信達思 (CTAS) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Cintas Corporation announces fiscal 2024 fourth-quarter and full-year results. Today's call is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎來到 Cintas Corporation 公佈的 2024 財年第四季和全年業績。今天的通話正在錄音。

At this time, I would like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Jared Mattingley, Vice President and Treasurer, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁兼財務主管 Jared Mattingley 先生。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, Ross. Thank you for joining us.

謝謝你，羅斯。感謝您加入我們。

With me as Todd Schneider, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Mike Hansen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, who will discuss our fiscal '24 fourth quarter and full-year result. After our commentary, we will open the call to questions from analysts.

我是總裁兼執行長 Todd Schneider；執行副總裁兼財務長 Mike Hansen 將討論我們 24 財年第四季和全年業績。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.

1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》為前瞻性聲明提供了免受民事訴訟的安全港。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 will now turn the call over to Todd.

我現在將把電話轉給托德。

Thank you, Jared.

謝謝你，賈里德。

Our fourth quarter performance marked a strong finish to another successful year for Cintas. Fourth-quarter total revenue grew 8.2% to $2.47 billion, an all-time high for revenue in the quarter. The organic growth rate, which adjusts for the impacts of acquisitions and foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations was 7.5%. Importantly, each of our businesses continue to perform well and execute at a high level.

我們第四季的表現標誌著 Cintas 又一個成功的一年的強勁收官。第四季總營收成長 8.2%，達到 24.7 億美元，創該季度營收歷史新高。調整收購和外幣匯率波動影響後的有機成長率為 7.5%。重要的是，我們的每項業務都繼續表現良好並且在高水準執行。

Fourth-quarter gross margin was $1.22 billion, an increase of 11.6% over the prior year. Gross margin increased 150 basis points from 47.7% to 49.2%.

第四季毛利率為12.2億美元，較上年成長11.6%。毛利率從 47.7% 上升 150 個基點至 49.2%。

Operating income for the fourth quarter of $547.6 million, increased 16.3% over the prior year. Operating margin increased 160 basis points to 22.2% from 20.6% in the prior year.

第四季營業收入為5.476億美元，比上年同期成長16.3%。營業利益率從上年的 20.6% 成長 160 個基點至 22.2%。

Fourth-quarter net income was $414.3 million, an increase of 19.7%. Earnings per diluted share for the fourth quarter were $3.99, an increase of 19.8% over the prior year fourth quarter.

第四季淨利為4.143億美元，成長19.7%。第四季攤薄後每股收益為3.99美元，比去年第四季成長19.8%。

These results conclude a strong fiscal year marked by significant accomplishments, including robust revenue growth and margin expansion, and excellent cash generation, which continued to fuel our balanced capital allocation strategy.

這些結果結束了一個強勁的財政年度，取得了重大成就，包括強勁的收入成長和利潤率擴張，以及出色的現金生成，這繼續推動我們的平衡資本配置策略。

The following are specific highlights of fiscal '24. I'd like to begin with revenue. Fiscal year revenue was a record $9.6 billion, an increase of 8.9%. Organic growth was 8% for the year. Our First Aid & Safety Services operating segment exceeded $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time.

以下是 24 財年的具體亮點。我想從收入開始。財年營收達到創紀錄的 96 億美元，成長 8.9%。今年有機成長率為 8%。我們的急救和安全服務營運部門的年收入首次突破 10 億美元。

Our top-line growth is a function of the total value proposition we offer customers of all sizes and across industries and the unique Cintas culture that drives our partners to deliver an outstanding customer experience. Business across our focused verticals of healthcare, hospitality, education, and state and local government continued to perform well. We experienced strong demand for our services, not only from existing customers but across our new business pipeline.

我們的營收成長取決於我們為各種規模和跨行業的客戶提供的整體價值主張，以及推動我們的合作夥伴提供卓越客戶體驗的獨特 Cintas 文化。我們重點關注的醫療保健、酒店、教育以及州和地方政府等垂直領域的業務繼續表現良好。我們的服務需求強勁，不僅來自現有客戶，也來自我們的新業務管道。

About two-thirds of our new customers continue to come from no-programmers, underscoring our ability to capitalize on the vast growth opportunity that remains ahead. In addition, our retention rates remain strong. Our strong revenue performance also translated into continued growth in profits and earnings, including the following highlights.

我們大約三分之二的新客戶仍然來自非程式設計師，這凸顯了我們利用未來巨大成長機會的能力。此外，我們的保留率仍然很高。我們強勁的營收表現也轉化為利潤和收益的持續成長，其中包括以下亮點。

Fiscal '24 operating income grew 14.8% for the year, and our operating margin of 21.6% was an all-time high. EPS grew 16.6% for the year. Our enhanced profitability and earnings growth is a reflection of our relentless focus on operational excellence in every aspect of our business, spanning strategic sourcing and supply chain initiatives, route energy optimization opportunities with SmartTruck and leveraging the SAP system to support greater stockroom visibility and efficient garment sharing.

24 財年營業收入成長了 14.8%，營業利益率為 21.6%，創歷史新高。全年每股收益成長 16.6%。我們增強的獲利能力和獲利成長反映了我們對業務各個方面卓越營運的不懈關注，涵蓋策略採購和供應鏈計劃、透過SmartTruck 實現能源優化機會，並利用SAP 系統支援更大的庫房可視性和高效的服裝分享。

Our cash flow from operating activities exceeded $2 billion for the first time. Strong cash generation provides us even greater flexibility to deploy capital across each of our capital allocation priorities throughout the year. Our number one capital allocation priority is investing back in the business. We prioritize investments in technology, infrastructure, and people to support our sustained growth and value creation over the long term.

我們的經營活動現金流首次突破20億美元。強勁的現金產生能力使我們能夠更靈活地在全年的每個資本配置優先事項中部署資本。我們資本配置的第一要務是對業務進行投資。我們優先考慮對技術、基礎設施和人員的投資，以支持我們的長期持續成長和價值創造。

As we continue to grow and create value, capital is required to add capacity in a number of ways, including new facilities, new equipment, new vehicles as well as technologies to make our partners more successful. We spent $186.8 million in fiscal '24 on acquisitions. This is the most we've spent on acquisitions since fiscal '17. We love acquisitions as they provide us with new customers where we can offer a broader range of products and services. Sometimes they can bring needed capacity. They can also bring attractive synergies that involve leveraging our existing route structures, providing more time with customers and less time driving.

隨著我們不斷發展和創造價值，需要資本以多種方式增加產能，包括新設施、新設備、新車輛以及技術，以使我們的合作夥伴更加成功。我們在 24 財年的收購上花費了 1.868 億美元。這是自 17 財年以來我們在收購方面花費最多的一次。我們喜歡收購，因為它們為我們提供了新客戶，讓我們可以提供更廣泛的產品和服務。有時他們可以帶來所需的能力。它們還可以帶來有吸引力的協同效應，包括利用我們現有的路線結構，為客戶提供更多的時間和更少的駕駛時間。

Another of our priorities is returning capital to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. In fiscal '24, we increased our quarterly per share dividend by 17.4% marketing, the 40th consecutive year that we've increased our dividend, including every year since going public. We also bought back $1 billion of shares during fiscal '24 and up through yesterday.

我們的另一個優先事項是透過股利和股票回購向股東返還資本。在 24 財年，我們將季度每股股息提高了 17.4%，這是我們連續 40 年提高股息，包括上市以來的每一年。我們也在 24 財年及昨天之前回購了 10 億美元的股票。

Lastly, we were named to the prestigious Fortune 500 for the eighth consecutive year. It is an honor to be recognized among the most successful and respected companies. We're proud of these results and the value we continue to deliver for the Cintas shareholders. That performance reflects the focus and great execution by our employees, whom we call partners.

最後，我們連續第八年入選著名的《財星》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。我們對這些成果以及我們持續為 Cintas 股東提供的價值感到自豪。這項績效反映了我們員工（我們稱之為合作夥伴）的專注和出色的執行力。

I'll now turn the call over to Mike to provide details of our fourth quarter results.

我現在將把電話轉給麥克，以提供我們第四季度業績的詳細資訊。

Thanks, Todd, and good morning.

謝謝托德，早安。

Our fiscal '24 fourth-quarter revenue was $2.47 billion compared to $2.28 billion last year. The organic revenue growth rate, adjusted for acquisitions and foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations was 7.5%.

我們 24 財年第四季的營收為 24.7 億美元，去年為 22.8 億美元。經收購和外幣匯率波動調整後的有機收入成長率為 7.5%。

Gross margin for the fourth quarter of fiscal '24 was $1.22 billion compared to $1.09 billion last year, an increase of 11.6%. Gross margin as a percent of revenue was 49.2% for the fourth quarter of fiscal '24 compared to four 47.7% last year, an increase of 150 basis points.

24財年第四季的毛利率為12.2億美元，與去年的10.9億美元相比，成長了11.6%。 24 財年第四季毛利率佔營收的百分比為 49.2%，而去年第四季為 47.7%，成長了 150 個基點。

Strong growth from new customers and the penetration of existing customers with more products and services helped generate great operating leverage, aided by the performance of our global supply chain and focused efforts to extract inefficiencies from the business via our Six Sigma and engineering teams as well as technologies like SmartTruck. The uniform rental and facility services operating segment revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal '24 was $1.91 billion compared to $1.77 billion last year. The organic revenue growth rate was 7.1%.

新客戶的強勁成長以及現有客戶透過更多產品和服務的滲透幫助產生了巨大的營運槓桿，這得益於我們的全球供應鏈的績效以及透過我們的六西格瑪和工程團隊以及集中精力消除業務效率低下的情況。 24 財年第四季的統一租賃和設施服務營運部門收入為 19.1 億美元，而去年為 17.7 億美元。有機收入成長率為7.1%。

As we have 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. Uniform rental was 48%; dust was 19%; hygiene was 16%; shop towels were 4%, linen, which includes microfiber, wipes, towels, and aprons was 10%; and catalog revenue was 3%. These percentages are consistent with last year and demonstrate we are experiencing strong demand across all our products and services.

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營運部門的收入組合。請記住，季度之間的組合可能會出現小幅波動。統一租金為48%；粉塵為19%；衛生狀況為16%；商店毛巾為 4%，亞麻布（包括超細纖維、濕紙巾、毛巾和圍裙）為 10%；目錄收入為 3%。這些百分比與去年一致，顯示我們所有產品和服務的需求強勁。

Gross margin for the uniform rental and facility services operating segment was 48.6% compared to 47.7% last year. This 90-basis point improvement was the result of good top-line growth that continued to generate great operating leverage and excellent sourcing and process improvements, which continue to create additional efficiencies such as garment sharing and SmartTruck.

統一租賃和設施服務營運分部的毛利率為 48.6%，而去年為 47.7%。這項 90 個基點的改進是良好的營收成長的結果，這種成長繼續產生巨大的營運槓桿以及出色的採購和流程改進，從而繼續創造額外的效率，例如服裝共享和 SmartTruck。

Our First Aid & Safety Services operating segment revenue for the fourth quarter was $277.6 million, compared to $249.8 million last year. The organic revenue growth rate was 11.1%, capping off another year of double-digit organic growth. Gross margin for the First Aid and Safety Services operating segment was 55.4%, compared to 51% last year.

我們的急救和安全服務營運部門第四季的收入為 2.776 億美元，而去年為 2.498 億美元。有機收入成長率為 11.1%，結束了另一個兩位數有機成長的一年。急救和安全服務業務部門的毛利率為 55.4%，去年為 51%。

This 440-basis point improvement was the result of our double-digit revenue growth that created solid operating leverage and improved sales mix, a dedicated first-aid distribution center that has lowered costs as well as efficiencies from our SmartTruck technology.

這項 440 個基點的改進是我們兩位數收入成長的結果，它創造了堅實的營運槓桿並改善了銷售組合，專門的急救配送中心降低了成本，並透過我們的 SmartTruck 技術提高了效率。

Our Fire Protection Services and Uniform Direct Sale businesses are reported in the all other segment. All revenue was $282.1 million, compared to $261.5 million last year. The Fire Protection revenue was $197.9 million and the organic revenue growth rate was 12.9%, resulting in another year of double-digit organic growth. Uniform Direct Sale revenue was $84.2 million and organic revenue decreased 4.4%. The organic growth rate in Uniform Direct Sales can vary from quarter to quarter.

我們的消防服務和統一直銷業務在所有其他部門中報告。所有收入為 2.821 億美元，而去年為 2.615 億美元。消防收入為 1.979 億美元，有機收入成長率為 12.9%，再次達到兩位數有機成長。統一直銷收入為 8,420 萬美元，有機收入下降 4.4%。 Uniform Direct Sales 的自然成長率因季度而異。

Gross margin for Fire Protection Services was an all-time high of 50%, compared to 47.9% last year. This 210-basis point improvement was primarily the result of robust revenue growth that generated strong operating leverage, along with route productivity improvements. Gross margin for Uniform Direct Sales was 40.9%, compared to 36% last year. This 490-basis point improvement was the result of higher margin accounts from a disciplined approach to the market.

消防服務的毛利率創歷史新高，達到 50%，而去年為 47.9%。這一 210 個基點的改善主要是由於收入的強勁成長產生了強大的營運槓桿，以及航線生產力的提高。 Uniform Direct Sales 的毛利率為 40.9%，去年為 36%。 490 個基點的改善是由於嚴格的市場策略導致保證金帳戶增加的結果。

Fourth quarter selling and administrative expenses as a percent of revenue was 27%, which was a 10-basis point improvement from last year. We were able to create leverage with these costs while continuing to invest in technology and selling resources.

第四季銷售和管理費用佔收入的百分比為 27%，比去年提高了 10 個基點。我們能夠利用這些成本創造槓桿，同時繼續投資技術和銷售資源。

Fourth-quarter operating income was $547.6 million compared to $470.8 million last year. Operating income as a percentage of revenue was 22.2% in the fourth quarter of fiscal '24, compared to 20.6% in last year's fourth quarter. The fourth quarter marks the first time that all three operating segments Uniform Rental and Facility Services, First Aid & Safety Services, and Fire Protection Services exceeded 22% in operating income in the same quarter.

第四季營業收入為 5.476 億美元，去年同期為 4.708 億美元。 2024 財年第四季營業收入佔營收的百分比為 22.2%，而去年第四季為 20.6%。第四季制服租賃和設施服務、急救與安全服務以及消防服務這三個營運部門的同季度營業收入首次超過 22%。

Our effective tax rate for the fourth quarter was 21.4%, compared to 22.4% last year. Net income for the fourth quarter was $414.3 million compared to $346.2 million last year. This year's fourth-quarter diluted EPS was $3.99, compared to $3.33 last year, an increase of 19.8%.

我們第四季的有效稅率為 21.4%，而去年為 22.4%。第四季淨利為 4.143 億美元，去年同期為 3.462 億美元。今年第四季攤薄後每股收益為3.99美元，較去年的3.33美元成長19.8%。

I'll now turn the call back over to Todd to provide his thoughts on next year and our financial expectations for fiscal '25.

現在我將把電話轉回托德，以提供他對明年的想法以及我們對 25 財年的財務預期。

Thank you, Mike.

謝謝你，麥克。

As we move into fiscal '25, we expect to exceed $10 billion in annual revenue for the first time. This outlook, coupled with our strong fiscal '24 results, demonstrate that our value proposition continues to resonate. Every business in North America goods producing or services providing has a need for image, safety, cleanliness, and compliance. We help our customers meet those needs so they can focus on running their businesses.

進入 25 財年，我們預計年收入將首次超過 100 億美元。這一前景，加上我們強勁的 24 財年業績，表明我們的價值主張繼續引起共鳴。北美的每家商品生產或服務提供企業都需要形象、安全、清潔和合規性。我們幫助客戶滿足這些需求，以便他們能夠專注於經營自己的業務。

As we deliver on our customers' needs, our culture remains our greatest competitive advantage and it drives our focus on continuous improvement and evolving for the future. We will continue to prioritize investments in technology, infrastructure, and people. Our technology investments include our continued investment in SAP with our fire division currently going through the implementation process. In addition to SAP, we have partnered with Verizon and Google to deploy technology solutions that make it easier for our partners to run their business and easier for our customers to do business with us.

當我們滿足客戶的需求時，我們的文化仍然是我們最大的競爭優勢，它推動我們專注於持續改善和麵向未來的發展。我們將繼續優先考慮對技術、基礎設施和人員的投資。我們的技術投資包括對 SAP 的持續投資，我們的消防部門目前正在實施實施過程。除了 SAP 之外，我們還與 Verizon 和 Google 合作部署技術解決方案，讓我們的合作夥伴更輕鬆地開展業務，也讓我們的客戶更輕鬆地與我們開展業務。

In addition, technology initiatives such as SmartTruck and garment sharing, are helping to drive customer satisfaction as well as efficiencies throughout the organization. Our working partners really are the key to our success. We know that when we take care of our partners, they will in turn take great care of our customers. We are investing in training our partners and giving them the best and latest tools to make their jobs easier while also investing in talent acquisition in order to ensure we are properly staffed to support our growth initiatives. The future of Cintas remains bright and our fiscal '25 guidance reflects that outlook.

此外，SmartTruck 和服裝共享等技術措施有助於提高客戶滿意度以及整個組織的效率。我們的工作夥伴確實是我們成功的關鍵。我們知道，當我們照顧我們的合作夥伴時，他們也會反過來照顧我們的客戶。我們正在投資培訓我們的合作夥伴，為他們提供最好和最新的工具，使他們的工作更輕鬆，同時也投資於人才招聘，以確保我們擁有適當的人員來支持我們的成長計劃。 Cintas 的未來依然光明，我們的 25 財年指引也反映了這一前景。

For fiscal '25, we expect our revenue to be in the range of $10.16 billion to $10.31 billion, the total growth rate of 5.9% to 7.4%. Please note the following. Fiscal '25 will have two fewer work days compared to fiscal '24. Each quarter of fiscal '25 will have 65 workdays. The two fewer workdays will impact the first and fourth quarters by one day each. The revenue growth rate in each of those two quarters will be negatively affected by about 160 basis points. Please keep that in mind when modeling.

對於 25 財年，我們預計營收將在 101.6 億美元至 103.1 億美元之間，總成長率為 5.9% 至 7.4%。請注意以下事項。與 24 財年相比，25 財年的工作日將減少兩個工作天。 25 財年每季有 65 個工作天。減少兩個工作日將對第一季和第四季各影響一天。這兩個季度的營收成長率將受到約 160 個基點的負面影響。建模時請記住這一點。

Adjusting for the impact of two fewer workdays acquisitions already completed and a constant currency, our total organic growth rate for next year is expected to be 6.4% to 8%. We expect diluted EPS to be in the range of $16.25 to $16.75, a growth of 7.3% to 10.6%. Fiscal '25, net interest expense is expected to be approximately $106 million, compared to $95 million in fiscal '24, predominantly as a result of higher, variable rate debt used to complete a portion of the previously mentioned share buybacks. Our fiscal '25 effective tax rate is expected to be 20.4%, the same compared to our fiscal '24. Guidance does not include any future share buybacks or significant economic disruptions or downturns.

考慮到已完成的收購減少兩個工作天以及貨幣不變的影響，我們明年的總有機成長率預計為 6.4% 至 8%。我們預計稀釋後每股收益將在 16.25 美元至 16.75 美元之間，成長 7.3% 至 10.6%。 25 財年的淨利息支出預計約為 1.06 億美元，而 24 財年為 9,500 萬美元，這主要是由於用於完成前述部分股票回購的可變利率債務較高。我們 25 財年的有效稅率預計為 20.4%，與 24 財年相同。指引不包括任何未來的股票回購或重大經濟幹擾或衰退。

I'll end by thanking our partners for their tremendous efforts to achieve a successful fiscal '24. As we look ahead to fiscal '25, our outlook reflects our continued confidence in our strategy. We remain focused on delivering outstanding customer experiences, reinforcing the unique Cintas culture that drives our success while making the necessary investments in the business to sustain our growth through fiscal '25 and long beyond.

最後，我要感謝我們的合作夥伴為實現 24 財年的成功所做的巨大努力。當我們展望 25 財年時，我們的前景反映了我們對策略的持續信心。我們仍然專注於提供卓越的客戶體驗，強化推動我們成功的獨特 Cintas 文化，同時對業務進行必要的投資，以維持我們在 25 財年及以後的成長。

I'll now turn the call back over to Jared.

我現在將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 if needed. Thank you.

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。如果需要，請僅提出一個問題並進行一次後續行動。謝謝。

(Operator instructions)

（操作員說明）

Joshua Chan, UBS.

瑞銀集團陳之鋒。

Hi. Good morning, Todd, Mike, and Jared. Congrats on a strong quarter.

你好。早上好，陶德、麥克和賈里德。恭喜季度表現強勁。

I was wondering, I guess the comment on your retention rate. I know that you said it's generally stable. Have you seen any slight uptick in industry churn or downtick in retention, I guess? Or how are you seeing your customers behave in this environment?

我想知道，我猜是對你的保留率的評論。我知道你說整體穩定。我猜你是否看到產業流失率略有上升或留任率下降？或者您如何看待您的客戶在這種環境中的行為？

Good morning, Josh, and thanks for your comments.

早上好，喬什，感謝您的評論。

We really haven't seen a change in our customer behavior or as I mentioned, our retention rates are still very attractive levels. And when you have as broad of a customer bases we do, there are certainly some aspects that are doing -- that are thriving and some that are struggling. It varies based upon industry, it varies based upon geography. But when you speak as a whole, I would say our customer base -- we haven't seen much change in it so far.

我們確實沒有看到客戶行為發生變化，或者正如我所提到的，我們的保留率仍然非常有吸引力。當你擁有像我們一樣廣泛的客戶群時，肯定會有一些方面正在蓬勃發展，而另一些方面卻在苦苦掙扎。它因行業而異，因地理位置而異。但當你作為一個整體說話時，我會說我們的客戶群——到目前為止，我們還沒有看到太大的變化。

Great to hear.

很高興聽到。

And then up for my follow-up. Could you just talk about your reasoning behind choosing that 6.4% to 8.0% organic growth for next year? I guess in the context of just doing 7.5% in Q4, what are the scenarios that would lead you to the bottom and the top end of the growth range?

然後進行我的後續行動。您能否談談您選擇明年有機成長 6.4% 至 8.0% 的理由？我想在第四季度僅實現 7.5% 的背景下，哪些情況會導致您達到增長範圍的底部和頂部？

And thank you so much.

非常感謝。

Well, Josh, we really like our -- where we've -- our guidance is. We like where our business is. And that's where we -- that's where we target our business to grow at those types of levels. Certainly, we read the overall macro data that we -- that you all read about what's going on in the economy and so we watch that but we don't expect much change at this point. And as a result, I'd say we expect to be right in that guide.

好吧，喬什，我們真的很喜歡我們的指導。我們喜歡我們的業務所在地。這就是我們的目標——這就是我們的業務在這些類型的水平上成長的目標。當然，我們閱讀了整體宏觀數據——你們都讀到了經濟中正在發生的事情，所以我們會關注這一點，但我們預計目前不會有太大變化。因此，我想說我們希望在該指南中是正確的。

We'd love for the economy to go even faster but nevertheless, we find ways to be successful. Our value proposition is resonating. We service a little over 1 million customers or 16 million businesses in our market and we have all kinds of ways to grow. And I think we've shown that we have the ability to exceed GDP growth and exceed employment growth, so we would certainly love for our customers to be thriving and adding people all over the place. But nevertheless, we're going to find a way to be successful, and we're confident in our guide.

我們希望經濟發展得更快，但儘管如此，我們還是找到了成功的方法。我們的價值主張引起了共鳴。我們為市場上超過 100 萬的客戶或 1,600 萬家企業提供服務，我們有各種成長方式。我認為我們已經證明我們有能力超越 GDP 成長和就業成長，因此我們當然希望我們的客戶能夠蓬勃發展並在各地增加人員。但無論如何，我們都會找到成功的方法，並且我們對我們的指南充滿信心。

Heather Balsky, Bank of America.

希瑟‧巴爾斯基，美國銀行。

Can you just update us on how you're thinking about incremental margin and how you're thinking about the margin story for 2025? And what are the bigger tailwinds? What are you most excited about? And anything going on in the cost environment as well?

您能否向我們介紹一下您對增量利潤的看法以及對 2025 年利潤狀況的看法？更大的推動因素是什麼？你最興奮的是什麼？成本環境中也發生了什麼事？

Thank you.

謝謝。

I'll start, Heather, and good morning.

我要開始了，希瑟，早安。

As we think about margin expansion, our guide reflects margin expansion. With the first item we think about as it comes to that is leverage. Leverage on revenue growth. And we've demonstrated that we have the ability to do that and that will continue to do that. And that's easy to say, hard to do. But the team has done an incredible job so many areas starting with our global supply chain, which is a competitive advantage in the marketplace. How they go about their jobs. The fact that they have dual source or many sources for 90% or more of the products that we source, so how they go about that.

當我們考慮利潤擴張時，我們的指南反映了利潤擴張。我們考慮的第一個項目是槓桿。撬動收入成長。我們已經證明我們有能力做到這一點，並將繼續做到這一點。而這說來容易，做來難。但從我們的全球供應鏈開始，團隊在許多領域都取得了令人難以置信的工作，這是市場上的競爭優勢。他們如何開展工作。事實上，我們採購的 90% 或更多產品都有雙源或多源，那麼他們是如何做到這一點的呢？

The great work that's been done on material cost, again, starting with sourcing, but also we leverage our SAP system to help us to improve our garments sharing. And we've been working on this for years and it's bearing fruit, not only in our cost structure, but also in turnaround time for our customers. So it helps us to get product to our customers faster when it's in our stock rooms versus having to order new out of our distribution centers, better for our customers, better for our financials and that's paying off for us.

我們在材料成本方面做了出色的工作，再次從採購開始，我們還利用我們的 SAP 系統來幫助我們改進我們的服裝共享。我們多年來一直致力於此，並且取得了成果，不僅在我們的成本結構方面，而且在我們客戶的周轉時間方面也取得了成果。因此，它有助於我們在庫存室中更快地向客戶提供產品，而不是從配送中心訂購新產品，這對我們的客戶和我們的財務狀況都更好，這對我們來說是有回報的。

That's really helpful. Thank you very much.

這真的很有幫助。非常感謝。

Andy Wittmann, RW Baird.

安迪·惠特曼，RW·貝爾德。

Todd, I thought I would start with the competitive environment. Both of your largest competitors have noted increased competition out there and I know that your product and service offering is a little bit broader. But I thought just given those competitor comments, I would take your temperature and have you comment if you could please, on what you're seeing out there in the competitive environment?

托德，我想我應該從競爭環境開始。你們兩個最大的競爭對手都注意到了競爭的加劇，我知道你們提供的產品和服務範圍更廣泛。但我想，鑑於這些競爭對手的評論，我會測量一下你的體溫，如果你願意的話，請你評論一下你在競爭環境中看到的情況？

I'll tell you is that we operate in a highly competitive market. Always have, always will. I'm sure I've been with the company for 35 years. It's been competitive every day since I've been here. Now that being said, our revenue retention rates, as I mentioned, are attractive.

我要告訴你的是，我們在一個競爭激烈的市場中運作。一直有，也永遠會。我確信我已經在這家公司工作了 35 年。自從我來到這裡以來，每天都充滿競爭。話雖這麼說，正如我所提到的，我們的收入保留率很有吸引力。

And part of it is because our new business wins tend to come from the no-program market and less from the competition. So as I mentioned earlier, there's 16 million businesses out there. We service about 1 million. So the whitespace out there is incredible and we're focused on converting those folks from -- I'll call it a do it yourself type to a customer of ours. And that value proposition is resonating because we help them focus on taking -- care of their customers or their patients or their guest or whatever and however you want to describe it and we take that for them. And we're able to do it better, faster, smarter, in many cases, cheaper than what they were doing it.

部分原因是我們的新業務勝利往往來自無計劃市場，而不是來自競爭。正如我之前提到的，那裡有 1600 萬家企業。我們為大約 100 萬人提供服務。因此，那裡的空白是令人難以置信的，我們專注於將這些人從——我稱之為「自己動手做」類型轉變為我們的客戶。這種價值主張引起了共鳴，因為我們幫助他們專注於照顧他們的客戶、他們的病人、他們的客人或其他任何東西，無論你想如何描述它，我們都會為他們服務。我們能夠做得更好、更快、更聰明，在很多情況下，比他們做的更便宜。

So yeah, it's a competitive heck. Yeah, it's always been competitive, and we're focused on growing the market and that's been a good model for us.

所以是的，這是一場競爭。是的，它一直具有競爭力，我們專注於發展市場，這對我們來說是一個很好的模式。

Appreciate that.

感謝。

And then I guess maybe, Mike, I guess I wanted to ask some of the margin questions a little bit different way. First as I was just doing the math between the EPS and the revenue, I was getting somewhere around 20 or 30 basis points of implied operating margin expansion for the year.

然後我想也許，麥克，我想我想以稍微不同的方式問一些邊緣問題。首先，由於我只是在每股盈餘和收入之間進行數學計算，我得到了今年隱含營業利潤率擴張約 20 或 30 個基點的結果。

So maybe you could just give clarify that. But that's a pretty decent deceleration from the amount of margin expansion certainly saw in the quarter or even over the course of the past fiscal year. So I was just wondering if you could comment and if there's anything, any categories inside the P&L that we should be aware of that are inflating more materially or if there's other areas maybe energy costs. I don't know that we should be aware of that could be weighing on continued margin expansion like we've seen here in recent quarters.

所以也許你可以澄清一下。但與本季甚至上一財年的利潤擴張幅度相比，這是相當不錯的減速。所以我只是想知道你是否可以發表評論，以及損益表中是否有任何我們應該注意的類別正在大幅膨脹，或者是否還有其他領域可能是能源成本。我不知道我們是否應該意識到這可能會影響利潤率的持續擴張，就像我們最近幾季所看到的那樣。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Andy, the short answer to are there any new headwinds, the short answer is no with the exception of maybe the two fewer workdays. Whereas as you've heard us talk about, for example, in the first quarter, we talked a little bit about the top-line impact being 160 basis points of growth of headwind. But also you've also heard us talk about margins when we lose a workday. We generally talk about a 50-basis point impact. We lose two workdays next year. We've done such a good job of leveraging our infrastructure that the loss of a workday in a quarter is probably more like 30 to 40 basis points now. But we loose two workdays and so there will be a little bit of headwind from that. That is just a product of the calendar and not necessarily the business.

安迪，簡短的回答是否有任何新的阻力，簡單的回答是沒有，除了可能少兩個工作日之外。然而，正如您所聽到的，例如，在第一季度，我們談到了頂線影響，即逆風增長 160 個基點。但您也聽過我們談論失去工作日時的利潤。我們通常談論 50 個基點的影響。明年我們會損失兩個工作天。我們在利用基礎設施方面做得非常好，以至於現在每季損失一個工作日可能會增加 30 到 40 個基點。但我們失去了兩個工作日，因此會帶來一些阻力。這只是日曆的產物，不一定是業務。

Having said that, the business is still operating really well. And if you think about that -- we thin k about the guidance range is generally in the -- you can call it the 25% to 35% incremental margin range. And so it is a pretty good margin range, the 30 basis points that you referred to, Andy, we would say, look at the very bottom, there still is margin expansion at the very bottom of our range. At the top of the range, there's more than 30 basis points, probably more like 70 basis points.

話雖如此，該業務仍然運作得很好。如果你考慮一下——我們認為指導範圍通常在——你可以稱之為 25% 到 35% 的增量保證金範圍。所以這是一個相當不錯的利潤範圍，安迪，你提到的 30 個基點，我們會說，看看最底部，我們範圍的最底部仍然有利潤擴張。在該範圍的頂部，有超過 30 個基點，可能更像是 70 個基點。

So the year -- we think is this is a typical guide range for us. As you saw in our fourth quarter, the initiatives and the operational excellence that we have worked so hard on have continued in the fourth quarter. And given this guide, we expect those to continue into fiscal '25.

因此，我們認為今年是我們的典型指導範圍。正如您在第四季度看到的那樣，我們努力實施的舉措和卓越營運在第四季度得到了延續。鑑於本指南，我們預計這些將持續到 25 財年。

George Tong, Goldman Sachs.

喬治唐，高盛。

Can you talk a bit about the progress you're making with penetrating your high growth focus verticals, including health care, hospitality, education, and government. Where you're seeing particularly good traction?

您能否談談您在滲透高成長重點垂直產業（包括醫療保健、飯店、教育和政府）方面取得的進展。您在哪裡看到特別好的牽引力？

We really like the verticals that we've chosen. And as a reminder, it's not just a sales strategy. It is also how we are organize around those customers, those industries, and verticals. To make sure that we're meeting -- exceeding their needs because there are a little different. And as we do that, the products, the services that we provide, the support that we provide is all -- comes along with that.

我們真的很喜歡我們選擇的垂直領域。提醒一下，這不僅僅是一種銷售策略。這也是我們圍繞這些客戶、這些行業和垂直行業進行組織的方式。為了確保我們能夠滿足——超越他們的需求，因為他們之間有一些不同。當我們這樣做時，我們提供的產品、服務、支援都是隨之而來的。

And so yeah, they're all operating at attractive levels. And I wouldn't call anyone out specifically where I'd say, Oh, my gosh, that one is exceeding. They're all doing quite well. I thought it might be helpful to talk a little bit about a recent healthcare win that we had. We recently sold a large hospital network with scrub dispensing technology for the scrubs in the various departments throughout acute care hospital.

是的，它們的運作水準都很有吸引力。我不會專門打電話給任何人，我會說，哦，天哪，那個人太誇張了。他們都做得很好。我認為談論我們最近在醫療保健方面取得的勝利可能會有所幫助。我們最近出售了一個大型醫院網絡，該網絡配備了磨砂膏分配技術，用於整個急診醫院各個部門的磨砂膏。

But we're also having really good success with surgery centers and those types that are attached to the large acute care hospital networks. And you're probably seeing some of that acute care hospital networks having investments in other areas. So in fact, I'd say three large health care systems came to us for help with their non-acute facilities.

但我們在手術中心和附屬於大型急診醫院網路的類型方面也取得了非常好的成功。您可能會看到一些急診醫院網路在其他領域進行投資。事實上，我想說三個大型醫療保健系統向我們尋求非急診設施的幫助。

When I say non-acute facilities, I'm talking about really surgery centers, clinics, physician offices, those types. And they came to us and said, you're done a great job for our acute care. Can you help us with the non-acute? And what does that do for them? It allows them to have a consistent supply, but also allows them to consolidate vendors.

當我說非急診設施時，我指的是真正的手術中心、診所、醫生辦公室等類型。他們來找我們說，你們為我們的急診照顧做得很好。您能幫助我們解決非急性問題嗎？這對他們有什麼作用？它使他們能夠擁有穩定的供應，同時也使他們能夠整合供應商。

So we're seeing good success in -- certainly in healthcare, but the other verticals are all performing well. And we like the decisions, the investments that we've made in those areas, and we think they're going to continue to pay dividends for us.

因此，我們在醫療保健領域取得了巨大成功，但其他垂直領域也都表現良好。我們喜歡我們在這些領域所做的決定和投資，我們認為它們將繼續為我們帶來回報。

Got it. Very helpful. Thank you.

知道了。很有幫助。謝謝。

Tim Mulrooney, William Blair.

提姆·馬爾魯尼，威廉·布萊爾。

Just one from me and I hopped on late, so apologies if this has got addressed, but a few of your competitors have recently cited more pricing pushback and an increasing number of customers putting their contracts out to bid. I'm wondering on this pricing idea, if you're seeing a similar dynamic where customers are becoming more price sensitive in this environment? Or do you think that this is less of an issue for the industry overall and could perhaps be more specific to these individual companies or markets?

只是我和我遲到了，所以如果這個問題得到解決，我深表歉意，但你們的一些競爭對手最近提到了更多的定價推遲以及越來越多的客戶將合約拿出來競標。我想知道這個定價理念，您是否看到類似的動態，即客戶在這種環境下變得對價格更加敏感？或者您認為這對於整個行業來說不是一個問題，並且可能更具體於這些個別公司或市場？

So I'd say nothing to call out specifically. They're still really normal operating environment. As I mentioned earlier, we operate in a highly competitive market. So we've got to make sure that -- our value proposition is resonating with our customers and we're providing outstanding customer service. We've said that our plan is to lower pricing back towards historical levels. And that's what we're seeing.

所以我沒什麼要特別指出的。它們仍然是非常正常的操作環境。正如我之前提到的，我們在一個競爭激烈的市場中運作。因此，我們必須確保—我們的價值主張能夠引起客戶的共鳴，並且我們提供出色的客戶服務。我們已經說過，我們的計劃是將定價降低到歷史水平。這就是我們所看到的。

And I would just point out that as we moderated pricing, even in fiscal '24, we were able to expand operating margins 120 basis points. And so we're finding ways to provide great value for our customers while moderating pricing and but still extracting inefficiencies out of our business so that we can improve operating margins.

我只想指出，隨著我們調整定價，即使在 24 財年，我們也能夠將營業利潤率擴大 120 個基點。因此，我們正在尋找方法為我們的客戶提供巨大的價值，同時調整定價，但仍然消除我們業務中的低效率，以便我們可以提高營業利潤。

Okay. So not really seeing pushback on pricing.

好的。因此，並沒有真正看到定價方面的阻力。

And Todd, would you say it's certainly not lost on us, but you had strong incrementals this quarter as pricing moderated. Would you say now pricing has fully normalized that there is no more headwinds as we head into 2025 from moderating pricing or is that are you still in that process?

托德，你會說我們當然不會失去這一點，但隨著定價的放緩，本季度你有強勁的增量。您是否認為現在定價已經完全正常化，隨著我們進入 2025 年，定價調整不會再遇到阻力，還是說您仍然處於這個過程中？

Tim, as I mentioned, it's a highly competitive market. We have continued to moderate pricing and pricing is a local subject. It really depends upon the customers. What their operating environment is like, what their customer bases doing, those type. So we continue to monitor that and manage it appropriately based upon our local businesses and making sure that we're meeting our customers' needs and thinking about the long-term value of a customer because we don't look at it and say, we're focused on the near term -- short term. We're focused on the long term for our customers and we will continue to try to manage price in that manner.

提姆，正如我所提到的，這是一個競爭激烈的市場。我們繼續適度定價，定價是當地的主題。這實際上取決於客戶。他們的營運環境是什麼樣的，他們的客戶群在做什麼，這些類型。因此，我們繼續監控這一點，並根據我們當地的業務進行適當的管理，確保我們滿足客戶的需求並考慮客戶的長期價值，因為我們不會看著它並說，我們我們專注於近期——短期。我們著眼於客戶的長期利益，並將繼續努力以這種方式管理價格。

And I might just add, Tim, to your question. Probably not a lot of fiscal '25 to fiscal '24 year-over-year pricing change.

提姆，我可能會補充你的問題。 25 財年到 24 財年的定價年變動可能不大。

Andrew Steinerman, JPMorgan.

安德魯‧史坦納曼，摩根大通。

Hey, if you believe it, I'm just going to ask you to clarify something you just said.

嘿，如果你相信的話，我只是想請你澄清一下你剛才說的話。

So you talked about moderating pricing. When I hear the words moderating pricing, I hear price decreases. I assume what you mean is you're moderating to a more normal type of modest price increase. And then when talking about fiscal '25, are you talking about modest price increases or really flat pricing year over year for existing customer?

所以你談到了調整定價。當我聽到「調整定價」這個詞時，我聽到的是價格下降。我認為你的意思是你正在調整到更正常的適度價格上漲。然後，在談論 25 財年時，您是在談論適度的價格上漲還是對現有客戶的同比定價真正持平？

Just to clarify, moderating pricing is the way you characterized it, which is we are passing through modest price increases based upon our agreement and relationship with that customer. And that varies based upon customers, geographies, industries, et cetera. But yeah, the way you described it is appropriate. It's a modest price increase with customers, in general.

需要澄清的是，調整定價是您描述的方式，即我們根據我們與該客戶的協議和關係進行適度的價格上漲。這會因客戶、地理位置、行業等的不同而有所不同。但是，是的，你描述的方式是合適的。整體而言，對客戶來說，價格上漲幅度不大。

That's true for the fiscal '25 [ right]?

25 財年也是如此嗎？

That would be correct.

那是正確的。

Okay. Thank you very much. Good clarification.

好的。非常感謝。很好的澄清。

Jasper Bibb, Truist Securities.

賈斯珀·比伯 (Jasper Bibb)，Truist 證券公司。

I was hoping if you could give a bit more color on what you're seeing as far as net headcount at customers or their hiring posture and any expectations there embedded in your fiscal '25 organic growth guidance?

我希望您能就您所看到的客戶淨人數或他們的招聘狀況以及您的 25 財年有機增長指導中包含的任何期望提供更多資訊嗎？

Yeah, it really varies. As I mentioned, we have such a broad customer base in geographies, but really not much change in customer behavior when it comes to hiring. We're seeing a pretty --the environment is, I'll call it stable and hasn't really changed much in the past few quarters.

是的，確實有所不同。正如我所提到的，我們在各個地區擁有如此廣泛的客戶群，但在招募方面，客戶行為實際上並沒有太大變化。我們看到一個非常好的環境，我稱之為穩定，在過去幾個季度並沒有真正改變太多。

Got it. Last one for me. Maybe asking an earlier question a little bit differently.

知道了。最後一張給我。也許問之前的問題有點不同。

With this whole dynamic of peers talking about increased churn, including at some of their larger national accounts. If you're not seeing a pricing or retention hit, are you potentially taking away some of this competitor business at a higher rate given these market dynamics?

同行們都在談論流失率的增加，包括在一些較大的國民帳戶中。如果您沒有看到定價或保留率受到影響，考慮到這些市場動態，您是否可能以更高的速度奪走一些競爭對手的業務？

Well, here's where I have described. It is where we operate in a really competitive environment. And so we're out there trying to do the best to take care of our customers fighting for business every day and I wouldn't characterize it as really much of a change in the environment. It's always really competitive and we're continuing to try to position our organization with the best products, the best services, the best technology so that they can be successful in the marketplace.

嗯，這就是我所描述的地方。這是我們在真正競爭的環境中開展業務的地方。因此，我們竭盡全力照顧每天為業務而奮鬥的客戶，我不會將其描述為環境的真正變化。它始終具有真正的競爭力，我們將繼續努力為我們的組織提供最好的產品、最好的服務、最好的技術，以便他們在市場上取得成功。

Manav Patnaik, Barclays.

馬納夫·帕特奈克，巴克萊銀行。

I just had one question. Earlier you talked about how you have been the most active in M&A for many years now. So I'm just curious if you could just talk a little bit more about why now and perhaps what the pipeline in each of your segments looks like for future M&A.

我只有一個問題。早些時候您談到了多年來您是如何在併購領域最活躍的。因此，我很好奇您是否可以多談談為什麼現在，以及未來併購的每個細分市場的管道是什麼樣的。

Yeah, as you know, M&A, it's tough to predict. We think about it long term and make sure that we have relationships so that when someone does decide that they want to transact that we're well positioned, so it's really tough to predict deal flow. But again, we think about long term and we want to be -- we find M&A really attractive and in large part because of, as I mentioned earlier, it gives us a new set of customers that we can offer a wider breadth of products and services that we offer, but there's really -- can be highly attractive synergies.

是的，如你所知，併購很難預測。我們會從長遠考慮，並確保我們有良好的關係，這樣當有人決定進行交易時，我們就處於有利位置，因此很難預測交易流。但同樣，我們會考慮長期目標，我們發現併購確實很有吸引力，很大程度上是因為，正如我之前提到的，它為我們提供了一批新客戶，我們可以提供更廣泛的產品，我們提供的服務，但確實可以產生極具吸引力的綜效。

In many cases, we get it some infrastructure that is important to us and we always get great people and we learn from those. So yeah, we're highly interested in M&A of all shapes and sizes. And we're active in those markets. Tough [to pace that]. It takes two to dance and we just want to make sure we're at the dance and ready.

在許多情況下，我們獲得了一些對我們很重要的基礎設施，我們總是能找到優秀的人才，我們可以向他們學習。所以，是的，我們對各種形式和規模的併購非常感興趣。我們活躍於這些市場。很難[步調一致]。跳舞需要兩個人，我們只想確保我們在舞會上做好準備。

Okay. Fair enough. Thank you, guys.

好的。很公平。感謝你們。

Scott Schneeberger, Oppenheimer.

史考特‧施內伯格，奧本海默。

I have two.

我有兩個。

The first one is you've been seeing over the course of the year about investing in your selling capabilities, technology, management, training. Just an update there. And also you've been alluding to [a lot to my] Cintas portal. Any quantification you can put on that about penetration or anything else about how that's progressing?

第一個是你在這一年中看到的關於對你的銷售能力、技術、管理和培訓的投資。只是那裡有更新。而且您也多次提到了我的 Cintas 入口網站。您可以對滲透率或其他進展進行量化嗎？

Thanks.

謝謝。

It's tough to put a number on that. It's kind of like, how do you put a value on the culture of Cintas? We're constantly reinvesting in those technologies, in those trainings to position our people to be more successful. We talk about making it easier for them to do their jobs and make it easier for our customers to do business with us. So those are all investments that are long-term thinking, long-term investments that positions our people to be successful in the marketplace.

很難給出一個數字。這有點像，你要如何評價 Cintas 文化的價值？我們不斷對這些技術和培訓進行再投資，以使我們的員工取得更大的成功。我們談論的是讓他們更輕鬆地完成工作，讓我們的客戶更輕鬆地與我們開展業務。因此，這些投資都是長期思考、長期投資，使我們的員工能夠在市場上取得成功。

Some of those investments pay off faster, but it's a continual investments. And when we think about those investments, it is we have an amazing team of partners that are out every day, taking great care of the customers. We want to make it easier for them. We want to make it -- give them data that allows them to provide more value to the customers, make it less laborious for them to do their jobs, and allow customers the ability to self serve and have many conduits to do business with Cintas and also communicate with Cintas.

其中一些投資回報更快，但這是一項持續的投資。當我們考慮這些投資時，我們擁有一支出色的合作夥伴團隊，他們每天都在外面，為客戶提供極大的照顧。我們想讓他們變得更容易。我們希望做到這一點——為他們提供數據，使他們能夠為客戶提供更多價值，減少他們工作的勞力，並讓客戶能夠自助服務並擁有多種管道與 Cintas 開展業務，也與 Cintas 溝通。

So all those investments are ongoing and will be frankly, probably ongoing in perpetuity because that's the nature of business now that technology plays a key role and we're blessed to have a balance sheet where we can invest appropriately and position our team to be really successful.

因此，所有這些投資都在持續進行，坦率地說，可能會永遠持續下去，因為這就是商業的本質，技術發揮著關鍵作用，我們很幸運擁有一個資產負債表，我們可以在其中進行適當的投資，並將我們的團隊定位為真正的成功的。

Thanks. And a follow-up is for your fiscal year and all-time high in the fourth quarter on the operating margin. So a conceptual longer term question.

謝謝。後續是您的財年和第四季營運利潤率的歷史新高。這是一個概念性的長期問題。

You guys have done great in simplifying the -- implementing the ERP and reaping benefits from it. What can you get to for peak margins? I mean you've talked about incremental margins 25%, 35% range. Can you get to 25% properly? Can you get to 30% longer term. Just some consideration on what aspirational targets would be reasonable?

你們在簡化 ERP 實施並從中獲益方面做得非常出色。怎樣才能獲得最高利潤？我的意思是，您談到了 25%、35% 範圍內的增量利潤。你能正確達到25%嗎？長期來看你能達到30%嗎？只是考慮一下什麼理想目標是合理的？

Thanks.

謝謝。

Scott, I would say this we don't like to put a ceiling on our aspirations, but we certainly think that we can continue to improve margins and so maybe a couple of points.

史考特，我想說的是，我們不想為我們的願望設定上限，但我們當然認為我們可以繼續提高利潤率，所以也許有幾點。

First of all, at 25% to 35% operating -- incremental operating margins. We've got locations that are operating at the 30%-plus level today. And so we -- and that's in all of our businesses. And so we -- there's a pathway there and we are continuing to work on it.

首先，營運利潤率為 25% 到 35% 增量。今天，我們有些地點的運作水準超過了 30%。所以我們——這就是我們所有的業務。所以我們——那裡有一條途徑，我們正在繼續努力。

Sometimes it's better scale and density. Sometimes it's a little bit of product mix. Sometimes it's the newness of the location. But we have those examples and we're continuing to get all of our locations closer and closer to those highest operating locations. And that operating -- incremental operating margin range of 25% to 35% in our minds tells us certainly we can work -- continue to work to get there.

有時規模和密度更好。有時是一些產品組合。有時是因為地點的新穎性。但我們有這些例子，我們正在繼續讓我們的所有地點越來越接近那些最高的營運地點。我們心目中的營運利潤率增量範圍為 25% 至 35%，這告訴我們我們當然可以繼續努力實現這一目標。

As you go back to that, you've talked a little bit about technology. I would say that we're still in the early innings of technology. We've become much, much better at operating on the SAP system and it's only been about four years since we've been -- since our rental business has been fully on and fire is not on yet. And so we have been getting better and better at using that system.

當你回過頭來時，你已經談論了一些技術。我想說我們仍處於科技的早期階段。我們在 SAP 系統上的營運已經變得非常非常好，而我們的租賃業務已經全面啟動，但還沒有火起來，僅僅四年左右的時間。因此，我們在使用該系統方面做得越來越好。

But as you know, as we've talked about over the course of the last year or so, there are still a lot of things that can come with our Google and Verizon and SAP partnerships that we are just touching the surface on and we think that that can be a big driver of continued margin expansion into the future. I'm not ready to put a date on when we can hit 25% or 30%, but we certainly have that in our sights and we'll continue to work hard to get there.

但正如您所知，正如我們在過去一年左右的時間裡所討論的那樣，我們的 Google、Verizon 和 SAP 合作夥伴關係仍然可以帶來很多東西，我們只是觸及表面，我們認為這可能是未來利潤率持續擴張的重要推手。我還沒有準備好確定何時可以達到 25% 或 30%，但我們確實有這個目標，我們將繼續努力實現這一目標。

Thanks. Great job.

謝謝。做得好。

Shlomo Rosenbaum, Stifel Nicolaus.

什洛莫·羅森鮑姆，斯蒂菲爾·尼古拉斯。

Hi, this is Adam on for Shlomo.

大家好，我是什洛莫的亞當。

Could you maybe provide a little bit of outlook for Uniform Direct Sales and fire protection businesses for '25 and how much of a margin impact should there be in the fire business from the SAP implementation you alluded to last quarter?

您能否對 25 年統一直銷和消防業務進行一些展望，以及您上季度提到的 SAP 實施對消防業務的利潤率影響有多大？

From a fire protection business perspective, we're still in the implementation phase of that and there's going to be a little bit of pressure on there. I'm not going to give us specific guidance in terms of their margin, but there will be some pressure as we go through keeping in mind when we go through an implementation, there the work of the implementation, the work of training all of our people to use it, the inefficiencies that come along with that, and we will then get better and better.

從消防業務的角度來看，我們仍處於實施階段，並且會面臨一些壓力。我不會在利潤方面給我們具體的指導，但是當我們實施實施時，我們會面臨一些壓力，包括實施工作、培訓我們所有人員的工作。會變得越來越好。

And fiscal '25 is going to be a little bit of a year of that training and implementation period. And so I would say that's going to be a little bit of pressure on the margins there. Certainly, that's incorporated within our overall guide of margin improvement. From a Uniform Direct Sale perspective, our margins have been really good. We've been working on selling the right types of programs and our Uniform Direct Sale partners are doing a great job in that area.

25 財年將是培訓和實施期的一年。所以我想說這會給那裡的利潤帶來一點壓力。當然，這已納入我們的利潤率改善整體指南中。從統一直銷的角度來看，我們的利潤率非常高。我們一直致力於銷售正確類型的計劃，我們的統一直銷合作夥伴在該領域做得非常出色。

But having said all of that, a little bit hard to tell based on that SAP implementation and fire, but keeping in mind, that's included with our overall guide.

但話雖如此，根據 SAP 實施和火災情況，有點難以判斷，但請記住，這包含在我們的整體指南中。

Ashish Sabadra, RBC Capital Markets.

Ashish Sabadra，加拿大皇家銀行資本市場。

Maybe just a question on the guidance philosophy because when you think about organic growth and the quarter still continues to be pretty robust compared to the industry growth profile at 7.5% but it has moderated over the last eight quarters. The higher end of the guidance implies the 8% organic growth implies an inflection in growth and historically, base that your guide where you have beaten and raised our guidance throughout the year. So as we think about where do we really see the inflection and in terms of guidance philosophy, would you say, is it equally conservative as we've seen in the prior year?

也許只是一個關於指導理念的問題，因為當你考慮有機成長時，與 7.5% 的行業成長狀況相比，本季仍然相當強勁，但在過去八個季度有所放緩。指導的高端意味著 8% 的有機成長意味著成長的拐點，從歷史上看，您的指導的基礎是您全年擊敗並提高了我們的指導。因此，當我們思考我們在哪裡真正看到這種變化以及指導理念時，您會說，它是否與我們去年看到的一樣保守？

Thanks.

謝謝。

Well, I'll say maybe this, Ashish. We had an 8% organic growth rate year this year. And that was a really good year in a year where, again, last year we were at about 12.2% and 10% the previous year. And these were years where there was just heavy inflation. And as you know, our pricing was a little bit higher than norm and we got the 8% this year in sort of that bringing the price increases back to something closer to historical levels.

好吧，我會說也許是這樣，阿什什。今年我們的有機成長率為 8%。那是非常好的一年，去年我們的成長率約為 12.2%，前年為 10%。這些年通貨膨脹嚴重。如你所知，我們的定價比正常水平稍高一些，今年我們獲得了 8% 的漲幅，這使得價格漲幅回到了接近歷史水平的水平。

As we think about our guide, maybe I'll throw out a couple of numbers to you. And as Todd has been mentioning, we've had a -- we've not seen a lot of change in customer behavior, and we've had some really good performance in our full fiscal '24 year, but I'll point out a couple.

當我們思考我們的指南時，也許我會向您提供一些數字。正如托德所提到的，我們沒有看到客戶行為發生很大變化，而且我們在整個 24 財年中取得了一些非常好的業績，但我要指出一對夫婦。

In our third quarter, if you adjust for the workdays, our total growth was 8.2%. In the fourth quarter, our total growth was 8.2%. In our guide, when you think about just simply the workday, our guide range is 6.7% to 8.3%. So our guide range is effectively telling you we're seeing the business operate in much of the same manner as we saw in the second half of the year.

在第三季度，如果調整工作日，我們的總成長率為 8.2%。第四季度，我們的總成長率為8.2%。在我們的指南中，當您僅考慮工作日時，我們的指南範圍為 6.7% 至 8.3%。因此，我們的指導範圍有效地告訴您，我們看到該業務的運作方式與我們下半年看到的大致相同。

If you look at the organic numbers in those -- in the third quarter, fourth quarter, and next year; same story. And so the philosophy is a little bit of look, we have to build a bit of a range because we have to consider certain alternatives, but effectively the guide range for fiscal '25 on the top line is right in line with what you've seen, particularly in the second half of fiscal '24. And that is really nice growth in all of our businesses, certainly in Uniform Rental, First Aid & Safety, and Fire Protection. So hopefully, that helps a little bit, Ashish.

如果你看看第三季、第四季和明年的有機數字；相同的故事。因此，我們的理念是，我們必須建立一些範圍，因為我們必須考慮某些替代方案，但實際上，頂線上 25 財年的指導範圍與您所了解的一致尤其是在 24 財年下半年。這對我們所有的業務來說都是非常好的成長，尤其是在製服租賃、急救與安全以及消防方面。希望這能有所幫助，Ashish。

Yeah. That's very helpful color. Thank you.

是的。這是非常有用的顏色。謝謝。

Faiza Alwy, Deutsche Bank.

Faiza Alwy，德意志銀行。

So you mentioned earlier in the call about the white space opportunity and just the traction you're getting with non-programmers. I think relative to historical levels, the contribution from non-programmers to growth has been higher. So I'm curious if you can talk about what you're doing differently or you maybe using technology, has the [PIT] changed a little bit? Is there something about the underlying environment? So just curious on what's driving incremental contribution from non-programmers.

因此，您之前在電話會議中提到了空白機會以及您對非程式設計師的吸引力。我認為相對於歷史水平，非程式設計師對成長的貢獻更高。所以我很好奇你是否可以談談你正在做的不同的事情或你可能使用的技術，[PIT] 是否發生了一些變化？是底層環境有什麼問題？所以只是好奇是什麼推動了非程式設計師的增量貢獻。

I'll start but and Mike, if you'd like to contribute.

我會開始，但是麥克，如果你願意貢獻的話。

For several decades now we have had a focus on trying to grow the pie of the business and that whitespace is significant. So we teach our organization about how to attract no-programmers. And it's a little different process and it takes -- it's more of a conceptual sale versus something I'll call it more about what you've got to coach them and teach them about how to do something different instead of simply doing it yourself.

幾十年來，我們一直專注於努力擴大業務份額，而空白是很重要的。因此，我們向我們的組織傳授如何吸引非程式設計師。這是一個有點不同的過程，它需要更多的是概念性銷售，而不是我所說的更多的是你必須指導他們並教他們如何做不同的事情，而不是簡單地自己做。

And again, that's a conceptual sale and we teach our folks on how to do that. And we happen to be blessed with being in a spot where there is a massive whitespace out there. And I'll say it's a harder concept to get across to people, but we've been doing it for so long that it's just part of how our organization operates. And we think that that's exciting for us. No real obvious change I would point to. It's just part of our culture. It's part of how we teach and train our partners on how to approach that.

再說一遍，這是一次概念性銷售，我們會教導我們的員工如何做到這一點。我們很幸運地處於一個有大量空白的地方。我想說的是，這是一個很難讓人們理解的概念，但我們已經這樣做了很長一段時間，以至於它只是我們組織運作方式的一部分。我們認為這對我們來說是令人興奮的。我沒有指出真正明顯的變化。這只是我們文化的一部分。這是我們教導和培訓合作夥伴如何實現這一目標的一部分。

And it resonates with people because they get the concept of outsourcing. They get the concept of yeah, maybe I am struggling to keep up with all this and you can do it, you can do it better, faster, smarter, cheaper than I can. And that's been a key fundamental of how we've grown our business over the years and how we'll continue to grow our business into the future.

它引起了人們的共鳴，因為他們了解了外包的概念。他們的想法是，是的，也許我正在努力跟上這一切，而你可以做到，你可以比我做得更好、更快、更聰明、更便宜。這是我們多年來發展業務以及未來如何繼續發展業務的關鍵基礎。

Faiza, maybe I'll offer this a bit.

Faiza，也許我可以提供一點。

Think about the health care vertical that we've been in for maybe a decade or so now. When we got into that, we needed to create a sales team because it's just a different sale, different relationships. And so we had to create a different sales team. When we did that, we started with maintenance uniforms, uniform rental and maintenance because we didn't have a broad product offering.

想想我們已經從事醫療保健行業大約十年了。當我們進入這個領域時，我們需要創建一個銷售團隊，因為這只是不同的銷售，不同的關係。因此我們必須創造一個不同的銷售團隊。當我們這樣做時，我們從維護制服、制服租賃和維護開始，因為我們沒有廣泛的產品供應。

As we continued in that business, we started to learn through dialogue with the customers, how else we can help them. And we started things like microfiber, and we started rental programs, and microfiber and that started to take off and it has become a nice product for us as we continued to have dialogue with them with -- that evolved into then scrub rental programs.

隨著我們繼續開展這項業務，我們開始透過與客戶的對話來了解我們還能如何幫助他們。我們開始了超細纖維之類的事情，我們開始了租賃計劃，超細纖維開始起飛，隨著我們繼續與他們對話，它已經成為我們的一個很好的產品——後來演變成了擦洗租賃計劃。

These came out of, again, dialogue with how can we help our customers. And so this health care has grown from almost nothing to call it 8% of our revenue now. And it's largely because of the adaptation of our people to this this new type of vertical along with our dialogue, with our customers and creating a really nice partnership that then creates some innovation -- that gets innovation flowing for us in new products and services.

這些再次來自於我們如何幫助客戶的對話。因此，醫療保健從幾乎沒有成長到現在占我們收入的 8%。這很大程度上是因為我們的員工適應了這種新型的垂直行業，以及我們與客戶的對話，並建立了非常良好的合作夥伴關係，從而創造了一些創新，從而為我們帶來了新產品和服務的創新。

And then if we couple that with technology of having more information at our fingertips of being able to find better prospecting as we can be better able to tell what customers have which products and where might the warmest leads and so on be, we have over time, we have been able to grow the business and through that, grow the productivity.

然後，如果我們將其與觸手可及的更多資訊技術結合起來，以便能夠找到更好的潛在客戶，因為我們可以更好地判斷哪些客戶擁有哪些產品以及最熱情的潛在客戶在哪裡等等，隨著時間的推移，我們，我們已經能夠發展業務，並由此提高生產力。

And so all of these things that we do that Todd talks about, they don't happen overnight. They are the evolution and continued dialogue and collaboration with our customers to become more and more ingrained in what we do with them. And so the -- you ask about the whitespace, this is just a continued evolution of that collaboration, innovation, technology wins, productivity improvement.

因此，托德談到的我們所做的所有這些事情都不是一朝一夕就能完成的。它們是與客戶的不斷發展和持續對話與協作，使我們與客戶的合作變得越來越根深蒂固。所以，如果你問到空白，這只是協作、創新、技術勝利、生產力提升的持續演進。

That's very helpful. Thank you so much.

這非常有幫助。太感謝了。

And then just a quick follow-up on CapEx. You mentioned that at the outset as a priority, I know we saw an increase in CapEx in 2024. And apologies if I missed it. I don't know if you gave a specific number, but just talk a bit more about some of the CapEx investments and how we should think about that going forward.

然後快速跟進資本支出。您一開始就提到，我知道我們在 2024 年看到了資本支出的增加，這是優先事項。我不知道您是否給出了具體數字，但請多談談一些資本支出投資以及我們應該如何考慮未來的情況。

We were about 4.3% in fiscal '24 as a percent of revenue. You might remember we had a little bit of catch-up in truck purchasing through the year. We had some of the SAP investments for fire protection. We largely believe that CapEx in the future is the 3.5% to 4% of revenue range. I think that's where we'll likely end up in fiscal '25.

24 財年我們佔營收的比例約為 4.3%。您可能還記得，今年我們在卡車採購方面有一些追趕。我們有一些 SAP 投資用於消防。我們很大程度上認為未來的資本支出將佔收入的 3.5% 至 4% 範圍。我認為這就是我們在 25 財年可能會遇到的情況。

Stephanie Moore, Jefferies.

史蒂芬妮·摩爾，杰弗里斯。

I wanted to follow-up actually on just the last question there and just one quick question.

我實際上想跟進最後一個問題以及一個簡單的問題。

Are you finding potentially some increased activity from new customers that are viewing maybe a value proposition differently? So taking -- maybe taking [them away] but higher inflationary environment, maybe not looking to do it in-house and have that initial capital outlay your value proposition that's coming in. Is that -- has that been a contributing driver to the growth?

您是否發現新客戶的活動可能增加，他們對價值主張的看法可能有所不同？因此，也許會採取[它們]，但更高的通膨環境，也許不希望在內部進行，並讓初始資本支出您即將到來的價值主張。

Yeah, there's many inputs to it. Certainly, if you are with a rental uniform program, if you want to buy garments, there's a large capital outlay versus us doing that for the customer. In other areas where you might have to go buy dispensers for chemicals or soaps, towels, what have you in restrooms and we do that for the customer. We make that investment on their behalf. And then again, we free them up to take care of their business, focus on their people, their customers, their guests, their patients.

是的，有很多輸入。當然，如果您參加了製服租賃計劃，如果您想購買服裝，那麼與我們為客戶購買服裝相比，需要大量的資本支出。在其他地區，您可能必須去購買化學物質或肥皂、毛巾、浴室裡有的分配器，我們會為顧客做這些。我們代表他們進行投資。然後，我們再次讓他們騰出時間來處理自己的業務，專注於他們的員工、客戶、客人和患者。

So I'm sure that contributes to it certainly when it's -- I think we've benefited from the environment where people are busy in there -- whether they're trying to hire people, take care of customers, and they say again, wow, I didn't realize you could do that for me. You can do it at those competitive rates. And that frees me up.

因此，我確信這肯定會有所貢獻——我認為我們從人們忙碌的環境中受益——無論他們是在試圖僱用員工，還是照顧客戶，他們再說一遍，哇，我沒想到你能為我做到這一點。您可以以具有競爭力的價格做到這一點。這讓我自由了。

And over the years, we've spoken to many, many customers who were surprised that our average-size customer, how small it is and they didn't realize that they were big enough to have a service like ours, where our average-size customers really small and that's part of our responsibilities to get the message out that we can help customers and our sales team out there actively pursuing those but I've seen that over and over again throughout the years.

多年來，我們與很多很多客戶交談過，他們對我們的平均規模客戶感到驚訝，它是多麼小，而且他們沒有意識到他們足夠大，可以提供像我們這樣的服務，我們的平均規模 -客戶規模確實很小，這是我們責任的一部分，我們要傳達這樣的訊息：我們可以幫助客戶和我們的銷售團隊積極追求這些目標，但多年來我一遍又一遍地看到這一點。

Great. Got it. No, that's excellent color.

偉大的。知道了。不，那是極好的顏色。

Just last question for me. You talked about M&A as being a bit more aggressive in the past year. I'm curious what your appetite would be to maybe more aggressively expand in Fire & Safety or Fire & Security space It's been a good vertical for you. I think is an area of market with a pretty considerable whitespace. So just curious your appetite within that vertical specifically.

這只是我的最後一個問題。您談到去年的併購更加激進。我很好奇您對在消防與安全或消防與安全領域更積極擴張的興趣是什麼，這對您來說是一個很好的垂直領域。我認為這是一個具有相當大空白的市場領域。所以只是好奇你在這個垂直領域的具體興趣。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Yeah, Stephanie, the way I would describe it is again, we were able to invest more in M&A this year than going back all the way to 2000 -- fiscal '17. That being said, that is a byproduct of just timing deal flow when people make decisions. I wouldn't call it a change in strategy on our part. It was more about timing and flow and that's tough to predict as far as the first aid and safety business and the fire business, we're acquisitive in every single route-based business that we have so we'd like to evaluate every single deal and make a good decision.

是的，史蒂芬妮，我再次描述的是，我們今年在併購方面的投資比追溯到 2000 年（17 財年）還要多。話雖這麼說，這是人們在做出決策時合理安排交易流程的副產品。我不會稱之為我們策略的改變。更多的是關於時間和流程，就急救和安全業務以及消防業務而言，很難預測，我們對我們擁有的每一項基於路線的業務都有收購，因此我們希望評估每筆交易並做出好的決定。

In the fire business specifically, we want to make sure that we're competitive and aggressive after good attractive deals. The mix of business matters to us. Meaning, we like a business that meets the mix of [test and spec] that we have and repair along with that as well. And there are some deals that have come across our desk that we have chosen not to participate in because there's a significant amount of installation in those businesses and the installation business tends to be tied to new construction.

特別是在消防業務方面，我們希望確保在達成有吸引力的交易後保持競爭力和進取心。業務組合對我們很重要。這意味著，我們喜歡一家能夠滿足我們現有的[測試和規範]組合併同時進行修復的業務。我們選擇不參與一些已經出現在我們辦公桌上的交易，因為這些業務中有大量的安裝，而安裝業務往往與新建築相關。

And that is really varied business and not one that's as attractive to us, it's tougher to staff, tougher like bid and chase business. So we've chosen to avoid those. But we are -- we really like both the -- all the route-based businesses. Again, we're highly acquisitive and would like to continue on that path.

這確實是一項多樣化的業務，對我們來說沒有那麼有吸引力，它對員工來說更困難，就像投標和追逐業務一樣困難。所以我們選擇避免這些。但我們真的很喜歡所有基於路線的業務。同樣，我們非常渴望收購，並希望繼續沿著這條道路走下去。

Great. Thank you so much.

偉大的。太感謝了。

And at this time, there are no further questions. I'd like to turn the call back over to Jared for closing remarks.

而此時，已經沒有其他問題了。我想將電話轉回給賈里德，讓其結束語。

Thank you for joining us this morning. We will issue our first quarter of fiscal '25 financial results in September. 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 9 月發布 25 財年第一季的財務表現。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。