Symbotic Inc (SYM) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Symbotic First Quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Jeff Evanson, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

感謝您的耐心等待，歡迎參加 Symbotic 2023 年第一季度財務業績電話會議。 （操作員說明）謹此提醒，本次電話會議正在錄音。現在我將會議交給東道主投資者關係副總裁 Jeff Evanson 先生。請繼續。

Thank you, Valerie. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Symbotic's First Quarter 2023 Results Webcast. As Valerie mentioned, I am Jeff Evanson, Symbotic's VP of Investor Relations.

謝謝你，瓦萊麗。大家下午好。歡迎收看 Symbotic 2023 年第一季度業績網絡廣播。正如瓦萊麗提到的，我是傑夫·埃文森 (Jeff Evanson)，Symbotic 的投資者關係副總裁。

Our press release and discussion today will include forward-looking statements, based on assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including as a result of factors described in the cautionary statements and risk factors in Symbotic's financial release and regulatory filings with the SEC, by which any forward-looking statements made during this call are qualified in their entirety.

我們今天的新聞稿和討論將包括前瞻性陳述，這些陳述基於受風險和不確定性影響的假設，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述中預測的結果存在重大差異，包括由於前瞻性陳述中描述的因素造成的結果。 Symbotic 向 SEC 提交的財務報告和監管文件中包含警告性聲明和風險因素，本次電話會議期間做出的任何前瞻性聲明均完全合格。

In addition, during this call, we will discuss certain financial measures that are not recognized under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, which the SEC refers to as non-GAAP measures. We believe these non-GAAP measures assist management in planning, forecasting and evaluating our business and financial performance, including allocating resources.

此外，在本次電話會議中，我們將討論美國公認會計準則不認可的某些財務指標，美國證券交易委員會將其稱為非 GAAP 指標。我們相信這些非公認會計原則措施有助於管理層規劃、預測和評估我們的業務和財務業績，包括分配資源。

Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most comparable reported GAAP measures are included in our financial press release, which is available in the Investor Relations section of our website and is on file with the SEC. These non-GAAP measures may not be comparable to measures used by other issuers.

這些非 GAAP 衡量標準與其最可比的公認會計準則衡量標準的對賬已包含在我們的財務新聞稿中，該新聞稿可在我們網站的投資者關係部分獲取，並已在 SEC 備案。這些非公認會計準則衡量標準可能無法與其他發行人使用的衡量標準相比較。

Today, we will provide guidance for the second quarter, including revenue and adjusted EBITDA. These are not -- we are not providing guidance for net loss today, which is the most comparable GAAP financial measure to adjusted EBITDA.

今天，我們將提供第二季度的指導，包括收入和調整後的 EBITDA。這些不是——我們今天不提供淨虧損指導，這是與調整後的 EBITDA 最具可比性的 GAAP 財務指標。

We're not able to provide reconciliations of adjusted EBITDA to GAAP financial measures because certain items required for such reconciliations are outside of our control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted, such as the provision for stock-based compensation.

我們無法提供調整後 EBITDA 與 GAAP 財務指標的調節表，因為此類調節所需的某些項目超出了我們的控制範圍和/或無法合理預測，例如基於股票的薪酬撥備。

On today's call, we are joined by Rick Cohen, Symbotic's Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Tom Ernst, Symbotic's Chief Financial Officer. These executives will discuss our first quarter 2023 results, our outlook, and then we'll follow up with Q&A.

Symbotic 創始人、董事長兼首席執行官 Rick Cohen 也參加了今天的電話會議。以及 Symbotic 首席財務官 Tom Ernst。這些高管將討論我們 2023 年第一季度的業績和前景，然後我們將進行問答。

So with that, Valerie -- oh, I'm sorry, Rick, go ahead.

那麼，瓦萊麗——哦，對不起，里克，繼續吧。

Thanks, Jeff. 2023 is off to a great start, and we are excited about our outlook. Again, our results reflect strong execution of our growth opportunity.

謝謝，傑夫。 2023 年是一個良好的開端，我們對我們的前景感到興奮。我們的業績再次反映出我們對增長機會的強有力執行。

In our first quarter, the Symbotic team delivered triple-digit revenue growth and improved both gross profit and adjusted operating margins. I thank our entire team for their hard work and excellent execution.

在第一季度，Symbotic 團隊實現了三位數的收入增長，並提高了毛利潤和調整後的營業利潤率。我感謝我們整個團隊的辛勤工作和出色的執行力。

Last quarter, we highlighted our plans to build on our existing base of outsourcing partners. During this quarter, we added additional Tier 1 suppliers to build capacity to meet our growing demand as well as to ensure supply chain and redundancy. These outsourcing partners now span our full deployment process for manufacturing of bots, cells and [lists] to construction and installation.

上季度，我們強調了在現有外包合作夥伴基礎上發展的計劃。在本季度，我們增加了更多的一級供應商，以建設產能以滿足我們不斷增長的需求，並確保供應鍊和冗餘。這些外包合作夥伴現在涵蓋了我們從機器人、單元和[列表]製造到施工和安裝的完整部署流程。

We're excited about our partners growing contributions as they help us accelerate delivery of systems while maintaining our extraordinary rate of growth. These partnerships will also help us to reduce system costs and streamline deployments and reduced deployment time creates the capacity to satisfy the high demand of our solutions.

我們對合作夥伴不斷增加的貢獻感到興奮，因為他們幫助我們加速系統交付，同時保持我們非凡的增長率。這些合作夥伴關係還將幫助我們降低系統成本並簡化部署，減少部署時間可以滿足我們解決方案的高需求。

In summary, our supply chain continues to improve, also moderating, and we continue to attract top talent. Demand for our solutions continues to grow, and our contracted backlog now stands at $12 billion.

總而言之，我們的供應鏈持續改善，也在不斷放緩，並且我們繼續吸引頂尖人才。對我們解決方案的需求持續增長，我們的合同積壓訂單目前已達到 120 億美元。

Now Tom will discuss our financial performance and outlook. Tom?

現在湯姆將討論我們的財務業績和前景。湯姆？

Thank you, Rick. Our first quarter revenue of $206 million grew 168% over the prior-year period. We initiated 6 new system deployments during the quarter and, as planned, advanced one system to fully-functional production operations. We now have 22 active system deployments with multiple customers, up from 17 systems last quarter and 9 systems in the first quarter of last year.

謝謝你，瑞克。我們第一季度的收入為 2.06 億美元，比去年同期增長 168%。我們在本季度啟動了 6 個新系統部署，並按計劃將一個系統推進到功能齊全的生產運營。目前，我們已為多個客戶部署了 22 個活躍系統，高於上季度的 17 個系統和去年第一季度的 9 個系統。

Our extraordinary revenue growth was driven by both progress on deployments already underway and the 6 deployments started during the quarter. We are gaining efficiency in our deployments by standardizing our systems, streamlining our deployment processes and realizing the benefits of outsourcing.

我們非凡的收入增長是由已在進行的部署的進展以及本季度開始的 6 個部署推動的。通過標準化我們的系統、簡化我們的部署流程並實現外包的好處，我們正在提高部署效率。

Our cash and equivalents, including marketable securities, grew $94 million sequentially to $448 million due to favorable working capital performance. Looking forward, we believe last quarter's balance of $353 million will be a low watermark. We believe we have more than adequate resources on hand to achieve our strong growth plans and remain very well capitalized to execute our strategy.

由於良好的營運資本表現，我們的現金和等價物（包括有價證券）連續增長 9400 萬美元，達到 4.48 億美元。展望未來，我們相信上季度 3.53 億美元的餘額將是一個低水位線。我們相信，我們手頭有足夠的資源來實現我們強勁的增長計劃，並保持良好的資本來執行我們的戰略。

Recurring revenue grew 25% sequentially as deployments have begun to move to production operations. We now have 8 systems operating at customer sites. In the near to midterm, we expect recurring revenue to be small relative to our rapidly growing systems revenue.

隨著部署開始轉向生產運營，經常性收入環比增長 25%。我們現在有 8 個系統在客戶現場運行。在近期到中期，我們預計經常性收入相對於我們快速增長的系統收入來說會很小。

Over time, as system completions waterfall, recurring revenue should grow to have a much higher gross margin than systems revenue as well as become an increasing share of our revenue mix to provide powerful operating leverage to our business.

隨著時間的推移，隨著系統完成量的下降，經常性收入應該增長到比系統收入更高的毛利率，並且在我們的收入組合中所佔的份額越來越大，從而為我們的業務提供強大的運營槓桿。

Our first quarter gross margin increased 230 basis points sequentially. These results still reflect significant costs associated with rapidly scaling our operations and the burden of elevated pass-through steel costs.

我們第一季度的毛利率環比增長了 230 個基點。這些結果仍然反映了與快速擴展我們的業務相關的巨大成本以及轉嫁鋼成本上升的負擔。

In the first quarter, operating expenses, excluding stock-based comp, declined sequentially, demonstrating the cresting of expenses that we had anticipated. Despite this, we still have ongoing redundant costs associated with ramping partners and ongoing investments in our innovation initiatives, such as SymBot and BreakPack.

第一季度，不包括股票成本的運營費用連續下降，表明費用達到了我們預期的頂峰。儘管如此，我們仍然存在與不斷增加的合作夥伴以及對 SymBot 和 BreakPack 等創新計劃的持續投資相關的持續冗餘成本。

Operating leverage improved as we achieved a record 7.9% adjusted EBITDA loss rate compared to 27.6% in the first quarter a year ago, driven by our revenue growth and moderating operating expenses.

在收入增長和運營支出放緩的推動下，調整後 EBITDA 損失率達到創紀錄的 7.9%，而去年第一季度為 27.6%，運營槓桿率有所改善。

Our backlog increased this quarter to $12 billion. Cost-adjusted pricing, the addition of UNFI as a customer and an additional non-Walmart existing customer deployments start contributed to the 8% sequential increase.

本季度我們的積壓訂單增加至 120 億美元。成本調整後的定價、UNFI 作為客戶的增加以及額外的非沃爾瑪現有客戶部署的開始推動了 8% 的環比增長。

Turning to our outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2023, we expect revenue of $205 million to $230 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of between $13 million and $17 million. This represents 126% revenue growth year-over-year at the midpoint of our revenue guidance range.

談到我們對 2023 財年第二季度的展望，我們預計收入為 2.05 億美元至 2.3 億美元，調整後的 EBITDA 損失為 1300 萬美元至 1700 萬美元。這意味著收入同比增長 126%，處於我們收入指導範圍的中點。

In closing, 2023 is off to a great start, and our team is energized. We are excited about the year ahead and our opportunity to transform the supply chain. We'll continue to scale our business and innovate rapidly to deliver against our $12 billion revenue backlog. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter to provide an update on our progress.

最後，2023 年有了一個良好的開端，我們的團隊充滿了活力。我們對未來的一年和供應鏈轉型的機會感到興奮。我們將繼續擴大業務規模并快速創新，以彌補 120 億美元的積壓收入。我們期待下季度再次與您交談，以提供我們的最新進展。

We now welcome your questions. Operator, will you please open the Q&A?

我們現在歡迎您提出問題。接線員，請打開問答好嗎？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Matt Summerville of D.A. Davidson.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Matt Summerville。戴維森。

A couple of questions. First, on gross margin and OpEx, how should we be thinking about those items kind of scaling from here? You mentioned OpEx kind of cresting last quarter, so things seemingly moving in the right direction with more efficiencies to be gained.

有幾個問題。首先，在毛利率和運營支出方面，我們應該如何考慮這些項目的擴展？您提到上個季度運營支出達到頂峰，因此事情似乎正在朝著正確的方向發展，並且可以提高效率。

And then maybe put a finer point on gross margin, how we should think about that rolling forward from here? And how much steel is still maybe diluting that margin? And then I have a follow-up.

然後也許可以對毛利率提出更具體的觀點，我們應該如何考慮從這裡開始的滾動？還有多少鋼鐵可能仍會稀釋這一利潤率？然後我有一個後續行動。

Yes. Thank you for the question, Matt. So first on the OpEx side, we reported an adjusted OpEx of $52 million. That was lower in both of the prior quarters as we had fewer third-party expenses. So I think a way to think about that is some of that is structural as we're shifting to outsourcing partners, and some of it is just the quarterly variability of our engineering projects.

是的。謝謝你的提問，馬特。首先在運營支出方面，我們報告調整後的運營支出為 5200 萬美元。由於我們的第三方費用較少，因此前兩個季度的數字都較低。因此，我認為考慮這一問題的一種方法是，當我們轉向外包合作夥伴時，其中一些是結構性的，而其中一些只是我們工程項目的季度變化。

Looking through to that, our headcount is up about 9% quarter-on-quarter. So you can see we're still investing and hiring heads as we're able to make a benefit of less dependency on third-party resources to grow and scale our business.

縱觀這一點，我們的員工人數環比增長了約 9%。因此，您可以看到我們仍在投資和招聘主管，因為我們能夠減少對第三方資源的依賴來發展和擴大我們的業務。

Perhaps shifting over to the gross margin side. Quarter-on-quarter system gross margin, which drives our overall gross margin, improved sequentially by 250 basis points. This really is an attenuation of some of the effects that we saw last quarter in terms of some of those scaling and project costs that have made their way into gross margin. We began to see some of those received.

也許會轉向毛利率方面。推動我們整體毛利率的季度系統毛利率環比提高了 250 個基點。這確實是我們上季度看到的一些影響的減弱，這些影響涉及到毛利率中的一些規模和項目成本。我們開始看到其中一些收到的信息。

And so generally, we expect that trend to continue as we look forward over the coming quarters, although quarterly progress on that can be stair-step. So I won't predict and give you guidance for exactly how we make progress against that.

因此，總的來說，我們預計這一趨勢將在未來幾個季度繼續下去，儘管每季度的進展可能是階梯式的。因此，我不會預測並向您提供我們如何在這方面取得進展的具體指導。

But the general trend over the coming quarters, you should expect us to see some of those effects of -- some of those costs that are in gross margin associated with scale in the business begin to attenuate, along with steel costs begin to flow through as less of a headwind.

但未來幾個季度的總體趨勢，你應該期望我們看到其中一些影響——與業務規模相關的毛利率中的一些成本開始減弱，同時鋼鐵成本開始隨著鋼鐵成本的增加而減少。更少的逆風。

A way to think about that steel as well, don't forget that we do lock in much of our steel pricing 12 months prior to the start of an installation. So if you look at the steel price indexes, the steel prices have really been lower for about 5 to 6 months.

考慮鋼材的一種方式是，不要忘記，我們確實在安裝開始前 12 個月鎖定了大部分鋼材價格。所以如果你看一下鋼材價格指數，鋼材價格確實已經下跌了大約5到6個月。

So we expect kind of the benefit of lower steel prices to wash and over the coming few quarters rather than right away. Does that answer the question, Matt?

因此，我們預計鋼材價格下跌帶來的好處將在未來幾個季度而不是立即消失。這能回答問題嗎，馬特？

That makes sense. Yes, that does. And then just as a follow-up, from here forward, what are the key incremental steps Symbotic needs to take, from an outsourcing standpoint, to further accelerate system implementations? And when do you think the company will reach an optimal sort of implementation rate?

這就說得通了。是的，確實如此。接下來，從這裡開始，從外包的角度來看，Symbotic 需要採取哪些關鍵的增量步驟來進一步加速系統實施？您認為公司何時會達到最佳實施率？

Yes. So we spent this last quarter a lot of face-to-face time with suppliers. So we're pretty much locked in our suppliers. We have a couple of very good suppliers that are going to be ramping up in the second and third quarter. So we're pretty well set with our outsourcing supplier mix.

是的。因此，上個季度我們花了很多時間與供應商面對面交流。所以我們幾乎鎖定了我們的供應商。我們有一些非常好的供應商，他們將在第二季度和第三季度增加產量。因此，我們的外包供應商組合已經非常完善。

And we're seeing -- as they learn to make the systems better and a little competition, we're seeing the pricing come down. We're also seeing efficiencies of rollout. And as we work with the suppliers and redesign small components of it, we're finding that the installs will happen faster. So I think the next 3 to 6 months, you should see a full benefit of the outsourcing of the suppliers.

我們看到，當他們學會讓系統變得更好並進行一點競爭時，我們看到價格下降。我們還看到了推出的效率。當我們與供應商合作並重新設計其小組件時，我們發現安裝速度會更快。所以我認為接下來的3到6個月，你應該會看到供應商外包的全部好處。

And I'll add to that, Matt, as we just think about the long term, we see this as a continuous opportunity for us to -- where the system can be engineered for faster deployments. Our partners are going to gain efficiency, we're going to gain speed with it.

馬特，我要補充一點，因為我們只考慮長期目標，所以我們認為這對我們來說是一個持續的機會，可以對系統進行設計以實現更快的部署。我們的合作夥伴將提高效率，我們也將隨之提高速度。

So we think that, in addition to Rick highlighting these 3 to -- next 3 to 6 months, are huge for us. There's gains that we can have over the coming years to continue to speed deployments and get more efficient.

因此，我們認為，除了 Rick 強調的這 3 個月之外，未來 3 到 6 個月對我們來說也意義重大。在未來幾年中，我們可以繼續加快部署並提高效率，從而獲得收益。

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Kaplowitz of Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的安德魯·卡普洛維茨（Andrew Kaplowitz）。

Can you give us a little more color into the revenue ramp that you're seeing? I'm sure you want to be conservative. But at the bottom of your revenue guidance for Q2, you're predicting flat sequential revenue despite your system deployments and Symbotic rapidly scaling its business.

您能給我們更多關於您所看到的收入增長的信息嗎？我確信你想保持保守。但在第二季度收入指引的底部，儘管您進行了系統部署並且 Symbotic 正在快速擴展其業務，但您預計連續收入將持平。

So is there something that could hold you back or are you just being conservative, given you never know supply chain constraints come back? Or is there any risk of customers slowing down deployments, given macro concerns?

那麼，是否有什麼因素可能會阻礙您，或者您只是保守，因為您永遠不知道供應鏈限制會再次出現？或者考慮到宏觀問題，客戶是否會放慢部署速度？

Yes. Thanks for the question, Andrew. So you're right. We're growing rapidly. Our number of systems under deployment, as you highlighted here, now at 22%. That's up 5% net of the one that went into full production from last quarter. That translates into 126% year-on-year revenue growth, which we think is quite rapid. So we're planning to deliver and scale against that rapid growth.

是的。謝謝你的提問，安德魯。所以你是對的。我們正在快速成長。正如您在此強調的那樣，我們正在部署的系統數量目前為 22%。與上季度全面投產的產品相比，淨值增長了 5%。這意味著收入同比增長 126%，我們認為這是相當快的。因此，我們計劃針對這種快速增長來交付和擴展。

I think something -- one of the things we talked about in our last earnings call was these first few systems -- first wave of the few systems we delivered did see somewhat of kind of a stacking of the key concentration of revenue, deliver those systems over the -- really the prior quarter, a little bit into Q3 as well.

我認為，我們在上次財報電話會議中討論的其中一件事就是這些最初的幾個系統，我們交付的少數係統的第一波確實看到了收入關鍵集中度的堆積，交付這些系統實際上是上一季度，還有一點進入第三季度。

As we begin to deliver more and more waves of systems, they're going to be more uniformly spaced, and we'll begin to see some of that quarterly variations and revenues smooth out a bit.

隨著我們開始交付越來越多的系統，它們的間隔將更加均勻，我們將開始看到一些季度變化和收入變得更加平滑。

But really, what you're seeing is a function of our sequential growth is more just to do with the concentration of the stacking of some of the smaller number of systems actually in the meat of their deployment.

但實際上，您所看到的是我們的連續增長的函數更多地與一些較少數量的系統的堆疊集中有關，這些系統實際上是在其部署的核心部分。

Got it. That's helpful. And then you mentioned backlog of $12 billion. Obviously, it continues to go up. I think you talked about [upgrading] than $11 billion last quarter. So is this just more addendums to sort of existing contracts that you have? Or do you continue to win work with new customers?

知道了。這很有幫助。然後你提到了 120 億美元的積壓。顯然，它還在繼續上漲。我認為您上個季度談到的[升級]超過 110 億美元。那麼這只是您現有合同的更多附錄嗎？或者您是否繼續贏得新客戶的合作？

Obviously, we know, eventually, revenue will begin to eat into that backlog, given it's so big. But how are you thinking about backlog at this point? Should it begin to go down now as revenue ramps up? Or still more new awards to be had?

顯然，我們知道，鑑於積壓量如此之大，收入最終將開始侵蝕積壓量。但此時您如何看待積壓問題？隨著收入的增加，它現在應該開始下降嗎？或者還有更多新獎項？

Yes. Thanks for the question, Andrew. So you're right, backlog did increase net of the revenue out in the quarter by about $900 million in the quarter. So that really reflects a couple of things. It reflects the new UNFI relationship that we announced on last quarter's earnings call that was signed during this quarter. It also reflects an additional existing customer, new deployment we started in the quarter.

是的。謝謝你的提問，安德魯。所以你是對的，本季度積壓的收入確實增加了約 9 億美元。這確實反映了一些事情。它反映了我們在上季度財報電話會議上宣布的新的 UNFI 關係，該關係是在本季度簽署的。它還反映了我們在本季度開始的額外現有客戶、新部署。

And then finally, it reflects cost-adjusted pricing for the existing backlog in the quarter that we expect that you'll see once a year when we start each calendar year. So a little bit different average cost per system in the backlog.

最後，它反映了本季度現有積壓訂單的成本調整定價，我們預計在每個日曆年開始時您每年都會看到一次。因此積壓中每個系統的平均成本略有不同。

How you should think about the backlog? Our strategy hasn't shifted. We're thrilled with the $12 billion backlog. Our goal is really not to drive backlog growth so much, but really to drive our customers to being [ragingly] happy and having -- and the scale against the opportunity we have.

您應該如何看待積壓？我們的策略沒有改變。我們對 120 億美元的積壓訂單感到非常興奮。我們的目標實際上並不是大幅推動積壓增長，而是真正讓我們的客戶感到[極度]高興並擁有——以及我們所擁有的機會的規模。

We're looking to add new customers more by the 1 or 2 per year rather than add to the backlog as our primary strategy here in the near term, given that we do have such a strong demand for our systems that we can control as the backlog as we want them.

我們希望每年增加 1 或 2 個新客戶，而不是增加積壓訂單，作為我們近期的主要策略，因為我們確實對我們的系統有如此強烈的需求，我們可以控制積壓如我們所願。

Our next question comes from the line of Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的馬克·德萊尼。

Rick, I think your decision to retake the CEO role on, as I understood it, was to streamline the touch points that your customers have and hopefully create some more efficiencies in that sort of relationships. Could you elaborate if that's materializing as you expected?

里克，我認為你決定重新擔任首席執行官一職，據我了解，是為了簡化客戶的接觸點，並希望在這種關係中創造更高的效率。您能否詳細說明一下這是否如您預期的那樣實現了？

Yes. It's -- I mean I've been the CEO for most of the time, except for really a short period of time. The interaction -- so yes, it's playing out the way I thought. Customers want to talk to me. They've been talking to me for a long time. I'm really the Chief Product Development Officer.

是的。我的意思是，除了很短的一段時間外，大部分時間我都擔任首席執行官。互動——是的，它正在按照我的想法進行。客戶想和我談談。他們已經和我談了很長時間了。我確實是首席產品開發官。

And so when I just talk to customers, one of the things they're asking is, because of my deep distribution background, is they think some of the products that they're thinking about are viable.

因此，當我與客戶交談時，他們問的一件事是，由於我深厚的分銷背景，他們認為他們正在考慮的一些產品是可行的。

And so it just makes the logical, the sales cycle, the proof-of-concept piece of selling these big pieces of equipment and then the follow-through logical. So it's playing out pretty much exactly the way I thought it would.

因此，它只是使邏輯、銷售週期、銷售這些大型設備的概念驗證部分以及後續的邏輯成為邏輯。所以事情的發展幾乎和我想像的一樣。

That's very helpful. And then my second question was around how to think about the cadence of systems going forward. And maybe help us better understand what's contemplated in the guidance, perhaps in terms of number of new installations that may be started and if you think you'll move any other systems into full completion this coming quarter baked into guidance.

這非常有幫助。然後我的第二個問題是如何思考系統未來的節奏。也許可以幫助我們更好地理解指南中設想的內容，也許是在可能啟動的新安裝數量方面，以及您是否認為您將在下個季度將任何其他系統完全完成納入指南中。

Yes. Thanks for the question, Mark. So we do anticipate adding more systems each quarter. It's a little bit less predictable on a given quarterly basis exactly how many we'll add. But you should expect that as you look forward over coming quarters, we continue to add systems and potentially in growing numbers as we look forward.

是的。謝謝你的提問，馬克。因此，我們預計每個季度都會添加更多系統。在給定的季度基礎上，我們要添加的具體數量有點難以預測。但您應該預料到，當您展望未來幾個季度時，我們將繼續添加系統，並且數量可能會不斷增加。

Those systems that get added in the quarter don't add as much revenue as the systems that have already been on the books for a couple or a few quarters. I think you know that our value that we deliver and thus the revenue that we carry from those systems is recognized and reported on a percentage completion basis, but it's not linear.

那些在本季度添加的系統所增加的收入不如已經在賬簿上存在幾個或幾個季度的系統那麼多。我想您知道我們提供的價值以及我們從這些系統中獲得的收入是按完成百分比進行確認和報告的，但它不是線性的。

The revenue actually has a bit of a concentration to the middle part of the -- the middle of the second half part of the contract when we're doing the meat of the installation and testing of the system. So those early systems do benefit quarterly revenue production, but not as strong as the systems that are well into the meat of installation.

當我們進行系統的安裝和測試時，收入實際上有點集中在合同後半部分的中間部分。因此，這些早期系統確實有利於季度收入生產，但不如已深入安裝的系統那麼強大。

Our next question comes from the line of Nicole DeBlase.

我們的下一個問題來自 Nicole DeBlase。

Maybe just on the outsourcing initiative. It sounds like from the opening remarks that you guys have made really good progress on that. So if we were to talk about it in baseball terms, I guess, what inning are you in with all of your projects on outsourcing?

也許只是在外包計劃上。從開場白來看，你們在這方面取得了很大的進展。因此，如果我們用棒球術語來談論它，我想，您所有的外包項目都處於第幾局？

Yes. So in baseball terms, I would say, we have -- I would say we're probably in the fifth, sixth inning on outsourcing. We will -- we -- the partners are doing a good job, and -- but we haven't finished the process yet. So I think we're bringing on some new -- we haven't announced them yet. We've announced some of it internally.

是的。因此，就棒球而言，我想說，我們可能處於外包的第五、第六局。我們會——我們——合作夥伴做得很好，而且——但我們還沒有完成這個過程。所以我認為我們正在帶來一些新的東西——我們還沒有宣布它們。我們已經在內部宣布了其中一些內容。

We're bringing on some new, very experienced manufacturing partners to help us work the outsourcing part of the business. So we feel really good about it, where the game plan is probably gone a little bit better than we thought, which is a nice thing to say.

我們正在引進一些新的、經驗豐富的製造合作夥伴來幫助我們開展業務的外包部分。所以我們對此感覺非常好，遊戲計劃可能比我們想像的要好一些，這是一件好事。

And no showstoppers. The world out there of our particular partners is interested in warehouse automation and in making EVs. And we right now have a lot of interest because of our big backlog and warehouse automation.

而且沒有什麼精彩的。我們的特定合作夥伴對倉庫自動化和電動汽車製造感興趣。由於我們大量的積壓和倉庫自動化，我們現在引起了很大的興趣。

So we're very happy with the attention we're getting from suppliers, quite frankly, all over the world. So that was not the case a year ago. So I guess, fifth inning, sixth inning, maybe even seventh inning. We're pretty happy with where we are.

因此，坦率地說，我們對全世界供應商的關注感到非常高興。所以一年前情況並非如此。所以我猜，第五局，第六局，甚至第七局。我們對自己所處的位置非常滿意。

Got it. Rick, that's helpful. And then one more question for you guys is just -- I know you talked about OpEx cresting. Is that also the case for the subcomponent of R&D.? Is that also expected to crest, just trying to think about all of the innovation initiatives that you guys also have underway?

知道了。瑞克，這很有幫助。然後還有一個問題要問你們——我知道你們談到了運營支出頂峰。 R&D 的子項目也是如此嗎？想想你們也在進行的所有創新舉措，這是否也有望達到頂峰？

Thanks for the question, Nicole. So I would expect modest growth in our OpEx, particularly near term. Our OpEx we reported in this quarter was relatively light in terms of third-party expenses and kind of special projects.

謝謝你的提問，妮可。因此，我預計我們的運營支出將適度增長，尤其是在短期內。我們本季度報告的運營支出在第三方費用和特殊項目類型方面相對較少。

But if you take the last 3 quarters overall, that general comment about crested is generally right maybe with moderate growth, looking forward. In terms specifically with R&D, yes, it applies to R&D as well.

但如果你從過去三個季度的整體情況來看，關于冠毛的一般評論總體上是正確的，也許會適度增長，展望未來。就研發而言，是的，它也適用於研發。

Our next question comes from the line of James Ricchiuti of Needham & Company.

我們的下一個問題來自 Needham & Company 的 James Ricchiuti。

I think you referenced an order from an existing customer. Was this one of your legacy customers?

我認為您引用了現有客戶的訂單。這是您的老客戶之一嗎？

Yes. Thanks for the question, James. It was. And in fact, we disclosed in our proxy filing that, that customer is C&S Wholesale Grocers.

是的。謝謝你的提問，詹姆斯。它是。事實上，我們在代理文件中披露，該客戶是 C&S Wholesale Grocers。

Got it. And I'm wondering, as you talk about the supply chain and the contract manufacturing capability that you're bringing on and you expect to see ramp, can you talk about the interest you're getting from new customers and your ability, your capacity to maybe take on newer business?

知道了。我想知道，當您談論您正在引入的供應鍊和合同製造能力並且您期望看到增長時，您能否談談您從新客戶那裡獲得的興趣以及您的能力，您的能力或許可以開展新業務？

And specifically, I'm wondering, most of your business has been in the U.S., North America. And is there the potential over the next couple of quarters for you to potentially take on some business in Europe, for instance?

具體來說，我想知道，你們的大部分業務都在美國、北美。例如，在接下來的幾個季度中，您是否有可能在歐洲開展一些業務？

Yes. We -- it's a fairly long sales cycle, but we've had interest from Mexico. We've had interest from Europe. So we -- and the numbers are pretty promising. I made a trip to Japan to visit SoftBank. That's a very promising -- these high-cost labor markets are interesting.

是的。我們——這是一個相當長的銷售週期，但墨西哥對我們感興趣。歐洲對我們感興趣。所以我們——而且這些數字非常有希望。我去日本參觀了軟銀。這是一個非常有前途的——這些高成本的勞動力市場很有趣。

So nothing to announce, nothing probably to announce for a while, but a lot of interest. And what we're doing with the supply chain partners, actually, some of the partners are in Europe, places like Italy, Germany.

所以沒有什麼可宣布的，可能暫時沒有什麼可宣布的，但有很多興趣。我們正在與供應鏈合作夥伴一起做的事情，實際上，一些合作夥伴在歐洲，比如意大利、德國。

And so they're actually out there kind of help them sell for us, legitimizing our product. We do have a number of international customers coming to visit in the next 3 to 6 months to go visit sites.

所以他們實際上是在幫助我們銷售，使我們的產品合法化。我們確實有許多國際客戶在未來 3 到 6 個月內前來參觀網站。

And one of the things that we're doing with the outsourcing partners is as we ramp them up, it allows us to complete sites faster. And if we can complete sites faster, we can do more sites. And also, one of the things that we're looking at is outsourcing partners, in particular from Europe, that would be good partners and doing European installs.

我們與外包合作夥伴一起做的事情之一是，當我們加大力度時，它使我們能夠更快地完成網站。如果我們能夠更快地完成網站，我們就可以製作更多網站。此外，我們正在考慮的事情之一是外包合作夥伴，特別是來自歐洲的外包合作夥伴，這將是很好的合作夥伴並進行歐洲安裝。

I'll just reiterate, James, that while we're working to create that additional capacity, our operating strategy is to add new customers slowly, kind of 1 to 2 per year.

詹姆斯，我只是重申一下，雖然我們正在努力創造額外的容量，但我們的運營策略是緩慢地增加新客戶，大約每年 1 到 2 個。

Okay. And final question for me. When would you anticipate completing the next fully-functional system from your backlog, if you can say?

好的。對我來說最後一個問題。如果您可以說的話，您預計何時完成待辦事項中的下一個功能齊全的系統？

Sure. Thanks for the question, James. It's hard to predict on a given quarterly basis. But as we look forward over the coming quarters, we do anticipate that you'll begin to see us get into a pattern of moving systems from deployment to fully-functionally complete -- hit the customer with increasing regularity.

當然。謝謝你的提問，詹姆斯。很難根據給定的季度進行預測。但當我們展望未來幾個季度時，我們確實預計您將開始看到我們進入一種將系統從部署轉移到功能齊全的模式 - 越來越頻繁地吸引客戶。

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Latimore of Northland Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 Northland Capital Markets 的 Michael Latimore。

Okay. Yes. Great results here. Just in terms of the deployment time frames, what are you seeing now? How long do you anticipate deployments to take, given some of the added outsourcing capacity here?

好的。是的。這裡的結果很好。就部署時間框架而言，您現在看到了什麼？考慮到這裡增加的一些外包能力，您預計部署需要多長時間？

Yes. Thanks for the question, Michael. So we continue to make progress on this front. We are definitely beginning to feel the benefits of having done it many times now, along with beginning to get support from our outsourcing partners that are helping this trend in the right direction.

是的。謝謝你的提問，邁克爾。因此，我們將繼續在這方面取得進展。我們肯定已經開始感受到多次這樣做的好處，並且開始獲得外包合作夥伴的支持，這些合作夥伴正在幫助這一趨勢朝著正確的方向發展。

And as you would expect, Michael, our first wave of systems take longer than what we expect that those next couple of waves to take, particularly in the light of having an extended supply chain where we got out in the front and made sure that we started those systems early with an extended supply chain.

正如你所期望的，邁克爾，我們的第一波系統比我們預期的接下來的幾波系統需要更長的時間，特別是考慮到我們有一個擴展的供應鏈，我們走在前面並確保我們儘早啟動這些系統並擴大供應鏈。

So we are making progress. I think we're generally on track with our plans and where we thought it would be a year ago. And to the points of Rick's comments just a minute or 2 ago, working with these outsourcing partners in the next few months really help us unlock the ability to move faster here over just the coming 4, 5, 6 quarters.

所以我們正在取得進展。我認為我們的計劃總體上符合我們一年前的預期。正如 Rick 一兩分鐘前評論的那樣，在接下來的幾個月中與這些外包合作夥伴的合作確實有助於我們在未來 4、5、6 個季度中更快地發展。

Got it. Right. And then as you think about backlog addition opportunities, would they be bigger in terms of new customers? Or would it be kind of expansions of current customers? So as you think you grow backlog longer term, is there one that clearly is a bigger contributor there?

知道了。正確的。然後，當您考慮積壓訂單增加機會時，它們在新客戶方面會更大嗎？或者這會是現有客戶的擴張嗎？因此，當您認為積壓訂單會長期增長時，是否有一個明顯的貢獻者更大？

I think you'll see a mix of both. Again, our strategy here is less to grow backlog and more to scale our operations against the existing backlog. But we do anticipate that over the coming handful of quarters, you'll see us add both new customers and new projects with existing customers.

我想你會看到兩者的混合。同樣，我們的策略不是增加積壓，而是根據現有積壓擴大我們的運營規模。但我們確實預計，在接下來的幾個季度中，您將看到我們增加新客戶以及現有客戶的新項目。

Got it. And just last one, gross margin. I think you gave some color, I just want to be clear. So would -- is it fair to say gross margin in the first quarter would be the trough for the year or low point for the year? How should we think about gross margin?

知道了。最後一項是毛利率。我認為你給出了一些顏色，我只是想澄清一下。那麼，可以公平地說第一季度的毛利率將是今年的低谷或今年的最低點嗎？我們應該如何看待毛利率？

Yes. I think we said pretty clearly, last quarter, we expected, when we reported a 15% gross margin, that, that was a low watermark. So we emphatically feel that that's still very much a low watermark. Progress against the 18.7%, we reported this quarter, we expect to see that happen, but the progress can be stair-step. So we'll talk about the progress as we make at each quarter.

是的。我認為我們在上個季度非常明確地表示，當我們報告 15% 的毛利率時，我們預計這是一個低水位線。所以我們強烈認為這仍然是一個很低的水位線。我們本季度報告的 18.7% 取得了進展，我們預計會看到這種情況發生，但進展可能是階梯式的。因此，我們將討論每個季度取得的進展。

Our next question comes from the line of Chris Snyder of UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的克里斯·斯奈德。

I understand the outsourcing push is helping to accelerate the rate of system deployments. But is there any negative offset on the gross margin line? Because I believe in the past, the company has spoken to -- or talked to a high 20% gross margin target versus kind of high teens today within systems. Is that target still achievable with a higher level of outsourcing?

據我了解，外包的推動有助於加快系統部署的速度。但毛利率線上是否存在負抵消呢？因為我相信在過去，該公司已經談過——或者談過 20% 的高毛利率目標，而今天的系統內毛利率目標只有十幾歲。通過更高水平的外包，這個目標仍然可以實現嗎？

Yes. Thanks for the question, Chris. In fact, we think that our gross margins are higher long term under our outsourcing initiative. Now we did talk last quarter about the aggressive ramp to bring on some of these outsourcing partners, was definitely coming along with some increased short-term expenses to ramp these partners.

是的。謝謝你的提問，克里斯。事實上，我們認為，在我們的外包計劃下，我們的毛利率長期會更高。現在，我們上個季度確實談到了積極增加一些外包合作夥伴的數量，這肯定會伴隨著一些增加的短期費用來增加這些合作夥伴的數量。

As you can imagine, we have redundant resources, right, as we're ramping partners and redundant supply chains and kind of a whole host of costs that not only flow through COGS, but also flow through OpEx.

正如你可以想像的那樣，我們擁有冗餘的資源，對吧，因為我們正在擴大合作夥伴和冗餘的供應鏈，以及大量的成本，這些成本不僅流經銷貨成本，還流經運營支出。

So we are still seeing some of those transitory costs associated with the outsourcing program that is a negative near-term impact to gross margin.

因此，我們仍然看到一些與外包計劃相關的暫時性成本，這對毛利率產生了短期負面影響。

But we think that, that very quickly flips to a positive and over the long term leads to not only higher gross margins but just the ability to deliver these systems with less risk and the ability to do many, many more systems concurrently than we could do on our own.

但我們認為，這很快就會轉變為積極的，從長遠來看，不僅會帶來更高的毛利率，而且能夠以更低的風險交付這些系統，並且能夠同時運行比我們更多的系統靠我們自己。

If I could just maybe follow up quickly on that. If I look from fiscal Q1 to fiscal Q2, the company is guiding revenue up mid-single digit, high single-digit percent at the midpoint, but a roughly unchanged EBITDA loss. Is that just due to the ramping of the outsource partners? And is that like effective margin down on the gross margin side or the OpEx side?

如果我能快速跟進的話就好了。如果我從第一財季到第二財季來看，該公司的收入將增長到中個位數，中點百分比達到高個位數，但 EBITDA 損失大致不變。這僅僅是因為外包合作夥伴的增多嗎？這是否類似於毛利率方面或運營支出方面的有效利潤率下降？

I think one of my comments I made in the prepared remarks was that we saw a relatively low amount of third-party special projects in fiscal Q1. So those costs are -- can be variable, a little bit less easy to predict on kind of a quarter in/quarter out basis.

我認為我在準備好的發言中發表的評論之一是，我們在第一財季看到的第三方特殊項目數量相對較少。因此，這些成本可能是可變的，在四分之一進/四分之一出的基礎上不太容易預測。

I think the implicit of my Q2 guidance is a little bit more of an average type of quarter in terms of third party and onetime costs relative to what we expect looking forward for the year. Does that help?

我認為我的第二季度指導隱含的含義是，相對於我們對今年的預期，就第三方成本和一次性成本而言，該季度的平均水平更高一些。這有幫助嗎？

Absolutely. If I could just follow up on something maybe more thematic. If you guys look at the backlog of projects or you're engaging with customers, is it more on the brownfield side, essentially upgrading or modernizing an existing facility? Or is it more greenfield, just kind of new warehouse capacity coming to the market?

絕對地。如果我能跟進一些可能更有主題的事情。如果你們查看項目積壓或與客戶互動，是否更多的是棕地方面，本質上是對現有設施進行升級或現代化？或者是更多的綠地，只是一種新的倉庫容量進入市場？

Yes. Our existing backlog, Chris, is heavily concentrated to retrofits to brownfield. That being said, as we think about the market over the long term, we see a very, very large market opportunity with greenfield as well.

是的。克里斯，我們現有的積壓工作主要集中在對棕地的改造上。話雖這麼說，當我們從長遠考慮市場時，我們也看到了綠地的非常非常大的市場機會。

I think as you know, one of our key -- one of the key benefits that we have as a business is there is no other end-to-end automation technology that can really work effectively and efficiently in a brownfield environment.

我認為如您所知，我們作為一家企業所擁有的關鍵優勢之一是，沒有其他端到端自動化技術可以真正在棕地環境中有效且高效地工作。

But shifting to the greenfield market, we're incredibly more economically efficient. We just bring a much, much stronger ROI versus legacy generation end-to-end automation systems.

但轉向綠地市場後，我們的經濟效率變得令人難以置信。與傳統的端到端自動化系統相比，我們帶來了更高的投資回報率。

So we do anticipate that you'll hear us over the coming years talk more and more about greenfield opportunities as well. Today, backlog is highly brownfield.

因此，我們確實預計您在未來幾年中也會聽到我們越來越多地談論綠地機會。如今，積壓已成為大量棕地。

Our next question comes from the line of Rob Mason of Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自貝爾德 (Baird) 的羅布·梅森 (Rob Mason)。

I just had a quick question, Tom. I think you mentioned that you expect cash to be at the low watermark. Obviously, you'll build -- inferring you'll build cash through the year. Just was curious if you could speak to how the cash flow profile should play out this year.

我只是有一個簡單的問題，湯姆。我想你提到過你預計現金將處於低水位線。顯然，你會積累——推斷你會在這一年裡積累現金。只是很好奇您是否能談談今年的現金流狀況應如何發揮。

I'm just curious how lumpy the payments from your customers could be on a quarter-to-quarter basis. Just how we should think about free cash flow generation through the year or cash generation through the year?

我只是很好奇您的客戶按季度支付的款項會有多不穩定。我們應該如何考慮全年自由現金流生成或全年現金生成？

And then secondarily, with the push on outsourcing that you've had, has there been any change in how you view CapEx or the capital intensity from maybe the plan when you first came public?

其次，隨著您對外包的推動，您對資本支出或資本密集度的看法與您首次上市時的計劃相比是否有任何變化？

Yes. Thanks for the question, Rob. So you are correct, our cash flow from the customer payment side is actually quite a bit lumpy. We tend to have large milestone payments from our customers that are far fewer, therefore lumpier than our vendor payments, which are much smoother, as well as our revenue is quite a bit smoother.

是的。謝謝你的提問，羅布。所以你是對的，我們來自客戶付款方面的現金流實際上是相當不穩定的。我們往往會從客戶那裡收到大額里程碑付款，這些付款要少得多，因此比我們的供應商付款更不穩定，供應商付款要順暢得多，而且我們的收入也更加順暢。

So the quarterly performance on the cash, you definitely could potentially see up and down sequential type of quarters. That being said, we feel confident enough to say that our starting cash position, which was of $353 million to start Q1, is our low watermark for the year.

因此，從現金的季度表現來看，您肯定可能會看到連續季度的上下波動。話雖如此，我們有足夠的信心說，我們第一季度開始時的初始現金頭寸為 3.53 億美元，是我們今年的最低水平。

Shifting to your CapEx question. we anticipate that our CapEx will be relatively light. Our operating plans for this year, our CapEx is essentially associated with office equipment and a little bit of engineering test tools.

轉向您的資本支出問題。我們預計我們的資本支出將相對較少。我們今年的運營計劃，我們的資本支出基本上與辦公設備和一些工程測試工具相關。

That being said, as we think about kind of the mid, long term, there's definitely the potential that we could we could have projects where we do use more CapEx. But in the near term, we expect to be pretty CapEx light.

話雖如此，當我們考慮中長期時，我們絕對有可能擁有使用更多資本支出的項目。但在短期內，我們預計資本支出將相當輕。

Do the contracts for newer customers, maybe like the ones you just brought, the one that you just brought on, does the cash flow -- the upfront cash flow, upfront payments, does that continue with new contracts as well?

為新客戶簽訂的合同，也許就像你剛剛帶來的合同一樣，你剛剛帶來的合同，現金流量——預付現金流量、預付款，新合同也會繼續嗎？

Yes, Rob, thank you. We don't like to speak to specific new customers. But if I generalize across our near-term pipeline, in general, yes, we anticipate that we have a strong working capital positive relationship across the life cycle of our projects with our customers.

是的，羅布，謝謝你。我們不喜歡與特定的新客戶交談。但如果我概括一下我們的近期管道，一般來說，是的，我們預計我們與客戶在項目的整個生命週期中擁有強大的營運資本積極關係。

That doesn't mean in the future that we won't support a customer that wants to pay more perhaps and have a more even or even slightly negative cash flow. So we'll reserve that opportunity for later. But for now, our business has [constructed] with strong positive working capital.

這並不意味著將來我們不會支持那些想要支付更多費用並擁有更均勻甚至輕微負現金流的客戶。所以我們會保留這個機會稍後再講。但就目前而言，我們的業務[建設]擁有強勁的正營運資本。

Our next question comes from the line of Joe Giordano of Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 Cowen 的 Joe Giordano。

So Tom, when I think about this quarter versus last quarter and your actual results versus what you guided, like can you maybe contrast how you formulated the guides?

湯姆，當我考慮本季度與上季度以及您的實際結果與您的指導結果時，您能否對比一下您制定指南的方式？

And last quarter, obviously, it was like a substantial massive beat over the top end. This is still very strong over the top end, but the magnitude is very different. So like how -- when you formulated those initial estimates versus what came out, like talk us through how those are different.

顯然，上個季度，這就像對高端的巨大打擊。這仍然非常強於高端，但幅度卻有很大不同。因此，就像當您制定這些初步估計與最終結果時，請告訴我們它們有何不同。

Yes. Maybe just one observation to give you a little context as to how we think about it. We're beginning to benefit from having more systems add up. Therefore, the variability and volatility and what we predict is lessening, right, so less variability. We're able to get a little bit tighter range.

是的。也許只是一個觀察結果，可以讓您了解我們如何看待它。我們開始從更多系統的增加中受益。因此，變異性和波動性以及我們的預測正在減少，對吧，因此變異性較小。我們能夠把範圍縮小一點。

I think you can see that implicit in the guidance, still is -- our guidance ranges are narrowing a little bit as times move forward. So thinking back to Q3 and Q4, where you saw some pretty significant top line beats, I'll point back to the words we used at the time.

我認為您可以看到指導中隱含的內容仍然是——隨著時間的推移，我們的指導範圍正在稍微縮小。因此，回想一下第三季度和第四季度，您在其中看到了一些非常重要的頂線節拍，我將回顧一下我們當時使用的詞語。

As we're compressing schedules and we're kind of hitting key milestones a little bit more rapidly, that led to some pretty strong outperformance. Well, now we're getting a little bit more spread across these systems. It's just a bit more predictable.

隨著我們壓縮日程，並且更快地實現關鍵里程碑，這導致了一些相當強勁的表現。好吧，現在我們在這些系統中的分佈更加廣泛了。只是更可預測一些。

Yes, that makes sense. As you guys have been adding at an accelerating rate here, you added 3 a couple of quarters ago, then 4 and then 5 and 6. Like is there like a target that you're trying to get up to? Is it 10? Like how many can you guys theoretically even put into production in a quarter? And how many do you even like want to?

是的，這是有道理的。你們在這裡加速添加，幾個季度前添加了 3 個，然後是 4 個，然後是 5 個和 6 個。您是否有一個想要達到的目標？是10嗎？理論上你們一個季度能投產多少個？有多少人是你願意的？

Right. So we're not looking to add an additional system each quarter, if that makes sense. But our goal is to enable the right ecosystem of outsourcing partners that manufacture everything we do, right?

正確的。因此，如果有意義的話，我們不打算每個季度添加一個額外的系統。但我們的目標是建立正確的外包合作夥伴生態系統來製造我們所做的一切，對嗎？

SymBots, cells, partners that install and run the projects for construction and installation, and then to be a fantastic manufacturer and designer of these systems that enable those partners to have this business scale so that we can do multiples of what we're doing today.

SymBot、細胞、安裝和運行施工和安裝項目的合作夥伴，然後成為這些系統的出色製造商和設計者，使這些合作夥伴能夠擁有這樣的業務規模，以便我們可以做我們今天正在做的事情的倍數。

Our focus is on scaling this business to really address the massive TAM that exists. So I won't predict how many that gets to, but we do believe it's many multiples of what we're doing today.

我們的重點是擴展這項業務，以真正解決現有的大量 TAM。所以我不會預測會有多少，但我們確實相信這是我們今天所做的很多倍。

And then maybe last. Rick, when I speak to clients after having the initial discussion about the technology itself and the markets you serve, it always comes back to the share structure and liquidity. And just curious for your comments on how you see that now and where you'd ideally like to see that potentially in the future, if it's different than it is today.

然後也許是最後。里克，當我在對技術本身和您所服務的市場進行初步討論後與客戶交談時，總是回到股權結構和流動性。只是好奇您對現在如何看待這一點以及您希望未來在哪裡看到這一點（如果它與今天有所不同）的評論。

What's the question, the share structure?

請問一下，股權結構是什麼？

Like liquidity is always -- the liquidity of the shares is always like the first question I get asked from clients. I'm just curious if you have any comments on where that is now. And is it optimal? Is it how -- do you plan on -- are there things you can do to address that?

就像流動性一樣——股票的流動性總是客戶問我的第一個問題。我只是好奇你對現在的情況有何評論。這是最優的嗎？您打算如何解決這個問題？

Yes. No, I think it's fine where it is today. It's not optimal. I think, at some point -- the reason I said it's fine where it is today because we are just ramping. As we think, to respond -- to reflect to what Tom said, if we're going to grow at multiple times our sales and do multiple applications, we probably are going to want more shares out there.

是的。不，我認為今天的情況很好。這不是最佳的。我認為，在某些時候——我之所以說今天的情況很好，是因為我們只是在進步。正如我們所想，為了回應——反映湯姆所說的，如果我們要以多倍的銷售額增長並進行多種應用，我們可能會想要更多的股票。

And so we don't have to do that. We're generating -- we're in a very strong cash position, and our contracts are structured to do that. But it is something that I think about.

所以我們不必這樣做。我們正在創造——我們擁有非常強大的現金狀況，我們的合同就是為了做到這一點而設計的。但這是我正在思考的事情。

So I'm not hung up on owning between me and SoftBank and Walmart having just 3 people on such a large percentage of the shares. We'd like, when the time is right, to have large investors own more of the shares, and we think we will have very good uses with that liquidity.

因此，我並不執著於在我、軟銀和沃爾瑪之間擁有隻有 3 個人持有如此大比例的股份。我們希望，在適當的時候，讓大投資者擁有更多的股票，我們認為我們將很好地利用這種流動性。

One thing that we have seen a little bit of a benefit from, Joe, recently that you may have seen is we have seen lockup triggers be released. So we now have 22% of the 555 million shares are now unlocked.

喬，最近您可能已經看到，我們看到了一點好處，那就是我們看到鎖定觸發器被釋放。所以我們現在 5.55 億股中的 22% 已經解鎖。

To Rick's point, a significant portion of that is held by affiliated partners of our SoftBank and Walmart. But we are beginning to see the benefit of increased employee shares and all those shares being unlocked as well that might begin to alleviate a relatively less liquid stock out there.

在里克看來，其中很大一部分是由我們的軟銀和沃爾瑪的附屬合作夥伴持有的。但我們開始看到增加員工持股以及所有這些股票被解鎖的好處，這可能會開始緩解流動性相對較差的股票。

Our next question comes from the line of Derek Soderberg of Cantor.

我們的下一個問題來自 Cantor 的德里克·索德伯格 (Derek Soderberg)。

I wanted to start with software revenue. Tom, I guess I would have expected that software license revenue would have been a bit higher. Can you just help me understand how many of the 8 live production modules are generating software license revenue today? And is that software fee sort of in the mid-single digits percentage annually? Is that correct?

我想從軟件收入開始。湯姆，我想我預計軟件許可收入會更高一些。您能否幫我了解一下，8 個現場製作模塊中有多少個正在產生軟件許可收入？每年的軟件費用是否在個位數百分比左右？那是對的嗎？

Yes. Thank you for the question, Derek. So we have 8 systems that are up and running and in fully-functional production mode, and all of those are receiving software and operations revenue. Now don't forget that 6 of those were pre -- or generally available launch of new product.

是的。謝謝你的提問，德里克。因此，我們有 8 個系統已啟動並正在運行，並且處於功能齊全的生產模式，所有這些系統都獲得軟件和運營收入。現在不要忘記其中 6 個是新產品發布前或正式發布的。

So those 6 generational technologies were sold effectively as prototypes, proof of concepts and carry generally not only less software revenue than our go-forward business model but much less profitable software revenue.

因此，這 6 代技術作為原型、概念驗證進行了有效銷售，並且通常帶來的軟件收入不僅比我們前進的商業模式少，而且軟件收入的利潤也少得多。

The other thing to remember, too, is that these 2 systems that have come live since, one of them was late in the last quarter, the other one was late in the quarter prior to that, so those waterfall streams are just starting to trickle in.

另一件要記住的事情是，這兩個系統從那時起就已經投入使用，其中一個是在上個季度末啟動的，另一個是在上個季度末啟動的，所以那些瀑布流才剛剛開始流淌在。

You should expect to see it build from here, but it will build slowly. And I think importantly as well, while we're growing our systems revenue rapidly, continue to be -- continue to represent a small portion of our overall revenue.

您應該期望看到它從這裡構建，但它會緩慢構建。我認為同樣重要的是，雖然我們的系統收入快速增長，但仍然只占我們總收入的一小部分。

So operations revenue and software revenue taken together for those systems in our backlog, the $12 billion backlog, represent a mid-single-digit percentage of revenue, not individually each component, but taken together.

因此，我們積壓中的這些系統的運營收入和軟件收入加在一起，即 120 億美元的積壓，代表了收入的中個位數百分比，不是單獨每個組件，而是加在一起。

Got it. That's very helpful. And then my follow-up is on the backlog. Curious if part of the backlog growth with existing customers included BreakPack. I'm just curious if that's the case.

知道了。這非常有幫助。然後我的後續工作是積壓工作。很好奇現有客戶的積壓訂單增長是否包括 BreakPack。我只是好奇是否是這樣。

And then within the $12 billion backlog, are there any agreements in there for non-ambient food or cold storage applications? Or is it all ambient food and generalized merchandise?

那麼，在 120 億美元的積壓訂單中，是否有任何針對非常溫食品或冷藏應用的協議？或者都是環境食品和普通商品？

Yes. Thanks, Derek. So no, you should read the backlog increase besides the 2 new systems, the UNFI system and the C&S system I referred to. That's -- the bulk of that is associated with cost-adjusted pricing across the existing backlog rather than a change in the mix of the systems.

是的。謝謝，德里克。所以不，除了我提到的 UNFI 系統和 C&S 系統這兩個新系統之外，您還應該閱讀積壓的增加情況。也就是說，其中大部分與現有積壓的成本調整定價有關，而不是系統組合的變化。

Got it. And then within the backlog, are there applications in cold storage in there?

知道了。那麼在積壓的訂單中，是否有冷庫中的應用程序？

So we haven't addressed that, and that's something that might be hard to address as we look forward. Our customers' strategies are often something they want to keep to themselves. So no, we haven't addressed the mix of the specific technologies in our backlog.

所以我們還沒有解決這個問題，而這可能是我們未來很難解決的問題。我們客戶的策略通常是他們想要保密的。所以不，我們還沒有解決待辦事項中特定技術的混合問題。

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Jeff Evanson for any closing remarks.

我目前沒有提出任何進一步的問題。我想將電話轉回傑夫·埃文森（Jeff Evanson）以供結束髮言。

Thank you, Valerie. And thank you, everyone, for joining our call tonight. We appreciate your interest in Symbotic, and we look forward to seeing you at conferences, on our warehouse tours or virtually when we talk over the next quarter. Have a great night. Bye-bye.

謝謝你，瓦萊麗。感謝大家今晚加入我們的電話會議。我們感謝您對 Symbotic 的興趣，我們期待在會議、參觀我們的倉庫或在我們下一季度的虛擬討論中見到您。祝你度過一個愉快的夜晚。再見。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.

謝謝。女士們、先生們，今天的會議到此結束。感謝大家的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。祝你有美好的一天。