Steelcase Inc (SCS) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Rob, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Steelcase Third Quarter Fiscal 2023 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you. Mr. O'Meara, you may begin your conference.

早上好。我叫 Rob，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線員。此時，我想歡迎大家參加 Steelcase 2023 財年第三季度電話會議。 （操作員說明）謝謝。 O'Meara 先生，您可以開始您的會議了。

Thank you, Rob. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the recap of our third quarter of fiscal 2023 financial results. Here with me today are Sara Armbruster, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Dave Sylvester, our Senior Vice President, and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝你，羅布。大家，早安。感謝您與我們一起回顧我們 2023 財年第三季度的財務業績。今天和我在一起的是我們的總裁兼首席執行官 Sara Armbruster；和我們的高級副總裁兼首席財務官 Dave Sylvester。

Our third-quarter earnings release, which crossed the wires yesterday, is accessible on our website. This conference call is being webcast and this webcast is a copyrighted production of Steelcase Inc. A replay of this webcast will be posted to ir.steelcase.com later today.

我們的第三季度收益發佈於昨天發布，可在我們的網站上訪問。本次電話會議正在進行網絡直播，本次網絡直播是 Steelcase Inc. 的版權產品。本次網絡直播的重播將於今天晚些時候發佈到 ir.steelcase.com。

Our discussion today may include references to non-GAAP financial measures and forward-looking statements. Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures and details regarding the risks associated with the use of forward-looking statements are included in our earnings release and we are incorporating by reference into this conference call the text of our Safe Harbor statement included in the release. Following our prepared remarks, we will respond to questions from investors and analysts.

我們今天的討論可能包括對非 GAAP 財務指標和前瞻性陳述的引用。與最具可比性的 GAAP 措施的對賬以及與使用前瞻性報表相關的風險的詳細信息包含在我們的收益發布中，我們通過引用將我們在發布中包含的安全港聲明的文本納入本次電話會議。在我們準備好的評論之後，我們將回答投資者和分析師的問題。

I will now turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Sara Armbruster.

我現在將電話轉交給我們的總裁兼首席執行官 Sara Armbruster。

Thanks, Mike, and hello, everyone, and thanks for joining today's call. Our third-quarter results were about what we expected as both revenue and EPS finished within the guidance range we provided in September, and we feel good about that given the challenging environment. Our corporate clients have slowed investment in office space as they face a potential recession and economic uncertainty in many parts of the world, and this has caused our demand levels to soften.

謝謝，邁克，大家好，感謝您參加今天的電話會議。我們的第三季度業績符合我們的預期，因為收入和每股收益都在我們 9 月份提供的指導範圍內完成，鑑於充滿挑戰的環境，我們對此感覺良好。我們的企業客戶在世界許多地方面臨潛在的衰退和經濟不確定性，因此放緩了對辦公空間的投資，這導致我們的需求水平疲軟。

We started to see our order patterns slow down at the end of Q2 and this continued throughout our third quarter. On the supply side, inflation persists and our supply chain partners continue to struggle to find enough labor. Yet, in Q3, we delivered results within our expectations by executing against our 3 strategic pillars and by taking multiple additional actions.

我們開始看到我們的訂單模式在第二季度末放緩，並且這種情況一直持續到整個第三季度。在供應方面，通貨膨脹持續存在，我們的供應鏈合作夥伴繼續努力尋找足夠的勞動力。然而，在第 3 季度，我們通過執行我們的 3 個戰略支柱並採取多項額外行動，實現了我們預期的結果。

Our progress in diversifying the customer and market segments we serve helped offset softness in the corporate market. We continue to implement our pricing actions successfully, we managed operating expenses relentlessly, and we mitigated the impact of supply chain disruptions with numerous adjustments in our operations. I also want to note that in the face of a challenging environment, our EMEA business contributed to our results by delivering $4 million of operating income this quarter. I'm proud of our organization's commitment to deliver solid results despite the headwinds that we're navigating.

我們在使所服務的客戶和細分市場多樣化方面取得的進展幫助抵消了企業市場的疲軟。我們繼續成功地實施我們的定價行動，我們不懈地管理運營費用，我們通過對我們的運營進行多次調整來減輕供應鏈中斷的影響。我還想指出，面對充滿挑戰的環境，我們的 EMEA 業務在本季度實現了 400 萬美元的營業收入，為我們的業績做出了貢獻。儘管我們正面臨逆風，但我為我們的組織承諾提供可靠的結果感到自豪。

Dave will share more about current demand patterns and he'll cover expectations for next quarter and how we're thinking about fiscal '24 in a minute. And I want to share how we're thinking about the path forward over the next few years.

戴夫將分享更多關於當前需求模式的信息，他將在一分鐘內介紹對下個季度的預期以及我們如何考慮 24 財年。我想分享我們如何思考未來幾年的前進道路。

In recent quarters, we've intensified our focus around 3 primary objectives: Leading the hybrid work transformation, diversifying the markets and customers we serve, and improving our profitability. And today, I'd like to paint a more detailed picture of how we see the market landscape evolving and why we think pursuing these 3 objectives will position us to win with customers and drive improved financial results.

在最近幾個季度，我們加強了對 3 個主要目標的關注：領導混合工作轉型，使我們服務的市場和客戶多樣化，並提高我們的盈利能力。今天，我想更詳細地描繪一下我們如何看待市場格局的演變，以及為什麼我們認為追求這 3 個目標將使我們能夠贏得客戶並推動改善財務業績。

We're not ready to share long-term targets right now, but we believe our strategy can deliver significant earnings improvement over the coming years. There's no disputing that our core markets, traditionally driven by large corporate customers with offices typically in big cities is under pressure, especially in the Americas.

我們現在還沒有準備好分享長期目標，但我們相信我們的戰略可以在未來幾年顯著改善收益。毫無疑問，我們的核心市場，傳統上由通常在大城市設有辦事處的大型企業客戶推動，正面臨壓力，尤其是在美洲。

We believe demand will improve from current levels as recessionary concerns weighing on CEO confidence abate and more customers decide to invest in their offices to support hybrid work strategies. Because it's clear that a more flexible model of work is here to stay, it's wise for us to imagine a contract office furniture market in which customers may invest less in office space and invest in that space differently than prior to the pandemic and it's essential that we continue to evolve our company to meet customer needs and to compete successfully in that environment.

我們認為，隨著經濟衰退對 CEO 信心的影響減弱，以及更多客戶決定投資於他們的辦公室以支持混合工作策略，需求將從當前水平有所改善。因為很明顯，一種更靈活的工作模式將繼續存在，所以我們明智地想像一個合同辦公家具市場，在這個市場中，客戶可以減少對辦公空間的投資，並以不同於大流行之前的方式對該空間進行投資，而且至關重要的是我們不斷發展我們的公司以滿足客戶需求並在該環境中成功競爭。

So there are 2 important things at play here. First, we don't know what the ultimate size of the contract Americas office furniture market might be as large companies implement hybrid work strategies. But to give you 1 scenario, if you model the industry recovery stabilizing at a level that's 20% to 25% below pre-pandemic levels, that would obviously create a revenue gap for us to fill. Second, we believe that no matter how the level of demand from corporate customers changes, the nature of that demand, the ways in which they'll support their employees and work is changing, the types of solutions they need today and for the future are different than prior to the pandemic.

所以這裡有兩件重要的事情在起作用。首先，隨著大公司實施混合工作戰略，我們不知道美洲辦公家具市場合同的最終規模可能是多少。但是給你一個場景，如果你模擬行業復甦穩定在比大流行前水平低 20% 到 25% 的水平，那顯然會造成我們需要填補的收入缺口。其次，我們相信，無論企業客戶的需求水平如何變化，這種需求的性質、他們支持員工和工作的方式都在變化，他們現在和未來需要的解決方案類型都是與大流行之前不同。

So what does this mean for Steelcase? Well, not only do we believe we can expand other parts of our business to fill a hole that may be created by reduced corporate customer demand, we are also confident in our ability to bring insights-based innovation to corporate customers and to evolve our portfolio to serve those customers changing needs. Industry leaders face market shifts and adapt. That's what Steelcase has done for 110 years and that's what we intend to continue to do. And this brings me to the 3 pillars that we've been sharing with you for the last few quarters.

那麼這對 Steelcase 意味著什麼？好吧，我們不僅相信我們可以擴展我們業務的其他部分來填補可能因企業客戶需求減少而造成的空缺，我們也相信我們有能力為企業客戶帶來基於洞察力的創新並發展我們的產品組合以滿足那些客戶不斷變化的需求。行業領導者面臨市場變化並進行調整。這就是 Steelcase 110 年來所做的，也是我們打算繼續做的事情。這讓我想到了過去幾個季度我們一直與您分享的三大支柱。

So first, we intend to lead the hybrid work transformation. Corporate customers are grappling with profound changes in work and the workplace and our insights and innovation matter now more than ever. That's why we remain invested in our strategies to evolve our product portfolio and our go-to market model, even during the challenges of the past nearly 3 years. Our product development investment is focused on the most critical needs for hybrid work, such as great hybrid collaboration experiences and new ways of delivering privacy in the workplace. We've engaged customers in our research and introduced solutions based on that research. These products such as Flex Personal Spaces, Flex Active Frames, Everwall, and Orangebox pods have re-imagined both individual workspaces and collaborative spaces and we plan to introduce more innovative solutions next year.

所以首先，我們打算領導混合工作轉型。企業客戶正在努力應對工作和工作場所的深刻變化，而我們的洞察力和創新現在比以往任何時候都更加重要。這就是為什麼即使在過去近 3 年的挑戰中，我們仍然投資於發展我們的產品組合和進入市場模型的戰略。我們的產品開發投資專注於混合工作的最關鍵需求，例如出色的混合協作體驗和在工作場所提供隱私的新方式。我們讓客戶參與我們的研究，並根據該研究推出解決方案。 Flex Personal Spaces、Flex Active Frames、Everwall 和 Orangebox pod 等產品重新構想了個人工作空間和協作空間，我們計劃明年推出更多創新解決方案。

We believe this expanding product portfolio reinforces our position as a leader, ready to help corporate customers understand the future of work and equip their spaces for the way the work is changing. And our relentless focus on supporting customer needs has driven increased market share. Over the past year, as compared to BIFMA, we've grown faster than our industry.

我們相信，這種不斷擴大的產品組合鞏固了我們作為領導者的地位，隨時準備幫助企業客戶了解工作的未來，並為他們的工作空間配備適應工作方式變化的方式。我們對支持客戶需求的不懈關注推動了市場份額的增加。在過去的一年裡，與 BIFMA 相比，我們的發展速度快於我們的行業。

We are also redesigning our go-to-market model to be more effective and more efficient. We shifted sales resources to market segments that provide attractive opportunities for growth, and we continue to align sales roles and resources to support our strategy. The ways in which we engage customers are changing too and we're delivering high-impact customer experiences in more local, accessible, and tailored ways. This will enable significantly more customers and influencers to experience who we are and what we have to offer, both in person and virtually. These products and go-to-market innovations position us to maintain a healthy and leading corporate business.

我們還在重新設計我們的上市模式，使其更加有效和高效。我們將銷售資源轉移到提供有吸引力的增長機會的細分市場，並繼續調整銷售角色和資源以支持我們的戰略。我們與客戶互動的方式也在發生變化，我們正在以更本地化、更易於訪問和量身定制的方式提供具有高影響力的客戶體驗。這將使更多的客戶和有影響力的人能夠親自和虛擬地體驗我們是誰以及我們所提供的服務。這些產品和上市創新使我們能夠保持健康和領先的企業業務。

Our strategy to lead the hybrid work transformation is focused on gaining a higher share of the corporate market and we also see tremendous opportunity to expand our business beyond that market segment. So our second pillar targets continued aggressive diversification of the customer and market segments we serve. We believe this also will contribute to offsetting any decline in the corporate market and potentially enable us to more than offset any decline.

我們領導混合工作轉型的戰略專注於獲得更高的企業市場份額，我們也看到了將我們的業務擴展到該細分市場之外的巨大機會。因此，我們的第二個支柱目標是繼續積極實現我們所服務的客戶和細分市場的多元化。我們相信這也將有助於抵消企業市場的任何下滑，並有可能使我們能夠抵消任何下滑。

Our diversification has been centered around the education, midmarket, and consumer markets. In education, year-to-date revenue at our Smith System business is approximately 50% above the same point in fiscal '20, and we've doubled the business since our acquisition, which is ahead of our initial plan. Smith System is a leader in providing solutions for K-12 classrooms and we're very proud of their progress.

我們的多元化一直圍繞教育、中端市場和消費市場展開。在教育領域，我們 Smith System 業務的年初至今收入比 20 財年同期高出約 50%，而且自收購以來我們的業務翻了一番，這超出了我們最初的計劃。 Smith System 是為 K-12 教室提供解決方案的領導者，我們為他們的進步感到非常自豪。

We also believe higher education, which has been an important market focus of ours, provides additional strong growth potential globally. Our education business in the Asia Pacific, for example, has seen good success over the past several years. We expect it will be up approximately 50% this year as compared to fiscal '20 and we expect that growth to continue.

我們還相信，高等教育一直是我們的重要市場焦點，它在全球範圍內提供了額外的強勁增長潛力。例如，我們在亞太地區的教育業務在過去幾年取得了良好的成功。我們預計今年與 20 財年相比將增長約 50%，並且我們預計這種增長將繼續下去。

We're also investing to serve the mid-market segment, which typically consists of smaller to mid-sized businesses in a more tailored and effective manner. AMQ, which delivers the customer experience smaller companies desire, geared towards speed, simplicity and support, has driven strong revenue growth in the Americas and year-to-date is approximately 20% of our fiscal '20. This business has more than doubled since our acquisition.

我們還投資於服務於中端市場細分市場，該細分市場通常以更加量身定制和有效的方式由中小型企業組成。 AMQ 提供小公司希望的客戶體驗，致力於速度、簡單性和支持，推動了美洲的強勁收入增長，今年迄今約占我們 20 財年的 20%。自我們收購以來，該業務增長了一倍多。

We've invested this year in operational enhancements at AMQ to accelerate speed of delivery, and we have rolled out an enhanced customer experience that leverages new digital tools to allow AMQ to better reach and serve the mid-market segment. The consumer market represents additional diversification potential, and I'm really excited about our progress here. In the Americas, our consumer business revenue is up over 300% year-to-date compared to fiscal '20, and we have additional opportunities to grow through retail partners like West Elm and Best Buy. And around the world, we've had solid success initiating and growing consumer businesses.

我們今年投資於 AMQ 的運營改進以加快交付速度，並且我們推出了增強的客戶體驗，利用新的數字工具讓 AMQ 更好地接觸和服務中端市場。消費市場代表著額外的多元化潛力，我對我們在這方面的進展感到非常興奮。在美洲，與 20 財年相比，我們的消費者業務收入年初至今增長了 300% 以上，而且我們有更多機會通過 West Elm 和 Best Buy 等零售合作夥伴實現增長。在世界各地，我們在發起和發展消費者業務方面取得了巨大成功。

We also expect to grow as we target specific consumer niches such as esports, where products like Gesture provide all day work and play performance. There is significant potential to bring our insights-based innovation and Steelcase quality to consumers who are looking for a higher combination of design, quality and performance to support their work at home.

我們還期望隨著我們瞄準特定的消費者細分市場（例如電子競技）而實現增長，其中 Gesture 等產品可提供全天候的工作和娛樂性能。將我們基於洞察力的創新和 Steelcase 品質帶給那些尋求更好的設計、質量和性能組合以支持他們在家工作的消費者的巨大潛力。

The third pillar of our strategy is to increase our profitability. We are working actively on multiple fronts to drive improvement. First, as we've discussed continuously over the past 2 years, our industry has experienced extraordinary inflation, and we have responded by taking significant pricing actions. While Q3 reflected year-over-year net pricing benefits for the second consecutive quarter, cumulative inflation still exceeds cumulative pricing benefits. Once these fully offset and if we can earn margin on the inflation as we intend, we could see a benefit to earnings.

我們戰略的第三個支柱是提高盈利能力。我們正在多個方面積極努力以推動改進。首先，正如我們在過去兩年中不斷討論的那樣，我們的行業經歷了異常的通貨膨脹，我們採取了重大的定價行動來應對。雖然第三季度連續第二個季度反映了同比淨定價收益，但累計通脹仍超過累計定價收益。一旦這些完全抵消，並且如果我們能夠像我們預期的那樣從通貨膨脹中賺取利潤，我們就可以看到收益的好處。

Beyond pricing, we've always pursued annual cost improvements. The current environment, however, requires a more aggressive focus on improving our cost structure. So for the past several months, we've been working on 3 additional initiatives. First is an evolution of our operational model in the Americas, which includes modernizing our footprint, optimizing our product portfolio to reduce operational complexity and increasing our agility to mitigate supply chain challenges. This work is bearing fruit with 1 example being that in October, we were able to close our Denver regional distribution center. Two other examples include investment in new manufacturing technologies that will significantly improve our efficiency and reduce required floor space and the consolidation of similar production processes into 1 facility, which improves our efficiency and reduces redundant equipment. We are also in-sourcing certain parts and finished goods, which provides cost reduction and efficiency gains. These moves are examples of the kinds of actions we're taking to streamline operations and reduce costs.

除了定價之外，我們一直追求年度成本改進。然而，當前的環境需要更加積極地關注改善我們的成本結構。因此，在過去的幾個月裡，我們一直致力於另外 3 項計劃。首先是我們在美洲的運營模式的演變，包括現代化我們的足跡、優化我們的產品組合以降低運營複雜性以及提高我們的敏捷性以緩解供應鏈挑戰。這項工作正在取得成果，例如 10 月份，我們能夠關閉我們的丹佛區域配送中心。另外兩個例子包括投資新的製造技術，這將顯著提高我們的效率並減少所需的佔地面積，以及將類似的生產流程整合到一個設施中，從而提高我們的效率並減少冗餘設備。我們還採購了某些零件和成品，從而降低了成本並提高了效率。這些舉措是我們為簡化運營和降低成本而採取的各種行動的例子。

The second initiative is focused on business process transformation, which is our effort to design more effective and efficient business processes while updating our enterprise resource planning system. We are at the beginning of this multiyear effort, but we expect great benefits as we adopt best practices and reduce customization of our business processes and supporting systems. Our teams are working with external consultants to ensure we achieve the maximum gains at the appropriate level of investment as we transition to our future platform.

第二項舉措側重於業務流程轉型，這是我們在更新企業資源規劃系統的同時設計更有效和高效的業務流程的努力。我們正處於這項多年努力的開始階段，但隨著我們採用最佳實踐並減少業務流程和支持系統的定制，我們預計會獲得巨大收益。我們的團隊正在與外部顧問合作，以確保我們在過渡到未來平台時以適當的投資水平獲得最大收益。

The third initiative is to capture certain efficiencies as we redesign our go-to-market approach, which I mentioned earlier. Our Grand Rapids customer experience will continue to be an important component of our customer engagement strategy. Yet by engaging with more customers where they are, we can ramp down our customer aviation investment as we adjust our approach. This move not only will reduce our cost and free up capital for potential deployment to better support our go-forward strategy, but it will also reduce our carbon footprint.

第三個舉措是在我們重新設計進入市場的方法時獲得一定的效率，這是我之前提到的。我們的 Grand Rapids 客戶體驗將繼續成為我們客戶參與戰略的重要組成部分。然而，通過與更多客戶就地接觸，我們可以在調整方法時減少對客戶航空的投資。此舉不僅會降低我們的成本並釋放資金用於潛在部署以更好地支持我們的前進戰略，而且還會減少我們的碳足跡。

Dave will cover more specific financial implications of the aviation decision in a minute. Before Dave gets to that, I'd like to summarize why the future is exciting to us.

戴夫將在一分鐘內介紹航空決策的更具體的財務影響。在 Dave 開始之前，我想總結一下為什麼我們對未來感到興奮。

The world is experiencing profound change. And this profound change just reaffirms our aspiration to help people do their best work by creating places that work better. We believe better is possible, and we believe in our path forward. We believe our initiatives to diversify the customer and market segments we serve, along with our investments to increase our market share by leading the hybrid transformation of traditional corporate office-based work, have the potential to offset the volume gap we may face from any decline in the corporate market. On the profitability front, we expect to provide more details regarding the anticipated benefits and time lines for our initiatives as our plans develop more fully over the coming quarters.

世界正在發生深刻的變化。而這一深刻的變化只是重申了我們的願望，即通過創造更好的工作場所來幫助人們把工作做到最好。我們相信更好是可能的，我們相信我們前進的道路。我們相信，我們旨在使我們所服務的客戶和細分市場多樣化的舉措，以及我們通過領導傳統公司辦公室工作的混合轉型來增加市場份額的投資，有可能抵消我們可能因任何下降而面臨的數量缺口在企業市場。在盈利能力方面，隨著我們的計劃在未來幾個季度得到更全面的發展，我們希望提供更多有關我們計劃的預期收益和時間表的詳細信息。

The key point today is that we believe there is the potential to drive meaningfully higher levels of profitability. Fully implemented, we believe our strategy and initiatives could deliver results above our pre-pandemic revenue level of $3.7 billion and operating margin of 6.9%. We'll have more to say in the coming quarters as we assess the timing and ultimate magnitude of these initiatives.

今天的關鍵點是，我們相信有可能顯著提高盈利水平。完全實施後，我們相信我們的戰略和舉措可以帶來高於大流行前 37 億美元的收入水平和 6.9% 的營業利潤率的結果。在我們評估這些舉措的時間和最終規模時，我們將在未來幾個季度有更多話要說。

So with that, I'll turn it over to Dave to review the financial results and our outlook more deeply.

因此，我將把它交給戴夫更深入地審查財務業績和我們的前景。

Thank you, Sara, and good morning, everyone. My comments today will provide some color around our third quarter results, including a comparison to the outlook we provided in September as well as some comments regarding demand patterns, our recent actions, the balance sheet and our cash flow. I will also cover the outlook for the fourth quarter and share some preliminary thoughts about fiscal 2024.

謝謝你，薩拉，大家早上好。我今天的評論將為我們的第三季度業績提供一些色彩，包括與我們 9 月份提供的前景的比較，以及關於需求模式、我們最近的行動、資產負債表和現金流的一些評論。我還將介紹第四季度的展望，並分享一些關於 2024 財年的初步想法。

As Sara said, our revenue and adjusted earnings in the third quarter were in line with our expectations. What's notable about our performance is that we delivered the results despite a projected $7 million gain from the sale of property being delayed to the fourth quarter, the continuation of supply chain challenges and the internal disruption of implementing headcount reductions, which we previously announced and completed in the quarter.

正如 Sara 所說，我們第三季度的收入和調整後收益符合我們的預期。我們的業績值得注意的是，儘管預計 700 萬美元的財產銷售收益被推遲到第四季度、供應鏈挑戰持續存在以及我們之前宣布並完成的實施裁員的內部中斷，但我們仍取得了業績在本季度。

For revenue, we grew 13% organically compared to the prior year, which was driven by all segments. We estimate year-over-year pricing benefits approximated $85 million and volume growth was modest. Requested delivery dates by our customers remain relatively extended despite many of our core products being available within standard lead times. Thus, the softening order patterns we experienced in the quarter had a small impact on our top line.

在收入方面，與上一年相比，我們有機增長了 13%，這是由所有部門推動的。我們估計同比定價收益約為 8500 萬美元，銷量增長適度。儘管我們的許多核心產品可以在標準交貨時間內提供，但我們的客戶要求的交貨日期仍然相對延長。因此，我們在本季度經歷的疲軟訂單模式對我們的收入影響很小。

As it relates to adjusted earnings, our operating expenses were lower than our projection, and this helped to offset gross margin coming in slightly lower than the range we projected, which was due to some operational inefficiencies.

由於與調整後的收益相關，我們的運營費用低於我們的預期，這有助於抵消毛利率略低於我們預期的範圍，這是由於一些運營效率低下造成的。

With respect to operating expenses, we implemented the previously announced actions to reduce headcount in the Americas and corporate functions, which resulted in approximately $11 million of restructuring costs in the quarter and is expected to lower our cost structure by approximately $19 million on an annualized basis. As part of this work, we also eliminated more than 50 open job requisitions, many of which were replacement reqs and were part of our cost structure earlier in the year. Beyond these actions, we continue to look for additional opportunities to pull back, pause and/or eliminate spending that is not highly aligned with our go-forward strategy.

在運營費用方面，我們實施了先前宣布的減少美洲員工人數和公司職能的行動，導致本季度重組成本約為 1,100 萬美元，預計按年率計算我們的成本結構將降低約 1,900 萬美元.作為這項工作的一部分，我們還消除了 50 多個空缺職位申請，其中許多是替換申請，並且是我們今年早些時候成本結構的一部分。除了這些行動之外，我們還在繼續尋找更多機會來縮減、暫停和/或消除與我們的前進戰略不高度一致的支出。

To support this endeavor, we recently completed a review of our functional spending that was summarized using a 0-based approach. And through this work, we identified additional opportunities to potentially reduce or reallocate spending next year. Also, in connection with the refinement of our go-to-market strategy in the Americas that Sara just summarized, we also made the difficult decision to wind down customer aviation and sell our aircraft over the coming months. We expect this action will result in approximately $3 million of restructuring costs in the fourth quarter and generate approximately $11 million of annualized savings once fully implemented in the first quarter of fiscal 2024. In addition, we expect to use the proceeds from the sale of our aircraft to pay off the related financing, which matures on May 1, 2023.

為支持這一努力，我們最近完成了對使用基於 0 的方法總結的職能支出的審查。通過這項工作，我們確定了明年可能減少或重新分配支出的更多機會。此外，根據 Sara 剛剛總結的改進我們在美洲的上市戰略，我們還做出了艱難的決定，在未來幾個月內結束客戶航空業務並出售我們的飛機。我們預計這一行動將在第四季度產生約 300 萬美元的重組成本，並在 2024 財年第一季度全面實施後產生約 1100 萬美元的年化節省。此外，我們預計將使用出售我們的飛機償還相關融資，該融資將於 2023 年 5 月 1 日到期。

For cash flow and the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $55 million in cash and $216 million in total liquidity, which was a few million dollars higher than Q2. During the third quarter, we generated $60 million of adjusted EBITDA, a $9 million improvement in working capital and approximately $17 million of other net positive cash impacts, which collectively funded $14 million in capital expenditures, $11 million of restructuring costs, $12 million of dividend payments and $46 million of net repayments under our credit facility.

對於現金流和資產負債表，我們在本季度結束時擁有 5500 萬美元的現金和 2.16 億美元的總流動資金，比第二季度高出幾百萬美元。在第三季度，我們產生了 6000 萬美元的調整後 EBITDA、900 萬美元的營運資本改善和約 1700 萬美元的其他淨積極現金影響，這些影響共同資助了 1400 萬美元的資本支出、1100 萬美元的重組成本、1200 萬美元的股息付款和我們信貸額度下的 4600 萬美元淨還款。

At the end of the quarter, our total debt aggregated $516 million, including $34 million of remaining borrowings under our credit facility and $33 million of term debt related to our aircraft financing. We continue to project paying off the credit facility by the end of the fourth quarter. And with the sale of our aircraft, we expect to pay off the related financing, which will reduce our long-term debt to $450 million, which represents our long-term notes. At the end of the third quarter, our ratio of trailing 4-quarter debt to adjusted EBITDA approximated 2.9x, and it's less than 2x on a net debt basis, taking into consideration our liquidity.

截至本季度末，我們的債務總額為 5.16 億美元，包括 3400 萬美元的信貸額度剩餘借款和 3300 萬美元與飛機融資相關的定期債務。我們繼續計劃在第四季度末還清信貸額度。通過出售我們的飛機，我們預計將償還相關融資，這將使我們的長期債務減少至 4.5 億美元，這是我們的長期票據。在第三季度末，考慮到我們的流動性，我們尾隨的第 4 季度債務與調整後 EBITDA 的比率約為 2.9 倍，按淨債務計算不到 2 倍。

Moving to orders. We saw third quarter orders declined 17% as compared to the prior year, which was driven by broad-based declines across all segments, including 16% in the Americas, 10% in EMEA and 37% in the other category. In the Americas, we estimate volume decline by approximately 30% year-over-year, partially offset by more than 10% growth due to pricing benefits. Compared to earlier this year, demand patterns are being impacted by softening industry trends, which we believe are linked to reduced sentiment related to macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns. In addition, many customers remain undecided on their strategies to support hybrid work.

轉向訂單。我們看到第三季度訂單與去年同期相比下降了 17%，這是由所有細分市場的廣泛下滑推動的，包括美洲 16%、歐洲、中東和非洲 10% 以及其他類別 37%。在美洲，我們估計銷量同比下降約 30%，部分被定價優勢帶來的超過 10% 的增長所抵消。與今年早些時候相比，需求模式受到行業趨勢疲軟的影響，我們認為這與宏觀經濟和地緣政治擔憂相關的情緒下降有關。此外，許多客戶仍未決定他們支持混合工作的策略。

Across the quarter, the year-over-year comparisons varied significantly. Recall that we disclosed last quarter that our consolidated orders were down 20% through the first 3 weeks of September versus the prior year. From there, the full month of September declined 16% year-over-year, followed by declines of 13% in October and 24% in November. And through the first 3 weeks of December, we've seen a decline of approximately 6% compared to the prior year.

在整個季度中，同比比較差異很大。回想一下，我們在上個季度披露過，與去年同期相比，9 月的前 3 週我們的綜合訂單下降了 20%。從那時起，9 月份整個月同比下降 16%，隨後 10 月份下降 13%，11 月份下降 24%。在 12 月的前 3 週，我們看到與去年同期相比下降了約 6%。

While order patterns have varied and shown weakness compared to earlier in the year, new project opportunity creation has improved, especially in the Americas, where we have now seen 6 consecutive months of year-over-year growth. In addition, we are encouraged by the news that some large design firms are hiring and one of them is returning to their offices more significantly.

儘管與今年早些時候相比，訂單模式有所不同並表現出疲軟，但新項目機會的創造有所改善，尤其是在美洲，我們現在已經連續 6 個月實現同比增長。此外，我們對一些大型設計公司正在招聘的消息感到鼓舞，其中一家正在更大幅度地返回辦公室。

Shifting to the fourth quarter outlook, we expect to report revenue within the range of $740 million to $765 million, which is approximately flat with the prior year. And we expect to report adjusted earnings per share of between $0.11 and $0.15, which represents a significant improvement over the breakeven adjusted EPS we had in the prior year.

轉向第四季度展望，我們預計報告的收入將在 7.4 億美元至 7.65 億美元之間，與去年同期大致持平。我們預計調整後的每股收益將在 0.11 美元至 0.15 美元之間，這比我們去年的盈虧平衡調整後每股收益有了顯著改善。

In addition to the projected range of revenue, the earnings estimate includes gross margin of approximately 29%, which is nearly 300 basis points higher than the prior year and includes projected year-over-year pricing benefits net of inflation of approximately $65 million. In addition, we are projecting operating expenses of between $195 million to $200 million, which includes $6.5 million of amortization related to purchased intangible assets and approximately $10 million of expected gains from the sale of fixed assets.

除了預期的收入範圍外，收益估計還包括約 29% 的毛利率，比上年高出近 300 個基點，並包括扣除通貨膨脹後的預計同比定價收益約 6500 萬美元。此外，我們預計運營費用在 1.95 億美元至 2 億美元之間，其中包括與購買的無形資產相關的 650 萬美元攤銷和約 1000 萬美元的固定資產出售預期收益。

Lastly, we expect interest expense and other nonoperating items to net to approximately $5 million of expense, and we are projecting an effective tax rate of approximately 28%.

最後，我們預計利息費用和其他非經營性項目的費用淨額約為 500 萬美元，我們預計有效稅率約為 28%。

As we look beyond the fourth quarter and into fiscal year 2024, there are several things to consider. First, we are targeting to more fully realize the pricing benefits from the actions we've taken to offset the extraordinary inflation over the last 7 quarters, which we estimate totals approximately $340 million on a cumulative basis. In addition, we are targeting additional gross margin improvement next year from benefits related to the strategic initiatives and actions Sara summarized earlier. And across operations more broadly, we're targeting to offset employee merit pay increases, higher health care costs and some investments in our strategy with benefits from our recurring operational cost reduction activities and fewer supply chain disruptions.

當我們展望第四季度之後和 2024 財年時，有幾件事需要考慮。首先，我們的目標是更充分地實現我們為抵消過去 7 個季度的異常通貨膨脹而採取的行動所帶來的定價收益，我們估計累計總計約為 3.4 億美元。此外，我們的目標是明年從與 Sara 先前總結的戰略舉措和行動相關的收益中進一步提高毛利率。在更廣泛的運營中，我們的目標是通過我們經常性的運營成本削減活動和更少的供應鏈中斷來抵消員工績效工資的增加、更高的醫療保健成本和對我們戰略的一些投資。

For operating expenses, we are planning a similar approach, wherein we will target to offset our incremental investments with the savings from the actions I summarized at the beginning of my comments. The big question for next year is volume. And the questions include how quickly and by how much our revenue might benefit from the improving opportunity creation, how quickly or slowly the recessionary concerns abate and whether and how fast return to office patterns increase and/or at what pace do our clients invest more significantly to support their strategies for hybrid work. These are all questions for which there aren't clear answers at this point. What is clear is that if the demand environment worsens, we will continue managing our cost structure to target returns for shareholders while investing in our future. And what is also clear is that if the demand environment improves, we will target a relatively strong contribution margin from the volume growth as we remain partially invested for a recovery, and we'll be cautious about increasing our cost structure during its early stages.

對於運營費用，我們正在計劃一種類似的方法，其中我們的目標是用我在評論開頭總結的行動節省的資金來抵消我們的增量投資。明年的大問題是銷量。問題包括我們的收入會以多快的速度和多少從改善的機會創造中獲益，經濟衰退的擔憂多快或多慢地消退，返回辦公室模式是否增加以及增加的速度和/或我們的客戶以何種速度進行更顯著的投資支持他們的混合工作策略。這些都是目前沒有明確答案的問題。顯而易見的是，如果需求環境惡化，我們將繼續管理我們的成本結構，以在投資於我們的未來的同時為股東爭取回報。同樣清楚的是，如果需求環境改善，我們將以銷量增長的相對較高的邊際收益為目標，因為我們仍將部分投資用於復蘇，並且我們將在早期階段對增加成本結構持謹慎態度。

I know that doesn't paint a clear picture of a targeted range of revenue and earnings for next year, but I wanted to at least share some context with you about how we're thinking about managing through the uncertainty.

我知道這並不能清楚地描繪出明年目標收入和收益範圍，但我想至少與您分享一些背景信息，了解我們如何考慮管理不確定性。

Longer term, as Sara detailed, we expect our strategy to deliver meaningful earnings improvement. We acknowledge there is an increasing probability that the Americas industry will be smaller compared to pre-pandemic levels once we are beyond the current environment and settle into a future state. However, we are targeting to offset the potential impact on our revenue through our strategies to lead the hybrid transformation and further diversify our revenue base. In addition, we believe our initiatives to improve profitability have the potential to fund additional investments in our strategy and workforce as well as help enable meaningfully higher returns to shareholders. And we look forward to laying out that path with even more clarity in the quarters to come.

從長遠來看，正如薩拉所詳述的那樣，我們希望我們的戰略能夠帶來有意義的收益改善。我們承認，一旦我們超越當前環境並進入未來狀態，與大流行前水平相比，美洲行業規模將越來越小的可能性越來越大。然而，我們的目標是通過我們的戰略來領導混合轉型並進一步多元化我們的收入基礎，以抵消對我們收入的潛在影響。此外，我們相信我們提高盈利能力的舉措有可能為我們的戰略和員工隊伍的額外投資提供資金，並有助於為股東帶來有意義的更高回報。我們期待在未來幾個季度更加清晰地規劃這條道路。

So while we're staying very focused on managing through the current environment, we are optimistic about driving improved financial results as we execute our strategy. From there, I will turn it over for questions.

因此，儘管我們非常專注於通過當前環境進行管理，但我們對在執行戰略時推動改善財務業績持樂觀態度。從那裡，我將把它交給問題。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Reuben Garner from Benchmark Company.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Benchmark 公司的 Reuben Garner。

Maybe, if we could start with the diversifying end markets strategy. I know it's early stages, and you mentioned timing and quantification down the road. Can you give us any idea how big those kind of 3 buckets are today? I think you mentioned education, midmarket, and consumer. What percentage of revenue are they today? And you mentioned a time line down the road. I mean, any color for potential goals there that you can share at this point?

也許，如果我們可以從多元化的終端市場戰略開始。我知道這是早期階段，你提到了時間安排和量化。你能告訴我們今天這 3 個水桶有多大嗎？我想你提到了教育、中端市場和消費者。他們今天佔收入的百分比是多少？你提到了未來的時間線。我的意思是，您現在可以分享潛在目標的任何顏色嗎？

Well, you might want to take some of that conversation offline with Mike, where I think you guys could go back and look at initial 8-Ks, when we announced the acquisitions, I think we included the initial size of those organizations when we acquired them and Sara commented on how we've more than doubled or tripled some of those businesses since the acquisition date. So I think you can get a sense of where they stand today, which might help. But what I'll -- the way I'll answer your question is we don't know how much smaller the industry might be. Sara used a reference of 20% to 25% trying to at least give some context behind how we're modeling different scenarios. If you imagine a 25% downturn on our FY '20 Americas revenue, you kind of come up with several hundred million dollars, $400 million, or $500 million, let's say. And we see the potential for our diversification initiatives as well as gaining share in a smaller industry as a way to offset that kind of decline. Now I'm not saying that that's what we're predicting because we really don't know how the industry is going to look in 2 or 3 years. But to give you kind of a sense of the magnitude of our growth strategies and diversifying our revenue as well as our intention to target a higher share in the industry go forward, we kind of shared that context. So hopefully, that helps, Reuben.

好吧，你可能想與 Mike 進行一些線下對話，我認為你們可以回去看看最初的 8-Ks，當我們宣布收購時，我認為我們在收購時包括了這些組織的初始規模他們和 Sara 評論了自收購之日起我們如何將其中一些業務增加了一倍或三倍以上。所以我認為你可以了解他們今天的立場，這可能會有所幫助。但我會 - 我會回答你的問題的方式是我們不知道這個行業可能會小多少。 Sara 使用了 20% 到 25% 的參考，試圖至少給出我們如何對不同場景建模的背景。如果你想像我們 20 財年美洲收入下降 25%，你可能會想到幾億美元、4 億美元或 5 億美元，比方說。我們看到了我們多元化舉措的潛力以及在較小行業中獲得份額的潛力，以此來抵消這種下滑。現在我並不是說這就是我們的預測，因為我們真的不知道這個行業在 2 或 3 年內會是什麼樣子。但是，為了讓您了解我們的增長戰略和收入多元化的重要性，以及我們打算在行業中取得更高份額的目標，我們分享了這種背景。希望這對 Reuben 有所幫助。

Yes. And so, just a quick follow-up on that. So where does volume stand today relative to FY '20?

是的。因此，只是對此進行快速跟進。那麼，相對於 20 財年，今天的成交量在哪裡？

Well, it's down significantly. What we've been tracking more closely, I would say are the order patterns in our core business and how it stands to pre-pandemic levels and it's been tracking as low as in the 35% range versus pre-pandemic levels at the initial part of the pandemic. It improved from there over the kind of interim year, year and a half to more in the '20s -- '20 versus pre-pandemic levels, and it since has worsened with how the industry has softened and our order patterns have followed.

好吧，它明顯下降了。我們一直在更密切地跟踪，我想說的是我們核心業務的訂單模式，以及它與大流行前水平的關係，並且它一直在跟踪低至 35% 的範圍，與最初部分的大流行前水平相比大流行的。它在 20 年代的過渡年、一年半到更長的時間裡有所改善——與大流行前的水平相比，20 年代的情況有所改善，此後隨著行業的疲軟和我們的訂單模式的跟進而惡化。

Got it. And then on the profitability initiative, I guess, can you help us with the bridge for this coming year you have $30 million in cost savings between the aviation and your announcements last quarter. It sounds like these incremental or these initiatives today are incremental to that $30 million, and then you've got some price cost that you are still catching up. And I know you talked about the first quarter, but can you kind of put all those together for what kind of tailwinds you have on the profit line that might offset or more than offset some of the volume headwinds?

知道了。然後在盈利計劃方面，我想，你能幫助我們在來年的橋樑上嗎？你在航空和上個季度的公告之間節省了 3000 萬美元的成本。聽起來這些增量或今天的這些舉措是增量到 3000 萬美元，然後你就有了一些你仍在追趕的價格成本。我知道你談到了第一季度，但你能否將所有這些放在一起，看看你在利潤線上有什麼樣的順風，可能抵消或超過抵消一些銷量逆風？

Yes. We'll try to help you with that a little bit more detail in 90 days. But I mean, you've got the bridge. You just don't have the quantifications and unfortunately, we're not ready to share those today. But the way I'm thinking about it is kind of how you summarize. I think this year, when you take our fourth quarter guidance and you reverse engineer to get to adjusted operating income, you can kind of conclude that we're targeting in an $80 million range of operating -- adjusted operating income this year. From there, I would add targeted pricing benefits for next year and savings in our factories from the initiatives that Sara summarized. Now we're going to have investments in merits and investments in health care costs and other parts of our strategy. So hopefully, that will net to something positive. But we're not through our planning process at this point. And similarly, on the operating expense side, we will have investments in our people for merits and health care costs and we will continue to make investments in our strategy. But we'll have savings from the initiatives I summarized to largely offset those.

是的。我們將盡力在 90 天內為您提供更詳細的幫助。但我的意思是，你有橋樑。你只是沒有量化，不幸的是，我們今天還沒有準備好分享這些。但我考慮的方式就是你總結的方式。我認為今年，當你接受我們第四季度的指導並進行逆向工程以獲得調整後的營業收入時，你可以得出結論，我們今年的目標是調整後的營業收入為 8000 萬美元。從那裡，我會為明年添加有針對性的定價優勢，並從 Sara 總結的舉措中為我們的工廠節省開支。現在，我們將對優點進行投資，對醫療保健成本和我們戰略的其他部分進行投資。所以希望這會帶來積極的影響。但我們目前還沒有完成我們的計劃過程。同樣，在運營費用方面，我們將根據績效和醫療保健成本對我們的員工進行投資，我們將繼續對我們的戰略進行投資。但我們將從我總結的舉措中節省開支，以在很大程度上抵消這些開支。

From there, the big question is volume, and that's where we are just planning for different scenarios. And one of those scenarios is that it gets better because we do have opportunity creation that is meaningfully improving for 6 consecutive months. And we've been in this situation for almost 3 years, and we see -- we can feel and sense that our clients want to get back to the office. They just don't know exactly how to think about their work environments. And so, we're helping them with that. And it just feels like more and more companies are getting beyond the initial efforts of asking and offering free lunches and the like and starting to think a little bit more aggressively about how they get their people back.

從那裡開始，最大的問題是數量，這就是我們只是針對不同場景進行規劃的地方。其中一種情況是情況會變得更好，因為我們確實創造了連續 6 個月有意義地改善的機會。我們已經處於這種情況近 3 年了，我們看到 - 我們可以感覺到我們的客戶想要回到辦公室。他們只是不知道如何看待他們的工作環境。因此，我們正在幫助他們。感覺越來越多的公司已經超越了最初要求和提供免費午餐等的努力，開始更加積極地思考如何讓他們的員工回來。

But we've been here before Reuben, right? We were here a year ago. We thought return-to-office would accelerate more meaningfully, and we found ourselves in an environment with different variants of COVID and the like. So I just don't have a view on volume yet for next year.

但我們在魯本之前來過這裡，對吧？一年前我們來過這裡。我們認為重返辦公室會更有意義地加速，但我們發現自己處於一個具有不同 COVID 等變體的環境中。所以我對明年的銷量還沒有看法。

Understood. And then I'm going to sneak 1 more in if I can, going back to the diversified end markets. Can you maybe elaborate on how exactly -- some of those markets there are already some players and trends there. Do you need to make more acquisitions to get bigger in those areas or can you do this organically with what you have and just moving some of your investments to grow in those areas?

明白了。然後，如果可以的話，我將再潛入 1 個，回到多元化的終端市場。您能否詳細說明一下——其中一些市場已經有一些參與者和趨勢。您是否需要進行更多收購以在這些領域做大，或者您能否利用現有資源有機地做到這一點，並將您的一些投資轉移到這些領域的增長？

Yes. So I would say, first of all, I mean with respect to opportunities to look at acquisitions, we always keep our eyes open. But I would say at this point, we feel that we've made a number of significant investments with the acquisition of companies like Smith System to really help accelerate that diversification strategy. And as you just alluded to in your question, yes, it's also true that in addition, we have been very intentional about shifting resources, dollars, talent from some parts of our business into those areas that we want to grow dramatically to help accelerate that organically.

是的。所以我想說，首先，我的意思是關於看收購的機會，我們總是睜大眼睛。但我要說的是，在這一點上，我們認為我們已經通過收購像 Smith System 這樣的公司進行了大量重大投資，以真正幫助加速多元化戰略。正如你剛才在問題中提到的，是的，此外，我們一直非常有意將資源、資金和人才從我們業務的某些部分轉移到我們希望大幅增長的領域，以幫助加速有機地。

So I think I would say where we sit today, we feel quite good about how we're positioned to move our strategies forward. Of course, we're thinking about additional investments we need to make organically, and things we need to do to continue to capitalize on that market potential. But again, to your question, I think while our eyes are always open, we'll always pick up the phone if there is an interesting opportunity externally. I think we feel good about what we can do with the resources that we have right now.

所以我想我會說我們今天坐在哪裡，我們對我們如何定位以推進我們的戰略感到非常滿意。當然，我們正在考慮我們需要有機地進行的額外投資，以及我們需要做的事情以繼續利用該市場潛力。但是，對於你的問題，我認為雖然我們總是睜大眼睛，但如果外部有有趣的機會，我們總是會接電話。我認為我們對可以利用我們現在擁有的資源可以做什麼感到滿意。

Your next question comes from the line of Greg Burns from Sidoti.

你的下一個問題來自 Sidoti 的 Greg Burns。

Just to follow up on some of those new market opportunities. In terms of the education market, how would you size that market in North America and globally, and what's your current market share?

只是為了跟進其中一些新的市場機會。在教育市場方面，您將如何確定北美和全球市場的規模，您目前的市場份額是多少？

Not sure we have that answer for you today. I'm looking at Mike to see whether or not we're at a point where we feel comfortable sharing that.

不確定我們今天是否為您提供了答案。我正在看著邁克，看看我們是否處於我們願意分享的地步。

I don't have it. I think it's relatively big in the Americas. I know that doesn't help you. Globally, we also see quite a significant opportunity. We're not as penetrated globally as we are in the U.S., both on the higher ed side and on K-12, but we definitely see opportunities for growth there.

我沒有。我認為它在美洲相對較大。我知道這對你沒有幫助。在全球範圍內，我們也看到了相當大的機會。在高等教育和 K-12 方面，我們在全球的滲透率不如美國，但我們肯定在那裡看到了增長機會。

And I would just add to that, certainly in the U.S. market, there's been quite a flurry of investment and continues to be in both K-12 and higher education, some of that supported by federal stimulus funding. So we think there's a lot of opportunity that will continue. In other parts of the world, it's the case in some markets in which we compete that countries and national governments are driving significant investment in their education infrastructure as part of their broader national plans to support economic growth and well-being over time and in many cases, those school systems in those countries are really eager to adopt. New pedagogies and new ways of thinking about education to support learning and that really plays quite nicely with how Steelcase education, Smith System, have approached the market. So different dynamics playing out in different parts of the world, but we think there's quite a bit of opportunity really globally.

我只想補充一點，當然在美國市場上，投資一直很活躍，並且繼續在 K-12 和高等教育領域進行，其中一些得到了聯邦刺激資金的支持。所以我們認為有很多機會會繼續下去。在世界其他地區，在我們競爭的一些市場中，國家和國家政府正在推動對其教育基礎設施的重大投資，作為其更廣泛的國家計劃的一部分，以支持長期和許多國家的經濟增長和福祉案例，那些國家的那些學校系統真的很渴望採用。新的教學法和新的教育思維方式以支持學習，這與 Steelcase 教育 Smith System 進入市場的方式非常吻合。世界不同地區呈現出不同的動態，但我們認為全球確實存在相當多的機會。

Is the competitive landscape in the education market different from the traditional corporate market, like is it more fragmented? Do you have more scale than others? Or is it kind of a similar type of market dynamic where there is a handful of larger players and then maybe some smaller players below that?

教育市場的競爭格局是否與傳統的企業市場不同，是否更加分散？你有比別人更大的規模嗎？或者它是一種類似的市場動態類型，其中有一些較大的參與者，然後可能是一些較小的參與者？

Yes. I think it's similar, but I would say that it is a pretty fragmented market and I would say that the significant players in education, in different parts of the world vary. So I think that is one thing that we look to, as we think about our opportunities to leverage Steelcase's scale and Steelcase capabilities that we have, thanks to our traditional business to allow us to serve the education market in a really competitive way.

是的。我認為這很相似，但我會說這是一個相當分散的市場，而且我會說教育領域的重要參與者在世界不同地區各不相同。所以我認為這是我們關注的一件事，因為我們考慮利用 Steelcase 的規模和我們擁有的 Steelcase 能力的機會，這要歸功於我們的傳統業務讓我們能夠以真正有競爭力的方式服務於教育市場。

Okay. And then in terms of the new opportunity creation, can you help quantify that, like where does that show up? It's not on backlog yet. So what stage are these opportunities? And are you getting a sense of acceleration and the time line of decision making, like where is this leading us like over the next maybe couple quarters or next year? Like, are you kind of feeling that maybe businesses are ready to make a decision here and move forward, or are they just still in the researching phase here?

好的。然後就新機會的創造而言，你能否幫助量化它，比如它出現在哪裡？它還沒有積壓。那麼這些機會在什麼階段呢？你是否感覺到了加速和決策的時間線，比如在接下來的幾個季度或明年，這會把我們引向何方？比如，您是否覺得企業可能已準備好在這裡做出決定並向前邁進，或者他們只是仍處於研究階段？

Well, I wish I had answers to all those questions, Greg. I mean, what I can tell you is that after several months of up and down across the opportunity creation in the Americas, we've now seen 6 consecutive months that had pretty much -- I'm looking at the chart now, pretty much double-digit increases, some of which were pretty strong over prior year. Now some of that could be a weakness in the prior year. But 6 consecutive months of it improving is quite positive. And what it is, is it's coming from our CRM to where our sales organization are entering opportunities that they're learning about that they're competing to position Steelcase to win for and I don't -- when we looked at it, Mike, I think you looked at across or the sales team in the Americas looked across regions, vertical markets to see if there was anything kind of isolated or significant that stuck out and it seems pretty broad-based and the feedback that we got.

好吧，我希望我能回答所有這些問題，格雷格。我的意思是，我可以告訴你的是，在美洲創造機會的過程中經歷了幾個月的起伏之後，我們現在已經連續 6 個月看到了——我現在正在看圖表，非常多兩位數的增長，其中一些比上一年相當強勁。現在，其中一些可能是前一年的弱點。但連續 6 個月的改善是非常積極的。它是什麼，它是從我們的 CRM 到我們的銷售組織正在進入的機會，他們正在了解他們正在競爭定位 Steelcase 以贏得勝利，而我沒有——當我們看到它時，Mike ，我想你跨過或美洲的銷售團隊跨過區域，垂直市場看是否有任何孤立或重要的東西突出並且它似乎基礎廣泛以及我們得到的反饋。

So I can't help but take it as a positive. And I think it is a positive, but I don't know how quickly it will materialize into revenue generation. What I will tell you is there still are not large multi-million dollar deals in the same number that we had pre-pandemic. So there are some of them, but there aren't that many of them. So this tends to suggest that the opportunity creation is more mid-sized or smaller initiatives, which do have the potential to ship faster than larger projects.

所以我不禁將其視為積極因素。我認為這是積極的，但我不知道它會以多快的速度實現創收。我要告訴你的是，數百萬美元的大型交易仍然沒有大流行前那麼多。所以有一些，但沒有那麼多。因此，這往往表明機會創造更多是中型或小型計劃，它們確實有可能比大型項目更快地交付。

Okay. And then lastly, in terms of the gross margin, if we look back a couple of years, it was in the low 30s, 31% to 33% range. Do you think you can get it back there over time? Is there anything that's structurally changed why you wouldn't be able to get back to that level of profitability?

好的。最後，就毛利率而言，如果我們回顧幾年，它處於 30 多歲的低水平，31% 至 33% 的範圍內。你認為隨著時間的推移你能把它找回來嗎？是否有任何結構性變化導致您無法恢復到該盈利水平？

I think so. I mean we will have to -- can sustain our pricing benefits that we put in to cover the inflation and earn a margin on that inflation. And we'll need volume to obviously recover, but I don't see any structural difference between the gross margins on the revenue that we're diversifying toward versus our core industries. So we would expect to get back to or even potentially exceed the gross margins that we had in like FY '20 as an example.

我認同。我的意思是，我們將不得不——能夠維持我們為應對通貨膨脹而投入的定價優勢，並從通貨膨脹中賺取利潤。我們需要銷量才能明顯恢復，但我認為我們多元化的收入毛利率與我們的核心行業之間沒有任何結構性差異。因此，我們希望回到甚至可能超過我們在 20 財年的毛利率，例如。

(Operator Instructions) Your next question comes from the line of Steven Ramsey from Thompson Research Group.

（操作員說明）您的下一個問題來自 Thompson Research Group 的 Steven Ramsey。

Thinking about extended shipping times for backlogs and backlogs still being at these elevated levels. How much of that is due to delayed shipments to you or from you, how much of that is customers pushing out delivery times after an order is placed, just any color on larger backlog, and kind of where you see that trending over the next couple of quarters?

考慮延長積壓和積壓的運輸時間仍然處於這些較高水平。其中有多少是由於向您或從您那裡延遲發貨，有多少是客戶在下訂單後推遲交貨時間，只是大量積壓的任何顏色，以及您在接下來的幾個趨勢中看到的那種趨勢宿舍？

I mean I would guess that the majority of it is due to our customers pushing out dates. We hear a lot of noise around labor and construction sites. We certainly still are dealing with supply chain disruptions. We have late POs every week that are still significantly higher than what they were pre-pandemic. But I don't -- it's substantially less than it was 6, 9, 12 months ago. So I think we're probably contributing some, but I would guess the larger contributor is the site readiness, the time it's taking to get sites fully ready for furniture installation.

我的意思是，我猜其中大部分是由於我們的客戶推遲了日期。我們在勞動和建築工地周圍聽到很多噪音。我們當然仍在處理供應鏈中斷的問題。我們每週都有延遲採購訂單，但仍明顯高於大流行前的水平。但我沒有——它比 6、9、12 個月前要少得多。所以我認為我們可能做出了一些貢獻，但我猜更大的貢獻者是場地準備情況，即場地完全準備好安裝家具所花費的時間。

Okay. Helpful. And then in the other category with China reopening to a greater degree recently, are you seeing any orders ramping or conversations improving there from the prior months?

好的。有幫助。然後在中國最近更大程度地重新開放的另一個類別中，您是否看到與前幾個月相比訂單增加或對話有所改善？

Yes. It's a good question. We actually did have 1 relatively large order that did finally get ordered that certainly felt like it was on hold during the lockdowns. So if that is an indication of a trend, then that would be great, but it was really only 1 order, but it was a relatively big one with one of our largest customers that our local teams tell us had paused because of the lockdowns in the region.

是的。這是個好問題。實際上，我們確實有 1 個相對較大的訂單，最終確實得到了訂單，當然感覺就像在鎖定期間被擱置了一樣。因此，如果這是一種趨勢的跡象，那就太好了，但它實際上只有一個訂單，但它是一個相對較大的訂單，我們最大的客戶之一，我們的當地團隊告訴我們，由於該區域。

Okay. Helpful. And then last one for me. Thinking about the consumer space you've been attacking that over the past few years with a number of partnerships that seem to be doing well. Is this still over the next few years a partnership-driven approach? What can you do to accelerate growth and profitability in that particular segment? And then lastly is direct-to-consumer a model that is being pondered for you guys to go after an integrated way?

好的。有幫助。然後最後一個給我。想想過去幾年你一直在攻擊的消費者領域，與一些似乎表現良好的合作夥伴關係。在接下來的幾年裡，這仍然是一種夥伴關係驅動的方法嗎？您可以做些什麼來加速該特定細分市場的增長和盈利能力？最後是直接面向消費者的模式，你們正在考慮採用一種集成方式嗎？

Well, I'll start by saying that we do have a direct-to-consumer business today through our Steelcase online store. So that is part of our retail strategy and a portion of our strategy that we intend to continue. But as you point out, partnerships have also been critical to our strategy knowing that we can bring the design, the engineering, the quality, the manufacturing, the insights-based innovation and combine that with some of our partners, consumer brand recognition, and their reach into the consumer market and we think that that combination is a really good one. And it's one that has been bearing fruit both here as well as in Europe and we certainly think that there is potential to continue to grow through this partnership relationship. So I would say for the moment, our strategy has been both direct-to-consumer but also a strong emphasis on partnership. And in the near term, I think we intend to continue kind of both those tracks.

好吧，我首先要說的是，我們今天確實通過我們的 Steelcase 在線商店開展了直接面向消費者的業務。因此，這是我們零售戰略的一部分，也是我們打算繼續實施的戰略的一部分。但正如您指出的那樣，合作夥伴關係對我們的戰略也至關重要，因為我們知道我們可以帶來設計、工程、質量、製造、基於洞察力的創新，並將其與我們的一些合作夥伴、消費者品牌認知度和他們進入消費市場，我們認為這種組合非常好。它在這里和歐洲都取得了成果，我們當然認為有可能通過這種夥伴關係繼續發展。所以我現在要說的是，我們的戰略既是直接面向消費者，也非常強調合作夥伴關係。在短期內，我認為我們打算繼續採用這兩種方式。

Dave, I don't know if you want to comment on any further.

戴夫，我不知道你是否想進一步發表評論。

No.

不。

Great. Can you share anything of profitability in that part of the business and maybe where you see it evolving in the next couple of years?

偉大的。你能分享一下這部分業務的盈利能力嗎？也許你會看到它在未來幾年的發展方向？

Profitability is really strong in our consumer, kind of our broad consumer business, and it's similar to the kind of margins and operating income that you see disclosed separately from some of our competitors.

我們的消費者業務的盈利能力非常強，我們廣泛的消費者業務，這類似於您看到的與我們的一些競爭對手分開披露的利潤率和營業收入。

Your next question comes from the line of Budd Bugatch from Water Tower Research.

您的下一個問題來自 Water Tower Research 的 Budd Bugatch。

I have 2 questions. One, you talked about the structural not seeing much difference and I think it was the Americas you were referring to, Dave. Is there any structural difference you're seeing in EMEA or in other or the APAC areas that we should be noting?

我有兩個問題。第一，你談到結構上沒有太大差異，我認為你指的是美洲，戴夫。您在 EMEA 或其他或 APAC 地區看到我們應該注意的任何結構性差異嗎？

I don't think so.

我不這麼認為。

Okay. And additionally, you talked about and made -- I'm old enough to remember -- some of the flash points of the -- when the airplane was sold and we had the excess CapEx to fund those for technology and safety reasons in the past, and yet still you're moving away from that, which is understandable in today's environment and laudable, frankly. But you have an enormous asset in Steelcase U. And so, how can you marry the asset you have in Steelcase University to really help customers understand what's going on with work and what's different with work?

好的。此外，你談到並提出了——我已經足夠大了，還記得——一些閃光點——當飛機被出售時，我們有多餘的資本支出來為過去的技術和安全原因提供資金，但您仍然在遠離它，這在當今的環境中是可以理解的，坦率地說是值得稱讚的。但是你在 Steelcase U 擁有巨大的資產。那麼，你如何結合你在 Steelcase 大學的資產來真正幫助客戶了解工作中發生的事情以及工作的不同之處？

Yes. That's a great question and I would say that, first of all, our intent is to certainly continue to leverage Grand Rapids as a significant customer location just as it has been. We have hundreds of customer visit this location every year, who come here on their own, whether that's commercial aircraft or car or whatever it might be. So we don't intend that to change. And we do see that customer behavior has really changed in this respect, that customers in many cases are less willing to travel or less willing to travel significant distances. So we think it really is time not to -- certainly not to lessen the importance of Grand Rapids, but really to amp up the importance of many of the other investments that we have, significant investments in other locations around the country and around the world.

是的。這是一個很好的問題，我要說的是，首先，我們的意圖當然是繼續利用大急流城作為一個重要的客戶所在地，就像過去一樣。每年我們都有數百名客戶光臨此地，他們是自己來的，無論是商用飛機還是汽車，或者任何可能的東西。所以我們不打算改變這種情況。我們確實看到客戶行為在這方面確實發生了變化，在許多情況下，客戶不太願意出差或不太願意長途旅行。所以我們認為現在確實是時候了——當然不是要削弱大急流城的重要性，而是要真正提高我們擁有的許多其他投資的重要性，在全國和世界其他地方的重大投資.

So we really look at this as a strategy to be able to a lot more people and more customers to experience the best of Steelcase, not just in Grand Rapids but in all of the other locations where we also have significant investments. And we've really seen during the pandemic, terrific traffic in many of those locations again as people have chosen to stay closer to home or have looked to -- just to make different decisions about how they spend their day. So we've been really buoyed by that significant traffic and I think there's something there to capitalize on. So Grand Rapids will continue to be important. We continue to expect to have significant customer visits to this location. But we also need to make sure that we are providing the best of Steelcase to people in other locations as well.

因此，我們真正將此視為一種戰略，能夠讓更多的人和更多的客戶體驗到最好的 Steelcase，不僅在大急流城，而且在我們也有大量投資的所有其他地方。在大流行期間，我們確實看到許多地方的交通再次變得非常糟糕，因為人們選擇離家更近一些或已經尋找 - 只是為了對他們如何度過一天做出不同的決定。所以我們真的受到了巨大流量的鼓舞，我認為有一些東西可以利用。因此，大急流城將繼續發揮重要作用。我們繼續期望有大量客戶訪問此位置。但我們也需要確保我們也為其他地方的人們提供最好的 Steelcase。

So, Sara does that -- do we infer from that that there's going to be more showrooms or more mobile-like events of some sort to go around --

所以，Sara 這樣做了——我們是否可以從中推斷出將會有更多的陳列室或更多類似移動的活動——

Yes. I would say 2 things. One is that in existing showrooms and locations, we are continually evolving the experience and making sure that we can provide the right kinds of experiences and sort of high-impact meaningful engagement with customers in those locations. So that could be using digital tools, that could be bringing in expertise, that could be thinking about how we continue to have our most up-to-date innovation available and there for customers to try out. So there's a whole host of things that we intend to do in those locations. But you're right, we have also pursued a strategy of pop-up spaces in cities where we don't have a permanent showroom and that's been quite successful as well. So we also anticipate continuing to leverage pop-up locations as part of our overall go-to-market approach.

是的。我會說兩件事。一是在現有的陳列室和地點，我們不斷改進體驗，並確保我們能夠提供正確的體驗類型，並與這些地點的客戶進行具有高影響力的有意義的互動。因此，這可能是使用數字工具，可能是引入專業知識，可能是考慮我們如何繼續提供最新的創新並供客戶試用。所以我們打算在這些地方做很多事情。但你是對的，我們還在沒有永久陳列室的城市推行了快閃店戰略，這也非常成功。因此，我們還預計將繼續利用彈出式位置作為我們整體上市方法的一部分。

Okay. Well, last from me, I'm going to sneak 1 more in, if I could. You mentioned and quantified 20% to 25% hole. Just help me understand the dollar magnitude of that 20% to 25% hole you're talking about. Because BIFMA reporting over the last several years has changed so many times or given us different footings that I'm unable to get a number that they match the percentage.

好的。好吧，最後從我這裡說，如果可以的話，我會再偷偷帶 1 個進去。您提到並量化了 20% 至 25% 的孔洞。請幫助我了解您所說的 20% 到 25% 漏洞的金額大小。由於 BIFMA 報告在過去幾年中發生了多次變化，或者給了我們不同的立足點，所以我無法獲得與百分比相匹配的數字。

Well, first of all, I would just remind you that we are not projecting that. We were really just sharing it to give you a sense of we're not imagining the industry might be only smaller by a few percentage points where that we don't have any scenarios that suggest it's going to be 50% smaller. So we were just trying to rough -- give you a sense of the magnitude of the kind of hole we think our existing strategies can fill. And therefore, we use an approximation of 20% to 25%. Again, what we're talking about here is what the industry might look like 2 to 3 years from now, once return-to-office and hybrid work has found its future state and settled in. We acknowledge there is the probability that the industry could be smaller. And if it's smaller by that amount, we think we can fill that hole with our targets to gain share in a smaller industry through our ongoing investments and support of hybrid work as well as our diversification strategies across the segments that Sara summarized.

好吧，首先，我只想提醒你，我們並不是在預測那個。我們真的只是分享它，讓你感覺到我們並沒有想像這個行業可能只會縮小幾個百分點，我們沒有任何場景表明它會縮小 50%。所以我們只是想粗略地——讓你了解我們認為我們現有的策略可以填補的那種漏洞的大小。因此，我們使用 20% 到 25% 的近似值。同樣，我們在這裡談論的是從現在起 2 到 3 年後，一旦重返辦公室和混合工作找到了未來的狀態並安頓下來，這個行業可能會是什麼樣子。我們承認這個行業有可能可以更小。如果它小了那麼多，我們認為我們可以通過我們持續的投資和對混合工作的支持以及我們在 Sara 總結的各個細分市場的多元化戰略，通過我們的目標來填補這個空缺，從而在較小的行業中獲得份額。

Understood. But I was trying to get to the number that if that happens, what is that dollar number representative of, what's that percentage of? And what does it get us in terms of dollars?

明白了。但我試圖得到一個數字，如果發生這種情況，那個美元數字代表什麼，這個百分比是多少？就美元而言，它給我們帶來了什麼？

Well, I mean you could start by going back to FY '20 and looking at the Americas and taking some haircut for that to try to get to kind of the core traditional contract office furniture and then take 25% of it. So I don't know what the exact math is, but if you took 75% of FY '20 Americas revenue and then took 25% of that, you'd probably be in the ballpark. But Mike could probably give you -- help you with some offline math with -- from different disclosures that we've had over the last few years.

好吧，我的意思是你可以從回到 20 財年開始，看看美洲，並為此做一些理髮，試圖獲得一種核心的傳統合同辦公家具，然後佔其中的 25%。所以我不知道確切的數學是什麼，但如果你拿走 20 財年美洲收入的 75%，然後拿走其中的 25%，你可能就在球場上。但 Mike 可能會根據我們過去幾年的不同披露給你——幫助你進行一些離線數學計算。

We'll go -- I was -- you were in one sentence it was industry and then it was Americas, and so I'm just trying to get from apples to oranges, but we'll take it offline.

我們會去 - 我是 - 你用一句話說它是行業，然後是美洲，所以我只是想從蘋果到橙子，但我們會把它脫機。

And there are no further questions at this time. Ms. Armbruster, I turn the call back over to you.

目前沒有其他問題。 Armbruster 女士，我把電話轉給你。

Great. Well, I would just thank all of you for joining us this morning, and we wish you all a happy holiday and appreciate your interest in Steelcase as we navigate through these challenging times and focus on driving improved results. And I hope you have a great day.

偉大的。好吧，我只想感謝大家今天早上加入我們，我們祝大家假期愉快，並感謝您對 Steelcase 的關注，因為我們正在度過這些充滿挑戰的時期，並專注於推動取得更好的成果。我希望你今天過得愉快。

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接。