快扣 (FAST) 2021 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Fastenal 2021 Third Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，大家好，歡迎參加 Fastenal 2021 年第三季財報電話會議。 （操作說明）提醒各位，本次會議正在錄音。

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Taylor Ranta. Thank you. Please go ahead.

現在我很榮幸向大家介紹主持人泰勒蘭塔。謝謝。請開始吧。

Welcome to the Fastenal Company 2021 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. This call will be hosted by Dan Florness, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Holden Lewis, our Chief Financial Officer. The call will last for up to 1 hour, and we'll start with a general overview of our quarterly results and operations, with the remainder of the time being open for questions and answers.

歡迎參加 Fastenal 公司 2021 年第三季財報電話會議。本次會議將由公司總裁兼執行長 Dan Florness 和財務長 Holden Lewis 主持。會議時長約為 1 小時，我們將首先概述季度業績和營運情況，剩餘時間將用於問答環節。

Today's conference call is a proprietary Fastenal presentation and is being recorded by Fastenal. No recording, reproduction, transmission or distribution of today's call is permitted without Fastenal's consent. This call is being audio simulcast on the Internet via the Fastenal Investor Relations homepage, investor.fastenal.com. A replay of the webcast will be available on the website until December 1, 2021, at midnight Central Time.

今天的電話會議內容為Fastenal專有訊息，並由Fastenal進行錄音。未經Fastenal同意，禁止本次電話會議進行任何錄音、複製、傳輸或散佈。本次電話會議將透過Fastenal投資者關係網站investor.fastenal.com進行網路直播。網路直播回放將在網站上保留至美國中部時間2021年12月1日午夜。

As a reminder, today's conference call may include statements regarding the company's future plans and prospects. These statements are based on our current expectations, and we undertake no duty to update them. It is important to note that the company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from anticipated results are contained in the company's latest earnings release and periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and we encourage you to review those factors carefully.

再次提醒，今天的電話會議可能包含有關公司未來計劃和前景的聲明。這些聲明是基於我們目前的預期，我們不承擔更新這些聲明的義務。需要注意的是，公司的實際業績可能與預期業績有重大差異。可能導致實際業績與預期業績有差異的因素已列於本公司最新的獲利報告和定期向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中，我們建議您仔細閱讀這些因素。

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Dan Florness.

現在我將把電話交給丹‧弗洛內斯先生。

Thank you, and good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us for our Q3 2021 earnings call. And I'm going to start on Page 3 of Holden's flipbook, and run through some thoughts on the quarter. And some of the prior quarters, Holden will share his thoughts on the latter half of the flipbook, and then we'll do some Q&A at the tail end of this call.

謝謝大家，早安，謝謝各位參加我們2021年第三季財報電話會議。我將從霍爾頓的翻頁書第三頁開始，簡要介紹本季的情況。霍爾頓將在翻頁書的後半部分分享他對前幾季的看法，最後我們將進行問答環節。

So for the quarter, we grew our sales 10%. We ended the quarter with the business a bit stronger, up 11% and of equal or perhaps more importance, when I think of our sequential patterns, we're -- and we highlight that, and Holden will touch on that, but we highlight that in our September information web release, we're in a good spot as far as where we were in January and where we are in September and how that positions us for going into 2022 from the standpoint of the strength of the business, the gains in the business, et cetera.

因此，本季我們的銷售額成長了 10%。季度末，業務表現更加強勁，成長了 11%。更重要的是，從我們的連續成長模式來看，我們——我們在 9 月的資訊發布中重點強調了這一點，霍爾頓也會談到這一點——我們強調，就 1 月份和 9 月份的情況而言，我們目前處於良好狀態，並且從業務實力、業務增長等方面來看，這為我們進入 2022 年奠定了良好的基礎。

If I set aside the noise of comparisons for a second, in comparisons to 2020 -- and I take a longer peer back and Holden on Page 5 of the flipbook, similar to what we did last quarter, is we did a comparison to 2019. And we did that because it allows us to not have to explain all the conditionality of the comparisons and look at it and say, here's what the business looked like before the pandemic started and here's what our business looks like today. And everybody on this call knows what happened in the last 24 months as it relates to Fastenal's business. The success we enjoyed, the help to society we were able to provide last year and the products that we will bringing to bear and the impact we saw in our safety business in 2020. So let's just ignore all that noise for a second.

如果我暫時拋開比較帶來的干擾，在與2020年的比較中——我回顧一下之前的內容，就像我們在翻頁手冊第5頁所做的那樣，我們當時是與2019年進行比較。我們這樣做是因為這樣我們就不需要解釋所有比較的條件，只要看看疫情爆發前的業務狀況，再看看現在的業務狀況。在座各位都清楚過去24個月Fastenal的業務發展情形。我們取得了成功，去年為社會做出了貢獻，我們推出了新產品，並在2020年安全業務領域取得了顯著成效。所以，讓我們暫時忽略這些幹擾因素。

And what stands out to me is we continue to invest in the growth drivers of the business, we continue to invest in the people side of the business, we continue to execute and grow our market share. And what you see is an organization that is about 13% bigger than we were 2 years ago. As we've talked in the past -- and I'm looking at Page 5 in the flipbook right now. As we've talked in the past, our growth drivers carry a different gross profit profile. And you'd see with the rounding in Holden's schedule there, our gross margin is about 90 basis points lower than it was 2 years ago.

讓我印象深刻的是，我們持續投資於業務成長驅動因素，持續投資於人才培養，持續執行並擴大市場佔有率。如今，我們的規模比兩年前成長了約13%。正如我們之前討論過的——我現在正在翻閱資料冊的第5頁——我們的成長驅動因素帶來了不同的毛利結構。由於霍爾頓公司財務報表中的四捨五入，您可以看到，我們的毛利率比兩年前下降了約90個基點。

What we've talked about is what we like about these growth drivers is they differentiate us in the marketplace and they tap into the strengths of Fastenal, and we're able to bring scale to these elements and manage our operating expenses more effectively. And you can see that not only did we improve our operating expenses as a percentage of sales in the last 2 years, we completely offset the impact of the gross margin change. In fact, that's a little bit of rounding, it's closer to 100 basis points.

我們之前討論過，這些成長驅動因素之所以吸引我們，是因為它們使我們在市場中脫穎而出，並充分發揮了Fastenal的優勢。我們能夠擴大這些要素的規模，並更有效地控制營運成本。您可以看到，過去兩年，我們不僅降低了營運成本佔銷售額的比例，而且完全抵消了毛利率變化的影響。實際上，這略有取整，接近100個基點。

And as a result, our operating income as a percentage of sales is 10 basis points higher today than it was 2 years ago. And so I believe in that 2-year time frame, we've done a great service to our employees, we've done a great service to our customers. I believe we've done a great service to society in general and what we were able to accomplish in 2020 and 2021. And I believe we served our shareholders well in the process.

因此，我們目前的營業收入佔銷售額的百分比比兩年前高出10個基點。所以我相信，在這兩年裡，我們為員工提供了優質的服務，為客戶提供了優質的服務，也為整個社會做出了巨大的貢獻，這都歸功於我們在2020年和2021年取得的成就。我相信，在這個過程中，我們也為股東創造了良好的回報。

If you think about the operating and administrative expenses and what's really happened, we picked up about 30 basis points on the people side of the business. We picked up about 70 basis points in that 2-year period on the non-people side of the business. If I look at the people component, so our expense on the people side is up about $28 million in that 2-year period. 14% of that number is the addition of people and/or changing roles and/or inflation in rates. That raised the base element of our pay above 14%. The incentive component, and this is looking at that -- not 14%, 14% of the increase came from that. 61% of the increase, that $28 million over the last 2 years, 61% is related to incentive compensation.

如果仔細考慮營運和管理費用以及實際發生的情況，我們在人力資源方面增加了約30個基點。在過去兩年裡，我們在非人力資源方面增加了約70個基點。如果我單獨來看人力資源部分，那麼我們在人力資源方面的支出在過去兩年增加了約2800萬美元。其中14%是由於人員增加、職位調整和/或通貨膨脹造成的。這使得我們基本工資的增加超過了14%。激勵部分——這裡指的是激勵部分——並非14%，而是14%的成長來自激勵部分。過去兩年增加的2,800萬美元中，有61%與激勵性薪酬有關。

So when we find success as an organization, we share that deeply into the organization. And like we saw last year, our incentive comp pulled back, it reloaded itself this year. On a 2-year basis, 60% of our increase in human costs is incentive comp. Another 14% is health care, one thing that's rippling really significantly through our P&L right now, not just on a 1-year basis, which is like 45% increase. But on a 2-year basis, 14% of our cost increase is health care. And I don't know where that's going to go, in all honesty. Another 1% of our increase came from profit sharing and 90% of our increases are bucketed into those 4 categories in the last 2-year period. The other 10%, the biggest individual component of that is social taxes and then other little noise in the numbers.

所以，當組織成功時，我們會與整個組織分享這份喜悅。就像去年我們看到的，我們的激勵性薪酬有所縮減，但今年又重新增加了。過去兩年，我們的人力成本成長中有60%是激勵性薪酬。另有14%是醫療保健，這部分目前對我們的損益表影響非常顯著，不僅是過去一年增加了45%左右。過去兩年，醫療保健成本成長占我們總成本成長的14%。說實話，我不知道這部分成本最終會如何改變。另外1%的成長來自利潤分成，過去兩年，我們90%的成本成長都集中在這四個類別。剩下的10%，其中最大的組成部分是社會保險稅，還有一些其他的小因素。

If I look at the increases, our remaining expenses in operating expenses increased about $4.5 million on a 2-year basis. 25% of that increase relates to FMI, vending and bins. 25% of that increase relates to distribution center increases. Now part of that is cost for facilities, part of that is cost that we're doing to manage through the chaos that is supply the chain in today's world, 50% of that increase is IT equipment. As you know, last year, we deployed 8,000-plus mobile devices throughout our network to create productivity gains, to create social distancing, to create a better means to serve our customers and illuminate for them what we do. That 50% of our increase there is what's funding a big piece of our labor efficiencies in the last 2 years.

如果我看一下成長情況，我們剩餘的營運支出在兩年內增加了約450萬美元。其中25%的成長與食品管理、自動販賣機和貨架有關，另外25%的成長與配送中心成本增加有關。這部分成本一部分是設施成本，一部分是我們為了因應當今供應鏈混亂局面而採取的管理措施，剩餘的50%是IT設備成本。如您所知，去年我們在整個網路中部署了8000多台行動設備，以提高生產力、保持社交距離、更好地服務客戶並向他們展示我們的業務。這50%的成長資金正是過去兩年我們提高勞動效率的主要來源。

The final -- the other [guide shift] over the last 2 years, fuel prices are a little bit higher. Fortunately, everything else in our P&L offset the impact of fuel. And so I hope you find that helpful of taking the noise out of the 1-year comparison and looking at it holistically and say, what happened in the last 2 years. Fastenal has invested in its ability to serve, it managed its cost effectively, it shared the fruits of our labor with our team. And I think we served customers and society and our shareholders well in that process.

最後一點－過去兩年來的另一個[業績指引變化]是燃油價格略有上漲。幸運的是，我們損益表中的其他因素抵消了燃油價格上漲的影響。因此，我希望您能從整體上看待過去兩年發生的事情，而不是僅僅關註一年期的比較，從而更好地理解其中的干擾因素。 Fastenal 投資提升了服務能力，有效控制了成本，並與團隊分享了勞動成果。我認為，在這個過程中，我們很好地服務了客戶、社會和股東。

Flipping back to Page 3, and I'll get back off my tangent. FAST Bin, we have talked about that next stage as we broaden our FMI, Fastenal Managed Inventory footprint. And vending has been around for 13, 14 years. Putting technology into bins is relatively new. A year ago, we had 705 machine equivalent units deployed across our network. It's still a pretty small piece of the business. That number has grown almost fourfold to 2,600 in the third quarter of 2021. It's now about 1% of our sales going through that footprint. Again, it's small, but the power to become more efficient and provide a differentiated value in the marketplace is strong.

翻回第三頁，我繼續剛才的話題。關於FAST Bin，我們之前討論過，隨著Fastenal管理庫存（FMI）的擴展，我們將進入下一個階段。自動販賣機已經存在了13、14年，而將技術應用於自動販賣機則相對較新。一年前，我們在整個網路中部署了705台機器當量單元（MEU）。這仍然只是我們業務中很小的一部分。但到了2021年第三季度，這個數字成長了近四倍，達到2,600台。現在，透過該系統完成的銷售額約占我們總銷售額的1%。再次強調，雖然規模不大，但它在提高效率和提供差異化市場價值方面具有巨大的潛力。

I talked a few minutes ago about the mobility technology we deployed. A year ago, that mobility technology helped us manage 6% of our revenue. Today, it's 11%. And again, ways to better illuminate and create efficiencies for our team and, frankly, keep our team safer because these devices create social distance. When you're in -- whether we're in a pandemic or an endemic right now, I'm not smart enough to know, but these things help in our business.

我剛才談到了我們部署的行動技術。一年前，這項技術幫助我們管理了6%的收入。如今，這個比例已經達到11%。此外，它還能更好地照亮團隊，提高效率，坦白說，還能保障團隊安全，因為這些設備有助於保持社交距離。至於我們現在面臨的是全球大流行還是地方性流行病，我並不清楚，但這些技術確實對我們的業務有幫助。

As you read about in the paper and as I've seen in some of the write-ups and I've seen from some of our peers and some of our other industries, the product and shipping cost inflation is not just high, it's brutally high. The chaos and the impact, not just from a financial perspective, but from a toll it takes on our human capital, is immense. The thing that stands out for me is the entrepreneurial culture within Fastenal. Our ability to solve problems for others means you can also solve problems for yourself. The disruptions we're seeing, our teams in the local market are able to figure out solutions to take care of their customer. Just like we did in 2020, we're doing it again in 2021, but it does take a toll to the organization.

正如您在報紙上讀到的，也正如我在一些報道中看到的，以及我從一些同行和其他行業了解到的情況，產品和運輸成本的上漲不僅很高，而且高得驚人。這種混亂和影響，不僅體現在財務方面，也體現在對我們的人力資本造成的損失上，是巨大的。讓我印象深刻的是Fastenal內部的創業文化。我們能夠為他人解決問題，這意味著你也能為自己解決問題。面對我們所經歷的種種挑戰，我們本地市場的團隊能夠找到解決方案來服務客戶。就像我們在2020年所做的那樣，我們在2021年再次做到了，但這確實給公司帶來了一定的壓力。

As we go through all this and have a lot of discussions with customers about disruption, about cost changes, price changes, as you can imagine, it takes a lot of energy away from some of our growth drivers and had lengthened some of the sales cycles. And you're seeing that show up a bit in our Onsite, in our FMI program. So Onsite-wise, we signed 75 devices during the -- excuse me, 75 Onsites during the quarter. Perfect world, I'd like that number to be 100. And -- but it really is about how much participation are we getting across the network and how many customers are saying, yes, move in with me. We'd like Fastenal to help us on-premises. That's a tougher sale on -- in this environment. However, our total Onsites grew 10.5% over -- the number of Onsites grew 10.5% and the sales through those Onsites grew more than 20% in the last 12 months. So they've proven what they can do for our customer and what they can do for revenue growth, we just like to get a few more signings.

正如您所想，在經歷這一切並與客戶就業務中斷、成本變化和價格調整進行大量討論的過程中，我們耗費了大量精力來推動業務成長，並延長了一些銷售週期。這一點在我們的現場服務和FMI專案中有所體現。就現場服務而言，本季我們完成了75個現場服務項目的簽約。理想情況下，我希望這個數字能達到100個。但關鍵在於我們在整個網路中獲得了多少參與度，以及有多少客戶表示願意與我們合作，希望Fastenal能夠幫助我們進行本地部署。在當前環境下，這方面的銷售難度更高。然而，我們的現場服務項目總數成長了10.5%，而透過這些項目實現的銷售額在過去12個月中成長了20%以上。他們已經證明了他們能為我們的客戶做些什麼，能為收入成長做些什麼，我們只是希望再簽幾個合約。

As I touched on the Fastenal-managed inventory, I think Holden does an excellent job, and I know we haven't filed our 10-Q yet. But in our last quarter 10-Q, and the 10-Q we'll be filing in the upcoming days, does a very good job explaining our digital footprint. And looking at the FMI component of that as well as the e-commerce component of that, we're pushing the hardest on the FMI because we think a great supply chain partner doesn't simplify the ordering process. They simplify the supply chain process and why are you physically ordering repetitive items. And we believe that's a unique place for us to be.

正如我之前提到的Fastenal管理的庫存，我認為Holden做得非常出色，我知道我們還沒有提交10-Q報告。但在我們上一季的10-Q報告以及即將提交的10-Q報告中，都很好地闡述了我們的數位化佈局。考慮到其中的FMI（Fastenal庫存管理系統）和電子商務部分，我們正全力推進FMI，因為我們認為優秀的供應鏈合作夥伴不僅簡化訂購流程，他們更應該簡化供應鏈流程，並解釋為什麼還要手動訂購重複性產品。我們相信，這正是我們獨特的優勢所在。

Similar to what we saw in Onsites, our Fastenal-managed inventory from a device standpoint is up 10% year-over-year. So we continue to see great traction. But I would like the signings to be a little bit higher. E-commerce, it's about 14% of our sales now, it grew 43%. There's still a lot of one-off stuff, and we're seeing that we're providing a better tool in the marketplace to help grow that piece of our business. You combine FMI and e-commerce, our digital footprint is now 44% of sales -- 45% of sales, excuse me, and that's where we ended the quarter in September. And that number, 9 months ago, was in the 30s. So really pleased with that.

與我們在現場銷售方面看到的情況類似，從設備數量來看，我們透過 Fastenal 管理的庫存年增了 10%。因此，我們持續看到強勁的成長勢頭。但我希望簽約量能再高一些。電子商務目前約占我們銷售額的 14%，成長了 43%。雖然仍有許多零散的訂單，但我們看到，我們正在市場上提供更好的工具來幫助成長這部分業務。如果將 FMI 和電子商務結合起來，我們的數位化業務目前佔銷售額的 44%——抱歉，應該是 45%，這是我們 9 月季度末的數據。而 9 個月前，這個數字還在 30% 左右。所以，我對這個結果非常滿意。

Before I transition over to Holden, I thought I'd touch a little bit on our in-market locations. Page 13 in his flipbook, he does -- he has a great table in there that shows our end-market location statistics. And I thought I'd share some perspectives on this. In the 6 years that I've been in this role, in the several years before that, we were doing a pivot. And that pivot was really about the intensity of our branch-based locations, the intensity of our network, we were starting to morph that into a few more Onsites, and we took that into a really high gear in 2016.

在我正式介紹霍頓之前，我想先簡單談談我們的市場網點。在他的宣傳冊第13頁，他有一張很棒的表格，展示了我們終端市場網點的統計數據。我想就此分享一些我的看法。在我擔任這個職位的六年裡，以及之前的幾年裡，我們一直在進行轉型。這次轉型主要體現在我們分公司的密集程度和網路覆蓋範圍上，我們開始逐步增加一些現場服務點，並在2016年加速推進了這項轉型。

But if I look at what's happened in the last 8 years, we've removed 938 locations from the Fastenal network, and that's basically adding up all those closed, converted branch numbers over that time frame. And in 3 of those years, 2016, 2018 and 2021, we've removed more than 150 branch locations. Part of that is us looking at our network and saying, for what we are in the marketplace, what makes the most sense, but it's also a reflection of the Onsite as we're moving more and more business out of the branch network and moving into the customer, you rationalize your network. Most organizations would look at this and say, "Geez, 938 on a base of [2,687] 8 years ago. Let's take a big restructuring charge. Let's do it all at once, let's throw everything plus the kitchen sink into it and have cover." That's not how we operate.

但回顧過去八年，我們已經從 Fastenal 網路中移除了 938 個網點，基本上是這段時間內所有關閉或轉型網點數量的總和。其中三年，也就是 2016 年、2018 年和 2021 年，我們移除的網點都超過了 150 個。部分原因是我們審視了自身的網絡，並根據我們在市場上的定位，思考什麼才是最合理的；但同時也反映了 Onsite 業務模式的轉變，隨著我們越來越多的業務從網點轉移到客戶端，我們需要對網絡進行合理化調整。大多數企業看到這種情況可能會說：「天哪，八年前我們只有 2,687 個網點，現在卻要移除 938 個。我們得承擔一大筆重組費用。乾脆一次性全部移除，把所有能用的都用上，這樣才能避免損失。」 但我們的運作方式並非如此。

Our district managers, our district leaders have figured out over that 8-year period, how to be creative on making the economics of that work. In some cases, they might go to a customer and we sell part of a building to them. But they figured out how to manage that process and constructively rationalize our footprint over an 8-year period, where our footprint now, when you add in openings, we're 31% lower than we were 8 years ago. But there wasn't a big disruptive impact. We just did it as a normal course of business. That's something I think is the hallmark of the Fastenal organization.

在過去的八年裡，我們的區域經理和區域領導者摸索出了一套方法，能夠創造性地實現經濟效益最大化。在某些情況下，他們可能會直接與客戶洽談，我們會將部分辦公大樓賣給他們。但他們最終找到了管理這項流程的方法，並在八年的時間裡，以建設性的方式優化了我們的業務規模。如今，加上新開幕的門市，我們的業務規模比八年前減少了31%。但這並沒有造成太大的混亂。我們只是將其作為正常的業務流程來執行。我認為這正是Fastenal公司的標誌性特徵。

In prior quarters, I've shared some COVID stats with the group. We had a tough quarter in the third quarter. We had -- in the fourth quarter of 2020, we had 5 weeks where we had more than 50 cases in that discrete week, in the fourth quarter of 2020. Two of those weeks were over 100. In the third quarter of 2021, we had 7 weeks where we had more than 50 cases, one of those over 100. I'm proud of the fact that our teams looked for ways to take care of our employee base, looked for ways to protect each other and managed through that process because it's been incredibly disruptive in the third quarter. Staffing locations, when you have people out with COVID, when your average location has 5 to 10 employees, is incredibly challenging. We managed through it.

前幾季度，我曾與大家分享一些新冠疫情數據。第三季我們經歷了一段艱難時期。 2020年第四季，我們有5週單週新增病例超過50例，其中兩週超過100例。 2021年第三季度，我們有7週單週新增病例超過50例，其中一週超過100例。我為我們的團隊感到驕傲，他們努力尋找各種方法來照顧員工，保護彼此，並成功應對了疫情帶來的挑戰，因為第三季疫情造成了巨大的混亂。當員工因感染新冠病毒而無法上班時，要為平均每家店配備5到10名員工的門市安排人員是非常困難的。但我們最終克服了這些困難。

The other thing during the third quarter, we did a survey, we did a pulse survey of our employees. And some things that jumped out in that survey, our employees felt -- and we always get a very high participation in these surveys. Our employees felt in that survey, their manager, the team around them, truly cared about each other, and we were protecting each other. And as the leader of Fastenal, I'm incredibly proud of Blue Team for doing that.

第三季度，我們也做了一個員工滿意度調查。調查結果顯示，員工們——我們這類調查的參與率一直都很高——普遍認為，他們的經理和團隊成員之間彼此關心，互相扶持。身為Fastenal的領導者，我為藍隊（Blue Team）的這種表現感到無比自豪。

Still there was a negative in there. There was one that felt -- wished there was a little more communication internally. And that's a message to me. We need to always be good about communicating what we're seeing in the marketplace. And the other thing that jumped out is I know what's expected of me at work, and my manager cares about my wellbeing and about my development as a person. So a lot of positive things, the team is tired from going through this period, but a lot of positive things we're seeing.

不過，其中也存在一些不足之處。有人覺得－希望公司內部溝通能更順暢。這對我來說是一個警示。我們需要始終保持良好的溝通，並及時分享我們在市場上觀察到的情況。另一點讓我印象深刻的是，我知道公司對我的工作期望是什麼，我的經理也關心我的身心健康和個人發展。所以，總的來說，有很多正面的方面。雖然團隊經歷了這段時期，大家都很疲憊，但我們也看到了許多正面的成果。

With that, I'm going to turn it over to Holden.

接下來，我要把任務交給霍爾頓了。

Great. Thanks, Dan. Turning over to Slide 6. As indicated, our sales were up 10% in the third quarter of 2021, which includes up 11.1% in September. The period still has some difficult COVID-related comparisons with government customers down 40.4%, and safety and janitorial products being down 2.9% and 15.4%, respectively, in the third quarter of 2021. As a result, we believe that total growth for the quarter understates the strength we are experiencing in our traditional manufacturing and construction customers as the chart on the page illustrates.

好的，謝謝丹。接下來看第六張投影片。如同先前所提到的，我們2021年第三季的銷售額成長了10%，其中9月份成長了11.1%。由於新冠疫情的影響，該季度仍存在一些比較困難的情況，例如政府客戶的銷售額下降了40.4%，安全和清潔用品的銷售額分別下降了2.9%和15.4%。因此，我們認為，如本頁圖表所示，該季度的總成長低估了我們在傳統製造業和建築業客戶群中取得的強勁成長。

On the product side, this is also well demonstrated by our 20.2% growth in fasteners, but sales of our other product segment, excluding janitorial, was also up 16.8%. In safety, sales of vended safety product, which removes from both periods direct shipped, typically COVID-related bulk product, was up 28.5%. National Accounts sales were up 16.8%. And while our smaller accounts were only up 2.2%, if we adjust for the government, our remaining customers would have been up 11.7%. So bottom line, we continue to experience broad strength in our traditional markets, consistent with macro data points such as PMI and industrial production.

在產品方面，緊固件銷售額成長20.2%，也充分反映了這一點。此外，除清潔用品外，其他產品類別的銷售額也成長了16.8%。在安全防護產品方面，剔除了直接出貨的、通常與新冠疫情相關的散裝產品後，銷售型安全防護產品的銷售額成長了28.5%。全國性客戶的銷售額成長了16.8%。雖然小型客戶的銷售額僅成長了2.2%，但如果剔除政府部門的銷售額，其餘客戶的銷售額將成長11.7%。總而言之，我們在傳統市場持續保持強勁成長勢頭，這與採購經理人指數（PMI）和工業生產等宏觀經濟數據相符。

Pricing contributed 230 to 260 basis points to growth in the third quarter of 2021, up from 80 to 110 basis points in the second quarter. This reflects actions taken year-to-date to mitigate the increases we are seeing in product, particularly steel; and transportation, particularly overseas shipping. Inflation continued to rise over the course of the third quarter of 2021, particularly for overseas containers and shipping services. While we have a range of efforts underway to mitigate the impacts of inflation on our customers' costs, further price actions may also be necessary in the fourth quarter of 2021.

2021年第三季度，價格因素對業績成長的貢獻為230至260個基點，高於第二季的80至110個基點。這反映了我們年初至今為緩解產品（尤其是鋼鐵）和運輸（尤其是海外航運）價格上漲而採取的措施。 2021年第三季度，通膨持續攀升，尤其是海外貨櫃和航運服務。儘管我們正在採取一系列措施來減輕通膨對客戶成本的影響，但2021年第四季可能仍需採取進一步的價格措施。

Aside from inflation, and as Dan discussed, our marketplace continues to experience tight supply chains and labor shortages. These disruptions impacted customer production more in the third quarter of 2021 than the previous quarter, and the increase in COVID infections exacerbated these challenges. These trends seem likely to persist in the near term. To address these, we will continue to lean on technology and branch initiatives to improve productivity and an organizational culture that empowers local leaders to sustain high service levels. And while the supply chain remains elongated, we do expect an inflow of imported product in the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 that should sustain our high product availability and reduce the impact of fill-in buys.

除了通貨膨脹之外，正如丹所討論的，我們的市場持續面臨供應鏈緊張和勞動力短缺的問題。這些幹擾因素對客戶生產的影響在2021年第三季比上一季更為嚴重，而新冠感染病例的增加更是加劇了這些挑戰。這些趨勢在短期內似乎仍將持續。為了應對這些挑戰，我們將繼續依靠技術和分支機構的各項舉措來提高生產力，並創造一種能夠賦予本地領導者更多權力以維持高服務水平的組織文化。儘管供應鏈仍然較為漫長，但我們預計2021年第四季和2022年第一季將有進口產品流入市場，這將有助於維持我們較高的產品供應量，並減少臨時採購的影響。

Now to Slide 7. Operating margin in the third quarter of 2021 was 20.5%, flat versus the third quarter of 20 -- sorry, the third quarter of 2020. Gross margin was 46.3% in the third quarter of 2021, up 100 basis points versus the third quarter of 2020. This relates to 2 items: first, we experienced good leverage of overhead and organizational expenses due to strong product demand and growth; second, we had better product margin, primarily in safety products. Lower margin COVID-affected PPE was a smaller proportion of total safety sales versus last year, and the margin on those COVID-affected products increased.

現在來看第7張投影片。 2021年第三季的營業利潤率為20.5%，與2020年第三季持平。毛利率為46.3%，較2020年第三季成長100個基點。這主要歸因於兩點：首先，由於強勁的產品需求和成長，我們有效地控制了管理費用和組織成本；其次，我們的產品利潤率有所提高，尤其是在安全防護產品方面。與去年相比，受新冠疫情影響的個人防護裝備（PPE）在安全防護產品總銷售額中所佔比例有所下降，且這些產品的利潤率有所提高。

Product and customer mix did not impact gross margins in the third quarter of 2021 versus the prior year, in contrast to the favorable impact experienced in the second quarter of 2021. Relatively strong fastener growth allowed positive product mix to offset the negative impact of strong on-site growth on customer mix, but the gap was narrower sequentially, a trend that is likely to persist. While the impact of pricing in the third quarter of 2021 exceeded our original expectations, inflation and shipping costs similarly exceeded our expectations. As a result, price/cost continued to be largely neutral in our gross margins in the third quarter of 2021.

與2021年第二季相比，產品和客戶組合併未對2021年第三季的毛利率產生顯著影響。緊固件業務的強勁成長使得積極的產品組合抵消了現場業務強勁成長對客戶組合的負面影響，但環比差距有所縮小，這一趨勢可能持續。儘管2021年第三季的定價影響超出預期，但通貨膨脹和運輸成本也同樣超出預期。因此，2021年第三季的價格/成本對毛利率的影響基本上保持中性。

The increase in gross margin was offset by operating expenses growing faster than sales. Part of this is due to the comparison, as third quarter 2020 operating expense leverage still reflected COVID-related low labor intensity sales versus current sales being generated in a more traditional high-touch manner. Just as relevant, however, is the role of cost resets. In the first year of a manufacturing recovery, it is typical for various operating expenses to have an outsized recovery. We're experiencing that in 2021, including in the third quarter, but also believe that the breadth of resets are unusually wide. For instance, we are seeing a 40% increase in incentive pay, but we're also seeing a 50% increase in fuel costs, a 165% increase in travel expenses and a 45% increase in health care costs. The nature of past downturns and recoveries would not have necessarily led to so dramatic a rise, particularly in the latter 2 items.

毛利率的成長被營運費用成長超過銷售額成長所抵銷。部分原因是由於比較基數較高，2020年第三季的營運費用槓桿率仍然反映的是受新冠疫情影響的低勞動密集型銷售，而目前的銷售則以更傳統的、高接觸性的方式進行。然而，成本重置的作用同樣重要。在製造業復甦的第一年，各項營運費用通常都會大幅回升。我們在2021年也經歷了這種情況，包括第三季度，但我們也認為重置的範圍異常廣泛。例如，我們看到激勵性薪酬成長了40%，但燃油成本也增加了50%，差旅費用增加了165%，醫療保健成本增加了45%。以往的經濟衰退和復甦未必會導致如此劇烈的成長，尤其是在後兩項。

As with last quarter, deleveraging operating expenses in the third quarter of 2021 is a function of anniversary-ing the first periods of pandemic-related cost savings measures combined with a strongly recovering marketplace. Similar dynamics are likely to play out in the fourth quarter of 2021, although not likely on the same order of magnitude, and we anticipate being able to leverage in 2022 for a comparable level of growth. Putting it all together, we reported third quarter 2021 EPS of $0.42, up from $0.38 in the third quarter of 2020.

與上季類似，2021年第三季營運費用的下降主要得益於疫情相關成本節約措施實施一周年以及市場強勁復甦。類似的趨勢可能會在2021年第四季出現，但幅度可能不會相同。我們預計2022年將能夠利用這些措施實現類似的成長水準。綜上所述，我們公佈的2021年第三季每股收益為0.42美元，高於2020年第三季的0.38美元。

Turning to Slide 8. Operating cash flow was $168 million in the third quarter of 2021, down 32% annually and 68.8% of net income. We paid roughly $30 million in payroll taxes, which were deferred from 2020 as part of pandemic-related legislation. The bigger impact on our conversion, however, was an increase in working capital. Year-over-year, accounts receivable was up 13.8%. This reflects strong customer demand and a shift away from PPE surge buyers last year and to our traditional customers this year that slightly blended up days outstanding.

請看幻燈片8。2021年第三季經營現金流1.68億美元，年減32%，佔淨利的68.8%。我們支付了約3000萬美元的薪資稅，這部分稅款根據疫情相關法規從2020年延期繳納。然而，對我們業績轉換影響更大的因素是營運資本的增加。應收帳款年增13.8%。這反映了強勁的客戶需求，以及去年個人防護裝備（PPE）激增的採購者轉向今年的傳統客戶，導致應收帳款週轉天數略有增加。

Inventory was up 4.4%. We did see meaningful reduction in our three-ply mask inventory in the third quarter of 2021 and anticipate clearing out this inventory in the fourth quarter. Adjusting for this, inventory would have been up 6.2%. We continue to clean out slow-moving hub and branch inventory, closed branches and shift our stocking focus in the field. We believe these represent improvements in our working capital that will be sustained. That is being offset by product installation and to a lesser degree, product flowing into our network. We have a significant amount of imported products in transit and we expect to see product availability in our hubs improve over the next couple of quarters.

庫存成長了4.4%。 2021年第三季度，我們的三層口罩庫存顯著下降，預計在第四季度清空。若剔除此因素，庫存成長將達到6.2%。我們持續清理滯銷的樞紐和分支機構庫存，關閉部分分支機構，並調整現場庫存重點。我們相信這些措施將改善我們的營運資金狀況，並使其得以持續。但產品安裝以及少量產品流入我們的網路在一定程度上抵消了這一成長。目前我們有大量進口產品在途，預計未來幾季樞紐的產品供應情況將會有所改善。

In the current environment, this is how we are utilizing our balance sheet to support customer service and growth.

在當前環境下，我們正是透過這種方式利用資產負債表來支援客戶服務和業務成長。

Net capital spending in the third quarter of 2021 was $47 million, up from $34 million in the third quarter of 2020, reflecting spending on a non-hub construction project in Winona. We have lowered our 2021 net capital spending range to $155 million to $175 million, down from $170 million to $200 million, as supply chain difficulties are limiting our purchases of vehicles, branch supplies and other products. From a liquidity standpoint, we finished the third quarter of 2021 with debt at 11% of total capital and net debt at 3.4% of total capital. Net debt is up from 2.2% in the year-ago period and 5.1% versus the fourth quarter of 2020. Essentially, all of our revolver remains available for use.

2021年第三季淨資本支出為4,700萬美元，高於2020年第三季的3,400萬美元，主要原因是我們在威諾納市開展了一個非樞紐建設計畫。由於供應鏈困難限制了我們對車輛、分公司用品和其他產品的採購，我們將2021年淨資本支出預期從1.7億美元至2億美元下調至1.55億美元至1.75億美元。從流動性角度來看，截至2021年第三季末，我們的債務佔總資本的11%，淨債務佔總資本的3.4%。淨債務高於去年同期的2.2%，也高於2020年第四季的5.1%。目前，我們的循環信貸額度基本上可用。

That's all for our formal presentation. So with that, operator, we will take questions.

我們的正式介紹就到這裡。那麼，操作員，接下來我們將接受提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is coming from Jacob Levinson of Melius Research.

（操作說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Melius Research 的 Jacob Levinson。

I think some of us were positively surprised by the growth rates, particularly as you closed out the quarter. Didn't seem [anyways] that you had a lot of maybe product availability issues, but maybe that's -- maybe I'm reading into that wrong. So were there any particular areas that you guys are really struggling to procure product? And I'm just thinking about your fastener supply chain and stuff being stuck off the coast of California, maybe [some color] you can provide there?

我認為我們中的一些人對成長率感到驚喜，尤其是在季度末。看起來你們似乎並沒有遇到太多產品供應問題，但也許是我理解錯了。那麼，你們在採購產品方面是否有特別困難的領域？我指的是你們的緊固件供應鏈，以及一些產品可能滯留在加州海岸附近，你們能否提供一些相關資訊？

Yes. If you look at -- so we have a variety of supply chain partners, some of which are domestic supply chain partners, and they might be selling us, in many cases, branded product and that might be a domestically manufactured or North American-manufactured or a globally manufactured item. And then you have the items that are more commodity in makeup and fasteners is a high player in that, that tend to be produced offshore, and that's been the case for 60, 70 years.

是的。我們有許多供應鏈合作夥伴，其中一些是國內合作夥伴，他們可能在許多情況下向我們銷售品牌產品，這些產品可能是國內製造、北美製造或全球製造的。然後還有一些更偏向大宗商品的產品，像是化妝品和緊固件，這類產品往往是在海外生產的，這種情況已經持續了六、七十年。

And as you can appreciate, we upped our safety stock and the depth of inventory we have on domestically sourced product. And if I think of our supply chain, if I think of our distribution centers and our service level that we measure with fulfillment to our branch network, we're at a very good spot there. It's product that we bring in from overseas that is manufactured overseas. And one thing that helps us in the process, and we've gotten some grief from over the years from the analyst community and justifiably so, we carry a lot of inventory. And we have inventory spread across 3,400 locations, branch Onsites and distribution centers. And so that gives us some resiliency that a lot of our peers don't have. But no, it's crushingly bad right now on product coming in that has to go through a port and we're not immune to that.

如您所見，我們提高了安全庫存，並增加了國內採購產品的庫存深度。就我們的供應鏈、配送中心以及我們透過分公司網路訂單履行情況來衡量的服務水準而言，我們目前處於非常有利的位置。我們從海外進口的產品也是在海外生產的。在這個過程中，有一點對我們很有幫助，雖然多年來分析師對此頗有微詞，但也不無道理，那就是我們擁有大量的庫存。我們的庫存分佈在3400個地點，包括分公司和配送中心。這賦予了我們一些同行所不具備的韌性。但是，目前需要經過港口運輸的產品的供應情況非常糟糕，我們也無法倖免。

We just have maybe a little more resourcefulness locally because some business models are so leveraged to scale that when things get tough, they kind of fall apart. Our model is leveraged to scale. But when things get tough, our local folks step up and fill in the gaps, but it's brutally hard work.

我們可能在本地資源利用方面更勝一籌，因為有些商業模式為了擴大規模而過度依賴槓桿，一旦遇到困難，就會崩潰。我們的模式也是為了擴大規模而利用槓桿。但當遇到困難時，我們當地的人們會挺身而出，填補空缺，但這工作極其艱辛。

And to Dan's point, I probably -- this is anecdotal, just feedback from the regional vice presidents that I get each month and each quarter, but to Dan's point about our ability to identify and locate product locally when we're not able to get it imported, fasteners are a big portion of that. But we -- there certainly have been challenges in locating that domestic product, but the anecdotal feedback from the field is that we've done a better job of that than most, and we've been able to sustain service levels.

正如丹所說，這可能只是我個人的觀察，是我每個月、每季從區域副總裁那裡得到的回饋。丹提到，當我們無法進口產品時，我們有能力在本地找到並採購，緊固件在這方面佔了很大比例。當然，我們在尋找國內產品方面也遇到了一些挑戰，但來自第一線的回饋表明，我們在這方面做得比大多數公司都要好，並且能夠維持服務水準。

And so you're absolutely right about difficulties on the imported product getting into our traditional supply chain, but we are finding answers to that outside of our traditional supply chain, which is allowing us to retain high service levels to the customers.

所以您說的完全正確，進口產品進入我們傳統的供應鏈確實存在困難，但我們正在傳統供應鏈之外尋找解決辦法，這使我們能夠保持對客戶的高水準服務。

Okay. That's helpful. And just as a quick follow-up, I'd have to imagine your smaller competitors are probably struggling right now, maybe not able to maintain that same service level and you've got a clean balance sheet. So is there -- maybe you can comment on the pipeline. Is there an opportunity to maybe pick up some of your smaller competitors that are struggling?

好的，這很有幫助。我再補充一點，我想你們規模較小的競爭對手目前可能正面臨困境，或許無法維持同樣的服務水平，而你們的財務狀況良好。那麼，你們能否談談收購前景？是否有可能收購一些陷入困境的小型競爭對手？

I think there's a couple of fronts there. My perception would be, yes, there's struggling that's going on in the marketplace. If you don't have as deep and as robust of a supply chain, and there's many different places that tap into alternatives as we do. Even with our trucking network, we're able to move some stuff around that our competitors can't do because our product is incredibly expensive to move. And it's expensive for us, too, but it's less expensive because we're more efficient at it.

我認為這裡存在著多方面因素。我的看法是，市場確實面臨一些挑戰。如果你沒有像我們這樣強大且完善的供應鏈，而且很多地方都像我們一樣利用替代資源，那麼即使擁有我們的卡車運輸網絡，我們也能運輸一些競爭對手無法運輸的貨物，因為我們的產品運輸成本極高。對我們來說，運輸成本也很高，但由於我們的效率較高，所以成本相對較低。

I think the biggest risk for some of the smaller and the folks that don't have as deep a supply chain is actually only now popping its head up because my perception is some of that fill-in buying activity of stuff that's imported by others that proves to be fill-in buys, that product is becoming more scarce in the marketplace, which I believe puts us in an even better position to be serving our customer and not going through Herculean efforts to make it happen.

我認為對於一些規模較小、供應鏈不夠完善的企業來說，最大的風險實際上現在才開始顯現，因為我的感覺是，一些企業為了填補市場空缺而進口的商品，最終導致市場上的商品越來越稀缺。我相信，這讓我們能夠更好地服務客戶，而無需付出巨大的努力。

And when we look at opportunities, that pipeline, if you will, we're doing a lot more of evaluating strategic opportunities rather than simply picking off perhaps struggling competitors as a means of consolidation. That's not the primary focus when we do look into acquisitions, ours is primarily strategic. So again, at this point, we think a better use of our balance sheet is investing in the working capital that we need to sustain the type of service levels, which will in turn put pressure on those smaller customers and allow us to gain the market share without having to pay a premium for it.

當我們審視機遇，也就是所謂的「人才儲備」時，我們更專注於策略機會的評估，而不是簡單地透過收購那些可能陷入困境的競爭對手來鞏固自身地位。這並非我們進行收購的主要目的，我們的首要考慮是策略性收購。因此，我們認為，目前更明智的做法是利用資產負債表，投資於維持現有服務水準所需的營運資金。這將反過來給那些規模較小的客戶帶來壓力，使我們能夠在無需支付溢價的情況下獲得市場份額。

Our next question is coming from David Manthey of Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Baird 公司的 David Manthey。

Yes. So first question on operating expenses. Now we -- when you look sequentially in most years, there's either the same number of selling days or sometimes there's a minus 1 from third quarter to fourth quarter. This year, if my math is right, you're losing 2 selling days. And offsetting that, I know you have costs up on some of these resets and inflation and things. But given that day situation, is there any thoughts you can give us relative to the roughly $400 million SG&A you reported in the third quarter? How we should be thinking about the fourth quarter SG&A?

是的。那麼，第一個問題是關於營運費用的。通常情況下，從第三季度到第四季度，銷售天數要么保持不變，要么會減少一天。今年，如果我沒算錯的話，你們的銷售天數減少了兩天。我知道你們的成本會因為一些調整、通貨膨脹等因素而增加。但考慮到銷售天數的變化，您能否就第三季報告的約4億美元的銷售、管理及行政費用（SG&A）談談您的看法？我們該如何看待第四季的銷售、管理及行政費用？

You're right about the days count. And so on a sequential basis, yes, we would lose a couple of selling days and then that's leverage that you do give up on top of the seasonality, right, fourth quarter is just typically not quite as active a period as occurs in the third quarter, but that happens every year.

你說的天數沒錯。所以按季度來看，確實會少幾天銷售時間，這樣一來，除了季節性因素之外，我們還會損失一些槓桿作用，對吧？第四季通常不如第三季活躍，但這種情況每年都會發生。

I think if you look at history, history would suggest that the -- you would expect flat to down 3%, give or take. And that really depends heavily on compensation costs, right? Whether you're flat or down 3% is really driven by compensation costs, which makes sense because it's 70% of our operating expense line.

我認為，從歷史數據來看，業績預期應該持平或下降3%左右。而這很大程度上取決於薪酬成本，對吧？業績持平或下降3%主要取決於薪資成本，這很合理，因為薪資成本占我們營運支出的70%。

I will note, I think that whereas we have a difficult comparison from a days standpoint, we do have a little bit of an easy comparison from a wages standpoint. We had some wages that were deferred into Q4 last year and we will not necessarily replicate that this year. So that creates a little bit of an easier comparison. And I do think that we'll have somewhat lower growth on days and lower gross margin, et cetera. And if you bank all that in, honestly, I think somewhere within that normal range still makes sense to me, David.

我想指出的是，雖然從工時角度來看，我們的比較比較比較困難，但從薪資角度來看，比較比較相對容易一些。去年我們有一些工資被推遲到了第四季度，而今年我們不一定會這樣做。因此，這使得比較比較更容易一些。而且我認為，我們的工時成長和毛利率等方面都會有所下降。如果你把所有這些因素都考慮進去，老實說，我認為在正常的增長範圍內仍然是合理的，大衛。

Yes. Okay. That's helpful, Holden. And then just quickly on Slide 7. You said you expect to more effectively leverage at a similar growth in '22 -- 2022, was the similar growth part of that statement any kind of outlook? Or is that just a placeholder for the leverage comment?

好的，這很有幫助，霍爾頓。然後，關於第7張投影片，您提到預計在2022年能更有效地利用槓桿實現類似的成長，您所說的「類似的成長」是指某種預測嗎？還是只是為「利用槓桿」這個說法預留的佔位符？

It was no sort of outlook. It was just simply saying, I guess, the better way to put it would be all other things being equal, but it wasn't a prediction. As you know, our -- my crystal ball consists primarily of the PMI, and that doesn't extend much past the beginning of Q1, as you know. So it wasn't a prediction.

這算不上什麼展望。我只是簡單地說，或許更準確的說法是“在其他條件不變的情況下”，但這並非預測。如你所知，我的「水晶球」主要依靠採購經理人指數（PMI），而PMI的數據通常只涵蓋第一季初。所以，這並非預測。

Our next question is coming from Chris Dankert of Loop Capital.

我們的下一個問題來自 Loop Capital 的 Chris Dankert。

I guess, first off, maybe just any update here, third quarter now on kind of 2020, we added a lot of new customers. You commented on retention in the past, but just any update on kind of what that retention looks like kind of today?

首先，我想問一下最新的情況，現在是2020年第三季度，我們新增了很多客戶。您之前提到過客戶留存率，那麼能否更新一下目前的客戶留存情況？

Yes. In the quarter, we still had -- so the definition, by the way, that retention is customers that had not previously purchased from us prior to Q2 last year when the pandemic began to settle in for the first time, right? So just that we understand the definition.

是的。本季我們仍然有－順便說一下，客戶留存的定義是指在去年第二季疫情開始蔓延之前從未在我們這裡購買過產品的客戶，對吧？所以我們只是想確認一下這個定義。

We still recognized a little more than $50 million in revenue from those customers in the third quarter, down a little bit from where we were in the Q2 period, but it still represents a significant investments and opportunity within the health care space that's derived from the environment that we've been experiencing in the last 18 months.

第三季度，我們從這些客戶那裡仍然獲得了略高於 5000 萬美元的收入，雖然比第二季度略有下降，但這仍然代表著我們在醫療保健領域獲得了重大投資和機遇，而這源於我們在過去 18 個月中所經歷的環境。

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And I guess, my apologies if I missed it in the prepared materials, but very dynamic pricing environment, obviously. Any comment on kind of what you're expecting the top line impact to be into the fourth quarter here? I mean, subject to change, sort of just kind of a snapshot of what you're seeing today would be great.

明白了。好的，這很有幫助。如果我在準備的資料中遺漏了什麼，請見諒，但顯然，價格環境瞬息萬變。您對第四季營收的整體影響有什麼看法？我的意思是，情況可能會有所變化，您能否簡要介紹一下您目前看到的情況？

Yes. I always feel I need to also plan, it's a very dynamic cost environment. But I would say that our exit rate was perhaps a little stronger than our entrance rate for the Q3. And so I do believe that you'll probably have some continued edging up from the range that we experienced in Q3 and Q4. So it wouldn't surprise me if that number is a little higher. But we also keep a pretty good tab on when we expect to see container costs and things like that begin to flow through the model. And I think you're going to see that edge up in Q4 as well. So you could see incremental pricing in Q4 relative to Q3, but I think you're going to see incremental cost. I think we're sort of currently expecting that for all intents and purposes that, that price cost will remain neutral.

是的。我始終覺得需要做好規劃，因為成本環境瞬息萬變。但我認為，第三季的退出率可能略高於進入率。因此，我相信第三季和第四季的價格區間可能會繼續小幅上漲。所以，如果最終數字略高一些，我不會感到驚訝。但我們也會密切注意貨櫃成本等因素何時開始影響我們的模型。我認為第四季也會出現這種上漲。因此，第四季的價格可能會比第三季略有上漲，但我認為成本也會增加。我認為我們目前普遍預期，價格和成本將基本保持不變。

Got it. Again, congrats to the team on being able to maintain that price/cost neutrality so far.

明白了。再次恭喜團隊迄今為止能夠保持價格/成本中立。

Before we take the next question, I'll just throw a little added commentary in on the question about the customers that we didn't have before that are buying from us now. And Holden touched on the actual statistics. I'll tell you -- I'll touch on the anecdote piece.

在回答下一個問題之前，我想先就之前提到的那些現在從我們這裡購買產品的客戶問題補充一點看法。霍爾頓已經提到了一些具體的統計數據。我來說說——我再補充一些軼事。

So if I go back in time, 3 years, 4 years ago, and I'd be out traveling, probably the only place I would hear about things that we were doing that were noteworthy as it related to either government and -- government or health care, I'd be traveling down in Florida, and Bob Hopper would be telling me about a K-12 school district that he had -- we were doing business with or that had expanded, and perhaps I'd visit a site. And we had a lot of -- we have a lot of Onsites in K-12 school districts, in the Southeast, particularly in Florida early on. And then Bob will tell everybody about it and pretty soon everybody else is kind of dabbling in it and finding success there. And then we moved into expansion in some of the higher ed and sign some Onsites.

所以，如果我回到三、四年前，當時我正在出差，可能只有在佛羅裡達州出差時，我才能聽到一些與我們政府或醫療保健相關的值得關注的消息。鮑伯霍珀會告訴我他正在合作或已經擴張的某個K-12學區的情況，我或許還會去實地考察一下。我們當時在東南部的K-12學區，尤其是在佛羅裡達州早期，進行了許多現場服務。鮑伯會把這些狀況告訴大家，很快其他人也開始嘗試，而且成功了。之後，我們開始拓展高等教育領域，並簽署了一些現場服務協議。

One thing that stands out for me when I think of the last 9 months is I periodically hear -- and it's not just coming from Bob anymore, but I periodically hear about a health care facility that we just signed up as an Onsite. So far, most of those that I've heard about have been tethered to a university, but seeing traction there. Now the numbers are incredibly small, don't get me wrong, in the scheme of things. But that's not something I heard about 15 and 20 months ago, that I am hearing about as we go through each quarter of 2021. And I see that as a positive because it widens the basket of potential customers out there.

回想過去九個月，最讓我印象深刻的是，我時不時會聽到——而且現在不僅僅是鮑勃會提到——我們新簽約的醫療機構成為我們的現場服務合作夥伴。到目前為止，我聽到的大多數合作機構都與大學有關聯，並且在那裡取得了成效。當然，從整體來看，這些合作機構的數量仍然非常少。但與15到20個月前的情況不同，我在2021年的每個季度都能聽到這樣的消息。我認為這是一件好事，因為它拓寬了我們的潛在客戶群。

The other thing that stands out, Holden and I have ongoing conversations with our team about metropolitan areas and what's our plan for -- last Friday, we went through Minneapolis in the Saint Paul area, what's our plan for this market. Every one of those discussions now include a discussion about some traction we're getting on the government and educational fronts and health care fronts as it relates to business activity and Onsite. And again, you would have to [draw out the] people in the past. Now it's offered up, it's a growth opportunity in individual markets. With that, we'll take the next question.

還有一點值得一提，霍爾頓和我經常與團隊討論大都會區的發展計畫——上週五，我們去了明尼阿波利斯和聖保羅地區，探討了我們針對這個市場的計畫。現在，每次討論都會涉及我們在政府、教育和醫療保健領域的進展，以及這些進展如何與商業活動和現場服務相關。過去，你需要主動爭取才能獲得這些機會。而現在，機會擺在眼前，這為各個市場帶來了成長機會。接下來，我們來回答下一個問題。

Our next question is coming from Ryan Merkel of William Blair.

下一個問題來自威廉·布萊爾的瑞安·默克爾。

Nice job on gross margins this quarter. So my first question is, is there anything to call out on gross margins as we think about the fourth quarter? Should we expect normal seasonal declines?

本季毛利率表現不錯。所以我的第一個問題是，展望第四季度，毛利率方面有什麼需要特別注意的地方嗎？我們是否應該預期會出現正常的季節性下降？

So yes, I think if you look historically, again, you would typically expect to see, call it, 20 to 40 basis points of decline from Q3 to Q4. The -- I feel pretty good about that, to be honest. There could be a touch of upward bias to that 20 to 40 basis point range. But if I think about price cost being relatively stable versus where we are, et cetera, yes, I just think that the history here probably is fairly instructive. And again, there might be a slight upward bias to that 20, 40 basis points history, but that's probably how I'd characterize my expectations for the quarter.

所以，是的，我認為如果你回顧歷史數據，通常會預期從第三季到第四季下降20到40個基點。說實話，我對這個預期相當樂觀。這個20到40個基點的範圍可能略有上調。但如果考慮到價格成本相對穩定，等等因素，我認為歷史數據應該很有參考價值。再次強調，這個20到40個基點的歷史數據可能略有上調，但這大概就是我對本季的預期。

Okay. That's helpful. And then I wanted to ask about FTEs. I noticed it was flat year-over-year in September, it's down from January. Is this intentional? Or is this due to labor shortages? And then are you seeing applications pick up now in some of the states where the benefits have ended?

好的，這很有幫助。接下來我想問全職員工人數（FTE）的問題。我注意到9月份的FTE與去年同期持平，比1月份有所下降。這是有意為之嗎？還是因為勞動力短缺？另外，在一些福利政策已經結束的州，您是否看到申請人數有所回升？

It is not intentional. I frankly would rather be on this call saying, you know what, we missed by $0.01 because we added more people, it was easier to add people. And -- but my sense is it's improved some. And the most acute part for us we're -- we build pipelines, we build sales pipelines, we build pipelines of talent. And our best pipeline for talent over the last 50 years has been get somebody with a year or 2 years left of college, or is it going to -- whether that's a 4-year state college or a 2-year technical college, ask them to come work for us. Tell them, hey, we'll give you some experience, you get some cash coming in, which is always helpful to a student. And we're looking at 15 to 20 hours a week. But what we're really doing is dating, with the thought process being when you graduate we think you will like us and we think we'll like you, and we'll get married. And then you'll join your Blue Team and grow your career.

這並非有意為之。坦白說，我更希望在這次電話會議上說，你知道嗎，我們因為增加了人手，所以只差了0.01美元，畢竟增加人手更容易。而且——但我的感覺是情況有所改善。對我們來說，最關鍵的是──我們建立管道，建構銷售管道，建構人才管道。過去50年來，我們最好的人才管道就是招募那些還有一兩年大學畢業的學生，或者即將畢業的學生——無論是四年制州立大學還是兩年制技術學院——邀請他們來我們公司工作。告訴他們，我們會給你一些經驗，你也會有一些收入，這對學生來說總是很有幫助的。我們預計每週工作15到20小時。但我們實際上是在約會，我們的想法是，等你畢業後，我們覺得你會喜歡我們，我們也覺得我們會喜歡你，然後我們結婚。然後你將加入藍隊，發展你的職業生涯。

That's a tough recruiting model in the last 1.5 years because if colleges close and kids go home, well, we need to -- our model is to hire them when they're at school and not when they're 3 hours away and at home. So that just devastated that. Kids are back in school now. Now we're only a month basically, a month and maybe 5 weeks into school. We haven't seen an uptick that I can tangibly put my finger on. Most of it is anecdotal. I believe that piece of hiring will get better. And I don't know if I believe that because I'm being a glass half-full optimist and I'm just wrong or I believe it because I think a lot of people hunger to get back to some sense of normalcy. And part of it is, hey, I need a part time job in college but it's not planned.

過去一年半，這種招聘模式非常艱難，因為如果大學關閉，學生回家，我們就必須——我們的模式是在學生上課期間招聘，而不是在他們離學校三個小時車程的家裡招聘。所以，這種情況徹底打亂了我們的招募計畫。現在學生都回學校了。現在開學才一個月，大概五個星期吧。我還沒看到明顯的招募回升跡象。大部分都是零星的傳聞。我相信招聘情況會好轉。我不知道我這麼認為是因為我太樂觀了，結果錯了，還是因為我覺得很多人都渴望恢復正常生活。部分原因是，嘿，我需要一份大學兼職，但這並非事先計劃好的。

Our next question is coming from Michael McGinn of Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自富國銀行的麥可‧麥金。

I was hoping to hone in on the fasteners and port lead times you alluded to in the release. Is there a way to disaggregate what the total lead time is from mill to port? And then how those fasteners turn relative to your remaining product set when they do get into domestic stock? And maybe if it makes sense to compare how that is in a normalized environment versus the congestion we're seeing now?

我希望能更深入地了解您在新聞稿中提到的緊固件和港口交貨週期。有沒有辦法分解從工廠到港口的總交貨週期？而這些緊固件入庫後，在您其他產品組合中的佔比是多少？或許比較一下正常情況下和目前壅塞情況下的交貨週期差異也很有意義？

Holden, I don't know if you have that slide deck that we were just looking at the other day. As you can appreciate, sometimes at quarter end or during the quarter, you're looking at so many different things that I don't want to give you inaccurate information. What I can tell you is the buffer we're building into our supply chain for import is dramatic. And it's measured in weeks, not in days.

霍爾頓，我不知道你有沒有前幾天我們一起看過的那張幻燈片。你也知道，季度末或季度中，我們需要考慮的事情太多了，我不想給你不準確的資訊。但我可以告訴你的是，我們在進口供應鏈中建立的緩衝規模非常大。而且是以周來計算的，不是以天來計算的。

And those weeks are -- I could almost say it in months rather than weeks. But it's a -- and I'm trying to stall so Holden can look it up, but I don't think I'm going to get that luxury. But suffice it to say, it's weakened out. And yesterday with our Board, I'll share an insight I posed to them. And that is, as an organization, one of the Board's obligations to the shareholders is to manage risk. And one of the things I said to the Board from a risk standpoint that we have to be acutely aware of -- and I don't know if acutely aware of is 6 months from now or 6 years from now because I honestly don't know how this is going to work its way out because a lot of capacity was taken out from the steamship lines last year. And part of the issue is the capacity just isn't there.

這幾週——我幾乎可以說幾個月了，而不是幾週。但是──我試著拖延一下，好讓霍爾頓去查一下，但我估計沒這個機會了。總之，情況已經惡化了。昨天，我向董事會提出了一個見解，我會分享給他們。那就是，作為一家公司，董事會對股東的義務之一就是管理風險。我從風險的角度告訴董事會，我們必須高度重視——我不知道「高度重視」是指六個月後還是六年後，因為我真的不知道這件事最終會如何解決，去年輪船公司的運力大幅下降。部分原因是運力不足。

So is this something that's part of our new normal that we're going to have this kind of consternation that we need to build an extra 30 or 45 days of time into supply chain? The risk is when that flips -- and again, I don't know if it's 6 months from now or 6 years from now, when that flips, we have to be acutely aware it's happening when it's happening. Because right now, we sell $13 million worth of inventory a day. If all of a sudden, stuff comes in 3 weeks faster, 4 weeks faster, you get -- well, $13 million times 20 business days in a month is $260 million. So you could add $100 million, $200 million, $250 million of inventory really fast if you're not dialed in and managing it. And -- but it's measured in weeks. And I apologize, we don't have it at our fingertip. But a 30- to 45-day window wouldn't surprise me, but I just don't have the accurate number in my fingertips.

所以，這是否意味著我們將不得不面對這種需要額外預留30到45天供應鏈時間的擔憂？風險在於，當這種情況發生轉變時——我不知道是6個月後還是6年後——我們必須時刻保持警惕。因為目前我們每天的庫存銷售額為1300萬美元。如果突然之間，到貨速度加快了3週、4週，那麼──1,300萬美元乘以一個月20個工作天，就是2.6億美元。所以，如果你沒有及時調整和管理，庫存價值可能會在短時間內增加1億美元、2億美元甚至2.5億美元。而且——但這是以周為單位計算的。很抱歉，我們無法立即掌握具體數據。但如果時間窗口是 30 到 45 天，我不會感到驚訝，但我一時想不出確切的數字。

Yes, not a problem. I guess switching gears to the Onsites. I believe the normalized target remains 375 to 400. Can you discuss the revenue per site normalization or baseline you see as this initiative continues to mature? And with the backdrop being you started Onsite, I think the average was 150 and now it's 100 per site. Does this normalization create a wider net for you to drive more signings in 2022?

是的，沒問題。我想接下來談談現場推廣。我相信標準化目標仍然是 375 到 400 個。您能否談談隨著這項計劃的不斷完善，您預計每個站點的收入會如何變化？考慮到您最初進行現場推廣時，平均每個站點的簽約人數是 150 人，現在是 100 人。這種標準化是否能幫助您在 2022 年獲得更多簽約機會？

The -- so in terms of the revenue per site, you're right. I mean when we started this, we had a smaller cohort of Onsites that did between $1.8 million and $2 million in revenue per site. And today, frankly, that's probably more in the $1.45 million annualized level. And that's an improvement over last year. And frankly, it's actually an improvement over 2019 as well. So we have begun to see that improvement occur.

所以，就單站收入而言，你說得對。我的意思是，我們剛開始做這個專案的時候，Onsites 的數量比較少，每個網站的收入在 180 萬美元到 200 萬美元之間。而現在，坦白說，年化收入可能已經達到 145 萬美元左右了。這比去年有所提高，而且實際上也比 2019 年有所提高。所以我們已經開始看到這種改善的跡象了。

It's one of those things, I think, is relevant to talk about because we talk about the signings being somewhat weaker. But that team in the Onsite group, we've seen the average size go up. We've actually seen the margin on that group go up. And we've seen the inventory on hand actually decline in terms of days on hand number.

我認為這一點值得討論，因為我們之前提到簽約情況有所減弱。但現場銷售團隊的平均規模擴大，利潤率也有所提高，庫存週轉天數也有所減少。

So we've talked a lot about as you sort of get out of this hyper growth process into sort of more of a fast growth process that comes with a certain level of productivity and efficiency, we have seen that over the last 12 months. And so when we get back to being able to sign 375 to 400 when the market normalizes, I think we are doing so off of a larger, more productive base. And I think that's an exciting development. Does that answer the question? Or did I miss a point of it?

我們已經多次討論過，當企業從超高速成長階段過渡到更穩健的成長階段，並伴隨著一定的生產力和效率提升時，過去12個月我們已經看到了這一點。因此，當市場恢復正常，我們能夠簽下375到400份合約時，我認為我們是在一個更大、更有效率的基數上實現的。我認為這是一個令人振奮的進展。這樣回答你的問題了嗎？還是我遺漏了什麼？

No, that answers the question. Appreciate it.

不，這已經回答了這個問題。謝謝。

Okay.

好的。

So I'm going to pull back to the last question. I pulled up my notes here from some stuff from 2 days ago. In September, so total transit time for deliveries in August hit a Fastenal record 58 days. And September was trending higher at the time they provided this update, this was a couple of weeks ago. If I look at that back in the first quarter of 2020, which is the earliest bars on my chart here, that number was in the 30s as far as days. And this includes both the transit time to the port and then the average time discharged from port to destination. So it's not just what it takes to cross the ocean and get to the port, and are you sitting there for 10 days or 9 days out in the ocean Rockport off Southern Cal or wherever it might be. But then getting it through the terminal and transferred.

所以我要回到上一個問題。我翻出了兩天前的一些筆記。 9月份，也就是8月份，Fastenal的總運輸時間達到了創紀錄的58天。在他們發布這份更新的時候，也就是幾週前，9月的運輸時間還在持續上升。如果我回顧一下2020年第一季的數據（也就是我圖表上最早的長條圖），當時的運輸時間在30天左右。這包括了貨物到達港口的運輸時間，以及從港口卸貨到目的地的平均時間。所以，運輸時間不只是指貨物跨越海洋到達港口所需的時間，也不只是指貨物在南加州羅克波特港或其他什麼地方的海上滯留10天或9天的時間。也包括貨物在碼頭完成轉運所需的時間。

And probably the thing that jumps out the most for me is in the -- typically, when we're negotiating rates, that's a rate that goes from the port in the original country to our destination, which is our distribution center. And the steamship lines handle that entire journey. 35% of our containers coming in, in the third quarter, we actually couldn't get them to the destination because they weren't available because there's such a shortage of containers. 35% had to be manually unloaded at the port, loaded on a semi and driven to our distribution center. And everything you read about is what's happening with the container cost coming from overseas, that doesn't include that layer of expense because putting it on a semi and driving it across North America is a lot more expensive than the container going on a train and going across North America.

對我來說，最令人震驚的一點是——通常情況下，我們在談判運費時，指的是從原產國港口到我們目的地（也就是我們的配送中心）的運費。船公司負責整個運輸過程。但在第三季度，我們35%的貨櫃實際上無法運送到目的地，因為貨櫃嚴重短缺。這35%的貨櫃不得不在港口人工卸貨，裝上半掛車，然後運到我們的配送中心。所有關於海外貨櫃運輸成本的報告都忽略了這部分費用，因為用半拖車橫跨北美運輸的成本遠高於用火車運輸。

And that actually, I mean, we see a fourfold increase in container costs year-over-year. If you added that piece in, the increase is more like sixfold. But that's 35% of our containers coming in. The only silver lining in that is that 35% was 45% in August, and it was 28% in September. So I don't know if it's coming down and it's going to continue that trend because 1 month isn't a trend, it's a data point. But that's been a brutal piece of the inflation as well.

實際上，我們看到貨櫃成本比去年同期上漲了四倍。如果把這部分也算進去，漲幅可能接近六倍。但這只占我們進口貨櫃總量的35%。唯一值得慶幸的是，8月這個比例上升到了45%，9月又降到了28%。所以我不知道這個比例是否會下降，也不知道它是否會繼續保持目前的趨勢，因為一個月的數據並不能代表趨勢，它只是一個數據點。但這確實是通貨膨脹中非常嚴重的因素。

I see we're at 5 minutes before the hour. I trust we've answered most of the questions satisfactorily. And if you have any follow-up, Holden and I are around for the balance of the day.

我看到現在離整點還有5分鐘。我相信我們已經圓滿解答了大部分問題。如果您還有任何後續問題，我和霍爾頓今天剩下的時間都會在。

I would put one quick call out to the Fastenal team. EHS Today recognized Fastenal, along with 9 other organizations, as America's -- as one of America's safest companies. And I want to say to our EH&S (sic) [EHS&S] team, our safety teams that developed our plan and our employees that honor and respect that plan, thanks for keeping each other safe in 2020. Thanks for what you did for society, and congratulations on the recognition. Take care, everybody.

我想特別向Fastenal團隊致謝。 EHS Today將Fastenal與其他9家公司一起評為美國最安全的公司之一。我想對我們的EHS團隊、制定安全計劃的安全團隊以及所有尊重和執行該計劃的員工說聲謝謝，感謝你們在2020年守護彼此的安全。感謝你們為社會所做的一切，祝賀你們獲得這項榮譽。祝大家一切順利。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This concludes today's event. You may disconnect your lines or log off the webcast at this time and enjoy the rest of your day.

各位先生，感謝你們的參與。今天的活動到此結束。現在你們可以斷開線路或退出網路直播，祝你們一天剩下的時間愉快。