快扣 (FAST) 2022 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to the Fastenal Second Quarter 2022 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 Taylor Ranta of Fastenal Company. Please go ahead, Taylor.

大家好，歡迎參加 Fastenal 2022 年第二季財報電話會議。 （操作說明）提醒各位，本次會議正在錄音。現在，我很高興將電話會議交給 Fastenal 公司的 Taylor Ranta。 Taylor，請開始。

Welcome to the Fastenal Company 2022 Second 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. This call will last for up to one 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 2022 年第二季財報電話會議。本次會議將由公司總裁兼執行長 Dan Florness 和財務長 Holden Lewis 主持。會議時長約為一小時，我們將首先概述季度業績和營運情況，剩餘時間將用於問答環節。

Today's conference call is a proprietary Fastenal presentation and is being recorded by Fastenal. No recording, reproduction, transmission or distribution of today's call is permitted without Fastenal's consent. This call is being audio simulcast on the Internet via the Fastenal Investor Relations home page, investor.fastenal.com. A replay of the webcast will be available on the website until September 1, 2022, at midnight Central Time.

今天的電話會議內容為Fastenal專有訊息，並由Fastenal進行錄音。未經Fastenal同意，禁止本次電話會議進行任何錄音、複製、傳輸或散佈。本次電話會議將透過Fastenal投資者關係首頁（investor.fastenal.com）進行網路直播。網路直播回放將在網站上保留至美國中部時間2022年9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.

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。請注意，公司的實際業績可能與預期有重大差異。

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.

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。

Thank you, and good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us for today's earnings call. Life -- who you choose to surround yourself in life gives you freedom to do a lot of things and to find success with others. And one thing I found on this call is that holding such a fine job with sharing with the investment community, particularly the sell-side analyst community, the trends you're seeing in the business, that -- it affords me the opportunity to be a bit more philosophical and talk to our shareholders, but also talk to the employees of Fastenal on this call.

謝謝大家，早安，謝謝各位參加今天的財報電話會議。人生－你選擇與哪些人共事，會賦予你很多自由，讓你能夠做很多事情，並與他人攜手共創成功。我在這次電話會議上發現，能夠與投資界，特別是賣方分析師群體分享公司業務發展趨勢，讓我有機會從更宏觀的角度與股東們交流，同時也能與Fastenal的員工們暢談。

I suspect for most people listening on this call, the reason you're looking at our earnings release today and looking at participating in this call is you want to see what breadcrumbs might come out of it as far as where the economy is going. Spoiler alert: we've often said that our visibility to the future is about 8 hours, and most of it comes from -- what we're hearing from our customer, the anecdotes that come through, what we're seeing in some of the trends in the business. So we get an indicator, and we try to share those as we see them. But we don't have a backlog in the traditional sense. We are a just-in-time supply chain partner to our customers, and things time through as they occur.

我猜想，對於大多數收聽本次電話會議的人來說，你們關注我們今天的財報並參與此次電話會議的原因，是想從中窺見經濟走向的蛛絲馬跡。劇透：我們常說，我們對未來的預測大約只有8個小時，而且大部分資訊都來自客戶的回饋、各種軼事以及我們觀察到的業務趨勢。因此，我們會獲得一些指標，並盡力在第一時間與大家分享。但我們並沒有傳統意義上的積壓訂單。我們是客戶的即時供應鏈合作夥伴，一切都準時完成。

So here are some things that have occurred in our business. First off, our travel has expanded. If I look at our travel in the year-to-date and 2022 and ignore for a second 2020 and 2021, our travel is about 12% below where it was in 2019. In the second quarter, our travel is about 18% higher than it was in 2019, and that's measured in dollars. And as you know, for those of you who have bought an airplane ticket recently or done any kind of travel, things have not gotten cheaper.

以下是我們業務中發生的一些變化。首先，我們的差旅規模擴大了。如果我只看今年迄今為止和2022年的差旅情況（暫且忽略2020年和2021年），我們的差旅規模比2019年下降了約12%。但在第二季度，我們的差旅規模比2019年成長了約18%（以美元計）。而且，正如您所知，對於近期購買過機票或有任何形式旅行經驗的人來說，旅行成本並沒有降低。

So I suspect that means we're probably still down from 2019, but the expense is up because of the inflation inherent in travel today. But what that means is the most societies have entered into the endemic stage of COVID-19. Not all. And what that means, we're finding our new normal, and I'm pleased to say travel is resuming. And that's one of the ways we engage with our customer.

所以我認為這意味著我們目前的旅行量可能仍然低於2019年，但由於當今旅行固有的通貨膨脹，實際支出有所上升。但這同時也意味著，大多數社會已經進入了新冠疫情的流行階段。並非所有社會都如此。這意味著我們正在適應新的常態，我很高興地看到旅行正在恢復。這也是我們與客戶互動的方式之一。

Our Fastenal culture is one of -- we trust each other. We work every day to build our own talent pool, and we promote from within. An integral part of that is the idea of human interaction and our ability to teach and learn from each other every day, and it's, frankly, more efficient when you can have in-person conversations. But we have adapted. If you went into a Fastenal branch today versus 2019, you'd see a different branch.

Fastenal 的企業文化以互信為核心。我們每天都在努力培養人才，並優先從內部提拔人才。人際互動是我們文化的重要部分，我們每天都能互相學習、互相啟發。坦白說，面對面的交流效率更高。但我們已經做出了調整。如果你今天走進一家 Fastenal 分公司，再看看 2019 年的，你會發現它已經完全不同。

You see many locations where we've changed what the front room looks like. You've seen many locations where we either have reduced hours or we don't have an open front door anymore because we've really morphed into more and more of a supply chain partner and more product that's going out the back door than ever before. In markets where we have a larger construction presence or we have a meaningful walk-in business and the local team sees that as their means to serve the market, they might be open.

你會發現很多門市的前廳佈置都變了。許多門市要嘛縮短了營業時間，要嘛乾脆關上了大門，因為我們越來越像一個供應鏈合作夥伴，越來越多的產品都是從後門運出去的。在那些我們建築業務比較發達或客流量較大的市場，如果當地團隊認為這是服務市場的主要途徑，他們可能會繼續營業。

But in many markets, we've changed that format, and it allows us to find success in an era when it's more difficult to hire and because it's a more efficient labor model in our business. I'm also -- the folks that aren't in a branch or on-site. Obviously, folks that work in a distribution center or manufacturing division or drive a truck never had the opportunity to work remote. But since the first half of 2021, we've been largely in the office, working in a different fashion than we did 3 years ago, but finding success together.

但在許多市場，我們已經改變了這種模式，這讓我們在招募更加困難的時代取得了成功，而這種勞動力模式對我們的業務來說也更有效率。我也要說的是──那些不在分公司或現場辦公的員工。顯然，在配送中心或製造部門工作或開卡車的員工以前從未有機會遠距辦公。但自2021年上半年以來，我們基本上都在辦公室工作，雖然工作方式與三年前有所不同，但我們共同取得了成功。

We were able to better engage with our customer. and some of the stuff we're going to talk about Onsite, et cetera, were a reflection of that. But in April, we held our first in-person customer expo since 2019, and it was a great event. We had great engagement with the customers that were there. We did have to limit some geographies just from the hassle of travel and some of the COVID restrictions, but we found really good successful events that we held back in April.

我們能夠更好地與客戶互動。接下來我們將要討論的一些內容，例如現場活動等等，都反映了這一點。今年四月，我們舉辦了自 2019 年以來的首次線下客戶博覽會，活動非常成功。我們與到場的客戶進行了良好的互動。雖然由於出行不便和一些新冠疫情限制措施，我們不得不限制部分地區的參與，但我們發現四月舉辦的活動確實非常成功。

Hiring remains challenging. However, our trends and applications received have improved. In fact, if I use 2019 as the benchmark, in 2020, post-COVID starting, our applications coming in were down close to 40%. In 2021, our applications using 2019 as a benchmark were down about 36%. In the first 5 months of this year, they're down about 18% from what we saw in 2019.

招募依然充滿挑戰。然而，我們的趨勢和收到的申請數量都有所改善。事實上，如果以2019年為基準，2020年疫情爆發後，我們的申請人數下降了近40%。 2021年，以2019年為基準，我們的申請數下降了約36%。今年前五個月，申請數量比2019年同期下降了約18%。

And I'm pleased to say in the last 3 months, applications coming in every month are about 10% below where they were in 2019. I consider that a huge win and a sign that people are more comfortable and ready to get back to work and to build their career and to build their future. And that's just an element of that in our business.

我很高興地告訴大家，過去三個月，每月收到的申請數量比2019年同期下降了約10%。我認為這是一個巨大的勝利，也顯示人們更加安心，更願意重返工作崗位，發展事業，規劃未來。而這僅僅是我們業務的一部分。

We have effectively managed marketplace disruption. It's made supply chains more expensive than prepandemic and elongated. And you're seeing that in -- if you look at our balance sheet, look at our cash flow. First 6 months of this year, between a combination of inflation and the fact that it takes longer for products to physically move, we have a deeper supply of inventory, and that supply of inventory is more expensive, and you're seeing that in our balance sheet. And again, you're seeing that in our cash flow if that inventory is building and turning.

我們已有效應對了市場動盪。這使得供應鏈成本高於疫情前水平，且週期延長。這一點在我們的資產負債表和現金流中都有體現。今年前六個月，由於通貨膨脹以及產品實際週轉時間延長，我們的庫存量增加，而庫存成本更高，這一點在我們的資產負債表中也有所體現。同樣，如果庫存不斷增加並需要周轉，我們的現金流也會受到影響。

We're pleased with the fact that we have the balance sheet to withstand that and we can make that covenant with our customer that we are your supply chain partner and we will serve your needs. We did that before COVID. We did that during COVID, and we're doing that today in whatever stage of COVID you do care to call this.

我們很高興擁有足夠的資產負債表來應對這種情況，並且能夠向客戶做出承諾：我們將是您的供應鏈合作夥伴，我們將滿足您的需求。在新冠疫情之前，我們做到了這一點；在新冠疫情期間，我們做到了這一點；如今，無論您如何稱呼當前的新冠疫情，我們都將繼續這樣做。

Finally, this is our earnings release. And for the quarter, we grew our sales 18%, and our pretax profit grew just under 21%. Demand is generally healthy. But there were some signs of softening in May and June, and we'll delve into that as we go through this call.

最後，我們來發布財報。本季度，我們的銷售額成長了18%，稅前利潤成長了近21%。整體而言，市場需求良好。但5月和6月出現了一些疲軟跡象，我們將在本次電話會議中深入探討這些跡象。

Onsites. We signed 102 Onsites in the second quarter. We did -- we signed 106 in the first quarter. The last time we signed 100 plus in a quarter, it was back in 2019. I believe it was the first quarter. This is the first time we've ever signed 100 plus in 2 consecutive quarters. And I think there's a number of things going on there. Again, the marketplace sees value in our Onsite model. In an era where it's more difficult to hire and more difficult to manage supply chain, I believe our Onsite model is even a better option for our customer in the marketplace.

現場服務。我們在第二季簽訂了 102 份現場服務合約。事實上，我們在第一季簽訂了 106 份。上一次我們在一個季度內簽訂超過 100 份合約還是在 2019 年，我記得是第一季。這是我們首次連續兩季簽訂超過 100 份合約。我認為這其中有很多因素。再次強調，市場認可我們在現場服務模式的價值。在現今招募和供應鏈管理都更加困難的時代，我相信我們的現場服務模式對市場上的客戶來說是更優的選擇。

And I think that's shining through in our signings. Obviously, the fact that we had a customer event in April, while it didn't help the first quarter number, I think it was an element in the second quarter number. And we remain committed to strong signings for second -- for all of 2022. And we see this as a means to take market share faster and a hedge on whatever the economy might do in the months and years to come.

我認為這一點在我們的簽約情況中體現得淋漓盡致。顯然，我們在四月舉辦的客戶活動雖然沒有直接提升第一季的業績，但我認為它對第二季的業績起到了積極作用。我們仍然致力於在第二季度——甚至整個2022年——取得強勁的簽約業績。我們認為這是更快擴大市場佔有率的途徑，也是應對未來幾個月甚至幾年經濟情勢的對沖策略。

FMI Technology continued to have industry-leading signing levels, albeit not maybe at the level we'd like. Our internal goal is always to get that number to 100 per day. And during the quarter, we were at 86, an improvement from what we saw in the first quarter, but not where we'd like it to be. And our aspirations here are very high, and that signs through on our expectations. We did, given where we are year-to-date, adjust our expectations for the year. Previously, we had indicated 23,000 to 25,000 signings. We think that number is more in the neighborhood of 21,000 to 23,000, and that's a machine equivalent unit basis.

FMI Technology的簽約量繼續保持行業領先水平，儘管可能尚未達到我們理想的水平。我們的內部目標始終是每天簽約100台。本季，我們的簽約量為86台，較第一季有所提升，但仍未達到預期。我們對未來的期望非常高，這也反映在我們的預期中。鑑於年初至今的業績，我們調整了全年的預期。此前，我們預計簽約量為23,000至25,000台。我們認為實際簽約量更可能在21,000至23,000台左右，這是以機器當量單位計算的。

E-commerce continues to grow nicely. It rose 53% in the second quarter of 2022, and our large customer-oriented EDI was up 53%, whereas our web sales were up 51%. And you combine those 2, e-commerce was about 17.1% of sales in the second quarter. Finally, our digital footprint. We've talked about that in prior calls. It's our ability to manage supply chain more efficiently and illuminate that supply chain for our customers. That increased and was 47.9% of sales in the second quarter, 48% in the month of June.

電子商務持續保持良好成長動能。 2022年第二季度，電子商務成長了53%，我們面向客戶的大型EDI業務也成長了53%，而我們的網路銷售額成長了51%。將這兩項業務合併計算，電子商務約佔第二季總銷售額的17.1%。最後，我們還要談談數位化佈局。我們在之前的電話會議中也討論過這一點。數位化佈局指的是我們能夠更有效率地管理供應鏈，並讓客戶清楚了解供應鏈狀況。數位化佈局的銷售額在第二季佔比達到47.9%，6月更是達到了48%。

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

這樣，我就把麥克風交給霍爾頓了。

Thank you, Dan. All right. Starting on Slide 5. Our total and daily sales increased 18% in the second quarter of '22. A stronger dollar reduced growth by 60 basis points, and currency-adjusted growth was consistent from the first to the second quarter. In contrast to the first quarter, however, we did experience a softening intraquarter trend in the second. That softening was not particularly deep, and if the level of economic activity that we experienced exiting the second quarter were sustained, we feel good about the rest of the year.

謝謝丹。好的，從第五張投影片開始。 2022年第二季度，我們的總銷售額和每日銷售額均成長了18%。美元走強使成長率下降了60個基點，經匯率調整後的成長率與第一季一致。然而，與第一季不同的是，我們在第二季確實經歷了一個季度內成長放緩的趨勢。但這種放緩的幅度並不大，如果第二季末的經濟活動水準能夠維持下去，我們對今年剩餘時間的業績感到樂觀。

I might characterize it through this prism: the percentage of our branches that are growing. 72% in May and June is not as good as 76% in March and April, but on its own, it's pretty good. Nor was the softening that we experienced particularly broad. We experienced it largely in areas that directly touch consumers as well as construction while our core capital goods and commodity-related markets remain strong with healthy backlogs. As we've said before, we experienced demand in real time, and we lack much visibility in how demand will trend through the second half of 2022.

我可以從這個角度來分析：我們各分支機構的成長比例。五月和六月的成長比例為72%，雖然不如三月和四月的76%，但就其本身而言，已經相當不錯了。而且，我們所經歷的需求疲軟範圍也不廣泛。這種疲軟主要體現在直接面向消費者的領域以及建築業，而我們的核心資本貨物和商品相關市場仍然強勁，訂單儲備充足。正如我們之前所說，我們即時感知了市場需求，但對於2022年下半年的需求趨勢，我們目前尚缺乏足夠的預測。

Pricing contributed 660 to 690 basis points to growth in the second quarter of 2022, reflecting carryover of broad pricing actions taken over the last 12 months, the timing of opening of contractual windows and tactical SKU-based actions based on supplier actions. Most costs remain elevated but not worsening. As a result, while we expect price levels to be stable in the third quarter of 2022, we expect the contribution to growth to moderate as we begin to grow over the start of more aggressive pricing actions from the third quarter of last year.

2022年第二季度，價格因素對成長貢獻了660至690個基點，這反映了過去12個月採取的廣泛定價措施的延續、合約窗口期的開啟以及基於供應商行動而採取的針對特定SKU的策略性調整。大多數成本仍居高不下，但並未惡化。因此，儘管我們預計2022年第三季價格水準將保持穩定，但隨著我們開始逐步消化去年第三季開始實施的更積極的定價措施，價格因素對成長的貢獻預計將會減弱。

The supply chain picture is unchanged from the first quarter. Challenges with availability persist, but we and our customers are managing them more effectively. Labor market tension seems to have eased some as reflected in our strong FTE additions in the second quarter of 2022. So disruptions persist, but the chaos surrounding them has receded, resulting in a more predictable business environment.

供應鏈狀況與第一季相比沒有變化。供貨方面的挑戰仍然存在，但我們和我們的客戶正在更有效地應對這些挑戰。勞動市場的緊張局勢似乎有所緩解，這體現在我們2022年第二季的大規模全職員工成長。因此，儘管仍然存在一些幹擾，但圍繞這些幹擾的混亂局面已經消退，從而形成了一個更可預測的商業環境。

Now to Slide 6. Operating margin in the second quarter of 2022 was 21.6%, up from 21.1% in the second quarter of 2021. Our incremental margin was 24.2%. A couple of trends are at play in the period. First, we saw a moderation in the growth of certain expenses, such as incentive pay, profit sharing and health care costs that are subject to early cycle resets. As expected, this produced improved operating expense leverage. It also contributed to the second trend, which is a further gradual migration toward a pre-pandemic margin profile with a mix-related gross margin pressure more than offset by stronger operating leverage.

現在來看投影片6。2022年第二季的營業利益率為21.6%，高於2021年第二季的21.1%。我們的增量利潤率為24.2%。在此期間，有兩個趨勢在起作用。首先，我們看到某些費用成長放緩，例如激勵性薪資、利潤分成和醫療保健成本，這些費用通常會在經濟週期早期進行調整。正如預期的那樣，這提高了營業費用槓桿率。這也促成了第二個趨勢，即利潤率正進一步逐步恢復到疫情前的水平，儘管產品組合相關的毛利率壓力被更強的營業槓桿率所抵消。

Gross margin was 46.5% in the second quarter of 2022, flat versus the second quarter of 2021. Product margin was modestly down with a wider negative impact from product and customer mix, a slightly lower fastener margin more than offsetting higher non-fastener product margin. This is offset by stronger organizational leverage and sustained strength in volumes absorbed overhead. This absorption slightly exceeded my expectations in the period.

2022年第二季毛利率為46.5%，與2021年第二季持平。產品毛利率略有下降，主要受產品和客戶組合不利因素的影響，緊固件毛利率略有下降，抵消了非緊固件產品毛利率上升的影響。但組織槓桿作用增強以及銷售持續走強，抵銷了部分間接費用。該期間的間接費用吸收略高於我的預期。

The impact of freight on margin is neutral, with higher fuel and shipping costs being offset by good leverage related to a 37.5% increase in freight sales. Pricing actions continued to match higher costs, yielding a neutral price/cost dynamic in the quarter. We achieved greater operating leverage in the second quarter of 2022 with an operating expense to sales ratio being 40 basis points improved to 25%. We achieved 60 basis points of leverage over occupancy related to a 10% reduction in our traditional branch count and the effect of what has been, to this point, relatively slow expansion of our vending install base.

貨運對利潤率的影響為中性，燃油和運輸成本的上漲被貨運銷售額成長37.5%帶來的良好槓桿效應所抵銷。定價策略繼續與成本上漲相匹配，使得本季價格/成本動態保持中性。 2022年第二季度，我們的營運槓桿效應大幅提升，營運費用與銷售額比從40個基點降至25%。由於傳統分公司數量減少了10%，以及迄今為止自動販賣機安裝基礎擴張速度相對緩慢，我們的入住率槓桿效應提升了60個基點。

We also achieved modest leverage over total employee expenses. FTE growth continues to lag sales growth and health care expenses were lower, which more than offset an increase in employee incentive payouts and profit sharing expense growth. Other operating expenses reflected increases in selling-related transportation costs, including fuel and further increases in spending on travel and supplies. Putting it all together, we reported second quarter 2022 earnings per share of $0.50, up 19.7% from $0.42 in the second quarter of 2021.

我們也實現了對員工總支出的適度控制。全職員工人數成長持續落後於銷售成長，醫療保健支出下降，足以抵銷員工激勵支出和利潤分享支出的成長。其他營運支出反映了銷售相關運輸成本（包括燃油）的增加，以及差旅和用品支出的進一步成長。綜上所述，我們公佈的2022年第二季每股收益為0.50美元，較2021年第二季的0.42美元成長19.7%。

Now turning to Slide 7. We generated $151 million in operating cash in the second quarter of 2022, which is roughly 53% of net income in the period. Traditionally, second quarter conversion rates are low due to the timing of tax payments. As in the first quarter, the current quarter's conversion was below historical norms due to the impact of strong sales growth, supply chain constraints and high inflation on our investment in working capital. We view the lower conversion rate as reflecting our commitment to supporting our customers.

現在來看幻燈片7。我們在2022年第二季產生了1.51億美元的營運現金流，約佔當期淨利的53%。通常情況下，由於稅款繳納時間的關係，第二季度的現金流量轉換率較低。與第一季一樣，由於強勁的銷售成長、供應鏈限制以及高通膨對我們營運資金投資的影響，本季的現金流轉換率低於歷史平均值。我們認為較低的現金流轉換率反映了我們對客戶的承諾。

Year-over-year, accounts receivable was up 21.5%. This reflects strong customer demand and an increase in the mix of larger key account customers, which tend to have longer terms than our smaller customers. Inventories were up 25.4% and inflation accounted for half of the total increase, a proportion that continues to moderate as the flow of physical products into our hubs continues, supporting strong product availability and fulfillment rates.

與去年同期相比，應收帳款成長了21.5%。這反映了強勁的客戶需求以及大型重點客戶佔比的增加，這些客戶的付款期限通常比小型客戶更長。庫存成長了25.4%，其中通貨膨脹佔總成長的一半，隨著實體產品持續流入我們的物流中心，這一比例逐漸趨於緩和，從而保證了產品的充足供應和訂單履行率。

The twin disruptions on inflation and supply chain have created an additional level of inventory value. Despite that, our 161 days on hand in the second quarter of 2022 is more than 10 days below the days on hand in the second quarter of 2019 prior to the pandemic, which reflects increasing and sustainable efficiencies in how we manage our inventories.

通膨和供應鏈的雙重衝擊造成了額外的庫存價值。儘管如此，我們2022年第二季的庫存週轉天數為161天，比疫情爆發前的2019年第二季減少了10多天，這反映出我們在庫存管理方面效率的不斷提高和永續發展。

Net capital spending was $43 million in the second quarter of 2022, up 37.8%. Year-to-date, net capital spending was $76 million, up 24.4% due most significantly to increased spending for FMI equipment and hub automation and upgrades. We continue to anticipate 2022 net capital spending in a range of $180 million to $200 million. However, the combination of slower FMI signings and continued supply chain challenges for transportation and IT equipment suggests there is a downward bias to our net capital spending budget.

2022年第二季淨資本支出為4,300萬美元，較去年同期成長37.8%。年初至今，淨資本支出為7,600萬美元，年增24.4%，主要原因是FMI設備、樞紐自動化和升級的支出增加。我們仍預期2022年淨資本支出將在1.8億美元至2億美元之間。然而，FMI簽約速度放緩以及運輸和IT設備供應鏈持續面臨挑戰，顯示我們的淨資本支出預算存在下調趨勢。

We returned cash to shareholders in the quarter in the form of $178 million in dividends and $49 million share buyback. While our opportunistic approach to share buyback is unchanged, our Board did approve an 8 million share increase to our authorization, leaving us with 10.2 million shares authorized for repurchase. From a liquidity standpoint, we finished the second quarter of 2022 with debt at 13.7% of total capital, up from 12.3% in the year-ago period and 11.4% versus the fourth quarter of 2021.

本季度，我們以股利形式向股東返還了1.78億美元，並以4,900萬美元回購股票。儘管我們採取機會主義的股票回購策略不變，但董事會批准將授權回購數量增加800萬股，使我們目前擁有1020萬股的授權回購股數。從流動性角度來看，截至2022年第二季末，我們的債務佔總資本的13.7%，高於去年同期的12.3%和2021年第四季的11.4%。

With that, operator, we'll turn it over to Q&A.

好了，操作員，接下來我們將進入問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Josh Pokrzywinski from Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）我們今天的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Josh Pokrzywinski。

A lot of good detail on the release on price, and you guys have kind of helped us throughout kind of this inflationary environment. It seems like there was less coming in 2Q. And then I think prospectively, maybe steel starts to flow through the business.

價格方面有很多細節值得關注，你們在當前的通膨環境下也給予了我們很大的幫助。第二季似乎供應減少。但我認為，展望未來，鋼鐵供應或許會開始恢復正常。

How should we think about that, particularly on the fastener piece in terms of not only maybe what the sensitivity on what you guys could see on pricing is, but is there any margin impact as that kind of flows through and you guys recognize lower prices or maybe customers kind of sharpen their pencil a little bit?

我們應該如何看待這個問題，尤其是在緊固件方面，不僅要考慮價格方面的敏感度，還要考慮價格下降是否會對利潤率產生影響，以及客戶是否會因此而更加謹慎地控制支出。

What I would say is we've been dealing with inflation now for the better part of the year. And we've been managing that through a number of means, but one of those means has been price actions on our own end. And as we've reported each quarter, we've really been able to align the pacing of our price increases with the pacing of our cost increases. And frankly, I don't expect that to change.

我想說的是，今年大部分時間我們都在應付通貨膨脹。我們透過多種方式來控制通膨，其中之一就是我們自己的價格調整。正如我們每個季度報告的那樣，我們已經成功地使價格上漲的步伐與成本上漲的步伐保持一致。坦白說，我預計這種情況不會改變。

Our material costs today are fairly stable at a high level with where they've been. And so in the second quarter, we didn't take any additional broad actions. There were certainly some actions around freight. There were certainly actions where we had suppliers put increases into us and things like that. But I view those as being more tactical. We certainly took actions as contract windows opened up. But again, that's part of how we manage.

目前我們的原料成本相當穩定，維持在較高水準。因此，第二季我們沒有採取任何額外的全面措施。當然，我們在運費方面採取了一些措施，例如供應商提高了價格等等。但我認為這些措施更多是戰術性的。隨著合約窗口的開放，我們也採取了一些行動。但話說回來，這也是我們管理方式的一部分。

The price/cost dynamic is understanding where our costs are coming from and when we'll have opportunities to make adjustments, and I give an enormous amount of credit to the folks who manage our pricing and costing strategies and frankly, the folks in the field that have to execute them because I think they've done a really, really good job of that.

價格/成本動態是指了解我們的成本來自哪裡以及何時有機會進行調整，我非常感謝負責管理我們定價和成本策略的人員，坦白說，也感謝現場執行這些策略的人員，因為我認為他們在這方面做得非常出色。

When I look forward right now, it feels like it's going to be more of the same. To the extent that we see suppliers putting cost increases into us first, we'll push back on them. We have a good sense of what's going on with raw materials as well. And depending on how that goes, we might have to push some SKU-specific price increases through.

展望未來，感覺情況還會和以前一樣。如果供應商先向我們收取成本，我們會據理力爭。我們對原物料市場的情況也比較了解。根據情況發展，我們可能不得不對部分產品進行價格調整。

But unless there's some meaningful change in the overall cost environment from where we spent most of the past quarter, I don't anticipate any aggressive actions to have to be taken. Again, we'll see how the environment plays out. I'm just going by what we see today. But I also expect that we'll continue to manage to a neutral price/cost.

但除非整體成本環境發生顯著變化，否則我預計無需採取任何激進措施。當然，一切都取決於市場環境的發展。我只是根據目前的實際情況做出判斷。但我預計我們將繼續保持價格/成本平衡。

And so I'm not seeing much change in that area, but one change you will see is as we run into Q3, we're going to run against tougher comps. And so I do expect that the percentage growth related to price increases will moderate from where we were in Q2. But again, that doesn't reflect the change in the overall price level. That would be my expectation.

因此，我預計這方面不會有太大變化，但有一點可以肯定，那就是進入第三季後，我們將面臨更嚴峻的競爭環境。所以我預計，與價格上漲相關的成長百分比將比第二季有所放緩。但再次強調，這並不反映整體物價水準的變化。這只是我的預期。

Got it. That's helpful. And then just as a follow-up, you guys have been at the branch conversion here for a bit now. Any observation for how that's impacted kind of the traditional retail or branch-facing model? I know that the objective there was to kind of push more of those customers to e-commerce, maybe be willing to lose some of them. But how would you sort of rate how that's gone? And any observations or attrition rates or stuff like that you could share?

明白了，這很有幫助。還有一個後續問題，你們最近一直在進行門市轉型。你們觀察到這種轉型對傳統零售或門市服務模式產生了哪些影響嗎？我知道轉型的目標是引導更多顧客轉向電商，甚至可能願意放棄部分線下顧客。但你們覺得轉型進展如何？能否分享一些觀察結果，例如顧客流失率之類的？

I think part of what we did, obviously, the COVID period pushed everybody to abruptly change what they're doing. And I think that the strength you see in our e-commerce sales growing north of 50% is a testament to the marketplace -- I don't know if the marketplace is reacting to what we're doing or we're reacting to what the marketplace is doing. I think it's more of the latter. And -- but buying habits have changed. You see it in your personal life. What you do today is different than what it would have been 5 years ago.

我認為，我們所取得的成就，部分原因顯然在於新冠疫情迫使所有人迅速改變他們的工作方式。我認為，我們電商銷售額成長超過50%的強勁勢頭，證明了市場的潛力——我不知道是市場對我們的舉措做出反應，還是我們對市場舉措做出反應。我認為後者更為明顯。而且，人們的消費習慣確實改變了。這一點在你的個人生活中就能感受到。你今天做的事情與五年前截然不同。

And so as we've moved -- as more and more of our growth comes from the fact we're engaging deeper with customers and they're seeing the ability for us to help them in more ways than maybe they would have 5 and 10 years ago, it changed the footprint we needed. And sometimes when you change your footprint, if all of a sudden you have 5 locations in a market and you go to 3, you will lose some business because you're not close proximity.

隨著我們不斷發展——越來越多的成長源於我們與客戶的深度互動，客戶也意識到我們能夠以比5年前甚至10年前更多的方式幫助他們——這改變了我們所需的業務佈局。有時，當你改變業務佈局時，例如突然從某個市場的5家店減少到3家，由於距離客戶較遠，你會失去一些業務。

But most of that is morphing to a different channel, and that was going to happen regardless of our changing footprint. And we think we're doing a nice job keeping a lot of that business as, again, if you look at our increase in web sales, because a lot of that business would go to the web sales, that's growing at 50%.

但大部分業務正在轉移到其他管道，無論我們的業務佈局如何變化，這種情況都會發生。我們認為我們在保留這些業務方面做得不錯，因為，如果你看看我們網路銷售額的成長，你會發現很多業務都轉移到了網路銷售管道，而網路銷售的成長率達到了50%。

Yes. I mean I would build on that -- point to the same thing. I mean our -- despite the changes that have been made, our growth has been very good and that includes on the e-commerce side.

是的。我的意思是，我會在此基礎上繼續闡述──指出同樣的事情。我的意思是，儘管我們做出了一些改變，但我們的成長一直非常良好，這也包括電子商務方面。

And with our local customers.

還有我們的本地客戶。

And with our local customers. That's one of the things I was going to say. It's really early to really understand in a concrete fashion where the numbers are all falling. Because obviously, this is something that's come up in the last couple of years. There's a period of time to execute, get comfortable in a certain environment center.

還有我們的本地客戶。這也是我想說的。現在要具體了解哪些數字在下降還為時過早。因為很明顯，這是過去幾年才出現的問題。我們需要一段時間來執行，並在特定的環境中適應。

But I do believe that at least very early on, I think the growth that we're getting out of our branches relative to the marketplace is a little bit better in this cycle than what we saw last cycle, and I think that, that attributes to a lot of the changes that we're making. But this is a wealth of data that we're going to have to continue to collect and evaluate. But everything coming out of the field anecdotally, and really early indications on the data, I think, are all encouraging.

但我相信，至少在初期階段，我們分公司相對於市場整體的成長情況，在本輪週期中比上一輪週期略好。我認為這主要歸功於我們正在進行的一系列變革。當然，我們需要繼續收集和評估大量數據。但目前從各方面來看，無論是初步的市場回饋，或是數據上的早期跡象，都令人鼓舞。

Your next question is coming from David Manthey from Baird.

下一個問題來自 Baird 公司的 David Manthey。

Dan, Holden, so back in 2009, and I know every cycle is different, but through that year, your gross margin dropped about 300 basis points. And at the time, you were -- you talked about FIFO and lower rebates and competitive pricing.

丹，霍爾頓，回到2009年，我知道每個週期都不一樣，但那一年你們的毛利率下降了大約300個基點。當時，你們談到了先進先出法、降低迴扣和競爭性定價。

Can you just discuss what's different today about the business other than the fastener mix, which I think was about 50% back then. And anything else that's changed that would limit that kind of an impact on your P&L?

您能否談談除了緊固件組合（我記得當時大約佔50%）之外，如今業務還有哪些不同之處？還有哪些變化可以限制這種影響對損益表的影響？

Sure. You have a good memory, Dave. And last -- yesterday, we had our Board meeting and I was reflecting on just that element with the Board because we're talking about what could happen in different scenarios, what we're seeing. And if you recall in 2009 -- so in 2008, there was a fair amount of inflation and -- nothing like we're seeing today, but there was inflation going on. And when demand fell back, that flipped from inflation to deflation.

當然。戴夫，你記性真好。昨天，我們開了董事會，我當時正和董事會討論這個問題，因為我們正在討論不同情境下可能發生的情況，以及我們目前看到的情況。如果你還記得，2009年——也就是2008年——通貨膨脹相當嚴重，雖然遠不及今天的情況，但當時確實存在通貨膨脹。而當需求回落時，通貨膨脹就轉為通貨緊縮。

And all of a sudden, what is 6 months' worth of product, if your demand drops off enough, that might turn into 7 or 8 or 9 months' worth of product. And you saw the squeeze that occurred. You also saw a mix shift in your business depending on who's being impacted by it.

突然之間，原本6個月的庫存，如果需求大幅下降，可能就會變成7個月、8個月甚至9個月的庫存。你看到了由此產生的供應緊張局面。你也看到了業務結構的變化，這取決於哪些客戶受到了影響。

And then the deleveraging, obviously, of the trucking network -- if we're driving a truck from Winona, Minnesota to Minneapolis to deliver to branches, and that truck has 10% -- is running full or it's running at 80%, the cost of the truck and the cost of the driver and the cost of the fuel going in, that is what the market is that day and you deleverage that network. Same thing with our distribution.

然後，很明顯，卡車運輸網絡的去槓桿化也很重要——假設我們開一輛卡車從明尼蘇達州威諾納到明尼阿波利斯給各個分公司送貨，這輛卡車的載重是10%還是80%，那麼卡車的成本、司機的成本以及燃油成本，就取決於當天的市場行情，而去槓桿化正是降低這個網絡成本的關鍵。我們的分銷也是如此。

If -- what's different today, the element of deleveraging the trucking network, that's the same. Nothing's changed there. The -- our mix is different. You're right, fastener is 50% of our mix. A fair amount of that is product that -- most of the fasteners in this country are not produced in this country, and so whether it's us or supply chain partners in North America, most of that's coming from Asia.

如果說今天有什麼不同，那就是降低卡車運輸網路槓桿率這一點，那還是老樣子，沒有任何改變。不同之處在於－我們的產品組合有所不同。你說得對，緊固件占我們產品組合的50%。其中相當一部分產品－美國大部分緊固件並非產自美國，所以無論是我們或北美的供應鏈合作夥伴，大部分緊固件都來自亞洲。

And if there is deflation going on, there's a squeeze that goes down there that occurs in your turn of inventory. Once you get through that turn of inventory, that issue goes away. Again, the question is how much supply do you have? Those dynamics are in play. The non-fastener piece, a chunk of that, we source domestically, a chunk of that, we import.

如果出現通貨緊縮，庫存週轉就會受到影響。一旦度過庫存週轉期，這個問題就會消失。關鍵在於你的供應量是多少？這些因素都會影響供應。非緊固件部分，一部分我們從國內採購，一部分我們從國外進口。

I suspect some of what we buy domestically is imported by somebody else. There will be some of those dynamics going on, too. Deflationary environment is not a friend to gross profit in the short term. It wasn't in 2009. It wasn't in the early '90s. It wasn't in the late '90s. And it won't be if something -- if that would happen in today's world.

我懷疑我們國內購買的一些商品實際上是從其他國家進口的。這種進口通路的運作機制也會存在。通貨緊縮的環境短期內不利於毛利。 2009年如此，90年代初期如此，90年代末期也如此。如果——如果這種情況在當今世界發生——情況依然如此。

Our next question is coming from Nigel Coe from Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Nigel Coe。

I think I'm going to revisit some of the questions beforehand. Maybe I think what Josh was trying to drive at was the fastener pricing with steel prices coming down. Obviously, steel prices are sub-$1,000 right now. I understand you've got contractual pricing arrangements with some customers on that. So maybe just if you could just address that and how that works and maybe just go from there.

我想我應該事先再回顧一下之前的一些問題。我猜喬許想表達的是鋼材價格下跌時緊固件的價格問題。顯然，現在鋼材價格低於1000美元。我知道你們和一些客戶就此簽訂了價格合約。所以，您能否解釋一下這方面的運作方式，然後我們再繼續討論？

Yes. I mean, first thing, I would challenge the assumption a little bit about steel pricing being down. It depends on which index you're looking at. I mean we source most of our steel product over in Asia. And so what's relevant to us is sort of what's going on in Taiwan, what's going on in China. At least on the last statistics that were fed to us, those prices are still relatively elevated. So consider first the region.

是的。首先，我想對鋼材價格下跌的假設提出一些質疑。這取決於你參考的是哪一個指數。我們的鋼材產品大多來自亞洲。所以對我們來說，真正相關的是台灣和中國大陸的市場狀況。至少根據我們掌握的最新數據，這些地區的價格仍然相對較高。因此，首先要考慮的是整個地區的情況。

But the -- look, I think that -- I think deflation works the exact same way as inflation, right? When the cost of the raw material goes up, we approach our customers with an increase to defend -- to sort of defend our margin. And when it goes down, our customers approach us with a decrease, and there's a whole bunch of them that have those contractual windows that allow them to do that.

但是——你看，我認為——我認為通貨緊縮和通貨膨脹的運作方式完全相同，對吧？當原材料成本上漲時，我們會向客戶提出提價，以維護我們的利潤率。而當原料成本下降時，客戶會向我們提出降價，而且很多客戶都有合約條款允許他們這樣做。

As a result, is it possible that you could have negative pricing in your business? Sure. I think we saw that in 2015 and '16. Now consider the pieces, right? I don't believe that we've historically seen negative pricing in our non-fastener mix. And on the fastener side, consider that no more than 1/3 of the value of a fastener is the actual raw material itself. The rest of it is the value-added and the manufacturing, the transportation costs, et cetera, right?

因此，您的業務有可能出現負定價嗎？當然有可能。我認為我們在2015年和2016年就看到了這種情況。現在，讓我們來分析一下各個組成部分，對吧？我認為我們歷史上在非緊固件產品組合中從未出現過負定價。而就緊固件而言，要知道緊固件價值中只有不到三分之一是原料本身。其餘部分都是增值部分、製造成本、運輸成本等等，對吧？

And so when you start slicing and dicing, at the end of the day, in 2015, 2016, we probably saw deflation in price of 1% or 2% across the business, right? So please consider the order of magnitude of impact that we're talking about. But I think that the dynamics work the same way, but in reverse, if the pricing environment should change. But again, I want to emphasize that's not the environment that we're seeing today. Feel free to speculate, anyone on this call, if that's going to happen, but that's not the environment we're seeing today.

所以，當我們開始細究時，最終會發現，在2015年和2016年，我們可能看到整個產業的價格出現了1%到2%的通貨緊縮，對吧？所以請考慮一下我們所討論的影響程度。但我認為，如果價格環境發生變化，其動態過程會以相反的方式進行。但我再次強調，我們目前所處的環境並非如此。歡迎各位在座各位就此進行推測，但目前我們所處的環境並非如此。

Right. No, I mean talking about the inflation with the CPI numbers that just came out, it seems a bit academic. But no, it's a (inaudible) discussion. Just on -- just staying on inflation, I think you called out half of the inventory increase is inflation, half is units.

對。不，我的意思是，用剛剛公佈的CPI數據來討論通貨膨脹，感覺有點學術化。但是，不，這確實是一場（聽不清楚）討論。就——就通貨膨脹而言，我想你剛才提到，庫存成長一半是通貨膨脹造成的，一半是銷售增加造成的。

So it looks like we've got about 12% inflation in inventory here. Pricing is 6.6%, 6.9%. Does that mean you need to push more price in the back half of the year to maintain price/cost neutrality on products?

看來我們目前的庫存通膨率約為12%。定價通膨率為6.6%至6.9%。這是否意味著您需要在下半年進一步提價，以維持產品的價格/成本平衡？

So the -- I think part of the challenge is how you measure the relative pricing. Remember that when we're talking about pricing running through our revenues, we're looking at reoccurring sales, which is about 40% subset of our total business, right? Now what that means is about 50% of our business is the sale of a product that we didn't sell in the previous period, right?

所以，我認為挑戰之一在於如何衡量相對定價。記住，當我們討論影響收入的定價時，我們關注的是經常性銷售額，這大約占我們總業務的40%，對吧？這意味著我們大約50%的業務是銷售上一期沒有銷售的產品，對吧？

Now the truth is, if we were to have sold the same part last year that we sold this year, we probably would have sold it for less than we did this year, right? And so I believe that there's a -- the reoccurring component of inventory is much higher than the reoccurring component of sales by the nature of our business, and I think that's the difference that you're seeing between the 2.

事實上，如果我們去年賣出的零件和今年賣出的零件一樣，那麼我們去年的售價可能會低於今年，對吧？所以我認為，由於我們業務的性質，庫存的經常性成本遠高於銷售的經常性成本，我認為這就是你看到的兩者之間的差異。

Again, when I look at where we are, if I take out all that nonreoccurring and look at just reoccurring, the dynamic is we're a little bit behind on fasteners and we're sort of in line on everything else. And so no, I don't believe that we're behind, Nigel. I think that we're largely on pace with the level of inflation that we're seeing. And the gap you're talking about is reflecting sort of the different reoccurring sales levels that you see in sales versus inventory.

再說一遍，如果我剔除所有非經常性支出，只看經常性支出，就會發現我們在緊固件方面略有滯後，而其他方面基本上符合預期。所以，奈傑爾，我不認為我們落後了。我認為我們基本上與當前的通膨水平持平。你提到的差距反映的是銷售額和庫存中經常性支出水準的差異。

There's a premise to the question that I think is being missed from the standpoint of the basis for the question. And that is when we have $100 of products sitting on the shelf, let's just say that's our ending inventory, and we're selling product next month, the month after that. We're not exclusively selling product out of our inventory. We're selling product that we're buying that month and selling that month.

我認為這個問題的前提被忽略了，因為它直接關係到問題本身。假設我們貨架上有價值 100 美元的產品，也就是我們的期末庫存，而我們下個月、下個月​​都要銷售這些產品。我們並非只銷售庫存產品，我們也會銷售當月採購並售出的產品。

We're selling product -- a disproportionate piece of our inventory that's sitting on the shelf is a product that has -- that we've decided, over time, because of the length of the supply chain and the nature of the supply chain, we're going to stack that ourselves. So if we have a supplier -- a domestic supplier who we're lockstep with, we have a great supply chain relationship with, they know the demand, we know their capabilities, we don't have 6 months of their product on our shelf.

我們正在銷售的產品——我們庫存中很大一部分滯銷產品——由於供應鏈的長度和性質，我們最終決定自行儲備。所以，如果我們有一個供應商——一個與我們緊密合作、供應鏈關係良好的國內供應商，他們了解市場需求，我們也了解他們的產能，我們就不會讓他們的產品積壓六個月之久。

We have 3 weeks. We have 6 weeks. We have 8 weeks of their product on our shelf, depending on what the need is to physically move it in an efficient fashion because your supply chain is different. If that product is coming from halfway around the planet and in the last 1.5 years, that trip from source to use is less than predictable, that's where our inventory has deepened.

我們貨架上備有他們產品的庫存，可能是3週，也可能是6週，甚至可能是8週，這取決於實際運輸的效率，因為你們的供應鏈情況不同。如果產品來自地球另一端，而且是在過去一年半的時間裡，從產地到最終使用的這段路程難以預測，這就是我們庫存增加的原因。

So when Holden talks about what percentage of our inventory increase related to inflation and relates to deepening of the quantity, that's disproportionate to inventory that we're sourcing outside the United States, outside of North America. And so that 12% doesn't naturally translate to -- well, that means your inflation and your sale price in the next 6 months has to be up 12% because that's not apples and apples. I hope that makes sense, Nigel.

所以，當霍爾頓談到我們庫存成長中與通貨膨脹相關的百分比以及庫存量增加時，這與我們在美國以外、北美以外地區採購的庫存不成比例。因此，這12%並不意味著——嗯，這意味著未來6個月的通貨膨脹率和售價都必須上漲12%——因為這根本不是同等比較。希望我解釋清楚了，奈傑爾。

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 wanted to follow up on Dave's question and just clarify. So relative to 2009, it sounds like the mix is a little bit different, obviously, of your business. But I think you're saying you're going to be just as cyclical and decrementals could still be in the mid-20s if we have weak sales and deflation. Is that a fair statement?

所以我想就戴夫的問題做個後續說明，澄清一下。顯然，與2009年相比，你們公司的業務結構略有不同。但我想你的意思是，如果銷售疲軟和通貨緊縮，你們的業務仍然會受到週期性波動的影響，而且減值幅度可能仍然在20%左右。我的說法正確嗎？

Well, the point Holden made in a much more artful fashion than I tried to make when I initially answered it was the mix was more acute in 2009 because half our sales were fasteners. And fasteners have different pricing dynamics than non-fasteners. And so the fact that it's 1/3 of our business today would -- it wouldn't remove it on that 1/3, but it would diminish it because it's 1/3 of our business rather than 1/2 our business. Does that make sense?

霍爾頓的觀點比我最初回答時更巧妙，他指出，2009 年的產品組合更為複雜，因為我們一半的銷售額都來自緊固件。而緊固件的定價機制與非緊固件產品截然不同。因此，儘管如今緊固件產品占我們業務的三分之一，但這並不會完全消除這三分之一的銷售額，而是會降低其影響，因為它占我們業務的三分之一，而不是二分之一。這樣解釋你明白嗎？

It does.

確實如此。

The other thing that I would remember or that I would point out is in 2009, demand was down 60% in a blink. It's really hard to adjust your cost structure when demand is down 60% in a blink. I would -- maybe things change and maybe we have 2009 coming. I have no idea because we have no visibility, but that seems to be where a lot of questions are coming from.

我還要補充一點，2009年的時候，需求在一瞬間下降了60%。需求驟降60%的情況下，調整成本結構真的很難。也許情況會有所改變，也許2009年的情況會重演。我對此一無所知，因為我們無法預知未來，但這似乎正是許多問題所在。

But our decremental -- And one reason '09 is so exceptional is because that's actually the only year in our history that revenue was down. But our decremental is 40% because you can't adjust your cost structure that quickly. I don't believe, unless you believe there's a replay of 2009 coming, I don't believe that 2009 is the right proxy for, let's say, a 2019-style slowdown. I would just give some consideration to the benchmark you're using now.

但我們的減損幅度——2009 年之所以如此特殊，其中一個原因是那一年實際上是我們歷史上唯一一次營收下降。但我們的減損幅度高達 40%，因為你不可能在這麼短的時間內調整成本結構。除非你認為 2009 年的情況會重演，否則我不認為 2009 年的情況能夠準確反映出類似 2019 年的經濟放緩。我建議你重新審視你目前使用的基準。

Before everybody on the call walks over -- and this is to everybody. Before everybody on the call walks over to the closest window and decides to the leap, when I talk to our regional leaders, when I talked to our national account sales leaders and I get the tone of what they're seeing from their customers, I don't think there's a customer they talk to that doesn't have as strong a backlog as they've ever had in their business.

在電話會議的各位都走過去之前——我是說給所有人聽的——在電話會議的各位都走到最近的窗戶邊，決定縱身一躍之前，我想說，當我與我們的區域領導、全國客戶銷售領導交談，了解他們從客戶那裡了解到的情況時，我認為他們遇到的所有客戶，都面臨著前所未有的訂單積壓問題。

Now backlogs are funny. Backlogs can evaporate in an environment. But there's a lot of -- if you think about what you see, we were down -- our transportation folks were down at the rail yards in Chicago recently, really trying to -- we're always trying to figure out ways to streamline our supply chain. And the amount of containers of product that retailers have sitting there that they're paying for storage is massive.

現在積壓問題挺有意思的。積壓問題在特定環境下可能會消失。但實際上有很多積壓問題——想想我們最近在芝加哥的鐵路貨場，我們的運輸人員一直在努力——我們一直在想辦法簡化供應鏈。零售商積壓的貨物數量龐大，他們為此支付了倉儲費。

And so there's a lot of those kinds of things we're hearing about. But when I talk to our manufacturing customer base and our construction customer base, probably the -- to the construction folks, the proverbial canary in the coal mine, I'll use a term from one of our directors yesterday, is projects don't get canceled, but they get delayed when things get softer. But there's a lot of pent-up demand because a lot of manufacturers have stuff that's sitting there ready to be finished, but they're waiting for components.

所以，我們聽到了很多類似的消息。但當我與我們的製造業客戶和建築業客戶交流時，我發現——對建築業人士來說，就像煤礦裡的金絲雀一樣，我借用一下我們一位主管昨天的說法——項目不會取消，但會在市場疲軟時延期。目前有大量積壓需求，因為許多製造商都有已經準備好、只等零件到貨的產品。

One of the components they're not waiting for is their OEM fasteners. One of the components they're not waiting for is the stuff that Fastenal is there to supply them, so when that widget can be assembled or the assembly can be finished, we're there to serve that need. And so we're in a different spot than a lot of suppliers going into that.

他們無需等待的組件之一是原廠緊固件。他們也無需等待Fastenal提供的組件，因此，一旦某個零件可以組裝或組裝完成，我們就能滿足他們的需求。所以，我們與許多其他供應商的情況有所不同。

But Holden's point is dead on. I still remember from -- I believe from October to January, our business dropped off about 18%. And then we dropped off 5 percentage points a month of actual business levels. So we weren't down 50%, Holden. We were down about 33%. But -- and then it started to shallow in the spring. But his point is dead on that, that's a complete different scenario than what we're talking about from the standpoint of the demand need and the backlog in the marketplace downstream from us.

但霍爾頓的觀點完全正確。我還記得——我記得是從十月到一月，我們的業務下降了大約18%。之後，實際業務水準每月下降5個百分點。所以，霍爾頓，我們並沒有下降50%，而是下降了大約33%。但是——然後，到了春天，下滑的趨勢開始緩和。不過，他的觀點完全正確，這和我們現在討論的下游市場需求和積壓訂單的情況完全不同。

Got it. That's helpful. And then my second question and the premise to this question is the worry about inflation to deflation, and probably better for Holden. So I think, Holden, that price inflation that you report reflects about 40% of sales. I think that's what you've said. So the question is, what is the risk that inflation in the other 60% that's hard to measure has been more helpful to sales and gross margins than we appreciate?

明白了，這很有幫助。我的第二個問題，也是這個問題的前提，是關於通貨膨脹轉為通貨緊縮的擔憂，而且通貨緊縮可能對霍頓更有利。霍頓，我想你們報告的價格通膨反映了大約40%的銷售額，你們之前是這麼說的。那麼問題是，剩下的60%難以衡量的通膨，是否可能比我們意識到的更有利於銷售額和毛利率？

Well, again, I believe that if we had bought a widget in both periods, it would be inflated this year compared to where it was last year. I think that goes without saying. But I mean that's why if you look at fastener inflation, throw out the 60% where there's no offsetting sales year-over-year to a similar customer.

嗯，我再次強調，如果我們兩個時期都購買了同一款產品，那麼今年的價格肯定會比去年高。這點毋庸置疑。我的意思是，這就是為什麼在分析緊固件價格上漲時，要剔除那60%的漲幅——因為那部分漲幅是60%，而且沒有對同一客戶進行同比銷售來抵消。

But fastener inflation exceeds 25%. It has over the past couple of quarters, because of what's happened with the price of steel cost of transporting internationally, et cetera. If I look at non-fasteners, it's been closer to 10%, right? So I mean that's the level of inflation that we've been seeing in the marketplace. Hopefully, that gives some color. I'm not sure what else you're referring to.

但緊固件價格的通膨率超過25%。過去幾個季度一直如此，這是由於鋼材價格上漲、國際運輸成本增加等等原因造成的。如果只看非緊固件產品，通膨率則接近10%，對吧？所以，這就是我們目前在市場上看到的通膨水準。希望這些資訊能有所幫助。我不確定你還指的是什麼。

Yes. No, it's helpful. I just -- if it's hard to measure roughly 60% of sales on inflation, I was just worried that potential inflation is helping more than we can appreciate since we can't really see.

是的。不，這很有幫助。我只是——如果很難衡量大約 60% 的銷售額受通貨膨脹的影響，我就擔心潛在的通貨膨脹帶來的幫助可能比我們意識到的要大，因為我們無法真正看到它。

As I said, for every widget that we sell this quarter for which there's no comparable sale to the prior quarter, I'm pretty certain that we probably got more for it this quarter than we would have a year ago had we sold it.

正如我所說，對於本季度我們售出的每一件與上一季沒有可比銷售記錄的小部件，我非常肯定，我們本季度的售價可能比一年前售出該部件的售價更高。

I think that there's -- if we didn't sell it last period, I also think we probably gained some share or gained some products, something like that. I don't think we sold lose sight of that fact. But yes, without a doubt, most of the stuff we're buying this year, probably we're getting more for it than we would have a year ago.

我認為，即便上個季度我們沒賣出去，今年我們可能也獲得了一些市場份額或產品，諸如此類。我們並沒有忽略這一點。但毫無疑問，我們今年採購的大部分商品，價格可能比去年更高。

The piece you're not factoring into this is there's numerous examples of where the customer was willing to shift what they were buying. And so for example, we have our own exclusive brands. There are examples where hey, widget A has gone up 10%. Widget B has gone up 10%, too. However, that 10% increase is less -- is only 1.5 points above what you were spending on widget A in the past.

你忽略的一點是，有許多例子顯示顧客願意調整他們的購買習慣。例如，我們有自己的獨家品牌。有些情況下，A產品的價格上漲了10%，B產品的價格也上漲了10%。然而，這10%的漲幅其實只比你過去購買A產品的價格高出1.5個百分點。

And so to think these measurements are funny at not measuring things like that to shift, because our exclusive brands as a percentage of business -- our preferred suppliers as a percentage of business has grown faster than our overall business. And so not all of that inflation shines through in the terms of pure growth.

因此，認為這些指標無法衡量諸如此類的變化是可笑的，因為我們的獨家品牌業務佔比——我們首選供應商業務佔比——的成長速度超過了我們整體業務的成長速度。所以，並非所有的通貨膨脹都能反映在純粹的成長上。

Because when substitution comes into play, what you're selling is more expensive than it would have been a year ago, but it's only nominally more expensive than what the alternative was because it's kind of like going to grocery store and you're buying a different brand than you were buying a year ago. Both brands might be up 5% or 10%, but you might be spending the same as you were spending a year ago because you're buying a different brand.

因為當替代效應發揮作用時，你現在賣的東西比一年前貴，但比替代品貴的幅度其實很小，這就像去超市買東西，買的品牌和一年前不一樣。兩個品牌的價格可能都上漲了5%或10%，但你最終的花費可能和一年前一樣，因為你買的是不同的品牌。

And I would point out, and again, ultimately, price/cost gets reflected in some way, shape or form in your gross margin. And again, our gross margin has been fairly stable. So I don't believe that there's a bunch of inflation out there that we're not seeing and we're not accounting for. Because if that were the case, it would be reflected in our gross margin. I think the actions that we've taken are capturing the order of magnitude of increase that we've seen.

我想再次指出，最終，價格/成本會以某種方式反映在毛利率中。而且，我們的毛利率一直相當穩定。所以我不認為存在我們沒有察覺或沒有考慮到的通貨膨脹。因為如果真是這樣，它肯定會反映在我們的毛利率上。我認為我們採取的措施已經反映了我們所看到的成長幅度。

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 first question was just around the Onsite business. You mentioned, clearly it's a good solution for some of the supply chain issues you're seeing. Do you view there to be structurally higher demand for Onsites in kind of a post-COVID world post-pandemic relative to your kind of expectations pre-pandemic? And kind of has the time line in terms of implementing a new Onsite or the ramp changed at all with some of the labor availability issues? I know you mentioned you had pretty good hiring in Q2.

我的第一個問題是關於現場服務業務的。您提到，這顯然是解決您目前遇到的一些供應鏈問題的有效方案。您認為在後疫情時代，現場服務的需求是否會比疫情前的預期更高？考慮到勞動力供應問題，新建現場服務或專案啟動的時間表是否有所改變？我知道您提到第二季的招募情況相當不錯。

Yes. Structural is a funny word. It -- I believe there is a structural change in demand. COVID -- I mean, COVID and the hiring environment is part of it. I think awareness is part of it, too. If you go back 15 years ago, there wasn't a structural demand for vending in industrial world, industrial distribution. It didn't exist. It was a one-off novelty that had been around for 20 years, but it really didn't have a presence.

是的。 「結構性」這個詞很有意思。我認為需求方面確實發生了結構性變化。新冠疫情－我的意思是，新冠疫情和招募環境都是原因之一。我認為人們的意識提高也是原因之一。如果你回顧15年前，工業領域，也就是工業分銷領域，對自動販賣機並沒有結構性的需求。它根本不存在。它只是一種存在了20年的一次性新奇事物，但並沒有真正流行起來。

Even internally, when we first started talking about it, most -- a lot of the reaction was we want to put what in a stack machine? And it's a better means to distribute that type of product. And we've expanded that footprint now into our FAST Bin offering, our FASTStock offering. And what's changed is our awareness of the solution, but as of equal importance, the customers' awareness of the solution.

即使在公司內部，當我們最初討論這個問題時，大多數人的反應都是：我們想把什麼東西放進堆高機裡？這不正是分銷這類產品的更好方式嗎？現在，我們已經將這項技術擴展到了我們的 FAST Bin 和 FASTStock 產品系列中。改變的不僅是我們對解決方案的認知，同樣重要的是，客戶對解決方案的認知也改變了。

The one thing that is nice about an event like our customer show is customers get to come to that event, and they see firsthand examples. They talk to other customers that are doing it. And all of a sudden, the awareness changed of what the Onsite is about, Fastenal model. Because there's other Onsite models out there, implant models out there, but they learned about what it is in the Fastenal supply chain armed with all of our FMI technology of why it's a great solution.

像我們客戶展這樣的活動的好處之一在於，客戶可以親自到現場，親眼看到實際案例，並與其他正在使用產品的客戶交流。這樣一來，他們對現場植入模式（Fastenal模式）的認識就改變了。雖然市面上也有其他現場植入模式，但透過Fastenal的供應鏈以及我們全面的FMI技術，客戶了解了現場植入模式的優勢所在。

I believe structurally, there's a better environment for it, and that's why we're signing 100 versus 80 or 85 or 90, if I go back even prepandemic. That's enhanced by the fact that maybe some folks look at that as, "Geez, it's really difficult to hire, especially for an expertise that isn't inherent in my business."

我認為從結構上看，現在的環境更有利於人才招聘，這就是為什麼我們簽了100份合同，而不是像疫情前那樣簽80、85或90份。此外，有些人可能會覺得，“哎呀，現在招人真難，尤其是一些我公司本身不具備的專業技能。”

We make widgets. We don't source product. And so it's an expertise and a hiring element. Don't lose sight of the fact that it's worked for us to add those people, too. And so sometimes the limiting factor to how fast it ramps up is our ability to staff it with a talented team and our customers' ability to make change in their business and willingness to make change.

我們生產小部件，不採購產品。因此，這既是一項專業技術，也是一項招募工作。別忘了，增加人手對我們來說也確實有效。所以，有時限制我們業務擴張速度的因素在於我們能否組建一支優秀的團隊，以及我們的客戶是否可以以及是否願意在業務上做出改變。

But the premise of your question is, structurally, there are a better environments today than there would have been in the past? Yes. Part of that's COVID. Part of that is a hiring environment. But I think the most important element is awareness. And that gives us sustainability past the next 6 to 12 months. That gives us sustainability for years into the future because it's a thing.

但你問題的前提是，從結構來看，如今的環境是否比過去更好？是的。一部分原因是新冠疫情，一部分原因是招募環境。但我認為最重要的因素是意識。這能讓我們在未來6到12個月後實現永續發展，也能讓我們在未來幾年持續發展，因為這確實是一項現實。

Bit of color I might add to that, probably over the last 3 to 5 months, which kind of coincides with where I think ourselves and our customer base begin to sort of adapt to the current setting. But over the last 3 to 5 months, a lot of the feedback that's come back from the Regional Vice Presidents in their commentary to me that they give me each month, each quarter, there's been many of them that have said that the lessons that were learned from the period you just came out of was that our customers are not supply chain managers, and they're looking for someone to bring that expertise into them.

我還要補充一點，大概在過去的3到5個月裡，我們和我們的客戶群也開始逐漸適應目前的情況。在過去的3到5個月裡，我從區域副總裁那裡收到的回饋（他們每個月、每季都會給我回饋）中，很多人都提到，他們從剛剛過去的這段時間裡吸取的教訓是，我們的客戶並非供應鏈經理，他們需要有人能為他們帶來這方面的專業知識。

And so to Dan's point about structural, I think that this has laid bare how difficult managing your supply chain can be. On top of that, supply chains have just gotten more expensive in the current environment. And I think that our customers are looking for more assistance in that, and I think they're conveying that to the field salesforce based on the commentary that I'm getting back. So just some anecdotal support for that.

所以，關於丹提到的結構性問題，我認為這充分暴露了供應鏈管理的難度。此外，在目前環境下，供應鏈成本也越來越高。我認為我們的客戶正在尋求這方面的更多幫助，而且根據我收到的回饋，他們也正在向第一線銷售人員傳達這一訊息。以上僅是一些佐證。

Got it. Very helpful. My follow-up question, I'll turn it over. Is just -- I think maybe it was asked a few quarters ago, but anything you're hearing from your customers on reshoring manufacturing capacity back to the U.S. domestically? Is it more anecdotal? Or are you sort of seeing any data points suggesting that that's beginning or happened or happening?

明白了，很有幫助。我的後續問題，我稍後再問。我想這個問題可能幾個季度前有人問過，但您從客戶那裡有沒有聽到關於將生產能力遷回美國國內的反饋？是一些零星的傳聞，還是您看到一些數據表明這種情況正在發生、已經開始或正在發生？

Yes. I mean what I'll tell you is I haven't received any concrete commentary from people saying, "Oh, all these plants are coming back." So I've never seen any anecdotes to support the idea that onshoring is or isn't happening. But I'll tell you that in my view, I think that that's sort of a long cycle thing that we're going to look back 10 years from now and say it happened or it didn't happen. I don't know how you identify that in a given quarter or frankly, even a given year that, that trend is in place. But I've not received any specific feedback from the field suggesting that, that's driving our business.

是的。我的意思是，我還沒收到任何確切的評論，說「哦，這些工廠都回來了」。所以我從未見過任何軼事來支持「工廠回流」的說法。但我認為，這有點像是長期的周期，我們十年後回頭再看，才能確定它是否真的發生了。我不知道如何在某個季度，甚至某個年份，判斷這種趨勢是否已經形成。但我沒有收到任何來自第一線的具體回饋，顯示這正在推動我們的業務發展。

Our next question is coming from Tommy Moll from Stephens.

下一個問題來自史蒂芬斯大學的湯米·莫爾。

I was hoping you could elaborate a little bit on the softening demand trends that you called out. And I'm thinking about it in a couple of ways. First, just if you can walk us through the quarter. And Holden, you referenced the exit rate and what that might imply for the remainder of the year.

我希望您能詳細說明您提到的需求疲軟趨勢。我從幾個方面考慮這個問題。首先，您能否為我們介紹一下本季的情況？還有，霍爾頓，您提到了退出率，以及這可能對今年剩餘時間的影響。

And then the second way I'm thinking about it is you made a comment, I believe it was Holden, around the weakness or softening we can say largely centering around consumer/construction end markets. So any end market commentary would be helpful as well.

其次，我想到的第二個方面是，您（我記得是霍爾頓）曾就疲軟或降溫問題發表過評論，主要集中在消費/建築終端市場。因此，任何關於終端市場的評論都將很有幫助。

Yes. I'm taking the last first. Getting down to specific end markets can be a challenge. The message that I'm conveying is, again, based on the feedback from the RVPs, where they talk about seeing some softening, it winds up being things like automotive, recreational vehicles, right, things like that, that tend to have a more direct connection to the consumer.

是的，我先說最後一點。具體到終端市場可能比較困難。我傳達的訊息，再次強調，是基於區域副總裁們的回饋，他們提到市場需求有所疲軟，而這最終體現在汽車、休閒車等與消費者聯繫更直接的領域。

When we start talking about things around commodities like oil and gas or things around capital goods like agriculture, the feedback is still pretty positive there. No real sense that there's been any slowing in demand and no sense that backlogs are anything other than strong. And so that's kind of the split. So it's difficult for me to give a lot of color from -- in terms of an SIC Code sort of perspective, but just in terms of the anecdotes come from the field, that seems to be the direction that they're pushing us, where, where you touch the consumer directly, it's a challenge. Where you don't, it's still strong.

當我們開始討論石油天然氣等大宗商品或農業等資本貨物時，回饋仍然相當正面。沒有感覺到需求放緩，也沒有感覺到積壓訂單減少。這就是目前的情況。因此，我很難從標準行業分類代碼（SIC Code）的角度給出太多具體信息，但就來自一線的反饋來看，這似乎是他們推動我們前進的方向：直接接觸消費者的領域面臨挑戰，而那些不直接接觸消費者的領域，需求依然強勁。

And that's why I said the softening we saw during the period, it's not broad and it's not deep. But it was a bit of a change. And to your -- to the first question or maybe part A of the first question, we didn't finish June as strong as we started it. That's different from what we experienced in March. We finished March stronger than we started it. Two out of the 3 months of the quarter, including June, we did not achieve the sequential norm that you would normally expect to see, right? I mean those are sort of the elements that we're talking about.

所以我說，我們這段時間看到的疲軟並不普遍，也不嚴重。但確實發生了一些變化。至於你的第一個問題，或者說第一個問題的第一部分，我們六月的業績沒有像月初那麼強勁。這和三月的情況不同。三月份的業績比月初好。本季三個月中，有兩個月（包括六月）的業績沒有達到通常預期的連續成長水平，對吧？我的意思是，這些就是我們正在討論的幾個方面。

Now when I talk about if the exit rate were to be sustained, we feel pretty good about it. You can run the math yourself, right? I mean I'm simply taking where we finished in June and I'm running the sequentials out the rest of the year, and it tells me that we would grow if nothing else changed based on where we exited June. And we can feel pretty good about that rate of growth. So that's how I tend to think about it.

現在，說到退出率能否持續，我們感覺相當不錯。你可以自己算算，對吧？我的意思是，我只是以六月的業績為基準，然後推算出今年剩餘時間的業績，結果顯示，如果其他條件不變，我們就能保持成長。我們對這個成長率很有信心。這就是我的看法。

That's helpful. As a follow-up, I wanted to shift to hiring. Dan, it sounds like the conditions remain challenging, but I believe you said the trends on applications have improved. I just wondering if that might be driven by softening and hiring elsewhere. And you may not have a ton of visibility on that, but I'd be curious if you had any thoughts.

這很有幫助。接下來我想聊聊招募方面的問題。丹，聽起來招聘情況依然嚴峻，但我記得你說過申請人數的趨勢有所改善。我只是想知道這是否是因為市場環境趨於寬鬆，以及其他地方的招募活動增加。你可能不太了解這方面的情況，但我很想知道你有什麼想法。

And to the extent we do enter a period, a recession period, can you just refresh us on the philosophy on how you manage hiring and leverage and/or deleverage on employee-related expenses in that kind of environment?

如果真的進入經濟衰退期，您能否簡要介紹一下在這種環境下，您是如何管理招聘、如何利用和/或減少與員工相關的支出的？

Yes. What's really changed in our hiring -- and it's more about our hiring in the field than it would be in our hiring in distribution or hiring in some of the support areas or in transportation. Our model for hiring is we have relationships that we've nurtured over the years with 4-year state colleges, 2-year technical colleges that are in the proximity of our network. And so if I'm in Northern Wisconsin, for example, we're recruiting from University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, University of Wisconsin-Stout, which is in Menomonie, Wisconsin. We're going to UW-River Falls. We're going to the -- I believe it's West Central Technical College.

是的。我們招聘方面真正改變的是——而且這種變化更多地體現在現場招聘上，而不是分銷、支援部門或運輸部門的招聘上。我們的招募模式是，我們與四年制州立大學和兩年制技術學院建立了多年來精心維護的合作關係，這些學院都位於我們業務網絡的附近。例如，如果我在威斯康辛州北部，我們會從威斯康辛大學歐克萊爾分校、位於威斯康辛州梅諾莫尼的威斯康辛大學斯托特分校、威斯康辛大學河瀑分校，以及——我記得是西中央技術學院——招募。

And we have relationships there. Well, if you think of what happened in 2020, all these kids went home and moved in with mom and dad and were doing college and tech school remotely. Unless it was a trade that they were learning that required hands on, but they were doing it remotely. And the 2020 to 2021 school year was, well, we're remote some of the time and we're in some of the time, and it was a chaotic environment, and some people just sit out, to heck with it, I'm going to stay remote because I can.

我們和那裡的人都有聯絡。想想2020年發生的事，所有這些孩子都回家和父母住在一起，遠距上大學和技術學校。除非他們學的是需要動手實踐的職業技能，否則他們都是遠距學習。 2020到2021學年，我們有時遠距學習，有時到校上課，環境很混亂，有些人乾脆就不去了，心想「管他呢，反正我可以遠距學習」。

The current school year that ended that started last fall in '21 and through 2022, it was -- pretty much everybody was in class. And so I think what really changed in 2022 for us that moved the numbers was all of a sudden, this young person who's going to college somewhere or going to a tech college somewhere, they're now 6 months into, hey, I'm at college. They haven't kicked me out and sent me home to my parents. I need a job. And so we're finding those people, and they're applying for jobs we're posting.

從2021年秋天開始，一直到2022年，剛結束的這個學年——幾乎所有人都還在上課。所以我認為，真正改變我們就業數據的是2022年的情況：那些原本在某地上大學或技校的年輕人，現在已經上了六個月的大學，他們意識到：「嘿，我已經上大學了。學校沒有把我趕回家。我需要一份工作。」 因此，我們找到了這些人，他們也開始申請我們發布的職位。

I think that's what's really moved the needle. Because we haven't seen the needle move as well in our distribution centers. I wish we would. We haven't seen it move as well in our transportation. I wish it would. But same thing with manufacturing. But I think that's what's driving it more than people not -- hiring somewhere else has changed. I think the availability of talent has improved or the willingness of talent to work has improved more so than the opportunities have dropped off because there's still a lot of -- it's a rare business that you go to today that has enough people.

我認為這才是真正推動改變的關鍵因素。因為我們在配送中心並沒有看到同樣的成長。我希望情況能有所改善。我們在運輸環節也沒有看到同樣的成長。我希望情況能有所改善。製造業的情況也一樣。但我認為，真正推動改變的並非是人才流失——而是人才供應情況的改善，或者說人才的工作意願的提高，而不是就業機會的減少，因為如今很少有企業能保證充足的人員供應。

And typically, when I go out to eat, I call the restaurant first because I don't know if they're open. Because in this environment, there's a lot of times business is shut down on different days of the week because it just doesn't -- if they only have 300 hours of work or 1,000 hours of work this week, they're going to put it in the point that it's most useful for the employee and for the employer and their market. And I think that's what's driving it more than anything.

通常情況下，我外出用餐前都會先打電話確認餐廳是否有營業。因為在當前環境下，許多餐廳會在一週的不同日子歇業，原因很簡單——如果他們這週只有300小時或1000小時的工作量，他們就會把工作安排在對員工、雇主和市場都最有利的日子。我認為這才是造成這種情況的主要原因。

Our next question is coming from Chris Snyder from UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的克里斯·史奈德。

My first question is on Onsite and specifically, the lag between signings and activations. So the first half of the year, you guys signed 208 but only activated 138. Can you maybe talk about the typical lag? Has that been impacted by tight labor market so far in 2022? And any expectations for activations into the back half?

我的第一個問題是關於現場服務，特別是簽約和啟動之間的延遲。今年上半年，你們簽約了208人，但只啟動了138人。您能否談談通常的延遲情況？這是否受到了2022年至今勞動市場緊張的影響？您對下半年的啟動情況有何預期？

Yes. It's not unusual for activations to occur somewhere between 3 months and 6 months is probably sort of the gap in which that traditionally occurs. There absolutely is a period of time where those signings have to bleed in. Do we believe that labor has played some role in the slowness? Yes, yes, we do. Hopefully, that's beginning to resolve itself to some degree.

是的。活化通常發生在3到6個月之間，這大概是傳統的活化週期。這些簽約確實需要一段時間才能完成。我們認為勞動力短缺是造成進度緩慢的原因之一嗎？是的，我們認為是。希望這種情況正在逐步改善。

I will note we had a lot of implementations in the second quarter. Even so, we had a lot of signings so we grew the backlog again. And we do, in fact, have a record backlog of implementations to do. And so we feel pretty good about the degree to which the number of signings that we have, the backlog that we have in place, the degree to which that's either a bit of a hedge against any sort of downturn that plays out or an accelerant if one doesn't play over the back half of this year and into next year, we feel really good about that.

我想指出的是，我們在第二季完成了大量的實施專案。即便如此，我們也簽了很多合同，因此積壓項目再次增加。事實上，我們目前的實施項目積壓數量創下了歷史新高。因此，我們對目前的簽約數量和積壓項目數量都感到非常滿意，它們既可以對沖任何可能出現的經濟衰退風險，也可以在今年下半年和明年經濟形勢不景氣時起到推動作用。我們對此充滿信心。

I appreciate that. So I guess just kind of following up on the potential tailwind, whether it's into a slowing macro or not a slowing macro tailwind either way. You guys have spoken in the past about a $1 million target for Onsite revenue. Is there any color you could provide on the ramp, how long it could take to get to something like that? Maybe any color on what an Onsite typically kind of comes out at? Just kind of how we can think about that or try to quantify that challenge.

我很感激。所以我想進一步探討潛在的利多因素，無論宏觀經濟放緩與否。你們之前提到過線上業務收入100萬美元的目標。能否具體說明實現這個目標的進度，例如大概要花多久時間？或者，能否透露一下線上業務的最終收入大概是多少？我們該如何看待這個問題，或者說，如何量化這個挑戰？

Yes. Well, the $1 million you're talking about has been -- a lot of times we use the example of a $30,000 a month customer. We think we can add $80,000 to $100,000 of incremental business and grow that to a $110,000, $120,000, $130,000, $140,000 relationship, and that $80,000 increment is at least $1 million layer on top. To the point when you get it, when you're turning it on, I think we're getting better at turning on Onsites every day, so that enhances our ability to drive that quicker. But it's still going to be dependent on the circumstances. And so I think the layering event of numbers that we've historically shared, I think that's still as good a proxy as anything about what to expect.

是的。您提到的100萬美元－我們常以每月消費3萬美元的客戶為例。我們認為可以增加8萬到10萬美元的業務，並將其發展成11萬、12萬、13萬甚至14萬美元的客戶關係，而這8萬美元的增量至少相當於100萬美元的額外收入。至於何時才能真正實現這一點，我認為我們每天都在改進線上推廣，這增強了我們更快地推動這一目標的能力。但這仍然取決於具體情況。因此，我認為我們過去分享的這些數字仍然能夠很好地反映預期結果。

And I see we're at 10:00 Central Time. I probably shouldn't have taken that last question. We're running out of time. But Chris, if you have a follow-up, feel free to give me or Holden a call. And for everybody else, thank you again for participating in the call today and hope you have a successful Q3 and the rest of the year.

我看到現在是中部時間10點。我可能不該回答最後一個問題。時間不多了。克里斯，如果你還有後續問題，隨時可以打電話給我或霍爾頓。也感謝其他各位今天參加電話會議，祝福大家第三季以及今年剩下的時間一切順利。

Thanks, everyone.

謝謝大家。

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

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