United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. My name is Karen, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the UNFI quarter two fiscal 2025 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) I will now turn the call over to Steve Blomquist, VP of Investor Relations.

感謝您的支持。我叫凱倫 (Karen)，今天我將擔任您的會議主持人。現在，我歡迎大家參加 UNFI 2025 財年第二季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）我現在將電話轉給投資者關係副總裁史蒂夫·布洛姆奎斯特 (Steve Blomquist)。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on UNFI’s second quarter fiscal 2025 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 on the Events tab.

大家早安，感謝您參加 UNFI 2025 財年第二季財報電話會議。現在，您應該已經收到了今天早上發布的收益報告副本。管理層將發表演講的新聞稿和收益報告可在公司網站的「活動」標籤下的「投資者」部分下找到。

We’ve also included a supplemental disclosure file in Microsoft Excel with key financial information. Joining me for today’s call are Sandy Douglas, our Chief Executive Officer and Matteo Tarditi, our President, and Chief Financial Officer.

我們還在 Microsoft Excel 中新增了包含關鍵財務資訊的補充揭露文件。參加今天電話會議的有我們的執行長桑迪·道格拉斯 (Sandy Douglas) 和我們的總裁兼財務長馬泰奧·塔爾迪蒂 (Matteo Tarditi)。

Sandy and Matteo will provide a business update, after which we’ll take your questions. Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone that today’s comments made by management 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.

Sandy 和 Matteo 將提供業務更新，之後我們將回答您的問題。在我們開始之前，我想提醒大家，管理階層今天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。

I’d like to point out, 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 presentation. And finally, as we stated on our last call, we’ve changed the sales reporting on the face of our press release, which now breaks down our revenues in a manner consistent with the previously announced realignment of our wholesale business.

我想指出的是，在今天的電話會議上，管理階層將參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標。我們的新聞稿和簡報的結尾部分包含最可比較的 GAAP 財務指標的定義和對帳。最後，正如我們在上次電話會議上所說的那樣，我們已經改變了新聞稿中的銷售報告，現在按照與先前宣布的批發業務調整一致的方式細分我們的收入。

To provide historical context, last week we posted prior quarter sales under this updated approach to our website. We believe these changes will give you additional insight and transparency into our multiyear strategy and sales performance. I’d now ask you to turn to slide 6 of our presentation as I turn the call over to Sandy.

為了提供歷史背景，上週我們在網站上以這種更新的方式發布了上一季的銷售額。我們相信這些變化將使您對我們的多年策略和銷售業績有更深入的了解和透明度。現在請大家翻到簡報的第 6 張投影片，我會把電話轉給桑迪。

Thanks, Steve, and thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. As we shared in our release, we delivered another quarter of improving financial results and operational execution, while achieving key milestones of our multiyear plan. Our results also reflect solid sales growth and an EBITDA growth of over 13% and significant improvement in year-over-year free cash flow.

謝謝史蒂夫，也謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。正如我們在新聞稿中分享的那樣，我們又一個季度實現了財務業績和營運執行的改善，同時實現了多年計劃的關鍵里程碑。我們的業績也反映出穩健的銷售額成長、超過 13% 的 EBITDA 成長以及同比自由現金流的顯著改善。

As a result, we've again raised our full year outlook for all financial objectives other than capital spending and remain firmly on track to deliver our longer-term fiscal 2027 targets and to continue creating sustainable shareholder value.

因此，我們再次上調了除資本支出之外的所有財務目標的全年預期，並堅定地朝著實現 2027 財年的長期目標邁進，並繼續創造可持續的股東價值。

Today, I'm going to focus on three key areas. First, I'll describe how we are working to increase the value we offer to both customers and suppliers, then I'll discuss some accomplishments within our multiyear plan and highlights from our results in the quarter.

今天，我將重點介紹三個關鍵領域。首先，我將描述我們如何努力提高我們為客戶和供應商提供的價值，然後我將討論我們多年計劃中的一些成就以及本季度業績的亮點。

We've outlined our strategy of adding value for our customers and suppliers while also improving UNFI's free cash flow and strengthening our balance sheet and we believe our recent results validate our strategy and demonstrate that we're delivering improving operational execution as we work to embed lean management practices throughout the organization. We've strived to learn and adapt as we've implemented our plans, soliciting feedback from both customers and suppliers on what we're doing well and importantly, areas in which we can improve.

我們概述了為客戶和供應商增加價值的策略，同時改善 UNFI 的自由現金流並加強我們的資產負債表，我們相信我們最近的業績驗證了我們的策略，並表明我們在努力在整個組織中嵌入精益管理實踐的過程中，正在提供更好的營運執行力。我們在實施計劃的過程中努力學習和適應，徵求客戶和供應商的回饋意見，了解我們做得好的地方，以及重要的是，我們可以改進的領域。

We routinely evaluate our potential to improve and core value for all of our key stakeholders. And by so doing, we believe our value creation opportunity continues to grow. We expect our focus on continuous improvement to increasingly benefit the customers and suppliers we partner with, driving greater sales and profit opportunity for our mutual businesses.

我們定期評估我們為所有主要利害關係人改進的潛力和核心價值。透過這樣做，我們相信我們的價值創造機會將繼續成長。我們期望，我們對持續改進的關注將使我們合作的客戶和供應商受益匪淺，為我們的共同業務帶來更大的銷售和利潤機會。

In turn, we anticipate we will continue to create sustainable shareholder value. We have identified new areas to add value and increase effectiveness and efficiency. This includes opportunities to improve the customer and supplier experience in our wholesale distribution business, expand services catering to key customer groups that have historically been underserved by the digital and professional services available in our industry, elevate our merchandising capabilities and make targeted investments in our private brands program to ensure that we have the unique innovative items retailers need to drive relevance and value with consumers.

反過來，我們預期我們將繼續創造可持續的股東價值。我們已經確定了增加價值、提高效力和效率的新領域。這包括改善我們批發分銷業務中的客戶和供應商體驗的機會，擴展服務以滿足我們行業中數位和專業服務歷來不足的關鍵客戶群，提升我們的行銷能力並對我們的自有品牌計劃進行有針對性的投資，以確保我們擁有零售商需要的獨特創新產品，以推動與消費者的相關性和價值。

These are all opportunities that would be incremental to our multiyear strategy. While we've been identifying new areas of value creation, we've also had another strong quarter, achieving key milestones within our multiyear plan.

這些都是可以增加我們多年策略的機會。在我們不斷尋找新的價值創造領域的同時，我們也迎來了另一個強勁的季度，實現了我們多年計劃中的關鍵里程碑。

Matteo's leadership has helped us become more effective and efficient across our operations, and our teams are embracing the principles and power behind lean. We've extended lean daily management into additional distribution centers and continue to see indications of success, including reducing shrink down to the second lowest level as a percentage of sales in the past 10 quarters.

Matteo 的領導幫助我們提高了整個營運的效率和效力，我們的團隊也正在擁抱精實背後的原則和力量。我們已將精益日常管理擴展到其他配送中心，並繼續看到成功的跡象，包括將損耗率在過去 10 個季度中降低到銷售額的第二低水平。

Lean Daily Management is now practiced at nine DCs and we plan to continue to methodically expand this discipline across our network. Importantly, these practices not only strengthen our operating efficiency but also deliver improvements in effectiveness and accuracy that benefit our customers and suppliers.

精益日常管理現已在 9 個配送中心實施，我們計劃繼續有條不紊地在整個網路中推廣此一學科。重要的是，這些做法不僅提高了我們的營運效率，而且提高了有效性和準確性，使我們的客戶和供應商受益。

We also continue improving our effectiveness and efficiency through targeted optimization within our distribution network. We successfully consolidated our Fort Wayne, Indiana distribution center in mid-February and transferred its volume to other more modern and efficient facilities nearby.

我們也透過對分銷網絡進行有針對性的優化來繼續提高我們的效率和效力。我們在二月中旬成功整合了位於印第安納州韋恩堡的配送中心，並將其業務轉移到附近其他更現代化、更有效率的設施。

Our previously closed DC and billings is also now under contract, and the sale is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year with proceeds to be utilized to further reduce net debt. Our Fort Wayne and Bismarck DCs are actively being marketed. And as we've mentioned, we will not trade time for value as we seek to maximize our proceeds from these sales.

我們先前關閉的 DC 和 Billings 也已簽訂合同，預計銷售將於今年第四季度完成，所得款項將用於進一步減少淨債務。我們的韋恩堡和俾斯麥配送中心正在積極行銷。正如我們所提到的，我們不會用時間來換取價值，因為我們尋求從這些銷售中獲得最大收益。

As part of our network optimization, we're also working to evolve select customer relationships to drive win-win solutions that are mutually beneficial to both parties. We've already completed extensive work across our customer base to improve key agreements and in most cases, we've successfully achieved mutually beneficial outcomes for UNFI and our customers.

作為網路優化的一部分，我們也致力於發展精選客戶關係，以推動對雙方都有利的雙贏解決方案。我們已經在整個客戶群中完成了大量工作以改善關鍵協議，並且在大多數情況下，我們已經成功地為 UNFI 和我們的客戶實現了互惠互利的結果。

We're now focused on doing the same for a few remaining agreements. While our goal is always to reach a win-win agreement, when a win-win agreement is not possible, we'll explore a mutually agreeable exit plan. In all cases, we are continuing to take actions that support our customers and suppliers and accelerate our multiyear financial targets to create shareholder value.

我們現在正致力於對剩下的幾項協議採取同樣的措施。雖然我們的目標始終是達成雙贏協議，但當無法達成雙贏協議時，我們也會探索雙方都同意的退出計畫。在所有情況下，我們都將繼續採取行動支持我們的客戶和供應商，並加速實現我們的多年財務目標，以創造股東價值。

Lastly, as we announced in January, we have taken steps to realign our wholesale business into two product-centered divisions that we expect will enable us to offer more differentiated and tailored solutions to customers and suppliers. One division will be focused on conventional grocery products and the other will be focused on natural, organic, specialty and fresh products.

最後，正如我們在一月份宣布的那樣，我們已採取措施將批發業務重新調整為兩個以產品為中心的部門，我們期望這將使我們能夠為客戶和供應商提供更加差異化和定制化的解決方案。一個部門將專注於傳統雜貨產品，另一個部門將專注於天然、有機、特色和新鮮產品。

The basis of our multiyear strategy was a deep understanding and unique ways that we can add value for customers that are included in the growing $90 billion-plus target market we previously described. We believe these new more focused divisions supported by centers of excellence that will scale enterprise-wide capabilities will enable our commercial teams to provide a more customized product and service centered experience.

我們的多年策略的基礎是深刻的理解和獨特的方式，我們可以為我們之前描述的不斷增長的900多億美元目標市場中的客戶增加價值。我們相信，這些由卓越中心支援的、更專注的新部門將擴大整個企業的能力，使我們的商業團隊能夠提供更客製化的產品和服務為中心的體驗。

This increasingly effective and responsive operating model is intended to help our customers and suppliers differentiate, compete, and grow profitably. We expect most of the organizational changes required to support this realignment will be completed by the end of this fiscal year.

這種日益有效和靈敏的營運模式旨在幫助我們的客戶和供應商實現差異化、競爭和獲利成長。我們預計，支持此次調整所需的大部分組織變革將在本財年結束前完成。

The strategic actions we took during fiscal 2024 and thus far in fiscal 2025 to strengthen our foundation and exit multiyear plan are delivering results. During the first half, adjusted EBITDA grew nearly 14%. Free cash flow generation climbed nearly $250 million and net leverage has been reduced to 3.7 times. This is the lowest net leverage level since fiscal 2023. As Matteo will describe in more detail, we expect to build on this performance during the second half of the year.

我們在 2024 財年以及迄今為止 2025 財年採取的加強基礎和退出多年計劃的戰略行動正在取得成果。上半年，調整後的 EBITDA 成長近 14%。自由現金流增加近 2.5 億美元，淨槓桿降至 3.7 倍。這是自2023財年以來最低的淨槓桿水準。正如 Matteo 所詳細描述的，我們期望在今年下半年繼續保持這一業績。

In closing, as we execute our strategy, we become even more confident in our multiyear objectives, long-term trajectory and in our ability to add value for retailers and suppliers across food retail industry. As I described, we're also continuing to identify further opportunities for value creation.

最後，隨著我們執行策略，我們對我們的多年目標、長期發展軌跡以及為食品零售業的零售商和供應商增加價值的能力更加有信心。正如我所描述的，我們仍在繼續尋找進一步創造價值的機會。

We are focused on becoming the most efficient value-creating partner for our stakeholders which in turn creates more opportunities for the approximately 27,000 UNFI associates who serve our customers and suppliers with dedication every day. Together, we remain confident our plan will continue to drive sustainable shareholder returns.

我們致力於成為利害關係人最有效的價值創造合作夥伴，從​​而為每天竭誠為我們的客戶和供應商服務的約 27,000 名 UNFI 員工創造更多機會。我們堅信，我們的計劃將繼續推動股東的可持續回報。

And with that, let me turn it over to Matteo to discuss our Q2 results, lean progress, and revised outlook. Matteo?

接下來，讓我將時間交給 Matteo，來討論我們的第二季業績、精實進展和修訂後的展望。馬特奧？

Thank you, Sandy, and good morning, everyone, and thanks again for joining our second quarter earnings call. As Sandy stated, our operating momentum, execution and performance have continued to accelerate during the first half of fiscal 2025. We remain confident in our multiyear strategy and the corresponding longer-term financial objectives we outlined during our fiscal 2024 year-end call.

謝謝你，桑迪，大家早安，再次感謝你們參加我們的第二季財報電話會議。正如桑迪所說，我們的營運動能、執行力和業績在 2025 財年上半年持續加速。我們對我們的多年策略以及我們在 2024 財年年終電話會議上概述的相應的長期財務目標仍然充滿信心。

Today, I will provide additional insight into our second quarter results, including our free cash flow generation and capital structure and comment on our updated outlook for fiscal 2025. With that, let's review our Q2 results.

今天，我將進一步介紹我們第二季的業績，包括我們的自由現金流產生和資本結構，並對我們 2025 財年的最新展望進行評論。讓我們回顧一下第二季的業績。

Turning to slide 8. You will see the walk on this slide reflects the updated sales disaggregation Steve described earlier. Our second quarter sales grew nearly 5% to $8.2 billion. Our gains in the quarter were led by our Natural Products business, where sales increased by over 8% compared to last year's second quarter, primarily reflecting higher sales and category penetration with existing customers.

翻到第 8 張投影片。您將看到此幻燈片上的步幅反映了史蒂夫之前描述的最新銷售分解。我們第二季的銷售額成長了近 5%，達到 82 億美元。本季我們的成長主要得益於天然產品業務，該業務的銷售額與去年第二季度相比增長了 8% 以上，這主要反映了銷售額的提高以及現有客戶的品類滲透率的提高。

Our conventional products business was up just over 2%, reflecting new business wins and new customers over the past four quarters. Across our wholesale business, volumes were up about 3% and which represented another quarter of sequential acceleration and a continuation of the favorable trends we cited as we exited fiscal 2024.

我們的常規產品業務成長略高於 2%，反映了過去四個季度新業務和新客戶的增加。在我們的批發業務中，銷量成長了約 3%，這代表著另一個季度的連續加速，也延續了我們在 2024 財年結束時提到的有利趨勢。

This broadly outperformed the key industry Nielsen benchmarks and partially reflects the benefit of new customer additions, we will begin to cycle later this year. Inflation was largely unchanged sequentially at approximately 1.5% and which was close to a percent lower than last year's second quarter.

這遠遠超過了主要行業尼爾森基準，並部分反映了新客戶增加的好處，我們將在今年稍後開始循環。通貨膨脹率與上一季基本持平，約 1.5%，比去年第二季低近一個百分點。

Total sales in our Retail business were down about 3% compared to last year, primarily the result of five store closures over the past 12 months. On an -- ID basis or same-store basis, sales were down about 40 basis points, a sequential improvement of about 100 basis points compared to Q1. This also reflects positive ID sales at Cub the larger of our two banners after being roughly flat in Q1.

我們的零售業務總銷售額與去年相比下降了約 3%，主要原因是過去 12 個月關閉了 5 家門市。以同店銷售額計算，銷售額下降約 40 個基點，與第一季相比較上季改善約 100 個基點。這也反映了我們兩大品牌中較大的 Cub 的 ID 銷售額在第一季基本持平之後呈現積​​極態勢。

Moving to slide 9. Let's review profitability drivers in the quarter. Overall, you can see that our wholesale business drove the growth in the quarter. Wholesale gross profit dollars, net of higher operating costs were up nearly $20 million. This was largely due to higher volumes. However, our consolidated gross margin rate, excluding LIFO declined 20 basis points compared to the prior year period to 13.2% of net sales. This was driven by a lower wholesale margin rate as well as a mix shift towards wholesale partly offset by a higher rate in retail.

移至幻燈片 9。讓我們回顧一下本季的獲利驅動因素。總體而言，您可以看到我們的批發業務推動了本季的成長。扣除較高的營運成本後，批發毛利潤上漲了近 2,000 萬美元。這主要是由於交易量增加。然而，不包括後進先出法，我們的綜合毛利率與去年同期相比下降了 20 個基點，至淨銷售額的 13.2%。這是由於批發利潤率較低以及業務結構向批發轉移所致，但零售利潤率較高部分抵消了這一影響。

In wholesale, our gross margin rate declined about 10 basis points versus last year's Q2, largely due to changes in customer and product mix and some target strategic commercial investments. These impacts were nearly offset by innovation and efficiency initiatives, including value-adding supplier programs and the lower level of shrink Sandy referenced.

在批發方面，我們的毛利率較去年第二季下降了約 10 個基點，這主要是由於客戶和產品組合的變化以及一些目標策略商業投資的變化。這些影響幾乎被創新和效率舉措所抵消，包括增值供應商計劃和桑迪提到的較低水平的收縮。

More than offsetting this gross margin rate decline was continued solid execution and management of our operating expenses, which compared to last year's declined by approximately 40 basis points as a percentage of sales. As we've emphasized before, we are laser-focused on improving processes and removing waste, so we are better able to bring value and improving service levels to our customers and suppliers.

抵銷毛利率下降的還有我們持續穩健執行和管理營運費用，與去年相比，營運費用佔銷售額的百分比下降了約 40 個基點。正如我們之前所強調的那樣，我們專注於改進流程和消除浪費，以便我們能夠更好地為客戶和供應商帶來價值並提高服務水準。

This improving efficiency also partially reflects some benefit from the customer mix shift impacting our gross margin rate. Growing more quickly with large existing customers has benefits to route optimizations and drop sizes to benefit our operating expenses.

效率的提高也部分反映了客戶結構變化對我們的毛利率的影響。透過大量現有客戶實現更快成長有利於路線優化和下降規模，從而有利於我們的營運費用。

As Sandy mentioned, we have now rolled Lean Daily Management out to nine DCs, and we are pleased with the improvements we are seeing. Several of the newer implementations have already seen initial low single-digit productivity gains, which is a good progress to the higher gains we ultimately expect. This is coupled with improvements in safety and delivery quality.

正如桑迪所提到的，我們現在已經將精益日常管理推廣到 9 個 DC，我們對所看到的改進感到非常滿意。一些較新的實施措施已初步實現了低個位數的生產力成長，這對於我們最終期望的更高成長來說是一個很好的進步。這與安全性和交付品質的提高相結合。

Equally as important are the lessons that we have learned and the skills we're applying to become more proficient. Teams are strengthening their ability to problem solve to effectively identify and document countermeasures and the culture of championing breakthrough thinking has been embedded across our organization.

同樣重要的是我們學到的經驗教訓和我們為變得更加熟練而應用的技能。團隊正在加強解決問題的能力，以有效地識別和記錄對策，並且倡導突破性思維的文化已經滲透到整個組織。

These actions, along with the other strategic initiatives undertaken in fiscal 2024 and to date in fiscal 2025, drove adjusted EBITDA to grow over 13% compared to the prior year quarter to $145 million. Our adjusted EBITDA rate expanded 13 basis points compared to the prior -- year to nearly 1.8%. This represents the highest adjusted EBITDA margin rate since the third quarter of fiscal 2023. Our adjusted EBITDA, combined with some benefits on below-the-line items led to strong adjusted EPS growth with adjusted EPS in the quarter of $0.22 compared to $0.07 in last year's second quarter.

這些舉措，加上 2024 財年以及 2025 財年迄今採取的其他戰略舉措，推動調整後的 EBITDA 與去年同期相比增長超過 13%，達到 1.45 億美元。我們的調整後 EBITDA 比率較上年同期擴大了 13 個基點，達到近 1.8%。這是自 2023 財年第三季以來的最高調整後 EBITDA 利潤率。我們的調整後 EBITDA 加上線下專案的一些收益導致調整後每股收益強勁成長，本季調整後每股收益為 0.22 美元，而去年第二季為 0.07 美元。

Turning to slide 10. Our improved profitability and continued focus on deploying and adhering to Lean principles helped $193 million in free cash flow in the quarter, which was approximately $77 million more than last year. Working capital in the quarter was an approximately $100 million cash benefit which, combined with our stronger adjusted EBITDA more than offset our capital investment and interest expense.

翻到第 10 張投影片。我們獲利能力的提高以及對部署和遵守精實原則的持續關注，幫助本季度實現了 1.93 億美元的自由現金流，比去年同期增加了約 7,700 萬美元。本季營運資本約 1 億美元的現金收益，加上我們更強勁的調整後 EBITDA，足以抵銷我們的資本投資和利息支出。

This brings our year-to-date fresh flow to slightly more than $30 million. This represents an improvement of nearly $250 million compared to last year's free cash flow use of $212 million in the first half. It also brings total free cash flow generated over the last 12 months to over $150 million.

這使得我們今年迄今的新增資金流略高於 3000 萬美元。與去年上半年 2.12 億美元的自由現金流使用量相比，這一數字增加了近 2.5 億美元。這也使得過去 12 個月產生的總自由現金流超過 1.5 億美元。

We continue to make earlier-than-anticipated progress on working capital management, including a net reduction in days on hand of inventory which has been achieved through further refinement of the decentralized procurement model and improved forecasting, constant -- explained last quarter.

我們在營運資本管理方面繼續取得早於預期的進展，包括透過進一步完善分散採購模式和改進預測實現庫存週轉天數的淨減少，上個季度對此進行了解釋。

Importantly, we're doing this while also driving fee rate improvement where supply is not constrained. We deployed our free cash flow generated to reduce our net debt to close to $2 billion and lower our net leverage to 3.7 times, which is about a [house turn] less than last quarter in the prior year second quarter. This is also the first time we have been below four times since fiscal 2023. This keeps us firmly on track to deliver our longer-term deleveraging goal of less than 2.5 times by the end of fiscal 2027.

重要的是，我們在這樣做的同時，也在推動供應不受限制的費率改善。我們利用產生的自由現金流將淨債務減少至接近 20 億美元，並將淨槓桿率降低至 3.7 倍，比去年同期的上一季減少了約 1 倍。這也是我們自2023財年以來首次低於四倍。這使我們堅定地朝著實現到 2027 財年末低於 2.5 倍的長期去槓桿目標邁進。

Looking at slide 11. Halfway through fiscal 2025, we continue to build confidence in our momentum and execution against our broader strategy and multiyear plan. We're again raising our full year outlook for all financial metrics other than capital spending.

看投影片 11。在 2025 財年過半之際，我們將繼續對我們的發展勢頭和執行力建立信心，以應對更廣泛的策略和多年計劃。我們再次上調了除資本支出之外的所有財務指標的全年預期。

As outlined in our press release, the updated guidance for net sales is a range of $31.3 billion to $31.7 billion, which represents a 3.6% full year increase at the midpoint compared to fiscal 2024 when adjusting for the 53-week last year. This represents about a 2.3% increase in dollars from the midpoint of our prior outlook. This increase partially reflects higher customer retention than what was previously expected as part of our network optimization. This revisited outlook also implies an expected sequential deceleration in sales growth from 4.6% in the first half of fiscal 2025 to around 3% in the second half of the year.

正如我們的新聞稿中所述，更新後的淨銷售額指引範圍為 313 億美元至 317 億美元，與去年 53 週調整後的 2024 財年相比，按中點計算全年增長 3.6%。這意味著美元價值比我們之前預測的中點上漲了約 2.3%。這一成長部分反映了客戶保留率高於我們先前作為網路優化的一部分所預期的水平。這項重新檢視的前景也意味著，銷售額成長將從 2025 財年上半年的 4.6% 連續放緩至下半年的 3% 左右。

This anticipated cadence is largely due to the impact of timing associated with when we onboarded new customers in the prior year period. It also reflects the expectation that natural products will continue to lead growth across our business. We have raised the bottom end of our expectations for adjusted EBITDA by an additional $20 million bringing the new range to $550 million to $580 million, which is more than an 11% increase over the last year at the midpoint.

這種預期的節奏很大程度上是由於與去年同期我們接納新客戶的時間相關的影響。這也反映了我們對天然產品將繼續引領我們業務成長的預期。我們將調整後 EBITDA 預期下限再調高 2,000 萬美元，使新範圍達到 5.5 億美元至 5.8 億美元，比去年中位數成長 11% 以上。

The midpoint of our sales and adjusted EBITDA outlook implied that we expect adjusted EBITDA margin rate acceleration of around 10 basis points in the back half of the year compared to the 1.74% of sales in the first half. This reflects the benefit of the initiatives completed already as well as those we expect to take during the remainder of the year.

我們的銷售額和調整後的 EBITDA 前景的中點意味著，我們預計下半年調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率將加速約 10 個基點，而上半年的銷售額為 1.74%。這反映了已經完成的舉措以及我們預計在今年剩餘時間內採取的舉措的效益。

Given the seasonal nature of our business, we expect total dollar sales in Q3 to be sequentially lower than in Q2. As a result, even though we expect our adjusted EBITDA margin rate to be higher in the second half, we'll likely see adjusted EBITDA dollars in Q3 declined marginally sequentially from Q2, while still growing solidly compared to the prior year.

鑑於我們業務的季節性，我們預計第三季的總銷售額將環比第二季下降。因此，儘管我們預計下半年調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率會更高，但我們可能會看到第三季調整後的 EBITDA 金額較第二季環比略有下降，但與上年相比仍保持穩定成長。

This reflects the benefit of ongoing strategic initiatives, which continue to ramp, driving a better margin rate. Including the benefit of lower forecasted interest expense based on our year-to-date free cash flow performance, our EPS and adjusted EPS ranges have increased as well with adjusted EPS now expected to fall within the range of $0.70 to $0.90 per share compared to $0.14 last year.

這反映了正在進行的策略性舉措帶來的好處，這些舉措不斷加強，從而推動了利潤率的提高。包括基於我們年初至今的自由現金流表現而預測的較低利息支出的好處，我們的每股收益和調整後的每股收益範圍也有所增加，目前預計調整後的每股收益將在每股 0.70 美元至 0.90 美元之間，而去年為 0.14 美元。

Full year free cash flow is now expected to be at least $150 million, an increase compared to our prior outlook of greater than $100 million. This represents a roughly $250 million increase compared to fiscal 2024 full year free cash flow.

目前預計全年自由現金流至少為 1.5 億美元，與我們先前預測的 1 億美元以上相比有所增加。與 2024 財年全年自由現金流相比，這增加了約 2.5 億美元。

As Sandy mentioned, in mid-February, we completed the closure of our Fort Wayne distribution center and consolidated the volume into other nearby more modern and efficient facilities. Our previously optimized billings DC is under contract for sale, and we're actively marketing the owned real estate for the other two DCs that have been closed in the past six months. But as I stated before, we will not sacrifice value for time. We will continue to evaluate other opportunities along these lines but have not included any incremental strategic actions in our updated outlook.

正如桑迪所提到的，二月中旬，我們完成了韋恩堡配送中心的關閉，並將貨物集中到附近其他更現代化、更有效率的設施。我們先前優化的比林斯配送中心 (DC) 正在簽訂銷售合同，並且我們正在積極行銷過去六個月內已關閉的另外兩個配送中心 (DC) 所擁有的房地產。但正如我之前所說，我們不會為了時間而犧牲價值。我們將繼續評估其他類似的機會，但在更新後的展望中並未納入任何漸進式策略行動。

Flipping to slide 12. We're off to a solid start at the midway point of fiscal 2025, and we're encouraged by our operating momentum and the work streams in place to add value and better service our customers and suppliers while making UNFI a more efficient partner for both. Our efficiency initiatives powered in part by Lean principles are largely generating the operating benefits we expected while our volume trends reflect the successful execution of our customers as well as the trust they place in us every day.

翻到幻燈片 12。我們在 2025 財年中期取得了良好的開端，我們的營運動能和現有的工作流程令我們感到鼓舞，這將為我們的客戶和供應商增加價值並更好地服務，同時使 UNFI 成為雙方更有效率的合作夥伴。我們的效率措施在某種程度上受到精實原則的推動，在很大程度上產生了我們預期的營運效益，而我們的銷售趨勢反映了客戶的成功執行以及他們每天對我們的信任。

Importantly, we are finding more ways to improve to bring even greater value to both ends of the supply chain and ultimately create additional shareholder value and we're aggressively pursuing these opportunities. The strategy we have outlined of bringing value to our customers and suppliers through a differentiated go-to-market proposition and strengthening service levels while improving UNFI's free cash flow is simple and powerful.

重要的是，我們正在尋找更多的改進方法，為供應鏈的兩端帶來更大的價值，並最終創造額外的股東價值，我們正在積極尋求這些機會。我們制定的策略是，透過差異化的市場定位和加強服務水平，為我們的客戶和供應商創造價值，同時改善 UNFI 的自由現金流，這項策略簡單而有力。

And our progress to date reinforces that we're working to accomplish. We remain confident and optimistic about our future and the value creation opportunity we have as we work to improve our capabilities and customer-facing execution. Our mantra of delivering and deleveraging remains intact and we look forward to updating you on our progress again this summer. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

我們迄今所取得的進展進一步證明，我們正在努力實現這一目標。在我們努力提高自身能力和麵向客戶的執行力的同時，我們對我們的未來和創造價值的機會仍然充滿信心和樂觀。我們的交付和去槓桿的口號保持不變，我們期待今年夏天再次向您通報我們的進展。接線員，請打開熱線來回答問題。

(Operator Instructions) John Heinbockel, Guggenheim.

（操作員指示）約翰·海因博克爾，古根漢。

Sandy, on the wholesale realignment and the new sales breakdown, one, can you touch on functionally the changes that have occurred how that will change your go-to-market day-to-day, right, interacting with your customers and the biggest benefit you see? And then just want to understand, natural and conventional, is that products -- natural products that are sold to any customer or all products that are sold to largely natural customers, the same thing for conventional?

桑迪，關於批發業務的重新調整和新的銷售細分，首先，您能否從功能上談談已經發生的變化，這些變化將如何改變您每天的行銷方式，與客戶的互動，以及您看到的最大好處？然後只是想了解，天然產品和傳統產品，是銷售給任何客戶的天然產品還是銷售給大部分天然客戶的所有產品，與傳統產品是一樣的嗎？

John, the second question you asked is yes, it's all customers. What we learned from feedback that we've gotten from customers and suppliers is that product expertise was a principal focus for them. And so what we've done is taking that feedback, we've aligned the wholesale business into two product center divisions. Each focused largely on functional dedication in sales, procurement, and merchandising.

約翰，你問的第二個問題是，是的，都是顧客。我們從客戶和供應商的回饋中了解到，產品專業知識是他們關注的重點。因此，我們所做的就是採納這些回饋，將批發業務調整為兩個產品中心部門。每個部門主要專注於銷售、採購和商品銷售方面的職能奉獻。

We kept the scaled enterprise-level capabilities behind them in supply chain and IT and across the company. But what customers wanted from us was really focused product expertise around the key levers that drive those categories and we organized that way. But it's transversal across customers, so to the point of your second question, natural products will be represented in an expert fashion by natural people, but the customer manager, if the customer is principally conventional will come from conventional.

我們在供應鏈、IT 和整個公司範圍內保留了規模化的企業級能力。但客戶真正希望我們能夠專注於推動這些類別發展的關鍵槓桿的產品專業知識，而我們也正是按照這種方式進行組織的。但它是跨客戶的，所以對於你的第二個問題，天然產品將由天然人以專家的方式代表，但如果客戶主要是傳統的，那麼客戶經理將來自傳統。

Okay. Well, then my first part of that, right? So how does this change? I guess it doesn't change that much in terms of how sales are interacting with the accounts.

好的。好吧，那麼這是我的第一部分，對嗎？那麼，這種情況會如何改變呢？我猜想就銷售與帳戶的互動方式而言，它不會發生太大變化。

Yes, it's not a big change, but I guess the best way to think about it is the customer who's principally focused on natural organic products are -- they're very interested in innovation. They're interested in things that are changing whereas the conventional products, a lot of those are big brands, and they're looking for the best promotional activity and sharpest price points. And it's a different merchandising motion. It's not completely different, but it's enough different that we felt the segment and then was the best way to serve our customers.

是的，這不是一個很大的變化，但我想最好的思考方式是主要專注於天然有機產品的客戶 - 他們對創新非常感興趣。他們對正在變化的事物感興趣，而傳統產品中許多都是大品牌，他們正在尋找最佳的促銷活動和最優惠的價格點。這是一種不同的行銷動議。它並不是完全不同，但它有足夠的不同，讓我們感受到了細分市場，這是服務客戶的最佳方式。

All right. And then just my last quick thing. You referenced four incremental areas of potential to the strategy of those four, which one or two are furthest along and you think are the most impactful if one or two stand out?

好的。接下來是我最後要說的一件事。您提到了四個具有潛在增量潛力的策略領域，其中哪一兩個領域進展最快？如果其中一兩個領域脫穎而出，您認為其影響力最大嗎？

Sure. I mean from my perspective, the services for customers who have typically not been well served by Pro services and digital services are the best. While it's in development, I think it has tremendous potential. One of the things that I like to say internally is that UNFI needs to be in the retail media networks of the future in year one, not year four.

當然。我的意思是，從我的角度來看，對於那些通常沒有得到專業服務和數位服務很好服務的客戶來說，提供的服務是最好的。雖然它還處於開發階段，但我認為它具有巨大的潛力。我喜歡在內部說的一件事是，UNFI 需要在第一年就進入未來的零售媒體網絡，而不是第四年。

But we're catching up quickly, and we have a whole pipeline of products and services there that we think will serve customers very well in the future and give them the edge that they need to compete more favorably.

但我們正在迅速迎頭趕上，我們擁有全系列的產品和服務，我們認為這些產品和服務將在未來為客戶提供良好的服務，並為他們提供更具競爭力的優勢。

Bill Kirk, Ross Capital.

比爾·柯克（Bill Kirk），羅斯資本。

I had a couple of things related to the closure of the Fort Wayne DC. I guess, first, were there duplicate costs while it was still open that are now gone, is there a step down in depreciation expense with the closure? And how large would that be? And then finally, what did you learn in the process of closing that and rerouting that will help inform future facility closures and help inform the customer and facility kind of optimizations?

我有一些與 Fort Wayne DC 關閉有關的事情。我想，首先，在它還營業時是否存在重複成本，而這些成本現在已經消失了，關閉後折舊費用是否會減少？那它有多大？最後，在關閉和重新規劃路線的過程中，您學到了什麼，這將有助於為未來的設施關閉提供信息，並有助於為客戶和設施提供優化？

Hi, Bill, it's Matt here. So on the question on OpEx and duplicative costs. So we are ramping down very quickly the four-point operations and with the operating expenses. So we had a little bit of kind of double dipping or double cost in the second quarter. But from now on, we should expect to basically just transfer all the activities to the receiving DCs scaling down significantly the OpEx and the fixed cost at the Fort Wayne DC and see the full benefits for the rest of the year, which is part of the reason why we built a high confidence case to increase EBITDA 10 basis points in second half versus first half.

嗨，比爾，我是馬特。關於營運支出和重複成本的問題。因此，我們正在迅速減少四點營運和營運費用。因此，我們在第二季度遇到了一點雙重損失或雙倍成本的情況。但從現在開始，我們應該基本上將所有活動轉移到接收 DC，從而大幅降低 Fort Wayne DC 的營運支出和固定成本，並在今年剩餘時間內看到全部收益，這也是我們建立高度信心的理由之一，即下半年的 EBITDA 將比上半年增加 10 個基點。

There should be some step down in depreciation and amortization as well. And then relative to the learnings, the customer experience has been the first priority over and above the cost out or the free cash flow benefit. So we spoke before about the safety, quality, delivery cost always in that order set of priorities.

折舊和攤銷也應該減少。然後相對於學習，客戶體驗一直是高於成本或自由現金流收益的首要任務。因此，我們之前談到安全、品質、運輸成本始終是優先考慮的順序。

And so understanding, first of all, how we were increasing operations and ramping assortments, they are receiving DCs while ensuring that the customer experience was as smooth as possible while closing -- DC and ramp in others was to port. So this is what we continue to embed as we continue our journey in terms of the -- optimization. DC and Bismarck, we are smaller scale in a way, Fort Wayne was more meaningful. And as we always said, as we look at underperforming VCs, the journey continues.

因此，首先要了解我們如何增加營運和增加品種，他們正在接收 DC，同時確保在關閉時客戶體驗盡可能順暢 - DC 和其他方面的提升都是為了移植。因此，這就是我們在繼續優化之旅時繼續嵌入的內容。從某種程度上來說，華盛頓和俾斯麥的規模較小，而韋恩堡更有意義。正如我們常說的那樣，當我們看到表現不佳的風險投資時，旅程仍在繼續。

Scott Mushkin, R5 Capital.

斯科特·穆甚金（R5 Capital）

So I just want to go back to what John was talking about as far as the realignment of the business. When the merger was done, the idea was putting the two entity together -- long time ago now that there was leverage in putting those SUPERVALU together with UNFI the idea of one truck, one bill, maybe even one DC. It sounds like you guys are saying, hey, maybe that's not ideal. And I guess the question is, do the two assets belong together over time? Or is that something you guys will consider as the years go on?

因此，我只想回到約翰談論的有關業務調整的問題。合併完成時，我們的想法是將兩個實體整合在一起——很久以前，將 SUPERVALU 與 UNFI 整合在一起就有了槓桿作用，即一輛卡車、一張賬單，甚至一個 DC。聽起來你們好像在說，嘿，也許這並不理想。我想問題是，隨著時間的推移，這兩種資產是否屬於同一類？或者這是你們隨著時間的推移會考慮的事情？

Yes. Thanks for the question. From my perspective, the answer is kind of both. Scale is good where scale is good and specialization is good where specialization is good. What we were hearing from customers is in my main product set is conventional I need really good pricing. I need the promotional intensity and focus of vendors.

是的。謝謝你的提問。從我的角度來看，答案是兩者兼具。規模好的地方規模就好，專業化好的地方專業化就好。我們從客戶那裡聽到的回饋是，我的主要產品是常規產品，因此我需要非常好的定價。我需要供應商的促銷力道和重點。

If my principal prospect is natural, organic and specialty, it's all about product innovation and speed. And generally, those motions are two different types of processes, and therefore, we found specializing that part of the organization to be in the interest of our customers. From a supply chain and IT and back-office standpoint, there's a lot of synergy available that we've been capturing. And through those centers of excellence are places where efficiency can be captured through enterprise-wide capability. So Scott, it's really both.

如果我的主要景觀是天然、有機和特色，那麼一切都與產品創新和速度有關。一般來說，這些動作是兩種不同類型的過程，因此，我們發現專門化組織的這一部分符合我們客戶的利益。從供應鏈、IT 和後台辦公室的角度來看，我們已經獲得了許多綜效。透過這些卓越中心，可以透過整個企業的能力來提高效率。所以斯科特，其實兩者皆有。

Okay. So my second question is actually a really short one. The conventional was up, I think, 2.1% on revenues. I know there's some wins in there. Can you talk a little bit about kind of core sales growth core volumes with continuing customers kind of ex the wins?

好的。我的第二個問題實際上非常簡短。我認為傳統業務的收入成長了 2.1%。我知道這其中有一些勝利。您能否談談核心銷售成長、核心銷售以及持續客戶的成功情況？

Sure. Scott. So the overall volumes for UNFI were up [3%] and we in that natural grew at a more accelerated fashion than conventional. With that said, what we saw is that conventional was roughly flat from a volume standpoint and slightly better than the US food traditional grocery indicator. Conventional have improved in part from adding from business from existing customers. And we also believe that our volume changes have outpaced many of the conventional peers.

當然。斯科特。因此，UNFI 的整體銷量成長了 [3%]，而且我們的自然成長速度比傳統方式更快。話雖如此，我們看到的是，從數量的角度來看，傳統食品雜貨指標大致持平，並且略好於美國食品傳統雜貨指標。傳統業務的改善部分源自於現有客戶的業務增加。我們也相信，我們的銷售變化已經超過了許多傳統同行。

So we are pleased with the sequential progress that we have seen there. We remain cautious with the kind of overall dynamic going on but pleased with what we have seen in the second quarter, now that again, broadly, we picked up a volume in early July of 2024. It grew to 1.8% in first quarter, grew to 3% in the second quarter.

因此，我們對所看到的連續進展感到高興。我們對正在發生的整體動態保持謹慎，但對第二季度看到的情況感到滿意，現在，總體而言，我們在 2024 年 7 月初獲得了一定的銷售量。第一季成長1.8%，第二季成長3%。

Mark Carden, UBS.

瑞銀的馬克卡登。

You guys put together strong results, brought up your guidance. At the same time, we've seen some pretty big shifts in consumer sentiment over the last few weeks. Are you seeing any changes in end customer behavior in the early weeks of 3Q across really any of your channels? Or has your momentum really been pretty much sustained?

你們取得了出色的成績，並提出了指導意見。同時，過去幾週我們看到消費者情緒發生了相當大的轉變。在第三季的最初幾週，您是否發現您的任何管道的最終客戶行為發生了任何變化？或者你的勢頭確實已經基本維持了？

We're really not seeing anything change. In fact, over the last year or so, we've continued to see generally very strong performance by our customer base. A whole lot of the causals in our growth are the success of excellent group of customers performing very well in the marketplace.

我們確實沒有看到任何變化。事實上，在過去一年左右的時間裡，我們持續看到我們的客戶群整體表現非常強勁。我們成長的很大一部分原因是優秀客戶群在市場上的優異表現。

Obviously, the really well-differentiated sharp strategy retailers are doing very well. But in general, we have not seen consumer behavior change significantly over the past few weeks. There may have been a little bit of up stocking in some categories, but beyond that, nothing to -- that we could call a trend.

顯然，真正具有差異化敏銳策略的零售商做得很好。但整體而言，過去幾週我們並沒有看到消費者行為有顯著變化。某些類別的庫存可能有所增加，但除此之外，沒有什麼可以稱之為趨勢的。

Great. That's helpful. And then related to tariffs, how much exposure do you guys have to imports overall? Would you expect to fully pass through them, pass through on a dollar or percentage basis? And then if we do see sustained tariffs, how do you think about the balance between incremental trade in from food away from home? And any potential demand disruption as consumers potentially control their own shrink, so to speak?

偉大的。這很有幫助。然後與關稅相關，你們整體對進口的影響有多大？您是否希望完全通過它們，還是以美元或百分比通過？那麼，如果我們確實看到持續的關稅，您如何看待外送食品增量貿易之間的平衡？那麼，由於消費者有可能控制自己的萎縮，是否有任何潛在的需求中斷？

Yes, that's a good question. Those are the variables that we're thinking about as well. I think, obviously, the most important message here is this all continues to evolve. And so we'll be paying attention to it. Our teams are obviously very agile in thinking about diversification and resiliency of supply chains and options and levers that they can pull.

是的，這是個好問題。這些也是我們正在考慮的變數。我認為，顯然這裡最重要的訊息是這一切都在繼續發展。因此我們會關注它。我們的團隊顯然非常敏捷地思考供應鏈的多樣化和彈性以及他們可以採取的選項和槓桿。

Ultimately, we learned a lot from the supply chain disruptions in COVID and so we're running some of the same plays to make sure we maximize the optionality for our customers. I think you can, over time, the premise of your question is true that it could start to change the value equation between food at home versus food away from home. But it's really too early to tell. And what we're trying to do is make sure we're doing the best job we possibly can for our customers in any environment.

最終，我們從 COVID 的供應鏈中斷中學到了很多東西，因此我們正在採取一些相同的措施，以確保最大限度地為客戶提供可選性。我認為可以，隨著時間的推移，你的問題的前提是正確的，它可能會開始改變家常菜和外出用餐之間的價值等式。但現在下結論還為時過早。我們要做的就是確保在任何環境下都能為客戶提供最好的服務。

Andrew Wolf, CL King.

安德魯沃爾夫、CL金。

I wanted to start, I guess, with Matteo on the lean principles in the nine new DCs being, I guess, at least you gave a productivity trend in the low single digits. And I think last quarter in the two pilots in Texas and Colorado was mid-single digits. So is there anything other than just timing, is sort of in the new -- in the nine? Or is there anything that we should know about? Or are your expectations kind of similar that they'll trend up?

我想從 Matteo 開始討論九個新 DC 的精實原則，我想至少你給了低個位數的生產力趨勢。我認為上個季度在德克薩斯州和科羅拉多州的兩個試點中的增長率都達到了個位數左右。那麼，除了時間之外，還有其他因素嗎？是新的－在九點嗎？或是有什麼我們應該了解的嗎？或者您的預期是它們會呈上升趨勢嗎？

Expectations remain at mid-single-digit plus in terms of productivity gains. And when you think about what we've been able to deliver in throughput, for instance, in the last several quarters, is close to 8% to 10% improvement or lower or higher cases per power. So we see the benefits. I would say that on the fact that for the new DCs that moved to LDM, Lean Daily Management recently, it's just timing.

對於生產力成長的預期仍將維持在中等個位數以上。例如，當您考慮我們在過去的幾個季度中所能提供的吞吐量時，我們可以看到，單位功率的吞吐量提高了近 8% 到 10%，或更低或更高。所以我們看到了好處。我想說的是，對於最近轉向 LDM（精實日常管理）的新 DC 來說，這只是時機問題。

So we see the ones where we had Lean Daily Management implementation six months ago, reducing or improving safety, improving delivery quality and starting generating more and more productivity, and we expect the same from the seven that moved to a Lean Daily Management and adopted Lean Daily Management in the last three months.

因此，我們看到，六個月前實施精益日常管理的企業，其安全性得到降低或提高，交付品質得到改善，生產力也開始不斷提高。我們期望，過去三個月內轉向精益日常管理並採用精益日常管理的七家企業也能取得同樣的效果。

Got it. And just back to the top line that I think some folks have been asking about. You nice acceleration in volume and sequentially and you've talked about a lot of things. So some is supplier partnerships and how you changed some of the -- well, a big change in your addressing fees and so on and sharing data back to the suppliers to help them with their merchandising. And then I think, obviously, this realignment, I think Sandy referenced procurement, merchandising sales and so on.

知道了。回到我認為有些人一直在問的最重要的問題。您的音量和順序都得到了很好的加速，並且您已經談論了很多事情。因此，一些是供應商合作夥伴關係，以及您如何改變一些 - 嗯，您的地址費用等的重大變化，並將數據分享給供應商以幫助他們進行商品銷售。然後我認為，顯然，這種重新調整，我認為桑迪提到了採購、商品銷售等等。

So how do you I could hear this in thinking in conventional, maybe that's more sophisticated suppliers using the data coming to you with programs and partnering that way. And then in the natural that's more internal, like, hey, we really got to put some resources against this. There's a lot of growth here we're leaving on the table. Is that kind of conceptually and qualitatively, is that accurate? Or is it a little more nuanced than I'm kind of portraying it, my takeaway.

那麼，我該如何以傳統思維來看這個問題呢？也許更成熟的供應商會利用透過程式向您提供的數據並以此方式進行合作。然後從自然的角度來說，這更加內部化，例如，嘿，我們確實需要投入一些資源來應對這個問題。我們還有很多成長空間。從概念和品質來說，這種說法準確嗎？或者它比我描述的更微妙一些，我的收穫。

Andy, I think you've got -- I think the main thrust of the conventional product that is making sure that we're priced right and making sure that the promotions are focused but like any generalization, there's significant nuances across our conventional customer base.

安迪，我認為你已經明白了——我認為傳統產品的主要目的是確保我們的定價合理，並確保促銷活動有針對性，但就像任何概括一樣，我們的傳統客戶群之間存在著顯著的細微差別。

We've got ethnically positioned customers that are doing as well as any retailers in the country. And we have other customers who are working hard on building new, differentiated programs, e-commerce, et cetera. But what they all have in common is they've got to be priced right on the key items. So we're devoted to helping them do that.

我們擁有一些以少數族裔為定位的客戶，他們的業績與該國任何零售商一樣好。我們還有其他客戶正在努力建立新的差異化專案、電子商務等等。但它們的共同點是，它們必須根據關鍵項目制定正確的價格。因此我們致力於幫助他們做到這一點。

On the natural side, obviously -- value is very important, but innovation and uniqueness is really important. I mean, we've had a huge show on the West Coast called Expo West, and there were 80,000 people out there trying to get advantage over each other and we had a large team of merchants out there looking for new items and talking with customers to figure out what was going to create news and enthusiasm in their retail outlets in the second half.

從自然來看，顯然價值非常重要，但創新和獨特性也確實重要。我的意思是，我們在西海岸舉辦了一場名為“西部博覽會”的大型展會，有 80,000 人到場，試圖在彼此之間佔據優勢，我們有一個龐大的商家團隊在那裡尋找新商品，並與客戶交談，以找出什麼將在下半​​年在他們的零售店中創造新聞和熱情。

So there are different basis of competition at the end of the day, it's all about retail execution. And I would say the biggest driver of our growth is the success of our customers.

所以說到底，競爭的基礎是不同的，關鍵在於零售執行。我想說，我們成長的最大動力就是客戶的成功。

Okay. And if I could just sneak one on the gross margin. The contraction rate was a little better than last quarter, and I think I asked about the last quarter as well. So is there anything in particular? Or is that just sort of that in your own metrics? Or was it more realization or pricing? Or was it or mixed out better or shrink. Is there anything significant that improved the gross margin rate sequentially?

好的。如果我能偷偷提高毛利率的話。收縮率比上一季略有好轉，我想我也問過上一季的情況。那麼有什麼特別之處嗎？或者這只是您自己的指標？或更多的是實現或定價？或者是混合得更好或縮小了。有什麼顯著的因素使得毛利率較上月增加嗎？

Yes. So Andy, we grew gross profit dollars by about $35 million, mostly through volume, but we also continue to see improvement in shrink and the progress with the suppliers' program that are a very important part of our strategy. The rate was down about 20 basis points from 13.4% last year to 13.2%. And what we see is progress with reducing shrink. Sandy mentioned that we are one of the lowest levels that we've seen in a long time.

是的。因此，安迪，我們的毛利增加了約 3500 萬美元，主要是透過銷量，但我們也繼續看到收縮方面的改善和供應商計劃的進展，這是我們策略中非常重要的一部分。該利率從去年的13.4%下降至13.2%，下降了約20個基點。我們看到的是減少收縮的進展。桑迪提到，我們現在處於長期以來所見過的最低水平之一。

We continue to see a ramp of our suppliers' programs that you may recall aim at reducing friction and improving transparency while being accretive at the gross profit level. And we also start seeing some of the benefits of the commercial value creation and stronger underwriting activities. So it's very early innings. We know that it takes time to convert underwriting improvements into margin in backlog, but we started seeing signs of it.

我們繼續看到我們的供應商計劃不斷增加，您可能還記得，這些計劃旨在減少摩擦和提高透明度，同時提高毛利水準。我們也開始看到商業價值創造和更強大的核保活動帶來的一些好處。所以現在還只是很早的階段。我們知道將承保改善轉化為積壓訂單的利潤需要時間，但我們開始看到這個跡象。

And we're also focusing a lot more on understanding mix with the stronger analytical tools that we have, whether it's customer or category, and we actively work on those. So more to do there but pleased with what we see at least with the controls and shrink suppliers' programs and the overall kind of underwriting environment.

我們也更加重視利用我們擁有的更強大的分析工具來理解組合，無論是客戶還是類別，我們都積極致力於此。因此還有很多工作要做，但我們對至少控制和縮減供應商計劃以及整體承保環境的情況感到滿意。

(Operator Instructions) Kelly Bania, BMO Capital Markets.

（操作員指示）BMO 資本市場 Kelly Bania。

Wanted to just ask what you're seeing with regard to demand for natural and organic by conventional retailers. I guess the idea several years ago was that the cross-selling opportunity was quite significant to get that kind of product into conventional retailers. Just wondering if you're seeing a change in their interest in kind of stepping into that further or if there's a change in even the marketing or sales effort to kind of do that cross-selling given just kind of the realignment that you're discussing?

我只是想問一下，您對傳統零售商對天然和有機產品的需求有何看法。我想幾年前的想法是，交叉銷售機會對於將這種產品推向傳統零售商非常重要。只是想知道，您是否看到他們對進一步涉足這一領域的興趣發生了變化，或者考慮到您正在討論的調整，他們的營銷或銷售工作是否發生了變化以進行交叉銷售？

Hi, Kelly, good question. I think the answer to that is yes. That opportunity that the team saw a bunch of years ago is still a very large one. And there's a whole lot of category momentum for natural organic and specialty regardless channel.

嗨，凱利，這個問題問得好。我認為答案是肯定的。團隊多年前看到的這個機會至今仍非常舊。無論透過什麼管道，天然有機產品和特色產品都擁有龐大的品類發展動能。

We're seeing that both across branded and then also across our own brand portfolio, particularly our Wild Harvest brand, which is doing extremely well in multiple channels. But we're seeing a very broad-based consumer trend towards better-for-you products, and that would show up in our natural portfolio.

我們看到，無論是在各個品牌，還是在我們自己的品牌組合中，尤其是我們的 Wild Harvest 品牌，它在多個管道中都表現得非常好。但我們看到消費者越來越傾向於選擇更適合自己的產品，而這將會反映在我們的自然產品組合中。

Okay. That's helpful. And just a couple more questions. If the lean daily management and Matteo, some of the figures you gave there, sounds like it's been implemented in the nine DCs. Are those more conventional DCs or natural DCs and is the opportunity different as you look at those two sides of the business with this initiative?

好的。這很有幫助。我還有另外幾個問題。如果精益日常管理和 Matteo，您給出的一些數字聽起來像是已經在 9 個 DC 中實施了。這些是更傳統的 DC 還是自然的 DC？當您從這項計劃的業務的兩個方面來看時，機會是否不同？

Kelly, it's a very good question. It is a mix and a balance of natural and conventional DCs. So we obviously want to make sure that our teams embed Lean and Lean Daily Management principles equally, especially as we continue to evolve this kind of more decentralized model that Sandy described on natural and conventional. So it is both. We see positive results in both.

凱利，這是一個非常好的問題。它是天然和傳統 DC 的混合和平衡。因此，我們顯然希望確保我們的團隊平等地嵌入精益和精益日常管理原則，特別是當我們繼續發展桑迪在自然和傳統上描述的這種更分散的模型時。所以兩者皆有。我們看到兩者都取得了積極的成果。

We really like the fact that now every day, we have nine teams that get together around standard KPIs on safety, quality, delivery cost and get into a problem solving with the idea of fixing and developing countermeasures very quickly.

我們非常喜歡這樣一個事實：現在，我們每天都有九個團隊圍繞安全、品質、交付成本等標準 KPI 聚在一起，共同解決問題，并快速修復和製定對策。

Okay. And just one more, I guess, on the new customer additions that you mentioned, Matteo starting to cycle later this year. Any help you can give us on the magnitude of that, the channels that impacts and any insights into the pipeline for additional customer additions as we move forward?

好的。關於您提到的新客戶，我再說一句，Matteo 將於今年稍後開始騎自行車。您能否就這一問題的嚴重程度、影響管道以及未來增加更多客戶的管道提供任何見解，為我們提供任何幫助？

So when we think about the second half growth of 3% versus 4.6%, I will have a couple of considerations. First, we continue to see several opportunities to find profitable growth in natural and in conventional, obviously, faster growth in natural, but several opportunities in conventional as well. Then the offset to that is the fact that a few customers that we onboarded in the second half of 2024 will start cycling.

因此，當我們考慮下半年 3% 的成長率與 4.6% 的成長率時，我會有幾點考慮。首先，我們繼續看到在自然和傳統領域找到獲利成長的幾個機會，顯然，自然領域的成長更快，但傳統領域也有幾個機會。與此相反的是，我們在 2024 年下半年接納的幾位客戶將開始騎自行車。

So we'll have tougher comps in a way, while still delivering the same absolute dollars in the second half of 2025 and beyond. So I would really think about growth that we kind of enjoyed in the first half kind of decelerating or lapping in the second half of 2024 for the remainder of the year.

因此，在某種程度上，我們將面臨更嚴峻的競爭，同時在 2025 年下半年及以後仍能實現相同的絕對收益。因此，我真的會考慮我們在上半年享受的成長在 2024 年下半年以及今年剩餘時間內減速或停滯的情況。

Kelly, it's Sandy here. The one thing I would tack on through which was part of your question is what does the pipeline look like? And what I would tell you is -- it's very strong. It's strong across the $90 billion addressable market that we've identified, and we continue to see opportunity. But I think the guidance we've given you is our high confidence guidance, but we're continuing to work to beat it.

凱利，我是桑迪。我要補充的一點是您的問題的一部分，那就是管道是什麼樣的？我想告訴你的是——它非常強大。在我們確定的 900 億美元潛在市場中，它表現強勁，我們繼續看到機會。但我認為我們給您的指導是我們高度自信的指導，但我們會繼續努力超越它。

And that concludes our Q&A session. I will now turn the call over to Sandy Douglas, CEO, for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。現在，我將把電話轉給執行長桑迪·道格拉斯 (Sandy Douglas) 來做結束語。

Thanks, operator. As you heard on today's call, we continue to make solid progress on executing our multiyear strategy and delivering our full year outlook. We have an excellent and very focused team in place with capability growing every day. We remain laser-focused on creating value for our customers and suppliers while making UNFI a more effective and efficient organization.

謝謝，接線生。正如您在今天的電話會議上聽到的那樣，我們在執行多年期策略和提供全年展望方面繼續取得堅實進展。我們擁有一支優秀且專注的團隊，其能力每天都在不斷增強。我們始終專注於為客戶和供應商創造價值，同時使 UNFI 成為更有效、更有效率的組織。

We, again, delivered strong sales, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow growth compared to last year's second quarter and our increased outlook reflects our year-to-date performance and growing level of confidence in our business model and customer base.

與去年第二季相比，我們再次實現了強勁的銷售額、調整後的 EBITDA 和自由現金流成長，我們提高的前景反映了我們今年迄今為止的業績以及對我們的商業模式和客戶群日益增長的信心。

As we implement our strategy, we've continued to gain additional insight and believe that the opportunities before us are greater than the progress behind us. To capture this opportunity, we know we must stay focused and strive to get better every day, and we're committed to doing just that. By embracing Lean Management, we're becoming a more efficient and effective organization and creating sustainable shareholder value.

在實施策略的過程中，我們不斷獲得更多的見解，並相信眼前的機會大於我們身後的進步。為了抓住這個機會，我們知道我們必須保持專注並努力每天進步，我們致力於做到這一點。透過採用精實管理，我們正在成為一個更有效率、更有效的組織，並創造永續的股東價值。

For our customers and suppliers, we thank you for your continued partnership and the business we do together. For the UNFI associates listening today are 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 that you continue to place in us. Thanks again for joining us this morning. We look forward to updating you on our progress in June.

對於我們的客戶和供應商，我們感謝你們一直以來的合作以及我們共同開展的業務。對於今天聆聽的 UNFI 同事們，感謝你們為我們的業務、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，我們感謝你們對我們的持續信任。再次感謝您今天早上加入我們。我們期待在六月向您報告我們的進展。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝大家的加入，現在可以斷開連線了。