NYSE:USFD US Foods Q3 2023 Earnings Report $66.31 +0.65 (+0.99%) Closing price 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$65.58 -0.73 (-1.10%) As of 04:40 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast US Foods EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.65Consensus EPS $0.65Beat/MissMet ExpectationsOne Year Ago EPSN/AUS Foods Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$9.11 billionExpected Revenue$9.12 billionBeat/MissMissed by -$10.81 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AUS Foods Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2023Date11/9/2023TimeN/AConference Call DateThursday, November 9, 2023Conference Call Time9:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsUS Foods' Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, May 8, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 9:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Q1 2025 Earnings ReportConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by US Foods Q3 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrNovember 9, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 16 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day, everyone, and welcome to the U. S. Foods Third Quarter 2023 Quarterly Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded. And I would now like to turn the conference over to Mike Reese, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Operator00:00:10Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 100:00:13Thank you, Lisa. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the U. S. Reese. Concludes Q3 fiscal 2023 earnings call. Speaker 100:00:20On today's call, we have Dave Littmann, CEO and Dirk Locastio, our CFO. We will take your questions after our prepared remarks conclude. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Our earnings release issued earlier this morning and today's presentation slides can be found on the Investor Relations page at our website at ir.usfoods .com. During today's call, unless otherwise stated, we're comparing our Q3 results to the same period in fiscal year 2022. Speaker 100:00:54In addition to historical information, certain statements made during today's call are considered forward looking statements. Please review the risk factors in our 2022 Form 10 ks for a detailed discussion of these potential factors That could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in those statements. Speaker 200:01:16We are Speaker 100:01:17excited to announce that we will host an Investor Day here in the Chicago area on June 5 next year, where we will outline our strategy and the key drivers of our new Long range plan beyond 2024, along with our cash flow generation and capital deployment plans. More details will be sent in the following months. Lastly, during today's call, we will refer to certain non GAAP financial measures. All reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measures Are included in the schedules on our earnings press release as well as in the presentation slides posted on our website, except that we are not providing reconciliations to forward looking non GAAP Financial Measures. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Dave. Speaker 300:01:59Thanks, Mike. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before jumping in to our Q3 highlights, I want to officially welcome Mike Neese as our new Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Mike brings 25 years of Investor Relations experience to U. S. Speaker 300:02:16Foods, including time with Performance Food Group and Builders FirstSource. I am thrilled to team up with him one more time. Additionally, Martha joined U. S. Foods in late September as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Speaker 300:02:31With more than 30 years of experience, Martha is a seasoned business advisor With exceptional expertise in corporate governance, commercial and M and A transactions and leading high performing teams. I look forward to Martha's many contributions to the company. And now, let's turn to today's agenda. I'll start by sharing highlights for the quarter and our progress against our strategy and long range plan before I hand it over to Dirk to review our financial results and updated fiscal 2023 guidance. In the Q3, we continued to make Significant progress against our long range plan broadly across the business. Speaker 300:03:13We are improving the safety of our associates, Growing our independent cases while accelerating market share gains, enhancing our margins, driving increased cash flow And meaningfully reducing our net leverage. Our strong Q3 and year to date performance Are a result of our continued growth and market share gains on our target customer types, accelerating operational efficiencies And the dedication of our 29,000 associates, I am proud of their relentless focus on delivering best in class service to our customers In executing strategic initiatives under our long range plan. Building on our differentiated team based selling model, Industry leading digital innovation and continued momentum, our team delivered strong case volume growth. Each of our target customer types, independent restaurants, healthcare and hospitality had year over year market share gains. Importantly, we accelerated our independent share gains and exclusive brand penetration sequentially, resulting in our 10th consecutive quarter of year over year share gains in this important customer type. Speaker 300:04:27We demonstrated profitable growth and margin expansion during the quarter With meaningful improvement in operating leverage, we delivered adjusted EBITDA growth of 15% and expanded our adjusted EBITDA margin by 50 basis Finally, we accelerated cash flow generation allowing us to invest more in the business, Pay down debt, repurchase shares and execute tuck in M and A. Turning to Slide 4, Our strategy guides how we operate and what we focus on to win at U. S. Foods under our four pillars of culture, service, growth and Proffitt. We continue to reap benefits from the inclusion of our 4 regional presidents on my executive leadership team. Speaker 300:05:14We are communicating better and aligning our teams more effectively to ensure faster execution. One important example is a recent decision I made to Further streamline the organization and address feedback from the field by having our local sales teams report into the regional presidents Reese's. Also Jim Sturgill, our EVP and Chief Commercial Officer Has informed me of his decision to retire effective December 1. Jim has been a trusted leader and voice on my executive leadership team. During his more than 31 years with the company, Jim has made countless contributions to propel our company forward. Speaker 300:05:57I want to thank him for his steadfast leadership and his many contributions to our company and our people. After much thought and careful consideration given Jim's pending retirement, I've decided to not backfill Jim's role. Instead, We have restructured our commercial team to create even greater collaboration, a more streamlined structure and the platform for accelerated execution of our strategy. As a result, Randy Taylor, our EVP of Field Operations has taken on additional responsibilities for sales excellence and marketing. In addition, Dave Poe has been promoted to EVP, Chief Merchant reporting to me. Speaker 300:06:41Dave is a seasoned foodservice veteran with more than 25 years of merchandising experience within distribution. In Dave's expanded role, he will continue to be responsible for ensuring the U. S. Foods product value proposition exceeds our customer expectations That we are competitive on cost of goods and that we have the right product portfolio through his leadership of our merchandising function. In addition to the organization changes we are making, we continue to place increased emphasis on accelerating profitable growth, And we want to ensure that we reward our sellers for delivering on that growth. Speaker 300:07:18We are currently working on some likely revisions To our territory manager sales compensation plan, which will even more closely link their compensation to the key elements of our profitable growth plan. We will share more about any potential modifications during our Q4 call. We're also accelerating our investment in our local selling capacity. In fact, we increased our local seller headcount each month in Q3. We plan to continue those additions in the low to mid single digits into 2024 and beyond, which has already been contemplated in our long range plan. Speaker 300:07:57We will be more focused than ever on profitable growth with the right tools and support processes to ensure our sales teams are successful. Collectively, these changes will ensure better alignment between the field and corporate teams, while reducing handoffs and creating additional organization efficiencies. Most importantly, they will further propel our company with the right focus on serving and supporting our customers and driving profitable organic growth. Turning to Slide 5. I'll now briefly discuss our 3rd quarter progress against our culture and service pillars And then Dirk will talk about the growth and profit pillars a bit later. Speaker 300:08:40The safety and well-being of our associates is paramount at U. S. Foods and is critical to our success. Since day 1, I have stressed the importance of improving our performance to provide an even safer operating environment for all of our associates. Our strong results have been driven by our actions to execute more effectively on fewer but more impactful initiatives, while reinforcing safety as a personal value. Speaker 300:09:05One example is our safety leadership training, where we will provide behavior based Safety process training to approximately 1300 operation leaders by the end of this year. This example, Combined with other initiatives has led to steady improvement in our safety performance. Our results improved in the Q3 compared to both the Q2 of this year as well as the Q3 of last year. In fact, the Q3 was our best safety result since the Q1 of 2021 Reese. With our injury and accident frequency rates post better than the prior year by 25% to 30%. Speaker 300:09:42However, there is more work to be done Reese. Turning to the responsible portion of our culture pillar. Through our recently published fall Scoop, we rolled out a new climate conscious product innovation category within our served good portfolio. ServeGood features products that meet our sustainability criteria, including products that are responsibly sourced or contribute to waste reduction. When asked, nearly 2 thirds of our customers say that it is important to them to make sustainable choices that limit their impact On the environment. Speaker 300:10:22One example is our newly unveiled monogram carbon negative cutlery that utilizes greenhouse gas derived biomaterial to create a negative carbon footprint. These climate conscious innovative products Aimed to support our plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We are excited to have nearly 1,000 products in our served good portfolio, which spans multiple product categories. Additionally, we are focused on winning center of the plate, Reese. And over the last several years, we have upgraded our assortment in these key product categories. Speaker 300:10:58Importantly, Our fresh produce category is our fastest growing category year to date and we estimate we have captured approximately 400 basis points of market share over the last 2 years Within our target customer types of independent restaurants, healthcare and hospitality. I am proud of our Sustainable and healthy offerings that will ensure we continue to meet our customers' current and evolving needs. Moving to Slide 6. We continue to focus on best in class delivery, specifically on time and in full service levels to our customers. We continue to improve our customer service levels for product availability and we are essentially now at pre COVID levels. Speaker 300:11:42On time service to customers is also a key focus area for us and our new routing system pilot as part of the broader routing optimization work we have had underway Is a prime example of how we can further improve service. We launched the Descartes routing pilot in our first market. We continue to learn from this pilot and intend to pilot a second location before year end with national implementation planned for 2024. Our routing improvement initiative combined with our move to Descartes will enable us to improve service levels to our customers, while also reducing miles driven and fuel consumption as highlighted by our Q3 performance where we delivered the best cases per mile remarks. In addition, our flexible scheduling initiative is making solid progress As we have moved from the pilot phase to broader deployment across our network and it's now live in 16 locations, We continue to see significant improvements across our network and especially in our pilots, including year over year reduction in Riese. Speaker 300:12:48Turnover that is approximately twice the rate of improvement versus our other locations, 30% improvement in safety And continued improvement in productivity. We remain on track for half of our locations to be live on flex scheduling by year end. Finally, we also continue to invest in our market leading customer facing digital technology with Moxie. Our agile development has delivered many improvements to make it even faster for customers to place orders and manage their business. Our deployment to local customers is complete and we now have 30% of our national customers on Moxy with full deployment planned in the first half of next year. Speaker 300:13:32In terms of the digital customer experience, we believe we continue to lead the industry. Our Net Promoter Score has been strong since our launch and has improved even further recently. From an e commerce penetration perspective, we're at 84% For the total company and our locally managed business improved 50 basis points to 73%. Moxy is well on its way to being the premier All in one digital toolset for our customers to order, track deliveries, pay bills and manage inventory. And as we continue to focus on the customer experience, we further expanded Pronto in the quarter, which is our small truck delivery Service focused within targeted dense geographies. Speaker 300:14:18Today Pronto has a presence in 35 markets. I am pleased with our progress and the return on the investments we are making to provide best in class service to our customers. Turning to Slide 7. I'll walk through some Q3 highlights and Dirk will go into a little more detail later. Total case volume growth was 4%, and we drove growth in each of our target customer types again this quarter, With volume increasing nearly 6% for independent restaurants, 8% for healthcare and 6% for hospitality. Speaker 300:14:54Adjusted EBITDA grew double digits and margins further increased. We remain focused on increasing our gross profit per case Faster than operating expense per case and accelerating profitable share growth as we did this quarter. Both Healthcare and Hospitality continue to deliver strong growth, driven in large part by healthy net new business. We remain focused on growing in our target customer types and expect to continue that momentum. I've already spoken about several of the good progress points with our customer experience and supply chain, so I won't be repetitive here. Speaker 300:15:34Moving on, We continue to strengthen our capital structure and prudently allocate capital to fuel long term growth. We further reduced our net leverage to 2.9 times And we've repurchased more than 700,000 shares for $29,000,000 We expect to remain below 3 times levered for the remainder of the year with further improvement into next year. Finally, we closed the Ramsey acquisition earlier in the Q3. And this morning, we announced the acquisition of Saladino's, our 2nd tuck in acquisition this year. Saladino's is an independent food Reese. Speaker 300:16:09Service distributor in Central California with approximately $600,000,000 in annual revenue that will provide additional scale for us in Central California. We expect to close the transaction by year end. We have strong momentum as we finish out 2023 and we expect that momentum to carry us into 2024. Before I hand it over to Dirk, I would like to acknowledge the brave men and women who have served in the armed forces. On Veterans Day this Saturday, we will celebrate our 1500 associates who have so courageously served our country, And you can see some of their faces on Slide 8. Speaker 300:16:48We are grateful for their service and celebrate them and all veterans on this important day. We are committed to supporting veterans in their transition back to civilian life. They offer skills that are remarkably competitive and transferable to the work We do in food distribution, including drivers, selectors, supervisors and corporate roles. We have an employee resource group Dedicated to educating our associates on the value of a veteran, recruiting veterans, supporting and recognizing our U. S. Speaker 300:17:17Foods veterans In providing volunteer and community engagement opportunities. I would like to recognize Jennifer Castillo, who is President of the Those Who Serve Employee Resource Group. Jennifer is a Senior Manager in Merchandising Excellence who served in the U. S. Navy And successfully transferred her skills in mass communications to the corporate world. Speaker 300:17:39We thank Jennifer for her efforts in leading this valuable employee resource group And all veterans for their service to our country. And we wish all of those who have made personal sacrifices to protect our freedoms a very Happy Veterans Day. With that, I'll hand it over to Dirk to go over our financial performance and guidance in further detail. Speaker 200:18:01Thanks, Dave, and good morning, everyone. Let's turn to Slide 10. The execution of our strategy is driving sustainable operating leverage improvement As we deliver strong adjusted EBITDA growth again this quarter. Net sales were $9,100,000,000 in the 3rd quarter, An increase of 2.1% over the prior year, driven by total case volume growth of 4%, partially offset by year over year food cost deflation And product mix impact of 1.9%. Our independent customer case growth was nearly 6% for the quarter. Speaker 200:18:35Renzi added approximately 80 basis points of growth for independents. The Chef Store volume negatively impacts our total independent cases by about 80 basis points. The system conversion is largely behind us. We are laser focused on driving volumes back into our stores. We expect Chef's store volume to be flat modest growth as we exit 2023 and accelerate that growth in 2024. Speaker 200:18:58We saw modest year over year product Cost deflation of approximately 1.3%, which continues to be driven by center of plate as grocery still showed year over year inflation in the quarter. We continue to make progress executing our long range plan initiatives. Our gross profit per case Increased 3.6% during the quarter compared to the prior year. Our adjusted gross profit dollars grew 7.7% from the prior year, driven by an increase in total case volume and cost of goods sold optimization. Adjusted gross profit as a percent of sales was up nearly 90 basis points to 17.3%. Speaker 200:19:38Our adjusted operating expense per case was only up 1.1% for the quarter, Which is our best per case year over year performance this year. The 5.2% increase in adjusted OpEx dollars was largely driven by increased volume. Adjusted operating expenses as a percent of net sales were up approximately 40 basis points to 12.9%. We are pleased with our gross profit per case growth exceeding OpEx per case growth as we drive profitability and seek ways to be more efficient. All of this led to 15% adjusted EBITDA growth and we expanded adjusted EBITDA margins by nearly 50 basis points. Speaker 200:20:18Finally, Adjusted diluted EPS grew 17% to $0.70 per share. We have demonstrated strong leverage Through the P and L with operating expense per case growing at about 1 third the rate of gross profit per case, we expect to maintain that operational discipline. Turning to Slide 11 for our growth pillar. Our digital capabilities and unique product portfolio are attracting new customers and driving sales. In addition, our differentiated service model and focus on operational excellence is leading to profitable growth. Speaker 200:20:53With our solid independent case growth, we are on track to significantly exceed our 1.5 times goal for restaurant volume growth for the full year. We drove year over year share gains in each of our target customer types, improved our independent private label mix by 140 basis points And continue to develop and convert strong healthcare and hospitality in the business pipeline. Speaker 300:21:16We are seeing improved mix Speaker 200:21:18And margin expansion as we outgrow the industry and focus on more profitable customer types. We are focused on profitable share growth As evidenced by our Q3 gross margin improvement and our 10th consecutive quarter of year over year share gains and independence. As we focus on our digital innovations, Moxy has saved our sellers over 50000 hours with its new self-service capabilities In addition to the significantly improved customer experience, this frees up hours for our sellers to accelerate growth and help our customers succeed. Next to profit on Slide 12. In addition to profitable growth, we continue to make progress on our initiatives to increase EBITDA margins. Speaker 200:22:01We drove further progress on initiatives such as cost of goods sold improvements by working jointly with additional vendors. We remain on track to address a total of 60% of cost of goods by the end of the year. We continue to advance our efforts to drive operational efficiencies as productivity improved year over year for both delivery and warehouse. Now I'll turn to cash flow. Turning to Slide 13. Speaker 200:22:26We continue to increase our cash flow and expect to build upon this as we grow earnings and effectively manage working capital. Our strong cash flow means we will continue reinvesting for growth and further strengthen our capital structure. Our year to date operating cash flow was 9.35 $1,000,000 We invested approximately $270,000,000 in CapEx and on fleet leases, including projects to expand fleets, Enhance analytic insights and improved technology and supply chain and sales to enable further organic growth. Our ongoing CapEx target is approximately 1.3% of net sales. As a rule of thumb, over time, we spend about 1 third CapEx on fleet, One third for maintenance and one third for growth, which includes advancing our technology capabilities. Speaker 200:23:15We also paid $142,000,000 for Renzi Speaker 300:23:18in the quarter. We will continue Speaker 200:23:20to remain opportunistic in selectively pursuing tuck in M and A like Saladino's where it makes sense and at reasonable valuations. In addition, we repurchased 727,000 shares in the Q3 for a total of $29,000,000 And so far in the Q4, we have repurchased an additional $20,000,000 leaving $237,000,000 remaining on our $500,000,000 share repurchase program. Moving to Slide 14. Leveraging our free cash flow and timely debt paydowns, we reduced our leverage from 3.7 times 2.9 times over the past 12 months. We are now within our target range of 2.5 times to 3 times and expect to remain there. Speaker 200:24:03In August, we reduced the margin on our term loan to 20.28 by 25 basis points. In September, we refinanced the 2025 senior notes By completing a $1,000,000,000 offering, the market was constructive for us as we moved $1,000,000,000 from secured to unsecured debt and extended our maturities. Our overall debt structure is in solid shape. We don't have any maturities until 2026. We remain focused on creating value for shareholders and allocating capital prudently against the four parts of our capital allocation strategy. Speaker 200:24:37Now turning to guidance on Slide 15. As a result of our solid year to date results and outlook for the full year, We are raising our full year adjusted EBITDA range to $1,540,000,000 to $1,560,000,000 and our adjusted diluted EPS range $2.60 to $2.78 per share. We are delivering on our long range plan and we are growing adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margins. We reduced our leverage to within our target range and are deploying capital to deliver strong returns. We believe we We have the right strategies in place to deliver strong profitability this year and into the next several years. Speaker 200:25:17I'll now pass it back to Dave for his closing remarks. Speaker 300:25:19Thanks, Dirk. The continued improvement in our results reflects our team's hard work over the past few years to build a differentiated platform that positions us to win Reese. I am pleased with the progress we are making as we execute the 4 pillars of our strategy, which is driving improved safety, productivity And profitable growth despite the lack of market tailwinds. And we'll continue to be at the forefront of technology with our Moxy platform and our overall digital strategy. Our focus on continuing to improve our customer value proposition has resulted in strong case growth And consistent market share gains, specifically within independent restaurants, healthcare and hospitality. Speaker 300:26:04We are growing our adjusted EBITDA and enhancing our margins. Our leverage is now below 3 times. Even with this tremendous progress, we have a long runway of profitable growth and shareholder returns in front of us. Assuming stable macro backdrop, we believe our long range plan will lead to further margin expansion over time, and we remain committed To be at or near $1,700,000,000 of adjusted EBITDA in 2024. And I want to be very clear, this is not Reese. Speaker 300:26:40We have a lot more sales and earnings growth potential in 2024 and beyond, And we look forward to highlighting our exciting future at the upcoming Investor Day on June 5. We are just getting started And we will continue to execute our strategy, gain profitable market share within our target customer types, enhance our margins And strategically deploy capital. We are in a great position today and we believe we have sustainable competitive advantages to outperform the market well into the future. It's an exciting time at U. S. Speaker 300:27:14Foods and we appreciate your interest. With that, Lisa, please open up the line for questions. Operator00:27:21Thank Mike. We'll take our first question from John Heinbockel with Guggenheim. Speaker 400:27:35Hey, Dave, let me start. The sales force investment or the investment you're making in sales, right? What how would you parse that out between the various pieces of team based selling, right? You've got different positions. And then secondly, the org chart, the org changed, having those guys report to the regional VPs, what do you think that will do operationally? Speaker 300:28:01Great. Well, let me take the first question that you asked here, John, and good morning. We're excited about the investments we're making in the sales Reese. We've been doing that for a while and we continue to accelerate that investment and we'll be at that low to mid single digits for a long time to come. It's mostly TMs, But I'm excited about our team based selling model where we have our consultants and specialists, as well as our chefs teaming up in front of the customer. Speaker 300:28:27We'll make fractional investments in those other two groups relative to TMs just to continue to make sure they have the support they need in front of the customer. And then in terms of your org changes, really excited about where we're going. Jim, his retirement just gave me the opportunity to think about Differently how I want to think about the organization and efficiencies. And as you know, every anytime there's handoffs between corporate and the field, it creates slower decision making Opportunities for inefficiency and we just need to continue to move faster. So it's an opportunity for me to rethink it and moving our local sales Reese. Speaker 300:29:00Back into the field where the customer interface is just make all sorts of sense. So a small change, but I think it will prove meaningful through the course of time. Speaker 400:29:09All right. And then my follow-up, the 3 target types. How would you parse out the case growth between New accounts and drop size, right? And my guess is it's different, independent versus healthcare and hospitality, The composition is different, correct? Speaker 300:29:29Yes. No, I think that's right. And on the independent side, let me start with that first. Our cases per line are relatively flat given what you've heard broadly about some of the foot traffic, but we are continuing to increase our lines per drop up You're in the low single digits. So we continue to penetrate those customers both when we get them initially, but also through the course of time and that's an exciting Opportunity for us to continue to drive in terms of growth. Speaker 300:29:55And as I mentioned in Hospitality and Healthcare, we're generating a lot of net new customers and new business. And As we talked in the past, we believe we've got a highly differentiated model there, particularly in Healthcare where we've got great technology differentiation To help our customers not only in their back office from a cost productivity standpoint, but also with their customers and the folks That are seeking the care to help manage their nutritionals, to be efficient in how they bring in inventory and to do that automatically. No one else has the capability that we have there. And then the same store sales, I would say, contribute more that growth to healthcare and hospitality relative to independents. So we've got a differentiated model. Speaker 300:30:38We're winning in all those places that we continue to tell you. We're taking share in all of them and we've got a long runway of growth ahead of us. And I think this really speaks to the power of the differentiated model that we have. We've got all these target customer types that many of our competitors don't have. And I think that will prove to be a very resilient model for us through the course of time. Speaker 500:30:59Thank you. Speaker 300:31:01Thank you. Operator00:31:04We'll take our next question from Kelly Bania with BMO Capital Markets. Speaker 600:31:11Good morning. Thanks for taking our questions. Just wanted to touch a little bit more on gross margin, obviously, quite strong. Can you just help us break out maybe the inflation deflation impact? And then also just talk more broadly about strategic Vendor management and your cost of goods initiatives, your reduction initiatives there and what you're learning as you work through this initiative with your suppliers. Speaker 300:31:41Okay. Let me start and I'll ask Dirk to fill in the details here. But The point I want to make, Kelly, and appreciate the question, is we've been through periods of large inflation here and now 2 consecutive quarters of deflation and what you've seen us continue to do regardless Reese. What's going on there is continue to expand our gross margins and particularly our gross margin per case. And as Dirk highlighted, we're doing that at a much faster rate than our operating expense per case is growing. Speaker 300:32:07That's a winning model. We expect that that will continue. Specific to your SBM question, it's a piece of work that the company has been doing for quite some time. As we said, we'd be through about 60% of our COGS By the end of this year, we're maintaining that and we're making very good progress. So that element of the gross margin improvement along with our penetration of exclusive brands, which we said were up 140 basis points in independence this quarter along with our work to continue to optimize our freight lanes and improve our mix. Speaker 300:32:37No, that's the winning formula to continue to expand our gross margins. And as we say, we control our own destiny in that regard and we're doing a nice job of it. Speaker 200:32:46Hi, Kelly. The only thing I would add is just to reinforce Dave's point that inflation, deflation really a moot point when we think of year over year. As he said, it's Relatively flat to some modest deflation, but those are in categories that aren't impacting earnings. So the improvement you're seeing is really all back to Point of control is controllable, some things that we're doing in our 4 walls as opposed to the external marketplace. Speaker 600:33:13Great. Thanks. And then just wanted to give you an opportunity to maybe touch a little bit more on the 1.7 long range plan target and just as you get closer to 2024, How the different components of that may be working towards reaching that, whether parts of it are ahead or behind or where there Maybe more opportunity just wanted to give you the opportunity to kind of talk through that a little bit more. Speaker 300:33:45Yes, great question. And I'll just say we'll say more about our guidance for next year on our Q4 call, obviously. But I'm very confident To be at or near that $1,700,000,000 And just through the course of time here in my 1st 10 months, I've gained nothing but increased confidence, Kelly, the momentum and what I love about the way we're delivering our results is we've got great balance across the P and L. We're working in the right target customer types. We're delivering the right amount of growth profitably. Speaker 300:34:11We're improving our expense ratios, and importantly, driving the outcomes that our customers need. So there's not one area that's outsized, I would say, in terms of the impact there. We've got great balance. I expect that balance to continue into 2024 and beyond. Speaker 600:34:29Thank you. Speaker 300:34:31Thank you. Operator00:34:33We'll take our next question from Peter Saleh with BTIG. Speaker 700:34:37Great. Thanks for taking the question and congrats on the quarter. I wanted to ask maybe first on the independent restaurants. The environment is changing a little bit here. We're starting to see a couple of quarters now of deflation that you guys are seeing. Speaker 700:34:55Restaurants have taken a lot of price and we're seeing some more discounting among the larger chains. Are you seeing any change in behavior among your independent restaurants? Or Just help us out in terms of their health and their trajectory going forward. Speaker 300:35:10Yes. I think the health is very solid. We've had some foot traffic challenges through the course of Q3 there, particularly with the chains, which continue to see lower Foot traffic sequentially while our results improved. I think the health of the independent is very stable. And as you've heard me say in the past, I believe they're going to win out In the long run here and importantly, we continue to have a differentiated model that enables us to continue to take market share And support their businesses, not only with our great products and service with our people, but also our technology. Speaker 300:35:41So we think we're differentiated there. And regardless of what's going on in the macro, We're going to continue to penetrate that healthy customer base. And importantly, I think overall, there's less restaurants out there than there were Pre pandemic, but we've seen sequentially new openings of restaurants. And I would say our penetration is largely Probably equally split between new openings of locations as well as penetration and taking share from others in the marketplace. So It's a pretty well balanced approach at this point. Speaker 300:36:12I would expect to see continued openings in locations through the course of the next few quarters here. So we're seeing that part of the customer base pretty healthy and stable. Speaker 700:36:22Great. Very helpful. And then just on the Indirect spending, I think you guys have mentioned past couple of quarters some cuts that you Speaker 800:36:31would be making there. Speaker 700:36:32Can you just talk to us a little bit about Where the progress is on some of those indirect spending cuts, is that more of a 2024 Event or have you started cutting some of those expenses? Thanks. Speaker 200:36:46Good morning, Peter. We have started to see some small Savings begin to accrue already. We do expect that to accelerate as we go through 2024, but that's moving along well and really as we planned. So it's good to see some Thanks. Speaker 900:37:00I'm going Speaker 200:37:00to fruition now, but more to come next Speaker 700:37:04year. Thank you very much. Speaker 800:37:07Thanks. Operator00:37:09We'll We'll take our next question from Alex Slagle with Jefferies. Speaker 800:37:14Hey, thanks. Congrats. I want to follow-up. It looks like the gap between the chains and independents slightly narrowed a bit quarter over quarter. I mean, is there Any stabilization or relative improvement in the chains that you're seeing? Speaker 800:37:30Any more improvements to come you think? Speaker 300:37:33Well, I think just broadly in the market, the foot traffic was slightly down sequentially Q3 to Q2. And as I've said in the past, really the performance Just relative to who you have in your portfolio relative to the winners and the folks who aren't going as well. We outperformed what was going on with foot traffic this quarter. I think that's relatively stable. We have some things in the pipeline and I think we'll continue to show improvement through the course of time and into next year, middle of next year. Speaker 300:38:00We're targeting the right change that we believe are going to win. And as we've said in the past, we'll continue to look for optimization opportunities within our portfolio. Speaker 1000:38:12And a Speaker 800:38:13question on Pronto. I guess it's grown to cover about 35 markets now. What's The broader TAM of this opportunity sort of where it can go and timeline to think about. Speaker 300:38:25Yes. We've made aggressive investments in Pronto. You'll continue to see us do that as an opportunity to serve our customers better. The frequency of deliveries, particularly in these urban areas that are difficult to reach, customers want fresh products delivered more frequently, And that's the great platform for us to do that. So we'll continue to be thoughtful about where we take it, but we see a long runway of opportunity there to continue to penetrate Reese. Speaker 300:38:52We love that model. We're excited about it, and it's getting great traction. Speaker 900:38:57All Speaker 800:38:57right. Thank you. Speaker 300:38:59Thank you. Operator00:39:02We'll take our next question from Lauren Silverman with Deutsche Bank. Speaker 1100:39:07Thank you and congrats on the quarter. I wanted to ask about capital allocation. So $250,000,000 or so in buyback Reese. Stock trading at a big discount to history had really strong fundamentals momentum. So can you expand on your willingness to further lean in how you're thinking about capital Reese. Speaker 1100:39:26Allocation of buybacks versus M and A or debt pay down. And then specific to M and A, just how you think about the most accretive opportunities for the business. Speaker 300:39:36Yes. So let me start to say we will always invest in organic growth in our company first. We think that's the highest return in supporting our customers is paramount. We continue to look at expansion opportunities across our network and we'll be thoughtful about those, but we'll continue to drive that first. As you heard me say, we don't need to do any acquisitions in this company. Speaker 300:39:56I love our footprint. We'll take opportunities like we did with Renzi and the one we announced this morning To help us with efficiencies, taking miles out of the system and local market density. Now let me just say a word about Saladino since you brought up M and A and the way we think about it. I'm very excited about that acquisition. We said $600,000,000 in revenue. Speaker 300:40:16It gives us an opportunity in the Central Valley where Saladino's is roughly half chain and half Independent. Well, we don't have a footprint to serve the independent customer in that Central Valley, really none of our competitors do. So we're excited about it from that standpoint. We're excited about it from the standpoint of helping us optimize the chain business that we have in Central and Northern California footprint. So We'll take Miles out and serve that part of the customer base better. Speaker 300:40:42But I guess I would say I'm most excited about the multiple we're paying for that, which is a fraction of what we paid for Renzi And a fraction of our trading multiple. So as we said, we will be thoughtful and disciplined about any acquisitions and we won't do any that don't make sense and we won't overpay for them And Saladino's is another great example of that. In terms of your question around share repurchases, we're obviously under trading our potential and hugely undervalued in my view. You've seen us ramp up our share repurchases. I think we'll be thoughtful about that going forward. Speaker 300:41:12Returning capital to shareholders is important After we do the things we need to make sure we're growing and supporting our customers well, obviously, more to come on that through the course of time, but We've been leaning hard on share repurchases and we'll continue to do that. Speaker 1100:41:28Great. Thank you for that. And then just a follow-up, Really impressive case growth trends. Can you talk about anything around the cadence of trends you saw throughout the quarter and to the extent you're willing to provide any color on October? And similarly, anything you can provide on the East Coast inflation throughout the quarter and trends into October? Speaker 1100:41:46Thank you. Speaker 300:41:47Yes. Thank you. I think sequentially through the quarter, we saw things soften a bit in the market, as I said earlier. And that's why I'm so excited that our independent case growth We accelerated sequentially from Q2 to Q3, and we continue to accelerate our market share gains. So it underscores The importance of the differentiated model and the differentiation that we have actually in the marketplace. Speaker 300:42:08And in terms of the start to the Q4, I think it's largely in line with what we saw in Q3. I would say October started a little slower for us as we were lapping a Strike from one of our large competitors in the 1st couple of weeks of October. We saw that volume bounce back as we would expect in the back half of the quarter and we Expect to be relatively in line with Q3 and importantly continue to take market share in those target customer types. Speaker 200:42:33Hi, Kelly. On deflation, so we actually saw the year over year deflation improve or lessen as we went through the quarter. And in October, we actually saw modest year over year inflation. And the improvements are primarily coming from center of the plate. So as that begins to become modestly inflationary and then grocery is Still very modest, but levels of inflation. Speaker 200:42:55So we think that's encouraging. Speaker 1100:42:59Thank you guys very much. Speaker 1200:43:01Thanks. Thank you. Operator00:43:03We'll take our next question from Brian Harbour with Morgan Stanley. Speaker 1300:43:09Yes. Thanks. Good morning, guys. Dirk, just on that comment, would you expect that there is now going to be kind of modest inflation across the business In 4Q and then into early 2024. Speaker 200:43:23Good morning, Brian. Well, I use P10 is a good indicator that at least it's back into the black or some modest inflation. I think as we see since it's been more proteins which can be more volatile. I think that's the part that's harder to predict. But I think what's encouraging as you see the stabilization of proteins, You see still modest inflation in grocery. Speaker 200:43:46And so I think that indicates more likelihood of some level of inflation I think that the most important part that I could come back to is what we talked about earlier that even with really modest deflation That our gross profit still remain quite strong. It just I think demonstrates the durability we've talked a lot about and why we are so bullish in our GP being able to stay And an expectation that in future years, we can continue to expand further. Speaker 1300:44:15Yes. Okay. Makes sense. And OpEx per case, like you talked about, in keeping that in check, how would you kind of rank the main drivers of that at this point? Do you think it's mostly about just Kind of continued improvements in productivity and are you seeing much yet from kind of digital expansion, flex Scheduling, etcetera, are like how do we think about which of those drivers might become more important as you go into the subsequent quarters? Speaker 200:44:47Well, to start with, we're quite pleased with the performance. As I said in my prepared comments, our best year over year per case performance that we've had, And that's really driven by distribution to supply chain costs. And so I think that is a key unlock. I think when you think across Other parts, yes, we'll get some leverage. We'll continue to take some actions on productivity. Speaker 200:45:07But the I think all the things, hopefully, what you see When we talk about the improvements as flex scheduling is coming to life, as year over year productivity continues to improve for delivery and warehouse, All those are translating into per case improvements. And so that gives us good confidence that we are making traction. We still have plenty of runway ahead, but ultimately We're pleased with that and see a lot of opportunity remaining. Operator00:45:40All right. And we'll take our next question from Edward Kelly with Wells Fargo. Speaker 900:45:46Hi, guys. Good morning. Nice quarter. Dirk, maybe just a follow-up on OpEx per case. Obviously, very good results. Speaker 900:45:57But productivity for on a worker standpoint, I don't think it's back to 2019 levels. You talked about things like the routing, the flex scheduling. How do we think about the growth in OpEx per case going forward on a sustained basis In terms of modeling. And then specifically, as you think about Q4, if you look at OpEx for Reese. Q4 versus Q3, which would suggest that it might actually be down year over year. Speaker 900:46:30I don't know if that's too aggressive an assumption, but maybe speak to that as well. Speaker 200:46:37Hi, Ed. So ultimately, I think when distribution, the productivity, so we actually for the Q3, our delivery productivity was above 2019. Warehouse isn't quite there, but it's making progress. So we're pretty encouraged. And I think the whether it's the flex scheduling, you heard Dave talk about our cases per mile From the routing work we've done over the best in the company history and what I think we each like about the work we're doing is it's not all just about taking cost It's about the customer experience, customer service and things that then are taking are making our company more productive. Speaker 200:47:10So it really is a good balance there. I think the as you look ahead to the Q4, whether it's sort of in line with prior year, A little bit higher, a little lower. I think the encouraging part is that we're seeing very modest levels of increase in per case. And I think that comes back to what You've heard us say from the beginning of this year is when we have inflation, cost inflation of 3% to 5% a year, our goal is to offset As much for all of that as we can. I think you're seeing that as we make progress coming more and more to fruition. Speaker 200:47:43So our goal remains that from Quarter to quarter, that could bounce around a little bit. I'll use an example for OpEx, so you may end up with a little better performance in the 4th quarter and We're pleased with the progress we're making. Speaker 900:47:58Okay. And then Dave, just a follow-up for you. You're Making some adjustments to sales compensation model, hiring salespeople. We're hearing this from Competition as well. Obviously, the large players seem to be a bit more focused on gains with higher margin customers. Speaker 900:48:19My question for you is, can everyone win in that environment, meaning the larger players? And How confident are you in the differentiation of what U. S. Foods is doing that allows you to continue what we're seeing today in that type of Speaker 300:48:38Yes, great question. I'll take your second part first. I'm highly confident in the differentiation of our model And it's the winning model, I believe, and we can drive growth effectively and productively with our sales team. But that team based selling model, as you continue to hear me say, is a real differentiator. I see it working every single day for our customers, And we're going to continue to drive it hard. Speaker 300:49:01And I think that's why you may hear us talk about sales headcount growth at a slightly lower level than you hear from some of our competitors. I think that really is a differentiation in our model and we'll continue to lean in around that. And the first part Speaker 700:49:16of your Speaker 300:49:16question, remind me again. Speaker 900:49:19Well, it's just I guess it really pertains to the idea if the large three players We're all sort of investing in salespeople. And is there enough opportunity beyond that, that everybody can win? Reese. If the market looks at this as you versus your other publicly traded players, here are some game, how Yes. Inaccurate is that at the end of the day? Speaker 300:49:44I think this is still a very highly fragmented market as The big three have 40% anomaly roughly plus or minus of share. So that's still very highly fragmented. I think you continue to see us Take share collectively from some of the smaller players. When I think about our business relative to others, We still have a relatively small share of the independent market space. So the runway is long, I think, for growth. Speaker 300:50:11We all have different models. They all have their pluses and minuses. But I think there's room for everybody to continue to win in this market. Speaker 200:50:18Hey, Ed, one other thing just that I'd highlight that I think is a differentiator in And our go to market and our focus is with our 3 customer types that we're targeting, I mean, what you see is, it's not just about the independents. We have 8% growth almost in Healthcare. We have 6% hospitality. We've continued to do that. We continue to have Excellent new business pipeline and converts in healthcare and hospitality. Speaker 200:50:42So if you look at how that translates into in those most attractive our key customer types, That's led to overall the strongest case growth out of United's competitors and we're pleased that we have with the model we have the ability to continue to grow at Reese. Accelerated and gained share in all three of those types leading to overall solid case growth. Speaker 900:51:03Great. Thank you. Speaker 300:51:05Thanks, Ed. Operator00:51:07We'll take our next question from Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays. Speaker 1200:51:12Great. Thank you very much. Two questions. The first one, David, I think we've confirmed the industry data and the restaurant commentary showed that there was a slowdown to close Reese. Maybe the summer, maybe August, September. Speaker 1200:51:25And I think you confirmed that the chain's foot traffic slowed in the Q3. The question we've been getting a lot is just why. I I think a lot of people immediately jump on the idea that the headwinds on the consumer are finally taking hold. But then many of our restaurants have actually said Less of consumer concerns and more just a return to normal historical seasonality in terms of month to month or quarter to quarter. In fact, some have actually said the industry has recovered somewhat in October. Speaker 1200:51:51So I'm just wondering your thoughts. 1, are you surprised that maybe you're not seeing a similar uptick In October, and do you think there's any credence to the thesis of a return to seasonality? Just wondering your thoughts on whether or not we should be concerned of a broader Consumer slowdown or whether the seasonality does hold some water? And then I had a follow-up. Yes. Speaker 300:52:09I think there probably is something to the seasonality piece, although We don't spend a lot of time thinking about that, Jeff, because relative to our model and the things that we're leaning in around, Yes, I keep telling our team to focus on the things we can control and whether there's a broader slowdown in the market. There's still a lot of cases out there for us to go get. People are still going out to eat. It's going to ebb and flow just like it always has. It's been a difficult time to get a handle on things with the rebound since COVID and Reese. Speaker 300:52:37Restaurants that have gone offline and them coming back, it's really it's been a little bit helter skelter here, as you know, for the last year or so. But regardless of all of that, I think what I'm seeing and what I said earlier is stability. I think that's the key right now is And then our ability to lean in where we want to in those 3 target customer types continue to support our customers with their share. Speaker 1200:53:00And on that note, it seems like you've got strong momentum across your business lines. I'm just wondering, You kind of blessed the at or near $1,700,000,000 for next year, but what's your greatest concern as we look to 2024? I'm assuming maybe it's more macro versus your internal plans, but what are you looking at to get a gauge for your outlook for 2024? What's the biggest Reese. Concern you have or among your team? Speaker 300:53:27Yes. I think from a macro standpoint, that would probably be it, But it would have to be a major significant macro thing to give me a lot of concern. I've got a lot of confidence in our ability to hit that target for next year, Given the momentum that we have and what I can see coming in the future in terms of continued share gains, productivity work that we have underway, Our ability to control that outcome. So yes, I guess I'd have to point to a macro, but it would have to be more than just a minor slowdown. Speaker 1200:53:59Got it. And then just lastly, the M and A, just to follow-up. It seems like the discussions maybe are a little bit more productive. You've completed a couple of them. I know peers are talking a little bit more about it. Speaker 1200:54:09Do you think both sides are coming to more reasonable terms in terms of valuation? And how do you think about it in terms of your opportunity? Is it more of a geographic opportunity? Or is it just a particular line of business that you'd be interested in focusing on? Just trying to get your sense. Speaker 300:54:24Yes, ours have been more geographic focused in both cases, both with Renzi and Saladino's now where we're serving those markets in some capacity, but not very efficiently. Reese. So there's still ample opportunity for that across our network to strengthen our position in local markets. There may be something that we do product portfolio wise that's opportunistic. I don't see any major gaps in it. Speaker 300:54:46But if the right thing comes along at the right time, we'll certainly take a look at it. I think you can think about it in similar fashion to what you've seen us do with the 2 that we've talked about so far this year. In terms of valuations, what you heard me say is that Saladino's was extremely reasonable and a fraction of what we paid in elsewhere. So We're going to do the things that make sense because we don't have to do M and A. We really don't. Speaker 300:55:11So it's going to be thoughtful. It's going to be the right one for us, solve a problem for us And evaluations that make sense for us every time. Speaker 1400:55:21Thank you. Speaker 300:55:23Thank you. Operator00:55:25We'll take our next question from Jake Bartlett with Truist Securities. Speaker 1400:55:30Great. Thanks for taking the question. Mine was it pertains to you, but as well as your larger competitors. You're all increasing your sales forces pretty aggressively. And I guess, I'm wondering, it seems like there's a disconnect. Speaker 1400:55:44The overall market growth, macro pressures are there. It doesn't seem like the market's gotten much Bigger than expected. So how should we interpret the kind of the wide scale increase in the sales force, Given the macro background that doesn't seem to be better than expected. Speaker 300:56:03Yes. I think you can interpret at least I can only speak for us and You know how we're thinking about it, Jake, but I think it speaks to the underlying opportunity that we see in terms of growth. And look, as we continue to take share, We're going to grow somewhat with the market. That's going to be very low single digits. We're going to continue to penetrate the market intake share and that's going to drive an increment of growth And that low to single digit low to mid single digit headcount increase will add another increment of growth on top of that. Speaker 300:56:30And so that's the way we're thinking about the algorithm Given the relatively fractured nature of this market and this industry, there's still ample opportunity for us to take share regardless of the macro. Speaker 200:56:42Yes. I think, Jake, the other thing, keep in mind, if we're growing independents at 6% on a regular basis as we have for the last number of quarters, You do want us to be adding sales sellers because that's also we're getting good leverage as we're adding sellers by growing cases faster than that, but at the same time making sure that we're Reinvesting and reinvesting especially in those areas where we're growing faster. Speaker 1000:57:06Got it. Great. That's really helpful. And In the context, Speaker 1400:57:10and I know it doesn't certainly doesn't seem like it's happening so far as gross profits per case remain robust and have been robust Reese. With a lot of these salespeople coming on industry wide and Reese. The macro is still somewhat under pressure. Do you expect price competition to increase? It seems like that's still Reese. Speaker 1400:57:34A risk to the gross profits per case story out there, it hasn't come to fruition, but how much of a risk do you think that That is, all these sales guys, people hitting the market are going to have to start competing a little bit more on price. Speaker 300:57:50Yes. I think this has always been a competitive industry and it always will be. And things changed during COVID. And I think I would describe the competitiveness out there now is back to pre COVID levels. It's very fragmented. Speaker 300:58:03There's a lot of competitors out there. Jake, that doesn't deter us at all. We've got a differentiated model. And I think it underscores the importance of 2 things. One is all the initiatives that we have underway that we control To continue to drive that improvement in gross profit per case and then looking at ways to continually get more productive and take cost and waste out of our system. Speaker 300:58:24That's why this 3% to 5% productivity target is so important to us. That's why the MOXI penetration is important because it allows our sales team To be much more productive in front of the customer and not chasing the back office stuff, but selling the value that we bring, selling great products And importantly, helping our customers solve problems. Speaker 1400:58:46Great. I appreciate it. Speaker 300:58:49Thank you. Operator00:58:52We'll take our next question from Mark Carden with UBS. Speaker 500:58:56Good morning. Thanks so much for taking the questions. So Chef's Store was a bit of a headwind in 3Q to a slightly greater extent than Speaker 300:59:02it was in 2Q. Speaker 500:59:03Is this simply being driven by residual from the systems conversion issue and the need to win back some of these customers? And then how should we think about the impact here over the course of the next few quarters? Yes. Speaker 300:59:14I think you're hitting it right in the center of the target there, Mark. As we've said, now the systems change is largely behind us. We've had some lingering effects in terms of lost business through the course of that, which started in Q3 of last year. Encouragingly, we are seeing month over month Sequential improvement and more recently week over week improvements. I'm encouraged by the ramp up. Speaker 300:59:36As you heard Dirk say, we expect to be in a position of flat to growth By the end of this year, exiting the year with the goal of driving strong top line growth next year. And I think largely we're on track to do that. So I'm very encouraged by what I see. We continue to invest in the business. We've opened one new location already in the Q4 in Virginia and we've got a couple more planned Nick Caroline is here before the end of Q4. Speaker 301:00:02So progress continues and I expect that that ramp rate will continue here as we exit 2023. Speaker 501:00:09Okay, great. And then on Renzi, I know it's still early, but how is the integration fared relative to your expectations? And then in context with Celadenos, do Do you think you may have capacity to acquire at a faster pace, while also of course understanding that you don't necessarily need to lean on M and A? Speaker 301:00:26Yes. I think Renzi has gone even better than I could have imagined. It's gone extremely well on the integration front. We put a very strong leader in place there. We've had a great cultural fit. Speaker 301:00:37Importantly, we haven't lost any key talent And it's been very transparent and a non event for the customers in the market. So we love it. There's not enough good I can say about how Renzi has gone. It's all very, very positive. And then the second part of your question again? Speaker 501:00:54Just the second part is basically with your new acquisition, do you You guys think that you might have the capacity to acquire at a faster pace, again understanding that you don't necessarily have to acquire? Yes. Speaker 301:01:05I think as I said, it filled the geographic void for us, particularly on the independent side there where we were serving that market. It's It's Speaker 201:01:12kind of hard to get Speaker 301:01:12to the Central Valley from San Francisco or L. A. Very efficiently. So it solves that problem for us. And Certainly, we have plenty of chain business in that part of the country and the half of that business that we're acquiring that was chain related Will help us serve that segment of the customer base also more effectively. Speaker 301:01:30So we're excited about it from all those angles. It just made sense at the right time. And importantly, as I've said a number of times this morning, a great multiple that we paid for. Speaker 901:01:40Great. Thanks so much. Good luck. Thank Operator01:01:46you. We'll take our next question from Andrew Wolf with CL King. Speaker 1001:01:51Thanks. Good morning. I'd like to follow-up on some of the good morning, the questioning on the labor productivity. And you have experienced accelerating case growth in the quarter and sort of for the year as well. You're in a tight labor market, so Andy had good results, so that's pretty impressive. Speaker 1001:02:12But to what extent can you measure or just anecdotally talk about To what extent hiring more fresh people who've obviously come in relatively low in terms of productivity as you're growing, How much that impacts the labor productivity metrics that we're able to discern? Speaker 301:02:35Well, I think attracting talent is important. And I would say the inflow of applicants for our jobs has Increased to the point where I would say it's relatively the same as it was pre COVID. It's always been the challenge to retain those folks through the course of time. And that's why We've leaned in so hard around this flex scheduling pilot. And while initially as you start those pilots, you need to add a little bit of headcount, it actually hurts your productivity. Speaker 301:03:01What we're seeing is double digit improvements in turnover. Obviously, that leads to reduced overtime and improved productivity in the long run. And we're seeing that everywhere we've taken that model. So I think we've got a unique approach that makes a lot of sense for us and will help us Retain people, which is the key here to driving productivity over the long haul. And as Dirk said, we're pleased with our driver Reese. Speaker 301:03:24Results both in terms of turnover and productivity being back to pre pandemic levels and we'll continue to drive improvement from there. Speaker 1001:03:34Okay. And just regarding the guidance, I think because you mentioned Saladinos is going to close late in the year. Does the guidance update exclude Saladinos? Speaker 201:03:48It would be a very insignificant amount For the Q4. So at this point, it really demonstrates the core strength of the overall business. Speaker 1001:03:57Okay, great. Thank you. That's it for me. Speaker 301:04:01Thank you. Operator01:04:03We'll take our next question from John Ivankoe with JPMorgan. Speaker 1501:04:07Hi. Thank you. The question is actually on Current price competition, if you're seeing any, the current slow restaurant case volume environment, COGS, which obviously have moderated the labor market, cost Reese. Which has moderated. I mean, it would seem that if there was going to be a time for price competition, we would probably already be seeing it. Speaker 1501:04:28So just wanted to get your comments, anything that you're hearing on a specific market level, to maybe there's been a change in recent times. Thank you. Speaker 301:04:37Yes. I would say that there's been a change since the pandemic, getting back to pre pandemic competitiveness. And as I said, it's always competitive. I wouldn't point to any market or geographic area of the country where it's more or less competitive than it was pre pandemic. It's always competitive. Speaker 301:04:54It's a thing we all have to deal with every day and that's why we work so hard to sell the value that U. S. Foods brings to our customers. Speaker 1401:05:03Thank you. Speaker 301:05:05Thank you. Operator01:05:09And there are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Dave Flippman for any additional or closing remarks. Speaker 301:05:15Well, thank you all for joining us today. We are excited about the momentum in the business and importantly, the exciting future that we have. We look forward to talking to you again and importantly our Investor Day on June 5. Have a great day. Speaker 901:05:29Thank you. Operator01:05:29And that does conclude today's presentation. Thank you for your participation today and please disconnect.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallUS Foods Q3 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) US Foods Earnings HeadlinesUS Foods Increases Investment in Hunger Relief, Culinary Education and Disaster Relief Efforts by More Than 5-Fold Over the Last 2 YearsApril 30 at 6:36 PM | finance.yahoo.comGovernment Contract Update: $12M payment to US FOODS INCApril 29 at 11:52 AM | nasdaq.comMassive new energy source found in UtahNEW THIS WEEK: Huge Energy Discovery In Utah The Department of Energy say it could power America for millions of years. And both grizzled oilmen and clean energy supporters love it: Energy Secretary Chris Wright called it "an awesome resource," while Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates are all directly invested.May 1, 2025 | Stansberry Research (Ad)US Foods to Present at the BMO Global Farm to Market ConferenceApril 23, 2025 | gurufocus.comUS Foods to Host First Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call and WebcastApril 17, 2025 | gurufocus.comUS Foods to Host First Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call and WebcastApril 17, 2025 | businesswire.comSee More US Foods Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like US Foods? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on US Foods and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About US FoodsUS Foods (NYSE:USFD), together with its subsidiaries, engages in marketing, sale, and distribution of fresh, frozen, and dry food and non-food products to foodservice customers in the United States. The company's customers include independently owned single and multi-unit restaurants, regional concepts, national restaurant chains, hospitals, nursing homes, hotels and motels, country clubs, government and military organizations, colleges and universities, and retail locations. The company was formerly known as USF Holding Corp. and changed its name to US Foods Holding Corp. in February 2016. US Foods Holding Corp. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois.View US Foods ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Microsoft Crushes Earnings, What’s Next for MSFT Stock?Qualcomm's Earnings: 2 Reasons to Buy, 1 to Stay AwayAMD Stock Signals Strong Buy Ahead of EarningsAmazon's Earnings Will Make or Break the Stock's Comeback CrowdStrike Stock Nears Record High, Dip Ahead of Earnings?Alphabet Rebounds After Strong Earnings and Buyback AnnouncementMarkets Think Robinhood Earnings Could Send the Stock Up Upcoming Earnings Apollo Global Management (5/2/2025)The Cigna Group (5/2/2025)Chevron (5/2/2025)Eaton (5/2/2025)NatWest Group (5/2/2025)Shell (5/2/2025)Exxon Mobil (5/2/2025)Palantir Technologies (5/5/2025)Vertex Pharmaceuticals (5/5/2025)CRH (5/5/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. Start Your 30-Day Trial MarketBeat All Access Features Best-in-Class Portfolio Monitoring Get personalized stock ideas. Compare portfolio to indices. Check stock news, ratings, SEC filings, and more. Stock Ideas and Recommendations See daily stock ideas from top analysts. Receive short-term trading ideas from MarketBeat. Identify trending stocks on social media. Advanced Stock Screeners and Research Tools Use our seven stock screeners to find suitable stocks. Stay informed with MarketBeat's real-time news. Export data to Excel for personal analysis. Sign in to your free account to enjoy these benefits In-depth profiles and analysis for 20,000 public companies. Real-time analyst ratings, insider transactions, earnings data, and more. Our daily ratings and market update email newsletter. Sign in to your free account to enjoy all that MarketBeat has to offer. Sign In Create Account Your Email Address: Email Address Required Your Password: Password Required Log In or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google Forgot your password? Your Email Address: Please enter your email address. Please enter a valid email address Choose a Password: Please enter your password. Your password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least 1 number, 1 letter, and 1 special character. Create My Account (Free) or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google By creating a free account, you agree to our terms of service. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
There are 16 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day, everyone, and welcome to the U. S. Foods Third Quarter 2023 Quarterly Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded. And I would now like to turn the conference over to Mike Reese, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Operator00:00:10Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 100:00:13Thank you, Lisa. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the U. S. Reese. Concludes Q3 fiscal 2023 earnings call. Speaker 100:00:20On today's call, we have Dave Littmann, CEO and Dirk Locastio, our CFO. We will take your questions after our prepared remarks conclude. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Our earnings release issued earlier this morning and today's presentation slides can be found on the Investor Relations page at our website at ir.usfoods .com. During today's call, unless otherwise stated, we're comparing our Q3 results to the same period in fiscal year 2022. Speaker 100:00:54In addition to historical information, certain statements made during today's call are considered forward looking statements. Please review the risk factors in our 2022 Form 10 ks for a detailed discussion of these potential factors That could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in those statements. Speaker 200:01:16We are Speaker 100:01:17excited to announce that we will host an Investor Day here in the Chicago area on June 5 next year, where we will outline our strategy and the key drivers of our new Long range plan beyond 2024, along with our cash flow generation and capital deployment plans. More details will be sent in the following months. Lastly, during today's call, we will refer to certain non GAAP financial measures. All reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measures Are included in the schedules on our earnings press release as well as in the presentation slides posted on our website, except that we are not providing reconciliations to forward looking non GAAP Financial Measures. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Dave. Speaker 300:01:59Thanks, Mike. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before jumping in to our Q3 highlights, I want to officially welcome Mike Neese as our new Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Mike brings 25 years of Investor Relations experience to U. S. Speaker 300:02:16Foods, including time with Performance Food Group and Builders FirstSource. I am thrilled to team up with him one more time. Additionally, Martha joined U. S. Foods in late September as Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Speaker 300:02:31With more than 30 years of experience, Martha is a seasoned business advisor With exceptional expertise in corporate governance, commercial and M and A transactions and leading high performing teams. I look forward to Martha's many contributions to the company. And now, let's turn to today's agenda. I'll start by sharing highlights for the quarter and our progress against our strategy and long range plan before I hand it over to Dirk to review our financial results and updated fiscal 2023 guidance. In the Q3, we continued to make Significant progress against our long range plan broadly across the business. Speaker 300:03:13We are improving the safety of our associates, Growing our independent cases while accelerating market share gains, enhancing our margins, driving increased cash flow And meaningfully reducing our net leverage. Our strong Q3 and year to date performance Are a result of our continued growth and market share gains on our target customer types, accelerating operational efficiencies And the dedication of our 29,000 associates, I am proud of their relentless focus on delivering best in class service to our customers In executing strategic initiatives under our long range plan. Building on our differentiated team based selling model, Industry leading digital innovation and continued momentum, our team delivered strong case volume growth. Each of our target customer types, independent restaurants, healthcare and hospitality had year over year market share gains. Importantly, we accelerated our independent share gains and exclusive brand penetration sequentially, resulting in our 10th consecutive quarter of year over year share gains in this important customer type. Speaker 300:04:27We demonstrated profitable growth and margin expansion during the quarter With meaningful improvement in operating leverage, we delivered adjusted EBITDA growth of 15% and expanded our adjusted EBITDA margin by 50 basis Finally, we accelerated cash flow generation allowing us to invest more in the business, Pay down debt, repurchase shares and execute tuck in M and A. Turning to Slide 4, Our strategy guides how we operate and what we focus on to win at U. S. Foods under our four pillars of culture, service, growth and Proffitt. We continue to reap benefits from the inclusion of our 4 regional presidents on my executive leadership team. Speaker 300:05:14We are communicating better and aligning our teams more effectively to ensure faster execution. One important example is a recent decision I made to Further streamline the organization and address feedback from the field by having our local sales teams report into the regional presidents Reese's. Also Jim Sturgill, our EVP and Chief Commercial Officer Has informed me of his decision to retire effective December 1. Jim has been a trusted leader and voice on my executive leadership team. During his more than 31 years with the company, Jim has made countless contributions to propel our company forward. Speaker 300:05:57I want to thank him for his steadfast leadership and his many contributions to our company and our people. After much thought and careful consideration given Jim's pending retirement, I've decided to not backfill Jim's role. Instead, We have restructured our commercial team to create even greater collaboration, a more streamlined structure and the platform for accelerated execution of our strategy. As a result, Randy Taylor, our EVP of Field Operations has taken on additional responsibilities for sales excellence and marketing. In addition, Dave Poe has been promoted to EVP, Chief Merchant reporting to me. Speaker 300:06:41Dave is a seasoned foodservice veteran with more than 25 years of merchandising experience within distribution. In Dave's expanded role, he will continue to be responsible for ensuring the U. S. Foods product value proposition exceeds our customer expectations That we are competitive on cost of goods and that we have the right product portfolio through his leadership of our merchandising function. In addition to the organization changes we are making, we continue to place increased emphasis on accelerating profitable growth, And we want to ensure that we reward our sellers for delivering on that growth. Speaker 300:07:18We are currently working on some likely revisions To our territory manager sales compensation plan, which will even more closely link their compensation to the key elements of our profitable growth plan. We will share more about any potential modifications during our Q4 call. We're also accelerating our investment in our local selling capacity. In fact, we increased our local seller headcount each month in Q3. We plan to continue those additions in the low to mid single digits into 2024 and beyond, which has already been contemplated in our long range plan. Speaker 300:07:57We will be more focused than ever on profitable growth with the right tools and support processes to ensure our sales teams are successful. Collectively, these changes will ensure better alignment between the field and corporate teams, while reducing handoffs and creating additional organization efficiencies. Most importantly, they will further propel our company with the right focus on serving and supporting our customers and driving profitable organic growth. Turning to Slide 5. I'll now briefly discuss our 3rd quarter progress against our culture and service pillars And then Dirk will talk about the growth and profit pillars a bit later. Speaker 300:08:40The safety and well-being of our associates is paramount at U. S. Foods and is critical to our success. Since day 1, I have stressed the importance of improving our performance to provide an even safer operating environment for all of our associates. Our strong results have been driven by our actions to execute more effectively on fewer but more impactful initiatives, while reinforcing safety as a personal value. Speaker 300:09:05One example is our safety leadership training, where we will provide behavior based Safety process training to approximately 1300 operation leaders by the end of this year. This example, Combined with other initiatives has led to steady improvement in our safety performance. Our results improved in the Q3 compared to both the Q2 of this year as well as the Q3 of last year. In fact, the Q3 was our best safety result since the Q1 of 2021 Reese. With our injury and accident frequency rates post better than the prior year by 25% to 30%. Speaker 300:09:42However, there is more work to be done Reese. Turning to the responsible portion of our culture pillar. Through our recently published fall Scoop, we rolled out a new climate conscious product innovation category within our served good portfolio. ServeGood features products that meet our sustainability criteria, including products that are responsibly sourced or contribute to waste reduction. When asked, nearly 2 thirds of our customers say that it is important to them to make sustainable choices that limit their impact On the environment. Speaker 300:10:22One example is our newly unveiled monogram carbon negative cutlery that utilizes greenhouse gas derived biomaterial to create a negative carbon footprint. These climate conscious innovative products Aimed to support our plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We are excited to have nearly 1,000 products in our served good portfolio, which spans multiple product categories. Additionally, we are focused on winning center of the plate, Reese. And over the last several years, we have upgraded our assortment in these key product categories. Speaker 300:10:58Importantly, Our fresh produce category is our fastest growing category year to date and we estimate we have captured approximately 400 basis points of market share over the last 2 years Within our target customer types of independent restaurants, healthcare and hospitality. I am proud of our Sustainable and healthy offerings that will ensure we continue to meet our customers' current and evolving needs. Moving to Slide 6. We continue to focus on best in class delivery, specifically on time and in full service levels to our customers. We continue to improve our customer service levels for product availability and we are essentially now at pre COVID levels. Speaker 300:11:42On time service to customers is also a key focus area for us and our new routing system pilot as part of the broader routing optimization work we have had underway Is a prime example of how we can further improve service. We launched the Descartes routing pilot in our first market. We continue to learn from this pilot and intend to pilot a second location before year end with national implementation planned for 2024. Our routing improvement initiative combined with our move to Descartes will enable us to improve service levels to our customers, while also reducing miles driven and fuel consumption as highlighted by our Q3 performance where we delivered the best cases per mile remarks. In addition, our flexible scheduling initiative is making solid progress As we have moved from the pilot phase to broader deployment across our network and it's now live in 16 locations, We continue to see significant improvements across our network and especially in our pilots, including year over year reduction in Riese. Speaker 300:12:48Turnover that is approximately twice the rate of improvement versus our other locations, 30% improvement in safety And continued improvement in productivity. We remain on track for half of our locations to be live on flex scheduling by year end. Finally, we also continue to invest in our market leading customer facing digital technology with Moxie. Our agile development has delivered many improvements to make it even faster for customers to place orders and manage their business. Our deployment to local customers is complete and we now have 30% of our national customers on Moxy with full deployment planned in the first half of next year. Speaker 300:13:32In terms of the digital customer experience, we believe we continue to lead the industry. Our Net Promoter Score has been strong since our launch and has improved even further recently. From an e commerce penetration perspective, we're at 84% For the total company and our locally managed business improved 50 basis points to 73%. Moxy is well on its way to being the premier All in one digital toolset for our customers to order, track deliveries, pay bills and manage inventory. And as we continue to focus on the customer experience, we further expanded Pronto in the quarter, which is our small truck delivery Service focused within targeted dense geographies. Speaker 300:14:18Today Pronto has a presence in 35 markets. I am pleased with our progress and the return on the investments we are making to provide best in class service to our customers. Turning to Slide 7. I'll walk through some Q3 highlights and Dirk will go into a little more detail later. Total case volume growth was 4%, and we drove growth in each of our target customer types again this quarter, With volume increasing nearly 6% for independent restaurants, 8% for healthcare and 6% for hospitality. Speaker 300:14:54Adjusted EBITDA grew double digits and margins further increased. We remain focused on increasing our gross profit per case Faster than operating expense per case and accelerating profitable share growth as we did this quarter. Both Healthcare and Hospitality continue to deliver strong growth, driven in large part by healthy net new business. We remain focused on growing in our target customer types and expect to continue that momentum. I've already spoken about several of the good progress points with our customer experience and supply chain, so I won't be repetitive here. Speaker 300:15:34Moving on, We continue to strengthen our capital structure and prudently allocate capital to fuel long term growth. We further reduced our net leverage to 2.9 times And we've repurchased more than 700,000 shares for $29,000,000 We expect to remain below 3 times levered for the remainder of the year with further improvement into next year. Finally, we closed the Ramsey acquisition earlier in the Q3. And this morning, we announced the acquisition of Saladino's, our 2nd tuck in acquisition this year. Saladino's is an independent food Reese. Speaker 300:16:09Service distributor in Central California with approximately $600,000,000 in annual revenue that will provide additional scale for us in Central California. We expect to close the transaction by year end. We have strong momentum as we finish out 2023 and we expect that momentum to carry us into 2024. Before I hand it over to Dirk, I would like to acknowledge the brave men and women who have served in the armed forces. On Veterans Day this Saturday, we will celebrate our 1500 associates who have so courageously served our country, And you can see some of their faces on Slide 8. Speaker 300:16:48We are grateful for their service and celebrate them and all veterans on this important day. We are committed to supporting veterans in their transition back to civilian life. They offer skills that are remarkably competitive and transferable to the work We do in food distribution, including drivers, selectors, supervisors and corporate roles. We have an employee resource group Dedicated to educating our associates on the value of a veteran, recruiting veterans, supporting and recognizing our U. S. Speaker 300:17:17Foods veterans In providing volunteer and community engagement opportunities. I would like to recognize Jennifer Castillo, who is President of the Those Who Serve Employee Resource Group. Jennifer is a Senior Manager in Merchandising Excellence who served in the U. S. Navy And successfully transferred her skills in mass communications to the corporate world. Speaker 300:17:39We thank Jennifer for her efforts in leading this valuable employee resource group And all veterans for their service to our country. And we wish all of those who have made personal sacrifices to protect our freedoms a very Happy Veterans Day. With that, I'll hand it over to Dirk to go over our financial performance and guidance in further detail. Speaker 200:18:01Thanks, Dave, and good morning, everyone. Let's turn to Slide 10. The execution of our strategy is driving sustainable operating leverage improvement As we deliver strong adjusted EBITDA growth again this quarter. Net sales were $9,100,000,000 in the 3rd quarter, An increase of 2.1% over the prior year, driven by total case volume growth of 4%, partially offset by year over year food cost deflation And product mix impact of 1.9%. Our independent customer case growth was nearly 6% for the quarter. Speaker 200:18:35Renzi added approximately 80 basis points of growth for independents. The Chef Store volume negatively impacts our total independent cases by about 80 basis points. The system conversion is largely behind us. We are laser focused on driving volumes back into our stores. We expect Chef's store volume to be flat modest growth as we exit 2023 and accelerate that growth in 2024. Speaker 200:18:58We saw modest year over year product Cost deflation of approximately 1.3%, which continues to be driven by center of plate as grocery still showed year over year inflation in the quarter. We continue to make progress executing our long range plan initiatives. Our gross profit per case Increased 3.6% during the quarter compared to the prior year. Our adjusted gross profit dollars grew 7.7% from the prior year, driven by an increase in total case volume and cost of goods sold optimization. Adjusted gross profit as a percent of sales was up nearly 90 basis points to 17.3%. Speaker 200:19:38Our adjusted operating expense per case was only up 1.1% for the quarter, Which is our best per case year over year performance this year. The 5.2% increase in adjusted OpEx dollars was largely driven by increased volume. Adjusted operating expenses as a percent of net sales were up approximately 40 basis points to 12.9%. We are pleased with our gross profit per case growth exceeding OpEx per case growth as we drive profitability and seek ways to be more efficient. All of this led to 15% adjusted EBITDA growth and we expanded adjusted EBITDA margins by nearly 50 basis points. Speaker 200:20:18Finally, Adjusted diluted EPS grew 17% to $0.70 per share. We have demonstrated strong leverage Through the P and L with operating expense per case growing at about 1 third the rate of gross profit per case, we expect to maintain that operational discipline. Turning to Slide 11 for our growth pillar. Our digital capabilities and unique product portfolio are attracting new customers and driving sales. In addition, our differentiated service model and focus on operational excellence is leading to profitable growth. Speaker 200:20:53With our solid independent case growth, we are on track to significantly exceed our 1.5 times goal for restaurant volume growth for the full year. We drove year over year share gains in each of our target customer types, improved our independent private label mix by 140 basis points And continue to develop and convert strong healthcare and hospitality in the business pipeline. Speaker 300:21:16We are seeing improved mix Speaker 200:21:18And margin expansion as we outgrow the industry and focus on more profitable customer types. We are focused on profitable share growth As evidenced by our Q3 gross margin improvement and our 10th consecutive quarter of year over year share gains and independence. As we focus on our digital innovations, Moxy has saved our sellers over 50000 hours with its new self-service capabilities In addition to the significantly improved customer experience, this frees up hours for our sellers to accelerate growth and help our customers succeed. Next to profit on Slide 12. In addition to profitable growth, we continue to make progress on our initiatives to increase EBITDA margins. Speaker 200:22:01We drove further progress on initiatives such as cost of goods sold improvements by working jointly with additional vendors. We remain on track to address a total of 60% of cost of goods by the end of the year. We continue to advance our efforts to drive operational efficiencies as productivity improved year over year for both delivery and warehouse. Now I'll turn to cash flow. Turning to Slide 13. Speaker 200:22:26We continue to increase our cash flow and expect to build upon this as we grow earnings and effectively manage working capital. Our strong cash flow means we will continue reinvesting for growth and further strengthen our capital structure. Our year to date operating cash flow was 9.35 $1,000,000 We invested approximately $270,000,000 in CapEx and on fleet leases, including projects to expand fleets, Enhance analytic insights and improved technology and supply chain and sales to enable further organic growth. Our ongoing CapEx target is approximately 1.3% of net sales. As a rule of thumb, over time, we spend about 1 third CapEx on fleet, One third for maintenance and one third for growth, which includes advancing our technology capabilities. Speaker 200:23:15We also paid $142,000,000 for Renzi Speaker 300:23:18in the quarter. We will continue Speaker 200:23:20to remain opportunistic in selectively pursuing tuck in M and A like Saladino's where it makes sense and at reasonable valuations. In addition, we repurchased 727,000 shares in the Q3 for a total of $29,000,000 And so far in the Q4, we have repurchased an additional $20,000,000 leaving $237,000,000 remaining on our $500,000,000 share repurchase program. Moving to Slide 14. Leveraging our free cash flow and timely debt paydowns, we reduced our leverage from 3.7 times 2.9 times over the past 12 months. We are now within our target range of 2.5 times to 3 times and expect to remain there. Speaker 200:24:03In August, we reduced the margin on our term loan to 20.28 by 25 basis points. In September, we refinanced the 2025 senior notes By completing a $1,000,000,000 offering, the market was constructive for us as we moved $1,000,000,000 from secured to unsecured debt and extended our maturities. Our overall debt structure is in solid shape. We don't have any maturities until 2026. We remain focused on creating value for shareholders and allocating capital prudently against the four parts of our capital allocation strategy. Speaker 200:24:37Now turning to guidance on Slide 15. As a result of our solid year to date results and outlook for the full year, We are raising our full year adjusted EBITDA range to $1,540,000,000 to $1,560,000,000 and our adjusted diluted EPS range $2.60 to $2.78 per share. We are delivering on our long range plan and we are growing adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margins. We reduced our leverage to within our target range and are deploying capital to deliver strong returns. We believe we We have the right strategies in place to deliver strong profitability this year and into the next several years. Speaker 200:25:17I'll now pass it back to Dave for his closing remarks. Speaker 300:25:19Thanks, Dirk. The continued improvement in our results reflects our team's hard work over the past few years to build a differentiated platform that positions us to win Reese. I am pleased with the progress we are making as we execute the 4 pillars of our strategy, which is driving improved safety, productivity And profitable growth despite the lack of market tailwinds. And we'll continue to be at the forefront of technology with our Moxy platform and our overall digital strategy. Our focus on continuing to improve our customer value proposition has resulted in strong case growth And consistent market share gains, specifically within independent restaurants, healthcare and hospitality. Speaker 300:26:04We are growing our adjusted EBITDA and enhancing our margins. Our leverage is now below 3 times. Even with this tremendous progress, we have a long runway of profitable growth and shareholder returns in front of us. Assuming stable macro backdrop, we believe our long range plan will lead to further margin expansion over time, and we remain committed To be at or near $1,700,000,000 of adjusted EBITDA in 2024. And I want to be very clear, this is not Reese. Speaker 300:26:40We have a lot more sales and earnings growth potential in 2024 and beyond, And we look forward to highlighting our exciting future at the upcoming Investor Day on June 5. We are just getting started And we will continue to execute our strategy, gain profitable market share within our target customer types, enhance our margins And strategically deploy capital. We are in a great position today and we believe we have sustainable competitive advantages to outperform the market well into the future. It's an exciting time at U. S. Speaker 300:27:14Foods and we appreciate your interest. With that, Lisa, please open up the line for questions. Operator00:27:21Thank Mike. We'll take our first question from John Heinbockel with Guggenheim. Speaker 400:27:35Hey, Dave, let me start. The sales force investment or the investment you're making in sales, right? What how would you parse that out between the various pieces of team based selling, right? You've got different positions. And then secondly, the org chart, the org changed, having those guys report to the regional VPs, what do you think that will do operationally? Speaker 300:28:01Great. Well, let me take the first question that you asked here, John, and good morning. We're excited about the investments we're making in the sales Reese. We've been doing that for a while and we continue to accelerate that investment and we'll be at that low to mid single digits for a long time to come. It's mostly TMs, But I'm excited about our team based selling model where we have our consultants and specialists, as well as our chefs teaming up in front of the customer. Speaker 300:28:27We'll make fractional investments in those other two groups relative to TMs just to continue to make sure they have the support they need in front of the customer. And then in terms of your org changes, really excited about where we're going. Jim, his retirement just gave me the opportunity to think about Differently how I want to think about the organization and efficiencies. And as you know, every anytime there's handoffs between corporate and the field, it creates slower decision making Opportunities for inefficiency and we just need to continue to move faster. So it's an opportunity for me to rethink it and moving our local sales Reese. Speaker 300:29:00Back into the field where the customer interface is just make all sorts of sense. So a small change, but I think it will prove meaningful through the course of time. Speaker 400:29:09All right. And then my follow-up, the 3 target types. How would you parse out the case growth between New accounts and drop size, right? And my guess is it's different, independent versus healthcare and hospitality, The composition is different, correct? Speaker 300:29:29Yes. No, I think that's right. And on the independent side, let me start with that first. Our cases per line are relatively flat given what you've heard broadly about some of the foot traffic, but we are continuing to increase our lines per drop up You're in the low single digits. So we continue to penetrate those customers both when we get them initially, but also through the course of time and that's an exciting Opportunity for us to continue to drive in terms of growth. Speaker 300:29:55And as I mentioned in Hospitality and Healthcare, we're generating a lot of net new customers and new business. And As we talked in the past, we believe we've got a highly differentiated model there, particularly in Healthcare where we've got great technology differentiation To help our customers not only in their back office from a cost productivity standpoint, but also with their customers and the folks That are seeking the care to help manage their nutritionals, to be efficient in how they bring in inventory and to do that automatically. No one else has the capability that we have there. And then the same store sales, I would say, contribute more that growth to healthcare and hospitality relative to independents. So we've got a differentiated model. Speaker 300:30:38We're winning in all those places that we continue to tell you. We're taking share in all of them and we've got a long runway of growth ahead of us. And I think this really speaks to the power of the differentiated model that we have. We've got all these target customer types that many of our competitors don't have. And I think that will prove to be a very resilient model for us through the course of time. Speaker 500:30:59Thank you. Speaker 300:31:01Thank you. Operator00:31:04We'll take our next question from Kelly Bania with BMO Capital Markets. Speaker 600:31:11Good morning. Thanks for taking our questions. Just wanted to touch a little bit more on gross margin, obviously, quite strong. Can you just help us break out maybe the inflation deflation impact? And then also just talk more broadly about strategic Vendor management and your cost of goods initiatives, your reduction initiatives there and what you're learning as you work through this initiative with your suppliers. Speaker 300:31:41Okay. Let me start and I'll ask Dirk to fill in the details here. But The point I want to make, Kelly, and appreciate the question, is we've been through periods of large inflation here and now 2 consecutive quarters of deflation and what you've seen us continue to do regardless Reese. What's going on there is continue to expand our gross margins and particularly our gross margin per case. And as Dirk highlighted, we're doing that at a much faster rate than our operating expense per case is growing. Speaker 300:32:07That's a winning model. We expect that that will continue. Specific to your SBM question, it's a piece of work that the company has been doing for quite some time. As we said, we'd be through about 60% of our COGS By the end of this year, we're maintaining that and we're making very good progress. So that element of the gross margin improvement along with our penetration of exclusive brands, which we said were up 140 basis points in independence this quarter along with our work to continue to optimize our freight lanes and improve our mix. Speaker 300:32:37No, that's the winning formula to continue to expand our gross margins. And as we say, we control our own destiny in that regard and we're doing a nice job of it. Speaker 200:32:46Hi, Kelly. The only thing I would add is just to reinforce Dave's point that inflation, deflation really a moot point when we think of year over year. As he said, it's Relatively flat to some modest deflation, but those are in categories that aren't impacting earnings. So the improvement you're seeing is really all back to Point of control is controllable, some things that we're doing in our 4 walls as opposed to the external marketplace. Speaker 600:33:13Great. Thanks. And then just wanted to give you an opportunity to maybe touch a little bit more on the 1.7 long range plan target and just as you get closer to 2024, How the different components of that may be working towards reaching that, whether parts of it are ahead or behind or where there Maybe more opportunity just wanted to give you the opportunity to kind of talk through that a little bit more. Speaker 300:33:45Yes, great question. And I'll just say we'll say more about our guidance for next year on our Q4 call, obviously. But I'm very confident To be at or near that $1,700,000,000 And just through the course of time here in my 1st 10 months, I've gained nothing but increased confidence, Kelly, the momentum and what I love about the way we're delivering our results is we've got great balance across the P and L. We're working in the right target customer types. We're delivering the right amount of growth profitably. Speaker 300:34:11We're improving our expense ratios, and importantly, driving the outcomes that our customers need. So there's not one area that's outsized, I would say, in terms of the impact there. We've got great balance. I expect that balance to continue into 2024 and beyond. Speaker 600:34:29Thank you. Speaker 300:34:31Thank you. Operator00:34:33We'll take our next question from Peter Saleh with BTIG. Speaker 700:34:37Great. Thanks for taking the question and congrats on the quarter. I wanted to ask maybe first on the independent restaurants. The environment is changing a little bit here. We're starting to see a couple of quarters now of deflation that you guys are seeing. Speaker 700:34:55Restaurants have taken a lot of price and we're seeing some more discounting among the larger chains. Are you seeing any change in behavior among your independent restaurants? Or Just help us out in terms of their health and their trajectory going forward. Speaker 300:35:10Yes. I think the health is very solid. We've had some foot traffic challenges through the course of Q3 there, particularly with the chains, which continue to see lower Foot traffic sequentially while our results improved. I think the health of the independent is very stable. And as you've heard me say in the past, I believe they're going to win out In the long run here and importantly, we continue to have a differentiated model that enables us to continue to take market share And support their businesses, not only with our great products and service with our people, but also our technology. Speaker 300:35:41So we think we're differentiated there. And regardless of what's going on in the macro, We're going to continue to penetrate that healthy customer base. And importantly, I think overall, there's less restaurants out there than there were Pre pandemic, but we've seen sequentially new openings of restaurants. And I would say our penetration is largely Probably equally split between new openings of locations as well as penetration and taking share from others in the marketplace. So It's a pretty well balanced approach at this point. Speaker 300:36:12I would expect to see continued openings in locations through the course of the next few quarters here. So we're seeing that part of the customer base pretty healthy and stable. Speaker 700:36:22Great. Very helpful. And then just on the Indirect spending, I think you guys have mentioned past couple of quarters some cuts that you Speaker 800:36:31would be making there. Speaker 700:36:32Can you just talk to us a little bit about Where the progress is on some of those indirect spending cuts, is that more of a 2024 Event or have you started cutting some of those expenses? Thanks. Speaker 200:36:46Good morning, Peter. We have started to see some small Savings begin to accrue already. We do expect that to accelerate as we go through 2024, but that's moving along well and really as we planned. So it's good to see some Thanks. Speaker 900:37:00I'm going Speaker 200:37:00to fruition now, but more to come next Speaker 700:37:04year. Thank you very much. Speaker 800:37:07Thanks. Operator00:37:09We'll We'll take our next question from Alex Slagle with Jefferies. Speaker 800:37:14Hey, thanks. Congrats. I want to follow-up. It looks like the gap between the chains and independents slightly narrowed a bit quarter over quarter. I mean, is there Any stabilization or relative improvement in the chains that you're seeing? Speaker 800:37:30Any more improvements to come you think? Speaker 300:37:33Well, I think just broadly in the market, the foot traffic was slightly down sequentially Q3 to Q2. And as I've said in the past, really the performance Just relative to who you have in your portfolio relative to the winners and the folks who aren't going as well. We outperformed what was going on with foot traffic this quarter. I think that's relatively stable. We have some things in the pipeline and I think we'll continue to show improvement through the course of time and into next year, middle of next year. Speaker 300:38:00We're targeting the right change that we believe are going to win. And as we've said in the past, we'll continue to look for optimization opportunities within our portfolio. Speaker 1000:38:12And a Speaker 800:38:13question on Pronto. I guess it's grown to cover about 35 markets now. What's The broader TAM of this opportunity sort of where it can go and timeline to think about. Speaker 300:38:25Yes. We've made aggressive investments in Pronto. You'll continue to see us do that as an opportunity to serve our customers better. The frequency of deliveries, particularly in these urban areas that are difficult to reach, customers want fresh products delivered more frequently, And that's the great platform for us to do that. So we'll continue to be thoughtful about where we take it, but we see a long runway of opportunity there to continue to penetrate Reese. Speaker 300:38:52We love that model. We're excited about it, and it's getting great traction. Speaker 900:38:57All Speaker 800:38:57right. Thank you. Speaker 300:38:59Thank you. Operator00:39:02We'll take our next question from Lauren Silverman with Deutsche Bank. Speaker 1100:39:07Thank you and congrats on the quarter. I wanted to ask about capital allocation. So $250,000,000 or so in buyback Reese. Stock trading at a big discount to history had really strong fundamentals momentum. So can you expand on your willingness to further lean in how you're thinking about capital Reese. Speaker 1100:39:26Allocation of buybacks versus M and A or debt pay down. And then specific to M and A, just how you think about the most accretive opportunities for the business. Speaker 300:39:36Yes. So let me start to say we will always invest in organic growth in our company first. We think that's the highest return in supporting our customers is paramount. We continue to look at expansion opportunities across our network and we'll be thoughtful about those, but we'll continue to drive that first. As you heard me say, we don't need to do any acquisitions in this company. Speaker 300:39:56I love our footprint. We'll take opportunities like we did with Renzi and the one we announced this morning To help us with efficiencies, taking miles out of the system and local market density. Now let me just say a word about Saladino since you brought up M and A and the way we think about it. I'm very excited about that acquisition. We said $600,000,000 in revenue. Speaker 300:40:16It gives us an opportunity in the Central Valley where Saladino's is roughly half chain and half Independent. Well, we don't have a footprint to serve the independent customer in that Central Valley, really none of our competitors do. So we're excited about it from that standpoint. We're excited about it from the standpoint of helping us optimize the chain business that we have in Central and Northern California footprint. So We'll take Miles out and serve that part of the customer base better. Speaker 300:40:42But I guess I would say I'm most excited about the multiple we're paying for that, which is a fraction of what we paid for Renzi And a fraction of our trading multiple. So as we said, we will be thoughtful and disciplined about any acquisitions and we won't do any that don't make sense and we won't overpay for them And Saladino's is another great example of that. In terms of your question around share repurchases, we're obviously under trading our potential and hugely undervalued in my view. You've seen us ramp up our share repurchases. I think we'll be thoughtful about that going forward. Speaker 300:41:12Returning capital to shareholders is important After we do the things we need to make sure we're growing and supporting our customers well, obviously, more to come on that through the course of time, but We've been leaning hard on share repurchases and we'll continue to do that. Speaker 1100:41:28Great. Thank you for that. And then just a follow-up, Really impressive case growth trends. Can you talk about anything around the cadence of trends you saw throughout the quarter and to the extent you're willing to provide any color on October? And similarly, anything you can provide on the East Coast inflation throughout the quarter and trends into October? Speaker 1100:41:46Thank you. Speaker 300:41:47Yes. Thank you. I think sequentially through the quarter, we saw things soften a bit in the market, as I said earlier. And that's why I'm so excited that our independent case growth We accelerated sequentially from Q2 to Q3, and we continue to accelerate our market share gains. So it underscores The importance of the differentiated model and the differentiation that we have actually in the marketplace. Speaker 300:42:08And in terms of the start to the Q4, I think it's largely in line with what we saw in Q3. I would say October started a little slower for us as we were lapping a Strike from one of our large competitors in the 1st couple of weeks of October. We saw that volume bounce back as we would expect in the back half of the quarter and we Expect to be relatively in line with Q3 and importantly continue to take market share in those target customer types. Speaker 200:42:33Hi, Kelly. On deflation, so we actually saw the year over year deflation improve or lessen as we went through the quarter. And in October, we actually saw modest year over year inflation. And the improvements are primarily coming from center of the plate. So as that begins to become modestly inflationary and then grocery is Still very modest, but levels of inflation. Speaker 200:42:55So we think that's encouraging. Speaker 1100:42:59Thank you guys very much. Speaker 1200:43:01Thanks. Thank you. Operator00:43:03We'll take our next question from Brian Harbour with Morgan Stanley. Speaker 1300:43:09Yes. Thanks. Good morning, guys. Dirk, just on that comment, would you expect that there is now going to be kind of modest inflation across the business In 4Q and then into early 2024. Speaker 200:43:23Good morning, Brian. Well, I use P10 is a good indicator that at least it's back into the black or some modest inflation. I think as we see since it's been more proteins which can be more volatile. I think that's the part that's harder to predict. But I think what's encouraging as you see the stabilization of proteins, You see still modest inflation in grocery. Speaker 200:43:46And so I think that indicates more likelihood of some level of inflation I think that the most important part that I could come back to is what we talked about earlier that even with really modest deflation That our gross profit still remain quite strong. It just I think demonstrates the durability we've talked a lot about and why we are so bullish in our GP being able to stay And an expectation that in future years, we can continue to expand further. Speaker 1300:44:15Yes. Okay. Makes sense. And OpEx per case, like you talked about, in keeping that in check, how would you kind of rank the main drivers of that at this point? Do you think it's mostly about just Kind of continued improvements in productivity and are you seeing much yet from kind of digital expansion, flex Scheduling, etcetera, are like how do we think about which of those drivers might become more important as you go into the subsequent quarters? Speaker 200:44:47Well, to start with, we're quite pleased with the performance. As I said in my prepared comments, our best year over year per case performance that we've had, And that's really driven by distribution to supply chain costs. And so I think that is a key unlock. I think when you think across Other parts, yes, we'll get some leverage. We'll continue to take some actions on productivity. Speaker 200:45:07But the I think all the things, hopefully, what you see When we talk about the improvements as flex scheduling is coming to life, as year over year productivity continues to improve for delivery and warehouse, All those are translating into per case improvements. And so that gives us good confidence that we are making traction. We still have plenty of runway ahead, but ultimately We're pleased with that and see a lot of opportunity remaining. Operator00:45:40All right. And we'll take our next question from Edward Kelly with Wells Fargo. Speaker 900:45:46Hi, guys. Good morning. Nice quarter. Dirk, maybe just a follow-up on OpEx per case. Obviously, very good results. Speaker 900:45:57But productivity for on a worker standpoint, I don't think it's back to 2019 levels. You talked about things like the routing, the flex scheduling. How do we think about the growth in OpEx per case going forward on a sustained basis In terms of modeling. And then specifically, as you think about Q4, if you look at OpEx for Reese. Q4 versus Q3, which would suggest that it might actually be down year over year. Speaker 900:46:30I don't know if that's too aggressive an assumption, but maybe speak to that as well. Speaker 200:46:37Hi, Ed. So ultimately, I think when distribution, the productivity, so we actually for the Q3, our delivery productivity was above 2019. Warehouse isn't quite there, but it's making progress. So we're pretty encouraged. And I think the whether it's the flex scheduling, you heard Dave talk about our cases per mile From the routing work we've done over the best in the company history and what I think we each like about the work we're doing is it's not all just about taking cost It's about the customer experience, customer service and things that then are taking are making our company more productive. Speaker 200:47:10So it really is a good balance there. I think the as you look ahead to the Q4, whether it's sort of in line with prior year, A little bit higher, a little lower. I think the encouraging part is that we're seeing very modest levels of increase in per case. And I think that comes back to what You've heard us say from the beginning of this year is when we have inflation, cost inflation of 3% to 5% a year, our goal is to offset As much for all of that as we can. I think you're seeing that as we make progress coming more and more to fruition. Speaker 200:47:43So our goal remains that from Quarter to quarter, that could bounce around a little bit. I'll use an example for OpEx, so you may end up with a little better performance in the 4th quarter and We're pleased with the progress we're making. Speaker 900:47:58Okay. And then Dave, just a follow-up for you. You're Making some adjustments to sales compensation model, hiring salespeople. We're hearing this from Competition as well. Obviously, the large players seem to be a bit more focused on gains with higher margin customers. Speaker 900:48:19My question for you is, can everyone win in that environment, meaning the larger players? And How confident are you in the differentiation of what U. S. Foods is doing that allows you to continue what we're seeing today in that type of Speaker 300:48:38Yes, great question. I'll take your second part first. I'm highly confident in the differentiation of our model And it's the winning model, I believe, and we can drive growth effectively and productively with our sales team. But that team based selling model, as you continue to hear me say, is a real differentiator. I see it working every single day for our customers, And we're going to continue to drive it hard. Speaker 300:49:01And I think that's why you may hear us talk about sales headcount growth at a slightly lower level than you hear from some of our competitors. I think that really is a differentiation in our model and we'll continue to lean in around that. And the first part Speaker 700:49:16of your Speaker 300:49:16question, remind me again. Speaker 900:49:19Well, it's just I guess it really pertains to the idea if the large three players We're all sort of investing in salespeople. And is there enough opportunity beyond that, that everybody can win? Reese. If the market looks at this as you versus your other publicly traded players, here are some game, how Yes. Inaccurate is that at the end of the day? Speaker 300:49:44I think this is still a very highly fragmented market as The big three have 40% anomaly roughly plus or minus of share. So that's still very highly fragmented. I think you continue to see us Take share collectively from some of the smaller players. When I think about our business relative to others, We still have a relatively small share of the independent market space. So the runway is long, I think, for growth. Speaker 300:50:11We all have different models. They all have their pluses and minuses. But I think there's room for everybody to continue to win in this market. Speaker 200:50:18Hey, Ed, one other thing just that I'd highlight that I think is a differentiator in And our go to market and our focus is with our 3 customer types that we're targeting, I mean, what you see is, it's not just about the independents. We have 8% growth almost in Healthcare. We have 6% hospitality. We've continued to do that. We continue to have Excellent new business pipeline and converts in healthcare and hospitality. Speaker 200:50:42So if you look at how that translates into in those most attractive our key customer types, That's led to overall the strongest case growth out of United's competitors and we're pleased that we have with the model we have the ability to continue to grow at Reese. Accelerated and gained share in all three of those types leading to overall solid case growth. Speaker 900:51:03Great. Thank you. Speaker 300:51:05Thanks, Ed. Operator00:51:07We'll take our next question from Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays. Speaker 1200:51:12Great. Thank you very much. Two questions. The first one, David, I think we've confirmed the industry data and the restaurant commentary showed that there was a slowdown to close Reese. Maybe the summer, maybe August, September. Speaker 1200:51:25And I think you confirmed that the chain's foot traffic slowed in the Q3. The question we've been getting a lot is just why. I I think a lot of people immediately jump on the idea that the headwinds on the consumer are finally taking hold. But then many of our restaurants have actually said Less of consumer concerns and more just a return to normal historical seasonality in terms of month to month or quarter to quarter. In fact, some have actually said the industry has recovered somewhat in October. Speaker 1200:51:51So I'm just wondering your thoughts. 1, are you surprised that maybe you're not seeing a similar uptick In October, and do you think there's any credence to the thesis of a return to seasonality? Just wondering your thoughts on whether or not we should be concerned of a broader Consumer slowdown or whether the seasonality does hold some water? And then I had a follow-up. Yes. Speaker 300:52:09I think there probably is something to the seasonality piece, although We don't spend a lot of time thinking about that, Jeff, because relative to our model and the things that we're leaning in around, Yes, I keep telling our team to focus on the things we can control and whether there's a broader slowdown in the market. There's still a lot of cases out there for us to go get. People are still going out to eat. It's going to ebb and flow just like it always has. It's been a difficult time to get a handle on things with the rebound since COVID and Reese. Speaker 300:52:37Restaurants that have gone offline and them coming back, it's really it's been a little bit helter skelter here, as you know, for the last year or so. But regardless of all of that, I think what I'm seeing and what I said earlier is stability. I think that's the key right now is And then our ability to lean in where we want to in those 3 target customer types continue to support our customers with their share. Speaker 1200:53:00And on that note, it seems like you've got strong momentum across your business lines. I'm just wondering, You kind of blessed the at or near $1,700,000,000 for next year, but what's your greatest concern as we look to 2024? I'm assuming maybe it's more macro versus your internal plans, but what are you looking at to get a gauge for your outlook for 2024? What's the biggest Reese. Concern you have or among your team? Speaker 300:53:27Yes. I think from a macro standpoint, that would probably be it, But it would have to be a major significant macro thing to give me a lot of concern. I've got a lot of confidence in our ability to hit that target for next year, Given the momentum that we have and what I can see coming in the future in terms of continued share gains, productivity work that we have underway, Our ability to control that outcome. So yes, I guess I'd have to point to a macro, but it would have to be more than just a minor slowdown. Speaker 1200:53:59Got it. And then just lastly, the M and A, just to follow-up. It seems like the discussions maybe are a little bit more productive. You've completed a couple of them. I know peers are talking a little bit more about it. Speaker 1200:54:09Do you think both sides are coming to more reasonable terms in terms of valuation? And how do you think about it in terms of your opportunity? Is it more of a geographic opportunity? Or is it just a particular line of business that you'd be interested in focusing on? Just trying to get your sense. Speaker 300:54:24Yes, ours have been more geographic focused in both cases, both with Renzi and Saladino's now where we're serving those markets in some capacity, but not very efficiently. Reese. So there's still ample opportunity for that across our network to strengthen our position in local markets. There may be something that we do product portfolio wise that's opportunistic. I don't see any major gaps in it. Speaker 300:54:46But if the right thing comes along at the right time, we'll certainly take a look at it. I think you can think about it in similar fashion to what you've seen us do with the 2 that we've talked about so far this year. In terms of valuations, what you heard me say is that Saladino's was extremely reasonable and a fraction of what we paid in elsewhere. So We're going to do the things that make sense because we don't have to do M and A. We really don't. Speaker 300:55:11So it's going to be thoughtful. It's going to be the right one for us, solve a problem for us And evaluations that make sense for us every time. Speaker 1400:55:21Thank you. Speaker 300:55:23Thank you. Operator00:55:25We'll take our next question from Jake Bartlett with Truist Securities. Speaker 1400:55:30Great. Thanks for taking the question. Mine was it pertains to you, but as well as your larger competitors. You're all increasing your sales forces pretty aggressively. And I guess, I'm wondering, it seems like there's a disconnect. Speaker 1400:55:44The overall market growth, macro pressures are there. It doesn't seem like the market's gotten much Bigger than expected. So how should we interpret the kind of the wide scale increase in the sales force, Given the macro background that doesn't seem to be better than expected. Speaker 300:56:03Yes. I think you can interpret at least I can only speak for us and You know how we're thinking about it, Jake, but I think it speaks to the underlying opportunity that we see in terms of growth. And look, as we continue to take share, We're going to grow somewhat with the market. That's going to be very low single digits. We're going to continue to penetrate the market intake share and that's going to drive an increment of growth And that low to single digit low to mid single digit headcount increase will add another increment of growth on top of that. Speaker 300:56:30And so that's the way we're thinking about the algorithm Given the relatively fractured nature of this market and this industry, there's still ample opportunity for us to take share regardless of the macro. Speaker 200:56:42Yes. I think, Jake, the other thing, keep in mind, if we're growing independents at 6% on a regular basis as we have for the last number of quarters, You do want us to be adding sales sellers because that's also we're getting good leverage as we're adding sellers by growing cases faster than that, but at the same time making sure that we're Reinvesting and reinvesting especially in those areas where we're growing faster. Speaker 1000:57:06Got it. Great. That's really helpful. And In the context, Speaker 1400:57:10and I know it doesn't certainly doesn't seem like it's happening so far as gross profits per case remain robust and have been robust Reese. With a lot of these salespeople coming on industry wide and Reese. The macro is still somewhat under pressure. Do you expect price competition to increase? It seems like that's still Reese. Speaker 1400:57:34A risk to the gross profits per case story out there, it hasn't come to fruition, but how much of a risk do you think that That is, all these sales guys, people hitting the market are going to have to start competing a little bit more on price. Speaker 300:57:50Yes. I think this has always been a competitive industry and it always will be. And things changed during COVID. And I think I would describe the competitiveness out there now is back to pre COVID levels. It's very fragmented. Speaker 300:58:03There's a lot of competitors out there. Jake, that doesn't deter us at all. We've got a differentiated model. And I think it underscores the importance of 2 things. One is all the initiatives that we have underway that we control To continue to drive that improvement in gross profit per case and then looking at ways to continually get more productive and take cost and waste out of our system. Speaker 300:58:24That's why this 3% to 5% productivity target is so important to us. That's why the MOXI penetration is important because it allows our sales team To be much more productive in front of the customer and not chasing the back office stuff, but selling the value that we bring, selling great products And importantly, helping our customers solve problems. Speaker 1400:58:46Great. I appreciate it. Speaker 300:58:49Thank you. Operator00:58:52We'll take our next question from Mark Carden with UBS. Speaker 500:58:56Good morning. Thanks so much for taking the questions. So Chef's Store was a bit of a headwind in 3Q to a slightly greater extent than Speaker 300:59:02it was in 2Q. Speaker 500:59:03Is this simply being driven by residual from the systems conversion issue and the need to win back some of these customers? And then how should we think about the impact here over the course of the next few quarters? Yes. Speaker 300:59:14I think you're hitting it right in the center of the target there, Mark. As we've said, now the systems change is largely behind us. We've had some lingering effects in terms of lost business through the course of that, which started in Q3 of last year. Encouragingly, we are seeing month over month Sequential improvement and more recently week over week improvements. I'm encouraged by the ramp up. Speaker 300:59:36As you heard Dirk say, we expect to be in a position of flat to growth By the end of this year, exiting the year with the goal of driving strong top line growth next year. And I think largely we're on track to do that. So I'm very encouraged by what I see. We continue to invest in the business. We've opened one new location already in the Q4 in Virginia and we've got a couple more planned Nick Caroline is here before the end of Q4. Speaker 301:00:02So progress continues and I expect that that ramp rate will continue here as we exit 2023. Speaker 501:00:09Okay, great. And then on Renzi, I know it's still early, but how is the integration fared relative to your expectations? And then in context with Celadenos, do Do you think you may have capacity to acquire at a faster pace, while also of course understanding that you don't necessarily need to lean on M and A? Speaker 301:00:26Yes. I think Renzi has gone even better than I could have imagined. It's gone extremely well on the integration front. We put a very strong leader in place there. We've had a great cultural fit. Speaker 301:00:37Importantly, we haven't lost any key talent And it's been very transparent and a non event for the customers in the market. So we love it. There's not enough good I can say about how Renzi has gone. It's all very, very positive. And then the second part of your question again? Speaker 501:00:54Just the second part is basically with your new acquisition, do you You guys think that you might have the capacity to acquire at a faster pace, again understanding that you don't necessarily have to acquire? Yes. Speaker 301:01:05I think as I said, it filled the geographic void for us, particularly on the independent side there where we were serving that market. It's It's Speaker 201:01:12kind of hard to get Speaker 301:01:12to the Central Valley from San Francisco or L. A. Very efficiently. So it solves that problem for us. And Certainly, we have plenty of chain business in that part of the country and the half of that business that we're acquiring that was chain related Will help us serve that segment of the customer base also more effectively. Speaker 301:01:30So we're excited about it from all those angles. It just made sense at the right time. And importantly, as I've said a number of times this morning, a great multiple that we paid for. Speaker 901:01:40Great. Thanks so much. Good luck. Thank Operator01:01:46you. We'll take our next question from Andrew Wolf with CL King. Speaker 1001:01:51Thanks. Good morning. I'd like to follow-up on some of the good morning, the questioning on the labor productivity. And you have experienced accelerating case growth in the quarter and sort of for the year as well. You're in a tight labor market, so Andy had good results, so that's pretty impressive. Speaker 1001:02:12But to what extent can you measure or just anecdotally talk about To what extent hiring more fresh people who've obviously come in relatively low in terms of productivity as you're growing, How much that impacts the labor productivity metrics that we're able to discern? Speaker 301:02:35Well, I think attracting talent is important. And I would say the inflow of applicants for our jobs has Increased to the point where I would say it's relatively the same as it was pre COVID. It's always been the challenge to retain those folks through the course of time. And that's why We've leaned in so hard around this flex scheduling pilot. And while initially as you start those pilots, you need to add a little bit of headcount, it actually hurts your productivity. Speaker 301:03:01What we're seeing is double digit improvements in turnover. Obviously, that leads to reduced overtime and improved productivity in the long run. And we're seeing that everywhere we've taken that model. So I think we've got a unique approach that makes a lot of sense for us and will help us Retain people, which is the key here to driving productivity over the long haul. And as Dirk said, we're pleased with our driver Reese. Speaker 301:03:24Results both in terms of turnover and productivity being back to pre pandemic levels and we'll continue to drive improvement from there. Speaker 1001:03:34Okay. And just regarding the guidance, I think because you mentioned Saladinos is going to close late in the year. Does the guidance update exclude Saladinos? Speaker 201:03:48It would be a very insignificant amount For the Q4. So at this point, it really demonstrates the core strength of the overall business. Speaker 1001:03:57Okay, great. Thank you. That's it for me. Speaker 301:04:01Thank you. Operator01:04:03We'll take our next question from John Ivankoe with JPMorgan. Speaker 1501:04:07Hi. Thank you. The question is actually on Current price competition, if you're seeing any, the current slow restaurant case volume environment, COGS, which obviously have moderated the labor market, cost Reese. Which has moderated. I mean, it would seem that if there was going to be a time for price competition, we would probably already be seeing it. Speaker 1501:04:28So just wanted to get your comments, anything that you're hearing on a specific market level, to maybe there's been a change in recent times. Thank you. Speaker 301:04:37Yes. I would say that there's been a change since the pandemic, getting back to pre pandemic competitiveness. And as I said, it's always competitive. I wouldn't point to any market or geographic area of the country where it's more or less competitive than it was pre pandemic. It's always competitive. Speaker 301:04:54It's a thing we all have to deal with every day and that's why we work so hard to sell the value that U. S. Foods brings to our customers. Speaker 1401:05:03Thank you. Speaker 301:05:05Thank you. Operator01:05:09And there are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Dave Flippman for any additional or closing remarks. Speaker 301:05:15Well, thank you all for joining us today. We are excited about the momentum in the business and importantly, the exciting future that we have. We look forward to talking to you again and importantly our Investor Day on June 5. Have a great day. Speaker 901:05:29Thank you. Operator01:05:29And that does conclude today's presentation. Thank you for your participation today and please disconnect.Read morePowered by