Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc (SPB) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Spectrum Brands First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Joanne Chomiak, Senior Vice President of Tax and Treasury. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 Spectrum Brands 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。現在，我想將會議交給今天的東道主、稅務和財政部高級副總裁 Joanne Chomiak。請繼續。

Welcome to Spectrum Brands Holdings Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. I'm Joanne Chomiak, Senior Vice President of Tax and Treasury, and I will moderate today's call. To help you follow the comments, we have placed a slide presentation on the Event Calendar page in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.spectrumbrands.com. This document will remain there following our call.

歡迎參加 Spectrum Brands Holdings 2024 年第一季財報電話會議及網路廣播。我是稅務和財政部高級副總裁喬安妮·喬米亞克 (Joanne Chomiak)，我將主持今天的電話會議。為了幫助您關注評論，我們在我們網站 www.spectrumbrands.com 投資者關係部分的活動日曆頁面上放置了幻燈片簡報。在我們通話後，該文件將保留在那裡。

Starting with Slide 2 of the presentation. Our call will be led by David Maura, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Jeremy Smeltser, our Chief Financial Officer. After opening remarks, we will conduct the Q&A.

從簡報的投影片 2 開始。我們的電話會議將由我們的董事長兼執行長 David Maura 主持；以及我們的財務長 Jeremy Smeltser。開場致詞後，我們將進行問答。

Turning to Slides 3 and 4. Our comments today include forward-looking statements, which are based upon management's current expectations, projections and assumptions and are, by nature, uncertain. Actual results may differ materially. Due to that risk, Spectrum Brands encourages you to review the risk factors and cautionary statements outlined in our press release dated February 8, 2024. Our most recent SEC filings and Spectrum Brands Holdings' most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

轉向投影片 3 和 4。我們今天的評論包括前瞻性陳述，這些陳述基於管理層當前的預期、預測和假設，本質上是不確定的。實際結果可能存在重大差異。由於存在這種風險，Spectrum Brands 鼓勵您查看我們 2024 年 2 月 8 日新聞稿中概述的風險因素和警示性聲明。我們最新的 SEC 文件和 Spectrum Brands Holdings 最新的 10-K 表格年度報告和季度報告表格10-Q 上。我們不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務。

Also, please note that we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures in this call. Reconciliations on a GAAP basis for these measures are included in today's press release and 8-K filing, which are both available on our website in the Investor Relations section. Now I'll turn the call over to David Maura. David?

另請注意，我們將在本次電話會議中討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。這些措施的 GAAP 基礎上的調整包含在今天的新聞稿和 8-K 文件中，您可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分找到這些內容。現在我將把電話轉給 David Maura。大衛？

Thanks, Joanne. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter earnings results for 2024. Thanks everybody for joining us today. I'm going to start the call with an update on our operating performance and our strategic initiatives. Then I'll turn the call over to Jeremy, and he'll provide a more detailed financial and operational update, including a discussion on the specific business unit results.

謝謝，喬安妮。大家早安，歡迎收聽我們 2024 年第一季的獲利結果。感謝大家今天加入我們。我將首先介紹我們的營運績效和策略舉措的最新情況。然後我會將電話轉給傑里米，他將提供更詳細的財務和營運最新信息，包括對特定業務部門業績的討論。

If you remember, during our last call, I talked about how the actions we took in fiscal '23 that put us in a strong position as we entered fiscal '24 and I talked about our readiness to pivot into the opportunities that our strong balance sheet and improving margins now present us with. Today, I'm happy to report that the first quarter is showing that we're beginning the journey back to winning again. I'd like to have you to turn your attention to Slide 6 and our financial performance.

如果您還記得，在我們上次電話會議中，我談到了我們在23 財年採取的行動如何使我們在進入24 財年時處於有利地位，並且我談到了我們準備好抓住我們強勁的資產負債表所帶來的機會。現在我們看到了利潤率的提高。今天，我很高興地向大家報告，第一季表明我們正在開始再次獲勝的旅程。我想讓您將注意力轉向投影片 6 和我們的財務表現。

Net sales for our first quarter were down 3%, in line with our expectations overall. Retailer and consumer demand are behaving as we had expected heading into the year. We anticipated a continued challenging macroeconomic environment across our businesses and a competitive retail marketplace. In our Home & Personal Care segment, we expected suppressed demand, particularly in small kitchen appliances.

第一季淨銷售額下降 3%，符合我們的整體預期。零售商和消費者需求的表現符合我們對今年的預期。我們預計我們的業務和競爭激烈的零售市場將面臨持續充滿挑戰的宏觀經濟環境。在我們的家庭和個人護理領域，我們預計需求受到抑制，特別是小型廚房電器。

In our Home & Garden segment, we expected home center retailers to be cautious in their preseason build of inventory. And in our Global Pet Care segment, we expected continued softness in our global aquatics business and slowing growth in our treats and chews businesses. Each of those expectations have come to be true, and our top line performance came in generally as we had anticipated, with an especially strong performance, however, from our global e-commerce sales group. They grew sales at 28.3% year-over-year.

在我們的家居與園藝領域，我們預計家居中心零售商在季前庫存建設方面將保持謹慎。在我們的全球寵物護理領域，我們預計全球水產業務將持續疲軟，而零食和咀嚼業務的成長將放緩。這些期望都已成為現實，我們的營收業績整體上符合我們的預期，但我們的全球電子商務銷售團隊的業績尤其強勁。他們的銷售額年增 28.3%。

We are encouraged now that retail inventory levels are healthier than they were last year, which means that our top line should now be more aligned and consistent with our retail customers' point of sale. Including $23 million of investment income from our large cash balance, our adjusted EBITDA was $84.3 million in the first quarter, which is up $44.5 million from the period a year ago, with strong improvement in all 3 business units. Our earnings power is getting back on track, and our commercial and operational performance is improving.

現在，我們感到鼓舞的是，零售庫存水準比去年更健康，這意味著我們的營收現在應該與零售客戶的銷售點更加一致。包括我們大量現金餘額的 2,300 萬美元投資收入，我們第一季調整後的 EBITDA 為 8,430 萬美元，比去年同期增加 4,450 萬美元，所有 3 個業務部門都有強勁改善。我們的獲利能力正在重回正軌，我們的商業和營運績效正在改善。

Gross margins are up 710 basis points over the first quarter of fiscal '23, and our adjusted EBITDA margins doubled compared to last year. This quarter's results benefited from lower cost inventory as compared to last year, as we predicted. The fixed cost reductions we took in prior years and our productivity initiatives are also improving gross margins and our bottom line.

毛利率比 23 財年第一季成長了 710 個基點，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率與去年相比翻了一番。正如我們預測的那樣，本季的業績得益於庫存成本低於去年。我們前幾年採取的固定成本削減措施和生產力措施也提高了毛利率和利潤。

Our balance sheet is stronger than it's ever been in the history of this company. A year ago, our pro forma net leverage had climbed over 6.2x, and we had over $3.1 billion of net debt on our balance sheet. We ended this quarter essentially net debt free with less than $20 million of net debt. Our strong balance sheet is a competitive advantage that we are now leaning into, and we're using it to fuel investments back into our businesses to drive top line growth. We have now pivoted from managing this business for cash to focusing on the long-term growth of all of these businesses and driving operational efficiencies.

我們的資產負債表比公司歷史上任何時候都更加強勁。一年前，我們的淨槓桿率預計攀升了 6.2 倍以上，資產負債表上的淨債務超過 31 億美元。本季結束時，我們基本上沒有淨債務，淨債務不到 2,000 萬美元。我們強大的資產負債表是我們現在正在利用的競爭優勢，我們正在利用它來推動對我們業務的投資，以推動營收成長。我們現在已經從管理該業務以獲取現金轉向專注於所有這些業務的長期成長並提高營運效率。

If I could now have everyone turn to Slide 7 on the investor presentation. The improvement in our performance and our journey towards winning again is being driven by 3 core areas of focus. One, we are investing behind our people to improve commercial capabilities and drive a culture of accountability. Our revamped leadership teams in both our Home & Garden and HPC businesses are reinvigorated, and they're developing new growth opportunities for us every day. The recent key hires in senior sales and marketing positions are making a difference in our culture and how we work together with our retail partners. Our investments in bolstering our commercial operations, innovations and sales and marketing capabilities are starting to pay dividends.

我現在可以讓大家看一下關於投資者簡報的幻燈片 7。我們績效的提高和再次獲勝的旅程是由 3 個核心關注領域推動的。第一，我們正在對員工進行投資，以提高商業能力並推動問責文化。我們在家居與園藝和 HPC 業務方面經過改組的領導團隊煥然一新，他們每天都在為我們創造新的成長機會。最近擔任高階銷售和行銷職位的關鍵員工正在改變我們的文化以及我們與零售合作夥伴的合作方式。我們在加強商業營運、創新以及銷售和行銷能力方面的投資已開始帶來紅利。

Two, we are investing behind our brands and new product road maps to continue to focus on bringing fewer, bigger but better innovations to the marketplace. This quarter, the team started to ramp up their investments in brand marketing, advertising and innovation. As the teams develop their plans, we expect these investments to increase in the coming quarters.

第二，我們正在對我們的品牌和新產品路線圖進行投資，以繼續專注於為市場帶來更少、更大但更好的創新。本季度，團隊開始加大對品牌行銷、廣告和創新的投資。隨著團隊制定計劃，我們預計這些投資將在未來幾季增加。

In HPC, our appliance segment, we had a much healthier start to the year, including a solid holiday selling season, with all international regions delivering core sales growth. Given the improved performance of this business and our healthier outlook for it now, we are starting to accelerate the process to separate HPC via a sale, merger or a spin in hopes to have a transaction announced later this year.

在 HPC（我們的家電領域），我們今年的開局更加健康，包括強勁的假期銷售季，所有國際地區都實現了核心銷售成長。鑑於該業務業績的改善以及我們現在對它的更健康的前景，我們開始加速透過出售、合併或分拆 HPC 的進程，希望在今年稍後宣布一項交易。

From an operations perspective, we are investing to drive efficiency and reduce cost. We have completed the implementation of a comprehensive 5-step S&OP process across all 3 businesses that is helping ensure that we are sourcing and producing the right product at the right time. Our Q1 fiscal '24 inventory is down $360 million from the high point in the third quarter of fiscal '22, and it's down $245 million from the first quarter of fiscal '23. This lower investment in inventory helps not only our cash flow, but it also helps our supply chain operations to be much more efficient.

從營運角度來看，我們進行投資是為了提高效率並降低成本。我們已經在所有 3 個業務部門完成了全面的 5 步驟 S&OP 流程的實施，這有助於確保我們在正確的時間採購和生產正確的產品。我們的 24 財年第一季庫存比 22 財年第三季的高點減少了 3.6 億美元，比 23 財年第一季減少了 2.45 億美元。庫存投資的減少不僅有助於我們的現金流，還有助於提高我們的供應鏈營運效率。

Our fill rates across all 3 businesses have increased, however, an average of 600 basis points since last year despite the massive inventory reductions. These higher fill rates are helping to improve customer relationships, reduce the risk of lost POS and provide cost savings from reduced customer fines and penalties.

然而，儘管庫存大量減少，但自去年以來，我們所有 3 項業務的填充率均有所提高，平均提高了 600 個基點。更高的填充率有助於改善客戶關係、降低 POS 損失的風險，並透過減少客戶罰款和處罰來節省成本。

We can now turn to Slide 8. Since the close of the HHI transaction, we've been very judicious about returning capital to our stakeholders. We have returned over $825 million to our shareholders since June of last year through our various share repurchase programs. We've reduced our share count by 26% to just 30.2 million shares outstanding. We closed the ASR we had in place in November and we very actively repurchased shares in the open market during the first quarter of this fiscal year.

現在我們可以轉向投影片 8。自從 HHI 交易結束以來，我們一直非常明智地將資本回饋給我們的利害關係人。自去年 6 月以來，我們已透過各種股票回購計畫向股東返還超過 8.25 億美元。我們已將流通股數量減少 26%，至僅 3,020 萬股。我們結束了 11 月實施的 ASR，並在本財年第一季在公開市場上非常積極地回購了股票。

In December, we entered into a new $200 million 10b5-1 plan that, subject to certain parameters, will trade through November 15 of this year or until the cap is reached. As of today, there's approximately $140 million remaining on that plan. As we keep delivering on our commitments, grow our earnings and shrink our share count, we believe our share price will eventually react positively.

12 月，我們簽訂了一項新的 2 億美元 10b5-1 計劃，根據某些參數，該計劃將在今年 11 月 15 日之前進行交易，或直到達到上限。截至目前，該計劃還剩約 1.4 億美元。隨著我們繼續履行我們的承諾，增加我們的收益並減少我們的股票數量，我們相信我們的股價最終將做出積極的反應。

Turning to Slide 9 -- or Page 9, sorry. We are encouraged by the first quarter results this year, but we remain prudent in our full year expectations. We're facing new geopolitical and macroeconomic headwinds. For instance, like the Suez Canal and the Red Sea terrorist attacks. And we continue to see economic uncertainty as we look into the year ahead. We know that 1 quarter simply does not make a year. However, we are encouraged by our strong start to fiscal '24.

抱歉，轉向投影片 9——或第 9 頁。我們對今年第一季的業績感到鼓舞，但我們對全年預期仍然保持謹慎。我們正面臨新的地緣政治和宏觀經濟阻力。例如蘇伊士運河、紅海恐怖攻擊。展望未來一年，我們繼續看到經濟的不確定性。我們知道，一個季度根本不等於一年。然而，我們對 24 財年的強勁開局感到鼓舞。

We are a company now operating from a position of strength again, and we are looking forward to continuing the improvement in our commercial and operational performance in the coming quarters. Before I turn the call over to Jeremy, I would like to sincerely thank each and every one of our global employees who are absolutely at the center of helping us start to win again. Thank you. Now you'll hear more from Jeremy on the financials and additional business unit insights. I'll turn the call over to you now, Jeremy.

我們現在是一家再次處於強勢地位的公司，我們期待在未來幾季繼續改善我們的商業和營運表現。在我把電話轉給傑里米之前，我要真誠地感謝我們每一位全球員工，他們絕對是幫助我們再次獲勝的核心。謝謝。現在，您將聽到 Jeremy 關於財務狀況和其他業務部門的更多見解。我現在就把電話轉給你，傑瑞米。

Thanks, David. Good morning, everyone. Let's turn to Slide 11 and a review of Q1 results from continuing operations. I'll start with net sales, which decreased 3%. Excluding the impact of $11.7 million of favorable foreign exchange, organic net sales decreased 4.6%, primarily due to lower consumer demand in North American small kitchen appliances, some softness within certain pet channels and the impact of the SKU rationalization decisions we made in fiscal '23 within our Global Pet Care and Home & Personal Care businesses. The sales decline was in line with our expectations heading into the quarter and was incorporated into our earnings framework.

謝謝，大衛。大家，早安。讓我們轉向投影片 11，回顧第一季持續營運的結果。我將從淨銷售額開始，淨銷售額下降了 3%。排除1170萬美元有利外匯的影響，有機淨銷售額下降4.6%，主要是由於北美小型廚房電器的消費者需求下降、某些寵物管道的疲軟以及我們在財年做出的SKU合理化決定的影響。我們的全球寵物護理以及家庭和個人護理業務中排名第23 位。銷售額下降符合我們對本季的預期，並已納入我們的獲利框架。

Gross profit increased $43 million, and gross margins of 35.4%, increased 710 basis points, largely driven by lower cost inventory and inventory-related expenses, along with a favorable impact from cost improvement actions, partially offset by unfavorable transaction FX and lower volume. Operating expenses of $219.9 million decreased 1% due to reduced project spend on restructuring, optimization and strategic transaction activities, fixed cost reduction efforts and lower factoring charges, offset by increased investment spend in advertising and marketing as we reinvest in our brands.

毛利增加了4,300 萬美元，毛利率為35.4%，增加了710 個基點，這主要是由於庫存成本和庫存相關費用降低，以及成本改善措施帶來的有利影響，但部分被不利的交易外匯和銷量下降所抵消。營運費用為2.199 億美元，下降1%，原因是重組、優化和策略交易活動的項目支出減少、固定成本削減工作以及保理費用降低，但由於我們對品牌進行再投資，廣告和行銷方面的投資支出增加，抵消了這項影響。

Operating income of $25 million improved by $45.2 million, driven by the gross margin improvement and lower operating expenses I previously mentioned. GAAP net income and diluted earnings per share both increased, primarily driven by the higher operating income, higher investment income, lower interest expense, lower share count and a gain recognized on the repurchase of bonds. Adjusted EBITDA was $84.3 million, an increase of 111.8%, driven by improved gross margins and the investment income of $23 million. Adjusted EBITDA, excluding investment income, was $61.3 million.

由於我之前提到的毛利率提高和營運費用降低，營業收入從 2,500 萬美元增加了 4,520 萬美元。公認會計原則淨利潤和稀釋每股收益均有所增長，主要是由於營業收入增加、投資收入增加、利息支出減少、股票數量減少以及債券回購確認的收益所致。調整後的 EBITDA 為 8,430 萬美元，成長 111.8%，這得益於毛利率的提高和 2,300 萬美元的投資收入。調整後的 EBITDA（不含投資收入）為 6,130 萬美元。

Adjusted diluted EPS increased by $1.10 to $0.78 per share, driven by higher adjusted EBITDA and the reduction in shares outstanding. During the first quarter, we reduced our outstanding shares by over 12% or 4.4 million shares with our previously announced ASR closing and additional open market repurchases. As David discussed, our current share count is 26% lower than it was prior to the closure of the HHI transaction.

由於調整後 EBITDA 提高和流通股減少，調整後稀釋每股收益增加 1.10 美元，至每股 0.78 美元。在第一季度，透過先前宣布的 ASR 交割和額外的公開市場回購，我們的流通股減少了 12% 以上，即 440 萬股。正如 David 所討論的，我們目前的股份數量比 HHI 交易結束之前減少了 26%。

Turning to Slide 12. Q1 interest expense from continuing operations of $19.2 million decreased to $14.2 million due to our lower outstanding debt balance. Cash taxes during the quarter of $3.4 million were $2.7 million lower than last year. Depreciation and amortization of $25.5 million was $2.9 million higher than the prior year. And separately, share-based compensation increased by $600,000.

轉向投影片 12。由於我們的未償債務餘額較低，第一季來自持續經營業務的利息支出從 1,920 萬美元減少到 1,420 萬美元。本季現金稅為 340 萬美元，比去年減少 270 萬美元。折舊和攤提為 2,550 萬美元，比前一年增加 290 萬美元。另外，基於股份的薪酬增加了 60 萬美元。

Capital expenditures were $8.4 million in Q1, down from $10 million last year. And cash payments towards strategic transactions, restructuring-related projects and other unusual nonrecurring adjustments were $15.5 million versus $33.2 million last year.

第一季的資本支出為 840 萬美元，低於去年的 1,000 萬美元。用於策略性交易、重組相關項目和其他異常非經常性調整的現金支付為 1,550 萬美元，而去年為 3,320 萬美元。

Moving now to the balance sheet. We had a quarter-end cash balance of $445 million, plus $950 million in short-term investments and $487 million available on our $500 million cash flow revolver. Total debt outstanding was approximately $1.4 billion, consisting of $1.3 billion of senior unsecured notes and $85 million of finance leases and other obligations. During the quarter, we repurchased $179 million of our outstanding bonds, and we ended the quarter essentially net debt free.

現在轉向資產負債表。我們的季末現金餘額為 4.45 億美元，加上 9.5 億美元的短期投資和 5 億美元現金流循環資金中的 4.87 億美元。未償債務總額約為 14 億美元，其中包括 13 億美元的優先無擔保票據以及 8,500 萬美元的融資租賃和其他債務。本季度，我們回購了 1.79 億美元的未償還債券，本季結束時我們基本上沒有淨債務。

Now let's get into the review of each business unit to provide details on the underlying performance drivers of our operational results. I'll start with Global Pet Care, which is on Slide 13. Reported net sales decreased 0.2%. Excluding favorable foreign currency, organic sales decreased 2%. Our Companion Animal business grew low single digits, and was offset by a double-digit sales decline in our global Aquatics business. The global aquatics marketplace remained challenged compared to last year, due in part to lower foot traffic and sales within the pet specialty channel, as we have seen some North American consumers trade down toward value channels.

現在讓我們回顧一下每個業務部門，以提供有關我們營運結果的基本績效驅動因素的詳細資訊。我將從幻燈片 13 上的全球寵物護理開始。報告的淨銷售額下降了 0.2%。排除有利的外幣匯率，有機銷售額下降 2%。我們的伴侶動物業務成長幅度較低，但被全球水上運動業務兩位數銷售額下降所抵消。與去年相比，全球水產市場仍面臨挑戰，部分原因是寵物專業通路的人流和銷售額下降，因為我們看到一些北美消費者轉向價值管道。

Recall that this quarter's North America sales were adversely impacted by our decision last year to exit several nonstrategic categories such as waste management and lower profit SKUs. These activities have reduced our North American active item count by nearly 1/3. And while the impact from a top line perspective is a purposeful headwind, these actions are having a positive impact on margins, turns and cash flow.

回想一下，本季的北美銷售受到我們去年決定退出廢棄物管理和利潤較低的 SKU 等多個非策略類別的不利影響。這些活動使我們的北美活躍商品數量減少了近 1/3。雖然從收入角度來看，影響是一種有目的的逆風，但這些行動對利潤率、週轉率和現金流產生了積極影響。

Sales in EMEA increased due to growth in the Companion Animal category, with especially strong growth in our dog and cat food sales, which more than offset organic sales declines in Aquatics. In North America, overall sales declined, with lower Aquatics sales and the impact of our SKU exits offset by sales growth in Companion Animals. We were especially pleased with our Companion Animal growth in the e-commerce and dollar channels.

由於伴侶動物類別的成長，歐洲、中東和非洲地區的銷售額有所增長，尤其是我們的狗糧和貓糧銷售額的強勁增長，這遠遠抵消了水產類有機銷售額的下降。在北美，整體銷售額下降，水產銷售額下降以及 SKU 退出的影響被伴侶動物銷售成長所抵消。我們對伴侶動物在電子商務和美元管道的成長感到特別滿意。

On the innovation front, we are launching a new Aquatics campaign, Kids Love Aquariums, to bring new participants into the category by highlighting that Aquatics is a hobby families can enjoy together. Our Cat Treat business under the Meowee and Good 'n' Tasty brands continues to perform well online, and we are aggressively pursuing new brick-and-mortar distribution and line expansion to accelerate growth. We have also secured expanded distribution for our dog treats, also under the Good 'n' Tasty brand, building on last year's successful launch and further expanding our reach into new categories.

在創新方面，我們正在發起一項新的水上運動活動“孩子們喜歡水族館”，透過強調水上運動是家庭可以一起享受的愛好，將新參與者引入該類別。我們的 Meowee 和 Good 'n' Tasty 品牌的 Cat Treat 業務繼續在網上表現良好，我們正在積極尋求新的實體分銷和產品線擴張，以加速成長。在去年成功推出的基礎上，我們也以 Good 'n' Tasty 品牌擴大了狗糧的分銷範圍，並進一步將我們的業務範圍擴展到新的類別。

Adjusted EBITDA for GPC increased by 41.7% to $52.7 million. The increase of $15.5 million was primarily driven by a favorable comparison to last year's sales of higher cost inventory, favorable mix due to the exit of low-margin SKUs and our continued focus on cost reduction measures. This was partially offset by lower volumes, increased investments in advertising and FX. This is the third consecutive quarter where the GPC business delivered adjusted EBITDA over $50 million. We continue to feel good about the margin profile of GPC and believe that the decisions we have made are continuing to support a higher margin, healthier global business. We remain cautious about certain categories, primarily within the pet specialty channels, but we expect the positive trends in companion animal consumables to continue, albeit at a slower growth rate.

GPC 調整後 EBITDA 成長 41.7%，達到 5,270 萬美元。 1550 萬美元的成長主要是由於與去年成本較高的庫存銷售情況相比有利、低利潤 SKU 退出帶來的有利組合以及我們繼續關注成本削減措施。這部分被銷售下降、廣告和外匯投資增加所抵銷。這是 GPC 業務連續第三個季度實現調整後 EBITDA 超過 5000 萬美元。我們仍然對 GPC 的利潤狀況感到滿意，並相信我們所做的決定將繼續支持更高的利潤、更健康的全球業務。我們對某些類別（主要是寵物專業管道）保持謹慎態度，但我們預期伴侶動物消費品的正面趨勢將持續，儘管成長速度較慢。

We continue to expect fiscal '24 to have lower top line growth than our long-term target, particularly in the first half of the year due to the impact of our SKU rationalization efforts and the challenge to Aquatics demand.

我們仍然預計 24 財年的收入成長將低於我們的長期目標，特別是在上半年，這是由於我們的 SKU 合理化工作的影響以及水上運動需求的挑戰。

Moving now to Home & Garden, which is on Slide 14. Net sales increased 0.8% in the first quarter, driven by sales growth in the Controls category, offset by softness primarily in our Cleaning category. Orders were aided by the warm fall season, where we experienced retailer and consumer demand continue further into the fall than recent years. We are encouraged by the sales growth we saw in Spectracide, where our largest brand is winning share, and our Hot Shot brand, where we have invested in recovering market share. The first quarter represents a very small portion of the annual consumer activity for this business, and is predominantly focused on preparation and staging for the seasonal business, which starts to ramp up later this quarter.

現在轉向投影片 14 上的家居與園藝。第一季淨銷售額成長了 0.8%，主要受到控制類別銷售成長的推動，但主要被清潔類別的疲軟所抵消。溫暖的秋季有助於訂單成長，我們經驗豐富的零售商和消費者的需求比近年來持續到秋季。我們對 Spectracide 的銷售成長感到鼓舞，我們最大的品牌正在贏得市場份額，而我們在 Hot Shot 品牌上也進行了投資，以恢復市場份額。第一季只佔該業務年度消費者活動的一小部分，主要集中在季節性業務的準備和籌備上，該業務在本季稍後開始增加。

Retailers ended last season with healthier inventory levels than in 2022, and are now building inventory cautiously but in a more typical manner compared to 2023, when they started the season with higher inventory levels and POS exceeded orders throughout the season. We believe retailers will continue to be cautious in building inventory for the season in our second quarter.

零售商在上一季結束時的庫存水準比2022 年更健康，現在正在謹慎地建立庫存，但與2023 年相比，其方式更為典型，當時他們以更高的庫存水準開始季，並且整個季POS 都超越了訂單。我們相信零售商在第二季建立當季庫存時將繼續保持謹慎態度。

Cleaning, our Rejuvenate brand sales declined, but at a slower pace than in prior quarters. Demand in certain parts of the Cleaning segment has not recovered to pre-COVID levels. In fiscal '24, we are investing in innovation and brand support to drive top line growth and expanded listings for this product line. We are excited about updated product design and packaging that we expect to be on shelf later in the second quarter and believe that consumers will react positively to the efficacy and strong value of our products. We are planning for a 2024 season with weather that is similar to the 2023 season, but with retailer orders much more in line with POS than in 2023. We will continue to collaborate with our key customers as we head toward our peak lawn and garden season to understand consumer demand expectations.

清潔方面，我們的 Rejuvenate 品牌銷售額有所下降，但成長速度低於前幾季。清潔領域某些部分的需求尚未恢復到新冠疫情前的水準。在 24 財年，我們正在投資創新和品牌支持，以推動營收成長並擴大該產品線的上市範圍。我們對更新的產品設計和包裝感到興奮，我們預計將在第二季稍後上架，並相信消費者會對我們產品的功效和強大價值做出積極的反應。我們計劃 2024 年季節的天氣與 2023 年季節相似，但零售商訂單比 2023 年更符合 POS。我們將繼續與我們的主要客戶合作，迎接草坪和花園季節的高峰期了解消費者的需求期望。

We are pleased with the traction our new innovation is gaining with retailers and the outlook for our expanded Spectracide One-Shot line, Cutter Eclipse and Repel Realm products. We are encouraged by early orders for displays and off-shelf placement for our new innovations.

我們對我們的新創新受到零售商的關注以及我們擴展的 Spectracide One-Shot 系列、Cutter Eclipse 和 Repel Realm 產品的前景感到高興。我們對新創新產品的早期展示訂單和現貨供應感到鼓舞。

Adjusted EBITDA for Home & Garden improved by $1.7 million. The adjusted EBITDA increase was primarily driven by manufacturing efficiencies that carried into the year and ongoing cost improvement initiatives. This was partially offset by increased investments in advertising in preparation for the lawn and garden peak season and behind the Rejuvenate brand. Labor and raw material costs continue at the higher levels we saw in fiscal '23. We are anticipating a competitive retail environment in Home & Garden this year and are ready to react as the season develops.

家居與園藝調整後 EBITDA 提高了 170 萬美元。調整後的 EBITDA 成長主要是由今年的製造效率和持續的成本改進舉措所推動的。這被為草坪和花園旺季做準備以及 Rejuvenate 品牌而增加的廣告投資所部分抵消。勞動力和原材料成本持續保持在 23 財年的較高水準。我們預計今年家居與園藝的零售環境將充滿競爭，並準備好隨著季節的發展做出反應。

Finally, we'll turn to Home & Personal Care, which is Slide 15. Reported net sales decreased 5.8%. Excluding favorable foreign exchange, organic net sales decreased 7.6%. The organic net sales decrease was driven by lower sales in North American market, with a small kitchen appliance category continued to decline year-over-year, but at a slower rate than prior quarters, offset by sales growth in the EMEA, LatAm and APAC regions.

最後，我們將轉向家庭和個人護理產品，即幻燈片 15。報告的淨銷售額下降了 5.8%。排除有利的外匯影響，有機淨銷售額下降 7.6%。有機淨銷售額下降的原因是北美市場銷售額下降，小型廚房電器類別繼續同比下降，但下降速度低於前幾個季度，但被歐洲、中東和非洲、拉丁美洲和亞太地區的銷售成長所抵消地區。

Sales in the EMEA region grew low single digits with growth in Personal Care from strong e-commerce sales, offset by a decline in home appliance sales after last year's strong top line performance. Sales in LatAm and APAC also posted low single-digit growth. And as we expected, North America had double-digit sales declines, primarily in small kitchen appliances and the PowerXL business, due to continuing challenging demand and our exit of certain Tristar SKUs in fiscal '23.

歐洲、中東和非洲地區的銷售額出現低個位數成長，其中個人護理品業務因電商銷售強勁而成長，但被去年強勁的營收表現後家電銷售額的下降所抵銷。拉丁美洲和亞太地區的銷售額也出現了較低的個位數成長。正如我們預期的那樣，由於需求持續面臨挑戰以及我們在 23 財年退出了某些 Tristar SKU，北美地區的銷售額出現了兩位數的下降，主要是小型廚房電器和 PowerXL 業務。

Overall, we had a strong holiday season with higher-than-expected sales in e-commerce. We also had a unique opportunity to fill a supply gap when 1 of our competitors in the kitchen category filed for bankruptcy, helping our top line during the holiday season and creating opportunities for ongoing sales. Retailers continue to work through high inventory levels this holiday season, but closed with healthier levels than a year ago. However, we do expect soft consumer demand to continue, particularly in air fryers and toaster ovens.

總體而言，我們度過了一個強勁的假期季，電子商務銷售額高於預期。當我們的廚房類別競爭對手之一申請破產時，我們還有一個獨特的機會來填補供應缺口，從而幫助我們在假期期間實現收入增長，並為持續銷售創造機會。零售商在這個假期繼續應對高庫存水平，但最終庫存水平比一年前更好。然而，我們確實預期消費者需求將持續疲軟，尤其是氣炸鍋和烤麵包機。

Commercially, our Remington ONE launch has been particularly effective in EMEA, capitalizing on the higher price point for Remington in that region, and we plan to continue to invest behind the Remington ONE program throughout fiscal '24. We are extremely proud of the Good Design award received by 3 of our Remington ONE products, the Dry & Style, Straight & Curl and Multi Groomer. This annual award is presented to global innovative and cutting-edge industrial product and graphic designs, and comes off the back of our successful global launch event in New York in November of last year. Our Remington Balder Pro Head Shaver is also gaining media attention, recently named the Best Electric and Overall Bald Head Shaver by GQ Magazine.

在商業上，我們的雷明頓 ONE 推出在 EMEA 地區特別有效，充分利用了雷明頓在該地區的較高價格點，我們計劃在整個 24 財年繼續投資雷明頓 ONE 計劃。我們對 Remington ONE 的 3 款產品（Dry & Style、Straight & Curl 和 Multi Groomer）獲得優秀設計獎感到非常自豪。這項年度獎項是在去年 11 月在紐約成功舉辦全球發布會後頒發給全球創新和尖端工業產品和圖形設計的。我們的 Remington Balder Pro 刮鬍刀也受到了媒體的關注，最近被 GQ 雜誌評為最佳電動和整體禿頭刮鬍刀。

Adjusted EBITDA doubled to $26.7 million. The higher adjusted EBITDA margin of 7.8% more than doubled from 3.6% in the prior year, driven by lower cost inventory and inventory-related expenses, our reduced focus on low-margin promotional events and the continued benefit of our cost improvement initiatives. This was partially offset by lower volume, increased brand-focused investments and the impact of unfavorable foreign exchange rates. Looking forward, we continue to expect HPC sales to be down for the full year with first half softness and a return to top line growth in the second half of the year. We expect soft consumer demand, particularly in the air fryer and toaster oven categories and expect a continued challenging competitive environment in North America as demand normalizes.

調整後 EBITDA 翻了一番，達到 2,670 萬美元。調整後的EBITDA 利潤率為7.8%，比上一年的3.6% 翻了一番多，這得益於庫存成本和庫存相關費用的降低、我們減少了對低利潤促銷活動的關注以及我們的成本改善計劃的持續效益。這被銷量下降、品牌投資增加以及不利匯率的影響部分抵消。展望未來，我們繼續預期全年 HPC 銷售額將下降，上半年銷售疲軟，下半年將恢復營收成長。我們預期消費者需求疲軟，尤其是氣炸鍋和烤箱類別，並預期隨著需求正常化，北美的競爭環境將持續充滿挑戰。

Let's turn to Slide 16 and our expectations for 2024. We are reiterating our expectation for net sales to decline low single digits, driven by lower consumer demand, particularly in the small kitchen appliance category within HPC. Adjusted EBITDA, excluding investment income, is expected to grow in the high single digits, driven primarily from lower cost inventory as compared to last year, offset by our investment in our brands and people. We also expect some pricing pressure in Home & Personal Care as competition is expected to remain fierce.

讓我們轉向幻燈片 16 和我們對 2024 年的預期。我們重申，由於消費者需求下降，尤其是 HPC 內的小型廚房電器類別，淨銷售額將下降至低個位數。調整後的 EBITDA（不包括投資收入）預計將以高個位數成長，這主要是由於與去年相比庫存成本較低，但被我們對品牌和人員的投資所抵消。由於競爭預計將持續激烈，我們也預期家庭和個人護理產品將面臨一定的定價壓力。

From a phasing perspective, we continue to expect the demand pressure in the Home & Personal Care segment to be more pronounced in the first half of the year. We expect our home center customers for the Home & Garden business to wait until spring to take on material inventory in preparation of the season. These factors, along with the product portfolio rationalization impact in the global Pet care and HPC businesses, will pressure top line comparisons to last year, particularly in the first half.

從階段性角度來看，我們持續預期上半年家庭及個人照護領域的需求壓力將更加明顯。我們預計家居和園藝業務的家居中心客戶會等到春季才進行材料庫存，為季節做好準備。這些因素，加上產品組合合理化對全球寵物照護和 HPC 業務的影響，將對營收與去年相比帶來壓力，尤其是上半年。

Turning now to Slide 17. Depreciation and amortization is expected to be between $115 million and $125 million, including stock-based compensation of approximately $15 million to $20 million. Cash payments towards restructuring, optimization and strategic transaction costs are expected to be approximately $40 million. Capital expenditures are expected to be between $75 million and $85 million. And cash taxes are expected to be approximately $40 million. For adjusted EPS, we use a tax rate of 25%, including state taxes.

現在轉向幻燈片 17。折舊和攤提預計在 1.15 億至 1.25 億美元之間，其中包括約 1500 萬至 2000 萬美元的股票薪酬。用於重組、優化和策略交易成本的現金支付預計約為 4,000 萬美元。資本支出預計在 7,500 萬至 8,500 萬美元之間。現金稅預計約 4000 萬美元。對於調整後每股收益，我們使用 25% 的稅率，包括州稅。

To end my section, I want to echo David and thank all of our global employees for their hard work and commitment during the strong start to fiscal '24. Now back to David.

在結束本節時，我想呼應 David，並感謝我們所有的全球員工在 24 財年的強勁開局期間的辛勤工作和奉獻精神。現在回到大衛。

Thank you very much, Jeremy. Thank you everybody for joining us today. Let me just take a couple of minutes and recap the key takeaways for today on Slide 18. First, we're very pleased with our start to the year. Demand came in generally as we had anticipated. Our commercial and operational performance is improving, and our margins are expanding. Our balance sheet is strong. In fact, it's stronger than it's ever been in the history of our company. And this is a competitive advantage that is fueling the growth mindset for our company.

非常感謝你，傑瑞米。感謝大家今天加入我們。讓我花幾分鐘時間回顧一下幻燈片 18 上今天的要點。首先，我們對今年的開局感到非常滿意。需求大致符合我們的預期。我們的商業和營運績效正在改善，我們的利潤正在擴大。我們的資產負債表強勁。事實上，它比我們公司歷史上的任何時候都更強大。這是一種競爭優勢，正在推動我們公司的成長心態。

We are returning cash to our shareholders. We bought back 26% of this company and remained essentially net debt free. We are beginning the journey back to winning by investing in our people, investing in our brands and investing in our operations. Although we are in the early days, we are encouraged by the results we've been seeing. We believe we are on the right track and the right path to returning to revenue growth with improving margins and EBITDA. However, we know this is just 1 quarter. And we are already facing new geopolitical and macroeconomic headwinds like the Suez Canal and the terrorist attacks in the Red Sea. And, frankly, continued interest rate uncertainty. So while we're encouraged by the start of our fiscal year, we think it would be prudent to maintain our full year expectations and are thus reconfirming our earnings framework for the full year.

我們正在向股東返還現金。我們回購了這家公司 26% 的股份，基本上保持無淨債務。我們正在開始透過投資我們的員工、投資我們的品牌和投資我們的營運來重新贏得勝利。儘管我們還處於早期階段，但我們對所看到的結果感到鼓舞。我們相信，我們正走在正確的道路上，透過提高利潤率和 EBITDA 來恢復收入成長。然而，我們知道這只是 1 個季度。我們已經面臨蘇伊士運河和紅海恐怖攻擊等新的地緣政治和宏觀經濟阻力。而且，坦白說，利率持續存在不確定性。因此，儘管我們對本財年的開始感到鼓舞，但我們認為維持全年預期是謹慎的做法，因此重新確認我們的全年獲利框架。

I'm excited about the future as I see our teams focusing on fewer, bigger, better innovations, and we are continuing to ramp up our commercial operations now through added investments in sales and marketing. With our operational house now in order, our primary focus is to return to revenue growth, and our aim is to deliver consistent operating performance and to realize a material uplift in the valuation of our shares. Now I'll turn it back to Joanne, and we'll take any questions you may have.

我對未來感到興奮，因為我看到我們的團隊專注於更少、更大、更好的創新，而且我們現在正在透過增加銷售和行銷投資來繼續加強我們的商業營運。隨著我們的營運機構現已井然有序，我們的首要重點是恢復收入成長，我們的目標是實現一致的經營業績並實現我們股票估值的實質提升。現在我將把它轉回給喬安妮，我們將回答您可能提出的任何問題。

Thank you, David. Operator, we can go to the question queue now.

謝謝你，大衛。接線員，我們現在可以去提問隊列了。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from the line of Bob Labick with CJS Securities.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自 CJS 證券的 Bob Labick 的線路。

Congratulations on a nice start to the year. So obviously, a nice recovery versus the last few years in HPC. You talked about it a little bit, but can you tell us what does it take to get that segment back to prior margins and discuss the competitive landscape in appliances in a little more detail. Any changes of late that you alluded to, please?

恭喜您今年有一個好的開始。很明顯，與過去幾年相比，高效能運算有了很好的復甦。您對此進行了一些討論，但是您能否告訴我們如何才能使該細分市場恢復到先前的利潤率，並更詳細地討論家電領域的競爭格局。請問您最近提到了什麼變化嗎？

I think -- listen, I think the last 2 years, a lot of volatility in that category industry. I think with the pandemic and the supply chain problems, retail customers trying to get their hands on any and any appliance they could because people were living in their homes and had nothing to do except cook and clean. We saw a number of new entrants into the market, and these new entrants are willing to work for next to nothing. And so I think the industry experienced a tremendous amount of disruption. And quite frankly, you now see some of those players, as Jeremy referenced in his remarks, going bankrupt.

我認為——聽著，我認為過去兩年，該類別產業出現了很大的波動。我認為，由於大流行和供應鏈問題，零售客戶試圖獲得任何可能的設備，因為人們住在家裡，除了做飯和清潔之外無事可做。我們看到了許多新進入者進入市場，這些新進入者願意幾乎不勞而獲。所以我認為這個產業經歷了巨大的顛覆。坦白說，正如傑里米在演講中提到的那樣，你現在看到其中一些球員正在破產。

And so I think as some of these small ankle biters, start-ups, fly-by-night companies go bankrupt, exit the market, we believe for some time the industry needs to be more rational, needs to be rationalized, needs to consolidate. I think you're just getting a return to normal. I think we still don't see demand patterns where they were prior to the pandemic, which is why we're maintaining kind of a -- a low single-digit decline in sales kind of outlook. But hopefully, as we get back into a more replacement cycle post-COVID environment, we know the inventory levels at retail is back down. And so we expect more consistent operating (inaudible) and ordering patterns to be consistent with POS now.

因此，我認為，隨著一些小公司、新創公司、不可靠的公司破產、退出市場，我們認為在一段時間內，這個行業需要更理性，需要合理化，需要整合。我認為你剛剛恢復正常。我認為我們仍然沒有看到大流行之前的需求模式，這就是為什麼我們維持銷售前景的低個位數下降。但希望，當我們回到新冠疫情後的更頻繁的更換週期時，我們知道零售庫存水準已經回落。因此，我們希望現在的操作（聽不清楚）和訂購模式與 POS 保持一致。

So -- but look, for us particularly, we've got a brand-new management team. We've invested a lot in new talent. We just hired a new head of North America, Tim Wright, who is running our European operations and quite frankly, doing an amazing job building brand equity and franchises. (inaudible) Russell Hobbs (inaudible) and a very profitable (inaudible) Remington franchise in APAC. He is now (inaudible) that entire business unit, and we're investing (inaudible) operations. So pretty excited about Tim Wright's leadership there, the talent upgrade in that organization.

所以——但你看，特別是對我們來說，我們有一個全新的管理團隊。我們在新人才方面投入了大量資金。我們剛剛聘請了北美地區的新負責人蒂姆·賴特（Tim Wright），他負責運營我們的歐洲業務，坦率地說，他在建立品牌資產和特許經營權方面做得非常出色。 （聽不清楚）Russell Hobbs（聽不清楚）和亞太地區利潤豐厚的（聽不清楚）雷明頓特許經營權。他現在（聽不清楚）是整個業務部門，而我們正在投資（聽不清楚）營運。我對 Tim Wright 的領導力以及該組織的人才升級感到非常興奮。

It's only 1 quarter, Bob. We've got a lot of wood to chop, but we've told you if you could be patient with us, then we can get that company back to health. Now we're getting on a better trajectory. We can relook at accelerating, standing that business unit up on its own and potentially merging or spinning it.

這才剛過四分之一，鮑伯。我們還有很多事情要做，但我們已經告訴你，如果你能對我們有耐心，那麼我們就能讓公司恢復健康。現在我們正在走上更好的軌道。我們可以重新考慮加速、獨立建立該業務部門，並可能合併或剝離它。

And just as a follow-up, you talked about mergers and sale, et cetera. Who is the right owner? And what's the optimal structure for a deal for you?

作為後續行動，您談到了合併和出售等問題。誰是正確的所有者？對您而言，最佳的交易結構是什麼？

Yes. I mean that's just a lot of specifics. Probably not prepared to get into that at this point. But we know that -- like assets tend to have tremendous amount of synergies to them because most of these businesses are sourcing from the same vendors and selling to the same customers. We know that the industry still has too many players. We think we have a very strong EMEA APAC platform. Our focus is on strengthening our North American platform. And then hopefully, we become a much more attractive partner to others. I think that would be my preferred outcome here is to find a merger partner with synergies that we could participate in, but the only thing within my control to do without a counterparty is a spin. And so we will pursue that, and we'll see where we come out.

是的。我的意思是這只是很多細節。目前可能還沒準備好進入這一點。但我們知道，類似的資產往往會產生巨大的協同效應，因為大多數這些業務都是從相同的供應商處採購並向相同的客戶銷售。我們知道這個行業仍然有太多的參與者。我們認為我們擁有非常強大的 EMEA APAC 平台。我們的重點是加強我們的北美平台。希望我們能成為對其他人更具吸引力的合作夥伴。我認為我更喜歡的結果是找到一個我們可以參與的具有協同效應的合併夥伴，但在我的控制範圍內唯一可以在沒有交易對手的情況下做的事情就是剝離。因此，我們將追求這一目標，然後看看結果如何。

Our next question will come from the line of Chris Carey with Wells Fargo Securities.

我們的下一個問題將來自富國銀行證券公司的克里斯凱裡。

So just to start, David, can you just talk about potentially any constraints you might have on additional deployments of cash and to share repurchases and specifically related to some of the constraints in the bond documents going through the summer? And in general, just how you're thinking about the balance of reinvestment versus M&A?

首先，大衛，您能否談談額外部署現金和股票回購方面可能存在的任何限制，特別是與整個夏季債券文件中的一些限制有關的限制？總的來說，您如何考慮再投資與併購之間的平衡？

Yes. I mean listen, I mean, I think we've been really -- I mean the 1 thing we've been very consistent about is that we believe that a higher growth, higher-margin Pet and Home & Garden platform deserve a higher multiple. And we had this unfortunate delay that cost us 2 years with the DOJ, and that's behind us. And when I look externally, and I see the people want 15x EBITDA and 17x EBITDA and all these multiples for private assets. And we happen to own, I think, an amazing Pet franchise, an amazing Home & Garden franchise.

是的。我的意思是聽著，我的意思是，我認為我們真的- 我的意思是我們一直非常一致的一件事是，我們相信更高增長、更高利潤的寵物和家居和花園平台應該獲得更高的市盈率。我們經歷了這次不幸的延誤，導致我們在司法部工作了兩年，但現在已經過去了。當我觀察外部時，我發現人們想要 15 倍 EBITDA 和 17 倍 EBITDA 以及所有這些倍數的私人資產。我想，我們碰巧擁有一個令人驚嘆的寵物特許經營權，一個令人驚嘆的家居和花園特許經營權。

Our view of the world is, hey, if we can pay our debt off -- which we just did, right? We had $3 billion plus of debt. Now we've got none. We were almost 7x levered at the peak there and getting amendments from our bank group. Today, that's done, I don't have any bank debt on the balance sheet, except for a revolver that I'm not using. So now, get our operational house in order. So a big shout-out to Dave Gabriel, Steve Keller, Bob Volmert, Mike Wilcox. I mean I have an amazing S&OP team. And if you guys look, 18 months ago, I had to replace a lot of people, and I told you we were going to create a world-class working capital business and S&OP process. We've got that. And so now my operational house is in order.

我們對世界的看法是，嘿，如果我們能夠還清債務——我們剛剛就這麼做了，對吧？我們的債務超過 30 億美元。現在我們已經沒有了。我們的槓桿率在高峰時幾乎達到了 7 倍，並得到了我們銀行集團的修正。今天，一切都完成了，除了我沒有使用的左輪手槍之外，我的資產負債表上沒有任何銀行債務。現在，讓我們的營運室井然有序。在此，向戴夫·加布里埃爾、史蒂夫·凱勒、鮑勃·沃爾默特、邁克·威爾科克斯大聲喊叫。我的意思是我有一支出色的 S&OP 團隊。如果你們看看，18 個月前，我必須更換很多人，我告訴你們我們將創造一個世界級的營運資本業務和 S&OP 流程。我們已經做到了。現在我的手術室一切正常。

We're expanding our EBITDA. We're growing again, margins are expanding. And we want to be responsible. We want to return a lots of capital to our shareholders. We want to reward shareholders. I'm a big shareholder. I like getting rewarded. Our shares have not performed the way I want them to, and we want to materially lift the share price. And I think the next step toward doing that is to continue to shrink the float, be very prudent about our debt obligations come June, July. But if we can demonstrate consistent operating performance, shrink the float and spin appliances, I don't know why we as shareholders can't materially benefit from that. And that's what we're going to go do.

我們正在擴大 EBITDA。我們再次成長，利潤率不斷擴大。我們想要負責任。我們希望向股東返還大量資本。我們想回報股東。我是大股東。我喜歡得到獎勵。我們的股票沒有按照我希望的方式表現，我們希望大幅提升股價。我認為下一步是繼續縮小流通量，對六月、七月到來的債務義務保持非常謹慎的態度。但如果我們能夠表現出一致的經營業績，縮小流通量和旋轉設備，我不知道為什麼我們身為股東不能從中受益。這就是我們要做的。

Okay. Very helpful. Just on the -- one follow-up on the Garden side. Just any early read-throughs on competitive activity and shelf placement? I think 1 of your peers in the space (inaudible) on the Controls side is talking about a lot of incremental pacing. So just what are you seeing for your own portfolio?

好的。很有幫助。就在花園一側的一個後續行動。只是對競爭活動和貨架放置有任何早期的通讀嗎？我認為控制方面的一位同行（聽不清楚）正在談論很多增量節奏。那麼您對自己的投資組合有何看法？

Look, we think it's a really competitive market out there. We think the retail environment is challenging. We respect our competitors, but we got a debt-free balance sheet. We're planning to win. Game on.

看，我們認為這是一個競爭非常激烈的市場。我們認為零售環境充滿挑戰。我們尊重我們的競爭對手，但我們擁有無債務的資產負債表。我們計劃獲勝。遊戲開始。

Yes, I don't think we are (inaudible) Chris, from the home centers that they're going to lean back into more displays than they did a year ago. I think that strategy was a difficult one for them. So we're seeing more displays, more off-shelf placements and we're winning, I think, more than our fair share of those as we head into the season.

是的，我不認為我們是（聽不清楚）克里斯，來自主場中心的他們將比一年前投入更多的展示。我認為這項策略對他們來說是一項困難的策略。因此，我們看到了更多的展示，更多的現成展示位置，我認為，隨著我們進入賽季，我們贏得的勝利超過了我們應得的份額。

Our next question will come from the line of Peter Grom with UBS.

我們的下一個問題將來自瑞銀集團 (UBS) 的彼得·格羅姆 (Peter Grom)。

Good morning, everyone. I hope you're doing well. So maybe just 1 for me. Obviously, a very good start to the year across the board. And I totally understand that it's early, I wouldn't necessarily expect you to kind of alter your guidance at this point, particularly with the bulk of Home & Garden still to come. But how would you characterize your confidence in the outlook today? Last quarter, I think, Jeremy, you kind of mentioned that you thought it was balanced or was it your stability? How has that evolved at all given the strong start?

大家，早安。我希望你一切都好。所以對我來說也許只有 1。顯然，這是今年的一個好開始。我完全理解現在還為時過早，我不一定希望您在此時改變您的指導，特別是在大部分家居和花園尚未到來的情況下。但您如何形容您對當今前景的信心呢？上個季度，我想，傑里米，你提到你認為這是平衡的，還是你的穩定性？鑑於強勁的開局，情況是如何演變的？

Yes. A couple of things I'll start with, Peter. One, David mentioned that we do have a headwind that we had to absorb into our earnings framework from this Red Sea challenge. We're seeing surcharges really globally in ocean freight. That's probably a $10 million to $12 million headwind for us on the year. The good news is we're covered contractually against the spot rate increases that we're seeing at these volumes, but the surcharges are hurting us. So we're absorbing that. So that's kind of 1 headwind.

是的。我將從幾件事開始，彼得。第一，大衛提到我們確實面臨來自紅海挑戰的不利因素，我們必須將其納入我們的獲利框架中。我們在全球範圍內確實看到了海運附加費。這對我們來說可能是今年 1,000 萬至 1,200 萬美元的逆風。好消息是，根據合同，我們可以應對這些交易量所看到的即期費率上漲，但附加費正在損害我們的利益。所以我們正在吸收這一點。所以這是一種逆風。

And the other thing I would just point out is that part of our first quarter be -- quite frankly, is we didn't spend as much in our increased brand investments as we expected. I think we increased around $5 million year-over-year. That's probably about half what we had allocated to. And so we've moved that spend into the back half of the year where we think there'll be more robust consumer demand. So there are some timing elements to it as well. But overall, I would say with what we've experienced from the consumer demand side and what we're hearing from home centers and seeing in displays and off-shelf, I'd say we feel slightly more positive than we did 90 days ago.

我想指出的另一件事是，坦白說，我們第一季的一部分是，我們在增加品牌投資方面的支出沒有我們預期的那麼多。我認為我們比去年同期增加了約 500 萬美元。這可能是我們分配的一半左右。因此，我們已將支出移至今年下半年，我們認為屆時消費者需求將會更加強勁。所以它也有一些時間因素。但總的來說，我想說的是，根據我們在消費者需求方面的經歷以及我們從家居中心聽到的以及在展示和現貨中看到的情況，我想說我們的感覺比90 天前稍微積極一些。

Our next question will come from the line of Brian McNamara with Canaccord Genuity.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Canaccord Genuity 的 Brian McNamara。

On Home & Garden, I think we've heard some mixed messages in the marketplace over the last couple of days. One of your peers saw its garden business benefiting from early season shipments, another expects more seasonal load-in. You have been pretty consistent in your messaging in terms of home centers being cautious in the preseason build of inventories. Can you provide a little more color on what's going on here, both on Q1 for yourselves and your expectations for Q2 in Home & Garden?

在家居與花園方面，我認為過去幾天我們在市場上聽到了一些混雜的訊息。您的一位同行看到其花園業務受益於早季發貨，另一位同行則預計會有更多季節性裝貨。在主場中心在季前庫存建設方面保持謹慎方面，你的訊息一直非常一致。您能否提供更多有關這裡發生的事情的信息，包括您自己對第一季度的情況以及您對家居與花園第二季度的期望？

Yes. I think the first thing would be -- just because we have certain competitors that are publicly traded, it doesn't mean that our mix of sales is the same. And so I think you need to look at the mix of sales of our competitors, a lot of them sell seed and growing media stuff, and we don't. And before you have weeds, you need to grow something, and we come in and kill the weeds after you grow stuff. So there might be a timing difference there. Jeremy, anything you want to add to the question other than...

是的。我認為第一件事是——僅僅因為我們有某些公開交易的競爭對手，並不意味著我們的銷售組合是相同的。所以我認為你需要看看我們競爭對手的銷售組合，他們中的許多人銷售種子和種植媒體，而我們不銷售。在你長出雜草之前，你需要種植一些東西，我們會在你種植東西後進來殺死雜草。因此，那裡可能存在時間差異。傑里米，你想在問題中添加任何內容，除了...

I think that's exactly right. I think the earlier loaded for home centers happens for a lot of those things that we don't do that David just mentioned. So I think that's why you hear what we are -- that's why you hear what you hear from competitors.

我認為這是完全正確的。我認為家庭中心的早期加載發生在許多大衛剛才提到的我們沒有做的事情上。所以我認為這就是為什麼你會聽到我們的訊息——這就是為什麼你會聽到競爭對手的訊息。

Okay. And then secondly, on HPC, I mean, I think we're 6 quarters in on some pretty significant declines on the top line. I guess, what gives you guys confidence that we should see a return to growth in H2 and -- and any color on the phasing as it relates to Q3 and Q4 would be helpful.

好的。其次，在 HPC 方面，我認為我們的營收已經連續 6 個季度出現了相當顯著的下降。我想，是什麼讓你們有信心我們應該看到下半年恢復成長，以及與第三季和第四季相關的任何階段性顏色都會有所幫助。

Yes. Look, I think the last 12 months -- again, sing Tim Wright's praises, he and I have been on a lot of airplanes. We've been meeting with a lot of customers. We've been making up for past sins, and we've been trying to fix relationships, mend fences and bring them better product offerings. And so I think a couple of years ago, we were telling retailers we were exiting certain brands. And I think we had some missteps with an acquired business. And we've spent a very good amount of time in the last 12, 18 months really fixing relationships, cleaning up the marketplace, owning our sins and then bringing forth new product and new innovation.

是的。聽著，我想在過去的 12 個月裡，再次讚揚蒂姆·賴特 (Tim Wright)，他和我乘坐過很多飛機。我們已經會見了許多客戶。我們一直在彌補過去的罪過，我們一直在努力修復關係、修復關係並為他們提供更好的產品。因此，我認為幾年前，我們告訴零售商我們將退出某些品牌。我認為我們在收購業務方面犯了一些錯誤。在過去的 12、18 個月裡，我們花了很多時間來真正修復關係、清理市場、承認我們的罪過，然後推出新產品和新創新。

And so actually, I'm pretty bullish on regaining listings as we go forward. Even some of them hitting as early as the fourth quarter of this fiscal year. So much more solid footing. And again, all credit to the team. A lot of new talent, particularly being hired in the North America market as we fix that and make that more profitable and restore it to growth like our European markets.

事實上，隨著我們的前進，我非常看好重新上市。甚至其中一些最早會在本財年第四季開始實施。基礎更加堅實。再次強調，這一切都歸功於團隊。許多新人才，特別是在北美市場被聘用的人才，因為我們解決了這個問題，提高了利潤，並恢復了像歐洲市場一樣的成長。

Maybe if I could just squeeze one last one in for Jeremy on the housekeeping front. On gross margin, obviously, a big expansion year-over-year in Q1. Is this kind of mid-30s range a reasonable run rate to expect for the full year?

也許我能為傑里米在客房服務方面擠出最後一份。顯然，第一季的毛利率比去年同期大幅成長。這種 30 多歲左右的區間是全年預期的合理運行率嗎？

I think it is, yes. I think not a lot of variables that we're seeing on inflation. The only real caution that we see on the radar right now is the Red Sea surcharges that I mentioned. So we're watching that closely, obviously, but I would expect that we can continue at this pace as the year progresses on gross margins.

我想是的，是的。我認為我們在通膨方面看到的變數並不多。我們現在在雷達上看到的唯一真正的警告是我提到的紅海附加費。因此，顯然我們正在密切關注這一點，但我預計隨著今年毛利率的進展，我們可以繼續保持這樣的速度。

Our next question comes from the line of Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題來自伊恩·扎菲諾和奧本海默的對話。

Great. I just want to ask one more question on HPC. As far as divesting or any corporate action there, why now? What's giving you the confidence to maybe move forward on that? I think when you did Tristar, I think you guys threw out like an over $100 million EBITDA number. We're not quite there yet. So what are you sort of planning for as far as EBITDA in that business? What do you think maybe is the underlying profitability of it is? And do you still think it's at that level you previously said? And again, why now versus waiting to bring it back maybe to that level?

偉大的。我只是想再問一個關於 HPC 的問題。至於撤資或任何公司行動，為什麼是現在？是什麼讓您有信心繼續前進？我認為當你們製作三星時，你們拋出了超過 1 億美元的 EBITDA 數字。我們還沒有完全做到這一點。那麼，就該業務的 EBITDA 而言，您有何規劃？您認為它的潛在獲利能力可能是什麼？您認為現在還處於您之前所說的那個水平嗎？再說一次，為什麼現在而不是等待將其恢復到那個水平？

I mean actually, I think our investor base believes, as I do, that we have higher multiple trading businesses in Pet and Home & Garden. And I think our investor base believes that separating appliances out will allow our RemainCo to trade at a higher valuation. That's the premise of doing it in the first place.

我的意思是，實際上，我認為我們的投資者基礎和我一樣相信我們在寵物和家居與園藝領域擁有更高的多元化貿易業務。我認為我們的投資者基礎相信，將電器分開將使我們的 RemainCo 能夠以更高的估值進行交易。這是首先要做的前提。

I think that we clearly anticipated trying to get it out sooner rather than later, and we entered the pandemic and supply chain and all the wonderful things that we talked about earlier in the call. And I just -- I think as we get it back to health, it belongs -- to stand up on its own. We'd like to continue to have some management and some ownership in it, but the only thing we can control within our -- without a counterparty is a spin. And so that's our fiduciary obligation. And -- but we're putting a lot of money behind it. We're hiring a lot of new talent, and we believe that we can build a global champion with that appliance business and stand it up.

我認為我們顯然期望盡快擺脫它，並且我們進入了大流行和供應鏈以及我們在電話會議早些時候討論的所有精彩的事情。我只是 - 我認為當我們讓它恢復健康時，它就屬於 - 自己站起來。我們希望繼續擁有一些管理權和一些所有權，但在沒有交易對手的情況下，我們唯一能控制的就是旋轉。這就是我們的信託義務。而且——但我們投入了大量資金。我們正在招募大量新人才，我們相信我們可以透過該家電業務打造全球冠軍並站穩腳跟。

But I think -- talking to shareholders, shareholders would like me to get it independent of Pet and Home & Garden. And so we're just letting you know as we did all of last year, we need to get this thing healthy profitably. We don't want to spend something out that isn't healthy, and so we want to get the company healthy. But as we restore health and profitability, we're going to ramp up efforts to separate it.

但我認為，與股東交談時，股東希望我將其獨立於寵物和家居與花園。因此，我們只是讓您知道，正如我們去年全年所做的那樣，我們需要讓這件事保持健康並有利可圖。我們不想花不健康的錢，所以我們希望讓公司健康發展。但隨著我們恢復健康和獲利能力，我們將加大力度將其分開。

And I'd just add, Ian, from -- the color, from a timing perspective, right? I mean, look, we just reported a quarter where we doubled EBITDA year-over-year, $26 million and change. And as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we're expecting really each quarter the next couple of quarters sequentially for the top line to improve. We mentioned that every region, with the exception of North America, is now growing organically. And so we're implying that North America is going to get better. It got better in Q1. We think more of that's coming. We're winning more in e-com. We're starting to get more shelf placements with some of the legacy brands that we had lost some in the past couple of years. And so I think all those things just lend themselves to a better marketing story for the business in any event, whether it's a spin or a private transaction. So that's the point of us saying we're going to accelerate that now as we see the forecast improving.

我只是補充一點，伊恩，從——顏色，從時間的角度來看，對吧？我的意思是，看，我們剛剛報告了一個季度，我們的 EBITDA 同比翻了一番，達到 2600 萬美元，還有變化。正如我在準備好的發言中提到的那樣，我們預計接下來的幾季每季的營收都會連續改善。我們提到，除北美外，每個地區現在都在有機成長。所以我們暗示北美將會變得更好。第一季情況有所改善。我們認為還會有更多這樣的事情發生。我們在電子商務領域贏得了更多勝利。我們開始獲得更多過去幾年失去的一些傳統品牌的貨架位置。因此，我認為所有這些事情無論如何都有助於為企業提供更好的行銷故事，無論是旋轉還是私人交易。因此，這就是我們說的重點，當我們看到預測有所改善時，我們現在將加快這一速度。

Our next question will come from the line of Olivia Tong with Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Olivia Tong 和 Raymond James 的對話。

Was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what you're changing to position yourself to drive the innovations and eventually top line growth that you're talking about, whether it's additional personnel? You mentioned some managerial changes, investments that you have made or planning to make. And when you -- when do you think you actually start to see that year-over-year improvement in aggregate? And then just sort of where that growth is necessarily coming from?

想知道您是否可以多談談您正在改變什麼，以推動創新並最終實現您正在談論的頂線增長，是否是額外的人員？您提到了一些管理變更、已經進行或計劃的投資。當你——你認為你什麼時候真正開始看到整體逐年改善？那麼這種成長必然來自哪裡？

And then you talked about profitable growth, but can you talk about also magnitude of brand spend, especially as you pivot to more of a focus on revenue growth? It's obviously been a tough -- tough go over the last couple of years. So as you consider new products, innovation, et cetera, what you're doing in order to support healthy launches when the time comes and what's embedded into the outlook?

然後您談到了利潤成長，但您能否也談談品牌支出的規模，特別是當您更加關注收入成長時？過去幾年，這顯然是一段艱難的歷程。因此，當您考慮新產品、創新等問題時，您正在採取哪些措施來支持健康的發布，以及前景中包含哪些內容？

I think the main thing is the mindset shift. I think years ago, we had an approach where each R&D department or NPD Group would look at 50 or 100 projects. And I don't think any 1 of these particular projects in the past were big bets. I think people looked at, okay, let's tweak this packaging, let's tweak the color, let's tweak a feature. Maybe if we get a listing here, it's another $1 million, if it fails, it's not that big a failure.

我認為最主要的是心態的轉變。我想幾年前，我們採用了一種方法，每個研發部門或 NPD 集團都會關注 50 或 100 個項目。我認為過去這些特定項目中的任何一個都不是大賭注。我認為人們會看，好吧，讓我們調整這個包裝，讓我們調整顏色，讓我們調整功能。也許如果我們在這裡上市的話，又是100萬美元，如果失敗了，那就不是那麼大的失敗。

And you just can't move a needle if you're constantly trying to launch 100 products a year in Home & Garden or 100 new products a year in Pet. We put it in the press and in the script, we've hired a lot of new talent, and we've changed the mindset to be -- we want to take more risk. We want to launch fewer, bigger, better innovations. And -- it brings a lot of focus and clarity, quite frankly, to your organization. If instead of focusing people on 100 new SKUs, you say, look, we want 10 new products and we wanted to really move the needle where can you move the needle.

如果您不斷嘗試每年在家居和園藝領域推出 100 種產品，或者在寵物領域每年推出 100 種新產品，那麼您就一事無成。我們把它寫在媒體和劇本中，我們聘請了許多新人才，我們改變了心態——我們想要承擔更多風險。我們希望推出更少、更大、更好的創新。而且——坦白說，它為您的組織帶來了很多焦點和清晰度。如果你不是把人們的注意力集中在 100 個新的 SKU 上，而是說，看，我們想要 10 個新產品，我們想要真正改變現狀。

And so you've already seen it. You see little green shoots of it, right? We're very, very good in dog chews and treats, but we've never been in cat. We did an amazing acquisition in the U.K. called Armitage. It brought us a brand called Good Boy, and it brought us Meowee. And we're taking those businesses and we're launching complementary products into the pets space in the U.S., particularly cat treats.

所以你已經看到了。你看到它的小綠芽了，對吧？我們在狗的咀嚼物和零食方面非常非常擅長，但我們從來沒有在貓方面做過。我們在英國進行了一項令人驚嘆的收購，名為 Armitage。它為我們帶來了一個叫Good Boy的品牌，也為我們帶來了Meowee。我們正在接管這些業務，並向美國的寵物領域推出補充產品，特別是貓糧。

The other thing that is very different that we never did in the past -- and a lot of credit to Mir and our Comm Ops team -- we do stuff now called test and learn. And so we don't work on a product and then take it to every brick-and-mortar and say, here it is, we want to test and learn that product with the customer in real time so that we get feedback on that product. We refine that product with -- not some survey, not some theory, but thousands of customers telling us what's good with it, what's wrong with it, and then we refine that product offering to create a fat pitch. And that is a very different approach, but we believe it has potential to yield big results. And so that's -- I think that's a little bit of the answer to your question. Hopefully, it helps a little bit. Jeremy, is there another part of that question?

另一件非常不同的事情是我們過去從未做過的——這要歸功於 Mir 和我們的通訊營運團隊——我們現在所做的事情稱為「測試和學習」。因此，我們不會開發產品，然後將其帶到每個實體店並說，就是這樣，我們希望與客戶一起即時測試和了解該產品，以便我們獲得有關該產品的反饋。我們通過——不是一些調查，不是一些理論，而是成千上萬的客戶告訴我們它有什麼好處，有什麼問題來完善該產品，然後我們完善該產品以創造一個豐富的宣傳。這是一種非常不同的方法，但我們相信它有潛力產生巨大的成果。所以這就是──我想這就是你問題的一點答案。希望它能有所幫助。傑里米，這個問題還有其他部分嗎？

Yes. I think the last part of the question was on timing. We're seeing some wins. I think they start to impact our financial results in the second half of the year from a top line perspective, which is why we talk about our confidence in growth in the second half. So it's -- I think it's coming very shortly.

是的。我認為問題的最後一部分是關於時機的。我們看到了一些勝利。我認為它們開始從營收角度影響我們下半年的財務業績，這就是為什麼我們談論我們對下半年成長的信心。所以我認為它很快就會到來。

Our next question will come from the line of Michael O'Brien with Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題將來自沃爾夫研究中心的邁克爾·奧布萊恩。

Just a quick one here. So regarding the margin structure. So obviously, you have this high-cost inventory rolling off, which is going to be a tailwind to the business. Could you provide a little bit more color though on any other margin improvement initiatives that you're currently undergoing? And then my second question is, to offset some of the volume decreases, are you planning to increase price in the back half of this year as well?

這裡只是快速介紹一下。關於保證金結構。顯然，高成本庫存不斷減少，這將成為業務的推動力。對於您目前正在進行的任何其他利潤改善計劃，您能否提供更多資訊？我的第二個問題是，為了抵銷部分銷售下降，你們是否也計劃在今年下半年提高價格？

Yes. I think on the latter, I'll start there, Michael. I don't anticipate significant pricing actions in the second half of the year from where we sit today. Clearly, external factors could change that if we see a more material impact from some of the political and geopolitical challenges that we see, Red Sea, I mentioned earlier, could be one. But right now, no, I don't think that's necessary.

是的。我想從後者開始，麥可。從我們今天的情況來看，我預計今年下半年不會有重大定價行動。顯然，外部因素可能會改變，如果我們看到我們看到的一些政治和地緣政治挑戰產生了更實質的影響，我之前提到的紅海可能是其中之一。但現在，不，我認為沒有必要。

On the additional cost reduction efforts, what I would say is if you look at gross margin or gross profit dollars in the quarter, up $36 million, $37 million. As we talked about last year, we had the higher cost inventory last year that was cap variances of around I think $26 million, $28 million in the quarter. So we actually -- we're improving gross profit dollars more than that lower cost inventory benefit that we're receiving. And that's on top line decline of 3%. So that, I think, shows you the improvement in operations and the efficiencies that we're getting. And a lot of that comes from continuous improvement activities across our supply chain and manufacturing operations.

關於額外的成本削減工作，我想說的是，如果你看看本季的毛利率或毛利，分別增加了 3,600 萬美元、3,700 萬美元。正如我們去年談到的，去年我們的庫存成本較高，本季的上限差異約為 2,600 萬美元至 2,800 萬美元。因此，實際上，我們對毛利的提高超過了我們所獲得的低成本庫存效益。這也包括 3% 的營收下降。因此，我認為，這向您展示了我們所獲得的營運改進和效率。其中很大一部分來自我們供應鏈和製造業務的持續改善活動。

And I'll give all the credit to the same people that David mentioned earlier. I think they're doing an extraordinary job in partnering with our commercial business units very well to get those savings, to maintain our fill rates and actually still grow share, all with lower inventory dollars on the balance sheet. So I think we're in a really good place there.

我將把所有功勞歸功於大衛之前提到的那些人。我認為他們在與我們的商業業務部門合作方面做得非常出色，以節省這些費用，維持我們的填充率，並且實際上仍然在增長份額，所有這些都在資產負債表上降低了庫存美元。所以我認為我們處於一個非常好的位置。

Our next question will come from the line of William Reuter with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題將來自美國銀行的威廉·路透 (William Reuter)。

I just have one. Following up on -- following up on Chris, his question earlier, talking about capital deployment. David, in your response, you talked about multiples of 15x and 17x. It certainly sounded to me like you believe your stock is far cheaper than any M&A opportunities that are out there and that M&A is not a focus in the near term. Did I read that correctly?

我只有一個。跟進克里斯之前的問題，談論資本部署。 David，在您的回覆中，您談到了 15 倍和 17 倍的倍數。在我看來，您確實相信您的股票比現有的任何併購機會便宜得多，並且併購不是近期的焦點。我讀對了嗎？

I mean, I've personally been buying shares. So I should tell you, I think the stock is cheap. We bought back 26% of the float, and we're accountable to where it goes in the future. And yes, private assets continue to cost more than where we trade, and we're working hard to fix that. And we think the 2 big levers to pull there is to basically become a very consistent operating performance business and to separate out our appliance business. And we think that through consistent operating performance and separating out appliances, we will experience a material uplift in multiple.

我的意思是，我個人一直在買股票。所以我應該告訴你，我認為這隻股票很便宜。我們回購了 26% 的流通股，並對其未來的去向負責。是的，私人資產的成本仍然高於我們交易的成本，我們正在努力解決這個問題。我們認為拉動這一點的兩大槓桿基本上是成為一個非常一致的經營業績業務，並將我們的家電業務分開。我們認為，透過一致的營運績效和分離設備，我們將經歷多重物質提升。

That said, we're not going to shrink ourselves to greatness. And if we do find a great acquisition in Pet or Home & Garden, we're going to pursue it. I don't see anything to do right now, and I'm not looking at anything, but we have a very good track record of acquiring assets in the Pet division, a very good 1 in Home & Garden. We're fixing Rejuvenate, and we'll see where we go.

也就是說，我們不會為了偉大而縮小自己。如果我們確實在寵物或家居與園藝領域找到了一筆不錯的收購，我們就會繼續進行。我現在沒有看到任何事情可做，我也沒有考慮任何事情，但我們在寵物部門收購資產方面有著非常好的記錄，在家居和花園部門中是一個非常好的1。我們正在修復Rejuvenate，我們會看看進展如何。

That's a very helpful response. Perfect.

這是一個非常有幫助的回應。完美的。

Our next question will come from the line of Carla Casella with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題將來自摩根大通的卡拉·卡塞拉 (Carla Casella)。

It's Carla Casella here. Just wondering -- what?

我是卡拉·卡塞拉。只是想知道──什麼？

Carla, good morning. Nice to hear your voice.

卡拉，早安。很高興聽到你的聲音。

Good to see (inaudible). Could you say which bonds you had bought back in the quarter?

很高興看到（聽不清楚）。您能透露一下您在本季回購了哪些債券嗎？

I couldn't quite catch it.

我不太明白。

Bonds, we bought a bunch of different bonds, all kind of different coupons. Typically, (inaudible) the lower the dollar amount, then I'll buy them, but you guys keep bidding them up. So I don't know if I'm interested anymore.

債券，我們買了一堆不同的債券，各種不同的優惠券。通常，（聽不清楚）美元金額越低，我就會購買它們，但你們一直在抬高它們。所以我不知道我是否還有興趣。

No, I know because people are assuming more. So that goes to my second thought, to get to your 2.5x leverage target, it clearly means bringing leverage up from where it is today. I'm assuming that happens through share buybacks. I'm just wondering if you expect to have to come back to our market or, absent M&A, any debt activity we should expect?

不，我知道，因為人們假設得更多。因此，我的第二個想法是，要達到 2.5 倍的槓桿目標，這顯然意味著將槓桿從目前的水平提高。我假設這是透過股票回購實現的。我只是想知道您是否預計必須回到我們的市場，或者在沒有併購的情況下，我們是否應該期待任何債務活動？

Yes. I mean it's 3-pronged, right? We've definitely been using the buyback of shares to absorb our excess cash. And so we're entering a net debt position now, albeit small. And if we exhaust the remaining buyback plans in place, I still don't think it puts us over -- right around 1 turn of leverage. So -- and then we have enough cash on hand, quite frankly, to basically meet the bond obligation this summer, if we don't do any M&A before then.

是的。我的意思是它是三管齊下的，對嗎？我們肯定一直在利用股票回購來吸收多餘的現金。因此，我們現在正在進入淨債務頭寸，儘管規模很小。如果我們用盡剩餘的回購計劃，我仍然認為這不會讓我們結束——大約 1 輪槓桿。因此，坦白說，如果我們在此之前不進行任何併購，我們手頭上有足夠的現金，基本上可以滿足今年夏天的債券義務。

But clearly, the covenants allow us to do M&A. And if we were to find something to acquire, that would reduce our need to offer cash for the bond. So we're looking at all those things. We're monitoring interest rates. Right now, we're very happy to keep a large amount of cash on deposit, get paid some interest income, buy back our shares and focus on operations.

但顯然，這些契約允許我們進行併購。如果我們要找到可以收購的東西，那就會減少我們為債券提供現金的需要。所以我們正在研究所有這些事情。我們正在監控利率。現在，我們很高興保留大量現金，獲得一些利息收入，回購股票並專注於營運。

I was going to say, Carla, I would just add to that. There's just -- there's no hurry in the fiscal year to get to that 2x to 2.5x debt leverage. That's our longer-term target. We'll be prudent in how we get there, we'll make sure that capital is deployed in the right way.

我想說，卡拉，我想補充一下。只是——本財年並不急於達到 2 倍至 2.5 倍的債務槓桿。這是我們的長期目標。我們將謹慎對待如何實現這一目標，我們將確保以正確的方式部署資本。

Okay. And then on the bond obligations to pay down this summer, that's if you don't fully invest, can you say how much of investment spend you have left? Because I'm not sure what calculates as an investment or not.

好的。然後關於今年夏天償還的債券義務，如果你沒有完全投資，你能說你還剩下多少投資支​​出嗎？因為我不確定什麼算投資或不算投資。

Yes. What we've said publicly, Carla, and we're going to stick to that through the summer when we actually get to that point in time, which will be June, July time frame is that we would expect it currently with no incremental material M&A to be over $1 billion required.

是的。卡拉，我們公開說過的，我們將在整個夏天堅持這一點，當我們真正到達那個時間點時，即六月、七月的時間範圍內，我們目前預計沒有增量材料併購金額需超過10 億美元。

Okay. And that's across all tranches, right?

好的。所有的部分都是如此，對吧？

Yes.

是的。

Okay. Can I ask one business question or a margin question? You mentioned gross margin improvement. Part of it was driven by, as you mentioned, lower shipping rates. I'm assuming that's still the really high shipping rates from '20 -- from '22 still flowing through some of your inventory? Is that correct? And if so, when are we back to like a baseline before we have to start worrying about Red Sea and any other increase in shipping rates?

好的。我可以問一個業務問題或保證金問題嗎？您提到了毛利率的改善。正如您所提到的，部分原因是運費較低。我假設這仍然是從 20 年開始的非常高的運費 - 從 22 年開始仍然流經你們的一些庫存？那是對的嗎？如果是這樣，在我們不得不開始擔心紅海和任何其他運費上漲之前，我們什麼時候才能回到基準？

Yes. So you're right. The comparison to last year in first quarter '23 was the '22 high shipping rates still flowing through the P&L in the first half of last year, the whole first half of last year. When you look at our run rate in Q1 right now, I think what you see is reflective of the current environment, which is predominantly under contract for us through the majority of the fiscal year. The Red Sea challenges that I talked about, you'll start to see a headwind from that in our P&L in -- most likely most of the Q3 and Q4. And as I said, it's around $10 million to $12 million for the year.

是的。所以你是對的。與去年同期相比，23年第一季是22年上半年，即整個上半年，損益表中仍流淌著高運費。當您現在查看我們第一季的運行率時，我認為您所看到的反映了當前的環境，在本財年的大部分時間裡，我們主要處於合約狀態。我談到的紅海挑戰，你會開始在我們的損益表中看到逆風——很可能是第三季和第四季的大部分時間。正如我所說，今年的費用約為 1000 萬至 1200 萬美元。

That concludes...

至此結束...

Go ahead, Liz.

繼續吧，莉茲。

That will conclude today's question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the call back to Joanne Chomiak for closing remarks.

今天的問答環節到此結束。我想將電話轉回給喬安妮·喬米亞克（Joanne Chomiak），讓其致閉幕詞。

Thank you. And with that, we have reached the top of the hour, so we will conclude our conference call. Thank you to David and Jeremy. And on behalf of Spectrum Brands, thank you for all of your participation.

謝謝。至此，我們的電話會議已經進入尾聲了，所以我們將結束我們的電話會議。謝謝大衛和傑瑞米。我謹代表 Spectrum Brands 感謝大家的參與。

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

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。