快扣 (FAST) 2020 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Fastenal 2020 First Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

各位好，歡迎參加 Fastenal 2020 年第一季財報業績電話會議。（操作說明）提醒各位，本次會議正在錄音。

It's now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ellen Stolts. Please go ahead.

現在我很榮幸地向大家介紹主持人艾倫·斯托爾茨。請繼續。

Welcome to the Fastenal Company 2020 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 2020 年第一季財報電話會議。本次電話會議將由我們的總裁兼執行長丹·弗洛內斯和我們的財務長霍爾頓·劉易斯主持。本次電話會議時長最多為 1 小時，我們將首先概述我們的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, 2020, at midnight Central time.

今天的電話會議是 Fastenal 的專有演示，並由 Fastenal 進行錄音。未經 Fastenal 同意，不得對今天的通話進行任何錄音、複製、傳輸或分發。本次電話會議將透過 Fastenal 投資者關係主頁 investor.fastenal.com 在網路上進行音訊同步直播。網路直播的回放將在網站上提供，直至2020年6月1日中部時間午夜。

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.

提醒各位，今天的電話會議可能涉及公司未來的計劃和前景。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。值得注意的是，公司的實際業績可能與預期業績有重大差異。可能導致實際結果與預期結果不同的因素已包含在公司最新的收益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。

Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining our call today. I thought I'd start by giving a quick recap of the quarter as it rolls out from a chronology perspective and what we learned and actions we took at different points.

各位早安，感謝各位今天參加我們的電話會議。我想先從時間順序的角度快速回顧一下本季的情況，以及我們在不同階段學到了什麼並採取了哪些行動。

Back in January, so we have -- we operate in 25 countries. We have both a sales organization and a sourcing organization that is based in China. And we have regular conversations with that group, and it was back in January that we learned firsthand from our teams in China, from our leaders in China about COVID-19. At that point in time, we started to lock down and monitor specific SKUs as we had a goal in mind, and that was to maintain a great and reliable supply chain for our customers, particularly our repeat customers where we had a good understanding of their normal usage and had some predictability to what to expect.

早在1月份，我們就已經－我們在25個國家開展業務。我們在中國設有銷售部門和採購部門。我們與該團隊保持定期溝通，早在 1 月份，我們就從我們在中國的團隊和領導者那裡直接了解到了 COVID-19 的情況。當時，我們開始鎖定並監控特定的 SKU，因為我們心中有一個目標，那就是為我們的客戶，特別是我們的回頭客，維持一個良好而可靠的供應鏈，因為我們很好地了解他們的正常使用情況，並且對預期情況有一定的預測性。

It was also at that time that we shared with several of our Board members about the potential of a transaction with a company called Apex, who's been our partner in the vending realm for about the last dozen years.

也是在那時，我們向幾位董事會成員介紹了與一家名為 Apex 的公司進行交易的可能性，該公司在過去十二年左右的時間裡一直是我們在自動販賣機領域的合作夥伴。

On February 6, we sounded the alarm internally. And what I mean by that is, in connection with our sales release, we put a message out to all of our employees throughout the organization of what we were learning from our team in China about COVID-19, about the fact that Chinese New Year was being extended a second week and some of the lessons they were starting to learn in the world that was changing in their eyes so we could start to prepare our teams as well as marshal our sourcing and supply chain resources to stabilize supply; to better understand, talking supplier to supplier, where they were and where they were from an operational standpoint; and to begin the process of vetting suppliers to expand access to select products, particularly safety and janitorial.

2月6日，我們內部拉響了警報。我的意思是，結合我們的銷售業績發布，我們向整個組織的所有員工傳達了我們從中國團隊了解到的關於 COVID-19 的信息，包括春節假期延長一周的情況，以及他們開始了解到的世界正在發生變化的一些經驗教訓，以便我們能夠開始為團隊做好準備，並調動我們的採購和供應鏈資源來穩定供應；

It was also during the first half of February that we notified the entire Board about the potential of the Apex transaction and signed a letter of intent with Apex later in the month. Also in the latter half of February, we engaged with our IT folks to expand their sourcing. We don't do a lot of mobile work with our employees other than the mobility platforms we have at our branch and Onsite locations. And we began to expand our footprint for allowing work at home and creating whatever change we could also have for resources to support the business.

也是在二月上半月，我們向整個董事會通報了 Apex 交易的可能性，並在當月晚些時候與 Apex 簽署了意向書。同樣在二月下旬，我們與 IT 部門的同事們一起擴大了他們的採購管道。除了我們在分公司和現場辦公地點擁有的行動平台外，我們很少讓員工進行行動辦公。於是，我們開始擴大允許員工在家工作的範圍，並盡我們所能創造資源來支持業務發展。

On March 5, in connection with our February sales release, our video started -- expanded the updates to our employees and shared again what we were seeing and the steps we were taking. It was a day later, on Friday, March 6, that we canceled our annual customer event that was scheduled to be held in mid-April in Denver. And it's an event that more than -- about 6,000 attend over a 3-day period. Given that the changing environment, we saw it prudent to cancel the event as we didn't think the event would be able to come off as planned.

3月5日，配合我們2月份的銷售情況發布，我們的影片開始播放——向員工們擴展了最新情況，並再次分享了我們所看到的情況以及我們正在採取的措施。一天后，也就是 3 月 6 日星期五，我們取消了原定於 4 月中旬在丹佛舉行的年度客戶活動。這是一個為期三天，約有 6000 多人參加的活動。鑑於環境變化，我們認為取消此活動是明智之舉，因為我們認為該活動無法按計劃進行。

On Saturday, March 7, in a little sideline here, we celebrated my mom's 90th birthday. I'm pleased to say we were able to do that in person. Weekend of March 14, we notified approximately 300,000 customers we were locking our front door. For those of you that have never been on a Fastenal location, it's somewhat feels like an industrial hardware store to a certain degree. Most of our revenue goes out the back door. We deliver to our customers' location. It might be going into a vending machine. It might be going into a bin stock. It might be strictly a delivery. A smaller piece goes out the front door. And so in -- with the thought process of protecting our employees, protecting our customer supply chain, we notified our customers the front door was locked. However, we are open for business, and our folks really started to learn more and more about the term critical infrastructure or critical industry and appreciate better the role we provide in the marketplace.

3月7日星期六，我們順便慶祝了我媽媽的90歲生日。我很高興地說，我們能夠親自完成這件事。3 月 14 日那個週末，我們通知了大約 30 萬名客戶，我們將關閉前門。對於從未去過 Fastenal 門市的人來說，它在某種程度上感覺有點像工業五金店。我們的大部分收入都流失了。我們提供送貨上門服務。它可能會被放進自動販賣機。它可能會進入庫存箱。這可能只是一次送貨。一小塊從前門出去。因此，出於保護員工、保護客戶供應鏈的考慮，我們通知客戶公司大門已鎖。然而，我們仍在正常營業，我們的員工也開始越來越了解「關鍵基礎設施」或「關鍵產業」的概念，並更加認識到我們在市場中扮演的角色。

We also indicated to our customers, please order ahead. If you are coming to the branch, call us on the phone, place an order online and we'll have the product ready for you. We'll do a safe handoff at the front door so we can keep a distance from each other and keep everybody safe but allow you to access critical supplies to your business.

我們也告知顧客，請提前預訂。如果您要到分店來，請給我們打電話，或在線下單，我們會為您準備好產品。我們將在前門進行安全交接，這樣我們就可以彼此保持距離，確保每個人的安全，同時又能讓您獲得企業所需的重要物資。

Later in the week of March 15, we sent out a message, and this was -- turned out to be the first of a weekly video update to our teams in an expanded Fastenal business update, which is our internal communication platform, to let folks know what's going on. And later in that week of March 15, we expanded our employee benefits program to specifically address COVID-19 issues and expand our paid days off. And our goal was quite simple. We believe that people make better decisions when they can remove some worries from their life. And one of the elements we wanted to remove is to provide comfort that "I had a job and that I would have a paycheck coming in if something happened." It might be a child that's home from a school that's closed, it might be a situation where I contract COVID-19, but we wanted to provide comfort to our employees because we think we make better decisions in that environment.

3 月 15 日當週晚些時候，我們發出了一條訊息，結果發現這是我們內部溝通平台 Fastenal 擴展版每週視訊更新的第一期，旨在讓團隊成員了解公司正在發生的事情。在 3 月 15 日當週晚些時候，我們擴大了員工福利計劃，專門應對 COVID-19 問題，並增加了帶薪休假天數。我們的目標很簡單。我們相信，當人們生活中能減少一些煩惱時，他們會做出更好的決定。我們想要消除的一個因素是，讓員工感到安心，讓他們覺得「即使發生什麼事，我還有工作，還有薪水可以領」。這可能是因為學校停課孩子待在家裡，也可能是我感染了新冠病毒，但我們想讓員工感到安心，因為我們認為在這種環境下他們能做出更好的決定。

We also took the step of notifying our employees. Typically, benefits affect mostly full-time employees. This was the benefit we put in place that affected both full- and part-time employees because we're equally engaged in the supply chain to our customer. On March 25, we sent a second letter to our customers. This one was not emailed out as the first one was. This was posted on our website. It was really intended to provide our local teams with an update means for their customers. And we began to limit specific safety and janitorial SKUs to critical industries.

我們也採取了通知員工的措施。通常情況下，福利主要影響全職員工。這是我們推出的一項福利，它惠及全職和兼職員工，因為我們同樣參與客戶的供應鏈。3月25日，我們向客戶寄出了第二封信。這份郵件沒有像第一份那樣透過電子郵件發送出去。這篇文章發佈在我們網站上。其初衷是為我們本地團隊提供一種向客戶提供更新資訊的方式。於是我們開始將特定的安全和清潔用品SKU限制在關鍵產業。

So in that first communication, it was about limiting contact, create social distance. We also started to talk about internally focusing on our repeat customers from the standpoint of understanding their normal usage, so again, maintain a stable supply chain to your customer.

所以，第一次溝通的主題是限制接觸，保持社交距離。我們也開始討論從了解回頭客的正常使用情況的角度，從內部關注回頭客，所以再次強調，要保持穩定的供應鏈，為客戶提供服務。

March 27, I'm pleased to say we celebrated my father-in-law's 89th birthday. This time, we made use of a technology called FaceTime, first time my father-in-law had ever used it. March 30, we closed on the Apex vending transaction that we disclosed in our release that came out earlier this morning. April 10, we sent the third letter to our customers, again, this one was posted to our website, to reiterate the allocation of critical inventory and the approach we're taking to support a stable supply chain in the marketplace.

3月27日，我很高興地宣布，我們慶祝了我岳父的89歲生日。這次我們使用了 FaceTime 技術，這是我岳父第一次使用這項技術。3月30日，我們完成了Apex自動販賣機交易，我們在今天早上發布的公告中揭露了該交易。4 月 10 日，我們向客戶發送了第三封信，這封信也發佈在我們的網站上，重申了關鍵庫存的分配以及我們為支持市場穩定的供應鏈而採取的方法。

I'll now turn over to the flip book that Holden has put out to talk about our first quarter. As I mentioned briefly, we shared with our employees the concept of critical infrastructure, shared with our employees about the customers they're serving and the vital role they provide in the marketplace. And I'm really impressed with the way our team responded by setting aside personal concerns and taking prudent steps to protect their safety and our customer supply chain. And Holden will touch on in a few minutes, you see, I believe, the Fastenal organization shine in a period like this.

接下來，我將翻閱霍爾頓公司出版的小冊子，談談我們第一季的情況。正如我剛才簡要提到的，我們向員工介紹了關鍵基礎設施的概念，向員工介紹了他們所服務的客戶以及他們在市場中發揮的關鍵作用。我非常讚賞我們團隊的應對方式，他們拋開個人顧慮，採取謹慎措施來保護自身安全和客戶供應鏈。霍爾頓稍後會談到這一點，我認為，在這樣的時期，Fastenal 組織會大放異彩。

Second bullet, we have several co-equal first priorities: as I've alluded to, safety of our employees, our suppliers, our customers and society in general is paramount in our mind, in our thought process; understand our role as an important agile supply chain partner; remain thoughtful, disciplined and willing to have frank and open conversations, share with your customer what you know when you know it, manage expectations; and lastly, maintain a stable cash flow to support not just the business in the short term but to support what we see as an economy that's going to restart at some point. We just don't know what that point is.

第二點，我們有幾個同等重要的首要任務：正如我之前提到的，員工、供應商、客戶以及整個社會的安全是我們最關心的問題；理解我們作為重要的敏捷供應鏈合作夥伴的角色；保持深思熟慮、嚴謹自律，並願意進行坦誠開放的對話，及時與客戶分享你所掌握的信息，管理客戶的期望；最後，保持穩定的現金流量，是為了支持我們所掌握的短期經濟。我們只是不知道那個點是什麼。

The -- also, given the fact that our mix was shifting abruptly to government and safety products and our fasteners were dropping dramatically as customers either shut down because of shelter-in-place orders or customers' business slowed and their demand slowed, we saw our fastener business drop off. And gross margins in fasteners and safety products are not the same, and you see that when you look at our financial statements this quarter.

此外，由於我們的產品組合突然轉向政府和安全產品，而由於客戶因居家隔離令而停業，或者客戶業務放緩，需求放緩，我們的緊固件業務急劇下降，因此我們的緊固件業務也隨之下降。緊固件和安全產品的毛利率並不相同，這一點從我們本季的財務報表中就能看出。

Accordingly, we have taken steps to reduce operating costs. We have incredibly strong balance sheet. Historically, we've operated this business with, I believe, great business discipline but also great financial discipline, and it shines in times like this. The economics of a distribution model are -- also shine in times like this from the standpoint of reduced activity, unlock some working capital from your balance sheet. And you saw that in this quarter, and I suspect you'll continue to see this play out as the year progresses.

因此，我們已採取措施降低營運成本。我們的資產負債表非常穩健。我認為，從歷史上看，我們一直秉持著良好的商業紀律和財務紀律來經營這項業務，而這在這樣的時期尤其突出。在目前業務活動減少的情況下，分銷模式的經濟效益也得以體現，它可以釋放資產負債表上的一些營運資金。你在本季已經看到了這一點，而且我懷疑隨著時間的推移，這種情況還會繼續發生。

We currently have every intention of maintaining our dividend. In fact, that's one of the priorities I laid out for our team early on. I'm very mindful of, in times like this, as we saw back in 2009, 2010 and in other periods in our history, the ability to maintain that dividend is meaningful to our shareholders. And I'm ever mindful of a chunk of our shareholders come to work at Fastenal every day. Approximately 4.3 million shares are held by our 401(k) plan. And also, as I mentioned earlier, we purchased late in the quarter certain assets, primarily intangible but also supply chain access to our vending platform that I believe will lower our cost structure in the future but also enhance our ability to make vending ever more a part of the Fastenal business.

我們目前完全有意願維持股利發放。事實上，這正是我早期為團隊制定的優先事項之一。我非常清楚，在這樣的時期，正如我們在 2009 年、2010 年以及我們歷史上的其他時期所看到的那樣，維持股息對我們的股東來說意義重大。我始終銘記，我們的大部分股東每天都會來 Fastenal 工作。我們的 401(k) 計劃持有約 430 萬股股票。此外，正如我之前提到的，我們在本季末收購了一些資產，主要是無形資產，但也包括我們自動販賣機平台的供應鏈管道。我相信這將在未來降低我們的成本結構，同時也將增強我們讓自動販賣機成為 Fastenal 業務一部分的能力。

With activity weakening, customers closing and our energy shifting to supplying key products to a range of critical industries, government, health care, first responders, et cetera, our visibility to our 2020 goals for both signing Onsites and signing vending are murky at best. The cancellation of our customer show probably creates as much murkiness as anything because history has shown that, that customer event is a great opportunity to unlock particularly Onsite activities.

隨著業務活動減弱、客戶關閉，我們的精力也轉移到向一系列關鍵行業、政府、醫療保健、急救人員等供應關鍵產品，我們對 2020 年簽約現場業務和簽約自動售貨機業務的目標的可見性充其量也只能說是模糊不清。取消客戶展可能會造成許多不確定性，因為歷史經驗表明，客戶展是現場活動的絕佳機會。

An Onsite relationship is a very strategic relationship. It's not something that a customer enters into without a lot of thought because it's a big change to their business, and that's why we're not providing signing ranges at this time. Although, in all honesty, when I look at the 85 Onsites that we signed in the first quarter, if somebody would have gone back in time and had a discussion with me and said, "Hey, in 2020, you're just going to start this way. COVID-19 is going to become a thing globally, and you're still going to sign 85 Onsites," I wouldn't have believed it. It's testament to the pipeline we have in place already in that March was stronger than January in Onsite signings. But it's at a lower level, and therefore, we've removed our signing ranges for the year.

現場合作關係是一種非常具有策略意義的合作關係。客戶不會輕易做出這樣的決定，因為這會為他們的業務帶來很大的改變，所以我們目前不提供簽約範圍。雖然說實話，當我回顧我們在第一季度簽署的 85 個現場服務合約時，如果有人能回到過去和我討論一下，並說：“嘿，在 2020 年，你就要這樣開始。”「COVID-19 將會成為全球性問題，而你竟然還要簽 85 個現場辦公合約？」我簡直不敢相信。這證明了我們現有的專案儲備是有效的，因為3月的現場簽約量比1月還要高。但它處於較低水平，因此，我們取消了今年的簽約範圍。

Holden will touch on this a few minutes, but to give a proxy of where patterns are ending March and where they're starting April. As of March 31, 121 or just over 10% of our active Onsites were closed because the customer was closed or essentially shut down. Total in-market locations, 3,270 at the end of first quarter 2020. From a vending perspective, vending is different than Onsite from the standpoint it's more transactional. It's influenced by strategic decisions, but it's much more transactional. And we did see that fall off in March in that March was about 2/3 of the signing pace of what we saw in March of 2019.

霍爾頓稍後會談到這一點，但為了大致說明三月的模式走向以及四月份的模式走向，我們可以這樣概括。截至 3 月 31 日，我們 121 個活躍的現場服務點（佔總數的 10% 以上）因客戶關閉或基本停業而關閉。截至 2020 年第一季末，市場內門市總數為 3,270 家。從自動販賣機的角度來看，自動販賣機與現場販賣機不同，它更側重於交易。它受到戰略決策的影響，但更側重於交易。我們確實看到3月簽約速度有所下降，當時的簽約速度大約只有2019年3月份的2/3。

I will add that now when I look at vending, I feel very good about our future. And part of that is the business that we've created over the last decade or so. Part of it is the recent Apex purchase and what it means for us to streamline that. And a couple things I would share, and I'll share a quick story. Sunday night at about 11:30 in the Florness household, our smoke alarm went off. Now for those of you that don't know this, back in January 2013, our house burned to the ground. I -- my wife and kids and dogs all got out safely but the house was gone. This was the case of a bad battery. And so the -- at 11:30, the alarm's gone off, the dogs are howling.

我想補充一點，現在當我展望自動販賣機產業時，我對我們的未來感到非常樂觀。其中一部分是我們在過去十年左右創建的業務。部分原因是最近收購了 Apex，以及這對我們簡化流程的意義。還有幾件事我想分享，我再講個小故事。星期天晚上 11 點 30 分左右，弗洛內斯家的煙霧警報器響了。可能有些人還不知道，2013年1月，我們的房子被燒毀了。我和我的妻子、孩子、還有狗都安全逃了出來，但房子卻沒了。這是電池故障導致的。於是——11點30分，警報響了，狗在嚎叫。

And we started replacing batteries. At 11 -- when I finished, I hopped online at fastenal.com, and I placed an order for batteries. And it told me they'd be available on Tuesday morning because they weren't -- this particular battery wasn't in stock at our local branch. And I'm pleased to say, at 7:26 this morning, I did receive an email from fastenal.com that my order is ready in an outside locker, ready for pickup. And so I'll go pick that up later today.

於是我們開始更換電池。11點－我做完作業後，上網造訪fastenal.com網站，訂購了電池。它告訴我周二早上會有貨，但實際上並沒有——我們當地的分店沒有這款電池的庫存。我很高興地告訴大家，今天早上 7 點 26 分，我收到了來自 fastenal.com 的電子郵件，告知我的訂單已準備好放在外面的儲物櫃裡，可以取貨了。所以我今天晚些時候會去拿。

And then related to that, e-commerce grew 27% in the first quarter. And in the month of March, our e-commerce in total expanded above 10% of sales for the first time ever. I believe for the quarter, we're at about 9.5%.

與此相關的是，電子商務在第一季成長了 27%。3月份，我們的電子商務總銷售額首次超過了總銷售額的10%。我認為本季我們大約達到了 9.5%。

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

這樣，我就把麥克風交給霍爾頓了。

Great. Thank you, Dan. I'll begin with the business cadence slide on Slide 5.

偉大的。謝謝你，丹。我將從第 5 張投影片上的業務節奏投影片開始。

Total sales were up 4.4% and daily sales were up 2.8% in the first quarter of 2020. Daily sales in the first 2 months of the quarter were up 4.1%, with January and February both exceeding seasonal norms and the PMI averaging 50.5%. Growth was helped by easier weather and holiday comps, with overall business activity still sluggish, but there were encouraging signs of things stabilizing. March began similarly, but the final 8 business days of the month began to reflect COVID-19-related issues.

2020年第一季總銷售額成長4.4%，每日銷售額成長2.8%。本季前兩個月的每日銷售額成長了 4.1%，其中 1 月和 2 月均超過了季節性正常水平，採購經理人指數 (PMI) 平均為 50.5%。由於較為溫和的天氣和假日期間的業績比較，整體商業活動仍然低迷，但有跡象表明情況正在趨於穩定，這促進了經濟成長。三月的開局與此類似，但該月的最後 8 個工作日開始反映出與 COVID-19 相關的問題。

A number of parts of our business highlight that impact. One is the fastener sales, which tend to be more cyclical. After being up 1.4% in January and February, fastener daily sales were down 10% in March. More telling, our non-OEM, nonconstruction fasteners, which represent roughly 30% of the category, was down nearly 20%. This group includes fasteners for amusement parks, schools, retail operations and our cash sales and was heavily impacted by shelter-in-place and social distancing requirements as well as our decision to restrict public access to our branches.

我們業務的許多方面都體現了這種影響。一是緊固件銷售，其週期性波動較大。緊固件日銷量在1月和2月增長1.4%之後，3月份下降了10%。更值得注意的是，我們非 OEM、非建築緊固件（約佔該類別的 30%）的銷量下降了近 20%。該業務包括遊樂園、學校、零售業務和現金銷售所需的緊固件，並受到居家隔離和保持社交距離要求以及我們限制公眾進入我們分支機構的決定的嚴重影響。

Another area is Onsites, where more than 120 units in North America or around 10% to 11% of our total were closed as a result of customer facility closures. This likely resulted in more than $2.5 million in lost sales in March, and there clearly would have been additional lost sales from key account business in our traditional branches.

另一個領域是現場服務，由於客戶設施關閉，北美地區有超過 120 個單位（約占我們總數的 10% 至 11%）被關閉。這可能導致 3 月銷售額損失超過 250 萬美元，而且顯然，我們傳統分公司的大客戶業務也會遭受額外的銷售額損失。

On the other hand, the unique nature of this crisis has produced opportunities. Safety, our second largest product category, was up 31% in March as our global sourcing capabilities lined up with the needs of the market. From a customer standpoint, our government business was up 31% in March, with sales to health care organizations more than doubling. Sales to warehouse operations more than tripled. These are smaller pieces of our business, and as Dan indicated earlier, our first priority is to play our role in overcoming the societal and economic challenges presented by COVID-19. However, we also believe this has introduced Fastenal's capabilities to new customers, which should benefit us well beyond this crisis.

另一方面，這場危機的特殊性也帶來了機會。安全用品是我們第二大產品類別，3 月成長了 31%，因為我們的全球採購能力與市場需求相符。從客戶的角度來看，我們3月的政府業務成長了31%，其中對醫療保健機構的銷售額增加了一倍以上。面向倉儲業務的銷售額增加了兩倍多。這些只是我們業務中較小的部分，正如丹之前指出的那樣，我們的首要任務是發揮我們的作用，克服 COVID-19 帶來的社會和經濟挑戰。然而，我們也相信，這讓新客戶了解了 Fastenal 的實力，這將使我們在這場危機後受益匪淺。

These are all very early reads, but the second quarter of 2020, some regional VPs see their region down 20%-plus while others see their region being closer to flat based on the influx of government business. But none can predict the ultimate length of this situation or the degree to which safety and government will offset weakness elsewhere. There's an extreme lack of visibility in the marketplace currently, but the feedback would seem to put sales in the second quarter of 2020 down 15%-plus, though it's worth noting that, that is not the order of magnitude of decline that we have seen so far through April.

這些都是非常初步的預測，但根據政府業務的湧入，2020 年第二季度，一些區域副總裁認為他們所在區域的業績下降了 20% 以上，而另一些副總裁則認為他們所在區域的業績將接近持平。但誰也無法預測這種情況最終會持續多久，也無法預測安全和政府措施能在多大程度上彌補其他方面的不足。目前市場極度缺乏透明度，但回饋似乎顯示 2020 年第二季的銷售額下降了 15% 以上，不過值得注意的是，這與我們截至 4 月所看到的下降幅度相比，還不是這麼大的。

Now to Slide 6. Our gross margin was 46.6% in the first quarter of 2020, down 110 basis points versus the first quarter of 2019. We did see a wider decline in March, driven by 2 things. First, our cost of goods are heavily variable but those fixed costs that we do have, such as our truck fleet, manufacturing, procurement operation, delevered as daily growth slowed to flattish. Second, the impact of mix widened sharply from January to March based on the abrupt changes in our customer and product mix. This impact was mostly offset by SG&A leverage of 100 basis points. An extra selling day was helpful, and incentive comp is playing its usual shock absorber role as growth slows. As a result, first quarter 2020 operating margin was 19.9%, down 10 basis points year-over-year with an incremental margin of 17%.

現在來看第 6 張投影片。 2020 年第一季度，我們的毛利率為 46.6%，比 2019 年第一季下降了 110 個基點。三月我們確實看到了更大幅度的下滑，這主要受到兩個因素影響。首先，我們的商品成本波動很大，但我們擁有的那些固定成本，如卡車車隊、製造、採購營運等，隨著每日成長放緩至平穩，槓桿率也隨之降低。其次，由於顧客和產品組合的突然變化，組合的影響從 1 月到 3 月急劇擴大。此影響基本上被銷售、管理及行政費用槓桿率 100 個基點所抵銷。多出一天銷售日很有幫助，激勵獎金在成長放緩時發揮了通常的緩衝作用。因此，2020 年第一季營業利潤率為 19.9%，年減 10 個基點，增量利潤率為 17%。

It's difficult to pinpoint where gross margin may settle in the near term. However, fixed cost leverage would remain a factor if sales wind up being as weak as many RVPs currently expect. Further, if growth gaps between safety and government relative to fasteners and higher-margin small customer sales continue to widen, it would similarly widen the impact of mix. Once market conditions revert back to precrisis levels, we would expect much of the current gross margin pressure to reverse.

短期內毛利率會穩定在什麼水平，目前還很難預測。然而，如果銷售額最終像許多區域副總裁目前預期的那樣疲軟，那麼固定成本槓桿作用仍將是一個因素。此外，如果安全性和政府相對於緊固件和高利潤小客戶銷售之間的成長差距繼續擴大，那麼產品組合的影響也會相應擴大。一旦市場狀況恢復到危機前的水平，我們預期目前毛利率面臨的大部分壓力將會逆轉。

As it relates to operating costs, we do not have a formal head count reduction initiative in place but do expect natural attrition as the number of branches that are growing fall below 50% as occurred in March and our field leadership manages their costs. Lower signings expectations will also likely generate reduced need for new Onsite staffing and non-sales-related roles. We also expect a natural decline in incentive compensation based on our variable-pay programs but have taken additional steps to reduce employee-related costs by eliminating bonuses for all employees above a certain base earnings threshold. Certain discretionary costs, such as sales and travel-related selling as well as branch openings and closings, will continue to be managed tightly by field leadership.

就營運成本而言，我們目前沒有正式的裁員計劃，但預計隨著增長的分支機構數量降至 50% 以下（如 3 月份發生的情況），以及我們的現場領導層控製成本，將會出現自然減員。簽約預期降低也可能導致對新的現場工作人員和非銷售相關職位的需求減少。我們也預期基於浮動薪酬計畫的激勵性薪酬會自然下降，但我們也採取了額外措施來降低與員工相關的成本，例如取消所有基本收入超過一定門檻的員工的獎金。某些可自由支配的成本，例如銷售和差旅相關的銷售以及分支機構的開設和關閉，將繼續由現場領導層嚴格控制。

Visibility is low even by our normal standard. The last time our sales were down 15%-plus was 2009. Then, decremental operating margins ranged between 35% and 40%, and that would seem to be a reasonable benchmark if conditions prove to be similar. But ultimately, what decremental margins and earnings look like in 2020 depends greatly on what your expectations for normalization of business activity and the volume and mix assumptions you make for the full year.

即使以我們通常的標準來看，能見度也很低。我們上一次銷售額下降超過 15% 是在 2009 年。然後，營業利潤率下降幅度在 35% 到 40% 之間，如果情況類似，這似乎是一個合理的基準。但歸根結底，2020 年的利潤率和收益會如何變化，很大程度上取決於你對業務活動正常化的預期，以及你對全年銷售和產品組合的假設。

Turning to Slide 7. Operating cash flow of $241 million in the first quarter of 2020 was 119% of net income. The weakening environment moderated net working capital needs in the period. Inventories were up 4% annually and down sequentially in the first quarter of 2020, and days on hand fell by more than 3. Accounts receivable was up 5.2% with days outstanding being flat.

請看第 7 張投影片。 2020 年第一季的經營現金流為 2.41 億美元，佔淨收入的 119%。疲軟的商業環境抑制了該時期的淨營運資本需求。2020 年第一季度，庫存年增 4%，較上季下降，庫存週轉天數減少了 3 天以上。應收帳款成長 5.2%，應收帳款週轉天數維持不變。

Net capital spending in the first quarter of 2020 was $47 million, down from $53 million in the first quarter of 2019, which was expected, given reduced needs for new hub capacity after the investments made in 2019. In light of the uncertain market outlook, we have reduced our net capital spending range for 2020 to $155 million to $180 million, down from $180 million to $205 million previously.

2020 年第一季的淨資本支出為 4,700 萬美元，低於 2019 年第一季的 5,300 萬美元，這在意料之中，因為在 2019 年進行投資後，對新樞紐容量的需求減少了。鑑於市場前景不明朗，我們將 2020 年的淨資本支出範圍從先前的 1.8 億美元至 2.05 億美元下調至 1.55 億美元至 1.8 億美元。

We returned cash to shareholders in the quarter in the form of $144 million in dividends and $52 million in share buybacks. We foresee no change to our $0.25 per share dividend in 2020 but do not currently expect to purchase additional shares. Our purchase of Apex assets in the period also used $125 million in cash.

本季我們以股息 1.44 億美元和股票回購 5,200 萬美元的形式向股東返還了現金。我們預計 2020 年每股 0.25 美元的股息不會改變，但目前不打算買更多股票。我們在此期間收購 Apex 資產也使用了 1.25 億美元現金。

From a liquidity standpoint, we finished the first quarter of 2020 with debt at 14.6% of total capital, up versus the fourth quarter of 2019 on the Apex asset acquisition but below the year-ago level of 16.9%. At quarter's end, we had an additional $344 million available on our existing credit lines, with no reason, after discussions with our lending partners, to believe those funds would not be available for use. Another $465 million of capital is available under our master note agreement. We also have reviewed the sensitivity of our model for different sales, profitability and working capital scenarios and believe the cash our model will generate and our existing credit availability will be more than sufficient for our needs.

從流動性角度來看，截至 2020 年第一季末，我們的債務佔總資本的 14.6%，高於 2019 年第四季因收購 Apex 資產而上升的水平，但低於去年同期的 16.9%。季度末，我們現有信貸額度中還有 3.44 億美元可用，在與貸款合作夥伴討論後，我們沒有理由相信這些資金將無法使用。根據我們的主票據協議，還有 4.65 億美元的資金可供使用。我們也檢視了我們的模型對不同銷售額、獲利能力和營運資本情境的敏感性，並相信我們的模型將產生的現金以及我們現有的信貸額度將完全滿足我們的需求。

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

我們的正式報告就到此為止。那麼，操作員，我們開始接受提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from David Manthey from Baird.

（操作說明）我們今天的第一個問題來自 Baird 公司的 David Manthey。

So you noted that there's no official reduction in force mandate, but my question is related to FTE head count. Back in 2008, your FTEs were about 12,000, and you dropped that by about 15% or 1,800 FTEs, with nearly 1,000 FTEs coming out in the first quarter of '08 alone. You've got about 19,000 today. I'm just trying to gauge. Is 15% via attrition and reduction of part-time hours? If needed, is that something that would be in the ballpark of 3,000 FTEs? And if so, I'm just trying to get a gauge on how quickly you could move on that. Is half of the ultimate reduction or maybe 1,500 FTEs reasonable as you flex down hire -- flex down your part-time hours and freeze hiring?

您提到沒有正式的裁員指示，但我的問題與全職員工人數有關。2008 年，你們的 FTE 大約有 12,000 人，你們減少了大約 15% 或 1,800 個 FTE，僅在 2008 年第一季就減少了近 1,000 個 FTE。你今天大約有 19,000 個。我只是想了解一下狀況。15% 的裁員是透過自然減員和減少兼職工時來實現的嗎？如果需要的話，這大概需要 3000 個全職員工（FTE）吧？如果是這樣的話，我只是想了解你們能多快推進這件事。如果採取彈性縮減招募、減少兼職工時和凍結招募的方式，最終裁員一半（或 1500 名全職員工）是否合理？

So I'll answer that in pieces. First off, the 2008/2009 time frame, if you recall, our business from October to January dropped about 18%, and then we dropped another 15% between January and April. I remember those numbers quite well. I didn't have to look those up. And the economy froze up. We took steps to mechanically alter some of our bonus programs to conserve cash, with one goal being we wanted to maintain as much employment as we could to maintain our talent pool, and that's true also today.

那我分成幾部分來回答這個問題。首先，如果你還記得的話，在 2008/2009 年期間，我們的業務從 10 月到 1 月下降了約 18%，然後在 1 月到 4 月期間又下降了 15%。我對那些數字記得很清楚。我根本不用查。經濟陷入停滯。我們採取措施，對一些獎金計劃進行機械性調整以節省現金，其中一個目標是盡可能多地保留就業崗位，以維持我們的人才庫，這一點至今仍然適用。

We took deeper steps because the prospect of this being longer in duration was greater. At this point, Dave, we just don't know. The message that I've given our team is with shelter-in-place orders, you see a bunch of customers, a bunch of businesses that are shut down. Holden touched on that in some of his information. You also see examples where our business is operating. And I believe the bias right now towards pieces of the economy turning back on is stronger today than it would have been a couple weeks ago. And I've said to our team we actually prepared for elements of the economy turning back on as we get into May. I don't know if that's going to happen, Dave, but elements of our economy turning back on. So I wouldn't see the drop-off being as acute as you saw back in 2009.

我們採取了更深入的措施，因為這種情況持續更長時間的可能性更大。戴夫，目前我們還不知道。我向團隊傳達的訊息是，隨著居家隔離令的實施，你會看到很多顧客和很多企業都關門歇業了。霍爾頓在他的一些資料中也提到了這一點。您也可以看到我們業務運作的實例。而且我認為，目前經濟部分領域重啟的趨勢比幾週前更加強烈。我已經告訴我們的團隊，我們實際上已經為五月經濟部分領域重新啟動做好了準備。戴夫，我不知道這是否會發生，但我們經濟的某些部分正在重新啟動。所以我認為這次的下滑幅度不會像 2009 年那麼劇烈。

We do have a hiring freeze in place. We have pulled back part-time hours. We are letting attrition happen. I don't know what attrition will look like in this environment versus 2008, 2009. And Holden, maybe you can chime in if you have any insight.

我們目前確實實施了招募凍結政策。我們減少了兼職工時。我們任由人員自然流失發生。我不知道在當前環境下，人員流失狀況會與 2008 年、2009 年相比如何。霍爾頓，如果你有什麼見解，或許可以表達看法。

I mean the only thing I might add to that, Dave, is we have to remember, relative to 2009, too, there are opportunities in this market. We touched on the opportunities to be more involved with safety and PPE and janitorial and sanitation products. I mean demand for those is very strong. That was not the case in 2009. So there are opportunities for us that the market is not quite as turned off as I recall 2009 being.

戴夫，我唯一想補充的是，我們也要記住，相對於 2009 年，這個市場也存在著機會。我們探討了更多參與安全防護用品、個人防護裝備以及清潔衛生用品的機會。我的意思是，對這些產品的需求非常旺盛。但2009年並非如此。因此，市場不像我記憶中2009年那樣冷清，這對我們來說是一個機會。

Having spoken to a few of the EVPs about what they expect from a head count standpoint, their expectation is that full-time head count will decline as the field manages their P&Ls. But I would tell you that they aren't looking for declines at this stage on the order of magnitude that you were sort of alluding to. So I think that you'll see, in all of our regions, some decline in full-time head count. You'll certainly see a decline in part-time head count and hours will go down. But right now, with the opportunities that are present and with the uncertainties that are out there, it's not on an order of magnitude that you're referring to.

在與幾位執行副總裁談過他們對人員編制的預期後，他們預計隨著各部門管理損益，全職員工人數將會減少。但我可以告訴你，他們目前並不期待出現你剛才提到的那種幅度的下跌。所以我認為，在我們所有地區，全職員工人數都會下降。兼職員工人數一定會減少，工時也會縮短。但就目前而言，考慮到存在的機會和不確定性，這遠沒有你所說的數量級那麼大。

Okay. Fair enough. And just a point of clarification. Is there anything different about the business today that if you needed to or if this was longer than expected, that a 10% or 15% flex down just via the tools that we mentioned in FTE specifically would be possible? Or is it different this time?

好的。很公平。還有一點需要澄清。如今的業務狀況是否與以往有所不同？如果需要，或者這種情況比預期持續時間更長，是否可以透過我們先前在 FTE 部分中提到的工具，靈活地減少 10% 或 15% 的員工？這次情況有所不同嗎？

I don't believe it's different, Dave, the -- our head count per branch. So if you go back to that '08, '09 time frame, our average branch was doing somewhere in the $80,000 to $90,000 a month category. And now we're in that -- I don't know what we did last month, probably in the $130,000, $140,000 category. So there's more employees per branch, which gives you some flexibility there.

戴夫，我不認為有什麼不同——我們每個分行的人員數量。所以，如果你回顧一下 2008 年、2009 年那段時間，我們分行的平均月收入大概在 8 萬到 9 萬美元之間。現在我們處於——我不知道我們上個月做了什麼，可能在 13 萬美元到 14 萬美元的範圍內。因此，每個分公司有更多員工，這給了你一定的彈性。

In distribution, the picking activity drives it. Our relative labor to pick is a little bit different than it was a decade ago because there's more automation in our system. But I don't believe our business is different now that we couldn't flex it.

在物流配送中，揀貨活動是驅動物流配送的關鍵因素。由於我們的系統中自動化程度更高，我們採摘所需的人工與十年前略有不同。但我並不認為我們現在無法靈活調整業務模式就改變了我們的業務。

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

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的喬許波克日溫斯基。

Holden, by the way of -- I think yours is the last hand I shook back in early March when we were in London to -- the last time anybody got out.

順便說一句，霍爾頓——我想你的手是我在三月初我們在倫敦時握的最後一隻手——也是最後一位離開的人。

I appreciate you not making me sick.

感謝你沒有讓我生病。

I guess a couple of questions. I don't think I would have been to blame at that point. You were on another continent. I guess a couple questions. First, appreciate the

我想問幾個問題。我認為當時我不會受到指責。你當時身處另一個大陸。我想問幾個問題。首先，要懂得欣賞

(technical difficulty)

（技術難題）

And I know that the last quarter, you kind of broke your track of talking about current quarter in it

我知道上個季度你有點偏離了你原本的思路，沒有繼續談論本季的情況。

(technical difficulty)

（技術難題）

running down

向下

(technical difficulty)

（技術難題）

thus far in April. Would you mind kind of sharing where we're at, at this point?

四月至今。您能否大致介紹一下我們目前的進展？

Josh, I'm not sure if we'll be able to answer your question because, right now, we're getting about every other word.

喬希，我不確定我們能否回答你的問題，因為現在我們只能接收大約每隔一個字的訊息。

I think you asked -- I think in my prepared remarks, I referred to sort of our monthly or April to date not being down on the order of magnitude of 15%-plus. I think you're asking to give some color as to what that order of magnitude is. Is that right?

我想你問過——我想在我準備好的演講稿中，我提到過我們四月份至今的月度數據並沒有下降 15% 以上。我認為你是想讓我具體說明這個數量級是多少。是這樣嗎？

Correct.

正確的。

We're probably running between 10% and 15% down right now. Now the one thing to bear in mind is that the timing of months matters, right? I mean given how much of our business is National Accounts and Onsites and vending and things like that, that does tend to create a little bit more movement towards the latter part of the month than the earlier part of the month.

我們目前的跌幅可能在 10% 到 15% 之間。現在需要記住的一點是，月份的時間安排很重要，對吧？我的意思是，考慮到我們的業務很大一部分是全國性客戶、現場服務、自動販賣機等等，這確實會導致月底的業務量比月初增加。

So there's still a lot that we don't know, Josh. But based on where we are today in April, to this point, we've been down probably between 10% and 15% as opposed to 15%-plus.

所以，我們還有很多不知道的事情，喬希。但根據我們目前在四月的情況來看，到目前為止，我們可能下降了 10% 到 15%，而不是 15% 以上。

I appreciate that. Go ahead.

我很感激。前進。

I'll add one element to that, and that is, despite the fact we weren't able to celebrate it in a way that was maybe normal for most of us or at least for me, last weekend was Easter weekend, which meant last Friday was Good Friday. So that does impact our business every year, the placement of Good Friday. But as of Saturday morning, when I looked at the numbers, we were down about 10.5%. That was again probably a little bit worse because of Good Friday, but that was looking at where we were month to date.

我還要補充一點，儘管我們沒能以對我們大多數人來說或許很正常的方式慶祝復活節，或者至少對我來說是這樣，但上週末是復活節週末，這意味著上週五是耶穌受難日。所以，耶穌受難日的日期每年都會對我們的業務產生影響。但截至週六早上，當我查看數據時，我們下降了約 10.5%。由於耶穌受難日，情況可能又稍微糟糕了一些，但這只是從我們當月迄今為止的情況來看。

Got it. That's really helpful color, Dan. And just one extra one. Obviously, an impact from customer shutdowns. You called that out in Onsite. But if you had to think about the totality of customers even just anecdotally from the regions, any sense for how much of the drag is just customers literally not having their doors open?

知道了。丹，這個顏色真的很有幫助。再多一個。顯然，這是客戶停工造成的影響。你在現場報道中指出了這一點。但如果你僅根據各個地區的個別案例來考慮所有顧客的情況，你能感受到有多少拖累僅僅是因為顧客的店鋪沒有開門營業嗎？

I think the fact that a little over 10% of our Onsites were closed at the end of March is probably a good -- a pretty good proxy from the standpoint of what we're seeing in the marketplace. And the only thing that could influence that would be our Onsites tend to be more manufacturing, although there are Onsites that are construction, there are Onsites that are education and the like. But I think that's probably a pretty good indicator in the fact that the first week of the month or the first 1.5 weeks of the month being down a little over 10% probably plays out intuitively that way. Where we're seeing greater drop is in some of the industries that Holden touched on, smaller pieces of our business but they're down more. And then, obviously, the flip side of that is government and health care and first responders, while a small piece of our business, is up dramatically.

我認為，3 月底我們超過 10% 的現場服務點關閉，這可能是一個很好的指標，從我們目前在市場上看到的情況來看，這是一個相當不錯的指標。唯一可能影響這一點的因素是，我們的現場服務往往更偏向製造業，儘管也有建築業的現場服務，也有教育等其他類型的現場服務。但我認為這可能是一個很好的指標，因為月初第一週或月初前一周半的跌幅略高於 10%，這很​​可能符合直覺。我們看到降幅較大的領域是霍頓涉足的一些行業，雖然這些行業是我們業務中較小的部分，但它們的降幅更大。顯然，另一方面，政府、醫療保健和急救人員雖然只占我們業務的一小部分，但業務量卻大幅成長。

And I might add a little color to that only in the sense that 9 days before the month ended, we kind of expected our growth to be more in the 2.5% range. And so over 8 days, to go from 2.5% to flat would imply that we probably, over the course of 8 days, lost $10 million to $11 million in revenues that we might have otherwise expected to have gotten several days previous. And that includes, with the surge in safety and government and things like that, which gives you a sense of sort of the manufacturing side of things, the construction side of things, the kind of very short order of magnitude impact that we're having in those core markets.

我還要補充一點，在月底前 9 天，我們預期成長率會在 2.5% 左右。因此，在 8 天內，從 2.5% 降至持平，意味著在 8 天內，我們可能損失了 1,000 萬至 1,100 萬美元的收入，而這些收入原本可能在幾天前就能獲得。這其中也包括安全措施和政府等方面的激增，這讓你對製造業、建築業等方面有所了解，以及我們在這些核心市場中產生的非常短期的、量級上的影響。

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

今天我們提出的下一個問題來自 Longbow Research 的 Chris Dankert。

I guess first off, could we kind of dig in on Apex a little bit? Very exciting news, but I guess, is this more about locking in a strategic technology and capability and kind of keeping it out of competitor hands? Or is it more about vertically integrating? Or is it -- where are the real opportunities in bringing Apex kind of into the fold here?

首先，我們能不能稍微深入了解 Apex？這是個非常令人興奮的消息，但我想，這更多的是為了鎖定一項戰略技術和能力，防止它落入競爭對手手中嗎？或者，這更多的是關於垂直整合？或者說——將 Apex 納入麾下，真正的機會在哪裡？

Yes. So first off, we did have, from a strategic standpoint, a good block of the technology previously because our -- when we expanded our relationship back in 2010 with this technology platform, we did line up an exclusivity for the industrial MRO marketplace. So we did have a great spot there, which probably drove some of our competitors crazy over the last decade, and I'm okay with that. And -- but what it really did is, over time, the technology platform became a deeper and deeper part of our business. And so today, that vending platform represents roughly 20% of our revenue, goes through that vending platform. And then we have another 10% of our revenue that goes to what we call our bin stock platform. So about 30% of our business goes through some type of distribution mechanism that goes right into the customer's facility and is a repetitive order cycle. And we see that piece, over time, expanding dramatically as we become more supply chain linked with our customer. And with -- as a percentage of our business, I wouldn't be surprised to see that 30% we have today more than double when we double in size and double as a percentage of our business.

是的。首先，從策略角度來看，我們之前確實掌握了相當一部分技術，因為——早在 2010 年，當我們擴大與該技術平台的合作關係時，我們就獲得了工業 MRO 市場的獨家經銷權。所以，我們在那裡佔據了一個絕佳的位置，這可能在過去十年裡讓我們的競爭對手們感到抓狂，但我並不介意。但實際上，隨著時間的推移，科技平台逐漸成為我們業務中越來越重要的一部分。因此，如今，該自動販賣機平台約占我們收入的 20%，這些收入都透過該自動販賣機平台獲得。然後，我們還有 10% 的收入用於我們所謂的庫存平台。因此，我們約 30% 的業務是透過某種分銷機制直接進入客戶的工廠，這是一個重複的訂單週期。隨著時間的推移，隨著我們與客戶的供應鏈連結越來越緊密，我們看到這一部分也急劇擴大。而且，就我們業務的佔比而言，如果規模和業務佔比都翻一番，那麼我們今天 30% 的佔比翻一番以上，我也不會感到驚訝。

And so from that standpoint, the Apex transaction was very much about bringing the technology closer to us so that the technology development of the platform is more aligned with where we want to take it. Because our partner, great partner for the last 12 years, they are as much interested about expanding outside of industrial distribution as they are within industrial distribution. And sometimes that means what's prioritized from a technology development doesn't always harmonize with what we're thinking. And so it provided us the ability to do that.

因此從這個角度來看，Apex 交易很大程度上是為了讓我們更接近這項技術，從而使該平台的技術發展與我們想要的發展方向更加一致。因為我們的合作夥伴，過去 12 年來一直是我們的好合作夥伴，他們對拓展工業分銷以外的業務與在工業分銷領域內的業務同樣感興趣。有時這意味著技術發展中優先考慮的事項並不總是與我們的想法一致。因此，它使我們能夠做到這一點。

It also provided us the ability to blur the lines a little bit between what is vending, what is bin stock, what is automated replenishment because it gave us more flexibility in what can go through the supply chain. It also gives us more flexibility in how we deploy assets. And so we very much see it as making the technology part of our umbrella. And having access to the supply chain ultimately will lower the cost for us over time of the platform.

它還使我們能夠稍微模糊自動販賣機、貨架庫存和自動補貨之間的界限，因為它讓我們在供應鏈中擁有更大的靈活性。這也讓我們在資產部署上有更大的彈性。因此，我們非常清楚，這相當於將技術納入了我們的業務範疇。最終，透過獲取供應鏈資源，我們將在長期內降低平台的成本。

Got it. That's really helpful. And then optimization sounds kind of like the way forward there.

知道了。這真的很有幫助。那麼，最佳化聽起來像是解決問題的方向。

And I guess just a follow-up from me here. Safety has been a really nice offset to the slower OEM demand in 1Q. But I guess my assumption is a lot of those products are now kind of on allocation, safety, 20% of sales. I guess is that -- how much of that being on allocation is an impediment to sales growth as we move into kind of 2Q here? Any comments on product availability would be really helpful.

我想再補充一點。第一季度，安全保障很好地抵消了 OEM 需求放緩的影響。但我猜想，現在很多這類產品都實行配額制，以確保安全，銷售額的 20% 都用於此。我想問的是——隨著我們進入第二季度，有多少資金被分配出去會阻礙銷售成長？任何關於產品供應情況的回饋都將非常有幫助。

We're not alone in that neighborhood, and you see it every night on the news. Demand has surged, grown by multiples in a matter of weeks -- days and weeks. And as I mentioned earlier in my comments, we put a bunch of effort in place back in February and March to expand our own supply chain to broaden our access. We do have, which is unique for Fastenal, somewhat of a backlog, I think, right now. And they're not all going through safety, through the vending platform. A lot of it, we're delivering pallets of product to customers because we are a source they can rely on.

我們不是那個社區裡唯一的受害者，你每天晚上都能在新聞裡看到相關報導。需求激增，在短短幾週內（幾天或幾週內）增長了數倍。正如我之前在評論中提到的，我們在二月和三月投入了大量精力來擴大我們自己的供應鏈，以擴大我們的供應管道。我認為，目前我們確實存在一些積壓訂單，這對 Fastenal 來說是獨一無二的。而且它們並非都經過了安全檢查，沒有通過自動販賣機平台。很多時候，我們都是成托盤地向客戶交付產品，因為我們是他們可以信賴的供應商。

We're also a source that they know the quality of what they're getting. Because given our history in fasteners, one of our Achilles' heel with vetting new suppliers is we are incredibly picky when it comes to who we will do business with, not only from the standpoint of how they operate their business but their supply chain and the quality of their own product. Because we peer beyond them when we're understanding the vetting process and the quality of the product. It's not just testing the output, it's testing their supply chain, too.

我們也是一個讓他們了解所購買產品品質的來源。因為鑑於我們在緊固件領域的歷史，我們在篩選新供應商方面的一個弱點是，我們對合作對象非常挑剔，不僅從他們的經營方式來看，還從他們的供應鏈和自身產品品質來看。因為在了解審核過程和產品品質時，我們會超越這些表象進行深入思考。這不僅是對產出進行測試，也是對供應鏈進行測試。

And so the 20% is vending. Our safety is just slightly below that historically. It's around 17% historically. Obviously, that's grown as a percentage here in the current environment. I suspect that will continue to hold at a higher clip as we go into second and third quarter because I personally believe there will be changes in our customers and in the marketplace on things like safety products. And last weekend, I'm in -- picking up some groceries and everybody in that facility -- well, 80% of the people in that facility, and I don't mean people working there, I mean people shopping, were wearing masks. And I think that's going to be a greater part of our world included in manufacturing settings.

因此，剩下的 20% 是自動販賣機。我們的安全狀況略低於歷史平均值。歷史平均約為 17%。顯然，在當前環境下，這一比例有所增長。我懷疑隨著我們進入第二季度和第三季度，這種情況會繼續保持較高水平，因為我個人認為我們的客戶和市場在安全產品等方面會發生變化。上週末，我去超市買些雜貨，超市裡80%的人——我指的不是在那裡工作的人，而是購物的人——都戴著口罩。我認為，製造業將成為我們世界的重要組成部分。

I would probably add a couple of things as well. The timing of how COVID-19 has sort of rolled through the map, if you will, has been beneficial in the sense that as our U.S. suppliers perhaps had their production diverted to very specific needs and started putting on allocations, the Chinese suppliers were beginning to open up. And I think this is really the value in having 200-some-odd professionals on the ground over in Asia, communicating with product professionals domestically in that they really are able to go out and find alternative uses of -- or alternative sources of product and make sure that, that product is of a sufficient quality and is going to deliver or achieve the needs of the customer. And so I think that we've done a really good job being able to find alternative sources of product as we've gone on, and I think we're built to be able to do that.

我可能還會補充幾點。COVID-19 疫情在全球蔓延的時機，從某種意義上說，是有利的，因為當我們的美國供應商可能將生產轉移到非常具體的需求並開始實行配額制時，中國的供應商也開始開放生產。我認為，在亞洲擁有 200 多名專業人員的真正價值在於，他們能夠與國內的產品專業人員溝通，從而真正找到產品的替代用途或替代來源，並確保產品品質足夠好，能夠滿足客戶的需求。所以我認為，我們一路走來，在尋找替代產品來源方面做得非常出色，而且我認為我們有能力做到這一點。

So I think that the timing of things has certainly been advantageous as well. And again, I think the folks in product and international procurement and all that deserve a lot of credit for continuing to keep our supply chain of PPE product pretty filled. And as Dan indicated, right now, we still have product that we're going to be working through delivering throughout most of April at this point.

所以我認為，事情發生的時機也確實很有利。再次強調，我認為產品和國際採購部門的各位同事都應該受到高度讚揚，因為他們一直努力維持我們的個人防護裝備供應鏈的充足供應。正如丹所指出的，目前我們仍然有一些產品需要交付，這項工作將持續到四月的大部分時間。

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

下一個問題來自威廉·布萊爾的瑞安·默克爾。

So I want to dig in on April a little bit more. I'm surprised that it's only down 10% to 15% so far. So it sounds like the safety is buffering, and that's going to continue. But what about the OEM fastener business? And what about the non-res business? I just would have thought with factories shut down and job sites potentially closed, that there might be bigger impacts there. What sort of growth declines are you seeing right now in that part of the business?

所以我想更深入地了解四月份的情況。令我驚訝的是，目前為止跌幅只有10%到15%。聽起來安全措施正在起到緩衝作用，而且這種情況還會持續下去。那麼OEM緊固件業務又如何呢？那麼非住宅業務呢？我原以為工廠停工、工地可能關閉，會對那裡造成更大的影響。您目前在該業務領域觀察到哪些成長放緩的情況？

Yes. I'm not sure that I have a great answer for you from a granular standpoint. We just don't necessarily collect that level on a day-to-day basis. But I think what you're describing has been playing out. I think that you're seeing weakness in the manufacturing side. I had -- one of our leaders in the construction side shared with me yesterday sort of an email from some of our suppliers about what they're seeing in the marketplace in terms of construction. There's just a lot of states, cities that have shut off construction in many respects.

是的。從具體細節上來說，我不太確定我能給你一個很好的答案。我們並非每天都會收集到那個程度的數據。但我認為你所描述的情況已經發生了。我認為你看到的是製造業的弱點。昨天，我們建築部門的一位領導人跟我分享了一封來自我們一些供應商的電子郵件，內容是關於他們在建築市場方面看到的情況。很多州、很多城市都已經停止了各方面的建設活動。

And so Ryan, the environment that you're describing absolutely exists, and it's being mitigated, to some extent, by the need for the PPE products and our government and things of that nature. So I'm not sure in April exactly what the OEM versus the MRO versus the non -- or versus the construction fasteners are doing. We don't have that on a day-to-day basis. But I think that the environment you're describing is the environment that exists today. It's just, unlike 2009, there are some areas where there's a great need, and we're built to be able to find the product to meet that need. And I think that's what you're seeing as an offsetting factor.

所以瑞安，你所描述的環境確實存在，而且在某種程度上，對個人防護裝備的需求以及政府和類似的事情正在緩解這種情況。所以我不太確定四月 OEM、MRO、非 OEM 或建築緊固件的具體情況。我們日常生活中並沒有這種情況。但我認為你所描述的環境就是當今存在的環境。只是與 2009 年不同的是，現在有些領域存在著很大的需求，而我們有能力找到滿足這種需求的產品。我認為這就是你看到的抵消因素。

Okay. Fair enough. Makes sense. And then switching to gross margin, I guess a 2-part question. How much lower are the safety margins to government customers versus the company average? And then, Holden, I know you don't want to be in the gross margin guidance game, but any help on the magnitude of gross margin declines in the second quarter would be helpful. Or maybe just quantify -- or coming at it a different way, maybe just quantify the expected mix headwind relative to the typical 30 to 40 basis points in normal times.

好的。很公平。有道理。接下來談談毛利率，我想這應該是個包含兩個部分的問題。政府客戶的安全邊際與公司平均值相比低多少？還有，霍爾頓，我知道你不想參與毛利率指引的討論，但如果你能提供一些關於第二季度毛利率下降幅度的信息，那就太好了。或者，也許只需量化——或者換個角度來說，也許只需量化相對於正常時期典型的 30 到 40 個基點的預期混合不利因素。

I would normally tell you that I don't want to be in the gross margin prediction game. I will tell you I can't be in the margin -- gross margin prediction game right now. It's really going to depend. I don't know what the second half of April is going to look like versus the first half in terms of where the demand comes from, right? We've had conversations internally about this is a situation where the world doesn't have enough PPE, right? But it's also one of those situations where you can see getting to a point, at some point, where, frankly, there's too much of it. I don't know if that's April, if that's May, if that's fourth quarter. It's really hard to answer, Ryan. So I don't think I'm going to go down that path.

我通常會告訴你，我不想參與毛利率預測的遊戲。我要告訴你，我現在無法參與毛利率預測遊戲。這真的要看情況而定。我不知道四月下半月的需求來源會跟上半月有什麼不同，對吧？我們內部已經討論過，目前全球個人防護裝備短缺，對吧？但這也是那種你可以看到在某種程度上，坦白說，這種情況會變得過猶不及的情況之一。我不知道那是四月，還是五月，還是第四季。瑞恩，這個問題真的很難回答。所以我想我不會走那條路。

The only perspective I think I can give you is, if I look at mix through the course of Q1, in January, mix was probably about a 65 basis point drag to the business. And if I look at March, it was closer to 90 basis point drag to the business. And it wasn't necessarily because the customer mix had changed so much, it was because the product mix had changed as dramatically as it had.

我唯一能給出的觀點是，如果我看一下第一季（1 月）的產品組合，產品組合可能對業務造成了大約 65 個基點的拖累。如果我看一下 3 月的數據，它對業務的拖累接近 90 個基點。這並非一定是因為客戶群發生了巨大變化，而是因為產品群發生瞭如此巨大的變化。

And what does that mean going into Q2? I honestly don't know where that's going to settle out. I think it's an impossible question at this stage for us to answer. But you could clearly see, in a very short window, what was impacting mix. And we're going to see how that plays out over April and second quarter, just like you are. But I wish I could give you more detail, but we just don't have a lot of ways to understand that right now.

那麼，進入第二季度意味著什麼？說實話，我也不知道最終結果會如何。我認為現階段我們無法回答這個問題。但你可以在很短的時間內清楚地看到是什麼影響了混音。我們會像你們一樣，看看四月和第二季情況會如何發展。但我希望能夠提供更多細節，可惜我們目前還沒有太多方法可以理解這一點。

I'll add just one tidbit to that. First off, one thing that we did is, early on in the process, we put in some pretty strict pricing guidelines for our field from the standpoint of there's times where you look at your obligations to society and your obligations to your customer. And we're probably leaving -- there's probably examples where we're leaving some margin on the table because we're more interested in getting through this and getting society through it and getting back to whatever the new normal is.

我再補充一點。首先，我們做的一件事是，在流程早期，我們就為我們的領域制定了一些非常嚴格的定價準則，因為有時你需要考慮你對社會的義務和你對客戶的義務。我們可能正在離開——可能有一些例子表明，我們放棄了一些餘地，因為我們更感興趣的是渡過難關，幫助社會渡過難關，並恢復到某種新的常態。

The fact that we closed our front door, not only did that cost us some sales growth, a few percentage points I would guess, it also cost us some mix elements to our business. And the real question is, for everybody looking at Fastenal or at the market in general, when do you believe some elements of regrouping of the economy step into place? As long as restaurants and theme parks and things like that are closed, that will hurt a piece of our business. And that small customer, in the case of the restaurant, is probably a higher-margin element. And so even that mix comes into play when we look at our MRO fasteners.

我們關閉前門這一事實，不僅使我們的銷售成長損失了一些（我估計損失了幾個百分點），而且還使我們的業務失去了一些混合元素。真正的問題是，對於所有關注 Fastenal 或整個市場的人來說，你們認為經濟重組的某些要素何時才能到位？只要餐廳、主題樂園之類的場所關閉，就會對我們的業務造成一定影響。對餐廳而言，這位小顧客很可能是利潤較高的顧客。因此，當我們考慮 MRO 緊固件時，這種混合因素也會發揮作用。

I would say as well that when you're procuring more products from sources that aren't usually part of your supply chain, as we do when we go get fill-in buys to solve customers' needs at this point in time, that tends to come in at a lower margin as well. So it's not just mix. There's some unusual circumstances that are playing out in the marketplace today that, frankly, when this whole thing begins to normalize and stabilize, we expect that most of those sort of near-term drags would unwind.

我還要補充一點，當你從通常不屬於你供應鏈的來源採購更多產品時（就像我們現在為了滿足客戶需求而進行的補充採購一樣），利潤率往往也會降低。所以這不僅僅是混合。目前市場上出現了一些不尋常的情況，坦白說，當這一切開始正常化和穩定下來時，我們預計大多數此類短期拖累因素都會消失。

So it's a relevant question to 2Q, Ryan. I don't have a great answer for you at this point, but I do believe that the issues that we're seeing are not permanent issues. I think that they exist as long as this situation with COVID-19 exists. And once that goes away and our mix begins to revert back to normal and our supply chain reverts back to normal, that -- then we'll have a more normal pattern reasserting itself on gross margin as well. I don't think there's a long-term issue here.

所以，瑞恩，這是一個與第二季相關的問題。目前我還沒有很好的答案，但我相信我們目前遇到的問題並非永久性問題。我認為只要新冠疫情持續存在，它們就會一直存在。一旦這種情況消失，我們的產品組合開始恢復正常，我們的供應鏈也恢復正常，那麼──毛利率也會重新恢復正常。我認為這裡不存在長期問題。

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

今天我們提出的下一個問題來自克利夫蘭研究公司的亞當烏爾曼。

Hope the entire team is healthy. Wanted to continue the discussion on gross margin, if we could. Could you tell us what price realization was this quarter? And then Holden, price/cost, I guess, was expected to moderate or level out. Are we seeing that in the numbers today?

希望全隊都健康。如果可以的話，我們想繼續討論毛利率的問題。請問本季實際成交價格是多少？至於霍頓汽車，我猜想它的價格/成本應該會趨於平穩或趨於穩定。我們今天能從數據中看出這一點嗎？

Yes. I would say the price level that we experienced in Q1 was comparable to what we experienced in Q4. And I would say that in terms of characterizing price/cost, I would still characterize that as not a meaningful factor on our gross margin in the period.

是的。我認為第一季的價格水準與第四季的價格水準相當。就價格/成本而言，我認為它仍然是影響我們該時期毛利率的一個重要因素。

Okay. Got you. And then, I guess, could you expand your thoughts a little bit on what the team is doing from a selling standpoint right now? It's got to be a big change of working from home and trying to do remote selling processes rather than in person. Maybe walk through how vending fulfillment is occurring when customers are restricting access to their facilities. Are there creative sales steps that folks are taking? Just how the organization is working right now.

好的。抓到你了。那麼，您能否再詳細談談團隊目前在銷售上所做的事情呢？在家辦公，嘗試遠距銷售而不是面對面銷售，這肯定是一個很大的改變。或許可以解釋一下當客戶限制進入其設施時，自動販賣機的訂單是如何處理的。人們正在採取哪些創意的銷售策略？這就是該組織目前的運作方式。

First off, if you think of our organization in buckets of population, the bulk of our employees work in a branch or Onsite. And those folks are going to work every day. Unless you're in one of those Onsites that are closed, then you're probably going to -- you might be working at home or you might be working in another facility and doing certain aspects of the business remotely. But most of our folks are going to -- are going to the customer.

首先，如果你把我們的組織按人口規模劃分，那麼我們的大部分員工都在分支機構或現場工作。這些人每天都要去上班。除非你所在的辦公地點已經關閉，否則你很可能會——你可能在家工作，或者你可能在其他辦公地點遠端處理業務的某些方面。但我們大多數的員工都要去——都要去見客戶。

I know there's examples of vending machines we're not filling, but I would say it's a relatively small piece of the equation. I have received over -- through either our web feedback or through comments, whether it's on LinkedIn or other places, pictures of our employees taken by customers where they're cleaning the vending machine as they're filling the vending machine. Very positively received, I think, by our customers. I do believe our customers appreciate the fact that we closed the front door to our branches because that way the amount of interaction we have is dramatically reduced from the variety of people. So I feel safer having a Fastenal rep come into my business knowing there's not a whole bunch of people walking into our location. And so we are still fulfilling vending as we have in the past.

我知道有些自動販賣機沒有補貨，但我認為這只是問題中相對較小的一部分。我透過我們的網站回饋或評論（無論是在 LinkedIn 還是其他地方）收到了超過 1000 張照片，這些照片是顧客拍攝的，照片中我們的員工正在清潔自動販賣機並同時填充自動販賣機。我認為我們的客戶反應非常好。我相信我們的客戶會讚賞我們關閉分行大門的做法，因為這可以大大減少我們與形形色色的人之間的互動。所以我覺得讓 Fastenal 的代表來我的店裡比較安全，因為我知道不會有很多人進出我們的店。因此，我們仍然像過去一樣繼續提供自動販賣機服務。

One element of that fulfillment is slowly changing, that is we've talked in the past about changes to our fulfillment model for vending and the creation of what we call LIFT, our local inventory fulfillment terminal. I believe we had 2 late last year. I believe, right now, we're up to 7. So we continue to invest in that. We're expanding that element. And that's really about how we pick and how we fill the machines. And you can fill with a team that can go into -- has more concentrated inventory and can go into more customer locations with product that's already picked down to the individual machines.

其中一個環節正在緩慢改變，那就是我們過去曾討論過自動販賣機履行模式的改變，以及創建我們稱為 LIFT 的本地庫存履行終端。我記得去年年底我們有兩個。我相信，目前我們已經達到7個了。所以我們會繼續投資這個領域。我們正在擴展這一要素。這實際上關乎我們如何挑選以及如何填充機器。而且你可以組建一支團隊，該團隊擁有更集中的庫存，可以帶著已經揀選到單一機器上的產品進入更多客戶地點。

But we're certainly getting asked to make accommodations by our customers. There are some customers who are not comfortable signing packing slips. And maybe we're dropping off and they're picking up and they're filling their machines where we might have done it before. But -- so obviously, we accommodate what our customers want from us in this, but we're still providing those services.

但我們確實經常被客戶要求做出一些調整。有些顧客不願意在裝箱單上簽名。也許我們把東西送到他們那裡，他們來取，然後他們把機器裝滿，就像我們以前做的那樣。但是——很顯然，我們會滿足客戶的需求，但我們仍然會提供這些服務。

Our next question is coming from Sam Darkatsh from Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題來自 Raymond James 公司的 Sam Darkatsh。

So obviously, with respect to the lack of visibility in terms of Onsite signings and openings this year, I'm guessing April will be the low watermark for that. Holden, any sense of what you're tracking in terms of Onsite signings and openings near term?

顯然，就今年現場簽約和開業的可見性而言，我估計四月將是最低點。霍爾頓，你對近期現場簽約和開業情況有什麼了解嗎？

Not a great sense of it, to be honest with you, Sam. The -- yes. I don't know, Dan, if you've had a more recent conversation on the matter, but...

說實話，薩姆，我對這方面不太了解。是的。丹，我不知道你最近是否就此事與人談過，但是…

I haven't. Like I say, I was pleasantly surprised by the level of signings we had in March because I thought they would have dropped more meaningfully than they did. And that's a testament to the pipeline we already had in place.

我沒有。正如我所說，我對三月的簽約水平感到驚喜，因為我原以為簽約人數會比實際情況大幅下降。這證明了我們已有的管道體係是有效的。

One side of me says organizations are, I mean, slower to make decisions. They're going to be looking at how they're operating. Another side of me says we've had the ability in this environment to really demonstrate what our supply chain resources can do. And I've heard more than one example of our sales team talking about comments from customers of, "I get what your supply chain resources are about more than ever from what I've seen firsthand over the last 3 weeks." So I don't know if, ultimately, that helps us sign more.

一方面我覺得，組織機構的決策速度比較慢。他們將審視自身的運作方式。另一方面，我認為我們有能力在這種環境下真正展現我們的供應鏈資源所能發揮的作用。我聽到不只一位銷售團隊成員提到，客戶回饋說：「過去三週我親眼所見，讓我比以往任何時候都更了解你們的供應鏈資源。」所以我不知道，最終這是否能幫助我們簽下更多合約。

And I talk about that more in the context of Onsite versus vending because vending is a different animal in that it's a transactional element. The piece of vending that I'm not sure if it expands or how it expands or how it changes is the idea of where we're delivering to a vending machine, sales that are outside the vending machine. And what I mean by that, historically, the dollars going through the vending machine are products that we put in there that are repetitive. We have seen a meaningful increase -- and again, it's on a small basis, but a meaningful increase in where we have a locker at a customer, and a few -- a door or 2 are now dedicated to deliveries. And we're seeing more examples of it coming from a relatively small subset of branches and Onsites. But we saw that grow dramatically from February to March. Again, I'm going to qualify it by saying it's on a very small base. And -- but I would expect, over time, that might expand as it creates distance in delivery. And with our recent transaction with Apex, our ability to do it is stronger today than it was in the past.

我更多地在現場銷售與自動販賣機銷售的對比中談論這一點，因為自動販賣機銷售是一種不同的事物，它是一種交易元素。我不確定自動販賣機的銷售模式是否會擴展，或者如何擴展，或者如何改變，那就是我們向自動販賣機配送商品，以及在自動販賣機之外進行的銷售。我的意思是，從歷史上看，自動販賣機裡賣出去的錢，都是我們放進去的重複商品。我們看到客戶的儲物櫃數量顯著增加——雖然規模不大，但確實有所增加，現在有幾扇門專門用於送貨。而且我們發現，這種情況越來越多地出現在相對較小一部分分支機構和現場服務點。但我們看到，從2月到3月，這種情況出現了顯著成長。我再次強調，這是基於一個非常小的基數。而且—但我預計，隨著時間的推移，隨著配送距離的增加，這種情況可能會擴大。隨著我們最近與 Apex 的交易，我們現在的能力比過去更強了。

I just wanted to ask a follow-up question on the prior inquiry, which is -- I just want to be clear. You're not really seeing any increasing instances of your Onsite or legacy branch salespeople not actually being allowed on customer premises because they're viewed as nonemployees? I guess that's the real question a lot of folks have, is if we do see some sort of a seasonal or intermittent restrictions on nonemployee site visits, how does that affect the business model? But it would be obviously good if you're not seeing that across the board or even any instances of it.

我只是想就之前的問題再問一個後續問題，那就是──我只是想弄清楚。你們是否真的看到越來越多的現場銷售人員或傳統分支機構的銷售人員因為被視為非員工而被禁止進入客戶場所的情況？我想這才是很多人真正關心的問題，如果我們看到對非員工現場訪問實施某種季節性或間歇性限制，這會對商業模式產生什麼影響？但顯然，如果沒有普遍出現這種情況，或者甚至沒有出現任何此類情況，那就很好了。

I'm sure we're seeing examples of it, but what probably happens there is we make arrangements with that customer, where they still need the product and we'll -- the product probably gets delivered at their dock as opposed to delivered inside their facility. There are -- we're following the protocols of the customer.

我相信我們已經看到過這樣的例子，但可能發生的情況是，我們會與客戶達成協議，他們仍然需要該產品，然後——產品可能會被送到他們的碼頭，而不是送到他們的工廠內部。有的－我們正在遵循客戶的規定。

We have, in addition to procuring safety products for our customers, we have lined up and we now have -- and so we have safety products for our employees. And so many customers now, for our employee to come into their facility, there are requirements for masks and things like that, and you will see more of that, I suspect, in the future. And -- but absolutely, we're seeing examples of reduced access. I would say other partners are probably being impacted more from it than us just because of the intimate relationship of our stocking right to production lines, of stocking into vending devices. But by all means, a customer could do that with their own personnel, and we will work with them to build some of the tools to do it.

除了為客戶購買安全產品外，我們還購買了安全產品，現在我們也為我們的員工購買了安全產品。現在很多客戶都要求我們的員工進入他們的場所，並且要求戴口罩等等，我估計未來你會看到更多這樣的情況。而且——但絕對如此，我們確實看到了訪問受限的例子。我認為其他合作夥伴受到的影響可能比我們更大，因為我們與生產線、自動販賣機的供貨關係非常密切。當然，客戶完全可以用自己的人員完成這項工作，我們將與他們合作，開發一些工具來實現這一目標。

Well, it's about 4 minutes until -- this quite possibly could be our final question before top of the hour, from Hamzah Mazari with Jefferies.

好，距離整點還有大約 4 分鐘——這很可能是我們在整點之前最後一個問題，來自 Jefferies 的 Hamzah Mazari。

Hope you're safe and healthy. Just a question on e-commerce. Do you expect that to be a bigger piece of your business model coming out of COVID-19? I know with the fastener mix, captive fleet, branch network, e-commerce historically has not been a big part of the business model. Do you see that changing at all?

希望你平安健康。關於電子商務，我有個問題。您是否預計在新冠疫情之後，這會成為您商業模式中更重要的組成部分？我知道，就緊固件組合、自有車隊、分支機構網路而言，電子商務歷來都不是商業模式的重要組成部分。你覺得這種情況會有任何改變嗎？

You're right historically. But in recent -- the last few years, it's really been growing fairly rapidly as we continue to really present to our customers what the possibilities and options are on our e-commerce platform. And so we do expect that to continue to be the case.

從歷史角度來看，你的說法是對的。但近幾年來，隨著我們不斷向客戶展示我們電子商務平台的各種可能性和選擇，它的成長速度確實相當快。因此，我們預計這種情況還會持續下去。

Now we're always going to be a business that wants to be local, wants to be directly engaged with the customer, and so e-commerce plays a supplemental role to that. But there are customers that want to use e-commerce for certain of their purchasing needs. And that's -- our improvement of that platform over the last 3 years is a big -- and really being able to show that value to the customer is a big reason why it's growing the way it is.

我們始終希望成為一家立足本地、直接與客戶互動的企業，因此電子商務只是起到補充作用。但有些顧客希望透過電子商務來滿足某些購物需求。而這正是——我們在過去 3 年裡對該平台的改進——並且能夠真正向客戶展示這種價值，是它能夠如此快速發展的一個重要原因。

I will say that, at least to this point, I don't know -- in the Q1 data, I don't know that we see anything there suggesting that COVID has caused more of our customers to opt to go online versus dealing with us in the way they traditionally do. That isn't evident in the first quarter numbers to me. Is that something that emerges in the second quarter or is it something that emerges sort of longer term? I don't really know, Hamzah. But I do know that we've had a great growth trajectory in terms of adoption of our e-commerce capabilities among all of our customers but certainly our larger National Account customers as well. And we do expect that to continue.

我想說的是，至少到目前為止，我不知道——從第一季的數據來看，我不知道我們是否看到任何跡象表明，新冠疫情導致更多客戶選擇在線而不是像以往那樣與我們進行交易。從第一季的數據來看，這一點並不明顯。這是第二季就會出現的問題，還是需要更長的時間才能顯現問題？我真的不知道，哈姆札。但我知道，就我們所有客戶（尤其是大型全國性客戶）對電子商務功能的採用而言，我們的成長軌跡非常順利。我們預計這種情況還會持續下去。

I'll just add to that, Hamzah. If you think of what we talked earlier about vending growth over time and bin stock growth over time, in my way of thinking, these are all e-commerce. So if I take vending and add bin stock and add discrete e-commerce, it's 35% of our business today. And over time, I see that being 60%, 70% and 80% of our business simply because it's a more efficient means to procure. And our objective is to be -- is create value for the customer that they know it's a reliable supply chain that I can trust the quality of the product, I can trust the reliability of the supply chain and it's cost-effective. And I believe we're positioned really well for that. So yes, I expect that to grow faster. I don't know if COVID-19 accelerates that or not, but that's a long-term trend.

我再補充一點，哈姆札。如果你回想一下我們之前討論過的自動販賣機和貨架庫存隨時間增長的情況，在我看來，這些都屬於電子商務的範疇。所以，如果我把自動販賣機、貨架庫存和獨立電商都算進去，它就佔了我們目前業務的 35%。隨著時間的推移，我預計這將占到我們業務的 60%、70% 甚至 80%，因為這是一種更有效率的採購方式。我們的目標是為客戶創造價值，讓他們知道這是一個可靠的供應鏈，他們可以信賴產品質量，信賴供應鏈可靠性，而且具有成本效益。我相信我們在這方面已經做好了非常充分的準備。所以，是的，我預計它會成長得更快。我不知道新冠肺炎是否會加速這一趨勢，但這確實是一個長期趨勢。

We've reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any further or closing comments.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想把發言權交還給管理階層，讓他們再補充或作總結發言。

Thank you to everybody for participating on our call today. I hope you found it useful in an unusual time, and we look forward to some normalcy returning to our lives. Thanks, everybody.

感謝各位今天參加我們的電話會議。希望它能在這個特殊時期對您有所幫助，我們也期待生活早日恢復正常。謝謝大家。

Thank you. That does conclude 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。現在您可以斷開線路了，祝您有美好的一天。感謝您今天的參與。