沃博聯公司 (WBA) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Chris, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Walgreens Boots Alliance Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you. Tiffany Kanaga, Vice President, Global Investor Relations. You may begin.

早上好。我的名字是克里斯，今天我將成為您的會議接線員。在這個時候，我想歡迎大家參加 Walgreens Boots Alliance 2022 年第三季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）謝謝。 Tiffany Kanaga，全球投資者關係副總裁。你可以開始了。

Good morning. Thank you for joining us for the Walgreens Boots Alliance Earnings Call for the Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2022. I'm Tiffany Kanaga, Vice President of Global Investor Relations. Joining me on today's call are Roz Brewer, our Chief Executive Officer; James Kehoe, our Chief Financial Officer; and John Standley, President of Walgreens.

早上好。感謝您參加 Walgreens Boots Alliance 2022 財年第三季度財報電話會議。我是全球投資者關係副總裁 Tiffany Kanaga。和我一起參加今天的電話會議的是我們的首席執行官 Roz Brewer；我們的首席財務官 James Kehoe；和沃爾格林總裁約翰斯坦德利。

As always, during the conference call, we anticipate making projections and forward-looking statements based on our current expectations. Our actual results could differ materially due to a number of factors, including those listed on Slide 2 and those outlined in our latest forms 10-K and 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement after this presentation, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise. You can find our press release and the slides referenced on this call in the Investors section of the Walgreens Boots Alliance website.

與往常一樣，在電話會議期間，我們預計會根據我們目前的預期做出預測和前瞻性陳述。由於多種因素，我們的實際結果可能存在重大差異，包括幻燈片 2 中列出的因素以及我們向證券交易委員會提交的最新表格 10-K 和 10-Q 中概述的因素。我們不承擔在此演示文稿後公開更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務，無論是由於新信息、未來事件、假設變化或其他原因。您可以在 Walgreens Boots Alliance 網站的投資者部分找到我們的新聞稿和本次電話會議中引用的幻燈片。

The slides and the press release also contain further information about non-GAAP financial measures that we will discuss today during this call.

幻燈片和新聞稿還包含有關我們今天將在本次電話會議中討論的非公認會計原則財務措施的更多信息。

I will now turn the call over to Roz.

我現在將把電話轉給 Roz。

Thanks, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. Walgreens Boots Alliance delivered consistent execution in the third quarter against very robust growth last year. Sales increased low single digits on a core basis in constant currency, excluding the negative impact of AllianceRx Walgreens and the 65% pro forma sales growth at Walgreens Health. The International business more than doubled its adjusted operating income with its retail sales recovery, and the U.S. segment achieved solid retail comp growth against challenging multiyear comparisons with positive traffic trends as consumers continue to depend on Walgreens for their essential needs.

謝謝，蒂芙尼，大家早上好。 Walgreens Boots Alliance 在第三季度的執行力與去年的強勁增長相比保持一致。不包括 AllianceRx Walgreens 的負面影響和 Walgreens Health 65% 的備考銷售額增長，按固定匯率計算，銷售額在核心基礎上增長了低個位數。隨著零售銷售的複蘇，國際業務的調整後營業收入增加了一倍多，而美國部門實現了穩健的零售業務增長，與具有挑戰性的多年比較和積極的客流量趨勢相比，因為消費者繼續依賴沃爾格林來滿足他們的基本需求。

Our business model is resilient, and we are now successfully navigating a difficult operating environment that is especially impacting more discretionary retail. We have been agile and proactive in managing inflationary cost pressures and supply chain disruptions while further enhancing our relevance to consumers through our loyalty, omni-channel and owned brand initiatives. Our commitment to serve local communities with convenience and real value is resonating well.

我們的商業模式是有彈性的，我們現在成功地度過了艱難的經營環境，尤其是影響更多的非必需品零售。我們在管理通脹成本壓力和供應鏈中斷方面一直保持敏捷和主動，同時通過我們的忠誠度、全渠道和自有品牌計劃進一步增強我們與消費者的相關性。我們以便利和真正價值為當地社區服務的承諾得到了很好的響應。

At the same time, we're making important strides in building our next growth engine, Walgreens Health. VillageMD and Shields continue to realize tremendous top line growth, and we've added a third strategic partner for our Walgreens Health organic venture, bringing the number of lives covered above the 2022 year-end target of 2 million. Additionally, we launched our clinical trials business to improve access and diversity.

與此同時，我們在構建下一個增長引擎 Walgreens Health 方面取得了重要進展。 VillageMD 和 Shields 繼續實現巨大的收入增長，我們為 Walgreens Health 有機企業增加了第三個戰略合作夥伴，使覆蓋的生命數量超過了 2022 年年底的 200 萬目標。此外，我們推出了臨床試驗業務，以改善可及性和多樣性。

We are moving quickly to implement our vision of consumer-centric, tech-enabled healthcare solutions that improve outcomes and lower costs for patients, providers and payers.

我們正在迅速採取行動，以實現我們以消費者為中心、技術支持的醫療保健解決方案的願景，以改善患者、提供者和付款人的結果並降低成本。

During the quarter, we also took further action to better align our investment portfolio with our strategic priorities. The partial monetization of AmerisourceBergen shares augments our balance sheet and is consistent with our efforts to generate shareholder value.

在本季度，我們還採取了進一步行動，以更好地使我們的投資組合與我們的戰略重點保持一致。 AmerisourceBergen 股票的部分貨幣化擴大了我們的資產負債表，與我們為創造股東價值所做的努力相一致。

We also have now completed a thorough review of the Boots business, with the outcome reflecting rapidly evolving and challenging financial market conditions beyond our control. As recent results show, it is an exciting time for Boots and No7, which are uniquely positioned to continue to capture future opportunities presented by the growing healthcare and beauty markets. The Board and I remain confident that they hold strong fundamental value, and longer term, we will stay open to all opportunities to maximize shareholder value for these businesses and across our company.

我們現在還完成了對 Boots 業務的徹底審查，其結果反映了我們無法控制的快速發展和充滿挑戰的金融市場狀況。正如最近的結果所示，對於 Boots 和 No7 來說，這是一個激動人心的時刻，它們具有獨特的優勢，可以繼續抓住不斷增長的醫療保健和美容市場帶來的未來機遇。董事會和我仍然相信他們擁有強大的基本價值，從長遠來看，我們將保持開放的心態，為這些業務和整個公司實現股東價值最大化。

Looking ahead, given our sustained execution, we are maintaining our full year adjusted EPS guidance of low single-digit growth, which we raised in January. We are well positioned to drive our next stage of growth and value creation in the years ahead.

展望未來，鑑於我們的持續執行，我們將維持我們在一月份提出的低個位數增長的全年調整後每股收益指引。我們有能力在未來幾年推動我們下一階段的增長和價值創造。

In October, we introduced four strategic priorities: first, transform and align the core business; second, build our next growth engine, Walgreens Health; third, focus the portfolio and optimize capital allocation; and fourth, build a high-performance culture and a winning team. We are making good progress against each initiative as we are becoming the leading partner in reimagining local healthcare and well-being for all.

10 月，我們提出了四項戰略重點：一是轉型整合核心業務；第二，打造我們的下一個增長引擎，Walgreens Health；第三，聚焦投資組合，優化資金配置；第四，打造高績效文化和致勝團隊。隨著我們成為重新構想當地醫療保健和所有人福祉的主要合作夥伴，我們在每項舉措上都取得了良好的進展。

First, we are transforming and aligning the core business and building a pharmacy of the future that will enable and support our healthcare strategy. US and Boots UK retail comp sales both reflected very good execution in the quarter, with several of our initiatives continuing to gain traction. US digital sales grew 25% in the quarter on top of 95% growth a year ago. myWalgreens membership is approaching a big milestone of 100 million customers.

首先，我們正在轉變和調整核心業務，並建立未來的藥房，以支持和支持我們的醫療保健戰略。美國和 Boots UK 的零售銷售都反映了本季度非常好的執行情況，我們的一些舉措繼續獲得關注。本季度美國數字銷售額增長了 25%，而一年前增長了 95%。 myWalgreens 會員資格正在接近 1 億客戶的重要里程碑。

We are focusing labor investments to return about 3,000 stores to normal operating hours, which I expect will accelerate script volume recovery as we head into fiscal 2023. Recently, we opened our fourth automated micro-fulfillment center and are now supporting 1,100 total stores. More store locations will continue to be added as these facilities become fully operational. These micro-fulfillment centers remove routine tasks and excess inventory from the pharmacy, allowing pharmacists more time to focus on patient care and clinical services, expanding on the critical role they already provide in communities. The centers fill about 20% of store scripts today, heading to 40% to 50% over time.

我們正在集中人力投資以使約 3,000 家商店恢復正常營業時間，我預計隨著我們進入 2023 財年，這將加速腳本量的恢復。最近，我們開設了第四個自動化微型履行中心，現在總共支持 1,100 家商店。隨著這些設施全面投入運營，將繼續增加更多門店。這些微型配送中心消除了藥房的常規任務和多餘的庫存，讓藥劑師有更多時間專注於患者護理和臨床服務，擴大他們已經在社區中發揮的關鍵作用。如今，這些中心填充了大約 20% 的商店腳本，隨著時間的推移，這一比例將達到 40% 到 50%。

And finally, in the US, we've expanded our partnership with ALTO US, a provider of loss prevention and tech-enabled security services. We're now working together across more than 2,200 stores, which is already having a positive impact on shrink.

最後，在美國，我們擴大了與 ALTO US 的合作夥伴關係，ALTO US 是一家提供防損和技術支持的安全服務的提供商。我們現在正在與 2,200 多家商店合作，這已經對收縮產生了積極影響。

At Boots UK, I want to highlight our innovative digital healthcare service, Boots Online Doctor, which has already reached nearly 500,000 customer orders.

在 Boots UK，我想重點介紹我們創新的數字醫療保健服務 Boots Online Doctor，該服務已獲得近 500,000 個客戶訂單。

On the retail side, we are driving share gains across all major categories.

在零售方面，我們正在推動所有主要類別的份額增長。

Now let me take this opportunity to discuss the health of the consumer, given our insights from our store network across the best corners of America and the U.K. as well as what we're all observing through macro uncertainty and record-low consumer sentiment. We see our customers making deliberate choices to prioritize overall value and convenience. There's a shift in calculus due to food and fuel inflation, but health and wellness will always be a priority. Pricing is just the start of our customer set of considerations, where we are collaborating closely with suppliers and maintaining price gaps versus competitors. Walgreens and Boots are trusted brands with strong community ties established over many decades of pharmacy leadership.

現在讓我藉此機會討論消費者的健康狀況，考慮到我們對美國和英國最好的角落的商店網絡的見解，以及我們通過宏觀不確定性和創紀錄的低消費者情緒觀察到的情況。我們看到我們的客戶做出深思熟慮的選擇，以優先考慮整體價值和便利性。由於食品和燃料的通貨膨脹，微積分發生了變化，但健康永遠是重中之重。定價只是我們客戶考慮的開始，我們與供應商密切合作並保持與競爭對手的價格差距。 Walgreens 和 Boots 是值得信賴的品牌，在數十年的藥房領導中建立了牢固的社區聯繫。

Historically, we have seen stable script trends in a downturn, which should be aided today by the ongoing return to normalized healthcare utilization levels. Additionally, we see upside at Walgreens as we address staffing challenges at stores to enable a return to normal operating hours.

從歷史上看，我們在低迷時期看到了穩定的腳本趨勢，今天應該通過持續恢復到正常化的醫療保健利用率水平來幫助。此外，我們認為 Walgreens 有優勢，因為我們解決了商店的人員配備挑戰，以恢復正常營業時間。

Our front-end momentum is bolstered through our owned brand loyalty and omnichannel initiatives. Additionally, in this era of rising gas prices, we have leveraged our hyper-local footprint and highly relevant retail offering to achieve positive comp store transaction growth. We are seeing higher levels of traffic to our stores and our website as consumers are looking to optimize their spending dollars across quality, value and convenience.

通過我們自有的品牌忠誠度和全渠道計劃，我們的前端勢頭得到了加強。此外，在這個汽油價格上漲的時代，我們利用我們超本地化的足跡和高度相關的零售產品來實現積極的綜合商店交易增長。隨著消費者希望在質量、價值和便利性方面優化他們的支出，我們的商店和網站的訪問量正在增加。

We're meeting our customers with robust in-stock levels that are slightly above last year despite ongoing supply chain headwinds. We've also been ahead of the curve in managing through inflation. This is all alongside raising the target for the Transformational Cost Management Program for the 5th time.

儘管持續存在供應鏈逆風，我們仍以略高於去年的強勁庫存水平與客戶會面。在通過通貨膨脹進行管理方面，我們也走在了前面。這與第五次提高轉型成本管理計劃的目標同時進行。

Underpinning our efforts is our strengthened retail products and customer leadership team with 3 new executives. Walgreens Chief Marketing Officer, Linh Peters, joined us from Calvin Klein, where she served as their Global Chief Marketing Officer, with experience also at Starbucks, Target and Ulta Beauty. Bala Visalatha is in our newly created role of Chief Product Officer having most recently been Vice President of e-commerce at Walmart U.S. And finally, Luke Rauch is our new Chief Merchant, rejoining the merchandising organization after focusing on strategy as my Chief of Staff. We have the right team in place to support our high-performance culture to guide our resilient core business and to serve our customers through these turbulent times.

支持我們努力的是我們加強了零售產品和客戶領導團隊，並擁有 3 名新高管。 Walgreens 首席營銷官 Linh Peters 從 Calvin Klein 加入我們，擔任全球首席營銷官，在星巴克、Target 和 Ulta Beauty 也有經驗。 Bala Visalatha 擔任我們新設立的首席產品官一職，最近擔任沃爾瑪美國電子商務副總裁。最後，Luke Rauch 是我們的新首席商人，在專注於戰略作為我的參謀長之後重新加入了銷售組織。我們擁有合適的團隊來支持我們的高績效文化，以指導我們有彈性的核心業務，並在這些動盪時期為我們的客戶提供服務。

Next, I want to take a moment to recap Walgreens' progress in providing local communities with access to COVID-19 resources as we cross over into an endemic scenario.

接下來，我想花點時間回顧一下 Walgreens 在為當地社區提供 COVID-19 資源訪問權方面取得的進展，因為我們跨入了一個地方性的情景。

In the U.S., we administered 4.7 million COVID-19 vaccinations within the quarter and over 67 million in the program to date. As of early April, Walgreens has been offering additional boosters to adults aged 50 and older and certain immunocompromised individuals. I am pleased to add that as of Saturday, Walgreens has begun administering vaccines to children aged 3 years and older at select locations nationwide. This follows our offering of boosters to children aged 5 and up starting in May.

在美國，我們在本季度內接種了 470 萬次 COVID-19 疫苗，迄今為止，該計劃已接種超過 6700 萬次。截至 4 月初，沃爾格林一直在為 50 歲及以上的成年人和某些免疫功能低下的人提供額外的助推器。我很高興地補充說，從周六開始，沃爾格林已經開始在全國選定的地點為 3 歲及以上的兒童接種疫苗。在此之前，我們從 5 月開始為 5 歲及以上的兒童提供助推器。

Walgreens pharmacy team members are among the most trusted health resources readily available to administer vaccines and provide education to this newly eligible population and their parents or guardian. Our experience has established Walgreens as the largest pediatric COVID-19 vaccine provider in the pharmacy channel.

Walgreens 藥房團隊成員是最值得信賴的衛生資源之一，可隨時為這些新符合條件的人群及其父母或監護人管理疫苗和提供教育。我們的經驗使 Walgreens 成為藥房渠道中最大的兒科 COVID-19 疫苗供應商。

On the COVID-19 testing front, we completed 3.9 million in-store tests during the quarter and over 32 million in the program to date. Last month, Walgreens expanded access to offering Pixel by LabCorp, at-home PCR kits at no cost through Curbside and in-store pickup. This initiative is important, particularly for uninsured, socially vulnerable and medically underserved populations who continue to be among those most impacted by COVID-19.

在 COVID-19 測試方面，我們在本季度完成了 390 萬次店內測試，迄今為止已完成超過 3200 萬次。上個月，沃爾格林擴大了通過路邊和店內取貨免費提供 Pixel by LabCorp 的家庭 PCR 試劑盒的使用範圍。這一舉措很重要，特別是對於那些仍然是受 COVID-19 影響最嚴重的人群中沒有保險、社會弱勢和醫療服務不足的人群。

Walgreens Health is reimagining healthcare by making it personal. To achieve this goal, we are creating a network of industry-leading healthcare service providers with the experience and capabilities to help people build relationships with primary care professionals, pharmacists, and in-home care teams in their communities.

Walgreens Health 正在通過使其個性化來重新構想醫療保健。為了實現這一目標，我們正在創建一個行業領先的醫療保健服務提供商網絡，這些服務提供商擁有豐富的經驗和能力，可以幫助人們與社區中的初級保健專業人員、藥劑師和家庭護理團隊建立關係。

Our largest partnership, VillageMD, continues its rollout of co-located clinics with 120 now open, on pace towards 200 by the end of 2022. VillageMD is in 22 markets today with over 1.6 million patients.

我們最大的合作夥伴 VillageMD 繼續推出同地診所，目前有 120 家開放，到 2022 年底將達到 200 家。VillageMD 今天在 22 個市場擁有超過 160 萬患者。

Shields continues to rapidly expand its platform, including new deals with 3 significant health systems and the launch of Boston Children's Pharmacy. Together, VillageMD and Shields drove pro forma sales growth of 65% for Walgreens Health in the quarter.

Shields 繼續快速擴展其平台，包括與 3 個重要衛生系統的新交易以及波士頓兒童藥房的推出。 VillageMD 和 Shields 在本季度共同推動 Walgreens Health 的備考銷售額增長了 65%。

In our organic Walgreens Health business, we are excited to have signed on our third payer partner, Buckeye Health Plan. Importantly, this development brings the lives under coverage to 2.3 million, exceeding our 2022 target. Our collaboration with Buckeye also extends beyond health corners to include asthma and COPD patients as part of a multi-phased approach to support comprehensive expanded clinical services. Through this pilot, Walgreens pharmacists counsel patients on how to use their inhalers, provide proactive outreach to non-adherent patients and use predictive modeling to reach out to people at high risk for becoming nonadherent. Buckeye Health Plan is one of the first payers to reimburse pharmacists for these services in Ohio, made possible through recent state legislative changes.

在我們的有機 Walgreens Health 業務中，我們很高興能夠簽署我們的第三個付款合作夥伴 Buckeye Health Plan。重要的是，這一發展使覆蓋的生命達到 230 萬，超過了我們 2022 年的目標。我們與 Buckeye 的合作還超越了健康領域，將哮喘和慢性阻塞性肺病患者包括在內，作為支持全面擴展臨床服務的多階段方法的一部分。通過該試點，Walgreens 藥劑師就如何使用吸入器向患者提供諮詢，為非依從性患者提供積極的外展服務，並使用預測模型來接觸高風險成為非依從性的人。 Buckeye Health Plan 是俄亥俄州首批向藥劑師報銷這些服務的付款人之一，這得益於最近的州立法改革。

With 56 Health corners in operation, our health advisers logged over 60,000 consumer conversations in the quarter. It's been very inspiring to hear some specific stories. For example, a customer who came in looking for a blood pressure monitor. Our health adviser had a conversation with him about the causes of high blood pressure and its potential complications. As they were talking, the adviser noticed the customer's face was red and flushed, asked to check his blood pressure and it was very high. The adviser insisted that he go to the emergency room. The following week, he came in to thank the adviser, saying this new service saved my life.

在運營 56 個健康角的情況下，我們的健康顧問在本季度記錄了超過 60,000 次消費者對話。聽到一些具體的故事非常鼓舞人心。例如，一位前來尋找血壓計的客戶。我們的健康顧問與他就高血壓的原因及其潛在並發症進行了交談。在他們談話的時候，顧問注意到顧客的臉紅了，臉紅了，要求檢查他的血壓，血壓很高。顧問堅持要他去急診室。接下來的一周，他進來感謝顧問，說這項新服務救了我的命。

Our consumer-centric model of increased access, engagement and convenience is working. We are tracking well against all of our key milestones for Walgreens Health this year and remain very optimistic about our long-term growth potential.

我們以消費者為中心的增加訪問、參與度和便利性的模式正在發揮作用。我們今年對 Walgreens Health 的所有關鍵里程碑都進行了很好的跟踪，並對我們的長期增長潛力保持非常樂觀。

Finally, as part of our continued work in building healthcare solutions, we recently launched a comprehensive offering of clinical trial services to redefine the end-to-end patient experience and increase access and retention in drug development research. Nearly 80% of trials failed to meet their enrollment goals in their stated time frames, contributing to billions of dollars in delays every year. We believe we can increase participation, especially among diverse populations, and support sponsors in meeting their trial goals by leveraging our well-established presence across the nation and enterprise-wide health capabilities.

最後，作為我們在構建醫療保健解決方案方面持續工作的一部分，我們最近推出了全面的臨床試驗服務，以重新定義端到端患者體驗並增加藥物開發研究的訪問和保留。近 80% 的試驗未能在規定的時間範圍內達到其註冊目標，每年造成數十億美元的延誤。我們相信我們可以增加參與，特別是在不同人群中，並通過利用我們在全國和企業範圍內的健康能力來支持贊助商實現他們的試驗目標。

The opportunity is clear, and I look forward to sharing more with you ahead. With that, I'll hand it over to James to provide more color on our results and our outlook.

機會很明確，我期待與您分享更多。有了這個，我會把它交給詹姆斯，為我們的結果和前景提供更多的色彩。

Thank you, Roz, and good morning. Adjusted EPS of $0.96 was broadly in line with our expectations. On a constant currency basis, EPS declined 29% versus prior year levels. As mentioned before, we were lapping an especially strong prior year quarter with EPS growth of over 90%. We administered 17 million vaccinations last year compared to 4.7 million in the current quarter, leading to an EPS headwind of around 18 percentage points.

謝謝你，羅茲，早上好。 0.96 美元的調整後每股收益大致符合我們的預期。按固定匯率計算，每股收益較去年同期下降 29%。如前所述，我們在去年同期特別強勁，每股收益增長超過 90%。去年我們進行了 1700 萬次疫苗接種，而本季度為 470 萬次，導致每股收益逆風約為 18 個百分點。

We also continued to invest in our fast-growing Walgreens Health business. Sales for the segment grew 65% on a pro forma basis, and the growth investments led to a negative EPS impact of 6 percentage points.

我們還繼續投資於我們快速增長的 Walgreens Health 業務。該部門的銷售額在備考基礎上增長了 65%，增長投資導致了 6 個百分點的負面每股收益影響。

Our US retail business continues to execute strongly, and our International markets more than doubled segment AOI compared to the prior year quarter. Sales grew ahead of expectations and cash flow was solid, with year-to-date operating cash flow of $3.8 billion and free cash flow of $2.6 billion.

我們的美國零售業務繼續強勁執行，我們的國際市場 AOI 與去年同期相比增加了一倍以上。銷售額增長超出預期，現金流穩健，年初至今的經營現金流為 38 億美元，自由現金流為 26 億美元。

The Transformational Cost Management Program is performing ahead of expectations with an expanding funnel of initiatives, and we are now raising our annual cost savings goal to $3.5 billion by fiscal year 2024.

轉型成本管理計劃的表現超出預期，舉措範圍不斷擴大，我們現在將到 2024 財年的年度成本節約目標提高到 35 億美元。

Finally, with our third quarter performance that was broadly in line with our expectations, we are maintaining our full year outlook of low single-digit growth in adjusted EPS.

最後，由於我們第三季度的業績基本符合我們的預期，我們維持調整後每股收益低個位數增長的全年展望。

Let's now look at the results in more detail. Third quarter sales declined 2.8% on a constant currency basis, strong growth from Walgreens and the International segment. And sales contributions from Walgreens Health were more than offset by a 720 basis point impact from the sales decline at AllianceRx Walgreens. If you exclude the negative impact from AllianceRx and the positive benefit from Walgreens Health M&A, constant currency sales growth was approximately 3%.

現在讓我們更詳細地看一下結果。以固定匯率計算，第三季度銷售額下降 2.8%，來自 Walgreens 和國際部門的強勁增長。 Walgreens Health 的銷售額貢獻被 AllianceRx Walgreens 銷售額下降 720 個基點的影響所抵消。如果排除 AllianceRx 的負面影響和 Walgreens Health 併購的正面收益，固定貨幣銷售額增長約為 3%。

Adjusted operating income declined 34% on a constant currency basis, driven by a decline in U.S. pharmacy as it lapped the peak COVID-19 vaccinations in the year-ago quarter and planned growth investments in Walgreens Health. This was partly offset by solid gross profit performance in US retail and continued strength in international sales and profitability.

按固定匯率計算，調整後的營業收入下降了 34%，這是由於美國藥房的下降，因為它超過了去年同期的 COVID-19 疫苗接種高峰，併計劃對 Walgreens Health 進行增長投資。這部分被美國零售業穩健的毛利潤表現以及國際銷售和盈利能力的持續強勁所抵消。

Adjusted EPS was $0.96 in the quarter, a constant currency decrease of 28.9%, driven mostly by adjusted operating income. GAAP EPS decreased 74% to $0.33, reflecting a $683 million charge for the opioid settlement with the State of Florida and higher onetime charges in the quarter related to the Transformational Cost Management Program.

本季度調整後每股收益為 0.96 美元，固定匯率下降 28.9%，主要受調整後營業收入的推動。 GAAP 每股收益下降 74% 至 0.33 美元，反映出與佛羅里達州的阿片類藥物和解費用為 6.83 億美元，以及與轉型成本管理計劃相關的季度一次性費用增加。

Now let's move to the year-to-date highlights. Year-to-date sales advanced 2.7% on a constant currency basis, including a 500 basis point negative impact from AllianceRx. Without this negative impact and excluding the Walgreens Health M&A activity, core sales growth was around 8%.

現在讓我們轉到年初至今的亮點。按固定匯率計算，年初至今銷售額增長了 2.7%，其中包括來自 AllianceRx 的 500 個基點的負面影響。如果沒有這種負面影響並且不包括 Walgreens Health 併購活動，核心銷售額增長約為 8%。

Adjusted operating income increased 13.7% on a constant currency basis, reflecting adjusted gross profit growth across both pharmacy and retail in the U.S. and a continued rebound in International sales and profitability. Adjusted EPS advanced 13.9%. GAAP EPS increased by $3.60 to $5.49, reflecting a $2.5 billion after-tax gain in the first quarter related to the valuation of our prior investments in VillageMD and Shields as well as lapping a $1.2 billion charge net of tax from the company's equity earnings in AmerisourceBergen in the year-ago period. This was partly offset by the Florida opioid legal settlement in the current quarter.

按固定匯率計算，調整後營業收入增長 13.7%，反映了美國藥店和零售業的調整後毛利潤增長以及國際銷售和盈利能力的持續反彈。調整後每股收益增長 13.9%。 GAAP 每股收益增加 3.60 美元至 5.49 美元，反映出第一季度稅後收益為 25 億美元，這與我們之前對 VillageMD 和 Shields 的投資估值有關，以及從公司在美國資源伯根的股權收益中扣除 12 億美元的稅後收益在去年同期。這部分被本季度佛羅里達州阿片類藥物的法律和解所抵消。

Now let's move to the U.S. segment. Sales decreased 7% in the quarter, a solid performance from Walgreens, up 1.7% despite lapping peak COVID-19 vaccinations, was more than offset by an 850 basis point headwind from AllianceRx. Adjusted gross profit decreased 9.6%, with high single-digit growth at retail, more than offset by a decline in pharmacy. Procurement savings and the strong retail performance were more than offset by fewer COVID-19 vaccinations and lower reimbursement rates.

現在讓我們轉到美國部分。本季度銷售額下降 7%，沃爾格林的穩健表現，儘管 COVID-19 疫苗接種達到峰值，但仍增長 1.7%，但被 AllianceRx 850 個基點的逆風所抵消。調整後的毛利下降 9.6%，零售業務實現高個位數增長，但被藥房業務下滑所抵消。採購節省和強勁的零售業績被較少的 COVID-19 疫苗接種和較低的報銷率所抵消。

Adjusted SG&A spend decreased 0.9%. Lower COVID-19 vaccinations and continued cost discipline were only partly offset by higher labor costs and the timing of marketing spend. SG&A as a percentage of sales increased 110 basis points to 17.9% of sales, and this was almost entirely due to an adverse mix impact as a result of the AllianceRx sales decline.

調整後的 SG&A 支出下降 0.9%。較低的 COVID-19 疫苗接種和持續的成本紀律僅部分被較高的勞動力成本和營銷支出的時機所抵消。 SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比增加了 110 個基點，達到銷售額的 17.9%，這幾乎完全是由於 AllianceRx 銷售額下降導致的不利組合影響。

Adjusted operating income decreased 34%, mainly reflecting lower pharmacy performance, including a challenging comparison against peak COVID-19 vaccinations in the year-ago quarter.

調整後的營業收入下降了 34%，主要反映了藥房業績下降，包括與去年同期的 COVID-19 疫苗高峰期相比具有挑戰性。

Now let's look in more detail at U.S. pharmacy. Pharmacy sales declined 9.7%, negatively impacted by an 11.2 percentage point impact from AllianceRx Walgreens. Comparable pharmacy sales were up 2%. Comp scripts decreased 1.8%, but excluding vaccinations, comp scripts increased 2.1%.

現在讓我們更詳細地了解美國藥房。藥房銷售額下降 9.7%，受到 AllianceRx Walgreens 11.2 個百分點的負面影響。可比藥房銷售額增長 2%。補償腳本下降了 1.8%，但不包括疫苗接種，補償腳本增加了 2.1%。

We completed 4.7 million COVID-19 vaccinations in the quarter compared to 17 million vaccinations in the prior year quarter, and we administered 3.9 million COVID-19 tests in the quarter compared with 3.4 million tests in the prior year quarter. Pharmacy benefited in the quarter from better trends in seasonal scripts. However, while we did see some improvement in the quarter, scripts continued to be challenged by temporary operating hour reductions due to labor shortages. We estimate an impact of around 190 basis points on comp scripts in the quarter.

我們在本季度完成了 470 萬次 COVID-19 疫苗接種，而去年同期為 1700 萬次，我們在本季度進行了 390 萬次 COVID-19 測試，而去年同期為 340 萬次。藥房在本季度受益於季節性腳本的更好趨勢。然而，雖然我們確實在本季度看到了一些改善，但由於勞動力短缺，腳本繼續受到臨時工時減少的挑戰。我們估計本季度對 comp 腳本的影響約為 190 個基點。

Pharmacy adjusted gross profit declined as procurement savings and volume growth were more than offset by reimbursement pressure, and we lapped peak COVID-19 vaccinations in the prior year. Comp retail sales increased 1.4%, and excluding tobacco, comps were up 2.4%. We saw strong growth across health and wellness, driven by at-home COVID-19 tests and cough/cold flu.

藥房調整後的毛利潤下降，因為採購節省和數量增長被報銷壓力所抵消，而且我們在上一年超過了 COVID-19 疫苗接種高峰。可比零售額增長 1.4%，不包括煙草，可比增長 2.4%。在家庭 COVID-19 測試和咳嗽/感冒流感的推動下，我們看到了健康和保健方面的強勁增長。

Personal Care was up 2.6%, but the consumables and general merchandise categories were impacted by strong sales of COVID-19-related items last year and the planned decline in tobacco.

個人護理產品增長 2.6%，但消耗品和一般商品類別受到去年 COVID-19 相關商品的強勁銷售和煙草計劃下降的影響。

Gross margin increased strongly year-on-year due to effective margin management and stabilizing shrink levels, partly offset by supply chain pressures.

由於有效的利潤率管理和穩定的收縮水平，毛利率同比強勁增長，部分被供應鏈壓力所抵消。

Turning next to the International segment. And as always, I'll talk to constant currency numbers. International had a strong quarter. Sales increased 9.3%, reflecting growth across all international markets, with Boots UK advancing 13.5% and Germany wholesale growing 6.8%. Adjusted operating income was $174 million in the quarter, more than doubling versus prior year, led by sales growth and tight cost control. The integration of our Germany wholesale business is very much on track with operational synergy benefits running ahead of schedule.

轉到國際段旁邊。和往常一樣，我將討論不變的貨幣數字。國際有一個強勁的季度。銷售額增長 9.3%，反映了所有國際市場的增長，其中 Boots UK 增長 13.5%，德國批發增長 6.8%。本季度調整後的營業收入為 1.74 億美元，比去年同期增長了一倍以上，這主要得益於銷售增長和嚴格的成本控制。我們德國批發業務的整合非常順利，運營協同效益提前運行。

Let's now look in more detail at Boots UK. Boots UK sales grew 13.5% in the quarter, led by strong retail performance. Comparable pharmacy sales decreased slightly as we lapped favorable NHS reimbursement timing in the year-ago quarter. Comparable NHS volumes showed modest growth, while pharmacy services advanced 22% in the quarter, with stronger demand for new online healthcare services. Comp retail sales advanced 24%, reflecting a recovery in footfall and strong commercial execution.

現在讓我們更詳細地了解 Boots UK。在強勁的零售業績的帶動下，Boots UK 的銷售額在本季度增長了 13.5%。可比的藥房銷售額略有下降，因為我們在去年同期獲得了有利的 NHS 報銷時間。可比的 NHS 業務量顯示溫和增長，而本季度藥房服務增長 22%，對新的在線醫療保健服務的需求更加強勁。比較零售額增長 24%，反映了客流量的回升和強大的商業執行力。

Market share increased across all categories with beauty performing particularly well. Despite the strong performance, store footfall in the quarter remains around 20% below pre-COVID levels. Travel locations are now improving, but remain quite subdued. We saw continued strength in basket size, which is up around 14% in the third quarter compared to pre-COVID levels.

所有類別的市場份額都有所增加，其中美妝表現尤為出色。儘管表現強勁，但本季度的門店客流量仍比疫情前水平低 20% 左右。旅遊地點現在正在改善，但仍然相當低迷。我們看到籃子規模持續走強，與 COVID 之前的水平相比，第三季度增長了約 14%。

Boots.com sales more than doubled compared to pre-COVID levels. More than 13% of total U.K. retail sales came from our digital channels in the quarter, up from around 6% pre-COVID.

與 COVID 之前的水平相比，Boots.com 的銷售額增長了一倍以上。本季度英國總零售額的 13% 以上來自我們的數字渠道，高於疫情前的 6%。

Turning next to Walgreens Health. Segment sales were almost $600 million in the quarter, with VillageMD contributing $511 million and Shields Health contributing $85 million. Walgreens Health AOI was a loss of $129 million in the quarter. Organic investments accounted for $31 million. Investments at VillageMD more than offset the profit contribution from Shields Health, and led to a $97 million AOI loss across our majority investments.

轉到 Walgreens Health 旁邊。本季度的分部銷售額接近 6 億美元，其中 VillageMD 貢獻了 5.11 億美元，Shields Health 貢獻了 8500 萬美元。 Walgreens Health AOI 本季度虧損 1.29 億美元。有機投資佔 3100 萬美元。 VillageMD 的投資超過了 Shields Health 的利潤貢獻，並導致我們大部分投資的 AOI 損失為 9700 萬美元。

VillageMD sales advanced 69% on a pro forma basis, reflecting existing clinic growth and footprint expansion. At the end of the third quarter, VillageMD had 315 clinics, an increase of 97 clinics year-over-year.

VillageMD 銷售額在備考基礎上增長了 69%，反映了現有診所的增長和足跡擴張。第三季度末，VillageMD 擁有 315 家診所，同比增加 97 家。

Shields delivered a strong quarter. Pro forma sales growth was 47% with improved operating margins, driven by growth from recently signed contract wins and by expanding their value-add proposition with existing health system partners.

希爾茲的季度表現強勁。預計銷售額增長 47%，營業利潤率提高，這得益於最近簽署的合同贏得增長以及與現有衛生系統合作夥伴擴大增值主張。

Let's now look at some of the key metrics for Walgreens Health. As Roz mentioned, we have already exceeded our December '22 goal of 2 million covered lives, and we recently announced the strategic partnership with Buckeye Health Plan. The rollout of VillageMD continues, with 120 co-located clinics open at the end of the third quarter, up from 94 at the end of the second quarter. We are progressing towards our goal of 200 by the end of this calendar year.

現在讓我們看看 Walgreens Health 的一些關鍵指標。正如 Roz 所提到的，我們已經超過了 22 月 22 日 200 萬覆蓋生命的目標，我們最近宣布了與 Buckeye Health Plan 的戰略合作夥伴關係。 VillageMD 的推出仍在繼續，第三季度末共有 120 家同地診所開業，高於第二季度末的 94 家。我們正在朝著今年年底 200 人的目標邁進。

Our fiscal '22 sales goal is now at $2 billion, reflecting a delay in the closing of the CareCentrix investment. Apart from that, there are no changes to our underlying sales assumptions. And as you can see, VillageMD and Shields are delivering impressive growth with pro forma combined sales growth of 65% in the quarter.

我們 22 財年的銷售目標現在為 20 億美元，這反映了 CareCentrix 投資的完成延遲。除此之外，我們的基本銷售假設沒有變化。如您所見，VillageMD 和 Shields 正在實現令人印象深刻的增長，本季度的備考合併銷售額增長了 65%。

Turning next to cash flow. Year-to-date free cash flow was $2.6 billion, $737 million below the prior year, as we cycled through some exceptional headwinds. Free cash flow was adversely impacted by the working capital impact of a decline in the AllianceRx Walgreens business and the year-over-year impact of COVID-19-related government support. Free cash flow also included a $240 million increase in capital expenditures behind our growth initiatives, including the VillageMD footprint expansion, rollout of the new automated micro-fulfillment centers and continued omnichannel and digital investments.

轉向現金流。年初至今的自由現金流為 26 億美元，比上年減少 7.37 億美元，因為我們經歷了一些特殊的逆風。 AllianceRx Walgreens 業務下滑對營運資金的影響以及與 COVID-19 相關的政府支持的同比影響對自由現金流產生了不利影響。自由現金流還包括在我們的增長計劃背後增加了 2.4 億美元的資本支出，包括 VillageMD 足跡擴張、推出新的自動化微履行中心以及持續的全渠道和數字投資。

Turning now to full year guidance. We are maintaining our full year guidance of low single-digit growth in adjusted EPS. We have raised our estimate for the base business slightly, from 6% to 8% growth, to 7% to 9% growth to reflect strong U.S. front-of-store performance and increased testing and vaccinations. We are now expecting 35 million vaccinations this year compared to 31 million previously. Investments in our healthcare business negatively impact EPS growth by around 6 percentage points compared to 5 points previously.

現在轉向全年指導。我們維持調整後每股收益低個位數增長的全年指引。我們略微提高了對基礎業務的估計，從 6% 到 8% 的增長，到 7% 到 9% 的增長，以反映強勁的美國店面表現以及檢測和疫苗接種的增加。我們現在預計今年將進行 3500 萬次疫苗接種，而此前為 3100 萬次。對我們的醫療保健業務的投資對每股收益增長產生了約 6 個百分點的負面影響，而之前為 5 個百分點。

In summary, we are executing well, performing in line with our expectations and reconfirming our full year EPS guidance of low single-digit growth in constant currency. I would remind you that this is better than the original guidance we provided at the start of the year of flat EPS growth year-over-year.

總而言之，我們執行良好，表現符合我們的預期，並再次確認了我們以固定匯率計算的低個位數增長的全年每股收益指引。我會提醒你，這比我們年初提供的每股收益同比持平增長的原始指導要好。

Next, I will offer some additional color on our fourth quarter outlook. First, let me remind you that we are lapping a strong year-ago quarter with EPS growth of 28%. The prior year growth was driven by strength in COVID-19 vaccinations with 13.5 million administered last year versus an estimated 2.9 million this year. Additionally, last year, we saw a strong front-end results aided by at-home COVID-19 tests.

接下來，我將為我們的第四季度展望提供一些額外的顏色。首先，讓我提醒您，我們正在以 28% 的每股收益增長強勁的一年前季度。前一年的增長是由 COVID-19 疫苗接種的強勁推動的，去年接種了 1350 萬次，而今年估計為 290 萬次。此外，去年，在家庭 COVID-19 測試的幫助下，我們看到了強大的前端結果。

Consistent with what we said previously, we anticipate some headwinds in the fourth quarter, and this chart highlights the most important ones. Vaccinations are an expected headwind of 15 to 17 percentage points. Investments to build out our Walgreens Health segment could result in 10% to 12% impact on fourth quarter EPS. Other headwinds include labor investments of around 5 percentage points and lapping prior year one-time gains of approximately 4 percentage points of EPS growth. Combined, these headwinds amount to an expected 34% to 38% year-on-year headwind and leads to full year EPS growth of low single digits.

與我們之前所說的一致，我們預計第四季度會出現一些逆風，這張圖表突出了最重要的一些。疫苗接種是 15 到 17 個百分點的預期逆風。建立我們的沃爾格林健康部門的投資可能會對第四季度的每股收益產生 10% 至 12% 的影響。其他不利因素包括約 5 個百分點的勞動力投資和超過上一年每股收益增長約 4 個百分點的一次性收益。加起來，這些不利因素預計同比增長 34% 至 38%，導致全年每股收益低個位數增長。

I would caution against any extrapolation of these EPS impacts. For example labor costs include temporary premiums to address short-term

我會警告不要對這些 EPS 影響進行任何推斷。例如，勞動力成本包括臨時保費以解決短期問題

[Additionally, Walgreens Health will scale quickly next year, and become a much lower year-on-year headwind. Turning next to fiscal 23.

[此外，Walgreens Health 明年將迅速擴大規模，並成為比去年同期低得多的逆風。轉到第 23 財年。

Our long-term algorithm is unchanged, building toward sustainable low-teens EPS growth. We are not updating our fiscal 2023 outlook today. As usual we will provide guidance with our fourth quarter results in October. However, it is fair to say, that there are a lot of moving pieces as we look forward into fiscal 2023.

我們的長期算法沒有改變，朝著可持續的低青少年每股收益增長方向發展。我們今天不更新我們的 2023 財年展望。像往常一樣，我們將在 10 月為我們的第四季度業績提供指導。然而，公平地說，在我們展望 2023 財年時，有很多動人的因素。

You are well aware of most of the challenges we are facing - ongoing reimbursement pressure, rising inflation and wages, consumer sentiment, and manufacturer restrictions on the 340B program. These are all headwinds that we are facing today, and we have created mitigation plans to address them.

您很清楚我們面臨的大部分挑戰——持續的報銷壓力、通脹和工資上漲、消費者情緒以及製造商對 340B 計劃的限制。這些都是我們今天面臨的不利因素，我們制定了緩解計劃來應對這些不利因素。

Additionally, we have planned for continued healthcare investments to build out our next growth engine, Walgreens Health.

此外，我們計劃繼續進行醫療保健投資，以構建我們的下一個增長引擎 Walgreens Health。

COVID-19 is the single biggest unknown,and] (added by company after the call) it is difficult to predict today how new variants, booster adoption, reimbursement dynamics and underlying health policies will impact consumer behavior. Against this backdrop, we have a strong array of strategic growth initiatives that will drive our long-term growth algorithm.

COVID-19 是最大的未知數，並且]（由公司在電話會議後添加）今天很難預測新變體、助推器採用、報銷動態和基本健康政策將如何影響消費者行為。在這種背景下，我們有一系列強大的戰略增長計劃將推動我們的長期增長算法。

First, we expect script volume to recover as we get back to normal operating hours and launch targeted patient retention programs. Second, our U.S. retail business is demonstrating good momentum through digital and omnichannel growth from myWalgreens loyalty program, owned brand innovation and alternative profit streams. Fiscal 2022 was a strong year, and we have extensive plans and initiatives to drive continued success. Third, fiscal year 2022 has been affected by elevated retail shrink, running at above 3% of sales year-to-date. Trends in the most recent months are more promising as we roll out actions to counteract the rising shrink levels, and we expect shrink to trend downwards in 2023. Fourth, the International segment is achieving very strong results, and it is clear that next year should see continued sales and profit growth. Fifth, the Walgreens Health segment is scaling up and margins will build over time. Additionally, we are aggressively working to capture synergies across our various healthcare investments. Overall, we expect the Walgreens Health EPS headwind in 2023 to be much lower than this year.

首先，我們預計隨著我們恢復正常營業時間並啟動有針對性的患者保留計劃，腳本量將恢復。其次，我們的美國零售業務正通過 myWalgreens 忠誠度計劃、自有品牌創新和替代利潤流的數字和全渠道增長顯示出良好的勢頭。 2022 財年是強勁的一年，我們制定了廣泛的計劃和舉措來推動持續成功。第三，2022 財年受到零售業萎縮加劇的影響，今年迄今已超過銷售額的 3%。最近幾個月的趨勢更有希望，因為我們採取行動來抵消不斷上升的收縮水平，我們預計收縮在 2023 年呈下降趨勢。第四，國際部分取得了非常強勁的業績，很明顯明年應該看到持續的銷售和利潤增長。第五，沃爾格林健康部門正在擴大規模，利潤率將隨著時間的推移而增加。此外，我們正在積極努力在我們的各種醫療保健投資中獲得協同效應。總體而言，我們預計 2023 年 Walgreens Health 的每股收益逆風將遠低於今年。

Lastly, we continue to expand our save to invest-to-grow program and have raised the overall target savings for the Transformational Cost Management Program from $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion by fiscal 2024. The majority of the increase will benefit fiscal '23.

最後，我們繼續擴大儲蓄以投資增長計劃，並將轉型成本管理計劃的總體目標節省從 33 億美元提高到 2024 財年的 35 億美元。大部分增長將受益於 23 財年。

In summary, we are aggressively driving growth initiatives, and we remain fully committed to achieving sustainable low teens EPS growth over the long term.

總之，我們正在積極推動增長計劃，並且我們仍然完全致力於實現長期可持續的低青少年每股收益增長。

With that, let me now pass it back to Roz for her closing remarks.

有了這個，現在讓我把它傳回給 Roz 做她的閉幕詞。

Thank you, James. As you have just heard, we are executing very well across our business despite several challenges and making major progress on the goals we laid out in October. Our transformation is very much on track, and I remain excited about the future. As we move forward, we will continue to be laser-focused on: one, making further improvements in our core business; two, evolving our portfolio to ensure we are dedicated to the areas which provide the best returns; three, building out our Walgreens Health business, which is expected to be a significant percentage of our earnings growth over the long term; four, managing and preserving our capital across our many assets; and five, recruiting and retaining a world-class team of top talent.

謝謝你，詹姆斯。正如您剛才所聽到的，儘管面臨一些挑戰，我們在整個業務中的執行情況非常好，並且在我們 10 月份制定的目標方面取得了重大進展。我們的轉型非常順利，我仍然對未來感到興奮。在我們前進的過程中，我們將繼續專注於：一、進一步完善我們的核心業務；第二，發展我們的投資組合，以確保我們致力於提供最佳回報的領域；三、拓展我們的 Walgreens Health 業務，從長遠來看，該業務預計將占我們盈利增長的很大一部分；四、管理和保存我們眾多資產中的資本；五是引進和留住世界一流的頂尖人才隊伍。

I am optimistic about the opportunities ahead and our ability to deliver strong results on each of our key strategic priorities. We remain strongly committed to driving our long-term earnings growth algorithm and look forward to keeping you updated as we achieve our vision to be the leading partner in reimagining local healthcare and well-being for all.

我對未來的機遇以及我們在每個關鍵戰略優先事項上取得強勁成果的能力感到樂觀。我們仍然堅定地致力於推動我們的長期收益增長算法，並期待在我們實現成為重塑當地醫療保健和所有人福祉的領先合作夥伴的願景時為您提供最新信息。

Now I would like to open the line for questions. Operator?

現在我想打開問題線。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Lisa Gill with JPMorgan.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自摩根大通的 Lisa Gill。

My first question would just really be around keeping the Boots business for now and the announcement that you had made earlier this week around that. Roz, as I think about the investments that you want to make around your healthcare initiatives, does this change the time line at all? I didn't hear you talk about that today. It would be my first question.

我的第一個問題實際上是關於暫時保留 Boots 業務以及您本週早些時候圍繞該問題發布的公告。 Roz，當我考慮您想要圍繞您的醫療保健計劃進行的投資時，這是否會改變時間線？我今天沒聽你說這個。這將是我的第一個問題。

And then secondly, as we think about really reallocating some of the investments that you made, does this at all change the timeline of the sale of ABC? I'm just curious as to how we should think about how those things play into the longer-term opportunities around Walgreens Health?

其次，當我們考慮真正重新分配您所做的一些投資時，這是否會改變出售 ABC 的時間表？我只是好奇我們應該如何思考這些事情如何影響沃爾格林健康的長期機會？

Lisa, thank you for that question. So let me give you just a few highlights in terms of how we came to this decision to retain Boots. So first of all, as you can imagine, we ran a highly confidential process. We gained early high interest at the very beginning of these discussions back in January. We started off with roughly about 8 to 10 interested parties in the Boots business. And we had very productive discussions, got into a detailed due diligence just as the market began to turn on us, and such an unexpected and dramatic change. So as a result, we made this decision to slow this opportunity down. But at the same time, the Boots and No7 business continue to do well. And our thinking is in any of these situations, the business should be good enough for us to retain as well as to look at strategic opportunities for it. So the business is healthy, and we'll continue to ensure that it remains healthy.

麗莎，謝謝你的問題。因此，讓我就我們如何做出保留 Boots 的決定向您介紹一些要點。首先，正如您可以想像的那樣，我們運行了一個高度機密的流程。早在一月份，我們在這些討論的一開始就獲得了很高的興趣。我們開始時大約有 8 到 10 個對 Boots 業務感興趣的各方。我們進行了非常富有成效的討論，在市場開始轉向我們時進行了詳細的盡職調查，以及如此出乎意料和戲劇性的變化。因此，我們做出這個決定是為了放慢這個機會。但與此同時，Boots 和 No7 業務繼續表現良好。我們的想法是，在任何一種情況下，業務都應該足夠好，我們可以保留並為其尋找戰略機會。所以業務是健康的，我們將繼續確保它保持健康。

As you look at the time line going forward, you need to think about our fuller portfolio. When we talked about doing a strategic review of our businesses, we started off with Boots, but we have other opportunities that we can look at in here. So in terms of the time line, it's important to state that we are going to stay bullish about moving forward on Walgreens Health and making sure that our investments are prioritized in that direction. We've seen good success in terms of the initial investments that we've made there. So we feel like we're on a good trajectory.

當您查看未來的時間線時，您需要考慮我們更完整的產品組合。當我們談到對我們的業務進行戰略審查時，我們從 Boots 開始，但我們還有其他機會可以在這裡看到。因此，就時間線而言，重要的是要說明我們將繼續看好 Walgreens Health 的發展，並確保我們的投資優先朝著這個方向發展。就我們在那裡進行的初始投資而言，我們已經看到了良好的成功。所以我們覺得我們正處於良好的軌道上。

So in terms of the time line, we still will continue to make the investments there and move forward. We're committed to building those things. And the most important parts of that business is to make sure that we get our commercial assets up and running. And so that's the work that we're focused on.

因此，就時間表而言，我們仍將繼續在那裡進行投資並繼續前進。我們致力於打造這些東西。該業務最重要的部分是確保我們的商業資產啟動並運行。這就是我們關注的工作。

I will also tell you that in terms of our commitment to looking at the balance of our portfolio businesses, we will continue to do that as well.

我還將告訴您，就我們對投資組合業務平衡的承諾而言，我們也將繼續這樣做。

And then just a point of clarification, James, I appreciate all the comments that you made about 2023 and getting back to that double-digit growth. Is your comment that you anticipate getting to double-digit growth after '22 for '23? Or were you just making a comment that you believe longer term that, that's still on the horizon for Walgreens?

然後只是澄清一點，詹姆斯，我感謝你對 2023 年所做的所有評論，並恢復到兩位數的增長。您的評論是您預計 23 年的 22 年之後會實現兩位數的增長嗎？或者你只是發表評論說你相信從長遠來看，沃爾格林仍然在地平線上？

So Lisa -- go ahead, James, and take us through '23.

所以麗莎——繼續前進，詹姆斯，帶我們度過 23 年。

Lisa, if you go back to the October Investor Day deck, I think what we said was the next 3 years, the compound annual growth rate would average 4%. And then FY '25 and beyond, it would rise to 11% to 13%. So there was a measure of deceleration of the EPS growth over a number of years. And then when we gave guidance at the beginning of this year, we said 0%, and we would have acceleration into mid-single-digit EPS growth beyond '22 year. And you could actually argue that we're ahead of where we said we would be because we're at low single digit versus 0. So we won't be getting to low teens next year because we never said we would go to low teens next year. We said mid-single digit.

麗莎，如果你回到 10 月份的投資者日甲板，我認為我們所說的是未來 3 年，複合年增長率平均為 4%。然後 '25 財年及以後，它將上升到 11% 到 13%。因此，可以衡量多年來每股收益增長的減速。然後當我們在今年年初給出指導時，我們說 0%，我們將在 22 年之後加速進入中個位數的每股收益增長。你實際上可以爭辯說我們領先於我們所說的，因為我們處於低個位數而不是 0。所以明年我們不會進入低青少年，因為我們從未說過我們會進入低青少年明年。我們說中個位數。

And I think as we look forward, there's a lot of concerns out in the market. Some participants have been taken -- they'll take the Q4 and multiply by 4, which is just a wrong calculation. And Q4 is about 16% of our total full year income. So I think you have to actually do the right proportions. And we then decided to lay out these tailwinds that we have. And I'm sure you'll agree, they're substantial and I do want to hit those. We do expect a fairly strong rebound in Rx scripts next year because we had some operational issues in the stores.

我認為，當我們展望未來時，市場上有很多擔憂。一些參與者已經被錄取了——他們將參加 Q4 並乘以 4，這只是一個錯誤的計算。第四季度約占我們全年總收入的 16%。所以我認為你必須真正做到正確的比例。然後我們決定展示我們擁有的這些順風。我相信你會同意，它們很重要，我確實想打那些。我們確實預計明年 Rx 腳本會出現相當強勁的反彈，因為我們在商店中遇到了一些運營問題。

The front-of-store strength, I don't think it should be lost on anybody just how well we're doing versus the overall peer set in front of store. Our margins are up substantially year-on-year, and we're still doing nice same-store sales growth. And then you add on to -- we see International going from strength to strength, plus -- and I do want to point this out. People are looking at the heavy investments in Walgreens Health. We're spending potentially more in the second half because of timing. But the headwind on Walgreens Health will go from 6% this year, down to very low single digits next year. So we have a lot of elements to get to an attractive growth rate that is broadly in line with the 4% 3 year compound growth rate that we laid out as we did October -- the Investor Day. So what we're doing with this is to express our confidence in the long-term targets. Sorry, what...

店面實力，我認為任何人都不應該忽視我們與店面整體同行相比的表現。我們的利潤率同比大幅增長，而且我們的同店銷售增長仍然不錯。然後你再加上——我們看到國際越來越強大，再加上——我確實想指出這一點。人們正在關注對 Walgreens Health 的大量投資。由於時間原因，我們在下半年可能會花費更多。但 Walgreens Health 的逆風將從今年的 6% 降至明年非常低的個位數。因此，我們有很多因素可以實現具有吸引力的增長率，該增長率與我們在 10 月份（投資者日）制定的 4% 的 3 年復合增長率基本一致。所以我們正在做的是表達我們對長期目標的信心。對不起，什麼...

The next question is from George Hill with Deutsche Bank.

下一個問題來自德意志銀行的喬治希爾。

And I appreciate as well you guys giving all the color. I guess, Roz and James, I'd kind of like to hit on two topics. Number one is, James, I know I'm inquiring minds want to know you brought up 340B as a headwind. I was wondering if you'd be willing to frame any numbers around that as to how we should think about what the earnings risk looks like or the earnings exposure to the 340B program. And then part B would be, I guess, you kind of called out COVID as the biggest headwind as you think about fiscal '23. I guess do you have any kind of embedded assumptions thus far as to what you guys expect from the contribution of COVID as we think about kind of the jumping-off point from fiscal '22 to fiscal '23.

我也很感謝你們給所有的顏色。我想，Roz 和 James，我想談談兩個話題。第一個是，詹姆斯，我知道我在詢問的人想知道你提出 340B 作為逆風。我想知道你是否願意圍繞我們應該如何考慮收益風險或 340B 計劃的收益風險來構建任何數字。然後 B 部分將是，我猜，當你想到 23 財年時，你有點把 COVID 稱為最大的逆風。我想到目前為止，當我們考慮從 22 財年到 23 財年的跳躍點時，你們對 COVID 的貢獻有什麼期望，我想你們有任何嵌入式假設嗎？

I think, George, I'm not sure we want to give out specific guidance because we have to go through a process with our Board on this. But we will expect lower levels of activity on COVID vaccinations next year. And I think you can form your own assumptions on that. So it does generate a sizable headwind next year. But that's why we laid out the growth initiatives, which are equally sizable tailwinds. And we're going to be working through this over the next few months. We'll come out with the guidance when we issue earnings. But overall, we see as many opportunities as we have risks right now. And maybe I'll pass it to John on 340B, which is embedded in our current year guidance, and we've absorbed a fairly sizable negative. John?

我認為，George，我不確定我們是否要給出具體的指導，因為我們必須與我們的董事會一起完成一個流程。但我們預計明年 COVID 疫苗接種的活動水平會降低。我認為你可以對此形成自己的假設。因此，它確實在明年產生了相當大的逆風。但這就是我們制定增長計劃的原因，這些計劃同樣是相當大的順風。我們將在接下來的幾個月裡解決這個問題。當我們發布收益時，我們會給出指導。但總的來說，我們現在看到的機會與面臨的風險一樣多。也許我會在 340B 上將它傳遞給約翰，這已包含在我們今年的指導中，我們已經吸收了相當大的負面影響。約翰？

Sure. George, this is John. And so as James said, we've seen some continued manufacturer restrictions in the 340B space, and that's reflected in our current run rate. We've got, I think, a couple of things going for us. One is Shields, which is a really amazing business that we've got a majority investment, and it's just done really well. But in their model, the hospital is actually -- the covered entity and operates the specialty pharmacy. So I think that's in a very good position. We have the opportunity to be the designated pharmacy in many instances for our 340B clients. And then ultimately, we believe 340B is an appropriate program that really gets money back into community healthcare where it's really needed. So we strongly support it. And we're working from a legislative and a legal perspective to try and protect that program.

當然。喬治，這是約翰。正如詹姆斯所說，我們在 340B 領域看到了一些持續的製造商限制，這反映在我們目前的運行速度中。我認為，我們有一些事情要做。一個是 Shields，這是一項非常了不起的業務，我們獲得了多數投資，而且做得非常好。但在他們的模型中，醫院實際上是--覆蓋實體並經營專業藥房。所以我認為這是一個非常好的位置。在許多情況下，我們有機會成為 340B 客戶的指定藥房。然後最終，我們相信 340B 是一個合適的計劃，可以真正將資金返還到真正需要的社區醫療保健中。所以我們強烈支持。我們正在從立法和法律角度努力保護該計劃。

Our next question is from Michael Cherny with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Michael Cherny。

So maybe, James, I know we're not talking specifically about fiscal '23. But as you think about that Slide 24 that you gave us relative to the growth initiatives, where do you see the variability in particularly on the growth initiatives and the comfort level you have in tying back to those numbers, whether it's script volume, whether it's some of the international recovery, that Walgreens Health component? How do you think about the puts and takes on those items given the broader macro dynamics that could sway them one way or the other?

所以也許，詹姆斯，我知道我們不是在專門談論 23 財年。但是，當您考慮您提供給我們的與增長計劃相關的幻燈片 24 時，您在哪裡看到特別是增長計劃的可變性以及您在綁定這些數字時的舒適度，無論是腳本數量，還是一些國際復甦，那沃爾格林健康成分？鑑於可能以某種方式左右它們的更廣泛的宏觀動態，您如何看待這些項目的看跌期權？

Yes. I would say the only item we see is truly variable. Where we have lesser line of sight is on the vaccinations and testing volume. And we want to see how the next couple of months pan out.

是的。我想說我們看到的唯一項目是真正可變的。我們視線較少的地方是疫苗接種和檢測量。我們想看看接下來的幾個月會如何發展。

I'd even say that even on the challenges, we have a fairly good line of sight. Reimbursement pressure, we're not assuming as we're thinking through this any major change versus the current year. And we're quite happy with the current year. We had a forecast coming into the year, and we're pretty much honest. So we expect -- well, we don't expect anything to get any better in reimbursement.

我什至會說，即使在挑戰中，我們的視線也相當不錯。報銷壓力，我們沒有假設，因為我們正在考慮與今年相比的任何重大變化。我們對今年非常滿意。我們有一個進入這一年的預測，我們非常誠實。所以我們期望 - 好吧，我們不期望在報銷方面有任何改善。

Rising inflation on wages, we have a fairly good level of confidence here, and I'll tell you why. We've had now had 2 quarters where many other players in the market have called down margins. We have had 2 quarters where our margins are actually up on the retail business. We have a combination of mix. And that's one of the growth initiatives on the right-hand side. We've got all of our omnichannel investments coming through, owned brand inflation. myWalgreens has hit almost -- I think that we've actually passed 100 million myWalgreens members, which is tremendous. I think it's one of the biggest membership programs in the U.S. And then alternative profit streams. And we have great line of sight to all of those. So we have -- and our ability to offset inflation on wages has been very strong in the quarter.

工資通脹上升，我們對此有相當好的信心，我會告訴你原因。我們現在已經有兩個季度，市場上的許多其他參與者都要求降低利潤率。我們有兩個季度的利潤率實際上在零售業務上有所上升。我們有混合的組合。這是右側的增長計劃之一。我們所有的全渠道投資都通過自有品牌通脹實現。 myWalgreens 幾乎已經成功——我認為我們實際上已經超過了 1 億 myWalgreens 會員，這非常棒。我認為這是美國最大的會員計劃之一，然後是替代利潤來源。我們對所有這些都有很好的視野。所以我們有 - 我們抵消工資通脹的能力在本季度非常強大。

And you'll bear this in mind, International freight is up 200%. And our pricing actions overall as a business, I think we've got 0 impact on a full year basis. All the cost increases, shipping increases, goods not for resale, all of that, effectively, we've priced away through very effective margin management.

請記住，國際運費上漲了 200%。而我們作為一家企業的整體定價行為，我認為我們全年的影響為 0。所有的成本增加、運輸增加、商品不能轉售，所有這些，實際上，我們已經通過非常有效的利潤管理進行了定價。

And 340B, John already mentioned. And Walgreens Health, we've got good visibility. We are investing a little bit more as we're exiting the year. And remember what we told you in the Investor Day, we said there would be a spending level this year and one next year. So we will actually probably spend more money, slightly more money on Walgreens Health next year. But the headwind is significantly lower, and we have good visibility to this. So instead of a 6%, as I said, it will go down to 1%, 2% at most.

還有 340B，John 已經提到過。還有 Walgreens Health，我們的知名度很高。隨著我們即將結束這一年，我們正在增加一點投資。記住我們在投資者日告訴你的話，我們說過今年和明年會有一個支出水平。所以我們實際上可能會花更多的錢，明年在 Walgreens Health 上花更多的錢。但是逆風要小得多，我們對此有很好的了解。因此，正如我所說，它將下降到 1%，最多 2%，而不是 6%。

So the change in this is quite visible to us. I'm trying to cover all of these. International recovery, we have good visibility to this. You saw the double-digit income in the quarter. It won't be at that rate next year, but there's consistent growth across all markets. And we had every single international market grew revenue in the current quarter. So good visibility there as well.

所以這方面的變化對我們來說是很明顯的。我試圖涵蓋所有這些。國際復甦，我們對此有很好的認識。您在本季度看到了兩位數的收入。明年不會以這個速度增長，但所有市場都在持續增長。我們在本季度的每個國際市場都實現了收入增長。那裡的能見度也很好。

Transformational Cost Management, we've called up $200 million. All of that is next year. And I'll give you a good example of it. The U.S. business has just formed a new entity called Walgreens Business Services. And we have signed a partnership with TCS to ramp up, build our own shared service center in India. And it will take on -- we've already done finance. We've done HR, all the traditional back office. We'll be moving marketing, merchandising, store ops, back office to a more cost-effective offshore service. But we will own and operate the service assisted by ECS, and that will deliver tremendous savings for the business. It's a really big deal.

轉型成本管理，我們已經籌集了 2 億美元。所有這些都是明年。我會給你一個很好的例子。美國企業剛剛成立了一個名為 Walgreens Business Services 的新實體。我們已經與 TCS 簽署了合作夥伴關係，以在印度建立我們自己的共享服務中心。它將承擔 - 我們已經完成了財務。我們已經完成了人力資源，所有傳統的後台辦公室。我們將把營銷、推銷、商店運營、後台辦公室轉移到更具成本效益的離岸服務。但我們將擁有並運營由 ECS 協助的服務，這將為企業帶來巨大的節省。這真是一件大事。

And over time, we will leverage it as a growth engine to continue to drive costs out of the business.

隨著時間的推移，我們將利用它作為增長引擎，繼續降低業務成本。

The only one that we have less visibility on, and that's because the actions are happening currently, that's on the script volume. So we've had a couple of quarters where we've been maybe 200 to 300 basis points below where we would have liked to have been. And we called out, specifically in Q3, 190 basis points from the store operating hours. We're putting investments back in the market or in the market now. We haven't -- we've seen that the churn has slowed down of turnover, but we still haven't flipped the switch on more aggressive hiring in the market. So, we have a couple of months of experience that we need to get behind us before where we have very good line of sight. So I think it's a good question. We have good line of sight to all of the items here. And the only exception is we've 3 months probably ahead of us on the store operations and getting the scripts back. I hope that's useful as you think through this.

唯一一個我們不太了解的，那是因為當前正在發生的動作，那是在腳本卷上。因此，我們有幾個季度可能比我們希望的水平低 200 到 300 個基點。我們呼籲，特別是在第三季度，距離商店營業時間 190 個基點。我們正在將投資重新投入市場或現在的市場。我們還沒有 - 我們已經看到流失率已經放緩，但我們仍然沒有在市場上更積極地招聘。所以，我們有幾個月的經驗，我們需要在我們擁有非常好的視線之前獲得我們的經驗。所以我認為這是一個很好的問題。我們對這裡的所有物品都有很好的視線。唯一的例外是我們在商店運營和取回腳本方面可能比我們提前了 3 個月。我希望這對您有所幫助。

No, I appreciate that. And if I can ask one more, maybe a quicker one. You've talked in the past about the potential for inorganic investments for Walgreens Health. Obviously, there's no proceeds coming in after the Boots review. How do you think about that potential for further inorganic investment, given also a rising rate environment and the need to fund one way or the other if you are going to go and acquire something to build out the Walgreens Health capabilities?

不，我很感激。如果我可以再問一個，也許會更快。您過去曾談到 Walgreens Health 的無機投資潛力。顯然，Boots 審查後沒有任何收益。您如何看待進一步無機投資的潛力，同時考慮到利率上升的環境以及如果您打算去收購一些東西以建立 Walgreens Health 能力，則需要以一種或另一種方式提供資金？

Yes. So I'll take that question. So we remain committed to looking at further opportunities on the acquisition side for Walgreens Health. And I will tell you that we're constantly looking through the marketplace, particularly in tech enablement. And so as we mentioned back, early in the year that we would have one additional significant advancement in Walgreens Health on the acquisition side, we still remain committed to that in order to really bring, come full circle in that space. So we should look forward to that and also, too, in terms of how will we prioritize that.

是的。所以我會回答這個問題。因此，我們仍然致力於為 Walgreens Health 尋找更多收購方面的機會。我會告訴你，我們一直在觀察市場，特別是在技術支持方面。因此，正如我們在今年早些時候提到的那樣，我們將在收購方面在 Walgreens Health 取得額外的重大進展，我們仍然致力於實現這一目標，以便在該領域真正實現完整的循環。因此，我們應該期待這一點，也應該期待我們將如何優先考慮這一點。

I just want to remind everyone that we have a portfolio that we can look at and still look at how we could fund something like this. So we're still in the marketplace, and we remain committed to investments in Walgreens Health.

我只想提醒大家，我們有一個可以查看的投資組合，並且仍在研究如何為這樣的項目提供資金。所以我們仍然在市場上，我們仍然致力於對 Walgreens Health 的投資。

Our next question is from Elizabeth Anderson with Evercore.

我們的下一個問題來自 Elizabeth Anderson 和 Evercore。

I guess maybe on Walgreens Health, I appreciate what you're saying about the sort of pacing of investments and things next year. Can you just help us sort of tie together the performance in the quarter, particularly maybe on the gross margin line and then how we should sort of think about that shifting in sort of the fourth quarter and as we move forward into next year.

我想也許在 Walgreens Health 上，我很欣賞你所說的關於明年投資和事情的節奏。您能否幫助我們將本季度的業績聯繫起來，尤其是在毛利率線上，然後我們應該如何考慮在第四季度以及我們進入明年時的這種轉變。

Thanks, Elizabeth. I'll have James answer that gross margin question on Walgreens Health.

謝謝，伊麗莎白。我會讓詹姆斯回答關於沃爾格林健康的毛利率問題。

Yes, this is -- it's basically an investment and timing issue. You got -- I think, we're $21 million negative on gross margin with Shields very strong, and the investments are all in Village. And the best way to look at that is to look at the number of stores, the total number of clinics, 315 versus prior year, it's almost up 100 more clinics. And we gave some indications back in January on the profitability of a clinic.

是的，這基本上是一個投資和時間問題。你得到了 - 我認為，我們的毛利率為 2100 萬美元，而 Shields 非常強勁，而且投資都在 Village。最好的觀察方法是查看商店的數量，診所的總數，315 家與去年相比，幾乎增加了 100 家診所。我們在一月份就一家診所的盈利能力給出了一些跡象。

And when you get to full run rate, which is year 7, I think it's like $14 million of revenue and a $2 million clinic contribution. But year 1 is the revenue is $1 million, and you're losing $600,000. Year 2, I believe, is probably $200,000 to $300,000 loss. So you've got 2 years of losses, right? And you're only turning profitable at the beginning of the third year. So you've got 90 -- 100-plus clinics that are unprofitable to the tune of around $600,000. You got the ones in the previous year that are unprofitable to the tune of $200,000 or $300,000. So what this is, it's the -- and bear in mind, Elizabeth, when you look at a gross margin in Walgreens Health, it includes the entire cost of the clinic. So it's got the rent. It's got the doctors. It's got the depreciation and amortization. So it's fully loaded. So moving forward, as more and more clinics achieve profitability, the first 100 will turn profitable next year, right? So you've got more profitable ones coming on. And then I think that basically covers it. So it's a temporary thing, and it will turn profitable next year that's the way to think about it.

當你達到第 7 年的全速運行時，我認為這就像 1400 萬美元的收入和 200 萬美元的診所捐款。但是第一年的收入是 100 萬美元，而你損失了 60 萬美元。我相信，第 2 年可能會損失 200,000 到 300,000 美元。所以你有兩年的虧損，對吧？而且你只是在第三年開始時才開始盈利。所以你有 90 - 100 多家診所無利可圖，大約 600,000 美元。你在上一年得到了 200,000 美元或 300,000 美元的無利可圖。所以這是什麼，它是 - 請記住，伊麗莎白，當你查看 Walgreens Health 的毛利率時，它包括診所的全部成本。所以它得到了租金。它有醫生。它有折舊和攤銷。所以它是滿載的。所以往前看，隨著越來越多的診所實現盈利，前 100 家明年就會盈利，對吧？因此，您將獲得更多有利可圖的機會。然後我認為這基本上涵蓋了它。所以這是暫時的事情，明年就會盈利，這就是思考的方式。

Got it. Okay. And then I know, obviously, you said that CareCentrix, you are expecting to close, if you get approvals by the end of the fiscal year. So then that would obviously impact the estimated annual run rate for the end of this year. But as we think about the jumping-off point for just sort of '23 and beyond to get to that $9 billion to $10 billion in FY '25, you wouldn't expect to change to that broader trajectory. Obviously, there's a short-term timing issue with the CareCentrix deal, right?

知道了。好的。然後我知道，很明顯，你說過 CareCentrix，如果你在本財年末獲得批准，你預計會關閉。那麼這顯然會影響今年年底的估計年運行率。但是，當我們考慮到 23 年及以後的起點，以在 25 財年達到 90 億至 100 億美元時，您不會期望改變到更廣泛的軌跡。顯然，CareCentrix 交易存在短期時間問題，對吧？

Right. You're right about that, Elizabeth, the way you're thinking about it. And we're looking forward to the closure of that deal. We're still in process with that, but you're thinking about this in the right way.

正確的。伊麗莎白，你的想法是對的。我們期待著這筆交易的完成。我們仍在處理這個問題，但你正在以正確的方式考慮這個問題。

We've really, really -- once CareCentrix closes, we have a strong line of sight to the $9 billion to $10 billion, very strong.

我們真的，真的 - 一旦 CareCentrix 關閉，我們對 90 億到 100 億美元的收入有著強烈的看法，非常強大。

The next question is from Steven Valiquette with Barclays.

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Steven Valiquette。

So two interrelated questions here. I think first for the U.S. retail front-end business and pricing strategy, Roz, you mentioned that Walgreens is working closely with suppliers and maintaining price gaps versus competitors. So I was just curious to hear a little more detail either on the mechanics or just examples of what you're referring to with that comment. And then just to check the box on a related question, just for your overall set of SKUs in the retail front end, do you have any approximate percent of SKUs where you may be witnessing supply shortages. It could be a very small percent, potentially even less than 1%. But just wondering if it makes sense to frame it this way.

所以這裡有兩個相互關聯的問題。我認為首先對於美國零售前端業務和定價策略，Roz，你提到沃爾格林正在與供應商密切合作，並與競爭對手保持價格差距。所以我只是想知道更多關於機制的細節，或者只是你在評論中所指的例子。然後只是為了檢查一個相關問題的框，僅針對您在零售前端的整體 SKU 集，您是否有任何可能目睹供應短缺的 SKU 的大致百分比。它可能是一個非常小的百分比，甚至可能低於 1%。但只是想知道以這種方式構建它是否有意義。

Sure. Thanks, Steve. And I'm going to start off with that, and then I'm going to ask John Standley to fill in on some of the details there. So you mentioned about the front end of the store and what are we seeing in terms of our exposure there. So first of all, I want to make one clarifying point.

當然。謝謝，史蒂夫。我將從這個開始，然後我會請 John Standley 填寫其中的一些細節。所以你提到了商店的前端，以及我們在那裡的曝光率方面看到了什麼。所以首先，我想澄清一點。

When you compare us to maybe some of the other retailers in terms of our in-stock position and also to with what we're seeing from a supply chain standpoint, we have some categories in our stores that are dramatically different. There are other retailers that are facing long lead items like apparel, kitchen furniture, televisions, large items in that respect. We are working very quickly, strongly against moving towards our private-label business and trying to get to roughly a percentage of about 22% of our private-label opportunities in our store. We run roughly about 16% to 18% right now in private label. So moving to 22% gives you an idea of some of the cost benefits that we could share later on.

當您將我們與其他一些零售商的庫存狀況以及我們從供應鏈的角度所看到的情況進行比較時，我們的商店中有一些類別截然不同。還有其他零售商在這方面面臨著長期領先的商品，例如服裝、廚房家具、電視和大型商品。我們的工作非常迅速，強烈反對轉向我們的自有品牌業務，並試圖在我們的商店中獲得大約 22% 的自有品牌機會。我們現在以自有品牌運營大約 16% 到 18%。因此，移動到 22% 可以讓您了解我們稍後可以分享的一些成本優勢。

Also, along with that comes some innovation in bringing in new categories. So when I think about front of store and what we're facing in terms of being a little bit more recession-proof and also to looking at supply chain issues that impact our business and those kinds of things. But I'll let John go into some detail in terms of what he's seeing in front of store.

此外，隨之而來的是在引入新類別方面的一些創新。因此，當我考慮到店面以及我們所面臨的如何抵禦經濟衰退以及考慮影響我們的業務和此類事情的供應鏈問題時。但我會讓約翰詳細介紹他在商店前看到的情況。

Sure. I guess I'll just pick up right there. As Roz said, we are working closely with all of our major supplier partners to address issues as they arise. And it kind of -- it moves around a little bit in the business from time to time, depending on the category. Obviously, we're working through things like baby (inaudible) and things like that. But generally, I think we've done a good job of staying close to our partners and getting products the best that we can. I think the over-the-counter test kits is a great example.

當然。我想我會在那裡接。正如 Roz 所說，我們正在與所有主要供應商合作夥伴密切合作，以解決出現的問題。它有點——它不時在業務中移動一點，具體取決於類別。顯然，我們正在處理諸如嬰兒（聽不清）之類的事情。但總的來說，我認為我們在與合作夥伴保持密切聯繫並儘可能提供最好的產品方面做得很好。我認為非處方試劑盒就是一個很好的例子。

The demand on this and the supply on this have kind of bounced around pretty dramatically over the last several months, and our team has just done a fantastic job of really aligning between supply chain and merchandising and operations to really be there for our patients and customers is just kind of one example.

在過去的幾個月裡，對此的需求和供應都出現了相當大的反彈，我們的團隊剛剛完成了出色的工作，在供應鏈、銷售和運營之間真正協調一致，真正為我們的患者和客戶服務只是一種例子。

Talking about pricing and pricing mechanics. Obviously, a lot of inflation in the marketplace. We work, again, really closely with our supplier partners. And the first thing we try and do is just mitigate that cost increase really through the relationship the best that we can. And we've had some success at that. But we have seen cost increases come through like all retailers have. And I think we've worked hard to manage that into the marketplace the best way we can. And as Roz said, we've really done that successfully while managing our relative price position to the market. So again, I think our team has done a great job executing against those pressures as they have it risen.

談論定價和定價機制。顯然，市場上有很多通貨膨脹。我們再次與供應商合作夥伴密切合作。我們嘗試做的第一件事就是盡我們所能通過這種關係真正減輕成本增加。我們在這方面取得了一些成功。但我們已經看到成本增加，就像所有零售商一樣。而且我認為我們已經努力以最好的方式將其管理到市場中。正如 Roz 所說，我們確實成功地做到了這一點，同時管理了我們對市場的相對價格地位。再說一次，我認為我們的團隊在應對這些壓力上升時做得很好。

That will conclude our question-and-answer session for today. I'll now turn it over to Roz Brewer for any closing remarks.

今天的問答環節到此結束。我現在將把它交給 Roz Brewer 來做結語。

Thank you for joining us today. I just want to summarize what we discussed here today and how we are looking at our business. We've delivered really strong execution across our operating segments and against a very robust growth this year. Third quarter results were broadly in line with our expectations, and I want to remind everyone of that. And we've been executing well on the strategic priorities we shared last October. We will continue to make some improvements in our core business. We'll evolve our portfolio. We remain committed to our Walgreens Health business. We also will manage and preserve our capital and really continue to work on this world-class team. I'm really proud of what this team has been able to do under some tough market conditions. They continue to outperform my personal expectations. So I remain optimistic about the opportunities ahead.

感謝您今天加入我們。我只想總結一下我們今天在這裡討論的內容以及我們如何看待我們的業務。我們已經在我們的運營部門和今年非常強勁的增長中交付了非常強大的執行力。第三季度業績大體符合我們的預期，我想提醒大家這一點。我們在去年 10 月共享的戰略重點上一直執行得很好。我們將繼續對我們的核心業務進行一些改進。我們將發展我們的投資組合。我們仍然致力於我們的 Walgreens Health 業務。我們還將管理和保護我們的資本，並真正繼續為這個世界級的團隊工作。我真的為這支球隊在一些艱難的市場條件下能夠做到的事情感到自豪。他們繼續超出我個人的預期。所以我對未來的機會保持樂觀。

We're strongly committed to driving our long-term earnings growth algorithm. And we look forward to keeping you updated as we make further progress. So thank you for joining us.

我們堅定地致力於推動我們的長期收益增長算法。隨著我們取得進一步的進展，我們期待為您提供最新信息。所以感謝您加入我們。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。