Wolverine World Wide Inc (WWW) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to the Wolverine World Wide, Inc. Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded.

問候。歡迎參加 Wolverine World Wide, Inc. 2023 年第二季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。

I will now turn the conference over to your host, Alex Wiseman, Vice President of Finance. You may begin.

現在我將會議交給東道主財務副總裁亞歷克斯·懷斯曼 (Alex Wiseman)。你可以開始了。

Good morning, and welcome to our second quarter 2023 conference call. On the call today are Tom Long, Chairman of the Board; Chris Hufnagel, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Mike Stornant, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

早上好，歡迎參加我們的 2023 年第二季度電話會議。今天參加電話會議的是董事會主席 Tom Long；克里斯·赫夫納格爾 (Chris Hufnagel)，總裁兼首席執行官；執行副總裁兼首席財務官邁克·斯托南特 (Mike Stornant)。

Earlier this morning, we issued our earnings press release and announced our financial results for the second quarter 2023. The press release is available on many news sites and can be viewed on our corporate website at wolverineworldwide.com. This morning's earnings press release and comments made during today's earnings call include non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures were reconciled to the most comparable GAAP financial measures and attached tables within the body of the release.

今天早上早些時候，我們發布了收益新聞稿，並公佈了 2023 年第二季度的財務業績。該新聞稿可在許多新聞網站上找到，也可以在我們的公司網站 wolverineworldwide.com 上查看。今天早上的收益新聞稿和今天的收益電話會議上的評論包括非公認會計準則財務指標。這些非公認會計原則財務指標與最具可比性的公認會計原則財務指標進行了調整，並附有新聞稿正文中的表格。

I'd also like to remind you that statements describing the company's expectations, plans, predictions and projections, such as those regarding the company's outlook for fiscal 2023, growth opportunities and trends expected to affect the company's future performance made during today's conference call are forward-looking statements under U.S. securities laws. As a result, we must caution you that there are a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These important risk factors are identified in the company's SEC filings and in our press releases.

我還想提醒您，在今天的電話會議上做出的描述公司預期、計劃、預測和預測的陳述，例如有關公司2023 財年展望、預計將影響公司未來業績的增長機會和趨勢的陳述，均屬前瞻性陳述。根據美國證券法的聲明。因此，我們必須提醒您，有許多因素可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述中描述的結果存在重大差異。這些重要的風險因素已在公司向 SEC 提交的文件和我們的新聞稿中確定。

With that being said, I'd now like to turn the call over to Tom Long.

話雖如此，我現在想把電話轉給湯姆·朗。

Thank you for joining today's call. Before the team discusses earnings, I'd like to address the leadership transition we announced today. Effective immediately, the Board has appointed Chris Hufnagel to succeed Brendan Hoffman as CEO of Wolverine World Wide. The Board recognizes that Wolverine World Wide needs to deliver improved financial performance, and the company must evolve to build brands that ignite consumer desire. We must ensure that everything we do begins with our product design, our brands and the people that buy them. This can't merely be words. We have to develop the business systems, the management routines and the consumer insights that drive excellence from the very top. We also must ensure that everything we do begins with our customers. Accordingly, the Board has taken decisive action to appoint a CEO who brings the experience and leadership required to put the company on the right course.

感謝您參加今天的電話會議。在團隊討論收益之前，我想先談談我們今天宣布的領導層換屆。董事會任命 Chris Hufnagel 接替 Brendan Hoffman 擔任 Wolverine World Wide 首席執行官，立即生效。董事會認識到 Wolverine World Wide 需要改善財務業績，公司必須不斷發展，打造激發消費者慾望的品牌。我們必須確保我們所做的一切都始於我們的產品設計、我們的品牌和購買它們的人。這不能只是說說而已。我們必須開發業務系統、管理程序和消費者洞察，從最高層推動卓越。我們還必須確保我們所做的一切都從客戶開始。因此，董事會已採取果斷行動，任命一位首席執行官，他將帶來使公司走上正確道路所需的經驗和領導力。

A few words on Chris' background. Chris has been an effective leader throughout his long tenure at Wolverine World Wide, including as Global Brand President of the company's Active Group, which includes our 2 largest brands, Merrell and Saucony. Chris has covered almost every area of this company in increasingly dynamic leadership roles. And he also has extensive leadership experience in prior roles at Under Armour, the Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch. The Board elevated Chris to CEO for a few main reasons.

簡單介紹一下克里斯的背景。 Chris 在 Wolverine World Wide 的長期任職期間一直是一位卓有成效的領導者，包括擔任公司 Active Group 的全球品牌總裁，該集團包括我們最大的 2 個品牌 Merrell 和 Saucony。克里斯幾乎涉足了公司的各個領域，擔任的領導職務日益活躍。他還曾在 Under Armour、Gap 和 Abercrombie & Fitch 擔任過職務，擁有豐富的領導經驗。董事會任命克里斯為首席執行官有幾個主要原因。

Most importantly, he knows how to build brands, which is essential for our success. He's a decisive, high-energy leader who displays good judgment and a willingness to embrace change. He brings a demonstrated playbook that the Board believes in from his prior strategic roles, a clear view of what needs to be improved now. Two specific examples help capture Chris' contributions to Wolverine over the years and they speak to our confidence in his ability to lead the company. First, Chris led our first-ever Consumer Insights Market Intelligence team that drives customer obsession every day. I expect Chris to bring this operating philosophy to the entire business, building the focus on excellence in execution from the very top.

最重要的是，他知道如何打造品牌，這對我們的成功至關重要。他是一位果斷、精力充沛的領導者，表現出良好的判斷力和擁抱變革的意願。他帶來了一份經過驗證的劇本，董事會對他之前的戰略角色深信不疑，對現在需要改進的地方有清晰的認識。兩個具體的例子有助於體現克里斯多年來對金剛狼的貢獻，它們表明我們對他領導公司的能力充滿信心。首先，克里斯領導了我們有史以來第一個消費者洞察市場情報團隊，該團隊每天都在推動客戶的痴迷。我希望克里斯將這種經營理念帶入整個企業，從最高層開始注重卓越的執行力。

Second, as Merrell Brand President from 2021 to 2022, Chris led the brand to back-to-back all-time record revenues while more than doubling our e-commerce business. As a result of these successes and many others, Chris has built a large and loyal following inside Wolverine World Wide and with the Board. And we are confident he will operate with urgency and focus for our shareholders. To our shareholders, it's no secret that our results have disappointed recently. However, we continue to believe that Wolverine World Wide can deliver strong financial performance and attractive shareholder returns under the right leadership. We have no time to spare. And that's why we are announcing this change today.

其次，克里斯在 2021 年至 2022 年擔任 Merrell 品牌總裁期間，帶領該品牌連續創下收入歷史新高，同時我們的電子商務業務增長了一倍多。由於這些成功和其他許多成功，克里斯在 Wolverine World Wide 內部和董事會中建立了大批忠實的追隨者。我們相信他會緊迫並專注於我們的股東。對於我們的股東來說，我們最近的業績令人失望，這已不是什麼秘密。然而，我們仍然相信，在正確的領導下，Wolverine World Wide 能夠實現強勁的財務業績和有吸引力的股東回報。我們沒有多餘的時間。這就是我們今天宣布這一變化的原因。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Chris Hufnagel, our Chief Executive Officer.

接下來，我會將電話轉給我們的首席執行官克里斯·赫夫納格爾 (Chris Hufnagel)。

Thank you, Tom. Good morning, everyone. I'm Chris Hufnagel, and I'm pleased to join you on this call as Wolverine World Wide's new President and Chief Executive Officer. I would like to express my appreciation to Tom Long and the Board of Directors for their vote of confidence in me for this new assignment, a role I'm honored to take. I would also like to thank my colleagues from across the entire organization for their hard work and support for me over the past 15 years. I'm ready for this next chapter in our company's 140-year story and excited to work together to navigate this challenging time and position our brands and company for success in the future.

謝謝你，湯姆。大家，早安。我是 Chris Hufnagel，很高興作為 Wolverine World Wide 的新任總裁兼首席執行官參加這次電話會議。我要向 Tom Long 和董事會表示感謝，他們對我的這項新任務投了信任票，我很榮幸擔任這一職務。我還要感謝整個組織的同事在過去 15 年裡對我的辛勤工作和支持。我已準備好迎接我們公司 140 年曆史的新篇章，並很高興能夠共同努力，度過這個充滿挑戰的時期，並為我們的品牌和公司在未來取得成功奠定基礎。

Before getting into the numbers and our path forward, I want to briefly introduce myself to you. Prior to joining Wolverine World Wide, I was fortunate to work for some amazing brands, including Under Armour, the Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch and to be mentored by some truly great leaders, leaders who obsess daily about brand, product and their consumers. Since joining Wolverine, I have developed an intimate knowledge of the company, our brands, our processes, our people, our partners and the industry. I understand both the challenges and opportunities facing Wolverine today, and we're ready to move with pace to strengthen our footing and ultimately deliver better results for our shareholders.

在討論數字和我們的前進道路之前，我想向您簡要介紹一下自己。在加入Wolverine World Wide 之前，我很幸運地為一些出色的品牌工作過，包括Under Armour、Gap 和Abercrombie & Fitch，並得到了一些真正偉大的領導者的指導，這些領導者每天都痴迷於品牌、產品和消費者。自從加入 Wolverine 以來，我對公司、我們的品牌、我們的流程、我們的員工、我們的合作夥伴和行業有了深入的了解。我了解金剛狼今天面臨的挑戰和機遇，我們已準備好加快步伐，鞏固我們的基礎，最終為我們的股東帶來更好的業績。

Strong on my experiences and, more importantly, levering our talented team, I firmly believe we have the playbook and capabilities that can get this company back on track. I've hit the ground running and excited about the work ahead. For my very first call with you, let me start with what matters most on our journey to create shareholder value, brands. Wolverine World Wide must transform to become a great builder of brands. I believe great brands do 3 things extraordinarily well, day in and day out.

憑藉我的經驗，更重要的是，憑藉我們才華橫溢的團隊，我堅信我們擁有可以讓這家公司重回正軌的劇本和能力。我已經開始行動，並對未來的工作感到興奮。在與您的第一次通話中，讓我從我們創造股東價值的旅程中最重要的事情開始，即品牌。 Wolverine World Wide 必須轉型，成為偉大的品牌建設者。我相信偉大的品牌日復一日地在三件事上做得非常出色。

First, they build awesome products, innovative, trend-right, priced right, covetable products, informed by deep insights that solve for consumers wants and needs. Second, great brands tell amazing stories, differentiated, meaningful stories and experiences that meet their consumers when and where they want to be met. Modern brands must also engage in an ongoing push-pull relationship with their consumers. Third and finally, great brands have great teams driving the business each and every day, a constant and relentless pursuit to build and protect their brand and to be better tomorrow than today. This is a new brand building model for Wolverine World Wide, a model and playbook we put into practice at Cat Footwear and Merrell, which drove those brands to new heights and will now implement this playbook across the portfolio, leading to a repeatable pattern of success.

首先，他們打造出色的產品，創新、順應潮流、價格合理、令人垂涎的產品，並通過深刻的洞察來解決消費者的需求。其次，偉大的品牌會講述精彩的故事、與眾不同的、有意義的故事和體驗，在消費者想要的時間和地點滿足他們的需求。現代品牌還必須與消費者建立持續的推拉關係。第三，也是最後一點，偉大的品牌擁有偉大的團隊，每天都在推動業務發展，不斷不懈地追求建立和保護自己的品牌，讓明天比今天更好。這是Wolverine World Wide 的新品牌建設模型，我們在Cat Footwear 和Merrell 實踐了該模型和劇本，將這些品牌推向了新的高度，現在將在整個產品組合中實施該劇本，從而形成可重複的成功模式。

Turning to the company's current position. While I'm excited about the future, our financial update this morning is well short of expectations. Mike Stornant will cover the most recent quarter's results and the contributors of the updated outlook in more detail shortly, but we've seen softness in the marketplace and headwinds impacting the business that we now expect to continue into the second half of the year. We expect these headwinds to abate over the coming quarters as consumers move past current economic uncertainties, inventories become cleaner at retail, post-COVID trends normalize and we lap tough comparisons. Despite the current situation and the near-term outlook, I believe we have a strong foundation in place at Wolverine today, with industry-leading authentic brands loved around the world, yet I know they've yet to reach their full potential. Within our Active Group, Merrell, Saucony and Sweaty Betty are poised to benefit from long-term secular trends in big, attractive markets.

談到公司目前的定位。雖然我對未來感到興奮，但我們今天早上的財務更新遠遠低於預期。邁克·斯托南特（Mike Stornant）很快將更詳細地介紹最近一個季度的業績以及更新前景的貢獻者，但我們已經看到市場疲軟和不利因素對業務的影響，我們現在預計這種情況將持續到今年下半年。我們預計，隨著消費者擺脫當前的經濟不確定性、零售庫存變得更加清潔、疫情后趨勢正常化以及我們進行嚴格的比較，這些不利因素將在未來幾個季度減弱。儘管面臨當前形勢和近期前景，我相信我們今天在 Wolverine 擁有堅實的基礎，擁有深受世界各地喜愛的行業領先的正宗品牌，但我知道它們尚未充分發揮潛力。在我們的 Active Group 中，Merrell、Saucony 和 Sweaty Betty 準備從有吸引力的大市場的長期趨勢中受益。

Moreover, we have category-leading brands in areas like work where Wolverine and Cat Footwear own about 20% of domestic market share and generate strong, consistent returns. At the same time, Wolverine benefits from strong global platforms, a great global operations group, amazing partners and corporate centers of excellence that allow our brands to focus on their consumers, products and demand creation. Finally, we have a great team, dedicated to our consumers, our brands and each other. I believe we have significant opportunity in front of us, and I'm confident in our ability to generate long-term growth, profitability and shareholder value. But to deliver on that promise, we need to take bolder and faster actions.

此外，我們在 Work 等領域擁有行業領先品牌，Wolverine 和 Cat Footwear 擁有約 20% 的國內市場份額，並產生強勁、持續的回報。與此同時，Wolverine 受益於強大的全球平台、強大的全球運營團隊、出色的合作夥伴和卓越的企業中心，使我們的品牌能夠專注於消費者、產品和需求創造。最後，我們擁有一支優秀的團隊，致力於我們的消費者、我們的品牌和彼此。我相信我們面前有重大機遇，我對我們實現長期增長、盈利和股東價值的能力充滿信心。但為了兌現這一承諾，我們需要採取更大膽、更快的行動。

Over the last 18 months, Wolverine has taken several important steps as we reposition the company. While not all these actions are benefiting our results today, the seeds are planted to drive meaningful change and improvements across our organization over the next several quarters.

在過去 18 個月裡，Wolverine 在重新定位公司時採取了幾個重要步驟。雖然並非所有這些行動都對我們今天的業績有益，但它們已播下種子，以推動我們組織在未來幾個季度進行有意義的變革和改進。

To quickly highlight our actions in motion, we're effectively getting our inventories back in line. I'm pleased to report that at the end of the quarter, we're $25 million lower than we expected to be and we're on track to achieve a $225 million reduction in inventory versus 2022 by year-end. Our Profit Improvement Office designed to free capacity for increased investments in our brands, is on track to deliver its goals for 2023, along with our targeted full year savings in 2024. Critical enterprise-wide tools and process initiatives, specifically, end-to-end planning and product line management are on schedule and will allow us to be both more accurate and more agile in managing our business.

為了快速突出我們的行動，我們正在有效地恢復庫存。我很高興地向大家報告，到本季度末，我們的成本比預期低了 2500 萬美元，並且我們有望在年底實現庫存比 2022 年減少 2.25 億美元。我們的利潤改進辦公室旨在釋放產能以增加對我們品牌的投資，有望實現 2023 年的目標以及 2024 年全年節省的目標。關鍵的企業範圍工具和流程計劃，特別是端到端最終規劃和產品線管理正在按計劃進行，這將使我們能夠更準確、更靈活地管理我們的業務。

On the brand front, several of Merrell's new launches into hike and trail running are seeing positive traction. And I'm pleased to report Merrell is gaining market share in the important Hike category for each of the past 10 months. Saucony is seeing early signs of strong product acceptance for recent introductions, specifically the Triumph 21 and say, we're also seeing a halo effect for other styles within the assortment. Encouragingly, Sweaty Betty performed better than we expected in the most recent quarter and saw a positive response to the new product introductions. We've also accelerated our integration efforts for the brand, and that work is yielding both better synergies and cost efficiencies. Finally, we have new leaders in our 3 key growth brands, Merrell, Saucony and Sweaty Betty, all consumer-centric strategic thought leaders. I'm excited about working together with these new leaders. They bring deep experience and passion for their teams and results, along with a strong sense of urgency.

在品牌方面，梅雷爾針對遠足和越野跑推出的幾款新產品受到了積極的關注。我很高興地報告，在過去 10 個月裡，Merrell 在重要的徒步旅行類別中的市場份額逐年增加。 Saucony 看到了近期推出的產品（特別是 Triumph 21）受到強烈產品接受的早期跡象，並且我們還看到該系列中其他款式的光環效應。令人鼓舞的是，Sweaty Betty 在最近一個季度的表現好於我們的預期，並且對新產品的推出產生了積極的反響。我們還加快了品牌整合工作，這項工作正在產生更好的協同效應和成本效率。最後，我們的 3 個關鍵增長品牌 Merrell、Saucony 和 Sweaty Betty 迎來了新的領導者，他們都是以消費者為中心的戰略思想領導者。我很高興與這些新領導者一起工作。他們為團隊和成果帶來豐富的經驗和熱情，以及強烈的緊迫感。

We've also initiated other critical efforts to transform our portfolio in global operations to have a more focused approach, targeting our biggest opportunities while streamlining our organization to be more agile and efficient. Key steps we've taken include the sale of Keds, the licensing of Hush Puppies business in North America and the decision to pursue strategic alternatives for Sperry and the Wolverine Leathers Group, a more strategic integrated and efficient approach to managing our business.

我們還發起了其他重要工作，以轉變我們在全球運營中的投資組合，以採取更有針對性的方法，瞄准我們最大的機會，同時精簡我們的組織，使其更加敏捷和高效。我們採取的關鍵步驟包括出售 Keds、獲得 Hush Puppies 在北美的業務許可，以及決定為 Sperry 和 Wolverine Leathers Group 尋求戰略替代方案，這是一種更具戰略性的綜合性和高效的業務管理方法。

To this end, this week, we announced the consolidation of our U.S. offices, including the closure of our Boston campus at year-end. This decision will drive increased collaboration across our teams and accelerate the sharing of best practices across the organization, including the implementation of the brand-building playbook. I'm excited to have all our footwear brands under one roof in the near future.

為此，本週我們宣布整合美國辦事處，包括在年底關閉波士頓園區。這一決定將推動我們團隊之間加強協作，並加速整個組織內最佳實踐的共享，包括品牌建設手冊的實施。我很高興在不久的將來我們所有的鞋類品牌都集中在一個屋簷下。

On the operations front, we're actioning a more strategic long-term approach to our global supply chain, working with the best partners to drive improved reliability, costing, efficiency, transparency and agility, ultimately making our supply chain a competitive advantage for our brands and partners.

在運營方面，我們正在對全球供應鏈採取更具戰略性的長期方法，與最佳合作夥伴合作，提高可靠性、成本、效率、透明度和敏捷性，最終使我們的供應鏈成為我們的競爭優勢。品牌和合作夥伴。

I would like to make it clear that we're not starting over. We have a good, sound strategy in place. We have a proven, scalable playbook, authentic brands and amazing talent. The recent challenges have only made it clear that we need to move faster and be bolder to achieve our fullest potential. As we navigate the current challenges, our focus must be to stabilize the financial footing of the company, which are making progress on each day, while also finding capacity to reinvest in our brands and ultimately reallocate resources to realign our competencies to become better brand builders, focused on consumer obsession, product innovation and modern demand creation.

我想明確表示我們不會重新開始。我們制定了良好、健全的戰略。我們擁有經過驗證的、可擴展的策略、可靠的品牌和令人驚嘆的人才。最近的挑戰清楚地表明，我們需要更快、更大膽地行動，以充分發揮我們的潛力。當我們應對當前的挑戰時，我們的重點必須是穩定公司的財務基礎，公司每天都在取得進步，同時還要尋找能力對我們的品牌進行再投資，並最終重新分配資源，以重新調整我們的能力，成為更好的品牌建設者，專注於消費者癡迷、產品創新和現代需求創造。

Despite the near-term challenges, we have a plan in place to advance our strategic priorities, deleverage the balance sheet and maintain capacity to invest in building our brands. We remain confident in our ability to return to a 12% operating margin in a variety of economic backdrops and have line of sight to achieving this target in 2024.

儘管面臨近期挑戰，我們仍制定了計劃來推進我們的戰略重點、去槓桿化資產負債表並保持投資建設品牌的能力。我們對在各種經濟背景下恢復 12% 營業利潤率的能力仍然充滿信心，並有望在 2024 年實現這一目標。

Mike will walk you through a bridge here shortly and how we see this playing out over the next 18 months. But before I hand the call over to Mike, I want to emphasize 3 points that I hope you take away about our framework to drive shareholder value. I'm excited about this new opportunity to lead the organization with a proven playbook in hand that we leveraged across our entire business with the team ready to execute. We're attacking the critical issues that face our company, and we're well positioned to capitalize on the many opportunities we have in front of us, all through a commitment to being bolder and faster.

邁克很快就會帶您走過這裡的一座橋，以及我們如何看待未來 18 個月的發展。但在將電話交給 Mike 之前，我想強調三點，希望您了解我們推動股東價值的框架。我很高興有這個新機會來領導該組織，手頭有一本經過驗證的劇本，我們在整個業務中利用了該劇本，並讓團隊做好了執行的準備。我們正在解決公司面臨的關鍵問題，並且我們有能力利用擺在我們面前的許多機會，這一切都是通過更加大膽和更快的承諾來實現的。

Gradual improvement will not be sufficient. We have an actionable pragmatic plan in place to advance strategic priorities, deleverage the balance sheet and maintain capacity to invest in building our key growth brands while accounting for the challenges we see. We look forward to sharing more updates with you on our progress in the coming months.

逐步改善是不夠的。我們制定了可行的務實計劃，以推進戰略重點、去槓桿化資產負債表並保持投資建設我們的關鍵增長品牌的能力，同時應對我們所看到的挑戰。我們期待在未來幾個月與您分享更多有關我們進展的最新信息。

Now over to Mike Stornant, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mike?

現在請我們的執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Mike Stornant 發言。麥克風？

Thanks, Chris, and thank you all for joining the call. Let me start by briefly recapping the second quarter financial highlights. I will then cover some of the challenging trends that have impacted our revised outlook and the important work we are doing to drive significant profit improvement and debt pay down over the coming months. Second quarter revenue for our ongoing business of $578 million was in line with our outlook and down 14% from last year. Adjusted gross margin of 39% was below our expectations. In the second half of the quarter, we saw a decline in full-price sales to our U.S. wholesale customers as they cautiously tightened their open-to-buy to manage inventory. These full-price sales were replaced with lower gross margin shipments to international distributors.

謝謝克里斯，也感謝大家加入這次電話會議。讓我首先簡要回顧一下第二季度的財務亮點。然後，我將介紹一些影響我們修訂後的前景的具有挑戰性的趨勢，以及我們為推動未來幾個月利潤顯著改善和債務償還而正在做的重要工作。我們持續業務的第二季度收入為 5.78 億美元，與我們的預期相符，比去年下降 14%。調整後毛利率為 39%，低於我們的預期。在本季度下半年，我們看到美國批發客戶的全價銷售量下降，因為他們謹慎地收緊了開放採購以管理庫存。這些全價銷售被向國際分銷商的毛利率較低的發貨所取代。

In addition, we accelerated the liquidation of end-of-life inventory at lower-than-planned prices, which negatively impacted gross margin, but helped us to drive inventory levels down by $25 million more than planned. Recall that Q2 gross margin includes the negative impact of $20 million of transitory supply chain costs. These costs will decline in the back half of the year and will not recur in 2024.

此外，我們以低於計劃的價格加速了報廢庫存的清算，這對毛利率產生了負面影響，但幫助我們將庫存水平比計劃降低了 2500 萬美元。回想一下，第二季度的毛利率包括 2000 萬美元的臨時供應鏈成本的負面影響。這些成本將在今年下半年下降，並且在 2024 年不會再次出現。

Adjusted operating margin was 5.8%. The strong cost management offsetting the shortfall in gross profit. Reported operating margin was 7.8%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $0.19, in line with our guidance, but reported diluted earnings per share was $0.30. Inventory for the ongoing business was $648 million, up 7% compared to last year and down nearly $100 million compared to the Q4 of 2022. We ended the quarter with net debt of $930 million, liquidity of $370 million and a bank-defined leverage ratio of 3.5x.

調整後營業利潤率為 5.8%。強有力的成本管理抵消了毛利的缺口。報告營業利潤率為 7.8%。本季度調整後的稀釋每股收益為 0.19 美元，與我們的指導一致，但報告的稀釋每股收益為 0.30 美元。持續業務的庫存為6.48 億美元，比去年增長7%，與2022 年第四季度相比減少近1 億美元。本季度結束時，我們的淨債務為9.3 億美元，流動性為3.7 億美元，銀行定義的槓桿率3.5 倍。

Now let me transition to our 2023 outlook for the full year. Our guidance reflects the expected performance of our ongoing business, which excludes the full year projections of Keds and Wolverine Leathers and adjust for the licensing transition for Hush Puppies in the second half of the year. We continue to evaluate strategic alternatives for Sperry and those results remain in our outlook for 2023. Since May, Sperry's revenue outlook has declined $55 million and operating profit has declined nearly $25 million.

現在讓我談談我們對 2023 年全年的展望。我們的指引反映了我們正在進行的業務的預期業績，其中不包括 Keds 和 Wolverine Leathers 的全年預測，並根據下半年 Hush Puppies 的許可過渡進行調整。我們繼續評估 Sperry 的戰略替代方案，這些結果仍保留在我們對 2023 年的展望中。自 5 月份以來，Sperry 的收入預期下降了 5500 萬美元，營業利潤下降了近 2500 萬美元。

Like many other companies in our industry, we continue to see softness in our U.S. and European footwear wholesale businesses as retailers remain cautious. Our May guidance did not contemplate the increase in order cancellations or the decline in new orders that have been experienced over the last 10 weeks. These factors have negatively impacted our current wholesale sell-in by approximately $90 million for the second half of the year. During that same time, U.S. D2C trends have declined more than expected. Finally, we have seen some reduction in demand from certain third-party distributors for the back half of the year as they adjust to lower consumer demand in their markets and also manage inventory.

與我們行業的許多其他公司一樣，由於零售商保持謹慎態度，我們的美國和歐洲鞋類批發業務繼續疲軟。我們的 5 月份指引並未考慮過去 10 週訂單取消的增加或新訂單的下降。這些因素對我們目前下半年的批發銷售額產生了約 9000 萬美元的負面影響。同期，美國 D2C 趨勢的下降幅度超出預期。最後，我們看到某些第三方分銷商在今年下半年的需求有所減少，因為他們進行了調整以適應市場中較低的消費者需求並管理庫存。

We are now assuming that these most recent trends will continue for the remainder of this year, and we are, therefore, taking a more conservative approach to our 2023 revenue outlook. This approach will allow us to limit inventory risk and achieve our year-end inventory target of $520 million, setting fiscal 2024 up for cleaner training, more capacity to flow new product innovation and less pressure on gross margin from off-price sales. A revised outlook for revenue from our ongoing business is now expected in the range of $2.26 billion to $2.28 billion.

我們現在假設這些最新趨勢將在今年剩餘時間內持續下去，因此，我們對 2023 年收入前景採取更為保守的態度。這種方法將使我們能夠限制庫存風險，實現 5.2 億美元的年終庫存目標，為 2024 財年進行更清潔的培訓、提高新產品創新的能力以及減少低價銷售對毛利率的壓力做好準備。目前，我們現有業務的收入展望修訂後預計在 22.6 億美元至 22.8 億美元之間。

Adjusted gross margin is expected to be approximately 40%, down from our previous guidance of 42%. The decline is a result of lower Q2 performance described earlier, a lower mix of footwear D2C sales in the overall mix and lower revenue now expected in our full-price channels.

調整後的毛利率預計約為 40%，低於我們之前指導的 42%。下降的原因是前面描述的第二季度業績下降、鞋類 D2C 銷售在整體組合中的組合減少以及我們全價渠道目前預計收入下降。

We continue to evaluate pricing actions that could help drive stronger retail sell-through over the coming months. Please recall that the gross margin outlook includes $70 million of transitory costs and approximately $20 million of excess inventory liquidation costs. Combined, these costs represent 400 basis points of annual gross margin pressure that will not recur next year.

我們將繼續評估有助於在未來幾個月推動零售銷量增長的定價行動。請記住，毛利率前景包括 7000 萬美元的臨時成本和約 2000 萬美元的超額庫存清算成本。這些成本加起來意味著 400 個基點的年度毛利率壓力，而明年不會再出現這種壓力。

Adjusted selling, general and administrative expenses are now projected to be approximately 35% of sales and adjusted operating margin is expected to be approximately 5%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $0.45 to $0.55. Year-end inventory is still expected to improve by approximately $225 million compared to the prior year. Operating free cash flow is now expected to be in the range of $80 million to $100 million. In addition, we are currently pursuing the sale of certain noncore assets for at least $50 million and expect these to be completed over the coming months. Including the proceeds from these asset sales, we expect year-end net debt to be approximately $850 million and bank-defined debt leverage to be approximately 3x.

調整後的銷售、一般和管理費用目前預計約為銷售額的 35%，調整後的營業利潤率預計約為 5%。調整後稀釋每股收益預計在 0.45 美元至 0.55 美元之間。年末庫存預計仍比上年增加約 2.25 億美元。目前預計運營自由現金流在 8000 萬至 1 億美元之間。此外，我們目前正在尋求以至少 5000 萬美元的價格出售某些非核心資產，預計這些資產將在未來幾個月內完成。包括這些資產出售的收益，我們預計年末淨債務約為 8.5 億美元，銀行定義的債務槓桿約為 3 倍。

Now let me provide our outlook for the third quarter. We expect revenue of approximately $515 million, down 21% compared to last year. In 2022, shipments to third-party distributors in Q3 were abnormally high by approximately $50 million due to a shift in timing. So on a more normalized comparison, projected Q3 revenue is down about 14%. We expect adjusted gross margin of approximately 42%, including $12 million of transitory supply chain expenses expected in the quarter. Adjusted diluted earnings per share is expected in the range of $0.05 to $0.10. This outlook reflects trends experienced in July and the expectation that they will continue through the quarter.

現在讓我對第三季度進行展望。我們預計收入約為 5.15 億美元，比去年下降 21%。 2022 年，由於時間的變化，第三季度向第三方分銷商的出貨量異常高約 5000 萬美元。因此，按照更標準化的比較，預計第三季度收入將下降約 14%。我們預計調整後毛利率約為 42%，其中包括本季度預計的 1200 萬美元臨時供應鏈費用。調整後的稀釋每股收益預計在 0.05 美元至 0.10 美元之間。這一前景反映了 7 月份的趨勢以及對整個季度將持續的預期。

Finally, let me provide insight into the near-term improvements we now expect in the business. We remain very confident in our ability to significantly improve our profit performance in 2024, while we pay down debt to more normal levels over the next 6 quarters. During 2023, we will recognize $90 million of transitory supply chain and incremental inventory liquidation costs that will not recur in 2024. The Profit Improvement Office started in November of 2022 has secured approximately $70 million of savings for 2023 and we have line of sight to an incremental $130 million in savings for 2024, now yielding a full year run rate of $200 million.

最後，讓我深入了解我們現在期望的業務近期改進。我們對 2024 年顯著提高利潤表現的能力仍然充滿信心，同時我們在未來 6 個季度將債務償還到更正常的水平。 2023 年期間，我們將確認9000 萬美元的臨時供應鏈成本和增量庫存清算成本，這些成本在2024 年不會再出現。2022 年11 月啟動的利潤改進辦公室已確保2023 年節省約7000 萬美元，我們預計將在2023 年實現約7000 萬美元的節省。到 2024 年可增加 1.3 億美元的節省，目前全年運行率為 2 億美元。

Our confidence to deliver these full year benefits is based on the following: $135 million is the annualized benefit from 2023 actions already secured in supply chain and indirect cost areas; $35 million relates directly to the next phase of rightsizing the organization, in line with the smaller portfolio and the accelerated work Chris explained earlier; $30 million is related to further supply chain and gross margin initiatives that have been identified and are expected to be secured in the next 6 months. As a result of the significant cost improvements, the company is on a solid path to 12% operating margin while creating capacity to reinvest a portion of these savings into brand building and best-in-class marketing capabilities, especially for Merrell and Saucony. We are pleased to share further details of this profit improvement road map and have added a page to our Investor Relations presentation summarizing the components.

我們對實現這些全年效益的信心基於以下因素： 1.35 億美元是 2023 年供應鍊和間接成本領域已採取行動的年化效益； 3500 萬美元直接用於下一階段的組織規模調整，以符合克里斯之前解釋的較小的投資組合和加速工作； 3000 萬美元用於已確定並預計在未來 6 個月內落實的進一步供應鍊和毛利率計劃。由於成本顯著改善，該公司正在穩步實現 12% 的營業利潤率，同時創造能力將部分節省下來的資金再投資於品牌建設和一流的營銷能力，特別是對 Merrell 和 Saucony 而言。我們很高興分享此利潤改善路線圖的更多詳細信息，並在我們的投資者關係演示文稿中添加了一個頁面來總結各個組成部分。

In addition to the projected profit improvements just discussed, we expect further inventory improvement in 2024, driven by tighter SKU management and an enhanced operations planning system. Due to these operational efficiencies and ongoing deleverage efforts, we would project net debt below $700 million by the end of next year. If accomplished, benefit to our annual interest expense would be $10 million to $15 million. These projections do not contemplate the benefit of proceeds from a sale of Sperry or other strategic alternative that might result in the monetization of Sperry's working capital.

除了剛剛討論的預計利潤改善外，我們預計在更嚴格的 SKU 管理和增強的運營規劃系統的推動下，2024 年庫存將進一步改善。由於這些運營效率和持續的去槓桿化努力，我們預計到明年年底淨債務將低於 7 億美元。如果實現的話，我們每年的利息支出將獲得 1000 萬至 1500 萬美元的收益。這些預測並未考慮出售 Sperry 或其他可能導致 Sperry 營運資金貨幣化的戰略替代方案所帶來的收益。

In conclusion, we continue to navigate a tough environment and make fundamental improvements to the business along the way. The more challenging outlook has accelerated our work to improve the financial strength of the company and further clarified our priorities and opportunities. Profit improvement and inventory initiatives are on track, and we are creating capacity to invest in our highest priorities in 2024. Thank you to the entire Wolverine team for their ongoing commitment to the changes we are driving at the company.

總之，我們將繼續應對艱難的環境，並對業務做出根本性的改進。更具挑戰性的前景加速了我們提高公司財務實力的工作，並進一步明確了我們的優先事項和機遇。利潤改善和庫存計劃已步入正軌，我們正在為 2024 年最優先事項進行投資創造能力。感謝整個 Wolverine 團隊對我們正在推動的公司變革的持續承諾。

On a personal note, I want to congratulate Chris, someone I've worked with closely over the years. He possesses the experience and the passion needed to lead our global team to be bolder and faster. I look forward to supporting Chris and his important work.

就我個人而言，我要祝賀克里斯，多年來與我密切合作的人。他擁有領導我們的全球團隊更大膽、更快所需的經驗和熱情。我期待支持克里斯和他的重要工作。

And I'll now turn the call back over to him for closing comments.

現在我將把電話轉回給他以供結束評論。

Thank you, Mike, and thanks again to everyone for joining us today. But before we open the Q&A, I also wanted to personally thank everyone at Wolverine World Wide and our partners around the world for all your hard work to date and the good important work to come. I look forward to working with you in the days ahead. Let's go.

謝謝邁克，再次感謝大家今天加入我們。但在我們開始問答之前，我還想親自感謝 Wolverine World Wide 的每個人以及我們在世界各地的合作夥伴迄今為止的辛勤工作以及即將到來的重要工作。我期待著在未來的日子裡與您合作。我們走吧。

Operator, please open the line for questions.

接線員，請開通提問線路。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Jonathan Komp with Baird.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Jonathan Komp 和 Baird 的線路。

Mike, I wanted just to start with a financial question. Could you just clarify -- I know in the press release, the guidance is for your bank-defined leverage to reach approximately 3x by year-end. Could you just clarify that calculation? Any factors you're getting credit for above and beyond just the normal profitability? And then how do you see the leverage ratio trending into the first half of next year?

邁克，我想從財務問題開始。您能否澄清一下——我知道在新聞稿中，指導意見是讓您的銀行定義的槓桿率在年底前達到大約 3 倍。您能澄清一下這個計算嗎？您是否因超出正常盈利能力而獲得好評的因素有哪些？那麼您如何看待明年上半年的槓桿率走勢？

Yes. Thanks, Jon. The bank-defined leverage calculation gives us credit for some of the transitory costs and unusual costs that are embedded in the GAAP results. So we're able to adjust out some of those costs to benefit that. We also had, obviously, in the quarter, some improvement in recoveries and some insurance recoveries related to the litigation and some other areas related to the remediation that also benefit the calculation. So those are some of the non-GAAP adjustments. In addition, we stated the intention to sell off some assets that are noncore assets to the company. Those are reflected in the guidance for the year-end leverage targets and net debt targets.

是的。謝謝，喬恩。銀行定義的槓桿計算使我們對 GAAP 結果中包含的一些暫時成本和異常成本給予了信任。因此，我們能夠調整其中一些成本來受益。顯然，在本季度，我們在追償和與訴訟相關的一些保險追償以及與補救相關的其他一些領域也有一些改善，這也有利於計算。這些是一些非公認會計準則調整。此外，我們還表示有意向公司出售一些非核心資產。這些都反映在年終槓桿目標和淨債務目標的指引中。

As we cycle into 2024 and start to see the full benefit of the profit improvement initiatives and then the transitory costs that begin to fall off early in 2024 in the first quarter, we would expect to see increase in the trailing 12-month EBITDA calculation from those benefits and just a healthier business overall. Obviously, lower debt position given the lower inventory at the end of the year and the other deleverage activities that we're promoting. So we'd expect after the end of the year that the leverage rates would continue to improve going into the first half of next year.

隨著我們進入 2024 年並開始看到利潤改善計劃的全部好處，以及 2024 年初第一季度開始下降的臨時成本，我們預計過去 12 個月的 EBITDA 計算將有所增加這些好處以及總體上更健康的業務。顯然，鑑於年底庫存較低以及我們正在推動的其他去槓桿化活動，債務狀況較低。因此，我們預計年底后杠桿率將繼續改善，進入明年上半年。

Maybe one other just broader question. I'm curious, I want to ask in terms of your broader forecasting processes and capabilities, are you planning to make any changes given the outcome this year? And as you talk about a 12% operating margin target for 2024, just I want to ask your broader thoughts on whether that's the right approach in a current environment that's very dynamic and hard to predict? And related to the 12% target, are you accounting for any hangover from the liquidations and inventory you've had to move this year or any factors such as continued softness in ordering patterns into spring?

也許還有一個更廣泛的問題。我很好奇，我想問一下你們更廣泛的預測流程和能力，鑑於今年的結果，你們是否計劃做出任何改變？當您談到 2024 年 12% 的營業利潤率目標時，我想問您更廣泛的想法，即在當前充滿活力且難以預測的環境中，這是否是正確的方法？與 12% 的目標相關，您是否考慮了今年不得不轉移的清算和庫存帶來的任何後遺症，或者諸如春季訂購模式持續疲軟等任何因素？

Sure. On the latter part, we -- I think the approach that we've taken, and again, we've provided a lot of detail in the materials about the operating margin bridge focused on today's outlook, the view on gross margin and the impact that we've taken in related to monetizing excess inventory and the costs associated with that, a baseline of revenue that's really this year's realized outlook. So about $2 billion of revenue without the inclusion of Sperry in that bridge that we provided. So as it relates to the assumptions and how we kind of build our model to 12%, it's sort of based on that baseline.

當然。在後一部分，我認為我們採取的方法，我們再次在有關運營利潤橋樑的材料中提供了很多細節，重點關註今天的前景、對毛利率的看法以及影響我們已經考慮到與將過剩庫存貨幣化以及與之相關的成本有關的收入基線，這實際上是今年已實現的前景。因此，如果不將 Sperry 納入我們提供的橋樑中，收入約為 20 億美元。因此，由於它與假設以及我們如何將模型構建到 12% 相關，因此它有點基於該基線。

Realizing that we've had a significant impact this year in our gross margin on selling off excess inventory, we're confident in taking the extra actions to make sure that the inventory at the end of the year is high quality and clean and we won't have a hangover of excess inventory. And that's our plan. That's our intention. That's our expectation. So I think it's safe to say that we can see these transitory costs and these excess inventory liquidation costs go away once we cycle through the year.

意識到今年我們在出售多餘庫存方面對毛利率產生了重大影響，我們有信心採取額外的行動，確保年底的庫存是高質量和乾淨的，我們贏了沒有庫存過剩的後遺症。這就是我們的計劃。這就是我們的意圖。這是我們的期望。因此，我認為可以肯定地說，一旦我們經過一年的周期，我們就可以看到這些暫時成本和超額庫存清算成本就會消失。

As it relates to your bigger question on planning, it's well taken. I think our process today really takes advantage of the benefits we've had in the past related to our outlook on backlog, the trends in the business. But one of the challenges, I think, that we saw this year, especially as it relates to our revenue plans, were the -- it was a pretty dramatic shift in trend that we saw maybe in mid-May, early June. They really started to impact our business. We're highly dependent on the wholesale channel for our brands, especially in the U.S. market. It's over 40% of our total revenue that's just in U.S. wholesale. Our U.S. dependent revenue is over 55% when you include our D2C channel. So we are very dependent on this market. And obviously, this is one of the more challenged markets in our industry today.

因為它涉及到您關於規劃的更大問題，所以它被很好地接受。我認為我們今天的流程確實利用了我們過去所獲得的與積壓訂單前景和業務趨勢相關的優勢。但我認為，我們今年看到的挑戰之一，特別是與我們的收入計劃相關的挑戰是——我們可能在 5 月中旬、6 月初看到了趨勢的巨大轉變。他們真正開始影響我們的業務。我們高度依賴我們品牌的批發渠道，尤其是在美國市場。我們總收入的 40% 以上來自於美國的批發業務。如果算上我們的 D2C 渠道，我們的美國相關收入超過 55%。所以我們非常依賴這個市場。顯然，這是當今我們行業中最具挑戰性的市場之一。

We saw declining trends, as I mentioned in my remarks, with both really accelerated cancellations well beyond what we'd expect during the time frame that we've navigated over the last 10 or 12 weeks. The level of new orders coming in really stalled. We saw very little new order activity for a period of time over that same time period. So hard to predict those types of trends or challenges in the process. But I think we recognize we need to be more persistent and more frequent in our assessment of some of those trends and risks and that's a process that we've already addressed in the company.

正如我在發言中提到的，我們看到了下降的趨勢，取消訂單的速度確實加快了，遠遠超出了我們在過去 10 或 12 週的時間範圍內的預期。新訂單水平確實停滯不前。在同一時期內，我們看到的新訂單活動非常少。很難預測過程中的這些類型的趨勢或挑戰。但我認為我們認識到我們需要更持久、更頻繁地評估其中一些趨勢和風險，這是我們已經在公司解決的一個過程。

And we will continue to be, I think, more focused on the results in our direct-to-consumer channels and things that we can do to influence those channels as we move forward. But resetting where we are today, giving a more realistic outlook in the back half of the year, something that we feel is properly conservative to reset the situation in the business and set ourselves up, like I said in my comments, to make sure that we do what we need to do to clean the pipeline of inventory at retail, give ourselves a clean inventory position at the end of the year and set ourselves up for 2024 with a cleaner baseline and benchmark for the business.

我認為，我們將繼續更加關注直接面向消費者的渠道的結果，以及我們在前進過程中可以採取的措施來影響這些渠道。但是，要重置我們今天的處境，在下半年給出更現實的前景，我們認為這是適當保守的做法，以重置業務形勢並讓我們自己做好準備，就像我在評論中所說的那樣，以確保我們採取必要措施清理零售庫存管道，在年底為自己提供乾淨的庫存狀況，並為 2024 年制定更清晰的業務基線和基準。

Our next question comes from the line of Jim Duffy with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自吉姆·達菲和斯蒂菲爾的對話。

Congratulations to you, Chris. I think you've got a good skill set and temperament for the role. You are not, however, stepping into an easy situation. I have 2 questions. The first for you, Chris. I recognize some of the challenges related to the environment. But if you're being honest about the missteps of the company that brought you here not just in 2023, but looking back further, at a high level, where did it go wrong? And what are you going to do differently going forward?

恭喜你，克里斯。我認為你擁有適合這個角色的良好技能和氣質。然而，你並沒有陷入一個輕鬆的境地。我有 2 個問題。第一個給你的，克里斯。我認識到一些與環境有關的挑戰。但如果你誠實地對待這家公司的失誤，不僅是在 2023 年，而且從更高的層面來看，它到底錯在哪裡？未來您將採取哪些不同的做法？

Yes. First, thanks, Jim. I appreciate the comments. It's a great question. I think we've spent a lot of time thinking about that internally. And I do think it's a combination of some long-standing issues that were exacerbated in the pandemic and then certainly some challenges as we manage the business through the pandemic. Hopefully, my prepared remarks, it came through clearly that I think we have to be great brand builders. And we have to find a flywheel of building great products and generating brand heat, which allow our brands to yield pricing power and consumer demand, which will ultimately build resilient and durable brands. And right now, we have not done that across the portfolio.

是的。首先，謝謝吉姆。我很欣賞這些評論。這是一個很好的問題。我認為我們內部花了很多時間思考這個問題。我確實認為，這是一些在大流行中加劇的長期存在的問題以及我們在大流行期間管理業務時肯定遇到的一些挑戰的結合。希望我準備好的言論能夠清楚地傳達出我認為我們必須成為偉大的品牌建設者。我們必須找到一個打造優質產品和產生品牌熱度的飛輪，讓我們的品牌產生定價能力和消費者需求，最終建立有彈性和持久的品牌。目前，我們還沒有在整個產品組合中做到這一點。

So for me, it really starts with brands. It's where I grew up. That's what I care most about. And that starts with a deep insight about our consumer in the marketplace and then a strong product innovation engine coupled with the ability to drive demand and then thoughtful brand management and channel management after that. I think for a long time, we've been very good operators and made product and sold to someone else. And I think the world changed and we need to quickly catch up to that. As it relates to sort of issues coming out of the pandemic in more recent memory, we walked ourselves into a pretty significant inventory issue with a lot of other brands, and we're working to extricate ourselves from that and we're sort of caught in that maelstrom right now and having a heavy dependence on the U.S. wholesale market exacerbates that.

所以對我來說，這實際上是從品牌開始的。這是我長大的地方。這是我最關心的。首先是對市場消費者的深入洞察，然後是強大的產品創新引擎以及驅動需求的能力，然後是深思熟慮的品牌管理和渠道管理。我認為很長一段時間以來，我們一直是非常優秀的運營商，生產產品然後賣給別人。我認為世界已經發生了變化，我們需要迅速趕上。由於它與最近記憶中的大流行中出現的一些問題有關，我們與許多其他品牌陷入了相當嚴重的庫存問題，我們正在努力擺脫這個問題，但我們有點陷入困境目前正處於這場漩渦中，而對美國批發市場的嚴重依賴則加劇了這種情況。

So I can assure you that internally, and certainly with the Board of Directors, we've thought a lot about where the company has been, where the company sits today and where we want to go in the future. And I think we -- our strategy is sound. We've done a lot of work around portfolio rationalization. We've got great improvements coming out of our profit improvement initiatives. We're consolidating offices. There is a scalable playbook that we own that has proven to work. For us now, it comes down to pace and urgency and faster and bolder execution against that agenda. So your comments are well taken. We take those to heart, and I'm excited to get after with the team.

因此，我可以向你們保證，在內部，當然還有董事會，我們對公司過去的處境、公司今天的處境以及我們未來的發展方向進行了很多思考。我認為我們的戰略是合理的。我們圍繞投資組合合理化做了很多工作。我們的利潤改善計劃取得了巨大的進步。我們正在整合辦事處。我們擁有一個可擴展的劇本，已被證明是有效的。現在對我們來說，問題在於速度和緊迫性，以及更快、更大膽地執行該議程。所以你的評論得到了很好的採納。我們牢記這些，我很高興能與團隊一起努力。

Excellent. Mike, a question for you on the inventory. Just how you plan to move the inventory with $250 million, less sales? And then if we're thinking about comparisons into 2024, what is off-price going to represent as a percent of 2023 revenues? And how is it you're not concerned that all of that inventory in the channel isn't a headwind to your revenues in 2024?

出色的。邁克，問你一個關於庫存的問題。您打算如何以 2.5 億美元（減去銷售額）來轉移庫存？然後，如果我們考慮與 2024 年進行比較，那麼折扣將佔 2023 年收入的百分比是多少？您怎麼不擔心渠道中的所有庫存不會對您 2024 年的收入產生不利影響？

I think the sell-in of the -- most of the off-price product, Jim, has occurred already and certainly was heavier in the first half of the year. We have some pressure in Q3, but in terms of the marketplace with our retailers, we feel like we can see that dissipating or normalizing either over the next couple of quarters. The inventory that we have today remains in the core inventory, and we have heavier coverage in some of our core styles today than maybe we would like, but I think the quality of the inventory is quite good. And we continue to manage -- I think the ability to manage the inventory levels down to our original targets has less to do with higher level of liquidation and more to do with how we manage the pipeline of inbound inventory here in the back half of the year. We are very cautious about that. Lead times are shorter than they were before, and we have a little more flexibility to manage the inbound.

我認為吉姆，大部分低價產品的銷售已經發生，而且今年上半年的銷售量肯定更大。我們在第三季度面臨一些壓力，但就我們零售商的市場而言，我們認為我們可以看到這種壓力在接下來的幾個季度內消散或正常化。我們今天擁有的庫存仍然保留在核心庫存中，而且我們今天的一些核心款式的覆蓋範圍比我們想要的要廣，但我認為庫存的質量相當不錯。我們繼續管理——我認為將庫存水平管理到我們最初目標的能力與較高的清算水平關係不大，而更多地與我們如何管理後半段的入庫庫存管道有關。年。我們對此非常謹慎。交貨時間比以前更短，我們可以更靈活地管理入庫。

So the inventory targets that we're achieving despite the lower revenue is really from the standpoint of being able to manage our open-to-buy a little bit more tightly. This year, our end-of-life inventory sales will probably approach mid-teens, which is a bit higher, obviously, than normal. It's more typical for us to see that in our wholesale channels to see that closer to 8% to 10%. But at the same time, the margin on those sales was quite a bit lower than what we would normally expect. That's why we think there'll be a nice margin lift in 2024 when we're not anniversarying that type of volume.

因此，儘管收入較低，但我們實現的庫存目標實際上是從能夠更嚴格地管理我們的開放式購買的角度出發的。今年，我們的報廢庫存銷售額可能會接近十幾歲，這顯然比正常情況要高一些。對於我們來說，更常見的是在我們的批發渠道中看到接近 8% 到 10% 的比例。但與此同時，這些銷售的利潤率比我們通常預期的要低得多。這就是為什麼我們認為 2024 年我們不會慶祝這種銷量的周年紀念，利潤率將會大幅提升。

So in short, I feel that the quality and the level of inventory should improve significantly. We expect them to improve significantly by the end of the year, which gives us more confidence that we're not going to be lapping some of these challenges.

所以簡而言之，我覺得質量和庫存水平應該會顯著提高。我們預計到今年年底它們將顯著改善，這讓我們更有信心我們不會克服其中一些挑戰。

Versus the mid-teens, what's a normalized level of off-price for the business?

與十幾歲左右的人相比，該企業的正常折扣水平是多少？

Probably 8% or so.

大概是8%左右。

Our next question comes from the line of Sam Poser with Williams Trading.

我們的下一個問題來自 Williams Trading 的 Sam Poser。

Chris, my congratulations as well. Okay, let's go here. Moving -- closing Boston office, moving to Rockford, how many people are coming? What does that mean for talent retention and acquisition? And number two, not related to that at all. Given the way the wholesale accounts are writing orders right now and given that spring orders, I believe, are due as we speak, to get to your numbers next year, the first half of the year is probably still going to be very tough, and then you're going to look for -- from a revenue perspective, recovery in the back half. But how -- but this wholesale stuff doesn't necessarily happen in a vacuum. It happens because it's tough for everybody, but it's tougher for others when they don't have like go-to, must-have product. So what are you doing to get the must-have product to get the consumers to want to buy it through your D2C and more -- and as importantly for your wholesale accounts to step up?

克里斯，我也祝賀你。好吧，我們就到這裡吧。搬家——關閉波士頓辦事處，搬到羅克福德，有多少人要來？這對於人才保留和獲取意味著什麼？第二，與此完全無關。考慮到批發賬戶現在寫訂單的方式，以及考慮到春季訂單，我相信，就在我們說話的時候，要得到你明年的數據，今年上半年可能仍然會非常艱難，而且那麼從收入的角度來看，你會尋找後半段的複蘇。但是如何——但是這種大規模的事情並不一定會在真空中發生。之所以會發生這種情況，是因為這對每個人來說都很困難，但對於其他人來說，當他們沒有首選、必備的產品時，情況會更困難。那麼，您正在採取哪些措施來獲得必備產品，讓消費者願意通過您的 D2C 等方式購買它，並且同樣重要的是，您的批發帳戶也將得到加強？

Sure. I'll take a swing at that. I'll start with the Boston office closure. Certainly, a decision that we took very seriously. I was in Boston this past Tuesday to make that announcement. I think we fundamentally think that ultimately having all of our footwear brands under one roof here in Rockford is the right decision for the company. The ability to find synergies, share best practices, use common tools, implement a consistent playbook, I think makes a lot of sense.

當然。我會採取行動。我將從關閉波士頓辦事處開始。當然，我們非常認真地對待這個決定。上週二我在波士頓宣布了這一消息。我認為我們從根本上認為最終將我們所有的鞋類品牌集中在羅克福德對公司來說是正確的決定。我認為能夠找到協同效應、分享最佳實踐、使用通用工具、實施一致的行動手冊非常有意義。

At the same time, the Boston office, as we've done the portfolio work, the need for that campus sort of came down as we manage through the portfolio. We are planning to maintain a creative hub in Boston because we realized that Boston, there's a tremendous amount of talent and especially as we think about our brands going forward, our ability to recruit and retain and have great homes for amazing product designers, developers, marketers is really important and we recognize Boston is an epicenter for that. So we are excited about the opening of a hub in Boston.

與此同時，波士頓辦事處，當我們完成了投資組合工作時，隨著我們管理投資組合，對該園區的需求就下降了。我們計劃在波士頓維持一個創意中心，因為我們意識到波士頓有大量的人才，特別是當我們考慮我們的品牌未來發展時，我們有能力招募和留住優秀的產品設計師、開發人員，並為其提供美好的家園，營銷人員非常重要，我們認識到波士頓是這方面的中心。因此，我們對在波士頓開設樞紐感到興奮。

I'll let Mike talk a little bit about the wholesale business. I will talk a little bit about new product introductions, though. It is critically important to us and for our key brands to maintain enough open-to-buy in the current inventory situation to bring newness. And where and when we've been able to deliver newness to the market, whether it's on our own channels or in our wholesale partners, we are seeing traction. So as we navigate through the inventory situation, I think brands that can innovate and deliver newness and freshness to the consumers are going to win and that is top of mind for our brand teams as we think about navigating both the near and the midterm.

我會讓邁克談談批發業務。不過，我會談談新產品的推出。對於我們和我們的主要品牌來說，在當前的庫存情況下保持足夠的開放購買以帶來新鮮感至關重要。無論何時何地，我們能夠向市場提供新鮮感，無論是在我們自己的渠道上還是在我們的批發合作夥伴中，我們都看到了吸引力。因此，當我們應對庫存狀況時，我認為能夠創新並向消費者提供新鮮感的品牌將會獲勝，這是我們品牌團隊在考慮近期和中期的首要考慮因素。

I think the trends, too, that you're asking about, Sam, you're absolutely right. We've obviously reflected that in a much more conservative outlook for the back half of the year. We're not going to expect those trends to reverse immediately in the first part of 2024. So the approach we're taking here on all fronts in terms of operations planning, working capital management, inventory planning and certainly the profit improvement work that we're doing, I think, is really paramount right now as we bridge from now until we get into the back half of 2024 to continue to be able to deliver positive results, both from a profit and a leverage standpoint, but also create the capacity that Chris was talking about.

我認為你所問的趨勢也是如此，Sam，你是絕對正確的。我們顯然已經在今年下半年更加保守的前景中反映了這一點。我們預計這些趨勢不會在 2024 年上半年立即逆轉。因此，我們在運營規劃、營運資本管理、庫存規劃以及利潤改善工作等各個方面採取的方法我認為，現在我們正在做的事情確實至關重要，因為我們從現在到2024 年下半年，無論從利潤和槓桿的角度來看，都能夠繼續取得積極的成果，同時也創造能力克里斯正在談論的。

I think as we pivot immediately to our brands and the investments in marketing and marketing capabilities that we need in the business and brand building capabilities in the business, we can't wait until the back half of 2024 to do that. So luckily, we have started this work much earlier than maybe we needed it. And we're on track to over-deliver the profit improvements this year. And have accelerated the urgency of that into next year. We'll be pulling forward some of the initiatives that were slated for '24 into 2023, so that we give ourselves absolute capacity and room to not only grow and invest, but also to create that better result for the shareholders in the first half of '24.

我認為，當我們立即轉向我們的品牌以及我們在業務和品牌建設能力所需的營銷和營銷能力方面的投資時，我們不能等到 2024 年下半年才能做到這一點。幸運的是，我們開始這項工作的時間比我們需要的要早得多。今年我們有望超額實現利潤增長。並加速了明年的緊迫性。我們將把原定於 2023 年實施的一些舉措推進到 2023 年，這樣我們就有絕對的能力和空間，不僅可以增長和投資，而且可以在上半年為股東創造更好的業績。 '24。

I understand. What I'm really talking about is the top line, though, because you're -- I mean, you sort of -- to get to the $2 billion in revenue at Sperry, you've got to expect a significant acceleration in sales in the back half of next year. And what -- I could see that happening through your D2C coming out with the right product. But given the retailers to take a big enough bite of the apple to really make that happen within this preliminary $2 billion guidance seems a bit optimistic, perhaps.

我明白。不過，我真正談論的是營收，因為你——我的意思是，你有點——要讓 Sperry 實現 20 億美元的收入，你必須預期銷售額會顯著加速明年下半年。我可以通過你們的 D2C 推出合適的產品看到這一點。但考慮到零售商要在 20 億美元的初步指導範圍內真正實現這一目標，這似乎有點樂觀。

We want to be careful that we're not giving guidance for 2024 in any way. We're just -- we're showing the path, the necessary path for the business for us to deliver that 12% operating margin and where those savings would come from. So we're not giving guidance for '24. We're going to navigate through the next 2 quarters here. We're going to make the changes that are necessary and investments that are necessary to turn the business back into the growth trajectory that it needs to be on. And there's a lot of work ahead of us to do that work and then come back to our shareholders and our team with an action plan that can show what those milestones are going to look like. So we have work to do on that. We're not giving guidance today, Sam. What we're trying to show is the confidence that we have in our profit improvement work and the areas of focus that are going to give us those tools that we need to be able to drive the business.

我們要小心，不要以任何方式提供 2024 年的指導。我們只是——我們正在展示一條道路，一條必要的道路，讓我們的業務能夠實現 12% 的營業利潤率，以及這些節省的來源。所以我們不會為 24 世紀提供指導。我們將在這裡介紹接下來的兩個季度。我們將進行必要的改變和必要的投資，以使業務回到所需的增長軌道。我們還有很多工作要做，然後向我們的股東和我們的團隊提出一份行動計劃，該計劃可以展示這些里程碑將會是什麼樣子。所以我們在這方面還有工作要做。山姆，我們今天不提供指導。我們試圖展示的是我們對利潤改善工作和重點領域的信心，這些領域將為我們提供推動業務所需的工具。

And I think just to add on to that, Sam. I think while we're not giving guidance, I do think as we work through the remaining months of this year, I think our brand teams are laser-focused on what the product pipeline looks like for 2024. And the new Introductions -- both the introductions we have this year that we already have confidence in and certainly what we have in the pipeline for next year, whether it's -- upgraded to Moab Speed for Merrell, which has shown initial, I guess, out of the gate, continuation of the Agility Peak 5, the Triumph 21 just dropped in Saucony, which we're excited about. And we've got Ride and Guide 17 is coming out for next year. So right now, the brand teams with urgency are looking at the product pipeline to make sure that there is newness and freshness in that innovation pipeline.

我想補充一點，薩姆。我認為，雖然我們沒有提供指導，但我確實認為，在我們今年剩餘幾個月的工作中，我們的品牌團隊將重點關注 2024 年的產品線。我們今年推出的產品我們已經充滿信心，當然還有我們明年的計劃，無論是- 為Merrell 升級到Moab Speed，我想，這已經顯示出初步的延續性Agility Peak 5 和 Triumph 21 剛剛在索康尼上市，我們對此感到非常興奮。 Ride and Guide 17 將於明年推出。因此，目前品牌團隊正在緊急審視產品管道，以確保創新管道具有新穎性和新鮮感。

Our next question comes from the line of Mauricio Serna with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Mauricio Serna。

Great. Congratulations, Chris, on the new role. I just wanted to ask maybe if you could elaborate a little bit more on when you're thinking about the outlook for the second half, how should we think about that in terms of D2C versus wholesale? And also just for the Q3, interesting to know like what you're expecting for the main brands in terms of revenue growth? And lastly on that, just like -- also just if you could elaborate more on kind of like the D2C trends you saw across each brand -- the main brands during the quarter, that will be super helpful.

偉大的。恭喜克里斯擔任新角色。我只是想問一下，當您考慮下半年的前景時，您是否可以詳細說明一下，我們應該如何考慮 D2C 與批發方面的問題？對於第三季度，您很想知道您對主要品牌在收入增長方面的預期嗎？最後，就像——如果你能更多地闡述你在每個品牌中看到的 D2C 趨勢——本季度的主要品牌，那將非常有幫助。

We don't really disclose the D2C trends per se at the brand level. But I would just say that the overall outlook for the full year guidance here is to be down about 10% at the midpoint of that range in revenue for the business. And our D2C channel will be down about 12%. So that includes Sweaty Betty, which actually is performing quite well right now in their direct channels. And so if you just look at our footwear brands or especially our U.S. D2C, we'll see a decline in the current year that's in the mid-teens. So in line with the overall growth or declines that we're seeing for the business. Our D2C channels have been impacted by the promotional environment for sure.

我們並沒有真正在品牌層面披露 D2C 趨勢本身。但我只想說，全年指導的總體前景是該業務收入範圍的中點下降約 10%。而我們的D2C渠道將會下降12%左右。其中包括 Sweaty Betty，該公司目前在其直接渠道中的表現實際上相當不錯。因此，如果你只看我們的鞋類品牌，尤其是我們的美國 D2C，我們會看到今年的下降幅度為十幾歲。因此，與我們看到的業務整體增長或下降是一致的。我們的D2C渠道肯定受到了促銷環境的影響。

We've tried to be more focused on maintaining our margins and our profit performance in direct-to-consumer channels, but that's come at the cost of some top line revenue. But again, as Chris mentioned, I think the investment in the right creative content, but also the right new product as we focus on that area as a quicker turnaround area for the business is going to be critical as we get into the fourth quarter and into next year.

我們試圖更加專注於維持直接面向消費者渠道的利潤率和利潤表現，但這是以一些頂線收入為代價的。但正如克里斯提到的，我認為，當我們進入第四季度時，對正確的創意內容以及正確的新產品的投資將至關重要，因為我們專注於該領域，作為業務更快的周轉領域。進入明年。

And I just want to highlight that the Sweaty Betty business. Since we've integrated that into our international group and we have a new leader in place, there's some really positive synergies happening, finding better efficiencies across the business. At the same time, recent product introductions are [checking.] So we're encouraged by the initial results out of Sweaty Betty.

我只想強調一下汗水貝蒂的生意。由於我們已將其整合到我們的國際集團中，並且我們有了新的領導者，因此發生了一些真正積極的協同效應，整個業務的效率得到了提高。與此同時，最近的產品推出正在[檢查中]。所以我們對 Sweaty Betty 的初步結果感到鼓舞。

The other part of your question, Mauricio, was about wholesale outlook for the full year. So in the U.S., it'll be low teens decline. And overall in terms of our wholesale businesses globally, that will be down closer to 11% or 12%. So we see that as an area of pressure for the business. I won't overstate it, but I will say that we've seen a nice improvement over the last 2 or 3 weeks in order trends for the first time in a while. We talked about the challenges that we saw with cancellations and new orders over the previous 10-week period, but starting to see a little bit of green shoot there. So -- but for sure, taking a conservative view of our wholesale trends for the rest of the year and that's resulting in a full year decline in that channel of over 10%.

毛里西奧，你問題的另一部分是關於全年的批發前景。因此，在美國，青少年的下降幅度將會較低。總體而言，就我們的全球批發業務而言，這一數字將下降接近 11% 或 12%。因此，我們認為這是企業面臨壓力的一個領域。我不會誇大這一點，但我會說，在過去的兩三週內，我們一段時間以來第一次看到訂單趨勢有了很大的改善。我們討論了過去 10 週期間取消訂單和新訂單帶來的挑戰，但開始看到一些復甦跡象。所以，但可以肯定的是，如果我們對今年剩餘時間的批發趨勢持保守態度，就會導致該渠道全年下降超過 10%。

Got it. That's very helpful. I just wanted to make sure because I think you usually provide like top line expectations for each brand in Q3. And also, I don't know if you provided the EBIT margin expectation for the third quarter as well?

知道了。這非常有幫助。我只是想確定一下，因為我認為您通常會在第三季度為每個品牌提供類似的頂線預期。另外，我不知道你是否也提供了第三季度的息稅前利潤率預期？

We provided a lot of that information in our investor presentation that's posted on our site. With all the other information we shared today, we didn't put it into our remarks, but it's available there.

我們在網站上發布的投資者演示文稿中提供了很多此類信息。對於我們今天分享的所有其他信息，我們沒有將其放入我們的評論中，但可以在那裡找到。

Our next question comes from the line of Mitch Kummetz with Seaport Global Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 Seaport Global Securities 的 Mitch Kummetz。

Yes. On the U.S. wholesale, so you guys talked about how challenging U.S. wholesale is. And I do find it somewhat interesting on the revision to the brand guidance. You raised Merrell, you lowered the other brands. So is the takeaway there that U.S. wholesale is impacting all those brands equally, but Merrell is gaining market share? And are the other brands potentially losing market share? Or are they just getting caught up in the downdraft of the U.S. wholesale?

是的。關於美國批發，所以你們談到了美國批發是多麼具有挑戰性。我確實發現品牌指南的修訂有些有趣。你提升了 Merrell，你降低了其他品牌。那麼，美國批發對所有這些品牌的影響是平等的，但梅雷爾正在獲得市場份額，這是否是一個結論呢？其他品牌是否有可能失去市場份額？或者他們只是陷入了美國批發市場的低迷之中？

Now just to clarify maybe what you're looking at, Mitch, the guide for the outlook in the -- for Merrell is high single-digit decline for the -- here, which is higher or worse than we had...

現在只是為了澄清你可能在看什麼，米奇，對於梅雷爾來說，這裡的前景指南是個位數的高跌幅，這比我們的情況更高或更糟......

Yes, I'm sorry, I did misread that. So let me reask the question. Is that -- I mean are you guys -- is it just the macro and U.S. wholesale? Or do you feel like you guys are -- I mean do you think you're holding share in your brands? Or do you think you're losing share?

是的，對不起，我確實看錯了。那麼讓我重新問一下這個問題。那是——我的意思是你們——只是宏觀經濟和美國批發嗎？或者你們覺得你們——我的意思是你們認為你們在自己的品牌中持有份額嗎？或者你認為你正在失去份額嗎？

Yes. I'll answer that question. I'll start with Merrell. Merrell has 10 consecutive months of gaining share in Hike. And for the trailing 12 months, we've gained 130 basis points of share. The challenge there though is that we have a Hike category that's currently contracting. But in my total tenure at Wolverine World Wide, Merrell's never had 10 consecutive months of share gains, and we're encouraged by that. Saucony, on the other hand, is losing share right now, and that's something that we have to address quickly, and we are working to go do that -- from a share perspective, Merrell is currently gaining and Saucony is losing a little bit of ground.

是的。我來回答這個問題。我將從梅雷爾開始。 Merrell在Hike的份額已連續10個月增長。在過去 12 個月裡，我們的份額增加了 130 個基點。但面臨的挑戰是我們的徒步類別目前正在收縮。但在我在 Wolverine World Wide 的整個任期內，Merrell 的股票從未連續 10 個月增長，我們對此感到鼓舞。另一方面，索康尼現在正在失去市場份額，這是我們必須迅速解決的問題，我們正在努力做到這一點——從市場份額的角度來看，梅雷爾目前正在獲得份額，而索康尼正在失去一點份額地面。

Okay. That's helpful, Chris. And then I guess my second question maybe for Mike. When I look at the transitory costs in '23, you said it's $60 million supply chain. And I'm guessing that's mostly freight. And is that -- are you seeing that this year because of the timing of the inventory? I know other companies have talked about starting to see some freight benefits this year. Is that all just timing of the inventory? Is it all freight? And is that kind of the line of sight that you have to suggest that it goes away next year?

好的。這很有幫助，克里斯。然後我想我的第二個問題可能是問邁克的。當我查看 23 年的臨時成本時，您說這是 6000 萬美元的供應鏈。我猜這主要是貨運。今年你看到這種情況是因為庫存的時間安排嗎？我知道其他公司已經談到今年開始看到一些貨運優勢。這只是庫存時間嗎？都是貨運嗎？您是否必須建議這種視線明年就會消失？

Actually, almost $50 million of those costs were incurred in 2022, but they were capitalized on the balance sheet along with the inventory, right? So the costs we're talking about are certainly the excess freight and premium freight costs that we incurred in the business. There's a nice table in the earnings release that kind of spells this out a little bit, too, Mitch, if you want to refer to that later. But these are costs that either were incurred last year and the first part of this year. They're now being expensed through the P&L as we work through the inventory and obviously accelerate the reduction of the inventory.

實際上，其中近 5000 萬美元的成本是在 2022 年發生的，但它們與庫存一起在資產負債表上資本化，對嗎？所以我們所說的成本肯定是我們在業務中產生的超額運費和溢價運費。米奇，收益報告中有一個很好的表格，也對此做了一些說明，如果您稍後想參考的話。但這些成本要么是去年發生的，要么是今年上半年發生的。當我們處理庫存時，它們現在通過損益表進行費用化，並且明顯加速了庫存的減少。

And we are now in contract on ocean rates that are much lower than they were a year ago. We have implemented through these profit improvement initiatives, other logistics-related savings. But as it relates to the transitory costs, yes, they're essentially behind us and just lingering effects in terms of working through the inventory. So as we get into 2024, those will go away. Excess liquidation that we talked about in terms of the level of end-of-life inventory we had to work through, that's about $20 million of headwinds in '23. Those costs go back to normal. That's not the total cost of what we incurred. That's the incremental cost that we incurred. So both of those things, we feel very strongly are behind us and are things that we can plan against in terms of improvements next year.

我們現在簽訂的合同的海運費比一年前低得多。我們通過這些利潤改善舉措，實現了其他與物流相關的節約。但由於它與暫時成本有關，是的，它們基本上已經落後於我們，只是在處理庫存方面產生了揮之不去的影響。因此，當我們進入 2024 年時，這些都會消失。我們在必須解決的報廢庫存水平方面談到了過度清算，這在 23 年帶來了約 2000 萬美元的阻力。這些費用恢復正常。這還不是我們所花費的總成本。這就是我們產生的增量成本。因此，我們強烈認為這兩件事都已經過去了，並且我們可以在明年的改進方面進行計劃。

Our next question comes from the line of Abbie Zvejnieks with Piper Sandler.

我們的下一個問題來自 Abbie Zvejnieks 和 Piper Sandler 的對話。

Chris, congrats on the new role. Can you just comment on like your view on like the underlying health of like the main brands? Obviously, I think we understand the soft wholesale. But what's happening in DTC? And then I guess what -- in your view, what are the biggest kind of near-term opportunities to return to growth?

克里斯，祝賀你擔任新角色。您能否評論一下您對主要品牌的潛在健康狀況的看法？顯然，我認為我們了解軟批發。但 DTC 發生了什麼？然後我猜想，在您看來，近期恢復增長的最大機會是什麼？

Yes. Sure. Thanks, Abbie. I appreciate that. I think the underlying health of our big brands remains good. Brands are coming off of record years in 2022. Certainly, 2023 is a step back and a disappointment as far as the current trends. But as the underlying health, I think Merrell and Saucony specifically are leaders in their respective categories. They're authentic. They're original. They are heritage brands with great tradition and strong product pipeline. So I think it comes down to our ability as an organization to really make a very, very fast pivot to becoming better brand builders and to build more durable, more resilient brands that can weather tough situations.

是的。當然。謝謝，艾比。我很感激。我認為我們大品牌的基本健康狀況仍然良好。 2022 年，品牌將走出創紀錄的年份。當然，就當前趨勢而言，2023 年是一個倒退和令人失望的一年。但就基本健康而言，我認為 Merrell 和 Saucony 在各自類別中尤其處於領先地位。它們是正宗的。它們是原創的。它們是具有悠久傳統和強大產品線的傳統品牌。因此，我認為這取決於我們作為一個組織的能力，能夠真正非常非常快速地成為更好的品牌建設者，並建立更持久、更有彈性的品牌，以應對艱難的情況。

Obviously, the current environment when -- is exacerbated by a lot of factors, whether it's the overhang of the pandemic and the inventory glut and promotional pricing, whether it's a consumer slowdown. Certainly, we're not the only one to talk about some level of malaise in the U.S., and we're certainly seeing that. But I think underlying health, one of our greatest assets is our brand portfolio and certainly at the top of that list are Merrell and Saucony. And we've got new leadership in place. There is a very heightened sense of the need to move bolder and faster, specifically around continued product innovation, but certainly around how we build these brands through modern demand creation. So every team is working on that and it's sort of top of mind as we think about the transition in my first day.

顯然，當前的環境受到很多因素的加劇，無論是疫情的持續蔓延、庫存過剩和促銷定價，還是消費放緩。當然，我們並不是唯一一個談論美國某種程度的不適的人，而且我們確實看到了這一點。但我認為，我們最重要的資產之一就是我們的品牌組合，其中最重要的資產就是 Merrell 和 Saucony。我們已經有了新的領導層。人們強烈意識到需要更大膽、更快地採取行動，特別是圍繞持續的產品創新，但當然也圍繞我們如何通過現代需求創造來打造這些品牌。因此，每個團隊都在努力解決這個問題，當我們在第一天考慮過渡時，這是首要考慮的問題。

Our next question comes from the line of Jonathan Komp with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自喬納森·康普（Jonathan Komp）和貝爾德（Baird）的對話。

A couple of follow-ups. Just for modeling, Mike, could you walk through the third and fourth quarter outlook, the dip down in revenue that you outlined for the third quarter and then the bounce back for the fourth quarter? Could you just highlight some of the factors that you're embedding there?

一些後續行動。只是為了建模，邁克，您能否介紹一下第三季度和第四季度的前景，您概述的第三季度收入下降以及第四季度的反彈？您能否強調一下您嵌入其中的一些因素？

Yes. There's an important shift in our international business between Q3 and Q4. And again, I've mentioned in my remarks about the comparison from Q3 to last year. That included some significant international revenue from a timing standpoint that really fell into Q3, and those were abnormal timing. In Q4 of this year, we're selling our spring line into our international distributors much earlier than we normally do or certainly much earlier than we did a year ago, let's say it that way. And so there's some growth there, but also the benefit of that revenue kind of lifting the performance of Q4 versus last year to a decline more in the mid-single-digit rate.

是的。第三季度和第四季度之間我們的國際業務發生了重要轉變。我在發言中再次提到了第三季度與去年的比較。從時間的角度來看，其中包括一些重要的國際收入，這些收入確實屬於第三季度，而這些都是不正常的時間。今年第四季度，我們向國際分銷商銷售彈簧系列的時間比平時要早得多，或者肯定比一年前要早得多，可以這麼說。因此，那裡有一些增長，但這種收入的好處是，第四季度的業績與去年相比，下降幅度更大。

So if you exclude some of the noise or timing around international, the rest of the business is planned or forecasted to be down about 10% or maybe a little bit higher. And so that's much more consistent with, again, the normalized trends that we were seeing in Q3. The other factor for us in Q4 is the D2C channel is a much bigger part of the overall business. Sweaty Betty is a big percentage of that as well and that business is a little bit more stable. So we get the benefit of a little bit more predictable business in D2C in Q4 versus the other quarters.

因此，如果排除國際上的一些噪音或時間安排，其餘業務預計或預計將下降約 10% 或更高一點。因此，這與我們在第三季度看到的正常化趨勢更加一致。第四季度對我們來說的另一個因素是 D2C 渠道在整體業務中所佔的比例要大得多。 Sweaty Betty 在其中也佔很大比例，而且業務也更加穩定。因此，與其他季度相比，我們在第四季度的 D2C 業務中受益匪淺。

Okay. Great. And then just 2 last ones for me. I just wanted to clarify, I believe the prepared remarks alluded to potential pricing actions to drive sell-through. So could you just more specifically talk about what you're referencing? And then into 2024 sort of the path you outlined, what sort of pricing relative to the increases you've taken the last few years does that assume? And then just lastly on Sperry, the performance, obviously very challenged now for the full year. How does that impact your plans or the strategic actions that you're contemplating underway for that brand?

好的。偉大的。然後是最後兩個給我的。我只是想澄清一下，我相信準備好的言論暗示了潛在的定價行動，以推動銷售。那麼您能更具體地談談您所引用的內容嗎？然後到 2024 年，按照您概述的路徑，相對於您過去幾年採取的增長方式，假設的定價是怎樣的？最後，關於斯佩里的表現，顯然全年都面臨著很大的挑戰。這對您的計劃或您正在考慮為該品牌採取的戰略行動有何影響？

Yes. I'll take that and then Mike can add comments. I think regarding the pricing one, that's something that we're paying really close attention to what's happening in the marketplace. And what did everyone do sort of in the pandemic, coming out of the pandemic and then what's happening today in the marketplace and make sure that our products are properly placed and priced. And at the end of the day, from a pricing standpoint, it comes down to the power of your brands and what is your pricing power. So something we spend a lot of time thinking about to make sure that we're both protecting margin at the same time, having goods placed and priced where consumers can engage in them.

是的。我會接受，然後邁克可以添加評論。我認為關於定價，我們非常密切關注市場上發生的事情。每個人在大流行期間做了什麼，走出大流行，然後今天市場上發生了什麼，並確保我們的產品得到適當的放置和定價。歸根結底，從定價的角度來看，這取決於你的品牌力量以及你的定價能力。因此，我們花了很多時間思考，以確保我們同時保護利潤，將商品放置在消費者可以參與的地方並定價。

As it relates to the Sperry transaction, obviously, we announced the decision for strategic alternatives a little bit ago. We continue to manage the business and monitor its trends. That process is ongoing, but we still plan to pursue those alternatives and certainly do the very best thing for the portfolio and for the shareholders.

顯然，由於它與斯佩里交易有關，我們不久前宣布了戰略替代方案的決定。我們繼續管理業務並監控其趨勢。這個過程正在進行中，但我們仍然計劃尋求這些替代方案，並且肯定會為投資組合和股東做最好的事情。

Importantly, on that front, Jon, we are -- we should be hitting the market with a formal marketing document in the next couple of weeks. That hasn't transpired yet. And so a much more formal process will be underway. We also have received good input or feedback from interested parties who obviously know about the process that the process is going to be underway. So we feel good about that. It's a very strong brand.

重要的是，在這方面，喬恩，我們應該在接下來的幾週內向市場推出正式的營銷文件。那還沒有發生。因此，一個更加正式的流程將會啟動。我們還收到了有關各方的良好意見或反饋，他們顯然了解該過程即將進行的過程。所以我們對此感覺良好。這是一個非常強大的品牌。

We feel that the strategic alternatives for that business would be around a licensing opportunity or other form of business model that could allow us to benefit from, like I said in my remarks, monetizing the working capital of the business and maybe benefiting from the strong brand in the future. So we're looking at all those options, but we're not down the path quite far enough yet on the sale process to really make a decision on what the best alternative is at this point.

我們認為該業務的戰略替代方案將圍繞許可機會或其他形式的商業模式，正如我在評論中所說，這些模式可以使我們受益於業務營運資本的貨幣化，並可能受益於強大的品牌將來。因此，我們正在考慮所有這些選擇，但我們在銷售過程中還沒有走得足夠遠，無法真正決定目前最好的選擇是什麼。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Sam Poser with Williams Trading.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Williams Trading 的 Sam Poser。

I just want to follow up on the conversation about sort of the weakness in wholesale and the weakness in your DTC business and the promotional environment out there. How much of this is the environment and how much is this not having the appropriate stuff that the consumers really, really want right now? In which? That's the question.

我只是想跟進有關批發方面的弱點、你們的 DTC 業務以及促銷環境方面的弱點的對話。其中有多少是環境造成的，有多少是因為沒有消費者現在真正想要的合適的東西？在哪？這就是問題所在。

Yes. It's a fair question. I think -- I don't think this is quite black and white of that. I think it's a shade of gray and I think it's a combination of both. I think certainly, from an environmental standpoint, there's a lot of products in the marketplace and it's very promotional. And certainly, some of our brands have some category headwinds. At the same time, the onus goes to the brands to deliver newness and freshness and innovative products that are solving consumers' needs and make sure we've got a pipeline of that ready to go. And I think as we think about where our brands stand today, I think we always need to be very critical of our own product pipeline and sort of hold ourselves accountable for what's in the mix.

是的。這是一個公平的問題。我認為——我認為這並不是黑白分明的。我認為這是一種灰色陰影，而且我認為它是兩者的結合。我當然認為，從環保的角度來看，市場上有很多產品，而且非常具有促銷性。當然，我們的一些品牌存在一些品類逆風。與此同時，品牌有責任提供新穎、新鮮和創新的產品來滿足消費者的需求，並確保我們有一條準備就緒的渠道。我認為，當我們思考我們的品牌今天的立場時，我認為我們總是需要對自己的產品線非常挑剔，並對產品組合中的產品負責。

So we're not standing here today saying it's just the environment. We're sort of looking deep into our teams to make sure that we can build durable and resilient brands that can weather these storms. So Sam, to answer your question succinctly, I think it's a little bit of both. Right now, we're most focused on fixing our internal house to be able to weather storms like these.

所以我們今天站在這裡並不是說這只是環境問題。我們正在深入研究我們的團隊，以確保我們能夠建立耐用且有彈性的品牌來抵禦這些風暴。薩姆，簡單地回答你的問題，我認為兩者都有一點。現在，我們最關注的是修復我們的內部房屋，以便能夠抵禦這樣的風暴。

And we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I'll now turn the call back over to Chris Hufnagel for closing remarks.

我們的問答環節已經結束了。現在，我將把電話轉回克里斯·赫夫納格爾 (Chris Hufnagel) 作結束語。

Thanks again, everyone, for joining us today. It was nice to be with you in the first time in this capacity and look forward to sharing updates with you in the future. As a reminder, Mike and I will be with the analysts having callbacks later this afternoon -- later this morning. And we're also pleased to be joined by Wolverine's Chairman of the Board, Tom Long. So look forward to those calls in a little bit. Thanks, everybody. Have a great day.

再次感謝大家今天加入我們。很高興第一次以這個身份與您合作，並期待將來與您分享最新動態。提醒一下，邁克和我將在今天下午晚些時候（今天上午晚些時候）與分析師一起進行回調。我們也很高興 Wolverine 董事會主席 Tom Long 也加入其中。因此，請期待這些電話的到來。謝謝大家。祝你有美好的一天。

And this concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束，大家可以掛斷電話了。感謝您的參與。