Simply Good Foods Co (SMPL) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to The Simply Good Foods Company Fiscal Fourth Quarter 2022 Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Mark Pogharian, Vice President, Investor Relations for Simply Good Foods Company. Thank you. You may begin.

您好，歡迎來到 Simply Good Foods 公司 2022 財年第四季度電話會議。 （操作員說明）作為提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。我現在想將會議轉交給您的主持人，Simply Good Foods Company 投資者關係副總裁 Mark Pogharian 先生。謝謝你。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good morning. I'm pleased to welcome you to The Simply Good Foods Company Earnings Call for the period ended August 27, 2022. Joe Scalzo, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Todd Cunfer, Chief Financial Officer, will provide you with an overview of results, which will then be followed by a Q&A session. The company issued its earnings release this morning at approximately 7:00 a.m. A copy of the release and the accompanying presentation are available under the Investors section of the company's website at www.spgfoodscompany.com. This call is being webcast, and an archive of today's remarks will also be available.

謝謝你，接線員。早上好。我很高興歡迎您參加截至 2022 年 8 月 27 日止期間的 Simply Good Foods 公司收益電話會議。Joe Scalzo，總裁兼首席執行官；首席財務官 Todd Cunfer 將為您提供結果概述，隨後將進行問答環節。該公司於今天上午大約 7:00 發布了收益報告。該新聞稿的副本和隨附的演示文稿可在公司網站 www.spgfoodscompany.com 的“投資者”部分獲得。本次電話會議正在進行網絡直播，還將提供今天發言的存檔。

Turning to the disclaimer. During the course of today's call, management will make forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. The company undertakes no obligation to update these statements based on subsequent events. A detailed listing of such risks and uncertainties can be found in today's press release and the company's SEC filings. Note that on today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe will provide useful information to investors.

轉向免責聲明。在今天的電話會議期間，管理層將做出前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到各種風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果出現重大差異。公司不承擔根據後續事件更新這些聲明的義務。此類風險和不確定性的詳細列表可在今天的新聞稿和公司提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中找到。請注意，在今天的電話會議上，我們將參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標，我們認為這些指標將為投資者提供有用的信息。

Due to the company's asset-light strong cash flow business model, we evaluate our performance on an adjusted basis as it relates to EBITDA and diluted EPS. We have included a detailed reconciliation from GAAP to adjusted items in today's press release. We believe these adjusted measures are a key indicator of the underlying performance of the business. The presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to today's press release for a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Joe Scalzo, President and Chief Executive Officer.

由於公司的輕資產強勁現金流業務模式，我們在調整後的基礎上評估我們的業績，因為它與 EBITDA 和攤薄每股收益有關。我們在今天的新聞稿中包含了從 GAAP 到調整項目的詳細核對。我們認為，這些調整後的指標是衡量業務基本表現的關鍵指標。此信息的呈現不應孤立地考慮或替代根據公認會計原則呈現的財務信息。請參閱今天的新聞稿，了解非 GAAP 財務指標與根據 GAAP 編制的最具可比性的指標之間的對賬。有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給總裁兼首席執行官喬·斯卡爾佐。

Thank you, Mark. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Today, I'll recap Simply Good Foods fourth quarter and full fiscal year results and provide you with some perspective on the performance of our brands. Then Todd will discuss our financial results in a bit more detail before we wrap it up with a discussion of our outlook and take your questions. I was pleased with our full year marketplace performance and financial results. In a challenging operating environment, full year net sales growth of 16.2% was slightly greater than our expectations, while adjusted EBITDA increased 13% and was in line with our estimates.

謝謝你，馬克。早上好，感謝您加入我們。今天，我將回顧 Simply Good Foods 第四季度和整個財年的業績，並為您提供一些關於我們品牌業績的觀點。然後，托德將更詳細地討論我們的財務業績，然後我們將討論我們的前景並回答您的問題。我對我們全年的市場表現和財務業績感到滿意。在充滿挑戰的經營環境下，全年淨銷售額增長 16.2% 略高於我們的預期，而調整後的 EBITDA 增長 13%，符合我們的預期。

Combined measured and unmeasured channel U.S. retail takeaway growth for the full year of 15.5% exceeded our expectations, driven by solid Quest performance across all forms and channels. Atkins significant e-commerce growth resulted in mid-single-digit full year retail takeaway for the brand and the combined measured and unmeasured channels. Importantly, we continue to grow share in the subsegments of active nutrition and weight management. Our supply chain team performed well during the year and overcame many challenges to ensure customer service levels approached our typical targets.

在所有形式和渠道的穩健 Quest 業績的推動下，全年 15.5% 的綜合衡量和未衡量渠道美國零售外賣增長超出了我們的預期。阿特金斯顯著的電子商務增長為該品牌以及綜合衡量和未衡量渠道帶來了中個位數的全年零售外賣。重要的是，我們在積極營養和體重管理細分市場中的份額繼續增長。我們的供應鏈團隊在這一年表現良好，克服了許多挑戰，以確保客戶服務水平接近我們的典型目標。

I'm extremely proud of all of our employees who show tremendous tenacity and adaptability to overcome these challenges. Due to their efforts, we were able to continue our winning ways with retail customers and consumers while growing market share. As expected, full year fiscal 2022 supply chain cost deflation was up mid-teens, resulting in gross margin contraction of 260 basis points. Inflation was primarily related to ingredient and packaging costs. Importantly, cash flow from operations was solid and provided us with the financial flexibility to pay down debt and opportunistically buy back shares. We executed well against our priorities for the year and are well positioned to succeed in fiscal 2023. The current recessionary conditions and its impact on shopping behavior and consumer demand provide a challenging environment for our categories and brands, especially in light of our high retail prices.

我為我們所有的員工感到非常自豪，他們表現出巨大的堅韌和適應能力來克服這些挑戰。由於他們的努力，我們能夠繼續贏得零售客戶和消費者的青睞，同時擴大市場份額。正如預期的那樣，2022 財年全年供應鏈成本通縮上升了十幾歲，導致毛利率收縮 260 個基點。通貨膨脹主要與原料和包裝成本有關。重要的是，來自運營的現金流很穩定，為我們提供了償還債務和機會性回購股票的財務靈活性。我們在今年的優先事項上執行得很好，並有能力在 2023 財年取得成功。當前的經濟衰退狀況及其對購物行為和消費者需求的影響為我們的品類和品牌提供了充滿挑戰的環境，尤其是考慮到我們的高零售價格.

That said, we're cautiously optimistic of our growth prospects. In the first quarter of fiscal 2023, we're off to a good start as retail takeaway has improved time with post Labor Day back to work trends. For the 6 weeks ended October 8, point-of-sale growth in the combined measured and unmeasured channels was up about 14%. In fiscal 2023, we expect supply chain costs to be greater than last year and anticipate cost of goods inflation of low double digits. Similar to last year, it's mostly driven by higher ingredients and packaging costs. We project that our late fourth quarter price increase last year, along with cost savings initiatives will offset projected dollar cost inflation this year, assuming input costs stay at current levels.

也就是說，我們對我們的增長前景持謹慎樂觀態度。在 2023 財年第一季度，我們有了一個良好的開端，因為隨著勞動節後恢復工作的趨勢，零售外賣的時間有所縮短。在截至 10 月 8 日的 6 週內，綜合測量和非測量渠道的銷售點增長了約 14%。在 2023 財年，我們預計供應鏈成本將高於去年，並且預計商品成本通脹率將達到兩位數。與去年類似，這主要是由更高的原料和包裝成本推動的。我們預計，假設投入成本保持在當前水平，我們去年第四季度末的價格上漲以及成本節約舉措將抵消今年預計的美元成本通脹。

Therefore, in fiscal 2023, we expect adjusted EBITDA to increase in line with the net sales growth rate. Gross margin is expected to contract with most of the decline occurring in the first quarter. You may recall we had not yet experienced significant supply chain cost inflation in the first quarter of last year. In summary, we're confident in the strength of our business and the diversification of our portfolio across brands, products and channels. In the current recessionary environment, our business is well positioned.

因此，在 2023 財年，我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 將與淨銷售額增長率保持一致。預計毛利率將隨著第一季度的大部分下降而收縮。您可能還記得我們在去年第一季度還沒有經歷過顯著的供應鏈成本膨脹。總之，我們對我們的業務實力以及我們跨品牌、產品和渠道的產品組合的多元化充滿信心。在當前的經濟衰退環境中，我們的業務處於有利地位。

Our brands over-index in mid- to upper income consumers have little private label competition and strong presence in the mass channel that typically does well with shoppers during recessionary periods. We believe this will enable us to deliver on our sales and earnings objectives. Turning to the fourth quarter. Net sales growth of 5.5% was slightly greater than our expectations due to better-than-anticipated retail takeaway. Q4 combined measured and unmeasured channel, U.S. retail takeaway growth was about 12%, and as expected, outpaced net sales growth. The expected retail inventory drawdown during Q4 resulted in more typical retail inventory levels as we exited the fiscal year. Fourth quarter gross margin was 37.1%. The 210 basis point decline versus the year ago period was slightly greater than forecast. Todd will have a bit more on this in a second.

我們的品牌在中高收入消費者中的指數過高，幾乎沒有自有品牌的競爭，並且在大眾渠道中的強勢存在，通常在經濟衰退期間與購物者相處得很好。我們相信這將使我們能夠實現我們的銷售和盈利目標。轉入第四節。由於零售外賣好於預期，淨銷售額增長 5.5% 略高於我們的預期。第四季度綜合衡量和未衡量渠道，美國零售外賣增長約為 12%，正如預期的那樣，超過了淨銷售額增長。隨著我們退出本財年，第四季度的預期零售庫存下降導致更典型的零售庫存水平。第四季度毛利率為 37.1%。與去年同期相比下降了 210 個基點，略高於預期。托德稍後將對此進行更多介紹。

Importantly, during the quarter, our supply chain team continued to perform well in a challenging environment as our customer service performance approach target levels. Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter was about $51 million, an increase of 5.2% and in line with estimates. Sales growth and G&A cost control partially offset higher supply chain costs. For the full year fiscal 2022 Simply Good Foods retail takeaway in measured channels increased 15%, and both of our brands outperformed their respective subsegments of active nutrition and weight management.

重要的是，在本季度，隨著我們的客戶服務績效接近目標水平，我們的供應鏈團隊在充滿挑戰的環境中繼續表現良好。第四季度調整後的 EBITDA 約為 5100 萬美元，增長 5.2%，符合預期。銷售增長和 G&A 成本控制部分抵消了較高的供應鏈成本。在 2022 財年全年，Simply Good Foods 在可測量渠道中的零售外賣增長了 15%，我們兩個品牌的表現都優於各自的主動營養和體重管理細分市場。

Total Quest's full year fiscal 2022 retail takeaway in measured channels was up 32.3% and greater than Active Nutrition segment growth of 20.4%. In fiscal 2022, the weight management segment declined 2.4%. Atkins outperformed the segment with retail takeaway up 3.2% over the same time frame. Importantly, Atkins performance in unmeasured channels continues to significantly outpace measured channels. More on this in a bit. Turning to Acton's fourth quarter performance. Consistent with prior quarters, brand relevance remained strong, supported by a growing base of buyers. Total buyers increased 11% in the year and the buy rate was consistent with previous quarters. Atkins Q4 retail takeaway and the combined measured and unmeasured channels was up slightly as outstanding e-commerce growth continued from previous quarters and offset softness in the IRI MULO universe.

Total Quest 在衡量渠道中的 2022 財年全年零售外賣增長了 32.3%，高於 Active Nutrition 部門 20.4% 的增長。在 2022 財年，體重管理部門下降了 2.4%。阿特金斯的零售外賣在同一時間段內的表現優於該細分市場，增長了 3.2%。重要的是，阿特金斯在未測量通道中的表現繼續顯著超過測量通道。稍後再詳細介紹。轉向阿克頓第四季度的表現。與前幾個季度一樣，在不斷增長的買家基礎的支持下，品牌相關性仍然很強。全年買家總數增加了 11%，購買率與前幾個季度一致。阿特金斯第四季度零售外賣以及綜合衡量和未衡量渠道略有上升，因為電子商務在前幾個季度的持續增長並抵消了 IRI MULO 領域的疲軟。

Atkins Q4 POS at Amazon increased 75%, driven by solid growth across all the major forms. We estimate total unmeasured channel retail takeaway increased about 40% and is now approximately 12% of total Atkins retail sales. For perspective, you may recall that 3 years ago, e-commerce represented less than 5% of total Atkins sales. Core shakes and Meal Bars performance improved as consumers continued recent return to work trends. Specifically, Q4 shakes retail takeaway increased 5.5%, driven by solid growth in the food and club channels and meal bars about 2/3 of our bar business strengthened during the quarter and were flat versus last year. Cookies and chips growth are progressing and are still in early stages of driving awareness and trial. Brand consumption and buy rate was most impacted by soft confections and snack bar performance due to distribution losses and lapping of last year's dessert bar launch. As we entered the new year, Atkins has experienced improving POS growth.

在所有主要形式的穩健增長的推動下，亞馬遜的阿特金斯第四季度 POS 增長了 75%。我們估計未衡量的渠道零售外賣總額增加了約 40%，現在約佔阿特金斯零售總額的 12%。從角度來看，您可能還記得 3 年前，電子商務僅佔阿特金斯總銷售額的不到 5%。隨著消費者繼續近期重返工作崗位的趨勢，核心奶昔和 Meal Bars 的表現有所改善。具體而言，第四季度零售外賣增長了 5.5%，這得益於食品和俱樂部渠道的穩健增長，而我們約 2/3 的酒吧業務在本季度得到加強，與去年持平。餅乾和薯片的增長正在取得進展，並且仍處於提高認識和試用的早期階段。品牌消費和購買率受軟糖果和小吃店業績的影響最大，原因是分銷損失和去年甜點吧推出的滯後。隨著我們進入新的一年，阿特金斯經歷了不斷改善的 POS 增長。

For the 6 weeks ended October 8, combined measured and unmeasured channel retail takeaway is up about 3.5%. Performance was driven by continued strong e-commerce growth and improving core shake and meal bars with the latter likely tied to post Labor Day return to work trends. Let me now turn to Crest, where Q4 retail takeaway increased 24.6% in the measured IRI MULO C-store universe and outpaced the Active Nutrition segment. Growth was driven by solid performance across all major forms and retail channels as well as increases in household penetration, strong consumption and success in new products.

在截至 10 月 8 日的 6 週內，已衡量和未衡量的渠道零售外賣總額增長了約 3.5%。業績受到持續強勁的電子商務增長和改善核心奶昔和餐吧的推動，後者可能與勞動節後重返工作崗位的趨勢有關。現在讓我轉向 Crest，在 IRI MULO C 商店的測量範圍內，第四季度零售外賣增長了 24.6%，超過了 Active Nutrition 細分市場。所有主要形式和零售渠道的穩健表現以及家庭滲透率的提高、強勁的消費和新產品的成功推動了增長。

Quest Q4 unmeasured channel retail takeaway was in line with measured channels as Amazon growth more than offset declines in the specialty channel.

Quest Q4 未衡量渠道零售外賣與衡量渠道一致，因為亞馬遜的增長超過了專業渠道的下降。

In Q4, Quest core bar retail takeaway increased 11.1% and outpaced bar category segment growth of 7.8%. The snackier portion of Quest products, that's cookies, confections and chips continue to do well with Q4 measured channel retail takeaway up 51%. Growth was strong across all forms that was driven by increasing household penetration, distribution gains and marketing investments to drive trial. We have a solid pipeline of innovation expected snacks today, slightly greater than 40% of total retail total Quest measured channel retail sales will continue to generate solid growth over the near and long term.

第四季度，Quest 核心酒吧零售外賣增長 11.1%，超過酒吧類別細分市場 7.8% 的增長。 Quest 產品的零食部分，即餅乾、糖果和薯條繼續表現良好，第四季度測量的渠道零售外賣增長了 51%。在家庭滲透率、分銷收益和營銷投資推動試驗的推動下，所有形式的增長都很強勁。我們今天擁有堅實的創新零食渠道，略高於零售總額的 40%，Quest 衡量的渠道零售額將在近期和長期內繼續實現穩健增長。

In fiscal 2023, Quest innovation is solid, and we have a good balance of new products across all forms. In summary, The Simply Good Foods Company competes in an attractive category with 2 scale lifestyle nutrition snacking brands that are well developed across multiple forms and snacking occasions. Our brands are aligned with the consumer megatrends of healthy snacking with a nutritional profile that is protein rich and low-end carbs and sugar.

在 2023 財年，Quest 的創新十分穩健，我們在所有形式的新產品中都取得了良好的平衡。總而言之，The Simply Good Foods Company 在一個有吸引力的類別中與 2 家規模化的生活方式營養零食品牌競爭，這些品牌在多種形式和零食場合都得到了很好的發展。我們的品牌與健康零食的消費大趨勢保持一致，其營養成分富含蛋白質和低端碳水化合物和糖。

The profile has broad appeal to consumers interested in health and wellness as a means to achieving their goals, whether they're at home, in the office or on the go. Low category penetration and the aforementioned megatrends of wellness snacking, should continue to be tailwinds and long-term growth levers. With a steady improvement in return to work trends, we expect improving relevance related to convenience, portability and on-the-go meal replacement. As we look to fiscal 2023, we believe we are well positioned to build on our momentum and deliver solid net sales and earnings growth.

該簡介對那些對健康感興趣的消費者俱有廣泛的吸引力，將其作為實現目標的一種手段，無論他們是在家中、辦公室還是在旅途中。低品類滲透率和上述健康零食的大趨勢應繼續成為順風和長期增長槓桿。隨著復工趨勢的穩步改善，我們預計與便利性、便攜性和移動代餐相關的相關性將有所提高。展望 2023 財年，我們相信我們已做好充分準備，以鞏固我們的勢頭並實現穩健的淨銷售額和盈利增長。

Pricing and cost savings initiatives are in place to offset projected supply chain dollar cost inflation. Broad spot market prices of ingredient and packaging have softened versus the peak, although we have not yet seen meaningful cost declines for our key inputs. Therefore, we expect gross margins to decline, although at a lower rate than the last fiscal year.

定價和成本節約計劃已經到位，以抵消預計的供應鏈美元成本通脹。原料和包裝的廣泛現貨市場價格與峰值相比已經走軟，儘管我們還沒有看到我們的關鍵投入的成本出現有意義的下降。因此，我們預計毛利率將下降，儘管下降速度低於上一財年。

Most of the decline will occur in the first quarter as gross margins in the year ago period and yet to experience significant supply chain cost inflation. Our advantaged business model with lean infrastructure enables strong cash flow generation and provides us with financial flexibility. We are executing against our strategies and positioned for long-term sustainable net sales and earnings growth that we expect will create value for our shareholders. Now I'll turn the call over to Todd, who'll provide you with some greater financial detail.

大部分下降將發生在第一季度，因為去年同期的毛利率尚未經歷顯著的供應鏈成本通脹。我們具有精益基礎設施的優勢商業模式能夠產生強大的現金流，並為我們提供財務靈活性。我們正在執行我們的戰略，並為長期可持續的淨銷售額和盈利增長做好準備，我們預計這將為我們的股東創造價值。現在我將把電話轉給 Todd，他將為您提供更多財務細節。

Thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone. I will begin with a review of our net sales. Total Simply Good Foods fourth quarter net sales increased 5.5% to $274.2 million, slightly greater than our estimate due to better-than-expected retail takeaway. Net price realization was a 9.5 percentage point contribution to net sales growth and volume was off about 4 percentage points. As Joe stated earlier, Q4 total retail takeaway was 12%, and as expected, resulted in a drawdown of the higher customer inventory we discussed last quarter. As a result, we exited the year with more typical retail inventory levels. North America net sales increased 6.4%. The March agreement to license the Quest frozen pizza business was a 0.9 percentage point headwind to North America net sales growth. The international business declined 16.6% due to the Europe business exit.

謝謝你，喬，大家早上好。我將從回顧我們的淨銷售額開始。由於零售外賣好於預期，Simply Good Foods 第四季度淨銷售額增長 5.5% 至 2.742 億美元，略高於我們的預期。淨價格實現對淨銷售額增長貢獻了 9.5 個百分點，銷量下降了約 4 個百分點。正如喬之前所說，第四季度總零售外賣率為 12%，正如預期的那樣，導致我們上季度討論的較高客戶庫存下降。因此，我們以更典型的零售庫存水平結束了這一年。北美淨銷售額增長 6.4%。 3 月份簽訂的 Quest 冷凍比薩業務許可協議對北美的淨銷售額增長造成了 0.9 個百分點的不利影響。由於歐洲業務退出，國際業務下降16.6%。

Core international net sales was about the same as the year ago period. The combined Europe business exit and Quest Frozen pizza business licensing transaction was a 1.6 percentage point impact on total company net sales growth. Moving on to other P&L items for Q4. Gross profit was $101.8 million, a decline of $2.6 million versus the year ago period. Gross margin was 37.1%, a decrease of 310 basis points versus last year. Input cost inflation was in line with expectations, while unfavorable onetime co-manufacturer start-up costs and inbound freight due to higher diesel costs were greater than estimates. Adjusted EBITDA was $51 million versus $48.5 million, an increase of 5.2% versus the year ago period.

核心國際淨銷售額與去年同期大致相同。歐洲業務退出和 Quest Frozen 比薩業務許可交易對公司總淨銷售額增長產生了 1.6 個百分點的影響。轉到第四季度的其他損益項目。毛利潤為 1.018 億美元，與去年同期相比下降了 260 萬美元。毛利率為 37.1%，較去年下降 310 個基點。投入成本通脹符合預期，而不利的一次性聯合製造商啟動成本和由於柴油成本上漲導致的入境運費高於預期。調整後的 EBITDA 為 5100 萬美元，而去年同期為 4850 萬美元，增長 5.2%。

Selling and marketing expenses were $26.9 million versus $30.8 million. The 12.6% decline versus the year ago period was due to a step-up in brand investments in the year ago period. G&A expense, excluding integration and restructuring expenses as well as stock-based compensation declined 4.4% to $24.1 million. The decrease versus last year was primarily due to lower compensation and corporate expenses.

銷售和營銷費用分別為 2690 萬美元和 3080 萬美元。與去年同期相比下降 12.6% 是由於去年同期品牌投資的增加。 G&A 費用（不包括整合和重組費用以及股票薪酬）下降 4.4% 至 2410 萬美元。與去年相比的減少主要是由於薪酬和公司開支減少。

Moving to other items in the P&L. Interest expense declined $1.9 million to $5.4 million due to the repricing in the second quarter and pay down of the term loan. Our tax rate in Q4 was 19.4% versus 27.2% last year. The tax rate in the year ago period excludes the impact of the charge related to the noncash, nontax deductible warrant liability. The lower tax rate in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 is primarily driven by favorable international and state impacts.

移至損益表中的其他項目。由於第二季度的重新定價和償還定期貸款，利息支出減少了 190 萬美元至 540 萬美元。我們第四季度的稅率為 19.4%，而去年為 27.2%。去年同期的稅率不包括與非現金、非免稅認股權證負債相關的費用的影響。 2022 財年第四季度的較低稅率主要受到有利的國際和國家影響。

Full year results are as follows: Net sales increased 16.2% to $1.169 billion. Gross profit was $445.6 million, an increase of 8.7% versus the year ago period. Gross margin was 38.1% for the full fiscal year, relatively in line with expectations and a decrease of 260 basis points versus last year. The decline is primarily due to supply chain cost inflation partially offset by the previously discussed price increase.

全年業績如下： 淨銷售額增長 16.2% 至 11.69 億美元。毛利潤為 4.456 億美元，同比增長 8.7%。整個財年毛利率為 38.1%，相對符合預期，較去年下降 260 個基點。下降的主要原因是供應鏈成本通脹部分被前面討論的價格上漲所抵消。

Adjusted EBITDA increased 12.9% to $234 million due to higher gross profit and G&A leverage. Selling and marketing expenses increased 7.8% to $121.7 million. The increase was driven by higher marketing investments. G&A expenses increased 1% or $0.9 million. This excludes charges related to integration costs, restructuring expenses and stock-based compensation.

由於較高的毛利潤和 G&A 槓桿，調整後的 EBITDA 增長 12.9% 至 2.34 億美元。銷售和營銷費用增長 7.8% 至 1.217 億美元。這一增長是由更高的營銷投資推動的。 G&A 費用增加 1% 或 90 萬美元。這不包括與整合成本、重組費用和股票補償相關的費用。

Moving to other items in the P&L. Interest expense declined $9.7 million to $21.9 million due to the repricing and pay down of the term loan. The full year noncash charge related to the remeasurement of our private warrant liabilities was $30.1 million versus $66.2 million in the year ago period. The full year effective tax rate, excluding the charge related to the warrant liability was 23.2% versus 27.2% in the year-ago period due to favorable international and state impacts. We anticipate the full year fiscal 2023 tax rate to be around 25%. Net income was $108.6 million versus $40.9 million in the year ago period. The increase of $67.6 million is largely due to the remeasurement of the private warrant liabilities.

移至損益表中的其他項目。由於定期貸款的重新定價和償還，利息支出減少了 970 萬美元至 2190 萬美元。與我們的私人認股權證負債重新計量相關的全年非現金費用為 3010 萬美元，而去年同期為 6620 萬美元。由於有利的國際和國家影響，全年有效稅率（不包括與權證負債相關的費用）為 23.2%，而去年同期為 27.2%。我們預計 2023 財年全年稅率約為 25%。淨收入為 1.086 億美元，而去年同期為 4090 萬美元。增加 6,760 萬美元主要是由於重新計量了私人認股權證負債。

Turning to EPS. Fourth quarter reported EPS was $0.30 per share diluted compared to $0.19 per share diluted for the comparable period of 2021. In fiscal Q4 2022, depreciation and amortization expense was $4.9 million and similar to the year ago period. And stock-based compensation of $3 million increased $0.5 million versus last year.

轉向EPS。第四季度報告的每股攤薄收益為 0.30 美元，而 2021 年可比期間每股攤薄收益為 0.19 美元。在 2022 財年第四季度，折舊和攤銷費用為 490 萬美元，與去年同期相似。與去年相比，300 萬美元的股票薪酬增加了 50 萬美元。

Adjusted diluted EPS, which excludes these items, was $0.36, an increase of $0.07 versus the year ago period. Note that we calculate adjusted diluted EPS as adjusted EBITDA less interest income, interest expense and income taxes. Full year reported EPS was $1.08 and adjusted diluted EPS was $1.59. Please refer to today's press release for an explanation and reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures.

不包括這些項目的調整後稀釋每股收益為 0.36 美元，比去年同期增加 0.07 美元。請注意，我們將調整後的攤薄每股收益計算為調整後的 EBITDA 減去利息收入、利息費用和所得稅。全年報告的每股收益為 1.08 美元，調整後的稀釋後每股收益為 1.59 美元。請參閱今天的新聞稿，了解非公認會計原則財務指標的解釋和調節。

Moving to the balance sheet and cash flow. In fiscal 2022, the company repaid $50 million of its term loan. And at the end of the year, the outstanding principal balance was $406.5 million. For the fourth quarter and full year, cash provided by operating activities was $43.3 million and $110.6 million, respectively. As of August 27, 2022, the company has cash of $67.5 million and a trailing 12-month net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was 1.4x.

轉向資產負債表和現金流。在 2022 財年，該公司償還了 5000 萬美元的定期貸款。到年底，未償本金餘額為 4.065 億美元。第四季度和全年，經營活動提供的現金分別為 4330 萬美元和 1.106 億美元。截至 2022 年 8 月 27 日，該公司擁有 6750 萬美元現金，過去 12 個月的淨債務與調整後 EBITDA 的比率為 1.4 倍。

In the fourth quarter, the company repurchased shares were $31 million at an average cost of $33.69, a bringing the full year repurchase amount to $60 million at an average cost of $34.79 per share.

第四季度，公司回購股票金額為 3100 萬美元，平均成本為 33.69 美元，全年回購金額為 6000 萬美元，平均每股成本為 34.79 美元。

Additionally, in the fiscal first quarter of 2023, we repurchased $16.4 million of our common stock at an average price of $30.11. On October 19, 2022, the Board of Directors approved a $50 million increase in the existing stock repurchase program and $71.5 million remains available under the updated authorization. Capital expenditures in Q4 and the full year fiscal 2022 was $0.5 million and $5.2 million, respectively. In fiscal 2023, CapEx is expected to be about $5 million to $6 million. In fiscal 2023, we anticipate net interest expense to be around $25 million to $26 million, including noncash amortization expense related to the deferred financing fees.

此外，在 2023 財年第一季度，我們以 30.11 美元的平均價格回購了 1640 萬美元的普通股。 2022 年 10 月 19 日，董事會批准在現有股票回購計劃中增加 5000 萬美元，根據更新後的授權，仍有 7150 萬美元可供使用。第四季度和 2022 財年全年的資本支出分別為 50 萬美元和 520 萬美元。在 2023 財年，資本支出預計約為 500 萬至 600 萬美元。在 2023 財年，我們預計淨利息支出約為 2500 萬美元至 2600 萬美元，包括與遞延融資費用相關的非現金攤銷費用。

I would now like to turn the call back to Joe for closing remarks.

我現在想把電話轉回給 Joe 做結束語。

Thanks, Todd. We're cautiously optimistic about our growth prospects over the next 12 months. In a challenging external economic environment, we believe we are well positioned to generate solid net sales and adjusted EBITDA growth in the year. We continue to expect supply chain costs will be higher in fiscal 2023. However, the list price increase effective late in the fourth quarter of last year and cost savings initiatives are in place to offset dollar cost inflation. Additionally, we have made significant marketing and organizational investments in the business over the past few years that we believe will contribute to the growth of our consumer base, shelf presence and market share gains.

謝謝，托德。我們對未來 12 個月的增長前景持謹慎樂觀的態度。在充滿挑戰的外部經濟環境中，我們相信我們有能力在今年實現穩健的淨銷售額和調整後的 EBITDA 增長。我們繼續預計 2023 財年供應鏈成本將更高。然而，去年第四季度末生效的標價上漲和成本節約舉措已到位，以抵消美元成本通脹。此外，我們在過去幾年中對該業務進行了大量營銷和組織投資，我們相信這將有助於我們的消費者基礎、貨架存在和市場份額的增長。

Therefore, the company anticipates the following fiscal 2023. Net sales increased slightly greater than our 4% to 6% long-term algorithm, including a headwind of approximately 1 percentage point related to the previously discussed pizza licensing agreement. Gross margin is expected to decline, although at a lower rate than the last year. As previously discussed, most of the decline will occur in the first quarter. Higher costs over the remaining 3 quarters of the year should only slightly impact gross margin. Full year fiscal 2023 adjusted EBITDA is expected to increase in line with the net sales growth rate and adjusted diluted EPS is expected to increase similar to the adjusted EBITDA growth rate.

因此，公司預計 2023 財年。淨銷售額增長略高於我們 4% 至 6% 的長期算法，包括與先前討論的比薩餅許可協議相關的約 1 個百分點的逆風。毛利率預計將下降，儘管下降幅度低於去年。如前所述，大部分下降將發生在第一季度。今年剩餘 3 個季度的更高成本只會對毛利率產生輕微影響。預計 2023 財年全年調整後的 EBITDA 將與淨銷售額增長率保持一致，調整後的攤薄每股收益預計將與調整後的 EBITDA 增長率相似。

Note that in fiscal 2023, adjusted diluted EPS growth is affected by higher interest expense due to an increase in the term loan variable interest rate partially mitigated by fewer shares outstanding. We appreciate everyone's interest in our company, and we're now available to take your questions. Operator?

請注意，在 2023 財年，調整後的攤薄每股收益增長受到利息支出增加的影響，這是由於定期貸款浮動利率的增加部分被流通股減少所抵消。感謝大家對我們公司的關注，我們現在可以回答您的問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Chris Growe with Stifel.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Chris Growe 和 Stifel。

I just want to ask a question if I could first. And I think what we heard from in your prepared remarks around the brand, a pretty robust suite of new products for both brands, Atkins and Quest. And so I just want to get a sense of to what degree that -- how that compares against the prior year you seeing -- are you seeing more activity? And then kind of rope that into shelf resets and kind of what to expect in sort of these fall shelf resets for the brands?

我只想問一個問題，如果我能先。而且我認為我們從您準備好的關於該品牌的評論中聽到的是，為阿特金斯和 Quest 這兩個品牌提供了一套非常強大的新產品。所以我只是想了解這在多大程度上——與你看到的前一年相比——你看到更多的活動？然後是那種進入貨架重置的繩索，以及在這些品牌的秋季貨架重置中會發生什麼？

Yes. Chris, I'd say pipeline remains robust. I wouldn't say it's any better or any worse than prior years, but a pretty good pipeline both in core products where you're replacing weaker items with new innovations on flavors as well as innovation in new forms. So it feels more of the same, which has been a pretty good pipeline over the last few years. And from a reset standpoint, I think we're going to continue to see movement from retailers towards bigger brands and away from shiny objects. I think retailers continue to be concerned about foot traffic. They understand bigger brands in the category drive foot traffic into their stores. So they're very focused on getting the bigger brands right from a distribution standpoint and filling in around them. I would expect that to continue to be the case.

是的。克里斯，我想說管道仍然很強大。我不會說它比前幾年更好或更差，但在核心產品中，你正在用新的風味創新和新形式的創新來替換較弱的產品，這是一條非常好的管道。所以感覺差不多，在過去的幾年裡，這是一個非常好的管道。從重置的角度來看，我認為我們將繼續看到零售商轉向更大的品牌並遠離閃亮的物品。我認為零售商繼續關注客流量。他們了解該類別中較大的品牌會為他們的商店帶來客流量。因此，他們非常專注於從分銷的角度獲得更大的品牌並在它們周圍進行填充。我希望情況會繼續如此。

So we just saw Walmart reset in August and the bigger brands benefited from that reset. We saw a significant uptick in our business with both brands from that reset. And I think that's going to play out as the year plays out as the full reset plan.

所以我們剛剛看到沃爾瑪在 8 月份進行了重置，而更大的品牌也從這次重置中受益。從那次重置開始，我們看到兩個品牌的業務都出現了顯著增長。而且我認為隨著這一年的全面重置計劃，這將發揮作用。

Okay. And I had just a follow-up question on just the Atkins brand in general. And there's been a little bit of an improvement there in the underlying growth rate. I think you cited shakes and obviously, meal bars. I just want to get a sense of from the -- like is there still a continued call it, diet weight management category sort of drag here from mobility, you were talking about kind of post Labor Day getting back to work. Do we start to lap that to where we see more normalized trends in the Atkins brand. And then underneath that, are you seeing -- it seems like we've seen a little bit more momentum here in shakes and confectionery, which could hopefully help drive a little better growth in the coming year?

好的。我只是對阿特金斯品牌提出了一個後續問題。那裡的潛在增長率略有改善。我認為您引用了奶昔，顯然還有餐吧。我只是想從中獲得一種感覺——比如是否還有一個持續的稱呼，飲食體重管理類別有點像移動性的拖累，你說的是勞動節後的一種恢復工作。我們是否開始將其與我們在阿特金斯品牌中看到更多規範化趨勢的地方相提並論。然後在此之下，您是否看到 - 似乎我們在奶昔和糖果領域看到了更多的動力，這有望幫助推動來年更好的增長？

Yes. Thanks for that question. Good question. I think first and foremost, I don't think we ever had a just broadly a weight management issue, i.e., people not looking to lose weight the brand relevance, as indicated by household penetration has continued to be strong. So interest in the brand remains really well. Our challenges have been a buy rate challenge tied around pandemic snacking and meal replacement behaviors.

是的。謝謝你的問題。好問題。我認為首先，我不認為我們曾經有過廣泛的體重管理問題，即人們不希望減肥品牌相關性，正如家庭滲透率持續強勁所示。所以對品牌的興趣仍然很好。我們面臨的挑戰是與流行零食和代餐行為相關的購買率挑戰。

As we have seen people go back to work. We've seen a steady improvement in the brand over the fourth quarter and into the first quarter. A little bit of what investors haven't seen is there's been a significant uptick in Atkins in e-commerce, which has been added, call it, 3, in some cases, 4 points of growth to the MULO growth that you can see. So there's been that shifting that I think investors have not seen the business has been a little bit stronger than what you would pick up in measured channels.

正如我們所看到的，人們重返工作崗位。我們已經看到該品牌在第四季度和第一季度的穩步改善。投資者沒有看到的一點是阿特金斯在電子商務領域的顯著增長，這已經被添加，稱之為 3，在某些情況下，你可以看到 MULO 增長的 4 個增長點。因此，我認為投資者沒有看到該業務比您在可衡量的渠道中獲得的業務更強大。

As people have gone back to work, we've seen the core kind of new replacement that kind of portable meal replacement snacking occasion that is kind of -- that tends to be work driven. We've seen improvement in that business. So our core shake business is strong. We're seeing our meal bar business performed really well. So that's been really encouraging from a brand standpoint. I would say there's -- you pointed at it in our question. There are 2 like tactical issues on Atkins that we're addressing as we speak.

隨著人們重返工作崗位，我們已經看到了一種新的核心替代品，即便攜式代餐零食場合，這種場合往往是由工作驅動的。我們已經看到該業務有所改善。所以我們的核心搖動業務很強大。我們看到我們的餐吧業務表現非常好。因此，從品牌的角度來看，這確實令人鼓舞。我想說的是——你在我們的問題中指出了這一點。在我們發言時，我們正在解決阿特金斯的 2 個類似的戰術問題。

The first is we saw a slowdown in our snack bar business. It was driven around distribution losses in the spring. And items went out as we put in cookies and chips, we got to fix that, and that's well underway. And then second, we've been lapping some new products from last year. So there's a pipeline of confection items that's going to be coming into the marketplace. So I would expect as the first half plays out, we would see improving trends in both of those forms.

首先是我們的小吃店業務放緩。它是由春季的分銷損失推動的。當我們放入餅乾和薯條時，物品就壞了，我們必須解決這個問題，這正在順利進行。其次，我們一直在研究去年的一些新產品。因此，將會有一系列糖果產品進入市場。所以我預計隨著上半年的結束，我們會看到這兩種形式的改善趨勢。

Our next question comes from the line of Steve Powers with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的史蒂夫鮑爾斯。

Maybe first a question for Todd. Just to dig into the inflation and gross margin outlook. The low double-digit inflation that you called out. I just -- I guess, I'm curious just how much of that is locked in through hedging and is sort of definitive in your planning versus is more subject to variability, number one. And then relatedly, you talked about most of the gross margin degradation happening in the first quarter. But I'm just trying to -- just trying to figure out what the curve looks like. And do you expect any margin recovery as the year progresses? Or is gross margin expected to be down kind of throughout the year, but obviously weighted to the first quarter?

也許首先是托德的問題。只是為了深入了解通脹和毛利率前景。你所說的兩位數的低通脹。我只是 - 我想，我很好奇其中有多少是通過對沖鎖定的，並且在你的計劃中是確定性的，而不是更容易受到可變性的影響，第一。然後相關地，您談到了第一季度發生的大部分毛利率下降。但我只是想 - 只是想弄清楚曲線的樣子。隨著時間的推移，您是否預計利潤率會有所回升？還是預計全年毛利率會有所下降，但明顯偏重於第一季度？

Yes. So we are -- to your first question, we're about 50% covered right now. If you regarding Q1, last year, our gross margin -- excuse me, was up about 70 basis points. So we still had not seen much of the inflation hit in Q1 of last year. We still had a fair amount of coverage on. So this will be the time where we experienced a lot of year-over-year inflation for the first quarter of this year. Just to give you a perspective, commodities and packaging last year are up about 20% and we anticipate something close to that again this year.

是的。所以我們 - 對於你的第一個問題，我們現在已經覆蓋了大約 50%。如果您談到去年第一季度，我們的毛利率 - 對不起，增長了約 70 個基點。因此，我們仍然沒有看到去年第一季度的通脹受到太大影響。我們仍然有相當多的報導。因此，這將是我們在今年第一季度經歷大量同比通脹的時候。只是為了給你一個視角，去年的商品和包裝上漲了約 20%，我們預計今年會再次接近這一水平。

Now obviously, freight is going to be less for us from a growth rate. co-man inflation costs will be less. So the overall total inflation will be more in the teens, but the actual input costs are extremely significant over kind of this 15- to 18-month period. We are -- we're -- right now, the way we've done our budget, we will have some gross margin declines in the back part of the year, but not big. And as we've mentioned, we have not assumed that the cost structure gets better. We've kind of assumed it stays where it is. We are hopeful that trend line will continue as the year goes on.

現在很明顯，從增長率來看，貨運對我們來說將會減少。 co-man通脹成本會更低。因此，總體總通貨膨脹率將更多地處於十幾歲，但在這 15 到 18 個月期間，實際投入成本非常顯著。我們 - 我們 - 現在，按照我們完成預算的方式，我們將在今年下半年出現一些毛利率下降，但幅度不大。正如我們所提到的，我們並沒有假設成本結構會變得更好。我們有點假設它保持在原來的位置。我們希望隨著時間的推移，趨勢線將繼續下去。

We've already started to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel here where some of our input costs are starting to soften up as we potentially go into a recession there's a decent chance that may continue. So we may be in a better position on our next quarter call that gross margin for the second half of the year looks a little bit better. But right now, the big hit will be in Q1 because we're lapping strong gross margin expansion last year, and then we're expecting some slight margin contraction for the remainder of the year.

我們已經開始在隧道盡頭看到一點曙光，我們的一些投入成本開始軟化，因為我們可能會陷入衰退，而且很有可能會繼續下去。因此，我們可能在下個季度的電話中處於更好的位置，即下半年的毛利率看起來會好一些。但現在，最大的打擊將出現在第一季度，因為我們去年的毛利率強勁增長，然後我們預計今年剩餘時間的利潤率會略有收縮。

Okay. Perfect. That all makes sense. And then I guess the second question for either one of you or both is just as I think about where the business is today versus where it was a year plus ago, and obviously, the macroeconomic back up, as you just alluded to, is also different and more challenging. I guess my question is, is how that changes your approach to demand building inclusive of the shift to e-commerce that we've seen. I just if you think about advertising and promotional plans, how has it changed? How does the current environment and the trends of the business shift, both your thinking in terms of how much you spend, and I guess, where and how you spend it, and I guess, where and how you spend it.

好的。完美的。這一切都說得通。然後我想你們中的一個或兩個的第二個問題就像我思考今天的業務與一年多前的情況一樣，顯然，正如你剛才提到的，宏觀經濟的支持也是不同且更具挑戰性。我想我的問題是，這將如何改變您構建需求的方法，包括我們已經看到的向電子商務的轉變。我只是如果您考慮一下廣告和促銷計劃，它是如何變化的？當前環境和業務趨勢如何轉變，您對花費多少的想法，我猜，您在哪里以及如何花費，以及我猜，您在哪里以及如何花費。

Well, good question. I would say, first of all, as we go into the year, look, there's a reason for us to be cautious, right? You're heading into what is, if not, by strict definition in a recessionary environment. So you would expect consumers to be tight with their pennies. We're starting to see it in slowing demand overall in food, growth in private label, shift in shopping behavior, these consumers moving away from grocery, moving to value retailers and they're being a little bit more cautious, focused on value being cautious around purchasing. So it warrants us being a little bit cautious about our outlook going forward. And it's reflected in the guidance that we provided in FY '23.

嗯，好問題。我想說，首先，隨著我們進入這一年，看，我們有理由保持謹慎，對吧？你正在進入衰退環境中的嚴格定義，如果不是的話。因此，您會期望消費者對他們的便士感到緊張。我們開始看到食品整體需求放緩，自有品牌增長，購物行為轉變，這些消費者從雜貨店轉向價值零售商，他們變得更加謹慎，專注於價值謹慎購買。因此，有必要對我們未來的前景保持謹慎。這反映在我們在 23 財年提供的指導中。

That said, we've got reasons to be optimistic. First of all, we're carrying good momentum into the first quarter. We're seeing an uptick in our POS stronger performance on both brands. We like our -- as Chris, as I answered in Chris' question, we like our pipeline going into the year. We like retailers focus on bigger brands. So I think from our perspective, we're optimistic about the year but cautious about the external environment as we head into it. So our view is we're going to read POS, and we'll make adjustments from an investment standpoint based upon how we see it.

也就是說，我們有理由保持樂觀。首先，我們在第一季度保持良好勢頭。我們看到兩個品牌的 POS 表現都在上升。我們喜歡我們的 - 正如我在 Chris 的問題中回答的那樣，我們喜歡進入這一年的管道。我們喜歡零售商專注於大品牌。因此，我認為從我們的角度來看，我們對這一年持樂觀態度，但在進入這一年時對外部環境持謹慎態度。所以我們的觀點是我們將閱讀POS，我們將根據我們的看法從投資的角度進行調整。

I think Todd's characterized the cost environment, the way we see it, like we've planned for inflation not to improve. So first, second half sort of like first half. There are some lead indicators that would suggest some of that's going to come back to us. We'll read that situation, and we'll make decisions based upon investments from a marketing standpoint based on how that plays out during the year. Did I answer your question? The only other thing I would say is your focus on value in times where consumers are starting to pinch pennies. So fortunately for us, we tend to have value sizes you focus on temporary price reduction and your merchandising activities, you try to get more displays out to center of store because foot traffic is down. So your tactics shift to shopper and consumer behaviors. But overall macro, we're going into the year pretty optimistic with the side of caution given the external environment.

我認為托德描述了成本環境，我們看待它的方式，就像我們計劃通貨膨脹不會改善一樣。所以上半場，下半場有點像上半場。有一些領先指標表明其中一些會回到我們身邊。我們將了解這種情況，我們將從營銷的角度根據投資在一年中的表現做出決策。我回答你的問題了嗎？我要說的唯一另一件事是，在消費者開始吝嗇錢的時候，你對價值的關注。對我們來說幸運的是，我們傾向於將價值大小集中在臨時降價和推銷活動上，由於客流量下降，您會嘗試將更多的展示放在商店中心。因此，您的策略轉向購物者和消費者行為。但總體而言，考慮到外部環境，我們對今年持謹慎態度的態度相當樂觀。

Yes. That last piece really got to the point -- thank you very much, Joe, and thanks, Tom as well.

是的。最後一段真的很切題——非常感謝喬，也感謝湯姆。

Our next question comes from the line of Alexia Howard with Bernstein.

我們的下一個問題來自 Alexia Howard 和 Bernstein 的對話。

So 2 questions. The first one is on price elasticity because I know that we're only getting a more picture or a partial picture in the measured channels. and we're seeing pretty high levels of price elasticity in there. Now I know that you've got stronger growth in e-commerce, I know we've got the data points of 9.5% pricing with volumes of 4%, but presumably, that was also impacted by the retailer inventory reductions this quarter. So if we were to include the nonmeasured channels. Could you give us any insight into overall levels of pricing and sort of run rate levels of volume declines? And then I have a follow-up.

所以2個問題。第一個是關於價格彈性的，因為我知道我們只能在測量渠道中獲得更多或部分圖片。我們在那裡看到了相當高的價格彈性。現在我知道您在電子商務方面的增長更加強勁，我知道我們已經獲得了 9.5% 的定價和 4% 的銷量的數據點，但據推測，這也受到了本季度零售商庫存減少的影響。因此，如果我們要包括未測量的通道。您能給我們提供有關定價總體水平和銷量下降的運行率水平的任何見解嗎？然後我有一個跟進。

So Alexia, we're in kind of a turbulent time right now because we actually have 2 overlapping price increases. So we took a price increase that was sort of started being effective this time last year. We just took one in August and September. So there's net somewhere around 15, 16 points of pricing in the marketplace a short period of time. So we're watching that very closely. Obviously, as one burns off, we'll be interested in seeing what the elasticities are.

所以 Alexia，我們現在正處於一個動蕩的時期，因為我們實際上有 2 次重疊的價格上漲。所以我們採取了價格上漲，去年這個時候開始生效。我們在 8 月和 9 月剛拍了一張。因此，在短時間內市場上有大約 15、16 個定價點的淨值。所以我們正在密切關注這一點。顯然，當一個人燃燒殆盡時，我們會對看看彈性是什麼感興趣。

I would characterize last year's price increases about what we expected for the total part. I would say, elasticities around 1, they lapped a little longer than you would expect. Typically, you'll see pricing elasticity start burning off after a number of purchase occasions for 4, 3, 4, 5, we start seeing people get used to the new pricing. I would say last year, it was a little later in coming consumers' reaction to it and lasted longer. So we're heading into a more difficult recessionary environment, the absolute prices are as high as we've historic highs for our brand in the category. We're that's one of the areas why we're being cautious about our guidance where we want to see how consumers respond in a more challenging economic environment with their decisions and the reaction to the prices.

我會將去年的價格上漲描述為我們對整個部分的預期。我會說，大約 1 的彈性，它們比你預期的要長一點。通常，您會看到定價彈性在 4、3、4、5 的多次購買後開始消失，我們開始看到人們開始習慣新的定價。我想說的是去年，消費者對它的反應稍晚，持續時間更長。因此，我們正進入一個更加困難的衰退環境，絕對價格與我們品牌在該類別中的歷史高點一樣高。這就是我們對我們的指導持謹慎態度的領域之一，我們希望了解消費者在更具挑戰性的經濟環境中如何應對他們的決定和對價格的反應。

Yes. And to your earlier point, Alexia, you're right that we were down 4 points in volume for the quarter, but we pulled about 5 points of inventory out in the quarter. As you know, we shipped ahead of consumption in the first part of the year. So true like-for-like kind of consumption volume was up about 1% or 2%. And as Joe said, we've been seeing about 1 for 1 across the board. And I think our anticipation is that elasticity will kind of stay for a while.

是的。對於您之前的觀點，Alexia，您說得對，我們本季度的銷量下降了 4 個百分點，但我們在本季度撤出了大約 5 個百分點的庫存。如您所知，我們在今年上半年提前發貨。因此，真正的同類消費量增長了約 1% 或 2%。正如喬所說，我們已經看到了大約 1 對 1 的情況。我認為我們的預期是彈性會持續一段時間。

Great. And then just as a quick follow-up. You mentioned co-manufacturer costs being up, which I think they have been for a while. But that was one of the things that was worse than expected this quarter. How much visibility do you have into those co-manufacturing costs as we look out into fiscal '23? Is it locked in now? Or could there be some uptick?

偉大的。然後作為快速跟進。你提到聯合製造商的成本在上升，我認為這已經有一段時間了。但這是本季度比預期更糟糕的事情之一。在我們展望 23 財年時，您對這些聯合製造成本有多少了解？現在被鎖了嗎？或者可能會有一些上漲？

Yes. So the fourth quarter issue was an issue around start-up of a new product and a new co-man. So the business, so not an inflationary increase of contract manufacturing costs. So the way the industry works is typically, when you're doing start-up runs and the contract manufacturer is not getting production, you pay for the line time. So we had a number of products with a new co-man and/or a new product that took longer than what we anticipated. So we had to run multiple days, multiple shifts. That's a fixed cost to us. That was higher than typically what we would have forecasted, we would view that as a onetime cost.

是的。所以第四季度的問題是關於啟動新產品和新同事的問題。所以業務，所以不是合同製造成本的通貨膨脹增加。因此，該行業的運作方式通常是，當您進行啟動運行並且合同製造商沒有生產時，您需要為生產線時間付費。因此，我們有許多產品與一個新的合作人員和/或一個比我們預期花費更長的時間的新產品。所以我們不得不運行多天，多班。這對我們來說是固定成本。這比我們通常預測的要高，我們將其視為一次性成本。

Yes. We have so to Joe's point, we have very good visibility on the annual inflation rates on co-mans. Those are negotiated typically every year. There's absolutely inflation, but kind of single-digit inflation. And again, very good visibility to what those costs are for the foreseeable future.

是的。我們對喬的觀點是這樣，我們對共同人的年度通貨膨脹率有很好的了解。這些通常每年進行談判。絕對有通貨膨脹，但有一種個位數的通貨膨脹。同樣，在可預見的未來，這些成本的可見性非常好。

Our next question comes from the line of John Baumgartner with Mizuho.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞穗的約翰·鮑姆加特納。

Maybe, Joe, first off, I'd like to ask about Quest and specifically the bars business. I mean I think since you made the acquisition, distribution growth has really outperformed the bars category by quite a large margin across all your measured channels. I'm curious at this point, how we should think about the next phase of growth there? I mean are there specific channels where you think distribution and availability can increase further, should we think about new formats, whether it's wafers or anything like that? Just specific to Quest bars, just your thoughts on future growth.

也許，喬，首先，我想問一下 Quest，特別是酒吧業務。我的意思是，我認為自從您進行收購以來，在您所有測量的渠道中，分銷增長確實大大超過了酒吧類別。我現在很好奇，我們應該如何考慮下一階段的增長？我的意思是，您認為是否有特定的渠道可以進一步增加分銷和可用性，我們是否應該考慮新的格式，無論是晶圓還是類似的東西？僅針對 Quest 酒吧，僅針對您對未來發展的看法。

Yes. I think one of the strengths of the acquisition as we combined to selling organizations with complementary skills. So in the case of food drug mass that was an at constraint, you're seeing that start to play out now in distribution gains in Quest and in particular, we're using an old Atkins playbook move from singles to multis. So that's going to continue to play out. as the years progress, trading people up from 1 to 4 packs on our classic bars. And I think that's -- you're going to continue to see that happen. Second, the Quest team had just a terrific small-format team, right? So do a really good job, breadth and depth of penetration. You're seeing the kind of classic original Quest bar build distribution over time as we further penetrate those distribution channels with better placement, so more items, better location in small format stores. I think you're going to continue to see that play out.

是的。我認為收購的優勢之一是我們結合銷售具有互補技能的組織。因此，在食品藥品質量受到限制的情況下，您會看到現在開始在 Quest 的分配收益中發揮作用，特別是，我們正在使用舊的阿特金斯劇本從單打到多打。所以這將繼續發揮作用。隨著時間的推移，我們的經典酒吧的交易人數從 1 包增加到 4 包。我認為那是 - 你將繼續看到這種情況發生。其次，Quest 團隊只是一個非常棒的小型團隊，對吧？所以做的真好，滲透的廣度和深度。隨著時間的推移，您會看到經典的原始 Quest 酒吧建立分銷，因為我們進一步滲透到那些具有更好放置的分銷渠道，因此更多的項目，在小型商店中的更好位置。我認為您將繼續看到這種情況。

And then lastly, there's a nice innovation pipeline going on our bars right now. So we have many bars on Quest, and I'll talk about those in a second, but you also have dipped to bars. So basically, the basic 2 key flavors of our original bars with a dip chocolate outer layer, both of those are moving in distribution as we speak. The minis are interesting because if you've eaten our classic bars, you know that they can be pretty they can be pretty satisfying, right? And for some people, just too big. So minis are kind of a smaller snack fewer calories, a little less satiety from them. And so we think they're pretty innovative from a growth standpoint.

最後，我們的酒吧現在有一個很好的創新管道。所以我們在 Quest 上有很多酒吧，我將在稍後討論這些，但你也涉足酒吧。所以基本上，我們最初的巧克力外層的基本的 2 種主要口味，正如我們所說的，這兩種口味都在分佈。迷你很有趣，因為如果您吃過我們的經典酒吧，您就會知道它們可以很漂亮，也可以很令人滿意，對吧？對某些人來說，太大了。因此，迷你零食是一種較小的零食，卡路里更少，飽腹感也更少。因此，從增長的角度來看，我們認為它們非常具有創新性。

And then lastly, we have a -- if you haven't tasted the new products, the product upgrade that we have on our classic bars, it's pretty terrific. So the upgrade provides a softer, longer kind of better eating experience, and we expect that's going to provide an uptick in our OG Bar business as we go forward. So we're pretty optimistic. The Quest bar business, we think, has a pretty long runway for growth. We'll drive it through white space and through product innovation and upgrades, and we think it's more than a few years of runway of opportunity for that business.

最後，我們有一個——如果你還沒有嚐過新產品，我們對經典酒吧的產品升級，那真是太棒了。因此，升級提供了一種更柔和、更持久的更好的飲食體驗，我們預計隨著我們的發展，這將推動我們的 OG 酒吧業務增長。所以我們非常樂觀。我們認為，Quest 酒吧業務的增長之路相當漫長。我們將通過空白空間以及產品創新和升級來推動它，我們認為這對於該業務來說不僅僅是幾年的機會。

Great. And just a follow-up, touching on the strength in e-commerce for Atkins. As you mentioned, the growth there maybe is stronger than expected. Is there anything unique to that brand you would highlight as a factor behind that? I mean is there a channel-specific pricing you're doing? Are you increasing frequency of digital-specific advertising? How would you characterize the support for that accretive growth? And how long do you think it sort of persist here going forward?

偉大的。只是一個跟進，談到阿特金斯在電子商務方面的實力。正如你所提到的，那裡的增長可能比預期的要強。您會強調該品牌有什麼獨特之處作為其背後的因素嗎？我的意思是您是否有針對特定渠道的定價？您是否增加了數字廣告的頻率？您如何描述對這種增長的支持？你認為它會在這裡持續多久？

Yes. So it's been on a pretty good trajectory. We said in our prepared comments, it was under 5% of Atkins 3 years ago. I think if you go back 4 years, it was under 1%. So it's been -- this is where combining with Quest has been a huge advantage, e-commerce, the size of the e-commerce business on Quest. .

是的。所以它一直在一個很好的軌道上。我們在準備好的評論中說，3 年前它低於阿特金斯的 5%。我認為如果你回到 4 年，它低於 1%。所以它一直 - 這是與 Quest 結合的一個巨大優勢，電子商務，Quest 電子商務業務的規模。 .

From a development standpoint was ahead of Atkins. And so as we put those 2 businesses together, in particular at Amazon, we got a bigger seat at the table, and we learned a little bit more about the opportunity on Atkins. So a lot of the growth we're experiencing right now on Atkins is due to our improvement of our catalog of products offered. So we did a refocusing of our shake business as a first phase, trying to get the average price point on Amazon over $20, which is a key for their profitability. And if they're making more money, then they're more likely to push you from a growth standpoint. So you can promote more, you can get a deal of the days and special promotion opportunities.

從發展的角度來看是領先於阿特金斯。因此，當我們將這兩項業務放在一起時，尤其是在亞馬遜，我們在餐桌上獲得了更大的席位，我們對阿特金斯的機會有了更多的了解。因此，我們現在在 Atkins 上所經歷的大部分增長都是由於我們改進了我們提供的產品目錄。因此，我們在第一階段重新調整了奶昔業務，試圖讓亞馬遜的平均價格超過 20 美元，這是他們盈利的關鍵。如果他們賺了更多的錢，那麼他們更有可能從增長的角度推動你。所以你可以推廣更多，你可以獲得優惠的日子和特別的推廣機會。

So we're seeing that play out. Obviously, there's a there's an opportunity as we go further into the Atkins portfolio and get the catalog right on Atkins, we see an opportunity for continued growth on Atkins over the next few years. Just to give you a benchmark, Atkins is about 12% e-commerce. I think Quest is around 20%. So there's 8 points of opportunities we go forward. We're going to chase that pretty hard over the next few years.

所以我們看到了這種情況。顯然，隨著我們進一步深入阿特金斯產品組合併在阿特金斯上獲得正確的目錄，我們看到了未來幾年阿特金斯持續增長的機會。只是給你一個基準，阿特金斯大約 12% 是電子商務。我認為 Quest 大約是 20%。所以我們有8個機會前進。在接下來的幾年裡，我們將努力實現這一目標。

Our next question comes from the line of Jason English with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的 Jason English。

A couple of quick questions. First, real quick housekeeping. Can you remind us the order of magnitude of that price increase that you put in August, September? And secondly, the sort of onetime co-man line time expense that you incur in the fourth quarter. Can you quantify that, please? .

幾個快速的問題。首先，真正快速的家政服務。您能否提醒我們您在 8 月、9 月提出的價格上漲的數量級？其次，你在第四季度產生的那種一次性副線時間費用。請問可以量化一下嗎？ .

Yes. The average price increase at the end of the year was about 8%, similar to the one that we took in September the previous year. Line -- co-man was between $1 million and $2 million.

是的。年底的平均價格漲幅約為 8%，與我們去年 9 月份的漲幅相似。線——聯合人在 100 萬到 200 萬美元之間。

Okay. And then bigger picture question. Joe, looking across the diet landscape, there's a lot of turbulence Medifast has cut guidance. Weight Watchers is struggling. SlimFast is down. You're seeing a lot of volume pressure on Atkins, albeit I could see you're certainly outperforming the market. Meanwhile, these new pharma solutions that have been approved by the FDA seemed like they're on fire. And like Novartis can barely keep up or they can't keep up actually with Wegovy demand.

好的。然後是更大的問題。喬，縱觀整個飲食格局，Medifast 已經削減了很多動蕩的指導。體重觀察者正在苦苦掙扎。 SlimFast 已關閉。你看到阿特金斯的銷量壓力很大，儘管我可以看到你的表現肯定優於市場。與此同時，這些已獲得 FDA 批准的新製藥解決方案似乎著火了。就像諾華幾乎無法跟上，或者他們實際上無法跟上 Wegovy 的需求。

Are we seeing a shift from traditional dieting into these new pharma solutions? It certainly looks like it is. If so, how do you think it's impacting your business? And I know there's been active -- you've had active efforts over the years to try to transition Atkins away from core active dieters to more lifestyle. Can you remind us like a rough split your best guess to rough split of consumers, how much are -- what percentage are active dieters, what percent are just more Libyan active lifestyle.

我們是否看到了從傳統節食到這些新的製藥解決方案的轉變？看起來確實如此。如果是這樣，您認為它對您的業務有何影響？而且我知道一直很活躍——多年來你一直在積極努力，試圖將阿特金斯從核心積極節食者轉變為更多的生活方式。你能提醒我們粗略的劃分你對消費者粗略劃分的最佳猜測嗎？有多少——有多少是積極節食者，有多少百分比是利比亞積極的生活方式。

Yes. Look, Jason, I don't -- I like your theory. The data in our business doesn't support it. So we're not seeing declines in interest in brand. So you would -- if your pharma if your pharma theory, we're true in our business, we would see fall off and buyer lack of loyalty, you would see inability to recruit new buyers. So I don't think in snacking, we're seeing that impact on our business. I'm not disagreeing with your macro trends, but we're just not seeing in our business.

是的。聽著，傑森，我不——我喜歡你的理論。我們業務中的數據不支持它。所以我們沒有看到對品牌的興趣下降。所以你會 - 如果你的製藥公司如果你的製藥理論，我們在我們的業務中是真實的，我們會看到下降和買家缺乏忠誠度，你會看到無法招募新買家。所以我不認為在零食方面，我們看到了對我們業務的影響。我並不反對你的宏觀趨勢，但我們只是沒有看到我們的業務。

The slowdown in Atkins is driven by changes in snacking and meal replacement behavior driven around the pandemic. And the evidence of that, I think, is pretty strong. And I think the improvement in the business has been driven by changes in that as we go forward. So I don't think that's the case in the case of our business. So I think part of it, to your point, is we've moved away from kind of fast weight loss, historical positioning of the brand to more lifestyle positioning I don't have the most recent numbers. I do remember, we're about a 40 share of dieters.

阿特金斯的放緩是由圍繞大流行驅動的零食和代餐行為的變化所驅動的。我認為，這方面的證據非常有力。我認為業務的改善是由我們前進的變化推動的。所以我認為我們的業務情況並非如此。所以我認為，就你的觀點而言，部分原因是我們已經從快速減肥、品牌的歷史定位轉向了更多的生活方式定位。我沒有最新的數據。我記得，我們大約有 40 名節食者。

There were about 8 million dieters, that's probably 4-year-old data now. and lifestyle when we started, there were about 33 lifestyle -- million lifestyle consumers. We started at about a 10 share of them, and my guess is we've grown that pretty significantly over the last few years. And -- but even as we were doing that, we were until the pandemic, we weren't seeing buy rate differences, right? I think snacking behavior is snacking behavior and lifestyle people didn't show a change in buy rate from typically what an annual behavior of a dieter or would be. So like I get your concept, I think it's an interesting theory. I don't think it's playing out in our business.

大約有 800 萬節食者，這可能是 4 年前的數據了。和生活方式 當我們開始時，大約有 33 種生活方式——百萬生活方式消費者。我們從其中大約 10 個份額開始，我猜我們在過去幾年裡增長得相當顯著。而且--但即使我們這樣做，直到大流行，我們也沒有看到購買率差異，對嗎？我認為吃零食的行為是吃零食的行為，人們的生活方式並沒有表現出與節食者的年度行為相比通常的購買率或將要發生的變化。所以就像我得到你的概念一樣，我認為這是一個有趣的理論。我認為這不會在我們的業務中發揮作用。

If you look broader in the category, too, I don't think it's playing out in SlimFast business either. I think SlimFast went all in on Kito. It turned out to be a low carb that they wrote it up and they're riding it down now. And I think once that gets out of their business, their business should be fine.

如果您也從更廣泛的類別來看，我認為它也不會在 SlimFast 業務中發揮作用。我認為 SlimFast 全力以赴。結果證明這是他們寫的低碳水化合物，現在他們正在騎它。而且我認為，一旦這脫離了他們的業務，他們的業務就應該沒問題。

Our next question comes from the line of Pamela Kaufman with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的帕梅拉考夫曼。

How are you thinking about the growth in Quest versus Atkins for fiscal '23? Do you expect Quest to continue to generate outsized growth relative to Atkins? Or is it going to be more balanced given the comparisons that the brands are facing?

您如何看待 23 財年 Quest 與 Atkins 的增長？相對於阿特金斯，您預計 Quest 會繼續產生巨大的增長嗎？還是考慮到品牌所面臨的比較，它會更加平衡？

And then just related to that, how do you think they're each positioned in a more value-oriented consumer environment? Does Quest do better because it has a more affluent customer base does Atkins outperform because of lower price points.

然後與此相關，您認為它們各自如何定位於更加以價值為導向的消費環境中？ Quest 之所以做得更好，是因為它擁有更富裕的客戶群嗎？阿特金斯是否因為價格較低而表現出色。

Great questions. I would expect Quest continues to outperform from a growth standpoint. It's earlier in its history. It's got distribution gain as distribution opportunities that frankly, Atkins is further along in. It's got a strong e-commerce business, so it's going to ride e-commerce trends really well.

好問題。從增長的角度來看，我預計 Quest 將繼續表現出色。它的歷史更早。坦率地說，它作為分銷機會獲得了分銷收益，阿特金斯走得更遠。它擁有強大的電子商務業務，因此它將很好地駕馭電子商務趨勢。

Price points on -- we're a little cautious about. We tend not to do it how those Quest compare to Atkins, but I would tell you, we're cautious about the price points in general. Quest are higher, right? Atkins are a little bit less Atkins has some value sizes that Quest doesn't have. So Atkins is probably better positioned from a value standpoint. But I think Quest has got a heck of a lot of momentum right now, right? Its core bar business is growing. It's got innovation that's doing well. it's on a role from a distribution standpoint. We would expect Quest to outperform. And I think Atkins is well positioned from a value standpoint to ride through kind of the recessionary period.

價格點——我們有點謹慎。我們傾向於不做那些 Quest 與 Atkins 相比的事情，但我會告訴你，我們一般對價格點持謹慎態度。任務更高，對吧？阿特金斯有點少 阿特金斯有一些 Quest 沒有的價值大小。因此，從價值的角度來看，阿特金斯的定位可能更好。但我認為 Quest 現在有很大的發展勢頭，對吧？它的核心酒吧業務正在增長。它的創新做得很好。從分發的角度來看，它是一個角色。我們預計 Quest 的表現會更好。而且我認為從價值的角度來看，阿特金斯處於有利地位，可以度過經濟衰退期。

Great. And then just on the P&L. So you expect EBITDA to grow in line with sales, but gross margin to decline. So can you talk about where you have opportunities for leverage in operating expenses and how you're thinking about marketing investment for next year?

偉大的。然後就在損益表上。因此，您預計 EBITDA 將與銷售額同步增長，但毛利率將下降。那麼您能否談談您在哪些方面有機會利用運營費用以及您如何考慮明年的營銷投資？

Yes. So we're going to try to keep all of SG&A relatively flat, at least for now until we see a break in the commodity picture. So G&A will be very, very tight on. That will be very flat for the year. Marketing right now will also be flattish. You got to recall, the last 3 or 4 years, we've had significant increases in marketing well ahead of net sales growth, 9% of net sales right now.

是的。因此，我們將盡量保持所有 SG&A 相對持平，至少目前是這樣，直到我們看到商品圖景出現突破。所以 G&A 會非常非常緊。今年將非常平穩。現在的營銷也將是平淡無奇的。您必須回想一下，在過去的 3 或 4 年中，我們在營銷方面的顯著增長遠遠超過了淨銷售額增長，目前占淨銷售額的 9%。

So we have over $100 million in marketing for our business. We have a really nice bucket of marketing funds to work from. We're going to be cautious just because of the environment out there right now. So we're going to hold that relatively flat from a dollar perspective. We're not going to decline it. But we'll hold it flat. And if we see a break in commodities, you can count on us to start to reinvest more marketing dollars in the second half of the year.

因此，我們有超過 1 億美元的營銷費用用於我們的業務。我們有一大筆營銷資金可供使用。只是因為現在的環境，我們會保持謹慎。因此，從美元的角度來看，我們將保持相對平穩。我們不會拒絕它。但我們會堅持下去。如果我們看到大宗商品出現突破，您可以指望我們在下半年開始重新投資更多的營銷資金。

Our next question comes from the line of Cody Ross with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的科迪羅斯。

I just want to turn to the pressure that Atkins came under this past summer. You called out distribution losses in your prepared remarks. Can you just discuss what drove those distribution losses and discuss your plans to regain that lost distribution?

我只想談談阿特金斯去年夏天承受的壓力。你在準備好的評論中提到了分配損失。您能否僅討論導致這些分銷損失的原因並討論您恢復失去的分銷的計劃？

Yes. Let's step back, Cody, because I think you're zooming in on a portion of the story. I think, again, if you look -- take a look at what's been going on in Atkins is we've seen a change during the pandemic of snacking behavior. And when you're not at work, you're not the advantage of portable meal replacement at work, those snacking occasions were, in fact, lower levels than kind of pre-pandemic levels. That had a general in a general impact on buy rate from a brand standpoint. So as we've seen those trends start to change, you're starting to see the buy rate of those products start to pick up. We saw it in our meal bar business, we're seeing in our shake business.

是的。讓我們退後一步，科迪，因為我認為你正在放大故事的一部分。我再次認為，如果你看一下 - 看看阿特金斯發生了什麼，我們已經看到在零食行為大流行期間發生了變化。而且，當您不工作時，您在工作時就沒有便攜式代餐的優勢，實際上，那些吃零食的場合比大流行前的水平還低。從品牌的角度來看，這對購買率產生了普遍影響。因此，當我們看到這些趨勢開始發生變化時，您開始看到這些產品的購買率開始回升。我們在餐吧業務中看到了這一點，我們在奶昔業務中也看到了這一點。

I did mention that there are 1 or 2 issues that happened over the spring, which were amplifiers of the trends we're experiencing. And that was we lost distribution on snack bars as we put in some items in chips and cookies. And obviously, we're moving to fix that issue as we speak right now. So that's new product innovation on snack bars to fill in the losses that we experienced over the summer.

我確實提到過春季發生了 1 或 2 個問題，它們是我們正在經歷的趨勢的放大器。那是我們在小吃店失去了分佈，因為我們在薯條和餅乾中放入了一些物品。顯然，正如我們現在所說的那樣，我們正在著手解決這個問題。所以這是小吃店的新產品創新，以填補我們在夏天經歷的損失。

And then we had talked about this before, we had a new product launch last September, October, when in distribution in October, November, on confections. They were deserve bars and the repeat on those hasn't been great. So obviously, the fix there is innovation on indulge the kind of confections in order to offset those declines.

然後我們之前討論過這個問題，我們在去年 9 月和 10 月推出了一款新產品，當時在 10 月和 11 月分發糖果。他們是當之無愧的酒吧，對那些的重複並不好。所以很明顯，為了抵消這些下降，解決方案是在放縱糖果的方面進行創新。

Just to be clear, Cody, I mean, absolutely snack bars down in distribution. Total distribution has been in good shape. It's been flat to up over the last year. And as Joe mentioned earlier, we did really well in the Walmart reset on both brands. So you'll start to see those TDP growth increase, probably hardly see it in the data, and we're optimistic at all resets to come in November will be positive as well. So distribution continues to be a strength for us.

需要明確的是，科迪，我的意思是，小吃店的分佈絕對是下降的。總體分佈狀況良好。過去一年一直持平。正如喬之前提到的，我們在沃爾瑪重置這兩個品牌方面做得非常好。因此，您將開始看到 TDP 增長增加，可能在數據中幾乎看不到，我們樂觀地認為 11 月的所有重置也將是積極的。因此，分銷仍然是我們的優勢。

Great. And then I just want to discuss your snack pot can you really launched into that really 2 years ago. Can you just give us the state of the union of your snack segment right now? How big is that platform? How is it doing relative to your expectations? And then where do you see it going over the next 2 to 3 years?

偉大的。然後我只想討論一下你的零食鍋，你真的能在 2 年前推出嗎？您現在可以告訴我們您的零食部門的聯盟狀況嗎？那個平台有多大？相對於您的期望，它的表現如何？然後你認為它在未來 2 到 3 年內會走向何方？

I'm assuming, Cody, you're talking about just in general, non-bars and shakes innovation?

我假設，科迪，你只是在談論一般的非酒吧和奶昔創新？

Yes.

是的。

So yes, just a step back. Look, we have a core business, our core business is bars and shakes, bars predominantly on Quest bars and shakes on Atkins, just from an innovation standpoint, you given the buy rates of these businesses, I think it's easy to miss this point. But we have businesses that in just general snacking terms have really high buy rates.

所以，是的，只是退後一步。看，我們有一個核心業務，我們的核心業務是酒吧和奶昔，酒吧主要在 Quest 酒吧和阿特金斯的奶昔上，從創新的角度來看，你考慮到這些業務的購買率，我認為很容易錯過這一點。但我們的企業在一般零食方面的購買率非常高。

So if you're an Atkins buyer, you're a multiyear actins buyer, you're buying 2 snacks a week on average, right? So innovation variety even in the core businesses become very important. So then as you think about noncore we have our confection business strong on both brands, big business growing fast on Quest as it entered it last year. You have cookies and chips, Quest, obviously, multiple years into that. Chips has been a -- and then salty snacks beyond that has been a growth engine for the business. It's been driving household penetration. It's a source of new buyers into the brand. We -- it's doing really well. We intend to continue to build on that.

所以如果你是阿特金斯的買家，你是多年的肌動蛋白買家，你平均每週要買 2 份零食，對吧？因此，即使在核心業務中，創新品種也變得非常重要。因此，當您考慮非核心業務時，我們的糖果業務在這兩個品牌上都表現強勁，Quest 去年進入的大業務增長迅速。顯然，你有餅乾和薯條，Quest，多年來。薯片一直是——然後鹹味零食一直是該業務的增長引擎。它一直在推動家庭滲透。這是該品牌新買家的來源。我們——它做得很好。我們打算繼續在此基礎上再接再厲。

And then obviously, a big platform with cookies has done very well. We innovated with frosted cookies a year ago. That continues to be a strong platform. So as a company, we view those forms as an opportunity to get into different snacking occasions in different dayparts. So our core business tends to be more prior to lunch. So as you start innovating in those other forms, you tend to be more later in the day in different snacking confections tend to be late in the afternoon, early in the evening, it's kind of a sweet tooth thing.

然後很明顯，一個帶有 cookie 的大平台做得很好。一年前，我們用糖霜餅乾進行了創新。這仍然是一個強大的平台。因此，作為一家公司，我們將這些形式視為在不同時段進入不同零食場合的機會。所以我們的核心業務往往是在午餐之前。因此，當您開始以其他形式進行創新時，您往往會在一天的晚些時候更多地吃不同的零食糖果，往往是在下午晚些時候，傍晚，這是一種甜食。

Chips and cookies tend to be, for the most part, between lunch and dinner. So we're trying to penetrate those occasions. And then what we look at is can we create a snack food product that kind of turns the macros of traditional snack foods upside down, right? Good in protein, low in the stuff that you don't want carbs and sugar. If we can make a good tasting product and it's a sizable kind of conventional snacking category. We like entering those because we can give people a better-for-you option that tastes great.

在大多數情況下，薯條和餅乾往往在午餐和晚餐之間。所以我們正試圖滲透這些場合。然後我們看到的是，我們能否創造一種休閒食品產品，將傳統休閒食品的宏觀模式顛倒過來，對嗎？蛋白質含量高，你不想要碳水化合物和糖的東西含量低。如果我們能製作出美味的產品，而且它是一種相當大的傳統零食類別。我們喜歡進入這些，因為我們可以為人們提供更好的選擇，味道很棒。

Yes. And just to be clear, we are very, very cognizant of that core bar and shakes has to be healthy. It has to be growing. So we're not relying on these new newer snack platforms to drive the growth, we have to drive the growth of bars and shakes. So that core is about 55% on Quest. The snack leases the rest. It's growing very, very nicely the snack piece but the bar business, as you know, is growing in the teens as well. So that's what we need to do going in the future.

是的。需要明確的是，我們非常非常清楚核心棒和奶昔必須是健康的。它必須在增長。所以我們不依賴這些新的零食平台來推動增長，我們必須推動酒吧和奶昔的增長。所以這個核心在 Quest 上大約佔 55%。小吃出租其餘的。零食的增長非常非常好，但正如你所知，酒吧業務也在青少年時期增長。所以這就是我們未來需要做的事情。

Right now, bars and shakes is about 75% of Atkins. And so we like the fact that meal bars and shakes are doing really, really well right now. We're just starting to launch the cookies and the chips, keeping a close eye on that, but at the core platforms on both brands are not doing well. We're not going to be successful.

目前，酒吧和奶昔約佔阿特金斯的 75%。所以我們喜歡這樣一個事實，即餐吧和奶昔現在做得非常非常好。我們剛剛開始推出餅乾和薯條，密切關注這一點，但在兩個品牌的核心平台上都做得不好。我們不會成功的。

Ladies and gentlemen, our final question this morning will come from the line of Ben Bienvenu with Stephens Inc.

女士們先生們，我們今天早上的最後一個問題將來自 Ben Bienvenu 與 Stephens Inc. 的對話。

Jim Salera on for Ben. I wanted to ask the strategy as you're expanding some of these new snacking SKUs. If you have a consumer that maybe isn't a Quest buyer on the bar side, what's the thought process about getting them to be an incremental buyer, whether it be the protein ships or the cookies. So you guys have a new like cheese cracker out, you just talk maybe about the strategy to get incremental buyers into the category that might not be in that core demographic?

吉姆·薩萊拉替補本。我想問一下你們在擴展這些新的零食 SKU 時的策略。如果您的消費者可能不是酒吧方面的 Quest 買家，那麼讓他們成為增量買家的思考過程是什麼，無論是蛋白質船還是餅乾。所以你們有一個新的像奶酪餅乾一樣的東西，你們只是談論讓增量買家進入可能不在核心人群中的類別的策略？

Yes, I think I -- the answer is similar to the answer from the last question, right? We look to penetrate as many snacking occasions and meat states as we can. So a cheese cracker and a salty snack is a different snacking occasion than a confection product. So you're trying to penetrate less about who are the consumers looking at that more about offering more snacking occasions and more need states than we can fill with our existing portfolio.

是的，我想我——答案與上一個問題的答案相似，對吧？我們希望盡可能多地滲透到零食場合和肉類狀態。因此，奶酪餅乾和鹹味零食與糖果產品是不同的零食場合。因此，您試圖更少地了解消費者是誰，更多地關注提供更多零食場合和更多需求狀態，而不是我們現有的產品組合所能填補的。

Now the reality of it is you pointed to it really well. We're able to, in particular, with our chip business, salty snack business, we're bringing in a lot of new buyers. In fact, I think I saw the data that our salty snack business already has the same household penetration as our bar business. So we're bringing in consumers on that in that form into the franchise. That is our job to strengthen the positioning of the brand to get them to see it as more than just the salty snack brand and get them to buy cross purchases and other forms. And obviously, part of our marketing is designed to do that both online and mainstream media. So you build the brand, you get people to use multiple forms. You bring them in one form, you get them to try the others, and that's our strategy going forward.

現在它的現實是你很好地指出了它。尤其是我們的薯片業務、鹹味零食業務，我們能夠帶來很多新買家。事實上，我想我看到數據表明，我們的鹹味零食業務已經與我們的酒吧業務具有相同的家庭滲透率。因此，我們正在以這種形式將消費者帶入特許經營權。這是我們加強品牌定位的工作，讓他們看到它不僅僅是鹹味零食品牌，讓他們購買交叉購買和其他形式。顯然，我們的部分營銷活動旨在為在線和主流媒體做到這一點。所以你建立品牌，你讓人們使用多種形式。你把他們帶到一種形式，你讓他們嘗試其他形式，這就是我們前進的戰略。

So it's less about who are the consumers. We understand who the target is for Quest. It's more about giving them the snacking occasions in the need states that they're looking for. So they don't have to go anywhere else for their snacking products. Did that answer your question?

因此，關於誰是消費者的問題就不那麼重要了。我們了解 Quest 的目標是誰。更多的是在他們正在尋找的需要狀態中為他們提供吃零食的機會。因此，他們不必去其他任何地方購買零食產品。這回答了你的問題嗎？

And maybe if I can -- yes. And actually, if I could just have a follow-up. Do you guys know the composition, just to use like chips as an example, do you know the composition of buyers what percentage are existing Quest borrower shake consumers versus incremental to the category, they don't chop Quest and they just started buying the chips.

如果可以的話，也許——是的。實際上，如果我可以進行跟進。你們知道構成嗎，僅以類似芯片為例，您知道購買者的構成現有 Quest 借款人與增加類別的消費者的百分比是多少，他們不砍 Quest，他們只是開始購買籌碼.

Yes, we know the people that we're bringing in new to brand on Quest on chips, and we know those that are actually already bar buyers. Yes. So you can see that -- obviously, it's big enough. I'm sorry.

是的，我們知道我們在 Quest onchips 上引入新品牌的人，我們知道那些實際上已經是酒吧買家的人。是的。所以你可以看到——顯然，它已經足夠大了。對不起。

You be able to give a percentage breakdown?

你能給出一個百分比細分嗎？

No, I don't think we'll share that data now.

不，我認為我們現在不會分享這些數據。

Okay. Great. That's all for me. Thanks for the call guys.

好的。偉大的。這就是我的全部。謝謝各位來電。

Thank you for your participation today on today's call. We hope that you continue to be safe, and we look forward to updating you on our first quarter results in January. Have a good day.

感謝您今天參加今天的電話會議。我們希望您繼續保持安全，我們期待在 1 月份向您更新我們的第一季度業績。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝你。今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。