信達思 (CTAS) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Cintas Corporation announces fiscal 2023 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Jared Mattingley, Vice President, Treasurer and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

大家好，歡迎來到 Cintas Corporation 宣布 2023 財年第四季度和全年業績電話會議。今天的通話正在錄音。現在，我想將電話轉給財務主管和投資者關係副總裁 Jared Mattingley 先生。請繼續，先生。

Thank you for joining us. With me is Todd Schneider, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Mike Hansen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, who will discuss our fiscal '23 fourth quarter results. After our commentary, we will open the call to questions from analysts.

感謝您加入我們。與我在一起的是總裁兼首席執行官托德·施耐德 (Todd Schneider)；執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Mike Hansen 將討論我們 23 財年第四季度的業績。在我們的評論之後，我們將開始接受分析師提問。

Private Securities and Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor from civil litigation for forward-looking statements. This conference call contains forward-looking statements that reflect the company's current views as to future events and financial performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those we may discuss. I refer you to the discussion on these points contained in our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I'll now turn the call over to Todd.

1995 年《私人證券和訴訟改革法案》為前瞻性陳述提供了避免民事訴訟的安全港。本次電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，反映了公司當前對未來事件和財務業績的看法。這些前瞻性陳述存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與我們可能討論的結果存在重大差異。我建議您參閱我們最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中有關這些觀點的討論。我現在將把電話轉給托德。

Thank you, Jared. Fourth quarter total revenue grew 10.1% to $2.28 billion. The organic growth rate, which adjusts for the impacts of acquisitions and foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, was 10.3%. We are pleased with these fourth quarter results, where each of our businesses continue to grow and execute at a high level. especially coming off our highest growth quarter in fiscal '22. Fourth quarter gross margin was $1.09 billion. Gross margin increased 210 basis points from 45.6% to 47.7%, an increase of 15.1% over the prior year.

謝謝你，賈里德。第四季度總收入增長 10.1%，達到 22.8 億美元。調整收購和外匯匯率波動影響後的有機增長率為 10.3%。我們對第四季度的業績感到滿意，我們的每項業務都在繼續增長並以高水平執行。尤其是在 22 財年增長最快的季度之後。第四季度毛利率為10.9億美元。毛利率從45.6%增長210個基點至47.7%，比上年增長15.1%。

Operating income for the fourth quarter of fiscal '23 of $470.8 million increased 16.4% over the prior year. Operating margin increased 110 basis points to 20.6% from 19.5% in the prior year. Fourth quarter net (technical difficulty)

2023 財年第四季度營業收入為 4.708 億美元，比上年增長 16.4%。營業利潤率從上年的 19.5% 增長 110 個基點至 20.6%。第四節淨值（技術難度）

This is the conference operator. Please stand by for just one moment. We are going to reconnect our presenter line.

這是會議操作員。請稍等片刻。我們將重新連接我們的演示者線路。

Thank you for joining us. With me is Todd Schneider, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Mike Hansen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We will discuss our fiscal '23 fourth quarter results. After our commentary, we will open the call to questions from analysts.

感謝您加入我們。與我在一起的是總裁兼首席執行官托德·施耐德 (Todd Schneider)；和邁克·漢森，執行副總裁兼首席財務官。我們將討論 23 財年第四季度的業績。在我們的評論之後，我們將開始接受分析師提問。

Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor from civil litigation for forward-looking statements. This conference call contains forward-looking statements that reflect the company's current views as to future events and financial performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those we may discuss. I refer you to the discussion on these points contained in our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I'll now turn the call over to Todd.

1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》為前瞻性陳述提供了避免民事訴訟的安全港。本次電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，反映了公司當前對未來事件和財務業績的看法。這些前瞻性陳述存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與我們可能討論的結果存在重大差異。我建議您參閱我們最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中有關這些觀點的討論。我現在將把電話轉給托德。

Thank you, Jared. Fourth quarter total revenue grew 10.1% to $2.28 billion. The organic growth rate, which adjusts for the impacts of acquisitions and foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, was 10.3%. We are pleased with these fourth quarter results, where each of our businesses continue to grow and execute at a high level, especially coming off our highest growth quarter in fiscal '22. Fourth quarter gross margin was $1.09 billion. Gross margin increased 210 basis points from 45.6% to 47.7%, an increase of 15.1% over the prior year. Operating income for the fourth quarter of fiscal '23 of $470.8 million increased 16.4% over the prior year. Operating margin increased 110 basis points to 20.6% from 19.5% in the prior year.

謝謝你，賈里德。第四季度總收入增長 10.1%，達到 22.8 億美元。調整收購和外匯匯率波動影響後的有機增長率為 10.3%。我們對第四季度的業績感到滿意，我們的每項業務都在繼續增長並以高水平執行，特別是在 22 財年增長最快的季度之後。第四季度毛利率為10.9億美元。毛利率從45.6%增長210個基點至47.7%，比上年增長15.1%。 2023 財年第四季度營業收入為 4.708 億美元，比上年增長 16.4%。營業利潤率從上年的 19.5% 增長 110 個基點至 20.6%。

Fourth quarter net income was $346.2 million, an increase of 17.6%. Earnings per diluted share for the fourth quarter were $3.33, an increase of 18.5% over the prior year fourth quarter. These results conclude a fiscal year of significant accomplishments, including the following: Fiscal year '23 revenue was a record $8.82 billion, an increase of 12.2%. Organic growth was also 12.2% for the year. We saw double-digit organic growth for every quarter during fiscal '23. We were once again named to the prestigious Fortune 500 for the sixth consecutive year. It is an honor to be recognized among the most successful and respected companies.

第四季度淨利潤為3.462億美元，增長17.6%。第四季度攤薄每股收益為3.33美元，比去年第四季度增長18.5%。這些結果總結了本財年取得的重大成就，其中包括： 23 財年收入達到創紀錄的 88.2 億美元，增長 12.2%。今年的有機增長也為 12.2%。我們在 23 財年每個季度都實現了兩位數的有機增長。我們連續第六年再次入選享有盛譽的《財富》500 強。能夠被認可為最成功和最受尊敬的公司之一是一種榮幸。

Operating income grew 13.6% for the year. When you exclude both fiscal '22, $12.1 million gain on sale of operating assets and a $30.2 million gain on an equity method investment transaction, operating income grew 16.7%. EPS grew 11.5% for the year, excluding the previously mentioned prior year gains, EPS grew 15.2%. We increased our quarterly per share dividend by 21.1%. We've increased our dividend every year since going public, which is 39 consecutive years. As part of our steadfast commitment to corporate responsibility, we issued our third environmental, social and governance, or ESG report. Each year, we continue to make the report more robust.

全年營業收入增長13.6%。如果排除 22 財年出售運營資產的 1210 萬美元收益和權益法投資交易的 3020 萬美元收益，運營收入增長了 16.7%。全年每股收益增長 11.5%，剔除之前提到的上年收益，每股收益增長 15.2%。我們將季度每股股息提高了 21.1%。自上市以來，我們每年都增加股息，已連續 39 年增加。作為我們對企業責任堅定承諾的一部分，我們發布了第三份環境、社會和治理（ESG）報告。每年，我們都會不斷完善報告。

Cintas was founded on a sustainable business model. Our corporate culture is based on doing what is right and challenging ourselves to improve. We're proud of these results and the efforts of our employees whom we call partners. I'll now turn the call over to Mike to provide details of our fourth quarter results.

Cintas 建立在可持續的商業模式之上。我們的企業文化基於做正確的事和挑戰自我改進。我們為這些成果以及我們稱之為合作夥伴的員工的努力感到自豪。我現在將把電話轉給邁克，以提供我們第四季度業績的詳細信息。

Thank you, Todd, and good morning. Our fiscal '23 fourth quarter revenue was $2.28 billion compared to $2.07 billion last year. The organic revenue growth rate, adjusted for acquisitions and foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations was 10.3%. Uniform Rental and Facility Services operating segment revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal '23 was $1.77 billion compared to $1.6 billion last year. The organic revenue growth rate was 9.1%. As we've done in the past, I will share revenue mix of the Uniform Rental and Facility Services operating segment for the fourth quarter. Keep in mind, there can be small fluctuations in mix between quarters.

謝謝你，托德，早上好。我們 23 財年第四季度的收入為 22.8 億美元，而去年為 20.7 億美元。經收購和外幣匯率波動調整後的有機收入增長率為 10.3%。 23 財年第四季度統一租賃和設施服務運營部門的收入為 17.7 億美元，而去年為 16 億美元。有機收入增長率為9.1%。正如我們過去所做的那樣，我將分享第四季度製服租賃和設施服務運營部門的收入組合。請記住，季度之間的組合可能會出現小幅波動。

Uniform Rental was 48%, dust was 18%; hygiene was 16%; shop towels were 4%; linen, which includes microfiber wipes, towels and aprons was 10%; and catalog revenue was 4%. These percentages are consistent with last year, which speaks to the robust demand across all of our products and services.

制服租金為48%，灰塵為18%；衛生狀況為16%；商店毛巾為4%；亞麻製品，包括超細纖維擦拭巾、毛巾和圍裙，稅率為 10%；目錄收入為 4%。這些百分比與去年一致，這表明我們所有產品和服務的需求強勁。

Our First Aid and Safety Services operating segment revenue for the fourth quarter was $249.8 million compared to $218.2 million last year. The organic revenue growth rate was 14.1%.

我們的急救和安全服務運營部門第四季度的收入為 2.498 億美元，而去年為 2.182 億美元。有機收入增長率為14.1%。

Our Fire Protection Services and Uniform Direct Sale businesses are reported in the All Other segment. All Other revenue was $261.5 million compared to $226.2 million last year. The Fire business revenue was $173.5 million, and the organic revenue growth rate was 17.3% resulting in a strong finish to the year. The Uniform Direct Sale business revenue was $88 million, and the organic growth rate was 11.5%. This strong performance exceeded our expectations as robust demand continued for these products and services.

我們的消防服務和統一直銷業務在所有其他部門中報告。所有其他收入為 2.615 億美元，而去年為 2.262 億美元。消防業務收入為 1.735 億美元，有機收入增長率為 17.3%，全年業績強勁。統一直銷業務收入為8800萬美元，有機增長率為11.5%。由於對這些產品和服務的持續強勁需求，這種強勁的表現超出了我們的預期。

Gross margin for the fourth quarter of fiscal '23 was $1.09 billion, compared to $946.2 million last year, an increase of 15.1%. Gross margin as a percent of revenue was 47.7% and for the fourth quarter of fiscal '23 compared to 45.6% last year, an increase of 210 basis points.

23財年第四季度的毛利率為10.9億美元，與去年的9.462億美元相比，增長了15.1%。 23財年第四季度的毛利率佔收入的百分比為47.7%，與去年的45.6%相比，增長了210個基點。

Energy expenses comprised of gasoline, natural gas and electricity were a tailwind, decreasing 65 basis points from last year. Strong volume growth from new customers and the penetration of existing customers with more products and services help generate great operating leverage.

由汽油、天然氣和電力組成的能源支出是一個推動因素，比去年下降了 65 個基點。新客戶數量的強勁增長以及現有客戶對更多產品和服務的滲透有助於產生巨大的運營槓桿。

Gross margin percentage by business was 47.7% for Uniform Rental and Facility Services, 51% for First Aid and Safety Services, 47.9% for Fire Protection Services and 36% for Uniform Direct Sale. Fourth quarter SG&A was 27.1%, which was up 100 basis points from last year. We've continued to invest in selling resources and branding initiatives, and our insurance costs were higher. We are self-insured, which means our insurance costs can fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter.

按業務劃分的毛利率為：統一租賃和設施服務為 47.7%，急救和安全服務為 51%，消防服務為 47.9%，統一直銷為 36%。第四季度SG&A 為27.1%，較去年上升100 個基點。我們繼續投資於銷售資源和品牌推廣活動，我們的保險成本也更高。我們是自我保險，這意味著我們的保險費用可能會因季度而異。

Fourth quarter operating income was $470.8 million compared to $404.4 million last year. Operating income as a percent of revenue was 20.6% in the fourth quarter of fiscal '23 compared to 19.5% in last year's fourth quarter. Our effective tax rate for the fourth quarter was 22.4% compared to 22.8% last year. Net income for the fourth quarter was $346.2 million compared to $294.5 million last year. This year's fourth quarter diluted EPS was $3.33 compared to $2.81 last year.

第四季度營業收入為 4.708 億美元，去年同期為 4.044 億美元。 23 財年第四季度營業收入佔收入的百分比為 20.6%，而去年第四季度為 19.5%。我們第四季度的有效稅率為 22.4%，而去年為 22.8%。第四季度淨利潤為 3.462 億美元，去年同期為 2.945 億美元。今年第四季度攤薄後每股收益為 3.33 美元，而去年為 2.81 美元。

I'll now turn the call back over to Todd to provide his thoughts and our financial expectations for fiscal '24.

現在我將把電話轉回托德，以提供他的想法和我們對 24 財年的財務預期。

Thank you, Mike. As we move into fiscal '24, we will celebrate our 40th anniversary of being a publicly traded company. Back then, we were excited about what laid ahead. Today, we are equally excited about the significant opportunities that the future holds. Our value proposition remains strong, and our prospects for continued profitable growth are great. Every business, goods producing or services providing has a need for image, safety, cleanliness and compliance. We work with businesses to help them build a better Workday. We provide the products and perform the services better, faster and more economically freeing businesses to concentrate on their core competency.

謝謝你，邁克。進入 24 財年，我們將慶祝成為上市公司 40 週年。那時，我們對即將發生的事情感到興奮。今天，我們同樣對未來所擁有的重大機遇感到興奮。我們的價值主張依然強勁，持續盈利增長的前景廣闊。每個企業、商品生產或服務提供都需要形象、安全、清潔和合規性。我們與企業合作，幫助他們打造更好的工作日。我們更好、更快、更經濟地提供產品和提供服務，使企業能夠專注於其核心競爭力。

A year ago, I introduced 3 priorities: branding, ESG and technology to help drive our focus, continue to differentiate us in the marketplace and provide increased competitive advantages. I'm pleased with our progress in each of these key areas. Our branding efforts continue as more and more businesses have learned how we can help them get Ready for the Workday. We continue to make progress on our ESG goals and our sustainable solutions focus on reducing, reusing, recycling and repurposing our textiles. These solutions continue to resonate with our customers and prospects as we help them achieve their sustainability initiatives.

一年前，我提出了 3 個優先事項：品牌、ESG 和技術，以幫助推動我們的重點，繼續使我們在市場上脫穎而出，並提供更大的競爭優勢。我對我們在每個關鍵領域取得的進展感到高興。隨著越來越多的企業了解我們如何幫助他們為工作日做好準備，我們的品牌推廣工作仍在繼續。我們繼續在 ESG 目標方面取得進展，我們的可持續解決方案側重於減少、再利用、回收和重新利用我們的紡織品。當我們幫助我們的客戶和潛在客戶實現可持續發展計劃時，這些解決方案繼續引起他們的共鳴。

I want to spend a minute speaking about technology, in particular, our digital transformation journey. We've been very successful thus far in using technology to drive efficiencies in our production facilities, efficiencies out on the routes with our trucks via our proprietary SmartTruck technology, and we are in the early innings of our myCintas customer portal, which makes it easier for our customers to do business with us. As we look to the future, we're very excited to have great technology partners in SAP and Verizon, which are helping us to provide a better customer experience and improve efficiencies within our business.

我想花一點時間談談技術，特別是我們的數字化轉型之旅。到目前為止，我們在使用技術來提高生產設施的效率以及通過我們專有的 SmartTruck 技術提高卡車路線效率方面非常成功，而且我們正處於 myCintas 客戶門戶的早期階段，這使得它變得更加容易以便我們的客戶與我們開展業務。展望未來，我們非常高興能夠擁有 SAP 和 Verizon 等優秀的技術合作夥伴，他們正在幫助我們提供更好的客戶體驗並提高我們的業務效率。

We are excited to announce today that we have an additional strategic technology partner with Google, leveraging their Google Cloud platform. As a result of these relationships, it positions us at the forefront of technology innovation. We are still in the very early stages of our digital transformation journey, and we are excited about the impact it will have on our customers and our company in total. We are confident technology will have -- will be a competitive advantage for us now and well into the future.

我們今天很高興地宣布，我們與 Google 又多了一個戰略技術合作夥伴，利用他們的 Google Cloud 平台。這些關係使我們處於技術創新的前沿。我們仍處於數字化轉型之旅的早期階段，我們對它將對我們的客戶和我們公司產生的總體影響感到興奮。我們相信，技術將成為我們現在和未來的競爭優勢。

I will now provide our guidance for fiscal '24. Our fiscal year '24 -- for our fiscal year '24, we expect our revenue to be in the range of $9.35 billion to $9.5 billion, a total growth rate of 6.1% to 7.8%. We expect diluted EPS to be in the range of $13.85 to $14.35, a growth rate of 6.6% to 10.5%. Please note the following: fiscal year '24 interest expense is expected to be approximately $98 million compared to $109.5 million in fiscal year '23, predominantly as a result of lower variable rate debt. This may change as a result of future share buybacks or acquisition activity.

我現在將提供 24 財年的指導。我們的 24 財年——對於我們的 24 財年，我們預計我們的收入將在 93.5 億美元至 95 億美元之間，總增長率為 6.1% 至 7.8%。我們預計稀釋後每股收益將在 13.85 美元至 14.35 美元之間，增長率為 6.6% 至 10.5%。請注意以下事項：24 財年的利息支出預計約為 9800 萬美元，而 23 財年的利息支出為 1.095 億美元，這主要是由於可變利率債務較低。這可能會因未來的股票回購或收購活動而改變。

Our fiscal '24 effective tax rate is expected to be 21.3% compared to a rate of 20.4% for fiscal '23. The higher effective tax rate negatively impacts fiscal '24 EPS guidance by about $0.16 and diluted EPS growth by about 120 basis points. Guidance does not include any future share buybacks or significant economic disruptions or downturns. And guidance include the impact of having one more workday in fiscal '24 compared to fiscal '23. This extra workday comes in our fiscal third quarter.

我們 24 財年的有效稅率預計為 21.3%，而 23 財年的有效稅率為 20.4%。較高的有效稅率對 24 財年 EPS 指導產生約 0.16 美元的負面影響，並稀釋 EPS 增長約 120 個基點。指引不包括任何未來的股票回購或重大經濟干擾或衰退。指導意見包括與 23 財年相比，24 財年多一個工作日的影響。這個額外工作日發生在我們的第三財季。

We're excited about next year and beyond. The future of Cintas remains bright. I'll turn the call back over to Jared.

我們對明年及以後感到興奮。 Cintas 的未來依然光明。我會把電話轉回給賈里德。

That concludes our prepared remarks. Now we are happy to answer questions from the analysts. Please ask just one question and a single follow-up as needed. Thank you.

我們準備好的發言到此結束。現在我們很高興回答分析師的提問。請僅提出一個問題並根據需要進行一次後續行動。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question today comes from Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan Securities.

（操作員說明）今天我們的第一個問題來自摩根大通證券的安德魯斯坦納曼。

I'd like to talk about net realized price as part of the organic revenue growth in the fourth quarter and into the guide. And I think you might need to remind me, I think there's no explicit gas surcharge that Cintas puts on, but obviously, gas prices are down year-over-year. And how does that factor into pricing? And just overall, how has Cintas done in terms of raising price to their B2B customers versus the input costs?

我想談談淨實現價格，作為第四季度有機收入增長的一部分並納入指南。我想你可能需要提醒我，我認為 Cintas 沒有明確收取汽油附加費，但顯然，汽油價格同比下降。這對定價有何影響？總體而言，Cintas 在提高 B2B 客戶價格與投入成本方面表現如何？

Andrew, thanks for the question. Yes, good question. We're -- from a pricing standpoint, as we have spoken about in past quarters is our pricing has been certainly above historical during fiscal '23. And it needed to be because of the cost inputs. When we think about what that will look like moving forward in our '24 guide, we expect that pricing will return closer to historical and our cost inputs are in a similar spot, as you saw in the CPI report that came out yesterday and the PPI report that came out this morning. We are seeing inflation coming down. I think our team has done a pretty amazing job of managing input costs, both our operational team but our supply chain team which has really benefited us.

安德魯，謝謝你的提問。是的，好問題。從定價的角度來看，正如我們在過去幾個季度談到的那樣，我們的定價肯定高於 23 財年的歷史水平。這一定是因為成本投入。當我們思考 24 世紀指南中的情況時，我們預計定價將接近歷史水平，我們的成本投入也處於類似位置，正如您在昨天發布的 CPI 報告和 PPI 中看到的那樣今天早上出來的報告。我們看到通貨膨脹正在下降。我認為我們的團隊在管理投入成本方面做得非常出色，無論是我們的運營團隊還是我們的供應鏈團隊，這都讓我們受益匪淺。

So it's -- we do not rely upon pricing as the only lever to gain leverage to expand margin. We are committed to extracting out inefficiencies in our business, and you're seeing that. And you've seen that in fiscal '23. And our guide for fiscal '24 reflects incremental -- attractive incremental margins, and we're going to do it successfully, and we're going to expect that in efficiencies in our business to help us expand margins.

因此，我們並不依賴定價作為獲得擴大利潤的唯一槓桿。我們致力於消除業務中的低效率問題，您也看到了這一點。您已經在 23 財年看到了這一點。我們的 24 財年指南反映了增量——有吸引力的增量利潤，我們將成功做到這一點，我們預計業務效率將幫助我們擴大利潤。

Andrew, I might just add 2 things. One, specifically, we do not have a fuel surcharge. And secondly, you made a comment about our price increases offsetting input costs and I think the best way to think about that is margins in the fourth quarter were up 110 basis points. Margin for the fiscal '23 year were up 70 basis points and our guidance implies margin improvement throughout the range of guidance for next year. So keep that in mind as we think about pricing versus input costs, et cetera, we're still raising margins, improving margins.

安德魯，我可能只添加兩件事。一，具體來說，我們沒有燃油附加費。其次，您對我們的價格上漲抵消了投入成本發表了評論，我認為考慮這一點的最佳方式是第四季度的利潤率上升了 110 個基點。 23 財年的利潤率上升了 70 個基點，我們的指導意味著明年整個指導範圍內的利潤率都會有所改善。因此，當我們考慮定價與投入成本等問題時，請記住這一點，我們仍在提高利潤率，提高利潤率。

Our next question will come from Faiza Alwy with Deutsche Bank Securities.

我們的下一個問題將來自德意志銀行證券公司的 Faiza Alwy。

I wanted to talk about the type of economic or macro environment that you're embedding in your guide. I know you said that significant economic disruptions or downturn is not assumed, but give us a sense of what type of economic environment you're assuming?

我想談談您在指南中嵌入的經濟或宏觀環境類型。我知道您說過不會假設出現嚴重的經濟混亂或衰退，但請讓我們了解一下您假設的經濟環境類型是什麼？

Faiza, thank you for the question. We're not guiding towards a significant economic disruption. Trying to predict economic indicators is certainly very challenging. But I can tell you what's going on, what we're seeing in our business, which is we haven't seen much change in our customer behavior. Our sales productivity is very good. Our customer retention levels remain quite strong. And there is -- there's still really good interest in our products and our services. No-programmers are still going very well. And there's still the majority of the new accounts that we sell. So we like that very much. We like expanding the pie and those customers are seeing value in what we're providing.

法伊扎，謝謝你的提問。我們不會引導經濟遭受重大破壞。試圖預測經濟指標無疑是非常具有挑戰性的。但我可以告訴你正在發生的事情，我們在業務中看到的情況，即我們的客戶行為沒有太大變化。我們的銷售效率非常好。我們的客戶保留水平仍然相當強勁。人們對我們的產品和服務仍然非常感興趣。無程序員仍然進展順利。我們出售的大部分新帳戶仍然存在。所以我們非常喜歡這樣。我們喜歡擴大蛋糕，而這些客戶也看到了我們提供的產品的價值。

And we also like our vertical strategy that -- the vertical sales strategy that has been working quite nicely for us. So I would say, reasonably so, business as usual is what we would expect. We recognize there will be ups and downs in macro environments, but we're not guiding towards anything -- any economic downturn.

我們也喜歡我們的垂直策略——垂直銷售策略對我們來說效果很好。所以我想說，我們所期望的是，一切照常進行。我們認識到宏觀環境會起起落落，但我們不會指導任何事情——任何經濟衰退。

Great. And then if I could just follow up on the -- you mentioned the Google partnership. Maybe give us a sense of where you see that partnership going over the next few years? What some of the benefits might be as you think about your digital transformation strategy?

偉大的。然後我能否跟進您提到的谷歌合作夥伴關係。也許讓我們了解一下您認為未來幾年這種合作關係將走向何方？當您考慮數字化轉型策略時，可能會帶來哪些好處？

Certainly. Our relationship with Google gives us a better, faster, smarter, cheaper way to store our critical data but we see it as it can do so much more, due in large part because of the relationship that Google has with SAP and the relationship we have with SAP and now Google. As you all know, we have had a very successful relationship with SAP for over a decade now. And we've spoken in the past that it is much more than just a customer-vendor relationship. It's a strategic relationship. So you combine that with just a couple of months ago, SAP and Google announced that they have an expanded partnership. And what that's going to do is it's going to allow our SAP data to be connected with the Google Cloud data and analytics technology. which will give us access to their advanced AI and machine learning capabilities.

當然。我們與 Google 的關係為我們提供了一種更好、更快、更智能、更便宜的方式來存儲關鍵數據，但我們認為它可以做更多的事情，這在很大程度上是因為 Google 與 SAP 的關係以及我們之間的關係與 SAP 和現在的 Google 合作。眾所周知，十多年來我們與 SAP 一直保持著非常成功的合作關係。我們過去曾說過，這不僅僅是客戶與供應商的關係。這是一種戰略關係。因此，您將其與幾個月前結合起來，SAP 和 Google 宣布擴大合作夥伴關係。這樣做的目的是讓我們的 SAP 數據與 Google Cloud 數據和分析技術相連接。這將使我們能夠利用他們先進的人工智能和機器學習能力。

So we're excited about that. it's going to -- we think we can benefit for many years to come as this type of relationship. But you asked, Faiza, for a few examples. So I'll give you a few to help give a little color around it. We see having these technologies connected, the opportunity to put in front of our sales organization instead of calling, I'll say, more blindly on who to try to sell our services to, we call it next best prospect for our sales team to have real technologies to push in front of them. Here's where you go spend your time. We think that's significant and can have an impact on our productivity and our retention and morale productivity, all those things, next best product for the customer.

所以我們對此感到興奮。我們認為，這種關係可以讓我們在未來很多年中受益。但法伊扎，你問了一些例子。所以我會給你一些來幫助給它一點顏色。我們看到將這些技術連接起來，有機會擺在我們的銷售組織面前，而不是打電話，我會說，更盲目地嘗試向誰銷售我們的服務，我們稱之為我們的銷售團隊的下一個最佳前景真正的技術推到他們面前。這是您消磨時間的地方。我們認為這很重要，可以對我們的生產力、保留率和士氣生產力以及所有這些因素產生影響，成為客戶的下一個最佳產品。

So instead of just trying to figure that out, we can put that in front of our sales team to -- and our service team to make sure that they're talking to our customers about the next best product that would fit based upon other customer behaviors. We think certain customer service functions could be enhanced nicely over the coming years. There is -- we all use Google Maps, and we see an opportunity to leverage Google Maps to even further enhance our SmartTruck technology to make routing even more dynamic, which will save us time, saves us energy, saves us -- allows for more time in front of our customers instead of on the road.

因此，我們不只是試圖弄清楚這一點，而是可以將其擺在我們的銷售團隊和我們的服務團隊面前，以確保他們正在與我們的客戶討論適合其他客戶的下一個最佳產品行為。我們認為某些客戶服務功能在未來幾年可以得到很好的增強。我們都使用谷歌地圖，我們看到了利用谷歌地圖進一步增強我們的 SmartTruck 技術的機會，使路線更加動態，這將節省我們的時間，節省我們的能源，節省我們的時間 - 允許更多時間在我們的客戶面前而不是在路上。

And then just one more, I would say that our service team, we're blessed to have a lot of customers. We want to make sure that they're spending -- they're in front of the right customers at the right time. And we see the potential to leverage that type of technology to point them in the right direction to make sure that they're focused on any at-risk customers and customers that we need to enhance the effort with them with the people in front of them.

還有一點，我想說的是，我們的服務團隊很幸運擁有很多客戶。我們希望確保他們在正確的時間在正確的客戶面前進行消費。我們看到了利用此類技術為他們指明正確方向的潛力，以確保他們專注於任何有風險的客戶以及我們需要加強與他們和他們面前的人的努力的客戶。

So hopefully, that gives you a little color around it. Again, this is not -- we don't see this as an event. We see this as a process and in the coming years, we think it can be very impactful for our business and our customers.

希望這能給你帶來一點色彩。再說一遍，這不是——我們不認為這是一個事件。我們認為這是一個過程，在未來幾年，我們認為這會對我們的業務和客戶產生非常大的影響。

Next question comes from Ashish Sabadra with RBC.

下一個問題來自 RBC 的 Ashish Sabadra。

I wanted to turn down into the First Aid and Safety Services, we saw some material acceleration and growth there. I was wondering if you can talk about what's driving that strength. And then as we think about '24 any puts and takes that you would call out? Or how do we think about that momentum going forward?

我想轉入急救和安全服務部門，我們在那裡看到了一些實質性的加速和增長。我想知道你能否談談是什麼推動了這種力量。然後，當我們思考“24”時，您會提出什麼看跌期權和看跌期權？或者我們如何看待未來的勢頭？

Thank you, Ashish. I'll start, and if Mike wants to chime in. The First Aid and Safety business is going quite well. We really like that business. We've -- we see significant opportunities in the future there. And we're getting leverage there, really growth -- the strong growth is really helping us get some real leverage but the mix of business is very attractive. We spoke about during the peaks of the pandemic now, there was more PPE sales and safety sales. And the mix is now back to what we really like. It's a cabinet sales that are repeat in nature and higher margin. So we really like the mix, but the growth in total is great. And I would tell you that the value proposition is really resonating. Our customers are trying to make sure that they're reinvesting in their people.

謝謝你，阿什什。如果邁克想插話的話，我就開始了。急救和安全業務進展順利。我們真的很喜歡這項業務。我們已經看到了未來的重大機遇。我們在那裡獲得了槓桿作用，真正的增長——強勁的增長確實幫助我們獲得了一些真正的槓桿作用，但業務組合非常有吸引力。我們談到現在在疫情高峰期，個人防護用品和安全產品的銷售量有所增加。現在混音又回到了我們真正喜歡的狀態。這是一種本質上是重複性的、利潤率較高的櫥櫃銷售。所以我們真的很喜歡這種組合，但總體增長是巨大的。我想告訴你，這個價值主張確實引起了共鳴。我們的客戶正在努力確保他們對員工進行再投資。

Health and wellness is a concept that is resonating very strongly in the marketplace, and we're leveraging that and benefiting from that. And on top of that, we're also -- we have inefficiencies in that business as well. So we're extracting out those inefficiencies. They're going to help us continue to expand our margins. But we like the position we're in. We like the tailwinds we have with the health and wellness, and we think the future is quite bright in that area.

健康和保健是一個在市場上引起強烈共鳴的概念，我們正在利用這一概念並從中受益。最重要的是，我們的業務也效率低下。因此，我們正在消除這些低效率的因素。他們將幫助我們繼續擴大利潤。但我們喜歡我們所處的位置。我們喜歡健康方面的順風車，我們認為該領域的未來非常光明。

That's very helpful color. I just wanted to drill down further on the vertical sales strategy. Obviously, you mentioned you're seeing some pretty good success on that front. I was wondering if you could drill down further on the key verticals. And then also on your healthcare initiative, how those are trending, but also any other verticals that you would call out.

這是非常有用的顏色。我只是想進一步深入了解垂直銷售策略。顯然，您提到您在這方面看到了一些相當好的成功。我想知道您是否可以進一步深入研究關鍵的垂直領域。然後還有您的醫療保健計劃，這些計劃的趨勢如何，以及您提到的任何其他垂直領域。

Certainly. Our key verticals where we're focusing our time is healthcare, education and government. We've organized around those verticals. We have products and services that are attractive to them. Certain service functions dedicated to them. And as a result, we're really benefiting from it. And we very much think that they're smart verticals to invest in. And as a result, they're growing really attractively. And customer retention is good. New business is good. And we think that there's a real long opportunity here for us to continue to invest in these into the future. Certainly, the demographics of healthcare are quite attractive. But education and government are doing well in addition, and we're going to continue to invest in those areas. So it's paying dividends for us.

當然。我們重點關注的垂直領域是醫療保健、教育和政府。我們圍繞這些垂直領域進行組織。我們擁有對他們有吸引力的產品和服務。某些專門為他們提供的服務功能。結果，我們確實從中受益。我們非常認為它們是值得投資的明智垂直行業。因此，它們的增長非常有吸引力。而且客戶保留率也很好。新生意不錯。我們認為，我們有一個真正長期的機會繼續在這些方面進行未來的投資。當然，醫療保健的人口統計數據相當有吸引力。但教育和政府也做得很好，我們將繼續在這些領域進行投資。所以它為我們帶來了紅利。

Your next question comes from Manav Patnaik with Barclays.

您的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的馬納夫帕特奈克。

Good. I think historically, you've talked about how almost 2/3 of that -- 2/3 of new sales come from those known programs. I just wanted an update that and kind of tied to that. What does the competitive environment look like? Have there been any changes? Because your 2 public comps, obviously, there's a lot of changes going on at each of the organizations.

好的。我認為從歷史上看，您已經談到了其中近 2/3（2/3 的新銷售額）來自那些已知的計劃。我只是想要一個與此相關的更新。競爭環境是什麼樣的？有什麼變化嗎？因為你的兩個公共比較，顯然，每個組織都在發生很多變化。

Yes, Manav, you were -- I couldn't hear the first part, but I think I understand your question. I'll try to answer it. And if I don't, then please let me know. The no-programmers are -- it's going quite well. And it has historically been a significant portion of what we sell, and it continues to be a significant portion of what we sell. And we have products and services that are attractive to them. We have a sales effort that is, I'd say, skilled at identifying and delivering the message to those folks.

是的，馬納夫，你——我聽不到第一部分，但我想我理解你的問題。我會嘗試回答它。如果我不這樣做，請告訴我。沒有程序員的人——進展得相當順利。從歷史上看，它一直是我們銷售產品的重要組成部分，並且仍然是我們銷售產品的重要組成部分。我們擁有對他們有吸引力的產品和服務。我想說，我們的銷售工作擅長識別並向這些人傳遞信息。

And I think it's important to understand that with no-programmers, it's not always -- I would say rarely is it just all incremental new spend to them. Many, many cases, we are able to -- they're spending those dollars somewhere in many cases, with other vendors, maybe not a direct competitor, but they're spending money on compliance and image and safety and cleanliness, those types of things. And as a result, we're able to redirect those dollars to us, in many cases, save them money. So don't think of it all as ,oh my gosh, is there an end to that because if the economy, there's any stress in it that they're not going to be able to sell no-programmers, quite the opposite. We're -- we see a very, very long runway there. So that's attractive.

我認為重要的是要理解，對於沒有程序員的人來說，情況並不總是——我想說的是，很少有這只是對他們來說增量的新支出。很多很多情況下，我們能夠——在很多情況下，他們把這些錢花在其他供應商身上，也許不是直接競爭對手，但他們把錢花在合規性、形象、安全和清潔上，這些類型的事物。因此，我們能夠將這些美元轉給我們，在很多情況下，可以為他們省錢。因此，不要認為這一切會結束，因為如果經濟景氣，他們將無法出售沒有程序員的壓力，恰恰相反。我們——我們看到那裡有一條非常非常長的跑道。所以這很有吸引力。

As far as the competitive set, I mean, we operate in a very competitive industry, a very competitive environment. I would say I haven't seen any changes to the competitive landscape from that standpoint. So I'll leave it at that.

就競爭環境而言，我的意思是，我們在一個競爭非常激烈的行業、一個競爭非常激烈的環境中運營。我想說，從這個角度來看，我沒有看到競爭格局發生任何變化。所以我就這樣吧。

Okay. And then just one quick follow-up I had -- I think I understand the Google partnership and the benefits it potentially brings with, any sense of time line? Like when does this start happening, when you get the data on the cloud and then you start seeing some of these benefits?

好的。然後我做了一個快速跟進——我想我了解谷歌的合作夥伴關係以及它可能帶來的好處，有時間安排嗎？就像這種情況什麼時候開始發生，當您在雲上獲取數據然後您開始看到其中一些好處時？

Well, it's certainly going to be a process. We just entered into our relationship with them recently. We've had meetings with them to talk about where we're going to go here. And as I mentioned, it's not an event. It's a process. but we see some low-hanging fruit, I guess, is the best way to say it. But as we have gone down this path, more ideas are coming out. So we think we can benefit for years to come with this opportunity. And I won't go into too much detail just because we see some competitive advantages there. And so as a result, we'll keep those to ourselves. But we think the runway is long and attractive.

嗯，這肯定是一個過程。我們最近才與他們建立關係。我們已經與他們舉行了會議，討論我們要走向何方。正如我所提到的，這不是一個事件。這是一個過程。但我想，我們看到了一些唾手可得的成果，這是最好的表達方式。但當我們沿著這條路走下去時，更多的想法就會出現。因此，我們認為我們可以通過這個機會在未來幾年受益。我不會透露太多細節，只是因為我們看到了一些競爭優勢。因此，我們將把這些保留給我們自己。但我們認為跑道很長而且很有吸引力。

And our next question comes from Josh Chan with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Josh Chan。

Todd, Mike and Jared, congrats on a strong quarter. Yes. My first question, when you are selling First Aid and Fire, basically those adjacent businesses, how much of that growth is selling to existing customers? And how much of it gets you kind of entirely new customers that don't run Uniform from you?

托德、邁克和賈里德祝賀本季度表現強勁。是的。我的第一個問題，當你銷售急救和消防業務時，基本上是那些相鄰的業務，其中有多少增長是賣給現有客戶的？其中有多少可以為您帶來不使用 Uniform 的全新客戶？

Yes. Josh, it's a good question. It's a mix. Cross-sell has been -- has been very helpful for us over the last number of years and will continue to be. But we love new customers. And the Fire and First Aid, there is some overlap, but not complete overlap. And so it allows us to get into speaking to customers about that. And the first time they may have done business with us at all. So -- and then we -- separately, we have an enterprise sales organization that will call a customer or prospect. And frankly, it doesn't really matter to us what they start with. It's whatever the customer is interested in. If a customer doesn't do any business with us and they want to start -- their interest is in Fire, wonderful, or if it's in First Aid, wonderful, or rental, garments, then we go where the interest is and then we expand out that relationship from there. So we love the fact that there isn't complete overlap, and it gets us into new opportunities and then we cross-sell like crazy.

是的。喬什，這是個好問題。這是一個混合。在過去的幾年裡，交叉銷售一直對我們非常有幫助，並將繼續如此。但我們喜歡新客戶。而消防和急救，有一些重疊，但並不完全重疊。因此，它使我們能夠與客戶討論這一點。他們可能是第一次與我們做生意。因此，我們有一個單獨的企業銷售組織，可以給客戶或潛在客戶打電話。坦率地說，他們從什麼開始對我們來說並不重要。這取決於客戶的興趣。如果客戶沒有與我們做任何業務，但他們想開始——他們的興趣是消防、精彩，或者如果是急救、精彩或租賃、服裝，那麼我們去感興趣的地方，然後我們從那裡擴展這種關係。因此，我們喜歡這樣一個事實：沒有完全重疊，它讓我們獲得新的機會，然後我們瘋狂地進行交叉銷售。

Great. That makes sense. Thanks for the color. And I guess for my follow-up, if I look at your incremental margin, it's climbed pretty steadily through 2023. I assume if you got better alignment between price and cost. So how are you thinking about the cadence of incremental margins looking into 2024?

偉大的。這就說得通了。謝謝你的顏色。我想在我的後續行動中，如果我看看你們的增量利潤，到 2023 年，它會相當穩定地攀升。我想如果你們在價格和成本之間取得更好的平衡的話。那麼，您如何看待 2024 年利潤增量的節奏？

Josh, our incremental margin for the total company in fiscal '23 was 26.8%, a little bit up from the previous year. And Josh, it's -- there can be ups and downs from quarter-to-quarter in the way that we invest or in the cost that we see. And so we don't necessarily try to predict 1 quarter at a time. We do certainly believe we can get incremental operating margins in that 20% to 30% range from quarter-to-quarter generally, but it's going to go up and down, again, based on what we are doing within the business, some initiatives that we may or may not roll out.

喬希，23 財年我們整個公司的增量利潤率為 26.8%，比上一年略有上升。喬希，我們的投資方式或我們看到的成本每個季度可能會出現起伏。因此，我們不一定要嘗試一次預測一個季度。我們當然相信，一般來說，每個季度我們都能獲得 20% 到 30% 的營業利潤增量，但根據我們在業務中所做的事情、一些舉措，它會再次上下波動。我們可能會也可能不會推出。

So the bigger focus for us is on the full year, and our goal is to get those incrementals attractive enough that it improves margins over the year. So I wouldn't call it linear at all. I wouldn't call it flat. It's going to be based on how we're managing the business.

因此，我們更關注的是全年，我們的目標是讓這些增量具有足夠的吸引力，從而提高全年的利潤率。所以我根本不會稱其為線性。我不會稱其為平的。這將取決於我們管理業務的方式。

Our next question comes from Justin Hauke with R.W. Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Justin Hauke 和 R.W. Baird。

I wanted to -- I guess, my first question, maybe a follow-up on Andrew's question, just on the implied revenue growth, the 7% in 2024. And maybe you can kind of pull out the puts and takes, but that's coming off of a 12% you just did here in '23, and that was off of already a really strong 10%. 7% is more, I guess, kind of in line with kind of your long-term historical organic growth. And so -- maybe you can just give us the puts and takes. Is it all pricing that accounts for the delta because it sounds like your new business and retention and kind of existing sales are all still very strong. So I'm just trying to understand the moving pieces.

我想——我想，我的第一個問題，也許是安德魯問題的後續問題，只是關於隱含的收入增長，2024 年 7%。也許你可以取消看跌期權和索取期權，但這即將到來與 23 年剛剛完成的 12% 相比，這已經是非常強勁的 10% 了。我想 7% 是更多，有點符合你的長期歷史有機增長。所以——也許你可以給我們看跌期權和跌跌期權。是否所有定價都影響了增量，因為聽起來您的新業務、保留率以及現有銷售仍然非常強勁。所以我只是想理解那些移動的部分。

Thanks for the question, Justin. I'll try to answer and see if Mike wants to expand upon it. So when you think about our growth, Q4 growth was around 10%, which is really nice growth, especially considering a strong comp of last year of 12.7%, which was our strongest growth of the year, that year. So if you compare that 10% to the -- I'll call it the top end of our guide or in the mid-7s to higher-7s, you can think of that as really pricing returning back to closer to historical levels. And as I mentioned earlier, the reason that we see this as appropriate is we're seeing an easing of inflation and we saw that -- you can see that in the drop in the cost of energy that we've seen, the benefit we've received in Q4. And as I mentioned earlier, also you saw it in the CPI report yesterday and the PPI report today.

謝謝你的提問，賈斯汀。我會嘗試回答並看看邁克是否願意對此進行擴展。因此，當你考慮我們的增長時，第四季度的增長約為 10%，這確實是一個不錯的增長，特別是考慮到去年 12.7% 的強勁增長，這是我們當年最強勁的增長。因此，如果你將這 10% 與——我將其稱為我們指南的最高端或 7 至 7 之間的區間進行比較，你可以將其視為真正的定價回歸到接近歷史水平。正如我之前提到的，我們之所以認為這是適當的，是因為我們看到通貨膨脹有所緩和，而且我們看到了——你可以看到，在我們看到的能源成本下降中，我們所獲得的好處第四季度已收到。正如我之前提到的，您在昨天的 CPI 報告和今天的 PPI 報告中也看到了這一點。

So -- and as you appropriately said, I mean, we're guiding towards a more historical type of growth. Volume growth is really good still. Pricing will return closer to historical and appropriately so. But all that being said, we will still have -- we're guiding towards incremental margins and operating margin expansion. So pricing is a lever, but it's not our only lever available to us in order to expand margins.

因此，正如您所說，我的意思是，我們正在引導一種更具歷史性的增長。銷量增長仍然非常好。定價將更接近歷史水平，而且是適當的。但話雖這麼說，我們仍然會——我們正在引導利潤率增量和營業利潤率擴張。因此，定價是一個槓桿，但它並不是我們擴大利潤的唯一槓桿。

Okay. No, that's helpful. I mean that's I guess, kind of what you were implying, but I wanted to clarify that, that was kind of the magnitude of the change. I guess the second question, just on the insurance cost increase, and maybe SG&A as a percentage of revenue in general, how much of an impact was that in the quarter? And then is that kind of a run rate headwind that you'll face next year? And the reason why I ask is, obviously, you're implying margin expansion here, but your SG&A as a percentage of revenue is still pretty low versus kind of pre-COVID levels. And so just trying to understand how much structural SG&A leverage gain you have here versus returning to more of a normalized level?

好的。不，這很有幫助。我的意思是，我猜，這就是你所暗示的，但我想澄清一下，這就是變化的幅度。我想第二個問題，只是關於保險成本的增加，也許SG&A佔總體收入的百分比，這對本季度有多大影響？那麼明年您將面臨這種運行率逆風嗎？我問這個問題的原因顯然是，您在這裡暗示了利潤率擴張，但與新冠疫情爆發前的水平相比，您的銷售及管理費用佔收入的百分比仍然相當低。那麼，只是想了解一下，與恢復到正常化水平相比，您在這裡獲得了多少結構性 SG&A 槓桿收益？

Justin, because we are self-insured, those claims can -- they can kind of move up and down throughout the year. There's nothing that we would say is structural related to that. It's just a product of being self-insured. We ended the year at 26.9% in SG&A -- that is, oh gosh, a couple of hundred basis points maybe lower than pre-COVID in the last few years, and you've heard us speak about this. Look, we've worked hard to get it to that level, and we don't want to get back to historical levels. So our expectation is we're going to continue to find ways to better leverage SG&A, particularly G&A to make sure that it contributes to our margin expansion into the future. So we're going to continue to work hard to look for opportunities to bring it down and do not expect it to return to those higher 20 places that we were in pre-COVID.

賈斯汀，因為我們有自我保險，所以這些索賠可能會在一年中上下波動。我們不會說與此有什麼結構性的關係。這只是自我保險的產物。今年結束時，我們的 SG&A 率為 26.9%，也就是說，天哪，過去幾年可能比新冠疫情爆發前低了幾百個基點，而且您已經聽我們談論過這一點。看，我們已經努力達到這個水平，我們不想回到歷史水平。因此，我們的期望是，我們將繼續尋找更好地利用 SG&A（特別是 G&A）的方法，以確保它有助於我們未來的利潤擴張。因此，我們將繼續努力尋找機會將其拉低，並且不指望它會回到新冠疫情之前的前 20 位。

And we'll hear next from George Tong with Goldman Sachs.

接下來我們將聽到高盛的喬治·唐 (George Tong) 的發言。

You mentioned there hasn't been much change in customer behaviors based on what you're seeing. Can you elaborate on how customer budgets, sales cycles in the sales pipeline are evolving with the current environment?

您提到，根據您所看到的情況，客戶行為沒有太大變化。您能否詳細說明一下客戶預算、銷售渠道中的銷售週期如何隨著當前環境而變化？

George, yes. It's a pretty -- the environment hasn't changed significantly. The health of customers is -- varies based upon geographic, what type of business they're in, small, medium, large, those types of things. But generally speaking, the sales process and has not elongated, the sales pipe looks very good. We like the spot we're in. And we have invested appropriately. We're in the right -- we've got the right products and services. We've got the right focus on our customers, and we think that we're well positioned for the future. And we certainly are trying to make sure that we're planning for the long-term. And we're -- as I mentioned earlier, not trying to be an economic forecasting business, but we are making sure that we're watching our business very closely and hoping for clear sailing ahead with the economy. That being said, we will find a way to be successful as we have in the past.

喬治，是的。環境還不錯，沒有太大變化。客戶的健康狀況因地理位置、他們從事的業務類型（小型、中型、大型等）而異。但總體來說，銷售流程並沒有拉長，銷售管道看起來很不錯。我們喜歡我們所處的位置。並且我們進行了適當的投資。我們是對的——我們擁有正確的產品和服務。我們正確地關注我們的客戶，並且我們認為我們已經為未來做好了準備。我們當然正在努力確保我們的計劃是長期的。正如我之前提到的，我們並不是試圖成為一家經濟預測企業，但我們確保我們正在密切關注我們的業務，並希望經濟能夠順利前進。話雖這麼說，我們將找到一種像過去一樣取得成功的方法。

Got it. That's helpful. And then I wanted to drill down further into your healthcare vertical, which you touched on earlier, COVID certainly provided a notable lift to the healthcare business. Can you talk a little bit about how quickly the healthcare business is growing, what new business trends there look like and what mix of revenue we currently represent?

知道了。這很有幫助。然後我想進一步深入了解您之前提到的醫療保健垂直領域，新冠病毒無疑為醫療保健業務提供了顯著的提升。您能否談談醫療保健業務的增長速度、新的業務趨勢以及我們目前代表的收入組合？

Certainly, George. The healthcare business is -- has been strong for us for a number of years. And it has -- in it's large part not just having a sales focus, but organizing around those customers, products, services, our service organization. So it's more than just sales. It is making sure that we look at it as a business. And it's growing -- it's accretive to our growth rates. We see a very long runway there. As I mentioned earlier, the demographics are really attractive. But the pipeline of sales growth looks robust. And that's because of years of investment in making sure we're really well positioned, and we see that continuing.

當然，喬治。多年來，醫療保健業務對我們來說一直很強勁。它在很大程度上不僅以銷售為重點，而且還圍繞這些客戶、產品、服務和我們的服務組織進行組織。所以這不僅僅是銷售。它確保我們將其視為一項業務。而且它正在增長——它加速了我們的增長率。我們看到那裡有一條很長的跑道。正如我之前提到的，人口統計數據確實很有吸引力。但銷售增長的渠道看起來很強勁。這是因為我們多年來進行了投資，以確保我們真正處於有利地位，而且我們看到這種情況會持續下去。

Got it. And just the mix of revenue?

知道了。僅僅是收入的組合？

I don't have that in front of us, George, right now. In the past, it's been about 7%. And it's -- I'd say that it's growing faster than average.

喬治，現在我面前沒有這個。過去，這一比例約為7%。我想說它的增長速度比平均水平要快。

Your next question comes from Tim Mulrooney with William Blair.

您的下一個問題來自蒂姆·馬爾魯尼和威廉·布萊爾。

On the First Aid business, specifically, pre-pandemic operating margins were closer to 15%. They went down several hundred basis points. I know from the sell through a lower-margin PP&E in '21 and '22. But now it looks like you're sitting at 19%. I mean that's a big jump from pre-pandemic levels. Would you expect, I guess, micro tie a little bit of a give back at some point? Or do you expect to keep and build on those margin gains that you've made this year?

具體來說，在急救業務上，疫情爆發前的營業利潤率接近 15%。他們下跌了數百個基點。我從 21 年和 22 年通過利潤率較低的 PP&E 出售得知。但現在看起來你的比例是 19%。我的意思是，這比大流行前的水平有很大躍升。我想，你會期望微領帶在某個時候能得到一點回饋嗎？或者您是否希望保持並鞏固今年取得的利潤增長？

Yes, Tim, we do not expect to give back. We expect to maintain and build on those improvements. And we're leveraging certainly the total growth, the benefits of health and wellness being important to people in the marketplace. The mix of business being attractive. And we've fundamentally focused on extracting out inefficiencies in the business. So -- and we're not giving those back. So yes, we see -- the future is bright for that business. .

是的，蒂姆，我們不期望回報。我們希望維持並鞏固這些改進。我們當然正在利用總體增長，健康和保健的好處對市場上的人們來說很重要。業務組合具有吸引力。我們從根本上專注於消除業務中的低效率問題。所以——我們不會返還這些。所以，是的，我們看到——該業務的未來是光明的。 。

Yes. Okay. It was more than just sales mix. It sounds like you did some structural things. But I have a question...

是的。好的。這不僅僅是銷售組合。聽起來你做了一些結構性的事情。但我有一個問題...

We've talked a lot about the mix certainly returning, and that's being -- that's a big part of it. But as Todd mentioned, we've -- our First Aid Safety partners have a lot of things going on in terms of business improvement opportunities from sourcing better to routing better, to sales productivity improving, to penetration opportunities. There's a lot going on in that business. And we've attributed a lot, you're correct, to the revenue mix, and that has been important in terms of the [tide] of the pandemic to today. But there's also a lot that's going on in the business that is working towards structural improvements in the business that create long-term efficiencies and you're seeing that. And that's why we don't expect to give it back. There's nothing that we are underspending or under-investing in to get these margins.

我們已經談論了很多關於混合肯定會回歸的事情，這是其中的一個重要部分。但正如托德提到的，我們的急救安全合作夥伴在業務改進機會方面正在進行很多工作，從更好的採購到更好的路線，到銷售生產力的提高，到滲透機會。這項業務發生了很多事情。你是對的，我們將很大一部分歸功於收入組合，這對於今天的大流行[浪潮]來說非常重要。但企業中也正在進行很多工作，致力於企業的結構性改進，從而創造長期效率，您已經看到了這一點。這就是為什麼我們不希望歸還它。為了獲得這些利潤，我們沒有花費或投資不足。

These are real business improvements that are sustainable. And that's what we love about the business. It has been growing nicely. It's resonating with our prospects and customers. And it's pretty exciting to think about that business in our fiscal '24 topping $1 billion for the first time. So we do love the business, and there's a lot of good work going on there.

這些都是真正可持續的業務改進。這就是我們熱愛這項業務的原因。它一直生長得很好。它引起了我們的潛在客戶和客戶的共鳴。想到該業務在 24 財年首次突破 10 億美元，真是令人興奮不已。所以我們確實熱愛這個行業，並且有很多好的工作正在進行。

That is exciting, and I appreciate the extra color there, Mike. That's very clear. If I could just shift gears really quickly. One of your competitors recently commented that they saw customer retention rates come down a little bit recently. But it was kind of more of a normalization, okay, like following a boost over the last several years, when things were good. Now that they are kind of back towards historical rates. I'm curious and some investors are curious if you guys saw something similar to any material degree, did you see retention rates kind of jump up a little bit in fiscal '22 and '23? And have you seen that pull back or normalize, so to speak, more recently?

這太令人興奮了，我很欣賞那裡的額外色彩，邁克。這非常清楚。如果我能很快換檔就好了。您的一位競爭對手最近評論說，他們發現客戶保留率最近略有下降。但這更像是一種正常化，就像過去幾年情況良好時的提振一樣。現在他們又回到了歷史水平。我很好奇，一些投資者也很好奇，如果你們看到與任何實質性學位類似的東西，你們是否看到 22 財年和 23 財年的保留率略有上升？最近您是否看到這種情況有所回落或正常化？

Great question, Tim. So over the past few years, we've seen a nice improvement to our customer retention levels through the pandemic. We think that we handle that really strategically, intelligently and thought about the long-term. And we saw our customer satisfaction scores go up at that same time. And we've continued to see those same levels of customer satisfaction and retention levels. So no, we have not seen a change from that standpoint. And we're always working on improving our business and making sure that we are super focused on making sure we're taking great care of our customers and staying attention -- or attentive to their needs, is a big part of what makes us successful. So we've not seen a change, and we're focused on making sure that doesn't happen.

很好的問題，蒂姆。因此，在過去的幾年裡，我們看到疫情期間我們的客戶保留水平有了很大的提高。我們認為我們處理這個問題的方式確實是戰略性的、明智的，並且是從長遠考慮的。我們看到我們的客戶滿意度分數同時上升。我們繼續看到同樣水平的客戶滿意度和保留率。所以，從這個角度來看，我們還沒有看到任何變化。我們始終致力於改善我們的業務，並確保我們超級專注於確保我們很好地照顧我們的客戶並保持關注 - 或關注他們的需求，這是我們成功的重要組成部分。因此，我們沒有看到任何變化，我們致力於確保這種情況不會發生。

We'll hear next from Kartik Mehta with Northcoast Research.

接下來我們將聽到來自 Northcoast Research 的 Kartik Mehta 的發言。

I wanted to ask your expectations for add-stops as we go into fiscal '24. It seems as though companies are starting to slow down their hiring. And I'm wondering what type of impact that's included in the guidance or what you're anticipating?

我想問一下您對進入 24 財年時添加停止項的期望。公司似乎開始放慢招聘速度。我想知道該指南中包含哪些類型的影響或您預期的影響是什麼？

Kartik, we have not seen a change to our add-stops metrics, and we are -- expect that, that will continue. We're -- part of it is because of the diversity of our customer base, not just good producing, services providing and the broadness of our customer base. We're not dependent upon any one particular area and we expect to grow in multiples of GDP. And all that being said, we expect that add-stops metrics will continue on its path.

Kartik，我們還沒有看到我們的添加停止指標發生變化，並且我們預計這種情況將會持續下去。我們的部分原因是我們客戶群的多樣性，而不僅僅是良好的生產、服務提供和我們客戶群的廣泛性。我們不依賴於任何一個特定領域，我們期望以 GDP 的倍數增長。話雖如此，我們預計添加站點指標將繼續保持其發展軌跡。

Perfect. And then Mike, you might have said this, so I apologize if you already talked about this. But just the impact from energy costs in FY '24 versus FY '23, what you've included or anticipated.

完美的。邁克，你可能已經說過了，所以如果你已經談論過這一點，我深表歉意。但只是 24 財年與 23 財年能源成本的影響，即您已包含或預期的內容。

So let me -- I'll give you a couple of numbers. Fourth quarter total energy for the total company was 1.8% for the fourth quarter. For the year, that was 2.2%. So for the year -- this year -- fiscal '23 compared to '22, it was down 10 basis points. So it's roughly flattish. As we think about '24, look, the prices at the pump spiked in June of last year. And so our first quarter numbers of last year were fairly high. And so we may get a little bit of a tailwind in Q1 and then our expectation is we'll turn roughly flattish.

所以讓我——我會給你幾個數字。第四季度公司總能源增長率為 1.8%。今年這一數字為 2.2%。因此，今年——23 財年與 22 財年相比，下降了 10 個基點。所以大致是平的。當我們想到 24 世紀時，你看，去年 6 月加油站的價格飆升。因此，我們去年第一季度的數字相當高。因此，我們可能會在第一季度獲得一些順風，然後我們的預期是我們將大致持平。

Next, we'll hear from Seth Weber with Wells Fargo.

接下來，我們將聽取來自富國銀行的塞思·韋伯 (Seth Weber) 的發言。

I wanted to just circle back to the revenue guidance point again for a second. I'm just -- it sounds like First Aid Safety and the Fire business both have very strong momentum, so I'm just trying to understand the construct of the revenue guide, whether you think all 3 segments will be in that kind of 6% to 8% range or will there be some above and some below to kind of put out to that 6% to 8% range? Because it seems like there's still a lot of momentum in the First Aid Safety and Fire business.

我想再次回到收入指導點。我只是 - 聽起來急救安全和消防業務都有非常強勁的勢頭，所以我只是想了解收入指南的結構，無論您是否認為所有 3 個細分市場都會屬於那種 6 % 到 8% 的範圍，還是會有一些上面和下面的一些，以達到 6% 到 8% 的範圍？因為急救安全和消防業務似乎仍然有很大的發展勢頭。

Well, Seth, we like the momentum in all of our businesses. So will there be some above, some below? Yes. But it's -- but generally speaking, we see in the mid- to high single digits would be probably where you can think of it. And it's -- and as I mentioned earlier, the -- we're up against comps that are significant, partly because of pricing being above historical in the past, well above historical, now it being closer to historical.

好吧，塞斯，我們喜歡我們所有業務的勢頭。那麼會有一些在上面，一些在下面嗎？是的。但一般來說，我們看到中高個位數可能就是你能想到的地方。正如我之前提到的，我們面臨著重大的競爭，部分原因是過去的定價高於歷史水平，遠高於歷史水平，現在它更接近歷史水平。

Okay. Maybe, Mike, a follow-up question just on CapEx. It's kind of pushing up towards that 4%-ish number again. Is that the right way to think about it for fiscal '24? And then can you just give us any color on what that -- whether that's brick-and-mortar or whether just where that spending might be going, from a capacity perspective or whatnot?

好的。邁克，也許是關於資本支出的後續問題。這有點再次推向 4% 左右的數字。這是考慮 24 財年的正確方法嗎？然後你能否給我們一些關於這是什麼的顏色——無論是實體還是從容量角度或其他角度來看，這些支出可能會花在哪裡？

Sure. Yes, we would expect 3.5% to 4% of revenue. Look, when we've had a really good couple of years of volume growth, we have capacity needs in certain places. Capacity is local in our business, but we have capacity needs. And we want to continue to invest for growth. And so there will be everything from added washers and dryers and specific wash alleys to some of a few brick-and-mortar new buildings and other investments in the business that allow us to continue to have the capacity we need to grow. So it is kind of back to that historical 3.5% to 4% range. That would be our expectation.

當然。是的，我們預計佔收入的 3.5% 到 4%。看，當我們經歷了幾年的銷量增長時，我們在某些​​地方有產能需求。產能在我們的業務中是本地的，但我們有產能需求。我們希望繼續投資以促進增長。因此，從增加的洗衣機和烘乾機以及特定的洗衣巷到一些實體新建築和其他業務投資，一切都會使我們能夠繼續擁有增長所需的能力。所以這有點回到了 3.5% 到 4% 的歷史範圍。這將是我們的期望。

And we'll move next to Heather Balsky with Bank of America.

我們將轉到美國銀行的希瑟·巴爾斯基 (Heather Balsky) 旁邊。

I know you've got a question earlier about sort of the trend in sales and the difference is related to pricing. I'm curious, focusing specifically on the Uniforms business. You've been growing organically 9% to -- and 11% the last few quarters. You presumably were well past the COVID recovery period. I'm just curious what's enabled you to drive that outperformance versus kind of pre-COVID levels? And if you think that's sustainable going forward?

我知道您之前有一個關於銷售趨勢的問題，差異與定價有關。我很好奇，特別關注制服業務。過去幾個季度，您的有機增長率為 9% 到 11%。您可能已經過了新冠病毒恢復期。我只是好奇是什麼讓你們能夠取得比新冠疫情前的水平更好的表現？如果您認為這種情況未來可持續發展？

Heather. So yes, our Uniform Rental business is performing quite well. We've -- we think we have invested appropriately in the sales organization. We really like where we're going there. We like the productivity levels. They've continued to go up. And there's plenty of inputs to productivity and it's whether it's products that we launch, services that we launch, the retention levels of our people, the leadership of the organization to make sure that we're driving items that make them more successful. So new is going well, and our service organization is doing an outstanding job with customer retention, making sure, as I mentioned earlier, our customer satisfaction scores are near all-time highs.

希瑟。所以，是的，我們的製服租賃業務表現相當不錯。我們認為我們對銷售組織進行了適當的投資。我們真的很喜歡我們要去的地方。我們喜歡生產力水平。他們還在繼續上漲。生產力的投入有很多，無論是我們推出的產品、我們推出的服務、我們員工的保留水平、組織的領導力，以確保我們正在推動使他們更加成功的項目。所以新的進展順利，我們的服務組織在客戶保留方面做得非常出色，確保，正如我之前提到的，我們的客戶滿意度分數接近歷史最高水平。

And as a result of that, our lost business, our customer retention, the appropriate way to say it. Our customer retention is really attractive. So our new is up and our customer retention is improved over pre-COVID levels. So those are big for us and having a really positive impact on the business.

結果，我們失去了業務，我們的客戶保留了，正確的說法是。我們的客戶保留率確實很有吸引力。因此，我們的新產品上線了，我們的客戶保留率比新冠疫情爆發前的水平有所提高。因此，這些對我們來說意義重大，並對業務產生真正積極的影響。

Great. That's really helpful. And I feel like I have to ask an AI question here. You guys talked about being early in your digital transformation journey. Are you guys looking at any investments on the AI side in terms of efficiencies and sort of behind the scenes type benefit? I'm just curious.

偉大的。這真的很有幫助。我覺得我必須在這裡問一個人工智能問題。你們談到了數字化轉型之旅的早期階段。你們是否在考慮人工智能方面的效率和幕後類型收益方面的投資？我只是好奇。

Yes, Heather, we're certainly investigating and investing in opportunities. And we think we're with the right partners. When you think about Verizon, SAP and Google, having those 3 as the -- our technology -- our strategic technology partners, we think we're with the right folks. And we don't just have a customer vendor relationship with them. We have a strategic relationship with them, and they're helping us -- they are and will help us to leverage those opportunities in the marketplace. So I can't lay out specifics for you, but I'll just tell you this, we're -- we see the opportunity to invest in that area, and we are doing so appropriately because we think it will pay big dividends. That being said, it will be -- we'll be speaking about this for many, many years to come because we think the benefit has a real -- has a lot of legs to it. .

是的，希瑟，我們當然正在調查和投資機會。我們認為我們擁有合適的合作夥伴。當你想到 Verizon、SAP 和 Google，將這三個公司作為我們的技術戰略技術合作夥伴時，我們認為我們選擇了合適的人選。我們與他們不僅僅是客戶供應商關係。我們與他們建立了戰略關係，他們正在幫助我們——他們現在並將幫助我們利用市場上的這些機會。因此，我無法為您提供具體細節，但我只想告訴您，我們看到了在該領域進行投資的機會，並且我們正在適當地這樣做，因為我們認為它將帶來巨大的紅利。話雖這麼說，我們將在未來很多年裡談論這個問題，因為我們認為它的好處是真正的——有很多支撐。 。

Your next question comes from Scott Schneeberger with Oppenheimer.

您的下一個問題來自斯科特·施內伯格和奧本海默。

Guys, kind of a cautionary question. It sounds like things are going really well and recent economic indicators feel pretty good, but just curious to hear what the plan is if -- as your guidance expects no softness in the economy, how are you looking at what levers would you pull on the efficiency side? What should give us assurance you'll be in good shape if you're not able to get some of the leverage you've been getting on the top line?

伙計們，這是一個警告性的問題。聽起來事情進展得很順利，最近的經濟指標感覺相當不錯，但只是想知道計劃是什麼，如果——因為你的指導預計經濟不會疲軟，你如何看待你會用什麼槓桿來推動經濟增長？效率方面？如果您無法獲得一些在營收上所獲得的槓桿作用，那麼我們應該如何保證您能夠保持良好的狀態呢？

Scott, let me make sure I understand. You're saying if we can't get to leverage or if the economic environment changes?

斯科特，讓我確保我理解了。你是說我們無法利用槓桿還是經濟環境發生了變化？

If the economic environment dips in below kind of status quo and really deteriorate, just curious what kind of leverage you guys would pull to maintain the financial sense.

如果經濟環境低於現狀並且真的惡化，只是好奇你們會用什麼樣的槓桿來維持財務意識。

Yes. Certainly. Good question. I -- we have a very tenured, very experienced leadership team, management team that has been through the cycles. It seems like you name it, we've been through it, and we expect to be successful in all environments. Now -- so your question is a tough one to answer because the economic downturn, how deep is it? How long is it? How broad? And so trying to understand that is challenging. But we expect to be successful in all economic environments.

是的。當然。好問題。我——我們有一個長期任職、經驗豐富的領導團隊、經歷過各個週期的管理團隊。似乎你能想到的，我們都經歷過，並且我們期望在所有環境中都能取得成功。現在——所以你的問題很難回答，因為經濟衰退有多嚴重？多久了？有多廣泛？因此，試圖理解這一點是具有挑戰性的。但我們期望在所有經濟環境中都能取得成功。

If you're talking about a massive downturn in '08, '09, that might be different. But we're ready. We know how to do this. We have demonstrated our ability to be successful in all these different types of economic environments. We have grown our sales and profits in 52 -- in the last 54 years. And my expectation is we will absolutely do so and we will find and fight and a way to be successful in whatever economic environment. So plenty of levers available to us. And we think we've got the right team in place to manage that.

如果你談論的是 08 年、09 年的大規模衰退，情況可能會有所不同。但我們已經準備好了。我們知道如何做到這一點。我們已經證明了我們在所有這些不同類型的經濟環境中取得成功的能力。在過去 54 年裡，我們的銷售額和利潤增長了 52 年。我的期望是，我們絕對會這樣做，我們會找到並奮鬥，找到一種在任何經濟環境下取得成功的方法。我們有很多可用的槓桿。我們認為我們已經擁有合適的團隊來管理這個問題。

I appreciate that. And then for the follow-up, it's a bit of a 2-parter and one to your housekeeping. I was just curious, your -- thanks for answering on Seth's question on CapEx, what that will look like. Just other use of the capital as we head into fiscal '24, thoughts on buybacks, thoughts on M&A, any other cleanup on the balance sheet you were considering? And then that second part would just be, if you could remind us what a one day -- one extra workday quantitative impact is that in fiscal '24 versus '23?

我很感激。然後對於後續工作，這有點像 2 方和 1 方負責家政工作。我只是很好奇，感謝您回答 Seth 關於資本支出的問題，那會是什麼樣子。當我們進入 24 財年時，資本的其他用途，對回購的想法，對併購的想法，您正在考慮對資產負債表進行任何其他清理嗎？那麼第二部分就是，如果你能提醒我們，24 財年與 23 財年相比，一天——一個額外工作日的數量影響是什麼？

Sure. From a capital allocation, I'll start with our expectation is that cash flow is going to continue to be very good in fiscal '24. And secondly, our balance sheet is in great shape. We -- as of May 31, we have no variable debt. And so we can do a lot of things with great cash flow and a great balance sheet. We would love to use that on M&A if the opportunities come along, and we'll be as -- we'll be as aggressive as we can be in terms of looking for them and making sure that they come at the right value, but we love that opportunity. Buyback is another great opportunity, again, with good cash flow and a great balance sheet, we can put that cash to work, and we certainly could do it in the form of a buyback.

當然。從資本配置來看，我首先預計 24 財年的現金流將繼續保持良好狀態。其次，我們的資產負債表狀況良好。截至 5 月 31 日，我們沒有可變債務。因此，我們可以用大量的現金流和良好的資產負債表來做很多事情。如果機會出現，我們很樂意在併購中使用這一點，我們將盡可能積極地尋找機會並確保它們具有正確的價值，但是我們喜歡這個機會。回購是另一個很好的機會，憑藉良好的現金流和良好的資產負債表，我們可以將現金投入使用，而且我們當然可以以回購的形式做到這一點。

So look, our capital allocation philosophy and strategy hasn't changed. And with -- again, with a healthy balance sheet and a healthy cash flow, we can do some good things with that as we look forward to fiscal '24. Your second question of the one workday for a fiscal year. In this case, it would be about a 40 basis point benefit to growth -- sales growth. And think about it as about a 12 basis point benefit on bottom line on operating margin.

所以看，我們的資本配置理念和策略沒有改變。再次強調，憑藉健康的資產負債表和健康的現金流，我們可以利用這些來做一些好事，期待 24 財年的到來。你的第二個問題是一個財政年度的一個工作日。在這種情況下，增長（銷售增長）將受益約 40 個基點。並將其視為運營利潤率底線約 12 個基點的收益。

Your next question comes from Shlomo Rosenbaum with Stifel Nicolaus.

您的下一個問題來自 Shlomo Rosenbaum 和 Stifel Nicolaus。

Todd, I wanted to just ask a little bit more on kind of the hiring environment at your clients. You said you're not expecting it to change. It's been a very strong hiring environment for the last several years since that kind of initial dip in COVID. Is there a way that you think about it in your mind in terms of the strong hiring environment and just kind of clients adding personnel driving some of that revenue growth, particularly in the Rental Uniforms division? Or do you think it's really a lot more of the company's own efforts in terms of cross-selling, finding new customers and pricing? Then I have a follow-up.

托德，我想多詢問一下你們客戶的招聘環境。你說過你不希望它改變。自新冠疫情最初出現下滑以來，過去幾年的招聘環境一直非常強勁。您是否會考慮到強勁的招聘環境以及客戶增加人員推動部分收入增長的情況，特別是在製服租賃部門？或者你認為這實際上更多的是公司自己在交叉銷售、尋找新客戶和定價方面的努力？然後我有一個後續行動。

Good question, Shlomo. We love it when our customers are hiring more employees and it certainly allows you to swim a little bit downstream then. But it's -- but we've got to find ways to add value to customers even when they're in the more flattish type environment. That being said, there is still almost 10 million job openings. So that's very encouraging. We'd love to see those jobs filled. But we are -- we're going to find a way to be successful whether our customers are hiring at rapid rates or at much lower rates, we're going to find a way to be successful. And that is impacted by our ability to -- we would call it cross-sell, bring more value to the customers in other products and services that they may have with maybe a new business unit, but maybe within that business unit, just selling more items.

好問題，什洛莫。當我們的客戶僱用更多員工時，我們很高興，這當然可以讓您向下游遊一點。但這是——但我們必須找到為客戶增加價值的方法，即使他們處於更加扁平化的環境中。話雖如此，仍有近 1000 萬個職位空缺。所以這非常令人鼓舞。我們很樂意看到這些職位被填補。但我們——我們將找到一種成功的方法，無論我們的客戶是快速招聘還是以低得多的速度招聘，我們都會找到一種成功的方法。這受到我們能力的影響——我們稱之為交叉銷售，為客戶帶來更多的價值，他們可能在新的業務部門擁有其他產品和服務，但也許在該業務部門內，只是銷售更多項目。

So there's a lot of inputs to that and how we categorize it. But we're -- we like the spot that we're in. And we think the products and services and the value proposition that we're providing is resonating with people and would certainly love the economic environment to continue or even improve.

因此，對此以及我們如何對其進行分類有很多投入。但我們喜歡我們所處的位置。我們認為我們提供的產品和服務以及價值主張引起了人們的共鳴，並且肯定會喜歡經濟環境繼續甚至改善。

Okay. Great. And then just on a follow-up. Maybe you could talk a little bit about the margin just on a sequential basis of looking at the First Aid and Safety. And then kind of the other division, you had a sequential decline despite revenue going up and the rental uniforms you have continuing to go up? Or was there something particular on the insurance side that hit the other divisions? Or is there some particular investments that are going on right now? Just if you can give a little bit of a sequential color on what's going on with the operating margins.

好的。偉大的。然後進行後續行動。也許您可以在查看急救和安全的順序基礎上談談利潤。那麼另一個部門，儘管收入增加並且制服租賃繼續增加，但您的業績卻連續下降？或者保險方面有什麼特別的事情影響了其他部門嗎？或者目前正在進行一些特定的投資？只要您能對營業利潤率的情況給出一些連續的顏色即可。

Sure, Shlomo. Look, the First Aid margin was at 18.8% in Q4, still a really healthy place to be. And nothing noteworthy other than growth is -- organic growth still is very good. Gross margin is still very good, and we continue to invest for the future. So nothing noteworthy there.

當然，什洛莫。看，第四季度的急救利潤率為 18.8%，仍然是一個非常健康的水平。除了增長之外，沒有什麼值得注意的了——有機增長仍然非常好。毛利率還是很好的，我們會繼續為未來投資。所以那裡沒有什麼值得注意的。

From the All Other perspective, the Fire operating margin in Q4 was slightly over 20% and so that's a great place for us in that business. The direct sale business was 3.5%. So quite a bit lower. And that business can move up and down and have a little bit more volatility than the other businesses just because of the nature of it. We still love the business. It grew nicely, but mix can have an outsized effect on that operating margin and it sort of did in the fourth quarter.

從所有其他角度來看，第四季度的 Fire 運營利潤率略高於 20%，因此這對我們來說是該業務的一個很好的位置。直銷業務為3.5%。所以低了很多。由於其性質，該業務可能會上下波動，並且比其他業務具有更大的波動性。我們仍然熱愛這個行業。它增長得很好，但混合可能會對營業利潤率產生巨大影響，第四季度就是如此。

As we move forward, from a First Aid perspective, we still expect the really positive margins that we've seen as we've discussed a few minutes ago. And we still expect Fire to continue to perform very, very well like it has in fiscal '23.

隨著我們的前進，從急救的角度來看，我們仍然期望我們幾分鐘前討論過的真正積極的利潤。我們仍然預計 Fire 的表現將繼續非常非常好，就像 23 財年那樣。

Your next question comes from Toni Kaplan from Morgan Stanley.

您的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的托尼·卡普蘭。

I wanted to follow up on First Aid growth. You talked about the cabinet business contributing it again, which is great. I was hoping you could talk about, is that sort of an industry penetration is growing? Or is it the product set relatively new. I know you're investing in it during COVID. Have you been sort of incentivizing your sales force to sell more cabinets? And are you taking share? Just wanted to get a sense on how long the sort of 20% growth in cabinets can continue and if there are any other factors you'd call out as well?

我想跟進急救的發展情況。你談到櫥櫃業務又貢獻了，這很好。我希望你能談談，這種行業的滲透率是否正在增長？或者是產品組相對較新。我知道您在新冠疫情期間對此進行了投資。您是否一直在激勵您的銷售人員銷售更多櫥櫃？你有分享嗎？只是想了解一下櫥櫃 20% 的增長能持續多久，以及您是否還會指出任何其他因素？

Thank you, Toni. We -- the answer is yes. All the above is what we're doing. We see a long runway in the First Aid business. We're -- the vast majority of what we sell are people that are do-it-yourself. There's -- as you think about, there's 16 million businesses in North America. There is a significant opportunity to sell our First Aid cabinet services, but our other services as well, whether they be AEDs, eyewash stations, those types of items that really have value to customers. And that health, safety, compliance tailwind, we don't see that changing. That's -- people are investing in their organizations, and we see that as a tailwind for many years to come.

謝謝你，托尼。我們——答案是肯定的。以上都是我們正在做的事情。我們看到急救業務還有很長的路要走。我們銷售的絕大多數產品都是自己動手的。正如您所想，北美有 1600 萬家企業。我們有很大的機會銷售我們的急救櫃服務，但也銷售我們的其他服務，無論是 AED、洗眼站還是那些對客戶真正有價值的物品。我們認為健康、安全、合規性的推動因素不會改變。那就是——人們正在對其組織進行投資，我們認為這是未來許多年的推動力。

And the market is really, really big. So that's where we're -- we love the growth that we're seeing in that business, and we're continuing to invest appropriately to make sure that it continues.

而且這個市場真的非常非常大。這就是我們現在的處境——我們喜歡我們在該業務中看到的增長，並且我們將繼續適當投資以確保它持續下去。

Terrific. And this should be a short one, but hoping you could talk about maybe the sensitivity of the business from inflation. So presumably, your costs come down as if inflation comes down, so how should we be thinking about maybe like the impact on margin for each point inflation comes down or however you want to frame the sensitivity there?

了不起。這應該是一個簡短的內容，但希望您能談談企業對通貨膨脹的敏感性。因此，據推測，您的成本會像通貨膨脹下降一樣下降，那麼我們應該如何考慮每個點通貨膨脹下降對利潤率的影響，或者您想如何構建那裡的敏感性？

Toni, that's -- that's a really difficult thing to try to say 1 point of inflation equals x points of margin. That's pretty difficult to do. But I'd maybe say this. When you think about our cost structure, we've got a really nice mix of cost types, if you will. So we certainly have things like labor that are impacted by inflationary pressures. And we work very, very hard on that over the course of the last 5 years, I would say. And we're in a good spot. But then we also have this large part of our cost structure that is amortizing. And it allows us to effectively see any inflationary impacts coming if they are coming and plan for them accordingly. And so we may plan for that in terms of our pricing approach. We may plan for that in terms of other initiatives.

托尼，要說 1 點的通貨膨脹等於 x 點的利潤率是一件非常困難的事情。這是相當難做到的。但我也許會這麼說。當您考慮我們的成本結構時，如果您願意的話，我們有一個非常好的成本類型組合。因此，勞動力等因素肯定會受到通脹壓力的影響。我想說，在過去的五年裡，我們在這方面做了非常非常努力的工作。我們處於一個很好的位置。但我們的成本結構中也有很大一部分是攤銷的。它使我們能夠有效地看到任何即將到來的通貨膨脹影響，並相應地制定計劃。因此，我們可能會在定價方法方面對此進行規劃。我們可能會為此制定其他舉措。

But the point is because we're amortizing those costs, it takes a while for inflation to get to us. And during that period of time, we can plan and we can anticipate better. While we're on that bucket, I would say our global supply chain really does a nice job of not being single sourced. And so when there are some inflationary pressures in various parts of the world or in our supply chain, because we're not single source, we have the ability to move volume a little bit in flex, we have choices. And that's important for us. And it has been important for us over the course of the last 2 years in the high inflationary environment.

但關鍵是因為我們正在攤銷這些成本，所以通貨膨脹需要一段時間才能影響到我們。在那段時間裡，我們可以更好地計劃和預測。雖然我們處於這個階段，但我想說我們的全球供應鏈確實做得很好，沒有單一來源。因此，當世界各地或我們的供應鏈存在通脹壓力時，因為我們不是單一來源，我們有能力稍微靈活地調整產量，我們有選擇。這對我們來說很重要。在過去兩年的高通脹環境中，這對我們來說非常重要。

And then the third bucket that I would throw out is sort of that infrastructure. We've got a large infrastructure, 400-plus locations around the country. And when we are growing really nicely, we're leveraging it very, very well, and we've done that over the course of the last few years. And so Toni, we're not a product company that is dramatically affected by today's inflation. And you hear us talk about pricing is just one lever that we have to get margin improvement. And that's because of, number one, we've got this sort of diverse cost structure. And number two, we've got a lot of initiatives and things that we're working on. And it gives us choices. And that's the -- that's really the key for us in terms of fighting inflation. So hopefully, that answers the question. It's not an easy metric for us because of the cost structure that we have and the initiatives that we have, and it also depends on where the inflation comes from.

然後我要扔掉的第三個桶就是基礎設施。我們擁有龐大的基礎設施，在全國設有 400 多個地點。當我們發展得非常好時，我們會非常非常好地利用它，並且我們在過去幾年中已經做到了這一點。因此，托尼，我們不是一家受到當今通貨膨脹嚴重影響的產品公司。你聽到我們談論定價只是我們提高利潤率的一個槓桿。這是因為，第一，我們有這種多樣化的成本結構。第二，我們有很多舉措和正在努力的事情。它給了我們選擇。這就是我們對抗通脹的真正關鍵。希望這能回答問題。對於我們來說，這不是一個簡單的衡量標準，因為我們的成本結構和我們的舉措，而且它還取決於通貨膨脹的來源。

And this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the call back to Mr. Mattingley for any additional or closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將電話轉回給馬丁利先生，請他發表補充或結束語。

Thank you for joining us this morning. We will issue our first quarter fiscal '24 financial results in September. We look forward to speaking you -- speaking with you again at that time. Thanks.

感謝您今天早上加入我們。我們將於 9 月份發布 24 財年第一季度財務業績。我們期待屆時再次與您交談。謝謝。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for attending.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的出席。