快扣 (FAST) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to Fastenal 2023 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would now like to hand the call over to Taylor Ranta of Fastenal Company. Thank you. You may begin.

早上好，歡迎參加 Fastenal 2023 年第二季度收益電話會議。 （操作員指示）謹此提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。現在，我想將電話轉交給 Fastenal 公司的泰勒·蘭塔 (Taylor Ranta)。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Welcome to the Fastenal Company 2023 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. The call will last for up to 1 hour and will 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 2023 年第二季度收益電話會議。本次電話會議將由我們的總裁兼首席執行官 Dan Florness 主持；和我們的首席財務官霍爾頓劉易斯。電話會議將持續長達 1 小時，首先將概述我們的季度業績和運營情況，其餘時間則開放提問和回答。

Today's conference call is the proprietary of Fastenal presentation and is being recorded by Fastenal. No recording, reproduction, transmission or distribution of today's call is permitted without Fastenal 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 September 1, 2023 at midnight Central Time.

今天的電話會議是 Fastenal 演示的專有內容，並由 Fastenal 錄製。未經 Fastenal 同意，不得錄製、複製、傳輸或分發今天的通話。本次電話會議通過 Fastenal 投資者關係主頁 Investor.fastenal.com 在互聯網上進行音頻聯播。網絡廣播的重播將在網站上提供，直至中部時間 2023 年 9 月 1 日午夜為止。

As a reminder, today's conference call will 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.

提醒一下，今天的電話會議將包括有關公司未來計劃和前景的聲明。這些聲明基於我們當前的預期，我們不承擔更新它們的義務。值得注意的是，公司的實際結果可能與預期存在重大差異。可能導致實際結果與預期結果不同的因素包含在公司最新的收益報告和向美國證券交易委員會提交的定期文件中，我們鼓勵您仔細審查這些因素。

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

我現在想把電話轉給丹·弗洛內斯先生。

Good morning, everybody, and thank you for our second quarter earnings call. Before I start on Fastenal matters, I'd like to share a message. When I joined Fastenal back in 1996, one of the things that was unique in my joining is that I stepped into the role of Chief Financial Officer, Bob Kierlin offered me the opportunity. And so I joined in an unconventional way in that I didn't start at -- in a branch or in a distribution center and work my way up through the organization. And sometimes when you join an organization that promotes from within, you're not sure kind of reception you'll get when you join.

大家早上好，感謝大家參加我們的第二季度財報電話會議。在開始討論 Fastenal 問題之前，我想先分享一條信息。當我於 1996 年加入 Fastenal 時，我加入的獨特之處之一是我擔任了首席財務官，Bob Kierlin 為我提供了機會。因此，我以一種非常規的方式加入，並不是從分支機構或配送中心開始，然後在整個組織中逐步向上。有時，當您加入一個從內部提拔的組織時，您不確定加入時會受到什麼樣的接待。

One of the first people I met was Colleen Quade, it was Bob Kierlin's sister. She had retired in a retirement. She worked for Fastenal a few years in sales support. One of the nicest ladies I ever met, and we lost Colleen earlier this year. I -- and to her children and grandchildren, you have my condolences and as well as to Bob on the loss of your sister. What a wonderful lady, and we were all blessed to know her.

我見到的第一個人是科琳·奎德（Colleen Quade），她是鮑勃·基爾林（Bob Kierlin）的妹妹。她已經退休了。她在 Fastenal 工作了幾年，從事銷售支持工作。我見過的最好的女士之一，今年早些時候我們失去了科琳。我以及她的孩子和孫子們，以及鮑勃，對您妹妹的去世表示哀悼。多麼出色的一位女士，我們都很幸運能夠認識她。

We started back in '67. So our 5 founders aren't in their 20s anymore. And Van McConnon -- Henry McConnon, he goes by Van, he was our first employee. In fact, I think that's how he earned his stake in Fastenal, and he did well with that stake, and I'm proud of him. He lost his wife [Wilma] earlier in the year and the same message. Van was -- could not have been more of a welcoming person to me when I joined the organization, and here's my condolences in the loss f his wife to spring.

我們從 67 年開始。所以我們的 5 位創始人不再是 20 多歲了。範麥康農——亨利麥康農，他被稱為範，他是我們的第一位員工。事實上，我認為這就是他贏得 Fastenal 股份的方式，他在這些股份上做得很好，我為他感到驕傲。今年早些時候，他失去了妻子[威爾瑪]，也傳達了同樣的信息。當我加入該組織時，範對我非常熱情，我對他的妻子春天去世表示哀悼。

With that, I'll move on onto the Fastenal quarter. Second quarter '23 is a challenging quarter. Last fall, when we -- or last December, when we had our leadership meetings and our planning discussions for 2023, the ISM had weakened. We knew that 2023 was going to have some slugging aspects to it. We warned -- we cautioned our team. Second quarter and third quarter will be tough quarters to get through and prepare yourself, prepare your teams from the standpoint that we're going to have to manage our expenses really well.

就這樣，我將繼續前往 Fastenal 區。 23 年第二季度是充滿挑戰的季度。去年秋天，當我們——或者去年 12 月，當我們召開領導層會議和 2023 年規劃討論時，ISM 已經減弱。我們知道 2023 年將會有一些激烈的局面。我們警告過——我們警告過我們的團隊。第二季度和第三季度將是艱難的季度，讓你自己做好準備，從我們必須很好地管理我們的費用的角度來看，讓你的團隊做好準備。

We'll have to keep all of our heads skewed on the right way because there's been -- it's been an interesting number of years between tariffs and COVID and congested supply chains and inflation and all this stuff, there's noise, noise, noise. We're going to experience something we have experienced for a number of years, and that's a slowing economy and prepare for what that means and get the muscle memory back. But it was a challenging quarter. Our earnings came in at $0.52, rising about 4.5%. Softer manufacturing activity led our sales -- daily sales growth to decelerate. We grew 5.9% in the second quarter.

我們必須保持所有的頭腦都偏向正確的方向，因為在關稅、新冠疫情、供應鏈擁擠、通貨膨脹以及所有這些東西之間，已經有很有趣的幾年了，有噪音、噪音、噪音。我們將經歷多年來已經經歷過的事情，那就是經濟放緩，並為這意味著什麼做好準備，並恢復肌肉記憶。但這是一個充滿挑戰的季度。我們的收入為 0.52 美元，增長約 4.5%。製造業活動疲軟導致我們的銷售——每日銷售增長放緩。第二季度我們增長了 5.9%。

We did not leverage. That's an important element of our business. Our sales grew 5.9% but as we're cycling through some mix changes and Holden will touch on a little more detail. Our gross profit dollars grew about 3.6%, and our operating expenses grew 4.1%, and I'm not real good with math, but I know that's not a good combination if you want to leverage your earnings. The -- and one of the elements is we didn't anticipate it softening quite as much as it did and that 4.1% needed to be a little bit lower. We didn't adjust our variable costs quite quickly enough.

我們沒有加槓桿。這是我們業務的重要組成部分。我們的銷售額增長了 5.9%，但隨著我們正在經歷一些組合變化，霍頓將觸及更多細節。我們的毛利潤增長了約 3.6%，運營費用增長了 4.1%，我不太擅長數學，但我知道如果你想利用你的收入，這不是一個好的組合。其中一個因素是我們沒有預期它會像實際情況那樣軟化，並且 4.1% 需要稍微低一點。我們沒有足夠快地調整可變成本。

As we've seen in prior time frames when the economy is weakening and it affects our ability to grow, the high amount of working capital on our balance sheet really can influence our ability to generate cash and given my old role as CFO, second quarter is a painful quarter for us typically because we have 2 tax payments. And when you're a profitable organization, you operate a lot of business in the United States, you pay a lot of good tax. And so second quarter hits us really hard. And normally, we -- for every dollar in earnings, we generate $0.60 to $0.70 in operating cash flow.

正如我們在之前的時間框架中所看到的那樣，當經濟疲軟並影響我們的增長能力時，我們資產負債表上的大量營運資金確實會影響我們產生現金的能力，並且考慮到我在第二季度擔任首席財務官的舊角色對於我們來說，這是一個痛苦的季度，通常是因為我們有兩次納稅。當你是一個盈利組織時，你在美國經營大量業務，你繳納大量稅收。因此，第二季度對我們的打擊確實很大。通常情況下，每盈利 1 美元，我們就會產生 0.60 至 0.70 美元的運營現金流。

I don't recall us ever having a second quarter where we generated more cash -- operating cash flow than earnings perhaps Holden will cite an example where we did.

我不記得我們曾經在第二季度產生過比收益更多的現金——運營現金流，也許霍頓會舉一個我們做到的例子。

But -- and maybe it was 2009, but that's a strong cash flow as we've ever seen for this time of year. And it also -- and a chunk of it is from not just what's happening in the economy and the working capital needed to fund receivables and to fund inventory for growth. In the last several years as supply chains were really getting congested, the message that I made very clear to our supply chain folks and our teams, we have a covenant with our customer, and that is worded supply chain partner. We will not let our customers down in their supply chain. If that means we need an extra 15 and extra 30, an extra 45 days of inventory, don't get ahead of yourself, but we need to have inventory to support the business, period.

但是——也許那是 2009 年，但我們在每年的這個時候都見過如此強勁的現金流。而且其中很大一部分不僅來自經濟形勢，還來自為應收賬款和庫存增長提供資金所需的營運資本。在過去的幾年裡，隨著供應鏈確實變得擁擠，我向我們的供應鏈人員和團隊明確傳達了這樣的信息：我們與客戶簽訂了一項契約，即供應鏈合作夥伴。我們不會讓我們的客戶在他們的供應鏈中失望。如果這意味著我們需要額外 15 天、額外 30 天、額外 45 天的庫存，請不要超前，但我們需要庫存來支持業務，就這樣。

And when the ports on the West Coast of North America were getting congested, the economy is turning back on, everything was getting congested, we beefed up our inventory. We started -- we were harvesting that. We were doing it in the first quarter. We're doing it this quarter. I think the team has done a wonderful job. It means we have capacity now to look at our balance sheet and say, where does it make sense to make strategic investments in inventory. I'm not saying there's stuff on the table right now, but that discussion can be had, whereas a year ago and 2 years ago, we couldn't really even think about it because we were focusing all of our energy on something else.

當北美西海岸的港口變得擁擠時，經濟正在復蘇，一切都變得擁擠，我們就增加了庫存。我們開始了——我們正在收穫它。我們在第一季度就這樣做了。我們這個季度就這樣做。我認為團隊做得非常出色。這意味著我們現在有能力審視我們的資產負債表並思考，對庫存進行戰略投資有何意義。我並不是說現在有一些東西擺在桌面上，但是可以進行討論，而一年前和兩年前，我們甚至無法真正考慮它，因為我們將所有精力都集中在其他事情上。

In the second quarter, we made some leadership changes. First off, Jeff Watts, who's led our international -- who joined Fastenal back in 1996, so he's been here for 27 years and started in our Canadian organization when we were -- when we had just a handful of locations in Ontario. He's led our international sales efforts since 2015, and he will oversee all of our sales efforts across the planet. And obviously, we know each other really well. The team in the U.S. -- international knows them really well because he's led that team for quite a few years. But the U.S. team is no stranger to a 27-year employees.

第二季度，我們進行了一些領導層變動。首先是 Jeff Watts，他是我們國際業務的領導者，他於 1996 年加入 Fastenal，所以他已經在這里工作了 27 年，當我們在安大略省只有少數分支機構時，他就開始在我們的加拿大組織工作。自 2015 年以來，他一直領導我們的國際銷售工作，並將監督我們在全球範圍內的所有銷售工作。顯然，我們彼此非常了解。美國國際隊非常了解他們，因為他領導這支球隊已經很多年了。但美國隊對於27年員工來說並不陌生。

So we know each other well, but I believe we'll have greater coordination on our efforts. And Jeff has a very entrepreneurial approach to how he leads a business, and I welcome him and look forward to the success he's going to see. Terry Owen, who's been in EVP Operations role, we formalized this role and that he's our Chief Operating Officer. And this bullet was added kind of late in the process. I found out yesterday as a team that I should mention this since we had announced it this quarter. And there's an error in our release. I thought I'd let you know and it's probably not material in the true aspects of life. But it is Terry has been here 28 years, and I know he joined in June of 1999. And if I do the math, I think it's 24. So sorry, we didn't catch that error in our process. But in conclusion, cyclical factors aside, the last several years, we've taken a lot of steps to improve both our labor and our inventory productivity. And I believe this forms an excellent foundation for our ability to generate long-term share gains in the marketplace.

所以我們彼此很了解，但我相信我們在工作上會有更好的協調。傑夫以一種非常具有創業精神的方式領導企業，我歡迎他並期待他取得成功。特里·歐文（Terry Owen）擔任運營執行副總裁，我們正式確定了這一職位，他是我們的首席運營官。這個項目符號是在這個過程的後期添加的。昨天我發現作為一個團隊我應該提到這一點，因為我們在本季度宣布了這一點。我們的發布中有一個錯誤。我想讓你知道，這在生活的真實方面可能並不重要。但特里已經在這里工作了 28 年，我知道他於 1999 年 6 月加入。如果我算一下，我認為是 24 年。很抱歉，我們在流程中沒有發現這個錯誤。但總而言之，撇開週期性因素不談，過去幾年，我們採取了很多措施來提高勞動力和庫存生產率。我相信，這為我們在市場上獲得長期份額收益的能力奠定了良好的基礎。

Switching to the next page. Onsites, I'll state the obvious. 86 Onsite is a disappointing number. Our aspiration internally has been to drive that to 100 per quarter, 400 per year. That's been our stated aspect mentioned internally. Prior to COVID, we hit 362 and that was a ramp-up from 80 in 2015 to 176 to 270 to 336 to 362 per year. When COVID came along, it really impaired our ability to sign Onsites because the last thing you want when you're worried about people being around you is inviting a bunch of folks of Blueshirt to come in and operate inside your 4 walls. And so we saw that drop dramatically. We recovered to about -- we did 356 signings last year. We broke 102 out of 4 quarters. Perhaps some of the leadership changes we made in the last 60 days created some distraction, perhaps we're not as focused as we should be. But that number needs to be 400 a year or more. And right now, we've adjusted our number. We think we'll probably come in similar to last year, somewhere in the 350s. And with that said, the fact that our Onsites are up, we have 15% more Onsites than a year ago. That's a great number. We're just not building the pipeline the way we need to.

切換到下一頁。在現場，我會陳述顯而易見的事情。 86 現場是一個令人失望的數字。我們內部的願望是每季度增加 100 個，每年增加 400 個。這是我們內部提到的既定方面。在新冠疫情爆發之前，我們的病例數已達到 362 例，從 2015 年的 80 例增加到每年 176 例、270 例、336 例、362 例。當新冠疫情出現時，它確實削弱了我們簽署 Onsites 的能力，因為當您擔心周圍的人時，您最不想看到的就是邀請一群 Blueshirt 人員進來並在您的 4 堵牆內進行操作。所以我們看到這個數字急劇下降。去年我們的簽約量恢復到了 356 人左右。我們在 4 個季度中打破了 102 分。也許我們在過去 60 天內所做的一些領導層變動造成了一些干擾，也許我們沒有像我們應該的那樣專注。但這個數字每年需要達到 400 或更多。現在，我們已經調整了我們的數字。我們認為我們的業績可能會與去年類似，大約在 350 年代左右。話雖如此，事實上我們的 Onsite 數量有所增加，我們的 Onsite 數量比一年前增加了 15%。這是一個很大的數字。我們只是沒有按照我們需要的方式建設管道。

FMI Technology, that's a different story. So our goal in Onsite is 100 a quarter. Let's get there and then figure out how we take it to 110, 120, but let's get to 100 first. Same with FMI Technology, it's not 100 a quarter, it's 100 a day. And I'm pleased to say in the fourth quarter -- excuse me, the second quarter, we did 106 per day. And that's market share gains. That's us going out and planting new flags in new locations to improve the supply chain for our customer, illuminate the supply chain for our customer and us being a great supply chain partner. That's a huge positive. I believe it tells me the marketplace is conceding the space to us. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but I believe it is because we are so far out ahead of the marketplace.

FMI 技術，這是一個不同的故事。所以我們 Onsite 的目標是每季度 100 次。讓我們到達那裡，然後弄清楚如何將其達到 110、120，但讓我們先達到 100。與 FMI Technology 一樣，不是每季度 100 個，而是每天 100 個。我很高興地說，在第四季度——對不起，第二季度，我們每天做了 106 次。這就是市場份額的增長。這就是我們走出去，在新的地點插上新的旗幟，為我們的客戶改善供應鏈，為我們的客戶照亮供應鏈，讓我們成為一個偉大的供應鏈合作夥伴。這是一個巨大的積極因素。我相信這告訴我市場正在向我們讓出空間。也許我的觀點是錯誤的，但我相信這是因為我們遠遠領先於市場。

Year-to-date, I told the Board yesterday we're -- with the 106 this quarter, we had our Board meeting yesterday, with 106 this quarter, we're at 100 year-to-date. I misspoke, we're actually at 99, but I'm really pleased with what the group is doing there. And the 39.8% of our sales went through our FMI platform in the second quarter. News flash, it was 40% in June. So we hit the number -- we hit 40%. Now we need to get to 45% and 50% but continue to see really nice progress there.

今年迄今為止，我昨天告訴董事會，我們——本季度有 106 家公司，我們昨天召開了董事會會議，本季度有 106 家公司，今年迄今我們已經有 100 家公司。我說錯了，我們實際上是 99，但我對團隊在那裡所做的事情感到非常滿意。第二季度我們 39.8% 的銷售額是通過 FMI 平台實現的。有消息稱，6 月份為 40%。所以我們達到了這個數字——我們達到了 40%。現在我們需要達到 45% 和 50%，但我們會繼續看到非常好的進展。

E-commerce continues to grow handsomely for us and grew about 45% in the quarter. For us, this has been a different journey than other things because a lot of e-commerce is on planned spend. If you think about our FMI Technology, that's all about planned spend. That's stuff you're using daily, weekly, every month in your business and it makes sense to stage it accordingly. E-commerce, a lot of that is stuff that you're having on to order. So it's unplanned. Historically, not a strong suit for us. And I'm pleased to say it's growing to be a bigger piece of our business. It's up, as I mentioned, 45%. The EDI portion of it is up 37%, and that's typically larger customers.

我們的電子商務繼續強勁增長，本季度增長約 45%。對我們來說，這是一段與其他事情不同的旅程，因為很多電子商務都是按計劃支出的。如果您考慮我們的 FMI 技術，您就會發現這一切都與計劃支出有關。這是您在業務中每天、每週、每月都會使用的東西，因此相應地安排它是有意義的。電子商務，其中很多都是你需要訂購的東西。所以這是計劃外的。從歷史上看，這對我們來說不是強項。我很高興地說，它正在成為我們業務的一個更大的組成部分。正如我提到的，它上升了 45%。其中 EDI 部分增長了 37%，而且通常是較大的客戶。

The web portion of it can be large or small, and that's up almost 70%. And to give you a magnitude of how that's changed, and again, we're not great at this piece of the business, but we can be. But with that said, in 2015, when I stepped into this role, the web portion of it was less than 2% of sales, and we were at $3.8 billion, $3.9 billion of the company back then. So about $75 million going through web sales back in 2015. In 2023 in the second quarter, it was 6.5% of sales. So right now, we're on a 12-month run rate of about $7.5 billion.

它的網絡部分可大可小，幾乎增加了 70%。為了讓您了解這種變化的程度，我們再說一次，我們並不擅長這方面的業務，但我們可以。但話雖如此，2015 年，當我接手這個職位時，網絡部分還不到銷售額的 2%，而我們當時的收入為 38 億美元，公司的 39 億美元。 2015 年，網絡銷售收入約為 7500 萬美元。2023 年第二季度，這一數字佔銷售額的 6.5%。目前，我們 12 個月的運行費用約為 75 億美元。

So that's a business that's approaching $500 million, and we're not that good at it, but we can be. And so it's 6.5x bigger than it was a handful of years ago. And obviously, it's been accelerated by the events of the last few years, COVID is a perfect example. What really accelerated as people do -- some people are working remotely. Some people are ordering a lot more stuff electronically. We're seeing that in our numbers, and we're getting better at it every day. And when you push the FMI Technology and the e-commerce together and you think about our digital footprint, that was 55.3% of sales in the second quarter of '23, it was 47.9% a year ago.

這是一項價值接近 5 億美元的業務，我們並不擅長，但我們可以。所以它比幾年前大了 6.5 倍。顯然，過去幾年發生的事件加速了這一趨勢，新冠疫情就是一個完美的例子。人們所做的事情真正加速了——有些人正在遠程工作。有些人通過電子方式訂購更多的東西。我們從我們的數據中看到了這一點，並且我們每天都在進步。當你將 FMI 技術和電子商務結合在一起時，你會想到我們的數字足跡，23 年第二季度銷售額佔 55.3%，一年前為 47.9%。

We thought we could get to 65% this year. We've tweaked it to 60%. I don't know if I completely agree with our language there about FASTStock conversions. I think it's really -- part of it is the case of we're doing more and more every day. But some of the activity, because a lot of the FASTStock, for example, is going into fasteners installs. It's going into OEM production areas; it's going in the MRO production and we're doing more transactions every day. However, the transactions are a little bit smaller because industrial production is slowing down in our business. And so we might be doing more orders. There are just fewer of them. And I'll cite you a few statistics.

我們原以為今年可以達到 65%。我們已將其調整為 60%。我不知道我是否完全同意我們關於 FASTStock 轉換的語言。我認為這確實是——部分原因是我們每天做得越來越多。但其中一些活動，例如，許多 FASTStock 正在進入緊固件安裝。進入OEM生產領域；它正在進行 MRO 生產，我們每天都會進行更多的交易。然而，由於我們業務的工業生產正在放緩，交易量略有減少。所以我們可能會做更多的訂單。只是數量較少。我會引用一些統計數據。

In January of 2022, our FASTStock, we did 234,000 scans of orders through our tool, which is 11,100 every day. So our employees are going out with an Android device and scanning 11,100 planograms every day and generating about a $250 order. Actually, it's closer to $260. And then in January of this year, that 11,100 had grown to 14,700 and between January and June, that 14,700 scans per day is now 16,300. That's a combination of market share gains and conversion of -- instead of going out with a yellow note pad, we're going out with an Android device and scanning bins.

2022 年 1 月，我們的 FASTStock 通過我們的工具掃描了 234,000 次訂單，即每天 11,100 次。因此，我們的員工每天都會使用 Android 設備外出掃描 11,100 個貨架圖，並生成約 250 美元的訂單。事實上，它接近260美元。今年 1 月，這一數字從 11,100 次增加到 14,700 次，從 1 月到 6 月，每天的掃描量為 14,700 次，現在為 16,300 次。這是市場份額增長和轉化的結合——我們不再使用黃色記事本，而是使用 Android 設備和掃描垃圾箱。

And so that's a huge win in our system from efficiency. It's a huge win from a standpoint of ability to take market share. But looking at the numbers, our average order size was $258 in calendar 2022. And in January, that number had dropped to $246. So it was down about 4.7%. And I think there's enough transactions going on there that, that's probably more a tone of the economy than anything else because when you're doing 300,000 a month, it's not a mixed thing. Between January and June, the $246 order dropped about $222, so it's down $24, which is 9.6%. That's primarily activity that's declining in the industrial marketplace. And there might be an element between January and June of a little bit of deflation because there's some fasteners in there, but it's mostly about activity.

因此，我們的系統在效率方面取得了巨大的勝利。從占據市場份額的能力的角度來看，這是一個巨大的勝利。但從數字來看，2022 年我們的平均訂單規模為 258 美元。1 月份，該數字已降至 246 美元。所以下跌了約4.7%。我認為那裡正在進行足夠多的交易，這可能比其他任何事情都更能體現經濟的基調，因為當你每月做 300,000 筆交易時，這並不是一件混雜的事情。 1 月至 6 月期間，246 美元的訂單下跌了約 222 美元，因此下跌了 24 美元，即 9.6%。這主要是工業市場活動的減少。一月到六月之間可能會出現一點通貨緊縮，因為那裡有一些緊固件，但這主要與活動有關。

Just thought I'd share those start to get in the weeds. And I will share one last thing before I turn it over to Holden. And that is, again, this FASTStock tool, this Android device that we have out there. In October of -- excuse me, in the summer and fall of 2019, we did a beta version out in the Southern California of that device and work through some bugs, work through some bugs and started rolling it out to regions late in the year with a planned 2-year rollout. COVID-hit and we accelerated that rollout, and we rolled it out across the company by June of 2020. So we rolled -- we had a 2-year rollout in 6 months. And today, that's about 12% of our revenue.

只是想我會分享那些開始陷入困境的東西。在將其交給霍爾頓之前，我將分享最後一件事。這就是我們現有的 FASTStock 工具、Android 設備。抱歉，在 2019 年夏季和秋季，我們在南加州推出了該設備的測試版，並解決了一些錯誤，並於今年晚些時候開始將其推廣到其他地區計劃兩年推出。受新冠肺炎疫情影響，我們加快了部署速度，並於 2020 年 6 月在整個公司範圍內進行了部署。因此我們在 6 個月內進行了為期 2 年的部署。如今，這約占我們收入的 12%。

The -- in October of this year, we plan to roll out what we call our Order Pad, which will be on the same device. It will be a internal-facing device and use it in beta for -- in the October time frame. If all goes well, our goal would be to roll it out in Q4. And essentially, it's a tool for our personnel when they're out visiting a customer, not only can I take a recurring order, I could easily take a customer asking for something or I can do a search on it, and I can respond to the customer right in front of them. That's a capability we've never had and we plan to have -- we expect to have that by the end of this year for 2024.

今年 10 月，我們計劃推出我們所謂的“Order Pad”，它將在同一台設備上運行。它將是一款面向內部的設備，並在 10 月份的時間範圍內進行測試。如果一切順利，我們的目標是在第四季度推出。從本質上講，它是我們的人員外出拜訪客戶時的一個工具，我不僅可以接受重複訂單，還可以輕鬆地接受客戶的詢問，或者我可以對其進行搜索，並且我可以回复顧客就在他們面前。這是我們從未擁有過的能力，但我們計劃擁有——我們預計到今年年底到 2024 年將擁有這種能力。

A second piece, that's an internal facing app. We've also developed an external-facing app called FAST Scan, it's with beta customers right now. Our goal is in August to have that out in the Apple Store and the Google Play for customers. If they choose to download that, and that would be a bin stock app for customers. It's primarily smaller customers or customers that might be a few hours from a facility in Montana or in Western Canada, where they can do some bin stock scans themselves, transmit the orders so when we visit, we aren't surprised by a stock out. And it makes for a better supply chain for that customer base. That will be, again, coming out in August. And depending on what we -- the success we find with our order pad, our goal would be next summer to roll that out in the customer-facing app as well.

第二部分，這是一個面向內部的應用程序。我們還開發了一款名為 FAST Scan 的面向外部的應用程序，目前已面向測試版客戶開放。我們的目標是在 8 月份在 Apple Store 和 Google Play 上向客戶推出該產品。如果他們選擇下載該應用程序，那麼這將是一個供客戶使用的庫存應用程序。主要是較小的客戶或距離蒙大拿州或加拿大西部的工廠可能只有幾個小時路程的客戶，他們可以自己進行一些庫存掃描，傳輸訂單，因此當我們訪問時，我們不會對缺貨感到驚訝。它為該客戶群提供了更好的供應鏈。這將再次在八月發布。根據我們的訂單板取得的成功，我們的目標是明年夏天在面向客戶的應用程序中推出該功能。

Again, we're not great at the web portion of our business. It's a $0.5 billion business within Fastenal now, but we can be, and we're building tools to do that because we think that's a better reaction to some of the buying habits that's going on in the marketplace.

再說一次，我們並不擅長業務的網絡部分。現在 Fastenal 的業務價值達 5 億美元，但我們可以，而且我們正在構建工具來實現這一目標，因為我們認為這是對市場上某些購買習慣的更好反應。

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

有了這個，我就把它交給霍爾頓。

Great. Thanks, Dan. One loose thread there perhaps to pull a little bit. Last time we had cash conversion of this level. It was actually in the second quarter of 2020. For those who don't remember the second quarter of 2020, there was an event occurring at the time that we now know as the pandemic. But I really think it reinforces the point. It took a once-a-century event to create a second quarter that despite several tax payments, produced cash conversion in that 100% range. And the fact that our teams are able to do that in a quarter where thankfully, there has not been anything remotely looking like a pandemic. Again, I think really gets to the success of the teams in managing kind of the post-pandemic environment. So yes, but it does take a condition of that sort.

偉大的。謝謝，丹。那裡有一根鬆動的線，也許可以拉動一點。上次我們有這個水平的現金兌換。實際上是在 2020 年第二季度。對於那些不記得 2020 年第二季度的人來說，當時發生了一件我們現在稱為大流行的事件。但我真的認為這強化了這一點。經過百年一遇的事件才創造了第二季度，儘管繳納了多次稅款，但現金轉化率仍然達到了 100% 的水平。事實上，我們的團隊能夠在一個季度內做到這一點，值得慶幸的是，沒有任何看起來像大流行的事情。再說一遍，我認為團隊在管理大流行後環境方面確實取得了成功。所以是的，但這確實需要這樣的條件。

Jumping into the details on Slide 5 of the deck. Daily sales increased 5.9% in the second quarter of 2023. Since March, we have seen overall business activity moderate, which culminated in June daily sales growth of up 4.7%. The most meaningful change in trend has occurred in our manufacturing customer. This segment grew 10.4% in the period despite sustained sub-50 PMIs and flat to negative industrial production.

跳轉到幻燈片 5 上的詳細信息。 2023 年第二季度日銷售額增長 5.9%。自 3 月份以來，我們看到整體商業活動溫和，最終 6 月份日銷售額增長 4.7%。最有意義的趨勢變化發生在我們的製造業客戶身上。儘管 PMI 持續低於 50 且工業生產持平甚至為負，但該領域在此期間仍增長了 10.4%。

This reflects the impact of our investment in Onsite and greater sales focus on key account planned spend, which tend to be significant within manufacturing. Even so, we did experience weaker sequentials May and June that represents a macro-driven change from the long string of strong sequentials that we had from 2021 to February of this year. As it relates to pricing, they contributed 190 to 220 basis points to growth in the period, declining approximately 470 basis points from the second quarter of 2022 and approximately 100 basis points from the first quarter of 2023. This trend is not a surprise and will likely continue in the second half of 2023.

這反映了我們對現場投資以及對大客戶計劃支出的更大銷售關注的影響，這在製造業中往往很重要。即便如此，我們確實經歷了 5 月和 6 月的較弱序列，這代表著宏觀驅動的變化，與 2021 年到今年 2 月的一長串強勁序列相比。由於與定價相關，它們為該期間的增長貢獻了 190 至 220 個基點，較 2022 年第二季度下降約 470 個基點，較 2023 年第一季度下降約 100 個基點。這種趨勢並不令人意外，而且會繼續下去。可能會在 2023 年下半年繼續。

Other factors cited in recent quarters, specifically weakness among some large retailer customers, lack of growth in our rest of world geography and contraction in our construction end market remain factors in the current quarter, but the dynamics around these areas were largely unchanged from prior periods. While we continue to pursue key account planned spend in construction, this market has historically had a disproportionate amount of smaller transactional spend where we are currently putting less emphasis. We believe this shift contributes to manufacturing outgrowth, better labor leverage and better asset efficiency.

最近幾個季度提到的其他因素，特別是一些大型零售商客戶的疲軟、世界其他地區增長乏力以及建築終端市場收縮，仍然是本季度的因素，但這些領域的動態與前期基本沒有變化。雖然我們繼續追求建築方面的大客戶計劃支出，但這個市場歷來有不成比例的較小交易支出，我們目前不太重視這些支出。我們相信這種轉變有助於製造業的增長、更好的勞動力槓桿和更好的資產效率。

We have experienced manufacturing-driven weak sequentials in 3 of the last 4 months. Regional leadership continues to characterize customer sentiment as cautious with greater scrutiny over operating and capital spending and some mention of slower or deferred orders. As usual, we have limited forward visibility, but most indicators seem to be pointing to the immediate outlook remaining soft.

在過去 4 個月中，我們有 3 個月經歷了製造業驅動的疲軟序列。地區領導層繼續將客戶情緒描述為謹慎，對運營和資本支出進行更嚴格的審查，並提到訂單放緩或推遲。與往常一樣，我們對未來的能見度有限，但大多數指標似乎都表明近期前景仍然疲軟。

Now to Slide 6. Operating margin in the second quarter of 2023 was 21%, down from 21.6% in the prior year. The incremental operating margin was 11%. Gross margin was 45.5%, down 100 basis points in the prior year. This decline is almost entirely due to product and customer mix as we experienced widening sales growth outperformance of non-fasteners over fasteners and of Onsite growth over non-Onsite growth.

現在轉到幻燈片 6。2023 年第二季度的營業利潤率為 21%，低於上一年的 21.6%。增量營業利潤率為 11%。毛利率為45.5%，比上年下降100個基點。這種下降幾乎完全是由於產品和客戶組合造成的，因為我們經歷了非緊固件銷售增長超過緊固件以及現場增長超過非現場增長的擴大銷售增長。

Freight was favorable gross margin, reflecting record freight revenues that allowed for good leverage of our captive fleet, reduced use of external freight providers, lower fuel expenses and reduced shipping costs. The benefits of freight were offset by higher organizational or GAAP expenses. Reductions of purchasing and shipping activities of imported products, stemming from a smoother and more predictable supply chain relative to the year ago period caused higher prior period cost to be relieved from the balance sheet to the P&L. The impact of price cost was immaterial to gross margin in the second quarter of 2023.

貨運毛利率良好，反映出創紀錄的貨運收入，可以充分利用我們的自有車隊，減少對外部貨運提供商的使用，降低燃油費用並降低運輸成本。貨運帶來的好處被較高的組織費用或公認會計準則費用所抵消。與去年同期相比，由於供應鏈更加順暢和更加可預測，進口產品的採購和運輸活動減少，導致較高的前期成本從資產負債表轉入損益表。價格成本對2023年第二季度毛利率的影響並不重大。

On the operating expense side, we produced 40 basis points of leverage, which was not sufficient to fully offset the decline in gross margin. This was due entirely to payroll expenses, of which we experienced 60 basis points of leverage, which was related to lower incentive compensation of last year's record level. This was offset by modest deleveraging of both occupancy costs and other expenses.

在營業費用方面，我們產生了40個基點的槓桿，不足以完全抵消毛利​​率的下降。這完全是由於工資支出造成的，其中我們經歷了 60 個基點的槓桿，這與去年創紀錄水平的較低激勵薪酬有關。這被入住成本和其他費用的適度去槓桿化所抵消。

There were 3 distinct elements playing out in our operating margin in the second quarter of 2023. First, I alluded to the GAAP expenses. The GAAP expenses had the convergence of a difficult comparison, aggressive inventory reductions and shortening product order cycles. This alone is a 50-basis point negative impact and is unlikely to repeat by anywhere near the same magnitude in the second half of 2023. Second, certain expenses such as 16% growth in IT spending and 13% growth in cost for FMI devices represent planned and prudent investments in our business, the impact of which is magnified by the slower sales growth environment.

2023 年第二季度我們的營業利潤率有 3 個不同的因素影響。首先，我提到了 GAAP 費用。公認會計準則費用包括困難比較、積極削減庫存和縮短產品訂單週期。僅此一項就產生了 50 個基點的負面影響，並且不太可能在 2023 年下半年以接近相同幅度的程度重複出現。其次，某些支出（例如 IT 支出增長 16% 和 FMI 設備成本增長 13%）代表對我們的業務進行有計劃和審慎的投資，其影響因銷售增長放緩的環境而放大。

Third, the Blue Team did not adjust spending quickly enough to the slower macro environment with the variable cost for meals, travel, supplies, all increasing double digits. Also, while lower incentive compensation produced leverage in the second quarter, we continue to have growth in headcount and part-time hours that exceeds sales growth. I would expect us to tighten this spending appreciably in the third quarter of 2023. Putting everything together, we reported second quarter 2023 EPS of $0.52, up 4.6% from $0.50 in the second quarter of 2022.

第三，藍隊沒有足夠快地調整支出以適應放緩的宏觀環境，膳食、旅行、用品的可變成本都增加了兩位數。此外，雖然較低的激勵薪酬在第二季度產生了槓桿作用，但我們的員工人數和兼職時間的增長繼續超過銷售增長。我預計我們將在 2023 年第三季度大幅收緊這一支出。綜合考慮，我們報告 2023 年第二季度每股收益為 0.52 美元，比 2022 年第二季度的 0.50 美元增長 4.6%。

Turning to Slide 7. We generated $302 million in operating cash in the second quarter of 2023 or approximately 101% of net income in the period. Traditionally, normal second quarters have a conversion rate in the 60% to 70% range. So this is a strong cash performance relating to a reduction in the use of cash for working capital versus the prior period. This allowed us to reduce debt with debt ending at 9.4% of total capital in the second quarter of 2023, down from 13.7% in the first quarter (sic) [second quarter] of 2022 and from 10.9% in the first quarter of 2023 -- I apologize, 13.7% in the second quarter of 2022.

轉向幻燈片 7。我們在 2023 年第二季度產生了 3.02 億美元的運營現金，約佔該期間淨利潤的 101%。傳統上，正常第二季度的轉化率在 60% 到 70% 範圍內。因此，這是一個強勁的現金表現，與上一時期相比，營運資金現金使用量的減少有關。這使我們能夠減少債務，2023 年第二季度債務佔總資本的 9.4%，低於 2022 年第一季度（原文如此）[第二季度]的 13.7% 和 2023 年第一季度的 10.9% - - 抱歉，2022 年第二季度為 13.7%。

Year-over-year accounts receivable was up 6.1%, largely tracking sales growth with the impact of mix due to faster growth from larger customers, which tend to have longer terms being offset by improved receivables quality. Inventories fell 6%. This is a function of normalized supply chains, allowing us to unwind inventory layers we had built up in late 2021 and early 2022 to manage that period's product bottlenecks. That process will likely continue, though likely to a lesser degree, throughout 2023.

應收賬款同比增長 6.1%，主要跟踪銷售增長，並受到大客戶較快增長的影響，而這些客戶的期限較長，但應收賬款質量的提高抵消了這一影響。庫存下降 6%。這是供應鏈正常化的一個功能，使我們能夠釋放在 2021 年底和 2022 年初建立的庫存層，以管理該時期的產品瓶頸。這一過程可能會持續到 2023 年，儘管程度可能會有所減弱。

It is also notable that our days on hand fell to 138.5, a level not seen since 2002, which reflects improved velocity of inventory through our internal network, a reduction of retail stock in branches and improvements in stocking processes. We have significant strategic flexibility in inventory at this point. We have retained our range for net capital spending in 2023 of $210 million to $230 million, reflecting higher spending on hub investments, fleet equipment and IT equipment. At the same time, we have deferred certain projects related to slowing demand that suggest our capital spending will be at the low end of the range.

還值得注意的是，我們的庫存天數下降至 138.5，這是自 2002 年以來的最高水平，這反映出我們內部網絡庫存速度的提高、分支機構零售庫存的減少以及庫存流程的改進。目前我們在庫存方面擁有顯著的戰略靈活性。我們維持 2023 年淨資本支出範圍為 2.1 億至 2.3 億美元，反映出樞紐投資、車隊設備和 IT 設備的支出增加。與此同時，我們推遲了某些與需求放緩相關的項目，這表明我們的資本支出將處於範圍的低端。

The second quarter of 2023 was obviously challenging. We expect to have better cost comparisons and to more tightly control those costs that we can affect in the second half of 2023. Obviously, we have little control over end market demand. Whatever direction that takes over the next 6 months will influence our profitability. However, these shorter-term issues shouldn't cloud the structural improvements to our business. The second quarter saw record labor productivity they create some significant strategic flexibility in our inventory and further improvement in our return on capital, as reflected on Page 9 of the investor presentation.

2023 年第二季度顯然充滿挑戰。我們預計將有更好的成本比較，並更嚴格地控制 2023 年下半年可能影響的成本。顯然，我們對終端市場需求幾乎沒有控制力。無論未來 6 個月的發展方向如何，都會影響我們的盈利能力。然而，這些短期問題不應影響我們業務的結構性改進。第二季度的勞動生產率創歷史新高，它們為我們的庫存創造了一些顯著的戰略靈活性，並進一步提高了我們的資本回報率，正如投資者演示文稿第 9 頁所反映的那樣。

We believe we are positioned to strongly outgrow the market, particularly as the industrial cycle stabilizes and improves.

我們相信，我們的增長勢頭將強勁地超越市場，特別是在工業周期穩定和改善的情況下。

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

這樣，操作員，我們將把它移交給開始問答。

(Operator Instructions) Our first questions come from the line of David Manthey with Baird.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 David Manthey 和 Baird 的線路。

Dan, Holden, I hope you guys are having a great summer. So I have a clarification and then one question. The clarification, Holden, when you're on Slide 5 and you're talking about price contribution, you said this will continue in the second half of '23. And I'm wondering what you're referring to there, first. And then second, the question, I'm hoping you can update us on KPIs relative to your CFCs and the Focus 5 initiatives.

丹、霍爾頓，希望你們度過了一個愉快的夏天。所以我有一個澄清，然後還有一個問題。澄清一下，霍爾頓，當您在幻燈片 5 上談論價格貢獻時，您說過這將在 23 年下半年繼續。首先我想知道你指的是什麼。其次，我希望您能向我們介紹與您的 CFC 和 Focus 5 計劃相關的 KPI 的最新情況。

Sure. The clarification is we continue to expect moderation in the overall contribution from price in the back half, really just a continuation of what we've been seeing over the past few quarters. Does that help?

當然。需要澄清的是，我們仍然預計下半年價格的總體貢獻將有所放緩，這實際上只是我們過去幾個季度所看到的情況的延續。這有幫助嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Okay. Then -- yes, if you -- the CFCs continue to experience very strong growth. I believe in the second quarter, if you think about the books of business that our CFC or hunter program has, the growth in those books in the current quarter relative to what those books did the prior year, it's actually up north of 50%. So we continue to see good success in particular with the CFC program. And I don't have specific numbers on the target 5 for you, Dave. CFCs to some extent, have their own target 5. So I think you can get a sense of how that growth is occurring. But the -- yes. I don't have specific on target 5, but the CFCs continue to grow well in excess of our business. And I think the CFCs are a manifestation of the same key account approach that the target 5s are feed into as well.

好的。然後——是的，如果你——CFC繼續經歷非常強勁的增長。我相信在第二季度，如果你考慮一下我們的 CFC 或獵人計劃的商業書籍，本季度這些書籍相對於上一年的增長，實際上增長了 50% 以上。因此，我們繼續看到良好的成功，特別是 CFC 計劃。戴夫，我沒有為您提供 5 號目標的具體數字。 CFC 在某種程度上有自己的目標 5。所以我認為您可以了解這種增長是如何發生的。但是——是的。我沒有具體說明目標 5，但 CFC 的增長繼續超出我們的業務範圍。我認為 CFC 是與目標 5 所採用的相同關鍵客戶方法的體現。

Our next questions come from the line of Michael Hoffman with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自邁克爾·霍夫曼（Michael Hoffman）和斯蒂菲爾（Stifel）的對話。

Dan and Holden, the trend data that you share so generously, can you -- again, I get that you have limited forward visibility, but do you think you're hitting a bottom?

丹和霍爾頓，你們如此慷慨地分享了趨勢數據，你們能——再說一次，我知道你們的未來能見度有限，但你們認為你們已經觸底了嗎？

I guess I'll just reinforce, we have very little visibility to what the market is going to hold. Here's what I'll say. I've always respected the PMI as an indicator of future activity levels. I tend to think it has a forward look of 3 to 5 months. I think we all know that the PMI in June hit 46, which is not a meaningful new low, but a new low, nonetheless. And I think the message that we gave to our people internally was that, that would seem to suggest that the back half of this year is going to remain soft.

我想我只是強調一下，我們對市場的走勢知之甚少。這就是我要說的。我一直尊重 PMI 作為未來活動水平的指標。我傾向於認為它具有3到5個月的前瞻性。我想大家都知道6月份PMI達到46，這不是一個有意義的新低，但仍然是一個新低。我認為我們向內部員工傳達的信息是，這似乎表明今年下半年將保持疲軟。

So I don't have an indicator internally that would give you any real insight into what's going to happen in August, September, October. But the PMI has always been a good indicator and the PMI remains relatively low and suggesting the back half is going to be weak, and that's what we sort of take our cues off of.

所以我內部沒有一個指標可以讓你真正了解八月、九月、十月會發生什麼。但 PMI 一直是一個很好的指標，PMI 仍然相對較低，表明下半年將疲軟，這就是我們的暗示。

Okay. And then on the digital transformation, one of the things that I think I understand correctly, as you tend to gain a greater percentage of wallet of the individual customer over the life cycle of that penetration, how do you -- how would you characterize where you are in that journey and how that's influencing some of the share gain?

好的。然後，關於數字化轉型，我認為我理解正確的一件事是，在滲透的生命週期中，您往往會獲得更大比例的個人客戶錢包，您如何 - 您將如何描述哪裡您正處於這一旅程中，這對部分份額收益有何影響？

I think -- so if you think about it at the digital foot -- well, I'll talk about the FMI component of the digital footprint. It's about 40% of our business. And internally, the number we've always talked about is we think we can get that to about 65%. A good chunk of that is converting existing customers to the new platforms, and it allows us to share insights with our customers in ways that historically you couldn't. It brings efficiency to the business. And the efficiency isn't just for efficiency's sake, which is nice. It's the free up time to engage in the marketplace. And so ultimately, we see that time freed up as a means to grow the business faster because you can engage more.

我認為，如果您從數字角度思考，我將討論數字足蹟的 FMI 組成部分。這大約占我們業務的 40%。在內部，我們一直談論的數字是我們認為可以達到 65% 左右。其中很大一部分是將現有客戶轉換到新平台，它使我們能夠以以往無法實現的方式與客戶分享見解。它為企業帶來了效率。而且效率不僅僅是為了效率，這很好。這是參與市場的空閒時間。因此，最終，我們認為釋放時間是加快業務發展的一種手段，因為您可以參與更多活動。

The other piece is, it's a separator in the marketplace. There is -- we have a customer event each spring where we bring in thousands of customers and we -- they meet with suppliers, engage with different tools of the business. And the -- we are winning business because of the capabilities. When I said in a customer discussion last summer and our national account person was speaking to the purchasing team from a bunch of locations within a conglomerate, and they were explaining how the -- how our RFID program worked. And that's essentially a kanban system with an embedded RFID chip.

另一件事是，它是市場上的一個分隔符。我們每年春天都會舉辦一次客戶活動，吸引數千名客戶，他們會與供應商會面，使用不同的業務工具。而且——我們憑藉能力贏得了業務。當我在去年夏天的一次客戶討論中說，我們的國民賬戶人員正在與一家集團內多個地點的採購團隊交談時，他們正在解釋我們的 RFID 項目是如何運作的。這本質上是一個帶有嵌入式 RFID 芯片的看板系統。

So in that bin is empty, instead of somebody having to walk around and check things and find stuff and see what needs to be replenished, that bin is placed on the top shelf. The top shelf has a simple RFID reader. It sees bin 14 is empty, "Oh, okay, I'm hungry, I need to be fed." And that's how replenishment works. And her response when she learned about it, she looked at a person across the room and said, "You remember the issue" and she talked about 4 different manufacturing plants where they struggled. She said, "This thing is [ample] ?", she asked a few clarifying questions. And she look to the person said, this is unbelievable. This would solve all of our problems. And that's a light bulb that pops off a lot when people realize what this is.

因此，那個垃圾箱是空的，而不是有人必須走來走去檢查東西，找到東西，看看需要補充什麼，這個垃圾箱被放在最上面的架子上。最上面的架子有一個簡單的 RFID 閱讀器。它看到 14 號垃圾箱是空的，“哦，好吧，我餓了，我需要吃東西。”這就是補貨的原理。當她得知此事後，她的反應是，她看著房間對面的一個人說，“你還記得這個問題”，她談到了 4 家不同的製造工廠，他們都在這些工廠陷入困境。她說，“這個東西[充足]？”，她問了一些澄清問題。她看向那人說道，這太難以置信了。這將解決我們所有的問題。當人們意識到這是什麼時，這個燈泡就會經常突然熄滅。

I was visiting an employee down in Illinois 2 weeks ago, employees celebrating 40 years, I drove down to spend the day with them and thank them for 40 years of service. And he said, "Hey, you want to go visit a customer with me" and I'm like "I'd love to". And when we -- and he showed me something in his wallet, he pulled out a little as the size of a credit card, and I said, "What's that?" and he said, "That's my RFID chip". And I said -- he said the customer you're going to; I'm going to show you how we're using it in ways above and beyond just the kanban system. They're using it for pallet replenishment.

兩週前，我拜訪了伊利諾伊州的一名員工，當時員工正在慶祝 40 週年，我開車去和他們一起度過了這一天，並感謝他們 40 年來的服務。他說，“嘿，你想和我一起去拜訪一位客戶”，我說“我很樂意”。當我們——他給我看他錢包裡的東西時，他拿出了信用卡大小的東西，我說，“那是什麼？”他說：“那是我的 RFID 芯片”。我說——他說的是你要去的客戶；我將向您展示我們如何以超越看板系統的方式使用它。他們用它來補充托盤。

So they have a little envelope on the pallet rack and they have little card in there. And it's a little plastic card with RFID chip, they grab that and they throw it in the top bin on the kanban system and it tells our branch, we need another pallet of this product. Not only is that incredibly efficient for us. The customer loves it. The customer showed it to me. He says, our folks love this because they don't need to write stuff down and then call up Fastenal to bring another one over or wait for you guys when you come more tomorrow to check it and realize you need to bring another one over. We just tell you, but it's done in a matter of seconds.

所以他們的托盤架上有一個小信封，裡面有小卡片。這是一張帶有 RFID 芯片的小塑料卡，他們抓住它並將其扔到看板系統的頂部垃圾箱中，它告訴我們的分支機構，我們需要該產品的另一個托盤。這不僅對我們來說非常高效。客戶喜歡它。客戶給我看了。他說，我們的人喜歡這個，因為他們不需要寫下東西，然後打電話給 Fastenal 帶來另一件，或者等你們明天再來檢查並意識到需要再帶一件過來。我們只是告訴您，但只需幾秒鐘即可完成。

That's something a supply chain partner does, and we're great at planned spend. And that is winning us business because when other customers come and tour that facility when they're in the RFQ process, they see stuff like that, and that's a separator, just like vending is a separator. Sorry, I went a little long there, but I think it's helpful to sometimes use some examples.

這是供應鏈合作夥伴所做的事情，我們非常擅長計劃支出。這為我們贏得了業務，因為當其他客戶在詢價流程中參觀該設施時，他們會看到類似的東西，這就是一個分隔符，就像自動售貨機是一個分隔符一樣。抱歉，我說得有點長，但我認為有時使用一些例子會很有幫助。

And I might add as well that I think that those 2 actually interconnect in the sense that to the extent that it helps to reduce our overall cost of operations than it does, that actually allows us more flexibility in bidding processes and I think makes us more competitive in the marketplace and contributes to our ability to win and gain market share as well. So it really plays -- it plays really strongly in both our ability to leverage as well as our ability to grow.

我還可以補充一點，我認為這兩者實際上是相互關聯的，在某種程度上，它有助於降低我們的總體運營成本，這實際上使我們在投標過程中具有更大的靈活性，我認為這使我們更加在市場上具有競爭力，也有助於我們贏得和獲得市場份額的能力。所以它確實發揮了作用——它對我們的槓桿能力和增長能力都發揮了非常強大的作用。

In February, I think it was February, I was down in Indiana visiting, speaking to a group of branch managers and visiting with Randy Miller, our most senior regional Vice President. And they asked me if I want to go up and visit a customer, and the customer that took me to was a large Onsite. They've contacted us in the fall of, I believe, it was 2020. I might be wrong on the year, but I believe it was 2020. And they need some help, and we set up an Onsite in there. And the incumbent had been staffing the Onsite 24 hours a day. And our folks really studied the activity and said, if we put out a handful of -- if we put our product in a handful of lockers in a way that we wouldn't typically do it, we could give you better service and staff 10 hours a day instead of 24 and you'd get better service than you were getting before. And we'd have a better -- it would be easier for us to recruit and we could ramp up faster the business because finding folks to work 24 hours a day is sometimes challenging.

二月份，我想是二月份，我在印第安納州拜訪，與一群分行經理交談，並拜訪了我們最高級的區域副總裁蘭迪米勒。他們問我要不要上去拜訪一個客戶，帶我去的客戶是一個大型的Onsite。他們在秋天聯繫了我們，我相信是 2020 年。我的年份可能是錯的，但我相信是 2020 年。他們需要一些幫助，我們在那裡設立了一個現場。現任者一直在現場 24 小時配備工作人員。我們的員工認真研究了這項活動，並說，如果我們拿出一些 - 如果我們以我們通常不會這樣做的方式將我們的產品放入幾個儲物櫃中，我們可以為您提供更好的服務和員工 10每天 24 小時而不是 24 小時，您將獲得比以前更好的服務。我們會有更好的——我們會更容易招聘，我們可以更快地發展業務，因為找到每天 24 小時工作的人有時很困難。

Finding folks to work 10 hours a day or a 10-hour window, especially when it's during daylight is less challenging. And again, it was a case of -- that separated us in that instance. And I visited that customer, I had a great visit with them. And they were showing me some of the stuff that we were doing that they just loved about our model.

找到每天工作 10 小時或空檔工作 10 小時的人（尤其是在白天）並不那麼困難。再說一遍，這是一個讓我們分開的案例。我拜訪了那位客戶，與他們進行了一次愉快的拜訪。他們向我展示了我們正在做的一些事情，他們非常喜歡我們的模型。

Our next questions come from the line of Chris Dankert with Loop Capital Markets.

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

Holden, you had a kind of mid-teens growth in IT spend and an FMI investment. As we're thinking about kind of SG&A spending and investment going forward, can you kind of give us a sense for how you would trend in the back half of the year as you kind of keep investing for growth here?

Holden，您的 IT 支出和 FMI 投資實現了十幾歲左右的增長。當我們考慮未來的 SG&A 支出和投資時，您能否讓我們了解一下，當您繼續投資以促進增長時，今年下半年的趨勢如何？

Yes. Well, I mentioned the IT and the FMI spend because those are investments in our business that we're making that are wise investments to make. And I don't necessarily anticipate where we're making investments in those areas that we're going to pull meaningfully back in those areas. But the areas we were talking about more had to do with expenses that we had for travel, both sales and non-sales and related type expenses. When we think about how we're using our part timers and the fact that hours among our part timers are up, 12% in June in a marketplace where revenues are up less than 5%, there's just a number of things that we talked about that are variable that we weren't really treating those expense lines as though we're in an environment that's growing at 5%. And the message is we need to get there.

是的。嗯，我提到了 IT 和 FMI 支出，因為這些是我們對我們業務的投資，是明智的投資。我不一定會預測我們將在哪些領域進行投資，而我們將在這些領域進行有意義的撤回。但我們更多談論的領域與我們的旅行費用有關，包括銷售和非銷售以及相關類型的費用。當我們考慮如何使用兼職員工，以及在收入增長不到 5% 的市場中，兼職員工的工作時間在 6 月份增加了 12% 的事實時，我們討論了很多事情這是可變的，我們並沒有真正對待這些費用線，就好像我們處於一個以 5% 增長的環境中一樣。傳達的信息是我們需要到達那裡。

Now what was the impact of that? If I think about the -- if I think about the travel, meals, supplies, et cetera, that's about a 10-basis point impact on our business in terms of overall profit impact. If I think about the increase in base pay that comes from higher absolute headcount, that comes from higher part-time hours, those sorts of things that would have been about a 450-basis point impact to margin. Now that was offset by the fact that incentive compensation was down because last year was such a strong year relative to this year. But those are areas that as an organization, we need to tighten up a lot of our behavior and patterns to reflect more of the environment that we're in. And again, I expect that we'll make progress on that in the third quarter.

那麼這有什麼影響呢？如果我考慮一下旅行、餐飲、用品等，就整體利潤影響而言，這對我們的業務大約有 10 個基點的影響。如果我考慮一下基本工資的增加來自於絕對員工人數的增加、兼職時間的增加，這些因素會對利潤率產生大約 450 個基點的影響。現在，這被激勵薪酬下降的事實所抵消，因為去年相對於今年來說是非常強勁的一年。但作為一個組織，我們需要在這些領域加強我們的行為和模式，以更多地反映我們所處的環境。我再次預計，我們將在第三季度在這方面取得進展。

Let me add on, and I'll put on to that as it relates to IT is when I stepped into this role back in 2015, one of the first things that I said to the Board, and I said to our team is, everybody is going to get lower pay next 12 months because we're going to -- because we're paid off of earnings growth. If you read our proxy, you'll see how our compensation programs work. We're all going to take a pay cut because we are going to increase the investment in IT and I tapped the senior leader who had grown up through our branch network, was a district manager, was a regional vice president, has led our government sales, our vending business, and his name is John Soderberg. I tapped him and I said, John, I know you know nothing about IT other than you show me apps you download on your Android device. But you're a great leader of people. We have great folks in our IT group.

讓我補充一點，我會補充一點，因為它與 IT 相關，是當我在 2015 年踏入這個職位時，我對董事會和我們團隊說的第一件事是，每個人未來 12 個月我們將獲得更低的工資，因為我們將——因為我們從盈利增長中獲得回報。如果您閱讀我們的委託書，您就會了解我們的薪酬計劃是如何運作的。我們都將減薪，因為我們將增加對 IT 的投資，我聘請了通過我們的分支機構網絡成長起來的高級領導者，他曾擔任地區經理、地區副總裁、領導過我們的政府銷售，我們的自動售貨業務，他的名字叫約翰·索德伯格。我拍拍他說，約翰，我知道你除了向我展示你在 Android 設備上下載的應用程序之外，對 IT 一無所知。但你是一位偉大的人民領袖。我們的 IT 團隊擁有優秀的員工。

I don't think they're connected well enough to the business, and I think we're under-investing and we increased our spend on IT by 50 basis points in 2016, and we've held that number in there ever since. And I told them we will not sacrifice our investments in the short term. If it's longer term, we have to be pragmatic. But last year, we added 50 people into our Bangalore tech center. In January, we added another 100 people. We're not there yet, but I suspect at some point in time, we'll have more people in our India technology group than we do in our 4 U.S. -- 3 U.S. technology groups and that's partly about availability of recruiting because we have great folks here. We can't add them fast enough.

我認為他們與業務的聯繫不夠好，而且我認為我們的投資不足，2016 年我們將 IT 支出增加了 50 個基點，從那時起我們就一直保持這個數字。我告訴他們我們不會在短期內犧牲我們的投資。如果從長遠來看，我們必須務實。但去年，我們在班加羅爾技術中心增加了 50 名員工。一月份，我們又增加了 100 人。我們還沒有做到這一點，但我懷疑在某個時候，我們印度技術團隊的人數將比我們 4 個美國技術團隊的人數還要多，這在一定程度上與招聘的可用性有關，因為我們有這裡的人們都很棒。我們無法足夠快地添加它們。

And -- but we will continue to make those investments. And because we made those investments today, we have a digital footprint. This 55.3% of sales and the productivity gains over the last 3 years would not have happened without it. I think it's a wise investment, and we'll continue that.

而且——但我們將繼續進行這些投資。因為我們今天進行了這些投資，所以我們擁有數字足跡。如果沒有它，過去 3 年銷售額和生產力的 55.3% 的增長就不會實現。我認為這是一項明智的投資，我們將繼續這樣做。

Our next questions come from the line of Ryan Merkel with William Blair.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞安·默克爾和威廉·布萊爾的對話。

I had a couple of questions on margins. So first off, on gross margin. How should we think about the rest of the year. Is normal seasonality, the right framework for 3Q and 4Q?

我有幾個關於利潤的問題。首先是毛利率。我們應該如何思考今年剩下的時間？正常的季節性是第三季度和第四季度的正確框架嗎？

I think in the first quarter, we sort of talked about normal seasonality would apply but at a bit more of a muted rate and I think that's still appropriate. I mean, second quarter was down about 20 basis points from first quarter. I typically think of it being down 30. 3Q is fairly typically flat with 2Q and I think that's a reasonable ballpark. And 4Q is usually down about 30 basis points from 3Q. And again, maybe to be a little bit more modest than that. I mean I think about the mix question is still an open one, right? Because the reality is, in a weak cycle, your fasteners weaken more, and that winds up sort of having a bigger impact on gross margin and mix than you would normally expect. And you saw that this quarter just as you've seen in the past.

我認為在第一季度，我們談到了正常的季節性因素會適用，但會稍微溫和一點，我認為這仍然是合適的。我的意思是，第二季度比第一季度下降了約 20 個基點。我通常認為下降了 30。第三季度通常與第二季度持平，我認為這是一個合理的大概。而第四季度通常比第三季度下降約30個基點。再說一次，也許比這更謙虛一點。我的意思是，我認為混合問題仍然是一個懸而未決的問題，對嗎？因為現實情況是，在疲軟的周期中，您的緊固件會更加脆弱，這最終對毛利率和產品組合產生的影響比您通常預期的要大。正如您過去所看到的那樣，本季度您也看到了這一點。

And so to some extent, Ryan, part of the question is, well, what's going to continue to happen with the cycle and the gap between fasteners, non-fasteners? And such a cyclical question, I can't answer. But if I think about the transportation piece of it. I think that's going to continue to have a sustained beneficial impact for a number of quarters. If I think about sort of the timing elements that the gap stuff that I talked about, I don't think that, that impact is as great in Q3 and Q4 is what we saw in Q2.

所以在某種程度上，瑞安，問題的一部分是，隨著周期以及緊固件和非緊固件之間的差距，將會繼續發生什麼？而這樣一個循環性的問題，我無法回答。但如果我考慮一下交通部分。我認為這將在幾個季度內繼續產生持續的有益影響。如果我考慮一下我談到的差距問題的時間因素，我不認為第三季度和第四季度的影響與我們在第二季度看到的一樣大。

I think we'll still be price mix neutral just as we were this quarter, right? So when I put all that in together, I think the seasonality is reasonable, but I would mute it against history for the next couple of quarters. That's my expectation. And like I said, the wildcard really in my mind is what happens in the cyclical element of seasonality related to fasteners.

我認為我們仍將保持價格組合中性，就像本季度一樣，對吧？因此，當我把所有這些放在一起時，我認為季節性是合理的，但我會在接下來的幾個季度將其與歷史相比較。這是我的期望。正如我所說，我心中真正的通配符是與緊固件相關的季節性週期性元素中發生的情況。

Yes, makes sense. Super helpful. And then on OpEx, Holden, you mentioned you're going to tighten that up a bit, and then you're also going to invest in IT for the long term, which I agree with. I guess is there any metrics you can provide? Is there a goal for FTE growth in the second half? And I guess, ultimately, what I'm getting at is, can you adjust SG&A fast enough where you can hold operating margins flat year-over-year in the second half? Or is that maybe optimistic?

是的，有道理。超級有幫助。然後在運營支出方面，霍頓，您提到您將稍微收緊這一點，然後您還將對 IT 進行長期投資，我同意這一點。我想您可以提供任何指標嗎？下半年 FTE 增長有目標嗎？我想，最終我要說的是，你能否足夠快地調整銷售及管理費用，從而使下半年的營業利潤率與去年同期持平？或者這可能是樂觀的嗎？

It will depend how aggressive we are. The part of the operating margin is going to be a reflection of the gross margin. So again, I will perhaps comp out a little bit in your question about SG&A and a part of the answer to your question is going to rest in what happens to the cyclical element of mix, right? Step that aside and just focus on the SG&A, I think that the -- we need to reduce the cost in our SG&A relative to Q2 by $2 million, $3 million. And we need to do that through tighter control of headcount, through tighter control of those expenses. And I feel comfortable that we'll be able to do that. I think the organization is already sort of responding to the messages and responding to the natural signal of their growth slowing down.

這將取決於我們的攻擊性有多強。營業利潤率部分將反映毛利率。再說一次，我可能會在你關於SG&A的問題中稍微補充一下，你問題的部分答案將取決於混合的周期性元素會發生什麼，對嗎？拋開這一點，只關注 SG&A，我認為——我們需要將 SG&A 成本相對於第二季度減少 200 萬美元、300 萬美元。我們需要通過更嚴格地控制員工數量、更嚴格地控制這些費用來做到這一點。我很高興我們能夠做到這一點。我認為該組織已經在某種程度上對這些信息做出了回應，並對其增長放緩的自然信號做出了回應。

So I do believe that we will have better leverage opportunities in the back half. Again, with the wildcard being what happens to the underlying demand environment and what impact does that have on fastener-related mix.

所以我相信我們在後半段會有更好的槓桿機會。同樣，通配符是潛在需求環境會發生什麼以及這對緊固件相關組合有何影響。

Our next question is come from the line of Josh Pokrzywinski with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Josh Pokrzywinski。

Also, kudos to the operator for nailing the authentic pronunciation there. We don't get that [positive].

另外，還要感謝操作員在那裡準確地發音。我們不明白這一點[積極]。

I was going to ask. That was pretty close.

我正想問。那已經非常接近了。

Yes, that was old country right there. I like that. The -- just maybe a higher-level question for both of you. Obviously, we've seen a huge wave of inflation supply chain tightness. Now going back the other direction, at least with this inflation, I guess what would you identify Dan, as the biggest change you saw as a function of that? And the biggest things that are changing now as those reverse. It could be customer-facing, it could be kind of margin profiles with the business, deliberately a broad question, but just thinking how these rise.

是的，那是一個古老的國家。我喜歡。這對你們倆來說可能是一個更高層次的問題。顯然，我們已經看到了巨大的通脹供應鏈緊張浪潮。現在回到另一個方向，至少在這次通貨膨脹的情況下，我想你會認為丹是什麼，作為你所看到的最大變化？隨著這些逆轉，現在正在發生的最大的事情正在發生變化。它可以是面向客戶的，也可以是業務的利潤概況，故意提出一個廣泛的問題，但只是思考這些是如何上升的。

Well, I mean the biggest change that we saw directly in our business from supply chain element was the fact that we had to add a heck of a lot of inventory in those expensive inventory in 2021 and 2022. Container costs were sky high. We were doing a lot of things. We were not going to let people down. And fortunately, we have the balance sheet to do that. And we have a shareholder base that appreciates. We're judicious with their capital but they were supportive of the move. And they were confident that when the need for that extra layer of inventory subsided, we figure out a way to harvested out the balance sheet and move forward. That's probably the biggest thing to how it manifests itself, obviously, on our balance sheet and in our cash flow statement. We talked about that earlier.

嗯，我的意思是，我們從供應鏈元素直接看到的業務最大變化是，我們必須在 2021 年和 2022 年那些昂貴的庫存中增加大量庫存。集裝箱成本非常高。我們做了很多事情。我們不會讓人們失望。幸運的是，我們有足夠的資產負債表來做到這一點。我們有一個欣賞我們的股東基礎。我們對他們的資金很明智，但他們支持此舉。他們相信，當對額外庫存的需求減弱時，我們會找到一種方法來清理資產負債表並繼續前進。顯然，這可能是它在我們的資產負債表和現金流量表中表現出來的最重要的事情。我們之前談過這一點。

If I think about more broadly, we are seeing changes. And it's one of the reasons I touched on a bit the 2 elements of our business, the planned spend, which I believe we've created over time an incredible ability to serve that market. And the unplanned where we're good at it. We're not great at it. And partly because we haven't built the system to support it whether it's technology or supply chain. And we've been busy building that the last several years, and I talked about some of those pieces. And we've seen success on what we've built but it's still a relatively small piece of business, but we are seeing that trend.

如果我更廣泛地思考，我們正在看到變化。這也是我談到我們業務的兩個要素，即計劃支出的原因之一，我相信隨著時間的推移，我們已經創造了服務該市場的令人難以置信的能力。以及我們擅長的計劃外活動。我們不擅長於此。部分原因是我們還沒有建立支持它的系統，無論是技術還是供應鏈。過去幾年我們一直忙於構建這一點，我談到了其中的一些內容。我們已經看到了我們所建立的成功，但它仍然是一個相對較小的業務，但我們正在看到這種趨勢。

If a buyer is working remote 2 or 3 days a week, or covering a bunch of locations, because with technology, you can do a lot of things you couldn't do in the past and you can do it easily. They're buying in a different way. And we need to make sure our systems work for that different way. I hope that's helpful.

如果買家每周遠程工作 2 到 3 天，或者覆蓋很多地點，因為有了技術，你可以做很多過去做不到的事情，而且可以輕鬆做到。他們以不同的方式購買。我們需要確保我們的系統以不同的方式工作。我希望這有幫助。

And I might -- specific on pricing, if you recall during the period of tariffs, we didn't do a great job sort of offsetting all the tariffs and inflation that occurred during that period of time. And the organization kind of buckled down and developed since then, what we call the pricing review tool, PRT and I think what you've seen over the last few years in a period first of fairly significant inflation and now a period of perhaps modest deflation is I think you've seen that tool and our organization's ability to utilize it, result in a much better outcome.

我可能 - 具體到定價，如果你還記得在關稅期間，我們並沒有很好地抵消該時期發生的所有關稅和通貨膨脹。從那時起，該組織就開始努力發展，我們稱之為定價審查工具，PRT，我想你在過去幾年中所看到的，首先是相當嚴重的通貨膨脹，現在是適度的通貨緊縮時期我認為您已經看到了該工具以及我們組織利用它的能力，帶來了更好的結果。

We -- there's the occasional blitz here and there. We didn't quite get all the inflation on fasteners. So that's come back. In fourth quarter, I think we got a little bit behind on a certain area. But for the most part, we've been able to be price cost neutral for the entirety of this period of inflation and deflation. And I think it really is reflective of the organization's ability to deploy technology solutions to problems that we run into every day.

我們——偶爾會到處發生閃電戰。我們並沒有完全了解緊固件的所有通貨膨脹情況。於是就這樣回來了。在第四季度，我認為我們在某些​​方面落後了一些。但在大多數情況下，我們能夠在整個通貨膨脹和通貨緊縮時期保持價格成本中性。我認為這確實反映了組織針對我們每天遇到的問題部署技術解決方案的能力。

The other thing that I would say is, from an inventory standpoint, we talked about how inventories dropped a lot because of the -- we're unwinding or sort of harvesting some of the investments. But we peaked from a days on hand standpoint between to 185 and 190 days. We're currently sitting between 135 and 140. That's not just because of buying inventory and then harvesting it related to pandemic. That relates to a lot of things the organization did in terms of how it views branch inventory strategically in terms of what's in our hub versus where should inventory be, improving the velocity. And I think the fact that we're able to improve the overall performance of our assets, even in an environment where we're getting a tremendous amount of pressure because of the needs of the pandemic when it started and as it was fading really reflects the organization's ability to do more than one thing at once. And I think the organization can be proud of itself how it's managed a lot of the things that have come up over the course of the past 4 or 5 years.

我要說的另一件事是，從庫存的角度來看，我們討論了庫存如何大幅下降，因為我們正在解除或收穫一些投資。但從現有天數來看，我們的峰值在 185 到 190 天之間。我們目前的排名在 135 到 140 之間。這不僅僅是因為購買庫存然後收穫與流行病相關的庫存。這與組織所做的很多事情有關，即如何戰略性地看待分支機構庫存，即我們的中心有什麼，庫存應該在哪裡，從而提高速度。我認為，即使在疫情爆發和消退時的需求導致我們承受巨大壓力的環境下，我們也能夠提高資產的整體績效，這確實反映出了這一點。組織同時做多件事的能力。我認為該組織可以為自己如何管理過去四五年中出現的許多事情而感到自豪。

Got it. I appreciate it. That's comprehensive. Maybe just a quick follow-up. As you've seen things decelerate and maybe disinflate a little bit, is the competitive landscape change? I know you guys don't really see it maybe some of the way other folks do in the space given your business model, but anything you'd comment on competition.

知道了。我很感激。這很全面。也許只是快速跟進。正如您所看到的，事情正在減速，甚至可能有所減弱，競爭格局是否發生了變化？我知道你們並沒有真正看到這可能是其他人在這個領域所做的一些方式，考慮到你們的商業模式，但你們對競爭的評論。

Yes, I don't think the competitive landscape has changed, if you look at it from a product perspective. And I think one element that's there, too, is while the -- there's more than one element of inflation, and there's more than one aspect of cost. There's inflation that we saw in product costs. There's inflation that we saw in transportation, container costs, things like that. Product cost dynamics are different than the container and transportation element.

是的，如果你從產品的角度來看，我認為競爭格局沒有改變。我認為還有一個因素是——通貨膨脹因素不止一種，成本也不止一種。我們在產品成本中看到了通貨膨脹。我們在運輸、集裝箱成本等方面看到了通貨膨脹。產品成本動態與集裝箱和運輸要素不同。

The third element, which is really relevant for our customers and for their supply chain is the cost of labor. There is no deflation in labor. I'll guarantee you that. There continues to be inflation in labor. We do have more success in recruiting. We -- but we are not unique. All businesses are seeing inflation in that arena until this day. And part of -- the nice thing about the total cost of ownership approach we take with our customer is we're really able to understand all those cost components and have intelligent conversations with the customers that they're not a motion conversation, the fact and tactic conversations, which allows both us and our customers together to make better choices on puts and takes. But there are inflation elements still in the business. There are some deflation elements in the business. Container is coming across the ocean is cheaper today than it was 1.5 years ago or a year ago.

第三個與我們的客戶及其供應鏈真正相關的因素是勞動力成本。勞動力不存在通貨緊縮。我向你保證。勞動力通脹持續存在。我們在招聘方面確實取得了更大的成功。我們——但我們並不是獨一無二的。直到今天，所有企業都面臨著通貨膨脹。我們與客戶採取的總體擁有成本方法的好處之一是，我們確實能夠理解所有這些成本組成部分，並與客戶進行明智的對話，他們不是動態對話，事實上策略性對話，讓我們和我們的客戶能夠共同做出更好的選擇。但該行業仍存在通脹因素。該行業存在一些通縮因素。如今，遠渡重洋的集裝箱比 1.5 年前或一年前便宜。

And I would say there's also availability elements in the marketplace as well. During 2020, 2021, there weren't a lot of distributors that had availability of product, and we benefited from that. As the supply chain is normalized, the marketplace sort of normalize as well. And I think what you see is it's a little bit more competitive in terms of customers being willing to say, "Yes, we're going to test the market a little bit. "

我想說的是，市場上也存在可用性因素。 2020年、2021年期間，沒有很多經銷商有產品，我們從中受益。隨著供應鏈的正常化，市場也在某種程度上正常化。我認為你所看到的是，就客戶願意說“是的，我們將稍微測試一下市場”而言，它更具競爭力。

Again, I don't think that's unique to us. I think it's fairly typical in the market. And I think it's reflective of the degree to which things have frankly normalized at this stage of the game. And it allows us to really talk a lot about exactly what Dan said, which is the supply chain solutions and how that differentiates us in the marketplace.

再說一次，我不認為這對我們來說是獨一無二的。我認為這在市場上是相當典型的。我認為這反映了在遊戲的這個階段事情已經坦率正常化的程度。它使我們能夠真正談論 Dan 所說的內容，即供應鏈解決方案以及它如何使我們在市場上脫穎而出。

And Josh, in the interest of full disclosure, I probably would have gotten your last name incorrect.

喬什，為了充分披露，我可能會弄錯你的姓氏。

Our next questions come from the line of Tommy Moll with Stephens.

我們的下一個問題來自湯米·莫爾和斯蒂芬斯的對話。

Can you give us an update on fastener product margins? And I know that associated with those, there's potential for some renegotiation just on pricing that has given some of the volatility around steel and shipping. Any update you could give there would be helpful as well.

您能給我們介紹一下緊固件產品利潤率的最新情況嗎？我知道與這些相關的是，有可能就定價進行一些重新談判，這導致了鋼鐵和航運業的一些波動。您可以提供的任何更新也會有幫助。

Yes. I mean product margins, when you break fasteners into OEM versus MRO fasteners, product margins are fairly stable. When I think about price cost in the fastener arena, it's fairly neutral at this point, right? So I mean from a costing and margin standpoint, I think things are fairly as expected. Now I will say, I do believe that we have had circumstances where again, there's contracts that require some adjustment based on end markets where I do believe that we've begun that process. But that is in -- that is really aligned with what we've talked about before as we see our costing improve, and we have on imported product that we have certain agreements with certain very large customers that we'll adhere to, and I think that you're seeing that happen.

是的。我指的是產品利潤率，當你將緊固件分為 OEM 和 MRO 緊固件時，產品利潤率相當穩定。當我考慮緊固件領域的價格成本時，目前它是相當中性的，對嗎？所以我的意思是，從成本和利潤的角度來看，我認為事情與預期相當。現在我想說，我確實相信我們曾經遇到過這樣的情況，有些合同需要根據終端市場進行一些調整，我確實相信我們已經開始了這一過程。但這確實與我們之前討論過的內容一致，因為我們看到我們的成本核算有所改善，而且我們在進口產品方面與某些非常大的客戶達成了一定的協議，我們將遵守這些協議，而且我認為你正在看到這種情況發生。

So it's largely, I think, as we expected. I don't think they were having any adverse impact on our overall profitability level. And that's probably how I'd characterize it. Does that help?

所以我認為這很大程度上正如我們所預期的那樣。我認為它們不會對我們的整體盈利水平產生任何不利影響。我可能就是這樣描述它的。這有幫助嗎？

Indeed. I also wanted to talk about supply chain and in the prepared materials this morning, you talked to the reduced inventory is aided by a shorter product ordering cycle for Fastenal. I'm curious, though, with the better supply chain, do you see some of the same for customers? And is there any impact on your daily sales trends from that?

的確。我還想談談供應鏈，在今天早上準備的材料中，您談到庫存的減少得益於 Fastenal 較短的產品訂購週期。不過，我很好奇，有了更好的供應鏈，您是否會為客戶看到一些相同的東西？這對您的日常銷售趨勢有什麼影響嗎？

If you think about what we do for our customer, we're the buffer. If we're supplying product to them. And again, I'm really talking about both sides of our business, whether it be planned spend or unplanned spend. If supply chains are taken 30 days longer, we build that inventory so we get it to them when they need it. So I don't know that there would be a destocking element downstream from us. I'm sure there's examples of it. If there is a destocking element, it's because a customer had built up finished goods because they had a strong backlog. And that backlog has been worked down, their finished goods has been worked on. And as they're in that process, that impacts us because they lower their production. And so it isn't so much because the supply chain changes because downstream, their needs finished goods changed.

如果您考慮一下我們為客戶所做的事情，我們就是緩衝者。如果我們向他們提供產品。再說一次，我真正談論的是我們業務的兩方面，無論是計劃支出還是計劃外支出。如果供應鏈延長 30 天，我們就會建立庫存，以便在他們需要時提供給他們。所以我不知道我們下游是否會有去庫存的因素。我確信有這樣的例子。如果存在去庫存因素，那是因為客戶積壓了大量成品，因此增加了成品。積壓的訂單已經處理完畢，他們的成品也已經處理完畢。當他們處於這個過程中時，這會影響我們，因為他們降低了產量。因此，這並不是因為供應鏈發生了變化，而是因為下游的成品需求發生了變化。

Where we typically see a supply chain impact the most is when we take on a new customer relationship. It's not uncommon for us stepping into the new customer relationship, will they have elements of inventory that we're going to be managing now for them where they have a 6-, 12-, 15-month supply, 4 months supply. The extreme examples are usually [niche]. But they -- as we illuminate what they have in their inventory, and/or how their predecessor supply chain partner was supplying, and I'm not throwing in a predecessor under the bus because it could have been there's a bunch of different suppliers supplying this in, and there's not a coordinated effort. And so you have months of inventory on something that is ridiculous to have months of.

我們通常看到供應鏈影響最大的時候是當我們建立新的客戶關係時。對於我們來說，建立新的客戶關係並不罕見，他們是否擁有我們現在要為他們管理的庫存元素，他們有 6、12、15 個月的供應、4 個月的供應。極端的例子通常是[利基]。但是他們——當我們闡明他們的庫存中有什麼，和/或他們的前任供應鏈合作夥伴是如何供應的時，我不會把前任扔到公共汽車下，因為可能有一堆不同的供應商在供應這其中並沒有協調一致的努力。所以你有幾個月的庫存，而庫存卻有幾個月是荒謬的。

A customer a few years ago, first off, it was a part that I thought was fairly unique. I discovered that we had a regular supplier for it. But it was an item where the customer discovered, they had 14 months of inventory, and they had no idea. They were appreciative of it, and we worked out an arrangement with them to manage it down and they paid us something for helping manage it down, but we didn't have product sales for a period of time, but we had a lot of other sales. It was an Onsite doing 130,000 a month, it just wasn't doing 160,000. But then when we burn through it. And that's what a supply chain partner does. But that's not about supply chain time. That's about just an inefficient supply chain.

幾年前的一位客戶，首先，我認為這是一個相當獨特的部件。我發現我們有一個固定的供應商。但客戶發現，他們有 14 個月的庫存，但他們對此一無所知。他們很感激，我們與他們達成了一項安排來控制它，他們付給我們一些幫助我們控制它的費用，但我們有一段時間沒有產品銷售，但我們有很多其他的銷售量。這是一個 Onsite 每月完成 130,000 次，但它只是沒有完成 160,000 次。但當我們燒盡它時。這就是供應鏈合作夥伴所做的事情。但這與供應鏈時間無關。這只是一條低效的供應鏈。

I apologize to whoever was in queue. Holden will be available for calls if you want to give him a direct call. I'm going to run to a meeting in a few minutes, but we hold these calls to 1 hour, and we are at 10:00 central time.

我向排隊的人道歉。如果您想直接給霍爾頓打電話，他可以接聽電話。幾分鐘後我要去參加一個會議，但我們將這些通話保留到 1 小時，而且現在是中部時間 10:00。

Once again, thank you, everybody, for attending our earnings call today. And best of luck in July and the balance of the year. Have a good day, everybody.

再次感謝大家參加我們今天的財報電話會議。祝七月和今年餘下的時間一切順利。祝大家有美好的一天。

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a great day.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與，祝您有美好的一天。