Aaon Inc (AAON) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the AAON, Inc. Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Our host for today's call is Joe Mondillo, Director of Investor Relations. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Mr. Mondillo, you may begin, sir.

歡迎參加 AAON, Inc. 2023 年第二季度收益電話會議。我們今天電話會議的主持人是投資者關係總監 Joe Mondillo。 （操作員指示）我現在想將電話轉給您的東道主蒙迪略先生，您可以開始了，先生。

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Press release announcing our second quarter financial results was issued after market closed today and can be found on our corporate website, aaon.com. The call today is accompanied with a presentation that you can also find on our website as well as on the listen-only webcast.

謝謝接線員，大家下午好。宣布第二季度財務業績的新聞稿於今天收市後發布，可在我們的公司網站 aaon.com 上找到。今天的電話會議附有演示文稿，您也可以在我們的網站以及僅供收聽的網絡廣播上找到該演示文稿。

Please go to Slide 2. We begin with our customary forward-looking statement policy. During the call, any statement presented dealing with information that is not historical is considered forward-looking and made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, each as amended. As such, it is subject to the occurrence of many events outside of AAON's control that could cause AAON's results to differ materially from those anticipated. You all are aware of the inherent difficulties, risks and uncertainties in making predictive statements.

請轉到幻燈片 2。我們首先介紹我們慣用的前瞻性聲明政策。在電話會議期間，任何涉及非歷史信息的聲明均被視為前瞻性聲明，並根據1995 年《證券訴訟改革法》、《1933 年證券法》和《1934 年證券交易法》的安全港條款制定，每一個都經過修改。因此，可能會發生許多超出 AAON 控制範圍的事件，這些事件可能導致 AAON 的結果與預期產生重大差異。你們都知道做出預測性陳述所固有的困難、風險和不確定性。

Our press release and Form 10-Q that we filed this afternoon detail some of the important risk factors that may cause our actual results to differ from those in our predictions. Please note that we do not have the duty to update our forward-looking statements.

我們今天下午提交的新聞稿和 10-Q 表格詳細介紹了一些可能導致我們的實際結果與我們的預測不同的重要風險因素。請注意，我們沒有義務更新我們的前瞻性陳述。

Joining me on today's call is Gary Fields, President and CEO; and Rebecca Thompson, CFO and Treasurer. Also joining to provide some insight during the Q&A is Matt Tobolski, President of BasX. We'll begin with Gary providing some opening remarks, Rebecca will then walk you through the quarterly results, and then we'll finish with Gary for some commentary on the quarter and outlook before moving to Q&A.

與我一起參加今天電話會議的是總裁兼首席執行官加里·菲爾茲 (Gary Fields)。以及首席財務官兼財務主管麗貝卡·湯普森 (Rebecca Thompson)。 BasX 總裁 Matt Tobolski 也加入了問答環節並提供了一些見解。我們將首先由加里發表一些開場白，然後麗貝卡將向您介紹季度業績，然後我們將由加里對本季度和前景進行一些評論，然後再進行問答。

With that, I'll turn over the call to Gary.

這樣，我就把電話轉給加里。

Good afternoon. I'll start on Slide 3. Overall, we're very pleased with our second quarter results. We reported record sales for a sixth straight quarter. Organic volume was up year-over-year 16%. That was against a quarter a year ago, where organic volume was also up double digits. Our operations team is doing a great job managing the robust demand by increasing production capacity quickly. In fact, production finally began to outpace bookings this quarter, allowing our backlog and lead times to fall, which we were happy to see. Led by even greater increases in production output, we are on track for lead times to fall even further in the second half of the year. This all reflects the investments we have made in production capacity, including workforce, equipment and warehousing. The market environment remains busy and where optimistic bookings in the second half will remain solid. As such, we continue to invest in future growth.

下午好。我將從幻燈片 3 開始。總的來說，我們對第二季度的業績非常滿意。我們連續第六個季度創下銷售記錄。有機銷量同比增長 16%。與一年前一個季度相比，有機銷量也增長了兩位數。我們的運營團隊通過快速提高產能，出色地管理了強勁的需求。事實上，本季度產量終於開始超過預訂量，從而使我們的積壓訂單和交貨時間下降，這是我們很高興看到的。在產量大幅增長的帶動下，我們預計下半年交貨時間將進一步縮短。這一切都反映了我們在產能方面的投資，包括勞動力、設備和倉儲。市場環境依然繁忙，下半年樂觀的預訂量將保持穩定。因此，我們繼續投資於未來的增長。

In the second quarter, we held the grand opening of our new marketing building, also known as the Exploration Center. Our products are best-in-class in our industry, providing premium performance at the most attractive value proposition. This new building located at our headquarters in Tulsa, displays market alternatives side by side with our products, showcasing the superiority of our equipment. This is an extremely valuable tool for our sales channel partners. We expect great returns on this investment as we are confident it will help gain new customers and drive bookings amongst existing customers. Additionally, later this year, we will be rolling out a new branding of our highest-performing package solutions ever, the industry's most versatile line of commercial, fully electric air-source heat pumps. We will call it the ALPHA Class. In the Animal Kingdom, ALPHA stands for having the highest rank in a dominance hierarchy. This is what this new equipment is dominant.

第二季度，我們舉行了新營銷大樓（也稱為探索中心）的盛大開業。我們的產品是業內一流的，以最具吸引力的價值主張提供卓越的性能。這座新建築位於我們位於塔爾薩的總部，與我們的產品並排展示了市場替代品，展示了我們設備的優越性。對於我們的銷售渠道合作夥伴來說，這是一個極其有價值的工具。我們期望這項投資能獲得豐厚的回報，因為我們相信它將有助於贏得新客戶並提高現有客戶的預訂量。此外，今年晚些時候，我們將推出有史以來性能最高的成套解決方案的新品牌，這是業界最通用的商用全電動空氣源熱泵系列。我們將其稱為 ALPHA 類。在動物王國中，ALPHA 代表統治等級中的最高等級。這就是這款新裝備的優勢所在。

Operating down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit, there is no other commercial air-source heat pump like it on the market, and the ALPHA Class retains the superior quality of manufacturing that the AAON brand exemplifies. This new equipment will revolutionize the industry paving the way for a cleaner environment while maintaining the comfort of AAON's premium performance.

運行溫度可低至 0 華氏度，市場上沒有其他商用空氣源熱泵，並且 ALPHA Class 保留了 AAON 品牌所體現的卓越製造質量。這種新設備將徹底改變行業，為更清潔的環境鋪平道路，同時保持 AAON 優質性能的舒適性。

I'll now hand over the call to Rebecca Thompson to go over the financial results.

現在我將把電話轉給麗貝卡·湯普森，讓她審核財務業績。

Thank you, Gary. Please turn to Slide 4. Net sales increased 36% to $284 million from $208.8 million. Volume grew 16%, reflecting the company's strong backlog at the start of the quarter as well as a sixth straight quarter of record production, which reflects the company's success of attracting and retaining employees along with further investments in production machinery. In addition to volume, pricing contributed 20% to our growth.

謝謝你，加里。請參閱幻燈片 4。淨銷售額從 2.088 億美元增長 36%，達到 2.84 億美元。銷量增長了16%，反映出該公司在本季度初的大量積壓訂單以及連續第六個季度創紀錄的產量，這反映出該公司在吸引和留住員工以及對生產機械的進一步投資方面取得了成功。除了銷量之外，價格也為我們的增長貢獻了 20%。

Moving to Slide 5. Gross profit increased 98.5% to $94 million from $47.4 million. As a percentage of sales, gross profit was 33.1% compared to 22.7% in the second quarter of 2022. Realization of price increases has improved our margin profile, along with the slowing of inflation. We've experienced year-over-year increases in the cost of materials and have implemented periodic wage increases in addition to our annual merit increases in order to retain employees. The multiple price increases during 2022 and 2023 counteract these increased cost of materials and labor.

轉到幻燈片 5。毛利潤從 4,740 萬美元增加到 9,400 萬美元，增長了 98.5%。毛利潤佔銷售額的百分比為 33.1%，而 2022 年第二季度為 22.7%。隨著通貨膨脹的放緩，價格上漲的實現改善了我們的利潤狀況。我們經歷了材料成本逐年上漲的情況，並且除了年度績效加薪之外還實施了定期工資加薪，以留住員工。 2022 年和 2023 年期間的多次價格上漲抵消了材料和勞動力成本的增加。

Please turn to Slide 6. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased 45.8% to $39.3 million from $26.9 million in the second quarter of 2022. As a percentage of sales, SG&A increased to 13.8% from 12.9% in the second quarter of 2022. The increase relative to sales is primarily attributable to an increase in profit sharing expenses, which is a result of the record earnings we realized.

請參閱幻燈片6。銷售、一般和管理費用從2022 年第二季度的2690 萬美元增加到3930 萬美元，增長了45.8%。SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比從2022 年第二季度的12.9% 增加到13.8%。相對於銷售額的增長主要歸因於利潤分享費用的增加，這是我們實現創紀錄收益的結果。

Please turn to Slide 7. Income from operations increased 167.6% to $54.7 million from $20.5 million in the year ago quarter. As a percent of sales, operating margin expanded to 19.3% from 9.8% in the second quarter of 2022.

請參閱幻燈片 7。運營收入從去年同期的 2050 萬美元增長 167.6% 至 5470 萬美元。營業利潤率佔銷售額的百分比從 2022 年第二季度的 9.8% 擴大至 19.3%。

Moving to Slide 8. Diluted earnings per share increased 173.3% to $0.82 per share from $0.30 per share. In the quarter, we benefited from a onetime tax benefit of $3.1 million. Excluding discrete events, we continue to anticipate a tax rate of 24.1% through the rest of the year.

轉到幻燈片 8。稀釋後每股收益從每股 0.30 美元增加到每股 0.82 美元，增長 173.3%。本季度，我們受益於 310 萬美元的一次性稅收優惠。排除離散事件，我們繼續預計今年剩餘時間的稅率為 24.1%。

Turning to Slide 9. Our balance sheet remains strong. Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash totaled $27.7 million on June 30, 2023, and debt at the end of the quarter totaled $78.5 million. Within the quarter, we paid down $5.1 million on our line of credit. Our leverage ratio of 0.37 was down from 0.47 at the end of the first quarter, and down 0.46 at the end of 2022. We had a working capital balance of $270.5 million at June 30, 2023, versus $203.5 million at December 31, 2022. Our working capital has increased due to the receipt of restricted cash from the closing of our new markets tax credit and increase in higher priced receivables. Along with improved earnings, cash from operations will improve significantly through the rest of the year, helping pay down debt and finance CapEx projects.

轉向幻燈片 9。我們的資產負債表仍然強勁。截至 2023 年 6 月 30 日，現金、現金等價物和限制性現金總計 2,770 萬美元，季度末債務總計 7,850 萬美元。本季度內，我們償還了 510 萬美元的信用額度。我們的槓桿率為0.37，低於第一季度末的0.47，到2022 年底也下降了0.46。截至2023 年6 月30 日，我們的營運資金餘額為2.705 億美元，而2022 年12 月31 日為2.035 億美元。由於關閉新市場稅收抵免而收到限制性現金以及價格較高的應收賬款的增加，我們的營運資金有所增加。隨著盈利的改善，運營現金將在今年剩餘時間內顯著改善，有助於償還債務並為資本支出項目提供資金。

Capital expenditures for the first 6 months of the year were $60.6 million, up 122.7% from a year ago. We continue to expect capital expenditures for the year to be approximately $135 million, which equates to more than 150% year-over-year growth. We monitor our growth trajectory and capacity utilization regularly, and we will continue to invest in long-term growth.

今年前6個月的資本支出為6060萬美元，同比增長122.7%。我們仍然預計今年的資本支出約為 1.35 億美元，相當於同比增長超過 150%。我們定期監控我們的增長軌跡和產能利用率，並將繼續投資於長期增長。

With that, I'll now turn the call back over to Gary.

這樣，我現在將把電話轉回給加里。

You'll turn to Slide 10. As I said in my opening remarks, we're very pleased with the second quarter. Our operations continue to deal with manufacturing challenges and yet production output continued to grow on a quarter-to-quarter basis, marking the sixth straight quarter of sequential volume growth. Organic volume was up 16%, and on a 2-year stack, it was up 27.6%. We've made great strides in increasing our production capacity to allow for this growth. Total headcount was up 26.1% from a year ago and up 18.2% from the end of 2022. We continue to do a great job at onboarding new employees. We are also investing in new equipment warehouse space that has also contributed to the increased production.

您將轉向幻燈片 10。正如我在開場白中所說，我們對第二季度非常滿意。我們的業務繼續應對製造挑戰，但產量繼續逐季度增長，標誌著銷量連續第六個季度增長。有機銷量增長了 16%，兩年累計增長了 27.6%。為了實現這一增長，我們在提高產能方面取得了長足進步。總員工人數比一年前增加了 26.1%，比 2022 年底增加了 18.2%。我們在新員工入職方面繼續做得很好。我們還投資了新的設備倉庫空間，這也有助於提高產量。

Supply chain issues have begun to improve, which has helped improve output. Lead times amongst the supply chain remain lofty, but finding the supply of materials has become less of a challenge. Lastly, volume growth was also a reflection of our premier sales channel. I will reiterate. Our sales channel has never been as strong as it is right now, and we're now giving them more tools to help them be more successful than they've ever been.

供應鏈問題已經開始改善，這有助於提高產量。供應鏈的交貨時間仍然很高，但尋找材料供應已不再是一個挑戰。最後，銷量增長也反映了我們的主要銷售渠道。我會重申。我們的銷售渠道從未像現在這樣強大，我們現在為他們提供更多工具來幫助他們比以往更加成功。

Please turn to Slide 11. We are pleased to see gross margin expand in the second quarter as we indicated on the first quarter call. As we stated on the first quarter conference call, after April 1, we lifted the regular monthly price increase that we had in effect going back to last June. We now believe the price premium of our equipment relative to the competition is in the high single digits, down from 15% to 20% that we were at historically. This is making the value proposition of our equipment even more compelling, helping drive further share gains. At the same time, we were able to expand profit margins. Thus, we are executing our pricing strategy very well. We'll continue to monitor this closely, particularly as we approach the end of the year. It is likely that we'll continue to see cost pressures next year. We maintain that we will continue to be disciplined with pricing. For the second half of the year, we anticipate gross margin will continue to expand, but at a slower pace than what you saw in the first half.

請參閱幻燈片 11。我們很高興看到第二季度毛利率有所增長，正如我們在第一季度電話會議上所指出的那樣。正如我們在第一季度電話會議上所說，4 月 1 日之後，我們取消了自去年 6 月以來每月定期提價的政策。現在，我們相信我們的設備相對於競爭對手的價格溢價處於高個位數，從我們歷史上的 15% 到 20% 下降。這使得我們設備的價值主張更加引人注目，有助於進一步推動市場份額增長。與此同時，我們能夠擴大利潤率。因此，我們的定價策略執行得很好。我們將繼續密切關注這一情況，特別是在臨近年底時。明年我們可能會繼續面臨成本壓力。我們堅持認為，我們將繼續遵守定價紀律。下半年，我們預計毛利率將繼續增長，但增速將低於上半年。

Now let's move to Slide 12. As I stated earlier, production has finally begun to outpace bookings, which we're happy to see. This has led to lower lead times, which will help us maintain competitiveness. That said, lead times are still higher than where we'd like to see them. So there's more work to be done. We are making progress, though, and we expect even more progress in the second half of the year. Overall demand remained solid. Bookings slowed in the second quarter versus the first quarter, but we do not believe this is an indication of a slowdown. Bookings at the end of last year and in the first quarter of this year were unusually strong. Supply chain issues across the construction markets seemed to have led to a pull forward by a few months that resulted in the pattern that you've seen this year. When we speak with our sales rep partners, demand in the pipeline remains strong. In fact, backlogs at most of our channel partners are at record levels and the sentiment is very positive.

現在讓我們轉到幻燈片 12。正如我之前所說，生產終於開始超過預訂，我們很高興看到這一點。這導致交貨時間縮短，這將有助於我們保持競爭力。也就是說，交貨時間仍然比我們希望看到的要長。因此還有更多工作要做。不過，我們正在取得進展，我們預計下半年會取得更多進展。總體需求依然強勁。與第一季度相比，第二季度的預訂量有所放緩，但我們認為這並不表示放緩。去年年底和今年第一季度的預訂量異常強勁。整個建築市場的供應鏈問題似乎導致了幾個月的增長，從而導致了今年的模式。當我們與銷售代表合作夥伴交談時，管道中的需求仍然強勁。事實上，我們大多數渠道合作夥伴的積壓訂單都達到了創紀錄的水平，而且市場情緒非常積極。

Now let's turn to 13. The macro data is also still solid. Construction spending is now well beyond pre-pandemic levels and construction starts are at strong levels. The ABI and the Dodge Momentum Index, which track the pipeline of nonresidential projects early in the planning stages, also still imply the pipeline is still at historically high levels. Demand continues to be fairly broad-based for us. Data center markets are very strong. The K-12 education vertical is solid. Health care and manufacturing are also still very good. We continue to see robust demand in the grow facility market. And while new construction of warehouses has slowed, the end market remains good for us due to retrofit work. We're also starting to see good demand from the electric vehicle and EV battery markets. There are some pockets of softness, for example, the office sector and parts of retail, but overall market demand remains solid.

現在我們轉向13。宏觀數據也依然穩健。目前，建築支出遠遠超出了大流行前的水平，而且開工率也處於強勁水平。 ABI 和道奇動量指數在規劃階段早期跟踪非住宅項目的管道，也仍然表明管道仍處於歷史高位。對我們來說，需求仍然相當廣泛。數據中心市場非常強勁。 K-12 教育垂直領域十分穩固。醫療保健和製造業也仍然非常好。我們繼續看到種植設施市場的強勁需求。儘管新倉庫建設放緩，但由於改造工作，終端市場仍然對我們有利。我們還開始看到電動汽車和電動汽車電池市場的良好需求。有一些領域疲軟，例如辦公部門和部分零售業，但總體市場需求仍然強勁。

Turn to page -- Slide #14. Although the lead times have begun to fall, they remain higher than normal. The investments we have made in additional personnel, new equipment and warehouse space have allowed us to maintain industry best lead times even while lead times across the industry have fallen. We will continue to invest in capacity to help us remain competitive. CapEx is expected to be up 150% this year, of which, a vast majority is related to increasing production capacity. Considering that, I'm optimistic that lead times and backlog will continue to decline throughout the year.

翻到第 14 頁。儘管交貨時間已開始下降，但仍高於正常水平。我們在額外人員、新設備和倉庫空間方面的投資使我們能夠在整個行業的交貨時間下降的情況下保持行業最佳的交貨時間。我們將繼續投資產能，以幫助我們保持競爭力。今年資本支出預計將增長150%，其中絕大多數與產能增加有關。考慮到這一點，我樂觀地認為全年交貨時間和積壓將繼續下降。

Now let's move to Slide 15. Part sales grew 14.2% in the quarter and were up 24.4% in the first half of the year. The business increased slightly to 5.7% of total sales and that was in a quarter that we realized robust growth of equipment sales. We remain optimistic through the rest of the year as the supply chain issues continue to wane, this business should benefit. Long term, we continue to anticipate this business will become a larger part of the company, both on a sales and profitability basis.

現在讓我們轉到幻燈片 15。本季度零件銷售額增長 14.2%，上半年增長 24.4%。該業務略有增長，佔總銷售額的 5.7%，這是我們實現設備銷售強勁增長的一個季度。隨著供應鏈問題繼續減弱，我們在今年剩餘時間裡保持樂觀，這項業務應該會受益。從長遠來看，我們繼續預計該業務將成為公司的更大組成部分，無論是在銷售額還是盈利能力方面。

Now let's turn to 16. So before finishing up and handing off the call for Q&A, I want to provide some information on our outlook for the rest of the year. Based on the size and improved margin profile of the backlog and the increased production capacity and improving productivity that we anticipate, we continue to expect sales and earnings will improve sequentially in Q3. We now anticipate pricing will be a mid-double-digit contributor to sales growth for the year, up from low double digits. For SG&A, as we have stated on prior calls, we are making several investments that will help position the company better for long-term growth. We continue to think SG&A as a percent of sales will be higher than what we realized in '22. Finally, CapEx will be approximately $135 million.

現在讓我們轉向 16。因此，在結束並結束問答環節之前，我想提供一些有關我們對今年剩餘時間的展望的信息。根據我們預期的積壓訂單規模和利潤率的改善以及產能的增加和生產率的提高，我們繼續預計第三季度的銷售和盈利將環比改善。我們現在預計定價將對今年的銷售增長產生中兩位數的貢獻，高於低兩位數。對於SG&A，正如我們在之前的電話會議中所說，我們正在進行多項投資，這將有助於公司更好地實現長期增長。我們仍然認為 SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比將高於我們 22 年實現的水平。最後，資本支出約為 1.35 億美元。

In closing, I want to finish by thanking all of our employees, sales channel partners and customers. Thank you. I will now open up for Q&A.

最後，我要感謝我們所有的員工、銷售渠道合作夥伴和客戶。謝謝。我現在開始問答。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from Julio Romero from Sidoti & Co.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Sidoti & Co. 的 Julio Romero。

Gary, you talked about a potential pull forward at the end of last year, first quarter of this year. Were there any particular verticals that experience those pull forwards? Or was it more, in your opinion, it kind of a broad-based pull forward across the board?

加里，您在去年年底、今年第一季度談到了可能的提前。是否有任何特定的垂直領域經歷了這些推動？或者，在您看來，這更像是一種基礎廣泛的全面推動？

Well, one significant was K-12. Normally, K-12 bookings, we don't see them strengthen until deep into Q1, like towards the end of Q1. Now we started seeing them in Q4, very strong in December, and then it stayed very strong right through Q1. So as I spoke with sales channel partners, and I was looking at jobs on the bookings list and saw lots of school names, I asked if there was a logical reason for this, and they said, of course. The school market said all construction recognizes that lead times are longer. So nearly everyone that's got a lead time sensitive project that's trying to do it in a defined time frame, like K-12 schools do an awful lot of change out work when school ends and before school starts. So they've recognized the industry itself has longer lead times, and they've changed their actions to -- as a reflection of that. There's others that have done the same, but again, the most significant was K-12.

嗯，其中一個重要因素是 K-12。通常情況下，K-12 預訂量直到第一季度末才會出現增長，比如第一季度末。現在我們開始在第四季度看到它們，在 12 月份非常強勁，然後在整個第一季度都保持非常強勁。因此，當我與銷售渠道合作夥伴交談時，我正在查看預訂列表上的工作並看到很多學校名稱，我問這是否有邏輯原因，他們說當然有。學校市場表示，所有建築都意識到交貨時間更長。因此，幾乎所有擁有交付週期敏感項目的項目都試圖在規定的時間範圍內完成，例如 K-12 學校在學校結束時和開學前都會進行大量的變更工作。因此，他們認識到該行業本身的交貨時間較長，並且他們已經改變了自己的行動——作為這一點的反映。還有其他人也做了同樣的事情，但同樣，最重要的是 K-12。

Got it. No, that's very helpful. And any way to quantify how much the capacity you brought online added to 2Q results?

知道了。不，這非常有幫助。有什麼方法可以量化您上線的容量在第二季度的結果中增加了多少？

Well, we have been trying to maintain to the best of our ability in excess of 30% additional infrastructure beyond what our current run rate is. Earlier in the year, we were at about 42%. Right now, we're probably closer to 30% because we've accelerated the growth so much. We do have several new Salvagnini machines going in place as we speak. Some of those are replacing old machines that weren't producing a normal number of parts just due to the older worn-out machines don't -- they're not dispatchable as many hours of the day. So we've got several new machines going in to replace old machines, but then we also have accretive machines going in.

嗯，我們一直在盡力維持超出當前運行速度 30% 以上的額外基礎設施。今年早些時候，我們的比例約為 42%。目前，我們可能接近 30%，因為我們已經大幅加速了增長。就在我們說話的時候，我們確實有幾台新的薩瓦尼尼機器正在投入使用。其中一些正在更換不能生產正常數量零件的舊機器，只是因為舊的破舊機器不能生產正常數量的零件——它們一天中的調度時間不夠多。因此，我們已經投入了幾台新機器來取代舊機器，但我們也有增量機器投入使用。

When we shut down the small water-source heat pumps, the 2-6 ton indoor water heat -- water-source heat pumps, we were able to repurpose that area, move some things from one building to the other to consolidate for better operating efficiency, but then that opened up some area for additional Salvagnini machines, which are one of our most significant bottlenecks in one of the most necessary components for our manufacturing process. So we now have -- by the end of this year, we'll be back somewhere around 40%, 42% surplus capacity.

當我們關閉小型水源熱泵、2-6噸室內水源熱泵時，我們能夠重新調整該區域的用途，將一些東西從一棟建築移到另一棟建築以進行整合，以便更好地運行效率，但這為額外的薩瓦尼尼機器開闢了一些空間，這是我們製造過程中最必要的組件之一的最重要的瓶頸之一。因此，到今年年底，我們將恢復 40%、42% 左右的過剩產能。

Really helpful. And then just last one for me is it sounds like the price premium between yourself and your competitors has narrowed pretty dramatically, but you expect increased costs next year. Is it your sense that the market demand is strong enough that price increases next year could be absorbed by customers?

真的很有幫助。最後一個對我來說是，聽起來你和你的競爭對手之間的價格溢價已經大幅縮小，但你預計明年的成本會增加。您是否認為市場需求足夠強勁，明年的漲價可以被客戶消化？

Yes, I think so. When you look at all the data, they've been trying to slow inflation down, but it's not gone. It seems that it's somewhere around the 5% range currently. And as we look at wage rate increases, anticipate what we're going to do right around the first of the year, we've already factored that in. We factored in what the materials are, and we believe that there'll probably be some small price increases, but you won't see anything in my -- from AAON, I don't believe you'll see anything substantial. You'll just see some small incrementals. We'll probably go back to that 1% per month. That was a very good strategy. It kept us from having a big pull forward of subpar priced backlog. And yet it got our margins right where we want it. So now it's a proven concept for us, and I think we'll reinstitute that at some point in time. We've not made a decision yet.

是的，我想是這樣。當你查看所有數據時，你會發現他們一直在努力減緩通脹，但通脹並沒有消失。目前看來大約在 5% 的範圍內。當我們考慮工資上漲時，預測我們將在今年年初做什麼，我們已經考慮到了這一點。我們考慮了材料是什麼，我們相信可能會有一些小幅價格上漲，但你不會在AAON 中看到任何東西，我不相信你會看到任何實質性的東西。您只會看到一些小的增量。我們可能會回到每月 1%。這是一個非常好的策略。它使我們無法大幅推進低於標準價格的積壓訂單。然而它卻讓我們的利潤達到了我們想要的水平。所以現在這對我們來說是一個經過驗證的概念，我想我們會在某個時候重新建立它。我們還沒有做出決定。

FP&A gave me an update yesterday, and we've modeled with and without. And we're intent on maintaining our margin profile as it is or better, slight improvement. But our primary thing, as we've said, is trying to maintain that price premium differential. So one of the things when we were 15% to 20% premium, our energy efficiency was already well above the required energy efficiency for the 2023 standards, yet we were being compared to numerous competitors that were well below 2023 standards. January 1, 2023, we all had to be on -- everybody came up. And so they came up to our pre-existing standards, what it amounted to. And there was a lot of cost to do that. You don't get additional energy efficiency free. And so I think a lot of the narrowing was because of that aspect right there.

FP&A 昨天給了我一個更新，我們已經建模了有和沒有。我們致力於維持現有的利潤狀況，或者更好，略有改善。但正如我們所說，我們的首要任務是努力維持溢價差。因此，當我們溢價 15% 到 20% 時，我們的能源效率已經遠遠高於 2023 年標準所需的能源效率，但我們與許多遠低於 2023 年標準的競爭對手進行比較。 2023 年 1 月 1 日，我們所有人都必須上場——每個人都上場。所以他們達到了我們預先存在的標準，即它的含義。這樣做需要付出很大的代價。您無法免費獲得額外的能源效率。所以我認為很多縮小範圍都是因為這個方面。

And our next question comes from Chris Moore from CJS Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 CJS 證券的 Chris Moore。

Maybe just a follow up on the premium conversation. So obviously, we had this conversation multiple times before. But you're selling at less of a premium now that has increased the willingness of some purchases to try AAON for the first time. I'm wondering if maybe you can just comment on that trend during Q2? Are there -- are you seeing additional customers that never had used AAON before that have in the recent quarter or so?

也許只是高級對話的後續。顯然，我們之前多次進行過這樣的對話。但現在您的銷售溢價較低，這增加了一些購買者首次嘗試 AAON 的意願。我想知道您是否可以對第二季度的趨勢發表評論？您是否發現在最近一個季度左右有更多以前從未使用過 AAON 的客戶使用過 AAON？

Well, obviously, there is some of that. I don't have it quantified and carved out by itself. What I will say, though, is we've had visitors to our new exploration center that I did not believe would come visit us because they were uneasy with the price differential. And now they visited us for multiple reasons. The price differential is recognized as being less burdensome to them. The value story, this -- the way we present equipment in this building where we have equipment that maybe is similar to what they're purchasing at this lower cost compared to ours, and now they can see this narrower differential and say very good value statement right there.

嗯，顯然，有一些這樣的事情。我沒有將其量化並自行雕刻出來。不過，我要說的是，我們的新探索中心有訪客，我不相信他們會來參觀我們，因為他們對價格差異感到不安。現在他們出於多種原因來拜訪我們。人們認為價格差異對他們來說負擔較小。價值故事，這是我們在這座大樓中展示設備的方式，我們擁有的設備可能與他們以比我們更低的成本購買的設備相似，現在他們可以看到這種更窄的差異並說非常有價值聲明就在那裡。

And the next thing that's been compelling a lot of people to come in is the ALPHA Class unit that I spoke of earlier. We've had kind of a pre-rollout with certain clients on that because the testing is finished, all the data is finished. We're actually in production on those units and have been for a bit, and so that story is beginning to resonate with people. We had a client in a couple of weeks ago, a very, very major client that's got to replace thousands upon thousands of units and their board has tasked them with becoming 0 emissions, not net 0, but 0 emissions. And that being the case, an electrified heating method is required to make that happen. And when you look at a wide swath of North America, our ALPHA Class units satisfy that need, and we're the only ones currently that do that.

接下來吸引很多人進來的是我之前提到的 ALPHA Class 單元。我們已經與某些客戶進行了預推出，因為測試已經完成，所有數據都已完成。我們實際上正在製作這些單元，並且已經製作了一段時間，因此這個故事開始引起人們的共鳴。幾週前我們有一個客戶，一個非常非常大的客戶，需要更換成千上萬的設備，他們的董事會要求他們實現零排放，不是淨零排放，而是零排放。既然如此，就需要一種通電加熱的方法來實現這一點。當您放眼北美的大片地區時，我們的 ALPHA Class 設備可以滿足這一需求，而且我們是目前唯一能夠做到這一點的設備。

Got it. Very helpful. Maybe just shift gears. [BasX] obviously doing quite well. Just trying to understand how the average size of their orders compared with the rest of the company. I'm just wondering if they are more lumpy if kind of -- what -- how to look at that moving forward?

知道了。很有幫助。也許只是換檔。 [BasX] 顯然做得很好。只是想了解他們的訂單平均規模與公司其他公司相比如何。我只是想知道它們是否更加笨拙，如果--什麼--如何看待未來的發展？

On BasX, you said?

你說的是BasX？

Yes. Are they bigger? Are they (inaudible) lumpier.

是的。它們更大嗎？它們（聽不清）是否更塊狀？

Matt's on the call. I'll let him take that, please.

馬特正在打電話。我會讓他接受的，拜託。

Yes. Fantastic question. And certainly, the size of BasX orders definitely is a larger kind of price per order perspective, just given the industry is and kind of the scale of orders and repetitive number of units. And so we certainly continue seeing strong increase in kind of growth in the average order size within the BasX kind of side of the business. With that, obviously, I think your comment on lumpiness. I think lumpiness is sort of a -- when we average it out, we continue seeing a very substantial growth trajectory as we kind of isolate down a month by month, obviously, the increasing order sizes creates a certain kind of order cadence that is you might quantify it lumpy. But on a kind of quarter-by-quarter growth and kind of as we look at trajectory, it continues to be very strong from a growth perspective as well as from an order size perspective.

是的。很棒的問題。當然，考慮到行業的訂單規模和重複單位數量，BasX 訂單的規模絕對是每訂單價格更大的一個角度。因此，我們肯定會繼續看到 BasX 業務領域的平均訂單規模強勁增長。顯然，我認為你對塊狀的評論。我認為塊狀性是一種 - 當我們平均時，我們繼續看到非常可觀的增長軌跡，因為我們逐月隔離，顯然，不斷增加的訂單規模創造了某種訂單節奏，這就是你可能會量化它的塊狀。但從逐季度的增長和我們觀察軌跡來看，從增長的角度以及從訂單規模的角度來看，它仍然非常強勁。

Got it. I appreciate that. And my last one is just -- yes, please.

知道了。我很感激。我的最後一個是——是的，請。

Chris, let me get you one other thing here real quick. So AAON legacy equipment, when people place the order, they place it in accordance with our published lead time, and they expect to ship at that time. On BasX, because the projects are so substantial, they tend to place orders that they need things very long term. We're talking to people about orders that have a total delivery profile of 1 year. Now they may be month by month if they want them, but they're buying a year's worth maybe or even 2 years' worth. So it's lumpy in the fact that you book a big order, but it's not lumpy in the production stage in that they have these things parsed out so many per week, so many per month.

克里斯，讓我盡快告訴你另一件事。因此，AAON 的傳統設備，當人們下訂單時，他們會按照我們公佈的交貨時間下訂單，並期望在那時發貨。在 BasX 上，由於項目規模很大，他們傾向於下長期需要的訂單。我們正在與人們討論總交付期限為 1 年的訂單。現在，如果他們想要的話，他們可能會按月購買，但他們購買的可能是一年的價值，甚至是兩年的價值。因此，事實上，你預訂了一個大訂單，這很不穩定，但在生產階段並不不穩定，因為他們每週、每月都會解析出這麼多東西。

Got it. That's helpful, Gary. And maybe just my last one. You guys mentioned it certainly and talked about it. But the pending regulations from the DOE on lowering global warming potential refrigerants that's 2025. Just trying to understand kind of how that's going to impact you guys? Are you out in front as normally you are on these things? And how significant is that to the industry?

知道了。這很有幫助，加里。也許只是我的最後一次。你們肯定提到過並談論過它。但是美國能源部即將在 2025 年頒布關於降低製冷劑全球變暖潛力的法規。只是想了解一下這會對你們產生什麼影響？您在這些事情上是否像往常一樣處於領先地位？這對行業來說有多重要？

We just started putting it in our pricing program, and we are ready to take orders for it now and begin delivery as soon as January 1, 2024. While some projects don't yet have the authorization to start that equipment up, if the project has a long duration for construction, some people are already considering purchasing early just so they don't get in a traffic jam trying to get what they need. So we're very far ahead of the curve on that. We have not the entire product line completed right now, but we're very close to having from 2 tons all the way to 240 tons completed with the new refrigerant very close.

我們剛剛開始將其納入我們的定價計劃，現在就準備接受訂單，最快將於 2024 年 1 月 1 日開始交付。雖然有些項目尚未獲得啟動該設備的授權，但如果該項目由於施工工期較長，一些人已經在考慮提前購買，以免在購買所需物品時遇到交通擁堵。所以我們在這方面遙遙領先。我們現在還沒有完成整個產品線，但我們已經非常接近完成從 2 噸到 240 噸的新製冷劑了。

(Operator Instructions) And our next question comes from Brent Thielman from D.A. Davidson.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Brent Thielman。戴維森。

Gary, just with the production capacity increasing and the lead times shrinking, how do we all kind of think about the conversion timing of your backlog as it sits today, understanding that your lead times continue to get better here? But what level of visibility does that offer you now based on where your capacity -- production capacity [where turns right now]?

加里，隨著產能的增加和交貨時間的縮短，我們如何看待你們目前積壓訂單的轉換時間，了解你們的交貨時間在這裡繼續變得更好？但是，根據您的能力——生產能力[現在轉向何處]，現在可以為您提供什麼級別的可見性？

Yes. It remains a difficult calculus in that manner. Historically, before the pandemic, it was quite simple. You could take the backlog and divide it by current production rate and that gave you the lead time. The scenario that people are buying, committing and buying equipment, writing purchase orders for contracts for it with, we'll call it, delayed delivery. They want to get that place in line, get it secured. So I don't know how much of our backlog is that. I don't think it's an abundance of it. But it's certainly a recognizable percentage.

是的。以這種方式，它仍然是一個困難的計算。從歷史上看，在大流行之前，這非常簡單。您可以將積壓訂單除以當前的生產率，從而得出交貨時間。人們購買、承諾和購買設備，為其合同編寫採購訂單的情況，我們稱之為延遲交貨。他們想讓那個地方排隊，確保它安全。所以我不知道我們的積壓有多少。我認為這並不豐富。但這肯定是一個可識別的百分比。

So I think we're currently mostly in 12- to 16-week range on equipment. We have some exceptions. We've got a few things that are a little quicker like the products that we build in Longview, I think a good many of those are down around 8 weeks now. And then our very largest products, the RZ Series. I just had a request from sales channel partner. He involved me because it was such a significant project, and he needed 22 weeks. We're talking units that are a single unit on a single tractor trailer truckload, maybe 180 to 200 tonnes of capacity -- air conditioning capacity, and he needed 22 weeks for several of those units, and we were able to meet that for him. So I was really proud of the team to be able to do that. And again, I'd like to see, overall, our lead times come down another 2 or 3 weeks.

所以我認為我們目前的設備週期大多在 12 到 16 週範圍內。我們有一些例外。我們有一些東西要快一些，比如我們在 Longview 構建的產品，我認為其中很多現在都在大約 8 週內完成了。然後是我們最大的產品，RZ 系列。我剛剛收到銷售渠道合作夥伴的請求。他讓我參與是因為這是一個非常重要的項目，而且他需要 22 週的時間。我們談論的是單個牽引車拖車裝載的單個單元，容量可能為 180 到 200 噸——空調容量，他需要 22 週的時間來安裝其中幾個單元，我們能夠滿足他的要求。所以我為團隊能夠做到這一點感到非常自豪。再說一遍，我希望看到總體而言，我們的交貨時間能夠再縮短 2 到 3 週。

Yes. Got it. Gary, it might be a little bit early, but are you beginning to see orders for 2024 or at least or the conversations you're having with the sales channel, giving you some kind of early confidence about next year just in this kind of current [climate]?

是的。知道了。加里，現在可能有點早，但是您是否開始看到 2024 年的訂單，或者至少是您與銷售渠道進行的對話，讓您對明年的這種當前情況有某種早期的信心？ [氣候]？

Yes, they are. I'm going to tell you, though, I do have -- I don't have a lot of concern about it, but I think there's going to be some people that are anticipating that the new refrigerant is going to be abundantly available and required January 1, '25. This large client that came in to see us that wants to be decarbonized and 0 emissions, they're trying to set up all of their supply chain for these units right now with an anticipated January 1, '25 begin to ship date because they want the new refrigerant. And they said there'll be exceptions where they're building a new store that they might be able to use the units before that. But by and large, this is a replacement project to replace units that are -- have gas heat and have the current refrigerant or older.

是的，他們是。不過，我要告訴你，我確實有——我對此並沒有太多擔心，但我認為會有一些人預計新的製冷劑將會大量供應，並且要求 25 年 1 月 1 日。這個大客戶來見我們，希望實現脫碳和零排放，他們現在正在嘗試為這些設備建立所有供應鏈，預計 25 年 1 月 1 日開始發貨，因為他們想要新製冷劑。他們表示，如果他們正在建造一家新商店，他們可能會在此之前使用這些單位，但會有例外。但總的來說，這是一個更換項目，旨在更換具有燃氣熱和現有製冷劑或更舊製冷劑的裝置。

So they probably aren't the only client that's already planning for '25 that's having those conversations. I think that from what I can see in the pipeline, everything is very robust, very strong right now. But I anticipate somewhere in '24, I don't know when, but somewhere in '24, bookings are very likely to soften up just a little bit because they're anticipating that changeover to the new refrigerant.

因此，他們可能不是唯一一個已經為 25 年進行此類對話的客戶。我認為，從我在管道中看到的情況來看，現在一切都非常穩健，非常強大。但我預計在 24 年的某個時候，我不知道什麼時候，但在 24 年的某個時候，預訂很可能會稍微軟化，因為他們預計會改用新的製冷劑。

Understood. And then the growth initiatives you're putting in place and, I guess, the Longview, when do those start to be accretive to you? Or when are you able to leverage that added capacity?

明白了。然後你正在實施的增長計劃，我想，Longview，這些計劃什麼時候開始對你產生增值？或者您什麼時候能夠利用增加的容量？

Well, we just had groundbreaking a few days ago. They've been doing some dirt work. We anticipate that, that building will be complete somewhere towards the end of next year. It's about an 18- to 20-month build cycle. The manufacturing equipment for that building, we already have it. So we'll have to relocate some of it from another part of the old plant into the new plant. We've got new equipment coming, already ordered and coming. So I would say we won't have any material value of production from that building until first quarter of '25.

好吧，我們幾天前剛剛破土動工。他們一直在做一些骯髒的工作。我們預計該建築將於明年年底完工。構建週期約為 18 至 20 個月。那棟大樓的製造設備，我們已經有了。因此，我們必須將其中一些從舊工廠的另一部分搬遷到新工廠。我們已經收到了新設備，已經訂購併即將發貨。所以我想說，直到 25 年第一季度，我們才會從該建築中獲得任何物質生產價值。

And then just the last one, can obviously see the underlying growth of the BasX business and the results. I'm just wondering if you or Matt can just speak to the order quotation activity or experiencing it seems that all we hear lately from the company continues to be heavy data center, green room activity, just very healthy markets. Just wondering if we'll see a higher run rate of business from that business.

然後就最後一張，可以明顯看到BasX業務的潛在增長和結果。我只是想知道您或馬特是否可以談談訂單報價活動，或者我們最近從該公司聽到的一切似乎仍然是大量的數據中心、綠色房間活動，以及非常健康的市場。只是想知道我們是否會看到該業務的業務運行率更高。

Yes. While I'm very familiar with Matt's activities, he keeps me well informed, and I go out there from time to time and kick around, I'm going to let Matt take that. It's -- I'll just give you this. I'm extremely excited. But Matt, go ahead.

是的。雖然我對馬特的活動非常熟悉，但他讓我了解情況，我時不時地出去玩一玩，我會讓馬特接受。這是——我就給你這個。我非常興奮。但是馬特，繼續吧。

Yes, of course. So certainly, I mean, from your question, right, loaded question is exactly correct that the activity and the data center semiconductor world is continuing to accelerate. I think a lot of us talked 12 months ago about not a nongrowing data center market, but the data center market slowed slightly for a bit there. But definitely, with the AI kind of big push, we're seeing a massive amount of attention within the industry and product activity and outlook.

是的當然。當然，我的意思是，從你的問題來看，對，負載問題是完全正確的，活動和數據中心半導體世界正在繼續加速。我想我們很多人在 12 個月前都談到數據中心市場不會停止增長，但數據中心市場略有放緩。但毫無疑問，隨著人工智能的大力推動，我們看到了行業內以及產品活動和前景的大量關注。

As Gary mentioned, a lot of these projects are of substantial scale kind of in the overall scheme of things. And so a lot of activity in which we're talking not just about quick turn orders but long-term contract relationships to be able to kind of serve those needs from a data center perspective.

正如加里提到的，從整體計劃來看，其中許多項目都具有相當大的規模。因此，我們在很多活動中不僅討論快速周轉訂單，還討論長期合同關係，以便能夠從數據中心的角度滿足這些需求。

On the semiconductor clean room side, we are definitely starting to see a lot of the results of the CHIPS Act really start to come to fruition with product activity and really good bid activity and project interest and really kind of coupling that forward kind of outside of semiconductor, but still kind of our clean room style air and there's a huge amount of activity right now supporting EV and battery plants as we continue seeing a huge investment within the United States for developing battery capacity. A lot of the units that we manufacture from the BasX perspective, really are tuned to serve those clean environments that are very temperature and humidity in kind of overall environmental control sensitive. So you have strong activity. I mean, I'd echo Gary's sentiment, very excited from a prospect standpoint, and really some great activity that we're seeing with our team on a really solid pipeline in the future.

在半導體潔淨室方面，我們肯定開始看到《CHIPS 法案》的許多結果真正開始實現，產品活動、真正良好的投標活動和項目興趣以及真正的外部耦合半導體，但仍然是我們潔淨室風格的空氣，而且隨著我們繼續看到美國國內為開發電池產能而進行的巨額投資，目前有大量活動支持電動汽車和電池工廠。我們從 BasX 的角度製造的許多設備確實是為了服務於那些對溫度和濕度非常敏感的清潔環境而進行調整的，整體環境控制非常敏感。所以你的活動力很強。我的意思是，我同意加里的觀點，從前景的角度來看，我非常興奮，而且我們的團隊在未來的一個非常堅實的管道上看到了一些偉大的活動。

And our next question comes from Jon Braatz from Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默的喬恩·布拉茨。

Matt, you answered most of my questions. But Gary, 1 question. You mentioned that there were some pockets of weakness in your end markets. And I guess my question is, did that weakness develop in this quarter? Or is this something that has been -- you've noticed over the last few quarters?

馬特，你回答了我的大部分問題。但是加里，有一個問題。您提到您的終端市場存在一些弱點。我想我的問題是，這種弱點是在本季度出現的嗎？或者這是您在過去幾個季度中註意到的事情？

Well, it was more significant this quarter. We have noticed it slightly. We'll go back to Q4 of '22. And you saw just a slight decline in a couple of those markets. Q1, you saw a further slide in them, but Q2 is when we normally expect things to pick up just a bit more. So it was going the wrong direction for offices and retail in particular. And I don't think that's any surprise to anybody. I mean you got brick-and-mortar stores closing left and right, shopping malls closing left and right, and you've got office buildings that are unoccupied.

嗯，這個季度更為重要。我們已經稍微注意到了。我們將回到 22 年第四季度。您看到其中幾個市場僅略有下降。第一季度，您看到它們進一步下滑，但第二季度我們通常預計情況會進一步好轉。因此，尤其是對於辦公樓和零售業來說，它的發展方向是錯誤的。我認為這對任何人來說都不奇怪。我的意思是，實體店左右關閉，購物中心左右關閉，辦公樓閒置。

So how is somebody going to have any temperament to go out and build either one of those in abundance. There are some isolated places where it's still happening. I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and you drive around here, and they're still cranes up, they're still building office buildings of all things. And there's still some bidding and we're supplying equipment on some. But if you look at it across North America, especially both coasts, office buildings are very, very insignificant market right now. And retail, it's been interesting quick-serve restaurants, convenience stores and things like that are still building at the same rate or better. A couple of our big box people are still -- they're either renovating existing stores, they're still building, but they're not in the same abundance that they were.

那麼，一個人怎麼會有脾氣去建造其中任何一個呢？在一些偏僻的地方，這種情況仍在發生。我住在達拉斯-沃斯堡地區，你開車在這裡轉轉，他們仍然在用起重機，他們仍然在建造各種各樣的辦公樓。目前仍有一些招標，我們正在為其中一些提供設備。但如果你看看整個北美，尤其是東西海岸，你會發現辦公樓市場目前非常非常微不足道。零售方面，有趣的是快餐店、便利店和類似的東西仍在以相同的速度或更好的速度建設。我們的一些大賣場人員仍在——他們要么正在翻新現有商店，要么仍在建設中，但數量已不再像以前那樣豐富。

And, Gary, you mentioned earlier that depending on how inflation goes that you might reinstitute that 1% price increase sometime next year or something. You're not at all suggesting that might be 1% or 1% per month for the entire year. You're not suggesting that.

加里，您之前提到，根據通貨膨脹的情況，您可能會在明年某個時候重新實施 1% 的價格上漲。您根本沒有建議全年每月 1% 或 1%。你並不是這麼建議的。

No, no, no.

不不不。

Just to recover whatever that pricing, whatever the inflation is.

只是為了恢復定價，無論通貨膨脹如何。

Yes, Jon. So we have so much better financial forecasting and modeling available to us, better data acquisition and analytics than we've ever had. We've built this team out over the last 2 or 3 years, and they really -- we did a whole lot of spreadsheets and napkin math and all that to try and figure it out in the past. But now we've got a very robust system that we're using. And this gives us the ability to forecast far enough ahead what we need to do. So we're not going to be reactive. We're going to be proactive. So before we see a decline in margins, we will begin to hit it with the soft increases. And our sales channel really appreciated our approach. It was very manageable for them. And it got us back to consistent performance, consistent financial performance. And so we don't want to be reactive and have some 5% or 7% price increase. Let's just say that 5% inflation is in place. And so maybe you want to do 5, 1 per centers. Well, if you lead those in soon enough, then you won't have any margin degradation that you're trying to recover from by putting a big lump in.

是的，喬恩。因此，我們擁有比以往更好的財務預測和建模、更好的數據採集和分析。我們在過去的兩三年裡建立了這個團隊，他們真的 - 我們做了很多電子表格和餐巾紙數學以及所有這些來嘗試在過去找出答案。但現在我們正在使用一個非常強大的系統。這使我們能夠提前預測我們需要做什麼。所以我們不會做出反應。我們將積極主動。因此，在我們看到利潤率下降之前，我們將開始通過軟增長來應對它。我們的銷售渠道非常讚賞我們的方法。這對他們來說非常容易管理。它讓我們恢復了穩定的業績和穩定的財務業績。因此，我們不想做出反應，將價格上漲 5% 或 7%。假設通貨膨脹率為 5%。所以也許你想做 5 個，每個中心 1 個。好吧，如果你足夠快地引入這些，那麼你就不會有任何利潤下降，而你試圖通過投入大量資金來恢復。

And the problem with putting a big lump in, as we've seen -- and believe me, it was the most painful experience of my business life was putting that 7 [per centers] back there in January of '22, I think it was, and having a $200 million pull forward. And so now you've got to burn through $200 million worth of backlog that's subpar priced. So when we meter this in a little at a time, and we stay very, very close to our sales channel, probably closer than most. And that was my heritage. Those are my people. I know how to talk to them. I know what they're telling me when we're talking. And so we're confident that we can meter [this in] a little bit at a time, and I'm not committing to 5% right now at 1% increments. I'm just saying that if inflation was 5%, that would be logical that you'd probably want to do something like that. But we'll continue to monitor it and make sure that we have 2 objectives now. Formerly, we had one objective.

正如我們所看到的，放入一個大塊的問題是——相信我，這是我職業生涯中最痛苦的經歷，就是在22 年1 月將那7 個[每個中心]放回原處，我認為是，並且有 2 億美元的預付款。因此，現在您必須消耗掉價值 2 億美元的低於標準價格的積壓訂單。因此，當我們一次一點地計量這一點時，我們就會非常非常接近我們的銷售渠道，可能比大多數人都更接近。那是我的遺產。這些是我的人。我知道如何與他們交談。當我們談話時，我知道他們在告訴我什麼。因此，我們有信心能夠一次計量一點點，而且我現在不會承諾以 1% 的增量達到 5%。我只是說，如果通貨膨脹率為 5%，那麼您可能會想要做類似的事情，這是合乎邏輯的。但我們將繼續監控它並確保我們現在有兩個目標。以前，我們只有一個目標。

Our objective was to keep the margin between 28% and 32%. Our second objective now, and it's actually primary is to make sure that we maintain some level of premium that we feel is a good value that we can obtain on a regular basis from our clients because we provide that value, that there's -- they're not paying it to us because we're nice guys. They're paying it to us because we actually present the value to them. And so we try and make sure that we understand what that value is. We have regular conversations with the end-user customers as well.

我們的目標是將利潤率保持在 28% 到 32% 之間。我們現在的第二個目標，實際上是首要目標是確保我們保持一定水平的溢價，我們認為這是我們可以定期從客戶那裡獲得的良好價值，因為我們提供了這種價值，他們’我不會付錢給我們，因為我們是好人。他們付錢給我們是因為我們實際上向他們展示了價值。因此，我們努力確保我們理解這個價值是什麼。我們還與最終用戶定期進行對話。

And again, this building we invested in, the way we're presenting everything there, is just a wonderful concept. It's resonated well with clients. It's resonated well with our sales channel. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, I don't know how many words it's worth when you've got 2 pieces of equipments in front of you that are stark differences, and there's just a small premium in price to have the much superior piece of equipment.

再說一次，我們投資的這座建築，我們在那裡展示一切的方式，都是一個很棒的概念。引起了客戶的良好共鳴。這與我們的銷售渠道產生了很好的共鳴。他們說，一張圖片勝過千言萬語。好吧，當你面前有兩件截然不同的裝備，而且只需要稍微多一點價格就能擁有更高級的裝備時，我不知道值多少錢。

And I'm seeing no further questions. I'll turn the call back over to our host, Mr. Mondillo.

我沒有看到更多問題。我會將電話轉回給我們的東道主蒙迪洛先生。

All right. Thanks, operator. I'd like to thank everyone for; joining on today's call. If anyone has any questions over the coming days and weeks, please feel free to reach out to myself. Please have a great rest of the day, and we look forward to speaking with you in the future. Thank you.

好的。謝謝，接線員。我要感謝大家；參加今天的電話會議。如果有人在未來幾天或幾週內有任何疑問，請隨時與我本人聯繫。請祝您今天休息愉快，我們期待將來與您交談。謝謝。

The meeting has now concluded. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.

會議現已結束。感謝您的加入，祝您度過愉快的一天。