Superior Group of Companies Inc (SGC) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Superior Group of Companies Fourth Quarter 2022 Conference Call. With us today are Michael Benstock, the company's Chief Executive Officer; and Mike Koempel, the Chief Financial Officer.

大家下午好，歡迎來到 Superior Group of Companies 2022 年第四季度電話會議。今天和我們在一起的有公司首席執行官邁克爾·本斯托克 (Michael Benstock)；和首席財務官 Mike Koempel。

As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. This call may contain forward-looking statements regarding the company's plans, initiatives and strategies and the anticipated financial performance of the company, including, but not limited to, sales and revenue. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations, projections, estimates and assumptions. Words such as will, expect, believe, anticipate, think, outlook, hope and variations of such words and similar expressions identify such forward looking statements.

提醒一下，正在錄製此電話會議。本次電話會議可能包含有關公司計劃、舉措和戰略以及公司預期財務業績（包括但不限於銷售額和收入）的前瞻性陳述。此類陳述基於管理層當前的預期、預測、估計和假設。諸如 will、expect、believe、expected、think、outlook、hope 等詞語以及此類詞語和類似表達的變體可識別此類前瞻性陳述。

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties are further disclosed in the company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, the company's annual report on Form 10-K, and the quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.

前瞻性陳述涉及已知和未知的風險和不確定性，這些風險和不確定性可能導致未來結果與前瞻性陳述所暗示的結果存在重大差異。此類風險和不確定性在公司定期向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中進一步披露，包括但不限於公司的 10-K 表格年度報告和 10-Q 表格季度報告。

Shareholders, potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements made herein and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The company does not undertake to update the forward-looking statements contained herein except as required by law.

敦促股東、潛在投資者和其他讀者在評估此處所作的前瞻性陳述時仔細考慮這些因素，並告誡不要過分依賴此類前瞻性陳述。除非法律要求，否則公司不承諾更新此處包含的前瞻性陳述。

And with that, I will turn the floor over to Mr. Benstock. Please go ahead.

然後，我將把發言權交給本斯托克先生。請繼續。

Thank you for the introduction, and welcome, everyone, to our 2022 earnings call. I'll begin today by sharing the highlights of our Q4 results. I'll then discuss the performance for each of our 3 business segments, providing an update on the macro environment and our strategy to grow the business moving forward. After that, I'll turn it over to Mike to walk us through the financial results in greater detail and to provide our outlook for 2023. Mike and I will then be available for Q&A.

感謝您的介紹，歡迎大家參加我們的 2022 年財報電話會議。今天，我將首先分享我們第四季度業績的亮點。然後，我將討論我們 3 個業務部門中每個業務部門的績效，提供宏觀環境的最新情況以及我們推動業務發展的戰略。之後，我將把它交給邁克，讓我們更詳細地了解財務結果，並提供我們對 2023 年的展望。然後我和邁克將可以進行問答。

We finished 2022 with continued top line growth in the fourth quarter. Consolidated revenues were $149 million, up 5% over the prior year quarter, driven by growth in both our Branded Products and Contact Center Segments. As a result, we achieved full year sales of $579 million in 2022, which was near the top end of our annual guidance range.

2022 年第四季度營收持續增長。綜合收入為 1.49 億美元，比去年同期增長 5%，這主要得益於我們的品牌產品和聯絡中心部門的增長。因此，我們在 2022 年實現了 5.79 億美元的全年銷售額，接近我們年度指導範圍的上限。

Our consolidated fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was $3 million, down from $8 million in the fourth quarter last year, primarily due to an incremental inventory write-down of $6 million in our Health Care Apparel segment. Let's take a closer look now at our quarterly results by segment, beginning with Health Care Apparel.

我們合併後的第四季度調整後 EBITDA 為 300 萬美元，低於去年第四季度的 800 萬美元，這主要是由於我們的醫療保健服裝部門增加了 600 萬美元的庫存減記。現在讓我們按細分市場仔細查看我們的季度業績，首先是醫療保健服裝。

Revenues came in at $26 million relative to $31 million the prior year quarter, reflective of the ongoing soft conditions of the broader health care market. Health Care Apparel EBITDA declined by $8 million compared to prior year quarter, primarily due to the aforementioned inventory write-down.

收入為 2600 萬美元，而上一季度為 3100 萬美元，反映了更廣泛的醫療保健市場持續疲軟的狀況。與去年同期相比，醫療保健服裝業務的 EBITDA 下降了 800 萬美元，這主要是由於上述庫存減記。

Based on our lower purchasing levels implemented in mid-'22 and adjustments to our inventory valuation, we expect to see better inventory equilibrium by the end of the year. Looking ahead, our strategy involves capturing new customers in new markets, primarily through an emphasis and increased emphasis, I should say, on digital growth, including the launch of our own direct-to-consumer website during the second quarter.

根據我們在 22 世紀中期實施的較低採購水平和對庫存估值的調整，我們預計到今年年底將看到更好的庫存平衡。展望未來，我們的戰略涉及在新市場中吸引新客戶，主要是通過強調和更加強調數字增長，包括在第二季度推出我們自己的直接面向消費者的網站。

While we recognize that it will take time and investment to build consumer awareness and demand, the expansion of digital within our omnichannel approach will enable us to grow our health care apparel business overall, with leaner inventories and a revitalized customer-facing business strategy, including an emphasis on digital growth, we're confident in the strong growth prospects for health care apparel and our own ability to capture market share and improve profitability over time.

雖然我們認識到建立消費者意識和需求需要時間和投資，但在我們的全渠道方法中數字化的擴展將使我們能夠通過精簡庫存和重振面向客戶的業務戰略，全面發展我們的保健服裝業務，包括由於強調數字化增長，我們對醫療保健服裝的強勁增長前景以及我們自己奪取市場份額並隨著時間的推移提高盈利能力的能力充滿信心。

We provide the widest range of products in the market with more than 2 million essential caregivers wearing our highly recognizable brands every day. Branded Products, our largest segment, generated revenues of $102 million during the fourth quarter, which was up 7% year-over-year benefiting from a full quarter's contribution from the Sutter's Mill acquisition made during the fourth quarter of 2021 as well as the Guardian acquisition that was completed in May of 2022.

我們提供市場上最廣泛的產品，每天有超過 200 萬基本護理人員穿著我們知名度很高的品牌。品牌產品是我們最大的部門，第四季度的收入為 1.02 億美元，同比增長 7%，這得益於 2021 年第四季度對 Sutter's Mill 的收購以及衛報對整個季度的貢獻收購於 2022 年 5 月完成。

Organic demand declined mid-single digits due in part to subdued demand in the current uncertain economic environment. Fourth quarter EBITDA was $11 million, up from $6 million last year, driven by higher sales, improved gross margin rates and lapping a PPE inventory write-down last year, partially offset by an increase in SG&A from investments in talent and technology to support future growth.

有機需求下降了中個位數，部分原因是當前不確定的經濟環境下需求低迷。第四季度 EBITDA 為 1,100 萬美元，高於去年的 600 萬美元，這是由於銷售額增加、毛利率提高以及去年 PPE 庫存減記，部分被支持未來的人才和技術投資增加的 SG&A 所抵消生長。

Branded Products is an attractive market, highly fragmented with a total addressable size of $26 billion domestically. Our compelling strategy is to continue to grow our very modest market share of less than 2% by offering unique customized and high-quality products.

品牌產品是一個極具吸引力的市場，高度分散，國內總可尋址規模為 260 億美元。我們引人注目的戰略是通過提供獨特的定制和高質量產品，繼續擴大我們不到 2% 的非常適度的市場份額。

Our Contact Center segment had another strong quarter with revenues of $21 million, up 22% over the fourth quarter of 2021. Fourth quarter EBITDA of $4 million was flat to last year as investments in SG&A related to talent, technology and infrastructure to support future growth offset increase in sales and gross margin.

我們的聯絡中心部門又迎來了一個強勁的季度，收入為 2100 萬美元，比 2021 年第四季度增長 22%。第四季度的 EBITDA 為 400 萬美元，與去年持平，這是因為對與人才、技術和基礎設施相關的 SG&A 投資以支持未來增長抵消了銷售額和毛利率的增長。

On a full year basis, Contact Centers finished 2022 with strong annual top line growth of 31%, achieving our highest EBITDA margin with an SGC of 22%. With our investments in infrastructure, combined with a strong pipeline of prospective customers, we continue to see contact centers as an exciting and profitable growth business going forward.

從全年來看，聯絡中心在 2022 年結束時實現了 31% 的強勁年度收入增長，實現了我們最高的 EBITDA 利潤率，SGC 為 22%。憑藉我們對基礎設施的投資，以及強大的潛在客戶渠道，我們繼續將聯絡中心視為一項令人興奮且有利可圖的增長業務。

I'll now turn the call over to Mike to take us through our financial results and outlook for 2023. Mike?

我現在將電話轉給邁克，讓我們了解 2023 年的財務業績和展望。邁克？

Thank you, Michael, and thanks, everyone, for joining the call. I'll start by walking through our financial results, and then I'll turn to our initial full year outlook. During the fourth quarter, SGC generated consolidated revenues of $149 million, up 5% from $142 million the prior year quarter. Our gross margin was 30.2% for the quarter, down 80 basis points year-over-year due to the $6 million incremental inventory write-down for Health Care Apparel. Excluding the incremental charge, our gross margin would have been 34%.

謝謝邁克爾，也感謝大家加入電話會議。我將首先介紹我們的財務業績，然後再談談我們最初的全年展望。第四季度，SGC 產生了 1.49 億美元的綜合收入，比去年同期的 1.42 億美元增長了 5%。我們本季度的毛利率為 30.2%，同比下降 80 個基點，原因是醫療保健服裝的 600 萬美元增量庫存減記。不包括增量費用，我們的毛利率為 34%。

SG&A expense was 29.8% of sales, which sequentially improved from 32% in the third quarter but was higher than the fourth quarter of 2021 at 26.7%. The improved expense trend from third quarter benefited from an adjustment to employee expense accruals as well as improved leverage on higher sales and the benefit of cost reductions. The year-over-year increase as a percent of sales was due to continued de leverage from the decline in Health Care Apparel sales as well as our continued investments in talent and infrastructure, especially within Branded Products and Contact Centers to capitalize on compelling future growth opportunities.

SG&A 費用佔銷售額的 29.8%，較第三季度的 32% 有所改善，但高於 2021 年第四季度的 26.7%。第三季度費用趨勢的改善得益於對員工費用應計費用的調整，以及提高銷售額和降低成本的好處。銷售額佔銷售額的百分比同比增長是由於醫療保健服裝銷售額下降導致槓桿率持續下降，以及我們對人才和基礎設施的持續投資，尤其是在品牌產品和聯絡中心內，以利用引人注目的未來增長機會。

Our fourth quarter interest expense was $2.2 million as compared to $295,000 in the fourth quarter of last year, driven by a combination of higher interest rates and a higher average debt balance outstanding during the quarter. Net income for the quarter was $2 million or $0.14 per diluted share as compared to net income of $4 million or $0.27 per diluted share in the year ago quarter.

我們第四季度的利息支出為 220 萬美元，而去年第四季度為 295,000 美元，這是受本季度較高的利率和較高的平均未償債務餘額共同推動。本季度淨收入為 200 萬美元或攤薄後每股收益 0.14 美元，而去年同期的淨收入為 400 萬美元或攤薄後每股收益 0.27 美元。

During the fourth quarter, the company sold its corporate office building for $5 million in cash proceeds, resulting in a pretax non operating gain of $3 million. Excluding the gain in the prior year fourth quarter's pension termination charge, the fourth quarter 2022 net loss was $1 million or a $0.06 loss per share compared to net income of $5 million or $0.31 per diluted share in the prior year period. The decrease in adjusted results was primarily driven by the incremental inventory write-down and increased interest expense.

第四季度，該公司以 500 萬美元的現金收益出售了公司辦公樓，從而產生了 300 萬美元的稅前非經營收益。不包括上一年第四季度退休金終止費用的收益，2022 年第四季度淨虧損為 100 萬美元或每股虧損 0.06 美元，而去年同期的淨收入為 500 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.31 美元。調整後業績的下降主要是由於庫存減記增量和利息支出增加所致。

Turning to the balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2022, increased to $18 million from $9 million last year due in part to the sale of our corporate office near year-end. In terms of our debt position, our net leverage ratio of 3.85x our covenant EBITDA remains elevated. Based on the fourth quarter inventory charge and the calendarization of our 2023 forecast, it is more likely than not that we will exceed our net leverage covenant ratio of 4x covenant EBITDA.

轉到資產負債表，截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，現金和現金等價物從去年的 900 萬美元增加到 1800 萬美元，部分原因是我們在年底前出售了公司辦公室。就我們的債務狀況而言，我們的淨槓桿率為契約 EBITDA 的 3.85 倍，仍然處於較高水平。根據第四季度的庫存費用和我們 2023 年預測的日曆化，我們很可能會超過 4 倍契約 EBITDA 的淨槓桿契約比率。

As a result, we have initiated discussions with the lending agent on ways to address a potential amendment should it be needed in order to maintain compliance throughout the year. We will continue to focus on cash flow enhancement by improving our working capital position, particularly by optimizing our inventory levels within our Health Care Apparel segment as well as scrutinizing our operating expenses and capital expenditures.

因此，我們已開始與貸款代理人討論如何在需要時解決潛在的修正案，以保持全年的合規性。我們將繼續專注於通過改善營運資金狀況來增強現金流，特別是通過優化我們的醫療保健服裝部門的庫存水平以及審查我們的運營費用和資本支出。

I'll conclude my prepared remarks with our initial financial outlook for 2023. Overall, we expect current slow economic conditions to persist and are cautiously optimistic that business conditions will gradually improve throughout the year. With that in mind, we are forecasting full year 2023 sales to be between 585 and $595 million versus 2022 sales of $579 million and earnings per diluted share between $0.92 and $0.97 compared to adjusted earnings per diluted share of $0.62 in 2022, which reflected significant inventory write-downs.

我將以我們對 2023 年的初步財務展望來結束我準備好的發言。總體而言，我們預計當前緩慢的經濟狀況將持續下去，並對全年商業狀況將逐漸改善持謹慎樂觀態度。考慮到這一點，我們預測 2023 年全年銷售額將在 585 至 5.95 億美元之間，而 2022 年銷售額為 5.79 億美元，攤薄後每股收益在 0.92 美元至 0.97 美元之間，而 2022 年調整後的攤薄後每股收益為 0.62 美元，這反映出大量庫存減記。

At the segment level, our 2023 forecast assumes that health care apparel sales will be up low single digits versus last year and will gradually improve throughout the year as inventory levels and customer demand return to normalized levels.

在細分市場層面，我們的 2023 年預測假設保健服裝銷售額將比去年低個位數增長，並且隨著庫存水平和客戶需求恢復到正常水平，全年將逐漸改善。

For Branded Products, we estimate segment sales to be flat to down low single digits as we expect the continuation of the challenging market conditions from the fourth quarter of 2022 into the first half of the year with meaningful growth in the back half of 2023.

對於品牌產品，我們預計細分市場銷售額將持平至低個位數，因為我們預計從 2022 年第四季度到今年上半年，充滿挑戰的市場狀況將持續下去，並在 2023 年下半年實現有意義的增長。

Lastly, we expect the Contact Center Segment to continue to grow well into double digits, consistent with the fourth quarter performance reported today. Given these expectations for our 3 business segments, we expect our 2023 results to be relatively back-end loaded as underlying market conditions gradually returned towards equilibrium.

最後，我們預計聯絡中心部門將繼續以兩位數的速度增長，與今天報告的第四季度業績一致。鑑於對我們 3 個業務部門的這些預期，我們預計隨著基礎市場條件逐漸恢復平衡，我們 2023 年的業績將相對落後。

We are confident in our ability to execute on our strategic plan to capitalize on multiple growth opportunities and enhance long-term shareholder value. That concludes our prepared remarks. And operator, if you could please open the lines, we would be happy to take questions.

我們相信我們有能力執行我們的戰略計劃，以利用多種增長機會並提高長期股東價值。我們準備好的發言到此結束。接線員，如果你能打開線路，我們很樂意回答問題。

(Operator Instructions) And the first question will come from Kevin Steinke with Barrington Research.

（操作員說明）第一個問題將來自 Barrington Research 的 Kevin Steinke。

I wanted to start off by asking about the outlook for 2023. You mentioned that you expect lower economic conditions to persist, but at the same time, you expressed some optimism that business conditions to gradually improve throughout the year for Health Care Apparel and that momentum will build in Branded Products leading to significant growth in the second half of the year. So, I'm just -- if you could discuss more kind of a line of sight to that improvement throughout the year, or what would you think will drive that improvement? Are you seeing a clearing up of inventory in health care or building pipeline and Branded Products? I guess any color you can offer on that overall outlook for 2023 would be helpful.

我想首先詢問 2023 年的前景。您提到您預計較低的經濟狀況將持續存在，但與此同時，您對醫療保健服裝的業務狀況將在全年逐步改善以及這種勢頭表示樂觀將建立品牌產品，從而在下半年實現顯著增長。所以，我只是 - 如果你可以討論更多關於全年改進的視線，或者你認為什麼會推動這種改進？您是否看到醫療保健或建立管道和品牌產品的庫存清理？我想你能提供的關於 2023 年總體前景的任何顏色都會有所幫助。

Sure. Thanks, Kevin. A thoughtful question. Unfortunately, the answer is going to be a little bit longer because of the 3 segments.

當然。謝謝，凱文。一個深思熟慮的問題。不幸的是，由於有 3 個部分，答案會稍長一些。

So, it's a little different in each of our businesses. Branded Products has been affected mostly by people holding back on buying marketing budgets being curtailed or being put on pause, mostly we have a lot of clients in the tech space and [gig economy] that have experienced some mass layoffs and not spending a lot of money. But as the year goes on, and I'll say this about each of our [tech] businesses, as the economy improves, which is expected later on in the year, certainly in the second half, we expect to benefit from that improvement as well as there will be pent-up demand. You can only hold back so long before you have to buy uniforms for employees and before you have to start gifting your employees and looking at how you can create brand allegiance among your customers.

所以，我們每個業務都有點不同。品牌產品主要受到人們拒絕購買營銷預算被削減或暫停的影響，主要是我們在技術領域和 [gig economy] 有很多客戶經歷了一些大規模裁員並且沒有花費很多錢。但隨著時間的推移，我將對我們的每個 [科技] 業務都這樣說，隨著經濟的改善，預計將在今年晚些時候，當然是在下半年，我們預計將從這種改善中受益，因為以及將有被壓抑的需求。在必須為員工購買制服、開始向員工贈送禮物以及研究如何在客戶中建立品牌忠誠度之前，您只能猶豫很久。

And people have held back now for some time. We can't control the macro environment. Obviously, we all read the diverse opinions about what to expect in 2023 and certainly, the most -- the latest banking crisis. Who knows how that might impact things in the future. Now when you get to our call center business, we certainly feel strongly that we'll have continued growth throughout the year. The demand is very strong. It's not weakening because of the current economic conditions, in fact, it's strengthening and typically in a recession and specially recession where it's so hard to hire in the United States right now, which is at entry-level positions, which is kind of a unique situation, we're seeing a demand like we haven't seen before.

人們現在已經退縮了一段時間。我們無法控制宏觀環境。顯然，我們都閱讀了關於 2023 年預期結果的不同意見，當然，最重要的是 - 最近的銀行業危機。誰知道這會如何影響未來的事情。現在當你談到我們的呼叫中心業務時，我們當然強烈地感到我們將在全年持續增長。需求非常強烈。它並沒有因為當前的經濟狀況而減弱，事實上，它正在增強，而且通常處於經濟衰退時期，特別是經濟衰退時期，現在在美國很難招聘入門級職位，這是一種獨特的在這種情況下，我們看到了前所未有的需求。

Health Care Apparel, it's all a question of timing of when we're able to completely right size our inventories, move past [with] what we're sitting with, still in inventory turning a lot of that to cash and being able to present a lot of newness. Keep in mind that third and fourth quarter will be slightly impacted by our -- favorably by our direct-to-consumer launch that we spoke about as well as our continued omnichannel approach in those businesses. But we can control only what we can control. Our view of things is it's going to be a tough year, but it's going to be better in the second half of the year than it will be in the first half.

醫療保健服裝，這完全是一個時間問題，我們何時能夠完全調整我們的庫存規模，超越我們現在坐著的東西，仍然在庫存中，將其中的很多變成現金並能夠展示很多新鮮事。請記住，第三和第四季度將受到我們談到的直接面向消費者的發布以及我們在這些業務中持續的全渠道方法的影響。但我們只能控制我們能控制的東西。我們的看法是，這將是艱難的一年，但下半年會比上半年好。

All right. Thanks for the insight there. And also following up just on the outlook for 2023, I don't know if you can maybe talk about assumptions you have baked in for operating margins and interest expenses. Do you think you could get some margin expansion based on some of the cost savings actions you've taken? How meaningful of a (inaudible) do you expect interest expense to be, I guess?

好的。感謝那裡的洞察力。還要跟進 2023 年的前景，我不知道你是否可以談談你對營業利潤率和利息支出的假設。您是否認為您可以根據您採取的一些成本節約措施來擴大利潤率？我猜你期望利息支出有多大意義（聽不清）？

Kevin, this is Mike. I'd be happy to answer your questions. From a margin perspective, as we've disclosed for this quarter and in prior quarters, obviously, we have taken significant inventory write-downs this year in the aggregate, over $13 million in 2022. We do not anticipate lapping those types of charges in 2023. So, we certainly do expect the margin rate to improve, particularly within our health care business.

凱文，這是邁克。我很樂意回答你的問題。從利潤率的角度來看，正如我們在本季度和前幾個季度所披露的那樣，顯然，我們今年總共進行了大量的庫存減記，到 2022 年將超過 1300 萬美元。我們預計不會將這些類型的費用計入2023 年。因此，我們確實預計利潤率會提高，尤其是在我們的醫療保健業務中。

In addition to that, we are seeing some easing of what we refer to as supply chain costs, which we certainly increased significantly through the pandemic. That cost has started to come down, not necessarily to pre-pandemic levels, but it has come down. And as we sell through our inventory with those higher rates, we'll begin to see the benefits of some of that lower cost in our inventory, again, more so in the back half of this year.

除此之外，我們看到我們所說的供應鏈成本有所下降，而在大流行期間我們肯定會顯著增加供應鏈成本。該成本已經開始下降，不一定下降到大流行前的水平，但它已經下降了。當我們以更高的利率銷售我們的庫存時，我們將開始看到庫存中一些較低成本的好處，今年下半年更是如此。

So, I think we see, again, margin rate improving primarily in that business. And from an interest standpoint, you can see already partially in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter, a significant increase in interest expense we anticipate that continuing. So, in our modeling, we are expecting interest expense to still remain up significantly over 2022, again, expecting that rates will continue to be high. And while we will focus on bringing our debt down as quickly as possible, based upon our average debt balances outstanding, we would expect that expense to still be up fairly significantly to 2022.

因此，我認為我們再次看到利潤率主要在該業務中有所提高。從利息的角度來看，你可以在第三季度和第四季度看到部分利息支出顯著增加，我們預計這種情況會持續下去。因此，在我們的模型中，我們預計利息支出在 2022 年仍將大幅上升，再次預計利率將繼續居高不下。雖然我們將專注於盡快降低債務，但根據我們的平均未償債務餘額，我們預計到 2022 年該支出仍將大幅上升。

Okay. And then lastly, Mike, you mentioned potentially having to amend the credit agreement, the leverage ratio embedded in there. Just what sort of line of sight do you have to potentially having to amend that or confidence in being able to do that if you need to?

好的。最後，邁克，你提到可能必須修改信貸協議，其中嵌入了槓桿率。如果需要，您有什麼樣的視線可能需要修改或有信心能夠做到這一點？

Sure. As I mentioned in the script, when you look at the combination of our fourth quarter charge and again, the calendarization of our 2023 forecast, we view this really as creating short-term compression from a covenant perspective. And so that's why we took the obviously, the proactive approach of reaching out to our lending agent. With that said, Kevin, obviously, I can't speak for the lending group, but we're certainly looking forward to working with them on a mutually beneficial outcome over the coming weeks.

當然。正如我在腳本中提到的那樣，當您查看我們第四季度費用的組合以及我們 2023 年預測的日曆化時，我們認為這實際上是從契約的角度創造了短期壓縮。因此，這就是為什麼我們採取明顯、主動的方式聯繫我們的貸款代理人。話雖如此，凱文，顯然，我不能代表貸款小組發言，但我們當然期待在未來幾週內與他們合作，取得互利的結果。

Okay. Thanks. I'll turn it over and get back in the queue.

好的。謝謝。我會把它翻過來，然後回到隊列中。

The next question will come from Tim Moore with EF Hutton.

下一個問題將來自 Tim Moore 和 EF Hutton。

And thanks for providing sales and EPS guidance for this year. It's definitely nice to see the SG&A operating leverage in the December quarter. So, I just -- I had my own sales guidance question scenario similar to what was just asked.

並感謝您提供今年的銷售和 EPS 指導。很高興看到 12 月季度的 SG&A 運營槓桿。所以，我只是 - 我有自己的銷售指導問題場景，類似於剛才的問題。

If I look at the sales guidance range, it seems to be a 1% to 3% increase despite having about $7 million possibly of sales from the first 4 months of this year from the Guardian acquisition before that last anniversary on May 1. So, when I kind of backed into math, it looks like about 1.6% organic sales growth for this year when you factor in Guardian. Do you think that could be a little bit too conservative in light of maybe some pricing power and probably the likely natural rebound in health care in the second half of this year? And if Michael doesn't mind speaking a little bit more towards maybe what type of scenario could maybe trigger upside beyond that top end $595 million guidance because I'm wondering if it's really the swing factor would you say the biggest swing factor might be in the branded side in BAMKO?

如果我看一下銷售指導範圍，儘管在 5 月 1 日最後一個週年紀念日之前收購 Guardian 今年前 4 個月的銷售額可能約為 700 萬美元，但它似乎增長了 1% 到 3%。所以，當我有點回到數學時，如果考慮到 Guardian，今年的有機銷售額增長似乎約為 1.6%。考慮到某些定價權以及今年下半年醫療保健可能出現的自然反彈，您是否認為這可能有點過於保守？如果邁克爾不介意多說一點，也許什麼類型的情況可能會引發超過 5.95 億美元指導的上行，因為我想知道這是否真的是搖擺因素，你會說最大的搖擺因素可能在BAMKO 的品牌面？

Hi Tim, this is Michael. I'll start and then Michael can add. We certainly hope it's conservative, as you're calling out. There is, as we said in our prepared remarks, we're cautiously optimistic about the year. But as Michael mentioned before, there's varying points of view on the economic outlook. And so, we're -- obviously, we believe that our range is realistic. We are certainly, as a management team, going to work very hard to exceed that range. But we believe it's a realistic range as we look ahead for the year.

嗨，蒂姆，我是邁克爾。我先開始，然後 Michael 可以補充。正如您所說，我們當然希望它是保守的。正如我們在準備好的發言中所說，我們對今年持謹慎樂觀態度。但正如邁克爾之前提到的，對經濟前景存在不同的觀點。因此，我們 - 顯然，我們相信我們的範圍是現實的。作為一個管理團隊，我們當然會非常努力地超越這個範圍。但我們相信這是一個現實的範圍，因為我們展望今年。

As you called out, we've taken a number of price increases, which started earlier in 2022, and that is factored in. And we are factoring into our thinking that the health care apparel business will have a rebound. As we mentioned, there's -- we expect some softness to continue in the Branded Products segment here in the first half of the year with that rebounding in the back half. But again, I think overall, we feel that it's a realistic range based on what we know today. And again, as a team, we will be working very diligently to exceed that. I will pass it over to Michael.

正如您所說，我們已經考慮了 2022 年初開始的一些價格上漲，並且已經考慮在內。我們認為醫療保健服裝業務將出現反彈。正如我們所提到的，我們預計今年上半年品牌產品領域將繼續走軟，並在下半年出現反彈。但我再次認為，總的來說，我們認為這是一個基於我們今天所知道的現實範圍。再一次，作為一個團隊，我們將非常努力地工作以超越這一目標。我會把它交給邁克爾。

Yes. Let me think about each of the segments. So, what could create more upside to that? I'll give some color to that portion of the question. BAMKO, as we've said on previous calls, is accelerating their efforts with respect to recruiting sales representatives. So far, I can tell you this year, they've been very successful through the first 2 months, exceeding the number of reps that they've been able to recruit in any 2-month period in the past. So, if they can continue at the rate they are, that could possibly help our branded products revenue in the second half of the year beyond even our projections.

是的。讓我考慮一下每個細分市場。那麼，什麼可以創造更多的好處呢？我會給問題的那部分一些顏色。正如我們在之前的電話會議上所說，BAMKO 正在加快招聘銷售代表的步伐。到目前為止，今年我可以告訴你，他們在前 2 個月非常成功，超過了過去任何 2 個月期間他們能夠招募的銷售代表數量。因此，如果他們能夠繼續保持目前的速度，那可能會幫助我們的品牌產品在今年下半年的收入甚至超過我們的預期。

TOG, we -- which is our contact centers, we have employed some new sales strategies and some new sales talent that's up to speed now. And we believe that those strategies, which should they be more successful than we even have projected conservatively that, that could help us.

TOG，我們 - 這是我們的聯絡中心，我們採用了一些新的銷售策略和一些現在正在加速的新銷售人才。我們相信這些策略，如果它們比我們保守地預測的更成功，那可以幫助我們。

And then, of course, on the Health Care Apparel side, we're launching B2C. And we're being cautiously optimistic with respect to our level of success. But we realize there's a ton of market share there to be taken. We have put together, I think the dream team with respect to people who can execute on a D2C strategy, both from a branding side and the digital side consumer-facing side from the President (inaudible) in that organization. And they could be wildly more successful than we projected. But we wanted to give a realistic guidance based on more of the current economic conditions than what we might be wildly successful at in the future.

然後，當然，在醫療保健服裝方面，我們推出了 B2C。我們對我們的成功水平持謹慎樂觀的態度。但我們意識到那裡有大量的市場份額有待奪取。我們已經組建了夢之隊，我認為可以執行 D2C 戰略的人，無論是從品牌方面還是從該組織的總裁（聽不清）面向消費者的數字方面。他們可能比我們預期的要成功得多。但我們希望根據更多當前的經濟狀況而不是我們未來可能取得的巨大成功來提供現實的指導。

That was very helpful color on the scenarios and thanks for adding those details on the sales reps at BAMKO and the B2C launch and health care. For the contact centers, the [office careers], how is the call center in the Dominican Republic been ramping up since it opened in October?

這是對場景非常有用的顏色，感謝您在 BAMKO 的銷售代表以及 B2C 發布和醫療保健中添加這些詳細信息。對於聯絡中心，[辦公室職業]，多米尼加共和國的呼叫中心自 10 月開業以來發展情況如何？

Good question. That's a beta site for us as every new call center is especially when it's in a new country. It has yet to prove that what it can do for us. It's too early in the process really for us to fully understand whether it's going to be as successful as we've been in Belize and El Salvador and Jamaica. We have plenty of capacity within all of our centers because a great deal of our people are still working from home, and our customers -- most of our customers don't mind them continuing to work from home. So, there's less pressure on us to push the Dominican sooner than it needs to be pushed.

好問題。這對我們來說是一個測試版網站，因為每個新的呼叫中心都是在新的國家/地區建立的。它尚未證明它可以為我們做什麼。對於我們來說，要完全了解它是否會像我們在伯利茲、薩爾瓦多和牙買加那樣成功，現在還為時過早。我們所有的中心都有足夠的容量，因為我們的很多人仍然在家工作，而我們的客戶——我們的大多數客戶不介意他們繼續在家工作。因此，我們需要推動多米尼加人的壓力比需要推動的壓力要小。

Right now, we're controlling our costs there. We're doing a very slow ramp-up to make sure that it is what we want it to be. So, I'd say we are operational in our building. I don't know the exact number. I believe it's less than 30 people right now and doing a multitude of tasks for a multitude of customers. But give me about 6 more months, and I'll be able to answer that question more definitively.

現在，我們正在控制那裡的成本。我們正在做一個非常緩慢的提升，以確保它是我們想要的。所以，我想說我們在我們的大樓裡運作。我不知道確切的數字。我相信它現在不到 30 人，為大量客戶執行大量任務。但是再給我大約 6 個月的時間，我就能更明確地回答這個問題。

Sure. No, that makes sense. It's great prospects there, and it looks really good, probably a year or 2 out on revenues. My next question is about have you seen for BAMKO has the order size stabilized recently year-to-date? Or are you seeing maybe not stabilize because the technology customers are pulling back, but you're seeing possibly share of wallet gains, share of wallet at your existing clients at BAMKO?

當然。不，這是有道理的。那裡的前景很好，而且看起來真的很好，可能一兩年就會有收入。我的下一個問題是，您是否看到 BAMKO 的訂單量最近穩定了？或者您是否看到可能因為技術客戶撤回而不穩定，但您可能看到錢包收益份額，您在 BAMKO 現有客戶的錢包份額？

We're not -- what I can tell you is we're not losing any customers, but a lot of our customers have pulled back on how much they are ordering. And it's a correct conclusion that if they have fewer employees and they're buying employee gifting or whatever they're buying less. So, our order size has come down. On the other side of that, when you get into these periods of time and uncertainty, you see a lot more RFP activity than you normally would see because everybody is doing their price checking out in the marketplace. So, we are responding to a great deal of RFPs right now. We have a big team who was just on RFPs and the success of a few of them, a few wins there could make a very big difference in our year.

我們不是——我可以告訴你的是，我們沒有失去任何客戶，但我們的很多客戶已經減少了他們的訂購量。這是一個正確的結論，如果他們的員工較少並且他們正在購買員工禮物或他們購買的任何東西。因此，我們的訂單量減少了。另一方面，當您進入這些時間段和不確定性時，您會看到比平時更多的 RFP 活動，因為每個人都在市場上進行價格檢查。因此，我們現在正在響應大量的 RFP。我們有一個大團隊，他們只是在徵求建議書上，他們中的一些人取得了成功，那裡的幾場胜利可能會對我們這一年產生很大的影響。

That makes sense. Thanks for that color. And I actually have a question for Mike. How much, like, do you think you estimate the excess or buffer inventory might be? I'm trying to wrap my head around or maybe triangulate your free cash flow potential for this year, and it seems like you'd have a good tailwind for working capital to get those inventory levels more normalized by June. Have you ever kind of calculated a number on that -- I think more normalized?

這就說得通了。謝謝你的顏色。我實際上有一個問題要問邁克。例如，您認為您估計過剩或緩衝庫存可能是多少？我正在努力思考或者可能對你今年的自由現金流潛力進行三角測量，而且你似乎有一個很好的營運資金順風，可以在 6 月之前使這些庫存水平更加正常化。你有沒有計算過一個數字——我認為更規範化？

I'm sorry, Tim, from an inventory perspective, and we, I think, mentioned this in the prior call, it's going to take us the better part of 2023 to really get inventories down to a level to our targeted levels. And obviously, when you take into account bringing inventories down because of the elevated levels we've had, but at the same time, fueling some of the growth of the business, we would be targeting inventories by the end of the year to be down about mid-single digits. Again, that would be a combination of bringing health care down, but then also fueling some of the growth in the business that we're seeing across the other segments.

對不起，蒂姆，從庫存的角度來看，我認為我們在之前的電話會議中提到了這一點，我們將在 2023 年的大部分時間裡真正將庫存降低到我們的目標水平。很明顯，當你考慮到由於我們的水平升高而降低庫存，但與此同時，推動業務的一些增長時，我們將在年底前將庫存目標定為下降大約中個位數。同樣，這將是降低醫療保健的組合，但也會推動我們在其他領域看到的業務增長。

So certainly, bringing the inventory down will help drive an improvement in free cash flow and working capital, which has been our focus. We feel, as Michael mentioned in his prepared remarks, with the reserves that we've taken and reducing some of the pricing, we can achieve that target, and that's our goal for the year.

因此，當然，降低庫存將有助於推動自由現金流和營運資金的改善，這一直是我們關注的重點。正如邁克爾在準備好的發言中提到的那樣，我們認為，憑藉我們所採取的儲備並降低一些定價，我們可以實現這一目標，這就是我們今年的目標。

That makes sense. And my last question is, is there any seasonal dip in the gross margin in the December quarter? You mentioned, which was helpful with the gross margin would have been 34% or so backing out the inventory. And I know you had a write-down December quarter the year before. I was just wondering if there is ever any kind of seasonal spending drop or marketing drop at the end of the year by BAMKO or customers? What do you think maybe more of the drop this year was tied to some of those technology customers and layoffs?

這就說得通了。我的最後一個問題是，12 月季度的毛利率是否有任何季節性下降？你提到，這有助於毛利率達到 34% 左右，從而減少庫存。我知道你在前一年的 12 月季度進行了減記。我只是想知道 BAMKO 或客戶在年底是否有任何季節性支出下降或營銷下降？您認為今年下降的更多原因可能與其中一些技術客戶和裁員有關？

Yes. There's not typically much seasonality, Tim, in the business. Obviously, as I called out, the big impact to us here in Q4 was the inventory charge. But typically, across the businesses, there's not too much of an impact. As Michael called out, specifically in the fourth quarter and within the Branded Products segment, there was a lapping of some of the charges that were taken in Q4 of last year, which gave Branded Products an improvement.

是的。蒂姆，這個行業通常沒有太大的季節性。顯然，正如我所說，第四季度對我們的重大影響是庫存費用。但通常情況下，在整個企業中，影響不會太大。正如邁克爾所說，特別是在第四季度和品牌產品部分，去年第四季度的一些費用有所增加，這給品牌產品帶來了改善。

And then I would just add also with the unbranded products, there is a margin rate improvement that we've seen just in the quarter as some of the lower-margin customers have been eliminated. But again, I wouldn't characterize that as a seasonal, just more of the timing of when those actions took place.

然後我還要補充一下無品牌產品，我們在本季度看到的利潤率有所提高，因為一些利潤率較低的客戶已經被淘汰。但同樣，我不會將其描述為季節性，只是更多的是這些行動發生的時間。

Fair enough. That's it for my questions. The next question will come from Mitra Ramgopal with Sidoti.

很公平。這就是我的問題。下一個問題將來自 Mitra Ramgopal 和 Sidoti。

First, I was wondering if maybe you can help us in terms of CapEx of '23. And you mentioned the elevated net capital leverage ratio. Would that impact your ability or willingness to spend this year, whether it's on technology, headcount, etcetera, and also maybe even on consolidation opportunities?

首先，我想知道您是否可以在 23 年的資本支出方面幫助我們。你提到了高淨資本槓桿率。這是否會影響您今年的支出能力或意願，無論是在技術、員工人數等方面，還是在整合機會方面？

It's Mike. Nice to hear from you. From a CapEx perspective, we had a significant capital investment year in 2021 -- it was over $17 million. And as a company, we typically will have a heavier investment year every 4 or 5 years. The capital you can see in 2022 was down to $11 million. And as we look forward to 2023 and the projects to continue to support the business, we actually are budgeting capital expenditures for '23 to be down about 30% from 2022. That still enables us to make what we believe are the appropriate investments to support the growth of the business, but at the same time, also recognizes our needs to generate cash and bring our debt levels down.

是邁克。很高興聽到你的消息。從資本支出的角度來看，我們在 2021 年進行了重要的資本投資——超過 1700 萬美元。作為一家公司，我們通常每 4 或 5 年就會有一個更大的投資年度。您在 2022 年可以看到的資本降至 1100 萬美元。當我們期待 2023 年和繼續支持業務的項目時，我們實際上正在將 23 年的資本支出預算比 2022 年下降約 30%。這仍然使我們能夠做出我們認為適當的投資來支持業務的增長，但與此同時，也認識到我們需要產生現金並降低債務水平。

So, we feel good about our capital budget for this year. And we've also thought very carefully about the timing of that spend. So, as we talked about before, as our financial forecast is more back-end loaded. We've also been careful to plan our capital expenditures more toward the latter half of the year so that we can react appropriately if conditions are better or if they happen to be unfavorable, we have the agility to adjust that as necessary. Does that answer your question, Mitra?

因此，我們對今年的資本預算感到滿意。我們也非常仔細地考慮了這筆支出的時間。因此，正如我們之前談到的那樣，我們的財務預測更多地是後端加載的。我們也一直謹慎地在今年下半年更多地規劃我們的資本支出，以便我們可以在情況好轉或不利時做出適當反應，我們可以根據需要靈活地進行調整。這能回答你的問題嗎，Mitra？

Yes. Sorry, I think I lost you for a moment there. No, that's great. And actually, just curious in terms of capital allocation. And obviously, M&A is going to be a source for that. But how should we think in terms of priorities as it relates to debt repayment, dividend share by potential share repurchase?

是的。抱歉，我想我在那兒失去了你。不，那太好了。實際上，只是對資本配置感到好奇。顯然，併購將成為其中的一個來源。但是，我們應該如何考慮與債務償還、潛在股票回購的股息份額相關的優先事項？

Mitra, our focus in terms of just, first of all, again, driving an improvement in our free cash flow and the priority really being to bring our debt levels down. Obviously, we recognize the importance of the dividend to our shareholders, and that will be evaluated every quarter with our capital committee of the Board going forward. But our first priority will be to manage the debt levels -- and maybe I'll pass it to Michael from a mergers and acquisition standpoint.

米特拉，我們的重點是，首先，再次推動我們自由現金流的改善，而當務之急是降低我們的債務水平。顯然，我們認識到股息對股東的重要性，並且我們的董事會資本委員會將每季度對其進行評估。但我們的首要任務是管理債務水平——也許我會從併購的角度將其傳遞給邁克爾。

Our -- as we said on the last call, Mitra, merger and acquisitions are not on the table right now. Obviously, with our debt levels, we don't think it's prudent to do so. (inaudible) be opportunities [we'll] have to pass up on possibly or we'll have to put on the back burner for another time, perhaps later in the year or next year. But right now, we're really focused on creating efficiencies within the business and turning more of our balance sheet into cash. And that is our main focus. If you go out to our website, we'll have out there soon, our new investor deck.

我們 - 正如我們在上次電話會議上所說，Mitra，合併和收購現在不在談判桌上。顯然，以我們的債務水平，我們認為這樣做並不明智。 （聽不清）是 [我們] 可能不得不放棄的機會，或者我們將不得不再擱置一次，也許是在今年晚些時候或明年。但現在，我們真正專注於提高業務效率，並將更多的資產負債表轉化為現金。這是我們的主要關注點。如果您訪問我們的網站，我們很快就會推出我們的新投資者平台。

And you can see we've taken M&A off one of the things that we're looking at as a driver for the business -- for the -- at least for this coming year. There will be opportunities later on. And we think that we are a good acquirer, but it's time for us to really focus on driving efficiencies. And we've been doing that since mid-last year, looking for opportunities to right size the business, to automate, to create all kinds of efficiencies, whether it's from a gross margin standpoint or from an SG&A standpoint. And we think our success in that light depends on -- largely on how much we're focused on it. So we will be 100% focused on that.

你可以看到，我們已經將併購從我們視為業務驅動力的事情中拿掉了——至少在來年是這樣。以後會有機會的。我們認為我們是一個很好的收購者，但現在是我們真正專注於提高效率的時候了。自去年年中以來，我們一直在這樣做，尋找機會來調整業務規模、實現自動化、創造各種效率，無論是從毛利率的角度還是從 SG&A 的角度來看。我們認為我們在這方面的成功取決於 - 主要取決於我們對它的關注程度。所以我們將 100% 專注於此。

Right. And then finally, I think in the past, you've mentioned efficient periods of where you have prolonged inflation or even high interest rates, etcetera, you've been able to take share, especially in an economic downturn. I was just wondering, based on the guidance of the second half of the year, and I know you're being a little conservative, but I'm assuming you still expect that trend to continue as it relates to continuing to take share from competitors.

正確的。最後，我想在過去，你提到過長期通貨膨脹甚至高利率等的有效時期，你已經能夠分享，特別是在經濟低迷時期。我只是想知道，根據今年下半年的指導，我知道你有點保守，但我假設你仍然希望這種趨勢繼續下去，因為它與繼續從競爭對手那里奪取份額有關.

I can say that -- that is our goal. Surely, that the thing that will get us closer to where we want to be from a debt level standpoint and where we need to be from a shareholder value standpoint, is growing the business profitably. -- And that is a correct assumption. Whether it's conservative or not, I'll let you be the judge of that, but we intend to deliver on the guidance that that we've given you today.

我可以這麼說——這是我們的目標。當然，從債務水平的角度和從股東價值的角度來看，讓我們更接近我們想要達到的目標的事情正在使業務盈利增長。 ——這是一個正確的假設。不管它是否保守，我都會讓你來判斷，但我們打算兌現我們今天給你的指導。

The next question will come from [BJ Cook] with Singular Research.

下一個問題將來自 Singular Research 的 [BJ Cook]。

Just a couple of quick ones here. On the inventory side, since the write-downs are non cash, can we assume that, that's just promotional pricing to get our inventory back on track? Is there more of that? And as we get on track for the rest of the year, can we expect any more on the write-down side?

這裡只是幾個快速的。在庫存方面，由於減記是非現金的，我們是否可以假設，這只是讓我們的庫存回到正軌的促銷定價？還有更多嗎？隨著我們在今年餘下時間走上正軌，我們可以期待更多的減記方面嗎？

The write-downs certainly were in the Q4 based on our evaluation of future selling prices. So, writing that inventory down will, in essence, enable us to, in essence, liquidate some of that under performing inventory more aggressively and take some margin pressure off of the health care business in 2023, which is, as I mentioned before, is where we see their upside in the business for 2023 from a margin perspective. So, in essence, it does help with the markdowns and help the clearing through different channels, both through our digital channel as well as with our wholesale customers.

根據我們對未來售價的評估，減記肯定發生在第四季度。因此，從本質上講，減記庫存將使我們能夠在本質上更積極地清算一些表現不佳的庫存，並在 2023 年減輕醫療保健業務的一些利潤壓力，正如我之前提到的那樣，我們從利潤率的角度來看他們在 2023 年的業務增長。因此，從本質上講，它確實有助於降價，並通過我們的數字渠道以及我們的批發客戶通過不同渠道幫助清算。

Okay. We could see optimistic 2023 guidance, and you broke out revenue. I'm just kind of curious, given the dynamic environment we're kind of in now everybody is in now from a profit perspective, is the guidance going to shake out similar to what it has in the past? Or you're going to see some this year?

好的。我們可以看到樂觀的 2023 年指導，您的收入突破了。我只是有點好奇，考慮到我們現在所處的動態環境，現在每個人都從利潤的角度來看，指導是否會像過去那樣動搖？或者你今年會去看一些嗎？

I'm sorry, you're breaking up a little bit, but I think you're asking about profit guidance by segment?

對不起，你有點分手了，但我想你是在問按部門劃分的利潤指導？

Yes, that's right.

恩，那就對了。

Sure. Well, we -- our guidance, obviously, is on a consolidated basis from -- from an earnings perspective. What I would say just as additional context is given, again, the down trending that we've experienced in health care in 2022, combined with the significant write-offs that we've taken within that segment. The guidance certainly assumes an improvement in the Health Care Apparel results pretty significant improvement. If you -- just in 2022 alone, we took about over $10 million of charges in the health care apparel segment, which, again, we would not anticipate to repeat in 2023.

當然。好吧，我們 - 我們的指導顯然是基於 - 從收益的角度來看的綜合基礎。我想說的是，在給出額外背景的同時，我們在 2022 年的醫療保健領域經歷了下降趨勢，再加上我們在該領域進行的重大註銷。該指南當然假設醫療保健服裝的改進結果非常顯著。如果你 - 僅在 2022 年，我們就在醫療保健服裝領域收取了超過 1000 萬美元的費用，同樣，我們預計不會在 2023 年重蹈覆轍。

And as Michael touched on it from the other segments, we anticipate that our contact center business will continue to grow, be profitable as it has in the past, with an EBITDA margin approximately 20%. So still a strong EBITDA margin, and we would expect our branded product segment to hold its margin going forward as it moves through the year.

正如邁克爾從其他部門談到的那樣，我們預計我們的聯絡中心業務將繼續增長，像過去一樣盈利，EBITDA 利潤率約為 20%。因此，EBITDA 利潤率仍然很高，我們預計我們的品牌產品部門將在今年內保持其利潤率。

The next question will come from Kevin Steinke with Barrington Research.

下一個問題將來自 Barrington Research 的 Kevin Steinke。

I just had a couple of follow-ups. You mentioned the accelerated sales force hiring in BAMKO and that's actually tracking ahead of your targets. Just how quickly can new salespeople ramp up and start contributing? And I guess that could be a factor and you taking share and potentially contributing to the growth in the second half that you discussed?

我剛剛進行了幾次跟進。您提到了 BAMKO 銷售人員的加速招聘，這實際上已經超出了您的目標。新銷售人員能多快成長起來並開始做出貢獻？我想這可能是一個因素，你分享並可能為你討論的下半年的增長做出貢獻？

Good question. Most of the salespeople that we recruit come from the industry, come to us with a book of business or at least most of their book of business and are mostly commissioned salespeople. So, our cost to bring them on, we have to on board them, of course, we give them some support from our office in India primarily, which is a very low-cost support and support that they hadn't had at all at their previous employer usually. And generally, we [give] about 18 months in their entire book of business transfers over to us. So, it's on an escalating basis, but it does vary by salesperson, Kevin. I mean some people come to us with a $1 million book of business and immediately within a couple of months, we're writing on an annualized basis that much business. And some people come to us with a $1 million book of business, and it takes 6 months to start tracking half that, but in 18 months, our expectation is we brought at least all of that over.

好問題。我們招聘的大多數銷售人員都來自該行業，他們帶著業務簿或至少是他們的大部分業務簿來到我們這裡，並且大多是受委託的銷售人員。所以，我們讓他們加入的成本，我們必須讓他們加入，當然，我們主要從我們在印度的辦公室給他們一些支持，這是一種非常低成本的支持，他們根本沒有得到過支持他們以前的雇主通常。通常，我們 [給] 大約 18 個月的時間將他們的整個業務轉移給我們。所以，它是在不斷升級的基礎上，但它確實因銷售人員凱文而異。我的意思是，有些人帶著 100 萬美元的業務來找我們，在幾個月內，我們就以年化的方式寫了那麼多業務。有些人帶著 100 萬美元的業務來找我們，需要 6 個月才能開始跟踪其中的一半，但在 18 個月內，我們的期望是我們至少完成了所有這些工作。

I mean the ultimate reason why these people come to work for us is because they think they can -- we've proven that by aligning themselves with us, they can actually grow their book of business significantly more than they can at their current employer. So, somebody who might come to us with a $1 million book of business, what we're hoping and what we're working towards is getting them to a $2 million book of business within an 18 to 24-month period of time.

我的意思是，這些人來我們這里工作的最終原因是因為他們認為他們可以——我們已經證明，通過與我們結盟，他們實際上可以比在他們現在的雇主那裡更多地發展他們的業務。因此，如果有人可能帶著 100 萬美元的生意來找我們，我們希望和努力的目標是在 18 到 24 個月的時間內讓他們的生意達到 200 萬美元。

All right. That's helpful. And then lastly, the direct-to-consumer website launch targeted for the second quarter within Health Care Apparel. Can you just talk a little bit more about expectations for that, the strategy and how quickly you're assuming that can kind of ramp?

好的。這很有幫助。最後，直接面向消費者的網站推出，目標是第二季度在醫療保健服裝領域推出。你能多談談對此的期望、戰略以及你假設這種增長的速度有多快嗎？

It's -- we kind of -- it's going to be a very slow ramp. You go out first, it's a site that we will tweak and have to gain a lot of knowledge from the analytics we get from that side on who's buying and who's clicking and how we incentivize people to sign up at the site for products and so on. So, it's a slow ramp. We're not projecting much in the way of revenue in 2023. What we want to do in 2023 is just build awareness for our product. Among those who are already loyal to our product, building a higher level of loyalty so that we can bring in all their friends and other caregiver associates onto the site to escalate our growth. But this is a year to really build awareness and 2024 is the first year where we believe that we'll see some meaningful impact to our sales.

這是 - 我們有點 - 這將是一個非常緩慢的斜坡。你先出去，這是一個我們會調整的網站，我們必須從我們從那方面獲得的分析中獲得很多知識，比如誰在購買，誰在點擊，以及我們如何激勵人們在該網站註冊產品等等.所以，這是一個緩慢的斜坡。我們並沒有對 2023 年的收入做出太多預測。我們想在 2023 年做的只是提高我們產品的知名度。在那些已經忠於我們產品的人中，建立更高水平的忠誠度，以便我們可以將他們的所有朋友和其他護理人員帶到網站上，以促進我們的發展。但今年是真正建立意識的一年，而 2024 年是我們相信我們將看到對銷售產生一些有意義影響的第一年。

Okay. That's helpful insight. Appreciate it. That's all I had.

好的。這是很有幫助的見解。欣賞它。這就是我的全部。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Michael Benstock for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回給 Michael Benstock 先生作閉幕詞。

Thank you all today for all the great questions. Good to have a few of you on here and asking questions from different directions. We certainly appreciate it. I want to thank you all for joining us. But before I end the call, I'd like to extend a special note of gratitude to someone who's contributed tremendously to the SGC over a long period of time.

感謝大家今天提出的所有重要問題。很高興有你們中的一些人在這裡並從不同的方向提出問題。我們當然很感激。我要感謝大家加入我們。但在結束通話之前，我想特別感謝長期以來為 SGC 做出巨大貢獻的人。

Andy Demott, as we announced last year, is heading into retirement after 25 very productive years with SGC since joining us in 1998. As our CFO and more recently, our COO, he was here through a period of unprecedented expansion, diversification and change and has been a tremendously valuable business partner. It's been a true pleasure to work with Andy, and we're incredibly pleased that he's continuing to serve on our Board of Directors, which means we'll continue to benefit from his experience and valuable perspective.

正如我們去年宣布的那樣，自 1998 年加入我們以來，在 SGC 工作了 25 年非常富有成效的 Andy Demott 即將退休。作為我們的首席財務官和最近的首席運營官，他在這裡經歷了前所未有的擴張、多元化和變革時期，一直是一個非常有價值的商業夥伴。與 Andy 一起工作真的很愉快，我們非常高興他繼續在我們的董事會任職，這意味著我們將繼續從他的經驗和寶貴的觀點中受益。

Sadly, we also announced that last month, the passing of our Chairman of the Board, Sidney Kirschner. As part of his distinguished career, Sid first joined our Board more than 25 years ago and served as Chairman for the past 11. We benefited greatly from his insights, and I personally considered Sidney, an incredible individual valuable mentor and a dear, dear friend. He'll be deeply missed by all of those whose lives he touched.

遺憾的是，上個月我們還宣布了我們的董事會主席 Sidney Kirschner 去世的消息。作為其傑出職業生涯的一部分，Sid 於 25 多年前首次加入我們的董事會，並在過去 11 年擔任董事長。我們從他的見解中受益匪淺，我個人認為 Sidney 是一位令人難以置信的個人寶貴導師和一位親愛的朋友.所有將要觸及他生命的人都會深深地懷念他。

Thank you again for joining our call. We'll keep you posted on our progress throughout the year, and please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions. Thanks again and speak to you next quarter.

再次感謝您加入我們的電話會議。我們會隨時向您通報我們全年的進展情況，如有任何問題，請隨時與我們聯繫。再次感謝並在下個季度與您交談。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連接。