United Natural Foods Inc Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Mark Carden - UBS AG - Analyst : Good morning. Thanks so much for taking the questions. So to start, on your updated three-year guidance, you're boosting your sales growth expectations to a low-single-digit range and you talked a bit about the stronger-than-anticipated organic growth. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 30, 2025 / 12:30PM, UNFI.N - Q4 2025 United Natural Foods Inc Earnings Call Are you guys -- any shifts to how you're approaching planned customer attrition or any assumptions for new account growth going forward? Just some more color on how you're thinking about the balance would be great. Thank you.

Question: Mark Carden - UBS AG - Analyst : Okay, great. Thank you. And then just in terms of the current backdrop, are you guys seeing any shifts to the industry promotional backdrop? And just how is that shaping up relative to your expectations with all the unevenness in the consumer backdrop?

Question: Mark Carden - UBS AG - Analyst : Great. Thanks so much, and good luck, guys.

Question: Kelly Bania - Bank of Montreal - Analyst : Hi. Thanks for taking our questions. First, I just want to clarify, I think I heard the volume metrics that you gave. Are we right to assume that volumes would have been about positive 2% excluding the cyber incident in the quarter? And just -- can you clarify how that would look across the channels, just assuming the incident was kind of equally distributed across the channels? Is that a fair assumption?

Question: Kelly Bania - Bank of Montreal - Analyst : Okay, that's helpful. And I guess if we just kind of step back and think about the updated algorithm over the next few years here, what is the biggest contributing factor that is leading you to raise the adjusted EBITDA algorithm?

Question: Alexander Slagle - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : Thanks and congrats. I wonder if you could talk about how we should think about the balance of where the margin gains will flow through in '26 would kind of come. I would imagine that there'd be more of it on the OpEx side, net-net, but I think you mentioned you expect the OpEx margin to return to the levels from 1Q to 3Q levels. So just kind of curious how you're thinking about that in '26. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. SEPTEMBER 30, 2025 / 12:30PM, UNFI.N - Q4 2025 United Natural Foods Inc Earnings Call

Question: Alexander Slagle - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : Got it. And on tariff impact, I don't know if you mentioned anything there. I know you were talking about a moderate impact. What does the backdrop look like at this point? Are there any unknowns that you are working through?

Question: Alexander Slagle - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : Okay. Thank you.

Question: Bill Kirk, CFA - Roth Capital Partners LLC - Analyst : Good morning, everybody. So I don't think I saw a reconciliation for reported EPS and the adjusted EPS guide for fiscal '26. And I guess given the delta is pretty large, could you help us by maybe giving some buckets and some sizing of the one-times that you expect in fiscal '26 that weigh on the reported and obviously not on the adjusted?

Question: Bill Kirk, CFA - Roth Capital Partners LLC - Analyst : I guess what I'm going for, and it sounds like we got some of it, is the difference between reported 2026 and adjusted 2026. So forget the 2025

Question: Bill Kirk, CFA - Roth Capital Partners LLC - Analyst : Okay. Thank you, Matteo.

Question: Leah Jordan - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Just seeing if you could provide a little bit more detail on your sales outlook for '26 and just a cadence throughout the year on how you're thinking about volume versus inflation. That would be helpful. Thank you.

Question: Leah Jordan - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : That's very helpful. Thank you. Then I just wanted to follow up on services. I know, Sandy, you called out a number of services you provide and all the opportunity there. Just seeing if you could provide more detail there, how has engagement tracked with your customers, the uptake there, which services are you seeing today? And what are the biggest opportunities long term, and how do we think about any impact to top-line growth versus more of a margin tailwind?

Question: Leah Jordan - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Thank you.

Question: William Reuter - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Good morning. So I just have two. The first is the move to automation. I think you'll have six facilities, you said, by later this year. When you make those investments, are those positive ROI, return on capital investments? Or do you view them kind of as defensive measures that are required to make sure you continue to compete and keep your business?

Question: William Reuter - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Got it. And then just secondarily, on leverage, you're now going to reach your target by the end of the year or a year earlier than expected. How is this going to impact your capital allocation? I guess, would you consider acquisitions at that point? Would you consider share repurchases? What are your thoughts?

Question: William Reuter - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Got it. That's all for me. Thank you.