快扣 (FAST) 2021 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Fastenal Company's 2021 First Quarter Earnings Results Conference. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

各位來賓，歡迎參加 Fastenal 公司 2021 年第一季財報發表會。 （操作說明）提醒各位，本次發表會正在錄音。

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ms. Ellen Stolts of Fastenal. Thank you. Please go ahead.

現在我很榮幸地向大家介紹主持人，來自 Fastenal 公司的 Ellen Stolts 女士。謝謝。請開始吧。

Welcome to the Fastenal Company 2021 First 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 年第一季財報電話會議。本次會議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 June 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。網路直播回放將於美國中部時間2021年6月1日午夜前在該網站上提供。

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文件。

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, Ellen, and good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us for our Q1 earnings call. I will take you to -- we have our annual meeting a week from Saturday. And because of that and to much -- most people's great satisfaction, I'll not tell a story this morning and we'll get right into the quarter.

謝謝艾倫，大家早安，謝謝各位參加我們第一季財報電話會議。接下來我要說的是──我們的年度股東大會將於下週六舉行。也因為如此，也為了讓大家更放心，今天早上我就不講故事了，我們直接進入本季財報環節。

If I go to Page 3 of the flip book -- but rest assured, if you participate in our annual meeting next weekend, I will tell a story or 2. If I go to Page 3 of our flip book, so our diluted earnings per share were $0.37 in the quarter, an increase of 3.7%. Net sales were up 3.7% as well. On a daily basis, they were up 5.3%. Some things stand out for me when I think of this quarter. Obviously, we had the storms in February and a massive storm, much more than we've seen in years past. But winter is like that. It has storms and it impacts our numbers.

如果我翻到翻頁書的第三頁——不過請放心，如果您參加下週末的年度股東大會，我會講一兩個故事——如果我翻到翻頁書的第三頁，那麼本季度我們的稀釋後每股收益為0.37美元，增長了3.7%。淨銷售額也成長了3.7%。以日計算，成長了5.3%。回想本季，有幾件事讓我印象深刻。顯然，二月我們遭遇了暴風雪，而且是一場規模巨大的暴風雪，遠超往年。但冬天就是這樣，暴風雪會對我們的業績產生影響。

Probably the most meaningful impact though and larger than the storms was the fact that we had 1 less calendar day, 63 versus 64, I believe. And that might not seem like a big deal in the scheme of life but we do about $23 million a day. And that day, we missed -- most of our expenses center on the month, whether it's rent or payroll or things like that, they center on a period of time. And so most of our expenses are still here despite the fact we have 1 less day. So if I assume $0.30 to $0.40 of that $1 lost in that day would flow to the bottom line, that's about a $7 million to $9 million impact to the quarter, and so can have a very meaningful impact.

不過，可能比風暴本身影響更大、意義更重大的，是我們少了一天的工作日，從64天變成了63天。這在人生中或許看起來微不足道，但我們每天的營業額約為2,300萬美元。我們大部分的支出都集中在一個月內，無論是租金、工資或其他類似項目，它們都與特定時間段有關。因此，儘管少了一天，我們的大部分支出仍然不變。假設當天損失的1美元中有0.30美元到0.40美元會轉化為利潤，那麼這就會為季度帶來大約700萬到900萬美元的影響，因此影響相當顯著。

I point that out only because Q4 has a similar anomaly. 2021 is a weird year. We lose 2 business days, 1 in the first quarter and 1 in the fourth. And I point that out just to make sure we're aware of that. But very impressed with what our team is doing to manage expenses and to grow the business in this environment.

我之所以指出這一點，是因為第四季也有類似的異常情況。 2021年是個特別的年份。我們損失了兩個工作天，第一季一個，第四季一個。我指出這一點只是為了確保我們意識到這一點。但我對我們的團隊在這種環境下控製成本和發展業務所做的工作印象深刻。

Additional item in the quarter, we wrote down about $8 million worth of 3-ply masks. Now 3-ply masks is not historically a product line or a product we sell much within Fastenal. As Holden mentioned in the release, from April of 2020 to March of 2021, we sold roughly $110 million worth of 3-ply masks. So it was about 2% of our sales over the last 12 months. That's a sign of the pandemic.

本季我們也提列了一項減損準備，約800萬美元的三層口罩。三層口罩歷來都不是Fastenal的產品線，也不是我們銷售量很大的產品。正如霍爾頓在新聞稿中所提到的，從2020年4月到2021年3月，我們售出了價值約1.1億美元的三層口罩，約佔過去12個月總銷售額的2%。這反映了疫情的影響。

And what we did as a supply chain partner in the marketplace is we went out last spring and locked up supply. We were willing to spend dollars to buy a sizable amount of inventory. We knew it was a risky venture going into it, but we felt it was the right thing to do for our customers, for our employees. And quite frankly, being in a strong position, we felt would also serve society quite well. And if I had a do-over, I'd do it again. I think it was a great decision. Our team did a great job.

作為市場上的供應鏈合作夥伴，我們去年春天採取的措施是鎖定供應。我們願意投入資金購買大量庫存。我們知道這並非易事，但我們覺得這對我們的客戶和員工來說都是正確的選擇。坦白說，我們認為，憑藉著強大的實力，這樣做也能很好地服務社會。如果可以重來，我還會這樣做。我認為這是一個非常明智的決定。我們的團隊做得非常出色。

But I think it also demonstrated to our customers and to potential customers what we are about as a supply chain partner, and we're willing to do things like that in this type of environment. So not only did we have the operational capability to handle it, we have the financial capability to do it and we have the sense of prioritization to also do it. It requires all 3. And so I'm really impressed with the team.

但我認為這也向我們的客戶和潛在客戶展示了我們作為供應鏈合作夥伴的實力，以及我們願意在這種環境下開展此類業務。因此，我們不僅具備營運能力，也具備財務能力，並且有優先排序的意識。這三者缺一不可。所以我對團隊的表現非常滿意。

I have to say earlier this morning, I chuckled out reading through, I think Adam Uhlman and Dave Manthey sent out reports earlier this morning, and I really had a kick out of Dave Manthey's. I believe it was bullet #3 where he commented, "While FAST does not report adjusted anything," core gross margin, he went on to explain the impact of the $8 million. You are absolutely correct. We do not report adjusted anything. We are not an acquisitive company. We're not a manufacturer that's leveraging and talking about EBITDA. We're a distributor, and I don't think distributors in our position should be doing that. And I'm really proud of what we've done and with how it positions us going forward.

今天早上，我讀到亞當·烏爾曼和戴夫·曼西的報告時忍不住笑了出來，尤其是戴夫·曼西的報告，讓我印象深刻。我記得是第三點，他提到“FAST不報告任何調整後的數據”，也就是核心毛利率，然後他解釋了800萬美元的影響。你說得完全正確。我們不報告任何調整後的數據。我們不是一家收購型公司。我們也不是那種靠槓桿融資、談論EBITDA的製造商。我們是一家分銷商，我認為像我們這樣的分銷商不應該那樣做。我為我們所取得的成就以及它對我們未來發展的影響感到非常自豪。

I also think the write-down of inventory. It's still great inventory. The write-down of inventory is one of the most -- is one of the bullish -- most bullish comments we could make as an organization internally and externally because we believe the market is going to change for masks in the months to come because we believe the economy is healing. And that's showing up, as you see in our next bullet, when we talk about FAST in our daily growth.

我也認為減記庫存是個好兆頭。這仍然是一筆不錯的庫存。減記庫存是我們公司內部和外部所能做出的最樂觀的聲明之一，因為我們相信未來幾個月口罩市場將會改變，因為我們相信經濟正在復甦。正如您在下一條要點中看到的，當我們談到日常成長中的「快速成長」時，這一點就體現出來了。

So we grew about 4% in the first quarter but it was 14% in March. Now before you get too excited about that number, that is a bit of a comp issue as well. So I think sequential has a lot more to tell the story. Just like we saw a decade ago in 2009, sequential was what it's about. January to March, our sequential fasteners grew -- sequentially, our fasteners grew 7.1%. If I go back to ignore 2020 and go back to the years before that, 2015-2019, on average, we grew 4.9%. That's a sign of the strength in the economy. And that's what led us to write down the masks because we see the market changing. And we saw very good sequential patterns in our manufacturing, particularly in our heavy manufacturing end markets.

所以，我們第一季成長了約4%，但3月成長了14%。不過，在您對這個數字太興奮之前，需要注意的是，這也有一定的比較基數效應。因此，我認為環比成長更能說明問題。就像我們十年前在2009年看到的那樣，環比成長才是關鍵。從1月到3月，我們的緊固件業務較上季成長了7.1%。若忽略2020年，回顧先前的2015年至2019年，平均成長率為4.9%。這顯示經濟形勢強勁。正因如此，我們才對口罩業務進行了減記，因為我們看到市場正在改變。而且，我們在製造業，特別是重型製造業終端市場，看到了非常好的環比成長動能。

We also mentioned in the release that we are seeing increasing supply chain pressure. I don't think that should come as a surprise to anybody. I suspect everybody, regardless of where you live on the planet, saw that ship in the Suez Canal sitting cockeyed for about 5, 6 -- I think almost 5 days. That's merely a very visual thing that we're seeing in ports around North America, we're seeing in ports around the world. And there's a lot of constraint. And constraint and rising activity create one thing, and that is inflationary pressures. And we are seeing that.

我們在新聞稿中也提到，供應鏈壓力日益增大。我想這應該不會讓任何人感到意外。我猜想，無論你身處地球何處，每個人都看到了那艘在蘇伊士運河上歪斜停泊了大約五六天——我想差不多五天了。這只是我們在北美港口乃至世界各地港口都能看到的一個非常直觀的現象。供應鏈面臨巨大的限制。而限制加上不斷成長的業務量，必然會造成一個結果，那就是通膨壓力。而我們目前正目睹著這種情況。

Pretty nominal impact to the first quarter. We do anticipate seeing a larger impact as we move into Q2 and Q3. As we saw in much of 2020 and it's continued in 2021, the team, whether that be our local team, our district and regional leadership, our finance teams, did a wonderful job managing working capital and as a result, very, very strong cash flow performance.

對第一季的影響微乎其微。我們預計進入第二季和第三季後，影響會更大。正如我們在2020年大部分時間所看到的，並且這種情況在2021年也得以延續，我們的團隊，包括本地團隊、地區和區域領導層以及財務團隊，在管理營運資金方面做得非常出色，因此現金流表現非常強勁。

Flipping on to Page 4. While we're not back to pre-pandemic signings, we saw improvement in the signings of Onsites and we signed 68 in the quarter. Again, that's our highest number since pandemic began. We ended the quarter with 1,285 active sites, an increase of 9% over last year. The daily sales in that Onsite business grew mid- to high single digits. And the only problematic area, if you will, in the quarter is, A, the level of signings, which is improving, but also the older Onsites are still sluggish and that's really a reflection of that underlying customer base, but the momentum is improving as we went through the quarter.

翻到第四頁。雖然我們的簽約量尚未恢復到疫情前的水平，但現場服務簽約量有所改善，本季共簽約68家。這再次刷新了疫情爆發以來的最高紀錄。本季末，我們共有1,285家活躍站點，較去年同期成長9%。現場服務業務的每日銷售額實現了中高個位數的成長。本季唯一的問題在於：一方面，簽約量有所改善；另一方面，老舊站點的營運仍較為緩慢，這反映了其潛在客戶群的現況。不過，隨著季度的推進，整體動能正在增強。

Holden did soften a bit, the signings, and that's more of a function of the current environment we operate in, has nothing to say about the long-term opportunity we see in this piece of our business. We're very excited about the Onsite business.

霍頓的簽約力度確實有所緩和，這更像是受當前經營環境的影響，並不代表我們對這項業務的長期發展前景缺乏信心。我們對現場服務業務充滿信心。

FMI, and hopefully, you've gotten -- you've adjusted to some of the new reporting that Holden has, I'll let him dig into that in a little more detail. I think he did a nice job explaining it in the release. I think he did a nice job explaining it in our annual report. With the acquisition of the Apex Technologies a year ago, and with additional pieces that our team has built, FMI has moved beyond being strictly vending to a much wider swath of business. We're really excited about that. Like Onsite, FMI requires strong engagement with the customer. It also requires going into customers' facilities.

FMI，希望您已經適應了霍爾頓提出的一些新的報告方式，我會讓他更詳細地解釋一下。我認為他在新聞稿和年度報告中都解釋得很好。隨著一年前收購Apex Technologies，以及我們團隊開發的其他功能，FMI的業務範圍已從單純的自動販賣機擴展到更廣泛的領域。我們對此感到非常興奮。與Onsite一樣，FMI也需要與客戶密切合作，並且需要進入客戶的工廠。

One thing that surprised me probably more in the last 12 months of anything is the willingness of customers to continue signing Onsites, to continue signing vending even at a lower level in an environment where you wanted to kind of lock up your facility and keep it safe for your employees. We have been -- during this entire time frame, we have been welcomed into customers' facilities to replenish bins, to replenish line stocking, to replenish vending. And we're seeing that open up more and more each and every day.

過去12個月裡，最讓我感到驚訝的莫過於客戶們仍然願意繼續簽訂現場配送合同，即使在需要封閉設施、保障員工安全的情況下，他們仍然願意以較低的規模繼續使用自動售貨機。在這段時間裡，我們一直受到客戶的歡迎，前往他們的場所補充貨架、補貨和自動販賣機的庫存。而且，我們看到這種情況每天都在持續改善。

Flipping to e-commerce. E-commerce daily sales rose 35% in the quarter. Our large customer-oriented EDI was up almost 38%, and our web sales were up 29%.

轉向電子商務。本季電子商務日銷售額成長了35%。我們面向客戶的大型EDI業務成長了近38%，網路銷售額成長了29%。

With that, I'll switch it over to Holden.

這樣，我就要把它切換到霍頓系統了。

Great. Thank you, Dan. Starting on Slide 5 of the flip book. Total and daily sales were up 3.7% and 5.3%, respectively, in the first quarter of 2021. The severe storms that affected the U.S. in February reduced growth in the quarter by 50 to 100 basis points. Demand improved for our traditional manufacturing and construction customers. For instance, manufacturing is up 5.6% in the first quarter but accelerated to up 10.8% in March. Construction was down 7.5% in the first quarter but improved to flat in March.

太好了，謝謝你，丹。現在從翻頁書的第五頁開始。 2021年第一季度，總銷售額和日銷售額分別成長了3.7%和5.3%。 2月襲擊美國的嚴重風暴使該季度的成長下降了50到100個基點。我們傳統的製造業和建築業客戶的需求有所改善。例如，製造業在第一季成長了5.6%，但3月份加速成長至10.8%。建築業在第一季下降了7.5%，但3月份恢復至持平。

Fasteners are a great bellwether of activity. And as Dan noted, the rate of change between January and March of 2021 well exceeded the typical pattern. We saw similar patterns in vended safety products and total and heavy manufacturing industries. So yes, comparisons began to ease in March, but even so, it's clear that underlying demand growth is improving at an accelerating pace as well.

緊固件市場是衡量市場活動的重要風向標。正如丹所指出的，2021年1月至3月間的變化速度遠超往常。我們在販售的安全產品以及整體和重型製造業中也觀察到了類似的趨勢。因此，雖然3月的年比數據開始放緩，但即便如此，潛在需求成長的步伐也在加速改善。

Now the counterbalance to gains in our traditional business is moderating demand for COVID-related product. Daily sales of safety products were up 14.7% in the first quarter of 2021 but that slowed up 3.2% in March. We have seen daily sales of non-vended respirators and gloves, which were heavily pandemic-oriented, ease over the past few months. Daily sales to government customers were up 37.3% in the first quarter of 2021 but that slowed up 14.5% in March. This pattern will become more pronounced in the second quarter of 2021, given the absence of surge sales that we had in the second quarter last year.

目前，傳統業務成長的限制因素是新冠相關產品需求的放緩。 2021年第一季，安全防護產品的每日銷售額成長了14.7%，但3月成長放緩至3.2%。過去幾個月，我們看到非販賣型呼吸器和手套（這些產品先前主要面向疫情市場）的每日銷售額有所下降。 2021年第一季度，面向政府客戶的每日銷售額成長了37.3%，但3月成長放緩至14.5%。鑑於今年第二季沒有出現去年同期那樣的銷售激增，這種趨勢在2021年第二季將會更加明顯。

Our long-term goal, however, is to retain customers that engaged with us for the first time during the pandemic. Along those lines, 26% of the customers who bought PPE from us for the first time in the second quarter last year continued to buy from us in the first quarter, contributing more than $60 million in sales.

然而，我們的長期目標是留住那些在疫情期間首次與我們合作的客戶。在這方面，去年第二季首次從我們購買個人防護裝備的客戶中，有26%在今年第一季繼續向我們購買產品，貢獻了超過6,000萬美元的銷售額。

The primary area that is still being restrained by COVID-related accommodations are growth driver signings, as Dan discussed earlier. We do not believe market receptivity to our growth drivers has changed. As access to facilities and key decision makers continues to improve as it did in the first quarter, we believe signings activity will as well.

正如丹之前提到的，受新冠疫情相關限制影響最大的領域仍然是成長驅動型產品的簽約。我們認為市場對我們成長驅動型產品的接受度並未改變。隨著與設施和關鍵決策者溝通管道的改善（如同第一季），我們相信簽約活動也會隨之增加。

When we look at the second quarter of '21, we see quarterly growth that is flat to slightly down. As you know, we do not traditionally provide forward guidance. However, given the convergence of accelerating demand in our traditional markets, share gains in safety and the absence of $350 million to $360 million in surge sales, we just felt some perspective on an unusual comparison would be useful.

回顧2021年第二季度，我們發現季度成長持平或略有下降。如您所知，我們通常不提供業績展望。然而，鑑於傳統市場需求加速成長、安全產品市佔率提升，以及3.5億至3.6億美元的銷售高峰期缺席，我們認為有必要對此特殊情況進行一些分析。

Now over to Slide 6. Gross margin was 45.4% in the first quarter of '21, down 120 basis points versus the first quarter of 2020. Roughly half of this decline related to the mask write-down addressed earlier. The remainder is split between customer mix and lower product margins in fasteners and safety. For fasteners, lower-margin OEM is growing faster than other categories, which is likely to continue. However, pressure related to a couple of large customer implementations and from spot buys to manage the tight supply chains should ease in the second and third quarters of 2021.

現在來看第六張幻燈片。 2021年第一季毛利率為45.4%，較2020年第一季下降120個基點。其中約一半的下降與先前提到的口罩減損損失有關。其餘部分則歸因於客戶結構的變化以及緊固件和安全產品利潤率的下降。就緊固件而言，低利潤率的OEM客戶成長速度高於其他類別，這種情況可能會持續下去。然而，由於幾個大型客戶專案以及為應對供應鏈緊張而進行的現貨採購帶來的壓力，預計在2021年第二季和第三季將有所緩解。

In safety, PPE sales to government remain meaningful and carry lower margins. While the margin on this business may remain lower, likely improvement in the nongovernment mix in upcoming quarters relative to the first quarter should benefit the overall product margin.

在安全防護領域，政府部門的個人防護裝備銷售額仍然可觀，但利潤率較低。雖然這部分業務的利潤率可能仍然較低，但未來幾季非政府客戶佔比的改善（與第一季相比）應該會提振整體產品利潤率。

The decline in gross margin was matched by 120 basis points of SG&A leverage, producing an operating margin in the first quarter of 2021 of 19.8%, flat with the prior year. Excluding the write-down, it would have leveraged nicely in the first quarter of 2021. This leverage continues to be a function of good control of headcount, branch reductions, lower selling-related transportation expenses and reduction of discretionary spend such as travel and supplies.

毛利率的下降被銷售、管理及行政費用槓桿效應所抵消，2021年第一季營業利潤率為19.8%，與去年同期持平。若不計入減損損失，2021年第一季的槓桿效應將表現良好。這一槓桿效應持續得益於對員工人數的有效控制、分支機構的精簡、銷售相關運輸費用的降低以及差旅和用品等可自由支配支出的削減。

Our incremental margin was 18% but excluding the write-down would have been roughly 33%. The organization managed costs effectively in the first quarter of '21, and we believe that will continue. However, remember that in the second quarter of 2021, the comparisons will get tougher as we anniversary the first period to have been affected by the pandemic and the related cost savings measures. At the same time, demand is improving, which will likely bring incremental investment in the business. As a result, relative to the adjusted incremental margin of 33%, we would expect incremental margins to moderate in future quarters. Putting it all together, we reported first quarter 2021 EPS of $0.37, up 3.7% from $0.35 in the first quarter of 2020.

我們的增量利潤率為18%，但若不計入減損損失，則約為33%。公司在2021年第一季有效地控制了成本，我們相信這一趨勢將得以延續。然而，需要注意的是，2021年第二季度，由於我們將迎來受疫情及相關成本節約措施影響的第一個季度，因此同比數據將更具挑戰性。同時，市場需求正在回升，這可能會為公司帶來額外的投資。因此，相對於調整後的33%的增量利潤率，我們預計未來幾季的增量利潤率將有所放緩。綜上所述，我們公佈的2021年第一季每股收益為0.37美元，較2020年第一季的0.35美元成長3.7%。

Now turning to Slide 7. Operating cash flow of $275 million in the first quarter of 2021 was 131% of net income. Year-over-year, accounts receivable was up 2.1% while inventories were down 3%. Sequentially, our working capital expanded more slowly than is historically typical. This is due in part to improving receivables quality, lower branch count and initiatives to improve the flow of our internal logistics, reduce slow-moving product and make local inventory more efficient. We believe these represent improvements in our working capital that will be sustained. However, less welcome was tightening global supply chains, which contributed to our hubs having about $15 million less in inventory on hand than we had intended.

現在就來看看投影片7。2021年第一季經營現金流為2.75億美元，佔淨利的131%。應收帳款較去年同期成長2.1%，而存貨較去年同期下降3%。與往年相比，我們的營運資本成長速度有所放緩。這部分歸功於應收帳款品質的提升、分行數量的減少以及我們為改善內部物流、減少滯銷產品和提高本地庫存效率而採取的各項措施。我們相信這些措施將持續改善我們的營運資本狀況。然而，全球供應鏈的收緊卻帶來了一些不利影響，導致我們各樞紐的庫存比預期減少了約1500萬美元。

Net capital spending in the first quarter of 2021 was $30 million, down from $47 million in the first quarter of 2020. This was largely from lower vending spend, which was a product of lower signings over the past 12 months and better device costs stemming from the Apex asset acquisition. Our 2021 net capital spending range is unchanged between $170 million to $200 million.

2021年第一季淨資本支出為3,000萬美元，低於2020年第一季的4,700萬美元。這主要是由於自動販賣機支出減少，而自動販賣機支出減少則源自於過去12個月簽約量下降以及收購Apex資產後設備成本的降低。我們2021年的淨資本支出預期仍維持在1.7億美元至2億美元之間。

We returned cash to shareholders in the quarter in the form of $161 million in dividends. And from a liquidity standpoint, we finished the first quarter of 2021 with net debt at 2.2% of total capital, down from 9.5% in the year-ago period and 5.1% versus the fourth quarter of 2020. Essentially all of our revolver remains available for use.

本季我們以股利的形式向股東返還了1.61億美元的現金。從流動性角度來看，2021年第一季末，我們的淨債務佔總資本的2.2%，低於去年同期的9.5%和2020年第四季的5.1%。我們的循環信貸額度基本上仍然可用。

Now before moving into Q&A, I wanted to address a couple of subjects of current interest. First, we are experiencing significant material cost inflation, particularly for steel, fuel and transportation costs. This did not have a material impact on the first quarter of 2021. Price contributed 60 to 90 basis points to growth and the impact of price cost on margin was immaterial. However, we are instituting broad and material pricing actions in the second quarter of 2021 that will likely lift pricing contribution over the course of the year. Customers never like higher prices, of course, but they are busy in seeing increases throughout the supply chain. Further, the tools and processes we have developed, including data for our customers, has never been more effective. The environment today is receptive.

在進入問答環節之前，我想先談談幾個大家目前關注的話題。首先，我們正面臨原物料成本大幅上漲的問題，尤其是鋼鐵、燃料和運輸成本。這並未對2021年第一季的業績產生實質影響。價格因素對成長的貢獻僅60至90個基點，價格成本對利潤率的影響微乎其微。然而，我們將在2021年第二季實施一系列廣泛且重要的價格調整措施，這些措施預計將在全年提升價格因素對業績的貢獻。當然，客戶從來都不喜歡價格上漲，但他們已經注意到整個供應鏈都在經歷價格上漲。此外，我們開發的工具和流程，包括為客戶提供的數據，都從未像現在這樣有效。目前的市場環境也較為有利。

Second, we are also impacted by tightening global and domestic supply chains. On the sales side, certain of our customers are not operating as fully as they could be due to shortage of components. On the cost and service side, moving product has become increasingly costly, and lead times have lengthened, causing product shortages in our hubs. These shortages have been overcome with spot buys made in the field that have allowed us to sustain service but at lower margins. We believe this dynamic could persist through 2021, though perhaps not quite as intensely in the second half as we are experiencing currently.

其次，全球和國內供應鏈的日益緊張也對我們造成了影響。在銷售方面，由於零件短缺，部分客戶的營運未能達到最佳狀態。在成本和服務方面，產品運輸成本不斷攀升，交貨週期延長，導致我們配送中心出現產品短缺。我們透過在現場進行現貨採購來彌補這些短缺，從而維持了服務，但利潤率下降。我們認為這種趨勢可能會持續到2021年，儘管下半年的影響可能不會像目前這樣嚴重。

That is all for our formal presentation. So with that, operator, we'll 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。

We have one other comment. Before we switch over to Q&A, in the last several quarters, I've shared with you our employee COVID numbers and I neglected to mention that earlier. And I just wanted to run through these with you. So since the start of COVID-19, we have had 1,685 cases within the Fastenal Blue Team family. With just over 20,000 employees, that's roughly 8.5% of our employees contracted COVID.

我們還有一點要說明。在進入問答環節之前，我想先和大家分享一下過去幾季我們員工的 COVID-19 感染人數，之前我忘了提及。我想和大家一起回顧這些數據。自 COVID-19 疫情爆發以來，Fastenal Blue Team 團隊共有 1,685 例確診病例。我們公司共有 2 萬多名員工，這意味著約 8.5% 的員工感染了 COVID-19。

I consider that a low number when you look at the fact that unlike many organizations, our employees didn't have the luxury of being able to work out of a room in their basement or a home office. Our employees go to work every day and work in a manufacturing facility, a distribution center, work in a branch or Onsite location or drive a truck. And so they're actively engaged with customers in their environment.

我認為這個數字很低，因為與許多公司不同，我們的員工沒有條件在地下室或家庭辦公室辦公。他們每天都要去工廠、配送中心、分公司或現場辦公地點工作，或開卡車。因此，他們在工作環境中與客戶保持著密切的聯繫。

If I look at the peak, our peak period was November of 2020. We had 430 cases or roughly 86 per week. To give you a contrast, in March of 2021, we had 102 cases or 26 per week, a drop of 70%. We think that is a sign of what's happening in the underlying marketplace and makes us bullish as we look out into 2021.

回顧疫情高峰期，我們的高峰期出現在2020年11月。當時我們新增了430例病例，平均每週約86例。相較之下，2021年3月，我們新增了102例病例，平均每週26例，下降了70%。我們認為這反映了市場整體的良好趨勢，也讓我們對2021年的前景充滿信心。

We'll switch over to Q&A now, please.

現在我們進入問答環節。

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

（操作說明）我們今天的第一個問題來自 Melius Research 的 Jake Levinson。

Just wanted to -- I know, Holden, you touched on pricing a little bit in the quarter, but maybe you can just give us a sense of what the pricing environment looks like more broadly, and if you can put a finer point on what you're expecting for either the next couple of quarters or the year.

我只是想說——我知道，霍爾頓，你在本季度已經稍微談到了定價問題，但或許你可以更廣泛地給我們介紹一下當前的定價環境，並更具體地說明你對未來幾個季度或今年的預期。

Yes. I mean, I think the way we described it was simply an environment where you're seeing an increase in costs around transportation. You're seeing it in steel, you're seeing it in fuel and that ultimately goes through plastics. So I think in general, we're seeing an inflationary environment, and I suspect that, that doesn't surprise anybody.

是的。我的意思是，我認為我們之前描述的情況很簡單，就是運輸成本不斷上漲。鋼鐵價格上漲，燃料價格上漲，最終塑膠價格也會上漲。所以總的來說，我認為我們正處於通貨膨脹的環境中，而且我估計這不會讓任何人感到驚訝。

It also shouldn't surprise anybody, I believe, that we're going to react to that a number of ways, but a part of that is going to involve pricing behavior. And so in the second quarter, we're going to have to institute some price increases as a means of mitigating things. So when I talked about the 60 to 90 basis points of impact from price in the first quarter, I do expect that to be higher as we get into the second half of this year.

我認為，我們應對這種情況的方式多種多樣，這一點大家應該不會感到意外，其中一部分將涉及價格策略。因此，在第二季度，我們將不得不進行一些價格上調，以此來緩解影響。所以，當我提到第一季價格波動會帶來 60 到 90 個基點的影響時，我預期隨著下半年的到來，這個影響會更大。

Now will it be outside of our normal sort of 0% to 2% range? No, I don't think it will be. I don't think it's anything of that order of magnitude. And I think that our objectives remain the same and that is to neutralize the impact on our margin and essentially stay even within the marketplace. And I think those are our goals. But in order to do that, obviously, we'll have to take actions, given where the market is today.

現在，這個幅度會超出我們平常的0%到2%的範圍嗎？不，我認為不會。我認為不會達到那個程度。而且我認為我們的目標仍然不變，那就是抵銷對利潤率的影響，並在市場中保持平衡。我認為這些都是我們的目標。但顯然，為了實現這些目標，鑑於目前的市場狀況，我們必須採取行動。

I guess the good news, maybe let us call it the news, is that right now, our customers are really busy. Our customers are seeing these types of actions from a lot of different quarters. And so there's always a conversation. This is an environment where inevitably customers for -- within these supply chains start wondering if there's other places that they could get a better piece price, and that's the kind of thing that happens in the marketplace and during periods of inflation. But we're not seeing anything unusual or different in the marketplace in terms of an inflationary environment than I think we've experienced in the past, and we expect to be able to manage through it.

我想，好消息，或者說，我們不妨稱之為“好消息”，是目前我們的客戶非常忙碌。他們從各方面都看到了這類情況。因此，討論從未停止。在這種環境下，供應鏈中的客戶不可避免地會開始思考是否有其他管道能以更低的價格採購產品，這種情況在市場和通貨膨脹時期都很常見。但就通膨環境而言，我們目前看到的市場狀況與以往並無太大差異，我們預期能夠順利度過難關。

That's helpful color. And maybe just as a follow-up, and I know, obviously, there's some pretty well-publicized supply chain challenges out there. But has it changed how you guys are thinking about working capital? Is there -- are you carrying extra buffer inventory or anything like that to kind of manage through the speed bumps, if you will?

這個顏色很有幫助。另外，我知道目前供應鏈面臨一些眾所周知的挑戰，但我想問的是，這些挑戰是否改變了你們對營運資金的看法？你們是否會持有額外的緩衝庫存或其他類似措施來應對這些突發狀況？

You know what, here's what I'd say about that. If we could -- we were probably $15 million, maybe a little bit more light in the hubs, versus what we would have expected to be going into the quarter. And the reason for that is because we simply couldn't -- we couldn't move product from where it was into our hubs as quickly as demand began to accelerate. And so to the question of, are we carrying a bunch of buffer inventory? No, I wouldn't say that we are carrying a bunch of buffer inventory. I'm not sure there's a lot of buffer inventory in the channel.

你知道嗎，關於這一點，我想說的是，如果我們能做到的話——我們配送中心的庫存可能比預期少了1500萬美元，甚至可能略少一些——這和我們本季初的預期略有出入。原因在於，我們根本無法——我們無法像需求開始加速成長那樣，迅速地將產品從存放地點運送到配送中心。所以，對於「我們是否持有大量緩衝庫存」這個問題，我的回答是：不，我不會說我們持有大量緩衝庫存。我不確定渠道中是否存在大量緩衝庫存。

But what I think is impressive about what our field does is, culturally, we have always empowered individuals in our business units to make very independent decisions. And this is not the first time that they have been called upon to go out and source product where we haven't been able to provide it out of the hub in certain cases.

但我認為我們這個領域最令人印象深刻的是，在企業文化方面，我們一直賦予業務部門的員工很大的自主權，讓他們能夠獨立做出決策。而且，這也不是他們第一次被要求在某些情況下，在我們無法從中心倉庫提供產品的情況下，外出採購。

And when I sort of send out the survey to the RVPs, one of the comments that came through loud and clear is whatever supply chain disruptions are happening at the customer level, it's not because we aren't getting them product. We are managing to source product locally in the field and we're continuing to keep up with things. But it does involve a lot more effort and time sourcing that product. But I think that's one of the strengths of the organization.

當我把問卷發給區域副總裁們時，其中一個非常明確的回饋是：無論客戶層級出現何種供應鏈中斷，都不是因為我們無法為他們提供產品。我們正在努力從當地採購產品，並持續跟進供應。但這確實需要投入更多的時間和精力。但我認為這正是我們公司的優勢之一。

And so supply chain is not unique to Fastenal in terms of the tightness that's out there. But I think we're uniquely structured to manage it and navigate it. I think we saw that in Q1 and I think that's good for a -- in terms of market share gains over time. It does have a little bit of a margin impact, right? I mean sourcing outside our supply chain isn't quite as profitable as sourcing within it. And you saw some of that in the fastener line. But as we normalize the supply chain as you go through the year, to the extent we can, I think you'll see that effect moderate.

因此，供應鏈緊張並非Fastenal獨有的問題。但我認為我們獨特的組織架構能夠更好地應對和駕馭這種緊張局面。我們在第一季就看到了這一點，我認為這有利於我們長期的市佔率成長。當然，這也會對利潤率產生一定影響，對吧？我的意思是，從供應鏈外部採購的利潤不如從內部採購。您在緊固件產品線中已經看到了這一點。但隨著我們逐步恢復供應鏈的正常運轉，我認為這種影響會逐漸減弱。

I'll just add a comment, and that is when I think of environments like this historically, I -- as many of you know, I have a financial background, so being at an organization that has months of inventory on hand because of our network and how we operate, while it's an expensive way to operate, it's also an incredibly resilient way to operate. I think that shined through in 2020. I think that has shined through in the years past when there's a little bit of chaos going on in the supply chain.

我再補充一點，當我回顧過往類似情況時——正如你們許多人所知，我擁有金融背景——我所在的機構由於其網絡和運營方式，擁有數月的庫存，雖然這種運營方式成本很高，但也極具韌性。我認為這一點在2020年得到了充分體現。我認為過去幾年，當供應鏈出現一些混亂時，這一點也得到了體現。

It allows us to be a little bit more agile because we do have some inventory on the shelf. What we're really seeing in changes is, and I mentioned it to our own employees on an internal video, historically, our supply chain team might be pinging branches with reorder points that are 90 days out, 100 days out, 110 days out. What our supply chain teams are doing, we're going out even further. We're going out into August and September. And we're pinging folks and saying, "Hey, we might want to order this now. We might want to do some things now, get it in motion now because there are some disruptions. We want to be in queue for product."

這讓我們能夠更靈活地應對市場變化，因為我們確實有一些庫存。我們真正看到的改變是，正如我在內部視訊中向員工們提到的，過去我們的供應鏈團隊可能會聯繫各分支機構，告知他們90天、100天或110天后的補貨時間。而現在，我們的供應鏈團隊將補貨時間提前到了更遠的地方，甚至到了八月和九月。我們會聯繫相關人員，告知他們：“我們可能需要現在就訂購，可能需要現在就採取一些措施，因為目前存在一些供應中斷。我們希望提前做好產品儲備。”

One thing that has historically helped us for being in queue for product, we're an organization that is known in the industry for being incredibly responsive to paying its bills. We have a strong cash position. We can move faster than anybody else as a result. And that positions us well. And history has told, being in environments like this, I believe it tips to scale towards Fastenal a bit on its ability to take market share because we will have inventory, we will have opportunities and abilities to move in the marketplace that some of our competitors won't. And I'm primarily talking about a lot of the more local competitors as opposed to some of the national players.

從歷史上看，我們之所以能夠保持產品供應充足，一個重要原因是我們公司在業界以高效的付款速度而聞名。我們擁有雄厚的現金流，因此能夠比其他任何公司更快地行動。這使我們處於有利地位。歷史經驗表明，在這樣的市場環境下，我認為Fastenal在市場份額的競爭方面會略佔優勢，因為我們擁有庫存，並且擁有一些競爭對手所不具備的市場行動能力和機會。我主要指的是許多本地競爭對手，而不是一些全國性企業。

Our next question is coming from Chris Snyder of UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的克里斯·史奈德。

I guess starting with the $8 million PPE inventory write-down. Does this clear the decks, so to speak, or is there a risk of additional write-downs in Q2? And then could you maybe just help frame how you think about the gross margin trajectory as you move past that?

我想先從800萬美元的固定資產庫存減損說起。這是否意味著問題已經解決，還是說第二季仍有可能出現額外的減損？接下來，您能否幫我分析一下，在減損之後，您是如何看待毛利率走勢的？

No, it doesn't clear the decks. The fact is it's still a good product and it's still moving. The only difference in the market is that the value of it relative to when we purchased it is lower today than it was, and that's just about market dynamics. So a full write-off of that wouldn't have been appropriate or frankly necessary. So that's probably how I'd characterize that.

不，這並沒有徹底清空庫存。事實上，它仍然是一款好產品，而且仍在銷售中。市場上唯一的差異在於，它的價值相對於我們當初的購買價格有所下降，這完全是市場動態造成的。因此，完全註銷這部分資產既不合適，也沒有必要。這就是我對這件事的描述。

Only thing I would add is masks for -- the 3-ply masks was a unique item for us. There aren't other products that are like that and where we went out and bought that kind of supply. And so from that standpoint, we've priced this now where it can more easily sell in the marketplace. Our local teams are motivated to grow their business and grow it profitably if we have expensive inventory in the shelf and that could spend a lot of time trying to sell it. And we want that inventory to turn.

我唯一要補充的是口罩──三層口罩對我們來說是獨一無二的產品。市面上沒有其他類似的產品，我們也沒有專門購買這麼多貨源。因此，從這個角度來看，我們現在的定價更有​​利於產品在市場上銷售。如果我們貨架上堆滿了高價庫存，需要花費大量時間才能賣出去，那麼我們當地的團隊就會更有動力去拓展業務，實現盈利增長。我們希望這些庫存能夠盡快週轉。

So I think your question was, in part, is there a risk of another write-down? I mean the product that's on the shelf is good product for the next 15 months. And the expectation is that we'll be able to sell what's remaining on our shelves over the course of that 15-month period.

所以我覺得你的問題部分在於，是否有再次減損的風險？我的意思是，目前貨架上的產品在未來15個月內都是優質產品。我們預計能夠在15個月內售出剩餘的庫存。

Appreciate that. And then I guess just following up on the comments on supply chain disruption. If you look back to the Q2 '20 supply chain disruption, Fastenal seemingly took pretty material share with customers leaning on their -- the biggest suppliers. Are you seeing a similar dynamic in the current market with the port delays and whatnot?

非常感謝。接下來我想補充一下關於供應鏈中斷的評論。回顧2020年第二季的供應鏈中斷，Fastenal似乎搶佔了相當大的市場份額，因為客戶都在依賴他們最大的供應商。您是否在當前市場，考慮到港口延誤等問題，也看到了類似的趨勢？

Well, we think that, that potential is there. I would say that supply chain issues, pricing issues, those are more sort of run-of-the-mill issues within distribution historically, whereas what occurred last year was generally unique and intense, right? So I mean, on an order of magnitude, do I think that you're going to see $350 million to $360 million of sales that you wouldn't have otherwise in this current environment? No, nothing of that sort.

嗯，我們認為這種潛力是存在的。我想說，供應鏈問題、定價問題，這些在歷史上都是分銷領域常見的難題，而去年發生的事情則非常特殊且嚴重，對吧？所以我的意思是，從數量級來看，你認為在目前的環境下，你會看到原本不會出現的3.5億到3.6億美元的銷售額嗎？不，完全不可能。

But going back to what Dan and I talked about a moment ago, the ability of our people in the field to be able to go out and find product independently to fill in gaps that we may have as our traditional supply chain is perhaps a little tight, I think that, that is an advantage to our business. It was an advantage last year, as Dan talked about. I mean a lot of the customers that we source and things like that, there was a local element to that.

但回到我和丹剛才討論的內容，我們第一線員工能夠獨立尋找產品，填補我們傳統供應鏈可能存在的缺口，我認為這對我們的業務來說是一個優勢。正如丹所說，去年這也是一個優勢。我的意思是，我們許多客戶來源都具有一定的地域性。

I think it will be an advantage this year just because right now, what our customers are concerned about as demand goes up is having a product available and the flexibility in our business and in our model, I think that's going to provide us an advantage when making sure that service levels remain high and availability remains high, that I think it's going to give us market share. But I wouldn't expect anything so intense as what you saw last year at this time.

我認為今年這將是一個優勢，因為目前隨著需求的成長，我們的客戶最關心的是產品供應情況。我們業務和模式的靈活性，我認為將使我們能夠確保服務水準和產品供應始終保持高水平，從而獲得市場份額。但我預計不會出現像去年同期那樣激烈的市場競爭。

Our next question is coming from David Manthey of Robert W. Baird.

下一個問題來自 Robert W. Baird 公司的 David Manthey。

First off, pre pandemic in, say, 2019, I believe safety was running about 17%, 18% of your mix. I'm just wondering how you're thinking about where that mix percentage bottoms out. Would it be reasonable to expect 18%, 19% in the second half and then resuming the secular incremental uptick from there? Or does the glide path from pandemic products and the cyclical recovery and the sort of shop floor personal protection stuff cause the safety mix to bottom closer to 20% or so?

首先，在疫情爆發前的2019年，我認為安全用品在你們的產品組合中佔大約是17%到18%。我只是想知道你們是如何預測這個比例的最低點的。下半年這個比例會是18%到19%嗎？之後會恢復到之前的長期成長趨勢嗎？還是說，疫情期間產品的需求、週期性復甦以及車間個人防護用品的需求，會導致安全用品的佔比最終下降到20%左右？

Yes. This is a guess, Dave, and I would be surprised to see it drop below 20%. And because there's a group of customers that are now safety customers, there's a group of customers that are expanded safety customers. And I have to believe as -- even in the balance of 2021, I think there's going to be a lot of things, a lot of habits that formed that will continue as we go through the year.

是的。戴夫，這只是我的猜測，如果低於20%，我會很驚訝。因為現在有一部分客戶是安全客戶，還有一部分客戶是擴展安全客戶。而且我相信──即使在2021年剩下的時間裡，我認為許多已經養成的習慣也會延續下去。

And I'll speak to firsthand knowledge of what -- some things we're doing. So roughly 93%, 94% of our employees can't work remotely. I mentioned that earlier. Around 6% of our employees can work remotely because they're in supporting roles. And we did ask -- strongly asked a lot of those folks to go home a year ago because we wanted to create a safer environment for everybody else, the people that had to be here. We have folks that are coming back. And we are doing a lot of things as far as putting up partitions and different things that we didn't do over the last 12 months because it wasn't necessary because the rooms are empty.

我將根據親身經歷談談我們正在採取的一些措施。大約93%到94%的員工無法遠距辦公，我之前也提到過。大約6%的員工可以遠距辦公，因為他們從事的是輔助性工作。一年前，我們強烈建議許多這樣的員工回家辦公，因為我們想為其他必須到崗的員工創造一個更安全的環境。現在，一些員工正陸續返回辦公室。我們正在採取很多措施，例如設置隔間等等，這些都是過去12個月裡我們沒有做的，因為當時房間空著，所以沒有必要。

But we're putting up Plexiglas barriers and we're putting in a lot of sanitizing stuff because people are returning to work. That's going to create a core demand. But I'd be surprised to see a drop below 20%. And if it does, it's because everything else grew faster than I'm expecting.

但我們正在安裝有機玻璃隔板，並添加大量消毒用品，因為人們正在重返工作崗位。這將創造核心需求。但我認為成長率不會低於20%。如果真的低於20%，那是因為其他所有方面的成長速度都超過了我的預期。

And maybe to put some numbers to that for you as well, Dave. The -- in the first quarter, we generated a little over $60 million in revenues from customers that had not purchased PPE from us prior to the second quarter of last year. And that amounts to a little over 1% of our sales and I think that amounts to market share gains. And so when you think about where we were before and you think about those types of customers now being a part of our mix and contributing more than 1% to our -- to share, I think that Dan's right. We've always sort of thought 2021, 22% is probably where this settles out. And I think that, that's still right.

戴夫，或許我還可以舉個例子給你聽。第一季度，我們從去年第二季度之前從未向我們購買過個人防護裝備的客戶那裡獲得了略高於6000萬美元的收入。這相當於我們銷售額的1%多一點，我認為這相當於市場佔有率的成長。所以，想想我們之前的狀況，再想想這些客戶現在已經成為我們業務的一部分，並且貢獻了超過1%的市場份額，我認為丹說得對。我們一直認為2021年這個比例最終可能會穩定在22%。我認為，這個預測現在仍然是正確的。

Okay. And second, could you discuss the general economics of bin stock compared to vending Onsite in terms of gross and operating margins, return on capital?

好的。其次，您能否從毛利率、營業利率和資本回報率等方面，談談貨架式庫存與現場自動販賣機相比的經濟效益？

Well, the capital -- the cost of the device is much different. It's what essentially -- and I'll talk to the RFID because that's the biggest piece of it, at least it is currently. We'll see if the IR beams within MRO bins, how big that becomes relative to it. But what it really is, is think of a kanban system. And in that kanban system, right now, what you have is somebody has to physically go out and observe empty bins or gather the empty bins.

嗯，設備的成本——也就是資金成本——差異很大。這主要是——我會重點談談RFID，因為它是目前最大的部分。我們還要看看MRO料箱內的紅外線光束成本佔比有多大。但實際上，你可以把它想像成一個看板系統。在目前的看板系統中，需要有人親自去檢查或收集空料箱。

What really changes in an RFID environment is when that bin is empty, there's a -- think of it as a set of shelves and up above, there's this open box. And you put the bin up there and there's an RFID tag that reads it and it tells our branch. It actually tells our supply chain team, we need to replenish this bin. And so the biggest thing is the labor efficiency. But it also allows us to illuminate much more of the supply chain for the customer so they can really see it and can operate a little bit leaner and we can reduce the inventory.

在RFID環境下，真正的改變在於當某個料箱空了的時候——你可以把它想像成一組貨架，上面有一個敞開的箱子。把料箱放上去，上面的RFID標籤會讀取它的訊息，然後通知我們的分公司，也就是我們的供應鏈團隊，我們需要補充這個料箱。因此，最大的改變在於提高了勞動效率。此外，它還能讓我們向客戶更清晰地展示供應鏈的各個環節，讓他們能夠更有效率地運營，從而減少庫存。

I believe the inventory lean-up for our customer will fund the capital it takes for the actual devices because the only thing that's really changing is the technology enablement. The bins are the bins. They were there before. You have an RFID tag on them. So the capital piece is relatively modest, except for the actual communication talking, but the economics are better than betting. And the real reason is, it becomes much more labor efficient to serve that business in the marketplace.

我相信，透過精簡客戶的庫存，我們就能籌集購買實際設備所需的資金，因為真正改變的只是技術層面。貨箱還是那些貨箱，它們之前就在那裡。現在只是在上面貼了個RFID標籤。所以，除了實際的溝通費用之外，資金投入相對較少，而且經濟效益遠勝於碰運氣。真正的原因在於，這大大提高了服務該業務的勞動力效率。

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。

So I guess, first question for Holden. Can you just update us on how to think about gross margins this year, just given the new headwinds on fasteners that you discussed? I think prior, Holden, you thought gross margins could be up slightly year-over-year in '21. Is that still the case or do we need to rethink that?

那麼，我的第一個問題想問霍頓。鑑於您先前提到的緊固件方面面臨的新挑戰，您能否更新今年的毛利率預期？我記得霍頓，您之前認為2021年的毛利率可能會略有同比增長。現在情況仍然如此嗎？還是我們需要重新評估？

No, I don't think there's any need to rethink it. Again, we're taking actions to try to mitigate some of the pressures that we're seeing. I think the guidance that -- guidance is probably a strong word, but I think the suggestion that I made coming out of the last quarterly discussion was that yes, I expect gross margin to be up a little bit this quarter or this year. And -- but we're probably talking about 50 basis points or less.

不，我認為沒有必要重新考慮。我們正在採取措施，努力緩解目前面臨的一些壓力。關於業績指引——或許用「指引」這個詞有點誇張——我在上個季度的討論中已經明確表示，我預計本季或今年毛利率會略有成長。但增幅可能在50個基點以內。

The flip side of that is SG&A leverage will come up against the difficult comps of last year. And I would expect there to be marginal leverage on SG&A when you think about the comps and things of that nature. And then ultimately, what that translates into is an incremental margin for the year that's kind of in the 20% to 25% range. And I think that was kind of what we discussed last quarter's call, and honestly, I don't think anything about that has changed.

另一方面，銷售、管理及行政費用（SG&A）的槓桿作用將受到去年同期的績效基數影響。考慮到基數等因素，我預期SG&A的槓桿作用會比較有限。最終，這將轉化為全年20%至25%的增量利潤率。我認為這正是我們在上個季度電話會議上討論的內容，坦白說，我認為這一點沒有任何改變。

Okay, that's helpful. So it sounds like the increased headwinds on margins that you talked about because of the fill-in and the spot buy, that doesn't sound like that's meaningful.

好的，這很有幫助。所以聽起來，您之前提到的由於補貨和現貨採購而導致的利潤率下降，似乎影響不大。

Well, I mean, fill-in buys -- no, it's not meaning -- we're not talking about tens and tens of basis points here. It's relatively small at this point. And again, we do believe that over the course of the year, we'll smooth out the supply chain a bit. And of course, we'll be taking pricing actions to mitigate some of those pressures as well, right? So no, I don't think that those are major matters. This assumes we execute the strategy as well, right?

嗯，我的意思是，補充採購——不，不是這個意思——我們說的不是幾十個基點。目前來看，規模相對較小。而且，我們相信，在今年內，我們會逐步改善供應鏈。當然，我們也會採取價格措施來緩解部分壓力，對吧？所以，我認為這些都不是什麼大問題。前提是我們也能有效執行策略，對吧？

Our next question is coming from Adam Uhlman of Cleveland Research.

我們的下一個問題來自克利夫蘭研究公司的亞當·烏爾曼。

I was wondering if we could go back to the discussion about the Onsite signings. Could you maybe expand on what you're seeing in the negotiations that led you to reduce the full year signings outlook? I guess I wouldn't have thought that the first half would have had big expectations for signings, maybe more of like a second half recovery. And then February, it was probably impacted by weather. I'm just wondering what exactly you're hearing from your field guys there.

我想我們能不能回到之前關於現場簽約的討論。您能否詳細說明一下，在談判過程中，是什麼原因導致您下調了全年簽約預期？我原本以為上半年簽約量不會很高，或許應該期待下半年回升。至於二月份，可能受到了天氣的影響。我只是想了解一下您那邊的人員具體都了解些什麼。

Sure. So if you recall, last quarter, what we said is we talked about a 375 to 400 because we wanted to convey to people that we believe that's what the market can support. And we continue to believe that's what the market can support, but we also said at the time that business conditions would have to meaningfully improve in order for us to achieve that.

當然。如果你還記得，上個季度我們說過，我們當時討論的是375到400點的目標價位，因為我們想向大家傳達的是，我們相信市場能夠支撐這個價位。我們現在仍然相信市場能夠支撐這個價位，但我們當時也說過，要實現這個目標，商業環境必須有顯著改善。

And whereas I do believe that business conditions have improved, they haven't normalized to where they were pre pandemic at this point. And the fact is in Q1, we landed 68. And so to be on the type of pace that we would have to do to do closer to 400, given that we've booked 68 in quarter 1, it just seems like a stretch when the conditions haven't fully normalized from where we were before, right? That's the one area that I believe is still being affected by COVID-related accommodations.

雖然我相信商業環境有所改善，但目前尚未恢復到疫情前的水準。事實上，第一季我們只預訂了68間客房。鑑於第一季我們只預訂了68間，要想達到接近400間客房的目標，在市場環境尚未完全恢復的情況下，這似乎有點勉強，對吧？我認為這是目前仍受新冠疫情相關住宿影響的領域。

So given that, I think that it was worth -- I mean, I think we sort of, I think, gave indication that this seemed like a high potential scenario when we talked last quarter, and it just seemed like a prudent thing to do. Now note, we've kind of said the same thing about FMI this quarter, right? We believe that the market can support 23,000 to 25,000 weighted FMI devices. But we're going to need to see the activity levels continue to improve even from where it was Q1 to get there. Right now, we're probably pacing a little bit low.

有鑑於此，我認為這樣做是值得的——我的意思是，我覺得我們在上個季度討論時已經暗示過，這似乎是一個很有潛力的情景，所以這樣做似乎是明智之舉。請注意，我們本季對FMI也表達了類似的觀點，對吧？我們認為市場可以容納23,000到25,000台加權FMI設備。但我們需要看到市場活躍度持續提升，甚至比第一季更高，才能達到這個目標。目前，我們的預期可能略低。

But I think the important thing to just reiterate is, I don't think this has anything to do with the receptivity of the tools that we're providing in the marketplace. I don't believe that there's any belief on the part of our organization that we can't achieve those levels. But the environment is still normalizing. It's not there yet. And as a result, we may come in a little bit shorter, but the trend line is up.

但我認為需要重申的是，我認為這與我們提供的工具在市場上的接受度無關。我相信我們公司內部沒有人認為我們無法達到那些水準。只是市場環境仍在逐步正常化，尚未完全達到目標。因此，我們最終的成果可能略有差距，但整體趨勢是上升的。

So I'm going to comment on and Holden can be mad at me for this, Adam. When I was reading through Holden's flip book, I saw that he had put in that sentence about the 300 to 350 range. There are certain times I go into Holden and I tell him I disagree with him and certain times, I tell him I agree with him. So this is one where I don't know that I agree with him. He's probably right, but I don't know if I agree with him.

所以我要就此發表一下看法，亞當，霍爾頓可能會因此生我的氣。我翻閱霍爾頓的小冊子時，我看到他寫了關於300到350這個範圍的那句話。有時候我會跟霍爾頓說我不同意他的觀點，有時候我會說我同意他的觀點。所以這次，我不知道我是否同意他的看法。他可能是對的，但我不知道我是否同意他的觀點。

And that is -- I think if you look at first quarter, I believe 29 of our 68 signings were in the month of March. So it did tick up as we went through the quarter. Now that's not an unusual pattern because January is usually tentative and February was weaker because of the storm, as you mentioned. I think the risk of signings this year is more about customers really being busy and they just can't think about it right now. They just can't do it right now. And I think that's the risk of it not getting to that 100 per quarter pace. And that's the only reason I didn't ask Holden to remove that sentence from both the earnings release and the flip book.

也就是說——我認為，如果你看一下第一季度，我們68份簽約合約中有29份是在3月籤的。所以隨著季度的推進，簽約量確實有所上升。這並非異常現象，因為1月份通常比較不確定，而2月份由於風暴的影響，正如你所提到的，業績有所下滑。我認為今年簽約量面臨的風險更多在於客戶目前非常忙碌，根本無暇顧及此事。他們現在確實無法完成簽約。我認為這就是我們無法達到每季100份簽約目標的風險所在。這也是我沒有要求霍頓從財報和宣傳冊中刪除那句話的唯一原因。

Otherwise, I'd ask him to remove it because I think the model is great. I think the market is receptive to it. And I think we could ramp up faster, but there is that one risk that people are too busy to let it happen because change always takes energy and where do you want to prioritize your energy. But I'm not completely in agreement with Holden on this one, but he's -- if I were a betting person, he's probably more right. But my message to our team internally is there's no reason why in the second half of the year, we shouldn't be at 100 a quarter. And the question is can we get there in the month of -- or in the second quarter? And I'll happily be wrong.

否則，我會讓他撤掉這個方案，因為我覺得這個模式很棒。我認為市場會接受它。而且我認為我們可以更快地擴大規模，但存在一個風險，那就是人們可能太忙而無暇顧及，因為改變總是需要精力的，而你又想把精力優先投入到哪裡呢？不過，在這件事上我並不完全同意霍爾頓的觀點，但如果我是個喜歡打賭的人，他可能會更正確。但我對團隊內部傳達的訊息是，沒有理由認為我們下半年不能達到每季100人的目標。問題是，我們能否在當月──或者說第二季──實現這個目標？我當然樂意被證明是錯的。

Okay, got you. That's very helpful. And then secondly, back to the inventory discussion. I understand it's been difficult to get inventories into the DCs. I guess how much do you think inventories need to increase this year to support the growth that you expect, realizing that you have some other internal initiatives going on?

好的，明白了。這很有幫助。其次，回到庫存的話題。我知道把庫存運到配送中心一直很困難。我想問一下，考慮到你們還有一些其他的內部項目正在進行，你們認為今年庫存需要增加多少才能支持你們預期的成長？

Well, I know in Q1, obviously, we talked about the hubs being down $15 million-plus versus what we would have expected, and we need more product to make its way across. And as it does, I would expect the hub inventories to rise. I'm not sure that we've necessarily put a number to that. And I think a lot of it's going to depend on the degree to which demand continues to run the way that it is.

我知道，在第一季度，我們討論過物流中心的銷售額比預期下降了超過1500萬美元，我們需要更多的產品才能運送到那裡。隨著產品的運輸，我預計物流中心的庫存會增加。我不確定我們是否已經給出了具體的數字。而且我認為，這很大程度上取決於需求是否會繼續保持目前的成長勢頭。

So -- but I do believe that we're light on inventory in the hubs. As inflation continues to run through, I think that will put some upward pressure on values of inventory as well. So I'm not sure I have a good answer for you in terms of what the ultimate number is. But that's part of the answer to addressing what we're seeing in the supply chain and improving our service levels.

所以——但我確實認為我們樞紐的庫存比較低。隨著通膨持續，我認為這也會對庫存價值造成一定的上行壓力。因此，我不太確定最終的數字是多少。但這正是解決我們目前在供應鏈中遇到的問題並提升服務水準的關鍵。

But right now, we're a little bit low on inventory, we're a little bit low on fulfillment levels and we need to correct that. And in Q1, it would have required $15 million more, and I think that builds a little bit as you get into Q2 and the supply chain pressures build. Now that will be offset to some degree with the work that we're doing internally to take out slow- and no-moving inventory, in terms of reducing the branch count, which the field continues to take some of the branches out, that makes sense to them.

但目前我們的庫存和訂單履行能力都略顯不足，需要加以修正。第一季度，這需要額外投入1500萬美元，而且我認為隨著第二季度供應鏈壓力的增加，這個數字還會進一步上升。不過，我們正在內部進行一些工作，例如清理滯銷和不周轉的庫存，以及減少分行數量，這將在一定程度上彌補上述缺口。第一線員工也在繼續推進一些他們認為合理的分支機構的關閉工作。

Those sort -- I think when we talk a little bit about the customer fulfillment center, which is a form of branch, which has much more customized and tailored inventory, those are all initiatives that I think are very sustainable. We'll continue to mitigate the effects of supply chain over the course of the year. But right now, our inventory would be better off in having a little bit more in it than it does, and that's going to motivate our work on improving the supply chain.

我認為，當我們談到客戶履行中心（它是一種分支機構，擁有更客製化的庫存）時，這些都是我認為非常永續的舉措。我們將繼續在今年內減輕供應鏈帶來的影響。但就目前而言，我們的庫存如果能再多一點會更好，這將激勵我們致力於改善供應鏈。

Just the one piece I'd add is, is just keep things in context, the $15 million that Holden cites, that's about a day's worth of inventory. So it's a number. You've helped -- disclosing it was helpful. But in the context of things, we're blessed with an incredible supply chain and incredible resiliency as far as where the intake point is for inventory. The question is always the price point. But it's a day's worth of inventory.

我只想補充一點，那就是要把這件事放在具體的背景下看待。霍爾頓提到的1500萬美元，大約只相當於一天的庫存量。所以這只是個數字。你披露這個數字確實很有幫助。但就實際情況而言，我們擁有非常強大的供應鏈和強大的庫存復原能力。關鍵始終在於價格。但這確實只相當於一天的庫存量。

Our next question is coming from Josh Pokrzywinski of Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的喬許波克日溫斯基。

Just back to, I think, Ryan's earlier question, just to level set us on some of those gross margin considerations that you laid out last quarter. Holden, just with some of the dynamics that you talked about, which seem more acute in 2Q, particularly on like mix, price cost, maybe some of those fill-in buys still having to persist for a while, should we think of that as maybe fair for the year, but a bit more of a second half dynamic than what you were considering before? I know that's putting a pretty fine point on it, but just trying to sense like if there was some shift in the timing underneath that expectation, if not the total year number.

我想回到瑞恩之前的問題，為了更好地理解你上個季度提到的毛利率問題，我想跟你探討。霍頓，你剛才提到的一些動態因素在第二季似乎更加明顯，尤其是在產品組合、價格成本等方面，可能還有一些填補市場空白的採購活動還需要持續一段時間。我們是否應該認為這些因素對全年毛利率的影響比較合理，但更體現在下半年，而不是你之前預期的？我知道我問得比較細緻，但我只是想了解一下，在預期毛利率的預期之外，時間節點上是否存在一些變化，即使全年毛利率沒有變化。

No, I don't think so. I'm still trying to think through the question a little bit. I mean we all know that we have a relatively easy comp on gross margin in 2Q. And so I haven't really tried to think about it in terms of year-over-year rate of change. I think if you take the first quarter gross margin, you adjust for the write-down, which is our intention is that, that will be focused on 1Q '21 and be done. Adjust for that, you're looking at a first quarter margin about 45.9%.

不，我不這麼認為。我還在仔細思考這個問題。我的意思是，我們都知道第二季的毛利率比較容易比較。所以我還沒有真正考慮到同比變化率。我認為，如果你用第一季度的毛利率，並根據減值進行調整（我們的計劃是只關注2021年第一季度，之後就完成減值），那麼第一季的毛利率大約是45.9%。

If I move over to 2Q, normally, second quarter would see a little bit of a decline sequentially from Q1. I think that, that could come in somewhere around flattish. And part of the reason is the mix that you're talking about. Interestingly enough, right now, the fastener/nonfastener mix is normalizing faster than the Onsite/non-Onsite mixes.

如果把時間軸移到第二季度，通常情況下，第二季度會比第一季略有下降。但我認為，第二季可能基本上持平。部分原因在於您提到的產品組合。有趣的是，目前緊固件/非緊固件產品組合的正常化速度比現場/非現場產品組合的正常化速度更快。

And so that actually moderated the impact of mix in Q1, and we'll see how that plays out in Q2 but it's possible that could be a little bit moderate as well. And I think that contributes to that. And of course, assuming we're effective on pricing, that can contribute as well. So when I think about the second quarter gross margins, I think it gets really messy to think about it year-over-year when we can kind of think about sequential patterns and try to run off of that.

因此，這實際上緩和了第一季產品組合的影響，我們將觀察第二季的情況，但第二季的影響可能也會略有緩和。我認為這對此有所貢獻。當然，假設我們在定價方面行之有效，這也會產生影響。所以，當我考慮第二季的毛利率時，我認為如果只考慮同比數據，情況會變得非常複雜，而我們可以考慮連續的趨勢並以此為基礎進行分析。

And I guess, I think -- when I think about Q2, instead of thinking about it in terms of the normal 20-basis-point decline, I think that, that could actually run a little bit more flattish. And that would obviously be a meaningful increase year-over-year but that's just a comp issue. Does that help?

我想，當我考慮第二季度時，與其按照通常的20個基點下降幅度來想，我認為它實際上可能會更加平穩一些。這顯然會比去年同期有顯著成長，但這只是比較基數的問題。這樣解釋清楚了嗎？

Got it. That's helpful perspective. Yes, that helps a lot. And then I guess sort of related to the supply chain tightness that both you and Dan had talked about. Understanding there was a pretty big step-up in activity sequentially into March, presumably, that continues just as things reopen on the fastener side. I know growth isn't really homogenous, it can come anywhere, but are there limits to being able to grow here in the short term?

明白了。這很有幫助。是的，這很有幫助。然後，我想這和您以及丹之前提到的供應鏈緊張問題有點關係。據了解，3月的業務活動出現了相當大的成長，隨著緊固件產業的重新開放，這種成長勢頭還在持續。我知道成長並非一成不變，它可能來自任何地方，但短期內這裡的成長是否有限制？

So you talked about kind of flattish to maybe down a little bit in 2Q. But if everything went your way, is there really capacity to grow a lot faster? I mean, I guess I'm thinking back to some of the weather interruptions in 2Q and those customers not being able to make up days immediately. Is that something that's sort of governed on the upside here, at least in the short term until some of the supply chain stuff works out?

所以您提到第二季業績基本上持平，甚至可能略有下滑。但如果一切順利，真的還有能力大幅成長嗎？我的意思是，我想到第二季的一些天氣原因導致供貨中斷，客戶無法立即補貨。這種情況是否會在一定程度上限製成長，至少在短期內，直到供應鏈問題解決？

When I think of limit to growth, I think of demand. I do not think of supply. When you -- you talked about in February, there's a number of things that caused problems. One was you had plants down there with no power for -- our distribution center in Dallas was shut down for 5 days because we didn't have electricity. And so you had a lot of examples where -- I grew up in the north, I grew up in Wisconsin. So I realized that when temperatures get into the single digits, things freeze.

說到成長的極限，我想到的是需求，而不是供給。你二月的時候提到過，當時有很多事情導致了問題。其中之一是你們那裡的工廠停電了——我們在達拉斯的配送中心也因為停電而關閉了五天。你舉了很多例子──我是在北方長大的，在威斯康辛州長大。所以我很清楚，氣溫降到個位數的時候，東西都會凍住。

And -- but you saw a lot of that. You had good plants that where there was no electricity and they weren't operating. And you had pipes freezing. You had hundreds and thousands of feet of pipes being replaced in a lot of facilities because they froze and they broke. And so the issue was one of the no power and then damage from the environment or no natural gas and essentially no energy to operate. That's a different scenario than what we're describing here. Our limiting factor is demand and our ability to find more customers every day that want to use us as a supply chain partner.

而且——但你也看到了很多這樣的情況。一些運作良好的工廠因為斷電而停工。管道凍裂，許多工廠不得不更換成百上千英尺的管道，因為它們凍裂了。所以問題在於斷電，進而造成環境傷害；或是天然氣供應中斷，基本上沒有能源維持運作。這和我們這裡描述的情況有所不同。我們的限制因素是需求，以及我們每天能否找到更多願意與我們合作的供應鏈客戶。

Yes. And some level as well -- yes. I mean, on some level as well, I mean, there are industries out there. I think the RVPs that are affected by auto talk about some lines shutting down because of availability of chips and things like that. So you might be referring to that as well. But you would know as well as we do what industries are having issues because of products that aren't related to our products. Our objective is to make sure that when a customer needs something that we can supply, that we can get that. We've been effective doing that. We can't control the chip supply chain or how that might flow through.

是的。某種程度上也是如此——是的。我的意思是，在某種程度上，確實存在一些行業受到影響。我認為受汽車產業影響的區域副總裁們談到，由於晶片供應等原因，一些生產線被迫停產。所以您可能也指的是這種情況。但您和我們一樣清楚，哪些產業會因為與我們產品無關的產品而出現問題。我們的目標是確保當客戶需要我們能夠供應的產品時，我們能夠及時提供。我們一直有效地做到了這一點。我們無法控制晶片供應鏈，也無法控制其流通方式。

Our next question is coming from Kevin Marek of Deutsche Bank.

下一個問題來自德意志銀行的凱文·馬雷克。

I think a lot has been said already, but just going back to the point made about market share gains. I know you called out, I think it was like 26% of accounts that were first-time PPE buyers have reordered at this point. Is there anything you would add about gains made outside of PPE and maybe how share gains in core areas have shaped up over this pandemic period?

我覺得已經討論了很多，但我還是想回到剛才提到的市佔率成長這一點。我知道您提到過，目前大約有26%的首次購買個人防護裝備的客戶已經再次下單。關於個人防護裝備以外的市佔率成長，以及在疫情期間核心領域的市佔率成長情況，您還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yes. I mean there's -- unfortunately, there's no industry resource that tallies up how all the distributors do and gives anything definitive on that. So I think that we had an interesting picture provided to us around safety and the pandemic and new customers and things like that. But new customer acquisition is not usually so dramatic as what you saw during that period of time. So I think it's really difficult to say.

是的。我的意思是，很遺憾，目前沒有任何產業資源可以統計所有經銷商的業績，並給出明確的結論。所以，我認為我們當時看到的關於安全、疫情、新客戶等方面的情況很有意思。但新客戶的取得通常不會像那段時間那麼劇烈。所以，我覺得很難說。

What I would say is we continue to grow as a business, and I think if you look at industrial production and things of that nature, I don't think that you're seeing that grow. There are some surveys that are done out there. And certainly through February, those surveys were still pointing to distribution being negative. Industrial production was still slightly negative. We were growing. So I think those are the ways that I usually look at it to judge or understand the degree to which we are gaining market share.

我想說的是，我們公司業務持續成長，但如果你看看工業生產之類的指標，你會發現它們並沒有成長。市面上有一些調查報告，截至二月份，這些調查仍然顯示分銷管道和工業生產都略有下滑。而我們公司卻在成長。所以，我通常會從這些方面來判斷我們市場佔有率的成長。

Historically, we've outgrown our industry. Historically, we've outgrown industrial production. I think that, that continued through Q1. I think the numbers are out there for you to evaluate. And I think we'll continue to do that.

從歷史上看，我們的發展速度一直超過行業平均水平，也超過了工業生產的平均水平。我認為這種情況在第一季仍在持續。相關數據已經公佈，供您評估。而且我認為我們將繼續保持這種成長勢頭。

Got it. No, that makes sense. Maybe just as a quick follow-up, kind of following up on a prior question. I'm wondering if you could talk about the trends through the quarter maybe by market, just thinking about manufacturing versus construction within March. It looks like results maybe, manufacturing seeing more acceleration versus construction or improvement, maybe just directly kind of comp-related. Is there any color you can provide to delineate kind of trends between the 2?

明白了。嗯，你說得有道理。或許我可以再快速問一個後續問題，算是對先前問題的補充。我想請您談談本季各市場的趨勢，例如3月份製造業和建築業的比較。從業績來看，製造業的成長速度似乎比建築業更快，或者說有所改善，這可能與同業比較有關。您能否提供一些圖表來區分這兩個產業的趨勢？

Well, I don't know. I mean if you look at the construction business, and interestingly, this has been one that in recent months, the RVPs have been talking about it getting better and better and the numbers really didn't move. And so it's nice to see them begin to move. But I mean, if you look at construction, in January, construction was down 9%; in February, it was down 14.5%; and in March, it was flat. And so that marks fairly significant improvement.

嗯，我也不知道。我的意思是，如果你看看建築業，有趣的是，近幾個月來，區域副總裁們一直在說這個行業正在好轉，但實際數據卻沒有改變。所以，看到數據開始好轉是件好事。我的意思是，如果你看看建築業，1月份下降了9%；2月份下降了14.5%；3月份則持平。所以，這標誌著相當顯著的改善。

Now you're right, the comps got easier. But I mean, that's true within manufacturing, which caused it to go from up 5% to up 1% to up 11%, right? So the comps are going to play a role. But the RVPs have been reporting for the last several months that the construction -- the tone of the construction market was getting better. And there's been a bit of a lag to that. But it feels to me like both of those end markets are improving versus where they have been.

你說得對，比較基數確實降低了。我的意思是，製造業的情況確實如此，這導致其成長率從5%降至1%，再升至11%，對吧？所以比較基數確實會產生影響。但區域副總裁在過去幾個月一直報告說，建築業——建築市場的基調正在好轉。雖然這種好轉存在一些滯後性，但我覺得這兩個終端市場都比之前有所改善。

So it is 5 minutes to the hour, and I guess we'll wrap up the Q&A, and I just want to thank everybody for listening in today and thanks for your support and the Fastenal Blue Team. Take care now.

現在距離整點還有5分鐘，我想問答環節就到此結束了。感謝大家今天的收聽，感謝你們的支持，也感謝Fastenal Blue團隊。祝大家一切順利。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Ladies and 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 have a wonderful day.

女士們、先生們，感謝各位的參與。今天的活動到此結束。您可以斷開線路或退出網路直播，祝您度過美好的一天。