Simply Good Foods Co (SMPL) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to The Simply Good Foods Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Conference 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 of Investor Relations for Simply Good Foods Company. Thank you. You may begin.

您好，歡迎來到 Simply Good Foods 2023 財年第一季度電話會議。 （操作員說明）提醒一下，正在錄製此會議。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。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good morning. I am pleased to welcome you to The Simply Good Foods Company earnings call for the fiscal first quarter ended November 26, 2022. Joe Scalzo, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Shaun Mara, 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. Eastern.

謝謝你，運營商。早上好。很高興歡迎您參加 The Simply Good Foods Company 截至 2022 年 11 月 26 日的第一財季財報電話會議。Joe Scalzo，總裁兼首席執行官；和首席財務官 Shaun Mara 將為您提供結果概覽，然後是問答環節。該公司今天早上東部時間上午 7:00 左右發布了收益報告。

A copy of the release and accompanying presentation are available under the Investors section of the company's website at www.simplygoodfoodscompany.com. This call is being webcast, and an archive of today's remarks will also be available. 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.

可在公司網站 www.simplygoodfoodscompany.com 的“投資者”部分獲取新聞稿副本和隨附的演示文稿。此電話會議正在網絡直播中，今天的講話存檔也將可用。在今天的電話會議期間，管理層將做出前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受各種風險和不確定因素的影響，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。有關此類風險和不確定性的詳細列表，請參閱今天的新聞稿和公司提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件。

Note that on today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe will provide useful information to investors. Due to the company's asset-light strong cash flow business model, we evaluate 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 as 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.

請注意，在今天的電話會議上，我們將參考某些我們認為將為投資者提供有用信息的非 GAAP 財務指標。由於公司的輕資產強現金流業務模式，我們在調整後的基礎上評估與 EBITDA 和攤薄每股收益相關的業績。我們在今天的新聞稿中包含了 GAAP 與調整後項目的詳細對賬。我們認為這些調整後的指標是業務基本績效的關鍵指標。此信息的呈現不應被孤立地考慮或替代根據 GAAP 呈現的財務信息。請參閱今天的新聞稿，了解非 GAAP 財務措施與根據 GAAP 編制的最可比措施的對賬情況。

With that, I'll now turn the call over to Joe Scalzo, President and Chief Executive Officer.

有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給總裁兼首席執行官 Joe Scalzo。

Thank you, Mark. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Today, I'll recap Simply Good Foods first quarter and provide you with some perspective on the performance of our brands. Then Shaun will discuss our financial results in a bit more detail before we wrap it up with a discussion of our outlook as well as your questions.

謝謝你，馬克。早上好，感謝您加入我們。今天，我將回顧 Simply Good Foods 第一季度，並為您提供一些關於我們品牌業績的觀點。然後 Shaun 將更詳細地討論我們的財務結果，然後再討論我們的前景和您的問題。

We're pleased with our first quarter financial and marketplace results in a challenging cost and operating environment. Net sales increased 7% relatively in line with estimates. In the first quarter, combined measured and unmeasured channel, U.S. retail takeaway growth was about 14%. And , as expected, outpaced net sales growth. Shaun will provide more details on the difference between net sales and point-of-sales growth in a bit.

在充滿挑戰的成本和運營環境下，我們對第一季度的財務和市場業績感到滿意。淨銷售額增長 7%，相對符合預期。第一季度，結合測量和未測量渠道，美國零售外賣增長約為 14%。而且，正如預期的那樣，超過了淨銷售額增長。 Shaun 稍後將提供更多關於淨銷售額和銷售點增長之間差異的詳細信息。

Our strong POS growth was driven by solid Quest performance across key forms, customers and channels. Atkins continued e-commerce growth resulted in about 4% retail takeaway for the brand in the combined measured and unmeasured channels. First quarter gross margin was 36.9%. The 450 basis point decline versus the year ago period was slightly greater than forecast. Ingredient and packaging inflation as well as trade investment were in line with expectations.

Quest 在關鍵形式、客戶和渠道方面的穩健表現推動了我們強勁的 POS 增長。 Atkins 電子商務的持續增長導致該品牌在綜合衡量和未衡量渠道中實現約 4% 的零售外賣。第一季度毛利率為 36.9%。與去年同期相比下降 450 個基點略高於預期。成分和包裝通脹以及貿易投資符合預期。

However, logistics and contract manufacturing costs were greater than estimates. Importantly, our supply chain team performed well and customer service was near target levels. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was $60.8 million versus $65.6 million in the year ago period. Sales growth, which included our July 2022 price increase and SG&A cost control were primarily offset by supply chain inflation.

然而，物流和合同製造成本高於預期。重要的是，我們的供應鏈團隊表現良好，客戶服務接近目標水平。第一季度調整後的 EBITDA 為 6080 萬美元，而去年同期為 6560 萬美元。銷售增長，包括我們 2022 年 7 月的價格上漲和 SG&A 成本控制，主要被供應鏈通脹所抵消。

As we move into the second quarter, we're focused on executing against our plans, and we are well-positioned to deliver another solid year of net sales and adjusted EBITDA growth. Simply Good retail takeaway in measured channels increased 11.1%. Similar to the last few quarters, total unmeasured channel growth was additive to total company POS, resulting in combined measured and unmeasured channel growth of about 14%.

隨著我們進入第二季度，我們將專注於執行我們的計劃，並且我們有能力實現又一個穩健的淨銷售額和調整後的 EBITDA 增長。測量渠道中的 Simply Good 零售外賣增長了 11.1%。與過去幾個季度類似，未衡量的渠道總增長增加了公司 POS 總數，導致衡量和未衡量的渠道總增長約為 14%。

In Q1, Atkins and Quest combined measured and unmeasured channel growth were about 4% and 24%, respectively, with top-tier performance within the measured channel segments of weight management and active nutrition.

在第一季度，Atkins 和 Quest 合併的實測和未實測渠道增長分別約為 4% 和 24%，在體重管理和主動營養的實測渠道細分市場中表現一流。

Turning to Atkins first quarter performance. Atkins Q1 retail takeaway and combined measured and unmeasured channel was up about 4% as outstanding e-commerce growth continued from the previous quarter with the IRI MULO universe essentially unchanged from the year ago period. Atkins Q1 point of sale at Amazon increased 75% with solid growth across all major [forms]. We estimate total unmeasured channel retail takeaway increased over 40% and is now about 13% of total Atkins retail sales. The brand continues to benefit from shopper channel shifting to e-commerce as well as the improved digital marketing initiatives.

轉向阿特金斯第一季度的業績。阿特金斯第一季度零售外賣和綜合測量和未測量渠道增長了約 4%，這是由於電子商務的出色增長延續了上一季度，而 IRI MULO 領域與去年同期基本持平。阿特金斯第一季度在亞馬遜的銷售點增長了 75%，所有主要 [形式] 都實現了穩健增長。我們估計未衡量的渠道零售外賣總額增加了 40% 以上，目前約佔阿特金斯零售總額的 13%。該品牌繼續受益於購物者渠道轉向電子商務以及改進的數字營銷計劃。

Consistent with prior quarters, Q1 brand relevance and loyalty remains strong, supported by a growing base of new and total buyers. In Q1, buy rate continued to improve from prior quarters, but was slightly down versus prior year. Within buy rate, strengthen meal replacement bars and shakes likely driven by post-Labor Day return to work trends was offset by declines in snack bars and confections as we lapped strong pandemic consumption from those snacking occasions in the year ago period.

與前幾個季度一樣，在不斷增長的新買家和總買家基礎的支持下，第一季度品牌相關性和忠誠度依然強勁。第一季度，購買率繼續比前幾個季度有所改善，但與去年同期相比略有下降。在購買率方面，強化代餐棒和奶昔可能由勞動節後重返工作趨勢推動，但被小吃店和糖果的下降所抵消，因為我們在去年同期的這些零食場合中消費了強勁的流行病消費。

Moving on to measured channels in the IRI MULO C-store universe. Atkins Q1 POS was about the same as the year ago period and as expected, sequentially improved from Q4. Consistent with recessionary shopper channel shifting, performance was driven by solid trends in the mass retail channel offset by softness in the food class of trade. By form, Q1 sales retail takeaway increased 7.6%, driven by solid growth across all major channels. Total Atkins bars were off 6.9%. Meal bars, about 2/3 of the bar business were about the same as last year, and offset by the snack bar distribution loss we discussed last quarter and price sensitivity. Elasticity on some snack bar items has been greater than our estimates in brick-and-mortar channels.

轉到 IRI MULO C 店世界中的測量渠道。阿特金斯第一季度 POS 與去年同期大致相同，正如預期的那樣，比第四季度有所改善。與經濟衰退的購物者渠道轉移一致，業績是由大眾零售渠道的穩健趨勢推動的，但被食品類貿易的疲軟所抵消。按形式劃分，第一季度零售外賣銷售額增長 7.6%，主要受所有主要渠道穩健增長的推動。總阿特金斯酒吧下降了 6.9%。餐吧，大約 2/3 的酒吧業務與去年大致相同，並被我們上個季度討論的小吃店分銷損失和價格敏感性所抵消。一些小吃店商品的彈性高於我們對實體渠道的估計。

And as expected, confections POS improved from Q4. In Q1, confections retail takeaway was off 5.3% as we started to lap the impact of the strong year-ago dessert bar launch. Importantly, the commitment to our brands and the nutritional snacking category by major retailers remain strong. Atkins distribution gains are tracking as expected and strong New Year, New You in-store merchandising and programming is in place.

正如預期的那樣，糖果 POS 從第四季度開始有所改善。在第一季度，糖果零售外賣下降了 5.3%，因為我們開始考慮一年前甜點吧強勁推出的影響。重要的是，主要零售商對我們的品牌和營養零食類別的承諾依然強勁。 Atkins 的分銷收益如預期和強勁的新年、New You 店內銷售和規劃已到位。

Let me now turn to Quest. Q1 retail takeaway were combined measured and unmeasured channel growth was up 24% and about the same as the IRI MULO C-store universe. In Q1, we estimate total unmeasured channel retail takeaway increased about 20% as e-commerce strength was partially offset by softness in the specialty channel. Quest Q1 POS and Amazon increased about 36% driven by growth across all forms. For perspective, total unmeasured channels in Q1 were about 24% of total Quest retail sales. In measured channels, Quest retail takeaway increased 25.4% in the IRI MULO C-store universe. Growth was driven by solid performance across all major forms and retail channels as well as increases in household penetration, base velocity, distribution and continued success of new products.

現在讓我談談 Quest。第一季度零售外賣的綜合測量和未測量渠道增長增長了 24%，與 IRI MULO C 店範圍大致相同。在第一季度，我們估計未衡量的渠道零售外賣總額增長了約 20%，因為電子商務的實力被專業渠道的疲軟部分抵消了。受所有形式增長的推動，Quest Q1 POS 和亞馬遜增長了約 36%。從長遠來看，第一季度未衡量的渠道總數約佔 Quest 零售總額的 24%。在測量渠道中，Quest 零售外賣在 IRI MULO C 店範圍內增長了 25.4%。所有主要形式和零售渠道的穩健表現以及家庭滲透率、基本速度、分銷和新產品持續成功的增長推動了增長。

In the quarter, Quest core bar business, retail takeaway increased 16.8%. Growth was solid across original bars as well as the new minis. Consumer response in the new recipe that provides a much softer original bar has been encouraging. The snackier portion of Quest products that's cookies, confections and salty snacks continue to do well with Q1 measured retail channel takeaway up 41%. Growth was strong across all forms and was driven by increasing household penetration, distribution gains and marketing investments to drive awareness and trial.

本季度，Quest 核心酒吧業務零售外賣增長 16.8%。原始酒吧和新迷你酒吧的增長穩健。消費者對提供更柔軟的原味巧克力棒的新配方的反應令人鼓舞。 Quest 產品中的零食部分，即餅乾、糖果和鹹味零食繼續表現良好，第一季度零售渠道外賣量增長了 41%。所有形式的增長都強勁，並受到家庭滲透率、分銷收益和營銷投資增加的推動，以提高知名度和試用率。

Consumer response to the price increase initiated in late in Q4 is tracking mostly as expected, although elasticity owned chips so far has been greater than our estimates. The snack segment represents nearly [45%] of total Quest measured channel retail sales and is already roughly equal to Quest bars in household penetration. So it's a sizable and growing segment for the brand. Further, we expect the segment to continue to contribute disproportionately to total brand growth over the next few years driven by improvements to household penetration as well as a solid pipeline and of innovation.

消費者對第四季度末開始的價格上漲的反應基本符合預期，儘管到目前為止彈性擁有的芯片比我們的估計要大。零食部分佔 Quest 測量的渠道零售總額的近 [45%]，並且在家庭滲透率方面已經大致等同於 Quest bars。因此，對於該品牌而言，這是一個規模龐大且不斷增長的細分市場。此外，我們預計該細分市場將在未來幾年繼續為品牌總體增長做出不成比例的貢獻，這主要得益於家庭滲透率的提高以及穩固的管道和創新。

That said, given the significant and increasing size of the segment, we expect the rate of growth over the next few quarters to moderate from its current level.

也就是說，鑑於該細分市場規模龐大且不斷增加，我們預計未來幾個季度的增長率將從目前的水平放緩。

In summary, we're pleased with our start to the year and our first quarter results. Our retail takeaway was relatively in line with expectations and a very challenging cost and operating environment. Recessionary economy continues to be a concern as higher prices appear to be slowing unit demand in the category and shifting shopper traffic away from grocery to more value-oriented channels.

總之，我們對今年的開局和第一季度的業績感到滿意。我們的零售外賣相對符合預期以及極具挑戰性的成本和運營環境。經濟衰退仍然是一個令人擔憂的問題，因為價格上漲似乎正在減緩該類別的單位需求，並將購物者流量從雜貨店轉移到更注重價值的渠道。

That said, we remain cautiously optimistic about our business with strong POS momentum over the first 4 months of our fiscal year. We are well-positioned in the mass and e-commerce retail channels that typically do well as shoppers seek out value. As I mentioned earlier, collaboration with key customers is strong, and they are committed to our brands in the category. As such, in Q2, we have good breadth and depth of merchandising and programming in place for the upcoming new year season.

也就是說，我們對本財年前 4 個月銷售勢頭強勁的業務持謹慎樂觀態度。我們在大眾和電子商務零售渠道中處於有利地位，這些渠道通常在購物者尋求價值時表現良好。正如我之前提到的，與主要客戶的合作非常緊密，他們致力於我們在該類別中的品牌。因此，在第二季度，我們為即將到來的新年季準備了良好的營銷和規劃廣度和深度。

While Q1 gross margin was slightly lower than our forecast due to logistics and co-manufacturing costs, there is no change to our full year fiscal 2023 gross margin outlook. We would note that we are seeing early signs of an improving marketplace for ingredient and packaging costs for the second half of our fiscal year. We are executing against our priorities, and we remain committed to doing the right thing over the near- and long-term for our brands, customers and consumers.

儘管由於物流和聯合製造成本，第一季度毛利率略低於我們的預期，但我們對 2023 財年全年毛利率的展望沒有變化。我們會注意到，我們看到了本財年下半年成分和包裝成本市場改善的早期跡象。我們正在按照我們的優先事項執行，我們仍然致力於在近期和長期內為我們的品牌、客戶和消費者做正確的事情。

Now I'll turn the call over to my friend, trusted business partner and prior CFO, Shaun Mara, who will provide you with some greater financial details. Shaun?

現在，我會將電話轉給我的朋友、值得信賴的業務合作夥伴和前首席財務官 Shaun Mara，他將為您提供一些更詳細的財務信息。肖恩？

Thank you, Joe. Good morning, everyone. Before I get into our first quarter results, let me start by saying it's great to be back in the CFO chair. In my CPG career, I've worked with Joe for nearly 20 years. We first cross paths at Gillette in 2000 where we became proficient in the [Jim Kills] approach to managing the business. Joe and I ran Atkins together when it was PE-owned. And as some of you may remember, I was CFO for the Simply Good Foods first conference call as a publicly traded company in 2017. I then stepped away to recharge and did some consulting. Midyear 2019, Joe convinced me to come back to the company in a different role, running strategy, M&A and projects, biggest of which was the integration of Quest and the ERP implementation.

謝謝你，喬。大家，早安。在我進入第一季度業績之前，讓我首先說回到首席財務官主席的位置真是太好了。在我的 CPG 職業生涯中，我與 Joe 共事了將近 20 年。 2000 年，我們第一次在吉列相遇，在那裡我們精通了 [Jim Kills] 管理業務的方法。當 Atkins 還是私募股權時，我和喬一起經營它。你們中的一些人可能還記得，我是 Simply Good Foods 在 2017 年作為上市公司的第一次電話會議的首席財務官。然後我離開去充電並做了一些諮詢。 2019 年年中，Joe 說服我以不同的角色回到公司，執行戰略、併購和項目，其中最重要的是 Quest 和 ERP 實施的整合。

It was a great opportunity for me to get reengaged with the business, helping to build out the organizational structure, systems and processes and drive the company priorities across the newly designed organization. With Todd leaving, it comes full circle. I'm excited to be back in the CFO role and believe our category and our brands have a long runway for growth. I look forward to helping the company execute against this strategy and increasing shareholder value.

這對我來說是一個很好的機會，可以重新參與業務，幫助建立組織結構、系統和流程，並在新設計的組織中推動公司的優先事項。隨著托德的離開，它又回到了原點。我很高興回到首席財務官的角色，並相信我們的品類和我們的品牌有很長的增長道路。我期待著幫助公司執行這一戰略並增加股東價值。

Let me now provide you with an overview of our financial performance beginning with sales. Total Simply Good Foods first quarter net sales increased 7% to $300.9 million. Net price realization was about 9.8 percentage points and volume was off about 1.7 percentage points. The March 2022 agreement to license the Quest frozen pizza business was a headwind of 1.1 percentage points.

現在讓我從銷售開始向您概述我們的財務業績。 Total Simply Good Foods 第一季度淨銷售額增長 7% 至 3.009 億美元。淨價實現約 9.8 個百分點，銷量下降約 1.7 個百分點。 2022 年 3 月許可 Quest 冷凍披薩業務的協議帶來了 1.1 個百分點的阻力。

As Joe stated earlier, retail takeaway outpaced net sales growth. On the bottom of this slide, we attempt to reconcile Q1 POS of 14% to Q1 North American net sales growth of about 8%. I'm going to walk you through the reconciliation starting with the first line, double pricing of about 1 percentage point. Recall, in the year ago period, some retailers did not increase retail price points until early November despite being invoiced at a higher price point from mid-September. Therefore, the POS in the current period reflects the benefit of 2 price increases from a few retailers over that period. The timing of trade promotion investment was a 2 percentage point headwind. And as previously stated, the licensing of pizza was about a 1 percentage point drag.

正如喬之前所說，零售外賣的增長速度超過了淨銷售額增長。在這張幻燈片的底部，我們試圖將 14% 的第一季度 POS 與大約 8% 的第一季度北美淨銷售額增長相協調。我將從第一行開始向您介紹對帳，雙重定價大約 1 個百分點。回想一下，在去年同期，一些零售商直到 11 月初才提高零售價格點，儘管從 9 月中旬開始以更高的價格點開具發票。因此，當期的 POS 反映了當期少數零售商提價 2 次的收益。貿易促進投資的時機不利 2 個百分點。如前所述，比薩餅的許可大約拖累了 1 個百分點。

Finally, recall in the year ago period, some customers elected to build [atypically] higher inventory levels starting in Q1 of fiscal '22 and continuing through Q2 due to supply chain concerns last year. We expect the retail inventory build in the first half of fiscal year '23 to return to more normal levels. As a result, in Q1, we estimate the change in retail inventory compared to last year to be about 2 percentage point decline.

最後，回顧去年同期，由於去年供應鏈問題，一些客戶選擇從 22 財年第一季度開始 [非典型] 建立更高的庫存水平，並持續到第二季度。我們預計 23 財年上半年的零售庫存將恢復到更正常的水平。因此，在第一季度，我們估計零售庫存的變化與去年相比下降了約 2 個百分點。

Moving on to other P&L items for Q1. Gross profit was $111 million, a decline of $5.6 million from the year ago period, resulting in gross margin of 36.9%. The 450 basis point decline versus the year ago period was slightly higher than forecast. Ingredient and packaging cost inflation as well as trade investment was in line with expectations while logistics and contract manufacturing costs were greater than estimates. Net income was $35.9 million versus $21.2 million last year. The year ago period was impacted by the fair value change of private warrant liabilities of $17.3 million.

繼續討論第一季度的其他損益項目。毛利潤為 1.11 億美元，比去年同期下降 560 萬美元，毛利率為 36.9%。與去年同期相比下降 450 個基點，略高於預期。成分和包裝成本通脹以及貿易投資符合預期，而物流和合同製造成本高於預期。淨收入為 3590 萬美元，而去年為 2120 萬美元。去年同期受到 1730 萬美元私人認股權證負債公允價值變動的影響。

Adjusted EBITDA was $60.8 million, a decline of $4.8 million from the year ago period. Selling and marketing expenses were $28.5 million versus $30.5 million, a decline of 6.5% due to the timing of spend within the year. That said, on-air spend in Q1 was greater than the year ago period. GAAP G&A expense was $25.6 million, including stock-based compensation of $3.3 million and increased 8.2% versus last year. Excluding stock-based compensation in the current and year-ago periods, G&A increased 5.8% to $22.3 million. The $1.2 million increase versus last year was primarily due to employee-related costs and corporate expenses. We continue to expect that full year selling, marketing and G&A expense will be about the same as the year ago period.

調整後的 EBITDA 為 6080 萬美元，比去年同期減少 480 萬美元。銷售和營銷費用為 2,850 萬美元，相比之下為 3,050 萬美元，下降 6.5%，這是由於年內支出時間所致。也就是說，第一季度的直播支出高於去年同期。 GAAP G&A 費用為 2560 萬美元，其中包括 330 萬美元的股票薪酬，比去年增長 8.2%。不包括當前和去年同期的股票薪酬，G&A 增長 5.8% 至 2230 萬美元。與去年相比增加 120 萬美元主要是由於與員工相關的成本和公司開支。我們繼續預計全年銷售、營銷和 G&A 費用將與去年同期大致相同。

Moving to other items in the P&L. Interest expense increased $700,000 to $7.1 million due to higher variable interest rates related to the term loan, and our tax rate in Q1 was about 21.3% versus 25% 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 first quarter of fiscal '23 is primarily due to the timing of equity compensation. We continue to anticipate the full year fiscal 2023 tax rate to be about 25%.

轉到損益表中的其他項目。由於與定期貸款相關的可變利率較高，利息支出增加了 700,000 美元至 710 萬美元，我們在第一季度的稅率約為 21.3%，而去年為 25%。去年同期的稅率不包括與非現金、非稅款可抵扣權證負債相關的費用的影響。 23 財年第一季度的較低稅率主要是由於股權補償的時間安排。我們繼續預計 2023 財年全年的稅率約為 25%。

Turning to EPS. First quarter reported EPS was $0.36 per share diluted compared to $0.22 per share diluted for the comparable period of 2022. In fiscal Q1 '23, depreciation and amortization expense was $4.9 million and similar to the year ago period and stock-based compensation of $3.3 million increased $700,000 versus last year. Adjusted diluted EPS, which excludes these items, was $0.42 compared to $0.43 for the year ago period. Note that we calculated adjusted diluted EPS as adjusted EBITDA less interest income, interest expense and income taxes. Please refer to today's press release for an explanation and reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures.

轉向每股收益。第一季度報告的每股攤薄每股收益為 0.36 美元，而 2022 年同期的攤薄每股收益為 0.22 美元。在 23 財年第一季度，折舊和攤銷費用為 490 萬美元，與去年同期相似，基於股票的薪酬為 330 萬美元與去年相比增加了 700,000 美元。不包括這些項目的調整後攤薄每股收益為 0.42 美元，而去年同期為 0.43 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、利息支出和所得稅。請參閱今天的新聞稿，了解非 GAAP 財務措施的解釋和對賬。

Moving to the balance sheet and cash flow as of November 26, 2022, the company had cash of $54.1 million. Cash flow from operations of $8.7 million was affected by the timing of working capital. The company continues to anticipate full year fiscal 2023 cash flow from operations will be greater than last year. In the first quarter, the company repurchased shares worth $16.4 million at an average cost of $30.11. As of November 26, 2022, approximately $71.5 million remains available under the company's current authorization. In Q1, the company paid down $6.5 million of its term loan and at the end of the first quarter, the outstanding principal balance was $400 million with capital expenditures at $1.2 million.

轉到截至 2022 年 11 月 26 日的資產負債表和現金流，該公司擁有 5410 萬美元的現金。 870 萬美元的運營現金流受到營運資金時間的影響。公司繼續預計 2023 財年全年運營現金流量將高於去年。第一季度，公司回購了價值 1640 萬美元的股票，平均成本為 30.11 美元。截至 2022 年 11 月 26 日，公司目前的授權仍有約 7150 萬美元可供使用。第一季度，公司償還了 650 萬美元的定期貸款，第一季度末未償本金餘額為 4 億美元，資本支出為 120 萬美元。

We anticipate net interest expense to be around $28 million to $30 million, including noncash amortization expense related to the deferred financing fees. This is higher than our previous estimate of $25 million to $26 million due to the continuing rising rate environment.

我們預計淨利息支出約為 2800 萬至 3000 萬美元，包括與遞延融資費用相關的非現金攤銷費用。由於利率持續上升，這高於我們之前估計的 2500 萬至 2600 萬美元。

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

我現在想將電話轉回給 Joe 以作結束語。

Thanks, Shaun. The challenging economic environment, we believe we are well-positioned to deliver on our fiscal '23 financial objectives. Year-to-date retail takeaway is tracking as expected, and we have momentum as we enter Q2. We are tracking to our initial full year gross margin target with pricing and cost initiatives offsetting the dollar impact of ingredient and packaging cost inflation.

謝謝，肖恩。充滿挑戰的經濟環境，我們相信我們有能力實現我們的 23 財年財務目標。年初至今的零售外賣情況如預期般跟踪，進入第二季度時我們勢頭強勁。我們正在跟踪我們最初的全年毛利率目標，定價和成本舉措抵消了成分和包裝成本通脹的美元影響。

Additionally, we have made significant marketing and organizational investments in the business over the last few years, and we believe it will result in continued growth of our consumer base and distribution. As such, we continue to expect that total SG&A expense dollars will be about the same as last year. Therefore, we reaffirm our full fiscal year '23 net sales, gross margin and adjusted EBITDA outlook. Specifically, we anticipate net sales to increase slightly greater than our 4% to 6% long-term algorithm, including a headwind of almost 1 percentage point related to the previously discussed pizza licensing agreement.

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，我們相信這將導致我們的消費者基礎和分銷持續增長。因此，我們繼續預計 SG&A 費用總額將與去年持平。因此，我們重申我們整個 23 財年的淨銷售額、毛利率和調整後的 EBITDA 前景。具體而言，我們預計淨銷售額的增幅將略高於我們的 4% 至 6% 的長期算法，其中包括與之前討論的披薩許可協議相關的近 1 個百分點的逆風。

Gross margin is expected to decline, although at a lower rate than fiscal '22. Full fiscal year adjusted EBITDA is expected to increase in line with the net sales growth rate and adjusted diluted EPS is expected to increase, although less than the adjusted EBITDA growth rate. As we proceed through the balance of the year, we remain cautiously optimistic about our POS performance. Net sales growth by quarter is expected to be choppy as we anniversary last year's second quarter significant retail inventory build and the second half inventory destock.

毛利率預計將下降，儘管下降速度低於 22 財年。整個財政年度調整後的 EBITDA 預計將與淨銷售額增長率一致，調整後的攤薄每股收益預計將增加，但低於調整後的 EBITDA 增長率。在今年餘下的時間裡，我們對我們的 POS 業績保持謹慎樂觀。由於去年第二季度大量零售庫存增加和下半年庫存去庫存，預計季度淨銷售額增長將起伏不定。

As we look to the second quarter of fiscal '23, retail takeaway is off to a good start with December POS up about 16% and strong merchandising and customer programming in place for the upcoming New Year season. However, we anticipate that Q2 net sales will be slightly lower versus the year ago period as we expect customers will not repeat last year's abnormally high retail inventory build. Adjusted EBITDA in Q2 is expected to decline upper single digits on a percentage basis compared to last year. Profitability is pressured as a result of lower sales and gross margin contraction due to higher ingredient and packaging costs compared to the year ago period.

展望 23 財年第二季度，零售外賣開局良好，12 月 POS 增長約 16%，並且為即將到來的新年季進行了強勁的商品推銷和客戶規劃。然而，我們預計第二季度的淨銷售額將比去年同期略低，因為我們預計客戶不會重複去年異常高的零售庫存。與去年相比，第二季度調整後的 EBITDA 預計將下降上個位數百分比。由於成分和包裝成本與去年同期相比較高，導致銷售額下降和毛利率收縮，盈利能力受到壓力。

Given the early signs of an improving outlook related to ingredient and packaging costs, we anticipate gross margin in the second half of the year will be slightly higher versus the comparable year ago period. This is an improvement from our October forecast where we anticipated gross margins to be slightly down in the second half of the year. We're excited about our near- and long-term growth prospects, and we're executing against our strategies as a path to increasing the value for our shareholders. We appreciate everyone's interest in our company, and we're now available to take your questions. Operator?

鑑於與成分和包裝成本相關的前景改善的早期跡象，我們預計今年下半年的毛利率將略高於去年同期。這比我們 10 月份的預測有所改善，當時我們預計下半年毛利率將略有下降。我們對我們的近期和長期增長前景感到興奮，我們正在執行我們的戰略，以此作為增加股東價值的途徑。我們感謝大家對我們公司的興趣，現在我們可以回答您的問題。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 與 Stifel 的對話。

Good morning. I just had a quick question to follow up on some of the differential in sales between consumption versus takeaway essentially. And I did see that bridge in the slides, which is very helpful. I guess I just wanted to ask, first of all, on the kind of the double pricing. Did that occur again with the most recent price increase, just to understand if that's -- could be an ongoing factor.

早上好。我只是有一個快速的問題來跟進消費與外賣之間的銷售差異。我確實在幻燈片中看到了那座橋，這非常有幫助。我想我首先想問的是雙重定價的類型。最近的價格上漲是否再次發生這種情況，只是為了了解這是否 - 可能是一個持續的因素。

And then maybe related or secondary to that, the timing of trade promotion investment, was that -- was promotion up in the first quarter of '23? Or is it more of a comparison to the prior year that causes differential in the first quarter?

然後可能與此相關或次要的是貿易促進投資的時機，那是在 23 年第一季度進行的促銷活動嗎？或者更多的是與上一年的比較導致第一季度的差異？

So on the double pricing piece, Chris, the reality of that is it didn't happen in the second price increase. Retail prices went up pretty quickly after we put the price increase out there. So you're not going to see that going forward. That was just an impact in Q1.

因此，在雙重定價方面，克里斯，事實是第二次漲價時並沒有發生這種情況。在我們提價之後，零售價格上漲得很快。所以你不會看到這種情況向前發展。這只是對第一季度的影響。

As it relates to trade specifically, take a step back a little bit on trade. So for the year for trade, we're going to hold trade as a percentage of sales, consistent with what we had last year. So that's not going to change overall. What you're seeing is really a shift in trade a little bit earlier in the year, more in the first half, principally around display, promotional packs. Some of that stuff was shipped into Q1. So effectively, what that is, is just a timing thing and it impacted from gross to net overall. Does that help?

由於它具體涉及貿易，因此在貿易方面退後一步。因此，對於今年的貿易，我們將保持貿易占銷售額的百分比，與去年保持一致。所以總體上不會改變。你所看到的實際上是今年早些時候貿易的轉變，上半年更多，主要圍繞展示、促銷包。其中一些東西被運到第一季度。如此有效，這只是一個時間問題，它影響了從毛到淨的整體。這有幫助嗎？

That does help, yes. And just 1 other follow-up question. You talked about seeing some early signs of relief or on input costs. I just want to get a sense of how hedged you are currently? And then are there any signs of say competition in the category, they might force to have to give some of that back or get a little more aggressive on promotional spending. I know you've seen a bit of an increase here from a timing standpoint, but any signs of having to get a little more aggressive on the promotional side?

這確實有幫助，是的。還有另外 1 個後續問題。您談到看到一些緩解或投入成本的早期跡象。我只是想了解一下您目前的對沖程度如何？然後有任何跡象表明該類別中存在競爭，他們可能會被迫回饋部分競爭或在促銷支出方面更加積極。我知道從時間的角度來看，您已經看到這裡有所增加，但是有任何跡象表明必須在促銷方面變得更加積極嗎？

Yes. Let me start with the commodity piece of here. I think what you're really trying to get to is kind of what do we think the commodities are going out and where are we overall. I think take a step back. I'm just going to reiterate what we said at the beginning of, I guess, about 3 months ago, give or take. So we thought we'd have double-digit increases in cost of goods sold. And with that, we thought margins would be down versus the prior year, but not as much. Most of that would be in the first half of the year with modest declines in Q3 and Q4.

是的。讓我從這裡的商品開始。我認為你真正想要了解的是我們認為商品正在走向何方以及我們總體上處於什麼位置。我認為退一步。我只想重申我們在大約 3 個月前開頭所說的話，給予或接受。所以我們認為我們的銷售成本會有兩位數的增長。因此，我們認為利潤率會比上一年下降，但幅度不會那麼大。其中大部分發生在今年上半年，第三季度和第四季度出現小幅下降。

As we sit here today, we've seen the softening in the dairy protein market that gives us confidence that gross margins will be up slightly in Q3 and Q4 from our previous estimates. As it relates to the coverage, we're about 60% covered in ingredient packaging requirements, so roughly through March. And quite candidly, we want to kind of see what plays out in the marketplace right now before we commit to more of that. We think there's more downward pressure than upward pressure. So we can kind of see where we are as we get towards later in the year. But things are volatile. We'll see where we are as we go forward. And we'll have a much better picture on that by the time we get to the second quarter earnings call.

當我們今天坐在這裡時，我們已經看到乳蛋白市場的疲軟讓我們相信第三季度和第四季度的毛利率將比我們之前的估計略有上升。就覆蓋範圍而言，我們大約覆蓋了 60% 的成分包裝要求，大致到 3 月份。坦率地說，在我們做出更多承諾之前，我們想看看現在市場上發生了什麼。我們認為下行壓力大於上行壓力。因此，我們可以在今年晚些時候看到我們的進展情況。但事情是不穩定的。我們會在前進的過程中看到我們所處的位置。到第二季度財報電話會議時，我們將對此有更好的了解。

And answer your second part, Chris. No, our business is predominantly a turn business, about 85% of the volume turns off the shelf. So we're not seeing -- and then we don't have, unlike, I think, a lot of other food categories, we're not particularly -- because there's so many different forms, so many different price points. There is no one competitive price comparison or brand price comparison that's relevant. So we're not seeing any pressure to deal back from a pricing standpoint.

然後回答你的第二部分，克里斯。不，我們的業務主要是轉售業務，大約 85% 的貨架轉售。所以我們沒有看到 - 然後我們沒有，不像我認為的許多其他食品類別，我們不是特別 - 因為有這麼多不同的形式，這麼多不同的價格點。沒有相關的競爭性價格比較或品牌價格比較。因此，從定價的角度來看，我們沒有看到任何回購的壓力。

If we would be spending back, it would probably be in reaction to kind of unexpected elasticity response the most recent price increase, right? So -- and so far, we've done a little bit of that in the first quarter, and we're just kind of kind of reading the marketplace and we'll react as time moves on.

如果我們要花錢，那可能是對最近價格上漲的一種意外彈性反應的反應，對嗎？所以——到目前為止，我們在第一季度做了一些這樣的事情，我們只是在某種程度上閱讀市場，我們會隨著時間的推移做出反應。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Cody Ross with UBS.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Cody Ross。

You called out logistics and contract manufacturer cost as drivers of the lower-than-expected gross margin. How much did gross margin come in below your expectations? And can you just describe what's driving those costs?

您指出物流和合同製造商成本是毛利率低於預期的驅動因素。毛利率低於您的預期多少？你能描述一下是什麼推動了這些成本嗎？

Yes, sure. Sure, Cody. So, let's take a step back. So the Q1 miss versus our expectation was about $1 million on a rate basis, right? So it's about $2 million overall. Good news and bad news here. I say the good news is the miss had nothing to do with ingredient and packaging cost increase. Those were aligned with our estimates for the quarter. Obviously, we mentioned in the remarks and just talked about that we expect that to improve in the second half. The bad news is the miss in Q1 is principally related to a few items we did not properly budget for in Q1 that we knew about in Q4. The recurring charges in nature and should have been included in the estimate.

是的，當然。當然，科迪。所以，讓我們退後一步。因此，按利率計算，第一季度未達到我們的預期約為 100 萬美元，對嗎？所以總共大約是200萬美元。這裡有好消息和壞消息。我說好消息是這個錯誤與成分和包裝成本的增加無關。這些與我們對該季度的估計一致。顯然，我們在評論中提到，剛剛談到我們希望在下半年有所改善。壞消息是，第一季度的失誤主要與我們在第四季度知道的第一季度沒有適當預算的一些項目有關。經常性費用的性質和應該包括在估計中。

Specifically, they relate to some charges from our co-mans for (inaudible) or materials they purchased directly, some normal monthly charges from our logistics provider that we didn't properly reflect and some inventory cleanup. We've put some additional processes in place to improve the collaboration here between the groups, and we'll make sure that those costs are reflected in the results as well as the forecast. We don't anticipate this being an issue going forward.

具體來說，它們涉及我們的同事對他們直接購買的（聽不清）或材料的一些費用，我們沒有正確反映的物流提供商的一些正常月度費用以及一些庫存清理。我們已經制定了一些額外的流程來改善團隊之間的協作，我們將確保這些成本反映在結果和預測中。我們預計這不會成為未來的問題。

Great. And then just 1 follow-up. You noted how you expect sales to be down in the second quarter due to the timing of shipments last year and lapping that. Back of the envelope math suggests that you expect sales to be up about 10% in the back half. Is our math correct? And then what would drive sales to be up so strong in the second half?

偉大的。然後只有 1 個跟進。您指出，由於去年的發貨時間和重疊時間，您預計第二季度的銷售額將下降。粗略計算表明，您預計下半年銷售額將增長約 10%。我們的數學正確嗎？那麼下半年的銷量增長如此強勁的原因是什麼？

Cody, I asked that second part of the question, again, I followed you on the first part. I didn't follow you on the second part.

科迪，我問了問題的第二部分，同樣，我在第一部分關注了你。我沒有在第二部分關注你。

Just if our math is correct, that would suggest that sales would be up 10% in the second half. And then what's just driving the hockey stick bounce in sales growth in the second half, this upcoming year?

如果我們的計算是正確的，那將表明下半年銷售額將增長 10%。那麼是什麼推動了即將到來的下半年銷售增長的曲棍球棒反彈？

Yes. So well, I'm not sure whether you're asking me an inventory question or a question about the overall health of the business in the second year. Can you be clearer so I make sure I answer your question?

是的。那麼好吧，我不確定你是在問我庫存問題還是關於第二年業務整體健康狀況的問題。你能說得更清楚嗎，所以我確定我回答了你的問題？

Yes, more so around the health of the business.

是的，更重要的是圍繞業務的健康發展。

All right. So look we're really -- if you just step back, as we stand here 4 months into the year, we're really pleased about where we are. So year-to-date consumption has been strong. And as we've moved into kind of into December and early stages of kind of the New Year's, we're actually picking up some speed. So we feel really good about the progress of the business. I don't particularly like the economic environment right now, right? And as we've said in our prepared remarks, we're cautiously optimistic about the prospects of growth kind of as we move through the Q2 into the balance of the year.

好的。所以看我們真的 - 如果你退後一步，當我們站在這裡已經進入一年的 4 個月時，我們對我們所處的位置感到非常高興。因此，年初至今的消費一直很強勁。隨著我們進入十二月和新年的早期階段，我們實際上正在加快速度。因此，我們對業務的進展感到非常滿意。我不是特別喜歡現在的經濟環境，對吧？正如我們在準備好的發言中所說的那樣，隨著我們從第二季度進入今年的餘額，我們對增長前景持謹慎樂觀態度。

But the current economic environment facing consumers, I think warrants a fair amount of caution as we move through the second half of the year. And we're going to come up against a little bit more challenging comparables and particularly on Quest. But if you look at the dynamic of the environment -- economic environment you're seeing in food, in general, category volume has slowed as prices have [raised]. Shopping consumers are responding and how they shop, so their behaviors have shifted towards value retailers pretty much across the store. You're seeing the growth of private label. Volume is on the rise. And then we're at a point, at least in our business and in this category where prices are -- the consumers are facing they're at their historic highs.

但我認為，在我們度過下半年之際，消費者當前面臨的經濟環境需要相當謹慎。我們將遇到更具挑戰性的可比產品，尤其是在 Quest 上。但如果你看看環境的動態——你在食品中看到的經濟環境，一般來說，隨著價格的上漲，類別數量已經放緩。購物消費者正在做出反應以及他們的購物方式，因此他們的行為幾乎在整個商店都轉向了價值零售商。你看到了自有品牌的增長。成交量正在上升。然後我們到了一個點，至少在我們的業務和這個價格的類別中——消費者正面臨著他們的歷史高位。

So why we like our business. We like our business momentum, the environment is not the greatest environment. It's unclear to me what the second half is going to look like. It's -- are we going to see worsening conditions? Are the current conditions going to continue? So we believe caution like where we are from a business standpoint, like our business momentum, we think caution is warranted in the second half of the year. We'll be keeping a close eye on our consumer response as we move through the second quarter, and then we can give you an update on how we feel about that in the next quarter.

那麼為什麼我們喜歡我們的業務。我們喜歡我們的企業勢頭，環境不是最好的環境。我不清楚下半場會是什麼樣子。這是——我們會看到情況惡化嗎？目前的情況會持續下去嗎？因此，我們認為謹慎就像我們從業務角度所處的位置一樣，就像我們的業務勢頭一樣，我們認為下半年有必要保持謹慎。在我們進入第二季度時，我們將密切關註消費者的反應，然後我們可以在下一季度向您提供我們對此的最新感受。

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

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

Can I ask about the international business? I imagine it's a pretty small portion of the total, but you did talk about it being down 16%. And I think you said velocities have come off there. How big is that business? How long are the sales likely to be pressured like this? Just wondering what the outlook is there.

可以問一下國際業務嗎？我想這只佔總數的一小部分，但你確實說過它下降了 16%。我想你說過那裡的速度已經下降了。那生意有多大？銷售可能會像這樣被打壓多久？只是想知道那裡的前景如何。

Alexia, you're lucky because 1 of -- 1 of Shaun's response -- prior responsibilities was running internationally. So you have somebody that's really familiar with the business.

Alexia，你很幸運，因為 Shaun 的回應中有 1 個——之前的職責是在國際上運行。所以你有一個真正熟悉業務的人。

Sure. It's about an $8 million business overall international, and that is principally basically call it down under, which is Australia and New Zealand overall. So if you break that decline down, I'd say about 1/3 of that is exchange. So about $1 million is kind of also a core business overall. And of that, I think majority of that business decline is the Atkins business. And they've had some issues overall with the pricing increases and trying to get the product on shelf down there as we kind of work through the challenges through that.

當然。這是一個大約 800 萬美元的國際業務，主要是在澳大利亞和新西蘭。所以如果你打破這種下降，我會說其中大約 1/3 是交換。因此，大約 100 萬美元也是一項核心業務。其中，我認為大部分業務下滑是阿特金斯業務。他們在價格上漲和試圖讓產品上架方面遇到了一些問題，因為我們正在努力應對挑戰。

I think it's a transitional thing, talking to the folks down there, they feel like they're making good progress with the 2 big retailers. And with that, they should see that pop a little bit more towards the second half of the year.

我認為這是一個過渡性的事情，與那裡的人交談，他們覺得他們在與兩家大型零售商的合作中取得了良好的進展。這樣一來，他們應該會在今年下半年看到更多的流行。

But, Alexia, just higher level, we have the #1 and I think #2 brands in the marketplace in Australia and New Zealand. So 2, they have been on a tear for the last few years. So double-digit growth in their marketplaces as we bought Quest and moved that from a distributor market to a direct sale market. They've done a terrific job of building the business. So this has been -- the most recent performance has been a pause in what has been a pretty terrific multiyear run for that team.

但是，Alexia，只是更高層次，我們在澳大利亞和新西蘭的市場上擁有排名第一和我認為排名第二的品牌。所以 2，過去幾年他們一直在流淚。當我們收購 Quest 並將其從分銷市場轉移到直銷市場時，他們的市場實現了兩位數的增長。他們在建立業務方面做得非常出色。所以這一直是 - 最近的表現一直是該團隊多年來非常出色的表現的暫停。

Great. And as a quick follow-up, I know the first question was about this gap between consumer takeaway and your reported organic sales growth. As we look forward, do we expect that gap to close? And if so, how quickly? And I'll pass it on.

偉大的。作為快速跟進，我知道第一個問題是關於消費者外賣與您報告的有機銷售增長之間的差距。展望未來，我們是否期望這種差距能夠縮小？如果是這樣，多快？我會把它傳遞下去。

Yes. So good question. And let me see if I can simply explain kind of what the situation is, right? So in a typical year in this business, we build inventory -- retailers build inventory in the first half of the year and they depleted in the second half of the year. On average, an average year, that's about a week maybe in some years, might be 2 weeks of inventory. Typically, it goes in, in the first and second quarter. Typically, it comes out in the third and fourth quarter. By the time you get to the summer, you're back to kind of a steady-state level, kind of normal level of inventory.

是的。好問題。讓我看看我是否可以簡單地解釋一下情況，對嗎？因此，在這項業務的典型年份，我們會建立庫存——零售商在上半年建立庫存，並在下半年耗盡。平均而言，平均一年，大約一周，也許在某些年份，可能是 2 週的庫存。通常，它會在第一季度和第二季度進入。通常，它出現在第三和第四季度。到夏天的時候，你又回到了一種穩定狀態，一種正常的庫存水平。

Fiscal year '22 was not a normal year. In fact, it was highly abnormal, given -- and you have to understand context, right? So supply chains were disrupted, customers were sending in orders, orders were getting cut. So there was a high degree of sensitivity from retailers not having the inventory they need. So they took a pretty aggressive inventory position. We're not unique in this, but they took a pretty aggressive inventory position on our business. And the way that played out is in the first half of the year, 3x to 4x the normal of inventory levels built in the first half of the year. And then most of that came out in the second half and most of that within the fourth quarter.

22 財年不是正常的一年。事實上，這是非常不正常的，因為你必須了解上下文，對吧？因此供應鏈中斷，客戶發送訂單，訂單被削減。因此，零售商對沒有所需庫存的情況非常敏感。所以他們採取了相當激進的庫存立場。我們在這方面並不是獨一無二的，但他們對我們的業務採取了相當激進的庫存立場。而結果是在今年上半年，是上半年建立的正常庫存水平的 3 到 4 倍。然後大部分出現在下半場，大部分出現在第四節。

So as we come up against those comparisons, in particular, in the second quarter, we're not going to be repeating that inventory build from last year. So that shows up as a net sales -- far below net sales rate far below consumption rate. What's really happening is we're not building the inventory that we then have to take out in the second half of the year. So what's going to happen in Q2, our guidance is to be slightly down versus prior year. What's going to happen is -- what doesn't happen in Q2 will then get reversed out in Q4, where we actually pulled a fair amount of inventory out of retail in the fourth quarter.

因此，當我們進行這些比較時，特別是在第二季度，我們不會重複去年的庫存構建。因此，這顯示為淨銷售額——遠低於淨銷售額，遠低於消費率。真正發生的是我們沒有建立我們必須在下半年取出的庫存。那麼第二季度會發生什麼，我們的指導意見將比去年略有下降。將要發生的是——第二季度沒有發生的事情將在第四季度發生逆轉，我們實際上在第四季度從零售業中撤出了相當數量的庫存。

Does that help?

這有幫助嗎？

That helps a lot. Thank you so much for the explanation. I'll pass it on.

這很有幫助。非常感謝您的解釋。我會傳下去的。

And Alexia, just 1 more comment on that whole thing. As you think about that reconciliation from POS down to sales, we try to do, obviously, there's just (inaudible) a little bit, but I think the point I make is, as you look to Q2, the only things that will be impacted there is pizza, which is about 1.5 points and then the inventory build or the non-build. So the inventory change overall are the only 2 things. So as you go forward, that will be the reconciling items.

還有 Alexia，就整件事再發表 1 條評論。當你考慮從 POS 到銷售的對賬時，我們嘗試做，顯然，只有一點點（聽不清），但我想我要說的是，當你看到第二季度時，唯一會受到影響的事情有比薩餅，大約1.5點然後庫存構建或非構建。所以整體庫存變化是唯一的兩件事。因此，隨著您的前進，這將是協調項目。

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

我們的下一個問題來自 Jason English with Goldman Sachs。

So scrubbing my prior year notes, I've got about a $25 million headwind for 2Q based on lapping that inventory accumulation at retail. Is that roughly right?

因此，清理我前一年的筆記，基於零售庫存積累，我在第二季度遇到了大約 2500 萬美元的逆風。大致是這樣嗎？

You keep good notes.

你保持良好的筆記。

Okay. So that's about a little north of 8 points of drag you put on 1.5, you got about a 10-point drag. So if sales down modestly, it seems to suggest that you're forecasting POS high singles sort of maybe, let's call it, 7% to 10% range, which would be a decent decel from the 14 points that you're showing this past quarter. What would drive that decel?

好的。所以這大約是你在 1.5 上施加的 8 個阻力點的北邊一點，你得到了大約 10 個點的阻力。因此，如果銷售額適度下降，這似乎表明您預測 POS 高單曲可能，我們稱之為 7% 到 10% 的範圍，這與您過去展示的 14 個點相比是一個不錯的減速四分之一。什麼會導致這種減速？

The aforementioned cautious optimism.

前述謹慎樂觀。

Okay. And some of that caution to my ears, was coming on the snack side of Quest, which is in part, just sort of base effect. Can you size that a bit more for us? How large is that as a percentage of Quest sales and specifically zoom in a bit on chips because in your prepared remarks, you signed a little bit more guarded on chips, where I think it's the one and only spot where you mentioned that elasticity was exceeding expectations.

好的。我聽到的一些警告來自 Quest 的零食方面，這在某種程度上只是一種基本效應。你能幫我們再大一點嗎？這佔 Quest 銷售額的百分比有多大，特別是放大一點籌碼，因為在您準備好的評論中，您簽署了對籌碼更加謹慎的協議，我認為這是您提到彈性超過的唯一一個地方期望。

I would say our optimism is not brand and form related. It's just overall economy related. So we're about -- we're in the process of throwing a pretty big New Year, New You party. We want to make sure consumers show up, right? Nothing worse than having displays out, have a lot of customer programming and the consumption not occur, right?

我想說我們的樂觀與品牌和形式無關。這只是整體經濟相關。所以我們即將 - 我們正在舉辦一場盛大的新年派對。我們要確保消費者出現，對嗎？沒有什麼比顯示出來更糟糕的了，有很多客戶編程並且沒有發生消費，對吧？

And we saw a little of that as you make -- as you remember last year, Jason, that was clearly the case. We just didn't see the consumer offtake. So if you just step back and look at what's going on right now, consumers are not shopping in grocery. They're moving towards online and mass. They're making value choices in our business. There's not private label alternative. So what happens is buy rate gets hit, right? So you don't see the buy rate, they pass on a consumption occasion. They maybe by one [less] time. That's what we're concerned about. There's no one product form branding, one customer thing I'm worried about.

我們在你做的時候看到了一些——正如你記得的那樣，傑森，這顯然是事實。我們只是沒有看到消費者購買。所以，如果你退後一步，看看現在發生了什麼，消費者不會在雜貨店購物。他們正在走向在線和大眾化。他們正在我們的業務中做出價值選擇。沒有私人標籤替代品。那麼購買率受到打擊會發生什麼，對嗎？所以你看不到購買率，他們在消費場合傳遞。他們可能會[少]一次。這就是我們所關心的。沒有一種產品形式的品牌，我擔心的是一件客戶的事情。

I'm more worried about the overall economic environment. Now we feel pretty good as we moved from November into December. POS started to pick up as we start reading merchandising that it's in place right now feels pretty good, but we still got 2-plus months to go. And we're going to be -- until it happens, we're going to be cautious about it.

我更擔心整體經濟環境。現在我們從 11 月搬到 12 月時感覺非常好。當我們開始閱讀商品銷售時，POS 開始流行起來，感覺它現在已經到位，但我們還有 2 個多月的時間。我們將 - 在它發生之前，我們將對此保持謹慎。

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

我們的下一個問題來自 John Baumgartner 與 Mizuho 的對話。

I wanted to ask about buyer growth at Atkins, Joe. As it is, the growth has been pretty strong. And I'm not sure if you can drill into how much of that is driven by your core demographic relative to noncore. But as you build Atkins as a lifestyle brand, how do you think about either extending your existing consumers for longer are also raising the appeal to noncore buyers. Are there opportunities for more age-specific innovation or age specific marketing, maybe appealing to older folks who become lapsed buyers over time. Can you creep down a bit to younger consumers? Just how do you think about building the next phase of growth at Atkins from a demographic perspective?

我想問一下喬，阿特金斯的買家增長情況。實際上，增長非常強勁。而且我不確定您是否可以深入了解相對於非核心人口而言，其中有多少是由您的核心人口驅動的。但是，當您將 Atkins 打造成一個生活方式品牌時，您如何考慮延長現有消費者的使用時間，同時提高對非核心買家的吸引力。是否有更多針對特定年齡段的創新或針對特定年齡段的營銷的機會，可能會吸引隨著時間的推移成為流失購買者的老年人。你能向更年輕的消費者低調一點嗎？從人口統計的角度來看，您如何看待阿特金斯下一階段的增長？

Well, great question. I wish we had an hour. What I would tell you is this. Look, the core demographic is, if you think about the positioning change on the brand, we moved from a core demographic of what we would call programmatic dieters, people looking to want to lose 15 pounds with an event in mind over a certain period of time. Our shift in that demographic, right, move from those folks to folks who, on average, are worried about their health and their weight every day, right? Not looking to lose large amounts of weight, but looking to eat healthier and potentially look better, right? That demographic, the math on that demographic was 4x the math demographic.

嗯，很好的問題。我希望我們有一個小時。我要告訴你的是這個。看，核心人群是，如果你考慮品牌的定位變化，我們從我們稱之為程序化節食者的核心人群轉移，人們希望在特定時期內考慮到一個事件而想減掉 15 磅時間。我們在人口統計上的轉變，對，從那些人轉移到那些平均每天都擔心自己的健康和體重的人，對吧？不是想減掉大量體重，而是想吃得更健康，看起來可能更好，對吧？該人口統計數據是該人口統計數據的 4 倍。

So we had about 8 million, 9 million programmatic dieter target to something around [34 million, 35 million, 36 million] kind of -- we call them self-directed low carbs, people they want to control carbs, right?

所以我們有大約 800 萬、900 萬計劃性節食者的目標是大約 [3400 萬、3500 萬、3600 萬]——我們稱他們為自我導向的低碳水化合物，他們想要控制碳水化合物的人，對吧？

Our progress against that has been pretty outstanding. So the program -- when we started this, and this is relatively new data. When we started this buyers of the brand at any one time that were actively using the program to lose weight. It was about 15% of our buyers. That is now down to single digits. So we, in large part, has shifted the mix of our brand to these lifestyle consumers, which then begs the question, how do you feel about buy rate since dieters probably comply more? Lifestyle consumers a new piece of data, lifestyle consumers from a buy rate standpoint, buy at the same rate as the average for Atkins. So we're not seeing a tail off in consumer consumption based upon and move towards a more lifestyle consumer.

我們在這方面取得的進展非常出色。所以這個程序——當我們開始這個的時候，這是相對較新的數據。當我們在任何時候開始使用該品牌的買家時，他們都在積極使用該程序來減肥。大約占我們買家的 15%。現在已降至個位數。因此，在很大程度上，我們已經將我們的品牌組合轉移到這些生活方式的消費者身上，這就引出了一個問題，你對購買率有何看法，因為節食者可能更容易遵守？生活方式消費者的一項新數據，從購買率的角度來看，生活方式消費者的購買率與阿特金斯的平均水平相同。因此，我們並沒有看到基於更生活方式消費者的消費者消費有所減少。

So good news all around. The thing that I think you're asking is talk to us about, are you looking at different demographic groups? I'm assuming you mean age, ethnicity. And frankly, we do a lot of that in our digital platform, right. So a lot of social digital marketing to those groups within and we can handle that question for you offline in a little bit more detail. And frankly, we get you in front of some of the marketing people to talk about some of those things.

到處都是好消息。我想你問的是和我們談談，你在看不同的人口群體嗎？我假設你指的是年齡、種族。坦率地說，我們在我們的數字平台上做了很多，對吧。因此，針對這些群體的大量社交數字營銷，我們可以在線下為您更詳細地處理這個問題。坦率地說，我們讓你在一些營銷人員面前談論其中的一些事情。

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 Pamela Kaufman。

Good morning. I just had a follow-up question on gross margin. So given that gross margin fell short of your expectations in the quarter, but you still expect gross margin for the full year to be in line with your prior outlook. Can you talk about the cadence of the gross margins over the rest of the year? And what's improved in your expectations for gross margins for the back half of the year? What's changed there?

早上好。我剛剛有一個關於毛利率的後續問題。因此，鑑於本季度毛利率低於您的預期，但您仍預計全年毛利率將與您之前的預期一致。你能談談今年剩餘時間的毛利率節奏嗎？您對下半年毛利率的預期有何改善？那裡有什麼變化？

Yes. I would say the commodity costs are probably the biggest piece of it, obviously, and we talked about what we think we're seeing in the dairy protein and how much we locked in already. So I think from a standpoint of commodities, that's in better shape than we have. We -- the way we look at this for the year, we see GM improving slightly in the second half of the year, as we said. However, I think if you take a step back on margin, we did have a 450 basis point decline in Q1. I would say the inflationary pressures that we had that led to our second price increase did not start impacting COGS until mid-Q2.

是的。我想說商品成本可能是其中最大的一部分，很明顯，我們討論了我們認為我們在乳蛋白中看到了什麼，以及我們已經鎖定了多少。所以我認為從大宗商品的角度來看，這比我們現在的情況要好。正如我們所說，我們 - 我們看待這一年的方式，我們看到通用汽車在今年下半年略有改善。但是，我認為如果你在利潤率上退後一步，我們在第一季度確實下降了 450 個基點。我要說的是，導致我們第二次提價的通脹壓力直到第二季度中期才開始影響銷貨成本。

So remember, in Q1 of last year, our GM was actually up 75 basis points. So as we look at the rest of the year, we expect gross margin to decline in Q2 and for the total year. And just to dimensionalize it a little bit, we expect total year margin to decline over 100 basis points and the margin decline in Q2 to exceed that. So I don't know if that gives you more context and perspective.

所以請記住，在去年第一季度，我們的通用汽車實際上上漲了 75 個基點。因此，當我們展望今年剩餘時間時，我們預計第二季度和全年的毛利率將下降。只是稍微量化一下，我們預計全年利潤率將下降超過 100 個基點，而第二季度的利潤率下降幅度將超過這一水平。所以我不知道這是否為您提供了更多背景和視角。

Yes, that's helpful. And then I also just had a follow-up question to John's question on Atkins performance. I guess in general, what do you believe is driving the divergence in performance between Atkins and Quest? Why do you think that the brands are seeing such different trends? And does it come back to the occasions and the demographics that they cater to? And what's working well for Quest, could you apply any of those initiatives to Atkins?

是的，這很有幫助。然後我還有一個關於約翰關於阿特金斯表現的問題的後續問題。我想總的來說，您認為是什麼導致了 Atkins 和 Quest 之間的性能差異？為什麼您認為這些品牌會看到如此不同的趨勢？它會回到他們迎合的場合和人口統計嗎？什麼對 Quest 有效，您能否將這些舉措中的任何一個應用於阿特金斯？

Yes. Well, so they're in different parts of their life cycle, quite frankly. So if you think about the investment thesis that we had in buying Quest, our fundamental belief is strong brand, large consumer target, early stages of marketing, brand awareness, penetration growth, moving from a specialty online brand to a more food drug mass brand from a bar-only brand to a bar another snacking brand.

是的。好吧，坦率地說，它們處於生命週期的不同部分。因此，如果您考慮一下我們收購 Quest 時的投資論點，我們的基本信念是強大的品牌、龐大的消費者目標、營銷的早期階段、品牌知名度、滲透率增長、從專業在線品牌轉變為食品藥品大眾品牌從酒吧專用品牌到酒吧另一個零食品牌。

And so as part of the combined organization, we've been able to accelerate all those initiatives, right? And so that's why you're seeing distribution growth on bars because you've plugged and play that into the what is essentially the Atkins food drug mass sales force, right? So distribution is growing. Great new product pipeline and snacking and salty snacks and chips, in confections, right?

因此，作為合併後組織的一部分，我們已經能夠加速所有這些計劃，對嗎？這就是為什麼你看到酒吧的分銷增長，因為你已經將其插入並發揮了本質上是阿特金斯食品藥品大規模銷售隊伍的作用，對吧？所以分佈在增長。偉大的新產品線和零食、鹹味零食和薯條，在糖果中，對嗎？

So strong -- they've got accel the brand has got acceleration just from our ability to execute the strategies that were in place when they were a freestanding company. Atkins is further along in its development. So if you just take like the largest retailer -- take the largest retailer in the world, Atkins has, on average, I think, 65 items in Walmart. I think at last count, Quest was in the 40s. So there is -- they're at a just different part in their life cycle from a brand standpoint.

如此強大——他們已經加速了品牌的加速，僅僅是因為我們有能力執行他們作為獨立公司時制定的戰略。阿特金斯在其發展中走得更遠。因此，如果你像最大的零售商一樣 - 以世界上最大的零售商為例，我認為阿特金斯平均在沃爾瑪擁有 65 件商品。我認為最後一次統計，Quest 是在 40 年代。因此，從品牌的角度來看，它們在生命週期中處於不同的階段。

So -- and I think the brand promise, right, this idea of fueling your ambitions and your day is a bigger brand promise than the weight management brand promise. So bigger target audience, more people that you can go after, bigger opportunity for household penetration. And we're still in the very early stages on Quest mainstream communication via television ramping up the spend. Atkins is just in a different part in its life cycle. So I think that's accounting for kind of what's been driving Quest.

所以——我認為品牌承諾，對，這種激發你的雄心壯志和你的一天的想法是一個比體重管理品牌承諾更大的品牌承諾。更大的目標受眾，更多你可以追求的人，更大的家庭滲透機會。而且我們仍處於通過電視增加支出的 Quest 主流通信的早期階段。阿特金斯只是處於其生命週期的不同階段。所以我認為這是推動 Quest 的某種原因。

On the Atkin side, it's a brand that is highly dependent upon buy rate. So if you look at the brand, on average, if you're a multiyear buyer of the brand, you're a daily slash multiple times a week eater. So 100, if you're an average buyer, you're buying 100. If you're a heavier buyer, you're buying close to 200 servings in a year. So disruptions in snacking occasions disrupt the buy rate dynamic on Atkins. And that's what we saw through COVID, right? So I expect us to be able to reemerge from that, get our buy rate back up on the brand.

在 Atkin 方面，這是一個高度依賴購買率的品牌。因此，如果您查看該品牌，平均而言，如果您是該品牌的多年購買者，那麼您每週都會多次進食。所以 100，如果您是普通買家，您將購買 100。如果您是重度買家，您將在一年內購買近 200 份。因此，零食場合的中斷擾亂了阿特金斯的購買率動態。這就是我們通過 COVID 看到的，對吧？所以我希望我們能夠從中重新崛起，讓我們的品牌購買率恢復。

Today, it's growing at kind of the low range of -- low end of our algorithm. We expect better from the brand, and there are some things that we need to address to get the buy rate back now that we're kind of seemingly out of the not at work, pandemic point of time. There are some things that we need to clean up in the brand from an execution standpoint to get the buy rate going and do better than where we are today.

今天，它在我們算法的低端範圍內增長。我們對品牌有更好的期望，並且我們需要解決一些問題才能恢復購買率，因為我們似乎已經擺脫了不工作、大流行的時間點。從執行的角度來看，我們需要清理品牌中的一些東西，以提高購買率並做得比今天更好。

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Holland with Cowen Company.

我們的下一個問題來自 Cowen Company 的 Brian Holland。

You've made reference to Q2 in-store merchandising and programming in a really good spot here. I know that you addressed last quarter some tactical issues with respect to Atkins losing some distribution on the bars, making ways for chips and cookies, talking about needing to fix that. Can you just update us on where you sort of stand in resetting the Atkins brand on shelf into spring?

您在這裡的一個非常好的地方提到了 Q2 店內銷售和編程。我知道你上個季度解決了一些關於阿特金斯在酒吧失去一些分佈的戰術問題，為籌碼和餅乾讓路，談論需要解決這個問題。您能否向我們介紹一下您在將 Atkins 品牌重新上架到春季時的立場？

Early stages, Brian. It will play out over the next 6-plus months. So spring resets going into the summer, resets that occur towards the end of the summer. We would expect most of the solutions that we've developed in the last 4 or 5 months will be fully implemented kind of by the end of summer. I would expect -- look, again, we're not -- we're at the low end of our [algorithm]. So we don't have a business in free fall. We got a business that's growing 4%, right?

早期階段，布賴恩。它將在接下來的 6 個多月內結束。所以春天重置進入夏天，重置發生在夏末。我們預計我們在過去 4 或 5 個月內開發的大部分解決方案將在夏季結束時得到全面實施。我希望——看，再一次，我們不是——我們處於我們 [algorithm] 的低端。所以我們沒有自由落體的業務。我們的業務增長了 4%，對嗎？

So we -- and we're not happy at 4%. We want the business to be better, right? And there are some executional things that we could have done better, right? So we lost distribution on snack bars last spring. We got to fix that. That's an innovation pipeline thing. So we have the innovation coming. It will start getting executed as we move through the second half of the year.

所以我們 - 我們對 4% 不滿意。我們希望業務做得更好，對嗎？還有一些執行上的事情我們本可以做得更好，對吧？所以去年春天我們失去了小吃店的分銷。我們必須解決這個問題。這是一個創新管道的事情。所以我們有了創新。隨著我們進入下半年，它將開始執行。

On confections. We had a launch of dessert bars on confections that haven't repeated like we expected it to do. So again, innovation fix, you need a pipeline of products to replace those things. Those things take a little bit of time. But if I just step back, the buy rate declines that are occurring from those things are starting to be nicely offset by growth in shakes and meal bars, which is -- those are starting to come back because the innovation is there, but also as people have gone back to work. They tend to be more meal replacement and therefore, more ideal for people going back to work. So we're starting to see the business tempo pick up on those forms, offsetting most of the declines that we're seeing in buy rate from the other 2 snacking product lines.

在糖果上。我們推出了甜點棒，但沒有像我們預期的那樣重複。再次強調，創新修復，你需要一系列產品來取代這些東西。這些事情需要一點時間。但如果我退後一步，這些東西引起的購買率下降開始被奶昔和餐吧的增長很好地抵消，也就是說 - 這些東西開始回歸，因為創新在那裡，但也因為人們已經回去工作了。它們更傾向於代餐，因此更適合重返工作崗位的人們。因此，我們開始看到這些形式的業務節奏加快，抵消了我們從其他 2 條零食產品線看到的購買率下降的大部分。

Appreciate the color there. And then I wanted to ask about within the Atkins brand, the bifurcation between channels. Clearly, on whole, it looks like new buyer growth did increase in Q1. So I guess that would -- I presume that's overweighted towards the e-commerce channel. So I'm just -- I guess, maybe 2 points on this. One, so clearly, this isn't about consumers who were buying in 1 channel are now buying in another. It seems like you were picking up new consumers in the e-commerce channel. So what are you learning about the composition of that consumer in that channel towards the Atkins brand? And how strategically do you think about the placement of the Atkins brand going forward as a result of this ongoing momentum in e-commerce?

欣賞那裡的顏色。然後我想在阿特金斯品牌內部詢問佢道之間的分歧。顯然，總的來說，第一季度新買家的增長似乎確實有所增加。所以我想那會 - 我認為這對電子商務渠道來說是超重的。所以我只是——我想，也許就此提出 2 點意見。第一，很明顯，這與在一個渠道購買的消費者現在在另一個渠道購買無關。看起來您正在電子商務渠道中吸引新的消費者。那麼，您了解到該渠道中該消費者對阿特金斯品牌的構成情況如何？由於電子商務的這種持續發展勢頭，您如何從戰略上考慮阿特金斯品牌的未來定位？

Yes. So interestingly enough, most new buyers come into Atkins in brick-and-mortar. And even though the business has been flattish in the quarter, we still saw strong new buyer growth, which then points to the executional issues around buy rate on snack bars and confection. So we're going to try to get that fixed. The growth on Amazon drives buy rate, believe it or not. So people -- and in general, most shoppers tend to be multichannel. So they're brick-and-mortar shoppers who go over into e-commerce and Amazon and buy more.

是的。有趣的是，大多數新買家都是通過實體店進入阿特金斯的。儘管本季度業務表現平平，但我們仍然看到強勁的新買家增長，這表明小吃店和糖果的購買率存在執行問題。所以我們將嘗試解決這個問題。不管你信不信，亞馬遜的增長推動了購買率。所以人們——一般來說，大多數購物者往往是多渠道的。因此，他們是實體購物者，他們轉向電子商務和亞馬遜併購買更多商品。

So we're very, very targeted about how we think about that. So -- and within those shoppers that are multichannel over in Amazon, there are a handful of people that drive a lot of that volume. So we're very targeted in our marketing approach over there encouraging purchases of that consumer group that's very valuable to us. So -- and when we do it right, we don't cannibalize brick-and-mortar at all. So we're -- I would tell you, we have a really good team there from a marketing science standpoint, they're relatively sophisticated. We know what we're doing in that channel, and we're seeing nice impact of our business.

所以我們非常非常有針對性地考慮我們的想法。所以 - 在亞馬遜的多渠道購物者中，有少數人推動了大量的交易量。因此，我們的營銷方法非常有針對性，鼓勵購買對我們非常有價值的消費者群體。所以 - 當我們做對時，我們根本不會蠶食實體店。所以我們——我會告訴你，從營銷科學的角度來看，我們有一支非常優秀的團隊，他們相對成熟。我們知道我們在那個渠道做什麼，我們看到了我們業務的良好影響。

And frankly, I just want to point out that's a benefit of having bought Quest. Quest is the #1 bar on Amazon. We have a strong relationship with Amazon because of that relationship. We've learned a lot about how to market on that channel. We're applying those learnings to the Atkins business. You see Atkins is sitting online at around 13% of sales and Quest is around 24%. So we have a lot of opportunity as we get smarter about how to market Atkins online.

坦率地說，我只想指出購買 Quest 的好處。 Quest 是亞馬遜上排名第一的酒吧。由於這種關係，我們與亞馬遜建立了牢固的關係。我們已經學到了很多關於如何在該渠道上進行營銷的知識。我們正在將這些經驗應用到阿特金斯業務中。您會看到 Atkins 在線銷售佔銷售額的 13% 左右，而 Quest 約佔 24%。因此，隨著我們對如何在線營銷阿特金斯變得更加聰明，我們有很多機會。

Our next question comes from the line of Rob Dickerson with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Rob Dickerson。

Great. Just a kind of broader question, longer-term margin potential. I mean, obviously, understand the drivers of kind of why the gross margins pulled in. EBITDA margins obviously held in a little bit just kind of given the flattish year-over-year SG&A. As you speak to kind of back half of the year gross margin potentially up slightly year-over-year given benefits to ingredient costs, realize you're not speaking to '24 coming out Q1 '23.

偉大的。只是一個更廣泛的問題，長期利潤潛力。我的意思是，很明顯，了解毛利率為什麼會上漲的驅動因素。考慮到 SG&A 同比持平，EBITDA 利潤率顯然略有下降。當你談到今年後半年的毛利率可能會比去年略有上升時，考慮到成分成本的好處，請意識到你不是在談論 '24' 即將到來的 '23'。

But again, just to kind of reiterate the thing I've heard you say before, kind of that path to get back to, let's say, the 40% gross margin. I just want to clarify that, that is really contingent, I guess, on ongoing demand, but now you have the pricing, as ingredient costs come down, [are there] specific needs you foresee a potential increased promotional spend or trade or what have you that would prevent you from getting back to that kind of 40% range or no? It's essentially, hey, if ingredient costs came down, we have some pricing and the demand is okay, then yes, I mean the expectation is we get back to 40%.

但是，再次重申一下我之前聽過你說過的話，那就是回到 40% 毛利率的道路。我只是想澄清一下，我想這真的取決於持續的需求，但現在你有了定價，隨著成分成本的下降，[是否有]特定需求你預見到潛在的促銷支出或貿易增加或有什麼你會阻止你回到那種 40% 的範圍嗎？本質上，嘿，如果成分成本下降，我們有一些定價並且需求還可以，那麼是的，我的意思是期望我們回到 40%。

Yes, the latter. So Rob, we -- look, we -- going into this year, we had to make a choice based upon what we believe about what would happen in the future, right? So the first thing is I have been and we have been very concerned about the economic environment the consumers are facing. Why I don't think we've declared a recession. There are a lot of recessionary factors that are out there, the consumers are clearly starting to react to and have been reacting to.

是的，後者。所以 Rob，我們 - 看，我們 - 進入今年，我們必鬚根據我們對未來會發生什麼的看法做出選擇，對嗎？所以第一件事是我一直非常關註消費者所面臨的經濟環境。為什麼我認為我們沒有宣布經濟衰退。有很多經濟衰退因素，消費者顯然已經開始做出反應並且一直在做出反應。

So when we were seeing the cost inflation coming towards us as we moved into '23, we made a choice to try to balance our margin desires with not cooling demand, unit demand off too much. So as opposed to pricing to get back to total gross margins, we price to cover the dollar cost of ingredients and packaging inflation. So -- and with a fundamental belief that we could do better from a consumer recruitment standpoint, not cool off our volumes, keep our velocities on the shelf better. So we made that trade-off under a fundamental belief that ingredients and packaging wouldn't stay at these historic highs for a sustained period of time.

因此，當我們進入 23 世紀時看到成本通脹向我們襲來時，我們做出了一個選擇，試圖平衡我們的利潤率需求與不冷卻需求，單位需求下降太多。因此，與通過定價來恢復總毛利率相反，我們通過定價來彌補成分和包裝通脹的美元成本。所以 - 並且有一個基本信念，即我們可以從消費者招募的角度做得更好，而不是冷卻我們的數量，更好地保持我們的貨架速度。因此，我們在一個基本信念下做出了權衡，即成分和包裝不會在持續的一段時間內保持在這些歷史高位。

So that's our belief. And the good news is we're starting to see, you can see it in the spot markets. We're starting to see in some of the negotiations that we're having in the second half of the year, we're starting to see those ingredients come off those highs. We would expect that to continue to play out over time, right? Do I anticipate that we will have to spend it back? What I would tell you is we're always -- as margins get back to 40%, our ideal shape of our P&L 40% gross margin, 10% spending and marketing support, 20% EBITDA margin.

這就是我們的信念。好消息是我們開始看到，你可以在現貨市場上看到它。我們開始在今年下半年進行的一些談判中看到，我們開始看到這些成分從高位回落。我們希望隨著時間的推移繼續發揮作用，對嗎？我是否預計我們將不得不花掉它？我要告訴你的是，我們總是——隨著利潤率回到 40%，我們理想的損益形狀是 40% 的毛利率，10% 的支出和營銷支持，20% 的 EBITDA 利潤率。

Ultimately, that's where we want to be. So we're going to be making investments back with that profile as we get back to 40% gross margin. We want to get back to that profile, marketing spending where it needs to be, EBITDA margin where it needs to be.

最終，這就是我們想要成為的地方。因此，當我們回到 40% 的毛利率時，我們將以這種方式進行投資。我們想回到那個形象，營銷支出需要的地方，EBITDA 利潤率需要的地方。

Yes. Okay. Makes sense. And then just quickly. Look, I mean when you came out of the destocking, we repackage innovated on the Atkins brand. The results of this fairly material impact, which I would argue, [Rob] well. Probably it's been around now for some time. I'm just curious kind of with your state-of-the-art sophisticated marketing platform, as we think about '23, right, like I'm hearing shelf positioning, there are some fixes, have to kind of manage some channel shifts. But is there anything else in there to kind of maybe give Atkins just a little bit more of a splash, like I don't know if it's another commercial or another kind of brand ambassador or what have you? Just kind of anything in kind of how you're thinking about how to push the brand a little bit more versus trying to pull the consumer maybe with some other fixes?

是的。好的。說得通。然後很快。看，我的意思是當你從去庫存中走出來時，我們重新包裝了阿特金斯品牌的創新產品。這種相當重大的影響的結果，我認為，[Rob] 很好。可能它已經存在一段時間了。我只是對你們最先進的複雜營銷平台有點好奇，正如我們對 23 世紀的看法，對，就像我聽到貨架定位一樣，有一些修復，必須管理一些渠道轉移.但是還有什麼其他的東西可以讓阿特金斯更加引人注目，就像我不知道這是另一個商業廣告還是另一種品牌大使或者你有什麼？你是如何考慮如何進一步推動品牌，而不是試圖通過其他一些修復來吸引消費者？

Well, look, I think it's a good question, Rob. It's a question we ask ourselves all the time. We're always looking at those things, right? If I look at the fundamentals of the business and the kind of the facts of the business, I don't have a recruitment problem. [Rob tests] as strong now as he did when we first signed him, our ability to attract consumers to the brand has been strong. If that changes, then you got to start rethinking kind of do you have the right consumer pull to attract consumers.

好吧，聽著，我認為這是個好問題，羅伯。這是我們一直問自己的問題。我們一直在看那些東西，對吧？如果我看一下業務的基本面和業務事實的種類，我就沒有招聘問題。 [Rob tests] 現在和我們剛簽下他時一樣強大，我們吸引消費者的能力一直很強。如果這種情況發生變化，那麼你必須開始重新考慮你是否有合適的消費者拉力來吸引消費者。

Our issue has been buy rate. It's been buy rates all through COVID. It's by rate now due to executional issues. We're kind of focused on that because if we know we get the product portfolio right, that we can get by rate back to historic levels, and the business will go from where it is today at 4% to better than 4% over time. So that's what we're focused on.

我們的問題是購買率。整個 COVID 期間都是買入利率。由於執行問題，現在按比例計算。我們有點專注於此，因為如果我們知道我們的產品組合是正確的，我們可以將利率恢復到歷史水平，隨著時間的推移，業務將從今天的 4% 增長到超過 4% .這就是我們關注的重點。

But to answer your question, we're always asking ourselves that. We just [re-signed], Rob. We just shot new commercials that are going on air as we speak. He still has a really good appeal, both demographically as well as the people that we're talking of the benefits that we're talking about. So hard to replace him as kind of the figurehead celebrity. Now we do a lot of things digitally with ambassadors to kind of target kind of micro segments within the brand. But I don't -- right now, all the data would suggest you keep firing on all cylinders with him, fix some of the executional issues and your business goes from 4% growth to something much better.

但是為了回答你的問題，我們總是這樣問自己。我們剛剛 [重新簽約]，Rob。我們剛剛拍攝了正在播出的新商業廣告。他仍然具有非常好的吸引力，無論是在人口統計方面還是我們正在談論我們正在談論的好處的人。很難取代他作為有名無實的名人。現在我們與大使一起以數字方式做很多事情，以定位品牌內的微觀細分市場。但我不——現在，所有數據都表明你和他一起開足馬力，解決一些執行問題，你的業務將從 4% 增長到更好的水平。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we've come to the end of our time allowed for questions. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Scalzo for final comments.

謝謝。女士們先生們，我們的提問時間到此結束。最後請 Scalzo 先生髮言。

Thanks again for all your participation today on today's call. We hope you continue to remain safe and look forward to updating you on our second quarter results in April. Everyone, have a good day. Thank you.

再次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，並期待在 4 月份向您通報我們第二季度的最新業績。大家，祝你有個美好的一天。謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

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

謝謝。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。