Acuity Brands Inc (AYI) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Acuity Brands Fiscal 2024 Second Quarter Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

早安，歡迎參加 Acuity Brands 2024 財年第二季財報電話會議。 （操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to hand the conference over to Charlotte McLaughlin, Vice President of Investor Relations. Charlotte, please go ahead.

現在我想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁夏洛特·麥克勞克林 (Charlotte McLaughlin)。夏洛特，請繼續。

Good morning, and welcome to the Acuity Brands Fiscal 2024 Second Quarter Earnings Call. On the call with me this morning is Neil Ashe, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Karen Holcom, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

早安，歡迎參加 Acuity Brands 2024 財年第二季財報電話會議。今天早上與我通話的是我們的董事長、總裁兼執行長尼爾‧阿什 (Neil Ashe)；以及我們的高級副總裁兼財務長 Karen Holcom。

Today's call will include updates on our strategic progress and on our fiscal 2024 2nd quarter performance. There will be an opportunity for Q&A at the end of this call. As a reminder, some of our comments today may be forward-looking statements. We intend these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as detailed on Slide 2 of the accompanying presentation. Reconciliations of certain non-GAAP financial metrics with their corresponding GAAP measures are available in our 2024 second quarter earnings release and supplemental presentation, both of which are available on our Investor Relations website at www.investors.acuitybrands.com. Thank you for your interest in Acuity brands.

今天的電話會議將包括我們的策略進展和 2024 財年第二季業績的最新資訊。本次電話會議結束時將有一個問答機會。提醒一下，我們今天的一些評論可能是前瞻性陳述。我們希望這些前瞻性聲明受到 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》安全港條款的約束，如隨附簡報的投影片 2 所示。我們的2024 年第二季收益發布和補充簡報中提供了某些非GAAP 財務指標與其相應GAAP 衡量標準的對賬，這兩個數據均可在我們的投資者關係網站www.investors.acuitybrands. com 上取得。感謝您對 Acuity 品牌的興趣。

I will now turn the call over to Neil Ashe.

我現在將把電話轉給尼爾·阿什。

Thank you, Charlotte, and thank you all for joining us this morning. Our fiscal 2024 second quarter was another quarter of solid execution. We increased our adjusted operating profit, adjusted operating profit margin and adjusted diluted earnings per share. We generated strong free cash flow, and we allocated capital effectively to drive value. Both our Lighting and our Intelligence Spaces businesses delivered strong financial performance. In ABL, we increased adjusted operating profit by $3 million on $47 million less sales and increased the adjusted operating profit margin 120 basis points to 16.2%. This performance is the cumulative result of the changes that we have made to the business over the last 4 years.

謝謝你，夏洛特，也謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。 2024 財年第二季是另一個執行力紮實的季度。我們增加了調整後的營業利潤、調整後的營業利潤率和調整後的稀釋每股收益。我們產生了強勁的自由現金流，並有效分配資本以推動價值。我們的照明和智慧空間業務均實現了強勁的財務業績。在 ABL，我們將調整後營業利潤增加了 300 萬美元，銷售額減少了 4,700 萬美元，並將調整後營業利潤率提高了 120 個基點，達到 16.2%。這個業績是我們過去4年對業務所做的改變的累積結果。

We have made the business more predictable, repeatable and scalable by executing on our strategy to increase product vitality, elevate service levels, use technology to improve and differentiate both our products and how we operate the business and by driving productivity. During the second quarter, we continue to make progress on our strategy. By focusing on the needs of our customers, we are elevating our service through our differentiated portfolios.

透過執行提高產品活力、提升服務水準、利用技術改進和差異化我們的產品和業務運營方式以及提高生產力的策略，我們使業務更具可預測性、可重複性和可擴展性。第二季度，我們的策略持續取得進展。透過專注於客戶的需求，我們透過差異化的產品組合來提升我們的服務。

Contractor Select is about 300 of our most popular products that are used in common everyday lighting applications. These products are designed to be resold and are in stock at retailers and electrical distributors. Through high levels of product vitality, we have been able to create a portfolio that offers quality products that our customers want at competitive prices, while at the same time, allowing our distributor partners to carry less inventory. Design Select is comprised of products that are configurable and allow customers to easily select the products needed for their projects.

Contractor Select 是我們在常見日常照明應用中使用的約 300 種最受歡迎的產品。這些產品設計用於轉售，並且在零售商和電氣經銷商處有庫存。透過高水準的產品活力，我們能夠創建一個產品組合，以具有競爭力的價格提供客戶所需的優質產品，同時允許我們的經銷商合作夥伴減少庫存。 Design Select 由可配置的產品組成，讓客戶輕鬆選擇其專案所需的產品。

We are less than a year into launching the first wave of Design Select, and we are continuing to expand the product families and configurations available. The reception so far has been positive. A recent project in California is a great example, where a customer needed indoor fixtures, outdoor fixtures and lighting controls.

我們推出第一波 Design Select 還不到一年的時間，我們正在繼續擴展可用的產品系列和配置。迄今為止的反響是正面的。加州最近的一個專案就是一個很好的例子，客戶需要室內燈具、室外燈具和照明控制。

Using options from the Design Select portfolio, we were able to meet the unique product combination of the project, ensure it was there when the customer needed it, and then it was easy for the contractor to install. The remainder of our product portfolio is Made-to-Order. These are specialty products or solutions made for specific applications, such as national accounts that satisfy all of the wants and needs of the Lyon Design community.

使用 Design Select 產品組合中的選項，我們能夠滿足該專案的獨特產品組合，確保在客戶需要時它就在那裡，然後承包商就可以輕鬆安裝。我們產品組合的其餘部分是按訂單生產的。這些是針對特定應用（例如滿足里昂設計社區的所有願望和需求的國民帳戶）而設計的專業產品或解決方案。

At the same time, we continue to make investments for future growth. In the second quarter, we expanded our horticulture product solutions. We added the Arize family of products to our existing Verjure line in order to take advantage of a growing market. Arize is a collection of professional grade LED horticulture luminaires, that are compatible with our in-line air wireless controls and are used in commercial greenhouses, indoor cultivation and vertical farming. This small investment accelerates our product portfolio efforts in this attractive vertical. This approach to investment in ABL is the right one, as evidenced by the value being realized in our OPTOTRONIC driver and component business. We acquired OPTOTRONIC in 2021 in order to control more of the technology in our luminaires, to expand our OEM channel and to take greater control of our electronic supply chain.

同時，我們繼續為未來成長進行投資。第二季度，我們擴展了園藝產品解決方案。我們將 Arize 系列產品添加到現有的 Verjure 系列中，以便利用不斷成長的市場。 Arize 是一系列專業級 LED 園藝燈具，與我們的線上空氣無線控制相容，用於商業溫室、室內栽培和垂直農業。這項小額投資加速了我們在這個有吸引力的垂直領域的產品組合工作。這種對 ABL 的投資方式是正確的，我們的 OPTOTRONIC 驅動器和組件業務所實現的價值就證明了這一點。我們於 2021 年收購了 OPTOTRONIC，以便控制我們燈具中的更多技術、擴大我們的 OEM 管道並更好地控制我們的電子供應鏈。

Today, we are one of the top driver suppliers to the lighting industry and to ourselves as we manufacture the majority of our drivers for our own products. This control not only offers us a financial benefit but also offers us greater engineering flexibility during the design and development process that is core to our product vitality efforts. This quarter, we introduced the IVO family of shallow recessed downlights from Gotham which is a new platform of vendor downlights that have compact design for use in confined spaces that replace the traditional canned recess lighting fixtures.

如今，我們是照明行業和我們自己的頂級驅動器供應商之一，因為我們為自己的產品生產大部分驅動器。這種控制不僅為我們帶來了經濟利益，而且在設計和開發過程中為我們提供了更大的工程彈性，這是我們產品活力工作的核心。本季度，我們推出了 Gotham 的 IVO 系列淺嵌入式筒燈，這是供應商筒燈的新平台，其設計緊湊，適合在有限空間中使用，取代了傳統的罐裝嵌入式燈具。

IVO can be used in most nonresidential settings in both new construction and renovation. The Compact Design and high efficiency options deliver real value for our customers, while the use of less steel, less aluminum and less plastic drives margin for us. Finally, this quarter, several of our brands were recognized by the industry. Our Aculux, Eureka, Hydrel, Luminis and Peerless brands were awarded 9 good design awards from the Chicago Atemi Use of architecture and design.

IVO 可用於大多數非住宅環境的新建和改造。緊湊的設計和高效的選擇為我們的客戶帶來了真正的價值，同時減少鋼、鋁和塑膠的使用為我們帶來了利潤。終於在這個季度，我們的幾個品牌得到了業界的認可。我們的 Aculux、Eureka、Hydrel、Luminis 和 Peerless 品牌榮獲芝加哥 Atemi Use of Architecture and Design 頒發的 9 項優秀設計獎。

We were awarded 11, 2023 product innovation awards by Architectural Products Magazine for impressive innovation in terms of form, functionality and sustainability. And 14 of our luminaires were selected across multiple product categories by the LIT Design Award for exemplifying outstanding creativity and innovation. Now moving to our Intelligence Spaces Group. Our mission in our Intelligence Spaces business is to make spaces smarter, safer and greener through our strategy of connecting the edge to the cloud. Distech has the best edge control devices on the market, while Atrius will be the best in cloud applications.

我們榮獲《建築產品雜誌》頒發的 2023 年 11 項產品創新獎，表彰我們在形式、功能和永續性方面的令人印象深刻的創新。我們的 14 款燈具在多個產品類別中榮獲 LIT 設計獎，以表彰其傑出的創造力和創新精神。現在轉到我們的情報空間小組。我們智慧空間業務的使命是透過邊緣與雲端的連結策略，讓空間變得更智慧、更安全、更環保。 Distech 擁有市場上最好的邊緣控制設備，而 Atrius 將是雲端應用領域最好的。

At Distech, we are focused on expanding our addressable market in 2 ways. The first is geographic and the second is increasing what we can control in a built space. As part of our geographic expansion, this quarter we added additional systems integrator capacity in Australia, and we released Atrius Sustainability and Atrius Energy in France. Our independent SIs are key to the organic expansion of our Spaces business. We partner with the best SIs in specific geographies to sell our full suite of Distech and Atrius product portfolios. Our Atrius applications are making a difference for our customers. Atrius sustainability is an automation tool that captures, categorizes and reports on carbon emissions, while Atrius Energy facilitates the reduction of energy and carbon usage by allowing facilities teams to benchmark their usage and prepare for upcoming reporting obligations.

在 Distech，我們專注於透過兩種方式擴大我們的目標市場。第一個是地理上的，第二個是增加我們在建築空間的控制能力。作為地理擴張的一部分，本季我們在澳洲增加了額外的系統整合商產能，並在法國發布了 Atrius Sustainability 和 Atrius Energy。我們的獨立 SI 是我們空間業務有機擴張的關鍵。我們與特定地區最好的 SI 合作，銷售我們的全套 Distech 和 Atrius 產品組合。我們的 Atrius 應用程式正在為我們的客戶帶來改變。 Atrius 永續發展是一種自動化工具，可捕獲、分類和報告碳排放，而Atrius Energy 允許設施團隊對其使用情況進行基準測試並為即將到來的報告義務做好準備，從而促進減少能源和碳的使用。

Our Atrius energy and sustainability applications are gaining recognition. Commercial Property Executive magazine named Atrius, an innovative technology winner in its annual influence awards. And CREtech selected Atrius as a finalist in its real estate tech awards that on our technology vendors that are advancing solutions for commercial buildings.

我們的 Atrius 能源和永續發展應用正在獲得認可。 《Commercial Property Executive》雜誌將 Atrius 評為年度影響力獎創新技術獲獎者。 CREtech 選擇 Atrius 作為其房地產技術獎的決賽入圍者，該獎項表彰我們為商業建築開發解決方案的技術供應商。

Now turning to the outlook for the remainder of the year. We are performing well. We are satisfying customers, expanding margins and generating strong free cash flow. The order rates in both our Lighting business and our Spaces business are growing year-over-year. In our Lighting business, we are back to typical lead times and absent the impact of sales from excess backlog last year, we would be experiencing sales growth. In our Lighting and Lighting Controls business, our strategy drives strong execution, and we are focused on returning the business to growth in a normalized environment, while leveraging our fixed costs and generating strong cash flow. In our Spaces business, we will continue to grow geographically and by adding to what we can control in a build space.

現在轉向今年剩餘時間的展望。我們表現很好。我們正在滿足客戶、擴大利潤並產生強勁的自由現金流。我們的照明業務和空間業務的訂單率都在逐年增長。在我們的照明業務中，我們回到了典型的交貨時間，如果沒有去年過多積壓造成的銷售影響，我們將經歷銷售成長。在我們的照明和照明控制業務中，我們的策略推動了強大的執行力，我們致力於使業務在正常化環境中恢復成長，同時利用我們的固定成本並產生強勁的現金流。在我們的空間業務中，我們將繼續在地域上成長，並增加我們對建築空間的控制能力。

Karen will outline what that means for our second half outlook after giving you an update on our second quarter performance. Karen?

凱倫將在向您介紹我們第二季度業績的最新情況後概述這對我們下半年的展望意味著什麼。凱倫？

Thank you, Neil, and good morning to everyone on the call. As Neil said, we continue to execute well. In our fiscal second quarter, we increased our adjusted operating profit, improved our adjusted operating profit margin and increased our adjusted diluted earnings per share while generating strong cash flow.

謝謝你，尼爾，祝所有參加電話會議的人早安。正如尼爾所說，我們繼續執行得很好。在第二財季，我們增加了調整後營業利潤，提高了調整後營業利潤率，增加了調整後稀釋每股收益，同時產生了強勁的現金流。

We continue to allocate capital effectively while making progress on our strategic priorities. For total AYI, we generated net sales in the second quarter of $906 million, which was $38 million or 4% lower than the prior year as a result of the lower net sales in our ABL business. This was partially offset by continued growth in the ISG business of 17% in the quarter.

我們繼續有效地分配資本，同時在策略重點方面取得進展。就 AYI 總額而言，我們第二季的淨銷售額為 9.06 億美元，比上年減少 3,800 萬美元，即 4%，這是由於 ABL 業務淨銷售額下降所致。這被本季 ISG 業務 17% 的持續成長所部分抵銷。

We continue to deliver year-over-year margin improvement. During the quarter, our adjusted operating profit increased by $8 million on lower net sales, and we expanded adjusted operating profit margin to 15.5%, an increase of approximately 150 basis points from the prior year. This increase was driven largely by the significant year-over-year improvement in our gross profit margin as we continue to execute our strategy and drive margins through product vitality, the management of price and cost and productivity improvements.

我們持續實現利潤率年增。本季度，由於淨銷售額下降，我們的調整後營業利潤增加了 800 萬美元，調整後營業利潤率擴大至 15.5%，比前一年增加了約 150 個基點。這一成長主要是由於我們的毛利率同比顯著提高，因為我們繼續執行我們的策略並透過產品活力、價格和成本管理以及生產力提高來提高利潤率。

During the quarter, our adjusted diluted earnings per share of $3.38 increased $0.32 or 11% over the prior year, primarily a result of higher net income and to a lesser extent, lower shares outstanding due to share repurchases. In ABL, net sales were $844 million in the quarter. A decrease of around 5% compared with the prior year, driven by declines across all of our channels. As Neil mentioned previously, our order rate in ABL continues to grow year-over-year, meaning absent the sales last year from the excess backlog, ABL would have experienced sales growth. ABL's adjusted operating profit increased 2% to $136 million on lower net sales while we delivered adjusted operating profit margin of 16.2%, a 120 basis point improvement over the prior year.

本季度，我們調整後的稀釋每股收益為3.38 美元，比前一年增加了0.32 美元，即11%，這主要是由於淨利潤增加，以及在較小程度上由於股票回購導致的流通股減少。 ABL 本季淨銷售額為 8.44 億美元。由於我們所有管道的下降，與前一年相比下降了約 5%。正如 Neil 先前提到的，我們在 ABL 的訂單率持續逐年成長，這意味著如果沒有去年因積壓過多而產生的銷售額，ABL 的銷售額將會成長。由於淨銷售額下降，ABL 的調整後營業利潤成長了 2%，達到 1.36 億美元，而我們的調整後營業利潤率為 16.2%，比上年提高了 120 個基點。

ISG's net sales for the second quarter were $68 million, an increase of 17% as Distech continued to grow and Q2 term performed as we expected. ISG's adjusted operating profit was $14 million with the adjusted operating profit margin at 21%, a 240 basis point improvement over the prior year. Now turning to our year-to-date cash flow performance. We generated $293 million of cash flow from operating activities in the first half of the year, down slightly from the same period last year. We continue to allocate capital consistent with our priorities. Year-to-date, we invested $29 million in capital expenditures. We acquired the assets of Arize horticulture lighting, we increased our dividend per share 15% and allocated approximately $68 million to repurchase over 370,000 shares.

ISG 在第二季的淨銷售額為 6,800 萬美元，成長 17%，因為 Distech 持續成長且第二季的表現符合我們的預期。 ISG 調整後營業利潤為 1,400 萬美元，調整後營業利潤率為 21%，比上年提高 240 個基點。現在轉向我們今年迄今的現金流表現。上半年我們經營活動產生的現金流量為2.93億美元，較去年同期略有下降。我們繼續根據我們的優先事項分配資本。今年迄今為止，我們投資了 2,900 萬美元的資本支出。我們收購了Arize園藝照明的資產，將每股股息提高了15%，並撥款約6,800萬美元回購了超過37萬股股票。

In January, our Board of Directors authorized the additional repurchase of up to 3 million shares of common stock, bringing the outstanding authorization to approximately 4 million shares. Since the beginning of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, we have repurchased approximately 9.5 million shares at an average price of about $145 per share, which was funded by organic cash flow. This amounts to about 24% of the then shares outstanding. We had a strong first half performance. We delivered improved margins and increased adjusted diluted earnings per share.

一月份，我們的董事會授權額外回購最多 300 萬股普通股，使未發行授權達到約 400 萬股。自2020財年第四季初以來，我們以每股約145美元的平均價格回購了約950萬股股票，資金來源為有機現金流。這相當於當時已發行股票的 24% 左右。我們上半場表現強勁。我們提高了利潤率並增加了調整後的稀釋每股盈餘。

We generated strong cash flow from operations and continued to allocate capital effectively. While it is not our practice to address our outlook during the year, our performance in the first half was very strong and we are raising our full year expectations for EPS. We now expect our 2024 adjusted diluted earnings per share range to be between $14.75 and $15.50.

我們從經營中產生了強勁的現金流，並繼續有效地配置資本。雖然我們不會在今年討論我們的前景，但我們上半年的表現非常強勁，我們正在提高對每股收益的全年預期。我們現在預計 2024 年調整後稀釋每股收益範圍為 14.75 美元至 15.50 美元。

Thank you for joining us today. I will now pass you over to the operator to take your questions.

感謝您今天加入我們。現在我將把您轉交給接線員回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Joe O'Dea with Wells Fargo.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自富國銀行的 Joe O'Dea。

So first question, I'll group kind of 2 in 1, but I wanted to ask about infrastructure and SG&A. And really, the angle is, are you seeing evidence that some of the changes in the commissions that you implemented last year are translating to better wins at this point? You can talk about the infrastructure pipeline a little bit. As well as just when you see where SG&A is as a percent of sales, opportunities that you see there, either volume leverage or cost down?

所以第一個問題，我會把 2 合 1 分組，但我想問基礎設施和 SG&A。實際上，角度是，您是否看到證據表明您去年實施的一些佣金變化正在轉化為更好的勝利？您可以稍微談談基礎設施管道。當您看到 SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比時，您會看到那裡的機會，無論是銷售槓桿還是成本下降？

Okay. Great. Joe, thank you. So first of all, on infrastructure, we're feeling good about our positioning for the larger projects that are coming down the pipe. I think everyone is recognizing that they are coming down on a longer-term basis than anyone would like. We'd like them to be here today, but orders are strong, but shipments and sales will be spread out over the next year or 2. So there will be a continued impact from infrastructure and we're confident we'll get at least our fair share, and we're working to get a disproportionate share. So we feel like that's a good opportunity for us going forward. We also feel, to your question, we positioned ourselves well from an execution perspective.

好的。偉大的。喬，謝謝你。首先，在基礎設施方面，我們對即將開展的大型專案的定位感到滿意。我認為每個人都認識到，從長遠來看，他們的下降速度超出了任何人的預期。我們希望他們今天就在這裡，但訂單很強勁，但發貨和銷售將分散在未來一兩年內。因此，基礎設施將持續產生影響，我們有信心至少會得到我們的公平份額，我們正在努力獲得不成比例的份額。所以我們覺得這對我們前進來說是一個很好的機會。對於你的問題，我們也認為，從執行的角度來看，我們對自己的定位很好。

So first, around products for -- that are necessary to win those projects. And then the combination and the interrelationship between our direct sales network and our independent sales network as we approach those. So we feel good about those. As it relates to specific SG&A spending, obviously, we're in a position this year where we are -- our performance is -- appears different than it would normally and the reason for that is the excess sales from backlog in last year. So we're confident that, #1, we'll return the lighting business to growth. And that #2, when we do that, the combination of the increased margin performance we've demonstrated at the gross margin level, as well as our ability to leverage SG&A costs going forward will continue to expand margins in that business. So it's not insignificant achievement to expand margins on lower sales, obviously. And so we're looking forward to that business being -- returning to normalized growth.

首先，圍繞著贏得這些項目所必需的產品。然後，當我們接近這些網路時，我們的直銷網路和獨立銷售網路之間的組合和相互關係。所以我們對這些感覺很好。由於它與特定的銷售、管理及行政費用有關，顯然，我們今年的處境——我們的業績——似乎與平常不同，原因是去年積壓的超額銷售。因此，我們有信心，第一，我們將使照明業務恢復成長。第二，當我們這樣做時，我們在毛利率水準上所展示的提高的利潤率表現，以及我們未來利用SG&A成本的能力，將繼續擴大該業務的利潤率。因此，顯然，在銷售額下降的情況下擴大利潤並不是一個微不足道的成就。因此，我們期待該業務恢復正常成長。

I appreciate it. And then also just wanted to touch on cash and deployment. The cash balance at this point is approaching $600 million. And how you're thinking about sort of repurchase activity, any revisions to that within the guidance framework as well as with the higher cash balance, just what we should interpret within that and perhaps strength of the M&A kind of pipeline if you're seeing more opportunities out there?

我很感激。然後也只是想談談現金和部署。目前現金餘額接近6億美元。您如何考慮某種回購活動，指導框架內的任何修訂以及更高的現金餘額，我們應該在其中解釋什麼，也許是併購類管道的強度，如果您看到的話還有更多機會嗎？

Yes, Joe, thanks for that. Overall, we are really pleased with our cash flow performance this quarter or this year-to-date period, we've generated $263 million of free cash flow. So really strong cash flow performance. It's driven a lot by our margin performance, which is contributing to the higher net income versus -- despite the lower sales. So overall, really pleased with that.

是的，喬，謝謝你。總的來說，我們對本季或今年迄今的現金流表現非常滿意，我們已經產生了 2.63 億美元的自由現金流。現金流表現非常強勁。儘管銷售額較低，但我們的利潤率表現在很大程度上推動了淨利潤的成長。總的來說，我對此非常滿意。

When we look at our capital allocation priorities, we've been really clear over time that it's first to invest in the business for growth, second to invest in M&A, which we've done. Over the past few years, we've made some small but -- relatively small but strategic acquisitions with OPTOTRONIC with KE2 Therm and now with the Arize horticulture assets. So really pleased with the progress we've made there. Maybe you noticed we did increase our dividend by 15% this quarter. So excited to see that increase. And then finally, share repurchases. We've demonstrated when the share price is high, we buy less and when the share price is low, we buy a lot more. So this quarter, we've repurchased cumulative 24% of our shares outstanding. And this year-to-date period, it's been at about $180 a share. So feel really good about where we are from our capital allocation priorities.

當我們審視我們的資本配置優先事項時，我們已經非常清楚，隨著時間的推移，我們首先要投資於業務成長，其次要投資於併購，我們已經這樣做了。在過去的幾年裡，我們對 OPTOTRONIC 和 KE2 Therm 以及現在的 Arize 園藝資產進行了一些規模較小但相對較小但具有戰略意義的收購。我們對我們在那裡取得的進展感到非常滿意。也許您注意到我們本季確實將股息增加了 15%。看到這種增長我很興奮。最後，股票回購。我們已經證明，當股價高時，我們買入較少，當股價低時，我們買入更多。因此，本季度，我們累計回購了 24% 的已發行股票。今年迄今為止，每股股價約為 180 美元。因此，我們對我們的資本配置優先事項感到非常滿意。

Karen, I'll build on that just for a second. So we feel really good about the -- our ability to generate value through capital allocation. So first, on the M&A pipeline, we -- our focus continues to be on expanding the Intelligence Spaces group. We have a good pipeline of both small, medium and large-sized acquisitions.

凱倫，我將在此基礎上繼續討論。因此，我們對透過資本配置創造價值的能力感到非常滿意。因此，首先，在併購管道上，我們的重點仍然是擴大情報空間集團。我們擁有良好的小型、中型和大型收購管道。

As Karen mentioned, we've done really well with the acquisitions that we've Made-to-Order, and we're patient. So we don't feel an obligation to move until we find the right opportunity that is going to have the right impact at the right valuation. Second, as Karen mentioned, we increased the dividend. We did that because we can. We can continue to -- we can afford to pay the dividend at a higher rate and achieve the strategic opportunities that we perceive. And finally, we've demonstrated on our repurchase almost 1/4 of the company at very attractive prices.

正如凱倫所提到的，我們在按訂單進行的收購方面做得非常好，而且我們很有耐心。因此，在我們找到能夠以正確的估值產生正確影響的正確機會之前，我們並不認為有義務採取行動。其次，正如凱倫所提到的，我們增加了股息。我們這樣做是因為我們可以。我們可以繼續下去——我們有能力以更高的利率支付股息，並實現我們認為的策略機會。最後，我們以非常有吸引力的價格回購了公司近 1/4 的股份。

As Karen mentioned, that when the stock price is lower, we'll buy more and when the stock price is less, we'll buy higher. So when you put it all back together, we view capital allocation as a strategic lever for us to generate value, and we feel really good about our progress on that so far.

正如凱倫所提到的，當股價較低時，我們會買更多，當股價較低時，我們會買進更高。因此，當你把它們放在一起時，我們將資本配置視為我們創造價值的策略槓桿，我們對迄今為止在這方面取得的進展感到非常滿意。

Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Merkel with William Blair.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞安·默克爾和威廉·布萊爾的對話。

I wanted to ask first on the new ETS guide. What does it assume for sales for the full year? Neil, you mentioned orders are growing and you expect to return the Lighting business to grow in the second half. Can you just talk about that a little bit more?

我想先問一下新的 ETS 指南。全年銷售額假設如何？尼爾，您認為訂單正在成長，您預計照明業務將在下半年實現成長。能再多談一下嗎？

Sure. I -- so first of all, we're really pleased with our performance so far this year. It's -- as you know, it's not our practice to address guidance other than in the beginning of the year. It's our preference to define an outlook at the beginning of the year and then to execute against it.

當然。我——首先，我們對今年迄今的表現感到非常滿意。如您所知，我們的做法是在年初以外的時間提出指導意見。我們傾向於在年初確定前景，然後根據它執行。

Our first quarter performance, obviously that was really strong, largely driven by the margin performance. As we look forward for the remainder of the year, we -- obviously, we planned conservatively, given all of the uncertainties going on in the world. So we were appropriately conservative in our plan, and we're adjusting our performance as we perform for the rest of the year. The Lighting business will perform as we expect going forward, I would extend that line to be more than just the back half of the year, but as we return that to growth over a normalized period. So the rest of this year, next year, and beyond.

顯然，我們第一季的業績非常強勁，很大程度上是由利潤率表現推動的。當我們展望今年剩餘時間時，考慮到世界上正在發生的所有不確定因素，我們顯然採取了保守的計劃。因此，我們的計劃適當保守，我們正在根據今年剩餘時間的表現調整我們的表現。照明業務未來的表現將符合我們的預期，我將這條線延長到今年下半年以上，但隨著我們在正常時期內恢復成長。今年剩下的時間、明年、以後。

So we feel really good about how we're going to do that as well. It will take a minute for us to continue to work through kind of the inflated sales from last year. But when you look at the performance over a longer period of time on a multiyear stack or where we are in the lighting business, we feel really good about that. So we did not change the revenue guidance. So we feel confident we're within that range, and we're really pleased with our performance from a profitability perspective.

因此，我們對如何做到這一點也感到非常滿意。我們需要一點時間來繼續解決去年的誇大銷售情況。但是，當你觀察多年堆疊或我們在照明業務中的長期表現時，我們對此感覺非常好。所以我們沒有改變收入指引。因此，我們對自己處於這個範圍內充滿信心，並且從盈利能力的角度來看，我們對我們的表現非常滿意。

Got it. All right. And then I wanted to ask on ISG, really nice growth. Just high level, are you seeing a lot more interest in controls? And are there any drivers of that, that may be new?

知道了。好的。然後想問ISG，成長真的很好。只是高層，您是否發現人們對控制更加感興趣？是否有任何新的驅動因素？

Yes. So thanks for that question, and I'm going to use it as an opportunity to kind of explain 2 things, if you'll allow me, Ryan. First is that we have a very strong Controls business in the Lighting business. So Acuity Brands Lighting is one of the largest, if not the largest control player for Lighting Controls, specifically. And Distech is OEM provider to Acuity Brands Lighting for those controls. Specifically, now as it relates to our performance on ISG, we feel really good about our strategy there of growth.

是的。謝謝你提出這個問題，如果你允許的話，瑞安，我將利用它作為一個機會來解釋兩件事。首先，我們在照明業務方面擁有非常強大的控制業務。因此，Acuity Brands Lighting 即使不是最大的照明控制控制廠商，也是最大的控制廠商之一。 Distech 是 Acuity Brands Lighting 控制裝置的 OEM 供應商。具體來說，現在與我們在 ISG 上的表現有關，我們對我們的成長策略感到非常滿意。

We're expanding the addressable market for Distech and we're seeing disproportionate demand there for 2 reasons. One is, I think it's fair to say our controls in sensors at Distech are perceived to be the highest quality in the marketplace. So they're very attractive to building owners and facilities managers because it gives them more flexibility than many other solutions. So they have -- because they're open protocol, and because we have open SI distribution, they have the opportunity to be confident that, that investment will carry them forward in an attractive way.

我們正在擴大 Distech 的潛在市場，我們發現那裡的需求不成比例，原因有兩個。一是，我認為可以公平地說，我們 Distech 的感測器控制被認為是市場上最高品質的。因此，它們對建築業主和設施管理者非常有吸引力，因為它比許多其他解決方案為他們提供了更大的靈活性。所以他們——因為他們是開放協議，而且因為我們有開放的 SI 發行版，他們有機會相信，投資將以有吸引力的方式推動他們前進。

We also feel really good about our ability to add more things that we can control, so KE2 Therm is a great example where we acquired effectively products which fit into the Distech portfolio, work within the broader Distech ecosystem and open up additional verticals like retail, convenience stores, et cetera, that have high refrigeration needs. So we feel good about that strategy going forward. So Distech has been taking share in each of the markets which it competes in and now we have the opportunity to expand the market i competes in, #1, and expand the number of things that it controls.

我們也對我們添加更多我們可以控制的東西的能力感到非常滿意，因此KE2 Therm 是一個很好的例子，我們有效地獲得了適合Distech 產品組合的產品，在更廣泛的Distech 生態系統中工作，並開闢了其他垂直領域，例如零售、便利商店等冷藏需求較高的場所。因此，我們對這項戰略的未來感到滿意。因此，Distech 一直在其參與競爭的每個市場中佔據份額，現在我們有機會擴大我參與競爭的市場，#1，並擴大其控制的事物數量。

And then finally, when you connect the edge to the cloud, which is the Atrius data layer that we have been building, it allows us to take the data that all of those sensors and controls generate and present it to the cloud in a manner in which applications can be built, which make a difference in those build spaces. So we feel really good about the business that we're building there. We think we're building a really valuable technology business.

最後，當您將邊緣連接到雲端（我們一直在構建的 Atrius 數據層）時，它允許我們獲取所有這些感測器和控制項生成的數據，並以以下方式將其呈現給雲端：可以構建哪些應用程序，這會對這些建構空間產生影響。因此，我們對在那裡開展的業務感到非常滿意。我們認為我們正在打造一個真正有價值的技術業務。

Our next question comes from the line of Christopher Glynn with Oppenheimer & Company.

我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默公司的克里斯多福‧格林 (Christopher Glynn)。

I wanted to dive into some of the implications for Contractor Select and Design Select. That manner of product management or categorization internally, would you consider that the backbone of your productivity momentum?

我想深入探討對承包商選擇和設計選擇的一些影響。您認為這種內部產品管理或分類方式是您生產力動力的支柱嗎？

I think it's a big part of it, Chris. So -- and to spend just another minute on Contractor Select. So our strategy with Contractor Select is to make it the brand of choice for retail and electrical distribution with high product vitality at appropriate prices with high service levels, largely for distributors. And as I mentioned, it's built to be stocked and resold. So designed to be stocked and resold. And we -- it's a very constrained number of SKUs.

我認為這是其中很重要的一部分，克里斯。那麼——再花一分鐘討論承包商選擇。因此，我們與 Contractor Select 的策略是使其成為零售和電氣分銷的首選品牌，以適當的價格和高服務水準提供高產品活力，主要針對分銷商。正如我所提到的，它是為了庫存和轉售而設計的。設計用於庫存和轉售。我們的 SKU 數量非常有限。

The -- what that's allowed us to do is to build a very consistent relationship with the distribution and retail community. And what that has done is provided us with a foundation and easy for them to choose. And it's worth noting that there's a lot in it for them, too, because we've created a portfolio that allows them to have less inventory on hand and satisfy the needs of their customers at an appropriate price, they're able to drive significantly higher returns on investment in the execution of their business.

這使我們能夠與分銷和零售社區建立非常一致的關係。這樣做為我們提供了基礎，方便他們選擇。值得注意的是，這對他們來說也有許多好處，因為我們創建了一個產品組合，使他們能夠減少手頭庫存並以適當的價格滿足客戶的需求，他們能夠顯著推動執行業務時獲得更高的投資回報。

So at the same margins, they're making significantly more money as a result. So yes, it's been a really important part of that product portfolio. The second thing is we've raised the margin portfolio of that -- we've raised the margin of that portfolio, excuse me, to much more consistent levels with where we are now. So that's driven some of our margin performance.

因此，在相同的利潤率下，他們賺的錢要多得多。所以，是的，它是該產品組合中非常重要的一部分。第二件事是我們提高了該投資組合的利潤率——對不起，我們已經將該投資組合的利潤率提高到與我們現在的水平更加一致的水平。因此，這推動了我們的利潤率表現。

With Design Select, we're really just getting started. So where Contractor Select is designed to be resold, contract -- or Design Select is designed such that options can be chosen so that you can -- a specifier has the opportunity to choose from options to configure the products and the projects that they need. As we mentioned in the script, we're at the early days of this. So this will be a multiyear process, but it is changing how both specifiers think about our portfolio and how we think about the execution of that portfolio. The majority of our business though remains Made-to-Order. And so that Made-to-Order -- its Made-to-Order made to order for a reason, so the specifiers can make the choices that they need so that they can satisfy large projects, we can satisfy national accounts, we can -- there are a lot of different pieces of that puzzle.

對於 Design Select，我們實際上才剛開始。因此，在「承包商選擇」旨在轉售的情況下，合約（或「設計選擇」）的設計可以選擇選項，以便指定者有機會從選項中進行選擇，以配置他們所需的產品和項目。正如我們在腳本中提到的，我們正處於早期階段。因此，這將是一個多年的過程，但它正在改變指定者對我們的投資組合的看法以及我們對該投資組合執行的看法。不過，我們大部分的業務仍然是按訂單生產。因此，按訂單生產——按訂單生產是有原因的，這樣規範制定者就可以做出他們需要的選擇，這樣他們就可以滿足大型項目，我們可以滿足國民帳戶，我們可以 - - 這個謎題有很多不同的部分。

We asked -- Joe asked about infrastructure earlier. We won the relight of the city of Philadelphia. That's a good example of a made-to-order project. We made some changes to our product portfolio to satisfy some of their specific needs, and we can roll those out. So when you take those altogether, then we're -- everything is operating at a higher margin profile and it's set and it's doing a much better job of satisfying very specific end user needs in the marketplace.

我們問——喬早些時候問過基礎設施的問題。我們贏得了費城這座城市的重新光明。這是定制項目的一個很好的例子。我們對我們的產品組合進行了一些更改，以滿足他們的一些特定需求，並且我們可以將其推出。因此，當你把這些全部考慮在內時，我們——一切都在以更高的利潤率運行，並且它已經設定好了，並且在滿足市場上非常具體的最終用戶需求方面做得更好。

The extension of that question, you've talked a lot about ability to choose and select the projects you want to be on considering all the productivity you're generating that you just elaborated on. Do you see consistent widening of the aperture moving ahead in terms of what's attractive to you to select within the overall lighting market?

這個問題的延伸，你已經談論了很多關於選擇和選擇你想要參與的項目的能力，考慮到你剛剛闡述的你正在產生的所有生產力。您是否認為整個照明市場中對您的選擇有吸引力的光圈正在不斷擴大？

Well, we feel very good about how we're positioned competitively. So we -- obviously, we pay close attention to our competitors to the -- and we generally think about this from a windshield perspective as you indicated, like which projects we want to select. So we're obviously competitive on the Contractor Select side. We're doing really well there. We've been competitive on the project side. So there are a handful of examples where we've passed on projects because we don't like the margin profile, and we're happy for our competitors to execute on those at a lower margin profile, and especially given that their margin profiles are already lower than ours.

嗯，我們對自己的競爭地位感覺非常好。因此，我們——顯然，我們密切關注我們的競爭對手——正如您所指出的，我們通常從擋風玻璃的角度來考慮這個問題，例如我們想要選擇哪些項目。因此，我們在承包商選擇方面顯然具有競爭力。我們在那裡做得很好。我們在專案方面一直具有競爭力。因此，有一些例子表明，我們因為不喜歡利潤狀況而放棄了項目，我們很高興我們的競爭對手能夠執行利潤率較低的項目，特別是考慮到他們的利潤狀況已經比我們低了。

So when we do not select those projects, that means someone else has selected those projects, and they're executing them at a lower margin than we have and at a lower margin than we would accept. So as we look going forward, we still see the opportunity then to build on that to grow, both on the business that we already have as well as when we add and we add new verticals. So horticulture is a great example. As you know, there was -- 2 or 3 years ago, there was a rush to invest in that vertical. And people invested a significant amount of money, multiple companies did too to try and pursue that vertical. We identified that vertical then as an attractive vertical. We just didn't think it was worth the level of investment that would -- that the market was asking for at that time.

因此，當我們不選擇這些項目時，這意味著其他人已經選擇了這些項目，並且他們以低於我們現有的利潤和低於我們接受的利潤來執行這些項目。因此，當我們展望未來時，我們仍然看到了在此基礎上發展的機會，無論是在我們已有的業務上，還是在我們添加新的垂直業務時。園藝就是一個很好的例子。如您所知，兩三年前，人們紛紛湧入該垂直領域進行投資。人們投入了大量資金，多家公司也投入了大量資金來嘗試追求這個垂直領域。我們當時認為該垂直產業是一個有吸引力的垂直產業。我們只是認為不值得進行當時市場要求的投資水準。

So what we did instead was we started organically. We built a product portfolio from scratch, organically designed from scratch, built from the ground up. And now we've started with the Arize portfolio to add to that and to add to the distribution of that, which gives us a greenlight opportunity to grow in a vertical that, over the long term, we think will be attractive and with a measured level of investment. So when you put that all together, we're choosing where we want to compete in the marketplace, we are demonstrating the ability to do that through product and service innovation as well as through our management of price and margin.

所以我們所做的就是有機地開始。我們從頭開始建立產品組合，從頭開始有機設計，從頭開始建立。現在我們已經開始使用 Arize 投資組合來增加這一點並增加其分佈，這為我們提供了在垂直領域發展的機會，從長遠來看，我們認為該領域將具有吸引力，並且具有可衡量的水平投資水平。因此，當你把所有這些放在一起時，我們正在選擇我們想要在市場上競爭的地方，我們正在展示透過產品和服務創新以及透過我們的價格和利潤管理來做到這一點的能力。

Our next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Sprague with Vertical Research.

我們的下一個問題來自垂直研究領域的 Jeffrey Sprague。

Maybe just address a little bit more kind of the geographic expansion how you're -- which geographies you're choosing to target the bandwidth of the company to kind of execute on that? And is this something where we could see a higher level of activity from this point forward?

也許只是解決更多類型的地理擴張問題——您選擇在哪些地區以公司的頻寬為目標來執行？從現在開始，我們是否可以看到更高水準的活動？

Yes. Thanks, Jeff. So our geographic expansion is focused on the Intelligence Spaces Group. So it's worth pointing out that the standards are mostly global for the Distech product portfolio and the edge to cloud opportunity, the application for Atrius are global. So that gives us the opportunity to expand without having to create new product portfolios with some small exceptions, which are not available to us like Germany, for example. As a result, we are building on the strength there to roll that out. So we have strength in North America, obviously, that's our home market. We are probably half penetrated where we think we can be in the U.S. And so obviously, the bigger markets will invest for growth there. We're also successful in France. I think in the last quarter, we identified we have really high market share in France.

是的。謝謝，傑夫。因此，我們的地理擴張重點是智慧空間集團。因此值得指出的是，Distech 產品組合的標準大多是全球性的，而邊緣到雲端機會、Atrius 的應用程式也是全球性的。因此，這使我們有機會進行擴張，而無需創建新的產品組合（但有一些小例外），例如，我們無法像德國那樣創造新的產品組合。因此，我們正在利用那裡的力量來推出這項項目。所以我們在北美有實力，顯然，那是我們的本土市場。在我們認為可以在美國實現的領域，我們的滲透率可能只有一半。因此，顯然，更大的市場將在那裡投資以實現成長。我們在法國也取得了成功。我認為在上個季度，我們發現我們在法國擁有非常高的市場份額。

We're now expanding into more of Europe, so -- and well through the U.K. and other markets. And then we're focused on markets that look like that. So Australia, we added SI capacity. We'll be looking for ways over the course of kind of the next 6 to 12 months to figure out how to accelerate that expansion for ISG geographically. Our aspiration for that business unit is that it is a global unit that makes spaces smarter, safer and greener through a combination of edge to cloud, edge controls and sensors devices and the cloud or applications that do something with the data that those sensors and controls generate. So yes, you can expect us to be focused on expanding that business globally. And we're basically in North America and France at this point. So there's a big opportunity there.

我們現在正在向歐洲更多地區擴張，甚至是英國和其他市場。然後我們專注於類似的市場。因此，澳洲我們增加了 SI 容量。我們將在接下來的 6 到 12 個月內尋找方法，以找出如何加速 ISG 的地理擴張。我們對該業務部門的期望是，它是一個全球部門，透過邊緣到雲端、邊緣控制和感測器設備以及雲端或利用這些感測器和控制的資料執行某些操作的應用程式的組合，使空間變得更智能、更安全、更環保。產生。所以，是的，您可以期望我們專注於在全球範圍內擴展該業務。目前我們基本上在北美和法國。所以那裡有一個很大的機會。

Great. And then perhaps for Karen. Neil, you can take it too, of course. Just we've gotten this far in the Q&A without any real discussion of price. I know you're not going to talk about price specifically, but maybe just give us a little bit of update and kind of the tone of the market, what you're doing there? And transportation costs were a big topic to the good last quarter. Are you seeing any significant changes there with kind of the chaos and global shipping, everything that's going on?

偉大的。然後也許是凱倫。尼爾，當然你也可以接受。只是我們在問答中已經進行到這裡了，而沒有對價格進行任何真正的討論。我知道您不會具體談論價格，但也許只是向我們提供一些最新情況和市場基調，您在那裡做什麼？運輸成本是上個季度的一個大話題。您是否看到那裡發生了任何重大變化，例如混亂和全球航運，以及正在發生的一切？

Chaos is a good word, Karen. Why don't you address pricing?

混亂是一個好詞，凱倫。為什麼不解決定價問題？

I'll address some of the pricing. So Jeff, overall, we continue to be really pleased with our gross profit performance. And that really is resulting from what we've talked about on the call already is the strategic management of price and being able to get the value for our products that they deserve in the marketplace. While at the same time, we are working on input costs with our suppliers.

我將討論一些定價問題。因此，傑夫，總的來說，我們仍然對我們的毛利表現感到非常滿意。這實際上是由於我們在電話會議中已經討論過的價格策略管理以及能夠使我們的產品在市場上獲得應有的價值而產生的。同時，我們正在與供應商一起研究投入成本。

We've seen some benefits this quarter in steel and electronics. So that's helping us. And then freight is continuing to benefit year-over-year. So overall, we feel the focus on our portfolio segmentation that we talked about with Contractor Select, Design Select and Made-to-Order helps us on strategically price the products and get the value that they deserve in the marketplace.

本季我們在鋼鐵和電子業看到了一些好處。這對我們有幫助。然後貨運量繼續逐年受益。因此，總的來說，我們認為，我們對承包商選擇、設計選擇和客製化產品組合細分的關注有助於我們對產品進行策略性定價，並獲得它們在市場上應有的價值。

Our next question comes from the line of Bobby Schultz with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自鮑比·舒爾茨和貝爾德的對話。

I've been I think, 3 quarters now where you've posted 45% plus gross margins. How should we think about the sustainability of those margins into the second half year and then looking into 2025?

我想，現在已經有 3 個季度毛利率達到 45% 以上了。我們該如何考慮下半年以及 2025 年這些利潤率的可持續性？

Yes. Thanks, Bobby. So as I mentioned when we were talking about our adjustment to our EPS guidance, we feel really good about our performance. And I'll build on Karen's answer to Jeff's question about price and margin, which is that we are managing our pricing such that we're realizing the value for -- that our products are providing in the marketplace. And on the input cost, we're doing 2 things. One is our product vitality efforts are changing the amount of content that is in each of our products and how we ship those products. So more products can be shipped on the same pallet. So I mentioned the IVO in my opening comments, that's a really innovative product in the marketplace because it's roughly half the size or less of what it is replacing, #1, which obviously means there's a lot less content.

是的。謝謝，鮑比。正如我在談論調整每股盈餘指引時所提到的，我們對自己的表現感到非常滿意。我將以凱倫對傑夫關於價格和利潤的問題的回答為基礎，即我們正在管理我們的定價，以便我們可以實現我們的產品在市場上提供的價值。在投入成本方面，我們正在做兩件事。一是我們的產品活力努力正在改變我們每種產品中的內容量以及我們運送這些產品的方式。因此可以在同一個托盤上運送更多產品。所以我在開場白中提到了 IVO，這是市場上真正的創新產品，因為它的尺寸大約是它所取代的產品的一半或更少，#1，這顯然意味著內容要少得多。

It also means that we can fit a lot more on a pallet as we ship those around North America. And then third, it delivers significant value to the installers because of significant patented innovation and how the -- it is constructed at the job site. So the ability to use one housing basically to put in different lighting. So that's a great example of a product that delivers real value to the entire value chain. And the combination of all those things has gotten us to the margin levels where we are right now. So yes, we feel good about our margin performance. It will go up a little -- or up or down a little from quarter to quarter, but we feel really good about kind of the structural improvement of our margin performance. And our team has demonstrated significant dexterity and the ability to deliver on that in all kinds of different market conditions. And so we feel like we're on a journey here, we're not at a destination, and we're pleased with our performance.

這也意味著當我們在北美運送貨物時，我們可以在托盤上裝更多的東西。第三，由於重大的專利創新以及它在工作現場的建造方式，它為安裝人員提供了巨大的價值。因此基本上能夠使用一個外殼來放置不同的照明。因此，這是為整個價值鏈提供真正價值的產品的一個很好的例子。所有這些因素的結合使我們達到了目前的利潤水平。所以，是的，我們對我們的利潤率表現感到滿意。它會略有上升，或每季略有上升或下降，但我們對利潤率表現的結構性改善感到非常滿意。我們的團隊展現了卓越的靈活性以及在各種不同市場條件下實現這一目標的能力。所以我們感覺我們正在這裡旅行，我們沒有到達目的地，而且我們對我們的表現感到滿意。

Got it. And then I wanted to ask on data centers, what is your exposure there today? And kind of what are you seeing in that market right now?

知道了。然後我想問一下資料中心，您今天在那裡的暴露程度如何？您現在在這個市場上看到了什麼？

So we have 2 exposures to data centers. So on a good news front, data centers have lighting. So one might think that they could operate in the dark, but they don't. So that's a very attractive opportunity and continues to be for the Lighting business. On the Controls side, we are -- Distech is flat spec into some of the largest data scalers, so as their control of choice. There are 2 different kinds of controls in data centers. So we focus on digital controls and so that doesn't -- that means not the entire market is addressable for us, but the market that is addressable for us is growing as we build on those global scalers. We are -- we had another win on that front where over the course of the quarter where we converted a large Asian data center operator to our way of control and so that will be a multiyear opportunity for us going forward. So we're exposed to the data center opportunity in both of our segments, both the Lighting segment as well as the Spaces segment.

因此，我們對資料中心有 2 個風險敞口。好消息是，資料中心配備了照明。因此，人們可能會認為他們可以在黑暗中行動，但事實並非如此。因此，對於照明業務來說，這是一個非常有吸引力的機會，而且仍然如此。在控制方面，我們 - Distech 是一些最大的資料縮放器的平面規格，因此作為他們選擇的控制。資料中心有兩種不同類型的控制。因此，我們專注於數位控制，因此這並不意味著我們可以涉足整個市場，但隨著我們在這些全球擴展器的基礎上發展，我們可以涉足的市場正在不斷增長。我們在這方面取得了另一場勝利，在本季度中，我們將一家大型亞洲資料中心營運商轉變為我們的控制方式，因此這對我們未來來說將是一個多年的機會。因此，我們在兩個領域（照明領域和空間領域）都面臨著資料中心的機會。

Our next question comes from the line of Chris Snyder with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的克里斯·史奈德。

I wanted to ask about the back half guidance. It seems to me that it calls for gross margin to be kind of similar, maybe slightly lower than what we just saw in fiscal Q2, that 45.5%. So I guess, is that right interpretation? And then, what are some of the puts and takes on that because it does seem like there is some volume leverage here from the second quarter to the back half?

我想問一下後半部的指導。在我看來，它要求毛利率有點​​相似，可能略低於我們剛剛在第二財季看到的 45.5%。所以我想，這是正確的解釋嗎？然後，有哪些看跌期權和看跌期權，因為從第二季度到下半年似乎確實存在一些成交量槓桿？

Yes. Thanks, Chris. Karen can help you after call on building your model, but I'll talk qualitatively about how we're thinking about the back half of the year and build on some of my comments earlier. Our lighting business is strong. We are competing effectively in the marketplace. We are demonstrating that the market is valuing what we are selling from a product perspective. We're demonstrating that we can innovate on a product portfolio and deliver what is -- what our innovative products to the marketplace that are more valuable to the marketplace and more profitable for us. And we've demonstrated that we're managing input costs, material costs in a rapidly changing environment, whether it's electronics or freight or steel or any of the different things.

是的。謝謝，克里斯。凱倫可以在打電話後幫助您建立模型，但我將定性地討論我們如何看待下半年，並以我之前的一些評論為基礎。我們的照明業務實力強勁。我們在市場上有效競爭。我們正在證明市場正在從產品的角度評估我們所銷售的產品。我們正在證明，我們可以對產品組合進行創新，並向市場提供我們的創新產品，這些產品對市場更有價值，對我們來說更有利可圖。我們已經證明，我們正在快速變化的環境中管理投入成本和材料成本，無論是電子產品、貨運、鋼鐵或任何不同的東西。

So if we feel really good about the continued performance of -- our continued margin performance, excuse me. So as you look to the back half of the year and more importantly to the year after and the year after that and the year after that, we're on a mission to continue to make this a much more predictable, repeatable, scalable business on the Lighting side and a growth business on the Intelligence Spaces side and to use capital then to expand that portfolio. So we feel fine about the -- we feel good about the guidance for the remainder of the year and we feel even better about the year after and the year after that.

因此，如果我們對我們持續的利潤率表現感到非常滿意，請原諒。因此，當你展望今年下半年，更重要的是後年、後年和後年時，我們的使命是繼續使這項業務變得更加可預測、可重複、可擴展。照明方面和智慧空間方面的成長業務，然後利用資本來擴大該投資組合。因此，我們對今年剩餘時間的指導感覺良好，對後年和後年感覺更好。

I appreciate that. And maybe just following up on the market competition points. Do you feel like the lighting industry is less competitive from a price standpoint than it was 5 years ago? Or is it that Acuity is being more selective and shying away from the most competitive aspects of the market? And then what you guys have done with Contractor Select is kind of raising the gross margin floor? Just kind of any thoughts on that.

我很感激。也許只是跟進市場競爭點。您是否覺得照明產業從價格角度來看，競爭力較 5 年前下降？還是 Acuity 更加挑剔並迴避市場上競爭最激烈的面向？那麼你們對承包商選擇所做的事情是提高毛利率下限嗎？只是對此有什麼想法。

Yes. So I wasn't here 5 years ago, so I can't address that, but I will address kind of how we've performed over the last 4 years, which is, I would say that, obviously, we're the largest in the industry. We have the highest margins in the industry. We have the highest product vitality in the industry. We have raised the floor on margins with Contractor Select. We are innovating with Design Select and our new portfolio. So our performance is objectively very strong. That makes us a much more formidable competitor to the marketplace, no matter who you are, whether you're a large competitor, you're a small competitor, whether you're housed in North America or somewhere else, we're just a significantly stronger competitor than we were 4 years ago. And so that puts us in a position to have significantly more control over our destiny. And we're demonstrating that control in our performance.

是的。所以我 5 年前不在這裡，所以我無法解決這個問題，但我會解決我們在過去 4 年中的表現，也就是說，我想說，顯然，我們是最大的在行業中。我們擁有業界最高的利潤率。我們擁有業界最高的產品生命力。我們透過承包商精選提高了利潤率下限。我們正在透過 Design Select 和我們的新產品組合進行創新。所以我們的表現客觀上是非常強勁的。這使我們成為市場上更強大的競爭對手，無論您是誰，無論您是大競爭對手還是小競爭對手，無論您位於北美還是其他地方，我們都只是一個與4 年前相比，我們的競爭對手明顯更強。因此，這使我們能夠更好地控制自己的命運。我們正在透過我們的表現展示這種控制力。

And so -- and we think this is a good point to build on. So we will continue to press our advantage on the lighting side. So I would answer your question by saying something that we said when the market was really choppy, which is that we control what we can control, we are controlling more of what's happening in the marketplace as a result of our strategy and the execution of that strategy and the cumulative performance and the impact of that.

所以——我們認為這是一個很好的基礎。所以我們會繼續發揮照明方面的優勢。因此，我會透過說我們在市場真正動盪時說過的話來回答你的問題，那就是我們控制我們可以控制的事情，由於我們的策略和執行，我們正在控制市場上發生的更多事情。策略和累積績效及其影響。

I appreciate that. And if I could just squeeze one last one in. And I know it's hard to call a cycle, but I'd be interested, Neil, in where you think we are in this nonresidential construction cycle? Activity is still pretty healthy. A lot of the leading indicators are, I wouldn't say terribly negative, but on the more negative side. Do you feel like that cycle pressure on the horizon or that -- maybe you already felt that with a lot of the destock? Just any thoughts on it, I appreciate it.

我很感激。如果我能把最後一個擠進去的話。我知道很難稱之為一個週期，但我很感興趣，尼爾，你認為我們在這個非住宅建設週期中處於什麼位置？活動還是很健康的。我不會說很多領先指標非常負面，但都是比較負面的。您是否感覺到即將到來的周期壓力？也許您已經在大量去庫存中感受到了這種壓力？只是對此有任何想法，我很感激。

Yes, sure, Chris. I think the cycle question has been a really hard one because we collectively -- and by that, I mean the economy, industry, et cetera, has been thrown so many curveballs over the course of the last 3 years. So I feel like we've lived kind of multiple years in a single year or a single period. So it's hard to call it as a normal historical cycle. So obviously, we had the shutdown. Then we had the bullwhip of projects and activity that was waiting to be executed, which led to increased backlogs, which we accelerated to satisfy which happened last year, and you see a little bit of the hangover impact on our sales growth this year.

是的，當然，克里斯。我認為週期問題是一個非常棘手的問題，因為我們集體——我的意思是經濟、工業等等，在過去三年經歷了許多曲線球。所以我覺得我們在一年或一個時期內生活了好幾年。所以很難稱之為正常的歷史週期。很明顯，我們已經關閉了。然後，我們有大量等待執行的項目和活動，這導致積壓增加，我們加速滿足去年發生的情況，你會看到對我們今年銷售成長的一些影響。

We've been looking at the market on a multiyear basis, though. So when you look at first the market on a multiyear basis, it really does start to normalize. It doesn't look like there's any kind of boom and bust cycle. It looks like there was just a fair amount of business that got executed last year that maybe would have normally been executed this year. And so as we look forward, we are -- and I've mentioned this on the call before, we do a fair amount of data analysis, and I think we're pretty good at it. And we're outperforming the regression analysis of what we would expect to do.

不過，我們多年來一直在關注市場。因此，當你先觀察多年的市場時，它確實開始正常化。看起來不存在任何繁榮和蕭條週期。看起來去年執行的業務量相當大，而通常今年可能會執行。因此，當我們展望未來時，我之前在電話會議上提到過這一點，我們進行了大量的數據分析，我認為我們非常擅長。我們的表現超越了我們預期的迴歸分析結果。

So we are -- our performance is a contributor to where we are. As we think about the cycle going forward, we strive for normalcy. We don't feel like we need a really super-hot environment or -- and we've demonstrated we can execute in a relatively cool environment. So kind of where are we on the cycle front? I would say that our data indicates that lighting moves earlier than the other parts of the industry. There are a thousand reasons for that to have happened, but that has been borne out in other people's performance. And we feel good about kind of where we are from an order rate perspective.

所以我們——我們的表現是我們所處位置的貢獻者。當我們思考未來的周期時，我們努力恢復常態。我們覺得我們不需要一個非常熱的環境，或者——我們已經證明我們可以在一個相對涼爽的環境中執行。那我們在自行車方面處於什麼位置呢？我想說的是，我們的數據表明照明比行業其他領域更早發展。造成這種情況的原因有一千個，但這已經在其他人的表現中得到了證實。從訂單率的角度來看，我們對自己的現狀感到滿意。

We've seen that relationship between lighting and other industries between ABL and the Spaces Group with Distech. So in Distech, we're also outperforming what the market's expectations are. So we're outperforming where our SIs expect to be, which means we're taking share there also. So then as we look forward, what we strive for is a more normalized environment. I'm not confident calling a cycle because I don't think this is a normal cycle or it doesn't look like cycles that were sleep studies that we've had in the past.

我們已經看到了 ABL 和 Spaces Group 與 Distech 之間的照明與其他產業之間的關係。因此，在 Distech，我們的表現也超出了市場的預期。因此，我們的表現超出了系統整合商的預期，這意味著我們也在那裡佔據了份額。因此，展望未來，我們爭取的是一個更常態化的環境。我沒有信心稱之為一個週期，因為我認為這不是一個正常的週期，或者它看起來不像我們過去進行的睡眠研究的周期。

Taking now 3 steps back. Our Lighting and Lighting Controls business grows consistently over time on a compounded annual growth rate and our Spaces group is taking share, and we're building something pretty special there. So net-net, we feel like we can execute in any environment. I don't want to play kind of Fed governor and try and figure out where we are from a cycle perspective other than to say, we're going to control what we can control. We feel really good about where we are from the Lighting and Lighting Controls business. We feel really good about where we are from the Spaces business, and we've got a lot of capital to grow our platform.

現在退後 3 步。隨著時間的推移，我們的照明和照明控制業務以複合年增長率持續成長，我們的空間團隊正在佔據份額，我們正在那裡打造一些非常特別的東西。所以net-net，我們感覺我們可以在任何環境中執行。我不想扮演聯準會理事的角色，試圖從週期的角度弄清楚我們所處的位置，而不是說，我們將控制我們能控制的事情。我們對照明和照明控制業務的現狀感到非常滿意。我們對 Spaces 業務的發展狀況感到非常滿意，我們擁有大量資金來發展我們的平台。

Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Osborne with TD Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jeff Osborne 和 TD Cowen 的對話。

Neil, maybe just a follow-up on the prior question. In terms of -- I think the last earnings call, you touched on a rebound in larger projects visible in 2025. I'm just curious what the CRM system showing for the larger projects. And then historically, I think larger projects were considerably more profitable than the Contractor Select and some of the more commoditized projects that you've greatly improved the profitability of. Would you expect as the potential rebound of those larger projects flows through, that there's a disproportionate mix shift in profitability?

尼爾，也許只是先前問題的後續。就我而言，我認為在上次財報電話會議上，您談到了 2025 年大型專案的反彈。我只是很好奇 CRM 系統為大型專案顯示了什麼。然後從歷史上看，我認為較大的項目比承包商選擇和一些更商品化的項目的利潤要高得多，您已經大大提高了盈利能力。您是否預計隨著這些大型項目的潛在反彈，獲利能力會出現不成比例的組合變化？

Yes, thanks. As I said, so if we focus on the kind of -- large projects is big bucket. So let's talk about kind of infrastructure on the one hand and then we'll talk about kind of traditional large projects on the other. So on the infrastructure side, there's obviously still a significant amount of capital that's going to run through what others are calling the mega projects. And we're confident we'll get our fair share of those and hopefully, a disproportionate share. And from a mix perspective, that is an attractive piece of business, we price fairly there. So we're delivering value to basically the citizens who are funding those. So we feel good about that. At the same time, we can operate in the margin portfolio that we expect. Then within kind of larger projects, there are a number of other kind of private sector impacts of that also.

對了謝謝。正如我所說，如果我們專注於那種大型專案就是大桶。因此，我們一方面討論基礎設施的類型，然後另一方面討論傳統大型專案的類型。因此，在基礎設施方面，顯然仍有大量資本將用於其他人所說的大型專案。我們相信，我們將獲得公平的份額，並希望獲得不成比例的份額。從混合的角度來看，這是一項有吸引力的業務，我們的定價相當合理。因此，我們基本上是為資助這些項目的公民提供價值。所以我們對此感覺良好。同時，我們可以在我們預期的保證金投資組合中進行操作。然後，在較大的專案中，也存在許多其他類型的私營部門影響。

So impact of the CHIPS Act and our ability to light fabs, to light data centers, to deliver control, obviously, those are all consistently attractive margin pieces of business for us. We're scaling in industrial as a lot of reshoring is happening in the U.S. And so the mix of our portfolio is, however, tighter from a margin perspective. As we indicated earlier, effectively, the floor has been raised on the Contractor Select portfolio and we will price fairly to the -- for citizens that are funding the infrastructure, and we'll continue to deliver the performance that we're demonstrating.

因此，《CHIPS 法案》的影響以及我們照亮晶圓廠、照亮資料中心、提供控制的能力，顯然，這些對我們來說都是持續有吸引力的利潤業務。隨著美國發生大量回流，我們正在擴大工業規模。然而，從利潤角度來看，我們的投資組合更加緊密。正如我們之前指出的，有效地，承包商選擇投資組合的底線已經提高，我們將公平地定價——對於為基礎設施提供資金的公民，我們將繼續提供我們所展示的績效。

Got it. And then just one for Karen on the Contractor Select and Design Select portfolios. Does that, by definition, sort of require more investment in inventory than you might have had in the few years past?

知道了。然後是凱倫的承包商選擇和設計選擇組合中的一份。根據定義，這是否需要比過去幾年更多的庫存投資？

So for Contractor Select and Design Select, when we look at the inventory levels, first on Contractor Select, the 300 of the kind of most common everyday lighting products. We stock those here, but then also our distributors. But given the high turnover with that portfolio, it allows our distributors to carry less inventory and also for us to carry less inventory. So that doesn't really have a higher requirement. On Design Select, we are able to manage those inventory levels effectively and improve our turns.

因此，對於承包商選擇和設計選擇，當我們查看庫存水準時，首先是承包商選擇，即 300 種最常見的日常照明產品。我們在這裡備有這些產品，但也有我們的經銷商。但考慮到該產品組合的高週轉率，它允許我們的經銷商減少庫存，也讓我們減少庫存。所以其實沒有什麼更高的要求。在 Design Select 上，我們能夠有效管理這些庫存水準並提高週轉率。

So neither of those should have a negative impact on our working capital inventory going forward. And in fact, if you look at our inventory days over the course of time, we are -- we've improved our inventory turns versus last year and versus kind of over -- from our high point and certainly over last year when we reduced it and then continue to have room to improve. So we feel really good about where we are on our inventory and don't believe that, that should have a negative impact. And if anything, some of that should improve our ability around our raw materials going forward.

因此，這些都不會對我們未來的營運資本庫存產生負面影響。事實上，如果你看看我們一段時間內的庫存天數，我們的庫存週轉率與去年相比有所改善，而且與去年相比，我們的庫存週轉率有所提高，而且與去年相比，我們減少了庫存週轉率。然後繼續有改進的空間。因此，我們對庫存狀況感到非常滿意，並且不認為這會產生負面影響。如果有什麼不同的話，那就是其中一些應該會提高我們未來在原料方面的能力。

And I'm showing no further questions in the queue at this time. I'd like to turn the call back to Neil Ashe for any closing remarks.

目前我在隊列中沒有顯示任何其他問題。我想將電話轉回給尼爾·阿什，請他發表結束語。

Thank you. Thank you all for joining us this morning. We are -- as we said in our comments and in the questions, we're really pleased with our performance. Our team is executing really well. We feel confident in where the Lighting and Lighting Controls business is for this year and beyond, we feel like our growth opportunity on the Spaces side is clear, and we're executing against it. And we've demonstrated that we can create real value with capital allocation. And so we'll keep doing that, and we'll look forward to seeing you next quarter. Thank you.

謝謝。感謝大家今天早上加入我們。正如我們在評論和問題中所說，我們對我們的表現非常滿意。我們的團隊執行得非常好。我們對今年及以後的照明和照明控制業務的發展充滿信心，我們認為我們在空間方面的成長機會是明確的，我們正在為此執行。我們已經證明，我們可以透過資本配置創造真正的價值。因此，我們將繼續這樣做，並期待下個季度見到您。謝謝。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。