信達思 (CTAS) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day and welcome -- good day, everyone, and welcome to the Cintas Third Quarter Full Year 2022 Earnings Release Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paul Adler, Vice President and Treasurer, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

美好的一天，歡迎——大家好，歡迎參加 Cintas 2022 年第三季度全年收益發布電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製中。現在，我想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁兼財務主管 Paul Adler 先生。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, Serge, and 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 2022 third quarter results. After our commentary, we will open the call to questions from analysts.

謝謝你，塞爾日，也感謝你加入我們。與我在一起的是總裁兼首席執行官托德·施耐德 (Todd Schneider)；和邁克·漢森，執行副總裁兼首席財務官。我們將討論 2022 財年第三季度業績。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》為前瞻性陳述提供了避免民事訴訟的安全港。本次電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，反映了公司當前對未來事件和財務業績的看法。這些前瞻性陳述存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與我們可能討論的結果存在重大差異。我建議您參閱我們最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中有關這些觀點的討論。

I'll now turn the call over to Todd.

我現在將把電話轉給托德。

Thank you, Paul. Our third quarter financial results were led by a strong revenue increase of 10.3%. The benefits of our strong top line growth flowed through to our bottom line. Excluding the onetime gain recorded in this year's third quarter selling and administrative expenses, operating income margin increased 90 basis points from 18.4% to 19.3%, and EPS grew 13.5% from $2.37 to $2.69. Our financial results are indicative of our compelling value proposition. Businesses prioritize all we provide, including image, cleanliness, safety and compliance, and challenged with labor scarcity and rising costs, businesses increasingly turned to Cintas to help them get Ready for the Workday.

謝謝你，保羅。我們第三季度的財務業績得益於 10.3% 的強勁收入增長。我們強勁的收入增長帶來的好處也體現在我們的利潤上。剔除今年第三季度銷售和管理費用中記錄的一次性收益，營業利潤率增長了 90 個基點，從 18.4% 增至 19.3%，每股收益增長 13.5%，從 2.37 美元增至 2.69 美元。我們的財務業績表明了我們令人信服的價值主張。企業優先考慮我們提供的一切，包括形象、清潔、安全和合規性，並面臨勞動力短缺和成本上升的挑戰，企業越來越多地求助於 Cintas 來幫助他們為工作日做好準備。

I'm especially pleased with our financial results because they were achieved in a period in which U.S. inflation hit a 40-year high. Inflation is high and broad, and one need not look any further than the corner gas station to see it. We have been able to navigate this challenging time and delivered increased operating margins and EPS by productively selling new business, penetrating existing customers with more products and services, providing excellent service while driving operational efficiencies and obtaining incremental price increases from our customer base.

我對我們的財務業績特別滿意，因為這些業績是在美國通脹達到 40 年來新高的時期取得的。通貨膨脹率很高而且範圍很廣，只要看看街角的加油站就可以看到這一點。通過高效地銷售新業務、向現有客戶提供更多產品和服務、提供卓越的服務、同時提高運營效率以及從客戶群中獲得增量價格上漲，我們能夠渡過這一充滿挑戰的時期，並實現更高的營業利潤和每股收益。

As we grow via new business, we achieve operating leverage, better negotiating leverage with suppliers, denser routes and more volume in our plants. As we penetrate existing customers, we realize even stronger incremental operating margins. I thank our employees, whom we call partners, for their continued focus on our customers, our shareholders and each other.

隨著新業務的增長，我們實現了運營槓桿、與供應商更好的談判槓桿、更密集的路線和更大的工廠產量。隨著我們滲透現有客戶，我們實現了更強勁的增量運營利潤。我感謝我們的員工（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。

Turning now to our business units. The Uniform Rental and Facility Services operating segment revenue for the third quarter of fiscal '22 was $1.55 billion compared to $1.42 billion last year. Organic revenue growth was 8.9%. Our newest vertical strategies of health care, education and state and local government continue to post leading revenue growth rates. However, there are opportunities for us in all verticals. Businesses in all sectors are struggling to fill open positions. There are about 11 million job openings in the U.S. alone. Businesses remain concerned with their ability to properly sanitize, even as COVID infections decrease. Additionally, businesses are shedding noncore competencies to reduce costs and minimize the impacts of inflation. For these reasons and others, businesses are increasingly outsourcing to Cintas.

現在轉向我們的業務部門。 22 財年第三季度統一租賃和設施服務運營部門的收入為 15.5 億美元，而去年為 14.2 億美元。有機收入增長率為 8.9%。我們最新的醫療保健、教育以及州和地方政府垂直戰略繼續保持領先的收入增長率。然而，我們在所有垂直領域都有機會。各行各業的企業都在努力填補空缺職位。僅美國就有約 1100 萬個職位空缺。儘管新冠病毒感染人數有所減少，但企業仍然擔心自己正確消毒的能力。此外，企業正在放棄非核心能力，以降低成本並儘量減少通貨膨脹的影響。由於這些原因和其他原因，企業越來越多地將業務外包給 Cintas。

Our First Aid and Safety Services operating segment revenue for the third quarter was $213.0 million compared to $198.5 million last year. Organic revenue growth was 6.2%, which is a nice improvement from last quarter's 3.2%. This improvement reflects the growing momentum of our first aid cabinet business which grew 22% in the third quarter. We welcome this mix shift because it is a more consistent revenue stream and has higher profit margins.

我們第三季度的急救和安全服務運營部門收入為 2.13 億美元，而去年同期為 1.985 億美元。有機收入增長率為 6.2%，比上季度的 3.2% 有了很大的進步。這一改善反映了我們急救櫃業務的增長勢頭，第三季度增長了 22%。我們歡迎這種混合轉變，因為它是更穩定的收入來源並且具有更高的利潤率。

Third quarter revenue growth improved despite a difficult comparison. In last year's third quarter, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of personal protective equipment, or PPE, were very high, and the business grew organic revenue 17.7%. At that time, PPE comprise an outsized percentage of First Aid and Safety Services revenue mix. The amount of PPE has declined year-over-year as expected. However, COVID infections are still prevalent. In fact, we sold about $15 million in a new product, which is COVID test kits, in this year's third quarter. PPE remains a larger percentage of the revenue mix than it was pre-COVID.

儘管比較困難，但第三季度收入增長有所改善。去年第三季度，為應對COVID-19大流行，個人防護裝備（PPE）的銷量非常高，業務有機收入增長了17.7%。當時，個人防護用品在急救和安全服務收入組合中所佔比例過大。個人防護用品的數量如預期同比下降。然而，新冠病毒感染仍然普遍存在。事實上，今年第三季度我們銷售了約 1500 萬美元的新產品，即新冠病毒檢測試劑盒。與新冠疫情爆發前相比，個人防護用品在收入組合中所佔的比例仍然更大。

Our Fire Protection Services and Uniform Direct Sale businesses are reported in the All Other segment. All Other revenue was $194.3 million compared to $160.7 million last year. The fire business organic revenue growth rate was 15.3%, and the Uniform Direct Sale business organic growth rate was 48.7%. Both businesses have bounced back as expected.

我們的消防服務和統一直銷業務在所有其他部門中報告。所有其他收入為 1.943 億美元，而去年為 1.607 億美元。消防業務有機收入增長率為15.3%，統一直銷業務有機增長率為48.7%。兩項業務均按預期反彈。

I'd like to comment on another -- one of our strengths, namely cash flow. Third quarter operating cash flow increased 18.5% from last year. In this year's third quarter, $105 million was used for acquisitions. On March 15, we paid shareholders $99 million in quarterly dividends. And during the quarter and through March 22, 2022, Cintas purchased $584.2 million of Cintas common stock under our buyback program. We continue to allocate capital in many ways to improve shareholder return. Our strong balance sheet and cash flow enable us to do so consistently.

我想談談我們的另一個優勢，即現金流。第三季度運營現金流較去年同期增長18.5%。今年第三季度，1.05億美元用於收購。 3 月 15 日，我們向股東支付了 9900 萬美元的季度股息。在本季度直至 2022 年 3 月 22 日，Cintas 根據我們的回購計劃購買了價值 5.842 億美元的 Cintas 普通股。我們繼續以多種方式配置資本，以提高股東回報。我們強大的資產負債表和現金流使我們能夠始終如一地做到這一點。

Finally, I want to share some great news on our technology front. Our ERP provider, SAP, extended membership in their strategic customer program to Cintas. This is an exclusive program. Only 1% of SAP's customers have membership in it. Inclusion in the program enables us to engage directly with top management of SAP and gain access to its developers and new technologies to realize valuable outcomes for our customers, suppliers and employees. This program will speed the pace of our transformation into a more data dynamic and process-efficient business.

最後，我想分享一些關於我們技術方面的好消息。我們的 ERP 提供商 SAP 將其戰略客戶計劃的會員資格擴展至 Cintas。這是一個獨家計劃。只有 1% 的 SAP 客戶擁有其會員資格。參與該計劃使我們能夠直接與 SAP 高層管理人員接觸，並接觸其開發人員和新技術，從而為我們的客戶、供應商和員工實現有價值的成果。該計劃將加快我們向數據更加動態、流程更加高效的業務轉型的步伐。

I'll now turn the call over to Mike.

我現在將電話轉給邁克。

Thanks, Todd. Our fiscal 2022 third quarter revenue was $1.96 billion compared to $1.78 billion last year. The organic revenue growth rate, adjusted for acquisitions, divestitures and foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations was 10%. Gross margin for the third quarter of fiscal '22 was $898.2 million compared to $809.5 million last year. Gross margin as a percent of revenue was 45.8% for the third quarter of fiscal '22 compared to 45.6% last year, an increase of 20 basis points.

謝謝，托德。我們 2022 財年第三季度的收入為 19.6 億美元，而去年為 17.8 億美元。經收購、剝離和外幣匯率波動調整後，有機收入增長率為 10%。 22 財年第三季度的毛利率為 8.982 億美元，而去年為 8.095 億美元。 22財年第三季度毛利率佔收入的百分比為45.8%，與去年的45.6%相比，增長了20個基點。

Energy expenses, comprised of gasoline, natural gas and electricity, were a headwind, increasing 45 basis points from last year. Gross margin percentage by business was 46.3% for Uniform Rental and Facility Services, 44.2% for First Aid and Safety Services, 46.6% for Fire Protection Services and 37.7% for Uniform Direct Sale.

包括汽油、天然氣和電力在內的能源支出是一個不利因素，比去年增加了 45 個基點。按業務劃分，制服租賃和設施服務毛利率為 46.3%，急救和安全服務為 44.2%，消防服務為 46.6%，制服直銷為 37.7%。

Operating income of $407.6 million compared to $326.5 million last year. Operating income margin was 20.8% compared to 18.4% reported last year. Fiscal '22 third quarter operating income included a $30.2 million gain on the acquisition of an entity -- of an equity method investment. The gain was recorded in the Uniform Rental and Facility Services segment's selling and administrative expenses. Excluding this gain, fiscal '22 third quarter operating income as a percentage of revenue was 19.3%, an increase of 90 basis points from last year's third quarter.

營業收入為 4.076 億美元，去年為 3.265 億美元。營業利潤率為 20.8%，而去年報告的營業利潤率為 18.4%。 22 財年第三季度營業收入包括收購實體（權益法投資）帶來的 3020 萬美元收益。該收益記錄在製服租賃和設施服務部門的銷售和管理費用中。剔除這一收益，22財年第三季度營業收入佔收入的百分比為19.3%，比去年第三季度增加了90個基點。

Our effective tax rate for the third quarter was 18.2% compared to 14.4% last year. The tax rate can move from period to period based on discrete events, including the amount of stock compensation expense. This year's third quarter equity method investment transaction included a significant tax benefit. Excluding the transaction, the effective tax rate for the third quarter of fiscal '22 was 19.6%.

我們第三季度的有效稅率為 18.2%，而去年為 14.4%。稅率可能會根據離散事件（包括股票補償費用的金額）而在不同時期發生變化。今年第三季度的權益法投資交易包含重大稅收優惠。不包括該交易，22財年第三季度的有效稅率為19.6%。

Net income for the third quarter was $315.4 million, compared to $258.4 million last year. Diluted EPS was $2.97 compared to $2.37 last year. Fiscal '22 third quarter diluted EPS contained $0.28 from the gain on the equity method investment transaction, which included a related $0.07 tax rate benefit. Excluding this gain and the related tax impact, fiscal '22 third quarter diluted EPS was $2.69 compared to $2.37 in last year's third quarter, a 13.5% increase.

第三季度淨利潤為 3.154 億美元，去年同期為 2.584 億美元。稀釋後每股收益為 2.97 美元，去年為 2.37 美元。 22 財年第三季度攤薄後每股收益包含權益法投資交易收益 0.28 美元，其中包括相關的 0.07 美元稅率收益。排除這一收益和相關稅收影響，22財年第三季度攤薄後每股收益為2.69美元，與去年第三季度的2.37美元相比，增長了13.5%。

We're increasing our financial guidance. We expect our fourth quarter revenue to be in the range of $1.96 billion to $2.02 billion and diluted EPS to be in the range of $2.54 to $2.74. Our fourth quarter fiscal '22 effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 23.2% compared to a rate of 19.4% for last year's fourth quarter. The expected higher effective tax rate is anticipated to negatively impact fiscal '22 fourth quarter diluted EPS guidance by approximately $0.14 and diluted EPS growth by approximately 560 basis points. Our financial guidance includes share buybacks through March 22, but does not include the impact of any future share buybacks.

我們正在增加我們的財務指導。我們預計第四季度收入將在 19.6 億美元至 20.2 億美元之間，攤薄後每股收益將在 2.54 美元至 2.74 美元之間。我們 22 財年第四季度的有效稅率預計約為 23.2%，而去年第四季度的稅率為 19.4%。預期的較高有效稅率預計將對 22 財年第四季度攤薄後每股收益指引產生約 0.14 美元的負面影響，並使攤薄後每股收益增長約 560 個基點產生負面影響。我們的財務指導包括截至 3 月 22 日的股票回購，但不包括任何未來股票回購的影響。

Finally, I wanted to provide an update on our debt and liquidity. We have $650 million of senior notes maturing April 1, 2022, and $300 million of senior notes maturing June 1, 2022. We expect to refinance these amounts with funds received via the issuance of new senior debt. Also, we closed today on a new credit facility, increasing it to $2 billion and extending it to 2027. We have a strong balance sheet and ample liquidity.

最後，我想提供有關我們債務和流動性的最新信息。我們有 6.5 億美元的優先票據將於 2022 年 4 月 1 日到期，還有 3 億美元的優先票據將於 2022 年 6 月 1 日到期。我們預計將通過發行新的優先債務收到的資金為這些金額進行再融資。此外，我們今天完成了一項新的信貸安排，將其增加至 20 億美元，並將其延長至 2027 年。我們擁有強大的資產負債表和充足的流動性。

I'll turn it over to Paul, now.

我現在就把它交給保羅。

That concludes our prepared remarks. Now we are happy to answer questions from the analysts. (Operator Instructions) Thank you.

我們準備好的發言到此結束。現在我們很高興回答分析師的提問。 （操作員說明）謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Andrew Steinerman from JPMorgan.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自摩根大通的安德魯·斯坦納曼（Andrew Steinerman）。

This is Alex Hess on for Andrew Steinerman today. I wanted to touch briefly on what you guys are seeing at the vertical level, maybe with respect to a rebound and a potential rebound in hospitality. Or is that -- was that still being dragged in your last quarter from Omicron? And then maybe also, progress maybe in driving adoption in health care. Any comments on those 2 fronts?

我是亞歷克斯·赫斯 (Alex Hess) 今天為安德魯·斯坦納曼 (Andrew Steinerman) 發言。我想簡單談談你們在垂直層面上看到的情況，也許是關於酒店業的反彈和潛在反彈。或者說，在上個季度，Omicron 仍然拖著它嗎？也許在推動醫療保健領域的採用方面也可能取得進展。對這兩個方面有什麼評論嗎？

Sure, Alex. Thanks for the question. Our vertical strategy is working quite well. You mentioned the hospitality sector. It is certainly bouncing back. If you -- what you read in the news, bookings are up in the airlines and the hospitality sector. So yes, so that's bouncing back. And I think the results in our direct sale business, which is in large part, tied to -- certainly, to a percentage, tied to the hospitality area, the results are outstanding.

當然，亞歷克斯。謝謝你的提問。我們的垂直戰略運作良好。您提到了酒店業。它肯定正在反彈。如果你在新聞中讀到的話，航空公司和酒店業的預訂量都會增加。所以是的，所以它正在反彈。我認為我們直銷業務的成果在很大程度上與酒店領域相關，當然，與酒店領域相關，結果非常出色。

So -- but in our other verticals, we're having very good success in each of those. And in the health care, specifically, we see a -- we're very much in the early innings. But we have products and services that are compelling to that customer base. And we're continuing to evolve and create new products and new technologies that we're integrating there. So as a result, we're very bullish on our strategy in that area, with our focus in that area, and I think the results are reflective.

所以，但在我們的其他垂直領域，我們在每一個領域都取得了非常好的成功。具體來說，在醫療保健領域，我們看到——我們還處於早期階段。但我們擁有對客戶群有吸引力的產品和服務。我們正在繼續發展和創造我們正在整合的新產品和新技術。因此，我們非常看好我們在該領域的戰略，我們的重點是該領域，我認為結果是具有反思性的。

Hamzah Mazari from Jefferies.

來自 Jefferies 的哈姆扎·馬扎里 (Hamzah Mazari)。

You had referenced penetrating more customers as part of strong incrementals. Specifically, as it relates to that, do you have a sense of how many customers today are buying more than one service from you? Has that changed at all due to having SAP? What was that same number prepandemic just so we can get a sense of that initiative?

您提到滲透更多客戶是強勁增量的一部分。具體來說，與此相關的是，您是否知道今天有多少客戶從您那裡購買了不止一項服務？ SAP 的出現讓這種情況發生了改變嗎？大流行前的相同數字是多少，以便我們能夠了解這一舉措？

Yes. Hamzah, certainly, being virtually on one system now, it is certainly helping our transparency into cross-selling. What I'll tell you is, again, we're in the early innings of cross-sell. There is a -- our ability to add product, we have a really long runway in that area. Just to get to even a reasonable level of penetration, where we feel excited about it, there is a long, long runway to penetrating our customers with our existing products separate from what we're going to bring into the marketplace in the future, which is we're always working on new products and services. So we feel good about that. So it's certainly improving, but very much in the early innings of that -- on that subject.

是的。當然，Hamzah 現在幾乎在一個系統上，這肯定有助於我們提高交叉銷售的透明度。我要再次告訴您的是，我們正處於交叉銷售的早期階段。我們有能力添加產品，我們在該領域有很長的跑道。為了達到合理的滲透水平，我們對此感到興奮，我們現有的產品與我們未來將推向市場的產品分開，還有很長一段路要滲透我們的客戶，這是我們一直致力於新產品和服務。所以我們對此感覺良好。所以它肯定在進步，但在這個問題上，很大程度上是在早期階段。

Got it. And just my follow-up question, I'll turn it over, is just around M&A. Any updated thoughts as to the pipeline there? Or have valuations come in at all? I know you've talked about historically that M&A doesn't necessarily mean it has to be route-based. Just walk us through that as well, the rationale there.

知道了。我的後續問題是關於併購的。關於那裡的管道有什麼更新的想法嗎？或者估值已經進來了嗎？我知道您曾經說過，併購並不一定意味著它必須基於路線。請引導我們了解一下其中的基本原理。

Sure, Hamzah. We -- as we noted, M&A was good in the third quarter of our -- the investment we've made in acquiring businesses. We're highly acquisitive. The pipeline looks attractive. It takes different reasons for different companies to transact. You can't always predict that timing, but we are very much a willing buyer and of all shapes and sizes. We're very, very acquisitive and interested in making deals. So we're ready, willing and able to continue to move forward in that area.

當然，哈姆扎。正如我們所指出的，我們在收購企業方面進行的投資在第三季度的併購表現良好。我們非常貪婪。管道看起來很有吸引力。不同的公司進行交易有不同的原因。你不能總是預測那個時間，但我們是一個非常願意購買的買家，並且是各種形狀和規模的買家。我們非常非常有收購慾望並且有興趣進行交易。因此，我們已經準備好、願意並且能夠繼續在該領域取得進展。

Yes. Hamzah, we -- as you heard Todd mention, our third quarter included an overall acquisition number of $105 million, which is certainly, a step-up from where we've been. Now included in that is the purchase of the remaining shares of the equity method investment, which was about $48 million, within that number. But the rest of the M&A of $57 million is still an up -- a step-up from where we've been. So there has been some good movement this entire fiscal year, and we like the messaging that we're getting. We like the pipeline and as you can see so far this year, we've acted on many of those.

是的。 Hamzah，正如您聽到 Todd 提到的那樣，我們第三季度的總體收購金額為 1.05 億美元，這無疑比我們之前的水平有所提高。現在其中包括購買權益法投資剩餘股份，金額約為 4800 萬美元。但其餘 5700 萬美元的併購仍然有所增加——比我們之前的水平有所提高。因此，整個財年出現了一些良好的變化，我們喜歡我們收到的信息。我們喜歡這個渠道，正如你今年到目前為止所看到的，我們已經對其中的許多方面採取了行動。

George Tong, Goldman Sachs.

喬治·唐，高盛。

Can you discuss how the business is being impacted by rising input costs, including wage inflation and higher energy costs and how effectively pricing trends are offsetting this?

您能否討論一下投入成本上升（包括工資上漲和能源成本上漲）對企業的影響，以及定價趨勢如何有效地抵消這一影響？

Thanks for the question. Certainly expected that inflation and input costs would be something that we would want to be talking about. So we have -- so I have a few examples I'd like to talk about regarding the items that we are -- steps that we're taking to mitigate input costs. But inflation is -- yes, it's certainly challenging. It's very much there. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, whether it's fuel or other areas, input costs are real. But we are -- we're being very active in taking proactive steps to make sure that we are mitigating that type of exposure.

謝謝你的提問。當然，我們希望討論通貨膨脹和投入成本。因此，我們有一些例子，我想談談我們正在採取的減輕投入成本的措施。但通貨膨脹確實是一個挑戰。那裡有很多。正如我在準備好的發言中提到的，無論是燃料還是其他領域，投入成本都是真實存在的。但我們正在非常積極地採取積極措施，以確保我們正在減輕此類風險。

You mentioned pricing. So certainly, pricing is a component of our strategy, but it is -- by no means is it the only strategy to combat pricing -- or excuse me, to combat inflation. So we are -- we're taking other steps. And they almost all involve technology. And these were all initiatives that we have been working on. However, due to the inflation subject, we decided to pull them forward and go faster with them. And individually, they are not massive movers, but collectively, they certainly add up.

你提到了定價。當然，定價是我們戰略的一個組成部分，但它絕不是對抗定價的唯一策略，或者對不起，對抗通脹。所以我們正在採取其他措施。而且它們幾乎都涉及技術。這些都是我們一直在努力的舉措。然而，由於通貨膨脹問題，我們決定將它們拉向前，並加快它們的速度。就個體而言，它們並不是巨大的推動者，但總的來說，它們肯定會增加。

So I'll go through a few of those that I think might help provide a little color. First off, I mentioned in, I think, our last call that we have invested in routing technology that is proprietary and really fits our business well. And as long as I've been with the company, it seems like we have tried about every routing software out there, and we finally said we're going to build it ourselves. We're going to do it. It's going to fit with SAP, and it will be -- because we have a unique routing structure. So we did that.

因此，我將介紹其中一些我認為可能有助於提供一點色彩的內容。首先，我在上次通話中提到，我們已經投資了專有的路由技術，並且非常適合我們的業務。自從我在公司工作以來，我們似乎已經嘗試過所有的路由軟件，最後我們說我們將自己構建它。我們會這麼做的。它將適合 SAP，而且確實如此——因為我們擁有獨特的路由結構。所以我們就這麼做了。

And I'm very thankful that over the past couple of years, we've invested in that technology. We've rolled out across the organization, and we're executing on it. Now we -- very important, right? We recognize that we only generate revenue when the truck stops. When it stops at our customers' place of business, that's when we can generate revenue. So we've got to be more efficient. And I'm really pleased with that investment.

我非常感謝過去幾年我們在這項技術上的投資。我們已經在整個組織內進行了推廣，並且正在執行。現在我們——非常重要，對吧？我們認識到，只有當卡車停下來時我們才能產生收入。當它停在我們客戶的營業地點時，我們就可以產生收入。所以我們必須提高效率。我對這項投資非常滿意。

Certainly, it takes time. There's -- we are very conscious of any customer disruption, but we're trying to go faster with that subject. And again, we're blessed that we made the investment. And if we didn't have it, then it would put much more pressure on the organization with the inflation subject. So again, very pleased that we have that.

當然，這需要時間。我們非常清楚任何對客戶的干擾，但我們正在努力加快解決這個問題的速度。再次，我們很幸運我們進行了投資。如果我們沒有它，那麼通貨膨脹問題就會給組織帶來更大的壓力。再說一次，我們很高興我們能做到這一點。

We've also -- from a technology standpoint, we invested in some -- in automation. We now have 3 different processes for how to implement automation into our uniform processing facilities. And this provides us flexibility we didn't have in the past. That flexibility is meaning we can deploy one of those based upon a number of factors, really gets into the footprint of the facility and the number of pieces going through. But we've pivoted on this subject as well to go faster because of what's going on with labor costs, certainly. So we're able to automate our facilities in a sped-up fashion.

從技術的角度來看，我們還對自動化進行了一些投資。我們現在有 3 種不同的流程來實現我們的統一加工設施的自動化。這為我們提供了過去所沒有的靈活性。這種靈活性意味著我們可以根據多種因素部署其中一個，真正考慮到設施的佔地面積和經過的部件數量。但當然，由於勞動力成本的變化，我們也將重點放在這個主題上，以加快速度。因此，我們能夠以更快的方式實現設施的自動化。

And then I've got a couple of others that I'll talk about. We now -- we've invested in technology through SAP that allows us to have a centralized dashboard and look at all of our rental processing facilities and understand how they're operating on a daily basis, a real-time basis from an efficiency and effectiveness standpoint. So in the past, we had to go physically see these facilities to understand if they're operating in the manner that we expect. But now we have this real-time dashboard, and it allows us to know how we're doing. And as a result, there's more accountability and we're getting better. That allows us to improve the efficiencies within our business.

然後我還要談談其他一些問題。現在，我們通過 SAP 投資了技術，使我們能夠擁有一個集中式儀表板，查看我們所有的租賃處理設施，並從效率和實時角度了解它們的日常運營情況。有效性的觀點。因此，在過去，我們必須親自去查看這些設施，以了解它們是否按照我們期望的方式運行。但現在我們有了這個實時儀表板，它讓我們知道我們的表現如何。因此，我們的責任感更強了，我們的表現也越來越好。這使我們能夠提高業務效率。

And I've got a few others, but one other I'll give you is we are -- because of the technology we have with SAP now, we're seeing a real nice impact in our ability to share our used inventory of garments across all of our locations. This is due to our stock rooms, which is where we house our used inventory at each of our locations, having real-time inventory tracking and all being on that same system of SAP. So what it allows us to do is to gain better use of the inventory that was in the past, dedicated solely to the individual locations customer base.

我還有其他一些，但我要給你的另一個是我們 - 由於 SAP 現在擁有的技術，我們看到我們共享二手服裝庫存的能力產生了真正的良好影響在我們所有的地點。這是因為我們的庫存室是我們在每個地點存放二手庫存的地方，具有實時庫存跟踪功能，並且所有庫存都位於同一 SAP 系統上。因此，它使我們能夠更好地利用過去專門針對各個地點客戶群的庫存。

Now we can spread it out across a much larger customer base. And we -- and it also allows us, with nonstock sizes, to look at where the product is and get it faster to our customers. So I could go on, but I hope -- hopefully, that gives you a few examples of items that -- proactive steps that we are taking to mitigate the inflation. Because, again, as I mentioned, it's real, it's challenging, but I'm highly confident the organization will be able to manage through this as we have in the past.

現在我們可以將其擴展到更大的客戶群。而且，它還允許我們通過非庫存尺寸查看產品的位置，並更快地將其交付給我們的客戶。所以我可以繼續說下去，但我希望——希望這能為你們提供一些我們正在採取的積極措施來減輕通貨膨脹的例子。因為，正如我再次提到的，這是真實的，它具有挑戰性，但我非常有信心該組織將能夠像我們過去一樣解決這個問題。

That's very helpful. And then just as a follow-up, could you provide a brief update on how your customer base is being affected by supply chain disruptions and the flow-through impact on demand for Cintas' services?

這非常有幫助。作為後續行動，您能否簡要介紹一下您的客戶群如何受到供應鏈中斷的影響以及對 Cintas 服務需求的流通影響？

Yes. Certainly, George, our customers aren't being impacted by supply chain. That's slowing them a bit. But -- and we care passionately about how our customers are -- how their business are doing because it obviously has a dynamic impact on us. But as I mentioned earlier, the challenges that our customers are facing was staffing and labor costs. They're looking for ways to outsource, and we're beneficiaries of that. We are certainly excited about supply chain issues abating and our customers being able to go even faster. But it -- but to date, that's a bit of a headwind, but we have the tailwind of the outsourcing and the benefits we're seeing there.

是的。當然，喬治，我們的客戶沒有受到供應鏈的影響。這讓他們放慢了一點。但是——我們非常關心我們的客戶——他們的業務表現如何，因為這顯然對我們產生動態影響。但正如我之前提到的，我們的客戶面臨的挑戰是人員配備和勞動力成本。他們正在尋找外包的方法，我們是其中的受益者。我們當然對供應鏈問題的緩解以及我們的客戶能夠更快地發展感到興奮。但到目前為止，這有點逆風，但我們有外包的順風和我們在那裡看到的好處。

Ashish Sabadra, RBC.

阿什什·薩巴德拉，加拿大皇家銀行。

Thanks for providing that detailed color on the technology front. I was wondering if you could also talk about how technology is helping you more on the dynamic pricing and more like local pricing. Can you just quote on further just on the pricing trend, what the normalized pricing has been historically? And how are we thinking about pricing here, particularly in the inflationary environment and the response to your -- by your customer to maybe potentially higher price?

感謝您在技術方面提供詳細的顏色。我想知道您是否也可以談談技術如何在動態定價和本地定價方面為您提供更多幫助。您能否進一步介紹一下定價趨勢，即歷史上的標準化定價是多少？我們如何考慮這裡的定價，特別是在通貨膨脹環境下以及您的客戶對可能更高的價格的反應？

Thanks, Ashish, for the question. I'll start, if Mike wants to contribute as well. We -- certainly, we -- again, being on one technology platform gives us the ability to use large amounts of data to analyze. And -- but pricing is -- it's a local subject. It's a customer-by-customer subject, industry by industry. And -- but it does give us -- the technology does give us the ability to look more strategically at our customer base to make sure we're making really good, long-term decisions.

謝謝阿什什的提問。如果邁克也想做出貢獻，我就開始。我們——當然，我們——再說一遍，在一個技術平台上使我們能夠使用大量數據進行分析。而且——但定價是——這是一個本地話題。這是一個逐個客戶、逐個行業的主題。而且——但它確實讓我們——技術確實讓我們能夠更有戰略性地審視我們的客戶群，以確保我們做出真正良好的長期決策。

So we feel good about that. We've had that in place, and we've taken that approach over the past couple of years, and we'll continue that approach and make sure that we're not just making sweeping decisions, but they're more targeted decisions that are more strategic.

所以我們對此感覺良好。我們已經做到了這一點，並且在過去的幾年裡我們已經採取了這種方法，我們將繼續這種方法，並確保我們不只是做出全面的決定，而是更有針對性的決定，更具戰略性。

Maybe I'll simply add, certainly, with all of the inflation in the news, the customers are -- it's a little bit of an easier conversation today than it might be otherwise. And so our customers have generally been receptive to that, and that results in a little bit of a higher pricing impact than in the past. And so we've talked a lot about 0% to 2% in the past, and we're a little bit above that today. And so that certainly is one way for us to fight inflation.

也許我會簡單地補充一下，當然，隨著新聞中所有的通貨膨脹，客戶——今天的對話比其他時候要容易一些。因此，我們的客戶普遍對此表示接受，這導致定價影響比過去更高。因此，我們過去談論過很多關於 0% 到 2% 的問題，而今天我們的討論稍微超出了這個範圍。因此，這當然是我們對抗通貨膨脹的一種方式。

Agree, Mike. Thank you. And -- but just to point out, the -- clearly, the majority of our growth is coming from more volume growth, not pricing, and it is due to the value that we're adding to customers and new business that we're selling, ads and penetrating our customer base. That's where the majority of our growth is coming from clearly.

同意，邁克。謝謝。而且 - 但只是指出， - 顯然，我們的大部分增長來自於銷量的增長，而不是定價，這是由於我們為客戶和新業務增加的價值銷售、廣告和滲透我們的客戶群。顯然，我們的大部分增長都來自於此。

I just want to conclude the thought with going back, Ashish, to the technology. I think sometimes, it's hard for people to understand the magnitude of the transactions in this business. One of our general managers of our operations, just one operation, I mean, they can have 5,000 customers. And so the ability to have the technology, as Todd spoke to, and seize upon that to be able to supplement the GM's ability to analyze 5,000 customers to ensure that the pricing is where it needs to be or to see trends in the data to understand if there are customers that are kind of paring back, reducing services over time, "That's a jeopardy account. I, the general manager, need to get in front of that particular customer," those are the types of advantages that the technology provides because it is just such a voluminous business, and that technology and the additional eyes and that intelligence is certainly a huge competitive advantage.

我只想通過回到技術來結束這個想法，Ashish。我認為有時候，人們很難理解這個行業交易的規模。我們的一位運營總經理，僅一項運營，我的意思是，他們可以擁有 5,000 個客戶。因此，正如托德所說，擁有該技術並利用該技術能夠補充通用汽車分析 5,000 名客戶的能力，以確保定價處於需要的位置，或者查看數據趨勢以了解如果有客戶隨著時間的推移而減少服務，減少服務，“這是一個危險的賬戶。我，總經理，需要站在那個特定的客戶面前”，這些都是該技術提供的優勢類型，因為這是一個如此龐大的業務，技術和額外的眼睛以及情報無疑是一個巨大的競爭優勢。

That's very helpful color. And maybe if I can just ask, I'm not sure if you have quantified how big energy is as a percentage of overall expenses. But also, my question is more longer term. How are you thinking about improving the energy efficiency of the business, both on the truck side but also on the laundry facilities front?

這是非常有用的顏色。也許我可以問一下，我不確定您是否已經量化了能源佔總支出的百分比。而且，我的問題是更長遠的。您如何考慮提高企業的能源效率，無論是在卡車方面還是在洗衣設施方面？

Sure, Ashish. The third quarter total energy for the business was 2.3% of sales. In our guidance -- certainly, the gas prices escalated as we got into February, and we're thinking more in terms of 2.6% to 2.8% in our fourth quarter. So certainly, we're going to see a little bit of -- or our expectation is we'll see a little bit of an increase.

當然，阿什什。第三季度該業務的總能源佔銷售額的 2.3%。當然，在我們的指導中，隨著進入 2 月份，天然氣價格有所上漲，我們更多地考慮第四季度 2.6% 至 2.8% 的漲幅。所以當然，我們會看到一點點——或者我們的期望是我們會看到一點點增長。

Just to give you a little bit of maybe an impact of what we have already done to be more energy efficient, if you go back to -- the last time we saw prices at the pump at this kind of level was back in calendar '14. And if you think about the third quarter of our calendar '14, we were certainly a smaller company, but our total energy at that time was 3% of revenue. So at the same price in the pump, we've been able to reduce our energy by almost 1/3 and from 3% to 2.3%. So we've made some really good progress.

只是為了給您一點可能對我們已經採取的提高能源效率的措施產生的影響，如果您回顧一下——我們上次看到這種水平的加油價格是在 14 年日曆上。如果你想想我們 14 年第三季度的情況，我們肯定是一家規模較小的公司，但當時我們的總精力只佔收入的 3%。因此，在泵價格相同的情況下，我們能夠將能源減少近 1/3，從 3% 減少到 2.3%。所以我們已經取得了一些非常好的進展。

And we've talked about some of those things. Some of it is certainly scale and growth, but as Todd has talked about, some of it is also the routing efficiency, the penetration that allows us to park the truck a little bit longer. So we've made some really nice progress over the last several number of years.

我們已經討論過其中的一些事情。其中一些當然是規模和增長，但正如托德所說，其中一些也是路線效率，讓我們可以將卡車停放得更久一點的滲透率。因此，我們在過去幾年中取得了一些非常好的進展。

And how do we think about it going forward, we certainly are going to continue to work at routing efficiency, penetration. But also, certainly, we've talked a little bit about getting electric vehicles on to the road, and that has started. And our expectation is we'll put many, many more of those as we move towards our goal of net zero in 2050. So there's a lot more to come in this type of space, and we're in the early, early part of exploring that alternative fuel vehicles, but we certainly think that's a big part of our future.

我們如何看待未來，我們當然會繼續致力於提高路由效率和滲透率。但當然，我們已經討論了一些關於讓電動汽車上路的事情，而且這已經開始了。我們的期望是，隨著我們朝著 2050 年淨零排放的目標邁進，我們將投入更多、更多的此類內容。因此，此類領域還有更多內容，而且我們正處於早期階段。探索替代燃料汽車，但我們當然認為這是我們未來的重要組成部分。

Ashish, in addition, I mentioned earlier about the centralized dashboard that allows us to understand how our locations are functioning, at what level of efficiency. That speaks directly to energy usage in our production facilities. So the more efficient we are, the lower the consumption of the energy, certainly per pound specifically.

此外，Ashish，我之前提到過集中式儀表板，它使我們能夠了解我們的位置如何運作以及效率水平如何。這直接關係到我們生產設施的能源使用情況。因此，我們的效率越高，能源消耗就越低，尤其是每磅能源的消耗。

And then I didn't mention, but we have also -- over the past couple of years, we've invested in converting out all of our locations to LED lighting, which helps in our ESG journey, that helps with the consumption of energy and helps reduce some cost. So it's also a cost mitigation subject. So -- and we're looking at other items in that area to reduce energy consumption in our production facility.

然後我沒有提到，但在過去的幾年裡，我們還投資將所有地點改造成 LED 照明，這有助於我們的 ESG 之旅，有助於減少能源消耗並有助於降低一些成本。因此，這也是一個降低成本的主題。因此，我們正在研究該領域的其他項目，以減少我們生產設施的能源消耗。

Congrats on the solid results.

祝賀取得了紮實的成果。

Andy Wittmann, R.W. Baird.

安迪·惠特曼，R.W.貝爾德。

Let's just keep going on this path, I guess. Mike, just when kind of using your EPS and your revenue guidance, I'm backing into fourth quarter margin guidance, which is at the midpoint, about flat year-over-year. I think that's probably right, and you can comment on that, I suppose. But you just mentioned that energy prices on a sequential basis, maybe like 40 basis points. I was wondering, if the third quarter was plus 90 basis points adjusted on the margin improvements, you got 40 in energy, what's the other 50? And can you talk about some of the other puts and takes that drive you to that margin -- implied margin guidance?

我想，讓我們繼續沿著這條路走吧。邁克，就在使用您的每股收益和收入指導時，我回到了第四季度的利潤率指導，該指導處於中點，與去年同期持平。我認為這可能是對的，我想你可以對此發表評論。但您剛才提到能源價格環比可能會上漲 40 個基點。我想知道，如果第三季度的利潤率提高了 90 個基點，能源方面有 40 個基點，那麼另外 50 個基點是多少？您能否談談其他一些促使您達到該保證金的看跌期權和看跌期權——隱含保證金指導？

Yes. I would -- let's start with the implied margin guidance. The range that we see is something like 18.5% at the bottom to 20% at the top. So last year's fourth quarter was 19.4%. So you're right, at the midpoint, it's somewhat flattish against, let's call it, a 60- to 80-point energy headwind from a year ago. And at the top of that range, it's margin expansion, even in this period of time. So our goal will be to continue to drive towards margin expansion even in a pretty difficult environment.

是的。我想——讓我們從隱含的保證金指導開始。我們看到的範圍是底部 18.5% 到頂部 20%。所以去年第四季度是19.4%。所以你是對的，在中點，與一年前相比，我們稱之為 60 到 80 點的能源逆風，這有點平淡。在這個範圍的頂部，它是利潤率的擴張，即使在這段時間內也是如此。因此，我們的目標是即使在相當困難的環境下也繼續推動利潤率擴張。

So getting back to, I think, your question of why maybe not more margin expansion, first of all, I would say, look, Andy, I don't know how many companies are expanding margins in this kind of environment, but we intend to. But we also are growing quite nicely. And you've seen our growth move from organically 8.6% in total in the first quarter to 9.3% to 10%. And growth means for us, when we're growing that volumes, we are investing in things like capacity in our wash alleys and other places. We're investing in -- even when we talk about the route efficiency, that doesn't mean we're necessarily not adding routes. And so we're going to continue to invest in our routes. We're going to continue to invest in other customer-facing positions.

因此，我想，回到你的問題，即為什麼可能不再擴大利潤率，首先，我想說，安迪，我不知道有多少公司在這種環境下擴大利潤率，但我們打算到。但我們也發展得相當不錯。您已經看到我們的有機增長率從第一季度的 8.6% 上升到 9.3% 至 10%。增長對我們來說意味著，當我們增加數量時，我們正在投資於洗衣巷和其他地方的容量等方面。我們正在投資——即使我們談論路線效率，這並不意味著我們一定不會增加路線。因此，我們將繼續投資我們的航線。我們將繼續投資於其他面向客戶的職位。

And so we're going to continue to invest even in this kind of environment because the growth is very, very good and strong. So that comes with a little bit of a cost, too. But gosh, Andy, in this kind of environment, with -- we're looking at a 60 to 80 point -- basis point energy headwind to guide towards margin expansion, we feel pretty good about.

因此，即使在這種環境下，我們也將繼續投資，因為增長非常非常好且強勁。所以這也會帶來一點成本。但是天哪，安迪，在這種環境下，我們正在尋找 60 到 80 個基點的能源逆風來引導利潤率擴張，我們感覺非常好。

Yes. I wasn't trying to imply otherwise. Could you comment specifically on the labor market? Are your positions filled today? Do you -- are you having enough people to do what you need them to do? And can you talk about the overall pricing trends in that category specifically?

是的。我並不是想暗示其他情況。您能具體評論一下勞動力市場嗎？今天你的職位招滿了嗎？你有足夠的人來做你需要他們做的事嗎？您能具體談談該類別的整體定價趨勢嗎？

Andy, we're -- we always have job postings, openings. We're growing. And as I mentioned earlier, we're growing our volume very attractively. So there's more work, and we're really pleased about that. So -- and the labor market is challenging, trying to get the levels that we're at. We're running at higher RPMs to get there, not speaking of -- when I say higher RPMs, our management team is working harder to get there. But we like our staffing levels, and we will continue to plan to invest in that area.

安迪，我們總是有招聘信息和空缺職位。我們正在成長。正如我之前提到的，我們的銷量增長非常有吸引力。所以還有更多的工作要做，我們對此感到非常高興。因此，勞動力市場充滿挑戰，試圖達到我們目前所處的水平。我們正在以更高的轉速運行以實現這一目標，而不是說——當我說更高的轉速時，我們的管理團隊正在更加努力地實現這一目標。但我們喜歡我們的人員配置水平，我們將繼續計劃在該領域進行投資。

We like our productivity that we're seeing from our partners in all areas of our business. And I think that speaks in large part to our culture, where our folks are -- they get up earlier, they work harder, they work later. And as a result -- we have a strategic competitive advantage in the marketplace as a result of that. But yes, we're conscious of -- we're trying to add roles, and we're doing it quite successfully. It's never good enough, as you know, from a leadership standpoint, but we're focused on it.

我們喜歡從我們業務各個領域的合作夥伴那裡看到的生產力。我認為這在很大程度上反映了我們的文化，我們的人們所處的位置——他們起得更早，他們工作更努力，他們工作得更晚。因此，我們在市場上擁有戰略競爭優勢。但是，是的，我們意識到——我們正在嘗試增加角色，而且我們做得相當成功。如您所知，從領導力的角度來看，這永遠不夠好，但我們專注於它。

Tim Mulrooney, William Blair.

蒂姆·馬爾魯尼，威廉·布萊爾。

I wanted to go back to pricing for a second. If your uniform contracts are typically several years in length, can you talk about the actual mechanics around how you adjust for pricing? Are there annual pricing conversations stipulated within the contract? Or do you just kind of reach out to customers as needed when you hit certain inflationary thresholds? And are there inflation pass-through provisions in these contracts?

我想再回到定價問題上來。如果您的製服合同通常長達數年，您能談談如何調整定價的實際機制嗎？合同中是否規定了年度定價對話？或者，當您達到某些通脹閾值時，您是否會根據需要與客戶聯繫？這些合約中是否有通脹傳導條款？

Tim, thanks for the question. We have 1 million customers or more. So the answer is you name it, we've got it. But generally, what I'll speak to is our agreements allow us to raise price and raise price as appropriate. And when we do so, our approach is we do that once a year. It doesn't mean that they all happen on the same day. They may be spread out throughout the year, but the conversation is once a year with the customer. And we have found that, that is -- our commitment to our customers is to handle it in that manner.

蒂姆，謝謝你的提問。我們有 100 萬或更多客戶。所以答案是你能想到的，我們已經找到了。但總的來說，我要說的是我們的協議允許我們提高價格並酌情提高價格。當我們這樣做時，我們的方法是每年一次。這並不意味著它們都發生在同一天。它們可能會分散在全年，但與客戶的對話每年一次。我們發現，我們對客戶的承諾就是以這種方式處理它。

They like that. Our partners like that. And it's -- in these inflationary times, as Mike mentioned earlier, those conversations are going better than they normally have, and they are, just because inflation is front and center of everything, every newspaper that I look at. So -- but our approach is once a year with the customer, and we've been sticking by that, and we plan to continue to stick by that commitment to them.

他們喜歡那樣。我們的合作夥伴就是這樣。正如邁克之前提到的，在通貨膨脹時代，這些對話比平時進行得更好，而且確實如此，只是因為通貨膨脹是一切、我看的每一份報紙的首要和中心。所以 - 但我們的方法是每年與客戶接觸一次，我們一直堅持這一點，並且我們計劃繼續堅持對他們的承諾。

Manav Patnaik, Barclays.

馬納夫·帕特奈克，巴克萊銀行。

I just wanted to follow up on the labor environment. Broadly, it sounds like you're managing your own labor pretty well. But just curious what you can share in terms of the challenges, struggles, openings, turnover, et cetera, that your customers are facing and how that's looking today.

我只是想跟進一下勞動環境。總的來說，聽起來您對自己的勞動力管理得很好。但只是好奇你能分享一下你的客戶面臨的挑戰、掙扎、空缺、營業額等方面的內容以及今天的情況。

Manav, certainly, we are seeing a higher level, we call it, churn through our customer base, meaning we see people that -- one customer and they end up at the other customer, and that is at a higher level than it has been in the past. So -- but nevertheless, we like the trend that we're seeing with our customer base and the ad stops trends that we're seeing. That's positive. And just as I mentioned, it seems like it's harder for businesses right now. Everybody is having to work a little bit more at it, and productivity has to be a little bit better, but we are certainly seeing more churn of our -- within our customer base than we did historically.

馬納夫，當然，我們看到了一個更高的水平，我們稱之為客戶群的流失，這意味著我們看到人們——一個客戶，他們最終到達另一個客戶，這是一個比以前更高的水平在過去。因此，儘管如此，我們還是喜歡我們在客戶群中看到的趨勢，並且廣告阻止了我們看到的趨勢。這是積極的。正如我所提到的，現在企業的處境似乎更加困難。每個人都必須多做一點工作，生產力也必須提高一點，但我們肯定會看到我們的客戶群比以前有更多的流失。

Got it. And Mike, maybe just for the fourth quarter, there's some tough comps on the rental side and then the fire side as well, I believe. If you could just help us with maybe the sequential organic growth trends we should be thinking about, what the M&A contribution is maybe.

知道了。邁克，也許只是在第四季度，我相信租賃方面和消防方面都有一些艱難的競爭。如果您能幫助我們了解我們應該考慮的連續有機增長趨勢，那麼併購的貢獻可能是什麼。

Sure. The -- when we think about organic growth for the rental division, we were at 8.9%. Our expectation -- and so first of all, Manav, let me maybe step back. The guidance for us implies 6.8% to 10% growth, slightly over 10% growth. So we love the momentum of the rental business, and we think that's going to continue to perform very, very well in those upper single-digit type ranges. First Aid and Safety is going to rebound quite a bit in the fourth quarter due to great momentum, but also a little bit of an easier comp. And we expect that to be in the mid-teens.

當然。當我們考慮租賃部門的有機增長時，我們的增長率為 8.9%。我們的期望——所以首先，馬納夫，讓我退後一步。我們的指導意味著增長 6.8% 至 10%，略高於 10%。因此，我們喜歡租賃業務的勢頭，我們認為在那些較高個位數的類型範圍內，租賃業務將繼續表現非常非常好。由於勢頭強勁，急救和安全將在第四季度出現相當大的反彈，但也有一些更容易的競爭。我們預計這一數字將在十幾歲左右。

Our fire business, which grew organically 15.3% this quarter, we continue to expect very good growth in that area. And then our Uniform Direct Sale business is going to face a tougher comp. And likely, that's going to come back to something more normalized low to mid-single digits.

我們的消防業務本季度有機增長 15.3%，我們繼續預計該領域將有非常好的增長。然後我們的製服直銷業務將面臨更嚴峻的競爭。而且很可能，這將回到更正常化的低至中個位數。

Did I get -- I -- I'm not sure if I heard the second part of your question, if there was one, Manav.

我不確定我是否聽到了你問題的第二部分，如果有的話，馬納夫。

Yes. It was just around given all the M&A, I guess, you picked up on, what that quarterly contribution would look like.

是的。考慮到所有的併購，我猜你已經了解了季度貢獻會是什麼樣子。

Got it. Yes. Yes. Yes. So I think I covered that. Maybe I'll touch on -- we talked about -- I talked about the M&A, and a big component of that M&A was this equity investment transaction. That is -- we got into a joint venture years ago for primarily the purposes of product innovation and particularly within our facility services business. But that's a component -- that entity, which we decided made sense to wholly own now, is going to tuck into our global supply chain. So it's relatively nonrevenue producing. And so we won't see much of an impact on that. It tucks in the global supply chain.

知道了。是的。是的。是的。所以我想我已經涵蓋了這一點。也許我會談談——我們討論過——我談到了併購，併購的一個重要組成部分就是股權投資交易。也就是說，我們幾年前成立了一家合資企業，主要目的是產品創新，特別是在我們的設施服務業務中。但這是一個組成部分——我們認為現在完全擁有該實體是有意義的，它將融入我們的全球供應鏈。所以它相對來說不產生收入。因此，我們不會看到對此產生太大影響。它融入了全球供應鏈。

Heather Balsky, Bank of America.

希瑟·巴爾斯基，美國銀行。

I wanted to just touch on and clarify some stuff on the PP&E side. Just curious where you guys are relative to 2019 levels at this point. Are you still above? Or are you -- have you gotten back to kind of a more normalized trend? And then you mentioned sales of COVID tests during the quarter, how you're thinking about that business going forward. And is there an inventory investment around that as well?

我想簡單談談並澄清 PP&E 方面的一些內容。只是好奇你們目前相對於 2019 年的水平處於什麼位置。你還在上面嗎？或者你——你已經回到了一種更加正常化的趨勢嗎？然後您提到了本季度新冠檢測的銷售情況，以及您如何看待該業務的未來發展。是否還有庫存投資？

Yes. Our personal protective equipment sales have still been above prepandemic levels. We like -- we've talked a little bit throughout here about the value that our customers are seeing in it. And we are certainly recognizing that they still value safety, cleanliness and sanitizing. And so those revenue streams are still above prepandemic levels. It's hard to predict what those are going to look like into the future, but they're certainly above prepandemic. And the value proposition is being -- is resonating certainly more today than it did prepandemic. So we like the movement in that business and so far, the staying power of that.

是的。我們的個人防護裝備銷售額仍高於大流行前的水平。我們喜歡——我們在這裡談論了一些我們的客戶在其中看到的價值。我們當然認識到他們仍然重視安全、清潔和消毒。因此，這些收入流仍高於大流行前的水平。很難預測未來會是什麼樣子，但它們肯定超出了大流行前的水平。如今，這一價值主張肯定比大流行前更能引起共鳴。因此，我們喜歡該行業的發展勢頭，以及迄今為止的持久力。

From a test kit perspective, as we've done throughout this pandemic, our goal has been to do our best to take care of our customers. And in this particular quarter, with Omicron really rising, our customers were asking us for the test kit opportunities, and we were able to fulfill those. It did not come with an inventory requirement. Our expectation is there's -- that's not going to be big mover into the future. We called out about $15 million worth. That's something that we wouldn't typically expect to repeat at anything close to that level.

從測試套件的角度來看，正如我們在這場大流行期間所做的那樣，我們的目標是盡最大努力照顧我們的客戶。在這個特定的季度，隨著 Omicron 的真正崛起，我們的客戶向我們詢問測試套件的機會，我們能夠滿足這些需求。它沒有庫存要求。我們的期望是——這不會對未來產生重大推動作用。我們籌集了大約 1500 萬美元的資金。我們通常不會期望在接近該水平的情況下重複這種情況。

And just a follow-up on the PP&E side, just because I recall, it's a lower margin business. Is that -- even though it's still elevated, is it declining? Do you see it as a tailwind to your margins going -- as it sort of levels off going into next quarter and into next year as well?

這只是 PP&E 方面的後續行動，因為我記得，這是一項利潤率較低的業務。那是不是——儘管它仍然很高，但它正在下降嗎？您是否認為這對您的利潤率有推動作用——因為它在下個季度和明年都會趨於平穩？

The short answer is yes, Heather, and I'll maybe talk about it this way. The First Aid and Safety business where a lot of that PP&E has been, we've seen some really nice momentum in the first aid side of the business. And that generally comes with those better margins. And we saw a nice uptick from our second quarter to our third quarter in our First Aid and Safety gross margins. And our expectation is that momentum is going to continue, even though we still certainly hope that there is more PPE going forward than prepandemic.

簡短的回答是肯定的，希瑟，我也許會這樣談論它。急救和安全業務中有很多 PP&E 業務，我們在急救業務方面看到了一些非常好的勢頭。這通常伴隨著更好的利潤率。從第二季度到第三季度，我們的急救和安全毛利率有了很大的上升。我們的預期是，這種勢頭將持續下去，儘管我們仍然希望未來的個人防護裝備比大流行前有更多。

But you're right, Heather. As the mix tilts back to a greater amount of first aid business, we expect those gross margins to start to get closer and closer towards those prepandemic levels. But the one thing I will say in the First Aid and Safety businesses are we made a nice jump in our operating margin, too. And if you think about the SG&A part of that business, we -- our salespeople are producing at very, very high levels. And our SG&A in that business is well below prepandemic levels.

但你是對的，希瑟。隨著業務結構重新轉向更多的急救業務，我們預計這些毛利率將開始越來越接近大流行前的水平。但我要說的一件事是，在急救和安全業務中，我們的營業利潤率也取得了很大的進步。如果你考慮一下該業務的SG&A部分，我們——我們的銷售人員正在以非常非常高的水平生產。我們在該業務中的銷售及管理費用 (SG&A) 遠低於大流行前的水平。

And so as we continue this mix moving in the right direction, our expectation is that those overall operating margins will certainly get back to prepandemic levels and can improve from there. We were at, call it, in the mid-14% range prepandemic, and we're on our way back towards those. And our goal certainly would be more expansion after that.

因此，當我們繼續這種組合朝著正確的方向發展時，我們的預期是，總體營業利潤率肯定會回到大流行前的水平，並可以從那裡改善。我們在大流行前處於 14% 的中間範圍，而且我們正在回到這個水平。之後我們的目標肯定是進一步擴張。

Scott Schneeberger, Oppenheimer.

斯科特·施內伯格，奧本海默。

And guys, I have one more following up on inflation and price. You had stated that the majority of the growth is coming from volume. And I'm just curious -- I guess, the essence of the question is what percent of the -- you're doing on a customer-by-customer base, but what percent of your base would you say you have affected with price increases at this juncture? And will we see a greater percentage of the growth going forward coming from the pricing side as opposed to the volume side as that kicks in on who you've already priced and who you maybe have yet to price? Just a little bit better feel on the time as how much more contribution we may see from price offsetting cost pressure going forward.

伙計們，我還有一項關於通貨膨脹和價格的後續行動。您曾說過，大部分增長來自數量。我只是很好奇——我想，問題的本質是你在逐個客戶基礎上所做的事情的百分比是多少，但是你認為你的基礎的百分比是多少受到價格的影響此時此刻增加？我們是否會看到未來更大比例的增長來自定價方面，而不是數量方面，因為這會影響你已經定價的人和你可能尚未定價的人？只是暫時感覺好一點，因為我們可能會看到價格抵消未來的成本壓力會有多少貢獻。

Thanks for the question, Scott. We -- how we approach it, as I mentioned, it's once a year, but it's a relatively smoothed out throughout the year. And as we've talked about in the past, some of it depends upon the condition of that customer, how their business is, that industry, that geography. And as time goes on, hopefully, that will become a lot more consistent.

謝謝你的提問，斯科特。正如我所提到的，我們如何處理它，每年一次，但全年相對平穩。正如我們過去談到的，其中一些取決於該客戶的狀況、他們的業務狀況、該行業、該地理位置。隨著時間的推移，希望這會變得更加一致。

But no, I think what you're seeing, as far as our volume growth and the pricing wins that we're getting, I think you'll see that be pretty consistent in the future. I don't think you'll see an outsized percentage coming from pricing next year and the coming weeks, months or something like that because of how we approach it. And again, we're very, very happy with the level of demand that we're seeing from our customer base. It's very attractive for us. We're investing appropriately for it, and we're very pleased.

但不，我認為你所看到的，就我們的銷量增長和我們獲得的定價優勢而言，我認為你會看到未來會非常一致。我認為，由於我們的處理方式，明年以及未來幾週、幾個月或類似的情況下，您不會看到過高的定價百分比。再說一遍，我們對客戶群的需求水平非常非常滿意。這對我們來說非常有吸引力。我們正在為此進行適當的投資，我們對此感到非常高興。

Great. Appreciate that response. For my follow-up, I'm just curious, going back to this 1% of SAP extended membership in which you're participating, could you elaborate on how that came to be? And you covered some of the benefits of that, what it offers. But just if you could take us a little bit deeper on, was that something you pursued? Was that something that they granted? How it came to be and just where you expect to go with that.

偉大的。感謝您的回應。對於我的後續行動，我只是很好奇，回到您參與的 1% SAP 擴展會員資格，您能詳細說明一下這是如何發生的嗎？您介紹了它的一些好處及其提供的功能。但如果你能讓我們更深入一點，這就是你所追求的嗎？這是他們授予的嗎？它是如何形成的以及您期望的結果。

Great. Great. Yes. We're very proud of the relationship we have with SAP, and it goes back a number of years now. And it is something that they bestowed upon us. Our relationship has been flourishing over the past few years because of the degree to which we deploy their technology and the usefulness that we get out of it. So I think they really like seeing how we leverage their technology. And as a result, it gets us, as I mentioned -- it's -- we're in a different stratosphere. And you think about SAP's customer base and then you think about that we're being in the top 1%, it's unique air.

偉大的。偉大的。是的。我們對與 SAP 的合作關係感到非常自豪，這種關係可以追溯到很多年前。這是他們賦予我們的東西。由於我們部署他們的技術的程度以及我們從中獲得的有用性，我們的關係在過去幾年中一直蓬勃發展。所以我認為他們真的很喜歡看到我們如何利用他們的技術。結果，正如我提到的，它讓我們處於一個不同的平流層。你想想 SAP 的客戶群，然後想想我們是前 1%，這是獨一無二的。

And so as I mentioned, it does get us relationships at very high levels. There's an SAP Board member that is assigned to us as a customer. We have relationships, again, obviously, at really, really high levels. But it gets us access to their developers and to their technologies on the front end instead of it being rolled out and then we got to figure out -- we can have input and instead of just having something roll out and then we got to figure out how to manage through the change.

正如我所提到的，它確實讓我們建立了非常高水平的關係。有一位 SAP 董事會成員被指定為我們的客戶。顯然，我們之間的關係非常非常高。但它讓我們能夠接觸到他們的開發人員和他們的前端技術，而不是把它推出來，然後我們必須弄清楚——我們可以得到輸入，而不是僅僅推出一些東西，然後我們必須弄清楚如何應對變革。

So when you're in that 1%, you have the ear of those folks and allows you to impact where those items go. So as a result, we think that's an advantage for us. And we're very pleased with it and very pleased with our investment with SAP, and we're seeing real dividends from that as we -- I think, we've laid out over the past few quarters.

因此，當您處於這 1% 的範圍內時，您就可以傾聽這些人的聲音，並可以影響這些物品的去向。因此，我們認為這對我們來說是一個優勢。我們對此非常滿意，對我們對 SAP 的投資也非常滿意，而且我們看到了真正的紅利，正如我們在過去幾個季度所佈局的那樣。

Shlomo Rosenbaum, Stifel.

什洛莫·羅森鮑姆，斯蒂菲爾。

Todd, where are you now in terms of opening up and getting back to normal? Like kind of an apples-to-apples basis in terms of volumes with your customers, so pre-COVID versus where you are today, how much more is -- juice is left in that kind of recovery play for things just kind of opening up more and getting back to your historical basis of, let's say, 2019 volume levels?

托德，在開放和恢復正常方面，你現在處於什麼階段？就像在客戶數量方面進行比較一樣，所以在新冠疫情之前與現在的情況相比，在這種恢復過程中還剩下多少果汁，以應對剛剛開放的事情更多並回到您的歷史基礎，比如說 2019 年的成交量水平？

Shlomo, great question. Our customers are -- for the most part, they're all open. Certainly, there are some that are -- unfortunately, that did not survive through the pandemic and the challenges that, that threw at folks. But our customers are all -- I'll say they're open. They're not all at the same levels of consumption that they once were. Some are higher, some are lower. But we think there's still some more opportunity there as the economy opens up and to a larger degree as people are back more to work to a larger degree. So we think that's positive.

什洛莫，好問題。我們的客戶在大多數情況下都是開放的。當然，不幸的是，有些人未能挺過大流行及其給人們帶來的挑戰。但我們的客戶都是——我會說他們是開放的。他們的消費水平與以前有所不同。有些較高，有些較低。但我們認為，隨著經濟的開放以及人們在更大程度上恢復工作，那裡仍然存在更多機會。所以我們認為這是積極的。

And we think there's also some hidden benefits that we can get from the fact that during the -- throughout the pandemic, as we've talked about, the customers see us in a different light. How we handled their accounts, how we handled their invoices, their -- the lack of increases, the flexibility that we provided, but also the access to product that they didn't even know that we provided in the past.

我們認為，正如我們所討論的，在整個大流行期間，客戶以不同的眼光看待我們，我們還可以從這一事實中獲得一些隱藏的好處。我們如何處理他們的賬戶，我們如何處理他們的發票，他們的——缺乏增加，我們提供的靈活性，以及​​他們甚至不知道我們過去提供的產品的訪問權限。

So Shlomo, that is an advantage for us. The fact that they look at it and they say, "Wow, we didn't realize Cintas provided these items." They can get them. They're great to work with. They're consistent, and they're reasonable. So as a result, that, I think, sets a different level of -- different pool level. And -- but we still think there's even more opportunities within that customer base where folks -- where they will get back to a spend level where they once were. So we think the future looks quite attractive from that standpoint.

所以什洛莫，這對我們來說是一個優勢。事實上，他們看到後會說：“哇，我們沒有意識到 Cintas 提供了這些物品。”他們可以得到它們。與他們合作非常愉快。它們是一致的，而且是合理的。因此，我認為，這設定了不同的水平——不同的池水平。而且 - 但我們仍然認為，在該客戶群中，人們有更多的機會 - 他們將回到以前的支出水平。因此，我們認為從這個角度來看，未來看起來相當有吸引力。

Okay. And then just to clarify, and maybe this is for you, Mike. The equity method investment was a supply chain technology business, early stage that you brought in. And then you decided that you wanted to own all of it, but it's not a product sale, it's a capability to manage your business internally. Is that what we're talking about?

好的。然後澄清一下，也許這適合你，邁克。權益法投資是供應鏈技術業務，早期你引入的。然後你決定要擁有它的全部，但這不是產品銷售，而是內部管理業務的能力。這就是我們所說的嗎？

It's an -- it has been an entity where we've done product innovation that has created products for the rental division, particularly in facility services. So it's -- while it isn't a direct producer of revenue, it has created products over the years that have created revenue streams for the rental division.

這是一個我們進行產品創新的實體，為租賃部門創造了產品，特別是在設施服務方面。所以，雖然它不是收入的直接生產者，但多年來它創造的產品為租賃部門創造了收入來源。

Toni Kaplan, Morgan Stanley.

托尼·卡普蘭，摩根士丹利。

I wanted to ask one more follow-up on inflation and whether you have inflationary escalators built into the contracts. And if you do, what percent of contracts do have that built in?

我想再問一個關於通貨膨脹的後續問題，以及合同中是否內置了通貨膨脹自動扶梯。如果這樣做的話，有多少百分比的合同內置了該功能？

Yes. Toni, I appreciate the question. The -- as I mentioned earlier, we have such a broad customer base that you name it, we have it from a contractual standpoint. Generally speaking, we have the ability to raise price and no limits and do so as we deem appropriate. We -- fundamentally and practically, how we've handled it is we go in and we talk to the customer once a year and explain what the adjustment -- the price adjustment is, and we manage through that.

是的。托尼，我很欣賞這個問題。正如我之前提到的，我們擁有如此廣泛的客戶群，從合同的角度來看，我們擁有如此廣泛的客戶群。一般來說，我們有能力無限制地提高價格，並按照我們認為適當的方式進行。從根本上和實際上來說，我們的處理方式是每年與客戶交談一次，解釋調整的內容——價格調整是什麼，然後我們進行管理。

So -- but no, we're not limited. Certainly, do we have some certain customers that we have limits on? Absolutely. But generally speaking, no, we're not limited from that standpoint. It's more about making good, long-term, practical decisions that help us retain those customers for life.

所以——但不，我們沒有受到限制。當然，我們是否對某些特定客戶有限制？絕對地。但一般來說，不，從這個角度來看，我們並不受限制。更重要的是做出良好的、長期的、實用的決策，幫助我們終生留住這些客戶。

And while we're at it, I'll just -- I will say, our customer retention rates are really attractive right now. They've been -- they have been since -- for the past couple of years and they're -- they have certainly not degraded. So we're excited about that. I think in large part, it's our approach, Toni, that we take on this subject about the flexibility, the pricing, the reasonableness, and we have good conversations that, I think, people understand, and we can manage through it.

當我們這樣做時，我會說，我們的客戶保留率現在確實很有吸引力。在過去的幾年裡，它們一直是——從那以後一直如此，而且它們當然沒有退化。所以我們對此感到興奮。托尼，我認為在很大程度上，這是我們的方法，我們就靈活性、定價、合理性這個問題進行了討論，我們進行了良好的對話，我認為人們能夠理解，我們可以通過它進行管理。

Great. And there were a couple of -- there's a question about different verticals earlier, and you mentioned a couple of them in specific, but I wanted to understand if there were certain verticals outside of, I think it was health care and hospitality that we mentioned earlier, that have seen higher or lower growth than normal. Just if there's any others that would make sense to call out. And then related, just wanted to hear any color on the new business pipeline.

偉大的。之前有一個關於不同垂直行業的問題，您具體提到了其中的幾個，但我想了解是否存在某些垂直行業之外，我認為我們提到的是醫療保健和酒店業早些時候，增長高於或低於正常水平。只是如果還有其他人願意呼籲的話。然後相關的是，只是想听聽新業務管道的任何顏色。

Sure. So hospitality is obviously, as you're reading in the journal and other periodicals, it's -- bookings are way up for those folks there. So that's bounced back nicely. Health care has been some stops and starts, but the demand for our products have been very consistent. And through the pandemic, the -- us being -- having product available was a big deal. And the movement towards getting away from -- in many cases, as folks looking at and saying, "Hey, we don't want a onetime disposable. They're hard to access, not great for the environment, and going to reusable has been great in health care," which we've kind of detailed out in the past.

當然。因此，正如您在雜誌和其他期刊上看到的那樣，熱情好客顯然是——那裡的人的預訂量大幅增加。所以反彈得很好。醫療保健事業經歷了一些停頓，但對我們產品的需求一直非常穩定。在這場大流行病中，對我們來說，擁有可用的產品是一件大事。在許多情況下，人們看著並說：“嘿，我們不想要一次性的一次性物品。它們很難獲得，對環境不利，並且可以重複使用，這已經成為擺脫的運動。”在醫療保健方面表現出色，”我們過去已經詳細介紹過這一點。

Education sector has been, I'd say, a little bit of stops and starts as well in the fact that they literally stopped and started in their schools in many cases. But generally speaking, the education sector is doing quite well.

我想說，教育部門也有一些停頓和啟動，因為在很多情況下，他們實際上是在學校停頓和啟動的。但總體來說，教育行業的表現還是不錯的。

And then lastly, with the government sector, that's obviously been really consistent. And we like our verticals. We like our approach in those areas, and they're all growing attractively, and we expect them to continue to grow attractively based upon our strategy there.

最後，對於政府部門來說，這顯然是非常一致的。我們喜歡我們的垂直領域。我們喜歡我們在這些領域的方法，它們都在有吸引力地增長，並且我們期望它們根據我們在那裡的策略繼續有吸引力地增長。

Thank you. All -- there are no further questions in the queue. I would like to hand the call back over to Mr. Paul Adler for any additional or closing remarks. Over to you, sir.

謝謝。所有 - 隊列中沒有其他問題。我想將電話轉回給保羅·阿德勒先生，以便他發表補充或結束語。交給你了，先生。

All right. Thanks, Serge, and thank you all for joining us this morning. We will issue our fourth quarter fiscal 2022 financial results in July. We look forward to speaking with you again at that time. Thank you.

好的。謝謝 Serge，也謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。我們將於 7 月發布 2022 財年第四季度財務業績。我們期待屆時再次與您交談。謝謝。

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

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。