藝康 (ECL) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to Ecolab's fourth-quarter 2024 earnings release conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎參加藝康 2024 年第四季財報發布電話會議。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次會議正在錄音。

At this time, it is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Andrew Hedberg, Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you, Mr. Hedberg. You may now begin.

現在，我很高興介紹您的主持人、投資者關係副總裁 Andrew Hedberg。謝謝你，赫德伯格先生。現在您就可以開始了。

Thank you, and hello, everyone, and welcome to Ecolab's fourth-quarter conference call. With me today are Christophe Beck, Ecolab's Chairman and CEO; and Scott Kirkland, our CFO.

謝謝大家，大家好，歡迎參加藝康第四季電話會議。今天與我一起的還有藝康集團董事長兼執行長 Christophe Beck；以及我們的財務長 Scott Kirkland。

A discussion of our results along with our earnings release and the slides referencing the quarter results are available on Ecolab's website at ecolab.com/investor.

有關我們的業績討論以及收益報告和引用季度業績的幻燈片可在 Ecolab 網站 ecolab.com/investor 上找到。

Please take a moment to read the cautionary statements in these materials which state that this teleconference and the associated supplemental materials include estimates of future performance. These are forward-looking statements and actual results could differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are described under the Risk Factors section in our most recent Form 10-K and in our posted materials. We also refer you to the supplemental diluted earnings per share information in the release.

請花一點時間閱讀這些資料中的警告聲明，其中指出本次電話會議和相關補充資料包括對未來表現的估計。這些是前瞻性陳述，實際結果可能與預測結果有重大差異。可能導致實際結果不同的因素在我們最新的 10-K 表格和發布的資料中的「風險因素」部分中進行了描述。我們也請您參閱新聞稿中的補充每股攤薄收益資訊。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Christophe Beck for his comments.

接下來，我想請 Christophe Beck 發表評論。

Thank you, Andy, and welcome to everyone on the call. As we wrap up another incredible year in particular, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our exceptional team.

謝謝你，安迪，歡迎大家參加電話會議。當我們結束又一個特別不可思議的一年時，我想花點時間來感謝我們傑出團隊的辛勤工作和奉獻精神。

The unwavering commitment to our mission has been instrumental in delivering unmatched value and best-in-class outcomes for our customers, driving Ecolab's record performance. It's a true privilege to lead such a talented group, and I'm proud of what we've achieved together over the last few years.

對使命的堅定承諾有助於我們向客戶提供無與倫比的價值和一流的成果，從而推動藝康創下創紀錄的業績。能夠領導如此才華橫溢的團隊是我的榮幸，我為我們過去幾年共同取得的成就感到自豪。

2024 was another record year for us with record sales, record earnings, record margins, and record free cash flow, all supported by the exceptional total value we delivered to our customers. As we look ahead to 2025 and beyond, our results position us well to continue delivering superior performance for both our customers and our shareholders.

2024 年對我們來說是另一個創紀錄的一年，銷售額、收益、利潤率和自由現金流都創下新高，所有這些都源自於我們為客戶提供的卓越總價值。展望 2025 年及以後，我們的業績使我們能夠繼續為客戶和股東提供卓越的業績。

In Q4, our organic sales growth was solid and steady at 4%, driven by consistent volume growth and value pricing. Regionally, our performance continues to be led by the United States where organic sales grew mid-single digits. The United States makes up more than half of Ecolab's sales and is our most profitable region. We expect this region to strengthen further in 2025, fueling continued strong performance for Ecolab.

第四季度，在銷售持續成長和價值定價的推動下，我們的有機銷售穩定成長，達到 4%。從地區來看，我們的業績繼續以美國為主導，美國有機銷售額實現了中等個位數成長。美國佔藝康銷售額的一半以上，是我們利潤最高的地區。我們預計該地區將在 2025 年進一步增強，從而推動藝康繼續保持強勁的業績。

Sales across the rest of the world grew low-single digits, driven by resilient demand for our leading solutions, good new business wins, and value pricing, which more than offset the uneven macroeconomic trends in these regions. Our organic operating income margin in the fourth quarter increased a robust 150 basis points. This underscores our commitment to driving margins higher while making continued critical investments in sales via power, capabilities, and capacity to fuel our future growth.

全球其他地區的銷售額實現了低個位數成長，這得益於我們領先解決方案的強勁需求、良好的新業務勝利和價值定價，足以抵消這些地區不平衡的宏觀經濟趨勢。我們第四季的有機營業收入利潤率強勁成長了 150 個基點。這強調了我們致力於提高利潤率的承諾，同時繼續透過實力、能力和產能對銷售進行關鍵投資，以推動我們未來的成長。

For the full year, our organic operating income margin was 16.8%, up 290 basis points on top of 140 basis points delivered in 2023. With all of this, my confidence in reaching our 20% operating income margin target over the next three years continues to strengthen. As we move into 2025, I'm confident in Ecolab's ability to drive continued solid organic sales growth and 12% to 15% earnings growth.

全年而言，我們的有機營業收入利潤率為 16.8%，比 2023 年的 140 個基點上漲了 290 個基點。有了這一切，我對未來三年實現 20% 營業收入利潤率目標的信心不斷增強。隨著我們進入 2025 年，我相信藝康有能力推動持續穩健的有機銷售成長和 12% 至 15% 的獲利成長。

Our strategy centers on capturing market share through our One Ecolab initiative and accelerating momentum in our new growth engines, specifically in data centers, microelectronics, life sciences, and our newest offerings from Ecolab digital. Externally, currency translation is expected to have an approximate 3% unfavorable impact on Ecolab's 2025 reported sales growth and an approximate 4% unfavorable impact on adjusted EPS growth.

我們的策略是透過「一個藝康」計畫搶佔市場份額，並加速我們新成長引擎的發展勢頭，特別是在資料中心、微電子、生命科學以及藝康數位最新產品領域。從外部來看，貨幣換算預計將對藝康報告的 2025 年銷售成長產生約 3% 的不利影響，對調整後每股盈餘成長產生約 4% 的不利影響。

We plan to mitigate the earnings impact in two ways: one, through stronger value pricing, which is expected to be slightly higher than 2024's pricing of the total value delivered to customers continues to expand; and two, through slightly faster than expected One Ecolab savings. As a result, we look continued superior performance in 2025 with adjusted diluted earnings per share expected to increase 12% to 15%, even with organic sales growth improving slightly from the 4% we delivered in 2024.

我們計劃透過兩種方式來減輕獲利影響：一是透過更強的價值定價，預計該定價將略高於2024年交付給客戶的總價值的定價繼續擴大；二是透過比預期稍快的One Ecolab 實現節約。因此，我們預期 2025 年公司將持續維持優異表現，調整後稀釋每股盈餘預計將成長 12% 至 15%，即使有機銷售額成長率略高於 2024 年的 4%。

With a solid growth formula in place to deliver again in 2025, we also plan to build and invest in our business to fuel continued strong performance for the years ahead. Two of these critical areas include Ecolab's global high-tech business and Ecolab digital. I would call the high-tech business operates in the rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar data center and microelectronics industries.

憑藉穩健的成長模式，我們將在 2025 年再次實現目標，同時我們也計劃建立和投資我們的業務，以推動未來幾年繼續保持強勁表現。其中兩個關鍵領域包括藝康全球高科技業務和藝康數位業務。我認為這項高科技業務是在快速成長的數十億美元的資料中心和微電子產業中運作的。

Sales in this business averaged over $300 million, and we expect strong growth to continue in the coming years with OI margins well above 20%. The rise of AI is prompting data centers to resect the coding strategies leading to a shift from air cooled through liquid cooled servers. This transition presents Ecolab with a significant opportunity to apply our extensive expertise in fluid management, microbial control, and naturally high-performance cooling, which is one of our core competencies to help our customers optimize the operations, maximize uptime, and protect the substantial investments.

該業務的銷售額平均超過 3 億美元，我們預計未來幾年將繼續保持強勁成長，OI 利潤率將遠高於 20%。人工智慧的興起促使資料中心重新審視編碼策略，進而導致伺服器從風冷轉向液冷。此次轉型為藝康集團提供了一個重要的機會，讓我們能夠運用在流體管理、微生物控制和自然高性能冷卻方面的豐富專業知識，這是我們的核心競爭力之一，可以幫助我們的客戶優化營運、最大限度延長正常運行時間並保護大量投資。

Our new business pipeline in these markets is very strong, driven by robust demand for our breakthrough innovation focused on high-performance cooling for data centers and water circularity for microelectronics fabs. We're well positioned to leverage these innovations along with our leading digital applications and global sales and service expertise to serve the world's largest technology companies.

我們在這些市場的新業務管道非常強勁，這得益於我們專注於資料中心高性能冷卻和微電子工廠水循環的突破性創新的強勁需求。我們有能力利用這些創新以及我們領先的數位應用程式和全球銷售和服務專業知識來為世界上最大的科技公司提供服務。

Ecolab digital will also add to our momentum by leveraging the power of our extensive digital and AI capabilities to identifying sites and deliver best-in-class performance across the 40 industries we serve. Ecolab digital manages more than 100,000 customer systems around the world today. Last year alone, we captured more than 20 billion proprietary data points across the systems.

藝康數位化也將利用我們廣泛的數位和人工智慧功能來識別網站並在我們服務的 40 個行業中提供一流的績效，從而增強我們的發展勢頭。如今，Ecolab digital 管理著全球超過 10 萬個客戶系統。光是去年，我們就在各個系統中捕獲了超過 200 億個專有數據點。

This data was used to identify ways to deliver improved operational performance and profitability for our customers' global Enterprises. We're monetizing this enhanced customer value through patented device leases, application subscriptions, and digital content consumption, all of which is supported by Ecolab's global sales and service organization to make it work.

這些數據用於尋找能夠提高我們客戶的全球企業營運績效和獲利能力的方法。我們透過專利設備租賃、應用程式訂閱和數位內容消費將這種增強的客戶價值貨幣化，所有這些都得到了藝康全球銷售和服務機構的支持。

As previously indicated, we'll begin to report our digital sales in 2025 to provide even greater transparency to these high-growth, high-margin opportunity. To support these efforts in our other growth engines, we will continue to accelerate smart, organic, and inorganic investments. With this, we expect our CapEx to sales to be around 7% in 2025 as we continue to expand digitally connected systems like our Ecolab 3D cloud 3D Trasar AI dish machine program and pest intelligence.

如前所述，我們將在 2025 年開始報告我們的數位銷售情況，以便為這些高成長、高利潤的機會提供更大的透明度。為了支持我們在其他成長引擎中的努力，我們將繼續加快智慧、有機和無機投資。隨著我們繼續擴展數位連接系統（例如 Ecolab 3D 雲端、3D Trasar AI 洗碗機程式和害蟲智慧），我們預計 2025 年我們的資本支出佔銷售額的比例將在 7% 左右。

With our record free cash flows and very healthy balance sheet, we are also in a unique position to take advantage of inorganic opportunities in water, digital, and life sciences to deliver even more value to customers and attractive returns for shareholders. With these initiatives, we remain focused on further enhancing shareholder returns through increased dividends and share buybacks.

憑藉創紀錄的自由現金流和非常健康的資產負債表，我們也處於獨特的地位，可以利用水、數位和生命科學領域的無機機會，為客戶提供更多價值並為股東帶來豐厚的回報。透過這些舉措，我們仍然致力於透過增加股利和股票回購進一步提高股東回報。

In December, Ecolab's Board declared a 14% increase in our quarterly cash dividend. And in 2024, we bought back $1 billion of Ecolab stock at very attractive prices, all signs of confidence in our team and in our future.

12 月份，藝康董事會宣布季度現金股利增加 14%。2024 年，我們以極具吸引力的價格回購了價值 10 億美元的藝康股票，這一切都表明我們對團隊和未來充滿信心。

Overall, I firmly believe the best of Ecolab is yet to come. Our ability to deliver innovative solutions that improve our customers' operational performance while reducing their water and energy use is increasingly relevant in today's macro landscape. We're well positioned to deliver another strong year in 2025 and beyond.

總的來說，我堅信藝康的最佳表現尚未到來。在當今的宏觀環境下，我們提供創新解決方案的能力越來越重要，這些解決方案可以在提高客戶營運績效的同時，減少客戶的水和能源消耗。我們已做好準備，在 2025 年及以後再創輝煌。

So thanks again for your continued support and your investment in Ecolab. I look forward to your questions.

再次感謝您對 Ecolab 的持續支持與投資。我期待您的提問。

Thanks, Christophe. That concludes our formal remarks. Operator, would you please begin the question-and-answer period?

謝謝，克里斯托夫。我們的正式發言到此結束。接線生，請您開始問答環節好嗎？

(Operator Instructions) Tim Mulrooney, William Blair.

（操作員指示）蒂姆·馬爾羅尼、威廉·布萊爾。

Hello, so it sounds like your confidence around that 20% OI margin target by 2027 continues to go up and it looks like the market's coming around to that idea as well based on the stock price today. I wonder if you could help us, though, think through the cadence of that expansion over the next three years and remind me about the primary drivers behind this? Thank you.

您好，聽起來您對 2027 年 20% OI 保證金目標的信心持續增強，而且根據今天的股價，市場似乎也開始接受這個想法。不過，我想知道您是否可以幫助我們思考未來三年擴張的節奏，並提醒我這背後的主要動力是什麼？謝謝。

Great question. Thank you, Tim. So you're right. We feel really good about getting to 20% by 2027, just to be accurate as well, even though the exact timing will also depend on external factors, but we're talking quarters here, not you, so 2027 is for me, the year where we should cross that 20% line.

好問題。謝謝你，提姆。所以你是對的。我們非常高興能夠在 2027 年實現 20% 的成長率，準確來說，儘管具體的時間也取決於外部因素，但我們談論的是季度，而不是你，所以對我來說，2027 年是我們應該跨越 20% 界限的一年。

So why am I confident? Well, first, we've been on a steady trajectory for a few years now. Our OI margin went up. I mentioned earlier, so up 140 basis points in '23. 290 basis points in '24, we had 16.8% in 2024. And second, we focused on the right things to drive margins. It's top line momentum, which is pretty steady. I like it. Second, value pricing. Solid. We didn't exactly know where it would land. So this 2% to 3% seems to be the sweet spot for us. Innovation keeps to add margin in a very steady way.

那我為什麼要有信心呢？首先，幾年來我們的發展軌跡一直很穩定。我們的未平倉部位保證金上升了。我之前提到過，所以23年上漲了140個基點。 24 年為 290 個基點，到 2024 年我們將達到 16.8%。其次，我們專注於正確的事情來提高利潤。它的營收動能相當穩定。我喜歡它。第二，價值定價。堅硬的。我們並不確切知道它會降落在哪裡。因此這 2% 到 3% 似乎是我們的最佳點。創新不斷以非常穩定的方式增加利潤。

And fourth, productivity driven by technology. So for 2025, with everything I know today, I think that we should cross the 18% OI margin this year. And beyond that, when I think about the new engines team that we are building and fueling to accelerate momentum like the global high tech I mentioned before, data centers and fabs, well, it's north of 20% of businesses; life sciences underlying as well.

第四，科技推動生產力。因此，對於 2025 年而言，根據我今天所了解的一切，我認為我們今年的 OI 幅度應該超過 18%。除此之外，當我想到我們正在建立和推動的新引擎團隊，以加速我之前提到的全球高科技、資料中心和晶圓廠等發展勢頭時，嗯，這佔企業總數的 20% 以上；生命科學基礎也是如此。

We're investing behind it to really get ultimately to this north of 20% margin in the P&L, but that's going to take a few years to get there. And last but not least, Ecolab Digital, which is doing really well, which we will report in the first quarter as promised as well, has very good margin as well at the same time. So great track record so far focused on the right drivers to drive margins. So feel good about crossing the 18% line in '25 and with what we're building in terms of new businesses, ultimately, so we'll get the 20% by 2027 as I promised for a while now.

我們正在進行投資，最終希望實現 20% 以上的損益率，但要達到這個目標還需要幾年的時間。最後但同樣重要的一點是，藝康數位 (Ecolab Digital) 表現非常出色，我們也將按照承諾在第一季報告，同時其利潤率也非常好。到目前為止，出色的業績記錄都集中在正確的驅動因素來提高利潤。因此，我們很高興能在 2025 年跨越 18% 的門檻，並且憑藉我們在新業務方面的建設，最終，我們將在 2027 年實現 20% 的增長率，正如我之前所承諾的那樣。

Manav Patnaik, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的 Manav Patnaik。

Thank you. Good afternoon, Christophe. I apologize if I missed this, but I know you said you report the digital numbers, I guess, throughout the year. Any sense of just sizing it? And I suppose, how intertwined is it with your One Ecolab initiative and the importance of that?

謝謝。下午好，克里斯托夫。如果我錯過了這一點，我很抱歉，但我知道你說過你報告了全年的數字。只是確定其尺寸有意義嗎？我想，它與您的“One Ecolab”計劃及其重要性有何關聯？

Yes, so I promised that we would be disclosing that in '25. We want to do it the right way. It's going to be top line in '25, and it's going to be more of the P&L in '26. Hopefully that we can have numbers that you can trust, that are transparent. It's all in the spirit of giving you as much visibility as we can. But today, it's a few $100 million. We'll provide the exact numbers as we report the first quarter. It's high gross, high margin, high touch, very sticky, because it's a combination of mostly three things, and it's purely digital like you would use with your iPhone or Samsung, whatever you have, Manav.

是的，所以我承諾我們將在'25 年披露這一點。我們想以正確的方式去做這件事。它將成為25年的營收來源，並將成為26年的損益表。希望我們能夠獲得值得信賴、透明的數字。這一切都是為了盡可能地為您提供可見性。但如今，這個數字已達數億美元。我們將在報告第一季時提供準確的數字。它具有高毛利、高利潤、高接觸、非常粘性的特點，因為它主要由三種東西組成，而且它是純數字化的，就像你用 iPhone 或三星等設備一樣，Manav。

Well, we get lease or rent for our devices, and we have 100,000 of those connections around the world. So it's first, digital equipment leases; second is software or think applications on a phone, but for us, it's software like Omni to improve, optimize the performance of a power plant, for instance, between the cooling tower and the condenser. Well, we get a subscription for it.

嗯，我們的設備是透過租賃或租用的，我們在全球有 100,000 個這樣的連接。首先是數位設備租賃；第二個是手機上的軟體或應用程序，但對我們來說，像 Omni 這樣的軟體可以改善和優化發電廠的性能，例如冷卻塔和冷凝器之間的性能。好吧，我們訂閱了它。

And the third one is consumption of data, of transaction, of minutes of support, of emergency service, and so on. So those are the three components that will be feeding our numbers that we'll be reporting under Ecolab Digital. And last point, the relationship to One Ecolab, well, it's very clearly intertwined and on purpose, obviously.

第三個是資料消耗、交易消耗、支援分鐘消耗、緊急服務消耗等等。所以，這三個組成部分將構成我們在 Ecolab Digital 下報告的數據。最後一點，與 One Ecolab 的關係，顯然是相互交織且有目的性的。

Because all the information that we're getting with all our connected systems and our service data, by the way that we captured from our field sales force or from our customers or from other systems or feed into Ecolab 3D that ultimately provides data for the software and the consumption as well that's being used by our customers. So it's two sides of the same coin, but more to come at the end of the first quarter when we can really report our top line numbers.

因為我們透過所有連接系統獲得的所有資訊和服務數據，都是從我們的現場銷售人員或客戶或其他系統獲取的，或者輸入到 Ecolab 3D 中，最終為軟體和客戶使用的消耗提供數據。因此，這是同一枚硬幣的兩面，但在第一季末，當我們能夠真正報告我們的營收數字時，還會有更多消息。

Ashish Sabadra, RBC Capital Markets.

加拿大皇家銀行資本市場 (RBC Capital Markets) 的 Ashish Sabadra。

Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to better understand the volume growth expectation as we get into 2025 and if you could provide any color by segments as well as any impact, any potential impact from tariff. Thanks and congrats on a solid quarter.

感謝您回答我的問題。我只是想更了解 2025 年的銷售成長預期，以及您是否可以提供按細分市場劃分的具體資訊以及任何影響、任何關稅的潛在影響。謝謝並恭喜本季業績穩健。

Thank you so much, Ashish. So if I understood you're right, so the last part of your question was the impact of tariffs, so which is obviously a bit of a different topic here. But generally, with what we know now and it's an evolving proposition, as we know as well, we don't see a big impact on our business for a very simple reason. Is that 92% of what we sell is produced locally. And in places like China, it's 99% of what we sell, is produced locally.

非常感謝，Ashish。如果我理解正確的話，你的問題的最後一部分是關稅的影響，所以這顯然是一個不同的主題。但總體而言，就我們目前所知以及這是一個不斷發展的命題而言，由於很簡單的原因，我們不會認為這會對我們的業務產生重大影響。我們銷售的產品 92% 都是本地生產的。在中國等地，我們銷售 99% 的產品都是本地生產的。

So we're kind of well protected from a supply chain perspective. That's the reason why tariffs for now, not a big deal for the company and hopefully, it's staying so. And if it doesn't, I'd like to remind you and all as well online that a few years back, so we established that surcharge mechanism that we used for the energy spike in 2022. Well, this is a mechanism that in the extreme case, we can use as well. We're not planning to, but we're prepared to use it if we need to. So kind of feeling good about that tariff story.

因此從供應鏈的角度來看我們受到了很好的保護。這就是為什麼目前關稅對公司來說不是什麼大問題，而且希望一直如此。如果沒有的話，我想提醒大家，以及網路上的所有人，幾年前，我們建立了 2022 年能源高峰的附加費機制。嗯，這是一種在極端情況下我們也可以使用的機制。我們沒有計劃這樣做，但如果需要的話，我們準備使用它。所以我對這個關稅故事感覺很好。

Now the first part of your question on volume, 2025, the way we need to think about it, not every quarter is created equal. But trajectory is basically so this around 2% volume growth. This is kind of the cruising speed we've had for a few quarters now. The price, value price 2% to 3%, but better than in 2024, I believe, which will lead to a 4%-plus overall trajectories for 2025.

現在，關於您問題的第一部分，即 2025 年，我們需要這樣思考，並不是每個季度都是平等的。但軌跡基本上是2%左右的銷售成長。這是我們幾個季度以來的巡航速度。價格、價值價格上漲 2% 至 3%，但我相信會比 2024 年好，這將導致 2025 年的整體軌跡增加 4% 以上。

That's kind of the top line expectation for 2025. That's for organic, obviously, and then you have an FX component for reported numbers. But last point I'll make, two elements. First, in terms of long-term directional growth, I'd like to just to refer what I shared with you almost two years ago by business in terms of top line and margins that Investor Day, those ones are still valid. No change on this one.

這是對 2025 年的最高預期。顯然，這是有機的，然後你有一個用於報告數字的 FX 組件。我要說的最後一點是兩個要素。首先，就長期方向性成長而言，我想參考一下我兩年前在投資者日與大家分享的業務營收和利潤率，這些仍然有效。這個沒有變化。

And the last point is the United States is our largest market. It's over half our sales. It's our best-performing market with the highest margin as well at the same time, which is a good place to be in the world that we're living in right now. And around the world, it's obviously different market by market, but generally, I feel good.

最後一點是美國是我們最大的市場。這占我們銷售額的一半以上。這是我們表現最好、利潤率最高的市場，對我們現在所處的世界來說，這是一個很好的地方。在世界各地，不同的市場顯然存在差異，但總體而言，我感覺良好。

All the markets are in a reasonably good place, good profitability as well. We have no underdog as well out there, so pretty well balanced in terms of business performance and market performance at the same time, while the US is the leading market, which is a good thing nowadays.

所有市場都處於相當良好的狀態，獲利能力也良好。我們在那裡也沒有弱勢一方，因此在業務表現和市場表現方面相當平衡，而美國是領先的市場，這在當今是一件好事。

John McNulty, BMO Capital Markets.

BMO資本市場部的約翰·麥克納爾蒂 (John McNulty) 說。

Yeah, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. So I was just curious if you could give us some color or thoughts on how you're thinking about delivered product costs in 2025? It seems like there's a bunch of kind of puts and takes out there, so if you can give us a little bit of color on that, that'd be great.

是的，下午好。感謝您回答我的問題。所以我只是好奇，您是否可以告訴我們一些關於 2025 年交付產品成本的想法？看起來那裡有很多種情況，所以如果你能給我們一些這方面的詳細信息，那就太好了。

Thank you, John. I'll pass it to Scott so he can work as well a little bit.

謝謝你，約翰。我會將其傳遞給斯科特，以便他也能稍微工作一下。

Thanks for the question, John. Yeah, as we think about the DPC, as we started seeing in 2024, where we're starting to see that the DPC tailwinds normalize and really turn to normal levels of inflation, our expectation going into next year, as we talked about after Q3, is this normal level of low-single-digit inflation for delivered product costs. But certainly, we will continue to offset as much of that with supply chain efficiencies, but that is our net expectation for DPC next year. It's low-single digits.

謝謝你的提問，約翰。是的，當我們考慮 DPC 時，正如我們在 2024 年開始看到的那樣，我們開始看到 DPC 的順風正常化並真正轉向正常的通膨水平，我們對明年的預期，正如我們在第三季度後談到的那樣，交付產品成本的低個位數通膨水平是正常的。但可以肯定的是，我們將繼續透過提高供應鏈效率來抵消盡可能多的損失，但這是我們對明年 DPC 的淨預期。它是一個低個位數。

Jason Haas, Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的傑森·哈斯。

Hey, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. I'm curious if you could talk about what it will take to get the 2% volume growth to the long-term target of 3% to 4%? How much of that is reliant on some of these industries you're in improving versus what you can accomplish with One Ecolab and your other initiatives? Thank you.

嘿，下午好，感謝您回答我的問題。我很好奇，您能否談談如何才能將 2% 的銷售成長達到 3% 至 4% 的長期目標？其中有多少依賴您所處的行業的改進以及您透過「One Ecolab」和其他舉措所能取得的成就？謝謝。

It's our main focus, Jason, so I feel good about what we're doing about it. You mentioned One Ecolab. It's all about unlocking a bigger share of the $55 billion of penetration in existing customers that we have. And as mentioned separately as well, just our top 35 customers have a potential of over $3 billion of penetration as well. So One Ecolab focused on our major customer partners. It's the main driver of how much we can accelerate underlying growth as a company.

傑森，這是我們關注的重點，因此，我對我們所做的一切感到很滿意。您提到了 One Ecolab。這一切都是為了在現有的 550 億美元客戶滲透率中佔據更大的份額。而且正如另外提到的，光是我們的前 35 名客戶就具有超過 30 億美元的滲透潛力。因此，One Ecolab 專注於我們的主要客戶合作夥伴。這是我們加速公司基本成長的主要驅動力。

The second component is really, those new engines like I mentioned in my open, so global high-tech with data centers and fabs. These are really interesting engines for the future. Life science is another one. Ecolab Digital, as mentioned that we're going to start reporting at the top line levels. After Q1 we'll be one as well.

第二個組成部分其實是我在開放中所提到的那些新引擎，也就是擁有資料中心和晶圓廠的全球高科技。這些都是非常有趣的未來引擎。生命科學是另一個例子。正如 Ecolab Digital 所提到的，我們將開始在頂線層級進行報告。第一季之後我們也會成為其中的一員。

And ultimately, really keeping improving the performance of our core businesses, institutional pest elimination, our core water businesses, by focusing really on new business generation. And I feel good with the trajectory that we're having, the backlog that we have in terms of new business. We need to install it.

最終，透過真正專注於新業務的開發，真正不斷提高我們的核心業務、機構害蟲消除和核心水業務的績效。我對我們的發展軌跡以及新業務方面的積壓感到滿意。我們需要安裝它。

So we have all the elements that we need in order to improve the performance at the volume level, but I'd like to make sure that we also look at volume plus value pricing because for us, value pricing is not price. It's mostly our share of the value that we deliver to our customers, which, as a proxy, it's usually twice the pricing that our customers are paying for us. So it's a very good deal for our customers while it's a good deal for our shareholders at the same time.

因此，我們擁有在產量層面上提高表現所需的所有要素，但我想確保我們也能考慮產量加價值定價，因為對我們來說，價值定價不是價格。這主要是我們向客戶提供的價值份額，通常，它是客戶為我們支付的價格的兩倍。因此，這對我們的客戶來說是一筆非常好的交易，同時對我們的股東來說也是一件好事。

Patrick Cunningham, Citigroup.

花旗集團的 Patrick Cunningham。

Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. This is [Rachel Leon] for Patrick. It looks like life sciences performed better. And what is driving the underlying business momentum and the improving outlook in 1Q?

嗨，下午好。感謝您回答我的問題。我是 [Rachel Leon]，代表 Patrick 發言。看起來生命科學表現較好。那麼，推動第一季基本業務發展動能和前景改善的因素有哪些？

Thank you, Rachel. Life science is a business that we started building in 2016, 2017, really focusing on pharma, the acquisition of [Pure Light] in '21, added really the ultra-purification for the biotech world because we firmly believe that drug development, drug production, disease prevention is going to be and is a growth market long term. So we feel really good about where the market is going to go. We know that the industry had to go through a bit of a transition over the past few years, but it doesn't change where we're coming from and it doesn't change where we're going. It's just a few years of transition.

謝謝你，Rachel。生命科學是我們在 2016 年、2017 年開始建立的業務，真正專注於製藥領域，21 年對 [Pure Light] 的收購為生物技術領域增添了超純化功能，因為我們堅信藥物開發、藥物生產和疾病預防將是一個長期增長的市場。因此，我們對市場的走向非常有信心。我們知道，過去幾年來，這個產業經歷了一些轉型，但這並沒有改變我們的出發點，也沒有改變我們的去向。這只是幾年的過渡。

During those few years, we've kept growing as well, not as fast as we were hoping, but our competition was declining during that time. So I feel pretty good as well about that. But the last few years we've built new capabilities, plans, systems, quality systems. We've strengthened our team as well in dramatic ways, which is something that Ecolab is very strong at.

在這幾年裡，我們也一直在成長，雖然沒有我們希望的那麼快，但我們的競爭對手也在下降。所以我對此也感覺很好。但過去幾年，我們建立了新的能力、計劃、系統和品質系統。我們也大力加強了我們的團隊，而這正是藝康的強項。

So I feel really good about the industry we serve, how we serve that industry in being the smaller player, very agile, very innovative, very responsive, very close to customers. And the capabilities that we've built for the future and we see early fruits are coming out, which is a very good sign. So I feel good about where we are, where we're going with life science. It's not going to be a straight line to heaven for the quarters to come. Not every quarter is created equal, but the direction of travel is good and we keep getting better.

因此，我對我們所服務的行業感到非常滿意，作為規模較小的參與者，我們如何為該行業提供服務，非常靈活，非常具有創新性，非常敏感，非常貼近客戶。我們為未來建構的能力已經初見成效，這是一個非常好的跡象。所以我對我們的現狀以及生命科學的發展方向感到很滿意。未來幾個季度，通往天堂的道路不會是一條直線。雖然每季的情況都不一樣，但前進的方向是好的，而且我們會越來越好。

Vincent Andrews, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的文森安德魯斯。

Thank you. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about sort of the leverage point. It looks like you're going to get to maybe it's in both data centers and in pet where you've had to make some meaningful investment to go after that business, and it's kind of more of a percolates in the backlog for a while before it actually shows up in revenue.

謝謝。我想知道您是否可以進一步談談槓桿點的問題。看起來你可能要在資料中心和寵物方面做出一些有意義的投資才能開展這項業務，而且在它真正體現在收入中之前，它更像是在積壓訂單中滲透一段時間。

So maybe you could just help us understand where you are in terms of the level of spend that you've had to make versus starting to see a real ramp-up or an inflection in the volume and therefore the margins that that new volume will drive as the volume becomes greater than the spend?

所以也許您可以幫助我們了解您所處的階段，即您必須支出的水平，還是開始看到真正的上升或數量的拐點，以及當數量大於支出時，新的數量將帶來的利潤率？

Yeah, well, it's already a good business with good margins. So to begin with, we are investing behind these two businesses: data centers and fabs, but not in crazy ways. It's to do it in a smart way, in a typical Ecolab manner that it's pay as you go, even though it's a little bit more than we would normally -- it's not much more. So it's done in a very healthy way. And to your question of how far are we down that journey, well, it's early because it's early for everyone.

是的，這已經是個利潤豐厚的好生意了。因此，首先，我們正在投資這兩項業務：資料中心和晶圓廠，但投資方式並不瘋狂。這是一種聰明的做法，採用典型的藝康方式，即按需付費，儘管這比我們通常的做法要多一點 — — 但也不會多很多。所以這是以一種非常健康的方式完成的。至於你問的我們在這條旅程上走了多遠，嗯，現在還為時過早，因為對所有人來說都還為時過早。

The very good news is that it's new technologies that nobody has truly developed yet, and I think that we are best positioned for that. The way we present it internally and I might get a little bit ahead of my skis here, you have Nvidia that's developing the best chips in the world. You have ASML producing the machines to produce the chips. You have TSMC and Samsung producing the chips, and you will have us providing all the cooling technology and the water recycling in the fabs.

非常好的消息是，這是尚未有人真正開發過的新技術，我認為我們在這方面處於最佳位置。我們內部展示的方式以及我可能略微超前一點的說法是，Nvidia 正在開發世界上最好的晶片。您有 ASML 生產晶片的機器。台積電和三星生產晶片，我們則為晶圓廠提供所有冷卻技術和水循環利用。

Two comments on that. On data centers, technology today, well, you have a lot of computers in a room that's cooled with air conditioning. We're very strong at that. We know how to master that. Well, the new generation now is directed cheap cooling, so you have a cold fluid going to the chip. Well, that's a very different technology.

對此有兩點評論。在資料中心，依照現今的技術，許多電腦都放置在一個有空調的房間裡。我們在這方面非常強。我們知道如何掌握這一點。現在，新一代是定向廉價冷卻，因此會有冷液流向晶片。嗯，這是一項非常不同的技術。

You can imagine, so bring that fluid to the chip, all the challenges of scaling, of bowling, of managing all that in real time. This is what 3D Trasar was made for initially. So we're uniquely placed in terms of technology, so close to the chip, managing that fluid, and cooling that fluid as well at the same time. I feel really good with the developments that we've made and very close to some of the largest tech companies out there, so all the big names are working pretty closely to us.

你可以想像，將這種流體帶到晶片上，所有的縮放、保齡球挑戰，以及即時管理所有這些的挑戰。這正是 3D Trasar 最初設計的目的。因此，我們在技術方面具有獨特的優勢，如此接近晶片，同時管理液體並冷卻液體。我對我們的發展感到非常滿意，我們與一些最大的科技公司關係非常密切，所以所有大公司都在與我們密切合作。

And the last point for the fabs. One fab just for perspective, is using an equivalent of the drinking needs of 17 million people. So that can't go forever because obviously, we won't have enough water in order to feed all those fabs while feeding people as well at the same time. So we need technology to reuse and recycle water within the fab, which is exactly what we're doing.

最後一點是關於晶圓廠的。僅從角度來看，一個工廠使用的飲用水相當於 1700 萬人的飲用水需求。所以這種情況不可能永遠持續下去，因為顯然我們沒有足夠的水來滿足所有這些晶圓廠的需求，同時也滿足人民的需求。因此，我們需要在工廠內重複使用和回收水的技術，而這正是我們正在做的事情。

And we're having some very good development projects with some very famous tech companies as well out there. So it's early because the industry is early, but I think that we are the leading edge, and we will be the ones hopefully leading for the years to come as well.

我們正在與一些非常著名的科技公司合作一些非常好的開發案。所以現在還為時過早，因為這個行業還處於早期階段，但我認為我們處於領先地位，並希望在未來幾年我們也能夠保持領先地位。

John Roberts, Mizuho Securities.

瑞穗證券的約翰‧羅伯茲 (John Roberts)。

In the pest elimination segment, could you discuss the accidents that you had and how much of the earnings headwind was the accidents versus the increased spending on pest intelligence?

在害蟲消除領域，您能否討論一下您遇到的事故，以及事故對收益造成的阻力與害蟲情報支出增加的比例是多少？

Yes, first, we are an extremely safety-focused organization, as you know, John. So my first thought is really about the people and the families who have been hurt. We have some very good safety records really at world-class levels. So when a few accidents happen, you can see it in the records, you can see it in our cost evolution as well. So the OI decrease that we had, the majority of it was driven by the accidents.

是的，首先，如你所知，約翰，我們是一個極度注重安全的組織。所以我首先想到的確實是那些受傷的人們和家庭。我們的安全記錄確實非常好，達到了世界一流水平。因此，當發生一些事故時，您可以在記錄中看到它，也可以在我們的成本演變中看到它。因此，OI 的下降，大部分是事故造成的。

This is something that we're working on, we're very focused on. It can happen even though we are having that objective of goal zero in every business, every function, anywhere around the world. And when it happens, we deal with it, and that's exactly what happened unfortunately in pest elimination. We need to live with it, but most importantly, we need to address it.

這是我們正在努力、並且非常專注的事情。儘管我們在世界各地的每項業務、每項職能中都設定了零目標，但這種情況仍有可能發生。當這種情況發生時，我們會處理它，不幸的是，這正是在害蟲消除過程中發生的事情。我們需要忍受它，但最重要的是，我們需要解決它。

Shlomo Rosenbaum, Stifel.

羅森鮑姆（Shlomo Rosenbaum），Stifel。

Hi, thank you very much. I want to ask if you could just unpack the CapEx a little bit? We talked about some investments into digital and some of the other areas. CapEx typically for the company was 5%. It moved up to a little over 6% last year, and we're talking about 7%. Are we into a new normal type of kind of business model or is there something that there's a short-term increase in investment or acceleration of investments?

你好，非常感謝。我想問一下您是否可以稍微解釋一下資本支出 (CapEx)？我們討論了對數位領域和其他一些領域的投資。該公司的資本支出通常為 5%。去年這一比例上升至 6% 多一點，我們現在談論的是 7%。我們是否正在進入一種新常態的商業模式，或者是否有短期投資增加或投資加速的情況？

Let me pass it to Scott and I'll comment after that.

讓我把它傳給斯科特，然後我會發表評論。

Hey, Shlomo, yeah, thanks for the question. As you know, CapEx by nature is a little lumpy. As he said, historically we've been in this 5% to 6% range, but just to ground you, about half of that CapEx's percentage of sales is related to customer equipment. So customer equipment locations, so as we're growing, CapEx will grow and as we move to that 7% in 2025, as Christophe said, we're continuing to invest and we're growing. So as sales accelerate, we'll continue to invest there.

嘿，Shlomo，是的，謝謝你的提問。如您所知，資本支出本質上是有點不平衡的。正如他所說，從歷史上看，我們一直處於 5% 到 6% 的範圍內，但需要說明的是，大約一半的資本支出佔銷售額的百分比與客戶設備有關。因此，隨著我們的發展，客戶設備位置也會成長，正如 Christophe 所說，到 2025 年，我們將達到 7%，我們將繼續投資，並且繼續發展。因此，隨著銷售成長，我們將繼續在那裡投資。

But in addition to that, we have programs that he has mentioned around AI dish machine, which you may have seen at some of our shows, the pest intelligence, which we've referenced, as well as the digital investments that Christophe talked before. So those programs excel themselves as we accelerate in the near term. Certainly in '25, I would expect possibly a little bit more elevated in '26, but I don't think this is a long-term trend above 7%.

但除此之外，我們還有他提到的有關人工智慧洗碗機的項目，您可能在我們的一些展會上看到過，還有我們提到的害蟲智能，以及克里斯托夫之前談到的數位投資。因此，隨著我們近期加速發展，這些項目將會表現出色。當然，我預計 25 年這一數字可能會更高一些，但我不認為這是一個超過 7% 的長期趨勢。

So it's not the new normal, but we have very strong cash flow, a very strong balance sheet, very good growth opportunities. Well, I want to leverage the capital that we have also to feed those growth opportunities while we return cash to shareholders as well at the same time and keep the strong balance sheet that we have. So all in all, pretty healthy investments.

所以這不是新常態，但我們擁有非常強勁的現金流、非常強勁的資產負債表和非常好的成長機會。好吧，我想利用我們擁有的資本來滿足這些成長機會，同時我們也向股東返還現金並保持我們強勁的資產負債表。總的來說，這是相當健康的投資。

Steve Byrne, Bank of America.

美國銀行的史蒂夫伯恩。

Yes, thank you. In order for your customers to utilize your products, whether it's in waste, whether water treatment, laundry cleaning, dishwashing, pest elimination, all of that equipment that they have, how much of it does Ecolab own or that you've sold to them or you have installed? Is this part of the loyalty and pricing power that you have with those industrial customers?

是的，謝謝。為了讓您的客戶能夠使用您的產品，無論是垃圾處理、水處理、洗衣、洗碗、除蟲，還是他們擁有的所有這些設備，藝康擁有多少設備或您向他們出售了多少設備或您安裝了多少設備？這是您對這些工業客戶的忠誠度和定價權力的一部分嗎？

It's a great question, Steve. We own virtually all of it, and we want to keep it that way because it's a proprietary new technology. It's much more sticky. This is good for us, but it's also good for the customer, because they always get the latest technology, the upgrades in software. They might pay for the new subscriptions for the new softwares as well, but generally dispensing equipment, digital technology, all of that belongs to us.

這是一個很好的問題，史蒂夫。我們幾乎擁有這一切，而且我們希望保持這種狀態，因為它是一項專有的新技術。它更加粘稠。這對我們來說是好事，對客戶來說也是好事，因為他們總是能獲得最新的技術和軟體升級。他們也許會為新軟體支付新的訂閱費用，但一般來說，分配設備、數位技術，所有這些都屬於我們。

David Begleiter, Deutsche Bank.

德意志銀行的 David Begleiter。

Thank you. Christophe, on the '25 volume growth of 2%, is that [fast] in the market? And if it is, how much faster the market is it?

謝謝。克里斯托夫，2025 年銷量成長了 2%，這在市場上算快嗎？如果是的話，市場發展速度有多快？

It is clearly faster than the market. You take the example of institutional, 6% growth in a down market, and you can look at different ways of looking at it, but the food traffic is down. So we're clearly gaining share. This is true in our water business as well at the same time.

這顯然比市場還要快。以機構為例，在低迷的市場中實現了 6% 的成長，你可以從不同的角度來看待它，但食品流量確實下降了。因此我們的份額顯然正在增加。這對於我們的水業務也是如此。

I feel really good about the share that we're gaining. The 2% is kind of the steady volume growth that we have. Our focus is to keep working on it, to accelerate it. As I mentioned before as well, with our growth engines, with capturing more share of the $55 billion, by leveraging one Ecolab, adding digital as well, so all feeding into stronger than 2% for the long run.

我對於我們所獲得的份額感到非常高興。2% 是我們穩定的銷售成長。我們的重點是繼續努力並加速推進。正如我之前提到的，憑藉我們的成長引擎，透過利用藝康集團，增加數位化，我們將佔據 550 億美元的更多份額，因此從長遠來看，所有這些都將推動銷售額成長超過 2%。

But we want to do it in a very smart way. I will never trade volume for price. And we have strong value price as well. So it's keeping that equation in a good balance, and that's why you don't see some big swings around these two. We want to really do it in a very steady way that ultimately you can trust the direction of travel that we're having.

但我們想以一種非常聰明的方式來做到這一點。我絕對不會用數量來換取價格。而且我們的價格也很有價值。因此，它使該等式保持良好的平衡，這就是為什麼你不會看到這兩者之間出現大的波動。我們希望以非常穩健的方式做到這一點，最終讓您可以相信我們的前進方向。

Jeff Zekauskas, JPMorgan.

摩根大通的 Jeff Zekauskas。

Thanks very much. I have a three-part question, but I think your answers will be brief. If you compare industrial and institutional in the quarter, which segment grew its volumes faster? In terms of your 20%, margin target, it turns out that in 2027 your amortization costs will drop from today's level by about $150 million. So your EBIT margin will go up about 90 basis points, but it won't affect your EBITDA margin. So when you have that 20% margin target, does that include the drop in amortization or is your EBIT target really 21% and it doesn't take that into account?

非常感謝。我的問題分為三個部分，但我想您的回答會很短。如果比較本季的工業和機構，哪個部門的業務量成長更快？按照您的 20% 的利潤率目標，到 2027 年，您的攤銷成本將比今天的水平下降約 1.5 億美元。因此，您的 EBIT 利潤率將上升約 90 個基點，但不會影響您的 EBITDA 利潤率。那麼，當您的利潤率目標為 20% 時，是否包括攤銷的下降，或者您的息稅前利潤目標實際上是 21%，並且沒有考慮到這一點？

And then lastly in pest elimination, what exactly happened? Were Ecolab employees insured or customers insured? And why is this something which seems to have an effect over the next several quarters? Thanks.

最後在消滅害蟲時，究竟發生了什麼事？藝康員工有保險嗎？客戶有保險嗎？為什麼這似乎會在接下來的幾季產生影響？謝謝。

So Jeff, you [paid] for one question only, but I'm going to give you the two bonus questions as well, as a good friend. So first, the volume difference between institutional and industrial. So as we're not disclosing volume and price, especially for competitive reasons. So I can't really answer that question, but in both cases, it's pretty good. So I feel good about the balance, volume, and price, which is something as mentioned before that I want to keep a very good balance of, and you can see it at the overall company level.

所以傑夫，你只需要支付一題的錢，但身為好朋友，我也會給你兩道獎勵題。首先，機構和工業之間的數量差異。因此，出於競爭原因，我們不會透露數量和價格。所以我真的無法回答這個問題，但就這兩種情況而言，它都非常好。因此，我對平衡、數量和價格感到滿意，正如之前提到的，我希望保持非常好的平衡，你可以在整個公司層面看到這一點。

Second question, amortization is not included in 2027 there. So when amortization of the existing, obviously -- so acquisitions that we've made, so it comes off the book, that's going to be on top. But I'm not counting that to get to the 20%. And third one in pest elimination, it's always a combination of two: it's insurance costs. So depending on who owns the accident, well, we have to pay. It's been unfortunate accidents in pest elimination, we have a few 1,000 people on the road 24/7 in sometimes remote places, and sometimes difficult customer locations as well.

第二個問題，2027年不包括攤提。因此，當攤銷現有的、顯然是我們所進行的收購時，它會從帳面上消失，這將是最重要的。但我並不認為這會達到 20%。第三個因素是害蟲消滅成本，它總是兩者的組合：保險成本。所以，這取決於事故的責任人是誰，嗯，我們必須賠償。在滅蟲過程中不幸發生過事故，我們有幾千人每天24小時都在路上，有時在偏遠的地方，有時也難以到達的客戶地點。

So it's been unfortunate. It happens. It was mostly in Q4. There's going to be a little bit in Q1, but that's it.

所以這是不幸的。確實有這樣的事。主要發生在第四季。第一季會有一點，但僅此而已。

Laurence Alexander, Jefferies.

勞倫斯·亞歷山大（Laurence Alexander），傑富瑞（Jefferies）。

Good afternoon. Could you give us a sense of your assumptions for 2025 around SG&A leverage, taxes, interest expense, and buybacks?

午安.您能否向我們介紹一下您對 2025 年銷售、一般及行政費用槓桿、稅收、利息支出和回購的假設？

Let me give it to Scott as well.

讓我也把它交給史考特。

Yeah, I got that. Thanks, Laurence. I guess the three-part question reminds me if I forget any of the three parts, but as we think about SG&A, as we talked about previously, we expected our guide for next year to be at this 20 basis points to 30 basis points of leverage, and that's net of continuing to invest in the business.

是的，我明白了。謝謝，勞倫斯。我想，如果我忘記了這三個部分中的任何一個，這個由三部分組成的問題會讓我想起什麼，但是當我們考慮銷售、一般和行政費用時，正如我們之前談到的，我們預計明年的指導方針是槓桿率在 20 個基點到 30 個基點之間，這是繼續投資於業務的淨額。

Now certainly with the impact of FX, that will have an impact on that. But as we accelerate the One Ecolab savings as well, we still expect to be in that range of 20 basis points to 30 basis points on SG&A leverage, but probably near the lower end of that range. And in Q1, I would expect it to be slightly negative because as you can expect, the effects we're already seeing, it'll take some time to realize those savings aggressively throughout the year.

現在，外匯的影響肯定會對此產生影響。但是，隨著我們加快「一個藝康」節約的步伐，我們仍預計銷售、一般和行政費用槓桿率將在 20 個基點至 30 個基點的範圍內，但可能接近該範圍的低端。而在第一季度，我預計它會略微出現負面效果，因為正如你所預料的，我們已經看到的影響是，需要一些時間才能在全年積極實現這些節省。

And then as we talk about taxes, so this year we landed the full year in between our 19% and 20% expectation for the year, landed at 19.3% on an adjusted tax rate for the full year and expect to be in this 20% to 21% range next year as we continue to drive earnings growth so that earnings growth will sort of naturally get us closer to the US corporate rate, especially given the strength of growth in our US business.

然後我們談到稅收，今年我們的全年稅率介於 19% 和 20% 的預期之間，全年調整後的稅率為 19.3%，預計明年將處於 20% 至 21% 的範圍內，因為我們將繼續推動盈利增長，因此盈利增長將我們更接近美國企業美國業務的增長強勁。

And then lastly on buybacks, I would just say, as Christophe mentioned before, the balance sheet is in a very good place. No change to our philosophy on capital allocation. The balance sheet, as you probably saw, we ended the year at a net leverage of about 1.7 times. We repurchased that -- it includes repurchasing about a $1 billion dollars in shares in 2024. And then future buybacks are really going to be dependent as it always has been on our investment opportunities, including M&A.

最後關於回購，我只想說，正如克里斯托夫之前提到的，資產負債表狀況非常好。我們的資本配置理念沒有改變。正如您可能看到的，資產負債表顯示，我們今年年底的淨槓桿率約為 1.7 倍。我們回購了這些股票——包括在 2024 年回購價值約 10 億美元的股票。然後，未來的回購實際上將取決於我們的投資機會，包括併購。

So with the balance sheet strength that we have, it gives us a lot of opportunity to invest both inorganically and organically, and you'll see that in the CapEx as we talked about this increase to 7% of sales. So as we have right now, I would expect normal levels of buybacks but consistent with our historical capital allocation philosophy, and we will invest in the business as a number one priority.

因此，憑藉我們現有的資產負債表實力，我們擁有大量機會進行無機投資和有機投資，正如我們所說，您會在資本支出中看到這一增長，即銷售額佔比達到 7%。因此，正如我們現在所做的那樣，我預計回購水準將保持正常，但與我們的歷史資本配置理念一致，我們將把業務投資作為首要任務。

Chris Parkinson, Wolfe Research.

克里斯·帕金森（Chris Parkinson），沃爾夫研究公司。

Great, thank you so much. Just what I'm thinking about the water segment I'm looking at the growth between light downstream heavy and mining, just given the long-term outlook in data centers, microelectronics, and some of the things you're obviously already betting from and obviously growing a more significant baseline, is there just a general mathematic equation that would get us to, let's say, a more of a mid-single digit, like a 5% or 6% growth rate? Especially a 2% pricing that you foresee for like '26 or '27? Just what's the best way to triangulate that over the long term because it seems like some momentum is beginning to build there? Thank you.

太好了，非常感謝。我只是在考慮水務部分，我正在關注輕工業、下游工業、重型工業和採礦業之間的增長，考慮到數據中心、微電子和一些你顯然已經押注的領域的長期前景，並且顯然增長了一個更重要的基線，是否存在一個一般的數學方程式可以讓我們達到一個中等個位數的增長率，比如 5% 或 6% ？特別是您預計 26 年或 27 年的 2% 定價？那麼，從長遠來看，最好的三角測量方法是什麼呢，因為看起來有些動能已經開始形成？謝謝。

Yeah, well, you're right. So the industrial also had to go through a lot of value price. Over the last few years, the team did an exceptional job while keeping volume momentum and especially keeping customers. We have this core principle as a company that we keep customers for life, and we've done that very well over the last few years. The shift of gears that industrial did almost a year back now, well, it has been to focus on businesses like global high tech, with the data centers, with the fabs that are picking up speed.

是的，你說得對。因此工業也必須經歷大量的價值價格。在過去幾年裡，該團隊在維持銷售成長動能、尤其是留住客戶的同時，做得非常出色。作為一家公司，我們的核心原則是終身留住客戶，過去幾年我們在這方面做得非常好。工業領域大約在一年前發生了轉變，現在重點是全球高科技等業務，資料中心和晶圓廠正在加速發展。

So when you look at the 1% to 2% to 3% in industrial, it's a big business, obviously. So you have some fast-growing businesses in there and some less fast-growing businesses as well. So within water, -- the global high tech, which is $300 million-plus today, we're growing pretty fast at very high margin. It's going to influence the overall industrial profile in in the midterm as it grows. Obviously, an importance versus the size of the overall business.

因此，當您看到工業領域的 1% 到 2% 到 3% 時，這顯然是一項大生意。因此，其中既有一些快速成長的企業，也有一些成長不太快的企業。因此，在水務領域——當今全球高科技領域價值已超過 3 億美元——我們正以極高的利潤率快速成長。隨著它的增長，它將在中期影響整體工業狀況。顯然，重要性相對於整體業務的規模。

So if you've liked industrial, which we call water, by the way, so as of 2025 in the past, you'll like it even more in 2025 and in the years to come because our presence in those two big sectors is going to be critical in the future. And the other businesses as well in food and beverage and in downstream and in paper, they're all doing some really good work as well to improve the core performance of those older businesses, if I may say. It's a combination of all the businesses, core businesses. Strong, solid, and improving, and on top of it, the new engines are adding to the scheme as well, will be a good equation long term for industrial.

順便說一下，如果你喜歡工業，我們稱之為水，那麼從 2025 年起，你會在 2025 年及未來幾年更加喜歡它，因為我們在這兩個大領域的存在在未來將至關重要。而且我可以說，食品和飲料以及下游和造紙領域的其他業務也都做了一些非常好的工作，以改善這些舊業務的核心表現。它是所有業務、核心業務的組合。強勁、堅固、不斷改進，最重要的是，新引擎也加入到該計劃中，這對於工業來說將是一個長期的良好方程式。

Joshua Spector, UBS.

瑞銀的 Joshua Spector。

Hey, guys, congrats on a good quarter. This is [James Cannon] on for Josh. I just wanted to touch on with some of the moving pieces that happened in the healthcare life sciences business. Could you just level set for us kind of how much is moving from healthcare into the institutional segment? What that kind of does on margin profile and what the remaining standalone life sciences business looks like?

嘿，夥計們，祝賀你們取得了一個好的季度業績。這是 [James Cannon] 為 Josh 主持的。我只是想談談醫療生命科學領域發生的一些動態。您能否為我們估算一下從醫療保健轉向機構領域的資金量有多少？這對利潤率有什麼影響？剩餘的獨立生命科學業務狀況如何？

Yeah, you will see more, obviously, as we report the first quarter. Healthcare is roughly half a billion of sales at pretty low margin. And that's going to move into the INS group. It's going to have an impact probably of 1 percentage point top line and 1 percentage point margin. That's basically what's going to happen optically, obviously the businesses themselves don't change. It's just the mass that regroups our healthcare within INS.

是的，當我們報告第一季時，您顯然會看到更多。醫療保健的銷售額約為5億美元，利潤率相當低。這將轉入 INS 集團。這可能會對營收和利潤率分別產生 1 個百分點的影響。從表面上看，這基本上就是將要發生的事情，顯然企業本身不會改變。這只是在 INS 內重組我們的醫療保健的舉措。

But INS is very strong, very healthy, and the leverage that we are creating between healthcare and institutional, well, is going to be beneficial for both ultimately. So INS is still going to be 20% OI type of business. So very healthy, very steady, and it's going to keep getting better in the future.

但是 INS 非常強大、非常健康，而且我們在醫療保健和機構之間建立的槓桿最終將對雙方都有好處。因此 INS 仍將是 20% OI 類型的業務。非常健康，非常穩定，未來還會越來越好。

On the life science side, well, you'll see the exact numbers at the end of the first quarter, but it's between [$500 million and $1 billion] in sales. We're investing quite heavily in that business. Underlying performance of life science is in the mid-twenties, but with what we invest is more in the low to mid teens today. But it's really keeping in mind we're building capabilities, capacities, teams, systems, innovation to build a business that's north of 25% and hopefully at some point north of 30% as well.

在生命科學方面，您會在第一季末看到確切的數字，但其銷售額在 5 億美元至 10 億美元之間。我們對該業務投入了巨額資金。生命科學的基本表現在 25% 左右，但目前我們的投資較多處於 15% 到 26% 左右。但實際上，我們正​​在建立能力、產能、團隊、系統和創新，以建立一個成長率超過 25% 的業務，並希望在某個時候能夠超過 30%。

So very pleased with what we're doing and ultimately, we're having that as a separate reporting segment for you to have the transparency, the visibility of what's happening, what we're doing and where we're heading, because I firmly believe that life science is going to be a terrific business for us going forward.

我對我們所做的事情非常滿意，最終，我們將其作為一個單獨的報告部分，以便您能夠透明地了解正在發生的事情、我們正在做的事情以及我們的發展方向，因為我堅信生命科學將是我們未來發展的一項了不起的業務。

Kevin McCarthy, Vertical Research Partners.

凱文·麥卡錫（Kevin McCarthy），垂直研究夥伴。

Yes, thank you and good afternoon. Maybe a two-part question. Christophe, would you comment on the relative margin differential between your US businesses and your international businesses and whether that's stable or narrowing or widening?

是的，謝謝你，下午好。也許這是一個由兩個部分組成的問題。克里斯托夫，您能否評論一下你們美國業務和國際業務之間的相對利潤差異，以及這種差異是穩定、縮小還是擴大？

And then secondly, a question on your foreign exchange guidance. Why is it the case that currency is expected to be a larger drag of 4% on your bottom line relative to 3% on the top line?

其次，關於您的外匯指導的問題。為什麼預計貨幣對你的底線利潤的拖累會達到 4%，而對頂線利潤的拖累則達到 3%？

So let me have maybe Scott start with the second part of your question, and he might add on the first part as well, and I'll build on it. So why don't you start, Scott?

因此，我請史考特先回答你問題的第二部分，然後他可能還會補充第一部分，然後我會在此基礎上闡述。那你為什麼不開始呢，史考特？

Yeah, Kevin, the simple answer, first of all, it's a pretty small difference we're talking. 3% on reported sales and 4% impact of translation FX on EPS, so pretty small difference. But the simple answer, it's just a result of a geographic mix, is the simple and obvious answer.

是的，凱文，答案很簡單，首先，我們談論的是一個非常小的差異。報告銷售額的影響為 3%，外匯翻譯對每股盈餘的影響為 4%，因此差異很小。但簡單的答案是，這只是地理混合的結果，這是一個簡單而明顯的答案。

And on the OI margins, so the US is above average of the company, and outside the US is below average of the company, but not that much, actually. It used to be way lower a few years back. And today, pretty close. Both are improving. The 20% OI margin, by the way, at the market level, is the same objective for everyone around the world. Some markets have crossed that line already, and everyone in the company is having that objective and trying to get beyond the 20% in all of the 11 markets that we have around the world.

就 OI 利潤率而言，美國市場高於公司的平均水平，而美國以外的市場低於公司的平均水平，但實際上差異並不大。幾年前，這一比例還要低得多。今天，已經非常接近了。兩者都在改善。順便說一句，在市場層面，20% 的 OI 保證金是全球所有人的相同目標。一些市場已經跨越了這條線，公司裡的每個人都有這個目標，並試圖在全球 11 個市場中超越 20% 的份額。

So generally, pretty healthy across the planet and I really like where we are.

因此總體而言，全球範圍內的狀況都相當健康，我真的很喜歡我們現在的狀況。

[Justin Hoff], Baird.

[賈斯汀·霍夫]，貝爾德。

Yeah, hi, good afternoon. Most of my questions -- but one simple, it's like the one lab initiative is run kind of ahead of your plan, and it looks like right around $100 million on it in 2024 and that (technical difficulty) quarters and so I guess I'm just curious, that $225 million (technical difficulty) planning to spend [3.7]. That's still the right number? (technical difficulty) front loaded and everything or is that number going to move a little higher?

是的，嗨，下午好。我的大部分問題——但有一個簡單的問題，就像一個實驗室計劃的運行有點超出你的計劃，看起來在 2024 年和那個（技術難度）季度的投入約為 1 億美元，所以我想我只是好奇，2.25 億美元（技術難度）計劃花費[3.7]。這個數字仍然正確嗎？（技術難度）前期投入和一切還是這個數字會稍微高一點？

Yeah, let me pass it to Scott. You were breaking up, so it was a bit hard to hear you. But what we understood was the pacing of the savings for the One Ecolab initiative. So let me have Scott answer that question, and if it's not what you had in mind, please just ask again, making sure that we answer what you're looking for.

是的，讓我把它傳給斯科特。你們當時正在分手，所以聽到你的聲音有點難受。但我們了解的是「一個藝康」計畫的節約步伐。所以讓我讓史考特來回答這個問題，如果這不是你想要的，請再問一次，確保我們能回答你想要的。

Yeah, so Justin, on the program, I just want to first start by saying, of course, as we've talked, this program is really about enabling the sales growth. That is the primary purpose, accelerating that path to the 5% to 7% and taking advantage of this $55 billion cross-sell opportunity that we've talked about. But as you said, the program included $140 million of savings which we expected and talked about last year after -- in Q3 when we rolled out the program that we'd expect that to be pretty proportionate, pretty even over the first three years, over the three years of the program.

是的，賈斯汀，關於這個計劃，我首先想說，當然，正如我們所討論的，這個計劃的真正目的是促進銷售成長。這是主要目的，加速實現 5% 至 7% 的成長，並利用我們談到的 550 億美元的交叉銷售機會。但正如你所說，該計劃包括 1.4 億美元的節省，這是我們去年第三季度推出該計劃時預計和討論過的，我們預計這筆節省在計劃實施的前三年，即三年內，將保持相當的比例，相當均勻。

But of course, if you take that $140 million of savings, again, that's like averaging 1% of sales a year. So again, the big impact is not on -- sorry, on SG&A, the big impact's not on SG&A but on driving the sales growth. But within that savings, it's going to allow us to continue to invest in the business and that pacing as we've reacted to the FX and just driven that program, we're expecting it to be a little bit more front loaded, whereas you'd expected a third, a third, a third previously. We're probably expecting 40% to 50% of that savings to happen next year in 2025.

但當然，如果你拿出這 1.4 億美元的節省，這相當於每年平均 1% 的銷售額。所以，再說一次，最大的影響不是——抱歉，不是銷售、一般和行政費用，最大的影響不是銷售、一般和行政費用，而是推動銷售成長。但在這些節省的資金範圍內，我們將能夠繼續對業務進行投資，而且正如我們對 FX 做出的反應以及推動該計劃一樣，我們預計它會更加前期投入，而之前你預計的是三分之一、三分之一、三分之一。我們預計其中 40% 到 50% 的節省將在明年（2025 年）實現。

And I'd like to build on what Scott just said. So two things on One Ecolab. So it's clearly a growth initiative, the fact that savings are coming in better and faster is a very good sign. And it's a very good sign of adoption by our team and our customers. It's not that we're cutting or doing some weird things here. It's a performance project to accelerate growth and it's important to keep it that way in mind. So that's the first part, improving faster than expected, which is really good.

我想繼續史考特剛才的發言。關於「One Ecolab」有兩件事。所以這顯然是一個成長舉措，儲蓄成長得更好更快這一事實是一個非常好的跡象。這是我們團隊和客戶採用它的一個非常好的跡象。這並不是說我們在這裡削減或做一些奇怪的事情。這是一個加速成長的績效項目，牢記這一點很重要。這是第一部分，改進的速度比預期的要快，這真的很好。

And second, from a growth perspective, that the best example is in our F&B business where One Ecolab has been leveraged in the last few months, bringing hygiene and water together as one offering of our customers. This is working really well. You've seen the results of F&B improving as well at the same time. So it's really showing that the One Ecolab initiative, which has been an old dream in a way, is really hitting on both fronts, performance and growth acceleration, which is exactly what we were looking for early in the journey, but very encouraging early signs of success.

其次，從成長角度來看，最好的例子是我們的食品和飲料業務，過去幾個月我們充分利用了One Ecolab，將衛生和水結合在一起為客戶提供服務。效果確實很好。同時，您也看到了餐飲業的業績也在不斷改善。因此，這確實表明，「一個藝康」計劃（在某種程度上，這是一個古老的夢想）確實在兩個方面都取得了進展，即業績和增長加速，這正是我們早期所尋找的，而且是非常令人鼓舞的早期成功跡象。

[Andre].

[安德烈]。

Hello. I want to ask about the acceleration in the charges for the application implementation of One Ecolab. It seems that we are close to $100 million in 2024 out of $225 million that was budgeted by 2027. So my question is, is there a risk this will run over budget?

你好。我想問關於One Ecolab應用實作收費加速的問題。看來，2027 年預算的 2.25 億美元中，2024 年的支出接近 1 億美元。所以我的問題是，這是否有超出預算的風險？

No, not at all. Just to answer your question really simply, as we talked about, we've had great execution. We're accelerating the program. Just naturally, the cost will be more front loaded because you recognize the accounting for the cost earlier and then the savings happen over time. And once you identify where those cost savings are going to be.

不，一點也不。簡單回答你的問題，正如我們剛才所說，我們的執行力非常出色。我們正在加速推進該計劃。自然地，成本會更多地前期投入，因為您可以更早地認識到成本的核算，然後隨著時間的推移，節省就會發生。一旦你確定了這些成本節省的地方。

So that is natural in every program that we've -- with restructuring program that we've had. But again, because we're accelerating savings next year, seeing some of that those costs a little bit front loaded. But in terms of the returns and the payback on the program itself, we will not see any difference.

所以，這在我們實施的每個計劃中都是很自然的——包括我們實施的重組計劃。但是，因為我們明年要加速儲蓄，所以會看到其中一些成本有點前期負擔。但就計劃本身的回報和回報而言，我們不會看到任何差異。

Mike Harrison, Seaport Research Partners.

麥克‧哈里森（Mike Harrison），海港研究夥伴。

Hi, good afternoon. In terms of the healthcare business going under the institutional segment, I was curious, is this basically just taking the operational changes you've made and now formalizing it into your financial reporting structure? Or are there some additional changes happening to how you're running that business and integrating that more with the institutional approach? Thank you.

嗨，下午好。對於醫療保健業務納入機構部門的問題，我很好奇，這是否基本上只是將你們所做的營運變革正式納入你們的財務報告結構中？或者，您在經營業務的方式上是否發生了一些其他變化並將其與機構方法進一步結合？謝謝。

No, it's exactly what you said, Mike. If you remember on healthcare, I've made a commitment to solve that business, which means getting this business to a place which is creating value for shareholders. We had a few steps. The first one was getting the cost structure right. The second was the bifurcation of surgical versus infection prevention. The third was to sell the surgical drapes business. We've done that very successfully so. It's a done deal.

不，正如你所說，麥克。如果你還記得醫療保健問題，我已承諾解決這項業務，這意味著讓這項業務能夠為股東創造價值。我們走了幾步。第一個是正確確定成本結構。第二個是手術與感染預防的分歧。第三個是出售手術單業務。我們做得非常成功。一切都已成定局。

By the way, it worked out really well with the carve out and sales to Medline, worked out really well. And the last step was to leverage institutional because we have institutional with a huge critical mass, especially in the US, serving so many locations where you bring obviously the institutional service in the food service, in the hospitality part, and then bringing infection prevention was a very natural add to serve hospitals the best possible way.

順便說一句，剝離和向 Medline 出售的效果非常好。最後一步是利用機構，因為我們擁有龐大的臨界規模，特別是在美國，為如此多的地點提供服務，顯然您可以在餐飲服務、酒店服務中提供機構服務，然後提供感染預防服務是非常自然的，以最好的方式為醫院提供服務。

So getting those two together reported in the same segments made a lot of sense because that's the way we will operate going forward. So that's the way we need to report as well at the same time. That being said, as I've mentioned, the future of healthcare will be an instrument reprocessing. This is kind of a dish machine business, obviously at a higher standard because it needs to be disinfected or sterile depending on the instruments that you are processing here.

因此，將這兩者放在同一個部分進行報告非常有意義，因為這是我們未來的運作方式。所以這也是我們同時需要報告的方式。話雖如此，正如我所提到的，醫療保健的未來將是儀器再處理。這有點像洗碗機業務，顯然標準更高，因為它需要根據您在這裡處理的儀器進行消毒或無菌。

It's a business model that we know extremely well. We know how to make money with it as well. We have the capabilities, we have the reach. We have the footprint for it as well. So that's going to add to it. But again, a business that's very similar to what we do in institutional in these rooms just for different types of equipment at a different standard of cleaning as well. So I feel pretty good with the evolution that we've gone through with our healthcare business.

這是我們非常熟悉的商業模式。我們也知道如何利用它賺錢。我們有能力，我們有能力。我們也有它的足跡。所以這將會補充它。但同樣，這項業務與我們在這些房間裡的機構所做的事情非常相似，只是設備的類型不同，清潔標準也不同。因此，我對於我們醫療保健業務所經歷的變革感到非常滿意。

Finally, it was time obviously to get to the right place, but I think that we're in the right place and heading in the right direction, too.

最後，顯然是時候到達正確的地方了，但我認為我們已經在正確的位置並且朝著正確的方向前進。

Scott Schneeberger, Oppenheimer.

奧本海默的斯科特·施內伯格。

Thanks very much. Good afternoon. Yeah, I have two. I'm saying both up front, on the digital pest intelligence program, Christophe, how long is the investment cycle there? Is that quarters, years, and when and how will we see the benefits reflected? Will it be top line margin? Just curious what we should see down the road. Thanks.

非常感謝。午安.是的，我有兩個。我首先要說的是，關於數位害蟲情報計劃，克里斯托夫，那裡的投資週期是多長？是按季度還是按年計算，我們何時、以何種方式才能看到效益的體現？這會是頂線利潤嗎？只是好奇我們接下來會看到什麼。謝謝。

And then on the follow-up, just on cross sell, could you talk about where you are with cross sell, particularly your top 35 customers as you enter 2025? How meaningful can that be? Thanks.

然後，在後續問題上，僅就交叉銷售而言，您能談談您的交叉銷售情況嗎，特別是進入 2025 年時您的前 35 名客戶？這有什麼意義呢？謝謝。

Hey, thank you, Scott. So two very different questions obviously here. So the pest intelligence timing, when you think about it, it's thousands of people, it's millions of devices that you need to shift from analog to digital. This is something we know very well how to do, but this is physical work beyond the digital component, obviously. So it's going to take some time.

嘿，謝謝你，斯科特。因此這顯然是兩個截然不同的問題。因此，當您考慮害蟲情報時機時，您需要將成千上萬的人、數百萬台設備從類比轉換為數位。我們非常清楚如何做到這一點，但顯然這是超出數位組件的體力勞動。所以這需要一些時間。

I think it's going to be a few years, but we're going to do it in a smart way, as we've always done. It's pay as you go type of approach in a very typical Ecolab manner as I mentioned before as well here. We can afford it because of the strong cash ration that we have as a company, the strong balance sheet that we have, a strong business franchise with pest elimination. So we might have some slight reduction of margins. So for a while as we did, we have like signs to make sure that ultimately, we end up with a margin that's even better than where we were and where we are as well today.

我認為這可能需要幾年時間，但我們會以一種聰明的方式來完成它，就像我們一直以來所做的那樣。這是一種按使用量付費的方式，是 Ecolab 非常典型的方式，我之前也提到過。我們之所以能負擔得起，是因為我們公司擁有充足的現金配給、強勁的資產負債表以及強大的害蟲消除業務特許經營權。因此我們的利潤率可能會略有下降。因此，在一段時間內，我們一直採取類似的措施以確保我們最終能夠獲得比過去和現在更好的利潤。

So a few years, but it's going to be done in a very healthy manner. There will be no big shock, no big surprise, and we will share with you the progress that we're making and so far, so good. Some of the key customers, well, one of them is probably the largest retailer in the world, which has been our main partner to develop that solution. It's almost done, progressing very well.

所以需要幾年時間，但我們會以非常健康的方式完成。不會有什麼大的震驚或意外，我們只會與你們分享我們目前所取得的進展以及迄今為止的良好結果。其中一些關鍵客戶可能是世界上最大的零售商，他們一直是我們開發該解決方案的主要合作夥伴。已經快完成了，進展非常順利。

We have much better results as well at every retail location in the US. The customers are very happy. We've learned a lot during that path as well. We had to adjust a few things. We still have to do it as well. We're learning with them, but it's the right partner for us to develop the solution of the future. So far, so good.

我們在美國的每家零售店也都取得了更好的業績。顧客們非常高興。我們在這條道路上也學到了很多。我們必須調整一些事情。我們還是得這麼做。我們正在與他們一起學習，但他們是我們開發未來解決方案的正確合作夥伴。到目前為止，一切都很好。

Now your second question on cross sell, which is the One Ecolab initiative. So it's capturing our fair share of the $55 billion cross sell or penetration opportunity that we have. As mentioned, the top 35, we have a $3 billion opportunity as well out there. Well, F&B, as mentioned before, is a perfect example of a business benefiting from it because many of their customers are in those top 35 as well. We see the performance improvement in F&B is coming from there.

現在您的第二個問題是關於交叉銷售，即One Ecolab 計劃。因此，它佔據了我們所擁有的 550 億美元交叉銷售或滲透機會中的相當份額。如上所述，在前 35 名中，我們也有 30 億美元的機會。嗯，正如前面提到的，餐飲業就是從中受益的完美例子，因為他們的許多客戶也都在前 35 名之列。我們看到餐飲業的業績提升正源自於此。

For most of those 35 customers, we have focused plans that are enterprise-wide plans, Ecolab-wide and customer-wide as well at the same time, where we know ultimately what's the best-in-class performance. As I've shared with you, it's really for each of those 35 customers that we can help them understand what's the best-in-class performance in terms of business outcome, cost performance, environmental impact. And the difference between best-in-class performance and area of the location, what translates into the max dollar potential that we can get or that they can get, and we have plans to get this within the next few years.

對於這 35 位客戶中的大多數，我們制定了涵蓋整個企業、Ecolab 和整個客戶的計劃，以便我們最終了解最佳性能。正如我與大家分享的那樣，對於這 35 位客戶中的每一位，我們實際上可以幫助他們了解在業務成果、成本績效和環境影響方面最佳的表現是什麼。一流業績和所在地區域之間的差異，決定了我們或他們可以獲得的最大美元潛力，我們計劃在未來幾年內實現這一目標。

Very well received by customers because they see ultimately better products, better cost profile, and lower impact on the environment. Well, it's hard to beat, especially when you can do it at a higher return, which means higher [TVVD] than the pricing. They're paying for it as well. So far, so good. Good progress, and the best is to come.

受到客戶的熱烈歡迎，因為他們最終看到了更好的產品、更好的成本狀況以及更低的環境影響。嗯，這很難被打敗，特別是當你能獲得更高的回報時，這意味著 [TVVD] 高於定價。他們也為此付出了代價。到目前為止，一切都很好。進展順利，最好的事情即將到來。

John Roberts, Mizuho Securities.

瑞穗證券的約翰‧羅伯茲 (John Roberts)。

It's been answered. Thank you.

已經答覆了。謝謝。

Oh, that was a quick question, John. Well, thank you to everyone. Really like the record performance that we've delivered in '24. The world is a bit complex in '25, but feel really good with our plans, how we started the year delivering this 12% to 15%, which was our commitment, my commitment. So feel good for '25.

哦，這是一個很簡單的問題，約翰。好吧，謝謝大家。真的很喜歡我們在 24 年創下的紀錄表現。25 年的世界有點複雜，但對我們的計劃感到非常滿意，我們在年初就實現了 12% 到 15% 的增長率，這是我們的承諾，也是我的承諾。所以對'25 感覺很好。

And most importantly, I feel even better for where we're going beyond '25 with data centers, with microelectronics, with life science, with Ecolab Digital, and ultimately, with the best team in the industry, and that's what makes me believe even more in our future and we will deliver as we've always done.

最重要的是，我對我們在 25 年後的發展感到更加自信，我們將在數據中心、微電子、生命科學、藝康數位化方面取得進展，並最終擁有業內最好的團隊，這讓我更加相信我們的未來，我們將一如既往地實現目標。

Thank you. That wraps up our fourth-quarter conference call. This conference call and the associated discussion slides will be available for replay on our website. Thank you for your time and participation and hope everyone has a great rest of the day.

謝謝。我們的第四季電話會議到此結束。本次電話會議和相關討論幻燈片將在我們的網站上重播。感謝您的時間和參與，祝福大家今天剩餘的時間過得很愉快。

Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect your lines at this time.

女士們、先生們，現在您可以掛斷電話了。