Valvoline Inc (VVV) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to today's Valvoline Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. My name is [Joquia]. I will be your moderator for today's call. (Operator Instructions)

早上好，女士們，先生們。歡迎來到今天的 Valvoline 2023 年第二季度收益電話會議和網絡直播。我的名字是 [Joquia]。我將擔任今天電話會議的主持人。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Elizabeth Russell. Elizabeth, please go ahead.

我現在想將會議轉交給主持人伊麗莎白羅素。伊麗莎白，請繼續。

Thanks, [Joquia]. Good morning, and welcome to Valvoline's Second Quarter Fiscal 2023 Conference Call and Webcast. This morning, at approximately 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time, Valvoline released results for the second quarter ended March 31, 2023. This presentation should be viewed in conjunction with that earnings release, a copy of which is available on our Investor Relations website at investors.valvoline.com. Please note that these results are preliminary until we file our Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

謝謝，[Joquia]。早上好，歡迎來到勝牌 2023 財年第二季度電話會議和網絡直播。今天早上，東部時間上午 7:00 左右，勝牌發布了截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日的第二季度業績。本演示文稿應與收益發布一起查看，其副本可在我們的投資者關係網站 investors 上獲取.valvoline.com。請注意，在我們向證券交易委員會提交 10-Q 表格之前，這些結果是初步的。

On this morning's call is Sam Mitchell, our CEO; and Lori Flees, our President of Regional Services; and Mary Meixelsperger, our CFO.

今天上午的電話會議是我們的首席執行官 Sam Mitchell；和我們的區域服務總裁 Lori Flees；和我們的首席財務官 Mary Meixelsperger。

As shown on Slide 2, any of our remarks today that are not statements of historical facts are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current assumptions as of the date of this presentation and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. Valvoline assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements unless required by law. In this presentation and in our remarks, we will be discussing our results on an adjusted non-GAAP basis, unless otherwise noted.

如幻燈片 2 所示，我們今天發表的任何不屬於歷史事實陳述的言論都是前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述基於截至本演示文稿之日的當前假設，並受某些風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與此類陳述存在重大差異。除非法律要求，勝牌不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務。在本演示文稿和我們的評論中，除非另有說明，否則我們將在調整後的非 GAAP 基礎上討論我們的結果。

Non-GAAP results are adjusted for key items, which are unusual, nonoperational or restructuring in nature. We believe this approach enhances the understanding of our ongoing business. A reconciliation of our adjusted non-GAAP results to amounts reported under GAAP and a discussion of management's use of non-GAAP and key business measures is included in the presentation appendix. The information provided is used by our management and may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies. As a reminder, the Retail Services business represents the company's continuing operations, and the former Global Products segment is classified as discontinued operations for the purposes of GAAP reporting.

非 GAAP 業績針對不尋常、非經營性或重組性質的關鍵項目進行了調整。我們相信這種方法可以增強對我們正在進行的業務的理解。我們調整後的非 GAAP 結果與根據 GAAP 報告的金額的對賬以及對管理層使用非 GAAP 和關鍵業務措施的討論包含在演示文稿附錄中。所提供的信息由我們的管理層使用，可能無法與其他公司使用的類似措施相比較。提醒一下，零售服務業務代表公司的持續經營，而前全球產品部門在 GAAP 報告中被歸類為非持續經營業務。

On Slide 3, you'll see the agenda for today's call. We'll begin by discussing the closing of the sale of Global Products that we announced on March 1, along with an update on the return of proceeds planned. We will then talk about our second quarter highlights, share operational insights and end with a review of our second quarter results.

在幻燈片 3 上，您會看到今天電話會議的議程。我們將首先討論我們在 3 月 1 日宣布的全球產品銷售結束，以及計劃收益返還的最新情況。然後，我們將討論我們第二季度的亮點，分享運營見解，最後回顧我們的第二季度業績。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Sam.

現在我想把電話轉給山姆。

Thanks, Elizabeth, and thank you all for joining us today. As we announced on March 1, the sale of the Global Products business is now complete. Our teams have done an excellent job completing the transaction, while remaining focused on delivering a strong Q2. Total cash purchase price for the sale was $2.65 billion with approximately $2.38 billion of net proceeds after taxes and other transaction expenses. In Q4, we announced the Board had authorized a $1.6 billion share repurchase. Through April, we have returned $336 million through open market share repurchases this fiscal year, with just over $200 million of that coming from the current authorization. After a thoughtful consideration, management and our Board of Directors concluded that a modified Dutch auction tender would allow us to most efficiently and expeditiously return the sale proceeds to our shareholders. We expect to proceed with a tender offer of up to $1 billion, subject to market conditions.

謝謝，伊麗莎白，感謝大家今天加入我們。正如我們在 3 月 1 日宣布的那樣，全球產品業務的出售現已完成。我們的團隊出色地完成了交易，同時繼續專注於交付強勁的第二季度。出售的總現金購買價格為 26.5 億美元，稅後和其他交易費用後的淨收益約為 23.8 億美元。在第四季度，我們宣布董事會已批准 16 億美元的股票回購。截至 4 月，我們在本財年通過公開市場份額回購返還了 3.36 億美元，其中剛剛超過 2 億美元來自當前授權。經過深思熟慮，管理層和我們的董事會得出結論，修改後的荷蘭式拍賣招標將使我們能夠最有效、最迅速地將銷售收益返還給我們的股東。我們預計將根據市場情況進行高達 10 億美元的收購要約。

We are excited to focus on driving growth and increasing value of the new Valvoline. The new Valvoline is a pure-play automotive retail business that is high growth, high margin, and with a high return on invested capital. The new Valvoline is primed to deliver long-term value to our shareholders through our best-in-class retail platform. We are focused on growing system-wide store sales, increasing units through both company-operated and franchised additions and evolving the service portfolio over time. This algorithm has a long runway to take us into the future.

我們很高興專注於推動新 Valvoline 的增長和增加價值。新的勝牌是一家純汽車零售業務，具有高增長、高利潤和高投資資本回報率的特點。新的勝牌將通過我們一流的零售平台為我們的股東創造長期價值。我們專注於增加全系統商店的銷售額，通過公司經營和特許經營增加單位，並隨著時間的推移發展服務組合。該算法有很長的路要走，可以帶我們進入未來。

Turning to Slide 8. Let's take a look at some key highlights from the quarter. The top line growth continues to be strong with almost $660 million in system-wide store sales for the quarter, which is an increase of 18.5% compared to prior year. For same-store sales, we continue to see consistent growth across our network with an overall growth of 13.5%. As we expected, we saw improved profit performance in Q2 with a 25.5% increase in adjusted EBITDA over prior year and a 19% increase over Q1. This comes on adjusted revenue growth of 19% over prior year and 4% over Q1. Additionally, we continue to be on track for unit additions with 19 company-operated and 16 franchise locations added this quarter, bringing our total store count to 1,781.

轉到幻燈片 8。讓我們看一下本季度的一些主要亮點。營收增長繼續強勁，本季度全系統門店銷售額接近 6.6 億美元，比去年同期增長 18.5%。對於同店銷售額，我們繼續看到我們整個網絡的持續增長，整體增長 13.5%。正如我們預期的那樣，我們看到第二季度的利潤表現有所改善，調整後的 EBITDA 比上年增長 25.5%，比第一季度增長 19%。這是由於調整後的收入比上年增長 19%，比第一季度增長 4%。此外，我們繼續按計劃增加單位，本季度增加了 19 個公司經營的地點和 16 個特許經營地點，使我們的商店總數達到 1,781 家。

Slide 9 provides a look at our growth over recent years. We have seen substantial growth across key metrics, including store count, same-store sales growth, system-wide sales and EBITDA. We continue to see resiliency and strength in the demand for the quick, easy and trusted preventive maintenance service we provide to our customers. We have a great track record of growth, and that will continue in fiscal year 2023.

幻燈片 9 展示了我們近年來的發展情況。我們已經看到關鍵指標的大幅增長，包括門店數量、同店銷售額增長、全系統銷售額和 EBITDA。我們繼續看到對我們為客戶提供的快速、簡單和值得信賴的預防性維護服務的需求的彈性和強度。我們擁有良好的增長記錄，並將在 2023 財年繼續保持增長。

Now I'll turn it over to Lori to look at more details of our Q2 results and share some operational insights.

現在我將把它交給 Lori 查看我們第二季度結果的更多細節並分享一些運營見解。

Thanks, Sam. As Sam said, consumer demand is strong for our quick, easy, trusted service. Our VIOC customer base has nearly doubled over the last 5 years growing at a 12% compound annual growth rate. This is driven in part by additional units, but a significant component is from the growth of our same stores. In Q2, our system-wide same-store sales growth was 13.5%. Our same-store sales growth is consistent across company-operated and franchise locations. This balanced growth is a direct result of the partnerships we have with our franchisees and the strength of our SuperPro process, which enables a consistent delivery of a high-quality customer experience.

謝謝，山姆。正如 Sam 所說，消費者對我們快速、簡單、值得信賴的服務的需求非常強烈。我們的 VIOC 客戶群在過去 5 年中以 12% 的複合年增長率增長了近一倍。這部分是由額外的單位推動的，但一個重要的組成部分是來自我們相同商店的增長。第二季度，我們的全系統同店銷售增長為 13.5%。我們的同店銷售額增長在公司經營和特許經營地點是一致的。這種平衡的增長是我們與特許經營商建立合作夥伴關係的直接結果，也是我們 SuperPro 流程優勢的直接結果，它能夠始終如一地提供高質量的客戶體驗。

We're pleased with the drivers of Q2 same-store sales. Approximately 30% of the Q2 same-store sales increase was driven by transactions. On ticket, we're continuing to see the benefit of lapping prior pricing actions taken during fiscal year 2022, and we remain confident in our ongoing pricing power. We continuously monitor pricing and take actions to optimize it across geographies. Additionally, our non-oil-change service penetration continues to improve and drive further ticket growth. With the continued customer base growth, our ongoing pricing power and the tailwind from premiumization and non-oil-change revenue service penetration, we remain confident in both our fiscal '23 and long-term same-store sales growth targets.

我們對第二季度同店銷售的推動因素感到滿意。第二季度約 30% 的同店銷售額增長是由交易推動的。在票務上，我們將繼續看到在 2022 財年採取先前定價行動的好處，並且我們對我們持續的定價能力仍然充滿信心。我們持續監控定價並採取行動跨地區優化定價。此外，我們的非換油服務滲透率繼續提高，並進一步推動票價增長。隨著客戶群的持續增長、我們持續的定價能力以及優質化和非換油收入服務滲透的順風，我們對我們的 23 財年和長期同店銷售增長目標充滿信心。

Turning to Slide 12. As expected, we saw EBITDA margin improvement both sequentially and year-over-year. The sequential quarter-over-quarter improvement in EBITDA margins of 330 basis points was driven by increased volume and improved cost leverage with higher utilization of our stores and lower G&A expense. The year-over-year improvement in EBITDA margins of 130 basis points demonstrates the recovery of our margins through the pricing actions taken in the last 12 months as well as continued transaction growth. Our stores are well staffed to gear up for the summer drive season, and we continue to anticipate a full year EBITDA margin of 25.5% to 26.5%.

轉到幻燈片 12。正如預期的那樣，我們看到 EBITDA 利潤率環比和同比都有所提高。 EBITDA 利潤率環比提高 330 個基點，這是由於銷量增加和成本槓桿提高以及我們商店利用率提高和 G&A 費用降低所致。 EBITDA 利潤率同比提高 130 個基點，表明我們的利潤率通過過去 12 個月採取的定價行動以及持續的交易增長而恢復。我們的商店配備了充足的人員以迎接夏季駕車季，我們繼續預計全年 EBITDA 利潤率為 25.5% 至 26.5%。

Our EBITDA performance is underpinned by the growth of our mature stores, as shown on Page 13. We continue to see solid leverage and growth in our mature store group. Since fiscal year 2019, our most mature stores have continued to grow top line at a 10.1% compound annual growth rate, while delivering an even higher EBITDA CAGR of 11.5%. The top line growth of the mature stores have similar drivers as our overall performance with growth in transactions, pricing and non-oil-change revenue penetration. Our continued growth, along with the focus on ongoing operational efficiencies will enable us to continue to drive leverage and improve our mature store EBITDA.

如第 13 頁所示，我們的 EBITDA 業績受到成熟商店增長的支撐。我們繼續看到成熟商店集團的穩固槓桿和增長。自 2019 財年以來，我們最成熟的門店的收入繼續以 10.1% 的複合年增長率增長，同時實現了更高的 11.5% 的 EBITDA 複合年增長率。成熟商店的收入增長與我們的整體業績有相似的驅動因素，包括交易、定價和非換油收入滲透率的增長。我們的持續增長以及對持續運營效率的關注將使我們能夠繼續推動槓桿作用並改善我們成熟商店的 EBITDA。

Let's take a look at the impact of our new stores on Slide 14. New stores are an important part of our long-term growth algorithm. Today, only 35% of vehicle owners live within 10 minutes of a Valvoline Service Center. New units enable us to broaden access to our proposition. Typically, our ground-up stores ramp to the revenue of a mature store performance in years 3 through 5. Recently, our new store ramps have outperformed early expectations in both speed and size of the ramp. New acquisition stores typically have a faster ramp to maturity, but the size of the ramp is generally less than that of a ground up. As all our new units mature, we expect to see at least $70 million of incremental EBITDA. While we continue to focus on ways to improve returns by driving down investment costs and improving performance, the strength of the consumer demand, along with our highly predictive real estate modeling gives us confidence in our ability to drive return on invested capital through new franchise and company units.

讓我們看看我們的新店對幻燈片 14 的影響。新店是我們長期增長算法的重要組成部分。如今，只有 35% 的車主住在 Valvoline 服務中心的 10 分鐘車程範圍內。新單位使我們能夠擴大對我們命題的訪問。通常，我們的新店在第 3 年到第 5 年的收入會增加到成熟商店的業績。最近，我們的新店坡道在坡道的速度和規模上都超出了早期的預期。新收購的商店通常有更快的成熟度，但漸進的規模通常小於全新的。隨著我們所有新部門的成熟，我們預計將看到至少 7000 萬美元的增量 EBITDA。雖然我們繼續關注通過降低投資成本和提高績效來提高回報的方法，但消費者需求的強度以及我們具有高度預測性的房地產模型使我們相信我們有能力通過新的特許經營權和公司單位。

Now I'll turn it over to Mary to discuss our Q2 financial results.

現在我將把它交給瑪麗來討論我們第二季度的財務業績。

Thank you, Lori. The sale of Global Products is an important milestone for Valvoline. As Sam shared, Valvoline is now solely a retail automotive services business focused on preventative maintenance with nearly 1,800 stores across the U.S. and Canada. Accordingly, as of April 28, our GICS classification code has been updated to the automotive retail industry within the consumer discretionary sector. We will no longer be within the chemicals commodity sector. In addition to the change in industry classification, I want to highlight a few of the large financial impacts recorded during the quarter as a result of the transaction.

謝謝你，洛瑞。全球產品的銷售是勝牌的一個重要里程碑。正如 Sam 分享的那樣，Valvoline 現在只是一家專注於預防性維護的零售汽車服務企業，在美國和加拿大擁有近 1,800 家商店。因此，截至 4 月 28 日，我們的 GICS 分類代碼已更新到非必需消費品行業的汽車零售行業。我們將不再屬於化學品商品部門。除了行業分類的變化外，我還想強調本季度因交易而產生的一些重大財務影響。

The sale of Global Products generated $2.38 billion of net proceeds after taxes and other transaction expenses. We also recognized an after-tax book gain of $1.2 billion. With the proceeds of the sale of Global Products business in hand, our cash position is very strong with a cash and cash equivalents balance of $2.3 billion at the end of the quarter. Additionally, the proceeds received from the sale are being invested in liquid assets. Our investment philosophy for the proceeds, it's safety and liquidity first than yield. Through March 31, we have earned $8.3 million of interest income related to the investment of the sale proceeds. With the tender offer, we anticipate to return up to $1 billion of the after-tax proceeds from the sale in addition to the $336 million already returned through share repurchases through April 30. Another $300 million to $400 million of the proceeds will be used for the tax payment related to the gain on sale followed by an additional $600 million for debt repayment.

全球產品的銷售產生了 23.8 億美元的稅後和其他交易費用後的淨收益。我們還確認了 12 億美元的稅後帳面收益。憑藉出售全球產品業務的收益，我們的現金狀況非常強勁，本季度末現金和現金等價物餘額為 23 億美元。此外，出售所得款項將投資於流動資產。我們對收益的投資理念是安全和流動性高於收益。截至 3 月 31 日，我們已經獲得了 830 萬美元的與銷售收益投資相關的利息收入。通過要約收購，除了截至 4 月 30 日已通過股票回購返還的 3.36 億美元之外，我們預計還將返還高達 10 億美元的出售稅後收益。另外 3 億至 4 億美元的收益將用於與銷售收益相關的稅款以及額外的 6 億美元用於償還債務。

Our Q2 results are summarized on Slide 17. Adjusted EBITDA improved 25.5% to just over $87 million for the quarter. This is in line with our historical first half results. Gross profit improvements were driven by increased transactions and higher average ticket from pricing actions and non-oil-change service penetration as well as unit growth. SG&A investments increased by $4.8 million from the prior year, primarily related to investments in advertising, process improvements and talent to support our future growth. While SG&A dollars increased modestly, we saw improved SG&A leverage driven by the increased sales volume.

我們的第二季度業績總結在幻燈片 17 中。調整後的 EBITDA 本季度增長 25.5%，略高於 8700 萬美元。這符合我們上半年的歷史業績。毛利潤的改善是由交易量增加、定價行為帶來的更高平均票價、非換油服務滲透率以及單位增長推動的。 SG&A 投資比上一年增加了 480 萬美元，主要與支持我們未來增長的廣告、流程改進和人才投資有關。雖然 SG&A 美元略有增加，但我們看到銷售量增加推動了 SG&A 槓桿率的提高。

Now I'll turn it back over to Sam.

現在我將把它轉回給 Sam。

Thanks, Mary. We are pleased with our Q2 results, and remain on track for a strong fiscal '23 performance. The completion of the sale of Global Products was an important milestone for Valvoline. As we have said, we plan to continue returning proceeds to shareholders and expect to initiate a tender offer for up to $1 billion of our common stock. Our team is doing tremendous work, and we are excited to focus on the new Valvoline as we continue to drive value for our shareholders.

謝謝，瑪麗。我們對第二季度的業績感到滿意，並繼續保持強勁的 23 財年業績。全球產品銷售的完成對勝牌來說是一個重要的里程碑。正如我們所說，我們計劃繼續將收益返還給股東，並預計將對我們的普通股發起要約收購，收購金額高達 10 億美元。我們的團隊正在做大量工作，我們很高興能夠專注於新的勝牌，因為我們將繼續為股東創造價值。

Now I'll turn the call back to Elizabeth to open the line for Q&A.

現在，我將把電話轉回給伊麗莎白，以打開問答熱線。

Thanks, Sam. (Operator Instructions) With that, [Joquia], please open the line.

謝謝，山姆。 （操作員說明）有了這個，[Joquia]，請打開線路。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

The first question comes from the line of Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley.

第一個問題來自 Simeon Gutman 與摩根士丹利的對話。

It's Simeon. I want to ask, Sam, about company versus franchised growth over time. Curious if it's a part of the strategy or a target that you are going to identify? Or are you going to keep it open ended and see how the business evolves over time?

是西蒙。山姆，我想問一下關於公司與特許經營權隨時間增長的問題。想知道它是戰略的一部分還是您要確定的目標？還是您打算保持開放式並觀察業務隨著時間的推移如何發展？

Yes. Simeon, as we communicated last fall that we have an aggressive growth target to grow the network to 3,500 stores. And we expect both company and franchise stores to be part of that to achieve that. But we have an especially strong focus on accelerating our franchisee growth. And so that includes working with our current partners in accelerating their growth plans. We're making good progress there. But we also expect to attract new partners to help us accelerate growth in certain markets. So while we haven't set a specific target for that mix, we do expect that the franchise growth will accelerate to a point where it will exceed the company store growth on an annual basis, but this is a long-term plan that we'll be working on over the next 5 years.

是的。 Simeon，正如我們去年秋天傳達的那樣，我們有一個雄心勃勃的增長目標，將網絡擴展到 3,500 家商店。我們希望公司和特許經營店都能成為實現這一目標的一部分。但我們特別重視加速加盟商的增長。因此，這包括與我們目前的合作夥伴合作，加速他們的增長計劃。我們在那裡取得了很好的進展。但我們也希望吸引新的合作夥伴來幫助我們加速某些市場的增長。因此，雖然我們沒有為這種組合設定具體目標，但我們確實預計特許經營增長將加速到每年超過公司門店增長的程度，但這是我們的長期計劃將在未來 5 年內繼續努力。

Okay. That's helpful. The follow-up is on transactions. I think you gave us, I think, 70% price; 30%, I think, you said transactions. I don't know if you use the same terminology last quarter. If you can just talk about how transactions trended? And if weather played any role at all in that number and how the consumer is feeling based on a transaction basis, I'm not sure that's even a gauge because price is healthy and the top line is healthy, but curious if there's anything to read under at transaction level.

好的。這很有幫助。後續是交易。我想你們給了我們 70% 的價格； 30%，我想，你說的是交易。我不知道你上個季度是否使用相同的術語。如果您能談談交易趨勢如何？如果天氣在這個數字中發揮了任何作用，以及消費者在交易基礎上的感受，我不確定這是否是一個衡量標準，因為價格是健康的，頂線是健康的，但好奇是否有什麼可讀的在事務級別下。

Simeon, this is Lori. I'll go ahead and answer that question. We saw weather at the end of Q1, which actually pushed a little bit of volume in January. But overall, we had transaction growth in every month. We are lapping significant price changes or increases that we made in fiscal year 2022. So that will be the bulk, and we made those changes in Q3 of last year. So you'll see the ticket component of growth, that lapping finish. But the transaction growth was very strong. There was -- there's pockets of weather that shifted things around within months, a little bit between months, but overall, we saw transaction -- good transaction growth across all regions and across all months.

西蒙，這是洛瑞。我會繼續回答這個問題。我們在第一季度末看到了天氣，這實際上在 1 月份推動了一點交易量。但總的來說，我們每個月的交易量都有增長。我們正在考慮在 2022 財年做出的重大價格變化或上漲。所以這將是大部分，我們在去年第三季度做出了這些變化。所以你會看到增長的門票組成部分，即研磨完成。但交易增長非常強勁。有一些天氣在幾個月內發生了一些變化，幾個月之間發生了一點變化，但總的來說，我們看到了交易——所有地區和所有月份的交易都出現了良好的增長。

I would add to that, Simeon, that we're really pleased with Q2 transaction growth. With the pricing increases that we have been passing through, we had seen a larger portion of our comp being sourced from ticket versus transactions. And we thought that seeing the transaction growth in Q2 at close to 30% of the total comp was really encouraging, and we're really pleased with what we're seeing and customer retention and new customer acquisition.

Simeon，我要補充一點，我們對第二季度的交易增長非常滿意。隨著我們經歷的價格上漲，我們看到我們的補償中有很大一部分來自機票而不是交易。我們認為看到第二季度的交易增長接近總收入的 30% 確實令人鼓舞，我們對我們所看到的以及客戶保留和新客戶獲取感到非常滿意。

The next question comes from the line of Steven Zaccone with Citi.

下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Steven Zaccone。

I wanted to follow up on Simeon's question, just talking about same-store sales. So the first half, clearly above the full year guidance range. Can you talk a little bit more detail about the second half expectations just because it moderates on a 1-year basis? That commentary about ticket versus transaction, how should we expect the balance to be between ticket and transaction in that second half same-store sales?

我想跟進 Simeon 的問題，只談同店銷售。所以上半年，明顯高於全年指導範圍。你能否更詳細地談談下半年的預期，因為它在 1 年的基礎上有所緩和？關於門票與交易的評論，我們應該如何預期下半年同店銷售中門票與交易之間的平衡？

Sure. Steve, this is Mary. We did take some pretty aggressive price increases last year that primarily impacted the second half of the year. So we are expecting to see that we'll be lapping that in Q3 and Q4. In that lapping of price, those price changes will drive some of the moderation in comp in the back half versus what we saw in the front half. We expect over time -- over the long term time to see balance between price ticket and transactions. And we believe that we'll start seeing more of that balance in the back half of the year in terms of our overall comp store sales as we're looking forward. But again, we expect to see more balance over time as we're balancing through some of these pricing actions that we took in the latter part of last year.

當然。史蒂夫，這是瑪麗。去年我們確實採取了一些相當激進的價格上漲，這主要影響了下半年。所以我們期待看到我們將在第三季度和第四季度實現這一目標。在價格的重疊中，這些價格變化將推動後半部分的補償與我們在前半部分看到的相比有所緩和。我們預計隨著時間的推移——從長期來看，價格票和交易之間會出現平衡。我們相信，正如我們所期待的那樣，我們將在今年下半年開始看到我們整體商店銷售額的平衡。但同樣，我們希望隨著時間的推移看到更多的平衡，因為我們正在通過去年下半年採取的一些定價行動進行平衡。

I think the good news is, is that we're continuing to see the strength from the consumer. The back half of the year, we do higher volume in our stores as we think about the summer drive season. And so the trends that we're seeing in the business are really solid, both in terms of the transactions, the share growth that we're seeing and then the strength in the ticket. As we've talked about at the beginning of the year, we got a strong focus on added services, and we continue to see good performance from our team and effectively presenting and executing those services.

我認為好消息是，我們將繼續看到消費者的力量。今年下半年，考慮到夏季駕車季，我們的門店銷量增加。因此，我們在業務中看到的趨勢非常穩固，無論是在交易方面，還是在我們看到的份額增長方面，以及門票的實力方面。正如我們在年初談到的那樣，我們非常關注附加服務，我們繼續看到我們團隊的良好表現，並有效地展示和執行這些服務。

Yes. I'm sorry. I'll add on. When we say 30% is transaction and 70% is ticket, that ticket increase is not all price. There is a component of price in there, but there's also continued tailwinds for premiumization as well as our non-oil-change revenue service penetration. And those latter 2 points will continue through this year. We've made significant investments in training and process as well as ensuring we have the right equipment that is working in every store, and our team is trained to use it. So we believe strongly that the ticket part of the growth will continue. It's just the piece that is -- the price lap will subside. And when you look at our guidance for FY '23, we definitely will be within guidance, and so you can sort of see that, that will moderate as Mary had said.

是的。對不起。我會補充的。當我們說 30% 是交易而 70% 是票時，票的增加並不全是價格。那裡有價格的組成部分，但也有持續的推動優質化以及我們的非換油收入服務滲透率。後兩點將持續到今年。我們在培訓和流程方面進行了大量投資，並確保我們擁有適用於每家商店的正確設備，並且我們的團隊接受過使用這些設備的培訓。因此，我們堅信增長的門票部分將繼續。這只是一塊 - 價格圈將會消退。當您查看我們對 23 財年的指導時，我們肯定會在指導範圍內，因此您可以看到，正如瑪麗所說，這將有所緩和。

Great. Then the follow-up I had is just about the margin improvement in the second half of the year because clearly, good execution here in the second quarter. I know you don't guide to gross margin versus SG&A, but can you just help us think through some of the building blocks, like should the back half of the year follows a similar pattern with more SG&A leverage, driving the EBITDA margin improvement.

偉大的。然後我的後續行動就是關於今年下半年利潤率的提高，因為很明顯，第二季度這裡的執行情況良好。我知道你沒有指導毛利率與 SG&A 的對比，但你能否幫助我們思考一些構建模塊，比如今年下半年是否應該遵循類似的模式，增加 SG&A 的槓桿率，從而推動 EBITDA 利潤率的提高。

Yes. Steve, you should -- we will definitely see margin benefits in the back half of the year from both SG&A leverage as well as from just gross margin leverage in -- as we see higher volumes in the back half of the year and then the full benefit of the pricing and some of the other adjustments that we've made in terms of the gross profit. So when Lori talked about our full year guidance around our EBITDA margin in the 25.5% to 26.5% for the full year, you can kind of back into what the back half needs to be to be able to -- for us to get there. And we think we're going to see really strong margin improvement sequentially as well as year-over-year in that back half period. Lori, is there anything you'd add to that?

是的。史蒂夫，你應該——我們肯定會在今年下半年看到 SG&A 槓桿以及毛利率槓桿帶來的利潤收益——因為我們看到今年下半年的銷量增加，然後是整個定價的好處以及我們在毛利方面所做的一些其他調整。因此，當 Lori 談到我們全年的 EBITDA 利潤率在 25.5% 到 26.5% 之間的全年指導時，你可以回到後半部分需要能夠達到的目標——我們才能實現這一目標。而且我們認為，在後半段期間，我們將看到連續和同比的真正強勁的利潤率改善。 Lori，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

No, I agree. And we've made some investments from a technology standpoint, for example, in store scheduling, we'll be rolling out the second wave of that in -- later this year. But those things just help us ensure that labor is scheduled to meet the demand, but we don't overspend on labor. That helps us from a gross profit perspective. And then on the SG&A, we always get leverage on the basic expenses of upgrading our stores when more volume comes in. So we always see leverage increasing quarter-over-quarter as volumes go up.

不，我同意。我們已經從技術角度進行了一些投資，例如，在商店調度方面，我們將在今年晚些時候推出第二波投資。但那些事情只是幫助我們確保安排勞動力來滿足需求，但我們不會在勞動力上超支。從毛利潤的角度來看，這對我們有幫助。然後在 SG&A 上，當更多的交易量進來時，我們總是可以利用升級商店的基本費用。因此，隨著交易量的增加，我們總是看到槓桿率逐季增加。

The next question comes from the line of Mike Harrison with Seaport Research Partners.

下一個問題來自邁克·哈里森與 Seaport Research Partners 的合作。

I wanted to ask a little bit about what you're seeing on raw material costs. It looks like base oil came down again kind of early mid-April. That flow through on your gross margin should be a positive for your company-owned stores. But I was wondering if you can help us understand the timing on how that flows through to franchisees and how that franchisee impact of lower raw material costs will affect your gross margins?

我想問一下您對原材料成本的看法。看起來基礎油在 4 月初中旬再次下跌。毛利率的增加對公司自有商店應該是有利的。但我想知道您是否可以幫助我們了解它如何流向特許經營商的時間以及較低原材料成本對特許經營商的影響將如何影響您的毛利率？

Sure, Mike. I'll take it and talk about the company store side, and maybe Lori can jump in on the franchise side. From a company store perspective, we are just starting to see some flow through on lower base oil costs. Unfortunately, we're seeing some pressure on the pricing we're getting for used oil. As you probably recall, we sell all of our used oil, and that's always been kind of a natural partial hedge to the product cost changes, but there's been a lot of softness in the base oil market overall that's causing some of that -- those base oil costs to come down.

當然，邁克。我會接受它並談談公司商店方面，也許 Lori 可以加入特許經營方面。從公司商店的角度來看，我們才剛剛開始看到基礎油成本降低帶來的一些影響。不幸的是，我們看到舊油的定價存在一些壓力。你可能還記得，我們出售所有用過的油，這一直是對產品成本變化的一種自然的部分對沖，但整體基礎油市場的疲軟導致了其中的一些——那些基礎油成本下降。

And as a result, we're starting to see some pressure on the reclaimed oil value that we're getting in the marketplace as well. But I do expect back half, we'll see some modest benefits there. I'm not expecting that we'll see anything -- I certainly think it's well within what we've been guiding to in terms of the business. On the franchise side, Lori, do you want to speak to the franchise pass-through?

結果，我們開始看到我們在市場上獲得的再生油價值也面臨一些壓力。但我確實希望後半部分，我們會在那裡看到一些適度的好處。我不指望我們會看到任何東西——我當然認為這完全符合我們在業務方面的指導方針。在特許經營權方面，Lori，你想談談特許經營權傳遞嗎？

Yes. On the franchise pass-through, we have a contractual agreement around certain thresholds of how quickly we pass those through. Because of the used oil pricing decline as the base oils are coming down, we're working with our franchise partners to pass that through fairly quickly as we start to realize it. We do have pockets where delivery fees are continuing to be higher just as our distributor partners struggle to keep staffed. And so we're still managing the overall cost portfolio pretty tightly, both on behalf of our company stores and on behalf of franchisees. But I wouldn't expect us to have a negative or positive impact on the base oil within our financials. Our intent is to pass on the benefit to the franchisees as soon as we realize it.

是的。在特許經營權傳遞方面，我們就我們傳遞這些權利的速度的某些閾值達成了合同協議。由於基礎油價格下降導致廢油價格下降，我們正在與我們的特許經營合作夥伴合作，以便在我們開始意識到這一點時迅速通過。就在我們的分銷商合作夥伴努力保持人員配備時，我們確實有一些運費繼續上漲的地方。因此，我們仍然非常嚴格地管理整體成本組合，既代表我們公司的商店，也代表特許經營商。但我不希望我們對我們財務中的基礎油產生負面或正面影響。我們的意圖是在我們意識到這一點後儘快將利益傳遞給加盟商。

All right. Perfect. And then just curious, you have this slide that shows the growth in your customer base. Can you maybe talk a little bit more about where these new customers are coming from? I'm curious if you're still benefiting from some of the dealerships out there that may be struggling with labor constraints and with service times having to be planned out, maybe weeks in advance.

好的。完美的。然後只是好奇，你有這張幻燈片顯示你的客戶群的增長。您能否多談談這些新客戶的來源？我很好奇您是否仍然從那裡的一些經銷店中受益，這些經銷店可能正在為勞動力限制和服務時間而苦苦掙扎，可能需要提前幾週計劃。

Yes. That's a great question. We continue to source new customers both from independents and other service providers as well as dealerships. When we look at our customer vehicles served per day, about 67% of them -- about 2/3 of them are customers that we've seen in the past year. And about 20% of them are new and the rest are customers that we've seen -- we just haven't seen them within the last 12 months.

是的。這是一個很好的問題。我們繼續從獨立和其他服務提供商以及經銷商那裡尋找新客戶。當我們查看每天服務的客戶車輛時，其中約 67%——其中約 2/3 是我們在過去一年中見過的客戶。其中大約 20% 是新客戶，其餘是我們見過的客戶——我們只是在過去 12 個月內沒有見過他們。

And when we look at those new customers, 40% of them, which is roughly the population that still goes to the dealership, are coming from -- their last oil change was provided by the dealership. And that remains fairly consistent as we work through this year. So -- and those customers, once they have the quick, very easy, very transparent service. It's a very strong relationship, and we're really happy with the retention of those customers.

當我們查看這些新客戶時，他們中有 40% 的人（大致是仍在去經銷商處的人口）來自——他們最後一次換油是由經銷商提供的。在我們今年的工作中，這仍然相當一致。所以 - 那些客戶，一旦他們擁有快速、非常簡單、非常透明的服務。這是一種非常牢固的關係，我們對保留這些客戶感到非常高興。

The next question comes from the line of Laurence Alexander with Jefferies.

下一個問題來自 Laurence Alexander 與 Jefferies 的對話。

This is Dan Rizzo in for Laurence. When you talk about non-oil change services, is there a particular service that you guys focus on that have some sort of advantage versus some competitors?

這是勞倫斯的丹·里佐 (Dan Rizzo)。當您談論非換油服務時，是否有你們關注的特定服務與某些競爭對手相比具有某種優勢？

Yes, it's a great question. The one thing that we have to focus on is items of safety, and those are things like lights and windshield wipers, and cabin air filters. So they are the basics, which I think most good quick lube providers are offering. That -- those -- the items do not actually take much time and they provide significant convenience to our customers. But there are certain times of year when we do have a pickup in other services that I think differentiate us from other quick lubes. For example, we've seen a pickup during this time as we always do on air conditioning recharge. In the colder months, we see an increase in the battery replacement. And we charge -- we test every battery that we can that comes into our service centers, and give the customers a report, and that builds confidence such that when their battery moves to a health indicator of red or yellow, it becomes a much easier conversation on having Valvoline replace it. So what I would say is we do a lot of the OEM preventative maintenance services that a customer could get at a dealership, we do that at 25% to 40% cheaper than a dealership, which is highly attractive, and it's a very quick service. People don't have to leave their car with us. They drive in and we can do those services relatively quickly, and they can save money. So those are the things that differentiate us, are more of the OEM services, the battery replacement, AC recharge. And some of those things are seasonal.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。我們必須關注的一件事是安全項目，比如燈、擋風玻璃刮水器和機艙空氣過濾器。所以它們是基礎知識，我認為大多數優秀的快速潤滑油供應商都提供。那個 - 那些 - 這些物品實際上並不需要太多時間，它們為我們的客戶提供了極大的便利。但是一年中的某些時候我們確實會提供其他服務，我認為這使我們有別於其他快速潤滑劑。例如，我們在這段時間看到了皮卡，就像我們在空調充電時所做的那樣。在較冷的月份，我們看到更換電池的次數有所增加。我們會充電——我們會測試進入我們服務中心的每一塊電池，並向客戶提供一份報告，這會建立信心，這樣當他們的電池變為紅色或黃色的健康指示器時，它就會變得更容易關於讓 Valvoline 替換它的談話。所以我想說的是，我們提供了很多客戶可以在經銷商處獲得的 OEM 預防性維護服務，我們提供的服務比經銷商便宜 25% 到 40%，這非常有吸引力，而且是一項非常快捷的服務.人們不必把車停在我們這裡。他們開車進來，我們可以相對快速地完成這些服務，而且他們可以省錢。所以這些是讓我們與眾不同的東西，更多的是 OEM 服務、電池更換、AC 充電。其中一些是季節性的。

That's actually very helpful. And then is -- my second question, is the labor sourcing an issue? Or is it a diminishing issue? Or how should we think about it just as things kind of evolve here from a macro perspective?

這實際上非常有幫助。然後是——我的第二個問題，勞動力採購是一個問題嗎？還是遞減的問題？或者我們應該如何看待它，就像從宏觀角度來看這裡的事物演變一樣？

Yes. Talent retention -- acquisition and retention is obviously a critical focus for our business. We've been spending a significant amount of time implementing recruiting tools that are shortening the time of hire from application to hire in 7 days. And those are serving us very well in the market. We've also been very focused on onboarding and training changes so that we can have a higher retention rate in the first 90 days. Really happy with the results that the team has driven where we're at a low attrition rate relative to last year and the year before for the current period. And we're well staffed. So we typically need to staff up in every store to hit the drive season. And at the present time, we need less than 1 hire per store to hit the demand that we're expecting in the summer. So we're very well staffed.

是的。人才保留——獲取和保留顯然是我們業務的一個關鍵重點。我們花費了大量時間實施招聘工具，這些工具縮短了從申請到錄用的時間，只需 7 天。這些在市場上為我們提供了很好的服務。我們也非常關注入職和培訓方面的變化，以便我們可以在前 90 天內獲得更高的保留率。對團隊所取得的成果感到非常滿意，我們在當前期間的流失率與去年和前年相比較低。而且我們人手充足。因此，我們通常需要在每家商店配備員工以迎接駕車旺季。目前，我們每家商店需要不到 1 名員工來滿足我們在夏季預期的需求。所以我們的人員配備非常好。

Now that doesn't mean we don't have pockets of opportunity. There are certain markets where our attrition is higher than where we want it to be and/or the pipeline is not as robust as we would want it to be. In those cases, we work local solutions with the team in the market to try to remedy that. But as a system, we're really happy with where we are from a staffing standpoint and just the level of experience and training that, that team already has going into this part of the year.

現在，這並不意味著我們沒有機會。在某些市場，我們的流失率高於我們希望的水平和/或管道不如我們希望的那樣強大。在這些情況下，我們會與市場團隊一起使用本地解決方案來嘗試補救。但作為一個系統，從人員配置的角度來看，我們對我們在今年這個時候已經擁有的經驗和培訓水平感到非常滿意。

The final question comes from the line of Jason English with Goldman Sachs.

最後一個問題來自 Jason English with Goldman Sachs。

Congratulations on completing the deal. Congratulations on being reclassified in the GICS code, but you still got me, the staples guy calling in. So a couple of quick questions. The same-store sales guidance for the back half of the year, implicitly based on your first half delivery and full year guide is 4% to 11%. I think I did the math correct, and correct me if I'm wrong. What are the factors that would have you come in on the low end versus the high end of that?

恭喜您完成交易。祝賀您在 GICS 代碼中被重新分類，但您仍然有我，主食人員打來電話。所以有幾個簡短的問題。下半年的同店銷售指導，隱含地基於你的上半年交付和全年指導是 4% 到 11%。我想我做的數學是正確的，如果我錯了請糾正我。哪些因素會讓您進入低端與高端？

So in terms of the low end, I think you'd have to see a pretty dramatic macro shift that's not already reflected in the broader macro numbers for us to come in at the low end, that would probably imply some trade down for us from premium oil changes to nonpremium. We think that's probably unlikely, I would think more toward the midpoint in terms of where we think we're going to be in the back half relative to continued both ticket strength that could be impacted by trade down if we saw a deeper impact on consumers than what we're seeing today, along with continued strength in transactions similar to what we saw in the second quarter.

因此，就低端而言，我認為你必須看到一個相當戲劇性的宏觀轉變，這種轉變尚未反映在更廣泛的宏觀數據中，我們才能進入低端，這可能意味著我們從高級機油變為非高級機油。我們認為這可能不太可能，如果我們看到對消費者的影響更深，我會更多地考慮我們認為我們將處於後半部分的中點，相對於持續的票證強度，如果我們看到對消費者的更深層次的影響，這可能會受到貿易下降的影響比我們今天看到的要多，同時交易量持續強勁，類似於我們在第二季度看到的情況。

Yes. I'll just add. I think trade down is one. I think the other piece is that we're also always looking at miles driven and interval. And just given concerns around recession, and whether or not it affects people's summer plans either to the positive or to the negative as it relates to miles driven is something that we are watching. We haven't seen any signs of the customer changing their behavior, but we also recognize the forward-looking economic forecast has some uncertainty on the consumer side. So that's something that we're watching. We don't see anything coming through. We see very strong resiliency in demand.

是的。我補充一下。我認為降價交易是其中之一。我認為另一點是我們也一直在關注行駛里程和間隔。考慮到對經濟衰退的擔憂，以及它是否對人們的夏季計劃產生積極或消極的影響，因為它與行駛里程有關，這是我們正在關注的事情。我們沒有看到客戶改變行為的任何跡象，但我們也認識到前瞻性經濟預測在消費者方面存在一些不確定性。這就是我們正在關注的事情。我們沒有看到任何東西通過。我們看到需求具有很強的彈性。

The other thing is new customer acquisition. We are finding ways to optimize our marketing spend, shifting it to digital channels for new customer acquisition. But we do see competitors in certain markets, particularly on the dealership side, using oil change or preventative maintenance as the way to get people back in the dealership to shop for cars during this period. And so the ability for us to attract new customers without heavy discounting of our proposition is something that also could impact us more in the summer period. Again, we don't see those impacts. But given where the inflation and consumer sentiment is, those would be the things that would move us to the lower end of that range.

另一件事是新客戶的獲取。我們正在尋找優化營銷支出的方法，將其轉移到數字渠道以獲取新客戶。但我們確實看到某些市場的競爭對手，特別是經銷商方面，使用換油或預防性維護作為在此期間讓人們回到經銷商處購買汽車的方式。因此，我們在不大幅降低我們的提議的情況下吸引新客戶的能力也可能在夏季對我們產生更大的影響。同樣，我們沒有看到這些影響。但考慮到通脹和消費者信心所在的位置，這些因素將使我們跌至該範圍的低端。

All that said, I mean, we're feeling good about where the business is today. And as Lori mentioned, the store stopping is strong, the current performance is solid. So we'd expect to have a very good summer.

綜上所述，我的意思是，我們對今天的業務狀況感覺良好。正如 Lori 所提到的，商店停止很強勁，目前的表現很穩固。所以我們希望有一個非常好的夏天。

Yes. I think that came through open, the responses to the questions. And back to the base oil question from earlier. I don't recall you guys talking about related to resale of used oil as either positive or negative contributors. This is the first time I recall you guys talking about it as a negative offset. Why is it different now? Why would it be moving different from base oil than we have in the past, and be an offset to the benefit that you otherwise wouldn't have had historically?

是的。我認為這是通過公開的、對問題的回答來實現的。回到之前的基礎油問題。我不記得你們談論過與二手油轉售有關的積極或消極貢獻者。這是我第一次記得你們談論它作為負抵消。為什麼現在不一樣了？為什麼它與我們過去的基礎油不同，並且抵消了您在歷史上不會獲得的好處？

Yes. It's a really good question, Jason. And the kind of the long-term relationships between base oil and crude and then between base oil and used oil, those relationships have been kind of put into a change since the Russian-Ukraine conflict and the sanctions on Russian oil and how that's affected the upstream supply chain for both base oils and then used oil that we've always had. We've talked about used oil in the past, Jason, and we just haven't talked about it in a while. There have been times in the business history since I've been here in the last 7 years where we've had to pay to have used oil removed from the facilities versus being paid for it. So it's definitely always been a factor within the business. Just never anything that's ever been material enough in relationship to the overall product cost for us to spend a lot of time on it.

是的。這是一個非常好的問題，傑森。以及基礎油和原油之間的長期關係，以及基礎油和廢油之間的那種長期關係，自從俄烏衝突和對俄羅斯石油的製裁以來，這些關係已經發生了變化，這對基礎油的上游供應鏈，然後使用我們一直擁有的油。傑森，我們過去曾討論過廢油，但我們已經有一段時間沒有討論過了。自從我過去 7 年來到這里以來，在商業歷史上有過幾次我們不得不為從設施中取出的用過的石油付費而不是為此付費。所以這絕對是業務中的一個因素。從來沒有任何與整體產品成本相關的物質足以讓我們花很多時間在上面。

In this case, I think there's just softness in the base oil market that's creating softness in the re-refined base oil markets that's probably putting faster pressure on the used oil market than what we're seeing in kind of the conventional base oil markets. I have no further insight than that, except to say that we're definitely seeing it not giving us a significant pass-through on the base oil reductions as we might have otherwise seen except for some of the pressure we're seeing on the used oil pricing that we're getting from the market. And as you might imagine, we're working very hard. We think it's a very valuable commodity out there. There's more re-refineries opening here in the U.S., and we think there's increased demand over time. We have very high-quality used oil that we produce in our stores, available to be sold. And we think that there continues to be good opportunity there. We just think short term here, it's going to be a little bit of offset pressure for us as we move forward.

在這種情況下，我認為基礎油市場的疲軟導致了再精煉基礎油市場的疲軟，這可能比我們在傳統基礎油市場上看到的對廢油市場施加更快的壓力。我沒有比這更深入的見解，只是說我們肯定看到它沒有給我們帶來基礎油減少的顯著傳遞，因為我們可能已經看到了，除了我們看到的一些壓力之外使用過的我們從市場上得到的石油定價。正如您想像的那樣，我們正在非常努力地工作。我們認為這是一種非常有價值的商品。美國這裡開設了更多的再煉油廠，我們認為隨著時間的推移需求會增加。我們有在我們的商店生產的非常高質量的廢油，可以出售。我們認為那裡仍然有很好的機會。我們只是在這裡考慮短期，隨著我們的前進，這對我們來說會有點抵消壓力。

There are no additional questions waiting at this time. So I would now like to pass the conference back over to the management team for any additional or closing remarks.

目前沒有其他問題等待您回答。因此，我現在想將會議轉回給管理團隊，聽取任何補充或結束語。

All right. Well, thank you all for joining us today. We're excited to move forward with the new Valvoline following the close of the sale of Global Products business with our plans to return the proceeds to shareholders through a tender offer in place. We are focused on driving growth and high returns on capital as a pure-play automotive retail business.

好的。好吧，謝謝大家今天加入我們。我們很高興在全球產品業務的銷售結束後繼續推進新的 Valvoline，我們計劃通過現有的要約收購將收益返還給股東。作為一家純汽車零售企業，我們專注於推動增長和高資本回報率。

I'd like to thank our store team members and franchise partners for all the work they do to drive our business. We appreciate your time today. Thank you.

我要感謝我們的商店團隊成員和特許經營合作夥伴為推動我們的業務所做的所有工作。感謝您今天的寶貴時間。謝謝。

That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開線路。