United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Hello. My name is Ellie, and I will be your operator for today. I would like to welcome everyone to UNFI fiscal 2024 third-quarter earnings call. (Operator instructions)

你好。我叫艾莉，今天我將擔任您的接線生。我歡迎大家參加 UNFI 2024 財年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）

It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Steve Bloomquist, Vice President, Investor Relations. Steve, please go ahead.

現在我很高興將今天的會議交給投資者關係副總裁 Steve Bloomquist。史蒂夫，請繼續。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on UNFI's third-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 unfi.com on the Events tab. 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 財年第三季財報電話會議。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。管理層將發表講話的新聞稿和收益報告可在公司網站 unfi.com 的「投資者」部分的「活動」標籤上查看。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 Matteo Tarditi, our President and Chief Financial Officer. Sandy and Matteo 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是我們的執行長桑迪·道格拉斯 (Sandy Douglas)；以及我們的總裁兼財務長 Matteo Tarditi。桑迪和馬泰奧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美國證券交易委員會的文件中進行了討論。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.

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。我們的新聞稿和收益報告的結尾包含了最具可比性的公認會計準則財務指標的定義和調節。

I'd ask you to turn to slide 6 of our presentation as I turn the call over to Sandy.

當我將電話轉給桑迪時，請您翻看我們簡報的第 6 張投影片。

Thanks, Steve, and thank you all for joining us this morning. We delivered another quarter of results in line with our fiscal 2024 plan, and we progressed on our near-term operational and efficiency initiatives to reset profitability. We've also taken important actions to strengthen our foundation, including extending our relationship with Whole Foods through 2032 and extending the maturity of our term loan to 2031.

謝謝史蒂夫，也謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。我們按照 2024 財年計劃交付了另一個季度的業績，並在近期營運和效率計劃方面取得了進展，以重置盈利能力。我們也採取了重要行動來鞏固我們的基礎，包括將我們與 Whole Foods 的關係延長至 2032 年，並將定期貸款期限延長至 2031 年。

Our ongoing Board and management-led financial review is also nearing an important milestone, which is our new multiyear strategic plan that will begin in fiscal 2025. We have benefited from the Board's engagement during this process, and we will continue the review to ensure strong guidance and oversight as we implement the plan and evaluate further opportunities to improve our capital structure and drive short- and long-term shareholder returns.

我們正在進行的董事會和管理層主導的財務審查也接近一個重要的里程碑，這就是我們將於 2025 財年開始的新的多年戰略計劃。在此過程中，我們受益於董事會的參與，我們將繼續進行審查，以確保在我們實施該計劃並評估進一步改善資本結構和推動短期和長期股東回報的機會時得到強有力的指導和監督。

Today, I will discuss our view of the industry, how it informs our go-forward strategy, and some of the financial improvements we expect to generate as a result. I will also preview our new multiyear plan, which will include a disciplined resource reallocation and prioritization to enhance the drivers of customer and supplier success, including the expansion of our high-margin services portfolio, which we believe will incrementally re-margin our business and drive a significant increase in free cash flow, a reduction in our leverage, and an overall strengthening of our balance sheet starting in fiscal 2025.

今天，我將討論我們對這個行業的看法，它如何影響我們的前進策略，以及我們期望由此產生的一些財務改善。我還將預覽我們新的多年計劃，其中包括嚴格的資源重新分配和優先順序，以增強客戶和供應商成功的驅動力，包括擴大我們的高利潤服務組合，我們相信這將逐步重新調整我們的業務利潤，從 2025 財年開始，推動自由現金流的大幅增加、槓桿率的降低以及資產負債表的全面強化。

Given our industry-leading position with a diversified product and service offering and our expansive and innovative customer base, we have a unique perspective from which to evaluate the evolving dynamics impacting food retailers, suppliers, and consumers. We've applied this perspective to analyze our business against today's operating environment, which is markedly different from three years ago when UNFI last refreshed its long-term strategy. Our analysis points to how we can support retailers to differentiate and compete by providing increasingly relevant product and service offers to help them deliver a compelling consumer experience and a unique assortment in an environment where many consumers remain sensitive to price and large mass and discount retailers are gaining share.

鑑於我們憑藉多元化的產品和服務提供的行業領先地位以及廣泛且創新的客戶群，我們擁有獨特的視角來評估影響食品零售商、供應商和消費者的不斷變化的動態。我們運用這個視角來根據當今的營運環境來分析我們的業務，這與三年前 UNFI 上次更新其長期策略時明顯不同。我們的分析指出，我們如何透過提供日益相關的產品和服務來支持零售商實現差異化和競爭，幫助他們在許多消費者對價格仍然敏感、大量批發和折扣零售商對價格敏感的環境中提供引人注目的消費者體驗和獨特的產品組合。

Our analysis of our current and potential customer base has identified that there is a resilient segment of the industry that totals over $90 billion of sales today and includes many conventional, specialty, natural, and ethnic operators. It is expected to grow at a low-single-digit rate over the long term and will likely be led by natural and specialty volumes. Importantly, the large majority of our existing customers are in this segment, and we believe these retailers will be increasingly important to suppliers focused on brand building and profitable growth.

我們對當前和潛在客戶群的分析表明，該行業有一個富有彈性的細分市場，目前的銷售額總計超過 900 億美元，其中包括許多傳統、專業、自然和種族運營商。預計長期將以低個位數的速度成長，並可能由天然和特種產品銷售帶動。重要的是，我們現有的絕大多數客戶都屬於這一領域，我們相信這些零售商對於專注於品牌建立和利潤成長的供應商來說將變得越來越重要。

Our strategic work and customer interactions has given us greater conviction about the importance of the professional and digital services we offer and how we can generate mutually compelling economics. As we've discussed on prior calls, we've been working to utilize the competitive advantages we have through our scale, relationships, data, and insights to develop new business initiatives that help our retailers and suppliers compete.

我們的策略工作和客戶互動使我們更加確信我們提供的專業和數位服務的重要性以及我們如何能夠產生相互吸引的經濟效益。正如我們在先前的電話會議中所討論的那樣，我們一直致力於利用我們透過規模、關係、數據和洞察力所擁有的競爭優勢來開發新的業務計劃，幫助我們的零售商和供應商競爭。

Most recently, we've launched our UNFI Media Network in partnership with Swiftly. We believe this initiative will help democratize modern media marketing capabilities for our retail customers and provide consumer products companies with unique data insights from across our network that services more than 30,000 diverse customer locations and covers over 90% of the US population. We expect to develop and invest or partner to provide other capital-light services in the future. We have also continued to advance our revamped commercial go-to-market program for suppliers and expect this to be additive to our results starting in the next fiscal year.

最近，我們與 Swiftly 合作推出了 UNFI 媒體網路。我們相信，這項舉措將有助於使我們的零售客戶的現代媒體行銷能力民主化，並為消費品公司提供來自整個網路的獨特數據見解，該網路為30,000 多個不同的客戶地點提供服務，覆蓋超過90% 的美國人口。我們預計未來將開發、投資或合作提供其他輕資本服務。我們也繼續推進改進後的供應商商業上市計劃，並預計這將有助於我們下一財年的業績。

Turning to slide 7, in addition to refinements in our customer and supplier strategies, our updated view leads to important actions we're taking to better position our business for the future. These actions represent a shift in our strategic direction to continue to re-margin and increase the cash flow generation of our business focused on controllable variables in four key areas: intensifying and expanding our network optimization, reducing annual capital spending, optimizing our cost structure, and materially reducing our net working capital position. We see a meaningful opportunity to streamline our supply chain footprint and drive capital efficiencies beyond what we've already actioned.

轉向投影片 7，除了改善我們的客戶和供應商策略之外，我們更新的觀點還導致我們正在採取重要行動，以便更好地定位我們的業務未來。這些行動代表了我們策略方向的轉變，即繼續調整利潤率並增加業務的現金流量生成，重點放在四個關鍵領域的可控變數：加強和擴大我們的網路優化、減少年度資本支出、優化我們的成本結構、並大幅減少我們的淨營運資本部位。我們看到了一個有意義的機會來簡化我們的供應鏈足跡並提高資本效率，超越我們已經採取的行動。

As we've discussed previously, we've been focused on realizing network optimization benefits, but we now see an even larger opportunity to do so. We are still scoping and prioritizing the options in details, but we expect these changes to our DC network will meaningfully reduce our ongoing capital expenditure requirements and fixed asset base, resulting in higher free cash flow and improved returns on invested capital.

正如我們之前討論的，我們一直專注於實現網路優化的優勢，但我們現在看到了更大的機會。我們仍在詳細確定這些選項的範圍和優先級，但我們預計對 DC 網路的這些變化將有意義地減少我們持續的資本支出要求和固定資產基礎，從而提高自由現金流和投資資本回報率。

We've also worked to reevaluate and prioritize capital investment needs and see substantial opportunity to reduce CapEx beyond the benefits we anticipate from our larger network optimization plan. We currently plan to spend approximately $300 million in fiscal 2025, a $70 million reduction compared to our updated outlook of $370 million for this fiscal year. This reduced level of capital spend continues to prioritize maintenance and targeted network enablement and technology enhancements. Importantly, we believe this will help us to reallocate resources and strengthen our broader business and balance sheet while enhancing our ability to strategically invest in higher margin parts of the business such as services.

我們還努力重新評估資本投資需求並確定優先順序，並看到了減少資本支出的巨大機會，超出了我們從更大的網路優化計劃中預期的收益。我們目前計劃在 2025 財年支出約 3 億美元，比我們更新的本財年 3.7 億美元預期減少 7,000 萬美元。資本支出水準的降低繼續優先考慮維護以及有針對性的網路支援和技術增強。重要的是，我們相信這將有助於我們重新分配資源並加強我們更廣泛的業務和資產負債表，同時增強我們對服務等利潤率較高的業務部分進行策略性投資的能力。

Additionally, we've worked to better understand the full operating potential of our business, the improvements that we can make without incremental capital expenditures, and the long-term expense efficiencies we can realize. We expect to build on the initial work we've done over the last year to improve our expense structure and believe we have an opportunity to recognize additional efficiencies over the next few years, approaching a similar magnitude to the $150 million that we've already removed over the last year. This expense optimization includes taking a more unified and strategic approach to our customer and supplier-facing work, as well as better prioritizing our corporate resources consistent with our updated strategy. We believe this will improve our financial trajectory and the commercial experience for our customers and suppliers.

此外，我們還努力更了解我們業務的全部營運潛力、在不增加資本支出的情況下可以做出的改進，以及我們可以實現的長期費用效率。我們期望在去年所做的初步工作的基礎上改善我們的費用結構，並相信我們有機會在未來幾年內認識到額外的效率，接近與我們已經達到的 1.5 億美元類似的規模去年被刪除。這種費用優化包括對我們面向客戶和供應商的工作採取更統一和策略性的方法，以及根據我們更新的策略來更好地優先考慮我們的公司資源。我們相信這將改善我們的財務軌跡以及客戶和供應商的商業體驗。

Working capital management is another area where we believe we can drive stronger free cash flow by improving metrics that have been pressured in recent years, partially due to the challenges of the pandemic and our desire to ensure product availability for our customers and partially due to business complexity. We've thoroughly scrutinized our working capital processes and believe there is a sizable opportunity to improve cash flows by lowering inventory days on hand while reducing days of sales outstanding and optimizing days to pay. We expect to be able to accomplish this without impacting our customer experience.

營運資本管理是我們相信我們可以透過改善近年來受到壓力的指標來推動更強勁的自由現金流的另一個領域，部分原因是大流行的挑戰以及我們確保客戶產品可用性的願望，部分原因是業務複雜。我們徹底審查了我們的營運資金流程，並相信透過減少現有庫存天數、減少應收帳款天數和優化付款天數，有很大機會改善現金流。我們希望能夠在不影響客戶體驗的情況下實現這一目標。

We are beginning to take actions to drive benefits from these opportunities. We are taking a similar approach to achieving this fundamental operational improvement that we did in tackling and rapidly achieving the $150 million in annualized near-term reductions we previously discussed as well as the broader supply chain efficiencies we've actioned. This includes reductions in transportation costs and shrink, which is about 30 basis points lower as a percent of sales than the rate at which we exited fiscal 2023.

我們開始採取行動，從這些機會中獲益。我們正在採取類似的方法來實現這一根本性的營運改進，就像我們在解決並迅速實現我們之前討論的1.5 億美元的年度近期削減以及我們已經採取的更廣泛的供應鏈效率方面所做的那樣。這包括運輸成本的降低和收縮，佔銷售額的百分比比 2023 財年退出時的比例低約 30 個基點。

In summary, we've made significant progress in our financial review and are beginning to see tangible benefits to our financial performance stemming from this process. Our new strategy will reallocate and prioritize our resources to enhance the drivers of customer and supplier success including the expansion of our high-margin services portfolio, which we believe will result in a re-margining of our business, a significant increase in free cash flow, a reduction in our leverage, and an overall strengthening of our balance sheet. We expect these actions will lead to significant and sustainable returns for our shareholders.

總之，我們在財務審查方面取得了重大進展，並開始看到這個過程為我們的財務表現帶來了實際的好處。我們的新策略將重新分配和優先考慮我們的資源，以增強客戶和供應商成功的驅動力，包括擴大我們的高利潤服務組合，我們相信這將導致我們的業務重新調整利潤率，自由現金流顯著增加，我們的槓桿率降低，我們的資產負債表全面加強。我們預計這些行動將為我們的股東帶來可觀且可持續的回報。

We're using the findings of our work to inform our fiscal 2025 budgeting process, which is underway now. We will provide further detail on our multiyear strategic plan and fiscal 2025 outlook after we complete our target setting process.

我們正在利用工作結果為目前正在進行的 2025 財政年度預算流程提供資訊。完成目標設定流程後，我們將提供更多有關多年策略計畫和 2025 財年展望的細節。

One call out is that we expect to generate free cash flow approaching $100 million next fiscal year and plan to use these funds to reduce net debt. And over the next several years, we expect to generate stable and dependable profit and cash flow growth, improving returns on capital and reducing net leverage with our more focused strategy. While we're still working to finalize our multiyear strategic plan based on the full spectrum of controllable levers we've identified, we see a path to reduce net leverage to 2.5 turns or less and to increase ROIC to the higher historical levels we've previously generated by fiscal year-end 2027. Our leadership team is highly motivated and directly accountable for rapidly improving profitability, free cash flow, net leverage, and financial and shareholder returns.

一個呼籲是，我們預計下一財年將產生接近 1 億美元的自由現金流，並計劃利用這些資金減少淨債務。在接下來的幾年裡，我們預計將透過更專注的策略產生穩定可靠的利潤和現金流成長，提高資本回報率並降低淨槓桿率。雖然我們仍在努力根據我們已確定的全方位可控槓桿來最終確定我們的多年戰略計劃，但我們看到了一條將淨槓桿率降低至2.5 倍或更低，並將投資回報率提高至我們已確定的更高歷史水準的路徑。我們的領導團隊積極性很高，直接負責快速提高獲利能力、自由現金流、淨槓桿率以及財務和股東回報。

We look forward to updating you on our progress during our Q4 call, and I'll now turn the call over to Matteo to provide more details on our Q3 results.

我們期待在第四季度電話會議期間向您通報我們的最新進展，現在我將把電話轉給 Matteo，以提供有關我們第三季業績的更多詳細資訊。

Thank you, Sandy, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to join you for my first earnings call as President and CFO of UNFI. I'm excited to be here and look forward to building relationships with the UNFI investment community. Prior to joining UNFI, I spent my career at GE building lean and efficient businesses and executing turnarounds. I'm confident this experience will be valuable as we implement the new strategy Sandy just described. With that, let's dive into our Q3 results, balance sheet, and cash flow update.

謝謝你，桑迪，大家早安。我很高興與大家一起參加我作為 UNFI 總裁兼財務長的第一次財報電話會議。我很高興來到這裡，並期待與 UNFI 投資界建立關係。在加入 UNFI 之前，我在 GE 度過了我的職業生涯，致力於打造精益高效的業務並實現扭虧為盈。我相信，當我們實施桑迪剛剛描述的新策略時，這種經驗將很有價值。接下來，讓我們深入了解第三季的業績、資產負債表和現金流更新。

Please turn to slide 9. Our sales came in at $7.5 billion, which is roughly flat compared to last year's third quarter. Overall, we saw muted but improving volume performance and decelerating inflation.

請翻到投影片 9。我們的銷售額為 75 億美元，與去年第三季相比大致持平。整體而言，我們看到成交量表現雖然溫和但有所改善，通膨也在放緩。

Unit volume started to sequentially improve during the quarter, which resulted in wholesale volumes declining by nearly 100 basis points less than in Q2. This favorable trend has continued into the fourth quarter. As anticipated, our product inflation rate slowed modestly from Q2 to approximately 2%, and we continue to expect inflation to gradually decline as we move through the fourth quarter.

本季單位銷售量開始連續改善，導致批發量比第二季下降近 100 個基點。這種有利的趨勢一直持續到第四季。正如預期的那樣，我們的產品通膨率從第二季小幅放緩至 2% 左右，我們繼續預期通膨將在第四季度逐漸下降。

Our retail business continue to see top-line pressure as many consumers in our retail markets remain highly price sensitive. Our team, led by our new retail CEO, is working with our Cub franchisees to take actions to accelerate the performance of our Cub brand, the Minneapolis-Saint Paul market leader. We also believe we are rapidly cycling changes in government benefits, which we expect will help improve retail comparisons.

由於我們零售市場的許多消費者仍然對價格高度敏感，我們的零售業務繼續面臨頂線壓力。我們的團隊在新任零售執行長的帶領下，正在與 Cub 特許經營商合作，採取行動加快我們明尼阿波利斯-聖保羅市場領導者 Cub 品牌的業績。我們也相信，政府福利正在快速循環變化，我們預計這將有助於改善零售比較。

Moving to slide 10, let's review profitability drivers in the quarter. Our gross margin rate, excluding LIFO, improved 30 basis points sequentially over the second quarter. It was about flat compared to the prior-year period. Within the segments, our wholesale gross margin rate increased about 10 basis points, while our retail gross margin rate declined more than 100 basis points, partially reflecting the challenging operational environment and our efforts to increase store traffic and units per transaction.

轉到投影片 10，讓我們回顧一下本季的獲利驅動因素。我們的毛利率（不包括後進先出法）比第二季度連續提高了 30 個基點。與去年同期相比基本持平。在這些細分市場中，我們的批發毛利率上升了約10個基點，而零售毛利率下降了100多個基點，部分反映了充滿挑戰的營運環境以及我們為增加商店客流量和每筆交易數量所做的努力。

Our improving wholesale margin includes the benefit of continuous shrink improvement, which is now approaching pre-COVID levels at roughly 30 basis points as a percent of sales. As we highlighted last quarter, we believe that there is further opportunity to drive this even lower, which improves our profitability and has no impact on customers or suppliers.

我們不斷提高的批發利潤率包括持續收縮改善的好處，目前批發利潤率已接近新冠疫情前的水平，佔銷售額的百分比約為 30 個基點。正如我們在上季度所強調的那樣，我們相信還有進一步的機會進一步降低這一水平，從而提高我們的盈利能力，並且對客戶或供應商沒有影響。

Adjusted EBITDA declined $29 million compared to last year. However, this quarter included $13 million in incentive compensation expense compared to last year, where results included a $20 million benefit resulting from the reversal of incentive compensation due to financial underperformance relative to our targets. Excluding this impact, we improved our operating expense rate by 10 basis points year over year, which reflects our continued focus on driving performance by managing what we can control.

調整後 EBITDA 與去年相比下降了 2,900 萬美元。然而，與去年相比，本季包括 1300 萬美元的激勵薪酬支出，去年的業績包括由於財務績效低於我們的目標而導致激勵薪酬逆轉而產生的 2000 萬美元的收益。排除這一影響，我們的營運費用率同比提高了 10 個基點，這反映出我們繼續致力於透過管理我們可以控制的事情來推動績效。

We have conducted further G&A rationalization, particularly focused on our corporate organization to help drive savings and increase agility as we prepare to execute our new strategic plan. The savings are expected to yield more significant benefits in fiscal 2025 as we fully annualize these actions.

我們進一步進行了一般管理費用合理化，特別關注我們的企業組織，以幫助在我們準備執行新的策略計劃時節省成本並提高敏捷性。隨著我們將這些行動完全年度化，預計節省的資金將在 2025 財政年度產生更顯著的效益。

As Sandy also highlighted, we expect to build on these efforts by further reducing our structural cost as part of our new strategy over the next few years. We believe there is a meaningful opportunity to create a more dynamic customer- and supplier-facing organization. We'll have additional detail on this as we work through these efforts.

正如桑迪也強調的那樣，我們希望在這些努力的基礎上進一步降低結構成本，作為未來幾年新策略的一部分。我們相信，有一個有意義的機會來創造一個更具活力、面向客戶和供應商的組織。當我們努力完成這些工作時，我們將提供更多詳細資訊。

In summary, excluding incentive compensation in the third quarter of both years, adjusted EBITDA would have increased by $4 million, which reflects the benefits of our near-term cost savings initiatives and supply chain efficiency improvements, including our shrink management efforts.

總而言之，排除兩年第三季的激勵薪酬，調整後的 EBITDA 將增加 400 萬美元，這反映了我們近期成本節約計畫和供應鏈效率改善（包括我們的收縮管理努力）的好處。

Looking at slide 11. During the quarter, we generated about $49 million of free cash flow, enabling us to reduce net debt by $30 million during the quarter. We also took strategic actions in the first week of the fourth quarter to solidify our long-term capital structure by amending and extending our secured term loan by 5.5 years to 2031. We continue to believe that a secured term loan is an important part of our capital structure as we value the prepayment flexibility this loan provides us. The majority of our outstanding debt is pre-payable without penalty.

看投影片 11。本季度，我們產生了約 4,900 萬美元的自由現金流，使我們能夠在本季度減少 3,000 萬美元的淨債務。我們也在第四季度的第一周採取了戰略行動，透過修改和延長我們的擔保定期貸款 5.5 年至 2031 年，鞏固我們的長期資本結構。我們仍然認為，有擔保定期貸款是我們資本結構的重要組成部分，因為我們重視該貸款為我們提供的提前還款靈活性。我們的未償債務大多是可提前償還的，無需繳納罰金。

As Sandy detailed in his remarks, improving free cash flow and reducing net debt is an important focus of the financial review, and we have identified meaningful, controllable levers that we believe will enable us to return to generating significant free cash flow and further repay debt starting next fiscal year. We're already undertaking work to help bolster cash generation and are quickly implementing daily management actions to optimize working capital levels while we execute the longer-term structural plans to increase free cash flow through EBITDA, CapEx discipline, and lower interest expense. We believe there is a sizable opportunity to drive reduction to inventory days on hand in the short term without impacting the customer experience.

正如桑迪在演講中所詳述的那樣，改善自由現金流和減少淨債務是財務審查的一個重要重點，我們已經確定了有意義的、可控的槓桿，我們相信這些槓桿將使我們能夠重新產生大量的自由現金流並進一步償還債務從下一個財政年度開始。我們已經在著手幫助增強現金生成，並快速實施日常管理行動以優化營運資本水平，同時我們執行長期結構計劃，透過 EBITDA、資本支出紀律和降低利息支出來增加自由現金流。我們相信，在不影響客戶體驗的情況下，短期內有很大機會減少現有庫存天數。

We have assembled a cross-functional group that spans network operations, finance, logistics, and our commercial team to help us structurally improve our processes to unlock this cash and preventing efficiencies from creeping back into the business. This work is expected to be a meaningful part of helping us meet our fiscal 2025 free cash flow goals, and we will have an update on it in our 4Q earnings call in September.

我們組建了一個跨職能團隊，涵蓋網路營運、財務、物流和商業團隊，幫助我們從結構上改善流程，釋放現金，並防止業務效率再次提高。這項工作預計將成為幫助我們實現 2025 財年自由現金流目標的重要組成部分，我們將在 9 月的第四季財報電話會議上通報最新情況。

Turning to slide 12, let's review our revised fiscal 2024 outlook. We continue to be focused on closing out the year with improving operational and financial performance. Based on our expectations for 4Q, we are maintaining our outlook for sales, slightly raising the midpoint of our adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS ranges and reflecting charges related to cost reduction actions, which lower the guidance ranges for the net income and EPS.

轉向投影片 12，讓我們回顧一下修訂後的 2024 財年展望。我們繼續專注於以改善營運和財務表現來結束這一年。根據我們對第四季度的預期，我們維持銷售前景不變，小幅上調調整後EBITDA 和調整後每股收益範圍的中點，並反映與成本削減行動相關的費用，從而降低淨利潤和每股收益的指導範圍。

We now expect adjusted EBITDA of $505 million for the year at the midpoint of our updated outlook, which is up from the $500 million midpoint in our prior outlook. We will continue to look for opportunities to optimize our performance by driving execution across controllable variables. We're also reducing our outlook for capital and cloud investments from approximately $400 million for the year to around $370 million. This partially reflects our more focused strategic capital allocation priorities.

現在，我們預計今年調整後的 EBITDA 為 5.05 億美元，高於我們先前展望的 5 億美元中位數。我們將繼續尋找機會，透過推動可控變數的執行來優化我們的績效。我們也將今年資本和雲端投資的預期從約 4 億美元下調至約 3.7 億美元。這部分反映了我們更集中的策略資本配置優先事項。

Moving to slide 13, I'm pleased to be joining UNFI at such a pivotal time. I'm optimistic about the future of our company and the returns I believe we can generate for our shareholders. There is significant value creation opportunity from improving processes and efficiency, which is a vital part of my prior experience. I'm motivated and energized to tackle these challenges so that we can create a financially resilient company for our shareholders, customers, suppliers, and associates. I value dialogue with all our stakeholders and look forward to developing relationships with our investor community. We will seek your feedback as we work to execute our updated value creation strategy.

轉到幻燈片 13，我很高興在這樣一個關鍵時刻加入 UNFI。我對我們公司的未來以及我們能為股東帶來的回報感到樂觀。改善流程和效率可以帶來巨大的價值創造機會，這是我之前經驗的重要組成部分。我有動力和精力去應對這些挑戰，以便我們能夠為我們的股東、客戶、供應商和員工創建一家具有財務彈性的公司。我重視與所有利害關係人的對話，並期待與我們的投資者群體發展關係。當我們努力執行更新的價值創造策略時，我們將尋求您的回饋。

With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

那麼，接線員，請開通提問線路。

(Operator instructions) Leah Jordan, Goldman Sachs.

（操作員指示）Leah Jordan，高盛。

Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. And thank you for the initial outlook into fiscal 2025. On that, seeing if you could provide some more detail on the working capital improvements you highlighted. What is achievable near term to support the fiscal -- the free cash flow outlook for next year? And then what could take longer in your multiyear outlook? And then, just on the CapEx reduction, why does it make sense now, and how should we think about the long-term run rate? Is it that $300 million beyond '25? Thank you.

早安，感謝您提出我的問題。感謝您對 2025 財年的初步展望。就此而言，看看您是否可以提供有關您強調的營運資金改進的更多細節。短期內可以實現什麼來支持明年的財政——自由現金流前景？那麼在你的多年展望中，什麼可能需要更長的時間呢？然後，就資本支出減少而言，為什麼現在有意義，我們應該如何考慮長期運行率？是25年後的那3億美元嗎？謝謝。

Leah, good morning. Thanks for the question. It's Matteo here. So let me talk a little bit about how we're thinking about free cash flow for next year and then talk a little bit about the working capital question. So Sandy mentioned $100 million of free cash flow, positive free cash flow for 2025. You can think about that positive free cash flow in three elements. We're going to work to improve EBITDA, and we're going to give you more details as we discuss the full year 2025. We're going to reduce CapEx from $370 million to $300 million, so we pick up $70 million tailwind on that. And then we have a number of actions going on, on working capital.

莉亞，早安。謝謝你的提問。這是馬特奧。因此，讓我談談我們如何考慮明年的自由現金流，然後談談營運資金問題。所以桑迪提到了 1 億美元的自由現金流，2025 年為正自由現金流。您可以從三個要素來思考正自由現金流。我們將努力提高 EBITDA，並在討論 2025 年全年時向您提供更多詳細資訊。我們將把資本支出從 3.7 億美元減少到 3 億美元，因此我們將獲得 7,000 萬美元的順風車。然後我們在營運資金方面正在採取一些行動。

So that specifically, I would like to talk about what we're doing on inventory. We look at inventory days on hand and compare it to the pre-COVID levels, put a number of tools that work, including lead times, flow, pool systems, and identify an opportunity to reduce the inventory levels and the days on hand. I would say relatively quickly on the first step of the improvement and then going more structurally into, again, fixing all the inefficiencies that we built post-COVID to support customers and to sustain the levels that we saw in the last few years. So expect probably some level of improvement relatively quickly on inventory. But then on the structural fixes, it is going to take time, and we want to make sure that we take the time not to compromise our safety, quality, delivery cost in this order with the customers.

具體來說，我想談談我們在庫存方面所做的事情。我們查看現有庫存天數，並將其與新冠疫情爆發前的水平進行比較，採用多種有效的工具，包括交貨時間、流程、池系統，並找出降低庫存水平和現有庫存天數的機會。我想說的是，改進的第一步相對較快，然後再次從結構上進行，修復我們在新冠疫情後為支持客戶並維持我們在過去幾年看到的水平而建立的所有低效率問題。因此，預計庫存可能會相對較快地改善。但在結構修復方面，這需要時間，我們希望確保我們花時間不會在與客戶的訂單中損害我們的安全、品質和交付成本。

Great, thank you. And for my follow-up, I just wanted to ask about the Whole Foods contract. Great to see that extension there. But just given the term was longer than typical you guys renegotiate for, can you talk about how that came about, and how we should compare it to your prior agreement? Any updates around volume commitments or profitability from here? Thank you.

太好了謝謝。對於我的後續行動，我只想詢問全食超市的合約。很高興看到那裡的擴展。但考慮到這個期限比你們重新談判的典型期限要長，你能談談這是怎麼發生的，以及我們應該如何將它與你們之前的協議進行比較嗎？這裡有關於銷售承諾或獲利能力的更新嗎？謝謝。

Hi, Leah. It's Sandy. The way I would describe it, obviously, we don't comment on specific customer situations other than, obviously, the renewal is sizable, and so we issued 8-K on it. The way I would describe the relationship is extremely healthy and built on win-win, and this agreement does that. And I think both Whole Foods and we saw the opportunity to make an even stronger strategic commitment to each other. And I think we've set an exhibit in the 10-Q that's obviously got some redactions, but if you want to review it, you can find it there.

嗨，莉亞。是桑迪。顯然，按照我的描述方式，我們不會對特定客戶情況發表評論，除非續訂規模很大，因此我們對此發布了 8-K。我所描述的這種關係是非常健康且建立在雙贏的基礎上的，而這份協議就是這樣做的。我認為全食超市和我們都看到了彼此做出更強有力的策略承諾的機會。我認為我們在 10-Q 中設置了一個展覽，顯然有一些修訂，但如果你想回顧它，你可以在那裡找到它。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Mark Carden, UBS.

馬克卡登，瑞銀集團。

Hi, this is Sachin Verma on behalf of Mark Carden. My question is, are you still seeing much of an uptick in demand for value-added services for independents given the challenging macro? Or are they being more cautious with their spend?

大家好，我是馬克·卡登 (Mark Carden) 的代表薩欽·維爾瑪 (Sachin Verma)。我的問題是，鑑於充滿挑戰的宏觀形勢，您是否仍然看到獨立人士對加值服務的需求大幅上升？或者他們對支出更加謹慎？

Yeah. I think, frankly, what we're seeing is stronger need for them because retailers are looking for opportunities to grow and opportunities to save money. And so, if anything, I would say demand is growing rather than receding. The value proposition is key, but that's the whole premise of pro services is that it creates value and helps our customers right away.

是的。坦白說，我認為我們看到對它們的需求更加強烈，因為零售商正在尋找成長的機會和省錢的機會。因此，如果有什麼不同的話，我想說的是需求正在成長而不是下降。價值主張是關鍵，但專業服務的整個前提是它創造價值並立即幫助我們的客戶。

From a strategic perspective, they're also capital light, so they drive our economics and similarly drive customer economics. So it's a win-win, and it has a pretty quick benefit for both.

從策略角度來看，它們也是輕資本，因此它們推動了我們的經濟，也推動了客戶經濟。所以這是雙贏的，而且對雙方都有很快的好處。

Thank you. And my follow-up is, how is promotional activity trending relative to your expectations?

謝謝。我的後續問題是，促銷活動的趨勢與您的預期相比如何？

Promotions continue to slightly increase or gradually increase. They're a little bit below pre-pandemic levels in terms of frequency and depth, but we continue to see them increase, and we expect them to continue to do that, and that's consistent with what we see industry-wide based on what some of the large retailers are reporting.

促銷力道繼續小幅加大或逐步加大。就頻率和深度而言，它們略低於大流行前的水平，但我們繼續看到它們在增加，我們預計它們將繼續這樣做，這與我們根據一些數據所看到的全行業情況一致。大型零售商正在報告。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Operator instructions) Eli Lapp, BMO Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）Eli Lapp，BMO 資本市場。

Thanks. I was wondering if you could just spend a minute going through the line item, the working capital line item from the past six months, the $165 million versus $15 million last year. Just you could give us some of the intrinsics there. That would be helpful. Thank you.

謝謝。我想知道您是否可以花一分鐘時間瀏覽一下該行項目，過去六個月的營運資金行項目，1.65 億美元與去年的 1500 萬美元。只是你可以給我們一些內在的東西。那會有幫助的。謝謝。

Yeah. A couple of -- so a couple of comments here, if you unpack it. So, if you bear in mind, last year, we had -- we entered a monetization program, which is broadly flat in the third quarter, but on a year-to-date basis, created a benefit in 2023 versus 2024. And against that, we continue to do work on inventory. We have again some early signs of improvement in the third quarter, and we're going to see more as we execute our action plans in 4Q and 2025.

是的。如果你打開它，這裡有一些評論。因此，如果你還記得，去年我們進入了一項貨幣化計劃，該計劃在第三季度基本持平，但從今年迄今的情況來看，在 2023 年與 2024 年相比創造了收益。為此，我們繼續進行庫存工作。我們在第三季再次看到一些改善的早期跡象，並且在我們執行第四季和 2025 年的行動計劃時，我們將看到更多改善的跡象。

Okay, thank you.

好的謝謝。

John Heinbockel, Guggenheim and Partners.

約翰·海因博克爾，古根漢及其合作夥伴。

Hi. This is Julio Marquez on for John Heinbockel. Thanks for taking our question. So you mentioned you had gone through the $150 million of cost reductions and also mentioned the second round. Is there any way you can maybe size that opportunity for us or maybe parse -- pick apart where that might be coming from?

你好。我是胡里奧·馬爾克斯，替約翰·海因博克爾發言。感謝您提出我們的問題。所以你提到你已經完成了 1.5 億美元的成本削減，還提到了第二輪。有什麼方法可以為我們評估這個機會，或分析一下——挑出它可能來自哪裡？

And then, quick follow-up on the productivity results from the Centralia automation. What's the scope of the opportunity there for existing facilities with this new modified version? Thank you.

然後，快速跟進 Centralia 自動化的生產力結果。這個新的修改版本對現有設施的機會範圍有多大？謝謝。

Sure. The way we described the cost opportunity was we achieved $150 million in run rate improvement this year, and the way we communicated the strategic planning element on that is that we saw a similar sized opportunity that we could achieve over the next few years. And there's a series of more detailed sources underneath that, that we'll communicate in the future as we finalize our targets.

當然。我們描述成本機會的方式是，我們今年實現了 1.5 億美元的運行率改進，而我們傳達戰略規劃要素的方式是，我們看到了未來幾年可以實現的類似規模的機會。以下有一系列更詳細的來源，我們將在將來確定目標時進行溝通。

From a Centralia perspective, Centralia is about to come online. What we've said publicly about it is that we will get returns that are healthy relative to our cost of capital and it obviously drives efficiency. It makes growth more efficient, and it also significantly increases the quality of the customer experience.

從 Centralia 的角度來看，Centralia 即將上線。我們公開表示，相對於我們的資本成本，我們將獲得健康的回報，這顯然會提高效率。它使成長更加高效，並且還顯著提高了客戶體驗的品質。

Great, thank you.

太好了謝謝。

(Operator instructions) Andrew Wolf, C.L. King.

（操作員說明）Andrew Wolf, C.L.國王。

I'd like to ask sort of an open-ended general question about automation and sort of long term, obviously. What is the role of automation going to be for United Natural Foods versus sort of where you're thinking about CapEx and trying to generate free cash flow?

顯然，我想問一個關於自動化和長期的開放式一般問題。與您考慮資本支出並試圖產生自由現金流的情況相比，自動化對於聯合天然食品公司將扮演什麼角色？

So Andy, the way I think about automation is linked completely to network optimization and efficiency. And our network is the largest and widest spanning network and broadest from a product line perspective in the industry. And as we implement technology and we right size our footprint, we look for ways to use technology to drive customer service improvement and improve financial returns. Automation is not an end unto itself. It's a component of that strategy, and our approach to it is to execute it in a highly disciplined way with in-depth project management. And we've learned a lot about that over the last couple of years as we've successfully or nearly successfully implemented our new project as Centralia is just about to come online.

安迪，我對自動化的看法與網路優化和效率完全相關。我們的網絡是業界規模最大、覆蓋範圍最廣的網絡，從產品線的角度來看也是最廣泛的。當我們實施技術並調整我們的足跡時，我們尋找利用技術來推動客戶服務改進和提高財務回報的方法。自動化本身並不是目的。它是該策略的一部分，我們的方法是透過深入的專案管理以高度規範的方式執行它。在過去的幾年裡，隨著 Centralia 即將上線，我們已經成功或接近成功地實施了我們的新項目，我們在這方面學到了很多東西。

(Operator instructions) Carla Casella, JPMorgan.

（操作員指示）Carla Casella，摩根大通。

-- in that slide, you showed the $500 million term loan and $130 million FILO as a sub facility to the ABL. So does the $130 million count against your availability on the ABL going forward? And can you say where availability is pro forma today?

-- 在該幻燈片中，您展示了 5 億美元的定期貸款和 1.3 億美元的 FILO 作為 ABL 的子貸款。那麼，這 1.3 億美元是否會影響您未來 ABL 的可用性？您能說說今天預計的可用性嗎？

Yeah. So hi, thank you. It's Matteo. Thanks for the question. So the $130 million counts in the ABL availability. And our liquidity right now is about $1.3 billion.

是的。嗨，謝謝。是馬特奧。謝謝你的提問。因此，1.3 億美元算在 ABL 可用性中。我們現在的流動性約為 13 億美元。

Okay. That's after quarter end?

好的。是季末之後嗎？

That is correct.

那是對的。

Okay, awesome. And then in your multiyear plan slide, you mentioned DC network changes to reduce fixed asset base. Does that mean you're looking at consolidating or selling or closing facilities? Or would you potentially consider sale leasebacks to reduce debt? And any sense you have there in terms of where the cap rates are today?

好吧，太棒了。然後在您的多年計劃幻燈片中，您提到了 DC 網路的變化以減少固定資產基礎。這是否意味著您正在考慮合併、出售或關閉設施？或者您會考慮透過售後回租來減少債務？您對目前的資本化率有何了解？

Yeah, thanks. This is Sandy. As part of our intensified network optimization work, we're assessing options for the most effective and efficient configuration of our DCs and how we can best profitably service our customers. Among our customer set, as I mentioned, we have by far the most expansive distribution network. And so we see opportunities to take better advantage of economies of scale within the business and obviously, more specifics to come.

是的，謝謝。這是桑迪。作為我們強化網路優化工作的一部分，我們正在評估最有效、最高效的資料中心配置選項，以及如何為客戶提供最有利的服務。正如我所提到的，在我們的客戶群中，我們擁有迄今為止最廣泛的分銷網絡。因此，我們看到了更好地利用企業內部規模經濟的機會，顯然，更多細節即將到來。

Okay, great. Thanks. And just any more color you can give us in terms of the margin on the -- and maybe it helps if you give us some sense of the margin between the different businesses and where you're -- how it may differ if you're offering more services to one of your channels versus another?

好的，太好了。謝謝。您可以就利潤率向我們提供更多資訊 - 如果您讓我們了解不同業務之間的利潤率以及您所處的位置，這可能會有所幫助 - 如果您是與另一個管道相比，為您的一個管道提供更多服務？

Sure. The way to think about services is they're by far our highest margin segment. We issued a couple of years ago details around our services component, which was that they were about 20% to 25% of our profitability. They're not currently reported as a segment. But we see the opportunity going forward accelerate their growth, and they have been growing and will continue to grow significantly faster than the total company.

當然。考慮服務的方式是，它們是迄今為止我們利潤率最高的部分。幾年前，我們發布了有關我們服務部分的詳細信息，它們約占我們盈利能力的 20% 到 25%。目前，它們並未作為一個細分市場進行報告。但我們看到未來的機會會加速他們的成長，而且他們一直在成長，並將繼續以比整個公司更快的速度成長。

Okay, great. Thank you.

好的，太好了。謝謝。

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd now like to hand back over to Sandy Douglas for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節已經結束。現在我想請桑迪·道格拉斯致閉幕詞。

Thank you, operator. Our new multiyear plan is being finalized, and we're motivated to implement this strategy to deliver stable and defendable profit and cash flow growth, improving returns on capital, and declining net leverage. We've shared with you the levers we'll be pulling to improve our short- and long-term performance, and we believe that this plan will create significant and sustainable value for our customers, suppliers, and our shareholders. I'm excited to have Matteo on the team and believe the skills, experience, and focus on process excellence and value creation that he brings to UNFI will help us immensely as we move into our next chapter.

謝謝你，接線生。我們新的多年計劃正在敲定，我們有動力實施這項策略，以實現穩定且可防禦的利潤和現金流成長，提高資本回報率並降低淨槓桿率。我們已經與您分享了我們將採取哪些措施來改善我們的短期和長期業績，我們相信該計劃將為我們的客戶、供應商和股東創造重大且可持續的價值。我很高興 Matteo 加入團隊，並相信他為 UNFI 帶來的技能、經驗以及對卓越流程和價值創造的關注將為我們進入下一個篇章提供巨大幫助。

For our customers and suppliers, we thank you for your continued partnership and the business we do together. 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.

對於我們的客戶和供應商，我們感謝您持續的合作夥伴關係以及我們共同開展的業務。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. I look forward to updating you as we continue to drive progress improving our business.

再次感謝您今天早上加入我們。隨著我們繼續推動業務改進，我期待向您通報最新情況。

Thank you for joining today's call. We hope you have a wonderful day. You may now disconnect.

感謝您參加今天的電話會議。我們希望您度過愉快的一天。您現在可以斷開連線。