Molson Coors Beverage Co (TAP) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Molson Coors Beverage Company fourth quarter and 2024 fiscal year earnings conference call. With that, I'll hand it over to Greg Tierney, Vice President, FP&A and Commercial Finance.

早安，歡迎參加莫爾森庫爾斯飲料公司第四季和 2024 財年財報電話會議。接下來我將把發言權交給 FP&A 和商業財務副總裁 Greg Tierney。

Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Following prepared remarks today, we look forward to taking your questions. (Event Instructions) Also, I encourage you to review our earnings release and earnings slides, which are posted to the IR section of our website and provide detailed financial and operational metrics.

謝謝接線員，大家好。在今天的準備好的發言之後，我們期待回答您的問題。（事件說明）此外，我鼓勵您查看我們的收益報告和收益幻燈片，這些報告和幻燈片發佈在我們網站的 IR 部分，並提供了詳細的財務和營運指標。

Today's discussion includes forward-looking statements -- actual results or trends could differ materially from our forecast. For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in our most recent filings with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by applicable law. The definitions of or reconciliations for any non-US GAAP measures are included in our earnings release.

今天的討論包括前瞻性陳述——實際結果或趨勢可能與我們的預測有重大差異。欲了解更多信息，請參閱我們最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中討論的風險因素。除適用法律要求外，我們不承擔更新前瞻性聲明的義務。任何非美國公認會計準則指標的定義或調節表均包含在我們的收益報告中。

Unless otherwise indicated, all financial results we discuss are versus the comparable prior year period and are in US dollars. With the exception of earnings per share, all financial metrics are in constant currency when referencing percentage changes from the prior year period. Also, shared data references are sourced from Circana in the US and from Beer Canada in Canada, unless otherwise indicated.

除非另有說明，我們討論的所有財務結果均與去年同期相比，且以美元計算。除每股盈餘外，所有財務指標在參考去年同期的百分比變動時均以固定貨幣計算。此外，除非另有說明，共享資料參考均來自美國的 Circana 和加拿大的 Beer Canada。

Further, in our remarks today, we will reference underlying pretax income which equates to underlying income before income taxes and underlying earnings per share, which equates to underlying diluted earnings per share as defined in our earnings release. With that, over to you, Gavin.

此外，在我們今天的評論中，我們將參考基礎稅前收入，其相當於所得稅前基礎收入和基礎每股收益，其相當於我們的收益報告中定義的基礎稀釋每股收益。現在，就交給你了，加文。

Thank you, Greg. Hello, everybody, and thank you for joining the call. 2024 was another year of progress for Molson Coors, progress in advancing our strategy and achieving bottom-line growth. And with a challenging macroeconomic environment, we continue to support the health of our brands globally. We retained a substantial portion of our sizable share gains from 2023 and earned unprecedented levels of shelf space for our core power brands in the US.

謝謝你，格雷格。大家好，感謝大家參加電話會議。 2024 年是 Molson Coors 取得進步的另一年，我們在推進策略和實現獲利成長方面取得了進展。在充滿挑戰的宏觀經濟環境下，我們將繼續在全球範圍內支持我們品牌的健康發展。我們保留了 2023 年以來可觀的份額增長的很大一部分，並為我們在美國核心強勢品牌贏得了前所未有的貨架空間。

We achieved incredible growth in Canada, broadly across all price segments of our portfolio. We continue to premiumize off a high base in our EMEA and APAC business. We terminated low-margin contract brewing agreement and exited smaller unprofitable businesses while investing in areas that we expect will drive long-term sustainable profitable growth. 2024 was also another year of continued strong cash generation that contributed to earnings power.

我們在加拿大取得了令人難以置信的成長，廣泛涵蓋我們投資組合的所有價格區間。我們將繼續在歐洲、中東和非洲 (EMEA) 和亞太地區 (APAC) 業務的高基數基礎上實現優質化。我們終止了低利潤的合約釀造協議，退出了規模較小的無利可圖的業務，同時投資於我們預計將推動長期可持續盈利增長的領域。 2024 年也是現金產生持續強勁的一年，有助於增強獲利能力。

We delivered more than $1.2 billion in underlying free cash flow which, combined with our healthy balance sheet, enabled us to not only invest in our business, but also to return $1 billion in cash to shareholders through a growing dividend and share repurchases. We enter this year confident, issuing 2025 guidance that both reflects the favorable fundamentals of our business, and it aligns with our long-term growth algorithm.

我們實現了超過 12 億美元的基礎自由現金流，再加上我們健康的資產負債表，使我們不僅能夠投資於我們的業務，而且還能夠透過不斷增加的股息和股票回購向股東返還 10 億美元現金。我們滿懷信心地邁入今年，發布的 2025 年指引既反映了我們業務的良好基本面，也符合我們的長期成長演算法。

Now with that high-level summary, let's get into some of the details. In the fourth quarter, consolidated net sales revenue was down 1.9%. Underlying pretax income was down 0.9% and underlying earnings per share was up 9.2%. In our Americas business, Canada continued to perform strongly, while as expected, the US faced a temporary headwind related to the exit of Pabst contract [group], which was a headwind of about 450,000 hectoliters.

現在有了這個總體概述，讓我們了解一些細節。第四季度，綜合淨銷售收入下降1.9%。基本稅前收入下降 0.9%，基本每股盈餘成長 9.2%。在我們的美洲業務中，加拿大繼續表現強勁，而正如預期的那樣，美國面臨與 Pabst 合約（集團）退出相關的暫時逆風，逆風規模約為 450,000 百升。

US brand volume was down 3% in the quarter, which improved as compared to the third quarter as did the industry with a moderating of the more pronounced value-seeking behavior seen during the summer. These drivers contributed to a 6.7% decline in US financial volume. Related to the deliberate inventory build in the first half of the year, US shipments trailed brand volumes by approximately 150,000 hectoliters in the quarter, resulting in largely shipping to consumption for the full year as intended.

本季美國品牌銷售量下降 3%，但與第三季相比有所改善，產業狀況也有所改善，夏季更明顯的價值追求行為有所緩和。這些因素導緻美國金融總量下降6.7%。由於上半年刻意增加庫存，本季美國出貨量比品牌出貨量落後約 15 萬百升，導致全年出貨量基本符合預期。

In the EMEA and APAC, our volumes were impacted by the continued heightened competitive landscape in the UK as well as a softer industry in Central and Eastern Europe. However, this was largely offset by strong net sales revenue (inaudible) to growth of 7.8%, driven by favorable sales mix, including continued premiumization and pricing. This, along with favorable net pricing growth in the Americas and mixed benefits from the exit of Pabst, resulted in consolidated net sales revenue per hectoliter growth of 4.8% for the quarter.

在歐洲、中東和非洲以及亞太地區，我們的銷售量受到英國持續加劇的競爭格局以及中歐和東歐產業疲軟的影響。然而，這在很大程度上被強勁的淨銷售收入（聽不清楚）所抵消，成長 7.8%，這得益於有利的銷售組合，包括持續的高端化和定價。這一因素加上美洲地區淨價格的良好增長以及 Pabst 退出帶來的混合效益，導致本季度每百升綜合淨銷售收入增長 4.8%。

For the year, consolidated net sales revenue was down 0.6%. Underlying pretax income was up 5.6% and underlying earnings per share was up 9.8%. Results were better than our revised top-line guidance of down approximately 1% due to better-than-expected US industry performance in the fourth quarter. As a reminder, our 2024 top line guidance was revised lower when we reported our third-quarter results in early November due to macro-driven US industry softness in the peak season months of July and August.

全年綜合淨銷售收入下降0.6%。基本稅前收入成長 5.6%，基本每股盈餘成長 9.8%。由於第四季美國產業表現優於預期，業績好於我們修訂後的下降約 1% 的營收預期。提醒一下，由於 7 月和 8 月旺季宏觀驅動的美國產業疲軟，我們在 11 月初報告第三季業績時下調了 2024 年營收預期。

It's also important to point out that excluding the impact of the wind down of Pabst contract brewing volume, our implied annual top-line revenue growth was positive and in alignment with our long-term growth algorithm. In our volume perspective, Pabst had a negative 3 percentage point impact on America's financial volume for the year.

還需要指出的是，排除 Pabst 合約釀造量減少的影響，我們預計年度營業收入成長是正成長，與我們的長期成長演算法一致。從交易量角度來看，Pabst 對美國全年金融交易量產生了 3 個百分點的負影響。

Again, while this is a current volume headwind, the reduction of this contract growing volume is expected to have a positive impact in 2025 and beyond on our brewery net effectiveness as well as on mix and margin. And in what we expect will provide further benefits. We no longer contract grew from the (inaudible) in Canada with ad volume fully exiting our Canadian business as of year-end 2024.

同樣，雖然這是目前的產量阻力，但預計該合約產量的減少將在 2025 年及以後對我們啤酒廠的淨效益以及產品組合和利潤產生積極影響。我們期望這將帶來更多的好處。我們不再從加拿大（聽不清楚）的合約成長，截至 2024 年底，廣告量將完全退出我們的加拿大業務。

Tracey will share more on the impact of that. Consolidated underlying pretax income was above the midpoint of our reaffirmed mid-single-digit growth guidance. This was achieved due to the better-than-expected top line as well as measured cost controls without sacrificing the right levels of brand marketing support.

Tracey 將分享更多其影響。綜合基礎稅前收入高於我們重申的中等個位數成長預期的中點。實現這一目標得益於好於預期的營收和適度的成本控制，同時又不犧牲適當水準的品牌行銷支援。

In addition to [embedded] net sales revenue performance, we significantly exceeded our reaffirmed mid-single-digit underlying earnings per share growth guidance, which we had narrowed to the high end of the range in early November. The beat was largely supported by a lower-than-expected underlying effective tax rate due to US geographic sales mix as well as the better-than-expected top-line performance in the fourth quarter.

除了[嵌入式]淨銷售收入表現外，我們還大大超出了我們重申的中等個位數每股收益成長預期，我們在11月初已將該預期縮小至區間的高端。業績超出預期主要得益於美國地域銷售組合導致的基本有效稅率低於預期，以及第四季度營收表現優於預期。

Our underlying earnings per share growth was also supported by our share repurchases, which have been tracking at an accelerated pace as we continue to view our valuation is compelling given our confidence in our business and in our long-term growth [of a give]. In fact, for the first five quarters since the share repurchase program was announced, we had already executed approximately 40% under this up to five-year program, which if you straight line that number would have us at only 25%.

我們每股盈餘的成長也得益於股票回購，股票回購的速度一直在加快，因為我​​們對業務和長期成長的信心使我們的估值具有吸引力[給予]。事實上，自股票回購計畫宣布以來的前五個季度，我們已經根據這項為期五年的計畫執行了約 40%，而如果直接用這個數字來計算，我們只有 25%。

Our confidence stems from our progress against our strategic priorities. I'll start with our core power brands. Collectively, they remain healthy. In the US, Coors Light, Miller Lite, and Coors Banquet have continued to retain a substantial portion of our share gains, demonstrating the stickiness of these step change gains. In the fourth quarter, they retained over 80% of their combined volume share gains on a two-year stack, which is an improvement from both the second and third quarters.

我們的信心源自於我們在策略重點方面所取得的進展。我將從我們的核心強牌品牌開始。總體而言，他們仍然健康。在美國，Coors Light、Miller Lite 和 Coors Banquet 繼續保留了我們相當一部分份額增長，證明了這些階梯式增長的黏性。第四季度，他們保留了兩年來總銷量份額增幅的 80% 以上，比第二季和第三季都有所改善。

When compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, these brands were up 1.7 share points. Coors Banquet continued to perform very well, brand volume up 16% and growing industry share for the 14th consecutive quarter on top of significant prior year gains. Banquet was the fastest-growing top 15 beer brand in the US in terms of volume percentage growth in 2024. And it's not a small brand. In fact, it's one of our top five brands globally.

與 2022 年第四季相比，這些品牌的份額上升了 1.7 個百分點。Coors Banquet 持續表現優異，品牌銷售量上漲 16%，產業佔有率連續 14 個季度成長，而去年同期的增幅則大幅提升。以銷售百分比成長計算，Banquet 是 2024 年美國成長最快的 15 大啤酒品牌。而且這並不是一個小品牌。事實上，它是我們全球五大品牌之一。

We see much more opportunity ahead as we invest in building the brand's awareness, its national scale and loyal consumer base, particularly among new Gen Z and millennial legal drinking age consumers. In Canada, Coors Light remains the number one light beer in the industry and again, grew share of segment in the fourth quarter. The Molson family of brands also gained volume share for both the fourth quarter and the year.

隨著我們投資打造品牌知名度、全國規模和忠實的消費者群體，尤其是在新一代 Z 世代和千禧世代法定飲酒年齡消費者中，我們看到了更多的機會。在加拿大，Coors Light 仍然是業界排名第一的淡啤酒，並且在第四季度再次成長了市場份額。莫爾森品牌系列的銷售份額在第四季度和全年均有所增長。

This performance has helped us to drive 23 consecutive months of share growth despite the challenging industry backdrop. In EMEA and APAC, a number of our core power brands are leaders in their respective markets. Carling remains a top lager in the UK with strong brand equity. And with the highly competitive environment, we took a value over volume approach, which weighed on volume performance during the year.

儘管產業環境充滿挑戰，但這項業績仍幫助我們連續 23 個月實現份額成長。在歐洲、中東和非洲地區以及亞太地區，我們的許多核心強勢品牌在各自的市場中處於領先地位。嘉士伯 (Carling) 憑藉著強大的品牌資產，依然是英國頂級啤酒品牌。在競爭激烈的環境下，我們採取了「價值重於數量」的經營方式，這對全年的銷售表現產生了影響。

And while core brand performance was impacted by the soft industry in the fourth quarter in Central and Eastern Europe, our results were strong for the year. This was driven by Ožujsko in Croatia, which increased as well as the extremely successful relaunch of Caraiman in Romania. Caraiman has already reached over 300,000 hectoliters since March and has been incremental to the overall portfolio in the country.

儘管第四季中歐和東歐地區核心品牌業績受到軟產業的影響，但我們全年的業績仍然強勁。這得益於克羅埃西亞的 Ožujsko 銷量的成長以及羅馬尼亞的 Caraiman 極其成功的重新推出。自 3 月以來，Caraiman 啤酒的銷量已超過 30 萬百公升，並且一直在增加該國啤酒的總銷量。

Turning to our premiumization priority for both beer and beyond beer. Our above premium portfolio was 27% of total net brand revenue for the year. In EMEA and APAC, where over half of our net brand revenue comes below premium. Our business continued to premiumize.

談談我們對啤酒及啤酒以外的產品的優質化優先考慮。我們的高端以上產品組合佔當年品牌淨總收入的 27%。在歐洲、中東和非洲地區以及亞太地區，我們一半以上的品牌淨收入來自高端產品以下。我們的業務繼續高端化。

Much of EMEA and APAC's premiumization success has been driven by Madrí which grew net sales revenue double digits in the year and is the number two lager in the on-premise in the UK in terms of value. (inaudible) is also exceeding expectations in Bulgaria following a very successful launch there last year. In the Americas, our above premium share of net brand revenue was 22% for the year.

歐洲、中東和非洲 (EMEA) 和亞太地區 (APAC) 的高端化成功很大程度上得益於 Madrà 的推動，該公司今年的淨銷售收入實現了兩位數成長，並且是英國本地啤酒市場價值排名第二的啤酒品牌。 (聽不清楚) 繼去年在保加利亞成功推出後，其在保加利亞的表現也超出了預期。在美洲，我們全年的高端產品淨品牌收入佔 22%。

This was supported by Canada, which also continued to premise with its above premium net brand revenue up at double digits in 2024. This was driven by the success of Miller Lite, which is the fastest-growing major beer brand in this market on a percentage basis as well as by our flavor portfolio. We are growing more share of flavor than any other major brewer in Canada and Madrí is also performing ahead of expectations in Canada following last year's launch.

這得到了加拿大的支持，該國也將繼續保持這一勢頭，到 2024 年，其高端品牌淨收入將保持兩位數的成長。這是由於 Miller Lite 的成功以及我們的風味組合所推動的，Miller Lite 是該市場上按百分比增長最快的主要啤酒品牌。我們的風味啤酒份額增長速度比加拿大任何其他主要啤酒製造商都要快，而 Madrà 自去年推出以來，在加拿大的表現也超出了預期。

In the US, there is work to do, but we see this as an opportunity, and we have big plans in 2025. After further fine-tuning our portfolio last year, including divesting underperforming craft breweries, our resources are focused on scalable opportunities within our expanding above premium portfolio brands in both beer and beyond beer.

在美國，還有很多工作要做，但我們認為這是一個機遇，我們對 2025 年有一個宏偉的計劃。在去年進一步調整我們的投資組合（包括剝離表現不佳的精釀啤酒廠）之後，我們的資源集中在不斷擴大的高端啤酒組合品牌以及啤酒以外的其他品牌的可擴展機會上。

In beer, we are moving in the right direction with the Blue Moon brand family as we are starting to see signs of stability. In fact, the Blue Moon brand family held share of industry in both the third and fourth quarters and took share of craft during both periods. This includes positive momentum behind some of our newer innovations like the repositioned Blue Moon Light as well as Blue Moon non-alc, which has quickly become a top 10 non-alc beer brand. And we have plans to build on these results for the Blue Moon brand family in 2025.

在啤酒方面，我們正帶著藍月品牌家族朝著正確的方向前進，我們開始看到穩定的跡象。事實上，藍月品牌家族在第三和第四季均佔據行業份額，並且在兩個時期都佔據精釀啤酒的份額。這包括我們一些較新創新產品背後的積極勢頭，例如重新定位的藍月光和藍月無酒精啤酒，後者已迅速成為十大無酒精啤酒品牌之一。我們計劃在 2025 年為藍月品牌家族繼續鞏固這些成果。

And we are betting big on Peroni. As we have discussed, we have onshore production which offers a number of benefits. It significantly improves consistency and certainty of supply, which has previously been a challenge when we tried to scale the brand. It allows us to introduce different pack sizes, which consumers are asking for and it also unlocks meaningful cost savings, which we intend to deploy toward increasing distribution and awareness to drive scale and margin for this brand. Our commercial plans kick off in the second quarter and while it will, of course, take time, ultimately, we see no reason why Peroni really can't rival the size of other major European imports in the US over time.

我們對 Peroni 寄予厚望。正如我們所討論的，我們的陸上生產可以帶來許多好處。它顯著提高了供應的一致性和確定性，這在我們嘗試擴大品牌規模時一直是一個挑戰。它使我們能夠推出消費者所要求的不同包裝尺寸，同時也帶來了有意義的成本節約，我們打算利用這些成本來增加分銷和知名度，從而提高該品牌的規模和利潤。我們的商業計劃將於第二季度啟動，當然，這需要時間，但最終，我們認為沒有理由認為 Peroni 無法隨著時間的推移在美國與其他主要歐洲進口產品的規模相媲美。

In Beyond Beer, which is a big part of our premiumization plans, non-alc is a key focus area. It provides us the opportunity to capture more occasions, particularly among younger legal age Gen Z consumers. So we are investing behind the growing areas in non-alc where we believe we have a right to win. This too will take some time, but we are making progress.

在 Beyond Beer（這是我們高端化計畫的重要組成部分）中，無酒精是我們關注的重點領域。它為我們提供了捕捉更多場合的機會，特別是針對更年輕的法定年齡 Z 世代消費者。因此，我們正在投資非酒精飲料領域的成長領域，我們相信我們有權獲得成功。這也需要一些時間，但我們正在取得進展。

We spoke in detail on our last quarter call about our increased investment in ZOA to a majority stake and plans to accelerate the brand are well underway. It's early days of the integration. But in the last four weeks to end the year, ZOA grew in both dollar and unit share in total US Food.

我們在上個季度的電話會議上詳細討論了我們增加對 ZOA 的投資以獲得多數股權以及加速品牌發展的計劃，這些計劃正在順利進行中。目前正處於整合的早期階段。但在年底的最後四周，ZOA 在美國食品總額中的美元和單位份額均有所增加。

Taking this increased stake allows us to lead the entirety of the brand's marketing, retail, and direct-to-consumer sales development as we drive brand awareness and distribution, leveraging the strength of our network. And speaking of opportunities to advance our non-alc plans, we are so pleased to have entered into a strategic partnership agreement with the world's leading supplier of premium carbonated mixes.

透過增加股份，我們可以利用我們網路的優勢，引領品牌的整個行銷、零售和直接面向消費者的銷售發展，同時提高品牌知名度和分銷能力。談到推進我們的無酒精計劃的機會，我們很高興與世界領先的優質碳酸混合物供應商達成戰略合作協議。

The partnership agreement gives us the exclusive commercialization rights to the Fever-Tree brand in the US. This is a significant step forward in our strategic ambition to build a total beverage portfolio for a wide range of consumer preferences across both traditional alcohol and non-alc occasions.

合作協議賦予我們在美國 Fever-Tree 品牌的獨家商業化權利。這是我們朝著策略目標邁出的重要一步，即打造一套完整的飲料產品組合，滿足傳統酒精和非酒精場合中廣泛消費者的偏好。

Now before I pass it to Tracey, I'll conclude by saying that we remain confident we have the right strategy to achieve our long-term growth objectives. And our 2025 guidance is aligned with those objectives. Collectively, our global core power brands are healthy, and we have great commercial plans in 2025 to continue to support it.

現在，在將其交給 Tracey 之前，我最後想說的是，我們仍然相信我們擁有實現長期成長目標的正確策略。我們的 2025 年指導方針與這些目標一致。總的來說，我們的全球核心動力品牌是健康的，而且我們在 2025 年制定了很好的商業計劃來繼續支持它。

We are changing the shape of our global portfolio with premiumization successes in EMEA and APAC and Canada, and we have targeted plans for the US. Our operations outside of the US are performing well and contributing meaningfully to our growth.

我們正在透過在歐洲、中東和非洲地區、亞太地區和加​​拿大取得的高端化成功來改變我們全球投資組合的形態，並且我們已針對美國制定了計劃。我們在美國以外的業務表現良好，為我們的成長做出了重大貢獻。

Our capabilities across our organization support premiumization and focused innovation, supply chain efficiencies and commercial effectiveness, which helped drive sustained long-term profitable growth. And with our compelling cash generation and a healthy balance sheet, we have substantially improved our financial flexibility, allowing us to continue to invest in our business and return cash to shareholders.

我們整個組織的能力支持高端化和重點創新、供應鏈效率和商業效益，這有助於推動長期持續獲利成長。憑藉我們強勁的現金創造能力和健康的資產負債表，我們大大提高了財務靈活性，使我們能夠繼續投資於我們的業務並向股東返還現金。

So we are pleased with our progress and confidence in our ability to achieve our long-term growth algorithm in 2025 and beyond. With that, I will pass it to Tracey.

因此，我們對我們的進展感到滿意，並且對我們在 2025 年及以後實現長期成長演算法的能力充滿信心。說完這些，我就將它傳給了 Tracey。

Thank you, Gavin. We made strong progress in enhancing our profitability and financial flexibility in 2024. We delivered over $1.2 billion in underlying free cash flow, in line with our expectations. And it was supported by underlying pretax income margin expansion of nearly 80 basis points for the year.

謝謝你，加文。2024年，我們在提高獲利能力和財務靈活性方面取得了長足的進步。我們實現了超過 12 億美元的基礎自由現金流，符合我們的預期。這一增長得益於全年稅前利潤率擴大近 80 個基點。

This expansion was driven by positive net pricing, mix impact, moderating inflation and cost savings, which more than offset volume deleverage, which had a particularly significant impact in the second half of the year related to US shipment timing. Also contributing to the margin improvement was lower NG&A, largely due to cycling innovative levels in 2023. G&A declines were mostly related to higher incentive compensation in 2023.

這一擴張是由積極的淨定價、產品組合影響、通膨緩和和成本節約推動的，這些因素足以抵消成交量去槓桿的影響，而成交量去槓桿對下半年美國出貨時間產生了尤為顯著的影響。利潤率提高的另一個原因是 NG&A 成本降低，這主要歸功於 2023 年的循環創新水準。一般及行政開支的下降主要與 2023 年更高的激勵薪酬有關。

Marketing declines were mainly a result of higher investments in the prior year, particularly in the second half of the year when we increased spend by an incremental $100 million, given the accelerated demand in the US. But importantly, we continue to support our brands globally with higher levels of marketing investments for both the quarter and the year as compared to the respective periods in 2022.

行銷支出的下降主要由於去年投資增加，尤其是今年下半年，由於美國需求加速成長，我們增加了 1 億美元的支出。但重要的是，與 2022 年相應時期相比，我們在本季和全年都投入了更高的行銷投資，繼續在全球範圍內支持我們的品牌。

In addition to investing in our brands and business, we continue to return cash to shareholders. In 2024, we paid $369 million in cash dividends and $643 million to repurchase 10.9 million shares.

除了投資我們的品牌和業務外，我們還繼續向股東返還現金。2024年，我們支付了3.69億美元的現金股息，並支付了6.43億美元的現金股息回購1,090萬股。

Since the plan was announced in October 2023, we have repurchased 6.7% of our Class B shares outstanding. It's an up to five-year $2 billion plan. And as Gavin mentioned, we have utilized approximately 40% in just the first five quarters. We ended the year with a healthy balance sheet and our net debt to underlying EBITDA ratio was 2.1 times, which is in line with our long-term target of under 2.5 times, and we have no debt coming due in 2025.

自 2023 年 10 月宣布該計劃以來，我們已回購了 6.7% 的 B 類流通股。這是一項為期五年、耗資20億美元的計畫。正如 Gavin 所提到的，僅在前五個季度我們就利用了大約 40%。今年年底，我們的資產負債表表現穩健，淨債務與基礎 EBITDA 比率為 2.1 倍，符合我們低於 2.5 倍的長期目標，而且我們沒有將於 2025 年到期的債務。

This provides a significant financial flexibility, offering more optionality in the ways that we invest in the business, we are through capital investments that drive productivity improvements, or to bolt-on M&A that support our strategic growth objectives like our recent investment in Fever-Tree.

這提供了顯著的財務靈活性，為我們投資業務的方式提供了更多的可選性，我們透過資本投資來推動生產力的提高，或透過附加的併購來支持我們的策略成長目標，例如我們最近對 Fever-Tree 的投資。

It also provides us the opportunity to return even more cash to shareholders. And we are pleased to share that today, we announced our quarterly dividend of $0.47 per share to be paid on March 14. This is an increase of 6.8% and represents our fourth consecutive year of increases. Clearly demonstrating our attention to sustainably increase our dividend.

這也為我們提供了向股東返還更多現金的機會。今天，我們很高興地宣布，我們將於 3 月 14 日支付每股 0.47 美元的季度股息。這一增長了 6.8%，這是我們連續第四年增長。清楚地表明了我們關注持續增加股息。

And now I'll conclude with our financial outlook. For 2025, we are issuing guidance that is in line with our long-term growth algorithm. However, the global [meta] environment is rapidly evolving, resulting in uncertainty around the effects of geopolitical events and global trade policy, including the impact from consumer trends. As a result, our outlook does not reflect the impact of these activities or any imposition of import tariffs by the US and potential retaliatory actions by other countries.

現在我將總結一下我們的財務展望。對於 2025 年，我們將發布符合我們長期成長演算法的指導。然而，全球[元]環境正在迅速變化，導致地緣政治事件和全球貿易政策的影響（包括消費趨勢的影響）存在不確定性。因此，我們的展望並未反映這些活動或美國徵收進口關稅以及其他國家可能採取的報復行動的影響。

Also, please remember that net sales revenue and underlying pretax income growth guidance are on a constant currency basis and underlying earnings per share or not. Therefore, continued strength in the US dollar will result in a headwind to our reported results as well as underlying earnings per share growth and in the effective period using the current exchange rates.

另外，請記住，淨銷售收入和基本稅前收入成長指引都是以固定匯率為基礎的，並且不是以每股基本收益為基礎的。因此，美元持續走強將對我們的報告業績以及每股收益成長以及以現行匯率計算的有效期造成不利影響。

With that said, let's review our guidance metrics. Low-single-digit net sales revenue growth on a constant currency basis. Mid-single-digit underlying pretax income growth on a constant currency basis. High single-digit underlying earnings per share growth. Underlying free cash flow of $1.3 billion, plus or minus 10%. Underlying depreciation and amortization of $675 million, plus or minus 5%. Net interest expense of $215 million plus or minus 5%. Underlying effective tax rate in the range of 22% to 24% and capital expenditures incurred of $750 million, plus or minus 5%.

話雖如此，讓我們回顧一下我們的指導指標。以固定匯率計算，淨銷售收入實現低個位數成長。以固定匯率計算，稅前基本收入成長率為中個位數。每股基本收益實現高個位數成長。基礎自由現金流為 13 億美元，上下浮動 10%。基本折舊和攤提為 6.75 億美元，正負 5%。淨利息支出為 2.15 億美元，上下浮動 5%。基本有效稅率在 22% 到 24% 之間，資本支出為 7.5 億美元，上下浮動 5%。

Drivers that underpin our guidance include anticipated annual net price increases of 1% to 2% in North America, in line with the average historical range and for other markets to trend in line with inflation. Mix should be a meaningful growth driver as we advance toward our medium-term goal of reaching about one-third of our global net brand revenue from our above premium portfolio.

我們指引背後的驅動因素包括預計北美年度淨價格將上漲 1% 至 2%，與歷史平均水平一致，其他市場的趨勢也將與通膨保持一致。隨著我們逐步實現我們的中期目標，即從我們的高端產品組合中實現全球淨品牌收入的三分之一左右，產品組合應該成為一個有意義的成長動力。

We expect this to come from continued premiumization in EMEA, APAC, and Canada as well as progress in the US, where, as Gavin shared, we are starting to see some initial traction with Blue Moon. A big chance for Peroni and standing in non-alc.

我們預計這將得益於歐洲、中東和非洲地區、亞太地區和加​​拿大市場的持續高端化以及美國市場的進展，正如 Gavin 所說，我們開始看到藍月 (Blue Moon) 取得一些初步進展。這對佩羅尼來說是一個很大的機會，並且在非酒精飲料領域佔有一席之地。

While Fever-Tree and the consolidation of ZOA provide incremental benefits to the top line, we will also be cycling revenue from the smaller regional craft breweries we divested in the third quarter and more significantly 2024 Pabst [into the] back contract brewing volume as these contracts terminated at the end of last year.

雖然 Fever-Tree 和 ZOA 的合併為營收帶來了增量收益，但我們也將把第三季剝離的小型區域精釀啤酒廠的收入以及更重要的是 2024 年 Pabst 的收入循環到後續合約釀造量中，因為這些合約已於去年年底終止。

On a combined basis, we expect to relate to approximate 1.9 million hectoliter headwind to America's financial volume in 2025. We produced about 1.2 million hectoliters of Pabst in the US and 700,000 hectoliters of (inaudible) brand in Canada in 2024.

綜合來看，我們預計 2025 年美國的財政總量將減少約 190 萬百公升。2024 年，我們在美國生產了約 120 萬百公升 Pabst 啤酒，在加拿大生產了 70 萬百公升（聽不清楚）品牌啤酒。

Given the [peps] volumes wound down sequentially over the course of 2024, the headwind is more pronounced in the first half of the year, particularly in the first quarter. And the 2024 (inaudible) volumes follow typical seasonal trends. There are several additional shipment phasing considerations. In the first quarter, we are cycling particularly strong demand for our core power brands in the US in the prior year period when US brand volumes were up 5.7%.

鑑於 2024 年期間 [peps] 銷量逐年減少，上半年，尤其是第一季的逆風將更加明顯。2024 年（聽不清楚）的銷售量遵循典型的季節性趨勢。還有幾個額外的裝運階段考慮事項。第一季度，我們的核心強勢品牌在美國的需求特別強勁，去年同期美國品牌銷售成長了 5.7%。

Also, in the first quarter of 2024, we benefited from higher than typical inventory build given our anticipation of the Fort Worth strike. This contributed to US financial volume increasing 7.6% in the first quarter of 2024 despite the exit of 350,000 hectoliters of [peps] volume. This higher than typical inventory bold extended into the second quarter of 2024, and we do not anticipate a similar level of first half inventory bold in 2025.

此外，由於我們對沃斯堡罷工的預期，在 2024 年第一季度，我們受益於高於平均的庫存累積。這導緻美國金融總量在 2024 年第一季儘管出口量為 35 萬百升，但仍成長了 7.6%。這種高於典型的庫存水準延續到了 2024 年第二季度，我們預計 2025 年上半年的庫存水準不會達到類似水準。

Turning to costs. In the first quarter, we anticipate incurring one-time transition and integration fees related to the Fever-Tree partnership, which will be reported in our underlying results. The costs will be determined over the next few months based on discussions which are ongoing. We also expect full year margin expansion coming from a number of drivers.

談到成本。在第一季度，我們預計將產生與 Fever-Tree 合作相關的一次性過渡和整合費用，這些費用將在我們的基礎績效中報告。成本將在未來幾個月內根據正在進行的討論來確定。我們也預計，多種因素將推動全年利潤率擴大。

They include mix benefits from lower contract brewing and increased premiumization, moderating inflation on input costs and productivity improvements and cost savings. We also expect to continue to put the right commercial pressure behind our brands globally, focusing on retaining existing customers and attracting new ones. Given our deep capabilities and return oriented strategy, our growth outlook does not require us to make step changes in our marketing investments.

其中包括降低合約釀造成本和提高高端化帶來的混合效益、緩和投入成本的通貨膨脹以及提高生產力和節省成本。我們也希望繼續在全球範圍內為我們的品牌施加正確的商業壓力，專注於留住現有客戶並吸引新客戶。鑑於我們雄厚的能力和回報導向策略，我們的成長前景不需要我們在行銷投資方面做出重大改變。

In closing, we are pleased with our progress in 2024. We believe we have the right strategy and with strong brands, a highly cash-generative business model and a healthy balance sheet, we have the ability to continue to invest in our business to achieve long-term financial growth and our strategic goals, while also returning cash to shareholders through a growing dividend and a meaningful share repurchase program.

最後，我們對 2024 年的進展感到滿意。我們相信，我們擁有正確的策略，憑藉強大的品牌、高度現金創造的業務模式和健康的資產負債表，我們有能力繼續投資於我們的業務，以實現長期財務成長和策略目標，同時透過不斷增長的股息和有意義的股票回購計劃向股東返還現金。

With that, we would like to open it up to your questions. Operator?

現在，我們想回答您的問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Chris Carey, Wells Fargo.

（操作員指示）富國銀行的克里斯凱裡 (Chris Carey)。

Gavin, I was wondering if you could comment a bit on what we're seeing being the beer category specifically year to date or whatever near-term time horizon you'd like to use. I think there's been a debate about increased volatility in recent weeks and months. Whether that's weather or changing consumer preferences.

加文，我想知道您是否可以就我們所看到的啤酒類別的具體情況或您想要使用的任何近期時間範圍發表一些評論。我認為最近幾週和幾個月來關於波動性加劇的爭論一直存在。無論是天氣還是消費者偏好的改變。

But I'd love to get your thoughts on some of the near-term evolution of what we're seeing in the data and how you see industry dynamics and perhaps how you're thinking about this in the context of your full-year guidance? And then more of a just sneak in question, but Tracey, are you factoring any share repurchases in the outlook? Or any context on share buybacks for this year.

但我很想聽聽您對我們從數據中看到的一些近期發展的看法，以及您如何看待行業動態，以及您如何根據全年指引考慮這些問題？然後更多的只是一個偷偷摸摸的問題，但是 Tracey，您是否將任何股票回購考慮在前景中？或有關今年股票回購的任何背景資訊。

Thanks, Chris. Well, I'll let Tracey answer your sneak in question. But I'll deal with the industry first, Chris. Look, I mean, if you look at 2024, there was a lot of noise, right? I mean we talked about a lot of that over our earnings calls with trading days and holiday timings and turbulent weather and all sorts of things going on.

謝謝，克里斯。好吧，我將讓 Tracey 回答你的偷偷問題。但是我要先處理好行業問題，克里斯。你看，我的意思是，如果你看看 2024 年，你會發現有很多噪音，對吧？我的意思是我們在收益電話會議上討論了很多問題，包括交易日、假期時間、動蕩的天氣以及正在發生的各種各樣的事情。

Summer was not particularly good. But we did see progress in Q4. And in fact, I think Q4 ended up being the best quarter of industry performance that we experienced last year. And Chris, as it relates to current trading, I would say what we said on the last call, and I think the call before that is I think being cautious of short-term trends is important, right?

夏天不是特別好。但我們確實在第四季度看到了進展。事實上，我認為第四季是我們去年行業表現最好的一個季度。克里斯，就目前交易而言，我想說的是我們在上次電話會議上說過的，而且我認為在那之前的電話會議上，我認為謹慎對待短期趨勢很重要，對嗎？

Because I think once you get to the full quarter and you remove noise that exists on a week-to-week basis, you get a much better sense of what's happening in the industry. And even with what you're seeing in the first publicly available data for 2025, it's utterly dissimilar to what we were experiencing in 2024. Again, there is noise around weather and timing of holidays, and I would just caution you not to draw assumptions based on a very short period of data, Chris.

因為我認為一旦你進入整個季度並消除每週存在的噪音，你就會更好地了解行業正在發生的事情。即使從 2025 年第一批公開的數據來看，它也與我們在 2024 年經歷的情況完全不同。再次強調，天氣和假期時間有乾擾，我只是想提醒你不要根據非常短的數據做出假設，克里斯。

Chris and just in terms of share repurchases, look, we do intend to continue to execute our share repurchase program. And a reminder, increase both its systematic as well as an opportunistic execution component. So that allows us to consistently execute the program, but with also the ability to lean in if our models indicate it appropriate.

克里斯，就股票回購而言，我們確實打算繼續執行我們的股票回購計劃。需要提醒的是，既要增加其係統性執行成分，又要增加機會性執行成分。這樣，我們就可以一致地執行該計劃，如果我們的模型表明合適，我們也有能力進行傾斜。

So based on our $2 billion program, which we announced in October 2023, and as Gavin said, we've already utilized about 40% of it in just the first five quarters and it is a five-year program. So I think it's clear, our commitment to share repurchases. But the execution of the 10 very can be driven by a number of factors, including the timing of our capital commitments. So for example, a planned investment in Fever-Tree could drive that. But as I said, we are committed to the share repurchase program that we put in place.

因此，基於我們在 2023 年 10 月宣布的 20 億美元計劃，正如 Gavin 所說，我們僅在前五個季度就已經使用了其中的 40% 左右，這是一個五年計劃。所以我認為，我們對股票回購的承諾是明確的。但這十大目標的執行可能受到多種因素的影響，其中包括我們的資本承諾的時機。例如，對 Fever-Tree 的計劃投資可以推動這一點。但正如我所說，我們致力於實施股票回購計畫。

Peter Grom, UBS.

瑞銀的 Peter Grom。

I really wanted to just follow up on Chris's question there. Just some perspective on the top-line guidance. I know the various puts and takes, Tracey, as you alluded to, contract brewing, fever trading. But I guess just how are you actually thinking about underlying category growth across your key geographies? Are you assuming category growth rates improve as we move into the summer, cycle easier comps? Or are you kind of assuming the steady status category growth improves, that would be more of a source of upside?

我真的很想跟進克里斯的問題。這只是對頂線指導的一些看法。特蕾西，正如你所提到的，我知道各種各樣的買賣，合約釀造，狂熱交易。但我想知道，您實際上是如何考慮主要地區的潛在類別成長的？您是否認為，隨著夏季的到來、週期的放鬆，品類成長率將會提高？或者您認為穩定狀態類別的成長會改善，這將成為更多的上行來源？

Thanks, Peter. Look, if you look at our major markets, right? In Canada, we've seen past inflation and interest rates, they continue to weigh on the economy but we have seen interest rate cuts. We've seen inflation start to come down. And Canada beer industry trends are fairly similar to the US.

謝謝，彼得。你看，如果你看看我們的主要市場，對嗎？在加拿大，我們已經看到了過去的通貨膨脹和利率，它們繼續對經濟造成壓力，但我們已經看到了利率削減。我們已經看到通貨膨脹開始下降。加拿大啤酒產業趨勢與美國非常相似。

As I said to Chris, we're not seeing anything meaningfully different from the previous trends that we shared in the US, fairly conscious consumers are still looking to engage in channel and pack shifting. And at the same time, the industry continues to see premiumization, which plays perfectly into our overall acceleration plan.

正如我對克里斯所說的那樣，我們沒有看到與我們在美國分享的之前的趨勢有任何顯著不同，相當有意識的消費者仍然在尋求參與管道和包裝轉移。同時，業界持續呈現高端化趨勢，這與我們的整體加速計畫完美契合。

In the UK, the economy is improving. Inflation is slowing down. It is competitive at the moment, but not a lot different from what we've been seeing through the back end of 2024. And as you rightly point out, we do have puts and takes in our top-line guidance. The take, as Tracey said, is contract brewing. And the pull is Fever-Tree for example.

在英國，經濟正在好轉。通貨膨脹正在放緩。目前來看，競爭還是很激烈的，但與我們在 2024 年底看到的情況相比，差異並不大。正如您正確指出的那樣，我們的營收預期中確實存在利弊。正如 Tracey 所說，這種做法就是合約釀酒。例如，拉動的是 Fever-Tree。

But more broadly, the progress that we're making on our overall acceleration plans, whether that's our core brands globally, whether it's the premiumization progress that we're making or whether it's acceleration in beyond beer. So it's all of those factors taken into [account fee].

但更廣泛地說，我們在整體加速計畫上所取得的進展，無論是我們全球的核心品牌，還是我們正在取得的高端化進展，還是超越啤酒領域的加速。所以所有這些因素都考慮進去了[帳戶費用]。

Filippo Falorni, Citi.

花旗銀行的 Filippo Falorni。

I wanted to ask on margins. So first, on the gross margin line, can you provide some context of the puts and takes in terms of pricing, mix benefit, and commodity inflation or you expect -- that you included in your guidance? And particularly on the commodities, I know you have long-term hedging programs -- so -- but just any thoughts on the potential impact of aluminum tariffs and what that could mean for your COGS?

我想問一下利潤問題。那麼首先，在毛利率方面，您能否提供一些關於定價、組合效益和商品通膨方面的利弊背景，或者您預期的——您在指導中包含的內容？特別是在大宗商品方面，我知道您有長期的對沖計劃 - 所以 - 但您對鋁關稅的潛在影響以及這對您的 COGS 意味著什麼有什麼看法？

I'll let Tracey talk about the margin [free plan]. Thanks for the question. From an aluminum point of view, we did make changes to our sourcing strategy over the last few years. And so almost all of our aluminum is currently purchased in the United States or United States consumption, which is obviously our biggest market. But Tracey, do you want to give a more broad --?

我讓 Tracey 談談利潤[免費方案]。謝謝你的提問。從鋁的角度來看，過去幾年我們確實改變了採購策略。因此，我們目前幾乎所有的鋁都是在美國購買或供美國消費，這顯然是我們最大的市場。但是 Tracey，你想給出更廣泛的--？

Yeah. Sure. Hi, Filippo. So in terms of gross margin, look, we don't give specific gross margin guidance. But notably, our underlying gross margin percentage did improve in each of the last two years. So as we look at our 2025 guidance, our long-term growth algorithm does anticipate underlying pretax margin expansion so building on the expansion we saw in 2024. Some of the drivers of that.

是的。當然。你好，菲利波。因此就毛利率而言，我們沒有給出具體的毛利率指引。但值得注意的是，過去兩年我們的基本毛利率百分比確實有所提高。因此，當我們審視 2025 年的指引時，我們的長期成長演算法確實預期了基礎的稅前利潤率將擴大，從而建立在 2024 年擴大的基礎上。其中的一些驅動因素。

So in 2025, we do expect moderating inflation on input costs. And to your point, we do have multiple levers that support our growth algorithm. So it includes positive net pricing that we discussed in our guidance, positive mix from premiumization as well as the lower contract brewing volumes which will also drive productivity improvements, and we also continue to look at cost savings across our entire business.

因此，我們確實預期 2025 年投入成本的通膨將會緩和。正如您所說，我們確實有多個槓桿來支援我們的成長演算法。因此，它包括我們在指導中討論的正淨定價、優質化的積極組合以及較低的合約釀造量，這也將推動生產率的提高，而且我們還將繼續關注整個業務的成本節約。

So those are some of the things that I would say would drive some of the margin expansion.

所以我想說這些是會推動利潤率擴大的一些因素。

Thanks, Tracey.

謝謝，特蕾西。

Bonnie Herzog, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的邦妮·赫爾佐格 (Bonnie Herzog)。

All right. I had a question on your guidance, which you mentioned is in line with your long-term algo. Your guidance implies a fair amount of operating leverage this year. And I know you've touched on this, but hoping you could unpack this a bit for us, meaning you should get some leverage from the top line. But could you give us a little more color on the drivers of EPS growth, such as the cost savings and efficiencies you expect to get this year?

好的。我對您的指導有一個疑問，您提到這符合您的長期演算法。您的指導意味著今年將會有相當大的經營槓桿。我知道您已經談及這一點，但希望您能為我們稍微解釋一下，這意味著您應該從頂線獲得一些影響力。但是，您能否向我們詳細介紹每股收益成長的驅動因素，例如您預計今年將實現的成本節約和效率？

And then maybe how much that could increase next year and beyond -- maybe if you don't feel comfortable quantifying maybe you could rank some of these cost savings in order of impact, for instance, I think that would be helpful.

然後也許明年及以後會增加多少 - 也許如果你不願意量化，也許你可以按照影響的順序對這些成本節省進行排序，例如，我認為這會有所幫助。

Thanks, Bonnie. Tracey, do you want to take that?

謝謝，邦妮。崔西，你想拿走那個嗎？

Yeah. So I mean, a couple of things that I can point to in terms of the operating leverage and improvements in our operating margin. So number one, we've invested over the last couple of years in our capabilities to drive efficiencies and cost savings. And a lot of that investment is focused on our breweries, eliminating waste, driving efficiencies there, and secondly, taking out the contract brewing will further help in terms of costs as well as efficiencies in our brewery.

是的。所以我的意思是，關於營業槓桿和營業利潤率的提高，我可以指出幾件事。首先，過去幾年來，我們一直在投資提高效率和節省成本。其中很大一部分投資都集中在我們的啤酒廠，消除浪費，提高效率，其次，簽訂合約釀造將進一步幫助我們的啤酒廠降低成本並提高效率。

So that's one of the bigger drivers around the cost and efficiencies. The other thing just in terms of marketing spend, for example, we spent the last couple of years really driving our return on marketing investments. And even though we do expect our engine to increase around some of the investments that we're making with innovation, Fever-Tree. There's also a number of puts and takes that is coming out.

所以這是成本和效率方面更大的驅動因素之一。另一件事，就行銷支出而言，過去幾年我們一直在真正提高行銷投資的回報率。儘管我們確實預計我們的引擎會隨著我們在創新方面所做的一些投資而成長，但 Fever-Tree 卻並非如此。還有許多即將出現的變化。

So for example, we divested of our underperforming craft breweries, and we can now redeploy those funds to other brands in 2025. So we'll continue to look at that. And then one of the bigger items as well is bringing the Peroni production onshore. And there's meaningful ocean freight savings by doing that. And we're then able to utilize those cost savings to again support the marketing investment of that brand.

舉例來說，我們剝離了表現不佳的精釀啤酒廠，現在可以在 2025 年將這些資金重新部署到其他品牌。我們會繼續關注這個問題。另一個更大的項目是將 Peroni 的生產轉移到國內。這樣做可以節省大量海運費。然後我們就可以利用這些節省的成本再次支持該品牌的行銷投資。

So a number of levers that we can pull in a number of capability investments that we've made over the last couple of years that we'll start seeing coming through now that will certainly help our margin as we look at continuing to drive efficiencies in the areas that we operate.

因此，我們可以利用過去幾年所做的多項能力投資，現在我們將開始看到這些投資發揮作用，這無疑將有助於提高我們的利潤率，因為我們將繼續提高營運領域的效率。

Andrea Teixeira, JPMorgan.

摩根大通的安德里亞特謝拉 (Andrea Teixeira)。

This is Drew Levine on for Andrea. Gavin, I wanted to ask on the US brand volumes were down 3%. I think that came in probably a bit better than the tracked channel of data would suggest despite, I think, what has been described by some other peers as maybe a shift towards those channels.

這是德魯‧萊文 (Drew Levine)，代替安德里亞 (Andrea)。加文，我想問美國品牌銷量下降了 3% 的原因。我認為，結果可能比追蹤的數據管道所顯示的要好一些，儘管我認為其他一些同行可能描述了向這些管道的轉變。

So any color would be helpful on what you're seeing from a consumer perspective? I know you mentioned some moderation in the value-seeking behavior, but maybe some perspective on different channels, if on-premise is outperforming, maybe untracked channels performing better. So any help there would be great.

那麼從消費者的角度來看，任何顏色對您看到的內容有幫助嗎？我知道您提到了在價值尋求行為中要有所節制，但也許是從不同的管道來看，如果內部部署表現優異，那麼未追蹤的管道可能會表現更好。所以任何幫助都將非常有幫助。

Thanks, Drew. I think one point I'd make is I think there was an extra trading day. So that's certainly that certainly would have helped. From a consumer point of view, we did see them moving away from C stores earlier in the calendar year in the sort of summertime period. And now we've seen it move back into the C-store channel. We've also seen on-premise continue to slightly outperform. But broadly, I would say those are the three key ones.

謝謝，德魯。我想說的一點是，我認為有一個額外的交易日。所以這肯定會有幫助。從消費者的角度來看，我們確實看到他們在今年早些時候，也就是夏季期間，從 C 商店撤離。現在我們看到它又回到了C-store頻道。我們也看到內部部署繼續略微表現出色。但從總體上來說，我認為這是三個關鍵因素。

Gerald Pascarelli, Needham & Company.

傑拉爾德·帕斯卡雷利（Gerald Pascarelli），尼德漢姆公司。

Thanks very much for the question. I wanted to go back to the share repurchase commentary. So as we look at the outlook for 2025, the high-single-digit growth, Tracey, is it fair for us to assume that you maybe to think about it in terms of like straight lining the remaining authorization with any potential upside to earnings growth being remaining aggressive on buybacks, but that maybe shouldn't be part of the base case scenario? Just trying to get a little bit more color there.

非常感謝您的提問。我想回顧一下股票回購評論。因此，當我們展望 2025 年的前景時，Tracey，高個位數的增長，我們是否可以公平地假設，您可能會從直接考慮剩餘授權與盈利增長的任何潛在上升空間的角度來考慮，即繼續積極回購，但這也許不應該成為基本情況的一部分？只是想讓它多一點色彩。

Yeah. So a couple of things to consider as we talk about the high-single-digit underlying EPS growth, I mean, some of that certainly is being driven by share repurchases. And our guide assumes at minimum repurchases in line with our 10b5-1 plan. But some other factors that play into our EPS growth is also tax and foreign exchange.

是的。因此，當我們談論高個位數的潛在每股盈餘成長時，需要考慮幾件事，我的意思是，其中一部分肯定是由股票回購推動的。我們的指南假設至少回購符合我們的10b5-1計劃。但影響我們每股盈餘成長的其他一些因素還包括稅收和外匯。

So our EPS is not on a constant currency basis. So ForEx could impact that. And then we have reduced our underlying effective tax rate guide for 2025 to 22% to 24%, and that was from the 23% to 25% in 2024. But as I said, we'll continue to look at all of our capital allocation models and make sure they'd be returning the right -- we're making the right investment decisions to return to our shareholders.

因此我們的每股盈餘並不是以固定貨幣為基礎的。因此 ForEx 可能會對此產生影響。然後，我們將 2025 年的基本有效稅率指引值從 2024 年的 23% 到 25% 下調至 22% 到 24%。但正如我所說，我們將繼續審視我們所有的資本配置模型，並確保它們能夠帶來正確的回報——我們正在做出正確的投資決策來回報我們的股東。

So, yeah. As we said, it could vary. The share repurchase, driven by a number of factors, as I said, whether we have planned investments like Fever-Tree for example. So that may impact the sort of amount we spend. And also, just as a reminder, [up to five-year] program, and we're only five quarters into this.

是的。正如我們所說，它可能會有所不同。股票回購受到多種因素的驅動，正如我所說，例如我們是否計劃進行像 Fever-Tree 這樣的投資。這可能會影響我們的支出金額。另外，提醒一下，[長達五年的] 計劃，我們只進行了五個季度。

Rob Ottenstein, Evercore. Looks like Rob has disconnected.

奧滕斯坦 (Rob Ottenstein)，Evercore。看起來 Rob 已經斷開連線了。

Kevin Grundy, BNP Paribas.

法國巴黎銀行的凱文‧格蘭迪 (Kevin Grundy)。

Great. First, quick housekeeping question, then a bigger picture question. Easy for me to say. The housekeeping question for Tracey. It would seem like the guidance would imply that volume is down 1% to 2% based on your commentary of 1% to 2% price and then some favorable mix.

偉大的。首先，快速的基本問題，然後是更大的問題。我說起來容易。關於 Tracey 的日常事務問題。根據您對 1% 到 2% 的價格評論以及一些有利的組合，似乎該指導意味著交易量將下降 1% 到 2%。

I just wanted to confirm that's your expectation relative to an exit rate that was a bit more challenged than that in the US and Europe.

我只是想確認一下，這是您對退出率的預期，相比美國和歐洲，退出率要困難一些。

Then on the bigger picture question is just the demand outlook looking out now over the longer term. We get a lot of questions from investors on potential impact of younger consumers drinking less frequently, negative impact from GLP-1, the recent advisory from the former surgeon general, linking alcohol consumption and cancer risk. I was hoping you could comment on these potential headwinds and how they may impact the industry more broadly.

那麼，從更大的角度來看，問題只是目前長期的需求前景。我們收到了很多投資者的問題，關於年輕消費者減少飲酒的潛在影響、GLP-1 的負面影響，以及前衛生局局長最近提出的將飲酒與癌症風險聯繫起來的建議。我希望您能評論這些潛在的不利因素以及它們可能對整個行業產生怎樣的影響。

So not just beer, but US alcohol more broadly? And then how it may directly impact your strategy as it pertains to your portfolio.

那麼不僅限於啤酒，而且更廣泛地說是美國的酒精飲料？然後它將如何直接影響與您的投資組合相關的策略。

Do you want to comment on the first one, Tracey? I'll take the bigger picture question.

崔西，你想對第一個問題發表評論嗎？我將回答更宏觀的問題。

Yeah. Hi, Kevin, so look, the drivers for our top-line growth in 2025, I mean, of course, we remain focused on our US share performance. The NSR guidance is also dependent on a number of factors, including price and mix.

是的。嗨，凱文，你看，我們 2025 年營收成長的驅動力，我的意思是，當然，我們仍然關注我們的美國股票表現。NSR 指導也取決於許多因素，包括價格和組合。

In 2024, we achieved really strong annual top line contribution from both our EMEA and APAC business and from Canada. We don't specifically give volume guidance. But just as a reminder, we've got puts and takes there as well. So we will receive a benefit from bringing Fever-Tree.

2024 年，我們的 EMEA 和 APAC 業務以及加拿大業務均實現了強勁的年度營收貢獻。我們沒有具體給出數量指引。但要提醒的是，我們也有放置和接受的地方。因此，引入 Fever-Tree 會為我們帶來好處。

Gavin mentioned Naked Life, that we're going to be launching. But a reminder as well, we're taking up 1.9 million hectoliters of contract brewing volume out of our system in 2025. So that will have an impact on our financial volume as well.

加文 (Gavin) 提到了我們即將推出的《Naked Life》。但同時提醒一下，到 2025 年，我們將從我們的系統中撤出 190 萬百升的合約釀造量。這也會對我們的財務量產生影響。

Thanks, Tracey. And look, Kevin, I mean your questions are very broad one, right? So let me try and answer that. You referenced the surgeon in general, right? Obviously, there have been several reports from the federal government over the past few months. They've had a variety of viewpoints on the science, and I would point out that we've had a surge in general warning on label since the 1980s, which includes that alcohol consumption may cause health problems.

謝謝，特蕾西。凱文，你的問題很廣泛，對嗎？所以讓我嘗試回答這個問題。您指的是一般意義上的外科醫生，對嗎？顯然，過去幾個月聯邦政府已經發布了多份報告。他們對科學有著各種各樣的觀點，我想指出的是，自 20 世紀 80 年代以來，標籤上的一般警告數量激增，其中包括飲酒可能導致健康問題。

I think beer has long been the drink of moderation. And we offer consumers a range of options, including no and low alcohol beverages. We're committed to the transformation of our company into a total beverage company.

我認為啤酒長期以來一直是一種適度飲用的飲料。我們為消費者提供一系列選擇，包括無酒精飲料和低酒精飲料。我們致力於將公司轉型為綜合飲料公司。

That's where we changed our name to Molson Coors Beverage Company several years ago, and we've got a long-term strategy of diversifying our portfolio into beyond beer and non-alc a key part of that diversification and it supports broader consumer trends as you said, around mindful drinking with categories like non-alc beers and RTDs. And we've got a three-pronged approach to that, whether it's alcohol replacement.

幾年前，我們將公司名稱改為莫爾森庫爾斯飲料公司，我們有一個長期策略，即將我們的產品組合多元化，不僅限於啤酒和無酒精飲料，這是多元化的關鍵部分，它支持更廣泛的消費者趨勢，就像你說的，圍繞有意識的飲酒，包括無酒精啤酒和即飲飲料等類別。我們對此採取了三管齊下的方法，無論是酒精替代品。

We've got a great portfolio of brands directed at that with too great, both premium non-alc [beers] Blue Moon, non-alc and Peroni 0.0%. We're launching Naked Life, which is a non-alc cocktail. Then we've got alcohol adjacencies, and that's where Fever-Tree is absolutely perfect trip for us because it sits at that intersection between alcohol and non-alcohol and then we've got the pure plays, which is highly incremental for us at an occasion level doesn't necessarily exist and ZOA is a great example of that.

我們擁有一系列針對此市場的優秀品牌，其中包括優質無酒精啤酒：Blue Moon、無酒精啤酒和 Peroni 0.0%。我們正在推出“Naked Life”，這是一款不含酒精的雞尾酒。然後，我們有了酒精飲料，而 Fever-Tree 對我們來說絕對是完美的選擇，因為它位於酒精飲料和非酒精飲料的交叉點上，然後我們有了純粹的遊戲，這對我們來說是高度增量的，在場合層面上並不一定存在，而 ZOA 就是一個很好的例子。

And then Kevin, we've proven that we can grow in our traditional beer space. I mean Coors Banquet is a fine example of that, right? It's the number one fastest-growing beer brand, beating out Modelo and we're gaining distribution, gaining occasion, we're gaining consumers, including younger legal drinking age consumers behind that brand. So we feel very confident that the portfolio that we are building will meet the demands of our consumers both now and on a go-forward basis.

凱文，我們已經證明我們可以在傳統啤酒領域發展。我的意思是 Coors Banquet 就是一個很好的例子，對吧？它是成長最快的啤酒品牌，擊敗了 Modelo，而且我們的分銷管道越來越廣，使用場合越來越多，消費者也越來越多，包括該品牌支持的年輕法定飲酒年齡消費者。因此，我們非常有信心，我們正在建立的產品組合將滿足消費者現在和未來的需求。

Bryan Spillane, Bank of America.

美國銀行的布萊恩‧斯皮蘭 (Bryan Spillane)。

Maybe, Gavin, just to pick up on Kevin Grundy's last point. Can you just maybe give us a little bit more color on the decision to engage with Fever-Tree and maybe just like what's -- what do you think is different, right? I mean the Fever-Tree and Molson Coors come together, you're going to have this venture there must be something that's missing now that Molson Coors can add to it. I'm just kind of curious to know how you think about that and what that may be?

也許，加文，只是為了接續凱文·格蘭迪的最後一點。您能否向我們詳細介紹一下與 Fever-Tree 合作的決定，以及您認為有何不同，對嗎？我的意思是，當 Fever-Tree 和 Molson Coors 合併時，你要進行這項冒險，那肯定是缺少了一些東西，而 Molson Coors 可以為它添加內容。我只是有點好奇想知道您對此有何看法以及這可能是什麼？

Yeah. Great question. Thanks, Brian. Look, I think it's building our great portfolio even further, right, to meet the needs of consumers at various occasions. And as I said, non-alc beverage is key to that strategy.

是的。好問題。謝謝，布萊恩。看，我認為這進一步完善了我們的優秀產品組合，以滿足消費者在各個場合的需求。正如我所說，無酒精飲料是這項策略的關鍵。

And in the US, Fever-Tree is the world -- well, it's actually the world's leading supplier of premium carbonated drinks and mixes. And as I said, it fits really nicely at the intersection of beer and non-alc it's availability is often in stores where beer is actually sold. It's steadily grown its lead as the number one tonic in ginger beer. I think it provides tremendous credibility to our network and broader network that we are serious about non-alc. It's a big business. It's a growing business.

在美國，Fever-Tree 是世界——嗯，實際上是世界領先的優質碳酸飲料和混合飲料供應商。正如我所說的，它非常適合啤酒和非酒精飲料的組合，通常在實際銷售啤酒的商店中供應。它作為薑汁啤酒中第一大補充品的地位穩步上升。我認為，這為我們的網絡和更廣泛的網絡提供了巨大的可信度，表明我們對非酒精性酒精的認真態度。這是一筆大生意。這是一個正在成長的業務。

What do we bring to it? I mean, we've talked about our core competencies and our capabilities in the past before, Brian. And one of them is we have a tremendous network of distributors that delivered to stores which Fever-Tree has not been delivering to in the past. I mean I think we service over 500,000 different outlets and Fever-Tree gets to tens of thousands of those at the moment. So our broader reach is substantial.

我們為它帶來了什麼？我的意思是，布萊恩，我們之前已經談論過我們的核心競爭力和能力。其中之一就是我們擁有龐大的經銷商網絡，可以向 Fever-Tree 過去從未送貨過的商店送貨。我的意思是，我認為我們為超過 500,000 個不同的網點提供服務，而 Fever-Tree 目前服務於其中的數萬個。因此我們的覆蓋範圍非常廣泛。

We're also going to increase our non-alc resources quite meaningfully in the first part of this year. So it brings critical mass to us from a non-alc point of view with [Sola], which we took a majority stake in late last year. And as I said, we've got Naked Life coming, and we've got Fever-Tree which is in our portfolio from last week. So I think -- well, we're very excited about this. It provides real credibility to our system that we are serious about non-alc and we mean business here.

我們也將在今年上半年大幅增加非酒精資源。因此，從非酒精飲料的角度來看，[Sola] 為我們帶來了臨界規模，我們在去年年底收購了該公司的多數股權。正如我所說的，我們即將推出 Naked Life，並且從上週起我們的投資組合中加入了 Fever-Tree。所以我認為——我們對此感到非常興奮。它為我們的系統提供了真正的可信度，表明我們對無酒精飲料是認真的，而且我們是認真的。

Rob Ottenstein, Evercore.

奧滕斯坦 (Rob Ottenstein)，Evercore。

Just a few follow ups, if I may. So Gavin, can you -- just sticking on the Fever-Tree agreement. Can you give us a rough idea of what the economics look like and how this could potentially impact your income statement three, four, five years out. Just any way for us to kind of model it any guidelines at all? And then second, I know you mentioned that your guidance doesn't include anything for tariffs.

如果可以的話，我只想說幾點後續內容。那麼 Gavin，你能 — — 堅持 Fever-Tree 協議嗎？您能否粗略地介紹經濟情勢，以及這可能會對您未來三、四、五年的損益表產生什麼影響。我們能用任何方式來建模嗎？其次，我知道您提到您的指導意見不包含任何關稅內容。

And obviously, it's impossible to, right? Because who knows what's going to happen. But again, can you help us to model that out in terms of Canada. Did you see when Trudeau talked about boycotting American brands, did you see any impact on Coors Light, Miller Lite, your US brands that are in Canada. Are they brewed in Canada? Or do they come from the US?

顯然，這是不可能的，對吧？因為誰知道接下來會發生什麼事。但您能再幫我們根據加拿大的情況建立一個模型嗎？您是否看到，當杜魯道談到抵制美國品牌時，這對 Coors Light、Miller Lite 等在加拿大的美國品牌有任何影響嗎？它們是在加拿大釀造的嗎？還是他們來自美國？

And what percentage of your sales in Canada come from those brands? And any other tariff-related issues outside of aluminum, which we already talked about that we should be considering as we kind of run our sensitivities for 2025.

你們在加拿大的銷售額中有多少比例來自這些品牌？除了鋁之外的任何其他關稅相關問題，我們都已經討論過了，在計算 2025 年的敏感度時，我們應該考慮這些問題。

Two big questions. Let me start with the second one. We import very little product into the US from Canada and Mexico. That's the first point I'd make. Almost all of the brands that we produce that are consumed in the United States from our portfolio are brewed in the United States. The last big one really was that we imported was Peroni. And as you know, and we've talked about in the past, we've brought that in-house and have -- we're really excited about the potential for Peroni as we go forward.

兩個大問題。讓我先談第二個問題。我們從加拿大和墨西哥進口到美國的產品很少。這是我要說的第一點。我們生產並在美國消費的幾乎所有品牌的啤酒都是在美國釀造的。最後一個大事是我們進口的是佩羅尼（Peroni）。如您所知，我們過去也談論過，我們已經將其引入公司內部，並且——我們對 Peroni 未來的潛力感到非常興奮。

Beyond that, there are a few very minor immaterial from a volume perspective brands that have come across from Canada and Mexico. As it relates to Canada, the vast majority of the brand portfolio is, again, it's produced in Canada for Canadian consumers. We have a large import agreement with -- that comes from Europe, so it wouldn't be impacted by US tariffs. But again, the vast majority, Canadian proved Canadian-produced and I think consumers are aware of that.

除此之外，從數量角度來看，還有一些來自加拿大和墨西哥的品牌，它們非常小眾且不重要。就加拿大而言，該品牌的絕大部分產品都是在加拿大生產，供應給加拿大消費者。我們與歐洲簽訂了一項大型進口協議，因此不會受到美國關稅的影響。但再次強調，絕大多數加拿大產品都是加拿大生產的，我認為消費者也意識到了這一點。

From an input material point of view, again, Robert, the vast majority of our input materials come from the countries in which they produced. Obviously, not everything, but I spoke about aluminum earlier on being entirely sourced in the United States, all the United States markets. All of our agricultural input costs like (inaudible) hubs and so on, all is sourced in the markets in which it's consumed. Certainly, in our bigger markets.

從投入材料的角度來看，羅伯特，我們絕大多數的投入材料都來自其生產國。顯然，不是全部，但我之前談到鋁完全來自美國，所有美國市場。我們所有的農業投入成本，例如（聽不清楚）樞紐等，均來自其消費市場。當然，在我們更大的市場中。

But as you say, there is uncertainty, but we're in the same boat as most other businesses as it relates to tariffs with the exception of the fact that we produce all of our -- almost all of our products in the market in which they consume. As far as Fever-Tree is concerned, look, we don't give that level of detail that you're looking for. But obviously, we've entered into this relationship because we see real potential with this brand.

但正如你所說，存在不確定性，但在關稅方面，我們與大多數其他企業處於同樣的境地，只不過我們幾乎所有的產品都是在消費市場上生產的。就 Fever-Tree 而言，我們並沒有提供您所尋求的詳細程度。但顯然，我們建立了這種合作關係，因為我們看到了這個品牌的真正潛力。

We see growth opportunities from a volume perspective, obviously, it's 100% incremental to our business, but we see growth off their base. 2025 is going to be a year of integration and absorbing it. And as I said, we're expanding our resources behind this, which will take place in the earlier part of the year. Tracey did mention that we will have some one-time costs associated with that, and we're working through to determine what those are.

我們從數量角度看到了成長機會，顯然，這對我們的業務來說是 100％ 的增量，但我們也看到了基礎的成長。 2025年將是整合和吸收的一年。正如我所說的，我們正在擴大為此提供的資源，這項工作將在今年早些時候完成。特蕾西確實提到我們將會有一些與此相關的一次性費用，我們正在努力確定這些費用是多少。

They're not in the hundreds of millions, just to give context, right? They are in the tens of millions and we'll resolve that and put a finer estimate on it once we've been through all our discussions, but it this is a brand that operates right at the top end of above premium.

他們的數量並不達數億，只是為了提供背景信息，對嗎？它們的價值達數千萬，我們將在完成所有討論後解決這個問題，並對其進行更精確的估算，但這是一個處於高端以上的品牌。

So from a revenue per hectoliter point of view, it's going to -- it might even be our number one now from a revenue per barrel point of view. As we integrate it and look for further opportunities in terms of cost efficiencies, we will certainly be looking at our supply chain and our supply chain partners as we look to drive value out of this relationship. But we really are excited about it, Robert. I think I covered both Robert's questions, Tracey? Yeah.

因此，從每百升收入的角度來看，它將會——從每桶收入的角度來看，它現在甚至可能是我們的第一名。當我們整合它並在成本效率方面尋找更多機會時，我們肯定會關注我們的供應鏈和供應鏈合作夥伴，以期從這種關係中獲得價值。但我們確實對此感到非常興奮，羅伯特。我認為我已經回答了羅伯特的兩個問題了，特蕾西？是的。

Kaumil Gajrawala, Jefferies.

傑富瑞 (Jefferies) 的 Kaumil Gajrawala。

Two things. The first, I guess, along the lines of Fever-Tree, not specifically, when we think about the Yuengling deal and which start -- which is a partnership, desirous partnerships with Coke, (inaudible) went from partnership to ownership. As we think about all of these things and then Fever-Tree of being the newest on, how do you think about it in the context of M&A?

兩件事。第一個，我猜，類似於 Fever-Tree，不是具體意義上的，當我們想到 Yuengling 交易時，它是從合作夥伴關係開始的，與可口可樂渴望的合作夥伴關係，（聽不清楚）從合作夥伴關係發展到所有權。當我們考慮所有這些事情，然後 Fever-Tree 成為最新出現的事情時，您如何在併購的背景下看待它？

Why is sort of a small stake, the right amount with whatever P&L that contributes to your business versus the P&L that goes to the distributors. Why not sort of being more aggressive on M&A, kind of like what you've eventually done ZOA and have full ownership. And then the second question, which will be a lot more narrow is quite a bit of strength out of Canada. Can you maybe give us a little bit more on what was behind that?

為什麼是小額股份，也就是對您的業務有貢獻的損益與分配給經銷商的損益之間的適當金額。為什麼不在併購方面更積極一些，就像你最終對 ZOA 所做的那樣，並擁有完全的所有權。然後第二個問題，將會更加狹窄，加拿大的實力相當大。您能否向我們進一步說明一下這背後的情況？

You gave us a bit in the prepared remarks, but love to learn if this is something ongoing, something that's sort of building or if there were just a couple of nice hits last quarter that may not continue.

您在準備好的發言中給了我們一些信息，但是很想知道這是不是正在持續進行的事情，還是正在形成的事情，或者上個季度是否只是出現了一些不錯的成績，但可能不會持續下去。

Thanks, Kaumil. It's not the latter. It is not just a couple of nice yes. I mean the performance in Canada has been building over quite some time. For example, we've seen 23 consecutive months of share growth and that includes growth in period includes growth in RTDs. It's driven by the strength of our brands.

謝謝，考米爾。並不是後者。這並非只是幾句美好的「是」那麼簡單。我的意思是加拿大的表現已經持續了相當長一段時間了。例如，我們已經看到連續 23 個月的份額增長，其中包括期間增長和 RTD 增長。這是由我們品牌的實力所驅動的。

It's driven by the strength of the execution of our strategy on those core beer brands on premiumization of our portfolio and of expanding into flavor [cargo]. Our core power brands, Coors Light and Molson the trademark, we grew share of segment through the fall and Miller Lite, which sells in the above premium tier is one of the fastest-growing beer brands in the category. And then Madrí, which we launched last year has delivered ahead of our expectations.

這是因為我們在核心啤酒品牌上執行的策略力度很大，包括將我們的產品組合推向高端，以及拓展口味[貨物]。我們的核心強勢品牌 Coors Light 和 Molson 商標，我們在秋季的細分市場份額有所增長，而 Miller Lite 則屬於高端以上級別的品牌，是同類啤酒中增長最快的品牌之一。我們去年推出的 Madrà 已經超出了我們的預期。

And in flavor, we're the fastest-growing company in the RTD space. So Canada's success is broad. It is deep. It's been going for, as I said, quite some time now, and it gives us a nice useful blueprint for the US where we've got the opportunity to strengthen our results, particularly in the above premium space.

就口味而言，我們是 RTD 領域成長最快的公司。因此，加拿大的成功是廣泛的。它很深。正如我所說，這個計畫已經持續了相當長一段時間，它為我們在美國提供了一個很好的藍圖，讓我們有機會加強我們的業績，特別是在高端領域。

Performance in Canada has been strong in summary. Fever-Tree look, I mean we're good at partnerships. I think that's one of our core strengths, core competencies. We've got partnerships all over the world. As it relates to the specific investment, which Tracey alluded to, in uses of cash, I mean, it fits perfectly into our string-of-pearls approach, right? I mean, we didn't talk about pearls getting a little bigger. And so our investment in Fever-Tree is a little bit bigger than some of the ones that we've made in the past, but it's still part of the string-of-pearl's approach.

整體而言，加拿大的表現強勁。Fever-Tree 瞧，我的意思是我們擅長合作。我認為這是我們的核心優勢和核心競爭力之一。我們的合作夥伴遍布世界各地。至於它與 Tracey 提到的現金用途的具體投資有關，我的意思是，它完全符合我們的珍珠串方法，對嗎？我的意思是，我們並沒有談論珍珠變大一點。因此，我們對 Fever-Tree 的投資比我們過去的一些投資要大一些，但它仍然是珍珠鍊方法的一部分。

Why did we do it? Because we see real potential in Fever-Tree. The United States is their biggest market. It's their biggest growth market. We're representing them here now. So 100% of the performance will be included in our P&L. But at the same time, we wanted to take some advantage of the value which we believe is going to be created at a fever tree level. And so we're now the second largest shareholder, and we're comfortable with that position.

我們為什麼要這麼做？因為我們看到了 Fever-Tree 的真正潛力。美國是他們最大的市場。這是他們最大的成長市場。我們現在在這裡代表他們。因此，100％的業績將計入我們的損益表。但同時，我們希望利用一些我們認為將在發燒樹層面上創造的價值。因此，我們現在是第二大股東，我們對這一地位感到滿意。

Eric Serotta, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的埃里克·塞羅塔。

First Gavin, could you talk a bit about shelf space expectations for your brands in 2025, coming off of a really strong gains that you had for the core brand last year and in 2023? And then Tracey, just an accounting clarification, so it sounds like you guys are going to be booking just the US partnership revenue for Fever-Tree. Is that correct? And will any equity income from your overall ownership in the company, come through the equity income line? Or is that going to just be held at cost?

首先，加文，您能否談談您對 2025 年品牌貨架空間的預期，考慮到去年和 2023 年核心品牌的強勁增長？然後 Tracey，只是一個會計澄清，所以聽起來你們將只為 Fever-Tree 預訂美國合作收入。那正確嗎？您在公司整體所有權中獲得的任何股權收入是否會透過股權收入線產生？或只是按成本價持有？

Thanks, Eric. I would say that shelf research, I mean, we saw an unprecedented shift in shelf research back in the spring of 2024. In the fall of 2024, we held those grains. And we even grew them a little. So that means that when you compare us to the 2023 base, we're up significantly. Now as we head into spring of 2025, generally, each year, there are minor adjustments to shelf space.

謝謝，埃里克。我想說的是，貨架研究，我的意思是，我們在 2024 年春季看到了貨架研究前所未有的轉變。2024年秋天，我們保留了這些穀物。我們甚至讓它們稍微長大了一點。所以，這意味著，當你將我們與 2023 年基數進行比較時，我們已經取得了顯著的成長。現在我們即將進入 2025 年春季，一般來說，每年的貨架空間都會有微小的調整。

Retailers add new items, they delete discontinued and slow-moving ones. And it's a little early days yet, and we haven't got all the dates or in. But for spring of 2025, we expect that to be the case again. And again, while it's early, we expect to hold on to the share gains in the spring in the spring once again.

零售商增加新的商品，刪除停產和滯銷的商品。現在還為時過早，我們還沒有確定所有的日期。但我們預計到 2025 年春季這種情況將再次出現。雖然現在還為時過早，但我們預計在春季再次保持股價上漲。

So we feel really good about the step change that we've seen in shelf resets. And it's certainly been a big contributor to why we've held on to so much of the share gains that we gain with Coors Light, Miller Lite, and Coors Banquet. I mean in the fourth quarter, that actually accelerated a little bit.

因此，我們對貨架重置方面所看到的階躍變化感到非常滿意。這無疑是我們能夠維持 Coors Light、Miller Lite 和 Coors Banquet 所獲得份額成長的主要原因之一。我的意思是，在第四季度，這一速度實際上有所加速。

I think we said in Q3, it was around 80%. Well, it's actually more than 80% now that we retained in the fourth quarter. And we're very, very pleased about that, obviously, burs if you compare it back to 2023, we're about 170 basis points of share higher with those brands than we were before. So yeah. Tracey, do you want to deal with the accounting question?

我想我們在第三季說過，這個比例大約是 80%。嗯，實際上我們現在第四季的保留率已經超過 80%。顯然，我們對此感到非常高興，但如果與 2023 年相比，這些品牌的份額比以前高出約 170 個基點。是的。崔西，你想處理會計問題嗎？

Yeah. Thanks, Eric. So look, in terms of how we're going to report Fever-Tree in the US, so we had a license agreement to distribute their products in the US and we will recognize 100% of the revenue for all of the products sold in the US. We'll share jointly in certain costs, which include marketing, so it results in profit sharing at the EBITDA level.

是的。謝謝，埃里克。所以看，就我們如何在美國報告 Fever-Tree 而言，我們有一個許可協議，在美國分銷他們的產品，我們將確認在美國銷售的所有產品的 100％ 收入。我們將共同分擔某些成本，包括行銷成本，從而實現 EBITDA 水準的利潤分享。

And then we'll also pay them via a royalty, which will be included in our COGS. In terms of the investment that we've made in the Fever-Tree business entity, it will be reported on a cost basis and we'll mark that to market and will exclude it from our underlying results.

然後我們也會透過版稅向他們支付，這將包含在我們的銷貨成本中。就我們對 Fever-Tree 商業實體的投資而言，我們將以成本為基礎進行報告，並將其按市價記賬，並將其排除在我們的基本業績之外。

Bill Kirk, Roth Capital Partners.

羅斯資本合夥人公司 (Roth Capital Partners) 的比爾柯克 (Bill Kirk)。

So Gavin, your largest competitor wants to rebrand the domestic beer segment to, I think, the American beer segment. Do you agree that the industry should stop using that domestic terminology? And if that set positioning changes maybe combined with a broader populist movement, do you think help -- it would help the brands within that segment?

所以加文，你最大的競爭對手想將國內啤酒市場重新命名為美國啤酒市場。您是否同意業界應該停止使用國內術語？如果這種定位變化可能與更廣泛的民粹運動相結合，您認為這會有所幫助嗎——這會對該領域內的品牌有所幫助嗎？

Thanks, Bill. Our brands go back many generations in both Canada and in the United States. And we're obviously very proud of our heritage and I would suggest that everybody knows about the roots of our great iconic brands -- our focus is on our acceleration plans and our portfolio.

謝謝，比爾。我們的品牌在加拿大和美國已有好幾代的歷史。我們顯然對我們的傳統感到非常自豪，我想每個人都應該了解我們偉大標誌性品牌的根源——我們的重點是我們的加速計劃和我們的產品組合。

And as I've said on this call and we said in our opening remarks, our brands are in a great place, particularly our core brands, which is -- gain substantial share since 2023 and retained a lot of that. And so that's where our focus is.

正如我在這次電話會議中以及在開場白中所說的那樣，我們的品牌處於良好狀態，特別是我們的核心品牌，自 2023 年以來獲得了相當大的份額並保留了其中的大部分。這就是我們的重點。

Lauren Lieberman, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的勞倫·利伯曼。

Great. I'd love to just hear a little bit about your read of the competitive environment in the US. We heard a bit kind of through this earnings season about a step-up in promotional activity both with premium like in the above premium space. So I was just curious to what degree you're seeing that or not?

偉大的。我很想聽聽您對美國競爭環境的看法。我們在這個收益季聽到了一些關於促銷活動的加強的消息，包括上述高端領域的促銷活動。所以我只是好奇你在多大程度上看到了這一點？

We haven't seen anything unusual from a rational point of view. It's common that there is some level of promotional activity. Most of that takes place in the summer, though, not in Q4 or in Q1. Most of that takes place in Q2, Q3. It's a fairly regular thing. You see different things in different markets.

從理性的角度看，我們並未發現任何異常。一定程度的促銷活動是很常見的。不過，大多數此類事件發生在夏季，而不是第四季或第一季。其中大部分發生在第二季和第三季。這是很正常的事。你會在不同的市場看到不同的東西。

But we haven't seen anything unusual from a promotional point of view. And as we always do, we'll take a strategic approach to evaluating the overall competitive landscape, consumer dynamics, and we'll do what's right for our brands.

但從促銷的角度來看，我們並未發現任何異常。就像我們一貫的做法一樣，我們將採取策略方法來評估整體競爭格局和消費者動態，並採取有利於我們品牌的行動。

Michael Lavery, Piper Sandler.

麥可·拉弗里，派珀·桑德勒。

Just wanted to come back to innovation and just -- have seen a lot of the innovation in the space skew towards higher alcohol some a little bit maybe more exaggerated cases, things like BeatBox or BuzzBallz, but you're Simply Spiked Bold and Blue Moon Extra are moving in that direction with an 8% ABV version. Do you have a sense of just what is an impact that has on category volumes? And if some of that is -- if that direction of innovation is helping drive weakness?

只是想回到創新問題，而且——我們已經看到該領域的許多創新都偏向於更高酒精度，有些可能有點誇張，例如 BeatBox 或 BuzzBallz，但 Simply Spiked Bold 和 Blue Moon Extra 正朝著這個方向發展，推出了 8% ABV 版本。您是否知道這會對類別數量產生什麼影響？如果其中有些——如果創新的方向有助於消除弱點？

And a little bit just related, can you maybe touch on how that sell-in went? And do you have a sense for how your innovation is landing on the shelf resets. Also maybe for ZOA as well, did that -- did you get ownership in time to move the needle on where that lands on shelf.

還有一點相關的，可以談談那次銷售的進度嗎？您是否了解您的創新將如何重新上架？也許對於 ZOA 也是一樣，你是否及時獲得了所有權，並將指針移到貨架上？

Yeah, lots of questions there. Let me just say that, no, I don't see that innovation, both from ourselves and our competitors is negatively impacting beer as a category. In fact, I think it's positive. I mean, if you look at beer as an overall industry, we did very nicely against spirits.

是的，有很多問題。我只想說，我並不認為我們自己和競爭對手的創新會對啤酒這個類別產生負面影響。事實上，我認為這是積極的。我的意思是，如果你把啤酒看作一個整體產業，我們在烈酒方面表現得非常出色。

I mean all of spirits' growth is coming in the RTD space, which -- where the beer guys are playing. And so if you just look at -- if you exclude it the prepackaged spirits from spirits performance, it will be quite negative. So all of the growth in spirits is coming from that, and we and our competitors play quite meaningfully there.

我的意思是，所有烈酒的成長都來自 RTD 領域，也就是啤酒商活躍的領域。因此，如果您只看——如果將預包裝烈酒排除在烈酒表現之外，結果將相當負面。所以，精神食糧的所有成長都源自於此，我們和我們的競爭對手在此扮演相當重要的角色。

As it relates to higher alcohol, I mean, we did talk about this previously around our first-ever convenience-led innovation pipeline. And we've got three great new launches that are coming, that fit that trend is what consumers are looking for in terms of singles and higher ABV.

至於與高酒精度相關的問題，我的意思是，我們之前確實圍繞著我們第一個以便利為主導的創新管道討論過這個問題。我們即將推出三款出色的新品，它們符合消費者對單品和高酒精度啤酒的需求趨勢。

We've got Simply Spiked Bold coming with [top of] Margarita Mix, and we've got Blue Moon Extra, and they're all coming at that sort of 8% level. And another great area of innovation for us is for example, Happy Thursday. I don't know if we've talked about this before, but we did create a GenZ culture panel last year. And as we looked at that and then with broader consumer insights, this panel has really been helpful in how we innovate for new legal drinking age tuners and Happy Thursday came right out of that.

我們有 Simply Spiked Bold 和 Margarita Mix 搭配使用，還有 Blue Moon Extra，它們的酒精濃度都是 8% 左右。我們另一個偉大的創新領域是「快樂星期四」。我不知道我們之前是否談論過這個問題，但我們去年確實創建了一個 GenZ 文化小組。當我們研究這個問題，並結合更廣泛的消費者洞察時，這個小組確實對我們如何創新新的法定飲酒年齡調整器提供了幫助，而「快樂星期四」就是由此誕生的。

It also helps us inform how we market and sell our products, whether it's through e-commerce or who we partner with, like League Cup and Formula One and where we go from a digital space. So I've probably gone a little broader than your direct question, Michael, but hopefully, that's helpful.

它還幫助我們了解如何行銷和銷售我們的產品，無論是透過電子商務還是與誰合作，例如聯賽杯和一級方程式賽車，以及我們在數位空間中的去向。因此，邁克爾，我可能比你直接提問的問題更廣泛一些，但希望這會有所幫助。

Robert Moskow, TD Cowen.

羅伯特·莫斯科（Robert Moskow），TD Cowen。

There was a pretty significant slowdown in your EMEA APAC region. And you attributed to heightened competition and just the consumer backdrop. Is there any reason to believe that those divisions can grow as fast as the rest of the company in 2025? Or do you think we're going to be flattish like we were in fourth quarter for the year?

您所在的 EMEA APAC 地區的經濟放緩現象相當明顯。您將其歸因於競爭加劇和消費者背景。是否有理由相信這些部門到 2025 年能像公司其他部門一樣快速成長？或者您認為我們的業績將像今年第四季那樣持平？

Thanks, Robert. Look, I mean, certainly, consumer demand in the UK was softer in 2024 when you compare it with 2023. We did see some uplift in the summer through the Euro soccer, but weather obviously offset a lot of that. Christmas season was satisfactory, although we did see consumers coming in late in the season as opposed to earlier.

謝謝，羅伯特。我的意思是，與 2023 年相比，2024 年英國的消費者需求確實較為疲軟。我們確實透過歐洲盃看到了夏季的一些提升，但天氣顯然抵消了大部分的提升。聖誕季表現令人滿意，儘管我們確實看到消費者在季末而不是早些時候到來。

As it relates to our business specifically, for Carling, which is our biggest brand in the UK and in the EMEA APAC business unit, we took a value-over-volume approach. We certainly will continue to support the brand strength of that versus our competitors. But no doubt, we took a value over volume strategy.

就我們在英國和 EMEA APAC 業務部門最大的品牌 Carling 而言，我們採取了「價值重於數量」的策略。相較於我們的競爭對手，我們肯定會繼續支持該品牌的實力。但毫無疑問，我們採取的是價值重於數量的策略。

But really, we continue to see -- drive both volume and value growth across both channels. It's launched very nicely in new market in Bulgaria during 2024. We have another market plan for 2025. We've got great brands in EMEA APAC. We've talked about Ožujsko in the past. And over time, I see no reason why our EMEA APAC business won't grow quicker than our businesses in North America. Thanks for the question, Robert.

但實際上，我們繼續看到——推動兩個管道的銷售和價值成長。它將於 2024 年在保加利亞新市場順利推出。我們還有另一個針對2025年的市場計畫。我們在歐洲、中東和非洲 (EMEA) 和亞太地區 (APAC) 擁有優秀的品牌。我們以前曾談論過 Ožujsko。隨著時間的推移，我認為我們的 EMEA APAC 業務沒有理由不會比北美業務成長更快。謝謝你的提問，羅伯特。

Thank you. We have no further questions. That now concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

謝謝。我們沒有其他問題了。今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。現在您可以斷開線路了。