US Foods Holding Corp (USFD) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Abby, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the US Foods Holding Corporation third quarter 2025 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you, and I will now turn the conference over to Mike Neese, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

女士們、先生們，感謝你們的耐心等待。我叫艾比，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線生。在此，我謹代表美國食品控股公司歡迎各位參加2025年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）謝謝，現在我將把會議交給投資者關係高級副總裁麥克·尼茲。你可以開始了。

Thank you, Abby. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to US Foods' third quarter fiscal 2025 arrange call. On today's call, we have Dave Flipman, our CEO, and Dirk Locascio, our CFO. We will take your questions after our prepared remarks conclude. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Our earnings release issued earlier this morning in today's presentation can be found on the IR page of our website at ir.usfoods.com. During today's call, unless otherwise stated, we're comparing our third quarter of fiscal year 2025 to the same period in fiscal year 2024. In addition to historical information, certain statements made during today's call are considered forward-looking statements.

謝謝你，艾比。各位早安，歡迎參加美國食品公司2025財年第三季電話會議。在今天的電話會議上，我們有執行長戴夫·弗利普曼和財務長德克·洛卡西奧。我們將在事先準備好的發言結束後回答大家的問題。請將問題數量限制為一個，並可提出一個後續問題。我們今天早上早些時候發布的盈利報告可在我們網站 ir.usfoods.com 的投資者關係頁面上找到。在今天的電話會議上，除非另有說明，我們將2025財年第三季與2024財年同期進行比較。除了歷史資訊外，今天電話會議中所做的某些陳述也被視為前瞻性陳述。

Please review the risk factors in our Form 10-K for a detailed discussion of the potential factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements. Lastly, during today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. All reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the schedules on our press release as well as in the presentation slides posted on our website. We are not providing reconciliations to forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures. Thank you. I'd like to turn the call over to Dave.

請查閱我們 10-K 表格中的風險因素部分，其中詳細討論了可能導致我們的實際業績與前瞻性聲明中預期業績存在重大差異的潛在因素。最後，在今天的電話會議中，我們將提及一些非GAAP財務指標。所有與最可比較的 GAAP 財務指標的核對均包含在我們新聞稿的附表中以及我們網站上發布的簡報中。我們不提供與前瞻性非GAAP財務指標的調節表。謝謝。我想把電話轉給戴夫。

Thanks, Mike. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Let's turn to today's agenda. I'll start with our third quarter and first nine months results. I'll then hand it over to Dirk to review our third quarter financial results and our updated fiscal 2025 guidance. Turning to slide three, we delivered strong financial results for both the third quarter and year-to-date.

謝謝你，麥克。各位早安，感謝各位的參與。讓我們來看看今天的議程。我先從我們第三季和前九個月的業績開始。然後我會把它交給德克，讓他審查我們第三季的財務表現和更新後的 2025 財年業績指引。翻到第三張投影片，我們第三季和年初至今的財務表現都非常強勁。

Our performance aligns with our long-range plan algorithms, underscoring the strength of our execution. For the first nine months, we delivered 4.4% net sales growth 10.9% adjusted EBITDA growth, 29 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin expansion, and 26.7% adjusted EPS growth. These results reflect our team's focus on and ability to consistently deliver sustainable growth, which is a testament to our operational rigor and long-term value creation. I thank our associates for their commitment to our customer success and to serving them with excellence.

我們的業績與我們的長期規劃演算法相符，凸顯了我們執行力的強大。前九個月，我們實現了淨銷售額成長 4.4%，調整後 EBITDA 成長 10.9%，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率擴大 29 個基點，調整後每股盈餘成長 26.7%。這些成果反映了我們團隊專注於持續實現永續成長的能力，證明了我們嚴謹的營運和長期的價值創造。我感謝我們的同事為客戶的成功所做的貢獻，以及他們為客戶提供的卓越服務。

Moving to slide four, we delivered a double-digit adjusted EBITDA increase this quarter alongside a notable acceleration in independent case growth. These results demonstrate our continued ability to deliver earnings growth through consistent share gain and margin expansion. Now that we're a quarter of the way into our three-year long-range plan, I'm even more confident in achieving our algorithm. We're focused on delivering long-term shareholder value and disciplined capital allocation, investing for growth while executing share repurchases, and targeted tuck-in M&A. Today, we announced an agreement to acquire Shatakis, an independent food distributor based in Las Vegas, with strong market share in casinos and independent restaurants.

到第四張投影片，本季我們實現了兩位數的調整後 EBITDA 成長，同時獨立個案成長也顯著加速。這些結果證明了我們有能力透過持續的市佔率成長和利潤率擴張來實現獲利成長。現在我們的三年長期計劃已經完成了四分之一，我對實現我們的演算法更有信心了。我們專注於實現長期股東價值和嚴格的資本配置，在進行股票回購和有針對性的補充併購的同時，投資於成長。今天，我們宣布達成協議，收購 Shatakis，這是一家總部位於拉斯維加斯的獨立食品分銷商，在賭場和獨立餐廳中擁有強大的市場份額。

This is our fifth acquisition in two and a half years and aligns perfectly with our Tekken M&A strategy. Now let's turn to our case growth and the industry backdrop. We gained share with independent restaurants again this quarter as case volume grew 3.9% in line with our full year guidance range of 2% to 5%. Notably, we gained share each month of the third quarter. Independent case growth accelerated by 120 basis points from Q2 to Q3, reflecting strong momentum and outperforming the broader market. We exited the quarter on a high note, as we grew approximately 4% on an organic basis in September, and that momentum carried through October. During the third quarter, we achieved our strongest performance of the year in net new independent account wins. which grew approximately 4.4% over the prior year. This was our highest net new account growth rate since the second quarter of 2023 and we expect this momentum will continue.

這是我們兩年半以來的第五次收購，與我們的鐵拳併購策略完全契合。現在讓我們來看看我們的案例成長和行業背景。本季度，我們再次從獨立餐廳中獲得了市場份額，銷量增長了 3.9%，符合我們全年 2% 至 5% 的預期範圍。值得注意的是，我們在第三季的每個月都實現了市場份額的成長。獨立案例成長速度較第二季加快了 120 個基點，反映出強勁的成長勢頭，並跑贏了整體市場。本季以強勁的勢頭收官，9 月有機成長約 4%，而這一成長勢頭延續到了 10 月。第三季度，我們在新增獨立客戶數量方面取得了全年最佳業績，比上年同期成長約 4.4%。這是自 2023 年第二季以來我們最高的淨新增帳戶成長率，我們預計這一勢頭將繼續下去。

Additionally, healthcare and hospitality are helping to drive our overall volume growth with 3.9% and 2.4% case growth respectively. We have new business wins in both customer types coming on board throughout the fourth quarter supporting further growth. We continue to gain market share with our target customer types of independent restaurants, healthcare, and hospitality. This is our 18th consecutive quarter of market share gains with independent restaurants and the 20th consecutive quarter with healthcare. Turning to our chain business, volume declined by 2.4%, a 160-basis-point sequential improvement over the second quarter.

此外，醫療保健和酒店業也分別以 3.9% 和 2.4% 的銷售成長推動了我們的整體銷售成長。第四季度，我們在兩種類型的客戶中都取得了新的業務成長，這將支持我們實現進一步成長。我們在獨立餐廳、醫療保健和酒店等目標客戶群中持續擴大市場份額。這是我們在獨立餐飲領域連續第 18 個季度獲得市佔率成長，也是我們在醫療保健領域連續第 20 個季度獲得市佔率成長。再來看我們的連鎖業務，銷量下降了 2.4%，比第二季較上季改善了 160 個基點。

That acceleration was ahead of restaurant industry foot traffic as reported by Black Box, which improved roughly 60 basis points, but was still down half a percent in the third quarter. Turning to our strategy, we are guided by our four strategic pillars, and I will discuss progress on each over the next several slides. Moving to slide five, our first pillar is culture. We remain committed to achieving zero injuries and accidents for our associates. In the third quarter, our injury and accident rates improved by 16% compared to the same period last year. And over the past two years, we have improved our safety performance by 35%. There is still work to be done, and we will keep pushing forward to ensure every associate goes home safely every day.

根據 Black Box 報告，餐飲業客流量的成長速度超過了這一增速，儘管客流量增加了約 60 個基點，但第三季仍下降了 0.5%。談到我們的策略，我們以四大策略支柱為指導，接下來的幾張投影片我將討論每個支柱的進展。接下來是第五張投影片，我們的第一個支柱是文化。我們始終致力於實現員工零傷亡事故的目標。第三季度，我們的傷亡事故率比去年同期下降了16%。過去兩年，我們的安全績效提升了 35%。還有很多工作要做，我們將繼續努力，確保每位員工每天都能安全回家。

We're proud to announce a new partnership between US Foods and Hiring Our Heroes, a nationwide initiative of the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation dedicated to connecting transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses with meaningful career opportunities. This partnership will accelerate military hiring and reflects our deep commitment to honoring military service and strengthening our workforce with the talent leadership and dedication that veterans and military families bring to companies like US Foods.

我們很榮幸地宣布 US Foods 與「招募我們的英雄」（Hiring Our Heroes）建立新的合作夥伴關係。 「招募我們的英雄」是美國商會基金會的全國性倡議，致力於為即將退役的軍人、退伍軍人和軍屬提供有意義的職業機會。這項合作將加快軍人招聘，體現了我們對表彰軍人服役的堅定承諾，以及透過退伍軍人和軍屬為像美國食品公司這樣的企業帶來的才能、領導力和奉獻精神來加強我們員工隊伍的決心。

Turning to slide six, our second pillar, service. We remain focused on providing reliable, on-time deliveries that customers can count on. Our commitment to service excellence is reinforced by our flagship MOXIE e-commerce platform, which enables us to deliver a transparent, best-in-class experience tailored to the evolving needs of our customers. Broadly, we are deploying AI across our business to enhance the experience of both our customers and our associates. This includes within Moxie, where this quarter we launched AI-powered search, a significant upgrade that's already delivering measurable results.

接下來請看第六張投影片，我們的第二個支柱，服務。我們將繼續專注於提供客戶可信賴的可靠、準時的交付服務。我們對卓越服務的承諾透過我們的旗艦 MOXIE 電子商務平台得到強化，該平台使我們能夠提供透明、一流的體驗，以滿足客戶不斷變化的需求。總體而言，我們正在整個業務中部署人工智慧，以提升客戶和員工的體驗。這其中也包括 Moxie，本季我們推出了 AI 驅動的搜尋功能，這是一項重大升級，已經取得了可衡量的成果。

Customers are finding products faster and more intuitively, leading to a 3% higher conversion rate of products added to their cart and purchased, resulting in approximately 1.3 million incremental cases on an annualized basis. Importantly, this upgrade is also improving seller productivity by surfacing more relevant and higher quality search results. Turning to supply chain, we are improving routing productivity through the Descartes rollout across our distribution network. We are now live or actively deploying in all markets. In Q3, we achieved a 2.3% improvement in cases per mile compared to last year.

顧客能夠更快、更直觀地找到產品，從而使添加到購物車併購買的產品的轉換率提高了 3%，每年約增加 130 萬個案例。更重要的是，此次升級還能透過呈現更相關、更高品質的搜尋結果來提高賣家的工作效率。在供應鏈方面，我們正在透過在整個分銷網絡中推廣 Descartes 系統來提高路線規劃效率。我們目前已在所有市場上線或正在積極部署。第三季度，我們每英哩病例數比去年同期增加了 2.3%。

Our UMOS deployment is delivering value across our safety, service, and profitability key results. We continue to make meaningful progress on our operations quality composite, which measures our ability to deliver products to our customers without errors, with performance improving by 24% compared to the prior year. These results reflect our commitment to improving our customer service experience. Turning to slide seven, growth. We're accelerating profitable growth and expanding market share across our target customer types.

我們的 UMOS 部署正在為我們的安全、服務和獲利能力等關鍵指標帶來價值。我們在營運品質綜合指標方面繼續取得實質進展，該指標衡量我們向客戶無誤交付產品的能力，與前一年相比，績效提高了 24%。這些結果體現了我們致力於改善客戶服務體驗的承諾。翻到第七張幻燈片，增長。我們正在加速獲利成長，並擴大在目標客戶群中的市場份額。

A key driver of this growth is our PRONTO small truck delivery service. The PRONTO program is now expected to deliver approximately $950 million in sales this year in more than a $1 billion run rate by year-end. Pronto Legacy is now live in 46 markets with plans to expand into three more markets next year. Significant growth opportunity remains as we add more trucks to many of these markets. In parallel, we expanded Pronto Penetration to more than 20 markets, deepening our share of wallet with current customers.

推動這一成長的關鍵因素是我們的 PRONTO 小型貨車配送服務。PRONTO 專案預計今年將實現約 9.5 億美元的銷售額，到年底年銷售額將超過 10 億美元。Pronto Legacy 目前已在 46 個市場上線，並計劃明年擴展到另外三個市場。隨著我們向這些市場增加更多卡車，仍然存在巨大的成長機會。同時，我們將 Pronto Penetration 的覆蓋範圍擴大到 20 多個市場，進一步提升了我們在現有客戶中的市場份額。

This initiative doubled delivered a double-digit percent uplift in overall case growth among participating customers during the third quarter. Given the success of Pronto, we plan to make our largest annual investment in the program in 2026 to fuel future growth. In addition to Pronto, we continue to invest in the business to support growth and drive operational efficiencies. As we discussed last quarter, We began limited shipping from our first new semi-automated facility in Aurora, Illinois, and we continue to ramp up volume served out of this facility. To date, we have transitioned approximately 50% of the volume out of our former facility into Aurora and expect to be fully operational over the next several months.

這項舉措使參與客戶在第三季的整體案例成長實現了兩位數百分比的提升。鑑於 Pronto 的成功，我們計劃在 2026 年對該計劃進行年度最大投資，以推動其未來的成長。除了 Pronto 之外，我們還將繼續投資於該業務，以支持成長並提高營運效率。正如我們上個季度所討論的，我們已開始從位於伊利諾伊州奧羅拉的第一家新的半自動化工廠進行有限的發貨，並且我們將繼續提高該工廠的服務量。到目前為止，我們已將大約 50% 的業務量從先前的工廠轉移到了 Aurora，預計在接下來的幾個月內將全面投入營運。

We will leverage our early learnings and use these insights to help guide our approach as we plan and execute future semi-automation rollouts in select distribution centers. In August, we held our Food Fanatics Live Show, which was our largest customer event ever. We hosted more than 3,500 customers and prospects over two days, showcasing each area of our customer value proposition. We expect more than $150 million in potential new customer wins coming out of this event, with nearly half of that realized to date. Additionally, we're in the process of onboarding more than $100 million of annualized new business wins in healthcare and hospitality by leveraging our expertise, differentiated model, and unique digital capabilities. Our tools and technology, like our VITALS program, which is our proprietary technology suite that helps healthcare operators solve some of their biggest challenges are easy to use and generate real results.

我們將利用早期經驗和這些見解來指導我們在特定配送中心規劃和執行未來半自動化推廣時的方法。8 月份，我們舉辦了“美食狂熱者現場秀”，這是我們有史以來最大的客戶活動。兩天內，我們接待了超過 3500 位客戶和潛在客戶，展示了我們客戶價值主張的各個方面。我們預計此次活動將帶來超過 1.5 億美元的潛在新客戶，其中近一半迄今已實現。此外，我們正在利用我們的專業知識、差異化模式和獨特的數位化能力，在醫療保健和酒店業領域實現超過 1 億美元的年度新業務成長。我們的工具和技術，例如我們的 VITALS 程序（我們專有的技術套件，可幫助醫療保健運營商解決一些最大的挑戰），易於使用並能產生真正的結果。

For example, this year we're on track to complete approximately 4,500 individual customer interactions leveraging tools within Vitals, which helps our customers save 5% of their total costs on average. Looking ahead, we believe that we will further accelerate our profitable growth and share gain momentum through two important changes. one to our sellers' compensation structure, and one to our team-based selling approach. Starting with sales compensation. In January of 2024, we returned to a 50-50 split between base salary and variable compensation for our local sellers, reinstating the structure we had in place prior to COVID. Otherwise, the core sales compensation framework has remained largely unchanged for the past eight years. Over the past year, we've conducted a thoughtful review of our sales compensation model through the lens of further accelerating growth while fueling seller success. We're excited to announce that we will be transitioning to a 100% variable compensation structure for our local sellers.

例如，今年我們預計將利用 Vitals 中的工具完成約 4,500 次個人客戶互動，這平均可以幫助我們的客戶節省 5% 的總成本。展望未來，我們相信透過兩項重要變革，我們將進一步加速獲利成長並提升市場佔有率。一是調整銷售人員的薪資結構，二是改善我們的團隊銷售模式。首先從銷售薪酬說起。2024 年 1 月，我們恢復了本地銷售人員基本工資和浮動薪酬 50/50 的分配比例，恢復了新冠疫情爆發前的結構。除此之外，核心銷售薪酬制度在過去八年中基本上保持不變。過去一年，我們從進一步加速成長和促進銷售人員成功的角度出發，對銷售薪酬模式進行了深思熟慮的審查。我們很高興地宣布，我們將對本地銷售人員實施100%浮動薪酬結構。

The new incentive structure will continue to be based on gross profit dollar growth with their total compensation uncapped. Additionally, the new compensation model will reward sellers for accelerating independent case growth, private label penetration, and pronto volume growth. We're conducting pilots in several markets during the fourth quarter, and we will use those learnings to inform our full deployment in early 2026. We believe these changes will accelerate profitable volume growth while creating greater earnings potential for our sales force. In parallel, we've streamlined our team-based selling model to better reflect what customers value most from US foods and where we truly differentiate quality products, excellent service, and industry-leading technology.

新的激勵機制將繼續以毛利成長為基礎，總薪酬不設上限。此外，新的補償模式將獎勵那些加速獨立案例成長、自有品牌滲透和快速銷售成長的銷售人員。我們將在第四季度在幾個市場進行試點，並將利用這些經驗教訓來指導我們在 2026 年初的全面部署。我們相信這些變革將加速獲利性銷售成長，同時為我們的銷售團隊創造更大的獲利潛力。同時，我們簡化了團隊銷售模式，以更好地反映客戶最重視美國食品的哪些方面，以及我們真正與眾不同的地方——優質產品、卓越服務和業界領先的技術。

As part of this change, we've transitioned individuals in some sales support roles into customer-facing seller positions, bringing our expertise closer to the customer. Initial feedback from our sales team has been positive on both the compensation change and the role realignment. Moving to slide eight, our profit pillar.

作為這項變革的一部分，我們已將一些銷售支援職位的人員轉移到面向客戶的銷售職位，從而使我們的專業知識更貼近客戶。銷售團隊的初步回饋對薪酬調整和角色重新調整都給予了正面評價。接下來是第八張投影片，我們的利潤支柱。

Our consistently strong execution resulted in adjusted gross profit growth in the third quarter and across the first nine months of the year. Third quarter adjusted gross profit reached $1.8 billion, a 6.4% increase over the prior year. This growth was fueled by increased volume, improved cost of goods, and inventory management. Our strategic vendor management initiative is now on track to deliver more than $120 million in cost of goods savings for 2025. These results reflect our disciplined approach to sourcing and supplier partnerships. As we realize these benefits, we're reinvesting a portion of the savings to fuel growth by supporting innovation, expanding customer relationships, and strengthening our competitive position in the market.

我們持續強勁的執行力使得第三季以及今年前九個月的調整後毛利都實現成長。第三季調整後毛利達 18 億美元，比上年同期成長 6.4%。這一增長得益於銷售增加、商品成本降低和庫存管理改善。我們的策略供應商管理計畫目前進展順利，預計到 2025 年將節省超過 1.2 億美元的商品成本。這些成果反映了我們在採購和供應商合作方面嚴謹的態度。隨著這些收益的實現，我們將部分節省下來的資金再投資於成長，具體措施包括支持創新、拓展客戶關係以及增強我們在市場上的競爭地位。

Private label penetration among our core independent restaurant customers grew again this quarter and was over 53%. By helping customers offset inflationary pressures with lower costs, our private label offerings continue to strengthen loyalty and differentiate US foods in a highly competitive market. We are also improving operating expense productivity through UMOS and our enterprise routing initiatives, including market-led routing and our Descartes deployment. These initiatives help support our ongoing commitment to driving 3% to 5% annual productivity well into the future. In summary, I am pleased with the progress we made in the first nine months against the four pillars of our strategy and remain confident in our ability to deliver on our long-range growth algorithm. Before I pass it to Dirk, I want to recognize one of our outstanding associates, a veteran of the US Marine Corps, Kevin Connolly.

本季度，我們核心獨立餐廳客戶的自有品牌滲透率再次成長，超過 53%。透過幫助客戶降低成本來抵銷通膨壓力，我們的自有品牌產品不斷增強客戶忠誠度，並在競爭激烈的市場中使美國食品脫穎而出。我們也透過 UMOS 和我們的企業路由計畫（包括市場主導的路由和我們的 Descartes 部署）來提高營運費用效率。這些舉措有助於我們持續致力於在未來很長一段時間內實現每年 3% 至 5% 的生產力成長。總而言之，我對我們在前九個月圍繞戰略四大支柱所取得的進展感到滿意，並且對我們實現長期成長演算法的能力仍然充滿信心。在把發言權交給德克之前，我想表揚一下我們的一位傑出同事，美國海軍陸戰隊退伍軍人凱文·康諾利。

As warehouse manager at our Albany, New York distribution center, Kevin has been instrumental in driving operational excellence. Since stepping into the role nearly a year ago, he's led improvements in cross-functional communication and execution across sales, inventory replenishment, and operations. By elevating key frontline deliverables of operational quality composite and inventory accuracy, Kevin and his team have successfully reduced errors and delivered year-over-year improvement in shrink, a testament to disciplined leadership and a commitment to continuous improvement.

作為我們位於紐約州奧爾巴尼配送中心的倉庫經理，凱文在推動卓越營運方面發揮了重要作用。自近一年前上任以來，他領導改善了銷售、庫存補充和營運等跨職能部門的溝通和執行。透過提升營運品質綜合指標和庫存準確性等關鍵一線交付成果，凱文和他的團隊成功地減少了錯誤，並在損耗方面實現了逐年改進，這證明了嚴謹的領導和對持續改進的承諾。

As a result, the team successfully reduced errors per thousand and delivered a significant improvement in inventory management within the Albany facility. As Veterans Day approaches next week, we pause to honor and recognize the members of our team who have served in the US Armed Forces. We are incredibly grateful for your selfless service and your personal sacrifice for our country. Thank you, Kevin, and thank you to every veteran, past and present. Your courage and dedication inspire us all. Let me now turn the call over to Dirk to discuss our third quarter results and our updated 2025 guidance.

因此，該團隊成功降低了每千人錯誤率，並在奧爾巴尼工廠的庫存管理方面取得了顯著改善。下週即將迎來退伍軍人節，我們在此向曾在美國武裝部隊服役的團隊成員致敬和表彰。我們無比感激您為國家所做的無私奉獻和個人犧牲。謝謝你，凱文，也感謝每一位退伍軍人，無論過去或現在。你的勇氣和奉獻精神激勵著我們所有人。現在我將把電話交給德克，讓他來討論我們第三季的業績以及我們更新後的 2025 年業績指引。

Thanks Dave, and good morning everyone. This quarter, we delivered a combination of top-line growth and margin expansion, once again demonstrating the power of our strategy and execution. Our unwavering commitment to continuous improvement and operational excellence continues to advance the service experience we provide to our customers while improving our overall financial performance. These results reflect our focus on creating long-term value for our shareholders and building a more resilient, customer-centric business.

謝謝戴夫，大家早安。本季度，我們實現了營收成長和利潤率擴張的雙贏，再次證明了我們策略和執行的有效性。我們始終致力於持續改善和卓越運營，不斷提升我們為客戶提供的服務體驗，同時改善我們的整體財務表現。這些成果體現了我們致力於為股東創造長期價值，並打造更具韌性、以客戶為中心的業務。

Moving to our third quarter performance on slide 10. Net sales increased 4.8% to $10.2 billion, driven by case volume growth of 1.1% and food cost inflation and mix impact of 3.7%. If you exclude the Freshway divestiture impact, total case growth was approximately 1.6%. Independent restaurant volume growth accelerated 120 basis points from the second quarter, increasing 3.9% year-over-year, which includes 40 basis points of M&A. Healthcare performed well, growing 3.9%, and hospitality was up 2.4%. We lapped some larger wins in hospitality from the prior year and continue to see growth supported by a strong pipeline.

接下來，請看第 10 張投影片，了解我們第三季的業績表現。淨銷售額成長 4.8% 至 102 億美元，主要得益於銷售成長 1.1% 以及食品成本上漲和產品組合影響 3.7%。如果排除 Freshway 出售的影響，總案例增長約為 1.6%。獨立餐廳銷售成長較第二季加速了 120 個基點，較去年同期成長 3.9%，其中包括 40 個基點的併購成長。醫療保健產業表現良好，成長了 3.9%，旅館業成長了 2.4%。我們在酒店業取得了一些比前一年更大的成功，並且在強勁的業務儲備支持下，我們繼續保持成長勢頭。

Our chain restaurant volume improved 160 basis points sequentially, but remained down 2.4% compared to the prior year, primarily due to the strategic exit that we discussed last quarter, partially offset by the recent onboarding of new business wins. Shifting to our financial performance, we delivered earnings growth and drove margin expansion again this quarter. Adjusted EBITDA of $505 million increased 11% through a combination of volume growth, gross profit improvement, and operating expense productivity. As a result, adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 28 basis points.

我們的連鎖餐廳銷量環比增長了 160 個基點，但與上年同期相比仍下降了 2.4%，這主要是由於我們上個季度討論的戰略退出，部分被最近新業務的拓展所抵消。從財務業績來看，本季我們再次實現了獲利成長和利潤率擴張。經調整後的 EBITDA 為 5.05 億美元，成長了 11%，這得益於銷售成長、毛利提高和營運費用效率的提高。因此，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率提高了 28 個基點。

Finally, adjusted diluted EPS increased 26% to $1.07 per share We expect to continue growing adjusted EPS at a meaningfully faster rate than adjusted EBITDA through a combination of earnings growth and share repurchases. Returning to slide 11, our focus on driving continuous improvement resulted in another strong quarter of operating leverage gains. Adjusted gross profit per case improved 41 cents or 5.2% compared to the prior year. This was driven by our progress on various gross profit initiatives, including strategic vendor management and inventory loss reductions that Dave addressed earlier.

最後，經調整的稀釋每股收益成長了 26%，達到每股 1.07 美元。我們預計，透過獲利成長和股票回購，經調整的每股盈餘將繼續以顯著高於經調整的 EBITDA 的速度成長。回到第 11 張投影片，我們專注於推動持續改進，從而實現了一個季度強勁的營運槓桿收益。與前一年相比，每箱調整後毛利提高了 41 美分，增幅為 5.2%。這得益於我們在各項毛利措施的進展，包括戴夫先前提到的策略供應商管理和庫存損失減少。

Our inventory management initiative is on track to generate $35 million in savings for the full year. This initiative focuses on reducing losses from product that can't be sold due to damage or spoilage through improvements in process and insights. We've made strong progress and expect to drive additional savings in 2026. Adjusted operating expense per case increased $0.22, or 3.8%. We are offsetting a portion of operating cost inflation by driving productivity improvement in both operations and administration through eliminating waste and supply chain and instituting greater process discipline across the business. Both gross profit and operating expense include an approximate $0.07 per case year-over-year increase related to the Food Fanatics live show versus these amounts being spread out across quarters in the prior year.

我們的庫存管理計劃預計在全年節省 3500 萬美元。這項計劃旨在透過改進流程和提升洞察力，減少因損壞或變質而無法銷售的產品造成的損失。我們已取得顯著進展，預計在 2026 年將實現更多節省。經調整後，每例營運費用增加 0.22 美元，增幅為 3.8%。我們正在透過消除浪費和供應鏈問題，並在整個業務中建立更嚴格的流程紀律，來提高營運和管理方面的生產力，從而抵消部分營運成本上漲的影響。毛利和營運費用均包含與 Food Fanatics 現場演出相關的每箱約 0.07 美元的同比增幅，而上一年這些金額是分攤到各個季度的。

Our third-quarter and year-to-date performance demonstrates our ability to drive meaningful leverage through the P&L and deliver consistent financial results in a dynamic environment. As a result of the strong execution of our strategy, adjusted EBITDA per case increased 21 cents, or 9.9%, to $2.33. Turning to cash flow and capital allocation on slide 12. Our robust operating cash flow combined with our strong balance sheet enables us to deliver on our capital allocation priorities. Year-to-date, operating cash flow increased by $185 million to nearly $1.1 billion driven by earnings growth and a reduction in tax payments. We continue to fund strong capital investment, which ensures the vitality of our business, promotes healthy growth, and generates attractive returns.

我們第三季和年初至今的業績表明，我們有能力透過損益表實現有意義的槓桿作用，並在動態環境中取得持續的財務表現。由於我們策略的有效執行，每箱調整後 EBITDA 成長 21 美分，增幅 9.9%，達到 2.33 美元。請參閱第 12 頁投影片，以了解現金流量和資本配置。我們強勁的營運現金流量和穩健的資產負債表使我們能夠實現資本配置優先事項。今年迄今為止，受獲利成長和稅收減少的推動，營運現金流增加了 1.85 億美元，達到近 11 億美元。我們持續加大資本投入，確保業務活力，促進健康成長，並產生可觀的回報。

And we remain focused on our capital allocation priorities to maintain net leverage within our target range of two to three times, return capital to shareholders via share buybacks, and opportunistically pursue accretive Tuck and M&A. During the third quarter, we repurchased approximately $335 million of shares. And to date in 2025, we have bought 7.6 million shares for over $600 million and have $467 million remaining on our $1 billion share repurchase authorization. We ended the quarter at 2.6 times net leverage. Our debt structure is strong, and we have no long-term debt maturities until 2028. And finally, subsequent to quarter end, we signed a definitive agreement to acquire Shiitakas, an independent food distributor in Las Vegas. Now, turning to our guidance and modeling assumptions on slide 13. Given our year-to-date performance and outlook for the remainder of this year, we are updating our fiscal year 2025 guidance.

我們將繼續專注於資本配置優先事項，以將淨槓桿率維持在 2 到 3 倍的目標範圍內，透過股票回購向股東返還資本，並抓住機會進行增值收購和併購。第三季度，我們回購了約 3.35 億美元的股票。截至 2025 年，我們已購買了 760 萬股股票，價值超過 6 億美元，在我們 10 億美元的股票回購授權中還剩下 4.67 億美元。本季末，我們的淨槓桿率為 2.6 倍。我們的債務結構穩健，2028 年之前沒有長期債務到期。最後，在季度末之後，我們簽署了最終協議，收購了拉斯維加斯的獨立食品分銷商 Shiitakas。現在，讓我們來看看第 13 頁投影片上的指導和建模假設。鑑於我們今年迄今的業績以及對今年剩餘時間的展望，我們正在更新 2025 財年的業績指引。

Given the continued lower restaurant foot traffic and dynamic macro environment, we are tightening our total case volume growth to 1% to 2% from 1% to 3%. We now expect net sales growth to be in the range of 4% to 5%. Due to our solid progress this year and our ability to deliver profitable growth and enhance margins, we are now projecting adjusted EBITDA growth of 10% to 12%. We are increasing the low and high end of our guidance for adjusted diluted EPS, and we now expect adjusted diluted EPS growth of 24% to 26%. I am pleased with the progress we've made this year in executing across our business. We are growing our top line, gaining share, expanding margins, and deploying our strong cash flow toward our capital priorities. Our disciplined approach to strategic investment operational efficiency, and shareholder returns positions us well for sustained success, and we remain fully committed to achieving the financial targets outlined in our long-range plan. With that, I'll now pass it back to Dave for his closing remarks. Thanks, Dirk.

鑑於餐廳客流量持續下降和宏觀環境動態變化，我們將總銷量成長從 1% 至 3% 收緊至 1% 至 2%。我們現在預計淨銷售額成長將在 4% 至 5% 之間。由於我們今年取得了穩健的進展，並且能夠實現盈利增長和提高利潤率，我們現在預計調整後的 EBITDA 增長率為 10% 至 12%。我們將提高調整後稀釋每股盈餘預期的下限和上限，目前預期調整後稀釋每股盈餘將成長24%至26%。我對我們今年在業務執行方面取得的進展感到滿意。我們正在提高營收，擴大市場份額，提高利潤率，並將強勁的現金流用於我們的資本優先事項。我們嚴謹的策略性投資營運效率和股東回報策略，使我們具備了持續成功的良好基礎，我們將繼續全力以赴實現長期計劃中概述的財務目標。接下來，我將把發言權交還給戴夫，請他作總結發言。謝謝你，德克。

Our third quarter and year-to-date results are strong. We're accelerating independent case growth, sharpening our focus on productivity and operational excellence to better serve our customers, and consistently delivering top and bottom line growth. We have a clear ambition to become the undisputed best in our industry. We have the right strategy and the right initiatives in place, and we will continue to execute with discipline and purpose in support of our customers, our associates, and our shareholders. Our most important differentiator, however, remains our strong and highly talented team.

我們第三季和年初至今的業績表現強勁。我們正在加速獨立案例成長，更加重視生產力和卓越運營，以更好地服務客戶，並持續實現營收和利潤成長。我們的目標很明確，就是成為業界無可爭議的佼佼者。我們擁有正確的策略和正確的舉措，我們將繼續以嚴謹的態度和明確的目標執行這些策略和舉措，以支持我們的客戶、員工和股東。然而，我們最重要的差異化優勢仍然是我們強大且有才華的團隊。

I couldn't be more pleased or proud of how our 30,000 associates embrace our ambition. In my 40-plus year career, I've not witnessed the level of alignment, dedication, and passion that our associates bring each and every day to help our customers make it. Their commitment to our success is the heartbeat of our company and the foundation of everything we're building for the future. Before we move to Q&A, I do not have any new information to share regarding a potential combination with PFG.

我為我們3萬名員工積極擁抱我們的雄心壯志而感到無比欣慰和自豪。在我40多年的職業生涯中，我從未見過我們的員工像他們一樣，每天都如此齊心協力、盡職盡責、充滿熱情地幫助我們的客戶取得成功。他們對我們成功的承諾是我們公司的心臟，也是我們為未來所建立一切的基礎。在進入問答環節之前，關於與 PFG 的潛在合併，我沒有任何新的資訊可以分享。

We will not be taking any questions on that subject today. Let me finish by underscoring how highly confident I remain in our standalone future and ability to deliver our long-range plan and financial algorithm, which, as a reminder, is a 5% sales CAGR, 10% adjusted EBITDA CAGR, at least 20 basis points of annual adjusted EBITDA margin expansion and a 20% adjusted EPS CAGR through 2027. And we will remain disciplined as we execute our capital allocation strategy, which will enable us to be a consistent double-digit earnings compounder for many years to come. With that, Abby, please open up the line for questions.

今天我們不接受任何關於該主題的問題。最後，我想強調我對我們獨立發展的未來以及實現長期計劃和財務演算法的能力仍然充滿信心。提醒一下，我們的長期計畫和財務演算法是：到 2027 年，銷售額年複合成長率為 5%，調整後 EBITDA 年複合成長率為 10%，每年調整後 EBITDA 利潤率至少成長 20 個基點，調整後每股盈餘年複合成長率為 20%。我們將繼續嚴格執行資本配置策略，這將使我們能夠在未來多年內保持兩位數的持續獲利成長。那麼，艾比，請開放提問環節。

Thank you. And we'll now begin the question and answer session. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝。現在我們將開始問答環節。（操作說明）

Edward Kelly, Wells Fargo.

愛德華凱利，富國銀行。

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. Dave, your execution in this backdrop has been very strong, obviously, and you're demonstrating share gains. I wanted to ask you about overall total case growth, you know, which still remains somewhat sluggish. Full year guidance there, you know, we came down just a touch. So I'm curious if you could maybe talk to us about, you know, some of the incremental pressure that you might be seeing outside of the independent channel where things are going very well. And maybe as part of this, could you talk about quarter-to-date commentary and what your thinking is on Q4?

你好。各位早安。感謝您回答我的問題。戴夫，在這種背景下，你的執行力非常強，這一點顯而易見，而且你的市佔率也出現了成長。我想問您關於病例總數增長的情況，您也知道，目前病例總數增長仍然有些緩慢。全年業績預期，我們略微下調了一點。所以我很好奇，您能否和我們談談，您在獨立管道之外可能看到的一些日益增長的壓力，因為獨立管道目前發展得非常好。或許作為其中的一部分，您能否談談本季至今的業績以及您對第四季的看法？

Sure, let me start with independence, Ed, and just point out I feel really good about our momentum. We just put up the strongest number we have in the last seven quarters in independent restaurants and a backdrop that remains, I would describe it as sluggish. We haven't been anywhere close to historical foot traffic in this industry for most of my tenure here at the company, and yet you continue to see us execute very, very well. Dirk commented about the Freshway sale and the 50 basis points roughly impact that had on our total case growth, right in the middle of our prior range, had we not made that divestiture.

當然，艾德，讓我先從獨立性說起，我只想指出，我對我們目前的發展勢頭感到非常滿意。我們剛剛取得了獨立餐廳近七季以來最強勁的業績，而大環境依然低迷，我只能用「疲軟」來形容。在我任職公司的大部分時間裡，我們公司的客流量遠未達到行業歷史水平，但你們仍然可以看到我們執行得非常出色。Dirk 評論了 Freshway 的出售，以及它對我們的總銷量增長大約 50 個基點的影響，這正好在我們之前的範圍的中間，如果我們沒有進行那次剝離的話。

So underlying momentum is still very strong. For the quarter, I was pleased to see that we gained share each month of the quarter, and importantly, finished at the strongest growth rate in September, which, as I commented, carried over into October. I'd say with the government shutdown, some choppiness out there, and just remind everyone that we are over-indexed with government business. It shows up in our other category through our GPO relationships.

因此，潛在動能依然非常強勁。本季度，我很高興地看到我們每個月的市場份額都有所增長，更重要的是，我們在 9 月份實現了最強勁的增長，正如我之前所說，這種增長勢頭延續到了 10 月份。我想說，由於政府停擺，市場出現了一些波動，提醒大家，我們目前政府業務佔過高。它透過我們的 GPO 關係出現在我們的其他類別中。

We serve a lot of military bases. And it's not as much just the impact on that volume. I think it's more about people not knowing if they're going to get paid and not going out to eat and all the things that are impacting the local markets there up and down the East Coast. But that's going to correct itself. And what we're focused on is the same thing we've been focused on for the last three years, is controlling our own destiny through our own initiatives and importantly, taking share consistently, which we continue to do. And I fully expect that that's going to continue.

我們為許多軍事基地提供服務。而且，影響的不僅是銷售量。我認為這更多的是因為人們不知道自己能否拿到工資，不敢外出用餐，以及所有這些影響東海岸各地當地市場的因素。但這種情況會自行好轉的。而我們關注的重點，與我們過去三年一直關注的重點相同，那就是透過我們自己的舉措來掌控我們自己的命運，更重要的是，持續地獲取市場份額，而我們也一直在這樣做。我完全相信這種情況會持續下去。

Great, and then along the lines of control your own destiny, Dave, I was hoping that you could provide a little bit more color around the change in Salesforce compensation. I don't think it's unique that you're going to 100% variable, but it is a change for your Salesforce. Could you just maybe talk about what a typical salesperson at US Foods is going to see here? Well, some people make less money, some people make more money initially. and how you mitigate any risk associated with potential turnover.

太好了，戴夫，說到掌控自己的命運，我希望你能更詳細地介紹一下 Salesforce 薪酬的變化。我認為你完全採用可變資料策略並不是什麼特別的事情，但這對你的 Salesforce 來說確實是一個改變。您能否談談美國食品公司（US Foods）的普通銷售人員在這裡會看到什麼？嗯，有些人一開始收入較低，有些人一開始收入較高。關鍵在於如何降低潛在人員流動所帶來的風險。

Very good questions, Ed. And let me just tell you, I have high confidence in our ability to execute this transition. As I commented, this isn't something that we just thought about last weekend. We've been working on this since the better part of this year. And importantly, just some inside thinking here. I was contemplating this change the day I showed up here because I think it's the right way to compensate our sellers. I want them to be incented to grow as fast as they possibly can and importantly make as much money as they possibly can.

艾德，你問得很好。我只想說，我對我們完成這次過渡的能力非常有信心。正如我之前所說，這並不是我們上週末才想到的事情。我們從今年大部分時間都在研究這個問題。而且，更重要的是，這裡還有一些內部想法。我到這裡的那天就開始考慮這項改變，因為我認為這是補償我們賣家的正確方式。我希望激勵他們盡可能快地成長，更重要的是，盡可能多賺錢。

And if you have the comp plan designed right, the more they make, the better it is for them and the better it is for growth and for the business and for the company. And so obviously we'll be thoughtful about the change management process here. We've got a very robust plan in place. I'm most excited about, obviously, you would expect I didn't announce this to our sales force on this call today. We've been talking a lot about this internally, and as I commented, people are excited about it and eager, and I believe it's going to help us further accelerate our growth. So we'll manage it thoughtfully. We'll manage the transition thoughtfully with each individual. We're already having those conversations. and I think it means great things for the future.

如果薪酬方案設計得當，員工收入越高，對自己越有利，對企業發展和公司也越有利。因此，我們顯然會認真考慮這裡的變革管理流程。我們已經制定了一套非常完善的計畫。最讓我興奮的是，很顯然，你們肯定也料到，我今天並沒有在這次電話會議上向我們的銷售團隊宣布這件事。我們內部一直在討論這個問題，正如我所說，大家對此感到興奮和渴望，我相信這將有助於我們進一步加速發展。所以我們會謹慎處理。我們會與每個人周全地協商安排過渡事宜。我們已經在進行這些對話了。我認為這對未來來說意義重大。

Great, thank you.

太好了，謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

John Heinbockel, Guggenheim.

約翰海因博克爾，古根漢美術館。

Hey Dave, I wanted to start with the team-based selling change. So how many of those folks, because I think that piece is a good-sized number, how many of those are transitioning to this new role is that new role, is it customer-facing in the sense that they will be actual salespeople from where they were before? And what does that do, if that's relatively true, what does that do to sort of the growth rate in the sales force going into next year?

嘿，戴夫，我想先談談團隊銷售模式的改變。那麼，這些人中有多少人（因為我認為這部分人數相當可觀）正在轉型到這個新角色？這個新角色是否是面向客戶的，也就是說，他們將從以前的職位成為真正的銷售人員？如果情況大致如此，那麼這對明年銷售團隊的成長率會有什麼影響？

Yeah, I think the overwhelming majority of those folks that were in those roles have been offered seller roles, definitely customer-facing, Ed. They're excited about it. They see the logic behind the change, and importantly, we're retaining all of that expertise inside the company. So they're up and running. It'll have a one-time bump effect in terms of our seller headcount, but that's not the way we're thinking about it. This is a one-time change. Importantly, we're running about 5% plus or minus sales headcount additions through this year. We'll finish in that 5% to 6% range for the full year. and staying consistent with our approach to low- to mid-single-digit headcount additions.

是的，我認為絕大多數擔任過那些職位的人都獲得了銷售崗位，肯定是面向客戶的崗位，埃德。他們對此感到很興奮。他們理解這項改變背後的邏輯，更重要的是，我們將所有這些專業知識保留在了公司內部。所以他們已經恢復營運了。這會對我們的銷售人員數量產生一次性的成長效應，但這並不是我們考慮的重點。這是一次性變更。重要的是，我們今年的銷售人員數量將增加約 5% 左右。全年成長率將保持在 5% 到 6% 的範圍內，並將繼續堅持我們低至個位數增員的策略。

And then the follow-up is, you know, you talked about the double-digit increase in penetration accounts, you know, in terms of their, I guess, their volume. You know, where does that take, if you look at where they were on penetration before, where they are afterwards, you know, where does that take? And that obviously is a pretty good lift. I know you want to make sure that it's totally incremental. What's the gating factor? I know you increased markets, trucks, et cetera, but the gating factor on rolling that out?

然後後續是，你知道，你談到了滲透帳戶的兩位數增長，你知道，就它們的，我想，數量而言。你知道，如果你看看他們之前的滲透率，再看看他們之後的滲透率，你會發現，這會帶來怎樣的結果？這顯然是一次相當不錯的提升。我知道你想確保它是完全漸進的。進入門檻是什麼？我知道你們增加了市場、卡車數量等等，但推廣過程中遇到的障礙是什麼？

You're talking about pronto penetration, right? Yes. Just as a reminder, when we go into a new market, We go with a limited number of trucks to prove the model. And, you know, we did enough piloting that we're confident that we're going to maintain the profitability and importantly not cannibalize our existing broad-line business. But that's something we have to check every market, John, and that's why we go in with a relatively small number of trucks. That's why I made that comment that we will continue to drive growth through additional trucks in these markets as they make sense. The double-digit uplift is exciting, but again, it's to a limited number of customers. But importantly for us, it just validates the model, market by market, and it gives us the confidence to go lean in harder. Exiting the year at a billion dollars is a significant uptick in where we hope to be, and we'll see when a billion and a half comes along.

你指的是快速滲透，對吧？是的。再次提醒大家，當我們進入一個新市場時，我們會先投入有限數量的卡車來驗證這個模式。而且，你知道，我們已經進行了足夠的試點，因此我們有信心保持盈利能力，更重要的是，不會蠶食我們現有的綜合業務。但約翰，這是我們每個市場都需要檢查的事情，所以我們只投入相對較少的卡車。這就是為什麼我說過，我們將繼續透過在這些市場增加卡車數量來推動成長，只要這樣做是合理的。兩位數的成長令人興奮，但同樣，受益的客戶數量有限。但對我們來說，更重要的是，它逐一市場地驗證了我們的模式，也給了我們更努力的信心。年底營收達到10億美元，比我們希望達到的目標有了顯著提高，至於何時能達到15億美元，我們拭目以待。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Lauren Silberman, Deutsche Bank.

勞倫·西爾伯曼，德意志銀行。

Can you hear me now?

現在能聽到我說話嗎？

Yeah, good morning, Lauren.

早安，勞倫。

Okay, sorry about that. So I wanted to start with the sales comp model How do these changes impact the flow-through given just a more variable construct? And are you contemplating accelerating your pace of Salesforce growth over the next few years with the shift?

好的，抱歉。因此，我想先從銷售薪酬模型著手。在結構更加多變的情況下，這些變化會如何影響薪酬傳遞？您是否考慮在未來幾年內透過這種轉變來加速 Salesforce 的成長速度？

What was the last part of your question? Accelerating what?

你問題的最後一部分是什麼？加速什麼？

Are you contemplating accelerating the pace of the Salesforce growth above, you know, 4% or 5%?

您是否考慮加快 Salesforce 目前的成長速度，例如 4% 或 5%？

Good morning, Lauren. This is Dirk. I think overall, we still continue to like that low to mid-single digits increase rates, and that's where we expect to continue to be. The flow through our expectation is very similar to today, so this really wasn't intended to be an increase or decrease in compensation versus more linkage to the compensation with the growth. And therefore, as Dave pointed out earlier, as sellers have that 100% compensation that it links it more with their growth and the opportunity for them to earn more all while accelerating growth is our expectation.

早安，勞倫。這是德克。我認為總體而言，我們仍然喜歡個位數低到中等的成長率，而且我們預計成長率將繼續保持在這個水平。我們預期薪酬流程與今天非常相似，因此這實際上並不是要增加或減少薪酬，而是要將薪酬與成長更緊密地聯繫起來。因此，正如戴夫之前指出的那樣，由於銷售人員獲得了 100% 的補償，這讓他們與自身的成長和發展更緊密地聯繫在一起，並有機會賺取更多收入，同時加速增長，這是我們的期望。

Okay. And then it's nice to see the leverage in the P&L despite the softer top line. One of the top questions we get is your ability to hit The long-term ALGO if the macro backdrop remains challenging. So if we can, you know, current trends persist into '26, what's your confidence in being able to hit that ALGO?

好的。儘管營收疲軟，但損益表中的槓桿作用依然可圈可點，令人欣慰。我們收到的最多的問題之一是，如果宏觀環境依然充滿挑戰，你們是否有能力實現長期目標。所以，如果目前的趨勢能夠持續到 2026 年，你對實現該演算法有多大信心？

Well, I think I reaffirmed my confidence several times in my prepared remarks. I couldn't be more confident. And I would just point out to those that are concerned, we've been doing it for about 10 quarters now in a very soft macro backdrop that continues to remain sluggish. We have a tremendous amount of self-help. We've got a very clear strategy, Lauren, and our team is 100% focused on execution. Confidence is high.

嗯，我想我在準備好的發言稿中多次重申了我的信心。我信心十足。我只想向那些擔心的人指出，我們已經在宏觀經濟疲軟且持續低迷的背景下進行了大約 10 個季度的營運。我們有大量的自助資源。勞倫，我們有非常清晰的策略，我們的團隊也百分之百專注於執行。信心十足。

Thank you, guys.

謝謝大家。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Kelly Bania, BMO Capital Markets.

Kelly Bania，BMO資本市場。

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking our questions. Sure. also about the change in the commission structure. It's a pretty significant change, and I guess investors historically can be pretty cautious about how disruptive that can be on a near-term basis. So can you just maybe talk a little bit more about the change management that you're planning to support this, the kind of turnover that you do expect if you expect some and what kind of lift can this drive based in what you've seen from maybe testing this in terms of the productivity of that typical sales rep?

您好，早安。謝謝您回答我們的問題。當然。還有佣金結構的變動。這是一個相當大的變化，我想投資者歷來都會對這種變化在短期內可能造成的破壞性影響保持謹慎態度。那麼，您能否再詳細談談您計劃如何進行變革管理以支持這項工作，您預計會有什麼樣的員工流動（如果有的話），以及根據您透過測試所看到的，這項工作在提高典型銷售代表的生產力方面能帶來什麼樣的提升？

Well, I'll take the last part first, Kelly. First of all, we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't have high confidence that it was going to accelerate growth because you've heard me say many times when you change sales compensation, you have to be really thoughtful about how you do it and what potential unintended consequences you could have. and that's why we've been thinking about this for a while. We've been working on it for quite some time and the change management process is quite robust. I do not expect an increase in our turnover.

好吧，凱莉，我先回答最後一部分。首先，如果我們沒有十足的把握認為這樣做會加速成長，我們就不會這麼做。因為你們也聽我說過很多次，當你調整銷售薪酬時，你必須非常仔細地考慮如何操作以及可能產生的意想不到的後果。這就是為什麼我們已經考慮這個問題一段時間了。我們已經為此努力了相當長一段時間，變更管理流程也相當完善。我預計營業額不會增加。

We are handling this seller by seller, giving them good visibility to how they're currently compensated and what the new change will make. Any required behavior changes, you know, we're going to give them a long runway and we're going to be thoughtful about how we bring them into that 100% commission plan. The goal here is to ease people into this and make sure they have a chance to perform and understand those expectations. All that's being worked on has been worked on for quite some time already, and we'll be thoughtful about how we roll this out in 2026. So I've got a high degree of confidence, not only in the change having the right output that we intend, but also our ability to manage this quite well with our sales team. And as I said, and I'm not making it up, they're excited.

我們正在逐一處理這些賣家的問題，讓他們清楚地了解他們目前的報酬情況以及新的變化將會帶來什麼影響。對於任何必要的行為改變，我們會給他們很長的過渡期，我們會認真考慮如何讓他們融入 100% 佣金計畫中。這裡的目標是讓人們逐步適應，並確保他們有機會發揮並理解這些期望。所有正在進行的工作都已經進行了相當長一段時間，我們將認真考慮如何在 2026 年推出這些工作。因此，我不僅對變革能夠達到我們預期的效果充滿信心，而且對我們銷售團隊能夠很好地管理變革的能力也充滿信心。正如我所說，我可沒瞎編，他們都很興奮。

Okay, that's helpful. Just on the strategic vendor management, it sounds like that's coming in a little bit better than planned, which has been strong progress on that initiative already, but you've mentioned kind of reinvesting some of that. Can you just talk about that decision, the magnitude of that, and where we should see the benefits of those reinvestments?

好的，這很有幫助。就策略供應商管理而言，聽起來進展比計劃的要好一些，這項舉措已經取得了顯著進展，但您提到要對其中的一些資金進行再投資。您能否談談這項決定，這項決定的重要性，以及我們應該從這些再投資中看到哪些好處？

I'll start and then just have Dirk to pick it up. I would liken that work and that comment around reinvesting to the same way we think about productivity gains. Great companies find ways to drive productivity and efficiency, and they take a portion of that and reinvest it back into growth for the company, whether that's new people, new capabilities, investment in technology, investment in competitiveness, whatever you need to do to make sure that you can compete well. We've got to make our own way. There's nothing free here. So we continue to invest in growth and find ways to get more efficient and drive better outcomes and win-win ways. Kirk, what would you add?

我先開始，然後讓德克接手。我會把這份工作和關於再投資的評論比喻為我們思考生產力提升的方式。優秀的公司總是能找到提高生產力和效率的方法，並將其中一部分重新投入到公司的發展中，無論是引進新員工、開發新能力、投資技術、投資提升競爭力，或是採取任何必要的措施來確保公司能很好地參與競爭。我們必須自己想辦法。這裡沒有什麼是免費的。因此，我們將繼續投資於成長，並尋找提高效率、取得更好成果和實現雙贏的方法。柯克，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

The thing I would add is this is not new. We've been talking about this for a number of quarters where it's, you know, as we drive this value, then it does allow us to be thoughtful in how we reinvest in that growth with different customers.

我想補充的是，這並非什麼新鮮事。我們已經討論這個問題好幾個季度了，你知道，當我們創造這種價值時，它確實使我們能夠認真思考如何將這種成長再投資於不同的客戶。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Jeffrey Bernstein, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的傑弗裡·伯恩斯坦。

Great. Thank you very much. First question is, Dave, I know you mentioned no update on the performance food discussions. Totally appreciate that. Just wondering, as you run your business, business as usual, I'm just wondering whether you're seeing any change in how people look at your business, whether customer behavior, perhaps holding off on giving new business until the process settles, perhaps hesitation by salespeople to join, not knowing the future. I could see where there would be some uncertainty. I presume, therefore, a rapid resolution would be the best scenario. But just wondering if there's been any implications on your business as this process unfolds. And then I had one follow-up.

偉大的。非常感謝。戴夫，第一個問題是，我知道你提到關於運動營養的討論還沒有新的進展。非常感謝。我只是好奇，在您照常經營業務的同時，您是否注意到人們對您業務的看法發生了任何變化，例如客戶行為，他們是否會等到情況穩定後再開展新業務，或者銷售人員是否會因為對未來感到不確定而猶豫是否加入。我能理解為什麼會有一些不確定性。因此，我認為迅速解決問題是最好的結果。只是想知道隨著這個過程的展開，是否對您的業務產生了任何影響。然後我還有一次後續跟進。

Thanks, Jeff, for the question. And really, there hasn't been any impact. We haven't seen that at the customer level. We certainly haven't seen it internally. As we said, going into this, we would maintain our focus on day-to-day execution. hopefully our results support that. And importantly, we haven't had any challenges attracting new sales talent. I talked about being in that 5% to 6% range for the year, and we've been at this for a while now, so we're still having robust incoming new sales classes, and people are excited to be here.

謝謝傑夫的提問。實際上，並沒有產生任何影響。我們在客戶層面還沒有看到這種情況。我們內部肯定沒有看過。正如我們之前所說，我們將繼續專注於日常執行。希望我們的結果能夠證明這一點。更重要的是，我們在吸引新的銷售人才方面沒有遇到任何困難。我之前說過今年的成長率要維持在 5% 到 6% 的範圍內，而且我們已經為此努力了一段時間，所以我們仍然有強勁的新銷售人員加入，大家都很興奮能來到這裡。

Understood. And then my follow-up is just on the restaurant industry. We've heard from many restaurants over the past week, and they all talk about a slowing trend in October, which you haven't seen, which curious to know why you think that is, but they've talked specifically about the younger age cohort and the lower income and perhaps Hispanic. Just wondering whether you see any evidence on any of those specific groups based on your customer demand, and then just write why you perhaps haven't seen any change in trajectory in October if a lot of restaurants are talking about such. Thank you.

明白了。接下來，我的後續研究將聚焦在餐飲業。過去一周，我們採訪了很多餐廳，他們都提到10月份生意有所放緩，而你並沒有看到這種情況，我們很好奇你為什麼這麼認為。他們特別提到了年輕族群、低收入族群，或許還有西班牙裔族群。我只是想知道，根據顧客需求，您是否看到任何關於這些特定群體的證據，然後請解釋一下，如果很多餐廳都在談論這種情況，為什麼您在 10 月沒有看到任何趨勢變化。謝謝。

Yeah, thanks, and don't want to misrepresent anything. I think I used the word sluggish, you know, more recently. I think it's related to the government shutdown and some of the uncertainty. You know, we're operating in an environment here for several years now where consumer confidence has been a challenge. The knock-on effect from the government shutdown certainly impacts consumer confidence, and I think that's what we're saying and seeing, you know, broadly. certain markets, as I mentioned earlier, in a response up and down the East Coast are more challenged with the more government headcount and those challenges. But again, I just keep coming back to our execution is our execution. We have significant ability to take market share, and that's where our team is focused. And when the shutdown gets resolved, when the consumer confidence gets back to where it needs to be, we're going to be extremely well-positioned because of the work our team has done over the past two, three years.

是的，謝謝，我不想歪曲事實。我覺得我最近用過「遲緩」這個詞。我認為這與政府停擺和一些不確定因素有關。你知道，我們這裡過去幾年一直面臨消費者信心不足的挑戰。政府停擺的連鎖反應無疑會影響消費者信心，我認為這正是我們目前普遍觀察到的情況。正如我之前提到的，某些市場，尤其是東岸沿線的市場，由於政府人員眾多，面臨的挑戰更大。但是，我始終認為，執行力就是我們的執行力。我們擁有強大的市佔率取得能力，這也是我們團隊的工作重點。當停擺結束，消費者信心恢復到應有的水平時，由於我們團隊在過去兩三年所做的工作，我們將處於非常有利的地位。

Got it. But no change in different cohorts that you've noticed or different segments of the industry may be seeing a change in trend?

知道了。但您沒有註意到不同群體或行業不同領域出現任何趨勢變化嗎？

Well, I think, you know, we pointed to the low-income consumer being pressured for a while. That's not a new thought. I don't think anything has changed there. Some of the ethnic challenges, you know, I think that ebbs and flows, and for us, You know, it's really a market-by-market impact. You know, we've seen some of that in some markets, not so much in others. But I would just, again, just point back to consumer confidence being challenged, low-end consumers being challenged. No real change in that. And then you overlay the shutdown and all that uncertainty, and, yeah, it's a little choppy out there. Thank you. Thank you.

嗯，我想，你知道，我們已經指出低收入消費者一段時間以來一直面臨著壓力。這並非什麼新觀點。我認為那裡的情況沒有任何變化。你知道，一些種族方面的挑戰，我認為時而出現時而消失，對我們來說，你知道，這真的是一個市場一個市場地產生的影響。你知道，我們在某些​​市場看到了這種情況，但在其他市場則不然。但我還是要再次強調，消費者信心正受到挑戰，低端消費者正受到挑戰。這一點沒有實質改變。再加上停工和各種不確定性，是的，外面的情況有點動盪不安。謝謝。謝謝。

Alex Slagle, Jefferies.

Alex Slagle，傑富瑞集團。

Thanks, good morning. The triple comps, I guess just stepping back, okay. You're cutting out.

謝謝，早安。三重比較，我想，先退一步吧，好吧。你正在退出。

We're having trouble hearing you, Alex. You're cutting out significantly.

我們聽不清楚你說話，Alex。你大幅減少了開支。

Can you hear me now? For the moment, yeah. All right, so on the role realignment... More broadly around decentralizing portions of your... I'm sorry, Alex.

現在能聽到我說話嗎？目前來看，是的。好的，那麼關於角色調整…更廣泛地說，是關於分散你部分職能…對不起，亞歷克斯。

We'll have to catch you offline. We just can't hear you. I'm sorry. We'll catch you later.

我們得找個線下時間再聯絡你。我們聽不到你的聲音。對不起。我們待會兒再見。

Jacob Aiken-Phillips, Mellius Research.

Jacob Aiken-Phillips，Mellius Research。

Hi. Good morning, everyone. So I wanted to ask a follow-up on the sales compensation change. You said it's later for 2026 rollout, but also that you're working with all the salespeople. I was curious, should we expect it to be more phased throughout 2026, or is there a date where a large percentage of the sales force will change over? I understand you're trying to minimize turnover, but I would expect at least some level and I'm trying to see if that's more phased or if there's a point in time.

你好。各位早安。所以我想就銷售薪酬調整事宜再問一下。您說過要等到 2026 年才能推出，但也表示您正在與所有銷售人員合作。我很好奇，我們是否應該預期這個過程會在 2026 年分階段進行，還是會有一個日期，屆時大部分銷售人員將完成轉型？我知道你們想盡量減少人員流動，但我認為至少會有一定的流動率，我想看看這種流動是分階段進行的，還是會有一個特定的時間點。

Yeah, the phasing is more around the piloting work we're doing in the fourth quarter that I referred to. We'll do some transition and we'll give visibility into both methods of payment for some period of time. And then we'll pick a date certain and make the move.

是的，分階段實施更多是圍繞著我們在第四季度開展的試點工作，我之前已經提到過。我們會進行一些過渡，並在一段時間內讓大家了解這兩種支付方式。然後我們會選定一個確切的日期，然後採取行動。

All right, got it. And then I guess more broadly, You highlighted strong progress across vendor management, inventory loss reduction, Dakar, private label, a bunch of stuff. And a lot of these are transitions from you've been building the capabilities to running them now. Which of those have the most incremental runway in the next one to two years, and which of them are most insulated from the current restaurant traffic environment?

好的，明白了。然後，我想更廣泛地說，您重點介紹了供應商管理、庫存損失減少、達卡計劃、自有品牌等諸多方面取得的巨大進展。其中很多都是從你一直在建構的能力到現在實際運用這些能力的過渡階段。在未來一到兩年內，哪些餐廳的發展空間最大？哪些餐廳最能免於目前餐飲客流量環境的影響？

Good morning, Mr. Dirk. all of them almost all of them are insulated they drive I mean they're really part of the self-help focus and story that we have here the things that we can control and all of them continue to have runway ahead of them they contribute at different levels so strategic vendor management is one of our larger initiatives so that one we expect to continue to generate incremental value but each of those that you cited will continue to drive value that's why that portfolio approach we have to things that we're doing to drive, whether it's gross profit gains, market share gains, OpEx productivity, there's not two or three things that are driving it.

早上好，德克先生。幾乎所有這些因素都相互獨立，它們都在發揮作用。我的意思是，它們確實是我們這裡自助理念和故事的一部分，是我們能夠控制的事情，而且它們都還有很大的發展空間，它們在不同層面上做出貢獻。策略供應商管理是我們最重要的舉措之一，我們預期它將繼續創造增量價值。但您提到的每一項都將繼續創造價值，這就是為什麼我們採用組合方法來推動我們正在做的事情，無論是毛利成長、市場份額成長還是營運支出效率提升，都不是兩三件事在單獨驅動的。

There's a managed portfolio. And as different aspects of that come to maturity, then we have other things that are ramping up. And that's what really gives us that confidence that Dave alluded to again, yet today of our ability to continue to drive earnings growth and achieve our long range plan algorithm that we've outlined. Thank you.

這是一個管理型投資組合。隨著各方面的成熟，其他一些事情也會隨之加速發展。而這正是戴夫今天再次提到的那種信心的真正來源，即我們有能力繼續推動盈利增長並實現我們概述的長期計劃演算法。謝謝。

Brian Harbour, Morgan Stanley.

布萊恩‧哈伯，摩根士丹利。

Thanks. Morning, guys. Hey, Dirk, what's roughly the sort of the M&A contribution as we think about the coming quarter and maybe also just, you know, how are you thinking about kind of inflation in Mexico?

謝謝。早上好，各位。嘿，德克，考慮到即將到來的季度，併購活動大概會做出怎樣的貢獻？另外，你如何看待墨西哥的通貨膨脹？

M&A has been in that 30, 40 basis points. I would expect it probably stays around that level. You have one that rolls off as you get a little later in the quarter, but then the other smaller one that we announced today will close at some point in the quarter. And so I think it'll stay around that 30, 40 basis points of impact. Inflation, you know, we saw it pretty stable. It ticked up a little bit in the quarter, right at three. than all the categories that you've heard others talk about, whether beef and other COP categories. But other than that, grocery stays pretty stable, so commodities are moving around, but I think it's still in that healthy spot of 2% to 3%, and that's where I would expect that it likely continues to stay.

併購活動一直維持在30到40個基點之間。我估計它可能會維持在這個水平附近。其中一項會在本季度後期逐步結束，但我們今天宣布的另一個規模較小的項目將在本季度的某個時候結束。所以我認為影響幅度會維持在 30 到 40 個基點左右。通貨膨脹方面，我們看到它相當穩定。本季略有上升，達 3%。比你聽其他人談論的所有類別都要高，無論是牛肉還是其他 COP 類別。但除此之外，食品雜貨價格相當穩定，雖然商品價格有所波動，但我認為波動幅度仍然在 2% 到 3% 的健康範圍內，而且我預計波動幅度可能會繼續保持在這個水平。

Okay, got it.

好的，明白了。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Thanks. The comment about, you know, kind of AI was interesting, just how that's driving conversion. What are some other uses of that that you see in the business?

謝謝。關於人工智慧的評論很有意思，它談到了人工智慧如何推動轉換率。您認為它在商業領域還有哪些用途？

Well, we're really using it, as Dave mentioned in his comments, pretty broad-based. And I mean, it informs that, it informs some of our online recommendations to customers of either products that they haven't bought or others have, various aspects of the digital marketing. It also informs A lot of the models behind our routing are letting customers know where their truck is, when it's supposed to arrive. And then the thing we've talked a lot about is the order guide for our sellers where they can basically pull together the proposal for a customer, for a local customer, in 15 or 20 minutes for something used to take them two or three hours. And so we're applying it broadly for sales growth and productivity, but a big focus on things that have some impact now as opposed to what's just going to be neat and cool or deliver value in five to seven years. So our team, it's the business team and the digital team and the AI development team that are all working together to really prioritize and bring these things to market and advance those capabilities.

正如戴夫在評論中提到的那樣，我們確實在廣泛地使用它。我的意思是，它為我們向客戶在線推薦他們尚未購買或其他人已購買的產品提供了信息，這涉及到數位行銷的各個方面。它還告知客戶，我們路線規劃背後的許多模型都在讓客戶知道他們的卡車在哪裡，以及卡車應該何時到達。然後，我們一直在討論的是賣家的訂單指南，他們基本上可以在 15 或 20 分鐘內為客戶（尤其是本地客戶）準備好提案，而以前他們需要兩三個小時才能完成。因此，我們將其廣泛應用於銷售成長和生產力提升，但重點放在那些現在就能產生影響的事情上，而不是那些只會很酷炫或在五到七年內才能產生價值的事情上。所以我們的團隊，包括業務團隊、數位團隊和人工智慧開發團隊，都在共同努力，真正優先考慮並將這些產品推向市場，並推動這些能力的發展。

Mark Carden with UBS. Your line is open.

瑞銀集團的馬克卡登。您的線路已開通。

Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. So I want to start with a follow-up on the Shatakas. Hey, guys. I want to start off with a follow-up on the Shatakas acquisition. Just how does this mix of business compare to some of the other recent purchases you made, like Jakes, IWC, and Saladinos? And then more broadly, how are you thinking about your approach and pacing to more traditional bolt-on M&A? essentially while you're undergoing the cleanroom exercise.

早安.謝謝您回答問題。所以我想先跟進《沙塔卡經》。嘿，夥計們。我想先跟進一下Shatakas的收購情況。這種業務組合與您最近收購的其他一些公司（例如 Jakes、IWC 和 Saladinos）相比如何？更廣泛地說，您如何看待您向更傳統的附加式併購過渡的方法和節奏？基本上就是在你進行無塵室演練的時候。

Well, with Shatakis, you know, it fits exactly our model. It's got a pretty even mix of casino business and independent restaurants. And if you think about our footprint in Vegas, that's exactly where we're focused. So we love it from that standpoint. And just M&A strategy in general, Mark, as you've heard us say, is really a market-by-market play around tuck-in acquisitions, really to improve our local market density, take miles out of our routing, and we lean heavily on our three core target customer types, but specifically independent restaurants, and this one fits that exactly. Our pipeline's strong. As we've said, you never can control when one of these things comes out, but we continue to have robust conversations. in our broad-line business and really focused on the independent space.

嗯，沙塔基斯，你知道，它完全符合我們的模式。賭場和獨立餐廳的比例相當均衡。如果你想想我們在拉斯維加斯的業務佈局，你會發現那正是我們關注的重點。所以從這個角度來看，我們很喜歡它。馬克，正如你聽我們說過的那樣，我們整體的併購策略實際上是逐個市場地進行收購，旨在提高本地市場密度，縮短路線，我們非常依賴我們的三個核心目標客戶類型，特別是獨立餐廳，而這筆收購恰好符合這一點。我們的人才儲備充足。正如我們所說，你永遠無法控制這些事情何時發生，但我們一直在進行深入的討論。我們在綜合業務領域，尤其關注獨立領域。

Okay, great. And then it sounds like some continued demand in healthcare and hospitality. You called out some nice anticipated wins there. Would you consider the pipeline of business to be deviating much from your initial expectations on that front? And then I guess within hospitality, how is growth progressing between your lodging and non-lodging segments?

好的，太好了。聽起來醫療保健和旅館業的需求仍然存在。你預測到了一些不錯的預期勝利。您認為目前業務進展與您最初的預期相比有較大偏差嗎？那麼，在飯店業內部，您的住宿和非住宿業務板塊的成長情況如何呢？

Sure, we're quite pleased with the pipeline there. Our team continues to do a quite nice job of maintaining a strong pipeline, and I think that's really more of a testament to the value proposition that we can bring to customers. And so I'm confident that we'll continue to drive healthy levels of growth in both of those customer types. I think overall, from a hospitality perspective, Lodging has actually been pretty solid for us in the last few months. I know there's been some challenges in occupancy and whether it's Vegas or some other places. So that's still kind of hit or miss across the country, whether it be fewer international travelers, et cetera. But it's holding up well. But at the same time, a big part of the growth there for us continues to be this net new account business that the team has converted and will continue to convert going forward.

當然，我們對那裡的管道狀況非常滿意。我們的團隊在保持強勁的業務成長方面做得相當出色，我認為這更能證明我們能夠為客戶帶來的價值。因此，我有信心我們將繼續在這兩類客戶群中保持健康的成長水準。我認為總體而言，從飯店服務業的角度來看，在過去幾個月裡，住宿業務實際上一直相當穩健。我知道入住率方面遇到了一些挑戰，無論是拉斯維加斯還是其他地方。所以，這種情況在全國各地仍然時好時壞，例如國際旅客減少等等。但它目前狀況良好。但同時，我們業務成長的很大一部分仍然是團隊已經轉換並將繼續轉換的新增客戶業務。

Great. Thanks so much. Good luck, guys.

偉大的。非常感謝。祝你們好運。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Jake Bartlett, Truist Securities.

Jake Bartlett，Truist Securities。

Great. Thanks for taking the question. Mine was about the market share gains in independence. And all three of the large players are accelerating case growth of independence. It seems like there's an acceleration of market share gains by the larger players in general. I guess I'm wondering why you think that's happening. Is that a trend or are there dynamics in the marketplace where that is particularly suited for market share gains from the larger players and whether you'd expect that to continue or even accelerate from here?

偉大的。感謝您回答這個問題。我的研究是關於獨立市場份額的成長。這三大玩家都在加速獨立案例的成長。整體而言，大型企業似乎正在加速擴大市場佔有率。我想知道你為什麼認為會發生這種情況。這是一種趨勢，還是市場動態使得這種做法特別有利於大型企業獲得市場佔有率？你認為這種趨勢會持續下去，甚至會加速嗎？

I don't think I would point to Anything different in terms of the market dynamics, Jake, around that? I mean, you go back even to our Investor Day, the big three have consolidated this industry and taken share for a long time broadly at ebbs and flows. Importantly for us, we've got 18 consecutive quarters of it in independent restaurants. It's nothing new for us. We've talked in the past about how we use the Shekinah data to really target by zip code where the opportunities are. Our sales forces really embrace that. We make sure we have the right assortment in place before we target a certain type of customer within those markets. And so it's, you know, it's our process continuing to mature is what I'd really point to that's driving our success. Nothing really new, and I don't really see any changes in the market dynamic there.

傑克，我覺得就市場動態而言，應該不會有什麼不同吧？我的意思是，即使追溯到我們的投資者日，三大巨頭也已經整合了這個行業，並在長期的市場波動中佔據了相當大的市場份額。對我們來說重要的是，我們已經連續 18 個季度在獨立餐廳實現了這一目標。這對我們來說並不新鮮。我們之前討論過如何使用 Shekinah 數據，透過郵遞區號來精準定位機會所在之處。我們的銷售團隊非常認同這一點。在鎖定特定市場中的特定類型客戶之前，我們會確保擁有合適的商品組合。所以，你知道，我認為真正推動我們成功的是我們不斷改進的流程。沒什麼新鮮事，我也沒看到那裡的市場動態有任何變化。

Great. And then, you know, I'm sorry if this was answered before. If it was, I missed it. independence, case growth, or actually just traffic growth. For the chains that we've been following, October has been pretty pressured, I think, broadly. But you're talking about an acceleration for your business. One of your competitors mentioned the same. And so is independent traffic doing much better than chain? Is there kind of an outperformance there that's been accelerating in recent months, do you think?

偉大的。還有，如果這個問題之前有人問過，我很抱歉。如果真是這樣，那我錯過了。無論是獨立性、個案成長，或是流量成長，都無關緊要。我認為，就我們一直關注的這些連鎖店而言，10 月整體上都面臨著相當大的壓力。但你談的是加速業務發展。你的一個競爭對手也提到了同樣的事情。那麼獨立流量是否比鍊式流量表現好得多呢？你認為最近幾個月，這種表現是否有加速，明顯優於其他領域？

Jake, good morning. It's Dirk. So we didn't talk about acceleration in October. It's really that sort of strength relative to the quarter that we saw in September, that carrying through October. I think Dave made the comment there that in these last few weeks, choppy, I think is the word he used, which is a good word. I've heard a number of others out there use it. Just with a lot of things happening together, it's harder to get a good solid read. But in the meantime, our case growth, as you said, held up solid through October, and our team's going to continue to focus on gaining share and driving top-line growth. Great. Thank you.

傑克，早安。是德克。所以我們在十月沒有討論加速的問題。相對於9月的季度表現，這種強勁勢頭一直延續到了10月份。我認為戴夫當時評論說，在過去的幾周里，局勢動盪不安，我想他用的詞就是“動盪”，這個詞很貼切。我聽說還有其他人也在用它。因為很多事情同時發生，所以很難全面透徹地了解狀況。但同時，正如您所說，我們的案例成長在 10 月保持穩健，我們的團隊將繼續專注於獲取市場份額並推動營收成長。偉大的。謝謝。

Peter Salo, BTIG.

Peter Salo，BTIG。

Great. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask on the change in the seller's compensation, do you anticipate that will drive the private label penetration higher? And can you just remind us again the profitability on private label versus branded and how you guys plan to proceed there with that change in seller's compensation?

偉大的。感謝您回答這個問題。我想問一下，賣家補償的變化是否會導致自有品牌滲透率上升？您能否再次提醒我們自有品牌與品牌產品的獲利能力對比，以及在賣家佣金制度發生變化後，你們打算如何處理這方面的獲利問題？

Yeah. Private label in general is roughly twice as profitable for the company and for our sellers as manufacturers, brands, and importantly, as I commented, we're in setting for growth with independents with our private label and with Pronto and our compensation plan, so we do expect an uplift in that, and as you've heard me say many times, I don't see any near-term ceiling to our private label brand penetration opportunity. Our sellers are embracing that aggressively. I think that's why you've seen our success over the last 18 to 24 months. Importantly, our customers are embracing it because it solves problems for them. It helps them deal with inflation in a big way, and at their heart, these are great quality products that our customers are embracing. Lots more to come. We're excited about it, and certainly we're incenting our sellers in the right way to lean into our private label products.

是的。整體而言，自有品牌對公司和我們的賣家來說，利潤大約是製造商和品牌的兩倍。更重要的是，正如我之前提到的，我們正在透過自有品牌、Pronto 和我們的薪酬計劃，為獨立零售商的成長做好準備，因此我們預計這方面會有提升。而且，正如你們多次聽到我所說，我認為我們的自有品牌滲透機會在短期內不會有任何上限。我們的銷售人員正在積極擁抱這種趨勢。我認為這就是為什麼你們看到了我們在過去18到24個月裡取得成功的原因。重要的是，我們的客戶欣然接受它，因為它能為他們解決問題。它能幫助他們應對通貨膨脹，而且從本質上講，這些都是我們的客戶所喜愛的優質產品。敬請期待更多精彩內容。我們對此感到興奮，而且我們肯定會以正確的方式激勵我們的賣家大力推廣我們的自有品牌產品。

Great. And I just wanted to follow up on the comments on October. I know last October there were some storms, so maybe a slightly easier compare, but then this year we've got the government shutdown. Any more details you guys can provide on the October trend this year versus last?

偉大的。我只是想就十月份的評論做一些補充說明。我知道去年十月有一些風暴，所以也許更容易比較一下，但今年我們又遇到了政府停擺。各位能否提供更多關於今年10月份趨勢與去年同期相比的細節資訊？

Not really, Peter. I just point to my comments earlier. We roughly finished at the same growth rate we did in September, nominally that 4%, and a little stronger in the first half, a little choppier in the back half, really driven by the government shutdown. But again, we've got good momentum, and we're focused on gaining share.

其實不是，彼得。我只是想指出我之前的評論。我們最終的成長率與 9 月大致相同，名義上為 4%，上半年略有成長，下半年則略有波動，這主要是由於政府停擺造成的。但是，我們目前勢頭良好，正專注於擴大市場份額。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Karen Holthaus, Citi.

Karen Holthaus，花旗銀行。

Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. Kind of continuing on the theme of the government shutdown, thinking about more on the hospitality side of the business, would we want to think about, you know, travel disruptions and whatnot ultimately maybe, you know, filtering down and hitting that a little bit in the fourth quarter?

你好。謝謝您回答問題。繼續以政府停擺為主題，從酒店業的角度來看，我們是否應該考慮旅行中斷等等最終可能會向下蔓延，並在第四季度產生一些影響？

Good morning, Karen. I think this is one where we'll watch, like everybody else, what the implications may be. I think, you know, I don't want to diminish the impact of the shutdown, especially on the individuals impacted. But I think, you know, when you think of for the industry, you know, our expectation would be this gets addressed pretty quickly. And so when we think about what our business looks like, you know, going beyond this period of time, you know, we continue to feel very good about our ability to gain share and drive growth. that we'll manage through this period as we face some of the same macro challenges as most other businesses.

早上好，凱倫。我認為，和其他人一樣，我們會密切注意這件事可能帶來的影響。我覺得，你知道，我不想淡化停工的影響，尤其是對受影響的個人的影響。但我認為，你知道，就整個產業而言，我們期望這個問題很快就會解決。因此，當我們展望未來，考慮我們業務的發展前景時，我們仍然對提升市場份額和推動成長的能力充滿信心。我們相信，儘管我們面臨著與其他大多數企業相同的宏觀挑戰，但我們仍能順利度過這段時期。

And then one other one on the chain side of the business. I know there's a pretty big exit in 2Q and then more recently spoke to some business coming on board. How should we think of the sort of net on-board, off-board evolving through the next couple of quarters for that piece of the business?

還有一位是負責連鎖業務的。我知道第二季會有相當大規模的退出，然後最近又有一些企業加入進來。我們該如何看待未來幾季該業務板塊的船上和船上淨收入的變化？

Most of the main business came on second quarter and through the third quarter, so we expect to be improved here in the fourth quarter. But then it really is going to be dictated more by just the overall traffic within our concepts. And as you probably know, Black Box is a good proxy, but really it comes down to more of a chain-by-chain performance because it's quite differentiated across them. That's an area where we'll continue to optimize the business. But overall, the onboardings that we've talked about previously are playing out as we had expected.

大部分主要業務都發生在第二季度和第三季度，因此我們預計第四季度情況會有所改善。但最終，這更取決於我們概念的整體流量。正如你可能知道的那樣，Black Box 是一個很好的代理，但實際上，這取決於每條鏈的性能，因為不同鏈之間的差異相當大。這是我們會繼續優化業務的領域。但總的來說，我們之前討論過的新員工入職流程都如預期進行。

Okay, great. Thank you.

好的，太好了。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) John Ivanko, JP Morgan. Your line is open.

（操作說明）約翰·伊万科，摩根大通。您的線路已開通。

Hi, thank you. The question is about independent restaurants, and specifically on the credit side, which obviously broadliners and food service distributors are somewhat in the business of issuing credit, even if extremely short-term, to your customers. So the question was around the benefit that your sales force being close to customers, and maybe even AI to some extent giving you some data, putting you close to customers that are maybe helping you make more informed credit decisions. In some cases, you know, people deserve a little bit more time or more help, especially to open new restaurants. And in other cases, it actually might make sense to pull back credit and not extend some terms.

您好，謝謝。這個問題是關於獨立餐廳的，特別是關於信貸方面的，顯然，大型零售商和食品服務分銷商在某種程度上從事向顧客發放信貸的業務，即使是極短期的信貸。所以問題在於，銷售人員與客戶保持密切聯繫，甚至人工智慧在某種程度上提供一些數據，讓你更接近客戶，從而幫助你做出更明智的信貸決策，這會帶來哪些好處。你知道，在某些情況下，人們應該得到更多的時間或更多的幫助，尤其是在開設新餐廳方面。而在其他情況下，收回信貸、不延長某些期限實際上可能是合理的。

So it's not something I don't think we've talked about in some time, but, you know, just with obviously a lot of disruption just going on in various, you know, pockets of economies across the country, how you kind of feel about You know, the credit side of your business and how it could potentially be an opportunity for you. Thank you.

所以，雖然我們已經有一段時間討論過這個問題了，但是，你知道，鑑於全國各地經濟領域顯然正在發生很多混亂，你對你業務的信貸方面有什麼看法，以及這可能對你來說是一個怎樣的機會。謝謝。

Morning, John. I feel good about where our team is from a credit perspective. You know, we really try to balance the use of, you know, what the data and the tools teach us, tell us, but also, as you pointed out, those sellers and those local teams being close to the customer, that communication back and forth between them and our credit teams is a regular occurrence. and to your point, there's not one answer on everything. Sometimes the answer is that you need more time.

早安，約翰。從信用角度來看，我對我們團隊目前的狀況感到滿意。你知道，我們確實努力在數據和工具的使用上取得平衡，一方面要重視數據和工具告訴我們的訊息，另一方面，正如你所指出的，銷售人員和當地團隊與客戶聯繫緊密，他們與我們的信貸團隊之間經常進行溝通。而且正如你所說，並非所有問題都有唯一的答案。有時候，答案是你需要更多的時間。

Other times you have to have the harder decisions and other times as much as you can do all those things, you still get caught with some of that. So our team is really, I think, doing a pretty good job of managing through it and has been because that, back to Dave's point on that consumer confidence and some of the challenges out there. They're not new this quarter. They've just been different versions the last couple of years. And our team has managed pretty effectively through that. And I'm pretty confident that they can going forward. But we're definitely not taking our eye off the ball on it. Thank you.

有時候你必須做出更艱難的決定，而有時候，即使你盡力做到了所有這些事情，你仍然會遇到一些問題。所以我認為，我們的團隊在應對這種情況方面做得相當不錯，而且一直做得很好，因為，正如戴夫所說，消費者信心以及目前面臨的一些挑戰。它們並非本季新增的。過去幾年它們只是版本不同而已。我們的團隊在這方面處理得相當有效。而且我很有信心他們未來能做到。但我們絕對不會對此掉以輕心。謝謝。

Danilo Gargiulio, Bernstein.

Danilo Gargiulio，Bernstein。

Great. Thank you very much for taking the question. Eric, I was wondering if you can provide maybe more color on the progress on the semi-automated warehouses. And specifically, if you're starting shipping out of your facility in Aurora, how has your GP per case increased? And stepping back, what is your long-term aspiration in terms of automation?

偉大的。非常感謝您回答這個問題。艾瑞克，我想請你詳細介紹一下半自動化倉庫的進度。具體來說，如果您開始從位於奧羅拉的工廠發貨，您的每箱毛利潤增加了多少？退一步講，您在自動化方面的長期目標是什麼？

Good morning. So, you know, it's still pretty early since we're transitioning through there. And, you know, as you can imagine, with any transition, You work through sort of things that work well and some learnings, and our team's doing that. But we are making, continue to make progress. So at this point, I'm going to hold off on any commentary on impacts on whether it be gross profits, productivity, et cetera. But the thing that we remain quite encouraged by is we're learning from it, and we expect that automation and warehouses will play some meaningful part over time. It's just that it's almost inevitable, and it's just a matter of what we learn out of it. How do we continue to find the best ways to leverage it across our network? So more to come.

早安.所以，你知道，現在還處於過渡階段，一切都還為時過早。你知道，正如你所能想像的，任何轉型都需要經歷一些有效的做法和一些經驗教訓，我們的團隊正在這樣做。但我們正在取得進步，並將繼續取得進步。所以目前，我暫不評論其對毛利、生產力等方面的影響。但令我們頗受鼓舞的是，我們正在從中學習，我們預計自動化和倉庫將在未來的發展中發揮重要作用。只是這種情況幾乎不可避免，關鍵在於我們從中能學到什麼。我們如何繼續找到在整個網路中充分利用它的最佳方法？敬請期待更多內容。

Okay, thank you. And then on the PRONTO investment, I was wondering if you can make some or can give some incremental color on the statement of the largest investment in PRONTO. So is it purely in terms of trucks and in terms of markets that you're entering, or are you contemplating some incremental support to increase the amount of penetration? So an incremental color on how PRONTO could be delivering some step change in penetrating more in independent accounts. Thank you.

好的，謝謝。關於對 PRONTO 的投資，我想知道您是否可以對 PRONTO 的最大一筆投資的聲明做一些補充說明。所以，你們的計劃只是針對卡車和你們正在進入的市場，還是你們正在考慮提供一些漸進式的支持來提高市場滲透率？因此，我們可以從漸進的角度來探討 PRONTO 如何能夠更有效地滲透到獨立帳戶中，從而帶來一些改變。謝謝。

Yeah, I think with the work that we've done over the past several years, we've got great confidence in both Pronto Legacy, Pronto Penetration. We've got a lot of work going on to support that business today. So I don't think the investments are more around that. It's more trucks and people to drive those trucks. And with the confidence that we've got, you'll see us leaning in pretty hard in that in 2026. The model's proven. It's working. Our salespeople love it. It's serving our customers in a way that we had a gap. and I think it's proven out by the growth rate. So we're bullish about Pronto and we're gonna continue to invest in it.

是的，我認為憑藉我們過去幾年所做的工作，我們對 Pronto Legacy 和 Pronto Penetration 都充滿信心。我們目前正在進行大量工作來支持這項業務。所以我認為投資的重點不在於此。需要更多的卡車和駕駛這些卡車的人。憑藉我們目前的信心，你們將會看到我們在 2026 年全力以赴。該模式已被證明有效。它奏效了。我們的銷售人員都很喜歡它。它以我們之前一直未能做到的方式服務我們的客戶。我認為成長率已經證明了這一點。所以我們非常看好Pronto，並將繼續投資該公司。

And it really just, it fits so well with our balanced focus of earnings growth and improvement and return on invested capital. And as you've seen probably in our trends, we've made significant improvements in that and progress over the recent years and many of the decisions we make apply with that lens as well. And this is pretty capital light and it is a great service for our customers. Fantastic. Thank you.

而且，它與我們平衡專注於獲利成長和改善以及投資資本回報的目標非常契合。正如您可能從我們的趨勢中看到的那樣，近年來我們在這方面取得了顯著的進步和改進，我們做出的許多決定也都適用這一視角。而這項服務資本投入非常少，對我們的客戶來說是一項很棒的服務。極好的。謝謝。

And that concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the conference back over to Mr. Dave Flipman for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。現在我將把會議交還給戴夫‧弗利普曼先生，請他作閉幕致詞。

Thanks, Abby, and thanks everyone for joining us today. Our team remains focused. We're executing very well, and my confidence in our future has never been brighter. Have a great day. Appreciate you joining us. Thanks.

謝謝艾比，也謝謝今天所有到場的各位。我們的團隊依然專注。我們執行得非常出色，我對我們的未來充滿信心。祝你有美好的一天。感謝您的參與。謝謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call and we thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束，感謝各位的參與。您現在可以斷開連線了。