西斯柯 (SYY) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to Sysco's third-quarter finance fiscal year 2025 conference call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. We will begin with opening remarks and introductions.

歡迎參加 Sysco 2025 財年第三季財務電話會議。提醒一下，今天的通話正在錄音。我們將以開幕詞和介紹開始。

I would like to now turn the call over to Kevin Kim, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在我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 third-quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings call. On today's call, we have Kevin Hourican, our Chair of the Board and CEO; and Kenny Cheung, our CFO.

大家早安，歡迎參加 Sysco 2025 財年第三季財報電話會議。今天的電話會議由我們的董事會主席兼執行長 Kevin Hourican 主持；以及我們的財務長 Kenny Cheung。

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.

在我們開始之前，請注意，本次演示中所作的陳述，即公司或管理層的意圖、信念、期望或對未來的預測，均屬於《私人證券訴訟改革法案》所定義的前瞻性陳述，實際結果可能存在重大差異。

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 June 29, 2024, subsequent SEC filings, and in 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不同的因素的更多資​​訊包含在該公司提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中。這包括但不限於我們截至 2024 年 6 月 29 日的 10-K 表年度報告、隨後提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件以及今天早上發布的新聞稿中包含的風險因素。這些資料的副本可在 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 also be found in the investors section of our website.

我們今天的評論和簡報幻燈片都包含了非公認會計準則財務指標。這些非 GAAP 指標與相應 GAAP 指標的對帳包含在簡報幻燈片的末尾，也可以在我們網站的投資者部分找到。

During the discussion today, unless otherwise stated, all results are compared to the same period in the prior year. 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. If you have a follow-up question, we ask that you reenter the queue.

在今天的討論中，除非另有說明，所有結果都與去年同期進行比較。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上。如果您有後續問題，請您重新進入佇列。

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

現在，我想將電話轉給 Kevin Hourican。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Q3 was a difficult quarter for the industry that began with wildfires in California, which significantly impacted our important Southern California region and included historic winter storms throughout the country in January and February.

大家早安，感謝大家今天加入我們。第三季度對行業來說是一個艱難的季度，首先是加州的野火，這場野火嚴重影響了我們重要的南加州地區，並且 1 月和 2 月全國範圍內還遭遇了歷史性的冬季風暴。

We [sight] these events as having an approximately 150 basis points negative impact on sales trends for food distributors in the quarter. Foot traffic to restaurants during the quarter reflected these challenges. With January down 1.3%, February down 5.7%, and March down 2.3%. The court overall was down 3.1%, which represented a 150-basis point deceleration versus Q2's traffic level of down 1.6%.

我們認為這些事件對本季食品分銷商的銷售趨勢產生了約 150 個基點的負面影響。本季餐廳客流量反映了這些挑戰。其中，一月下降1.3%，2月下降5.7%，3月下降2.3%。法院整體下降了 3.1%，與第二季 1.6% 的客流量水準相比，下降了 150 個基點。

In addition to the effects of adverse weather in the quarter, tumor confidence has been shaken by the recent trade policy and tariff negotiations. As you are aware, to closely follow Michigan consumer confidence survey recently highlighted that consumers are expressing one of the lowest levels of confidence in approximately 20 years. The decline in confidence levels gives us concern for the full year ahead. I'll speak more about tariffs and their impact on the industry in a few moments.

除了本季不利天氣的影響外，近期的貿易政策和關稅談判也動搖了腫瘤信心。如你所知，密切關注的密西根州消費者信心調查最近強調，消費者的信心水平處於大約 20 年來的最低水平之一。信心水準的下降讓我們對未來一年感到擔憂。稍後我將進一步談論關稅及其對產業的影響。

As a reminder, Kenny and I communicated on our Q2 call, that we had anticipated nominal improvement in the business macro environment going from the first half into the second half of our fiscal year. Unfortunately, at this time, we've experienced the opposite macro effect and Sysco's business performance for Q3 reflects the industry traffic deceleration.

提醒一下，肯尼和我在第二季電話會議上表示，我們預計從本財年上半年到下半年，商業宏觀環境將出現名義上的改善。不幸的是，此時我們經歷了相反的宏觀效應，Sysco 第三季的業務表現反映了產業流量的減速。

We are disappointed with the quarter, but it is important to note two things. Sysco's USFS volume trends for the quarter trended in line with the industry traffic deceleration. And more importantly, business performance in March strengthened over the course of the month. And while it is unusual for us to comment about the first month of a quarter, given the uncertainties in the macro backdrop and given our softer than expected Q3, we felt it was important to highlight our April performance was stronger than March.

我們對本季感到失望，但有兩件事值得注意。Sysco 本季的 USFS 運輸量趨勢與產業運輸量減速趨勢一致。更重要的是，3月份的業務表現在整個月內有所增強。雖然我們很少對一個季度的第一個月發表評論，但考慮到宏觀背景的不確定性以及我們第三季度的表現弱於預期，我們認為有必要強調我們 4 月份的表現強於 3 月份。

For the month of April, industry traffic adjusted for calendar shifts has trended slightly better than March. The Easter shift in the period complicates year-over-year comparisons. However, even when adjusting for the Easter calendar shift, April has produced stronger volume growth rates versus March and versus Q3.

就四月份而言，根據日曆變化調整後的行業流量趨勢比三月略有改善。復活節期間的轉變使得同比變化變得複雜。然而，即使考慮到復活節日曆的變化，4 月的銷售成長率仍然高於 3 月和第三季。

We are pleased to see the relatively stronger start toward Q4, but we are cautiously planning our business for the remainder of 2025, given the aforementioned tariff uncertainties in consumer confidence data.

我們很高興看到第四季的開局相對強勁，但考慮到消費者信心數據中上述關稅的不確定性，我們正在謹慎規劃 2025 年剩餘時間的業務。

Given that macro backdrop, I will now pivot to Sysco's results for the quarter, where, as you can see on slide number 4, we delivered sales results of $19.6 billion, up 1.1% on a reported basis, and up 1.8% to last year when excluding the divestiture of Mexico. We delivered adjusted operating income of $773 million, down 3.3% to last year and adjusted EPS of $0.96, flat to last year.

鑑於宏觀背景，我現在將轉向 Sysco 本季度的業績，正如您在幻燈片 4 上看到的，我們的銷售額為 196 億美元，按報告基礎計算增長 1.1%，如果不包括墨西哥的資產剝離，則比去年增長 1.8%。我們的調整後營業收入為 7.73 億美元，比去年下降 3.3%，調整後每股收益為 0.96 美元，與去年持平。

We converted negative 3.1% foot traffic to restaurants into positive sales by winning new business and successfully passing through approximately 2.1% inflation for the quarter. Importantly, we are making solid progress on our $100 million profit improvement efforts that Kenny discussed last quarter, with a positive contribution in the period from our strategic sourcing and inbound logistics efficiency improvements. Those efforts will have an increased positive impact on our Q4.

透過贏得新業務並成功度過本季約 2.1% 的通貨膨脹期，我們將餐廳客流量（負 3.1%）轉化為正銷售額。重要的是，我們在肯尼上個季度討論的 1 億美元利潤提升計劃上取得了堅實進展，我們的戰略採購和入站物流效率提昇在此期間做出了積極貢獻。這些努力將對我們的第四季產生更積極的影響。

Our International segment posted another compelling quarter with profit growth of double digits. This is the sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit profit growth from our International segment. Within USFS, our national sales business delivered flat volume growth for the quarter and sales growth of 2.3%. Both figures were below our expectations, driven by softness in the national restaurant sector.

我們的國際部門又取得了令人矚目的一個季度，利潤實現了兩位數的成長。這是我們國際部門連續第六個季度實現兩位數利潤成長。在美國林務局內部，我們的全國銷售業務本季銷量持平成長，銷售額成長 2.3%。由於全國餐飲業的疲軟，這兩個數據都低於我們的預期。

Within national sales, our noncommercial business continues to perform with strength in food service management, education, and travel and leisure. Our Local business delivered negative 3.5% volume growth for the quarter. This was a step down versus our Q2 performance, but the step down was consistent with the traffic change to the industry on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

在全國銷售中，我們的非商業業務在食品服務管理、教育以及旅遊休閒領域持續表現強勁。本季度，我們的本地業務銷量成長了-3.5%。與我們第二季的業績相比，這是一個下降，但這一下降與行業客流量的環比變化是一致的。

Lastly, our SYGMA segment delivered sales growth of 9.5% for the quarter, driven by strong customer wins versus prior year. The sales and volume growth in SYGMA will begin to reduce in coming quarters as we begin to lap large customer wins within the last year. SYGMA is having a very strong year, growing top-line 9% and bottom-line 17% year to date.

最後，我們的 SYGMA 部門本季銷售額成長了 9.5%，這得益於與去年同期相比強勁的客戶成長。由於我們在去年開始贏得大量客戶，SYGMA 的銷售額和銷售成長將在未來幾季開始下降。SYGMA 今年表現非常強勁，年初至今營收成長 9%，淨利成長 17%。

We are disappointed with the overall financial performance in the quarter as we had expected a stronger macro backdrop. With that said, important initiatives to improve our local business are beginning to deliver results. It is unfortunate that our self-help improvement is coming at the same time that the industry backdrop softened. However, we remain 100% focused on accelerating our progress. We anticipate that we'll increase our progress on these important initiatives in the coming quarters.

由於我們原本預期宏觀經濟背景會更加強勁，因此我們對本季的整體財務表現感到失望。話雖如此，改善我們本地業務的重要措施開始取得成果。不幸的是，我們的自助改進與行業背景軟化同時發生。然而，我們仍然全力以赴地加快我們的進步。我們預計未來幾季我們將在這些重要措施上取得更大進展。

Now that I have covered the general backdrop of the industry in Sysco's sales, volume, and profit performance, I would like to provide an update on specific initiatives we are driving to improve our performance results. First, I'd like to discuss the state of our sales consultant workforce.

現在我已經介紹了 Sysco 的銷售、銷售和利潤表現的行業總體背景，我想介紹一下我們為提高業績結果而採取的具體舉措。首先，我想討論一下我們的銷售顧問團隊的狀況。

I am pleased to report that our 2025 hiring cohorts are progressing up their productivity curve. Each of our hiring classes are on target to achieve their sales and volume targets. Importantly, I can also report today that our sales consultant retention has significantly improved versus the first half of the year.

我很高興地報告，我們 2025 年的招募隊伍的生產力曲線正在不斷提高。我們招募的每一批員工都致力於實現他們的銷售和銷售目標。重要的是，我今天還可以報告，與今年上半年相比，我們的銷售顧問保留率有了顯著提高。

FC turnover was a headwind for Sysco in the first half of fiscal 2025, and we expect it will become a tailwind in 2026 as we lap those colleague departures and our new hires increase their productivity. Regarding colleague retention, we just completed our annual employment engagement survey, and our sales colleague job satisfaction was up solidly year over year. Colleague engagement drives retention and colleague retention drives positive customer engagement.

FC 人員流動是 Sysco 在 2025 財年上半年面臨的一個不利因素，但我們預計，隨著我們克服了員工離職的困難，同時新員工的工作效率有所提高，2026 年它將成為順風。關於同事保留，我們剛完成了年度員工敬業度調查，我們的銷售同事的工作滿意度逐年穩步上升。同事的參與推動了員工的保留，而同事的保留又推動了客戶的積極參與。

Given questions we have received on recent investor calls, I would like to explain the net-net impact of colleague turnover in a bit more detail so that you have clarity on what we are experiencing.

考慮到我們在最近的投資者電話會議上收到的問題，我想更詳細地解釋同事流動的淨影響，以便您清楚地了解我們正在經歷的情況。

During the first half of 2025, we experienced elevated calling over that peaked in September. The negative impact of SC departures is immediate as we need to reassign customer locations to other Sysco colleagues. During that customer realignment, select customer attrition occurs. As such, a departing colleague has an immediate negative headwind impact on our business, and that headwind can persist for a full 12 months until you lap the customer departure. In contrast to the immediate impact of a departure, a colleague hiring has the opposite time horizon.

2025 年上半年，我們的通話量大幅增加，並在 9 月達到高峰。由於我們需要將客戶位置重新分配給其他 Sysco 同事，SC 離職的負面影響是立竿見影的。在客戶重新調整期間，會出現部分客戶流失的情況。因此，同事的離職會立即為我們的業務帶來負面影響，而這種負面影響可能會持續整整 12 個月，直到客戶離職為止。與離職的直接影響相比，同事招募的時間範圍則相反。

New colleague hiring has a slow and gradual positive impact on the business. New colleagues start with a small book of business and grow that business over time as they expand their territory. The length of time to become productive for a new sales consultant is approximately 12 to 18 months, on average, as it can be quicker or slower depending upon the sales experience of the new hire.

新同事的聘用對業務有著緩慢而漸進的正面影響。新同事從一本小型業務簿開始，隨著業務範圍的擴大，業務逐漸成長。新銷售顧問達到工作崗位所需的時間平均約為 12 至 18 個月，具體時間長短取決於新進員工的銷售經驗。

Putting it all together, as a result of these two factors, fiscal 2025 has experienced a net headwind from our colleague population. Given that we have stabilized our retention figures and that our new hires are performing, we expect the scales of this equation to dip from negative to positive as we enter fiscal 2026.

總而言之，由於這兩個因素，2025 財年我們遭遇了同事群體的淨阻力。鑑於我們已經穩定了留任率，並且新員工的表現也不錯，我們預計，進入 2026 財年，這一等式的規模將從負數變為正數。

The second local topic I would like to highlight today is colleague compensation and performance management. Our sales consultants are embracing our compensation model. They are driving the right selling behaviors, and they are, on average, making more money than prior year. These actions are most notable in the winning of new business where we have opened more new accounts in March than any prior period outside of COVID snapback.

我今天想強調的第二個本地主題是同事薪資和績效管理。我們的銷售顧問正在接受我們的薪酬模式。他們正在推動正確的銷售行為，平均而言，他們賺的錢比前一年多。這些舉措最顯著的表現是贏得了新業務，3 月我們開設的新帳戶數量比 COVID 反彈期間以外的任何時期都要多。

We have work to do in order to improve customer retention as industry churn across distributors is currently above the historical average. As a result, we have a company-wide effort on improving local customer retention to complement the success we are having with new account wins. The hyper focus on service and retention will be a stronger positive vector in fiscal 2026 versus 2025.

由於目前分銷商的行業流失率高於歷史平均水平，我們需要努力提高客戶保留率。因此，我們全公司上下都在努力提高本地客戶保留率，以補充我們在贏得新客戶方面所取得的成功。與 2025 財年相比，對服務和保留的高度關注將成為 2026 財年更強勁的積極因素。

The third topic for today is our fulfillment capacity expansion. We previously spoke to opening a new facility in Allentown PA earlier this year. That new DC is focused on winning new business in the population dense Northeast corridor. I recently visited our next new site, just outside Tampa that will support the growing Florida market. The new facility in Tampa will open this summer and will increase our ability to win net new business in the Florida region by expanding our storage and throughput capacity, especially to support the peak winter months.

今天的第三個主題是我們的履行能力擴展。我們之前曾談到今年稍早在賓州阿倫敦開設一家新工廠。新的配送中心致力於在人口密集的東北走廊贏得新業務。我最近參觀了我們位於坦帕郊外的下一個新站點，該站點將支援不斷增長的佛羅裡達市場。坦帕的新工廠將於今年夏天投入使用，透過擴大我們的儲存和吞吐能力，將增強我們在佛羅裡達地區贏得淨新業務的能力，特別是為了支持冬季高峰期。

Internationally, we are on track to open new facilities in Sweden and Ireland in the summer. Each of these projects will support expanded storage and throughput capacity that we believe will enable us to profitably grow our business in target-rich international geographies.

在國際上，我們計劃於夏季在瑞典和愛爾蘭開設新工廠。我們相信，每個專案都將支援擴大儲存和吞吐能力，這將使我們能夠在目標豐富的國際地區實現業務獲利成長。

Lastly, I would like to speak to our work to improve our pricing agility. At the CAGNY conference in February, Sysco introduced a new local sales initiative that is currently in pilot mode in select regions. As I said at CAGNY, we are pleased with our margin discipline and overall price competitiveness utilizing our current pricing system and architecture. With that said, it is a competitive marketplace. Competition will occasionally offer our customer savings on select items.

最後，我想談談我們為提高定價彈性所做的工作。在二月的 CAGNY 會議上，Sysco 推出了一項新的本地銷售計劃，目前正在部分地區試行。正如我在 CAGNY 所說的那樣，我們對利用當前定價系統和架構的利潤率紀律和整體價格競爭力感到滿意。話雖如此，這是一個競爭激烈的市場。競爭對手偶爾會為我們的客戶提供精選商品的折扣。

Today, our sales reps need to seek approval in order to match a given competitor price on a given item. The time delay of that approval process can sometimes result in a lost sale or even a lost customer. We're working to speed up this process and provide our frontline colleagues with decision-making authority, leveraging our pricing tools. Our sales professionals will be able to respond to the customer on-the-spot moment, enabling incremental opportunities to potentially save -- all while maintaining strong margin discipline.

今天，我們的銷售代表需要尋求批准才能匹配特定商品的特定競爭對手價格。審批流程的延遲有時會導致銷售損失，甚至失去客戶。我們正在努力加快這一進程，並利用我們的定價工具為我們的一線同事提供決策權。我們的銷售專業人員將能夠立即回應客戶的需求，從而提供潛在的節省機會，同時保持嚴格的利潤紀律。

This increased speed to action will improve case volume and customer return. Most importantly, our underlying pricing technology will be leveraged to underpin the agility process. We will roll out the new model once the pilot results are matching our intended outcomes. And as we prepare and train our colleagues, new and experienced, to sell in this model.

行動速度的加快將提高案件數量和客戶回報。最重要的是，我們的底層定價技術將被用來支援敏捷流程。一旦試點結果符合我們的預期，我們就會推出新模式。我們正在準備和培訓我們的新同事和有經驗的同事，以這種模式進行銷售。

As I wrap up the update on local sales, I want to congratulate our international team for another outstanding quarter. International local volume increased 4.5%. Even more impressively, adjusted operating income increased 17.4%. Particular strength was delivered from our Canada, Great Britain and Ireland businesses. We expect the completion of these strong results from our International segment in Q4 and into fiscal 2026.

當我總結本地銷售更新時，我想祝賀我們的國際團隊又一個出色的季度。國際本地交易量增加了4.5%。更令人印象深刻的是，調整後的營業收入成長了17.4%。我們的加拿大、英國和愛爾蘭業務表現特別強勁。我們預計國際部門將在第四季和 2026 財年取得強勁業績。

As I wrap up the business review section of my prepared remarks, I would like to make a few comments on some additional important topics. First off, I would like to address what we are seeing with tariffs and the potential impact on the food distributor landscape. It is important to note that Sysco purchases greater than 90% of our products within country in each country that we operate. Food is inherently local, and our sourcing teams greatly leverage local food suppliers.

在我結束準備好的發言中的業務回顧部分時，我想就一些其他重要主題發表一些評論。首先，我想談談我們所看到的關稅問題以及其對食品分銷商格局的潛在影響。值得注意的是，Sysco 在我們開展業務的每個國家都採購了 90% 以上的產品。食品本質上是當地特有的，我們的採購團隊充分利用了當地的食品供應商。

As a result, our tariff exposure is much less than most industries. For those products that we cannot source locally, like avocados for Mexico, we are working efficiently to understand the impact of tariffs on our costs. At this time, produce from Mexico and Canada is exempt through USMCA. With that said, we recently learned that tomatoes will in fact be taxed and tariffed when imported.

因此，我們的關稅風險比大多數行業都要低得多。對於那些我們無法在當地採購的產品，例如墨西哥的酪梨，我們正在有效地了解關稅對我們成本的影響。目前，墨西哥和加拿大的產品已透過 USMCA 獲得豁免。話雖如此，我們最近了解到，西紅柿在進口時實際上會被徵稅和徵收關稅。

To manage these complexities, we have stood up a tariff management task force that meets daily. The focus of the task force work is the following: number one, ensure we have products in stock and available for our customers; number two, defend against price increases from suppliers and do everything possible to minimize their impact on potential cost increases for our customers; number three, find alternative sources of product if and when a cost increase is excessive; number four, work with our customers to find menu alternatives and product choice alternatives that can reduce the potential negative cost increase impact.

為了處理這些複雜問題，我們成立了一個每天開會的關稅管理工作小組。工作小組的工作重點如下：第一，確保我們有庫存並可供客戶使用；第二，抵禦供應商漲價，盡一切可能將其對客戶潛在成本增加的影響降至最低；第三，如果成本增加過多，則尋找替代產品來源；第四，與我們的客戶合作尋找菜單替代品和產品選擇替代品，以減少潛在的負面成本增加影響。

All told, Sysco is in a better position than anyone in the food service distribution space to manage this dynamic situation in our size, scale, and global procurement division. Our global leadership gives us a strategic advantage to understand the supplier community in hundreds of countries and have the ability to leverage that knowledge and those relationships in our procurement efforts.

總而言之，Sysco 比食品服務分銷領域的任何人都更有能力在規模、範圍和全球採購部門方面管理這種動態局面。我們的全球領導地位為我們提供了策略優勢，讓我們了解數百個國家的供應商群體，並有能力在我們的採購工作中利用這些知識和關係。

As you have heard from other company CEOs, our main concern with tariffs is not product cost inflation. Our main concern is the negative impact that tariff noise and volatility is clearly having on end consumer confidence intimate. The Michigan Consumer Confidence Survey data I referenced earlier presents a clear reflection of that concern.

正如您從其他公司執行長那裡聽到的，我們對關稅的主要擔憂不是產品成本上漲。我們主要擔心的是關稅噪音和波動顯然對最終消費者信心的負面影響。我之前提到的密西根消費者信心調查數據清楚地反映了這種擔憂。

We are hopeful that the uncertainty and volatility stabilizes and that the economy doesn't dip into a recession. With that said, we are making preparations for a more challenging environment, and we will be appropriately cautious in our outlook.

我們希望不確定性和波動性能穩定下來，經濟不會陷入衰退。話雖如此，我們正在為更具挑戰性的環境做好準備，並且我們將對我們的前景採取適當謹慎的態度。

To help offset softness that may be created by the macro economy, Kenny and our entire leadership team are focused on disciplined cost management and contingency planning. Sysco's initiating balance sheet is a major source of strength in times like these, as we are able to continue investing in our business when others will need to pull back. This can take the form of winning new customers, building inventory to support new business and even pursuing M&A if we find the right target opportunity at the right price.

為了幫助抵消宏觀經濟可能造成的疲軟，肯尼和我們整個領導團隊都專注於嚴格的成本管理和緊急計劃。在這樣的時期，Sysco 的初始資產負債表是一個主要的力量來源，因為當其他公司需要撤退時，我們能夠繼續投資我們的業務。這可以表現為贏得新客戶、建立庫存以支持新業務，甚至如果我們以合適的價格找到合適的目標機會，還可以進行併購。

Sysco is in a position of strength in times of greatest uncertainty. My last topic for today is the introduction of a pilot program at Sysco, whereby we will open two cash and carry store locations within the Houston community.

在最不確定的時期，Sysco 處於強勢地位。我今天的最後一個主題是介紹 Sysco 的一項試點計劃，我們將在休士頓社區內開設兩家現購自運商店。

As you can see on slide 7, the store concept is called Sysco To Go. We are interested in cash and carry for the following reasons: it is the fastest-growing part of the food away from home, in a business where we have 0% marketer today. Cash and carry customers are looking for: a, value; b, convenience and; c oftentimes the ability to pay cash.

正如您在第 7 張投影片上看到的，該商店的概念稱為 Sysco To Go。我們對現購自運感興趣的原因如下：它是外食領域成長最快的部分，目前我們的行銷人員在該業務中所佔比例為 0%。現購自運的顧客尋求的是：a、價值； b、方便和； c 通常具有現金支付能力。

This is a customer that Sysco is not adequately serving today through our delivery model. By having the customer pick up the product themselves at our store location, we eliminate the most expensive part of the supply chain, Final Mile delivery. That cost elimination enable Sysco to offer our world-class products at lower prices than when we deliver to the restaurant. This enables us to meet of the value-seeking customer more effectively.

目前，Sysco 尚未透過我們的交付模式為該客戶提供充分的服務。透過讓顧客親自到我們的商店領取產品，我們消除了供應鏈中最昂貴的部分——最後一英里的交付。這種成本消除使得 Sysco 能夠以比送貨到餐廳更低的價格提供我們世界一流的產品。這使我們能夠更有效地滿足尋求價值的客戶。

I want to be very clear, this is a two-store pilot. The future of the initiative will be determined by the outcomes we produce in these test locations. It is important to note that these two stores are supported from Sysco's existing supply chain, leveraging our own product assortment. As a result, we have a strong command of projected costs to run the stores. Levering our existing supply chain is a major strength of the format, given both stores are in close proximity to our Eastern DC.

我想非常清楚地說明，這是一個兩店試點。該計劃的未來將取決於我們在這些試驗地點的成果。值得注意的是，這兩家商店都由 Sysco 現有的供應鏈提供支持，利用我們自己的產品組合。因此，我們對經營商店的預期成本有很強的掌控力。由於兩家商店都靠近我們東部的配送中心，因此利用我們現有的供應鏈是模式的一大優勢。

We are excited to open the two stores in Houston soon and welcome value-seeking restaurant customers into this compelling shopping environment.

我們很高興很快在休士頓開設這兩家店，並歡迎追求價值的餐廳顧客來到這個引人注目的購物環境。

I'll now turn it over to Kenny who will provide a detailed review of Q3 performance in select fiscal year 2025 guidance commentary. Kenny, over to you.

現在我將把時間交給肯尼 (Kenny)，他將在 2025 財年精選指導評論中提供第三季業績的詳細回顧。肯尼，交給你了。

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. I plan to start with high-level thoughts on our performance, detail our Q3 financials. And then dive into full year 2025 guidance. To start, financial results this quarter included sales growth with stable adjusted EPS performance. In the context of all of the challenging macro headlines over the past few months, growing sales as the industry leader while retaining best-in-class product margin and rewarding our shareholders with our balance capital allocation is noteworthy.

謝謝你，凱文，大家早安。我計劃先從高層角度思考我們的業績，然後詳細說明我們第三季的財務狀況。然後深入探討 2025 年全年指導。首先，本季的財務業績包括銷售額成長和穩定的調整後每股盈餘表現。在過去幾個月所有充滿挑戰的宏觀新聞背景下，作為行業領導者，我們在保持一流產品利潤率的同時，實現銷售額增長，並透過平衡資本配置回報股東，這是值得注意的。

However, this quarter missed expectations. As Kevin highlighted, the challenging macro and continuation of negative industry traffic impacted results. In this dynamic backdrop, we will remain agile in our management of the business as we also tighten our focus on the controllable.

然而本季的表現未達預期。正如凱文所強調的，嚴峻的宏觀形勢和持續的負面行業流量影響了業績。在這種動態的背景下，我們將繼續靈活地管理業務，同時加強對可控因素的關注。

Our strong business fundamentals, industry-leading balance sheet and strong cash flow generation are competitive advantages, especially in a challenging macro environment. As part of our balanced approach to capital allocation, we remain positioned to generate robust free cash flow that enables us to both invest in long-term growth while also rewarding our shareholders.

我們強大的業務基礎、業界領先的資產負債表和強勁的現金流創造能力是我們競爭優勢，尤其是在充滿挑戰的宏觀環境中。作為我們平衡資本配置方法的一部分，我們仍致力於產生強勁的自由現金流，這使我們能夠投資於長期成長，同時回報我們的股東。

Specific to this last point, we have repurchased $700 million in shares and paid out $752 million in dividends year to date, including repurchasing $400 million in shares this quarter. Further, we recently increased our planned quarterly cash dividend by $0.03 to $0.54 per share. This represents a 6% increase year over year in FY '26 to be our 56th year of delivering dividend growth.

具體到最後一點，今年迄今為止，我們已經回購了價值 7 億美元的股票，並支付了 7.52 億美元的股息，其中包括本季回購的 4 億美元股票。此外，我們最近將計劃的季度現金股息提高了 0.03 美元，達到每股 0.54 美元。這意味著 26 財年股息年增 6%，這是我們連續第 56 年實現股息成長。

Looking ahead, we expect our dividend to continue growing commensurate for adjusted EPS growth.

展望未來，我們預期股息將繼續隨著調整後的每股盈餘成長而成長。

Now let's discuss our performance and financial driver for the quarter starting on slide 11. For the third quarter, our enterprise sales grew 1.1% on an as-reported basis, driven by US Foodservice in SYGMA. Excluding the impact of our now divested Mexico business, sales grew 1.8%. With respect to volume, stable volumes across the enterprise included total US food service volume decreasing 2% and local volume decreasing 3.5%.

現在讓我們從第 11 張投影片開始討論本季的業績和財務驅動力。第三季度，我們的企業銷售額以報告基礎計算成長了 1.1%，這主要得益於 SYGMA 旗下美國食品服務業務的成長。不計入我們現已剝離的墨西哥業務的影響，銷售額增長了 1.8%。就銷量而言，整個企業的銷量保持穩定，其中美國食品服務總量下降 2%，本地銷量下降 3.5%。

Our national business remains stable, highlighting the strength of the recession resilient sectors in which we operate, such as food service management, travel and leisure, and education. The local volume performance compares to down 1.9% in Q2 2025, the sequential deceleration was consistent with the industry traffic deceleration, but also included headwinds from the carryover impact of sales colleague turnover from earlier in the year.

我們的全國業務保持穩定，凸顯了我們經營的行業在經濟衰退時期的韌性，例如食品服務管理、旅遊休閒和教育。當地客運量表現與 2025 年第二季相比下降了 1.9%，連續減速與產業客運量減速一致，但也包括今年稍早銷售同事流失帶來的後續影響帶來的阻力。

Going forward, we expect stronger contributions from nearest sales professionals that continue to work up the productivity curve and benefit from the stabilization of colleague retention that Kevin mentioned earlier.

展望未來，我們期望最近的銷售專業人員做出更大的貢獻，繼續提高生產力曲線，並受益於 Kevin 之前提到的同事保留率​​的穩定。

International segment results, including Mexico, this quarter demonstrated steady top momentum and double-digit operating income growth. This reflects continued momentum from successfully applying the Sysco playbook. The ongoing success is highlighted by local volumes growing 4.5% and broad-based operating income across our international portfolio.

本季包括墨西哥在內的國際部門業績表現出穩定的頂級動能和兩位數的營業收入成長。這體現了 Sysco 策略成功應用的持續動力。我們持續取得的成功體現在本地銷售成長 4.5% 以及國際投資組合廣泛的營業收入。

We produced $3.6 billion in gross profit, down 0.8% and gross margin of 18.3% with improved gross profit per case performance. The decline in gross profit dollars for the quarter was primarily driven by negative volumes as well as mix.

我們的毛利為 36 億美元，下降 0.8%，毛利率為 18.3%，每箱毛利有所提高。本季毛利的下降主要是由於銷售和產品組合下降所致。

Volume was impacted by the macro and negative traffic, partially offset by continued growth in our more recession-resilient businesses. Second, mix remained pressured from the continued impact of our NAS business outpacing our local performance as well as negative mix from lower Sysco brand penetration rates.

銷售量受到宏觀因素和負面流量的影響，但被我們更具抗衰退能力的業務的持續成長部分抵消。其次，由於我們的 NAS 業務持續超過我們的本地業績，以及 Sysco 品牌滲透率較低造成的負面組合，組合仍然承壓。

In addition, the industry challenging traffic backdrop of delays as compared to our expected time lines, which resulted in fewer than expected strategic sourcing deals being finalized this quarter. That said, we remain confident around the overarching opportunity in our line of sight on benefits to Q4 from recently completed deals. Going forward, we expect improving gross margins driven by incremental benefits from strategic sourcing initiatives as part of our cost savings program and an improvement from mix.

此外，與我們預期的時間線相比，產業交通狀況出現延誤，導致本季完成的策略採購交易數量低於預期。儘管如此，我們仍然對近期完成的交易將為第四季帶來的整體機會充滿信心。展望未來，我們預計，作為成本節約計畫的一部分，策略採購計畫帶來的增量效益以及產品組合的改善將推動毛利率的提高。

Product inflation came in at 2.1% for the total enterprise, consistent with our expectations. This is the average across all of our major product categories with our teams regularly managing through pockets of fluctuation. Overall, adjusted operating expenses were $2.8 billion for the quarter or 14.3% of sales, a 17 basis point improvement from the prior year.

整個企業的產品通膨率為2.1%，符合我們的預期。這是我們所有主要產品類別的平均值，我們的團隊會定期管理波動情況。總體而言，本季調整後的營運費用為 28 億美元，佔銷售額的 14.3%，比去年同期提高了 17 個基點。

We continue to experience improved retention rates and productivity with our supply chain colleagues. This is resulting in strong NPS anchor by our highest service levels of the year for on-time deliveries, helping offset elevated supply chain labor rates and funding long-term growth consistent with our ROIC framework.

我們的供應鏈同事的保留率和生產力不斷提高。這使得我們全年最高的準時交貨服務水準支撐了強勁的 NPS，有助於抵消供應鏈勞動成本的上升，並為符合我們 ROIC 框架的長期成長提供資金。

This includes investment in higher growth areas of the business with fleet, building expansion, and sales head count. Lower annual bonus incentive compensation in our USFS segment and Global Support Center also impacted expenses for Q3. We remain disciplined with our corporate expenses down 16.8% from the prior year on an adjusted basis, which also included accretive productivity cost out, along with efficiency work that we deployed in FY '24. These benefits are included in our $100 million cost savings program.

這包括對業務高成長領域的投資，包括車隊、建築擴建和銷售人員數量。我們 USFS 部門和全球支援中心的年度獎金激勵薪酬較低也影響了第三季的支出。我們保持紀律，公司支出經調整後較上年下降 16.8%，其中還包括增加的生產力成本，以及我們在 24 財年部署的效率工作。這些福利包含在我們的 1 億美元成本節約計畫中。

Building off Kevin's point around tariffs, we are focused on leveraging our size and scale advantages by buying better to sell better. Our customer mix is a strategic advantage. We have efficient pass-through with national customers and spot pricing from existing and growing local customer base.

基於凱文關於關稅的觀點，我們專注於利用我們的規模優勢，透過更好的購買來更好地銷售。我們的客戶組合是一種策略優勢。我們與全國客戶保持高效的溝通，並與現有和不斷增長的本地客戶群進行現貨定價。

Our inventory turnover of approximately 14x per year also enables us to work through inflation and deflation quickly relative to other industries. Overall, adjusted operating income was $773 million for the quarter, reflecting strong growth in our International segment and expense management and Global Support Center offset by declines in our USFS segment.

我們的庫存週轉率約為每年 14 次，這也使我們能夠比其他行業更快地應對通貨膨脹和通貨緊縮。總體而言，本季調整後的營業收入為 7.73 億美元，反映了我們國際部門、費用管理和全球支援中心的強勁成長，但被我們 USFS 部門的下滑所抵消。

For the quarter, adjusted EBITDA of $969 million was down 0.8% versus the prior year. Let's now turn to our balance sheet and cash flow, a compelling competitive advantage. As I have explained before, our balance sheet affords us the financial tools and flexibility to make the right position both for the short and long term as we seek to grow our business while driving industry-leading returns on invested capital.

本季調整後的 EBITDA 為 9.69 億美元，較上年下降 0.8%。現在讓我們來看看我們的資產負債表和現金流，這是一個引人注目的競爭優勢。正如我之前所解釋的那樣，我們的資產負債表為我們提供了財務工具和靈活性，使我們在尋求發展業務的同時，在短期和長期內都能做出正確的定位，同時推動行業領先的投資資本回報。

Our balance sheet remains robust and reflects a healthy financial profile. This includes flexibility and optionality from approximately $4.4 billion in total liquidity, well above our minimum threshold. We ended the quarter at a 2.8 times net debt leverage ratio.

我們的資產負債表依然強勁，反映出健康的財務狀況。這包括約 44 億美元總流動性的靈活性和可選性，遠高於我們的最低門檻。本季末我們的淨債務槓桿率為 2.8 倍。

Turning to our cash flow. We generated approximately $1.3 billion in operating cash flow and $954 million in free cash flow year to date. Free cash flow was driven by strong quality of earnings and prudent management of working capital. This quarter marked our strongest conversion rate of the year. For the full year, we continue to expect strong conversion rates from adjusted EBITDA to operating cash flow at approximately 70% and free cash flow at approximately 50%.

轉向我們的現金流。今年迄今為止，我們產生了約 13 億美元的營運現金流和 9.54 億美元的自由現金流。自由現金流是由高品質的獲利和審慎的營運資本管理所推動的。本季是我們今年轉換率最高的季度。就全年而言，我們繼續預期調整後的 EBITDA 向經營現金流的轉換率將達到約 70%，自由現金流的轉換率將達到約 50%。

As noted earlier, our strong financial position enabled us to return approximately $649 million to shareholders this quarter. Now I would like to share with you our updated expectations for Q4 and FY '25.

如前所述，我們強勁的財務狀況使我們能夠在本季度向股東返還約 6.49 億美元。現在我想與大家分享我們對第四季和 25 財年的最新預期。

Given the uncertain environment and general concerns regarding consumer confidence, we are lowering our full year guidance for FY25 as seen on slide 17. During FY25, we now expect reported net sales growth of approximately 3%, slightly down from the prior target of 4% to 5%. This is largely driven by lower-than-expected volume growth driven by the market. Our assumptions for inflation of approximately 2% and contributions from M&A remain unchanged.

鑑於不確定的環境和對消費者信心的普遍擔憂，我們下調了 2025 財年的全年預期，如第 17 頁所示。在25財年，我們預期報告的淨銷售額成長約為3%，略低於先前4%至5%的目標。這主要是由於市場推動的銷售成長低於預期。我們對通貨膨脹率約為 2% 且併購貢獻的假設保持不變。

We now expect full year 2025 adjusted EPS growth of at least 1%. For Q4, this implies adjusted EPS to be at least flat. The revision to guidance reflects the current uncertain macro environment and its outsized impact to the second half of the year, which historically is more profitable.

我們現在預計 2025 年全年調整後每股盈餘將成長至少 1%。對於第四季度，這意味著調整後的每股盈餘至少持平。此次指引修訂反映了當前不確定的宏觀環境及其對下半年的巨大影響，而從歷史上看，下半年的獲利能力更強。

This upcoming quarter also includes our planned strategic investments related to refreshing our fleet and building capacity coming online. This updated guidance assumes no further degradation of the restaurant trapping environment and a slight improvement to our volume performance. Importantly, we believe this guide is achievable based on a strong exit velocity for March and continued momentum into April in Q4, including higher contributions from cost out.

即將到來的這個季度還包括我們計劃的與更新我們的船隊和建設上線能力有關的戰略投資。此更新指南假設餐廳捕集環境不會進一步惡化，且我們的銷售表現會略有改善。重要的是，我們相信，基於 3 月份強勁的退出速度和第四季度 4 月份的持續勢頭，包括成本支出貢獻的增加，這一指南是可以實現的。

We remain confident in delivering our run rate cost save target of approximately $100 million which we expect to benefit Q4 in the first half of 2026, helping offset the current macro environment. We plan to remain focused on operational discipline, tightening the belt as necessary and investment for long-term growth.

我們仍有信心實現約 1 億美元的營運成本節約目標，預計這將使 2026 年上半年的第四季受益，並有助於抵消當前的宏觀環境。我們計劃繼續注重營運紀律，必要時勒緊褲帶並進行長期成長投資。

We remain target to reward our shareholders to the distribution of (inaudible) all of our annual free cash flow with over $1 billion in dividends and $1.25 billion in share repurchases, this assumes fourth-quarter share repurchase of $550 million and dividends of $250 million. For the year, we expect to operate within our stated target of 2.5 times -- the 2.75 times net leverage ratio and maintain our investment-grade balance sheet.

我們的目標仍然是透過分配（聽不清楚）我們所有的年度自由現金流來回報我們的股東，其中股息超過 10 億美元，股票回購 12.5 億美元，假設第四季度股票回購額為 5.5 億美元，股息為 2.5 億美元。今年，我們預計淨槓桿率將達到既定目標的 2.5 倍——2.75 倍，並維持投資等級資產負債表。

Now turning to a few other [modelling] items. For Q4, we expect a tax rate of approximately 24% and adjusted depreciation and amortization of approximately $200 million. Interest expense is now expected at approximately $170 million. Looking ahead and as we have proven over time, we will leverage our position as the market leader to drive disciplined growth as we remain focused on unlocking value that will be (inaudible) for our shareholders.

現在轉向其他一些[建模]項目。對於第四季度，我們預計稅率約為 24%，調整後的折舊和攤提約為 2 億美元。目前預計利息支出約 1.7 億美元。展望未來，正如我們隨著時間的推移所證明的那樣，我們將利用我們作為市場領導者的地位來推動有紀律的成長，因為我們將繼續專注於為股東釋放價值（聽不清楚）。

With that, I will turn the call back to Kevin for closing remarks.

說完這些，我會把電話轉回給凱文，請他作最後發言。

Thank you, Kenny. Q3 did not live up to our expectations on the top or bottom line. The macro softness directly impacted our volume trends within the important local and national restaurant business sectors. Our trade down in volume during the quarter is directly linear with the widely communicated traffic decline experienced by the industry over the same period. With that said, we can see progress that we are making on activities within our local business.

謝謝你，肯尼。第三季的營收和淨利均未達到我們的預期。宏觀經濟疲軟直接影響了我們在重要本地和全國餐飲業務領域的銷售趨勢。我們本季的交易量下降與業界同期經歷的廣泛傳播的流量下降呈線性關係。話雖如此，我們可以看到我們在本地業務活動方面正在取得進展。

Colleague retention has stabilized. New customer win rate is accelerating. As I mentioned, we are still working through the headwind of prior quarter's colleague resignations, but that impact will reduce in magnitude each quarter.

同事保留率​​已經穩定。新客戶贏取率正在加速。正如我所提到的，我們仍在努力克服上一季同事辭職帶來的影響，但這種影響每季都會逐漸減弱。

As we head into fiscal 2026, the net-net of colleague retention and new colleague hiring will become a tailwind. Why? Our new hire is performing and they are responding to the updated compensation model. They are opening new business. They are in their sales targets.

隨著我們進入 2026 財年，同事保留和新同事聘用的淨網絡將成為順風。為什麼？我們的新員工表現出色，他們對更新後的薪酬模式做出了回應。他們正在進行新業務。他們正處於銷售目標階段。

Additionally, our new distribution centers will increase our ability to win profitable new business in important geographies, both domestically and globally. The most compelling proof point to highlight the self-help progress we are making in our local business is the percentage of new business we are opening weekly. March was a very strong month for opening new business, and the progress has continued into April. Combined with our efforts -- in customer retention through pricing agility and improved service levels from our supply chain. We are confident we can grow our customer count in 2026.

此外，我們的新配送中心將增強我們在國內和全球重要地區贏得獲利性新業務的能力。最能證明我們在本地業務中取得自助進展的證據是我們每週開設的新業務的百分比。三月是新業務開辦非常強勁的一個月，這種勢頭一直延續到了四月。結合我們的努力－透過靈活的定價和提高供應鏈的服務水準來留住客戶。我們有信心在 2026 年增加我們的客戶數量。

From a business perspective, March local volume improved 270 basis points versus February and local volume during the first weeks of April improved further versus March. We are pleased to see the stronger April, and we are cautiously planning our coming months due to the tariff uncertainty.

從業務角度來看，3 月份本地交易量較 2 月份提高了 270 個基點，4 月份前幾週的本地交易量較 3 月份進一步提高。我們很高興看到四月份表現更加強勁，由於關稅的不確定性，我們正在謹慎規劃未來幾個月的計劃。

I am confident Sysco will make progress on our improvement initiatives in the coming periods. The external environment (technical difficulty) in the year ago, and we are prepared to (technical difficulty) balance sheet and fiscal responsibility will be strength points as we navigate this volatile environment. I am confident in our ability to win versus the overall marketplace in challenging conditions, just like we successfully grew our business during the COVID disruptions.

我相信 Sysco 將在未來一段時間內在改進計劃上取得進展。外部環境（技術難度）與去年持平，而我們做好準備（技術難度）資產負債表和財政責任將成為我們應對這一動盪環境的優勢點。我相信我們有能力在充滿挑戰的條件下戰勝整個市場，就像我們在新冠疫情期間成功發展業務一樣。

At times like these are higher than industry profit margins and strong balance sheet cannot be overstated. We also expect our International division, which has been less impacted by the volatility to continue to be a strong point for the company, having the diversified business will be a strength point ahead.

在這種時候，高於產業的利潤率和強勁的資產負債表的重要性怎麼強調也不為過。我們也預計，受波動影響較小的國際部門將繼續成為公司的強項，多元化業務將成為未來的優勢。

With that, operator, we're now ready for questions.

接線員，現在我們可以回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions) Alex Slagle, Jefferies.

（操作員指示） Alex Slagle，Jefferies。

Thanks for the question. I had a question on the local business. If you could kind of talk about the sales head count investments you've been making, where we are with that? And I guess any evidence these investments are really moving the needle. You provided a couple of interesting tidbits on the acceleration into March and April, but any other sort of pockets of your business where you can point out where you're seeing the initiatives deliver positive organic case growth or clear market share gains, something that really gives you confidence that the drivers are in place and working as hoped?

謝謝你的提問。我對當地業務有疑問。您能否談談您在銷售人員數量上所做的投資？目前進展如何？我認為任何證據表明這些投資確實發揮了作用。您提供了一些有關 3 月和 4 月加速發展的有趣消息，但您能否指出您業務中的其他任何領域，您看到這些舉措帶來了積極的有機案例增長或明顯的市場份額增長，這真的讓您有信心推動因素已經到位並按預期發揮作用？

Alex, it's Kevin. Thank you for the question. I'll start with your first part of your question, which is sales consultant head count. We expect to end the year at approximately 4% growth in our head count -- approximately 4% growth year over year at the conclusion of Q4, it's an estimate. It will be at least 4% growth. So that's the answer to that question.

亞歷克斯，我是凱文。謝謝你的提問。我先從您問題的第一部分開始，也就是銷售顧問人數。我們預計今年年底我們的員工人數將成長約 4%——第四季末的年成長率約為 4%，這只是一個估計值。至少會成長4%。這就是該問題的答案。

As it relates to signals of progress, as I said in my prepared remarks, we have several proof points that we can share March being stronger than Q3 in total, April being stronger than Q3, nose up, if you will, on the controllables, evidenced by new customer win rate. In the month of March, we opened more new customers at any point in time other than the snapback recovery from COVID.

至於進展訊號，正如我在準備好的發言中所說，我們有幾個證據點可以證明，3 月份的整體表現強於第三季度，4 月份的表現強於第三季度，如果你願意的話，在可控因素方面，新客戶贏率就是明證。3 月份，除新冠疫情導致的快速復甦外，我們的新客戶數量在任何時間點都保持成長。

Proofpoint number two, the quality and productivity of the training cohorts. As you know, we hire people in classes. Those places graduate, and we track them every single month on their performance versus where we expect them to be, and I can definitively communicate that our hiring cohorts are producing. They're growing their productivity at the rate we expect and anticipate.

第二個證明點是訓練隊伍的品質和生產力。如您所知，我們按課程招募人員。這些畢業生，我們每個月都會追蹤他們的表現以及我們對他們預期的表現，我可以肯定地說，我們的招募團隊很有成效。他們的生產力正以我們期望和預期的速度成長。

And as I said in my prepared remarks, why that's not evident and visible and market share gains/volume growth that we're proud of in year to date is the offset of these things, which was the increased probably turnover that experienced during the first half of the year.

正如我在準備好的發言中所說的那樣，為什麼這一點並不明顯和可見，以及我們今年迄今為止引以為豪的市場份額增長/銷量增長是這些因素的抵消，這可能是上半年營業額的增長。

As I said in my prepared remarks, that peaked in September, it improved in Q2, but we're still carrying that headwind of the colleague separation because when they depart, there's some customer loss that goes along with that. We anticipate the scales of that equation, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, it is positive in Q1 of fiscal 2026 because of the confidence in the new hires and that we'll be lapping that increased separation.

正如我在準備好的發言中所說的那樣，這一情況在 9 月達到頂峰，在第二季度有所改善，但我們仍然面臨同事離職帶來的不利因素，因為當他們離開時，會伴隨一些客戶流失。正如我在準備好的評論中提到的那樣，我們預計這個等式的規模在 2026 財年第一季是積極的，因為對新員工的信心，並且我們將彌補增加的分離。

So Kenny, anything to add?

那麼 Kenny，還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yeah. Alex, it's Kenny here. A couple things here. One piece is we are encouraged by seeing select geographies already hitting our growth expectations, driven by the (inaudible) improved retention as well as the new comp model that we talked about. And then that's carrying into Q4 as well. So that's one truthful to answer to your question.

是的。亞歷克斯，我是肯尼。這裡有幾件事。一方面，我們很高興看到部分地區已經達到了我們的成長預期，這得益於（聽不清楚）留存率的提高以及我們談到的新的補償模式。這也將延續到第四季。所以這是對你的問題的一個誠實的回答。

The second thing I would say is that as you think about our book investees right now, the ones that are on our books, literally, most of them are higher in the back half of FY24 and the first half of FY25. With each passing months, these become more productive and we're seeing that with our cohorts that Kevin just referred to.

我想說的第二件事是，當您考慮我們現在的帳面投資對象時，實際上，我們帳面上的那些對像大多數在 24 財年下半年和 25 財年上半年的業績都更高。隨著時間的流逝，這些工作變得越來越有成效，我們在 Kevin 剛才提到的同事身上也看到了這一點。

The improvement is not binary, meaning each month, each day, each quarter, they're becoming more productive. And the interesting factor is that we are -- we will be experiencing a significant amount of folks entering that 12- to 18-month time frame now. And based on our own (inaudible) data there is a set level function change up to the good once we sat.

這種改進並不是二元的，這意味著每個月、每一天、每個季度，他們的生產力都在提高。有趣的是，我們現在將迎來大量進入 12 至 18 個月時間範圍的人。並且根據我們自己的（聽不清楚）數據，一旦我們坐下，就會有一個固定的水平函數變化，直到變好。

So you'll see some of that in Q4, and that's the reason why we do expect Q4 local volume to improve versus Q3. The last thing I would say around -- a question around sales account investment. I agree with Kevin, we'll be around over 4% increase year on year. We are committed on growing our local sales professional account. And we'll be disciplined on pacing the volume to expectations and market conditions. We'll be very deliberate on when and where we're at.

因此，您會在第四季度看到一些這樣的情況，這就是我們預計第四季度本地交易量將比第三季度有所改善的原因。我要說的最後一件事是關於銷售帳戶投資的一個問題。我同意凱文的觀點，我們的年增長率將達到 4% 左右。我們致力於擴大本地銷售專業帳戶。我們將嚴格按照預期和市場情況來控制交易量。我們會非常慎重地考慮我們所處的時間和地點。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Mark Carden, UBS.

瑞銀的馬克卡登。

Thank you so much for taking the question. So I wanted to ask another one on local, more from an industry-wide perspective. How has the local restaurant industry backdrop held up relative to national restaurants. And then within that, are you seeing any regional challenges? And how has that fluctuated over the past few months?

非常感謝您回答這個問題。因此我想從本地角度再問一個問題，多從整個產業的角度來考慮。與全國性餐飲業相比，當地餐飲業的背景如何？那麼，您是否看到其中存在任何區域性挑戰？過去幾個月裡，這情況有何波動？

Mark, it's Kevin. Thank you for the question. National restaurants had a really tough quarter. That's the heavy at the punchline. It was soft, consistent with the local numbers that obviously disclosed in report.

馬克，我是凱文。謝謝你的提問。全國餐館經歷了一個非常艱難的季度。這才是關鍵所在。它是柔軟的，與報告中明確披露的當地數據一致。

When you look at our national case volume number, you have to keep in mind, yes, there are national restaurants in that mix but it's offset by real strong strength in food service management, travel and entertainment, education has held up strong. And we have a very stable health care business.

當你查看我們的全國病例數量時，你必須記住，是的，其中有全國性的餐館，但它被食品服務管理、旅遊和娛樂方面的真正強勁實力所抵消，教育也保持強勁。我們的醫療保健業務非常穩定。

So national for us, we're stronger then. But if you unpack within national and look at this national restaurants, it was a tough, tough quarter for national restaurants. Obviously, there are individual select names that are doing incredibly well. You know who they are, but in aggregate, really tough quarter for national. And it was exacerbated in February, which kind of going back to one of Alex's questions, we're seeing strength. We're adding headcount. Kenny hit that point very, very well. But pain in Q3, the weather was everywhere. I happen to live in the south.

所以對我們來說，從國家角度來說，我們會更強大。但如果你從全國範圍來分析，看看這些全國性餐館，你會發現，對於全國性餐館來說，這是一個非常艱難的季度。顯然，有一些精選的名字表現得非常好。你知道他們是誰，但總的來說，這對國家來說確實是艱難的一個季度。2 月份，這種狀況進一步加劇，這又回到了亞歷克斯的一個問題，我們看到了力量的增強。我們正在增加員工人數。肯尼非常非常準確地指出了這一點。但第三季的痛苦，天氣無所不在。我恰好住在南方。

We had forecast is now in Houston. That never happens, really adverse weather in the mid-part of the country, the temperate zone and obviously, the north at the tail end of February, had back-to-back-to-back weeks of really adverse weather. So the headwind was pretty much geographically throughout the United States.

我們預測現在就在休士頓。這種事情從未發生過，二月底，該國中部、溫帶地區以及北部地區連續數週出現惡劣天氣。因此，逆風幾乎遍布整個美國。

Interestingly, our International division, one of the reasons it's continuing to perform not experiencing some of these headwinds from an external factor perspective. The tariff and tax thing is not negatively at this time impacting our International division, and it's one of the reasons along with our strong business performance that we're doing well in that regard.

有趣的是，從外部因素的角度來看，我們的國際部門繼續表現良好而沒有遇到一些不利因素的原因之一。目前，關稅和稅收問題並未對我們的國際部門產生負面影響，這也是我們在這方面表現良好的原因之一，同時也是我們業務表現強勁的原因。

Thanks so much. Good luck.

非常感謝。祝你好運。

Jeff Bernstein, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的傑夫伯恩斯坦。

Great. I had one clarification on a comment you made earlier, and then a clarification is just on that local case growth, I know you said directionally similar to the industry in terms of easing. I'm just wondering whether you think any of it is self-inflicted, whether you see industry data that gives you confidence you're not underperforming peers. That was my clarification. Otherwise, the question is just on the fiscal '25 guidance.

偉大的。我對您之前發表的評論做了一個澄清，然後澄清一下只是關於當地病例的增長，我知道您說在放鬆方面與行業方向相似。我只是想知道您是否認為這一切都是自己造成的，您是否看到了行業數據，讓您相信自己的表現並不遜於同行。這就是我的澄清。否則，問題僅在於 25 年財政指導。

I feel like the past couple of quarters, you were confident that even if the macro would have pressured the top line, you had less to accelerate cost and efficiency savings to still hit that 6% to 7% EPS growth. So it does look like you lowered the top line by 1% or so, 1% to 2% actually, but you took down the EPS guidance by 5% plus.

我覺得在過去的幾個季度裡，你很有信心，即使宏觀經濟會對營收造成壓力，你也不需要加速成本和效率節約，仍然可以實現 6% 到 7% 的每股盈餘成長。因此看起來你確實將營業收入降低了 1% 左右，實際上是 1% 到 2%，但你將每股收益預期降低了 5% 以上。

Just wondering how you see playing out whether or not there's less low-hanging fruit or you just decide you don't want to damage the long-term infrastructure for short-term earnings. Any thoughts on that between top and bottom line.

我只是想知道您如何看待這一結果，是否有更少的唾手可得的成果，或者您只是決定不想為了短期收益而損害長期基礎設施。對於頂線和底線之間有什麼想法嗎？

Yeah, very fair questions. It's Kevin. I'll start, and Kenny will back clean up as it relates to your appropriate question regarding the full-year guide. Back to local, we are confident that in Q3, our performance relative to the market was consistent. In fact, it's almost a to the penny.

是的，非常公平的問題。我是凱文。我先開始，然後肯尼 (Kenny) 會回來清理，因為這與您關於全年指南的適當問題有關。回到本地，我們相信在第三季度，我們的表現相對於市場是一致的。事實上，它幾乎是一分錢一分貨。

If you track the traffic change from Q2 to Q3 to our local case growth performance Q2 to Q3, we were consistent with the industry. We are confident we did not erode in our performance relative to the overall market. We are pleased with the start of Q4. As I said, April was stronger than March. March was stronger than Q3.

如果您追蹤從第二季到第三季的流量變化以及我們第二季到第三季的本地案例成長表現，就會發現我們與產業表現一致。我們相信，我們的業績相對於整體市場而言並未受到損害。我們對第四季的開始感到滿意。正如我所說，四月的表現比三月更加強勁。三月表現比第三季強勁。

We're beginning to see some positive separation in our performance relative to the market as we begin Q4, and it's this timing thing that I'm talking about relative to colleague separation the new cohorts that are hitting their 12-month anniversary date in Q4 as Kenny already communicate and even more of them will have that 12-month anniversary and roll into fiscal 2026.

在第四季度開始時，我們開始看到我們的業績相對於市場有一些積極的分離，而我所說的這個時間問題相對於同事分離，正如肯尼已經溝通的那樣，新的團隊將在第四季度迎來他們的 12 個月週年紀念日，他們中的更多人將迎來 12 個月的周年紀念日並進入 2026 財年。

We need display separation in our performance versus market in a positive way and we are seeing the green shoots of progress, Jeff, that are going to enable that. We'll talk about that more in August, obviously, as we provide guidance for fiscal 2026.

我們需要以積極的方式將我們的業績與市場分開，傑夫，我們已經看到了進步的跡象，這將實現這一點。顯然，我們將在 8 月進一步討論這個問題，因為我們將提供 2026 財年的指導。

As it relates to Q3, we understand to your question. One thing I would point to is just the steepness of the drop off in February was meaningfully unanticipated. I said in my prepared remarks, the traffic down 5.7%. It was like a light switch. When that happens, it's really difficult to get that type of cost out of your system that fast, especially when March rebounded quite solidly versus February.

由於它與問題 3 相關，我們理解您的問題。我想指出的一點是，二月的下降幅度之大是出乎意料的。我在準備好的發言中說過，流量下降了5.7%。它就像一個電燈開關。當這種情況發生時，要快速地從系統中消除這種成本確實非常困難，尤其是當 3 月相對於 2 月出現相當強勁的反彈時。

We don't want to furlough drivers. We don't want to cut costs that you end up having to reverse later. That is really painful. The other thing relative to adverse weather of that nature is it drives operating expense is up. So think about the number of facilities we have, snow removal at our large parking lots.

我們不想讓司機休假。我們不想削減您最終必須撤回的成本。那真的很痛。與此類惡劣天氣相關的另一件事是它會導致營運費用上升。想想我們有多少設施，以及我們大型停車場的除雪設施。

And then when you're doing deliveries in that type of environment, a lot of those trucks are coming back half full, meaning we low truck for 20 stops. It comes back three hours into the route and you have to put all that inventory back to stock. Some of that inventory has to be disposed because it's perishable. So these things add cost. So yes, it's a volume headwind when traffic drops like that, but it's also a cost headwind because of some of the examples that I just provided.

然後，當你在那種環境下送貨時，很多卡車回來時都是半滿的，這意味著我們要停 20 次，卡車的載重量很低。它在路線上行駛三個小時後返回，您必須將所有庫存放回庫存。部分庫存必須處理掉，因為它們易腐爛。所以這些東西增加了成本。所以是的，當流量下降時，這確實是一個數量上的阻力，但正如我剛才提供的一些例子所示，這也會帶來成本上的阻力。

So why don't we transition from that into how we're thinking about our guide for Q4 and our general outlook in general, and I'll pass that to Kenny. Over to you, Kenny.

那麼，我們為什麼不從這一點過渡到我們如何思考第四季度的指南以及我們的整體前景呢？我會把這個轉達給肯尼。交給你了，肯尼。

Yeah. Jeff, thanks, it's Kevin. Just one comment on Q3 before we head into the guide and the comments around that number. If you take a step back on Q3, we didn't miss EPS (inaudible) $0.06 that you unpack that in simple fashion, of roughly $0.05 is driven by volumes.

是的。傑夫，謝謝，我是凱文。在我們進入指南和圍繞該數字的評論之前，僅對 Q3 發表一條評論。如果回顧第三季度，我們並沒有錯過 EPS（聽不清楚）0.06 美元，您可以簡單地將其解讀為大約 0.05 美元是由交易量驅動的。

As Kevin talked about in his prepared remarks, we exceed nominal improvement in foot traffic actually fell quarter over quarter by 150 bps, right? So again, that's $0.05 or 85% of the miss and the other 15%, we call it $0.01 is driven by timing shifts from strategic sourcing deals, give the backdrop in which we operate in. And the good news is we had deals close between post quarter and today. Therefore, that's a lot of confidence for our $100 million impact of annualized $100 million impact in Q4.

正如凱文在準備好的發言中談到的那樣，我們客流量的名義改善實際上比上一季下降了 150 個基點，對嗎？所以，再說一次，這是 0.05 美元或 85% 的失誤，而另外 15%，我們稱之為 0.01 美元，是由戰略採購交易的時間變化驅動的，考慮到我們的營運背景。好消息是，我們在上一季末和今天之間達成了交易。因此，對於我們在第四季實現 1 億美元年度化影響的信心很大。

In terms of the guidance, Jeff, I think the question behind your question is how confident are you in the number, any context there. So I'll answer it in two points here. Just to recap, you're correct. Full year is 3% sales growth and then EPS, at least 1% growth.

就指導而言，傑夫，我認為你問題背後的問題是你對這個數字以及其中的任何背景有多大信心。所以我在這裡分兩點來回答。簡單回顧一下，你是對的。全年銷售額成長 3%，每股收益至少成長 1%。

The few things why we are confident. First, what Kevin just talked about momentum. We have momentum. We continue to see it, not just the market standpoint, but a lot of our self-help initiatives are working as well, let alone the momentum market, meaning, our sales professions are becoming more productive, climbing up to look at the productivity curve as well as our expense productivity items and the $100 million. All of that is on pace, on target. Therefore, momentum is there across the P&L.

我們充滿信心的幾件事。首先，凱文剛才談到了動力。我們有動力。我們繼續看到這一點，不僅僅是從市場角度來看，而且我們的許多自助舉措也在發揮作用，更不用說勢頭市場了，這意味著我們的銷售專業正在變得更加高效，攀升以查看生產力曲線以及我們的費用生產力項目和 1 億美元。一切都在按計劃進行，並按照目標進行。因此，損益表中存在著動力。

And just double pick more on self-help, we have begun the realizations in Q3, it's heavier-weighted towards Q4. Again, it goes back to the leverage to happen in our P&L. Retention is to get that keeps on giving. We're seeing retention in our SPs as well as supply chain colleagues. Fun fact here, our supply chain has the highest productivity year to date right now.

並且更加重視自助，我們已經在第三季開始實現這一目標，對第四季的權重更大。再一次，這又回到了我們的損益表中發生的槓桿作用。留存就是不斷給予而獲得。我們看到我們的 SP 和供應鏈同事的保留率都在提高。有趣的是，我們的供應鏈目前擁有今年迄今最高的生產力。

So again, with all of these combined, we are very confident of our current guide. Kevin?

因此，綜合考慮所有這些因素，我們對目前的指南非常有信心。凱文？

Just to add, we don't like to do three-part answers, but this question is very, very important as we about the full-year guidance that we updated today. We're very pleased with the start of Q4 from a volume improvement perspective versus March. So you may be asking us then why with Q4 guide. We're being very cautious in the point.

補充一下，我們不喜歡用三部分來回答，但這個問題非常非常重要，因為我們今天更新了全年指導。與三月相比，我們對第四季度的銷售改善感到非常滿意。那麼您可能會問我們為什麼要使用 Q4 指南。我們在這一點上非常謹慎。

Given the tariff uncertainty, the volatility in the market, the shrinking consumer confidence survey results that I referenced, we're being very cautious. We're being thoughtful about the management of expenses, the amendment of the discipline of the P&L. We're pleased with the self-help activities that I referenced on today's call and therefore, the prudence, if you will, of the guide that we put out for Q4.

鑑於關稅的不確定性、市場的波動性以及我所提到的消費者信心調查結果的下降，我們非常謹慎。我們正在認真考慮費用的管理，修改損益表的紀律。我們對我今天電話會議上提到的自助活動感到滿意，因此，如果您願意的話，我們為第四季度發布的指南是審慎的。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Edward Kelly, Wells Fargo.

愛德華凱利，富國銀行。

Kevin, I wanted to just zero-in on sales force and the opportunity that you see ahead of you. I mean you talked about 4% growth in the sales force by the end '25. You've talked historically about adding about 450 people annually. So that growth, if you're still going to achieve that in '26 should be higher.

凱文，我只想集中討論銷售隊伍和你所看到的擺在你面前的機會。我的意思是，您談到到 25 年底銷售隊伍將成長 4%。您曾談到每年增加約 450 名員工。因此，如果 26 年仍要實現這一目標，成長率應該會更高。

If you do the math on this normalizing turnover and sales force growth it's not hard to look at local case volumes and say that there's a 300, 500 basis point opportunity for you to improve that business. But my question is, is it that meaning like, are there other issues preventing that math from working the pricing tool has been something that's been talked about that, I think, maybe is creating some friction. There's maybe some lag on the customer loss, right, if salespeople were leaving in a year to compete and do you continue to have some issue there.

如果您計算一下正常化的營業額和銷售團隊的成長情況，就不難看出當地的銷售量，並且您會發現有 300 到 500 個基點的機會來改善業務。但我的問題是，這是否意味著，是否存在其他問題阻礙了定價工具的數學計算，這個問題已經被討論過了，我認為，也許會產生一些摩擦。如果銷售人員在一年內離開去競爭，客戶流失可能會有一些滯後，那麼您是否還會遇到一些問題？

I'm just curious as to how you see the magnitude of the self-help opportunity, and the cadence of the benefit that you may get in '26 because I think where the stock is rating today, the stock is saying that the market doesn't see that benefit coming. So if you could give us some color there, I think it would be helpful.

我只是好奇，您如何看待自助機會的規模，以及您可能在 26 年獲得的收益的節奏，因為我認為今天的股票評級表明，市場沒有看到這種收益的到來。因此，如果您能給我們一些信息，我認為這會很有幫助。

Thank you for the question. I appreciate the question. We need to prove it through our outcomes, and that is what we will do. And we understand that as a management team and as the leaders of this company, we need to prove it through our outcomes. What gives us confidence and we're not going to provide guidance for 2026 today because that's how I would need to answer your question, where we have confidence is the following factors.

謝謝你的提問。我很感謝你提出這個問題。我們需要透過我們的成果來證明這一點，而這正是我們將要做的。我們明白，作為管理團隊和公司的領導者，我們需要透過我們的成果來證明這一點。是什麼讓我們有信心？我們今天不會提供 2026 年的指導，因為這就是我需要回答你的問題的方式，我們有信心的是以下因素。

And I just have to repeat some of the key messages because the math is indelibly clear. We need to retain the colleagues that we have at a historically strong rate in fiscal 2025 was a meaningful headwind in that regard. I want to reiterate, though, it was intentional. We needed to make a change to our comp model. It was structural. It was required, it was necessary. And it's been challenging, and it's been difficult to work our way through that change.

我只需要重複一些關鍵訊息，因為數學是不可磨滅的。我們需要以史上最強勁的速度留住現有同事，而 2025 財年在這方面是一個重大的阻力。但我想重申，這是故意的。我們需要改變我們的補償模型。它是結構性的。這是必需的，這是必要的。這是一個挑戰，我們要完成這個改變非常困難。

If we could go back in time, we would still make the change to the comp model that we made. We could have improved our execution of that change, obviously, given some of the accelerated turnover, but the change to the comp model was necessary.

如果我們能夠回到過去，我們仍然會對我們所製定的補償模型做出改變。顯然，考慮到一些加速的營業額，我們可以改善對這項變革的執行，但對補償模式的改變是必要的。

So that specific headwind of the increased turnover negatively impacted this year. And we can see in our current outcomes, we have absolutely stabilized retention. I'd like to do better than that. I'd like to have our retention be higher than it has ever been, and we have a concerted effort across all elements of our organization to improve retention even further, not to stabilize it, but make it be at highest levels.

因此，營業額增加這一具體不利因素對今年產生了負面影響。從目前的成果來看，我們已經完全穩定了保留率。我希望做得更好。我希望我們的保留率能比以往更高，我們組織的所有部門都在齊心協力進一步提高保留率，不是要穩定它，而是要使它達到最高水平。

That's who we hire. That's how we train them. That's how they're treated when they're out on the road doing their job, it's their direct supervisor being in the car with them, going on right along is helping them from a skills development perspective.

這就是我們僱用的人。這就是我們訓練他們的方式。這就是他們在路上工作時受到的待遇，他們的直接主管和他們一起坐在車裡，從技能發展的角度來看，這對他們有幫助。

Net-net, I'm confident that the turnover challenge will be a net tailwind in 2026. I heard your point on rolling the 12 months of the noncompete, loud and clear, we understand that, and we have a plan to help offset that. Offsetting that headwind is the tailwind, and we were intentionally very clear today on how long it takes for our colleagues to get to productive. It's on average 12 to 18 months.

整體而言，我相信 2026 年的營業額挑戰將成為淨順風。我清楚地聽到了您關於延長 12 個月競業禁止期的觀點，我們理解這一點，並且我們有一個計劃來幫助抵消這一點。抵消逆風的就是順風，我們今天特意明確說明了我們的同事需要多長時間才能達到生產力。平均為12至18個月。

Kenny was very clear that in this Q4, the Q4 we're now in, we have more people hitting that 12-month mark, obviously, than we have in any prior quarter, and that will increase now from here. I'll just use the metaphor of turning on water in a pipe. It has to go from one end of the pipe to the other. But once it gets to the other end of the pipe, now the water keeps flowing.

肯尼非常清楚，在我們現在所處的第四季度，達到 12 個月大關的人數顯然比以往任何一個季度都多，而且從現在開始，這一數字還會增加。我僅使用打開管道中的水的比喻。它必須從管道的一端到另一端。但一旦到達管道的另一端，水就會繼續流動。

We are just now in our Q4, getting to the first quarter, where water is now flowing through that pipe in a consistent way. As it relates to the -- previously, we've quoted a headcount growth number, 400 to 500 colleagues.

我們現在正處於第四季度，進入第一季度，水現在以穩定的方式流過該管道。就此而言——之前，我們曾提到員工人數成長數字，即 400 到 500 名同事。

Today, we updated that to reflect that this year we anticipate to end at approximately plus 4. We'll be very disciplined about that. We know that there are geographies that can absolutely take significantly increased headcount, see Florida. We're about to open a net new brand new building in Florida. We'll be hiring up in Florida to support that new building into win meaningfully from a share perspective in that state as an example.

今天，我們對此進行了更新，以反映我們預計今年年底的增幅約為 4%。我們將對此採取非常嚴格的紀律。我們知道有些地區絕對可以容納大幅增加的員工數量，例如佛羅裡達州。我們即將在佛羅裡達州開設一棟全新的大樓。例如，我們將在佛羅裡達州招募人員，以支持這座新建築從該州的份額角度取得有意義的勝利。

So those are my thoughts on sales force. I am confident in '26, salesforce will be a tailwind, not a headwind, and it is absolutely the fact that it was a headwind in fiscal 2025.

這就是我對銷售團隊的看法。我相信在 26 年，銷售團隊將會成為順風，而不是逆風，而事實是，在 2025 財年，它確實是逆風。

What else is going on with the second part of your question, there's a lot going on. It's a dynamic environment. the pricing environment and the needs of the end customer are clear. They are seeking value given the pressure on the restaurant's P&L. Their labor costs are up, for many of them, their rent cost is up, and they've experienced 30% to 40% food inflation over the past five years.

你的問題的第二部分還有什麼其他情況，有很多情況。這是一個動態的環境。定價環境和最終客戶的需求很明確。鑑於餐廳損益的壓力，他們正在尋求價值。他們的勞動成本上漲，許多企業的租金成本也上漲，而且過去五年來，食品通膨率上升了 30% 至 40%。

So customers are value seeking, we need to be thoughtful and we need to be agile and how we meet the customer where they are. And that's related to things like the product offering that we have, the pricing that we have. And as I mentioned on the call today, the rollout of price agility. It's something we need to manage extremely well.

因此，客戶追求的是價值，我們需要深思熟慮，需要靈活變通，並知道如何在客戶所在的地方滿足他們的需求。這與我們提供的產品、定價等有關。正如我今天在電話會議上提到的那樣，價格靈活性的推出。這是我們需要非常好地管理的事情。

And that's why I said in my prepared remarks, the change management and the training plan on how to put that tool out in the market is critical, we have to execute with excellence when we roll that program out to ensure that we can match pricing agility with margin rate discipline. And that is why we haven't gone nationwide yet.

這就是為什麼我在準備好的發言中說，變革管理和如何將該工具推向市場的培訓計劃至關重要，我們在推出該計劃時必須出色地執行，以確保我們能夠將定價靈活性與利潤率紀律相匹配。這就是我們尚未在全國推廣的原因。

We're working on that change management plan, that training plan pricing in the marketplace is one of the variables. You go beyond those two variables and the industry is experiencing a bit higher rate of customer churn than what is normal. And that's tied to point two, which is the customer seeking value. This is not a unique point so just churn in aggregate is at a higher level. And we're going to talk more in the future about improving the service level experience that we provide to our best customers, an end-to-end program that can help reduce customer churn.

我們正在製定變更管理計劃，市場上的培訓計劃定價是變數之一。如果超出這兩個變量，該行業的客戶流失率就會比正常水平高一些。這與第二點相關，即客戶尋求價值。這不是一個獨特的觀點，因此總體而言，流失率處於較高水平。我們將來會更多地談論如何改善我們為最佳客戶提供的服務水準體驗，這是一個可以幫助減少客戶流失的端到端計劃。

So those would be the top three: sales force productivity, pricing agility, and improving customer churn. Aggregate those three, we're confident that we can grow local volume and have an attractive P&L. And we'll talk more in August about guide for '26.

因此，最重要的三點是：銷售團隊生產力、定價彈性和改善客戶流失率。綜合以上三點，我們有信心能夠增加本地銷量，並獲得具有吸引力的損益。我們將在 8 月進一步討論 26 年指南。

Kenny, anything to add?

肯尼，還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yeah. And add to your specific question around the math, right? Your math is correct. Right now, you're seeing our expense sales 4% to 5%. So I think your question is there's a spread between obviously return as Kevin spoke about. As our SCs climb the productivity curve, as the initiatives kick in, we should expect a spread to reduce meaning sales growing closer in with our expense base. And that's [mean]. You're correct, that is not being part of our company.

是的。並添加有關數學的具體問題，對嗎？你的數學是正確的。現在，您看到我們的費用銷售額成長了 4% 到 5%。所以我認為你的問題是，正如凱文所說的，回報之間顯然存在差距。隨著我們的供應鏈生產力曲線不斷攀升，隨著各項措施的實施，我們應該預期利差會縮小，這意味著銷售額將越來越接近我們的支出基數。這就是[意思]。你說得對，那不是我們公司的一部分。

Thanks. Got it.

謝謝。知道了。

Jake Bartlett, Truist.

傑克·巴特利特，Truist。

Thank you for taking the question. I want to start with just a clarification. You've mentioned this in an inflection for the sales force matures and the comp changes to move to positive in fiscal '26. I want to make sure I understand your expectations for when that could happen. September was the peak of the increased turnover. Is the September time frame the right way to think about it? Or really, is it possible that we could see that inflection in quarter like maybe that was possible given the improvements that you're seeing now?

感謝您回答這個問題。首先我想澄清一下。您曾提到，銷售團隊日趨成熟，而 26 財年的銷售額將轉為正值。我想確保我了解您對何時發生這種情況的期望。9月份是營業額成長的高峰。九月的時間框架是思考這個問題的正確方式嗎？或者實際上，我們是否有可能在本季度看到這種拐點，就像考慮到您現在看到的改進，這可能是可能的嗎？

And then my real question is about your capital allocation. The dividend increase was the largest it's been in a few years. And maybe if you can talk about why you're kind of leaning into the dividend increase so much after pretty modest increases for the last two. And your approach to -- I know we've had elevated share buybacks in '25, but is that something that you expect would continue beyond 25?

我真正的問題是關於您的資本配置。此次股息增幅是幾年來最大的一次。也許您可以談談為什麼在過去兩年股息增長幅度相當小之後，您仍然傾向於增加股息。您的方法是—我知道我們在 25 年已經加大了股票回購力度，但您是否預計這種情況會在 25 年後繼續下去？

Jake, thank you for the question. As it relates to the sales force inflection, definitively, it will inflect to a positive in fiscal 2026. When we provide our guidance for 2026, and we'll provide more color on how you should think about the full year and how you should think about the first half of the second half. That's the most I can say today.

傑克，謝謝你的提問。就銷售團隊的變化而言，毫無疑問，到 2026 財年它將轉為積極態勢。當我們提供 2026 年的指導時，我們將提供更多關於您應該如何看待全年以及如何看待下半年上半年的資訊。這是我今天能說的最多的話。

The second point, though, from a green shoots or progress in color, April, we are seeing a stronger performance versus March, and we are seeing some separation of our performance versus the overall market from a positive share gain perspective. So it is not a light switch. It does not go from off to on.

第二點，從綠芽或色彩的進步來看，四月份的表現比三月更為強勁，而且從正面的份額成長角度來看，我們的表現與整體市場相比有所差距。所以它不是一個電燈開關。它不會從關閉狀態轉換為開啟狀態。

The separate -- pardon, my cough, forgive me -- the separation impact negative is immediate, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks. The improvement to come in the new colleague is gradual over time. So think about a slope of two curves when they intersect and how that then shows up as a net tailwind. It will be a net tailwind in fiscal 2026. And we are doing everything we can to improve productivity of our new colleagues. And as I mentioned, improved colleague retention.

分離——對不起，請原諒我——分離的負面影響是立竿見影的，正如我在準備好的發言中提到的那樣。新同事的進步是隨著時間的推移而逐漸的。因此，想像一下兩條曲線相交時的斜率，以及它如何呈現為淨順風。這將成為 2026 財年的淨順風。我們正在盡一切努力提高新同事的工作效率。正如我所提到的，提高了同事的保留率。

As I mentioned in the answering of Ed's question, I'm not satisfied with getting retention back to where it historically was. I want it to be even better than it historically was to turn the head count in our sales colleague population into a ongoing and permanent point of strength for the company.

正如我在回答 Ed 的問題時提到的那樣，我並不滿足於將保留率恢復到歷史水平。我希望它比歷史上更好，將我們的銷售同事人數轉變為公司持續和永久的優勢。

As it relates to the dividend, I'll just get started and then toss to Kenny. We are a dividend risk, we've raised our dividend now 56 consecutive years in a row. There are very few companies that can say that. In my closed remarks, I talked about there's no better company to work for or from a balance sheet perspective to invest in, in a company like Sysco in times like these.

由於它與股息有關，我先開始，然後再交給肯尼。我們有股利風險，我們已經連續 56 年提高股利。很少有公司能做到這一點。在我的閉幕發言中，我談到在這樣的時期，沒有比 Sysco 這樣的公司更值得工作或從資產負債表角度進行投資的公司了。

Our industry-leading income state from a profit as a percent of sales and our rock-solid balance sheet affords us the opportunity to return value to shareholders even in challenging and different times. We raised our dividend even during the COVID period, which is a meaningful point of strength.

我們行業領先的收入狀態來自利潤佔銷售額的百分比，我們堅如磐石的資產負債表使我們有機會即使在充滿挑戰和不同的時期也為股東帶來價值。即使在疫情期間，我們也提高了股息，這是一個有意義的優勢。

Kenny, you want to answer the specifics of how we thought about the increase for next year?

肯尼，你想具體回答一下我們對明年的成長有何看法嗎？

Absolutely. So let's start just quick recovering capital allocation. Well, first and foremost, invest in our business and anything access will be returned back to shareholders. Given where our cash and liquidity business sits, which is over $4 billion for the quarter, we like to do both, invest in our business and reward our shareholders.

絕對地。因此，讓我們開始快速恢復資本配置。嗯，首先，投資我們的業務，任何收益都會回饋給股東。考慮到我們的現金和流動性業務的現狀（本季超過 40 億美元），我們希望同時進行投資，投資我們的業務並回報我們的股東。

So to your exact question, speaking to rewarding the shareholders, as Kevin talked about reverse the fact that we're raising our dividend 6%. Again, as I said before, we expect the dividend raise to be commensurate with future EPS growth for our business.

因此，針對您剛才提出的問題，談到獎勵股東，正如凱文所說，扭轉我們將股息提高 6% 的事實。再次，正如我之前所說，我們預計股息成長將與我們業務未來的每股盈餘成長相稱。

Taking a giant step back, as CFO, I'm proud of the fact that we were able to maintain our $1.25 billion of share [repo] this year and raised the dividend by 6%, especially given the market backdrop where start impacts our profit profile. The reason being and this is the second question, right, how do we think through it, it's become a strong investment-grade balance sheet, solid business fundamentals and the fact that we are confident in the business today and on the forward.

退一步說，作為財務官，我很自豪我們今年能夠維持 12.5 億美元的股票（回購），並將股息提高 6%，尤其是考慮到開始影響我們利潤狀況的市場背景。原因是，這是第二個問題，對，我們如何看待它，它已經成為一個強大的投資級資產負債表，穩固的業務基礎，以及我們對當前和未來的業務充滿信心的事實。

So that's the rationale, how Kevin and I thought about the dividend raise.

這就是凱文和我考慮提高股利的理由。

Thank you.

謝謝。

John Heinbockel, Guggenheim.

古根漢美術館的約翰·海因博克爾。

Kevin, can you talk to this elevated churn across the industry. I think you sort of suggested made its price-oriented, right? Is that wrong? What do you think is driving that? You also suggested you have some ideas about how to [eat] into that. And then just -- when I think about the magnitude, maybe what is a good level of churn for the industry? What is it's stepped up to? It seems like maybe it's stepped up 100 basis points or more. But I'd be curious how that's changed.

凱文，您能談談整個行業中這種高流失率的情況嗎？我認為您建議以價格為導向，對嗎？這有錯嗎？您認為是什麼原因導致這現象的發生？您也提出了一些關於如何實現這一點的想法。然後，當我考慮規模時，也許對於這個行業來說，一個好的客戶流失率水準是多少？它達到了什麼程度？看起來好像已經上升了 100 個基點或更多。但我很好奇它是如何改變的。

Thank you for the question. Churn has increased as an industry overall. I'll say there's a couple of drivers behind it. Number one is customers are value seeking, as I mentioned, their labor costs are up, rent is up, food costs are up. They're seeking ways to help their profitability and food cost is one of those mechanisms.

謝謝你的提問。整個產業的客戶流失率都有增加。我想說，這背後有幾個驅動因素。第一，客戶追求價值，如我所提到的，他們的勞動成本上漲，租金上漲，食品成本上漲。他們正在尋找提高獲利能力的方法，而食品成本就是其中一種機制。

Price visibility has increased, as you know, as more customers are placing their orders online, net-net in aggregate, that's a good thing. So more customers placing their orders online is a good thing because they see more of our catalog. They are inspired to buy things they didn't buy before. We can prompt them to do swap and save to alternative products that can help them save money. We can suggest items that they can buy that they're not buying. Net-net conversion to online is a good thing.

如您所知，隨著越來越多的客戶在線上下訂單，價格可見度已經提高，總體而言，這是一件好事。因此，更多的客戶在線下訂單是一件好事，因為他們可以看到更多我們的目錄。他們受到啟發去購買以前沒有買過的東西。我們可以鼓勵他們交換並節省替代產品，以幫助他們省錢。我們可以建議他們可以購買但目前還沒有購買的物品。網路轉線上是好事。

With that said, the conversion to online increases price transparency, not just at Sysco, but across all distributors. So more customers are any to seek value by the online visibility to pricing. These are environmental conditions. John, I am confident that given Sysco's size and scale, we can be very competitive and successful in that environment. So our profit rate as a percent of sales and our purchasing scale [before] Sysco to buy goods.

話雖如此，轉向在線提高了價格透明度，不僅是 Sysco，而是所有分銷商的價格透明度。因此，更多的客戶會透過線上可見的定價來尋求價值。這些是環境條件。約翰，我相信，鑑於 Sysco 的規模和範圍，我們可以在那種環境中具有強大的競爭力並取得成功。因此，我們的利潤率佔銷售額的百分比以及 Sysco 採購商品之前的採購規模。

We buy better to sell better and provide value to our customers in that price visible online way where we can lean in with suppliers and do programs with them to provide savings to customers to entice them to buy from Sysco. So that's point number one, relative to the churn.

我們買得更好，賣得更好，並透過線上可見的價格方式為客戶提供價值，我們可以與供應商合作並與他們一起制定計劃，為客戶提供節省，以吸引他們從 Sysco 購買。這是與客戶流失相關的第一點。

Point number two is supply chain resiliency. This goes back to COVID, prior to COVID, the percentage of a customer's business that, that customer gave to one distributor was higher than it is today. And when product shortages occurred everywhere in the industry and customers couldn't get everything they needed from their primary distributor. They signed up a second or third or fourth contributor.

第二點是供應鏈彈性。這可以追溯到 COVID，在 COVID 之前，客戶給予一個分銷商的業務百分比高於現在。當整個行業都出現產品短缺，客戶無法從其主要分銷商獲得所需的所有產品時。他們簽下了第二位、第三位或第四位貢獻者。

As you know, there's always been backups in account. But what we see in the industry is a higher percentage of purchases happening with quote-unqoute, the backup, because customers don't want to find themselves in a position where they can't get what they need.

如您所知，帳戶中一直都有備份。但我們在業界看到的是，更高比例的購買是透過所謂的備份進行的，因為客戶不希望陷入無法獲得所需物品的情況。

To be clear, we've done that with our population. We buy more food in the food away-from-home space than anyone else. We have preferred partner suppliers, but we've had to add backups and sometimes tertiary suppliers to cover our needs if and when our primary supplier can't get us what we need. So John, that too, is a part of the equation.

明確地說，我們已經對我們的人口做到了這一點。我們在外賣食品領域購買的食物比其他任何人都多。我們有首選的合作夥伴供應商，但當我們的主要供應商無法滿足我們的需求時，我們必須增加備用供應商，有時甚至是三級供應商來滿足我們的需求。所以約翰，這也是等式的一部分。

As it relates to actionable forward-facing '26 activities, there's a reasonably small percentage of our customer base that drives a significantly disproportionate portion of our profit pool and we're going to lean in hard with those best customers. And I'm going to talk more about that at future investment net opportunities, a reboot and a significant focus on our best customer retention and best customer penetration, and we believe that will be another tailwind for our fiscal 2026.

就可操作的面向未來的 26 項活動而言，我們的客戶群中只有相當小的一部分人為我們帶來了不成比例的利潤，而我們將全力支持這些最好的客戶。我將在未來的投資淨機會中更多地談論這一點，重新啟動並重點關注我們的最佳客戶保留率和最佳客戶滲透率，我們相信這將是我們 2026 財年的另一個順風。

Thank you.

謝謝。

This does get the time we have for questions. Thank you for joining Sysco's third-quarter fiscal year 2025 conference call. You may now disconnect.

這確實讓我們有時間回答問題。感謝您參加 Sysco 2025 財年第三季電話會議。您現在可以斷開連線。