Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (SFM) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Sprouts Farmers Market Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Susannah Livingston, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury. Please go ahead.

大家好，感謝您的耐心等待。歡迎參加 Sprouts Farmers Market 2021 財年第四季及全年財報電話會議。 （操作說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄音。 （操作說明）現在我將會議交給今天的發言人，投資者關係及財務副總裁 Susannah Livingston。請開始發言。

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. We are pleased you have taken the time to join Sprouts on our fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings call. Jack Sinclair, Chief Executive Officer; and Chip Molloy, Chief Financial Officer, are with me today. The earnings release announcing our fourth quarter and full year 2021 results, the webcast of this call and quarterly slides can be accessed through our Investor Relations section of our website at investors.sprouts.com.

謝謝大家，下午好。我們很高興各位抽出時間參加 Sprouts 2021 財年第四季及全年財報電話會議。執行長 Jack Sinclair 和財務長 Chip Molloy 今天與我一同出席。您可以透過我們網站 investors.sprouts.com 的投資者關係頁面查看我們 2021 財年第四季及全年業績報告、本次電話會議的網路直播以及季度財報投影片。

During this call, management may make certain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our expectations for 2022 and beyond. These statements involve a number of risk factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in our SEC filings along with the commentary on forward-looking statements at the end of our earnings release issued today.

在本次電話會議中，管理階層可能會做出某些前瞻性陳述，包括關於我們對2022年及以後業績預期的陳述。這些陳述涉及許多風險因素和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述中所述的結果有重大差異。更多信息，請參閱我們提交給美國證券交易委員會（SEC）的文件中討論的風險因素，以及我們今天發布的盈利報告中關於前瞻性陳述的評論。

Our remarks today include references to non-GAAP measures. For a reconciliation of our non-GAAP measures to the GAAP figures, please see the tables in our earnings release. In addition, because our results for 2020 were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, this presentation will also include certain comparisons to results in 2019.

我們今天的發言將提及非公認會計準則（非GAAP）指標。如欲了解非GAAP指標與GAAP指標的調節表，請參閱我們的獲利報告中的相關表格。此外，由於2020年的業績受到新冠疫情的影響，本次報告也將包含與2019年業績的部分比較。

As a reminder, to account for the 53rd week in fiscal 2020, we shifted each week back 1 week, thereby ignoring the first week of fiscal 2020 to better align holidays for comparison purposes. Because of this, the 2-year stack comp will not be the simple addition of 2 periods. More information can be found at our investors.sprouts.com under Additional Reports if needed.

再次提醒，為了涵蓋2020財年的第53週，我們將每週的數據向前調整一周，從而忽略了2020財年的第一周，以便更好地對齊節假日，便於比較。因此，兩年期累計比較並非簡單地將兩個週期相加。如有需要，更多資訊請造訪 investors.sprouts.com 的「其他報告」欄位。

With that, let me hand it over to Jack. .

那麼，就讓我把麥克風交給傑克吧。

Thank you, Susannah, and good afternoon, everyone. We're pleased to report that our results for the fourth quarter were better than we anticipated for both sales and earnings. And we're encouraged by the fact that our quarterly comp transactions turned positive. 2021 was a year of meaningful accomplishments for the Sprouts team while at the same time, we successfully navigated a very challenging retail environment.

謝謝蘇珊娜，大家下午好。我們很高興地報告，第四季度銷售額和盈利均超出預期。此外，季度同店交易轉正也令我們倍感鼓舞。 2021年對Sprouts團隊來說是碩果累累的一年，同時，我們也成功應對了極具挑戰性的零售環境。

During the year, we opened 12 new stores, remodeled 1 and relocated 1 of which 4 were in our smaller store format and are encouraged with their initial results. We made significant progress towards filling our pipeline of future store openings, opened 2 new distribution centers, launched over 5,700 new products and issued a fulsome ESG report which resulted in a AAA rating from MSCI, just to name a few.

年內，我們新開了12家門市，翻新了1家門店，並搬遷了1家門市。其中4家為小型門市，初步業績令人鼓舞。我們在推動未來門市開設計畫方面取得了顯著進展，啟用了2個新的配送中心，推出了超過5700種新產品，並發布了一份全面的ESG報告，最終獲得了MSCI的AAA評級，以上僅列舉部分成就。

I'm excited about the platform we're building and where we can take it in 2022 and beyond. Going forward, creating more meaningful messaging about our customer proposition, densifying our store base in established markets and extending our reach to new customers in new markets will help us to continue to profitably grow.

我為我們正在建立的平台以及它在2022年及以後的發展前景感到興奮。展望未來，我們將致力於打造更具意義的客戶價值主張訊息，在成熟市場擴大門市覆蓋範圍，並將觸達範圍拓展至新市場的新客戶，這些舉措將有助於我們持續實現盈利增長。

To that end, I'm thrilled to announce that Nick Konat will join our team in March as President and COO. I'm looking forward to Nick's leadership over the areas of marketing, merchandising and operations. Nick brings a wealth of experience in these areas with deep, deep retail knowledge from industry-leading companies such as Target and Petco.

為此，我非常高興地宣布，尼克·科納特將於三月加入我們的團隊，擔任總裁兼營運長。我期待尼克在行銷、商品銷售和營運方面發揮領導作用。尼克在這些領域擁有豐富的經驗，並曾在塔吉特和寵物用品公司等行業領導者積累了深厚的零售知識。

As we enter our 20th year as a specialty grocer, the bolstering of our team allows us to move our strategy forward and fulfill our mission of providing healthy living options for less to more people.

在我們作為一家特色食品雜貨店進入第 20 個年頭之際，我們團隊的壯大使我們能夠推進我們的戰略，並實現我們的使命，即以更少的錢為更多的人提供健康的生活選擇。

Before providing more details relating to the quarter's activities and strategic performance, I'd like to turn it over to Chip, who will review our financial results for the quarter and full year as well as provide our 2022 outlook. Chip?

在詳細介紹本季各項活動和策略表現之前，我想把發言權交給Chip，他將回顧我們本季和全年的財務業績，並展望2022年的發展前景。 Chip？

Thanks, Jack, and good afternoon, everyone. Before I get started, I'd like to reiterate the fact that fiscal year 2020 was a 53-week year and year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter comparisons will be 52 to 52 and 13 to 13 weeks, respectively. For reference purposes, the extra week in 2020 included $122 million in sales, $29 million in SG&A, $16 million in earnings before interest and tax and $0.10 in earnings per share.

謝謝傑克，大家下午好。在正式開始之前，我想再次強調一下，2020財年共有53週，因此同比和環比數據分別為52週對52周和13週對13週。作為參考，2020年多出的這一周包含了1.22億美元的銷售額、2900萬美元的銷售、管理及行政費用、1600萬美元的息稅前利潤以及0.10美元的每股收益。

Fourth quarter total sales were $1.49 billion, up $12 million from the same period in 2020. Comparable store sales were down 1.1%, resulting in a positive 2.7% 2-year comp. As Jack mentioned, comp transactions for the quarter were slightly positive. It was the first quarter with positive comp transactions since 2018.

第四季總銷售額為14.9億美元，較2020年同期成長1,200萬美元。同店銷售額下降1.1%，但兩年同期較上季成長2.7%。正如傑克所提到的，本季同店交易量略有成長，這是自2018年以來首次出現正成長。

Average retail prices were up primarily due to inflationary cost pressures passed on to the consumer, while our units per basket were down as we continue to cycle the larger baskets that occurred during the first 12 months of the pandemic. Encouraging is the fact that our units per basket for the quarter were still higher than they were during the same period in 2019 even with higher prices.

平均零售價格上漲主要是由於通膨壓力轉嫁給了消費者，而我們的每籃商品數量有所下降，因為我們仍在逐步恢復疫情前12個月期間出現的大籃商品銷售模式。令人鼓舞的是，即使價格上漲，本季我們的每籃商品數量仍高於2019年同期水準。

E-commerce sales were 10.4% of total sales, settling to what appears to be a relatively stable run rate. Fourth quarter gross margin dollars totaled $533 million and gross margin rate was 35.7%. The margin decline of approximately 100 basis points was driven predominantly by a slight lag in price increases relative to the pace of cost increases. That gap has been narrowing as we've moved into the first quarter of this year.

電子商務銷售額佔總銷售額的10.4%，目前已趨於穩定。第四季毛利總額為5.33億美元，毛利率為35.7%。毛利率下降約100個基點，主要原因是價格上漲速度略低於成本上漲速度。不過，隨著今年第一季的到來，這一差距正在逐漸縮小。

SG&A for the quarter totaled $449 million or $14 million higher when compared to the same 13-week period last year. SG&A increases were predominantly driven by new stores, offset by lower COVID response and incentive compensation costs.

本季銷售、管理及行政費用總計4.49億美元，較去年同期（13週）增加1,400萬美元。銷售、管理及行政費用的成長主要受新店開幕的影響，但部分被新冠疫情因應成本和激勵性薪酬成本的降低所抵銷。

For the quarter, our earnings before interest and taxes were $51 million. Interest expense was $3 million, and our effective tax rate was 25%. Fourth quarter diluted earnings per share were $0.32.

本季度，我們的息稅前利潤為5,100萬美元。利息支出為300萬美元，實際稅率為25%。第四季稀釋後每股收益為0.32美元。

During the quarter, we opened 8 new stores, spent $28 million in capital expenditures net of landlord reimbursements and repurchased 2 million shares. For fiscal year 2021, total sales declined 4% to $6.1 billion. The 6.7% decrease in comparable store sales growth was primarily from cycling the demand from the COVID pandemic in 2020.

本季度，我們新開了8家門市，扣除房東補償後，資本支出淨額為2,800萬美元，回購了200萬股股票。 2021財年，總銷售額下降4%至61億美元。同店銷售成長下降6.7%主要是由於2020年新冠疫情帶來的需求週期性波動所致。

Our gross margin for the year was 36.2%, down approximately 55 basis points. Merch margins were down approximately 40 basis points, and the remaining 15 basis points was a result of warehouse distribution deleverage during the first half of the year. Our gross margin was slightly better than we projected at the beginning of the year and up approximately 260 basis points when compared to 2019.

本年度毛利率為36.2%，下降約55個基點。其中，商品毛利率下降約40個基點，剩餘的15個基點是由於上半年倉庫配送槓桿率下降所致。本年度毛利率略高於年初預期，較2019年同期成長約260個基點。

SG&A expenses for the year decreased $86 million on a 52-week basis to $1.75 billion or 28.7% of sales. Increases in SG&A from opening new stores were more than offset by significantly lower expenses associated with COVID response costs and lower incentive compensation.

本年度銷售、管理及行政費用（SG&A）以52週計算減少了8,600萬美元，降至17.5億美元，佔銷售額的28.7%。新店開幕帶來的SG&A費用成長被與新冠疫情應對相關的支出大幅下降以及激勵性薪酬降低所抵消。

For the year, our earnings before interest and taxes were $334 million, our interest expense was $12 million, our effective tax rate was 24%, and our diluted earnings per share were $2.10.

本年度，我們的息稅前利潤為 3.34 億美元，利息支出為 1,200 萬美元，實際稅率為 24%，稀釋後每股收益為 2.10 美元。

During the year, we opened 12 new stores, ending with 374 stores across 23 states and invested $81 million in capital expenditures net of landlord reimbursements, funded by our strong cash flow from operations of $365 million.

年內，我們開設了 12 家新店，在 23 個州擁有 374 家門市，並在扣除房東補償後，投資了 8,100 萬美元的資本支出，資金來自我們強勁的 3.65 億美元經營現金流。

For the year, we repurchased 7.4 million shares of common stock for a total investment of $188 million, ending the year with $112 million remaining under our current $300 million share repurchase authorization.

本年度，我們回購了 740 萬股普通股，總投資額為 1.88 億美元，截至年底，我們 3 億美元的股票回購授權額度還剩 1.12 億美元。

Turning to the balance sheet highlights. We ended the year with $245 million in cash and cash equivalents, $250 million outstanding on our revolver and $28 million of outstanding letters of credit and a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of nearly 0.

接下來看一下資產負債表的重點。截至年底，我們持有現金及現金等價物2.45億美元，未償還循環信貸額度為2.5億美元，未償還信用證額度為2800萬美元，淨債務與EBITDA之比接近0。

As we move into 2022, we are cautiously optimistic. We're encouraged by our fourth quarter results and believe many of our strategic initiatives have laid the foundation for ongoing and more consistent growth in revenue, profits and free cash flow. Navigating inflationary pressures on cost, both product and expenses as well as some lingering COVID dynamics will be important to our success in the near term.

展望2022年，我們持謹慎樂觀態度。我們對第四季度的業績感到鼓舞，並相信我們多項策略舉措已為營收、利潤和自由現金流的持續穩定成長奠定了基礎。應對通膨對產品和費用成本帶來的壓力，以及新冠疫情的持續影響，對我們近期的成功至關重要。

For 2022, we expect total sales growth between 4% and 6% with comparable store sales growth of 0% to 2%. We now expect to open 15 to 20 new stores, less than our previous communication of 25 to 30 and our strategic goal of 10% growth per year due to the ongoing permitting and supply chain challenges associated with sourcing materials and equipment. Several of our new stores in '22 were scheduled to open in December and are now shifting to the first quarter of 2023.

我們預估2022年總銷售額成長4%至6%，同店銷售額成長0%至2%。由於持續存在的審批和供應鏈方面的挑戰，我們目前預計將開設15至20家新店，低於此前公佈的25至30家，也低於我們每年10%增長的戰略目標，這主要是因為採購原材料和設備方面仍面臨諸多挑戰。我們原計劃於2022年12月開業的幾家新店，現在將延後至2023年第一季開幕。

Our real estate team continues to work diligently, building a quality pipeline of new locations. And we believe by 2023, we can be closer to our 10% goal. Today, we have more than 80 approved sites and more than 50 signed leases in the pipeline.

我們的房地產團隊持續努力，不斷建立高品質的新項目儲備。我們相信，到2023年，我們將更接近10%的目標。目前，我們已有超過80個獲批項目和超過50份已簽署的租賃協議正在籌備中。

For the year, we're expecting our gross margin rate to be relatively flat when compared to 2021 and SG&A to grow approximately 4% to 6%. We expect adjusted earnings before interest and taxes to be between $330 million and $345 million, interest expense of $11 million, an effective tax rate of 25% and adjusted earnings per share of $2.14 to $2.24 assuming no additional share repurchases. That said, we do expect to continue to repurchase shares opportunistically.

我們預計今年的毛利率與2021年相比將基本持平，銷售、管理及行政費用（SG&A）將成長約4%至6%。我們預計調整後的息稅前利潤將在3.3億美元至3.45億美元之間，利息支出為1100萬美元，實際稅率為25%，假設不進行額外的股票回購，調整後的每股收益為2.14美元至2.24美元。儘管如此，我們仍計劃在市場機會出現時繼續進行股票回購。

Capital expenditures, net of landlord reimbursements, should total between $150 million and $170 million, which includes the potential relocation of one of our distribution centers to a larger facility.

扣除房東補償後，資本支出總額應在 1.5 億美元至 1.7 億美元之間，其中包括將我們的一個配送中心搬遷到更大的設施的可能性。

Our guidance for the year does not include the temporary costs associated with California's recent passage of their 2022 supplemental sick leave bill that provides paid leave time off for COVID issues through September 1. The estimated incremental cost is between $2 million and $4 million.

我們今年的業績指引不包括加州最近通過的 2022 年補充病假法案所帶來的臨時成本，該法案規定，因新冠肺炎相關問題而享有帶薪休假，有效期至 9 月 1 日。預計新增成本在 200 萬至 400 萬美元之間。

For the first quarter, we expect comparable store sales growth of 0% to 2% and adjusted diluted earnings per share between $0.69 and $0.73.

我們預期第一季同店銷售額將成長0%至2%，調整後稀釋每股收益在0.69美元至0.73美元之間。

With that, I'll turn it over to Jack.

這樣，我就把麥克風交給傑克了。

Thanks, Chip. I would like to speak more about our current business and ongoing strategic initiatives. First, I want to give a heart-filled thanks to all the team members at Sprouts for their service. Our team members remain critical to Sprouts and taking care of them is our top priority. We'll continue cultivating the community within Sprouts, reinforcing the positive culture inherent in our DNA. We're also expanding access to development opportunities, helping ensure our amazing team members reap the rewards of their hard work and are able to grow within Sprouts. It's not been an easy 2 years for them, yet they never stopped working to serving our customers, make lasting positive changes to the company and improving access to healthy foods across the country.

謝謝，Chip。我想進一步談談我們目前的業務和正在進行的策略舉措。首先，我要衷心感謝Sprouts的所有團隊成員的付出。團隊成員對Sprouts至關重要，關懷他們是我們的首要任務。我們將繼續在Sprouts內部培育社區，強化我們DNA中固有的正向文化。我們也在拓展發展機會，確保我們優秀的團隊成員能夠收穫辛勤工作的回報，並在Sprouts中獲得成長。過去的兩年對他們來說並不輕鬆，但他們從未停止為顧客服務，為公司帶來持久的積極改變，並改善全國各地人們獲取健康食品的途徑。

Our focus on product innovation and differentiation in partnership with our vendors is the lifeblood of our success and what makes us a specialty grocer. This focus helped drive our sales in the fourth quarter. And we were especially pleased with our sales performance in deli, bakery, vitamins and grocery. Deli continues to show strength in our prepared deli meals, grab-and-go, vegan options and sushi. Even our sushi department is getting into plant-based offerings.

我們與供應商攜手合作，專注於產品創新和差異化，這是我們成功的關鍵，也是我們成為特色食品雜貨店的根本所在。這項策略助力我們第四季銷售額的成長。我們尤其對熟食、烘焙、維生素和雜貨的銷售表現感到滿意。熟食部門的預製熟食、即食食品、素食選擇和壽司持續保持強勁勢頭。甚至我們的壽司部門也開始推出植物性產品。

And in Prepared Foods, we released some new meals created by our in-house chef, which really brought the program to life. They included sous vide, keto-friendly Atlantic salmon with poblano crema and a whole line of pasta meals using NAE chicken, grass-fed beef and other attribute-driven proteins.

在預製食品方面，我們推出了一些由公司內部廚師精心烹製的新菜餚，這些菜餚真正讓整個項目煥發了活力。其中包括低溫慢煮的生酮友好型大西洋鮭魚配波布拉諾辣椒奶油醬，以及一系列採用NAE雞肉、草飼牛肉和其他優質蛋白質製作的意麵。

Bakery continues to grow year-on-year, supported by ongoing innovation and seasonal events. Fourth quarter saw strength in holiday items, up double digit from last year. This category continues to grow in artisan breads and gluten-free items. And keto bread sales are now larger than conventional bread sales, which speaks to our experience seeker customer.

烘焙業務持續成長，這得益於持續的創新和季節性活動的推動。第四季節慶產品表現強勁，較去年同期達到兩位數成長。手工麵包和無麩質產品在該品類中持續成長。此外，生酮麵包的銷售量已超過傳統麵包，這反映了我們追求體驗的顧客群。

Vitamins benefited from immunity products, partnerships and innovative new items. The year ended with a return to a normal cold and flu season. And when coupled with elevated COVID cases, it led to a sales increase in our immunity categories like Jarrow's quercetin. The top trending mushroom brand OM created Immune Multi Boost, which had all the key attributes and trending ingredients to support immune health and everyday wellness, which we released in the fourth quarter to great fanfare.

維生素產品受益於免疫力產品的推出、合作關係的建立以及創新產品的上市。年底，流感季節恢復正常。同時，新冠病例的增加也帶動了我們免疫力類產品（例如Jarrow的槲皮素）的銷售成長。熱門蘑菇品牌OM推出了免疫力增強劑（Immune Multi Boost），該產品具備所有關鍵特性和熱門成分，旨在支持免疫健康和日常保健，我們在第四季度隆重上市，並引起了廣泛關注。

In October, we hosted an interactive wellness live stream with industry experts to discuss natural remedies for anxiety, inflammation and immune health.

10 月份，我們舉辦了一場與業內專家互動的健康直播活動，討論緩解焦慮、發炎和增強免疫力的自然療法。

Grocery benefited again from a strong holiday program and innovation. Holiday sales started early and remained strong through the fourth quarter, especially in private label. Some favorites driving the strength were our Sprouts branded dark cocoa kettle corn and Siete's mini Bunuelos. Our full innovation centers rolled out in our new format stores and we converted nearly 250 bulk tables into innovation tables in our existing stores, creating halo and trial each week as bimonthly we highlighted new innovative items.

食品雜貨業務再次受益於強勁的假期促銷活動和創新舉措。假日銷售提前啟動，並在第四季度保持強勁勢頭，尤其是自有品牌產品。推動銷售成長的熱門產品包括 Sprouts 品牌的黑巧克力爆米花和 Siete 的迷你布努埃洛斯餅乾。我們在新業態門市全面啟用了創新中心，並將現有門市中近 250 個散裝貨架改造成創新貨架，每週都推出新品，吸引顧客試用，並每兩個月重點推介一次創新產品。

This treasure hunt destination displays trending private label and branded items such as our Chili & Lime rolled tortilla chips and new organic Sprouts branded teas. These premium teas are harvested from small farms around the world with complete traceability and include fully compostable and biodegradable teabags and strings.

這個尋寶目的地展示了熱門的自有品牌和品牌商品，例如我們的辣椒青檸味卷狀玉米片和新款有機Sprouts品牌茶。這些優質茶葉採摘自世界各地的小型農場，全程可追溯，並採用完全可堆肥和可生物降解的茶包和茶線。

As it relates to strategy, we moved the needle on many fronts in 2021. Our merchandising team made tremendous progress by highlighting even more of our differentiation and innovation, which remains our strength at Sprouts. We ended the year with over 70% of our products being attribute-driven like keto, paleo, plant-based or, of course, organic, which is much different than other grocers. And this strength is being recognized in the marketplace as our vendors increasingly look to us as the destination for all new ideas.

在策略方面，我們在2021年取得了多方面的進展。我們的商品團隊透過進一步突顯我們的差異化和創新優勢，取得了巨大的進步，而這正是Sprouts的優勢所在。到年底，我們超過70%的產品都是以屬性為導向的，例如生酮飲食、原始人飲食、植物性食品，當然還有有機食品，這與其他食品零售商截然不同。這一優勢也得到了市場的認可，我們的供應商越來越將我們視為所有新想法的首選。

Organics continued to be a driver of differentiation for Sprouts. In total, they represented 24% of our sales in 2021. In produce, our contribution of organic sales to total department sales grew by nearly 600 basis points. In dairy, our organic sales penetration was 60% higher than conventional grocers. And in meat, which is new to organic, performed better than we expected.

有機產品持續成為Sprouts實現差異化競爭的關鍵驅動力。 2021年，有機產品銷售額占我們總銷售額的24%。在生鮮蔬果方面，有機產品銷售額佔部門總銷售額的比重成長了近600個基點。在乳製品方面，我們的有機產品銷售滲透率比傳統超市高出60%。而肉類作為有機產品的新興領域，其表現也超出了我們的預期。

Overall, 2021 brought the addition of more than 5,700 new branded and private label items, of which more than 400 were private label releases. They include many plant-based and organic products like our whole wheat spaghetti and organic extra-virgin olive oil as well as vegan protein powders and our new health and beauty line.

2021年，我們新增了超過5700種品牌和自有品牌產品，其中超過400種為自有品牌產品。這些產品包括許多植物性和有機產品，例如我們的全麥義大利麵、有機特級初榨橄欖油、純素蛋白粉以及我們全新的健康美容系列。

Our supply chain was boosted in 2021 with the opening of 2 new distribution centers, reducing our miles on the road by 3 million, improving shrink and bringing fresher and more local products to the shelf.

2021 年，我們開設了 2 個新的配送中心，從而提升了我們的供應鏈，減少了 300 萬英里的公路運輸里程，改善了損耗，並將更新鮮、更本地化的產品推向貨架。

In Colorado, we increased our local SKU count by 200% in season, resulting in sales penetration of local produce in the mid-teens.

在科羅拉多州，我們當季將本地 SKU 數量增加了 200%，使得本地農產品的銷售滲透率達到了十幾個百分點。

For Florida, while we're still in season, we have already partnered with many local growers. These partnerships are already resulting in increased local produce sales penetration into the mid-teens, which should continue to increase as we hit peak season.

就佛羅裡達州而言，雖然目前仍處於產季，但我們已經與許多當地種植者建立了合作關係。這些合作關係已使當地農產品的銷售滲透率提升至十幾個百分點，隨著旺季的到來，這一數字應該會繼續增長。

In 2021, we also planned and opened a smaller, more profitable new format store. Our SKU count is very similar to older vintages with a slight change in departmental mix, resulting in similar opening sales. In total, we had 4 of those stores in 2021, including 1 relocation and 1 remodel.

2021年，我們也規劃並開設了一家規模較小但獲利能力較強的新業態門市。新店的商品種類與往年基本相同，只是在商品組合上略有調整，因此開業銷售也與往年相近。 2021年，我們共開設了4家此類門市，其中1家為搬遷門市，1家為翻新門市。

Produce remains the cornerstone of the new format stores highlighted by prominent position in store, new varietals and of course, a focus on best quality at everyday great prices.

生鮮產品仍是新式門市的基石，其特點是店內位置顯眼、品種豐富，當然，也注重以每日優惠的價格提供最佳品質。

We expanded the frozen department, put a greater emphasis on plant-based items, both of which are showing stronger sales in the new vintage. And despite the deli being smaller in scale and lowering cost to build, it continues to show sales strength with the addition of more grab and grow options and prepared foods, even after taking out more labor-intensive items like salad bars.

我們擴大了冷凍食品區，更加重視植物性產品，這兩類產品在新一季的銷售表現都有所提升。儘管熟食區規模較小，但建設成本也較低，但即便取消了沙拉吧等勞動密集型項目，透過增加即食即種食品和預製食品，其銷售業績依然保持強勁。

Most all the new stores this year will be in the new format, except for the 7 stores we pushed from 2021 due to supply chain challenges in getting equipment.

今年大部分新店都將採用新模式，只有 7 家門市因設備供應方面的挑戰而從 2021 年推遲開業。

And finally, I want to speak to marketing. Our marketing approach has gone through an evolution in the past year. We began 2021 with a new campaign which strengthened our awareness as a specialty grocer. It highlighted our strength in fresh quality produce and that perception remains very high in the industry. However, we found it didn't include enough call to action to drive more footsteps to the door. Those that shopped us understood we had great prices, but that fell short in the market overall.

最後，我想談談行銷。過去一年，我們的行銷策略經歷了一次演變。 2021年初，我們推出了一項新的行銷活動，旨在提升我們作為特色食品雜貨店的品牌知名度。該活動重點突出了我們在新鮮優質農產品方面的優勢，而這一優勢在業界仍然享有很高的聲譽。然而，我們發現活動缺乏足夠的行動號召，無法有效吸引更多顧客到店。雖然光顧過我們店舖的顧客都知道我們價格實惠，但這在整體市場中仍然不夠。

In the back half of 2021, we began to change a few tactics by reinforcing the value message, compelling reasons to visit the store and product differentiation in all our storytelling inside and outside the store to break the inertia of the non-Sprout shoppers. We're optimistic these changes are starting to make a difference, ending the year on a good note with slightly positive traffic.

2021年下半年，我們開始調整策略，透過強化價值理念、突出到店理由以及在店內外的所有宣傳中強調產品差異化，來打破非Sprout顧客的抵觸情緒。我們樂觀地認為這些改變已經開始奏效，並以略微增長的客流量為這一年畫上圓滿的句號。

Directly related to our fourth quarter improvement, we delivered a holiday catalog which, through storytelling, emphasized all the attribute-driven holiday items like organic free-range turkeys, gluten-free ingredients and healthy sides like Kevin's paleo, mashed sweet potatoes, and Tattooed Chef's riced cauliflower stuffing.

與我們第四季度業績的提升直接相關的是，我們推出了假日產品目錄，通過講故事的方式，重點介紹了所有以屬性為導向的假日商品，例如有機散養火雞、無麩質食材以及健康的配菜，如凱文的古味土豆泥和紋身廚師的花椰菜米飯餡料。

It included digital-based actions, marrying up storytelling with QR codes to join our app, melding together a growing customer base, which stays informed and gets access to all the deals. Customers now know that all our best deals are automatically loaded in the Sprouts app with discounts given at checkout, no more clipping necessary.

它包含一系列數位化活動，將故事敘述與二維碼相結合，引導用戶加入我們的應用程序，從而整合不斷增長的客戶群體，讓他們隨時了解最新資訊並獲取所有優惠資訊。現在，顧客都知道，我們所有的最佳優惠都會自動加載到 Sprouts 應用程式中，並在結帳時享受折扣，無需再手動剪貼。

For 2021, these efforts helped grow our loyalty scans, up more than 700%. Our active e-mail addresses grew over 25% to approximately 3.8 million customers, which equates to a 90% growth since 2019. Our SMS text group grew over 75% led by a quick enroll program nationwide. In total, we can now reach over 5 million customers through our different channels.

2021年，這些措施協助我們的會員掃描量成長超過700%。活躍郵箱地址數量增加超過25%，達到約380萬，較2019年增長90%。在全國快速註冊計畫的推動下，我們的簡訊用戶群成長超過75%。目前，我們透過各種管道共觸達超過500萬客戶。

As it relates to ESG, while our 2021 report won't be out for a few months, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the accolades Sprouts has received this past year from the progress we've made and the updated disclosures. This past fall, we received a AAA rating from MSCI, a marked improvement from the respectable BBB rating last year. As well, just recently, we were honored by the Corporate Knights as one of the global 100 most sustainable corporations in the world. Both highlight the excellent work of our company and foundation has done in improving our disclosures and making a positive impact on the environment, a positive impact on our team members and the communities we serve.

關於ESG方面，雖然我們的2021年報告還要幾個月才會發布，但如果我不提及Sprouts在過去一年中因取得的進展和更新的信息披露而獲得的讚譽，那就太失職了。去年秋天，我們獲得了MSCI的AAA評級，這比去年令人滿意的BBB評級有了顯著提升。此外，就在不久前，我們也榮獲了Corporate Knights頒發的全球100家最具永續發展能力企業之一的榮譽。這兩項榮譽都彰顯了我們公司和基金會在改善資訊揭露、對環境、團隊成員以及我們所服務的社區產生積極影響方面所做的卓越工作。

For 2022, our focus remains on providing our customers our unique and differentiated product assortment aligned with their shopping needs. Our customers will be able to see and taste even more creations from Sprouts and our vendors as we launch our innovation centers to approximately 120 new and existing stores.

2022年，我們將持續致力於為顧客提供獨特特色、差異化的產品組合，以滿足他們的購物需求。隨著我們在約120家新舊門市推出創新中心，顧客將能夠看到並品嚐更多來自Sprouts及其供應商的創新產品。

As for new stores, our unit growth story remains one of the best out there for retail. Though our growth in 2022 is less than 10%, our pipeline remains very strong with more than 80 stores to be opened in the next few years.

就新店而言，我們的門市成長速度依然是零售業中最強勁的之一。儘管2022年的成長率低於10%，但我們的門市儲備依然非常充足，未來幾年將開設超過80家新店。

As Chip pointed out, once the supply chain and city approval process right size from the pandemic, we expect to be back on track to our high-growth model.

正如 Chip 指出的那樣，一旦供應鏈和城市審批流程從疫情中恢復正常，我們預計就能重回高成長模式的軌道。

As for marketing, we will mine our customer data to get them engaged with broader and more inclusive media messaging, highlighting value, differentiated categories and supported by our vendors, partners and influencers. The live stream we did this past fall was so successful, we're exploring additional events this year as well as innovative partnerships with industry experts.

在行銷方面，我們將挖掘客戶數據，透過更廣泛、更具包容性的媒體訊息，突顯產品價值和差異化品類，並藉助供應商、合作夥伴和產業影響者的支持，吸引更多客戶參與。去年秋季的直播活動非常成功，因此我們正在探索今年舉辦更多活動，並與產業專家建立創新合作關係。

While we do expect supply chain challenges to linger due to labor shortages in the fields and warehouses as well as a shortage of drivers, our team remain heads down, finding new places to source products and passing through increased cost in most cases.

儘管我們預計由於田間和倉庫勞動力短缺以及司機短缺，供應鏈挑戰仍將持續存在，但我們的團隊仍在埋頭苦幹，尋找新的產品採購管道，並在大多數情況下將增加的成本轉嫁給客戶。

We believe the focus on health and wellness is here to stay, which bodes well for our differentiated offering. We're optimistic that the positive fourth quarter traffic is beginning to validate our strategic changes. Our focus remains on delivering great products and great prices to our customers and coupled with unit growth expansion will drive our top line.

我們相信，人們對健康和保健的關注將會持續下去，這對我們差異化的產品和服務來說是個好兆頭。我們對第四季度客流量的正面成長感到樂觀，這開始驗證了我們策略調整的正確性。我們將繼續專注於為客戶提供優質的產品和優惠的價格，再加上銷售量的成長，這將推動我們的營收成長。

And our internal focus on efficient operations and the right promotions will maintain the change in our margin structure. I'm encouraged with the progress we have made against our strategy, and I'm confident this success will only grow in 2022 and beyond.

我們內部對高效率營運和合理促銷的重視將有助於維持利潤率結構的調整。我對我們策略實施的進展感到鼓舞，並相信這項成功將在2022年及以後繼續擴大。

At this time, we're happy to take your questions. Operator?

現在，我們很樂意回答您的問題。接線生？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Ken Goldman with JPMorgan.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自摩根大通的 Ken Goldman。

When you were listing the departments that you were particularly proud of, I didn't think I heard frozen, and correct me if I'm wrong there. So number one, was that an intentional omission, if I did hear it correctly? And number two, can you walk us through a little bit how the frozen business is doing for you at the current time? .

當您列舉您特別引以為傲的部門時，我好像沒聽到「冷凍食品」這個詞，如果我聽錯了請指正。所以，第一，如果我沒聽錯的話，這是您有意省略的嗎？第二，您能否簡單介紹一下目前冷凍食品業務的運作？

Yes. We're very encouraged by frozen, Ken. And we're in the place where -- or maybe we should have mentioned it specifically, if I'm honest with you, because it's been -- it's something that's been really strong for us over the last 2 or 3 years.

是的。肯，我們對《冰雪奇緣》這部劇非常滿意。而且我們現在的情況是——或者說實話，我們應該專門提一下，因為在過去的兩三年裡，它對我們來說一直非常重要。

We've reinvented the products that we're selling, a lot of a lot of them innovative vegetarian, vegan plant-based keto, paleo. So we're really encouraged by it. And if you look at our new stores, we're giving a lot more space to frozen in our new stores going forward. So we're investing in it. We're encouraged by it. And we're pretty -- we think it's something that is -- a few years ago, frozen was seen as a kind of poor relation against fresh. But it's been a place where we've been able to generate a lot of innovation. And the team are chasing this hard. So that was probably a miss on our part, Ken, but it's doing well for us. .

我們對銷售的產品進行了革新，其中許多都是創新的素食、純素食、植物性、生酮飲食和原始人飲食產品。所以我們對此感到非常鼓舞。如果你看看我們的新店，你會發現我們未來會在新店裡為冷凍食品預留更大的空間。所以我們正在加大對冷凍食品的投入。我們對此感到振奮。而且我們覺得──幾年前，冷凍食品還被視為不如新鮮食物的「窮親戚」。但現在，冷凍食品已經成為我們能夠進行大量創新的領域。我們的團隊也一直在努力推進這項業務。所以，肯，這或許是我們之前的一個失誤，但它現在對我們來說是有利的。

Great. And then quick follow-up. I know you don't give specific gross margin guidance all the time. Just wanted to get a sense of a range. The Street is at about 36% for '22. Is that far off from where your model might be expecting at this time? .

好的。還有一個後續問題。我知道您不會總是給出具體的毛利率預期。我只是想了解大概的範圍。華爾街對2022年的毛利率預期約為36%。這和您目前的模型預測值相差很大嗎？

Ken, this is Chip. No, that's not far off. We said relatively flat for this year. So it's going to be relatively flat, and some of the margin degradation in Q4 is starting to subside into Q1. .

肯，我是奇普。不，差不多。我們說過今年整體業績將保持穩定。所以業績會保持相對平穩，第四季利潤率下滑的趨勢正在第一季開始緩解。

Our next question comes from Mark Carden with UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的馬克卡登。

My first question is on the comp guidance. I know low single digits is what you're targeting over the long term. That said, given the degree of inflation that we're seeing in the marketplace and your relatively easy comparisons, why not bring up 2022 guidance anymore? Is it simply a desire to build in some conservatism? Something else? .

我的第一個問題是關於同業拆借業績指引。我知道你們長期目標是實現個位數低成長。但是，考慮到目前市場的通膨水準以及你們相對寬鬆的比較基準，為什麼不繼續公佈2022年的業績指引呢？只是因為你們想保持一定的保守性嗎？還是另有其他原因？

This is Chip. There's a couple of things that are going on there. One is just the balance of traffic, units going to the basket and AUR. And so you just look at the trends and where we are. We've had -- units in the baskets have been down year-over-year, and that will still continue to be down as you're going into the -- through the first quarter and part of the second quarter as we're comparing to 2021.

我是Chip。這裡有兩個方面的情況。一是流量平衡，包括成交量和平均入住率。所以你只需要看看趨勢和我們目前的狀況。成交量較去年同期下降，隨著第一季和第二季部分時間與2021年同期相比，這種情況還會繼續下降。

And then traffic will be -- we're hoping to have traffic in the positive range throughout the year, and we'll -- the AUR will start to subside as the units in the basket start to build again. So net-net, it all kind of comes out together as -- in that 0 to 2 range. .

然後，我們希望全年交通流量都能維持正成長，隨著房源數量的恢復，平均使用率（AUR）也會開始下降。所以總的來說，最終結果大概會在0到2的範圍內。

Got it. That's helpful. And then how is cost inflation trended coming out of the quarter? Are you passing on any more or less than you may have at the start of this inflationary wave? Are competitors still rational? And how are you expecting to play out? .

明白了，這很有幫助。那麼，本季末的成本通膨趨勢如何？你們是否比這波通膨浪潮開始時更多地或更少地將成本轉嫁給了客戶？競爭對手是否仍然理性？你們預計最終結果會如何？

The market seems pretty rational to me, Mark, in terms of how people are passing it on. But with the level of inflation, it's a pretty volatile situation. I'm old enough to remember kind of what happens when you get high -- when you get teen inflation. And that -- the context of how you manage that is the timing on it is always kind of -- there's always lags and then you get ahead of it and you get behind it a little bit as you try and manage it.

馬克，就人們的消費行為而言，我覺得市場相當理性。但考慮到目前的通膨水平，情況就相當不穩定了。我年紀夠大，還記得高通膨──也就是十幾千帕的通膨──會帶來什麼後果。而應對通膨的關鍵在於時機把握，總是會有滯後，你試著控制它，但有時也會稍微落後。

I'm not seeing any major activity from anybody that would say there's no rationality going on in kind of promotional space on this. But there is some timing in terms of how fast you can move pricing when you get cost inflation. And probably in Q4, we were kind of a little bit slower than we might have been. And as we go forward, we're seeing that coming in line. .

我沒看到任何人公開表示在促銷上缺乏理性。但成本上漲時，價格調整的速度確實存在一定的時效性。可能在第四季度，我們的調整速度比預期稍慢一些。但隨著時間的推移，我們看到這種情況正在好轉。

Yes. And I would add, Mark, if you go back was probably Q2 this year where the cost got ahead of the prices a little bit, and that's flowed through, and it's starting to catch up. And once again, I think we're catching up to that by Q1 of next year. By Q2, for sure, and it's starting to narrow in Q1.

是的。馬克，我還要補充一點，如果你回顧一下，今年第二季度成本漲幅可能略微超過了價格漲幅，這種影響已經顯現，現在價格正在逐漸回落。我認為到明年第一季度，成本漲幅將會完全趕上價格。第二季肯定能趕上，而且到第一季差距會開始縮小。

Our next question comes from Scott Mushkin with R5 Capital.

下一個問題來自 R5 Capital 的 Scott Mushkin。

A couple of things. Number one is the hire of a COO. Why did you do it? What are you expecting from that person? What do you think he brings? .

有兩件事。第一是聘請營運長。為什麼要這樣做？你對這個人有什麼期望？你認為他能帶來什麼？

Well, I think as we grow our business, we need to widen our bandwidth and the capabilities that we have in the organization to generate and stimulate the growth that we want going forward. This is quite a kind of immature business in many ways. So bringing more talent and more people on board who can drive that.

我認為，隨著業務的成長，我們需要拓寬組織內部的資源和能力，以創造和促進我們未來所需的成長。從很多方面來看，這仍然是一個尚未成熟的行業。因此，我們需要引進更多的人才，讓更多能推動業務發展的人員加入我們的團隊。

So we're very excited about Nick. He brings a wealth of experience and a real passion for our proposition and what we do. And the fact that he's got the kind of background that he's got, I think he's going to add a lot of value to our business and bring a lot of discipline to our merchandising, marketing and operations side of things, which in many ways, it's part of the process of us growing and developing as a business. And I'm very excited about the role he's going to play for us.

我們對尼克的加入感到非常興奮。他擁有豐富的經驗，並且對我們的理念和業務充滿熱情。憑藉他所擁有的豐富背景，我認為他將為我們的業務增添巨大價值，並為我們的商品銷售、行銷和營運帶來嚴謹的管理，這在許多方面都是我們業務成長和發展過程中不可或缺的一部分。我對他將在我們公司扮演的角色感到非常期待。

Perfect. And then just kind of 2 quick housekeeping items. I just want to make sure I heard something right, and then I want to go back to the last question around comps. So the $2 million to $4 million, I think you guys pulled out as far as the change in the California law. I think you said it's excluded from guidance. And I'm just curious why since you know what the number would be and it sounds like it's ongoing.

好的。還有兩點需要補充說明。我想確認我是否聽錯了，然後我想回到之前關於可比交易的問題。關於200萬到400萬美元的估值，我想你們提到了加州法律的變化。我記得你們說過這部分內容不在指導意見的範圍內。我很好奇為什麼，因為你們知道這個數字是多少，而且聽起來這項政策還在調整中。

And then the second thing with comp would be the 0 to 2 in the first quarter with inflation running as hot as it is, it would be suggested that volumes are down fairly sharply. And I just -- I mean I heard the explanation. I just want -- I guess I'm just not sure I understand it completely.

其次，關於同店銷售，第一季0到2的成長率，考慮到目前通膨如此之高，這表明銷量可能大幅下降。我——我是說，我聽到了解釋。我只是想——我想我還是不太明白。

Yes. A couple of things. So the California piece, that actually stops in September. So the law was set up in September, we weren't sure actually when we started quantifying it because we just -- the law just got passed just recently, and it's a $2 million to $4 million number. And we just felt like we wanted to call it out because it's a temporary sort of onetime cost.

是的，有兩件事。加州那部分，實際上到九月就結束了。這項法律是九月才生效的，我們其實不太確定具體是什麼時候開始量化的，因為這項法律是最近才通過的，金額在200萬到400萬美元之間。我們覺得有必要提一下，因為這是一筆臨時性的、一次性的費用。

As it relates to the 0 to 2, you get -- you got to almost go all the way back to when the pandemic started in the second quarter of 2020 and you think about 4 quarters. Unfortunately, it didn't happen at the beginning of the year, so it's kind of the next 4 quarters. And what happened were the units in the basket went way up in the second quarter of 2020. So when you cycle that this past year, they went way down, and they've been staying down. So we've got another quarter of that, where they go -- where there's still going to be comp units per basket are going to be pretty far down. And then that will start to catch up and anniversary. It should be going in the second to third quarter, it will -- unless something else happens from a another variant that -- who knows? But beyond that, it should start to all come together and stabilize with some relatively small relative positive traffic. Transactions should be positive. Units per basket should be a little bit positive. And AUR should be a little bit positive as we start to cycle the big inflation of last year.

就0到2的過渡期而言，你幾乎要追溯到2020年第二季疫情爆發之初，然後考慮大約四個季度。不幸的是，疫情並非始於年初，而是持續了接下來的四個季度。 2020年第二季度，每籃商品數量大幅上升。但在過去一年裡，每籃商品數量大幅下降，並且一直保持在低檔。接下來的幾個季度，每籃商品數量仍將大幅下降。之後，這種情況會開始好轉，預計在第二季到第三季之間會有所改善——除非出現其他變數——誰也說不準。但除此之外，一切都會開始趨於穩定，客流量會出現一些相對較小的正成長。交易量應該會為正，每籃商品數量也應該略有增加。隨著我們開始消化去年的大通膨，AUR 應該會略微向正值變化。

Our next question comes from Rupesh Parikh with Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默公司的魯佩什·帕里克。

So the first question I have is just on quarter-to-date trends. Is there anything you can share in terms of what you're seeing quarter-to-date? .

我的第一個問題是關於本季至今的趨勢。您能否分享一下您觀察到的本季至今的情況？

Rupesh, yes, that would -- normally, this company hasn't given guidance for the current quarter in the past, but we've done that this time. So -- and we will going forward. So the guidance we've given is in line with where we expect to be for the end of the year -- end of the quarter.

魯佩什，是的，通常情況下，我們公司過去不會發布本季的業績指引，但這次我們發布了。而且以後也會繼續發布。我們給予的業績指引與我們對年底/本季末的預期一致。

Okay. Great. And then second, just on private label. So a lot of innovations routes on the private label side. Curious where your private label penetration is today and where you guys expect it to go by the end of the year.

好的，太好了。其次，關於自有品牌方面。自有品牌方面有許多創新方向。我很想知道你們目前的自有品牌市場滲透率是多少，以及你們預計到年底會達到什麼水準。

Well, exactly what happened to the penetration, I'm not sure about. I think as I've said in the past, in a lot of these conversations, our private label mix at the moment, I think it's about 14%, 15%, something like that. 16% as we sit at the moment. Some of that 16% is commoditized that we don't really kind of feel is the right direction for private label, but some of it is real innovative product. And the progress that we've made in the holiday, I was very encouraged by. There's a new design -- new team in place who are doing a really nice job. And we've got some really innovative products coming through. So I'm excited about the new designs and the new products that are coming into the business through the course of this year.

嗯，滲透率究竟發生了什麼變化，我不太確定。正如我之前在許多類似的討論中提到的，我們目前的自有品牌佔比大概在14%到15%之間，或接近16%。這16%中，有一部分是同質化產品，我們認為這並非自有品牌發展的正確方向，但也有一部分是真正創新的產品。我對我們在假期季節取得的進展感到非常鼓舞。我們啟用了新的設計團隊，他們工作得非常出色。而且，我們還有一些極具創新性的產品即將上市。因此，我對今年即將推出的新設計和新產品感到非常興奮。

Exactly what the penetration will be, it's not something we're ambitious. We're not saying it's got to be 20 years. It's got to be where I was at Tesco all those years ago. It doesn't need to be a particular number. The important thing for us is that it's bringing that differentiation to our customer, and we're bringing innovative products into the space. And that's something that I'm very excited about going forward. But the exact number, I'm not quite sure where it will play out.

至於最終的滲透率會是多少，我們並沒有設定一個具體的目標。我們並不是說一定要用20年才能實現，而是要達到我多年前在Tesco時的水準。這不需要是一個具體的數字。對我們來說，重要的是它能為我們的客戶帶來差異化，我們正在將創新產品引入這個領域。我對未來的發展方向感到非常興奮。至於具體的數字，我目前還無法確定。

Our next question comes from Charles Cerankosky with North Coast Research.

我們的下一個問題來自北海岸研究公司的查爾斯·塞蘭科斯基。

Jack, I was wondering -- and Chip, I was wondering if you could discuss some of the best benefits thus far of clustering stores or having more stores in clusters, how it's helping with sales growth, distribution efficiency and cost reduction.

傑克，我想問——還有奇普，我想問你們能否談談到目前為止，將門店集中起來或在集群中開設更多門店的一些最佳好處，以及它如何幫助提高銷售增長、配送效率和降低成本。

Well, specifically, when we open stores in markets where we've got a significant penetration, we do better than when we open in markets where we don't. So simply speaking, when people know who we are, we've got a real chance of it hitting the ground a little bit faster. What we're finding in the mid-Atlantic and Florida, we've got great customers in that space. We've got great opportunities on it. But as we build the density, we're starting to get better strength in that. But it takes a little bit of time in these markets where people literally don't know who we are. And that's a marketing challenge, and it's a communication challenge. And it becomes much easier when you've got density in the marketplace to do that.

具體來說，當我們在市場滲透率較高的地區開設門市時，業績會比在滲透率較低的地區更好。簡而言之，當人們了解我們時，我們的業務就能更快地取得成功。我們發現，在大西洋中部和佛羅裡達州，我們擁有優質的客戶群，也擁有巨大的發展機會。隨著門市密度的提升，我們在這些地區的實力也日益增強。但在那些人們幾乎不了解我們的市場，這需要一些時間。這既是行銷的挑戰，也是溝通的挑戰。而當市場滲透率較高時，這些挑戰就會迎刃而解。

So very simply, when we've got decent strength in market share in California, Arizona, Vegas, we do better than when we get -- on day 1, we do better than when we launch in the Mid-Atlantic or in Florida marketplace. So I suppose that makes a lot of sense. And -- but we're very encouraged that the distribution center is allowing us to be much more effective locally. So we put 2 new distribution centers on the ground. We're probably going to have another one at some point during the next 18 months or so. And that's going to allow us to source product more locally.

簡而言之，當我們在加州、亞利桑那和拉斯維加斯等地擁有相當可觀的市場份額時，我們的表現會比在第一天就進入中大西洋地區或佛羅裡達市場時更好。所以我覺得很有道理。而且，我們非常欣慰的是，配送中心讓我們在本地營運效率大大提高。因此，我們新建了兩個配送中心。未來18個月左右，我們可能還會再建一個。這將使我們能夠更多地在本地採購產品。

So when you are farmers market in Florida, the fact that we've now got an Orlando distribution center, we're not shipping from Atlanta, Georgia, all the way down to Naples. We've actually got ourselves in a place where we're working much better with the local farming community, the local agriculture community and selling more local product. And I'd like to say, we'll be encouraging the teams to do much more of that. We've been recruiting a lot of people.

所以，在佛羅裡達州的農夫市場，我們現在有了奧蘭多配送中心，不用再從喬治亞州亞特蘭大一路運到那不勒斯了。我們現在與當地的農業社區合作得更好，銷售更多本地產品。我想說的是，我們會鼓勵團隊在這方面投入更多精力。我們一直在招募人才。

So this combination of getting product, getting more stores in a dense area, providing more local product through our distribution network, which will evolve and develop I think sets us pretty well for the future. I don't know if you want to add to that, Chip.

所以，透過獲取產品、在人口密集地區開設更多門市、透過我們的分銷網絡（這個網絡還會不斷發展壯大）提供更多本地產品，我認為這些舉措讓我們在未來發展中佔據了相當有利的地位。奇普，我不知道你是否還有補充。

Yes. The other thing that I would add to it is just from a talent perspective, you start to get some brand awareness. It's easier to hire talent as you promote people from within the boxes. It's easier to promote and move them to other boxes, and they know we're not bringing in people that don't know who Sprouts are in a new market. And then on top of that, of course, you get leverage off of your media spend as well.

是的。我還要補充一點，從人才角度來看，這樣做可以提升品牌知名度。從現有門市提拔員工更容易招募人才。也更容易將他們調到其他門市，他們知道我們不會引進對Sprouts一無所知的新市場員工。此外，當然，你還能更好地利用媒體投入。

Got it. Can you quantify at all what amount of sales you might have left on the table due to out of stocks? And is Sprouts more vulnerable to out-of-stocks due to the unique nature of many of your products versus run-of-the-mill CPG products in a typical supermarket?

明白了。您能否量化一下由於缺貨而可能損失的銷售額？與普通超市裡的普通消費品相比，Sprouts 的許多產品因其獨特性而更容易出現缺貨情況嗎？

Yes, it's a great question. It's something we talk about a lot. Actually, almost maybe contrary to the question. I actually think when you're only sourcing products that you sell yourself, your destiny is in your own hands. The reality of the CPG world over the last 2 months or so as you've had all the conventional grocers battling with Walmart and battling with Target for product. And when I go into those stores over the last few weeks, I see pretty significant out of stocks.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。我們經常討論這個問題。實際上，我的看法可能與這個問題本身恰恰相反。我認為，如果你只採購自己銷售的產品，那麼你的命運就掌握在自己手中。過去兩個月左右，消費品產業的現實是，所有傳統雜貨店都在與沃爾瑪和塔吉特爭奪貨源。過去幾週，我去這些商店時，發現缺貨的情況相當普遍。

Now we've got some challenges, but nothing like the challenges I'm seeing in some of our -- some of those more conventional grocers. And I think the factor that we're not battling for inventory with other people in the context of the supply chain challenges and labor challenges that exist across the marketplace. We're able to work pretty closely with our vendor base and our distribution partners. And it's only us. We either get it right or get it wrong. And I think in many ways, in January, in particular, I think we're in a better place than most of the other guys. Although we went by no means where we want to be, but I think we were better than most.

現在我們確實面臨一些挑戰，但遠不及一些傳統雜貨店所面臨的挑戰。我認為，我們的優勢在於，我們無需像其他商家一樣，在供應鏈和勞動力市場普遍存在的挑戰下，與其他商家爭奪庫存。我們能夠與供應商和分銷合作夥伴緊密合作。而且，只有我們自己，要嘛成功，要嘛失敗。我認為，尤其是在一月份，我們在許多方面都比大多數商家做得更好。雖然我們遠遠沒有達到預期目標，但我認為我們比大多數商家做得更好。

Our next question comes from Kelly Bania with BMO Capital. .

下一個問題來自BMO Capital的Kelly Bania。

I wanted to just dig in a little bit more on the traffic and ticket drivers. And I guess a couple of questions there. The decline in units per basket, is that across all of your customer types? Or is there any differences in trends between your different customer types there?

我想更深入地了解交通和罰單的驅動因素。我有幾個問題。每籃商品數量的下降，是所有顧客類型都面臨的問題嗎？還是說不同客戶類型的趨勢有所不同？

And then the traffic momentum that you have, are you able to tie that back to your marketing campaign and new customers? Or just any ways you can track how that marketing campaign is working to drive traffic? .

那麼，你能否將目前獲得的流量動能與你的行銷活動和新客戶連結起來？或者，你有什麼方法可以追蹤行銷活動在引流方面的效果？

Yes. So Kelly, let me take the 2 separate quick. Let's start with the traffic question. Maybe, Chip, you can pick up on the first question that was asked here.

是的。凱莉，讓我快速回答這兩個問題。我們先從交通問題開始。奇普，或許你能回答這裡提出的第一個問題。

With regard to traffic, there's a lot of things happened that we're feeling good about in terms of how our marketing worked in Q4. We did a little bit better, I think, in terms of telling the story digitally around the strength of our fresh pricing, particularly our produce pricing versus the marketplace.

就流量而言，我們對第四季度行銷工作的表現感到非常滿意。我認為，我們在數位行銷方面做得更好，尤其是在突顯我們生鮮產品定價優勢方面，特別是與市場相比，我們的農產品定價更具優勢。

As I kind of mentioned in my remarks, how do we get clarity, particularly in our new markets where people don't quite understand the value that we have in our produce business. And I think that the digital messaging behind that, we think, has helped us a little bit going forward. I also think that the fact that in the context of the COVID environment that kind of accelerated at the end Q4, people were not as nervous. Since the start of the pandemic, people were nervous shopping. The number of times people were going to do grocery shopping went down from 4 or 5 times a week to 1 or 2 times a week. That didn't happen in December for us.

正如我剛才提到的，我們該如何澄清一些問題，尤其是在新市場，那裡的人們還不太了解我們農產品業務的價值。我認為，我們在這方面所做的數位化宣傳，對我們未來的發展有了一定的幫助。此外，我認為，在第四季末疫情加速蔓延的背景下，人們的焦慮情緒有所緩解。自從疫情爆發以來，人們一直對購物感到緊張。人們去超市購物的次數從每週四五次減少到每週一到兩次。但這種情況在12月並沒有發生在我們這裡。

We saw that some of our customers were feeling more comfortable coming in. So I think the combination of sending the message out, getting some bounce-back communication to customers to encourage them to come back from the holidays. So I was pleased with some of the marketing that worked at the end of Q4. And I think the context of the marketplace helped us a little bit as well.

我們發現有些顧客感覺更願意光顧了。所以我認為，我們透過各種方式傳遞訊息，並向顧客進行一些回饋溝通，鼓勵他們在假期後回歸，這些措施都起到了作用。我對第四季末一些有效的行銷活動感到滿意。我認為市場環境也對我們有幫助。

So -- and again, it's very early days, but we're kind of cautiously optimistic about the progress that we've made on getting this traffic, which has clearly been a conversation that we've had with you guys over the last little while. We're cautiously optimistic that the work we've done on marketing is helping a little bit, and there's some macro factors that are probably helping a bit as well.

所以——再次強調，現在還處於非常早期的階段，但我們對目前在流量獲取方面取得的進展持謹慎樂觀的態度，這顯然也是我們最近一段時間和大家討論過的話題。我們謹慎樂觀地認為，我們在行銷方面所做的工作起到了一定的作用，一些宏觀因素可能也起到了一定的作用。

And then on the units, Kelly. They go back to -- you got to go back almost 2 years because you look back and we had dramatic, and I mean, dramatic, increases in units per basket beginning second quarter 2020. And then, of course, when you cycle that you go into 2022 -- 2021, those were negative and will continue to be negative year-over-year for -- through all of this past year and have another quarter to go. So that should settle out by the second quarter of this year. Net-net, if you looked at units per basket on a 2-year perspective, we've been up every quarter.

然後是銷售方面，凱利。這要追溯到——你得把時間拉回到將近兩年前，因為回顧過去，你會發現從2020年第二季度開始，每籃商品數量出現了大幅增長，我是說真的大幅增長。當然，到了2022年——2021年，銷量年減，而且在過去一年裡，年比數據還會繼續下降，直到下一個季度結束。所以，到今年第二季度，情況應該會趨於穩定。總而言之，如果從兩年的角度來看每籃商品數量，我們每季都在成長。

Okay. That's very helpful. And then just also to ask on the stores, and this might be too early. But curious if you can talk a little bit more in detail about sales and the margins and how they're starting to track out between the old and the new format. And if the cost of the new store format is coming in line with your expectations.

好的，這很有幫助。另外，我還想問一下關於門市的問題，現在問可能有點早，但我很好奇您能否更詳細地談談銷售額和利潤率，以及新舊兩種模式的業績對比情況。還有，新門市模式的成本是否符合您的預期。

Well, the course of the new store formats, we've talked a lot about the fact that we've put less into the stores, and we're making them smaller. So the economics of the store in terms of rent, in terms of the -- because the size is smaller, then we're clearly spending less to build them.

關於新的門市模式，我們已經多次提到，我們減少了門市的投入，縮小了門市面積。因此，從租金等方面來看，由於門市面積縮小，我們的建造成本自然也降低了。

Having said that, there are some cost pressures on the other side with regard to supply chain construction steal a lot of the equipment. So there's some pressures coming that's pushing it in the other direction. But relatively to what we would have had to spend in the bigger stores that we've had, they're moving directly in line with what our expectations were.

話雖如此，供應鏈建設方面也存在一些成本壓力，許多設備都被盜用了。因此，一些壓力正推動著事態朝著相反的方向發展。但相對於我們先前在大型門市的支出而言，目前的進展完全符合我們的預期。

So just to be clear, the cost might be creeping up a little bit, but they're significantly lower than they were, and they're in line with our expectations. So that -- in terms of the way the flow through is working. Our new store margins are coming through exactly the way we expected them to do. Some of our older stores, we've got nomenclature of V1s, V2s, V3s. Our V6s are coming through the way we want them to. Our older stores at high volume are the very profitable stores, and that's kind of what we're trying to capture with the new format stores. Make them smaller, make them more higher sales per square foot and deliver better returns from them. And when I look back at the smaller stores that we've got in San Diego and some of the areas of California, those are the ones that are making the most money for us.

所以，需要說明的是，成本可能略有上升，但遠低於之前的水平，並且符合我們的預期。就營運流程而言，我們新店的利潤率完全符合預期。我們的一些老店，例如V1、V2、V3，都按照V6的模式運營，一切都在按計劃進行。那些客流量大的老店利潤非常高，而這正是我們希望透過新模式門市達到的目標：縮小門市面積，提高每平方英尺的銷售額，從而獲得更高的回報。回顧我們在聖地牙哥和加州其他地區的那些小型門市，它們才是我們獲利最多的門市。

Our next question is from Robby Ohmes with Bank of America. .

下一個問題來自美國銀行的羅比·奧姆斯。

This is Kendall Toscano on for Robby. I was just wondering on the gross margin and, I guess, the return to positive traffic. Were you guys investing in price to any extent during 4Q? And now that you've seen traffic turn positive, does that change the way you're thinking about maybe future price investment in 2022?

我是肯德爾·托斯卡諾，替羅比問的。我想問一下毛利率以及流量回升的情況。你們第四季有沒有在價格方面進行任何投資？現在流量已經轉正，這是否會改變你們對2022年價格投資的看法？

Well, we're -- our promotional cadence and the investment in prices exactly what we've been saying for the last [2] years in terms of the change in approach. We're not going loss leaders. We're not chasing after -- and our promotion mix has gone down fairly substantially over the last couple of years. .

嗯，我們的促銷節奏和價格投入，正如我們過去兩年一直強調的策略轉變。我們不會做虧本促銷，也不會盲目追逐——而且，過去幾年我們的促銷組合已經大幅縮減。

So we're not investing in price. Some of the margin stuff is a little bit to do with the lag in pricing in terms of how fast are we moving our retails in the context of a high cost inflation environment. And that's -- that will smooth out through time. So the simple answer is we're not investing anything in our margin. And the margin expectations that we have going forward are in line with the expectations that Chip went through in his presentation.

所以我們並沒有在價格方面進行投資。利潤率方面，部分原因在於高成本通膨環境下，我們的零售產品價格調整速度有滯後性。這種情況會隨著時間的推移而逐漸緩解。所以簡單來說，我們沒有在利潤率方面進行任何投資。我們對未來利潤率的預期與Chip在演講中提到的預期一致。

So we're feeling pretty comfortable about where we're at and that -- provided there's no other major shocks in the marketplace that we're pretty comfortable that our margin is in a good place going forward, and we've set our margins so that we're in a good place with our investments going forward.

所以我們對目前的狀況感到相當滿意，而且——只要市場沒有其他重大衝擊——我們相當有信心，我們的利潤率在未來會處於良好狀態，我們已經設定了利潤率，以便我們未來的投資處於良好狀態。

Chip, do you want to add that?

Chip，你想加上那個嗎？

The only thing I would add to that is we're being a lot more selective. So the breadth of the promotions are not nearly as wide. But the ones that we are doing, yes, sometimes, we've been a little bit more aggressive on price. We're a little bit more aggressive in the deal. But it's a much narrower selection that that's being applied to.

我唯一要補充的是，我們現在更注重選擇。所以促銷活動的保障範圍遠不如以前廣泛。但對於我們正在進行的促銷活動，是的，有時我們在價格上會更激進一些，優惠力度也會更大一些。但這些優惠措施只適用於範圍較窄的產品。

And I've been very pleased with the way the marketing teams are -- we've got a lot more people engaging in our digital space. So we've got -- our scans are up. There's -- we've got about 5 million people now from [2] million not that long ago, who are actually engaging and getting these promotions digitally. And they're not creating promotions, and we think it's helping to stimulate some of the demand. .

我對行銷團隊的工作非常滿意——現在有更多的人參與我們的數位行銷活動。我們的掃描量也上升了。現在大約有500萬人參與進來，並透過數位管道接收促銷訊息，而不久前這個數字還只有200萬。他們並沒有主動發起促銷活動，我們認為這有助於刺激市場需求。

Our next question comes from Krisztina Katai with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Krisztina Katai。

Just as we think about the last 2 years and the impact of trip consolidation, can you just talk a bit more about your strategy of focusing on more value-added promotions or call to action to really drive traffic that you have been testing? And essentially some of the learnings and just how effective they have been.

當我們回顧過去兩年以及行程整合的影響時，您能否再詳細談談您一直在測試的、專注於更多增值促銷或行動號召以真正吸引流量的策略？以及您從中獲得的一些經驗教訓和實際效果如何？

And then in terms of your value scores, has that changed at all over the last quarter or 2, as essentially conventional grocers and now even the largest retailer in the country is raising prices.

那麼，就價值評分而言，在過去一、兩個季度裡，情況是否有所改變？因為基本上是傳統的雜貨店，甚至現在連全國最大的零售商都在漲價。

Yes. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about how we've kind of been working this one through over the last little while. I've been encouraged by, as I said a minute ago, by the work that we've done around loyalty. We talked a lot about segmenting our customers base 2 years ago when we took a -- maybe a bit more than a -- I get mixed up, 2.5 years ago when we embarked upon this strategy. And we embarked on this strategy before the pandemic kicked in.

好的。那我們來聊聊過去一段時間我們是如何著手處理這個問題的。正如我剛才所說，我們在客戶忠誠度方面所做的工作讓我很受鼓舞。兩年前，我們開始著手客戶細分，當時我們討論了許多相關主題——或許不只兩年半，我有點記不清了——我們啟動了這項策略。而且，這項戰略是在疫情爆發前啟動的。

And basically, we're following that strategy to the letter. I'm encouraged by that. But part of that was being very clear, we're narrowly focusing in on people who are excited about fresh foods and healthy food and people that are excited about innovation and the experience seekers. And those are the ones that are buying into the loyalty-based work that we're doing. Those are the ones that scan their phone when they go through the store. They get engaged in our loyalty communication.

基本上，我們嚴格按照這個策略執行。我對此感到鼓舞。但其中一部分工作是明確目標受眾，我們專注於那些對新鮮食品、健康食品、創新和體驗感興趣的人。正是這些人認同我們正在進行的會員忠誠度計畫。他們會在店內掃描手機，並積極參與我們的會員忠誠度溝通。

So I'm encouraged by that in terms of the focus that we put in early on to segment the market. And the marketing activity that we put behind that appears to be gently and quietly improving our underlying customer base. We had a lot of customers who basically weren't making us, in fact, losing us a lot of money. So those coupon clippers that we call, they seem to have drifted away.

所以，我對我們早期重視市場區隔的做法感到鼓舞。我們為此而進行的行銷活動似乎正在悄悄改善我們現有的客戶群。我們之前有很多客戶其實並沒有為我們帶來任何收益，反而讓我們損失了很多錢。那些我們稱之為「優惠券達人」的客戶，似乎已經流失了。

What seems to be happening is there are some customers reactivating, coming back from where they were, but those are the customers that we want. And the customers that we don't want are not being encouraged to come in because we're not going on a deep cut promotions. So if that makes some sense to you.

現在的情況似乎是，一些老顧客重新活躍起來，回到了我們這裡，但這些正是我們想要的老顧客。而那些我們不想吸引的老顧客，我們也不會鼓勵他們來，因為我們不會搞什麼大力度的促銷活動。希望我解釋清楚了。

As we look at the traffic. We're seeing a little bit of improvement. There are some macro things happening. People more comfortable going to more places than they were before, which I think benefits us because we're not the primary shop. And the activity that we're doing to try and stimulate those customers who love us seems to be driving a bit more transactions with those customers. And that's something that we'd be hopeful about going forward for the rest of the year.

我們觀察了一下客流量，發現略有改善。這其中也包含一些宏觀因素。現在人們更願意去更多的地方，這對我們有利，因為我們不是顧客的主要購物場所。我們為了維繫忠實顧客而採取的措施似​​乎也確實帶來了更多交易。我們希望這種趨勢能在今年餘下的時間裡持續下去。

And Krisztina, I would just throw out a couple of things, too. One is we're now getting beyond the lapping of the trip consolidation, number one. Number two is when we did change the strategy 2 years ago or in 2019, the coupon clippers, as Jack points out, that were weeded out for all intents and purposes, that's behind us. So we're in a place where the traffic is really going forward is much -- feels much more stable.

克里斯蒂娜，我也想補充幾點。首先，我們現在已經度過了行程整合的瓶頸期。其次，正如傑克所指出的，兩年前或2019年我們調整策略時，那些精打細算的優惠券使用者基本上都被淘汰了，現在這種情況已經過去了。所以，我們現在的交通狀況更穩定，客流量也真正向前成長了。

And then the other piece, when you talked about value. We are very price competitive when it comes to our produce pricing, which has always been the heritage of the business. We have opportunities, as we said on the last call, and we're working them diligently. We have opportunities to get that messaging out in a much better way that we haven't done for several -- for a couple of years, actually.

還有一點，您剛才提到了價值。我們在農產品定價方面非常有競爭力，這始終是我們的企業傳統。正如我們在上次電話會議上所說，我們有很多機會，而且我們正在努力把握這些機會。我們有機會以一種更好的方式傳遞這些訊息，而我們已經好幾年——實際上是兩年——都沒有這樣做了。

Yes. And I think the value part linked to produce is the important thing for us. I think the customers are understanding that there's a volatility everywhere, as you alluded to, the conventionals and the other guys are having to put prices up at the moment. Within the context of that, we're sticking pretty rigidly to we need a discount, we need an advantage in our produce space, which we have and will maintain.

是的。我認為農產品本身的價值對我們來說至關重要。正如您所提到的，我認為顧客也明白目前市場波動很大，傳統商家和其他商家都必須提價。正因如此，我們才堅持提供折扣，保持我們在農產品領域的優勢，而我們一直擁有並將繼續保持這種優勢。

And the rest of the store, which is not directly comparable, we're looking at elasticities and that and seeing what happens when prices change. And that's something that we're having to watch more diligently than we ever have before because of the level of inflation that's going up.

至於商店裡其他不具有直接可比性的商品，我們正在研究價格彈性，觀察價格變動時會發生什麼。由於通貨膨脹水準不斷上升，我們必須比以往任何時候都更加密切地關注這一點。

Our next question comes from Karen Short with Barclays.

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的凱倫·肖特。

This is actually Renato Basanta on for Karen. So just first, I was just wondering if you can talk a little bit about how you view sort of the company's overall growth algorithm on a more normal basis. Obviously, a lot of noise with inflation this year and some of the store growth challenges. But wondering how you think about sales growth in a more normal year, including the waterfall benefit to comp. And then generally, the relationship between sales and EBIT growth on a more sustainable basis.

我是 Renato Basanta，替 Karen 發言。首先，我想請您談談在更正常的年份裡，您如何看待公司的整體成長演算法。顯然，今年通貨膨脹和門市成長方面的一些挑戰帶來了許多幹擾。我想了解您在更正常的年份裡如何看待銷售成長，包括銷售額成長對同店銷售額的提升。此外，您還想了解在更永續的年份裡，銷售額和息稅前利潤成長之間的關係。

I'll let Chip follow up a little bit, but let's talk, first of all, about the store growth. We're very comfortable that from a top line store growth, we have the leases and the sites in line for us to deliver on the algorithm that we've talked about, which is a 10% store growth. That's not going to happen this year, as we've said in the note, simply because the complications of trying to work our way through both the licensing and the construction side of things is very challenging. I'm really pleased with the way the team are working their way through this, but it's challenging.

我請Chip再補充幾句，但首先我們來談談門市成長。我們非常有信心，從門市總銷售額的成長來看，我們已經獲得了足夠的租賃合約和選址，可以實現我們之前討論過的10%的門市成長率。正如我們在先前的報告中所說，今年無法實現這個目標，原因很簡單，因為在審批許可和施工方面遇到的困難非常大。我對團隊目前的工作方式非常滿意，但這確實充滿挑戰。

But we're very comfortable that the real estate team have got all the sites that we need to more than deliver against the algorithms that we've talked about on new stores. And when we get the new store program up and running, as you know, there will be a flow-through into our comp sales as that naturally flows into our business. So we're pretty comfortable, and I'll let Chip talk in more detail, that we can grow our bottom line faster than we can grow our top line marginally. And that's part of what we've talked about all the way along in this space. Chip? .

但我們非常有信心，房地產團隊已經找到了我們需要的所有地塊，足以滿足我們之前討論過的新店演算法的要求，甚至超出預期。如您所知，一旦新店專案啟動並運行，銷售額自然會提升，從而帶動同店銷售成長。所以我們相當有信心，而且我接下來會請Chip詳細說明，我們的利潤成長速度可以超過營收成長速度。這正是我們一直以來在這個領域討論的內容之一。 Chip？

Yes. I would just say that we want to give to the algorithm that we've kind of described before. Number one, Jack's already alluded to the store growth. So the square footage growth or store growth, we're feeling -- we're hopeful, and I hope is not a strategy, but we feel good about us getting back on track to the double-digit new store growth in 2020 -- what year is this? '23? Yes, '23.

是的。我想說的是，我們希望遵循之前描述過的演算法。首先，傑克已經提到了門市擴張。所以，無論是門市面積還是門市數量，我們都充滿信心——我希望這不是什麼策略，但我們感覺很有希望在2020年重回正軌，實現兩位數的新店增長——今年是哪一年？ 2023年？是的，2023年。

So we should be able to get in '23 unless something else happens. We feel good about that. And then we've guided to 0.2 on comps for this year. There is still noise moving around between all the basket size and AUR inflation and traffic. We feel really good about the 0 to 2 for this year. And then going forward, once we get the store growth going, we're hopeful and we believe we can drive that low single-digit comp consistently. We can continue to grow square footage up in the double-digit range. We can continue to grow earnings before tax somewhere in the high singles to, call it, 10 and we'll continue to buy back shares.

所以，除非發生其他變故，否則我們應該可以實現2023年的目標。我們對此感到樂觀。我們預計今年的同店銷售額將成長0.2個百分點。目前，客單價、平均每間客單價上漲以及客流量等因素仍在影響業績。我們對今年0到2個百分點的同店銷售成長目標非常有信心。展望未來，一旦門市成長步入正軌，我們充滿信心，相信能夠持續實現個位數低點的同店銷售額成長。我們可以繼續維持兩位數的同店銷售額成長。我們可以繼續保持稅前利潤在高點到10個百分點之間的成長，並且我們將繼續回購股票。

And I'm not sure we'll ever get -- I don't know what normal looks like anymore. It's kind of [full of] changes, but there you go. Thanks for the question.

我不確定我們是否還能回到——我已經不知道正常生活是什麼樣子了。它充滿了變化，但就是這樣。謝謝你的提問。

Our next question is from John Heinbockel with Guggenheim.

下一個問題來自古根漢美術館的約翰·海因博克爾。

Jack, 2 quick things. Number one, maybe talk to assortment. How happy are you with where you are, right? And sort of the benefit of breadth versus obviously some inefficiency, right, if you're overly assorted.

傑克，兩件事要簡單說說。第一，或許可以和品類管理部門談談。你對目前的品類狀況滿意嗎？還有，品類多樣性的好處和過度多樣化帶來的效率低下之間的區別，對吧？

And then secondly, when you go from ramping openings up to 40-plus or around 40 in '23, is there a temporary piece of dilution from those new stores? Or you think you've reengineered them enough where any dilution is minimal?

其次，當新店開幕數量從目前的快速成長到 2023 年的 40 家左右時，這些新店是否會暫時稀釋現有業績？或者您認為您已經對現有業績進行了充分的調整，使得稀釋效應可以降到最低？

Yes. Okay. John, let's say, start with -- I mean one of the things I've learned in this job over the last couple of years is this company needs broad assortment. A lot of the discipline that I've had in my retail career would say you've got to cut out your tail and keep the high-volume items. And that would be the context of a lot of the work that's being done in conventional grocers, in Walmart and Tesco back in the U.K. That fundamental principle is something that's pretty much at the heart of being efficient. .

是的，好的。約翰，我們先來談談──我的意思是，過去幾年我在這份工作中學到的一點是，公司需要豐富的商品種類。我零售業生涯中學到的許多原則都告訴我，你必須精簡商品種類，只保留銷售量高的商品。這和英國沃爾瑪和樂購等傳統雜貨店的運作方式很相似。這個基本原則幾乎是提高效率的核心所在。

We have to be the opposite of that in many ways. And the assortment that we're adding is about trying to be very clear and very appealing to those health enthusiast customers who are focused on a keto diet or a paleo diet or a plant-based diet or a dairy-free diet or a gluten-free diet.

在很多方面，我們必須反其道而行。我們新增的產品系列旨在清楚明確地吸引那些注重健康、關註生酮飲食、原始人飲食、植物性飲食、無乳製品飲食或無麩質飲食的顧客。

If you're going to be really relevant to those customers, those target customers that we have, you have to have a breadth of choice in that. So you end up having a lot of items that maybe don't sell as much on an individual store-by-store item-by-item basis that you would want. But it allows us to create the dynamic of the attraction to the customer. And that's very much part of our marketing message going into 2022 and 2023, explaining the differentiation that we have because there's a load of products that we sell that nobody else would want to sell because of the -- and that's one of the great advantages that we have of being a different business.

如果你想真正吸引我們的目標客戶，就必須提供豐富的選擇。這樣一來，你最終可能會發現，有些商品在單一門市的單品銷售上可能不如你預期。但這卻能讓我們創造出吸引顧客的動態。這正是我們2022年和2023年行銷策略的核心，它解釋了我們的差異化優勢——因為我們銷售的許多產品是其他公司不願意銷售的，原因就在於此。而這正是我們作為一個與眾不同的企業所擁有的巨大優勢之一。

So the question about does the assortment, we're always looking at our assort. You can see we've added thousands and thousands of items this year, which I think in the context of 2021 was a pretty big achievement by the merchandising team to be able to motivate the vendor base to get that amount of product into the system over that period of time.

所以關於商品種類的問題，我們一直在關注我們的商品種類。可以看到，我們今年新增了成千上萬種商品，我認為在2021年的大背景下，商品團隊能夠激勵供應商在如此短的時間內將如此多的產品納入系統，這確實是一項相當大的成就。

It doesn't -- and we have to develop our systems and our replenishment systems and our product flow work to make sure we're accommodating what the customer needs, not what maybe you would -- I would have done in a lot of other places. And that's been a real fascinating kind of exercise. And I think the customers appreciate us when we get the breadth of assortment in front of them to fulfill the kind of diet we need. The dilution from new stores and how that works, maybe Chip will pick that one up.

並非如此——我們必須改進我們的系統、補貨系統和產品流通流程，確保我們滿足顧客的需求，而不是像我在其他許多地方一樣。這真是一項非常有趣的實踐。我認為，當我們提供豐富的商品以滿足顧客的各種需求時，他們會很感激我們。至於新店帶來的商品稀釋以及這種稀釋是如何運作的，也許奇普會注意到這一點。

Yes. I think it's a great question. When you think about having to ramp up from 5% square footage to 10% square footage, there is -- until you get to that steady state, it is difficult to do that on a 0 to 2 comp and still manage your cost to get that high single or low double-digit growth in earnings. So there is that brief period. We just got to be really diligent as we go through that funnel, if you will. We have to be really diligent on the cost and make sure we are managing the costs not only of the new stores, but managing the cost of the corporation so we can get to that steady state place.

是的，我覺得這是一個很好的問題。想想看，要把門市面積從5%提升到10%，在達到穩定狀態之前，很難在0到2%的同店銷售額基礎上，既要控製成本，又要實現高個位數或低兩位數的盈利增長。所以，這段期間會有一個短暫的過渡期。在這個過程中，我們必須格外謹慎。我們必須嚴格控製成本，不僅要控制新店的成本，還要控制公司整體的成本，這樣才能最終達到穩定狀態。

The beauty is if we can get to a 2 to 4 comp in that period, then that helps the world a lot. So once again, we'll manage it. We'll get there. There might be that brief period when you're ramping from 4 to 5 to 10 that we just got to make our way through. And we'll manage through that.

妙處在於，如果我們能在那段時期內將產能提升到2到4，將對世界大有裨益。所以，我們一定能做到。我們一定能達成目標。或許在產能從4提升到5再到10的過程中，會有一段短暫的過渡期，我們需要克服這個難關。我們會撐過去的。

Our next question comes from Greg Badishkanian with Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Greg Badishkanian。

This is Spencer Hanus on for Greg. I just want to go back to the conversation on pricing. How are you guys thinking about the need to invest in prices consumers start to face impact from this rising inflation?

這裡是Spencer Hanus，替Greg發言。我想回到定價的話題。你們如何看待投資應對價格問題的必要性？消費者已經開始受到通貨膨脹的影響了。

And then when the supply chain eventually normalizes here, do you think the industry is going to remain as rational as it's been? Or do they start to deploy these trade dollars just more aggressively given they're going to be in a better in-stock position than they've been for the last 18-plus months?

那麼，當這裡的供應鏈最終恢復正常時，你認為這個行業還會像以前一樣保持理性嗎？還是會因為他們的庫存狀況比過去18個月多都要好，而開始更積極地利用這些貿易資金？

Yes. So with regard to supply chain normalization, I'm not sure when that's going to happen. But if and when it does, I can't see whatever happens with our kind of in the grocery conventional space is going to affect us too much because as I keep saying in these calls, we have a very different proposition. So the products that we sell -- and I'll talk about projects in a minute, which is the one that's directly comparable with everyone else.

是的。關於供應鏈正常化，我也不確定何時才能實現。但即便真的恢復正常，我認為我們所處的傳統食品雜貨領域發生的任何變化都不會對我們造成太大影響，因為正如我在電話會議中一直強調的，我們的產品定位非常獨特。我們銷售的產品——稍後我會談到一些項目——才是真正能與其他公司直接比較的產品。

The products that we sell are not kind of in line with anyone else or anyone else sells. So we've got to watch elasticity, and we are watching that carefully with inflation, as prices go up, what happens to the units in the past, what happens to the units are now what sells. And we've got to be very conscious of that. But that's not a margin investment conversation. That's how do we figure it out in terms of maximizing our volume and maximizing our sales on individual SKUs.

我們銷售的產品與其他任何公司或任何其他公司銷售的產品都不太一樣。因此，我們必須關注彈性，並且隨著通膨的加劇，我們會密切關注彈性。隨著價格上漲，過去暢銷的產品現在的銷售量會如何改變。我們必須對此保持高度警覺。但這並非利潤率投資的問題，而是我們如何最大限度地提高銷售量和單一SKU的銷售額的問題。

Produce is a slightly different scenario. And if -- we're in a place where we're trying to make sure that the differentiation that we have on price and produce built on a quality perception. Our quality perception on produce is up there. It is high -- it's way above most people and the data is very encouraging on that.

農產品的情況略有不同。我們目前的目標是確保價格差異化優勢建立在消費者對產品品質的認知上。我們對農產品品質的認知度很高，遠超多數人，而且數據也令人鼓舞。

In our markets where we're known, our prices are known. In markets where we're not known, although we've got a price advantage, we need to talk about that more effectively. So the context of the question, Spencer, is there going to be when we get supply chain normalization, is there going to be some kind of price activity across the marketplace. I doubt it. But if it did happen, I'm not thinking it's going to have a huge knock-on effect to us because our customers are very clear that they come to us for the stuff that we sell that they can't buy in other places.

在我們熟悉的市場，我們的價格是公開透明的。在不熟悉的市場，雖然我們擁有價格優勢，但我們需要更有效地宣傳這一點。所以，史賓塞，問題的關鍵在於，當供應鏈恢復正常時，市場價格是否會隨之波動？我對此表示懷疑。但即便真的發生了，我認為也不會對我們造成太大的連鎖反應，因為我們的客戶非常清楚，他們來我們這裡是為了購買其他地方買不到的商品。

And when it comes to produce, I think it's unlikely that people will use produce is a key driver to bring people into the store because their mix depends on produce being on a high margin, not at a low margin, if that makes some sense. But I would love some supply chain normalization. That would be great if we can get there.

至於生鮮產品，我認為不太可能有人會把生鮮產品作為吸引顧客進店的關鍵因素，因為他們的產品組合依賴於高利潤而非低利潤的生鮮產品，如果我這麼說你能理解的話。但我很希望供應鏈能夠恢復正常。如果能實現這一點，那就太好了。

Spencer, I would add to -- just like we said earlier on the messaging about we have -- we do have great value on produce every day and get to that. But we also have -- as Jack said, we have a lot of great products, very unique products. And part of our table stakes is to make sure that the world knows that we are unique. We are differentiated. We do have those unique products. And so it's not the same kind of battleground with the conventionals and the more and more we can do that, which our merchandising team is doing a great job of continuing to add great products continually, we have to let the consumer know how great they are. And we're doing that even through innovation centers in our stores or find this new product. You can walk in a lot of our stores today and we're going to launch those into virtually all of our stores by the end of this year.

史賓塞，我想補充一點——就像我們之前提到的，我們每天都提供物美價廉的農產品，這一點我們非常重視。但正如傑克所說，我們還有很多其他優質產品，非常獨特的產品。我們的基本要求之一就是讓全世界都知道我們的獨特性。我們與眾不同，我們擁有這些獨特的產品。因此，我們與傳統品牌之間的競爭並不相同。我們的商品團隊一直在努力不斷推出優質產品，做得非常出色，所以我們必須讓消費者了解這些產品的卓越之處。我們甚至透過門市的創新中心或「發現新產品」項目來實現這一點。您現在就可以走進我們許多門市，到今年年底，我們將把這些創新中心推廣到幾乎所有門市。

So we're driving the message that we are different and have different -- fill different needs for the consumer other than just the normal conventional.

因此，我們傳達的訊息是，我們與眾不同，我們滿足消費者除了常規需求之外的其他需求。

Got it. And then you mentioned the transactions turned positive in the quarter. Do you think that's a sign that the grocery basket is starting to resplit again here and maybe you guys will be added back into the rotation again? Or is it really just a function of marketing and just refining that message like you talked about?

明白了。然後您提到本季交易量轉正。您認為這是否預示著消費者的購物籃結構正在重新調整，你們的產品或許會重新回到他們的購物清單中？還是說這真的只是行銷策略和資訊優化（就像您剛才說的）的結果？

Actually, Spencer, I think it's a bit of both. I think there has been -- there's less worry about going into stores this time around when the Omicron variant hit the market than there was when the first wave happened. So I think there will be more people shopping in more places, which I think is good for us going forward. And I also believe that our digital marketing and our communication has helped us a little bit as well. So we'll be watching both of those dynamics over the course of the next few quarters.

實際上，斯賓塞，我認為兩者兼而有之。我覺得這次奧密克戎疫苗上市後，人們對去實體店購物的擔憂比第一波疫情爆發時還要少。所以我認為會有更多人去更多地方購物，這對我們未來的發展有利。同時，我也相信我們的數位行銷和溝通也起到了一定的作用。因此，在接下來的幾個季度裡，我們會密切關注這兩種趨勢的發展。

I would now like to turn the call back over to Jack Sinclair for closing remarks.

現在我謹將電話交還給傑克·辛克萊，請他作總結發言。

Well, in a very volatile world, we appreciate you taking the time to listen to our call today. We really appreciate the interest in our company, and we're excited about what this company can do going forward. And I appreciate your support. So thanks ever so much to everybody and take care.

在這個瞬息萬變的世界裡，我們非常感謝您今天抽出時間收聽我們的電話會議。我們衷心感謝大家對我們公司的關注，也對公司未來的發展充滿信心。感謝您的支持。再次感謝大家，祝您一切順利。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您可以斷開連線了。