Vital Farms Inc (VITL) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Vital Farms first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions). Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

您好，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 Vital Farms 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指令）。請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。

I would now like to hand it over to your host John Mills with ICR.

現在我想把它交給 ICR 的主持人約翰米爾斯 (John Mills)。

Good morning and welcome to Vital Farm's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call and webcast. I am John Mills, managing partner at ICR. On the call today are Russell Diez-Canseco, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Thilo Wrede, Chief Financial Officer. By now everyone should have access to the company's first quarter 2025 earnings press release issued this morning. This is available in the investor relations section of Vital Farms website at investors.vitalfarms.com.

早安，歡迎參加 Vital Farm 2025 年第一季財報電話會議和網路廣播。我是 ICR 的執行合夥人 John Mills。今天參加電話會議的有總裁兼執行長 Russell Diez-Canseco；以及財務長 Thilo Wrede。現在每個人都應該可以看到該公司今天早上發布的 2025 年第一季財報新聞稿。您可以在 Vital Farms 網站的投資者關係部分（網址為 investors.vitalfarms.com）查閱此資訊。

Throughout 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 do involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward statements.

在整個電話會議中，管理階層可能會做出聯邦證券法所定義的前瞻性陳述。這些聲明是基於管理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聲明中描述的結果有重大差異。

Please refer to today's press release, the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 30, 2025, followed the SEC today. As well as 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 quarterly statements made today.

請參閱今天的新聞稿，該公司截至2025年3月30日的財政季度的10-Q表季度報告於今天向SEC提交。以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件，詳細討論可能導致實際結果與今天發布的任何季度報表中明示或暗示的結果存在重大差異的風險。

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.

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準則財務指標為投資者提供了有用的信息，但這些資訊的呈現並非旨在單獨考慮或替代按照公認會計準則呈現的財務資訊。

Please refer to our earnings press release for a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA. And adjusted EBITDA margin to their most comparable measures prepared in accordance with GAAP's. And with that, I will turn the call over to Russell Diez-Canseco, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vital Farms.

請參閱我們的收益新聞稿，以了解調整後的 EBITDA。並將 EBITDA 利潤率調整為依照 GAAP 編製的最具可比性的指標。接下來，我將把電話轉給 Vital Farms 總裁兼執行長 Russell Diez-Canseco。

Thank you, John. Good morning and thank you for your time today. Our first quarter performance was in line with our expectations. We hit new record levels for first quarter volume and net sales and maintained our momentum in delivering ethical food to the table. With this solid foundation in place, I am pleased to reaffirm our 2025 financial outlook.

謝謝你，約翰。早上好，感謝您今天抽出時間。我們第一季的業績符合我們的預期。我們第一季的銷售和淨銷售額創下了新高，並保持了向顧客提供道德食品的勢頭。有了這個堅實的基礎，我很高興重申我們 2025 年的財務展望。

Consumer awareness and demand for vital farms products continues to grow, confirming the strength of our brand and the relevance of our mission. I am grateful to all of our stakeholders, our farmers, suppliers, customers, crew members, stockholders, and communities who make our progress possible every day.

消費者對重要農場產品的認識和需求持續成長，證實了我們品牌的實力和我們使命的相關性。我感謝我們所有的利害關係人、農民、供應商、客戶、工作人員、股東和社區，是他們讓我們每天都進步。

Net revenue for the first quarter was $162 million, up 10% from last year and the first quarter marked our 20th consecutive quarter of year over year volume and net revenue growth since our IPO in 2020. first quarter net revenue growth was driven primarily by price mixed benefits and volume related growth. Volume related growth was below trend due to egg supply constraints and depleted inventory levels.

第一季淨收入為 1.62 億美元，比去年增長 10%，第一季是我們自 2020 年 IPO 以來連續第 20 個季度實現銷量和淨收入同比增長。第一季淨收入成長主要受價格混合效益和銷售相關成長的推動。由於雞蛋供應受限和庫存水準下降，產量成長低於趨勢水準。

As we previewed last quarter, we entered the first quarter with significantly lower egg inventory relative to the same period last year, which pressured our year over year growth rate. We believe the volume growth headwinds we experienced in the first quarter will ease beginning this quarter, setting the stage for net revenue growth to re-accelerate as the year progresses. Turning to our butter business, growth continues to be very robust, with first quarter net revenue up 41% year over year.

正如我們上個季度預測的那樣，進入第一季度，我們的雞蛋庫存與去年同期相比明顯下降，這給我們的同比增長率帶來了壓力。我們相信，第一季遇到的銷售成長阻力將從本季開始緩解，為全年淨收入成長重新加速奠定基礎。談到我們的黃油業務，成長持續非常強勁，第一季淨收入年增 41%。

Looking ahead, we expect to deliver sustained growth driven by increasing demand for our products and improving supply as farm expansion initiatives and supply chain investments bear fruit. Let me talk a bit more about each of these drivers starting with demand. While demand for our egg products has been consistently strong, we've recently not been able to fully keep up with the increased orders due to our supply constraints, just as avian influenza disrupted the market and egg prices surged.

展望未來，隨著農場擴張計劃和供應鏈投資取得成果，我們預計產品需求將不斷增加，供應也將改善，從而實現持續成長。讓我從需求開始，進一步談談每個驅動因素。儘管我們的蛋製品需求一直很強勁，但由於供應限制，我們最近無法完全滿足增加的訂單，恰逢禽流感擾亂市場、雞蛋價格飆升。

We are confident the demand for our egg products will continue to grow as a result of two primary factors. First, we have built strong relationships with our consumers based on trust in the brand and a sense of shared values. We believe our strong consumer relationships represent an enormous and sustainable competitive advantage we have earned through years of consistent execution, strong brand building, and our mission-driven culture.

我們相信，由於兩個主要因素，我們的蛋製品需求將繼續增長。首先，我們基於對品牌的信任和共同價值觀與消費者建立了牢固的關係。我們相信，我們與消費者的牢固關係代表著我們透過多年堅持不懈的執行、強大的品牌建設和以使命為導向的文化所贏得的巨大而可持續的競爭優勢。

Our aided brand awareness continues to improve, reaching 31% by the end of the first quarter, a [5] point increase since the beginning of the year, partly attributable to the unusually high level of media attention our industry has received in recent months. Our data indicates that brand awareness has been a strong leading indicator of net revenue growth with a lag of several quarters. Second, we benefit from secular trends, as more consumers prefer cleaner labels and want to know where their food comes from and how it is produced.

我們的輔助品牌知名度持續提高，到第一季末已達到 31%，比年初增加了 [5] 個百分點，部分原因是近幾個月來我們行業受到了媒體異常高的關注。我們的數據表明，品牌知名度一直是淨收入成長的強勁領先指標，但落後了幾個季度。其次，我們受益於長期趨勢，因為越來越多的消費者喜歡更乾淨的標籤，並想知道他們的食物來自哪裡以及如何生產。

With low levels of market penetration today, we believe we have a long runway for growth in the years ahead as these trends build momentum. We are also encouraged by the increased demand across all segments of consumers as they continue to place more emphasis on the values of companies they buy from. A closer look at the data reinforces our belief that we have only scratched the surface of our market opportunity.

儘管目前市場滲透率較低，但我們相信，隨著這些趨勢的發展，未來幾年我們將擁有很長的成長空間。我們也對各階層消費者日益增長的需求感到鼓舞，因為他們越來越重視所購買產品公司的價值。仔細觀察數據可以增強我們的信念：我們僅僅觸及了市場機會的表面。

Despite strong growth, we are still in only 11.3% of US households, a small fraction of what we believe to be our long-term market opportunity. And as we're landing in the fridges of a growing number of households in the US, our consumers are becoming more loyal. As we have doubled our household penetration over the past 4 years, we've also doubled the number of heavy and ultra-heavy buyers of our brand.

儘管成長強勁，但我們仍然只佔據 11.3% 的美國家庭，這只是我們認為的長期市場機會的一小部分。隨著我們進入美國越來越多家庭的冰箱，我們的消費者也變得更加忠誠。過去四年來，我們的家庭滲透率翻了一番，我們品牌的重度和超重度買家的數量也翻了一番。

In other words, even while we are entering new households, already loyal consumers are becoming even more loyal. This trend has held true in the past, even in years when inflation in the United States outpaced wage growth. Moving to the supply side, we're making strong progress on several of the important initiatives to expand capacity and strengthen our supply chain that we outlined on our last call, and we're on track to deliver our commitments on time.

換句話說，即使我們進入了新的家庭，忠誠的消費者也會變得更加忠誠。這一趨勢在過去一直存在，即使在美國通膨率超過薪資成長的年份也是如此。從供應方面來看，我們在上次會議上提出的擴大產能和加強供應鏈的幾項重要舉措上取得了重大進展，並且我們正在按時履行承諾。

Last year we added about 125 family farms to our network in the pasture belt, and today we are pleased to share that we added approximately 25 additional farms to our network during the first quarter of 2025. As a result, we are now working with more than 450 of the best family farmers in America, an increase of roughly 50% since the end of 2023, with 8.2 million hens under contract.

去年，我們在牧場帶網路中增加了約 125 個家庭農場，今天我們很高興地告訴大家，我們在 2025 年第一季又為我們的網路增加了約 25 個農場。因此，我們現在與美國 450 多家最優秀的家庭農場主合作，自 2023 年底以來增長了約 50%，合約母雞數量達到 820 萬隻。

With a strong pipeline of new family farm candidates, we're confident in our ability to grow our network at a healthy pace over the remainder of the year and beyond. I'd like to take a moment to thank our world class farm team for their hard work and expertise in explaining the appeal of the vital farms model to our family farmer prospects. The network growth we expect to achieve leaves us very well positioned to deliver $1 billion of net revenue by 2027.

憑藉強大的新家庭農場候選人管道，我們有信心在今年剩餘時間及以後以健康的速度擴大我們的網絡。我想花點時間感謝我們世界一流的農場團隊，感謝他們的辛勤工作和專業知識，向我們的家庭農場主解釋重要農場模式的吸引力。我們預期實現的網路成長將使我們處於非常有利的位置，到 2027 年實現 10 億美元的淨收入。

And we are already above our gross margin target of about 35% and our adjusted EBITDA margin target of 12% to 14%. In addition to adding new family farms to our network, we are investing in our supply chain infrastructure to increase capacity and support ongoing innovation. As we enter the second quarter, the work to break ground at our new facility in Indiana is progressing as planned, and we remain on schedule for an early 2027 opening.

我們的毛利率已超額完成約 35% 的目標，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率也已超額完成 12% 至 14% 的目標。除了在我們的網路中添加新的家庭農場之外，我們還在投資我們的供應鏈基礎設施，以提高產能並支持持續創新。進入第二季度，我們位於印第安納州的新工廠破土動工工作正在按計劃進行，我們仍按計劃於 2027 年初開業。

In addition, the construction of our new additional egg grading system at Egg Central Station, or ECS in Springfield, Missouri, remains on schedule for completion in the fourth quarter of this year. We anticipate that this new system will expand ECS capacity by the end of 2025 by 30% from current levels, which will bring us to ECS revenue capacity of more than $1 billion.

此外，我們在密蘇裡州斯普林菲爾德的雞蛋中心站（ECS）新建的雞蛋分級系統仍按計劃於今年第四季完工。我們預計，到 2025 年底，這個新系統將使 ECS 容量在現有水準上擴大 30%，這將使我們的 ECS 收入容量超過 10 億美元。

Finally, our first company owned accelerator farms are progressing as anticipated. We intend for these farms to allow us to accelerate the pace of innovation and create a flywheel as we share our learnings and encourage the exchange of best practices within our existing farm network. Before I hand it over to Thilo, I want to address one more topic.

最後，我們公司擁有的第一個加速器農場正在按預期進展。我們希望這些農場能讓我們加快創新步伐，創造飛輪，分享我們的經驗，並鼓勵在我們現有的農場網路內交流最佳實踐。在將發言權交給蒂洛之前，我想再談一個話題。

Just like everyone in our industry, we expect to be affected by the recently announced tariffs. While we believe our consumer to be very loyal and resilient, we're anticipating cost impacts on our business. To offset this anticipated impact and provide us with operating flexibility, we've announced to our retailer partners a modest, low double digit percentage price increase for our shell egg products that will go into effect this month.

正如我們行業中的每個人一樣，我們預計會受到最近宣布的關稅的影響。雖然我們相信我們的消費者非常忠誠且富有韌性，但我們預計成本會對我們的業務產生影響。為了抵​​消這一預期影響並為我們提供營運靈活性，我們已向我們的零售合作夥伴宣布，我們的帶殼雞蛋產品的價格將適度上漲，漲幅為兩位數，並將於本月生效。

In summary, we delivered a strong first quarter that leaves us well positioned to achieve our financial targets. Egg supply remains tight, but we expect it to improve beginning this quarter as farms recently added to our network ramp up production and new farms continue to come online over the course of the year. As a result, we expect to deliver significantly faster year over year net revenue growth in the back half of this year consistent with our 2025 outlook.

總而言之，我們第一季表現強勁，這讓我們有充分的理由實現我們的財務目標。雞蛋供應仍然緊張，但我們預計從本季度開始情況會有所改善，因為最近加入我們網路的農場將提高產量，而且新的農場將在今年繼續上線。因此，我們預計今年下半年淨收入將比去年同期大幅成長，與我們的 2025 年展望一致。

Over the long term, we expect demand growth to remain healthy as we drive increased market penetration from low levels and target a loyal and resilient consumer. I am very excited about our future and believe we are on our way to becoming America's most trusted food company. I am certainly looking forward to it and I hope you are too.

從長遠來看，隨著我們從低水平推動市場滲透率的提高並瞄準忠誠且有韌性的消費者，我們預計需求成長將保持健康。我對我們的未來感到非常興奮，並相信我們正在成為美國最值得信賴的食品公司。我當然非常期待它，我希望你也是。

And with that I'll now turn the call over to Thilo.

現在我將把電話轉給 Thilo。

Thank you, Russell. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I will now review our financial results for the first quarter ended March 30, 2025 and then provide color on our guidance for fiscal year 2025. Net revenue for the first quarter of 2025 close to $162.2 million an increase of 9.6% compared to the prior year period. This was driven by price mixed benefits and volume related growth of $1.9 million.

謝謝你，拉塞爾。大家好，感謝大家今天加入我們。我現在將回顧我們截至 2025 年 3 月 30 日的第一季的財務業績，然後對 2025 財年的指引做出詳細說明。2025 年第一季淨收入接近 1.622 億美元，比去年同期成長 9.6%。這是由價格混合效益和 190 萬美元的銷售相關成長所推動的。

The volume related growth was well below trend due to limited supply. As a reminder, we expected the first quarter to be our slowest volume and net revenue growth quarter this year due to the previously discussed supply constraints, and we continue to forecast improving year by year volume and net revenue growth beginning in the second quarter.

由於供應有限，與產量相關的成長遠低於趨勢。提醒一下，由於之前討論過的供應限制，我們預計第一季將是今年銷量和淨收入增長最慢的季度，並且我們繼續預測從第二季度開始銷量和淨收入增長將逐年提高。

Gross profits for the first quarter close to $62.5 million or 38.5% of net revenue from $58.9 million or 39.8% of net revenue last year. The increase in gross profit dollars was primarily driven by revenue growth. Lower conventional commodities and diesel costs also contributed to the profit gain. Gross profit margin was down year by year due to increased investments and crew members to keep pace with expected company growth and less efficient operations due to the limited egg supply of an exceptional operating quarter last year.

第一季毛利接近 6,250 萬美元，佔淨收入的 38.5%，去年同期為 5,890 萬美元，佔淨收入的 39.8%。毛利的成長主要得益於收入的成長。常規商品和柴油成本的降低也促進了利潤的成長。由於為跟上公司預期的成長步伐而增加投資和增加船員，以及去年特殊營運季度雞蛋供應有限導致營運效率降低，毛利率逐年下降。

SGNA expenses for the first quarter were $31.9 million or 19.7% of net revenue, compared with $27.1 million or 18.3% of net revenue in the first quarter of last year. The increase in SGNA in the first quarter was driven primarily by employee-related costs, including stock-based compensation and increased head count. Professional service expenses and technology and software related expenses. These costs like the expansion of the business.

第一季 SGNA 支出為 3,190 萬美元，佔淨收入的 19.7%，而去年第一季為 2,710 萬美元，佔淨收入的 18.3%。第一季 SGNA 的成長主要受員工相關成本的推動，包括股票薪酬和員工人數增加。專業服務費用以及技術和軟體相關費用。這些成本就像業務擴展一樣。

Shipping and distribution expenses for the first quarter of 2025 were $8.8 million or 5.4% of net revenue compared to $7.6 million or 5.1% of net revenue in the first quarter of 2024. The increase was driven by higher sales volumes and higher line haul rates. Net income for the first quarter of 2025 decreased 11.2% to $16.9 million or $0.37 per diluted share compared to $19 million or $0.43 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2024.

2025 年第一季的運輸和分銷費用為 880 萬美元，佔淨收入的 5.4%，而 2024 年第一季的運輸和分銷費用為 760 萬美元，佔淨收入的 5.1%。成長的動力來自於銷售量增加和乾線運輸費率上升。2025 年第一季淨收入為 1,690 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.37 美元，而 2024 年第一季淨收入為 1,900 萬美元或每股攤薄收益 0.43 美元，下降 11.2%。

The decrease in net income was driven by increased investments and future growth of the business partially offset by higher sales and gross profit. Adjusted EBITDA after the first quarter of 2025 was $27.5 million with 16.9% of net revenue, compared to $29.1 million or 19.7% of net revenue for the first quarter of 2024. The decrease in adjusted EBITDA was driven primarily by higher personnel investments, partially offset by higher sales and gross profit.

淨收入的下降是由於投資增加和未來業務的成長，但銷售額和毛利的增加部分抵消了這一下降。2025 年第一季後的調整後 EBITDA 為 2,750 萬美元，佔淨收入的 16.9%，而 2024 年第一季的調整後 EBITDA 為 2,910 萬美元，佔淨收入的 19.7%。調整後 EBITDA 的下降主要由於人員投資增加，但銷售額和毛利的增加部分抵消了這一影響。

Turning now to our balance sheet. As of March 30, 2025, we had total cash equivalent, and marketable securities of $161.3 million with no debt outstanding. Our balance sheet reflects the land parcel in Indiana valued at $3.2 million as an asset held for sale, which was previously acquired for potential accelerator farm development. We have identified the available land that better meets our needs and are therefore selling this plot.

現在來看我們的資產負債表。截至 2025 年 3 月 30 日，我們的現金等價物和有價證券總額為 1.613 億美元，沒有未償還債務。我們的資產負債表反映出印第安納州價值 320 萬美元的土地作為持有待售資產，該資產之前是為了潛在的加速器農場開發而收購的。我們找到了更能滿足我們需求的可用土地，因此出售這塊地。

I believe the situation exemplifies exactly the kinds of learnings we can only gain through putting ourselves into the shoes of our family farmers and reinforces the rationale for developing our accelerator farms. It is also worth noting that this decision has no impact on our ability to deliver the about 15 accelerator farms we are committed to as our existing landholdings fully support our development plans.

我認為這種情況正好反映了我們只有站在家庭農場主人的角度才能獲得的經驗，也強化了我們發展加速器農場的合理性。另外值得注意的是，這項決定不會影響我們實現承諾的約 15 個加速器農場的能力，因為我們現有的土地完全支持我們的發展計畫。

Before I discuss our guidance, I would like to address our progress on remediating the material weakness in internal controls previously highlighted in our 2024 annual report on Form 10-K filing. The finding relates to the revenue recognition process, specifically like automated reconciliation between purchase orders and sales reporting. Importantly, this was a design efficiency only no revenue inconsistencies were found, and we do not anticipate any restatements.

在討論我們的指導之前，我想先談談我們在糾正 2024 年 10-K 表格年度報告中先前強調的內部控制重大缺陷方面取得的進展。此發現與收入確認流程有關，具體包括採購訂單和銷售報告之間的自動核對。重要的是，這只是一個設計效率，沒有發現收入不一致，我們預計不會有任何重述。

Our remediation plan is progressing well and remain on track to address this issue. We remain confident in our financial reporting integrity and overall controlled environment. Now looking ahead, for full year 2025, we are happy to confirm that we continue to expect net revenue of at least $740 million or at least 22% growth versus 2024 and adjusted EBITDA of at least $100 million or at least 15% growth.

我們的補救計劃進展順利，並將繼續按計劃解決此問題。我們對我們的財務報告完整性和整體控制環境仍然充滿信心。展望 2025 年全年，我們很高興地確認，我們預計淨收入將繼續至少達到 7.4 億美元，或比 2024 年增長至少 22%，調整後的 EBITDA 至少達到 1 億美元，或增長至少 15%。

The guidance includes the price increase Basil had mentioned and any expected impacts from our current understanding of the new tariff environment. Given the increasingly dynamic and uncertain macroeconomic backdrop created by the recent tariff announcements, we are reiterating our full year guidance.

該指引包括巴茲爾提到的價格上漲以及我們目前對新關稅環境的理解所產生的任何預期影響。鑑於最近的關稅公告造成的宏觀經濟背景日益動態和不確定，我們重申全年指引。

While recently announced tariffs could impact the purchasing behavior of our consumers as well as our cost structure, we believe we will be relatively insulated from these pressures, given our premium consumer-based domestic focus and the noncyclical nature of our product categories.

雖然最近宣布的關稅可能會影響我們消費者的購買行為以及我們的成本結構，但我們相信，鑑於我們以高端消費者為基礎的國內重點和我們產品類別的非週期性性質，我們將相對免受這些壓力的影響。

As for the cadence of the year, we expect volumes to accelerate over the course of the year as supply improves. As recently added farms ramp up production and additional farms come online, we expect sequential capacity increases to drive accelerating year by year volume growth each quarter as we move through the year.

至於今年的節奏，我們預計隨著供應的改善，全年產量將會加速成長。隨著最近新增的農場提高產量以及更多農場投入使用，我們預計連續的產能增加將推動全年每季產量逐年加速成長。

Lastly, we still expect fiscal year 2025 capital expenditures in the range of $50 million to $60 million. As previously discussed, CapEx spending will be elevated in 2025 and 2026 because of the new rating system at ECS Springfield, the planned new facility in Seymour, Indiana, the construction of accelerator farms, and our internal digital transformation project, which I'll provide an update on in just a moment.

最後，我們仍然預期 2025 財年的資本支出將在 5,000 萬美元至 6,000 萬美元之間。如前所述，由於 ECS Springfield 的新評級系統、印第安納州西摩的計劃新工廠、加速器農場的建設以及我們的內部數位轉型項目，2025 年和 2026 年的資本支出將會增加，我將在稍後提供最新資訊。

We plan to fund our current plans for Seymour and all other projects this year with existing cash and operating cash flow. We project that every dollar of CapEx's investment in Seymour will generate more than $5 of annual revenue capacity, which we consider a very strong return. As always, we continue to evaluate and monitor our capital allocation priorities.

我們計劃利用現有現金和經營現金流為今年的 Seymour 和所有其他項目的當前計劃提供資金。我們預計，CapEx 在 Seymour 上的每一美元投資都將產生超過 5 美元的年收入能力，我們認為這是一個非常豐厚的回報。像往常一樣，我們將繼續評估和監控我們的資本配置優先事項。

After the last several quarters, we want to ensure that we have enough capacity in place ahead of expected demand growth and that we optimize the use of capital and the return for all of our stakeholders. We will provide updates on this if necessary.

經過過去幾個季度，我們希望確保在預期的需求成長之前擁有足夠的產能，並優化資本的使用和所有利害關係人的回報。如有必要，我們將提供最新資訊。

Now to discuss our digital transformation initiative, which includes our new ERP system implementation, we've updated the launch date from summer to early fall 2025 to ensure flawless switchover. The timing adjustment supports our commitment to minimize any risk for operational disruptions and does not add cost to the budget for the project.

現在討論我們的數位轉型計劃，其中包括我們的新 ERP 系統實施，我們已將發布日期從夏季更新為 2025 年初秋，以確保順利切換。時間調整支持了我們的承諾，即盡量減少營運中斷的風險，並且不會增加專案預算成本。

We remain fully committed to this investment, which is fundamental to the operational improvements we are planning, including streamline processes, increased efficiency, and an enhanced ability to compete and reinforce our position as an industry leader. Our long term guidance remains unchanged. We're continuing to target $1 billion of net revenue by 2027, with a gross margin of about 35% and an EBITDA dollar margin of 4% to 14%.

我們仍然全力致力於這項投資，這對於我們計劃的營運改進至關重要，包括簡化流程、提高效率、增強競爭力並鞏固我們作為行業領導者的地位。我們的長期指導保持不變。我們繼續設定目標，到 2027 年實現淨收入 10 億美元，毛利率約為 35%，EBITDA 美元利潤率達到 4% 至 14%。

The financial outlook I've just shared reflects the strength of our business model and the proven success of our strategy. Our loyal customer base provides us with a resilient foundation for our growing network of family farms ensures product quality and supply chain stability. Every investment we make to increase retail penetration and brand awareness is delivering measurable results as our egg and butter products reach more households quarter after quarter.

我剛剛分享的財務前景反映了我們商業模式的優勢以及我們策略的成功。我們忠實的客戶群為我們不斷成長的家庭農場網路提供了堅實的基礎，確保了產品品質和供應鏈的穩定性。隨著我們的雞蛋和黃油產品逐季進入更多家庭，我們為提高零售滲透率和品牌知名度所做的每項投資都產生了可衡量的成果。

We are executing against our commitments and remain confident in the value we are creating for all stakeholders. Once again, we thank you for your time and interest in vital farms today and for the confidence that you have placed on us with your investment. With that, we're now happy to take your questions.

我們正在履行我們的承諾，並對我們為所有利害關係人創造的價值充滿信心。我們再次感謝您今天對重要農場所付出的時間和關注，以及您對我們的投資所給予的信任。現在我們很高興回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Brian Holland, D.A. Davidson.

布萊恩·霍蘭德（Brian Holland），地方檢察官戴維森。

Hey Brian, we can't hear you.

嘿，布萊恩，我們聽不到你說話。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Rob Moskow, TD Cowen.

羅布·莫斯科 (Rob Moskow)，TD Cowen。

Alright, hopefully we'll have a little better luck here. And Russell, hi there, good morning. The price increase that you've announced, you described it as low single digit. My perception is that a lot of retailers have raised prices already on your products a lot more than that just because of category dynamics.

好吧，希望我們能有更好的運氣。拉塞爾，你好，早安。您宣布的價格上漲幅度被描述為低個位數。我的看法是，很多零售商已經將產品價格提高了很多，這只是因為品類動態的變化。

So, did you consider raising prices more in line with what retailers have already done, and then secondly, I guess what I would hope is that if the retailers have already raised prices a lot that they won't take this as a signal to raise them even further. So, can you talk a little bit about that balance?

那麼，您是否考慮過按照零售商已經採取的措施提高價格？其次，我希望的是，如果零售商已經大幅提高價格，他們不會將此視為進一步提高價格的訊號。那麼，您能稍微談談這種平衡嗎？

Absolutely. Hey Rob, it's Russell. Great questions. So, as we've said before, we think about pricing primarily in service of protecting our gross margins, which we believe are reflective of the power of our brand. A lot of what we're focused on is driving long term sustainable growth and so we want a great relationships and frankly great economics for our retail partners, and pricing that ensures great kind of consumer surplus or value for our consumers as well relative to the price they're paying.

絕對地。嘿，羅布，我是拉塞爾。很好的問題。因此，正如我們之前所說，我們考慮定價主要是為了保護我們的毛利率，我們相信這反映了我們品牌的實力。我們關注的重點是推動長期永續成長，因此我們希望與零售合作夥伴建立良好的關係，坦白說，實現良好的經濟效益，並且定價能夠確保為我們的消費者帶來巨大的消費者剩餘或價值，相對於他們支付的價格而言。

So, we drove this primarily based on our assessment of what we thought we needed to do in order to ensure a strong make on our guidance this year. Now, as for retailer pricing, there's every retailer has their own process for that, and it's not really something we have a lot of influence over or any packaged goods company, I think, for that matter. I can only, speculate that they'll continue to price relative to their competitive needs and making sure that they're meeting their own brand commitment to their consumers.

因此，我們主要根據對我們需要做什麼才能確保今年的指導取得強勁進展的評估來推動這一舉措。現在，至於零售商定價，每個零售商都有自己的流程，而且我認為，這並不是我們或任何包裝商品公司能夠產生很大影響的事情。我只能推測，他們會繼續根據競爭需求定價，並確保履行對消費者的品牌承諾。

Okay, and then it's a follow up. I mean just anecdotally, you look at the shelves today, they look a lot more full in the egg aisle than they were during the height of avian influenza. So, to what extent are you right now fully up to speed at retailers in line with the rest of the category which also appears to be back to normal.

好的，然後是後續內容。我的意思是，僅從軼事來看，你今天看看貨架，你會發現雞蛋貨架上的貨物比禽流感高峰期要滿得多。那麼，您現在在多大程度上完全了解零售商的情況，與其他類別的零售商一樣，它們似乎也已恢復正常。

Yeah, I think that the category is still far from fully servicing the demand that retailers are placing through their orders, we certainly see continued elevated orders from retailers which we think reflects both their desire to refill their channel with our eggs but also with eggs from throughout the category. So we're not out of the woods yet.

是的，我認為該類別還遠遠不能完全滿足零售商透過訂單提出的需求，我們確實看到零售商的訂單持續增加，我們認為這既反映了他們希望用我們的雞蛋補充他們的管道，也反映了他們希望用整個類別的雞蛋來補充他們的管道。所以我們還沒有脫離險境。

In fact, there was yet another layer flock impacted, not ours, but in the industry by avian influenza within the last few weeks. That said, as you can see from our own scan data in recent weeks our the volumes continue to go up as we execute on the plan that we shared at the end of the year to increase our volumes throughout the year, and I am hopeful that we'll see a reprieve from avian influenza and we'll get back to a more normalized market in the back half.

事實上，在過去幾週內，還有另一層羊群受到了禽流感的影響，但影響的不是我們，而是業內的另一層羊群。話雖如此，正如您從我們最近幾週的掃描數據中看到的那樣，隨著我們執行年底分享的計劃以增加全年的銷量，我們的銷量繼續上升，我希望我們能夠從禽流感中得到緩解，並在下半年恢復到更加正常的市場。

Jon Andersen, William Blair.

喬恩安德森、威廉布萊爾。

Good morning. Thank you for the questions. I wanted to ask about volumes both in the quarter and then kind of the full year, with the kind of low single digit volume growth in Q1 consistent with kind of your expectations, and as you progress through the year, is your expectation that the way that the kind of the egg supply kind of on boards via your new farms.

早安.謝謝您的提問。我想問一下本季以及全年的產量情況，第一季的低個位數成長與您的預期一致，隨著全年的進展，您是否預期雞蛋供應將通過新農場進行？

And your capacity processing capacity of those eggs that the step up in growth from quarter to quarter as you move through the year is fairly uniform, or are you expecting more of an unlock, at some point during the year I am just trying to get a little bit more sense of that. And then I did want to confirm on the price increase that you said low single digit on all shell eggs. Thanks.

並且，隨著一年中的推移，這些雞蛋的產能處理能力逐季度遞增，這種增長是相當均勻的，還是您期望在一年中的某個時候出現更多的解鎖，我只是想對此有更多的了解。然後我確實想確認一下您所說的所有帶殼雞蛋的價格上漲幅度是否低於個位數。謝謝。

Thanks John. Great question. I appreciate you asking the question about volume because there is a little bit of detail. I want to make sure we share. I'll ask Thilo to answer the question about the price increase. So we did show, as you saw, a low single digit percent increase in volumes year on year which is lighter than I think reflects the actual growth of our of our strong commercial business and the egg factor here is the volume of sort of waste eggs or second grade eggs that we sell into the breaker market and don't make it into a vital forms carton.

謝謝約翰。好問題。感謝您詢問音量的問題，因為其中包含一些細節。我想確保我們能夠分享。我將請 Thilo 回答有關價格上漲的問題。因此，正如您所看到的，我們的銷量同比增長確實呈現個位數的低百分比增長，我認為這反映的是我們強大的商業業務的實際增長，這裡的雞蛋因素是我們銷售到破碎機市場但未裝入重要表格紙盒的廢雞蛋或二等雞蛋的數量。

We have become much more efficient at processing our eggs, and so we have much fewer eggs that aren't making it into a carton. So, our yields are up, which supports our strong gross margins, but the volume that we end up sending into that market is down. And in fact, if you normalize, if you take out breaker volume both last year and this year, our volume growth was 5.6%. So, the underlying branded business had much stronger growth than the financial volume reporting would indicate.

我們的雞蛋加工效率已經大大提高，因此沒有裝入紙盒的雞蛋數量大大減少。因此，我們的收益率上升了，這支持了我們強勁的毛利率，但我們最終進入該市場的數量卻下降了。事實上，如果進行正常化，如果去掉去年和今年的破碎量，我們的產量成長率為 5.6%。因此，基礎品牌業務的成長比財務報告所顯示的要強勁得多。

Thilo, do you want to comment on pricing?

Thilo，你想對定價發表評論嗎？

Yeah, John, the, what we said about pricing was that it was low double digit, increase in pricing, while we're charging retailers. And so that will come into effect this quarter. And then as we're going through the year, I think the question you asked about the cadence of volume growth, as you look at the rest of the year, I think the volume growth that you'll see will reflect a bit more of the farm growth that we've talked about over the last few quarters as those farms come online, we can now start selling those eggs.

是的，約翰，我們所說的定價是低兩位數的漲幅，而我們向零售商收費。該政策將於本季生效。然後，隨著我們度過這一年，我認為您詢問的關於產量增長節奏的問題，當您回顧今年剩餘時間時，我認為您將看到的產量增長將更多地反映我們在過去幾個季度中談到的農場增長，隨著這些農場上線，我們現在可以開始銷售這些雞蛋。

What dragged down the volume growth in Q1, in addition to what Russell just said about the wholesale market not showing up in Scandal, for example, but showing up in our results. The other part that dragged down Q1 was the fact that we had inventory last year that we could sell to retailers, and we didn't really have inventory this year.

除了羅素剛才所說的批發市場沒有出現在《醜聞》中，但出現在我們的業績之外，還有哪些因素拖累了第一季的銷售成長？拖累第一季業績的另一個原因是，去年我們有庫存可以賣給零售商，但今年我們實際上沒有庫存。

And so, as we are now starting to bring farms online, I think Q2 will still be somewhere at a transition point in terms of volume growth, and then as we get into the backup of the year, it will really accelerate.

因此，隨著我們現在開始讓農場上線，我認為第二季度在產量成長方面仍將處於轉折點，然後隨著我們進入今年的備份，它將真正加速。

Thank you so much.

太感謝了。

Thanks John.

謝謝約翰。

Matt Smith, Stifel.

馬特史密斯（Matt Smith），Stifel。

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Good morning.

嗨，早安。感謝您回答我的問題。早安.

You reiterated the guide for the year, but can you talk about how the recently announced pricing has impacted your outlook? I mean, was the pricing contemplated in the initial outlook, or? And can you talk about the visibility you have into the phasing of egg availability? you just talked about the farms coming online, but is the timeline consistent with your previous expectation of when you sign up a farmer and when they start taking or start producing eggs off the farm?

您重申了今年的指導方針，但您能談談最近宣布的定價對您的前景有何影響嗎？我的意思是，最初的展望中是否已經考慮到了定價？能否談談對雞蛋供應階段的了解？您剛剛談到農場上線了，但是時間表是否與您之前預期的一致，即您何時簽約農民以及他們何時開始從農場獲取或生產雞蛋？

Thanks, Matt. I'll take the first part of that, which was that no, we did not anticipate a price increase when we offered guide at the beginning of the year. I think we were really clear in our guidance that there was no anticipated price increase. But as we progressed into the year and we started to learn more about the impact of tariffs, for example, on the cost of various commodities, we thought it was prudent to take this modest price increase to ensure that we're in great shape to deliver on our commitments for this year.

謝謝，馬特。我先說第一部分，那就是，當我們在年初提供指南時，我們並沒有預料到價格會上漲。我認為我們在指導下已經非常明確地表示，預計價格不會上漲。但隨著時間的流逝，我們開始更多地了解關稅對各種商品成本的影響，我們認為採取這種適度的價格上漲是明智之舉，以確保我們能夠很好地履行今年的承諾。

And so that's all that it is. We have built in a fair bit of flexibility into our operating model as we've always had to make sure that we can deliver the plan and we may find in the back half that we have different ways to allocate the revenue that we get from that price increase again to ensure we deliver both on our long term goal of building a sustainable brand and our short-term financial commitments.

就是這樣。我們在營運模式中建立了相當大的靈活性，因為我們始終必須確保能夠實現計劃，並且我們可能會發現在後半年我們有不同的方法來分配從價格上漲中獲得的收入，以確保我們實現打造可持續品牌的長期目標和短期財務承諾。

Yeah, and then not just to add to the visibility of farms coming online. Farms are coming online pretty much at the pace and at the magnitude that we anticipated 12 months ago. They're coming online at the post at the announcements from last year, quarter after quarter would imply.

是的，這不僅僅是為了增加農場上線的可見度。農場上線的速度和規模與我們 12 個月前預期的差不多。他們從去年開始就陸續發佈公告，這意味著一個季度又一個季度。

The timeline between signing a farm and the farm coming online, what we've talked about for quite a while now taking somewhere around 9 months give or take that hasn't changed and so that that is all pretty much pretty much that is all on track and that gives us the visibility that we need for the remainder of the year to feel really confident about our guidance.

簽署農場和農場上線之間的時間表，我們已經討論了很長一段時間，大約需要 9 個月的時間，這個時間沒有改變，所以一切基本上都在按計劃進行，這給了我們在今年剩餘時間裡所需要的透明度，讓我們對我們的指導充滿信心。

And just one follow up on the tariff exposure, Russell, can you talk about where some of the cost pressure you're seeing is coming from? I think the butter business is fully imported, pretty clear that that would have an impact, but maybe where you're seeing the cost pressure on the egg business.

關於關稅風險，拉塞爾，您能否談談您所看到的一些成本壓力來自哪裡？我認為黃油業務完全依賴進口，這顯然會產生影響，但也許你會看到雞蛋業務面臨成本壓力。

Yeah, Matt, let me take that one. So you're right, butter is imported. We're importing it right now from Ireland. We're importing some of our packaging. Our packaging provider has capacity in Canada where we're importing some of our packaging from. And as we're building out the accelerator farms some of the farm equipment comes from Europe.

是的，馬特，讓我來接手這個。所以你說得對，黃油是進口的。我們現在正在從愛爾蘭進口。我們正在進口一些包裝。我們的包裝供應商在加拿大有產能，我們從那裡進口部分包裝。當我們建造加速器農場時，一些農場設備來自歐洲。

Obviously, as we're building up the farm network, our family farmers that we're recruiting are also importing the same barn equipment. So, for them the construction costs are increasing presumably with the tariffs. Now that being said, I think compared to the rest of the consumer base that's reporting right now, I think our exposure to tariffs is a bit more limited.

顯然，隨著我們建立農場網絡，我們招募的家庭農場主也在進口相同的穀倉設備。因此，對他們來說，建築成本大概會隨著關稅的增加而增加。話雖如此，我認為與目前正在報告的其他消費者群體相比，我們受到的關稅影響更為有限。

And we have a very good handle on what the tariff impact could be. And so, with that the price increase that we've talked about, that is more than sufficient to cover the impact of the tariffs. and with that I think with the pricing power that we have with the resilience of the business that we have, I think we're really well positioned for this year despite the tariffs.

我們非常清楚關稅可能造成的影響。因此，我們討論的價格上漲足以彌補關稅的影響。我認為，憑藉我們的定價能力和業務的韌性，儘管存在關稅，但我認為我們今年仍處於有利地位。

Thanks to you. I'll pass it.

謝謝你。我會通過的。

Ben Klieve, Lake Street Capital.

本‧克萊夫 (Ben Klieve)，Lake Street Capital。

All right, thanks for taking my question. First, I'd like to ask a question on the retail distribution. It looks like in your presentation that you noted distribution increased from 24,000 stores to 26000 here. That's 24,000 number had been kind of stale for my record show like about a year and a half. And so, I am wondering if you can elaborate a bit on this distribution increase and kind of characterize the retailers that were included in that in that increase.

好的，感謝您回答我的問題。首先，我想問一個關於零售分銷的問題。您在演示中似乎提到分銷商數量從 24,000 家增加到了 26,000 家。對於我的唱片節目來說，24,000 這個數字已經有一年半的時間沒有更新了。因此，我想知道您是否可以詳細說明一下分銷量的增長，並描述一下在此次增長中涉及的零售商。

Yeah, then let me take that one is really more technicality rather than, increasing distribution. As we switched our data provider from Nielsen to Sakana. Sean has a somewhat different universe that they're tracking relative to Nielsen. And so in Secana we're now in 26,000 stores, not in 24,000 stores that Nielsen is tracking.

是的，那麼我認為那實際上更多的是技術性而不是增加分佈。我們將資料提供者從 Nielsen 轉換為 Sakana。與尼爾森相比，肖恩所追蹤的世界略有不同。因此，在塞卡納，我們現在有 26,000 家商店，而不是尼爾森追蹤的 24,000 家商店。

We had some distribution gains over the course of the quarter, but certainly not to the degree that the change in numbers in the deck would imply. And so don't read too much in the change from 24000 to 26,000 retailers. It really is just a change in data source. There's no underlying meaningful growth of new retailers that we are in or new doors that we are in I should.

我們在本季取得了一些分銷收益，但肯定沒有達到圖表中數字變化所暗示的程度。因此，不要對零售商數量從 24,000 家減少到 26,000 家的變化做過多解讀。這實際上只是資料來源的改變。我們所處的新零售商或我們所進入的新領域並沒有實現潛在的有意義的成長。

Got it. Okay, fair enough. And then, last one for me and then I'll pass it on, a follow up to the tariff question, totally makes sense for all the impacts in the income statement. Can you, elaborate though on any impact you see on the expansion into Seymour? Are you, expecting your pricing to increase in a material way, for that project, or have you fully considered that in the plans that you've discussed, today?

知道了。好吧，夠公平。然後，對我來說最後一個問題，然後我會把它傳遞下去，關於關稅問題的後續問題，對於損益表中的所有影響來說都是完全有意義的。能否詳細說明擴張至西摩會造成的影響？您是否預計該項目的價格會大幅上漲，或者您是否在今天討論的計劃中充分考慮到了這一點？

The Seymour is there certainly will be somewhat of a tariff impact. Some of the equipment that we are installing in Seymour comes from Europe, so there will be an impact if construction costs overall go up because of tariffs on steel for example, that will impact us but that is all within the range of our budget for Seymour as it is. And so, the CapEx guidance that we have given for the year, the $50 million to $60 million. That is the impact that we're foreseeing for phase one of Seymour right now and, with that there, we don't see any need for now to change that.

西摩肯定會受到一定程度的關稅影響。我們在西摩安裝的一些設備來自歐洲，因此，如果由於鋼鐵關稅等原因導致建築成本總體上漲，就會對我們產生影響，但這都在我們對西摩的預算範圍內。因此，我們給出的今年的資本支出指引值為 5,000 萬至 6,000 萬美元。這就是我們目前預見的西摩第一階段的影響，有鑑於此，我們認為目前沒有必要改變這一點。

Very good. Okay, I appreciate the caller. Takes, take my questions. I'll get back into queue.

非常好。好的，謝謝您的來電。回答我的問題。我會回到隊列。

Thanks man.

謝謝老兄。

Eric Des Lauriers, Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

艾瑞克‧德斯‧勞裡爾斯 (Eric Des Lauriers)，克雷格-哈勒姆資本集團。

Great, thanks for taking my questions.

太好了，謝謝你回答我的問題。

First ones for me are around consumer behavior. I apologize if any of this is being repeated. I think I had some audio issues when you were discussing consumer metrics, but just wondering if you've seen any changes in recent weeks to consumer behavior in the paste category as a whole or in your brand just in light of this macro uncertainty and then If you've seen any evidence of increased trial by new customers given the heightened prices for conventional eggs.

對我來說，首先要考慮的是消費者行為。如果此事再次發生，我深感抱歉。我認為當您討論消費者指標時我遇到了一些音頻問題，但我只是想知道，鑑於這種宏觀不確定性，您是否看到最近幾週整個醬料類別或您的品牌的消費者行為發生了任何變化，然後，鑑於傳統雞蛋價格上漲，您是否看到有證據表明新客戶嘗試的次數有所增加。

Thanks Eric Russell here. I think this quarter has been a wonderful proof point of the power of the model that we've been using to build this brand over the last decade. We shared a terrific slide in the in the presentation that accompanied our release which shows how as we have grown households over the last several years, we've had a very consistent breakout of heavy users, medium users, light users, etc.

在此感謝 Eric Russell。我認為本季是一個很好的證明，證明了我們在過去十年中用來打造這個品牌的模型的威力。我們在發布的簡報中分享了一張非常精彩的幻燈片，其中展示了過去幾年中隨著家庭數量的增長，我們的重度用戶、中度用戶、輕度用戶等呈現出非常持續的成長趨勢。

And what that tells me is that in good times and bad, in challenged economy and not. Our consumers continue to go very predictably from awareness to trial to repeat to heavy user, and that hasn't changed, including with this macro backdrop. Additionally, we found, I think, a very powerful increase in brand awareness. I believe that's from 26% to 31%.

這告訴我，無論在順境或逆境，在經濟面臨挑戰或順利時。我們的消費者繼續非常可預測地從意識到試用到重複使用再到重度使用，而且這種情況沒有改變，包括在這種宏觀背景下。此外，我認為我們發現品牌知名度得到了非常強勁的提升。我認為這個比例在 26% 到 31% 之間。

Over the last quarter and some of that certainly would be from the eggs simply being more in the news, but I think it's also reflective of the fact that we did not go dark in our commercial efforts in our marketing efforts, even though we are in a period of supply constraint. Because we know that investing in awareness now will help us drive increased household penetration and expansion of our brand in the quarters and years to come.

在過去的一個季度中，這其中肯定有一部分原因是雞蛋在新聞中出現得更多，但我認為這也反映了一個事實，即儘管我們正處於供應受限的時期，但我們在商業和營銷方面的努力並沒有停滯。因為我們知道，現在投資提高知名度將有助於我們在未來幾季和幾年內提高品牌的家庭滲透率和擴張率。

That's very helpful. Thank you. And then this last one from me, really strong growth in the butter business, I guess, sort of on the backs of the improving brand awareness. Just wondering if you could talk a bit more about the dynamics of building the supply side of the butter business, I wondering, what leverage you have to sort of expand supply and capitalize on growing demand. Thanks.

這非常有幫助。謝謝。最後我想說的是，黃油業務的強勁成長，我想這在某種程度上得益於品牌知名度的提高。我只是想知道您是否可以多談談建立黃油業務供應方面的動態，我想知道您有什麼槓桿來擴大供應並利用不斷增長的需求。謝謝。

Yeah, thank you for that. So as we have discussed over the last several quarters, we spent 2024 really transitioning our butter supply chain for several quarters prior to that, we had been very limited by our ability to source the high-quality cream and ultimately butter that we thought was critical to our brand and to the product we wanted to offer consumers. And there are lots of structural reasons for that here in the United States.

是的，謝謝你。因此，正如我們在過去幾個季度所討論的那樣，我們花了 2024 年的時間真正轉變我們的黃油供應鏈，在此之前的幾個季度，我們採購高品質奶油和黃油的能力非常有限，我們認為這對我們的品牌和我們想要提供給消費者的產品至關重要。在美國，出現這種情況有許多結構性原因。

That said, the kind of butter we offer is much more consistent with growing practices and production practices in Ireland, and that's why we made that change. And so, with that change, we do not anticipate bottlenecks to our continued growth for years to come.

也就是說，我們提供的黃油種類與愛爾蘭的種植實踐和生產實踐更加一致，這就是我們做出改變的原因。因此，有了這種變化，我們預計未來幾年我們的持續成長不會遇到瓶頸。

Benjamin Mayhew, BMO Capital Markets.

本傑明·梅休 (Benjamin Mayhew)，BMO 資本市場。

So, the comment around your guidance taking into account the potential impact that global trade and economic tensions could have on consumer spending (technical difficulty).

因此，考慮到全球貿易和經濟緊張局勢可能對消費者支出產生的潛在影響，您的指導意見（技術難度）。

On your connection broke up there. I picked up guidance consumer terrorist price GAAP, something along those lines, but maybe try again.

您的連線已中斷。我選擇了指導消費者恐怖分子價格 GAAP，類似這樣的內容，但也許可以再試一次。

let me take a shot at what I think the question was which was hey if tariffs challenge consumer, will that in turn impact how we think about sales growth and driving top line growth? and the answer is we actually don't see an impact from a potential, macro impact from tariffs on the consumer impacting our continued ability to drive the growth that we've put up historically year after year after year and I think there are two reasons for that.

讓我來回答我認為的問題是，如果關稅對消費者構成挑戰，這是否會影響我們對銷售成長和推動營收成長的看法？答案是，我們實際上並沒有看到關稅對消費者產生潛在的宏觀影響，影響我們持續推動年復一年歷史上所實現的成長的能力，我認為這有兩個原因。

The most important of which is that we have a brand that connects with consumers and really creates value because we do things with a purpose, and we produce our eggs in a different way than the traditional producers do. And consumers are showing us that they're much less willing to trade that down even when their wallets are challenged than perhaps some other categories, and I think that's reflected in the results we shared this morning versus some of the other results we've been seeing in this quarter's releases from other companies.

其中最重要的是，我們擁有一個與消費者緊密相連並真正創造價值的品牌，因為我們做事有目的性，而且我們生產雞蛋的方式與傳統生產商不同。消費者向我們表明，即使他們的錢包受到挑戰，他們也不太願意降低價格，也許比其他一些類別的價格要低得多，我認為這反映在我們今天上午分享的結果中，而不是我們在本季度從其他公司發布的一些結果中。

The other reason is that we have one of the highest levels of exposure to high income households and so while people across the income spectrum are showing that once they've tried our eggs, once they understand our story, they're really reluctant to trade away from that in general. If you believe that exposure to higher income households is a further way to insulate a brand from the risks of trade down, we have that as well.

另一個原因是，我們對高收入家庭的曝光度最高，因此，各個收入階層的人們都表示，一旦他們嚐過我們的雞蛋，一旦他們了解了我們的故事，他們一般就不願意放棄我們。如果您認為，接觸高收入家庭是使品牌免受降級消費風險的另一種方式，那麼我們也有這樣的做法。

Yeah, thank you. That that answered my question and just my last one here. You noted that you have exceeded 450 family farms now from 425 so I was just hoping that you could comment on how, the recruitment and onboarding process is going as you continue to scale and reach a much higher baseline of farms.

是的，謝謝。這回答了我的問題，也是我的最後一個問題。您提到，您的家庭農場數量已從 425 個增加到 450 個，因此，我只是希望您能評論一下，隨著您繼續擴大規模並達到更高的農場基線，招聘和入職流程進展如何。

Thanks. Very fair question. As we've said in the release and in the prepared remarks, we continue to recruit farmers on our schedule as we've elected to we have a really terrific team in the field. That does everything from build awareness of who Vital Farms is in the farming community to helping educate prospective farmers on what it takes to do really well working with us and then perhaps even most important provides the support necessary for our farmers to be successful in the in the months and years to come after they've signed up with us.

謝謝。非常公平的問題。正如我們在新聞稿和準備好的演講中所說的那樣，我們將繼續按照計劃招募農民，因為我們選擇在該領域擁有一支非常出色的團隊。這項工作包括讓農民了解 Vital Farms 在農業社區中的地位，幫助潛在農民了解如何與我們合作，甚至可能最重要的是，為我們的農民提供必要的支持，使他們在與我們簽約後的幾個月和幾年內取得成功。

And with that sort of 9 month to 12 month lead time between signing a contract with a new farmer and having eggs coming off of that farm, the number of farms producing today was essentially what we elected to add 9 months to 12 months ago. That's always been the case, and we're having terrific success adding the farms we have chosen to add this year as well.

從與新農場主簽訂合約到雞蛋從該農場產出需要 9 到 12 個月的時間，因此，目前生產雞蛋的農場數量基本上就是我們在 9 到 12 個月前決定增加的數量。情況一直都是如此，今年我們在增加我們選擇增加的農場方面也取得了巨大的成功。

Megan Alexander Clapp, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的梅根·亞歷山大·克拉普。

Hi, good morning. Thanks so much. Maybe a follow up to some of the comments earlier around the price increase and the guidance, certainly don't want to put words in your mouth, but if you could just clarify it does sound like maybe. You could have raised the guide given the price increase but makes sense and is prudent to leave some cushion just given the consumer uncertainty and maybe some flexibility to go after demand in the second half would just be curious your reaction to that.

嗨，早安。非常感謝。也許是針對之前關於價格上漲和指導的一些評論的後續，當然我不想把話塞到你嘴裡，但如果你能澄清一下，這聽起來確實有可能。考慮到價格上漲，您本可以提高指導價，但考慮到消費者的不確定性，留出一些緩衝是明智之舉，也許下半年可以有一定的靈活性來滿足需求，我很好奇您對此的反應。

Yeah, I don't think you're far off. The thing that I would add is that we probably have less concern about consumer uncertainty than some other companies do. Again, lots of reasons that we believe our consumer both resilient and much less willing to trade away from our product and you can see that in our ability to put up strong growth and gross margins over time regardless of price gaps to the lowest priced eggs in the market, which I think is maybe the key proof point that even when there's a much lower priced alternative in in an egg that on the outside looks the same as ours, the consumers who have come to appreciate our brand and what it stands for aren't interested in trading down to those.

是的，我認為你離得併不遠。我想補充的是，我們可能不像其他一些公司那樣擔心消費者的不確定性。再次強調，我們相信消費者俱有很強的適應力，並且不太願意放棄我們的產品，原因有很多，你可以從我們的能力中看出，無論與市場上最低價雞蛋的價格差距有多大，我們都能隨著時間的推移實現強勁的增長和毛利率，我認為這也許是關鍵的證明點，即使有一種外觀看起來與我們的雞蛋相同、價格低得多的消費者價格低得多

So, but the rest of it sounds pretty reasonable and is very consistent with what we've been doing since we went public, which is making sure that we set ourselves up for success and to be able to deliver on our commitment to all stakeholders, especially our shareholders. So, at this point, we believe we've got the right mix of levers, including the benefits from this modest price increase to deliver on the guidance we gave at the beginning of the year.

所以，其餘部分聽起來非常合理，並且與我們上市以來一直在做的事情非常一致，即確保我們為成功做好準備，並能夠履行對所有利益相關者，特別是股東的承諾。因此，目前，我們相信我們已經掌握了正確的槓桿組合，包括這次適度提價帶來的好處，以實現我們在年初給予的指導。

And Megan, let me just add to that, right? We are, we just finished Q1 played out the way we thought it would play out with volume with, maybe slightly better price makes than what we initially thought, but overall it played out the way we thought. This was always, intended to be the smallest quarter of the year, so we still have a long way to go. And I would argue across the entire US economy and certainly has certainly increased. So, before we think about how high for the rest of the year, I would want to see a bit more of what the year really looks like and how the year will play out before we reconsider what guidance would--.

梅根，讓我補充一下，對吧？我們剛剛結束了第一季的運營，其業績表現正如我們所想的那樣，價格可能比我們最初想像的要好一些，但總體而言，其業績表現與我們想像的一樣。這本來應該是一年中最小的季度，所以我們還有很長的路要走。我認為整個美國經濟肯定是成長了。因此，在我們考慮今年剩餘時間的業績表現之前，我想先看看今年的實際情況以及未來走勢，然後再重新考慮指導意見。

(inaudible) The back half of last year, so we would just be curious, how did that come in relative to your expectations? Was there anything transitory we should be thinking about and related to that how should we think about the phasing of the rest of the year for gross margin?

（聽不清楚）去年下半年，所以我們很好奇，這與你的預期相比怎麼樣？我們是否應該考慮一些暫時性的問題，以及與此相關的我們應該如何考慮今年剩餘時間內的毛利率變化？

Yeah, gross margin was pretty much where we thought it would be. We pointed out after the first quarter last year that we had very healthy gross margin because ECS ran incredibly well. This year was the first quarter was much more a normal quarter, I would say. So, for example, we had a snowstorm in Missouri that resulted in and us not being able to ship any eggs because trucks wouldn't show up at ECS trucks just couldn't drive in this, right? And so, this was a much more normal quarter in terms of operations.

是的，毛利率和我們想像的差不多。我們在去年第一季後指出，由於 ECS 運作良好，我們的毛利率非常健康。我想說，今年第一季是一個更正常的季度。舉個例子，我們在密蘇裡州遭遇了一場暴風雪，導致我們無法運送任何雞蛋，因為卡車不會出現在 ECS，卡車根本無法行駛，對嗎？因此，從營運角度來看，這是一個更正常的季度。

The quarter was also because we had this egg supply constraint, that means that ECS just doesn't run as efficiently as it normally would because you have to do more switchovers depending on when eggs come in and so on. And so with that, the quarter, this quarter, we always thought would be lower gross margin. And then we are staffing up in anticipation of growth for the rest of the year, right? So, we are staffing up before we actually need crew, so we have the time to train them and to build up their skills. And those are costs that we started to incur in the first quarter already.

本季也因為我們有雞蛋供應限制，這意味著 ECS 的運作效率不如平時高，因為您必須根據雞蛋的進入時間等進行更多切換。因此，我們一直認為本季的毛利率會較低。然後，我們將增加員工，以期在今年剩餘時間內成長，對嗎？因此，我們在實際需要船員之前就開始招募員工，這樣我們就有時間培訓他們並提高他們的技能。這些成本我們在第一季就已經開始產生了。

And with that, the year by year decline in gross margin, was really something that we expected. For the full year, the pricing that we announced, might benefit us a bit, but keep in mind second quarter last year was also a very strong quarter, last year because ETS again ran exceptionally well, probably not going to repeat this year. And then, between tariffs and commodity costs in the back half of the year, I probably wouldn't expect those margins to repeat at the same level as not.

因此，毛利率逐年下降確實是我們預期的。對於全年而言，我們宣布的定價可能會為我們帶來一些好處，但請記住，去年第二季度也是一個非常強勁的季度，因為去年 ETS 再次表現優異，今年可能不會再出現這種情況。然後，考慮到下半年的關稅和商品成本，我可能不會預期這些利潤率會重複保持在同一水平。

Okay great thank you so much.

好的，非常好，非常感謝。

Thanks Megan.

謝謝梅根。

That concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the conference back over to John Mills for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。現在我將會議交還給約翰·米爾斯，請他致閉幕詞。

Great. Thank you and thank you everyone for participating on our first quarter call today. We look forward to updating everyone on our progress for this fiscal year during our second quarter call. Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

偉大的。謝謝大家，也謝謝大家今天參加我們的第一季電話會議。我們期待在第二季電話會議上向大家通報本財年的進展。祝福每個人都度過美好的一天。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。

Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

感謝大家的加入。您現在可以斷開連線。