Valvoline Inc (VVV) 2026 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Valvoline's first-quarter fiscal 2026 conference call and webcast. My name is James, and I'll be your operator for this call. (Operator Instructions)

大家好，歡迎參加 Valvoline 2026 財年第一季電話會議和網路直播。我叫詹姆斯，我將擔任這次通話的接線生。（操作說明）

The conference call will now start, and I'll hand it over to our host, Elizabeth Clevinger with Investor Relations to begin.

電話會議現在開始，我將把會議交給投資者關係部門的伊麗莎白·克萊文格主持。

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Valvoline's first-quarter fiscal 2026 conference call and webcast. This morning, Valvoline released results for the first-quarter ended December 31, 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。早安，歡迎參加 Valvoline 2026 財年第一季電話會議和網路直播。今天上午，Valvoline 發布了截至 2025 年 12 月 31 日的第一季業績。這份簡報應與該份獲利報告一起查看，該報告的副本可在我們的投資者關係網站 investors.valvoline.com 上找到。

Please note that these results are preliminary until we file our Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On this morning's call is Lori Flees, our President and CEO; and Kevin Willis, our CFO. As shown in the accompanying presentation, any of our remarks today that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements.

請注意，這些結果均為初步結果，待我們向美國證券交易委員會提交 10-Q 表格後方可確定。今天早上參加電話會議的還有我們的總裁兼執行長 Lori Flees 和我們的財務長 Kevin Willis。如隨附的簡報所示，我們今天發表的任何非歷史事實的言論均為前瞻性陳述。

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. Valvoline assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements unless required by law.

這些前瞻性陳述是基於截至本次演示之日的當前假設，並受到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有重大差異。除非法律要求，否則 Valvoline 不承擔更新任何前瞻性聲明的義務。

In this presentation and in our remarks, we will be discussing our results on an adjusted non-GAAP basis, unless otherwise noted. 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 appendix.

除非另有說明，本次演示和我們的發言中，我們將以調整後的非GAAP準則為基礎討論我們的業績。本簡報附錄中包含了 GAAP 與調整後的非 GAAP 結果的調整表，以及管理階層對非 GAAP 和關鍵業務指標的使用情況的討論。

With that, I will turn it over to Lori.

接下來，我將把麥克風交給洛莉。

Thanks, Elizabeth, and good morning. Thank you all for joining us today to review our first-quarter results. We delivered a strong quarter to start the fiscal year, driven by strong productivity gains in our stores, network expansion and margin improvement, which translated to meaningful earnings growth. I'd like to begin by thanking our team members and franchise partners for their execution in delivering these results.

謝謝你，伊莉莎白，早安。感謝各位今天蒞臨現場，共同回顧我們第一季的業績。在門市生產力大幅提升、網路擴張和利潤率提高的推動下，我們在本財年開始時取得了強勁的季度業績，並轉化為可觀的獲利成長。首先，我要感謝我們的團隊成員和加盟夥伴，感謝他們為取得這些成果所付出的努力。

At our December investor update, we shared our targets and are focused on executing against those. Our first-quarter performance reflects good progress against these commitments. Starting with top line highlights. We saw another double-digit increase to both system-wide store sales and net sales. System-wide same-store sales grew 5.8% and 13.8% on a two-year stack.

在12月份的投資者更新會議上，我們分享了我們的目標，目前專注於實現這些目標。我們第一季的業績反映了我們在履行這些承諾方面取得了良好進展。首先是精彩亮點。我們看到系統內門市銷售額和淨銷售額均再次實現了兩位數成長。系統同店銷售額在兩年內分別成長了 5.8% 和 13.8%。

This quarter, ticket contributed the majority of the comp with all three levers contributing. Net price and premiumization were the largest drivers. We also saw continued positive transaction growth despite a tougher year-over-year compare. As we look at same-store sales breakdown between company and franchise stores, franchise was slightly higher than the system average for the quarter and for the two-year stack.

本季度，門票收入貢獻了大部分營收，這三個方面均有所貢獻。淨價和高端化是最大的驅動因素。儘管同比基數較高，但我們仍然看到交易量持續成長。當我們查看公司門市和加盟店的同店銷售額細分時，加盟店的銷售額在本季和兩年內均略高於系統平均。

We continue to grow our active customer base in line with what we expected, while bringing in new customers, including fleet to the network. We continue to innovate our marketing to connect with new customers. We have some fun taking inspiration from college sports with our Instant Transfer portal, which was designed to invite drivers to transfer from their current oil change provider to Valvoline.

我們持續按照預期發展活躍客戶群，同時為網路引進新客戶，包括車隊客戶。我們不斷創新行銷方式，以吸引新客戶。我們從大學運動中汲取靈感，設計了我們的即時轉移入口網站，旨在邀請司機從他們目前的換油服務商轉移到 Valvoline。

Customer demand for our non-discretionary services remains resilient, and we are not seeing signs of trade down or deferral. And our customers continue to tell us they are delighted by our quick easy trusted service and are giving us a 4.7-star rating across our network and NPS scores over 80%. Looking at network growth, we saw significant store additions this quarter.

客戶對我們非必需服務的需求仍然強勁，我們沒有看到任何降級或推遲購買的跡象。我們的客戶不斷告訴我們，他們對我們快速、簡單、值得信賴的服務感到非常滿意，並在我們的網路中給予我們 4.7 顆星的評分，NPS 得分超過 80%。從網路成長來看，本季我們看到門市數量顯著增加。

The one-time contribution of 162 stores from the Breeze transaction is a noteworthy step forward in our path to a 3,500-plus store network. The Breeze business is performing as expected and integration activities are underway. Our teams are working well together as we integrate the organization. For example, the team has already consolidated and prioritized our acquisition and construction pipeline.

Breeze 交易帶來的 162 家門市的一次性貢獻，是我們朝著擁有 3500 多家門市的網路邁出的重要一步。Breeze業務發展符合預期，整合工作正在進行中。在組織整合過程中，我們的團隊合作得很好。例如，團隊已經整合並優先考慮了我們的收購和建設項目。

We continue to be excited about both the growth potential of the Breeze stores as well as the opportunities to share best practices across the team. Outside of Breeze, we added 38 net new stores with 10 coming from franchise. While franchise openings were more modest in Q1, we have a healthy pipeline for both company and franchise and are confident in our full year expectations.

我們對 Breeze 門市的成長潛力以及在團隊內部分享最佳實踐的機會感到非常興奮。除了 Breeze 之外，我們淨增了 38 家門市，其中 10 家來自加盟店。雖然第一季加盟店的開幕數量較為有限，但我們公司和加盟店的業務儲備都很充足，對全年的預期充滿信心。

We're pleased to see expansion in both our gross and adjusted EBITDA margin, driven by the work we discussed at our December investor update. Kevin will cover the details. But as we think about the rest of the year, I'll remind you that Breeze is only reflected in our Q1 results for one-month, and we still expect near-term headwinds on our margin rates with the addition of 162 immature stores.

我們很高興看到毛利率和調整後 EBITDA 利率均有所增長，這得益於我們在 12 月投資者更新會議上討論的工作。凱文會負責細節。但展望今年剩餘時間，我要提醒大家，Breeze 只在我們的第一季業績中體現了一個月，而且由於新增了 162 家不成熟的門市，我們預計短期內利潤率仍將面臨不利因素。

Driving productivity within our stores, growing our network and expanding margin rate translates into meaningful profit growth. And in Q1, both adjusted EBITDA and EPS grew double digits year-over-year for the quarter and grew faster than top line sales. The first-quarter demonstrated the strength of our business and the continued resiliency of customer demand.

提高門市生產力、擴大網路規模和提高利潤率，都能轉化為可觀的利潤成長。第一季度，調整後的 EBITDA 和每股盈餘均較去年同期成長兩位數，且成長速度超過營收成長速度。第一季業績展現了我們業務的強勁勢頭和客戶需求的持續韌性。

We executed our playbook to deliver meaningful profit growth to start the year. As we look to the remainder of the year, we feel it's too early to make changes to our guidance, but we are pleased with our Q1 performance. While not directly in our financial results, I want to share a couple of team highlights. First, Valvoline earned the number one ranking within the automotive services category for entrepreneur franchise 500 for the fourth year in a row.

我們按計劃執行，在年初實現了可觀的利潤成長。展望今年剩餘時間，我們認為現在調整業績預期還為時過早，但我們對第一季的業績感到滿意。雖然這與我們的財務表現沒有直接關係，但我還是想分享一些團隊亮點。首先，Valvoline 連續第四年榮獲「企業家特許經營 500 強」汽車服務類別的第一名。

And we were also named one of Yelp's most loved brands. These recognitions highlight the strength of our franchise model and the strong customer trust and loyalty built across our network. And second, I want to thank our customers, franchisees and teams for an incredible 16th annual campaign with Children's Miracle Network.

我們也被評為 Yelp 最受歡迎的品牌之一。這些認可凸顯了我們特許經營模式的優勢，以及我們網路中建立的強大的客戶信任和忠誠度。其次，我要感謝我們的客戶、加盟商和團隊，感謝他們與兒童奇蹟網絡共同開展了令人難以置信的第 16 屆年度活動。

Through funds donated by guests at the time of service, corporate-led fundraising efforts and contributions from franchisees, we raised more than $1.8 million for local children's hospitals in the communities where we operate, a nearly 40% increase over the prior year.

透過顧客在用餐時捐贈的資金、公司主導的籌款活動以及加盟商的捐款，我們為我們經營所在社區的當地兒童醫院籌集了超過 180 萬美元，比上一年增長了近 40%。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Kevin to provide more detail on our financial performance.

接下來，我會把電話交給凱文，讓他詳細介紹我們的財務表現。

Thanks, Lori. We've provided a summary of our financial results on slides 5 and 6. Let me spend a few moments to talk about some of the highlights. We saw strong top line growth with net sales of $462 million, an increase of 11% on a reported basis and 15% when adjusted for the impacts of refranchising in Q1 of last year.

謝謝你，洛瑞。我們在第 5 頁和第 6 頁提供了財務績效摘要。讓我花幾分鐘時間談談其中的一些亮點。我們實現了強勁的營收成長，淨銷售額達到 4.62 億美元，按報告數據計算增長了 11%，如果扣除去年第一季特許經營權重新分配的影響，則增長了 15%。

The gross margin rate of 37.4% increased 50 basis points year-over-year, driven by leverage in labor and product cost, offset by increases in other service delivery costs, which includes rent, property taxes and depreciation. Leverage would have improved by an additional 50 basis points, excluding the impact of depreciation, primarily from new stores.

毛利率為 37.4%，年增 50 個基點，主要得益於勞動力和產品成本的槓桿作用，但被其他服務交付成本（包括租金、房產稅和折舊）的增加所抵消。不計折舊的影響（主要來自新店），槓桿率將再提高 50 個基點。

We remain committed to managing SG&A in the business. That said, SG&A as a percent of net sales increased 30 basis points year-over-year to 19.3%. The primary reason for this is related to a non-recurring payroll-related benefit of about $2.4 million in the prior year quarter. Absent this benefit, year-over-year SG&A as a percentage of sales would have declined by 30 basis points.

我們將繼續致力於控制業務中的銷售、一般及行政費用。儘管如此，銷售、一般及行政費用佔淨銷售額的百分比年增了 30 個基點，達到 19.3%。主要原因是上一季產生了一筆約 240 萬美元的非經常性薪資相關福利。如果沒有這項收益，銷售、一般及行政費用佔銷售額的年比百分比將下降 30 個基點。

Overall, adjusted EBITDA margin increased 60 basis points to 25.4%. On a GAAP basis, we reported a loss from continuing operations of $32.2 million, largely driven by the loss on divestiture of certain Breeze stores that was required by the FTC. On an adjusted basis, income from continuing operations was $47.6 million. Turning to EPS. We saw an increase of 16%, 28% when adjusted for refranchising.

總體而言，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率提高了 60 個基點，達到 25.4%。根據美國通用會計準則，我們報告持續經營虧損 3,220 萬美元，這主要是由於聯邦貿易委員會要求我們剝離某些 Breeze 門市而造成的損失。經調整後，持續經營收入為 4,760 萬美元。轉向每股收益。我們看到成長了 16%，如果將特許經營權重新調整後，成長了 28%。

As a reminder, we expect pretax interest expense to increase by about $33 million in fiscal '26 versus fiscal '25 due to the new Term Loan B. Operating cash flows improved to $64.8 million and free cash flow was $7.4 million, improving approximately $20 million compared to the prior year quarter. Taking into consideration the new term loan, our leverage ratio is 3.3 times based on adjusted EBITDA for a trailing 12-months.

提醒各位，由於新的B類定期貸款，我們預計2026財年的稅前利息支出將比2025財年增加約3300萬美元。經營現金流改善至6,480萬美元，自由現金流為740萬美元，較上年同期改善約2,000萬美元。考慮到新的定期貸款，根據過去 12 個月的調整後 EBITDA，我們的槓桿率為 3.3 倍。

As a reminder, you'll now hear us talk about leverage in terms of net debt to adjusted EBITDA. As we continue our core business growth and integrate and grow Breeze, we are focused on getting our leverage back down to 2.5 times as quickly as possible so we can resume share repurchase activity. All in all, the results for this quarter are strong with double-digit sales and profit growth, margin expansion and improved free cash flow.

再次提醒大家，接下來我們將以淨負債與調整後 EBITDA 的比率來討論槓桿率。隨著我們核心業務的持續成長以及 Breeze 的整合與發展，我們正致力於盡快將槓桿率降至 2.5 倍，以便恢復股票回購活動。總的來說，本季業績強勁，銷售額和利潤均達到兩位數成長，利潤率擴大，自由現金流改善。

I'll now turn it back over to Lori to wrap up.

現在我把麥克風交還給洛莉，讓她來總結。

Thanks, Kevin. We delivered a strong quarter to start the year and feel confident in our ability to deliver on the guidance we set for fiscal year 2026. The Breeze integration work is underway, and our teams are working well together. The fundamentals of our business remain strong. As we shared at our investor update in December, we're an established category leader with a track record of industry-leading performance and growth.

謝謝你，凱文。今年開局季表現強勁，我們有信心實現 2026 財年的業績目標。Breeze 整合工作正在進行中，我們的團隊合作進展順利。我們業務的基本面依然強勁。正如我們在 12 月的投資者更新會議上所分享的那樣，我們是公認的行業領導者，擁有領先業界的業績和成長記錄。

That, along with our differentiated capabilities, will continue to drive strong margin and cash generation, positioning us to deliver long-term value to our shareholders.

這一點，再加上我們差異化的能力，將繼續推動強勁的利潤率和現金流，使我們能夠為股東創造長期價值。

I'll now turn it back over to Elizabeth to begin Q&A.

現在我將把發言權交還給伊莉莎白，讓她開始問答環節。

Thanks, Lori. Before we start the Q&A, I want to remind everyone to limit your questions to 1 and a follow-up. With that, operator, can you please open the line.

謝謝你，洛瑞。在開始問答環節之前，我想提醒大家，請將問題數量限制為 1 個，並可附加一個後續問題。接線員，請您接通線路。

(Operator Instructions) Mark Jordan, Goldman Sachs.

（操作說明）馬克喬丹，高盛。

This is Mark Jordan. I joined a minute late, so I apologize if this is already covered. But for same-store sales, it looks like some or all of the new Brakes revenue is now included in the calculation. And I'm just wondering what impact it had on 1Q? And then on the mobile channel in particular, how big is that business in terms of revenue?

這是馬克·喬丹。我遲到了一分鐘，如果這個問題之前已經討論過了，我深感抱歉。但就同店銷售額而言，Brakes 新增的部分或全部收入似乎已計入計算中。我只是想知道這對第一季產生了什麼影響？那麼，尤其是在行動通路方面，該業務的收入規模有多大？

Thanks, Mark. Yes, we mentioned during Investor Day that we were piloting opportunities to expand our reach with mobile service delivery. We want to be transparent about the definition of inclusion while we were early -- in the early stages of doing that. It is relatively small, limited to a couple of markets. And it's really tied to trying to meet the needs of both consumer and fleet demands for increasing convenience. In terms of the overall contribution into our comp this quarter, it was around 20 basis points.

謝謝你，馬克。是的，我們在投資者日上提到過，我們正在試行一些機會，以擴大行動服務交付的範圍。我們希望在早期階段——也就是我們著手進行這項工作的早期階段——就包容性的定義保持透明。它的規模相對較小，僅限於幾個市場。這實際上與滿足消費者和車隊對日益增長的便利性的需求息息相關。就本季對我們業績的整體貢獻而言，約為 20 個基點。

Excellent. And then just one follow-up on franchise store growth. I know it usually ramps throughout the fiscal year, usually back half weighted. But can you just let us know how you feel about the pipeline for openings this year?

出色的。然後，我們再跟進一下加盟店的成長情況。我知道它通常會在整個財政年度逐步增加，通常後半段佔比更高。您能否告訴我們您對今年職缺的規劃有何看法？

Yes, Mark, it's a great question. The quarter -- we had a good quarter overall for new unit additions, but it was light on the franchise side. I will note that we had 13 gross additions. We had some closures, which are unusual, relatively small for our fleet, but those netted out to 10. When we look at January, our franchise partners have opened nine units in January.

是的，馬克，這是一個很好的問題。本季－整體而言，新增門市數量不錯，但特許經營方面略顯不足。我注意到我們總共增加了 13 棟。我們有一些停航，這很不尋常，對我們的船隊來說規模相對較小，但總共停航了 10 艘。從一月的情況來看，我們的加盟合作夥伴在一月開設了九家分店。

So again, a real indication that the pipeline is robust. And considering the Winter Storm Fern in the back half of January, 9 was a pretty good result. So when we look at our pipeline for the rest of the year, it's still very strong, both on the company and the franchise side. And we continue to build momentum to get to that 250 new units in fiscal year '27.

所以，這再次表明該管道系統運作良好。考慮到一月份下旬的冬季風暴“蕨”，9 已經是一個相當不錯的成績了。所以，當我們展望今年剩餘時間的業務發展前景時，無論是公司層面還是特許經營層面，都依然非常強勁。我們將繼續保持勢頭，爭取在 2027 財年實現新增 250 套房屋的目標。

Skylar Tennant, Morgan Stanley.

Skylar Tennant，摩根士丹利。

This is Skylar Tennant on behalf of Simeon Gutman. First, can you speak to the complexion of sales this quarter in terms of how pricing and units are trending? Are you seeing certain trends by region or in newer, younger markets? Or do trends seem to generally be pretty broad-based?

我是 Skylar Tennant，代表 Simeon Gutman。首先，您能否談談本季的銷售情況，包括價格和銷售趨勢？您是否觀察到某些地區或新興的年輕市場有某些趨勢？或者說，這些趨勢似乎整體上有相當廣泛的基礎？

Thanks for the question. We -- actually, in the quarter, from a cadence perspective, October, November were pretty much as expected. December was strong. We saw good growth on both ticket and transaction. Ticket was the larger contributor to our same-store sales growth in the quarter. But overall, the growth was quite balanced and good, both on the franchise side as well as the company side.

謝謝你的提問。實際上，從季度節奏的角度來看，10 月和 11 月的情況基本上符合預期。12月份表現強勁。票務量和交易量都實現了良好的成長。本季度，門票銷售對我們同店銷售成長的貢獻最大。但總體而言，無論是特許經營方面還是公司方面，成長都相當均衡且良好。

I think the only thing we may have saw in November was a little bit of early weather in the Thanksgiving period in some of our geographies. But other than that, there weren't any notable differences or significant trends regionally across our network.

我認為我們在 11 月可能看到的唯一現像是，在感恩節期間，我們某些地區出現了一些提前到來的天氣。但除此之外，我們的網路中各區域之間並沒有任何明顯的差異或顯著趨勢。

Okay. And Lori, maybe how much time do you think needs to be spent on Breeze? Can you kind of give us a sense on how much focus is needed there versus the core business?

好的。Lori，你覺得要花多少時間在Breeze上？您能否大致說明一下，這方面需要投入多少精力，與核心業務相比又需要投入多少精力？

Yes, it's a great question. I think it's important to remember that while a sizable M&A, Breeze represents less than 10% of our financial commitments for FY26. And you can see that the underlining business, given Breeze was only one-month of the Q1 results is the momentum in that core business is really strong. Now we continue to be excited about the growth possible in the 162 Oil Changers stores that we've added.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。我認為需要記住的是，雖然 Breeze 是一筆規模可觀的併購交易，但它只占我們 2026 財年財務承諾的不到 10%。可以看出，儘管 Breeze 只佔第一季業績一個月的數據，但其核心業務的發展勢頭非常強勁。現在，我們對新增的 162 家 Oil Changers 門市的未來發展前景依然感到興奮。

And we're certainly starting to share some good best practices. But I think we've got to keep context that Breeze is an important asset, and we are going to spend time to integrate it and integrate it well, but it is a small portion of the overall financial picture for us.

我們當然也開始分享一些好的最佳實踐。但我認為我們必須認識到，Breeze 是一項重要的資產，我們將花時間將其整合並妥善整合，但它在我們整體財務狀況中所佔比例很小。

Max Rakhlenko, TD Cowen.

馬克斯·拉赫連科，TD Cowen。

Congrats on the nice quarter. So with the strong 1Q comps and easing compares the rest of the year, how should we think about the shape of the year in the context of your guide? And then just any comments on the first month of 2Q?

恭喜你本季業績出色。因此，鑑於第一季強勁的同比數據以及今年剩餘時間同比數據的放緩，我們應該如何結合您的指南來看待今年的經濟狀況？那麼，對於第二季第一個月的情況，您有什麼看法？

Do you want to start and then I can cover Q2.

你想先開始嗎？然後我可以講解第二季的內容。

Sure. Yes. Thanks for the question. I mean we're -- as we said at our Q1 call and on the investor update, we've taken a measured approach to the outlook for the full year. Really, really pleased with how Q1 played out. It was a strong quarter, and we're very happy about that. There's still a lot of year left, and we want to continue to see how that unfolds.

當然。是的。謝謝你的提問。我的意思是，正如我們在第一季電話會議和投資者更新中所說，我們對全年的展望採取了謹慎的態度。我對第一季的業績非常滿意。這是一個強勁的季度，我們對此非常滿意。今年還有很長一段時間，我們想繼續看看事態如何發展。

But we're confident in the guide that we put up in Q1 and reiterated at the investor update in December. So again, we feel really good about where we are. There's a lot of year left. We're still working through the Breeze transaction, obviously, in terms of integration. But Breeze also performed as expected for the month that we owned it in Q1. And so overall, it's a great start to the year. And again, we're very confident in meeting our commitments for the year.

但我們對第一季發布的指導方針以及 12 月投資者更新會議上重申的內容充滿信心。所以，我們對目前的狀況感到非常滿意。一年還很長。顯然，在整合方面，我們仍在處理 Breeze 的交易。但 Breeze 在我們擁有它的第一季表現也符合預期。總的來說，今年開局不錯。我們再次重申，我們非常有信心完成今年的所有承諾。

Max, as we think about Q2, apart from Winter Storm Fern, our start to the quarter was really strong. Now with the snow and ice conditions that hit many of the geographies that we operate in, particularly on the company side, momentum obviously slowed, and we're still, in many areas, Kentucky included, still not thought out completely, which has impacted consumers kind of return to normal activity.

Max，回顧第二季度，除了冬季風暴 Fern 之外，我們本季的開局非常強勁。現在，由於我們運營的許多地區都受到了冰雪天氣的影響，特別是公司方面，發展勢頭明顯放緩，而且在包括肯塔基州在內的許多地區，我們仍然沒有完全做好準備，這影響了消費者恢復正常活動。

I think as you look at the forecast and the groundhog said we have another six-weeks and the polar vortex that they expect coming and the storms that could follow with that, we think it's going to take a little bit more time to recoup the transactions that pushed out. We don't see significant customer deferral when we look a couple of weeks at a time.

我認為，看看天氣預報，土撥鼠預測我們還有六週時間，而且預計極地渦旋即將到來，隨之而來的風暴也可能很多，我們認為需要更多的時間才能彌補被推遲的交易。從幾週的時間跨度來看，我們沒有發現明顯的客戶延期付款現象。

But we do know from history that customers will return to get their cars serviced when their normal day-to-day activities resume. So we expect that as we go out through the balance of the quarter, we'll recoup some of the volume that we obviously missed as people stayed off the roads. But overall, Q2 just before the weather started very strong.

但我們從歷史經驗得知，當顧客的日常生活恢復正常後，就會回來進行汽車保養。因此我們預計，隨著本季剩餘時間的過去，我們將彌補一些因人們減少出行而大幅損失的銷售量。但總體而言，第二季在天氣變化之前表現非常強勁。

Got it. That's very helpful. And then on Breeze, what's the latest thinking around the timing of the store conversions? How many locations do you plan to convert this fiscal year? And then what could be left for year two or year three? And then how should we think about both the revenue as well as the margin impacts the rest of the year sequentially?

知道了。那很有幫助。那麼，關於 Breeze，關於店鋪轉換時間的最新想法是什麼？本財政年度您計劃改造多少個地點？那麼第二年或第三年還能剩下什麼呢？那麼，我們該如何考慮營收和利潤率對今年剩餘時間的季比影響呢？

Are you -- on the last question because I'll have Kevin answer it, are you talking Breeze specific or more broadly on the margin and the --

關於最後一個問題（因為我會讓凱文回答），您指的是 Breeze 的具體情況，還是更廣泛地指邊緣和…--

How do you factor Breeze on the P&L?

如何將Breeze計入損益表？

Okay. All right. Yes, I'll cover the first part, which is just really our integration overall. We closed the transaction in December and simultaneous with that had to complete the divestitures that were required by the FTC. And while that may sound simple, there's a lot of co-mingling of data in every part of the business that we had to start to separate and transition that out.

好的。好的。是的，我將介紹第一部分，也就是我們整體的整合情況。我們在 12 月完成了交易，同時，我們也必須完成聯邦貿易委員會要求的資產剝離。雖然這聽起來很簡單，但業務的各個環節都存在大量資料混雜的情況，我們不得不開始將其分開並轉移出去。

And so a lot of the focus in the first month was really getting that business stood up within our portfolio and stabilizing the team to ensure that they continue to deliver. And as Kevin said, they delivered exactly as expected, and we feel really good about that business. Our teams have been meeting, obviously, you have the holiday period, but we're two-months into integration planning.

因此，第一個月的重點是真正將這項業務納入我們的投資組合，並穩定團隊，以確保他們能夠繼續交付成果。正如凱文所說，他們的表現完全符合預期，我們對這筆交易感到非常滿意。我們的團隊一直在開會，當然，現在是假期，但我們已經進行了兩個月的整合計劃。

And I would say we're having the discussions around how we integrate the Breeze stores into our network and all the things like systems, and I talked about pipelines being integrated just to make sure that we're not competing against each other in any market. So there's a lot of work underway with parts of our team, but it's a little premature for me to share the specifics on store conversions. We're obviously engaging the team specifically on that.

我想說，我們正在討論如何將 Breeze 商店整合到我們的網路中，以及系統等所有相關事宜。我還談到了整合管道的問題，以確保我們在任何市場上都不會相互競爭。所以，我們團隊的部分成員正在進行大量工作，但現在要分享有關商店轉換率的具體細節還為時過早。我們顯然正在就此與團隊進行專門溝通。

As far as the financial impact, consistent with the commitments that we made at the investor update in December, we would expect the Breeze stores to add about $160 million of top line for the 10 months that we will own the business in fiscal '26, around $31 million of EBITDA. And I think as a reminder, obviously, we did take on leverage to do this transaction.

就財務影響而言，根據我們在 12 月投資者更新會議上所做的承諾，我們預計 Breeze 門市將在 2026 財年我們擁有該業務的 10 個月內增加約 1.6 億美元的收入，約 3,100 萬美元的 EBITDA。我想提醒大家，很顯然，我們為了完成這筆交易而使用了槓桿。

We expect the cash interest to be about $33 million on a pretax basis. And that we would expect to have about a $0.20 per share impact on EPS for, again, the 10 months that we own the business.

我們預計稅前現金利息約為 3,300 萬美元。我們預計，在我們持有該業務的 10 個月內，每股收益將受到約 0.20 美元的影響。

David Bellinger, Mizuho.

David Bellinger，瑞穗銀行。

Sort of macro related, we've been hearing a lot more about these affordability concerns across most of the consumer, high prices holding spending back to some degree. But Valvoline has consistently seen trade-up activity, product premiumization. Why do you think that's the case? And does it say something about the pricing potential of this business and maybe something more you can gradually tap into over time?

從宏觀層面來看，我們聽到越來越多的消費者表達了對購買力的擔憂，高物價在某種程度上抑制了消費。但 Valvoline 一直觀察到消費者進行產品升級換代，產品高端化趨勢。你覺得為什麼會這樣？這是否說明了這家企業的定價潛力，以及隨著時間的推移，你或許可以逐步挖掘出更多潛力？

Yes, David, it's a very good question. Valvoline is a strong brand and business in a category that, as you know, is non-discretionary. And there are a lot of tailwinds that affect us. One is the aging car park that leads us to present more non-oil change revenue services on average per customer that then gives us that lift despite the macro may be running encounter because people feel like they need to maintain the vehicle they have such that they don't have to replace that vehicle. I also think that the car park has evolved.

是的，大衛，這是一個很好的問題。Valvoline 是一個強大的品牌和企業，而眾所周知，它所處的品類屬於非必需品。而且有很多順風因素對我們有利。一是老舊的停車場導致我們平均每位顧客需要提供更多非換油服務，這反而提升了我們的業績，儘管宏觀經濟形勢可能正在惡化，因為人們覺得他們需要維護現有的車輛，這樣就不必更換車輛。我也認為停車場已經改變了。

And as the new vehicles start to age into the car park, the automotive manufacturer is the one who specs the kind of lubricant that is required. Now as a customer has a high mileage vehicle starts to get over 100,000 miles, they really do want to maintain that vehicle rather than having to trade up into a new one or a newer one.

隨著新車逐漸老化停放在停車場，汽車製造商會指定所需的潤滑油類型。現在，當客戶的車輛行駛里程超過 10 萬英里時，他們真的希望繼續維護這輛車，而不是換購一輛新車或更新的車。

And so those are the things that are driving some of how we've been bucking the trend. Our team educates the customer on their choices. They educate them as to the choices for their vehicle based on the mileage and the age of the vehicle and what the OEM requires. So we just run our play and educate the customer, which builds trust, and I think that serves us well. We continue to look at pricing.

因此，這些因素在某種程度上促使我們逆勢而行。我們的團隊會向客戶講解他們的選擇。他們會根據車輛的里程數、車齡以及汽車製造商的要求，向車主講解如何選擇合適的配件。所以我們只是按部就班地進行遊戲，並向客戶普及相關知識，這樣就能建立信任，我認為這對我們很有幫助。我們將繼續關注定價問題。

I think we always want to be a little cautious given the macro environment to not move too quickly. But obviously, we continue and net pricing was a contributor to the comp this quarter, and we continue to adjust our pricing appropriately given our value proposition to the consumer.

鑑於當前的宏觀環境，我認為我們應該始終保持謹慎，不要行動太快。但顯然，我們仍在繼續，淨價是本季同店銷售成長的因素之一，我們將繼續根據我們對消費者的價值主張適當調整價格。

Great. Second question, completely different topic, maybe for Kevin. But the material weakness for internal controls that's been in your filings, that's lasted somewhat longer than the timeline you initially laid out. So how much of that is simply waiting for approvals with the new systems in place? Or is there more technical work you have to do to get all that cleaned up?

偉大的。第二個問題，完全不同的話題，或許可以問凱文。但是，您在文件中揭露的內部控制方面的重大缺陷，持續時間比您最初設定的時間表要長一些。那麼，其中有多少僅僅是因為新系統尚未啟用而需要等待審批呢？或者，是否還需要進行更多技術工作才能完成所有這些清理工作？

Yes. Thanks for the question. The team has put in a tremendous amount of work to get us to the point where we are. As a reminder, in fiscal '25, we really had two aspects of the material weakness that we were working on. The first was around systems, so call it, IT general controls that needed to be put in place, remediated, tested, proven to work and proven to be effective.

是的。謝謝你的提問。團隊付出了巨大的努力才使我們達到今天的成就。提醒一下，在 2025 財年，我們主要關注兩方面的實質弱點。第一個面向是關於系統，或IT通用控制，需要製定、修復、測試、證明其有效並證明其有效。

And we passed that test as part of fiscal '25. That was in our 10-K disclosure. The second part of the material weakness is around business process-related controls. That work remains underway, and we continue to work with both EY, our auditor, as well as several third parties who are helping us with this project. What it really comes down to is just a massive amount of work to get everything in place in terms of controls documented.

我們在 2025 財年通過了這項考驗。這一點在我們的 10-K 揭露文件中已經寫明了。第二部分重大缺陷與業務流程相關的控制有關。這項工作仍在進行中，我們將繼續與我們的審計師安永會計師事務所以及幫助我們進行此專案的幾家第三方合作。歸根結底，需要付出巨大的努力才能將所有控制措施落實到位並形成文件。

Making sure that we have the right controls in place and then proving to ourselves and to our auditors that those controls are working and that the overall control environment is effective. And that's what the team is working on as we speak and has been working on for a while. But good progress has been made. We're still climbing the hill, and it's certainly our expectation that by the end of this fiscal year, we will be able to put this to bed. As a reminder, the test or the opinion is an annual opinion.

確保我們採取了正確的控制措施，然後向我們自己和我們的審計人員證明這些控制措施是有效的，並且整體控制環境是有效的。而這正是團隊目前正在努力的方向，也是他們已經努力了一段時間的方向。但已經取得了良好進展。我們仍在努力攀登高峰，我們當然期望在本財政年度結束前能夠解決這個問題。再次提醒，該測試或意見是年度意見。

And so we won't be out of the woods on this until we get through the fiscal year and EY has a chance to review the control environment in its entirety based on the work that's been done, the testing we've done, the testing they'll do to arrive at that conclusion and an opinion.

因此，在財政年度結束之前，我們無法擺脫困境，安永會計師事務所將有機會根據我們已完成的工作、我們已進行的測試以及他們將要進行的測試，對整個控制環境進行全面審查，從而得出結論和意見。

I'll just add that both us and E&Y have -- do not have concerns on any statement -- any risk of our financial statements not being accurate and reflective of the business. So this is around business process controls, making sure they're documented, making sure they're executed, making sure they're tested. It's not any concern around the financial reporting of the business.

我還要補充一點，我們和安永會計師事務所都沒有任何財務報表不準確、無法反映業務狀況的風險。所以，這主要圍繞著業務流程控制展開，確保它們被記錄、執行和測試。這與公司的財務報告沒有任何關係。

Steven Zaccone, Citi.

史蒂文‧扎科內，花旗集團。

I wanted to start on the gross margin performance because it clearly came in stronger than expected. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the strength in the quarter? And then do you see this organic growth rate of kind of 50 basis points expansion as the right run rate for the balance of the year? And then help us understand how Breeze will impact that gross margin performance since you have better visibility at this point than when you first gave guidance a couple of months ago.

我想先談談毛利率表現，因為它明顯優於預期。能否再詳細談談本季的強勁表現？那麼，您認為這種每年50個基點的有機成長率，對於今年剩餘時間是否合適？然後，請幫助我們了解 Breeze 將如何影響毛利率表現，因為您現在比幾個月前首次給出指導意見時更清楚情況了。

Yes. Thanks for the question. We were pleased with the gross margin progress that we made in the quarter versus prior year. As indicated in the prepared remarks, we were up about 50 basis points year-over-year. Labor and product were the primary drivers of that. We've been working and continue to work on the labor piece of the equation. The team has done a great job with that as we've expected.

是的。謝謝你的提問。我們對本季毛利率較上年同期的進展感到滿意。如同事先準備好的發言稿中所述，我們比去年同期上升了約 50 個基點。勞動力和產品是主要驅動因素。我們一直在努力解決勞動力問題，並將繼續努力。正如我們所預期的那樣，團隊在這方面做得非常出色。

We've not only held on to but been able to improve upon that labor leverage a bit, and we would expect that progress to continue. The team is really looking at all aspects of store spend, controllable store spend and labor has been a big focus because it's the largest piece of COGS. The product side, we did see some benefit in the quarter.

我們不僅保持了勞動力方面的優勢，而且還略有提升，我們預計這一進展將會持續下去。團隊正在認真審視門市支出的各個方面，其中可控門市支出和人工成本一直是重點，因為人工成本是銷售成本中最大的部分。產品方面，我們本季確實看到了一些成效。

We have seen base oil come down just a bit. As a reminder, we get the benefit of that, but we also pass that benefit along to our franchise partners. So those two are the primary driver. On the flip side of that, we did see increases to other service delivery costs, which include things like rent, property taxes, depreciation. Those increases are largely driven by adding new stores, especially the depreciation part, which was about a 50-basis point negative versus prior year.

我們看到基礎油價格略有下降。再次提醒大家，我們不僅從中受益，也將這種益處傳遞給我們的加盟合作夥伴。所以，這兩個因素是主要驅動力。另一方面，我們也看到其他服務交付成本增加，其中包括租金、房產稅、折舊等。這些成長主要由新增門市推動，尤其是折舊部分，與前一年相比下降了約 50 個基點。

But we did also see some increases in terms of both the rent and property taxes, again, primarily related to new stores, but also just ordinary course. In terms of the full year and the Breeze impact, as we said, we're bringing -- or we brought 162 immature stores into the system that will have a negative impact on overall margin. I believe at the investor update, we indicated that we would expect it to be about 100 basis points of EBITDA margin impact.

但我們也看到租金和房產稅方面出現了一些增長，這主要與新商店有關，但也與正常情況有關。就全年而言，Breeze 的影響正如我們所說，我們正在——或者說我們已經將 162 家不成熟的門市引入系統，這將對整體利潤率產生負面影響。我相信在投資者更新會議上，我們已經表示預計這將對 EBITDA 利潤率產生約 100 個基點的影響。

We continue to expect that to be the case, but obviously, are working with the Breeze team and with our internal team to improve the business, to grow the business so that we can increase those margins, both gross and EBITDA.

我們仍然預期情況會如此，但顯然，我們正在與 Breeze 團隊和我們的內部團隊合作，以改善業務，發展業務，從而提高毛利率和 EBITDA 利率。

Okay. And just a clarification, the 100 bps of pressure margin, is it more weighted to grosses than SG&A as we think about the model?

好的。另外，需要澄清一下，這 100 個基點的壓力裕度，在我們考慮模型時，是否與毛利相關，而不是與銷售、管理及行政費用相關？

It's more on the EBITDA line. It's a bit of both, but 100 basis points on the EBITDA line. Because they do have a corporate center.

更側重於 EBITDA 指標。兩者兼而有之，但 EBITDA 指標上增加了 100 個基點。因為他們確實有一個企業總部。

Okay. Second question is just you talked about pricing and ticket in particular being a bigger contributor to the comp. Just remind us, how do you see the balance of the year for same-store sales between ticket and transaction?

好的。第二個問題就是，你剛才提到定價，特別是票價，是競爭中更重要的因素。請您提醒一下，您如何看待今年同店銷售額在票面價值和實際交易額之間的平衡？

We'd expect on an overall basis to really be balanced as we have been. As you look at fiscal '25, as we talk through that, it's more heavily weighted to ticket, but transaction growth is also very important. And I think also importantly, we saw transaction growth across the system in Q1, just as we did in fiscal '25. We would expect to see that for the balance of the year really across the system, both franchise and company.

我們預計整體上會像以前一樣保持平衡。回顧 2025 財年，正如我們討論的那樣，票務收入佔比更高，但交易量成長也非常重要。而且我認為同樣重要的是，我們在第一季看到了整個系統的交易量成長，就像我們在 2025 財年一樣。我們預計在今年剩餘的時間裡，整個系統，包括特許經營和公司，都會出現這種情況。

And so both are important to the comp. It has been the case that ticket has been a bigger driver, and we would expect that to continue to be the case. But again, both are quite important to the comp.

因此，兩者對比賽都很重要。罰單一直是主要驅動因素，我們預計這種情況還會持續下去。但話說回來，這兩者對比賽都非常重要。

Scott Stember, ROTH Capital Partners.

Scott Stember，ROTH Capital Partners。

A question about just bigger picture potential gains that the quick lube market, particularly Valvoline is seeing maybe for people trading down from car dealerships. Could that be a potential benefit in this very high inflationary environment? Are you seeing that? I'm just trying to get a sense of where things are coming from.

一個關於快速潤滑油市場（尤其是 Valvoline）可能從汽車經銷商降級到快速潤滑油市場所帶來的更大潛在收益的問題。在當前高通膨環境下，這是否會成為一種潛在的優勢？你看到了嗎？我只是想了解事情的來龍去脈。

Yes. When we open a new store, and we track where our customers last got their oil changed, we know that they come from where they're going in the marketplace. And about 40 -- 35% to 40% of customers still go back to a dealership. And so we know and track that when we open a new store and we bring in a new set of customers into our system, about that same proportion are coming from outside the Quick Lube market and within dealerships.

是的。當我們開設一家新店，並追蹤顧客上次在哪裡更換機油時，我們就知道他們來自哪裡，以及他們在市場上的去向。大約有 35% 到 40% 的顧客仍會回到經銷商購買商品。因此，我們知道並跟踪，當我們開設一家新店並將一批新客戶引入我們的系統時，大約有相同比例的客戶來自快速潤滑市場之外，來自經銷商內部。

Now I don't want to get into the psyche of the customers as to whether or not they're doing that to trade down. I think the reality is we offer a much more convenient service where it's stay in your car, you don't have to make an appointment. You don't have to wait in a waiting room. You don't have to leave your car and come back for it. It's 15-minutes or less. It's a much more convenient experience for the consumer.

現在我不想去揣測顧客的心理，不知道他們這樣做是否是為了降低消費等級。我認為實際情況是，我們提供的服務更加便捷，您無需下車，也無需預約。您無需在候診室等候。你無需離開車輛再回來取。不超過15分鐘。對消費者而言，這是一種更方便的體驗。

And I think that's really what the consumer is making the decision on. I can't -- we don't get into the details of why they decided to pick us in enough detail across our system to be able to say it's much different than that. I am sure there are people who trade down, but I think convenience is likely the largest driver of switching.

我認為這才是消費者真正做出決定的依據。我不能——我們系統內沒有足夠詳細的資訊來解釋他們為什麼決定選擇我們，所以無法說情況與此有很大不同。我相信肯定有人會選擇購買配置較低的產品，但我認為便利性可能是促使人們更換產品的最大因素。

Got it. And then last question. Obviously, store closures due to Winter Storm Fern. But once stores start opening up again, could you potentially talk about potential benefits that you guys will see, whether it's batteries, windshield wipers need to be replaced because of the ice. Just talk about any tailwinds we can get from that.

知道了。最後一個問題。顯然，由於冬季風暴弗恩，商店關閉。但是一旦商店重新開門營業，您能否談談您可能會看到的潛在好處，例如電池、擋風玻璃雨刷因為結冰需要更換等等。就說說我們能從中獲得的任何有利因素吧。

Yes, absolutely. And this time of year, we always see that. So while this storm may have been broader in reach and maybe more prolonged in some areas, the things that you're talking about are the things that are driven during this time. So batteries, batteries that are older tend to falter during this time and need to be replaced, windshield wipers definitely need to be replaced.

是的，絕對的。每年這個時候，我們總是能看到這種情況。所以，雖然這場風暴的影響範圍可能更廣，在某些地區持續時間可能更長，但你所說的這些事情正是在這段時間發生的。所以，電池，尤其是老舊的電池，在這個時期往往會故障，需要更換；雨刷也絕對需要更換。

So these are things that we typically see in our business. And as we have these weather impacts, we do try to modulate our labor. So we won't add labor. We won't do new -- as much new customer marketing during this time, and we wait until the weather pattern has passed. And then we ramp that back up again in order to serve the customers who did not get service during the winter sort of storm period.

所以這些都是我們在業務中經常遇到的情況。由於天氣會對這些影響造成影響，我們會盡量調整勞動投入。所以我們就不增加人工了。在此期間，我們將不會進行太多新客戶行銷活動，我們將等到這種天氣狀況過去後再進行。然後我們再次提高服務能力，以便為在冬季暴風雪期間未獲得服務的客戶提供服務。

But all the things you're talking about are exactly right. This time of year, we always have storms. It just depends on when in the quarter they happen and for how long they last.

但你說的這些都完全正確。每年這個時候，我們這裡都會有暴風雨。這完全取決於它們在季度中的哪個時間發生以及持續多久。

Steve Shemesh, RBC Capital Markets.

史蒂夫‧謝梅什，加拿大皇家銀行資本市場。

So as we think about the comp, it sounds like ticket was maybe 4.5 points given the tougher transaction compare. Any color you can share just on the breakdown of premiumization list price and non-oil change revenue?

因此，當我們考慮比較結果時，考慮到交易比較難度較大，這張票的得分可能為 4.5 分。您能否分享一下高端化產品定價和非換油收入的細分數據？

Yes. We don't normally get into the specific components of it. As we look at the mix between ticket and transaction, I would say that for the quarter, the ticket was roughly 3/4 of the comp is the way to think about it. But again, as we look at the comp, we saw growth in all those categories that you mentioned on the transaction side.

是的。我們通常不會深入探討它的具體組成部分。當我們審視票務和交易的組合時，我認為，就本季而言，票務約佔總收入的 3/4，這是可以這樣理解的。但是，當我們查看同業數據時，我們發現您提到的交易方面的所有類別都實現了成長。

And in terms of ticket, also positive in terms of price premiumization and NOCR for the quarter. So again, a good balance. But yes, ticket was a bit higher in the quarter than maybe what we saw in, say, Q4 of fiscal '25.

就票務而言，本季價格溢價和淨現值也呈現正態勢。所以，再次強調，這是一個很好的平衡點。但沒錯，本季的客單價確實比我們在 2025 財年第四季看到的要高一些。

Got it. That's helpful. And maybe just as a follow-up on a different topic. So at the time the deal was announced, you talked about 18- to 24-months from deal close to delever to 2.5 times to potentially resume share repurchases. As I just kind of look at the model, at least on my end, it seems like you could maybe get there by year-end.

知道了。那很有幫助。或許可以把它當作另一個主題的後續討論。因此，在宣布這筆交易時，你們談到從交易完成到將槓桿率降至 2.5 倍，並有可能恢復股票回購，這需要 18 到 24 個月的時間。我從這個模型上看了一下，至少在我看來，似乎到年底或許可以達成這個目標。

So I guess just from where you are today, two-months of Breeze under your belt, is 18-months still the right way to think about it? Or do you think you can potentially get there sooner?

所以我想，就你目前的情況來看，在你使用 Breeze 兩個月之後，18 個月仍然是考慮這個問題的正確方式嗎？或者你認為你有可能更快到達那裡？

Well, we wanted to frame it up in terms of a target that we felt very comfortable with, and we're still comfortable with that. To your point, we'll continue to monitor this. And as we make progress on the balance sheet as the top line and EBITDA continues to grow, our commitment is once we're back in the range, you should expect us to return to share repurchases. So if we get there sooner, then we will, in fact, start repurchasing shares sooner as well. Does that answer your question?

嗯，我們希望將目標設定在我們感到非常滿意的範圍內，而我們現在仍然對這個目標感到滿意。你說得對，我們會繼續關注此事。隨著我們的資產負債表取得進展，營收和 EBITDA 持續成長，我們承諾，一旦我們回到預期範圍內，你們應該期待我們恢復股票回購。所以如果我們能更快達到目標，那麼我們實際上也會更快開始回購股票。這樣回答了你的問題嗎？

Chris O'Cull, Stifel.

克里斯·奧庫爾，斯蒂費爾。

Lori, we noticed in the FTD that the company may start a national ad fund in fiscal '27. Can you talk about why now may be the right time to launch a fund, but maybe you're learning about the potential efficiency of national advertising and maybe how quickly the system could grow this fund over the next few years, if that's the path you move forward with?

Lori，我們在 FTD 中註意到，該公司可能會在 2027 財年啟動全國廣告基金。您能否談談為什麼現在可能是推出基金的合適時機，但也許您正在了解全國性廣告的潛在效率，以及如果這是您前進的方向，該系統在未來幾年內可以如何快速發展該基金？

Absolutely. You hit on the main driver. As our network has grown and the reach and densification has improved, moving from a hyperlocal-only marketing spend to a national fund drives significant efficiency. And as it relates to some of the company store spending, we've already started shifting some of our company marketing spend for stores into more national funding.

絕對地。你擊中了主要驅動因素。隨著我們的網路不斷發展壯大，覆蓋範圍和密度不斷提高，從僅限本地的行銷支出轉向全國性基金，顯著提高了效率。至於公司門市的一些支出，我們已經開始將部分公司門市行銷支出轉移到更全國性的資金支持。

And as we've proven out and shown the benefits of that to our franchisees, that's the reason why we're moving towards that. In terms of how big it could get, I think it's premature to say, but we'll obviously just keep monitoring. And as we see more efficiency, we'll obviously balance our spend.

我們已經向加盟商證明並展示了這樣做的好處，這就是我們朝著這個方向發展的原因。至於它最終會發展到多大規模，現在下結論還為時過早，但我們顯然會繼續密切關注。隨著效率的提高，我們顯然會平衡支出。

Okay. When do you think you would have an estimate for what the contribution rate could be? I think the FTD mentioned like 0.25 point, but I assume it will be much larger than that.

好的。您預計什麼時候能估算出繳費率是多少？我認為 FTD 提到的數值是 0.25 點，但我估計實際數值會遠高於此。

Again, I think we're working in partnership with our franchisees. And I think the FTD spells out how we're going to start. And I think based on the results and the performance of the national fund, we'll continue to optimize across the marketing pools of spend.

再次強調，我認為我們正在與加盟商建立合作關係。我認為 FTD 闡明了我們將如何開始。我認為，根據國家基金的成果和表現，我們將繼續優化各個行銷支出池。

Okay. And then I know the average sales ramp of new stores is in that three- to five-year range. But can you talk about the variance around that average in markets where brand awareness is high versus markets maybe where brand awareness and penetration are relatively low?

好的。而且我知道新店的平均銷售成長週期為三到五年。但是，您能否談談品牌知名度高的市場與品牌知名度和滲透率相對較低的市場中，該平均值的差異情況？

I'm not sure I caught the first part of your question.

我不太確定我是否理解了你問題的第一部分。

Three- to five-year ramp.

三到五年過渡期。

Three- to five-year ramp. Got it.

三到五年過渡期。知道了。

How does it compare in markets where the awareness is high versus maybe expansion or greenfield markets?

在認知度較高的市場中，與在擴張型市場或全新市場中相比，情況如何？

Yes. So what we typically see is the ramp in the first three-years is a bit faster if we are adding a store to a market that has good brand awareness, and it would be a little slower. But we do modulate our marketing spend given that. And that's all factored into our new unit forecast, which continue to drive really strong IRR returns in the mid-teens. And so that's factored into those forecasts.

是的。因此，我們通常看到的是，如果在一個品牌知名度良好的市場中開設一家門市，那麼前三年的成長速度會更快一些；反之，成長速度則會慢一些。但有鑑於此，我們會調整行銷支出。所有這些都已納入我們新的單位預測中，這將繼續推動內部報酬率 (IRR) 達到 15% 左右的強勁水平。因此，這些因素都已納入預測之中。

Tom Wendler, Stephens.

湯姆溫德勒，史蒂芬斯。

You've now lapped some of the larger refranchising activity in fiscal quarter 4Q '24 and 1Q '25. Can you give us a little bit of an idea of how much the 10 stores refranchised this last quarter impacted results?

您現在已經趕上了 2024 財年第四季和 2025 財年第一季的一些規模較大的特許經營權重新授予活動。您能否簡要介紹一下上個季度重新特許經營的 10 家門市對業績產生了多大影響？

Yes. First, I'll just comment and restate what we have been saying for the better part of last year and in our December investor update that we really don't have any plans to do any further large-scale refranchising, but we do make transfers. And I think what you're referring to is we had a 10-store transfer in Q1 from franchise -- from company to franchise.

是的。首先，我只想評論並重申我們在去年大部分時間以及 12 月的投資者更新中一直在說的話，那就是我們真的沒有任何進一步大規模重新特許經營的計劃，但我們確實會進行轉讓。我想你指的是我們在第一季將 10 家門市從特許經營店轉移到了特許經營店。

Similarly, in Q3 of fiscal '25, we had a six-store transfer from franchise to company. And we're really doing that to optimize market boundaries so that either the franchise or company can optimize our G&A and marketing spend in a geography. Now the specific transfers in Q1 were not really material from a financial standpoint, and we incorporated that into our guidance.

同樣，在 2025 財年第三季度，我們有六家門市從特許經營店轉為公司直營店。我們這樣做確實是為了優化市場邊界，以便加盟商或公司能夠優化在特定地區的行政管理費用和行銷支出。從財務角度來看，第一季的具體轉帳並不重要，我們已將此納入我們的業績指引中。

So unlike the previous refranchising where there were three transactions that happened over a two-quarter period and fairly sizable, we're not going to continue to adjust numbers or recast them going forward for these small transfers between.

因此，與先前的特許經營權轉讓不同，先前的轉讓涉及三個交易，在兩個季度內完成，而且金額相當大，我們不會繼續調整數字或重新計算這些小額轉讓。

Perfect. Appreciate the color. Maybe on a separate note here, the Instant Transfer Portal campaign, I think you mentioned you saw some early success in the first few weeks of this quarter before the storm. Can you maybe give us some early reads on the Instant Transfer portal? Is that the driver there?

完美的。欣賞這種顏色。或許可以另外提一下，關於即時轉帳入口網站活動，我想您提到過，在暴風雨來臨之前，本季度的前幾週您已經取得了一些初步成功。您能否提供我們一些關於即時轉帳入口網站的初步資訊？那是司機嗎？

I wouldn't -- I would say that all of the marketing activities that we do end up driving engagement in our brand and conversion into our stores. The Transfer Portal was a really creative opportunity that our marketing team and our marketing partners came up with to sort of capture on a lot of the frenzy and college sports.

我不會——我會說我們所做的所有行銷活動最終都會提高我們品牌的參與度，並促進顧客到我們門市消費。轉會入口網站是我們行銷團隊和行銷合作夥伴想出的一個非常有創意的舉措，旨在抓住大學運動的熱潮。

It created very strong creative engagement, which is around brand impressions and offers, which when we look at that relative to our other social performance, it benchmarked very well. So when you're trying to find new ways to reach new customers who haven't had the experience of your brand, this kind of creativity goes a long way. And that I'm really proud of the team for some of the things that they're working on and that they've done.

它創造了非常強大的創意互動，主要圍繞著品牌印象和優惠活動。當我們將其與我們其他社交媒體表現進行比較時，它的表現非常出色。因此，當你試圖尋找新方法來接觸那些還沒有體驗過你品牌的新客戶時，這種創造力將大有裨益。我為團隊正在做和已經完成的一些事情感到非常自豪。

Sarah Morin, Piper Sandler.

莎拉·莫林，派珀·桑德勒。

This is Sarah on for Peter. First, can you just give us an update on some of the progress with your technology initiatives? Are you finding the company's move to a cloud-based tech architecture providing any competitive advantages in the channel? And then if so, what are these?

這是莎拉替彼得發言。首先，您能否簡單介紹一下貴公司在技術創新方面的進展？您認為公司向基於雲端的技術架構轉型是否在通路方面帶來了任何競爭優勢？如果屬實，那麼這些是什麼？

As you know, we have -- since we became a pure-play high-growth retail services company, we have been investing in retail-specific technology. In the first year, we implemented a new CRM system for both our fleet business as well as our franchise and business development businesses or areas. We then implemented SAP or the first phase of SAP in 2024. And in fiscal '25, we implemented HRIS.

如您所知，自從我們成為一家純粹的高成長零售服務公司以來，我們一直在投資零售專用技術。第一年，我們為車隊業務以及特許經營和業務拓展業務或區域實施了新的客戶關係管理系統。然後我們在 2024 年實施了 SAP 或 SAP 的第一階段。在 2025 財年，我們實施了人力資源資訊系統 (HRIS)。

We also, in fiscal '25, moved our customer data into the cloud, and we have been slowly working on replatforming our proprietary system we call SuperPro for our stores. We've upgraded our infrastructure in the stores so that it could support a cloud-based architecture. And so we're in the process of becoming more modern.

在 2025 財年，我們也把客戶資料遷移到了雲端，並且一直在逐步地對我們門市使用的專有系統 SuperPro 進行平台重構。我們已升級了門市的基礎設施，使其能夠支援基於雲端的架構。因此，我們正在走向現代化。

And with that, you typically see the maintenance cost from a technology standpoint go down. So you get efficiency as you get into more of the capabilities of SAP and HRIS, you get more efficiencies in your back office. And then on the customer side, you end up having a better, more consistent process where you can optimize and take time out of the service experience for the customer or take labor out as you apply more technology and tools to the store day-to-day operations.

這樣一來，從技術角度來看，維護成本通常會下降。因此，隨著您對 SAP 和 HRIS 功能的深入了解，您的後台辦公效率也會提高。然後，在客戶方面，您最終將擁有一個更好、更一致的流程，您可以優化流程，縮短客戶的服務體驗時間，或透過在商店日常營運中應用更多技術和工具來減少人力成本。

So I would say this is a journey for us, but we're through some of the basic parts of the technology replatforming. And now we're getting into the more value-added efficiency and effectiveness driving initiatives. But we don't see the investment in technology continuing to need to go up, as we've mentioned in our Investor Day update.

所以我覺得這對我們來說是一段旅程，但我們已經完成了技術平台重構的一些基本部分。現在我們要深入探討那些更具附加價值、能夠提高效率和效益的措施。但正如我們在投資者日更新中提到的那樣，我們認為對科技的投資沒有必要繼續增加。

We did grow technology spend, and we will continue to spend in technology, but we don't see the year-over-year growth of that going faster than sales. In fact, we would expect that to moderate.

我們確實增加了技術方面的支出，而且我們將繼續增加技術方面的支出，但我們預計技術方面的年增長率不會超過銷售額的成長速度。事實上，我們預計這種情況會有所緩和。

Okay. That's very helpful. And then just on advertising, where are you guys leaning in most here and then just early results that you're seeing?

好的。那很有幫助。那麼就廣告方面而言，你們目前最傾向哪些方面？以及你們看到的初步效果如何？

We have a pretty sophisticated marketing playbook that includes both what we call our life cycle management, which is us keeping in touch with the customer. We can predict when the customer is going to need to come back in for not just an oil change, but for also added services based on their driving pattern and what we see or in doing look like analysis.

我們有一套相當完善的行銷策略，其中包括我們所謂的生命週期管理，也就是與客戶保持聯繫。我們可以根據客戶的駕駛習慣以及我們觀察到的或實際操作中的分析結果，預測客戶何時需要再次光臨，不僅是為了更換機油，也是為了其他服務。

So we have a fairly robust process of keeping in touch with our customers. And that we just continue to optimize in terms of how and when we insert certain promotions to that communication process. And then as it relates to new customer acquisition and new store openings, we continue to modify to drive down our customer acquisition costs in those environments. We continue to test new channels.

因此，我們有一套相當完善的與客戶保持聯繫的流程。我們將繼續優化在溝通過程中插入某些促銷活動的方式和時間。在獲取新客戶和開設新店方面，我們不斷調整策略，以降低這些環境下的客戶獲取成本。我們將繼續測試新頻道。

And I would say that the performance continues to improve. Our return on ad spend is very productive, and we continue to optimize that at the same time as optimizing the discounting or optimizing net pricing for every transaction that we have in our stores.

而且我認為，球隊的表現還在不斷進步。我們的廣告支出回報率非常高，我們將繼續優化廣告支出，同時優化我們商店中每一筆交易的折扣或淨價。

David Lantz, Wells Fargo.

大衛‧蘭茨，富國銀行。

So you guys called out the non-recurring payroll-related item in SG&A in Q1, but curious if you can talk through some of the puts and takes through the balance of the year.

你們在第一季指出了銷售、一般及行政費用中與工資相關的非經常性項目，但我很好奇你們能否談談今年剩餘時間裡的一些利弊。

Yes. Happy to answer that. Yes, we did have a non-recurring item in Q1 of last year. Taking that out of the equation, we did see SG&A leverage of 30 basis points year-over-year, which our commitment is to continue to do that throughout the balance of the year and going forward. As we look at the rest of the year, we should continue to see overall improvement from a core business perspective.

是的。樂意回答這個問題。是的，去年第一季我們確實有一筆非經常性支出。排除這一因素後，我們看到銷售、一般及行政費用槓桿率同比下降了 30 個基點，我們承諾在今年剩餘時間和未來將繼續保持這一水平。展望今年剩餘時間，從核心業務角度來看，我們應該會繼續看到整體改善。

We're very focused on scrutinizing spend across really all categories, not just SG&A, but also capital costs around store builds as well as cost of goods sold as we've talked about with labor improvement and other areas. So we're continuing to really bear down on these categories, and would expect to continue to see improvement as we go throughout the course of the year.

我們非常注重審查所有類別的支出，不僅是銷售、一般及行政費用，還包括門市建設的資本成本以及銷售成本，正如我們之前討論過的勞動力改進和其他領域一樣。因此，我們將繼續大力推動這些方面的工作，並預計在今年剩餘的時間裡，情況將繼續好轉。

Got it. That's helpful. And then clearly, Winter Storm Fern is driving some choppiness around transactions. But curious if you guys could help us parse out the potential impact to Q1 comps that will have. Excuse me, Q2.

知道了。那很有幫助。很明顯，冬季風暴弗恩也為交易帶來了一些波動。但我很想知道你們能否幫我們分析一下這會對第一季業績產生哪些潛在影響。打擾一下，Q2。

You mean Q2. Yes, I think it's a little too early to say. We had a strong start to the year, and our expectations really are not changing for Q2 through Q4. Obviously, we're monitoring the weather and we make adjustments. But again, if you look at history for our business, as we have a weather pattern cycle through, it just shifts around when we capture the demand and serve the guests.

你是說Q2嗎？是的，我覺得現在下結論還太早。今年開局強勁，我們對第二季到第四季的預期也不會改變。顯然，我們會密切注意天氣狀況並做出相應調整。但話說回來，如果你回顧我們業務的歷史，你會發現，隨著天氣模式的周期性變化，我們滿足需求和接待顧客的時間也會隨之改變。

It doesn't have a long-term impact or downward impact on our business. So again, we have to be smart to manage labor cost and manage our marketing spend. And when we do that, and we've proven we're getting better at doing that as we apply more tools and technology, we can manage our -- both our sales line and our profit line pretty effectively.

它不會對我們的業務產生長期影響或負面影響。所以，我們必須精明地管理勞動成本和行銷支出。當我們這樣做的時候，而且我們已經證明，隨著我們應用更多的工具和技術，我們在這方面做得越來越好，我們就可以非常有效地管理我們的銷售線和利潤線。

Thank you, David, for that question, and that is it. Our questions queue are now clear, which concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining, and you can now disconnect your lines. Everyone, have a great day. Bye for now.

謝謝你，大衛，提出這個問題，就到這裡吧。我們的提問隊列已清空，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝各位的參與，現在可以斷開連結了。祝大家今天過得愉快。暫時再見。