Vital Farms Inc (VITL) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Vital Farms Inc. Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

美好的一天，謝謝你的支持。歡迎來到 Vital Farms Inc. 2020 年第四季度收益電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於只聽模式。演講者介紹後，將進行問答環節。 （操作員說明）

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Matt Siler, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。我現在想把會議交給今天的演講者，投資者關係副總裁馬特·塞勒 (Matt Siler)。請繼續。

Thank you. Good morning. And welcome to Vital Farms Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2022 earnings conference call and web cast. I am joined on today's call by Russell Diez-Canseco, President and Chief Executive Officer; Bo Meissner, Chief Financial Officer; and Kathryn McKeon, our Chief Marketing Officer.

謝謝。早上好。歡迎來到 Vital Farms 第四季度和 2022 財年收益電話會議和網絡直播。總裁兼首席執行官 Russell Diez-Canseco 和我一起參加了今天的電話會議； Bo Meissner，首席財務官；和我們的首席營銷官 Kathryn McKeon。

By now everyone should have accessed to the company's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 earnings press release issued this morning. This is available on the Investor Relations section of the Vital Farms website at investors.vitalfarms.com.

到目前為止，每個人都應該已經看到了今天上午發布的公司第四季度和 2022 財年收益新聞稿。這可在 Vital Farms 網站 investors.vitalfarms.com 的投資者關係部分獲得。

During the course of this call, management may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements.

在此電話會議期間，管理層可能會做出聯邦證券法含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述基於管理層當前的預期和信念，涉及可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述中描述的結果存在重大差異的風險和不確定性。

Please refer to today's press release and to the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 25, 2022, which was filed with the SEC earlier today and other filings with the SEC for a detailed discussion of the risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made today.

請參閱今天的新聞稿和公司截至 2022 年 12 月 25 日的財政季度的 10-Q 表季度報告，該報告於今天早些時候提交給美國證券交易委員會，以及其他提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件，以詳細討論可能存在的風險導致實際結果與今天所做的任何前瞻性陳述中明示或暗示的結果存在重大差異。

Please note that on today's call, management will refer to adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin, which are non-GAAP financial measures. While the company believes these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information for investors, the presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to our earnings release for a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to its most comparable measure prepared in accordance with GAAP.

請注意，在今天的電話會議上，管理層將參考調整後的 EBITDA 和調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率，這些都是非 GAAP 財務指標。雖然公司認為這些非 GAAP 財務措施為投資者提供了有用的信息，但這些信息的呈現並不是為了孤立地考慮或替代根據 GAAP 呈現的財務信息。請參閱我們的收益發布，了解調整後的 EBITDA 與其根據 GAAP 編制的最可比衡量標準的對賬。

And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Russell Diez-Canseco, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vital Farms.

現在，我想把電話轉給 Vital Farms 總裁兼首席執行官 Russell Diez-Canseco。

Thanks, Matt. Good morning, and thanks, everyone, for your time today. As you'd expect on our fourth quarter call, I'm going to start by sharing updates across the business and how we delivered on our commitments to all of our stakeholders. Kathryn will speak to what makes our brand unique and why it continues to resonate with consumers. Bo will then go into more depth on our quarterly and annual financial results before we take your questions.

謝謝，馬特。早上好，謝謝大家今天的時間。正如您在第四季度電話會議上所期望的那樣，我將首先分享整個企業的最新情況以及我們如何履行對所有利益相關者的承諾。凱瑟琳 (Kathryn) 將講述是什麼讓我們的品牌與眾不同，以及為什麼它會繼續引起消費者的共鳴。在我們回答您的問題之前，Bo 將更深入地介紹我們的季度和年度財務業績。

First, let me turn to our fourth quarter financial results. In the fourth quarter, we achieved $110.1 million in net revenue. This is the highest quarterly result in our company's history. It reflects a 42.4% increase from the prior year period. Our gross margin expanded almost 500 basis points to 30.3%, and our adjusted EBITDA was $6.9 million, up $9 million from last year. Our household penetration reached a new high at 10.5 million households, which is up 45% over the prior year.

首先，讓我談談我們第四季度的財務業績。第四季度，我們實現了 1.101 億美元的淨收入。這是我們公司歷史上最高的季度業績。與去年同期相比增長了 42.4%。我們的毛利率增長了近 500 個基點，達到 30.3%，調整後的 EBITDA 為 690 萬美元，比去年增加了 900 萬美元。我們的家庭普及率達到了 1050 萬戶的新高，比上一年增長了 45%。

Looking at the 13 weeks ended December 25, 2022, the egg category experienced significant retail dollar growth of over 70%, due mostly to price inflation of conventional eggs. Significant changes in pricing over the past 6 months masks the underlying industry trends. And I believe, given this backdrop, it makes more sense to focus on unit volume when judging overall growth. Despite our portfolio-wide increase in May, we grew our retail volume significantly at over 26% over the 13 weeks ended December 25, 2022, well ahead of the shell egg category, which experienced flat volume growth of 0.1% over the same time period.

回顧截至 2022 年 12 月 25 日的 13 週，雞蛋類別的零售美元增長超過 70%，這主要是由於傳統雞蛋的價格上漲。過去 6 個月價格的重大變化掩蓋了潛在的行業趨勢。而且我相信，在這種背景下，在判斷整體增長時關注單位數量更有意義。儘管 5 月份我們的整個投資組合有所增長，但在截至 2022 年 12 月 25 日的 13 週內，我們的零售量顯著增長了 26% 以上，遠遠領先於同期銷量持平增長 0.1% 的帶殼雞蛋類別.

Looking back over the past 4 years, Vital Farms rate of volume growth at retail has outpaced the egg category by over 30% on average. We maintained this level of volume growth through various changes in prices across the category over the same time frame, all while maintaining our premium price point. While others may run into challenges caused by certain macro factors, including supply chain issues during the pandemic and more recently, the negative impact of avian influenza in the U.S. egg supply, Vital Farms continues to execute, given our steady performance during these dynamic economic situations, we're confident in our plan to maintain strong volume growth relative to the industry again in 2023.

回顧過去 4 年，Vital Farms 的零售量增長率平均超過雞蛋類別 30% 以上。我們通過在同一時間段內對整個類別的價格進行各種變化來維持這種銷量增長水平，同時保持我們的溢價點。雖然其他人可能會遇到某些宏觀因素造成的挑戰，包括大流行期間的供應鏈問題以及最近禽流感對美國雞蛋供應的負面影響，但鑑於我們在這些充滿活力的經濟形勢下的穩定表現，Vital Farms 繼續執行，我們對我們在 2023 年再次保持相對於行業的強勁銷量增長的計劃充滿信心。

Now our long-term business model. Our focus remains on driving sustainable, consistent results over time. We've been intentional about the choices we've made over the past several quarters to navigate the impacts of global forces like inflation. A testament to this way of operating is that on an annual basis, our net revenue growth CAGR is 37%, dating all the way back to 2014. Another proof point of our strategy is improvement in our profitability. To reiterate, our gross margin was about 17% in 2014 relative to more recent performance in the low to mid-30s range.

現在是我們的長期商業模式。隨著時間的推移，我們的重點仍然是推動可持續、一致的結果。在過去幾個季度中，我們一直有意識地做出選擇，以應對通貨膨脹等全球力量的影響。這種運營方式的證明是，從 2014 年開始，我們的淨收入複合年增長率為 37%。我們戰略的另一個證據是盈利能力的提高。重申一下，我們 2014 年的毛利率約為 17%，相對於最近 30 年代中期的表現。

Additionally, our adjusted EBITDA margin moved from flat to low single digits to mid- to high single digits over this time frame. While there are short-term pressures from time to time, as we have experienced recently, we remain focused on profitable growth over the long term.

此外，在此期間，我們調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率從持平到低個位數再到中到高個位數。儘管不時存在短期壓力，正如我們最近所經歷的那樣，但我們仍然專注於長期的盈利增長。

Next, I'm going to turn to our robust supply chain. We continue to strengthen our supply chain, which is a critical component for meeting our growth objectives. Last year's expansion of Egg Central Station, our world-class egg washing and packing facility significantly increased our capacity and puts us in position to support over $700 million in annual revenue from egg sales. We remain confident in our growth trajectory, and we are finalizing site selection on the next Egg Central Station facility, which we believe can take the revenue capacity of our egg business beyond $700 million. As always, we will continue to proactively eliminate bottlenecks in support of our long-term growth plans in service of our primary goal to further grow Vital Farms household penetration across the United States.

接下來，我將轉向我們強大的供應鏈。我們繼續加強我們的供應鏈，這是實現我們增長目標的關鍵組成部分。去年 Egg Central Station 的擴建，我們世界一流的雞蛋清洗和包裝設施顯著提高了我們的產能，使我們能夠支持超過 7 億美元的雞蛋銷售年收入。我們對我們的增長軌跡仍然充滿信心，我們正在完成下一個雞蛋中央站設施的選址，我們相信這可以使我們的雞蛋業務的收入能力超過 7 億美元。一如既往，我們將繼續積極消除瓶頸，支持我們的長期增長計劃，以實現我們的主要目標，即進一步提高 Vital Farms 在美國的家庭滲透率。

We continue to add new family farms to our network of over 300 so that we can achieve our long-term growth objectives. Our strong reputation in the farm community, which we built by working directly with our farmers toward long-term mutually beneficial outcomes continues to create a pipeline of new farmers who want to work with Vital Farms.

我們繼續在我們的 300 多個家庭農場中增加新的家庭農場，以實現我們的長期增長目標。我們通過與農民直接合作以實現長期互利結果而在農場社區建立了良好的聲譽，這繼續創造了希望與 Vital Farms 合作的新農民的渠道。

Next, I'd like to call your attention to 2 recent announcements related to our food service business that I believe illustrate how we partner with brands who share our values and how we are improving our distribution capabilities across the country. We continue to see strong potential in this segment of our business, and these new partnerships represent important milestones on our journey. We recently teamed up with True Food Kitchen, a restaurant and lifestyle brand with 43 locations across the United States to serve our pasture raised eggs on their menus alongside other intentionally sourced ingredients. They are an award-winning restaurant brand and pioneer of wellness-driven dining that shares our values for improving the lives of people, animals in the planet through food.

接下來，我想提請您注意最近與我們的食品服務業務相關的 2 個公告，我認為它們說明了我們如何與分享我們價值觀的品牌合作，以及我們如何提高我們在全國的分銷能力。我們繼續看到我們這一業務領域的巨大潛力，這些新的合作夥伴關係代表了我們旅程中的重要里程碑。我們最近與 True Food Kitchen 合作，True Food Kitchen 是一家餐廳和生活方式品牌，在美國擁有 43 個分店，在他們的菜單上提供我們的牧場飼養的雞蛋以及其他有意採購的食材。他們是屢獲殊榮的餐廳品牌，也是以健康為導向的餐飲先驅，與我們分享通過食物改善地球上人類和動物生活的價值觀。

True Food Kitchen sources intentionally from some of the world's most responsible and sustainable farmers and producers. We've also begun a new relationship with Dot Foods, the largest food industry redistribution company in North America to make our eggs accessible to its network of 5,200 distributors across all 50 states. This marks 2 firsts for us. We're the first egg brand Foods has ever stocked and redistributed nationally, and this is the first time our pasture raised eggs are available for national food service distribution.

True Food Kitchen 有意從世界上一些最負責任和可持續發展的農民和生產者那裡採購。我們還與北美最大的食品行業再分銷公司 Dot Foods 建立了新的合作關係，讓我們的雞蛋供應給其遍布 50 個州的 5,200 家分銷商網絡。這標誌著我們的 2 個第一。我們是 Foods 有史以來第一個在全國范圍內儲存和重新分配的雞蛋品牌，這是我們的牧場飼養的雞蛋第一次可用於全國食品服務分配。

Dot Foods enables suppliers like us to shift to distributors in less than truckload quantities every week, and they provide a bridge between the big distributors and suppliers. Dot foods redistribution model will help us reach even more food service operators from high-volume brunch spot to smaller regional chains and family-owned restaurants.

Dot Foods 使像我們這樣的供應商每週能夠將少於卡車的數量轉移給分銷商，並且它們在大型分銷商和供應商之間架起了一座橋樑。 Dot foods 再分配模型將幫助我們覆蓋更多的食品服務運營商，從大量早午餐點到較小的區域連鎖店和家庭經營的餐館。

Next, I'll share an ESG update. As some of you may have seen, we just published our 2023 impact report. This year's report recognizes the progress we've made embedding impact into our business and define short and medium-term goals that are grounded in our purpose to improve the lives of people, animals and the planet through food. We see the annual reporting process as an opportunity to illustrate the impact that has always been central to the way we do business.

接下來，我將分享 ESG 更新。正如你們中的一些人可能已經看到的，我們剛剛發布了 2023 年影響報告。今年的報告認可了我們在將影響融入我們的業務方面取得的進展，並確定了基於我們通過食物改善人類、動物和地球生活的宗旨的短期和中期目標。我們將年度報告流程視為一個機會，以說明一直以來我們開展業務的核心影響。

We're aiming to hit 3 notable goals over the next 5 years. First, we're planning to achieve 0 waste to landfill at Egg Central Station by the end of 2023.

我們的目標是在未來 5 年內實現 3 個顯著目標。首先，我們計劃到 2023 年底在 Egg Central Station 實現零垃圾填埋。

Next, we're working to scale regenerative agriculture practices to all farmers in our network by 2026.

接下來，我們正在努力到 2026 年將再生農業實踐推廣到我們網絡中的所有農民。

And finally, we're aiming to reduce carbon intensity in our operations by 25% by 2027.

最後，我們的目標是到 2027 年將運營中的碳強度降低 25%。

Our ESG strategy, like all things at Vital Farms has grown out of our commitment to creating sustainable positive outcomes for all of our stakeholders. This year's report calls out some of the important progress we've made. And while I encourage everyone to read the report, I'll call out a few highlights here.

與 Vital Farms 的所有事情一樣，我們的 ESG 戰略源於我們為所有利益相關者創造可持續積極成果的承諾。今年的報告指出了我們取得的一些重要進展。雖然我鼓勵大家閱讀這份報告，但我會在這裡提出一些要點。

We've aligned our reporting framework with the task force on climate-related financial disclosures to increase transparency. We've advanced diversity, equity and inclusion in the farming community through Vital Farms first inclusive farmer open house. And we've taken other steps outlined in the report to reach out to prospective farmers from communities that have historically been marginalized in agriculture.

我們已將我們的報告框架與氣候相關財務披露工作組保持一致，以提高透明度。我們通過 Vital Farms 的首個包容性農民開放日促進了農業社區的多樣性、公平性和包容性。我們還採取了報告中概述的其他步驟，以接觸歷史上在農業中被邊緣化的社區的潛在農民。

We thoughtfully and responsibly doubled our processing capacity this year at Egg Central Station, increasing our water recycling capabilities and adding solar panels. Egg Central Station was awarded Food Processing Magazine's 2022 Green Plant of the Year for this work. We're advancing the circular economy with 99% of our products coming in recyclable packaging and introduced a lower impact hybrid carton, transitioning our 18 count away from PET.

今年，我們深思熟慮並負責任地將 Egg Central Station 的處理能力提高了一倍，增加了我們的水回收能力並增加了太陽能電池板。 Egg Central Station 因這項工作被《食品加工雜誌》授予 2022 年度綠色植物獎。我們正在推進循環經濟，我們 99% 的產品都採用可回收包裝，並推出了一種影響較小的混合紙盒，使我們的 18 計數不再使用 PET。

We fostered a gender-balanced Board of Directors with women sharing each of our standing board committees and invested in strong female voices on our gender-balanced senior leadership team. We value diverse perspectives, which we believe help drive a more effective organization. We will remain thoughtful in each of our discussions across ESG to ensure they remain financially beneficial while driving the desired impact for each stakeholder over time.

我們培養了一個性別平衡的董事會，讓女性參與我們的每個常設董事會委員會，並在我們性別平衡的高級領導團隊中投入強有力的女性聲音。我們重視多元化的觀點，我們相信這有助於推動更有效的組織。我們將在每次關於 ESG 的討論中保持深思熟慮，以確保它們保持經濟利益，同時隨著時間的推移為每個利益相關者帶來預期的影響。

I'll now turn the call over to Kathryn to discuss some of what makes our brand unique as well as the progress we've made against one of our key goals this past year.

我現在將電話轉給凱瑟琳，討論我們品牌的一些獨特之處，以及我們在過去一年中為實現我們的一個主要目標所取得的進展。

Thank you, Russell, and thank you for the opportunity to talk to the work we're doing to grow the Vital Farms brand. I consider a genuine privilege to tell the Vital Farms story alongside the incredible group of people on the marketing team.

謝謝你，Russell，也感謝你有機會談談我們為發展 Vital Farms 品牌所做的工作。我真的很榮幸能與營銷團隊中令人難以置信的一群人一起講述 Vital Farms 的故事。

As an organization, our thoughtful care for stakeholders is the source of rich and meaningful content, and I'm truly honored to tell the story. Our brand is an extension of Vital Farms purpose. Consumers choose us because they believe we're backing up our commitment to improve the lives of people, animals and the planet through a suit.

作為一個組織，我們對利益相關者的周到關懷是豐富而有意義的內容的來源，我真的很榮幸能講述這個故事。我們的品牌是 Vital Farms 宗旨的延伸。消費者選擇我們是因為他們相信我們通過一套西裝來支持我們改善人類、動物和地球生活的承諾。

Our major focus in 2022 was investing our marketing dollars to drive increased brand awareness and we plan to further expand the number of consumers aware of Vital Farms moving forward. Our keeping it (inaudible) free advertising and robust integrated campaign across touch points throughout the consumer journey drove a 40% increase in our brand awareness in 2022. For us, increased awareness leads to increased consideration and consideration leads to purchase.

我們在 2022 年的主要重點是投資我們的營銷資金來提高品牌知名度，我們計劃進一步擴大了解 Vital Farms 的消費者數量。我們在整個消費者旅程中保持（聽不清）免費廣告和跨接觸點的強大整合活動推動我們的品牌知名度在 2022 年提高了 40%。對我們來說，知名度的提高會導致更多的考慮，而考慮會導致購買。

Amplifying awareness played a direct role in the expansion we saw in household penetration last year. In fact, we saw over 45% year-over-year growth in household penetration in 2022. The Vital Farms brand is now in 10.5 million U.S. households. This speaks to our ability to reach consumers with our uniquely compelling message, and it's reflected in the improvement in key metrics, including our brand awareness as well as brand trust.

增強意識對我們去年看到的家庭普及率的擴大起到了直接作用。事實上，我們看到 2022 年家庭滲透率同比增長超過 45%。Vital Farms 品牌目前在 1050 萬美國家庭中佔有一席之地。這表明我們有能力通過我們獨特而引人注目的信息來吸引消費者，這反映在關鍵指標的改進上，包括我們的品牌知名度和品牌信任度。

As we look ahead, we are energized by the opportunity to continue to grow household penetration and brand awareness. A key to achieving our long-term potential involves our continued marketing efforts, which we believe contribute to our sales growth. We look forward to keeping in (inaudible) free and creating more brand moments by joining culturally relevant conversations like we recently did with our Valentine's Day campaign.

展望未來，我們為繼續提高家庭滲透率和品牌知名度的機會而充滿活力。實現我們長期潛力的關鍵在於我們持續的營銷努力，我們相信這有助於我們的銷售增長。我們期待通過加入與文化相關的對話來保持（聽不清）自由並創造更多品牌時刻，就像我們最近在情人節活動中所做的那樣。

Consumers are attracted to our brand and stay with us because we connect with them through many creative touch points. We do not just market to our core consumers. We build lasting relationships with them.

消費者被我們的品牌所吸引並留在我們身邊，因為我們通過許多創意接觸點與他們建立聯繫。我們不只是向我們的核心消費者推銷。我們與他們建立持久的關係。

Thanks, everyone, for your time today. I'll now turn the call back over to Russell.

謝謝大家今天的時間。我現在將電話轉回給 Russell。

Thanks, Kathryn. As many of you are aware, about a month ago, we announced that Thilo Wrede will be joining us as our new Chief Financial Officer. I'm looking forward to his arrival in the coming weeks. Thilo brings a disciplined leadership approach and a proven ability to create long-term value that will help us continue to deliver for all of our stakeholders. His experience across world-class consumer packaged goods companies and as a former sell-side analyst will serve us well. He will lead Vital Farms accounting, treasury, financial planning and analysis, information technology and investor relations functions. And I look forward to many of you on the call having the opportunity to speak or meet with them soon.

謝謝，凱瑟琳。正如你們中的許多人所知，大約一個月前，我們宣布 Thilo Wrede 將加入我們，擔任我們的新任首席財務官。我期待著他在接下來的幾週內到來。 Thilo 帶來了紀律嚴明的領導方法和久經考驗的創造長期價值的能力，這將幫助我們繼續為所有利益相關者提供服務。他在世界級消費品公司的工作經驗以及作為前賣方分析師的經驗將對我們很有幫助。他將領導 Vital Farms 的會計、財務、財務規劃和分析、信息技術和投資者關係職能。我期待你們中的許多人盡快有機會與他們交談或會面。

As I turn the call over to Bo to discuss our fourth quarter and fiscal year results in greater detail, I'd like to take some time to thank him again for his contributions to Vital Farms. Bo help lead Vital Farms through an incredible growth period and its compassionate leadership style has made a lasting difference here. Bo led the creation of our post-IPO finance, accounting, IT and Investor Relations organizations. And he has played an important role, setting us up for success as a public company.

當我將電話轉給 Bo 更詳細地討論我們第四季度和財政年度的結果時，我想花一些時間再次感謝他對 Vital Farms 的貢獻。 Bo 幫助 Vital Farms 度過了一個令人難以置信的增長期，其富有同情心的領導風格在這裡產生了持久的影響。 Bo 領導創建了我們的 IPO 後財務、會計、IT 和投資者關係組織。他發揮了重要作用，使我們成為一家成功的上市公司。

In several ways, Bo is leaving Vital Farms better than he found it. Bo thanks for everything you've contributed to Vital Farms. I hope you enjoy the time traveling and playing golf with your wonderful family.

從幾個方面來說，Bo 離開 Vital Farms 時比他剛到時要好。 Bo 感謝您為 Vital Farms 做出的一切貢獻。我希望您享受與您美好的家人一起旅行和打高爾夫球的時光。

Thanks for the kind words, Russell. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I will review our financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 25, 2022. I will then provide our guidance for fiscal year 2023.

謝謝你的客氣話，拉塞爾。大家好，感謝您今天加入我們。我將審查我們截至 2022 年 12 月 25 日的第四季度和財政年度的財務業績。然後我將提供我們對 2023 財政年度的指導。

As Russell mentioned, we had another record quarter with net revenue of $110.1 million, an increase of 42.2% compared to the prior year period, driven by volume growth of 27%. Growth in net revenue in the fourth quarter was due to continued growth in egg-related sales driven by strong volume increases [at] our customers as well as distribution gains at both new and existing retail partners.

正如 Russell 提到的那樣，在銷量增長 27% 的推動下，我們又迎來了一個創紀錄的季度，淨收入達到 1.101 億美元，比去年同期增長 42.2%。第四季度淨收入的增長是由於我們客戶的銷量強勁增長以及新老零售合作夥伴的分銷收益推動了雞蛋相關銷售額的持續增長。

Gross profit for the fourth quarter of 2022 was $33.3 million or 30.3% of net revenue compared to $19.8 million or 25.6% of net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2021. The change in gross profit was primarily driven by higher sales. As to the change in gross margin, increased pricing across our entire portfolio offset some headwinds, including an increase in input costs in both eggs and butter, elevated packaging costs and increased payments to our farmers. We saw expense leverage on both SG&A and shipping and distribution during the period.

2022 年第四季度的毛利潤為 3330 萬美元，占淨收入的 30.3%，而 2021 年第四季度的毛利潤為 1980 萬美元，占淨收入的 25.6%。毛利潤的變化主要是由更高的銷售額推動的。至於毛利率的變化，我們整個產品組合的價格上漲抵消了一些不利因素，包括雞蛋和黃油的投入成本增加、包裝成本增加以及對農民的付款增加。在此期間，我們看到了 SG&A 以及運輸和分銷的費用槓桿。

SG&A expenses for the fourth quarter were $22 million or 20% of net revenues compared to $15.8 million or 20.4% of net revenues in the fourth quarter last year. The increase in SG&A was primarily driven by higher employee-related costs as we grew headcount to support our continued growth and higher marketing expenses. Shipping and distribution expenses in the fourth quarter were $7.8 million or 7.1% of net revenue relative to $8.2 million or 10.6% of net revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021. This was driven by a decline in line haul rate and internal operational efficiency.

第四季度的 SG&A 費用為 2200 萬美元，占淨收入的 20%，而去年第四季度為 1580 萬美元，占淨收入的 20.4%。 SG&A 的增加主要是由於員工相關成本增加，因為我們增加了員工人數以支持我們的持續增長和更高的營銷費用。第四季度的運輸和分銷費用為 780 萬美元，占淨收入的 7.1%，而 2021 年第四季度為 820 萬美元，占淨收入的 10.6%。這是由於長途運輸率和內部運營效率下降所致。

Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $6.9 million or 6.3% of net revenue compared to a loss of $2 million for the fourth quarter of 2021.

第四季度調整後的 EBITDA 為 690 萬美元，占淨收入的 6.3%，而 2021 年第四季度虧損 200 萬美元。

Now turning to our fiscal year 2022 results. Net revenue for the year was $362.1 million, an increase of 38.8% compared to fiscal year 2021, driven by volume growth of almost 29% and some benefit from pricing. The growth in net revenue was due to continued growth in egg-related sales driven by strong volume increases at our customers as well as distribution gains at both new and existing retail partners.

現在轉向我們 2022 財年的業績。全年淨收入為 3.621 億美元，與 2021 財年相比增長 38.8%，這主要得益於銷量增長近 29% 以及部分受益於定價。淨收入的增長是由於我們客戶銷量的強勁增長以及新老零售合作夥伴的分銷收益推動了雞蛋相關銷售額的持續增長。

Gross profit for the year was $109.4 million or 30.2% of net revenue compared to $82.9 million or 31.8% of net revenue for fiscal year 2021. The change in gross profit was primarily driven by higher sales. As to the change in gross margin, increased pricing across our entire portfolio offset some headwinds, including an increase in input costs for both eggs and butter, higher packaging costs and increased transportation costs.

本年度毛利為 1.094 億美元，占淨收入的 30.2%，而 2021 財年為 8290 萬美元，占淨收入的 31.8%。毛利的變化主要是由銷售額增加推動的。至於毛利率的變化，我們整個產品組合的價格上漲抵消了一些不利因素，包括雞蛋和黃油的投入成本增加、包裝成本增加和運輸成本增加。

SG&A expenses for the year were $77.2 million or 21.3% of net revenue compared to $57.9 million or 22.2% of net revenues in fiscal year 2021. The increase in SG&A was primarily driven by higher employee-related costs as we grew headcount to support our continued growth as well as higher marketing spend.

本年度的 SG&A 費用為 7720 萬美元，占淨收入的 21.3%，而 2021 財年為 5790 萬美元，占淨收入的 22.2%。SG&A 的增加主要是由於員工相關成本增加，因為我們增加了員工人數以支持我們的持續運營增長以及更高的營銷支出。

Shipping and distribution expenses for the year were $30.1 million or 8.3% of net revenue relative to $25 million or 9.6% of net revenue in fiscal year 2021, driven by higher sales volumes and freight rates. This was partially offset by a decline in line haul rates and internal operational efficiency. Adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal year 2022 was $16.2 million or 4.5% of net revenue compared to $8 million or 3.1% of net revenue for fiscal year 2021.

在銷量和運費增加的推動下，本年度的運輸和分銷費用為 3010 萬美元，占淨收入的 8.3%，而 2021 財年為 2500 萬美元，占淨收入的 9.6%。這部分被線路運輸率和內部運營效率的下降所抵消。 2022 財年調整後的 EBITDA 為 1620 萬美元，占淨收入的 4.5%，而 2021 財年為 800 萬美元，占淨收入的 3.1%。

Next, an update on our capital structure. As of December 25, 2022, we had a total balance of cash and cash equivalents and investment securities of $78.7 million, and we have no debt outstanding.

接下來，更新我們的資本結構。截至 2022 年 12 月 25 日，我們的現金和現金等價物以及投資證券的總餘額為 7870 萬美元，我們沒有未償債務。

A few comments on both inventory and accounts receivable. Our inventory grew this past year to support our continued growth as we normalized our inventory levels on hand, particularly in eggs. As for accounts receivable, the majority of the increase is a result of the significant growth in our business.

關於庫存和應收賬款的一些評論。我們的庫存在過去一年有所增長，以支持我們的持續增長，因為我們將手頭庫存水平正常化，尤其是雞蛋。至於應收賬款，增加的大部分是由於我們業務的顯著增長。

Finally, our cash balance was impacted by our increased payments to farmers, which began in earnest during the fourth quarter. As we look ahead to fiscal 2023, we are providing guidance of net revenue of more than $450 million. On adjusted EBITDA, we are providing guidance for adjusted EBITDA of more than $30 million in fiscal year 2023. As for the cadence in 2023, we expect stronger year-over-year net revenue growth in the first half of the year, primarily due to the carryover impact of our May 2022 pricing increase. Additionally, we expect gross margin in the first half of the year will be stronger than the second half due to our expectation of fewer promotions and elevated breakthrough prices due to industry supply shortages.

最後，我們的現金餘額受到我們增加對農民的付款的影響，這在第四季度開始認真。展望 2023 財年，我們提供了超過 4.5 億美元的淨收入指引。關於調整後的 EBITDA，我們為 2023 財年調整後的 EBITDA 超過 3000 萬美元提供指導。至於 2023 年的節奏，我們預計今年上半年淨收入同比增長更強勁，這主要是由於我們 2022 年 5 月價格上漲的結轉影響。此外，我們預計上半年的毛利率將強於下半年，因為我們預計行業供應短缺導致促銷活動減少和突破價格上漲。

We are planning fiscal year 2023 capital expenditures of between 25 and $30 million. To provide some context on this figure, relative to our expenditures in 2022 of about $10 million, our 2023 figure includes about $7 million of previously planned supply chain spend that was delayed due to some vendor constraints last year as well as some costs for the initial work on our next egg packing facility.

我們計劃 2023 財年的資本支出在 25 至 3000 萬美元之間。為了提供有關該數字的一些背景信息，相對於我們 2022 年的約 1000 萬美元支出，我們 2023 年的數字包括約 700 萬美元的先前計劃的供應鏈支出，這些支出由於去年的一些供應商限製而被推遲，以及一些初始成本在我們的下一個雞蛋包裝設施上工作。

As I conclude, I want to reiterate what a pleasure it has been serving as the CFO of Vital Farms. I'm excited about Thilo's experience and what he will bring to the organization, and I look forward to working with him through July as we navigate this transition period smoothly. I'm confident that the company is well positioned to meet all its financial objectives as Vital Farm continues its pursuit of expanding household penetration across the U.S.

最後，我想重申擔任 Vital Farms 的首席財務官是多麼愉快。我對 Thilo 的經歷以及他將為組織帶來的東西感到興奮，我期待著與他一起工作到 7 月，讓我們順利渡過這個過渡期。我相信，隨著 Vital Farm 繼續追求擴大全美家庭滲透率，公司能夠很好地實現其所有財務目標。

Thanks for your time and interest today. And with that, we'll now be happy to take your questions.

感謝您今天的時間和興趣。有了這些，我們現在很樂意回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Robert Moskow with Credit Suisse.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Robert Moskow。

Thank you and congrats on a great year. And Bo thanks for all the work and look forward to your next chapter.

謝謝你，祝賀你度過了美好的一年。博感謝您所做的所有工作，並期待您的下一章。

I'd like to know your latest thoughts on the impact of the broader supply shortages in conventional eggs and how it's -- it influences your business first half versus second half. It sounds like [you have your] first half loaded. And I couldn't quite tell us if that was related to what you're thinking on what's going on in the broader industry or not? And, maybe I'll just start there.

我想知道您對傳統雞蛋更廣泛供應短缺的影響的最新想法，以及它是如何影響您上半年和下半年的業務的。聽起來 [you have your] 前半部分已加載。而且我不能完全告訴我們這是否與您對更廣泛行業正在發生的事情的想法有關？而且，也許我會從那裡開始。

Thanks, Rob. I appreciate the question and very much, I'm sure top of mind for a lot of folks as it is for us as we think about the year ahead. So, I'd start by saying that as we've looked historically at the impact of the pricing of commodity eggs in the marketplace in comparison to ours, what we found is that there's not a very strong correlation in terms of our ability to maintain the price premium that our brand, we believe, deserves nor has there been a big impact in our growth rates or our volumes or velocities when there are big changes in -- there have been historically big changes in the pricing at the bottom kind of bottom of the shelf, so to speak.

謝謝，羅布。我很欣賞這個問題，而且非常感謝，我相信很多人都會想到這個問題，就像我們在考慮未來一年時一樣。所以，我首先要說的是，正如我們從歷史上看，與我們相比，市場上商品雞蛋定價的影響，我們發現，就我們維持的能力而言，並沒有很強的相關性。我們認為，我們的品牌應得的價格溢價，當發生重大變化時，我們的增長率或我們的數量或速度也沒有受到重大影響 - 歷史上底部的定價發生了巨大變化貨架的，可以這麼說。

And the example I'd go back to is coming out of avian influenza back in the 2016 period, when there was a shortage of supply throughout the industry as we've seen over the last 6 to 8 months. And then there was a little bit of a boom. There was almost an oversupply in many regards, where you saw not only full shelves, but really some very strong promotional activity that drove some very low prices at the bottom of the market.

我要回顧的例子是 2016 年期間的禽流感，當時整個行業都出現供應短缺，正如我們在過去 6 到 8 個月中看到的那樣。然後有一點繁榮。在許多方面幾乎都供過於求，你不僅看到貨架滿滿，而且還看到一些非常強大的促銷活動，導致市場底部的價格非常低。

What we found was that it didn't affect our growth rates. It didn't affect our pricing. It didn't force us, for example, to promote more heavily in response. And we think that's because it's primarily a different consumer that's focused on selecting an egg or a product like ours at the high end of the market versus the ones that are attracted by the cheapest one available on the shelf.

我們發現它並沒有影響我們的增長率。它沒有影響我們的定價。例如，它並沒有迫使我們加大力度促銷作為回應。我們認為這是因為主要是不同的消費者專注於在高端市場選擇雞蛋或像我們這樣的產品，而不是那些被貨架上最便宜的產品所吸引的消費者。

So let me start by saying that as an underlying assumption that we have going into the year. Now the reason why we believe that what's happening in the broader market might have an impact in our year-on-year growth rates first half versus second half has to do more with the shortages that we have all seen on the shelf particularly in the fourth quarter of 2022. The reality is that we're going to be lapping that in the fourth quarter of 2023. And in part, there was, I believe, some impact on everybody's sales simply by there being a shortage on the part of some producers.

因此，讓我首先說這是我們進入這一年的基本假設。現在，我們認為大盤正在發生的事情可能會影響我們上半年與下半年的同比增長率的原因更多地與我們在貨架上看到的短缺有關，尤其是在第四季度2022 年第四季度。現實情況是，我們將在 2023 年第四季度完成這一目標。我認為，部分原因是某些生產商出現短缺，這對每個人的銷售都有一定影響.

The bigger impact for us, though, is that right now, we've eliminated virtually all promotions and all promotional activity. And that's true in the first half of this year, I think you're going to see very limited activity on our part. I have of less confidence in my ability to project what that will look like in the back half of the year. We don't think we'll see necessarily a full return to normal promotional activity in the back half of the year, but it's a little less predictable. And so, for those 2 reasons, I think we're projecting that year-on-year growth will be stronger in the first half than the second half.

不過，對我們來說更大的影響是，現在我們幾乎取消了所有促銷活動和所有促銷活動。今年上半年確實如此，我認為你會看到我們的活動非常有限。我對自己預測下半年情況的能力缺乏信心。我們認為我們不一定會在今年下半年看到全面恢復正常的促銷活動，但它的可預測性有點低。因此，出於這兩個原因，我認為我們預計上半年的同比增長將強於下半年。

If you look at a 2- or 3-year stack, 2 things I'd point out, one is much more consistent growth between first and second half and two, actually this year, an acceleration of 2- and 3-year growth rates versus 2022. So, it's still a great story overall. I'm not projecting a weakness in the back half, to be clear.

如果你看一下 2 年或 3 年的堆棧，我要指出兩件事，一個是上半年和下半年之間的增長更加穩定，實際上今年是 2 年和 3 年增長率的加速與 2022 年相比。因此，總體而言，這仍然是一個很棒的故事。明確地說，我並不是在預測後半部分的弱點。

All right. That makes sense. My follow-up on the Dot Foods deal, is there any kind of minimum volume that is part of this deal? And 5,200 distributors sounds like a big number. But how does it work? And how do you project how much incremental volume this will provide?

好的。這就說得通了。我對 Dot Foods 交易的後續行動，是否有任何一種最低交易量是這筆交易的一部分？ 5,200 家分銷商聽起來是個很大的數字。但是它是如何工作的呢？您如何預測這將提供多少增量？

So, what's exciting about this is it in essence, like every other distribution channel that we've opened up in food service, the distribution, in turn, opens up the opportunity to serve more of the right kind of food service accounts. I believe that what's great about the Dot Foods model is, they're consolidating in a sense, products from a variety of producers like us, however, not pasture raised egg producers apparently and bringing them to a wide variety of food service distributors who then distribute to the accounts. And so, I don't believe this then becomes a minimum volume story nor does it become the -- nor does it become a key customer per se, so much as it opens up the opportunity to serve more of the kinds of customers we want to get to in the end.

所以，這本質上令人興奮，就像我們在食品服務領域開闢的所有其他分銷渠道一樣，分銷反過來也為更多合適的食品服務客戶提供服務。我相信 Dot Foods 模式的優點在於，從某種意義上說，他們正在整合來自像我們這樣的各種生產商的產品，但顯然不是牧場飼養的雞蛋生產商，而是將它們帶到各種各樣的食品服務分銷商那裡，然後他們分發到帳戶。因此，我不認為這會成為一個最小數量的故事，也不會成為 - 它本身也不會成為關鍵客戶，因為它開闢了為我們想要的更多類型客戶提供服務的機會到最後。

So, it's a means [to an end], they're really a terrific partner to be working with. They've got amazing distribution facilities and amazing values actually. We're excited to work with them to co-create what the future of our food service business could look like.

所以，這是一種[達到目的]的手段，他們真的是一個非常好的合作夥伴。他們實際上擁有驚人的分銷設施和驚人的價值。我們很高興與他們合作，共同創造我們食品服務業務的未來。

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Pamela Kaufman with Morgan Stanley.

稍等一下我們的下一個問題。我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Pamela Kaufman。

Congrats on a strong year -- and good luck to Bo in your next steps. Just a question on the 2023 guidance. It points to another strong year for top line growth of 25%. What assumptions are you making about the contribution from price versus volumes? And how are you thinking about growth in household penetration and distribution growth?

祝賀你取得了豐碩的一年——並祝 Bo 在接下來的步驟中好運。只是關於 2023 年指南的問題。它預示著又一個強勁的年度收入增長 25%。您對價格與數量的貢獻做出了哪些假設？您如何看待家庭滲透率和分銷增長的增長？

Bo, do you want to talk a little bit about price versus volume? And then maybe Kathryn can talk a bit about the drivers of growth.

Bo，你想談談價格與數量的關係嗎？然後也許凱瑟琳可以談談增長的驅動因素。

Thanks, Pam. So, what we have still in 2023 is some of the carryover pricing from the price increase we took across the portfolio in May of last year. So, we have that carryover coming into the first half of this year. And then we're not like that -- in the back half. But as well, we have announced the low double-digit price increase that we took in January. So those 2 components are somewhere between low double digits to mid-double digits in pricing included in our 2023 results. The balance is volume growth.

謝謝，帕姆。因此，我們在 2023 年仍然擁有的是去年 5 月我們對整個投資組合進行的價格上漲的一些結轉定價。因此，我們將結轉進入今年上半年。然後我們就不是那樣了——在後半場。但是，我們也宣布了 1 月份的低兩位數價格上漲。因此，我們 2023 年業績中包含的這兩個組成部分的定價介於低兩位數到中兩位數之間。平衡是體積增長。

That's helpful.

這很有幫助。

And Pam, on household penetration. You saw last year we added over 3 million households. We think about that total household number in 2 ways. One is the new households. But underlying that is retained households. So, we are both thinking about our ability to build awareness and bring in new households, which we've done really well over the last year, but also looking at retention in the short term, but more importantly, in the long-term year-over-year. And we're seeing both of those groups grow in proportion to each other, which tells me that we've got a really strong balance across our household penetration. And this year, we expect to continue to grow those -- both of those numbers across the year.

還有 Pam，關於家庭滲透率。你看到去年我們增加了超過 300 萬戶家庭。我們以兩種方式考慮家庭總人數。一是新建戶。但其背後是保留住戶。所以，我們都在考慮我們建立意識和引進新家庭的能力，我們在去年做得非常好，但也在考慮短期內的保留，但更重要的是，在長期內-超過一年。我們看到這兩個群體彼此成比例增長，這告訴我我們在家庭滲透率方面取得了非常強大的平衡。而今年，我們希望在全年繼續增長這些數字。

Great. And then my second question is just on how to think about the impact from the moderation in feed costs expected for this year? How does that influence your pricing strategy? And would there be a scenario where you could lower prices because of that? And then I guess, how should we think about that translating into your gross margin outlook?

偉大的。然後我的第二個問題是如何考慮今年預期飼料成本下降的影響？這對您的定價策略有何影響？是否會出現您可以因此降低價格的情況？然後我想，我們應該如何考慮將其轉化為您的毛利率前景？

Yes. Thanks, Pam. I mean I think there's a lot of things still going on in the P&L. Although feed prices have moderated, they're still above the historical levels that we have seen. The pricing that we announced in January actually took into account what we saw as the forward-looking projection of [feed] prices at the time as well as things that are going on with packaging and other costs that are influencing are difference. So, for right now, the pricing that we have in the market reflects accurately as best we can project what we see is outlook for inflation to get us, again, back to our long-term margin targets for gross margin of the low to mid-30s.

是的。謝謝，帕姆。我的意思是我認為損益表中還有很多事情要做。儘管飼料價格有所回落，但仍高於我們所見的歷史水平。我們在 1 月份宣布的定價實際上考慮了當時我們所看到的 [飼料] 價格的前瞻性預測，以及包裝和其他影響成本的變化。因此，就目前而言，我們在市場上的定價盡可能準確地反映了我們所看到的通貨膨脹前景，使我們再次回到我們的中低毛利率的長期利潤率目標-30s。

And our next question comes from the line of Cody Ross with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Cody Ross。

And Bo congratulations on your next steps. I just wanted to talk about gross margin a little bit. Your gross margin came in roughly 100 basis points below your guidance for the quarter. What drove the shortfall in the quarter?

Bo 祝賀你接下來的步驟。我只想談談毛利率。您的毛利率比本季度的指導低了大約 100 個基點。是什麼導致了本季度的短缺？

Well, the quarter came in as we would have expected on the majority of the expense items. But what we did see in the fourth quarter is a difference in the lift that we had on promotions versus what we had expected, what was going on with avian flu and some of the shortages on the shelf. So, we were seeing some higher lift on some of those promotions, which drove up the investment in trade versus the expectations that we had going into the quarter.

好吧，這個季度正如我們對大部分費用項目的預期一樣出現了。但我們在第四季度確實看到的是，我們在促銷方面的提升與我們預期的有所不同，禽流感的情況以及貨架上的一些短缺。因此，我們看到其中一些促銷活動有所提升，這推動了貿易投資，而不是我們進入本季度的預期。

Got it. That's helpful. And then I just wanted to dig in a little bit to your comments on CapEx and just understand it a little bit more. I think you said the growth in CapEx this year is driven by some supply chain costs moving into '23 and then early costs related to a new egg facility. Can you just provide more detail there? And then also, I thought I heard last earnings call that you guys would provide more details on a new category that you would be expanding into. So, does your CapEx guidance this year include that in it?

知道了。這很有幫助。然後我只是想深入了解一下您對資本支出的評論，並進一步了解它。我想你說過今年資本支出的增長是由一些進入 23 世紀的供應鏈成本以及與新雞蛋設施相關的早期成本推動的。你能在那裡提供更多細節嗎？然後，我想我聽到上次財報電話會議說你們會提供更多關於你們將擴展到的新類別的細節。那麼，您今年的資本支出指南中是否包含了這一點？

So, the CapEx guidance CODI, there was about $7 million that was planned for last year for a couple of things that ECS and things that we're planning to do there that didn't get completed that flowed into this year as well as some cost savings opportunities. We are planning to start ECS3 this year. So, (inaudible) $2 million that's flown into this year was just really the acquisition of land for ECS3 that we had thought we would complete within last fiscal year. The balance is to start the development of the plans, the site plans and building plans for the facility. That's what the ECS3 is. And the balance is just growth CapEx as we continue to grow. We buy more [egg crates to ship eggs] back and forth from facilities and just general maintenance.

因此，資本支出指南 CODI，去年計劃用於 ECS 的一些事情和我們計劃在那裡做的事情，這些事情沒有完成，但今年流入了一些節省成本的機會。我們計劃今年啟動 ECS3。因此，（聽不清）今年投入的 200 萬美元實際上只是我們原以為會在上一財年完成的 ECS3 土地收購。平衡是開始製定設施的計劃、場地計劃和建築計劃。 ECS3 就是這樣。隨著我們繼續增長，餘額只是增長資本支出。我們從設施中來回購買更多的[雞蛋箱來運送雞蛋]，只是進行一般維護。

I'll let Russell address the...

我會讓拉塞爾解決...

Yes. To answer the second part of the question, no, there is not CapEx in that plan related to a new category. And I would love to share more about the work we're doing around the new category. We decided that it's actually a little bit premature given just competitive -- the competitive nature of the business we're in and our need to be just a little bit further in our development before we announce what we're doing. So, stay tuned. I'd love to be sharing all kinds of interesting information, but the reality is it's just not the right thing from a competitive perspective at this time.

是的。要回答問題的第二部分，不，該計劃中沒有與新類別相關的資本支出。我很樂意分享更多關於我們圍繞新類別所做的工作。我們認為這實際上有點為時過早，因為我們所從事的業務具有競爭性，而且在我們宣布我們正在做的事情之前，我們需要在我們的發展中走得更遠一點。所以，敬請期待。我很樂意分享各種有趣的信息，但現實是，從競爭的角度來看，目前這不是正確的事情。

Understood. And if I can sneak in one last question here. Just given the CapEx related to ECS3, you guys put up a slide that your current capacity is for over $700 million in sales. Why is now the right time to begin making more investments rather than growing some of your profitability and cash flow? And then I'll pass it on.

明白了。如果我可以在這裡偷偷提出最後一個問題。鑑於與 ECS3 相關的資本支出，你們張貼了一張幻燈片，表明你們目前的產能超過 7 億美元的銷售額。為什麼現在是開始進行更多投資而不是增加部分盈利能力和現金流的合適時機？然後我會把它傳下去。

Yes. Thanks, Cody. That gets back to the kind of intentionality with which we run this business for the long term. One of the things that I think served us very well, perhaps in contrast to some of the other high-growth companies as we weathered all of the external challenges of 2020, 2021, 2022 and beyond, supply chain-related, labor-related, etcetera, is that we -- we have a little bit of a belt and suspenders approach to ensuring resilience and stability in our supply chain. And we work really hard to plan and refine plans over time to make sure that we eliminate bottlenecks to our growth proactively.

是的。謝謝，科迪。這又回到了我們長期經營這項業務的那種意圖。我認為其中一件事對我們很有幫助，也許與其他一些高增長公司形成鮮明對比，因為我們經受住了 2020 年、2021 年、2022 年及以後的所有外部挑戰，與供應鏈相關，與勞動力相關，等等，是我們——我們有一點腰帶和吊帶的方法來確保我們供應鏈的彈性和穩定性。隨著時間的推移，我們非常努力地規劃和完善計劃，以確保我們主動消除增長的瓶頸。

So, in this case, you're right. Our analysis shows that our current infrastructure can support an egg business of at least $700 million in revenue. And we've clearly guided to a number south of that this year. So, there's room to grow, a lot of room to grow. And yet, there are long lead times as a lot of companies saw during COVID, there are long lead times to construction. There are long lead times to staffing. And so, we are taking an approach that ensures that we have maximum optionality throughout the process of planning and executing the next plant.

所以，在這種情況下，你是對的。我們的分析表明，我們目前的基礎設施可以支持至少 7 億美元收入的雞蛋業務。今年我們已經明確地指導了這個數字以南。所以，有成長的空間，很大的成長空間。然而，正如許多公司在 COVID 期間看到的那樣，交貨時間很長，施工的交貨時間很長。人員配備的準備時間很長。因此，我們正在採取一種方法，確保我們在規劃和執行下一個工廠的過程中擁有最大的選擇權。

In this case, what we've said is, look, we can do site selection work, we can do programming, which is the step before you actually draw blueprints. We can do all that work without actually putting a shovel and dirt yet. And that's a fraction of the total project cost. So why wouldn't we get out in front of that work so that we've got the optionality to move quickly when we decide the time is right to build the next plant. The reality is this could be a 2 or 3-year lead time project at the minimum to do it right, to do it the Vital Farms way. And so, we think it's prudent to be at this -- in the early stages of that project right now.

在這種情況下，我們說的是，你看，我們可以做選址工作，我們可以做編程，這是你真正畫藍圖之前的步驟。我們可以完成所有這些工作，而無需實際放置鏟子和泥土。這只是項目總成本的一小部分。那麼，為什麼我們不走在這項工作的前面，以便在我們決定建造下一個工廠的時機成熟時，我們可以選擇快速行動。現實情況是，這可能是一個至少需要 2 或 3 年準備時間的項目才能正確地做到這一點，以 Vital Farms 的方式做到這一點。因此，我們認為現在處於該項目的早期階段是明智的。

And our next question comes from Adam Samuelson with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的亞當薩繆爾森。

This is actually Guillermo stepping for Adam. It looks like most of the ground has been covered already so, I would like to ask a follow-up on the capital expenditure program for this year and what would be your expected returns on that capital?

這實際上是 Guillermo 替 Adam 踩腳。看起來大部分內容已經涵蓋了，所以我想問一下今年資本支出計劃的後續情況，你對該資本的預期回報是多少？

Well, (inaudible) portion of that capital is for the new facility that we're planning. So, in the prudent way that [Thilo and] Russell described in terms of how we're planning for the business. Another large portion of that capital is for growth (inaudible) as the business grows and we add farms and volumes, we buy big trays and things like that to allow us to shift the product back and forth from our new farms. But any cost saving return CapEx that we're planning, our expectations is that we have an IRR on those projects, but significantly above cost of capital and looking for somewhere in the double-digit range of returns on those cost saving CapEx investments.

好吧，（聽不清）部分資金用於我們正在規劃的新設施。因此，以 [Thilo 和] Russell 在我們如何規劃業務方面所描述的謹慎方式。該資本的另一大部分用於增長（聽不清），因為業務增長，我們增加農場和數量，我們購買大托盤和類似的東西，以便我們能夠從我們的新農場來迴轉移產品。但是我們計劃的任何成本節約回報資本支出，我們的期望是我們在這些項目上有內部收益率，但遠高於資本成本，並在這些成本節約資本支出投資中尋找兩位數回報範圍內的某個地方。

That's very helpful. And just another follow-up on the revenue guidance. You guys mentioned pricing somewhere in the double-digit range for the first half of the year. Is that correct with the remaining being volume growth? And what was that for the second part of the year? Pricing...

這很有幫助。只是對收入指導的另一個後續行動。你們提到今年上半年的價格在兩位數範圍內。剩下的是銷量增長，這是否正確？今年下半年的情況如何？價錢...

Yes. So, we have carryover pricing. We took a low double-digit price increase in May of last year. So up until May, we'll be cycling that price increase. In January of this year, we've taken a similar price increase across the portfolio of low double digits. And so, we'll have that in effect for essentially 11 months of the year.

是的。因此，我們有結轉定價。去年 5 月，我們的價格出現了兩位數的低增長。所以直到 5 月，我們將循環提價。今年 1 月，我們對低兩位數的投資組合進行了類似的價格上漲。因此，我們將在一年中的 11 個月內有效。

That's very helpful. I'll leave it there.

這很有幫助。我會把它留在那裡。

And our next question comes from Brian Holland with Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 Brian Holland 和 Cowen。

Let me add my congratulations and best wishes to Bo. If I could just -- I think a lot of investors were expecting to hear something about a new product platform by today or [at least] today. I think on the Q3 call, Russell, you sort of teased maybe by year-end or something like that. So, I'm just curious if there's anything to discern from the fact that we haven't been ready to announce that, is there an issue with either supply or getting that together, just sort of wanting to understand -- I understand why you don't want to talk specifically about what that's going to be until you're ready to launch it. I'm just curious if you can shed a little light behind the time line here.

讓我向博表示祝賀和良好祝愿。如果我能——我想很多投資者都希望在今天或 [至少] 今天聽到有關新產品平台的消息。我認為在第三季度的電話會議上，拉塞爾，你可能會在年底或類似的時候被取笑。所以，我只是很好奇，如果我們還沒有準備好宣布這一事實，是否有任何東西可以辨別，供應或整合是否存在問題，只是想了解 - 我理解你為什麼在您準備好啟動它之前，不想具體談論它會是什麼。我只是好奇你是否可以在這裡闡明時間線背後的一點點。

Yes. Good to hear from you this morning and a very fair question. The first thing I'd say is like this is -- our egg business is performing exceptionally well, I believe. The growth rate is there, it's healthy growth. We're seeing things like not only strong addition of new households, but strong household buy rates and consumption that would suggest that the new households we're adding are really high-quality households. We're retaining a lot of households. We're adding new doors and the new doors are high-quality doors. We're doing this with a lot of intentionality and the results are really so consistently coming through in a very strong way as evidenced by the wonderful comments we've gotten so far this morning.

是的。很高興今天早上收到你的來信，這是一個非常公平的問題。我要說的第一件事是——我相信我們的雞蛋業務表現得非常好。增長率就在那裡，這是健康的增長。我們看到的不僅是新家庭的強勁增加，還有強勁的家庭購買率和消費，這表明我們增加的新家庭確實是高質量的家庭。我們保留了很多家庭。我們正在添加新門，新門是高質量的門。我們在做這件事時非常有意識，而且結果確實如此始終如一地以非常有力的方式出現，今天早上到目前為止我們收到的精彩評論就證明了這一點。

So, I want to start there and say that one of the reasons we're not rushing to announce something perhaps prematurely or before it's fully baked, so to speak, is that we don't need that next thing to happen fast to compensate for slowing growth in a mature business. In fact, if you look on a 2 or 3-year stack basis, our core business is accelerating its growth. And the first thing I would say there is -- that's not accidental. We believe that that's because of how intentionally we do everything around here, including thinking about what's next, planning for it and then executing it at a very high level. And so, while I know it's frustrating to not have exciting news to share about the new thing, I don't want to detract from how exciting the news is on the existing thing. But beyond that, look, it's just -- I think it's very much on brand and on message for us to say, yes, we're just not quite ready yet, and that's okay. And that doesn't mean anything's wrong. That means that we're doing what we've always done, which is we'll share news when we've got news, and we're not quite ready to share that news yet.

所以，我想從這裡開始說，我們不急於過早或在它完全烘烤之前宣布某些事情的原因之一，可以這麼說，我們不需要接下來的事情很快發生來彌補成熟企業的增長放緩。事實上，如果你從 2 年或 3 年的堆棧來看，我們的核心業務正在加速增長。我要說的第一件事是——這不是偶然的。我們相信，這是因為我們在這裡所做的一切都是有意識的，包括思考下一步、計劃它，然後在非常高的水平上執行它。因此，雖然我知道沒有關於新事物的激動人心的消息是令人沮喪的，但我不想貶低現有事物的新聞是多麼令人興奮。但除此之外，你看，這只是——我認為這在很大程度上取決於品牌和信息，讓我們說，是的，我們還沒有完全準備好，這沒關係。這並不意味著有任何問題。這意味著我們正在做我們一直在做的事情，那就是當我們有消息時我們會分享新聞，但我們還沒有準備好分享那個消息。

I appreciate the color. Russell, I'll leave it there.

我很欣賞這種顏色。羅素，我會把它留在那裡。

And our next question comes from the line of Chris Growe with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Chris Growe 與 Stifel 的對話。

Congratulations (technical difficulty) wish you well. I just wanted to ask just a couple of kind of quick follow-up questions. Could you say how much cost inflation was in the fourth quarter? Did pricing offset the cost inflation? And then could you give us some kind of estimate for 2023 cost inflation, if you gave that, I missed it, sorry.

恭喜你（技術難度）祝你一切順利。我只想問幾個快速跟進的問題。你能說說第四季度的成本通脹是多少嗎？定價是否抵消了成本膨脹？然後你能不能給我們一些關於 2023 年成本通脹的估計，如果你給出了，我錯過了，抱歉。

Yes. For 2023, we have projected about 10% cost inflation driven by the increase in farmer pay, increases in packaging and some in commodities, not all commodities are going in the same direction, particularly organic at the time. And in Q4, we did offset the majority of the increases that were coming through other than the late-breaking farmer increases that we had, which is another reason for the January price increase. And we offset the majority of it, but the decline in gross margin in Q4 was really driven by what I referred to earlier in an earlier question, the lift on the promo is just being so much stronger given some of the outages on shelf and some of our competition.

是的。到 2023 年，由於農民工資的增加、包裝的增加和一些商品的增加，我們預計成本將上漲 10%，但並非所有商品都朝著同一個方向發展，尤其是當時的有機商品。在第四季度，我們確實抵消了除我們擁有的最新突破性農民增長之外的大部分增長，這是 1 月份價格上漲的另一個原因。我們抵消了其中的大部分，但第四季度毛利率的下降實際上是由我之前在一個問題中提到的導致的，鑑於貨架上的一些停電和一些我們的競爭。

Okay. And then just a follow-up on the payments to farmers, was that about a 100 basis point drag on the fourth quarter gross margin? Does that continue in '23? And maybe related to that, just do you have -- I assume you do -- because the volume growth that we plan to have more farmers added through the year, that would come in at those, call it, higher terms then?

好的。然後只是對農民付款的後續行動，這是否拖累了第四季度的毛利率大約 100 個基點？這會在 23 年繼續嗎？也許與此相關，你有沒有——我假設你有——因為我們計劃在這一年增加更多農民的數量增長，那會出現在那些，稱之為更高的條件下？

Yes, we're continually adding farmers, and they will come in at the new pricing for the farms. And for Q4, it's a fair assumption about 100 basis points. All of that is factored in our '23 guidance.

是的，我們不斷增加農民，他們將以農場的新價格加入進來。對於第 4 季度，大約 100 個基點是一個合理的假設。所有這些都包含在我們的 23 年指南中。

And just to be clear, that rate from the fourth quarter that would roughly continue through at least the first 3 quarters of '23, correct?

需要明確的是，從第四季度開始的這一比率將大致持續到至少 23 年的前三個季度，對嗎？

Correct.

正確的。

Okay. That's all I had. I appreciate your time.

好的。這就是我的全部。我感謝你的時間。

And I'm currently showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to hand the conference back over to Mr. Matt Siler for closing remarks.

我目前沒有進一步提問。我想將會議交還給 Matt Siler 先生作閉幕詞。

Thanks, everybody, for your time and interest today. Have a good day.

謝謝大家今天的時間和興趣。祝你有美好的一天。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a wonderful day.

女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。每個人，祝你有美好的一天。