Simply Good Foods Co (SMPL) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to The Simply Foods Company's Fiscal Second Quarter 2023 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) I'll now turn the conference over to Mark Pogharian, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mark, you may now begin.

問候。歡迎來到 Simply Foods 公司 2023 財年第二季度電話會議。 （操作員說明）我現在將會議轉交給投資者關係副總裁 Mark Pogharian。馬克，你現在可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good morning. I am pleased to welcome you to The Simply Good Foods Company earnings call for the fiscal second quarter ended February 25, 2023. Joe Scalzo, Chief Executive Officer, Shaun Mara, CFO; and Geoff Tanner, President, COO and CEO-Elect are with me today. Joe and Shaun 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 Time. A copy of the release and accompanying presentation are available under the Investors section of the company's website at www.thesimplygoodfoodscompany.com. This call is being webcast and an archive of today's remarks will be available.

謝謝你，運營商。早上好。我很高興地歡迎您參加 Simply Good Foods Company 截至 2023 年 2 月 25 日的第二財季財報電話會議。Joe Scalzo，首席執行官，Shaun Mara，首席財務官；今天，總裁、首席運營官兼 CEO 當選人傑夫·坦納 (Geoff Tanner) 和我在一起。 Joe 和 Shaun 將為您提供結果概覽，然後是問答環節。該公司於東部時間今天上午 7:00 左右發布了收益報告。可在公司網站 www.thesimplygoodfoodscompany.com 的“投資者”部分獲取新聞稿副本和隨附的演示文稿。此電話會議正在進行網絡直播，今天的評論存檔將可用。

During the course of today's this call, management will make forward-looking statements that are subject to various risk 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 risk 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 for investors.

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。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。

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 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.

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 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, CEO.

有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給首席執行官 Joe Scalzo。

Thank you, Mark. Good morning and thank you for joining us. Today, I'll recap Simply Good Foods second quarter and provide you with some perspective on the performance of our business. Then Shaun 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.

謝謝你，馬克。早上好，感謝您加入我們。今天，我將回顧 Simply Good Foods 第二季度的情況，並為您提供一些關於我們業務表現的觀點。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並回答您的問題。

As most of you know, on January 30, we announced that Geoff Tanner will be joining us as President and CEO-Elect. Throughout his career, Geoff has been primarily focused on marketing, sales and innovation within the food sector. So he brings superior experience along with credentials as a terrific leader and as you'll learn, incredible passion to everything he does. The Board and I are confident that under his leadership, the company will continue its track record of growth and profitability. And I look forward to partnering with him to achieve a smooth transition.

正如你們大多數人所知，1 月 30 日，我們宣布 Geoff Tanner 將加入我們，擔任總裁兼 CEO 當選人。在他的整個職業生涯中，Geoff 主要專注於食品行業的營銷、銷售和創新。因此，他帶來了卓越的經驗以及作為出色領導者的資歷，而且正如您將了解到的那樣，他對他所做的每一件事都充滿了難以置信的熱情。董事會和我相信，在他的領導下，公司將繼續保持增長和盈利的記錄。我期待與他合作，實現平穩過渡。

I'll now turn the call over to Geoff for some introductory remarks.

我現在將電話轉給 Geoff，請他做一些介紹性發言。

Thanks, Joe. I'm honored that on July 7, I'll become the next CEO of The Simply Good Foods Company. As you know, Simply Good Foods is a special company with 2 great brands, fueled by passionate employees and loyal consumers. These attributes have delivered top-tier sales and earnings growth and will continue to do so going forward.

謝謝，喬。我很榮幸將於 7 月 7 日成為 The Simply Good Foods Company 的下一任首席執行官。如您所知，Simply Good Foods 是一家特殊的公司，擁有 2 個偉大的品牌，由熱情的員工和忠誠的消費者推動。這些屬性帶來了一流的銷售和盈利增長，並將繼續如此。

Although my official start day was 2 days ago, April 3, I was eager to get a running start to learn about the business and meet with many of the employees via Zoom and phone. I learned what many of you already know, we have a remarkable energized team who come to work every day with a strong sense of purpose. That purpose is to lead the nutritious snacking movement with trusted brands that offer a variety of convenient, innovative, great tasting, better-for-you snacks and meal replacements.

雖然我的正式開始日期是 2 天前，也就是 4 月 3 日，但我渴望快速開始了解業務並通過 Zoom 和電話與許多員工會面。我了解到你們中的許多人已經知道，我們擁有一支充滿活力的非凡團隊，他們每天都帶著強烈的使命感來上班。其目的是通過值得信賴的品牌引領營養零食運動，這些品牌提供各種方便、創新、美味、更適合您的零食和代餐。

I want to say a special thank you to The Simply Good Foods team, many of whom listen in to this call. It's clear their passion and dedication, along with our strong brands and growth investments will continue to contribute to our further success. Both Joe and I have worked with Jim Kilts earlier in our careers. So it's no surprise we have similar beliefs as to the drivers of growth and value creation.

我想特別感謝 Simply Good Foods 團隊，他們中的許多人都聽了這次電話會議。很明顯，他們的熱情和奉獻精神，以及我們強大的品牌和增長投資，將繼續為我們的進一步成功做出貢獻。喬和我在職業生涯的早期都曾與吉姆·基爾茨 (Jim Kilts) 共事過。因此，我們對增長和價值創造的驅動力有著相似的信念也就不足為奇了。

Therefore, as I transition to the CEO role, you'll continue to see a focus on the core drivers of brand growth, namely marketing and media, innovation, category management and fundamental sales execution. I call this approach the brand growth flywheel and it's all in service of expanding household penetration to accelerate growth.

因此，當我過渡到 CEO 角色時，您將繼續關注品牌增長的核心驅動力，即營銷和媒體、創新、品類管理和基本銷售執行。我將這種方法稱為品牌增長飛輪，它全部用於擴大家庭滲透率以加速增長。

We participate in a unique fast-growing category, fueled by strong underlying consumer trends that show no sign of slowing. The statistic that perhaps excites me the most is that household penetration of this category is only about 50%, which is very low compared to most food and beverage categories in North America. Working with our talented team and partnering with retailers, we will continue to fuel the brand growth flywheel to increase household penetration and continue to drive growth.

我們參與了一個獨特的快速增長的類別，受到強勁的潛在消費趨勢的推動，這些趨勢沒有放緩的跡象。或許最令我興奮的統計數據是，這一類別的家庭滲透率僅為 50% 左右，與北美大多數食品和飲料類別相比，這一數字非常低。與我們才華橫溢的團隊合作並與零售商合作，我們將繼續推動品牌增長飛輪，以提高家庭滲透率並繼續推動增長。

Also, following in the footsteps of Jim, Dave West, Joe and others, I will ensure a continuous improvement mindset across everything we do, to deliver results and provide the fuel we need to deliver the growth that's in front of us. I want to underscore my optimism about Simply Good's future. I couldn't be more excited to lead the Simply Goods company.

此外，跟隨 Jim、Dave West、Joe 和其他人的腳步，我將確保在我們所做的每一件事中都保持持續改進的心態，以交付成果並提供我們需要的燃料，以實現我們面前的增長。我想強調我對 Simply Good 未來的樂觀態度。我對領導 Simply Goods 公司感到無比興奮。

While it's not prudent for me to participate in today's conference call Q&A, again, this being day 3 to me, please note that I look forward to working with all of you as we focus on building value for all Simply Good Foods stakeholders.

雖然我參加今天的電話問答並不明智，但再次提醒，這是我的第 3 天，請注意，我期待與大家合作，因為我們專注於為所有 Simply Good Foods 利益相關者創造價值。

I'll now turn it back over to Joe, who will provide details of our second quarter results.

我現在將其轉回給喬，他將提供我們第二季度業績的詳細信息。

Thanks, Geoff and welcome to the team. We are pleased with our second quarter performance that was greater than our expectations. During the important New Year season, Simply Good Foods Q2 retail takeaway in the U.S. combined measured and unmeasured channels increased about 16%. As expected, U.S. retail takeaway growth outpaced the net sales change principally due to the significant prior year retail customer inventory build. Shaun will provide more details on the difference between net sales and POS growth in just a bit.

謝謝，Geoff，歡迎加入我們的團隊。我們對第二季度的業績超出我們的預期感到滿意。在重要的新年期間，美國 Simply Good Foods Q2 零售外賣的實測和非實測渠道合計增長了約 16%。正如預期的那樣，美國零售外賣的增長超過了淨銷售額的變化，這主要是由於上一年零售客戶庫存的大量增加。 Shaun 稍後將提供有關淨銷售額和 POS 增長之間差異的更多詳細信息。

POS growth was driven by both brands. Quest performance was solid across key forms, customers and channels. Atkins continues to show growth in both measured and unmeasured channels. Additionally, Atkins' e-commerce growth continues to be additive to measured channels. North America net sales performance was better than our expectations due to solid retail takeaway, although net sales were affected by some customer inventory reductions in the quarter.

POS 增長由兩個品牌推動。 Quest 在關鍵形式、客戶和渠道方面的表現都很穩定。阿特金斯在衡量和未衡量的渠道上繼續表現出增長。此外，阿特金斯的電子商務增長繼續對衡量渠道產生影響。儘管淨銷售額受到本季度一些客戶庫存減少的影響，但由於零售外賣穩健，北美淨銷售額表現好於我們的預期。

Additionally, international net sales were softer than our estimate due to the impact of the second price increase initiated earlier this year. Second quarter gross margin was 34.6% versus 36.6% in the year ago period. The 200 basis point decline was greater than expectations due to lower ingredients costs flowing through at a slower rate than anticipated and marginally higher other costs within our supply chain. Importantly, our supply chain team performed well with customer service near target levels. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $50.9 million versus $54.2 million in the year ago period. The $3.3 million decline was better than our estimate due to North American sales performance greater than our expectations and solid SG&A cost control that was partially offset by supply chain cost inflation.

此外，由於今年早些時候發起的第二次提價的影響，國際淨銷售額低於我們的預期。第二季度毛利率為 34.6%，而去年同期為 36.6%。 200 個基點的降幅大於預期，原因是原料成本下降的速度低於預期，而且我們供應鏈中的其他成本略高。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。本季度調整後的 EBITDA 為 5090 萬美元，而去年同期為 5420 萬美元。 330 萬美元的降幅好於我們的估計，原因是北美銷售業績好於我們的預期，而且 SG&A 成本控制穩健，但部分被供應鏈成本通脹所抵消。

International softness was greater than our forecast. Simply Good Foods retail takeaway in measured channels increased 14.2% with a good contribution from pricing and volume. Specifically, we estimate that Q2 measured channel POS was driven by about 9 points of price and 5 points of buy. Similar to the last few quarters, total unmeasured channel growth was additive to total company point of sale, resulting in combined measured and unmeasured channel growth of about 16%.

國際疲軟程度高於我們的預期。 Simply Good Foods 在測量渠道中的零售外賣增長了 14.2%，這得益於定價和銷量的良好貢獻。具體而言，我們估計 Q2 測量的渠道 POS 是由大約 9 個價格點和 5 個購買點驅動的。與過去幾個季度類似，未衡量的渠道總增長增加了公司銷售點總數，導致衡量和未衡量的渠道合計增長約 16%。

In the second quarter, Atkins and Quest combined measured and unmeasured channel growth were about 6% and 26%, respectively, with performance top tier within the measured channel segments of weight management and active nutrition. Turning to Atkins second quarter performance. Atkins' second quarter retail takeaway in the combined measured and unmeasured channel sequentially improved versus the first quarter and increased about 6%. Atkins second quarter POS at Amazon increased 35%. We estimate total unmeasured channel retail takeaway increased more than 25% and is about 13% of total Atkins retail sales. The brand continues to benefit from shopper channels shifting to e-commerce as well as improved digital marketing initiatives.

第二季度，Atkins 和 Quest 的實測和非實測渠道合計增長率分別約為 6% 和 26%，在體重管理和主動營養的實測渠道細分市場中表現一流。談到阿特金斯第二季度的表現。相較於第一季度，阿特金斯第二季度零售外賣在合併的已測量和未測量渠道中有所改善，增長了約 6%。 Atkins 第二季度在亞馬遜的 POS 增長了 35%。我們估計未衡量的渠道零售外賣總額增加了 25% 以上，約佔阿特金斯零售總額的 13%。該品牌繼續受益於轉向電子商務的購物者渠道以及改進的數字營銷計劃。

Brand relevance and loyal remained strong, supported by a growing base of new and total buyers. Buy rate was down slightly in Q2, although it improved from the first quarter. Moving on to measured channels. In the IRI MULO and C-store universe, Atkins' second quarter POS increased 3.3% and as expected, sequentially improved from the first quarter. Consistent with recessionary shopper channel shifting, performance was driven by solid trends in the mass channel, offset by softness in the food class-of-trade.

在不斷增長的新買家和總買家基礎的支持下，品牌相關性和忠誠度依然強勁。儘管與第一季度相比有所改善，但第二季度的購買率略有下降。繼續測量通道。在 IRI MULO 和 C-store 領域，Atkins 第二季度 POS 增長 3.3%，正如預期的那樣，比第一季度有所改善。與經濟衰退的購物者渠道轉移一致，業績受到大眾渠道穩健趨勢的推動，但被食品行業的疲軟所抵消。

By form, Q2 shakes retail takeaway increased 13.5%, driven by solid growth across all major channels. Total Atkins bars were off 3.9%, a 300-basis point improvement for the first quarter. Meal bars, about 2/3 of the bar business, increased 2.5% and were offset by snack bar distribution losses that we discussed last quarter and some pricing sensitivity from our July price increase.

從形式上看，第二季度奶昔零售外賣增長了 13.5%，這得益於所有主要渠道的穩健增長。總阿特金斯酒吧下降了 3.9%，第一季度提高了 300 個基點。餐吧約佔酒吧業務的 2/3，增長了 2.5%，被我們上個季度討論的小吃店分銷損失以及我們 7 月價格上漲的一些定價敏感性所抵消。

As expected, confection POS improved from the first quarter and Q2 confections retail takeaway was off 1.5% as we lapped the strong year-ago performance of our dessert bar innovation. Importantly, the commitment to our brands and nutritional snacking category by major retailers remains strong. Although in the third quarter, we expect POS to slow as we face tougher e-commerce comps on Atkins and anniversary promotions in the club channel that will not repeat.

正如預期的那樣，糖果 POS 比第一季度有所改善，第二季度糖果零售外賣下降了 1.5%，因為我們超越了一年前甜點吧創新的強勁表現。重要的是，主要零售商對我們的品牌和營養零食品類的承諾依然堅定。儘管在第三季度，我們預計 POS 會放緩，因為我們將面臨更嚴格的阿特金斯電子商務競爭和俱樂部渠道的周年紀念促銷活動，這些不會重複。

Let me now turn to Quest's second quarter retail takeaway where the combined measured and unmeasured channel growth was 26% and continues to outpace the nutritional snacking category. In the second quarter, we estimate total unmeasured channel retail takeaway increased 21% as e-commerce strength was partially offset by softness in specialty channels. Quest's second quarter POS at Amazon increased about 30%, driven by growth across all forms. For perspective, total unmeasured channels in the second quarter were about 24% of total Quest retail sales.

現在讓我談談 Quest 第二季度的零售外賣業務，其中可測量和未測量的渠道總增長率為 26%，並繼續超過營養零食類別。在第二季度，我們估計未衡量的渠道零售外賣總額增長了 21%，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 在亞馬遜的第二季度 POS 增長了約 30%。從長遠來看，第二季度未衡量的渠道總數約佔 Quest 零售總額的 24%。

In measured channels, Quest retail takeaway increased 27.2% in the IRI MULO and C-store universe. Growth was driven by solid performance across all major forms and retail channels as well as increases across all major metrics, specifically household penetration, base velocity, distribution and continued new product success. In the second quarter, Quest core bar business retail takeaway increased 24.1%. Growth was solid across original bars as well as the new minis. Consumer response to the new recipe that provides a much softer original bar is positive and driving growth.

在測量渠道中，Quest 零售外賣在 IRI MULO 和 C 店領域增長了 27.2%。增長是由所有主要形式和零售渠道的穩健表現以及所有主要指標的增長推動的，特別是家庭滲透率、基本速度、分銷和持續的新產品成功。第二季度，Quest核心酒吧業務零售外賣增長24.1%。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始巧克力棒的新配方的反應是積極的，並推動了增長。

Additionally, the Hero bar is beginning to gain momentum driven by distribution gains and higher velocities. The snacking portion of Quest products, that's cookies, confections and salty snacks continue to do well with second quarter measured retail channel takeaway of 30%. Growth was strong across all snack forms as distribution gains and marketing investments continue to drive awareness and trial. Consumer response to the price increase initiated in late July is tracking mostly as expected, although elasticity on chips so far has been slightly greater than our estimates.

此外，Hero bar 開始獲得分佈增益和更高速度驅動的勢頭。 Quest 產品的零食部分，即餅乾、糖果和鹹味零食繼續表現良好，第二季度實測零售渠道外賣率為 30%。隨著分銷收益和營銷投資繼續推動知名度和試用，所有零食形式的增長都很強勁。消費者對 7 月下旬開始的價格上漲的反應基本符合預期，儘管到目前為止芯片的彈性略高於我們的估計。

The snacks portion represents nearly 45% of total Quest measured channel retail sales and is already roughly equal to Quest bars in household penetration. We expect Quest snacks to continue to be a driver of the brand's growth over the next few years driven by household penetration as well as a solid pipeline of innovation. However, given the meaningful size of this part of the business, we expect the rate of growth over the next few quarters to moderate from its current levels.

零食部分佔 Quest 測量渠道零售總額的近 45%，在家庭滲透率方面已經大致相當於 Quest bars。我們預計 Quest 零食將在未來幾年繼續成為該品牌增長的驅動力，這將受到家庭滲透率和穩固的創新渠道的推動。然而，鑑於這部分業務的規模相當大，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, the company is uniquely positioned as a U.S. leader in the fast-growing nutritional snacking category. We have 2 scaled lifestyle nutrition 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's protein-rich and low in carbs and sugar. This profile has broad appeal to consumers interested in health and wellness as a means to achieving their goals, whether they are at home, in the office or on the go.

總而言之，該公司在快速增長的營養零食類別中處於美國領先地位。我們擁有 2 個規模龐大的生活方式營養品牌，這些品牌在多種形式和零食場合得到了很好的發展。我們的品牌符合健康零食的消費大趨勢，其營養成分富含蛋白質，碳水化合物和糖含量較低。這種形像對對健康和保健感興趣的消費者俱有廣泛的吸引力，無論他們是在家裡、辦公室還是在旅途中，都可以將其作為實現目標的一種方式。

This category remains well under penetrated from a consumer standpoint, indicating a long runway for growth. This is evident in our second quarter retail takeaway of 16% that exceeded our forecast. However, as I mentioned earlier, net sales were affected by some retail customer inventory reductions. This is a watch out as we make our way through the third quarter. Our positive business momentum continued into the third quarter as March retail takeaway increased about 12%. We remain cautiously optimistic about our prospects over the remainder of the year.

從消費者的角度來看，這一類別的滲透率仍然很低，表明增長還有很長的路要走。這在我們第二季度的零售外賣 16% 超出了我們的預期時就很明顯了。然而，正如我之前提到的，淨銷售額受到一些零售客戶庫存減少的影響。當我們進入第三季度時，請注意這一點。隨著 3 月份零售外賣增長約 12%，我們的積極業務勢頭持續到第三季度。我們對今年剩餘時間的前景保持謹慎樂觀。

That said, we expect retail takeaway will moderate from current levels as we lap large year ago comps and continue in an uncertain economic environment. While we expect full year fiscal 2023 gross margins to be below last year, we anticipate an improving cost environment in the second half of the year, with sequentially improving margin from the second quarter to the fourth quarter. We will continue to execute against our priorities and remain committed to doing the right thing over the near and long term for our brands, our customers and our consumers.

也就是說，我們預計零售外賣將從目前的水平開始放緩，因為我們在一年前取得了很大的成功，並在不確定的經濟環境中繼續。雖然我們預計 2023 財年全年毛利率將低於去年，但我們預計下半年成本環境將有所改善，從第二季度到第四季度的利潤率將逐步提高。我們將繼續執行我們的優先事項，並繼續致力於在近期和長期內為我們的品牌、我們的客戶和我們的消費者做正確的事。

Now I'll turn the call over to Shaun, who will provide you with some greater financial details. Shaun?

現在我將電話轉給肖恩，他將為您提供更多財務細節。肖恩？

Thank you, Joe. Good morning, everyone. I will begin with an overview of our net sales. Total Simply Good Foods second quarter net sales of $296.6 million was about the same as the year ago period. This resulted in year-to-date net sales of $597.5 million, an increase of 3.4% versus last year. Looking at the Q2 drivers of growth. Net price realization was about 8.2 percentage points and volume was off about 6.9 percentage points. The March 2022 agreement to license the Quest frozen pizza business was a headwind of 1.3 percentage points.

謝謝你，喬。大家，早安。我將從我們的淨銷售額概述開始。 Total Simply Good Foods 第二季度淨銷售額為 2.966 億美元，與去年同期大致持平。這導致年初至今的淨銷售額為 5.975 億美元，比去年增長 3.4%。看看第二季度的增長動力。淨價實現約 8.2 個百分點，銷量下降約 6.9 個百分點。 2022 年 3 月許可 Quest 冷凍披薩業務的協議帶來了 1.3 個百分點的阻力。

As Joe stated earlier, retail takeaway growth outpaced the net sales change. On the bottom of this slide, we attempt to reconcile Q2 POS growth of 16% to Q2 North America net sales growth of 0.3%. The biggest driver of this difference is the impact of the year-ago period retail inventory build. As a reminder, in a typical year, we see retailers build inventory by 1 to 2 weeks in the first half of the year to support the New Year new use season.

正如喬之前所說，零售外賣的增長超過了淨銷售額的變化。在這張幻燈片的底部，我們試圖將第二季度 POS 增長 16% 與第二季度北美淨銷售額增長 0.3% 相協調。這種差異的最大驅動因素是去年同期零售庫存增加的影響。提醒一下，在通常情況下，我們會看到零售商在上半年增加 1 至 2 週的庫存，以支持新年的新使用季。

This build typically comes out in Q3. Last year was atypical, as most retail customers elected to build significantly higher inventory levels in the first half of fiscal 2022 and did not deplete it until the fourth quarter of 2022 due to their supply chain concerns last year. We estimate the impact of this change in retail inventory compared to last year to be about an 11percentage point headwind or about $30 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2023.

該版本通常在第三季度發布。去年是非典型的，因為大多數零售客戶選擇在 2022 財年上半年建立顯著更高的庫存水平，並且由於去年對供應鏈的擔憂，直到 2022 年第四季度才耗盡庫存。我們估計，與去年相比，零售庫存的這種變化對 2023 財年第二季度的影響約為 11 個百分點或約 3000 萬美元。

Additionally, as Joe mentioned, the current period inventory reduction by some retailers was about a 3 percentage point impact or approximately $10 million. Lastly, the licensing of pizza was about a 1 percentage point drag.

此外，正如 Joe 所提到的，一些零售商當前期間的庫存減少影響約為 3 個百分點或約 1000 萬美元。最後，披薩的許可拖累了大約 1 個百分點。

Moving on to other P&L items for Q2. Gross profit was $102.7 million, a decline of $5.8 million from the year ago period, resulting in gross margin of 34.6%. The 200 basis points decline versus the year ago period was primarily due to higher ingredient and packaging costs. Versus our forecast, gross margin was off by about 50 basis points or $1.5 million due to lower ingredient costs flowing through at a slower rate than anticipated and marginally higher other costs within our supply chain.

繼續討論第二季度的其他損益項目。毛利潤為 1.027 億美元，比去年同期下降 580 萬美元，毛利率為 34.6%。與去年同期相比下降 200 個基點主要是由於成分和包裝成本較高。與我們的預測相比，毛利率下降了約 50 個基點或 150 萬美元，原因是成分成本的流動速度低於預期，而且我們供應鏈中的其他成本略高。

Net income was $25.6 million versus $18.5 million last year. The year-ago period was impacted by the fair value change of private warrant liabilities of $12.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $50.9 million, a decline of $3.3 million from the year-ago period. Selling and marketing expenses were $29.9 million versus $32 million last year, a decline of 6.3%, largely due to the timing of spend within the year. GAAP G&A expense was $25.9 million and declined 1.3% versus last year.

淨收入為 2560 萬美元，而去年為 1850 萬美元。去年同期受到 1270 萬美元私人認股權證負債公允價值變動的影響。調整後的 EBITDA 為 5090 萬美元，比去年同期減少 330 萬美元。銷售和營銷費用為 2990 萬美元，而去年為 3200 萬美元，下降了 6.3%，這主要是由於年內支出的時間安排。 GAAP G&A 費用為 2590 萬美元，比去年下降 1.3%。

Excluding stock-based compensation, executive transition costs, restructuring and integration expenses, G&A declined 1.8% to $22.5 million. The $400,000 decline versus last year was primarily due to lower employee-related costs. For the full fiscal year 2023, we expect selling, marketing and G&A expense to be slightly down versus the year ago period.

不包括基於股票的薪酬、高管過渡成本、重組和整合費用，G&A 下降 1.8% 至 2250 萬美元。與去年相比減少 400,000 美元主要是由於與員工相關的成本降低。對於整個 2023 財年，我們預計銷售、營銷和 G&A 費用將比去年同期略有下降。

Moving to other items in the P&L. Net interest income and interest expense increased $3 million to $8.3 million due to higher variable interest rates related to the term loan and our tax rate in Q2 was about 24.7%, about the same as last year. The tax rate in the year ago period excludes the impact of a change related to the warrant liability.

轉到損益表中的其他項目。淨利息收入和利息支出增加 300 萬美元至 830 萬美元，原因是與定期貸款相關的可變利率較高，我們在第二季度的稅率約為 24.7%，與去年持平。去年同期的稅率不包括與權證責任相關的變化的影響。

Year-to-date results are as follows. Gross profit was $213.7 million, a decline of 5%. Gross margin of 35.8% declined 310 basis points versus the year ago period. The decline was primarily due to higher ingredient and packaging costs. Net income was $61.5 million versus $39.6 million in the year ago period. The year ago period was impacted by the fair value change of private warrant liabilities of $30.1 million. Adjusted EBITDA declined 6.8% to $111.7 million, primarily due to lower gross profit.

年初至今的結果如下。毛利為 2.137 億美元，下降 5%。毛利率為 35.8%，與去年同期相比下降了 310 個基點。下降的主要原因是成分和包裝成本增加。淨收入為 6150 萬美元，而去年同期為 3960 萬美元。去年同期受到 3010 萬美元私人認股權證負債公允價值變動的影響。調整後的 EBITDA 下降 6.8% 至 1.117 億美元，這主要是由於毛利下降。

Selling and marketing expenses were $58.5 million versus $62.5 million, a decline of 6.4% due to timing of spend within the year. G&A expenses increased 2.1% or $0.9 million. This excludes charges of $6.8 million related to stock-based compensation, executive transition costs, integration and restructuring expenses. Moving to other items in the P&L. Net interest income and interest expense increased $3.7 million to $15.3 million due to higher variable interest rates related to the term loan. Our year-to-date tax rate was about 22.7% versus 24.9% in the year ago period. The tax rate in the year ago period excludes the impact of the charge related to the warrant liability. We anticipate the full year fiscal 2023 tax rate to be about 25%.

銷售和營銷費用為 5,850 萬美元，相比之下為 6,250 萬美元，下降 6.4%，原因是年內的支出時間。 G&A 費用增長 2.1% 或 90 萬美元。這不包括 680 萬美元與股票薪酬、高管過渡成本、整合和重組費用相關的費用。轉到損益表中的其他項目。淨利息收入和利息支出增加 370 萬美元至 1530 萬美元，原因是與定期貸款相關的浮動利率較高。我們年初至今的稅率約為 22.7%，而去年同期為 24.9%。去年同期的稅率不包括與權證責任相關的費用的影響。我們預計 2023 財年全年的稅率約為 25%。

Turning to EPS. Second quarter reported EPS was $0.25 per share diluted compared to $0.18 per share diluted for the comparable period of 2022. In fiscal Q2 2023, depreciation and amortization expense was $5 million and similar to the year ago period and stock-based compensation of $3 million was about the same as last year. Adjusted diluted EPS, which excludes these items, was $0.32 compared to $0.36 for the year ago period. Note that we calculated adjusted diluted EPS as adjusted EBITDA less interest income, interest expense and income taxes. Year-to-date second quarter reported EPS was $0.61 and adjusted diluted EPS was $0.73. Please refer to today's press release for an explanation and reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures.

轉向每股收益。第二季度報告的每股攤薄每股收益為 0.25 美元，而 2022 年同期的攤薄每股收益為 0.18 美元。在 2023 財年第二季度，折舊和攤銷費用為 500 萬美元，與去年同期相似，基於股票的薪酬為 300 萬美元和去年差不多。不包括這些項目的調整後攤薄每股收益為 0.32 美元，而去年同期為 0.36 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。年初至今第二季度報告的每股收益為 0.61 美元，調整後的攤薄每股收益為 0.73 美元。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 February 25, 2023, the company had cash of $63.2 million. Year-to-date cash flow from operations was $53.3 million. In Q2, the company paid down $35 million of its term loan debt. And at the end of the second quarter, the outstanding principal balance was $365 million, resulting in a trailing 12-month net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio of 1.3x. Note, subsequent to the end of the quarter, we paid down an additional $15 million, so the current outstanding balance is $350 million. We anticipate net interest expense for the year to be about $28 million to $30 million, including noncash amortization expense related to the deferred financing fees. Year-to-date capital expenditures were $1.7 million.

轉向資產負債表和現金流量。截至 2023 年 2 月 25 日，公司擁有現金 6320 萬美元。年初至今的運營現金流為 5330 萬美元。第二季度，該公司償還了 3500 萬美元的定期貸款債務。在第二季度末，未償本金餘額為 3.65 億美元，導致過去 12 個月的淨債務與調整後 EBITDA 之比為 1.3 倍。請注意，在本季度末之後，我們又支付了 1500 萬美元，因此當前未償餘額為 3.5 億美元。我們預計今年的淨利息支出約為 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。年初至今的資本支出為 170 萬美元。

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 以作結束語。

Thanks, Shaun. In a challenging economic environment, we are well positioned to maintain our marketplace momentum. Over the remainder of the year, there are solid plans in place for both of our brands that we believe will drive sales and earnings growth, particularly in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. Therefore, we anticipate the following for fiscal 2023. We reaffirm a net sales increase slightly greater than our 4% to 6% long-term algorithm.

謝謝，肖恩。在充滿挑戰的經濟環境中，我們有能力保持我們的市場勢頭。在今年餘下的時間裡，我們兩個品牌都制定了可靠的計劃，我們相信這些計劃將推動銷售和盈利增長，尤其是在本財年的第四季度。因此，我們預計 2023 財年將出現以下情況。我們重申淨銷售額增長略高於我們 4% 至 6% 的長期算法。

We continue to expect fiscal 2023 gross margins to be lower than last year. However, the overall cost environment is improving, including ingredients in the second half of the year and, in particular, in the fourth quarter. However, full year fiscal 2023 gross margins will decline greater than our previous estimate due to the year-to-date gross margin performance and slightly higher costs within our supply chain over the remainder of the year, with most of this headwind in the third quarter.

我們繼續預計 2023 財年的毛利率將低於去年。然而，整體成本環境正在改善，包括今年下半年尤其是第四季度的成分。然而，由於年初至今的毛利率表現以及今年剩餘時間我們供應鏈中的成本略高，2023 財年全年毛利率的下降幅度將大於我們之前的估計，其中大部分逆風發生在第三季度.

We have made significant marketing and organizational investments in the business over the past 3 years and believe it will result in the growth of our consumer base, distribution and market share. As such, we believe total SG&A expense will be slightly lower than last year. Full year fiscal 2023 adjusted EBITDA will increase but slightly less than the net sales growth rate. And adjusted diluted EPS will increase less than the adjusted EBITDA growth rate due to the company's expectation of higher interest expense from an increase in the variable interest rate related to its term loan debt.

在過去的 3 年裡，我們對該業務進行了大量的營銷和組織投資，相信這將導致我們的消費者基礎、分銷和市場份額的增長。因此，我們認為 SG&A 總費用將略低於去年。 2023 財年全年調整後的 EBITDA 將增加，但略低於淨銷售額增長率。由於公司預期與其定期貸款債務相關的可變利率增加會導致更高的利息支出，因此調整後的攤薄每股收益的增長將低於調整後的 EBITDA 增長率。

As we look to the third quarter of the fiscal year, retail takeaway is off to a good start, with March POS up about 12%. We have customer programming in place that should enable us to maintain marketplace momentum. We expect Q3 net sales to increase slightly versus last year due to the typical retail inventory drawdown related to the first half of the year inventory build and year ago promotions in the club channel that will not be repeated.

展望本財年第三季度，零售外賣開局良好，3 月份 POS 增長約 12%。我們已經制定了客戶計劃，這應該使我們能夠保持市場勢頭。我們預計第三季度淨銷售額將比去年略有增長，原因是與今年上半年庫存增加和一年前俱樂部渠道的促銷活動相關的典型零售庫存縮減不會重演。

Q3 gross margin is anticipated to decline around 100 basis points. And adjusted EBITDA is expected to be about the same as the year ago period due to lower ingredient costs flowing through slower than anticipated and slightly higher cost in other areas of our supply chain. Importantly, the retail takeaway growth in our category and our brands remain compelling. As such, we are excited about the near and long-term growth prospects and we'll continue to execute against our strategies as a path to increasing value for our shareholders.

預計第三季度毛利率將下降約 100 個基點。調整後的 EBITDA 預計與去年同期大致相同，這是由於較低的成分成本流動速度比預期慢，而且我們供應鏈其他領域的成本略高。重要的是，我們類別和品牌的零售外賣增長仍然引人注目。因此，我們對近期和長期的增長前景感到興奮，我們將繼續執行我們的戰略，以此作為為股東增加價值的途徑。

We appreciate everyone's interest in our company and are now available to take your questions. Operator?

我們感謝大家對我們公司的興趣，現在可以回答您的問題。操作員？

We'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) First question is from the line of Cody Ross with UBS.

我們現在將進行問答環節。 （操作員說明）第一個問題來自瑞銀的 Cody Ross。

First question is just around your sales cadence for the rest of the year. We have a couple of moving pieces here. You previously noted that shipments should exceed takeaway in the back half given the unusual cadence last year. Can you remind us specifically how much you expect to ship above consumption in 3Q and 4Q?

第一個問題是關於今年剩餘時間的銷售節奏。我們這裡有幾個動人的片段。您之前曾指出，鑑於去年的異常節奏，下半年的出貨量應該會超過外賣。您能否具體提醒我們，您預計三季度和四季度的消費量出貨量是多少？

And can you also take into account the retailer inventory reductions. I think you said it was a 3% headwind or $10 million this quarter. How should we think about the retailer inventory reductions going forward?

你能不能也考慮到零售商庫存的減少。我想你說過本季度是 3% 的逆風或 1000 萬美元。我們應該如何看待未來的零售商庫存減少？

Yes. Cody, this is Joe. I'll just step back because I think you summarized it well, but for those who may not as be familiar with kind of the cadence from last year, so I want to start with, just for perspective, I want to start with the overall health of our business from a demand standpoint, can be best seen in point of sale. So not nearly the noise that we're experiencing this year in net sales. So our POS, on our business, we finished the quarter plus 16%. We're one month into the quarter that we're in at plus 12%, our overall health of our business from a demand standpoint is very healthy. We're cautiously optimistic as we move through the second half of the year.

是的。科迪，這是喬。我會退後一步，因為我認為你總結得很好，但對於那些可能不熟悉去年節奏的人，所以我想從整體開始，只是為了透視，我想從整體開始從需求的角度來看，我們業務的健康狀況可以在銷售點上得到最好的體現。因此，與我們今年在淨銷售額中遇到的噪音幾乎沒有關係。所以我們的 POS，在我們的業務上，我們在本季度完成了 16% 的增長。我們進入本季度增長 12% 的一個月，從需求的角度來看，我們業務的整體健康狀況非常健康。我們對今年下半年持謹慎樂觀態度。

We've been exceeding our own expectations on POS and we feel pretty good about the momentum that we've got as we move through the second half of the year. Now as it pertains to net sales, a lot of noise in the numbers and it has, much of it has to do with last year. So just to remind folks of what last year was like, customers having difficulty given customer service across basically the food space, they took positions in inventory that were very atypical.

我們在 POS 上的表現超出了我們自己的預期，我們對今年下半年的發展勢頭感到非常滿意。現在，就淨銷售額而言，數字中有很多噪音，而且很多都與去年有關。因此，為了提醒人們去年的情況，客戶很難在整個食品領域提供客戶服務，他們在庫存中採取了非常不典型的立場。

And in our case, big inventory build, as you saw in Shaun's comments about a 11-point differential relative POS to shipments from the inventory build last year. A typical year, we would see far less and that inventory would come up pretty quickly, normally in the third quarter. Last year, that inventory didn't pull down until the fourth quarter. So we have a very unusual pattern to our business, big inventory, 3x what would have been normal in some cases, 4x what would have been normal. None of it coming out in the third quarter. A good portion of it coming out in the fourth quarter.

在我們的案例中，大量庫存構建，正如您在 Shaun 的評論中看到的那樣，相對 POS 與去年庫存構建的出貨量有 11 點差異。通常情況下，我們會看到更少，庫存會很快增加，通常是在第三季度。去年，該庫存直到第四季度才下降。所以我們的業務有一個非常不尋常的模式，大量庫存，在某些情況下是正常情況下的 3 倍，是正常情況下的 4 倍。第三季度都沒有出現。其中很大一部分出現在第四季度。

So the headwind that we're going to -- the headwind that we faced in the second quarter becomes a tailwind for us in the fourth quarter. And we would expect the 11 points that Shaun mentioned, a good portion of that will reverse out in the fourth quarter from a comparison standpoint. Look, inventory, there are many things that we, as a management team control, trade inventory flows is not one of them. So we just keep our eye on it, have conversations with customers about it but it's not something that we control.

因此，我們將要面對的逆風——我們在第二季度面臨的逆風在第四季度成為我們的順風。我們預計肖恩提到的 11 分，從比較的角度來看，其中很大一部分將在第四節逆轉。看，庫存，我們作為管理團隊控制的東西很多，貿易庫存流量不是其中之一。所以我們只是關注它，與客戶就此進行對話，但這不是我們可以控制的。

But I would expect a good portion of that reverse out that we -- the 11 point reverse out that we experienced last year that would be our tailwind. The -- as it pertains to the year that we're in, there was, we saw in the second quarter retailers running and not top retailers, so kind of second-tier retailers, there was a 3-point, there was a 3-point drag to shipments. And it's from retailers running less inventory in their systems, tended to be tier-2 customers, tended to be small regional groceries, some distributors that service our small format business, but we saw drawdowns below what was typical. So we're just going to keep our lag continue, hard to say, we're going to keep our eye on it. And obviously, it's one of the reasons that we're a little bit cautious about our business as we move through the second half of the year.

但我預計我們去年經歷的 11 點逆轉將成為我們的順風。這與我們所在的一年有關，我們在第二季度看到零售商在運營，而不是頂級零售商，所以二級零售商有 3 分，有 3 分-點拖到出貨。它來自零售商，他們的系統中庫存較少，往往是二級客戶，往往是小型區域雜貨店，一些為我們的小型業務提供服務的分銷商，但我們看到縮編低於典型水平。所以我們只是要保持我們的滯後繼續，很難說，我們將密切關注它。顯然，這是我們在今年下半年對我們的業務持謹慎態度的原因之一。

Quick clarification and then a follow-up. Is that retailer inventory reduction embedded in your guidance going forward, meaning it does not come back?

快速澄清，然後跟進。零售商庫存減少是否包含在您未來的指導中，這意味著它不會回來？

Yes.

是的。

Okay. And then just secondly, on the gross margin. I believe on the last earnings call, you talked about gross margin being down more than 100 basis points in the second quarter. It came down roughly 200 basis points this quarter. Can you help us understand the changes that you're making so that the cost surprises in gross margin don't happen as frequently? And can you just help us understand what your expectations were for gross margin going into the quarter?

好的。其次，關於毛利率。我相信在上次財報電話會議上，您談到第二季度毛利率下降超過 100 個基點。本季度下降了大約 200 個基點。您能否幫助我們了解您正在做出的改變，以便毛利率中的成本意外不會經常發生？您能否幫助我們了解您對本季度毛利率的預期？

Okay, Cody, I'll take that one. Thanks for the question. So let me take a step back for a second. A couple of context things for you. One, yes, the margin came in about 50 basis points, I'll say, worse than we thought it was going to be for the quarter. Just for context, that's about $1.5 million on about a $200 million COGS number. So I wouldn't say it's a huge thing. Really, 2 major themes as it relates to, I'd say, supply chain or cost of goods sold. The first is the commodity environment and the evolution of this. If you go back to last year, we were seeing significant commodity increases, double-digit inflation, obviously led to our pricing actions.

好的，科迪，我來拿那個。謝謝你的問題。所以讓我退後一步。一些上下文的東西給你。一，是的，我會說，利潤率大約是 50 個基點，比我們認為的季度差。就上下文而言，在大約 2 億美元的 COGS 數字上大約有 150 萬美元。所以我不會說這是一件大事。真的，我想說的是，它涉及到 2 個主要主題，即供應鍊或銷售成本。首先是商品環境及其演變。如果你回到去年，我們看到大宗商品顯著增加，兩位數的通貨膨脹，顯然導致了我們的定價行動。

That said, we hit an inflection point on this and we're seeing a general easing of the inflationary cost environment, specifically the softening of the spot markets in most commodities over the last 6 months and in particularly, dairy protein. That said, our comments still (inaudible) have inventory value at higher price points and are burning through that slower than we anticipated. Savings are there that are flowing to the P&L at slower rate. That's the biggest change of our gross margin for the year. Second macro trend is really a shift in focus of prioritization of our supply chain.

也就是說，我們在這方面遇到了一個拐點，我們看到通脹成本環境普遍緩和，特別是過去 6 個月大多數商品現貨市場的疲軟，尤其是乳蛋白。也就是說，我們的評論仍然（聽不清）在更高的價位上具有庫存價值，並且消耗速度比我們預期的要慢。那裡的儲蓄以較慢的速度流入損益表。這是我們今年毛利率的最大變化。第二個宏觀趨勢實際上是我們供應鏈優先次序重點的轉變。

Last year, we were focused on improving fill rate, increasing capacity. Inventory levels was priority one to make sure we can get to a point where we filled our customer needs. Now we're trying to maximize working capital inventory levels, improving the efficiency of the supply chain, getting back to basics, in my words. So bumps and bruises along the way, working with the co-man to get to the right finished good inventory levels and settling into this environment. So we've estimated anticipated charges related to production runs, purchases and the overall operating environment.

去年，我們專注於提高填充率，增加容量。庫存水平是首要任務，以確保我們能夠滿足客戶需求。現在，我們正在努力最大限度地提高營運資金庫存水平，提高供應鏈的效率，回歸本源，用我的話來說。一路上的顛簸和挫傷，與合作夥伴一起工作以達到正確的成品庫存水平並適應這種環境。因此，我們估算了與生產運行、採購和整體運營環境相關的預期費用。

So all this is a transition issue and we're settling into where we want to be. We're carrying about 6 weeks of finished goods inventory on average, servicing our customers in the mid-90s. So not totally there yet, but really close, costs are coming down, savings are there, just a slower pace than we originally thought. As it relates to the processes we put in place, reminder, we don't own the ingredients at our co-mans. We just help them procure it overall. So we don't have the -- that on our balance sheet overall. So we're working with them now to get a better feel for what's out there.

所以這一切都是一個過渡問題，我們正在適應我們想要的地方。我們平均有大約 6 週的成品庫存，為 90 年代中期的客戶提供服務。所以還沒有完全實現，但真的很接近了，成本正在下降，節省了，只是速度比我們原先想像的要慢。由於它與我們實施的流程有關，提醒一下，我們不擁有我們合作夥伴的成分。我們只是幫助他們整體採購。所以我們沒有 - 我們的資產負債表上的整體。所以我們現在正在與他們合作，以更好地了解那裡的情況。

And we put in place -- processes in place in the second quarter to improve that going forward. So we think we have that in place right now.

我們在第二季度製定了流程，以改進未來的發展。所以我們認為我們現在已經準備好了。

Our next question is 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 Steve Powers。

Yes. Great. Maybe to follow up on that point. Can you just -- Shaun, can you just clarify if sales are coming in slightly ahead of your expectations? Can you just talk a little bit more about why the ingredient costs are flowing through slower than expected? There's just a disconnect there that, maybe I'm missing something.

是的。偉大的。也許要跟進這一點。你能不能——肖恩，你能不能澄清一下銷售額是否略高於你的預期？你能多談談為什麼原料成本的流動速度比預期的要慢嗎？那裡只是脫節，也許我錯過了什麼。

Well, a couple of things, Steve. I would say, first of all, as we work through, again, the commodities that we have out there, the commodities are at different price point. I'll give you an example, one of the biggest pieces of our commodity favorability we're seeing is whey and whey protein is actually fairly down overall. The burn through of that from our co-mans is just coming at a slower rate than we originally had thought going forward. So even though we're selling product as we go through it, how we actually reduce the inventories to get to the point where we're actually recognizing that savings in our P&L has just come at a slower rate.

嗯，有幾件事，史蒂夫。我會說，首先，當我們再次研究我們所擁有的商品時，這些商品處於不同的價格點。我給你舉個例子，我們看到的商品受歡迎程度中最大的部分之一是乳清，而乳清蛋白實際上總體上相當下降。我們的合作夥伴對它的燒毀只是以比我們原先想像的要慢的速度進行。因此，即使我們在銷售產品的同時銷售產品，我們實際上如何減少庫存以達到我們實際認識到我們損益表中的節省只是以較慢的速度出現的程度。

I think the second piece is, yes, we're doing better from a POS standpoint. Obviously, volume is not increasing as much POS as obviously Joe talked you through. So we're not seeing the volume and we're basically adjusting that in a co-man environment as well, getting to lower volumes. That's what they're making, obviously, is volume, not necessarily the price piece of that. Does that help?

我認為第二點是，是的，從 POS 的角度來看，我們做得更好。顯然，銷量並沒有像 Joe 告訴你的那樣增加 POS 的數量。所以我們沒有看到音量，我們基本上也在共同環境中進行調整，以降低音量。顯然，這就是他們所做的，是數量，不一定是價格。這有幫助嗎？

Yes. That does help. Okay.

是的。這確實有幫助。好的。

Just so you understand, right? So you're -- we've come out of it -- we've come from an environment where you wanted as much inventory as you could have in your system at that point, right? So there is -- when you're -- you produce to a supply plan, not to a demand plan, so as you're bringing inventory levels down to more normal levels, your actual production levels come down. So units are running slower as we bring our inventory levels down against the same demand, right?

只是為了讓你明白，對吧？所以你 - 我們已經擺脫了它 - 我們來自一個你想要盡可能多的庫存的環境，你可以在那個時候在你的系統中擁有，對吧？因此，當你按照供應計劃而不是需求計劃生產時，當你將庫存水平降低到更正常的水平時，你的實際生產水平就會下降。因此，當我們根據相同的需求降低庫存水平時，單位運行速度變慢，對嗎？

The other context here is, we're talking about really small changes. Shaun said this, in the quarter, we're talking about $1.5 million on nearly $200 million in cost. And as you dig into the [due tos] of it, none of it is really big things. It's a smattering of small inflationary things, slightly worse than what we've anticipated. And if you just step back from all of this, we own contracts for lower ingredients. We can see the cost environment in our business changing fundamentally. It's just happening a little slower than what we anticipated.

這裡的另一個背景是，我們正在談論非常小的變化。肖恩說，在本季度，我們談論的是近 2 億美元成本中的 150 萬美元。當你深入研究它的 [due tos] 時，它們都不是什麼大事。這是一些小的通貨膨脹事件，比我們預期的要嚴重一些。如果您只是從這一切退一步，我們擁有較低成分的合同。我們可以看到我們業務中的成本環境發生了根本性的變化。它只是比我們預期的要慢一點。

Okay. I mean that -- because that's going to -- that was sort of -- that's the crux of my question because there have been these slow kind of slices that have impact your forecast and costs -- results have come in slightly below external forecast. It's just been progressive. So the question, I guess, as you look forward, maybe you just answered it but do you have the visibility? And is there anything else you need to do?

好的。我的意思是 - 因為那會 - 那有點 - 這是我問題的癥結所在，因為有這些緩慢的切片影響了你的預測和成本 - 結果略低於外部預測。它只是進步的。所以這個問題，我想，正如你期待的那樣，也許你剛剛回答了它，但你有知名度嗎？還有什麼你需要做的嗎？

I mean we've been talking about sort of a climb back to that 40% objective over time. This quarter, we're a long way from it. So I'm just trying to get your...

我的意思是，我們一直在談論隨著時間的推移回到 40% 的目標。本季度，我們離它還有很長的路要走。所以我只是想得到你的...

We're not that far, frankly. We're not that far, for me, right? So the fundamental question you got to ask yourself, is the cost environment coming down? Is it going up, coming down? Or is it neutral? It's coming down. I own contracts for lower-cost ingredients, substantially on them. We got to get to them, right? So as units are a little bit slower, it takes a little bit longer to get to that. And then the cost environment in general, in the first half of the year, little bit through the third quarter has been inflationary, right?

坦率地說，我們並沒有那麼遠。對我來說，我們並沒有那麼遠，對吧？因此，您必須問自己的基本問題是，成本環境正在下降嗎？是漲還是跌？還是中立的？它正在下降。我擁有低成本原料的合同，基本上是在他們身上。我們必須找到他們，對吧？因此，由於單位有點慢，因此需要更長的時間才能達到目的。然後總體成本環境，在今年上半年，第三季度有點通貨膨脹，對吧？

So every surprise is a cost surprise in the opposite direction, right? We're seeing that environment start to ease, right? So the question of, can you see everything? We're much better than we were at the beginning of the year and what we're seeing. But in general, the cost environment is coming down. So as we move through the second half of the year, if there are surprises, they're in all likelihood, going to be going in the other direction. Does that help with perspective, right? We're zooming in on a really small difference, right?

所以每一個驚喜都是相反方向的成本驚喜，對吧？我們看到環境開始緩和，對吧？那麼問題來了，你能看到一切嗎？我們比年初和我們所看到的要好得多。但總的來說，成本環境正在下降。因此，當我們進入下半年時，如果出現意外，它們很可能會朝另一個方向發展。這對透視有幫助嗎？我們正在放大一個非常小的差異，對吧？

And as Shaun said, no one thing. So we can't put our finger on it's this or it's that. What we're putting our finger on is, prices have been -- just costs have been a little stickier, higher than what we've anticipated and it just kind of pops up in a few places and you see them, right? That environment is changing. We can see it changing. It's just happening a little slower than what we thought.

正如肖恩所說，沒有一件事。所以我們不能確定是這個還是那個。我們指的是，價格一直 - 只是成本有點粘，比我們預期的要高，它只是在幾個地方突然出現，你看到了，對吧？那個環境正在改變。我們可以看到它在變化。它只是比我們想像的要慢一點。

Okay. Okay. And my last question real quick, just to round it out, is, it sounds -- just relative to what you said 3Q versus 4Q on the top line cadence, it feels like more is weighted to 4Q versus how at least our forecasts are structured, I think the Street's as well. And a lot of that's on the inventory catch up and rebuild lapping last year.

好的。好的。我的最後一個問題很快，只是為了解決這個問題，聽起來 - 只是相對於你所說的 3Q 和 4Q 的頂線節奏，感覺更多的是加權到 4Q 而不是至少我們的預測是如何構建的，我認為街道也是如此。其中很多是去年的庫存追趕和重建。

But I'm just listening to that against the context of the smaller retailers already drawing down inventory. Is there, is there a risk that, as consumption slows, inventory exit -- inventory rates in the trade exit the year just at a structurally lower level and some of this margin benefit, therefore, slips into the subsequent year. Is that ring-fenced in your outlook? Or is that risk is something that we should be thinking about?

但我只是在較小的零售商已經減少庫存的情況下聽取了這一意見。是否存在這樣的風險，即隨著消費放緩，庫存退出 - 貿易中的庫存率在今年以結構性較低水平退出，因此部分利潤率收益會滑入下一年。你的觀點是否被圍起來了？還是我們應該考慮風險？

Yes. Look, I think that most of our major customers, the top 5 customers, 70% to 75% of our shipments are operating in normal inventory levels. So I -- we're keeping our eye on that factor. I don't -- it's -- we bake that into our estimates. I don't think it's a big issue. It's obviously was a 3-point issue in the quarter. It was a little bit of a surprise. I don't expect it to be an overhang. We're just being a little bit cautious. And again, just so for the quarters, the big driver of the difference in net sales performance, third quarter to fourth quarter was last year's inventory drawdown.

是的。看，我認為我們的大多數主要客戶，前 5 名客戶，我們 70% 到 75% 的出貨量都在正常庫存水平下運行。所以我——我們一直在關注這個因素。我不 - 它 - 我們將其納入我們的估計。我不認為這是一個大問題。這顯然是本節的三分球問題。有點意外。我不希望它成為懸垂。我們只是有點謹慎。同樣，對於季度而言，第三季度至第四季度淨銷售業績差異的主要驅動因素是去年的庫存減少。

So it's -- I know if you look at our shipments, it looks like a hockey stick in Q4, but the reality of it is the inventory came out in the fourth quarter last year. We will ship greater than consumption from a rate standpoint, just because last year's shipments were depressed in the fourth quarter.

所以它 - 我知道如果你看一下我們的出貨量，它看起來像第四季度的曲棍球棒，但它的現實是庫存在去年第四季度出現。從利率的角度來看，我們將出貨量大於消費量，只是因為去年第四季度的出貨量低迷。

Our next question is 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。

So 2 questions. Firstly, honing in on Quest. Obviously, the pace of growth, the consumer takeaway is still very strong and has been for quite some time. I'm just wondering what innings are you in on the distribution gains? Is it new outlets? Or is it more the expansion of SKUs in certain channels? Presumably, velocity is improving over time as well. But I'm just trying to figure out, you mentioned the slowdown is expected as the business gets bigger but at what point does that happen? And what other levers can you pull? And then I have a follow-up.

所以2個問題。首先，磨練Quest。顯然，消費外賣的增長速度仍然非常強勁，並且已經持續了相當長的一段時間。我只是想知道您在分配收益方面處於哪一局？是新的outlet嗎？還是更多是某些渠道SKU的拓展？據推測，速度也會隨著時間的推移而提高。但我只是想弄清楚，你提到隨著業務規模的擴大，預計會出現放緩，但這種情況會在什麼時候發生？您還可以拉動哪些其他槓桿？然後我有一個後續行動。

I have the benefit of having watched Atkins for 10 years and watch the progress of distribution gains on average, I think Atkins MULO + C has 45 items in distribution, top retailers, 60 to 65. So Quest is in very early innings. And you have to remember, we bought a business that was principally a singles business. The team -- the Quest team prior to the acquisition started looking at multi-packs. So there is opportunity in the bar business alone for us to build out distribution and larger pack sizes.

我有幸觀察了 Atkins 10 年並平均觀察了分銷收益的進展情況，我認為 Atkins MULO + C 有 45 件產品在分銷，頂級零售商有 60 到 65 件。所以 Quest 處於非常早期的階段。你必須記住，我們收購了一家主要是單身企業的企業。該團隊——收購前的 Quest 團隊開始研究多件裝產品。因此，僅在酒吧業務中，我們就有機會建立分銷和更大的包裝尺寸。

You then have the opportunity for us, as we've been innovating in other snacks to build out that platform over time. So very early innings in distribution gain. More importantly, on this business, lots of opportunity to drive brand awareness and trial. So relative to Atkins, everybody knows Atkins, high, high brand awareness. Quest is still relatively unknown as a brand. So the money that we've added and invested in this brand, I think when we took the brand over -- we were -- the team was spending about 4% of net sales and marketing. We're now up to close to 8%. We got to keep the pressure on there to keep the brand awareness and trial growing because it's still not particularly well known as a brand.

然後你就有了我們的機會，因為我們一直在創新其他零食，隨著時間的推移建立這個平台。所以在分配收益的早期階段。更重要的是，在這項業務中，有很多機會可以提高品牌知名度和試用率。所以相對於阿特金斯，每個人都知道阿特金斯，品牌知名度很高。作為一個品牌，Quest 仍然相對不為人知。所以我們在這個品牌上增加和投資的錢，我想當我們接管這個品牌時——我們是——團隊花費了大約 4% 的淨銷售額和營銷。我們現在接近 8%。我們必須在那裡保持壓力，以保持品牌知名度和試驗增長，因為它仍然不是一個特別知名的品牌。

And you can see the brand promise is big. This is a big business still with relatively low brand awareness and still growing with a lot of opportunity in trial. So that's the game and I'm really excited. Geoff is exactly the guy to make that happen.

你可以看到品牌承諾很大。這是一個大企業，品牌知名度仍然相對較低，但仍在不斷發展，有很多嘗試的機會。這就是遊戲，我真的很興奮。傑夫正是實現這一目標的人。

Great. And as a quick follow-up, now that you can sort of see light at the end of the tunnel on the supply chain and the input cost pressures, are you beginning to see expectations that promotional activity will step up in retail? Or is that still on the back burner for now?

偉大的。作為快速跟進，既然您可以看到供應鏈隧道盡頭的曙光和投入成本壓力，您是否開始看到促銷活動將在零售業加強的預期？還是現在還處於次要狀態？

Really early innings, right? So no, we're not seeing -- you're asking the question, as costs get better, so I appreciate that question. How do you see investing? How will you invest back? For us, we would be we would be looking to get marketing investment back to we feel like is at healthy level. So as gross margins approach 40%, we want to get the marketing spend up in the 9% to 10% range. Right? We will be spending back with customers on a tactical basis, especially we've seen some issues with pricing elasticity on some of our products, so you might start using temporary price reduction or base price reduction to get those more in line with where the consumers see the value.

真的很早，對吧？所以不，我們沒有看到 - 你在問這個問題，因為成本越來越好，所以我很欣賞這個問題。你怎麼看投資？你將如何投資？對我們來說，我們會希望將營銷投資恢復到我們認為處於健康水平的水平。因此，隨著毛利率接近 40%，我們希望將營銷支出提高到 9% 到 10% 的範圍內。正確的？我們將在戰術基礎上與客戶一起消費，特別是我們已經看到我們某些產品的定價彈性存在一些問題，因此您可能會開始使用臨時降價或基本降價來使這些產品更符合消費者的需求看價值。

But those are decisions that Geoff and the team will start wrapping their mind around as we start thinking about the next fiscal year and where costs are going to come in and how we want to deploy those funds.

但這些是 Geoff 和團隊在我們開始考慮下一個財政年度、成本將來自何處以及我們希望如何部署這些資金時將開始思考的決定。

Next question come from the line of John Baumgartner with Mizuho Securities.

下一個問題來自瑞穗證券的 John Baumgartner。

I wanted to ask about elasticity. You noted the downside to sales from international that was tied to the price increases. But I think elasticity isn't something we're really seeing in the U.S. up to this point, in the category at least. And I think we're also even seeing better lifts on promo relative to pre-COVID. So are there any -- would you say discrete factors impacting non-U.S. markets that are driving the volume pressure? Or is it just general headwinds that could hit the U.S. later in (inaudible) '23? And I guess, I'm also thinking about...

我想問彈性。您注意到與價格上漲相關的國際銷售的不利因素。但我認為彈性並不是我們在美國真正看到的東西，至少在這個類別中是這樣。而且我認為，與 COVID 之前相比，我們甚至還看到了更好的促銷提升。那麼有沒有 - 你會說影響非美國市場的離散因素正在推動銷量壓力嗎？還是只是一般的逆風可能會在 23 年後（聽不清）襲擊美國？我想，我也在考慮……

John, are you talking about what are we seeing in New Zealand and Australia? Is that the question?

約翰，你是說我們在新西蘭和澳大利亞看到了什麼嗎？是這個問題嗎？

Exactly. Yes, the international markets, exactly. I guess looking at it in terms of the inventory reductions too, because it feels like based on sell-through, the environment in the U.S. would be better than retailers are hunkering down.

確切地。是的，正是國際市場。我想也從庫存減少的角度來看待它，因為感覺就像是基於銷售率，美國的環境會比零售商所處的環境要好。

Yes. Let's start with our Australia and New Zealand business. We are the market leader there, Atkins is the #1 brand. #3 brand, Quest, quickly move -- kind of move into the #2, #1 position. So we have a very, very good business. We have a general manager there that has been leading that business for over a decade. We feel really good about the business. If you understand the business in Australia, and obviously, we're lucky with Geoff coming going forward. Geoff is a Kiwi. So he knows the markets pretty well. In fact, he just came back from a trip from New Zealand. It is a 2 retailer marketplace. Woolworths and Kohl's own the market. And we're not seeing in our category there, much pricing.

是的。讓我們從我們的澳大利亞和新西蘭業務開始。我們是那裡的市場領導者，阿特金斯是第一品牌。 #3 品牌 Quest，迅速移動——有點移動到 #2、#1 的位置。所以我們的生意非常非常好。我們在那裡有一位總經理，他領導該業務已有十多年了。我們對這項業務感覺非常好。如果你了解澳大利亞的業務，很明顯，我們很幸運能有 Geoff 繼續前進。傑夫是新西蘭人。所以他非常了解市場。事實上，他剛從新西蘭旅行回來。這是一個 2 零售商市場。 Woolworths 和 Kohl's 擁有這個市場。而且我們在我們的類別中沒有看到太多定價。

So when we came in with a price increase, we got put our second one, we got put in the penalty box with 1 of the 2 retailers. So it's not a pricing elasticity as we get (expletive)d, right, lose distribution, lose promotion opportunities, right? So that's what's going on there. In the U.S., we're seeing elasticities for the most part on our 2 businesses like we would have expected with a little sensitivity in a few areas. So we're just keeping our eye on those, chips being one of them and our kind of confection snack bar business being the other ones.

因此，當我們提價時，我們得到了第二次提價，我們與 2 家零售商中的 1 家一起被置於受罰箱中。所以這不是定價彈性，因為我們得到（咒罵）d，對，失去分銷，失去促銷機會，對吧？這就是那裡發生的事情。在美國，我們看到 2 項業務的大部分彈性，就像我們預期的那樣，在一些領域略有敏感性。所以我們只關注那些，薯條是其中之一，我們的糖果小吃店業務是其他的。

And we're just watching it and it's slightly elevated. Typically, what you see with the price increases, you see full elasticity early, you see a burn rate, so it starts declining over time. So in those products, we saw slightly elevated and we're just watching the decay rates now.

我們只是看著它，它略有升高。通常情況下，隨著價格上漲，你會看到早期的完全彈性，你會看到燃燒率，所以它會隨著時間的推移開始下降。所以在這些產品中，我們看到略有升高，我們現在只是在觀察衰減率。

Okay. Okay. And just to build on that. From the category level at retail, just given the limited elasticity, the lifts on promo, are you seeing anything? Or do you expect to see any benefits for the category in terms of higher visibility, display in the store, maybe more momentum to be out of the HPC aisle? Anything coming out of COVID as retailers sort of reset these aisles and categories that you think could sustain growth for your areas going forward?

好的。好的。並以此為基礎。從零售的品類層面來看，鑑於彈性有限，促銷的提升，你看到了什麼嗎？或者，您是否希望看到該類別在更高的知名度、店內陳列以及離開 HPC 通道的更多動力方面的任何好處？隨著零售商重新設置這些您認為可以維持您所在地區未來增長的過道和類別，COVID 會帶來什麼？

Yes. Look, it's a great question. So if you just step back and think about this from a category management story from a customer standpoint. So we're in the part of the store where most of the other categories, think cough, cold, oral care are infrequently -- less frequently purchased categories. So think center store, food, weekly shopping. The aisles that we're in, more like monthly shopping, right? And so one of the roles this -- the reason HPC loves this category, it is a foot traffic driver to the aisle. So we actually bring people to the aisle at a greater rate than their normal shopping patterns.

是的。看，這是一個很好的問題。因此，如果您只是退後一步，從客戶的角度從品類管理故事中考慮這一點。所以我們在商店的一部分，大多數其他類別，認為咳嗽、感冒、口腔護理很少——購買頻率較低的類別。所以想想中心商店、食品、每週購物。我們所在的過道更像是每月購物，對吧？所以這個角色之一——HPC 喜歡這個類別的原因，它是過道的人流司機。因此，我們實際上以比正常購物模式更快的速度將人們帶到過道。

So we serve a purpose for them in helping them build basket in a part of the store that's a higher-margin part of the store that are just a part of the store they want to build the business in. So as you think about out-of-aisle display, we're a really good category for those things because it then drives people down the aisle, get shoppers in there, builds their market basket. So that behavior was true through all COVID and we're seeing that behavior continue. In fact, it's part of our category management story. This is an important -- this is important category for you in this aisle. And we have 2 of the premier lifestyle brands that bring people to the aisle.

因此，我們為他們服務的目的是幫助他們在商店的利潤率較高的部分建立購物籃，而這只是他們想要建立業務的商店的一部分。所以當你考慮出-過道陳列，我們是這些東西的一個非常好的類別，因為它會把人們帶到過道上，吸引購物者，建立他們的購物籃。因此，這種行為在整個 COVID 中都是真實的，而且我們看到這種行為仍在繼續。事實上，這是我們品類管理故事的一部分。這很重要——這對您來說很重要。我們擁有 2 個一流的生活方式品牌，將人們帶到過道上。

Appreciate it.

欣賞它。

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. Just a question on Atkins. You mentioned that the buy rates are down year-on-year. Given that mobility is improving -- has continued to improve and you're now comparing against periods of while -- where Atkins buy rates, why are they continuing to move down? And how are you thinking about stimulating Atkins purchasing going forward among (inaudible)?

早上好。只是一個關於阿特金斯的問題。你提到購買率同比下降。鑑於流動性正在改善 - 一直在改善，你現在正在與一段時間進行比較 - 阿特金斯購買利率的地方，為什麼它們繼續下降？您如何考慮在（聽不清）中刺激阿特金斯採購？

Right in my wheelhouse, I love these questions. So first and foremost, the overall health of the brand is strong. Our ability to grow buyers has -- continues to be simply outstanding. So we feel very comfortable, household penetration, total number of buyers, total number of new buyers, people are coming to the brand and that's really important. So during COVID, buy rate was driven by snacking behavior changes. And we've seen a rebound kind of from the worst part of those snacking behavior changes effect on buy rate to now where buy rate is almost flat.

就在我的駕駛室裡，我喜歡這些問題。因此，首先，品牌的整體健康狀況良好。我們培養買家的能力 - 仍然非常出色。所以我們感到非常舒服，家庭滲透率、購買者總數、新購買者總數、人們來到這個品牌，這真的很重要。因此，在 COVID 期間，購買率是由吃零食行為的變化驅動的。我們已經看到從那些零食行為變化對購買率的影響最糟糕的部分到現在購買率幾乎持平的反彈。

The driver of the buy rate -- and we've seen a rebound on bars. So it's -- we're not facing any of the not-working bar decline issues. We're seeing self-inflicted issues around the mix of our business. So if you look at what's growing on the brand right now, it's strong shake growth, strong chip growth. Relative to bars, those are all from a unit purchase standpoint, trade down in servings. So bar is a 5 pack or an 8 pack, a chip is a single, a shake is a 4 pack. So we're in -- we have a mix issue with the business. And it's around the pipeline of innovation that we've got.

買入率的驅動因素——我們已經看到金條反彈。所以它 - 我們沒有面臨任何不工作的酒吧下降問題。我們看到圍繞我們業務組合的自我造成的問題。所以如果你看看這個品牌現在的增長情況，它是強勁的增長，強勁的芯片增長。相對於酒吧，這些都是從單位購買的角度來看，以份量進行交易。所以bar是5個裝還是8個裝，一個chip是一個，一個shake是4個裝。所以我們在 - 我們的業務存在混合問題。它圍繞著我們所擁有的創新渠道。

We've got to get back in the bar innovation business. We got to fill out our pipeline there. That work is underway. And as we move through the spring and the summer, we would expect those trends to improve as products hit the marketplace. But it's -- we don't have a COVID work issue anymore. We don't have a COVID issue. We don't have a bar issue driven by snacking behavior. We have an innovation pipeline mix issue in the business that we need to fix. And it's a good quality problem to have because we're bringing a lot of people to the brand right now. So we just got to get our mix better.

我們必須回到酒吧創新業務。我們必須在那裡填寫我們的管道。這項工作正在進行中。隨著春季和夏季的到來，我們預計這些趨勢會隨著產品投放市場而有所改善。但它 - 我們不再有 COVID 工作問題。我們沒有 COVID 問題。我們沒有因吃零食行為而導致的酒吧問題。我們在業務中有一個創新管道組合問題需要解決。這是一個很好的質量問題，因為我們現在正在為這個品牌帶來很多人。所以我們只需要讓我們的混音更好。

Got it. That makes sense. That's helpful. And then my second question is just on e-commerce and just generally growth in unmeasured channels. You've continued to see strong performance in e-commerce and Amazon in particular. What's driving that? And how are you thinking about e-commerce growth in the second half, given you have tougher comparisons in that channel?

知道了。這就說得通了。這很有幫助。然後我的第二個問題只是關於電子商務和未衡量渠道的普遍增長。你繼續看到電子商務的強勁表現，尤其是亞馬遜。是什麼推動了它？鑑於您對該渠道的比較更為嚴格，您如何看待下半年的電子商務增長？

Yes. So first of all, just a little bit of the history, we -- Quest was a e-commerce start-up brand. So it was part of how the brand grew up. So when we bought the business, we bought a lot of institutional knowledge around e-commerce and a big seat at the table with Amazon. We've now -- and if you look at the Quest business, our e-commerce plus specialty is around 24% of the business today. So big portion of the business. Atkins has come a long way in a short period of time. It's about 13% of the Atkins business. So what we've learned from our Quest experience is, you got to get your catalog right.

是的。所以首先，只是一點點歷史，我們 - Quest 是一個電子商務初創品牌。所以這是品牌成長的一部分。因此，當我們收購這家企業時，我們購買了很多關於電子商務的製度知識，並在亞馬遜的談判桌上佔據了一席之地。我們現在——如果你看看 Quest 業務，我們的電子商務加專業業務約佔今天業務的 24%。業務的很大一部分。阿特金斯在短時間內取得了長足的進步。它約佔阿特金斯業務的 13%。因此，我們從 Quest 的經驗中學到的是，您必須正確設置目錄。

You got to get the right items. The right fewer items so that you bring consumers on the catalog to fewer items, more eyeballs that enable you to promote. And then getting the right items also, is important to Amazon's profit mix. So we're running that playbook. So last year, you saw Atkins spike. We started that catalog rollout with shakes, our shake business had a significant step up. We're now running that playbook through the rest of the Atkins lineup.

你必須得到正確的項目。正確減少商品數量，以便您將目錄中的消費者帶到更少的商品中，吸引更多的眼球，從而使您能夠進行促銷。然後獲得合適的商品對亞馬遜的利潤組合也很重要。所以我們正在運行該劇本。所以去年，你看到阿特金斯飆升。我們從 shakes 開始了產品目錄的推出，我們的 shake 業務取得了重大進展。我們現在正在通過 Atkins 陣容的其餘部分運行該劇本。

And just to give you a little bit of a sense, the Atkins average price point on Amazon was somewhere around $10, $11, more like $22, $23, $24 on Quest. So we got room to go, right? There's -- and we need to continue to improve it. As it pertains to the second half of the year, while against much bigger numbers, right, so growth is still good. We still feel really confident about the growth but you start to -- you're going to come up against that 75%, 80% growth that we saw last year. And so the rate is going to come down a little bit. We would expect over the next few years, e-commerce, Amazon is going to outstrip brick-and-mortar growth and can become a larger portion of the business. At 20%, that should be a nice target for Atkins to get it there over time.

只是為了給你一點感覺，Atkins 在亞馬遜上的平均價格點在 10 美元、11 美元左右，在 Quest 上更像是 22 美元、23 美元、24 美元。所以我們有空間去，對吧？有 - 我們需要繼續改進它。由於它屬於今年下半年，雖然數字要大得多，但增長仍然不錯。我們仍然對增長充滿信心，但你開始 - 你將遇到我們去年看到的 75%、80% 的增長。所以利率會下降一點。我們預計在未來幾年內，亞馬遜電子商務的增長將超過實體店，並可能成為該業務的更大一部分。 20%，對於阿特金斯來說，這應該是一個不錯的目標，可以隨著時間的推移實現這一目標。

Our last question comes from Rob Dickerson with Jefferies.

我們的最後一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Rob Dickerson。

Joe, I just wanted to circle back to the comment you made, I guess, from Pam's question on kind of shakes, bars and what's going on in Atkins. So on the bar side, right, I mean, clearly, you see it -- we see it in on track channels, volumes are still somewhat pressured. You're basically just saying, it's just a bit of the absolute price points of the consumer, given pack size is just kind of too high and too big.

喬，我只是想回到你的評論，我想，從帕姆關於搖晃、酒吧和阿特金斯正在發生的事情的問題。所以在酒吧方面，對，我的意思是，很明顯，你看到了 - 我們在軌道通道中看到它，交易量仍然有些壓力。你基本上只是在說，這只是消費者的絕對價格點，考慮到包裝尺寸有點太高太大了。

So like with all hands on deck, it's like, we should be assuming, I guess that we would see maybe some smaller pack sizes and kind of smaller absolute price point such that velocity would have a higher probability of improving? Is that just -- just trying to...

所以就像所有人都在甲板上一樣，我們應該假設，我想我們可能會看到一些更小的包裝尺寸和某種更小的絕對價格點，這樣速度會有更高的改善可能性？那隻是——只是想……

No. Actually, it's even simpler than that. The -- when we -- you have to step back on Atkins, right? Atkins is the high consumption brand. So -- and there are very few brands in the store like this, right? So if you're a first year buyer, you're buying about 35 servings, if you're a second, third year buyer, you're buying close to 100 servings on average. So if you're a heavy buyer, you're a daily eater and then some. So how you innovate, gives consumers the variety that they need, given the buy rate that they have, which are big buy rates in multiple years, heavier buyers, right?

不，實際上，它甚至比這更簡單。的 - 當我們 - 你必須退後一步對阿特金斯，對不對？阿特金斯是高消費品牌。所以——店裡很少有這樣的品牌，對吧？因此，如果您是第一年的買家，您將購買大約 35 份，如果您是第二年、第三年的買家，您平均將購買近 100 份。所以，如果你是一個重度買家，那麼你就是一個每日食客，然後是一些。那麼你如何創新，給消費者他們需要的多樣性，考慮到他們的購買率，這是多年來的大購買率，更重的買家，對吧？

So how you innovate, determines how people purchase. Last spring, we innovated on chips and cookies and shakes. And our pipeline, in particular, on snack bars was not strong enough. So we saw significant distribution losses on snack bars. Double-digit distribution losses. We got to fix that. And the reason that affects buy rate is, just think -- I'll do this simple. I'll do the simple example. If I swapped out a weak snack bar for a chip and the consumer comes to the shelf to buy a unit, I just traded them from a 5-unit purchase or 5-item serving purchase to a 1.

所以你如何創新，決定了人們如何購買。去年春天，我們在薯片、餅乾和奶昔方面進行了創新。而且我們的管道，特別是在小吃店方面還不夠強大。因此，我們看到小吃店出現了重大的分銷損失。兩位數的分銷損失。我們必須解決這個問題。影響購買率的原因是，想一想——我會做這個簡單的事情。我會做一個簡單的例子。如果我用薯片換掉了一個薄弱的小吃店，而消費者來到貨架上購買了一個單位，我只是將他們從 5 單位購買或 5 項目服務購買交易為 1。

That affects your buy rate, right? So it was -- for us, we -- in allowing snack bars to lose distribution in favor of chips was a trade down and a buy rate issue, something we completely control and something that we're going to fix. Does that make sense?

這會影響你的購買率，對吧？因此，對我們來說，我們允許小吃店失去對薯片的分銷是一種交易和購買率問題，這是我們完全控制的事情，也是我們將要解決的事情。那有意義嗎？

Yes, that makes complete sense. And I mean, also just asking a question because I feel like it does kind of all flow through, right, just in terms of kind of the inventory or the inventory kind of (inaudible) bars from last year, kind of on then what kind of reverses and flow through this year, but then in terms of -- if you're a retailer, you're saying, I'm getting higher velocity on these products and you bring me innovation.

是的，這是完全有道理的。我的意思是，也只是問一個問題，因為我覺得它確實有點流經，對，就庫存種類或去年的（聽不清）條的庫存種類而言，然後是什麼種類今年的逆轉和流動，但就——如果你是零售商，你是說，我在這些產品上的速度越來越快，你給我帶來了創新。

Yes, maybe I'll take a little bit more inventory, maybe not, bring me as much on bars, maybe I'm not as quick to get that inventory, then the buy rate is not as good and therefore, the costs don't flow through as much right, blah, blah, blah. So kind of a fully loaded question. Does that make sense?

是的，也許我會多買一點庫存，也許不會，給我帶來盡可能多的酒吧，也許我沒有那麼快地獲得庫存，那麼購買率就不會那麼好，因此，成本不會流過盡可能多的權利，等等，等等，等等。這是一個滿載的問題。那有意義嗎？

I think if you -- clearly, if you don't have bar innovation, you're not going to have bar inventory and you're going to be in that situation, absolutely. But then, I mean, to be really clear, the fix here on buy rate, again, it's small numbers of decline. So we're not talking about big declines in buy rate. It is small, it's mix driven, it's innovation driven and we will fix it.

我認為如果你 - 顯然，如果你沒有酒吧創新，你就不會有酒吧庫存，你絕對會處於那種情況。但是，我的意思是，要非常清楚地說明，這裡的購買率固定值再次是小幅下跌。所以我們不是在談論購買率的大幅下降。它很小，它是混合驅動的，它是創新驅動的，我們會解決它。

Perfect. That's all I had.

完美的。這就是我的全部。

Have a good day.

祝你有美好的一天。

We've reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And I'll turn the call over to Joe Scalzo for closing remarks.

我們已經結束了問答環節。我會把電話轉給 Joe Scalzo 作結束語。

Thank you for your participation on the call. We look forward to talking to you at the end of our third quarter. We hope you all have a good day. Thank you.

感謝您參與電話會議。我們期待在第三季度末與您交談。我們希望你們都有美好的一天。謝謝。

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

今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。