快扣 (FAST) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to the Fastenal 2024 Q1 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 the Fastenal Company. Please go ahead, Taylor.

您好，歡迎參加 Fastenal 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員指示）謹此提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。現在我很高興將電話轉給 Fastenal 公司的 Taylor Ranta。請繼續，泰勒。

Welcome to the Fastenal Company 2024 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. This call will be hosted by Dan Florness, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Holden Lewis, our Chief Financial Officer. The call will last for up to 1 hour, and we'll start with a general overview of our quarterly results and operations, with the remainder of the time being open for questions and answers.

歡迎參加 Fastenal 公司 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。本次電話會議將由我們的總裁兼執行長 Dan Florness 主持；和我們的財務長霍爾頓劉易斯。電話會議將持續長達 1 小時，我們將首先概述我們的季度業績和營運情況，剩下的時間將供大家提問和解答。

Today's conference call is a proprietary of Fastenal presentation and is being recorded by Fastenal. No recording, reproduction, transmission or distribution of today's call is permitted without Fastenal's consent. This call is being audio simulcast on the Internet via the Fastenal Investor Relations homepage, investor.fastenal.com. A replay of the webcast will be available on the website until June 1, 2024, at midnight Central Time.

今天的電話會議是 Fastenal 專有的演示，並由 Fastenal 錄製。未經 Fastenal 同意，不得錄製、複製、傳輸或散佈今天的通話。本次電話會議透過 Fastenal 投資人關係首頁 Investor.fastenal.com 在網路上音訊聯播。該網路廣播的重播將在 2024 年 6 月 1 日中部時間午夜之前在網站上提供。

As a reminder, today's conference call may include statements regarding the company's future plans and prospects. These statements are based on our current expectations, and we undertake no duty to update them. It is important to note that the company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from anticipated results are contained in the company's latest earnings release and periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and we encourage you to review those factors carefully.

提醒一下，今天的電話會議可能包括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，我們不承擔更新它們的義務。值得注意的是，公司的實際結果可能與預期有重大差異。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。

Thank you, Taylor, and good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter call. And I'm going to go right to the foot book, Page 3. And my comments on Page 3 can be summarized with 5 statements. First one is a tough quarter. Second one is tricky calendar. Third one is highlighting the customer expo. Third is strong performance on our growth drivers. And then the final is financially strong and that strength is continuing to build as we've seen in recent years.

謝謝泰勒，大家早上好，謝謝您參加我們的第一季電話會議。我要直接看腳書，第 3 頁。第一個季度是艱難的。第二個是棘手的日曆。三是突出客博會。第三，我們的成長動力表現強勁。然後決賽的財務實力雄厚，正如我們近年來所看到的那樣，這種實力正在繼續增強。

Going back to the tough quarter. So we grew about 2%. Coming into the quarter, we anticipated a number that was probably in that 4% neighborhood. And the tricky calendar was really a function of January and February are seasonally weaker months for us. Then March starts to pick up as we move into the spring. So having 2 days shifted out of March and into January and February, respectively, wasn't helpful, but that was a known event coming into the quarter. And having the quarter end, Good Friday being in March versus in April is negative. But that's probably more of a function of trying to rationalize and figure out things on the quarter.

回到艱難的季度。所以我們成長了大約 2%。進入本季度，我們預計這個數字可能在 4% 附近。棘手的日曆實際上是一月和二月對我們來說是季節性較弱的月份的函數。然後，隨著我們進入春天，三月開始回升。因此，將 2 天分別從 3 月移至 1 月和 2 月並沒有什麼幫助，但這是本季即將發生的已知事件。隨著季度末的到來，三月的耶穌受難日與四月相比是負面的。但這可能更多的是試圖合理化和弄清楚本季的情況。

The truth of the matter is the core issue remains sluggish demand. A positive we saw is after 16 consecutive months of sub-50 Purchasing Manager's Index, we broke above 50 in the month of March. And the other day, I chatted with Holden and I said, how long have they been checking the PMI statistics and he said, yes, since early '70s. So we did a look and there's been 2 periods that have had longer duration of 16 months. The one would have been in the early 1980s, I believe it was a 19-month duration. The other was in the dotcom meltdown year of the early 2000 that was about a 17 or 18-month duration.

事實的真相是，核心問題仍然是需求低迷。我們看到的一個積極因素是，在連續 16 個月採購經理指數低於 50 後，我們在 3 月突破了 50。有一天，我和霍爾頓聊天，我說他們檢查 PMI 統計數據多久了，他說，是的，從 70 年代初開始。我們進行了查看，發現有 2 個週期的持續時間較長，達到 16 個月。那是在 20 世紀 80 年代初，我相信持續了 19 個月。另一次是 2000 年初的網路泡沫崩潰年，持續時間約 17 或 18 個月。

Now in full disclosures, they were a little bit longer. They were actually more severe as far as where it went into -- how far into the 40s that it went or even into the upper 30s. There were a few other periods, obviously, the '08, '09 period, much shorter in duration, but pretty steep. But we feel positive about the 50 in March, and time will tell if it's a head fake or if it's real. But that speaks to what we think might be happening as we move into the second half of the year.

現在完全披露，它們更長了一些。實際上，就其進入的位置而言，他們的情況更為嚴重——進入 40 多歲，甚至進入 30 多歲。顯然，還有其他幾個時期，即 08 年、09 年時期，持續時間短得多，但相當陡峭。但我們對 3 月的 50 場比賽感到樂觀，時間會證明它是假的還是真的。但這說明了我們認為進入下半年後可能會發生的情況。

The customer expo, which we'll host next week on the 17th and 18th in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm upbeat about that from the standpoint. One aspect that's challenged us in recent years with customer acquisition has been the fact that starting about 20 years ago, we started doing an employee event or we bring employees in, engage with our suppliers, and it was a great opportunity to hold in the month of December, some planning discussions for the next calendar year but also have a trade show where employees get to interact directly with suppliers and learn about their products, learn about their supply chain.

我們將於下週 17 日和 18 日在田納西州納許維爾舉辦客戶博覽會。從這個角度來看，我對此持樂觀態度。近年來，我們在獲取客戶方面面臨的一個挑戰是，從大約 20 年前開始，我們開始舉辦員工活動，或者讓員工參與進來，與我們的供應商互動，這是舉辦月度活動的絕佳機會12月，我們會討論下一年的計劃，同時也會舉辦貿易展，員工可以直接與供應商互動，了解他們的產品，了解他們的供應鏈。

And also over time, learn more and more about some of the FMI devices that are coming out, which started up in the kind of the 2007, 2008 time frame when we started vending. What we learned a number of years into it that a lot of employees want to bring their customers to this. They thought to be a great means to expose our customer to their supply chain. And we started doing that probably 5, 6 years later, and we've been doing that for many years In 2020 and 2021 because of COVID, we had to shut down the event. And we felt the impact of that over time, and it shows up in things like on-site signings. It shows up in how we're engaging with that customer.

隨著時間的推移，我們會越來越多地了解一些即將推出的 FMI 設備，這些設備是在 2007 年、2008 年我們開始自動販賣時啟動的。多年來我們了解到，許多員工都希望將他們的客戶帶入這個領域。他們認為這是讓我們的客戶了解他們的供應鏈的好方法。我們可能在 5、6 年後開始這樣做，而且我們已經這樣做了很多年。隨著時間的推移，我們感受到了這種影響，它體現在現場簽名等事情上。它體現在我們如何與該客戶互動。

What I'm pleased to say is after restarting the event in 2022 and continuing it in '23 and '24, in 2024, we were surprised by the overbooked status of the show, and we've had to dramatically expand it. And Holden will touch on some of that in his comments about what that means for the second quarter as far as expenses. But we'll have 50% more people attending this year than we did the last year, and we'll have double the number of people attending this year than we did last year. I believe that speaks well to our ability to capture market share with that subset of customers.

我很高興地說，在 2022 年重新啟動活動並在 23 年和 24 年繼續舉辦後，到 2024 年，我們對展會的超額預訂狀態感到驚訝，我們不得不大幅擴大它的規模。霍爾頓將在他的評論中談到其中的一些內容，即這對第二季的支出意味著什麼。但今年參加的人數將比去年多 50%，今年參加的人數將是去年的兩倍。我相信這充分說明了我們在這部分客戶中奪取市場份額的能力。

And that's been challenging us for the last several years because we just couldn't engage in the same way. So it's an expense issue for the second quarter. It's a really high-class expense issue for the second quarter. On the next page, I'll touch on growth drivers. So flipping to Page 4. Onsite, we had 102 signings during the quarter. So the number of active sites we had operating at the end of the quarter was up about 12% from what it was in the first quarter of last year. And our sales going through that channel grew low single digits, which tells me that's where we're seeing the demand issue play out in our numbers is because that number should be closer to what we're seeing in unit growth.

在過去的幾年裡，這一直是我們面臨的挑戰，因為我們無法以同樣的方式參與。所以這是第二季的費用問題。這是第二季的一個非常高級的支出問題。在下一頁，我將談到成長動力。翻到第 4 頁。因此，我們在本季末經營的活躍網站數量比去年第一季增加了約 12%。我們透過該管道的銷售額成長了較低的個位數，這告訴我，這就是我們在數據中看到的需求問題，因為該數字應該更接近我們在單位成長中看到的數字。

The FMI Technology. We signed 105 devices a day, and I believe we've only had one quarter that we've ever done over 100. And if you think back to a few years ago, what we really challenged our team to do back in that 2017, 2018 time frame, we geared up our infrastructure to support 100 signings a day. And we challenge everybody to engage with our customer and to get there. And by 2022, we were doing about 83 a day. In 2023, we have grown that to about 98 a day. And those numbers are based on the average of the first 3 quarters of the year.

FMI 技術。我們每天簽署 105 台設備，我相信我們只有四分之一的設備簽署了超過 100 台的設備 如果你回想幾年前，我們在 2017 年真正向我們的團隊提出了挑戰， 2018 年的時間範圍。內，我們加強了基礎設施建設，以支援每天100 筆簽約。我們挑戰每個人與我們的客戶互動並實現這一目標。到 2022 年，我們每天大約要做 83 次。到 2023 年，我們將這一數字增加到每天約 98 次。這些數字是基於今年前三個季度的平均值。

So last year, we did 92, 106, 95, average of about 98. Officially, we've always said that we want to get that over 100. Internally, what we've challenged our team to do is to get that number up into the 120s. And so we feel really good about Onsite and FMI Technology as far as the progress we're making to take market share. In a similar comparison that I did with the unit growth of Onsite. So FMI, we have 10.5% more devices today than we did a year ago. But you can see some falloff in the revenue per device. And in safety, for example, we grew about 8%. And when I look at our revenue per device, it's down 1% to 2% from a year ago. It's been pretty flat as we've gone through the year so far.

所以去年，我們做了 92、106、95，平均約為 98。因此，就我們在搶佔市場份額方面所取得的進展而言，我們對 Onsite 和 FMI 技術感到非常滿意。我對 Onsite 的單位增長進行了類似的比較。 FMI 目前的設備數量比一年前增加了 10.5%。但您可以看到每台設備的收入下降。例如，在安全方面，我們成長了約 8%。當我查看每台設備的收入時，發現比一年前下降了 1% 到 2%。到目前為止，我們這一年的表現相當平淡。

And again, that's a demand. But ultimately, it's a market share. It's a land grab. And so we will take market share by deploying more devices. And then we have to live with what the actual consumption is in those customers, whether it's robust or less than robust. It's a sign of permanent market share, and I'm pleased with the progress we're seeing there, and how it shines through in things like our safety because about half of our vending sales involve safety products.

再說一遍，這是一個需求。但最終，這是市場佔有率。這是搶地盤。因此，我們將透過部署更多設備來佔據市場份額。然後，我們必須接受這些客戶的實際消費情況，無論其強勁還是不太強勁。這是永久市場份額的標誌，我對我們在那裡看到的進展以及它在安全等方面的表現感到滿意，因為我們約一半的自動售貨銷售涉及安全產品。

eCommerce continues to get nice traction. And our digital footprint continues to expand. We're approaching 60% of sales. And our anticipation is sometime this year, that number will hit the mid-60s, 66% is our target. And ultimately, we believe that ends up being 85% of sales. So on the second page, I feel really good about the progress, but I'll finish where I started. It was a tough quarter, and we feel good about where we're going. With that, I'll turn it over to Holden.

電子商務繼續受到良好的關注。我們的數位足跡不斷擴大。我們的銷售額已接近 60%。我們預計今年某個時候，這個數字將達到 60 多歲，66% 是我們的目標。最終，我們相信這將佔銷售額的 85%。因此，在第二頁上，我對進展感到非常滿意，但我會從我開始的地方完成。這是一個艱難的季度，但我們對未來的發展方向感覺良好。有了這個，我就把它交給霍爾頓。

Great. Thanks, Dan. Good morning, everyone. I'm going to begin on Slide 5. Total and daily sales in the first quarter of 2024 were up 1.9%. Q1 is seasonally low volume to start, but this year contended as well with severe weather in January and a Good Friday holiday that fell in March for the first time in 5 years, an impact that was compounded by falling on the last business day of the quarter.

偉大的。謝謝，丹。大家，早安。我將從幻燈片 5 開始。 Q1 is seasonally low volume to start, but this year contended as well with severe weather in January and a Good Friday holiday that fell in March for the first time in 5 years, an impact that was compounded by falling on the last business day of the四分之一.

This timing is estimated to have cost us 30 to 50 basis points of growth in the quarter. No matter how one treats this noise, however, it doesn't mask that the primary challenge remains poor underlying demand. Industrial production declined slightly in January and February but the components that most directly affect Fastenal such as machinery, were much weaker than the overall index.

據估計，這一時機將使我們本季的成長損失 30 至 50 個基點。然而，無論人們如何對待這種噪音，都無法掩蓋主要挑戰仍然是潛在需求疲軟。 1月和2月工業生產略有下降，但對Fastenal影響最直接的零件（例如機械）的表現遠弱於整體指數。

Overall, end market and product dynamics are unchanged from prior periods. Total manufacturing grew 2.6%, continuing to moderate from prior periods, while our fastener product line was down 4.4% with contraction in MRO and OEM products. This reflected soft industrial production, particularly for key components such as fabricated metal and machinery, and in the case of fasteners, negative pricing.

整體而言，終端市場和產品動態與前期相比沒有變化。總製造業成長 2.6%，較前期持續放緩，而我們的緊固件產品線因 MRO 和 OEM 產品收縮而下降 4.4%。這反映了工業生產疲軟，特別是金屬製品和機械等關鍵零件，以及緊固件的負定價。

Nonresidential construction and reseller continued to contract though at moderating rates as we experienced easier comparisons. Sales into warehousing, which are the fulfillment centers of retail-oriented customers remained healthy in the first quarter of 2024, albeit not quite at levels experienced in November and December of 2023. This, combined with good FMI signing contributed to 8.3% growth in sales of safety products. The tone of business activity from regional leadership is best characterized as steady at weak levels. We are encouraged by the forward-looking PMI moving above 50 in March for the first time since October '22. However, current conditions remain better defined by the string of sub-50 readings that prevailed in the latter part of '23 and at the start of 2024.

非住宅建築和經銷商繼續收縮，但收縮幅度有所放緩，因為我們經歷了更容易的比較。倉儲作為零售客戶的履行中心，其銷售額在 2024 年第一季保持健康，儘管未達到 2023 年 11 月和 12 月的水平。地區領導層的商業活動基調最明顯的特徵是穩定在疲軟水平。我們對 3 月前瞻性 PMI 自 2019 年 10 月以來首次突破 50 感到鼓舞。然而，23 年下半年和 2024 年初普遍出現的一系列低於 50 的讀數仍然可以更好地定義當前的狀況。

Now to Slide 6. We operating margin in the first quarter of 2024 was 20.6%, down 60 basis points year-over-year. Looking at the pieces, gross margin in the first quarter of 2024 was 45.5%, down 20 basis points from the year ago period. Product and customer mix was a drag, partly offset by slightly positive price/cost, which continues to recapture the negative price/cost that we experienced in the first quarter of 2023. In addition, with stocking levels largely rightsized, we experienced an increase in product movement across our network, which produce leverage of internal and external trucking resources, SG&A was 24.9% of sales in the first quarter of 2024, an increase from 24.6% from the year ago period.

現在轉到投影片 6。2024 年第一季我們的營業利潤率為 20.6%，年減 60 個基點。從具體數據來看，2024年第一季毛利率為45.5%，較去年同期下降20個基點。產品和客戶組合是一個拖累，但部分被略為正的價格/成本所抵消，這繼續重現我們在2023 年第一季經歷的負價格/成本。量有所增加。

Total SG&A was up 3.2%. Occupancy and other SG&A expenses were well contained, increasing just 1.5% collectively. The deleverage was from labor costs, which increased 3.9%, which included a 3.3% increase in average FTE in the period and substantially higher health care costs. The consistent low growth in SG&A over the last 5 quarters reflects the Blue Team doing a good job, spending where appropriate to support growth and scrimping where appropriate to preserve margin, but at some point, sales growth is the core issue.

SG&A 總額成長 3.2%。入住率和其他 SG&A 費用得到了很好的控制，總共僅增加了 1.5%。去槓桿化來自於勞動成本，勞動成本增加了 3.9%，其中包括期內平均 FTE 成長 3.3%，以及醫療成本大幅上漲。過去5 個季度銷售、管理和行政費用(SG&A) 的持續低增長反映出藍隊做得很好，在適當的情況下支出以支持增長，並在適當的情況下節省以保持利潤，但在某些時候，銷售成長是核心問題。

And as growth accelerates, we believe we will leverage the P&L. That said, I wanted to provide a little color on some factors that may affect margins in the second quarter of 2024. First, we continue to make investments in travel, hardware and personnel to support near and intermediate-term growth. This won't necessarily to any greater degree than was true in the first quarter of 2024, but it was a reason for deleverage in the period and could be again if growth doesn't accelerate in the second quarter.

隨著成長加速，我們相信我們將充分利用損益表。也就是說，我想對可能影響 2024 年第二季利潤率的一些因素提供一些說明。這不一定比 2024 年第一季的情況更大，但這是該時期去槓桿化的原因，如果第二季成長不加速，可能會再次出現這種情況。

Second, the expansion of attendees at our customer expo will result in an increase in expenses in the second quarter of 2024 on both an annual and sequential basis. Third, our success solving customer -- certain customers' supply chain challenges in the fourth quarter of 2023 has created opportunities to service these customers at greater scale in the future. This will require certain near-term investments to ensure that we can meet these customers' needs.

其次，客戶博覽會參加人數的增加將導致 2024 年第二季的費用較去年同期增加。第三，我們成功解決了客戶問題—某些客戶在 2023 年第四季面臨的供應鏈挑戰，為未來更大規模地服務這些客戶創造了機會。這將需要一定的短期投資，以確保我們能夠滿足這些客戶的需求。

The latter 2 items could impact second quarter 2024 operating margins by approximately 30 basis points. We do not expect these costs to carry over into subsequent periods. Putting everything together, we reported first quarter 2024 EPS of $0.52, flat versus the first quarter of 2023, with net income up just slightly at up 0.6%.

後兩項可能會對 2024 年第二季的營業利潤率產生約 30 個基點的影響。我們預計這些成本不會結轉到後續期間。綜合考慮，我們報告 2024 年第一季每股收益為 0.52 美元，與 2023 年第一季持平，淨利潤僅小幅增長 0.6%。

Turning to Slide 7. We generated $336 million in operating cash in the first quarter of 2024 or 113% of net income. While below the prior year, when we deliberately reduced layers of inventory, the current year's conversion rate is consistent with historical first quarter rates. With good cash generation and a soft demand environment, we continue to carry a conservatively capitalized balance sheet with debt being 5.5% of total capital down from 10.9% of total capital at the end of the first quarter of 2023.

轉向投影片 7。雖然低於去年，但當我們刻意減少庫存層數時，今年的轉換率與史上第一季的轉換率一致。由於現金產生良好且需求環境疲軟，我們繼續保持保守的資本化資產負債表，債務佔總資本的 5.5%，低於 2023 年第一季末佔總資本的 10.9%。

Working capital dynamics were consistent with recent periods. Accounts receivable were up 5.5%, driven primarily by total sales growth and a shift towards larger customers, which tend to have longer terms. Inventories were down 9.4%, which continues to reflect primarily the reduction of inventory layers built a year ago to manage supply constraints and modest inventory deflation. While we will continue to focus on continuous improvement as it relates to inventory management, the rate of decline in our inventory balances will likely moderate going forward as the process of rightsizing our stock is largely complete.

營運資金動態與近期一致。應收帳款成長 5.5%，主要是由於總銷售額成長以及向期限較長的大客戶的轉變。庫存下降 9.4%，這仍然主要反映一年前為管理供應限制和適度庫存通貨緊縮而建立的庫存層的減少。雖然我們將繼續專注於與庫存管理相關的持續改進，但隨著庫存調整過程基本上完成，我們的庫存餘額下降速度可能會放緩。

Net capital spending in the first quarter of 2024 was $48.3 million, an increase from $30.9 million in the first quarter of 2023. This increase is consistent with our expectations for the full year where we anticipate capital spending in a range of $225 million to $245 million, up from $161 million in 2023. This increase remains a result of spending for hub automation and capacity, the substantial completion of an upgraded distribution center in Utah, an increase in FMI spend in anticipation of higher signings and in information technology.

2024 年第一季的淨資本支出為4,830 萬美元，較2023 年第一季的3,090 萬美元有所增加。之間，高於2023 年的1.61 億美元。 。

Now before turning to Q&A, I wanted to offer a higher level perspective on the quarter. Quantitatively, as Dan noted, it was challenging. But qualitatively, it was an encouraging quarter. We've touched on our disappointment with the pace of customer acquisition over the past several quarters and the changes made in mid-2023 to begin to address this. We view customer enthusiasm for our expo, the solid performance of our growth drivers and trends in our contract business as manifestations of those efforts starting to take root.

現在，在進行問答之前，我想提供對該季度更高層次的看法。正如丹所指出的那樣，從數量上來說，這是具有挑戰性的。但從品質上來說，這是一個令人鼓舞的季度。我們對過去幾季的客戶獲取速度以及 2023 年中期為開始解決這一問題所做的改變表示失望。我們將客戶對展會的熱情、我們成長動力的穩健表現以及合約業務的趨勢視為這些努力開始生根的體現。

Change takes time and success can be uneven. However, we do believe we are seeing good indications of progress, which should reaccelerate market share gains as we proceed through 2024. With that, operator, we will turn it over to begin the Q&A.

改變需要時間，而且成功的程度可能參差不齊。然而，我們確實相信我們看到了良好的進展跡象，這應該會在我們進入 2024 年時重新加速市場份額的增長。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is coming from Tommy Moll from Stephens.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自史蒂芬斯的湯米·莫爾。

I wanted to double-click on Onsite where the KPI this quarter was quite strong, as you referenced. And Holden, you alluded to some of the leadership changes from recent months. I assume there's a connection there. But what can you do to just bring us in a little deeper on that Onsite performance in Q1 and what you might expect going forward? What's changed?

正如您所提到的，我想雙擊本季度 KPI 相當強勁的 Onsite。霍爾頓，您提到了最近幾個月的一些領導層變動。我認為那裡有聯繫。但是，您可以做些什麼來讓我們更深入地了解第一季的現場表現以及您對未來的期望？發生了什麼變化？

I think we -- one of the changes we made, and this was -- if I go back 15 years, we made a decision to split our business into 3 distinct entities, essentially, the Eastern U.S., the Western U.S. and international. And in our National Accounts team, we split into 3 pieces too to as we align with those 3 business units. We did that for about 7 years. And around 2014, we saw that National Accounts being 3 distinct entities, it was a little chaotic.

我認為我們所做的改變之一是，如果我回到 15 年前，我們決定將我們的業務分為 3 個不同的實體，本質上是美國東部、美國西部和國際業務。在我們的國民帳戶團隊中，我們也分成 3 個部分，以便與這 3 個業務部門保持一致。我們這樣做了大約 7 年。 2014 年左右，我們看到國民帳戶是 3 個不同的實體，有點混亂。

And so we rolled that back into one umbrella. When we're going through 2022, we're putting up really good numbers and the economy is rebounding. But when I look at things like what was going on with our Onsite signings, what was going on with our contract acquisition numbers, they were softening and it's not about a person or a thing. It's about sometimes are we aligned to pursue a common goal or are we too fixated on our individual goals?

所以我們把它捲回一把雨傘裡。當我們進入 2022 年時，我們將取得非常好的數據，經濟正在反彈。但當我看到我們的現場簽約情況、合約獲取數量等情況時，它們正在軟化，這與一個人或一件事無關。有時我們是為了追求共同目標而團結一致，還是過度專注於個人目標？

It seemed like we had so many groups talking about how well they were doing. But somehow if every group is doing well and the organization is slipping, something's wrong with how we're looking at it. And so in the spring of 2023, we realigned everything under one sales leader and realigned the U.S. back into one business unit. And there's disruption when there's change, and it takes time to gain traction. But I think a manifestation of that is the Onsite signings and one month isn't a trend, but they improved.

似乎我們有很多小組在談論他們做得有多好。但不知何故，如果每個團隊都表現良好而組織卻在下滑，那麼我們看待它的方式就出了問題。因此，在 2023 年春天，我們重新調整了一位銷售主管領導下的所有事務，並將美國業務重新調整為業務部門。當發生變化時就會產生顛覆，並且需要時間才能獲得牽引力。但我認為這一點的一個體現是現場簽約，一個月並不是一種趨勢，但他們有所改善。

The fact that we're scrambling in the last 45 days, the last 30 days, when I say, we, there's a team that's coordinating our trade show. So it's been extremely busy lining up additional hotel rooms and additional space for an event that's much larger than we anticipated 2 months ago. That's a function of an engaged sales team and a customer that's engaged with us of understanding how we can help their business. So that's what the 102 means to me and of equal importance, the record sign-up relative to post-COVID world, on folks attending our show and learning about how we can help. And I know personally, the visits I've been on, there's some really good traction going on out there, and I feel good about it.

事實上，我們在過去 45 天、過去 30 天裡都在忙碌，當我說，我們，有一個團隊正在協調我們的貿易展。因此，我們非常忙於為這次活動安排更多的酒店房間和空間，這次活動的規模比我們兩個月前的預期要大得多。這是敬業的銷售團隊和與我們合作的客戶了解我們如何幫助他們的業務的功能。這就是 102 對我的意義，同樣重要的是，相對於後新冠疫情世界，人們參加我們的節目並了解我們如何提供幫助，這是創紀錄的註冊人數。我個人知道，我所進行的訪問確實有一些很好的吸引力，我對此感覺很好。

We just have to work through the fact that we were taking market share from the standpoint of contract signings at an unacceptably low rate for a period of time. And the time between changing your sales focus, getting traction and that turns into revenue, doesn't happen in a quarter.

我們只需要解決這樣一個事實：從合約簽訂的角度來看，我們在一段時間內以令人無法接受的低水平奪取了市場份額。改變銷售重點、獲得關注並轉化為收入之間的時間不會在一個季度內發生。

Probably what I might add to that is I think an area where some of the changes are, perhaps, having the most rapid beneficial impact is probably on the contract side of the business. We've seen improvements in sort of the rate of signings on the contract side as well. And bear in mind, when you're talking about National Accounts and large customers, those also tend to be the kinds of customers that are signing up Onsite, utilizing more vending machines, right?

也許我可能要補充的是，我認為一些變化可能產生最快的有益影響的領域可能是在業務的合約方面。我們也看到了合約方面簽約率的提升。請記住，當您談論國民帳戶和大客戶時，這些客戶也往往是使用更多自動販賣機進行現場註冊的客戶，對吧？

And so some of the early indications of success we're having in that group, I think, also lend itself to that area. So again, it's uneven. I know Onsite signings can be lumpy. But you just look at a lot of those indications as a sign that -- the steps that we've taken are beginning to take root.

因此，我認為，我們在該小組中取得的一些早期成功跡像也適用於該領域。所以，這又是不均勻的。我知道現場簽約可能會很不穩定。但你只是將其中的許多跡象視為一個跡象——我們所採取的步驟正在開始紮根。

As a follow-up, I wanted to ask about a new disclosure you introduced today, just breaking out your OEM versus MRO fastener business with some new granularity there. I was just curious what was the decision-making process to do that? And is there a takeaway you want us to make sure to have today? I mean one that comes to mind is just the relative size of those 2 businesses where OEM is nearly 2x the MRO in terms of revenue contribution. But if there's something you want to make sure we take away, please flag it for us.

作為後續行動，我想詢問您今天介紹的一項新披露，只是以一些新的粒度區分了您的 OEM 與 MRO 緊固件業務。我只是好奇這樣做的決策過程是什麼？您希望我們今天確保有什麼外賣嗎？我的意思是，我想到的只是這兩家企業的相對規模，其中 OEM 的收入貢獻幾乎是 MRO 的兩倍。但如果您想確保我們拿走某些東西，請標記我們。

We've been looking at that number internally for a number of years. And in full disclosure, when we first started delineating it, we had to figure out how to do it because it isn't always evident what is an OEM sale, what's an MRO sale. In the early years, the way we did it, OEM sales are not taxable. MRO sales are taxable. So our initial take at estimating what the 2 pieces were was to look at it in that lens.

多年來我們一直在內部研究這個數字。坦白說，當我們第一次開始描述它時，我們必須弄清楚如何做，因為並不總是很清楚什麼是 OEM 銷售、什麼是 MRO 銷售。早年，我們的做法是，OEM 銷售無需納稅。 MRO 銷售需繳稅。因此，我們最初估計這兩件作品的含義是在那個鏡頭中觀察它。

And that actually proved to be pretty accurate. And then we fine-tuned it and fine-tuned it. I think the biggest change is why Holden is willing to put it in a document because I didn't know he was putting it in this quarter until I read it in the draft of the press. The biggest reason, I think he feels more comfortable talking about it in print rather than talking about it in concept. And other than that, I don't know if there's a message behind it and Holden might tell me, I'm full of it, but he send a message there.

事實證明這是相當準確的。然後我們就微調它，微調它。我認為最大的變化是為什麼霍爾頓願意將其放入文件中，因為我不知道他將其放入本季度，直到我在新聞草稿中看到它。最大的原因是，我認為他在印刷中談論它比在概念中談論它更舒服。除此之外，我不知道它背後是否有一條訊息，霍爾頓可能會告訴我，我已經充滿了它，但他在那裡發送了一條訊息。

No, as I usually say, we're not playing a 3-dimensional chess here with data. We gather the information, we figure we'd provide some information. Now I will tell you that both OEM and MRO tend to move with industrial production directionally the same way. But I think there's certainly...

不，正如我常說的，我們不是在用資料下 3 維國際象棋。我們收集信息，我們認為我們會提供一些資訊。現在我告訴你，OEM和MRO都傾向於以同樣的方式向工業生產方向發展。但我認為肯定有...

As far as fasteners are concerned.

就緊固件而言。

As far as fasteners are concerned. Now I think there's some information that could be in there, right? I mean when you think about Onsites. Onsites are probably more oriented towards OEM fasteners than MRO fasteners. And so there's some information in there about how Onsites are going. It gives you a little bit more granularity and the cyclicality because again, OEM fasteners tend to be -- while the directionality may be the same, the order of magnitude may be different. So it gives you a little bit of color into that as well. So as Dan indicated, we gathered the data anyway. We saw no reason why we shouldn't share it. Question is about to come up on the call, and so you can have it.

就緊固件而言。現在我想裡面可能有一些訊息，對嗎？我的意思是當你想到 Onsites 時。現場可能更傾向於 OEM 緊固件而不是 MRO 緊固件。其中有一些有關 Onsites 進展的資訊。它為您提供了更多的粒度和週期性，因為 OEM 緊固件往往是——雖然方向性可能相同，但數量級可能不同。所以它也給了你一點色彩。正如丹所指出的那樣，我們無論如何都收集了數據。我們認為沒有理由不分享它。電話中即將提出問題，所以您可以回答。

Your next question is coming from Chris Snyder from UBS.

你們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團 (UBS) 的 Chris Snyder。

Maybe first, starting on SG&A and the willingness to spend and invest in the business. I felt like the past couple of quarters the message was really tightening the belt in response to lower growth. This quarter, it seems like it's more willing to spend to support and drive that higher growth. So is that the right takeaway? And do you feel like maybe more spend is needed to get back to the more normalized historical levels of market outgrowth and customer acquisition?

也許首先，從SG&A 以及對業務的支出和投資的意願開始。我覺得過去幾季的資訊確實是為了應對成長放緩而勒緊褲腰帶。本季度，它似乎更願意花錢來支持和推動更高的成長。那麼這是正確的結論嗎？您是否認為可能需要更多支出才能恢復到市場成長和客戶獲得的更正常的歷史水平？

Yes. I guess I would maybe phrase that differently in one regard. We've been investing to grow throughout the cycle. But we had some offsets and we talked about this in the January call, and that was, we were closing locations for a decade and that gave us a little nugget of an offset.

是的。我想我可能會在某一方面以不同的方式表達這一點。我們一直在投資以實現整個週期的成長。但我們有一些補償，我們在一月份的電話會議中談到了這一點，那就是，我們關閉了十年的地點，這給了我們一點補償。

As we went through 2023, one nugget of an offset was the fact that in 2022, our earnings grew quite dramatically. And in our incentive comp, which is linked to earnings growth, a big piece of it grew quite dramatically. That softened as we went through 2023 and quite frankly more normalized. But as we get deeper into that, moving away from the 2022 time frame, some of that benefit isn't there. So I don't know that it's a function of -- and I'm looking at it from a growth standpoint expense, not an absolute. I think it's probably more of a function. Our investments to grow are shining through a little bit more now than maybe they were in the last 6 to 8 quarters.

在我們度過 2023 年時，一個重要的抵銷因素是 2022 年我們的收入成長相當驚人。在我們與獲利成長相關的激勵補償中，其中很大一部分成長得相當驚人。隨著 2023 年的到來，這種情況有所緩和，坦白說，這種情況變得更加正常化。但隨著我們進一步深入研究，遠離 2022 年的時間框架，其中一些好處並不存在。所以我不知道這是一個函數——我是從成長的角度來看它的，而不是絕對的。我認為這可能更多的是一種功能。我們的成長投資現在比過去 6 到 8 個季度的表現要好一些。

Yes. And I think really, I think what's changed is the rate of growth, too. I often get asked, where is that delineation point where you can expand margin or contract margin. And I've always said it's kind of around that mid-single-digit number. I think we've done a nice job limiting over the last 5 quarters our SG&A growth to 5% or less in each of them.

是的。我認為確實，我認為變化的是成長率。我常被問到，可以擴大保證金或合約保證金的劃定點在哪裡。我總是說這個數字大約是中間個位數。我認為我們在過去 5 個季度中將 SG&A 成長限制在 5% 或更低，做得很好。

And at the levels of growth, which were unsatisfactory, but not first quarter '24 unsatisfactory, we were able to defend the margin. I think part of the point I wanted to make is we're not panicking over the deleverage. We don't have a cost problem. But at the same time, there are some things that we're going to continue to invest in. And when I called out 20% growth in sales travel, I don't know that I regret that, to be honest, because I think that, that is related to the improvements we're having in our contract business, the improvements we're having in our signings, right?

在成長水準方面，雖然令人不滿意，但並非 24 年第一季令人不滿意，但我們能夠捍衛利潤率。我認為我想表達的部分觀點是我們不會對去槓桿化感到恐慌。我們沒有成本問題。但同時，我們將繼續投資一些事情。改進有關，對嗎？

And we're not going to react to a 2% growth quarter, which we believe is very temporary by beginning to slash costs. I think that was the message. I think as it relates to the other items that we talked about, the expo and sort of the opportunities we have with a certain customer group that really is just to make a point that we have opportunities that's going to have a spend a little bit more than we might normally do in a single quarter. And we just felt that we should call that out for you because it does matter as you build your models. But I don't think that -- our approach has always been that we're going to invest in the business, and we continue to do so.

我們不會透過開始削減成本來應對 2% 的季度成長，我們認為這只是暫時的。我想這就是訊息。我認為，因為它與我們討論的其他項目、博覽會以及我們與特定客戶群擁有的機會有關，這實際上只是為了表明我們有機會多花一點錢比我們通常在一個季度內所做的事情要多。我們只是覺得我們應該為您指出這一點，因為它在您建立模型時確實很重要。但我不認為——我們的做法一直是我們要投資業務，而且我們會繼續這樣做。

Appreciate that. It makes a lot of sense. For the follow-up, a question that we continue to get from investors is around the impact of potential tariffs based on the outcome of the November election. So just would be interested in your guys' perspective and what that could mean for the business?

感謝。這很有道理。對於後續行動，我們繼續從投資者那裡得到的一個問題是基於 11 月選舉結果的潛在關稅的影響。那麼只是想了解你們的觀點以及這對業務意味著什麼？

Our covenant with our customer is a reliable supply chain, a high-quality supply chain, a cost-effective supply chain. The biggest thing we focus on is diversity of supplier. And historically, we didn't necessarily look at that from a geographic standpoint. We looked at it from a number standpoint. For this commodity, for this fastener, for this -- whatever it might be, you have multiple sources of supply.

我們與客戶的契約是可靠的供應鏈、高品質的供應鏈、高性價比的供應鏈。我們最關注的是供應商的多樣性。從歷史上看，我們不一定從地理角度來看這個問題。我們從數字的角度來看它。對於這種商品，對於這種緊固件，對於這個——無論它是什麼，你都有多種供應來源。

So if you have a disruption, you can pivot. The other thing we tried to do is we wanted to be a customer of meaning, meaningful size to our supplier base, such that if there's a pecking order of supply constraint, we're first in line on that pecking order because we've been a reliable customer and we pay with cash. And those 2 things are powerful things in any environment, but especially a constrained supply environment.

因此，如果遇到中斷，您可以進行調整。我們試圖做的另一件事是，我們希望成為對我們的供應商群體來說有意義的、有意義的客戶，這樣，如果存在供應限制的優先順序，我們將首先遵守該優先順序，因為我們一直在可靠的客戶，我們用現金支付。這兩件事在任何環境中都是強大的，尤其是在供應有限的環境中。

One thing we have been doing, and this has been going on for the last 4 or 5 years is we have made a conscious effort to continue to diversify our supply base, not just by the number of suppliers but by the geographies from which we obtain product. That's part of our covenant with our customer. We balance that with cost effectiveness. And because if you -- it's sitting on the customer and saying, what's the trade-off of what we're willing to spend for supply chain to have that diversity of supply because there is a trade-off there.

我們一直在做的一件事，並且在過去的四五年裡一直在進行，就是我們有意識地努力繼續實現我們的供應基礎的多元化，不僅是透過供應商的數量，而且是透過我們獲得產品的地理位置。這是我們與客戶簽訂的契約的一部分。我們平衡這一點與成本效益。因為如果你——它坐在客戶面前說，我們願意為供應鏈花費什麼來實現供應的多樣性，因為那裡存在權衡。

Obviously, tariffs can have 2 impacts. One, it changes the math exercise of the trade-off. It also increases the expense of supply chain. To the extent it increases the cost of the customer supply chain, that will manifest itself in our revenue growing little bit faster because we're pricing that as it's coming through. But our covenant with our customer is to always have an incredibly reliable source of supply, impeccable quality in that supply and a cost-effective supply chain and we balance those every day.

顯然，關稅會產生兩個影響。第一，它改變了權衡的數學練習。這也增加了供應鏈的成本。在某種程度上，它增加了客戶供應鏈的成本，這將體現在我們的收入成長稍快一些，因為我們是在它發生時對其進行定價的。但我們與客戶的契約是始終擁有極其可靠的供應來源、無可挑剔的供應品質以及具有成本效益的供應鏈，我們每天都在平衡這些。

Probably the only thing I would add to that is our execution wasn't as crisp as we might have liked during the first period where there was tariffs. Remember, there's also some ancillary inflation on top of the tariff that was occurring at that time. And we struggled a little bit to sort of capture it all in the moment. I would say that since then, and frankly, because of that period, we made significant investments in the technology that we utilize to understand the environment and communicate internally and externally with sort of the structure of our business and how we kind of manage our pricing and costing processes.

也許我唯一要補充的是，我們的執行並不像我們在第一個關稅時期所希望的那樣清晰。請記住，除了當時發生的關稅之外，還存在一些輔助通貨膨脹。我們費了點力氣才捕捉到這一刻的一切。我想說，從那時起，坦白說，因為那段時期，我們對技術進行了大量投資，我們利用這些技術來了解環境並透過我們的業務結構以及我們如何管理定價進行內部和外部溝通和成本核算流程。

And I think that you've seen the effectiveness of those changes through this last few years where there's been very significant inflation and our ability to keep up with it, fairly effectively and on time. And so again, I don't know what the future holds on that. But to the extent that there's anything that moves up the cost of product, we think we're better served to execute effectively than we were 5 years ago during the last period of time.

我認為你已經看到了過去幾年這些變化的有效性，通貨膨脹非常嚴重，而且我們有能力相當有效和準時地跟上它。再說一次，我不知道未來會怎樣。但就任何會增加產品成本的因素而言，我們認為，與 5 年前的最後一段時間相比，我們更能有效地執行。

Next question today is coming from Stephen Volkmann from Jefferies.

今天的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Stephen Volkmann。

Holden, you mentioned in your gross margin comments that -- you mentioned transportation resources and a little bit of price degradation, I guess. I'm just curious, have you changed your view of sort of the cadence of gross margin as we move into the next 3 quarters?

霍頓，你在毛利率評論中提到——我猜你提到了運輸資源和一點價格下降。我只是好奇，隨著我們進入接下來的三個季度，您對毛利率節奏的看法是否有所改變？

No, I haven't. I think my original comment was that you wouldn't see quite as much mix impact and there may be some offsets. And so as we expected to see gross margin down in 2024, it may not be down as much as it has been in historical periods. I think first quarter was representative of that down 20 basis points. And I think that, that narrative still very much holds true. Now some of the investments that I alluded to, some of those fall in SG&A, some of those falling COGS.

不，我沒有。我認為我最初的評論是，你不會看到那麼多的混合影響，並且可能會有一些抵消。因此，儘管我們預計 2024 年毛利率會下降，但下降幅度可能不會像歷史時期那麼大。我認為第一季下降了 20 個基點。我認為，這種說法仍然非常正確。現在，我提到的一些投資，其中一些投資在銷售管理費用（SG&A）方面有所下降，其中一些投資在銷貨成本（COGS）方面有所下降。

And so I think that there will be perhaps a little bit of a delta in Q2 specifically. I think we sort of addressed that. But by and large, I think that the variables that we anticipated resulting in a, perhaps, more subdued drag on margin in 2024. I still see them very much in place. So no change to how I feel about gross margin cadence.

因此，我認為第二季可能會出現一些增量。我想我們已經解決了這個問題。但總的來說，我認為我們預期的變數可能會在 2024 年對利潤率產生更溫和的拖累。因此，我對毛利率節奏的看法並沒有改變。

Great. And then switching back to the customer expo. Is that the kind of event where you actually sign up various things like actual revenue comes out of it? Or is it more of a customer relationship type building exercise?

偉大的。然後切換回客戶博覽會。在這種活動中，你實際上會簽署各種東西，例如從中產生實際收入嗎？或者它更像是一種客戶關係類型的建立活動？

It's both, but there's a lot of -- one thing that we're able to do with an event like that is that sometimes the attention of decision makers is a challenge in the process and the communication in that group. The nice thing about the customers show is that we get the right audience in attending and that includes on both Fastenal and the customer side. That's not one way or the other. It's also an incredible awareness element from the standpoint of -- sometimes seeing and touching vending machine, seeing an RFID setup, understanding how we go to market, talking to some suppliers, talking to other customers.

兩者兼而有之，但對於這樣的事件，我們能夠做的一件事是，有時決策者的注意力對整個過程和該群體的溝通構成了挑戰。客戶展會的好處是我們吸引了合適的觀眾參加，其中包括 Fastenal 和客戶方面。這不是一種方式或另一種方式。從有時看到和觸摸自動販賣機、看到 RFID 設定、了解我們如何進入市場、與一些供應商交談、與其他客戶交談的角度來看，這也是一個令人難以置信的意識元素。

And we also hold quite a few seminars where we're talking through different pieces. And what we try to convey is the nature of the supply chain you have that comes through Fastenal, why we believe it's special for you. Not why Fastenal is special, why we believe this channel of supply chain, which happens to be Fastenal is special. And there's deals that get closed as a result of that. But there's a lot of expansion that gets opened up.

我們也舉辦了許多研討會，討論不同的內容。我們試圖傳達的是您透過 Fastenal 擁有的供應鏈的性質，以及為什麼我們相信它對您來說很特別。不是為什麼 Fastenal 很特別，而是為什麼我們相信這個供應鏈管道（剛好是 Fastenal）很特別。有些交易因此而結束。但有很多擴展被打開。

And for a number of years ago, I was directly involved with our national accounts team. In that several year period, I had more meetings with customers than I probably had in the previous 15 years. And the one thing that always amazed me is, we would have a customer that's doing $20 million a year with us. And I'd come out of that conversation with the direct knowledge of they could triple or quadruple their business with us if they decided to. And what we need to do is give them a reason to decide to because we believe we're the best supply chain partner for -- in that marketplace.

幾年前，我直接參與了我們的國民帳戶團隊。在那幾年裡，我與客戶會面的次數可能比過去 15 年還要多。一直令我驚訝的一件事是，我們的客戶每年為我們帶來 2000 萬美元的收入。從那次談話中我直接了解到，如果他們決定的話，他們可以將我們的業務增加三倍或四倍。我們需要做的是給他們一個做出決定的理由，因為我們相信我們是這個市場中最好的供應鏈夥伴。

And part of it is telling the story and it does a great job. But to directly answer your question, it's a little bit of both.

其中一部分是講故事，而且做得很好。但要直接回答你的問題，兩者兼具。

Make no mistake, Stephen, if we have to talk to you about what the impact of the cost is going to be in the second quarter, we do expect a return on it. It may not all happen at the show, but it's expected to happen shortly thereafter.

毫無疑問，史蒂芬，如果我們必須與您討論成本對第二季的影響，我們確實期望獲得回報。這可能不會全部發生在展會上，但預計會在展會後不久發生。

Your next question is coming from Jacob Levinson from Melius Research.

您的下一個問題來自 Melius Research 的 Jacob Levinson。

Holden, you mentioned a couple of very broad end markets that have been challenging, I think, for a little while now, fabricated metals and machinery. Obviously, those are pretty broad. And certainly, we've got some cycles that seem to be rolling over like ag and truck. But just trying to get a sense of where the negative outliers are today for your trucks?

霍頓，您提到了幾個非常廣泛的終端市場，我認為，一段時間以來，金屬和機械製造一直對這些市場構成挑戰。顯然，這些範圍相當廣泛。當然，我們有一些週期似乎正在滾動，就像農業和卡車一樣。但只是想了解您的卡車今天的負面異常值在哪裡？

Yes. If those categories are too broad for you, take that up with the federal government. I'm just going by SIC codes. I don't know what the outliers are. At this point, and honestly, I think it kind of is reflective in the end market chart that we have in the press release. At this stage, pretty much every end market is converging on itself. We're well over a year here of sluggish demand in a market that I think has affected most markets.

是的。如果這些類別對您來說太廣泛，請向聯邦政府提出。我只是根據 SIC 代碼。我不知道異常值是什麼。老實說，我認為這在我們新聞稿中的終端市場圖表中得到了反映。在這個階段，幾乎每個終端市場都在自我融合。我們已經經歷了一年多的市場需求低迷，我認為這已經影響了大多數市場。

And so when I talk to the regional leadership and they provide their feedback, there's different times when certain markets are called out because they're either stronger or weaker or what have you. At this point, I'm not getting a lot of end market call outs, which suggests to me that people are kind of feeling a general softness across the board. So I don't have a lot of market-by-market color to add. I'm not sure there is much.

因此，當我與地區領導層交談並且他們提供回饋時，某些市場會在不同的時間被叫出來，因為它們要么更強，要么更弱，或者有什麼不同。目前，我還沒有收到很多終端市場的呼聲，這顯示人們普遍感到整體疲軟。所以我沒有太多的市場色彩可以補充。我不確定有多少。

Yes. That is good color. Maybe expanding a little bit on Steve's question on pricing, I mean, certainly, steel is more important for you folks and we've seen inflation being a little bit sticky. We've got copper prices going up, and oil prices going up. Just trying to get a sense of, and maybe it's too early, frankly, to be even asking this, but just trying to get a sense of what the appetite is in your supply base to take prices up again this year.

是的。那是好顏色。也許稍微擴展一下史蒂夫關於定價的問題，我的意思是，當然，鋼鐵對你們來說更重要，而且我們已經看到通貨膨脹有點黏性。銅價上漲，石油價格上漲。只是想了解一下，坦白說，現在問這個問題可能還為時過早，但只是想了解一下您的供應基地今年再次提價的胃口。

I don't know that I've heard about a lot of appetite. Now a couple of things, I think, that you should recognize. One is I think a lot of people look at the U.S. steel indexes, I would tell you that we're more associated with foreign steel indexes and those have not been particularly volatile, frankly. I think the U.S. ones are behaving in a different fashion than the Taiwanese or Chinese ones.

不知道有沒有聽過食慾大增。我認為現在有幾件事你應該要認識到。一是我認為很多人都會關注美國鋼鐵指數，我會告訴你，我們與外國鋼鐵指數的連結更多，坦白說，這些指數的波動性並不是特別大。我認為美國的行為方式與台灣或中國的行為方式不同。

And so we're not necessarily seeing the steel inflation that people keep asking me about. Two, bear in mind that by the time fastener is made and shipped and sold to the mark up through the channel, et cetera, the actual value of the raw material in the final product is probably 1/3 or slightly less of the total value. So I mean, I know we're selling a slug of steel, but there's a lot of value add wrapped on top of the initial raw material.

因此，我們不一定會看到人們一直問我的鋼鐵通膨。第二，請記住，當緊固件被製造、運輸並透過通路等加價出售時，最終產品中原材料的實際價值可能是總價值的 1/3 或略低。所以我的意思是，我知道我們正在銷售一塊鋼材，但在最初的原材料之上還有很多附加價值。

And so honestly, as long as I've been here, and Dan might be able to speak to prior periods. But as long as I've been here, steel hasn't really been a catalyst to raising or lowering prices. Transportation has been more meaningful. So I don't think that I'm hearing anything. And Dan and I have spoken to different people, different group, and might have a different perspective. I don't think I'm hearing anything that says we're seeing rampant inflation in raw materials that we need to start thinking about raising prices.

老實說，只要我還在這裡，丹也許就能談論之前的時期。但自從我來到這裡以來，鋼鐵並沒有真正成為價格上漲或下跌的催化劑。交通變得更有意義。所以我認為我沒有聽到任何聲音。丹和我與不同的人、不同的群體交談過，可能有不同的觀點。我認為我沒有聽到任何消息說我們看到原材料通貨膨脹猖獗，我們需要開始考慮提高價格。

If I look at the fastener subset, and Holden touched on this in his earnings release because you have to look at where steel is used and it's steel, the copper prices has been very meaningful in our business. One element that as FMIs become a bigger part of the business, you get new indicators in the business. And I talked about what we're seeing in the vending and what we're seeing on Onsite.

如果我看一下緊固件子集，霍頓在他的收益報告中談到了這一點，因為你必須看看鋼的使用地點以及它的鋼，銅價對我們的業務非常有意義。隨著 FMI 成為業務的重要組成部分，您將在業務中獲得新的指標。我談到了我們在自動販賣機和現場看到的情況。

Another one is related to our bin stock app. And so that's now about 13%, 14% of our sales. And there's a high concentration of fasteners in there, not exclusive, but a high concentration. There's a lot of OEMs. And so there's -- in our other product lines, there's OEM aspects in there as well. But I don't have apples-and-apples comparison to last March because we were still transitioning off our legacy bin stock app platform, the MC devices.

另一個與我們的 bin stock 應用程式有關。現在這大約占我們銷售額的 13%、14%。而且那裡的緊固件高度集中，不是排他性的，而是高度集中的。有很多 OEM 廠商。因此，在我們的其他產品線中，也有 OEM 方面的內容。但我沒有與去年 3 月進行同類比較，因為我們仍在從舊的 bin stock 應用程式平台 MC 設備過渡。

But in April of 2023, we were doing just over 16,000 transactions, orders per day using a mobility device in Android device scanning bins. The dollars per order was 320,000 orders for the month, so 16,000 a day. Dollars per order were $232. In March of 2024, 11 months later, we did 362,000 orders during the month, so 17,240-some a day, $2.16, so it's down $16 or 7% from a year ago. I would venture to say 2/3 of that is pricing and the other 1/3 is just underlying consumption. And that's an estimate because we don't have great visibility into it.

但到 2023 年 4 月，我們每天使用行動裝置在 Android 裝置掃描箱中完成 16,000 多筆交易和訂單。該月每個訂單的金額為 320,000 個訂單，即每天 16,000 個。每個訂單的金額為 232 美元。 11 個月後的 2024 年 3 月，我們當月收到了 362,000 個訂單，也就是說每天有 17,240 個訂單，售價為 2.16 美元，所以比一年前下降了 16 美元或 7%。我敢說其中 2/3 是定價，另外 1/3 只是潛在消費。這是一個估計，因為我們對此沒有很好的了解。

That number when we started the quarter, it was kind of in the low 220s and now it's around 216s. I don't know how much Good Friday played into that, maybe a point of it. But there is different pricing going on. So part of the negative in fasteners, as Holden touched on in the press release, is pricing, but it's also a weak demand environment.

當我們本季開始時，這個數字大約在 220 左右，現在約為 216 左右。我不知道耶穌受難日對此有何影響，也許是其中的一個原因。但存在不同的定價。因此，正如霍頓在新聞稿中提到的那樣，緊固件的部分負面因素是定價，但這也是需求環境疲軟的原因。

Your next question is coming from Patrick Baumann from JPMorgan.

您的下一個問題來自摩根大通的派崔克鮑曼。

I wanted to ask about something you mentioned in the press release. It says -- towards the back of your release it says, like less store closures should result in an increase in growth of end market locations going forward. I see how that would make a lot of sense. I guess I just wonder if you could address the degree to which store closures in the past have contributed to the Onsite location growth that you've seen.

我想問你在新聞稿中提到的一些事情。它說——在發布的後面，它說，關閉商店的次數應該會導致未來終端市場地點的成長增加。我明白這很有意義。我想我只是想知道您是否可以解決過去商店關閉對您所看到的現場位置增長的貢獻程度。

And then relatedly, what drives confidence that you can organically sustain that level of growth without the help of business coming over from the stores going forward? And maybe this is just a misunderstanding on my part of what's driven the Onsite growth in the past. And so if you could kind of clarify that, that would be super helpful.

與此相關的是，是什麼讓您相信，在未來無需商店業務幫助的情況下，您可以有機地維持這種增長水平？也許這只是我對過去 Onsite 成長推動因素的誤解。因此，如果您能澄清這一點，那將非常有幫助。

If there was a camera in the room, sometimes you might chuckle at the reactions you get from Dan and Holden looking at each other during a question because I kind of gave Holden a look, is that's in there. And I say it that way because back in about 2014 -- 2013, we really came to a conclusion, we had too many locations for the market. And we felt a better way to grow into the future was through the Onsite strategy. And we tempered the desire to close the locations too fast.

如果房間裡有攝像頭，有時你可能會因為丹和霍爾頓在提問時互相看著對方的反應而咯咯笑，因為我有點看了霍爾頓一眼，那是在裡面嗎？我這麼說是因為早在 2014 年至 2013 年，我們確實得出了一個結論，我們的市場位置太多了。我們認為，實現未來發展的更好方法是透過現場策略。我們也緩和了過快關門店的願望。

And these weren't large locations. We tempered it from the standpoint of the biggest limiting factor for Fastenal historically hasn't been opportunity, i.e., size of the market. It hasn't been financial ability to pull it off. It's been talent acquisition and talent development. That's why we have a very thoughtful process of how we recruit, and we have our own corporate university to develop talent because that's what we bring to the market, talent, and that talent is armed by a great supply chain system behind them to help them be really, really effective.

而且這些地方都不大。我們從歷史上對 Fastenal 最大的限制因素的角度來看，並不是機會，即市場規模，而是對此進行了調整。它沒有經濟能力來實現這一目標。這是人才獲取和人才發展。這就是為什麼我們在招募方面有一個非常深思熟慮的流程，我們有自己的企業大學來培養人才，因為這就是我們為市場帶來的人才，而這些人才背後有一個強大的供應鏈系統來幫助他們真正非常有效。

And so we tempered the closures really to -- because we felt that talent could slide over into the other -- into branches that are growing but also into this new Onsite growth element because we had the talent to move. And if we had closed a bunch of locations, we'd have lost that talent. What we also tried to do is, we try to be very thoughtful about what it meant from the perspective of moving that -- if we have a community with 2 or 3 Fastenal locations, in a perfect world, we would like to keep that business in the other branches.

因此，我們確實對關閉進行了緩和，因為我們認為人才可能會轉移到其他部門 - 進入正在增長的分支機構，但也進入這個新的現場增長元素，因為我們有人才流動。如果我們關閉了很多地點，我們就會失去人才。我們還嘗試做的是，我們嘗試從搬家的角度深思熟慮這意味著什麼——如果我們有一個擁有 2 或 3 個 Fastenal 地點的社區，在完美的世界中，我們希望保留這項業務在其他分支機構。

Now if the business goes to an Onsite that's because there was a larger opportunity in the first place and it moved into an Onsite. I don't know that closing branches led to Onsite or growth of Onsites. I'm not sure was a customer there. And sometimes we close branches because it was a remote market. And the only reason we were there was because of 2 customers. And we went Onsite with those 2 customers, and we closed that branch. That did happen. But usually what happened is those 2 customers were doing 30,000 a month with us each and now they're doing 130,000 a month with us each and that was the appeal of the strategy.

現在，如果業務轉移到現場，那是因為首先有更大的機會，所以它轉移到了現場。我不知道關閉分行會導致 Onsite 或 Onsite 的成長。我不確定那裡有顧客。有時我們會關閉分支機構，因為那是一個偏遠的市場。我們在那裡的唯一原因是因為 2 位顧客。我們與這兩位客戶一起前往現場，並關閉了該分店。那確實發生了。但通常發生的情況是，這 2 個客戶每個月都會與我們一起做 30,000 件事情，現在他們每個月與我們一起做 130,000 件事情，這就是該策略的吸引力。

But there were trade-offs in that. For the annual meeting this year, I do plan on sharing some insight on some of the trade-offs we've made as an organization as we've closed locations because this is a piece that doesn't always get talked about. But if I go back and when I have district manager conversations, I get a whole bunch of stats from our statistics folks, I wear them out. And I get it district by district. But if I look at it at a company level, in 2007, cash customers, so that's somebody that comes into a branch, it is a purely retail customer.

但這是需要權衡的。在今年的年會上，我確實計劃分享一些關於我們作為一個組織在關閉地點時所做的一些權衡的見解，因為這是一個不總是被談論的話題。但如果我回去與地區經理交談時，我會從我們的統計人員那裡得到一大堆統計數據，我就會厭倦它們。我逐一地區地了解它。但如果我從公司層級來看，2007 年，現金客戶，也就是進入分公司的人，就是純粹的零售客戶。

In 2007, our total sales with that customer, it was 4% of our revenue. It was $76 million. 5 years later, that $76 million had grown to $78 million. And the reason it didn't grow very much, we weren't opening very many locations because we pulled our location growth way down in 2007 and that customer was kind of stagnant.

2007 年，我們與該客戶的總銷售額占我們收入的 4%。這是 7600 萬美元。 5 年後，這 7,600 萬美元成長到了 7,800 萬美元。成長幅度不大的原因是我們沒有開太多門市，因為我們在 2007 年大幅降低了門市成長速度，而且顧客數量停滯不前。

Interestingly enough, that $78 million 5 years later had grown to $111 million that was 2017. 2 years after that in 2019, the year before COVID started, that had dropped to $106 million, so it dropped 5% in that 2-year period. During COVID, that business was pummeled because we closed all our front locations and the marketplace decided to order -- to buy more through e-commerce than to buy retail. And I think we all know that in our own personal life that $106 million went to $75 million, it's now 1% of our sales. We made the strategic decision to keep the doors closed.

有趣的是，5 年後的7,800 萬美元已成長到2017 年的1.11 億美元，因此在這兩年後的2019 年，即新冠疫情爆發的前一年，這一數字已降至1.06 億美元，因此在這兩年期間下降了5%。在新冠疫情期間，該業務受到了打擊，因為我們關閉了所有前台門市，市場決定訂購——透過電子商務購買比零售購買更多的產品。我想我們都知道，在我們自己的個人生活中，1.06 億美元變成了 7,500 萬美元，現在占我們銷售額的 1%。我們做出了關閉大門的戰略決定。

And when I say closed, they're open, but we made the decision to deemphasize going after that and redeploy those resources on other things. Just like restaurants in today's world have made the decision, they're not open on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday anymore because they can't afford, they can't find the staffing and they can't afford it.

當我說關閉時，它們是開放的，但我們決定不再強調這一點，而是將這些資源重新部署到其他事情上。就像當今世界的餐廳做出了決定一樣，他們在周一、週二、週三不再營業，因為他們負擔不起，他們找不到員工，也負擔不起。

So that $75 million that we did in 2021 was $45 million in 2023. That was a trade-off. That didn't go to another brands because if you're coming in and shopping at Fastenal like it's a hardware store, and we don't have a location, 3 locations in town and the 2 that are left are 10 minutes instead of 5 minutes away, you lose some of that business. Customers under $500. This is where they have an account number with us. That was $336 million back in 2007. 10 years later, that was $395 million. Last year, that was $153 million. Now some of that is our customers that we lost.

因此，我們 2021 年的 7,500 萬美元在 2023 年是 4,500 萬美元。這並沒有進入其他品牌，因為如果您來到 Fastenal 購物，就像它是一家五金店一樣，而我們沒有分店，鎮上有 3 個分店，剩下的 2 個是 10 分鐘而不是 5 分鐘後，您將失去一些業務。 500 美元以下的客戶。這是他們在我們這裡有一個帳號。 2007 年，這一數字為 3.36 億美元。去年，這一數字為 1.53 億美元。現在其中一些是我們失去的客戶。

Some of that is customers that now are doing $1,000 with us or $2000 with us or $3,000 with us because we moved them out of that bucket. But those are trade-offs of business makes. We think it's the right trade-off because it set us up to be really special because if you think of all the growth drivers we've introduced in the last 15 years when we deemphasized back in 2007 opening locations, vending doesn't grow a retail customer.

其中一些客戶現在在我們這裡賺了 1,000 美元，或者在我們這裡賺了 2000 美元，或者在我們這裡賺了 3,000 美元，因為我們把他們從這個桶子裡移走了。但這些都是商業行為的權衡。我們認為這是正確的權衡，因為它讓我們變得非常特別，因為如果你考慮一下我們在過去15 年中引入的所有成長動力（當時我們在2007 年淡化了開設門市），你會發現自動售貨機並沒有成長零售客戶。

Vending doesn't even grow a $400 a month customer, but it might turn out $500 into a $5,000. It might turn a $10,000 into $20,000 because between FMI and Onsite you're unlocking more business with that customer. And I went off probably on more of a tangent there than you anticipated with that question. But I think that's a critical piece to understand of the strategy of Fastenal for the last 10 to 15 years and how it's played out.

自動販賣機甚至不會增加每月 400 美元的客戶，但可能會從 500 美元變成 5,000 美元。它可能會將 10,000 美元變成 20,000 美元，因為在 FMI 和 Onsite 之間，您可以與該客戶開展更多業務。我在這個問題上的切線可能比你預期的要多。但我認為這是了解 Fastenal 過去 10 到 15 年策略及其實施方式的關鍵部分。

It absolutely is. And I would just look at the language to suggest our traditional branch count is likely to be stable to slightly up over time. As we add international, maybe there's the odd location domestically that we want to add every now and again, too.

絕對是。我只想看看這種語言，表明我們傳統的分支數量可能會隨著時間的推移而穩定到略有上升。當我們添加國際服務時，也許我們也想時不時地添加一些奇怪的國內地點。

The primary growth in those end markets locations will be because of the addition of additional Onsites. You'll just see the rate of growth ramp up because those Onsite keep coming on and you're not having the reduction in branches. That's what that was intended to get it right.

這些終端市場地點的主要成長將是由於額外現場地點的增加。您只會看到成長率上升，因為那些 Onsite 不斷出現，並且分支機構沒有減少。這就是我們的目的。

That makes sense. I appreciate the extra color there. I just have a very quick follow-up on the Onsite signings. How did things progress through the quarter? And I'm asking only because last quarter, you said maybe some slipped out of the fourth quarter for whatever reason and could have been pushed into this year. So wondering if there was any evidence of that.

這就說得通了。我很欣賞那裡的額外顏色。我只是對現場簽約進行了非常快速的跟進。本季的進展如何？我問這個問題只是因為上個季度，您說可能有些項目出於某種原因從第四季度溜出，並可能被推遲到今年。所以想知道是否有任何證據證明這一點。

It was pretty consistent all quarter. I think March was the biggest, but I'd have to look back at it. Sometimes, when you have 40 numbers in your head, you lose track of 5.

整個季度的情況都非常穩定。我認為三月是最重要的，但我必須回顧一下。有時，當你腦子裡有 40 個數字時，你就會忘記 5 個。

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。

I just have one question. Dan, you said that change is hard, and you feel good about where you're going. Can you just unpack what about the change is difficult? Or what about the changes is creating friction?

我只有一個問題。丹，你說改變很困難，你對自己要去的地方感覺很好。能簡單分析一下改變的困難之處嗎？或者說這些變化會產生摩擦嗎？

I mentioned earlier that we split the U.S. into 2 business units 15 years ago. If we were to share numbers by business unit, you would find out that there's 2 different stories going on in the business right now. In the Eastern U.S., and there's no -- it's not a coincidence why Casey Miller stepped into running into the U.S. and why 8 years ago, I think it was 8 years ago, in the fall of '95, maybe 9 years ago, or 8.5 years, I asked Casey to step out of leading our, what we referred to as, the SEC, our Southeast Central region, which is basically Kentucky and Tennessee.

我之前提到，15 年前我們將美國業務分為兩個業務部門。如果我們按業務部門分享數字，您會發現該業務目前正在發生兩種不同的情況。在美國東部，沒有——這不是巧合，為什麼凱西·米勒（Casey Miller）進入美國，為什麼是8年前，我認為是8年前，95年秋天，也許是9年前，或者8.5 年，我要求凱西不再領導我們所謂的SEC，我們的東南中部地區，基本上就是肯塔基州和田納西州。

And I asked him to run the entire Eastern U.S. Casey's done a wonderful job. It doesn't mean we agree on everything and we don't, but has once in a while, that's good and healthy. But we asked Casey -- Jeff Watts asked Casey to run the U.S. business and put the best people in the best roles for us to find success of the organization. Our Western business unit was negative this quarter.

我讓他管理整個美國東部，凱西做得非常好。這並不意味著我們在所有事情上都達成一致，或不同意，但偶爾有一次，這是好的和健康的。但我們請凱西——傑夫·瓦茨請凱西管理美國業務，並讓最優秀的人才擔任最優秀的角色，以便我們可以實現組織的成功。我們的西部業務部門本季表現不佳。

Our Eastern business unit was positive this quarter. Our Onsite signings aren't equally split between the Eastern U.S. and the Western U.S. And that's been true for a number of years. And change is hard from the standpoint. It can get entrenched into a successful business. I remember a number of years ago, and I'll pick on a particular market, and that was Des Moines, Iowa. Great market for us, great people.

我們的東部業務部門本季表現積極。我們的現場簽約在美國東部和美國西部的分佈並不均等，多年來一直如此。從角度來看，改變是困難的。它可以在成功的企業中根深蒂固。我記得很多年前，我會選擇一個特定的市場，那就是愛荷華州的得梅因。對我們來說是一個偉大的市場，偉大的人民。

We have become more obsessed with how profitable we are and our returns in that market than we were about the joy of growth. And we stirred up that pot, and we made a change 5 years ago and said, no, we're about growth and expanding the people we partner with, as much as we are about making a great return for our shareholders because ultimately, the best answer for our shareholders and our employees is grow the business, grow the opportunity, grow the returns.

我們變得更加沉迷於我們在該市場的獲利能力和回報，而不是成長的喜悅。我們攪動了這個鍋，我們在5 年前做出了改變，我們說，不，我們關心的是成長和擴大我們的合作夥伴，就像我們關心的是為股東帶來豐厚的回報一樣，因為最終，對我們的股東和員工來說，最好的答案是發展業務、增加機會、增加回報。

And I'm pleased to say that we've done that. In fact, I'm keeping my hand on a couple of things, I'm going to talk about in the annual meeting. One is some of the trade-offs we've made and some is looking at some discrete markets we're in and what those trade-offs have meant to a mature business who decided, you know what, I'm going to get dressed today a little differently than I have for the last 20 years, I'm going to go out and engage in the marketplace in a fundamentally different way and the people we've been promoting into leadership roles, whether it be branch managers, district managers or regional Vice Presidents as well as people like Casey Miller.

我很高興地說我們已經做到了。事實上，我正在關註一些事情，我將在年會上討論這些事情。一個是我們所做的一些權衡，還有一些是著眼於我們所處的一些離散市場，以及這些權衡對於一個成熟的企業意味著什麼，你知道嗎，我要穿好衣服今天與過去20 年略有不同，我將以一種根本不同的方式走出去，參與市場，我們一直提拔的人擔任領導職務，無論是分公司經理、地區經理或地區副總裁以及像凱西·米勒這樣的人。

We want people that have more joy in growing the business than in just harvesting the business. And Holden needs to keep us balanced because he just clutched his heart when I said that. We want to do both, but it's a growth issue. And sometimes you have to change how you go to market.

我們希望人們在發展業務時獲得比僅僅收穫業務更多的快樂。霍爾頓需要讓我們保持平衡，因為當我這麼說時，他只是摀住了心。我們想兩者兼得，但這是一個成長問題。有時您必須改變進入市場的方式。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question is coming from Nigel Coe from Wolfe Research.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Nigel Coe。

And Nigel, this will be our -- it's 5 minutes to the hour, so this will be our last question. And Nigel, go ahead.

奈傑爾，這將是我們的——現在還有 5 分鐘，所以這將是我們的最後一個問題。奈傑爾，繼續吧。

This is actually [Will Frank] on for Nigel. I guess, first on price/cost, pricing flat in the quarter. I guess do you think that you can say price/cost positive if pricing remains flat. And then maybe just if you could let us know how pricing was in the quarter ex fasteners. That would be really helpful.

這其實是[威爾·弗蘭克]為奈傑爾做的。我想，首先是價格/成本，本季定價持平。我想您是否認為如果價格保持不變，您可以說價格/成本為正。然後也許您可以讓我們知道本季緊固件的定價情況。這真的很有幫助。

Pricing ex fasteners remains positive. And pricing at this point is, frankly, within that kind of 0% to 2% range. And so you can kind of conclude that whatever we're negative on fasteners is being largely offset, maybe a little more than offset with nonfasteners. And at this point, to be honest, the pricing environment is fairly unremarkable, which is why we're not giving it as much time and energy in our dialogue. So that's probably how I would characterize that. And I'm sorry, what was the first part I might have missed?

緊固件的定價仍然為正。坦白說，目前的定價在 0% 到 2% 的範圍內。所以你可以得出這樣的結論：無論我們對緊固件的負面看法在很大程度上被抵消了，也許比非緊固件的抵消還要多一點。老實說，目前的定價環境相當平常，這就是為什麼我們沒有在對話中投入太多時間和精力。這可能就是我的描述。抱歉，我可能錯過的第一部分是什麼？

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

謝謝。我們的問答環節結束了。我想將發言權交還給管理階層，以徵求進一步的意見或結束意見。

Thank you again for joining us on the call today. We'll be having our annual meeting here in a couple of weeks. It's on a Thursday. I believe it's the 25th, but it's a Thursday, and I don't have calendar in front of me. And I'd like to share a trip I did last week, got the opportunity to go out and visit our folks at Holo-Krome out in Connecticut. And Holo-Krome is an organization we acquired back in 2009, it was in the process of being shut down and that production moving offshore, and we didn't want to see the loss of a domestic manufacturer of their quality and their status in the United States, so we've acquired it.

再次感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。幾週後我們將在這裡召開年會。今天是星期四。我相信今天是 25 號，但今天是星期四，我面前沒有日曆。我想分享我上週的一次旅行，有機會出去拜訪康乃狄克州 Holo-Krome 的人們。 Holo-Krome 是我們在 2009 年收購的公司，當時它正處於關閉過程中，生產正在向海外轉移，我們不希望看到國內製造商的品質和在行業中的地位下降。收購了它。

I was pleased to have the opportunity to go out there and celebrate tenure. There were 5 individuals, and this is a business with 100-and-some employees. But there were 5 individuals out there who celebrated 40-plus years with Fastenal. We went up to celebrate that. All told, there were 20-plus people in that organization with more than 25 years of experience, a combination of, obviously, Holo-Krome and Holo-Krome being a partner to -- joining the Fastenal organization back in 2009, great trip, great people. We keep finding people like that, we'll be successful in this market for years to come. Thanks, everybody. Have a great day.

我很高興有機會出去慶祝終身教職。有5個人，這是一個有100多名員工的企業。但有 5 個人慶祝了 Fastenal 的 40 多年歷史。我們上去慶祝一下。總而言之，該組織中有 20 多人，擁有超過 25 年的經驗，顯然，Holo-Krome 和 Holo-Krome 是合作夥伴，早在 2009 年就加入了 Fastenal 組織，這是一次很棒的旅程，很棒的人。我們不斷尋找這樣的人才，未來幾年我們將在這個市場取得成功。謝謝大家。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you.

謝謝。

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

謝謝。今天的電話會議網路廣播到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路，度過美好的一天。我們感謝您今天的參與。