Vestis Corp (VSTS) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the Vestis Corporation Fiscal First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions).

歡迎參加 Vestis 公司 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）。

I would now like to turn the call over to Bryan Johnson, Chief Accounting Officer. Please go ahead.

我現在想將電話轉給首席會計長 Bryan Johnson。請繼續。

Thank you, Angela, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your participation in Vestis Corporation's Fiscal First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. With me here today are our President and CEO, Kim Scott; and our CFO, Rick Dillon.

謝謝你，安琪拉，大家早安。我們感謝您參與 Vestis Corporation 的 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。今天和我在一起的是我們的總裁兼執行長 Kim Scott；和我們的財務長里克·狄龍。

As a reminder, a telephonic replay of this call will be available on the Investor Relations section of the vestis.com website shortly after the completion of the call. Also, access to the materials discussed on today's call are available on the Vestis website under the Investor Relations section.

請注意，電話會議結束後不久，vestis.com 網站的投資者關係部分將提供本次電話會議的電話重播。此外，您還可以在 Vestis 網站的投資者關係部分取得今天電話會議討論的資料。

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include remarks about management's future expectations, beliefs, estimates, plans and prospects. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by such statements. Such risks and other factors are set forth in our periodic and current reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any duty to update them.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，本次電話會議可能包含 1995 年《證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。其中包括有關管理層未來預期、信念、估計、計劃和前景的評論。此類陳述受到各種風險、不確定性和其他因素的影響，這些因素可能導致實際結果與此類陳述所顯示或暗示的結果有重大差異。此類風險和其他因素在我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的定期和當前報告中列出。我們不承擔任何更新它們的義務。

With that, I would like to turn the call over to Kim.

說到這裡，我想把電話轉給 Kim。

Thank you, Bryan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our fiscal first quarter 2024 earnings call. Before I discuss our results, I'd like to thank our 20,000 dedicated teammates for their outstanding work and unwavering commitment to our success as we complete our first quarter as a stand-alone publicly traded company. Every day, our teammates are focused on taking great care of our customers and each other. We continue to bring our purpose to life here at Vestis, delivering uniforms and workplace supplies that empower people to do good work and good things for others while at work.

謝謝你，布萊恩。大家早安，感謝您參加我們的 2024 財年第一季財報電話會議。在討論我們的業績之前，我要感謝我們 20,000 名敬業的團隊成員，感謝他們在我們作為獨立上市公司完成第一季度的業績時所做的出色工作以及對我們成功的堅定承諾。每一天，我們的團隊成員都專注於照顧我們的客戶和彼此。我們繼續在 Vestis 實現我們的目標，提供製服和工作場所用品，使人們能夠在工作時做好工作並為他人做好事。

You may have also seen our filing yesterday that Chris Synek, who was our Chief Operating Officer for a short time, has resigned from the company for personal reasons. We appreciate Chris' contributions to Vestis, and we wish him all the best.

您可能也看到了我們昨天提交的文件，曾短暫擔任我們營運長的 Chris Synek 因個人原因從公司辭職。我們感謝 Chris 對 Vestis 的貢獻，並祝他一切順利。

Now turning to our results. In the first quarter, we delivered disciplined high-quality revenue growth of 2.5% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.7%, which is up 60 basis points from Q1 2023 and includes the absorption of incremental public company costs in the period, with earnings per share of $0.22 in the quarter. Last year's first quarter revenue included the benefit of a $13 million temporary energy fee that did not repeat in the quarter. Excluding the impact of this temporary energy fee and impact from foreign exchange rates, revenue growth was 4.5%, with a balanced contribution from both volume and pricing on an underlying basis. This demonstrates that our high-quality growth strategy is effective and accelerating our ability to grow well above historical norms.

現在轉向我們的結果。第一季度，我們實現了2.5% 的嚴格高品質收入成長和13.7% 的調整後EBITDA 利潤率，比2023 年第一季成長了60 個基點，其中包括吸收該期間增量上市公司成本，每股收益本季份額為 0.22 美元。去年第一季的收入包括 1300 萬美元的臨時能源費，該費用在本季沒有重複。剔除臨時能源費及匯率影響，營收成長4.5%，基本面銷售及價格貢獻均衡。這表明我們的高品質成長策略是有效的，正在加速我們的成長能力遠超歷史水準。

As Rick will cover in more detail, we continue to remain disciplined and focused on delivering growth that improves our revenue mix and generate operating leverage across our system. We are pleased to see the positive results of our strategy manifest as we deliver growth and margin expansion in tandem while also absorbing new public company costs that entered our system in the quarter. Our results also support our capital allocation strategy with deleveraging as a priority.

正如里克將更詳細地介紹的那樣，我們將繼續保持紀律並專注於實現成長，從而改善我們的收入結構並在整個系統中產生營運槓桿。我們很高興看到我們的策略取得了積極成果，因為我們同時實現了成長和利潤率擴張，同時也吸收了本季進入我們系統的新上市公司成本。我們的業績也支持我們以去槓桿為優先的資本配置策略。

As we move through the balance of the year, we expect acceleration in our growth rates that will follow similar patterns from prior years. And additionally, we will lap the temporary energy fee beginning in Q3. We are also seeing opportunity for additional pricing actions in the back half of the year.

隨著今年剩餘時間的推移，我們預計成長率將遵循與前幾年類似的模式。此外，我們將從第三季開始取消臨時能源費。我們也看到今年下半年採取額外定價行動的機會。

As a result, I remain confident in our ability to deliver our full year guidance of 4% to 4.5% revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.3%, which as a reminder, equates to approximately 50 to 60 basis points of margin expansion, offset by the impact of new public company costs in the period.

因此，我仍然對我們實現 4% 至 4.5% 收入增長的全年指導和 14.3% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率充滿信心，這相當於利潤率擴張約 50 至 60 個基點，抵消受期內新上市公司成本的影響。

During the first quarter, we continued to advance Vestis' strategic plan, which we shared with you during our September 2023 Analyst Day. We are generating great momentum as we execute against our strategic priorities, which include: high-quality growth, efficient operations, disciplined capital allocation and a performance-driven culture.

在第一季度，我們繼續推進 Vestis 的策略計劃，我們在 2023 年 9 月的分析師日期間與您分享了該計劃。在執行我們的策略重點時，我們正在產生巨大的動力，其中包括：高品質成長、高效營運、嚴格的資本配置和績效驅動的文化。

Turning to high-quality growth. We continue to prioritize the highest margin growth opportunities, both within our existing customer base, and as we target new customers in select verticals. You can see the positive impact of our strategy in the quarter as we continued to intentionally shift our mix towards higher penetration with existing customers, on existing routes, largely through our route service representatives, cross-selling workplace supplies to our current customers.

轉向高品質發展。我們繼續優先考慮最高利潤成長機會，無論是在我們現有的客戶群內，還是在我們瞄準特定垂直領域的新客戶時。您可以看到我們本季策略的正面影響，因為我們繼續有意將我們的組合轉向現有航線上對現有客戶的更高滲透率，主要是透過我們的航線服務代表，向現有客戶交叉銷售工作場所用品。

Workplace supply growth was approximately 4% in the quarter, supported by an approximate 25% increase in route sales activity versus this period last year. Our mix shift also includes a purposeful moderation of our lower margin direct sales business, and when excluding the impact of this strategic decision, our Uniforms business grew approximately 1% this quarter. This mix shift related to direct sales also delivered approximately 3 basis points of margin improvement across our consolidated results.

本季工作場所供應成長約 4%，這得益於路線銷售活動較去年同期成長約 25%。我們的組合轉變還包括有目的地調整利潤率較低的直銷業務，如果排除此策略決策的影響，我們的製服業務本季成長了約 1%。這種與直銷相關的組合轉變也使我們的綜合業績利潤率提高了約 3 個基點。

In parallel, we continue to execute against our efficient operations initiatives. We are delivering a step change improvement in the way we operate, optimizing our network, reducing empty miles and lowering fuel consumption across our system. In the first quarter, we have already completed another 13 routes and network optimization events with many more planned for the balance of the year and beyond. This demonstrates great momentum when compared to the 26 events we completed last year.

同時，我們繼續執行高效營運計劃。我們正在對運作方式進行逐步改進，優化我們的網絡，減少空駛里程並降低整個系統的燃油消耗。第一季度，我們已經完成了另外 13 項航線和網路優化活動，並計劃在今年餘下時間及以後開展更多活動。與去年我們完成的 26 場活動相比，這顯示出巨大的勢頭。

Year-to-date, we've successfully deployed new telematics technology across 89% of our fleet and fully deploy new routing and scheduling technology and processes across North America, all a part of our strategy to establish the capability to continuously optimize our network and our routes. We've also accelerated our work on reducing amortization costs through the reuse of existing garments in our system.

今年迄今為止，我們已在89% 的車隊中成功部署了新的遠端資訊處理技術，並在整個北美全面部署了新的路線和調度技術及流程，所有這些都是我們建立持續優化網路和能力的戰略的一部分。我們的路線。我們也透過重複利用系統中的現有服裝，加快了降低攤銷成本的工作。

In the first quarter, we saw improvements in our used fill rate across 103 of our target facilities. These efforts will serve us well in the coming years as existing amortization rolls off and we accelerate the reuse of existing garments across our stockroom over time.

第一季度，我們發現 103 個目標設施的二手填充率有所提高。隨著現有攤銷的減少，這些努力將在未來幾年為我們帶來良好的效益，並且隨著時間的推移，我們將加快倉庫中現有服裝的重複利用。

We remain committed to delivering profitable growth that leverages existing capacity across our network, therefore, requiring modest capital investment of approximately 3% across the 5-year period. We also remain focused on strengthening our balance sheet position. As Rick will discuss, we are currently in the market on the refinancing of our 2-year term loan. And overall, we seek to operate a target leverage range of 1.5 to 2.5, and maintain a flexible financial position that will continue to allow us to invest in high-return opportunities in the future.

我們仍致力於利用整個網路的現有產能實現獲利成長，因此，需要在 5 年內進行約 3% 的適度資本投資。我們也繼續致力於加強我們的資產負債表狀況。正如里克（Rick）將討論的那樣，我們目前正在市場上為兩年期貸款進行再融資。總體而言，我們尋求將目標槓桿範圍控制在 1.5 至 2.5 之間，並保持靈活的財務狀況，這將使我們能夠繼續投資於未來的高回報機會。

So, in summary, this is a fantastic business, and we see tremendous opportunity for continued value creation. We are delivering against our plans and our commitments, and we remain confident in our full year outlook. We are making substantial progress against our strategic initiatives, and we continue to build an amazing and inspiring culture here at Vestis supported by our incredible highly engaged teammates who, quite frankly, are enjoying the thrill that comes with winning. I'm delighted with our progress and excited about what lies ahead for us.

因此，總而言之，這是一項出色的業務，我們看到了持續創造價值的巨大機會。我們正在兌現我們的計劃和承諾，我們對全年前景仍然充滿信心。我們在策略性舉措方面正在取得實質進展，並且在我們令人難以置信的高度敬業的隊友的支持下，我們繼續在Vestis 建立一種令人驚嘆和鼓舞人心的文化，坦率地說，他們正在享受勝利帶來的興奮。我對我們的進步感到高興，並對我們的未來感到興奮。

I'll now turn things over to Rick to cover the financials in more detail before we take your questions. Rick?

現在，在回答您的問題之前，我將把事情交給 Rick，以更詳細地介紹財務狀況。瑞克？

Thanks, Kim, and good morning, everyone. Before I jump into the first quarter results, I'd like to remind you that prior year reporting is on a carve-out basis and not fully reflect the additional costs associated with operating as a stand-alone public company.

謝謝金，大家早安。在我進入第一季業績之前，我想提醒您，上一年的報告是在剝離的基礎上進行的，並沒有完全反映與作為獨立上市公司運營相關的額外成本。

So turning to the first quarter results. Revenue of $718 million increased 2.5% year-over-year. Excluding the impact of the temporary energy fee and foreign exchange, revenue grew 4.5%. Revenue from workplace supplies is up 4% and uniforms is up 0.2% compared to the prior year, with a balanced contribution from volume and price on an underlying basis. As a reminder, uniforms includes our direct sales business, which is down approximately 4% year-over-year as we continue to optimize the business as part of our high-quality growth strategy.

那麼轉向第一季的業績。營收為 7.18 億美元，年增 2.5%。剔除臨時能源費和外匯的影響，營收成長4.5%。與前一年相比，工作場所用品收入成長 4%，制服收入成長 0.2%，基本量價貢獻均衡。需要提醒的是，制服包括我們的直銷業務，作為高品質成長策略的一部分，我們不斷優化業務，該業務年減約 4%。

As Tim noted, excluding direct sales, our Uniform business grew 1% in the quarter. From a segment perspective, U.S. sales grew 2% and Canada sales were up 3%. The mix of growth between uniforms and workplace supplies within the segment was consistent with our consolidated results.

正如蒂姆所指出的，不包括直接銷售，我們的製服業務在本季成長了 1%。從細分市場來看，美國銷售額成長 2%，加拿大銷售額成長 3%。此細分市場內制服和工作場所用品的成長組合與我們的綜合業績一致。

Turning to profitability. First quarter 2024 adjusted EBITDA was $98 million, increase of 7% year-over-year. The U.S. segment increased 13%, while Canada declined 5%. The favorable impact of operating leverage from revenue growth with existing customers, $7 million in carryover benefits from workplace optimism actions taken in the back half of fiscal '23 and lower energy costs more than offset the impact of increased labor costs, increased bad debt expense, and $3 million of incremental public company costs. Lower energy costs were driven by reduced fuel consumption from our route optimization efforts and favorable rates primarily on natural gas utilized in our plants which were in line with expectations.

轉向盈利能力。 2024 年第一季調整後 EBITDA 為 9,800 萬美元，年增 7%。美國市場成長 13%，而加拿大市場下降 5%。現有客戶收入成長帶來的營運槓桿的有利影響、23 財年後半段採取的工作場所樂觀行動帶來的700 萬美元結轉收益以及較低的能源成本足以抵消勞動力成本增加、壞賬費用增加、以及 300 萬美元的增量上市公司成本。能源成本下降的原因是我們的路線優化工作減少了燃料消耗，並且主要是我們工廠使用的天然氣的優惠價格符合預期。

The increased bad debt expense year-over-year is because the prior year's first quarter profitability included the favorable impact of a bad debt reserve reduction to rightsize the reserve or improved collections that did not repeat in the current year.

壞帳費用年增是因為去年第一季的獲利能力包括壞帳準備金減少以調整準備金規模或改善收款帶來的有利影響，而今年並未重複這種情況。

As a reminder, we continue to expect incremental public company costs of $15 million to $18 million for the year, inclusive of TSA payments to earmark as we build out our corporate structure and IT infrastructure. Profitability of our Canada segment was negatively impacted by increased merchandise amortization costs as we made strategic investments to improve product quality for our customers and higher-than-expected fleet maintenance costs. Overall, adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 60 basis points year-over-year to 13.7%. Interest expense on our outstanding term loans was approximately $29 million in the quarter, and our effective tax rate was 27%, in line with expectations. All combined to deliver an adjusted EPS of $0.22 per share for the first quarter of 2024.

提醒一下，我們仍然預計今年上市公司的成本將增加 1500 萬至 1800 萬美元，其中包括我們在構建公司結構和 IT 基礎設施時指定使用的 TSA 付款。我們加拿大部門的獲利能力受到商品攤銷成本增加的負面影響，因為我們進行了策略性投資以提高客戶的產品品質以及高於預期的車隊維護成本。整體而言，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率年增 60 個基點至 13.7%。本季未償還定期貸款的利息支出約為 2,900 萬美元，有效稅率為 27%，符合預期。所有這些加起來，2024 年第一季調整後每股收益為 0.22 美元。

Moving on to liquidity. We generated $51.5 million in cash from operations in the first quarter, an increase of $43.5 million. Prior year operating cash reflects an inventory build in early 2023 to support growth and a $16 million payment of deferred payroll taxes under the CARES Act. CapEx was $17 million during the first quarter of '24, up slightly from last year and in line with our expectations. Free cash flow in the first quarter was $34.6 million with cash conversion in excess of 100% of net income.

轉向流動性。第一季我們的營運現金為 5,150 萬美元，增加了 4,350 萬美元。上一年的營運現金反映了 2023 年初為支持成長而建立的庫存以及根據 CARES 法案支付的 1,600 萬美元遞延工資稅。 2024 年第一季的資本支出為 1,700 萬美元，略高於去年，符合我們的預期。第一季自由現金流為 3,460 萬美元，現金轉換超過淨利的 100%。

We ended the first quarter with $48.9 million in cash on hand and net debt to EBITDA ratio of 3.85x. We recently launched a process to refinance our 2-year $800 million term loan with a 7-year term loan B, and we expect to close the transaction in the coming weeks. The term loan will mature in 2031 and our existing 5-year term loan matures in 2028. Once the financing is complete, our new capital structure will continue to provide us the flexibility we need to execute our strategy and support our capital allocation priorities, including achieving our optimal net leverage range of 1.5 to 2.5x by fiscal 2025.

第一季結束時，我們手頭現金為 4,890 萬美元，淨負債與 EBITDA 的比率為 3.85 倍。我們最近啟動了一項流程，用 7 年期定期貸款 B 為我們的 2 年期 8 億美元定期貸款進行再融資，我們預計將在未來幾週內完成交易。定期貸款將於2031 年到期，我們現有的5 年期定期貸款將於2028 年到期。融資完成後，我們的新資本結構將繼續為我們提供執行策略所需的靈活性並支持我們的資本配置優先事項，包括在 2025 財政年度實現 1.5 至 2.5 倍的最佳淨槓桿範圍。

Before we turn to your questions, I'd like to take a moment to discuss the full year outlook. As Kim mentioned earlier, we remain confident in our ability to deliver our full year guidance of 4% to 4.5% revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA margin of 14.3%. As we look forward to the balance of the year, we expect to see revenue growth patterns that are consistent with prior years. So if you look at the quarterly growth rates in fiscal 2023, adjusting for the impact of the energy fee in the first half, growth accelerates as we move through the year.

在回答大家的問題之前，我想花點時間討論一下全年展望。正如 Kim 之前提到的，我們仍然對實現 4% 至 4.5% 收入增長和 14.3% 調整後 EBITDA 利潤率的全年指引充滿信心。當我們展望今年的剩餘時間時，我們預期營收成長模式將與往年一致。因此，如果你看看 2023 財年的季度成長率，並根據上半年能源費的影響進行調整，你會發現隨著這一年的推移，成長會加速。

We lapped the temporary energy fee at the close of the second quarter with a $13 million impact in Q2. Our initiatives to drive disciplined high-quality profitable growth are gaining momentum, and we look forward to sharing more as we progress throughout the year.

我們在第二季末取消了臨時能源費，對第二季產生了 1,300 萬美元的影響。我們推動有紀律的高品質獲利成長的舉措正在獲得動力，我們期待在全年的進展中分享更多資訊。

That concludes our prepared remarks. And operator, please open the lines for questions.

我們準備好的演講到此結束。接線員，請打開提問線。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Seth Weber with Wells Fargo Securities.

（操作員指令）我們的第一個問題來自富國銀行證券公司的 Seth Weber。

I guess maybe, Kim, in your prepared remarks, you mentioned something about an opportunity to get more pricing as we're going through the year. I was wondering if you could expand on that a little bit.

我想，金，在你準備好的發言中，你可能提到了在我們今年有機會獲得更多定價的事情。我想知道你是否可以對此進行擴展。

Yes, certainly. Seth, thank you for your question. So we do see the opportunity to take some incremental pricing in the back half of the year. We've been very thoughtful and I would say, somewhat moderated about pricing in the first quarter. You all know we've been very diligent about passing through inflationary cost over the last year to 1.5 years in our business. And so we've been managing that and monitoring it very closely just to see customer attrition and modeling and understanding how customers are responding. So we have a carryover pricing that's still coming into our business from FY '23 actions.

是的，當然了。賽斯，謝謝你的問題。因此，我們確實看到了在今年下半年採取增量定價的機會。我們非常深思熟慮，我想說，第一季的定價有所緩和。大家都知道，過去一年到 1.5 年間，我們的業務一直非常努力地轉嫁通膨成本。因此，我們一直在對其進行管理並非常密切地監控，只是為了了解客戶流失情況、建模並了解客戶的反應。因此，我們的業務仍存在 23 財年行動中的結轉定價。

And aside from that, we took very moderated normal levels of pricing in Q1 related to kind of our typical annual price increase process. But we have been surgically analyzing opportunities to take price more strategically. And I'll give you some examples around what I mean by that. What I mean by that is looking at customer cohorts and identifying groups of customers that may be underpriced on specific products as an example. So we segmented our customers. We identify customers who may have certain products or services that are below the average as it relates to price. So we will be taking price around certain specific kind of product lines with those customers.

除此之外，我們在第一季採取了非常溫和的正常定價水平，與我們典型的年度價格上漲過程有關。但我們一直在仔細分析機會，以更具策略性地定價。我將舉一些例子來說明我的意思。我的意思是查看客戶群並識別特定產品可能定價過低的客戶群。所以我們對客戶進行了細分。我們識別出某些產品或服務的價格可能低於平均的客戶。因此，我們將圍繞某些特定類型的產品線與這些客戶進行定價。

We've identified customers who may receive more than one stop in a week but they're only being charged for one stop and it's very appropriate that there would be incremental charges for multi-day service. So we've identified that cohort of customers, and we'll be taking price to charge those customers accordingly for multi-day services. And then we'll also take some more general pricing, but in a very surgical way with a lot of analysis around which customers will be impacted and what the current relationship and state and condition of the relationship is with that customer.

我們已經確定了一些客戶可能會在一周內獲得不止一站的服務，但他們只需要為一站付費，因此多日服務收取增量費用是非常合適的。因此，我們已經確定了該客戶群，並且我們將根據多日服務的價格向這些客戶收取相應的費用。然後我們還將採取一些更一般的定價，但以一種非常外科手術的方式，圍繞哪些客戶將受到影響以及與該客戶的當前關係以及關係的狀態和條件進行大量分析。

So we definitely see the opportunity. We will be doing that in the back half of the year, particularly towards kind of the end of the second quarter, quite frankly. And then you'll see some of that roll through in the third and fourth quarter.

所以我們肯定看到了機會。坦白說，我們將在今年下半年這樣做，特別是在第二季末。然後你會在第三和第四季看到其中的一些進展。

Super helpful. And then maybe, Rick, if I could ask a follow-up. Just the call out on -- in Canada, the higher investments for new merchandise and kind of elevated fleet maintenance costs. Do you expect that to continue through the year? Or is that more of a first half event? Or just how should we think -- I guess, the maintenance costs, in particular, how should we think about that?

超有幫助。瑞克，也許我可以問後續狀況。只是呼籲 - 在加拿大，新產品的投資增加，車隊維護成本也有所提高。您預計這種情況會持續一整年嗎？還是這更像是上半場的事件？或者我們該如何思考──我想，特別是維護成本，我們該如何思考？

Yes. So I'll kind of take that to start with, and then Rick you can jump in if needed. So there are really kind of 2 drivers in Canada, as you heard from us. So you have a driver around some higher amortization costs related to new products that we injected into the system really for customer satisfaction. Some of it was for new business, which you can see those growth rates in Canada. But we also made a purposeful decision to inject some new products into existing customers. Really kind of self-funding quality, if you want to think about it that way, in the name of customer satisfaction. So those products carry amortization sets. So you'll see them with us for a while, and we lap the amortization of whatever those particular products was, based on their life cycle.

是的。所以我會先從這個開始，然後瑞克，如果需要的話你可以加入。正如您從我們那裡聽到的，加拿大確實有 2 名司機。因此，您有一個與新產品相關的較高攤銷成本的驅動因素，我們將這些新產品注入系統實際上是為了客戶滿意度。其中一些是為了新業務，你可以在加拿大看到這些成長率。但我們也做出了一個有目的的決定，向現有客戶注入一些新產品。如果你想以客戶滿意度的名義來考慮的話，這確實是一種自籌資金的品質。因此，這些產品具有攤銷集。因此，您會在我們身邊看到它們一段時間，並且我們根據這些特定產品的生命週期對它們進行攤銷。

And then as it relates to fleet tenants, we've actually done a great deal of evaluation related to the Canadian fleet, and we found that historically, before my time and before we brought in new logistics leadership, the Canadian fleet wasn't really a part of the central procurement strategy as it relates to allocating new fleets and new assets to the field. And so we found an opportunity to start upgrading the age of the fleet in Canada. And before that opportunity was identified, they were driving more than normal maintenance cost. And so that's what caused us to a question what's happening with maintenance cost in Canada. And as we evaluated that, we discovered that the Canadian fleet was significantly older than the U.S. fleet. So we recognize an opportunity to inject some more assets.

然後，就車隊租戶而言，我們實際上對加拿大車隊進行了大量評估，我們發現，從歷史上看，在我任職之前以及在我們引入新的物流領導層之前，加拿大車隊並不是真正的中央採購策略的一部分，因為它涉及外地分配新機隊和新資產。因此，我們找到了開始升級加拿大機隊機齡的機會。在發現這個機會之前，他們的維護成本超出了正常水平。這就是我們對加拿大的維護成本發生的情況產生疑問的原因。當我們評估時，我們發現加拿大機隊比美國機隊老得多。因此，我們認識到注入更多資產的機會。

And it's really not about injecting more CapEx in our total system. It's just about redirecting some of the fleet that we would have put into the U.S. into Canada. So they're slated now to get 102 new assets in their market in the fiscal year. And over time, that will help improve the age of the fleet, and it will start that maintenance cost. So it's hard to tell you exactly when you're going to see that cost dissipate 100%, but we certainly know that we're taking the right actions by upgrading the age of the fleet, and you'll begin to see that maintenance costs roll off over time.

這實際上並不是要在我們的整個系統中註入更多的資本支出。這只是將我們本應派往美國的一些艦隊重新調往加拿大。因此，他們現在計劃在本財政年度在其市場上獲得 102 項新資產。隨著時間的推移，這將有助於提高機隊的壽命，並且維護成本也會增加。因此，很難確切地告訴您何時會看到成本 100% 消散，但我們當然知道我們正在採取正確的行動，透過升級機隊的年齡，您將開始看到維護成本隨著時間的推移滾落。

The next question comes from Shlomo Rosenbaum with Stifel.

下一個問題來自 Shlomo Rosenbaum 和 Stifel。

I thought I would just start with what progress you're seeing in terms of the cross-sell. It's a major focus for the company. And are you seeing that kind of progressing, strengthening as the quarter goes on? And maybe just take the opportunity to this is the overall selling environment and maybe I'll have a follow-up after that.

我想我應該從您在交叉銷售方面看到的進展開始。這是公司的主要關注點。隨著本季的繼續，您是否看到這種進步和加強？也許只是藉此機會了解整體銷售環境，也許在那之後我會進行跟進。

Yes. Certainly, Shlomo. Thank you for joining us and for your questions. So to begin with, on cross-sell, which to remind everyone is really leveraging our outstanding route service representatives who are servicing our customer on a weekly basis to also cross-sell existing products and services to them that they're not using today. And if you guys will recall, we called out in the Analyst Day that about our customers are only using about 30% to 40% of the available products and services. So it is a key component of our strategy to cross-sell the base and to gain share of wallet with existing customers, increased revenue per stop.

是的。當然，什洛莫。感謝您加入我們並提出問題。首先，在交叉銷售方面，要提醒大家的是，我們真正利用我們優秀的路線服務代表，他們每週為我們的客戶提供服務，並向他們交叉銷售他們今天沒有使用的現有產品和服務。如果你們還記得的話，我們在分析師日指出，我們的客戶只使用了大約 30% 到 40% 的可用產品和服務。因此，交叉銷售基礎並獲得現有客戶的錢包份額、增加每站收入是我們策略的關鍵組成部分。

We are very pleased with the way that our route service representatives have embraced this as a new part of our DNA and a part of our go-forward strategy. So we are seeing momentum build. In fact, you might have heard me call out that when you compare routes that had selling activity on them in Q1 of this year versus Q1 of last year, we're seeing roughly a 25% increase in selling activity. So we know that we have earlier in the year and we did last year, more activity around route sales. We're in the middle as an example right now by route sales contest, which is where we get a dramatic lift in revenue per stock with our route service representatives, and we are definitely seeing momentum build around that as we launch the concept, which is a normal part of our cycle, and we expected to do that.

我們對我們的航線服務代表將其視為我們 DNA 的新部分和我們前進策略的一部分的方式感到非常高興。所以我們看到勢頭正在增強。事實上，您可能聽我說過，當您將今年第一季有銷售活動的航線與去年第一季進行比較時，我們發現銷售活動增加了約 25%。所以我們知道，今年早些時候和去年一樣，我們圍繞航線銷售開展了更多活動。以航線銷售競賽為例，我們現在處於中間位置，我們的航線服務代表的每隻股票收入都大幅提升，當我們推出這一概念時，我們肯定會看到圍繞這一點的勢頭正在建立，這這是我們週期的正常組成部分，我們希望這樣做。

So we feel very good. It will be a while before you actually see the number of products and services per customer moved dramatically. So we're not going to try to share that metric every quarter because it would be rather static. Probably on an annual to 18-month basis, we'll look at the total number of products and services used per customer, and use that as a proxy for success as well. But we feel really good about the progress around route sales and customers are quite engaged around adding additional products and services.

所以我們感覺很好。您還需要一段時間才能真正看到每位客戶的產品和服務數量發生巨大變化。因此，我們不會嘗試每個季度共享該指標，因為它會相當靜態。可能每年到 18 個月，我們都會查看每位客戶使用的產品和服務的總數，並將其用作成功的指標。但我們對航線銷售的進展感到非常滿意，而且客戶非常熱衷於添加額外的產品和服務。

Secondarily, to the second point of your question around the general selling environment, we're also seeing really good progress with our frontline account executives, driving revenue per head, and we're working very hard to continue to grow new business, particularly in those target micro verticals that we spoke about. And so we've gone about building go-to-market strategies for those 8 micro verticals. They're all in different stages of their life cycle, as you can imagine. But auto was the example that I gave at the Analyst Day. We're seeing very good progress penetrating that sector. We're seeing leads up in that sector. We're seeing close rate up in that sector. And as an example, we see a 1% improvement in the revenue contribution from automobile dealers now that we have focused on that vertical just to give you an example.

其次，對於您關於整體銷售環境的問題的第二點，我們也看到我們的一線客戶經理取得了非常好的進展，提高了人均收入，並且我們正在非常努力地繼續發展新業務，特別是在我們談到的那些目標微觀垂直領域。因此，我們開始為這 8 個微型垂直產業制定進入市場策略。正如您可以想像的那樣，它們都處於生命週期的不同階段。但汽車是我在分析師日給的例子。我們看到該領域取得了非常好的進展。我們看到該領域的領先優勢。我們看到該領域的收盤價上升。舉個例子，我們看到汽車經銷商的收入貢獻提高了 1%，因為我們專注於該垂直領域，只是為了給您一個例子。

And so overall, we feel good about our progress. We do anticipate a ramp up as we move through the year, very similar to the patterns that you saw last year in our business as you see growth accelerate. And then also keeping in mind that we'll lap that temporary energy fee at the end of the second quarter.

總的來說，我們對我們的進展感到滿意。我們確實預計隨著今年的成長，我們的業務將會成長，這與您去年在我們的業務中看到的成長加速的模式非常相似。然後還要記住，我們將在第二季末支付臨時能源費。

Okay. Just maybe, Rick, maybe you could just talk a little bit. The growth is supposed to accelerate through the year. Maybe you could give us a little bit of a bridge. There's a couple of moving parts over here. You have -- in the beginning of the year, I believe there's a rationalization of the direct sales kind of one-off in the SKUs. You had a strategic exit of a client that's supposed to go on and then you have kind of pricing that's supposed to kick in later. Is it -- can you kind of bridge us on how we should think about the cadence of growth through the year and how these different items will impact the revenue for the next 3 quarters?

好的。只是也許，瑞克，也許你可以談談。全年成長預計將加速。也許你可以為我們架起一座橋。這裡有幾個活動部件。在今年年初，我相信 SKU 中的一次性直銷已經合理化。你有一個客戶的策略退出，應該繼續下去，然後你有一個應該在以後開始的定價。您能否為我們介紹一下我們應該如何思考全年的成長節奏以及這些不同的項目將如何影響未來三個季度的收入？

Sure. So in the prior -- on our prior call, we talked about a direct sale customer that we were parting ways with and that was $13 million in the back half of the year. And so we kind of quantified that and should expect to see that. And that's in our direct sales, so that will impact on a reported basis, you'll see that in Uniforms. As we look at how we progress through the year, we've got another quarter here in Q2 that has energy fee pressure. And so the growth rate year-over-year will -- that will be a headwind for that growth. What we wanted to make sure, we want it understood -- we'll not [guide] the quarters, but the progression will be very similar to what you saw in prior years and in particularly 2023. And so we're reporting 2.5 here, and then we've got another quarter with a $13 million [headwind] in Q2. And then as you continue to see growth rates advance. And then in Q3 and Q4, although you will see a $13 million direct sale headwind, we still expect to see accelerated growth in those quarters. Because as we said in our year-end call, we knew that was out there and our guidance had already factored that in.

當然。因此，在之前的電話中，我們談到了我們即將與之分道揚鑣的一位直銷客戶，該客戶在今年下半年獲得了 1300 萬美元的收入。所以我們對此進行了量化，並且應該期望看到這一點。這是我們的直接銷售，所以這會影響報告的基礎，你會在製服中看到這一點。當我們審視這一年的進展時，我們發現第二季還有一個季度面臨能源費用壓力。因此，同比增長率將成為成長的阻力。我們想要確保的是，我們希望人們能夠理解——我們不會[指導]季度，但進展將與您在前幾年，特別是 2023 年看到的非常相似。所以我們在這裡報告 2.5 ，然後我們在第二季度又迎來了1300 萬美元的[逆風]。然後隨著你繼續看到成長率的提高。然後在第三季度和第四季度，儘管您將看到 1300 萬美元的直銷逆風，但我們仍然預計這些季度會加速成長。因為正如我們在年終電話會議中所說，我們知道這種情況已經存在，並且我們的指導已經將其考慮在內。

The next question comes from Andy Wittmann with Baird.

下一個問題來自安迪·魏特曼和貝爾德。

You had a comment in your prepared remarks about optimization events. And I just was hoping that you could talk about what those are. I think you mentioned there were 13 of them. Just trying to understand the significance of what one optimization event could be and how we think about these types of things unfolding throughout the course of the year and what they can mean to the profit margin profile?

您在準備好的有關優化事件的評論中發表了評論。我只是希望你能談談這些是什麼。我想你提到有 13 個。只是想了解一次優化事件的重要性以及我們如何看待這一年中發生的此類事件以及它們對利潤率狀況意味著什麼？

Absolutely. Andy, so when we are referencing the optimization event related to logistics and routing and scheduling, I'd take you back to our strategy when we spoke a great deal about optimizing our routes and building our logistics muscle. And we spoke about the very intensive study that we did with analytics around all of our flows between our plants and our customer locations and the opportunity to optimize those flows. And you may remember in Analyst Day, we gave some case studies around some specific markets and going in and rerouting customers to the proper plant location, but also looking at our cross docks and depots and where those are located and identifying opportunities to drive less miles to serve our customers essentially. And if you just kind of summarize it, that's really what we're doing is we're reducing empty miles across the system, either through mapping customers to the right locations, making sure drivers make all right turns on the routes and that they're being efficient with how they drive or also just looking at cross docks and shuttles that we're doing to drive wasted miles to serve customers through cross docks versus directly from plants.

絕對地。安迪，因此，當我們提到與物流、路線和調度相關的優化事件時，我會帶您回到我們的策略，當時我們談到了很多關於優化我們的路線和建立我們的物流實力的問題。我們談到了我們對工廠和客戶地點之間的所有流程進行的分析以及優化這些流程的機會進行的非常深入的研究。您可能還記得在分析師日，我們圍繞一些特定市場進行了一些案例研究，並進入並將客戶重新安排到正確的工廠位置，但也查看了我們的交叉碼頭和倉庫以及它們的位置，並確定了減少行駛里程的機會本質上為我們的客戶服務。如果你簡單總結一下，我們實際上正在做的就是減少整個系統的空駛里程，要么通過將客戶映射到正確的位置，要么確保司機在路線上正確轉彎，並且他們“我們正在提高他們的駕駛方式，或者只是專注於交叉碼頭和班車，我們正在這樣做，以浪費里程通過交叉碼頭而不是直接從工廠為客戶提供服務。

And so when we talk about these events, these could be markets or (inaudible) of routes in really large markets where we're going in and actually running optimization, replanning routes and putting customers in the right plants on the right routes and resetting that process. And so when we say that we've already done 13 -- picture, last year, we did a total of 26. And so what we're trying to emphasize here is that in the first quarter, we've already done half as many as we did last year. And so we're building momentum around that. And when we first started, we had to build the muscle and teach the organization how to do this. I spoke a little bit about ensuring that we got to change management, right, that we were engaging with customers that we were doing the handoff and the change effectively and creating no disruption for our teams or for our customers. So we were kind of going slow in the beginning, not slow, but in a moderated way to make sure we did this thoughtfully. Now we're starting to ramp this thing up, and we're gaining more traction.

因此，當我們談論這些事件時，這些可能是真正大型市場中的市場或（聽不清楚）路線，我們將在這些市場中實際進行最佳化，重新規劃路線，並將客戶置於正確路線上的正確工廠中，並重新設定流程。因此，當我們說去年我們已經做了 13 個圖片時，我們總共做了 26 個。所以我們在這裡想強調的是，在第一季度，我們已經做了一半就像我們去年所做的那樣。因此，我們正在圍繞這一目標建立勢頭。當我們剛開始時，我們必須增強力量並教導組織如何做到這一點。我談到了一些關於確保我們進行管理變革的問題，對吧，我們與客戶互動，我們正在有效地進行交接和變革，並且不會對我們的團隊或客戶造成乾擾。所以我們一開始就進展緩慢，不是慢，而是以一種適度的方式，以確保我們深思熟慮地做這件事。現在我們開始加大力度，並且獲得了更多的關注。

We modeled doing kind of a rightsizing over the 5-year period. But at the same time, we're also institutionalizing these tools. So when I talk about adding the telematics across all of our fleet, that's so we can ensure that we're running routes in compliance with how we'd like to do that. And also when we talk about dispatch track being implemented as our routing and scheduling tool. Now it's a dynamic tool. Every time we win a new customer, we're properly adding it to the right route through the lens of logistics. And so I would think about it as there's a great onetime resetting that's taking place that drops out dollars in terms of reduced fuel and lowering empty miles. And then there's also this building of this muscle that makes us smarter and better every time we add a customer and run a route in perpetuity. So that's what we're seeing about, Andy, when we talk about these events.

我們模擬了在 5 年期間進行的某種規模調整。但同時，我們也正在將這些工具制度化。因此，當我談論在我們所有車隊中添加遠端資訊處理時，我們可以確保我們按照我們想要的方式運行路線。當我們談論調度追蹤作為我們的路由和調度工具。現在它是一個動態工具。每次我們贏得新客戶時，我們都會透過物流的角度將其正確添加到正確的路線中。因此，我會考慮這一點，因為正在發生一次偉大的一次性重置，在減少燃油和減少空駛里程方面節省了金錢。每次我們增加客戶並永久運營一條路線時，這種肌肉的構建都會使我們變得更聰明、更好。安迪，當我們談論這些事件時，這就是我們所看到的。

That's really good color. I guess for a follow-up question, I wanted to ask just kind of about the macro that you're seeing out there. If you could just talk maybe about the level of a benefit that you might be getting from added wears or at your existing accounts or the -- I guess, the amount of wins that you're getting from customers that have not been a user of a rental program in the past.

這顏色確實不錯啊我想對於後續問題，我想問您在那裡看到的巨集。如果您能談談您可能從增加的磨損或現有帳戶中獲得的好處水平，或者——我猜，您從尚未使用過的客戶那裡獲得的勝利金額過去的租賃計劃。

So we are seeing conversion of nonprogrammers. So when we talk about our account executives out selling, we really enjoy that particular prospect. And so a lot of our focus, while we're out selling new business and prospecting potential new customers are around nonprogrammers. And so we are seeing good growth with our account executives with new business, new customers around nonprogrammers certainly. And that is a key focus for us, quite frankly. As far as trends around ad wearers, quite frankly, it varies by end market. We're quite diversified, as you know, in a lot of different end markets. And so we are seeing some -- like I'll give health care as an example, where we're seeing good growth in health care. There are others where restaurants, as an example, where we're actually seeing more closures and more customers that are closing business or going out of business. So it really varies by vertical. And we're kind of managing that tactically by end market.

所以我們看到非程式設計師的轉變。因此，當我們談論我們的客戶經理進行銷售時，我們真的很喜歡這種特殊的前景。因此，當我們銷售新業務和尋找潛在新客戶時，我們的大部分注意力都集中在非程式設計師身上。因此，我們看到我們的客戶經理在新業務、非程式設計師周圍的新客戶方面取得了良好的成長。坦白說，這是我們關注的重點。坦白說，就廣告佩戴者的趨勢而言，它因終端市場而異。如您所知，我們在許多不同的終端市場上非常多元化。因此，我們看到了一些——就像我以醫療保健為例，我們看到醫療保健領域出現了良好的成長。例如，還有其他一些餐館，我們實際上看到更多的餐館關門，更多的顧客關門或休息。所以它確實因垂直方向而異。我們正在透過終端市場進行戰術管理。

The next question comes from Stephanie Moore with Jefferies.

下一個問題來自傑弗里斯的史蒂芬妮摩爾。

I wanted to maybe touch more -- a little bit more on the margin expansion opportunity. I think very nice progress in the quarter. You called out an improvement in fill rates that you're seeing in just your inventory reuse program getting traction. Can you talk a little bit about -- maybe frame it from an inning perspective where you are in this inventory reuse program. If you can provide any kind of specific KPIs of the -- maybe benefit you're seeing at the facility level from some of the early initiatives that you've made? Any update there would be great.

我可能想多接觸利潤擴張的機會。我認為本季取得了非常好的進展。您指出，您在庫存再利用計劃中看到的填充率有所提高。你能談談——也許從一個局的角度來看你在這個庫存重用計劃中的情況。如果您可以提供任何類型的特定 KPI，也許您在設施層面從您制定的一​​些早期舉措中看到了好處？任何更新都會很棒。

Yes. We're very pleased with the progress we're making around the reuse of merchandise. And we think about this as a very long-term strategic initiative. So as you all know, as we launch new customers, we inject new products in the system, and the amortization clock starts ticking. So every time we issue a new product, we start the clock on amortization and that amortization stays with us for a period depending on what the product and what the MR time line is that's been set. And so this initiative around improving the use of existing garments that are already either advertising in our system, not being used currently or perhaps they've rolled off and there's no amortization tied to them. We essentially already paid for them and they're sitting in our stockroom.

是的。我們對商品再利用的進展感到非常滿意。我們認為這是一項非常長期的策略性舉措。眾所周知，當我們推出新客戶時，我們會在系統中註入新產品，攤銷時鐘就會開始計時。因此，每次我們發布新產品時，我們都會啟動攤銷時鐘，並且攤銷會保留一段時間，具體取決於產品類型和已設定的 MR 時間軸。因此，這項措施旨在改善現有服裝的使用，這些服裝要么已經在我們的系統中做廣告，但目前尚未使用，或者可能已經下線，並且沒有與它們相關的攤銷。我們基本上已經支付了它們的費用，它們就放在我們的儲藏室裡。

So we have launched a series of initiatives across our stockroom around teaching our teammates how to better reuse these existing assets that are either partially amortized or fully amortized. We are seeing a tremendous response from our field team, and we are already, I would say, starting to see a step change kind of embracing the idea of pulling these fast-moving SKUs to the front of your stock room and injecting those to customers rather than injecting new. So you would have heard me mention in scrap that we saw -- across more than 100 facilities we're already seeing a really strong improvement around the used fill rate. It takes time for that to actually flow through the financials because you still have the other products in the system being amortized. So you should think about this in about a year. We will be coming back and talking with you about the improvements that we're seeing around not only amortization, but also inventory and the management of cash related to inventory because this is a play as it relates to cash management, and also a play relating to pushing down OpEx costs by kind of pushing down that amortization curve by injecting reuse garments.

因此，我們在倉庫中發起了一系列舉措，圍繞著教導我們的團隊成員如何更好地重複使用這些部分攤銷或完全攤銷的現有資產。我們看到我們的現場團隊做出了巨大的反應，我想說，我們已經開始看到一種逐步改變，即將這些快速移動的 SKU 拉到倉庫前面並將其註入客戶的想法而不是注入新的。因此，您可能會聽到我在廢品中提到我們看到的情況 - 在 100 多個設施中，我們已經看到二手填充率有了非常強勁的改善。它需要時間才能真正流經財務部門，因為系統中仍有其他產品需要攤銷。所以你應該在一年左右考慮這個問題。我們將回來與您討論我們所看到的改進，不僅涉及攤銷，還涉及庫存以及與庫存相關的現金管理，因為這是與現金管理相關的遊戲，也是與相關的遊戲通過注入重複使用的服裝來降低攤銷曲線，進而降低營運成本。

Just as a reminder, in Analyst Day, we talked a little bit a rule of thumb, a percentage point of moving our used fill right for our metric, we're really using a metric called used fill rate. So for every issue that we do to a customer on how many are used garments versus new garments. And you get about $1.4 million in savings for every percentage point that you improve. And I'll tell you, we have a lot of percentage points of improvement opportunity. So more to come on this one, but I would not think about this in the year. I would think about this very strategically. This is a long game, and it's going to be extremely beneficial once we see some of that old MR roll off, and then we start to continue to inject these new to off the need for new garments.

提醒一下，在分析師日，我們討論了一點經驗法則，即為我們的指標移動已用填充率的一個百分點，我們實際上使用的是一種稱為已用填充率的指標。因此，對於我們向客戶提出的每一個問題，即舊衣服和新衣服的數量。每提高一個百分點，您就可以節省約 140 萬美元。我會告訴你，我們有很多百分點的改進機會。所以關於這個的還有更多，但我今年不會考慮這個。我會非常有策略地思考這個問題。這是一場漫長的遊戲，一旦我們看到一些舊的 MR 消失，然後我們開始繼續注入這些新的東西來滿足對新服裝的需求，這將是非常有益的。

Great. No, that's very insightful. And then maybe just a follow-up to the first question, in the Q&A, on the pricing side. Maybe it was -- I think my understanding that the guidance as first didn't really account for a ton of pricing this year for, I think, obvious -- for obvious reasons, just given what we're seeing inflation and really the opportunity that you have on your side. Now it sounds like you do have some opportunistic areas to take price, which I think you explained, is very clear and exciting. So does this more so give us -- when we think about it as driving incremental comfort in achieving the guidance for the year? Could it drive potential upside? How should we think about, maybe, the change in the pricing?

偉大的。不，這是非常有洞察力的。然後也許只是第一個問題的後續，在問答中，在定價方面。也許是 - 我認為我的理解是，首先的指導並沒有真正考慮到今年的大量定價，我認為，顯而易見 - 出於顯而易見的原因，只是考慮到我們所看到的通貨膨脹和真正的機會你站在你這邊。現在聽起來你確實有一些機會主義領域可以定價，我認為你的解釋是非常清晰和令人興奮的。那麼，當我們認為這會推動在實現今年指導方針的過程中增加舒適感時，這是否會為我們帶來更多的好處呢？它能推動潛在的上漲嗎？我們該如何考慮定價的變動？

Yes. I would think about it as additional comfort to give you confidence, the same confidence we have that we're going to ramp up the growth rates in the back half of the year, and deliver against the 4% to 4.5%. So -- and certainly, we're going to be opportunistic and take price whenever we can. But we do expect to also see our volumes ramping around our route sales average when we look at our route drivers and around our AE sales. We have initiatives in place to continue to ramp. But yes, you should think about pricing as a -- providing a level of comfort, but we have that lever as well, and we're being very thoughtful about how to use that lever.

是的。我認為這是給你們信心的額外安慰，我們也有同樣的信心，我們將在今年下半年提高成長率，並實現 4% 至 4.5% 的成長。所以——當然，我們會抓住機會並盡可能地定價。但當我們觀察航線司機和 AE 銷售時，我們確實預期我們的銷售量也會圍繞航線銷售平均水準成長。我們已採取措施繼續擴大規模。但是，是的，你應該將定價視為——提供一定程度的舒適度，但我們也有這個槓桿，而且我們正在非常考慮如何使用這個槓桿。

Yes. The surgical pricing was in our guidance. And so if you remember, we talked at Analyst Day the disciplined pricing that Kim led with, but that there were opportunities for surgical pricing. And so we're really just capitalizing on that. We knew it was out there. And we're giving you the flavor of the timing so that you can help understand the progression of revenue.

是的。手術定價在我們的指導範圍內。因此，如果您還記得的話，我們在分析師日討論了 Kim 領導的嚴格定價，但也有進行手術定價的機會。所以我們實際上只是在利用這一點。我們知道它就在那裡。我們將為您提供具體時間安排，以便您可以協助了解收入的進展。

The next question comes from Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的安德魯·斯坦納曼。

Kim, I thought maybe we could spend a little more time on Chris' leaving. He was COO for really kind of a brief It was great spending time with him in September. You've labeled it as a leaving for personal reasons. So I just wanted to make sure, when we say personal reasons, that means it's totally unrelated to Vestis Management business, et cetera? And then also, are you going to hire somebody in that COO position now that Chris has left?

金，我想也許我們可以在克里斯離開後多花一點時間。他擔任營運長的時間很短，九月和他一起度過的時光真是太棒了。您將其標記為出於個人原因離開。所以我只是想確保，當我們說個人原因時，這意味著它與 Vestis Management 業務完全無關，等等？另外，既然克里斯已經離開，您是否打算聘請某人擔任首席營運長？

Yes. Thank you, Andrew, and thanks for joining us today. So I do -- I will briefly address just Chris' departure. So Chris has made the decision to leave the organization, as we said, for personal reasons. And just so everyone understands Chris' time line, he was with us for a very brief time. So Chris joined on September 11, a couple of days before Analyst Day. Analyst Day was on the 13th. So I want to reassure everyone that Chris' departure does not impact our strategy or our ability to deliver against our strategy. This plan has been in motion for a very long time for the 2.5 or 2-plus years that I've been here. So we feel really confident that we will continue down the path that we are down. That path was well in motion before his arrival. He's made the decision to depart, and we wish him all the best and thank him for the few months that he was here and for the time that he contributed.

是的。謝謝你，安德魯，也謝謝你今天加入我們。所以我會——我將簡要地討論克里斯的離開。因此，正如我們所說，克里斯出於個人原因決定離開該組織。為了讓每個人都了解克里斯的時間表，他和我們在一起的時間很短。於是 Chris 於 9 月 11 日加入，也就是分析師日的前幾天。分析師日是 13 日。因此，我想向大家保證，克里斯的離開不會影響我們的策略或我們實現策略的能力。在我來這裡的 2.5 年或 2 年多的時間裡，這個計劃已經實施了很長一段時間。因此，我們非常有信心，我們將繼續沿著我們所走的路走下去。在他到來之前，這條路就已經運作良好。他已經決定離開，我們祝他一切順利，並感謝他在這裡的幾個月以及他所做的貢獻。

But Andrew, I can assure you that I have no concerns about our business, our business performance and how we're tracking against our strategy. As it relates to backfilling, I'm actually very excited that the team is back reporting to me. So they were essentially reporting to me before we created the COO role. And for now, they're all going to continue to report back into me. They're aware of that, and they're excited about that. I'll remind you guys, I am an operator. I've been a COO. I love getting down into this business and helping make this business better. So I'm actually quite excited. So we're going to take our time and be very thoughtful. Our organizational design will evolve, whether that's another COO or that's two-in-a-box with a field leader and a sole person, we'll figure all of that out in due course. Right now, I'm pleased to have the team back with me. We have great momentum, and we're going to continue down the path that we're on. So we feel very good with no concerns regarding Chris' departure.

但是安德魯，我可以向你保證，我對我們的業務、我們的業務績效以及我們如何追蹤我們的策略並不擔心。由於它與回填有關，我實際上非常興奮團隊回來向我報告。因此，在我們設立營運長職位之前，他們基本上是向我報告的。現在，他們都會繼續向我報告。他們知道這一點，並且對此感到興奮。我要提醒大家，我是一名接線生。我曾擔任營運長。我喜歡投入這個行業並幫助這個行業變得更好。所以我實際上很興奮。所以我們會慢慢來，深思熟慮。我們的組織設計將會不斷發展，無論是另一位首席營運長還是由一名現場領導者和一個人組成的二合一，我們將在適當的時候解決所有這些問題。現在，我很高興球隊能回到我身邊。我們勢頭強勁，我們將繼續沿著現有的道路前進。所以我們感覺很好，不用擔心克里斯的離開。

The next question comes from Manav Patnaik with Barclays.

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的馬納夫·帕特奈克（Manav Patnaik）。

This is Ronan Kennedy on for Manav. I was hoping that you could please comment on retention, the trends and the drivers, whether it's service quality, the predictive analytics, the digital tools. And conversely, what reasons for attrition would be outside of the delivery exits, say specifically within Uniform direct sales? And then also, any further color on drivers of new business beyond nonprogrammers specifically as to how and why Vestis is running?

我是馬納夫的羅南肯尼迪。我希望您能對保留率、趨勢和驅動因素發表評論，無論是服務品質、預測分析還是數位工具。相反，在交付出口之外，特別是在統一直銷範圍內，哪些原因會導致人員流失？另外，除了非程式設計師之外，還有什麼關於新業務驅動因素的進一步說明，特別是 Vestis 的運作方式和原因？

Sure. I mean, I think -- we didn't catch your name. I'm sorry. Who is this?

當然。我的意思是，我想──我們沒聽清楚你的名字。對不起。這是誰？

Sorry, it's Ronan Kennedy on for Manav.

抱歉，馬納夫由羅南·肯尼迪上場。

Sorry, I couldn't hear you. So we'll start with retention. So just to take you back, we have been talking about retention and using the stat greater than 90%, which is what we filed in the Form 10 and we continue to maintain retention above that level. So I'll start there. that we have no real surprises as it relates to retention and where we expected to be for the most part. We did talk about some attrition as it relates to direct sale and some strategic decision to kind of throttle down. So you'll recall in our full year earnings for FY '23, I shared with you a large direct sale customer that will be rolling off partially in the back half of the year and partially in FY '25. So we do expect to see that in our numbers. We also have, from time to time, a large national account that may choose to go elsewhere or to self-serve. So you're always going to see some of that. Those are larger events. They happen as a part of an RFP process.

抱歉，我聽不到你的聲音。所以我們將從保留開始。回顧一下，我們一直在討論保留率並使用大於 90% 的統計數據，這是我們在表 10 中提交的數據，我們將繼續將保留率保持在該水平之上。所以我將從這裡開始。我們並沒有真正感到驚訝，因為這與保留率以及我們大部分預期的情況有關。我們確實討論了一些與直銷有關的人員流失以及一些旨在減少開支的策略決策。因此，您會記得在我們 23 財年的全年收益中，我與您分享了一個大型直銷客戶，該客戶將在今年下半年部分淘汰，部分在 25 財年淘汰。所以我們確實希望在我們的數據中看到這一點。我們有時也會有一個龐大的國民帳戶，可能會選擇去其他地方或自助服務。所以你總是會看到其中的一些。這些都是更大的事件。它們是 RFP 流程的一部分。

But generally speaking, when you look at the rest of retention and you look at recent codes to answer your question around why would you see customers leave. We are seeing small to medium enterprise customers with an uptick in business closures. And so just important to note as we look at recent codes, we are monitoring that very closely. And it's also when you try to drill it down a little bit further. You can see a trend. As an example, in Canada, there's a trend with restaurants. So when you look at what is happening around business closures, particularly with small to medium enterprise, we're going pretty deep and granular to understand what are those patterns and trends around why customers leave. We're seeing a slight uptick in customers going out of business in those all those medium and enterprise verticals, particularly around restaurants as an example.

但一般來說，當您查看其餘的保留率並查看最近的程式碼時，可以回答為什麼您會看到客戶離開的問題。我們看到中小型企業客戶的倒閉數量增加。因此，值得注意的是，當我們查看最近的程式碼時，我們正在非常密切地監控它。當你嘗試進一步深入研究時也是如此。你可以看到一個趨勢。例如，在加拿大，餐廳已成為一種趨勢。因此，當您了解企業倒閉周圍發生的情況時，尤其是中小型企業，我們將非常深入且細緻地了解客戶離開的模式和趨勢。我們發現，在所有這些中型和企業垂直領域，尤其是餐廳周圍，倒閉的客戶略有增加。

So we're managing that and monitoring that very closely. Conversely, though, we have a lot of opportunity to self-serve and help ourselves as it relates to retention. So we're actually quite focused on a series of initiatives, everything from improving the customer experience with the digital portal that we've talked about to actually changing incentives for our field team around customer retention as an example. So we have a whole series of initiatives designed to put the customer first, to drive customer satisfaction and to help our sales. And quite frankly, in this model, the single best way to grow is retain the customers you already have. So we are very focused on doing that and also at the same time understanding why customers might leave.

因此，我們正在對此進行管理並非常密切地監控。但相反，我們有很多機會進行自我服務和幫助自己，因為這與保留有關。因此，我們實際上非常關註一系列舉措，從我們討論過的數位入口網站改善客戶體驗到圍繞客戶保留實際改變我們現場團隊的激勵措施。因此，我們採取了一系列舉措，旨在將客戶放在第一位，提高客戶滿意度並幫助我們的銷售。坦白說，在這種模式中，成長的最佳方式就是留住現有的客戶。因此，我們非常專注於這樣做，同時也了解客戶可能離開的原因。

So we've got a lot of work going on around this tower. And we just brought on a new Chief Commercial Officer. Stephen Mohan has been here, I think, less than 60 days now and he is already all over digging in and understanding these factors and putting programs around them. So we feel good about our future, our long-term future as it relates to retention.

因此，我們圍繞這座塔正在進行大量工作。我們剛剛任命了一位新的首席商務官。我想，史蒂芬莫漢 (Stephen Mohan) 來到這裡不到 60 天，他已經開始深入挖掘和理解這些因素，並圍繞它們制定計劃。因此，我們對我們的未來、我們的長期未來感到滿意，因為這與保留有關。

That's very helpful. And then can I just ask for your comments on trends with your input costs. Obviously, you've touched on the energy and the related service charge or lack thereof for the first half, but also what you're seeing from a material inflation standpoint, labor dynamics especially in consideration of the higher unionization, et cetera?

這非常有幫助。然後我可以詢問您對投入成本趨勢的評論嗎？顯然，您已經談到了上半年的能源和相關服務費或缺乏，但您也從物質通膨的角度看到了什麼，尤其是考慮到更高的工會化等情況下的勞動力動態？

Sure. So from a -- start with labor. From a labor prospective, we're seeing a little over 5%, which is what we expected coming into the year. And so as we've talked before, the union contracts give us pretty good visibility to what that rate might look like, and we are kind of on plan relative to labor. And that is manifesting itself even on our retention of our existing workforce that's improving year-over-year, which is giving us some operating efficiencies as well there.

當然。所以從－－從勞動開始。從勞動力角度來看，我們看到略高於 5%，這是我們今年的預期。正如我們之前所說，工會合約使我們能夠很好地了解該比率的情況，而且我們相對於勞動力而言是按計劃進行的。這甚至體現在我們對現有員工的留任上，而且員工的留存率逐年提高，這也提高了我們的營運效率。

From an input cost perspective, we are seeing -- parking energy for a second. We're not seeing significant movement in our input costs that will drive any type of variance in the current year. We continue to monitor that, monitor our suppliers and have a good forward view of inventory requirements and costing. And our Mexico facility also gives us a lot of opportunity to head off supply chain, both disruptions as well as unnecessary from our perspective, cost increases. And so we feel good about the material costs.

從投入成本的角度來看，我們看到──暫時停頓能源。我們沒有看到投入成本發生重大變化，從而導致本年度出現任何類型的差異。我們將繼續監控這一點，監控我們的供應商，並對庫存需求和成本核算有一個良好的前瞻性了解。我們的墨西哥工廠也為我們提供了許多機會來阻止供應鏈的中斷，以及從我們的角度來看不必要的成本增加。因此我們對材料成本感到滿意。

From an energy perspective, we talked about the fuel service charge, but we also, as we said last time, are seeing in the front half so favorable energy costs, driven primarily to rates. And our -- we expected to see that. You'll probably continue to see it in Q2. We believe it will flatten out as we get here in the back half of the year. So no change in our expectations on energy.

從能源角度來看，我們討論了燃油服務費，但正如我們上次所說，我們也看到上半年如此有利的能源成本，主要是由費率驅動的。我們希望看到這一點。您可能會在第二季度繼續看到它。我們相信，當我們在今年下半年到來時，這種情況將會趨於平緩。因此我們對能源的期望沒有改變。

The next question comes from George Tong with Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的喬治唐。

In the Uniforms business, you mentioned growth was 1%, excluding the moderation from direct sales. Can you discuss some of the factors you're seeing that may be causing Uniforms growth to come a bit below some of what your competitors are seeing where growth is tracking somewhere north of 5%?

在製服業務中，您提到成長率為 1%，不包括直接銷售的放緩。您能否討論一下您所看到的一些因素，這些因素可能導致制服成長略低於競爭對手所看到的成長速度超過 5% 的情況？

Yes. So a couple of things I would say, and then I'll directly answer your question is also, keep in mind that Uniforms is not always apples-to-apples across our competitors, so just making sure that you're dissecting what's inside the Uniforms category, for us it is just Uniforms. And so we'll start there. The ADS impact is very clear and I think you guys are pretty well aware that we're purposely throttling that down and being very mindful. And we were getting growth rates in Uniforms in historical periods prior to this strategy from ADS, quite frankly. Sometimes we use it to pro the growth rate, just to be honest with you, not that there's anything we most doing that, but it's not a margin-accretive strategy. So we have purposely said, hey, time out, let's tone this thing down. Our ADS direct sales team members are doing a great job selling the right stuff to the right customers. So we're very pleased and proud of them for doing that.

是的。因此，我要說的幾件事，然後我將直接回答你的問題是，請記住，制服在我們的競爭對手中並不總是同類，所以只需確保你正在剖析制服內部的內容制服類別，對我們來說只是製服。我們將從這裡開始。 ADS 的影響非常明顯，我想你們都非常清楚我們正在有意限制其影響並非常謹慎。坦白說，我們從 ADS 獲得了在此策略之前的歷史時期制服的成長率。有時我們會用它來提高成長率，老實說，並不是我們最常這樣做，但這不是一種利潤增值策略。所以我們故意說，嘿，暫停一下，讓我們緩和一下這件事。我們的 ADS 直銷團隊成員在向合適的客戶銷售合適的產品方面做得非常出色。因此，我們對他們這樣做感到非常高興和自豪。

So when you normalize for that purposeful decision to throttle down, you do get a 1% growth rate. So thank you for pointing that out. I think that's really important. It's also important to note that we've got a couple of things that are happening. I mentioned the -- we are growing in this space. Obviously, I mentioned the 8 micro verticals, and they were going to market very surgically and targeting very specific verticals with propensity for cross-sell. That is very moderated growth. So not all verticals are equal. We're not targeting everything aggressively. We're being very smart about which leads we're pursuing and which customer types we're pursuing. So also has an impact on the growth rate because we're not just growing for growth's sake. We're growing in a very targeted way so that we can get margin expansion and the propensity for cross-sell.

因此，當你將有目的的節流決定正常化時，你確實會獲得 1% 的成長率。謝謝你指出這一點。我認為這非常重要。同樣重要的是要注意我們正在發生一些事情。我提到過——我們正在這個領域不斷成長。顯然，我提到了 8 個微型垂直市場，他們將非常精確地進行行銷，並針對具有交叉銷售傾向的非常具體的垂直市場。這是非常溫和的成長。因此，並非所有垂直領域都是平等的。我們並沒有積極地瞄準一切。我們非常清楚我們正在追求哪些潛在客戶以及我們正在追求哪些客戶類型。這也會對成長率產生影響，因為我們不僅僅是為了成長而成長。我們正在以非常有針對性的方式發展，以便我們可以獲得利潤擴張和交叉銷售的傾向。

I did mention that we do see an uptick in business closures as it relates to our SMEs. So that also has an effect on the number as it relates to the impact of retention on the Uniforms number, and we're very transparent about that, we're very aware of it, we're managing that very closely. And then we also have a national account loss, but we haven't talked about it a lot because it wasn't a strategic loss. It was an unfortunate loss from our Clean Room business last year, and it was a loss that continues to flow through in the first 2 quarters of this year, which also affects that Uniforms number. And again, we haven't talked about it a lot because it's a regrettable loss. It wasn't part of our strategy, but it's just part of the nature of doing business.

我確實提到，我們確實看到企業倒閉有所增加，因為這與我們的中小企業有關。因此，這也會對數字產生影響，因為它與保留對制服數量的影響有關，我們對此非常透明，我們非常清楚這一點，我們正在非常密切地管理這一點。然後我們也有國民帳戶損失，但我們沒有太多談論它，因為這不是戰略損失。這是我們去年無塵室業務的不幸虧損，今年前兩季持續虧損，也影響了製服數量。再說一次，我們沒有太多談論它，因為這是一次令人遺憾的損失。這不是我們策略的一部分，但它只是做生意的本質的一部分。

So we also had, towards that, impacting our growth rate in the Uniform sector in the period, and we will see that loss still impacting us in the second quarter of the year. So to keep that in mind as you're looking at the business because we -- while we regret losses like that, the underlying health of the business is tracking exactly like we want it to track with AE sales up targeting the micro verticals and getting our cross-sells on the workplace supplies. So we feel very good about the underlying health of the business despite some of those factors that are muting Uniforms growth rate.

因此，我們也為此影響了我們在此期間制服行業的成長率，我們將看到這種損失在今年第二季度仍然對我們產生影響。因此，當你在關注這項業務時，請記住這一點，因為我們——雖然我們對這樣的損失感到遺憾，但業務的基本健康狀況正在跟踪，正如我們希望它跟踪的那樣，AE 銷售瞄準了微型垂直市場並獲得我們對工作場所用品進行交叉銷售。因此，儘管有些因素削弱了製服的成長率，但我們對業務的基本健康狀況感到非常滿意。

Very helpful color. And then you mentioned progress with driving new business growth in your new 18 micro verticals. Can you share some additional details on your micro vertical strategy, traction with growth, new examples to provide beyond auto dealerships and perhaps how much new business is coming from your micro verticals?

非常有用的顏色。然後您提到了在新的 18 個微型垂直領域推動新業務成長方面的進展。您能否分享一些關於您的微觀垂直策略、成長牽引力、汽車經銷商之外提供的新範例以及可能有多少新業務來自您的微型垂直市場的更多詳細資訊？

Yes. So they're all in different life cycles. So auto dealer is the one that I've chosen to share publicly. We're not going to talk about the other 7 specifically because we don't want to give away all the hard work we did on our strategy to others, and we think it's competitively sensitive. But I can tell you that we are methodically tracking our go-to-market progress in each of these 8 micro verticals. And the way that we have approached this is they were all in different stages of life. So some are easier to ramp and faster move because we're already aggressively in the vertical, we already have the capability to sell and anybody can sell it, right? So if you're selling to another dealer, it doesn't take a specialized sales person. Any of our account teammates can be equipped with training and collateral and go in and sell to an auto dealer. So that's a vertical that's moving very quickly because we said let's go. We're already doing that very well out of the West Coast, which I think I shared that example with you guys in Analyst Day.

是的。所以它們都處於不同的生命週期。所以汽車經銷商是我選擇公開分享的一個。我們不會具體談論其他 7 個，因為我們不想將我們在策略上所做的所有努力洩露給其他人，而且我們認為這具有競爭敏感性。但我可以告訴你，我們正在有條不紊地追蹤這 8 個微型垂直領域的上市進展。我們處理這個問題的方式是他們都處於不同的人生階段。因此，有些產品更容易發展、行動更快，因為我​​們已經在垂直領域積極進取，我們已經有能力銷售，任何人都可以銷售，對嗎？因此，如果您要向其他經銷商銷售產品，則不需要專門的銷售人員。我們的任何客戶團隊成員都可以配備培訓和抵押品，然後進入並向汽車經銷商出售產品。所以這是一個發展非常迅速的垂直領域，因為我們說讓我們離開。我們在西海岸已經做得很好，我想我在分析師日與大家分享了這個例子。

So that's an example of a targeted micro vertical that we're already penetrating. And I used that example a moment ago when someone asked the question earlier. But we're measuring things in each of these micro verticals, and there are metrics like sales activity. So how much sales activity, meaning how many leads did we have with these customers and how many calls did we do with these customers, last year versus now that we're in the vertical. We're tracking that metric. Auto dealers, as an example, sales activity is up 19%. Then we're looking at, okay, the sales activity is up, are we actually winning any more business. So then we're also measuring total won opportunities before we aggressively focus on this vertical. And now as example, auto dealers is up 2%. So our one opportunity is, how many new business opportunities are we winning is up 2%.

這是我們已經滲透的有針對性的微觀垂直領域的一個例子。剛才有人問這個問題時，我用了這個例子。但我們正在衡量每個微觀垂直領域的事物，並且有銷售活動等指標。那麼，去年與現在我們處於垂直領域的銷售活動有多少，這意味著我們與這些客戶有多少潛在客戶以及我們與這些客戶打了多少通電話。我們正在追蹤該指標。以汽車經銷商為例，銷售活動成長了 19%。然後我們會考慮，好吧，銷售活動增加了，我們是否真的贏得了更多業務。因此，在我們積極關注這一垂直領域之前，我們也會衡量贏得的總機會。以現在為例，汽車經銷商上漲了 2%。所以我們的一個機會是，我們贏得的新商機數量增加了 2%。

Then we're also looking at how much weekly revenue are we getting from this vertical. And are we seeing improvements in the vertical. In Auto dealer in Q1, we have a 47% increase in weekly revenue. So again, another great piece of data that tells us that we are gaining traction in this micro vertical. So these are the kinds of things that we're measuring by vertical. And the life cycle is different depending on the vertical. There are some that are more complex than the go-to-market strategy and the build-out is taking longer. And we'll eventually see the same results in that vertical as we do in Auto dealers as an example.

然後我們也會研究我們從這個垂直領域獲得的每週收入是多少。我們是否看到了垂直領域的改進？在第一季的汽車經銷商中，我們的周收入成長了 47%。再一次，另一個重要的數據告訴我們，我們正在這個微觀垂直領域中獲得牽引力。這些就是我們透過垂直測量的東西。且生命週期根據垂直領域的不同而不同。有些比進入市場策略更複雜，而且建置需要更長的時間。我們最終將在該垂直領域看到與汽車經銷商相同的結果。

And over time, when our mix really shifts, you'll probably see us evolve the actual end market that we talk about, and we'll be segment our revenue, but this is very early days. You're not going to see enough shift in the mix yet for us to kind of change the end markets that we're talking about. But over time, you will learn about these other micro verticals, these more specific targets, and we'll talk about them. But for now, we'll stick with auto dealers just as the example. So I hope that was helpful, George.

隨著時間的推移，當我們的組合真正發生變化時，您可能會看到我們正在發展我們所談論的實際終端市場，並且我們將分割我們的收入，但現在還處於早期階段。您還不會看到足夠的組合變化，因此我們無法改變我們正在談論的終端市場。但隨著時間的推移，您將了解這些其他微觀垂直領域、這些更具體的目標，我們將討論它們。但現在，我們仍以汽車經銷商為例。所以我希望這對你有幫助，喬治。

The next question comes from Michael O'Brien with Wolfe Research.

下一個問題來自沃爾夫研究中心的邁克爾·奧布萊恩。

Two quick ones here. Regarding contract renewal, are you guys seeing any disruptions regarding the separation? Sometimes when you see these new spins come out, you see some issues going on with contract renewals with their existing clients. And then the second question is regarding the margin expansion opportunities. In stranded cost reductions for -- factored into your 2024 guidance?

這裡有兩個快速的。關於續約合同，你們認為分居有任何干擾嗎？有時，當您看到這些新產品推出時，您會發現與現有客戶續約時出現了一些問題。第二個問題是關於利潤率擴張的機會。擱淺的成本削減是否已納入您的 2024 年指導方針？

Michael, thank you for your question. We'll start with contract renewals. We have had, I would say, a seamless transition as it relates to our customer agreements and our relationship with our customers as we've spun out. So the agreements are transferable. They directly moved over to Vestis. We have not had to go out to customers and repaper or renew contracts as part of the spend. So the spend activity itself did not trigger the need to reengage the customer around the contract. We've been very clear with customers and we used talking points at the beginning when we spun out the how your contracts just eventually going to save Vestis on it instead of Aramark Uniform surface. And we have had no friction as it relates to that at all and customers have continued in the current relationship with us with no drama, if I can use that phrase. So no concerns there at all. We feel very good about that.

邁克爾，謝謝你的提問。我們將從續約合約開始。我想說，我們已經實現了無縫過渡，因為這與我們的客戶協議以及我們分拆後與客戶的關係有關。因此，這些協議是可以轉讓的。他們直接轉移到了維斯蒂斯。作為支出的一部分，我們不必去找客戶重新列印或續約合約。因此，支出活動本身並沒有觸發圍繞合約重新吸引客戶的需要。我們對客戶的態度非常明確，我們從一開始就使用了談話要點，當時我們提出了你們的合約最終將如何拯救 Vestis，而不是 Aramark Uniform 表面。如果我可以用這句話的話，我們沒有發生任何與此相關的摩擦，客戶繼續與我們保持當前的關係，沒有發生任何戲劇性的事情。所以根本不用擔心。我們對此感覺非常好。

As it relates to stranded costs, we actually have done an amazing job pre-spin of making sure that we rightsize this business, and you guys might remember that we talked about stripping out about $28 million of that office and billed cost pre-spend so that we could prepare for the ingestion of pubco cost. So we feel really good that we're running a tight operation that we're not sitting on waste other than -- and I won't call this waste, it's just the necessary cost of spinning there is duplication of cost in our system as it relates to paying Aramark for TSA for certain services, while we are ramping up, in particular, our IT team to be prepared to stand alone and support us as it relates to IT infrastructure and cybersecurity. So there's some duplication of costs that will take place kind of in the first year and we've been pretty transparent about that as well.

由於涉及擱淺成本，我們實際上在預旋方面做了出色的工作，確保我們調整了這項業務的規模，你們可能還記得我們討論過剝離該辦公室的約2800 萬美元，並預支帳單成本，以便我們可以為吸收 pubco 成本做好準備。因此，我們感覺非常好，我們正在嚴格運營，我們沒有浪費，除了——我不會稱之為浪費，這只是旋轉的必要成本，我們的系統中存在重複的成本，這涉及到向Aramark 支付TSA某些服務的費用，同時我們正在加強我們的IT 團隊，特別是準備在IT 基礎設施和網路安全方面獨立支援我們。因此，第一年會出現一些重複的成本，我們對此也非常透明。

But otherwise, we were operating quite independently from Aramark. Our business models are completely different. We're running on a separate systems, separate teammates, separate functional structure. So we feel like we're in a really great place and we're operating quite efficiently.

但除此之外，我們的營運完全獨立於愛瑪客。我們的商業模式完全不同。我們在獨立的系統、獨立的隊友、獨立的功能結構上運作。因此，我們感覺我們處於一個非常好的位置，而且我們的營運效率非常高。

We have time for one more question, which comes from Scott Schneeberger with Oppenheimer.

我們還有時間再問一個問題，這個問題由史考特·施內伯格和奧本海默提出。

One for each. Rick, real quick. Just curious, you mentioned DSO tick up, but you mentioned you kind of poke it all the way as it would be a tough year-over-year comp from the onetime event prior. Just curious because we've heard over the course of the call, small business issues in Canada. Just if you could just clarify that it was uniquely the comparison and nothing else is a miss there that we might see in upcoming quarters.

每人一份。瑞克，真快。只是好奇，你提到了 DSO 的上升，但你提到你有點一直在戳它，因為這將是一場艱難的同比比賽，與之前的一次性活動相比。只是好奇，因為我們在通話過程中聽到了加拿大的小型企業問題。只是如果你能澄清一下，這是一個獨特的比較，我們在接下來的幾個季度中可能會看到沒有其他任何遺漏。

And then just one separate one, I'll ask Kim, you mentioned incentives that you use with the field on the cross-sell. I'm curious how fluid been in the use of those incentives? Is that something new? Is that something that's been ongoing? And are there any new initiatives with regard to the field enhancement sales enhancements that you're initiating?

然後只是一個單獨的問題，我會問 Kim，您提到了您在交叉銷售領域使用的激勵措施。我很好奇這些激勵措施的使用有多流暢？這是新事物嗎？這是一直在進行的事情嗎？您正在發起的有關現場增強銷售的新措施有哪些？

Sure. So from a DSO perspective. So my comment spoke to the bad debt expense year-over-year and the majority of what we're seeing in terms of a negative comp is we trued up the bad debt reserve that was on our book last year, and that was a result of carrying higher reserves coming out of COVID to acknowledge the exposure, and we finally trued up the last portion of that in the 2023 first quarter. And so you're seeing -- last year we have some strong favorability in bad debts because we effectively reversed a reserve. This year, to your comment on DSO, we're not seeing a meaningful movement year-over-year in DSO that's driving negative activity. And so that's why we really called out that this is -- although as Kim noted, we do see some of the SMEs going out of business, year-over-year, the big driver for us relative to bad debt is that reserve reversal that actually is a headwind, and we're still delivering margin expansion despite not having that in the current year.

當然。所以從 DSO 的角度來看。因此，我的評論談到了逐年的壞帳費用，我們在負面補償方面看到的大部分內容是我們調整了去年賬簿上的壞賬準備金，這就是結果我們最終在2023 年第一季度調整了最後一部分。所以你會看到，去年我們對壞帳有一些強烈的優惠，因為我們有效地沖銷了準備金。今年，根據您對 DSO 的評論，我們沒有看到 DSO 同比出現有意義的變化，導致負面活動。因此，這就是為什麼我們真正呼籲這一點 - 儘管正如金指出的那樣，我們確實看到一些中小企業逐年倒閉，但相對於壞賬而言，我們的最大推動力是準備金逆轉實際上這是一個逆風，儘管今年沒有實現利潤率擴張，但我們仍在實現利潤率擴張。

Yes. And I would just add to that, we have a very concerted team focus on bad debt down to the market center level. So our teams in coordination with our accounting team and our collections team work very diligently around identifying customers of concern. We have a weekly process where teammates between market centers and collections are on the phone, working through which customers do we need to be engaging with. So I don't like we have a very good handle on managing DSO and bad debt, and we are in a much better place than we were a couple of years ago. I think we've really matured as an organization to collaboratively drive down bad debt with our customers. And to Rick's point, you're really looking at kind of a onetime step change that took place last year. I'm very proud of our team that we're -- that is really -- it is a headwind for us, and we're overcoming that and still driving margin expansion in the quarter, among the pubco cost and many other things that are entering our system. So I think it really been straight to the market, the underlying performance here is very, very strong.

是的。我想補充一點，我們有一個非常協調的團隊，專注於壞帳直至市場中心水平。因此，我們的團隊與會計團隊和收款團隊合作，非常努力地識別關注的客戶。我們每週都有一個流程，市場中心和產品中心之間的團隊成員會透過電話討論我們需要與哪些客戶互動。因此，我不喜歡我們在管理 DSO 和壞帳方面做得很好，而且我們的處境比幾年前要好得多。我認為我們作為一個組織已經非常成熟，可以與客戶合作減少壞帳。就里克的觀點而言，你確實看到了去年發生的一次性步驟變化。我為我們的團隊感到非常自豪，這對我們來說是一個逆風，我們正在克服這一點，並仍在推動本季度的利潤率擴張，其中包括公共成本和許多其他因素正在進入我們的系統。所以我認為它確實直接進入了市場，這裡的基本表現非常非常強勁。

As it relates to your question around incentives for frontline particularly our out service representatives who are doing such a great job selling. We are very pleased with the incentives that we have in place for them. And what we've been doing now is helping them understand what this means to them financially. And so I've mentioned before that we have always had provisions inside our collective bargaining agreements that allows us to pay our teammates commission. Our front-line RSRs commission for selling. What we haven't done well in the past and we're doing well now is actually calculating for them. What that means? So on your route, you have a certain number of customers that have the ability to buy more products and services. And here's what it means to you financially, to you personally as you cross-sell these customers and get the commission and also make your route more valuable.

因為這涉及到您關於第一線人員激勵的問題，特別是我們的銷售代表，他們的銷售工作做得非常出色。我們對為他們提供的激勵措施感到非常滿意。我們現在一直在做的就是幫助他們了解這對他們的財務意味著什麼。所以我之前提到過，我們的集體協商協議中一直都有條款允許我們向隊友支付佣金。我們的一線 RSR 進行銷售佣金。過去我們做得不好而現在做得好的，其實都是在為他們算計。那意味著什麼？因此，在您的路線上，您擁有一定數量的客戶，他們有能力購買更多產品和服務。當您交叉銷售這些客戶並獲得佣金並使您的路線更有價值時，這對您的財務和個人意味著什麼。

So we have worked very diligently now to start putting that information in front of our frontline teammates so that we can motivate and inspire them to sell more so that they can provide more and better for their families. So we think that we're making a real connection now between what the opportunity is for the company and what the opportunity is for the frontline teammates. So we're not actually changing the incentives in the agreement. We're just helping them understand how valuable they can be to them.

因此，我們現在非常努力地工作，開始將這些資訊提供給我們的一線隊友，以便我們能夠激勵和激勵他們銷售更多產品，以便他們為家人提供更多更好的服務。因此，我們認為我們現在正在將公司的機會與第一線隊友的機會建立真正的聯繫。所以我們其實並沒有改變協議中的激勵措施。我們只是幫助他們了解他們對他們來說有多有價值。

We do have also sales contest, which are a ton of fun and very important to this process as well because they inspire and excite and engage our teammates across the field around competing against one another to sell. And there are all kinds of things from prices and dollars to just plain old bragging rights that allow people to get also excited about winning and building that muscle around selling. The other thing that I had mentioned on incentives, which is not related to sales, and it might have been what trip your question is we actually changed our field incentives this year around retention. So as we're getting our teammates focused on the single best way to grow, which is keep the customers you already have, we actually modified some of our management team out in the field, our frontline management team incentives to link their bonus incentives to include retention metrics. And we think that is very important to make sure that we're very focused on the customer experience. So that's where we stand as it relates to incentive, Scott. I hope that was helpful.

我們也有銷售競賽，這非常有趣，對這個過程也非常重要，因為它們激勵、激勵和吸引我們整個領域的隊友相互競爭銷售。從價格和美元到普通的吹牛權利，各種各樣的東西都可以讓人們對獲勝和圍繞銷售建立肌肉感到興奮。我在激勵方面提到的另一件事與銷售無關，你的問題可能是我們今年實際上圍繞保留改變了我們的現場激勵措施。因此，當我們讓我們的團隊成員專注於單一的最佳成長方式時，即保留現有的客戶，我們實際上修改了一些現場管理團隊，我們的第一線管理團隊激勵措施將他們的獎金激勵措施與包括保留指標。我們認為這對於確保我們非常專注於客戶體驗非常重要。這就是我們在激勵方面的立場，史考特。我希望這有幫助。

This concludes the Q&A portion of today's call. I would now like to turn the floor over to Kim Scott, President and CEO, for closing remarks.

今天電話會議的問答部分到此結束。現在我想請總裁兼執行長 Kim Scott 致閉幕詞。

Thank you. I would like to thank everyone for joining today to learn more about Vestis or to hear more about how we're progressing against our strategy. I could not be more pleased with our outstanding teammates and the great work that they are doing to advance this strategy. And we feel so strongly that the value creation opportunity here is simply tremendous. So hopefully, you enjoyed learning more about our progress today, and we look forward to talking with you again after the second quarter. So thanks for joining.

謝謝。我要感謝大家今天加入，以了解有關 Vestis 的更多信息，或了解更多有關我們的戰略進展情況的信息。我對我們出色的隊友以及他們為推進這項策略所做的出色工作感到非常滿意。我們強烈感受到這裡創造價值的機會是巨大的。希望您喜歡更多地了解我們今天的進展，我們期待在第二季後再次與您交談。感謝您的加入。

Thank you. This concludes today's Vestis Corporation Fiscal First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Please disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day.

謝謝。今天的 Vestis 公司 2024 年第一季財報電話會議到此結束。此時請斷開您的線路，祝您有美好的一天。