信達思 (CTAS) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Cintas Corporation Announces Fiscal 2024 Second Quarter Earnings Release Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Jared Mattingley, Vice President, Treasurer and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

大家好，歡迎參加 Cintas Corporation 宣布的 2024 財年第二季財報發布電話會議。今天的通話正在錄音。現在，我想將會議交給副總裁、財務主管和投資者關係賈里德·馬丁利 (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. We will discuss our fiscal 2024 second 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執行長 Todd Schneider；和麥克漢森，執行副總裁兼財務長。我們將討論 2024 財年第二季的業績。在我們的評論之後，我們將開始接受分析師提問。

The 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.

1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》為前瞻性聲明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，反映了公司目前對未來事件和財務表現的看法。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有重大差異。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。

I'll now turn the call over to Todd.

我現在將把電話轉給托德。

Thank you, Jared. We are pleased with our second quarter results and are excited about the future. Second quarter total revenue grew 9.3% to $2.38 billion. Each of our businesses continue to execute at a high level. Our momentum in the business is good, and volume remains robust. We can grow in a number of different ways. Contribution to our growth from new business remains strong and come from companies that either outsource their program today or they are managing it themselves.

謝謝你，賈里德。我們對第二季的業績感到滿意，並對未來感到興奮。第二季總營收成長 9.3%，達到 23.8 億美元。我們的每項業務都繼續保持高水準執行。我們的業務勢頭良好，銷售依然強勁。我們可以透過多種不同的方式成長。新業務對我們成長的貢獻仍然強勁，這些貢獻來自於目前外包專案或自行管理專案的公司。

We continue to have great success cross-selling to existing customers. Retention levels are strong and remain at very attractive levels. Our value proposition of image, safety, cleanliness and compliance continues to resonate across businesses of all sizes and in all verticals. We continue to be pleased with the results from our focus on prospects within the verticals of healthcare, hospitality, education and state and local government.

我們繼續在向現有客戶進行交叉銷售方面取得巨大成功。保留率很高，並且保持在非常有吸引力的水平。我們的形象、安全、清潔和合規價值主張繼續在各種規模和所有垂直領域的企業中引起共鳴。我們對關注醫療保健、酒店、教育以及州和地方政府等垂直領域前景的結果仍然感到滿意。

We recently announced the opening of 2 clean room facilities, one in North Carolina and the other in Wisconsin. These facilities will provide additional capacity in these regions in order to expand our efforts in this area of attractive growth from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The benefits of our strong volume growth and revenue flowed through to our bottom line. Gross margin for the second quarter grew 11.6% and operating income grew 12.3%. Diluted EPS grew 15.7% to $3.61. Cash flow remains strong. Net cash provided by operating activities in the second quarter grew 17.8% over the prior year. Our strong cash flow gives us flexibility to choose how we deploy our capital.

我們最近宣布開設 2 個無塵室設施，一個位於北卡羅來納州，另一個位於威斯康辛州。這些設施將為這些地區提供額外的產能，以擴大我們在製藥和生物技術公司有吸引力的成長領域的努力。我們銷售和營收的強勁成長所帶來的好處也反映在我們的利潤上。第二季毛利率成長11.6%，營業收入成長12.3%。稀釋後每股收益成長 15.7% 至 3.61 美元。現金流依然強勁。第二季經營活動提供的淨現金比去年同期成長17.8%。我們強勁的現金流使我們能夠靈活地選擇如何部署資本。

In the second quarter, we continued to invest in our businesses. We also acquired several smaller businesses. On December 15, we paid shareholders $137.5 million in quarterly dividends, an increase of 17.1% from the amount paid to previous December. During the second quarter, we also purchased $320.3 million of Cintas common stock under our buyback program. I would like to thank our employees, whom we call partners, for their continued focus on our customers, our shareholders and each other.

第二季度，我們繼續對業務進行投資。我們也收購了幾家較小的企業。 12月15日，我們向股東支付了1.375億美元的季度股息，比去年12月支付的金額增加了17.1%。第二季度，我們也根據回購計畫購買了 3.203 億美元的 Cintas 普通股。我要感謝我們的員工（我們稱之為合作夥伴），感謝他們對我們的客戶、股東和彼此的持續關注。

Now before I turn the call over to Mike to provide details of our second quarter results, I'll provide our updated financial expectations for our fiscal year. We are increasing our financial guidance. We are raising our annual revenue expectations from a range of $9.4 billion to $9.52 billion to a range of $9.48 billion to $9.56 billion, a total growth rate of 7.5% to 8.4%. Also, we are raising our annual diluted EPS expectations from a range of $14 to $14.45 to a range of $14.35 to $14.65, a growth rate of 10.5% to 12.8%. Mike?

現在，在我將電話轉給麥克以提供第二季業績的詳細資訊之前，我將提供我們本財年的最新財務預期。我們正在增加我們的財務指導。我們將年收入預期從 94 億至 95.2 億美元上調至 94.8 億至 95.6 億美元，總成長率為 7.5% 至 8.4%。此外，我們還將年度攤薄每股收益預期從 14 美元至 14.45 美元上調至 14.35 美元至 14.65 美元，成長率為 10.5% 至 12.8%。麥克風？

Thanks, Todd, and good morning. Our fiscal 2024 second quarter revenue was $2.38 billion compared to $2.1 billion last year. The organic revenue growth rate adjusted for acquisitions and foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, was 9%. Organic growth by business was 7.9% for Uniform Rental and Facility Services. 12.7% for First Aid and Safety Services, 17.8% for Fire Protection Services and 4.7% for Uniform Direct Sale.

謝謝托德，早安。我們 2024 財年第二季的營收為 23.8 億美元，去年為 21 億美元。經收購和外幣匯率波動調整後，有機收入成長率為 9%。制服租賃和設施服務業務的有機成長為 7.9%。急救和安全服務為 12.7%，消防服務為 17.8%，統一直銷 4.7%。

Gross margin for the second quarter of fiscal '24 was $1.14 billion compared to $1.02 billion last year, an increase of 11.6%. Gross margin as a percent of revenue was 48% for the second quarter of fiscal '24 compared to 47% last year, an increase of 100 basis points. Strong volume growth and continued operational efficiencies helped generate this strong gross margin.

24財年第二季的毛利率為11.4億美元，與去年的10.2億美元相比，成長了11.6%。 2024 財年第二季毛利率佔營收的百分比為 48%，與去年的 47% 相比，成長了 100 個基點。強勁的銷售成長和持續的營運效率幫助實現了強勁的毛利率。

Gross margin percentage by business was 47.4% for Uniform Rental and Facility Services. 54.5% for First Aid and Safety Services, 48.6% for Fire Protection Services and 40.9% for Uniform Direct Sale.

制服租賃和設施服務按業務劃分的毛利率為 47.4%。急救和安全服務佔 54.5%，消防服務佔 48.6%，統一直銷佔 40.9%。

Gross margin for the Uniform Rental and Facility Services segment increased 40 basis points from last year. We continue to leverage our strong revenue growth and extracting efficiencies out of the business in order to expand margins. Our year-over-year improvements are no accident. Our Six Sigma and engineering teams have helped us create efficiencies in the plant to allow us to maximize the utilization of our equipment, labor and energy.

制服租賃和設施服務部門的毛利率比去年增加了 40 個基點。我們繼續利用強勁的收入成長和提高業務效率來擴大利潤率。我們逐年進步並非偶然。我們的六西格瑪和工程團隊幫助我們提高了工廠的效率，使我們能夠最大限度地利用我們的設備、勞動力和能源。

Our SmartTruck technology allows us to improve our route efficiencies and provide density to our existing routes. While energy expenses comprised of gasoline, natural gas and electricity were a tailwind of 40 basis points from last year. Please keep in mind that some of the energy benefit is the result of efficiencies just mentioned. As an example, our rental revenue grew organically at 7.9%, but we only added 1% to our route structure since last year.

我們的 SmartTruck 技術使我們能夠提高路線效率並提高現有路線的密度。而包括汽油、天然氣和電力在內的能源支出較去年增加了 40 個基點。請記住，一些能源效益是剛才提到的效率的結果。舉例來說，我們的租賃收入有機成長了 7.9%，但自去年以來我們的航線結構僅增加了 1%。

Gross margin for the First Aid and Safety Services segment increased 400 basis points from last year. Our revenue growth is strong and value -- our value proposition continues to resonate in this segment. Health and safety of employees remains top of mind. Our mix of revenue continues to be healthy, including growing high-margin recurring revenue products like AED Rentals, eyewash stations and WaterBreak. We continue to use technology like SmartTruck to optimize our routes and improve efficiencies. And our First Aid dedicated distribution center allows us to lower product costs. All of these contribute to our improved margins.

急救和安全服務部門的毛利率比去年增加了 400 個基點。我們的收入成長強勁且有價值——我們的價值主張繼續在這一領域引起共鳴。員工的健康和安全仍然是首要考慮因素。我們的收入組合持續保持健康，包括不斷增長的高利潤經常性收入產品，如 AED 租賃、洗眼站和 WaterBreak。我們繼續使用 SmartTruck 等技術來優化我們的路線並提高效率。我們的急救專用配送中心使我們能夠降低產品成本。所有這些都有助於我們提高利潤率。

Selling and administrative expenses grew $64.4 million or 11.1% over last year. Strong revenue growth creates leverage, which allows us to invest in the business. We continue to invest in our people, adding selling resources, investing in our management trainee program to develop future leaders and expanding our talent acquisition efforts.

銷售和管理費用比去年增長 6,440 萬美元，即 11.1%。強勁的收入成長創造了槓桿，使我們能夠投資業務。我們繼續投資我們的員工，增加銷售資源，投資我們的管理培訓生計畫以培養未來的領導者，並擴大我們的人才招募工作。

Operating income of $499.7 million compared to $444.9 million last year. Operating income as a percent of revenue was 21% in the second quarter of fiscal '24 compared to 20.5% in last year's second quarter, an increase of 50 basis points.

營業收入為 4.997 億美元，去年為 4.449 億美元。 2024 財年第二季營業收入佔營收的百分比為 21%，而去年第二季為 20.5%，成長了 50 個基點。

Our effective tax rate for the second quarter was 20.9% compared to 22.1% last year. The tax rates in both quarters were impacted by certain discrete items, primarily the tax accounting impact for stock-based compensation. Net income for the second quarter was $374.6 million compared to $324.3 million last year. This year's second quarter diluted EPS of $3.61 compared to $3.12 last year. An increase of 15.7%.

我們第二季的有效稅率為 20.9%，去年為 22.1%。兩季的稅率均受到某些​​離散項目的影響，主要是股票薪資的稅務會計影響。第二季淨利為 3.746 億美元，去年同期為 3.243 億美元。今年第二季稀釋後每股收益為 3.61 美元，去年為 3.12 美元。增長15.7%。

Todd provided our annual financial guidance. Related to the guidance, please note the following: fiscal '24 interest expense is expected to be $100 million compared to $109.5 million in fiscal '23, predominantly as a result of less variable rate debt.

托德提供了我們的年度財務指導。與指南相關，請注意以下內容：24 財年的利息支出預計為 1 億美元，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減少。

Our fiscal '24 effective tax rate is expected to be 21.3%. This compares to a rate of 20.4% in 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.

我們 24 財年的有效稅率預計為 21.3%。相較之下，2023 財年的成長率為 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 成長約 120 個基點。

Our financial guidance does not include the impact of any future share buybacks. And guidance includes the impact of having one more workday in fiscal '23 compared to fiscal -- I'm sorry, fiscal '24 compared to fiscal '23. This extra workday comes in our fiscal third quarter.

我們的財務指導不包括任何未來股票回購的影響。指導意見包括與 23 財年相比，23 財年多一個工作日的影響——抱歉，與 23 財年相比，24 財年多了一個工作日。這個額外工作日發生在我們的第三財季。

Thanks, Mike. That concludes our prepared remarks. Now we are happy to answer questions from the analysts. Please ask just 1 question and a single follow-up if needed. Thank you.

謝謝，麥克。我們準備好的演講到此結束。現在我們很高興回答分析師的提問。如有需要，請僅提出 1 個問題並進行一次後續追蹤。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

And our first question comes from Ashish Sabadra from RBC.

我們的第一個問題來自 RBC 的 Ashish Sabadra。

Just on the 4 verticals that you highlighted, as the areas of strength in particular. I was wondering if you can quantify how big the combined revenues are from those verticals and how does the growth profile there compared to the company average? Any color?

就在您強調的 4 個垂直領域，尤其是優勢領域。我想知道您是否可以量化這些垂直行業的綜合收入有多大，以及與公司平均水平相比，這些行業的成長如何？任何顏色？

Ashish, this is Todd. Thanks for the question. Yes, we don't -- I don't have a specific number for you as far as that exact number. But I can tell you that our verticals are performing quite well. We're having really good success. Our focus around not just selling, but organizing around those is really paying off for us. I've just got a couple of wins I can share with you regarding the verticals.

阿什什，這是托德。謝謝你的提問。是的，我們沒有——我沒有具體的數字給你，就確切的數字而言。但我可以告訴你，我們的垂直領域表現相當不錯。我們取得了非常好的成功。我們不僅專注於銷售，而且圍繞著這些進行組織，這確實為我們帶來了回報。我剛剛取得了一些關於垂直領域的勝利，可以與您分享。

In healthcare, in the acute space, we're having good success and nonacute as well. We've got a Scrub Rental Program to a big hospital network in South Carolina that is benefiting from new consistent image but also identification.

在醫療保健領域，在急性領域，我們取得了良好的成功，在非急性領域也取得了良好的成功。我們為南卡羅來納州的一家大型醫院網絡提供了磨砂膏租賃計劃，該計劃受益於新的一致形象和識別。

The customer told us that they were interested in being able to identify their people, understanding who was supposed to be in what area, and this new scrub program did that. We had a really similar experience with a nursing home in Virginia. Same thing. They were buying their own and they -- but the leadership wanted to be able to identify and have a consistent image with their people. We had a -- on the acute side, again, a hospital in Florida that we rolled out a new microfiber program because they were struggling with inventory control and product quality, which led to cleanliness concerns. And our program offered some great products, technology to control the inventory, which allowed them to focus more on their patients instead of having to pull around with trying to manage the microfiber.

客戶告訴我們，他們有興趣能夠識別他們的人員，了解誰應該在哪個區域，而這個新的清理程序做到了這一點。我們在維吉尼亞州的一家療養院也有過非常相似的經驗。一樣。他們購買自己的產品，但領導層希望能夠識別他們的員工，並與他們保持一致的形象。我們在佛羅裡達州的一家醫院推出了一項新的超細纖維計劃，因為他們在庫存控制和產品品質方面遇到了困難，這導致了清潔問題。我們的計劃提供了一些很棒的產品和技術來控制庫存，這使他們能夠更多地關注患者，而不必費力地嘗試管理超細纖維。

And I've got a couple of other examples I thought might be helpful for the group. In our government sector, we have -- we just recently rolled out a First Aid and AED Rental Program to a public library system in California, which is -- you wouldn't think of a public library system as being a great prospect for us, but it is. They realize that the value would bring to their employees and being prepared with the AEDs in case it was needed because the public is in their locations.

我還有一些其他例子，我認為可能對小組有幫助。在我們的政府部門，我們最近剛剛向加州的公共圖書館系統推出了急救和 AED 租賃計劃，您不會認為公共圖書館系統對我們來說是一個美好的前景， 但它是。他們意識到這種價值將為員工帶來價值，並準備好 AED，以備不時之需，因為公眾就在他們的所在地。

And then lastly, I'll just share it with you a little bit on education, a variety of wins there. We had a chemistry department at a nice-size university in Virginia. They put all their educators and students in a Lab Coat Program, maintenance department at a university in California, put all of their people in Carhartt uniforms, rental program from us. They love the Carhartt. And then the last item would be there was a dining facility at a University in Arizona where they put all their culinary people in Chef Works, which is a big win for those folks. The branded programs with Carhartt and Chef Works were big wins. So I don't want to belabor it, but I thought I would just share a few wins because I know verticals are of interest to yourself, Ashish, but also plenty of other folks on the call.

最後，我將與大家分享一些關於教育的內容，以及那裡的各種勝利。我們在維吉尼亞州一所規模不錯的大學設有化學系。他們讓所有的教育工作者和學生參加加州一所大學的實驗室外套計劃，即維護部門，讓所有員工都穿上 Carhartt 制服，這是我們的租賃計劃。他們喜歡卡哈特。最後一個項目是亞利桑那州一所大學的一家餐飲設施，他們將所有烹飪人員都安排在 Chef Works 中，這對這些人來說是一個巨大的勝利。與 Carhartt 和 Chef Works 合作的品牌項目取得了巨大勝利。所以我不想贅述，但我想我只想分享一些勝利，因為我知道垂直市場對你自己感興趣，Ashish，但也有很多其他參加電話會議的人感興趣。

Yes. The only other thing I might add is, as Todd just talked about, we have so many ways to win. And clearly, those verticals are growing faster than the average. So we still are seeing really good momentum in each of those.

是的。我唯一要補充的是，正如托德剛才所說，我們有很多獲勝的方法。顯然，這些垂直行業的成長速度快於平均水平。因此，我們仍然看到每一項都具有良好的動力。

That's great color and thanks for sharing those wins. It does provide a lot more clarity on those verticals. And if I can ask a quick follow-up. I was just wondering if there's -- if you could share any update on your technology, the SmartTruck Program and particularly the partnership with Google, Verizon and SAP. Any updates on that front?

這是很棒的顏色，感謝分享這些勝利。它確實使這些垂直領域更加清晰。如果我可以要求快速跟進。我只是想知道您是否可以分享有關您的技術、SmartTruck 計劃，特別是與 Google、Verizon 和 SAP 的合作關係的任何更新。這方面有什麼更新嗎？

Certainly. I think how -- one of the things we have around here, we don't make money when the wheels are moving. We make money when the wheels stop. And so we're -- the way Mike described it, in total for our company, we grew revenues over 9%, but we only added 1% to our route structure in total. So that means we're spending more time with the customer, less time driving, which is better for our customers, better for our partners and better for Cintas. So we're pleased with that.

當然。我想，我們周圍的事情之一是，當車輪轉動時，我們無法賺錢。當車輪停下來時，我們就能賺錢。因此，正如麥克所描述的那樣，我們公司的總收入增加了 9% 以上，但我們的航線結構總共只增加了 1%。因此，這意味著我們將花更多的時間與客戶在一起，減少開車的時間，這對我們的客戶、我們的伴侶和 Cintas 來說都更好。所以我們對此感到滿意。

Our technology -- and we still have plenty of room to go there. We're focused on bringing those efficiencies, extracting out the inefficiencies in our business. We sent out a note -- a press release regarding our migration this quarter to the Google Cloud. That has been very successful for us. There's a number of benefits that we get from moving from a server farm to the Google Cloud. The first one is, it's more secure, so very important to us. Second item is over time, we believe we will -- that will be more cost effective for us. And the third is it gives us access to Google's AI platform.

我們的技術——而且我們還有足夠的空間去實現這一目標。我們致力於提高效率，消除業務中的低效率問題。我們發出了一份說明——一份關於我們本季遷移到 Google Cloud 的新聞稿。這對我們來說非常成功。從伺服器叢集遷移到 Google Cloud 可以為我們帶來很多好處。第一個是，它更安全，對我們來說非常重要。第二項是隨著時間的推移，我們相信我們會——這對我們來說更具成本效益。第三，它讓我們能夠存取Google的人工智慧平台。

So certainly in the very, very early innings, we just migrated. But we think that, that will be able to help us longer term in making it more attractive -- making it easier to do business with Cintas, making sure that we are positioning our people to be successful to point them in the right direction and leverage that type of -- those types of tools.

所以當然，在非常非常早的幾局中，我們就遷移了。但我們認為，從長遠來看，這將能夠幫助我們使其更具吸引力——使與Cintas 開展業務變得更容易，確保我們為我們的員工提供成功的定位，為他們指明正確的方向和槓桿作用那種類型的工具。

And our next question comes from Manav Patnaik from Barclays Capital.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊資本的馬納夫帕特奈克。

Todd, just to follow up on all the wins and contracts you talked about. Maybe I guess the question is more on the competitive environment versus -- is this just first-time outsources any trends, any changes you're seeing from that front, the new business percentage you've called out before, but whether that's more market share or just first-time outsourcing?

托德，我只是想跟進您談到的所有勝利和合約。也許我想問題更多的是競爭環境，而不是——這只是第一次外包任何趨勢，你從這方面看到的任何變化，你之前提到的新業務百分比，但這是否更市場共享還是首次外包？

Good morning, Manav. Great question. As Mike said, we win in many ways. We have been selling no programmers since the inception of my career. I can tell you that. And we continue to. And I'll just remind you, there's -- we service a little over 1 million businesses, but there are 16 million businesses in the U.S. and Canada. So there's plenty of opportunity there. And we like both. We certainly win some from the competitors. We like growing the pie. And then the examples I was giving, it's a mix. But in large part, it is -- they were either doing it in-house, meaning they were processing microfibers in-house or they were telling their employees to go buy product.

早安，馬納夫。很好的問題。正如麥克所說，我們在很多方面都取得了勝利。自從我開始職業生涯以來，我們一直沒有出售任何程式設計師。我可以告訴你。我們將繼續這樣做。我只想提醒您，我們為超過 100 萬家企業提供服務，但美國和加拿大有 1600 萬家企業。所以那裡有很多機會。我們都喜歡。我們當然從競爭對手那裡贏得了一些。我們喜歡把餡餅做大。然後我給的例子是混合的。但在很大程度上，他們要么在內部進行，這意味著他們在內部加工超細纖維，要么他們告訴員工去購買產品。

So there's different variations of no programmers. Meaning some are just -- we're buying products and providing it to their people and telling them to wear them, some of them, they were just telling them to show up to work and look good. But nevertheless, we bring so much better consistent program identification, cleanliness, all these and compliance are big drivers for our customers.

所以沒有程式設計師有不同的變體。這意味著有些人只是——我們購買產品並將其提供給他們的員工並告訴他們穿著它們，其中一些只是告訴他們去上班並看起來不錯。但儘管如此，我們帶來了更好的一致程序識別、清潔度，所有這些和合規性都是我們客戶的重要驅動力。

Got it. And then just on the capital allocation front, I mean, the buyback number, one of the bigger quarters for a while now. I mean is that any indication of the M&A market slowing down? Or just how we should think about that balance there?

知道了。然後就資本配置而言，我的意思是回購數量，這是一段時間內較大的季度之一。我的意思是，有跡象顯示併購市場正在放緩嗎？或者我們應該如何考慮那裡的平衡？

Manav, we -- no change in what we're seeing in M&A. Still, we're working the pipeline as best we can. We've made some nice acquisitions this year. From a buyback perspective, you've heard us speak to it being an opportunistic execution. And that's what you saw this quarter. As we think back about our first quarter results, and we thought they were pretty good. The stock reacted a little bit negatively, and we saw that as a nice opportunity, and we took advantage of it. So that's -- it was a good example during the quarter of an opportunistic execution of that buyback program.

馬納夫，我們在併購中看到的情況沒有改變。儘管如此，我們仍在盡最大努力完善管道。今年我們進行了一些不錯的收購。從回購的角度來看，您已經聽到我們說這是機會主義的執行。這就是您在本季度看到的情況。當我們回顧第一季的業績時，我們認為它們相當不錯。該股的反應有點消極，我們認為這是一個很好的機會，我們抓住了它。這是本季機會主義執行回購計畫的一個很好的例子。

And the beauty, Manav, as we speak about our capital allocation, we don't always have to choose, right? In the quarter or maybe, let's call it, for the year, we've invested in the business, as we've talked about, our CapEx is up, which is important to us as a part of that investment. M&A is up from last year. Dividends are up 17% from last year, and we've been able to execute on the buyback program. And so when you hear us talk about the sort of the 4 levers of capital allocation, we've done them all, I think, nicely this year. And again, the beauty of our cash flow and our balance sheet is we don't really have to choose.

美麗的是，馬納夫，當我們談論我們的資本配置時，我們並不總是需要做出選擇，對嗎？在本季度，或者也許，我們稱之為今年，我們對業務進行了投資，正如我們所說，我們的資本支出上升了，這對我們來說作為投資的一部分很重要。併購活動較去年增加。股利比去年增加了 17%，而且我們已經能夠執行回購計畫。因此，當你聽到我們談論資本配置的四種槓桿時，我認為今年我們都做得很好。再說一遍，我們的現金流和資產負債表的美妙之處在於我們實際上不必做出選擇。

Mike, I would just add that we think we're being really good fiduciaries of our shareholders' investments. Mike mentioned all the levers. And the net-net of that is we still have great dry powder which allows us to take on M&A of all shapes and sizes, and we're interested in that.

麥克，我想補充一點，我們認為我們是股東投資的真正良好的受託人。麥克提到了所有的槓桿。最重要的是，我們仍然擁有大量的乾粉，這使我們能夠進行各種形式和規模的併購，我們對此很感興趣。

And our next question comes from Joshua Chan from UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Joshua Chan。

So Todd, you mentioned the opening of the Clean Rooms. I was just wondering if you can kind of frame for us what you see as the attractive parts of this business? How is it attractive? And what kind of opportunity does it mean for Cintas going forward in the Clean Rooms?

托德，您提到了無塵室的開放。我只是想知道您能否為我們介紹一下您認為這項業務有吸引力的部分？怎樣才算有吸引力呢？這對於 Cintas 在無塵室領域的發展意味著什麼樣的機會？

Thanks for the question, Josh. Yes, the Clean Room business is, it's an attractive sector for us. I mentioned pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. And there's -- it seems like there's more and more every year that need that level of cleaning -- that level of cleanliness. So that is -- we think that bodes well for that business in the future.

謝謝你的提問，喬許。是的，無塵室業務對我們來說是一個有吸引力的行業。我提到了製藥和生物技術公司。似乎每年都有越來越多的人需要這種程度的清潔——這種程度的清潔。因此，我們認為這對該業務的未來來說是個好兆頭。

And there has been -- you've seen some momentum on onshoring in that area. And we want to make sure that we have the appropriate capacity to serve our current customers and that we're prepared for the future as well. So we like the trends in that business, and we like the business.

你已經看到了該領域本土化的一些動力。我們希望確保我們有足夠的能力來服務當前的客戶，並為未來做好準備。所以我們喜歡這個行業的趨勢，我們也喜歡這個行業。

Great. And then if I can follow up with the margin question. I guess, if in the future, the energy favorability were to lessen. Could you talk through the opportunities that you still have to drive margin expansion and the targeted incremental margins going forward without as much energy tailwind?

偉大的。然後我是否可以跟進保證金問題。我想，如果未來，能源好感度降低的話。您能否談談在沒有那麼多能源順風的情況下，您仍然需要推動利潤率擴張的機會以及未來目標增量利潤率？

Yes. Great question. Yes. So we recognize that energy prices go up and they go down. But one thing that's going to be consistent is we're going to be focused on extracting out inefficiencies in our route structure and then our production facilities. So that will be really important to us. And we think there's certainly ample opportunity there still to go. We talked about the SmartTruck technology. That's been impactful to us in many ways. But what's also impactful is, as Mike mentioned, our Six Sigma team of professionals, our engineering professionals and then layering in with that technology allows us to have a centralized visibility into our operations at a level that we've never had before in the history of the company. This technology allows us.

是的。很好的問題。是的。因此，我們認識到能源價格會上漲，也會下跌。但始終如一的一件事是，我們將專注於消除路線結構和生產設施中的低效率問題。所以這對我們來說非常重要。我們認為，那裡肯定還有充足的機會。我們討論了 SmartTruck 技術。這在很多方面對我們產生了影響。但正如麥克所提到的，同樣具有影響力的是，我們的六西格瑪專業團隊、我們的工程專業人員以及該技術的分層使我們能夠以歷史上從未有過的水平集中了解我們的運營情況該公司的。這項技術使我們能夠。

So -- and it allows us to maximize our labor, our equipment, ultimately our energy spend. So -- and we're focused on extracting out those inefficiencies so that we can manage it moving forward. We love when energy goes -- costs go down, but we recognize those markets will move, but we're going to be focused on extracting out those inefficiencies.

因此，它使我們能夠最大限度地利用我們的勞動力、我們的設備，並最終實現我們的能源支出。因此，我們專注於消除這些低效率的問題，以便我們能夠繼續管理它。我們喜歡能源消耗——成本下降，但我們認識到這些市場將會發生變化，但我們將專注於消除這些低效率的情況。

And our next question comes from Heather Balsky from Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的希瑟‧巴爾斯基。

First question with regards to the programmers and nonprogrammers, as we're further in further out from the COVID period. Are you still seeing the shift in demand in terms of more nonprogrammers looking to outsource? Or do you think it's starting to normalize back to pre-COVID trend?

第一個問題是關於程式設計師和非程式設計師的，因為我們距離新冠疫情時期還很遠。您是否仍看到更多非程式設計師尋求外包的需求變化？或者您認為它開始正常化回到新冠疫情之前的趨勢嗎？

Well, Heather, it's a great question. I'll start, and Mike, feel free to chime in. We're -- there's various reasons why a prospect would turn into a customer going from a no programmer to a customer. One of them is, hey, we're -- we'd like to outsource it because we're not very good at it or we're not -- we don't have -- we're struggling to staff and we're struggling to find people to manage this. So that still continues. But there are other reasons.

嗯，希瑟，這是一個很好的問題。我先開始，麥克，請隨意插話。我們——潛在客戶從無程式設計師變成客戶的原因有很多。其中之一是，嘿，我們 - 我們想外包它，因為我們不太擅長，或者我們不 - 我們沒有 - 我們正在努力尋找員工，我們正在努力尋找人來管理這個問題。所以這種情況還在繼續。但還有其他原因。

So it might be -- we don't like the image that we're portraying. We don't like the lack of identification. We don't lack the lack of compliance. You can provide them, and we know that they're hygienically cleaned. So there's many different motives. One of it might be, hey, we can't staff and we need help. And we still see that, frankly, and it allows our customers to focus on what's most important to them, taking care of their customers, their patients, their guests, whatever it is, instead of having to manage through these various programs.

所以可能是──我們不喜歡我們所描繪的形象。我們不喜歡缺乏身分識別。我們並不缺乏合規性。您可以提供它們，而且我們知道它們經過衛生清潔。所以有很多不同的動機。其中之一可能是，嘿，我們沒有員工，我們需要幫助。坦白說，我們仍然看到這一點，它使我們的客戶能夠專注於對他們來說最重要的事情，照顧他們的客戶、病人、客人，無論是什麼，而不必透過這些不同的計劃進行管理。

Heather, the note programmers is still -- we get more than 60% of our new business comes from no programmers. Your reference to the pandemic might be -- we did certainly in the early days of the pandemic, see an increase in personal protective equipment and things like hand sanitizer, those have normalized back to what we would call normal and ongoing levels. So that might be the only change that we had and back to normal.

Heather，注意程式設計師仍然是——我們 60% 以上的新業務都來自於沒有程式設計師。您提到的大流行可能是——我們確實在大流行初期確實看到了個人防護設備和洗手液等物品的增加，這些設備已經恢復到我們所說的正常和持續水平。所以這可能是我們唯一的改變並恢復正常。

Okay. And then on the margin front, we're just kind of curious when you think about -- you talked earlier about opportunities for efficiencies and further route productivity. When you think about the source of those savings, how much are just organic Six Sigma effort, how much is coming from your SAP? And are there still G&K synergy or opportunities that you're kind of benefiting from?

好的。然後在利潤方面，當您想到您之前談到的提高效率和進一步提高路線生產力的機會時，我們只是有點好奇。當您考慮這些節省的來源時，有多少是有機的 6 Sigma 努力，有多少來自您的 SAP？您是否仍然可以從 G&K 的協同效應或機會中受益？

Heather, it's a good question. We don't really discern the difference between our Six Sigma team, our engineering team and our technologies. They all have to work, be orchestrated appropriately to get the efficiencies. So and that's exactly what we're doing. So everybody has to be involved, and that's what produces the great results. As for G&K, we're -- we've now -- we're, I think, about 6.5 years since we acquired if my math is correct. So I wouldn't say that there's anything left on the bone there.

希瑟，這是個好問題。我們並沒有真正辨別出我們的六西格瑪團隊、我們的工程團隊和我們的技術之間的差異。他們都必須工作，並進行適當的協調才能提高效率。這正是我們正在做的事情。因此，每個人都必須參與其中，這才是產生偉大成果的原因。至於 G&K，如果我的數學正確的話，我們現在——我想，我們已經有大約 6.5 年了。所以我不會說骨頭上還剩下什麼東西。

And your next question comes from Andy Wittmann from R.W. Baird.

您的下一個問題來自 R.W. Baird 的 Andy Wittmann。

I guess I just wanted to ask on the outlook a little bit here, Mike. The second half total revenue guidance is in the 7% range at the midpoint against an organic 9% quarter here. So a degree of deceleration. I guess I was implicit in your previous guidance as well. But I just thought maybe give you a chance to elaborate a little bit more on that, talk about what you're seeing in the macro? And if that's just you guys being kind of your normal prudent approach or if there's something that we should be considering?

我想我只是想問這裡的前景，麥克。下半年總收入指引在中點 7% 的範圍內，而本季有機收入為 9%。所以有一定程度的減速。我想我也隱含在你之前的指導中。但我只是想也許給你一個機會詳細闡述這一點，談談你在宏觀上看到了什麼？如果這只是你們正常的謹慎態度，或者我們是否應該考慮一些事情？

Andy, I'd lead with, it's our normal prudent approach. And when you think about where we are, we've talked a little bit already about the growth is still good, momentum is good. And so we like where the business is going. The range for the back half of the year, certainly does imply a little bit over 7% at the midpoint, 8% -- a little over 8% at the high point. We like that range. The cadence is good for us, as you know. But look, as we look into calendar '24, there's certainly is a little bit of uncertainty as to what the new economy may bring, what the Fed movements may bring. And so we think it is wise to be prudent as we look out.

安迪，我會帶頭，這是我們正常的謹慎做法。當你想到我們所處的位置時，我們已經談到了成長仍然良好，勢頭良好。所以我們喜歡業務的發展方向。今年下半年的範圍確實意味著中點略高於 7%，高點略高於 8%，為 8%。我們喜歡這個範圍。如你所知，節奏對我們有好處。但是，當我們回顧 24 年曆時，對於新經濟可能帶來什麼、聯準會的動作可能帶來什麼，肯定存在一些不確定性。因此，我們認為謹慎行事是明智之舉。

Great. That's my only question for today. Have a merry Christmas, guys.

偉大的。這是我今天唯一的問題。聖誕快樂，夥伴們。

And our next question comes from George Tong from Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的喬治唐。

Earlier, you mentioned that business momentum was good. Volumes were robust in the quarter. Can you provide more color on overall customer budget trends and customer sentiment? And any changes that you might be seeing in the sales cycle?

早些時候，您提到業務勢頭良好。本季銷售強勁。您能否提供更多有關整體客戶預算趨勢和客戶情緒的資訊？您在銷售週期中可能會看到什麼變化？

George, we -- forward-looking, as Mike said, there's always -- we're not trying to prognosticate exactly how our customers will react to the turning of the calendar year. But we're not seeing any change in sales cycles and we haven't seen a change in our customer base and how they're reacting to what's going on in the marketplace. So it's kind of business has been consistent. And it's more what Mike preferred to the turn out of the calendar year, and we'll see how businesses react coming out of the holidays.

喬治，正如麥克所說，我們總是具有前瞻性，我們並不是試圖準確預測我們的客戶對日曆年的轉變將如何反應。但我們沒有看到銷售週期有任何變化，我們的客戶群以及他們對市場上發生的事情的反應也沒有改變。所以它的業務一直是一致的。麥克更喜歡日曆年的結束，我們將看看企業在假期結束後有何反應。

Got it. That's helpful. And also you mentioned cross-selling was good in the quarter. Can you elaborate more on cross-selling trends that you're seeing in which areas you're seeing most amount of bundling or upsell, cross-sell from?

知道了。這很有幫助。您也提到本季交叉銷售情況良好。您能否詳細說明您所看到的交叉銷售趨勢，在哪些領域您看到最多的捆綁或追加銷售、交叉銷售？

George, cross-sell is -- it's an important component of our growth. And the nature of it is we're having good success across all of our areas of our business. We're blessed to be in a position where our customers -- fortunately, they really like us. They like our relationships. We have people in their businesses on a really frequent basis, mostly on a weekly basis. So they -- and we have -- so that means we have eyes, ears and minds in their business, and we can help. And it doesn't matter to us what a customer might lead with, whatever they're interested in, but then we will quickly pivot and that we can help them in many ways.

喬治，交叉銷售是我們成長的重要組成部分。其本質是我們在所有業務領域都取得了良好的成功。我們很幸運能夠處於客戶的位置——幸運的是，他們真的很喜歡我們。他們喜歡我們的關係。我們的員工非常頻繁地參與他們的業務，大多數是每週一次。所以他們——我們也有——所以這意味著我們對他們的業務有眼睛、耳朵和思想，我們可以提供幫助。對我們來說，客戶可能會引導什麼，無論他們感興趣什麼，但我們會迅速調整方向，我們可以透過多種方式幫助他們。

So -- but just the nature of the size of the rental division is such that because there are so many customers there. There's plenty of opportunity for our First Aid and Fire business to cross-sell into that just because of the numbers there. But nevertheless, it's working quite well across all of our organization. We share leads, we share thoughts. And we make sure that the customer is well taken care of.

所以——但租賃部門規模的本質是這樣的，因為那裡有很多客戶。僅僅因為那裡的數量，我們的急救和消防業務就有很多機會進行交叉銷售。但儘管如此，它在我們整個組織中運作得很好。我們分享線索，分享想法。我們確保客戶得到很好的照顧。

And our next question comes from Tim Mulrooney from William Blair.

我們的下一個問題來自威廉布萊爾的提姆馬爾魯尼。

Yes. I just wanted to ask 1 question. Pricing now normalized back to the 2% range. I mean that means your organic growth was comprised of approximately 7 points of volume. I was just hoping you could dig into that a little bit more because it was a little stronger than I think most of us were expecting. Did you see an uptick in retention? Did you have a strong quarter with that cross-sell or maybe new account growth? And any details would be helpful.

是的。我只想問1個問題。定價現已正常回到 2% 的範圍。我的意思是，這意味著您的有機增長由大約 7 個數量點組成。我只是希望你能更深入地研究這一點，因為它比我認為我們大多數人預期的要強一些。您是否看到保留率上升？您的季度交叉銷售或新客戶成長是否強勁？任何細節都會有幫助。

Tim, so our new business is robust. As I mentioned, retention levels are very good and our cross-sell is very good. And the pricing is still -- it's lower than last year. It is higher than historical, but it's certainly getting much closer to historical. So -- but when -- so when you think about that, it is our various inputs growth are all performing well, and we expect that to continue.

提姆，所以我們的新業務很強勁。正如我所提到的，保留率非常高，我們的交叉銷售也非常好。而且價格仍然低於去年。它高於歷史，但肯定更接近歷史。所以，當你想到這一點時，我們的各種投入成長都表現良好，我們預計這種情況將持續下去。

And as we talked, we win in a lot of ways and the momentum in the rental business is still really good. But we also saw in the quarter some really nice acceleration in First Aid and Safety from 11% in the first quarter to 12.7% organically in the second quarter. And we saw some nice improvement in Fire, where we went from a little over 14% in the first quarter to 17.8% in the second quarter. So we just see some really good momentum in all of our businesses and particularly those 2 had some really nice performance in the second quarter.

正如我們所說，我們在許多方面都取得了勝利，租賃業務的勢頭仍然非常好。但我們本季也看到急救和安全領域的有機成長率從第一季的 11% 上升到第二季的 12.7%。我們看到 Fire 有了一些不錯的改進，從第一季的 14% 多一點上升到第二季的 17.8%。因此，我們在所有業務中都看到了一些非常好的勢頭，特別是那些在第二季度表現非常好的業務。

Yes. I did notice that reacceleration across both those businesses. That's helpful.

是的。我確實注意到這兩項業務都在加速發展。這很有幫助。

And our next question comes from Andrew Steinerman from JPMorgan Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通證券的安德魯斯坦納曼。

Could you just mention if your ad stops directionally and the Uniform Rental business was up, down or flat recently?

您能否提及您的廣告是否定向停止以及製服租賃業務最近是上升、下降還是持平？

Andrew, our ad stop metrics are -- have been pretty consistent. We haven't seen much of a change in our customer base. And so I'd say that's how I would describe it. We see still positive trends in our ad stop metrics. And -- but it's -- that's pretty consistent as it has been for the last 6 to 12 months.

安德魯，我們的廣告停止指標非常一致。我們的客戶群沒有太大變化。所以我想說這就是我的描述方式。我們看到廣告停止指標仍然呈現正面趨勢。但事實上，這與過去 6 到 12 個月的情況相當一致。

Our next question comes from Jasper Bibb from Truist Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Jasper Bibb。

You mentioned the year-on-year tailwind from energy, but I was just hoping to get some additional color on other cost inputs, I guess, specifically labor and materials.

您提到了能源帶來的逐年推動力，但我只是希望在其他成本投入上獲得一些額外的色彩，我想，特別是勞動力和材料。

Yes. I'll start, Jasper. Our -- we're seeing -- just like you're seeing with the inflation in total, we're seeing that come down. It's never coming down as fast as we like, but we are seeing it. Cotton has stabilized, and we're seeing freight come down and that's important to us. And the labor market is -- it's easier, it's still not easy, but it is easier. So I think that probably the right way to think about it would be as the labor market eases and that will lessen pressure on wage growth as well.

是的。我要開始了，賈斯帕。我們——我們看到——就像你看到的通貨膨脹總量一樣，我們看到通貨膨脹率下降。它永遠不會像我們希望的那樣快速下降，但我們正在看到它。棉花已經穩定，我們看到運費下降，這對我們很重要。勞動市場－它更容易了，它仍然不容易，但它更容易了。因此，我認為正確的思考方式可能是隨著勞動市場的放鬆，這也將減輕薪資成長的壓力。

And then I wanted to follow up on First Aid. Operating margins there were really strong in the first half. Should we think about these like low 20% level is sustainable going forward? And would you say there's anything that's changed there that's unlocked another leg of operating margin expansion year-to-date?

然後我想跟進急救。上半年的營業利潤率確實很高。我們是否應該考慮諸如 20% 的低水準是否可持續發展？您是否認為有什麼變化開啟了今年迄今為止營業利潤率擴張的另一條腿？

Sure. Jasper, we have seen some nice performance in that business. And I spoke to a few of them where from a margin perspective, first of all, the value that we sell with, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our employees is really still resonating well. And so our growth has been really good in that business. We talked a little bit in the opening comments about the sort of the recurring revenue streams of AED rentals, our eyewash stations and our WaterBreak.

當然。賈斯珀，我們在這項業務中看到了一些不錯的表現。我與其中一些人交談過，從利潤的角度來看，首先，我們銷售的價值，沒有什麼比我們員工的健康和安全更重要的了，這確實仍然引起了很好的共鳴。因此，我們在該業務中的成長非常好。我們在開場評論中談到了 AED 租賃、我們的洗眼站和 WaterBreak 的經常性收入來源。

And these have been great businesses for us. The growth has been really good and the margins are great for us. Many times, these are add-on products to existing customers. But all 3 of them, we install. And then we have a recurring service program that goes on after that. And again, it leads to really nice stickiness and also nice margins.

這些對我們來說都是偉大的事業。我們的成長非常好，利潤率也很高。很多時候，這些都是現有客戶的附加產品。但我們安裝了所有 3 個。然後我們有一個經常性的服務計劃，在那之後繼續進行。再說一遍，它會帶來非常好的黏性和不錯的利潤。

The other thing that I'll point out is we opened a First Aid and Safety Distribution Center a couple of years ago. And that allows us to source more. It allows us to centralize some of our sourcing. And those kind of things lead to a better product cost. And that, again, drives down the material cost in our First Aid and Safety business. So the combination of really good sales mix, really good growth in the business, good sourcing.

我要指出的另一件事是我們幾年前開設了急救和安全配送中心。這使我們能夠獲得更多資源。它使我們能夠集中一些採購。這些都會帶來更好的產品成本。這再次降低了我們急救和安全業務的材料成本。因此，真正良好的銷售組合、真正良好的業務成長、良好的採購相結合。

The one I didn't mention was SmartTruck technology that is also having a benefit there. All of those things are contributing. And so this is not a case of 6 months of sort of unusual items. This is a little bit of a lot of hard work and execution by our First Aid and Safety partners to really get this margin going.

我沒有提到的是 SmartTruck 技術，它也有一個好處。所有這些事情都在做出貢獻。因此，這並不是 6 個月的異常事件。這是我們的急救和安全合作夥伴付出的大量努力和執行的結果，才真正實現了這一目標。

And our next question comes from Faiza Alwy from Deutsche Bank Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行證券公司的 Faiza Alwy。

So I wanted to follow up on both the First Aid business and the Fire business. You touched on the First Aid a little bit. But curious on what's driving the acceleration. If you could expand on that, both on First Aid and Fire. And then as we think about your outlook, do you expect this level of growth to sustain looking ahead? And I know in Fire, you talked about an SAP implementation that was happening in this fiscal year. So maybe is that helping the top line? Has that happened? How should we think about margins going forward in that business?

所以我想跟進急救業務和消防業務。您稍微談到了急救。但很好奇是什麼推動了這種加速。如果你能擴充一下急救和消防方面的內容。然後，當我們考慮您的前景時，您預計這種成長水平會持續下去嗎？我知道在 Fire 中，您談到了本財政年度正在進行的 SAP 實施。那麼這也許對營收有幫助嗎？有這樣的事發生嗎？我們該如何考慮該業務未來的利潤率？

Faiza, thanks for the question. We really like the Fire business. It's the only business we're in where you legally have to have it. So there is, I'll call it, double negative. No program market. Everyone is a programmer, but we are able to cross-sell very well into that market. We are using various technologies that Mike referenced to make sure that we're positioning our partners to be more successful, meaning we use SmartTruck technology in all of our businesses, and that helps us. But we're getting leverage from our growth, and the growth is attractive, and we think it's -- there's certainly running a business isn't linear. So there will be ebbs and flows, but we like the long-term outlook for the Fire business.

法伊扎，謝謝你的提問。我們真的很喜歡消防業務。這是我們從事的唯一一個合法必須擁有它的業務。所以我稱之為雙重否定。沒有節目市場。每個人都是程式設計師，但我們能夠很好地進入該市場進行交叉銷售。我們正在使用 Mike 提到的各種技術，以確保我們的合作夥伴能夠更加成功，這意味著我們在所有業務中都使用 SmartTruck 技術，這對我們很有幫助。但我們正在從我們的成長中獲得槓桿作用，而且成長很有吸引力，我們認為，經營業務肯定不是線性的。因此，會有起起落落，但我們看好消防業務的長期前景。

That being said, as you mentioned, we are going through an SAP implementation. We certainly -- we haven't even implemented at this point. So we haven't seen any benefits just yet, but we're optimistic about how that can help our business over the coming years.

話雖這麼說，正如您所提到的，我們正在實施 SAP。當然，我們現在還沒有實施。因此，我們還沒有看到任何好處，但我們對這在未來幾年對我們的業務有何幫助持樂觀態度。

Maybe I'll add 2 things to the Fire and a little bit of First Aid too. As the market opportunity in those businesses is really large. And our expectation, as we've talked about, is that those businesses will continue into the future near that double-digit type of a place. Again, the market opportunity is really large.

也許我會在火災中添加 2 個東西以及一些急救。因為這些產業的市場機會確實很大。正如我們所討論的，我們的期望是這些業務將在未來繼續發展到接近兩位數類型的地方。再次強調，市場機會確實很大。

One last comment on the SAP. We've not started it. And so as we get into that, which is likely going to be more about next fiscal year, we may see a little bit of pressure in the Fire segment because as you can imagine, when you turn -- when you start to go into an SAP conversion, you don't get benefits overnight. It takes a little bit of time. So we'll have some additional costs in '25 and certainly then setting up really nice benefits into the future for that business.

最後一點是關於 SAP 的評論。我們還沒開始。因此，當我們進入這個領域時，這可能更多地與下一個財年有關，我們可能會在消防領域看到一點壓力，因為正如你可以想像的那樣，當你開始進入一個SAP 轉換，你不會在一夜之間獲得收益。這需要一點時間。因此，我們將在 25 年產生一些額外的成本，然後當然會為該業務的未來帶來非常好的好處。

Great. And then if I could just follow up on the macro environment. You made some comments in response to a previous question around just you're being prudent and there is some uncertainty. Just given sort of how well you're doing on programmers and the momentum you're seeing in sort of these other businesses, I'm curious if you can -- if you have -- if you can give us a framework in terms of how we should think about the impact of macro on your business.

偉大的。然後我是否可以跟進宏觀環境。您在回答先前的問題時發表了一些評論，只是您很謹慎，並且存在一些不確定性。考慮到您在程式設計師方面的表現以及您在其他業務中看到的勢頭，我很好奇您是否可以 - 如果您可以 - 是否可以為我們提供一個框架我們應該如何考慮宏觀對您業務的影響。

Well, I'll start Faiza with -- our history has been we grow certainly in multiples of GDP and employment growth. And you hit it. We are able to sell into no programmers even when they're not, let's say, adding people, we can take pressure off of them by managing programs for them. So our new business effort is always really good. But certainly, if we see turns in the economy, we've got to adjust potentially if we see our customers start to reduce their number of people we've got to adjust. And so it is prudent for us to sort of think about that as we look into our guidance and into the future of the business.

好吧，我將從 Faiza 開始——我們的歷史是，我們的 GDP 和就業成長的倍數都在穩步增長。你擊中了它。我們無法向任何程式設計師出售產品，即使他們沒有增加人員，我們也可以透過為他們管理程式來減輕他們的壓力。所以我們的新業務努力總是非常好。但當然，如果我們看到經濟出現好轉，如果我們看到我們的客戶開始減少我們必須調整的人數，我們必須進行潛在的調整。因此，在我們研究我們的指導方針和業務的未來時，我們應該謹慎地考慮這一點。

And our next question comes from Seth Weber from Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的塞思·韋伯。

Happy holidays. I wanted to just go back to the Clean Room discussion for a minute. If there's any way to frame how we should be thinking about that new facility openings? And are those facilities higher CapEx relative to a traditional facility? Is there any way to combine facilities? Or I'm just trying to get a better understanding of this opportunity and what the investment might be for Cintas going forward.

節日快樂。我想回到無塵室討論一分鐘。是否有任何方法可以框架我們應該如何考慮新設施的開放？相對於傳統設施，這些設施的資本支出是否較高？有什麼辦法可以組合設施嗎？或者我只是想更了解這個機會以及 Cintas 未來的投資可能是什麼。

Yes. Seth, thank you for the question. As you know, that's a segment of the uniform market. As I mentioned earlier, it does seem more companies over the last decade or so have higher cleaning quality requirements. So we think there's a tailwind there.

是的。賽斯，謝謝你的提問。如您所知，這是製服市場的一部分。正如我之前提到的，在過去十年左右的時間裡，似乎越來越多的公司對清潔品質提出了更高的要求。所以我們認為那裡有順風。

As far as the CapEx required for a facility like that, it's -- you can think of it as very similar to a uniform facility. The only difference, I think, that you may want to think about is it serves usually a larger geographic area than we would with a traditional facility. And the reason being is we only have so many of them, and they have to cover the customer base. So as a result of that, they do cover -- we do cover a larger geographic area for -- out of each of those facilities.

就此類設施所需的資本支出而言，您可以將其視為與統一設施非常相似。我認為，您可能需要考慮的唯一區別是，它通常比傳統設施服務的地理區域更大。原因是我們只有這麼多，而且他們必須涵蓋客戶群。因此，他們確實覆蓋了——我們確實覆蓋了更大的地理區域——每個設施。

Okay. That's helpful. And is there any way for us to think about how many of these facilities you might be opening over the next couple of years, relative -- I mean, I saw the press release for the Wisconsin facility, but is this order of magnitude, 1s and 2s? Or could this be much, much bigger going forward?

好的。這很有幫助。我們有什麼辦法可以考慮在未來幾年內您可能會開設多少個此類設施，相對的 - 我的意思是，我看到了威斯康星州設施的新聞稿，但這個數量級是 1 秒和2s？或者說，未來的規模可能會更大、更大嗎？

Yes. Seth, I wouldn't -- you're not going to see 1s and 2s coming out every quarter or every year based upon the size of the market. So it certainly won't be anywhere near that pace. But it will be paced based upon the demand from the marketplace, if those -- there's more and more customers that are interested in it, then we'll be prepared to meet that demand.

是的。 Seth，我不會——你不會看到根據市場規模每個季度或每年都會出現 1 和 2。所以它肯定不會接近這個速度。但它將根據市場的需求進行調整，如果有越來越多的客戶對此感興趣，那麼我們將準備好滿足該需求。

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe just a quick follow-up on the direct -- it was nice to see the direct sales business turn to be positive again in the quarter. Is there any color on whether that's coming more from the service side of your customer base, more on the manufacturing side? And any just detail there? Or is it just kind of across the board?

知道了。好的。這很有幫助。然後也許只是對直銷的快速跟進——很高興看到直銷業務在本季度再次轉好。有沒有什麼顏色可以說明這是否更多地來自客戶群的服務方面，更多地來自製造方面？那裡有什麼細節嗎？或只是全面的？

Good question, Seth. The design collective business, the direct sale portion of it, as we've spoken in the past, it's certainly lumpier. And so as far as where that growth is coming from, it's really more national accounts where we would get it, hospitality, lodging, and when they have rollouts or new allotment programs, you tend to get spikes and then -- so we love the spikes and then the -- what comes after the spike isn't as good, but I wouldn't think about it as a big growth engine for us.

好問題，賽斯。正如我們過去所說，設計集體業務，其中的直接銷售部分，它肯定更加不穩定。就成長的來源而言，我們可以從國民帳戶中獲得成長，飯店、住宿，當他們推出或新的分配計劃時，你往往會出現峰值，然後——所以我們喜歡高峰之後——高峰之後的情況並不那麼好，但我不認為它是我們的一個巨大的成長引擎。

Yes, we typically would say in the low to mid-single-digit growth. So this quarter is sort of right in line with that expectation.

是的，我們通常會說是中低個位數成長。因此，本季有點符合這項預期。

And our next question comes from Stephanie Moore from Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自傑富瑞 (Jefferies) 的史蒂芬妮摩爾 (Stephanie Moore)。

I wanted to touch a bit on maybe the cross-sell opportunity over time. I think you've provided -- you continue to execute very well on your investments that you see on the technology front and called out just the enhanced visibility that you have. So maybe you can talk about, given some of these investments, what this might mean for cross-selling, meeting the opportunity to add those additional products and kind of continue to further penetrate each existing customer. So kind of how are you balancing the incremental products that you can offer over time.

我想談談隨著時間的推移交叉銷售的機會。我認為你已經提供了——你繼續很好地執行你在技術方面看到的投資，並指出你所擁有的增強的可見性。因此，也許您可以談談，鑑於其中一些投資，這對交叉銷售可能意味著什麼，有機會添加這些額外的產品，並繼續進一步滲透每個現有客戶。那麼，您如何平衡隨著時間的推移可以提供的增量產品。

Stephanie. Well, you can think about it, we call it cross-sell. There's -- cross-sell is really a division to division. There's also upsell, which would be -- we have products that -- our customers don't use all of our products, even within the Rental division or the First Aid division what have you. So those are all components of growth for us, and we see a significant massive, frankly, runway in all those areas.

史蒂芬妮。嗯，你可以想一想，我們稱之為交叉銷售。交叉銷售實際上是一個部門到另一個部門。還有追加銷售，也就是我們的產品，我們的客戶不會使用我們所有的產品，即使是在租賃部門或急救部門內。因此，這些都是我們成長的組成部分，坦白說，我們在所有這些領域都看到了巨大的跑道。

So we're trying to position our employee partners to make sure that they're in the right spot and have the right information to help the customer. And then we're also continually, as part of our corporate culture is to invest in new products and new services. We're always working on that. And we get those ideas from those customers. And then we test them and then we launch them, and we're always working on that. It's always been a component of our growth and always will be.

因此，我們正在努力對我們的員工合作夥伴進行定位，以確保他們處於正確的位置並擁有正確的資訊來幫助客戶。作為我們企業文化的一部分，我們也不斷投資新產品和新服務。我們一直在為此努力。我們從這些客戶那裡得到了這些想法。然後我們測試它們，然後我們啟動它們，我們一直在努力。它一直是我們成長的一個組成部分，而且永遠都是。

And our next question comes from Scott Schneeberger from Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默的斯科特·施尼伯格。

My first one, I'm going to delve into the SG&A running low double digits growth something you did last year as well. And you cited investment in selling resources, management trainee program, tech and also some talent acquisition efforts. Just curious -- and you guys have said on this call, labor is getting better, but still a little tough. Could you elaborate on the labor aspect and kind of what you guys are doing pushing the selling? And then also curious about the tech aspect. Maybe you've already covered it in the call, if that's what you meant, but just wondering if there's anything extra there.

我的第一個目標是，我將深入研究 SG&A 的低兩位數成長，這也是你們去年所做的。您也提到了在銷售資源、管理培訓生計畫、技術以及一些人才招募方面的投資。只是好奇——你們在這次電話會議上說過，分娩情況正在好轉，但仍然有點困難。您能否詳細說明一下勞動力方面以及您正在做什麼推動銷售？然後也對技術方面感到好奇。也許您已經在通話中介紹了它（如果這就是您的意思），但只是想知道是否還有其他內容。

Scott, we're -- the items that you mentioned, they're all really important to us. We are -- there's not one that I would call out. But I would think about it this way. We think the future is really bright and we want to invest for the future. We know we need the talent acquisition team to be attracting the very best talent. The management trainee programs is our leaders of the future. And we think they are a critical pipeline and we're going to need those leaders. And then the selling resources are -- we see it looks -- we think the future is bright with our -- how many customers we have, what the size of the market is. I mentioned 1 million customers, about 16 million businesses.

史考特，我們——你提到的這些項目，它們對我們來說都非常重要。我們是──我不會點名的。但我會這樣想。我們認為未來非常光明，我們希望為未來進行投資。我們知道我們需要人才招募團隊來吸引最優秀的人才。管理培訓生計畫是我們未來的領導者。我們認為他們是一個關鍵的管道，我們將需要這些領導者。然後銷售資源是——我們看到它看起來——我們認為我們的未來是光明的——我們有多少客戶，市場有多大。我提到了 100 萬客戶，大約 1600 萬家企業。

So that's all great. And then you kind of wrap it all with technology because technology will -- we want to make it easier to do business with us. And we want to leverage technology to make our partners more successful. Point them in the right direction, give them the right tools in their toolbox to spend their time in the right spots, but also to make it easier for the customer to buy, easier to do business with in totality.

所以這一切都很棒。然後你用科技將這一切包裹起來，因為科技將會——我們希望讓與我們做生意變得更容易。我們希望利用科技讓我們的合作夥伴更加成功。為他們指明正確的方向，為他們的工具箱提供正確的工具，讓他們把時間花在正確的地方，同時也讓客戶更容易購買，更容易整體開展業務。

Great. Appreciate that. And then not a lot of acquisition activity in the quarter, but there was some -- and there was a good amount in the first quarter. I remember you saying it was across all businesses, but we didn't hit it up too much last quarter. Could you talk about what it is that you're acquiring and clearly across segments, but what the strategies have been there?

偉大的。感謝。該季度的收購活動並不多，但也有一些——而且第一季的收購量很大。我記得您說過這適用於所有業務，但上個季度我們並沒有採取太多措施。您能否談談您正在收購什麼，並且清楚地跨細分市場收購什麼，以及那裡的策略是什麼？

Sure. Not a lot of change in the strategy, Scott, and that is we love rental tuck-in opportunities, and we've made a number of those this year. And as you can imagine, when we do that in a marketplace, we add immediate capacity utilization improvement, route density. And so those things really help us in the rental business. So we've made some of those. We certainly have made some First Aid acquisitions, and we've made Fire acquisitions. Again, the dynamic is similar in all 3 of these. These are really nice tuck-in opportunities that just strengthen our business in the local markets in which we acquire them, and we'll continue to look for those opportunities as best we can.

當然。史考特，策略上沒有太大變化，那就是我們喜歡出租的機會，今年我們已經做了很多這樣的機會。正如您可以想像的那樣，當我們在市場上這樣做時，我們會立即提高產能利用率和路線密度。所以這些東西確實對我們的租賃業務有幫助。所以我們做了一些。我們確實收購了一些急救公司，也收購了消防公司。同樣，這三個方面的動態都是相似的。這些都是非常好的機會，只會加強我們在收購它們的當地市場的業務，我們將繼續盡最大努力尋找這些機會。

One thing I might add is, to Mike's point, we get synergies. It helps us with density, helps us with capacity utilization, allowed us to spend more time with the customers. So all that's valuable. But in each of the businesses, depending upon the business we acquire. But normally, when we make an acquisition in Rental, First Aid or Fire, we're able to provide an offering to that customer base that's broader than what they had in the past. So the rental waiver broader offering than most companies out there, certainly in the First Aid, we do as well. And depending upon the Fire acquisition, that's very consistent, separate from then we can cross-sell. So it's just -- it adds nice value.

我要補充的一件事是，就麥克而言，我們獲得了協同效應。它幫助我們提高密度，幫助我們提高產能利用率，讓我們能花更多時間與客戶相處。所以這一切都是有價值的。但在每一項業務中，取決於我們收購的業務。但通常情況下，當我們在租賃、急救或消防領域進行收購時，我們能夠為該客戶群提供比過去更廣泛的產品。因此，租金減免比大多數公司提供的服務更廣泛，當然在急救領域，我們也是如此。根據 Fire 的收購情況，這是非常一致的，我們可以進行交叉銷售。所以它只是——它增加了很好的價值。

And our next question comes from Shlomo Rosenbaum from Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Shlomo Rosenbaum。

This is a question basically for Mike. Just a little bit going through some of the technical items in the quarter. Receivables days were up 2 days sequentially. I was wondering if there was a lot of business that came in at the end of the quarter. Are you seeing any changing patterns in what clients are paying? Or are there any other factors in that? Because the last time we saw 48 days was during COVID.

這基本上是麥克的問題。稍微回顧一下本季的一些技術項目。應收帳款天數較上季增加兩天。我想知道季度末是否有很多業務進來。您是否發現客戶的支付模式有任何變化？或是有其他因素在其中嗎？因為我們最後一次見到 48 天是在新冠疫情期間。

Shlomo, we -- our -- when our quarters end on a holiday, and it seems like too many of them do, it does create a little bit of disruption in terms of the ability to collect the mail, the application. We have seen maybe just a touch of slowing in the AR, but we've not seen any, I'll say, deterioration from the standpoint of additional write-offs. But we did see a little bit of slowing and the Thanksgiving Holiday can usually contribute to that.

什洛莫，我們——我們的——當我們的季度在假期結束時，似乎有太多人這樣做，這確實對收集郵件和申請的能力造成了一點幹擾。我們可能只是看到 AR 略有放緩，但我想說，從額外沖銷的角度來看，我們沒有看到任何惡化。但我們確實看到了一點放緩，而感恩節假期通常會對此有所貢獻。

Okay. Then in the OPM, the operating margin, the other unit was up very nicely sequentially, even though the -- there's one less day sequentially in the quarter. Can you just give us some of the mechanics or tell us just what's going on, on the ground over there. It's increasing the margin very nicely. And is that something that we should expect to continue at kind of that 16% level?

好的。然後，在 OPM（營業利潤率）方面，另一個部門的環比增長非常好，儘管該季度環比少了一天。你能給我們一些機製或告訴我們那邊地面上發生了什麼事嗎？它很好地增加了利潤。我們應該期望這種情況會繼續保持在 16% 的水平嗎？

Well, we -- certainly, the revenue growth is powerful in all of our businesses. And when we see some really nice revenue growth, that's important. The other thing that I would say is the Uniform Direct Sale business went from a negative 2.7% in terms of revenue growth to 4.7%. And that is important for operating margins, too. So we did see some nice improvement there in the direct sale. Nothing I would say that is noteworthy other than, again, some nice acceleration in the revenue.

嗯，當然，我們所有業務的收入成長都很強勁。當我們看到一些非常好的收入成長時，這很重要。我要說的另一件事是統一直銷業務的收入成長從負2.7%上升到4.7%。這對於營業利益率也很重要。所以我們確實看到直銷方面有了一些不錯的改進。除了收入的一些不錯的增長之外，我想說沒有什麼值得注意的。

And our next question comes from Leo Carrington from Citigroup.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗集團的 Leo Carrington。

If I could ask a follow-up on that points around the one-off or the costs that you called out in Q2 around talent acquisition, training, technology. Were you calling them out to any of these one-off increases in nature or more to highlight where the spend is? And then in terms of the underlying margins and drop through in Q2 on your organic growth. Do you see that as sustainable when you factor in the additional investment this quarter?

我是否可以就您在第二季度提出的關於人才獲取、培訓、技術的一次性成本或成本問題詢問後續情況。您是否要求他們參與這些一次性增加或更多的活動以強調支出的去向？然後就基本利潤率而言，第二季的有機成長有所下降。當您考慮到本季的額外投資時，您認為這種情況是否可持續？

Well, Leo, I'll start with -- we called them out because we think it's important to make sure that our investors understand that we are looking at the long term, and we want to continue to invest in the business. And those investments are really important, and they set up, let's say, more penetration opportunities, more cross-sell opportunities, but also productivity improvements, capacity utilization opportunities. In these cases, we wanted to call them out to show that, look, we're focused on the long term, and we're going to continue in the business.

好吧，利奧，我首先——我們把他們叫出來，因為我們認為確保我們的投資者了解我們正在著眼於長期，並且我們希望繼續投資於這項業務非常重要。這些投資確實很重要，可以說，它們提供了更多的滲透機會、更多的交叉銷售機會，而且還提供了生產力提高、產能利用率的機會。在這些情況下，我們想向他們表明，看，我們專注於長期，我們將繼續從事這項業務。

As Todd said a couple of times, the future is bright for us, and we want to make sure that we take advantage of that bright future by investing in the business. And the call-outs were really more about that. The future is bright.

正如托德多次說過的那樣，我們的未來是光明的，我們希望確保透過投資業務來充分利用這個光明的未來。呼籲實際上更多的是關於這一點。未來是光明的。

In the quarter, we had incremental margins of 27%. Look, our expectation is that we're going to be in the 20% to 30% range going forward. We recognize that when we're sitting at 21%, they need to be in the higher level of that range. And we think that's -- that we can continue to do that. And when we talk about things like SAP and technology and other investments, and by the way, we're able to get 27% even when we're investing in the business. But we give those to say we're setting up those future margin and revenue opportunities. It's important for us to, I think, communicate that.

本季度，我們的利潤增量為 27%。看，我們的預期是未來將在 20% 到 30% 的範圍內。我們認識到，當我們處於 21% 時，他們需要處於該範圍的較高水平。我們認為我們可以繼續這樣做。當我們談論 SAP 和技術以及其他投資時，順便說一下，即使我們投資於業務，我們也能獲得 27% 的回報。但我們給出這些是說我們正在建立未來的利潤和收入機會。我認為，溝通這一點對我們來說很重要。

And our next question comes from Toni Kaplan from Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的東尼卡普蘭。

You mentioned the success that you've had with the branded products earlier, particularly with Carhartt and Chef Works. Could you just remind us if these are exclusive relationships and how long the relationships are for? And then are there any other areas that could benefit from branded products or equipment that you could offer as well?

您之前提到您在品牌產品方面的成功，特別是 Carhartt 和 Chef Works。您能否提醒我們這些是否是排他性關係以及這種關係持續多久？那麼還有其他領域可以從您提供的品牌產品或設備中受益嗎？

Toni, thank you for the question. So we've had a long-standing relationship with Carhartt and Chef Works. And we are the exclusive licensees for those folks -- for those companies on the rental programs. And so we work with them to design products that the end users want, want to wear and -- but also that goes very well through our processing systems. So that's all very important to us.

東尼，謝謝你的提問。因此，我們與 Carhartt 和 Chef Works 建立了長期合作關係。我們是那些參與租賃計劃的公司的獨家被許可人。因此，我們與他們合作設計最終用戶想要、想要穿戴的產品，而這些產品也能很好地通過我們的處理系統。所以這對我們來說非常重要。

As far as -- we don't get into contractual arrangements with them, but I can tell you this. We love products that our end users are -- that get excited about wearing them. And Carhartt and Chef Works are 2 great examples of that in great companies, great brands, great products. And as far as are there other opportunities, we're constantly looking for that. And we spend a lot of time with our customers and with our working partners to talk about that and to see where those opportunities are come from. But those are 2 great relationships, long-standing relationships that are really important to us.

就我們而言，我們沒有與他們簽訂合約安排，但我可以告訴你這一點。我們喜歡我們的最終用戶的產品——他們會因為佩戴它們而感到興奮。 Carhartt 和 Chef Works 就是偉大公司、偉大品牌、偉大產品的兩個很好的例子。至於是否還有其他機會，我們一直在尋找。我們花了很多時間與客戶和工作夥伴討論這個問題，並了解這些機會來自哪裡。但這是兩種對我們來說非常重要的偉大關係、長期關係。

Yes. Terrific. Maybe if you could just give us your latest thoughts on potential international expansion, that would be great.

是的。了不起。如果您能為我們提供您對潛在國際擴張的最新想法，那就太好了。

I'd say, similar to products. We're always looking at those types of opportunities. We certainly know stay in contact with the people that are running those businesses. But the great news is we don't have to do that to -- in order to be really, really successful in the future. We look at it and say there's -- again we're servicing about 1 million [businesses]. There's 16 million businesses in U.S. and Canada.

我想說，類似產品。我們一直在尋找這類機會。我們當然知道與經營這些企業的人保持聯繫。但好消息是，我們不必為了未來真正成功而這樣做。我們查看後說，我們再次為大約 100 萬家[企業]提供服務。美國和加拿大有 1600 萬家企業。

Here's what's really exciting is by the time we get to 2 million customers, there will be more than 16 million businesses in the U.S. and Canada. So that's kind of a bummer if you're running a race, but it's really exciting if you're running a business because once we get to the 2-mile mark, the race is going to be extended. So that's separate from -- we're going to have more products and services over the coming years. So all that being said is we continue to watch it. We evaluate it. We look for the right opportunity. And if that opportunity presents itself, then we will seize it, but certainly not -- it's not required in order for us to be successful in the future.

真正令人興奮的是，當我們擁有 200 萬客戶時，美國和加拿大將有超過 1,600 萬家企業。所以，如果你正在參加一場比賽，這有點令人失望，但如果你正在經營一家企業，那就真的很令人興奮，因為一旦我們達到 2 英里的目標，比賽就會延長。因此，這與我們在未來幾年將擁有更多的產品和服務是分開的。所以我們所說的只是我們繼續關注它。我們對其進行評估。我們尋找合適的機會。如果這個機會出現，我們就會抓住它，但肯定不會——這不是我們未來成功所必需的。

And at this time, there are no further questions. I'd like to turn the call back over to Jared Mattingley to close out the call.

而此時，已經沒有其他問題了。我想將電話轉回賈里德馬丁利 (Jared Mattingley) 以結束通話。

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

感謝您今天早上加入我們。我們將於 3 月發布 24 財年第三季的財務表現。我們期待屆時再次與您交談。

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。