沃博聯公司 (WBA) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Rob, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Walgreens Boots Alliance First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Tiffany Kanaga, Vice President of Global Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

早上好。我叫 Rob，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線員。此時，我想歡迎大家參加 Walgreens Boots Alliance 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）全球投資者關係副總裁 Tiffany Kanaga。你可以開始你的會議。

Good morning. Thank you for joining us for the Walgreens Boots Alliance Earnings Call for the First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2023. I'm Tiffany Kanaga, Vice President of Global Investor Relations. Joining me on today's call are Roz Brewer, our Chief Executive Officer; and James Kehoe, our Chief Financial Officer; Rick Gates, Senior Vice President of Pharmacy and Healthcare at Walgreens will participate in Q&A. Today's call will be approximately 1 hour in length, including Q&A.

早上好。感謝您加入我們的 Walgreens Boots Alliance 2023 財年第一季度財報電話會議。我是全球投資者關係副總裁 Tiffany Kanaga。我們的首席執行官 Roz Brewer 和我一起參加今天的電話會議；和我們的首席財務官 James Kehoe； Walgreens 藥房和醫療保健高級副總裁 Rick Gates 將參與問答環節。今天的電話會議時長約為 1 小時，包括問答環節。

Let me note that all references to the COVID-19 headwind include U.S. vaccines, drive-through tests and OTC tests. 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.

請注意，所有對 COVID-19 逆風的提及都包括美國疫苗、免下車測試和 OTC 測試。一如既往，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，包括幻燈片 2 中列出的因素以及我們向美國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，我們的實際結果可能存在重大差異。我們沒有義務在本次演示後公開更新任何前瞻性聲明，無論是由於新信息、未來事件、假設變化還是其他原因。

You can find our press release and the slides referenced on this call in the Investors section of the Walgreens Boots Alliance website. The slides in the press release also contain further information about non-GAAP financial measures that we will discuss today during this call. I will now turn the call over to Roz.

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。新聞稿中的幻燈片還包含有關非 GAAP 財務指標的更多信息，我們將在今天的電話會議中討論這些指標。我現在將把電話轉給 Roz。

Thanks, Tiffany. And good morning, everyone. WBA entered fiscal 2023 with good momentum, and we delivered a solid start to the year. Sales grew 1% in constant currency or over 3%, excluding the headwind from AllianceRx Walgreens and tailwinds from our new health care assets. The decline in adjusted EPS comes against very strong growth of 53% last year and reflects the anticipated headwinds from lapping COVID execution and our investments in the U.S. Healthcare segment and labor.

謝謝，蒂芙尼。大家早上好。 WBA 以良好的勢頭進入 2023 財年，我們在這一年取得了良好的開端。銷售額按固定匯率計算增長 1% 或超過 3%，不包括來自 AllianceRx Walgreens 的逆風和來自我們新醫療保健資產的順風。調整後每股收益的下降與去年 53% 的強勁增長形成鮮明對比，反映了 COVID 執行的預期逆風以及我們在美國醫療保健領域和勞動力的投資。

Our core business remains resilient despite historic macro challenges. We are driving healthy retail comp growth on top of record prior year performances. Our script volume growth is on track with plans as our restaffing and marketing initiatives are gaining traction. We made an important announcement on our opioid legal matters in November. Reaching an agreement in principle to pay approximately $5.7 billion over 15 years to resolve a substantial majority of our opioid-related litigation brought by states, political subdivisions and tribes.

儘管面臨歷史性的宏觀挑戰，我們的核心業務仍保持彈性。在去年創紀錄的業績基礎上，我們正在推動健康的零售業務增長。隨著我們的人員重組和營銷計劃越來越受到關注，我們的劇本數量增長正按計劃進行。我們在 11 月就我們的阿片類藥物法律事務發布了重要公告。原則上達成協議，在 15 年內支付約 57 億美元，以解決我們由各州、政治部門和部落提起的大部分與阿片類藥物相關的訴訟。

This allows us to move forward and focus on our purpose, helping consumers lead more joyful lives through better health. We are making great progress to accelerate our transformation to health care, most notably in the quarter with the VillageMD acquisition of Summit Health. At the same time, we're unlocking value and strengthening the company by simplifying the portfolio. Our execution to date reinforces our confidence in achieving our full year guidance for adjusted EPS of $4.45 to $4.65. We are raising our sales guidance, and we have greater visibility toward the strong 8% to 10% core growth that underpins our results, offsetting the COVID headwind of 16% to 18%.

這使我們能夠繼續前進並專注於我們的目標，幫助消費者通過更好的健康過上更快樂的生活。我們在加速向醫療保健轉型方面取得了很大進展，尤其是在本季度，VillageMD 收購了 Summit Health。與此同時，我們正在通過簡化投資組合來釋放價值並加強公司實力。我們迄今為止的執行增強了我們實現調整後每股收益 4.45 美元至 4.65 美元的全年指導的信心。我們正在提高我們的銷售指引，並且我們對支撐我們業績的 8% 至 10% 的強勁核心增長有了更大的了解，抵消了 16% 至 18% 的 COVID 逆風。

We are quickly scaling U.S. health care with a defined path to achieve profitability exiting this fiscal year. Our strategic actions are working to create sustainable shareholder value as we reimagine local health care and wellness for all. We are making progress against each of our 4 strategic priorities. U.S. and Boots U.K. retail comp sales were both strong, with the U.S., excluding tobacco, up over 2% on top of almost 12% last year and Boots up 9% on top of 16% last year.

我們正在通過明確的途徑快速擴大美國醫療保健規模，以在本財年實現盈利。我們的戰略行動正在努力創造可持續的股東價值，因為我們重新構想了所有人的本地醫療保健和健康。我們正在針對我們的 4 個戰略重點中的每一個取得進展。美國和 Boots 英國的零售銷售額均表現強勁，美國（不包括煙草）在去年近 12% 的基礎上增長了 2% 以上，而 Boots 在去年的 16% 基礎上增長了 9%。

I am especially pleased with this good performance against a tougher consumer backdrop. The convenience and value that we offer are resonating well, and our initiatives to align the core are driving traffic and margin expansion. Walgreens launched 24 hours same-day delivery, offering the widest range of retail items for around-the-clock delivery across the country. This adds to our broad range of channel access, including 1-hour delivery and 30-minute pickup.

我對在更嚴峻的消費者背景下取得的良好表現感到特別滿意。我們提供的便利和價值引起了很好的共鳴，我們調整核心的舉措正在推動流量和利潤增長。 Walgreens 推出 24 小時當日送貨服務，提供範圍最廣的零售商品，可在全國范圍內全天候送貨。這增加了我們廣泛的渠道訪問範圍，包括 1 小時送達和 30 分鐘取貨。

The Boots consumer responded very favorably to holiday campaigns and promotions delivering record Black Friday online sales. Boots.com was one of the U.K.'s top 10 most visited retail websites on that day. And we're maintaining price positioning versus competitors and benefiting from inventory availability through our proactive buying ahead of this year's cold, cough and flu season.

Boots 消費者對假日活動和促銷活動反應非常積極，黑色星期五的在線銷售額創下歷史新高。 Boots.com 是當天英國訪問量最大的 10 大零售網站之一。我們將保持相對於競爭對手的價格定位，並通過在今年感冒、咳嗽和流感季節到來之前主動採購，從庫存可用性中獲益。

In the pharmacy, our team members administered over 8 million COVID-19 vaccinations in the quarter against our goal of 16 million for the full year. Walgreens has been a leading contributor to the national pandemic response with the study from the Commonwealth Fund showing that total industry efforts have prevented 18.5 million hospitalizations, saved 3.2 million patient lives, and prevented 120 million COVID infections. This adds up to an estimated over $1 trillion in medical cost savings through the U.S. vaccination program.

在藥房，我們的團隊成員在本季度進行了超過 800 萬次 COVID-19 疫苗接種，而我們全年的目標是 1600 萬次。 Walgreens 一直是全國應對大流行病的主要貢獻者，聯邦基金的研究表明，整個行業的努力已經阻止了 1850 萬人住院，挽救了 320 萬患者的生命，並阻止了 1.2 億例 COVID 感染。通過美國疫苗接種計劃，這加起來估計可以節省超過 1 萬億美元的醫療費用。

I could not be prouder of our pharmacy team's tireless execution being among the most trusted health resources available. We continue to care for our local communities and countless ways and we are focusing investments to return stores to normal pharmacy operating hours. Pharmacy staffing has been positive nearly every week since mid-July, and we are leveraging our digital platform to reconnect on a personal level with customers.

我為我們的藥房團隊不懈的執行力成為最值得信賴的可用醫療資源之一而感到自豪。我們繼續以無數方式關心我們的當地社區，我們正在集中投資以使商店恢復正常的藥房營業時間。自 7 月中旬以來，藥房人員配置幾乎每週都是積極的，我們正在利用我們的數字平台在個人層面上與客戶重新建立聯繫。

Our efforts are on pace, resulting in over 2% comp script growth excluding immunizations in the quarter, up 220 basis points sequentially. Importantly, we are seeing mid-single-digit growth in stores with normal hours. We have also opened our ninth automated micro fulfillment center, now supporting about 3,000 total stores. These facilities remove routine tasks and excess inventory from the pharmacy supporting our team and the path to script recovery.

我們的努力正在按計劃進行，導致本季度不包括免疫接種在內的腳本增長超過 2%，連續增長 220 個基點。重要的是，我們看到正常營業時間的商店出現了中個位數的增長。我們還開設了第九個自動化微型履行中心，目前支持約 3,000 家商店。這些設施消除了支持我們團隊的藥房的日常任務和多餘庫存，並消除了腳本恢復的途徑。

They give pharmacists more time for services and outreach that drive adherence and improve patient health. Turning to our second strategic priority. This was a landmark quarter for accelerating the build-out of our next growth engine, the U.S. Healthcare segment. We invested $3.5 billion to support VillageMD's acquisition of Summit Health creating one of the leading independent provider groups in the country. We recognize the critical importance of scale in value-based care delivery and density in attractive markets. This highly strategic transaction expands VillageMD's addressable market with primary care, multi-specialty and urgent care and reinforces our approach across the care continuum.

他們讓藥劑師有更多時間進行服務和外展，從而推動依從性並改善患者健康。轉向我們的第二個戰略重點。對於加速我們的下一個增長引擎——美國醫療保健部門的建設，這是一個具有里程碑意義的季度。我們投資了 35 億美元來支持 VillageMD 收購 Summit Health，從而創建該國領先的獨立供應商集團之一。我們認識到在有吸引力的市場中基於價值的護理服務和密度的規模至關重要。這項具有高度戰略意義的交易通過初級保健、多專業和緊急護理擴大了 VillageMD 的潛在市場，並加強了我們在整個護理連續體中的方法。

We see meaningful synergy potential over time. The deal is also immediately EPS accretive and accelerates profitability for U.S. health care. We expect to exit fiscal '23 with positive adjusted EBITDA. Shields Health Solutions and CareCentrix continue to perform well, which led to the accelerated acquisition of both entities. Shields closed on December 28, and CareCentrix is scheduled to close in the third quarter of fiscal '23.

隨著時間的推移，我們看到了有意義的協同潛力。該交易還立即增加了每股收益，並加速了美國醫療保健的盈利能力。我們預計以調整後的 EBITDA 退出 23 財年。 Shields Health Solutions 和 CareCentrix 繼續表現良好，這導致了對這兩個實體的加速收購。 Shields 於 12 月 28 日關閉，CareCentrix 計劃於 23 財年第三季度關閉。

VillageMD is leading the way in value-based care for the country, with 393 clinics as of year-end, including 200 co-located with Walgreens, achieving the calendar 2022 target. Following the close of the Summit transaction earlier this week, VillageMD now operates over 680 locations across 26 markets. We also exceeded our goal for health corners with 112 now versus the 100 we had expected by the end of December. Our health care strategy is coming to life through all of our best-in-class assets, which drove a combined 38% pro forma sales growth in the quarter.

VillageMD 在全國基於價值的護理方面處於領先地位，截至年底共有 393 家診所，其中 200 家與 Walgreens 位於同一地點，實現了 2022 年的日曆目標。在本週早些時候 Summit 交易結束後，VillageMD 現在在 26 個市場經營超過 680 個地點。我們還超額完成了健康角的目標，現在有 112 個，而我們在 12 月底的預期是 100 個。我們的醫療保健戰略正在通過我們所有一流的資產來實現，這推動了本季度 38% 的綜合預估銷售額增長。

This growth is funded through actions we continue to take to better align our investment portfolio and simplify the business. In November and December, we unlocked $3 billion in after-tax cash proceeds from the sale of 19 million AmerisourceBergen shares executing with tight discounts and near 52-week highs. We also realized approximately $150 million in proceeds from the sale of our stake in GPC. Lastly, we have a strong team that is fully aligned with our strategy including a new structure for U.S. retail pharmacy and John Driscoll, leading U.S. health care.

這種增長是通過我們繼續採取行動以更好地調整我們的投資組合和簡化業務來提供資金的。在 11 月和 12 月，我們通過出售 1900 萬股 AmerisourceBergen 股票獲得了 30 億美元的稅後現金收益，這些股票以極低的折扣和接近 52 週的高位執行。我們還通過出售我們在 GPC 的股份獲得了大約 1.5 億美元的收益。最後，我們擁有一支與我們的戰略完全一致的強大團隊，包括美國零售藥房的新結構和領導美國醫療保健的 John Driscoll。

Perhaps most crucially, we are continuing to invest in our people to recruit and retain the very best talent, which is key to providing a superior customer experience. Fiscal '23 includes further investments in our pharmacy team and minimum wage, as previously stated. We're also reinventing the role of the pharmacists through micro fulfillment centers and eliminating task-based metrics, further enabling them to practice at the top of their license, while creating a differentiated work environment.

也許最重要的是，我們將繼續投資於我們的員工以招募和留住最優秀的人才，這是提供卓越客戶體驗的關鍵。如前所述，23 財年包括對我們的藥房團隊和最低工資的進一步投資。我們還通過微型履行中心和消除基於任務的指標來重塑藥劑師的角色，進一步使他們能夠在他們的執照的頂部實踐，同時創造一個差異化的工作環境。

Our retail pharmacy business provides the foundation for our leading health care assets to deliver value across the full care continuum. We are able to unite digital and physical models to guide consumers through the complex health care landscape. We are building the scale and resources to help health plans and patients improve outcomes and lower costs as only Walgreens can do. There are significant opportunities for synergies, allowing us to pursue value-based care and risk arrangements, which will demonstrate the value of an integrated approach.

我們的零售藥房業務為我們領先的醫療保健資產奠定了基礎，以在整個護理連續體中創造價值。我們能夠結合數字和物理模型來引導消費者了解複雜的醫療保健環境。我們正在建立規模和資源，以幫助健康計劃和患者改善結果並降低成本，因為只有 Walgreens 才能做到。協同增效的機會很大，使我們能夠追求基於價值的護理和風險安排，這將證明綜合方法的價值。

We are focused on expanding our risk business supporting integrated care models, expanding our pharmacy value proposition and driving operational efficiencies. I'm looking 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.

我們專注於擴展支持綜合護理模式的風險業務，擴展我們的藥房價值主張並提高運營效率。我期待著與您分享更多內容。有了這個，我將把它交給詹姆斯，為我們的結果和前景提供更多色彩。

Thank you, Roz. And good morning. In summary, we had a solid start to the fiscal year. Despite the expected headwinds, the first quarter results were broadly in line with our expectations, and we are maintaining our full year EPS outlook. Adjusted EPS of $1.16 declined by 29.9% on a constant currency basis as we were lapping a very strong prior year quarter when we delivered EPS growth of over 53%.

謝謝你，羅茲。早上好。總而言之，我們本財年開局良好。儘管存在預期的不利因素，但第一季度的業績基本符合我們的預期，我們維持全年每股收益展望不變。調整後的每股收益為 1.16 美元，按固定匯率計算下降了 29.9%，因為我們在上一季度取得了非常強勁的增長，當時我們實現了超過 53% 的每股收益增長。

The year-over-year decline was mainly due to a 19% headwind from COVID-19, U.S. health care growth investments of 5% and labor investments of 5%. These were partly offset by good retail performance in both the U.S. and International segments and a favorable tax rate. Excluding AllianceRx and U.S. health care M&A, sales grew 3.2% on a constant currency basis. The core business remained resilient in a challenging operating environment.

同比下降主要是由於 COVID-19 帶來的 19% 逆風、美國醫療保健增長投資 5% 和勞動力投資 5%。這部分被美國和國際市場良好的零售業績以及優惠的稅率所抵消。不包括 AllianceRx 和美國醫療保健併購，銷售額按固定匯率計算增長 3.2%。核心業務在充滿挑戰的經營環境中保持彈性。

Comparable sales were up 3.8% in the U.S., despite lapping a very strong prior year comp of 7.9%. International sales grew 4.6%, led by the U.K. and Germany. And our U.S. health care business continues to rapidly scale with almost $1 billion of sales in the quarter and growing 38% on a pro forma basis. With the first quarter broadly in line, we are maintaining our full year adjusted EPS guidance of $4.45 to $4.65 with 8% to 10% constant currency core growth offset by a COVID-19 headwind of around 17 percentage points.

美國的可比銷售額增長了 3.8%，儘管去年同期增長了 7.9%。在英國和德國的帶動下，國際銷售額增長了 4.6%。我們的美國醫療保健業務繼續快速擴張，本季度銷售額接近 10 億美元，預估增長 38%。由於第一季度大致符合預期，我們維持 4.45 美元至 4.65 美元的全年調整後每股收益指引，其中 8% 至 10% 的恆定貨幣核心增長被約 17 個百分點的 COVID-19 逆風所抵消。

Our guidance now includes the EPS accretion from Summit Health and dilution from our reduced ownership stake in AmerisourceBergen. We have raised our full year sales guidance by over $3 billion to reflect the closing of the Summit Health transaction, refreshed currency rates and a good start to the year.

我們的指導現在包括來自 Summit Health 的 EPS 增長和我們在 AmerisourceBergen 的股權減少導致的稀釋。我們已將全年銷售指引提高了超過 30 億美元，以反映 Summit Health 交易的結束、更新的匯率和今年的良好開端。

Let's now look at the results in more detail. Sales of $33 billion, rose 1.1% on a constant currency basis despite an adverse impact of 485 basis points from the anticipated decline at AllianceRx. This headwind will stop after December. Adjusted operating income declined 42% on a constant currency basis due to 3 factors. Firstly, a much lower contribution from COVID-19 vaccinations and testing led to a negative impact of approximately 20%. Secondly, the U.S. Healthcare adjusted operating loss was $139 million higher in the quarter, with an impact of 8 percentage points.

現在讓我們更詳細地查看結果。銷售額為 330 億美元，按固定匯率計算增長 1.1%，儘管 AllianceRx 的預期下降帶來了 485 個基點的不利影響。這種逆風將在 12 月後停止。由於 3 個因素，調整後的營業收入按固定匯率計算下降了 42%。首先，COVID-19 疫苗接種和測試的貢獻要低得多，導致了大約 20% 的負面影響。其次，本季度美國醫療保健調整後的運營虧損增加了 1.39 億美元，影響增加了 8 個百分點。

The current quarter includes higher Walgreens Health organic investments and a full quarter of results for VillageMD compared to only 6 days of losses in the prior year quarter. Thirdly, our previously disclosed labor investments in pharmacy staffing and minimum wage are a $100 million headwind, equivalent to 6 percentage points of AOI growth. Adjusted EPS was $1.16, a constant currency decline of 29.9%, due entirely to operating income. This was despite a favorable tax rate which benefited from the release of valuation allowances related to capital losses.

本季度包括更高的 Walgreens Health 有機投資和 VillageMD 的整個季度業績，而去年同期只有 6 天的虧損。第三，我們之前披露的藥房人員配備和最低工資方面的勞動力投資是 1 億美元的逆風，相當於 AOI 增長的 6 個百分點。調整後每股收益為 1.16 美元，匯率持續下降 29.9%，這完全是由於營業收入。儘管有有利的稅率，但受益於與資本損失相關的估值津貼的釋放。

GAAP earnings were a loss of $3.7 billion compared to net earnings of $3.6 billion in the year-ago quarter. The current quarter included a $5.2 billion after-tax charge for opioid-related losses, partly offset by a $900 million after-tax gain on the sale of Amerisourcebergen shares.

GAAP 收益虧損 37 億美元，而去年同期淨收益為 36 億美元。本季度包括阿片類藥物相關損失的 52 億美元稅後費用，部分被出售 Amerisourcebergen 股票的 9 億美元稅後收益所抵消。

Additionally, we are comparing to a prior year quarter that included a $2.5 billion after-tax gain on the company's investments in VillageMD and Shields. Now let's move to the U.S. Retail Pharmacy segment. While the U.S. performance was impacted by the anticipated COVID-19 headwinds, we do expect year-on-year performance to improve in the second half as the COVID headwind lessens and initiatives to drive script volume gain traction.

此外，我們正在與去年同期進行比較，其中包括公司對 VillageMD 和 Shields 投資的 25 億美元稅後收益。現在讓我們轉到美國零售藥房部分。雖然美國的表現受到預期的 COVID-19 逆風的影響，但我們確實預計下半年的同比表現會有所改善，因為 COVID 逆風減弱以及推動腳本量增加的舉措。

Sales decreased 3% in the quarter, but if you exclude the negative impact of AllianceRx, sales increased by 3%. Comp sales increased 3.8% despite lapping a very strong prior year comp of 7.9%. Adjusted operating income of $1.1 billion, declined 35%, broadly in line with our expectations. Headwinds from fewer COVID-19 vaccinations and PCR tests and increased labor investments were partly offset by retail sales growth and gross margin expansion and savings from the transformational cost management program.

該季度銷售額下降了 3%，但如果排除 AllianceRx 的負面影響，銷售額增長了 3%。儘管去年同期增長 7.9%，但 Comp 銷售額增長了 3.8%。調整後營業收入為 11 億美元，下降 35%，大致符合我們的預期。 COVID-19 疫苗接種和 PCR 檢測減少以及勞動力投資增加帶來的不利因素被零售銷售增長和毛利率擴張以及轉型成本管理計劃節省的資金部分抵消。

Let me now turn to U.S. Pharmacy. Pharmacy sales declined 4%, held back by a 7.8 percentage point headwind from AllianceRx and by significantly lower contributions from COVID-19 vaccinations and testing. Comparable pharmacy sales were up 4.8% despite lapping a solid 6.8% comp last year. The sales growth was favorably impacted by branded drug inflation. Comp scripts were flat and excluding immunizations, comp scripts were up 2.1%, a sequential improvement of over 200 basis points.

現在讓我轉向美國藥房。藥房銷售額下降了 4%，受到 AllianceRx 7.8 個百分點的逆風以及 COVID-19 疫苗接種和檢測的貢獻顯著降低的影響。儘管去年取得了 6.8% 的穩健增長，但可比藥房銷售額仍增長了 4.8%。銷售增長受到品牌藥通脹的有利影響。薪酬腳本持平，不包括免疫接種，薪酬腳本上漲了 2.1%，環比提高了 200 多個基點。

We administered 8.4 million COVID-19 vaccinations in the first quarter, down 46% versus the prior year quarter. Flu vaccinations were up versus prior year due to higher flu incidences. Season to date, we have administered over 9 million flu shots. As expected, pharmacy adjusted gross profit and gross margin declined in the quarter due to fewer COVID-19 vaccinations, a mix shift to lower margin at home COVID-19 tests, and ongoing reimbursement pressure net of procurement savings. Reimbursement was broadly in line with our expectations and represented a lower level of pressure compared to the prior year. Turning next to our U.S. retail business. We saw good retail performance in the quarter with continued growth in both sales and margin.

我們在第一季度進行了 840 萬次 COVID-19 疫苗接種，比去年同期下降了 46%。由於流感發病率較高，流感疫苗接種量較上年有所增加。到目前為止，我們已經註射了超過 900 萬劑流感疫苗。正如預期的那樣，由於 COVID-19 疫苗接種次數減少、家庭 COVID-19 測試利潤率降低的混合轉變以及採購節省後的持續報銷壓力，本季度藥房調整後的毛利潤和毛利率有所下降。報銷大致符合我們的預期，與上一年相比壓力較小。接下來是我們的美國零售業務。本季度我們看到良好的零售業績，銷售額和利潤率均持續增長。

Retail comp sales increased 1.4% despite lapping a very strong 10.6% comp in the prior year quarter. Excluding tobacco, comps were up 2.1%. And on a 2-year stack basis, comp sales growth was 13.8%. We benefited from a 220 basis point tailwind from cough, cold flu. However, this was largely offset by a 170 basis point headwind from lower sales of at-home COVID-19 tests. Comp sales were led by 4.9% growth in Beauty and a 2.9% increase in consumables and general merchandise.

儘管上一季度零售銷售額增長了 10.6%，但仍增長了 1.4%。不包括煙草在內，收入上漲了 2.1%。並且在 2 年的基礎上，comp 銷售額增長了 13.8%。我們受益於咳嗽、感冒流感帶來的 220 個基點的順風。然而，這在很大程度上被家庭 COVID-19 測試銷量下降帶來的 170 個基點的逆風所抵消。化妝品銷售額增長 4.9%，消耗品和一般商品增長 2.9%。

Both categories benefited from own brand offerings and decisions to invest early in inventory availability. We delivered another quarter of strong retail gross margin performance, reflecting effective margin management, including strategic pricing and promotional optimization and favorable shrink trends. Turning next to the International segment, and I'll talk to constant currency numbers. Sales increased 4.6%, with growth across all international markets. Boots U.K. was up 4.3% and Germany wholesale grew 4.2%. Adjusted operating income was $116 million, down 20% versus prior year. Strong U.K. retail sales and good operational execution in the Germany wholesale business were offset by lower demand for COVID-19 pharmacy services in the U.K., the adverse gross margin impact of NHS pharmacy funding, and the expiration of temporary rental reductions received in the prior year.

這兩個類別都受益於自有品牌產品和儘早投資庫存可用性的決定。我們在另一個季度實現了強勁的零售毛利率表現，反映了有效的利潤管理，包括戰略定價和促銷優化以及有利的收縮趨勢。轉到國際部分旁邊，我將談談不變的貨幣數字。銷售額增長 4.6%，所有國際市場均有增長。英國 Boots 批發增長 4.3%，德國批發增長 4.2%。調整後營業收入為 1.16 億美元，比上年下降 20%。英國強勁的零售銷售和德國批發業務的良好運營執行被英國對 COVID-19 藥房服務的需求下降、NHS 藥房資金對毛利率的不利影響以及上一年收到的臨時租金減免到期所抵消.

On a combined basis, these 3 items had an impact of around 27 percentage points. Looking forward, we do expect the International segment to return to strong profit growth in the second quarter. Early indications show that Boots had a strong Christmas season with comp sales growth of around 15%. Key categories, including gifting, beauty and fragrance performed extremely well along with an uptick in OTC cold and immunity categories.

綜合來看，這 3 項的影響約為 27 個百分點。展望未來，我們確實預計國際業務將在第二季度恢復強勁的利潤增長。早期跡象表明，Boots 的聖誕季表現強勁，銷售額增長了 15% 左右。包括禮品、美容和香水在內的主要類別表現非常出色，OTC 感冒和免疫類別也有所上升。

Let's now look in more detail at Boots U.K. Boots U.K. sales growth of 4% was led by continued strong retail performance. Comparable retail sales advanced 8.7% and this is coming on top of a 16% comp growth in the year ago quarter. Footfall grew 8% with flagship and travel locations, again showing robust improvement. Foods continued to gain market share with personal care and health and wellness performing particularly well. Comparable pharmacy sales declined 0.9% reflecting lower demand for COVID-19 services. Boots.com continues its strong performance with sales more than doubling versus the pre-COVID period. Approximately 18% of our U.K. retail sales came from Boots.com in the quarter, which compares to roughly 9% in the equivalent pre-COVID quarter. November was a very strong month with Black Friday being our biggest ever online event.

現在讓我們更詳細地了解 Boots U.K。Boots U.K 的銷售額增長 4% 得益於持續強勁的零售業績。可比零售額增長了 8.7%，這是在去年同期增長 16% 的基礎上取得的。旗艦店和旅遊地點的客流量增長了 8%，再次顯示出強勁的增長。食品繼續獲得市場份額，個人護理和保健品表現尤其出色。可比藥房銷售額下降 0.9%，反映出對 COVID-19 服務的需求下降。 Boots.com 繼續表現強勁，銷售額比 COVID 前時期翻了一番多。本季度，我們在英國的零售額中約有 18% 來自 Boots.com，而在 COVID 之前的同等季度，這一比例約為 9%。 11 月是一個非常強勁的月份，黑色星期五是我們有史以來最大的在線活動。

Turning next to U.S. health care. We are very excited about developments in our U.S. health care segment as the business continues to rapidly scale. Sales were almost $1 billion in the quarter compared to only $50 million in the year ago quarter. Pro forma combined sales growth of 38% compared to 34% in the fourth quarter of fiscal '22. VillageMD had sales of $550 million advancing 49% on a pro forma basis, with growth driven by existing clinic growth and expansion of the clinic footprint.

接下來轉向美國醫療保健。隨著業務繼續快速擴展，我們對美國醫療保健部門的發展感到非常興奮。本季度銷售額接近 10 億美元，而去年同期僅為 5000 萬美元。與 22 財年第四季度的 34% 相比，預計合併銷售額增長 38%。 VillageMD 的銷售額為 5.5 億美元，在預估基礎上增長了 49%，增長是由現有診所的增長和診所足蹟的擴大推動的。

Shields again showed very strong growth with sales of over $100 million and pro forma growth of 44%, driven by recent contract wins, further expansion of existing partnerships, and strong executional focus. In its first full quarter, CareCentrix delivered sales of over $330 million. Pro forma sales growth was 22%. Segment adjusted operating income was a loss of $152 million. This was flat sequentially and compares to a loss of only $13 million in the year ago quarter.

Shields 再次表現出非常強勁的增長，銷售額超過 1 億美元，預估增長率為 44%，這得益於最近贏得的合同、現有合作夥伴關係的進一步擴展以及強大的執行重點。在其第一個完整季度，CareCentrix 的銷售額超過 3.3 億美元。預計銷售額增長率為 22%。部門調整後營業收入虧損 1.52 億美元。這環比持平，而去年同期僅虧損 1300 萬美元。

Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $124 million in the quarter compared to a loss of $11 million in the prior year. The year-over-year increase in losses largely reflects a full quarter of VillageMD in the current year versus 6 days in the prior year quarter and higher Walgreens Health organic investments. These headwinds more than offset positive profit contributions from Shields and CareCentrix. Let's now look at some of the key metrics for U.S. Healthcare.

調整後的 EBITDA 本季度虧損 1.24 億美元，而去年同期虧損 1100 萬美元。虧損的同比增長主要反映了今年整個季度的 VillageMD 與去年同期的 6 天相比，以及更高的 Walgreens Health 有機投資。這些逆風抵消了 Shields 和 CareCentrix 的積極利潤貢獻。現在讓我們來看看美國醫療保健的一些關鍵指標。

As Roz mentioned earlier, VillageMD ended the calendar year with 393 clinics, including 200 clinics co-located with Walgreens. This was in line with our target. VillageMD had 440,000 value-based patients at quarter end, up 46% from 300,000 at the end of the prior year quarter. At quarter end, the Walgreens Health organic business had 2.9 million contracted lives, up from 2.3 million at the end of the fourth quarter as existing payers added new lines of business. We exceeded our original goal of 2 million lives.

正如 Roz 之前提到的，VillageMD 在日曆年結束時擁有 393 家診所，其中包括 200 家與 Walgreens 位於同一地點的診所。這符合我們的目標。 VillageMD 在本季度末擁有 440,000 名基於價值的患者，比去年同期末的 300,000 名增長了 46%。截至季度末，Walgreens Health 有機業務有 290 萬合同生命，高於第四季度末的 230 萬，因為現有付款人增加了新的業務線。我們超額完成了 200 萬條生命的最初目標。

As we scale our access to lives and add new partners, we will continue to build out our Walgreens health corners. We ended the quarter with 112 Health corners, ahead of our goal of 100. Health corners play an important role in engaging patients, addressing care gaps and improving health outcomes. Since the program was launched, Walgreens Health corners have facilitated more than 300,000 patient interactions. In summary, we performed strongly against our key objectives and we are well positioned for future success in the coming year.

隨著我們擴大對生活的訪問並增加新的合作夥伴，我們將繼續建立我們的 Walgreens 健康角落。本季度結束時，我們擁有 112 個健康角，超過了 100 個的目標。健康角在吸引患者、解決護理差距和改善健康結果方面發揮著重要作用。自該計劃啟動以來，Walgreens Health 角落已促進了超過 300,000 次患者互動。總而言之，我們在實現主要目標方面表現出色，我們為來年的未來成功做好了充分準備。

The addition of Summit Health will further enhance our portfolio of leading assets across the care continuum, drive meaningful synergy opportunities and accelerate the path to profitability. Turning next to cash flow. We generated almost $0.5 billion of operating cash flow in the first quarter while free cash flow was negative $117 million. Operating cash flow was negatively impacted by increased inventories, including successful advanced pies to secure product availability in the U.S. and U.K. holiday seasons.

Summit Health 的加入將進一步增強我們在整個護理連續體中的領先資產組合，推動有意義的協同機會並加速盈利之路。接下來轉向現金流。我們在第一季度產生了近 5 億美元的運營現金流，而自由現金流為負 1.17 億美元。經營現金流受到庫存增加的負面影響，包括成功的高級餡餅以確保美國和英國假日季節的產品供應。

The year-over-year decline in free cash flow was due to lower earnings, some phasing of working capital and increased capital expenditures related to growth initiatives, including the VillageMD footprint expansion, the rollout of micro fulfillment centers, and digital and omnichannel investments. Turning now to guidance. Overall, we are confirming our full year EPS guidance. The guidance now incorporates EPS accretion from the recently closed Summit Health transaction and this offsets the dilution from our reduced ownership stake in AmerisourceBergen.

自由現金流量同比下降是由於收益下降、營運資金的一些階段性調整以及與增長計劃相關的資本支出增加，包括 VillageMD 足跡擴張、微型履行中心的推出以及數字和全渠道投資。現在轉向指導。總體而言，我們正在確認我們的全年 EPS 指導。該指南現在納入了最近關閉的 Summit Health 交易的 EPS 增長，這抵消了我們在 AmerisourceBergen 的股權減少帶來的稀釋。

Our projection for the total number of COVID-19 vaccinations is unchanged. But we do now expect a slightly greater headwind from COVID-19 testing due to a demand shift from drive-through testing to lower margin at home test. This has had a negative impact of roughly 1 percentage point of EPS. Currency rates are somewhat favorable, and this has reduced the year-on-year currency headwind from 2% to 1%. Excluding these items, we continue to project core business growth of 8% to 10%.

我們對 COVID-19 疫苗接種總數的預測沒有變化。但我們現在確實預計，由於需求從免下車測試轉向利潤率較低的家庭測試，COVID-19 測試會帶來更大的阻力。這對每股收益產生了大約 1 個百分點的負面影響。匯率在一定程度上有利，這將同比匯率逆風從 2% 減少到 1%。排除這些項目，我們繼續預計核心業務增長 8% 至 10%。

In terms of phasing, at the midpoint of our guidance, we see a balanced 50-50 cadence between the first half and second half versus our original expectations. This assumes a shift of COVID-19 vaccinations from the second quarter into the third quarter with an impact of approximately $0.09. Second quarter earnings growth will continue to be adversely impacted by the ongoing headwind from COVID-19, continued investments in U.S. Healthcare and labor and the higher tax rate.

在分階段方面，在我們指導的中點，我們看到上半年和下半年之間的節奏與我們最初的預期相差 50-50。這假設 COVID-19 疫苗接種從第二季度轉移到第三季度，影響約為 0.09 美元。第二季度的收益增長將繼續受到 COVID-19 的持續逆風、對美國醫療保健和勞動力的持續投資以及更高的稅率的不利影響。

In the second half of the year, EPS will grow around 30% with good visibility into the key drivers. Firstly, we expect significant second half momentum in U.S. retail pharmacy, including ongoing script recovery as we normalize store operations and implement marketing win-back initiatives; favorable trends in reimbursement net of procurement, lower levels of shrink and continued strong retail performance.

今年下半年，每股收益將增長 30% 左右，關鍵驅動因素具有良好的可見性。首先，我們預計美國零售藥店下半年將出現強勁勢頭，包括隨著我們使商店運營正常化和實施營銷贏回計劃而持續恢復腳本；扣除採購後的報銷趨勢良好，收縮水平較低，零售表現持續強勁。

Additionally, while COVID-19 will remain a headwind in the second half of the year, it will be a lot lower. And we expect an impact that is less than 50% of what we saw in the first half of the year. Secondly, International has delivered a strong Christmas trading period, and we expect to see strong ongoing performance through the balance of the year. Our international business, particularly in the U.K., has emerged in a competitively strengthened position and is well positioned for growth.

此外，雖然 COVID-19 在下半年仍將是不利因素，但會低很多。我們預計影響不到今年上半年的 50%。其次，國際在聖誕節交易期間表現強勁，我們預計在今年餘下的時間裡會看到強勁的持續表現。我們的國際業務，尤其是在英國的業務，已經處於競爭優勢地位，並為增長做好了準備。

Finally, the first half of the year is the peak investment period for U.S. Healthcare. And consistent with prior guidance, we expect the segment to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA exiting the year. The overall segment will flip from being a headwind in the first half to a significant mid-teens EPS tailwind. Let me now provide some additional detail around our segment sales and profit assumptions. We are raising our WBA sales guidance by $3 billion to $3.5 billion. The increase is driven by VillageMD's acquisition of Summit Health, refreshed currencies and better-than-expected sales in the first quarter. Adjusted operating income is unchanged at $4.7 billion to $4.9 billion.

最後，上半年是美國醫療保健的投資高峰期。並且與之前的指導一致，我們預計該部門將在今年實現調整後的 EBITDA 正數。整個細分市場將從上半年的逆風轉變為 EPS 的重要順風。現在讓我提供一些關於我們的部門銷售和利潤假設的額外細節。我們將 WBA 銷售指引提高 30 億美元至 35 億美元。這一增長是由 VillageMD 收購 Summit Health、更新貨幣以及第一季度好於預期的銷售額推動的。調整後營業收入保持在 47 億美元至 49 億美元不變。

The acquisition of Summit is offset by a lower contribution from AmerisourceBergen as we reduced our ownership stake. For U.S. retail pharmacy, we have raised our sales guidance by $500 million due to a better-than-expected first quarter, which benefited from brand inflation and broad-based retail strength. The AOI range is lowered by $150 million to reflect the sale of the AmerisourceBergen shares in November and December. These actions have reduced our stake from around 26% to 17%.

對 Summit 的收購被 AmerisourceBergen 的貢獻減少所抵消，因為我們減少了我們的所有權股份。對於美國零售藥店，由於第一季度好於預期，受益於品牌通脹和廣泛的零售實力，我們將銷售指導提高了 5 億美元。 AOI 範圍下調了 1.5 億美元，以反映 AmerisourceBergen 股票在 11 月和 12 月的出售情況。這些行動使我們的股份從 26% 左右減少到 17%。

We have raised our guidance for the International segment to reflect a lower headwind from currencies. We now expect sales of $21.2 million to $21.7 billion, up $800 million versus the prior range. We are also raising our AOI forecast to $870 million to $900 million. For the U.S. Healthcare segment, we expect sales of $6.5 billion to $7.3 billion and an adjusted EBITDA range from a loss of $50 million to positive $25 million. Both of these are consistent with the goals we provided when the Summit Health transaction was announced in November. We continue to expect to exit fiscal '23 with positive adjusted EBITDA for the U.S. Healthcare segment.

我們提高了對國際業務的指引，以反映貨幣帶來的不利影響。我們現在預計銷售額為 2120 萬美元至 217 億美元，比之前的範圍增加 8 億美元。我們還將 AOI 預測上調至 8.7 億至 9 億美元。對於美國醫療保健部門，我們預計銷售額為 65 億至 73 億美元，調整後的 EBITDA 範圍為虧損 5000 萬美元至正 2500 萬美元。這兩者都與我們在 11 月宣布 Summit Health 交易時提供的目標一致。我們繼續期望美國醫療保健部門的調整後 EBITDA 退出 23 財年。

Moving on to our corporate assumptions. The full year tax rate is unchanged at around 16%. Interest expense is expected to be $560 million to $580 million, an increase of $70 million to $80 million compared to prior guidance, and this is mostly due to the Summit transaction. We are raising our forecast for equity method investments and noncontrolling interest with the combined range increasing by nearly $100 million versus our prior guidance.

繼續我們的公司假設。全年稅率維持在 16% 左右不變。利息支出預計為 5.6 億至 5.8 億美元，比之前的指引增加 7000 萬至 8000 萬美元，這主要是由於 Summit 交易。我們提高了對權益法投資和非控股權益的預測，與我們之前的指導相比，合併範圍增加了近 1 億美元。

This reflects the Summit Health transaction and the acceleration of the full acquisitions of Shields and CareCentrix. In summary, we are raising our fiscal year '23 sales guidance for WBA and we are confirming our full year EPS guidance. With that, let me now pass it back to Roz for her closing remarks.

這反映了 Summit Health 交易以及全面收購 Shields 和 CareCentrix 的加速。總而言之，我們正在提高 WBA 的 23 財年銷售指導，並確認我們的全年 EPS 指導。說到這裡，現在讓我將它傳回給 Roz，請她作結束語。

Thank you, James. Before we kick off Q&A, let me sum up what you've heard. We are executing against our fiscal 2023 plans with solid first quarter results reported today, broadly in line with our expectations. We performed well against our record levels of growth in the first quarter last year. Our core business is resilient, and we are accelerating our health care transformation with a well-defined path to profitability exiting this year.

謝謝你，詹姆斯。在我們開始問答之前，讓我總結一下您所聽到的內容。我們正在執行我們的 2023 財年計劃，今天公佈的第一季度業績穩健，基本符合我們的預期。與去年第一季度創紀錄的增長水平相比，我們表現出色。我們的核心業務具有彈性，我們正在加速我們的醫療保健轉型，並在今年退出明確的盈利路徑。

Given our first quarter execution and the Summit Health acquisition, we are raising full year sales guidance, and I'm comfortable reconfirming our adjusted EPS guidance. Our strategy is working. And we will be relentless in driving continued progress ahead. I remain confident in our future growth potential, enabled through our bold investments today and the long-term sustainable value that WBA can create for our customers, our partners, our people and our shareholders. Now I'd like to open the line for questions. Operator?

鑑於我們第一季度的執行和對 Summit Health 的收購，我們正在提高全年銷售指導，我很樂意再次確認我們調整後的 EPS 指導。我們的策略正在奏效。我們將不懈地推動未來的持續進步。我對我們未來的增長潛力充滿信心，這得益於我們今天的大膽投資以及 WBA 可以為我們的客戶、合作夥伴、員工和股東創造的長期可持續價值。現在我想打開問題熱線。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) And your first question comes from the line of Charles Rhyee from Cowen.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Cowen 的 Charles Rhyee。

This is Lucas on for Charles. I wanted to talk about script recovery and the investments to return stores to normal hours. I wanted to ask and see how script recovery has gone for the locations that you've returned to normal hours. And how those have trended versus your expectations going into it?

這是查爾斯的盧卡斯。我想談談腳本恢復和使商店恢復正常營業時間的投資。我想詢問並了解您已恢復正常營業時間的地點的腳本恢復情況如何。這些趨勢與您的預期相比如何？

And then on the $100 million in investments in Q1, that's close to 40% of the $265 million that you guys guided for fiscal '23, I want to understand if we should expect the rest of that investment to come -- be front-loaded in the first half? And then how the timing of that investment will impact script recovery as we move throughout the year?

然後在第一季度的 1 億美元投資中，這接近你們為 23 財年指導的 2.65 億美元的 40%，我想知道我們是否應該期待剩下的投資來——是前期投資上半年？那麼隨著我們全年的移動，這項投資的時機將如何影響腳本恢復？

Okay. Thanks for that question. I'll start that off and then joining us today is Rick Gates from our pharmacy operations. He will assist in the questions. So we'll add James in there if we need to. So first of all, on our script recovery, it starts with the investment that we've had in our labor position. And let me start by saying that we announced last quarter that we were working to really improve our positions with our pharmacy.

好的。謝謝你的問題。我先開始，然後今天加入我們的是來自我們藥房業務的里克·蓋茨。他會協助答題。因此，如果需要，我們會把 James 加入其中。因此，首先，在我們的劇本恢復方面，首先要從我們在勞動崗位上的投資開始。首先讓我說，我們上個季度宣布我們正在努力真正改善我們在藥房的地位。

So with these investments, our applications are up about 23%, and we've got accepted offers approaching about 40%. So in our minds, the brand remains strong and the intentionality to regain pharmacists in our stores, it's working. Second, I will tell you that stores that are operating without reduced hours had Q1 Rx comp trends including -- excluding immunization in the mid-single digits. And we're seeing about 9 percentage points better growth versus the impacted stores on limited hours. So we feel good about the direction we're moving forward. We continue to make progress on the recruiting.

因此，通過這些投資，我們的申請增加了約 23%，我們已經接受了約 40% 的報價。因此，在我們看來，該品牌仍然很強大，並且有意在我們的商店重新獲得藥劑師，它正在發揮作用。其次，我會告訴你，在沒有減少營業時間的情況下營業的商店有 Q1 Rx comp 趨勢，包括 - 不包括中間個位數的免疫接種。我們看到，與受限營業時間受影響的商店相比，增長速度提高了約 9 個百分點。因此，我們對前進的方向感到滿意。我們在招聘方面繼續取得進展。

We've got new incentive policies, and we're leveraging the micro fulfillment capacity that we have. And as we improve the store operations for the pharmacists, we're getting better engagement. So we're moving strongly in that direction. We're continuing to see -- net gains of about 600 incremental pharmacists have joined Walgreens and to the extent that the new pharmacists are being hired, we're seeing these really in some of our more challenged markets.

我們有新的激勵政策，我們正在利用我們擁有的微觀履行能力。隨著我們改善藥劑師的商店運營，我們的參與度也越來越高。所以我們正在朝著這個方向努力前進。我們繼續看到 - 大約 600 名增量藥劑師的淨收益加入了 Walgreens，並且就僱用新藥劑師的程度而言，我們在一些更具挑戰性的市場中確實看到了這些。

And so as you can imagine, we are focusing on those challenged markets first to regain pharmacy and now we're applying the marketing incentives. And those incentives have been on a one-to-one basis to reengage the consumer back to the store. So we're feeling confident that we're moving in the right direction. So these labor investments have been necessary to move us forward. We like the direction that we see this happening. I will say another thing that's happening in terms of the performance in our stores is also when we look at the balance of the maintenance scripts versus the ongoing scripts.

所以你可以想像，我們首先關注那些充滿挑戰的市場以重新獲得藥房，現在我們正在應用營銷激勵措施。這些激勵措施是一對一的，以重新吸引消費者回到商店。因此，我們確信我們正朝著正確的方向前進。因此，這些勞動力投資對於推動我們前進是必要的。我們喜歡我們看到這種情況發生的方向。我要說的是，當我們查看維護腳本與正在進行的腳本之間的平衡時，我們商店的性能也會發生另一件事。

And I will tell you that we are seeing some favorability there. So we feel strongly that this is not a long-term issue for us, but we are regaining the pharmacists back in the stores and reopening the stores accordingly.

我會告訴你，我們在那裡看到了一些好感。因此，我們強烈認為這對我們來說不是一個長期問題，但我們正在讓藥劑師重新回到商店，並相應地重新開店。

Yes, just to clarify your question on the timing of the spending of the payroll investment. The $100 million we quoted includes both minimum wage and the pharmacy investment. So it only represents $100 million, is about 19% of the -- 20% of the total for the year. And I'll just remind you, the pharmacy investment full year -- year-on-year was $265 million but there was also a minimum wage investment previously communicated of $260 million. Is that okay?

是的，只是為了澄清你關於工資投資支出時間的問題。我們引用的 1 億美元包括最低工資和藥房投資。所以它只代表 1 億美元，大約佔全年總額的 19% 到 20%。我只想提醒你，全年的藥房投資——同比為 2.65 億美元，但之前公佈的最低工資投資也為 2.6 億美元。可以嗎？

And your next question comes from the line of A.J. Rice from Credit Suisse.

你的下一個問題來自 A.J.來自瑞士信貸的大米。

Maybe just to talk a little bit about capital priorities. And if there's any updated thoughts, obviously, with VillageMD closing Summit, there's discussion about synergies, and you talked a little bit about updated growth objectives there. Can you just comment on how you sort of see the cash flow needs laying out, if there's any updated thinking in priorities?

也許只是談談資本優先事項。如果有任何更新的想法，顯然，隨著 VillageMD 閉幕峰會，討論了協同效應，你在那裡談到了更新的增長目標。如果在優先事項上有任何更新的想法，你能否評論一下你如何看待現金流需求的佈局？

Yes. Just I think from the point of view of funding, we've basically announced anything we intend to do in the short term. So we disposed of ABC -- our partial stake in ABC and we raised debt to fund the $3.5 billion transaction. We raised about $1 billion. And this puts us in a fairly comfortable place with the rating agencies.

是的。我認為從資金的角度來看，我們基本上已經宣布了我們打算在短期內做的任何事情。因此，我們出售了 ABC——我們在 ABC 的部分股份，並通過舉債為 35 億美元的交易提供資金。我們籌集了大約 10 億美元。這使我們在評級機構中處於一個相當舒適的位置。

Looking at some of it, it's too early to say because, frankly, you can't get involved until the deal closes. So Village and Summit will be moving very, very quickly on the integration and synergies. As Roz pointed out in her material, we have pretty good line of sight to about $150 million of synergies -- cost synergies. We would go after very rapidly. That's about 40% and 60%, which is coming from the migrations. The risk will be over a longer period of time. There were some items not captured in there.

看看其中的一些，現在說還為時過早，因為坦率地說，在交易完成之前你不能參與。因此，Village 和 Summit 將在整合和協同方面非常非常迅速地前進。正如 Roz 在她的材料中指出的那樣，我們對大約 1.5 億美元的協同效應——成本協同效應有很好的預期。我們會很快追上去。大約有 40% 和 60% 來自遷移。風險將持續更長的時間。那裡有一些物品沒有被捕獲。

For example, we haven't made any assumptions on synergy between Walgreens stores and Summit locations. So there's probably a fair amount of upside to the [150].

例如，我們沒有對 Walgreens 商店和 Summit 地點之間的協同作用做出任何假設。因此，[150] 可能有相當大的上行空間。

I don't know, A.J., does that answer your question?

我不知道，A.J.，這是否回答了你的問題？

We're not considering any M&A type activity in the short term. We're taking a pause. We need to focus on integration activities.

我們不會在短期內考慮任何併購類型的活動。我們暫停一下。我們需要專注於整合活動。

So that was the one other thing as you had talked previously about maybe another leg to the Walgreens Health story over time. So that's not a short-term priority. That's a longer-term thing once we get clarity on how all the integration is going with VillageMD and Summit.

所以這是另一件事，正如你之前所說的，隨著時間的推移，沃爾格林健康故事的另一條腿。所以這不是短期優先事項。一旦我們弄清楚了與 VillageMD 和 Summit 的所有集成是如何進行的，那將是一件長期的事情。

I think it still is a priority in the short and medium term, but I think the scale of the acquisition won't even trigger on your radar. So we're more likely to buy smaller companies with specific, call it, capabilities that we need to advance our organic business. So we're not going to go out and do a $2 billion or $3 billion acquisition on a health tech company. We're likely to be very targeted, and it will be in the hundreds of millions, not in the billions.

我認為它在短期和中期仍然是一個優先事項，但我認為收購的規模甚至不會引起你的注意。因此，我們更有可能收購具有我們推進有機業務所需的特定能力的小公司。所以我們不會出去對一家健康科技公司進行 20 億美元或 30 億美元的收購。我們可能會非常有針對性，而且會是數億，而不是數十億。

Your next question comes from the line of George Hill from Deutsche Bank.

你的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的喬治希爾。

Also, James, I know that you guys don't provide quarterly guidance, but could you maybe talk a little bit about expectations for cadence. This quarter had a good portion of COVID and COVID pull forward into it. Fiscal Q2 seems like it's going to be a little bit below the Street. And maybe the question to focus on here is kind of what inflects the most as you think about the back half of the year? And if we think about earnings risk, like maybe talk about the biggest points of inflection, which we would see as the biggest points of risk.

另外，James，我知道你們不提供季度指導，但你能否談談對節奏的期望。本季度有很大一部分 COVID 和 COVID 向前推進。第二財季似乎會略低於華爾街。也許這裡要關注的問題是，當你想到今年下半年時，什麼影響最大？如果我們考慮盈利風險，比如談論最大的拐點，我們會將其視為最大的風險點。

Yes. That's an expected question. I would like to give a little bit of context first on the first quarter because there's a perception out there that it was overly dependent on tax rate. And I do want to give you our position. As we look against our budget internally, we actually came in $0.01 better and only $0.03 was from tax.

是的。這是一個預期的問題。我想先介紹一下第一季度的背景情況，因為外界認為它過度依賴於稅率。我確實想告訴你我們的立場。當我們對照內部預算時，我們實際上多賺了 0.01 美元，只有 0.03 美元來自稅收。

So the tax upside we predicted on the full year, the 16%, is still intact, and we had already planned for this type of tax rate in the quarter, as I said, $0.03 better. We have -- we're about $0.04 weaker on the operating business, and it was all in international. To be honest, it's a bit of a planning globe. They didn't predict carefully enough what the reimbursement timing was going to be like from the NHS.

因此，我們預測的全年稅收上漲 16% 仍然完好無損，而且我們已經計劃在本季度採用這種稅率，正如我所說的那樣，提高 0.03 美元。我們有 - 我們在運營業務方面的實力下降了約 0.04 美元，而且都是國際業務。老實說，這有點像一個規劃世界。他們沒有足夠仔細地預測 NHS 的報銷時間。

So it became a short-term margin issue. And I do want to reassure the listeners, we see a return to very strong profit growth in the International segment in the second quarter. So compared to market expectation -- to our expectations, we came in relying $0.03 on tax. So the beat of $0.04 was, you can say, all due to tax, right? But the core business was on track. And the only thing that surprised us was international and it was more about planning than it was execution. And I do want to emphasize, we won Thanksgiving, sorry, Black Thursday type events in the U.K. And then we did put it in the prepared comments.

所以它變成了一個短期的保證金問題。我確實想讓聽眾放心，我們看到第二季度國際部門的利潤恢復非常強勁的增長。因此，與市場預期相比——與我們的預期相比，我們依賴 0.03 美元的稅收。所以 0.04 美元的節拍是，你可以說，都是因為稅收，對吧？但核心業務進展順利。唯一讓我們感到驚訝的是國際化，更多的是計劃而不是執行。我確實想強調，我們贏得了感恩節，對不起，英國的黑色星期四類型的活動。然後我們確實把它放在了準備好的評論中。

We make 40% of the profit in the U.K. in December. The growth in December was 15% on the front of store, which is 70%. So now I'll go to your real question, which is the cadence between the first and second half. We looked into the second quarter and -- versus the consensus that was out in the market. The consensus felt a little heavy only for one reason. There is a shift going on right now. Vaccinations have slowed down. The boosters have slowed down a bit. So there's a slight shift into the Q3 from Q2, and that costs us about $0.09.

12 月，我們在英國賺取了 40% 的利潤。 12月店面增長15%，增長70%。所以現在我要回答你真正的問題，即上半場和下半場之間的節奏。我們研究了第二季度——與市場上的共識相比較。出於一個原因，共識感覺有點沉重。現在正在發生轉變。疫苗接種已經放緩。助推器已經放慢了一點。所以從第二季度到第三季度有輕微的轉變，這讓我們花費了大約 0.09 美元。

That's the only change we're making to our thinking, first half versus the budget we had before. There are no other changes. And I just want to be very clear on that. When you look at performance versus consensus models, and we do look at this, and I'll just be very transparent. We collect like, I don't know, 2017 models and we compare whether it's gross profit or SG&A and all the rest. Our actual absolute gross profit in the quarter was better than consensus by $60 million and it was better than FactSet by $94 million.

這是我們對上半年的想法所做的唯一改變，與我們之前的預算相比。沒有其他變化。我只想非常清楚這一點。當您查看性能與共識模型時，我們確實在看這個，我會非常透明。我們收集了 2017 年的車型，我不知道，我們比較的是毛利還是 SG&A 以及其他所有方面。我們本季度的實際絕對毛利潤比市場預期高 6000 萬美元，比 FactSet 高 9400 萬美元。

So where we're getting the disconnect is on the SG&A. And my hypothesis there is there are some impacts from currency. There are some impacts from the way you've built in some of the investments in labor. And we have to dig into it that we haven't communicated succinctly enough what the SG&A outlooks are on a quarterly basis.

因此，我們斷開連接的地方是 SG&A。我的假設是貨幣會產生一些影響。您在某些勞動力投資中建立的方式會產生一些影響。我們必須深入研究，我們還沒有足夠簡潔地傳達每季度的 SG&A 展望。

But we're looking at here -- we're exiting the quarter feeling like operationally, most of the businesses were on track. In fact, the U.S. business came in stronger than the budget. So let's look at first half, second half. We basically said now it's a 50-50 split. And that implies that the first half will be down EPS roughly 28% to 30%, just round numbers. And it's driven by COVID, the labor investments and the health care investments. It's -- the story doesn't change in the second quarter, and it's consistent with original guidance. And you've asked for -- and this is a bit of a long-winded response.

但我們正在看這裡 - 我們正在退出本季度，感覺就像在運營上一樣，大多數業務都步入正軌。事實上，美國業務的表現超出了預算。那麼讓我們看看上半場，下半場。我們基本上說現在是 50-50 的比例。這意味著上半年每股收益將下降大約 28% 至 30%，只是整數。它是由 COVID、勞動力投資和醫療保健投資驅動的。這是 - 第二季度的故事沒有改變，並且與最初的指導一致。你已經要求 - 這是一個冗長的回應。

You've asked for, what are the key drivers, first half versus second half? The first one is vaccinations and testing is a headwind in the first half of 20 to 21 percentage points. So if you take the first half of the year, we will be pulled down to the tune of 21%. If you take the second half, that goes below 10%. So the change of the headwind, it gives you an improved profile of about 11 to 12 percentage points. The biggest driver, however, is health care. In the first half of the year, that's a negative drag on income in the low single digit.

你問過，上半場和下半場的關鍵驅動因素是什麼？第一個是疫苗接種和檢測是上半年 20 到 21 個百分點的逆風。所以如果你拿上半年來說，我們會被拉低到 21%。如果你拿下半年，那將低於 10%。所以逆風的變化，它讓你的形象提高了大約 11 到 12 個百分點。然而，最大的驅動力是醫療保健。在今年上半年，這對收入造成了低個位數的負面拖累。

And we said in the prepared comments that the health care business will drive EPS around mid-teens, so call it 15%. So the change between the first half and the second half, you got 11 to 12 points coming from COVID and you've got, call it, 15 to 18 points coming from health care. The other big numbers are reimbursement, and we haven't provided much guidance on this in the past.

我們在準備好的評論中表示，醫療保健業務將推動 EPS 達到 15% 左右，所以稱之為 15%。因此，上半場和下半場之間的變化，你有 11 到 12 分來自 COVID，你有 15 到 18 分來自醫療保健。其他大數字是報銷，我們過去沒有就此提供太多指導。

We expect, and we have a very good line of sight because I would call it, 95% of all contracts are closed. Reimbursement in the second half of the year compared to the first half will be less than 50%. So this gives us a tailwind of approximately $350 million in the second half of the year. So if you take second half versus first half, just due to the timing of reimbursement, I'm probably going to get 14 percentage points of growth, and I have extremely high line of sight to that number.

我們期望，並且我們有很好的視線，因為我會稱之為，所有合同的 95% 都已關閉。與上半年相比，下半年的報銷將低於50%。因此，這為我們下半年帶來了大約 3.5 億美元的順風。因此，如果你將下半年與上半年進行比較，僅僅由於報銷的時間，我可能會獲得 14 個百分點的增長，而且我對這個數字的看法非常高。

The second one is volume. Volume in the second half will probably be -- the volume contribution in pharmacy will be about 3x what it was in the first half because as we said, the marketing programs will kick in later in the year. That's worth probably another $200 million, so call it 8 points of growth. So we're going to see a big change in the trajectory of the pharmacy business in the first half versus the second half. And the final one I'll leave you with is, we did -- while we hit the absolute gross profit in the quarter, pharmacy margins were lower than we anticipated because we had some timing items on cost of goods sold. They're going to wash out in the remainder of the year.

第二個是音量。下半年的銷量可能是——藥房的銷量貢獻將是上半年的 3 倍左右，因為正如我們所說，營銷計劃將在今年晚些時候啟動。這可能還值 2 億美元，所以稱之為 8 個增長點。因此，與下半年相比，我們將看到上半年藥房業務的軌跡發生重大變化。最後一個我要留給你的是，我們做到了——雖然我們在本季度達到了絕對毛利潤，但藥房利潤率低於我們的預期，因為我們有一些關於銷售商品成本的時間項目。他們將在今年餘下的時間里淘汰。

And that's probably another $200 million to $300 million. So what we're really looking at is quarter 1 being a fairly difficult quarter in terms of -- the majority of the costs are concentrated in the first half of the year and are coming out in the second half. Reimbursement, as I said, $350 million. Good line of sight -- volumes on pharmacy, good line of sight but the programs are there. There's always some risk to it. And the cost of goods sold items another $300 million. These are very large numbers.

這可能是另外 2 億到 3 億美元。因此，我們真正看到的是，第一季度是一個相當困難的季度——大部分成本集中在今年上半年，並將在下半年出現。報銷，正如我所說，3.5 億美元。良好的視線——關於藥學的書籍，良好的視線，但程序在那裡。它總是有一些風險。商品銷售成本另外還有 3 億美元。這些是非常大的數字。

So you're talking about pretty explosive growth in the U.S. business in the second half. And I do want to reiterate, we're going to see the same from the international business. So I don't know if that's enough insight. I've gone on for too long, it's probably too much, but...

所以你說的是下半年美國業務的爆炸性增長。我確實想重申，我們將從國際業務中看到同樣的情況。所以我不知道這是否足夠的洞察力。我說得太久了，可能太多了，但是……

Your next question comes from the line of Elizabeth Anderson from Evercore ISI.

您的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Elizabeth Anderson。

Maybe to piggyback just off of that last question, thanks for all the details there. Could you specifically comment on some of the other things you called out in terms of shrink, the strong retail performance. And then also what your expectations are for cold, cough and flu given some of the product shortages we've been hearing about?

也許是為了解決最後一個問題，感謝那裡提供的所有詳細信息。你能否具體評論一下你在收縮方面提到的其他一些事情，即強勁的零售表現。鑑於我們一直聽說的一些產品短缺，您對感冒、咳嗽和流感有何期望？

Yes. I think the shrink is built in the forecast. We're probably -- maybe we cried too much last year when we were hitting numbers that were 3.5% of sales. We're down in the lower 2s, call it, the mid 2.5%, 2.6% kind of range now. And we're stabilized. So -- but we've spent a fair amount, and that could be 1 of the disconnects in SG&A.

是的。我認為收縮是建立在預測中的。我們可能 - 也許去年我們達到銷售額的 3.5% 時哭得太多了。我們處於較低的 2s，稱之為中間 2.5%，現在是 2.6% 的範圍。我們穩定了。所以——但我們已經花了相當多的錢，這可能是 SG&A 中的一個脫節。

We've put in incremental security in the stores in the first quarter. Actually, probably we put in too much and we might step back a little bit from that. But what we're seeing is we're putting in more law enforcement as opposed to security companies. The security companies are proven to be largely ineffective. So we're investing more SG&A to drive the lower shrink. And it's -- actually, we're quite happy with where we are. It's around 2.5% to 2.6%.

我們在第一季度增加了商店的安全性。實際上，可能我們投入太多，我們可能會退後一步。但我們看到的是，我們正在投入更多的執法而不是安全公司。事實證明，安全公司在很大程度上是無效的。因此，我們正在投資更多的 SG&A 來降低收縮率。而且它 - 實際上，我們對我們所處的位置非常滿意。大約在 2.5% 到 2.6% 之間。

So that's well below the prior year levels. And we have a fairly good line of sight to new programs going in. The second part of the question, cough, cold, flu?

所以這遠低於去年的水平。我們對新項目的實施有很好的了解。問題的第二部分，咳嗽、感冒、流感？

Yes, we did get a bounce from cough, cold, flu in the quarter. But as you look at our retail business in the first quarter, where the comps came in at 2%, cough, cold, flu boosted the result for the tune of, I think, it was 220 basis points. But on the flip side is the COVID OTC tests were a headwind of 170.

是的，本季度我們確實從咳嗽、感冒和流感中反彈。但是當你看看我們第一季度的零售業務時，我認為咳嗽、感冒和流感的收入增長了 2%，結果是 220 個基點。但另一方面，COVID OTC 測試逆風 170。

So actually, the way I'd encourage you to think about the first quarter is, if you take out the noise of the 2 of these, roughly the business is doing a 2% comp. And if you go back to the guidance we gave 3 months ago, we actually said we expect the retail business to do a 2% to 3% ex-COVID. We did see a little bit of weakness in some of the -- some other categories. But I think where we won in the first quarter was we built fairly aggressive inventory levels, and we were extremely well positioned on cough, cold, flu and we've actually gained share in the category.

所以實際上，我鼓勵你思考第一季度的方式是，如果你去掉其中 2 個的噪音，大致上公司正在做 2% 的補償。如果你回到我們 3 個月前給出的指導，我們實際上說過我們預計零售業務將在 COVID 之前實現 2% 到 3% 的增長。我們確實在某些其他類別中看到了一些弱點。但我認為我們在第一季度獲勝的地方是我們建立了相當激進的庫存水平，而且我們在咳嗽、感冒、流感方面的定位非常好，而且我們實際上已經在該類別中獲得了份額。

We will get some opportunity on the full year from cough, cold, flu. It's too early to say what's going to happen in the second quarter. Honestly, we've seen a little bit of a slowdown in the last few weeks. Flu vaccinations are still up, I think, 9% or 10% versus prior year. So there's no issue in cough, cold, flu. It has given us a bit of a boost. But as I said, if you think about cough, cold, flu in the first quarter, it was offset by these cost items in pharmacy that I talked about, and they'll roll out of the system in the second half.

我們將在全年從咳嗽、感冒、流感中獲得一些機會。現在說第二季度會發生什麼還為時過早。老實說，過去幾週我們看到了一點點放緩。我認為流感疫苗接種率仍然比去年高 9% 或 10%。所以咳嗽、感冒、流感都沒有問題。它給了我們一點動力。但正如我所說，如果你在第一季度考慮咳嗽、感冒、流感，它會被我談到的藥房中的這些成本項目所抵消，它們將在下半年從系統中推出。

And your next question comes from the line of Lisa Gill from JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Lisa Gill。

I'm going to take it more from a strategic standpoint. So when I think about your U.S. Healthcare business and Summit, CityMD as well as VillageMD. Can you maybe just spend a minute and talk about how you think about them, integrating and fitting together. As I understand it, both Summit and CityMD today are primarily fee-for-service.

我將從戰略角度更多地考慮它。因此，當我想到您的美國醫療保健業務和 Summit、CityMD 和 VillageMD 時。你能不能花點時間談談你是如何看待它們的，如何整合和融合在一起的。據我了解，今天的 Summit 和 CityMD 主要是按服務收費。

I think the reason that VillageMD was at a loss is that they have at-risk lives. So as you think about this over the next few years, is the goal to move more people onto the platform from an at risk perspective? Where do you see those opportunities? Summit is in a single market? Do you think you can replicate some of that multi-specialty in other markets since I know you gave some numbers around some of the synergies. But just more conceptually, I want to try to understand how you're viewing this going forward?

我認為 VillageMD 之所以不知所措，是因為他們的生命處於危險之中。因此，當您在未來幾年考慮這個問題時，目標是從風險角度將更多人轉移到平台上嗎？你在哪裡看到這些機會？ Summit在單一市場？你認為你可以在其他市場複製一些多專業，因為我知道你給出了一些關於協同效應的數字。但從概念上講，我想嘗試了解您如何看待這件事的發展？

Yes. And I think we -- I did allude to it. And I think there's 2 pieces you should think about. One of them is easier and one of them is tougher. The easier one is the capabilities that VillageMD have in value-based care. So right now, they have roughly 440,000 patients. I'll call it on a value-based arrangement out of roughly 1.6 million total patients.

是的。而且我認為我們 - 我確實提到過它。我認為您應該考慮兩件事情。其中一個更容易，其中一個更難。更簡單的是 VillageMD 在基於價值的護理方面的能力。所以現在，他們大約有 440,000 名患者。我將根據大約 160 萬患者總數的基於價值的安排來稱呼它。

So they're in their own evolution. And of that 440,000, 125,000 are fully at risk. So that is delegated -- full delegated risk from the insurance company. So Village's stand-alone is, they want to grow the 125 and they want to grow the 440 as a percentage of the total [1.6] but bear in mind here, it's really, really, really, really important to have commercial patients. They pay the bills, right? And they allow a very effective procurement and negotiation model in the local markets.

所以他們在自己的進化中。在這 440,000 人中，有 125,000 人完全處於危險之中。所以這是委託 - 保險公司的完全委託風險。所以 Village 的獨立是，他們想要增加 125 個，他們想要增加 440 個佔總數 [1.6] 的百分比，但請記住，擁有商業患者真的、真的、真的、真的很重要。他們支付賬單，對嗎？他們在當地市場提供了非常有效的採購和談判模式。

Strategically, I think, Lisa, the one difference versus a year ago is there's a decision by Village to get bigger in fewer markets. And what I mean by that is scale locally is critically important. And that's why Summit and CityMD was a very attractive acquisition. The game that they have to play in Village is they'll probably run the businesses somewhat independently for a period of time and transfer value-based care management into City -- sorry, into Summit Health and Summit Health will grow its patient population that is at risk. So that's the opportunity. That's the $19 million.

麗莎，我認為，從戰略上講，與一年前相比，Ville 決定在更少的市場上做大。我的意思是，本地規模至關重要。這就是為什麼 Summit 和 CityMD 是一項非常有吸引力的收購。他們在 Village 必須玩的遊戲是，他們可能會在一段時間內獨立經營業務，並將基於價值的護理管理轉移到城市——抱歉，轉移到 Summit Health，Summit Health 將增加其患者人數有一定風險。這就是機會。那就是1900萬美元。

The other one is a little bit more complex, which is -- the beauty of the Summit model is they have a multi-specialty business and they have a primary care physician business. They are feeding, if you like, patients between each other and cross referring between the two. So when and if they take on risk, they will manage a much greater proportion of the total cost of care because you know how much specialty or multi-specialty care would cost.

另一個有點複雜，那就是——峰會模式的美妙之處在於他們擁有多專業業務，並且擁有初級保健醫生業務。如果你願意的話，他們正在互相餵養病人，並在兩者之間交叉轉介。因此，當他們承擔風險時，如果他們承擔風險，他們將承擔更大比例的總護理費用，因為您知道專科或多專科護理的費用。

So instead of Village, which firms out its business to local providers, Summit will be able to use its own providers to directly manage the cost of care. And I would argue, have a much higher return on the risk-based patients. The question is how do you push the multi-specialty into the Village practices? And I know the Village team are looking at bigger primary care physician practices that incorporate more multi-specialty type activities and testing. So -- but I would take the second -- the first one, the move to value-based care will happen in the first contract year.

因此，與將業務外包給本地供應商的 Village 不同，Summit 將能夠使用自己的供應商來直接管理護理成本。我會爭辯說，基於風險的患者有更高的回報。問題是您如何將多專業融入鄉村實踐？而且我知道 Village 團隊正在尋找更大的初級保健醫生實踐，這些實踐包含更多的多專業類型的活動和測試。所以——但我會採取第二個——第一個，轉向基於價值的護理將在第一個合同年發生。

So I would call it in the current contract year. In the case of the multi-specialty, I think that's a 5-year journey, and that does require investment because you'll have to change the structure of your local practices. But I think it's quite exciting because none of the multi-specialty opportunity and none of the synergy between Walgreens and Summit is built in the projections that we provided to the Street back in November. So we see a fair amount of opportunity.

所以我會在當前合同年調用它。就多專業而言，我認為這是一個 5 年的旅程，這確實需要投資，因為你必須改變當地實踐的結構。但我認為這非常令人興奮，因為我們在 11 月份向華爾街提供的預測中沒有建立多專業機會，也沒有建立 Walgreens 和 Summit 之間的協同作用。所以我們看到了相當多的機會。

Your next question comes from the line of Ann Hynes from Mizuho Securities.

你的下一個問題來自瑞穗證券的Ann Hynes。

I know you know there's a lot of debate on the Street on the company's ability to gain back that $30 million market -- $30 million of scripts that is embedded in guidance. And I know some of that $30 million scripts is just regained in market share of stores closed hiring pharmacists. But I know Summit also is just regaining like people that haven't left Walgreens, that maybe have been compliant to therapy and pharmacists during COVID (inaudible) basic blocking and tackling. And to me, that feels like an easier guess than bringing someone back to Walgreens. So could you let us know how much of that $30 million, maybe break it down, what is actually having people come back to a Walgreens versus what is -- versus people being more compliant with therapy?

我知道你知道，關於公司重新奪回 3000 萬美元市場的能力，華爾街上有很多爭論——3000 萬美元的腳本嵌入在指導中。我知道這 3000 萬美元的腳本中有一些剛剛在商店關閉招聘藥劑師的市場份額中重新獲得。但我知道 Summit 也正在恢復，就像那些沒有離開 Walgreens 的人一樣，他們可能在 COVID（聽不清）基本阻斷和應對期間接受了治療和藥劑師的治療。對我來說，這感覺比將某人帶回 Walgreens 更容易猜測。那麼，您能否讓我們知道這 3000 萬美元中有多少，也許可以分解一下，實際上是什麼讓人們回到 Walgreens 與什麼是 - 與人們更符合治療？

And secondly, your free cash flow was negative. Can you give us any type of free cash flow guidance for the year, that would be great.

其次，你的自由現金流為負。你能給我們今年任何類型的自由現金流量指導嗎？那太好了。

James, why don't we start with the free cash flow? And then, Rick, just go into the detail around the script performance on the core script business.

詹姆斯，我們為什麼不從自由現金流開始呢？然後，Rick，請詳細介紹核心腳本業務的腳本性能。

Yes, we're not going to give guidance on the full year. Honestly, we're still working through some of the implications of the Summit acquisition. But I think you'll see some progress year-on-year on an absolute basis. The first quarter is traditionally quite weak as a start in the company. So I wouldn't get very concerned by it. We are looking carefully at the investments in the rest of the business and to optimize cash flow for the rest of the year. But we're not going to start giving guidance on that.

是的，我們不會給出全年的指導。老實說，我們仍在研究 Summit 收購的一些影響。但我認為你會看到絕對的同比增長。作為公司的開端，第一季度傳統上相當疲軟。所以我不會對此非常擔心。我們正在仔細研究對其餘業務的投資，並優化今年剩餘時間的現金流。但我們不會開始就此提供指導。

And just to -- this is Rick. Just to walk into the 5% script growth. There's actually building blocks that are part of that. And I think you are correct. Part of it is just market growth that we have that is the first part of the building block, then it goes into the adherence and services, which are a key part of all the programs we've invested in.

只是——這是瑞克。只是為了走進 5% 的腳本增長。實際上有構建塊是其中的一部分。我認為你是對的。其中一部分只是我們擁有的市場增長，這是構建塊的第一部分，然後是依從性和服務，這是我們投資的所有項目的關鍵部分。

So that is a huge part of how we're going to continue to grow scripts. The marketing win-back plans based off of staffing is the third one, then obviously, core staffing and reopening of store hours is the fourth building block. And I would say that as you look at the cadence of scripts and how it's going to grow into the second half of the year, Roz has talked a lot about the hiring pieces, but it actually goes into -- there's kind of a time line to get there, right?

所以這是我們將如何繼續發展腳本的重要組成部分。基於人員配置的營銷贏回計劃是第三個，顯然，核心人員配置和商店營業時間的重新開放是第四個組成部分。我想說的是，當你看劇本的節奏以及它如何發展到下半年時，Roz 已經談了很多關於招聘的事情，但它實際上進入了 - 有一個時間線到達那裡，對嗎？

You have to hire. We have to train appropriately, get our pharmacists ready, then we will reopen our stores to full store hours that we have before and then obviously, the win-back program. So there is a timing element to the scripts and how the growth will really start to ramp up in the second half of the year.

你必須僱人。我們必須進行適當的培訓，讓我們的藥劑師做好準備，然後我們將重新開放我們的商店，恢復到我們之前的營業時間，然後顯然是贏回計劃。因此，腳本中有一個時間元素，以及增長將如何在今年下半年真正開始加速。

And our final question comes from the line of Michael Cherny from Bank of America.

我們的最後一個問題來自美國銀行的 Michael Cherny。

I guess one just quick cleanup question and one broader one. First, on the cleanup side, is it possible if you could give us the after-tax proceeds from sale-leaseback transactions for the quarter, that would be great. And then maybe on the international side, I understand the success that you've had on the various different holiday items for the U.K. But can you give us a sense whether it's FX oriented beyond that, how to think about the confidence level you have in raising the adjusted OI for segment for the year and all the moving pieces beyond simply the contribution that you got from the Black Friday, Black Thursday, I apologize if I missed a couple of the holidays there, James.

我想一個只是快速清理問題和一個更廣泛的問題。首先，在清理方面，如果你能給我們本季度售後回租交易的稅後收益，那會很棒嗎？然後也許在國際方面，我理解你在英國的各種不同假期項目上取得的成功。但是你能告訴我們它是否以外彙為導向，如何考慮你對英國的信心水平提高今年細分市場的調整後 OI 和所有移動部分，不僅僅是你從黑色星期五、黑色星期四得到的貢獻，如果我錯過了那裡的幾個假期，我深表歉意，詹姆斯。

Yes. So the -- I'm just looking for the sale and leaseback. I think it was around [$170 million] pretax. I don't have an after-tax number. But we don't -- on a cash tax basis, we don't pay very much tax on this because we have capital allowances -- capital losses against it. In the U.K., what we did was a technical update basically to reflect only currencies.

是的。所以 - 我只是在尋找售後回租。我認為這大約是 [1.7 億美元] 稅前。我沒有稅後號碼。但我們不——在現金稅的基礎上，我們不會為此繳納太多稅，因為我們有資本免稅額——資本損失。在英國，我們所做的是技術更新，基本上只反映貨幣。

So if currencies change in the future, we would adjust that. We have -- I would describe it as a large degree of confidence in the base forecast in the international business. I would suggest that given how December came in, which was better than we expected, that 15% growth. And as I said, 40% of the profit is in December. So this takes -- massively derisk the international forecast. So I don't -- you never want to say anything is in the bag, but I think international is probably the very safe number.

因此，如果未來貨幣發生變化，我們會進行調整。我們有—我將其描述為對國際業務基本預測的高度信心。我建議考慮到 12 月的情況，這比我們預期的要好，增長 15%。正如我所說，40% 的利潤是在 12 月。所以這需要——大大降低國際預測的風險。所以我不——你永遠不想說包裡有什麼，但我認為國際可能是非常安全的數字。

And just to cycle back a little bit on everybody, I think, has been very, very focused on the 5% script growth rate. 2.5 percentage points comes from the marketing programs on the store reopening and 2.5 comes from market growth plus adherence programs plus all the rest. So there is the possibility that we over-perform on some of the other programs that will compensate for some of the risks that you perceive and then 2 is just to dimensionalize this and -- sorry, the labor on, but the change in the direction of procurement is $350 million and the change second half versus first half and the volume change is $200 million.

我認為，只是為了讓大家稍微回顧一下，一直非常非常關注 5% 的腳本增長率。 2.5 個百分點來自商店重新開業的營銷計劃，2.5 個百分點來自市場增長加上堅持計劃以及所有其他。因此，我們有可能在其他一些計劃上表現出色，這些計劃將補償您感知到的一些風險，然後 2 只是將其量化，並且 - 抱歉，繼續努力，但方向發生了變化採購額為 3.5 億美元，下半年與上半年相比發生變化，數量變化為 2 億美元。

So if you were looking in terms of what's going to have the biggest impact, second half versus first half, it's reimbursement, cost of goods sold changes versus first quarter and then it's volume on the pharmacy business. And I'm not saying it's not important, but we have a very, very good line of sight to the reimbursement and we have decent line of sight to the cost of goods sold, and we have programs in place for the script volumes. So I just wanted to kind of close on that, kind of stealing your last question.

因此，如果你正在尋找影響最大的因素，下半年與上半年相比，它是報銷、銷售成本與第一季度相比的變化，然後是藥房業務的數量。我並不是說這不重要，但我們對報銷有非常非常好的看法，我們對銷售商品的成本有很好的看法，我們有劇本卷的計劃。所以我只是想結束這一點，有點偷你的最後一個問題。

And this ends our Q&A session. I will now turn the call back over to Ms. Roz Brewer for some final closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我現在將把電話轉回給 Roz Brewer 女士，聽取一些最後的結束語。

First of all, thank you, everyone, for joining us this quarter. We'll conclude our Q&A, but I want to end briefly by just recapping the main points that you heard from us today and then touch again on some of your questions.

首先，感謝大家本季度加入我們。我們將結束我們的問答，但我想簡單地回顧一下您今天從我們這裡聽到的要點，然後再談談您的一些問題。

First of all, we have had a solid start to the year. Our results are broadly in line with expectations and our underlying sales growth is over 3% despite the tough environment we've all been in.

首先，我們今年開局良好。我們的業績大致符合預期，儘管我們都處於艱難的環境中，但我們的基本銷售額增長超過 3%。

Secondly, our core business is resilient. The convenience and value that we're offering customers continue to resonate as we cycle from the COVID surge. And it reminds us every day that our brand remains strong and our customers are very loyal to us.

其次，我們的核心業務具有彈性。隨著我們從 COVID 激增中循環，我們為客戶提供的便利和價值繼續引起共鳴。它每天都在提醒我們，我們的品牌依然強大，我們的客戶對我們非常忠誠。

Thirdly, our health care growth engine is showing great progress. We've closed and accelerated major acquisitions, and this segment is expected to exit fiscal '23 with positive adjusted EBITDA so we're investing to grow in a very difficult time frame, but we remain committed to our strategy.

第三，我們的醫療保健增長引擎正在取得長足進步。我們已經完成並加速了重大收購，預計該部門將以調整後的 EBITDA 退出 23 財年，因此我們正在投資以在非常困難的時間框架內實現增長，但我們仍然致力於我們的戰略。

Fourthly, we're optimizing our portfolio. So our shares in AmerisourceBergen were sold with tight discounts and near 52-week highs, and we continue to have significant access to capital. And lastly, we're maintaining guidance for the fiscal year, while controlling cost, and investing to grow to deliver our long-term sustainable value for all of you on this call. So thanks again for your support, and we wish you all a very happy new year. Thank you.

第四，我們正在優化我們的投資組合。因此，我們在 AmerisourceBergen 的股票以接近 52 周高位的低折扣出售，我們繼續獲得大量資金。最後，我們將維持本財年的指導方針，同時控製成本，並進行投資以實現增長，以便在此次電話會議上為你們所有人提供我們的長期可持續價值。再次感謝您的支持，祝大家新年快樂。謝謝你。

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

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。