Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

Our market risks consist of interest rate risk, foreign currency exchange rate risk, fuel price risk and investment risk.

Interest Rate Risk

We do not utilize financial instruments for trading purposes. Our use of debt directly exposes us to interest rate risk. Floating rate debt, where the interest rate fluctuates periodically, exposes us to short-term changes in market interest rates. Fixed rate debt, where the interest rate is fixed over the life of the instrument, exposes us to changes in market interest rates reflected in the fair value of the debt and to the risk that we may need to refinance maturing debt with new debt at higher rates.

We manage our debt portfolio to achieve an overall desired position of fixed and floating rates and may employ interest rate swaps as a tool to achieve that position. The major risks from interest rate derivatives include changes in the interest rates affecting the fair value of such instruments, potential increases in interest expense due to market increases in floating interest rates and the creditworthiness of the counterparties in such transactions.

At June 29, 2024, there were $200 million in commercial paper issuances outstanding under our U.S. commercial paper program. Total debt as of June 29, 2024 was $12.0 billion, of which approximately 98% was at fixed rates of interest.

At July 1, 2023, there were no commercial paper issuances outstanding under our U.S. commercial paper program. Total debt as of July 1, 2023 was $10.4 billion, of which approximately 100% was at fixed rates of interest.

Details of our outstanding swap agreements as of June 29, 2024 are below:

Effective November 2024, we will receive or pay amounts on these interest rate swap agreements on a semi-annual basis.

The following tables present our interest rate position as of June 29, 2024. All amounts are stated in U.S. dollar equivalents.

Rate A – six-month USD-SOFR Compound and USD-SOFR-OIS Compound

Foreign Currency Exchange Rate Risk

The majority of our foreign subsidiaries use their local currency as their functional currency. To the extent that business transactions are not denominated in a foreign subsidiary’s functional currency, we are exposed to foreign currency exchange rate risk. We will also incur gains and losses within our shareholders’ equity due to the translation of our financial statements from foreign currencies into U.S. dollars. Our largest currency exposures are with Canadian dollars, British pound sterling and Euro currencies. Our income statement trends may be impacted by the translation of the income statements of our foreign subsidiaries into U.S. dollars. The exchange rates used to translate our foreign sales into U.S. dollars positively affected sales by 0.3% in fiscal 2024 when compared to fiscal 2023. The exchange rate used to translate our foreign sales into U.S. dollars negatively affected sales by 1.3% in fiscal 2023 when compared to fiscal 2022. The impact on our operating income, net earnings and earnings per share was not material in fiscal 2024 or fiscal 2023. A 10% unfavorable change in the fiscal 2024 weighted year-to-date exchange rate and the resulting impact on our financial statements would have negatively affected fiscal 2024 sales by 1.6% and would not have materially affected our operating income, net earnings and earnings per share.

Our investments and loans to foreign operations create additional foreign currency exposure and from time to time, we enter into agreements to hedge foreign currency exchange rate risks and mitigate impact to our consolidated results of operations. In fiscal 2024, we entered into a cross-currency swap to hedge a portion of our net investment in Euro-denominated foreign operations to reduce foreign currency risk associated with the investment in these operations. Changes in the value of these items resulting from fluctuations in the underlying exchange rates to U.S. Dollar exchange rates were recorded as foreign currency translation adjustments within Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss). Additionally, we periodically enter into agreements to hedge foreign currency risk associated with changes in spot rates on foreign denominated debt instruments, which are designated as fair value hedges. Gains or losses from fair value hedges impact the same category on the consolidated statements of income as the item being hedged, including the earnings impact of the excluded components. Unrealized gains or losses on components excluded from hedge effectiveness are recorded as a component of Accumulated other comprehensive income and recognized into earnings over the life of the hedged instrument.

Fuel Price Risk

Due to the nature of our distribution business, we are exposed to potential volatility in fuel prices. The price and availability of diesel fuel fluctuates due to changes in production, seasonality and other market factors generally outside of our control. Increased fuel costs may have a negative impact on our results of operations in three areas. First, the high cost of fuel can negatively impact consumer confidence and discretionary spending and thus reduce the frequency and amount spent by consumers for food-away-from-home purchases. Second, the high cost of fuel can increase the price we pay for product purchases, and we may not be able to pass these costs fully to our customers. Third, increased fuel costs impact the costs we incur to deliver products to our customers. Fuel costs related to outbound deliveries represented approximately 0.5% of sales during fiscal 2024, 0.6% of sales in fiscal 2023, and 0.5% of sales in fiscal 2022.

Our activities to mitigate fuel costs include routing optimization with the goal of reducing miles driven, improving fleet utilization by adjusting idling time and maximum speeds and using fuel surcharges that primarily track with the change in market prices of fuel. We use diesel fuel swap contracts to fix the price of a portion of our projected monthly diesel fuel requirements. As of June 29, 2024, we had diesel fuel swaps with a total notional amount of approximately 61 million gallons through March 2026. These swaps are expected to lock in the price of approximately 80% of our bulk fuel purchases for fiscal 2025, or 70% of our total projected fuel purchase needs for fiscal 2025. Our remaining fuel purchase needs will occur at market rates unless contracted for a fixed price or hedged at a later date. Using current, published quarterly market price projections for diesel and estimates of fuel consumption, a 10% unfavorable change in diesel prices from the market price would result in a potential increase of approximately $6 million in our fuel costs on our non-contracted volumes.

Investment Risk

Our U.S. Retirement Plan holds various investments, including public and private equity, fixed income securities and real estate funds. The amount of our annual contribution to the plan is dependent upon, among other things, the return on the plan’s assets and discount rates used to calculate the plan’s liability. Fluctuations in asset values can cause the amount of our anticipated future contributions to the plan to increase and can result in a reduction to shareholders’ equity on our balance sheet as of fiscal year-end, which is when this plan’s funded status is measured. Also, the projected liability of the plan will be impacted by the fluctuations of interest rates on high quality bonds in the public markets. To the extent the financial markets experience declines, our anticipated future contributions and funded status will be affected for future years. A 10% unfavorable change in the value of the investments held by our company-sponsored retirement plans at the plans’ fiscal year end (December 31, 2023) would not have a material impact on our anticipated future contributions for fiscal 2025; however, such an unfavorable change would increase our pension expense for fiscal 2025 by $23 million and would reduce our shareholders’ equity on our balance sheet as of June 29, 2024 by $250 million.