西斯柯 (SYY) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

(Operator Instructions) Welcome to Sysco's Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Conference Call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. We will begin with opening remarks and introductions. I would now like to turn the call over to Kevin Kim, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

（操作員說明）歡迎參加 Sysco 2024 財年第二季電話會議。提醒一下，今天的通話正在錄音。我們將從開場白和介紹開始。我現在想將電話轉給投資者關係副總裁 Kevin Kim。請繼續。

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Sysco's Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Call. On today's call, we have Kevin Hourican, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Kenny Cheung, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, please note that statements made during this presentation that state the company's or management's intentions, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, and actual results could differ in a material manner.

大家早安，歡迎參加 Sysco 2024 財年第二季財報電話會議。出席今天的電話會議的有我們的總裁兼執行長 Kevin Hourican；以及我們的財務長張肯尼（Kenny Cheung）。在我們開始之前，請注意，本簡報中陳述公司或管理層對未來的意圖、信念、期望或預測的陳述屬於《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述，實際結果可能與以下情情況有所不同：一種物質方式。

Additional information about factors that could cause results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the company's SEC filings. This includes, but is not limited to, risk factors contained in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended July 1, 2023, subsequent SEC filings, and the news release issued earlier this morning. A copy of these materials can be found in the Investors section at sysco.com.

有關可能導致結果與前瞻性陳述中的結果不同的因素的更多資​​訊包含在該公司向 SEC 提交的文件中。這包括但不限於我們截至 2023 年 7 月 1 日的 10-K 表格年度報告、隨後提交給 SEC 的文件以及今天早上早些時候發布的新聞稿中包含的風險因素。這些資料的副本可以在 sysco.com 的投資者部分找到。

Non-GAAP financial measures are included in our comments today and in our presentation slides. The reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures is included at the end of the presentation slides and can be found in the Investors section of our website. During the discussion today, unless otherwise stated, all results are compared to the same quarter in the prior year.

非公認會計準則財務指標包含在我們今天的評論和簡報幻燈片中。這些非 GAAP 衡量標準與相應 GAAP 衡量標準的對帳包含在簡報幻燈片的末尾，並且可以在我們網站的投資者部分找到。在今天的討論中，除非另有說明，所有結果均與上一年同季進行比較。

To ensure we have sufficient time to answer all questions, we'd like to ask each participant to limit their time today to one question and one follow-up. Additionally, we want to make the audience aware of Sysco's participation at the CAGNY Investor Conference on February 20 and our Investor Day on May 22 in New York. We hope you can join these events in person or virtually.

為了確保我們有足夠的時間回答所有問題，我們希望每位參與者將今天的時間限制在一個問題和一個後續行動上。此外，我們希望讓觀眾了解 Sysco 參加 2 月 20 日舉行的 CAGNY 投資者大會以及 5 月 22 日在紐約舉行的投資者日。我們希望您能夠親自或透過虛擬方式參加這些活動。

At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Kevin Hourican.

此時，我想將電話轉給 Kevin Hourican。

Thanks, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. I'm very pleased with Sysco's performance for the quarter. Our company is the market leader in a growing industry where size and scale matter. This past quarter, we demonstrated that important position of strength by delivering another quarter of double-digit earnings per share growth.

謝謝，凱文，大家早安。感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。我對 Sysco 本季的表現非常滿意。我們公司是規模和規模至關重要的不斷發展行業的市場領導者。上個季度，我們的每股盈餘又實現了兩位數的成長，證明了我們的重要實力地位。

Sysco delivered bottom line growth through a combination of volume growth, disciplined margin management, and expense control. Our positive momentum from the first half of our fiscal year is expected to continue into the second half, and we remain confident in our full year growth expectations for sales and EPS. This includes 2024 adjusted EPS growth of 7% at the midpoint of our guidance range.

Sysco 透過銷售成長、嚴格的利潤管理和費用控制相結合，實現了利潤成長。我們財年上半年的正面動能預計將持續到下半年，我們對全年銷售額和每股盈餘的成長預期仍然充滿信心。這包括 2024 年調整後每股收益成長 7%（處於我們指引範圍的中點）。

Sysco has improved how we leverage our scale through the Recipe for Growth strategy, and we continue to deliver industry-leading profitability metrics as well as leverage our industry-leading strong balance sheet. Our confidence in the year has enabled us to increase our capital allocation to shareholders for the year. We are announcing today an increase of our stock buyback target for fiscal year 2024.

Sysco 透過成長秘訣改進了我們利用規模的方式，我們繼續提供業界領先的獲利指標，並利用我們行業領先的強大資產負債表。我們對今年的信心使我們能夠增加今年對股東的資本配置。我們今天宣布提高 2024 財年的股票回購目標。

We now expect to buy back approximately $1.25 billion of our stock this year up from our previously communicated $750 million. With the increased stock buyback and our industry-leading dividend yield, we will contribute more than $2.25 billion directly to our shareholders. Sysco's strong balance sheet and free cash flow enable us to make these types of shareholder-friendly decisions while providing ample liquidity to fund the long-term growth of our business. We are, as we say, play from a position of strength.

我們現在預計今年將回購約 12.5 億美元的股票，高於先前公佈的 7.5 億美元。隨著股票回購的增加和行業領先的股息收益率，我們將直接向股東貢獻超過 22.5 億美元。 Sysco 強大的資產負債表和自由現金流使我們能夠做出此類有利於股東的決策，同時提供充足的流動性來為我們業務的長期成長提供資金。正如我們所說，我們是從強勢地位開始比賽的。

So let's get started with a brief highlight of the quarter on Slide #5. Beginning with the top line, we delivered sales growth of 3.7%, a sequential improvement from Q1, driven by a combination of positive case volume growth and positive product cost inflation. Importantly, this included a sequential improvement in local case volume growth quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. We will share more on that later.

那麼，讓我們開始在幻燈片#5 上簡要介紹本季的亮點。從營收開始，在銷售積極成長和產品成本上漲的共同推動下，我們的銷售額成長了 3.7%，較第一季較第一季成長。重要的是，這包括本地案件量環比和同比增長的連續改善。稍後我們將分享更多相關內容。

Turning to the bottom line, we posted over 11% growth in adjusted EPS, generating strong operating leverage. This is the fifth consecutive quarter of positive operating leverage and the 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit adjusted EPS growth. Kenny will provide more details in his financial section.

談到利潤，我們公佈調整後每股收益成長超過 11%，產生了強勁的營運槓桿。這是連續第五個季度實現正營運槓桿，也是連續第 11 季調整後每股盈餘達到兩位數成長。肯尼將在他的財務部分提供更多詳細資訊。

Today, I would like to update you on two topics I highlighted as priorities on our Q1 earnings call: Local case volume and supply chain productivity. During the quarter, we sequentially increased our case volume performance, growing our U.S. Foodservice segment 3.4% and delivering local case volume growth of 2.9%. We grew our market share profitably through our improvement efforts.

今天，我想向您介紹我在第一季財報電話會議上強調的兩個優先主題的最新情況：本地案例數量和供應鏈生產力。本季度，我們的處理量業績持續成長，美國餐飲服務部門成長了 3.4%，本地處理量成長了 2.9%。透過我們的改進努力，我們提高了市場份額並實現盈利。

Notably, this growth comes with the industry-leading profit margin rates you can expect from Sysco. The rate of volume growth does not include the benefit of Edward Don, which closed in late November, and we remain solidly on track to deliver our growth ambition versus the market this year. Importantly, the initiatives we outlined to drive local case performance earlier this year began to bear fruit this past quarter.

值得注意的是，這種成長伴隨著 Sysco 產業領先的利潤率。銷售成長率不包括 11 月底關閉的 Edward Don 的收益，我們仍然堅定地走在實現今年相對於市場的成長目標的軌道上。重要的是，我們今年稍早概述的推動本地案件績效的舉措在上個季度開始取得成果。

We are focused on improving sales execution. Our efforts are centered around properly serving our local customers in improving our local sales growth. A reminder of our local sales focus areas for fiscal '24. First, we started adding incremental sales headcount in the second quarter and expect to continue hiring in the second half of fiscal year '24 and in the coming years. The incremental headcount is targeted to optimize territory sizes and enhanced sales consultant effectiveness, demonstrating focused actions to deliver higher returns.

我們專注於提高銷售執行力。我們的工作重點是為當地客戶提供適當的服務，以提高當地的銷售成長。提醒我們 24 財年的本地銷售重點領域。首先，我們在第二季開始增加銷售人員，並預計在 24 財年下半年和未來幾年繼續招募。增加員工人數的目的是優化區域規模並提高銷售顧問的效率，展示旨在實現更高回報的集中行動。

The benefits from increasing our local salesforce will accrue over time as new colleagues complete their training, move up the productivity curve, and settle into their territories. As previously indeed, we continue to expect to see the vast majority of the positive impact from our fiscal year '24 hires impact fiscal year '25 performance.

隨著新同事完成培訓、提升生產力曲線並適應自己的領域，增加本地銷售團隊所帶來的好處將隨著時間的推移而逐漸增加。正如之前的情況一樣，我們繼續預期 24 財年招募帶來的絕大多數正面影響將影響 25 財年的業績。

Second, we recently refined our compensation model to further motivate our sales consultants on win, win, win behaviors for Sysco, our customers, and our salesforce. We can already see the impact of the compensation change, and we expect the impact of these recent changes to grow over time. We will continue to optimize our compensation program over time to ensure we are properly rewarding and motivating our sales team.

其次，我們最近改進了我們的薪酬模式，以進一步激勵我們的銷售顧問為 Sysco、我們的客戶和我們的銷售人員贏得雙贏的行為。我們已經可以看到薪酬變化的影響，我們預計這些近期變化的影響會隨著時間的推移而擴大。隨著時間的推移，我們將繼續優化我們的薪酬計劃，以確保我們適當地獎勵和激勵我們的銷售團隊。

Third, our focus on performance management continues with a hyper focus on customer visit frequency and sales consultant visit quality. These efforts are improving outcomes of our sales visits and can be closely tracked in our CRM tool. Leveraging technology to maximize the effectiveness of each customer visit remains a top priority, and I am pleased with the impact of our sales leadership team in the past quarter.

第三，我們持續關注績效管理，高度關注客戶拜訪頻率和銷售顧問拜訪品質。這些努力正在改善我們的銷售拜訪結果，並且可以在我們的 CRM 工具中密切追蹤。利用科技最大限度地提高每次客戶拜訪的效率仍然是首要任務，我對我們的銷售領導團隊在上個季度的影響感到滿意。

Lastly, total team selling continues to gain traction. Our sales teams across Broadline and Specialty are working more collaboratively and we are leveraging our data to maximize the time allocation of our selling specialists in produce, protein and ethnic cuisine segments like Italian. All told, these interconnected actions increased our local case performance from Q1 to Q2 by 300 basis points. Importantly, the exit velocity of the quarter was even stronger as our performance improved each month of the quarter. We are confident in our ability to continue to grow local sales while maintaining the positive momentum we have displayed in national sales.

最後，整體團隊銷售繼續受到關注。我們的 Broadline 和 Specialty 銷售團隊正在更加協作，我們正在利用我們的數據最大限度地分配我們在農產品、蛋白質和義大利等民族美食領域的銷售專家的時間。總而言之，這些相互關聯的行動將我們的本地案件績效從第一季到第二季提高了 300 個基點。重要的是，隨著我們每個月的業績都有所改善，本季的退出速度甚至更快。我們對繼續增長本地銷售的能力充滿信心，同時保持我們在全國銷售中表現出的積極勢頭。

Next, I would like to provide an update on the progress we've been making within our supply chain. We continue to improve the performance of our supply chain by focusing on operational excellence. Chart 9 displays our year-over-year operating profit improvement, driven by positive operating leverage, with gross profits growing at a faster rate than operating expenses. Our supply chain employees continue to move up the productivity curve due to improved colleague training and significantly improved levels of retention, especially within the driver position. With improved retention comes improved outputs across the supply chain, lowering hiring expenses, lower training expenses, improved productivity, lower levels of product shrink, improved safety metrics, and improved service levels to our customers.

接下來，我想介紹我們在供應鏈中取得的最新進展。我們透過專注於卓越營運來持續提高供應鏈的績效。圖9顯示了我們在正營運槓桿的推動下，營業利潤年增，毛利成長速度快於營運支出。由於同事培訓的改善和保留水準的顯著提高，特別是在駕駛員職位中，我們的供應鏈員工的生產力曲線持續上升。隨著留任率的提高，整個供應鏈的產出也隨之提高，從而降低了招聘費用、培訓費用、提高了生產率、降低了產品損耗水平、提高了安全指標，並提高了對客戶的服務水平。

Each of these elements positively impact our P&L and the improvement drops straight to the bottom line. We are extremely focused on continuing to improve colleague retention and productivity within our supply chain.

這些要素中的每一個都對我們的損益產生正面影響，並且改進直接影響到利潤。我們非常注重持續提高供應鏈內的同事保留率​​和生產力。

Lastly, we continue to improve the rigor and discipline in our colleague staffing efforts. This includes better matching our hours worked to the volume of cases shipped and the difficult work of flexing down our staffing during lower volume periods. We will continue to refine our engineered labor standards that drive our staffing models, and we will increase the agility with which we match our staffing to our volume.

最後，我們持續提升同事人員配置工作的嚴謹性和紀律性。這包括更好地將我們的工作時間與運送的箱子數量相匹配，以及在運量較低期間減少人員配置的艱鉅工作。我們將繼續完善我們的工程勞工標準，以推動我們的人員配置模式，並且我們將提高將人員配置與數量相匹配的靈活性。

Our Q2 results display a continuation of quarter-over-quarter progress in productivity gains, and we remain disciplined and focused on continuing that rate of improvement. These efforts will benefit the P&L in fiscal '24 and will carry into 2025 and beyond. We are bullish on our ability to continue to lower our cost to serve while simultaneously improving customer service levels. As I lift up from these two topics, improving sales effectiveness and improving our supply chain productivity, I would also like to communicate that we remain on track with our Recipe for Growth business transformation.

我們第二季的業績顯示，生產力的提高繼續取得季度環比的進展，我們仍然遵守紀律，專注於繼續保持這種提高速度。這些努力將有利於 24 財年的損益，並將持續到 2025 年及以後。我們看好我們有能力持續降低服務成本，同時提高客戶服務水準。當我從提高銷售效率和提高供應鏈生產力這兩個主題出發時，我還想傳達的是，我們仍然在成長秘訣業務轉型的軌道上。

Our digital efforts continue to advance. Our merchant teams continue to improve our product assortment, especially in Sysco brand. We are excited about the integration with Edward Don and how we can profitably grow our equipment and supplies business. We remain very pleased with the performance of our Greco Italian platform, and I am proud of our international business leaders for the compelling performance produced year-to-date from our International segment. At our Investor Day in May, we will dive deeper into each of our Recipe for Growth pillars.

我們的數位化努力不斷推進。我們的商家團隊不斷改進我們的產品種類，特別是 Sysco 品牌。我們對與 Edward Don 的整合以及我們如何能夠獲利地發展我們的設備和用品業務感到興奮。我們對 Greco Italian 平台的表現仍然非常滿意，我為我們的國際業務領導者感到自豪，因為我們的國際業務今年迄今取得了引人注目的業績。在五月的投資者日，我們將更深入探討成長秘訣的每一個支柱。

Foodservice distribution is a space for size and scale matters, logistics scale, cold storage scale in both warehousing and transportation, technology scale, and sales force expertise and scale. We believe that no one is better positioned than Sysco to leverage global scale advantages in order to better serve customers and profitably grow the business. I am very pleased that fiscal '24 is off to a strong start, as we are profitably growing our market share and continuing a track record of delivering compelling top and bottom line growth.

餐飲服務配送是一個涉及規模和規模、物流規模、倉儲和運輸冷藏規模、技術規模以及銷售人員專業知識和規模的空間。我們相信，沒有人比 Sysco 更能利用全球規模優勢，更好地服務客戶並實現業務獲利成長。我很高興 24 財年有了一個良好的開端，因為我們的市場份額正在盈利性增長，並繼續保持令人矚目的營收和利潤增長的記錄。

For the remainder of fiscal '24, we remain hyper focused on the execution elements I highlighted today as well as advancing our Recipe for Growth strategy. We are confident that these efforts will enable Sysco to deliver our financial plan. I'll now turn it over to Kenny, who will provide a more detailed review of our financial performance. Kenny, over to you.

在 24 財年的剩餘時間裡，我們仍然高度關注我今天強調的執行要素以及推動我們的成長策略。我們相信，這些努力將使 Sysco 能夠實現我們的財務計劃。我現在將其交給肯尼，他將對我們的財務表現進行更詳細的審查。肯尼，交給你了。

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. I'm going to build upon Kevin's commentary with a couple of points. First, we have positive momentum as Q2 marked another milestone with record top line and bottom line performance. Future results included sales and volume growth, along with strong cost of goods sold performance, resulting in adjusted gross profit dollar growth and margin expansion. Positive operating leverage was also driven by gross profit growing at a faster rate than operating expenses, demonstrating our disciplined margin management, which rendered adjusted EPS growth of over 11%.

謝謝你，凱文，大家早安。我將在凱文的評論的基礎上提出幾點觀點。首先，我們擁有積極的勢頭，因為第二季度標誌著另一個里程碑，其營收和利潤均創歷史新高。未來的業績包括銷售額和銷售的成長，以及強勁的銷售成本表現，從而導致調整後的毛利成長和利潤率擴張。毛利成長速度快於營運費用，也推動了積極的營運槓桿，這表明我們嚴格的利潤管理，使調整後每股收益成長超過 11%。

Second, we are excited about our first half performance and confidence in our positive momentum for the remainder of the year. Therefore, we are increasing our share repurchases expectations from $750 million to $1.25 billion for FY'24 versus the prior guidance. This will increase expected total shareholder returns, including dividends and share repurchases to approximately $2.25 billion for FY'24.

其次，我們對上半年的表現感到興奮，並對今年剩餘時間的積極勢頭充滿信心。因此，與先前的指導相比，我們將 24 財年的股票回購預期從 7.5 億美元提高到 12.5 億美元。這將使 2024 財年的預期股東總回報（包括股利和股票回購）增加至約 22.5 億美元。

This is in addition to our continued reinvestment into the business, including M&A, such as the addition of BIX and Edward Don earlier this year. Capital allocation is a competitive advantage for Sysco as the strength of our balance sheet and free cash flow generation allows us to invest for growth and reward our shareholders at the same time.

除此之外，我們也持續對業務進行再投資，包括併購，例如今年稍早增加了 BIX 和 Edward Don。資本配置對 Sysco 來說是一項競爭優勢，因為我們的資產負債表和自由現金流產生能力使我們能夠為成長進行投資，同時回報股東。

Now turning to a summary of our reported results for the quarter, starting on Slide 13. For the second quarter, our enterprise sales grew 3.7%, with U.S. Foodservice growing 3.2%, International growing 9.6%, and SYGMA decreasing 1%, driven by planned exit of customers that did not meet our disciplined profit thresholds. This planned exit along with strong supply chain productivity improvement, helped more than double our SYGMA profits this quarter, another prime example of our ROIC focus in action.

現在轉向我們報告的本季業績摘要，從投影片13 開始。第二季度，我們的企業銷售額成長了3.7%，其中美國食品服務成長3.2%，國際成長9.6%，SYGMA 下降1%，這主要是由於計劃退出未達到我們嚴格利潤門檻的客戶。這項計畫中的退出以及供應鏈生產力的強勁提高，幫助我們本季的 SYGMA 利潤增加了一倍以上，這是我們關注投資回報率的另一個典型例子。

Enterprise inflation was 1.1%. Additionally, U.S. Broadline inflation was slightly positive and our International segment was up 6.6%, all aligned with our expectations. Total U.S. Foodservice volume increased 3.4% and local volume was up 2.9%, a 300 bps sequential improvement from Q1. Please note, volume reporting includes slight benefits from the acquisition of BIX Produce. Our volume reporting does not include our Edward Don or Specialty Meat business based on their unique product attributes.

企業通膨率為1.1%。此外，美國整體通膨略為正值，我們的國際部門上漲 6.6%，所有這些都符合我們的預期。美國餐飲服務總量成長 3.4%，本地總量成長 2.9%，較第一季季增 300 個基點。請注意，銷售報告包括收購 BIX Produce 帶來的輕微收益。我們的產量報告不包括我們的愛德華唐或特色肉類業務，因為它們獨特的產品屬性。

We produced $3.5 billion in gross profit, up 4.9%. Adjusted gross margin improved to 18.2%, an increase of 21 bps. Our gross profit dollar and margin percentage improvement reflected our ability to effectively manage product cost fluctuations driven by incremental progress from our strategic sourcing efforts and disciplined pricing. Penetration rates of Sysco brand products increased 22 bps to 46.9% in U.S. Local and was essentially flat at 36.8% in U.S. Broadline.

我們的毛利為 35 億美元，成長 4.9%。調整後毛利率提高至 18.2%，成長 21 個基點。我們的毛利和利潤率的提高反映了我們有效管理產品成本波動的能力，這得益於我們的策略採購工作和嚴格定價的逐步進展。 Sysco 品牌產品的滲透率在美國 Local 中成長了 22 個基點，達到 46.9%，在美國 Broadline 中基本持平，為 36.8%。

Overall, adjusted operating expense were $2.8 billion for the quarter or 14.4% of sales as we achieved another quarter of positive operating leverage. The strong management of expenses during the quarter was due to the positive impact of the variable labor planning tool and supply chain efficiencies that Kevin mentioned, and benefits from our previously announced $100 million of cost-out commitments. We are on track to achieve this commitment for FY'24 and the planning process for delivering incremental costs for future periods has already begun.

總體而言，本季調整後的營運費用為 28 億美元，佔銷售額的 14.4%，因為我們又實現了一個季度的正營運槓桿。本季強有力的費用管理得益於凱文提到的可變勞動力計劃工具和供應鏈效率的積極影響，以及我們先前宣布的 1 億美元成本支出承諾的好處。我們預計在 24 財年實現這項承諾，並且為未來期間提供增量成本的規劃流程已經開始。

Additionally, with the successful closure of our BIX and Edward Don acquisition, we are on pace to realize both top and bottom line synergies. Adjusted operating income growth of 7.6% in USFS, coupled with outsized profit contributions from our International and SYGMA segments, contributed to bottom line performance. Positive momentum continued in our International segment with adjusted operating income growing 30.1% during the quarter.

此外，隨著我們成功完成對 BIX 和 Edward Don 的收購，我們正在努力實現營收和利潤的協同效應。 USFS 調整後營業收入成長 7.6%，加上我們的國際和 SYGMA 部門的巨額利潤貢獻，為獲利績效做出了貢獻。我們的國際業務持續保持積極勢頭，本季調整後營業收入成長 30.1%。

Our International results are a continuation of the robust growth and positive momentum in this segment over the past 3 years. The Recipe for Growth playbook is yielding dividends in the U.S. and internationally. In total, Q2 adjusted operating income was $745 million, up 9.2%, and adjusted EBITDA was $927 million, up 11.6%.

我們的國際業績是過去三年該領域強勁成長和積極勢頭的延續。成長秘訣正在美國和國際上產生紅利。整體而言，第二季調整後營業收入為 7.45 億美元，成長 9.2%，調整後 EBITDA 為 9.27 億美元，成長 11.6%。

Turning to the balance sheet, which remains strong. We ended the quarter at 2.75x net debt leverage ratio. This is in line with our target range of 2.5 to 2.75x net debt leverage ratio. Our planned increase to the share repurchase program is already in action with an accelerated share repurchase program that was executed in early January. We ended the quarter with $11.2 billion in net debt that is well laddered and over $3.4 billion in total liquidity. Approximately 96% of our debt is fixed with the floating component offset by our cash reserves.

轉向資產負債表，資產負債表依然強勁。本季結束時，我們的淨債務槓桿率為 2.75 倍。這符合我們 2.5 至 2.75 倍淨負債槓桿率的目標範圍。我們計劃增加的股票回購計畫已經付諸實施，並於一月初執行了加速股票回購計畫。本季結束時，我們的淨債務為 112 億美元，梯級良好，總流動性超過 34 億美元。我們大約 96% 的債務是固定的，浮動部分由我們的現金儲備抵消。

Our strong investment-grade credit rating is a competitive advantage as evidenced by our team successfully issuing approximately $1 billion of new debt in November. We are committed to our capital allocation strategy as seen on Slide 19, which includes a balanced approach with 3 elements: First, investing in the business for profitable and consistent growth; second, maintaining our investment-grade credit rating; and third, returning cash to shareholders, dividends and share repurchases.

我們強大的投資等級信用評級是一種競爭優勢，我們的團隊在 11 月成功發行了約 10 億美元的新債券就證明了這一點。我們致力於我們的資本配置策略，如幻燈片 19 所示，其中包括具有 3 個要素的平衡方法：首先，投資於業務以實現盈利和持續增長；第二，維持投資等級信用評等；第三，向股東返還現金、股利和股票回購。

Turning to our first half cash flow. We generated $856 million in operating cash flow and $527 million in free cash flow, growing 70% and 141%, respectively. This growth includes continued strong conversion rates from EBITDA to operating cash and free cash flow, and we remain on track to grow free cash flow for full year FY'24. Our strong financial position enabled us to return $353 million to shareholders via share repurchases and dividends this quarter.

轉向我們上半年的現金流。我們產生了 8.56 億美元的營運現金流和 5.27 億美元的自由現金流，分別成長了 70% 和 141%。這種成長包括從 EBITDA 到營運現金和自由現金流的持續強勁的轉換率，並且我們仍有望在 24 財年全年實現自由現金流的成長。我們強大的財務狀況使我們能夠在本季度透過股票回購和股息向股東返還 3.53 億美元。

Looking forward to fiscal year 2024 guidance, we are reiterating net sales growth of mid-single digits to approximately $80 billion. Adjusted EPS is expected to grow to $4.20 to $4.40. This represents a 7% growth at the midpoint. Additionally, we expect positive operating leverage with gross profit growing at a faster rate than OpEx for the year.

展望 2024 財年指引，我們重申淨銷售額將實現中個位數成長，達到約 800 億美元。調整後每股收益預計將成長至 4.20 美元至 4.40 美元。這代表中間值成長 7%。此外，我們預計今年的營運槓桿將為正值，毛利的成長速度將快於營運支出。

We continue to expect slightly positive rates of industry volume growth and inflation. This includes Sysco's U.S. Broadline remaining inflationary in the second half of the fiscal year. Our planned top line also includes benefits from M&A activity consistent with previous disclosures for an average annual contribution of 50 to 100 basis points of growth.

我們繼續預期產業銷售成長率和通膨率將小幅上升。這包括 Sysco 的 U.S. Broadline 在本財年下半年仍處於通膨狀態。我們計劃的收入還包括與先前揭露的一致的併購活動帶來的收益，平均每年貢獻 50 至 100 個基點的成長。

We will continue to opportunistically evaluate accretive acquisitions, but the remainder of FY'24 will focus on integration efforts, capturing synergies for accretive acquisitions like Don and returning excess cash back to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.

我們將繼續機會主義地評估增值收購，但 24 財年的剩餘時間將專注於整合工作，捕捉 Don 等增值收購的協同效應，並透過股票回購和股利將多餘現金返還給股東。

For the second half and over the long term, we expect to win market share, profitably and consistently. Our efforts will also focus on strong cash generation with conversion rates, ultimately feeding our plans to grow and reward our shareholders. Thank you for your time today. With that, operator, we are now ready for questions.

從下半年和長遠來看，我們預計將持續贏得市場份額並獲利。我們的努力也將集中在透過轉換率實現強勁的現金生成，最終滿足我們發展和回報股東的計劃。感謝您今天抽出時間。接線員，現在我們準備好提問了。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Jeff Bernstein with Barclays.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的傑夫伯恩斯坦。

Great. I had one question and then one follow-up. The question on the U.S. local case volume, the 2.9%. It's nice return to growth on a 1-year basis and like you said, a sequential acceleration on a 2-year basis. Just wondering if you could talk about your level of confidence in sustaining that accelerating growth, maybe prioritize the most important drivers of that momentum. I think you mentioned that momentum actually built each month of the fiscal second quarter and therefore, a strong exit rate. So I'm just wondering if you could provide some context, especially as someone was talking about maybe a slowdown that has been seen across much of the industry in January. Any thoughts there would be great.

偉大的。我有一個問題，然後是一個後續問題。關於美國本土病例數的問題，2.9%。在一年的基礎上恢復成長是很好的，就像你說的，在兩年的基礎上連續加速。只是想知道您是否可以談談您對維持加速成長的信心程度，也許可以優先考慮推動這一勢頭的最重要驅動因素。我想你提到第二財季每個月的動能其實都在增強，因此退出率也很高。所以我只是想知道您是否可以提供一些背景信息，特別是當有人談論一月份整個行業可能出現放緩時。任何想法都會很棒。

Thank you for the question. This is Kevin. We're confident in our ability to continue to improve in local sales. As you just said, the 2.9 is an average -- weighted average, obviously, across the 3 months. And sequentially, the quarter improved each and every ones of those months. So we are confident in our ability to continue to make progress in local case volume growth. And at the historic profitability metrics that Sysco industry-leading will continue to produce. So it's profitable local case growth.

感謝你的提問。這是凱文.我們對繼續提高本地銷售的能力充滿信心。正如您剛才所說，2.9 顯然是 3 個月的平均值——加權平均值。接下來，該季度的每個月份都有所改善。因此，我們對在當地案件數量增長方面繼續取得進展的能力充滿信心。 Sysco 產業領先的歷史獲利指標將繼續產生。因此，本地案例成長是有利可圖的。

The biggest drivers, I'd say the performance management on the sales consultant side is the most immediate lever. The compensation change would be the second most impactful measure and total team selling followed up by the increased SC headcount would be the third and the fourth of the four things I said on the call, if I ranked them from an impact perspective.

最大的驅動因素，我認為銷售顧問的績效管理是最直接的槓桿。如果我從影響力的角度對它們進行排名，薪酬變化將是第二個最有影響力的措施，而團隊銷售總額以及隨後增加的SC 員工人數將是我在電話會議上所說的四件事中的第三和第四件事。

As it relates to the second half of your question on January, there has been a slowdown in January. I would describe it more as a blip, a bump in the road, if you will. There's a couple of factors driving the January. Week 1 of January had a calendar unfavorability tied to a holiday and where it fell historically cold weather. I hate the W word. I never used the W word, but there was some extraordinary weather in January, which made it awfully difficult to make deliveries to customers in large swaths of the United States. That's backed up by the credit card data from the major banks that consumption that food-away-from-home was down in January.

由於這與你一月份問題的後半部有關，一月份的經濟成長放緩。如果你願意的話，我更願意將其描述為一個小插曲，一個路上的顛簸。有幾個因素推動一月份的發展。一月的第一周有一個與假期相關的日曆不利因素，並且天氣處於歷史上的寒冷天氣。我討厭W這個詞。我從來沒有用過“W”這個詞，但一月份有一些特殊的天氣，這使得向美國大片地區的客戶送貨變得非常困難。主要銀行的信用卡數據證實了這一點，一月份外出食品消費量有所下降。

Jeff, I'm not overly concerned about that. It's the lowest volume month of the year that there's going to be a blip or a bump you'd want it to be in that month. So goes March, so goes the quarter. And we've got levers that we can pull on the year to go, and I toss to Kenny for any additional comment in that regard.

傑夫，我對此並不太擔心。這是一年中成交量最低的月份，您希望該月的成交量會出現波動或波動。三月如此，季度亦然。我們已經有了可以在接下來的一年中發揮作用的槓桿，我向肯尼詢問這方面的任何其他評論。

On January, I agree with Kevin, what we're seeing right now. While volume has been slightly impacted. We have the ability to flex labor and mitigate the impact of lower volume with our labor planning tool that we talked about, and that is in conjunction with the disciplined engineering labor standards that we've implemented. However, weather also impacts over time, productivity, customer returns, delivery costs, which we will mitigate throughout the fiscal year with levers in our P&L. Therefore, the full year guidance remains intact.

一月份，我同意凱文的觀點，我們現在所看到的。雖然成交量受到輕微影響。我們有能力透過我們談到的勞動力規劃工具來靈活安排勞動力並減輕產量減少的影響，這與我們實施的嚴格的工程勞動力標準相結合。然而，隨著時間的推移，天氣也會影響生產力、客戶回報、交付成本，我們將在整個財年透過損益表中的槓桿來減輕這些影響。因此，全年指引保持不變。

In terms -- Kevin talked a bit about local in the U.S., one comment is local international. As we know, international is roughly 20% of our business. And we've replicated some of the RFG, Recipe for Growth playbook there. And we are seeing nice growth from our Canadian business and our European business, which is both up roughly 80%, and it's really driven by new customers, penetration, and customer retention. So we are excited and we continue to invest and capture growth with pace and discipline.

就術語而言——凱文談到了美國本地，其中一個評論是本地國際。眾所周知，國際業務約占我們業務的 20%。我們在那裡複製了一些 RFG（增長秘訣）手冊。我們看到加拿大業務和歐洲業務都出現了良好的成長，成長了約 80%，這實際上是由新客戶、滲透率和客戶保留率推動的。因此，我們很興奮，我們將繼續投資並以步伐和紀律來實現成長。

Got it. And just my follow-up on the fiscal '24 guidance. I know from a very high level, you reiterated the mid-single-digit top line and the 5% to 10% EPS growth, I think you called out 7% at the midpoint. I'm wondering if you could share anything that might have surprised you on the positive or negative side in the first half of the year, especially because I think you said 7% at the midpoint.

知道了。這只是我對 24 財年指導的後續行動。我知道，從非常高的層面來看，您重申了中個位數的營收和 5% 至 10% 的每股收益成長，我認為您在中點上提到了 7%。我想知道您能否分享今年上半年的積極或消極方面可能會讓您感到驚訝的事情，特別是因為我認為您在中點提到了 7%。

You've also talked about in the first half of the year, double digit and 11 consecutive quarters of double-digit EPS growth. So what potential incremental challenges are you seeing in the second half, especially as you've got an incremental $500 million bump in share repurchase to come. So just wondering your thoughts on the back half of the year EPS growth relative to the recent momentum you've had.

您也談到了上半年的兩位數成長以及連續11季的兩位數每股收益成長。那麼，您在下半年會看到哪些潛在的增量挑戰，尤其是您將在股票回購方面增加 5 億美元的增量。因此，只是想知道您對今年下半年每股收益成長相對於您最近的勢頭的看法。

Okay. So let me unpack to questions, what surprised me and what are some takeaways in the first half of the year. I think the biggest thing is Sysco has proven we can manage the business under various different environments. If you remember, Q1 was slightly deflationary in the U.S. Q2 was slightly positive in -- for the U.S. And in both quarters in the first half, we delivered operating margin expansion of roughly 26 bps and also GP margin dollar expansion and GP margin expansion of 28 bps.

好的。讓我來解答一些問題，讓我感到驚訝的事情以及上半年的一些收穫。我認為最重要的是 Sysco 已經證明我們可以在各種不同的環境中管理業務。如果您還記得，美國第一季略有通縮，第二季度美國略有積極。在上半年的兩個季度中，我們的營業利潤率增長了約26 個基點，總利潤率美元擴張，總利潤率擴張了28 基點。

So again, I think first half was a really good proof point that under any circumstance, Sysco has the levers on the P&L to drive positive and consistent growth and being able to drive quality of earnings on the cash flow side. So that's about more in the first half. In terms of the full year guidance, let me just provide a bit more color. So we do expect overall this year, lower overall market volume growth versus 2023. However, continued market share gains from our company, profitable growth at Sysco.

因此，我認為上半年是一個很好的證據，表明在任何情況下，Sysco 都擁有損益表槓桿來推動積極和持續的成長，並能夠提高現金流方面的獲利品質。上半場的內容就更多了。就全年指導而言，讓我提供更多資訊。因此，我們確實預計今年整體市場銷售成長將低於 2023 年。不過，我們公司的市佔率持續成長，Sysco 的利潤成長。

Inflation, as I mentioned on the last earnings call, Q2 came in slightly positive aligned with our expectation. In the back half, we are still -- remain consistent with what we said on both the first earnings call that we had at the end of last year and the previous 90 days ago. We expect the back half to be slightly positive on inflation. We still have 2 quarters ago, but I believe that Q2 slight positive inflation provides us comfort around our original assumptions.

正如我在上次財報電話會議上提到的，通貨膨脹率略高於我們的預期。下半年，我們仍然與去年年底和 90 天前的第一次財報電話會議上所說的保持一致。我們預計下半年通膨將略微樂觀。我們仍然有兩個季度前的情況，但我相信第二季度的輕微正通膨讓我們對最初的假設感到放心。

In terms of -- on the expense side of the house, disciplined expense management, our team has already directed an effort to reduce the structural expense by $100 million. We are on a pace and we've begun building additional pipeline for future periods. In terms of working your way down to the P&L on the tax rate side, it's 24.5%, no change. There's a slight step up on interest expense of roughly $20 million attached to the $500 million of additional share repurchase. If you net it to impact together, so Jeff, I think your question is what is the accretion on EPS?

在費用方面，嚴格的費用管理方面，我們的團隊已經努力將結構性費用減少 1 億美元。我們正在加快步伐，並且已經開始為未來建造更多的管道。就稅率方面的損益表而言，它是 24.5%，沒有變化。額外回購 5 億美元的股票後，利息支出略有增加，約 2,000 萬美元。如果你將其共同影響，那麼傑夫，我認為你的問題是每股盈餘的成長是多少？

There is a net accretion of roughly $0.05 or so net of the interest expense increase coupled with the retirement of the shares. So that is the $0.05 impact that you can expect for the fiscal year. With that said, with all the intra-working variables, we are reiterating and reconfirming our full year guide of $4.20 to $4.40 with the midpoint of 7% growth versus last year.

扣除利息費用增加以及股票退役後，淨增值約為 0.05 美元左右。這就是您在本財年可以預期的 0.05 美元的影響。話雖如此，考慮到所有內部工作變量，我們重申並再次確認我們的全年指導為 4.20 美元至 4.40 美元，與去年相比，中點增長 7%。

The next question comes from Mark Carden with UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的馬克卡登。

So I wanted to dig into your sales force additions to date. I know you said it's going to be a bit of a ramp, but how is the initial progress going relative to your expectations? And then how are competitor hires having? Are they having much of an impact on your ability to really find enough high-quality salespeople?

因此，我想深入了解您迄今為止新增的銷售團隊。我知道您說過這將是一個緩慢的過程，但是相對於您的預期，最初的進展如何？那麼競爭對手的員工狀況又是如何呢？它們對您真正找到足夠的高素質銷售人員的能力有很大影響嗎？

We're really pleased with the progress that we're making. And those efforts began in Q2, I want to be clear about this. So in the early innings, we haven't quoted publicly the exact number of people we're hiring, but it's a significant number. We are not having a challenge with hiring and filling our classes. They are roster classes that we fill, and we put them through a very, very robust industry-leading training program. As it relates to competitive forces and the impact on our ability to hire, we're not having challenges filling the positions. That's my answer.

我們對所取得的進展感到非常滿意。這些努力是從第二季開始的，我想澄清這一點。因此，在最初的幾輪比賽中，我們還沒有公開公佈我們正在招募的確切人數，但這是一個很大的數字。我們在招募和填補班級方面沒有遇到挑戰。他們是我們填補的名冊班，我們讓他們接受非常非常強大的行業領先的培訓計劃。由於它與競爭力量以及對我們招募能力的影響有關，因此我們在填補職位方面沒有遇到挑戰。這就是我的答案。

We don't just go to a competitor, if you will. That is a source of talent. We also go to restaurants. We go to culinary schools. We're looking for people that are food eccentric that are good at selling have a passion for this industry. We can train them on our tools. We can train them on our selling systems and process, and we can train them to scale them up to be what they are, which is the best in the industry, and that's from our Net Promoter Score.

如果你願意的話，我們不只是去找競爭對手。這就是人才的來源。我們也去餐廳。我們去烹飪學校。我們正在尋找對食品不感興趣、擅長銷售並對這個行業充滿熱情的人。我們可以對他們進行我們的工具培訓。我們可以對他們進行有關我們的銷售系統和流程的培訓，並且我們可以培訓他們將其擴大到原來的水平，這是行業中最好的，這來自我們的淨推薦值。

So we're not having a difficult time filling our classes. We're really pleased with the first cohorts. We are on track to be able to hit the targeted hiring rate. And as I said before, that positively impacts 2025 from a growth perspective. Mark, back to you if you have any follow-up.

所以我們補課並不困難。我們對第一批人感到非常滿意。我們有望達到目標招募率。正如我之前所說，從成長角度來看，這對 2025 年產生了積極影響。馬克，如果您有任何後續行動，請回覆您。

Great. And then my follow-up is going to be related to M&A. You guys closed on Edward Don about 2 months ago. How is that early integration gone relative to your expectations? And then in December, you guys announced a small acquisition with Ready Chef in Ireland. Was that one simply a situation where the economics were just too good to pass up? Or does it signal a shift in strategy that you guys might be more open to international bolt-on or even larger scale M&A there?

偉大的。然後我的後續行動將與併購有關。大約兩個月前，你們就關閉了愛德華唐。與您的期望相比，早期的整合進展如何？然後在 12 月，你們宣布了對愛爾蘭 Ready Chef 的一項小型收購。難道這僅僅是一種經濟狀況太好了而不容錯過的情況嗎？或者這是否標誌著策略的轉變，你們可能對國際補強甚至更大規模的併購持更開放的態度？

Mark, I appreciate the question. Let me just start with Edward Don, which is the significant transaction that we've done this fiscal year. I want to be really clear on the numbers that we quoted today. So one month of sales and profit are in the numbers that we described, but from a volume perspective because I know that's a question some may have, we have not included Edward Don volume in our case growth figures at this time.

馬克，我很欣賞這個問題。讓我先從愛德華唐開始，這是我們本財年完成的重要交易。我想非常清楚地說明我們今天引用的數字。因此，一個月的銷售額和利潤都在我們描述的數字中，但從數量的角度來看，因為我知道這是一些人可能會提出的問題，所以我們目前沒有將愛德華·唐的數量納入在我們的案例增長數據中。

So the growth in cases of 3.4% in total and 2.9% in local is pure Sysco, not including Don. I just want to be really clear about that. As it relates to the early innings, I was just up in Chicago last week. We had a great day with Steve Don and his leadership team and our leaders talking about the synergy capabilities between the two companies, we can purchase better together, buying product at a better and more affordable cost. We can target joint customers more effectively.

因此，病例總數增加 3.4%，本地病例增加 2.9%，純粹是 Sysco 的成長，不包括 Don。我只想說清楚這一點。由於這與前幾局有關，我剛剛在上週在芝加哥。我們與史蒂夫唐（Steve Don）和他的領導團隊度過了愉快的一天，我們的領導者談論了兩家公司之間的協同能力，我們可以一起更好地採購，以更好、更實惠的成本購買產品。我們可以更有效地瞄準共同客戶。

So we have large national sales, restaurant customers or hospitality customers of Sysco that aren't currently customers have Don and vice versa. Don has some really big customers that Sysco's not the food service distributor, so we can sell together in a joint proposition. And then there's this huge opportunity longer term to take that equipment and sales product category and have it shoppable on Sysco's digital platforms, deliverable on either a Don truck or perhaps some day to a local small mom-and-pop customer on a Sysco truck.

因此，我們擁有大量的全國銷售、Sysco 的餐廳客戶或飯店客戶，但目前還沒有 Don 的客戶，反之亦然。 Don 有一些非常大的客戶，而 Sysco 不是食品服務分銷商，因此我們可以透過聯合提案一起銷售。從長遠來看，有一個巨大的機會，可以利用該設備和銷售產品類別，並在Sysco 的數位平台上進行購買，可以透過Don 卡車交付，也可能有一天透過Sysco 卡車交付給當地的小型夫妻店客戶。

We're really excited, not just about the $1.3 billion in profitable top line we acquired through Don, we're very excited about how we can grow that business meaningfully for years to come. And I know Steve Don and his team are equally as excited. As it relates to Ready Chef in Ireland, just keep in context, it's a much smaller countries. So the size of that acquisition is actually compelling for the country that it's in.

我們真的很興奮，不僅是因為我們透過 Don 獲得了 13 億美元的獲利收入，我們還對如何在未來幾年有意義地發展該業務感到非常興奮。我知道史蒂夫唐和他的團隊同樣興奮。因為它與愛爾蘭的 Ready Chef 有關，所以請注意上下文，它是一個小得多的國家。因此，此次收購的規模對於其所在國家來說實際上是有吸引力的。

And what it was, was a FreshPoint like entity. So to be crystal clear, in Ireland, we did not have a fresh cut bespoke produce business and purchasing Ready Chef gives us what I'll call from our U.S. perspective, that FreshPoint capability. We're running the Sysco play. That's the headline. It's not a change in strategy.

它是什麼，是一個類似 FreshPoint 的實體。因此，明確地說，在愛爾蘭，我們沒有鮮切定制農產品業務，而購買 Ready Chef 為我們提供了從美國的角度來看，我所說的 FreshPoint 能力。我們正在運行 Sysco 遊戲。這就是標題。這不是策略的改變。

Our strategy is in each of the major countries that we compete within, we will run the Sysco play, which is to be the leader in Broadline into bolt-on specialty capabilities over time so we can sell around the room for the customers that we serve and do so profitably. So we're excited about that acquisition in Ireland. Our leadership team in Ireland is top-notch, and I am very confident in their ability to profitably grow the business, better serve customers and increase penetration with existing customers within Ireland.

我們的策略是在我們參與競爭的每個主要國家/地區，我們將經營Sysco 業務，隨著時間的推移，該業務將成為Broadline 領域的領導者，不斷增強專業能力，以便我們可以為我們所服務的客戶進行銷售。並從中獲利。因此，我們對愛爾蘭的這項收購感到興奮。我們在愛爾蘭的領導團隊是一流的，我對他們在愛爾蘭境內實現業務盈利增長、更好地服務客戶以及提高對現有客戶的滲透率的能力非常有信心。

The next question comes from John Heinbockel with Guggenheim Securities.

下一個問題來自古根漢證券公司的約翰·海因博克爾。

So Kevin, can you talk about visit frequency and quality of visit, right? Those two, how you think about KPIs on each of those? And when you think about how that will move the sales needle, what are you looking? You're looking for a certain amount of year-over-year growth in frequency how do you quantify quality?

凱文，您能談談訪問頻率和訪問品質嗎？對於這兩個方面，您如何看待每個方面的 KPI？當您考慮這將如何推動銷售時，您在尋找什麼？您正在尋求一定程度的同比增長，如何量化品質？

John, great question. And for the quarter that we just completed, this is the biggest reason for our improvement from what was flat in Q1 to up 2.9 in Q2 is from what I call performance management, which is visit frequency, visit quality. The comp change poorly helped, but it was early innings and that will have a bigger impact in a year to go and the incremental SEs will impact 2025.

約翰，好問題。對於我們剛完成的季度來說，我們從第一季度持平到第二季度上升 2.9 的最大原因來自於我所說的績效管理，即訪問頻率、訪問品質。薪酬變化的幫助不大，但現在還處於早期階段，這將在未來一年內產生更大的影響，增量 SE 將影響 2025 年。

We've not gone public with the numbers, the targets, John. But we have a very specific target of the number of visits that need to happen per week per SE, and we can track it. We can track it through this year end. And we were not where we needed to be. COVID had a disruption in a lot of things in life, and one of them was SE's doing more of that work from a home office than we would have liked. We kind of ripped that band-aid off and made it really clear on what our expectations are of visit frequency. That's the wheel side of the job.

約翰，我們還沒有公開數字和目標。但我們有一個非常具體的目標，即每個 SE 每週需要發生的訪問次數，並且我們可以追蹤它。我們可以追蹤到今年年底。而我們並沒有到達我們需要到達的地方。新冠疫情為生活中的許多事情帶來了乾擾，其中之一就是 SE 在家庭辦公室完成的工作量超出了我們的預期。我們撕掉了創可貼，並明確了我們對訪問頻率的期望。這就是工作的輪子部分。

Get out there, pound the street be in front of our customers. This is a relationship business. We're being in front of the customer every week matters, and we have moved the needle meaningfully in the last quarter on the number of visits being completed per week for our SEs.

走出去，在我們的客戶面前走上街頭。這是一項關係業務。我們每週都會面對客戶，並且在上個季度我們在 SE 每週完成的訪問次數方面取得了有意義的進展。

Point two, though, that you brought up is that's only worthwhile if it's a quality visit. So how do we measure quality. We have visited a purpose. And in our CRM tool, it will prompt our SEs with jobs to be done that day, introduce the Sysco brand case, win back the case that was lost over the last x period of time. Sell a category you've not sold before. Those are just three examples of jobs to be done. The CRM data rich understands what's being purchased, what should be purchased. And it essentially prompts the SEs with things to sell. And how do I measure quality? I measure quality by close rate against those jobs to be done and we can track it.

不過，您提出的第二點是，只有高品質的訪問才值得。那我們如何衡量品質。我們參觀是有目的的。而在我們的CRM工具中，它會提示我們的SE當天要做的工作，介紹Sysco品牌案例，贏回過去x段時間丟失的案例。銷售您以前未銷售過的類別。這些只是需要完成的工作的三個例子。豐富的 CRM 數據了解正在購買什麼、應該購買什麼。它本質上是促使SE出售東西。我如何衡量品質？我透過與待完成的工作的接近率來衡量質量，我們可以追蹤它。

We have a scorecard that ranks every one of our sales people from top to bottom, and then we do performance managing against the quality side of the visit. Recognize the top performers, coach the move the middle and hold accountable those that aren't getting the job done and everything in between. John, back to you for any follow-up.

我們有一個記分卡，從上到下對每一位銷售人員進行排名，然後我們根據訪問的品質進行績效管理。表揚表現最好的員工，指導中階員工的晉升，並追究那些沒有完成工作的員工以及介於兩者之間的員工的責任。約翰，請回覆您以了解後續情況。

The follow-up would be, right, so you talked about growing GP dollars above SG&A. So if you take the U.S., right, the delta was 200 basis points this quarter. I mean what's your thought as to the right general level? And lately, it was gross margin-driven, right, gross profit driven as opposed to SG&A. We now shifted back, right, to an environment where it's more SG&A-driven than gross profit.

後續行動是，對，所以你談到了將 GP 美元提高到 SG&A 之上。因此，如果以美國為例，本季的增量為 200 個基點。我的意思是，您對正確的總體水平有何看法？最近，它是毛利率驅動的，沒錯，是毛利驅動的，而不是銷售、管理費用（SG&A）。現在，我們又回到了一個更受 SG&A 驅動而非毛利驅動的環境。

So here's my -- how we think about it. It's both, right? It is the gross profit line and the operating income line. If you look at Q2, you can see that our top line growth was 4%. If you just do the math, the cost of goods, if you will, between sales and gross profit was up 3%. So you had a nice leverage driven by strategic sourcing, our partnership with suppliers driven by mix of business, growth in specialty, local brand penetration. And as a result, GP actually grew 5%. So we had a nice leverage between sales and GP.

這是我的——我們是如何看待這個問題的。兩者都是，對吧？它是毛利線和營業收入線。如果你看第二季度，你會發現我們的營收成長了 4%。如果你算一下，你會發現銷售額和毛利之間的商品成本上升了 3%。因此，您擁有由策略採購驅動的良好槓桿作用，我們與供應商的合作夥伴關係由業務組合、專業成長、在地品牌滲透驅動。結果，GP 實際上增長了 5%。所以我們在銷售和普通合夥人之間有很好的槓桿作用。

Now to Europe on SG&A, we're working extremely hard, driving productivity out. The good news is, is the $100 million of cost out that we talked about at the beginning of the year, that is being seen through the P&L and we're working through a pipeline that's going to render success for us in outer period. And that is -- and you can see GP growing, call it, 5%, and then net earnings growing close to double digit for the prior year. So you're getting the leverage, John, on both the cost of good line and the OpEx line. And we have initiatives back to both sides of the house.

現在，在歐洲的SG&A 方面，我們正在非常努力地工作，以提高生產力。好消息是，我們在年初談到的 1 億美元成本支出，已透過損益表得以體現，我們正在製定一條管道，這將為我們在外部時期帶來成功。也就是說，你可以看到 GP 成長，稱之為 5%，然後上一年的淨利潤成長接近兩位數。約翰，因此您在優質線路和營運支出成本方面都獲得了優勢。我們對房子的兩側都有倡議。

The next question comes from Edward Kelly with Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自富國銀行的愛德華‧凱利。

Nice quarter. I wanted to just follow up on the case line growth. I mean the Q2 result was clearly an inflection around what's the last quarter and the last couple of quarters.

不錯的季度。我只想跟進病例數的增長。我的意思是，第二季的結果顯然是上一個季度和最後幾季的變化。

Can you maybe just help us understand how we should be thinking about the back half of the year from here? So you talked about January off to a slower start. I don't think industry growth is all that spectacular at the moment. I'm just trying to make sure that we're in the right place from an expectation standpoint, just given how strong Q2 was? And then just a clarification on Edward Don, I know it's not in the case volume numbers currently. Does that mean it will not be going forward as well?

您能否幫助我們了解我們該如何思考下半年的情況？所以你談到一月份的開局較慢。我認為目前行業成長並不那麼引人注目。我只是想確保從期望的角度來看我們處於正確的位置，考慮到第二季有多強？然後只是對愛德華唐（Edward Don）進行澄清，我知道這不在目前的案件卷數中。這是否意味著它也不會繼續前進？

We're confident in our ability to profitably grow the local business and not kind of regress back to the mean on where we were in Q1. That's one of the main messages from today's call. We've built momentum local performance, very strong. Exit velocity was strong. Unfortunately, the industry as I did a speed bump, I talked about the W word, which I hate talking about. There's also a 2-year stack thing going on in January where because of very, very strong growth a year ago tied to the prior year being Omicron.

我們對本地業務獲利成長的能力充滿信心，並且不會回歸到第一季的平均值。這是今天電話會議的主要訊息之一。我們在當地的業績表現勢頭強勁，非常強勁。退出速度強勁。不幸的是，這個行業為我做了一個減速帶，我談到了W這個詞，這是我討厭談論的。一月份還有一個 2 年堆疊的事情發生，因為一年前的成長非常非常強勁，與前一年的 Omicron 相關。

There's a 2-year stack phenomenon on January that normalizes itself by mid-February, which we'll get through. And as you know, March is the most important month. We're not going to quote a number on today's call vis-a-vis what you should expect from a local case volume growth other than -- what we are seeing and what we predict is built into the guidance for the year, and we're confident in our ability to deliver the midpoint of the guidance that we point out today. Kenny, touched you for any additional comments.

一月有一個兩年的堆疊現象，到二月中旬就會自行正常化，我們會度過這個時期的。如您所知，三月是最重要的月份。我們不會在今天的電話會議上引用您對當地案件量增長的預期的數字，除了我們所看到的和我們預測的內容已納入今年的指導中，而且我們我們對實現今天指出的指導方針的中點充滿信心。肯尼，如有任何補充意見，請與您聯絡。

Yes. On local growth, as Kevin said, our assumptions are baked into the guidance. We are always focused on profitable growth. That's really important for our company. And you can see that's the reason why that the cash conversion and not leverage was so strong in Q2. In terms of Edward Don, so in our volume number, just to clarify, BIX is in our volume year-over-year, it's immaterial. From a Don side, it is in our total number, just not in the volume number given the different product attributes.

是的。關於當地成長，正如凱文所說，我們的假設已納入指導。我們始終專注於獲利成長。這對我們公司來說非常重要。您可以看到，這就是第二季現金轉換而不是槓桿如此強勁的原因。就愛德華唐 (Edward Don) 而言，在我們的捲數中，只是澄清一下，BIX 逐年出現在我們的捲中，這並不重要。從唐方面來看，它是在我們的總數中，而不是在考慮到不同產品屬性的捲數中。

And that's going to be the case going forward. And I'm just curious as to why Edward Don does not included in volume?

未來的情況也將如此。我只是好奇為什麼愛德華唐沒有收錄在卷中？

I mean -- this is Kevin. We don't include SSMG in our volumes because the business is measured through pounds. And just getting to a common denominator is difficult. The way Don measures their business is today not the same as how we measure the business cases versus pallets versus eaches. And we want to make sure that we get that right before we include it in our metrics, and that's something that we're working on as a part of our integration planning.

我的意思是——這是凱文。我們的銷量不包括 SSMG，因為該業務是透過磅來衡量的。僅僅達成一個共同點是很困難的。今天，Don 衡量他們業務的方式與我們衡量業務案例、托盤和單一的方式不同。我們希望確保在將其納入我們的指標之前我們能做到這一點，這也是我們整合規劃的一部分。

The next question comes from Joshua Long with Stephens.

下一個問題來自約書亞·朗和史蒂芬斯。

Was curious if you could further contextualize the strength of the local case growth in terms of the opportunity to further penetrate kind of existing consumers and then also execute against new customer wins, which I know has been a target and a goal over the last couple of calls that we've talked about.

我很好奇您是否可以進一步將本地案例增長的優勢融入到進一步滲透現有消費者的機會中，然後針對新客戶的勝利執行，我知道這一直是過去幾年的目標和目標我們已經討論過的電話。

On the existing customers, I'll bridge back. I didn't talk a lot today on the prepared remarks about our Recipe for Growth. I was trying to really keep it narrow and focused on drive local performance through selling effectiveness and supply chain. We're really pleased with our Recipe for Growth strategy and the impact of our growth programs on our business. And I'd point you to Sysco Your Way and Perks as two very, very important programs that are increasing penetration with existing customers.

對於現有的客戶，我會進行回覆。今天我沒有就有關我們的成長秘訣的準備好的評論說太多。我試圖真正縮小範圍，並專注於透過銷售效率和供應鏈來推動本地業績。我們對我們的成長秘訣以及成長計畫對我們業務的影響感到非常滿意。我想向您指出 Sysco Your Way 和 Perks 這兩個非常非常重要的計劃，它們正在提高現有客戶的滲透率。

They're continuing to do well at our Investor Day in May. We're going to talk about the longer-term plans for those two growth programs. And then the third is our total team selling effort, which is we over-index in Broadline. We have meaningful share in Broadline, and our share is below industry average in specialty. That's why we are as focused on produce and protein and the ethnic cuisines as we are, we're moving the needle with existing customers on total team selling.

他們在五月的投資者日繼續表現出色。我們將討論這兩個成長計劃的長期計劃。第三個是我們整個團隊的銷售努力，即我們在 Broadline 中過度索引。我們在 Broadline 領域擁有相當大的份額，但在專業領域我們的份額低於行業平均水平。這就是為什麼我們像我們一樣專注於農產品、蛋白質和民族美食，我們正在與現有客戶一起推動整體團隊銷售。

As I've mentioned before, what that program is, is each account has a sales consultant generalist, who is the relationship manager, who's there every week, but they are not going to be an expert in [Specialty/ Bespoke] protein. They're not going to be an expert in Specialty organic produce, as an example. And we're doing a better job of identifying which customers have the propensity to buy those categories, linking up that specialist with the sales consultant generalist in doing a joint visit and then compensating them in such a way that they win together when those cases are added to a Sysco truck regardless if that's a FreshPoint truck or a Sysco Broadline truck.

正如我之前提到的，該計劃是什麼，每個客戶都有一名銷售顧問通才，他是關係經理，每週都會在那裡，但他們不會成為[專業/定制]蛋白質方面的專家。例如，他們不會成為特色有機農產品的專家。我們正在更好地識別哪些客戶有購買這些類別的傾向，將專家與銷售顧問通才聯繫起來進行聯合訪問，然後以這樣的方式補償他們，以便他們在這些情況發生時共同獲勝。添加到Sysco 卡車，無論是FreshPoint 卡車還是Sysco Broadline 卡車。

And we're moving the needle with existing customers as measured by penetration. We're pleased with our performance in that regard. But the lifeblood, we call it the oxygen of the business is constantly bringing in new customers. You need that oxygen to breathe. We're very focused on new. We're very focused on making that a priority of the sales force. It's embedded within our updated compensation model as a priority.

從滲透率來看，我們正在努力吸引現有客戶。我們對我們在這方面的表現感到滿意。但我們稱之為業務氧氣的命脈是不斷引進新客戶。你需要氧氣來呼吸。我們非常注重新事物。我們非常注重將其作為銷售人員的首要任務。它作為優先事項嵌入到我們更新的薪酬模型中。

If they win new business, that's profitable and sufficiently large to make it worth our while to be going to those customers. There's a minimum threshold that they get rewarded as a sales force. That works hard. Prospecting is hard work. We need to make it a priority. We need to manage it, and I'm really pleased with the progress that's been made this last quarter on increasing the portion of our business that's new business one.

如果他們贏得了新業務，那就是有利可圖的，而且規模足夠大，值得我們花時間接觸這些客戶。他們作為銷售人員獲得獎勵有一個最低門檻。這很難。勘探是一項艱苦的工作。我們需要將其作為優先事項。我們需要對其進行管理，我對上個季度在增加新業務部分所取得的進展感到非常滿意。

Great. And then Kevin, in your prepared comments, you mentioned just the overall improvement in supply chain. It seems like things are perhaps continuing to get back to normal. Your results highlight that. Could you talk about the overall health of the supply chain just broadly as an industry and kind of where some of the pushes and pulls are now that we're a little bit further removed from some of the disruptions that occurred over the last couple of years?

偉大的。然後凱文，在您準備好的評論中，您提到了供應鏈的整體改善。看來事情可能會繼續恢復正常。你的結果凸顯了這一點。您能否談談供應鏈作為一個行業的整體健康狀況以及一些推動和拉動的情況，因為我們已經遠離了過去幾年發生的一些中斷？

We're really pleased with our progress of improvement in supply chain. Retention is up overall market, as you just indicated, fewer people are leaving their jobs. There are fewer jobs that are open. So therefore, just general staffing health in the industry is better. And then specifically at Sysco, we're fully staffed. It doesn't mean we don't have a job opening in a specific site today.

我們對供應鏈改進的進展感到非常滿意。正如您剛才所指出的，整個市場的保留率正在上升，離職的人越來越少。空缺的職位越來越少。因此，該行業的一般員工健康狀況較好。特別是在 Sysco，我們人員配備齊全。這並不意味著我們今天在特定地點沒有職位空缺。

But in aggregate across our network, we are fully staffed that bring down, as Kenny said, our hiring costs, our training costs, shrink improves, damages improved, accidents on the road improved. Everything about the ecosystem improves when we have a more tenured population. We're really pleased with that. The productivity levers that we have are moving up into the right as a result of that.

但總的來說，我們的網路中人員配備齊全，正如肯尼所說，這降低了我們的招募成本、培訓成本、收縮改善、損害改善、道路事故改善。當我們擁有更多的終身人口時，生態系統的一切都會得到改善。我們對此感到非常滿意。因此，我們的生產力槓桿正在向右移動。

Oftentimes, I get asked the question, what inning are we in? I think we're up to inning 7 now on supply chain kind of recovering to pre-COVID, which means we still have some gas in the tank. And I want to be clear, when we get to inning 9, the game is not over. What happens in inning 9 is then we introduce new technology, we introduced productivity improvement programs, et cetera. We can get beyond, meaning better than 2019 levels of productivity. But I'd say we're in inning 7, we still have room to improve, and we're focused on delivering.

我常被問到這樣的問題：我們現在處於第幾局？我認為我們現在已經到了第 7 局，供應鏈已經恢復到了新冠疫情之前的水平，這意味著我們的油箱裡還有一些汽油。我想澄清的是，當我們進行到第 9 局時，比賽還沒結束。第九局發生的事情是我們引入新技術，我們引入生產力改進計劃，等等。我們可以超越，這意味著高於 2019 年的生產力水準。但我想說我們已經進入第七局了，我們仍然有改進的空間，我們專注於交付。

Yes. One point for me is, as I mentioned earlier, we have the labor planning tool, and we're really matching -- being very agile here on the expense side, matching labor with volume and making sure that's with the backdrop of the Sysco work standards that I talked about earlier in my question in January, the driver academy, our training programs, our engineering labor standards keep getting better and stronger. We improve processes through leveraging, as Kevin said technology.

是的。對我來說，有一點是，正如我之前提到的，我們有勞動力規劃工具，而且我們真的很匹配——在費用方面非常靈活，將勞動力與數量相匹配，並確保這是在Sysco 工作的背景下我在一月份的問題中談到的標準，駕駛員學院，我們的培訓計劃，我們的工程勞工標準不斷變得更好更強。正如凱文所說，我們透過利用技術來改進流程。

The next wave of productivity improvement is the better have discipline to the standard work that we're doing. So still room for improvement, but we are pleased with the improvement we made in the supply chain, and that's factored into the '24 guidance.

下一波生產力提高是對我們正在做的標準工作有更好的紀律。因此仍有改進的空間，但我們對我們在供應鏈中取得的改進感到滿意，這已納入 '24 指南中。

The next question comes from Kendall Toscano with Bank of America.

下一個問題來自美國銀行的肯德爾托斯卡諾。

So I was wondering if, as you saw a pretty significant rebound in your local customer business in the second quarter, just kind of what the implications are on gross margin performance given that the local customers are a higher-margin customer segment? And then, I guess, as you enter the back half, as my follow-up, how you would expect the local customer growth to look versus the total company?

因此，我想知道，正如您在第二季度看到本地客戶業務出現相當顯著的反彈一樣，考慮到本地客戶是利潤率較高的客戶群，這對毛利率表現有何影響？然後，我想，當你進入後半部分時，作為我的後續行動，你預計本地客戶的成長與整個公司相比會如何？

Yes. So I can start. So you are correct. The local customer does come with an attachment rate with a higher GP dollars per case, and there was a margin accretion as well with the local customer, and we are seeing that flow through the P&L, and that's one of the reasons why you're seeing a nice mix between your leverage on GP as well as the leverage down to EBITDA and net earnings.

是的。這樣我就可以開始了。所以你是對的。本地客戶確實具有較高的每箱 GP 美元的附加率，並且本地客戶的利潤也有所增加，我們看到這種情況通過損益表流動，這就是您的原因之一看到您對GP 的槓桿以及對EBITDA 和淨利潤的槓桿之間的良好組合。

With that said, though, I think we shouldn't overlook the CMU success that we've had in our business. We are also seeing margin expansion. We are also seeing cost of goods leverage across the portfolio of our CMU business. Again, one may think it's just restaurant, but it's not. There's other specialty growth segments that we're winning in the marketplace, that's driving accretion on the margin side.

儘管如此，我認為我們不應該忽視卡內基美隆大學在我們業務中的成功。我們也看到利潤率擴大。我們也看到 CMU 業務組合中的商品成本槓桿。再說一次，人們可能會認為這只是一家餐廳，但事實並非如此。我們在市場上贏得了其他專業成長領域，這推動了利潤率的成長。

When we talk about strategic sourcing, it is not just for a local customer. It is the size and scale of Sysco, and that benefit skills across both our local customers and CMU. We are renewing, we are winning businesses at a higher margin clip at the current moment.

當我們談論策略採購時，它不僅僅針對本地客戶。 Sysco 的規模和規模使我們本地客戶和 CMU 的技能受益匪淺。我們正在更新，目前我們正在以更高的利潤率贏得業務。

Just to plus up the last point that Kenny made, I've tried to be very clear about this point over the last several quarters. Our success in national sales, and we are clearly succeeding in national sales, growing new customer wins and the profitability of that business, as Kenny just said.

為了補充肯尼提出的最後一點，我在過去幾季中一直試圖非常清楚地闡明這一點。正如肯尼剛才所說，我們在全國銷售方面取得了成功，而且我們在全國銷售、不斷贏得新客戶以及該業務的盈利能力方面都取得了明顯的成功。

There's nothing about the growth in national that hinders our ability to grow local. We do not have supply chain capacity constraints, we do not have hiring constraints. What I said on the last call is we want to keep the play running and working in national, and we want to make meaningful progress in local, and we displayed that this past quarter with a 300 basis point improvement and our intention is to continue to make improvement in local.

國內業務的成長並不會妨礙我們本地業務的成長。我們沒有供應鏈產能限制，我們沒有招募限制。我在上次電話會議上所說的是，我們希望保持該劇在全國範圍內的運作和工作，我們希望在當地取得有意義的進展，我們表明，上個季度取得了300 個基點的進步，我們的意圖是繼續在本地進行改進。

The next question comes from John Ivankoe with JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的約翰·伊万科。

The question is on inflation. And I'm wondering what kind of indicators you were looking at to sustain inflation through the back half of '24. I mean some PPI food, for example, metrics might suggest a little bit more deflation than what you're talking about is kind of the first question.

問題在於通貨膨脹。我想知道你們在尋找什麼樣的指標來維持 24 世紀下半年的通貨膨脹。我的意思是一些生產者物價指數（PPI）食品，例如，指標可能表明通貨緊縮比你所說的第一個問題要多一些。

And secondly, there's been at least some chatter -- some grocery stores actually sequentially lowering their pricing as their own commodity costs have you been easing. I mean have you seen anywhere in the marketplace in terms of your competitors, maybe on the nationals, but on the local or regionals, of different operators that are lowering their price per case to their customers of something that could potentially be influencing the market over time?

其次，至少有一些討論——一些雜貨店實際上已經連續降低了定價，因為他們自己的商品成本一直在下降。我的意思是，您是否在市場上的任何地方看到過競爭對手，也許是在全國範圍內，但在本地或地區，不同的運營商正在向其客戶降低每箱的價格，這可能會影響市場時間？

John, it's Kenny. I'll start. So on the topic of inflation, you are correct. We are informed by data. We actually have a traffic (inaudible) data. We partnered directly with suppliers, third-party strategic partners, institutions, and the like. And so we have a rich data set of our own as well, given how much volume goes through our supply chain each and every day across various segments and industries. So we're all that modeling in right now.

約翰，這是肯尼。我開始吧。所以關於通貨膨脹這個話題，你是對的。我們透過數據獲知資訊。我們實際上有一個交通（聽不清楚）數據。我們直接與供應商、第三方策略夥伴、機構等合作。因此，考慮到每天有多少量通過我們的供應鏈，跨越各個細分市場和產業，我們自己也擁有豐富的資料集。所以我們現在就在當模特兒。

Number two, we watch our basket very closely. Now I've talked about this in the past. But if you think about our commodity basket, we have 12 main commodities. And we don't really over index on anyone in particular. No one come out more than 15%. So each and every day, we're managing inflation and deflation, right? For example, you could have beef, for example, which is growing close to double digit, but you can have another commodity that's in a different space.

第二，我們非常密切地關注我們的籃子。我過去已經談過這個問題了。但如果你考慮我們的商品籃子，我們有 12 種主要商品。我們並沒有真正過度索引任何特定的人。沒有人出來超過15%。所以我們每天都在管理通貨膨脹和通貨緊縮，對嗎？例如，您可以購買牛肉，其增長接近兩位數，但您可以購買位於不同空間的另一種商品。

So Sysco has historically and today managed deflation, inflation day in and day out. And the third point, as I mentioned earlier, Q1 deflation in the U.S.; Q2, slightly positive inflation. On both quarters, we were able to effectively drive positive, consistent and operating leverage to our P&L.

因此，無論是歷史上還是今天，西斯科都日復一日地管理通貨緊縮和通貨膨脹。第三點，如我先前所提到的，美國第一季的通貨緊縮；第二季度，通膨小幅正向。在這兩個季度，我們都能夠有效地為損益表帶來積極、一致的營運槓桿。

It's Kevin, I'll just add. You asked about prices to the consumer in the local business, in particular. It's a very efficient market, John. So as our COGS come down, yes, the way it works is we then are able to pass through value to our customers. So unlike a retail store, we're publishing prices in a circular and putting signs on a shelf.

我是凱文，我補充一下。您特別詢問了當地企業向消費者提供的價格。這是一個非常有效的市場，約翰。因此，隨著我們的銷貨成本下降，是的，它的運作方式是我們能夠將價值傳遞給我們的客戶。因此，與零售店不同的是，我們在通告中公佈價格並在貨架上貼上標誌。

For us, it's a dynamic business. The book gets priced weekly, as do our competitors. And as prices come down, it's an efficient market. And that gets passed through to customers. As Kenny said, though, we didn't maintain profitability ratios on the way up. We can maintain profitability ratios on the way down. That's the value of our pricing tool that we are leveraging extensively to make sure that we are where we need to be.

對我們來說，這是一項充滿活力的業務。這本書每週都會定價，我們的競爭對手也是。隨著價格下降，這是一個有效的市場。這會傳遞給客戶。不過，正如肯尼所說，我們並沒有維持獲利比率的上升。我們可以在下降的過程中維持獲利率。這就是我們廣泛利用的定價工具的價值，以確保我們達到我們需要的目標。

As it relates to just general confidence in the year-to-go inflation figures, we've got a lot of data at Sysco. We have global data. We have access to a large amount, as Kenny said, across the 12-plus categories. Some are moving up, some are moving down. The one that's going to be the biggest tailwind in the year to go is Produce. Produce was substantially deflationary in Q2 because of wild markets the year before due to major flooding in California. Produce is going to return to more normal, like low levels of inflation, 1% to 2% versus down substantially in Q2.

由於它與對未來一年通膨數據的整體信心有關，因此我們在 Sysco 獲得了大量數據。我們有全球數據。正如肯尼所說，我們可以存取 12 多個類別的大量內容。有的在上升，有的在下降。未來一年最大的動力將是 Produce。由於前一年加州發生嚴重洪災，導致市場瘋狂，第二季農產品大幅通貨緊縮。農產品將恢復到更正常的狀態，例如通貨膨脹率較低，為 1% 至 2%，而第二季度則大幅下降。

So that's one of the bigger drivers of giving confidence in the year to go. And we said muted inflation, but certainly muted inflation is up from where we were in the first half of the year.

因此，這是讓人們對未來一年充滿信心的更大推動力之一。我們曾說過通膨溫和，但毫無疑問，溫和的通膨高於今年上半年的水平。

The next question comes from Alex Slagle with Jefferies.

下一個問題來自 Alex Slagle 和 Jefferies。

I just want to see if you could provide any color on the broader growth rates and health of the various categories you participate in. There are certain specialty categories that are growing particularly well or certain customer types in the industry if the growth has either carried off or accelerated lately?

我只是想看看您是否可以提供有關您參與的各個類別的更廣泛的增長率和健康狀況的任何信息。如果增長已經實現，那麼某些特殊類別的增長特別好，或者行業中的某些客戶類型或最近加速了？

Alex, it's Kevin. I'll start and then if Kenny has anything to add, he can jump in. Let me first just talk about like where is the business growing, where is success happening, and then I'll flip back to the customer. But it's okay, I'm going to actually answer it in reverse. Right now, Broadline is winning. And what I mean by that is distributors.

亞歷克斯，這是凱文。我會開始，然後如果肯尼有什麼要補充的，他可以加入。讓我先談談業務在哪裡成長，在哪裡發生成功，然後我會回到客戶。不過沒關係，我其實會反過來回答。目前，Broadline 正在獲勝。我的意思是經銷商。

So Broadline distributors are winning. People ask us all the time, Kevin, how can it be true that you plus the other big 2 are all saying you're taking share? Answer is scale matters in this industry. Size and scale matter, our purchasing scale, our delivery scale, our technology scale. And frankly, all 3 of the big 3 are growing faster than the market.

因此，Broadline 經銷商正在獲勝。人們總是問我們，凱文，你和其他兩大巨頭都說你在搶佔份額，這怎麼可能是真的呢？答案是這個行業的規模問題。規模和規模很重要，我們的採購規模、交付規模、技術規模。坦白說，三大巨頭中的所有三個成長速度都快於市場。

Our growth for the quarter was plus 3.4 and the overall market was very nominal growth. So we meaningfully outgrew versus the market and my suspicion will be as well the other big players in the space. So what does that mean? It means the growth is coming from smaller regional distributors and specialty distributors.

我們本季的成長率為+3.4，整個市場的名目成長率非常高。因此，我們的成長明顯超過了市場，我懷疑該領域的其他大玩家也是如此。那麼這意味著什麼呢？這意味著成長來自較小的區域分銷商和專業分銷商。

Point two for the Sysco specific thesis is our specialty business is meaningfully performing. So we're winning in Broadline in total versus the 60-plus percent of the business that's not done through the Big 3, that's a very clear point that should be understood. 60% of the business does not happen from the Big 3, where the big players are winning meaningfully in Broadline versus that 60%. And then within specialty, Sysco's specialty is outperforming versus specialty. So that's kind of the thesis or the story of why we're outperforming versus the market.

Sysco 的具體論點的第二點是我們的專業業務正在有意義地發揮作用。因此，我們在 Broadline 領域總體上取得了勝利，而 60% 以上的業務不是透過三大巨頭完成的，這是一個非常明確的觀點，應該被理解。 60% 的業務並非來自三大巨頭，與這 60% 的業務相比，大型企業在 Broadline 中取得了有意義的勝利。然後在專業領域內，Sysco 的專業領域表現優於專業領域。這就是為什麼我們的表現優於市場的論文或故事。

As it relates to the customer side, we're seeing no discernible moves trade up, trade down, trade left, trade right. The best operators are winning. People who have interesting concepts or interesting culinary trends are winning, but we're not seeing trade up or trade down. Since the January blip that I mentioned, it was a robust food-away-from-home market in Q2. And then specifically, December was a robust month as consumers were frequenting food-away-from-home establishments.

就客戶方面而言，我們沒有看到明顯的向上交易、向下交易、向左交易、向右交易的舉動。最好的運營商正在獲勝。擁有有趣的概念或有趣的烹飪趨勢的人會獲勝，但我們沒有看到向上或向下的交易。自從我提到的一月份的小插曲以來，第二季的外送市場就變得非常強勁。具體來說，12 月是一個強勁的月份，因為消費者經常光顧外賣場所。

The next question comes from Jake Bartlett with Truist Securities.

下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Jake Bartlett。

Mine was on the chain business and the growth there has been strong. And maybe if you can just confirm my math on that case growth among the chain business accelerated in the second quarter, maybe kind of what you're doing to drive that acceleration? And then if you can maybe provide an update on the relative profitability. I know the gap between independents and chains has narrowed, but if you can give us just maybe a better sense as to how much that's narrowed at this point?

我的業務是連鎖業務，而且成長強勁。也許如果你能證實我對第二季連鎖業務成長加速的數學運算，也許你正在採取哪些措施來推動這種加速？然後您是否可以提供有關相對盈利能力的最新資訊。我知道獨立品牌和連鎖店之間的差距已經縮小，但您能否讓我們更了解目前差距縮小了多少？

Okay. So I'll start, and I'll toss it to Kenny for any additional comment he may have. It's -- our CMU business, it's half of our business. We're winning meaningfully in that space. And yes, we did accelerate in Q2 versus Q1, and we have confidence in our ability to continue to be very successful in CMU. When people hear chain, they think national restaurants. I want to be very clear that is just one portion of that business.

好的。那麼我就開始吧，我會把它交給肯尼，徵求他可能有的任何補充意見。這是我們的 CMU 業務，它是我們業務的一半。我們在這個領域取得了有意義的勝利。是的，與第一季相比，我們確實在第二季度取得了加速，並且我們對我們在卡內基美隆大學繼續取得成功的能力充滿信心。當人們聽到連鎖店時，他們會想到民族餐廳。我想非常明確地說，這只是該業務的一部分。

Travel and hospitality is in that space. Healthcare is in that space, education is in that space. And we've had notable and meaningful wins in each of those nonnational restaurant sectors. In fact, our focus is in nonnational restaurant sectors. The low profit portion of CMU is the national chain restaurant space, mostly in the QSR space. That's the lowest profit business.

旅遊和旅館業就屬於這個領域。醫療保健屬於那個領域，教育屬於那個領域。我們在每個非本國餐飲業都取得了顯著且有意義的勝利。事實上，我們的重點是非本國餐飲業。 CMU 的低利潤部分是全國連鎖餐廳空間，主要是 QSR 空間。這是利潤最低的生意。

We're really focused on within national sales, which customer types we create a win-win contract relationship with our customers where we can help them achieve their objectives. We can do it at a cost to serve that meets their objectives. And they're willing and want to partner with Sysco on things that are profitable and helpful for Sysco. Like, for example, Sysco brand penetration.

我們真正關注的是全國銷售，我們與客戶建立雙贏的合約關係，幫助他們實現目標。我們可以以一定的成本來實現他們的目標。他們願意並且希望在對 Sysco 有利可圖且有幫助的事情上與 Sysco 合作。例如，Sysco 品牌滲透率。

With local customers, we have more than 50% of our cases on that truck that are Sysco brand. And one of the reasons why the profit profile is lower in national is a lower penetration of Sysco brand. So we're looking for partners who want to grow together, who want to win together. And our national sales team has been doing a really good job in that regard, and we expect that momentum to continue. Kenny any additional comments you'd like to make?

對於當地客戶，我們 50% 以上的卡車上的箱子都是 Sysco 品牌。而國內利潤率較低的原因之一是Sysco品牌的滲透率較低。因此，我們正在尋找想要一起成長、想要共同獲勝的合作夥伴。我們的全國銷售團隊在這方面做得非常好，我們預計這種勢頭將繼續下去。肯尼，您還有什麼意見嗎？

Yes, I'll say a few things here. So if you think about any business, right, I'll say ROIC is a lens, how we look at all businesses, including chain. On the CMU side, as Kevin mentioned, we did accelerate. You are correct. The math is correct, but we accelerated profitably. That's a really important point here. Many of the things that we're doing across technology, strategic sourcing, all of our initiatives does impact both the local and the CMU side. So it is scaling and I know we say this a time scale and size really matters in the industry. So that's really important. Sometimes, we'll say this -- we all think the compensation plan ties only local. We have many, many things that scales across both local and driving possibility for both sides of the house. That's my first point.

是的，我在這裡說幾句話。所以如果你思考任何業務，對吧，我會說ROIC是一個鏡頭，我們如何看待所有業務，包括連鎖店。在卡內基美隆大學方面，正如凱文所提到的，我們確實加速了。你是對的。數學是正確的，但我們加速獲利。這是非常重要的一點。我們在技術、策略採購方面所做的許多事情，我們所有的舉措確實對當地和卡內基美隆大學方面都有影響。所以這是規模化，我知道我們說時間規模和規模在行業中確實很重要。所以這非常重要。有時，我們會這樣說——我們都認為補償計劃只與當地有關。我們有很多很多東西可以滿足房屋兩側的本地和駕駛可能性。這是我的第一點。

The second point is, again, ROIC cuts both ways. In SYGMA, which is mostly the bigger customers, we -- they were down on volume year-on-year. However, give the supply chain efficiencies and productivity that we're driving and pruning the customers side of the house, we were able to double -- more than double the business on profit, 140% increase there. So that gives you a little bit of color on how we think about productivity as well as some of the other side of ROIC.

第二點是，ROIC 是雙向的。在 SYGMA 中，主要是較大的客戶，我們—他們的銷售量較去年同期下降。然而，考慮到我們正在推動和修剪客戶方面的供應鏈效率和生產力，我們能夠將業務利潤翻倍——增加一倍以上，成長 140%。因此，這讓您對我們如何看待生產力以及投入資本回報率的其他方面有了一些了解。

Great. And I just had a quick follow-up on the comments on the local business on the independent side. Kevin, you mentioned that the industry was robust. Are you seeing generally positive traffic in your -- at your local customers? I'm wondering whether just local traffic has improved in this latest quarter versus the prior quarters?

偉大的。我剛剛對獨立方面對當地企業的評論進行了快速跟進。凱文，你提到這個行業很強勁。您的本地客戶是否看到整體上正面的客流量？我想知道最近一個季度的本地流量是否比前幾季有所改善？

Yes. Independent traffic, especially in December, was robust. That's my most concise way of describing it. Really healthy, strong I'd tell you we're strong across food away from home, but independents, in particular, very strong in December.

是的。獨立客流量，尤其是 12 月份，非常強勁。這是我最簡潔的描述方式。真的很健康，很強大，我會告訴你，我們在遠離家鄉的食物方面很強大，但獨立人士，特別是在十二月非常強大。

The next question comes from Brian Harbour with Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的布萊恩哈伯。

You've discussed this, but maybe I'll ask it in a slightly different way. On operating leverage, you expect it for the full year. Do you expect a little bit less in the second half, maybe as a consequence of ramping up hiring? Or are some of the cost out sort of an offset to that? How do you think about that in the second half versus the first half?

您已經討論過這個問題，但也許我會以稍微不同的方式提出這個問題。就營運槓桿而言，您預計全年都會如此。您對下半年的預期是否會減少，也許是因為增加招募的結果？或者部分成本可以抵銷這一點？與上半場相比，您如何看待下半場？

Yes. So you are correct in terms of the second half dynamic and let me explain what that means. So in the first half of fiscal year 2023, if you recall, we had snapback and excess overtime in the first half of last year. But also recall, throughout the back half of last year, fiscal year '23, those costs subsided, it became 0 towards the back half.

是的。所以你對下半場動態的看法是正確的，讓我解釋一下這代表什麼。因此，在 2023 財年上半年，如果您還記得的話，去年上半年我們出現了快速恢復和超額加班。但也要回想一下，在去年下半年，也就是 23 財年，這些成本逐漸消退，到下半年就變成 0了。

Also supply chain, productivity, turnover, retention, labor standards, all of those things that we're driving the value that we're seeing today, that started really towards the back half of last year. So said differently, Brian, we are lapping a more challenging comparison from a comp standpoint. With that said, we are also investing in our business and our stride is operating leverage here for the full year.

還有供應鏈、生產力、營業額、保留率、勞工標準，所有這些我們正在推動我們今天看到的價值的因素，這些因素實際上是從去年下半年開始的。所以換句話說，布萊恩，我們從比較的角度進行了更具挑戰性的比較。話雖如此，我們也在投資我們的業務，我們的大步是全年的營運槓桿。

Okay. That makes sense. Maybe just on International. I know that's not as big for you, but it is pretty material, right?. I think we've seen sort of some varying performance in international markets just restaurant companies have said. Could you comment on how you see that in the second half also kind of how you see the inflationary trend over the next couple of quarters in that business?

好的。這就說得通了。也許只是在國際上。我知道這對你來說不是那麼大，但它很重要，對吧？我認為正如餐飲公司所說，我們在國際市場上看到了一些不同的表現。您能否評論一下您如何看待下半年以及該行業未來幾季的通膨趨勢？

Yes, this is Kevin. I'll start, Brian. I appreciate the question on international. I'll talk about just what we're seeing in international, and Kenny can address the inflation part of the question at the end. Yes, the headline here is we're very pleased with international performance. Rewind tape, I've been here 4 plus years now.

是的，這是凱文。我要開始了，布萊恩。我很欣賞關於國際的問題。我將談論我們在國際上看到的情況，肯尼可以在最後解決問題的通貨膨脹部分。是的，這裡的標題是我們對國際表現非常滿意。倒帶，我在這裡已經四年多了。

COVID had a very negative impact on International.

新冠疫情對國際產生了非常負面的影響。

The shutdowns were earlier. They were deeper, they were longer. They were more punitive, and it was a rough go, especially in Europe. We're out of that now. We are clear of that, and we are very pleased with our performance. International is a tailwind for Sysco from a growth perspective and from a profitability improvement contribution perspective.

停工時間更早。它們更深，更長。他們的懲罰性更強，而且這是一個艱難的過程，尤其是在歐洲。我們現在已經擺脫了這種情況。我們很清楚這一點，我們對我們的表現非常滿意。從成長角度和獲利能力改善貢獻的角度來看，國際業務對西斯科來說是一個順風車。

I'll just call out three examples from a color commentary to give it some texture. Canada is doing incredibly well. Local performance in Canada, greater than 6% case growth. Local performance Canada, greater than 6% case growth, and that's our largest international business. Why is that happening? We're deploying the Sysco play in an even greater way, bringing advanced digital tools to the country, bringing the Recipe for Growth to the country and leveraging an extremely talented team north of the border. So Canada is doing extremely well.

我將從顏色評論中舉出三個例子來給它一些質感。加拿大的表現令人難以置信。加拿大本地表現，病例成長超過6%。加拿大本地業績成長超過 6%，這是我們最大的國際業務。為什麼會發生這種情況？我們正在以更偉大的方式部署 Sysco 遊戲，為該國帶來先進的數位工具，為該國帶來增長秘訣，並利用邊境以北的一支極其有才華的團隊。所以加拿大做得非常好。

Great Britain, our second largest international country. We've always had a very good robust and mature CMU business, and we were underpenetrated in local. We are meaningfully focused on winning local from a leadership perspective in country, and we are revamping our supply chain and our systems capabilities in Great Britain to be able to better serve local customers in that country, and we're moving them up the profitability curve as a result of increasing penetration with local.

英國，我們第二大國際國家。我們一直擁有非常強大、成熟的 CMU 業務，但我們在本地的滲透率還不夠。我們有意義地專注於從該國的領導力角度贏得當地市場，我們正在改造我們在英國的供應鏈和系統能力，以便能夠更好地服務該國的當地客戶，我們正在推動他們提高盈利能力由於本地滲透率不斷提高。

And last but not least, let me talk about France. France has been a problem child for my tenure at Sysco, mostly self-inflicted. I have been very transparent about that over time. And we have turned the corner in France, upward, onward and better. We're off to a really good start in the first half of the year in France. We have a strong leadership team in place in France, and they're really beginning to -- like I've said a second ago, run the Sysco play.

最後但並非最不重要的一點是，讓我談談法國。在西斯科任職期間，法國一直是個問題兒童，這主要是我自己造成的。隨著時間的推移，我對此一直非常透明。我們在法國已經渡過難關，向上、向前、更好。今年上半年我們在法國有了一個非常好的開始。我們在法國擁有一支強大的領導團隊，他們真的開始——就像我剛才所說的那樣——管理 Sysco 的運作。

We've deployed strategic sourcing, AKA PJM, which is our strategic sourcing capability. We're working on introducing Sysco brand product in France, and we're working to increase the product range available and each of those things is working and France is contributing positively this year to our P&L in a way that is beneficial to the overall company. So those are just some color commentary points and I toss to Kenny for any comments on inflation.

我們已經部署了戰略採購，又名 PJM，這是我們的戰略採購能力。我們正在努力在法國推出 Sysco 品牌產品，我們正在努力增加可用的產品範圍，所有這些事情都在發揮作用，法國今年以有利於整個公司的方式為我們的損益做出了積極貢獻。所以這些只是一些色彩評論點，我向肯尼詢問有關通貨膨脹的任何評論。

Yes. Brian. So if you think about the -- earlier in the year, the inflation for International was roughly over 10% and this very quarter that we just had was roughly 6.5%. So we are seeing inflation subsiding a bit throughout the quarter. With that said though, we are excited given the One global operating model that we're operating in right now, and that is driving dividends.

是的。布萊恩.因此，如果你想一想，今年早些時候，國際通膨率大約超過 10%，而本季的通膨率大約是 6.5%。因此，我們看到整個季度通膨略有下降。儘管如此，鑑於我們目前正在運營的 One 全球營運模式，我們感到很興奮，這正在推動股息。

It extends our size, extends our scale, leverage capabilities, tools, and best practices. So as Kevin talked about, a lot of that playbook under the one umbrella of global operating model is really creating dividend.

它擴大了我們的規模，擴大了我們的規模，並利用了能力、工具和最佳實踐。因此，正如凱文所說，全球營運模式下的許多劇本確實正在創造紅利。

So yes, while inflation is pressured, we are seeing the ops us through future sourcing, local case growth, technology play overall, One global operating model. So yes, we are still very optimistic and bullish about the international market as a growth engine for us. As you can see in Q2, we were up 10% on upline and 30% on operating income.

因此，是的，儘管通膨面臨壓力，但我們透過未來採購、本地案例成長、整體技術發揮、統一的全球營運模式看到了我們的營運。所以，是的，我們仍然非常樂觀和看好國際市場作為我們的成長引擎。正如您在第二季所看到的，我們的上線收入成長了 10%，營業收入成長了 30%。

This does conclude today's question-and-answer session and today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.

今天的問答環節和今天的節目到此結束。感謝您的參與。您可以隨時斷開連線。