Conferencia de resultados del primer trimestre fiscal de 2027 de Sysco (SYY): crecimiento del BPA, ahorros por IA y actualización sobre JRD

Puntos clave

• Sysco registró un BPA ajustado en el primer trimestre fiscal de 2027 de 1,19 dólares, un 3,5% más interanual, mientras que las ventas aumentaron un 2,8% hasta los 21.700 millones de dólares.
• El volumen local de cajas de U.S. Foodservice creció un 2,7%, incluida una contribución de 0,4 puntos porcentuales de las adquisiciones, a pesar de una caída del 2% en el tráfico de restaurantes y de una perturbación relacionada con la ciclospora en agosto.
• El beneficio bruto subió un 3,8% hasta los 4.100 millones de dólares, mientras que el margen bruto se amplió 18 puntos básicos hasta el 18,6%, impulsado por la mezcla de clientes, una mayor penetración de la marca Sysco, el aprovisionamiento estratégico y los recargos por combustible.
• La dirección reafirmó su previsión de crecimiento del BPA ajustado para el ejercicio fiscal 2027 de entre el 9% y el 11%, centrado en torno al 10%, pero ahora espera que el crecimiento de las ventas reportadas se sitúe en la parte baja del rango anterior del 6% al 7% debido a una menor inflación de los alimentos.
• Sysco mantiene su compromiso de lograr 100 millones de dólares en ahorro neto de costes en el ejercicio fiscal 2027, proyectando la mayoría de los beneficios en la segunda mitad del año, y 500 millones de dólares para finales del ejercicio fiscal 2029 a través de su transformación impulsada por la IA y la tecnología.
• La empresa prevé que la transacción de Jetro Restaurant Depot se cierre hacia finales del tercer trimestre fiscal, sujeta a la aprobación regulatoria. Sysco ha completado la financiación para la parte en efectivo de la operación.

Resultados financieros clave

Rendimiento comercial y operativo

El negocio local de Sysco en EE. UU. registró un crecimiento del volumen de cajas del 2,7%, lo que supone una mejora secuencial de 130 puntos básicos en una base acumulada de dos años. La dirección atribuyó el impulso a la mejora en la retención y permanencia del equipo de ventas, a un mayor uso de la herramienta de venta AI 360 y a una mayor penetración de clientes. Las adquisiciones aportaron 0,4 puntos porcentuales al crecimiento trimestral del volumen local.

La proporción de productos de la marca Sysco aumentó 44 puntos básicos interanualmente en el negocio local. La proporción total de la marca Sysco en U.S. Performance Foodservice también pasó a terreno positivo por primera vez en varios trimestres. La dirección señaló que la mayor mejora procedió de los clientes independientes locales, respaldada por las recomendaciones de AI 360 que identifican conversiones de productos y oportunidades de «cambiar y ahorrar».

El segmento Internacional incrementó sus ventas un 5,1% y el resultado operativo ajustado un 12,2%, lo que supuso su 12.º trimestre consecutivo de crecimiento del beneficio ajustado a doble dígito. El volumen de cajas locales internacionales aumentó un 3,2%, y la directiva informó de un crecimiento superior al 3% en todas las regiones.

Las ventas de SYGMA aumentaron un 1%, mientras que el beneficio operativo disminuyó. El negocio siguió bajo la presión del elevado coste del combustible y continuó centrándose en las eficiencias operativas.

Transformación tecnológica y de IA

El programa de transformación de Sysco abarca 30 iniciativas, con cuatro proyectos que representan aproximadamente el 70% del valor previsto. La iniciativa de optimización de rutas está produciendo una mejora del 2% al 4% en piezas por milla en las regiones piloto, al tiempo que incrementa el cumplimiento de las ventanas de entrega a los clientes. La directiva afirmó que cada mejora del 1% en piezas por milla podría generar aproximadamente 3 millones de dólares en ganancias de eficiencia tras su despliegue en toda la empresa.

La fase 1 del proyecto de rutas está programada para expandirse por las instalaciones de U.S. Broadline durante el ejercicio fiscal 2027. Se espera que una segunda fase, impulsada por IA, comience en la segunda mitad del ejercicio fiscal 2027 y continúe a lo largo del ejercicio fiscal 2028.

Sysco también completó su primera solicitud de propuestas impulsada por IA. La dirección afirmó que el proceso superó su objetivo de ahorro en compras en aproximadamente un 30%. La empresa prevé utilizar herramientas de subasta inversa mediante agentes de IA para optimizar las compras en más de 1.000 millones de dólares de gasto indirecto anual.

Transacción de Jetro Restaurant Depot

Sysco y Restaurant Depot han completado sustancialmente sus respuestas al segundo requerimiento de la Comisión Federal de Comercio. La directiva declaró que prevé obtener la aprobación y mantiene su objetivo de cerrar la operación antes de que finalice el tercer trimestre fiscal.

El trimestre más reciente de Restaurant Depot registró un crecimiento del volumen del 1% y aumentos interanuales en el beneficio operativo y el EBITDA, tanto en dólares como en porcentaje sobre ventas. La deflación de productos fue del 1,6%. La directiva indicó que la apertura de nuevas tiendas aportó solo una pequeña contribución, pero no cuantificó el rendimiento en tiendas comparables.

Sysco captó 11.750 millones de dólares a través de bonos sénior, 5.000 millones de dólares mediante deuda híbrida y 1.000 millones de dólares a través de renta variable. El paquete de financiación también incluye 3.750 millones de dólares en préstamos a plazo comprometidos y aproximadamente 200 millones de dólares en pagarés comerciales. Incluyendo los más de 300 millones de dólares obtenidos por la cobertura de tipos de interés, el coste efectivo de la deuda se situó en el 5,8%. La directiva estimó que haber realizado la operación en septiembre evitó aproximadamente 50 millones de dólares en gastos de intereses anuales adicionales.

Sysco tiene previsto mantener la marca Restaurant Depot. La dirección ve potencial para conectar la red de distribución de Sysco con los establecimientos cash-and-carry de Restaurant Depot, incluyendo entregas en el mismo día, personalización para los clientes y conversión de clientes entre canales. La empresa prevé presentar proyecciones cuantificadas de sinergias de ingresos en un día del inversor tras el cierre de la operación.

Previsiones de la directiva

Todas las previsiones para el ejercicio fiscal 2027 corresponden a Sysco de forma independiente, incluyen la semana 53 y excluyen la combinación pendiente con Restaurant Depot.

Se prevé que la semana 53 aporte aproximadamente 2 puntos porcentuales al crecimiento de las ventas reportadas. La directiva espera que el crecimiento del BPA ajustado se acelere secuencialmente en el segundo trimestre y de nuevo en la segunda mitad del año, a medida que aumenten los ahorros por aprovisionamiento estratégico y transformación.

Tras una deflación del 0,3% en U.S. Broadline en el primer trimestre, la dirección señaló que la inflación había vuelto a situarse justo por debajo del 1% en octubre. Prevé una inflación en el segundo trimestre de aproximadamente el 0,8% al 1%, seguida de continuas mejoras en el tercer y cuarto trimestre.

Riesgos y factores a vigilar

• El tráfico en restaurantes cayó un 2% durante el trimestre, y la directiva no asume una mejora en el entorno macroeconómico para cumplir con sus previsiones de volumen local.
• Un brote de ciclospora afectó al tráfico en los restaurantes durante unas seis semanas a mediados del trimestre, aunque el volumen se recuperó en septiembre.
• La inflación de los alimentos fue menor de lo previsto. Los precios de los lácteos se vieron presionados por un exceso de oferta de leche no anticipado, mientras que los precios de los lácteos y de las aves de corral también se enfrentaron a comparaciones con el impacto de la gripe aviar del año anterior.
• Los elevados precios del diésel incrementaron los gastos de transporte de entrada y los gastos operativos. Sysco ha cubierto aproximadamente el 80% de sus compras de combustible a granel para el próximo ejercicio fiscal, mientras que los recargos aplicados a los clientes compensaron en parte los costes de combustible de transporte de salida.
• La transacción de Jetro Restaurant Depot sigue sujeta a la revisión de la FTC. La dirección afirmó no ser consciente de objeciones regulatorias, aunque todavía no ha recibido la aprobación final.
• Los costes de seguros y beneficios para los empleados aumentaron durante el primer trimestre. La directiva calificó estos gastos como transitorios y prevé que las eficiencias vinculadas a la IA y la tecnología brinden una mayor compensación en la segunda mitad del año.

Puntos destacados de la sesión de preguntas y respuestas con analistas

Perspectivas del volumen local: La directiva mantuvo su objetivo de crecimiento del volumen de cajas locales de aproximadamente el 2,5% para todo el año, a pesar de comparativas más exigentes y del vencimiento de la contribución por adquisiciones en diciembre. La confianza se fundamenta en la experiencia del equipo de ventas, la adopción de AI 360, la conversión hacia la marca Sysco y un renovado enfoque en la captación de nuevos clientes.

Adopción de AI 360: Sysco señaló que sus consultores de ventas con mayor nivel de uso superan sustancialmente al grupo de menor uso en todos los niveles de experiencia. La empresa no cuantificó la contribución de AI 360 al crecimiento anual del volumen de cajas, pero la identificó como un factor clave para alcanzar el objetivo de volumen anual.

Gestión del coste del combustible: Los recargos por combustible a clientes con contrato suelen operar con un desfase de aproximadamente 90 días. La directiva indicó que las coberturas y los recargos mantuvieron el efecto general del combustible sobre el beneficio operativo relativamente bajo, aunque un mayor gasto en combustible eleva tanto los costes operativos como el beneficio bruto reportado.

Integración de Restaurant Depot: La dirección destacó la gestión de compras, la ampliación del surtido, la personalización y la preparación multicanal de pedidos como posibles áreas de sinergia. Restaurant Depot se mantendrá como una marca independiente orientada al cliente en lugar de rebautizarse como Sysco.

Ritmo de beneficios en la segunda mitad del año: La directiva prevé que el crecimiento de las ganancias mejore del primer al segundo trimestre y se acelere aún más en el tercer y cuarto trimestre, a medida que escalen los ahorros derivados del aprovisionamiento estratégico, la optimización de rutas y otras tecnologías.

Transcripción completa de la conferencia de resultados

Transcripción completa de la conferencia de resultados

Comentarios de la dirección

Operator

Welcome to Sysco's First Quarter Fiscal Year 2027 Conference Call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. We will begin with opening remarks and introductions.

I would like to turn the call over to Kevin Kim, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Kevin Kim

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Sysco's first quarter fiscal year 2027 earnings call. On today's call, we have Kevin Hourican, our Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer; and Brandon Sewell, our Chief Financial Officer.

Before we begin, please note that statements made during this presentation that state the company's or management's intentions, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, and actual results could differ in a material manner. Additional information about factors that could cause results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the company's SEC filings. This includes, but is not limited to, risk factors contained in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 27, 2026, subsequent SEC filings and in the news release issued earlier this morning. A copy of these materials can be found in the Investors section at sysco.com.

Non-GAAP financial measures are included in our comments today and in our presentation slides. The reconciliation of those non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures is included at the end of the presentation slides can also be found in the Investors section of our website. During the discussion today, unless otherwise stated, all results are compared to the same quarter in the prior year. To ensure we have sufficient time to answer all questions, we'd like to ask each participant to limit their time today to one question. If you have a follow-up question, we ask that you reenter the queue.

At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Kevin Hourican.

Kevin Hourican

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Sysco's Q1 fiscal year 2027 earnings call. This is a pivotal moment in Sysco's ongoing journey of growth, resilience and operational excellence. Our leadership team is focused on three major activities this year. First, delivering with excellence for our customers as well as our core Sysco financial commitments, including the planned acceleration in profit growth on a year-over-year basis. Second, improving our operating margins through an AI-powered business transformation; and third, preparing for the anticipated closure of the Jetro Restaurant Depot transaction by the third quarter of this fiscal year. Each of these critical priorities is on track, and I would like to discuss each of them during our call this morning.

Let's start with Chapter 1, our core business. Cisco delivered a strong first quarter of fiscal 2027, we delivered adjusted earnings per share of $1.19, meeting our expectations. We delivered earnings growth in the quarter despite ongoing softness in restaurant foot traffic, rising fuel cost and U.S. food cost deflation in the period. The last 2 of these 3 factors performed differently than we had planned for the quarter. Importantly, Sysco delivered our earnings guidance for the quarter despite these headwinds. I am proud of the team for their agility and decisive action.

As seen on Slide 7, during the quarter, we grew our local case volume plus 2.7%, slightly higher than we had planned, representing a 130 basis point step-up on a two-year stack basis sequentially versus Q4. Our local business is building positive momentum, and we are growing our share. Enterprise sales reached $21.7 billion, up 2.8% year-over-year despite enterprise inflation coming in at only positive 0.3%. The lower-than-expected food cost inflation accounts for the sales delta in the period versus our expectations. That said, we measure our business health via profitable volume growth, and we are encouraged by our team's strong execution in achieving our volume objectives during the quarter.

I would like to highlight a few items within the macroeconomic environment before I dive a bit deeper into our performance. Traffic to restaurants per Black Box was down 2% in the quarter. The traffic performance for the quarter is consistent with the calendar year-to-date performance and remains a headwind for the industry. Additionally, the cyclospora outbreak had an adverse impact on the middle of the quarter, softening traffic to restaurants and restaurant operator volume during August. Sysco specifically had stronger volume performance in July and September as customers bounced back quickly after the cyclospora traffic headwind. The 2.7% volume growth for Q1 is inclusive of the cyclospora headwind, showcasing the underlying momentum of our local case volume growth. Rising fuel costs are impacting supply chain and end customers. As we mentioned on our Q4 earnings call, inbound logistics costs have risen due to the continued increase in diesel fuel. Brandon will discuss these dynamics during his section of our call today. Our team has done an excellent job of hedging fuel costs on the outbound delivery aspect of our business, but the rising cost of fuel is harmful to end consumer disposable income. Sysco is being thoughtful about the decisions that we are making on the fuel headwind to ensure we keep food affordable for our customers. We will revisit these decisions regularly to ensure we are managing our P&L and our relative price competitiveness in the end market.

Lastly, food cost inflation came in lower than planned during the quarter as seen on Slide 8. Our enterprise inflation was positive 0.3% and our U.S. FS business was deflationary for the period. As you know, we budgeted inflation at approximately positive 1.5% to 2% for the year. The deflation of food in Q1 was helpful for end consumers, but creates some short-term pressure on our P&L. Our merchants did an excellent job in the quarter of ensuring highly competitive procurement costs inbound Sysco, and our revenue management teams ensured that product deflation was properly priced to our end customers. Given Q1 was deflationary in the U.S., we now expect for our overall basket of goods to increase sub 1% inflation in Q2 and approximately 1% to 1.5% and for the full year based on commodity input cost projections.

Sysco grew our business profitably in the quarter within the business conditions that I just described. The 2.7% local case growth speaks to the improving selling capabilities of our sales consultants and the improved productivity they are delivering. Both retention and tenure of our sales consultants remain strong and the effectiveness of our AI 360 selling tool continues to improve. Our sales consultants who use the selling tool more often are selling more to their customers. As a result, those SCs are making more money than their peers.

Our sales leadership team continues to coach to the effectiveness of selling with and through AI 360 and our technology team continues to bring new capabilities to the tool. Regarding gross margins, we expanded our gross margin year-over-year by 18 basis points. The strong margin performance is due to strengthening customer mix and a step-up in our Sysco brand performance. Specific to Sysco brand, we grew our mix by 44 basis points year-over-year in local, and we were positive in total USPL Sysco brand mix for the first time in many quarters. We are making progress in Sysco brand and all customer types, restaurants of all sizes as well as our noncommercial segments.

Encouragingly, the greatest progress is being made with our local street customers. The work our merchants have done to expand our value to our assortment within Sysco Brand is making a difference. And our sales teams are doing an increasingly good job of offering Sysco Brand savings to our customers. We expect this positive momentum to continue in 2027. As it relates to our expenses, our supply chain performed at a high level during the first quarter. We delivered on our plan and logistics cost per piece, and we have improved our on-time performance versus our delivery windows. Strong supply chain performance was partially offset by higher fuel costs and medical expenses. Brandon will touch on these topics in more detail. As previously outlined, we expect our operating margins to expand throughout the year as the majority of our AI and tech transformation benefit will be realized during the second half.

Lastly, our International segment posted another strong quarter with adjusted operating income growth of 12.2%, marking our 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit adjusted profit growth. Our international team grew local cases 3.2% and posted strong Sysco Brand growth.

Chapter 2 on our call today is an update on our AI-powered business transformation. Recently, we announced an AI and tech powered business transformation program that we expect will unlock $100 million of net cost savings in fiscal 2027 and $500 million of net cost savings by the close of fiscal 2029. This work directly supports the updated midterm financial targets that we recently shared for fiscal 2028 and 2029, which included 4% to 7% sales growth, 9% to 11% adjusted EPS growth and 12% to 14% total shareholder return.

I would like to provide a quick update on the early innings of these efforts. The transformation program currently consists of 30 initiatives across the enterprise with 4 of those initiatives driving approximately 70% of the total value, as you can see on Slide #11. The Q1 impact of these efforts met our expectations and the value delivery significantly ramped into the second half of fiscal 2027. We have launched our routing project, which is the largest individual contributor to improved service levels at a lower operating cost. The routing initiative is now live in pilot regions and is delivering 2% to 4% improvement in pieces per mile driven and increasing compliance to our on-time delivery windows to our customers. This is Phase 1 of the project, and we had planned to roll out the improved routing capability across all Sysco U.S. operating locations this year. Every 1% improvement in pieces per mile delivers approximately $3 million of efficiency gains once scaled across the organization beyond this initial pilot.

Phase 2 of the project is focused on further enhancing the improved routing capability with AI-infused flexibility and dynamic modeling. We expect to see an additional reduction to miles driven and a service improvement with the second phase of the work. Phase 2 is expected to begin in the second half of fiscal 2027 and run through fiscal year 2028. The goal is clear: To improve service while lowering cost. This project is especially important given today's high-cost fuel environment. After we have completed the rollout across our U.S. Broadline business, we plan to expand the capability to our specialty and international business units. I would like to voice a special thank you to our transportation team for their hard work.

A second example today is within our indirect sourcing function. We launched our first AI-powered RFP in recent weeks. The tool performed as expected, rapidly completing the RFP autonomously with a human in the loop supervising the process. The results of the RFP exceeded our procurement savings target by approximately 30%. As Brandon has explained, the power of this capability is not only to source existing categories more effectively but also the ability for us to RFP smaller categories of spend that would not historically warrant dedicated resources. The objectives are to cover more spend with RFPs and increase our savings percentages. We have been asked several times lately if the AI technology capabilities that we are building can be applied to Restaurant Depot post close. The short answer is yes, and this indirect sourcing project is a great example.

Lastly, I'd like to provide an update on our AI selling tools. Our AI 360 sales consultant enablement tool continues to gain traction. We measure success in two simple ways: One, our representing sales offers to more customers, this is an activity measure. And two, are we selling more products to existing customers. This is an outcome measure. I'm pleased to report that both the activity level and the outcome metrics have increased through the use of AI 360. More customer visits have a pitch sales opportunity, and more customers are saying, yes, to the sales offers more often. So why is the tool itself? It prioritizes for SEs what to focus on, on any given sales call. The tool suggests items to sell or items can be referred to Sysco Brand. The decisions are still 100% in the hands of our SE. SEs that are new to the company and SEs that have decades of experience benefit from the sales suggestions. The power is in the data.

As I mentioned a moment ago, we are building momentum and gaining traction on Sysco brand conversion and penetration. This is a direct result of the AI 360 tool prompting and prioritizing that sales activity. Most importantly, our colleagues are making more money as a result of these selling activities, which becomes the self-fulfilling flywheel of the tool utilization.

Chapter 3 of our call today is an update on the Jetro Restaurant Depot transaction. The government review process continues to proceed as expected. Sysco and Restaurant Depot have substantially completed our respective responses to the FTC's second request. We expect the deal to be approved and we remain on target to close the transaction by the end of fiscal Q3. I would also like to provide an update on the performance results from Jetro Restaurant Depot. We have been advised by their leadership that the most recently completed quarter, 1% volume growth supported operating profit and EBITDA increases year-over-year, both on a dollar and a margin basis. Restaurant Depot experienced 1.6% product deflation within the period. Year-to-date, on a calendar year basis, Jetro Restaurant Depot is delivering compelling overall financial performance with sales and profit growth versus prior year. Ahead of deal closure, our integration teams are hard at work on planning for day 1 as a combined company. Playbooks are being built to unlock the capability of buying together, reducing our food costs and supporting our ability to buy better, to sell better.

By being more efficient in our buying activity, we can strengthen our P&L and provide more value to more customers through Sysco delivery and Jetro Restaurant Depot store locations. We have also begun the planning activities for the better together customer engagement opportunities that we believe can create revenue upside. We have a clear line of sight for how we can create value for additional customers, providing them better service at affordable prices across more communities. These revenue synergy opportunities are being thoughtfully planned sized, and we will communicate our projections at an Investor Day post close. Morale is high at both companies and the collective teams are excited to get to work post deal approval.

In summary, today, Sysco was poised to unlock greater shareholder value by delivering the following three outcomes: A strong core Sysco as evidenced by our Q1 results, a more efficient Sysco future through AI transformation, and post goals, a combined new company that we expect will grow faster and be more profitable than a stand-alone Sysco. These three forces, when working together, give our Board, management and global colleagues confidence in our future. We are strengthening the foundation of the company and building future capabilities that will differentiate Sysco from the rest of the industry. Our customers and colleagues will benefit from the actions we are taking and our shareholders will be the net beneficiaries of the profitable market share we can capture. We are excited for our future.

With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Brandon, who will walk through his perspectives on our financial performance. Brandon, over to you.

Brandon Sewell

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your time. Today, we will provide an update on Sysco's Q1 financial performance, review the successful September financing for JRD and reaffirm our adjusted EPS outlook, including the company-wide actions underway to accelerate top line sales growth, deliver on our $100 million cost savings program further support margin management, and importantly, accelerating adjusted EPS growth for the remainder of the year. Consistent with the commitments we previously outlined, our teams delivered 2.7% local growth in our U.S. Foodservice segment and effectively manage margins despite the deflationary environment. This performance drove adjusted EPS of $1.19, in line with our expectations and 3.5% higher year-over-year.

Despite the macroeconomic and industry challenges Kevin outlined, our company-specific initiatives kept us focused on the elements of performance within our control and a choppy operating environment. As shown on Slide 13, Q1 sales grew 2.8%, driven by balanced volume growth across USFS local and national accounts and continued outsized growth in our International segment. Enterprise inflation was only 0.3% during the quarter, below consensus expectations of 1.5% and included 0.3% deflation in our U.S. Broadline operations. Strong margin management expanded gross margin, drove enterprise adjusted operating income growth and marked another quarter of adjusted operating income growth in our U.S. FS segment.

Next, we successfully completed the bond and equity financing for the cash component of the JRD transaction, reflecting strong execution, robust investor demand and attractive pricing. Consistent with the plan we outlined earlier in March, we raised $11.75 billion through senior notes, $5 billion through hybrid debt and $1 billion through equity, combined with $3.75 billion of committed term loans and approximately $200 million of commercial paper, these actions position us well for the pending close.

Inclusive of more than $300 million of interest rate hedging proceeds, our effective cost of debt was 5.8%, providing attractive long-term financing for Sysco. This outcome demonstrates the strength of our investment-grade credit profile, our commitment to deleveraging and maintaining our mid-BBB credit rating and investor confidence in our strategic direction. This is a strong outcome for Sysco and our shareholders. Our team's preparation enabled us to execute within a relatively narrow window of opportunity in September. By acting when we did, we expect to avoid approximately $50 million of incremental annual interest expense that would have resulted had we raised the funds just 1 week later.

Finally, I want to address the outlook for the balance of the year. We remain confident in our net cost savings targets. $100 million in FY '27 with benefits accelerating in the second half and $500 million by FY '29. Enabled by AI technology, these initiatives position Sysco to operate better, faster and more efficiently. As Kevin noted, based on current visibility, four key projects represent approximately 70% of the program's expected value. Indirect spend management is one of those projects within finance. Given Sysco's size and scale, these new Agentic reverse auction technology tools can improve transparency, reduce value leakage and optimize over $1 billion of annual indirect spend. We recently piloted the tool for truck parts and tires with additional events planned in the near term. Momentum is building, and we expect continued progress with real-time negotiations and secure value from suppliers, with the goal of supporting our deleveraging commitments.

This is a tangible example of how Sysco's specific initiatives can improve financial performance. These are net cost savings that we expect to flow to the bottom line, particularly in the second half. The opportunity becomes even more compelling when combined with gross margin expansion from local volume growth and increased Sysco brand penetration. Our supply chain also continues to deliver compounding productivity gains driven by retention, a trend we expect to continue over the coming year. Collectively, these efforts give us visibility into accelerating top and bottom line growth for the remainder of the year. I will return to this point shortly.

Now let's review our quarterly performance and its key financial drivers, beginning on Slide 13. For the first quarter, Enterprise sales grew 2.8% on an as-reported basis, driven by U.S. Foodservice International and SYGMA. Total U.S. food service volume increased 2.6% and local volume increased 2.7% in the quarter. In U.S. FS Local, performance exceeded our guidance range and represented a 130 basis point sequential improvement on a 2-year stacked basis. Deflation in USPL was approximately 0.3%. International inflation was approximately 0.8% on a constant currency basis. Based on current visibility, we expect inflation to increase over the course of the year in both our U.S. operations and the enterprise overall. During the quarter, elevated fuel costs continued to affect food input costs and inbound transportation expense. Even so, Sysco continues to manage the industry's fuel-related challenges effectively and remains in a strong relative position with approximately 80% of our bulk fuel purchases hedged over the next fiscal year.

In the first quarter, Sysco generated $4.1 billion of gross profit, up 3.8% and expanded gross margin by 18 basis points to 18.6%, while improving gross profit per case. The improvement in gross profit reflected local volume growth, customer fuel surcharges, increased Sysco brand penetration, savings from strategic sourcing initiatives and tariff benefits. Adjusted operating expenses were $3.1 billion for the quarter, up 4% and equal to 14.4% of sales. The increase reflected planned investments in higher growth areas of the business, along with an increase in fuel costs. Corporate adjusted expenses increased 4.8% from the prior year, primarily reflecting higher insurance and benefits costs, partially offset by productivity savings and corporate efficiencies. We see the insurance and benefit costs as transitory and in the second half of the year will include incremental benefits from AI and technology-related efficiencies.

Sequential volume improvements also benefited USFS, our largest business segment, which delivered another quarter of improving financial performance. International delivered 5.1% sales growth and 12.2% adjusted operating income growth, marking its 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit adjusted profit growth. SYGMA results moderated in the quarter with sales growth of 1% and lower operating income. Against a challenging fuel backdrop, the SYGMA team remains focused on capturing operating efficiencies. For the quarter, adjusted EBITDA was $1.1 billion, up 5.4% from the prior year.

Let's now turn to the balance sheet and cash flow. Our investment-grade balance sheet remains strong and reflects a healthy financial profile. We ended the quarter with a 2.4x net debt leverage ratio and $5.8 billion in total liquidity, well above our minimum threshold and providing meaningful financial flexibility.

Turning to cash flow. We generated approximately $278 million in operating cash flow, up more than 220%. Free cash flow was positive $230 million, reflecting timing of working capital an increase in adjusted EBITDA and the timing of CapEx.

Now let me review our expectations for FY '27 as shown on Slide 20. Consistent with the guidance provided on our last earnings call, we expect continued volume growth and an acceleration in adjusted EPS growth. All elements of our fiscal 2027 guidance reflects stand-alone Sysco and include the 53rd week. For FY '27, we continue to expect full year fiscal 2027 adjusted EPS growth of 9% to 11%, with our outlook centered on approximately 10% adjusted EPS growth for the year.

We remain committed to the delivery of $100 million of in-year net cost savings as detailed on Slide 11. While fuel expenses remain elevated, recall that in Q1 and throughout the year, our increases in operating expenses are generally offset by increases in gross profit via customer surcharges. We are well positioned throughout the remainder of the year. We now expect reported net sales growth to be at the lower end of our prior 6% to 7% range, reflecting a lower inflationary environment for the industry. We are reiterating our USFS local case volume growth guidance of approximately 2.5% for the year, and the 53rd week contributed approximately 2% of reported growth. Based on the current outlook, we expect inflation of approximately 1% to 1.5%.

We expect cost saving benefits to build throughout the year, with the largest contribution expected in the second half and a corresponding acceleration in profit growth. We remain on track to return approximately $1 billion to shareholders through dividends. We also continue to expect adjusted depreciation and amortization of approximately $850 million for the year. As a reminder, Q4 includes an extra week this year. We now expect interest expense of $680 million, other expense of $20 million and a weighted average share count of approximately 487 million shares for the year to account for the September equity raise and current interest rate environment.

Looking ahead, our teams remain focused on sustaining positive momentum through fiscal 2027. We remain excited about the pending JRD transaction, which represents a significant next chapter of growth and will create a preeminent multichannel food service distribution platform. Combining the momentum in stand-alone Sysco with JRD will strengthen our financial profile and support long-term shareholder value creation.

With that, I will turn the call back to Kevin for closing remarks.

Kevin Hourican

Thank you, Brandon. In closing out today's call, I am pleased to announce that Brandon has been named Sysco's next Chief Financial Officer. We conducted a thorough global search for our next CFO and our Board was unanimous that Brandon was the best choice. Brandon has distinguished himself as a trusted and highly effective leader throughout his 12 years with the company and when asked to step in as Interim Chief Financial Officer, he performed at a high level. Brandon commands a deep knowledge of our business, broad financial expertise and strong understanding of how Sysco creates shareholder value.

During Brandon's interim assignment, Sysco delivered strong financial results, launched a multiyear artificial intelligence business modernization and successfully financed the Jetro Restaurant Depot acquisition. Both the debt and equity issuance associated with the JRD transaction were meaningfully oversubscribed, displaying strong investor interest and confidence in the deal. That would not have been possible without Brandon. When coupled with the 12 years of strong financial leadership, Brandon has delivered at the company, he has earned the trust and confidence of our leadership team, our colleagues and Sysco's Board of Directors as well as our investors.

We are pleased with the strong performance that we have delivered in Q1 and more importantly, the significant progress that we are making as a company across sales, merchandising and operations. I want to thank our 75,000 Sysco colleagues for the strong start to the year, their collective hard work, dedication and execution have positioned Sysco well to deliver on our 2027 plan.

With that, operator, we're now ready for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we will take our first question from Edward Kelly with Wells Fargo.

Preguntas y respuestas

Edward Kelly

Brandon, congratulations on the promotion. I wanted to start on local case volume growth. Could you maybe just provide a bit more color around the impact of cyclospora that you saw during the quarter? What October looks like? And then as we think about these comparisons as you move through the year, you lose the M&A benefit. So I'm curious in terms of your confidence in hitting that 2.5% target as the compares get harder. And then just a quick follow-up on this inflation issue. Obviously, softer than expected, and that is a headwind to growing gross profit and earnings. What are you hearing from vendors about the path from here? I mean it seems like we're going to see some real reacceleration, which I would imagine would be good for your business as well as the Restaurant Depot side given the deflationary level we saw there this quarter.

Kevin Hourican

Good morning, Ed. Thank you for the questions. It's Kevin. I'll start on the volume topic, I'll then bridge into what we see for inflation for the year, toss it over to Brandon, who will help round that out from a quantum perspective. Just to the very first part of your question, which was cyclospora, to start with, we're pleased with our first quarter performance, meeting our expectations in spite of these macro conditions that I enumerated on our call, cyclospora specifically impacted the month of August. We had a stronger July, we had a stronger September. The cyclospora, which headwind that transpired for about 6 weeks in the middle of the quarter is included in the positive 2.7% volume growth. And I think that's a strong statement of the progress that we're making. Specific to October, I think you have seen some restaurant names reported earlier this week and last week that the start of October was a little bit softer for the industry. We saw a little bit of that to do. The good news is that, that has progressed probably as the month of October has progressed. Weeks 3 and 4 of October, stronger November off to a good start. So not sure exactly what that blip was in the beginning of October, perhaps it's midterm election noise, perhaps it's fuel. But as I said, that was a short duration things relative to October. We are anchoring on our full year guidance, the 2.5% volume guide for the year, we are confident in our ability to deliver our profit guidance for this year, given all of what we see, and more importantly, what we're working on. The second half steps up from a profit growth perspective because of the AI commitment and our strategic sourcing activities, as you know, impact the second half of the year more than the first. So let's bridge to this inflation deflation question. The first quarter did behave differently than we had planned. I can highlight the causals of that. It's dairy. The categories of dairy was down significantly from a deflation perspective. That's for two reasons. Number one, lapping high ambition a year ago from avian influenza. And then in the fluid dairy milk categories and impacting cheese as well, there was a meaningful oversupply, which was not anticipated. So oversupply brought price down that specific dairy. The second category is in poultry. Poultry is currently significantly deflationary. That too is because of lapping avian influenza from a year ago. What we can see in our modeling, and I'm going to toss to Brandon, who can talk about Q2 and the rest of the year, as we begin lapping avian influenza in period 4 for poultry, and we begin lapping it in period 6 from a dairy perspective, and that is impacting in a constructive way, the rate of inflation that we will see in the second half. And the oversupply of milk is something that will be addressed as it relates to how they produce milk, et cetera, because they don't want to see the oversupply extend for an extended period of time. Brandon, over to you to talk about the year, and how we're thinking about inflation now for the rest of the year.

Brandon Sewell

Yes. Thank you, Ed, and thank you for the congratulations. I do appreciate the support. Let me go back to the first question you had, then I'll jump to inflation. Part of your question was, do we see continued improvement as the labs become more difficult? And for Q1, the 2.7% local on a 2-year stack, it was an improvement versus Q4 of about 130 basis points. So we are getting stronger. We see positive momentum in penetration. And the reason for that is because of the tenure of our sales force, which will continue throughout the year.

Jumping to inflation, Kevin called it out, we were at 0.3%. Our broad line in the U.S. deflation was 0.3%. Now with that, we're lapping avian flu. So in October already, we see just under 1%. So that will continue throughout Q2, and then we see an improvement in Q3 and Q4. So we updated our sales guidance due to that inflation. And with that, we managed our margins quite well during the quarter. We had excellent operational cost performance as well in Q1. It is a core competency of ours and that as well will continue. So we're enthused by our bottom line profitability performance and expect that to continue in Q2 and the second half.

Kevin Hourican

Just to be Christopher, Brandon said for period 4 October, approximately 1%, that was positive. So just to be crystal clear, we've already begun to see the lapping of the avian influenza from a year ago, and we expect to be positive for the rest of the year.

Operator

And we'll move next to John Heinbockel with Guggenheim.

John Heinbockel

Kevin, two related things. When you look at AI 360, maybe speak to the potential impact there, right, on local cases. I'm not sure what percent of the sales force is using it to its full potential, and if you look at the delta between those that are and those that aren't, what would that constitute -- how much can that move the local case style. And then the other thing is if you look at international, right? So if you had 0% inflation, international cases look like they stepped up nicely, is that fair? And do you see any impact from what's going on in Europe on local cases?

Kevin Hourican

Okay. Very good. Thank you, John. Two good questions. Start at the AI 360 topic. What we see macro in the industry right now, as you're aware, is approximately 2% traffic declines, which impacts volume per operator, that is impacting the overall industry. What we are seeing is strong penetration per operator. And I attribute AI 360 for that progress that we are making relative to the overall industry. So overall industry cases proprietor is down and our performance is solid. And why is AI 360, that power is in the data. It is prompting to our sales reps, things they should be selling that they're not currently selling, or it's predicting that there is the potential risk for a future loss based on rolling 16 weeks' data, and it prompts them to take action. So we are seeing solid, strong penetration performance, and I directly attribute that to our 10-year improvement, retention improvement of our colleagues, which Brandon already covered and then the leverage of AI 360. We absolutely see the performance data that you're implying, John. Your top decile users are performing meaningfully higher than the bottom decile users, and that's across all tenure durations, 1-year colleague to 30-year colleague. We can slice the data that way. So using it more means you make more money as a sales consultant, using it more means you're profitably growing your business. We've not quantified the impact to this full year's volume performance, what I would say is what gives me confidence in our ability to deliver our 2.5% volume growth for the full year, as Ed mentioned, that's a step-up each quarter because we lapped stronger numbers a year ago. AI 360 is what's giving us the confidence to do that. And we're going to continue to make it better. We launched new capabilities and new tools. The other thing I would point to in AI 360 is a direct proof point. It is our progress in Sysco brand. It is teeing up very specific concrete opportunities for what we call swap and saves, which is the ability to save a customer money, and it serves it up on a silver platter for the sales rep through what we call prioritized next best action. So very pleased with AI 360 shout out to our tech team for that proprietary product development that we have built and our sales colleagues for embracing it. It's a real winner for us. As it relates to international, we're very pleased with our international performance, 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit profit growth, strong local growth in every country we compete in around the world. You're right that there are some challenges in select countries, specifically the noise that we saw from unrest in France specifically, and we're not seeing it impact our business. And why is strong leadership team we have in each of these international countries, the broadening of our assortment improving our tech tools, things like modern website in every country, increasing sales head count in every country, and we're pleased and confident in our performance internationally. We are seeing product inflation internationally at a higher rate than domestic U.S. That's mostly because of how food is priced and contracted in a couple of our countries, it's a twice per year government impacted price negotiation, and that tends to result in a more stubborn price in select countries, and that is one of the reasons why food cost is inflationary in Europe, particularly while deflationary in the U.S. Brandon, over to you for anything you want to add?

Brandon Sewell

Yes. We've used our U.S. programs somewhat of an incubation to then transfer to our international, and it's working really well. In the international space, in every region, we delivered 3-plus percent local, and it's a major contributor to the profit growth. As Kevin referenced, we're in our 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit operating income growth, and we expect that to continue.

Operator

And we'll move next to Danilo Gargilo with Bernstein.

Danilo Gargiulo

First of all, Brandon, once again, congratulations on your appointment as permanent CFO. I was wondering if you can help us understand the evolution of OpEx in the first quarter. I mean you showed very strong gross margins OpEx was a little bit light of expectations. So can you help us understand how much of that was driven by deleverage of inflation? And to what extent you could be offset in lower inflation with accelerating capture rates of savings through the rest of the year?

Brandon Sewell

Sure. Yes. Thank you for the question and congratulations. Anyhow I appreciate it. I'll start with our core business and [ OpEx ] then I'll move to the topic of fuel, but we remain very disciplined on staffing and therefore, our productivity was very strong. It is a core competency of ours. In our U.S. business, we ended FY '26 with the highest retention on both selectors and drivers, since the beginning of COVID. And the reason why retention is important is because it's directly correlated with productivity and then obviously correlated with favorable cost control. So we were very pleased with our productivity in Q1. Taking a step back and looking at some of the transitory things on-highway diesel, average fuel cost was higher, especially peaking in September than it was in Q4. As fuel rose, we managed it and fuel costs were elevated and affected OpEx. But with that, between, as we stated in the prepared remarks, fuel hedges, offset by some of the customer surcharges. The overall impact to operating income of fuel was relatively small. So we're being very intentional in managing that pressure between our customers and our internal P&L. We did it in Q1, and we'll continue to do it in Q2 and in FY '27. The one piece I would remind you of, Daniel, is when we have increased fuel costs, you'll see OpEx increase, and you'll also see margin increase because of those customer surcharges. So it's a geography change in the P&L that occurs.

Operator

And we'll move next to Kelly Bania with BMO Capital.

Kelly Bania

Congrats, Brandon, first of all. Just a couple of questions. I wanted to follow up on the local -- the U.S. local case growth. Wondering if you could just specifically parse out the organic component of that. And then bigger picture, you've had very strong visibility into how that will shape up for the last few quarters, helped by this improved retention. And just wondering at what point of retention tailwinds kind of level off and other drivers take over in terms of supporting that figure. You talked a little bit about the AI 360 in the [ opco ] save. And just wondering kind of how the handoff for these more kind of structural technology-driven tools start to contribute to the local case growth as the retention tailwinds level out. And just a follow-up also on the Restaurant Depot data point, to the extent you can comment that volume figure of 1%, does that include square footage growth? Is that -- do you have like a same-store sales type of volume figure on that front?

Kevin Hourican

Kelly, thank you for the questions. Just going back to the local case growth part of your question, acquisitions contributed 0.4% of volume growth for the quarter, and that's consistent with the calendar year-to-date performance as well, going back to Ed's question, yes, we will lap that acquisition come the December period of time. We're confident in our ability to hit the 2.5% for the full year because of a host of strategic initiatives that are in play that will positively impact our local case growth. We are not expecting macro environmental conditions to improve to be able to deliver our performance. It's from strategic initiatives. Specific to your point on colleague retention, I don't view that as a slowing down tailwind. Brandon makes the point well at our monthly business reviews. Tenure improvement continues on in perpetuity. The person who's 11 year in today will be 2 years in tomorrow. It will be 3 years in the year after that, and they continue to get better. So while we have improved retention what was temporary was the customer loss impact of that, but will be permanent is the continued strengthening of their selling skills that grows over time. So our improved retention will continue to be a tailwind throughout 2027. I'm reminded always how much this is a relationship business. our restaurants buy food from us, at least twice per week, 52 weeks per year, our sales were up and our driver is in their place of business multiple times per week. It's a really intimate relationships based transaction and the strengthening of the colleague retention and tenure will be a tailwind for all of 2027, and I submit even into 2028. What gives me confidence is back to John's question, AI 360 is not yet fully developed as it relates to what it can do. Colleagues are using it every day, but they can use it even more. We can be even more specific about what we prompt our colleagues on what they focus on. And one of the biggest focus is on the year-to-date for us is actually an increased effort and focus on winning net new business. Given the traffic to restaurants, being soft, given the deflation that we experienced in Q1. We're putting a renewed effort on opening net new doors, and that's something we can do given the fact that our sales population is stable. So you're going to see a big focus from us in that regard to help us grow our customer count which gives us the confidence in our full year guide. As it relates to R&D, just to Restaurant Depot, we've not unpacked same-store sales versus new store growth. New store growth would be a small, small contribution for the year, but I'm not going to quant the number. What I like about R&D's performance, they grew their customer count, they grew their transaction crowd. They improved their profitability year-over-year, including expanding their op margins Richard and his team have grown profit for 30 consecutive years, and they're on track to be able to do that again this year. It's a really capable talented team. Brandon, toss to you for anything you'd like to add?

Brandon Sewell

No, I would just reemphasize that last point. 30 out of 30 years. Our conversation with the Restaurant Depot team continue to be very positive. And each time we speak with them and interact with them, we become more impressed. We think that they will make Sysco better and their track record for profit improvement is perfect. 30 out of 30, and they continue to do that this year.

Kevin Hourican

And just one more proof point, coming back, confidence in our ability on the improved financial performance, Sysco brand. Our merchant teams, as I said in my prepared remarks, have done a really terrific job of improving our assortment at the value tier end of the equation AI 360, putting those opportunities in front of our sales reps to do swap and save. We improved Sysco brand across every customer type in our book of business with independent customers being the area where we saw the greatest improvement and that will continue into the rest of this year, which is one of the reasons why we had a strong gross margin performance in Q1.

Operator

And we'll move next to Alex Slagle with Jefferies.

Unknown Analyst

Congrats, Brandon, from me as well. I had a question on the national business. I missed if you provided a volume growth metric. But questions more on the opportunity to further optimize how you attack the growth opportunities in these channels, especially the noncommercial, just to help offset some of the soft volumes in the chain business as you kind of look out leveraging tools, new tools you have or shifting resources to accelerate growth in some of the higher potential segments to the business?

Kevin Hourican

Alex, good morning. thank you for the question. Contract business is half of our business. It's really important. We don't directly call it national, but you can do the implied math. The implied math is 2.2% volume growth for contract business for Q1, which is solid. And the reason I say solid is because restaurants -- national restaurants are actually down year-over-year, and that's offset by really strong performance in what we call food service management, which is office buildings, big stadiums, college and [ K-12 ] business, that all falls into that food service management sector. So strong performance in foodservice management, strong performance in hospitality. We're doing very well in the hospitality sector and also strong performance in health care. We've got a renewed focus as a company on the selling strength capabilities within health care, strong partnerships in the health care, GPO space, helping us profitably take share within health care. So 2% growth for the quarter. We're confident in our full year, and we've expanded our profitability in contract business as well by creating what I call win-win contract structures with our big customers that if we work together and we create efficiencies, we share in some of those efficiencies with that customer, which motivates them to do that. and we are able to improve our profitability at the same time. So our contract sales leadership team is doing a terrific job. Thank you to that group. Alex. I appreciate the question.

Operator

And we'll move next to John Ivankoe with JPMorgan.

John Ivankoe

In my observations, one of -- what I think is some of the lowest hanging fruit at Restaurant Depot would be to improve customer-facing marketing and customer-facing technology. And those are obviously two areas. Sysco has really put a lot of effort towards over the past several years, but also the past many years. So can you talk about -- I guess, from your perspective, Kevin, how big of an opportunity do you think that it is? And do we -- and just remind me, do we have a vision that Restaurant Depot Sysco really gets collapsed into one brand to kind of benefit from the marketing and customer-facing technology of the two businesses?

Kevin Hourican

John, great question. I appreciate it. First, let me just comment on where we are with the deal. As I said in my prepared remarks, we and Restaurant Depot have substantially complied to the second request. The FTC is doing their diligence. We have active conversations with them regularly. At this time, we are not aware of any concerns, and we are confident that the deal will get approved based on its actual merits. How that's happening, we are deep, deep in the integration and planning work. As I said in my prepared remarks, there's procurement savings that we will deliver by buying together. There's assortment expansion to each of the brands that we can create by leveraging each other's broad assortment. But John, what gets me most excited is the questions that you asked, the opportunity for revenue growth tied to what we call the better together thesis. And you hit on several of them. The Restaurant Depot team is excited to work with Sysco on customer targeted personalization, We, as you know, because you said it have invested heavily to create a personalized website the AI 360 capability that we have rides the rails of that hyperpersonalization targeting logic. Restaurant Depot is a membership club. Richard and his team know exactly what their customers are buying and not hiring, and they're excited to partner with Cisco's tech team to bring forward customer targeted promotional offer opportunities to engage more of their basket. Richard often talks about just adding one more case per visit is worth a lot, and we're going to work hard to do that. We will, of course, test these things. I call it pull not push. It will be Richard and his team desiring these activities, and there's a tremendous amount of interest in this topic, specifically tied to data and technology, and how we deploy it to actively engage the customers. Our intent as a management team is post Kohl's to have an Investor Day, Kevin, Kim, Brandon and I are talking about when would be the right time to do that. It's probably 6 months post close. And what we will provide as color at that meeting is more detail, including size of math on what we believe this opportunity as well as many others can create for revenue growth. Brandon, anything you want to add?

Brandon Sewell

Yes. It's a somewhat tactical point, John, but one of the things that impresses us about Restaurant Depot is their data. They have really good, strong, clean data. And given the investments in personalization that Kevin talked about, we will be able to now use those and leverage those to be able to get a really great result out of personalization by working with Restaurant Depot. .

Kevin Hourican

Brandon. And the last 1 you asked about 1 brand. We will not change the brand of Restaurant Depot. That will stay on forever. The store is branded Restaurant Depot. It will be Restaurant Depot. You walk into that story. It will be Restaurant Depot. But what we can do -- it's great as Brandon said, the preeminent multichannel food service distribution entity, you could have a delivery primary customer Sysco customer who need something in a hurry, leveraging the Restaurant Depot stores to do same-day delivery or will call pick up at a Restaurant Depot. That would be a Sysco delivery customer but activated through the RD box. We believe there is a big opportunity for that. On the flip side, Restaurant Depot, primary cash and terry customers at times grow and improve and strengthen their business and open a second or a third door. And going to Cash & Carry becomes a challenge for them. We can create a model where we can predict that is occurring by the data that Brandon just referenced, and we can intervene and say, "Hey, we'd love to have Sysco and deliver to you once a week," and you can keep coming into the restaurant Depot store to pick up your fresh products. That's an example of something we will build. But there are two different brands because they're different customers, there's a cash in primary customer who chooses to go to the store to save money, and there's a delivery primary customer who likes delivery for the convenience and white glove service. What we can do is better serve both of them by having these capabilities under one roof.

Operator

And we will move next to Mark Carden with UBS.

Mark Carden

Brandon, congrats on the role. So on your routing initiative, you talked about it being live in pilot regions. How much of your U.S. footprint, does this cover today? Will the rollout be pretty consistent throughout the year or back half weighted? And then on EPS, should we expect for it to be meaningfully slower from a growth perspective in 2Q relative to the balance of the year, just given the cost save pacing and some of the near-term deflationary pressures? Just any context on Q2 profit trends would be helpful.

Kevin Hourican

Great, Mark. Thank you. Two-part question. I'll do the routing part, Brandon, we'll do the EPS part. I just wanted to be very clear on the routing project. It's actually two separate based projects. The first is rolling out an update to our software training our routers, how to leverage and use that software. That is a stage deployment throughout 2027, I think ex sites per month being implemented. That project is on track. It's going well. It's delivering that approximately 2% to 4% pieces per mile improvement that I referenced in my prepared remarks and is embedded in our guidance for this year, and it will contribute strong value as the year progresses. There's a second project, which is what we're calling AI-infused routing. So improved simulation. We onboard a lot of new customers every single week and doing that customer onboarding in a more efficient way, rate out of the gate. It's an easier-to-use software that will enable us to be more dynamic and we're calling this customer-centric routing. So our best customers to get even tighter windows smaller customers, working with them to have a little more flexibility so we can be efficient so we can serve their business profitably that is Phase 2. Phase 2 will begin at the end of this fiscal year and is much more a fiscal 2028 financial contribution, which is why these AI profit impacts step up over time, $100 million this year and $500 million by the end of 2029. This project is one of the biggest projects in the hopper, and we have strong confidence in it. Again, I'm really pleased with our routing team and our tech team for the good leadership they are displaying. Brandon, over to you to talk about Q2 and for your EPS.

Kevin Kim

Yes. Yes. Thank you, Mark, and thank you for the congratulations. As it relates to Q2 -- in the full year, really, we're really confident in our full year EPS guide of 9% to 11% growth, and we will continue in Q2 to have strong margin management and high productivity and operational performance. If you look at it versus Q1, it will improve versus Q1. The phasing of our strategic sourcing and cost savings will enable that. And then Q3 and Q4 will continue to improve sequentially beyond Q2. So we will see a step up in Q2. We will see another step up in Q3 and Q4, and we will continue to execute with excellence.

Operator

And we will take our final question from Sara Senatore with Bank of America.

Sara Senatore

I want to go back to the commentary on, you mentioned on being thoughtful about making what your choosing to make the decisions about fuel headwind to ensure you keep the food affordable to your customers. So it kind of sounds like you're passing through the deflation appropriately, but you're holding back on some of the fuel inflation. I guess my interpretation is you have big scale advantages, you've locked in your field better, I think, than some others. Are you kind of using this as an opportunity to press your advantage take volume just because it seems like you're approaching how you think about fuel versus food inflation differently as you think about passing it through? And then just related it seems like the deflation kind of materialized very quickly, given that you issued the top line guidance not that long ago. Is there anything that may be needs to happen to change how you forecast inflation or this was just unavoidable given the dairy oversupply just even in a short amount of time, couldn't have anticipated.

Kevin Hourican

Yes. Very fair question. Sara, thank you. So then you had embedded in that product inflation, deflation and fuel labor, we unpack the two. I'll start with product inflation. Brandon, maybe you take the fuel. First of all, we're constantly negotiating with our suppliers to get to the absolute best possible cost for Sysco. And then we contractually pass on our cost to the contract customers. Those are built into our contracts. For the street business, we dynamically priced the Street based on what's happening in the marketplace. So if the marketplace understands that dairy is deflationary, we lower our price to match the fact that costs have come down in the marketplace has come down as well. So we're very strategic, very thoughtful we price creep our delivery competition on the regular. We talk to our suppliers about where we anticipate trends, and we changed pricing for independent customers weekly because of the commodity fluctuations that have been [indiscernible]. So that's what I was alluding to in our prepared remarks. Yes, we passed on product deflation to independent in-contract customers because that's the right thing to do. If our product cost comes down, our customers should benefit from that, and they did benefit from that in Q1. Your good question about should we have seen the Q1 inflation in the category that was a surprise with Dairy. The oversupply of milk and that impacted the cheese market was significant and happened quite rapidly. And that category behaved very differently than what we had expected. The second, which I didn't mention earlier is while beef is still inflationary the rate of inflation within beef is beginning to step down. And that's good for end consumers that for restaurants, but beef had been in the double-digit inflation for a long time that is normalizing, and we are now expecting beef inflation for the rest of this year to be low single digits. Again, good for end restaurants, good for end consumers, but that is a big change from where it has been. Your point can we improve here? Yes, we can. We are leaning in hard to partner with our suppliers even stronger, leveraging some third-party tools to do ongoing rolling forecasting of commodity costs. We also have to respect that things change, floods and droughts and [indiscernible] occur, and it is a dynamic food environment. We do the best we can on forecasting inflation. Brandon was crystal clear. I'll just repeat it. We're seeing already in October back to inflation. We anticipate Q2 will be approximately 0.8% to 1% and we expect the full year now to be approximately what we guided on today's call. Brandon, over to you for any additional comments on that, and then maybe you can talk about fuel and how we manage through through our P&L.

Brandon Sewell

Yes. No, absolutely. I'll jump straight to fuel, and thank you for the question, Sara. So with fuel, there are three components. The first is our contract customers and outbound. It is relatively formulaic. With that, there is a lag of roughly 90 days between contracts and what gets charged to the customer. On the local side, we as well intend and try to pass on the fuel costs that we're seeing when it comes to our retail component. And then I mentioned this last time on inbound, its' a little bit different because the suppliers sell us product. Obviously, we're not hedged on the inbound fuel. That is a place where we manage a balance between our customers and us internally. So with the increased cost of inbound and product, that's where there's a little bit of art and a little bit of science. So all in all, I said initially that there was very little effect to operating income on fuel, thanks in large part to the hedges that we have in place and then to customer surcharges. So we will continue to see that in Q2, and we will continue then to see it as well in 2H as we are hedged 12 months out, and then we have smaller hedges that are 18 months out as well.

Operator

At this time, we've reached the allotted time for questions. I will now turn the call back over to our presenters for any final or closing remarks.

Kevin Kim

Great. Thank you, Madison. Thank you, everybody, for joining us today and for your continued interest in Cisco. The team here is focused on the year to go. Should you have any follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to the Investor Relations team. Thank you very much.

Operator

This concludes today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect. Thank you.