快扣 (FAST) 2020 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings and welcome to the Fastenal 2020 Annual and Q4 Earnings Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Ellen Stolts. Please go ahead.

各位來賓，歡迎參加 Fastenal 2020 年度及第四季財報電話會議。 （操作說明）提醒各位，本次會議正在錄音。現在我將把電話會議交給 Ellen Stolts，請發言。

Welcome to the Fastenal Company 2020 Annual and Fourth 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.

歡迎參加 Fastenal 公司 2020 年年度及第四季財報電話會議。本次會議將由公司總裁兼執行長 Dan Florness 和財務長 Holden Lewis 主持。

The call will last for up to 1 hour and will start with a general overview of our annual and quarterly results and operations with the remainder of the time being open for questions and answers. Today's conference call is a proprietary Fastenal presentation and is being recorded by Fastenal.

本次電話會議時長最多為1小時，首先將概述我們的年度和季度業績及營運情況，剩餘時間將用於問答環節。本次電話會議為Fastenal公司專有演示文稿，並由Fastenal公司進行錄音。

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 home page, investor.fastenal.com. A replay of the webcast will be available on the website until March 1, 2021, at midnight Central Time.

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 投資者關係主頁 investor.fastenal.com 進行網路音訊同步直播。網路直播回放將在網站上保留至美國中部時間 2021 年 3 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。

Thanks, Ellen, and good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us for the Q4 2020 earnings call. I might not be on my A game today, and I point that only because typically, when I do this call, I am very fortunate in that I'd have a moderator in the background, and that is my wife, who listens and will text me if I'm speaking too fast or rapidly or if I'm going too long. And some of you might say, she needs to step in sooner. But today, I think she's probably online trying to see if she can convert her Packers season tickets into 2 tickets for Sunday's game. Time will tell. But if I go off on tangents, I apologize for that.

謝謝艾倫，大家早安，謝謝各位參加2020年第四季財報電話會議。我今天可能狀態不太好，之所以這麼說，是因為通常情況下，我開電話會議時，我的妻子會在後台幫我主持，她會認真聽，如果我語速太快、太急促或者時間太長，她會發短信提醒我。你們有些人可能會說，她應該更早介入。但今天，我想她可能正在上網，看看能不能把她的綠灣包裝工隊季票換成兩張週日比賽的門票。到時候就知道了。如果我離題了，請大家見諒。

I'd like to start with recapping our Board meeting, the last -- yesterday, our discussions with leadership earlier this morning as we were able to share our earnings and our progress a little bit more broadly within the organization and a bit of the video that we share with the 20,000-plus employees within Fastenal. And one is a more somber piece, and that is, as we've done in prior quarters, just want to share some COVID statistics with our shareholders because we can talk about a lot of things, but we have to start with the most important and that is we were not immune, if you will, to the effects of COVID on the health of the Fastenal Blue Team family.

首先，我想回顧一下我們昨天的董事會會議，以及今天早上早些時候與領導層的討論。在會議上，我們向公司內部更廣泛地分享了我們的收益和進展情況，並播放了一段我們與Fastenal兩萬多名員工分享的影片。接下來還有一件比較沉重的事情，那就是，正如我們在前幾季所做的那樣，我們想與股東分享一些新冠疫情的相關數據。雖然我們可以討論很多事情，但我們必須從最重要的方面入手，那就是我們Fastenal藍隊大家庭也未能倖免於新冠疫情對健康的影響。

Through September, and I've previously shared this information, we had 344 cases of COVID within the Fastenal organization. In the month of September, we were averaging about 17 new cases a week. In October, and as we progressed through the fourth quarter, we experienced what was experienced, generally speaking, throughout the markets when we operate. Our case count increased dramatically. In October, we had 27 cases per week, a 10 increase over the 17 in September. So 106 cases.

截至9月（我之前已經分享過相關資訊），Fastenal公司內部共有344例新冠肺炎病例。 9月份，我們平均每週新增病例約17例。 10月份，隨著第四季的推進，我們經歷了與我們營運所在市場普遍面臨的情況類似的疫情情況。我們的病例數急劇上升。 10月份，我們每週新增病例27例，比9月份的17例增加了10例，總計106例。

So through October, we had cumulatively 450 cases within the Fastenal family. That number essentially doubled in November. In November, we had 430 cases, 86 per week. And in December, we started to see that trend down, but still quite high at 60 per week. 238 cases. So cumulatively, through the end of the year, we had 1,118 cases within Fastenal. That's just over 5% of our population of employees.

截至10月底，Fastenal公司內部累計確診病例450例。 11月病例數幾乎翻了一番，達到430例，平均每週86例。 12月份，病例數開始下降，但仍居高不下，每週約60例，共238例。因此，截至年底，Fastenal公司內部累計確診病例1,118例，佔員工總數的5%以上。

When you consider the fact that our business and the way we operate doesn't afford us the ability to remove ourselves from society. 93%, 94% of our employees are in roles that involve day-to-day interactions with other human beings, whether that's at our branch or on-site locations, working in a distribution center, working in manufacturing, driving a truck, so we didn't have that luxury. And the fact that our number -- I believe the U.S. population -- if what I read is accurate, where just over 7% of the U.S. population has had COVID, and we're about 5%. So I believe our team has done a really nice job of exercising common sense and trying to protect themselves and those around them every day and being mindful of the anxieties that exist in society.

考慮到我們的業務性質和運作方式，我們根本無法脫離社會。我們93%到94%的員工每天都要與其他人互動，無論是在我們的分公司或現場，無論是在配送中心、生產車間或駕駛卡車，我們都沒有這種選擇。而且，據我所知，美國新冠感染率略高於7%，而我們公司感染率約為5%。所以我認為我們的團隊做得非常好，他們每天都在運用常識，努力保護自己和身邊的人，並且關注著社會上存在的各種焦慮情緒。

When I think of 2020, I also think of things that we did from the perspective of things we did to improve our moat, to widen our moat, to improve our business as we move into 2021 and beyond. And I think one of the first things is we demonstrated to the market and we demonstrated to ourselves, perhaps, a bit of our problem-solving ability. Our growth drivers demonstrated their value. And value from the standpoint of -- it's a special way to engage with our customer. And because of the vending devices we have deployed, because of the Onsites we have deployed, because of the way we engage with our customer, when most people were turned away at a customer's door, our folks were allowed to enter.

回想2020年，我也會想到我們為了鞏固和拓寬自身優勢、為2021年及以後的業務發展所做的努力。我認為首先，我們向市場，也向我們自己展示了我們解決問題的能力。我們的成長驅動因素展現了自身的價值。這種價值體現在我們與客戶互動的一種特殊方式。正是由於我們部署的自動販賣機、我們設立的現場服務點，以及我們與客戶的互動方式，當大多數人被客戶拒之門外時，我們的員工卻能順利進入。

And they were allowed to enter because we were stocking bins. We were filling vending machines. We were staffing the support infrastructure of their business from with -- inside their facility. And that was a special place to be and a special relationship. And because of that, we saw the success that we did in Qs 2, 3 and 4 on our ability to react and serve that marketplace in a unique way.

他們之所以被允許進入，是因為我們正在補充貨架上的商品，為自動販賣機補貨，並在他們的廠房內為他們的業務提供支援。那是一個特別的地方，也是一段特別的關係。正因如此，我們在第二、三、四季取得了成功，這得益於我們能夠以獨特的方式快速回應並服務於該市場。

The other pieces we demonstrated to a whole new group of customers, maybe that's something that's special about Fastenal. The other thing that I reminded our teams and I reminded our Board is we're coming into a weird year. We're forced to pivot, and that's a great thing. We look forward to this pivot versus the last. But the optics of the year are abnormal. And I just sort of want to remind the analyst community of that is the, I don't recall in my 25 years with Fastenal, might have happened, maybe it happened back in the '90s or '80s or '70s. I don't recall a year where we entered, and we're going to be down 2 business days. And as all of you know, that's an important ingredient in our ability to grow and leverage the business.

我們向全新的客戶群展示了其他產品，這或許正是Fastenal的獨特之處。我還提醒了我們的團隊和董事會，我們即將迎來一個特殊的年份。我們被迫轉型，但這是一件好事。我們期待這次轉型，而不是像以往。但今年的整體情勢確實不尋常。我想提醒各位分析師，在我為Fastenal工作的25年裡，這種情況似乎從未發生過，或許在上世紀90年代、80年代或70年代發生過。我印像中，從未有哪一年我們像今年這樣，在年初就損失了兩個工作天。大家都知道，這對我們業務的成長和發展至關重要。

So in Q1, we will lose 1 business day. Q2, we don't lose any business days or gain any business days, but we have some weird comps because of the extreme surge we saw in safety sales in Q2 last year. Q3 is a normal quarter, if you will in that it's a push on days. And in Q4, we lose a business day. So it's a 253 business day year versus 255. Just want to point that out.

所以第一季我們會減少一個工作天。第二季度，工作日沒有增減，但由於去年第二季度安全產品銷售額的激增，我們的基數比較有些特殊。第三季比較正常，工作日數基本持平。第四季我們會減少一個工作天。因此，全年共有253個工作天，而去年則是255個。特此說明一下。

When I -- when you read the document and you hear our conversation, we'll touch on some things about the Apex transaction that we did back in March. And I'm really, really excited about what that means as far as our ability to broaden and illuminate how we serve our customer. And Apex is the technology that underpins our vending platform. And we have the largest industrial vending platform on the planet, and it's a great platform.

當你閱讀這份文件並聽完我們的對話後，我們會談到三月完成的Apex交易。我對此感到非常興奮，因為這將大大拓展我們服務客戶的方式，並提升我們的服務水準。 Apex是我們自動販賣機平台的基礎技術。我們擁有全球最大的工業自動販賣平台，這是一個非常優秀的平台。

A lot of our other systems were disjointed from that because it was a captive platform. And so it allows us to broaden where we can bring supply chain knowledge and visibility to. And we're now referring to that as the FMI suite of things, Fastenal Managed Inventory. Within that are 3 distinct components, and Holden did a nice job illuminating it, I think, in the press release, and we'll talk about it today.

我們之前的許多系統都與它脫節，因為它是一個封閉的平台。因此，它使我們能夠拓展供應鏈知識和視覺性的應用範圍。我們現在稱之為FMI套件，即Fastenal Managed Inventory（FMI庫存管理系統）。它包含三個不同的組件，我認為霍爾頓在新聞稿中對此進行了很好的闡述，我們今天將對此進行討論。

But in that is FAST Vend, which is our vending platform, as we've talked about for years. The second component is FAST Bin, that's B-I-N. And that's a suite of bin technology. It's not restricted access like you see in the vending machine, it's open access. But it's for a lot of things like fasteners or pipe fittings or things like that. But it's smart in the standpoint the system tells us when it's hungry and needs to be fed. And we don't need to have a person go check it or worse yet, our frequency of checking, it means we have a bin that runs out. And it allow us to lean down inventory and illuminate the supply chain for our customer over time so it's a better supply chain, but it's also more efficient from a labor productivity supply chain.

但其中就包括我們多年來一直宣傳的自動販賣機平台 FAST Vend。第二個組成部分是 FAST Bin，簡稱 B-I-N。它是一套貨箱技術。它不像自動販賣機那樣限制取用，而是開放式的。它可以存放很多東西，例如緊固件、管道配件等等。它的智慧之處在於，系統會在缺貨時發出警報。這樣我們就無需安排人去檢查，更不用擔心頻繁檢查會導致貨箱缺貨。隨著時間的推移，它能幫助我們精簡庫存，讓客戶的供應鏈更透明，進而打造更有效率的供應鏈，並提高勞動生產力。

The third component is what we call FAST Stock. And that is we deployed, as you all know, a tremendous amount of mobility technology. Now we've had a platform in the past, but that platform was very transactional based. This is more system based and allows us, again, to illuminate for the customer what they have in their facility, which is more efficient for the customer, more efficient for us. So we'll talk about that in combined, but take nothing away from the individual components of vending, which is a great element to enhance growth and engagement with our customer. We're just broadening it because the Apex transaction allows us to do that.

第三個組成部分是我們稱為「快速庫存管理」（FAST Stock）的方案。如大家所知，我們部署了大量的行動技術。過去我們也有一個平台，但那個平台主要基於交易。而這個方案更著重於系統層面，能夠讓客戶清楚地了解他們設施中的庫存狀況，這對客戶和我們來說都更有效率。我們會綜合討論這三個部分，但同時也要強調自動販賣機的各個組成部分的重要性，它們對於提升客戶成長和互動至關重要。我們只是透過Apex交易系統擴展了這項功能。

If I move into Holden's flipbook, you can see -- and I'm on Page 3, our daily sales grew 6.5% in the quarter. The team did a great job of managing our operating cost throughout 2020 and it was exemplified in the current quarter, and we produced operating earnings that were double digit, 10.6%.

如果我翻到霍頓的宣傳冊，你會看到──我現在在第三頁──我們本季的日銷售額成長了6.5%。團隊在2020年全年都出色地控制了營運成本，本季更是印證了這一點，我們實現了兩位數的營業利潤成長，達到10.6%。

Safety, as we've talked about on numerous prior calls and we'll, I suspect, continue to talk about in the calls as we enter 2021 because COVID is not behind us. But safety has been an outperformer for years largely because it's a product line that matches really well with our FAST Vend, our vending platform. So in the -- so despite safety being a little bit less than 20% of sales, it's produced, for the last several years, about 26% of our growth. But the contributions swelled to 156% in 2020. And as I touched on and when I was first talking, it highlighted our problem-solving culture in the marketplace and I believe this should open up new customer and end market opportunities to us in the future, and Holden will touch a little bit on that in his talk.

正如我們在之前的多次電話會議中討論過的，安全產品一直是我們關注的重點。而且，我估計在2021年，我們還會繼續討論安全產品，因為新冠疫情尚未結束。多年來，安全產品一直表現出色，這主要是因為它與我們的自動販賣機平台FAST Vend完美契合。儘管安全產品的銷售額佔比略低於20%，但在過去幾年中，它貢獻了我們約26%的成長。而到了2020年，這項貢獻更是飆升至156%。正如我剛才提到的，這凸顯了我們在市場上解決問題的企業文化。我相信，這將為我們未來開拓新的客戶和終端市場機會。霍爾頓將在他的演講中對此進行一些闡述。

Customer engagement on growth drivers has improved. However, as you saw in 2020, it ravaged our ability to sign because in an environment where you're working really hard to protect your employees, maybe the last thing you want to do is, all of a sudden, "Hey, come on, folks, it's Fastenal. We love what you do. Why don't you come in and move in with us?" It introduces a variable that many folks in a year like 2020 don't want to introduce, and you saw that show up in our signing numbers, and I'll touch on that more in a few minutes.

客戶對成長驅動因素的參與度有所提高。然而，正如您在2020年所見，疫情嚴重影響了我們的簽約能力。在努力保護員工的環境下，您最不希望看到的就是突然冒出一句：「嘿，夥計們，我們是Fastenal。我們很欣賞你們的工作。為什麼不加入我們呢？」這引入了一個在2020年這樣的年份裡很多人都不願面對的變數，而您也看到了，這體現在我們的簽約數量上。稍後我會詳細闡述這一點。

The Apex purchase, I touched on already. Utilization of e-commerce took a big step-up in 2020. As I mentioned, commercialization of our FAST Bin and deployment of mobility, I believe, will really evolve our model and evolve our ability to be efficient. Because one thing that's really critical in this path, and we've talked about this for 4 or 5 years now, what's really critical is we're going much deeper into a -- what we call our key accounts growth, much deeper into a large customer. And the gross margin profile, because of customer mix and product mix, changes. And then it's incumbent upon us to allow the natural leverage to shine through. In other words, if you're doing more dollars, you have more places to spread your expense but also to become more efficient, and that's what all these things tie to.

我之前已經提到過對Apex的收購。 2020年，電子商務的使用率大幅提升。正如我之前所說，FAST Bin的商業化和行動端的部署，我相信將真正推動我們模式的演進，並提升我們的效率。因為在這個過程中，有一點至關重要——我們已經討論了四五年了——那就是我們要更深入地挖掘我們所謂的“重點客戶增長”，更深入地挖掘大客戶的潛力。由於顧客和產品組合的變化，毛利率也會隨之改變。因此，我們必須充分發揮這種天然的優勢。換句話說，如果銷售額增加，我們就有更多途徑分攤成本，同時也能提高效率，而這一切都息息相關。

The last piece is our branch model. We've evolved it -- and we'll touch on this in the months to come. But there's 2 distinct Fastenal branch models that have emerged in 2020. One is what we refer to as the CSB, the customer service branch. And that's the traditional branch that many of you are familiar with where there's a showroom in front. There's a walk-in element to our business. Still, most of it is going out the back door, but it's more traditional. It's about half of our branch network today.

最後一點是我們的分公司模式。我們已經對其進行了改進——未來幾個月我們將詳細介紹。但2020年出現了兩種截然不同的Fastenal分公司模式。一種是我們稱為CSB（客戶服務分公司）的模式。這是許多人熟悉的傳統分支機構，前面設有展覽廳。我們的業務也包含一些顧客直接到店的環節。不過，大部分顧客還是會從後門離開，但這種模式更偏向傳統。目前，這種模式約占我們分支機構網路的一半。

During 2020 -- and actually, we've been testing this within a handful of regions for the last 2, 3 years. We have what's referred to as the CFC, the customer fulfillment center. Think of it as a branch where we close the front door and the marketplace almost like that better or we're able to operate more efficiently and maybe we should keep it closed or maybe it's closed to everything other than a will call or a pickup or maybe on a regular account base. And it allows everybody to go out the back door and most of our revenues go out the back door. And that is about half our branch network right now. And those are the things that are driving improvements to things like e-commerce that I'll touch on in a few minutes.

2020年期間——實際上，在過去兩三年裡，我們一直在少數地區進行這項測試。我們設立了所謂的客戶履行中心（CFC）。你可以把它想像成一個分支機構，我們關閉了前門，這樣市場運作會更順暢，或者說我們能夠更有效率地運作。也許我們應該一直保持關閉狀態，或者只對自提、取貨或常規帳戶客戶開放。這樣一來，所有人都可以從後門離開，而我們大部分的收入也來自後門。目前，這大約占我們分支機構網路的一半。這些因素正在推動電子商務等領域的改進，我稍後會詳細介紹。

The last thing is, and I want to put a call out, I'm sitting here at a table with Holden Lewis and Sheryl Lisowski, our Chief Financial Officer and our Chief Accounting Officer. Different circumstances allow folks to shine in different ways, and our team was able to shine this year from the standpoint of solving problems in supply chain for customers. Holden and Sheryl and the entire team was able to shine in that we produced an amazingly strong cash flow in 2020. And it put us in a position late in the year, similar to what we have seen in prior occasions where we had some extra cash. We didn't see a need for that in our investments of the future, and we paid out a supplemental dividend late in the year. So my compliments to everybody on that as well.

最後一點，我想特別稱讚大家。我今天和財務長霍爾頓·劉易斯（Holden Lewis）以及首席會計官謝麗爾·利索夫斯基（Sheryl Lisowski）坐在一起。不同的境遇會讓每個人以不同的方式展現光芒，而我們團隊今年在解決客戶供應鏈問題方面表現出色。霍爾頓、謝麗爾以及整個團隊的共同努力，使我們在2020年創造了非常強勁的現金流。這讓我們在年底時擁有了額外的現金儲備，就像我們之前幾次一樣。我們認為沒有必要將這筆錢用於未來的投資，因此我們在年底派發了額外股息。所以，我也要向大家表示祝賀。

On Page 4, I started sharing this slide, I believe it was back in July. And this is looking at dispenses through vending. I think it's a way for us to illuminate for you, our shareholder, what we're seeing in underlying trends. So we index everything to 100, and these are weekly snapshots of dispenses going through those 95,000-plus vending devices in 25 countries.

在第4頁，我開始分享這張投影片，我記得是在7月。這張投影片展示的是自動販賣機的銷售情況。我認為這可以幫助我們向各位股東闡明我們觀察到的潛在趨勢。我們將所有數據都以100為基準，這些是每週透過25個國家的95,000多台自動販賣機進行的銷售情況快照。

History would say, if we're at 100, we should be at 103 by the early March. And the reason I call out that data point, that's right before the world shut down. This year, we were running 2 points ahead of that, we were at 105. And as the economy shut down, so did the dispensing activity at our vending devices and it dropped 29 from 105 to 76. By the end of June, history would say we should be at 109, 2020 wasn't historic in that regard, we were at 93. So we were down 16 still from that 29 drop-off in March and April.

歷史數據表明，如果我們目前的數值是100，那麼到3月初應該會達到103。我之所以特別提到這個數據點，是因為那正是全球經濟停擺之前。今年，我們的數值比這個數字高出2個百分點，達到了105。隨著經濟停擺，自動販賣機的出貨量也隨之下降，數值從105驟降至76，下降了29個百分點。根據歷史數據，到6月底，我們的數值應該會達到109，但2020年在這方面並沒有什麼特別之處，當時只有93個百分點。因此，相較於3月和4月下降的29個百分點，我們仍然下降了16個百分點。

By the end of September, history says, hey, you should be 112, we were 104. So that negative 16 is now a negative 8. And we always ignore the last couple of weeks of December because it's -- the world kind of shuts down because of the holidays. So if you look at the week just before that, history says, you should be about 121, we had about 115. We're still down. A piece of that is economic activity. A piece of that is we didn't sign as many vending devices because we weren't able to move in with as many people as we'd like to. And -- but -- and we're down 6.

根據歷史數據，到九月底，你們的數值應該是112，而我們只有104。所以，原本的-16變成了-8。我們總是忽略十二月的最後幾週，因為假期期間，世界基本上都停擺了。所以，如果你看看之前的那一周，根據歷史數據，你們的數值應該在121左右，而我們只有115左右。我們仍然在下降。一部分原因是經濟活動減少。一部分原因是，由於我們無法像預期那樣讓那麼多人搬進新家，所以我們沒有簽到那麼多自動販賣機。而且——但是——我們下降了6。

The next page said -- this is dispenses. The next page is unique users. So how many people are coming to work at these customers. If there's 100 employees coming in every week back in October of 2019, history would say, because we've signed some more machines, that should grow to 104. This year, we were at 107 in early March, well, when those businesses shut down and weren't using as much just because they didn't have as many employees, the number dropped 22 and it dropped from 107 to 85. The -- history says, by the end of June, we should be at 109, we are at 101. We're down 8.

下一頁顯示的是出貨量。再來一頁顯示的是獨立用戶數。那麼，有多少人來這些客戶公司上班呢？如果2019年10月每週有100名員工來上班，根據歷史數據，因為我們新增了一些機器，這個數字應該會成長到104。今年3月初，我們的數字是107，但是，當這些企業停業，員工人數減少，使用量也隨之下降時，數字下降了22，從107降到了85。根據歷史數據，到6月底，我們的數字應該達到109，現在只有101，下降了8。

By the end of September, we should be at 115, we were at 109. We're down 6. By that week before Christmas, we should be at 123, we're down 119, negative 4. In the employment front, that negative 4 is probably more about we didn't sign as many devices. So people are coming back to work and you're seeing it in the underlying numbers. But there's still -- the activity is still subdued. And the one thing I did point out on Page 4, and I apologize for that, a few of the blips you see, in early July, that's obviously July 4th week. In late November, that's obviously Thanksgiving week.

到九月底，我們的數據應該達到115，但實際上只有109，下降了6。到聖誕節前一周，我們的數據應該達到123，但實際上只有119，下降了4。就業方面，這下降的4可能更多是因為設備註冊數量減少。所以人們正在重返工作崗位，這一點可以從基礎數據中看出。但經濟活動仍低迷。我在第四頁也提到一點，對此我深表歉意，您在七月初看到的一些數據波動，顯然是因為七月四日假期那週。十一月底的數據波動，顯然是因為感恩節假期那週。

Going to Page 6. Onsites, we signed 36 in the quarter. Again, really, really choppy year. So we signed -- our goal coming in the quarter is 375 to 400 -- or coming into the year, excuse me, was 375 to 400. It slowed in March. So in first quarter, we signed about 85. Second quarter was 40. Came back a bit in Q3 at 62. In many ways, Q4 was a more chaotic environment than Q2 was in that you had case surge and I talked about our own surge internally. And we only signed 36, so 223 for the year.

翻到第6頁。關於現場服務，我們本季簽了36份合約。今年情況確實非常不穩定。我們本季的目標是簽375到400份合約——或者更準確地說，是年初的目標——375到400份。 3月開始放緩。第一季我們簽了大約85份合約。第二季是40份。第三季略有回升，簽了62份。在很多方面，第四季的環境比第二季度更加混亂，因為出現了病例激增，我也在內部討論過我們自身的病例激增情況。我們最後只簽了36份合同，所以全年總共只簽了223份。

But Holden included in the flipbook and included in our write-up, our mindset is the same. The market, we believe, will support us signing 375 to 400 a year. Conditions need to open up to allow us to do that. I don't want the investment community to read from what we sit here, "Oh, things are back to normal. Everything is hunky-dory, and we're going to do 400 signings." This is going to play out in Q1 and Q2. And as we bought into the year, the way the economy and the marketplace and the COVID environment will allow it to happen.

但正如我們在宣傳冊和報告中提到的，我們的想法始終如一。我們相信，市場會支持我們每年簽下375到400份合約。前提是市場環境允許我們這麼做。我不希望投資界從我們目前的表態中誤以為：「哦，一切都恢復正常了。一切都很順利，我們將簽下400份合約。」這會在第一季和第二季逐步顯現。正如我們年初所預期的，經濟、市場以及新冠疫情環境的變化將決定這一切能否實現。

You saw how it played out in 2020. We don't have a crystal ball. We don't -- we're not the burning bush. We can't tell you what's going to happen. What you can tell is we believe the marketplace likes what this Onsite is about and is open to that Onsite. And it's really about engagement with the customer. The Onsite signings is just a marker in time of what that engagement has translated into. But we're very bullish on the fact that Onsite proved its value in 2020.

你們都看到了2020年的發展。我們沒有水晶球，我們也不是預言家，我們無法預知未來。但可以肯定的是，我們相信市場認可Onsite的模式，並且對它持開放態度。 Onsite的核心在於與客戶的互動。 Onsite的簽約量只是這種互動轉化為實際成果的一個標誌。我們非常看好Onsite在2020年展現出的價值。

Vending, and I talked earlier about the whole FMI concept. That's meant to provide better information to the investment community, not to confuse the issue with vending and bins and all that kind of stuff. So read it as this is an outgrowth of the Apex transaction.

我之前也談過自動販賣機，以及整個FMI概念。它的目的是為投資界提供更優質的信息，而不是把這個問題和自動販賣機、貨箱之類的東西混淆起來。所以，你可以把它理解為Apex交易的延伸。

E-commerce, 38% growth in the fourth quarter of 2020. In March, we broke 10% of our sales being e-commerce for the first time ever. And I'm pleased to say that despite the fact that the surge actually hurt it because most of those surge orders, actually, almost all of them, are outside of e-commerce. That's people in a chaotic fashion, order -- getting product from us, and a lot of that is over the phone. But despite all that, for the first time in our history, e-commerce is more than 10% of our revenue.

2020年第四季，電子商務成長了38%。 3月份，我們的電子商務銷售額首次突破了10%。儘管激增的訂單實際上對電子商務造成了一定影響，因為幾乎所有這些訂單都並非來自電子商務管道，而是來自其他管道。這些訂單大多是人們以較為混亂的方式向我們訂購產品，其中許多是透過電話完成的。但即便如此，電子商務銷售額仍首次超過了我們總營收的10%。

And again, that's e-commerce measured the way this community measures it. I personally think that's an inaccurate way to measure it because I think 20% of our revenue being vending is e-commerce. I think 7% to 10% of our revenue being bins and FAST Stock is e-commerce because -- but it's better than e-commerce because the customer doesn't have to order it. That's the best digital flow there is. And then the final being this 10%, that truly is e-commerce.

再說一遍，這是這個社群對電子商務的衡量標準。我個人認為這種衡量方式並不準確，因為我認為我們自動販賣機收入的20%屬於電子商務。我認為我們7%到10%的收入來自貨架和快速庫存，這部分也屬於電子商務，但比一般的電子商務更好，因為顧客不需要下訂單。這是目前最好的數位化流程。而剩下的10%，才是真正意義上的電子商務。

With that, I'm going to turn it over to Holden because I don't have my text from my wife telling me to shut up.

既然如此，我就把麥克風交給霍爾頓了，因為我沒有收到我妻子要我閉嘴的簡訊。

Great self-control, Dan. All right. Good morning. Flipping over to Slide 7. Fourth quarter of 2020 sales were up 6.4% annually, that's an acceleration from the third quarter. Holiday timing was favorable this year, but even so, the overall tenor of the marketplace continued to improve during the period. Sales of safety products were up 34.6%, driven by growth to state and local government and health care customers, which is at 98.3% in the period.

丹，你自製力真強。好的，早安。翻到第七張幻燈片。 2020年第四季銷售額年增6.4%，比第三季增速加快。今年的假期時機不錯，但即便如此，市場整體情勢在此期間仍在持續改善。安全產品銷售額成長34.6%，主要得益於州和地方政府以及醫療保健客戶的業務成長，該季度這些客戶的銷售額佔比高達98.3%。

This continues to be some blend of COVID mitigation, PPE restocking and prestocking as well as share gains. The most encouraging data point is that 28% of the accounts that bought PPE from us for the first time in the second quarter of 2020 bought from us in the fourth quarter, and they tended to be the larger opportunities. So this continues to reinforce that we have gained share and increased our growth prospects with state and local government and health care customers that's going to carry into 2021.

這仍然是新冠疫情緩解措施、個人防護裝備（PPE）補貨和預購以及市場份額增長等多種因素共同作用的結果。最令人鼓舞的數據是，2020年第二季首次從我們這裡購買PPE的客戶中，有28%在第四季繼續向我們採購，而且這些客戶往往是規模較大的客戶。因此，這進一步印證了我們在州和地方政府以及醫療保健客戶中擴大了市場份額，並提升了成長前景，這一趨勢將延續到2021年。

Nonsafety products were up 0.3% annually, accelerating versus the third quarter of 2020. Janitorial products, driven by the same trends as safety, were up 30.3%. More cyclical verticals remained negative in the fourth quarter of 2020 but generally saw moderation in the rates of decline. In fact, fasteners and material handling edged into growth territory in December.

非安全防護產品年增0.3%，較2020年第三季增速加快。受與安全防護產品相同的趨勢驅動，清潔用品增加了30.3%。週期性較強的垂直產業在2020年第四季仍呈現負成長，但整體而言，下滑速度有所放緩。事實上，緊固件和物料搬運設備在12月實現了小幅成長。

Improving macro data is producing better trends in core markets, particularly in manufacturing, which grew 1.7% in the fourth quarter of 2020. We don't have a lot of visibility, but our regional VPs remain optimistic that activity will continue to improve.

宏觀經濟數據的改善帶動了核心市場的改善趨勢，尤其是製造業，2020年第四季成長了1.7%。我們目前對未來情勢的了解還不夠深入，但我們的區域副總裁們仍然樂觀地認為，經濟活動將會繼續改善。

The exception to this normalization is our growth driver signings. COVID continues to negatively affect labor markets and supply chains, but our customers are operating around those conditions. We believe that absent COVID, the market will support 100 vending signings per day and 100 Onsite signings per quarter. However, lack of access to facilities and decision-makers in light of COVID protocols is delaying new commitments, the challenge that is carrying into the first quarter of 2021 and makes it difficult to determine when signings activity will return to potential.

唯一例外的是我們的成長驅動型簽約。新冠疫情持續對勞動市場和供應鏈造成負面影響，但我們的客戶仍在努力克服這些困難。我們相信，如果沒有疫情，市場每天可以支援100個自動販賣機簽約，每季可以支援100個現場簽約。然而，由於疫情管控措施導致無法接觸到相關設施和決策者，新的簽約承諾被推遲，這項挑戰延續到了2021年第一季度，也使得我們難以確定簽約活動何時才能恢復到預期水準。

Now to Slide 8. Gross margin was 45.6% in the fourth quarter of 2020, down 130 basis points due to product and channel mix, relative growth of lower-margin COVID products and organizational factors such as further clearance, lower vendor rebates and overhead deleveraging. Gross margin was up 30 basis points sequentially in a quarter that more commonly sees a decline.

現在來看第8張投影片。 2020年第四季毛利率為45.6%，下降130個基點，主要原因是產品和通路組合的變化、低利潤率新冠相關產品的相對增長，以及一些組織因素，例如進一步清倉、供應商返利減少和管理費用槓桿化。毛利率較上季成長30個基點，而通常情況下，第四季毛利率會下降。

Relative to the third quarter of 2020, we saw the revenue share of lower-margin COVID-related products decline by 200 basis points even as the margin on those products improved by 200 basis points on selective pricing actions taken in the quarter. We also experienced more favorable shipping and fleet costs in the period, largely from having rationalized our weekly routes earlier in the year.

與2020年第三季相比，儘管本季採取的選擇性定價措施使低利潤率的COVID相關產品的利潤率提高了200個基點，但這些產品的收入份額仍下降了200個基點。此外，由於年初對每週運輸路線進行了最佳化，本季我們的運輸和車隊成本也得到了改善。

Strong growth and continued tight control of costs generated 210 basis points of SG&A leverage to produce an operating margin of 19.5%, up 80 basis points year-to-year. Nearly half this leverage came over labor costs as our record fourth quarter sales were achieved with headcount that was down mid-single digits versus last year.

強勁的成長及持續嚴格的成本控制，使銷售、管理及行政費用槓桿效應達到210個基點，進而達到19.5%的營業利潤率，較去年同期成長80個基點。其中近一半的槓桿效應來自勞動成本，因為我們在員工人數較去年同期下降5%的情況下，依然實現了創紀錄的第四季銷售額。

Labor productivity improved meaningfully in the fourth quarter and full year of 2020 and we will look to sustain this in 2021. We also leveraged occupancy on lower branch count and vending costs as well as other expenses on tight control of travel, lower freight costs as we rationalized our branch pickup fleet and lower insurance costs. Our incremental margin was 31%. If you put it all together, we reported a fourth quarter 2020 earnings per share of $0.34, up 9.6% from $0.31 in the fourth quarter of 2019.

2020年第四季及全年勞動生產力大幅提升，我們將力爭在2021年維持這一成長動能。此外，我們透過減少分公司數量和自動販賣機成本，以及嚴格控制差旅、精簡分公司提貨車隊並降低保險成本，有效降低了貨運成本，從而提高了入住率。我們的增量利潤率為31%。綜合以上因素，我們2020年第四季每股收益為0.34美元，較2019年第四季的0.31美元成長9.6%。

Turning to Slide 9. We produced $321 million of operating cash flow in the fourth quarter of 2020, representing 164% of net income. For the full year, we produced $1.1 billion of operating cash flow or 128% of net income. Weak demand freed up cash and working capital, and we did benefit from $30 million in CARES Act-related deferred payroll taxes and about $20 million in payables that moved from the fourth quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021. However, we also believe we are taking steps to be more productive with working capital.

請看投影片9。2020年第四季，我們實現了3.21億美元的營運現金流，佔淨利的164%。全年來看，我們實現了11億美元的營運現金流，佔淨利的128%。需求疲軟釋放了現金和營運資金，我們也受惠於《新冠病毒援助、救濟和經濟安全法案》（CARES Act）相關的3,000萬美元遞延薪資稅款，以及約2,000萬美元的應付帳款從2020年第四季延至2021年第一季。然而，我們也相信，我們正在採取措施，提高營運資金的使用效率。

Accounts receivable were up 3.7% with growth related to higher sales mitigated by improved collections, with past dues down 23% year-over-year. Inventories were down 2.1%. We have taken steps to make it easier to move inventory internally to get it where it can best be used, which has been particularly useful as we have closed branches and migrated other branches to a leaner inventory model. We put energy into clearing older stock from our branches and hubs. As a result, branch inventory was down nearly 8% at year-end, while Onsite and hub inventory was up just low single digits.

應收帳款成長3.7%，銷售成長帶來的增幅被收款狀況的改善所抵消，逾期帳款較去年同期下降23%。庫存下降2.1%。我們已採取措施簡化內部庫存調撥流程，使其能夠得到最佳利用，這在我們關閉部分分行並將其他分行遷移到更精簡的庫存模式時尤為有效。我們投入大量精力清理分公司和配送中心的舊庫存。因此，年底分公司庫存下降近8%，而現場和配送中心庫存僅增加了個位數百分比。

Net capital spending was $158 million in 2020, the lower end of our $155 million to $180 million range. In 2021, we expect net capital spending to be $170 million to $200 million with the increase over the prior year being a combination of catch-up maintenance spending following tight spending controls in 2020 as well as higher spending for a non-hub facility project in Winona to support our growth.

2020年淨資本支出為1.58億美元，處於我們先前設定的1.55億美元至1.8億美元區間的下限。 2021年，我們預計淨資本支出將達到1.7億美元至2億美元，較上年增長的原因包括：2020年嚴格控制支出後，需要追趕性地增加維護支出；以及為支持公司發展，在威諾納市一個非樞紐設施項目上增加了支出。

Record net income and operating cash flow in 2020 allowed us to acquire the assets of Apex, deploy significant resources to secure critical products and carry working capital for customers and return $855 million to investors in the form of dividends, including a special dividend in December and share repurchase. At the same time, net debt is just 5.1% of total capital and substantially all of our revolver is available for use.

2020年創紀錄的淨利潤和營運現金流使我們能夠收購Apex的資產，投入大量資源以確保關鍵產品供應，並為客戶提供營運資金，同時以股息形式向投資者返還8.55億美元，其中包括12月份的特別股息和股票回購。同時，淨債務僅佔總資本的5.1%，且我們幾乎全部的循環信貸額度均可使用。

Now before turning it over to Q&A, there's one change to reporting I wanted to discuss, and Dan alluded to this. The bin stocks have long been used in distribution to hold product in customer facilities. Over the last few years, we have taken these bins, and we've equipped them with scales or sensors that turn them into digital tools that provide product visibility, continuously monitor those products and generate fulfillment efficiencies.

在進入問答環節之前，我想先談談報告方面的一項變化，丹也提到過這一點。長期以來，倉庫貨架一直被用於配送，以存放客戶倉庫中的產品。過去幾年，我們為這些貨架配備了秤或感測器，使其成為數位化工具，從而能夠提供產品可視化訊息，持續監控產品，並提高訂單履行效率。

These FAST Bins complement Vending to expand the products that can be digitally managed and round out our Fastenal Managed Inventory or FMI offering. And we anticipate commercializing them more aggressively in 2021. As a result, in 2021, we will replace reporting on vending signings with weighted FMI signings. This is going to convert each vending device and FAST Bin device into a standard unit based on the target output of our FAST 5000 vending machine, which is 2,000 a month, and combine that into a single data point. In 2020, our weighted FMI signings were 15,724. In 2021, we are targeting 23,000 to 25,000 weighted FMI signings.

這些FAST Bins是自動販賣機的補充，旨在擴展可進行數位化管理的產品種類，並完善我們的Fastenal管理庫存（FMI）產品組合。我們預計將在2021年更積極地推廣這些產品。因此，在2021年，我們將以加權FMI簽約量取代自動販賣機簽約量的報告。這將把每個自動販賣機和FAST Bin設備轉換為一個標準單元，該標準單元基於我們FAST 5000自動販賣機的目標產量（每月2000台），並將這些單元的資料合併為單一的資料點。 2020年，我們的加權FMI簽約量為15724台。 2021年，我們的目標是達到23,000至25,000台加權FMI簽約量。

With that, operator, we'll take questions.

好了，操作員，我們開始接受提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Adam Uhlman from Cleveland Research.

（操作說明）我們今天的第一個問題來自克利夫蘭研究公司的亞當烏爾曼。

Congrats on the successful year. Hey, I was wondering if you could help us out with maybe some insights or a framework of how you're thinking about margins for this current year? The company did a great job controlling costs in a tough environment. It seems like perhaps hiring picks up and some other expenses, like bonuses should probably be bigger. Any kind of rough framework you could help us out with?

恭喜你們成功了！我想請教一下，你們能否分享一下今年利潤率的思考想法或框架？公司在如此艱難的環境下，成本控製做得非常出色。看來，招聘可能會增加，其他一些支出，例如獎金，也應該提高。您能否提供一個大致的框架？

You broke up a little bit there. I guess I could probably interpret about 20 questions in that one. So I'll try to keep it short. If I think about, starting at gross margin, if I think about 2021, this might be one of those years where given the easy comps that we have, I would expect our gross margin to be up year-over-year.

你剛才說話有點斷斷續續的。我估計我能從中解讀出大約20個問題。所以我盡量長話短說。如果我從毛利率的角度來考慮，展望2021年，考慮到今年的基數較低，我預期我們的毛利率會比去年同期成長。

Now I've had some conversations with folks that are getting really, really high numbers and that sort of thing, so I don't think that the concept surprises anybody. But order of magnitude, I think we need to think about -- in 2019, our gross margin was 47.2%. If nothing else had changed, let's assume that mix would have pulled that down 60 basis points a year in 2020 and 2021, which puts it at about 46%, just naturally on mix, if nothing else had changed.

現在我和一些人聊過，他們取得了非常非常高的業績，所以我覺得這個概念並不令人意外。但數量級上，我認為我們需要考慮──2019年，我們的毛利率是47.2%。假設其他條件不變，我們假設產品組合的變化導致2020年和2021年的毛利率每年下降60個基點，也就是大約46%，這只是產品組合變化造成的自然結果。

The -- but if I think about -- so if I think about that as kind of a baseline, it's true that I don't expect the inefficiencies, particularly in the second quarter, to repeat. But I do expect that we're going to have higher COVID mix in 2020, just those types of projects in 2021 than we did in 2019. And I think that's going to work against that 2019 baseline a little bit.

但是，如果我把2019年的情況當作基準線來看，我的確不認為效率低下的情況，尤其是在第二季度，會重演。但我預計，2020年與新冠疫情相關的項目會比2019年更多，2021年這類項目也會更多。我認為這會對2019年的基準線產生一定影響。

If I think about -- we're still going to be selling through mask inventory through the first 2 or 3 quarters of the year, and that's going to pull margin down a little bit. I will tell you, I think the shipping costs are showing every indication of probably moving up as we get towards the end of first quarter into second quarter, and so I think there's some pressure there.

仔細想想，我們今年前兩三個季度還得繼續清空口罩庫存，這會稍微拉低利潤率。而且，我認為隨著第一季末進入第二季度，運輸成本很有可能會上漲，所以這方面會有一些壓力。

And so like I said, I do believe that our gross margin will be up a bit in 2021 over 2020. But as I said, I think we need to be somewhat tempered in our expectations of the order of magnitude. And I say that only because I've had some conversations where I think people are being a bit overaggressive with that. So hopefully, that gives you, Adam, a little bit of a framework to think about gross margin.

所以就像我剛才說的，我相信2021年的毛利率會比2020年略有成長。但正如我所說，我認為我們需要對毛利率的成長幅度保持一定的謹慎。我這麼說是因為我跟一些人交流過，我覺得他們在這方面有點太樂觀了。希望這些能給你，亞當，提供一個思考毛利率的框架。

As it relates to operating margin, I would expect that labor would get better or that we would add labor. I do consider that getting better because it means we're adding selling energy. But whatever our growth winds up being at the top line, I would expect that our increase in FTEs would be no more than 50% of that growth and perhaps somewhat less than that. And I think that's kind of the objective of the organization. And so I think that we will leverage labor when we grow this year.

就營業利潤率而言，我預期勞動成本會降低，或者我們會增加勞動力。我認為勞動成本降低意味著我們增加了能源銷售收入。但無論最終營收成長多少，我預期全職員工人數的成長不會超過營收成長的50%，甚至可能略低於這個比例。我認為這正是公司的目標。因此，我認為我們將在今年實現成長的同時充分利用勞動力資源。

And so when you tie it all together, I'm still thinking in terms of the framework of 20% to 25% incremental margins based on whatever level of growth that we can achieve this year. And those are, I think, the pieces that I would think about.

所以，綜合所有因素來看，我仍然認為今年的利潤率成長率應在20%到25%之間，這取決於我們今年能夠實現的成長水準。我認為，這些就是我會考慮的幾個面向。

The next question today is coming from David Manthey from Baird.

今天的下一個問題來自 Baird 公司的 David Manthey。

Well, I wanted to ask you about the Bin, Stock or the FMI initiative. Historically, when you've come out with initiatives like vending or Onsite or CSP or whatever, you've outlined some of the key aspects of the strategy, and this one seems fairly significant. I'm just wondering, can you share any margin metrics or how you view the TAM to help us visualize the long-term opportunity of the Bin, Stock or this FMI initiative?

我想問您關於「庫存管理」（Bin, Stock）或「FMI」計劃的問題。以往，當您推出諸如自動販賣機、現場服務、CSP 等計畫時，您都會概述一些關鍵策略要點，而這次的計畫似乎意義重大。我想請您分享一些利潤率指標，或者您如何看待潛在市場規模（TAM），以便我們更好地了解「庫存管理」（Bin, Stock）或這項 FMI 計劃的長期發展機會？

I'll just think out loud a little bit. If I think of the FMI vending -- FMI Vend component, that is really a non-fastener thing. And close to 50% of the revenue going through vending is a safety product. So as we were evolving through that, go back to the earlier part of the last decade, we were having those discussions about what that meant from a mix standpoint.

我稍微自言自語一下。如果我想到FMI自動販賣機－FMI Vend組件，它實際上並非緊固件類產品。而透過自動販賣機獲得的收入中，近50%都來自安全產品。所以，在我們發展過程中，回溯到上個十年初期，我們一直在討論從產品組合的角度來看，這代表什麼。

If I think of the FMI Bin, and then I think of the FMI -- excuse me, FAST Bin and FAST Stock, FAST Bin, especially the RFID component of that, is, in a lot of cases, it might be in a production environment, where it's a Kanban system and when that bin is empty, you throw it in a tub up above your shelf and it tells us you have an empty bin. So it's pretty basic technology, if you think about it that way, resilient technology. That's probably more production environment, so that probably has a gross margin profile that's more akin to the vending.

如果我先想到FMI Bin，然後再想到FMI——抱歉，應該是FAST Bin和FAST Stock，FAST Bin，尤其是其中的RFID組件，在很多情況下，它可能應用於生產環境，例如看板系統。當這個箱子空了，你就把它丟到貨架上方的桶子裡，系統就會提示你箱子空了。所以，如果你這麼想的話，它其實是一項非常基本但又可靠的技術。這可能更適用於生產環境，因此它的毛利率可能更接近自動販賣機。

If I think of it from the standpoint of FMI, the third piece, FAST Stock, that's a lot of MRO and -- or a nice mix of MRO. And so that's probably -- and it's very fastener centered, and so that has a margin that's more like the fastener piece. Does that help, Dave?

如果從FMI的角度來看，第三部分，FAST Stock，它包含大量的MRO（維護、維修和運行）以及——或者說是MRO的良好組合。所以它可能——而且它非常注重緊固件，因此它的邊距更像是緊固件部分。這樣解釋清楚了嗎，戴夫？

Yes, it does. I guess you've outlined these pie charts that should give us an idea of where you think you're headed in terms of revenues. And yes, that does help in terms of the profitability. So we'll talk again off-line.

是的，確實如此。我想您已經繪製了這些圓餅圖，應該能讓我們大致了解您預期的營收成長方向。沒錯，這確實有助於提高獲利能力。那我們線下再聊。

Yes. The other piece I'll point out is -- the best part about FAST Bin and FAST Stock is it's a labor efficiency. It's productivity. Because that business we want to go after allows us to go after that with the best cost structure because that's been a really critical part of our path the last 5 years, and it's going to be a critical part of our path for the next 5 years. Holden, you were...

是的。我還要指出一點——FAST Bin 和 FAST Stock 最棒的地方在於它提高了勞動效率，也就是生產力。因為我們想要開拓的業務領域允許我們以最優的成本結構來實現這一目標，這在過去五年中一直是我們發展道路上的關鍵一環，而且在未來五年中也將繼續如此。霍爾頓，你…

Yes. And I might contribute this to that. I get asked a lot, what is the gross margin of a vending machine? And my answer is often, a vending machine doesn't have a gross margin, it really depends on the product that's vended and what margin comes with that product.

是的。我或許可以補充一點。我常被問到自動販賣機的毛利率是多少？我的回答通常是，自動販賣機沒有固定的毛利率，它實際上取決於出售的商品以及該商品的利潤率。

And I would think about the FAST Bin the same way. I don't think the bin has an inherent margin, it depends on what is being stored in that bin. And so when we think about the bins, we've always had FAST Stock, which has been heavily oriented towards fasteners. And so you would argue that that bin has a fastener type of margin.

我對FAST收納箱的看法也是一樣。我認為收納箱本身並沒有固定的利潤空間，這取決於裡面存放的物品。我們一直以來都有FAST庫存，而FAST庫存主要存放的是緊固件。因此，可以說這種收納箱的利潤空間是緊固件類型的。

What we believe will happen, in addition to the efficiencies that Dan talked about in terms of the fulfillment process, we think that these FAST Bins will actually lend themselves to our being able to be more involved with other lines outside of fasteners. Power transmission and fluid power come to mind, for instance.

除了丹提到的提高物流效率之外，我們認為這些快速出貨箱實際上還能讓我們涉足緊固件以外的其他產品線。例如，動力傳輸和流體動力領域。

And so the -- we've always done fasteners in these bins. We'll continue to do fasteners in these bins. We'll get the benefits and efficiencies for fulfillment. We'll certainly try to leverage that into even more market share in fasteners. We've always done that.

所以，我們一直以來都用這些箱子存放緊固件。我們也會繼續這樣做。這樣可以提高出貨效率，帶來許多好處。我們當然會努力利用這一點，進一步擴大緊固件的市場佔有率。我們一直都是這麼做的。

But to the extent that we can use FAST Bin to get into some of our other 9 product verticals a little bit more deeply, those verticals will typically have a lower gross margin than fasteners. And they'll probably be more consistent with our non-fastener business, which is in that sort of low to mid-40s type of range.

但是，如果我們能利用 FAST Bin 更深入地拓展到其他 9 個產品垂直領域，這些垂直領域的毛利率通常會低於緊固件業務。而且，它們的毛利率可能更接近我們的非緊固件業務，也就是毛利率在 40% 到 50% 左右的區間。

Our next question is coming from Chris Dankert from Longbow Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Longbow Research 的 Chris Dankert。

I guess, first off, just thinking about FMI again to kind of further pull that thread. We're talking about increasing labor efficiency. Just any additional benefit that you guys could explicitly call out on working capital in 2021 from that initiative?

首先，我想再次提及FMI，以便進一步探討這個主題。我們正在討論提高勞動效率。你們能否具體指出，這項措施在2021年對營運資金還有哪些好處？

For FAST Bin, what we're doing with the FAST Bins?

對於 FAST Bin，我們正在對 FAST Bins 進行哪些操作？

Yes. And if you're increasing inventory turns, just kind of -- is there any explicit benefit to working capital there?

是的。如果提高庫存週轉率，那麼——這對營運資本有什麼明顯的益處嗎？

Yes. I probably don't want to get ahead of ourselves on what that means for 2021 because it's still going to be -- it's still something new. And to be honest with you, the only reason -- when we started vending years ago, we didn't start talking about it until we were about 3 years into it. And here, we're actually talking about it when we're about a year into it. And the only reason being is because in some cases, where we would have put a vending machine in the past, I think we'll put some bins in now because we now have a better suite of products because we own the underlying technology, and it improves our ability to bring the most efficient tool to bear.

是的。我可能不想過早地談論這對2021年意味著什麼，因為這仍然是——這仍然是一個全新的事物。坦白說，唯一的原因是──幾年前我們才剛開始做自動販賣機的時候，直到大約三年後才開始討論這個問題。而現在，我們才做了一年左右就開始討論它了。唯一的原因是，在某些情況下，過去我們會放置自動販賣機的地方，我認為我們現在會放置一些貨架，因為我們現在擁有更完善的產品組合，因為我們掌握了底層技術，這提高了我們運用最有效工具的能力。

The -- we've talked in previous calls about what we call our LIFT concept, Local Inventory Fulfillment Terminal. And really, what that's about is perhaps, sometimes the best place to stock product and to pick product is in the local branch or onsite. Sometimes where to do -- put that product is in the regional distribution center.

我們在先前的電話會議中討論過我們稱之為 LIFT 的概念，即本地庫存履行終端。實際上，它的核心在於，有時最佳的商品入庫和揀貨地點可能是本地分店或現場，有時則應該將商品存放在區域配送中心。

And really, what we're doing with LIFT is something we talked about years ago is supporting vending with maybe a third type of distribution, and that's the fulfillment terminal. We're just -- what's going in that vending machine is what's in that little LIFT facility. And we're managing it there, and we're able to strip -- these are high-frequency turnover products. We're able to strip some of that out of our branch and rake it into the LIFT facility, which is, from a labor standpoint, more efficient. But from a working capital standpoint, incredibly attractive over time.

實際上，我們利用 LIFT 系統所做的，正是我們幾年前就討論過的：用第三種分銷方式——配送終端——來支援自動販賣機。我們所做的，就是把自動販賣機裡的商品送到 LIFT 配送中心。我們在那裡進行管理，並能將一些週轉率高的產品從我們的門市分揀出來，送到 LIFT 配送中心。從勞動成本的角度來看，這種方式效率更高。但從營運資金的角度來看，長期來看，這種方式也極具吸引力。

We had -- we have 9 LIFT facilities that are operating at the end of the year. We're still just touching a really, really small percentage of our vending devices. I think we're touching about 2,500 right now. And our goal is to double that LIFT from 9 operating at the end of this year to 18 at the end of next year.

今年底，我們有9個LIFT自助式販賣機投入營運。目前我們僅使用了極小一部分自動販賣機，大約2500台。我們的目標是到明年年底將LIFT自助式販賣機的數量翻一番，從今年年底的9個增加到18個。

We'll still be, even with our optimistic projections, still touching a relatively small number of vending devices at the end of the year, but it's ever growing, and that will work some working capital out. But it's still on a relatively small base. That logic equally applies to FAST Bin and FAST Stock.

即使按照我們樂觀的預測，到年底我們仍然只能處理相對較少的自動販賣機，但數量正在不斷增長，這將有助於消耗一些營運資金。不過，目前的基數仍然相對較小。此邏輯同樣適用於 FAST Bin 和 FAST Stock。

And what I might contribute to that is if you think about the core value add that Fastenal brings to our customers, it's -- our being able to go to them and say, look, today, you have 100 widgets on the shelf because we're better at managing the supply chain because of what we do, we can reduce those 100 widgets to 80 widgets.

而我能貢獻的，是如果你想想 Fastenal 為​​我們的客戶帶來的核心附加價值，那就是——我們能夠去告訴他們，你看，今天你們貨架上有 100 個小部件，因為我們透過我們的工作更好地管理了供應鏈，我們可以把這 100 個小部件減少到 80 個。

Now those 80 widgets will still probably include some safety stock from our perspective because we want to make sure that we don't shut the customer down, and we need to make sure that we go and we check those bins and check those machines, et cetera. And so those 80 widgets are an improvement. But when you think about what FAST Bin can do in terms of informing us in real time about need, it's possible that those 80 widgets can be 75 because we're much more aware of what the quantities on hand are.

現在，從我們的角度來看，這80個小部件可能仍然包含一些安全庫存，因為我們要確保不會讓客戶停工，我們需要檢查貨箱、機器等等。所以，這80個小部件已經有所改進。但是，考慮到FAST Bin系統能夠即時告知我們需求，這80個小部件可能只需要75個，因為我們現在對庫存數量更加了解了。

I agree with Dan. I think 2021 is far too early to talk about what the impact of this is on working capital. This is the first year we're really aggressively commercializing what we've built and worked on. But I mean, intuitively, if we market this correctly, and I think we will, there should be some benefit over time to working capital from the efficiencies it brings to the fulfillment.

我同意丹的觀點。我認為現在討論這項技術對營運資金的影響還為時過早，畢竟今年是我們真正開始大力推廣我們研發成果的第一年。但我的意思是，憑直覺，如果我們能正確地進行市場推廣（我相信我們能做到），那麼隨著時間的推移，它帶來的效率提升應該會對營運資金有所裨益。

Understood. Understood. And does it make sense -- just very briefly to follow up, when I look at 2Q, obviously, a lot of noise from some of the surge sales. Does it make sense to kind of benchmark 2Q EBIT margin on 2Q '19? Is that how we should really be thinking about it? It sounds like kind of, in your prepared remarks, how you're trying to walk people there a bit.

明白了。明白了。那麼，我再簡單補充一下，當我查看第二季數據時，很明顯，一些銷售激增帶來了很多幹擾。那麼，將第二季的息稅前利潤率與2019年第二季進行比較是否合理？我們應該這樣考慮嗎？聽起來，您在準備的發言稿中似乎也在引導大家理解這一點。

Well, I'll answer that this way. It's the way we spoke at our virtual leadership meeting back in December. And it's centered on our government business, which was a huge recipient of a lot of these COVID-type surge sales.

嗯，我這樣回答吧。這是我們去年12月線上領導會議的討論內容。重點是我們的政府業務，這部分業務是新冠疫情期間大量銷售激增的主要受益者。

Our government business historically is a relatively small part of our business. It's about 4%. In the second quarter, it surged over 10% of our business. And I don't know what the final number was for the year, but it was -- through most of the year, on a year-to-date basis, it was up over 100% year-over-year.

我們的政府業務歷來在我們業務中所佔比例相對較小，大約只有4%。但在第二季度，這一比例飆升至10%以上。我不知道全年的最終數字是多少，但就今年迄今的數據而言，大部分時間裡，年增率都超過了100%。

And so when we come into a year like 2021, the way we talk about it internally is, "Okay, normally, that business, which is still a young business, we would expect it to grow, say, 20% a year." So when we're looking at second quarter of 2021 for our government business, we're saying to our teams, ignore your year-over-year numbers because all that matters right now is where are we in January and where are we building to in September and October and then what does that mean for 2022.

因此，當我們進入像 2021 年這樣的年份時，我們內部是這樣討論的：「好的，通常情況下，這項業務（它仍然是一項新興業務）預計每年增長 20% 左右。」 因此，當我們展望 2021 年第二季度政府業務時，我們會告訴我們的團隊，忽略同比數據，因為現在唯一重要的是我們在 1 月份的目標年意味著什麼。

But in the case of the second quarter, as an example, take your 2019 Q2 numbers, if you are in the government -- if you're leading our government team. Add to it the 20% we would have expected in Q2 2020, ignoring the COVID thing, and then add another 20% to it for 2021. So 2019 plus 2020, 20% plus 20%, 20% twice over. And that's where your head should be on where you're growing to -- going to be in the second quarter. And that's going to be a negative number for government in the second quarter, unless there's a different way to do math.

但以第二季為例，假設你在政府部門工作──如果你領導政府團隊──那麼請以2019年第二季的數據為例。在此基礎上，加上我們預期2020年第二季成長的20%（不考慮新冠疫情的影響），然後再加上2021年成長的20%。也就是說，2019年加上2020年，20%加上20%，也就是兩倍的20%。這就是你在第二季應該關注的成長方向。除非有其他計算方法，否則政府部門在第二季的成長將為負值。

And then the challenge to them is because of the broader exposure we received in the marketplace and the fact that more government customers know about us -- and the only area where our Onsite signings accelerated in 2020 over 2019 was with government customers. In the rest of the world, you saw our overall numbers.

他們面臨的挑戰在於，我們在市場上獲得了更廣泛的曝光，而且更多政府客戶了解了我們——2020年我們現場簽約量較2019年唯一增長的領域就是政府客戶。至於世界其他地區的簽約量，你們也看到了我們的整體數據。

And does that 20% plus 20% contemplate the fact that more people want to buy from us or more people are aware of us, and maybe that second 20% can become a 25% or a 30%, I don't know. But that's the way we're thinking about it.

那20%加20%是否考慮到了更多人想從我們這裡購買產品或更多人了解我們，也許第二個20%會變成25%或30%，我不知道。但我們是這麼想的。

Yes. And I would say also, inasmuch as 2020 is an unusual year from a traditional seasonality standpoint when you think about full year numbers and how the quarters played out, I would expect 2021 to be more traditional from a seasonality standpoint. Depending on what your sort of outlook is for the macro economy, maybe it's a little stronger in the back half than the front half, I don't know, your call.

是的。而且，考慮到2020年從傳統的季節性角度來看確實是一個不同尋常的年份，尤其是考慮到全年數據和各季度的具體情況，我預計2021年從季節性角度來看會更加正常。至於下半年的經濟表現可能會比上半年略好一些，這取決於你對宏觀經濟的預期，我也不確定，最終由你來判斷。

But I think that what you're probably ultimately going to do is build out your annual expectations. And if you think about the traditional seasonality of our business, that will probably allow you to back into the answer.

但我認為你最終可能會做的，是製定年度預期。如果你考慮到我們業務的傳統季節性，那或許就能幫你反推出答案。

Your next question is coming from Ryan Merkel from William Blair.

你的下一個問題來自威廉布萊爾的瑞安默克爾。

Two questions from me. So first off, construction was still pretty slow. What's the outlook there? And then on pricing, it looks like prices were flat this quarter. What are you expecting for price increase in 2021 for both product and freight?

我有兩個問題。首先，建築業仍然相當低迷，前景如何？其次，價格方面，本季價格似乎持平。您預計2021年產品和運費的價格漲幅是多少？

The -- as it relates to construction, I wish I had different color to give you than I have in the last few months, which is to say that conditions are still soft, but the expectations continue to improve. So if I think about heading into 2021, my expectation for construction is still that the weakness that we're seeing today is beginning to be remedied through projects coming back on the board and things like that, and that resulted in better results in 2021 than what we saw in 2020.

就建築業而言，我希望我能給予與過去幾個月不同的評價，也就是說，雖然市場環境依然疲軟，但預期正在持續改善。展望2021年，我對建築業的預期仍然是，目前我們看到的疲軟局面正隨著專案重啟等因素而逐漸改善，這將使2021年的結果優於2020年。

That would be my expectation. But yes, at least at this point, it's still fairly soft. So we'll see. Obviously, comps play a role in that. But from the feedback from the regions, for the most part, they're talking about seeing some improvement in the overall tenor of the construction market. So I'm waiting like you guys are to see that actually translate into numbers.

我的預期也是如此。但沒錯，至少目前來看，市場依然比較疲軟。所以我們拭目以待。當然，可比市場會對此產生影響。但從各地區的回饋來看，他們大多認為建築市場的整體氛圍有所改善。所以我和你們一樣，都在等待這些改善最終轉化為實際數據。

Don't lose perspective. One element of our construction is there is a tether to oil and gas.

不要失去客觀視角。我們建設的要素之一就是與石油和天然氣息息相關。

Yes, absolutely. And that's -- that remains fairly soft. So again, there, too, I think that the regionals are sort of eyeing that Q2 as perhaps being a period where you might start seeing some strength there. So we'll see. I would say that's...

是的，沒錯。而且——這方面仍然相當疲軟。所以，同樣地，我認為區域賽方面也在關注第二季度，希望屆時能看到一些復甦的跡象。讓我們拭目以待。我想說的是…

And the pricing.

還有定價。

And then on the pricing side, yes, I would say that pricing was not meaningfully different in Q4 than it has been the last couple of quarters. I would say, going forward, the question really is going to relate to what happens to material costs.

至於定價方面，是的，我認為第四季的定價與過去幾季相比並沒有顯著差異。展望未來，真正的關鍵在於原料成本的走勢。

And we have seen an uptick in steel. I think many of you have talked about that very same dynamic. And if that continues or persists, then I would anticipate that we would have to take some action to mitigate that.

我們已經看到鋼鐵需求回升。我想你們很多人都談到了這個趨勢。如果這種情況持續下去，我預計我們將不得不採取一些措施來緩解它。

So right now, we're not taking broad pricing actions. We're certainly doing things from a tactical standpoint as we did to some degree with some of the safety products. But if the trends continue on steel the way that they've begun or ended, I guess, ended 2021 -- sorry, ended 2020, then I would anticipate that we'd have to take some actions as you roll into the end of Q1 and into Q2 to mitigate that effect.

所以目前我們不會採取大規模的價格調整措施。當然，我們會從策略層面採取一些措施，就像我們之前對一些安全產品所做的那樣。但如果鋼材價格的趨勢繼續像2021年底（抱歉，應該是2020年底）那樣發展下去，那麼我預計我們將不得不在第一季末和第二季初採取一些措施來緩解這種影響。

Your next question today is coming from Josh Pokrzywinski from Morgan Stanley.

今天的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的喬許波克日溫斯基。

Just a follow-up on the price/cost question. I guess, really, over the past 3 or 4 years, I don't know if we've been in what you would call a normal pricing environment, especially with tariffs kind of flying in a couple of years ago. Any reason to believe that this will be anything but a normal pricing cycle in terms of your ability to offset it, kind of an evenness to the market?

關於價格/成本問題，我再補充一點。我想說，過去三、四年裡，我們可能一直處於一個不太正常的定價環境，尤其是在幾年前關稅政策突然出台之後。您有什麼理由相信，就您應對市場波動、維持市場平衡的能力而言，這次的價格週期會與以往有所不同嗎？

I know it's still early. And Holden you talked about maybe later this quarter, the rubber hitting the road on that and even to put those out there in the market. But anything you're seeing so far, whether it's competitively or from your suppliers that would indicate this is something beyond kind of the longer-term historical framework for pricing or price/cost?

我知道現在還為時過早。霍頓，你之前也提到過，或許本季晚些時候，這些產品會真正進入市場，甚至推向市場。但就目前來看，無論是競爭對手方面還是供應商方面，是否有任何跡象表明，這已經超越了以往定價或價格成本的長期歷史框架？

I don't think so. The -- obviously, conditions around tariffs were unique. If we get into a situation where pricing is necessary because of more econ 101 variables like steel prices going up and things like that, I think that we would be able to address that in the same manner that we've addressed it historically.

我不這麼認為。顯然，關稅問題的特殊情況是存在的。如果因為鋼價上漲等更基本的經濟因素而需要調整價格，我認為我們可以用以往處理類似問題的方式來應對。

The only difference, I would say, is that the structure that we've put in place internally to analyze and act on the -- where cost increases are happening, I think we're in a far better place today than we were pre-tariffs. I think the tariffs really prompted us to shore up the technologies that we use, the analytics that we use and the internal structure and personnel that we rely on to make us more effective with that.

我認為唯一的差異在於，我們內部已經建立了一套分析和應對成本成長的機制，現在的狀況比關稅實施前要好得多。我認為關稅確實促使我們加強了所使用的技術、分析方法以及我們賴以提高效率的內部結構和人員配備。

So I haven't seen any changes to the market dynamics. I think that our internal dynamics are in a better position today than even was the case 2 years ago pre tariffs.

因此，我沒有看到市場動態有任何變化。我認為，我們目前的內部狀況甚至比兩年前關稅實施前還要好。

Got it. That's helpful. And then just related to kind of the Fastenal captive fleet. Is there a point at which the absorption benefit from kind of keeping those folks busier again or keeping those assets busier starts to level off in what's normal? Because I know on the way down or in softer patches, you talked about the deleveraging there. But at what point does that kind of get back to normal, whether that's number of points of growth or a dollar number or any way you would conceptualize it to think about that dynamic?

明白了，這很有幫助。然後，關於Fastenal的自有船隊，我想問一下，讓這些船隊或資產保持高負荷運轉所帶來的收益，在什麼情況下會趨於穩定，恢復到正常水平？我知道在經濟低迷時期，您提到過去槓桿化。但是，這種收益何時才能恢復正常？無論是以成長點數、金額，或是其他任何您用來衡量這種動態變化的方式？

I think that we're like any other industrial company or a cyclical company, I guess, in the sense that when conditions are somewhat soft, that's a bit of a challenge and you underabsorb certain of your structure. Our captive fleet is part of that. But frankly, so is manufacturing, so is our purchasing, our Asian purchasing, et cetera, right?

我認為我們和其他工業公司或週期性公司一樣，在經濟環境疲軟時，會面臨一些挑戰，導致某些業務環節的產能利用不足。我們的自有車隊就是其中之一。但坦白說，製造業、採購、亞洲採購等等也都是如此，對吧？

So when demand is weak, that -- you tend to deleverage. Now this is an odd year because you look at our revenue, say, well, demand was weak. But a lot of our demand didn't necessarily run through a lot of our physical structure. There's a lot more direct shift type of business in 2020 than is typical.

所以當需求疲軟時，你往往會降低槓桿。今年情況比較特殊，看看我們的收入，你會發現，需求確實疲軟。但我們的許多需求並非都透過我們的實體設施來實現。 2020 年的直接轉移型業務比往年多得多。

The sort of off the side of that is if demand begins to go up, begins to improve, and that improvement is impacting the core of our business, which is our field sales and our branches and taking advantage of the business that we've built over 50-plus years, then we're going to leverage those assets.

順便一提，如果需求開始上升、開始改善，而這種改善影響到我們業務的核心——我們的現場銷售和分支機構，以及我們利用50多年來建立的業務，那麼我們將利用這些資產。

And so part of the -- I think part of the answer to your question is, what do you expect next year in terms of industrial production growth and market growth? If you believe that we're going to be growing next year, then I would expect that 2021, we would be leveraging. And we would be getting some benefit from that as in contrast to what we saw in 2020.

所以，我認為回答您問題的一部分在於，您對明年工業生產成長和市場成長有何預期？如果您認為明年我們會成長，那麼我預計2021年我們將能夠更好地利用這一成長勢頭，並從中受益，這與2020年的情況截然不同。

So I think that the -- it depends heavily on what your expectations for underlying market growth is.

所以我覺得——這很大程度取決於你對潛在市場成長的期望。

But there's no ceiling where that becomes more difficult?

但是，這方面似乎沒有上限，超過這個上限就更難了？

I don't think so. I'm trying -- I'm wrestling with what that ceiling is, right? I mean, we have a certain amount that we invest in manufacturing. We have a certain amount that we invest in our freight and other elements of our infrastructure that the -- if we see demand begin to get better, I would expect that you might see increases in that, but not at the same rate that demand grows, and so we would leverage it. So I don't know that I see a ceiling in that.

我不這麼認為。我正在努力——我一直在思考這個上限到底在哪裡，對吧？我的意思是，我們在製造業投入了一定的資金，在貨運和其他基礎設施方面也投入了一定的資金——如果我們看到需求開始好轉，我預計這些投入也會增加，但不會像需求增長那樣快，所以我們需要合理利用這些資金。因此，我不認為這方面有上限。

There's some dynamics in there. We took out a truck -- a data service earlier in the year. When that truck is filled again or is overfilled and we need to add another day of distribution, another truck service to that branch, that's something we've been doing for years. And so that grows with it.

這裡面有一些動態因素。今年早些時候，我們租了一輛卡車——用於數據服務。當這輛卡車再次裝滿或超載，我們需要增加一天的配送時間，也就是為該分店增加一輛卡車服務時，我們多年來一直這樣做。所以，這項服務也會隨之發展。

The challenge for us is we did a really nice job in 2020. When we pulled that truck service out, we didn't see our third-party spend go up because we needed some service that wasn't there, and our team did a great job with that. We need to keep that reined in as well as we go into 2021. And I feel we're better poised to do that than we have historically because we have better tracking information.

我們面臨的挑戰是，我們在2020年做得非常出色。當我們停止使用卡車運輸服務時，並沒有因為需要一些之前不存在的服務而導致第三方支出增加，我們的團隊在這方面做得非常好。進入2021年，我們需要繼續保持這種控制水準。而且我覺得，由於我們擁有更完善的追蹤訊息，我們比以往任何時候都更有能力做到這一點。

We've deployed a lot of new technology over the last few years and are continuing to deploy it. And one of those is better illuminating what's where in our system. Just like when you ship a small parcel, being able to know exactly where it is at any given point in time, we're getting better at that ourselves.

過去幾年，我們部署了許多新技術，並且仍在不斷部署。其中一項技術就是更好地展示我們系統中各個環節的運作。就像寄送小包裹時，能夠隨時準確知道包裹的位置一樣，我們在這方面也在不斷改進。

The only other nuance I'd probably introduce is I mean, yes, we are a cyclical -- we're viewed within investing circles as a cyclical type company. Remember that we don't have anywhere near the amount of fixed cost in our gross profit or I guess, in our cost of goods as, say, an average manufacturer does, right?

我唯一想補充的一點是，沒錯，我們是一家週期性公司——在投資圈內，我們被視為一家週期性公司。但請記住，我們的毛利或商品成本中的固定成本遠低於一般製造商，對吧？

So does our leverage and deleverage work the same way? Yes, it does. Does it have the same order of magnitude on the upside or the downside as an average manufacturer does? No. No, we tend to be a little bit more muted in that regard. But it behaves the same way as your classic cyclical.

那麼，我們的槓桿和去槓桿運作方式是否相同？是的，相同。它的上漲或下跌幅度是否與一般製造商相同？不，我們在這方面往往比較溫和。但它的運作方式與典型的周期性企業相同。

Our next question is coming from Hamzah Mazari from Jefferies.

下一個問題來自傑富瑞集團的哈姆札·馬扎里。

My question is largely around what do you think the impact is on a vaccine rollout to your business? Clearly, there's a lot of moving parts. Maybe you can speak to it qualitatively. Safety maybe slows, but maybe that helps gross margin, maybe the sales cycle accelerates on Onsite. Just any thoughts as to vaccine impact on the business?

我的問題主要是想問，您認為疫苗推廣會對貴公司的業務產生什麼影響？顯然，這其中涉及很多方面。能否從定性的角度談談？例如，出於安全考慮，疫苗接種速度可能會放緩，但這或許有助於提高毛利率，也可能加快現場銷售週期。您對疫苗對業務的影響有什麼看法？

Well, I think the biggest thing is the markers I talked about, our growth drivers improved because the market has stated to us. And they've stated to us from the standpoint of our success. They stated to us, we like this Onsite model. We like this vending and bins and FAST Stock model. We like it a lot. We're just nervous about change right now.

我認為最重要的一點是我之前提到的那些指標，我們的成長動力有所改善，因為市場已經向我們表明了這一點。他們是從我們成功的角度來告訴我們的。他們告訴我們，他們喜歡這種現場銷售模式，喜歡這種自動販賣機、貨架和快速補貨模式。我們非常喜歡這種模式。我們現在只是對改變感到有些緊張。

We're worried about what's happening in the next 8 hours, 2 weeks, 2 months. We're more worried about that than we are about strategically improving our business because we don't have that luxury. And we don't want to invite new risk, even have you move in. And so I think it would manifest itself in the fact that our pipeline that would expand, and you would see a resumption of the goals we talk -- the targets we talk about on Onsite signings and vending signings, et cetera. And again, those are markers to engagement with our customer. That's where you'd see it.

我們擔心的是未來8小時、2週、2個月內會發生什麼事。我們更擔心這些，而不是策略性地改善業務，因為我們沒有時間去考慮這些。我們不想引入新的風險，即使是讓你搬進來。所以我認為，這會體現在我們的銷售管道會擴大，你會看到我們之前提到的目標——比如現場簽約、自動販賣機簽約等等——重新回到正軌。這些都是我們與客戶互動的重要指標。你會從中看到這些改變。

I think you'd see the underlying economy improve because people, let's face it, we all -- we're all really tired of this. We want to get back to something that's closer to normal and retain -- there's a whole bunch of things that we learned in the last 10 months that frankly would have taken us years to accomplish.

我認為你會看到經濟基本面有所改善，因為說實話，我們都厭倦了這一切。我們想要回歸到更接近正常的生活，並保持下去——坦白說，過去十個月我們學到了很多東西，這些東西如果放在以前，可能需要幾年時間才能做到。

But the necessity is the mother of invention. And we invented a lot in the last 10 months as a society. And there's a whole bunch of things that are positives coming out of it. Perhaps that makes our whole society a little bit better.

但需求是發明之母。在過去的十個月裡，我們作為一個社會發明了許多東西。由此也產生了一系列正面的影響。或許這讓我們的整個社會變得更好了。

And I might contribute maybe a little bit of perspective, right, because I know that everybody is very concerned about if things normalize, that we're going to lose all of that safety business. We don't lose all of it, we lose some of it. But let's not lose sight of the fact that as much as everybody is concerned about safety not growing at 116%, people look at it and we say, you know what, fasteners were down almost 20% in the same period of time. If COVID gets resolved, we may -- we have that tough comp in safety, but we have really easy comps in everything that's not safety, which is a bigger part of our mix, right?

我或許可以提供一些不同的視角，因為我知道大家都很擔心，如果一切恢復正常，我們會失去所有安全業務。我們不會失去所有業務，只會失去一部分。但我們不能忽略這樣一個事實：儘管大家都很擔心安全業務無法實現116%的成長，但人們會發現，同期緊固件業務下降了近20%。如果新冠疫情得到控制，我們可能會——安全業務的競爭非常激烈，但其他業務的競爭則相對容易，而這些業務在我們業務組合中所佔的比例更大，對吧？

People might be concerned about our market share gains in safety and government if COVID normalized, but it didn't do as well on signings because of it. And so we might lose one, but we gain the other.

人們可能會擔心，如果新冠疫情恢復正常，我們在安全和政府領域的市場份額增長會受到影響，但正因為疫情，我們在簽約方面的表現並不理想。所以，我們或許會失去一部分市場份額，但卻能獲得另一部分。

I think if you stand back from the specifics and look at the overall results for the year, it was -- actually, I think Dan and I both used in some writings, it was kind of a boring year or an unremarkable year if you step back and don't think about the specifics and just look at our results. And that combines remarkable performance in safety. Terrible performance goes to the market in nonsafety. And if COVID gets resolved, that flips. And that's the perspective I would offer.

我認為，如果拋開具體細節，從整體上看這一年的業績，就會發現——實際上，我和丹在一些文章中都提到過——如果拋開細節，只看整體業績，這一年其實相當平淡無奇。我們在安全方面表現出色，但在非安全方面卻表現糟糕，這直接影響了市場。如果新冠疫情得到控制，情況就會逆轉。這就是我想表達的觀點。

With that, we're almost on the hour. Again, thank you for joining us. I would share one closing thought. I've talked to you in the past about the pride that we all feel. And I hope you, as shareholders, feel in the Blue Team and what we were able to accomplish in 2020.

就這樣，我們快到整點了。再次感謝各位的參與。最後我想分享一點想法。我之前也跟大家說過，我們所有人都為此感到自豪。我希望各位股東也能為藍隊以及我們在2020年所取得的成就感到驕傲。

I'm also quite proud of the trust that was part of that, an important ingredient of that, with our customer and our supplier because we had to communicate like crazy and have trust throughout that supply chain that we could pull some stuff off. And I'll share an example.

我也很自豪其中所包含的信任，這是我們與客戶和供應商之間建立的重要因素，因為我們必須密切溝通，並在整個供應鏈中建立信任，才能完成一些事情。我舉個例子。

Tomorrow is an important milestone for us. A year ago, on January 21, we did something we'd never done. After conversations with one of our trusted suppliers, a company upriver called 3M, we locked down in our network N95 mask respirators because of what we were learning from our team in China, from our supplier base, and we locked it down, and we'd never done that before.

明天對我們來說是一個重要的里程碑。一年前的1月21日，我們做了一件前所未有的事。在與我們一家值得信賴的供應商——位於上游的3M公司——進行溝通後，我們根據從中國團隊和供應商那裡了解到的情況，在我們的網絡中鎖定了N95口罩呼吸器，而我們之前從未這樣做過。

And we did it with some really crude tools. We just basically shut off our request system for one part, or several part numbers. But it was all about trust between what our supplier could do and what our customer believed us, the supplier and Fastenal can do to support them. Thanks, everybody. Have a good day.

我們用一些非常簡陋的工具就做到了。我們基本上只是關閉了某個零件或幾個零件號碼的請求系統。但這完全是建立在供應商的能力和客戶對我們（供應商和Fastenal）的支援能力之間的信任之上的。謝謝大家。祝大家今天愉快。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. That concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。您可以掛斷電話了，祝您有美好的一天。感謝您今天的參與。