沃博聯公司 (WBA) 2023 Q2 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 Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

早上好。我叫 Rob，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線員。在這個時候，我想歡迎大家參加 Walgreens Boots Alliance 2023 年第二季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）

Tiffany Kanaga, Vice President of Global Investor Relations, you may begin your conference.

全球投資者關係副總裁 Tiffany Kanaga，您可以開始您的會議。

Good morning. Thank you for joining us for the Walgreens Boots Alliance Earnings Call for the Second 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 and Chief Pharmacy Officer at Walgreens; and John Driscoll, President of U.S. Healthcare, will participate in Q&A.

早上好。感謝您加入我們的 Walgreens Boots Alliance 2023 財年第二季度財報電話會議。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 高級副總裁兼首席藥房官 Rick Gates； U.S. Healthcare 總裁 John Driscoll 將參與問答環節。

Today's call will be approximately 1 hour in length, including Q&A. 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.

今天的電話會議時長約為 1 小時，包括問答環節。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 the non-GAAP financial measures that we will discuss during this call.

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我們將在本次電話會議期間討論的非 GAAP 財務措施的更多信息。

I'll now turn the call over to Roz.

我現在將電話轉給 Roz。

Thanks, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. WBA has delivered a solid second quarter. Overall, results were in line with our expectations as a slow start earlier in the quarter was offset by a strong acceleration in February. The overall decline in adjusted EPS was against growth of 26.5% last year and again reflects the anticipated headwind from lower COVID demand and our investments in labor and the U.S. Healthcare segment. This is our final quarter of lapping last year's peak COVID contributions, and we are looking forward to accelerated growth ahead.

謝謝，蒂芙尼，大家早上好。 WBA 第二季度表現穩定。總體而言，結果符合我們的預期，因為本季度早些時候的緩慢開局被 2 月份的強勁加速所抵消。調整後每股收益的整體下降與去年 26.5% 的增長形成鮮明對比，再次反映了 COVID 需求下降以及我們在勞動力和美國醫療保健領域的投資帶來的預期逆風。這是我們超越去年 COVID 貢獻峰值的最後一個季度，我們期待著未來的加速增長。

Second quarter sales grew 4.5% in constant currency. U.S. script volume growth exceeded guidance and our resilient retail business is successfully lapping record prior year performances. This was also a landmark quarter for our transformation to healthcare. We invested $3.5 billion to support VillageMD's acquisition of Summit Health, creating one of the leading independent provider groups in the country.

按固定匯率計算，第二季度銷售額增長 4.5%。美國腳本量增長超出預期，我們的彈性零售業務成功超越了去年的業績記錄。這也是我們向醫療保健轉型的具有里程碑意義的季度。我們投資了 35 億美元支持 VillageMD 收購 Summit Health，創建了該國領先的獨立供應商集團之一。

At the same time, we are taking decisive action to unlock value and strengthen the company by simplifying the portfolio. Our strategy is working. We are performing against our plans, and we will be relentless in driving continued progress ahead.

與此同時，我們正在採取果斷行動，通過簡化產品組合來釋放價值並加強公司實力。我們的策略正在奏效。我們的表現與我們的計劃背道而馳，我們將不懈地推動持續進步。

We are maintaining our full year guidance for adjusted EPS of $4.45 to $4.65 with good visibility into the key drivers of robust and accelerated growth in the second half. Importantly, the inflection is here. We are clearly pivoting to strong projected EPS growth in the mid-20s in the second half. I am very confident in our future, enabled by our execution and the bold investments we are making today.

我們將調整後的每股收益維持在 4.45 美元至 4.65 美元的全年指引，並充分了解下半年強勁和加速增長的主要驅動因素。重要的是，拐點在這裡。我們顯然正在轉向下半年 20 年代中期每股收益的強勁增長。我對我們的未來充滿信心，這得益於我們的執行力和我們今天所做的大膽投資。

We are making progress against each of our 4 strategic priorities. Let's start with the core business. U.S. Pharmacy comp scripts grew 3.5%, excluding immunization exceeding our guidance of 3% growth and improving from 2.1% last quarter. Through our focused investments, we have returned an incremental 500 stores to normal pharmacy operating hours. Our market share trends are improving, and we saw 6% growth in stores with normal hours. While we have more work ahead of us to achieve our full year script recapture goals, I'm very encouraged by our momentum with strong acceleration into January and February. Our pharmacist team is supported by our 9 micro-fulfillment centers, which allow our pharmacists more time to focus on patient care and clinical services, expanding on the critical role they already provide in communities.

我們正在針對我們的 4 個戰略重點中的每一個取得進展。讓我們從核心業務開始。美國藥房 comp 腳本增長 3.5%，不包括免疫超過我們 3% 增長的指導，並從上一季度的 2.1% 提高。通過我們的重點投資，我們已使 500 家門店恢復到正常的藥房營業時間。我們的市場份額趨勢正在改善，正常營業時間的商店增長了 6%。雖然我們還有更多的工作要做才能實現我們全年的劇本重獲目標，但我對我們在 1 月和 2 月的強勁加速勢頭感到非常鼓舞。我們的藥劑師團隊得到 9 個微型履行中心的支持，這讓我們的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。

In Retail, U.S. comp sales, excluding tobacco, declined slightly. A very solid performance against the 15.7% growth we delivered last year. We achieved mid-single-digit growth after backing out the COVID OTC test headwind from last year's Omicron surge. The convenience and real value that Walgreens offers is resonating with consumers in a challenging environment. In fact, our comp accelerated to high single digits in February, while we also drove another quarter of margin expansion.

在零售業，不包括煙草在內的美國綜合銷售額略有下降。與我們去年實現的 15.7% 的增長相比，這是一個非常穩健的表現。在抵消了去年 Omicron 激增帶來的 COVID OTC 測試逆風之後，我們實現了中等個位數的增長。 Walgreens 提供的便利和真正的價值在充滿挑戰的環境中引起了消費者的共鳴。事實上，我們的 comp 在 2 月份加速到高個位數，同時我們還推動了另一個季度的利潤率擴張。

In our International segment, Boots had a stellar quarter with retail comp growth of 16% on top of 22% last year. The business achieved its eighth consecutive quarter of retail market share gains.

在我們的國際業務中，Boots 有一個出色的季度，零售收入增長了 16%，高於去年的 22%。該業務連續第八個季度實現了零售市場份額的增長。

Now turning to our second strategic priority. We are accelerating the build-out of our healthcare growth engine. The addition of Summit Health is transformational. It creates one of the largest integrated provider platforms in the U.S., delivering quality affordable care for all patient populations regardless of insurance or payer type. This highly strategic transaction expands VillageMD's addressable market with primary care, multi-specialty and urgent care and reinforces our approach across the entire care continuum. Summit will accelerate the U.S. Healthcare segment to scale and profit. We see meaningful synergy potential over time with integration activities already begun.

現在轉向我們的第二個戰略重點。我們正在加速構建我們的醫療保健增長引擎。 Summit Health 的加入具有變革性。它創建了美國最大的綜合提供商平台之一，為所有患者群體提供優質的負擔得起的護理，無論保險或付款人類型如何。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。 Summit 將加速美國醫療保健部門的規模和利潤。隨著整合活動的開始，我們看到隨著時間的推移有意義的協同作用潛力。

We have also added our fourth payer partner for the organic business, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and now have signed 5 clinical trials contracts. Shields Health Solutions and CareCentrix both continue to perform well, which led to the accelerated acquisition of both entities. Shields closed on December 28, and CareCentrix is scheduled to close this quarter. On a combined basis, our best-in-class assets drove pro forma sales growth of 30% in the quarter. Investments in this growth are funded through actions we continue to take to better align our portfolio and streamline the business. We've unlocked meaningful value fiscal year-to-date with over $3.6 billion in after-tax proceeds.

我們還增加了有機業務的第四個付款合作夥伴，新澤西州的 Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield，現在已經簽署了 5 份臨床試驗合同。 Shields Health Solutions 和 CareCentrix 都繼續表現良好，這導致了對這兩個實體的加速收購。 Shields 於 12 月 28 日關閉，CareCentrix 計劃於本季度關閉。綜合來看，我們一流的資產在本季度推動了 30% 的預估銷售額增長。我們繼續採取行動以更好地調整我們的投資組合併簡化業務，從而為這種增長的投資提供資金。本財年迄今，我們已經釋放了有意義的價值，稅後收益超過 36 億美元。

Our Retail Pharmacy business provides a solid foundation for our leading healthcare assets to deliver value across the full care continuum driving our long-term growth strategy. We are able to reach across both digital and physical channels to guide consumers through the complexities in healthcare. 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 importance 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堅實的基礎，以在推動我們長期增長戰略的整個護理連續體中創造價值。我們能夠跨越數字和實體渠道，引導消費者應對醫療保健領域的複雜問題。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重要性。

We are focused on expanding our risk business, supporting integrated care models, broadening our pharmacy value proposition and driving operational efficiencies. The combination of our best-in-class healthcare assets, a physical presence through our pharmacy footprint, our trusted brand and a scaled digital offering creates a platform that is unmatched in the industry.

我們專注於擴大我們的風險業務，支持綜合護理模式，擴大我們的藥房價值主張並提高運營效率。我們一流的醫療保健資產、通過我們的藥房足跡、我們值得信賴的品牌和規模化的數字產品的實體存在的結合創造了一個在行業中無與倫比的平台。

Walgreens will increasingly be viewed as a partner of choice. We are uniquely positioned to engage consumers to manage their individual health and wellness whenever and wherever they need.

沃爾格林將越來越多地被視為首選合作夥伴。我們具有獨特的優勢，可以讓消費者隨時隨地根據需要管理他們的個人健康和保健。

With that, I'll hand it over to James to provide more color on our results and our outlook.

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 delivered a strong performance in the quarter. While we saw some favorable phasing, core operating performance was mostly in line with our internal expectations.

謝謝你，羅茲，早上好。總而言之，我們在本季度表現強勁。雖然我們看到了一些有利的階段，但核心運營績效基本符合我們的內部預期。

Second quarter adjusted EPS of $1.16 declined by 25.8% on a constant currency basis, and this was entirely due to a 26% headwind from COVID-19 vaccinations and testing. Strong retail performance in both the U.S. and International and sequential improvement in U.S. conscripts more than offset 10 percentage points of headwinds from payroll investments in the U.S. and the expansion of our healthcare business.

按固定匯率計算，第二季度調整後的每股收益為 1.16 美元，下降了 25.8%，這完全是由於 COVID-19 疫苗接種和檢測帶來的 26% 的逆風。美國和國際零售業的強勁表現以及美國的連續改善抵消了美國工資投資和我們醫療保健業務擴張帶來的不利因素超過 10 個百分點。

Gains from a planned cash mobilization in Germany and sale and leaseback net gains in the U.S. contributed approximately $0.12 to adjusted EPS growth. However, this was entirely offset by reduced ownership of AmerisourceBergen of $0.05, prior year COVID-related onetime benefits in the U.K. of $0.03 and currency impacts and investment write-offs of $0.04.

德國計劃的現金調動收益以及美國的售後回租淨收益為調整後的每股收益增長貢獻了約 0.12 美元。然而，這完全被 AmerisourceBergen 的所有權減少 0.05 美元、前一年在英國與 COVID 相關的一次性福利減少 0.03 美元以及貨幣影響和投資註銷 0.04 美元所抵消。

Despite a slow start to the quarter, we delivered 4.5% sales growth on a constant currency basis with strong momentum exiting the quarter. February saw core sales growth up high single digits, more than offsetting weather-related challenges in December and a noticeable slowdown in respiratory virus cases in January.

儘管本季度開局緩慢，但我們以固定匯率計算實現了 4.5% 的銷售額增長，並在本季度結束時保持強勁勢頭。 2 月份核心銷售額實現了高個位數增長，抵消了 12 月份與天氣相關的挑戰和 1 月份呼吸道病毒病例明顯減少的影響。

Comparable sales in U.S. Retail Pharmacy were up 3.1%, despite lapping a very strong prior year comp of 9.5%. Comp script growth of 3.5% exceeded our guidance of 3%. The International sales advanced 9% led by the U.K. Retail business, which delivered a 16% comp. And our U.S. Healthcare business continues to rapidly scale with sales exceeding $1.6 billion in the quarter and growing 30% on a pro forma basis.

美國零售藥房的可比銷售額增長了 3.1%，儘管去年同期的增長率非常強勁，為 9.5%。 3.5% 的 Comp 腳本增長超出了我們 3% 的指導。在英國零售業務的帶動下，國際銷售額增長 9%，同比增長 16%。我們的美國醫療保健業務繼續快速擴張，本季度銷售額超過 16 億美元，預估增長 30%。

So in summary, we had a solid quarter and based on the in-line performance, we are maintaining our full year adjusted EPS guidance of $4.45 to $4.65.

因此，總而言之，我們有一個穩健的季度，並且根據在線表現，我們將全年調整後的每股收益指引維持在 4.45 美元至 4.65 美元之間。

Let's now look at the results in more detail. Adjusted operating income declined 25% on a constant currency basis, and this was entirely due to a much lower contribution from COVID-19 vaccinations and testing, which led to a headwind of 28%. Labor investments in pharmacy and minimum wage were a 9 percentage point headwind, whereas the expansion of the U.S. Healthcare segment was an impact of 5 percentage points. The labor and healthcare headwinds were offset by strong performance across U.S. Retail and International. Excluding COVID-19 OTC test kits, U.S. Retail contributed 12 percentage points of growth and continued strength in international contributed 9 percentage points.

現在讓我們更詳細地查看結果。按固定匯率計算，調整後的營業收入下降了 25%，這完全是由於 COVID-19 疫苗接種和檢測的貢獻要低得多，導致了 28% 的逆風。藥房和最低工資方面的勞動力投資帶來了 9 個百分點的不利影響，而美國醫療保健領域的擴張帶來了 5 個百分點的影響。美國零售業和國際市場的強勁表現抵消了勞工和醫療保健方面的不利因素。不包括 COVID-19 OTC 測試套件，美國零售業貢獻了 12 個百分點的增長，國際市場的持續增長貢獻了 9 個百分點。

Adjusted EPS was $1.16, a constant currency decline of 25.8%, entirely due to a much lower contribution from COVID-19. GAAP net earnings were $703 million, a decline of 20% versus prior year. The current quarter included a $454 million after-tax gain from the sale of ABC shares and a $266 million after-tax charge for opioid-related claims and lawsuits.

調整後每股收益為 1.16 美元，匯率持續下降 25.8%，這完全是由於 COVID-19 的貢獻要低得多。 GAAP 淨收益為 7.03 億美元，比上年下降 20%。本季度包括出售 ABC 股票產生的 4.54 億美元稅後收益以及與阿片類藥物相關的索賠和訴訟產生的 2.66 億美元稅後費用。

Now let's move to the year-to-date highlights. Year-to-date sales increased 2.8% on a constant currency basis. Adjusted EPS was down 28% on a constant currency basis, mostly due to a much lower contribution from COVID-19 with an adverse impact of approximately 22%. GAAP earnings were a loss of $3 billion compared to net earnings of $4.5 billion in 2022. The year-to-date period included a $5.4 billion after-tax charge for opioid-related claims and lawsuits partly offset by a $1.4 billion after-tax gain on the sale of ABC shares. Additionally, we are comparing to a prior year period that included a $2.5 billion after-tax gain on the company's investments in VillageMD and Shields.

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 2.8%。按固定匯率計算，調整後的每股收益下降了 28%，這主要是由於 COVID-19 的貢獻要低得多，不利影響約為 22%。 GAAP 收益虧損 30 億美元，而 2022 年的淨收益為 45 億美元。年初至今包括 54 億美元的阿片類藥物相關索賠和訴訟稅後費用，部分被 14 億美元的稅後收益所抵消關於出售 ABC 股份。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。

Now let's move to the U.S. Retail Pharmacy segment. Sales declined slightly in the quarter, reflecting a 3% drag from lower COVID-19 contributions and a 2.5% headwind from AllianceRx. The good news is that AllianceRx has now cycled through its contract losses and the COVID-19 headwind will lessen in subsequent quarters. Comp sales increased 3.1% and this comes on top of a very strong prior year comp of 9.5%. Adjusted operating income declined 32.8% year-on-year, broadly in line with our expectations. This was entirely due to a 29% decline from lower COVID-19 contribution and 10% from planned labor investments.

現在讓我們轉到美國零售藥房部分。本季度銷售額略有下降，反映出 COVID-19貢獻下降 3% 的拖累和 AllianceRx 2.5% 的逆風。好消息是 AllianceRx 現在已經經歷了合同損失的循環，COVID-19的逆風將在隨後的幾個季度減弱。比較銷售額增長了 3.1%，這是在前一年非常強勁的 9.5% 的基礎上取得的。調整後營業收入同比下降 32.8%，大致符合我們的預期。這完全是由於較低的 COVID-19 貢獻下降了 29%，計劃的勞動力投資下降了 10%。

Ongoing reimbursement pressure was offset by retail gross profit growth and SG&A savings. We continue to expect AOI growth to accelerate in the second half, due to a lower COVID-19 headwind, less reimbursement pressure, favorable cost of goods sold timing and script recapture initiatives gaining traction.

零售毛利增長和 SG&A 節省抵消了持續的報銷壓力。我們繼續預計下半年 AOI 增長將加速，原因是 COVID-19 的不利因素減少、報銷壓力減少、有利的商品銷售成本時機和腳本回收計劃獲得牽引力。

Let me now turn to U.S. Pharmacy. Pharmacy sales increased 0.3% despite a 3 percentage point headwind from AllianceRx and 2 percentage points from lower COVID-19 contributions. Comp pharmacy sales were up 4.9%, lapping a 7.3% comp last year. Comp scripts were up 0.2%. We administered 2.4 million COVID-19 vaccinations in the second quarter, down a significant 80% versus prior year. And about 600,000 COVID-19 PCR tests down over 90%. Excluding immunizations, comp scripts grew 3.5%, exceeding our forecast of 3%. We are encouraged by the 140 basis point sequential improvement, driven in part by ongoing script recapture initiatives, including the return of an incremental 500 stores to normal operating hours.

現在讓我轉向美國藥房。儘管 AllianceRx 帶來了 3 個百分點的逆風，COVID-19貢獻減少了 2 個百分點，但藥房銷售額增長了 0.3%。 Comp 藥房銷售額增長 4.9%，超過去年的 7.3%。 Comp scripts 上漲了 0.2%。我們在第二季度進行了 240 萬次 COVID-19 疫苗接種，與去年同期相比下降了 80%。大約 600,000 次 COVID-19 PCR 測試下降了 90% 以上。不包括免疫接種，補償腳本增長了 3.5%，超過了我們 3% 的預測。我們對 140 個基點的連續改進感到鼓舞，這在一定程度上是由正在進行的腳本重新捕獲計劃推動的，包括增加 500 家商店恢復正常營業時間。

As expected, adjusted gross profit and margin declined due to the lower contribution from COVID-19 vaccinations and testing and ongoing reimbursement pressure net of procurement savings. Pharmacy reimbursement was broadly in line with our expectations and represented a lower level of pressure compared to the prior year. Looking forward, we expect year-over-year growth in the second half as the COVID headwind lessens, script comps continue to build and second half reimbursement is less of a year-on-year headwind compared to the first half of the year.

正如預期的那樣，由於 COVID-19 疫苗接種和測試的貢獻較低以及扣除採購節省後的持續報銷壓力，調整後的毛利和利潤率有所下降。藥房報銷大致符合我們的預期，與上一年相比壓力較小。展望未來，我們預計下半年將出現同比增長，因為 COVID 逆風減弱，劇本補償繼續增加，下半年報銷與上半年相比同比逆風較小。

Turning next to the U.S. Retail business. Overall, we were happy with the retail performance in the quarter, with good underlying sales trends and continued margin improvement. While Retail comp sales decreased 1% in the quarter, we were up against a record 14.7% comp in the prior year, which, as you will recall, included strong OTC testing volume related to the Omicron surge. Excluding tobacco, comp sales were down 0.5%, but on a 2-year stack basis, comp sales advanced by more than 15%. Looking at the quarter, lower sales of at-home COVID-19 tests led to a 500 basis point headwind, and this must strong underlying trends, led by a 13% increase in cough, cold, flu, 9% growth in beauty and a 6% increase in consumables and general merchandise. We had a slower start than expected with December weather impacts leading to weak seasonal sales and some seasonal write-downs, and we sold lessening respiratory various cases in January.

接下來轉向美國零售業務。總體而言，我們對本季度的零售業績感到滿意，基本銷售趨勢良好，利潤率持續提高。雖然本季度零售銷售額下降了 1%，但我們在去年創下了 14.7% 的歷史記錄，正如您所記得的那樣，其中包括與 Omicron 激增相關的強勁 OTC 測試量。不包括煙草在內，comp 銷售額下降了 0.5%，但在 2 年的基礎上，comp 銷售額增長了 15% 以上。縱觀本季度，居家 COVID-19 測試的銷售額下降導致了 500 個基點的逆風，這必然是強勁的潛在趨勢，其中咳嗽、感冒、流感增加 13%，美容增加 9%，以及消耗品和一般商品增加6%。由於 12 月的天氣影響導致季節性銷售疲軟和一些季節性減記，我們的開局比預期的要慢，我們在 1 月份銷售的呼吸道病例有所減少。

However, February was very strong with high single-digit comp growth. Retail gross margin performance remained strong in the quarter, reflecting effective margin management including strategic pricing and promotional optimization and improved shrink.

然而，2 月份表現非常強勁，實現了高個位數的收入增長。本季度零售毛利率表現依然強勁，反映了有效的利潤管理，包括戰略定價和促銷優化以及改善的收縮。

Looking ahead, we expect a return to positive comp trends in the second half as we will be facing a smaller headwind from COVID-19 test kits, and we have meaningful opportunities to drive AOI growth from own brands to myWalgreens loyalty program and strategic margin management.

展望未來，我們預計下半年將恢復積極的競爭趨勢，因為我們將面臨來自 COVID-19 測試套件的較小阻力，並且我們有有意義的機會推動 AOI 從自有品牌增長到 myWalgreens 忠誠度計劃和戰略利潤率管理.

Turning next to the International segment. And as always, I'll talk to constant currency numbers. The International segment continues to perform well. Sales increased 9% with growth across all International markets. Boots U.K. was up 11% and Germany wholesale grew 7.5%. Adjusted operating income was $352 million, up 66% versus prior year. Adjusted operating income benefited from [$110 million] in real estate gains from the planned cash mobilization program in Germany. These gains were included in our guidance at the beginning of the year, but were initially assumed to be more evenly split between the first and second quarters. Offsetting this, we are lapping COVID-19-related temporary benefits in the year ago quarter of approximately $40 million.

轉到國際部分旁邊。和往常一樣，我會談論固定的貨幣數字。國際業務繼續表現良好。隨著所有國際市場的增長，銷售額增長了 9%。英國 Boots 批發增長 11%，德國批發增長 7.5%。調整後營業收入為 3.52 億美元，比上年增長 66%。調整後的營業收入受益於德國計劃的現金調動計劃帶來的 [1.1 億美元] 房地產收益。這些收益包含在我們年初的指導中，但最初假設在第一季度和第二季度之間分配得更平均。為了抵消這一點，我們在去年同期獲得了約 4000 萬美元的與 COVID-19 相關的臨時福利。

Excluding these 2 items, we estimate that core AOI grew by around 40%. This excellent performance was led by U.K. retail sales with a successful holiday trading season and strong operational execution in the Germany wholesale business. We are encouraged by our continued positive trends and looking ahead, we expect the International segment to deliver year-on-year AOI growth in the second half of 2023.

剔除這兩項，我們估計核心 AOI 增長了 40% 左右。這一出色的表現得益於英國零售銷售的成功假期交易季和德國批發業務的強勁運營執行力。我們對我們持續的積極趨勢感到鼓舞，展望未來，我們預計國際部門將在 2023 年下半年實現 AOI 同比增長。

Let's now look in more detail at Boots U.K. Boots U.K. sales advanced 11%, led by continued strength in retail. Comparable pharmacy sales increased 2%, held back by lower demand for COVID-19 services. Comparable retail sales advanced 16%, which follows on from a 22% comp in the year ago quarter and benefiting from strong execution over the holiday season. Boots grew market share for the eighth consecutive quarter with gains across all categories, led by Beauty up 1.8 percentage points and consumables and general merchandise up 1.7 percentage points. Boots.com sales were up nearly 80% versus the equivalent pre-COVID period. Over 15% of our U.K. retail sales now come from Boots.com, up from approximately 9% in the pre-COVID quarter.

現在讓我們更詳細地了解 Boots U.K. Boots U.K 的銷售額增長了 11%，這得益於零售業的持續強勁。由於對 COVID-19 服務的需求下降，可比藥房銷售額增長了 2%。可比零售額增長 16%，高於去年同期的 22%，並受益於節日期間的強勁執行。靴子的市場份額連續第八個季度增長，所有類別均有所增長，其中美容產品增長 1.8 個百分點，消耗品和日用商品增長 1.7 個百分點。 Boots.com 的銷售額與 COVID 之前的同期相比增長了近 80%。現在，我們超過 15% 的英國零售額來自 Boots.com，高於 COVID 前季度的約 9%。

Turning next to U.S. Healthcare. The U.S. Healthcare business is rapidly scaling with VillageMD's acquisition of Summit Health and strong pro forma sales growth at VillageMD, Shields and CareCentrix. U.S. Healthcare sales exceeded $1.6 billion compared to $527 million in the year ago quarter, pro forma sales growth was 30%. VillageMD delivered sales of over $1.1 billion, advancing 30% on a pro forma basis, driven by growth at existing clinics, expansion of the clinic footprint and Summit Health growth.

轉向美國醫療保健。隨著 VillageMD 收購 Summit Health 以及 VillageMD 、 Shields 和 CareCentrix 強勁的預估銷售增長，美國醫療保健業務正在迅速擴大。美國醫療保健銷售額超過 16 億美元，而去年同期為 5.27 億美元，預計銷售額增長 30%。 VillageMD 實現了超過 11 億美元的銷售額，在現有診所的增長、診所足蹟的擴大和 Summit Health 的增長的推動下，預估增長了 30%。

Excluding Summit, VillageMD grew 48% year-on-year. Shields continues to deliver with sales of $125 million and increasing 41% on a pro forma basis, driven by recent contract wins, including the addition of 3 new health system partners and further expansion of existing partnerships. CareCentrix sales were nearly $400 million with pro forma sales growth of 25%, driven primarily by new service offerings with existing partners.

不包括 Summit，VillageMD 同比增長 48%。 Shields 繼續實現銷售額 1.25 億美元，預估銷售額增長 41%，這得益於最近贏得的合同，包括增加 3 個新的衛生系統合作夥伴和進一步擴大現有合作夥伴關係。 CareCentrix 的銷售額接近 4 億美元，預估銷售額增長 25%，主要受現有合作夥伴提供的新服務推動。

Adjusted SG&A in the quarter increased by $177 million to $269 million, primarily due to the acquisitions of CareCentrix and Summit which were not included in the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $109 million compared to a loss of $62 million in the prior year. This largely reflects the increased VillageMD clinic count and higher Walgreens Health organic investments, partly offset by positive contributions from Shields and CareCentrix.

本季度調整後的 SG&A 增加了 1.77 億美元，達到 2.69 億美元，這主要是由於對 CareCentrix 和 Summit 的收購未包括在上一季度中。調整後的 EBITDA 虧損 1.09 億美元，而上一年虧損 6200 萬美元。這在很大程度上反映了 VillageMD 診所數量的增加和 Walgreens Health 有機投資的增加，部分被 Shields 和 CareCentrix 的積極貢獻所抵消。

Let's now look at some of the key metrics for the U.S. Healthcare business. At quarter end, the Walgreens Health organic business had 2.9 million contracted lives, up over 50% year-on-year as existing payer partners added new lines of business. As Roz mentioned, we've also added Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey as our fourth payor partner. Under this agreement, we will provide preventative health and wellness services to a select group of Horizons Medicare and commercial members. These services will be available at Walgreens Health corners and pharmacies across New Jersey, starting this summer.

現在讓我們來看看美國醫療保健業務的一些關鍵指標。截至季度末，Walgreens Health 有機業務有 290 萬合同生命，同比增長超過 50%，因為現有的付款合作夥伴增加了新的業務線。正如 Roz 提到的，我們還增加了新澤西州的 Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield 作為我們的第四個付款合作夥伴。根據該協議，我們將向選定的 Horizons Medicare 和商業會員群體提供預防性健康和保健服務。從今年夏天開始，這些服務將在新澤西州的 Walgreens Health 角落和藥店提供。

VillageMD managed 806,000 value-based lives at quarter end, reflecting year-over-year growth of 38% in the legacy VillageMD business and the addition of 309,000 value-based lives from Summit. The total includes 177,000 full risk Medicare lives. VillageMD ended the quarter with 729 locations, including Summit Health and CityMD. The 403 clinics for the legacy VillageMD business compared to 270 at the end of the prior year period and included 210 clinics co-located with Walgreens, up from 94 co-located clinics a year ago. We were seeing benefits on the Walgreens side from our partnership with VillageMD. Roughly 50% of patients had co-located VillageMD clinics opt to get their prescriptions filled at Walgreens. VillageMD co-located sites that have been opened for over 2 years are driving an incremental 40 scripts per site per day, and this is an increase of 35% versus prior year.

VillageMD 在本季度末管理了 806,000 名基於價值的生活，反映出傳統 VillageMD 業務同比增長 38%，以及 Summit 增加了 309,000 名基於價值的生活。總數包括 177,000 條全險醫療保險生命。 VillageMD 在本季度結束時擁有 729 個地點，包括 Summit Health 和 CityMD。與去年同期末的 270 家相比，VillageMD 傳統業務的 403 家診所包括 210 家與 Walgreens 位於同一地點的診所，高於一年前的 94 家位於同一地點的診所。我們從與 VillageMD 的合作中看到了 Walgreens 方面的好處。大約 50% 的患者曾與 VillageMD 診所位於同一地點，他們選擇在 Walgreens 開處方。已開放 2 年多的 VillageMD 託管站點正在推動每個站點每天增加 40 個腳本，這比上一年增加了 35%。

We will continue to build out our Walgreens Health corners as we add new lives and partners. We ended the quarter with 117 health corners, up from 47% a year ago.

隨著我們增加新的生活和合作夥伴，我們將繼續擴大我們的 Walgreens Health 角落。我們在本季度結束時擁有 117 個健康角，高於一年前的 47%。

In summary, we are moving swiftly to implement our vision, leveraging our integrated best-in-class assets and are excited with recent developments including signing another payer partner in the Walgreens Health organic business.

總而言之，我們正在迅速採取行動以實現我們的願景，利用我們整合的一流資產，並對最近的發展感到興奮，包括在 Walgreens Health 有機業務中籤署另一個支付合作夥伴。

Turning next to cash flow. We generated over $1.2 billion of operating cash flow in the first half of '23, with free cash flow of $560 million. The year-over-year decline reflected lower earnings due to the COVID-19 headwind and increased capital expenditures related to growth initiatives. This was partially offset by ongoing working capital optimization.

接下來轉向現金流。 23 年上半年，我們產生了超過 12 億美元的運營現金流，自由現金流為 5.6 億美元。同比下降反映了由於 COVID-19 不利因素導致的收入下降以及與增長計劃相關的資本支出增加。這部分被持續的營運資本優化所抵消。

Turning now to guidance. We are maintaining our full year adjusted EPS guidance. We delivered a solid first half, which was broadly in line with expectations. Our core retail pharmacy business has performed well in both the U.S. and International as we lapped very strong prior year comps. We also drove better-than-anticipated U.S. comp script growth in the second quarter. We continue to expect robust and accelerating [EDS] growth in the second half and have good visibility and strong execution plans against the key drivers.

現在轉向指導。我們維持全年調整後的每股收益指引。我們上半年表現穩健，大致符合預期。我們的核心零售藥房業務在美國和國際上都表現良好，因為我們去年的業績非常強勁。我們還在第二季度推動了好於預期的美國劇本增長。我們繼續預計下半年 [EDS] 將出現強勁且加速的增長，並且對關鍵驅動因素有良好的知名度和強有力的執行計劃。

COVID was a major headwind in the first half. And heading into the second half, we will see lower year-over-year impacts. In the U.S., we have clear line of sight to less reimbursement pressure relative to the first half of the year. Additionally, our script volume recovery is progressing and we are benefiting from some favorable cost of goods sold timing.

COVID 是上半年的主要逆風。進入下半年，我們將看到同比下降的影響。在美國，與上半年相比，我們清楚地看到報銷壓力有所減輕。此外，我們的腳本量恢復正在取得進展，我們正受益於一些有利的商品銷售時間成本。

In the International segment, the business is well positioned to extend the second quarter's very good performance and we are moving past the peak investment period for U.S. healthcare. COVID vaccinations and testing do remain a wildcard as the FDA has not yet issued guidance on spring boosters.

在國際領域，該業務已準備好延續第二季度的良好業績，我們正在度過美國醫療保健的投資高峰期。 COVID 疫苗接種和測試仍然是一個通配符，因為 FDA 尚未發布有關春季助推器的指南。

In summary, at the midpoint of the guidance range, we expect second half adjusted EPS growth in the mid-20s.

總之，在指導範圍的中點，我們預計下半年調整後的每股收益增長在 20 多歲左右。

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

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 continue to execute against our fiscal 2023 plan with solid first half results broadly in line with our expectations. Our retail pharmacy business is performing well, and we are progressing our healthcare business to scale and profitability. We exited the quarter with acceleration in February, adding to our confidence in achieving strong growth ahead. We have good visibility into the back half drivers.

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。我們繼續執行我們的 2023 財年計劃，上半年業績穩健，大致符合我們的預期。我們的零售藥房業務表現良好，我們正在推進我們的醫療保健業務以擴大規模和盈利能力。我們在 2 月份加速結束了本季度，增強了我們實現未來強勁增長的信心。我們對後半部分車手有很好的了解。

As I said earlier, the inflection is here. Our bold strategic actions are working, and I'm very excited for our future.

正如我之前所說，拐點就在這裡。我們大膽的戰略行動正在奏效，我對我們的未來感到非常興奮。

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

現在我想打開問題熱線。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) And your first question comes from the line of Adrian Rice from Credit Suisse.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Adrian Rice。

Actually, it's A.J. Rice. Obviously, it's still early days in the integration of VillageMD with CityMD and Summit. But any learnings that you've seen positive or challenges in the early days of that integration and maybe articulate a little bit whether there's any incremental cash needs that you see drawn on Walgreens capabilities, as they build out their growth strategy?

其實是A.J.米。顯然，VillageMD 與 CityMD 和 Summit 的整合還處於早期階段。但是，在這種整合的早期，你看到了積極的學習或挑戰，並且可能會闡明一點，你是否看到在 Walgreens 制定增長戰略時，他們的能力會增加現金需求？

And then maybe the other question I'll just ask quickly would be on the front of store sales. It seems like that's still hanging in there very well. Are you seeing any impact either in the U.S. or U.K. from the sluggish economic backdrop? It's sort of hard to see it, but I wanted to just ask the question.

然後也許我會很快問的另一個問題是關於商店銷售的。看起來它仍然很好地掛在那裡。您認為經濟低迷對美國或英國有什麼影響嗎？很難看到它，但我只想問這個問題。

Sure. Thank you, A.J. This is Roz. Let me start with your second question about the front end of store and the recession that we're seeing, not only in the U.S. but in the U.K. So first of all, the U.S. retail comps at 4.5%, and that's excluding our test kits really show that we're running pretty strong right now. As you know, we've had a lot of work going on with our cost management, and that's played forward for us.

當然。謝謝你，A.J.這是羅茲。讓我從你的第二個問題開始，關於商店的前端和我們所看到的經濟衰退，不僅在美國，而且在英國。所以首先，美國零售率為 4.5%，這不包括我們的測試套件確實表明我們現在運行得非常強勁。如您所知，我們在成本管理方面進行了大量工作，這對我們很有幫助。

Secondly, the work that we've been doing with private label. So we've seen some trade down to private label over a period of time, probably about 100 basis points of improvement in our private label business. And then I would also tell you that we are pretty much a convenient place. So as gas prices go up, where that convenient neighborhood access point.

其次，我們一直在做自有品牌的工作。因此，在一段時間內，我們已經看到一些交易下降到自有品牌，我們的自有品牌業務可能提高了大約 100 個基點。然後我還要告訴你，我們是一個非常方便的地方。因此，隨著汽油價格的上漲，那個方便的鄰里接入點在哪裡。

And then lastly, I would tell you, too, that in both our U.S. business and the U.K. business, we're seeing our online growth above 30% in many of those areas. So where -- people are switching over to online, particularly U.K., it is in a deep recession, but we're pretty proud of the work that is going on over there, achieving 16 comp. They're one of the top players over there selling pretty nicely in Personal Care and over-the-counter business.

最後，我還要告訴你，在我們的美國業務和英國業務中，我們看到許多領域的在線增長超過 30%。因此，人們轉向在線的地方，尤其是英國，正處於嚴重衰退之中，但我們為那裡正在進行的工作感到非常自豪，實現了 16 comp。他們是那裡的頂級公司之一，在個人護理和場外交易業務方面銷售得非常好。

So we've been fairly resilient. We did take some time, A.J., to go back and look at '08 and '09, and during that time frame, we only saw maybe about a 0.5 percentage point dip and so we think we're pretty resilient at this point, but cost improvement has helped us the trend towards private label and our online business is helping us kind of weather the storm.

所以我們一直相當有彈性。 A.J.，我們確實花了一些時間回頭看看 08 年和 09 年，在那段時間裡，我們只看到了大約 0.5 個百分點的下降，所以我們認為我們在這一點上非常有彈性，但是成本改善幫助我們走向自有品牌的趨勢，我們的在線業務正在幫助我們渡過難關。

I'm going to turn it over to John to talk a little bit about the VillageMD business.

我將把它交給約翰來談談 VillageMD 業務。

Yes. A.J., thanks for the question. I think we're 90 days into the integration. And I think what it has reinforced is the value of combining Medicare, Medicaid, multi-specialty group, professional services and urgent care in our Village Summit offering. I don't think there's any interest -- and I think we're seeing excess cash needs. I think we'll continue to invest in sensible acquisitions. But actually, what we're seeing is the opportunity to, I think, drive more cost and growth synergies off of kind of a multi-threat set of assets that we think could be very impactful, particularly as we concentrate market power with more service offerings in specific markets.

是的。 A.J.，謝謝你的提問。我認為我們已經進行了 90 天的整合。我認為它加強了在我們的鄉村峰會產品中結合醫療保險、醫療補助、多專業團體、專業服務和緊急護理的價值。我認為沒有任何興趣——而且我認為我們看到了過多的現金需求。我認為我們將繼續投資於明智的收購。但實際上，我認為我們看到的是機會，可以從我們認為可能非常有影響力的多種威脅資產中推動更多成本和增長協同效應，特別是當我們通過更多服務集中市場力量時特定市場的產品。

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。

Yes. I guess, Roz, I would come back to kind of the core pharmacy business. You talked about the acceleration you saw in February. But I guess for the full quarter, it looks like the company is still losing share in pharmacy. So I guess I'd ask kind of talk about trends intra-quarter and maybe even to the grade in which you can, what are you seeing in March?

是的。我想，羅茲，我會回到核心製藥業務。你談到了你在二月份看到的加速。但我想整個季度，該公司似乎仍在失去製藥市場的份額。所以我想我會問一些關於季度內趨勢的話題，甚至可能是你能達到的等級，你在三月份看到了什麼？

And James, if I can tackle on some housekeeping questions for you. Can you talk about the gains from the cash mobilization program in Germany and the impact of sale leasebacks in the quarter? Just a housekeeping questions.

詹姆斯，如果我可以為你解決一些家務問題。您能否談談德國現金調動計劃的收益以及該季度售後回租的影響？只是一個家務問題。

Yes. So I can't talk much about March, but I will tell you that we saw a good exit rate leaving the second quarter, February was a stronger month for us than December, January. So if that's any indication. I would also mention here around our script comp business, we've got 500 stores returned to normal operating hours. I'd also mention, too, that where we are seeing improvement in our normal operating stores like 6%, there's opportunity as we look at our execution in those stores to go even -- to improve those numbers even better. So operating behind the momentum we're getting in our stores that operate well.

是的。所以我不能多談 3 月，但我會告訴你，我們看到第二季度的退出率很高，2 月對我們來說比 12 月、1 月更強勁。所以如果這是任何跡象。我還要在這裡提到我們的劇本製作業務，我們有 500 家商店恢復了正常營業時間。我還要提到的是，在我們看到正常運營商店的改善情況（如 6%）的情況下，我們有機會查看我們在這些商店的執行情況以達到平衡 - 更好地改善這些數字。因此，在我們經營良好的商店中獲得的勢頭背後進行操作。

And then I would tell you that -- we're doing a lot of work in terms of inventory in our stores and making sure that our operational efficiencies are happening every day in our stores. So we feel like we're moving in the right direction in that respect.

然後我會告訴你——我們在商店的庫存方面做了很多工作，並確保我們的運營效率每天都在我們的商店發生。所以我們覺得我們在這方面正朝著正確的方向前進。

Rick, is there anything you want to add on scripts?

Rick，你有什麼要添加到腳本中的嗎？

Yes, George, I would just say, we bucketed in 3 different areas as we look at kind of acceleration in the second half. The first is staffing. I don't know if we talked about quite a bit and the improvements we're making in staffing to get our stores reopened.

是的，喬治，我只想說，我們在 3 個不同的區域進行了攻擊，因為我們在下半場看到了某種加速。首先是人員配備。我不知道我們是否談了很多，以及我們在人員配置方面所做的改進，以使我們的商店重新開業。

Roz talked about operations in stores and those stores that are opened or much stronger obviously than those that we're bringing back online, and we're continuing to work to obviously accelerate the performance of our stores that are at full hours. The third area, I think you're going to see us work really hard at is integration with U.S. Healthcare. So how do we work with our assets like VillageMD and Shields and others to really optimize scripts recapture and those types of opportunities.

Roz 談到了商店的運營以及那些開業的商店或明顯比我們重新上線的商店強得多的商店，我們正在繼續努力，以明顯加快我們全天候營業的商店的績效。第三個領域，我認為你會看到我們非常努力地與美國醫療保健整合。那麼我們如何使用我們的資產，如 VillageMD 和 Shields 以及其他資產，以真正優化腳本重新捕獲和這些類型的機會。

So I would just say, in summary, the focus really is on execution of operations, optimizing our store hours by market, to really win back patients and improve our shares. So I think we have a lot going on in the second half that should help us continue the trend.

所以我只想說，總而言之，重點實際上是運營的執行，根據市場優化我們的商店營業時間，以真正贏回患者並提高我們的份額。所以我認為下半年我們有很多事情可以幫助我們延續這一趨勢。

Yes. And George, let me just cover the sale and leaseback. But before I do, maybe just a bit of context. First of all, we believe we delivered a good in-line quarter with decent quality, and this gives us the confidence to confirm the full year guidance. And just to point out the key stat is the EPS was down 25.8%, and 26 points is due to COVID.

是的。喬治，讓我來談談售後回租。但在我這樣做之前，也許只是一點背景。首先，我們相信我們交付了一個質量不錯的在線季度，這讓我們有信心確認全年的指導。需要指出的是，關鍵數據是 EPS 下降了 25.8%，而 26 個百分點是由於 COVID。

As we look at the sale and leaseback, the program in the U.S. has contributed an incremental year-on-year net benefit of $0.03. And on a full year basis, as we've said before, it will be flat. On a full year, there'll be no incremental benefit. So this is kind of timing within the quarters.

當我們查看售後回租時，該計劃在美國貢獻了 0.03 美元的同比淨收益。正如我們之前所說，在全年基礎上，它將持平。一整年，不會有增量收益。所以這是季度內的一種時間安排。

The one thing that stands out a little this quarter is a cash mobilization program in Germany, as we harmonize warehouses with an acquisition from more than 12 months ago, and that contributed $0.09.

本季度最引人注目的一件事是德國的現金調動計劃，因為我們將倉庫與 12 個月前的收購相協調，這貢獻了 0.09 美元。

But as I mentioned in the prepared comments, these combined $0.12 are completely offset by other onetime type items going in a different direction. I pointed out that ABC sale of the stock, which cost us $0.05 year-on-year. Some prior year benefits in the U.K. unit relating to COVID, which was $0.03 and obviously, then we mentioned ForEx and asset impairment. So the way we look at it, we have this sale and leaseback $0.12 and an offsetting $0.12. So we had decent quality in the quarter on onetime items.

但正如我在準備好的評論中提到的，這些加起來的 0.12 美元完全被其他朝著不同方向發展的一次性項目所抵消。我指出 ABC 出售股票，同比花費 0.05 美元。英國部門前一年與 COVID 相關的一些收益為 0.03 美元，顯然，然後我們提到了外彙和資產減值。所以我們看待它的方式是，我們有 0.12 美元的售後回租和 0.12 美元的抵消。因此，我們在本季度的一次性產品質量不錯。

So just in summary, this gave us the confidence because we're pretty much in line with good quality. It gives us the confidence to maintain full year guidance.

所以總而言之，這給了我們信心，因為我們的質量非常好。它使我們有信心維持全年的指導。

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

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

I was wondering if you could comment a little bit more on the payroll investments that you talked about in the U.S. Is that still sort of tracking towards the $525 million that you guys guided to initially? And is there any kind of reaction to some of the other retailers have moved up to $18 now. I just wanted to see if that was something that was helpful.

我想知道你是否可以就你在美國談到的工資單投資發表更多評論。這是否仍在追踪你們最初指導的 5.25 億美元？對其他一些零售商現在已經漲到 18 美元有什麼反應嗎？我只是想看看這是否有幫助。

And then secondly, can you talk about what the main drivers are for Summit EBITDA as you think about the back half of the year?

其次，您能否談談今年下半年 Summit EBITDA 的主要驅動因素是什麼？

I'll start off with your question on labor. So we've continued to make progress. A lot of our labor investments came in, in the form of 2 areas. And so as a reminder, we did go to $15 an hour, and that's spreading out over a period of time at our hourly rate. And then we also made the investment to regaining the pharmacy talent in our stores. And it's working for us. Right now, we don't see any advanced needs in that area to move on labor any further.

我將從你關於勞動的問題開始。所以我們繼續取得進展。我們的大量勞動力投資以兩個領域的形式出現。提醒一下，我們確實達到了每小時 15 美元，並且在一段時間內以我們的小時費率分攤。然後我們還進行了投資，以重新獲得我們商店的藥房人才。它對我們有用。目前，我們沒有看到該領域有任何進一步推進分娩的先進需求。

A couple of things that we've learned in this process is we're closing the shortage by adjusting our pay practices and it's allowing us to return some of our operating hours in there. So what I would say to you is that we're steady in this position and don't have plans to take any further increases in that area.

我們在這個過程中學到的幾件事是，我們正在通過調整我們的薪酬做法來彌補短缺，這使我們能夠恢復那裡的一些營業時間。所以我要對你說的是，我們在這個位置上很穩定，沒有計劃在那個領域進一步增加。

And then you had a question then on Summit. I think we don't want to get into specific guidance on any of the individual units. But what I'd say is we're looking forward to strong performance out of Summit in the back half.

然後你在 Summit 上提出了一個問題。我認為我們不想對任何單個單位進行具體指導。但我要說的是，我們期待 Summit 在後半段的強勁表現。

What -- a couple of items as you consider it is, one is we have 4 new businesses that were not fully in the base. So they've got coming on stream. They had 2 acquisitions back at the end of fiscal '21, NJU and Westmed. And these 2 -- they're basically in the process of squeezing out the revenue and the cost synergies on these 2 acquisitions. Very exciting as well. They opened a lab, a new lab at the end of '22, and this lab is the biggest private lab in the U.S. So this is going to be huge and a big driver of growth in the second half.

什麼 - 你認為的幾個項目是，一個是我們有 4 個新業務不完全在基地中。所以他們已經上線了。他們在 21 財年末進行了兩次收購，分別是 NJU 和 Westmed。而這兩個——他們基本上正在擠壓這兩個收購的收入和成本協同效應。也非常令人興奮。他們在 22 年底開設了一個實驗室，一個新實驗室，這個實驗室是美國最大的私人實驗室，所以這將是下半年增長的巨大推動力。

And then the final one, they just closed on an acquisition called Starling, which is quite sizable practice, multi-specialty and will contribute heavily to both revenue and EBITDA growth in the second half.

然後是最後一個，他們剛剛完成了一項名為 Starling 的收購，這是相當規模的實踐，多專業，將在下半年為收入和 EBITDA 增長做出重大貢獻。

The only item we saw with the acquisition has been -- and we saw it on our front of store business as well. As we look at the first quarter, the only real negative we saw was in January, where we saw a much lower incidence of virus cases. And this impacted our OTC business in front of store in the U.S. And we saw a slowdown in CityMD traffic. So that was the only item of any kind of note on the negative side on the Summit. And overall, the Summit multi-specialty business and the primary care physician business is doing really, really well. and we're very confident in the outlook for the second half.

我們在收購中看到的唯一項目是——我們在商店業務方面也看到了它。當我們回顧第一季度時，我們看到的唯一真正的負面影響是在 1 月份，我們看到病毒病例的發生率要低得多。這影響了我們在美國商店前的場外交易業務。我們看到 CityMD 流量放緩。因此，這是峰會消極方面的唯一注意事項。總的來說， Summit 的多專業業務和初級保健醫師業務做得非常非常好。我們對下半年的前景非常有信心。

John, I don't know if you have any?

約翰，我不知道你有沒有？

I think you took all the revenue and profit drivers -- in good shape.

我認為你把所有的收入和利潤驅動因素都拿走了——狀況良好。

Your next question comes from the line of Charles Rhyee from TD Cowen.

您的下一個問題來自 TD Cowen 的 Charles Rhyee。

Yes. Maybe I know there's been a lot of recent discussions on the impact of changes in Medicare around the scoring, coding of CMS moves to ICD-10 from ICD-9. Have you guys done an analysis here the VillageMD and Summit in regards to this? Because I know that on a relative basis, the states like Florida have the most risk. And so maybe can you remind us what your geographic mix locations generally? And what percent of VillageMD suits mix is Medicare?

是的。也許我知道最近有很多關於 Medicare 圍繞評分變化的影響的討論，CMS 的編碼從 ICD-9 轉移到 ICD-10。你們有沒有在 VillageMD 和 Summit 上對此進行過分析？因為我知道相對而言，像佛羅里達這樣的州風險最大。那麼也許你能提醒我們你的地理組合位置一般是什麼？ VillageMD 套裝中有多少百分比是醫療保險？

Thanks for the question. I think just on the -- first on the geographic reach question, we have a relatively small, early-stage set of practices in Florida. So we've got a low exposure there. I think on the risk adjustment and rate changes, we're obviously looking at that carefully. It would be premature to talk about that given the fact that the final rule isn't out, and we don't know when the final rule happens, how that will -- how health plans on the MA side might adjust their benefit designs. But based on the way we are positioned and the variety of levers we have, we are cautiously optimistic that we're in really good shape to manage the changes that we expect may come down the pike. But I think we need to really look at what comes out on April 4. But with regard to Florida, it's a de minimis exposure.

謝謝你的問題。我認為只是 - 首先是地理範圍問題，我們在佛羅里達州有一套相對較小的早期實踐。所以我們在那裡的曝光率很低。我認為在風險調整和利率變化方面，我們顯然正在仔細研究。鑑於最終規則尚未出台這一事實，現在談論這一點還為時過早，而且我們不知道最終規則何時出台，將如何——MA 方面的健康計劃可能如何調整其福利設計。但根據我們的定位方式和我們擁有的各種槓桿，我們謹慎樂觀地認為我們處於非常好的狀態來管理我們預期可能會發生的變化。但我認為我們需要真正關注 4 月 4 日公佈的結果。但關於佛羅里達州，這是一個微不足道的曝光。

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。

James, I wanted to just start with how should I think about margins in the U.S. retail business on a go-forward basis? So if I look at the margin this quarter, I know there's like puts and takes, and you talked about growth rates and what's happening with COVID, et cetera. But how do we think about a sustainable margin one in that business? And two, do you have a longer-term goal of what you'd like the margin to look like?

詹姆斯，我想從未來的基礎上如何考慮美國零售業務的利潤率開始？因此，如果我看一下本季度的利潤率，我知道就像看跌期權一樣，你談到了增長率以及 COVID 等方面的情況。但是我們如何考慮該業務的可持續利潤率呢？第二，您是否有希望利潤率達到的長期目標？

And then just secondly, John, I wanted to follow up to your comments on VillageMD and as you think about capitated relationships, I think that James earlier talked about 177,000 fully at-risk MA lives. And I understand we'll wait for the [fourth] and see what the potential is there. But can you maybe just talk about [advantage] or what you're seeing right now around the profitability of some of those MA lives as we move into the back half of this year and going forward? Are there any key things that we should be looking at or thinking about for moving those members to profitability?

其次，約翰，我想跟進你對 VillageMD 的評論，當你考慮人頭關係時，我認為詹姆斯早些時候談到了 177,000 名完全處於危險中的 MA 生命。我知道我們會等待[第四次]，看看那裡有什麼潛力。但是，當我們進入今年下半年並繼續前進時，您能否談談 [優勢] 或您現在看到的一些 MA 生命的盈利能力？為了使這些成員盈利，我們是否應該關注或考慮任何關鍵事項？

Okay. So let me take a shot at the first one on the margins. And I think some of this will come back to actually the JPMorgan conference, where we laid out, what are the drivers between the first half and the second half? I think you'll recall, Lisa, that we did call out pharmacy in the U.S. at the pharmacy reimbursement and cost of goods sold. Both of those were expected to be a much lower headwind in the second half of the year versus the first half. So I would not judge the first half representative of the full year. There will be a significant delta between first and second half.

好的。因此，讓我在邊緣的第一個鏡頭上拍攝。而且我認為其中一些會回到實際的摩根大通會議上，我們在那里布局，上半場和下半場之間的驅動因素是什麼？我想你會記得，麗莎，我們確實在美國的藥房報銷和銷售商品成本中召集了藥房。預計與上半年相比，這兩者在今年下半年的逆風要小得多。所以我不會判斷上半年代表全年。上半場和下半場之間會有很大的差異。

You asked about longer term, how do we see the margins. I think on Retail, you've seen our performance, I would say, over the last 8 quarters. It's a business that has grown comp sales and margins at the same time, consistently over a long-term period. We actually think we're still at the bottom of this, if you like, because we still haven't unlocked the [core] of the Walgreens brand to an own-label offering and we have goals out there to be in the low 20s in terms of penetration, and we're currently sitting in [16]. And that will continue to underpin margin growth longer term.

你問的是長期，我們如何看待利潤率。我認為在零售方面，你已經看到了我們在過去 8 個季度的表現。這是一家同時實現銷售額和利潤增長的企業，並且在很長一段時間內始終如一。我們實際上認為我們仍處於底部，如果你願意的話，因為我們仍然沒有將 Walgreens 品牌的[核心]解鎖為自有品牌產品，我們的目標是在 20 年代低點在滲透方面，我們目前位於 [16]。從長遠來看，這將繼續支撐利潤率增長。

The second part of this is we've done some nice work on strategic margin management, both on promotional effectiveness and selectively adjusting price tiers within the stores and that is expected to continue to be a lever going forward. So we see positive gross margin gains longer term on the front of store business, which is already well improved over the last 8 quarters.

第二部分是我們在戰略利潤管理方面做了一些不錯的工作，包括促銷效果和有選擇地調整商店內的價格等級，預計這將繼續成為未來的槓桿。因此，我們看到實體店業務的毛利率在長期內獲得正增長，這在過去 8 個季度中已經得到了很好的改善。

Pharmacy is a different animal in that we will continue to have reimbursement pressure. I do want to point out, I think we said at your conference actually that the reimbursement is approximately of 2023 is approximately 85% of the prior year and I'm going to pass it over to Gates in a minute. The atmosphere out there in the negotiation process is much more focused now on health outcomes and what value we can bring to a payer in terms of reducing overall cost. And it's less intensely focused on the absolute reimbursement number.

藥房是另一種動物，因為我們將繼續承受報銷壓力。我確實想指出，我想我們在你的會議上實際上說過，2023 年的報銷大約是前一年的大約 85%，我馬上將它傳遞給蓋茨。談判過程中的氣氛現在更加關注健康結果以及我們在降低總體成本方面可以為付款人帶來什麼價值。而且它不太關注絕對報銷數量。

So we see some change in the dynamics on longer-term on pharmacy -- way too early to call any kind of victory, but I do want to emphasize that this year is a lower point than the prior year in terms of reimbursement pressure, and there are some positive signals going forward.

因此，我們看到長期藥房的動態發生了一些變化——稱任何形式的勝利還為時過早，但我確實想強調，就報銷壓力而言，今年比前一年要低，而且有一些積極的信號向前發展。

So Rick, I don't know if you want to provide an input?

Rick，我不知道你是否想提供意見？

Yes. And I'll just give a couple of data points as well just to talk about the second half and then I can get back to your first point. But Lisa, we have about 98% of our contracts are accounted for -- or contracted for calendar year '23. And we have good line of sight into reimbursements that are, quite honestly, in line with our expectations. So we feel really good about what we're seeing there. We're always looking at improving procurement savings, increasing volume, doing things around pharmacy services, which are obviously offsets into our margin, which we're going to see continue in the second half.

是的。我也會給出幾個數據點來談談下半場，然後我可以回到你的第一點。但是麗莎，我們有大約 98% 的合同都已計算在內——或者說是在 23 年日曆年簽訂的。我們對報銷有很好的看法，老實說，這符合我們的預期。所以我們對我們在那裡看到的感覺非常好。我們一直在尋求改善採購節省，增加數量，圍繞藥房服務做事，這顯然抵消了我們的利潤率，我們將在下半年繼續看到這種情況。

And the other thing is pay-for-performance contracts. We're in these adherence based programs really trying to solve for what our end payers are looking for, which has improved outcomes, which is what James alluded to there. We're seeing great improvements in our store performance and how we're actually performing against these contracts, which should obviously come through in paper performance benefits to us as well.

另一件事是按績效支付合同。我們在這些基於依從性的計劃中，真正試圖解決我們的最終付款人正在尋找的東西，這已經改善了結果，這就是詹姆斯在那裡提到的。我們看到我們的商店績效以及我們實際執行這些合同的方式有了很大的改善，這顯然也應該通過賬面績效收益為我們帶來好處。

Yes, Lisa, Rick brings up a good point. I would characterize the second quarter as being especially weak in terms of generic procurement savings and there'll be more strength in the second half. And this we covered in this first half versus second half bridge back at your conference.

是的，麗莎，里克提出了一個很好的觀點。我認為第二季度在通用採購節省方面特別疲軟，下半年會有更多優勢。在您的會議上，我們在上半場與下半場橋接中討論了這一點。

Just, Lisa, on the village question, the village model works, and we've seen it work with -- with some of the legacy businesses in multiple geographies. I think what you'll see us do the bless and learn is perhaps concentrate our growth and our investments in specific markets where we can be hyper relevant in a concentrated geography. But we're confident, and we don't see any challenges to the actual model of what we're delivering for patients and with providers in those markets. So the trends are positive. The one thing that I think you'll see us do is really focus our investments so that we can get more of a return on that in specific markets where we can be particularly relevant.

只是，麗莎，在村莊問題上，村莊模型有效，我們已經看到它與 - 與多個地區的一些遺留企業一起工作。我認為你會看到我們所做的祝福和學習可能是將我們的增長和投資集中在特定市場上，在這些市場上我們可以在集中的地理區域中高度相關。但我們有信心，我們認為我們為這些市場中的患者和提供者提供的實際模型沒有任何挑戰。所以趨勢是積極的。我認為你會看到我們做的一件事就是真正集中我們的投資，這樣我們就可以在我們特別相關的特定市場上獲得更多回報。

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Percher from Nephron Research.

您的下一個問題來自 Nephron Research 的 Eric Percher。

A question on International. Just trying to sort through a couple of moving parts here and I think beyond real estate and NHS, I would love to hear your views on what the underlying business is running today? And a little bit more on where the NHS benefit or detriment fell in Q1, Q2 versus second half and expectations for second half normalized growth rates?

關於國際的問題。只是想在這裡整理幾個移動部分，我認為除了房地產和 NHS 之外，我很想听聽您對今天的基礎業務運行情況的看法？還有更多關於第一季度、第二季度與下半年相比 NHS 收益或損失下降的位置以及對下半年正常化增長率的預期？

Eric, we think they had a very strong quarter in the second quarter. If you take out the real estate in these onetime, the prior year had some onetime benefits. It was a true-up from the government relating to COVID services that were done. And we had some rental contracts that we negotiated and didn't pay out last year, and we're lapping these this year.

埃里克，我們認為他們在第二季度的表現非常強勁。如果你拿出這些一次性的房地產，前一年有一些一次性的好處。這是政府對已完成的 COVID 服務進行的調整。我們有一些去年談判但沒有支付的租賃合同，今年我們正在處理這些合同。

You look at the U.K. and they're up 16% in terms of revenue and lapping at 22%. So I would say any business that can drive teens growth on revenue is an automatic money-making machine, and this is in a context of the U.K. market that is very, very depressed.

你看看英國，他們的收入增長了 16%，接近 22%。所以我想說，任何能夠推動青少年收入增長的企業都是一台自動賺錢的機器，而這是在英國市場非常非常低迷的背景下。

So where is this coming from? It's coming from -- if you look back pre-COVID, the U.K. business has actually gained 200 to 300 basis points of share depending on the category. So this is -- it's an execution story. If you look at the top retailers, the top 25 in the U.K., together with [Aldi and Lidl], Boots is the highest performing retailer in the U.K. And that is something, if you're a premium retailer. So I think we have a strong franchise.

那麼這是從哪裡來的呢？它來自——如果你回顧 COVID 之前的情況，英國業務實際上已經獲得了 200 到 300 個基點的份額，具體取決於類別。所以這是——這是一個處決故事。如果你看看英國排名前 25 位的頂級零售商，以及 [Aldi 和 Lidl]，Boots 是英國表現最好的零售商。如果你是一家優質零售商，那就是了。所以我認為我們擁有強大的特許經營權。

So looking forward, will we have as much of a boost in the forward periods? No, because we're lapping an Omicron period but we see strong revenue growth coming out of the retail business, continued market shares and margin stability. I don't think we will expand margins in the U.K. at this point.

所以展望未來，我們會在未來時期得到同樣多的推動嗎？不，因為我們正在接近 Omicron 時期，但我們看到零售業務帶來強勁的收入增長、持續的市場份額和利潤率穩定。我認為此時我們不會擴大在英國的利潤率。

Looking forward, the U.K. business is one with the fabulous brand franchise strength and a fairly -- probably the #1 player in beauty and personal care in the U.K. So -- and with an online presence that we've ended up with 15% penetration on online, and it was 9% pre-COVID. So it's a much stronger company than it was entering COVID and we're pretty happy with what the future holds.

展望未來，英國業務擁有令人難以置信的品牌特許經營實力和相當 - 可能是英國美容和個人護理領域的第一大玩家 - 所以 - 並且我們的在線業務滲透率達到了 15%在網上，在 COVID 之前是 9%。因此，它是一家比進入 COVID 時更強大的公司，我們對未來的發展感到非常滿意。

Does that answer your question, Eric?

這是否回答了你的問題，埃里克？

That's perfect. And any...

那很完美。還有任何...

Just on the NHS. Sorry, I missed your NHS piece. We didn't see any NHS timing or margin shifts between first half and -- sorry, the first half of last year and we don't expect any negative going forward. However, it is fair to say the flagship business in the U.K. is our retail business. The pharmacy business is constrained by NHS which sets a limit on overall spending on pharmacy. So the profit pool is not going up. The way we would have to drive profit in the pharmacy business is it's not a script business that is driving healthcare services. So you try and capture a bigger part of the pool of money that's available by providing value-added services to the NHS. So that's the ongoing battle. It's tough, but our services business is growing far faster the based business in the U.K.

就在 NHS 上。對不起，我錯過了你的 NHS 文章。我們沒有看到上半年和去年上半年之間的任何 NHS 時間或利潤變化 - 抱歉，我們預計未來不會有任何負面影響。然而，可以說英國的旗艦業務是我們的零售業務。藥房業務受到 NHS 的限制，NHS 對藥房的總體支出設定了限制。所以利潤池是上不去的。我們必須在藥房業務中推動利潤的方式是它不是推動醫療保健服務的腳本業務。因此，您嘗試通過向 NHS 提供增值服務來獲取更多可用資金。這就是正在進行的戰鬥。這很艱難，但我們的服務業務增長速度遠遠快於英國的業務。

And your next question comes from the line of Justin Lake from Wolfe Research.

你的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Justin Lake。

This is Austin on for Justin. Jim, just real quickly turning to kind of the store footprint and this return to normalized operating hours? You guys called out 1,900 kind of incremental stores that you're still targeting. Wondering kind of underpinned in the full year guide. Like is there an assumption that you guys clear through the rest of those or sort of a target number by year-end to sort of return? And do you feel like the level of investment at this point is adequate there or any need to revisit that?

這是賈斯汀的奧斯汀。吉姆，真的很快就轉向了商店的足跡，這又回到了正常的營業時間嗎？你們召集了 1,900 種您仍在瞄準的增量商店。想知道全年指南的基礎。就像有一個假設，你們在年底之前清除了其餘的或某種目標數字以獲得某種回報嗎？你覺得目前的投資水平是否足夠，或者是否需要重新審視？

Rick, why don't you take that?

瑞克，你為什麼不接受它？

Yes. So -- The 1,900 is where we came out of Q2, obviously, we've continued to make progress as we've started into Q3 as well. I think as you look at the second half, we have to understand kind of the exiting rate for the year on short hours. We don't believe we're going to get through all of the stores by the end of year-end. And so I would say that the expectation should be that we will still have a subset of stores that are still shortened pharmacy hours.

是的。所以 - 1,900 是我們從第二季度出來的地方，顯然，我們在進入第三季度時也繼續取得進展。我認為當你看下半年時，我們必須了解一年中短時間的退出率。我們不相信我們會在年底前通過所有商店。所以我想說的是，我們仍然會有一部分商店的藥房營業時間仍然縮短。

We also have to take a look market by market to really understand dynamics of hours within those markets so that we could also take adjustments to hours as necessary based off of what's happening with competition in those locales as well. So -- the primary focus is still to get pharmacists higher to reopen our stores. But we do believe given the current trends and what's happened throughout the first half of the year that we will have a subset of our stores that are still on short hours exiting the year.

我們還必須逐個市場查看，以真正了解這些市場中的工作時間動態，以便我們也可以根據這些地區的競爭情況對工作時間進行必要的調整。所以 - 主要重點仍然是讓藥劑師更好地重新開放我們的商店。但我們確實相信，鑑於目前的趨勢和今年上半年發生的事情，我們的一部分商店在今年年底仍處於短營業時間。

But I think we are feeling pretty good about the stores that have been reopened and stores currently without any restrictions or probably in the region of 6% growth. And we may actually see some opportunity to that because we are looking at operational improvements, not just restoring the store hours, but how you actually operate within the pharmacy and engage with patients and we probably will not -- we will roll those out across the entire portfolio as opposed to the stores that are unopened.

但我認為我們對已經重新開業的商店和目前沒有任何限製或可能增長 6% 的商店感覺很好。我們實際上可能會看到一些機會，因為我們正在考慮運營改進，不僅僅是恢復商店營業時間，而是您在藥房內實際運營和與患者互動的方式，我們可能不會 - 我們將在整個範圍內推廣這些整個投資組合，而不是未開張的商店。

Also to, let me just add on VillageMD and what we're seeing with our scripts at Village. So in our co-located sites that have been open for more than 2 years, we're driving an incremental 40 scripts per site per day, and this is an increase of about 35% versus prior year. So when we begin to look at our script business, it's 3 areas. It's the return to store hours, the second piece is better execution in the stores and the third is to begin to drive our relationships from our acquisition partners, both the work that we can do with Shields, but most importantly with our Village co-located clinics.

另外，讓我補充一下 VillageMD 以及我們在 Village 的腳本中看到的內容。因此，在我們已經開放超過 2 年的共址站點中，我們正在推動每個站點每天增加 40 個腳本，這比前一年增加了約 35%。因此，當我們開始審視我們的腳本業務時，它分為 3 個領域。這是商店營業時間的恢復，第二部分是在商店中更好地執行，第三部分是開始推動我們與收購合作夥伴的關係，這兩項工作我們可以與 Shields 一起完成，但最重要的是與我們位於同一地點的 Village診所。

And your next question comes from the line of Erin Wright from Morgan Stanley.

你的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Erin Wright。

On capital deployment here, how are you weighing the priorities now? And how are you thinking about further rationalization of certain investments or businesses, particularly Boots and what's your commitment to the Boots business now? And are you keeping your options open?

關於這裡的資本部署，您現在如何權衡優先事項？您如何考慮某些投資或業務的進一步合理化，尤其是 Boots？您現在對 Boots 業務的承諾是什麼？你是否保持開放的選擇？

And then just second, more of a housekeeping question. But are there any changes from a segment level guidance perspective that we should be thinking about for the second half? And anything we should be thinking about in terms of third quarter versus fourth quarter? Anything above or below the line that may have changed relative to your initial thinking, for instance, tax rate?

其次，更多的是內務管理問題。但是，從下半年我們應該考慮的細分層面指導角度來看，是否有任何變化？關於第三季度和第四季度，我們應該考慮什麼？與您最初的想法相關的任何高於或低於該線的變化，例如，稅率？

Yes. Maybe I'll cover the last question first. I do want to emphasize that the way we looked at this is we delivered a good decent quality in line quarter and that gave us the confidence to confirm the full year guidance. There will always be puts and takes in a business like this, and we covered some of these. We have general outperformance across the retail business, and we have COVID, that's a bit of a watch out. So we kind of balance all of these. And so it's not the moment to go out and change specific guidance on any parts of the business. So we're pretty comfortable right now if we stay out of consensus, which I think is at [$451 million]. We're pretty comfortable with where that's sitting. And many of the vectors that are positive or negative for that case, we can play one off against the others. So that's our confidence on this.

是的。也許我會先討論最後一個問題。我確實想強調的是，我們看待這個問題的方式是我們在線路季度提供了良好的體面質量，這讓我們有信心確認全年指導。像這樣的業務總會有投入和投入，我們涵蓋了其中的一些。我們在整個零售業務中的表現普遍出色，而且我們有 COVID，這需要引起注意。所以我們有點平衡所有這些。因此，現在不是走出去改變業務任何部分的具體指導方針的時候。因此，如果我們不達成共識，我們現在會感到很舒服，我認為這是 [4.51 億美元]。我們對它的位置感到很舒服。許多對這種情況有利或不利的向量，我們可以用一個來對抗其他的。這就是我們對此的信心。

You asked about the, call it, the sequence of the quarters if you were plotting out, we've been quite upfront and we expect mid-20s. I would say the growth rate is higher in the fourth quarter than this in the third as we cycle through some of the negative vectors, and then we implement the positive ones. But we're pretty comfortable with the overall profile.

如果你正在策劃，你問的是，稱之為季度的順序，我們已經非常提前，我們預計 20 年代中期。我會說第四季度的增長率高於第三季度，因為我們循環通過一些負面向量，然後我們實施積極的向量。但我們對整體情況非常滿意。

Capital allocation, our priority right now is debt and probably tack-on acquisitions, they would be small in size and only focused on the healthcare business.

資本配置，我們現在的首要任務是債務和可能的附加收購，它們規模較小，只專注於醫療保健業務。

And then you had a question on Boots, which, I guess, Roz, do you want to take that one on Boots?

然後你有一個關於 Boots 的問題，我想，Roz，你想把那個問題帶到 Boots 上嗎？

Sure. So on the Boots business, we've been pleased with their performance as Jim talked about in comparison to U.S. business, our healthcare business. What we feel like is we've got a balanced business here in terms of what we're seeing in Boots and they are continuing to take market share. And it's a business that is nice to have. It's been complementary. And until further notice, it's a good business for us to have.

當然。因此，在 Boots 業務方面，我們對他們的表現感到滿意，正如吉姆所說，與美國業務、我們的醫療保健業務相比。我們的感覺是，就我們在 Boots 中看到的情況而言，我們在這裡擁有平衡的業務，並且他們正在繼續佔據市場份額。這是一項很高興擁有的業務。這是互補的。在另行通知之前，這對我們來說是一項好生意。

Yes. And you would have seen, Erin, in the quarter that we did dispose, just after the quarter, we disposed of a fairly large portion of Option Care. And we've taken our stake below 10%. I think it's [6] something. So we're not -- we're still making progress against all of the portfolio simplification goals. We've taken action like on parts of ABC. Option Care is now down to 6% range. So we're carefully assessing when the right moment is on all of these vehicles on simplification of the company to ensure that we have the firepower to drive and create a successful healthcare services business. That's the goal, and that's the strategy Roz laid out and we're resolute in driving against this strategy.

是的。艾琳，你會看到，在我們確實處置的那個季度，就在這個季度之後，我們處置了相當大一部分的 Option Care。我們的持股比例低於 10%。我認為這是 [6] 的東西。所以我們不是——我們仍在朝著所有投資組合簡化目標取得進展。我們已經對 ABC 的部分內容採取了類似的行動。 Option Care 現在下降到 6% 的範圍。因此，我們正在仔細評估所有這些工具何時適合簡化公司，以確保我們有能力推動和創建成功的醫療保健服務業務。這是目標，也是 Roz 制定的戰略，我們堅決反對這一戰略。

And we have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. Ms. Roz Brewer, I turn the call back over to you for some final closing remarks.

我們的問答環節已經結束。 Roz Brewer 女士，我將電話轉回給您，請您作最後的結束語。

Thanks. So thanks, everyone, for joining us. Let me sum up what you heard today, particularly in the Q&A portion.

謝謝。所以感謝大家加入我們。讓我總結一下您今天聽到的內容，特別是在問答部分。

So just in short, the U.S., we've really achieved a balanced performance. Our core retail sales are up mid-single digits, better-than-expected sequential improvement in our comp scripts. And then internationally, Boots has delivered 8 consecutive quarters with strong comp performance which accelerated to 16% this quarter. So we feel really good about leaving this quarter.

所以簡而言之，美國，我們確實取得了平衡的表現。我們的核心零售額增長了中等個位數，我們的競爭腳本的連續改善好於預期。然後在國際上，Boots 已連續 8 個季度交付強勁的業績，本季度加速至 16%。所以我們對離開這個季度感到非常高興。

So when we talk about what are we thinking about recession inflation, our business is not only strong, but is showing resiliency. We've been able to absorb various industry-wide shocks such as rising labor costs and the inflationary pressures. So at the same time, though, we're moving beyond our peak investment period in healthcare, and we've turned the corner on comping last year's COVID demand. So that's what we're referencing in terms of an inflection point.

因此，當我們談論我們對衰退通脹的看法時，我們的業務不僅強勁，而且表現出彈性。我們已經能夠吸收各種全行業的衝擊，例如勞動力成本上升和通脹壓力。因此，與此同時，我們正在超越我們在醫療保健方面的投資高峰期，並且我們已經度過了滿足去年 COVID 需求的轉折點。這就是我們在拐點方面所指的。

I'm really happy about this team. We're clearly executing against our plans and is showing up in the results. We've achieved a really solid first half performance and broadly in line with our expectations. The investments that you all have been tracking very carefully, they're accelerating, and they're building out our healthcare growth engine as we designed and planned. And then the portfolio simplification is working, and it's unlocking the value that we need and funding our transformation.

我真的很高興這支球隊。我們顯然正在按照我們的計劃執行，並顯示在結果中。我們取得了非常穩健的上半年業績，大致符合我們的預期。你們一直在非常仔細地跟踪投資，它們正在加速，並且它們正在按照我們的設計和計劃構建我們的醫療保健增長引擎。然後投資組合簡化正在發揮作用，它正在釋放我們需要的價值並為我們的轉型提供資金。

So I would just reiterate that we're maintaining guidance and pivoting to a strong second half of the year. And I appreciate your time on the call.

因此，我只想重申，我們將維持指導並轉向今年下半年的強勁表現。感謝您撥出寶貴的時間來接聽電話。

Thank you. Have a great rest of the day.

謝謝。好好休息一天。

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。