Restaurant Brands International Inc (QSR) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Restaurant Brands International Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. (Operator Instructions). Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kendall Peck, RBI's Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

早安，歡迎參加國際餐廳品牌 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）。今天的演講結束後，將有機會提問。 （操作員說明）。請注意此事件正在被記錄。我現在想將會議交給印度儲備銀行投資者關係主管肯德爾·佩克 (Kendall Peck)。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Restaurant Brands International's earnings call for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2023. As a reminder, a live broadcast of this call may be accessed on the Investor Relations web page at rbi.com/investors and a recording will be available for replay.

謝謝你，接線生。大家早安，歡迎參加 Restaurant Brands International 截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日的第四季度和年度財報電話會議。謹提醒您，可以在投資者關係網頁 rbi.com/investors 上觀看本次電話會議的現場直播且錄音可供重播。

Joining me on the call today are Restaurant Brands International's Executive Chairman, Patrick Doyle, CEO; Josh Kobza; and CFO, Matt Dunnigan.

今天參加電話會議的有 Restaurant Brands International 執行主席、執行長 Patrick Doyle；喬許·科布扎；和財務長馬特鄧尼根。

Today's earnings call contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks set forth in the press release issued this morning and in our SEC filings. In addition, this earnings call includes non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures are included in the press release available on our website.

今天的收益電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到今天上午發布的新聞稿和我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中規定的各種風險的影響。此外，本次財報電話會議也包括非公認會計準則財務指標。非公認會計準則財務指標的調節表包含在我們網站上的新聞稿中。

During portions of the call today, we will be referencing franchisee profitability measures that are based on unaudited self-reported franchisee results. In addition, the consolidated growth metrics discussed during the prepared remarks, including consolidated system-wide sales growth, comparable sales, net restaurant growth and organic adjusted operating income growth exclude results from our franchised restaurants in Russia as we did not generate any new profits from restaurants in Russia in 2022 or 2023.

在今天電話會議的部分內容中，我們將參考基於未經審計的加盟商自我報告結果的加盟商獲利能力指標。此外，在準備好的發言中討論的綜合增長指標，包括綜合系統範圍銷售增長、可比銷售額、淨餐廳增長和有機調整營業收入增長，不包括我們在俄羅斯的特許經營餐廳的業績，因為我們沒有從俄羅斯特許經營餐廳中產生任何新利潤2022 年或 2023 年俄羅斯餐廳。

As a reminder, our Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeye's and Firehouse subsegments include results from each brand's restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, while our International segment represents consolidated results from all 4 brands outside of the U.S. and Canada.

提醒一下，我們的Tim Hortons、Burger King、Popeye's 和Firehouse 細分市場包括每個品牌在美國和加拿大的餐廳的業績，而我們的國際細分市場則代表美國和加拿大以外所有4 個品牌的綜合業績。

Finally, this morning, we published updated trending schedules provided restaurant counts by brands and market. Both documents can be found on our Investor Relations web page under Financial Information. And now I'll turn the call over to Josh.

最後，今天早上，我們發布了更新的趨勢時間表，提供了按品牌和市場劃分的餐廳數量。這兩份文件都可以在我們的投資者關係網頁的「財務資訊」下找到。現在我將把電話轉給喬希。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. With our investor event coming up in New York on Thursday, I plan to use today's call to focus on Q4 and 2023 performance. And then we'll use Thursday's event to give a longer-term outlook on the business including sharing for the first time long-term guidance.

大家早安，感謝您今天加入我們。我們的投資者活動將於週四在紐約舉行，我計劃利用今天的電話會議重點關注第四季度和 2023 年的業績。然後我們將利用周四的活動對業務進行長期展望，包括首次分享長期指導。

Today's call marks our first quarter reporting under 5 segments: Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes, Firehouse and International and reporting adjusted operating income. This shift fully aligns with how we are now managing the business and provides each of our 5 business unit leaders with even greater autonomy over their strategic decisions and greater accountability to deliver strong returns. We are also lapping the 1-year anniversary of our commitment to provide public accountability for reporting on franchisee profitability. I'll let Patrick share the results in a bit because this was really his push, but I want to acknowledge our incredible franchisees and their restaurant teams who are doing a great job driving sales, generating cost efficiencies and delivering operational improvements. We're proud of the progress they have made, including delivering average home market franchisee profitability growth of over 30% in 2023. And we're working to drive continued strength in 2024.

今天的電話會議標誌著我們第一季報告分為 5 個部門：Tim Hortons、漢堡王、Popeyes、Firehouse 和 International，並報告調整後的營業收入。這項轉變完全符合我們現在管理業務的方式，並為我們的 5 個業務部門領導者提供了更大的策略決策自主權和更大的責任感，以實現豐厚的回報。我們也慶祝了我們致力於為特許經營商盈利能力報告提供公共責任的承諾一周年。我會讓派崔克分享一下結果，因為這確實是他的推動，但我想感謝我們令人難以置信的特許經營商和他們的餐廳團隊，他們在推動銷售、提高成本效率和實現營運改善方面做得非常出色。我們為他們的進步感到自豪，包括到 2023 年實現國內市場特許經營商平均盈利增長超過 30%。我們正在努力在 2024 年繼續保持強勁勢頭。

Turning now to results. For 2023, comparable sales grew 8.1% and net restaurants grew 3.9%, resulting in 12.2% system-wide sales growth and 7.5% organic adjusted operating income growth. For the fourth quarter, we delivered 5.8% comparable sales and 3.9% net restaurant growth which drove year-over-year system-wide sales growth of 9.6%. This quarter, organic adjusted operating income was relatively flat year-over-year, largely due to incremental spending behind our Fuel the Flame initiatives at Burger King in the U.S. We also delivered solid overall traffic this quarter with Tim Hortons Canada seeing nicely positive traffic and Burger U.S. reaching positive traffic for the first time since the second quarter of 2021. Firehouse U.S. traffic was also positive, while Popeyes U.S. and International declined slightly year-over-year with international impacted by the conflict in Middle East.

現在轉向結果。 2023 年，可比銷售額成長 8.1%，淨餐廳成長 3.9%，導致全系統銷售額成長 12.2%，有機調整後營業收入成長 7.5%。第四季度，我們實現了 5.8% 的可比較銷售額和 3.9% 的餐廳淨成長，帶動全系統銷售額年增 9.6%。本季度，有機調整後的營業收入與去年同期相比相對持平，這主要是由於我們在美國漢堡王的“Fuel the Flame”計劃背後的增量支出。本季度我們還提供了穩定的整體流量，加拿大Tim Hortons 看到了良好的積極流量和Burger 美國自 2021 年第二季度以來首次實現正流量。Firehouse 美國的流量也為正，而 Popeyes 美國和國際業務同比略有下降，國際業務受到中東衝突的影響。

We grew full year global digital sales 20% to over $14 billion, representing over 1/3 of consolidated system-wide sales. We opened 695 net new units during the quarter and 1,168 net new openings for the year, resulting in net restaurant growth of 3.9%. Net restaurant growth was impacted by our incremental closures at Burger King in U.S. and a higher mix of Express units at Tims China, which as a reminder, our smaller format units with lower average revenue that are not included in our restaurant count.

我們全年全球數位銷售額成長了 20%，達到超過 140 億美元，佔整個系統銷售額的 1/3 以上。本季淨新開幕 695 家餐廳，全年淨新開幕 1,168 家餐廳，餐廳淨成長 3.9%。餐廳淨增長受到我們美國漢堡王的逐步關閉以及 Tims 中國快餐店數量增加的影響，提醒一下，我們的規模較小、平均收入較低的單位不包括在我們的餐廳數量中。

I'd now like to turn to our segment results, starting with Tim Hortons in Canada. This year, we're celebrating the 60th anniversary of Tim Hortons in Canada. Axel and team kicked off the festivities with the return of our 4 retro donuts And as a fun fact, the Walnut Crunch has been the best seller of the retro showcase. In 2023, Tim Hortons Canada successfully grew share in sales and traffic year-over-year, an impressive accomplishment driven by the hard work of the team and restaurant owners to deliver a great experience to Canadians.

我現在想談談我們的分部業績，首先是加拿大的 Tim Hortons。今年，我們將慶祝 Tim Hortons 在加拿大成立 60 週年。 Axel 和團隊以 4 個復古甜甜圈的回歸拉開了慶祝活動的序幕。有趣的是，核桃脆餅一直是復古展示中最暢銷的產品。 2023 年，Tim Hortons Canada 的銷售份額和客流量成功同比增長，這一令人印象深刻的成就得益於團隊和餐廳老闆的辛勤工作，為加拿大人提供了良好的體驗。

For the fourth quarter, we saw a very healthy balance of check and traffic, aided by operational improvements and strong calendar initiatives, all of which drove Tims Canada comparable sales growth of 8.7% and system-wide sales growth of 9.3%. Our hot, cold and specialty beverage selection continues to gain traction with our guests. Sparkling Quenchers help fourth quarter cold beverage sales grow 19% year-over-year. We also broadened our beverage and baked good strength with our Baileys collaboration, including Baileys Cold Brew with infused foam, Baileys Latte and our delicious Baileys Boston Cream donut. This partnership proved to be one of our most successful and contributed nicely to traffic growth during the quarter. Our PM-led snacking initiatives like our Savory Twists and Dream Cookies as well as our loaded bowls and wraps contributed to PM food sales growth of 7% year-over-year, lapping 18% growth in the prior year. So strong year-on-year results. These initiatives also helped us to make progress growing PM food market share to nearly 9%, up from approximately 8% in 2022.

第四季度，在營運改善和強有力的日曆計劃的幫助下，我們看到了支票和流量的非常健康的平衡，所有這些都推動 Tims Canada 可比銷售額增長 8.7%，全系統銷售額增長 9.3%。我們的熱飲、冷飲和特色飲料繼續受到客人的青睞。起泡淬火劑幫助第四季冷飲銷量年增 19%。我們也透過與百利甜酒的合作擴大了我們的飲料範圍，並烘焙出良好的強度，包括注入泡沫的百利甜冷萃咖啡、百利甜拿鐵和美味的百利甜波士頓奶油甜甜圈。事實證明，這種合作夥伴關係是我們最成功的合作夥伴關係之一，並為本季的流量成長做出了巨大貢獻。我們以 PM 為主導的零食計劃，如 Savory Twists 和 Dream Cookies 以及我們的裝碗和捲餅，為 PM 食品銷售額同比增長 7% 做出貢獻，較上年增長 18%。同比業績如此強勁。這些舉措也幫助我們取得進展，將 PM 食品市佔率從 2022 年的約 8% 提高到近 9%。

We are also maintaining excellent operations by working closely with restaurant owners to deliver an amazing and consistent guest experience. The team has been delivering targeted restaurant trainings that address new product builds, equipment optimization and the adoption of a single QR code for guests to scan their loyalty and pay for their orders at the same time. This helped to drive 9% year-over-year improvements and drive-through speed of service, an important contributor to traffic growth this quarter.

我們還透過與餐廳業主密切合作來維持卓越的運營，以提供令人驚嘆且一致的賓客體驗。該團隊一直在提供有針對性的餐廳培訓，解決新產品構建、設備優化以及採用單一二維碼供客人掃描忠誠度並同時支付訂單的問題。這有助於推動服務速度年增 9%，是本季流量成長的重要貢獻者。

Our digital community of over 5 million monthly active users continues to drive over 30% of sales in Canada. In 2023, 45% of our Tims Rewards loyalty guests visit us in the morning and returned in the afternoon on the same day. And we see an opportunity to grow this number even further through the continuation of targeted personalized offers.

我們的數位社群每月活躍用戶超過 500 萬，繼續推動加拿大 30% 以上的銷售額。到 2023 年，45% 的 Tims Rewards 忠誠客戶會在當天早上光顧我們並在當天下午返回。我們看到了透過繼續提供有針對性的個人化優惠來進一步增加這一數字的機會。

In addition to our strong and loyal digital community, we also have an amazing restaurant owner community that is dedicated to giving back. Since 1996, Tim Hortons has held an annual Smile Cookie campaign that raised nearly $20 million in the summer. And in November, we launched our first-ever holiday Smile Cookie campaign that raised another CAD 10 million for 600 local charities. This included our very owned Tim Hortons Foundation Camps. This is a really impressive community achievement for our restaurant owners and from their guests.

除了我們強大而忠誠的數位社區之外，我們還擁有一個致力於回饋社會的令人驚嘆的餐廳業主社區。自 1996 年以來，Tim Hortons 每年都會舉辦「微笑餅乾」活動，在夏季籌集了近 2000 萬美元。 11 月，我們推出了首個節慶微笑餅乾活動，為 600 家當地慈善機構籌集了另外 1,000 萬加元。這包括我們自己擁有的蒂姆霍頓基金會營地。對於我們的餐廳老闆和他們的客人來說，這是一個非常令人印象深刻的社區成就。

Shifting now to our International segment, which ended the year with over 14,700 restaurants, over $17 billion in system-wide sales and grew system-wide sales 17.6% for the full year. You've heard us say that the international business is an important growth engine for our brands, and that is one of the reasons why we are so excited to now have international as its own segment.

現在轉向我們的國際部門，截至年底，該部門擁有超過 14,700 家餐廳，全系統銷售額超過 170 億美元，全年全系統銷售額增長了 17.6%。您聽說過我們說國際業務是我們品牌的重要成長引擎，這也是我們現在如此興奮地將國際業務作為自己的細分市場的原因之一。

Each brand is well positioned for growth in some of the most attractive global quick service restaurant categories, all aided by the resources and development expertise we've developed over the years through our scaled global Burger King business. For the fourth quarter, our International segment grew comparable sales by 4.6% and net restaurants 8.9%, driving system-wide sales growth of 12.8%. Although comparable sales were still quite solid, they were impacted by softening performance in China and select markets in Western Europe, continued price moderation and the effect of the conflict in the Middle East on upwards of a dozen countries. We estimate the conflict resulted in a 1.5 points headwind to comparable sales and a 3-point impact to traffic this quarter. We're not going to speculate on how long this headwind may last. In the impacted countries, our entire focus is on the safety of our team members and our partners.

每個品牌都在一些最具吸引力的全球快餐服務類別中處於有利地位，這一切都得益於我們多年來透過規模化的全球漢堡王業務開發的資源和開發專業知識。第四季度，我們的國際部門可比銷售額成長 4.6%，餐廳淨銷售額成長 8.9%，帶動全系統銷售額成長 12.8%。儘管可比銷售額仍然相當穩健，但它們受到中國和西歐部分市場表現疲軟、價格持續溫和以及中東衝突對十幾個國家的影響的影響。我們估計，這項衝突導致本季可比銷售額下降 1.5 個百分點，並對流量產生 3 個百分點的影響。我們不會猜測這種逆風會持續多久。在受影響的國家/地區，我們的全部重點是團隊成員和合作夥伴的安全。

Despite these pressures, a combination of thoughtful calendar initiatives and high-quality core offerings across over 120 markets we operate in around the world, has allowed us to still deliver solid performance in the segment. Including growing share in Burger King France, where guests consider us the preferred option when it comes to value for money and great tasting food potentials.

儘管面臨這些壓力，深思熟慮的日曆計劃和我們在全球 120 多個市場運營的高品質核心產品相結合，使我們仍然能夠在該領域實現穩健的業績。包括在法國漢堡王的份額不斷增長，在物有所值和美味的食物潛力方面，客人認為我們是首選。

In 2023, we grew in over 75 markets outside of the U.S. and Canada and signed 15 development and master franchise agreements for 15 new markets, including Tim Hortons Singapore and South Korea, Firehouse in Mexico and the UAE in Popeyes and Burger King in Bosnia, which all serve as long-term opportunities for our brands. Our largest contributors to net restaurant growth this year included Burger King China, which delivered 176 net restaurants followed by Burger King India, France and Spain, which collectively contributed 135 units during the year.

2023 年，我們在美國和加拿大以外的超過75 個市場實現成長，並為15 個新市場簽署了15 份開發和主特許經營協議，其中包括新加坡和韓國的Tim Hortons、墨西哥的Firehouse 以及阿聯酋的Popeyes和波斯尼亞的Burger King，這些都是我們品牌的長期機會。今年對餐廳淨成長做出最大貢獻者包括漢堡王中國，該公司淨餐廳數量為 176 家，其次是漢堡王印度、法國和西班牙，全年共淨餐廳數量為 135 家。

During the fourth quarter, Tim Hortons had new openings in South Korea and Singapore. Meanwhile, Popeyes surpassed the 100 unit mark in Spain, just 5 years after opening its first restaurant in November of 2019. We also continued Popeyes expansion in Eastern Europe by opening in the Czech Republic and recently announced we are bringing our (inaudible). At Firehouse, we just opened our first location in Mexico and are excited to start bringing our newest brand to more markets around the world.

第四季度，Tim Hortons 在韓國和新加坡開設了新店。同時，Popeyes 在西班牙的餐廳數量突破了100 家大關，距離2019 年11 月開設第一家餐廳僅5 年。我們也透過在捷克共和國開設分店來繼續Popeyes 在東歐的擴張，並於最近宣布我們將推出我們的（聽不清楚）。在 Firehouse，我們剛剛在墨西哥開設了第一家門市，很高興開始將我們的最新品牌推向世界各地的更多市場。

At Tim Hortons and Popeyes, our partners are building brand awareness in new markets and ramping up the pace of development. These 2 brands contributed to over 45% of net restaurant growth in 2023, an impressive step up from the 10% mix in 2019. Their development strength helped drive strong double-digit system-wide sales growth in the quarter, including over 20% at Tim Hortons International and 55% at Popeyes International.

在 Tim Hortons 和 Popeyes，我們的合作夥伴正在新市場中建立品牌知名度並加快發展步伐。這兩個品牌對2023 年餐廳淨成長的貢獻率超過45%，較2019 年的10% 成長顯著。它們的發展實力幫助推動本季全系統銷售額強勁的兩位數成長，其中包括超過20 % 的銷售額成長。Tim Hortons International 和 Popeyes International 分別持有 55% 和 55% 的股份。

I'll now turn to our modern image and digital strength, both of which significantly enhance the experience we offer our guests. Given that nearly 90% of Tim Hortons and over 50% of Popeyes stores were opened in the past 5 years, we have a very high proportion of modern image restaurants overseas at over 75%, including Burger King. International digital sales grew 20% year-over-year to represent over 50% of international system-wide sales in 2023. The ongoing addition of kiosks in many markets around the world is helping to contribute to this growth in digital sales and importantly, improve the overall guest and team member experience while also being more profitable for our franchisees.

現在我將談談我們的現代形象和數位實力，這兩者都顯著增強了我們為客人提供的體驗。鑑於近90%的Tim Hortons和超過50%的Popeyes店都是在過去5年裡開業的，我們在海外的現代形象餐廳比例非常高，超過75%，包括漢堡王。國際數位銷售額年增 20%，到 2023 年將佔國際系統銷售額的 50% 以上。世界各地許多市場不斷增加的資訊亭有助於促進數位銷售額的成長，重要的是，提高了整體賓客和團隊成員的體驗，同時也為我們的特許經營者帶來更多利潤。

Before I shift to Burger King U.S., I would like to discuss our 2024 net restaurant growth expectations. Last year, we shared our expectations for 5% plus net restaurant growth in 2024. A key factor to delivering this level of growth was our expectation that our development in China would accelerate in 2024 off of 2023 levels. We now believe that outlook is less certain and have updated our outlook to reflect a lower level of net unit additions in China this year.

在轉向美國漢堡王之前，我想先討論一下我們 2024 年餐廳淨成長預期。去年，我們預計 2024 年餐廳淨成長將超過 5%。實現這一成長水準的關鍵因素是我們預計 2024 年我們在中國的發展將在 2023 年的基礎上加速。我們現在認為前景不太確定，並更新了我們的前景，以反映今年中國淨新增單位的較低水平。

As a result, we now expect consolidated global net restaurant growth in the mid-4% range for 2024, with growth expected to ramp up over the course of the year and improve into 2025. We have a strong belief in China as an attractive growth market for our brands. Given the incredible geographic scope and population of the market, success there requires a serious long-term capital commitment from our partners, a long-term time horizon and a commitment to grow the brand in the face of self competition.

因此，我們現在預計 2024 年全球餐廳淨成長將在 4% 左右，預計全年成長將加快，並在 2025 年有所改善。我們堅信中國是一個有吸引力的成長點我們品牌的市場。考慮到令人難以置信的地理範圍和市場人口，要在該市場取得成功，需要我們的合作夥伴做出認真的長期資本承諾、長期的投資期限以及在自我競爭中發展品牌的承諾。

In the U.S., we have demonstrated our willingness to do what it takes to succeed. Particularly as it relates to our Burger King business in the past 18 months. And in the U.S., we entirely control menu innovation and advertising spending and have demonstrated our willingness to invest significantly behind each of our businesses. In China, we rely on our master franchisees for that level of commitment. Burger King China is a good business with nearly 1,600 units and it's a profitable business. But ultimately, we're going to need to grow further to compete effectively with the largest players in this market. On the Tims business, we believe our partner is going to need to commit more capital to grow that business in an exciting way, and we believe it's critical that they do so. We're working with them both to lay the foundations needed to meet the growth aspirations that we know we're capable of.

在美國，我們已經表明我們願意不惜一切代價取得成功。特別是因為它與我們過去 18 個月的漢堡王業務有關。在美國，我們完全控制菜單創新和廣告支出，並表明我們願意為每項業務進行大力投資。在中國，我們依靠主要特許經營商的承諾。漢堡王中國是一家不錯的企業，擁有近1600家門市，而且是一家獲利的企業。但最終，我們需要進一步發展，才能與這個市場上最大的參與者進行有效競爭。在 Tims 業務上，我們相信我們的合作夥伴需要投入更多資本以令人興奮的方式發展該業務，我們認為他們這樣做至關重要。我們正在與他們合作，為滿足我們知道自己有能力實現的成長願望奠定必要的基礎。

Shifting now to Burger King in the U.S. 2023 was an incredible year for the brand. Burger King U.S. grew franchisee profitability nearly 50% year-over-year, significantly surpassed our year-end 2024 Fuel The Flame target well ahead of schedule, and achieved low single-digit positive traffic growth in the fourth quarter and saw significant improvements in operations across the system. Burger King U.S. grew fourth quarter comparable sales by 6.4% and system-wide sales by 4.6%. Our total net restaurants declined 3.7% year-over-year driven by elevated gross closures this year as part of our planned efforts to strengthen the system for the long term and address the underlying issues of franchisees who overextended themselves in the last few years. We believe most of these closures are behind us and expect a more normalized level of closure activity in 2024.

現在轉向美國漢堡王。2023 年對該品牌來說是令人難以置信的一年。漢堡王美國加盟商獲利能力年增近 50%，大大提前超過了我們設定的 2024 年底 Fuel The Flame 目標，並在第四季度實現了低個位數的正流量增長，營運狀況顯著改善整個系統。漢堡王美國第四季可比銷售額成長 6.4%，全系統銷售額成長 4.6%。由於今年關店總量增加，我們的淨餐廳總數同比下降了 3.7%，這是我們計劃努力的一部分，以長期加強系統並解決過去幾年過度擴張的特許經營商的根本問題。我們相信大多數關閉活動已經過去，並預計 2024 年關閉活動將達到更正常化的水平。

Results in the quarter were driven by guest experience enhancements and strong calendar initiatives like our Royal Crispy Wraps and Have-sies combo that highlighted our Have It Your Way brand positioning that differentiates us in the category. Guest satisfaction will always be a top priority for the system. The dedication of our franchisees to operations is why we were able to increase the product satisfaction of our core products, attract more new and lapsed guests and deliver low single-digit positive traffic during the quarter.

本季的業績得益於賓客體驗的增強和強大的日曆計劃，例如我們的 Royal Crispy Wraps 和 Have-sies 組合，突出了我們的 Have It Your Way 品牌定位，使我們在該類別中脫穎而出。賓客滿意度始終是系統的首要任務。我們的加盟商對營運的奉獻精神是我們能夠提高核心產品的產品滿意度、吸引更多新客人和舊客人並在本季度實現低個位數正流量的原因。

We have also seen success in our purposeful marketing of the Whopper, including the Whopper Jingle and Wave the Whopper campaign. We've taken this one step further with our $1 million Whopper campaign that launched last week. It's designed to let guests help decide the next whopper through a unique experience that leverages advanced AI technology, brings guests to our Royal Perks app and lets them win some cool prices along the way. We've already seen guests create about 1.5 million new whoppers. If you haven't seen it yet, please download the BK app and check it out. It's a lot of fun. This campaign is one of the many ways we'll accelerate digital adoption to drive higher guest frequency.

我們在有針對性的皇堡行銷方面也取得了成功，包括皇堡叮噹和揮動皇堡活動。我們在上週推出的價值 100 萬美元的 Whopper 活動中更進一步。它旨在讓客人透過利用先進人工智慧技術的獨特體驗來幫助決定下一個皇堡，將客人帶到我們的皇家福利應用程序，並讓他們一路贏得一些超值價格。我們已經看到客人製作了大約 150 萬個新的皇堡。如果您還沒有看過，請下載 BK 應用程式並查看。其樂無窮。該活動是我們加速數位化採用以提高訪客頻率的眾多方法之一。

Digital sales grew 40% year-over-year, resulting in a digital sales mix of 15%, including 27% mix in our company-operated restaurants. The positive results from our kiosk pilot across our company restaurant portfolio led us to expand our trial, and now we're testing this new kiosk pilot across over 100 stores in our franchisee system. During Q4, we spent $40 million of our $150 million Fuel The Flame advertising and digital investments. This included $37 million deployed towards our marketing efforts, in line with the guidance we shared in Q3, leaving us with $58 million to spend on marketing in 2024.

數位銷售年增 40%，數位銷售組合達到 15%，其中我們公司經營的餐廳達到 27%。我們公司餐廳組合中的自助服務終端試點取得了積極的成果，促使我們擴大了試驗範圍，現在我們正在特許經營系統的 100 多家商店中測試這個新的自助服務終端試點。第四季度，我們花了 1.5 億美元的 Fuel The Flame 廣告和數位投資中的 4,000 萬美元。根據我們在第三季分享的指導，其中包括用於行銷工作的 3700 萬美元，這樣我們在 2024 年的行銷支出就達到了 5800 萬美元。

Based on our franchisee profitability results to date, we expect that as we enter 2025 and our marketing contribution rolls off, franchisee contributions to the ad fund will step up from 4% to 4.5%, ensuring we maintain our strong share of voice throughout at least 2026. As a reminder, should average franchisee profitability reached $230,000 by year-end 2026, this elevated ad fund contribution would remain in place through 2028.

根據我們迄今為止的加盟商獲利能力結果，我們預計，隨著我們進入2025 年，我們的行銷貢獻逐漸減少，加盟商對廣告基金的貢獻將從4% 增加到4.5%，確保我們至少在整個過程中保持強勁的話語權份額2026 年。提醒一下，如果到 2026 年底加盟商平均盈利能力達到 230,000 美元，那麼這種增加的廣告基金捐款將在 2028 年之前保持不變。

I'd also like to give a quick update on our $250 million Royal Reset Program. Given the strong early results from our short-term refresh program as well as the impact of our pending acquisition of Carrols, we now expect to shift approximately $50 million of the $200 million investment previously earmarked for remodels to an expanded short-term refresh initiative. As a result, we expect to spend approximately $100 million in total on our Refresh program and roughly $150 million on our Remodel program.

我還想快速介紹一下我們 2.5 億美元的皇家重置計劃的最新情況。鑑於我們的短期更新計劃取得了強勁的早期成果，以及我們即將收購 Carrolls 的影響，我們現在預計將先前指定用於改造的 2 億美元投資中的約​​ 5,000 萬美元轉移到擴大的短期更新計劃。因此，我們預計在刷新計畫上總共花費約 1 億美元，在改造計畫上花費約 1.5 億美元。

We have seen an overwhelmingly positive response to our refresh program from franchisees who are seeing the results show up in their sales and operating metrics. The incremental refresh dollars will be dedicated to participating A and B operators and support assets that improve the drive-thru and digital experience. As a result of the incremental refresh investment, we now expect to positively influence more than 6,000 restaurants. Early results of the remodel program also continued to exceed program benchmarks with average sales uplift of approximately 20% net of control for the roughly 50 remodels that have been open for at least 6 months. While we're really encouraged by these results, I'd note we'd expect the uplift to migrate lower as the number of remodels grows and overall scope shifts. That said, they are clearly outperforming what we and our franchisees underwrote our investments for, and we're excited to continue the program in the year ahead.

我們看到特許經營者對我們的更新計劃給予了壓倒性的積極回應，他們看到結果體現在他們的銷售和營運指標中。增量更新資金將專門用於參與的 A 和 B 營運商，並支持改善得來速和數位體驗的資產。由於增量更新投資，我們現在預計將對 6,000 多家餐廳產生積極影響。改造計劃的早期結果也繼續超過計劃基準，扣除已開放至少 6 個月的約 50 個改造的控制權後，平均銷售額增長約 20%。雖然我們對這些結果感到非常鼓舞，但我注意到，隨著改造數量的增加和整體範圍的變化，我們預計增幅會降低。也就是說，他們的表現顯然優於我們和我們的特許經營商承保我們的投資，我們很高興能在未來一年繼續該計劃。

In 2023, we completed 264 remodels, 1/3 of which were normal course and outside of the Royal Reset Program, and we exited the year with 46% modern image. This year, we expect to ramp up our remodel program and plan to complete nearly 400 remodels with over 80% committed to full remodels or scrapes and rebuilds. And of course, we're aiming to have our sizzle format and as many of these restaurants as possible.

2023 年，我們完成了 264 次改造，其中 1/3 是正常改造，不屬於皇家重置計劃，我們以 46% 的現代形象結束了這一年。今年，我們預計將加大改造計劃，並計劃完成近 400 項改造，其中超過 80% 致力於全面改造或刮擦重建。當然，我們的目標是擁有我們的嘶嘶聲形式和盡可能多的這類餐廳。

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Philadelphia and North Carolina visiting 2 of our first 10 modern image Sizzle restaurants with Tom and [Damon], I can tell you I am very excited about this new restaurant format. Sizzle is not only beautiful, it also really puts both the team member and guest experiences at the heart of the restaurant's design.

幾週前，我在費城和北卡羅來納州與 Tom 和 [Damon] 參觀了我們首批 10 家現代形象 Sizzle 餐廳中的 2 家，我可以告訴你，我對這種新的餐廳形式感到非常興奮。 Sizzle 不僅美麗，而且真正將團隊成員和客人的體驗置於餐廳設計的核心。

It is awesome to see the diligent execution of our team and franchisees over the past year translate into positive results. We have more conviction than ever in our plan to Reclaim the Flame, which is why we are so confident in our pending acquisition of Carrols Restaurant Group. This acquisition offers a compelling strategic opportunity to accelerate our modern image efforts with a clear path to 75% modern image by 2028 to be funded entirely by Carrols operating cash flows even after our interest payments. That 75% expectation is up from 65% that we would have achieved just based on our existing Reclaim the Flame remodel funding program.

很高興看到我們團隊和加盟商在過去一年的勤奮執行轉化為積極的成果。我們比以往任何時候都更加堅信我們的「奪回火焰」計劃，這就是為什麼我們對即將收購的卡羅爾斯餐廳集團如此充滿信心。此次收購提供了一個引人注目的策略機會，可以加速我們的現代形象工作，並明確提出到2028 年實現75% 現代形象的目標，即使在我們支付利息後，其資金也完全由Carrolls 運營現金流提供。這個 75% 的預期高於我們僅根據現有的「回收火焰」改造資助計畫所能實現的 65%。

Importantly, the acquisition also enables us to refranchise restaurants into the hands of local strong owner operators, many of whom we plan to develop within the existing Carrols operator network. We see firsthand benefits of being a smaller operator. The numbers speak for themselves. Operators with less than 50 restaurants have 51% modern image and delivered average franchisee profitability of $15,000 per store above that of franchisees in the 50-plus restaurant group in 2023. Not surprisingly, they're also generally better capitalized. I cannot stress enough that while accelerating our modern image efforts is a key benefit of bringing Carrols together with Burger King. I think what makes me, Patrick and Tom, just as excited as our ability to further accelerate change in the franchisee community and give even more great operators the opportunity to become great franchisees.

重要的是，此次收購還使我們能夠將餐廳重新特許經營權交到當地實力雄厚的業主經營者手中，我們計劃在現有的 Carrolls 運營商網絡內發展其中許多餐廳。我們親眼目睹了規模較小的業者所帶來的好處。數字不言而喻。餐廳數量少於50 家的經營者擁有51% 的現代化形象，到2023 年，每家餐廳的特許經營商平均盈利能力將比50 多家餐廳集團的特許經營商高出15,000 美元。毫不奇怪，他們的資本通常也更好。我必須強調的是，在加速我們的現代形象努力的同時，卡羅爾斯與漢堡王的合作的一個關鍵好處是。我想是什麼讓我、派崔克和湯姆感到興奮，就像我們有能力進一步加速特許經營者社群的變革，並為更多優秀的經營者提供成為優秀特許經營者的機會一樣。

I'll save the rest of my comments on Burger King U.S. until later this week at our New York Investor event.

我將把我對漢堡王美國的其餘評論保留到本週晚些時候我們的紐約投資者活動上。

Turning now to Popeyes. Sami and team are 1 year into their Easy to Love plan. Popeyes U.S. grew same -- grew comparable sales by 5.8% and net restaurants by 4.5%, resulting in another quarter of double-digit system-wide sales growth of 11.2% and a record digital sales mix of 25% up from under [20%] in 2022. Our November expansion of Wings into a 5 flavor platform has quickly established us as the #3 Wings player in quick service restaurants in the country and help drive traffic across digital channels like delivery and Mobile Order & Pay. We're pleased to see this positive impact, but know there is more incrementality to unlock in 2024 and beyond, starting with driving mass awareness.

現在轉向大力水手。 Sami 和團隊的 Easy to Love 計劃已經實施一年了。 Popeyes 美國公司也實現了同樣的成長——可比銷售額成長了5.8%，淨餐廳成長了4.5%，導致整個系統銷售額又實現了11.2% 的兩位數成長，數位銷售組合創紀錄地從不足25% 成長[20% ] 到2022 年。我們在11 月將Wings 擴展為5 種口味的平台，很快就讓我們成為全國快餐店中排名第三的Wings 玩家，並有助於推動配送和移動訂單和支付等數位管道的流量。我們很高興看到這種正面影響，但我們知道 2024 年及以後還有更多增量需要釋放，首先要提高大眾意識。

Two days ago, Popeyes ran its first-ever Super Bowl commercial, featuring well-known comedian Ken Jeong in a funny and impactful ad that made sure everyone watching the game would know Popeyes now has the best Wings in America. We have also seen extensive media coverage about the ad. So great execution by the team to bring mass awareness to this important growth platform. We are also in early stages of implementing our easy-to-run kitchens at Popeyes that will transform the guest and team member experience. These retrofits provide new equipment, updated kitchen layouts, technology upgrades and process simplification, all geared to help solve fundamental operational hurdles that impacts speed and overall guest satisfaction while upholding our excellent product quality.

兩天前，大力水手推出了首個超級盃廣告，由著名喜劇演員肯·鄭(Ken Jeong) 主演的一則有趣而有影響力的廣告，確保每個觀看比賽的人都知道大力水手現在擁有美國最好的翅膀。我們也看到媒體對該廣告進行了廣泛的報導。團隊的出色執行力讓大眾認識到這個重要的成長平台。我們也處於在 Popeyes 實施易於操作的廚房的早期階段，這將改變客人和團隊成員的體驗。這些改造提供了新設備、更新的廚房佈局、技術升級和流程簡化，所有這些都旨在幫助解決影響速度和整體賓客滿意度的基本營運障礙，同時保持我們卓越的產品品質。

We are now transitioning from initial pilots to more scaled test clusters. I'll be visiting one of these test clusters in L.A. later this month and I'm looking forward to seeing the progress the team is making firsthand. At Popeyes, we're also focused on building a system of best-in-class operators to deliver a more consistent experience while driving convenience. We made solid progress towards this goal by achieving another impressive year of unit growth, with growth across a broader set of partners and most of our openings coming from top scoring operators. We saw a clear progress in 2023 against our strategic plan Easy to Love, and this gives us confidence that the priorities in place are the right ones to ultimately drive franchise profitability to $300,000 by 2025.

我們現在正在從最初的試點過渡到更大規模的測試集群。本月晚些時候我將訪問洛杉磯的其中一個測試集群，我期待著親眼看到該團隊所取得的進展。在 Popeyes，我們也致力於建立一流的營運商系統，以在駕駛便利的同時提供更一致的體驗。我們在實現這一目標方面取得了堅實的進展，又實現了令人印象深刻的單位增長，更多的合作夥伴實現了增長，而且我們的大部分空缺職位都來自得分最高的運營商。 2023 年，我們的策略計畫 Easy to Love 取得了明顯進展，這讓我們相信，現有的優先事項是正確的，最終將在 2025 年將特許經營盈利能力提高到 30 萬美元。

Lastly, Firehouse Subs which grew comparable sales in the U.S. 3.8% and increased system-wide sales by 7.4%. There is a lot of excitement among current and new franchisees to grow this incredible brand, and we're seeing good progress in both the U.S. and Canada. In Canada, we expanded from Ontario this quarter, opening restaurants in 3 different provinces in Western Canada with incredible local operators. Earlier this year, Mike and team leaned into the brand's public safety routes and launched an exciting addition to our development incentive program to attract veterans and first responders who want to continue to serve their community in a new way as part of the Firehouse family.

最後，Firehouse Subs 在美國的可比較銷售額成長了 3.8%，全系統銷售額成長了 7.4%。目前和新的特許經營商對發展這個令人難以置信的品牌感到非常興奮，我們在美國和加拿大都看到了良好的進展。在加拿大，我們本季從安大略省開始擴張，在加拿大西部的 3 個不同省份開設了餐廳，並擁有令人難以置信的當地經營者。今年早些時候，麥克和團隊深入研究了該品牌的公共安全路線，並在我們的發展激勵計劃中推出了一項令人興奮的補充項目，以吸引退伍軍人和急救人員，他們希望作為Firehouse 大家庭的一部分，繼續以新的方式為社區服務。

We're looking forward to seeing Firehouse's development ramp up this year as we bring the brand's flavorful subs to more locations across North America. We're also focused on being a leader in digital and saw the strength in our mobile order and pay channel which helped to drive digital sales to a record 40% of system-wide sales, an exciting accomplishment driven by the continued enhancements and investments the team is making to fuel the brand's overall tech strategy. As a result of this great work, we've seen close to 1/5 of all transactions coming from our first-party mobile order and pay or levering platforms during some of our recent promotions.

我們期待看到 Firehouse 今年的發展加速，因為我們將品牌的美味潛水艇帶到了北美的更多地點。我們也專注於成為數位領域的領導者，並看到了我們行動訂單和支付管道的優勢，這有助於將數位銷售額佔全系統銷售額的比例達到創紀錄的40%，這是由持續增強和投資推動的令人興奮的成就團隊正在努力推動品牌的整體技術策略。由於這項出色的工作，在我們最近的一些促銷活動中，我們發現近 1/5 的交易來自我們的第一方行動訂單和支付或槓桿平台。

With that, I'll now turn it over to Matt to discuss our financial results for the quarter. Matt?

現在，我將把它交給馬特，討論我們本季的財務表現。馬特？

Thanks, Josh, and good morning, everyone. For the fourth quarter, our global system-wide sales grew 9.6% year-over-year, while our adjusted operating income was relatively flat, up 0.5% year-over-year and our adjusted EPS was up 4.4% organically. The primary drivers of the difference between system-wide sales growth and organic adjusted operating income growth where our $40 million of support behind our Fuel the Flame program at Burger King U.S. and an $11 million true-up to trade expenses in our Tim Hortons consumer packaged goods business. Combined, these had an impact of negative 7% on our year-over-year growth in adjusted operating income for the quarter.

謝謝，喬什，大家早安。第四季度，我們的全球全系統銷售額年增 9.6%，而調整後的營業收入相對持平，較去年同期成長 0.5%，調整後的每股盈餘有機成長 4.4%。全系統銷售成長和有機調整營業收入成長之間差異的主要驅動因素是，我們為美國漢堡王的「Fuel the Flame」計畫提供了4,000 萬美元的支持，以及Tim Hortons 消費者包裝中的1,100 萬美元的貿易支出調整貨物業務。綜合起來，這些因素對我們本季調整後營業收入的年增率產生了 7% 的負影響。

For background, in the Tims CPG business, we have typically held a steady run rate of promotional spend as a percentage of revenues that has been tight versus industry. But in 2023 saw consumer price sensitivity and competition in Canada intensify considerably as the year progressed, which resulted in a greater-than-expected investment required to maintain our leading market share. We successfully held our share but realized an $11 million true-up to close our year-to-date promotions from prior quarters. Given the continued pressures across Canadian retail, we expect our trade investments to remain elevated in 2024.

作為背景，在 Tims CPG 業務中，我們通常保持穩定的促銷支出佔收入的比例，與行業相比一直很緊張。但到 2023 年，隨著時間的推移，加拿大的消費者價格敏感度和競爭顯著加劇，這導致我們維持領先市場份額所需的投資超出預期。我們成功持有了我們的份額，但實現了 1100 萬美元的調整，以結束前幾季的今年迄今為止的促銷活動。鑑於加拿大零售業持續面臨壓力，我們預計 2024 年貿易投資將維持在高水準。

Aside from this impact to our Canadian CPG business, our underlying Tims supply chain business has continued performing well with stable margins over the past few quarters. For the fourth quarter and full year 2023, this business grew positive mid-single digits year-over-year, in line with the healthy traffic and volume growth that we've been driving across Canada.

除了對我們的加拿大 CPG 業務的影響之外，我們的基礎 Tims 供應鏈業務在過去幾個季度繼續表現良好，利潤率穩定。在 2023 年第四季和全年，該業務同比實現中個位數正成長，這與我們在加拿大各地推動的健康流量和銷售成長一致。

Our adjusted operating income was also impacted by higher segment G&A and increased bad debt expense of $13 million, primarily impacting our Burger King segment as an expected result of finalizing a few portfolio restructurings in the quarter. Segment G&A, which included equity-based compensation of $53 million, came in at $176 million, up $21 million year-over-year. The increase in segment G&A largely reflects higher compensation-related expenses associated with hiring, mainly across operations and franchising.

我們調整後的營業收入也受到部門一般管理費用增加和壞帳費用增加 1,300 萬美元的影響，這主要影響了我們的漢堡王部門，這是本季完成一些投資組合重組的預期結果。分部 G&A 營收為 1.76 億美元，年增 2,100 萬美元，其中包括 5,300 萬美元的股權薪酬。部門一般管理費用的增加主要反映了與招聘相關的薪酬相關費用的增加，主要是在營運和特許經營方面。

Shifting to EPS. Our fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share was $0.75 compared to $0.72 last year, representing an organic increase of 4.4% year-over-year. Our adjusted EPS also included a $0.05 per share net benefit related to discrete noncash tax items, which was offset by a negative $0.08 per share headwind from the combined impact of our Burger King U.S. Fuel the Flame investment and true-up related to our CPG trade spending at Tims. Our adjusted EPS was also impacted by higher interest expense due to higher U.S. benchmark rates which flow through to approximately 20% of our debt.

轉向每股收益。第四季調整後每股收益為 0.75 美元，去年同期為 0.72 美元，年減 4.4%。我們調整後的每股盈餘還包括與離散非現金稅收項目相關的每股0.05 美元的淨收益，該收益被我們的漢堡王美國Fuel the Flame 投資和與我們的CPG 貿易相關的調整的綜合影響所帶來的每股0.08 美元的負逆風所抵消。在蒂姆斯消費。我們調整後的每股盈餘也受到利息支出增加的影響，因為美國基準利率上升影響了我們約 20% 的債務。

Turning now to capital structure and cash flow. During the quarter, we generated $356 million in free cash flow, reaching $1.2 billion for the year. Our free cash flow generation allowed us to continue executing on key aspects of our capital allocation policy, including $56 million of investments beyond Reclaim the Flame at Burger King U.S. and returning roughly $634 million of capital to shareholders through our dividend and share repurchases. During the quarter, we repurchased and retired 5.9 million shares of our common stock for $385 million. And today, we declared our Q1 dividend at $0.58 per common share in unit, targeting a $2.32 per share dividend for 2024 up 5.5% year-over-year. As part of Reclaim the Flame, this quarter, we deployed $40 million towards our Fuel to Flame advertising and digital investments and $16 million of capital toward our Royal Reset program including $8 million for our Royal Refresh program. We have $77 million of Fuel the Flame investment left to deploy in 2024 and $189 million of Royal Reset remaining.

現在轉向資本結構和現金流。本季度，我們產生了 3.56 億美元的自由現金流，全年達到 12 億美元。我們的自由現金流使我們能夠繼續執行資本配置政策的關鍵方面，包括除了美國漢堡王 Reclaim the Flame 之外的 5,600 萬美元投資，以及透過股息和股票回購向股東返還約 6.34 億美元的資本。本季度，我們以 3.85 億美元的價格回購並退役了 590 萬股普通股。今天，我們宣布第一季股息為每股普通股 0.58 美元，目標是 2024 年每股股息 2.32 美元，年增 5.5%。作為 Reclaim the Flame 的一部分，本季度我們為 Fuel to Flame 廣告和數位投資投入了 4000 萬美元，並為 Royal Reset 計劃投入了 1600 萬美元，其中包括用於 Royal Refresh 計劃的 800 萬美元。我們還有 7,700 萬美元的 Fuel the Flame 投資需要在 2024 年部署，還有 1.89 億美元的 Royal Reset 投資。

Our free cash flow was also impacted by higher cash interest impacting the 20% of our debt that is not fixed. However, free cash flow metric does not reflect the benefit of our FX and interest rate hedges which added approximately $49 million of positive cash flow in Q4.

我們的自由現金流也受到較高的現金利息的影響，這影響了我們 20% 的未固定債務。然而，自由現金流指標並未反映我們的外匯和利率對沖的好處，這在第四季度增加了約 4,900 萬美元的正現金流。

We ended the year with a liquidity position of approximately $2.4 billion, including $1.1 billion of cash and saw our adjusted EBITDA net leverage ratio remained consistent at 4.8x given our share repurchase activity in the quarter. Looking ahead, we remain confident in reaching our mid-4x target net leverage ratio by the end of this year even after accounting for the pending acquisition of Carrols.

截至年底，我們的流動性部位約為 24 億美元，其中包括 11 億美元現金，考慮到本季的股票回購活動，調整後的 EBITDA 淨槓桿率保持在 4.8 倍。展望未來，即使考慮到即將收購的 Carrolls，我們仍然有信心在今年年底前達到 4 倍中期的目標淨槓桿率。

Now I'd like to wrap up with some guidance for 2024 on G&A, capital expenditures and interest expense. Excluding the pending acquisition of Carrols, we currently expect segment G&A between $680 million and $700 million, including equity-based compensation between $190 million and $200 million. Following the ramp-up of our G&A investments over the past few years, we exited 2023 in a solid place and expect our level of segment G&A on an absolute dollar basis to be more consistent from quarter-to-quarter in 2024 as compared to 2023.

現在，我想以 2024 年關於一般管理費用、資本支出和利息支出的一些指導作為結束語。不包括即將收購的 Carrolls，我們目前預計該部門的一般管理費用在 6.8 億美元至 7 億美元之間，其中基於股權的薪酬在 1.9 億美元至 2 億美元之間。隨著過去幾年我們 G&A 投資的增加，我們在 2023 年結束時表現穩健，預計 2024 年以絕對美元計算的分部 G&A 水準將比 2023 年更加一致。

We currently expect total aggregate 2024 capital expenditures, tenant inducements and remodel incentives which, as a reminder, flow through working capital to be roughly $300 million, primarily driven by continued Burger King U.S. image investments, like our expanded Royal Refresh program and remodel investments, increased remodels at Tims in Canada, technology investments across segments and other brand-led growth initiatives like our Firehouse development incentive program.

我們目前預計2024 年資本支出、租戶激勵和改造激勵總額總計約為3 億美元，提醒一下，流動資金約為3 億美元，這主要是由漢堡王美國形象投資的持續推動，例如我們擴大的皇家刷新規劃和改造投資，加拿大 Tims 的改造增加、跨細分市場的技術投資以及其他品牌主導的成長計劃（例如我們的 Firehouse 開發激勵計劃）。

Finally, based on the current interest rate environment, we expect 2024 net interest expense, excluding the acquisition of Carrols in the $555 million to $565 million range. based on an average SOFR rate of 4.6%, flowing through to approximately 20% of our debt. With that, I'll now hand it over to Patrick for some additional thoughts on the business.

最後，根據目前的利率環境，我們預計 2024 年淨利息支出（不包括對 Carrolls 的收購）將達到 5.55 億至 5.65 億美元的範圍。基於 4.6% 的平均 SOFR 利率，約占我們債務的 20%。現在，我將把它交給帕特里克，讓他對業務提出一些額外的想法。

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Before I talk about the really exceptional improvement in franchisee profitability year-over-year, I'd like to give you my perspective on the expectations Josh shared for 2024 net restaurant growth.

謝謝你，馬特，大家早安。在我談論特許經營商盈利能力逐年顯著改善之前，我想先向您介紹一下我對 Josh 對 2024 年餐廳淨增長的預期的看法。

Last year, we shared our plans to reach 5% plus net restaurant growth in 2024. There are a number of opportunities to generate that growth. Burger King U.S. returning to normalized closures, Firehouse Subs ramping up development, continued acceleration in growth of all brands in our international markets and acceleration in China, specifically with Burger King recapturing prepandemic levels of growth.

去年，我們計劃在 2024 年實現餐廳淨增長 5% 以上。實現這一增長的機會有很多。漢堡王美國公司恢復正常關閉，Firehouse Subs 加速發展，所有品牌在國際市場和中國市場的成長持續加速，特別是漢堡王恢復了疫情前的成長水準。

Our Burger King U.S., Firehouse and broader international assumptions are still very solid. Tom and team made great progress last year, taking the necessary steps to close underperforming restaurants to improve the long-term health of the system. As a result, we should see a roughly 50 basis point year-over-year improvement from lower gross closures at BK U.S. in 2024.

我們對漢堡王美國、Firehouse 和更廣泛的國際假設仍然非常可靠。湯姆和團隊去年取得了巨大進展，採取了必要措施關閉業績不佳的餐廳，以改善系統的長期健康。因此，我們預計 2024 年 BK U.S. 關閉總量將年減約 50 個基點。

At Firehouse, Mike and team have already turned on the development engine in Canada and are setting up the U.S. for growth through new incentive programs that really lean into Firehouse's strong community ties. Meanwhile, David and team signed development agreements in 4 markets, and are actively working to continue building the brand's overseas pipeline. But we're being practical about the pace of growth we're forecasting in China, as Josh noted.

在 Firehouse，Mike 和團隊已經啟動了加拿大的發展引擎，並正在透過新的激勵計劃促進美國的成長，這些計劃真正依賴 Firehouse 強大的社區關係。同時，David和團隊簽署了4個市場的開發協議，並積極致力於持續打造品牌的海外管線。但正如喬希指出的那樣，我們對中國的成長速度的預測是務實的。

Given each of these dynamics, we believe it's important to be upfront about near-term implications. So I think, Josh's perspective of potentially slower development in China for the balance of this year is accurate. Depending on pace of capital improvements in the system, there may be upside to our mid-4% net restaurant growth range for 2024.

考慮到這些動態，我們認為提前了解近期影響非常重要。所以我認為，喬希關於今年剩餘時間中國發展可能放緩的觀點是準確的。根據系統資本改善的步伐，2024 年我們的餐廳淨成長範圍可能會達到 4% 左右。

I'll wrap up today on franchisee profitability where our teams and franchisees have really delivered terrific results. Last year, we told you that our long-term growth as a company is entirely dependent on the growth and profitability of our franchisees. We reminded you that while our franchisees are responsible for being great operators and stewards of our brands, as their franchisor, we are responsible for giving our franchisees the opportunity to generate compelling financial returns.

今天我將總結特許經營商的獲利能力，我們的團隊和特許經營者確實取得了出色的成果。去年，我們告訴過您，我們作為一家公司的長期成長完全取決於我們特許經營商的成長和獲利能力。我們提醒您，雖然我們的特許經營商有責任成為我們品牌的優秀運營商和管理者，但作為他們的特許經營商，我們有責任為我們的特許經營商提供產生引人注目的財務回報的機會。

If we can deliver great returns for our franchisees, the entire flywheel of future reinvestments moves much more smoothly. Franchisees are excited to invest in their restaurants, great operators. Not yet franchisees are excited to work hard for the potential opportunity to become a franchisee one day and deliver over and above guest experiences. And guests receive the consistent great experiences they deserve every time they visit or order from one of our restaurants.

如果我們能為加盟主帶來豐厚的回報，那麼未來再投資的整個飛輪就會運作得更順利。特許經營商很高興投資他們的餐廳，偉大的經營者。加盟商還沒有興奮地努力工作，爭取有一天成為加盟商並提供超越賓客體驗的潛在機會。賓客每次光臨我們的餐廳或從我們的餐廳點餐時，都能獲得應有的一致優質體驗。

We committed to publicly sharing 4-wall EBITDA for our home markets annually so that you, our investors and our franchisees can hold us accountable to continue pushing forward and making progress. In 2023, we made a lot of progress. Average home market franchisee profitability is up by 30%, while our profitability as the franchisor is up 9%, and I think that's awesome. We need to deliver compelling profitability growth for our shareholders, and we're doing that. Our franchisees need to realize compelling profitability growth to continue to invest in their business and they are seeing that. This is exactly how this is supposed to work.

我們致力於每年公開分享我們國內市場的 4 面 EBITDA，以便您、我們的投資者和特許經營商能夠讓我們有責任繼續推動和取得進展。 2023年，我們取得了很大進展。國內市場特許經營商的平均盈利能力提高了 30%，而我們作為特許人的盈利能力提高了 9%，我認為這非常棒。我們需要為股東帶來令人矚目的獲利成長，我們正在這樣做。我們的加盟商需要實現令人矚目的獲利成長才能繼續投資於他們的業務，而他們已經看到了這一點。這正是它應該如何工作的。

At Tim Hortons in Canada, average 4-wall restaurant EBITDA in 2023 was over CAD 280,000, up nearly 30% from $220,000 a year ago. Burger King U.S. saw average restaurant profitability of over $205,000, representing nearly 50% growth from $140,000 a year ago and putting us well ahead of the 2024 Fuel the Flame threshold of $175,000 to unlock a higher ad fund rate from franchisees for the coming years. At Popeyes U.S., average 4-wall restaurant EBITDA grew approximately 17% year-over-year to roughly $245,000 compared to $210,000 last year. And on Firehouse subs, we saw a 38% increase in restaurant profitability, reaching $110,000 compared to $80,000, 1 year before.

在加拿大的 Tim Hortons，2023 年 4 牆餐廳的平均 EBITDA 超過 28 萬加元，比一年前的 22 萬美元增長近 30%。漢堡王美國餐廳的平均利潤超過205,000 美元，比一年前的140,000 美元增長了近50%，這使我們遠遠領先於2024 年Fuel the Flame 175,000 美元的門檻，從而在未來幾年從特許經營商那裡獲得更高的廣告資金費率。在 Popeyes U.S.，四面牆餐廳的平均 EBITDA 年成長約 17%，達到約 24.5 萬美元，而去年為 21 萬美元。在 Firehouse 潛艇上，我們看到餐廳盈利能力增長了 38%，達到 110,000 美元，而一年前為 80,000 美元。

While these results are really impressive, especially in just 1 year, we need to continue demonstrating a growth path this year and in future years. There's a lot of opportunity for our franchisees still ahead of us. To achieve this, we need to further improve operations. We've said it before, but better operators have better profitability. On average, A operators for each home market generated restaurant profitability that was 30% higher than the system average.

雖然這些結果確實令人印象深刻，尤其是在短短一年內，但我們需要在今年和未來幾年繼續展示成長路徑。我們的特許經營商仍然有很多機會。為了實現這一目標，我們需要進一步改進營運。我們之前說過，更好的業者有更好的獲利能力。平均而言，每個本土市場的 A 業者的餐廳獲利能力比系統平均高 30%。

In fact, Tims, Popeyes and Firehouse A operators have already achieved our long-term profitability targets, which I plan to share with you on Thursday. And as a result, these franchisees are generating strong unlevered paybacks. I strongly believe that we must deliver our part of this equation. But ultimately, execution is in the hands of our franchisees and those that do it better, make way more money. That should be inspiring for everyone.

事實上，Tims、Popeyes 和 Firehouse A 營運商已經實現了我們的長期盈利目標，我計劃在周四與大家分享。因此，這些特許經營商正在產生強勁的無槓桿回報。我堅信我們必須履行我們的職責。但最終，執行權掌握在我們的特許經營商手中，而那些做得更好的人可以賺更多的錢。這應該對每個人都有啟發。

I'd like to echo Josh's comments around franchisee profitability. I'm very proud of the progress our teams and franchisees made this year. Delivering results like this does not happen overnight. It requires hard work, patience and collaboration and dedication. I'm confident we will continue to move the ball down the field in the year ahead. With that, let's take your questions.

我想贊同喬希關於加盟商獲利能力的評論。我對我們的團隊和加盟商今年的進步感到非常自豪。取得這樣的成果並非一朝一夕之事。它需要努力、耐心、協作和奉獻。我相信我們將在未來的一年裡繼續前進。那麼，讓我們來回答你的問題。

(Operator Instructions). Our First question today comes from Brian Bittner of Oppenheimer.

（操作員說明）。我們今天的第一個問題來自奧本海默的布萊恩·比特納。

The updated franchisee profitability for your home markets was obviously very impressive, particularly with Burger King U.S., up 46% versus last year, and it's already way ahead of your '24 targets by $30,000 per unit. So it seems the ad contribution step-up is obviously inevitable.

更新後的國內市場特許經營商盈利能力顯然非常令人印象深刻，尤其是美國漢堡王，比去年增長了 46%，並且已經遠遠超出了 24 年每單位 30,000 美元的目標。因此，廣告貢獻的增加顯然是不可避免的。

But maybe, Patrick, you could unpack how else these better metrics can help fuel the Burger King momentum moving forward? Is it just momentum drives momentum? Or are these metrics going to help you unlock more remodels or anything else to point out? And secondly, it does seem like between 4Q and 1Q of this year, you've acquired 127 Burger King U.S. restaurants, which is surprising. It's happening at a time that franchisee profitability is exploding. So can you just help us understand the reasoning or perhaps the strategy behind these acquisitions going into the Carrols acquisition?

但也許，派崔克，你可以解釋一下這些更好的指標還能如何幫助推動漢堡王前進的勢頭？難道只是動力驅動動力嗎？或者這些指標會幫助您解鎖更多改造或其他需要指出的內容？其次，從今年第四季到第一季度，你們似乎已經收購了 127 家漢堡王美國餐廳，這令人驚訝。它發生在特許經營商盈利能力呈爆炸式增長的時期。那麼，您能否幫助我們了解卡羅爾斯收購案背後的原因或策略？

So Brian, there are really a couple of things on that. First of all, clearly, the momentum drives momentum, the flywheel is working. The other thing that I would add to your question is the 20% return on remodels that we referenced. And some of you, I've seen some speculation out there that perhaps those numbers weren't as good as we had been expecting that we talked about 12% because we hadn't shared those yet. In fact, we wanted it to go longer because, frankly, the numbers were coming in so strong that we really needed to see it go a bit longer before we were ready to believe it.

布萊恩，這確實有幾件事。首先，很明顯，動量驅動動量，飛輪在工作。我想在你的問題中補充的另一件事是我們提到的 20% 的改造回報率。你們中的一些人，我看到了一些猜測，認為這些數字可能沒有我們預期的那麼好，我們談論的是 12%，因為我們還沒有分享這些數字。事實上，我們希望它能持續更長的時間，因為坦白說，數字如此強勁，我們真的需要看到它持續更長的時間才能準備好相信它。

We believe that will work its way back down a bit over time as we get more numbers in. But there is a lot of momentum in that business right now. And look, ultimately, as franchisees get more confident about this business, as they get more confident about the return that they're going to get for remodeling restaurants, from building new restaurants. All of that generates system sales growth, which generates more advertising dollars, even off of a comparable percentage of sales. So I mean, the momentum does build on itself.

我們相信，隨著時間的推移，隨著我們獲得更多的數字，這一數字將會有所回落。但目前這項業務有很大的動力。最終，隨著特許經營者對這項業務更有信心，他們對改造餐廳、建造新餐廳所獲得的回報也更有信心。所有這些都會帶來系統銷售的成長，從而產生更多的廣告收入，即使是在銷售額的可比較百分比之外。所以我的意思是，這種勢頭確實是建立在自身之上的。

Our job is to keep that going. And I guess what I would say is 205-plus is great progress, but we're not there yet, right? I mean it's got to be higher than that. And we're looking at plans for how do we continue to increase that. Obviously, we're excited about the momentum of the business, but we're not satisfied with the level that we're at yet.

我們的工作就是讓這種情況持續下去。我想我想說的是 205+ 是巨大的進步，但我們還沒有達到這個目標，對嗎？我的意思是它必須比這個更高。我們正在研究如何繼續增加這一點的計劃。顯然，我們對業務的發展勢頭感到興奮，但我們對目前的水平並不滿意。

And I guess the last thing or the last question that you asked was about corporate restaurants and the addition of restaurants at the end of the quarter. That's simply from some of the workouts that you read about last year. We provided a home for some of those restaurants as we work through those 3 bankruptcies last year. Most of them already from those were sold to smaller, great franchisees. We were excited to have join our system.

我想你問的最後一件事或最後一個問題是關於企業餐廳和季度末新增餐廳的。這只是您去年讀到的一些運動的結果。去年，我們在處理這 3 家破產事件時，為其中一些餐廳提供了住所。其中大部分已出售給規模較小​​、規模較大的特許經營商。我們很高興加入我們的系統。

Some of the restaurants that you saw on our books at the end of the year will still be sold off soon, and we expect that number is going to work back down over time. But we're fine holding those until we find a great long-term operator for those franchisees. We're going to work through those expeditiously. We don't expect to hold those particularly for the long term. There are a few in South Florida that we may. But ultimately, that's kind of a transitory thing.

您在今年年底在我們的預訂中看到的一些餐廳仍將很快被出售，我們預計這一數字會隨著時間的推移而回落。但我們可以保留這些，直到我們為這些特許經營商找到一個優秀的長期經營者。我們將迅速解決這些問題。我們預計不會特別長期持有這些股票。我們可以在南佛羅裡達州找到一些。但最終，這只是暫時的事情。

Brian, if I could just add on the first part on your question of how does this flow back into the system. I think there are some really kind of practical day-to-day things that are happening that are fueling our growth. And I think as we're seeing sales and profitability improve, that also allows our operators to increase the staffing levels in the restaurant. So we've got better staffing. It means our speed is getting faster. We're also being able to expand operating hours.

布萊恩，如果我可以補充你的問題的第一部分，即它如何回流到系統中。我認為正在發生的一些實際的日常事情正在推動我們的成長。我認為，隨著我們看到銷售額和盈利能力的提高，這也使我們的經營者能夠增加餐廳的人員配備水準。所以我們有更好的人員配置。這意味著我們的速度越來越快。我們也能夠延長營業時間。

Again, that helps a lot. And the improvements in the franchise profitability are also allowing our operators to reinvest in some of these initiatives like the short-term role refresh where we're getting new technology into the restaurants, new equipment. I'll tell you, I see it when I'm out in the restaurants with Tom. There's a lot of improved technology in the restaurants, and we have a lot of updated new pieces of equipment. And I think our guests are seeing that, and they're feeling that in improved product quality that we're getting out of the new equipment. So there's a lot of things that sort of drive the flywheel forward, and I think we're benefiting from a number of them right now.

再說一遍，這很有幫助。特許經營獲利能力的提高也使我們的經營者能夠對其中一些措施進行再投資，例如短期角色更新，我們將新技術引入餐廳、新設備。我告訴你，當我和湯姆一起去餐廳時我看到了它。餐廳的技術有很多改進，我們有很多更新的新設備。我認為我們的客人已經看到了這一點，他們感覺到我們透過新設備提高了產品品質。因此，有很多因素可以推動飛輪前進，我認為我們現在正在從其中的一些因素中受益。

Our next question today comes from Danilo Gargiulo of [Bernstein]

今天我們的下一個問題來自 [Bernstein] 的 Danilo Gargiulo

Can you please elaborate maybe a little bit more on the strategic rationale for shifting the budget from remodeled to refresh? Maybe if you can also help us understand the uplift post refresh that you're seeing today?

您能否詳細說明將預算從改造轉向更新的策略理由？也許您也可以幫助我們了解您今天看到的刷新後的提升？

Yes. Thanks, Danilo. So as I mentioned, we just saw a ton of excitement within the system. Our franchisees really like that short-term Royal Reset. And we started to make those investments, and we started to see a big impact on those restaurants. So all of the restaurants that we were able to touch with upgrades, with new equipment, we started to see those outperform the rest of the system. And I think that generated a lot of discussion between Tom and team and the franchisees on how we could do even more of that.

是的。謝謝，達尼洛。正如我所提到的，我們剛剛在系統中看到了很多令人興奮的事情。我們的加盟商非常喜歡短期的皇家重置。我們開始進行這些投資，我們開始看到對這些餐廳的巨大影響。因此，我們能夠接觸到的所有餐廳都進行了升級，並配備了新設備，我們開始看到它們的表現優於系統的其他部分。我認為這在湯姆和團隊以及特許經營者之間引發了很多討論，討論我們如何做得更多。

So we decided to shift a little bit more money to that just based on the returns that we were seeing. And on top of that, if you think about -- once we do the Carrols acquisition, Carrols would have been a meaningful part of that -- kind of the first couple of years of remodel. And now that's taken out of the program. So it frees up some capital for us to do other things. And so we're deploying it in some of the things that we can do to impact as many restaurants as possible as quickly as possible and keep the positive performance going.

因此，我們決定根據我們所看到的回報，投入更多的資金。最重要的是，如果你想一想——一旦我們收購了卡羅爾斯，卡羅爾斯將成為其中有意義的一部分——就像最初幾年的改造一樣。現在這已從計劃中刪除了。所以它釋放了一些資金讓我們可以做其他事情。因此，我們將其部署在一些我們可以做的事情中，以盡快影響盡可能多的餐廳並保持積極的業績。

The next question comes from John Ivankoe of JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的約翰·伊万科。

I think in your prepared remarks, correct me, but I heard some softness or perhaps slowing in Burger King in Western Europe. So I wanted to elaborate on your -- kind of on those comments and if you think they're specifically related to the Middle East conflict. And if you can juxtapose those comments with what you said about fiscal '23 development were some of the highest rates of development were in France and Spain, I think, specifically, and whether we could potentially see slower overall unit development as same-store sales have slowed in '24 and perhaps '25.

我認為在你準備好的發言中，請糾正我，但我聽到西歐的漢堡王有點疲軟或可能放緩。因此，我想詳細說明您的這些評論，以及您是否認為它們與中東衝突特別相關。如果你能將這些評論與你所說的關於23 財年開發的內容並列起來，我認為，具體來說，開發率最高的是法國和西班牙，以及我們是否可能會看到整體單位開發隨著同店銷售的放緩24 年甚至 25 年成長放緩。

Yes, John, thanks for the question. A few thoughts on this one. So we did see a bit of a sequential slowdown in terms of same-store sales in Western Europe. I think some of that was expected just as you're seeing inflation decelerate a bit. So I think that's the biggest driver of what we're seeing there. Though I would say we still did pretty well in markets like France, which has been a fantastic market for us. It was a little bit slower, but we were still positive, and we're still taking share there. I think we're happy with the business performance.

是的，約翰，謝謝你的提問。關於這一點的一些想法。因此，我們確實看到西歐同店銷售出現了一定程度的連續放緩。我認為其中一些是預期的，就像你看到通膨略有放緩一樣。所以我認為這是我們所看到的最大驅動因素。不過我想說，我們在法國等市場仍然做得很好，這對我們來說是一個非常棒的市場。雖然速度慢了一點，但我們仍然很積極，而且我們仍然在那裡搶佔份額。我認為我們對業務表現感到滿意。

We don't see any particular correlation with the conflict Middle East in terms of the performance that we're seeing in Western Europe. And I think on your last point, John, in terms of development, it is true that France and Spain are some of the bigger contributors to development, and we expect that to continue into 2024. We're not seeing any big impact on development expectations in Western Europe. So we expect continued positive progress there this year.

就我們在西歐看到的表現而言，我們認為與中東衝突沒有任何特別的相關性。約翰，我認為關於你的最後一點，就發展而言，法國和西班牙確實是對發展做出較大貢獻的國家之一，我們預計這種情況將持續到2024 年。我們沒有看到對發展有任何重大影響西歐的期望。因此，我們預計今年將繼續取得積極進展。

Our next question comes from David Palmer of Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 David Palmer。

Great job with the North America brands. But I wanted to ask you about Tim Hortons supply chain and the CPG coffee profit. Over the last couple of years, I think the profit for that has been something like 3%. There's been some quarterly volatility like you've talked about. I'm wondering what is the profit outlook for these businesses or that combined lined item, sales net of cost of sales for '24? And what's the future outlook for this business in your view?

與北美品牌合作非常出色。但我想問你有關 Tim Hortons 供應鏈和 CPG 咖啡利潤的問題。在過去的幾年裡，我認為其利潤約為 3%。正如您所說，出現了一些季度波動。我想知道這些企業的利潤前景或合併後的項目、扣除銷售成本的 24 年銷售額如何？您認為這項業務的未來前景如何？

Dave, it's Matt here. Thanks for the question. Yes, so I think the way -- just to point out for everyone, the CPG business and supply chain both roll up into our sales cost of sales lines. And so those are together. I think for 2023 for the full year, what you saw in terms of our margin there was around 18%. And if you adjust for the true-up that happened in Q4, the Q4 margin levels were kind of at a similar place.

戴夫，我是馬特。謝謝你的提問。是的，所以我想這樣——只是想向大家指出，CPG 業務和供應鏈都計入我們的銷售成本。所以這些都是在一起的。我認為 2023 年全年，我們的利潤率約為 18%。如果你根據第四季發生的調整進行調整，第四季的利潤水準也處於類似的水準。

Looking forward, I think given normal seasonality that we've seen in the beginning of the year, we would expect Q1 to come in at kind of a similar level of margin. But then I think for the full year in 2024, we see an opportunity to recover to more normalized levels that we saw in 2022. So I think overall, though, we feel good about the direction of the business and the core margin profile that we're seeing in the supply chain business. And it's tracking very nicely in terms of organic growth along with the Tim Hortons business across Canada and the traffic and volumes that we're driving there.

展望未來，我認為考慮到我們在年初看到的正常季節性，我們預計第一季的利潤率將達到類似水平。但我認為，在 2024 年全年，我們看到了恢復到 2022 年更加正常化水平的機會。因此，我認為總體而言，我們對業務方向和核心利潤狀況感到滿意。我們在供應鏈業務中看到了這一點。在有機成長方面，它與蒂姆霍頓在加拿大的業務以及我們在那裡推動的交通和銷售方面都表現得非常好。

The CPG business, as we called out, had very challenging conditions through -- especially into the second half of the year. And so that's what drove the true-up of the promotional expense there. We're going to continue spending a bit more in that business, but we still have leading market share. We held our market share over the past couple of quarters. And we've also brought in a new team and experienced leadership. And I think we have a good outlook on being able to deploy those promotional investments more effectively going forward and more of an even cadence in 2024.

正如我們所指出的，快速消費品業務的處境非常具有挑戰性，特別是在今年下半年。這就是推動促銷費用上漲的原因。我們將繼續在該業務上投入更多資金，但我們仍然擁有領先的市場份額。我們在過去幾個季度保持了市場份額。我們還引入了新的團隊和經驗豐富的領導層。我認為，我們對未來能夠更有效地部署這些促銷投資以及 2024 年更均勻的節奏抱有良好的前景。

Next in queue, we have Dennis Geiger of UBS.

接下來是瑞銀集團的丹尼斯蓋皮。

Great. Encouraging progress for the BK and Tims brands in their home markets. Wondering off the back of some of the comments on the CPG business with Tims in Canada and the consumer there. If you could talk a little more about what you're seeing from your customers across the U.S. and Canada as it relates to those 2 brands beyond CPG, anything with the low-income consumers or other behavior changes to call out? And I guess more importantly, if you could highlight kind of how those 2 key brands in their home markets are positioned, if we're in a more challenged spending environment, what that means for the brands, for market share? Perhaps anything on that front?

偉大的。鼓勵 BK 和 Tims 品牌在國內市場取得進步。想了解加拿大 Tims 和那裡的消費者對 CPG 業務的一些評論。如果您能多談談您從美國和加拿大的客戶那裡看到的與 CPG 之外的這兩個品牌相關的情況，有什麼需要指出的低收入消費者或其他行為變化嗎？我想更重要的是，如果你能強調這兩個關鍵品牌在其國內市場的定位，如果我們處於更具挑戰性的消費環境，這對品牌和市場佔有率意味著什麼？也許這方面有什麼？

Dennis, so in terms of what we're seeing with the consumer -- overall, we're not seeing big behavioral changes. I would point out a couple of things from Q4 that are most relevant in our mind. One, within the Tim Hortons business in Canada, we pointed out that we had really solid same-store sales, but it was combined with a really good mix of traffic. We've seen that throughout the year, but we're kind of half-and-half mix, which means we had solid traffic. And I think that's the consumer in Canada reacting to some great new products and really great operations. So we haven't seen a big deviation from the Canadian consumer.

丹尼斯，就我們在消費者身上看到的情況而言，總的來說，我們沒有看到重大的行為變化。我想指出第四季中與我們最相關的幾件事。第一，在加拿大的 Tim Hortons 業務中，我們指出我們的同店銷售非常穩定，但它與非常好的客流量組合相結合。我們全年都看到這種情況，但我們是一半一半的混合，這意味著我們有穩定的流量。我認為這是加拿大消費者對一些出色的新產品和真正出色的營運的反應。所以我們還沒看到加拿大消費者出現很大的偏差。

And then similarly in -- with Burger King in the U.S., our biggest business there, we noted that traffic was positive in Q4 for the first time in a while. So we've seen pretty good health within the consumer and the U.S. QSR space, and we're pretty happy with it. So no big behavioral shifts that I would point to.

同樣，我們在美國最大的業務漢堡王也注意到，第四季的客流量在一段時間內首次出現正成長。因此，我們看到消費者和美國 QSR 領域的健康狀況非常好，我們對此感到非常滿意。所以我不會指出重大的行為轉變。

In terms of how our brands are positioned. I always go back to the fact that our brands are in a great place for any part of the cycle. We offer great value, high-quality products and convenience. I think that's true across our entire portfolio. I think we're already really well positioned. And as long as we keep doing what we're doing, which is focusing on the basics of the industry, trying to do everything right around quality, service and convenience. That's what's driving our results right now, and I think that's going to serve us well and allow us to keep driving good results into 2024 regardless of what happens with the overall consumer environment.

就我們的品牌定位而言。我總是回顧這樣一個事實：我們的品牌在周期的任何階段都處於有利位置。我們提供超值、高品質的產品和便利。我認為我們整個投資組合都是如此。我認為我們已經處於非常有利的位置。只要我們繼續做我們正在做的事情，即專注於行業的基礎，並努力圍繞品質、服務和便利性做好一切。這就是我們目前業績的推動因素，我認為這將對我們很有幫助，並使我們能夠在 2024 年繼續取得良好的業績，無論整體消費者環境發生什麼變化。

Yes. Maybe just one quick thing to add there to Josh's comments on the U.S. and BK. On the positive traffic, we did see positive traffic across all income groups as well.

是的。也許只是在喬希對美國和英國的評論中添加一件事。在正向的流量方面，我們確實也看到了所有收入群體的正向流量。

The next question comes from Andrew Charles of TD Cowen.

下一個問題來自 TD Cowen 的 Andrew Charles。

Josh or Patrick, I'll just take the last question, maybe ask it a different way. Curious about your level of confidence of sustaining BK U.S. and Tims Canada traffic growth in 2024. And really specific to BK U.S. recognizing what could be an intensified value focus for the U.S. industry in 2024, suggested by your largest competitor?

喬許或派崔克，我只回答最後一個問題，也許用不同的方式問。想知道您對 2024 年維持 BK U.S. 和 Tims Canada 流量增長的信心程度。具體到 BK U.S. 是否認識到您最大的競爭對手提出的 2024 年美國行業可能會加強的價值焦點是什麼？

Yes. Thanks, Andrew. I'll share a couple of thoughts, Patrick, feel free to jump in as well. Like I said, I just think there's so much stuff that Tom and team are doing that's focused on the basics. That's going to allow us to drive traffic, not just this year, but for many years to come.

是的。謝謝，安德魯。我將分享一些想法，派崔克，也請隨意加入。就像我說的，我只是認為湯姆和團隊正在做的很多事情都集中在基礎知識上。這將使我們能夠增加流量，不僅是今年，而且是未來很多年。

We're improving our operations. We're doing really cool things, focusing on our core equities, whether it's the new commercials about it ain't the same without the flame, focusing on the whopper with $1 million whopper, it's a lot of stuff that's going to create consumer excitement around our strongest core equities. I think that's wonderful. And we're also doing a lot more remodels. I mentioned we're going to go from just over 250 remodels to 400 remodels. Those are the kind of things that drive more customers into your stores, and we're doing more and more of them and doing them really well.

我們正在改善我們的營運。我們正在做非常酷的事情，專注於我們的核心股票，無論是關於它的​​新廣告，沒有火焰都不一樣，專注於價值 100 萬美元的皇堡，有很多東西會引起消費者的興奮圍繞我們最強大的核心股票。我認為那太好了。我們也進行了更多的改造。我提到我們將從 250 多次改造增加到 400 次改造。這些都是吸引更多顧客進入您商店的事情，我們正在做越來越多的事情，而且做得非常好。

So that's the stuff that I think gives us a lot of confidence in the outlook for this year and beyond. And at Tims, we're -- I think we noted -- we're now, I think, in year 5 back to the basics and Axel and the team up there are doing a really nice job driving growth. They're doing it through all the ways we've been talking about with PM food and cold beverage. And we have a pretty exciting pipeline of new innovations that are coming on those fronts in 2024 that I think are going to keep bringing our guests back even more often.

我認為這讓我們對今年及以後的前景充滿信心。在 Tims，我們——我想我們注意到——我們現在，我認為，在第五年回到了基礎，阿克塞爾和團隊在推動成長方面做得非常好。他們正在透過我們一直在談論的下午食品和冷飲的所有方式來做到這一點。我們在 2024 年將在這些方面推出一系列令人興奮的新創新，我認為這些創新將繼續吸引我們的客人更多地回來。

Yes. I guess the only thing I'd add is, I mean, first, at Burger King, you're just seeing more and more things that we're getting done that are going to contribute to the growth. So more remodels coming on working through some of the tough situations with some franchisees, continued great advertising. And most importantly, franchisees getting more and more aligned and excited about the progress that we're making in the brands. That increase in profitability is not only important in the absolute, but it's important in the belief of our franchisees and what they're going to be able to accomplish with the brand. So you can feel that momentum building around BK in the U.S.

是的。我想我唯一要補充的是，我的意思是，首先，在漢堡王，你會看到我們正在做的越來越多的事情將有助於成長。因此，更多的改造正在進行中，與一些特許經營商一起解決一些困難的情況，繼續進行精彩的廣告。最重要的是，加盟商對我們在品牌方面取得的進步越來越一致並感到興奮。獲利能力的提高不僅在絕對意義上很重要，而且對於我們的特許經營者的信念以及他們將能夠透過該品牌實現的目標也很重要。所以你可以感受到美國 BK 周圍正在形成的勢頭。

On the Tims side, this is, as Josh said, the continuation of returns from the investments that they made a number of years ago as they got everything right in that business. I love that business. The team is leading it exceptionally well. The franchisees are doing well. Their profits being up the way they were, was terrific year-over-year. Still more progress to be made there, but just very, very excited about the strength of that brand and glad that I don't have to compete with them. They are really good. They are really, really good in Canada, doing a lot of things right.

在蒂姆斯方面，正如喬許所說，這是他們多年前進行的投資的持續回報，因為他們在該業務中一切順利。我喜歡那個生意。該團隊的領導力非常出色。加盟商經營狀況良好。他們的利潤同比增長非常驚人。那裡還有更多進展，但對該品牌的實力非常非常興奮，並且很高興我不必與他們競爭。他們真的很好。他們在加拿大真的非常非常好，做了很多正確的事情。

Our next question comes from Chris Carril of RBC Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的克里斯·卡里爾。

So on the development outlook update that you provided, you highlighted the slower-than-expected China growth this year. Patrick and Josh, I know you touched on this briefly in your prepared remarks, but can you maybe expand a bit more on what or which markets you're most confident will contribute to the acceleration in development this year even if it is a little bit lower than you previously thought?

因此，在您提供的發展前景更新中，您強調了今年中國經濟成長低於預期。派崔克和喬什，我知道你們在準備好的發言中簡要地提到了這一點，但是你們能否進一步闡述你們最有信心哪些或哪些市場將有助於今年的發展加速，即使是一點點比你之前想的要低？

Yes. Thanks, Chris. So a few different things that I think are going to be helpful this year. And Patrick, I think, mentioned a few of them earlier, but I'll give a quick recap as well.

是的。謝謝，克里斯。我認為今年有一些不同的事情會有所幫助。我想帕特里克之前提到過其中一些，但我也會快速回顧一下。

In terms of BK U.S., that's definitely one of our focus areas. We had a bit more closures in 2023. Based on the incredible sales and improvements in profitability that Tom and the team have been driving, that gives us a lot of confidence that we're going to be able to improve the unit trajectory there in a meaningful way this year. So that feels like it's on track and moving in the right direction.

就 BK U.S. 而言，這絕對是我們的重點領域之一。 2023 年，我們關閉了更多工廠。基於湯姆和團隊一直在推動的令人難以置信的銷售和盈利能力的提高，這給了我們很大的信心，我們將能夠在一段時間內改善那裡的單位發展軌跡。今年有意義的方式。所以感覺就像它已經步入正軌並且朝著正確的方向前進。

The second big bucket is Firehouse. And there -- we've talked a lot about some of the new development programs we've put in place. We're getting a lot of uptake on those and we're starting to see the pipelines fill up and a lot of the sites moving through those pipelines. So I'm pretty confident we're going to see a meaningful step-up in the Firehouse development, both in the U.S. and Canada. We had some incredible openings out in Western Canada in Q4. And I think there's a lot of excitement for the brand across Canada. So those 2 things feel like they're moving in the right direction.

第二個大桶是Firehouse。在那裡，我們已經討論了很多我們已經實施的一些新的開發計劃。我們對這些內容進行了大量的吸收，我們開始看到管道已滿，並且許多網站正在通過這些管道移動。因此，我非常有信心我們將看到美國和加拿大的 Firehouse 開發取得有意義的進展。第四季度，我們在加拿大西部地區出現了一些令人難以置信的空缺。我認為這個品牌在加拿大各地都很令人興奮。所以這兩件事感覺他們正在朝著正確的方向發展。

We've got some good stuff happening in international across our new brands, especially some of the stuff that we're doing with Popeyes and Tims. We have some of the Popeyes markets that are ramping up. Think of places like Popeyes in India or Popeyes in the U.K. There are a number of those markets, Popeyes in France is another great one. We were there just a few months ago, and they're doing a really nice job. So there's a lot of good Popeyes' markets that are ramping up, and I think we'll see some positive momentum on in 2024.

我們的新品牌在國際上取得了一些好成績，尤其是我們與 Popeyes 和 Tims 合作的一些成果。我們的一些大力水手市場正在蓬勃發展。想想像印度的 Popeyes 或英國的 Popeyes 這樣的地方。這樣的市場有很多，法國的 Popeyes 是另一個很棒的市場。幾個月前我們去過那裡，他們做得非常好。因此，大力水手的許多優質市場正在蓬勃發展，我認為我們將在 2024 年看到一些積極的勢頭。

The other side of that, obviously, is what's going on in China. And I think there's a -- there are a couple of factors that are going in there. One, we've seen a continued shift to some of these smaller express units within Tims that as we mentioned, we don't count in our restaurant count. So that has some impact on the KPI. And we also do believe that there needs to be some more capital put into that business to really realize its potential. And then on BK China, you probably saw -- we actually did see a step forward in 2023. We were up to around 176, I think, net new units for the year. But I think there is some question on the outlook and kind of appetite and alignment for growth there. That's impacting our outlook for the full year.

顯然，另一方面是中國正在發生的事情。我認為其中有幾個因素。第一，我們看到 Tims 內部不斷轉向一些較小的快遞單位，正如我們所提到的，我們不計入我們的餐廳數量。所以這對 KPI 有一定的影響。我們也確實相信，需要投入更多資本才能真正發揮其潛力。然後在 BK China 上，您可能會看到 - 我們確實在 2023 年看到了向前邁出的一步。我認為，今年我們的淨新單位數量達到了 176 左右。但我認為，那裡的前景、興趣以及成長的一致性存在一些問題。這影響了我們全年的前景。

So that's sort of the puts and takes of it, which, as we said, we think gets us to around 4.5%. And we'll keep updating you throughout the year as we get more visibility into where that's likely to land.

這就是看跌期權和賣出期權，正如我們所說，我們認為這可以讓我們達到 4.5% 左右。隨著我們對可能發生的情況有更多的了解，我們將全年不斷向您通報最新情況。

The only thing I'd add is, look, we've got longer-term confidence in net unit growth. We really do. This is simply about China and how much capital is available to grow near term this year. All of the rest of the things that we have looked at that are going to generate unit growth are very, very much on track.

我唯一要補充的是，看，我們對淨單位成長有長期信心。我們確實如此。這只是關於中國以及今年有多少資本可用於近期成長。我們所關注的所有其他將帶來單位成長的事情都非常非常步入正軌。

Our next question comes from Brian Harbour of Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的布萊恩哈伯。

Yes. In Burger King U.S. in the fourth quarter, how much do you think -- I know there's a number of initiatives that are working very well. How much of that, though, do you think was a consequence of the marketing you did? Also, do you think that kind of the marketing investment in '24 will look similar with respect to timing? Or what else do you think was sort of a swing factor there in the fourth quarter?

是的。在美國漢堡王第四季度，你認為有多少——我知道有很多舉措效果很好。不過，您認為其中有多少是您所做的行銷的結果？另外，您認為 24 年的行銷投資在時間安排上看起來是否相似？或者您認為第四季還有哪些波動因素？

Brian. So in terms of BK U.S. in the fourth quarter, it's hard to quantify the exact breakdown, but I do think there was a positive impact from the advertising spend for sure. We're investing more. And I think the team is doing a wonderful job on the effectiveness of that advertising.

布萊恩.因此，就第四季度美國 BK 而言，很難量化具體的細分情況，但我確實認為廣告支出肯定產生了積極影響。我們正在加大投資。我認為團隊在廣告效果方面做得非常出色。

But I also think there's a big impact there from operations. It's one of the things that's underappreciated, but we're seeing a big improvement in the quality of operations and our franchisees are doing a fantastic job there. And we think that's a big part of the overall comps for the year. Potentially up to about half of the comps for the year, we think could be due to operational improvements. So I'd say that's the other largest factor in our mind.

但我也認為營運產生了很大的影響。這是被低估的事情之一，但我們看到營運品質有了很大改善，而且我們的特許經營商在那裡做得非常出色。我們認為這是今年整體業績的重要組成部分。我們認為，這可能是由於營運改進，導致今年的業績成長可能達到約一半。所以我想說這是我們心中的另一個最重要的因素。

In terms of the 2024 outlook, as we mentioned in our earlier remarks, we're about caught up in terms of where you'd expect us to be in terms of that advertising spend in the program to date. So I think we have just under $60 million left to spend in 2024. We're probably -- we're not ready to give an exact pacing of that throughout the quarters quite yet, but I would hope it will be a little bit more even than what we saw in 2023.

就 2024 年的前景而言，正如我們在先前的評論中提到的，就迄今為止該計劃的廣告支出而言，我們即將趕上您對我們的預期。因此，我認為 2024 年我們還剩下不到 6000 萬美元的支出。我們可能還沒有準備好在整個季度給出確切的節奏，但我希望能多一點甚至比我們在2023 年看到的還要多。

The next question is from Sara Senatore of Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Sara Senatore。

I just wanted to ask about just a point of clarification and then a quick question. I'll start with the question first. So you talked about positive traffic in the -- at Burger King, and I wanted to dig in there a little bit. Because you did close stores this year and historically, what we've seen is that store closures do tend to benefit the system in terms of positive comps.

我只想問一個澄清點，然後問一個簡單的問題。我先從問題開始。所以你談到了漢堡王的正面客流量，我想深入探討一下。因為今年和歷史上你們確實關閉了商店，所以我們看到，商店關閉確實往往會為系統帶來正面的回報。

So I'm trying to understand as we think through kind of that balance of unit closures versus positive traffic in the remaining stores. If you saw any benefit from that sales transfer or closing lower-performing stores? So that was one question. And then just quickly the clarification was on China. You said you're working with your Tims and Burger King partners to encourage growth. But what does that mean exactly if you're not planning on committing capital as you are in the U.S.?

因此，當我們思考單位關閉與剩餘商店的正向客流量之間的平衡時，我試著理解這一點。您是否看到銷售轉移或關閉業績不佳的商店有任何好處？這是一個問題。然後很快就對中國進行了澄清。您說您正在與蒂姆斯和漢堡王合作夥伴合作以鼓勵成長。但如果您不打算像在美國那樣投入資金，這到底代表什麼呢？

Yes. Sara, thanks for the questions. On the first one, in terms of traffic, A couple of comments I would just make there, there -- if you look at the sequencing through the year, we had been taking some closures throughout the year. And so while there may be some positive impact to that, we don't see it super clearly. And I think what's most striking to me at least is -- we saw that very consistent movement in a pretty pronounced way in terms of the trajectory of our traffic, right? We went from a pretty negative place up to low single digits negative, flat and then quite improved kind of positive low single digits in Q4. So I think that traffic improvement is really outpacing anything you'd expect to see related to the pace of closures there.

是的。薩拉，謝謝你的提問。關於第一個，就流量而言，我只想在那裡發表一些評論 - 如果你看看一年中的順序，我們全年都關閉了一些。因此，雖然這可能會產生一些積極的影響，但我們並沒有非常清楚地看到它。我認為至少對我來說最引人注目的是——就我們的交通軌跡而言，我們以一種非常明顯的方式看到了非常一致的運動，對嗎？我們從一個相當消極的地方上升到低個位數的負值，持平，然後在第四季度取得了相當大的改善，達到了低個位數的正值。因此，我認為交通改善的速度確實超出了您所期望的與那裡的關閉速度相關的任何東西。

And then on China, we kind of talk through some of the factors there. We're definitely working closely with our partners. We obviously have, as I mentioned, we have really big ambitions for what we think we should do in the market and what we think our brands can accomplish. There are a lot of different ways that we work with our partners that related to operations and profitability and capital. And we're working through all those different options with them. We don't have anything more to share on it quite yet today, but we'll bring anything back as soon as we do.

然後關於中國，我們討論了那裡的一些因素。我們肯定會與我們的合作夥伴密切合作。正如我所提到的，我們顯然對我們應該在市場上做什麼以及我們認為我們的品牌能夠實現什麼抱有很大的野心。我們與合作夥伴在營運、獲利能力和資本方面有很多不同的合作方式。我們正在與他們一起研究所有這些不同的選擇。今天我們還沒有更多可以分享的內容，但我們會盡快恢復。

Next, we have Brian Mullan of Piper Sandler.

接下來請來 Piper Sandler 的 Brian Mullan。

Just a question on Popeyes specific to the U.S. You just update us on the simplifying the operations journey that you're on. Maybe touch on what the key priorities are for 2024 as a part of the plan? And related -- I asked because the unit growth is very solid already at 4.5% last year. But is the thought that you'd actually be able to accelerate that unit growth pace once more and more operational improvements are made?

這是關於 Popeyes 在美國的具體問題。您只需向我們介紹您正在進行的簡化營運之旅的最新情況。作為計劃的一部分，也許可以談談 2024 年的關鍵優先事項是什麼？相關的－我問這個問題是因為去年的單位成長率已經非常穩定，達到 4.5%。但是，一旦進行越來越多的營運改進，您是否真的能夠加快單位成長速度？

Thanks, Brian. So in terms of where we are on improving operations, especially around what we've called our easy-to-run kitchens. So throughout 2023, we were focused on improving the model, kind of making sure we had the right combination of elements in that easy-to-run kitchen, whether that's software improvements or new pieces of equipment, new procedures, new technology. And I think we've got that increasingly well refined through those early pilot restaurants.

謝謝，布萊恩。因此，就我們在改善營運方面的情況而言，尤其是圍繞我們所謂的易於運行的廚房。因此，在整個 2023 年，我們都專注於改進模型，確保我們在易於操作的廚房中擁有正確的元素組合，無論是軟體改進還是新設備、新程式、新技術。我認為透過那些早期的試點餐廳，我們已經越來越完善了這一點。

What we're working on now is starting to ramp up deployment in clusters. So one of the ones that I mentioned is out in California. That's been one of the first places that we've got a lot of interest from franchisees. So we're going to go and do like a larger deployment in the cluster in California, and then we'll start to do a few more of those throughout the course of 2024. So we can really figure out how to refine the deployment model and do it effectively market by market. There's a big element of training that goes into that. So we want to really make sure we've got it right.

我們現在正在努力開始加快叢集部署。我提到的其中一個是在加州。這是我們最先引起加盟主濃厚興趣的地方之一。因此，我們將在加州的集群中進行更大規模的部署，然後我們將在 2024 年期間開始進行更多此類部署。因此，我們可以真正弄清楚如何完善部署模型並逐個市場有效地進行。這其中有很大一部分是培訓的內容。所以我們想真正確保我們做對了。

And from there, what you think we'll be able to scale it to the entire system hopefully later in 2024 and into 2025. So that's sort of the game plan. In terms of the impact that the easy-to-run kitchens can have on the business, I would tell you, I probably think about it more in terms of operations and guest experience than I do in terms of restaurant growth. I think what's going to be magical about this is if we can make it easier to run for the team members, and therefore, improve their guest experience through things like order accuracy, the speed of service and the drive-through friendliness. Those are the things that I think are going to really unlock the unit level potential. And I would expect to see that in our guest feedback and our product satisfaction and ultimately in the same sort of traffic and sales that we're able to drive at the restaurants. That for me will be the biggest measure of success of easy-to-run, and that's what we're looking at in the restaurants. Patrick, anything you want to add?

從那時起，您認為我們預計在 2024 年晚些時候和 2025 年將其擴展到整個系統。這就是遊戲計劃。就易於操作的廚房對業務的影響而言，我會告訴你，我可能更多地從營運和客人體驗的角度考慮，而不是從餐廳的成長角度考慮。我認為，如果我們能夠讓團隊成員的跑步變得更容易，從而透過訂單準確性、服務速度和得來速友善性等方面改善他們的賓客體驗，那麼這將是神奇的。我認為這些才是真正釋放單元級潛力的事情。我希望在我們的客人反饋和產品滿意度中看到這一點，並最終在我們能夠在餐廳推動的客流量和銷售中看到這一點。對我來說，這將是衡量易於經營成功的最大標準，這就是我們在餐廳中看到的。派崔克，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yes. The only thing I'd add is, as you look at the returns we're going to generate on Popeyes as it gets easier to run. There are really 2 things that happen when you improve service in restaurants. One is the customer is happier because they're getting a better experience, they're moving through more quickly. But the other is, frankly, just being able to fulfill against incremental demand. And if you look at Tims -- one of the reasons Tims is generating traffic growth is because they have improved their service times in Canada. You go to a Tims at 7:30 in the morning in Canada, and you are going to see very busy drive-throughs.

是的。我唯一要補充的是，當你看到我們將在 Popeyes 上產生的回報時，因為它變得更容易運行。當你改善餐廳的服務時，實際上會發生兩件事。一是客戶更高興，因為他們獲得了更好的體驗，他們的移動速度更快。但坦白說，另一個問題是能夠滿足增量需求。如果你看看 Tims，你會發現 Tims 帶來流量成長的原因之一是他們改善了在加拿大的服務時間。在加拿大，你早上 7:30 去 Tims，你會看到非常忙碌的得來速。

So if they can improve the speed of service, it's not only a better experience for the customers, but you're just simply able to generate more sales because you're able to get more people through the drive-through over the course of an hour. As we build more demands with great new products at Popeyes like Wings, our ability to fulfill against that, our ability to get them through the drive-thru, to give them better service times not only will make the customers happier, which will, in turn, generate more demand, but frankly, just our ability to get more people through the drive-through is going to increase sales.

因此，如果他們能夠提高服務速度，這不僅可以為客戶提供更好的體驗，而且您還可以產生更多的銷售額，因為您可以在整個過程中吸引更多的人通過免下車服務。小時。隨著我們對大力水手Wings 等出色的新產品提出更多需求，我們有能力滿足這項要求，我們有能力讓他們通過得來速，為他們提供更好的服務時間，這不僅會讓顧客更滿意，反過來，產生更多需求，但坦白說，只要我們有能力吸引更多人通過得來速，就會增加銷售額。

The next question is from Lauren Silberman of Deutsche Bank.

下一個問題來自德意志銀行的勞倫‧西爾伯曼。

I had another one on Tim Hortons Supply Chain margins. Can you just talk about the underlying supply chain margins, excluding the CPG business and expectations there. And if you could just remind us on how you price the franchisees in the commissary, the timing of that pass-through, how that influences the margins?

我還有另一篇關於蒂姆霍頓供應鏈利潤的文章。您能否談談基本的供應鏈利潤率，不包括消費品業務和那裡的預期。如果您能提醒我們如何為小賣部的特許經營商定價、傳遞的時間，這對利潤有何影響？

Yes. Thanks for the question, Lauren. So yes. In terms of margins, we look at it holistically across the whole category of sales cost of sales. And kind of as I said, I think we exited the year in 2023, we're around 18% margin. Q1 is seasonally lower. So it will probably be pretty consistent with that. But we do see some opportunity to drive that back up toward 2022 levels which were a bit higher around the 19% level.

是的。謝謝你的提問，勞倫。所以是的。就利潤率而言，我們從整體上看待整個銷售成本類別。正如我所說，我認為 2023 年結束時，我們的利潤率約為 18%。第一季季節性較低。所以它可能會與此非常一致。但我們確實看到了一些機會將其推回到 2022 年的水平，即 19% 左右的水平。

As it relates to pass-through of commodity prices, we do that, as you recall, we do that with a bit of a lag. So we try to price through in a reasonable way what we see happening in the commodity market, but we do that in intervals throughout the year a couple of times a year. It doesn't happen on a frequent recurring basis. Having said that, I think the overall commodity cost environment has balanced out and stabilized quite a bit over the past few quarters.

由於它與大宗商品價格的傳導有關，正如您所記得的那樣，我們這樣做時有一點滯後。因此，我們嘗試以合理的方式對商品市場上發生的情況進行定價，但我們會在一年中每隔一段時間這樣做幾次。它不會經常發生。話雖如此，我認為整體商品成本環境在過去幾季已經平衡並穩定下來。

Next we have a question from Eric Gonzalez of KeyBanc.

接下來我們有來自 KeyBanc 的 Eric Gonzalez 的問題。

Congrats on the sort of improvement in franchisee profitability at BK U.S. I'm just curious what this might mean for your U.S. franchisees and their ability to fund remodels at a faster pace. With these numbers out there in the public domain, do you think this helps franchisees get better access to capital to fund their projects? And also, I think you attributed about half the improvement to operations. To imply the other half is commodity relief -- and assuming you won't get much more relief on the commodity side, do you think you could continue to drive meaningful improvement in solo profitability without significant progress on that remodel program?

恭喜 BK 美國特許經營商盈利能力的改善。我只是好奇這對您的美國特許經營商以及他們以更快的速度資助改造的能力意味著什麼。這些數字已公開，您認為這是否有助於特許經營商更好地獲得資金來資助他們的專案？而且，我認為您將大約一半的改進歸因於營運。暗示另一半是大宗商品救濟——假設你不會在大宗商品方面獲得更多救濟，你認為在改造計劃沒有取得重大進展的情況下，你是否可以繼續推動單獨盈利能力的有意義的改善？

Yes. Thanks, Eric. Appreciate the question. I think it's for sure the case that increasing franchise profitability, it impacts the attitude of lenders towards the system. It impacts our franchisees' appetite to invest and their ability to invest -- and I think it also just shapes confidence in the future. When we have sales, traffic and profitability all moving in the right direction, I think the overall excitement of the system about where we're going. Definitely has an impact on everybody's excitement about investing. You saw that with our decision to acquire Carrols, I think that shows pretty clearly our optimism about where the system is going.

是的。謝謝，埃里克。感謝這個問題。我認為，毫無疑問，特許經營盈利能力的提高會影響貸款人對該系統的態度。它影響了我們特許經營商的投資興趣和投資能力——我認為它也塑造了對未來的信心。當我們的銷售、流量和獲利能力都朝著正確的方向發展時，我認為系統對我們的發展方向感到整體興奮。肯定會影響每個人對投資的熱情。你看到了我們收購卡羅爾斯的決定，我認為這清楚地表明了我們對系統發展方向的樂觀態度。

So I think that is definitely the case, and we're definitely feeling better about the outlook for remodels in BK U.S. One thing I would just add there, and we mentioned a little bit earlier, we already had a line of sight to getting to around 65% of the system on modern image just through the first couple of years of our Reclaim the Flame program. That was before the Carrols acquisition. Now with Carrols, we think that line of sight goes up to about 75%, which is good. But ultimately, I think we want to get the BK U.S. system -- I've said it many times to a place where almost every Burger King you see around the country is a modern convenient location. We think that probably means something like 85% to 90% of the system needs to be modern over the next few years.

所以我認為情況確實如此，我們對美國 BK 改造的前景肯定感覺更好。我想補充的一件事是，我們之前提到過，我們已經有一個視線可以到達就在我們的“回收火焰”計劃的前幾年，大約65% 的系統就以現代形象呈現。那是在卡羅爾收購之前。現在，有了卡羅爾，我們認為視線提高到了 75% 左右，這很好。但最終，我認為我們希望獲得 BK 美國系統——我已經說過很多次了，你在全國各地看到的幾乎所有漢堡王都是一個現代化的便利地點。我們認為這可能意味著 85% 到 90% 的系統需要在未來幾年內現代化。

So there will probably be some further investments. Just to give you a couple of data points to be in the right ZIP code there, we already have one of our sites at 75%, if we wanna get to 85% or 90%, that's about 1,000 more restaurants that we think we need to create to do remodels on. And in terms of the cost of that for us, if you look at what we're putting into the existing first couple of years, it's just a little bit shy of [$300,000]. So hopefully, those data points kind of give you a sense of where we want to go and some of the related investments that will come over that sort of '25 to '28 time horizon.

因此可能還會有一些進一步的投資。只是為了給您幾個數據點，以便在正確的郵遞區號中使用，我們的一個網站已經達到 75%，如果我們想達到 85% 或 90%，我們認為還需要大約 1,000 家餐廳創建進行改造。就我們的成本而言，如果你看看我們在前幾年投入的資金，你會發現它只比 [30 萬美元] 少一點。因此，希望這些數據點能讓您了解我們的發展方向，以及在「25 至 28 年」時間範圍內將進行的一些相關投資。

And then in terms of the kind of the contributors to the performance, we do think a big part of that sales and traffic performance came from operational improvements. There's obviously a lot of other stuff going on as well in terms of effectiveness of marketing and advertising spend. And I think our confidence and the ability to continue that is just driven by all the fundamentals that Tom and team are driving. And we think there's a lot more -- we just think there's a lot more to do in the BK system that will take us more years to fully realize. Patrick, do you want to add anything?

然後就業績貢獻者的類型而言，我們確實認為銷售和流量業績的很大一部分來自營運改善。顯然，在行銷和廣告支出的有效性方面還發生了很多其他事情。我認為我們的信心和繼續前進的能力是由湯姆和團隊正在推動的所有基本要素所驅動的。我們認為還有很多事情要做——我們只是認為 BK 系統還有很多事情要做，這將需要我們更多的時間才能完全實現。派崔克，你想補充什麼嗎？

Yes. The only thing I'd add is Josh just took you through the rough math on what could be the spend to kind of get us up to that 85%, 90% level. And the only thing I would say is we want to reward franchisees who are leading and investing early and are excited about the brand and the business. So if we do something at that level, that would be equal to what we had done before. And frankly, what we want to do is reward franchisees who are doing these things ahead of the curve, not at the end of the curve.

是的。我唯一要補充的是，喬許剛剛帶您粗略地算了一下，要讓我們達到 85%、90% 的水平可能要花多少錢。我唯一想說的是，我們希望獎勵那些早期領導和投資並對品牌和業務感到興奮的特許經營商。因此，如果我們在那個級別上做一些事情，那將與我們之前所做的事情相同。坦白說，我們想要做的是獎勵那些在曲線之前而不是在曲線末端做這些事情的特許經營商。

The next question comes from John Zamparo of CIBC.

下一個問題來自 CIBC 的約翰‧贊帕羅 (John Zamparo)。

I wanted to ask about the international business and in particular, store level profitability. Obviously, you've got lots of countries and formats, but I wonder if you can give any clarity on this. And I wonder how you look at store level profitability internationally, is it by country or by region or by brand? Do you have as much visibility internationally, at least in your most important markets as you do for your domestic markets? And I know you don't -- well, you want to save a lot of this for Thursday, but is store level profitability is something you plan to offer long-term guidance on?

我想詢問國際業務，特別是商店層面的獲利能力。顯然，您有很多國家和格式，但我想知道您是否可以對此進行澄清。我想知道您如何看待國際上商店層面的獲利能力，是按國家、地區還是按品牌？您在國際上（至少在最重要的市場）的知名度是否與國內市場一樣高？我知道你不會——好吧，你想在周四節省很多，但是商店層面的盈利能力是你計劃提供長期指導的嗎？

Yes, John, thanks for the question. I think it's a great point. And I would tell you, as we've thought about the last year or so, I think we really brought a big level of focus, especially to our home market franchise profitability. It's where we felt like we had the most work to do, and it's a little more straightforward. As you pointed out, it's a few markets and it's a little bit closer, we operate those markets.

是的，約翰，謝謝你的提問。我認為這是一個很好的觀點。我想告訴你，正如我們在過去一年左右所思考的那樣，我認為我們確實給予了很大的關注，特別是我們的國內市場特許經營盈利能力。這是我們感覺要做的工作最多的地方，而且更簡單。正如您所指出的，這是一些市場，而且距離更近一些，我們經營這些市場。

So I think we made a lot of progress on that, and we're going to bring increasing focus to our international markets over the next year or so. We do tend to look at it -- we look at it by brand market combinations. So we're looking at Burger King France, or Popeyes in Spain. So that tends to be the lens. And as you can imagine, that's a lot of brand market combinations for us. It's a little bit more complicated.

因此，我認為我們在這方面取得了很大進展，並且我們將在未來一年左右更加關注我們的國際市場。我們確實傾向於透過品牌市場組合來看待它。因此，我們正在關注法國的漢堡王或西班牙的大力水手。所以這往往是鏡頭。正如你可以想像的那樣，這對我們來說有很多品牌市場組合。這有點複雜。

We're looking there -- when we look at each of those, we are looking at profitability per unit. But I think probably the easiest metric to look at across all those markets is the payback period. We want to get to a model where our franchisees are realizing compelling paybacks. That's going -- that's what drives the viability of the business and causes folks to wanna reinvest and grow those businesses more.

我們正在關注這一點——當我們審視每一個方面時，我們關注的是每單位的獲利能力。但我認為在所有這些市場中最容易衡量的指標可能是投資回收期。我們希望建立一種模式，使我們的特許經營商能夠實現令人信服的回報。這就是推動企業生存能力並促使人們想要進一步投資和發展這些企業的原因。

So that is exactly the right way. I think as we shift increasing focus to those international country paybacks, we'll bring more visibility over time, and we'll figure out the right ways to communicate those -- that sort of balance, I think, simplicity with trying to be clear and transparent with everybody. Patrick, do you want anything else you want to add on kind of long-term outlooks or anything?

所以這就是正確的方法。我認為，隨著我們將越來越多的注意力轉向這些國際國家的回報，隨著時間的推移，我們將帶來更多的可見性，並且我們將找到正確的方式來傳達這些訊息——我認為，這種平衡是簡單而清晰的並且對每個人都是透明的。派崔克，您還想補充一些關於長期前景的內容嗎？

I mean, it's complicated on the international side. What we've focused on, and we have had that discussion many times inside. And there's no way to kind of give you a clean, single answer on that. What we look at is our team, David and his team's job is to find great partners and then help those partners in the early years, work their way to a good return on those units. There is a point at which the master franchisee kind of takes over that job. You're going to continue to help them over time. But if you've gotten them to a good cash-on-cash return, they understand the business well.

我的意思是，國際方面情況很複雜。我們關注的是什麼，我們內部已經討論過很多次了。對此我們沒有辦法給你一個明確、單一的答案。我們關注的是我們的團隊，大衛和他的團隊的工作是尋找優秀的合作夥伴，然後在早期幫助這些合作夥伴，努力為這些單位帶來良好的回報。在某個時刻，主特許經營者會接手這項工作。隨著時間的推移，你將繼續幫助他們。但如果你讓他們獲得了良好的現金回報，他們就很了解這項業務。

In France, we've got great returns on our businesses. In Spain, we've got great returns on our businesses, and these are very experienced master franchisees. We can help them some, but frankly, it's probably more important for us to get, for instance, Popeyes launch in France right versus the contribution we're going to make to Burger King in France where they've already got 500 units. So we've spent a lot of time kind of working through that. And there's -- I don't think there's a way we're ever going to be able to give you kind of a clean answer for overall on international. Really, what we're going to give you more, I think, is just guidance on look, and this is true.

在法國，我們的業務獲得了豐厚的回報。在西班牙，我們的業務獲得了豐厚的回報，這些都是經驗豐富的主特許經營商。我們可以幫助他們一些，但坦白說，對我們來說，讓 Popeyes 在法國推出正確的產品可能比我們為漢堡王在法國做出的貢獻更重要，他們已經在法國獲得了 500 個單位。所以我們花了很多時間來解決這個問題。我認為我們無法為您提供有關國際整體情況的明確答案。真的，我認為我們要給你的更多只是外觀上的指導，這是事實。

Overall, returns are very good in our international business. But it clearly varies market to market, brand to brand, and particularly, is going to vary early in the launch of a new brand in a new market.

整體而言，我們的國際業務回報非常好。但它顯然因市場、品牌而異，尤其是在新市場推出新品牌的早期會有所不同。

The next question comes from Gregory Francfort of Guggenheim Partners.

下一個問題來自古根漢合夥人公司的葛雷戈里‧弗蘭克福特。

I want to ask on -- I don't think it's gotten a lot of attention today. But just on Popeyes, I know the Wings launch was pretty late in the fourth quarter. But can you talk about what you're seeing either from a sales contribution or how it's attracting new customers or changing your delivery business? Just any thoughts on that would be helpful.

我想問一下——我認為今天這個問題沒有引起太多關注。但就 Popeyes 而言，我知道 Wings 的發布是在第四季度相當晚的時候。但您能否談談您從銷售貢獻中看到的情況，或者它如何吸引新客戶或改變您的送貨業務？對此的任何想法都會有所幫助。

Yes, Greg. Thanks and I say we're all really excited about the new Wings at Popeyes. Most people are probably surprised to know that Popeyes didn't have a flavored wing platform. So we're really happy we could do that. And I think it's another terrific example of the work of our culinary team led by Chef [Amy]. They did a really outstanding job on these Wings. If you haven't tried yet, please do.

是的，格雷格。謝謝，我想說我們都對 Popeyes 的新 Wings 感到非常興奮。大多數人可能會驚訝地發現 Popeyes 沒有風味機翼平台。所以我們真的很高興我們能做到這一點。我認為這是我們由廚師 [Amy] 領導的烹飪團隊工作的另一個絕佳例子。他們在這些 Wings 上做得非常出色。如果您還沒有嘗試過，請嘗試一下。

We were already starting to see some impact of the Wings in Q4. I would tell you more of the behavior that we saw initially was add-on behavior as opposed to new guests. And that was a lot of what was behind the thought of doing the Super Bowl ad because we didn't have high awareness, mass market awareness that Popeyes had Wings and the Super Bowl is a tremendous vehicle to drive vast market awareness. And I think the Super Bowl this year was no exception. It was one of the best I think the viewership was actually the highest ever. So we got even more bang for our buck.

我們已經開始在第四季度看到 Wings 的一些影響。我想告訴你，我們最初看到的更多行為是附加行為，而不是新客人。這就是製作超級盃廣告的想法背後的許多原因，因為我們對大力水手有翅膀的大眾市場認知度不高，而超級盃是推動廣大市場認知度的巨大工具。我認為今年的超級盃也不例外。這是最好的之一，我認為收視率實際上是有史以來最高的。所以我們得到了更多的回報。

And we'll -- and I think now that we have greater awareness, we're hoping to see even greater incrementality to traffic over the course of Q1 and beyond. But really happy with the Wings so far. I think it's a terrific addition to the Popeyes menu, and we'll keep you updated as we see progress through the quarter and for the rest of the year.

我認為現在我們有了更高的認識，我們希望在第一季及以後看到更大的流量增量。但到目前為止，我對 Wings 非常滿意。我認為這是大力水手菜單上的一個很棒的補充，當我們看到本季和今年剩餘時間的進展時，我們會及時向您通報最新情況。

The next question is from Jeffrey Bernstein of Barclays.

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的傑弗裡·伯恩斯坦。

Actually, just 2 clarifications. The first one, Patrick, I think the U.S. and Canada home market franchisees are probably pretty happy with the direction of profitability. I'm wondering with you or Josh, as you travel around meeting with franchisees, what's the new #1 topic of discussion? Or what's the greatest pushback or concern, whether it's top line or bottom run related. Just curious how those conversations are going.

實際上，只需 2 點澄清。第一個，派崔克，我認為美國和加拿大本土市場的特許經營商可能對獲利方向非常滿意。我想知道你或喬希，當你到處與特許經營商會面時，新的第一個討論主題是什麼？或最大的阻力或擔憂是什麼，無論是與頂線相關還是與底線相關。只是好奇這些對話進展如何。

And the second one was just the Reclaim the Flame commitment. Just wondering whether you think those levels were set at the right level now that you get a chance to look back over the past year. I think you talked about shifting dollars towards Refresh, but I'm just wondering the potential to actually increase the dollars. I think, Josh, you just gave an example of the math around the $300 million needed to hit those 1,000 Burger King units. I'm just wondering who's expected or who's potentially considering footing that bill, whether that's a potential corporate consideration or whether that's more just encouraging franchisees to do so.

第二個就是「回收火焰」承諾。只是想知道，既然您有機會回顧過去的一年，您是否認為這些水平設定在正確的水平。我想你談到了將資金轉向刷新，但我只是想知道實際增加資金的潛力。我想，喬許，你剛剛舉了一個例子，說明了開設 1,000 家漢堡王店需要 3 億美元的計算成本。我只是想知道誰預計或誰可能考慮支付這筆費用，這是否是潛在的企業考慮因素，或者是否只是鼓勵特許經營商這樣做。

So I'll let Josh handle the second question. I'll take the first. We are more aligned with our franchisees, and I think we have ever been. There is great excitement about the progress that we're making. Clearly, great excitement about the focus we're putting on their profitability and the progress we've made and the #1 concern that they have is whether or not there's any sense that this is a one and done that we would get happy with the progress that we have made.

所以我會讓喬許來處理第二個問題。我就拿第一個吧我們與我們的特許經營商更加一致，我認為我們一直都是這樣。我們所取得的進展令人非常興奮。顯然，我們對他們的盈利能力和我們所取得的進展的關注感到非常興奮，而他們的第一大擔憂是，我們是否會對此感到滿意。我們所取得的進展。

And the answer for all of them listening is absolutely not. And we will talk about goals on Thursday for each of the home market brands. But we are not happy yet with where we are. We are very happy with the progress, but more to be done, and we are going to keep hammering our way on it.

他們所有人的答案都是絕對不會。我們將在周四討論每個國內市場品牌的目標。但我們對目前的狀況還不滿意。我們對所取得的進展感到非常滿意，但還有更多工作要做，我們將繼續努力。

Thanks, Patrick. And on the Reclaim the Flame original program, if we're happy with it. I would tell you, I am really happy with it. I think it was very thoughtfully structured. And I think it was the right plan for that moment. Tom talks a lot about the importance of sequencing and I think he got it exactly right here and we started with advertising, which we could move quickly. And now we've been deploying dollars into the short-term Royal Reset to a lot of those equipment and technology upgrades. And increasingly, we're shifting to these high-return remodels. And I think that was -- I think it was the right sequencing and the right form of partnership.

謝謝，派崔克。還有《奪回火焰》的原創節目，如果我們對此感到滿意的話。我會告訴你，我真的很高興。我認為它的結構非常周到。我認為這在當時是正確的計劃。湯姆談到了很多關於測序的重要性，我認為他在這裡說得很對，我們從廣告開始，我們可以迅速採取行動。現在，我們已經將資金投入到短期皇家重置中，以進行許多設備和技術升級。我們越來越多地轉向這些高回報的改造。我認為這是正確的順序和正確的夥伴關係形式。

All of those things, we're investing together alongside our franchisees, and we all achieved results and returns together. So I think it was right structure, right sequencing, and I'm very happy with it. In terms of future investments, I referenced a little bit. I've said over and over again, I think it is absolutely critical that we have to get the BK U.S. system to where nearly every Burger King in America is modern and convenient and we are totally open to investing alongside the franchisees further in that. We still have to work -- we've got to work through that with our franchisees. Tom and team will be doing that over the coming months and talking to them about where the future takes us. And once we've got that all figured out, we'll definitely come back and share more detail on those plans.

所有這些事情，我們都與我們的特許經營商一起投資，我們一起取得了成果和回報。所以我認為這是正確的結構，正確的順序，我對此非常滿意。關於未來的投資，我參考了一點。我已經說過一遍又一遍，我認為至關重要的是，我們必須讓 BK 美國系統達到美國幾乎所有漢堡王都現代化且方便的水平，並且我們完全願意與特許經營商一起進一步投資。我們仍然需要努力——我們必須與我們的特許經營商一起解決這個問題。湯姆和團隊將在未來幾個月內這樣做，並與他們討論我們的未來。一旦我們弄清楚了這一切，我們一定會回來分享這些計劃的更多細節。

The next question comes from Andrew Strelzik of BMO Capital Markets.

下一個問題來自 BMO 資本市場的 Andrew Strelzik。

Curious if you could share some color on the same-store sales gap that you're seeing across the BK U.S. system between the better performing and lower performing units or however you think about bucketing that? Are you seeing that gap narrow? And in particular, curious what you're seeing on the lower end of the system as you gain momentum across the initiatives you put in place as well as the closures?

好奇您是否可以分享一些關於您在 BK 美國系統中看到的表現較好和表現較差的單位之間的同店銷售差距的一些信息，或者您如何考慮如何劃分這一差距？你看到差距縮小了嗎？特別是，當您在實施的舉措以及關閉中獲得動力時，您在系統的低端看到了什麼？

Yes, Andrew, we do see a gap, frankly, in all metrics between our sort of our higher rated and lower-rated franchisees on the sort of [ABDF] scale. So everything, whether it's same-store sales, same-store traffic, restaurant profitability, that's been pretty constant over time. We haven't seen kind of a big shift in those gaps amongst the cohorts. And I think it's just reinforced for everybody in the system both for us and for the franchisees and the value of good operations.

是的，安德魯，坦白說，我們確實看到了在 [ABDF] 規模上我們的評級較高和評級較低的特許經營商之間的所有指標之間存在差距。因此，無論是同店銷售額、同店客流量、餐廳獲利能力，隨著時間的推移，一切都相當穩定。我們還沒有看到群體之間的差距發生重大變化。我認為這對系統中的每個人（無論是我們還是加盟商）以及良好營運的價值都得到了加強。

I think to Patrick's point earlier, when you see it on the page, it becomes really compelling to realize that being an A operator means a whole different level of profitability than it is to be a lower-rated franchisee. So I'd say it all just reinforces where we're going in terms of our focus on operations, and we're pleased with that. One of thing I would point out is we've seen our franchisees moving up sort of some of those rating scales. It feels like the message is working, people get it. And I'm very thankful that our franchisees are investing to improve their operations. I think they have a huge hand in the results that we've seen over the course of the past year.

我認為帕特里克之前的觀點，當你在頁面上看到它時，你會真正意識到，成為 A 級運營商意味著與成為評級較低的特許經營商相比，其盈利水平完全不同。所以我想說，這一切都加強了我們對營運的關注，我們對此感到滿意。我要指出的一件事是，我們已經看到我們的特許經營商在某些評級範圍內有所提升。感覺這個訊息正在發揮作用，人們明白了。我非常感謝我們的特許經營商正在投資改善他們的營運。我認為他們對我們在過去一年中看到的結果發揮了巨大的作用。

The next question comes from Jon Tower of Citi.

下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Jon Tower。

Just 2 unrelated quick ones, hopefully. First, on the China business, I know you have a couple of franchisees in that market, but I'm curious what sort of recourse you might have should either franchisee not live up to expectations with respect to hitting their unit growth or perhaps committing more capital to the brands? And then the second question, I know we talked a lot about the health of the franchisees and the consumer across some of the core markets, but specifically Tim Hortons, Canada and BK U.S. Can you help us think about how the franchisees are thinking about pricing in 2024 relative to '23 levels?

希望只有兩個不相關的快速內容。首先，關於中國業務，我知道您在該市場有幾個特許經營商，但我很好奇，如果特許經營商在實現單位增長方面沒有達到預期，或者可能承諾更多，那麼您可能有什麼樣的追索權品牌資本？然後是第二個問題，我知道我們討論了很多關於一些核心市場的特許經營商和消費者的健康狀況，特別是加拿大的Tim Hortons 和美國的BK。您能否幫助我們思考一下特許經營商如何考慮定價2024 年相對於 '23 水準？

John, so in terms of China, it applies to all of our international businesses. We have master franchise agreements with our partners. And those tend to outline kind of the expectations -- mutual expectations of the parties. So our preference is always just to work collaboratively with our partners anywhere in the world to build those businesses. But there are some -- there are certain expectations that are set out in those agreements.

約翰，就中國而言，它適用於我們所有的國際業務。我們與合作夥伴簽訂了主特許經營協議。這些往往會概述某種期望——各方的共同期望。因此，我們始終傾向於與世界各地的合作夥伴合作建立這些業務。但這些協議中規定了一些特定的期望。

In terms of Tims and BK profitability and pricing expectations, I would just say broadly that we -- I would expect to see less pricing taken in 2024 versus 2023. I think you all have probably seen that across the restaurant space and in other spaces like grocery, for example. I think some of that is a reflection of commodity prices that have started to stabilize a bit. So I think you'll see a pretty decent step back in level of pricing across the industry, and I expect that will be the case for Burger King in the U.S. in Tims of Canada as well.

就 Tims 和 BK 的盈利能力和定價預期而言，我只是泛泛地說，我們 - 我預計 2024 年的定價會比 2023 年更低。我想你們都可能已經在餐廳空間和其他空間（例如例如，雜貨店。我認為這在某種程度上反映了大宗商品價格已經開始趨於穩定。因此，我認為整個行業的定價水平將出現相當大的回落，我預計美國的漢堡王和加拿大的蒂姆斯也會出現這種情況。

The next question comes from James Sanderson of Northcoast Research.

下一個問題來自北海岸研究中心的詹姆斯桑德森。

Just real quick, I wanted to go back to the U.S. performance for BK. You mentioned that performance improved across all income groups. Any insight on the sale mix for promotions, whether consumers are leaning in more frequently to deals that are offered in the quarter?

很快，我想回到 BK 在美國的演出。您提到所有收入群體的績效都有所提升。促銷的銷售組合有何見解？消費者是否更頻繁地傾向於本季提供的優惠？

Jim, it's Josh. No, I haven't seen anything particularly of note in terms of changes in behavior there.

吉姆，這是喬許。不，我沒有看到任何特別值得注意的行為變化。

Employment drives consumption in the category. You've heard that from me often, but that is the answer. It's really about employment levels. And as long as employment stays strong, I think the categories continue to be good.

就業帶動該類別的消費。你經常從我嘴裡聽到這樣的話，但這就是答案。這實際上與就業水準有關。只要就業保持強勁，我認為這些類別就會繼續表現良好。

We'll now take our last question from Jake Bartlett of Truist Securities.

現在我們將回答 Truist Securities 的 Jake Bartlett 提出的最後一個問題。

Great. Mine was about the focus on smaller franchisees in the U.S. I'm wondering if you could just frame that out into, for instance, how many total franchisees or average size in '23 versus maybe '22 and what you expect that to land out in '24. And really with an eye on how that impacts G&A spend. In the past, I thought that consolidating the franchisee base was a source of efficiency for you. It seems like that's unwinding. So I'm just wondering what the impact of that might be.

偉大的。我的問題是關注美國的小型特許經營商。我想知道您是否可以將其納入，例如，23 年與 22 年相比，特許經營商總數或平均規模以及您期望的結果'24。並真正關注這如何影響一般管理費用。過去，我認為鞏固加盟主基礎是你效率的來源。看起來好像在放鬆。所以我只是想知道這可能會產生什麼影響。

Jake, thanks for the question. I would tell you, we have been focused on having more of local operators in their communities. You've heard that expressed in different ways across each of our businesses. If you look at Tims in Canada or Firehouse in the U.S., we already have that. We have operators that have 1, 2, 3, 4 stores. I think that's fantastic. And I think it reflects itself in the engagement of those operators with their communities and the operations of those restaurants.

傑克，謝謝你的提問。我想告訴你，我們一直致力於在他們的社區擁有更多的在地經營者。您已經聽說過我們每個企業都以不同的方式表達這一點。如果你看看加拿大的 Tims 或美國的 Firehouse，你會發現我們已經有了。我們的業者擁有 1、2、3、4 家商店。我認為這太棒了。我認為這反映在這些經營者與其社區的互動以及這些餐廳的運作中。

And so we have articulated that we want to move to something not -- maybe not as small as that in Burger King and Popeyes. But we certainly do -- we do want to have our operators living and operating in their communities. I would say it's just so clear to us that, that has a big impact on the quality of the operations that we get. And that can manifest itself in a lot of different ways. We have 50 or 100 store operators that live in their markets that do an incredible job. They're A operators all day long, and that's great. We're super happy about that, and we'll support those operators.

因此，我們明確表示，我們希望轉向一些不——也許不像漢堡王和大力水手那麼小的東西。但我們當然願意——我們確實希望我們的運營商在他們的社區生活和運作。我想說，我們很清楚，這對我們的營運品質有很大影響。這可以透過很多不同的方式體現出來。我們有 50 或 100 家商店經營者，他們在各自的市場中做得非常出色。他們整天都是 A 級操作員，這很好。我們對此感到非常高興，我們將支持這些運營商。

But we've also had some of the situations that you've seen, particularly in Burger King in the U.S., where you have larger operators who have a couple of hundred stores, they're spread out across some pretty geographically divergent areas. And that's one of the common denominators that we've seen in some of these portfolios that have gotten in trouble.

但我們也遇到過一些你所看到的情況，特別是在美國的漢堡王，那裡有規模較大的運營商，擁有數百家商店，它們分佈在一些地理位置相當不同的地區。這是我們在一些陷入困境的投資組合中看到的共同點之一。

So we'll probably try to steer away from some of those situations as we move forward. And where some of the portfolios change hands, we'll seek to move to some of these smaller portfolios with local operators in those communities. You've seen us do that in a few of these BK U.S. workout situations over the past year. And I think you'll see us keep kind of nudging the systems in that direction over time.

因此，在我們前進的過程中，我們可能會嘗試避免其中一些情況。當一些投資組合易手時，我們將尋求與這些社區的當地業者一起轉向一些較小的投資組合。在過去的一年中，您已經在一些 BK 美國訓練中看到了我們這樣做的情況。我想你會看到我們隨著時間的推移不斷推動系統朝這個方向發展。

So that's what I would expect. It really doesn't have anything to do with views on G&A spend. It's really about the quality of service that we're able to provide and the success of our business in these local markets. I think that's going to dwarf any differences in G&A structures, which I don't really expect to see much of. So I would just tell you, it's entirely focused on driving better operations in our restaurants. And that's what we're focused on.

這就是我所期望的。這實際上與對 G&A 支出的看法沒有任何關係。這實際上關係到我們能夠提供的服務品質以及我們的業務在這些當地市場的成功。我認為這將使一般管理費用結構上的任何差異相形見絀，我真的不希望看到太多差異。所以我只想告訴你，它完全專注於推動我們餐廳更好的營運。這就是我們關注的重點。

Thank you. This concludes the Q&A session. So I'll hand back to Josh Kobza, Chief Executive Officer, for any closing comments.

謝謝。問答環節到此結束。因此，我將把最後的評論交還給執行長喬希·科布扎 (Josh Kobza)。

Well, thank you so much, everybody, for taking the time to join us today and for the great questions, as always. We're very thankful to our teams, our franchisees, our restaurant teams for all the great work that they did to produce the results that we were able to share today. We look forward to seeing a number of you on Thursday in New York and sharing some more outlook on the future there. Have a great day, and thanks for joining the call.

非常感謝大家今天抽出寶貴的時間加入我們，並一如既往地提出了很好的問題。我們非常感謝我們的團隊、特許經營商、餐廳團隊所做的一切出色工作，才取得了我們今天能夠分享的成果。我們期待週四在紐約見到你們，並分享更多關於那裡未來的展望。祝您有美好的一天，感謝您加入通話。

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。現在您可以斷開線路。