Petco Health and Wellness Company Inc (WOOF) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Petco fourth-quarter 2025 earnings conference call.

下午好，歡迎參加 Petco 2025 年第四季財報電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Roxanne Meyer, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

請注意，本次活動正在錄影。現在我將把會議交給投資者關係部的羅克珊·邁耶。請繼續。

Good afternoon, and welcome to Petco's fourth-quarter and fiscal 2025 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Joel Anderson, Petco's Chief Executive Officer; and Sabrina Simmons, Petco's Chief Financial Officer.

下午好，歡迎參加 Petco 第四季及 2025 財年財報電話會議。今天和我一起參加電話會議的有 Petco 執行長 Joel Anderson 和 Petco 財務長 Sabrina Simmons。

In addition to the earnings release, we posted a slide presentation on our website at ir.petco.com. I'd like to remind everyone that on this call; we will make certain forward-looking statements which are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. These risks and uncertainties include those set out in our earnings materials and SEC filings.

除了發布獲利報告外，我們還在公司網站ir.petco.com上發布了幻燈片簡報。我想提醒大家，在本次電話會議上，我們將做出一些前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到許多風險和不確定因素的影響，可能導致實際結果與這些陳述有重大差異。這些風險和不確定性包括我們在獲利材料和提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中列出的風險和不確定性。

In addition, on today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures can be found in our earnings release, presentation, and SEC filings. With that, I'll turn the call over to Joel.

此外，在今天的電話會議上，我們將提及一些非GAAP財務指標。這些措施的核對情況可在我們的獲利報告、簡報和提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中查閱。接下來，我將把電話交給喬爾。

Thanks, Roxanne, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss our fourth-quarter and full year results, where I'm pleased to share that Q4 sales were in line with our outlook, and we performed better than our adjusted EBITDA quarterly goal.

謝謝羅克珊，大家下午好。感謝各位參加本次會議，共同探討我們第四季及全年的業績。我很高興地告訴大家，第四季銷售額符合我們的預期，我們調整後的 EBITDA 季度目標也得到了實現。

Looking back on 2025, we successfully delivered on our robust agenda to strengthen our economic model and improve retail fundamentals, which resulted in significantly higher cash flow and profitability year-over-year. Specifically, for the year, we achieved a 21% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a 77% increase in operating cash flow. Our healthier EBITDA and opportunistic debt pay down drove a meaningful reduction in our leverage ratio at year-end, allowing us to start the year with greater financial flexibility.

展望 2025 年，我們成功實現了加強經濟模式和改善零售基本面的穩健計劃，從而實現了現金流和盈利能力的逐年顯著提高。具體而言，本年度我們實現了調整後 EBITDA 成長 21%，經營現金流成長 77%。我們更健康的 EBITDA 和抓住機會償還債務，使我們在年底的槓桿率大幅下降，使我們能夠以更大的財務靈活性開始新的一年。

This was no small feat, and I'm exceptionally proud of our team. We collaborated across the organization, we strengthened our culture, we communicated expectations, and we acted with urgency and decisiveness. It's important to note that the majority of our senior leadership team, which is exceptionally well tenured and talented has only been together for about one year. We entered '26 with a running start, something we didn't have in '25. Some of the most recent additions to the team include Sabrina Simmons, CFO, who many of you already know.

這絕非易事，我為我們的團隊感到無比自豪。我們與組織內各部門通力合作，加強了企業文化，明確了工作期望，並以緊迫感和果斷性採取了行動。值得注意的是，我們大部分資深領導團隊成員都非常有才華，但他們相處的時間只有大約一年。2026 年我們開局良好，這是我們在 2025 年所沒有的。團隊最近新增的成員包括財務長 Sabrina Simmons，你們中的許多人可能已經認識她了。

Michael Romanko, Chief Customer and Product Officer; and Joe Venezia, Chief Revenue Officer. The entire team's work has been transformative, and yet, we are just getting started. In addition to strengthening our financial foundation in 2025 and rebuilding the leadership team, we completed our Petco North Star strategy, including a comprehensive customer segmentation and needs analysis. This work is already shaping how we prioritize assortment, services, and experiences. And it also informed our updated brand positioning Where The Pets Go to live their real life.

Michael Romanko，首席客戶和產品長；以及 Joe Venezia，首席營收長。整個團隊的工作具有變革性意義，然而，我們才剛起步。除了加強我們在 2025 年的財務基礎和重建領導團隊之外，我們還完成了 Petco 北極星策略，其中包括全面的客戶細分和需求分析。這項工作已經影響到我們對產品種類、服務和體驗的優先順序。這也促使我們更新了品牌定位，讓寵物們過著它們真實的生活。

One key takeaway from the segmentation work is the identification of who our most important engage customers are. That segment, we call passionate explorers. These are pet parents, who are highly invested in their pets and seek innovation, expert support, and a welcoming shopping experience across the full pet journey. 2026, we are informed by this strategy work and execution will center on four growth pillars, which I will review in detail later on this call.

細分工作的一個關鍵結論是確定了我們最重要的互動客戶群。我們稱這部分人為充滿熱情的探索者。這些寵物主人對自己的寵物投入了大量心血，他們渴望在寵物飼養的整個過程中獲得創新、專家支持和愉悅的購物體驗。根據這項策略，到2026年，我們的工作和執行將圍繞著四大成長支柱展開，稍後我將在電話會議中詳細介紹。

They are: Number one, compelling product, driven by increased newness, brand launches and own brand expansion. Number two; services at scale, leveraging our wholly owned vet grooming and training ecosystem. Number three; trusted store experience, focused on driving traffic, engagement, and basket; and finally number four, an integrated omnichannel model, improving convenience, loyalty and repeat behaviour.

它們是：第一，引人注目的產品，由不斷增加的新產品、品牌發布和自有品牌擴張所驅動。第二點；大規模提供服務，充分利用我們全資擁有的獸醫美容和訓練生態系統。第三，值得信賴的門市體驗，專注於提升客流量、互動度和客單價；第四，整合的全通路模式，提升便利性、忠誠度和重購率。

With that, I'll now turn it over to Sabrina to provide details on our fourth-quarter financial performance and our 2026 outlook. Following her remarks, I will discuss the specifics our growth strategy for 2026, and we'll then open it up to your questions.

接下來，我將把發言權交給 Sabrina，讓她詳細介紹我們第四季的財務表現和 2026 年的展望。在她發言之後，我將具體討論我們 2026 年的成長策略，然後我們將開放提問環節。

Thank you, Joel. Good afternoon, everyone. As we've discussed, our primary goal all year was improving profitability and cash generation through our economic model, namely expanding gross margin rate, leveraging expense, and expanding operating margins. We're glad to report that we achieved this goal each and every quarter. For the full year 2025, we expanded our gross margin rate 66 basis points to 38.7%, leveraged SG&A 124 basis points to 36.6%, improved our operating profit by $113 million and expanded our operating margin by 190 basis points.

謝謝你，喬爾。大家下午好。正如我們之前討論過的，我們全年的主要目標是透過我們的經濟模型來提高獲利能力和現金流，即提高毛利率、降低費用和提高營業利潤率。我們很高興地報告，我們每個季度都實現了這一目標。2025 年全年，我們的毛利率提高了 66 個基點，達到 38.7%；銷售、一般及行政費用率提高了 124 個基點，達到 36.6%；營業利潤提高了 1.13 億美元；營業利潤率提高了 190 個基點。

Increased adjusted EBITDA 21.3% to $408 million with a margin of 6.8%, and we delivered positive GAAP net income for the year. Additionally, free cash flow improved 276% versus the prior year to $187 million. These results enabled significant progress in achieving our goal of lowering our leverage ratio. Our net debt to EBITDA improved from 4.2 times when we entered the year to 3 times at the end of 2025. And now turning to the fourth-quarter results, which reflect another quarter in which we delivered on our commitments, while building a stronger foundation.

調整後 EBITDA 成長 21.3% 至 4.08 億美元，利潤率為 6.8%，我們實現了本年度的 GAAP 淨利潤為正。此外，自由現金流較上年增長 276%，達到 1.87 億美元。這些成果使我們在降低槓桿率的目標上取得了重大進展。年初時，我們的淨負債與 EBITDA 比率為 4.2 倍，到 2025 年底，比率改善至 3 倍。現在來看第四季業績，這反映出我們又一個季度履行了承諾，同時奠定了更堅實的基礎。

In line with our outlook, net sales were down 2.4% to $1.52 billion with comp sales down 1.6%. As expected, the decline reflects our decision to move away from unprofitable sales, which was our strategy throughout 2025. As a reminder, the difference between total sales and comp is driven by the 25 net store closures in 2024 and the additional net 16 closures in 2025.

與我們的預期一致，淨銷售額下降 2.4% 至 15.2 億美元，同店銷售額下降 1.6%。正如預期的那樣，這一下滑反映了我們決定停止無利可圖的銷售，這也是我們2025年全年的策略。提醒一下，總銷售額與同店銷售額之間的差異是由於 2024 年淨關閉 25 家門市以及 2025 年淨關閉 16 家門市造成的。

The number of 2025 closures came in a bit favourable to our expectations, driven by a combination of improved store performance, and favourable rent negotiations that supported improved unit economics for those locations. We ended the quarter with 1,382 stores in the US. Fourth-quarter gross profit dollars were $581 million, while our gross margin rate expanded 37 basis points to 38.3%, including the sequential increase in tariff impact, which we anticipated.

2025 年的關門數量略好於我們的預期，這得益於門市業績的改善以及有利的租金談判，從而提高了這些門市的單位經濟效益。本季末，我們在美國擁有1382家門市。第四季毛利為 5.81 億美元，毛利率成長 37 個基點至 38.3%，其中包括我們預期的關稅影響的環比增長。

Moving to SG&A. For the quarter, SG&A was $549 million or 36.2% of net sales, leveraging 62 basis points. The $23 million decline in year-over-year expenses was partially driven by lapping last year's consulting costs. Marketing expenses increased $7 million in the quarter. For Q4, our expanded gross margin and expense leverage resulted in operating margin expansion of 98 basis points, and our operating profit increased $14 million or 83% in the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased 10.6% or $10 million to $106 million, and our adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 82 basis points to 7% of sales.

移至銷售、一般及行政管理部門。本季銷售、一般及行政費用為 5.49 億美元，佔淨銷售額的 36.2%，槓桿率為 62 個基點。同比支出減少 2300 萬美元的部分原因是去年的諮詢費用被抵消了。本季行銷費用增加了700萬美元。第四季度，我們擴大的毛利率和費用槓桿使營業利潤率提高了 98 個基點，營業利潤在本季度增加了 1,400 萬美元，增幅達 83%。調整後 EBITDA 成長 10.6%，即 1,000 萬美元，達到 1.06 億美元；調整後 EBITDA 利潤率成長 82 個基點，達到銷售額的 7%。

Moving to the balance sheet and cash flow. Q4 ending inventory was down 9.7% versus our 2.4% decline in Q4 sales. We continue to manage inventory with discipline, which is one of the drivers of our improved cash flow profile. For the year, free cash flow was $187 million, an increase of $137 million or 276% versus last year. Our ending cash balance was $257 million, an increase of $91 million versus last year, including having voluntarily paid down $95 million of debt. As many of you have heard me state, our approach to our debt refinancing was opportunistic, and we're pleased to have executed the refinancing with favourable terms.

接下來來看資產負債表和現金流量表。第四季末庫存下降了 9.7%，而第四季銷售額下降了 2.4%。我們繼續嚴格管理庫存，這是我們現金流狀況改善的驅動因素之一。本年度自由現金流為 1.87 億美元，比上年增加了 1.37 億美元，增幅達 276%。我們期末現金餘額為 2.57 億美元，比去年增加了 9,100 萬美元，其中包括自願償還了 9,500 萬美元的債務。正如你們許多人聽我說過的那樣，我們對債務再融資採取的是機會主義的做法，我們很高興能夠以有利的條款完成再融資。

We replaced a fully variable debt structure with a more optimal mix of fixed and floating, and extended our maturities to 2031, providing us ample flexibility. On our first call together last March, we stated our goal of reducing our leverage ratio to two times or less.

我們以更優化的固定利率和浮動利率組合取代了完全浮動利率的債務結構，並將到期日延長至 2031 年，為我們提供了充足的靈活性。去年三月我們第一次通話時，我們提出了將槓桿率降低到兩倍或以下的目標。

We are thrilled with a product we made in just one year. As we said, we started fiscal 2025 at over four times. And in just a single year, we have reduced that to three times, enabled by our focus on driving improved profitability and cash flow. With our retail and financial fundamentals strengthened, we are well positioned to turn more of our focus to read growing top line and driving sustainable, profitable growth over the long term. And now turning to our outlook.

我們對僅用一年時間就研發出的產品感到非常滿意。正如我們所說，我們在 2025 財年開始時，目標金額是之前的四倍多。僅僅一年時間，我們就將這一數字降低了三倍，這得益於我們專注於提高獲利能力和現金流。隨著零售和金融基本面的加強，我們有能力將更多精力集中在提高營收和推動長期永續獲利成長。現在讓我們展望一下未來。

We are starting the year from a position of strength, while continuing to navigate a bumpy macro backdrop. Of note, our guidance assumes that fuel prices normalize by the end of the quarter. For the first-quarter, we expect net sales to be down 1% to flat versus the prior year, with comp sales roughly flat at the midpoint of the range as we begin to build into the growth initiatives Joel will outline in a minute. We expect adjusted EBITDA to be between $92 million and $94 million.

今年伊始，我們處於有利地位，但仍需應對動盪的宏觀環境。值得注意的是，我們的預測是基於燃油價格在本季末恢復正常的假設。第一季度，我們預計淨銷售額將比上年同期下降 1% 或持平，同店銷售額大致持平，處於預期範圍的中點，因為我們將開始實施 Joel 稍後將概述的增長計劃。我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 將在 9,200 萬美元至 9,400 萬美元之間。

Now turning to the full year. We expect net sales to be flat to up to 1.5% growth versus last year as our growth initiatives take hold and build over the course of the year. Of note, similar to 2025, we expect net store closures between 15 and 20 in 2026. As is typical, store closures are weighted toward the back half of the year. We estimate the full year spread between total sales and comp sales to be about 50 basis points, though it will vary somewhat by quarter. This expectation implies positive comp sales for the year.

現在進入全年展望。我們預計，隨著各項成長計畫在年內逐步落實發展，淨銷售額將與去年持平或成長至多 1.5%。值得注意的是，與 2025 年類似，我們預計 2026 年淨關閉門市數量將在 15 至 20 家之間。通常情況下，門市關閉的高峰期集中在下半年。我們預計全年總銷售額與同店銷售額之間的差距約為 50 個基點，但每季會略有不同。這一預期意味著今年的同店銷售額將為正值。

We expect adjusted EBITDA to be between $415 million and $430 million, with an overall goal of delivering on our economic model for the full year. To provide additional color on other line items, for the full year, we expect net interest expense to be about $125 million. Capital expenditures of about $140 million with an ongoing focus on ROIC, which we improved in 2025 by 3-percentage-points. Depreciation and amortization to be about $200 million, similar to last year. And finally, to be helpful with your models, we expect stock comp to increase by a low double-digit percent versus last year.

我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 將在 4.15 億美元至 4.3 億美元之間，全年總體目標是實現我們的經濟模型目標。為了更詳細說明其他項目，我們預計全年淨利息支出約為 1.25 億美元。資本支出約 1.4 億美元，持續關注 ROIC，我們已將 ROIC 在 2025 年提高了 3 個百分點。折舊和攤提費用約 2 億美元，與去年相近。最後，為了幫助您進行模型分析，我們預期股票價格將比去年增加兩位數百分比。

As a reminder, stock comp will remain well below years prior to 2025. In closing, I want to thank our teams for executing on our transformation with great discipline, resulting in our significant growth in profitability and cash flow. And now I'll turn the call back over to Joel.

提醒大家，股票價格比較在 2025 年之前仍將遠低於往年水準。最後，我要感謝我們的團隊以高度的自律性執行轉型計劃，從而實現了盈利能力和現金流的顯著增長。現在我把電話轉回喬爾。

Thank you, Sabrina. With our foundation firmly in place, I'm energized to walk you through the specifics of our 2026 strategy that will drive our expected growth. As you know, we outlined a 3-phased approach to our turnaround. We laid the foundation in Phase I and Phase II, and we are now entering Phase III, which is about driving sustainable top line growth. Internally, this Phase III strategy is called Reach for the Sky, which is all about looking up and driving forward, leveraging our competitive advantages, and capitalizing on the growth opportunities we see across our business.

謝謝你，薩布麗娜。鑑於我們的基礎已經穩固，我充滿熱情地向大家詳細介紹我們2026年的策略，該策略將推動我們實現預期的成長。如您所知，我們制定了分三個階段的扭虧為盈方案。我們在第一階段和第二階段奠定了基礎，現在我們進入第三階段，即推動可持續的收入成長。在公司內部，這一第三階段策略被稱為“勇攀高峰”，其核心在於抬頭仰望星空、奮勇向前，充分發揮我們的競爭優勢，並抓住我們在業務中看到的成長機會。

It is also about the opportunity I see for Petco to be reimagined and broadened beyond primarily being a commodity-driven business. This is about the blue sky opportunities Petco has to engage with pet families through the ups and downs and the real-life experiences of raising a pet. Our team has tenaciously driven cost savings, and now we will continue with that same rigor while driving sales and reaching forward. Petco is the only national fully integrated and comprehensive pet care ecosystem. Our vision for the Reach for the Sky strategy is centred around leveraging our differentiated store base model to bolster our competitive positioning, increased relevance and improve store productivity.

這也關乎我看到 Petco 有機會被重新構想和拓展，不再只是一家以商品銷售為主的企業。這關乎 Petco 如何透過陪伴寵物家庭經歷養寵過程中的種種起伏和真實體驗，為他們提供無限的機會。我們的團隊一直以來都堅持不懈地努力降低成本，現在我們將繼續保持這種嚴謹的態度，同時推動銷售並向前發展。Petco是全國唯一完全整合、全面的寵物照護生態系統。我們「勇攀高峰」策略的願景是利用我們差異化的門市基礎模式來加強我們的競爭地位、提高相關性並提升門市生產力。

We plan to fuel our growth by offering product newness and differentiation as well as further strengthening our community of pets and their humans through our unique store experiences, integrated omnichannel model, and wholly owned services. We are in the early innings of capitalizing on the significant opportunities that we see to gain share of wallet across all our businesses. The groundwork in 2025 has served us well. We expect these initiatives to grow sales and become more impactful as they materialize throughout 2026 and beyond.

我們計劃透過提供新穎的產品和差異化的產品來推動成長，並透過我們獨特的門市體驗、整合的全通路模式和全資擁有的服務，進一步加強我們的寵物及其主人社區。我們正處於利用我們所看到的巨大機會來提高所有業務市場份額的初期階段。2025 年的基礎工作對我們大有裨益。我們預計這些措施將在 2026 年及以後逐步落實，從而促進銷售成長並產生更大的影響。

Now I'll outline the detailed framework of our Reach for the Sky plan to drive sales within each of our four pillars. I'll begin with our compelling product offering, specifically within consumables. This is roughly half of our business today. And in the US alone, it's a $54 billion market. I'll talk about four key catalysts within consumables to jump-start growth beginning this year.

現在我將詳細闡述我們「力爭上游」計畫的框架，該計畫旨在推動我們四大支柱領域的銷售成長。我先從我們極具吸引力的產品系列說起，特別是消耗品方面。這大約占我們目前業務的一半。僅在美國，這是一個價值 540 億美元的市場。我將探討消費品產業今年開始啟動成長的四個關鍵催化劑。

First, fresh food is one of our biggest opportunities. We've been a primary destination for fresh food for a long time and are continuing to build on that foundation by expanding the assortment. This category at Petco experienced healthy growth in 2025, and we expect the momentum to continue in 2026. This is an example of a category that exemplifies a significant advantage of our store ecosystem brings. Beginning in Q1, we are adding additional freezers, amounting to over 1,000 incrementally over the course of the year, which will enable us to expand our range of offers meaningfully.

首先，新鮮食材是我們最大的機會之一。長期以來，我們一直是新鮮食品的主要購買地，並且正在透過擴大產品種類來繼續鞏固這一基礎。Petco 的這一品類在 2025 年實現了健康成長，我們預計這一勢頭將在 2026 年繼續保持。這是一個能夠體現我們門市生態系統顯著優勢的典型案例。從第一季開始，我們將逐步增加冷凍櫃，預計年內將增加 1,000 多台，這將使我們能夠大幅擴大產品範圍。

Our focus on driving share of wallet in the fresh food category is intentional. Of note, those that buy fresh food from us make over four more trips per year and spend over 50% more annually than dry food-only dog customers. Secondly, we will launch new national brands. This area starts with communication. I have personally met with the leaders of several of our key consumables partners.

我們有意將重點放在提升生鮮食品類別的市佔率。值得注意的是，從我們這裡購買新鮮食物的顧客每年購買次數比只購買乾狗糧的顧客多四次以上，每年花費也多 50% 以上。其次，我們將推出新的全國性品牌。這一領域始於溝通。我親自會見了我們幾家主要耗材合作夥伴的領導人。

They are aligned with our goals and objectives and excited about the renewed energy and focus of growth at Petco. At the center of our strategy, we will be infusing a high degree of newness, including a significant number of new brands and flavours being added this year. The majority of these are launching in the first half. We expect these to generate excitement and customer interest, and we look forward to discussing these with you in future quarters. Third, we are increasing the frequency of product drops.

他們與我們的目標和宗旨一致，並對 Petco 煥發的活力和增長重點感到興奮。我們的策略核心是注入高度創新性，包括今年新增大量品牌和口味。其中大部分產品將在上半年推出。我們預計這些舉措將引起客戶的興趣和興奮，並期待在未來的幾季與您討論這些舉措。第三，我們將增加產品投放頻率。

Historically, we set consumables merchandise annually with one big cat and dog food reset. As you can imagine, this didn't provide our customers with multiple reasons to see what's new at Petco. And often, we are the last to roll out a new innovation or flavour. We are changing this approach meaningfully by continuously layering in product newness throughout the year, both in consumables and supplies. This is designed to create excitement and freshness of product and will entice our customers to walk our aisles more frequently.

從歷史上看，我們每年都會對消耗品商品進行一次大規模的貓糧和狗糧調整。可想而知，這並沒有給我們的顧客提供足夠的理由去 Petco 看看有什麼新品。而且我們往往是最後一個推出新產品或新口味的公司。我們正在從根本上改變這種做法，全年不斷推出新產品，包括消耗品和供應品。此舉旨在營造產品新鮮感和吸引力，吸引顧客更頻繁地光顧我們的貨架。

And fourth, we are ramping our own brands business. This is within consumables and supplies. Own brands account for about 20% of our sales today and have the potential to become more meaningful over time. As part of our own brand strategy, we will anchor our focus on our strongest seven private labels, which already account for a significant percentage of our own brand sales. Therefore, leveraging the strength of these brands and increasing their presence and relevance.

第四，我們正在大力發展自有品牌業務。這屬於消耗品和耗材範疇。自有品牌目前約占我們銷售額的 20%，隨著時間的推移，其重要性可能會進一步提升。作為我們自身品牌策略的一部分，我們將重點放在我們最強大的七個自有品牌上，這些品牌已經占我們自有品牌銷售額的很大一部分。因此，要充分利用這些品牌的優勢，提高它們的知名度和相關性。

This focus on own brands is intended to allow us to go faster and fill and voids our national partners don't have visibility to. In terms of key initiatives, in consumables, we planned off for new formulas and packaging in dog food. In supplies, we'll expand our own brands business across categories and offer newness and innovation more broadly, such as in beds, bowls, collars, leads and toys.

我們專注於自有品牌，旨在讓我們能夠更快地發展，填補我們的國家合作夥伴無法觸及的市場空白。在重點措施方面，在消耗品方面，我們計劃推出狗糧的新配方和新包裝。在用品方面，我們將拓展自有品牌業務，涵蓋各個品類，並在床、碗、項圈、牽引繩和玩具等領域更廣泛地提供新穎和創新的產品。

And as we've mentioned prior, the margins of own brands are significantly above that of national brands. In the supplies and the companion animal category specifically, we are introducing new assortments that we believe will further differentiate us from competitors.

正如我們之前提到的，自有品牌的利潤率遠高於全國性品牌。在用品和寵物用品類別中，我們正在推出新的產品系列，我們相信這將進一步使我們與競爭對手區分開來。

An example is newness and insects since it's jumping spiders in tarantulas, which we see as a newer pet trend in the United States. This customer basket is also likely to include ancillary supplies and consumables. Additionally, we launched Gardening with your Pet this month, a new category for us in nearly all of our stores. It includes gardening products and plants that provide customers with pet-friendly options.

例如，新奇事物和昆蟲，如跳蛛和狼蛛，在美國是較新的寵物潮流。該客戶購物籃中可能還包括輔助用品和消耗品。此外，本月我們在幾乎所有門市都推出了「與寵物一起園藝」這個新類別。它包括園藝產品和植物，為顧客提供對寵物友善的選擇。

Moving on to our services pillar. We also see abundant opportunities to continue growing our wholly owned services business, which is a key aspect of our differentiated model. Services include that hospitals, vaccination clinics, grooming and dog training. This business was a strong performer in 2025, and we are expecting continued growth in 2026.

接下來是我們的服務板塊。我們也看到了大量機會，可以繼續發展我們全資擁有的服務業務，這是我們差異化模式的關鍵方面。服務包括醫院、疫苗接種診所、美容和犬類訓練。該業務在 2025 年表現強勁，我們預計 2026 年將持續成長。

While we took a purposeful pause in constructing new bed hospitals last year, we've been laser-focused on improving productivity of our existing locations. In 2025, we optimize a significant number of our approximately 300 hospitals, and we'll work on increasing the productivity of the still roughly 25 underutilized locations this year.

去年，我們特意暫停了新建醫院的計劃，而是專注於提高現有醫院的生產力。2025 年，我們將優化我們大約 300 家醫院中的相當一部分，今年我們將努力提高仍然未充分利用的約 25 個地點的生產力。

Know that even after we complete these, there is still a sizable runway for driving higher sales and productivity improvements from these 300, and we will be focused on maximizing their potential. Bottom line here is that we are committed to the vet business as a key growth engine and are in the early innings of assessing the longer-term opening cadence and growth opportunity. That said, you should expect us to start growing our hospitals in 2027. We will keep you updated on our plans as they come together.

要知道，即使在我們完成這些之後，這 300 人仍有很大的提升銷售額和生產力的空間，我們將專注於最大限度地發揮他們的潛力。歸根結底，我們致力於將獸醫業務作為關鍵的成長引擎，目前正處於評估長期開業節奏和成長機會的早期階段。也就是說，預計我們將在 2027 年開始擴大我們的醫院。我們會隨時向您報告我們的計劃進度。

I'd like to emphasize that our key competitive advantage in this space is that our vet hospitals are wholly owned and are part of the store. We uniquely have the opportunity to capitalize on retail traffic and to share customer information. As we've discussed prior, the opportunity is twofold: Grow the vet business as well as become a full service pet needs provider by cross-selling food, prescriptions, and supplies.

我想強調的是，我們在這個領域的主要競爭優勢在於，我們的獸醫院是全資擁有的，並且是商店的一部分。我們擁有獨特的優勢，可以利用零售客流量並分享客戶資訊。正如我們之前討論過的，機會有兩方面：發展獸醫業務，並透過交叉銷售食品、處方藥和用品，成為提供全方位寵物服務的供應商。

I'm pleased to announce that we are adding technology and functionality beginning later this year and into 2027 to better enable this. The goal is to drive incremental trips and increased sales per customer. We are now operating on a scale that gives us the depth of expertise, breadth of coverage and overall respect of the industry to be a desired employer of choice for veterinarians and vet techs to grow their careers at Petco.

我很高興地宣布，我們將從今年稍後開始，一直到 2027 年，增加技術和功能，以便更好地實現這一點。目標是增加顧客的行程次數和提高每位顧客的消費額。我們現在的營運規模使我們擁有了深厚的專業知識、廣泛的業務覆蓋範圍以及在業界的廣泛尊重，成為獸醫和獸醫技術人員在 Petco 發展職業生涯的理想雇主。

The third pillar of growth opportunity I want to discuss is our key competitive moat, a differentiated high-touch store ecosystem. Our stores represent a significant portion of our total sales, and so they remain a key focus for us. We have changed leadership, reorganize how we operate and unified our center of store operations with our services.

我想討論的第三個成長機會支柱是我們的關鍵競爭優勢，即差異化的高觸感門市生態系統。我們的門市佔總銷售額的很大一部分，因此它們仍然是我們關注的重點。我們更換了領導層，重組了營運方式，並將門市營運中心與服務部門整合在一起。

We have also physically brought our stores and services leadership together three times in less than 12 months, so the communication can be cascaded with one voice and expectations are clearly aligned. Our goal is to leverage stores to build community, excitement and customer loyalty through frequent newness, higher levels of customer engagement, such as holding fun events for families and pets and through wholly owned services that promote repeat visits.

在不到 12 個月的時間裡，我們已經三次將門市和服務部門的領導層聚集在一起，以便溝通能夠以統一的聲音進行，並且期望能夠明確地保持一致。我們的目標是利用門市，透過頻繁推出新品、提高顧客參與度（例如為家庭和寵物舉辦有趣的活動）以及提供促進顧客重複光顧的自有服務，來建立社區、激發顧客熱情並培養顧客忠誠度。

The end goal is to drive both traffic and basket. Our marketing efforts will be centred around driving traffic to our stores by building awareness of our product newness and in-store experiences. We will also capitalize on a more engaged customer in stores by focusing on increasing basket size. Specifically, we launched a major training initiative in February for all district and regional managers to promote cross-selling opportunities. This initiative is being cascaded to all stores this quarter.

最終目標是同時提升客流量和客單價。我們的行銷工作將以吸引客流到門市為中心，透過提高人們對我們產品新穎性和店內體驗的認知度來實現這一目標。我們也將透過提高客單價來充分利用顧客在店內的參與度。具體來說，我們在 2 月啟動了一項針對所有地區和區域經理的大型培訓計劃，以促進交叉銷售機會。本季度，這項措施將推廣至所有門市。

We estimate that successful cross-selling can drive one to two additional trips as well as a higher sales per customer over a 6-month period. An example of this is a focus on converting rooming customers, purchase merchandise by giving groomers access to a customer's purchase history across the store.

我們估計，成功的交叉銷售可以在 6 個月內帶來一到兩次額外的購物機會，以及更高的每位顧客的銷售額。例如，透過讓寵物美容師存取顧客在店內的購買記錄，來引導寵物美容顧客購買商品。

To give a sense as to how impactful this initiative could be, about half of our dog customers currently don't buy dog food from us. So you can imagine the opportunity to capture a much greater share of their wallet. What backs our confidence in the long-term viability of the store model is that shopper demographics are also on our side.

為了讓您了解這項舉措的影響有多大，目前我們大約有一半的狗狗顧客沒有向我們購買狗糧。所以你可以想像，這給了我們多大的機會去攫取他們更多的錢包份額。我們對這種門市模式的長期可行性充滿信心，而消費者的人口統計也對我們有利，這進一步支撐了我們的信心。

Industry data tells us that 34% of Gen Z customers shop exclusively in stores. Interestingly, this group's preference for an in-store experience is much higher than Gen X or millennials and is virtually in line with boomer preferences. We see this as a huge long-term opportunity. With the Petco model well positioned to capture Gen Z's desire for experiences and connections, our field leaders are excited about these opportunities, and we will have more to share with you as the year progresses. The final pillar of our reach for the Sky's initiative is centred around integrated omnichannel.

產業數據顯示，34%的Z世代消費者只在實體店面購物。有趣的是，這群人對店內體驗的偏好遠高於 X 世代或千禧世代，幾乎與嬰兒潮世代的偏好一致。我們認為這是一個巨大的長期機會。Petco 的商業模式能夠很好地滿足 Z 世代對體驗和人際關係的渴望，我們的區域領導者們對這些機會感到興奮，隨著時間的推移，我們將與大家分享更多資訊。我們為天空電視台製定的計畫的最後一個支柱是整合全通路。

We call it integrated omnichannel because a significant portion of customer transactions leverage a combination of our digital capabilities and our stores. We made great progress in 2025, fixing our foundation, including minimizing unprofitable sales improving e-commerce fill rates, fixing page load time, and adding new capabilities.

我們稱之為整合式全通路，因為很大一部分客戶交易都結合了我們的數位能力和實體店。我們在 2025 年取得了巨大進步，夯實了基礎，包括最大限度地減少無利可圖的銷售、提高電子商務填充率、修復頁面加載時間以及增加新功能。

While we will keep making improvements, it is time we start to grow our digital capabilities in 2026. One of the biggest opportunities we have is to turn up the dial in marketing. We have overhauled our media buying mix, which is taking hold in Q1, and our new branding, Where The Pets Go will become more pronounced as our creative as reimagined to better support this fun loving energy our physical stores bring to life.

雖然我們會不斷改進，但到了 2026 年，我們應該開始提升我們的數位化能力了。我們面臨的最大機會之一就是加大行銷力度。我們已經徹底調整了媒體購買組合，並在第一季開始生效。我們的新品牌「寵物去哪裡」將更加突出，同時我們的創意也經過重新構思，以更好地支持我們實體店所展現的這種充滿樂趣的活力。

Additionally, we will relaunch the loyalty program later this year. Our goal is to offer a more personalized and relevant loyalty experience that is seamlessly integrated within our app. Our results from this initial pilot, which concluded in December, were encouraging. The next wave of our pilot began last week and will run through the spring season. We look forward to sharing an update on our Q1 call.

此外，我們將在今年稍後重新推出會員忠誠度計劃。我們的目標是提供更個人化和相關的會員體驗，並將其無縫整合到我們的應用程式中。我們在去年 12 月結束的這項初步試點計畫的結果令人鼓舞。我們的下一階段試點計畫已於上週開始，並將持續整個春季。我們期待在第一季財報電話會議上與大家分享最新進展。

A second key omni sales growth initiative we're excited about is ability for our repeat delivery customers to now pick up their orders in store, which encourages our fresh food customer to visit our stores more often. This is an example of us leveraging omnichannel model to maximize our growth opportunity. We believe this will aid in growing traffic, conversion as well as basket size.

我們很高興推出的第二個關鍵全通路銷售成長計​​畫是，我們的重複送貨客戶現在可以到店自提訂單，這鼓勵我們的生鮮食品客戶更頻繁地光顧我們的門市。這是我們如何利用全通路模式來最大限度地提高成長機會的一個例子。我們相信這將有助於提升流量、轉換率和客單價。

In conclusion, I'm proud of the long-term strategy we implemented last year to rebuild the foundation of our economic model, recruit an amazing team, and complete a comprehensive customer strategy to fully understand how we can win at Petco. We delivered significant financial improvements.

總而言之，我為我們去年實施的長期策略感到自豪，該策略旨在重建我們經濟模式的基礎，招募一支優秀的團隊，並製定全面的客戶策略，以充分了解我們如何在 Petco 取得成功。我們取得了顯著的財務改善。

And it is with this backdrop that I'm confident in the actions we are taking to drive sustainable sales growth and profitability. We expect to start to see benefits beginning in Q1 and growing throughout the year. Specifically, the outlook that Sabrina provided implies a flat comp in Q1 at the midpoint. This would mark an inflection from the negative comp in Q4. For the full year, our outlook assumes our comps will be positive with increases modestly above our total sales growth.

正是在這種背景下，我對我們正在採取的推動永續銷售成長和獲利能力的行動充滿信心。我們預計從第一季開始就能看到效益，效益會全年持續成長。具體來說，Sabrina 提供的展望表明，第一季業績將與去年同期持平（中位數）。這將標誌著與第四季負成長相比出現轉折。我們對全年的展望是，同店銷售額將實現正成長，且增幅略高於總銷售額的成長。

Importantly, we believe our ability to gain market share is not entirely reliant on a cooperative macro environment or pet industry sales growth. Our reach for the Sky initiatives are, in many ways, self-help in nature and designed to further differentiate Petco's merchandise and services versus our peers. We are approaching 2026 the same way we did in 2025. We developed a strategy, we assign leaders. We track milestones, and we execute.

重要的是，我們認為我們獲得市場份額的能力並不完全依賴合作的宏觀環境或寵物行業的銷售成長。我們「勇攀高峰」計畫在許多方面都具有自助性質，旨在進一步使 Petco 的商品和服務與同行區分開來。我們迎接 2026 年的方式與迎接 2025 年的方式相同。我們制定了策略，並任命了負責人。我們跟踪里程碑，並執行。

The months go by I'm confident you will continue to appreciate how driven we are to deliver on our commitments. And I trust that 2025 is a great proof point for what's to come in 2026. I want to thank our teams for their dedication and hard work. While it's hard to single out any one team, the milestones our field teams achieved were truly incredible. We asked a lot of them, and they responded positively to every challenge.

我相信，隨著時間的推移，您會繼續欣賞我們履行承諾的決心和動力。我相信 2025 年將為 2026 年的發展提供一個很好的佐證。我要感謝我們團隊的奉獻和辛勤工作。雖然很難單獨表揚任何一個團隊，但我們現場團隊的成就確實令人難以置信。我們向他們提出了很多要求，他們對每一個挑戰都做出了積極的回應。

Our stores are the heart and soul of Petco, and it's great to see them playing offense. Collectively, we are well positioned for our reach for the Sky's plan, and I'm excited about its potential. Petco truly is for the pets go to live their real life. I'll now I'd like to open it up for your questions. Operator?

我們的門市是 Petco 的核心和靈魂，很高興看到它們採取積極主動的策略。總而言之，我們已經為實現「觸及天空」計畫做好了充分準備，我對它的潛力感到興奮。Petco 真正是寵物們過著真正生活的地方。現在我想開放提問環節，請大家提問。操作員？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

Michael Lasser, UBS.

瑞銀集團的麥可·拉塞爾。

Joel, you provided a lot of great information on the strategy, the focus. How are you thinking about what is going to lead Petco's growth from here? Is it going to be consumables first, which will then translate to the other parts of the business? Is this going to be services-led, which will then translate to other parts of the business? And how have you thought about the need to mix further price investments, promotional investments, and other discounts in order to generate same-store sales growth over time.

喬爾，你提供了許多關於戰略和重點的寶貴資訊。您認為Petco未來的發展方向是什麼？是否會先從消耗品入手，然後再擴展到業務的其他部分？這將是一家以服務為主導的公司，然後這種模式會推廣到公司的其他部門嗎？那麼，您是如何考慮將進一步的價格投資、促銷投資和其他折扣結合起來，以隨著時間的推移實現同店銷售增長的呢？

Yes. Thanks, Michael, and really great question. A lot to unpack there. I think it's less about which one is going to lead. And what I hope you took away from what I just took you all through is, whereas last year, we were telling you what we were going to do to deliver growth, on this call, I showed you how we're going to do it. And we gave, as you said, specific examples in all four pillars.

是的。謝謝你，邁克爾，你問的這個問題非常好。這裡面有很多資訊需要分析。我認為這並不是誰會領導的問題。我希望大家從我剛才的講解中明白，去年我們只是告訴大家我們將採取哪些措施來實現增長，而這次電話會議上，我向大家展示了我們將如何做到這一點。正如您所說，我們在所有四個支柱方面都給出了具體的例子。

We are working simultaneously, Michael, on all four of them. Having said that, product probably takes the longest because you have your existing product that you have to sell through and then the new product will begin to come in. I can tell you, we have about 25 new brands or flavours coming this year as well as resets throughout all of supplies and many of the other areas like companion animals. All of that will take time throughout the year, and it will happen actually starting this quarter.

邁克爾，我們正在同時進行這四個專案。話雖如此，產品上市可能需要最長時間，因為你必須先把現有產品賣完，然後新產品才會開始到貨。我可以告訴你們，今年我們將推出大約 25 個新品牌或新口味，同時所有供應品和許多其他領域（例如伴侶動物）也將進行調整。所有這些都需要時間貫穿全年，實際上將從本季開始逐步實施。

But I'm really pleased that in all four of those pillars, you're going to begin to see change starting right now in Q1. And as for your pricing comment, you know what, we started in on that back in 2024, and we really feel like we got our pricing right throughout 2025. It is something that's dynamic, and we are watching it closely, and we'll continue to adjust as necessary, but feel like we've got our pricing in good shape for now.

但我真的很高興，在這四大支柱領域，從現在開始的第一季度，你們將會看到改變。至於你提到的定價問題，你知道嗎，我們從 2024 年就開始著手製定價格，而且我們感覺在 2025 年我們的定價策略非常成功。這是一個動態變化的因素，我們正在密切關注，並將根據需要繼續調整，但感覺我們目前的定價策略還算合理。

Yes. I'd just add to that, Michael, that we're definitely focused on delivering healthy margins for the year. It's an important focus. And we will stay competitive. We will stay adaptable. But we have still nice levers at our disposal to deliver on the healthy margins. We'll continue to look, as Joel just said, where needed. We'll participate in promos, for sure, to help drive traffic where appropriate. And then remember, we have this whole initiative of mix, where we're moving toward our own brands, and that should also support delivering on healthy margins.

是的。邁克爾，我還要補充一點，我們今年的目標是實現健康的利潤率。這是一個重要的關注點。我們將保持競爭力。我們將保持適應能力。但我們仍然擁有一些不錯的手段來實現健康的利潤率。正如喬爾剛才所說，我們會繼續在需要的地方尋找線索。我們肯定會參與促銷活動，以幫助在適當的地方吸引流量。此外，別忘了我們還有一項整合行銷計劃，我們正在向自有品牌轉型，這也有助於實現健康的利潤率。

Oliver Wintermantel, Evercore ISI.

奧利佛·溫特曼特爾，Evercore ISI。

My first question is about the drivers of the increase of the gross margins. And then as a follow-up, so maybe the first one for Sabrina. Joel, for you on the growth initiatives, so inventories were down this year, which obviously helped free cash flow with all these four pillars of initiatives. Do you expect inventories to increase this year? And what's the impact of -- for that on your free cash flow outlook?

我的第一個問題是關於毛利率成長的驅動因素。然後作為後續，或許這是給薩布麗娜的第一個訊息。Joel，對於你的成長計劃，今年的庫存有所下降，這顯然有助於這四大支柱計劃的自由現金流。你預計今年的庫存會增加嗎？那麼，這對您的自由現金流前景有何影響？

Yes. So I'll just go through that gross margin levers one more time. So we are very focused on delivering healthy margins, and we're going to continue to use and review our pricing. We're going to deliver on promos where appropriate, and they make sense and they help us drive traffic in, et cetera, and we're focused on mix. So those are the big levers that will help us deliver on our goal of keeping those gross margins really healthy.

是的。所以我再來詳細解說毛利率的構成要素。因此，我們非常注重實現健康的利潤率，並將繼續使用和審查我們的定價策略。我們將在適當的時候推出促銷活動，這些活動有意義，能夠幫助我們吸引流量等等，我們專注於組合推廣。所以，這些都是幫助我們實現維持毛利率健康目標的關鍵槓桿。

With regard to inventory, yes, we did a lot of cleanup in 2025 on inventory. Some of the silver lining, if you will, of the tariff and position in the spring last year was that it kind of forced us to get very disciplined about cutting off the unproductive tail of SKUs. We're past that now as we look forward to 2026 for growth. We definitely want to invest inventory behind that. The important thing to us is that we remain disciplined in managing that inventory, so even as we invest in inventory, we will look to keep the growth in inventory at or below sales growth and keep that relationship very tight.

關於庫存方面，是的，我們在 2025 年對庫存進行了大量的清理工作。如果非要說去年春季的關稅和情況有什麼正面意義的話，那就是它迫使我們嚴格控制那些效率低下的 SKU。我們現在已經度過了那個階段，展望2026年的成長。我們肯定希望在這方面投入庫存。對我們來說，重要的是保持庫存管理的紀律性，因此即使我們投資於庫存，我們也會努力使庫存成長保持在銷售成長或以下，並保持這種緊密的聯繫。

Kaumil Gajrawala, Jefferies.

Kaumil Gajrawala，傑富瑞集團。

I guess there's been some oscillation over the years between you being specialty and premium and being mainstream. You mentioned a lot of national brands, which sort of making imply perhaps more of a mainstream look. But curious, when you think about the brand of PepsiCo and -- or sorry, the brand of Petco and what is the assortment says about says about the retailer. How do you -- how are you thinking about what that assortment is going to say from a branding perspective?

我猜這些年來，你們的定位一直在專業高端和主流之間搖擺不定。你提到了很多國家品牌，這似乎暗示著一種更主流的風格。但令人好奇的是，當你想到百事可樂的品牌，或者抱歉，Petco 的品牌，以及它們的商品種類如何反映出零售商的形象時，你會作何感想？從品牌角度來看，您是如何考慮這一系列產品所傳達的訊息的？

Yes. Look, you're absolutely right. I think in prior years, we narrowed our aperture. And I think as I look forward, we got to be there for all customers. And as a new pet parent adopts a pet, they go through several stages of that life.

是的。沒錯，你說得完全正確。我認為在前幾年，我們縮小了視野範圍。展望未來，我認為我們必須為所有客戶提供服務。而當一位新的寵物主人收養寵物時，他們會經歷寵物生命的幾個階段。

And one of those stages might be, I just need to get my dog fed. And as that dog becomes part of the family, they might decide to upgrade what their dogs being fed for food, and they focus on health and nutrition. And so the focus we've done over the last couple of years is really to widen the aperture. And so one of the unique advantages of being a specialty retailer is that we are able to carry that specialty premiumization, unique product, but we are also there for the customers that affordability is their primary need. And so I think we really have widened, and I feel really good about where the assortment is today.

其中一個階段可能是：我只需要餵飽我的狗。當這隻狗成為家庭的一份子後，他們可能會決定升級狗糧的種類，並且更重視狗狗的健康和營養。因此，過去幾年我們一直致力於擴大視野。因此，作為一家專業零售商，我們的獨特優勢之一在於，我們能夠提供這種專業、高端、獨特的商品，但我們也為那些以價格實惠為主要需求的顧客提供服務。所以我覺得我們確實擴大了產品範圍，我對目前的產品種類非常滿意。

Okay. Got it. And you said something fascinating earlier on Gen Zs preference to shop in person looking similar to baby boomers. Do you have a sense of why that is, or what has changed that generation versus the generations prior?

好的。知道了。你之前說過一些很有趣的話，關於Z世代比較喜歡親自購物，這和嬰兒潮世代很相似。你知道這是為什麼嗎？或者說，是什麼讓這一代人與前幾代人相比發生了變化？

Yes. I mean, obviously, that is a bigger statement than just as it relates to pets. But like any good retailer, you have to understand your core customer, and we did the research. And part of that research, we studied what the makeup was of the age of our customer, and then that coveted 18 to 34, that younger customer. We skew about 5-percentage-points higher than some of the other pet retailers.

是的。我的意思是，很顯然，這句話的意思遠不止於寵物方面。但就像任何優秀的零售商一樣，你必須了解你的核心客戶，而我們已經做了調查研究。作為這項研究的一部分，我們研究了我們客戶的年齡組成，特別是我們夢寐以求的 18 至 34 歲的年輕客戶群。我們的價格比其他一些寵物零售商高出約 5 個百分點。

And so that happens to work out nicely because what also is a characteristic of that demographic is they like shopping in stores. And so I think there's been more of a return to stores. That serves us well with who our demographic is. And as we did the customer segmentation work, we took advantage of that, and that's something we're really focused on going forward. But it worked out to be nicely -- nice fit with who our customer is.

這樣一來，結果就剛好很好，因為這個群體的另一個特點是他們喜歡在商店購物。所以我認為人們更多地回歸了實體店購物。這非常適合我們的人口統計特徵。在進行客戶細分工作時，我們充分利用了這一點，這也是我們未來真正關注的重點。但結果卻出乎意料的好——非常符合我們客戶的需求。

Steven Forbes, Guggenheim Securities.

史蒂文福布斯，古根漢證券。

Given the goal of services at scale, I was curious like you did with dog food, if you can frame what percentage of your customers today engage in services in some form or fashion. And then given the customer segmentation work you did around the Passionate Explorer, curious if you can maybe expand on what you're sort of focused on in 2026 to make sure that specific cohort is engaging.

鑑於服務規模化的目標，我很好奇，就像你對狗糧一樣，你是否可以估算出目前有多少百分比的客戶以某種形式或方式參與到服務中來。鑑於您先前針對「熱情探索者」群體所進行的客戶細分工作，我很好奇您是否可以進一步闡述您在 2026 年的關注重點，以確保該特定群體能夠積極參與。

Yes. Let me take that cohort first. What we really learned about the Passionate Explorer is that they value discovery. They look for expertise, which plays in nicely to our services side. They seek innovation. And so -- and there are also somebody that shops more frequently and spends more with us. So our new merchandise strategy is certainly going to resonate with them, frequency of newness, innovation, the store events, and it also acts as a halo for all the other segments.

是的。讓我先帶這群學生。我們從充滿熱情的探索者身上真正了解到的是，他們重視發現。他們尋求的是專業技術，這與我們的服務優勢非常契合。他們追求創新。所以——也有一些人更頻繁地在我們這裡購物，消費更多。因此，我們的新商品策略肯定會引起他們的共鳴，包括新品推出的頻率、創新、門市活動，而且它也為所有其他細分市場起到了光環作用。

And service is a really important part of the Passionate Explorer. Obviously, we still have a lot of room to grow in services. As an example, the hospital side of it, the vet side of it, it's only in about 20% of our chain, roughly 300 stores. So lots of room to grow there. Grooming is in all our stores. And that's an area we talked about on a couple of -- three calls now, we've been improving the technology. We've been making it easier to make appointments. And so I see a lot of growth opportunities there as well.

服務是熱情探索者的重要組成部分。顯然，我們在服務領域還有很大的發展空間。例如，我們連鎖店中只有大約 20% 的門市（約 300 家）提供醫院和獸醫服務。所以那裡還有很大的發展空間。我們所有門市均提供男士理容服務。這是我們在過去兩三次電話會議中討論過的領域，我們一直在改進這項技術。我們一直在簡化預約流程。因此，我認為那裡也有很多發展機會。

But one of the reasons -- I said it many times, services is our moat. It's a point of differentiation for us, and we're going to keep leaning in on services.

但其中一個原因──我多次說過──禮拜是我們的護城河。這是我們的差異化優勢，我們將繼續增加對服務的投入。

And what I'll add to that, Steve, is that what's really important to us is to leverage the whole ecosystem because what we know is the NSPAC for a customer who engages in more than one channel or in services is five times higher than our other customers. So it's really just expanding our relationship with our customer, wherever they want to shop and making sure we're getting that loyalty, retention and higher spend.

史蒂夫，我還要補充一點，對我們來說真正重要的是利用整個生態系統，因為我們知道，對於參與多個管道或服務的客戶而言，其 NSPAC 值比其他客戶高出五倍。所以，這其實就是在拓展我們與客戶的關係，無論他們想在哪裡購物，我們都要確保獲得客戶忠誠度、客戶留存率和更高的消費額。

Simeon Gutman, Morgan Stanley.

西蒙古特曼，摩根士丹利。

Hi, this is Lauren Ng on for Simeon. First, you mentioned 50% of dog customers don't buy dog food from Petco. Curious what parts of your strategy outlined today will capture these customers if they're already loyal to certain brands and platforms, will you be able to leverage your private label for this?

大家好，我是Lauren Ng，為您帶來Simeon的報導。首先，你提到有 50% 的寵物顧客不會在 Petco 購買狗糧。我很好奇，如果這些客戶已經忠於某些品牌和平台，那麼您今天概述的策略的哪些部分能夠吸引他們？您是否能夠利用您的自有品牌來實現這一點？

Yes, great pickup from our prepared remarks. Probably the main reason I shared that with you is it's always easier to grow if you start with your current customers. And as part of our deep dive into who our customer is, where they shop with us, how they buy from us, that was a real big aha for us.

是的，這很好地呼應了我們準備好的發言稿。我跟你分享這件事的主要原因可能是，從現有客戶著手總是更容易成長。在我們深入了解我們的客戶是誰、他們在我們這裡購物的地點、他們如何從我們這裡購買商品的過程中，這對我們來說是一個真正的重大頓悟。

And so as an example, prior to just recently, our groomers had no knowledge of whether a customer -- a dog customer bought food from us. And now we've enabled our groomers with technology to see every customer that comes in, when is the last time they bought dog food from us, what type of dog food are they buying. Is it helping their sensitive skin or some sort of skin problem they have.

舉例來說，就在不久前，我們的美容師根本不知道顧客（狗顧客）是否從我們這裡購買了狗糧。現在，我們利用科技手段讓我們的寵物美容師能夠看到每一位進店的顧客，他們上次從我們這裡購買狗糧是什麼時候，他們購買的是哪種類型的狗糧。它是否對他們的敏感肌膚或某種皮膚問題有所幫助？

And so that's just one example of us being able to cross-sell. And we believe the first place we're going to see growth is as Sabrina just alluded to, NSPAC, really growing the net spend per average customer, and I think we have a real opportunity with our dog customers that aren't buying food from us today.

這只是我們進行交叉銷售的一個例子。我們相信，正如 Sabrina 剛才提到的，我們將首先看到成長的地方是 NSPAC，真正提高每位客戶的淨支出，而且我認為，對於那些目前還沒有從我們這裡購買狗糧的客戶來說，我們有一個真正的機會。

Great. And just quickly following up. You talked about entering Phase III today. Can you share how much of Phase III is currently implemented versus maybe how much room there is to grow?

偉大的。簡單跟進一下。你今天談到了進入第三階段。能否分享一下第三階段目前已實施了多少，以及還有多少發展空間？

Yes. I would say from what the customer sees very little has been implemented yet. From a strategy and team work internally, we have work streams on every one of those I outlined for you today, plus a few others. And so they're in various elements of being lit up for the customers, product may be being shipped right now. Some may not come until second or third-quarter, but very little of it. And you can see from our guide that we expect comp store growth to gain as the year goes by.

是的。我認為，從客戶的角度來看，目前為止真正落實到位的還非常少。從內部策略和團隊合作的角度來看，我們已經針對我今天向你們概述的每一項以及其他一些事項都制定了工作流程。因此，它們正處於為顧客點亮的各種環節中，產品可能正在發貨。有些可能要到第二季或第三季才會到貨，但數量很少。從我們的指南中可以看出，我們預計同店銷售額將在今年持續成長。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

Peter Benedict, Baird.

彼得·本尼迪克特，貝爾德。

So I want -- well, two questions. One, I just didn't know -- Sabrina, if you could expand on kind of the fuel cost comment you made. I think you said something about fuel costs normalized. Just maybe just help us understand maybe the variability with all the macro stuff going on with oil, et cetera.

所以我想問——嗯，兩個問題。第一，我只是不太清楚──薩布麗娜，你能詳細解釋一下你剛才提到的燃油成本問題嗎？我想你剛才提到了燃油成本正常化的問題。或許這能幫助我們理解石油等宏觀經濟因素所帶來的各種變化。

And then my second question is on your expanded fresh effort. You mentioned more freezers. I'm just trying to understand is that you're expanding the frozen fresh product. How about the refrigerated or chiller-based fresh. And I'm curious, is it new brands? Are you expanding with existing brands? Maybe just expand on that effort around fresh a little more if you would.

我的第二個問題是關於你們擴大的新措施。你提到需要更多冰櫃。我只是想了解一下，你們是否在擴大冷凍新鮮產品的銷售範圍。冷藏或冷凍庫保存的新鮮食品怎麼樣？我很好奇，這些都是新品牌嗎？你們是否在拓展現有品牌？如果你願意的話，或許可以再圍繞著「新鮮」這個主題做一些拓展。

Sure. I'll start with the fuel comment. So it's been a bumpy ride the last week or so. So we were just trying to be helpful with regard to our base assumptions in our forecast. But here's how fuel impacts us, and it's similar to every retailer out there.

當然。我先來說說燃料方面的問題。所以過去一週左右的時間裡，日子過得並不輕鬆。所以，我們只是想在預測的基本假設上提供一些幫助。但燃料對我們的影響是這樣的，而且對所有零售商來說都是類似的。

We have our inbound ocean. And that sort of lags, it comes in later into our P&L through cost of goods sold. And then we have our outbound from our DCs to our stores, a lot of it trucking, that can impact more rapidly. And then we have our parcel shipping that can also be impacted.

我們有入港的海洋。這種滯後效應，會在後期透過銷售成本計入我們的損益表。然後，我們的配送中心向門市的出貨，其中許多是透過卡車運輸，這可能會產生更快的影響。此外，我們的包裹運送也可能受到影響。

So we've incorporated in our scenarios in the range we gave, absorbing some of the volatility we've seen in gas prices over the last week or so. But the base assumption is that things start to normalize after Q1.

因此，我們在給出的情景範圍內納入了這些因素，吸收了過去一周左右天然氣價格出現的一些波動。但基本假設是，第一季之後情況會開始恢復正常。

Good. And then as it relates to fresh and frozen, we look at that as one, and it ebbs and flows. And some of it's dependent on when our vendor partners are bringing out new product. And I think the most important factor you should take away from that is, I'm not just telling you we're going to grow fresh. You're seeing that we are making capital investments.

好的。至於新鮮和冷凍食品，我們把它們看作一個整體，它們之間有漲有跌。部分原因取決於我們的供應商合作夥伴何時推出新產品。我認為你應該從中學到的最重要教訓是，我不僅僅是告訴你我們將要發展新事物。您可以看到我們正在進行資本投資。

And in this case, the example was the additional freezer coolers, but we also expect fresh to grow as well. And there are several new lines coming out middle of this year. So that's a category that grew significantly in '25, and we see more growth coming in '26. And some customers use it as a topper. Some customers use it as a full meal. And so sometimes you need fresh, and sometimes you need frozen depending on how you're using it with your respective pet. But a big growth area for us. We're really excited about it.

在這個例子中，我們以額外的冷凍冷藏櫃為例，但我們也預期新鮮冷藏櫃的數量也會增加。今年年中還將推出幾條新的產品線。所以，這是 2025 年成長顯著的類別，我們預計 2026 年將有更大的成長。有些顧客把它當作蛋糕裝飾用。有些顧客把它當作正餐食用。所以，有時你需要新鮮的，有時你需要冷凍的，這取決於你如何使用它來餵養你的寵物。但對我們來說，這是一個巨大的成長領域。我們對此感到非常興奮。

Zach Fadem, Wells Fargo.

札克法德姆，富國銀行。

This is David Lantz on for Zach. I guess first one for me. Within the '26 outlook for top line growth, what are you assuming for the broader category, and how did your performance stack up relative to peers in '24 from -- or excuse me, in Q4 from a share perspective?

這裡是David Lantz替Zach報道。我想這應該是我的第一個吧。在 2026 年營收成長展望中，您對整個產業有何假設？ 2024 年（或更準確地說，從市場佔有率的角度來看，2024 年第四季）您的業績與同業相比如何？

Well, look, I -- we're not going to break it down by specific areas. I think the focus on our end is to grow overall top line growth. And some of that will come from consumables, obviously, because that's over 50% of our business. But we're really -- as you can tell from my comments, we've got initiatives in all aspects of the business, services, consumables, companion animal supplies, and obviously, with us intentionally reducing unprofitable sales last year, we gave up some market share. And with our growth this year, we'll start to gain that back.

嗯，你看，我們不會按具體領域進行細分。我認為我們這邊的重點是實現整體營收成長。顯然，其中一部分收入將來自消耗品，因為消耗品占我們業務的 50% 以上。但正如你從我的演講中可以看出，我們在業務的各個方面都有舉措，包括服務、消耗品、寵物用品等等。顯然，由於我們去年有意減少了不盈利的銷售，我們失去了一些市場份額。隨著我們今年的成長，我們將開始彌補損失。

Yes. And I would just add to that, this year is really more about another self-health year as we look to grow sales. We're not overly reliant. We're not counting on big tailwinds from the sector. I mean, we feel like we have all of these opportunities that Joel outlined and these initiatives are going to really support our outlook.

是的。我還要補充一點，今年我們更重視提升個人健康，同時也尋求增加銷售。我們並不過度依賴。我們並不指望該行業會帶來巨大的利多因素。我的意思是，我們覺得我們擁有喬爾概述的所有機會，這些舉措將真正支持我們的前景。

And as for how we think about our share, even though, yes, we gave up a little top line in '25, we really grew a lot of bottom line. So we've cleaned up the business. We're coming from a strong foundation. There's an opportunity, as Joel said, to first grow share of wallet with our current customers.

至於我們如何看待我們的份額，雖然我們在 2025 年的收入確實有所下降，但我們的利潤卻大幅增加。所以我們已經整頓公司了。我們擁有堅實的基礎。正如喬爾所說，我們有機會先提高現有客戶的錢包份額。

I think the next opportunity to pick off is sort of small independents and small chains who have about 4-percentage-points of market share in the pet sector. So there's lots of opportunities for us to go after without being overly reliant on any tailwind.

我認為下一個可以瞄準的目標應該是那些在寵物產業中佔有率只有 4 個百分點左右的小型獨立商家和小型連鎖店。因此，我們有很多機會可以去爭取，而不必過度依賴任何順風。

Got it. That's really helpful. And then one more. Within Q1 and the midpoint of the guide being flat comps, is there anything we should keep in mind that's embedded within that for stimulus and/or store closures from winter storms here quarter-to-date?

知道了。這真的很有幫助。然後又來了一個。在第一季度，且業績指引中點為同店銷售額持平的情況下，我們是否應該考慮到本季迄今的刺激措施和/或冬季風暴導致的門市關閉等因素？

Yes. You know what we've taken into account, there's so many pluses and minuses in this kind of noisy macro we're living through. So sure. I mean, on the plus side, you've got like the tax refunds coming in all -- can only be a positive. On the minus side now, as we just talked about, you have some fuel pressure.

是的。你知道我們已經考慮到了哪些因素，我們所處的這種吵雜的宏觀環境有利有弊。當然可以。我的意思是，好的一面是，例如退稅款都會陸續到帳——這肯定是件好事。不利的一面是，正如我們剛才討論的那樣，燃油壓力存在問題。

So we've kind of tried to bake those scenarios within our guidance, and we don't -- we haven't been overly reliant on any of those levers because, again, even with the taxes, one doesn't know how much will go to savings versus spending, et cetera. Now what we like about this environment, or what we like about our customers, I should say, is our customers skew to the higher end of the income spectrum.

因此，我們已經嘗試將這些情況納入我們的指導方針中，而且我們並沒有過度依賴任何這些手段，因為，再說一遍，即使有稅收，人們也不知道有多少會用於儲蓄，有多少會用於支出等等。我們喜歡這種環境的一點，或者更確切地說，我們喜歡客戶的一點是，我們的客戶群偏向收入較高的人。

So that's good news for us because that end of the spectrum can obviously withstand macro changes without it being as large of a percentage to their overall well-being.

這對我們來說是個好消息，因為光譜的這一端顯然能夠承受宏觀變化，而不會對其整體福祉造成過大的影響。

And then as far as weather goes, first-quarter is always volatile, volatile last year, volatility in it this year. But the way I think about a big picture is by the time the quarter is done, the volatility kind of evens out with pluses and minuses, and that's kind of what -- how we thought about it in the guide for this year.

至於天氣方面，第一季總是波動較大，去年波動較大，今年也波動較大。但我認為，從大局來看，到季度末，波動性會趨於平衡，正負值都會有所變化，而這正是我們在今年的業績指南中所考慮的。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Roxanne Meyer for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我謹將會議交還給羅克珊·邁耶，請她作總結發言。

Great. I want to thank everyone for joining the call today, and we look forward to updating you on our progress.

偉大的。感謝大家今天參加電話會議，我們期待向大家報告我們的進度。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議已經結束。感謝各位參加今天的報告會。您現在可以斷開連線了。