QVC Group Inc (QVCGA) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to Qurate Retail 2022 Q3 Earnings Call.

歡迎來到 Qurate Retail 2022 年第三季度財報電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, November 4. I would now like to turn the call over to Courtnee Chun, Chief Portfolio Officer. Please go ahead.

提醒一下，這次會議正在錄製，11 月 4 日。我現在想把電話轉給首席投資組合官 Courtnee Chun。請繼續。

Thank you. Before we begin, we'd like to remind everyone that this call includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual events and results could differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those mentioned in the most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q filed by our company and QVC with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call, and Qurate Retail expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in Qurate Retail's expectations with regard thereto already change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Please note that we have published slides to accompany the earnings release.

謝謝你。在開始之前，我們想提醒大家，本次電話會議包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的某些前瞻性陳述。由於許多風險和不確定性，實際事件和結果可能存在重大差異，包括我們公司和 QVC 向 SEC 提交的最新 10-K 和 10-Q 表格中提到的那些。這些前瞻性陳述僅在本次電話會議之日發表，並且 Qurate Retail 明確表示不承擔任何義務或承諾傳播對此處包含的任何前瞻性陳述的任何更新或修訂，以反映 Qurate Retail 對此預期的任何變化任何此類聲明所依據的事件、條件或情況的變化。請注意，我們已發布幻燈片以配合收益發布。

On today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted OIBDA, adjusted OIBDA margin, free cash flow and constant currency. Information regarding the comparable GAAP metrics, along with required definitions and reconciliations, including preliminary note and Schedules 1 through 4, can be found in the earnings press release issued today or our earnings presentation, which are available on our website.

在今天的電話會議上，我們將討論某些非 GAAP 財務指標，包括調整後的 OIBDA、調整後的 OIBDA 保證金、自由現金流和固定貨幣。有關可比 GAAP 指標的信息，以及所需的定義和對賬，包括初步說明和附表 1 至 4，可以在今天發布的收益新聞稿或我們的收益演示文稿中找到，這些信息可在我們的網站上找到。

Today, speaking on the earnings call, we have Qurate Retail President and CEO, David Rawlinson; Qurate Retail Group Interim CFO, Jim Hathaway; and Qurate Retail Executive Chairman, Greg Maffei. Now I'll turn the call over to David Rawlinson.

今天，在財報電話會議上，我們有 Qurate 零售總裁兼首席執行官 David Rawlinson； Qurate Retail Group 臨時首席財務官 Jim Hathaway； Qurate Retail 執行主席 Greg Maffei。現在我將把電話轉給大衛羅林森。

Thank you, Courtnee, and good morning to everyone. Thank you for joining us today and for your interest in Qurate Retail. Looking at our Q3 results, our performance was the result of several factors. Some of these are external, which we are managing through like all are in retail, and some are internal for which we are focused on driving better outcomes through improved execution and Project Athens.

謝謝你，考特妮，大家早上好。感謝您今天加入我們，感謝您對 Qurate Retail 的興趣。看看我們第三季度的業績，我們的表現是幾個因素的結果。其中一些是外部的，我們正在像所有零售業一樣進行管理，還有一些是內部的，我們專注於通過改進執行和雅典項目來推動更好的結果。

And (inaudible) Project Athens in June. We said we expected fiscal 2022 to be the baseline year and that our transformation would not be linear. We made progress in Q3, moving from the assessment phase of Athens to in-depth planning. We expect to start seeing deep execution and impact on results in 2023.

和（聽不清）6 月的雅典項目。我們說過，我們預計 2022 財年將是基準年，我們的轉型不會是線性的。我們在第三季度取得了進展，從雅典的評估階段進入了深入規劃。我們預計將在 2023 年開始看到深度執行和對結果的影響。

In the third quarter, total company revenue declined 9% in constant currency, a modest sequential moderation in the rate of decline from Q2, driven by better execution and the easier compares. Like all in retail, we managed against macro headwinds, including inflation, continued war in Ukraine and rising interest rates that negatively impacted consumer sentiment.

在第三季度，公司總收入按固定匯率計算下降了 9%，與第二季度相比，下降幅度略有下降，原因是執行更好，比較容易。與所有零售業一樣，我們成功應對了宏觀不利因素，包括通貨膨脹、烏克蘭持續戰爭以及對消費者信心產生負面影響的利率上升。

In the U.S., the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index declined 20% year-on-year in September 2022. We also faced several extraordinary events that impacted performance, namely, we approached the death of Queen Elizabeth in the U.K. with respect, keeping our customers, team members and the mood of the nation in mind. We stopped all programming for 2.5 days following her passing and used the airtime to pay tribute to the Queen. And we estimate this period, coupled with the 10 days of mourning, impacted QVC U.K. sales by approximately $10 million.

在美國，密歇根大學消費者信心指數在 2022 年 9 月同比下降 20%。我們還面臨一些影響業績的非同尋常的事件，即我們以尊重的態度對待英國伊麗莎白女王的去世，保持我們的客戶、團隊成員和國家的心情。在她去世後，我們停止了所有節目 2.5 天，並利用廣播時間向女王致敬。我們估計這段時間，加上 10 天的哀悼，對 QVC 英國的銷售額造成了大約 1000 萬美元的影響。

We also prioritized the safety of our HSN team members based in Florida during Hurricane Ian, switching to prerecorded programming in lieu of live programming for 4 days, and we estimate its sales impact was approximately $3 million to $5 million in Q3.

在伊恩颶風期間，我們還優先考慮了我們在佛羅里達州的 HSN 團隊成員的安全，轉而使用預先錄製的節目代替現場節目 4 天，我們估計其在第三季度的銷售影響約為 300 萬至 500 萬美元。

Total company adjusted OIBDA declined 54% in Q3 in constant currency. This reflects approximately 100 basis points in lower product margins due to planned promotions as we work to reduce our inventory, particularly at HSN.

按固定匯率計算，公司調整後的 OIBDA 在第三季度下降了 54%。這反映了由於我們努力減少庫存，特別是在 HSN 的計劃促銷，產品利潤率下降了大約 100 個基點。

Elevated inventory levels are pressuring margins across retail, and we're no different. We've begun taking action to move through excess inventory earlier than others in retail due to capacity constraints following the loss of our Rocky Mount facility. While this has pressured our margins year-to-date, it has improved our inventory position, as I'll discuss more shortly.

庫存水平升高正在給零售業的利潤率帶來壓力，我們也不例外。由於失去落基山工廠後的產能限制，我們已經開始採取行動，在零售業中比其他人更早地處理過剩庫存。雖然這給我們年初至今的利潤率帶來了壓力，但它改善了我們的庫存狀況，我稍後會詳細討論。

Adjusted OIBDA also reflected sales deleverage and elevated costs. We continue to work through excess inventory, amplified by impacts of the Rocky Mount buyer, leading to high levels of detention and demurrage expenses as well as inflationary pressures in shipping, fuel, packaging, labor rates and marketing. We are also lapping the benefits of the price increases we took last year. Despite elevated costs, we elected not to raise prices this year, primarily due to the macroeconomic environment and consumer sentiment, but also to manage our promotional cadence as we took action to address excess inventory. That said, we have made progress on reducing inventory.

調整後的 OIBDA 還反映了銷售去槓桿和成本上升。我們繼續努力解決因落基山買家的影響而放大的過剩庫存，導致高水平的滯留和滯期費用以及航運、燃料、包裝、勞動力和營銷方面的通脹壓力。我們還從去年的價格上漲中受益。儘管成本上升，但我們選擇今年不提高價格，主要是由於宏觀經濟環境和消費者情緒，而且在我們採取行動解決過剩庫存時管理我們的促銷節奏。也就是說，我們在減少庫存方面取得了進展。

We had excess inventory based on the retail and supply chain environment, but also compounded by the December 2021 tragic buyer at our former Rocky Mount fulfillment center. We moved through a portion of this inventory in Q3 through clearance actions and receipt management. And QxH inventory ended the quarter 5% lower than the prior year. We do expect inventory clearing actions to create margin pressure at least through the end of 2022.

基於零售和供應鏈環境，我們的庫存過剩，但 2021 年 12 月在我們以前的落基山履行中心發生的悲劇買家也加劇了這種情況。我們在第三季度通過清關行動和收貨管理處理了部分庫存。 QxH 庫存在本季度末比去年同期下降 5%。我們確實預計庫存清理行動至少會在 2022 年底之前造成利潤壓力。

We are focused on our turnaround and have started to experience initial progress. One key area I'd like to highlight is attracting leadership talent to drive the transformation of the business.

我們專注於扭虧為盈，並開始取得初步進展。我想強調的一個關鍵領域是吸引領導人才來推動業務轉型。

Scott Barnhart joined in late September as Chief Operating Officer. In this role, he leads supply chain, procurement, global business services and corporate real estate and workplace services for all Qurate brands globally as well as customer service for all U.S. brands and fulfillment center operations for QVC U.S. and HSN. Scott brings deep experience leading global retail supply chains for multiple Fortune 500 companies, including Cardinal Health, Aramark and Conagra Brands. The COO role is new to Qurate Retail Group, and having a dedicated leader responsible for our supply chain and execution of our strategic plan is key to improving our performance.

Scott Barnhart 於 9 月底加入，擔任首席運營官。在這個職位上，他領導全球所有 Qurate 品牌的供應鏈、採購、全球商業服務和企業房地產和工作場所服務，以及所有美國品牌的客戶服務以及 QVC 美國和 HSN 的履行中心運營。 Scott 為多家財富 500 強公司帶來了領導全球零售供應鏈的豐富經驗，包括 Cardinal Health、Aramark 和 Conagra Brands。首席運營官是 Qurate 零售集團的新角色，擁有一位專門負責我們的供應鍊和執行戰略計劃的領導是提高我們績效的關鍵。

Soumya Sriraman joined as President of Streaming and leads our Streaming Commerce business. She is an experienced CEO and General Manager with expertise and a proven track record of success building streaming businesses. Most recently, she led Amazon's Prime video channels business. Prior to that, she was founding CEO and President of BritBox, the first-of-its-kind streaming video on-demand offering from the U.K.'s 2 national broadcasters, BBC and ITV. Streaming is an important future growth lever of our business. By adding Soumya and her qualifications, we expect to meaningfully grow our audience and product sales on streaming platforms over time.

Soumya Sriraman 作為流媒體總裁加入並領導我們的流媒體商務業務。她是一位經驗豐富的首席執行官和總經理，擁有專業知識和成功建立流媒體業務的良好記錄。最近，她領導了亞馬遜的 Prime 視頻頻道業務。在此之前，她是 BritBox 的創始首席執行官兼總裁，這是英國兩家國家廣播公司 BBC 和 ITV 提供的首個流媒體視頻點播服務。流媒體是我們業務未來重要的增長槓桿。通過添加 Soumya 和她的資格，我們希望隨著時間的推移有意義地增加我們在流媒體平台上的觀眾和產品銷售。

Stacy Bowe joined as Chief Merchandising Officer of QVC U.S. She is developing and leading merchandise strategy across all platforms as well as overseeing QVC's buying, planning and programming organization and our design development and sourcing team, which is our in-house agency that brings new brands, products and concepts to life. Stacy brings extensive merchandise experience and a proven ability to help omnichannel, multi-category retailers differentiate themselves, engage customers and drop sales. Most recently, she led global e-commerce and digital marketing for G-III Apparel Group. She spent more than 20 years at Macy's, serving in a variety of executive leadership roles. Merchandise strategy and its integration with our programming is central to our business. Having a strong leader here will allow us to better serve our customers, attract new ones and grow revenue.

Stacy Bowe 加入 QVC U.S. 擔任首席營銷官。她正在製定和領導所有平台的商品戰略，並監督 QVC 的採購、規劃和編程組織以及我們的設計開發和採購團隊，這是我們帶來新品牌的內部代理，產品和概念生活。 Stacy 帶來了豐富的商品經驗和久經考驗的能力，可以幫助全渠道、多類別的零售商實現差異化、吸引客戶並減少銷售。最近，她領導 G-III Apparel Group 的全球電子商務和數字營銷。她在梅西百貨工作了 20 多年，擔任過各種行政領導職務。商品戰略及其與我們節目的整合是我們業務的核心。在這裡擁有強大的領導者將使我們能夠更好地為客戶服務，吸引新客戶並增加收入。

Lastly, Linda Aiello joined Qurate as Chief People Officer. She leads the full team member portfolio, including team member experience, talent management, diversity, equity and inclusion. She brings more than 20 years of international experience, leading people functions and modern technology businesses and luxury fashion brands. Most recently, she was Chief People Officer at Stitch Fix. Prior to Stitch Fix, Linda served in senior people roles at Salesforce and Uber.

最後，Linda Aiello 加入 Qurate 擔任首席人事官。她領導整個團隊成員組合，包括團隊成員經驗、人才管理、多樣性、公平性和包容性。她帶來了 20 多年的國際經驗，領導人們的職能和現代科技業務以及奢侈時尚品牌。最近，她是 Stitch Fix 的首席人事官。在加入 Stitch Fix 之前，Linda 曾在 Salesforce 和 Uber 擔任高級人員職務。

We are only as good as the people who come to work every day and the culture we create. Adding a senior people leader, with Linda's proven background, will contribute to attracting and retaining the talent and building the culture we need to transport the business.

我們只與每天來工作的人和我們創造的文化一樣好。增加一位具有 Linda 久經考驗的背景的高級人事領導，將有助於吸引和留住人才，並建立我們需要的文化來推動業務發展。

On this topic, team member engagement and morale are critical in a turnaround for us to deliver Project Athens. I'm pleased to report that Qurate Retail Group earned a 2022 U.S. Great Place to Work certification, the Global Authority on Workplace Culture and Employee Experience. In addition, our own internal surveys rebuild meaningful gains in our team member engagement and confidence in the company's strategy and leadership.

在這個主題上，團隊成員的參與度和士氣對於我們交付雅典項目的轉變至關重要。我很高興地報告 Qurate Retail Group 獲得了 2022 年美國最佳工作場所認證，即全球工作場所文化和員工體驗權威機構。此外，我們自己的內部調查重建了我們團隊成員參與度和對公司戰略和領導力的信心的有意義的收益。

Now I'll provide updates on the 5 pillars of Project Athens that we communicated in late June, where we are pleased to see initial traction. First, from an overall perspective, we formed a transformation office to work with the teams for successful execution of Project Athens. The office is led by Scott Barnhart, our new COO. Reporting into Scott is a dedicated Chief Transformation Officer, Bill Hunter, who has been with the company for 14 years and is singularly focused on delivering our strategic initiatives.

現在，我將提供有關我們在 6 月下旬溝通過的雅典項目 5 個支柱的最新信息，我們很高興看到最初的牽引力。首先，從整體上看，我們成立了轉型辦公室，與團隊合作，成功執行雅典項目。該辦公室由我們的新首席運營官 Scott Barnhart 領導。向 Scott 匯報的是一位敬業的首席轉型官 Bill Hunter，他在公司工作了 14 年，專注於實施我們的戰略計劃。

Pillar 1 of Project Athens is focused on improving the customer experience and growing these relationships. The President of QVC U.S. and HSN have been in their position for about 8 months. We experienced a moderation in the rates of decline for QxH customer count from the first half of 2022. Total QxH customer count declined 11% in Q3 versus mid-teens in the first half of 2022. While total count declined, the average spend per customer increased 3%, and the average number of items per customer increased 6% in Q3.

Project Athens 的支柱 1 專注於改善客戶體驗和發展這些關係。 QVC 美國和 HSN 的總裁已經在他們的位置上大約 8 個月。自 2022 年上半年以來，我們的 QxH 客戶數量下降速度有所放緩。QxH 客戶總數在第三季度下降了 11%，而 2022 年上半年為十幾歲。雖然總數有所下降，但每位客戶的平均支出增長 3%，第三季度每位客戶的平均商品數量增長 6%。

Customers remain engaged with total minutes viewed up 8% in Q3, which was slightly stronger than Q1 and Q2. With better execution and an improved merchandise portfolio, we will be better suited to serve our engaged audience.

客戶仍然參與其中，第三季度的總觀看時間增加了 8%，略高於第一季度和第二季度。通過更好的執行和改進的商品組合，我們將更適合為我們的參與受眾提供服務。

Pillar 2 was all about improving execution of our core processes. In July, we began putting that today in the special back in Today's Special Value in Today's Special, by shortening their availability to only 1 day and offering our best price for that day, driving a greater sense of urgency.

支柱 2 是關於改進我們核心流程的執行。 7 月，我們開始將今天的特價商品中的“今日特價商品”中的“今日特價商品”中的可用時間縮短至僅 1 天，並在當天提供我們最優惠的價格，從而增強了緊迫感。

In Q3, we experienced a moderation in the rate of decline in TSV performance. We also experienced fewer shifts of our Today's Special Value in Q3 versus the first half of the year.

在第三季度，我們的 TSV 性能下降速度有所放緩。與今年上半年相比，我們在第三季度的今日特殊價值的變化也更少。

QVC U.S. shifted 36% of its TSVs in Q3, down from 50% in Q1 and 75% in Q2. HSN shifted 40% of its T assets in Q3, down from 60% in Q1 and Q2.

QVC 美國在第三季度轉移了 36% 的 TSV，低於第一季度的 50% 和第二季度的 75%。 HSN 在第三季度轉移了 40% 的 T 資產，低於第一季度和第二季度的 60%。

Pillar 3 is about lowering our cost to serve. We experienced meaningful cost pressures in Q3, some from external macro factors, inflation and excess inventory and some from sales deleverage and some from our investments. We are intently focused on removing costs from our business, and we'll have more to share on that in the future.

支柱 3 是關於降低我們的服務成本。我們在第三季度經歷了巨大的成本壓力，一些來自外部宏觀因素、通貨膨脹和庫存過剩，一些來自銷售去槓桿，還有一些來自我們的投資。我們專注於從業務中降低成本，未來我們將分享更多內容。

For today, I'll simply reassert the point we made when we unveiled Project Athens. We have identified hundreds of millions of dollars of cost-driven adjusted OIBDA opportunity. We anticipate seeing these impacts flow through in 2023 and pick up momentum in 2024. We have begun detailed plans on cost initiatives across the organization and in the businesses where the need is more immediate, like Zulily. We have already begun execution.

今天，我將簡單地重申我們在推出雅典項目時提出的觀點。我們已經確定了數億美元的成本驅動調整後的 OIBDA 機會。我們預計這些影響將在 2023 年顯現出來，並在 2024 年回升。我們已經開始在整個組織和需要更緊迫的業務（如 Zulily）中製定成本計劃的詳細計劃。我們已經開始執行了。

We improved our inventory position in Q3 with more than a 70% decrease in the numbers of trailers at our fulfillment centers by the end of Q3 compared to the end of Q1. That said, we continue to face capacity constraints at our fulfillment centers and incremental detention and demurrage costs. We expect to realize lower costs in Q4 due to the reduction in trailers. We also anticipate better capacity utilization as we have secured third-party logistics providers to alleviate some of the capacity constraints.

我們在第三季度改善了我們的庫存狀況，與第一季度末相比，到第三季度末，我們履行中心的拖車數量減少了 70% 以上。也就是說，我們繼續面臨履行中心的容量限制以及滯期費和滯期費的增加。由於拖車的減少，我們預計第四季度將實現更低的成本。我們還期望更好的產能利用率，因為我們已經獲得了第三方物流供應商以緩解一些產能限制。

We are close to attaining our normal operating goals for order-to-delivery times in our current fulfillment network. And going into the holiday season, we believe our fulfillment centers are well staffed.

在我們當前的履行網絡中，我們接近實現訂單到交付時間的正常運營目標。進入假日季節，我們相信我們的履行中心人員配備充足。

Pillar 4 is focused on optimizing the brand portfolio. In the third quarter, Zulily introduced free shipping and handling for orders of $89 or more. As a result, they saw a stabilization in conversion rates and an increase in average order value. While national brand product was limited for most of Q3, Zulily has since attracted several national brands, capitalizing on industry-wide excess inventory, which will be beneficial moving forward. The percentage of Zulily's revenue from national brands increased to 53% in Q3 from 47% in Q3 2021.

支柱 4 專注於優化品牌組合。在第三季度，Zulily 為 89 美元或以上的訂單推出了免費送貨和處理服務。結果，他們看到了轉化率的穩定和平均訂單價值的增加。雖然第三季度大部分時間民族品牌產品有限，但 Zulily 此後吸引了多個民族品牌，利用全行業的過剩庫存，這將有利於向前發展。 Zulily 來自民族品牌的收入比例從 2021 年第三季度的 47% 增加到第三季度的 53%。

Looking forward, Zulily is focused on attracting more national brands, improving the customer experience on its site and efficiently ramping marketing through more diversified channels.

展望未來，Zulily 將專注於吸引更多的民族品牌，改善其網站上的客戶體驗，並通過更多元化的渠道有效地加強營銷。

Cornerstone brand sustained revenue growth, with record Q3 revenue at each of its home brands: Frontgate, Ballard Designs and Grandin Road. These gains were partially offset by softness at Garnet Hill and Apparel. Cornerstone opened its West Palm Beach Design Center in late September.

基石品牌的收入持續增長，其每個自有品牌的第三季度收入均創歷史新高：Frontgate、Ballard Designs 和 Grandin Road。這些收益被 Garnet Hill 和 Apparel 的疲軟部分抵消。 Cornerstone 於 9 月下旬開設了西棕櫚灘設計中心。

Pillar 5 is focused on building high-growth businesses anchored in our strength. We were pleased that the average number of monthly active users of our streaming service, QVC+ and HSN+, increased more than 40% in Q3 compared with Q2. We continue to expand our distribution. Our streaming apps are now included on Samsung Smart TVs and on Cox's Contour platform. In addition, HSN has now joined QVC on YouTube TV. We look forward to reporting more progress under Soumya's leadership.

支柱 5 專注於建立以我們的實力為基礎的高增長業務。我們很高興我們的流媒體服務 QVC+ 和 HSN+ 的月平均活躍用戶數在第三季度與第二季度相比增長了 40% 以上。我們繼續擴大我們的分銷。我們的流媒體應用程序現在包含在三星智能電視和 Cox 的 Contour 平台上。此外，HSN 現已加入 YouTube TV 上的 QVC。我們期待在 Soumya 的領導下報告更多進展。

As we look to the fourth quarter, QVC will be a presenting partner of this year's Christmas Spectacular, starring the Radio City Rockettes, which will open November 18 at Radio City Music Hall. QVC will have terrific exposure to the approximately 1 million people who attend the Christmas Spectacular as well as the millions of broadcast fans worldwide on social media. The Rockettes will perform and appear live from Radio City during QVC's Annual Live Shopping nonstop holiday party this weekend, November 5 and 6. qvc.com will feature a curated collection of products selected by the Rockettes through the holiday season.

展望第四季度，QVC 將成為今年聖誕奇觀的合作夥伴，由 Radio City Rockettes 主演，該節目將於 11 月 18 日在 Radio City Music Hall 開幕。 QVC 將在社交媒體上與大約 100 萬參加聖誕盛會的人以及全球數百萬的廣播粉絲有極大的接觸。 Rockettes 將於本週末（11 月 5 日至 6 日）在 QVC 的年度現場購物不間斷假日派對期間在 Radio City 現場表演和亮相。qvc.com 將展示 Rockettes 在整個假期期間精選的精選產品系列。

Over the same weekend, we'll host our nonstop party, which is a continuation of 2021's 49-hour event success. It will feature dozens of celebrities, fashion designers, hosts, customer-favored brands and special popping guests. Content will be broadcast and streamed live across all QVC channels on virtually every platform and device, including QVC, QVC2, our website, mobile app and social pages and QVC+ and HSN+ streaming services. Shoppers will find amazing holiday deals in early Black Friday sales prices on a curated assortment of Gift IDMs.

在同一個週末，我們將舉辦不間斷的派對，這是 2021 年 49 小時活動成功的延續。屆時將有數十位名人、時裝設計師、主持人、客戶喜愛的品牌和特邀嘉賓出席。內容將在幾乎所有平台和設備上的所有 QVC 頻道上進行直播和流式傳輸，包括 QVC、QVC2、我們的網站、移動應用程序和社交頁面以及 QVC+ 和 HSN+ 流媒體服務。購物者會在精選的各種禮品 IDM 上以黑色星期五的早期銷售價格找到驚人的假日優惠。

In summary, we are in the early stages of Project Athens. We now have a dedicated transformation office as well as key new executive leadership talent. In the near term, we do anticipate increased promotions due to elevated inventory throughout retail. This is industry-wide, it will impact us as well.

總之，我們正處於雅典計劃的早期階段。我們現在有一個專門的轉型辦公室以及關鍵的新行政領導人才。在短期內，我們確實預計由於整個零售業的庫存增加，促銷活動會增加。這是全行業的，它也會影響我們。

We also recognize that consumer sentiment is lower than last year, primarily driven by macroeconomic challenges. That said, we are intensely focused on the execution of Athens and reiterate our 2023, 2024 outlook we unveiled in June, with stable revenue and double-digit CAGRs for OIBDA and free cash flow.

我們還認識到，消費者信心低於去年，主要是受到宏觀經濟挑戰的推動。也就是說，我們非常關注雅典的執行，並重申我們在 6 月公佈的 2023 年和 2024 年展望，OIBDA 和自由現金流的收入穩定，複合年增長率達到兩位數。

We are motivated and confident in our ability to deliver on Project Athens. We look forward to reporting progress in future calls and seeing you at Liberty's Investor Day on November 17.

我們對實現雅典項目的能力充滿動力和信心。我們期待在未來的電話會議中報告進展，並在 11 月 17 日的 Liberty 投資者日與您見面。

I am pleased to welcome Jim Hathaway, our Interim CFO, on our call today. He will provide more details for each of our 4 business units momentarily.

我很高興歡迎我們的臨時首席財務官 Jim Hathaway 今天來電。他將立即為我們的 4 個業務部門提供更多詳細信息。

Before I turn it to Jim, I want to thank Jeff Davis for his service as our CFO for the past 4 years. When Jeff left, we named Jim Hathaway Interim CFO. Jim joined us in May 2021 to lead finance for QxH and is intimately familiar with our unique business. Prior to Qurate, Jim spent more than 20 years with PepsiCo Frito-Lay and various financial leadership roles of increasing responsibility. Most recently, he led financial planning and analysis of Frito-Lay North America, a division of PepsiCo.

在我把它轉給 Jim 之前，我要感謝 Jeff Davis 在過去 4 年中作為我們的首席財務官所做的服務。當 Jeff 離開時，我們任命 Jim Hathaway 為臨時首席財務官。 Jim 於 2021 年 5 月加入我們，領導 QxH 的財務工作，並且非常熟悉我們獨特的業務。在加入 Qurate 之前，Jim 在 PepsiCo Frito-Lay 工作了 20 多年，擔任過各種財務領導職務，職責不斷增加。最近，他領導了百事可樂旗下的 Frito-Lay North America 的財務規劃和分析工作。

Now I'll turn the call to Jim to discuss the details of each business unit.

現在我將把電話轉給 Jim，討論每個業務部門的細節。

Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. Unless otherwise noted, my comments compare financial performance for the 3 months ended September 30, 2022, to the same period in 2021.

謝謝你，大衛，大家早上好。除非另有說明，否則我的評論會將截至 2022 年 9 月 30 日的 3 個月的財務表現與 2021 年同期進行比較。

Starting with QxH. Revenue declined 8% primarily on lower unit volume. eCommerce revenue declined 8%, in line with the overall revenue performance. Recall that in Q3 of 2021, we experienced inbound freight delays that impacted our ability to secure product on time last year. In addition, we saw an increase in advanced orders in Q3 of 2021 that shipped in Q4 of last year. This benefited Q3 of 2022 revenue, and this dynamic is expected to reverse in Q4 of this year.

從 QxH 開始。收入下降 8%，主要是由於單位數量減少。電子商務收入下降 8%，與整體收入表現一致。回想一下，在 2021 年第三季度，我們經歷了入境貨運延誤，這影響了我們去年按時獲得產品的能力。此外，我們看到去年第四季度發貨的 2021 年第三季度的高級訂單有所增加。這有利於 2022 年第三季度的收入，預計這種動態將在今年第四季度逆轉。

We, like the broader retail industry, are facing excess inventory. We made and are making conscious efforts to reduce our inventory through promotions and clearance actions. As David mentioned, we got started on this earlier than others in retail by necessity due to the Rocky Mount tragedy, which has had a longer lasting impact on our project margins but is leading to improvement in our inventory balances year-over-year. This promotional activity was mostly in the home category in areas such as seasonal decor, storage and organization, cookware, kitchen electronics, home office and gaming, but also in fashion such as loungewear.

與更廣泛的零售行業一樣，我們也面臨著庫存過剩的問題。我們已經並且正在有意識地努力通過促銷和清倉行動來減少庫存。正如大衛所說，由於落基山悲劇，我們必須比其他零售業更早地開始這一點，這對我們的項目利潤率產生了更持久的影響，但導致我們的庫存餘額同比有所改善。這項促銷活動主要是在季節性裝飾、存儲和組織、炊具、廚房電子產品、家庭辦公室和遊戲等領域的家居類別中，但也包括家居服等時尚領域。

Home revenue declined 9%, which was an improvement from the first half of the year. In Q3, we experienced lower demand primarily for seasonal, cleaning, heating, air purification, bed and bath and garden, partially offset by gains in food.

家庭收入下降 9%，較上半年有所改善。在第三季度，我們經歷了主要對季節性、清潔、供暖、空氣淨化、床和浴室以及花園的需求下降，部分被食品增長所抵消。

Apparel declined 2% against 8% growth in Q3 of 2021, which demonstrates solid 2-year performance. Weakness this quarter was primarily in contemporary apparel. Beauty declined 10%, primarily due to weaknesses in bath and body and prestige skincare. Accessories declined 10%, primarily due to lower demand for handbags and luggage, intimates and casual and athletic footwear. Electronics revenue declined 11%, which was an improvement from our over 25% declines in Q1 and Q2. The Q3 softness was primarily in computers and home office.

服裝在 2021 年第三季度下降了 2%，而 2021 年第三季度增長了 8%，這表明了兩年的穩健表現。本季度的疲軟主要體現在當代服裝上。美容產品下降了 10%，主要是由於沐浴和身體護理以及高檔護膚品的弱點。配飾下降了 10%，主要是由於對手提包和行李箱、內衣以及休閒鞋和運動鞋的需求下降。電子產品收入下降了 11%，與我們在第一季度和第二季度超過 25% 的降幅相比有所改善。第三季度的疲軟主要出現在電腦和家庭辦公室。

Adjusted OIBDA experienced meaningful pressure declining 56%, with adjusted OIBDA margin decreasing 930 basis points. Looking at the main components of the margin compression.

調整後的 OIBDA 經歷了有意義的壓力下降了 56%，調整後的 OIBDA 利潤率下降了 930 個基點。查看保證金壓縮的主要組成部分。

Gross margin declined 530 basis points, primarily reflecting unfavorable fulfillment expenses, product margins and obsolescence expenses. Fulfillment expenses reflect capacity and operational inefficiencies that resulted in detention and demurrage costs, higher freight rates, fuel and wages, largely due to inflation, higher rents at fulfillment centers and up from the sale and leaseback and sales to leverage. These headwinds were primarily offset by savings from decommissioning our Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Roanoke, Virginia fulfillment centers last year.

毛利率下降 530 個基點，主要反映不利的履行費用、產品利潤率和報廢費用。履行費用反映了運力和運營效率低下，導致滯期費和滯期費、更高的運費、燃料和工資，這主要是由於通貨膨脹、履行中心的更高租金以及售後回租和銷售到槓桿。這些不利因素主要被去年關閉賓夕法尼亞州蘭開斯特和弗吉尼亞州羅阿諾克履行中心所節省的成本所抵消。

Product margins decreased primarily due to our inventory reduction actions, especially at HSN as well as lower shipping and handling revenue. We also lapped the price increases we started in Q3 of 2021. We did not repeat these increases in Q3 of 2022 due to the macro environment. These pressures were partially offset by favorable returns and a mix shift into apparel.

產品利潤率下降主要是由於我們的庫存減少行動，特別是在 HSN 以及較低的運輸和處理收入。我們還計算了 2021 年第三季度開始的價格上漲。由於宏觀環境，我們沒有在 2022 年第三季度重複這些上漲。這些壓力被有利的回報和服裝的混合轉變部分抵消。

Inventory obsolescence increased, primarily due to higher current year reserve provisions. We reduced QxH inventory 5% year-over-year, which was an improvement from the increase in Q2, reflecting rigorous efforts on inventory management and more disciplined buying behavior.

庫存過時增加，主要是由於本年度儲備金增加。我們將 QxH 庫存同比減少 5%，這比第二季度的增長有所改善，反映了對庫存管理的嚴格努力和更加自律的購買行為。

Operating expenses were unfavorable 110 basis points, primarily due to commissions and customer service. Commissions were primarily due to expanded over-the-air distribution on Ion, Tanga, Scripps and Nexstar. Increased customer service expenses reflected sales deleverage and increased wage rates.

運營費用不利 110 個基點，主要是由於佣金和客戶服務。佣金主要是由於擴大了在 Ion、Tanga、Scripps 和 Nexstar 上的無線分銷。客戶服務費用的增加反映了銷售去槓桿和工資率的提高。

SG&A was unfavorable approximately 290 basis points. Fixed cost pressure was primarily due to sales deleverage and investments in video commerce ventures and IT, higher wages and corporate rent post the sale leaseback. Marketing reflects investments to expand our commerce platforms, cost inflation and lower efficiency of marketing spend. Bad-debt pressure reflects increased current year provisions, though bad debt as a percent of net revenue was less than 1% in Q3.

SG&A 不利約 290 個基點。固定成本壓力主要是由於銷售去槓桿化和對視頻商務企業和 IT 的投資、更高的工資和售後回租後的公司租金。營銷反映了為擴大我們的商業平台而進行的投資、成本膨脹和營銷支出效率降低。壞賬壓力反映了本年度撥備增加，儘管第三季度壞賬占淨收入的百分比不到 1%。

Moving on to QVC International. My comments will focus on constant currency results. Revenue declined 5%, primarily on lower-unit volume and reduced shipping and handling revenue. Our largest European business, Germany and the U.K., declined in the low double digits and, as David mentioned, experienced a cautious consumer sentiment from historic inflation, particularly for energy, the ongoing war in Ukraine and the interruption of program in the U.K., following the death of the Queen. QVC Japan was less impacted by these factors, however, and grew mid-single digits.

轉到 QVC 國際。我的評論將集中在不變的貨幣結果上。收入下降 5%，主要是由於單位數量減少以及運輸和裝卸收入減少。我們最大的歐洲業務德國和英國以兩位數的低位下滑，正如大衛所說，由於歷史性通脹，尤其是能源、烏克蘭持續戰爭和英國項目中斷，消費者情緒變得謹慎，隨後女王之死。然而，QVC 日本受這些因素的影響較小，並且增長了中個位數。

eCommerce revenue decreased 5%, in line with overall revenue. QVC International experienced declines in Home, Beauty & Accessories, which were partially offset by modest gains in apparel and jewelry.

電子商務收入下降 5%，與整體收入一致。 QVC International 的家居、美容和配飾業務出現下滑，但部分被服裝和珠寶的小幅增長所抵消。

Adjusted OIBDA decreased 35% and adjusted OIBDA margin declined 530 basis points. The primary factors of the margin compression were lower gross margin and higher fixed costs. Gross margin declined 190 basis points driven by the following factors: product margin has declined, reflecting lower initial margin due to inventory reduction actions and lower shipping and handling revenue due to reduced unit volume. Inventory obsolescence costs reflected increased reserves for specific slow-moving inventory that is expected to be liquidated in Q4.

調整後的 OIBDA 下降了 35%，調整後的 OIBDA 利潤率下降了 530 個基點。利潤率壓縮的主要因素是較低的毛利率和較高的固定成本。由於以下因素，毛利率下降了 190 個基點：產品利潤率下降，反映出由於庫存減少行動導致的初始利潤率下降，以及由於單位數量減少導致的運輸和處理收入下降。庫存報廢成本反映了預計將在第四季度清算的特定滯銷庫存的儲備增加。

Fulfillment costs reflect sales deleverage and higher labor costs caused by increased minimum labor rates and COVID-related staffing challenges as well as higher freight rates in European markets. SG&A was unfavorable primarily due to higher fixed costs and marketing expenses. Fixed costs rose due to higher wages and benefits as well as software and IT project costs. Marketing pressure included an investment to support our growing Japan business.

履行成本反映了銷售去槓桿化和由於最低勞動力成本增加和與 COVID 相關的人員配備挑戰以及歐洲市場運費上漲而導致的勞動力成本上升。 SG&A 不利主要是由於較高的固定成本和營銷費用。由於更高的工資和福利以及軟件和 IT 項目成本，固定成本上升。營銷壓力包括一項投資以支持我們不斷增長的日本業務。

The U.S. dollar strengthened significantly against the yen, euro and the pound. These currency changes mostly impact the translation of our international markets into U.S. dollars. They have limited impact on our direct purchases of cost and goods.

美元兌日元、歐元和英鎊大幅走強。這些貨幣變化主要影響我們將國際市場轉換為美元。它們對我們直接購買成本和貨物的影響有限。

Our 2 largest markets are Japan and Germany. Japan has limited U.S. dollar direct purchases, and Germany negotiated direct purchases in euros. Our U.K. operations purchased only about 1/3 of its direct goods in U.S. dollars.

我們的兩個最大市場是日本和德國。日本限制了美元直接採購，德國則通過談判以歐元直接採購。我們的英國業務僅以美元購買了大約 1/3 的直接商品。

Moving on to Cornerstone. Revenue grew 8% with record performance at each of its own brands, Frontgate, Ballard Designs and Grandin Road, driven by demand for bath, case goods, home furniture and Halloween products. These gains were partially offset by reduced demand for apparel at Garnet Hill.

繼續前進到基石。收入增長 8%，其每個自有品牌 Frontgate、Ballard Designs 和 Grandin Road 的業績均創歷史新高，這得益於對浴室、箱包商品、家居家具和萬聖節產品的需求。這些收益被 Garnet Hill 服裝需求的減少部分抵消。

eCommerce revenue increased 10%, and penetration rose 150 basis points. Adjusted OIBDA decreased 58%, primarily due to higher inbound transportation costs, detention and demurrage fees for storage and handling and higher marketing costs, which were partially offset by initial margin gains.

電子商務收入增長 10%，滲透率上升 150 個基點。調整後的 OIBDA 下降了 58%，主要是由於更高的入境運輸成本、倉儲和處理的滯留費和滯期費以及更高的營銷成本，這部分被初始利潤增長所抵消。

Looking at Zulily. Revenue declined 39%, primarily due to lower unit volume, reflecting limited availability of national-branded product in the quarter in marketing inefficiencies due to cost inflation. This caused Zulily to reduce marketing spend, affecting its customer acquisition and retention.

看著祖莉莉。收入下降 39%，主要是由於單位數量減少，這反映了由於成本上漲導致的營銷效率低下，本季度國內品牌產品的供應有限。這導致 Zulily 減少營銷支出，影響其客戶獲取和保留。

Adjusted OIBDA at Zulily declined 47%, primarily due to deleverage of fixed costs, which were partially offset by favorable marketing expense, fulfillment and product margins.

Zulily 調整後的 OIBDA 下降了 47%，主要是由於固定成本的去槓桿化，這部分被有利的營銷費用、履行和產品利潤率所抵消。

Now I'll discuss 2 technical areas from Q3. First, due to challenging economic conditions, weakened business performance, the decline in our stock price and a significant increase in discount rates used, we accelerated our annual impairment assessment. As a result, we have taken a noncash impairment charges of $2.7 billion at QxH and $366 million at Zulily. These charges are related to the respective businesses goodwill and the trade names of HSN and Zulily and are included in operating income but excluded from adjusted OIBDA.

現在我將討論第三季度的 2 個技術領域。首先，由於經濟形勢嚴峻、經營業績疲軟、股價下跌以及使用的貼現率大幅上升，我們加快了年度減值評估。因此，我們在 QxH 和 Zulily 分別收取了 27 億美元和 3.66 億美元的非現金減值費用。這些費用與各自的商譽以及 HSN 和 Zulily 的商品名稱有關，併計入營業收入，但不包括在調整後的 OIBDA 中。

Second, you will see in the 10-Q filed later today that we identified a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting. The identified weaknesses specifically relates to change management and user access processes around information technology controls at Zulily. It also affects QxH, because one of the affected systems is used by QxH. The control deficiencies did not result in any identified misstatement. We have developed a remediation plan that is expected to bring this matter to closure in the near term. So let's turn to the balance sheet and cash flow.

其次，您將在今天晚些時候提交的 10-Q 中看到，我們發現我們對財務報告的內部控制存在重大缺陷。已確定的弱點具體涉及 Zulily 圍繞信息技術控制的變更管理和用戶訪問流程。它也會影響 QxH，因為其中一個受影響的系統被 QxH 使用。控制缺陷並未導致任何已識別的錯報。我們制定了一項補救計劃，預計將在短期內解決此問題。因此，讓我們轉向資產負債表和現金流。

Total capital expenditures were $171 million for the 9 months ended September 30, 2022, and we spent $36 million on renewal of our TV distribution contracts. Our total free cash flow for the 9 months ended September 30, 2022, was a use of $105 million versus a source of cash of $218 million last year. The year-over-year decline was primarily attributable to lower cash from operations driven by operating results in unfavorable working capital.

截至 2022 年 9 月 30 日的 9 個月，總資本支出為 1.71 億美元，我們在續訂電視發行合同上花費了 3600 萬美元。截至 2022 年 9 月 30 日的 9 個月，我們的總自由現金流為 1.05 億美元，而去年的現金來源為 2.18 億美元。同比下降主要是由於營運資金不利的經營業績導致經營現金減少。

Despite the year-over-year favorability in inventory outflows, working capital headwinds were more timing-driven with increased uses of cash from payables this year related to inventory purchase in 2021, some of which remained in transit due to supply chain inefficiencies. Working capital was also impacted by increased taxes paid this year related to liability management at the end of 2021. These headwinds were partially offset by lower payments for TV distribution rights and insurance proceeds related to fixed assets.

儘管庫存流出同比有利，但營運資金逆風更多是時間驅動的，因為今年與 2021 年庫存採購相關的應付現金的使用增加，其中一些由於供應鏈效率低下而仍在運輸中。營運資金也受到今年支付的與 2021 年底負債管理相關的稅款增加的影響。這些不利因素被電視發行權和與固定資產相關的保險收益的支付減少部分抵消。

Our free cash flow includes insurance proceeds received year-to-date given the inventory loss and impact to our results related to the Rocky Mount fire. On a last 12 months basis, our free cash flow was positive $288 million.

考慮到庫存損失以及對落基山大火相關結果的影響，我們的自由現金流包括年初至今收到的保險收益。在過去 12 個月的基礎上，我們的自由現金流為 2.88 億美元。

Included in our free cash flow in the first 9 months of 2022 was $280 million in insurance recoveries related to the Rocky Mount fire, $184 million of which is recognized in cash flows from investing and the remainder in operating cash flows. As we communicated on the last call in July, we completed 5 additional sale leaseback property transactions, and we received approximately $443 million in cash proceeds. We recorded a $277 million gain on the sale of these assets in Q3, which was included in operating income and excluded from adjusted OIBDA. Proceeds from the sale were used to pay down our revolving credit facility.

我們在 2022 年前 9 個月的自由現金流中包括與落基山大火相關的 2.8 億美元保險賠償，其中 1.84 億美元確認為投資現金流，其餘確認為經營現金流。正如我們在 7 月份的最後一次電話會議上所溝通的那樣，我們完成了 5 筆額外的售後回租物業交易，我們收到了大約 4.43 億美元的現金收益。我們在第三季度出售這些資產獲得了 2.77 億美元的收益，這包括在營業收入中，不包括在調整後的 OIBDA 中。出售所得用於償還我們的循環信貸額度。

The tax liabilities for these sites will be largely payable before year-end 2022. For these transactions, we entered long-term lease arrangements for the properties at attractive rates, with annual rent payments of $47 million that will impact QxH adjusted OIBDA.

這些場地的稅收負債將在 2022 年底之前大部分支付。對於這些交易，我們以有吸引力的價格為這些物業簽訂了長期租賃安排，年租金為 4700 萬美元，這將影響 QxH 調整後的 OIBDA。

In early 2022, we agreed to terms for the sale and leaseback of our U.K. and Germany fulfillment centers. We expect these transactions to close early in the first quarter of 2023. We anticipate receiving gross consideration of approximately GBP 68 million for our U.K. fulfillment center and EUR 97 million for the German facility and expect to use proceeds to reduce debt.

2022 年初，我們同意了英國和德國運營中心的售後回租條款。我們預計這些交易將在 2023 年第一季度初完成。我們預計我們的英國履行中心將收到約 6800 萬英鎊的總對價，德國設施將收到 9700 萬歐元的總對價，並預計將使用收益來減少債務。

Looking at our debt profile. On September 30, we had $545 million drawn on the QVC revolver with $2.7 billion of available capacity. Our leverage ratio, as defined by the QVC revolving credit facility, was 2x. We have ample cushion relative to the 4.5x maximum net leverage covenant threshold in our credit facility. This net leverage covenant includes the adjusted OIBDA of QVC, Cornerstone and Zulily.

查看我們的債務狀況。 9 月 30 日，我們從 QVC 左輪手槍中提取了 5.45 億美元，可用容量為 27 億美元。根據 QVC 循環信貸工具的定義，我們的槓桿率為 2 倍。相對於我們信貸額度的 4.5 倍最大淨槓桿契約門檻，我們有充足的緩衝。該淨槓桿契約包括 QVC、Cornerstone 和 Zulily 的調整後 OIBDA。

Thank you again for your interest. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Greg.

再次感謝您的關注。有了這個，我會把電話轉給格雷格。

Thank you. David and the entire Q-management team are obviously very focused on stabilizing the business this year. There is a weak macro environment and a highly promotional environment among retailers, and that intensity is clearly impacting Qurate as well as the broader retail market. But we do also acknowledge many areas where we need to improve the operating performance at several of the businesses.

謝謝你。大衛和整個 Q 管理團隊今年顯然非常專注於穩定業務。零售商之間存在疲軟的宏觀環境和高度促銷環境，這種強度顯然正在影響 Qurate 以及更廣泛的零售市場。但我們也承認，在許多領域，我們需要改善幾家企業的經營業績。

Importantly, we did make progress on inventory reductions in the third quarter and are on track for longer inventory reduction actions. These should lead to working capital improvements and improved free cash flow.

重要的是，我們在第三季度確實在減少庫存方面取得了進展，並且正在採取更長的庫存減少行動。這些應該會導致營運資金的改善和自由現金流的改善。

David has attracted a top-quality team to support his plans, including the actions under the pillars. Liberty and the Q teams are very focused on driving balance sheet improvements that we made in Q3 and forward. We did pay down the revolver with proceeds from the sale-leaseback that was completed in July. As you heard, we have a European series of sale-leaseback transactions that are signed and will provide additional capital, the estimated gross proceeds of approximately USD 170 million on current exchange rates. We expect to close that early in the first quarter of '23 and again, intend to use those proceeds to further reduce debt.

大衛吸引了一支高素質的團隊來支持他的計劃，包括支柱下的行動。 Liberty 和 Q 團隊非常專注於推動我們在第三季度及以後所做的資產負債表改進。我們確實用 7 月份完成的售後回租的收益償還了左輪手槍。如您所知，我們簽署了一系列歐洲售後回租交易，這些交易將提供額外資金，按當前匯率計算，估計總收益約為 1.7 億美元。我們預計將在 23 年第一季度初關閉，並打算使用這些收益進一步減少債務。

We do look forward to seeing you at our annual Investor Day on Thursday, November 17, as David mentioned. Please visit the IR calendar on our website for registration details. We will be hosting our annual Q&A session. If you'd like to submit questions in advance, you can e-mail them to investor@libermeni.com.

正如大衛所說，我們期待在 11 月 17 日星期四的年度投資者日見到您。請訪問我們網站上的 IR 日曆了解註冊詳情。我們將舉辦年度問答環節。如果您想提前提交問題，可以通過電子郵件將其發送至investor@libermeni.com。

And with that, operator, we'd like to open up for questions.

有了這個，接線員，我們想提出問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Our first question comes from Oliver Wintermantel with Evercore.

我們的第一個問題來自 Evercore 的 Oliver Wintermantel。

I had a question regarding working capital. How should we think about that in the fourth quarter, the very important holiday quarter? You said that inventory should get better. So it should be a net positive from that. But maybe you could give us a little bit more details how you think about working capital into the fourth quarter.

我有一個關於營運資金的問題。在第四季度這個非常重要的假期季度，我們應該如何看待這一點？你說庫存應該變得更好。因此，這應該是一個淨積極因素。但也許您可以向我們提供更多詳細信息，您如何看待第四季度的營運資金。

Great. Thank you for that question. As I look to Q3, what we discussed was the exchange between better usage of inventory and a reduction in our inventory levels and higher payables. I don't want to give guidance on Q4. But if you look at the last 2 years, we've had an exchange from turning down our inventory levels disproportionately, and the payables should catch up as we discussed. And what other question?

偉大的。謝謝你的問題。當我展望第三季度時，我們討論的是更好地利用庫存與降低庫存水平和更高的應付賬款之間的交換。我不想在第四季度給出指導。但是，如果您查看過去 2 年，我們已經從不成比例地降低庫存水平進行了交換，並且應付賬款應該跟上我們討論的那樣。還有什麼其他問題？

Oh, yes. And on your -- on Page 8 in your presentation where it shows customer count, it looks like existing, new and reactivated customers are now below pre-pandemic levels. I just wanted to see, in the short term, how do you plan to stabilize the customer [bleed] here?

哦是的。在您的演示文稿的第 8 頁上，它顯示了客戶數量，看起來現有的、新的和重新激活的客戶現在低於大流行前的水平。我只是想看看，在短期內，您打算如何穩定這裡的客戶[流血]？

Yes. This is David. Thank you for the question. We did see customer count declines, I think there are a number of drivers. I'll click through them relatively quickly and then talk a little bit about what we're seeing and what we're doing. I think part of it is a need for better merchandise. Obviously, we've not had accessed the right time, right product, right value, right host in quite the way we would if we were operating in a normal environment, and that has a particular impact on our business model. And I would say there are some categories like beauty that have been especially impacted by the fire at Rocky Mount.

是的。這是大衛。感謝你的提問。我們確實看到客戶數量下降，我認為有很多驅動因素。我會相對快速地瀏覽它們，然後稍微談談我們所看到的和正在做的事情。我認為部分原因是需要更好的商品。顯然，如果我們在正常環境中運營，我們並沒有以完全正確的方式訪問正確的時間、正確的產品、正確的價值、正確的主機，這對我們的商業模式產生了特別的影響。我想說的是，有一些類別，比如美容，尤其受到落基山大火的影響。

I would also say, I think we've been particularly weak in attracting new customers over the last few quarters. Some of that's because new customer really center around our ability to attract new customers, really centers around consumer electronics and home product, which were all difficult coming out of the pandemic.

我還要說，我認為過去幾個季度我們在吸引新客戶方面特別薄弱。其中一些是因為新客戶真正以我們吸引新客戶的能力為中心，真正以消費電子產品和家用產品為中心，這些都很難從大流行中走出來。

And then finally, I would just point out, if you look at our customer count by cohort, we did see a very large crop of large low-quality customers that we attracted during the pandemic, which are still working their way out of our numbers.

最後，我要指出的是，如果您按群組查看我們的客戶數量，我們確實看到了我們在大流行期間吸引的大量大型低質量客戶，這些客戶仍在努力擺脫我們的數量.

In terms of what we're doing to address it, really, the first action I talked about in my comments, which was shortening the TS and TS availability, it goes back to the execution of our core business model. We know that when we execute on our Today's Special and Today's Special Value, it increases the attraction of new customers and the stickiness of our best customers. For reference as a result of some of these actions that we've taken, we did see improvements in the rate of decline. So for our TS and TSVs for the quarter, we were down low teens compared to high teens and low 20s in the first half. So we are starting to see that perform better. And I think that will flatter our customer count as we continue to improve there.

就我們為解決該問題所做的工作而言，實際上，我在評論中談到的第一個行動是縮短 TS 和 TS 可用性，它可以追溯到我們核心業務模型的執行。我們知道，當我們執行今日特價和今日特價時，它會增加新客戶的吸引力和我們最佳客戶的粘性。作為我們採取的其中一些行動的結果，作為參考，我們確實看到下降速度有所改善。因此，對於本季度我們的 TS 和 TSV，與上半年的高青少年和低 20 歲相比，我們處於低青少年水平。所以我們開始看到它表現得更好。我認為隨著我們繼續在那裡改進，這將增加我們的客戶數量。

We are also bringing guests back in studios. During the pandemic, we went to remote guests, and we've gotten consistent feedback. So that's made our presentation less interesting. And so we think that's going to help.

我們還將客人帶回工作室。在大流行期間，我們去了遠程客人，我們得到了一致的反饋。所以這讓我們的演示變得不那麼有趣了。所以我們認為這會有所幫助。

But on the merchandise side, we talked about some of the talent we brought in on the merchandise side. We also had a global vendor summit here at our headquarters where we brought in all of our top vendors and talk to them about what we needed to do to get to more innovation and different types of refresh cycles across our assortment. And so we think we're on the path to getting new, more exciting assortments to bring to customers.

但在商品方面，我們談到了我們在商品方面引進的一些人才。我們還在總部舉辦了一次全球供應商峰會，我們邀請了所有頂級供應商，並與他們討論我們需要做些什麼才能在我們的產品系列中實現更多創新和不同類型的更新周期。因此，我們認為我們正在為客戶帶來新的、更令人興奮的產品系列。

Again, I would point to some early signs of the rate of our total customer count decline did moderate in Q3. It was down 11% in the first half of this year. It was down 20 -- or down 17% in Q1 and 16% in Q2. So we do see that we're making progress in stemming that decline.

同樣，我要指出一些早期跡象，表明我們的客戶總數下降率在第三季度有所放緩。今年上半年下降了11%。第一季度下降了 20%，即下降了 17%，第二季度下降了 16%。所以我們確實看到我們在阻止這種下降方面取得了進展。

I would also say that the rate of new customer count decline moderated in Q3 as well. We were down mid-teens in Q3 compared with 30% declines in each of the first 2 quarters. So it's a work in progress. We recognize that we have to have a healthy customer file to get back to a growing business. We've been moving against it decisively. And we're encouraged by some of the early signs of moderation we've seen and decline in customer count and hopefully moving towards a position where we can start to grow that count again.

我還要說第三季度新客戶數量下降的速度也有所放緩。我們在第三季度下降了十幾歲，而前兩個季度每個季度都下降了 30%。所以這是一項正在進行的工作。我們認識到，我們必須擁有健康的客戶檔案才能恢復增長的業務。我們一直在果斷地反對它。我們對我們看到的一些溫和的早期跡象和客戶數量的下降感到鼓舞，並希望朝著我們可以開始再次增加數量的位置邁進。

Our next question comes from Jason Haas with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Jason Haas。

So I had a couple of ones to ask on Zulily and then Cornerstone. So on Zulily, I thought that we maybe would have seen better stabilization in results just given that we had talked about in the last earnings call, I think it was mentioned as well about the better buying environment out there. So I'm curious if you are seeing better inventory availability. And if not now, when would you expect that to -- we should see some benefit from that in top-line stabilization?

所以我有幾個關於 Zulily 和 Cornerstone 的問題要問。所以在 Zulily 上，我認為鑑於我們在上次財報電話會議中談到的那樣，我們可能會看到業績更加穩定，我認為也提到了那裡更好的購買環境。所以我很好奇你是否看到更好的庫存可用性。如果不是現在，您預計什麼時候會 - 我們應該會從收入穩定中看到一些好處？

Yes. On Zulily, it's a great question. We are definitely seeing much better inventory availability. We have signed on a couple hundred new brands of various types, including 15 to 20 national brands. Those will be launching in November and December. Those 15, 20 Tier 1 national brands are all brands that we haven't had over the last 18 months. So we're seeing a type of availability we haven't seen in some time.

是的。在 Zulily 上，這是一個很好的問題。我們肯定會看到更好的庫存可用性。我們已經簽約了幾百個不同類型的新品牌，其中包括15到20個民族品牌。這些將在 11 月和 12 月推出。這 15、20 個一級國家品牌都是我們在過去 18 個月裡沒有的品牌。因此，我們看到了一段時間以來從未見過的可用性類型。

And we think this will increase site conversion. We also think it will help to stabilize revenue. It's taken a bit of time for us to get these on the site and start promoting them, to your question, Jason. There's just a lag cycle. The brands have to realize that they need Zulily as an excess inventory outlet. We have to negotiate timing. We have to establish and set up to get the inventory shipped, and then we have to run the promotion on the site. And so it's a 3- or 4-month cycle. And so we'll just start -- you'll just start to see the difference this month and next month and the level of availability of the brands on site.

我們認為這將增加網站轉化率。我們也認為這將有助於穩定收入。 Jason，我們花了一些時間才將這些內容放到網站上並開始宣傳它們。只是有一個滯後周期。品牌必須意識到他們需要 Zulily 作為多餘的庫存渠道。我們必須協商時間。我們必須建立和設置以運送庫存，然後我們必須在網站上進行促銷。所以這是一個 3 或 4 個月的周期。所以我們才剛剛開始 - 您將開始看到本月和下個月的差異以及現場品牌的可用性水平。

The other thing I would just point out, which is it's not only about getting the Tier 1 brands, it's also about the level and depth of the assortment that we have available to us, which we've also seen expanding very substantially.

我要指出的另一件事是，這不僅與獲得一級品牌有關，還與我們可用的分類的水平和深度有關，我們也看到這些分類的擴展非常大。

Last thing I'll point out is the leadership at Zulily has been there about 8 months now. And I think as you go through the holiday season, you'll see a number of changes, including the new shipping offer, including a real diversifying away from Facebook into other marketing channels. And we've already seen pretty strong improvements in the unit economics of the business. So I would agree with you, it hasn't -- the numbers haven't come through quite as quickly, I think, as we would all have hoped, but I think we're in a good position now. You had a question, I think, also about Cornerstone?

最後我要指出的是，Zulily 的領導層已經在那里工作了大約 8 個月。而且我認為，隨著假期的到來，您會看到許多變化，包括新的運輸優惠，包括從 Facebook 真正多元化到其他營銷渠道。我們已經看到企業的單位經濟效益有了相當大的改善。所以我同意你的看法，它沒有——我認為，數字並沒有像我們所有人希望的那樣快，但我認為我們現在處於有利位置。你有一個問題，我想，還有關於基石的問題？

Yes. On Cornerstone, I'm curious, for the overall business, you called out a lot of macro and external headwinds. And I'm curious why those weren't -- it doesn't seem like they were much of attraction for Cornerstone. The revenue growth has been really strong. It looks like the gross margin was a little bit weaker. I think you called out some freight charges there. But just curious, why haven't those macro challenges affected Cornerstone as much as the rest of the business?

是的。在基石，我很好奇，對於整體業務，你提出了很多宏觀和外部不利因素。我很好奇為什麼那些不是——它們似乎對 Cornerstone 沒有多大吸引力。收入增長非常強勁。看起來毛利率有點弱。我想你在那里報了一些運費。但只是好奇，為什麼這些宏觀挑戰沒有像其他業務那樣影響 Cornerstone？

Yes, it's a great question. I'd point to a few things. I think, first, essentially all Cornerstone product is proprietary or private label. And so because of that, it's insulated a bit from some of the discounting pressure and the other things that are going on in retail, that's first.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。我要指出幾點。我認為，首先，基本上所有的 Cornerstone 產品都是專有或自有品牌。因此，它與一些折扣壓力和零售業正在發生的其他事情有所隔離，這是第一個。

Second, I think a direct marketing skill set, catalogs, paper, customer by customer, category by category, is even more valuable in the current environment. I actually think there's some benefit to being catalog-focused when you're seeing the type of inflation that we've seen in some of the digital-marketing environment. And so what I think used to look like a weakness now looks like a bit of a strength.

其次，我認為直接營銷技能、目錄、紙張、一個客戶一個客戶、一個類別一個類別，在當前環境下更有價值。實際上，當您看到我們在某些數字營銷環境中看到的通貨膨脹類型時，我實際上認為以目錄為中心是有一些好處的。所以我認為過去看起來像弱點的東西現在看起來有點像力量。

I'd also say we've seen continued increases in investments around home, both indoor and outdoor. I think there was some sense in that, that might moderate coming out of the pandemic. But what we've seen is people shifting their wallet more consistently to doing things to upgrade their home, whether that's grills outside or patios outside. We've seen a much longer leg to outdoor furniture than we thought or than we've seen and seen in prior years. And we're also continuing to see really strong dynamic for people to continue to upgrade their home. And so a lot of those trends look stickier than I think, the common wisdom had baked in.

我還要說，我們已經看到圍繞家庭的投資持續增加，無論是室內還是室外。我認為這是有道理的，這可能會緩和大流行的影響。但我們所看到的是，人們更一致地轉移他們的錢包來做一些事情來升級他們的家，無論是外面的烤架還是外面的露台。我們已經看到戶外家具比我們想像的要長得多，或者比我們在前幾年看到和看到的要長得多。我們也繼續看到人們繼續升級他們的家的強大動力。所以很多這些趨勢看起來比我想像的要棘手，這是普遍的智慧。

And so all of those things make us think that this revenue-growth profile of Cornerstone continues to look strong going into next year. And then of course, next year, we've talked about, we're going to continue opening at a deliberate pace stores for the Cornerstone brands, especially Ballard Designs. The stores have continued to perform extremely well, continued to grow and continued to have good profitability. And so we think continuing to open stores at under-penetrated areas should be even an additional positive for the Cornerstone story.

因此，所有這些都讓我們認為，Cornerstone 的收入增長狀況在明年繼續保持強勁。當然，明年，我們已經談到，我們將繼續以有計劃的速度為 Cornerstone 品牌開設商店，尤其是 Ballard Designs。門店繼續表現出色，繼續增長，並繼續保持良好的盈利能力。因此，我們認為繼續在滲透率較低的地區開設商店應該對 Cornerstone 的故事產生額外的積極影響。

Our next question comes from William Reuter with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 William Reuter。

Prepared remarks when you discussed timing of shipments and their delay from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of '21, it seems like you were kind of indicating that the challenge -- that the comparisons are going to become more difficult in the fourth quarter. So some of these trends that we've seen in the third quarter could get even more challenging. Was that the message we were supposed to take away from that?

當您討論發貨時間及其從 21 年第三季度到第四季度的延遲時準備好的評論，您似乎在暗示挑戰——第四季度的比較將變得更加困難。因此，我們在第三季度看到的其中一些趨勢可能會變得更具挑戰性。那是我們應該從中帶走的信息嗎？

Yes. So we had an exceptional event last year given everything that was happening in supply chain, where we took a lot of advanced orders that didn't ship. So I think it's fair that they -- in the compare helped a little bit in Q3, hurt a little bit in Q4 just because of when that revenue is recognized. We don't recognize it until it's shipped. So that's there in the numbers. It's not a massive swing in the numbers, but we just wanted to highlight that it was an impact.

是的。因此，鑑於供應鏈中發生的一切，我們去年舉辦了一場特殊的活動，我們接受了許多未發貨的高級訂單。所以我認為這是公平的，他們在比較中在第三季度有所幫助，在第四季度受到了一點傷害，只是因為收入得到確認。在它發貨之前，我們無法識別它。這就是數字。這並不是數字的巨大波動，但我們只是想強調這是一種影響。

I would say, we saw improvements in levels of decline in moderation coming into this quarter. I talked about some of the underlying drivers of that. And I think we're going to continue to hit the execution on those. And so we anticipate continuing to be able to make progress.

我想說，我們看到本季度節制下降水平有所改善。我談到了其中的一些潛在驅動因素。而且我認為我們將繼續執行這些操作。因此，我們預計將繼續取得進展。

That's helpful. And then it sounds like you are pleased with the progress you've made on clearance of inventory. It seems like the fourth quarter is going to still have a pretty substantial amount of this. Do you expect you'll be largely done by the end of the fourth quarter? Or is this -- should these efforts continue on into the first or second quarter of next year?

這很有幫助。然後聽起來您對您在清庫存方面取得的進展感到滿意。似乎第四季度仍然會有相當大的數量。你預計到第四季度末你會基本完成嗎？或者是——這些努力是否應該持續到明年第一季度或第二季度？

Yes. It will depend a little bit on how the fourth quarter performs, of course. We feel very good, though, about the position we're going to be in coming through the fourth quarter. It's possible that there could be some hangover as we go into Q1, but we feel pretty good.

是的。當然，這在一定程度上取決於第四季度的表現。不過，我們感覺非常好，關於我們將在第四季度的位置。當我們進入第一季度時，可能會有一些宿醉，但我們感覺很好。

As we look out across the universe, if you look at NPD data, some other industry data, it suggests the market's up about 20% in excess inventory across retail. We're down about 5%. So we're going into this a lot more clean than the overall retail environment, and we think we'll continue to improve on that number as we go through the fourth quarter. So there may be some hangover going into Q1, but we think we'll largely be through getting clean on inventory and getting to a level we're more happy with as we go into Q1.

當我們放眼整個宇宙時，如果您查看 NPD 數據和其他一些行業數據，它表明市場的零售過剩庫存增加了約 20%。我們下跌了大約 5%。因此，我們將比整體零售環境更乾淨，我們認為隨著第四季度的到來，我們將繼續改善這個數字。因此，第一季度可能會有一些宿醉，但我們認為我們將主要通過清理庫存並達到我們在進入第一季度時更滿意的水平。

Okay. And then just lastly for me. You're clearly making a lot of efforts to accelerate your streaming business. Do you have a sense for what percentage of your sales are coming from streaming at this point? I know it may be difficult, but maybe you have some sense for where that is and where you think it maybe will go over the next year?

好的。最後對我來說。您顯然正在為加速您的流媒體業務做出很多努力。您是否知道此時您的銷售額中有多少百分比來自流媒體？我知道這可能很困難，但也許你對那在哪里以及你認為明年它可能會去哪裡有一定的了解？

Yes. So we haven't broken that out up until now. We're looking at how to give you some additional visibility into how to think about our streaming and context. I would say it's not a primary driver today, but it has been growing very quickly. It's material, but I wouldn't say it's a primary driver of results yet.

是的。所以直到現在我們還沒有打破它。我們正在研究如何讓您進一步了解如何考慮我們的流媒體和上下文。我會說它不是今天的主要驅動力，但它一直在快速增長。它很重要，但我不會說它是結果的主要驅動力。

What we've seen in terms of customers as a streaming customer, we think is add valuable or potentially more valuable than the linear TV customer. So we've been happy as we've gotten to know the customers even as we've grown the service. But eventually, medium to long term, I think as people continue to move from linear to streaming, it will be an increasingly big and important part of our portfolio.

我們所看到的作為流媒體客戶的客戶，我們認為比線性電視客戶更有價值或可能更有價值。所以我們很高興，因為我們已經了解了客戶，即使我們已經發展了服務。但最終，從中長期來看，我認為隨著人們繼續從線性轉向流媒體，它將成為我們產品組合中越來越重要的一部分。

I think in the U.S., streaming reach overall in the broader market has already surpassed linear TV reach. I think we passed that threshold this year, and I think they'll be a lag for us. But over time, I would imagine that we will replicate some of those same dynamics. So it's definitely an emphasis.

我認為在美國，整個市場的流媒體覆蓋範圍已經超過了線性電視的覆蓋範圍。我認為我們今年通過了這個門檻，我認為他們對我們來說會是一個滯後。但隨著時間的推移，我想我們會復制一些相同的動態。所以這絕對是一個重點。

Our next question comes from Carla Casella with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Carla Casella。

I'm wondering, did you buy back any of the senior exchangeable debentures in the quarter? I noticed that the balance came down a little bit. I'm not sure if that's just carrying value or if you purchased some.

我想知道，您是否在本季度回購了任何高級可交換債券？我注意到餘額下降了一點。我不確定這是否只是具有價值，或者您是否購買了一些。

Carla, it's Ben Oren. We did purchase some -- we actually purchased -- it's $41 million current or adjusted principal amount and 45 million debentures for a cash cost of $24 million.

卡拉，我是本·奧倫。我們確實購買了一些——我們實際上購買了——4100 萬美元的當前或調整後的本金和 4500 萬美元的債券，現金成本為 2400 萬美元。

Okay. Great. And then the sale leasebacks, the 2 additional ones in Europe, beyond this, do you have -- what are your remaining kind of material-owned properties?

好的。偉大的。然後是銷售回租，歐洲的另外兩個回租，除此之外，你有 - 你剩下的材料擁有的財產是什麼？

We do have several additional material properties. I think the interest in doing additional sale leasebacks will be opportunistic and dependent on market conditions, but we continue to look at opportunities across the portfolio.

我們確實有幾個額外的材料屬性。我認為進行額外銷售回租的興趣將是機會主義的，並且取決於市場條件，但我們會繼續關注整個投資組合的機會。

Okay. Great. And then looking at the customer count, I know you got these questions before, but so at QVC, it's down 16% year-over-year, 13% from pre-pandemic and 6% since the first quarter. Are you -- are there any -- when do you expect to see potential stabilization in that customer count? Or are you seeing any green shoots yet?

好的。偉大的。然後看看客戶數量，我知道你以前也遇到過這些問題，但是在 QVC，它同比下降了 16%，比大流行前下降了 13%，自第一季度以來下降了 6%。您是否 - 有沒有 - 您預計何時會看到該客戶數量的潛在穩定？或者你看到任何綠芽了嗎？

Yes. So I appreciate the question. Say a couple of things. The first is we sort of look at customers broken out within the business by new, occasional, returning and our best customers. I would say our best customers have held up better than our total customer file. And so we're pleased with that. And certainly, the spending behavior of our best customers have been extremely strong, growing in the quarter.

是的。所以我很欣賞這個問題。說幾句。首先，我們通過新的、偶爾的、回頭客和我們最好的客戶來查看業務中的客戶。我想說我們最好的客戶比我們的總客戶檔案更好。所以我們對此感到滿意。當然，我們最好的客戶的消費行為非常強勁，在本季度有所增長。

Our new customers have been a potential source of weakness often being down in the first half, being down in the 30% range. And so that's been a real drag. Now new customers in our model are not nearly as valuable as best customers. So they account for less. But for the long-term health of the customer file, they're very important. And we've cut that rate of decline for new customers by more than half already, and we're going to continue to hammer away at making our value proposition much more attractive for new customers.

我們的新客戶一直是潛在的弱點，上半年經常下降，下降幅度在 30% 範圍內。所以這是一個真正的拖累。現在，我們模型中的新客戶並不像最佳客戶那樣有價值。所以他們佔的少。但是為了客戶檔案的長期健康，它們非常重要。我們已經將新客戶的下降速度降低了一半以上，我們將繼續努力使我們的價值主張對新客戶更具吸引力。

On the overall customer file, like I pointed out before, we have seen a moderation in the rate of decline. We think we know why we're driving that moderation, and we think we know the tools we have at our disposal to continue working on getting back to a stabilized growing customer file.

正如我之前指出的，在整個客戶檔案中，我們看到下降速度有所放緩。我們認為我們知道我們為什麼要推動這種節制，並且我們認為我們知道我們可以使用的工具來繼續努力恢復穩定增長的客戶檔案。

Okay. Great. And then just one on the business interruption, you mentioned that you filed or submitted your claim. Just trying to understand, could the magnitude of that claim be greater? Or is it less than the damage insurance proceeds that you've already received?

好的。偉大的。然後只是關於業務中斷的一個，您提到您提出或提交了索賠。只是想了解一下，這種說法的幅度會更大嗎？還是比您已經收到的損害保險收益少？

David, do you want me to take that?

大衛，你要我拿那個嗎？

Sure.

當然。

Yes, I would say we filed the claim. There's negotiations going on. I don't know that we're ready to comment at this point whether it's going to be bigger or smaller than the property amounts that we've gotten back.

是的，我會說我們提出了索賠。正在進行談判。我不知道我們現在是否準備好評論它是否會比我們收回的財產金額更大或更小。

Okay. But is it material like those property amounts have been? Or is it -- I just don't know that business as well.

好的。但它是否像那些財產金額一樣重要？或者是 - 我只是不知道那個業務。

Yes. We expect it to be material.

是的。我們希望它是物質的。

Okay. And then just a clarification, you've got plenty of revolver capacity now. You've got some near-term maturities still. Would you use your revolver? Can you use it to take out near-term debt?

好的。然後只是澄清一下，你現在有足夠的左輪手槍容量。你還有一些短期到期。你會用你的左輪手槍嗎？你能用它來償還短期債務嗎？

We can use the revolver to take out near-term debt. I think we're being prudent with respect to interest expense, current interest rates and relative to our really low coupons on some of the nearer-term maturities. So more likely if we were to use the revolver, for example, for the March 2023 maturity, we would just do it just prior to maturity as opposed to proactive repurchase.

我們可以用左輪手槍來償還短期債務。我認為我們在利息支出、當前利率以及相對於我們在一些近期到期的非常低的票息方面是謹慎的。因此，如果我們要使用左輪手槍，例如，對於 2023 年 3 月的到期，我們更有可能在到期之前這樣做，而不是主動回購。

Our next question comes from Hale Holden with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊的 Hale Holden。

I just had a quick question on the TSV and TS statistics that you gave in the script. I'm surprised that you're still shifting a lot of them, I guess, given what looks like a better inventory flow-through than what you had last year. So any color there would help.

我剛剛對您在腳本中提供的 TSV 和 TS 統計數據提出了一個簡短的問題。我猜你仍然在轉移很多東西，我很驚訝，因為看起來比去年更好的庫存流動。所以那裡的任何顏色都會有所幫助。

Yes. So we have seen some moderation in that. I would say the supply chain is better than it was last year, for sure. The supply chain is not fully healed yet. So we still -- there still is bumpiness and arrivals and availability. And we're still -- some of our vendors are in better position than others in terms of their catch-up with their own supply chain.

是的。因此，我們已經看到了一些適度。我會說供應鏈肯定比去年好。供應鏈尚未完全癒合。所以我們仍然 - 仍然存在顛簸，到達和可用性。而且我們仍然 - 在追趕自己的供應鏈方面，我們的一些供應商比其他供應商處於更好的位置。

The other piece of it, of course, is as we've gotten through the inventory at Rocky Mount, there's some lumps in that inventory, and there's also some changes and what we need to do as we discover what's salable and what's not in the promotional calendar. So all of those things, I think, have continued to make the calendar a little more unstable than we'd like, but it was a lot better in the third quarter than it was in the first half. And I think we feel pretty good about being able to operate much more in line with our normal promotional calendar in Q4.

當然，另一部分是當我們通過落基山的庫存時，庫存中有一些腫塊，還有一些變化以及我們需要做的事情，因為我們發現什麼是可銷售的，什麼不在促銷日曆。因此，我認為所有這些事情都繼續使日曆變得比我們想要的更不穩定，但第三季度的情況比上半年要好得多。而且我認為我們對能夠按照我們在第四季度的正常促銷日曆進行更多操作感到非常高興。

And then sort of as a follow-up on that. In the EBITDA bridge or margin bridge that you guys provided, I saw the sort of the margin decline for merchandise margins. But I would think on a go-forward basis that there could be a meaningful benefit to shipping costs, just given what we're seeing in ocean freight. And any color you could tell us on what that could look like next year would be helpful.

然後作為一個後續行動。在你們提供的 EBITDA 橋或利潤橋中，我看到商品利潤率的利潤率下降。但我認為，考慮到我們在海運方面看到的情況，航運成本可能會帶來有意義的好處。你能告訴我們明年會是什麼樣子的任何顏色都會有所幫助。

Thank you for that question. We spend a lot of time reviewing the shipping rates. And what I would offer up is that we do start to see declines in shipping rates in the marketplace. And we have seen stabilization broadly similar to the broader market in our supply chains from oceangoing freight, which is a large portion of our business.

謝謝你的問題。我們花了很多時間審查運費。我要提出的是，我們確實開始看到市場上的運費下降。我們已經看到遠洋貨運供應鏈中的穩定與更廣泛的市場大致相似，這是我們業務的很大一部分。

I would just point out, there is -- there are some substantial lags for 2 reasons. First, it just takes those lower rates time to show up on the P&L from the time that you contracted before it gets on the water, before it gets here and before it flows through the numbers.

我只想指出，有兩個原因存在一些實質性的滯後。首先，從您簽訂合同到它上水之前，在它到達這里之前以及在它通過數字之前，它只需要那些較低的利率時間才能顯示在損益表上。

Second, some of the shipping rates are at spot prices, but a lot of it is also on contract. And so in some of those areas, you have to roll off of the contracted rates before you can take advantage of the lower spot in market rates that are in the market. And so it does look like it will be a good guide going forward, but it will come into the P&L and give us relief over time.

其次，一些運費是現貨價格，但很多也是合同價格。因此，在其中一些領域，您必須先降低合同費率，然後才能利用市場上較低的市場費率。所以它看起來確實是一個很好的指導，但它會進入損益表，隨著時間的推移讓我們鬆一口氣。

Our last question comes from Steve Litt with 4010 Capital.

我們的最後一個問題來自 4010 Capital 的 Steve Litt。

Just a 2-part question. See, I was a little surprised given all the initiatives you've announced and the sales decline that the costs were up so much. Can you -- I imagine there's some temporary costs in there. Can you highlight, I guess, how much was temporary? And then kind of related to that is just you've given EBITDA guidance, which on the surface sounds good. It's up double digit, but the base seems to keep going down. So can you be more explicit on what double-digit means and what the base may be so that we have an understanding of what your actual targets may be a few years out?

只是一個兩部分的問題。看，考慮到您宣布的所有舉措以及成本上漲如此之多導致銷售額下降，我有點驚訝。你能 - 我想那裡有一些臨時費用。你能強調一下，我猜，有多少是暫時的？然後與此相關的是您提供了 EBITDA 指導，表面上聽起來不錯。它上升了兩位數，但基數似乎繼續下降。那麼您能否更明確地說明兩位數的含義以及可能的基數，以便我們了解您幾年後的實際目標可能是什麼？

Yes. Great. Let me -- I hit the second part first. I think we tabled it or we established the base year as 2022 intentionally, given some of the puts and takes getting through this year, we think we'll have a cleaner base and read going into 2023, 2024. So that's why we stated it like that, but I think we'll be able to give you a little bit more detail as we land 2022 when we're able to talk about what Project Athens looks like going forward. But I don't think we're prepared to announce new targets today.

是的。偉大的。讓我 - 我先打第二部分。我認為我們將其提交或我們有意將基準年設定為 2022 年，鑑於今年的一些看跌期權和收益，我們認為我們將擁有一個更清潔的基礎並閱讀 2023 年和 2024 年。所以這就是我們聲明的原因就像那樣，但我認為我們將能夠在 2022 年登陸時為您提供更多細節，屆時我們將能夠談論雅典項目的未來展望。但我認為我們今天還沒有準備好宣布新的目標。

In terms of cost pressures, I'll take a little bit of time with this one because I think it's important. I would really bucket the cost pressures in the 4 buckets, and it's important to separate them because what we have to do against them is a little bit different. So I would think about fulfillment, other inflationary impacts, our inventory liquidation efforts and then sales deleverage across the P&L.

在成本壓力方面，我會花一點時間處理這個，因為我認為它很重要。我真的會在 4 個桶中分擔成本壓力，將它們分開很重要，因為我們必須對它們做的事情有點不同。所以我會考慮履行、其他通脹影響、我們的庫存清算工作以及整個損益表的銷售去槓桿化。

So on fulfillment, fulfillment and supply chain is the largest driver of cost by a lot. This really has 2 components to it. The first is Rocky Mount. We just had to hire more people because we're more manual. Rocky Mount was one of our largest and most efficient processing facilities. We also have more expensive transportation and routing because we don't have coverage that's as good in that part of the country.

因此，在履行方面，履行和供應鍊是成本的最大驅動因素。這確實有兩個組成部分。第一個是落基山。我們只需要雇傭更多的人，因為我們更手動。 Rocky Mount 是我們最大、最高效的加工設施之一。我們還有更昂貴的運輸和路線，因為我們在該國那個地區沒有那麼好的覆蓋範圍。

The other part of Rocky Mount was we now had capacity constraints. So we had to go out and lease more buildings. We also had to leave more inventory and trailers. So all of those were costs that should be coming out of the P&L. And I would point out that we've made substantial progress. So I talked about the trailers coming into, I think, Q2, we had 1,000 trailers across various yards in the network. We're down, at the end of Q3, to 275 trailers. And since the end of Q3, we've gotten that down even further. So things like detention and demurrage, which were penalizing in this quarter over time should work their way out.

落基山的另一部分是我們現在有容量限制。所以我們不得不出去租更多的建築物。我們還不得不留下更多的庫存和拖車。所以所有這些都是應該從損益表中產生的成本。我要指出，我們已經取得了實質性進展。所以我談到了即將進入的預告片，我認為，第二季度，我們有 1,000 部預告片跨越網絡中的各個碼。在第三季度末，我們下降到 275 輛拖車。自第三季度末以來，我們進一步降低了這一點。因此，隨著時間的推移，本季度受到懲罰的滯留費和滯期費等問題應該會得到解決。

In terms of other inflationary impacts, which is sort of the second category, that's where you see marketing cost. The digital marketing environment has been tough, although I would hope that comes down. We've also invested a little bit, although not a material driver, into our streaming business on marketing. On the gross margin line, obviously, we've been moving to get rid of some excess promotions. We started that early. We've made substantial progress. That's had a material impact on margins. We think we'll continue to see that impact through 2022, but we should see that start to moderate in 2023.

就第二類的其他通脹影響而言，這就是您看到營銷成本的地方。數字營銷環境一直很艱難，儘管我希望這種情況能緩和下來。我們還在營銷流媒體業務中投入了一些資金，儘管不是實質性驅動因素。顯然，在毛利率線上，我們一直在努力擺脫一些過度促銷。我們很早就開始了。我們已經取得了實質性進展。這對利潤率產生了重大影響。我們認為這種影響將持續到 2022 年，但我們應該會看到這種影響在 2023 年開始放緩。

And then finally, on sales deleverage and the P&L, I would just say when you're -- we were down 9% constant currency. When you're seeing that sort of down, it's just hard to remove SG&A at end period at the same rate of the sales decline. We also, because of the overall consumer environment, unlike last year, we weren't able to counteract very much of it by taking price. That's both because of the environment and because we're being more promotional to move inventory.

最後，關於銷售去槓桿化和損益表，我只想說，當你 - 我們下跌 9% 不變貨幣時。當您看到這種下降時，很難以與銷售下降相同的速度在期末消除 SG&A。此外，由於整體的消費環境，與去年不同，我們無法通過定價來抵消很多影響。這既是因為環境的原因，也是因為我們正在更多地促銷以移動庫存。

What I would say is we're attacking all of these areas, even if you can't get it in period. So we're exiting multiple leases around the world. Zulily has already taken very strong action in terms of rightsizing headcount. And then across the business, of course, we're also very intentionally managing headcount. If you look at the headcount across the business, despite the increases that we've had to deal with -- to deal with Rocky Mount, overall business headcount is still notably down year-over-year. So we've kept a really tight grasp on how costs are flowing through the business. And then I think as we go into next year and as we stand up the transformation office, we only intend to accelerate these sorts of cost effort.

我要說的是，我們正在攻擊所有這些領域，即使你無法及時獲得它。因此，我們正在世界各地退出多個租約。 Zulily 在調整員工人數方面已經採取了非常有力的行動。當然，在整個業務中，我們也非常有意識地管理員工人數。如果您查看整個業務的員工人數，儘管我們不得不處理增加 - 以應對落基山，但整體業務員工人數仍顯著同比下降。因此，我們一直非常嚴格地掌握成本是如何在業務中流動的。然後我認為，隨著我們進入明年並建立轉型辦公室，我們只打算加快這些成本努力。

So operator, I think we are done for the day. And to our listening audience, thank you for your interest in Qurate. And as we said, we hope to see many of you in a couple of weeks in New York. And that's it for this morning.

所以接線員，我想我們已經完成了這一天。對於我們的聽眾，感謝您對 Qurate 的興趣。正如我們所說，我們希望幾週後在紐約見到你們中的許多人。這就是今天早上的內容。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.

今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路，感謝您的參與。