarter. For the last year, we've been bringing our three segments together, having them work together on common vendors. We've now got Cheney and Jose Santiago. And obviously, we're able to look at the deals that they had negotiated as stand-alone and work through some of those opportunities.

關於利潤，我最後要說的是採購策略。我們上個季度討論過這個問題。去年，我們將三個部門整合在一起，讓它們在共同的供應商上合作。我們現在有切尼和何塞·聖地亞哥。顯然，我們可以將他們談判達成的交易視為獨立的交易，並利用其中的一些機會進行研究。

So we feel like our procurement opportunity is also a way to continue to keep our margins strong.

因此，我們認為採購機會也是繼續保持強勁利潤率的一種方式。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Andrew Wolf with CLK. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

謝謝。您的下一個問題來自 CLK 的 Andrew Wolf。請繼續。您的線路已開通。

Thanks. Good morning. I also wanted to circle back with a follow up on the implied the Q4 guide. So I understand you, to be conservative and conservative in this environment, but it does back into a slowing, take out the acquisitions or actually a kind of a maintenance of the Q3 organic with that growth rate so. There's different explanations. One is conservative -- and when you think about conservatism, are you thinking more in terms of, can you say it's a 6% case growth organically, or is it more, I think you alluded to Georgia being very competitive now and maybe some impact in gross profit per case, if you were to, if it were to come in, if you -- somewhere in the middle of your range instead of, I think people expect might be a little better.

謝謝。早安.我還想回過頭來跟進一下隱含的第四季指南。因此，我理解你的意思，在這種環境下保持保守，但它確實會回到放緩的階段，取消收購，或者實際上是維持第三季的有機成長率。有不同的解釋。一個是保守主義——當您考慮保守主義時，您是否更多地考慮，您是否可以說這是有機的 6% 的案例增長，或者更多，我認為您提到佐治亞州現在非常有競爭力，並且可能對每個案例的毛利潤產生一些影響，如果您這樣做，如果它進入，如果您 - 在您的範圍中間某個地方，我認為人們預期可能會更好一些。

I mean our guidance is a reflection of how our people on the field are looking at things, and they tend to be conservative. We want them to be conservative. But the competitive nature of the industry may have something to do that. There are the ones that are on the front line dealing with that every day. But I think we feel with our guidance, we would like to think that we'll be able to stay at least a 6% independent growth. But as I mentioned earlier, and Scott's mentioned too, we got to be cautious. We really don't, at this point, know what June is going to be, but right now, we feel good.

我的意思是，我們的指導反映了我們現場人員對事物的看法，他們傾向於保守。我們希望他們保持保守。但該行業的競爭性質可能與此有關。有些人每天都在前線處理此事。但我認為，在我們的指導下，我們希望能夠保持至少 6% 的獨立成長。但正如我之前提到的，斯科特也提到過，我們必須謹慎。目前，我們確實不知道六月會發生什麼，但現在，我們感覺很好。

Okay, I was just going to add real quick. Obviously, we've taken a variety of scenarios, both economic and consumer and backdrop, as George said. So we feel we're being prudent. But like I made in my comments, we feel that this range is appropriate. And based on what we've seen to date, we feel good about the guidance that we've given.

好的，我只是想快速補充一下。顯然，正如喬治所說，我們已經考慮了多種情景，包括經濟、消費者和背景。因此我們認為我們是謹慎的。但正如我在評論中所說的那樣，我們認為這個範圍是合適的。根據我們迄今為止所看到的情況，我們對所給予的指導感到滿意。

Got it. Okay. I thought that was what you were saying just wanted to probe it a bit. And Scott, on Convenience, going back to when Core-Mark was public, a lot of the attributes to win customers was on fresh, the consolidated delivery, making their life easier from an operational perspective. Is that still the case? Or is it now you got a sort of a third thing here with better capabilities in Foodservice? Could you just sort of give us -- I know you'll probably touch on this got a little more at the Investor Day, but a little bit of what's driving the new customer wins there on the Convenience side?

知道了。好的。我以為這就是你所說的，只是想稍微探究一下。史考特談到便利性，回顧 Core-Mark 上市之時，贏得客戶的許多屬性都在於新鮮、整合的配送，從營運角度讓他們的生活變得更輕鬆。現在還是這樣嗎？或者現在你們是否得到了第三種在餐飲服務方面具有更好能力的產品？您能否告訴我們——我知道您可能會在投資者日上更多地談論這一點，但您能否談談便利方面推動新客戶獲勝的因素有哪些？

No, it's a great question, Andy. When I think about the evolution of Convenience stores, you're right, and I know you used to cover the space. Fresh was the calling card 10 years ago. And as fresh evolved, fresh really worked into a broader offering outside of center stores. So that's really food away from home.

不，這是一個很好的問題，安迪。當我思考便利商店的演變時，你是對的，而且我知道你曾經涵蓋過這個領域。十年前，新鮮就是名片。隨著新鮮食品的不斷發展，新鮮食品確實在中心商店之外提供了更廣泛的服務。這才是真正的外出用餐。

And I think the consumer expectation got a lot higher. It wasn't package sandwiches and burritos anymore. It became high-quality restaurant quality food in Convenience stores. And I think that's the real driver behind our message to the independent and the chain, and I think that it's gone a long way for us to pick up new accounts and gain share.

我認為消費者的期望值已經提高了很多。它不再是包裝好的三明治和墨西哥捲餅了。它成為了便利商店中高品質餐廳品質的食品。我認為這是我們向獨立媒體和連鎖媒體傳達訊息的真正驅動力，而且我認為這對我們獲得新客戶和增加市場份額大有幫助。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays. Please go ahead, your line is open.

謝謝。您的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的傑弗裡·伯恩斯坦。請繼續，您的線路已開通。

Great, thank you very much. My first question is just on the next three-year outlook, and I recognize that's likely to come later this month. But George, just wondering conceptually, how do you get your arms around forecasting the top and bottom line in the next few years when you're battling through the current very cautious dynamic environment. Obviously, visibility is limited. You think there's a lot of opportunity for market share.

太好了，非常感謝。我的第一個問題是關於未來三年的展望，我知道這個問題可能會在本月稍後公佈。但是喬治，我只是從概念上想知道，當你在當前非常謹慎的動態環境中掙扎時，你如何預測未來幾年的頂線和底線。顯然，可見度是有限的。您認為市場佔有率存在著很大的機會。

But do you change your thought process in terms of how you guide for the next few years when you're in an environment like this? Or are you able to see through that and kind of see what the underlying opportunity is for the business? And then I have one follow-up.

但是，當您處於這樣的環境時，您會改變對未來幾年的指導想法嗎？或者您是否能夠看透這一點並了解企業的潛在機會是什麼？然後我還有一個後續問題。

I think the current environment always affects you, right? I mean a lot of what we do as far as our projections come from our people in the field. And like I said a few minutes ago, they are the ones that are in the heat of the battle every day. But I will also tell you that they're very confident. I think February shook everybody, that's natural.

我覺得目前的環境總是會影響到你，對嗎？我的意思是，我們所做的預測很多都來自於我們在該領域的人員。正如我幾分鐘前所說的那樣，他們每天都處於激烈的戰鬥之中。但我也會告訴你，他們很有信心。我認為二月震撼了所有人，這是很自然的。

You're trying to figure out how much of it is the consumer, how much of it is the weather, how much of it is just all of the change in rhetoric around tariffs and where we're headed. But I think that we're looking at it the same way we did three years ago.

你要弄清楚其中有多少是消費者的原因，有多少是天氣的原因，有多少只是圍繞著關稅和我們未來走向的言論變化。但我認為我們看待這個問題的方式與三年前是一樣的。

We're trying to gauge another thing that's difficult to gauge as some of these smaller acquisitions that you can get that can get help things. We have a nice M&A pipeline right now, not the size of what we've done in the past at this point, but we have a nice group there. And we're just putting all those things together and in just a few weeks, right? Just a few weeks, we'll have a real good presentation for everybody.

我們正在嘗試衡量另一件難以衡量的事情，因為一些較小的收購可以帶來幫助。我們目前擁有良好的併購管道，雖然規模不如過去，但我們擁有優秀的團隊。我們只是在短短幾週內把所有這些東西整合在一起，對吧？只需幾週時間，我們就會為大家帶來一場精彩的演講。

Yes. And Jeffrey, I'll just add a couple of other comments. I mean, as we close out this three-year guidance, as I mentioned, we're well within our sales range, and we're exceeding the EBITDA range that we gave three years ago. So what you guys are all going to hear in a few weeks is we're very consistent in our approach and our strategies. You'll hear some new things.

是的。傑弗裡，我只想補充幾點其他評論。我的意思是，正如我所提到的那樣，當我們結束這三年的指導時，我們的銷售額遠超預期，而且超過了三年前給出的 EBITDA 範圍。所以幾週後你們就會聽到我們的方法和策略非常一致。你會聽到一些新的事情。

But we feel like the last three years have executed very well and we've hit these numbers, and we'll provide you some new numbers and how we're going to execute behind those. But we're -- again, we're looking very forward to seeing all of you in New York in a few weeks.

但我們覺得過去三年的表現非常好，我們達到了這些數字，我們將向您提供一些新的數字以及我們將如何執行這些數字。但我們——再次，我們非常期待幾週後在紐約見到你們所有人。

No, we appreciate you coming to New York. My follow-up is just on that M&A, George, that you just mentioned. Obviously, it's a difficult choppy environment for you. You would think it's way more challenged for small or midsized foodservice distribution peers. So I'm just wondering if you could talk about the opportunity.

不，我們很感謝您來紐約。喬治，我的後續問題是關於您剛才提到的併購。顯然，這對你來說是一個艱難而動盪的環境。您可能會認為，對於小型或中型餐飲分銷同行來說，挑戰更大。所以我只是想知道您是否可以談談這個機會。

I think you mentioned a robust pipeline. And I think in your prepared remarks, you mentioned taking advantage of market dislocation. I wasn't sure if that's what you were referring to, but any thoughts in terms of how the current environment helps or hurts the opportunity for you to be more aggressive with M&A versus less? Thank you.

我認為您提到了強大的管道。我認為您在準備好的發言中提到了利用市場錯位。我不確定您指的是不是這個，但您認為當前的環境對您更積極地進行併購有什麼幫助或損害嗎？謝謝。

Well, obviously, we've got some focus on paying down debt right now, even though for us, historically, the debt levels we're at today, if you take into account when we were private and when we were public, we're actually at kind of a low level of debt, and we tend to be maybe a little fearless about the amount of debt we have. But paying down debt is important to us, and we feel that we can do some fairly sizable acquisitions and not have to concern around the debt.

嗯，顯然，我們現在把重點放在償還債務上，儘管對我們來說，從歷史上看，我們今天的債務水平，如果考慮到我們私有化和上市的時候，我們的債務水平實際上處於較低水平，而且我們可能對我們的債務數額有點無所畏懼。但償還債務對我們來說很重要，我們認為我們可以進行一些相當大的收購，而不必擔心債務。

So if you look at since the purchase of Jose Santiago and of Cheney, had we not bought Cheney, which would have been a terrible thing. But had we not, we would have pretty much paid down the debt from Jose Santiago. So we paid down debt quickly. And we're going to continue to be very opportunistic, and we have acquisitions available to us today that we're in good shape from a negotiation standpoint and they're not real significant, but they will help us from a growth standpoint. And a couple of them will probably have in our three-year plan, but probably only a couple. That's a long answer, but that's just kind of where we sit today.

所以，如果你看看自從購買何塞·聖地亞哥和切尼以來的情況，如果我們沒有購買切尼，那將是一件可怕的事情。但如果我們沒這麼做的話，我們基本上就已經還清了何塞·聖地亞哥欠我們的債。所以我們很快就還清了債務。我們將繼續保持機會主義，今天我們擁有可供收購的機會，從談判的角度來看，我們處於良好的狀態，它們並不真正重要，但從成長的角度來看，它們將對我們有所幫助。其中有幾個可能會出現在我們的三年計劃中，但可能只有幾個。答案很長，但這就是我們今天所處的位置。

Understood. But nothing that you see of significant size, these are more good opportunities but not significant to the business?

明白了。但您沒有看到任何具有重大規模的進展，這些都是更好的機會，但對業務來說並不重要？

That's correct.

沒錯。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Peter Saleh with BTIG. Please go ahead, your line is open.

謝謝。您的下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Peter Saleh。請繼續，您的線路已開通。

Great, thanks for taking my question. Just two questions. First one is, are you seeing any changes in independent restaurant formation given tariffs and rising construction costs? We've heard some concern about this. Just curious what you guys are seeing out in the field?

太好了，感謝您回答我的問題。僅兩個問題。第一個問題是，考慮到關稅和建築成本的上漲，您是否看到獨立餐廳的形成發生了任何變化？我們聽到了一些對此的擔憂。只是好奇你們在現場看到了什麼？

No, I think it's a little too early to tell. I mean, the tariff activity really has just started over the last couple of months. We haven't had any customers that have hit the pause button that I'm aware of. I think the independent pipeline and the independent restaurant is still very healthy and vibrant.

不，我認為現在說還為時過早。我的意思是，關稅活動實際上才剛在過去幾個月開始。據我所知，我們還沒有遇到任何按下暫停鍵的客戶。我認為獨立管道和獨立餐廳仍然非常健康和充滿活力。

Obviously, if we look back over the last four months with the exception of February, it's been pretty strong growth for us. Obviously, their same-store sales are a little bit pressured right now. But that's a vibrant industry, and I think you'll continue to see new restaurants pop up on a regular basis.

顯然，如果我們回顧過去四個月（二月除外），我們的成長相當強勁。顯然，他們的同店銷售額目前有點壓力。但這是一個充滿活力的行業，我認為你會繼續看到新餐廳定期湧現。

Great. And then just curious if you guys can comment a little bit on performance or sales performance by geography. We've heard some thoughts that some of the areas more heavily related to tourism have seen a bigger decline. Have you guys seen the same? Or is it more of a broad-based and more confined to that February time frame? Thanks.

偉大的。我只是好奇你們是否可以對按地區劃分的業績或銷售業績發表一些評論。我們聽到一些想法，認為一些與旅遊業關係較密切的地區出現了更大的衰退。大家有看過同樣的狀況嗎？或者它的範圍更加廣泛並且更局限於二月份的時間範圍？謝謝。

Yes. I would say that the Northeast, if you take out when the bad weather times are, is surprisingly doing the best as far as increases go. Florida has been a little bit challenged, many closures there, not just hurricane-related but closures in general, restaurants that just haven't been successful. I'd say most of the rest of the country is all fairly similar, but slight declines, but similar.

是的。我想說的是，如果排除惡劣天氣的影響，東北地區的增幅出奇地大。佛羅裡達州面臨一些挑戰，那裡有很多餐廳關門，不僅是颶風相關的，而是所有餐廳都關門了，有些餐廳的生意不太好。我想說，全國其他大部分地區的情況都相當相似，只是略有下降，但類似。

Thank you, and there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the program back to Bill Marshall for closing remarks.

謝謝，現在沒有其他問題了。現在我將節目交還給比爾馬歇爾，請他致閉幕詞。

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

感謝您今天參加我們的電話會議。如果您有任何後續問題，請聯絡我們的投資者關係部門。

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

謝謝。今天的演講到此結束。感謝您的參與。您可以隨時斷開連線。