Valvoline Inc (VVV) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome, everyone, to the Valvoline's third quarter earnings conference call and webcast. My name is Becky, and I'll be your operator today. (Operator Instructions). I will now hand over to your host, Elizabeth Clevinger, with Investor Relations team to begin. Please go ahead.

大家好，歡迎參加 Valvoline 第三季財報電話會議和網路廣播。我叫貝基，今天我將擔任您的接線生。（操作員指令）。現在我將把主持人伊麗莎白·克萊文傑 (Elizabeth Clevinger) 和投資者關係團隊交給大家。請繼續。

Thanks, Joe. Good morning, and welcome to Valvoline third quarter fiscal 2025 conference call and webcast. This morning, Valvoline released results for the third quarter ended June 30, 2025. 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.

謝謝，喬。早安，歡迎參加Valvoline 2025財年第三季電話會議和網路直播。今天上午，Valvoline 發布了截至 2025 年 6 月 30 日的第三季業績。本簡報應與該收益報告一起查看，該收益報告的副本可在我們的投資者關係網站 investors.valvoline.com 上取得。

Please note that these results are preliminary until we file our Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On the call is Lori Flees, our President and CEO; and Kevin Willis, our CFO. As shown on slide 2, any of our remarks today that are not statements of historical facts are forward-looking statements.

請注意，在我們向美國證券交易委員會提交 10-Q 表之前，這些結果都是初步的。參加電話會議的有我們的總裁兼執行長 Lori Flees 和我們的財務長 Kevin Willis。如投影片 2 所示，我們今天發表的任何非歷史事實陳述均屬於前瞻性陳述。

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.

這些前瞻性陳述是基於截至本簡報發布之日的當前假設，並受某些風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與此類陳述有重大差異。

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.

除非法律要求，否則 Valvoline 不承擔更新任何前瞻性聲明的義務。在本次演示和我們的評論中，除非另有說明，我們將根據調整後的非 GAAP 基礎討論我們的結果。

Non-GAAP results are adjusted for key items, which are unusual, non-operational or restructuring in nature. We believe this approach enhances the understanding of our ongoing business. A reconciliation of our GAAP to adjusted non-GAAP results and a discussion of management's use of non-GAAP and key business measures, is included in the presentation abandons. The information provided is used by management and may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies.

非公認會計準則結果針對關鍵項目進行了調整，這些項目本質上是不尋常的、非營運的或重組的。我們相信這種方法可以增強我們對正在進行的業務的理解。放棄演示中包含了我們的 GAAP 與調整後的非 GAAP 結果的對帳以及管理層對非 GAAP 和關鍵業務指標的使用情況的討論。所提供的資訊由管理階層使用，可能無法與其他公司使用的類似措施進行比較。

With that, I will turn it over to Lori.

說完這些，我會把話題交給 Lori。

Thanks, Elizabeth, and thank you for joining us today. I'd like to start with a quick look at our third quarter highlights on slide 3. We are pleased to have delivered strong sales, profit and store growth for the third quarter.

謝謝，伊麗莎白，謝謝您今天加入我們。首先我想快速瀏覽幻燈片 3 上的第三季亮點。我們很高興看到第三季的銷售額、利潤和門市數量均出現強勁成長。

System-wide sales increased 10% and to $890 million, and adjusted EBITDA increased 12%, considering the impact of refranchising. We delivered good same-store sales comps of 4.9%, including an 80 basis point impact for Easter, and we added 46 new stores in the quarter.

考慮到重新特許經營的影響，全系統銷售額成長 10%，達到 8.9 億美元，調整後的 EBITDA 成長 12%。我們實現了 4.9% 的同店銷售額同比增長，其中包括復活節帶來的 80 個基點的影響，並且本季度我們新增了 46 家門市。

As we continue to drive the full potential of the core business, we benefit from the resiliency of our customer demand. We continue to see no evidence of customers trading down or delay services. In fact, the percentage of customers using our premium products grew both sequentially and year-over-year across the network. We are pleased to see continued transaction growth for our same-store base. We also saw transaction growth in our mature store base for the quarter.

隨著我們繼續充分發揮核心業務的潛力，我們將受益於客戶需求的彈性。我們仍然沒有看到客戶降低消費或延遲服務的證據。事實上，使用我們優質產品的客戶比例在整個網路中都實現了連續增長和同比增長。我們很高興看到同店交易量持續成長。本季度，我們也看到成熟門市的交易量有所成長。

Our ticket growth was benefited by premiumization, net pricing and improvements in an OCR service penetration. While we had a good current result of 4.9%, we believe June, while positive, was impacted by a slower-than-normal start to the summer holidays. We remain confident in our same-store sales expectations for the full year and are narrowing our guidance range to 5.8% to 6.4%.

我們的票務成長受惠於高端化、淨定價和 OCR 服務滲透率的提高。雖然我們目前的業績表現良好，達到 4.9%，但我們認為，6 月份的業績雖然呈積極態勢，但卻受到了暑假開始速度低於正常水平的影響。我們對全年同店銷售額預期仍充滿信心，並將預期範圍縮小至 5.8% 至 6.4%。

Our team continues to manage our cost of sales to deliver long-term margin expansion and enhance shareholder value. Labor improvement drove the gross margin rate expansion this quarter through better labor management, especially from enhanced scheduling practices. In Q2, we discussed the expected impact of tariffs in detail. While there continues to be uncertainty in the global trade discussions. Our expectations of any impact were -- financials are minimal and unchanged.

我們的團隊繼續管理銷售成本，以實現長期利潤擴張並提高股東價值。透過更好的勞動力管理，特別是加強排班實踐，勞動力改善推動了本季毛利率的擴大。在第二季度，我們詳細討論了關稅的預期影響。儘管全球貿易談判仍存在不確定性。我們對任何影響的預期是－財務狀況影響很小且沒有變化。

As it relates to network growth, this quarter, we added 46 new stores, bringing our year-to-date total for gross store additions to 116, 114 net of the two closures in Q2. During Q3, we had a transfer of six stores from franchise to company ownership. This transfer was driven by strategic considerations to align markets and enable our franchise partners to concentrate their development efforts in markets where they are best positioned for growth.

就網路成長而言，本季我們增加了 46 家新店，使我們年初至今的新增門市總數達到 116 家（扣除第二季關閉的兩家門市後為 114 家）。在第三季度，我們有六家門市從特許經營轉為公司所有。此次轉移是出於策略性考慮，旨在協調市場並使我們的特許經營合作夥伴能夠將發展精力集中在最有利於成長的市場。

The strong delivery of stores this quarter, along with the stores are in construction and in the acquisition pipeline gives us confidence in meeting our store addition targets for the year. We continue to track to the midpoint of the range, while recognizing consistent with what we shared last quarter that our pipeline is more back-end loaded this fiscal year.

本季門市交屋量強勁，加上正在興建和收購的門市，讓我們有信心實現今年的門市擴張目標。我們繼續追蹤該範圍的中點，同時認識到與我們上個季度分享的情況一致，本財年我們的管道後端負載更大。

We're pleased with the continued momentum of new store pipeline growth, including our recently refranchised markets. The progress of both our company and franchisee development teams reinforce our confidence in delivering our network growth targets and improving return on invested capital. I'd also like to give an update on the Brede transaction. We continue to work diligently with the FTC on a path to close this transaction.

我們對新店數量持續成長的勢頭感到滿意，包括我們最近重新特許經營的市場。我們公司和特許經營商開發團隊的進步增強了我們實現網路成長目標和提高投資資本回報率的信心。我還想介紹一下 Brede 交易的最新情況。我們將繼續與聯邦貿易委員會密切合作，以完成這筆交易。

This path to close could include a plan to divest certain stores subject to FTC approval, but we're still too early in the process to know the specifics, and there is uncertainty around the timing. We hope to close in late Q4 or early fiscal 2026 and we'll provide more information as soon as we're able.

關閉的途徑可能包括一項計劃，即在獲得聯邦貿易委員會批准的情況下剝離某些商店，但我們還處於流程的早期階段，無法了解具體細節，而且時間安排也存在不確定性。我們希望在第四季末或 2026 財年年初完成交易，我們將盡快提供更多資訊。

Before handing it over to Kevin to review our financial results, I want to officially welcome him to his first Valvoline earnings call. As expected, is quickly getting up to speed on how Valvoline's business looks today, and I appreciate the strong financial expertise he brings to the team.

在交給凱文審查我們的財務結果之前，我想正式歡迎他參加他的第一次 Valvoline 收益電話會議。正如預期的那樣，他很快就了解了 Valvoline 目前的業務狀況，我很欣賞他為團隊帶來的強大的財務專業知識。

With that, I'll turn it over to Kevin.

說完這些，我就把麥克風交給凱文。

Thanks, Lori. Glad to be with everyone today. Since joining us spend considerable time with our teams and on the road meeting with investors. This is a great company with a lot of growth opportunity to drive shareholder value, and I'm excited to be a part.

謝謝，洛瑞。很高興今天能和大家在一起。自從加入我們以來，我花了大量時間與我們的團隊在一起，並在路上與投資者會面。這是一家很棒的公司，擁有許多成長機會來推動股東價值，我很高興能成為其中的一員。

Let's turn to slide 6 and take a more detailed look at our financial results for the third quarter. Net sales increased 4% on a reporting basis and 12% when adjusted for the impacts of refranchise. System-wide same-store sales increased 4.9% and 12% on a two year set. The majority of the comp growth for the quarter came from increased ticket with premiumization, net pricing and increased NOCR service penetration all contributed.

讓我們翻到第 6 張投影片，更詳細地了解我們第三季的財務表現。以報告基礎計算，淨銷售額增長了 4%，而根據特許經營權的影響進行調整後，淨銷售額增長了 12%。全系統同店銷售額兩年內分別成長 4.9% 及 12%。本季大部分的營收成長來自於票價的增加，其中高端化、淨定價和 NOCR 服務滲透率的提高均起到了推動作用。

Transactions also continue to grow. And without the Easter headwind, transactions would have contributed roughly a third income. Similar to Q2, we're seeing stronger same-store sales growth from the franchise stores. Pricing actions taken by some of our large franchisees continue to be a key driver.

交易量也持續成長。如果沒有復活節的不利影響，交易將貢獻約三分之一的收入。與第二季類似，我們看到特許經營店的同店銷售成長更強勁。我們的一些大型特許經營商採取的定價行動仍然是關鍵驅動因素。

Turning to the next slide, we'll take a look at the financial drivers for the quarter. Gross margin rate increased 80 basis points year-over-year to 40.5%. This was primarily driven by labor leverage of more than 100 basis points, partially offset by increased depreciation from the addition of new stores for about 50 basis points.

翻到下一張投影片，我們來看看本季的財務驅動因素。毛利率較去年增加80個基點至40.5%。這主要是由於勞動力槓桿率超過 100 個基點所致，但新店開業導致的折舊增加（約 50 個基點）部分抵消了這一影響。

As Lori mentioned, we continue to improve our labor management through enhanced demand planning, which leads to improved schedule. SG&A as a percent of sales increased 80 basis points year-over-year to 18.5%, reflecting our previously discussed investments in technology infrastructure.

正如 Lori 所提到的，我們透過加強需求計畫不斷改善勞動力管理，從而改善進度。銷售、一般及行政費用佔銷售額的百分比年增 80 個基點，達到 18.5%，反映了我們之前討論過的對技術基礎設施的投資。

Our technology investments accounted for about 1/3 of the SG&A increase over prior year. Year-over-year, when adjusted for refranchising, SG&A increased generally in line with the sales increase. We expect year-over-year SG&A leverage to return in fiscal year 2026. Sequentially, SG&A as a percentage of sales decreased 80 basis points. On an absolute basis, sales growth outpaced SG&A growth in the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 30 basis points to 29.5%.

我們的技術投資約佔去年銷售、一般及行政費用成長的 1/3。與去年同期相比，經重新特許經營調整後，銷售、一般及行政費用的增加與銷售額的成長基本一致。我們預計 2026 財年的銷售、一般及行政費用槓桿率將較去年同期回升。銷售、一般及行政費用佔銷售額的百分比連續下降了 80 個基點。從絕對值來看，本季銷售額成長超過了銷售、一般及行政費用 (SG&A) 成長。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率增加 30 個基點至 29.5%。

On slide 8, we'll take a look at overall profitability. Similar to the previous quarters this year, the refranchising transactions impact the comparisons to the prior year. We delivered strong profit growth with adjusted EBITDA of $130 million, a 12% increase over the prior year, considering the impact of refranchising and adjusted net income of $61 million. Adjusted EPS of [$0.47] increased 18%, considering the refranchising the impact. We finished the quarter with approximately $68 million in cash and the leverage ratio on a rating agency adjusted basis of 3.3 times.

在第 8 張投影片上，我們將了解整體獲利能力。與今年前幾季類似，特許經營再授權交易對上一年的比較產生了影響。我們實現了強勁的利潤成長，調整後的 EBITDA 為 1.3 億美元，比上年增長 12%，考慮到重新特許經營的影響，調整後的淨收入為 6,100 萬美元。考慮到重新特許經營的影響，調整後的每股收益為 [0.47 美元]，增長了 18%。本季結束時，我們的現金約為 6800 萬美元，評級機構調整後的槓桿率為 3.3 倍。

Turning to slide 9, you will see our updated outlook for the year. Across the Board, we expect to fall within the prior outlook and have tightened to most ranges. Lori already covered same-store sales and network growth. Share repurchases are $60 million year-to-date having been paused following the [Graves] announcement. For sales at EPS, we narrowed the ranges around the midpoint, and we raised the low end of the adjusted EBITDA range based on performance to date.

翻到第 9 張投影片，您將看到我們對今年的最新展望。總體而言，我們預計其將處於先前的預期範圍內，並且已收緊至大多數範圍。Lori 已經負責同店銷售額和網路成長。自 [Graves] 宣布這一消息後，今年迄今的股票回購總額已達 6,000 萬美元，並已暫停回購。對於 EPS 銷售額，我們縮小了中點附近的範圍，並根據迄今為止的表現提高了調整後的 EBITDA 範圍的低端。

With that, I'll turn it back over to Lori.

說完這些，我就把麥克風交還給 Lori。

Thanks, Kevin. Before we wrap, I want to thank our 11,000-plus team members and our franchise partners whose hard work helped deliver the strong revenue and profit and store growth this quarter. We're grateful for their ongoing dedication as we are fully into the summer drag season.

謝謝，凱文。在結束之前，我想感謝我們 11,000 多名團隊成員和特許經營合作夥伴，他們的辛勤工作幫助我們實現了本季強勁的收入、利潤和門市成長。我們非常感謝他們一直以來的奉獻，因為我們已經完全進入了夏季變裝季節。

We feel good about where our performance will land for the year and are narrowing most of our guidance ranges. We have a resilient and durable business model that positions us well to deliver strong performance and long-term shareholder value.

我們對今年的業績表現感到滿意，並且正在縮小大部分的指導範圍。我們擁有靈活且持久的商業模式，這使我們能夠實現強勁的業績和長期的股東價值。

Now I'll turn it back over to Elizabeth for Q&A.

現在我將把問題交還給伊莉莎白進行問答。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Mark Jordan, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的馬克喬丹。

Hi, thank you for taking my questions. I guess as we think about going forward, your same-store sales growth guidance implies a pretty wide range of outcomes for 4Q. Can you talk about the different scenarios you see playing out there that might lead you to the high end and low end of the range?

你好，謝謝你回答我的問題。我想，當我們考慮未來時，您的同店銷售額成長指引意味著第四季的結果範圍相當廣泛。您能否談談您所看到的可能導致您達到該範圍的高端和低端的不同場景？

Sure, Mark. First, just a little about the comp for the quarter. We're definitely pleased with the financial performance of the business in the quarter, good growth across the Board for every key metric. We're happy about that. April and May performed in line with our expectations with good costs.

當然，馬克。首先，簡單介紹一下本季的業績。我們對本季業務的財務表現非常滿意，所有關鍵指標均實現了良好的成長。我們對此感到高興。四月和五月的表現符合我們的預期，成本表現良好。

As Lori mentioned, we did see a slow start in June or slower store to the summer holiday season. And that said, we did see consistent transaction growth across the entire system each month, including on our stores. Transaction growth accounted for about 25% of the comp. Going forward, and we've talked about this a fair bit.

正如 Lori 所提到的，我們確實看到 6 月的開局緩慢，或者說夏季假期的銷售放緩。話雖如此，我們確實看到整個系統（包括我們的商店）每月的交易量都在持續成長。交易成長約占同期的25%。展望未來，我們已經討論過這個問題很多了。

We expect to see a good impact and good growth, both in terms of transaction and ticket. As we look at Q4 we narrowed the range. And while you're right, the absolute math would imply a pretty wide range of outcomes. And we're pretty focused on the midpoint of that range, and that would be our overall expectation for the quarter.

我們期望看到交易和票務方面產生良好影響並實現良好成長。當我們回顧第四季度時，我們縮小了範圍。雖然你是對的，但絕對的數學意味著相當廣泛的結果。我們非常關注該範圍的中點，這將是我們對本季的整體預期。

Okay. Perfect. Thank you very much. And then I think on -- transactions are 25% of the comp there. So 75% or so over ticket. Can you break out the drivers of the ticket, the magnitudes there NOCR, net pricing and premiumization?

好的。完美的。非常感謝。然後我想——交易量佔那裡銷售額的 25%。因此票價超出 75% 左右。您能否詳細說明罰單的驅動因素、NOCR 的幅度、淨定價和溢價化？

Yeah. All were contributors to ticket in the quarter. We don't really break those out specifically in terms of exact numbers, but all were contributors in the quarter both for company stores as well as for franchise stores. So we were pleased with that. I would say, across the Board on an overall basis.

是的。所有人都是本季票務的貢獻者。我們並沒有真正具體地列出這些確切的數字，但所有這些都是本季度公司商店和特許經營商店的貢獻者。所以我們對此感到很高興。我想說，總體而言，這是全面的。

Great. Thanks very much and congrats on the quarter.

偉大的。非常感謝，並祝賀本季取得佳績。

Steven Zaccone, Citi.

花旗銀行的史蒂文‧扎科內 (Steven Zaccone)。

Great. Good afternoon or good morning. Thanks very much for taking my question. I wanted to follow up on the previous question. Can you just help us understand a bit more maybe what you saw in June? Do you think it was weather? Do you think it's some macro impact? And then just given the guidance for the fourth quarter, we can kind of do the range, what are you seeing thus far in July? Like have you seen a bit of an improvement versus what you saw in June?

偉大的。下午好或早安。非常感謝您回答我的問題。我想繼續回答上一個問題。您能否幫助我們進一步了解您在六月看到的情況？您認為是天氣原因嗎？您認為這會產生一些宏觀影響嗎？然後，根據第四季度的指導，我們可以估算範圍，那麼到目前為止，您看到 7 月的情況如何？與 6 月相比，您是否看到了一些改善？

Yeah. Thanks, Steven. Good morning. Overall, we feel June started a little slow relative to the summer holiday season. But when we step back, the resiliency of the customer base is still incredibly strong. We're not seeing customers trade down or defer service, but there was some timing. And I think some of that could have been the mild weather in the rain. We typically see that just slide volume around.

是的。謝謝，史蒂文。早安.整體而言，我們感覺相對於暑假而言，六月的開局有點慢。但當我們退一步來看時，客戶群的彈性仍然非常強大。我們沒有看到客戶降低價格或延後服務，但確實存在一些時機。我認為部分原因可能是雨中的溫和天氣。我們通常看到的只是滑動音量。

And I think that was a contributor for June. However, as we went into July, those not that weather went away completely. But the high weather came back, I think the summer holiday season and the driving picked up, we saw good traffic. Obviously, we have some benefit in July because of CrowdStrike last year.

我認為這是六月的一個貢獻者。然而，進入7月，那些不太好的天氣就完全消失了。但高溫天氣又回來了，我想是暑假的到來和駕駛的回升，我們看到了良好的交通狀況。顯然，由於去年的 CrowdStrike，我們在 7 月獲得了一些收益。

So we have a bit of tailwind. But if we take that impact out, we feel really good around transaction performance as we move through the month of July, and we feel very good about the momentum of the business, which is why our guide and narrowing slightly up from the previous midpoint.

因此我們有一些順風。但如果我們消除這種影響，我們對七月份的交易表現感到非常滿意，並且對業務的發展勢頭感到非常滿意，這就是為什麼我們的指導價比之前的中點略有縮小。

Okay. That's helpful detail. And then I'm going to ask the question just how should we start to think about same-store sales planning for next year, since you clearly have confidence you're going to be able to return to SG&A leverage. Maybe just help us think about the preliminary planning for same-store sales growth next year.

好的。這是很有幫助的細節。然後我要問的問題是，我們應該如何開始考慮明年的同店銷售計劃，因為您顯然有信心恢復銷售、一般和行政費用槓桿。或許只是幫助我們思考明年同店銷售成長的初步規劃。

Sure. Well, it's a bit too early to comment on fiscal '26. I can say that we and the entire team are engaged in and working on plans for the upcoming year, and we'll be excited to share those plans a little bit later at a more appropriate time.

當然。嗯，現在評論 26 財年還為時過早。我可以說，我們和整個團隊都在參與並製定來年的計劃，我們很高興稍後在更合適的時間分享這些計劃。

In terms of SG&A, we're definitely pleased that SG&A growth has moderated as we expected it to. And as we indicated in the comments, technology investments are mostly done, I would say, and accounted for about 1/3 of the year-over-year SG&A growth as we fully lap those investments, which should happen early in fiscal '26, we should expect SG&A leverage to return in 2026.

就銷售、一般及行政費用 (SG&A) 而言，我們非常高興看到銷售、一般及行政費用的成長如我們預期的那樣放緩。正如我們在評論中所指出的，我想說，技術投資大部分已經完成，並且約佔銷售、一般和行政費用同比增長的 1/3，隨著我們完全完成這些投資（這應該在 26 財年初發生），我們預計銷售、一般和行政費用槓桿率將在 2026 年恢復。

And I'll just add -- I was just going to add to what Kevin said. The fundamentals of the business have not changed. We've been in talking about the same drivers here since I joined the company. And really, the only significant change is really the inflationary environment. And so the fundamentals that we're seeing around ticket contribution and having a healthy mix of that coming from ticket sorry, ticket and transaction on the ticket side from continued opportunities in NOCR, pricing and premiumization combined with the growth at our customer base, the fundamentals of our business haven't changed for the most part.

我只是想補充一下——我只是想補充凱文所說的話。業務基本面並未改變。自從我加入公司以來，我們一直在這裡談論同樣的驅動因素。事實上，唯一重大的變化就是通膨環境。因此，我們看到的圍繞票務貢獻的基本面以及來自票務和交易的健康組合，來自 NOCR、定價和高端化的持續機會，加上我們客戶群的增長，我們業務的基本面在很大程度上沒有改變。

The biggest thing is the inflationary environment. So I think considering what we're seeing in the market today, which is just a continuation of credit tailwinds, great execution. I think you'll continue to see strong same-store sales growth from us and continuation of growing share.

最大的問題是通膨環境。因此，我認為，考慮到我們今天在市場上看到的情況，這只是信貸順風的延續，執行得很好。我認為您將繼續看到我們同店銷售額的強勁成長和份額的持續成長。

Great. Thanks for all the detail. Best of luck.

偉大的。感謝您提供的所有詳細資訊。祝你好運。

Simeon Gutman, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的西蒙古特曼。

Hey, good morning, everyone. My first question on transactions and ticket on -- so this 1/3, 2/3, we've been, I think, in this mode for a bit. It used to be a little more balanced. So could it get to be more balanced and then getting to a slightly higher sustainable comp rate. Do you need the transactions to lift? And is that expected to happen? Or is this the new normal?

嘿，大家早安。我的第一個問題是關於交易和票務的——所以這個 1/3、2/3，我想我們已經處於這種模式一段時間了。它曾經更加平衡一些。那麼它能否變得更加平衡，然後達到略高的可持續競爭率。您需要解除交易嗎？這預計會發生嗎？還是這是新常態？

I think as we see newer stores starting in tour, we will see transactions pick up. We do want to continue to work towards tracking on balance between ticket and transaction. As Lori indicated in the past few years, we've been in a very inflationary environment and by default, ticket has played a large role in comp.

我認為，隨著我們看到新商店開始營業，我們將看到交易量回升。我們確實希望繼續努力追蹤票證和交易之間的平衡。正如 Lori 在過去幾年中指出的那樣，我們一直處於通貨膨脹嚴重的環境中，默認情況下，票務在補償中發揮了重要作用。

I think as we go forward and assuming a more moderate inflationary environment, we should see a more balanced, more balanced view in combination of ticket and transaction. That's our expectation. And again, it's maturing the existing network. It's working -- looking to our stores to continue to grow is growing the base footprint as well.

我認為，隨著我們繼續前進並假設通膨環境更加溫和，我們應該看到票務和交易組合更加平衡、更加均衡的觀點。這是我們的期望。再次，它正在使現有網路更加成熟。它正在發揮作用——期待我們的商店繼續成長，同時也擴大基礎足跡。

And Simeon, I'd just say that adding to what Kevin is saying -- in this quarter, we did have the headwind of Easter, which impacts transactions. So at North of 25% of our comp being from transactions. When you take that out, it was significantly higher when you factor in the Easter flip.

西緬，我只是想補充凱文所說的話——在本季度，我們確實遇到了復活節的逆風，這影響了交易。因此，我們的收入有 25% 以上來自交易。如果扣除這因素，再加上復活節的翻轉，這數字就會高很多。

And we're consistent with what we've seen in the first half of the year. So we're not quite always sitting a 50-50 balance, and I think that's hard to strike exactly, but we would be hoping to be more in that balance range over time.

這與今年上半年看到的情況一致。因此，我們並不總是處於 50-50 的平衡狀態，我認為這很難準確實現，但我們希望隨著時間的推移能夠更加處於平衡範圍內。

We do have some headwinds on the ticket side, which will continue in our favor. Premiumization is going to continue as we see the car park evolve and the number of cars where the OEM is recommending of both synthetic lubricant is growing. So we do have some tailwinds, which will continue to keep that ticket momentum strong. But again, I think we are getting to a much more balanced than what you've seen from the index over the last three years.

我們在票務方面確實遇到了一些阻力，但這對我們有利。隨著我們看到停車場的發展以及原始設備製造商推薦使用合成潤滑油的汽車數量的增加，高端化趨勢將持續下去。因此，我們確實有一些順風，這將繼續保持強勁的票務勢頭。但我再次認為，與過去三年的指數相比，我們的狀況更加平衡。

And then a follow-up and it's related. If you look at the immature stores that are ramping, the oil changes per day. So I guess that would be the transaction gauge. Those ramps are normal, below average, above average? How do you -- how would you characterize them?

然後進行後續跟進並與之相關。如果你看一下正在增加的未成熟商店，你會發現石油每天都會改變。所以我猜這應該是交易標準。這些坡道是正常的、低於平均的、還是高於平均的？您如何—您如何描述它們？

So Simeon, it's a great question, and it's something that we review on a regular basis, looking at what plans to be put in place for each of the stores that we put -- that we went to build to buy and are they on track? And the good news -- and by the way, we approved those based on the return on invested capital that we're going to -- that we expect to get.

所以西緬，這是一個很好的問題，這是我們定期審查的事情，看看我們為每家商店制定了什麼計劃——我們去建造和購買的每家商店，它們是否進展順利？好消息是——順便說一句，我們根據我們預期獲得的投資資本回報率批准了這些提案。

And again, there's incredible consistency around the performance of our new store ramps relative to that plan at the time you make the approvals. So we continue to see very good performance from our new store base and those stores are expected to return, again, mid-to-high mid-teens in terms of return on invested capital. So still really positive performance from our new store base.

再次強調，當您批准時，我們新店的業績相對於該計劃具有令人難以置信的一致性。因此，我們繼續看到新店基礎的良好表現，而這些商店的投資資本回報率預計將再次達到中高水準。因此，我們的新店基礎仍然表現非常積極。

Okay. Thanks. Good luck, everyone.

好的。謝謝。祝大家好運。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Mike Harrison, Seaport Research Partners.

麥克·哈里森，海港研究夥伴。

Hi, good morning. Welcome to Kevin. Looking forward to working with you again. To the extent that average ticket is going up, I was hoping we could dig in a little bit on how much of that is pure pricing. Presumably, you guys are responding to some higher costs for parts or filters or maybe some increases in labor costs and trying to push pricing. You also noted some incremental pricing actions by your franchisees as well.

嗨，早安。歡迎凱文。期待再次與您合作。就平均票價上漲而言，我希望我們能夠深入了解其中有多少是純粹的定價。據推測，你們正在應對零件或過濾器成本的上漲，或勞動成本的增加，並試圖提高價格。您還注意到了特許經營商的一些增量定價行動。

So I was just wondering if you could give us any help around quantifying that pure pricing component of average ticket, really just trying to get a sense of how much pricing momentum could be reflected in average ticket into next year?

所以我只是想知道您是否可以幫助我們量化平均票價的純定價成分，實際上只是想了解明年的平均票價中可以反映出多少定價勢頭？

Sure, Mike. First off, I'll address the franchise question. We did have one large franchisee that made some price adjustments. We talked about that last quarter, that's continuing to impact the comp on the franchise side versus the company side. Over time, we'll lap that. But we do still see.

當然，麥克。首先，我要回答特許經營權的問題。我們確實有一家大型特許經營商做出了一些價格調整。我們在上個季度討論過這個問題，這將繼續影響特許經營方與公司方的比較。隨著時間的推移，我們會解決這個問題。但我們仍然看到。

I think as you look at the price portion of the equation from comp, where we see a lot of opportunities has been continued growth in premiumization as well as NOCR and NOCR has a lot of road to grow, both on an overall basis within company and system as well as improving the gap between our lower quartile performers in our system versus the higher quartile performers.

我認為，當您從公司角度查看等式的價格部分時，我們會看到很多機會，包括高端化和 NOCR 的持續增長，而 NOCR 有很大的發展空間，無論是在公司和系統整體上，還是在縮小我們系統中較低四分位數表現者與較高四分位數表現者之間的差距。

In terms of price related to potential cost headwinds, we talked about tariff impact last quarter. Nothing's really changed there. And we did give -- given the indication of expected impact to operating costs based on the environment at the time, it hasn't changed all that much. And certainly, this is an industry that tends to take inflation, get inflation back via price, and that would be our expectation.

就與潛在成本不利因素相關的價格而言，我們上個季度討論了關稅的影響。那裡其實什麼都沒改變。我們確實給出了——根據當時的環境對營運成本的預期影響的指示，它並沒有發生太大的變化。當然，這個行業往往會承受通貨膨脹，然後透過價格來收回通貨膨脹，這也是我們的預期。

But in the end, the larger contributors -- larger contributors to ticket are going to be those actions that we take in the store from an execution perspective, around premiumization, which, again, car park impacts that and of course, NOCR with pricing just on an absolute basis being much smaller component typically.

但最終，對票價貢獻更大的因素——更大的因素將是從執行角度在商店中採取的行動，圍繞高端化，停車場也會對此產生影響，當然，NOCR 的定價在絕對基礎上通常只是很小的組成部分。

Yeah. I would just say like we've always talked about there being balanced across the three. I think where tenants coming from is the car park evolution driving the premiumness and the NOCR penetration upside, it's certainly been strong contributors for us over the past 12 months to 18 months. Pricing has been a contributor. And we continue to review our pricing and do pricing tests actively in the marketplace.

是的。我只想說，就像我們一直在談論的，三者之間要保持平衡。我認為租戶的來源是停車場的發展推動了優質化和 NOCR 滲透率的上升，在過去 12 個月到 18 個月裡，這無疑是我們強勁的貢獻者。定價是一個因素。我們將繼續審查我們的定價並在市場上積極進行定價測試。

And price was a very good contributor not out of line of the expectations that we talked about in our long-term algorithm minus significant inflation. So we'll continue to look at our pricing. I do think we have taken at least one regional action relative to cost in that region, but that was not pervasive yet.

價格是一個非常好的貢獻因素，它沒有超出我們在長期演算法中討論的預期，減去顯著的通貨膨脹。因此我們將繼續關注我們的定價。我確實認為我們已經在該地區採取了至少一項與成本相關的區域行動，但尚未普及。

So while in my comments, we talked about no significant tariff impacts as we have those, we will either find ways to mitigate them through other cost reductions or we will pass this through to consumer. But right now, we haven't taken pricing across the board to mitigate any new labor and/or product costs.

因此，雖然我在評論中談到了關稅不會產生重大影響，但我們要么通過其他成本削減來減輕這些影響，要么將其轉嫁給消費者。但目前，我們還沒有採取全面定價來降低任何新勞動力和/或產品成本。

Alright. Very helpful. Thank you. And then I had a couple of questions related to acquisitions. I see that you acquired eight stores in the quarter. Was that one transaction or multiple transactions. And I'm just hoping that maybe you can give us some color on what the pipeline of store acquisitions looks like -- it seems like maybe you're still moving forward on some of these smaller deals even with the Brede transaction kind of pending here.

好吧。非常有幫助。謝謝。然後我問了幾個與收購有關的問題。我發現你們在本季收購了八家商店。這是一筆交易還是多筆交易？我只是希望您能給我們介紹一下商店收購的流程——即使 Brede 交易還懸而未決，您似乎仍在推進一些較小的交易。

Yeah. Great question, Mike. So during Q3, we purchased six stores from franchisees was one transaction. The transfer was driven by really us stepping back, looking at how the markets were aligned geographically as well as where the franchise partners' development efforts in markets we're best positioned. And this was a mutual decision between us and the franchisees that they actually wanted to focus their development in other areas.

是的。很好的問題，麥克。因此，在第三季度，我們從特許經營商那裡購買了六家商店，這是一筆交易。此次轉移實際上是我們退一步考慮，研究市場在地理上的分佈情況，以及特許經營合作夥伴在我們最有利的市場中的發展努力。這是我們和特許經營商共同做出的決定，他們實際上希望將發展重點放在其他領域。

And so got to a very good outcome to transition of stores to company ownership. They are in the Louisiana market. It's a market that we think there's a lot of opportunity. And we actually have company markets that are adjacent, so from a G&A standpoint, it's actually synergistic with the company side versus their -- it was isolated from the franchisees that is operating. And so we'll continue to -- I think look at -- they're really just small opportunities, and they'll go in both directions, but it will never be more than a handful of stores.

因此，商店向公司所有權的轉變取得了非常好的結果。他們在路易斯安那州市場。我們認為這個市場充滿機會。而且我們實際上擁有相鄰的公司市場，因此從一般及行政管理的角度來看，它實際上與公司方面具有協同作用——它與正在運營的特許經營商是隔離的。因此，我們會繼續——我認為看看——它們實際上只是小機會，它們會雙向發展，但永遠不會超過少數幾家商店。

I think as it relates to our pipeline, we continue to have -- there are 4,000 independent operators. And there's always, from time to time independent players who want to make a transition, and they don't have -- they're not going to pass it out into the next generation.

我認為，就我們的管道而言，我們繼續擁有——4,000 名獨立運營商。而且，時不時地，總有一些獨立玩家想要進行轉型，但他們沒有——他們不會將其傳遞給下一代。

And they want to make sure their people are taking care of, so they look to companies like Valvoline who can step into that business, play them, pet a fair market price and take care of their people. We continue to use that strategy the returns on invested capital for acquisitions are incredibly strong, and we have a playbook. So we know how to compete those stores.

他們希望確保自己的員工得到照顧，因此他們尋求像 Valvoline 這樣的公司進入該行業，與他們合作，提供公平的市場價格並照顧好自己的員工。我們繼續使用該策略，收購的投資資本回報率非常高，而且我們有劇本。所以我們知道如何與這些商店競爭。

We continue to build our pipeline. The Breeze transaction is still pending, and we're still working hard toward it. But we continue to talk to the independent players that we've been talking to about their timing and where it makes sense for us to invest in growth and get a good return, we'll do that.

我們將繼續建造我們的管道。Breeze 交易仍處於待決狀態，我們仍在為此努力。但我們將繼續與獨立參與者進行討論，討論他們的時機以及我們在哪裡投資成長並獲得良好回報是合理的，我們會這樣做。

Alright. Thanks for that. I did just want to clarify, though, there were six conversions from franchisees, but it looks like there were also eight acquired stores. Was that one transaction or multiple?

好吧。謝謝。我只是想澄清一下，雖然有 6 家特許經營店進行了轉換，但看起來也有 8 家被收購的商店。這是一筆交易還是多筆交易？

Multiple -- sorry, like I was just focused on the transfers. There were multiple. Most of the acquisitions that we do now are majority of them are single store operators or a couple of store operators.

多個——抱歉，因為我只專注於轉帳。有多個。我們現在進行的大多數收購都是針對單店經營者或幾家店經營者。

Alright. Thank you very much.

好吧。非常感謝。

Steve Shemesh, RBC Capital Markets.

加拿大皇家銀行資本市場 (RBC Capital Markets) 的史蒂夫‧謝梅什 (Steve Shemesh)。

Hey, good morning, and thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to ask two on Breeze, and I'll throw them both out there. First, -- the Breeze stores do about $1 million in sales per store versus an average Valvoline about [$1.7 million]. So first one is, structurally, is there any reason for that gap.

嘿，早上好，感謝您回答問題。我想在 Breeze 上問兩個問題，我會把它們都放到那裡。首先，Breeze 每家門市的銷售額約為 100 萬美元，而 Valvoline 的平均銷售額約為[170萬美元]。因此，第一個問題是，從結構上講，是否存在造成這種差距的原因。

And then secondly, as we think about integrating Breeze onto the platform from an SG&A standpoint, we're lapping over the tech. We're talking about getting back to leverage. Are there any costs associated with the deal that might throw a wrench in that plant?

其次，當我們從銷售、一般及行政費用的角度考慮將 Breeze 整合到平台上時，我們正在研究這項技術。我們正在討論恢復槓桿。這筆交易是否存在可能對該工廠造成影響的成本？

Yeah. Good question. Thanks for asking Steve. So first of all, when we look at the performance of the Breeze stores. They've been building that network relatively quickly. So the level of maturity of those stores varies. But given its size would be more heavily weighted to less mature stores. So that will obviously be an impact.

是的。好問題。感謝史蒂夫的詢問。首先，讓我們來看看 Breeze 商店的表現。他們正在相對較快地建立該網絡。因此這些商店的成熟度各不相同。但考慮到其規模，將更側重於不太成熟的商店。所以這顯然會產生影響。

Second is the amount that is being invested in marketing and fleet activities is different. And that's because they're building a brand. While that brand has been in the marketplace for a long time as they expand geographically if they're not rightsizing the marketing and have the technology, the tools and the customer data and the things that we've invested in building over many years. It's going to take more time to build that volume across those basic stores.

其次，在行銷和車隊活動上投入的金額不同。這是因為他們正在打造品牌。儘管該品牌已在市場上存在很長時間，但如果他們沒有調整行銷規模並擁有技術、工具和客戶數據以及我們多年來投資建設的東西，他們就會在地域上擴張。在這些基本商店中達到這一銷量需要更多時間。

So we think those are all contributors and it's part of the reason why the acquisition was attracted to us, and we believe that it will provide a very strong long-term shareholder value return. In terms of the cost -- the good side about the Breeze business is it actually operates very similarly to Valvoline. So these are pinned stores. They -- in the way their service menu is largely similar, although they don't provide all of the services that we do in our VIOC business. So there's some upside there, too.

因此，我們認為這些都是貢獻者，這也是我們被收購吸引的原因之一，我們相信它將為股東帶來非常強勁的長期價值回報。就成本而言——Breeze 業務的優點在於它的運作方式實際上與 Valvoline 非常相似。這些是固定商店。他們的服務菜單大致上相似，儘管他們並未提供我們在 VIOC 業務中提供的所有服務。因此這也有一些好處。

But in terms of costs, we'll have the normal, we'll want to make sure we look at safety, but this is a team that focuses on our people. So we don't expect to have -- I'm sure there will be small surprises as we get the okay to move forward. But we don't see any major significant stumbling blocks or capital investments at this time and be where we are in the process.

但在成本方面，我們會保持正常，我們會確保考慮安全，但這是一個關注員工的團隊。所以我們並不期望有——我相信當我們獲得批准繼續前進時，會出現一些小驚喜。但我們目前沒有看到任何重大的絆腳石或資本投資，而且我們處於這一進程中。

Got it. Thanks very much.

知道了。非常感謝。

David Bellinger, Mizuho.

瑞穗的戴維·貝林格。

Hey, good morning. Thanks for the questions here. I want to follow up on the franchise side. It seems like at least one of these large franchisees was taking more price. You spoke to that and maybe more price just across the Board on the franchise platform. Can you speak to the magnitude of that differential versus company-owned? Any consumer pushback in those markets? And if not, should the company owned pricing close that gap over the next several quarters? Is that an opportunity for the core company owned to push price a bit more forcefully going forward?

嘿，早安。感謝您的提問。我想跟進特許經營方面的情況。看起來這些大型特許經營商中至少有一家收取了更高的價格。您談到了這一點，也許特許經營平台上的價格會更高。您能說說與公司所有的相比，這種差異有多大嗎？這些市場有消費者阻力嗎？如果不是，公司自有定價是否應該在接下來的幾季內縮小這一差距？這是否是核心公司未來更有力地推高價格的機會？

Yeah. Thanks, David, for the question. When we look at our franchisee pricing, some of that is geographically based. So we look at our franchisees that are -- a big portion of them are in the Northeast and in California. And so that does create some pricing differential, labor costs and rent expenses higher and it typically runs a higher ticket also because of the car park. So that is a difference.

是的。謝謝 David 提出這個問題。當我們查看特許經營商的定價時，我們發現其中一些是基於地理位置的。因此，我們看看我們的特許經營商——其中很大一部分位於東北部和加利福尼亞州。因此，這確實會造成一些價格差異，勞動力成本和租金費用更高，而且由於停車場的原因，票價通常也會更高。所以這就是區別。

In this last year, our franchisees are independent price centers. So we do not tell them what they need to price. They do their own market studies based on the markets that have evolved. And we had one fairly large franchisee who hired some new talent in their organization in the middle of last year and did some work and recognized that they were not priced with the market. They were below the market. And so they did adjust their pricing in the fall and it was across the Board. And it was -- I wouldn't say massive price, but it was significant.

在這最後一年，我們的加盟商都是獨立的價格中心。所以我們不會告訴他們需要定價多少。他們根據已經發展的市場進行自己的市場研究。我們有一個相當大的特許經營商，他們在去年年中在他們的組織中僱用了一些新人才，做了一些工作，並意識到他們的定價不符合市場價格。它們的價格低於市場價格。因此，他們確實在秋季調整了價格，而且是全面調整。而且——我不會說價格龐大，但意義重大。

And they were not the only one to adjust price company. We had price adjustments and in other franchisees, they made price adjustments. But that one was an outbuyer and is creating the significant part of the difference in the pricing contribution to same-store sales between franchise and company.

而且他們並不是唯一一家調整價格的公司。我們進行了價格調整，其他特許經營商也進行了價格調整。但該公司是外部買家，並且正在造成特許經營店和公司之間同店銷售定價貢獻的很大一部分差異。

Got it. Thanks for clarifying on that. And then just to pivot over to the tech investments. I think you mentioned 1/3 of the SG&A growth this quarter. that could equate to something like 20 basis point to 30 basis point impact. Is that the right level of SG&A margin we should get back next year as we move behind this the smaller investment cycle within OpEx? Any way to frame what that potential could be into next year? Thank you.

知道了。感謝您對此作出澄清。然後轉向技術投資。我認為您提到了本季銷售、一般和行政費用增長的 1/3。這可能相當於 20 個基點到 30 個基點的影響。隨著我們進入營運支出 (OpEx) 中較小的投資週期，我們明年應該恢復的銷售、一般和行政費用利潤率 (SG&A) 是否處於正確的水平？有什麼方法可以描述明年的潛力嗎？謝謝。

Yeah. I think directionally, that's the right way to think about it. I think it's important to note that we would expect the leverage to improve throughout the course of the year. We do still have to lap some of those investments early in fiscal '26 that were done earlier in this fiscal year. So we'll see, I would say, less leverage early in the year and growing throughout the course of the year.

是的。我認為從方向性來說，這是正確的思考方式。我認為值得注意的是，我們預計槓桿率將在全年內有所提高。我們確實仍需完成 26 財年早些時候進行的一些投資。因此，我想說，我們會看到，年初槓桿率會降低，而全年槓桿率會上升。

Again, the quantum is probably pretty close. But as we look forward, I think historically, based on sales growth, we've seen SG&A growth grow kind of high single digits to low. In the end, it's too early -- it's really too early to say what fiscal '26 is going to bring. But -- but directionally, as we see SG&A moderate this year, it would generally be our expectation to see leverage improve over the course. Again, too early to actually size it at this stage of the game, and we'll provide you wrong then most likely in the next call.

再次，量子可能非常接近。但展望未來，我認為從歷史上看，基於銷售額的成長，我們已經看到銷售、一般及行政費用的成長率從高個位數到低個位數不等。最後，現在談論 26 財年會帶來什麼結果還為時過早。但是 — — 但從方向上看，由於我們看到今年銷售、一般和行政費用 (SG&A) 有所緩和，我們通常會預期槓桿率會在此期間得到改善。再次強調，在遊戲的這個階段實際確定規模還為時過早，我們很可能會在下一次通話中為您提供錯誤的資訊。

Got it. Thank you, both.

知道了。謝謝你們兩位。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Peter Keith, Piper Sandler.

彼得·基思、派珀·桑德勒。

Hi, good morning, Lori and Kevin. Elizabeth, Kevin, nice to [meet] you. I wanted to ask about the labor leverage. You saw 100 basis points of gross margin benefit. So that was fairly impressive. You talked about taking advantage of new demand planning tools. So is there something unique to this quarter? Or is this some -- in the ballpark of the type of labor leverage you can see on a go-forward basis with similar comp performance?

嗨，早上好，Lori 和 Kevin。伊莉莎白、凱文，很高興見到你們。我想問勞動力槓桿的問題。您看到了 100 個基點的毛利率收益。這確實令人印象深刻。您談到了利用新的需求規劃工具。那麼本季有什麼獨特之處嗎？或者這是某種——大致相當於未來在類似的競爭表現下可以看到的勞動力槓桿類型？

Yeah. I think what's unique about this quarter is we're starting to see the impact of a lot of work that's happened over the course of prior quarters in terms of developing an approach and really driving overall better execution. And I think another key aspect of this as part of the tech investment stack that we've done, was the implementation of Workday.

是的。我認為本季的獨特之處在於，我們開始看到前幾季在製定方法和真正推動整體更好執行方面所做的大量工作的影響。我認為，作為我們所做的技術投資堆疊的一部分，另一個關鍵方面是 Workday 的實施。

As we continue to mature Workday, that should continue to provide us with opportunities to take a different look at how we're implementing labor across our store footprint, which should ultimately provide us with some opportunities to continue to improve that over the course of time.

隨著 Workday 的不斷成熟，這應該會繼續為我們提供機會，以不同的方式審視我們如何在整個門市範圍內實施勞動力，這最終會為我們提供一些機會，讓我們隨著時間的推移繼續改進這一點。

And some of that demand planning that's done is more sophisticated. So really thinking about the level of technician that's required and the mix of technician skills, as you get more sophisticated in the tools, you can start to rightsize the wage rates that you need to cover the shift -- and I think our team has been working through some of that demand planning, which then allows for the better scheduling. So it's really just the continuation of some of the things we've talked about, but just getting more sophisticated based on the tools that we have exactly what Kevin said.

其中一些需求規劃已經更加複雜。因此，請真正考慮所需的技術人員水平和技術人員技能組合，隨著您對工具的掌握越來越熟練，您就可以開始調整輪班所需的工資率——我認為我們的團隊一直在進行一些需求計劃，從而實現更好的調度。所以它實際上只是我們討論過的一些事情的延續，但基於我們擁有的工具而變得更加複雜，正如凱文所說的那樣。

Okay. That sounds exciting. And then I guess with Kevin or Lori, so I don't know if it's a question for Lori or for Kevin, but I think a lot of investors have been eager to see if you're going to put in place a new long-term comp growth framework. Is that still the plan? And is that something maybe you're thinking about with the fiscal Q4 print?

好的。聽起來很令人興奮。然後我猜是凱文 (Kevin) 還是洛里 (Lori)，所以我不知道這是針對洛里還是凱文 (Kevin) 的問題，但我認為很多投資者都渴望看到你是否會建立一個新的長期複合增長框架。這還是計劃嗎？您是否考慮過第四季的財務數據？

Yeah, absolutely. We continue to evaluate the market environment. I think at the beginning of this year, there was so much uncertainty around how the macro environment was going to progress. Things have certainly been more stable for us than what we might have anticipated, though there's still some uncertainty. We feel really good about the momentum of the business.

是的，絕對是如此。我們持續評估市場環境。我認為今年年初，宏觀環境將如何發展存在許多不確定性。儘管仍然存在一些不確定性，但情況肯定比我們預期的要穩定。我們對業務的發展動能感到非常滿意。

Obviously, the inflationary environment still hold some uncertainty. And having Kevin on board really allows us to take a fresh perspective and figure out how we guide a long-term algorithm despite some of that uncertainty. So really having him on board has been a great time to help us think through that. We are looking forward to sharing more at the right time and in the near future.

顯然，通膨環境仍存在一些不確定性。有了 Kevin 的加入，我們確實能夠以全新的視角看待問題，並弄清楚如何引導長期演算法，儘管存在一些不確定性。所以，有他加入我們真的是一個很好的時機，可以幫助我們思考這個問題。我們期待在適當的時間和不久的將來分享更多內容。

Okay. Very good. Thanks so much.

好的。非常好。非常感謝。

Being relatively new to the -- new story or at least new to this version of the story, it has given me an opportunity to really step back and take more of a holistic look at the business and the company and the growth potential and really is a tremendous organization, a tremendous company -- and there's a lot of growth ahead for this organization. And we are working to really size that and get the algorithm right, so we can communicate it and then very importantly deliver on it going forward.

作為一個相對較新的人——新故事，或至少是這個版本的故事，它給了我一個機會，讓我能夠真正退一步，更全面地審視業務、公司和成長潛力，這真的是一個了不起的組織，一個了不起的公司——而且這個組織未來還有很大的發展空間。我們正在努力確定其規模並獲得正確的演算法，以便我們能夠傳達它，然後非常重要的是在未來實現它。

Very good. Thank you, and good luck.

非常好。謝謝，祝你好運。

Chris O'Cull, Stifel.

克里斯·奧卡爾（Chris O'Cull），Stifel。

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Lori, are you surprised that you may need to sell some of the Breeze shops to get approval, just given how fragmented the market is today? And does that influence your thinking about future opportunities, acquisition opportunities?

謝謝。大家早安。洛里，考慮到目前市場分散程度，您是否感到驚訝，您可能需要出售部分 Breeze 商店才能獲得批准？這是否會影響您對未來機會、收購機會的思考？

So first of all, we'll just say the FTC is -- has a normal approach that's not unique to us that looks at competition in the market. Again, this is the first acquisition of any scale in any recent years that they looked at. So they really are looking to make sure that there's enough competition in the market to serve customers best. So I think their intentions are very consistent with where they have always focused. It's just I think this is the first time it's been something in our space.

首先，我們要說的是，聯邦貿易委員會採取的是一種正常的做法，這種做法並不是我們獨有的，它關注的是市場競爭。再說一次，這是他們近年來考慮的第一次大規模收購。因此，他們確實希望確保市場有足夠的競爭來為客戶提供最好的服務。所以我認為他們的意圖與他們一直以來關注的領域非常一致。我只是認為這是我們領域中第一次出現這種事。

In terms of the discussions are really ongoing, and we're working with the FTC, one of the path forward could be to sell a certain number of stores. We're obviously still working through those details. And I think it's a very destructive process.

就目前仍在進行的討論而言，我們正在與聯邦貿易委員會合作，其中一個解決方案可能是出售一定數量的商店。顯然，我們仍在處理這些細節。我認為這是一個非常具有破壞性的過程。

Now -- we have to get the FTC to approve. And so there is a process of requirements of that. But I think I'm encouraged by the progress that we've made today, the level of engagement that we're having -- and ultimately, the path forward will assuming the FTC agrees, will be consistent with our strategy, will drive long-term shareholder value and have the benefit of extending our reach consistent with the overall growth strategy.

現在—我們必須獲得聯邦貿易委員會的批准。因此，存在一個對此有要求的過程。但我認為，我們今天所取得的進展、我們所擁有的參與程度令我感到鼓舞——最終，前進的道路將假設聯邦貿易委員會同意，將與我們的戰略保持一致，將推動長期股東價值，並有利於擴大我們的影響力，與整體增長戰略保持一致。

So as I mentioned, I think on one of the fire side chats, were we surprised yet. But when you actually get into the conversation, we shouldn't have been surprised. And it certainly doesn't change our growth story and delay that we will grow going forward. We're not getting any indication that there will need to be a change in our strategy going forward.

正如我所提到的，我想在一次爐邊談話中，我們是否感到驚訝。但當你真正參與談話時，我們不應該感到驚訝。當然，這不會改變我們的成長故事，也不會延遲我們未來的成長。我們沒有得到任何跡象表明我們的未來策略需要改變。

Okay. And then -- do you see any -- I'm assuming you're going to be converting the brand to Valvoline. I'm just curious, do you see any risk in converting the brand of Valvoline. Just given the equity, I'm sure that chain has in several other markets?

好的。然後——你看到任何——我假設你將把品牌轉換為 Valvoline。我只是好奇，您是否認為轉換 Valvoline 品牌有任何風險。僅考慮到股權，我確定該連鎖店在其他幾個市場也有業務？

It's a great question. We're really focused on the FTC process to get to the closing of the transaction. And that has actually limited some of the discussion that we've had with Eric and his team. What we absolutely recognize that there is a loyalty that has been built up across that chain. -- not just with customers, but with the people. And at the end of the day, the people are what driving the experience for those customers.

這是一個很好的問題。我們非常關注聯邦貿易委員會的流程以完成交易。這實際上限制了我們與 Eric 及其團隊進行的一些討論。我們完全認識到，整個鏈條上已經建立了一種忠誠度——不僅是對客戶，而且對員工。歸根究底，是人推動了顧客的體驗。

So we absolutely have to be thoughtful around how we integrate, but that's not new for us. So we as was mentioned in the previous question, we acquire independent operators and have acquired previous chains. And so really thinking through how we make those conversions is something that we have experience in, and it's something that we work with the teams that will be coming on Board with our company. And so I feel very good about how that can progress given our experience. But obviously, every situation is unique.

因此，我們必須認真考慮如何整合，但這對我們來說並不新鮮。正如上一個問題中提到的那樣，我們收購了獨立運營商並收購了先前的連鎖店。因此，認真思考如何進行這些轉換是我們有經驗的事情，也是我們與即將加入我們公司的團隊合作的事情。因此，根據我們的經驗，我對這一進程感到非常樂觀。但顯然，每種情況都是獨一無二的。

Great. Thanks, guys.

偉大的。謝謝大家。

Justin Kleber, Baird.

賈斯汀·克萊伯，貝爾德。

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. Wanted to follow up on the tech spend. Just given investors have been so focused on the cost and the deleverage in the model and not as much on what the paybacks are. So nice to see the labor leverage showing up in margin. Can you remind us some of the other benefits or efficiencies you expect to realize from all these tech investments?

大家早安。感謝您回答這些問題。想要跟進科技支出。鑑於投資者過度關注模型中的成本和去槓桿，而較少關注回報。很高興看到勞動力槓桿在利潤率中顯現出來。您能否提醒我們，您希望從所有這些技術投資中獲得哪些其他好處或效率？

Yeah. I think one of the more obvious is moving a lot of information, both information that we generate internally as well as external information to cloud-based platforms, so that we can make more real-time decisions around how and when we interact with our guests, both existing and potential. We've already seen some advantage come from that as well, and we would expect to see that grow into the future. And I don't want to imply that there will be no tech investment going forward, because there always is.

是的。我認為最明顯的一點是將大量資訊（包括我們內部產生的資訊以及外部資訊）轉移到基於雲端的平台，以便我們能夠就如何以及何時與現有和潛在的客人互動做出更多即時決策。我們已經看到了由此帶來的一些優勢，我們期望看到這種優勢在未來不斷增長。我並不是暗示未來不會有技術投資，因為技術投資總是存在的。

And I think for us, what's going to be really critical is developing those business cases that will give us clarity and confidence in our ability to generate a strong return from those investments. As we debate and consider them internally and then ultimately execute on. So it's actually a pretty exciting opportunity for us going forward. Both with what we've done ready as well as some of the things that we could certainly do in the future.

我認為，對我們來說，真正關鍵的是製定那些能夠讓我們清晰地了解並相信我們有能力從這些投資中獲得豐厚回報的商業案例。當我們在內部進行討論和考慮時，最終會執行。所以這對我們未來發展來說其實是一個非常令人興奮的機會。既包括我們已經做好的準備，也包括我們將來肯定可以做的一些事情。

And I'll just tell on what Kevin said because I couldn't be more passionate about the opportunity that's in front of us. So when you think about the ERP and the HRIS, we talked about HRIS in terms of even some of the early wins on labor and then there's more opportunity there. That comes from the tech investment and how we both combine the tech as well as the employee experience together in a way that drives that kind of benefit.

我只想講述凱文所說的話，因為我對我們面前的機會充滿熱情。因此，當您考慮 ERP 和 HRIS 時，我們討論的是 HRIS 在勞動力方面的一些早期勝利，然後還有更多的機會。這源自於技術投資，以及我們如何將科技與員工體驗結合在一起，從而帶來這種效益。

On the ERP, we know that there is automation and more retail-centric capabilities that the company had not had before, that will make us more efficient on the G&A side over time as we scale. Kevin rightly pointed out, as we move things to the cloud like we've done with our customer data. It allows our marketing team to be more sophisticated, more real-time oriented and shifting marketing spend between different channels, which just makes our cost of customer acquisition and our life cycle management relationship building with our customers more efficient.

在 ERP 方面，我們知道公司以前沒有自動化和更多以零售為中心的功能，隨著我們規模的擴大，這將使我們在 G&A 方面更有效率。凱文正確地指出，我們將資料轉移到雲端，就像我們對客戶資料所做的那樣。它使我們的行銷團隊更加精明，更加重視即時性，並在不同管道之間轉移行銷支出，這使得我們的客戶獲取成本和與客戶的生命週期管理關係建立更加高效。

And then as we focus on store technology like the replatforming of our super protect or even just the technology that we have in stores that improves the ability to train our techs and get them up to speed more quickly, but it also most significantly benefits the customer experience. And when we benefit the customer experience, that positively impacts customer retention. It impacts throughput in the store. It impacts ticket because they're able to present NOCR services better. So we see a lot of opportunity that tech will unlock and we're in the early stages.

然後，當我們專注於商店技術時，例如我們的超級保護的重新平台化，或者只是我們在商店中擁有的技術，這些技術提高了培訓我們的技術人員並使他們更快地掌握技術的能力，但它也最顯著地有利於客戶體驗。當我們改善客戶體驗時，這會對客戶保留產生正面的影響。它會影響商店的吞吐量。它影響票務，因為他們能夠更好地提供 NOCR 服務。因此，我們看到科技將釋放許多機遇，而且我們正處於早期階段。

Thank you, both, for that all the color. Super helpful. Just an unrelated follow-up, and I apologize if I missed this, but your prior guidance for the full year assumed a flattish gross margin. Just curious how you would have us be thinking about gross margin in 4Q? Should we expect to see continued year-over-year margin rate expansion similar to what we saw here in fiscal 3Q? Thank you.

謝謝你們兩位，讓這一切變得如此豐富多彩。超有幫助。這只是一個不相關的後續問題，如果我錯過了這一點，我深感抱歉，但您之前對全年的指導假設毛利率持平。只是好奇您讓我們如何看待第四季的毛利率？我們是否應該預期利潤率將持續年比擴大，類似我們在第三財季所看到的情況？謝謝。

Yeah. For Q4, we would currently expect margins to be at or modestly above prior year as reported. Obviously, we're still early in the quarter, but based upon our forecast, that's what we'd expect for the quarter.

是的。對於第四季度，我們目前預計利潤率將與去年同期持平或略高於去年同期。顯然，我們仍處於本季的初期，但根據我們的預測，這就是我們對本季的預期。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thomas Wendler, Stephens.

托馬斯·溫德勒，史蒂芬斯。

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to kick it off here with the $740 million of the Term Loan B. $625 million of that's kind of accounted for the Breeze acquisition leaving $115 million remaining kind of to be deployed. How are you thinking about utilizing that?

嘿，大家早安。感謝您回答我的問題。我想從 7.4 億美元的定期貸款 B 開始，其中 6.25 億美元用於收購 Breeze，剩餘的 1.15 億美元有待部署。您考慮如何利用它？

The current thought process around that would be a revolver paydown. We do have a drag revolver currently. Pricing too is very, very similar. So by putting it into Terminal B. We'll just increase our optionality without really changing our cost cable cost of debt. So it really -- it's not more complicated than that.

目前對此的思考過程是循環償還。我們目前確實有一把拖曳式左輪手槍。定價也非常非常相似。因此，透過將其放入終端 B，我們只會增加我們的可選性，而不會真正改變我們的債務成本。所以實際上——它並不比這更複雜。

Okay. I appreciate that. And then kind of an unrelated one for me hearing. There's been a little bit of discussion about premiumization kind of impacting last quarter. Can you give us an idea of what the current premium mix is for the oil changes?

好的。我很感激。然後對我來說聽起來有點不相關。關於高端化對上個季度的影響有一些討論。您能告訴我們目前換油的優質混合物是什麼嗎？

So I think overall, we've been open to say that our premium mix is around 80%. And that is a combination of both the blended synthetic MaxLife and the full synthetic. And so what we see is that there is a shift into premium from conventional, but that's drawing against the 20% of our car park, give or take.

所以我認為總體而言，我們可以公開表示我們的高端產品組合約為 80%。這是混合合成 MaxLife 和全合成的組合。因此，我們看到的是，人們從傳統汽車轉向了高端汽車，但這與我們停車場的 20% 左右相比有所下降。

And then you have a change up from MaxLife into full septic. Most of that is driven that switch up between MaxLife and full synthetic is when you have older cars where they were high mileage and a customer had switched up because of the high mileage to a blend, and they switch to a new vehicle, and the vehicle OEM recommends a full synthetic.

然後你就從 MaxLife 變成了完全化糞池。大部分情況下，當您擁有行駛里程數較高的舊車時，客戶會選擇在 MaxLife 和全合成機油之間進行切換，由於行駛里程數較高，客戶已將混合機油換成新車，而車輛 OEM 則推薦使用全合成機油。

So that there's still more upside. What we look at is the car park we're serving -- and the car park on the coast is higher premium than the car park in the middle of the country. So that obviously has a driving effect of where premium mix has more upside across our network than not. But it's really car park driven. And as the car park continues to age, people move into premium mix. And as they switch up to newer vehicles, it switches up more dramatically.

因此還有更多好處。我們關注的是我們所服務的停車場——沿海地區的停車場比中部的停車場收費更高。因此，這顯然具有驅動作用，使得優質組合在我們的網路中具有更大的優勢。但它實際上是由停車場驅動的。隨著停車場的不斷老化，人們開始轉向高檔停車場。而當他們換用較新的車輛時，變化會更加劇烈。

Perfect. I Appreciate the color. Thank you.

完美的。我很欣賞這個顏色。謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

David Lantz, Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的戴維‧蘭茨。

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Any early indications on how we should think about franchise unit growth in '26? Just trying to get a bit more color on thinking through the ramp to 150 per year by '27?

嘿，大家早安。感謝您回答我的問題。關於我們應該如何看待 26 年特許經營單位成長，有任何早期跡象嗎？只是想更詳細地了解一下到 27 年每年增加到 150 個的想法？

Yeah. We continue to accelerate the pipeline, which is the most important. And there's still a lot of opportunity to grow stores given how fragmented the market is and the fact that our stores only reach about 35% of the population. With the refranchising effort, we talked about the fact that those new franchisees for new owners of territory. They'll take some time to build up the pipeline.

是的。我們將繼續加速管道建設，這是最重要的。由於市場分散，而且我們的商店僅覆蓋約 35% 的人口，因此仍有很大的發展機會。隨著特許經營的重新展開，我們談到了這些新特許經營者將成為新領土所有者的事實。他們需要一些時間來建立管道。

So we knew that the current franchisees would contribute about 2/3 of the 150 new units per year. So that continues to grow and pace nicely and that the new franchisees would then contribute the rest and that would be pretty back-end loaded in the ramp.

因此我們知道，目前的特許經營者每年將貢獻 150 個新單位中的約 2/3。因此，它將繼續增長並保持良好的步伐，然後新的特許經營商將貢獻剩餘部分，這將是後端加載的坡道。

And that definitely is proving to be true. But -- so you'll continue to see us moving towards that [150] target overall. But I think we still feel very good around the development agreements that have been signed with our franchisees and the pace with which they're building the pipeline to deliver on this.

事實確實如此。但是 — — 因此你會看到我們總體上繼續朝著 [150] 的目標前進。但我認為，我們對與特許經營商簽署的開發協議以及他們為實現這一目標而建立管道的速度仍然感到非常滿意。

Got it. That's helpful. And then just one more. Any update on fleet performance and how that looks today and if it's still outperforming the company average?

知道了。這很有幫助。然後再來一個。有關於車隊表現的最新消息嗎？今天的表現如何？是否仍然高於公司平均？

Yeah. The investments that we're making in fleet continue to pay off this growth and our fleet customer base continues to outpace the consumer transactional and ticket growth. The partner -- we -- our partnerships with the franchisees has grown this year. So we put a big effort on this for company markets, obviously, working with nationally companies, but also mini fleet management or fleet owners are regional or even local in nature. And so as we expand our partnership with franchisees, it allows us to drive growth in that area. But it continues to be a very strong contributor to our overall.

是的。我們對車隊的投資持續帶來成長回報，我們的車隊客戶群持續超過消費者交易和票務的成長。我們與特許經營商的合作夥伴關係今年有所發展。因此，我們在公司市場上投入了巨大的努力，顯然，我們與全國性的公司合作，但小型車隊管理或車隊所有者也是區域性的，甚至是地方性的。因此，隨著我們與特許經營商的合作關係不斷擴大，我們能夠推動該領域的成長。但它仍然對我們的整體做出非常大的貢獻。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. This marks the end of today's Q&A session and therefore, concludes today's call. Thank you for joining us today. You may now disconnect your lines.

謝謝。這標誌著今天的問答環節的結束，因此，今天的電話會議也結束了。感謝您今天加入我們。現在您可以斷開線路了。