United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Jamie, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome you to the UNFI fiscal 2024 second-quarter earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. (Operator Instructions)

早安.我叫傑米，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。歡迎您參加 UNFI 2024 財年第二季財報電話會議。所有線路均已靜音，以防止任何背景噪音。（操作員說明）

Thank you.

謝謝。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Steve Bloomquist. Steve Bloomquist, you may begin your conference.

我現在想把會議交給史蒂夫·布魯姆奎斯特。史蒂夫·布魯姆奎斯特，你可以開始你的會議了。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on UNFI's Second Quarter Fiscal 2024 Earnings Conference Call. By now, you should have received a copy of the earnings release issued this morning. The press release and earnings presentation, which management will speak to, are available under the Investors section of the Company's website at www.UNFI.com. We've also included a supplemental disclosure file in Microsoft Excel with key financial information.

大家早安，感謝您參加 UNFI 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。到目前為止，您應該已經收到了今天早上發布的收益報告的副本。管理層將發表演講的新聞稿和收益報告可在公司網站 www.UNFI.com 的投資者部分查看。我們還在 Microsoft Excel 中提供了包含關鍵財務資訊的補充揭露文件。

Joining me for today's call are Sandy Douglas, our Chief Executive Officer, and John Howard, our Chief Financial Officer. Sandy and John will provide a business update after which we'll take your questions.

與我一起參加今天電話會議的有我們的執行長桑迪·道格拉斯 (Sandy Douglas) 和財務長約翰·霍華德 (John Howard)。桑迪和約翰將提供業務最新情況，然後我們將回答您的問題。

Before we begin I'd like to remind everyone that comments made by management during today's call may contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include plans, expectations, estimates and projections that might involve significant risks and uncertainties. These risks are discussed in the Company's earnings release and SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from the results discussed in these forward-looking statements.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒大家，管理階層在今天的電話會議中發表的評論可能包含前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述包括可能涉及重大風險和不確定性的計劃、預期、估計和預測。這些風險在公司的收益報告和 SEC 文件中進行了討論。實際結果可能與這些前瞻性陳述中討論的結果有重大差異。

And lastly, I'd like to point out that during today's call, management will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Definitions and reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our press release and the end of our earnings presentation, I'd ask you to turn to slide 6 of our presentation as I turn the call over to Sandy.

最後，我想指出，在今天的電話會議中，管理階層將參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標。最具可比性的GAAP 財務指標的定義和調節包含在我們的新聞稿和收益簡報的結尾中，當我將電話轉給桑迪時，我請您翻看我們簡報的第6 張投影片。

Thanks, Steve. We appreciate everyone joining us for our second quarter call. In my remarks this morning, I'll provide a brief review of our results, the operating environment, and the progress we're making resetting and restoring our profitability and driving sustainable value creation for our customers, suppliers, and our shareholders.

謝謝，史蒂夫。我們感謝大家參加我們的第二季電話會議。在今天早上的演講中，我將簡要回顧我們的業績、營運環境以及我們在重置和恢復盈利能力以及推動為客戶、供應商和股東創造可持續價值方面所取得的進展。

I'll also discuss this morning's other release in which we announced that Matteo Tarditi will be joining UNFI later this spring as our new President and CFO. Our second quarter results again exceeded expectations and reflected the sequential improvement in adjusted EBITDA. This resulted from continued improvements in operational execution, progress on our near term value creation initiatives, and some seasonality benefits.

我還將討論今天早上發布的另一份新聞稿，其中我們宣布 Matteo Tarditi 將在今年春季晚些時候加入 UNFI，擔任我們的新總裁兼財務長。我們第二季的業績再次超出預期，反映出調整後 EBITDA 的連續改善。這是由於營運執行的持續改進、我們近期價值創造計劃的進展以及一些季節性效益。

We accomplished this despite an industry backdrop that continues to be challenging. Inflation rates continue to decline sequentially with some category-specific deflation occurring. Despite this trend, overall unit volumes remain under pressure and increased competition in food retail persists.

儘管行業背景仍然充滿挑戰，但我們還是實現了這一目標。通貨膨脹率持續下降，並出現一些特定類別的通貨緊縮。儘管有這種趨勢，整體銷售仍面臨壓力，食品零售業的競爭持續加劇。

Following a prolonged period of high inflation, consumers are continuing to buy less and are shifting some purchases away from the traditional grocery channel. This has led to negative volumes across the retail food industry and share gains by mass merchandisers and discounters.

在經歷了長期的高通膨之後，消費者的購買量繼續減少，並將一些購買行為從傳統的食品雜貨管道轉移出去。這導致整個零售食品行業的銷售出現負增長，並導致大宗商品銷售商和折扣店的份額增加。

Given these challenges, we are focused on strengthening and adding new capabilities in addition to driving increased efficiency across our business so that we can help our customers remain as competitive as possible. Many of our customers are performing well, even in this environment, especially those with differentiated go-to-market propositions.

考慮到這些挑戰，除了提高整個業務的效率之外，我們還專注於加強和增加新功能，以便幫助我們的客戶盡可能保持競爭力。即使在這種環境下，我們的許多客戶也表現良好，尤其是那些擁有差異化上市主張的客戶。

Importantly, we see successful food retailers positioned across the value spectrum in both large and small markets, and in natural and conventional channels. No matter how our customers are positioned in their markets, we are focused in supporting them and their unique strategies with improved efficiency, service levels, and market intelligence as well as with the introduction of new products, well-executed promotions, merchandising expertise and professional services.

重要的是，我們看到成功的食品零售商在大型和小型市場以及自然和傳統通路的價值範圍內進行定位。無論我們的客戶在其市場中的定位如何，我們都致力於透過提高效率、服務水平和市場情報以及推出新產品、執行良好的促銷活動、銷售專業知識和專業知識來支持他們及其獨特的策略。服務。

Similar to how our customers are setting themselves apart and creating significant value for consumers in their communities, UNFI continues to differentiate itself through continuous improvement. This includes refining operational execution, maintaining a broad diversified assortment, providing value-added services that drive cost savings and help generate growth for retailers, and driving supply chain efficiencies that are optimized with industry scale.

與我們的客戶如何脫穎而出並為社區消費者創造巨大價值類似，UNFI 繼續透過持續改進來使自己脫穎而出。這包括完善營運執行、維持廣泛的多元化品種、提供增值服務以節省成本並幫助零售商實現成長，以及推動根據行業規模優化的供應鏈效率。

We're working to realize this potential by embedding a transformation mindset across our business, focused on driving improved profitability, cost management innovation, and service levels across the short and long term.

我們正在努力透過在整個業務中融入轉型思維來實現這一潛力，專注於提高短期和長期的獲利能力、成本管理創新和服務水準。

Over the last several months, we've actioned approximately $150 million in cumulative annualized savings from the near-term efficiency initiatives. And we see opportunities to further refine and lower our cost structure. We realize additional incremental SG&A efficiencies, which are expected to benefit future profitability while also improving our service levels and making it easier to do business with UNFI by streamlining our business.

在過去的幾個月裡，我們透過近期效率計畫累積了約 1.5 億美元的年化成本。我們看到了進一步完善和降低成本結構的機會。我們實現了額外的 SG&A 效率增量，預計這將有利於未來的盈利能力，同時也提高我們的服務水平，並透過簡化我們的業務，使與 UNFI 開展業務變得更容易。

We're continuing to review our organizational composition to ensure that we are structured in a way that allows us to be focused with the needed skill sets, technology, and insights to best drive profitability and growth for UNFI customers and suppliers.

我們將繼續審查我們的組織組成，以確保我們的結構能夠讓我們專注於所需的技能、技術和見解，從而最大程度地推動 UNFI 客戶和供應商的盈利和成長。

We've also continued to embed improved supply chain processes and management disciplines to drive significant improvement. For example, we've achieved significant reduction in shrink. Net shrink as a percentage of sales declined both sequentially from the first quarter as well as compared to the prior year period, with shrink reduction meaningfully surpassing our prior expectations in the quarter.

我們也繼續嵌入改進的供應鏈流程和管理規則，以推動重大改進。例如，我們已經實現了收縮率的顯著減少。淨損耗佔銷售額的百分比比第一季連續下降以及與去年同期相比均有所下降，本季損耗的減少明顯超出了我們先前的預期。

Importantly, we believe there's still room for further improvement. In addition to these improvements aimed at delivering near term profitability gains, we are working to improve our commercial go-to-market programs to better connect suppliers and enhance their ability to see, invest in, and rapidly capture win-win merchandising opportunities with our shared customers.

重要的是，我們相信仍有進一步改進的空間。除了這些旨在實現短期盈利增長的改進之外，我們還致力於改進我們的商業進入市場計劃，以更好地聯繫供應商，並增強他們與我們的合作夥伴發現、投資和快速捕捉雙贏銷售機會的能力。共享客戶。

These program improvements are expected to significantly reduce operational friction. And over time, we believe it will help maximize supplier investment in our customers, which should enable them to accelerate their own profitable growth while helping UNFI to simplify our business model, drive savings and ultimately support sustainable profitable growth.

這些計劃改進預計將顯著減少營運摩擦。隨著時間的推移，我們相信這將有助於最大限度地提高供應商對我們客戶的投資，這將使他們能夠加速自身的盈利增長，同時幫助UNFI 簡化我們的業務模式，推動節省並最終支持可持續的獲利成長。

We've continued to progress on key transformation investments that are expected to structurally increase our efficiency and service levels. The automation project at our Centralia distribution center remains on track to go live later this fiscal year, as does the realignment and optimization of our Northeastern distribution network currently in progress.

我們繼續在關鍵轉型投資方面取得進展，預計這些投資將從結構上提高我們的效率和服務水準。我們的 Centralia 配送中心的自動化項目仍有望在本財年稍後投入使用，我們目前正在進行的東北配送網路的調整和優化也是如此。

These projects are expected to drive operational savings, increase fulfillment accuracy, and create higher capacity in these geographies. We're also continuing to evaluate paths to reduce the near term and long term capital intensity of our distribution centers, and will continue to be focused on optimizing the free cash flow profile of our networks.

這些項目預計將在這些地區節省營運成本、提高履行準確性並創造更高的產能。我們也將繼續評估降低配送中心短期和長期資本密集度的途徑，並將繼續專注於優化我們網路的自由現金流狀況。

Additionally, we've also driven significant improvement to the online tools our customers use, which is creating a more seamless ordering experience. We remain focused on the path to driving compelling long-term value creation by transforming the efficiency, profitability, and service levels of our business. We plan to build on the progress we've made so far this year as we move into the second half of fiscal 2024.

此外，我們還推動了客戶使用的線上工具的重大改進，從而創造了更無縫的訂購體驗。我們仍然專注於透過改變業務效率、盈利能力和服務水平來推動引人注目的長期價值創造。我們計劃在進入 2024 財年下半年之際，在今年迄今取得的進展的基礎上再接再厲。

I remain confident in the opportunities that we've already begun to action to create enduring value for all our stakeholders, especially our shareholders. Importantly, while the external environment remains challenging. It continues to gradually become less volatile, which provides us a clearer look at the long-term trajectory of our industry and our business. And this provides a productive backdrop for our management- and Board-led finance review that we announced on our fourth quarter call, which remains ongoing.

我對我們已經開始採取行動為所有利益相關者，特別是股東創造持久價值的機會仍然充滿信心。重要的是，儘管外部環境仍然充滿挑戰。它的波動性繼續逐漸降低，這使我們能夠更清晰地了解我們行業和業務的長期軌跡。這為我們在第四季度電話會議上宣布的管理層和董事會主導的財務審查提供了富有成效的背景，該審查仍在進行中。

The group of directors leading the review on behalf of the broader Board includes our Chairman, the Chair of our Audit Committee, and the three newest members of our Board who joined last September. This group brings strong backgrounds and experience in finance, business transformation, and strategic planning, and are actively involved with our management team in assessing a broad range of potential opportunities for meaningful value creation. We'll plan to provide timely updates as the process moves forward.

代表更廣泛的董事會領導審查的董事小組包括我們的董事長、審計委員會主席以及去年 9 月加入的三名最新董事會成員。團隊在財務、業務轉型和策略規劃方面擁有深厚的背景和經驗，並積極與我們的管理團隊一起評估各種潛在機會，以創造有意義的價值。我們將計劃隨著流程的進展及時提供更新。

Before I turn the call over to John, let me take a moment to thank him for his years of service and leadership. John helped to unify and navigate the challenges of a global pandemic, and I have appreciated his counsel and partnership during my time at the company. I know he will be a helpful partner to Matteo too as he works to enable a quick and smooth transition during his onboarding.

在將電話轉給約翰之前，請允許我花點時間感謝他多年來的服務和領導。約翰幫助統一和應對全球大流行的挑戰，我在公司任職期間非常感謝他的建議和合作。我知道他也將成為 Matteo 的一個有用的合作夥伴，因為他致力於在入職期間實現快速、平穩的過渡。

As I've said several times in the past, our philosophy is to recruit talented leaders who can help us execute our strategy and move the business forward. Matteo is a proven and experienced finance executive who has served as CFO of several of the largest reportable segments at GE. He has extensive operating company experience and has consistently delivered results and proven to be adaptable to different businesses. He has also previously executed several transformations.

正如我過去多次說過的，我們的理念是招募有才華的領導者，幫助我們執行策略並推動業務向前發展。Matteo 是一位久經考驗且經驗豐富的財務主管，曾擔任 GE 幾個最大的可報告部門的財務長。他擁有豐富的公司營運經驗，始終如一地交付成果，並被證明能夠適應不同的業務。他此前也曾進行過多次轉型。

I believe this experience, combined with his strong background in Process Excellence, is an important complement to the existing efforts that we have put in place to reset and improve our profitability. It also positions him well to augment the momentum we are building in our customer and merchandising capabilities across our existing organization.

我相信這種經驗，加上他在卓越流程方面的強大背景，是我們為重置和提高盈利能力而付出的現有努力的重要補充。這也使他能夠很好地增強我們在整個現有組織中建立客戶和銷售能力的勢頭。

John will remain with UNFI until the end of May to help onboard Matteo and ensure a smooth transition. With that, let me now turn the call over to John for his remarks.

約翰將留在 UNFI 直到 5 月底，以幫助 Matteo 上任並確保順利過渡。現在，讓我將電話轉給約翰，請他發表演說。

John?

約翰？

Thank you, Sandy, and good morning everyone. As Sandy just noted, today will mark my last earnings call as CFO of UNFI. I look forward to partnering with Matteo during the transition over the coming months. Our finance leadership team is awaiting Matteo's start date, and we're already preparing for an onboarding process and expect a quick and smooth handoff.

謝謝你，桑迪，大家早安。正如桑迪剛剛指出的，今天是我作為 UNFI 財務長的最後一次財報電話會議。我期待在未來幾個月的過渡期間與 Matteo 合作。我們的財務領導團隊正在等待 Matteo 的上任日期，我們已經在準備入職流程，並期待快速、順利的交接。

As you also heard earlier from Sandy, our second quarter was ahead of our expectations, driven by solid and improving execution across the business. Our updated outlook reflects this performance, balanced against an environment that remains challenging with consumers seeking value as they manage household spending.

正如您早些時候從桑迪那裡聽到的那樣，在整個業務的穩健和不斷改善的執行力的推動下，我們的第二季度超出了我們的預期。我們更新的前景反映了這種表現，並與消費者在管理家庭支出時尋求價值的挑戰仍然充滿挑戰的環境相平衡。

This morning, I will provide commentary on the second quarter results, our balance sheet and capital structure, and some considerations as we look to the balance of the year and our updated fiscal 2024 outlook. With that, let's review our Q2 results.

今天早上，我將就第二季業績、我們的資產負債表和資本結構以及我們展望今年餘額和更新的 2024 財年展望時的一些考慮因素發表評論。接下來，讓我們回顧一下第二季的結果。

Turning to slide 8. Net sales decreased 50 basis points from last year's second quarter to $7.8 billion, reflecting a continuing negative year-over-year trend in units sold that was partially offset by inflation, albeit at a decelerating rate and new business. Inflation declined by about 800 basis points compared to last year's second quarter, and we are continuing to see category-specific deflation.

轉到投影片 8。淨銷售額較去年第二季下降 50 個基點至 78 億美元，反映出銷售量較去年同期持續下降的趨勢，但部分被通膨（儘管成長放緩）和新業務所抵消。與去年第二季相比，通貨膨脹下降了約 800 個基點，而且我們繼續看到特定類別的通貨緊縮。

As Sandy discussed in his remarks, the environment continues to be challenging for traditional grocery retailers. However, there is diverse performance across our customer base. We see this in our own results as well as with some channels continuing to grow while others faced significant pressure and a highly competitive environment.

正如桑迪在演講中所討論的那樣，對於傳統雜貨零售商來說，環境仍然充滿挑戰。然而，我們的客戶群表現各異。我們在自己的業績中看到了這一點，有些管道持續成長，而有些管道則面臨著巨大的壓力和高度競爭的環境。

Sales in our retail business declined by approximately 4.4% as we continue to be impacted by a difficult macro and industry environment. This partially reflects a significant decline in government assistance.

由於我們繼續受到宏觀和行業環境困難的影響，我們的零售業務銷售額下降了約4.4%。這部分反映了政府援助的大幅下降。

Flipping to slide 9. Let's now look at our profitability drivers this quarter. Our gross profit rate prior to the non-cash LIFO charge in both years decreased by about 60 basis points, which was close to our expectations. As we've previously stated, the second quarter is when we've now cycled most of the elevated procurement gains that benefited last year's gross profit rate in quarters one and two.

翻轉到投影片 9。現在讓我們來看看本季的獲利驅動因素。我們在非現金後進先出費用之前的毛利率在兩年內下降了約 60 個基點，這接近我們的預期。正如我們之前所說，第二季我們已經循環了大部分採購收益的增加，這些收益有利於去年第一季和第二季的毛利率。

While there are still some procurement gains to be cycled in the second half, the level of gains in the prior year period is expected to decline sequentially from Q2 to Q3 and from Q3 to Q4. As a reminder, the gains we experienced last year were driven by substantial supplier price increases that led to last year's Q2 inflation rate of about 10%, which is meaningfully higher than this quarter's rate of around 2%.

雖然下半年仍有一些採購收益循環，但預計上年同期的收益水準將從第二季到第三季、從第三季到第四季依序下降。提醒一下，我們去年的收益是由供應商價格大幅上漲推動的，這導致去年第二季的通膨率約為 10%，明顯高於本季 2% 左右的通膨率。

The anticipated decrease in procurement gains was partially offset by continuing progress on reducing shrink, which was markedly lower than last year's second quarter. Our operating expenses, excluding business transformation costs as a percentage of sales, were down sequentially compared to the first quarter, and flat versus last year's second quarter.

採購收益的預期下降被減少收縮的持續進展所部分抵消，收縮明顯低於去年第二季。我們的營運費用（不包括業務轉型成本佔銷售額的百分比）與第一季相比連續下降，與去年第二季持平。

We again saw improving throughput in our DCs, which rose by nearly 12% compared to last year's second quarter and a further decline in turnover rates. We've also seen steadily increasing outbound fill rates. These improvements were offset by DC start-up and real estate related costs, which include about $5 million related to rent we began incurring partway through the quarter for our new Manchester Pennsylvania DC expected to go live in fiscal 2025. This also includes continued investment in foundational initiatives designed to drive operating efficiencies and provide the highest possible service levels for our customers.

我們再次看到配送中心的吞吐量有所改善，與去年第二季相比成長了近 12%，週轉率進一步下降。我們也看到出站填充率穩定上升。這些改進被 DC 啟動和房地產相關成本所抵消，其中包括約 500 萬美元，與我們在本季度中期開始為新曼徹斯特賓夕法尼亞 DC 產生的租金相關，預計將於 2025 財年投入使用。這還包括對旨在提高營運效率並為客戶提供盡可能高的服務水準的基礎計劃的持續投資。

Adjusted EBITDA totaled $128 million or 1.6% of sales compared to $181 million or 2.3% of sales last year, with the difference being largely the decline in gross profit related to cycling last year's inflation-driven procurement gains. Within our retail segment, there was a $9 million sequential increase in adjusted EBITDA, primarily related to the holiday selling season.

調整後 EBITDA 總計 1.28 億美元，佔銷售額的 1.6%，而去年為 1.81 億美元，佔銷售額的 2.3%，差異主要是與去年通膨驅動的採購收益循環相關的毛利下降。在我們的零售部門，調整後的 EBITDA 環比增長了 900 萬美元，這主要與假日銷售季節有關。

Our GAAP loss was $0.25 per share, which included $0.32 in charges, primarily for business transformation costs and LIFO. Adjusting for these as well as several smaller items, our adjusted EPS totaled $0.07 compared to $0.78 per share last year, with the largest driver of the change being the lower level of adjusted EBITDA.

我們的 GAAP 虧損為每股 0.25 美元，其中包括 0.32 美元的費用，主要用於業務轉型成本和 LIFO。在對這些以及幾個較小的項目進行調整後，我們調整後的每股收益總計為 0.07 美元，而去年為每股 0.78 美元，這一變化的最大驅動因素是調整後 EBITDA 水平較低。

Moving to slide 10. We finished the quarter with total outstanding net debt of $2.16 billion, a $124 million decrease compared to the end of the first quarter. This reflects the cash inflows from the expected lower levels of investment in working capital now that were through the holid ay selling season.

轉到投影片 10。本季末，我們的未償淨債務總額為 21.6 億美元，比第一季末減少了 1.24 億美元。這反映了由於假日銷售季節已過，預期營運資本投資水準較低而產生的現金流入。

We retain significant balance sheet flexibility with $1.4 billion of liquidity. We will continue to manage our debt structure consistent with optimizing our long-term credit profile and expect to maintain our base of pre-payable debt, including our term loan to provide capital structure flexibility as our turnaround plan and long-term strategy are implemented.

我們保持顯著的資產負債表彈性，擁有 14 億美元的流動性。我們將繼續管理我們的債務結構，以優化我們的長期信用狀況，並期望維持我們的預付債務基礎，包括我們的定期貸款，以便在實施我們的周轉計劃和長期戰略時提供資本結構靈活性。

Turning to slide 11. As outlined in our press release, we're updating our full year outlook for fiscal 2024 to reflect our performance to date and the operating environment that continues to be challenging. We have lowered the midpoint of our expectation for full year net sales by about 1.4% to a new range of $30.5 billion to $31 billion.

轉到投影片 11。正如我們的新聞稿中所述，我們正在更新 2024 財年的全年展望，以反映我們迄今為止的業績以及仍充滿挑戰的營運環境。我們將全年淨銷售額預期中位數下調約 1.4%，至 305 億美元至 310 億美元的新區間。

For adjusted EBITDA we've narrowed the range to $475 million to $525 million, maintaining the midpoint of $500 million. And we've updated the corresponding range for adjusted EPS, which is now expected to be a loss of $0.56 to earnings of $0.06 per share.

對於調整後的 EBITDA，我們將範圍縮小至 4.75 億美元至 5.25 億美元，維持 5 億美元的中點。我們也更新了調整後每股收益的相應範圍，目前預計每股收益為 0.06 美元，虧損 0.56 美元。

Our outlook for fiscal 2024 capital and cloud implementation expenditures remains at approximately $400 million, including investments in our transformation plan with the largest component going towards network optimization and automation.

我們對 2024 財年資本和雲端實施支出的展望仍約為 4 億美元，其中包括對轉型計畫的投資，其中最大的組成部分將用於網路優化和自動化。

This also includes investments to continue to improve our technology infrastructure that we believe will drive higher efficiency. This outlook balances our year-to-date progress, resetting and improving profitability and our new customer expectations with a macro, economic, and industry backdrop that remains challenging.

這也包括繼續改進我們的技術基礎設施的投資，我們相信這將提高效率。這項展望平衡了我們今年迄今的進展、重置和提高盈利能力以及我們的新客戶期望與仍然充滿挑戰的宏觀、經濟和行業背景。

We expect inflation to continue to decline, but believe the pace of the decline is likely to moderate. We also continue to anticipate a more prolonged recovery for volume, but remain cautiously optimistic that these volume trends will drive increases in the quantity and depth of supplier promotions, which benefits both our customers and UNFI.

我們預期通膨將繼續下降，但相信下降速度可能會放緩。我們也繼續預期銷售的恢復時間會更長，但仍保持謹慎樂觀，認為這些銷售趨勢將推動供應商促銷的數量和深度增加，這對我們的客戶和 UNFI 都有利。

As for the balance of the year. The implied level of adjusted EBITDA for the second half of the year at the midpoint of our outlook is approximately $255 million, including about $9 million from the 53rd week in the fourth quarter. This modest acceleration includes our expectations for the continued ramp-up of our cost-saving initiatives, further incremental improvements in shrink, and disciplined expense management, which will help enable investments in our new Manchester distribution center.

至於當年的餘額。在我們的展望中點，下半年調整後 EBITDA 的隱含水準約為 2.55 億美元，其中包括第四季度第 53 週的約 900 萬美元。這種適度的加速包括我們對成本節約計劃持續增加的期望、收縮方面的進一步漸進改進以及嚴格的費用管理，這將有助於對我們新的曼徹斯特配送中心進行投資。

We expect about $14 million of incremental rent and other expenses related to our Manchester DC within our second half results. Importantly, the focus of these near-term investments is largely on increasing efficiency and profitability.

我們預計下半年業績中與曼徹斯特 DC 相關的租金和其他費用將增加約 1,400 萬美元。重要的是，這些近期投資的重點主要是提高效率和獲利能力。

In summary, as outlined on slide 12, our updated outlook for fiscal 2024 balances the challenging operating backdrop, our performance year to date, and a relentless focus on execution and cost management. We remain encouraged by our overall performance in the first half of our fiscal year and continue to be focused on driving profitability through efficiency and effectiveness in our supply chain and retail stores.

總之，如投影片 12 所示，我們對 2024 財年的最新展望平衡了充滿挑戰的營運背景、我們今年迄今的表現以及對執行和成本管理的不懈關注。我們對上半財年的整體業績感到鼓舞，並持續致力於透過供應鏈和零售店的效率和效益來提高獲利能力。

We remain confident in our business model and transformation agenda, as well as our management team and Board of Directors' ability to execute our strategy and deliver increased shareholder value.

我們對我們的業務模式和轉型議程以及我們的管理團隊和董事會執行策略和增加股東價值的能力仍然充滿信心。

Before we open the call for questions, I would like to thank those of you that I've interacted with over the past five years for your support and feedback, I'm leaving UNFI as an eager shareholder with conviction that its future is bright and Matteo will be a strong leader to support the organization.

在我們開始提問之前，我要感謝過去五年來與我互動的人們的支持和反饋，我將作為一名熱切的股東離開 UNFI，堅信它的未來是光明的，馬特奧將成為支持該組織的強有力的領導者。

Operator, please open the line for questions.

接線員，請開通提問線。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Mark Carden, UBS.

馬克卡登，瑞銀集團。

Good morning. Thanks so much for taking the questions. And John, best of luck going forward.

早安.非常感謝您提出問題。約翰，祝你未來好運。

I wanted to start by digging into what you guys are seeing on channel shifts from traditional grocery to mass. Was this largely in line with what you guys were expecting, say a quarter ago? Or how has this accelerated? And then how much of an impact is it having on demand for your value-added services? Thank you.

我想先深入了解你們在從傳統雜貨到大眾的管道轉變中所看到的情況。這很大程度符合你們四分之一前的預期嗎？或者說這是如何加速的？那麼它對您的加值服務需求有多大影響呢？謝謝。

Hi, Mark. It's Sandy. I think it's in line with trends, for the most part. I think what our customers will tell you is that competition is very fierce right now and the consumer, being stressed, is looking for value in a lot of ways. From a pro services standpoint, it's increasing demand for them, and it's increasing our commitment to make sure that we continue to refresh them to create more and more ways for our customers to save money so they can be more competitive.

嗨，馬克。是桑迪。我認為這在很大程度上符合趨勢。我想我們的客戶會告訴你的是，現在的競爭非常激烈，消費者在壓力下正在從很多方面尋找價值。從專業服務的角度來看，對它們的需求不斷增加，也增強了我們的承諾，以確保我們繼續更新它們，為我們的客戶創造越來越多的省錢方式，使他們更具競爭力。

Got it. That's helpful. Thank you.

知道了。這很有幫助。謝謝。

And then at this stage, how are you guys thinking about the level of inflation over the course of the next few quarters?

那麼在這個階段，你們如何看待未來幾季的通膨水準？

I think John can pile on here. As he said, obviously year over year in the second quarter was a significant drop from about 10% down to 2%. And we're expecting the rate of change to moderate as we go towards the end of the year. John, you want to add anything?

我認為約翰可以在這裡繼續。正如他所說，顯然第二季度同比大幅下降，從 10% 左右下降到 2%。我們預計，隨著年底的臨近，變化率將會放緩。約翰，你想補充什麼嗎？

No, I think that's exactly right. I think we'll end up somewhere between 1% and 2% in the back half of the year, by the end of our fiscal year.

不，我認為這是完全正確的。我認為，到今年下半年，也就是本財年結束時，我們的成長率將達到 1% 到 2% 之間。

Thanks so much and good luck.

非常感謝，祝你好運。

Thank you. Appreciate it, Mark.

謝謝。欣賞它，馬克。

Leah Jordan, Goldman Sachs.

利亞·喬丹，高盛。

Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I first wanted to ask about vendor promotions and see what you're seeing there. How are your conversations with suppliers evolving? And what's baked into guidance for the back half of the year?

早安.感謝您回答我的問題。我首先想詢問供應商促銷活動，看看你們在那裡看到了什麼。您與供應商的對話進度如何？今年下半年的指導方針有哪些內容？

What we're seeing, Leah, is a continued sequential increase in promotional activity, but still below what they were pre-COVID. My expectation, and I think the sense we get from meetings with suppliers, is that they're going to continue to promote more aggressively, and they're sequentially increasing. And that's what's in our expectations for the rest of the year.

Leah，我們看到的是促銷活動持續連續增加，但仍低於新冠疫情之前的水平。我的期望，我認為我們從與供應商的會議中得到的感覺是，他們將繼續更積極地進行促銷，並且數量正在逐步增加。這就是我們對今年剩餘時間的期望。

Okay, great. Thank you. And then for my follow-up, I just wanted to ask about the retail segment. We continue to see some weakness there. Just comment around demand trends and the competitive environment.

好的，太好了。謝謝。然後，對於我的後續行動，我只想詢問零售領域的情況。我們仍然看到了一些弱點。只需評論需求趨勢和競爭環境。

And then I know you made some leadership changes recently, so maybe any updates on some improvements that you made in the business there, and how you're thinking about it longer term.

然後我知道您最近進行了一些領導層變動，因此也許有關於您在業務中所做的一些改進的任何更新，以及您如何考慮更長期的問題。

Sure. From a overall performance standpoint, obviously it was a challenging quarter for retail. We did appoint a new CEO, Andre Persaud, who's taking a fresh look at both the Cub and the Shoppers brand. And I would say actively consulting with our local franchisees because Cub is a good brand. It's competing in a very challenging environment in the Twin Cities area with discounters and with mass. And Andre is looking at all aspects of our merchandising and service performance.

當然。從整體業績的角度來看，這顯然對零售業來說是一個充滿挑戰的季度。我們確實任命了一位新執行長安德烈·佩爾紹德（Andre Persaud），他正在重新審視 Cub 和 Shoppers 品牌。我想說的是，積極諮詢我們當地的特許經營商，因為 Cub 是一個很好的品牌。它在雙城地區一個非常具有挑戰性的環境中與折扣店和大眾競爭。安德烈正在關注我們的銷售和服務績效的各個方面。

I think our view long term is bullish relative to Cub and the potential of that brand in the Twin Cities market. And obviously, we're looking at all the ways to accelerate performance and value for shareholders through that platform.

我認為我們的長期觀點相對於 Cub 以及該品牌在雙城市場的潛力是看漲的。顯然，我們正在尋找透過該平台為股東加速績效和價值的所有方法。

Thank you.

謝謝。

John Heinbockel, Guggenheim Securities.

約翰·海因博克爾，古根漢證券公司。

So Sandy, I want to start with, I know you guys in the past have outlined this $40 billion existing wallet opportunity, right? So your view on that now together with the service opportunity that you see, which I think is not part of that. And then, when do you think you've got still work to do?

所以桑迪，我想首先，我知道你們過去已經概述了這個價值 400 億美元的現有錢包機會，對嗎？所以你現在對此的看法以及你看到的服務機會，我認為這不是其中的一部分。然後，你認為什麼時候還有工作要做？

When do you think you'll be ready to provide a three-year outlook or sort of longer term financial targets. Is that still maybe a year away?

您認為您什麼時候準備好提供三年展望或某種長期財務目標？那可能還需要一年嗎？

Hi, John. Let me start where you started. We continue to see a very significant pipeline of opportunity, both from new customers as well as new category perspective. You see some of that in our performance and in our outlook, but we remain very bullish. And the service opportunity continues to grow simply because the need is there.

你好，約翰。讓我從你開始的地方開始。無論是從新客戶還是新類別的角度來看，我們都持續看到非常重要的機會。您可以在我們的業績和前景中看到其中的一些內容，但我們仍然非常樂觀。服務機會不斷成長只是因為需求存在。

We have a number of new services that we're working on that we're not quite ready to go public with, but we're talking with customers about to help them be more competitive. From a longer-term perspective, and I think I mentioned this in my remarks, we're in the middle of a strategy-focused review with our Board and management team that are going to help us clarify our long term strategy and financial plan.

我們正在開發許多新服務，尚未準備好公開，但我們正在與客戶討論以幫助他們提高競爭力。從更長遠的角度來看，我想我在發言中提到了這一點，我們正在與董事會和管理團隊進行以策略為重點的審查，這將幫助我們澄清我們的長期策略和財務計劃。

I don't want to get ahead of ourselves on this. That being said, we're making good progress on it while we're performing in a strong way relative to the efficiency programs that we've already put in place. As I highlighted last year when we exited fiscal 2023, for example in terms of operational improvements, shrink was running about 40 basis points above pre-COVID level.

我不想在這件事上走得太過急。話雖如此，我們在這方面取得了良好進展，同時我們相對於我們已經實施的效率計劃表現強勁。正如我去年在 2023 財年結束時所強調的那樣，例如在營運改進方面，收縮率比新冠疫情前的水平高出約 40 個基點。

We now believe, based on the progress that we're making, that we actually can trim that below pre-COVID in the reasonable near term. So lots of work going on by the team to drive operational improvement and efficiency, and improve profitability in the short term. Strong process under way with our Board through financial review linked to our next strategic plan. And we're committed to giving the Street updates and more forward-looking detail when it's appropriate.

我們現在相信，根據我們正在取得的進展，我們實際上可以在合理的近期內將其削減到新冠疫情之前的水平以下。因此，團隊正在進行大量工作來推動營運改善和效率，並在短期內提高獲利能力。我們的董事會正在進行強有力的流程，透過與我們下一個策略計畫相關的財務審查。我們致力於在適當的時候向《華爾街日報》提供最新動態和更具前瞻性的詳細資訊。

Maybe as a follow-up. Other than just growing EBITDA, when you think about deleveraging, right creatively, whether it be asset sales, accounts receivable you've monetized in the past, is there anything interesting and not stupid, right long term to reduce leverage quicker? Or it's just going to, by definition, is going to have to be a gradual process?

也許作為後續行動。除了不斷增長的EBITDA 之外，當你創造性地考慮去槓桿化時，無論是資產出售還是你過去貨幣化的應收賬款，有什麼有趣的、不愚蠢的、正確的長期措施可以更快地降低槓桿率？或者，根據定義，這只是一個漸進的過程？

Yes, John, I would say that we're looking at a range of different value creation ideas through the financial review. And I would describe the ones as interesting, and hopefully none there is stupid, and again more to come on that. But we're doing a very thorough review and we see lots of opportunity for this Company.

是的，約翰，我想說我們正在透過財務審查來研究一系列不同的價值創造想法。我會把這些描述為有趣的，希望沒有一個是愚蠢的，而且還會有更多的內容出現。但我們正在進行非常徹底的審查，我們看到這家公司有很多機會。

All right. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Edward Kelly, Wells Fargo.

愛德華凱利，富國銀行。

Hi, good morning, everyone and John, best of luck moving forward. I wanted to come back to the volume side. There's I think an expectation that volumes can get better from here. It's hard to know because you don't report volumes, but it looks like your unit volumes might be down 3%-ish, something like that. Vendors are leaning into promos. Are you seeing any elasticity benefit out of that? are you seeing any elasticity benefit out of the fact that pricing seems to be ending?

嗨，早安，大家和約翰，祝你一切順利。我想回到音量方面。我認為銷量可以從現在開始變得更好。這很難知道，因為您沒有報告銷量，但看起來您的單位銷量可能會下降 3% 左右，類似的情況。供應商正傾向促銷。您看到這有什麼彈性好處嗎？您是否看到定價似乎即將結束這一事實帶來的任何彈性好處？

Are your customers leaning into promo as well, like in addition to what the vendors are doing because of share stuff? I'm just trying to get a sense for what the volume picture could look like over time here. And then as it relates to all of that, what's the right level of volume growth and inflation you need in the business to drive sustained EBITDA growth over time. Thanks.

您的客戶是否也傾向於促銷，例如除了供應商因共享商品而所做的事情之外？我只是想了解隨著時間的推移，成交量的情況會是什麼樣子。然後，與所有這些相關的是，業務量成長和通貨膨脹所需的正確水平是多少，以隨著時間的推移推動 EBITDA 持續成長。謝謝。

Let me start with sort of a few facts that may help build out the picture and then we get to the more strategic element of your question. Unit growth or unit declines are fairly consistent right now as they have been over the past couple of years. While the inflation rate is clearly significantly lower, prices are still a lot higher than they were a couple of years ago.

讓我從一些可能有助於建立圖片的事實開始，然後我們討論您問題中更具戰略意義的要素。與過去幾年一樣，目前的單位成長或下降相當一致。儘管通貨膨脹率明顯較低，但價格仍比幾年前高出許多。

And I think that's weighing on consumer, certainly in the mid and lower parts of the economy. And that's creating an opportunity for discounters and mass that consumers are responding. Promotions are increasing, as I mentioned, and retailers are promoting as well to be competitive. Inside of this sort of retail detail, customer counts are healthy still, but baskets are going down. And I think that has to do with some category trading.

我認為這給消費者帶來了壓力，尤其是經濟中下游地區的消費者。這為折扣店和大眾消費者創造了機會。正如我所提到的，促銷活動正在增加，零售商也在進行促銷以提高競爭力。在此類零售細節中，顧客數量仍然健康，但購物籃數量正在下降。我認為這與某些類別交易有關。

Our growth going forward, and this gets to the latter part of your question, is going to be a function of more customers, more categories, and then our ability to work with them to be for them to be as healthy and profitable as possible. And clearly, we think profitable growth is part of our algorithm going forward, but I emphasize profitable growth.

我們未來的成長，這涉及到你問題的後半部分，將取決於更多的客戶、更多的類別，以及我們與他們合作的能力，使他們盡可能健康和盈利。顯然，我們認為獲利成長是我們未來演算法的一部分，但我強調獲利成長。

Okay. And then as it pertains to procurement gains, have you now fully worked your way through those, like the EBITDA that you're reporting now is what you would consider more normalized? And then the flip side of that, you talked about vendor promotions rising, obviously levels are below 2019. Is there a way to frame what the opportunity is related to that for you as we think about like levels of EBITDA?

好的。然後，就採購收益而言，您現在是否已經完全解決了這些問題，例如您現在報告的 EBITDA 是您認為更正常化的問題？另一方面，您談到供應商促銷活動不斷增加，顯然水準低於 2019 年。當我們考慮 EBITDA 的類似程度時，有沒有一種方法可以確定機會與您的相關性？

Yes. The way I'd describe the procurement gains is they're substantially annualized, although they still had some in the third quarter last year and then again tapering further in the fourth quarter and into this fiscal. In terms of profitability, I think a good way to look at it is sequentially as opposed to year over year and our profitability improved in the second quarter versus the first quarter, and the first quarter versus the fourth quarter of last year.

是的。我描述採購收益的方式是，它們基本上按年化，儘管去年第三季仍有一些採購收益，然後在第四季和本財年進一步減少。就盈利能力而言，我認為一個好方法是按順序而不是同比來看待它，我們的盈利能力在第二季度與第一季度相比有所改善，第一季度與去年第四季度相比有所改善。

Some of that being driven by holiday seasonality in what is our second quarter, but also the actions that we're taking to drive incremental profitability into the business, which will continue. From a promotion standpoint, there's a lot of ways that suppliers are investing in the market. They're investing through promotions. They're investing through new items, and they're investing through various media investments, some in partnership with retailers and some over the top.

其中一些是由第二季度的假期季節性推動的，但也是我們為推動業務增量盈利而採取的行動所推動的，這種情況將持續下去。從促銷的角度來看，供應商投資市場的方式有很多。他們透過促銷進行投資。他們透過新產品進行投資，透過各種媒體投資進行投資，有些是與零售商合作，有些是頂級投資。

And we're seeing increases in all of those. And our strategy is, as I mentioned, to try to help suppliers see our customer base. Our customer base is vibrant with all kinds of positionings really across the country, over 30,000 outlets. So to the extent that suppliers can see all of them, not just the big ones. they can quantify the opportunity, watch the returns that they get. We believe that gets the flywheel going. And the more successful the consumer products companies are with independents, the more profitable and successful they'll be over time.

我們看到所有這些都在增加。正如我所提到的，我們的策略是努力幫助供應商了解我們的客戶群。我們的客戶群充滿活力，遍布全國各地，擁有超過 30,000 個網點。因此，供應商可以看到所有這些公司，而不僅僅是大公司。他們可以量化機會，觀察所獲得的回報。我們相信這會讓飛輪運轉。消費品公司與獨立公司的合作越成功，隨著時間的推移，他們的利潤和成功就會越大。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Scott Mushkin, R5 Capital.

斯科特·穆甚金，R5 Capital。

First of all, John, it's been an absolute pleasure working with you. So good luck going forward. I actually wanted to jump on the answer that Sandy gave to the last question. It seems, and maybe it's because of the ads that somebody's -- the advertising businesses that some of these large retailers have, our research would say the vendor promotions are not necessarily being spread equally across the market favoring maybe some larger retailers. How do you stop that? How do you work against that as we move forward and promotions probably continue to go higher?

首先，約翰，與您合作非常愉快。祝你未來好運。我實際上想直接回答桑迪對最後一個問題的回答。看來，也許是因為某些大型零售商擁有的廣告業務，我們的研究表明，供應商促銷活動不一定在市場上均勻分佈，可能有利於一些較大的零售商。你怎麼阻止它？隨著我們的前進並且促銷可能會繼續增加，您如何應對這一問題？

So Scott, I'll editorialize a little bit and then come back to your question. My experience in consumer products over many years is the diversity of the customer base is an extreme value driver for consumer products companies. So the conversations we're having with the commercial leaders, chief customer officers, North America presence is really advocating for that strategic focus.

史考特，我會稍微編輯一下，然後再回到你的問題。我多年來在消費品領域的經驗是，客戶群的多樣性是消費品公司的極端價值驅動力。因此，我們與商業領袖、首席客戶長、北美辦事處的對話實際上是在倡導這項策略重點。

Now, a successful consumer products company is going to work with all retailers and certainly focus on big ones, but the unlock is to drive accelerated growth with independents. Our job is to help them do that, help them see it, streamline and simplify how we work together, and have them begin the investment return measurement invest again,.

現在，一家成功的消費品公司將與所有零售商合作，當然也專注於大型零售商，但關鍵是要與獨立零售商一起推動加速成長。我們的工作就是幫助他們做到這一點，幫助他們看到這一點，簡化我們的合作方式，並讓他們開始重新衡量投資回報。

Consumer products companies are very sophisticated and they see growth when it works and they see profitable growth when it works well. And that's our focus with them. And I think we will end up being able to earn our fair share or hopefully a little more for our customers by virtue of their ability to see the return that they can get.

消費品公司非常成熟，當運作良好時，他們會看到成長，當運作良好時，他們會看到利潤成長。這就是我們對他們的關注點。我認為我們最終將能夠贏得我們的公平份額，或希望為我們的客戶贏得更多一點，因為他們有能力看到他們可以獲得的回報。

The final point is relative to advertising businesses, I think that's an opportunity. Retail media through an independent lens would be incredibly successful if it can be executed. And obviously, we're focusing on ways in which we might be able to help with that.

最後一點是相對於廣告業務來說，我認為這是一個機會。如果能夠執行，透過獨立鏡頭的零售媒體將取得令人難以置信的成功。顯然，我們正在關注能夠提供幫助的方式。

Perfect. And then I actually have got two others, if I could ask both the men. So first of all, on the CapEx going forward, I guess, is about $400 million this year, when do you expect maybe if that will come down? Do you expect it to come down? So that's number one.

完美的。然後我實際上還有另外兩個人，如果我可以問這兩個人的話。首先，我猜今年的資本支出約為 4 億美元，您預計什麼時候會下降？你預計它會下降嗎？所以這是第一。

And the second is, again, more strategic. It has to do with Cub. It was originally when the merger was done and the thought was that Cub would be sold. Is that still on the table or is that -- is that's really not on the table?

第二個同樣更具戰略意義。和庫布有關係。最初是在合併完成後，Cub 被出售。這仍然在桌面上嗎？還是——這真的不在桌面上嗎？

Scott, let me let me start with the second one first. We believe the Cub brand is a very viable brand and has a lot of success ahead in the future. One of the interesting parts of the model is that a significant part of it is franchised and some of the leading retailers in Twin Cities are in the brand. And with Andre joining the company, we're engaged heavily with our franchisees to discuss the best ways to drive the brand forward, and a number of very good ideas around the table.

史考特，讓我先從第二個開始。我們相信 Cub 品牌是一個非常有生命力的品牌，並且在未來會取得很大的成功。該模式有趣的部分之一是，其中很大一部分是特許經營，雙城的一些領先零售商都屬於該品牌。隨著安德烈 (Andre) 加入公司，我們與特許經營商密切合作，討論推動品牌發展的最佳方式，並提出了許多非常好的想法。

And so we will continue to do that in a way that's good for the brand, good for the franchisees, and good for our shareholders. Relative to capital and the outlook there, as I mentioned earlier in my script, we're in the middle of a next three-year plan process and a financial review with our Board.

因此，我們將繼續以有利於品牌、有利於特許經營商、有利於我們股東的方式做到這一點。相對於資本和前景，正如我前面在劇本中提到的，我們正處於下一個三年計畫流程和董事會財務審查的中間階段。

Capital intensity is an important part of the focus of that conversation. And we're employing the zero-based philosophy that we use for overall planning to capital planning as well. And we'll have more to talk about it at an appropriate time.

資本密集度是此次對話焦點的重要組成部分。我們也採用從零開始的理念來進行總體規劃和資本規劃。我們將在適當的時候對此進行更多討論。

Okay. Thanks so much.

好的。非常感謝。

Chuck Cerankosky, Northcoast Research.

查克·塞蘭科斯基，北海岸研究中心。

Good morning, everyone. In looking at the quest to grow your volume, improve your volumes, could you talk about private label? You don't have much, if any, in the way of manufacturing. How do you get that in the loop while, at the same time, not annoying the CPGs? It seems to be incredibly important as consumers are looking for value and lower prices, et cetera.

大家，早安。在尋求增加銷售量、提高銷售量時，您能談談自有品牌嗎？你沒有太多的製造方式（如果有的話）。如何在不惹惱 CPG 的情況下將其納入循環？當消費者尋求價值和更低的價格等時，這似乎非常重要。

Yes, Chuck, extremely good point. We're focused on private brands as an important part of the value, the proposition that we bring to our customers. And we've done a bunch of work on it. Actually, we recruited top talent into that. We streamlined out of a lot of little ideas into some big portfolios that fit the various positions of our customers. And we're focused on helping our retailers be very competitive in private or for exclusive brands. So I agree with the thesis of your question.

是的，查克，非常好的觀點。我們專注於自有品牌，將其視為我們為客戶帶來的價值和主張的重要組成部分。我們已經在這方面做了很多工作。事實上，我們為此招募了頂尖人才。我們將許多小想法精簡為適合客戶不同職位的大組合。我們致力於幫助我們的零售商在私人或獨家品牌方面具有很強的競爭力。所以我同意你的問題的論點。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Kelly Bania, BMO Capital Markets.

Kelly Bania，BMO 資本市場。

Hi, good morning. This is Ben Wood on behalf of Kelly. Thank you for taking our questions and good luck, John, on your future endeavors.

早安.我是本·伍德，代表凱利。感謝您提出我們的問題，祝福您未來一切順利。

Our first question is, we've been hearing that UNFI recently introduced a new simplified approach to supplier fee structures. Would you be able to expand on that initiative? What's the thought process behind it? What are the efficiencies or incremental business you hope to gain from it?

我們的第一個問題是，我們聽說 UNFI 最近針對供應商費用結構引入了一種新的簡化方法。您能擴展該計劃嗎？背後的思考過程是怎麼樣的？您希望從中獲得哪些效率或增量業務？

Sure. And, Ben, it's early in the launch process, but you described it well. It's a new way of working with our suppliers that will enable them to have access to data and insights, and a faster, more flexible relationship with us. It really is -- the design of which is to just simplify their ability to get their new items, to get their investment, their promotions to our customers easier, faster quicker.

當然。Ben，現在還處於啟動過程的早期階段，但你描述得很好。這是一種與我們的供應商合作的新方式，使他們能夠存取數據和見解，並與我們建立更快、更靈活的關係。確實如此——其設計只是為了簡化他們獲得新商品、獲得投資以及向客戶進行促銷的能力，變得更容易、更快。

We have traditionally had a very fee-based approach to how we work with suppliers. And what we're doing is we're eliminating a lot of that and creating a much simpler relationship so that they'll be able to make a simple investment. And then we put their focus and our focus on driving value to the shelf. More details to come fairly. But at this stage, we're in the rollout mode.

傳統上，我們與供應商的合作方式一直是收費的。我們正在做的是消除許多這種情況並創造一種更簡單的關係，以便他們可以進行簡單的投資。然後我們將他們和我們的重點放在推動貨架價值上。更多詳細資訊敬請期待。但現階段，我們正處於推出模式。

Great, thank you. And then just wanted to dig into gross margins a little bit. I understand in 2Q, you guys were still lapping some procurement gains. It looks like there should be some mix shift pressure between the segments and then potentially offset by increases in promotions. So our question is, when should gross margins start to stabilize? What are the major puts and takes in gross margin in the second half maybe compared to Q2 as well?

太好了謝謝。然後只想深入了解毛利率。據我所知，在第二季度，你們仍在獲得一些採購收益。看起來各細分市場之間應該存在一些混合轉變壓力，然後可能會被促銷活動的增加所抵消。那我們的問題是，毛利率什麼時候開始穩定？與第二季相比，下半年毛利率的主要看跌期權和看跌期權是多少？

Yes, Ben, this is John. We generally don't provide guidance on gross margin, just the sales and EBITDA and EPS. We have, as you might imagine, a lot of puts and takes in margin, all of which I think we've talked about between promo spend, the improvements in shrink that we're seeing, the forward buy that we're lapping mostly through the first half of this year.

是的，本，這是約翰。我們通常不提供毛利率指導，僅提供銷售額、息稅折舊攤提前利潤 (EBITDA) 和每股盈餘 (EPS) 的指導。正如你可能想像的那樣，我們有很多保證金的看跌期權和買入期權，我認為我們已經在促銷支出、我們看到的收縮的改善、我們主要關注的遠期購買之間討論過所有這些通過今年上半年。

So the guidance that we provided for EBITDA reflects how we're thinking about the margin and the rate. What we're anticipating is that, Sandy has mentioned, that promo spend will continue to tick up. We'll start to see or continue to see the improvements in shrink, but we still have the margin pressure in general that we're seeing within the industry. Sandy, anything to add to that?

因此，我們為 EBITDA 提供的指導反映了我們如何考慮利潤和利率。桑迪提到，我們預期促銷支出將持續增加。我們將開始看到或繼續看到收縮率的改善，但我們仍然面臨著行業內普遍存在的利潤壓力。桑迪，還有什麼要補充的嗎？

No, I think you said it well.

不，我覺得你說得很好。

Andrew Wolf, CL King.

安德魯沃爾夫，CL金。

Thank you. Good morning. Sandy, I wanted to, maybe a follow on to what Scott was asking about with capital expenditures, could you just review and discuss, give us as much additional information or insight as you wish on the business case for automation at the distribution centers?

謝謝。早安.桑迪，我想，也許是斯科特關於資本支出的問題的後續，您能否回顧和討論，向我們提供您希望的有關配送中心自動化業務案例的更多信息或見解？

You have some trail you're going to open, I think you announced a new one. Is this like a sea change in the cost structure? Is it incremental? Is it kind of defensive because the cost of labor has gone up? How do you really view the opportunity for a reasonably well large capitalized business as you go through an automation transformation?

你有一些要開闢的路線，我想你已經宣布了一條新路線。這是否意味著成本結構發生了巨大變化？是增量的嗎？這是因為勞動成本上漲而採取的防禦措施嗎？當您經歷自動化轉型時，您如何真正看待資本充足的大型企業的機會？

You articulated some of the big strokes as of the case. Do you believe that automation enables us over time to materially enhance capability? Load quality, the layout of how pallets are distributed and organized for retailers based on how their shelves are set. It drives efficiency. It's obviously more friendly from a labor perspective, which is a labor scarcity issue more than anything else.

您闡述了本案的一些重大舉措。您認為隨著時間的推移，自動化能夠使我們顯著增強能力嗎？負載品質，即零售商根據貨架設定方式分配和組織托盤的佈局。它提高了效率。從勞動力的角度來看，這顯然更加友好，這比其他任何事情都更重要的是勞動力稀缺問題。

It also allows us to drive very efficient growth in the distribution center. And I think that's a big part of the case. Ultimately, we see the network optimization and organizing our DCs and automation as being part and parcel of each other. And the ultimate payoff is return on invested capital, better customer service, and more profitable growth.

它還使我們能夠推動配送中心的高效成長。我認為這是案件的一個重要部分。最終，我們認為網路優化以及組織資料中心和自動化是彼此不可分割的一部分。最終的回報是投資資本回報、更好的客戶服務和更高的利潤成長。

Okay. I see them being related. I see them both being helpful, but I assume this is Al. Could you somehow at least qualitatively discuss where it is between a sea change and the cost structure, and just an incremental and/or even a defensive type of investment? Defensive, meaning, to maintain your margins, profit margins; and sea change, meaning big increase.

好的。我看到他們是相關的。我看到他們都很有幫助，但我認為這是艾爾。您能否以某種方式至少定性地討論巨變和成本結構之間的關係，以及增量和/甚至防禦性投資之間的關係？防禦性，意思是維持你的利潤率、利潤率；和海變，意味著大幅增加。

I think it's incremental more than the sea changing largely because it's something we have to do in an extremely disciplined way because it fits certain situations and doesn't fit others. And as a part of our overall financial review, we're working through that in a in a much more granular and disciplined way. But we have high expectations for it in the market situations we've put it in. And we think it incrementally improves our financials and our returns on capital.

我認為它比大海的變化更重要，因為這是我們必須以極其嚴格的方式去做的事情，因為它適合某些情況，但不適合其他情況。作為我們整體財務審查的一部分，我們正在以更細緻和更有紀律的方式來解決這個問題。但我們對它所處的市場情況抱有很高的期望。我們認為它逐步改善了我們的財務狀況和資本回報率。

And then also a follow up on the $150 million shrink and other cost savings that you've, I think, identified. And I think just kind of two things about that. One, it sounds like you've added to it. Is that enough that you could say how much more might have been added to that? And two, where are you at in realizing it? Is it a full run rate? Is it 150 divided by four? Or is it going to be cumulative? Is it less than that?

我認為，還有您已經確定的 1.5 億美元縮減和其他成本節約的後續行動。我認為這有兩點。一，聽起來你已經添加了它。這是否足以讓您說出還可以增加多少內容？第二，你在哪裡意識到這一點？是滿載運轉率嗎？是150除以4嗎？還是說會累計？是不是比這個還少？

It is cumulative, it is increasing. So Andy, let me try to unpack it, at least as far as we've been public about it. We've actioned $150 million run rate savings. Shrink improvement is not in the $150 million of savings. And the incremental work we've done around spans and layers, which is relatively small compared to $150 million, would be incremental and is going forward, and that's in process now.

它是累積的、不斷增加的。所以安迪，讓我試著解開它，至少就我們已經公開的情況而言。我們已節省了 1.5 億美元的營運費用。縮減改進並不在於節省 1.5 億美元。我們圍繞跨度和層所做的增量工作（與 1.5 億美元相比相對較小）將是增量的並且正在向前推進，而且現在正在進行中。

But what I would further say is that streamlining and improving the efficiency of this company is going to be our work forever. And that effort will continue with each quarter and year coming. But the $150 million's actioned, the shrink is incremental, and the spans and layers is incremental, but small compared to the $150million and it's in process.

但我還要說的是，精簡和提高這家公司的效率將是我們永遠的工作。這種努力將在未來的每個季度和每年繼續下去。但是1.5億美元已經行動了，收縮是漸進的，跨度和層次也是漸進的，但與1.5億美元相比還是很小，而且還在進行中。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Alex Slagle, Jefferies.

亞歷克斯·斯萊格爾，杰弗里斯。

Hey, good morning. Thanks for the question. I'm wondering if you could talk to turnover levels and productivity improvements. Just related tenure and training and talent pack for these have been in the relative margin improvements you've seen. And maybe what the path looks like going forward, just more room to go or have really the biggest gains been captured at this point.

嗨，早安。謝謝你的提問。我想知道您是否可以談談營業額水準和生產力的提高。只是相關的任期、培訓和人才包已經在您所看到的相對利潤改善中。也許未來的道路是什麼樣子，只是還有更多的空間，或者在這一點上已經獲得了最大的收益。

So I'm going to make a summary comment, and then I'm going to ask John to fill in with detail. We saw marked improvement in our throughput in our DCs. And a significant component of that is increased tenure of associates. In addition, the driver of it is process improvements, which are a driver not only of productivity, but also a driver of the reduction in shrink.

所以我將做一個總結性的評論，然後我將請約翰填寫詳細資料。我們看到資料中心的吞吐量顯著提高。其中一個重要組成部分是增加員工的任期。此外，其驅動力是製程改進，這不僅是生產率的驅動力，也是收縮率減少的驅動力。

Much like SG&A savings, we think operational productivity is a constant effort. And I would say we continue to have significant opportunity for improvement there. But the specific answer to your question is we're seeing throughput grow 10-year increase as the workforce stabilizes. John, you want to put anything more on that?

就像 SG&A 節省一樣，我們認為營運生產力是一項持續的努力。我想說，我們在這方面仍然有很大的改進機會。但您問題的具體答案是，隨著勞動力的穩定，我們看到吞吐量連續 10 年成長。約翰，你還想再說些什麼嗎？

No, I think that's right. We mentioned in our first quarter that we've seen progress on lowering the vacancy rate, and we continue to see that improve in Q2. We also use that, as Sandy suggested, the throughput. The throughput was actually the highest it's been in the last two years in Q1. And we've seen that level continue to improve also in Q2. That's a direct result of what Sandy just said. It's a result of the new processes, our standard operating procedures, some additional warehouse technology we've put in place. So we're seeing the results come through in our OpEx.

不，我認為這是對的。我們在第一季提到，我們在降低空置率方面取得了進展，並且我們在第二季度繼續看到這種情況的改善。正如桑迪建議的那樣，我們也使用吞吐量。第一季的吞吐量實際上是過去兩年來的最高水平。我們也看到第二季這一水準持續提高。這是桑迪剛才所說的話的直接結果。這是新流程、我們的標準作業程序以及我們採用的一些額外倉庫技術的結果。所以我們看到結果在我們的營運支出中反映出來。

Got it. And any high-level guardrails in thinking about 3Q profitability as you sort of evaluate where 2Q came out? If there are timing of cost saves or a bigger ramp in the shrink reduction that maybe had an outsized benefit in the quarter? Just trying to get a view on the third quarter from that perspective.

知道了。當您評估第二季的表現時，在考慮第三季獲利能力時有什麼高層護欄嗎？是否存在節省成本的時機或更大程度地減少損耗，這可能會在本季度產生巨大的效益？只是想從這個角度來看第三季。

Yes, I think John said it in his prepared remarks very well. Our guidance implies $255 million of EBITDA in the second half. The fourth quarter has an extra week, which is about $9 million. That would be all that we've said about the pacing.

是的，我認為約翰在他準備好的發言中說得很好。我們的指導意味著下半年 EBITDA 為 2.55 億美元。第四季多了一周，大約是900萬美元。這就是我們關於節奏所說的全部。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Peter Saleh, BTIG.

彼得·薩利赫，BTIG。

Great. Thanks for taking the question. I may have missed this, but did you guys give us an exact amount on where we were on shrink? I know pre-pandemic, I think it was 20 basis points. Last we heard were running around maybe 50 basis points or so of shrink. Just trying to understand exactly where we are today, given the progress you've made on shrink?

偉大的。感謝您提出問題。我可能錯過了這一點，但是你們給我們提供了我們在收縮方面的確切金額嗎？我知道大流行前，我認為是 20 個基點。最後我們聽說收縮幅度可能在 50 個基點左右。考慮到你們在收縮方面取得的進展，只是想了解我們今天到底處於什麼位置？

I think the numbers you just provided are consistent with what we said before. And what we said today is that we've made significant progress, in fact more progress than we've expected to make. And I'm happy to see that because this is pure waste. And then I think commented further that we actually see the opportunity going forward to get to new lows below pre-COVID. So we've made material progress on it. We have more progress to go.

我認為你剛才提供的數字與我們之前所說的是一致的。我們今天所說的是，我們已經取得了重大進展，實際上比我們預期的進展更多。我很高興看到這一點，因為這純粹是浪費。然後我認為進一步評論說，我們實際上看到了未來達到新低點低於新冠疫情前的機會。所以我們已經在這方面取得了實質進展。我們還有更多進步要做。

Great. And Sandy on that progress to be better than pre-COVID on shrink, is that something you foresee in the near term? Or is that more of a multiyear kind of initiative? Just trying to understand the time line on getting to those levels.

偉大的。桑迪在收縮方面的進展比新冠疫情前更好，這是您近期預見的嗎？或者這更像是一項多年的舉措？只是想了解達到這些水準的時間軸。

We haven't obviously given go-forward guidance. I think I'm just pointing to it as an operational opportunity and something that we've got conviction on.

我們顯然沒有給出前進的指導。我想我只是將其視為一個營運機會，也是我們堅信的事情。

Great. Thanks.

偉大的。謝謝。

I will now turn the call back over to Sandy Douglas for closing remarks.

現在，我將把電話轉回給桑迪·道格拉斯（Sandy Douglas），讓其致閉幕詞。

Thanks, operator, and thanks to everybody for joining us this morning. Our team is committed to sustaining our operational momentum as we look to the balance of fiscal 2024. We remain confident in our multiyear improvement plan. As a result, we believe we have a compelling opportunity to create sustainable value for our customers, suppliers and our shareholders through our scale, enhanced capabilities, efficiency initiatives, and profitability focus. We're optimistic we'll build on the progress we've made in our first half and we look forward to continuing to update you on this.

謝謝接線生，也謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。我們的團隊致力於在 2024 財年實現平衡的同時維持我們的營運動能。我們對多年改進計劃仍充滿信心。因此，我們相信我們有一個令人信服的機會，透過我們的規模、增強的能力、效率舉措和盈利能力為我們的客戶、供應商和股東創造可持續價值。我們樂觀地認為，我們將在上半年取得的進展的基礎上再接再厲，並期待繼續向您通報最新情況。

I also want to thank John Howard for his leadership over the last five years and for the support that he's provided to me when I joined UNFI. John, on behalf of UNFI, we wish you all the best. And finally for our customers and suppliers, we thank you for your continued partnership and the business we do together.

我還要感謝約翰·霍華德在過去五年中的領導以及他在我加入 UNFI 時為我提供的支持。約翰，我代表 UNFI 祝您一切順利。最後，對於我們的客戶和供應商，我們感謝你們持續的合作夥伴關係以及我們共同開展的業務。

For the UNFI associates listening today, our thanks to each of you for everything that you do for our business, our customers, our communities and each other. And for our shareholders, we thank you for the trust you continue to place in us.

對於今天聆聽的 UNFI 員工，我們感謝你們每一個人為我們的業務、我們的客戶、我們的社區以及彼此所做的一切。對於我們的股東，我們感謝你們一直以來對我們的信任。

Thanks again for joining us this morning, and I look forward to updating you in June with Matteo.

再次感謝您今天早上加入我們，我期待在 6 月與 Matteo 一起向您通報最新情況。

This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線。