Vital Farms Inc (VITL) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. My name is Kathleen, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Vital Farms Incorporated second-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you.

謝謝你的支持。我叫凱瑟琳，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。此時此刻，我歡迎大家參加 Vital Farms Incorporated 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）謝謝。

And now I would like to turn the call over to Anthony Bucalo, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在我想將電話轉給投資者關係副總裁安東尼·布卡洛 (Anthony Bucalo)。請繼續。

Good morning, and welcome to Vital Farms second-quarter 2024 earnings conference call and webcast. I am Tony Bucalo, VP of Investor Relations. And I'm joined in the call today by Russell Diez-Canseco, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Thilo Wrede, Chief Financial Officer. By now, everyone should have access to the company's second-quarter 2024 earnings press release issued this morning. This is available on the Investor Relations section of Vital Farms website at investors.vitalfarms.com.

早安，歡迎來到 Vital Farms 2024 年第二季財報電話會議和網路廣播。我是托尼·布卡洛 (Tony Bucalo)，投資者關係副總裁。今天，總裁兼執行長 Russell Diez-Canseco 也加入了我的電話會議。和財務長 Thilo Wrede。到目前為止，每個人都應該可以看到該公司今天早上發布的 2024 年第二季財報新聞稿。您可以在 Vital Farms 網站的投資者關係部分找到這些資訊：investors.vitalfarms.com。

Throughout this call, management may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and do involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. Please refer to today's press release, the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2024, filed with the SEC today as well as our 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.

在整個電話會議中，管理階層可能會做出聯邦證券法意義內的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述是基於管理階層目前的預期和信念，確實涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述中所述的結果有重大差異。請參閱今天的新聞稿、本公司今天向 SEC 提交的截至 2024 年 6 月 30 日財季的 10-Q 表格季度報告以及我們向 SEC 提交的其他文件，詳細討論可能導致的風險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 and adjusted EBITDA margin to the most comparable measures 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公認會計原則財務指標為投資者提供了有用的信息，但這些信息的呈現並不旨在被孤立地考慮或作為根據公認會計原則呈現的財務信息的替代品。請參閱我們的收益發布，以了解調整後 EBITDA 和調整後 EBITDA 利潤率與根據 GAAP 制定的最具可比性指標的對帳情況。

With that, I will turn the call over to Russell Diez-Canseco, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vital Farms.

接下來，我將把電話轉給 Vital Farms 總裁兼執行長 Russell Diez-Canseco。

Good morning, and thank you for your time today. I'm pleased to announce that our momentum from the first quarter carried into the second. We delivered another great set of top to bottom results. Our performance was driven by growing demand for our premium products and excellent execution from the great people working across Vital Farms. I'd like to thank all of our crew members throughout the organization for these really terrific results.

早上好，感謝您今天抽出時間。我很高興地宣布，我們第一季的勢頭延續到了第二季。我們提供了另一組從上到下的出色結果。我們的業績是由對我們優質產品不斷增長的需求以及 Vital Farms 優秀員工的出色執行力所推動的。我要感謝整個組織的所有工作人員，感謝他們取得如此出色的成果。

Today, I'll start with our key financial headlines and then shift to new developments. I'll then hand it over to Thilo, and he will provide more detail on our second-quarter financials and updated guidance for fiscal year 2024. With our strong start to the year, I'm happy to report that we're in a great position to both raise our guidance and accelerate investment in the long-term success of our business. We continue to expand our farm network, and we're adding a new egg washing and processing facility in Seymour, Indiana. Additionally, we will be stepping up brand marketing investment in the back half of the year, driving our message to consumers as we push to reach 30 million households by 2027.

今天，我將從我們的主要財務頭條開始，然後轉向新的發展。然後我會將其交給 Thilo，他將提供有關我們第二季財務狀況的更多詳細資訊以及 2024 財年的最新指導。憑藉今年的強勁開局，我很高興地向大家報告，我們處於有利地位，可以提高指導並加速投資，以實現業務的長期成功。我們繼續擴大我們的農場網絡，並在印第安納州西摩增加了一個新的雞蛋清洗和加工設施。此外，我們將在下半年加大品牌行銷投資，向消費者傳達我們的訊息，力爭在 2027 年將覆蓋 3,000 萬個家庭。

Let's get right to the key financial headlines. We had another excellent topline performance with record second-quarter net revenue of $147.4 million, up 38.5%. You might remember that we guided for 300 basis points of tailwind for sales in the quarter. This was due to our lapping some negative product ordering dislocations related to avian influenza last year. We did enjoy some benefit from this comparison. However, we still performed well above our expectations. In the first half of 2024, our sales grew 31% on top of a first half 2023 comparison of 41%. We delivered another strong gross margin performance this quarter.

讓我們直接了解主要的金融頭條新聞。我們再次取得了出色的營收表現，第二季淨收入達到創紀錄的 1.474 億美元，成長 38.5%。您可能還記得，我們​​指導本季銷售順風 300 個基點。這是由於我們去年處理了一些與禽流感相關的負面產品訂購錯位。我們確實從這種比較中受益匪淺。然而，我們的表現仍然遠高於我們的預期。2024 年上半年，我們的銷售額在 2023 年上半年 41% 的基礎上成長了 31%。本季我們再次實現了強勁的毛利率表現。

Boosted by sales growth, productivity gains, selective pricing, efficient supply chain execution, and a more benign commodity cost environment, gross margin improved 362 basis points to 39.1% in the quarter and improved 381 basis points to 39.5% for the first half. In addition to our strong gross margin performance, we delivered $23.3 million of adjusted EBITDA, up 105% versus the second quarter of 2023. Year to date, we've delivered $52.3 million in adjusted EBITDA, up 108%, from the first half of last year.

受銷售成長、生產力提高、選擇性定價、高效的供應鏈執行以及更良性的商品成本環境的推動，本季毛利率提高了362 個基點，達到39.1%，上半年毛利率提高了381 個基點，達到39.5%。除了強勁的毛利率表現外，我們還實現了 2,330 萬美元的調整後 EBITDA，較 2023 年第二季成長 105%。今年迄今，我們已實現調整後 EBITDA 5,230 萬美元，比去年上半年成長 108%。

Our adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter improved to 15.8%, up 512 basis points from last year. Our half-year adjusted EBITDA margin improved 656 basis points to 17.7%. Strong consumer demand helped drive our top and bottomline success this quarter. We believe we are in a virtuous cycle of higher consumer demand driving expanded distribution and expanded distribution driving further demand. We continue to build our shelf presence in stores where we're already prominent, accelerating our sales performance.

本季調整後 EBITDA 利潤率提高至 15.8%，比去年增長 512 個基點。我們的半年調整後 EBITDA 利潤率提高了 656 個基點，達到 17.7%。強勁的消費者需求幫助推動了我們本季營收和利潤的成功。我們相信，我們正處於一個良性循環：更高的消費者需求推動擴大分銷，擴大分銷又推動進一步需求。我們繼續在我們已經很突出的商店中建立我們的貨架，從而提高我們的銷售業績。

Year on year, our total distribution points have increased by 19% to 453 in the natural channel and by 17% to 215 in the food channel. We still have much more room to grow by adding more items to existing shelves at locations where we already have a strong presence. Yes, I'm pleased by our strong sales, distribution, and gross margin performance this quarter. I'm also thankful for all of our crew members who help make that happen. We are well positioned to meet future consumer demand, and we continue to invest to make that happen.

與去年同期相比，我們的天然通路總分銷點增加了 19%，達到 453 個；食品通路總分銷點增加了 17%，達到 215 個。透過在我們已經擁有強大影響力的地方的現有貨架上添加更多商品，我們仍然有更大的成長空間。是的，我對本季我們強勁的銷售、分銷和毛利率表現感到高興。我還要感謝所有幫助實現這一目標的工作人員。我們已做好充分準備來滿足未來消費者的需求，並將繼續投資以實現這一目標。

Our brand is at the core of who we are, and our brand marketing remains a powerful lever of our success. We're always looking for ways to drive brand awareness in meaningful and culturally relevant moments. This summer, with women's sports viewership on the rise, we have a new campaign that celebrates female farmers and athletes alike. We expect this campaign will deliver more than 350 million advertising impressions across sports networks during games, tournaments, and matches. This includes the women's Wimbledon torment just concluded in July and the National Women's Soccer League and ladies Professional Golf Association through the fall. We also have a few spots running during the Olympics coverage on the USA Network.

我們的品牌是我們的核心，我們的品牌行銷仍然是我們成功的強大槓桿。我們一直在尋找在有意義且與文化相關的時刻提高品牌知名度的方法。今年夏天，隨著女性運動收視率的上升，我們推出了一項新的活動來慶祝女性農民和運動員。我們預計該活動將在比賽、錦標賽和比賽期間在體育網絡上帶來超過 3.5 億次廣告展示。這包括七月份剛結束的女子溫布頓網球公開賽，以及整個秋季的全國女子足球聯盟和女子職業高爾夫協會。我們也在美國網路上播出一些奧運報導期間的節目。

Joining the women's sports conversation continues to deliver outsized results, resonating with our highly engaged and growing audience. We expect to generate 650 million earned impressions through press coverage that highlights our unique campaign.

加入女子體育對話繼續帶來巨大成果，與我們高度參與且不斷增長的觀​​眾產生共鳴。我們預計透過突出我們獨特行銷活動的新聞報道將獲得 6.5 億次曝光。

Furthermore, we have good news about our supply chain this quarter. First, we're happy to announce that we're now working with more than 350 family farms within our network, up from more than 300 at the beginning of the year. Our family farmers are central to what we do in our business. We believe our ability to attract and support new farmers is a critical strength of our company. We continue to add farms to support our growth as we push toward $1 billion in revenue.

此外，本季我們有關於供應鏈的好消息。首先，我們很高興地宣布，我們現在正在與網路內的 350 多個家庭農場合作，而今年年初的數量為 300 多個。我們的家庭農民是我們業務的核心。我們相信，吸引和支持新農民的能力是我們公司的關鍵優勢。我們不斷增加農場來支持我們的成長，並努力實現 10 億美元的收入目標。

Next, in June, we made the formal announcement of the location for our new egg washing and packaging facility. This 72-acre site will be in Seymour, Indiana, and, when finished, will help launch us into our next stage of growth. We plan to break ground in 2025 and expect to begin operations there in 2027. Our world-class Egg Central Station facility in Springfield, Missouri is still finding ways to improve its already impressive performance. As I remarked last quarter, we're just flat out better at getting our high-quality eggs packed and shipped. With Seymour, what's most exciting for us is that the construction and operational plans for the new facility will be built upon our key learnings and successes from Springfield. This includes everything from people development to production. Additionally, we expect to have ample room to expand past our 2027 revenue goals.

接下來，在六月，我們正式宣布了新的雞蛋清洗和包裝設施的位置。這個佔地 72 英畝的場地將位於印第安納州西摩，建成後將幫助我們進入下一階段的發展。我們計劃於 2025 年破土動工，預計於 2027 年開始營運。我們位於密蘇裡州斯普林菲爾德的世界一流的蛋中央站設施仍在尋找方法來提高其已經令人印象深刻的性能。正如我上季度所說，我們在包裝和運輸高品質雞蛋方面做得更好。對於西摩來說，最令我們興奮的是新設施的建設和運營計劃將建立在我們從斯普林菲爾德學到的重要經驗和成功經驗的基礎上。這包括從人員發展到生產的一切。此外，我們預計將有足夠的空間來超越 2027 年的收入目標。

We expect Seymour will create at least 150 jobs for the local community in its first phase. When finished, over the long-term, we expect Seymour to support approximately 165 new family farmers and to help generate more than $350 million in additional revenues. This facility will complement Springfield, which we now estimate has $800 million in revenue capacity. Let me briefly elaborate on this last data point. Since our ECS Springfield expansion in 2022, we've discussed our revenue capacity of $700 million for this facility. However, we want to give you an up-to-date estimate. Since 2022, the price mix of our portfolio has evolved, and we've become significantly more efficient. We estimate that this combination has given us at least $100 million in estimated additional revenue capacity since our last estimate in 2022.

我們預計 Seymour 在第一階段將為當地社區創造至少 150 個就業機會。完成後，從長遠來看，我們預計 Seymour 將為大約 165 名新家庭農民提供支持，並幫助創造超過 3.5 億美元的額外收入。該設施將補充斯普林菲爾德，我們現在估計斯普林菲爾德的收入能力為 8 億美元。讓我簡要闡述最後一個數據點。自 2022 年 ECS 斯普林菲爾德擴建以來，我們已經討論了該設施 7 億美元的收入能力。但是，我們想為您提供最新的估計。自 2022 年以來，我們產品組合的價格組合發生了變化，我們的效率也顯著提高。我們估計，自 2022 年上次估計以來，這一組合為我們帶來了至少 1 億美元的額外收入能力。

Finally, we're in the planning stages of building a handful of farms ourselves. This year, we've purchased $3 million in farmland in Indiana within a short distance of our planned facility in Seymour. This land is where we plan to build these new farms. When up and running, these starter farms will serve two purposes. First, building and running a small number of our farms ourselves will allow us to test new ideas and processes without imposing on our existing family farm system. We can then share best practices and learnings across our family farm network.

最後，我們正處於自己建造一些農場的規劃階段。今年，我們在印第安納州購買了價值 300 萬美元的農田，距離我們計劃在西摩建立的工廠不遠。這片土地是我們計劃建造這些新農場的地方。當啟動並運行時，這些啟動農場將有兩個用途。首先，我們自己建造和經營少量農場將使我們能夠測試新的想法和流程，而無需強加於我們現有的家庭農場系統。然後，我們可以在我們的家庭農場網路中分享最佳實踐和經驗教訓。

Second, over time, we plan to make these farms available for sale to family farmers looking to join our network. We anticipate these farms will be fully operational, creating a turnkey solution for buyers. These farms will provide the potential for immediate cash flow as well as mitigation of much of the initial start-up risk for new farmers and their families. Note that anticipated project costs have been included in our capital expenditure guidance.

其次，隨著時間的推移，我們計劃將這些農場出售給希望加入我們網路的家庭農民。我們預計這些農場將全面投入運營，為買家提供交鑰匙解決方案。這些農場將為新農民及其家庭提供即時現金流的潛力，並減輕大部分初始啟動風險。請注意，預期項目成本已包含在我們的資本支出指南中。

Before I hand it over to Thilo, I want to share a quick update on butter. As you recall, we relaunched our butter line in April. This was after an extensive global search for a supply source, which we believe best represented our Vital Farms philosophy and mission. We chose the supplier in Ireland as our primary source, and we are now working closely with family farms there to deliver a delicious creamy product that's 90% grass-fed.

在我把它交給蒂洛之前，我想分享一下關於黃油的快速更新。您還記得，我們​​在四月重新推出了黃油系列。這是在全球廣泛尋找供應源之後做出的，我們認為這最能代表我們的 Vital Farms 理念和使命。我們選擇愛爾蘭的供應商作為我們的主要來源，現在我們正在與那裡的家庭農場密切合作，提供 90% 草飼的美味奶油產品。

Our choice to import from Ireland is consistent with our commitment to animal welfare and family farm support. Here in the US, we reinforced the brand with attractive new packaging, giving the product a premium brand halo that stands out to consumers on the shelf. Although it's still early days, I'm happy to report that we're seeing significant progress since the relaunch. Our overall butter business is down so far this year as we're lapping the discontinuation of our tub butter SKU late last year. However, we expect to return to growth in the second half of the year.

我們選擇從愛爾蘭進口符合我們對動物福利和家庭農場支持的承諾。在美國，我們透過有吸引力的新包裝強化了品牌，賦予產品優質的品牌光環，在貨架上吸引消費者的目光。儘管現在還處於早期階段，但我很高興地向大家報告，自重新啟動以來我們已經看到了重大進展。今年到目前為止，我們的整體黃油業務有所下降，因為我們去年年底就停止了桶裝黃油 SKU。不過，我們預計下半年將恢復成長。

Our stick butter business is growing, and our velocities have picked up materially where we are present. The future looks good for butter, and I'm happy with what we've accomplished in such a short period. My advice is to go out and find some for your fridge. We keep it in our house, and it's terrific.

我們的黃油棒業務正在成長，我們的業務速度也大幅加快。黃油的未來看起來不錯，我對我們在如此短的時間內所取得的成就感到滿意。我的建議是出去為你的冰箱找一些。我們把它放在家裡，非常棒。

I'd like to wrap up with just a few comments. We got off to a great start in the first quarter and that momentum carried into the second. Our business is in great shape, and I'm excited for what we've accomplished so far this year. It has been exciting to watch our growth while serving our stakeholders and delivering on our financial promises. We have big plans for our future, and we know our growth will require investment and long-term thinking.

我想以幾點評論作為結束語。我們在第一季取得了良好的開局，並將這種勢頭延續到了第二季度。我們的業務狀況良好，我對今年迄今為止所取得的成就感到興奮。看到我們在服務利害關係人並兌現財務承諾的同時不斷成長，真是令人興奮。我們對未來有宏偉的計劃，我們知道我們的成長需要投資和長期思考。

We will continue doing the hard work of recruiting new family farms and adding new capacity to achieve our ambitious financial goals. This expansion of capacity runs parallel with the investments we're already making in our people, brand, and infrastructure. As a result, we're confident that we are well positioned to meet our updated guidance for the year and our long-term financial targets beyond that.

我們將繼續努力招募新的家庭農場並增加新的產能，以實現我們雄心勃勃的財務目標。這種產能擴張與我們已經在人員、品牌和基礎設施的投資同時進行。因此，我們相信我們有能力實現今年更新的指導方針以及除此之外的長期財務目標。

And with that, we'll now go to our CFO, Thilo Wrede, for further discussion.

接下來，我們將與財務長 Thilo Wrede 進行進一步討論。

Thank you, Russell. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I will now review our financial results for the first quarter ended June 30, 2024, and then provide details on our updated guidance for fiscal year 2024. We followed our record first-quarter results with another great performance in the second quarter. Our net revenue rose to $147.4 million, up 38.5% versus last year. We posted 35.8% volume growth and modest price mix benefits. Consistent with our performance from the first quarter, volume growth was driven by strong consumer demand and expansion at both new and existing retailers. This volume performance was in line with our mostly volume-driven growth plans for this year.

謝謝你，拉塞爾。大家好，感謝您今天加入我們。我現在將回顧我們截至 2024 年 6 月 30 日的第一季的財務業績，然後提供有關 2024 財年更新指導的詳細資訊。繼第一季創紀錄的業績之後，我們在第二季又取得了出色的表現。我們的淨收入增至 1.474 億美元，比去年增長 38.5%。我們公佈了 35.8% 的銷售成長和適度的價格組合優勢。與我們第一季的業績一致，銷售成長是由強勁的消費者需求以及新零售商和現有零售商的擴張所推動的。這項銷售表現符合我們今年主要以銷售驅動的成長計畫。

Gross profit for the second quarter of 2024 rose to $57.7 million or 39.1% of net revenue compared with $37.8 million or 35.5% of net revenue in the second quarter of 2023. Gross profit was boosted by revenue growth, scale benefits, and operational efficiencies. These factors, along with price mix benefits and lower conventional commodity and diesel costs also contributed to higher margins. This was partially offset by an increase in the promotional rate and an increase in labor and overhead costs to keep up with our growth.

2024 年第二季的毛利增至 5,770 萬美元，佔淨收入的 39.1%，而 2023 年第二季的毛利為 3,780 萬美元，佔淨收入的 35.5%。收入成長、規模效益和營運效率提高了毛利。這些因素，加上價格組合的好處以及傳統商品和柴油成本的降低，也有助於提高利潤率。這部分被促銷率的增加以及勞動力和管理成本的增加所抵消，以跟上我們的成長。

SG&A expenses for the second quarter of 2024 were $33.3 million or 22.6% of net revenue compared to $23.9 million or 22.5% of net revenue in the second quarter of last year. The increase in SG&A this quarter was driven primarily by higher professional service expenses, employee-related costs, including stock-based compensation, and overall increase in employee headcount, brokerage and marketing expenses, and technology in software-related expenses. These costs all reflected the expansion of the business. Shipping and distribution costs rose in absolute terms, but declined as a percentage of sales.

2024 年第二季的銷售管理及行政費用為 3,330 萬美元，佔淨收入的 22.6%，而去年第二季為 2,390 萬美元，佔淨收入的 22.5%。本季銷售及管理費用的成長主要是由於專業服務費用、員工相關成本（包括股票薪酬）以及員工人數、經紀和行銷費用以及軟體相關技術費用的整體增加​​所致。這些成本都反映了業務的擴張。運輸和分銷成本的絕對值有所上升，但佔銷售額的百分比有所下降。

Shipping and distribution expenses in the second quarter rose to $7.2 million, or 4.9% of net revenue, compared to $5.9 million, or 5.5% of net revenue, in the second quarter of 2023. The increase in shipping and distillation expense was driven by higher sales volumes, partially offset by favorable line haul and fuel rates. Net income for the second quarter 2024 was $16.3 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, compared to $6.7 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2024 more than doubled to $23.6 million, or 15.8% of net revenue, compared to $11.3 million, or 10.7% of net revenue, for the second quarter of 2023.

第二季的運輸和分銷費用增加至 720 萬美元，佔淨收入的 4.9%，而 2023 年第二季為 590 萬美元，佔淨收入的 5.5%。運輸和蒸餾費用的增加是由銷量增加所推動的，但部分被有利的線路運輸和燃油費率所抵消。2024 年第二季的淨利潤為 1,630 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.36 美元，而 2023 年第二季淨利為 670 萬美元，即稀釋後每股收益 0.15 美元。2024 年第二季調整後 EBITDA 成長了一倍多，達到 2,360 萬美元，佔淨收入的 15.8%，而 2023 年第二季調整後 EBITDA 為 1,130 萬美元，佔淨收入的 10.7%。

Now a quick update on our capital structure. Our cash, cash equivalents, and investment securities increased by $35.9 million in the second quarter and as of June 30, 2024, we had total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $152.7 million with no debt outstanding.

現在快速更新我們的資本結構。第二季我們的現金、現金等價物和投資證券增加了 3,590 萬美元，截至 2024 年 6 月 30 日，我們的現金、現金等價物和有價證券總額為 1.527 億美元，沒有未償債務。

Now looking ahead, for the full fiscal year 2024, we are now guiding to a net revenue of at least $590 million or at least 25% growth compared to our previous expectation of at least $575 million, or at least 22% growth, and adjusted EBITDA of at least $75 million, or at least 55% growth, compared to our previous expectation of at least $70 million, or at least 45% growth. Our CapEx guidance remains unchanged at $35.5 million. Our long-term guidance also remains unchanged. We are targeting $1 billion in net revenue by 2027 with a gross margin of at least 35% and an EBITDA margin of 12% to 14%.

現在展望 2024 年整個財年，我們目前的目標是淨收入至少 5.9 億美元，即至少增長 25%，而我們之前的預期為至少 5.75 億美元，即至少增長 22%，並且經過調整EBITDA 至少7500 萬美元，或至少成長55%，而我們先前的預期為至少7,000 萬美元，或至少成長45%。我們的資本支出指引維持在 3550 萬美元不變。我們的長期指導也保持不變。我們的目標是到 2027 年淨收入達到 10 億美元，毛利率至少為 35%，EBITDA 利潤率為 12% 至 14%。

Our updated 2024 guidance reflects the strong performance in the second quarter and good visibility on demand and commodity prices for the second half of the year. In parallel with our increased investment in our supply chain, we will continue to invest in marketing and expand our retail presence to drive awareness and deepen brand loyalty with our consumers.

我們更新的 2024 年指引反映了第二季度的強勁表現以及下半年需求和大宗商品價格的良好可見性。在增加對供應鏈的投資的同時，我們將繼續投資於行銷並擴大零售業務，以提高消費者的認知度並加深品牌忠誠度。

Given our outperformance versus our expectations in Q2, we now expect net revenue to be evenly split between the first and second half of the year. We were well above our long-term 35% gross margin target in the first half of the year, and we expect the second half of the year to continue this trend, albeit to a lesser degree. We expect adjusted EBITDA margin in the first half of the year to be higher than our adjusted EBITDA margin in the second half. The second half adjusted EBITDA margin outlook reflects our stepped-up marketing investment and other investments in the future growth of Vital Farms.

鑑於我們第二季的表現優於預期，我們現在預計上半年和下半年的淨收入將平分。今年上半年，我們遠高於 35% 的長期毛利率目標，我們預計下半年將繼續這一趨勢，儘管程度較小。我們預計上半年調整後 EBITDA 利潤率將高於下半年調整後 EBITDA 利潤率。下半年調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率前景反映了我們加大的行銷投資和其他對 Vital Farms 未來成長的投資。

We continue to expect fiscal year 2024 capital expenditures in the range of $35 million to $45 million. This includes spending on our new facility in Seymour, Indiana, the new farms that Russell mentioned, and our ongoing digital transformation project. With the construction of the Seymour facility, we anticipate elevated CapEx spending for the next few years with the bulk of this spending in 2025 and 2026. We intend to fund the Seymour facility and our other projects with existing cash and operating cash flow, and we project that every dollar of CapEx investment in the new facility will generate more than $5 of annual revenue capacity, which we consider a very strong return. We continue to evaluate and monitor our capital allocation priorities, and we will provide updates as necessary.

我們仍預期 2024 財年的資本支出將在 3,500 萬美元至 4,500 萬美元之間。這包括我們在印第安納州西摩的新設施、拉塞爾提到的新農場以及我們正在進行的數位轉型項目的支出。隨著西摩工廠的建設，我們預計未來幾年的資本支出將會增加，其中大部分支出將在 2025 年和 2026 年發生。我們打算用現有現金和營運現金流為西摩工廠和其他項目提供資金，我們預計新工廠的每一美元資本支出投資將產生超過 5 美元的年收入能力，我們認為這是非常強勁的回報。我們將繼續評估和監控我們的資本配置優先事項，並根據需要提供更新。

Overall, our first-half performance was strong, and we are excited to build on this momentum for the rest of 2024 and beyond. We continue to add family farms at a great pace, and we have big plans to break ground on our new facility next year. We remain focused on driving greater retail penetration and raising brand awareness to deliver our eggs to more and more households with each passing year. Thank you for your time and interest in Vital Farms today and for the confidence that you have placed in us with your investment.

總體而言，我們上半年的表現強勁，我們很高興能夠在 2024 年剩餘時間及以後繼續保持這一勢頭。我們繼續快速增加家庭農場，並制定了明年新設施破土動工的宏偉計劃。我們仍然專注於提高零售滲透率並提高品牌知名度，以便將我們的雞蛋逐年運送到越來越多的家庭。感謝您今天對 Vital Farms 的關注和關注，以及您對我們投資的信任。

With that, we will now be happy to take your questions.

這樣，我們現在很樂意回答您的問題。

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝。我們現在開始問答環節。（操作員說明）

Brian Holland, D.A. Davidson.

布萊恩·霍蘭德，D.A.戴維森。

I wanted to ask first about the implied step down in margin in the second half and the first half, which looks like it's going from high teens to high single digits. Obviously, Thilo, I think you laid out a lot of it. But just maybe want to get a better sense for how much the marketing investment is going to be up maybe in the year and in the second half and kind of where that would put you on a relative basis to sales on an annualized basis? And maybe where do you see that going forward versus where you've been historically?

我想先問一下下半年和上半年利潤率的隱含下降，看起來從高十幾歲到高個位數。顯然，Thilo，我認為你已經闡述了很多。但也許只是想更了解今年和下半年的行銷投資可能會增加多少，以及相對於年化銷售額而言，這會讓您處於什麼位置？也許您認為與歷史上的情況相比，未來的發展會如何？

The marketing investments, last year, we did something similar where we concentrated marketing investments in the second half of the year. This year, we are planning an even bigger spending on marketing investments in second half of the year as a percent of net sales. And it's simply driven by the fact that we have this upside in the first half versus our own plans. So we are -- we have with better profitability first half than what we had expected when we plan for the year.

行銷投資，去年我們做了類似的事情，我們集中在下半年進行行銷投資。今年，我們計劃在下半年加大行銷投資佔淨銷售額的百分比。這只是因為我們在上半年比我們自己的計畫有這樣的優勢。所以我們上半年的獲利能力比我們今年計畫時的預期要好。

And while we are happy to let some of that flow to the bottom line, we also want to make sure that we make the appropriate investments where we can to ensure that the growth continues, and we continue delivering the upside that we have.

雖然我們很高興讓其中的一部分流入利潤，但我們也希望確保我們在力所能及的範圍內進行適當的投資，以確保成長的持續，並繼續提供我們所擁有的優勢。

And Russell had mentioned on the call that we have started this new advertising program around women's sports, how it connects the female farmers that we work with. There's a huge opportunity for us there. I think the viewership of women sports is up meaningfully over time. And given the profit upside from the first half, we just figure there's an opportunity for us here to continue building awareness and going up for the household penetration that we have.

拉塞爾在電話中提到，我們已經啟動了圍繞女性運動的新廣告計劃，以及它如何將與我們合作的女性農民聯繫起來。那裡對我們來說有一個巨大的機會。我認為隨著時間的推移，女性運動的收視率顯著上升。考慮到上半年的利潤上升，我們認為我們有機會繼續提高意識並提高我們的家庭滲透率。

Last year, we spent roughly 5% of our net sales on marketing spending. I would expect a small increase relative to that level this year. And long term, I think the 5% to 6% range is probably the right range for us right now, but we'll continue to evaluate that as we continue to grow.

去年，我們將大約 5% 的淨銷售額用於行銷支出。我預計今年相對於這一水平會有小幅增長。從長遠來看，我認為 5% 到 6% 的範圍可能是目前適合我們的範圍，但隨著我們的不斷發展，我們將繼續評估這個範圍。

Appreciate the color. And then just switching gears to the new egg washing facility. Can you just, for investors, and Russell appreciated the update on Springfield going from $700 million to $800 million, but just within the context of a $1 billion revenue target by 2027, just help us understand the bridge from onboarding that facility and ramping that up. What -- how that plays into the $1 billion, what other considerations or flexibility do you have to make sure that you're from a distribution capacity standpoint supporting that?

欣賞顏色。然後只需切換到新的洗蛋設施即可。對於投資者來說，拉塞爾對斯普林菲爾德從7 億美元到8 億美元的更新表示讚賞，但只是在到2027 年實現10 億美元收入目標的背景下，請幫助我們了解從建立該設施到提高收入之間的橋樑。這對 10 億美元有何影響？

And then maybe, Thilo, just in that context, just any thoughts on the CapEx component between now and starting up that facility.

然後，Thilo，也許就在這種情況下，從現在到啟動該設施之間對資本支出組件的任何想法。

So as you have learned over time, we're very intentional and plan very well in advance to make sure that we don't face the common constraints on growth here at a fast-growing company. For example, we started the site selection for this plant about two years ago and made this announcement just in the last quarter, and that's well in advance of us opening the facility. Now we believe that we will have that facility up and running by the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027. And that that will be well timed with our -- hitting our capacity in Springfield and needing to add capacity.

因此，正如您隨著時間的推移所了解的那樣，我們非常有意識並提前做好計劃，以確保我們不會面臨快速發展的公司所面臨的常見成長限制。例如，我們大約兩年前開始為該工廠選址，並在上個季度宣布了這一消息，這比我們開設該工廠早得多。現在，我們相信該設施將在 2026 年底或 2027 年初投入運作。這將與我們在斯普林菲爾德達到產能並需要增加產能的時間恰逢其時。

There are other levers that we can pull for short periods of time in case, for example, we have a big upside surprise in volume. There's more space in Springfield that we could potentially leverage to temporarily add capacity if that became necessary. But we've been very deliberate in our growth, and we feel pretty confident about the projections we're using that led us to the timing of Seymour.

我們也可以在短時間內拉動其他槓桿，以防萬一，例如，我們的成交量出現大幅上漲。斯普林菲爾德有更多的空間，如果有必要，我們可以利用這些空間來臨時增加容量。但我們在成長方面一直非常謹慎，我們對我們使用的預測非常有信心，這些預測引導我們選擇了 Seymour 的時機。

Brian, on your CapEx question, so the cost for the new Springfield facility, we haven't fully talked about it. I think we've talked about the revenue capacity that the new Seymour facility brings us and that we think for every dollar of CapEx that we put in, we get $5 of revenue out of it. That CapEx will be spent in '25 and '26, the vast majority of it, simply we start breaking ground in the first half next year, and that's when the spending really starts. Russell on the prepared remarks had talked about these starter farms that we are now starting to plan for as well with our clients on that there. There will be additional CapEx that goes into those starter farms as well.

布萊恩，關於您的資本支出問題，即斯普林菲爾德新工廠的成本，我們還沒有充分討論過。我想我們已經討論過新西摩工廠帶給我們的收入能力，我們認為每投入一美元的資本支出，我們就能從中獲得 5 美元的收入。資本支出將在 25 年和 26 年花費，其中絕大多數，只是我們在明年上半年開始破土動工，那時支出才真正開始。拉塞爾在準備好的演講中談到了我們現在開始與我們的客戶一起規劃的這些起始農場。這些新創農場也會有額外的資本支出。

I think in the 10-Q, we talked about $20 million to $30 million of CapEx over the next 12 months. And we'll probably continue to make progress on these starter farms beyond those next 12 months. So for the next two years, we'll have elevated CapEx spend, elevated compared to our guidance for this year as well. But right now, we feel very good that we can fund all of that out of operating cash flow. And don't forget, we have $153 million of cash on the balance sheet. So we have a very, very healthy cash cushion right now.

我認為在 10 季中，我們討論了未來 12 個月 2,000 萬至 3,000 萬美元的資本支出。在接下來的 12 個月之後，我們可能會繼續在這些起始農場上取得進展。因此，在接下來的兩年裡，我們將提高資本支出，與我們今年的指導相比也有所提高。但現在，我們感覺非常好，我們可以從營運現金流中為所有這些提供資金。不要忘記，我們的資產負債表上有 1.53 億美元的現金。所以我們現在有非常非常健康的現金緩衝。

Rob Dickerson, Jefferies.

羅布·迪克森，杰弗里斯。

I guess, just first question is, let's say, what's the primary -- or what was the primary driver, the nice volume performance in the quarter even relative to your solid expectations coming out of Q1, right? It seems like there was this bump. So clearly, the question now is as well as there's increased distribution, the velocities are great and demand is driving distribution, distribution is driving demand, then why couldn't we see a little bit more of that kind of all going upside as we get through at least Q3?

我想，第一個問題是，主要的因素是什麼，或者主要的驅動因素是什麼，本季良好的銷量表現，甚至相對於您對第一季的可靠預期而言，對吧？好像有這個腫塊。很明顯，現在的問題是，除了分配增加之外，速度也很大，需求正在推動分配，分配正在推動需求，那麼為什麼我們不能看到更多這樣的上行趨勢呢？

I think on the first quarter call three months ago, we had talked about how first quarter was just humming on all cylinders ECS was operating really well. Consumer demand was strong. And I think in the second quarter, we saw a continuation of that theme. This virtuous cycle that Russell had mentioned in the prepared remarks about distribution driving demand and demand driving distribution that continues. ECS continue to operate really well.

我想在三個月前的第一季電話會議上，我們討論了第一季 ECS 的運作情況如何，運作得非常好。消費者需求強勁。我認為在第二季度，我們看到了這個主題的延續。羅素在準備好的演講中提到的關於分銷驅動需求和需求驅動分銷的良性循環仍在繼續。ECS 繼續運作良好。

So it's really this virtuous cycle that we've talked about, it continues to manifest itself. For the back half of the year, we assume that at some point, in terms of ECS operating efficiency, we will regress to a mean. This very smooth operation that we had in the first half of the year, we don't necessarily expect that to continue in perpetuity. At some point, the machine will break down unexpectedly. And then we'll have to fix it and do some maintenance outside of the planned cycle.

所以這確實是我們所談論的良性循環，它不斷顯現出來。對於今年下半年，我們假設在某個時候，就 ECS 運行效率而言，我們將回歸到平均值。我們上半年的營運非常順利，但我們不認為這種情況會永遠持續下去。在某些時候，機器會意外發生故障。然後我們必須修復它並在計劃週期之外進行一些維護。

And so our guidance reflects that ECS at some point will probably run into some hiccup that we just didn't see in the first half. And so we just want to make sure we don't get ahead of our skis there. Consumer demand for us continues to be strong, right? You publish Nielsen reports every two weeks. You see the scanner data that continues to be strong. But it is more our own cautiousness to make sure that that we don't run into the situation where we promise something and then we run into an unforeseen issue at ECS that will prevent us from delivering on that.

因此，我們的指導反映了 ECS 在某個時候可能會遇到一些我們在上半年沒有看到的問題。所以我們只是想確保我們不會領先於我們的滑雪板。消費者對我們的需求仍然強勁，對嗎？您每兩週發布一次尼爾森報告。您會看到掃描器數據仍然強勁。但更多的是我們自己的謹慎，以確保我們不會遇到這樣的情況：我們做出了某種承諾，然後我們在 ECS 遇到了無法預見的問題，從而阻止我們兌現承諾。

Okay, very clear prudence. Good. And then I guess, just another kind of more technical P&L question. Q1, the gross margin was great. Q2, the gross margin was great. And I think kind of as you put up at least the Q1 number, right, there is kind of walking everybody back a little bit just with respect to kind of go-forward run rate, but you've never really spoken to the business kind of getting into the high 30% gross margin and totally understand that. And I totally understand a lot of the stars have aligned in the first half.

好吧，非常明確的謹慎態度。好的。然後我想，這只是另一個更具技術性的損益問題。第一季度，毛利率很高。第二季度，毛利率很高。我認為，當你提出第一季的數字時，對吧，就前進的運行率而言，每個人都會有點後退，但你從未真正與商業人士交談過進入30% 的高毛利率並完全理解這一點。我完全理解很多明星在上半場都齊心協力。

All that said, I feel like part of the kind of conservatism as you got where you think through the year was also just around fee cost and input costs. And where we sit today, they're actually better than they were a few months ago, if I'm taking more corn soybeans. So maybe just a couple of comments as to why you couldn't potentially do a gross margin even Q3 that's similar to Q2 maybe? That's all.

話雖如此，我覺得自己屬於保守主義的一部分，因為你認為這一年也只是圍繞著費用成本和投入成本。如果我服用更多的玉米大豆，我們今天坐的位置實際上比幾個月前更好。那麼，也許只有一些評論可以解釋為什麼即使第三季你也無法實現與第二季相似的毛利率？就這樣。

Yeah, no, fair question. Look, when we look at commodity costs in my estimation, Q2 was probably the biggest year-over-year benefit in fall of commodity costs. So the margin benefit that we get from that probably peaked in Q2. And look, I'm not in the business of forecasting commodity costs, right? If they keep moving around, who knows what happens the rest of the year. We have visibility into the cost that we have in Q3. We have a bit of visibility into Q4. Based on that, I would assume that Q2 was the best year-over-year comparison.

是的，不，公平的問題。看，當我們考慮大宗商品成本時，我估計，第二季可能是大宗商品成本下降的最大年收益。因此，我們從中獲得的利潤率可能在第二季達到頂峰。你看，我的業務不是預測商品成本，對吧？如果他們繼續四處走動，誰知道今年剩下的時間會發生什麼。我們可以了解第三季的成本。我們對第四季有一些了解。基於此，我認為第二季是最好的年比比較。

We talked in the prepared remarks about the butter business starting to grow again, that will put pressure on gross margin. There's a bit of maintenance that we need to do at ECS that will flow through COGS that will hit gross margin. So that is why we are saying that we still assume that for the year we'll be -- for the back half of the year, we'll be about our long-term guidance, just not to the same degree that we have in the first half of the year.

我們在準備好的評論中談到黃油業務開始再次成長，這將對毛利率造成壓力。我們需要在 ECS 進行一些維護，這些維護將流經銷貨成本，從而影響毛利率。因此，這就是為什麼我們說，我們仍然假設今年下半年，我們將關注我們的長期指導，只是程度不如我們去年的水平。

Ben Klieve, Lake Street.

本·克里夫，湖街。

Congratulations on another nice quarter here. A question about the initiative you have around Seymour also you talked about purchasing land for kind of R&D farms. And it sounds like a bit as a BD tool. I'm curious if one you could comment on the degree to which the $3 million you've invested into this initiative so far represents the bulk of this initiative or if that's going to expand in any material fashion. And then if you could kind of characterize this initiative between this kind of R&D farm versus kind of a longer-term business development tool? I would be curious about both of those thoughts.

恭喜又一個美好的季度。關於西摩周圍的倡議的問題，您還談到了為研發農場購買土地。聽起來有點像 BD 工具。我很好奇您是否可以評論一下您迄今為止為該計劃投入的 300 萬美元在多大程度上代表了該計劃的大部分，或者該計劃是否會以任何實質性方式擴展。然後，您是否可以描述這種研發農場與長期業務開發工具之間的舉措？我對這兩種想法都很好奇。

Yes, I'm really excited about this initiative. So I'll talk a little bit about the purpose and the goals and then Thilo can talk about kind of the capital expenditure, the roadmap. As we said in the remarks, there are two things that I believe will be meaningful to Vital Farms and all of our stakeholders coming out of this initiative. The first is that we still have a lot of innovation to try and to incorporate. We've been traveling to Europe almost annually for 10 years. And they've been doing things the way we do it for a lot longer.

是的，我對這項舉措感到非常興奮。所以我會談談目的和目標，然後蒂洛可以談談資本支出和路線圖。正如我們在演講中所說，我認為有兩件事對 Vital Farms 和我們所有利益相關者都有意義。首先，我們仍然有許多創新需要嘗試和整合。十年來我們幾乎每年都會去歐洲旅行。他們以我們的方式做事的時間已經很長了。

And every time we go there, we learn and we get new ideas, and we hear from them what's working, and you can't do everything at once. We want to start to implement more of what we've seen work so well over there, and we want to be able to prove to our network of small family farmers the impact on them, on the health of their birds and on their bottom lines before we ask them to sort of make that investment themselves. We're not in the habit of forcing additional CapEx on our farmers within the course of our working relationship. So that's one, which is we get to test and learn.

每次我們去那裡，我們都會學習並得到新的想法，我們會從他們那裡聽到什麼是有效的，但你不能同時做所有的事情。我們希望開始實施更多我們在那裡看到的行之有效的方法，並且我們希望能夠向我們的小型家庭農民網絡證明對他們、對他們的鳥類健康以及對他們的利潤的影響在我們要求他們在自己進行投資之前。在我們的工作關係過程中，我們不習慣強迫農民承擔額外的資本支出。這就是我們要測試和學習的地方。

And then the other is, as you well know, adding a farm is a long lead time exercise. It takes as much as a year to go from deciding we want more eggs a year from now and actually having a new farmer with a farm that's operating and actually producing those eggs. And sometimes the year is one issue. But there's also variability, which is another issue because a lot of the upfront work of finding the right piece of land, getting financing from the bank, finding the right contractor to build the born, getting in line for the import of equipment with sometimes disrupted ocean freight, et cetera, can create variability.

另一個問題是，如您所知，添加農場是一項需要很長時間的工作。從決定一年後我們想要更多雞蛋到真正擁有一個新農民和一個正在運作並實際生產這些雞蛋的農場，需要花費一年的時間。有時年份也是一個問題。但也存在可變性，這是另一個問題，因為大量的前期工作包括尋找合適的土地、從銀行獲得融資、找到合適的承包商來建造房屋、排隊進口設備，有時會受到干擾海運等可能會造成變化。

And one of the really exciting things about having a handful of these farms right where we want them in Indiana near Seymour, is that when we're ready to have farmers producing eggs in Indiana, we have 10 says more or less farms ready to go, which frankly just puts a lot more accuracy on our estimate of the timeframe. So I think this is an exciting benefit for us and an exciting benefit for the farmers and, frankly, for the chickens.

在印第安納州西摩附近擁有一些這樣的農場，真正令人興奮的事情之一是，當我們準備好讓農民在印第安納州生產雞蛋時，我們有 10 個或多或少的農場準備好了，坦率地說，這使我們對時間範圍的估計更加準確。所以我認為這對我們來說是一個令人興奮的好處，對農民來說也是一個令人興奮的好處，坦白說，對雞也是如此。

Yeah. Thanks, Russell. That was really helpful. Yes. And then, Thilo, any input on the level of investment beyond the $3 million would be great.

是的。謝謝，拉塞爾。這真的很有幫助。是的。然後，Thilo，任何超過 300 萬美元的投資水準的投入都將是巨大的。

Yeah, as I said before, in the Q, I think we mentioned that for the next 12 months, we plan to spend $20 million to $30 million on this. The $3 million so far was for the land purchase. Now we need to actually construct the barns and put the equipment into the barns and so on. I would assume that we'll continue to invest in this approach past, the next 12 months. And so there will be continued CapEx spend here.

是的，正如我之前所說，在 Q 中，我想我們提到在接下來的 12 個月裡，我們計劃在這方面花費 2000 萬到 3000 萬美元。到目前為止，300萬美元用於購買土地。現在我們需要實際建造穀倉並將設備放入穀倉等等。我認為我們將在過去、未來 12 個月內繼續投資這種方法。因此，這裡將持續存在資本支出。

But as Russell said, right, it's another way for us to ensure that we have the egg supply. We did mention in the prepared remarks that we are now working with 350 family farms, so since the beginning of the year we have grown that by about 50 farms. We continue to have a very good pipeline of farmers, but we're also expanding into a new part of the country, right? There aren't -- we don't have any farms in Indiana right now, and this will allow us to basically find the pump in Indiana for farms that we want to construct there. And so from our viewpoint, it's a great view. It's a great way to ensure that the supply for Seymour once we need it will actually be in place already.

但正如拉塞爾所說，對，這是我們確保雞蛋供應的另一種方式。我們在準備好的演講中確實提到，我們現在正在與 350 個家庭農場合作，因此自今年年初以來，我們已經種植了大約 50 個農場。我們仍然擁有非常好的農民管道，但我們也在擴展到該國的新地區，對嗎？目前，我們在印第安納州沒有任何農場，這將使我們基本上能夠在印第安納州找到我們想要在那裡建造的農場的水泵。所以從我們的角度來看，這是一個很棒的觀點。這是一個很好的方法，可以確保我們需要時對西摩的供應實際上已經到位。

Got it. Very good. All right. Well, I appreciate you both elaborating on that. Congratulations again on the great quarter, and I'll get back in queue.

知道了。非常好。好的。嗯，我很感謝你們對此進行了詳細闡述。再次恭喜這個偉大的季度，我會回到隊列中。

Rob Moskow, TD Cowen.

羅布·莫斯科，TD·考恩。

Russell and Thilo, I wanted to ask a little bit more for some color on how you're expanding the talent pool of the organization to handle all of this growth? What kind of headcount increases are you putting in for things like sales, supply chain, logistics, marketing, like running a $1 billion business is a lot different than running a $400 million business. So I wanted to hear about how you're prepping for that?

Russell 和 Thilo，我想多問一些關於你們如何擴大組織的人才庫以應對所有這些增長的信息？你會在銷售、供應鏈、物流、行銷等方面增加什麼樣的員工數量，例如經營價值 10 億美元的企業與經營價值 4 億美元的企業有很大不同。所以我想聽聽你是如何準備的？

And then secondly, for the new facility in Seymour, is it pretty much like cut and paste, like is the facility in Missouri, like what you've learned from that one? Is it pretty -- is it going to be like very easy to set up a similar process in Indiana like because I've seen in start-up companies that sometimes opening up a new production line could be kind of tricky based on all kinds of things that you didn't anticipate. So that's the question.

其次，對於西摩的新設施，它是否很像剪切和粘貼，就像密蘇裡州的設施一樣，就像您從那裡學到的東西一樣？是不是很漂亮——在印第安納州建立類似的流程是否會很容易，因為我在初創公司中看到，有時根據各種情況，開闢一條新的生產線可能會有點棘手你沒有預料到的事情。這就是問題所在。

Great question because I think it is so common for companies at our stage of growth, still in hyper growth mode and looking ahead to $1 billion and beyond. It's so common for their top line to get ahead of their ability to service that top line. And you've known us for years now, and hopefully, you've gotten used to my refrain about planning for our capacity and capability expansion well in advance of the need so that we don't run into those somewhat predictable roadblocks that I believe predictable is preventable. So for example, we've talked about the digital transformation effort that is currently underway to make sure that we have the right systems in place to scale from our current revenue level to $1 billion and beyond.

這是一個很好的問題，因為我認為對於處於我們成長階段、仍處於高速成長模式並展望 10 億美元及以上的公司來說，這是很常見的。他們的營收超出其服務能力的情況是很常見的。您已經認識我們很多年了，希望您已經習慣了我在需求之前就規劃我們的產能和能力擴展的克制，這樣我們就不會遇到我認為的那些可預測的障礙可預測的就是可預防的。例如，我們討論了目前正在進行的數位轉型工作，以確保我們擁有合適的系統，將我們目前的收入水準擴展到 10 億美元甚至更高。

When it comes to adding talent, one of the really cool things about Vital Farms is we really do have -- I know a lot of people say it, we really do have a pretty darn distinct culture, and we attract really outstanding crew numbers in every function. And in my experience, other great people like to work with teams of great people. And so we are -- we don't struggle to hire, and we're very thoughtful in the short and long run about making sure we have a talent roadmap in order to make sure that we're well ahead of the demands of the business. As for the actual numbers that we're planning, I don't think we've sort of guided to that, and maybe Thilo has some insights that he wants to share. But my commitment to you is that, frankly, a big part of my job is simply after setting the strategy is ensuring that we have all the resources we need to execute really well.

在增加人才方面，Vital Farms 真正酷的事情之一是我們確實擁有——我知道很多人都這麼說，我們確實擁有非常獨特的文化，並且我們吸引了非常出色的員工數量。根據我的經驗，其他偉大的人喜歡與偉大的人團隊一起工作。因此，我們不會在招聘方面遇到困難，而且從短期和長期來看，我們都非常深思熟慮，確保我們有一個人才路線圖，以確保我們遠遠領先於客戶的需求。至於我們正在計劃的實際數字，我認為我們並沒有對此進行指導，也許蒂洛有一些他想分享的見解。但坦白說，我對您的承諾是，我工作的很大一部分就是在製定策略之後確保我們擁有良好執行所需的所有資源。

Okay. And just in terms of like the facility itself that you're building like is every egg washing facility the same? Or are their differences I put this one in place?

好的。就像您正在建造的設施本身一樣，每個洗蛋設施都是一樣的嗎？或者說它們之間的差異是我把這個放在適當的位置嗎？

Oh, no. If you've seen our facility, you'll know not every egg washing facility is the same.

哦，不。如果你看過我們的設施，你就會知道並非每個洗蛋設施都是一樣的。

Okay.

好的。

But what was cool about Seymour is it is advantaged because it benefits from the learnings of working for seven years in Springfield. And so yes, the basic operation, the washing, inspecting and packing of eggs is the same. The machine will be from the same manufacturer, we're well familiar with it. We've got the advantage of the ability to train up the entire new crew in our currently operating facility over time.

但 Seymour 的優點在於它有優勢，因為它受益於在斯普林菲爾德工作七年的經驗。所以，是的，雞蛋的清洗、檢查和包裝等基本操作是相同的。這台機器將來自同一製造商，我們對此非常熟悉。隨著時間的推移，我們的優勢是能夠在目前營運的設施中培訓所有新員工。

And our Vice President of Operations, who's deeply embedded in Springfield today is also the person overseeing the construction and standing up of the new facility. So we feel great about continuity. We feel great about our understanding how to run one of these places really well. And of course, the start-up never goes perfectly as planned. But this is about as close to what we're already doing, as I can imagine.

我們的營運副總裁如今已深入斯普林菲爾德，同時也是監督新設施建設和維護的人員。所以我們對連續性感覺很好。我們對於了解如何很好地經營這些地方之一感到非常高興。當然，新創企業永遠不會照計畫順利進行。但這與我們已經在做的事情非常接近，正如我所能想像的那樣。

Jon Andersen, William Blair.

喬恩·安德森，威廉·布萊爾。

My question, just one, but I guess a two-parter. One of the questions I get asked most frequently is kind of sustainable competitive advantage or moat in the egg business. I think investors, some investors have a hard time getting their arms around that. And what I'd love to hear your kind of refreshes on is thinking around both your brand and supply chain? Because it seems to me that the brand and your relationships with retailers and perhaps ability to have a greater influence and inform out of the shelf in this category is part of the barrier of the moat and then the supply chain in terms of your relationships with farmers, the farmer economics. But if you could tell us a little bit from your perspective at what constitutes the moat that would be very helpful.

我的問題只有一個，但我猜有兩個部分。我最常被問到的問題之一是雞蛋產業的可持續競爭優勢或護城河。我認為投資者，有些投資者很難接受這一點。我很想聽聽您的更新是關於您的品牌和供應鏈的思考嗎？因為在我看來，品牌以及您與零售商的關係，也許還有在這一類別中具有更大影響力和信息的能力，是護城河障礙的一部分，然後是供應鏈與農民關係的障礙、農民經濟。但如果您能從您的角度告訴我們護城河的組成，那將會非常有幫助。

Very fair question and one that we're not unfamiliar with. If you'd asked me that question three years ago, I would have somewhat flippantly said, there is no moat. And arguably, there isn't one around the production of eggs. But what there is a moat around is what we think we're really differentiating and that is selling food with a level of transparency and with a level of trust in the way we do that, that's hard to come by in this country.

這是一個非常公平的問題，我們並不陌生。如果你三年前問我這個問題，我會輕率地說，沒有護城河。可以說，目前還沒有關於雞蛋生產的技術。但我們認為我們真正與眾不同的地方是有一條護城河，那就是以一定程度的透明度和一定程度的信任來銷售食品，這在這個國家很難實現。

And so -- and the way I would maybe prove that assertion or at least some evidence that I think indicates it is in our top 10 customers, we're not the only brand of pasture-raised eggs on the shelf. And if you believe that's a commodity in need of a moat, interestingly, we have the highest price version of that kind of egg.

因此，我可能會證明這一斷言，或者至少有一些證據表明它屬於我們的十大客戶，我們並不是貨架上唯一的牧場雞蛋品牌。如果您認為這是一種需要護城河的商品，有趣的是，我們有這種雞蛋的最高價格版本。

And yet we're growing the fastest and have the highest market share year after year. And so you have to begin to wonder, are we selling a commodity egg inefficiently or are we perhaps doing something more than that? And you mentioned brand, it is absolutely my assertion that we have a brand that actually creates value for consumers. It's not just a pile of advertising on a commodity. We bring consumers and retailers into what we're doing and how we're doing it in a way that's fun and educational in a confusing segment of the grocery store, but also in a way that helps them understand how thoughtful and careful we are with all the details.

然而，我們年復一年地成長最快，市佔率最高。所以你必須開始懷疑，我們是否在低效率地銷售商品雞蛋，或者我們是否做了更多的事情？你提到品牌，這絕對是我的斷言，我們擁有一個真正為消費者創造價值的品牌。它不僅僅是商品上的一堆廣告。我們以一種有趣且具有教育意義的方式，讓消費者和零售商了解我們正在做的事情以及我們是如何做到這一點的，同時也幫助他們了解我們在雜貨店的混亂部分中是多麼周到和謹慎。

So that would be my first thought that the moat is a way of operating and the way that you can maybe quantify that is around the brand and the value of the brand. You can see it in gross margins, and you can see it in revenue growth.

所以這是我的第一個想法，護城河是一種運作方式，也是一種可以圍繞品牌和品牌價值進行量化的方式。你可以從毛利率和收入成長中看到這一點。

We also mentioned our network of forms, and we have invested very thoughtfully and perhaps in an outsized way over a lot of years to develop what I believe is the network of the best farmers in this country. And I think we've got really great farmers, and they stay with us. And we spend a lot of time and energy with them, helping them be successful and helping bring them the kind of education and resources that they ask us for because that's something that scales really well. You can hire one expert veterinarian to speak to a whole group of farmers rather than leaving that to them, for example.

我們也提到了我們的形式網絡，多年來我們進行了非常深思熟慮的投資，也許是大規模的投資，以發展我認為是這個國家最好的農民的網絡。我認為我們有非常偉大的農民，他們和我們在一起。我們花了大量的時間和精力與他們在一起，幫助他們取得成功，並幫助他們為他​​們提供他們所要求的教育和資源，因為這是可以很好擴展的東西。例如，您可以聘請一位專業獸醫與一整群農民交談，而不是將其留給他們。

So that's a very hard thing to replicate. And I would have said two years ago, well, gosh, anybody could go partner with some small family farmers if they wanted to introduce a product line called pasture-raised eggs. But increasingly, what we're finding is that part of our accelerated and superior growth versus other branded and non-branded versions of the commodity we produce is that we're just a little bit better, I think, at growing our supply in line with our business plans and attracting and retaining great farmers.

所以這是一件很難複製的事情。兩年前我會說，好吧，天哪，如果一些小家庭農民想推出名為牧場飼養雞蛋的產品線，任何人都可以與他們合作。但我們越來越發現，與我們生產的其他品牌和非品牌產品相比，我們的加速和卓越成長的部分原因是，我認為，我們在增加供應方面稍微好一點。和留住優秀的農民。

And it turns out that farmers have long memories and they know how you treated them last year, and they know what you did when times were tough, and they know what you did and when you didn't have to do it and that's a very rare thing in agriculture in this country to actually treat farmers the way they deserve to be treated. But we do that. And that means we have the right to grow our network in a way that maybe some others don't.

事實證明，農民的記憶力很長，他們知道去年你是如何對待他們的，他們知道你在困難時期做了什麼，他們知道你做了什麼，什麼時候你不必這樣做，這是非常重要的。在這個國家的農業中，真正以應有的方式對待農民是罕見的。但我們就是這麼做的。這意味著我們有權以其他人沒有的方式發展我們的人脈。

Matt Smith, Stifel.

馬特史密斯，史蒂菲爾。

Thilo I wanted to come back to the second half expectations. Top line looks like it's expected to grow about 20%, including the headwind from lapping the extra week. Is there anything you'd call out in terms of the timing of your expectations for distribution gains, shelf resets, promotional events or any unique comparisons to the prior year, we should keep in mind as we phase the growth across the third and fourth quarter?

我想回到下半場的期望。收入預計將增長 20% 左右，其中包括額外一周的阻力。在對分銷收益、貨架重置、促銷活動或與上一年的任何獨特比較的預期時間方面，您有什麼需要指出的嗎？這一點？

Yes, we've laid out the puts and takes for the year. I think we talked about it at the beginning of the year. We had a lot more puts and takes first half of the year than second half really for the second half, the biggest piece to keep in mind is the 53rd week that we had last year. Other than that, we mentioned all the TDP gains in the prepared remarks. I think you can -- we talked about the items, number of SKUs on shelves in the prepared remarks.

是的，我們已經列出了今年的看跌期權和支出。我想我們在年初就討論過這個問題。我們上半年的看跌期權和看跌期權比下半年要多得多，下半年要記住的最重要的事情是我們去年的第 53 週。除此之外，我們在準備好的發言中提到了所有 TDP 的收益。我想你可以——我們在準備好的評論中討論了貨架上的商品、SKU 數量。

So, it's not so much about there's going to be a day when [indiscernible] happen and all of a sudden, our TDPs jump up. It's an ongoing continuous process. Right? I think we have had TDP gains in eggs pretty much every month of the year. If you look at overall scanner data for us, the much will be a bit different because we have year-over-year distribution losses in butter that we are hoping to capture back in the second half of the year. But it's really an ongoing process that will build on itself month after month rather than on a particular date when everything will change.

所以，這並不是說有一天會發生[音頻不清晰]，我們的 TDP 會突然上升。這是一個持續不斷的過程。正確的？我認為一年中幾乎每個月我們的雞蛋 TDP 都有所增長。如果你看一下我們的整體掃描器數據，你會發現情況會有所不同，因為我們的黃油分銷量同比出現了損失，我們希望在今年下半年能夠彌補這一損失。但這實際上是一個持續的過程，將逐月地建立起來，而不是在一切都會改變的特定日期。

So the growth over the second half of the year, don't expect that there is going to be some major inflection point there. It's really an ongoing process. And the 53rd week is that one big event out there, lapping that one that will reduce fourth quarter growth relative until the third quarter of a property.

因此，下半年的成長，不要指望會出現重大拐點。這確實是一個持續的過程。第 53 週是一個重大事件，它將導致房地產第四季的成長相對於第三季有所下降。

And just as a follow-up, you talked about reinvesting some of the first half upside to sustain and feed the virtuous cycle through increasing marketing even above where you expected it to increase for the year. Are you also leaning more heavily into promotions behind the egg business to drive additional consumer trial and consumer or household penetration? Or is that upside being focused into marketing investments and less so on the promotion side and always there?

作為後續行動，您談到將上半年的一些上漲空間進行再投資，透過增加行銷甚至高於您今年預期的成長來維持和促進良性循環。您是否也更傾向於雞蛋業務背後的促銷活動，以推動更多的消費者試用和消費者或家庭滲透？或者這種優勢是否集中在行銷投資上，而不是促銷方面，並且始終存在？

Yeah. So the reinvestment is really into marketing spending and capabilities. We did increase promotions in the first half of the year relative to last year simply because last year, we didn't -- we really couldn't spend because of the dislocations on shelf because of avian influenza, right? There was no point in us subsidizing existing sales. And so we pulled back on trade promotions. We put that back on first half this year. Second half of the year, trade promotions are, yeah, at the previously planned levels, I would say.

是的。因此，再投資實際上是行銷支出和能力。我們上半年確實比去年增加了促銷，只是因為去年我們沒有——因為禽流感，貨架錯位，我們真的沒法花錢，對嗎？我們沒有必要補貼現有的銷售。因此我們取消了貿易促銷活動。我們將其推遲到今年上半年。我想說，今年下半年的貿易促銷活動處於先前計畫的水平。

So the investment goes to marketing, and it goes to capability building, right? One of your peers had asked a question about investments in headcount, for example. We have the ability to maybe accelerate some headcount growth in order to get capabilities in-house that we have planned for to get them in-house next year.

所以投資用於行銷，用於能力建設，對嗎？例如，你的一位同事問了一個關於員工人數投資的問題。我們或許有能力加速一些員工數量的成長，以便獲得我們計劃明年將其納入內部的能力。

So we're bringing them in now because we can. Because we can, we are able to afford it, and it actually allows us to get ahead of our planned growth curve already. This is not about promotion spending, right? Our promotion spend is to drive trial in order to then convert trial into repeat spend or repeat purchases and drive also penetration that way. That's a plan that we build well in advance, and that's not something that we change on the dime if we don't have to.

所以我們現在就把他們帶進來，因為我們可以。因為我們可以，我們能夠負擔得起，而且它實際上已經使我們能夠超越我們計劃的成長曲線。這與促銷支出無關，對嗎？我們的促銷支出是為了推動試用，然後將試用轉化為重複支出或重複購買，並以這種方式推動滲透。這是我們提前製定的計劃，如果沒有必要，我們不會立即改變。

So, it's really about capability building that.

所以，這其實是關於能力建構。

And one thing I'd add to Thilo's excellent remarks on that topic, is that we, just in case it wasn't obvious, we don't use promotions to rent market share, and I'm stealing that quote from our sales leader, Pete Pappas. That's not how we grow this business.

對於 Thilo 關於該主題的精彩評論，我要補充的一件事是，為了以防萬一，我們不會利用促銷來租用市場份額，這句話是我從我們的銷售主管那裡偷來的，皮特·帕帕斯。這不是我們發展這項業務的方式。

Adam Samuelson, Goldman Sachs.

亞當·薩繆爾森，高盛。

So I guess my first question is maybe kind of back to the gross margins in the second quarter and really the first half. And I want to maybe take it from the lens of kind of the supply planning point that you made earlier, Russell. You have to make your own internal supply decisions or how many eggs you have from your farms a year plus in advance. Your volumes in the first half of the year have been very, very good and above the level at which you've kind of, I think, assume long-term revenue growth.

所以我想我的第一個問題可能是回到第二季甚至上半年的毛利率。我想也許可以從你之前提出的供應規劃觀點的角度來看，拉塞爾。您必須提前一年多做出自己的內部供應決定或從農場獲得多少雞蛋。你們今年上半年的銷售量非常非常好，我認為高於你們假設的長期收入成長水準。

So the question is how much -- is there a benefit in the first half gross margins from just utilizing more of that kind of surge kind of internal egg production that's ending up in a pasture-raised brand in form versus having to get sold into other channels, and that's helped your overall gross margins, some also there is some upside to fixed cost absorption in a central station. And as well, relatedly, how much has kind of increases in elevated commodity egg prices and product prices, especially in the second quarter versus last year. How much, if at all, did that help the results?

因此，問題是，僅利用更多這種激增的內部雞蛋生產（最終形成牧場飼養品牌）與必須出售給其他品牌相比，上半年的毛利率有多少好處？毛利率，有些中央站的固定成本吸收也有一些好處。此外，與去年相比，商品雞蛋價格和產品價格上漲了多少，尤其是第二季。如果有的話，這對結果有多大幫助？

So the first one related to are we just -- I think the question was, are we just doing a better job of selling all of our eggs at maybe the branded shelf price as opposed to selling them into a wholesale channel. As you know, there is a small, call it, low single-digit percent of the eggs that we bring off our farms that do not meet our high-quality standards. And those get sold to a wholesale channel to be broken, pasteurized and used as an ingredient in somebody else's product.

因此，第一個與我們相關的問題是——我認為問題是，我們是否做得更好，以品牌貨架價格銷售所有雞蛋，而不是將它們銷售到批發管道。如您所知，我們從農場產出的雞蛋中有一小部分（可以稱之為低個位數百分比）不符合我們的高品質標準。這些產品被出售給批發渠道，進行破碎、巴氏殺菌並用作其他產品的成分。

The benefit of higher commodity egg prices shows up there because that higher commodity egg price flows through to the price the breaker plant is willing to pay for that small amount of our eggs. It's not a profit driver. We're not actively selling into the wholesale channel. It's just the place where the ends we don't want to use go.

商品雞蛋價格上漲的好處就顯現出來了，因為商品雞蛋價格上漲會影響到破碎廠願意為少量雞蛋支付的價格。它不是利潤驅動因素。我們沒有積極向批發管道銷售。這只是我們不想使用的末端所在的地方。

But we have not, for many years now, spent eggs that could go on the shelf that met our high-quality standards. We haven't sent measurable quantities of them to the breaker plant. Occasionally, if the mix of different egg sizes is not perfectly in line with the order pattern, for example, in the summer, birds produce more medium eggs. And so, we don't necessarily -- we aren't necessarily able to sell all of them in line with that change in production in retail. We may have some small transitory amounts of eggs that we sell to the wholesale channel.

但多年來，我們還沒有使用過符合我們高品質標準的可以上架的雞蛋。我們還沒有將可測量的數量發送到破碎機工廠。有時，如果不同大小雞蛋的混合不完全符合順序模式，例如在夏天，鳥類會產下更多中等大小的雞蛋。因此，我們不一定能夠根據零售生產的變化來銷售所有這些產品。我們可能有一些少量的臨時雞蛋出售給批發管道。

But no, it actually -- the economics of what we're doing in our gross margin got a little bit of tailwind again from that elevated commodity egg costs. It did not impact our price mix. That's our own strategy that's completely separate from what's going on in the broader market.

但事實並非如此——我們的毛利率經濟效益再次從商品雞蛋成本上漲中得到了一點推動。它沒有影響我們的價格組合。這是我們自己的策略，與更廣泛市場的情況完全不同。

And we're not seeing -- and historically, we have not seen big changes in the trajectory of our growth or our gross margins relative to what's going on in the broader commodity category. We don't respond to commodity price changes in the moment. We took price historically to protect margin, nothing more, nothing less. And we believe that continues to be true this year.

從歷史上看，我們並沒有看到我們的成長軌跡或毛利率相對於更廣泛的商品類別的重大變化。我們目前不對商品價格變動做出反應。從歷史上看，我們採取價格是為了保護利潤，僅此而已。我們相信今年仍然如此。

Okay. That's helpful color. If I could just ask a follow-up on some of the farms you're building in Indiana, I think, you talked about $20 million to $30 million of CapEx. And I guess I'm trying to square that appreciating you to buy land, but square that with kind of what I perceive to be the cost for new family farms to get their barn set up and get their farms in place to support your production regularly, just the costs seem a lot higher for what you're building in Indiana versus what I thought your family farmers were actually outlining themselves to join your network.

好的。這是有用的顏色。如果我可以詢問您在印第安納州建設的一些農場的後續情況，我想您談到了 2000 萬至 3000 萬美元的資本支出。我想我正在努力將感謝您購買土地的費用與我認為的新家庭農場建立穀倉並讓他們的農場就位以定期支持您的生產的成本相一致，只是您在印第安納州建造的成本似乎比我認為你的家庭農民實際上正在概述自己加入你的網路的成本要高得多。

Yes, it's a fair question. And I think historically, we've seen numbers for a small family farmer in the range of $1.2 million to $1.5 million. Thilo may have a more recent number, but that's my understanding. And if you did the math as you did on the number of farms we expect to build versus the dollars, we're planning on spending more. And that doesn't mean we will.

是的，這是一個公平的問題。我認為，從歷史上看，我們看到小家庭農民的收入在 120 萬美元到 150 萬美元之間。蒂洛可能有更新的數字，但這是我的理解。如果你按照我們預期建造的農場數量與美元的關係來計算，我們計劃花更多的錢。但這並不意味著我們會這樣做。

But as I mentioned in the opening comments and in my response to one of your peers' questions, we're really excited to try some new things on these forms. And those new things may involve some CapEx beyond what our network of small family farms normally does as part of their contract with us.

但正如我在開場評論中以及在回答一位同行的問題時提到的，我們非常高興能夠在這些表格上嘗試一些新的東西。這些新事物可能涉及一些資本支出，超出了我們的小型家庭農場網絡通常與我們簽訂的合約的一部分。

There is lots of innovation. I won't bore you with all the details on this call. But some of those things are capital expenditures, and we wanted to make sure very conservatively that we carved out and previewed for you, I would describe it as the maximum spend.

有很多創新。我不會向您講述這次電話會議的所有細節。但其中一些是資本支出，我們想非常保守地確保我們為您制定和預覽，我將其描述為最大支出。

One example, and I know there are a lot of ways to finance them, but one example that we're excited to try is putting solar panels in the field in the pasture because the birds want some shade and they want to windbreak, and solar panels do that, and they also generate electricity.

舉一個例子，我知道有很多方法可以為它們提供資金，但我們很高興嘗試的一個例子是將太陽能電池板放在牧場的田野裡，因為鳥兒想要一些陰涼，它們想要防風，而太陽能面板可以做到這一點，而且它們還可以發電。

Well, we're not sure how the financing will work out. So, in our brand of conservatism, we just assume that will be our CapEx. And hopefully, we don't spend quite as much as we guided. All right.

好吧，我們不確定融資將如何進行。因此，在我們的保守主義風格中，我們只是假設這將是我們的資本支出。希望我們的支出不會像我們指導的那麼多。好的。

That concludes our Q&A Session. I will now turn the conference back over to Anthony Bucalo for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。現在我將把會議轉回安東尼·布卡洛致閉幕詞。

Thank you again, everyone, for your support of Vital Farms. Have a good day.

再次感謝大家對 Vital Farms 的支持。祝你有美好的一天。

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

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線。