快扣 (FAST) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Fastenal second quarter 2024 earnings results conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

早安，歡迎參加 Fastenal 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。 （操作員指示）謹此提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to turn the call over to Taylor Ranta of Fastenal Company. Thank you, you may begin.

我現在想將電話轉給 Fastenal 公司的 Taylor Ranta。謝謝，你可以開始了。

Welcome to the Fastenal Company 2024 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.

歡迎參加 Fastenal 公司 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。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。

The call will last up to one 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. Today's conference call, the proprietary Fastenal presentation and it's being recorded by Fastenal. No recording, reproduction, transmission or distribution of today's call is permitted without Fastenal's consent.

電話會議將持續長達一小時，首先將概述我們的季度業績和營運情況，其餘時間則開放提問和回答。今天的電話會議是 Fastenal 專有的演示，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。

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, 2024, at midnight Central Time.

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 9 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.

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。

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 these factors carefully.

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'd 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, and good morning, everybody, and welcome to the second quarter 2024 earnings call. Before I start on the quarter, I just wanted to share a couple of things. First off, I wanted to share a story about an [Onsite] of ours in Sweeny, Texas and I was speaking with Steve Diekman, our Regional Vice President based out of Houston, and for those of you that -- I suspect most people on the call are aware that Houston periodically gets hurricanes, and they had a hurricane.

謝謝大家，大家早安，歡迎參加 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。在開始本季之前，我只想分享一些事情。首先，我想分享一個關於我們在德克薩斯州斯威尼的[現場]的故事，我正在與我們駐休斯敦的區域副總裁史蒂夫迪克曼交談，對於你們中的人來說——我懷疑大多數人打電話的人知道休士頓定期遭受颶風，他們也遭遇了颶風。

And typically, what happens when there's a hurricane, and this might be Steve Diekman in Houston and might be Bob Harper down in Florida. Oftentimes they'll get a call from Europe from [Casey] and to see these industries before, this everything's gone.

通常，當颶風發生時會發生什麼，這可能是休士頓的史蒂夫·迪克曼，也可能是佛羅裡達州的鮑勃哈珀。通常他們會接到[凱西]從歐洲打來的電話，並在之前看到這些行業，這一切都消失了。

And we often remind them of we got their back. And what that means is, when you're in the chaos of the moment, you're forced to make decisions on the fly and there's a lot of things going on and somebody with 2020 hindsight a week later might pick apart a decision you make at 3:00 in the morning to solve a problem. My comment to Steve and Bob, as always, we've got your back, make great decisions to take care of our customers and to protect your employees, period.

我們經常提醒他們，我們支持他們。這意味著，當你處於混亂的時刻時，你被迫匆忙做出決定，並且發生了很多事情，一周後，具有 2020 年後見之明的人可能會駁斥你所做的決定凌晨3:00解決一個問題。我對史蒂夫和鮑勃的評論是，一如既往，我們會支持你們，做出偉大的決定來照顧我們的客戶並保護你們的員工。

So -- and the second thing, and this happened a few years ago, read an article about a retirement community in Florida during the hurricane. They were without power and without resources for a few days. And when you read something like that, you are kind of like, how the hell does that happened in today's world?

因此，第二件事發生在幾年前，閱讀了一篇關於颶風期間佛羅裡達州退休社區的文章。他們連續幾天沒有電力和資源。當你讀到這樣的東西時，你會想，這到底是怎麼發生在當今世界的？

And so, one thing I often will throw in there and say, hey, make sure your branches are paying attention to facilities around their area. There might be a hospital, there might be retirement home, whatever it is, call them up to see if they're okay, so they need something. I don't care if they're a customer of ours or not. Be there to help because that's what we are, we're a supply chain when people need stuff.

因此，我經常會拋出一件事並說，嘿，確保您的分支機構正在關注其區域周圍的設施。可能有醫院，可能有養老院，無論是什麼，打電話給他們看看他們是否還好，所以他們需要一些東西。我不在乎他們是否是我們的客戶。隨時提供幫助，因為這就是我們的本質，當人們需要東西時，我們就是一條供應鏈。

So we have an Onsite in Sweeny, Texas with Phillips 66, it's a refining facility. Refining facilities can be demanding customers. You think about what they we do, it's a facility where really bad things can happen if they're not on their A-game. And so, they need something, they don't need it tomorrow. They don't need it next week, they need it.

我們在德州斯威尼設有 Phillips 66 現場煉油廠。煉油設施可能是要求嚴格的客戶。你想想他們和我們所做的事情，在這個設施裡，如果他們沒有發揮出最佳狀態，那麼糟糕的事情就可能發生。所以，他們需要一些東西，明天就不需要了。下週他們不需要它，他們需要它。

And so, Wade, one of our employees at the Onsite. He comes into work on Sunday evening, doesn't normally come into work on Sunday evening. He came to be there all night long because if they need something, he's there to supply that need.

韋德，我們 Onsite 的一名員工。他週日晚上上班，通常週日晚上不上班。他整夜都在那裡，因為如果他們需要什麼，他就會在那裡滿足他們的需要。

So the hurricane hit on Monday about 2:00 in the morning, I think it lasted about six hours in that area. Good chunk of Houston is without power right now. But our customers in that area gets served by Fastenal. If you go to our branches, you'd find a lot of our branches right now have no power.

颶風於週一凌晨 2 點左右襲擊，我認為該地區持續了大約六個小時。休士頓大部分地區目前斷電。但 Fastenal 為​​該地區的客戶提供服務。如果你去我們的分行，你會發現我們很多分行現在都沒有電。

Their point-of-sale system and their lights are being run by generators, which means when there's 106-degree heat index, it gets a little warm in there. So in the afternoon, they happened to their pick-ups, and they go call on their top 15 customers, they'll call their other customers is there anything we need?

他們的銷售點系統和燈光由發電機運行，這意味著當炎熱指數達到 106 度時，裡面會有點熱。所以下午，他們碰巧去接送貨，他們打電話給前 15 位客戶，他們會打電話給其他客戶，我們需要什麼嗎？

Most other businesses are hunkered down -- maybe not being there in the same way, we're all there for a pragmatic reason on the way you're going to get AC at 1:00 PM in the afternoon in 106-degree heat indexes be in your truck. But goes to your customer, let them know we're there to serve, great thing about Fastenal and thank you to Wade for doing the night shift on Monday morning.

大多數其他企業都在蹲守 - 也許不會以同樣的方式在那裡，我們都在那裡是出於務實的原因，因為您將在下午 1:00 在 106 度的高溫指數下獲得空調在你的卡車裡。但是，請聯繫您的客戶，讓他們知道我們隨時為您提供服務，Fastenal 的偉大之處，並感謝韋德週一早上值夜班。

Secondly, I want to touch on is I want to congratulate our technology team. Last fall, we did a lot -- we're starting some projects around AI or as I prefer to refer to it internally, FI. It's not artificial intelligence, it's Fastenal intelligence because the source data is our data and it's a really robust system that we decided to go out and build.

其次，我想祝賀我們的技術團隊。去年秋天，我們做了很多工作——我們正在啟動一些圍繞人工智慧的項目，或者我更喜歡在內部提到它，FI。這不是人工智慧，而是 Fastenal 智能，因為來源資料是我們的數據，這是我們決定要建構的一個非常強大的系統。

And our goal is to roll it out in the second quarter for our folks starts using it. Rolled out on June 28. It's out there, our folks are using it. And I had the ability to test it some in early June. What amazed me, it's scary good what this technology can do. And the way it's set up is we have a general information -- it's our chat bot Blue that we created about five years ago

我們的目標是在第二季推出它，讓我們的人們開始使用它。於 6 月 28 日推出。我有能力在六月初對其進行一些測試。令我驚訝的是，這項技術能做到的事情真是太可怕了。它的設置方式是我們有一個一般訊息——這是我們大約五年前創建的聊天機器人 Blue

In the old system had 130,000, 140,000 Q&A payers, and based on a probability match, you got what you got. Now, you actually get a well thought out answer and it tells you the source of your information and you can look internally at Fastenal only data. So it's Fastenal intelligence.

舊系統裡有13萬、14萬個問答付費者，根據機率匹配，你得到你得到的。現在，您實際上得到了一個經過深思熟慮的答案，它告訴您資訊的來源，您可以在內部查看僅限 Fastenal 的數據。這就是 Fastenal 智能。

And if you want to go deeper, you can go externally if you want. But you know the source, and you know how it is, the source of information is the quality of information. And sometimes you get what you get when you're on the wild web.

而如果你想深入的話，如果你願意的話，你可以去外面。但你知道來源，也知道它是怎麼樣的，資訊的來源就是資訊的品質。有時，當您在狂野的網路上時，您會得到您所得到的東西。

But it's great information on general supply chain questions. We have embedded Bob Kierlin's [book departed] fast on people. So there's great leadership inside. Think you're asking Bob a question. It's published right now in 30-plus languages. And the next piece we're working on is going to deploy here in Q3 is an AI-assisted sourcing tool.

但這是有關一般供應鏈問題的重要資訊。我們已經將鮑勃·基爾林（Bob Kierlin）的[已出版的書]快速植入人們的腦海中。所以內部有很強的領導力。認為你在問鮑伯一個問題。目前已以 30 多種語言出版。我們正在開發的下一個專案將在第三季部署，即人工智慧輔助採購工具。

And conceptually, what we're after is an employee to be able to look -- hop on this tool and identify what is the side the customer is asking for? What else is it? So I can help rationalize clear product substitutions, depending on if you need it right now, maybe this isn't available for three days.

從概念上講，我們所追求的是員工能夠使用這個工具並確定客戶需要的是什麼？還有什麼？因此，我可以幫助合理化明確的產品替代品，這取決於您現在是否需要，也許三天內都無法提供。

But we have three things that could substitute for it what do you need, and then understanding the supply chain. This is readily available. This is difficult to get and you could have that discussion with your customer and then understand the market for that, what's the price in the market, what should you expect to pay for it? Maybe it's something we haven't sold before.

但我們有三件事可以取代你需要什麼，然後了解供應鏈。這是很容易獲得的。這是很難得到的，你可以與你的客戶進行討論，然後了解市場，市場價格是多少，你應該為此付出什麼代價？也許這是我們以前沒有賣過的東西。

But it really is a tool that's being built, going to roll it out in the third quarter. We're excited about it, and we'll see how it goes from there, but Fastenal intelligence, not artificial intelligence.

但它確實是一個正在建構的工具，將於第三季推出。我們對此感到興奮，我們將看看它如何發展，但Fastenal 智能，而不是人工智慧。

Third, take a look at the [flip book]. Talk a little bit about the quarter. Tough quarter, net sales grew about 2%. Underlying market remains challenging. EPS was $0.51, down about 2%. The item I shared with the Board yesterday, the team within Fastenal looks in a mirror and says, what are we being paid to do? Are we being paid to defend margin? We're growing 2%. Or are we being paid to figure out how to not grow 2%?

第三，看一下【翻頁書】。談談本季的情況。艱難的季度，淨銷售額成長約 2%。基礎市場仍充滿挑戰。 EPS 為 0.51 美元，下降約 2%。我昨天與董事會分享的內容是，Fastenal 內部的團隊看著鏡子說，我們付錢是做什麼的？我們付錢是為了捍衛利潤嗎？我們的成長率為 2%。還是我們受僱研究如何不成長 2%？

The bias goes towards the latter, but we put emphasis on the former as well. And so, I think we found the appropriate balance. That mean we did everything perfectly? No. There's always room for improvement. But I think we're appropriately balancing where we're going and how to not grow 2% with defending the margin at 2%

人偏向後者，但我們也強調前者。因此，我認為我們找到了適當的平衡。這意味著我們一切都做得完美？不，總是有進步的空間。但我認為我們正在適當地平衡我們的發展方向以及如何不成長 2% 與捍衛 2% 的利潤率

As you see in the table in the next slide, I'll get to that in a few minutes, but we continue in that sub-50 ISM, the Purchasing Managers' Index, and that's 19 of the last 20 months. We saw a blip in March that proved to be a [head fake]. It's an uncommonly long duration that weighs on US Industrial Production and consequently affects our daily sales rates because 75% of our revenue is industrial.

正如您在下一張投影片的表格中看到的那樣，我將在幾分鐘內討論這一點，但我們將繼續討論50 指數以下的ISM（採購經理人指數），這是過去20 個月中的19 個月。我們在三月看到了一個小插曲，結果被證明是[頭部假象]。這是一個異常長的持續時間，對美國工業生產造成壓力，從而影響我們的每日銷售率，因為我們 75% 的收入來自工業。

Our efforts to accelerate our customer acquisition remain encouraging. Year, year-and-a-half ago, had some pretty frank discussions on this call about some missteps that we saw occurring in 2021 and 2022, where our focus on a common goal became blurred.

我們為加速客戶獲取所做的努力仍然令人鼓舞。一年前，一年半前，我們在這次電話會議上進行了一些非常坦率的討論，討論了我們在 2021 年和 2022 年看到的一些失誤，當時我們對共同目標的關注變得模糊。

I think there was a few -- little bit too much of what I'm doing and not what we're doing. And when everyone individually is successful, but we're not successful, something's wrong with the alignment. So aligned all the sales organization under Jeff Watts at the time. Jeff's a proven strong leader of the organization. I have to say, Jeff's done a wonderful job in the last 12 to 18 months of pulling this thing together.

我認為有一些——有點太多了，我正在做的事情，而不是我們正在做的事情。當每個人都取得了成功，而我們卻沒有成功時，這種協調就會出現問題。因此，當時的所有銷售組織都在傑夫·瓦茨 (Jeff Watts) 的領導下進行了調整。傑夫是該組織公認的強有力的領導者。我必須說，Jeff 在過去 12 到 18 個月的時間裡完成了出色的工作，將這件事整合在一起。

But it wasn't just Jeff, it's Jeff and his team. It's Casey Miller stepping up in the US. It's Miguel and Tony stepping up international. It's [Bill Perez-Kowalski] stepping up, and everybody else that supports them, including me, stepping up their game to support the sales team as we align on a common goal. And I think you're seeing that in the second straight quarter of strong Onsite [FMI] signings and low double-digit growth in national contract counts.

但這不僅僅是傑夫，還有傑夫和他的團隊。凱西米勒 (Casey Miller) 在美國挺身而出。米格爾和東尼正在邁向國際化。這是[比爾·佩雷斯-科瓦爾斯基]挺身而出，以及包括我在內的所有支持他們的人，在我們朝著共同目標前進的過程中，加大力度支持銷售團隊。我認為您會看到，現場 [FMI] 簽約量連續第二個季度強勁，全國合約數量呈兩位數低增長。

As I mentioned earlier, we believe we have the right balance for managing our costs, and we continue to maintain this balance. But I have reemphasized with our leadership team and, as well as Holden and everybody else. This isn't a two-person endeavor, this is a 23,000 person endeavor.

正如我之前提到的，我們相信我們在管理成本方面擁有適當的平衡，並且我們將繼續保持這種平衡。但我已經向我們的領導團隊以及霍頓和其他所有人再次強調了這一點。這不是兩個人的努力，而是 23,000 人的努力。

We need to be really tight with spending in the current environment. The one thing that helps us in the latter half of '23, excuse me, and the first half of '24 is we have some wiggle room because of declining incentive comp. That wiggle room keeps getting thinner and thinner. And so, we need to be more dialed in.

在當前環境下，我們需要嚴格控制支出。對不起，在 23 年下半年和 24 年上半年對我們有幫助的一件事是，由於激勵補償的下降，我們有一些迴旋餘地。這個迴旋餘地變得越來越小。因此，我們需要更多地投入。

Again in all frankness, we felt in the first quarter as we were exiting the second quarter was going to play a little differently. We realized as we went through April, that was not to be the case. In early May, we tighten it down a bit and we've tightened down some more here in July.

坦白說，我們在第一季感到，當我們退出第二季度時，情況會有所不同。當我們經歷四月時，我們意識到情況並非如此。五月初，我們收緊了一點，七月我們又收緊了一些。

As you would expect from a distribution business, we continue to generate a very healthy operating cash flow and we have an incredibly flexible and strong balance sheet. The page 4 is probably a weird chart. I have I told them, hey, can we just put the table in? Because I have this nice table of ISM data going back -- he's going to go back 50, 60 years or whatever the heck it is, but I haven't gone back a decade.

正如您對分銷業務的期望，我們繼續產生非常健康的營運現金流，並且我們擁有非常靈活和強大的資產負債表。第 4 頁可能是一個奇怪的圖表。我告訴他們，嘿，我們可以把桌子放進去嗎？因為我有一張很好的 ISM 數據回溯表——他會回溯到 50 年、60 年前或無論如何，但我還沒有回溯到 10 年前。

I think we showed that -- and I think it's really good for our investor and our employees to appreciate the environment that we're in. And so, we had all these numbers in there, and then Holden came in a couple of days ago and said, we actually can't publish that because that's a subscribed service.

我認為我們展示了這一點，而且我認為這對我們的投資者和員工來說非常有好處，他們能夠欣賞我們所處的環境。了並說，我們實際上無法發布它，因為這是一項訂閱服務。

I said, well, can you just put in blanks and put a red square wherever the sub-50 is so you can at least see magnitude. He's like, yeah, we can do that. So what you see here is a lot of nothing, except for the fact you can see the duration of sub-50 ISM over the last decade plus 12 years. And you can see that since November of 2022.

我說，好吧，你可以在 50 以下的地方填上空白並放一個紅色方塊，這樣你至少可以看到震級。他說，是的，我們可以做到。因此，除了可以看到過去 10 年加 12 年中低於 50 ISM 的持續時間之外，您在這裡看到的什麼也沒有。自 2022 年 11 月以來，您就可以看到這一點。

Except for March of this year, we've been sub-50. So we had 16 consecutive months and now 19 out of 20 months. And if you look at that little table in the bottom left, there's eight periods that Holden highlighted with extended sub-50 PMI ratings. The third one of July of '81 to June of '83 was the longest period. I remember that. I was in college, just getting out of high school.

除了今年三月以外，我們一直低於 50 歲。所以我們有連續 16 個月，現在 20 個月有 19 個月。如果你看一下左下角的小表，霍頓強調了 8 個時期的 PMI 評級低於 50。 81年7月3日至83年6月是最長的時期。我記得那個。我當時正在讀大學，高中剛畢業。

You don't realize when you're in college, how bad the economy is, other than -- because I can find a part-time job and fortunately, school was a little cheaper back in the early 80s than it is today. But I remember being pretty tough for my parents and family farm.

當你上大學時，你不會意識到經濟有多糟糕，除了——因為我可以找到一份兼職工作，幸運的是，80 年代初的學費比現在便宜一點。但我記得我的父母和家庭農場非常艱難。

The second one is August 2000 to January 2022, about 18 months there, and that was the dot-com meltdown. And from a duration standpoint, the third one is right now and that was the 16 months that -- so it's 19 months, 18 months and then 16 months duration before we had a blip. But you can see all these periods would have impacted Fastenal negatively. Every one of these eight that we cite, and some were severe, some were long in duration. Early 80s was both.

第二個是2000年8月到2022年1月，大約18個月，那是網路泡沫崩潰的時期。從持續時間的角度來看，第三個是現在，也就是 16 個月——所以在我們出現短暫現象之前，持續時間是 19 個月、18 個月、然後是 16 個月。但您可以看到所有這些時期都會對 Fastenal 產生負面影響。我們引用的這八個中的每一個，有的很嚴重，有的持續時間很長。 80 年代初兩者兼具。

I'll let the listener conclude on what you think that should mean to an industrial distributor. Internally, we say, okay, nobody jump out the window. Let's focus on what we're doing to add business. Let's focus on what we're doing to grow the business. And for that customer, that's business down, support the help hell out of them.

我會讓聽眾總結一下您認為這對工業分銷商意味著什麼。我們在內心深處說，好吧，沒有人跳出窗外。讓我們專注於我們正在做什麼來增加業務。讓我們專注於我們正在做什麼來發展業務。對於那個客戶來說，生意不好，請支持他們的幫助。

Page 5. 107 signings in the second quarter and active sites finished at 1,934. So we're approaching that 2,000 active Onsites, 12% above where we were a year ago and we grew low single-digits. A lot of our older Onsites are negative right now. If you have the bulk of a customer's business and their business is down 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%. Our revenue will follow suit, if it's OEM fasteners, it follow suit in magnitude. If it's MRO, it followed suit directionally

第 5 頁。因此，我們正在接近 2,000 個活躍 Onsite，比一年前增加 12%，而且增長幅度較低，為個位數。我們許多較舊的現場現在都是負面的。如果您擁有客戶的大部分業務，而他們的業務下降了 10%、20%、30%、40%。我們的營收也會效仿，如果是OEM緊固件，它的規模也會跟進。如果是MRO，則定向跟進

FMI Technology. When I stepped into this role in 2015, I remember saying to the group. In 2014, we signed 49 devices day, and we frankly pulled way too many out. There's two things we need to do. We have to start pulling out 20%-plus of our installed base. And we have to grow that 49 a day to 100 a day and we need the infrastructure to do it, and we slowly built it and slowly built.

FMI 技術。當我在 2015 年擔任這個角色時，我記得我對團隊說過。 2014 年，我們簽署了 49 台設備，坦白說，我們簽了太多設備。我們需要做兩件事。我們必須開始撤出 20% 以上的安裝基數。我們必須將每天 49 個增加到每天 100 個，我們需要基礎設施來做到這一點，我們慢慢地建造它，慢慢地建造。

7,188 devices in the second quarter, that's a 112 per day. Our install base is now 119,000 weighted devices, an 11% increase from last year. So we're taking market share. We're planting flags and we're making the business more resilient and efficient.

第二季有 7,188 台設備，即每天 112 台。目前，我們的安裝基數為 119,000 台加權設備，比去年增加了 11%。所以我們正在搶佔市場份額。我們正在插旗，我們正在使業務更具彈性和效率。

And interesting thing happens. A lot of customers love the technology because they believe in their facility. It steps up their internal game because when they see that OEM fasteners in this Kanban bin, that has RFID chips and it's not messy, it's not chaotic, it's well managed.

有趣的事情發生了。許多客戶喜歡這項技術，因為他們相信自己的設施。它加強了他們的內部遊戲，因為當他們看到這個看板箱中的 OEM 緊固件時，它有 RFID 晶片，而且它不雜亂，不混亂，管理得很好。

Maybe you should do that throughout the production line. Maybe you should do that once it replaces and it challenges everybody in the facility to step up their game and that includes Fastenal. So in the -- we have about 42% of our sales are now going through an FMI Technology.

也許您應該在整個生產線上這樣做。也許一旦它被取代，你就應該這樣做，它會挑戰設施中的每個人，包括 Fastenal，以加強他們的比賽。因此，我們大約 42% 的銷售額現在是透過 FMI 技術實現的。

And earlier I mentioned the impact of the economy. I'll share a few statistics that we get. One thing with FMI, it get a lot of statistics on what's going through all these things. So in our FASTStock, and that's where we're going now with an Android device that were scanning bins and we're managing it with a combination of technology and labor.

早些時候我提到了經濟的影響。我將分享一些我們得到的統計數據。 FMI 的一件事是，它可以獲得有關所有這些事情的大量統計數據。所以在我們的 FASTStock 中，這就是我們現在使用 Android 裝置掃描垃圾箱的地方，我們透過技術和勞動力的結合來管理它。

In January of 2024, we did 16,387 orders per day through scanning technology and our average order was $224. I already shared that from February to March, it dropped from $200 -- it was $225 in February. It dropped to $216 in March. About 60% of that was volume while 40% of that was price. Since then, it's been $216, $214, $217.

2024 年 1 月，我們每天透過掃描技術完成 16,387 個訂單，平均訂單金額為 224 美元。我已經分享過，從 2 月到 3 月，它從 200 美元下降到 2 月的 225 美元。 3 月跌至 216 美元。其中約 60% 是數量，而 40% 是價格。從那時起，價格一直是 216 美元、214 美元、217 美元。

So our dollars per order is down about $7 from $224. I didn't calculate the percentage here, so I apologize for that. But our orders per day have grown to 17,640 because we're deploying, we're deploying, we're deploying. So we have 1,253 more orders per day, a 7.5% increase.

因此，我們每個訂單的金額從 224 美元減少了約 7 美元。我沒有在這裡計算百分比，所以我對此表示歉意。但我們每天的訂單已經成長到 17,640 個，因為我們正在部署，我們正在部署，我們正在部署。因此，我們每天的訂單數量增加了 1,253 個，增加了 7.5%。

Interestingly enough, when I look at our customer acquisition. We were -- a number we've always tracked and it's our core accounts. It was maybe more meaningful statistic when we were branch-based and opening branches.

有趣的是，當我觀察我們的客戶獲取情況時。我們一直在追蹤這個數字，這是我們的核心帳戶。當我們以分支機構為基礎並開設分支機構時，這可能是更有意義的統計數據。

But last year, our core accounts with some of the chaos and things we were doing, and some execution missteps and some intentional steps are cores per day from January to June were down about 4%. This year, they're up about 7%. Part of that is us working through some indigestion.

但去年，我們的核心帳戶存在一些混亂和我們正在做的事情，以及一些執行失誤和一些故意步驟，從 1 月到 6 月，每天的核心數量下降了約 4%。今年，它們上漲了約 7%。部分原因是我們正在經歷一些消化不良。

Part of that is Jeff, in our sales team getting traction. And part of it is just overall execution by everybody supporting them. But bottom line is it's $217 every time we scan a bin and not $224, but we're scanning 7.5% more bins.

其中一部分原因是傑夫在我們的銷售團隊中受到了關注。其中一部分只是每個支持他們的人的整體執行。但最重要的是，我們每次掃描一個垃圾箱要花費 217 美元，而不是 224 美元，但我們掃描的垃圾箱數量增加了 7.5%。

If I look at vending -- and I look at vending, I'm not looking at FASTBin because it's not mature enough to really look at the data because it moves around too much because we're deploying so fast, but we have a lot of vending machines out there.

如果我看自動販賣機——我看自動售貨，我不會看 FASTBin，因為它還不夠成熟，無法真正查看數據，因為它移動太多，因為我們部署得太快，但我們有很多那裡有很多自動販賣機。

In January -- now this is not an order number. This is a monthly number. In January, we did $1,578 per weighted device per day. And recall when we started vending years ago and I'm old enough and I've been around long enough to remember those days. We talked about $2,000 when we talked about it with the analyst community. We talked about where can we get that to?

一月——現在這不是訂單號碼。這是每月的數字。一月份，我們每台加權設備每天的銷售額為 1,578 美元。回想一下幾年前我們開始自動販賣機的時候，我已經足夠大了，我已經生活了足夠長的時間來記住那些日子。當我們與分析師社群討論時，我們談到了 2,000 美元。我們討論了我們可以把它帶到哪裡？

We started in the less than $1,000 category. We got it up into that $1,000 to $1,100 and we were stuck there for the longest time. And I have to say our teams and our FMI teams that support them led by Jeff, who have done a wonderful job of challenging and optimizing those machines over time that now we're doing close to $1,600, but we didn't do close to $1,600 in June. We did $1,454 per device.

我們從 1,000 美元以下的類別開始。我們把價格漲到了 1,000 美元到 1,100 美元，我們被困在那裡的時間最長。我必須說我們的團隊和由 Jeff 領導的 FMI 團隊，他們在挑戰和優化這些機器方面做得非常出色，現在我們的成本接近 1,600 美元，但我們並沒有做到接近 1,600 美元。美元。我們為每台設備花費了 1,454 美元。

So about $124 less, but about almost 8% less revenue per device, that's the economy. Because the -- we've added more devices, as I mentioned, our FMI Technology is up about 11% -- over 11% from a year ago. But the customer needs fewer things. One advantage to Fastenal in the marketplace is by having our type of supply chain.

因此，每台設備的收入減少了約 124 美元，但收入減少了近 8%，這就是經濟。因為，正如我所提到的，我們增加了更多設備，我們的 FMI 技術比一年前成長了約 11%，超過 11%。但客戶需要的東西更少。 Fastenal 在市場上的優勢之一是擁有我們類型的供應鏈。

Not only are we a great supplier and supply chain partner to our customers, we can help them dial their expenses down faster when their business slows down and it doesn't pile up because everything's on autopilot. And I believe that makes us a better partner.

我們不僅是客戶的優秀供應商和供應鏈合作夥伴，而且當他們的業務放緩時，我們可以幫助他們更快地降低開支，而且不會因為一切都在自動駕駛儀上而堆積起來。我相信這使我們成為更好的合作夥伴。

Our eBusiness rose about 25%. The eProcurement side is really the driver of that. Our eCommerce side is okay, it's not great. But some of the things we're doing with AI is intended to improve that over time on the unplanned spend side.

我們的電子商務成長了約 25%。電子採購方面確實是其中的驅動力。我們的電子商務方面還可以，但不是很好。但我們正在利用人工智慧所做的一些事情旨在隨著時間的推移在計劃外支出方面進行改進。

Finally, on Digital Footprint, 59.4%, that's taking all of our eCommerce, all of our FMI, eliminating the double counting saying what percent of our business has gone through one of those two. It was 59.4% in the second quarter.

最後，在數位足跡方面，59.4%，這涵蓋了我們所有的電子商務、所有的 FMI，消除了重複計算，即我們的業務有多少百分比經過了這兩者之一。第二季為59.4%。

Actually, in June, it hit 60%. We had expected maybe we'd get about 66% this year. We now think it's about [53%]. And that's not because we're not acquiring customers, it's because customers are spending less, and it shows up in our numbers.

事實上，6月這數字就達到了60%。我們預計今年可能會達到 66% 左右。我們現在認為大約是[53%]。這並不是因為我們沒有吸引客戶，而是因為客戶的支出減少了，這也反映在我們的數據中。

With that, set up and turn it over to Holden.

就這樣，設定好並將其交給霍頓。

Great. Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everyone. I will begin my comments on slide 6. I think Dan covered the current business conditions. I won't add a lot there, but I can add some additional color from regional leadership.

偉大的。謝謝丹，大家早安。我將從幻燈片 6 開始我的評論。我不會在那裡添加太多內容，但我可以添加一些來自區域領導的額外色彩。

We continue to experience sluggish business activity that has persisted long enough at this point to be spurring an uptick in layoffs and shift reductions. There were more and longer shutdowns around the July fourth holiday. Some of those, frankly, are continuing.

我們繼續經歷低迷的商業活動，這種情況已經持續了足夠長的時間，刺激了裁員和減少班次的增加。七四假期前後，停工次數更多、時間更長。坦白說，其中一些仍在繼續。

And overall industrial production continues to exhibit modest declines as we saw in April and May with the key machinery component being weaker than the overall index. And we're feeling that.

正如我們在 4 月和 5 月看到的那樣，整體工業生產繼續呈現小幅下降，其中關鍵機械部分比整體指數弱。我們也有這樣的感覺。

If I look at our business, total manufacturing grew 2.7%. Our fastener product line was down 3% with contraction in MRO and OEM products. All other end markets declined 1%, reflecting continued contraction in non-residential construction and reseller end markets.

如果我看看我們的業務，製造業總量成長了 2.7%。由於 MRO 和 OEM 產品的收縮，我們的緊固件產品線下降了 3%。所有其他終端市場均下降 1%，反映出非住宅建築和經銷商終端市場的持續收縮。

This was partly offset by strong growth in warehousing customers, which combined with good FMI installs, went a long way to driving our 7.1% growth in safety products. The profile of the second quarter in terms of performance by end market product and customer size was largely unchanged from the preceding quarter.

這在一定程度上被倉儲客戶的強勁成長所抵消，再加上良好的 FMI 安裝量，大大推動了我們安全產品 7.1% 的成長。第二季終端市場產品表現和客戶規模與上一季基本沒有變化。

We did have negative pricing in the period of 30 to 60 basis points. Fastener prices remain down, which is not new, but we also experienced some slippage in price from non-fastener products. I don't want to overstate the impact. I mean, our price cost was very modestly positive in the second quarter of 2024.

我們確實在 30 到 60 個基點期間出現了負定價。緊固件價格持續下跌，這並不新鮮，但我們也經歷了非緊固件產品價格的一些下滑。我不想誇大其影響。我的意思是，2024 年第二季我們的價格成本非常溫和。

However, it did ease from where it was in the first quarter of 2024, that's partly from comparisons. And the softer market has made things a bit more challenging. Even so, we believe we can improve our own discipline in this area and intend to address the matter in the third quarter of 2024.

然而，它確實較 2024 年第一季有所回落，部分原因是透過比較得出的。市場疲軟讓事情變得更具挑戰性。即便如此，我們相信我們可以提高自己在這一領域的紀律，並打算在 2024 年第三季解決這個問題。

Setting aside the cycle, we are increasingly encouraged over efforts to accelerate customer acquisition. The first half of 2024 has produced strong Onsite and FMI signings in a highly successful customer Expo. We are also experiencing accelerating growth now in the double-digits and improved mix in a number of our national account contracts.

拋開週期不談，我們對加速客戶獲取的努力越來越感到鼓舞。 2024 年上半年，在一場非常成功的客戶博覽會上，現場和 FMI 簽約人數眾多。我們現在也經歷了兩位數的加速成長，並且我們的許多國民帳戶合約的組合得到了改善。

Regional leadership attributes these improvements versus 2023 to better alignment between our teams, a sharpened focus on selling and the relative stability of the business environment, which is allowing teams to focus on winning business.

區域領導層將這些與 2023 年相比的改進歸因於我們團隊之間更好的協調、對銷售的更加關注以及商業環境的相對穩定性，這使團隊能夠專注於贏得業務。

Given our traditional lack of forward visibility, it is unclear when business activity will improve. It's also unclear how impactful holiday shutdowns or the hurricane in Texas will be on July. Even so, barring further erosion in macro conditions, the strong signings activity of the first half of 2024 should benefit sales trends in the second half of 2024 and into 2025.

鑑於我們傳統上缺乏前瞻性，目前尚不清楚業務活動何時會有所改善。目前還不清楚假日停工或德州 7 月的颶風將產生多大影響。即便如此，除非宏觀環境進一步惡化，2024 年上半年強勁的簽約活動應該有利於 2024 年下半年和 2025 年的銷售趨勢。

Now to slide 7. Operating margin in the second quarter of 2024 was 20.2%, down 80 basis points year-to-year. Recall in the April earnings call that we discussed a likely impact in the second quarter of 2024 from expenses related to our customer Expo and actions taken to support certain warehousing customers in anticipation of additional future business.

現在下滑 7。2024 年第二季營業利潤率為 20.2%，年減 80 個基點。回想一下，在 4 月份的財報電話會議中，我們討論了與我們的客戶博覽會相關的費用以及為支持某些倉儲客戶以預期未來增加業務而採取的行動對 2024 年第二季度可能產生的影響。

The combined impact was roughly 30 basis points in the second quarter of 2024 as expected. Some modest impact will carry into July, but the effect on margins in the third quarter of 2024 should be well below what we incurred in the second quarter.

正如預期的那樣，2024 年第二季的綜合影響約為 30 個基點。一些溫和的影響將持續到 7 月份，但對 2024 年第三季利潤率的影響應遠低於第二季的影響。

Gross margin in the second quarter of 2024 was 45.1%, down 40 basis points from the year ago period. This is primarily due to product and customer mix. SG&A was 24.9% of sales in the second quarter of 2024, an increase from 24.6% from the year ago period. Total SG&A was up 3% due to deleveraging of employee related expenses, customer Expo expenses, higher costs for selling related vehicles as we refresh the fleet and higher general insurance costs.

2024年第二季毛利率為45.1%，較去年同期下降40個基點。這主要是由於產品和客戶組合造成的。 SG&A 佔 2024 年第二季銷售額的 24.9%，較去年同期的 24.6% 增加。 SG&A 總額增加了 3%，原因是員工相關費用去槓桿化、客戶世博會費用、我們更新車隊時銷售相關車輛的成本上升以及一般保險成本的上升。

We continue to believe we are effectively spending where we need to spend to support future growth and scrimping where we can scrimp. And that is as growth picks up, we will leverage the P&L. Putting everything together, we reported second quarter 2024 EPS of $0.51, down 2% or $0.52 in the second quarter of 2023.

我們仍然相信，我們正在有效地在需要支出的地方支出以支持未來的成長，並在可以節約的地方進行節約。隨著成長的加快，我們將利用損益表。綜合考慮，我們報告 2024 年第二季每股收益為 0.51 美元，比 2023 年第二季下降 2%，即 0.52 美元。

Now turning to slide 8. We generated $258 million in operating cash in the second quarter of 2024 or 88% of net income. While below the prior period when we were deliberately reducing layers of inventory, the current year's conversion rate is above historical second quarter rates.

現在轉向幻燈片 8。雖然低於我們刻意減少庫存層數的上一期，但今年的轉換率高於第二季的歷史轉換率。

With good cash generation in a soft demand environment, we continue to carry a conservatively capitalized balance sheet with debt being 6.3% of total capital, down from 9.4% of total capital at the end of the second quarter of '23.

由於在需求疲軟的環境下現金產生良好，我們繼續保持保守的資本化資產負債表，債務佔總資本的 6.3%，低於 2023 年第二季末佔總資本的 9.4%。

Working capital dynamics were consistent with recent trends. Accounts receivable were up 2.8%, driven primarily by sales growth and a shift towards larger customers which tend to have longer terms. Inventories were down 3.9%, which continues to reflect primarily the softer marketplace. The reduction of inventory layers built a year ago demands supply constraints and modest inventory deflation.

營運資金動態與近期趨勢一致。應收帳款成長 2.8%，主要是由於銷售成長以及向期限較長的大客戶的轉變。庫存下降 3.9%，這仍然主要反映了市場疲軟。一年前建立的庫存層的減少需要供應限制和適度的庫存通貨緊縮。

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 now largely complete. Net capital spending in the second quarter of 2024 was $52.6 million, largely flat was $53.9 million in the second quarter of '23.

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現在已基本完成，我們的庫存餘額下降速度可能會放緩。 2024 年第二季的淨資本支出為 5,260 萬美元，與 2023 年第二季的 5,390 萬美元基本持平。

For the full year, we have increased our anticipated net capital spending to a range of $235 million to $255 million, which is up $10 million from the prior range. We anticipate higher spending for vending devices where our mix of signings has been more heavily weighted towards higher cost and scaled units.

對於全年，我們將預期淨資本支出提高到 2.35 億美元至 2.55 億美元，比之前的範圍增加了 1000 萬美元。我們預計自動販賣機設備的支出將會增加，而我們的簽約組合則更傾向於更高成本和規模化的設備。

The projected increase in net capital spending for the full year of 2024 is driven by higher outlays for hub automation and capacity, the substantial completion of an upgraded distribution center in Utah and increase in FMI to spend -- and FMI spend to support increased signings and higher information technology purchases.

預計 2024 年全年淨資本支出將增加，原因包括樞紐自動化和產能支出增加、猶他州配送中心升級改造的基本完成以及 FMI 支出的增加，以及用於支持簽約和運營增加的 FMI 支出的增加。高的資訊科技採購量。

Now before turning to Q&A, I wanted to offer a higher level perspective on the quarter. The market's tough and the various cyclical forces at play are impacting our growth and profitability. That's not something we control. What we do control is our ability to grow share in the marketplace.

現在，在進行問答之前，我想提供對該季度更高層次的看法。市場的嚴峻形勢和各種週期性力量的作用正在影響我們的成長和獲利能力。這不是我們可以控制的。我們所控制的是我們增加市場佔有率的能力。

A year ago, we weren't as effective as we believe we could be. Today, it's becoming increasingly clear that the changes we made in leadership approach and focus are favorably impacting our ability to win new customers.

一年前，我們的效率並沒有我們想像的那麼高。如今，越來越明顯的是，我們在領導方法和重點方面所做的改變正在積極影響我們贏得新客戶的能力。

Progress is not always a straight line, of course, but we believe we will build on the successes we've achieved in the first half of 2024, and that it brightens our short and intermediate-term outlook regardless of the cycle. Of course, we're most excited for what it means for our growth when activity levels among our existing customer base stabilizes.

當然，進展並不總是直線，但我們相信我們將在 2024 年上半年取得的成功的基礎上再接再厲，無論週期如何，它都會照亮我們的短期和中期前景。當然，當我們現有客戶群的活動水準穩定時，我們最興奮的是這對我們的成長意味著什麼。

Before we turn it over to Q&A, I going to pass it back to Dan.

在我們將其轉交給問答之前，我將其傳回給丹。

Thanks, Holden. And earlier this morning, as you all know, we'll put out our earnings release and just before market opened, we put out a second release. Normally, we would have put that release out after the market closed, but it's a Friday and we didn't want to -- I'm not a politician, I don't bury news into the weekend. I aspire to be a leader and we put news out, good and bad and this is good news.

謝謝，霍頓。今天早些時候，正如你們所知，我們將發布我們的收益報告，就在市場開盤前，我們發布了第二份報告。通常情況下，我們會在市場收盤後發布該消息，但今天是周五，我們不想這樣做——我不是政客，我不會把新聞埋藏到週末。我渴望成為領導者，我們發布新聞，無論好消息或壞消息，這是好消息。

I mentioned earlier about the transition that we had with Jeff walks stepping into the Chief Sales Officer role. One thing I've learned from Jeff being in that role, first off, the sales leaders have stepped up. Their game to support Jeff, and that explained the role.

我之前提到傑夫擔任首席銷售官一職時我們所經歷的轉變。我從傑夫擔任這個角色中學到了一件事，首先，銷售領導者已經站出來了。他們的比賽是為了支持傑夫，這解釋了這個角色。

But of equal importance, maybe more important, everybody else has embraced Jeff and Jeff has embraced them back from the standpoint of he's not a salesperson trying to figure out his way outside of sales. He's a business leader. He always had a great relationship with our finance team, with our HR team, with technology, with supply chain.

但同樣重要的是，也許更重要的是，其他人都擁抱了傑夫，而傑夫也從他不是試圖在銷售之外尋找出路的銷售人員的角度來擁抱他們。他是一位商業領袖。他始終與我們的財務團隊、人力資源團隊、技術和供應鏈保持良好的關係。

But what he did is he took a big step in the last year, year-and-a-half and said, I want to embrace more, and I want to learn more. And he humbled themselves to listen and learn. He challenged some things back, as a result, we're a better organization.

但他所做的是，他在去年、一年半中邁出了一大步，他說，我想擁抱更多，我想了解更多。他謙虛地傾聽和學習。他對一些事情提出了挑戰，結果，我們是一個更好的組織。

And I'll give you an example of (inaudible) team oversees, our supply chain and distribution. A number of years ago, and we're always doing this. We did a very significant reclass. And what that is as you're deciding what the stock and distribution and we remove some stuff.

我將舉一個（聽不清楚）團隊監督、我們的供應鏈和分銷的例子。幾年前，我們一直在做這件事。我們進行了一次非常重要的重新分類。當你決定庫存和分銷時，我們會刪除一些東西。

And when Tony stepped into that role, we all challenged him, but Jeff continued to challenge them. But we all challenged them about think about supply chain not as what we stock in distribution, a distribution center. Think about supply chain as how we get product to the customer and where we stage it because we'll be a better organization.

當托尼擔任這個角色時，我們都向他提出了挑戰，但傑夫繼續挑戰他們。但我們都向他們提出挑戰，要求他們考慮供應鏈，而不是我們在分銷中心的庫存。將供應鏈視為我們如何將產品交付給客戶以及我們將產品存放在哪裡，因為我們將成為一個更好的組織。

I don't care if our inventory goes up or down in distribution. Holden cares about our total investment, so do our shareholders, but we really care about how to best serve our customer. And Tony went to work on it and again, was challenged by a lot of people. So we're doing actually a do-over reclass, and we're adding about 18,000 SKUs into distribution in the next six months or so.

我不在乎我們的庫存在分銷過程中是增加還是減少。霍頓關心我們的總投資，我們的股東也關心，但我們真正關心的是如何最好地服務我們的客戶。東尼開始研究這個問題，並再次受到許多人的挑戰。因此，我們實際上正在進行重新分類，並在接下來的六個月左右的時間內向分銷中添加約 18,000 個 SKU。

Between now and year-end, we'll probably add around $17 million of inventory to our balance sheet once in place. Some of that will start to burn through. We think that will drop by about a third by March. And we think ultimately 18 months from now, the net impact is zero because we're restaging. We're moving stuff around and we're normalizing the quantity on hand.

從現在到年底，一旦到位，我們可能會在資產負債表上增加約 1700 萬美元的庫存。其中一些將開始燃燒。我們認為到三月這一數字將下降約三分之一。我們認為最終 18 個月後，淨影響為零，因為我們正在重新部署。我們正在轉移物品，並且正在標準化現有數量。

We believe the annual improvement to cost of goods is more than the initial investment in inventory. So that $17 million we think is worth [about $20 million] because when you buy it that way, you're not hurried, you're not scrambling, you buy it more effectively because you can decide where you're sourcing it as opposed to an emergency spend.

我們認為每年對商品成本的改善超過了庫存的初始投資。因此，我們認為這1700 萬美元是值得的（大約2000 萬美元），因為當你以這種方式購買時，你不會匆忙，不會爭先恐後，你會更有效地購買它，因為你可以決定在哪裡採購它，而不是緊急支出。

From a brand perspective, not only will they have these 18,000 SKUs available, their workload will actually go down. We cut about [3 million] peels a year at the branch and Onsite level. 300,000 of those POs relate to this product. So we'll cut our peal workload by about 10% at the branch and Onsite level and enhance our gross margin and our service to our customer at the same time. We think this is a winner.

從品牌角度來看，他們不僅可以擁有這 18,000 個 SKU，而且他們的工作量實際上也會減少。我們每年在分行和現場層級切割約 [300 萬] 個果皮。其中 300,000 個 PO 與該產品相關。因此，我們將在分行和現場層級減少約 10% 的尖峰工作量，同時提高我們的毛利率和對客戶的服務。我們認為這是贏家。

When I think about what [Jeff's] doing, couple of years ago, I really sat down with the Board and said, I'm turning 60, November of 2023. You really have to be -- you have to get to know our entire team better. I challenge them to -- we scheduled some field trips. We were doing field trips last several years.

當我想到[Jeff] 所做的事情時，幾年前，我真的坐下來與董事會說，到2023 年11 月，我將年滿60 歲。團隊。我向他們提出挑戰──我們安排了一些實地考察。過去幾年我們一直在進行實地考察。

I challenge them to come to our employee Expo in December, our customer show in April and beat our leaders. And I really ask them to get to know Jeff what's better. And we announced this morning that Jeff has been elevated to President of Fastenal. I'm excited for Jeff. I'm more excited for Fastenal because my motivation is simply this. It should be to our motivation is simply this. It a means to grow faster, and I believe Jeff will help that happen.

我挑戰他們參加 12 月的員工博覽會、4 月的客戶展並擊敗我們的領導者。我真的要求他們了解傑夫什麼是更好的。今天早上我們宣布 Jeff 已晉升為 Fastenal 總裁。我為傑夫感到興奮。我對 Fastenal 更加興奮，因為我的動機很簡單。它給我們的動力應該是這樣。這是一種更快成長的方式，我相信傑夫會幫助實現這一目標。

I also I sat down with John Soderberg. I talked earlier about some of the things John has done and his team have done as it relates to Fastenal intelligence about artificial intelligence. And I sat down with John and I said, John, Jeff and I are going to drive you crazy, and I apologize for that.

我還與約翰·索德伯格坐下來。我之前談到了約翰和他的團隊所做的一些與 Fastenal 人工智慧有關的事情。我和約翰坐下來，我說，約翰、傑夫和我會讓你發瘋的，我為此道歉。

But we're going to punch you from both sides, and we believe we can move even faster. And so, I'm excited for everything. But Jeff, congratulations. John will try not to be too crazy, and to everybody else supporting Jeff and the organization. Thank you.

但我們將從兩側對你進行打擊，並且我們相信我們可以走得更快。所以，我對一切都感到興奮。但是傑夫，恭喜你。約翰會盡量不要太瘋狂，對所有支持傑夫和組織的人也是如此。謝謝。

With that, we'll turn it over to questions.

至此，我們將把它轉為問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Tommy Moll, Stephens.

湯米·莫爾，史蒂芬斯。

Good morning and thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to start with a follow up on the pricing commentary you provided. The deflation in Fastenal has been ongoing for some time and is well known. But the new news today, I believe is in the safety category. So I was just curious if you could give us any context for what you've seen there. And then when you referenced taking steps to be a little more disciplined in the coming quarter? If you could give any insight on that. Thank you.

早上好，感謝您回答我的問題。我想先跟進您提供的定價評論。 Fastenal 的通貨緊縮已經持續了一段時間，而且是眾所周知的。但我相信今天的新消息屬於安全類別。所以我很好奇你是否能給我們介紹一下你在那裡所看到的情況。然後，當您提到在下一季採取措施更加自律時？如果您能就此提供任何見解。謝謝。

Yes, yes. And again, bear in mind that I don't think it had a meaningful adverse impact in the second quarter. But we look at trends too. And the reality is our price cost was fairly neutral versus being somewhat positive last quarter. And I think the pricing in the marketplace was a contributor to that. As you indicated, and I'm not overly concerned about the Fastenal side.

是的是的。再次請記住，我認為這不會對第二季度產生有意義的不利影響。但我們也關注趨勢。事實上，我們的價格成本相當中性，而上個季度的價格成本有些正面。我認為市場定價是造成這種情況的因素。正如你所指出的，我並不太關心 Fastenal 方面。

Prices down, but service cost and frankly, I think the organization has done a nice job managing those two dynamics in that product line. And the reality is we have a unique value proposition there and that does make it easier, but we also have a unique value proposition in safety. And in light of that, we just -- I just don't think we were disciplined about, how we're thinking about price in a challenging market and the safety world. And then I would say we weren't terribly disciplined in parts of other product categories either.

價格下降了，但服務成本下降了，坦白說，我認為該組織在管理該產品線的這兩個動態方面做得很好。現實是，我們在那裡有一個獨特的價值主張，這確實讓事情變得更容易，但我們在安全方面也有獨特的價值主張。有鑑於此，我認為我們在如何考慮充滿挑戰的市場和安全世界中的價格方面沒有受到約束。然後我想說的是，我們在其他產品類別的某些部分也沒有嚴格遵守紀律。

Now when I think about how we address that, the first step is just to elevate the issue. And then I think Dan and I and Jeff and everybody involved in sales leadership have been raising the awareness as you're pursuing business in a soft market, we need to be fairly mindful of the solutions that we're bringing to the table and what we should be compensated for bringing those solutions to bear. And I think we've done a lot of talking about that and raising that awareness.

現在，當我考慮如何解決這個問題時，第一步就是提升這個問題。然後我認為丹、我、傑夫以及參與銷售領導的每個人都在提高意識，當你在疲軟的市場中追求業務時，我們需要相當注意我們提出的解決方案以及什麼我們應該因實施這些解決方案而獲得補償。我認為我們已經對此進行了很多討論並提高了這種意識。

But the second thing is to have tools that can provide insights into the field real tangible financial tools. And over the last three, four, five years, we spent a lot of time building and refining those tools learning how to operate those tools and navigate them. And you know, that's intended to provide greater insight into what the market cost for something is, what pricing is, what costing is et cetera.

但第二件事是擁有能夠提供對該領域真正有形金融工具洞察的工具。在過去的三、四年、五年裡，我們花了很多時間建構和完善這些工具，學習如何操作這些工具並導航它們。你知道，這是為了更深入地了解某物的市場成本、定價、成本等等。

And we use those tools to trying to incentivize behavior among our blue team colleagues. And we're going to use those tools in the third quarter of 2024 due to do exactly that. And so at the end of the day, I think that we need more discipline among our contract sellers and more disciplined in our field personnel and they need to trust the tools because the tools are in great shape and we're just going to we're just going to use the levers that we have at our disposal to take an organization that's more aware of the challenge that this marketplace has given us and respond accordingly.

我們使用這些工具來嘗試激勵藍隊同事的行為。我們將在 2024 年第三季使用這些工具來實現這一目標。因此，歸根結底，我認為我們的合約賣方需要更多的紀律，我們的現場人員也需要更多的紀律，他們需要信任這些工具，因為這些工具狀態良好，我們只是想要我們」我們只是要利用我們所掌握的槓桿來幫助組織更了解這個市場帶給我們的挑戰並做出相應的反應。

Thank you, Holden. As a follow-up, I wanted to ask about the nexus between some of the warehousing customers where you've been ramping and the gross margin trends. It sounds like the impact from the warehousing ramps was as planned in Q2 and should ease into Q3. But any other context or any way you can quantify that would be helpful. And then if you've set that against your typical gross margin trends Q2 to Q3 and maybe even into Q4. How does that net out in terms of what you might forecast for this year versus the typical just given some of these new dynamics.

謝謝你，霍頓。作為後續行動，我想問您一直在增加的一些倉儲客戶與毛利率趨勢之間的關係。聽起來倉儲坡道的影響正如第二季度計劃的那樣，並且應該會在第三季度有所緩解。但任何其他背景或任何可以量化的方式都會有所幫助。然後，如果您將其與第二季到第三季甚至第四季的典型毛利率趨勢進行比較。考慮到這些新動態，與您對今年的預測相比，這一結果如何？

Now recall that I had indicated that some of the gross margin trends that were impacting Q2 were going to be largely contained to Q2 and some of those may have bled into July a bit. But for the most part, I think that statement remains true if we remove that dynamic, then I think the gross margin on that process is unremarkable for safety products, frankly.

現在回想一下，我曾指出，影響第二季的一些毛利率趨勢將在很大程度上受到第二季的影響，其中一些可能會稍微影響 7 月。但在大多數情況下，我認為如果我們消除這種動態，這種說法仍然正確，那麼坦白說，我認為該過程的毛利率對於安全產品來說並不顯著。

Going forward now, do I think the investments that we've been making and the actions we've been taking puts us on pace to get additional revenue from that customer set in the back half of the year I do, but it shouldn't have an appreciable mix impact on the safety margin as a category. That answer the question.

展望未來，我認為我們一直在進行的投資和我們一直在採取的行動是否能讓我們在下半年從該客戶群中獲得額外收入，我確實這麼認為，但不應該作為一個類別，對安全裕度有顯著的混合影響。這回答了問題。

Yeah. And maybe just to tie it all together, if you think about and this is consolidated results, I'm talking to here your typical progression for gross margins from Q2 to Q3. How would you characterize that typical progression and is there anything this year where there's a noteworthy good guy or a bad guy.

是的。也許只是為了將它們聯繫在一起，如果您考慮一下這是綜合結果，我在這裡談論的是從第二季度到第三季度毛利率的典型進展。您如何描述這種典型的進展？

Almost feels like a third question, I would tell you that does it just traditional gross margin pattern from Q2 to Q3 for the company. I'm it's typically Q2 and Q3 looks fairly typical or looks fairly similar one another. Relating it back to the question that you originally asked on the warehousing side of the business. I think a lot of that impact that we talked about last quarter, very little of it is going to remain in the gross margin. So I think about seasonality and maybe a touch better than that based on the absence of some of those expenses.

幾乎感覺像是第三季，我會告訴你，這是否只是公司從第二季到第三季的傳統毛利率模式。我認為 Q2 和 Q3 看起來相當典型或彼此相當相似。將其與您最初在業務倉儲方面提出的問題聯繫起來。我認為我們上個季度談到的許多影響，其中很少會保留在毛利率中。因此，我會考慮季節性因素，並考慮到其中一些費用的缺失，可能會比季節性因素更好。

Got it. Thank you. Hold, and I'll turn it back yes.

知道了。謝謝。等一下，我會把它轉回來，是的。

Stephen Volkmann, Jefferies.

史蒂芬‧福克曼，傑弗里斯。

Hey, good morning, guys. Maybe since we're on a P&L I'll just -- I'll stick with it and go to the next level here. Holden, I think you said maybe Bill said several times there, our real focus on SG&A control and I know that some of the unusual SG&A expenses from the second quarter probably go a trail off. So I'm curious how you're thinking about sort of leverage on SG&A, Holden in the second half?

嘿，早上好，夥計們。也許因為我們已經有了損益表，所以我會堅持下去，並進入下一個階段。霍爾頓，我想你說過比爾可能多次說過，我們真正關注的是 SG&A 控制，我知道第二季度的一些不尋常的 SG&A 支出可能會逐漸減少。所以我很好奇你如何考慮下半年對霍頓的銷售、管理和行政費用（SG&A）的槓桿作用？

You know, as always looking through it, I'm going to dodge the question a little bit because what I've observed is you're going to tell what you're going to build in for our revenue growth. If I look at Q2 and Q3 SG&A historically, as an example, what I find is that when Q3 revenue growth accelerates versus Q2, our SG&A dollars -- are the dollar growth of our SG&A accelerates as well and vice versa, right.

你知道，正如往常的審視一樣，我會稍微迴避這個問題，因為我觀察到你會告訴我們你將為我們的收入成長做些什麼。如果我回顧第二季和第三季的SG&A 歷史，作為一個例子，我發現當第三季的營收成長相對於第二季加速時，我們的SG&A 美元- 我們的SG&A 美元成長也會加速，反之亦然，對吧。

And so it's hard for me to answer that question without knowing what you're going to build in or what you're going to build in for your revenue growth and we don't have time for that in this. And so I would encourage you to figure out what you do with the revenue line. And traditionally you'll see SG&A growth between Q2 and Q3 kind of tracks that trend.

因此，如果不知道您將要建立什麼或您將要為收入成長建立什麼，我很難回答這個問題，而且我們沒有時間這樣做。因此，我鼓勵您弄清楚如何處理收入線。傳統上，您會看到第二季和第三季之間的SG&A 成長有點追蹤這一趨勢。

Now I do anticipate that will be tighter in Q3 than we were with Q2 with costs that might mitigate that impact to some degree. But the reality is, I know everyone kind of wants to say, well, let's just look at the dollars in a vacuum and what is historically happened, but when 70% to 75% of your SG&A is labor and there's a significant component of your labor that is variable cost.

現在我確實預計第三季的情況將比第二季更加緊張，成本可能會在一定程度上減輕這種影響。但現實是，我知道每個人都想說，好吧，讓我們看看真空中的美元以及歷史上發生的事情，但是當你的SG&A 70% 到75% 是勞動力，並且你的SG&A 中有一個重要組成部分時，勞動力是變動成本。

I can't separate the analysis from the analysis of revenue, and so build in your revenue forecast. Take a look at what historically Q2/Q3 is has played out, make your assumptions. And on top of that, I would argue that we expect to be a little bit tighter on costs than perhaps seasonally we have been in the past, and that's how I'd think about our SG&A trajectory in the next quarter or two.

我無法將分析與收入分析分開，因此請建立您的收入預測。看看歷史上第二季/第三季的情況，做出你的假設。最重要的是，我認為我們預計成本會比過去的季節性收緊一些，這就是我對未來一兩個季度的銷售、管理和行政費用（SG&A）軌蹟的看法。

Okay. Fair enough. And since you sort of teed me up on this, in terms of thinking about the revenue trend going forward? Should we read anything into kind of the better cadence of the quarter, you know, May better than April, June better than May. Do you think there's any kind of an inflection happening? Or is it more just that your ability to outgrow is kind of starting to gain some traction? Or is it just kind of the numbers are still small and we shouldn't read too much into it.

好的。很公平。既然你在這方面讓我考慮了未來的營收趨勢？如果我們把任何事情解讀為本季更好的節奏，你知道，五月比四月好，六月比五月好。你認為有什麼改變發生嗎？或者更重要的是，你的成長能力開始獲得一些吸引力？或者只是數字仍然很小，我們不應該對此進行過多解讀。

I believe our ability to gain traction has improved. I think some of the underlying statistics I cited are evidence of that I also said in April that we talked about 50 in ISM in March, and that felt kind of good and three weeks later, two weeks later, I was going to likely all that good ended really fast. But it's a noisy fall.

我相信我們獲得吸引力的能力有所提升。我認為我引用的一些基本統計數據證明了我在 4 月份也說過，我們在 3 月份在 ISM 中討論了 50 個，這感覺很好，三週後，兩週後，我可能會說這一切好的結束得真快。但這是一個喧鬧的秋天。

Last I've heard there's a US presidential election and you're like most years, it's kind of a boring event. But I think there's going to be a lot of noise in the market and but some of the stuff, the fed's looking at doing is positive. I don't know that that changes things in the next three to six months. But the fact that there are talking about it is positive.

上次我聽說美國要舉行總統大選，就像往常一樣，這是一場無聊的活動。但我認為市場上將會有很多噪音，但聯準會正在考慮採取的一些措施是積極的。我不知道這會在未來三到六個月內改變情況。但事實上，人們在談論它是正面的。

If you look, if the questions about green shoots, I don't have a lot of green shoots for you on the macro side. Where I do think we're accelerating, though, is on the self-help side, right with the contract signings and the Onsite signings and the FMI signings, the reality is you sign an onsite today. It's not generating revenue tomorrow. There's a period of time it takes for those sorts of things.

如果你看一下，如果關於萌芽的問題，我在宏觀方面沒有給你太多的萌芽。不過，我確實認為我們正在加速的地方是自助方面，即合約簽署、現場簽署和 FMI 簽署，現實是您今天就在現場簽署。明天它不會產生收入。這類事情需要一段時間。

To start, just to start to hit our results, in the first half of 2024, we are feeling the impact of relatively low signings in 2023. I think in the back half of '24, you're going to begin to feel the benefits of the stronger signings in the first half of 2024, whether the FMI whether that be Onsites, whether that be contracts. And so I think we're very encouraged about what we're doing to acquire customers. But I don't have a lot of green shoots at the macro level.

首先，只是為了開始取得我們的成果，在 2024 年上半年，我們感受到了 2023 年簽約量相對較低的影響。簽約，無論是FMI 還是現場簽約還是合約簽約。因此，我認為我們對我們為獲取客戶所做的努力感到非常鼓舞。但在宏觀層面上我還沒有太多的萌芽。

All right, thank you guys for.

好的，謝謝各位。

Nigel Coe, Wolfe Research.

奈傑爾·科，沃爾夫研究中心。

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. I want to go back to the price deflation on the safety and other products. I mean, obviously you addressed the question from Tommy, but is this just a function of a more competitive environment, so you're seeing a bit more pressure from competitors maybe because they've got more products with excess inventories or is this just more elective from your RVPs trying to gain share. I mean, obviously, you've been very successful in contract signings, Onsite, et cetera. So I was wondering if this is a bit more offensive or defensive?

謝謝。大家，早安。我想回到安全產品和其他產品的價格通貨緊縮。我的意思是，顯然你回答了湯米的問題，但這是否只是競爭更加激烈的環境的結果，所以你會看到來自競爭對手的更大壓力，也許是因為他們擁有更多庫存過剩的產品，或者這只是更多從試圖獲得份額的 RVP 中選修。我的意思是，顯然，你們在合約簽署、現場等等方面都非常成功。所以我想知道這是進攻性更強還是防守性更強？

I don't know that I have a great way to parse that out. We are in the marketplace trying to win business. I don't think that we need to compete on price. We historically haven't competed on price, but the reality is the marketplace is challenging and that introduces different stresses than would be the case when it's not right. And so I can't tell you it's 60 40 one way or the other. I just I don't I'm not in those minds when they're having those conversations, but I don't have any reason to believe that the two things aren't related, to be honest.

我不知道我有一個很好的方法來解析它。我們在市場上努力贏得業務。我認為我們不需要在價格上競爭。我們歷來沒有在價格上競爭，但現實是市場充滿挑戰，這會帶來與不合適的情況不同的壓力。所以我無法告訴你這是 60 40 的一種方式或另一種方式。我只是不知道，當他們進行這些對話時，我並不在意，但說實話，我沒有任何理由相信這兩件事不相關。

We are hungry to grow and that influences decisions. Our customers are hungry to save costs that influences decisions. And that isn't necessarily a negative, oftentimes where the source of saving cost and that helps us some of our traction with national consigning. Some of our traction with FMI might be a customer that's a little bit slower right now and they're looking for ways to save costs and where the ticket and we're seeing that in our success.

我們渴望成長，這會影響我們的決策。我們的客戶渴望節省影響決策的成本。這不一定是負面的，通常是節省成本的來源，這有助於我們在國家委託方面的一些吸引力。我們對 FMI 的一些吸引力可能是現在速度有點慢的客戶，他們正在尋找節省成本的方法，我們在我們的成功中看到了這一點。

So to the degree that part of the question is Fastenal consciously willing to accept lower margins in order to win business?

那麼問題的一部分是 Fastenal 是否有意識地願意接受較低的利潤以贏得業務？

I would tell you the answer is no. There's individual decisions being made in the field based on conversations that are being had and judgments that that makes sense that individual in that situation at that time. So there's not a -- we aren't winning business because we said, don't sweat the margin. We think the margin the return on our business is very important.

我告訴你答案是否定的。根據當時正在進行的對話和判斷，在現場做出個人決定，這些決定對於當時的情況是有意義的。所以，我們沒有贏得業務，是因為我們說過，不要為利潤而苦惱。我們認為利潤率對我們的業務回報非常重要。

But you know, there is nonetheless a challenging marketplace and different individuals react differently to that marketplace than I just think that you're getting. Can you some analysis where the nexus between both the market and the conversations with customers?

但你知道，仍然存在著一個充滿挑戰的市場，不同的人對這個市場的反應與我想像的不同。您能否分析一下市場和與客戶對話之間的關聯？

Yes. No, that's a great answer. Thanks for that. And my follow-up is on the on-site performance and the material on site looks like mature Onsites sales are maybe down low single digits, and that's around. Obviously, we saw this trend develop last quarter and you made some management changes around that. Just wondering maybe just a bit more detail on what you've seen in these mature Onsites and so pathway to improve performance?

是的。不，這是一個很好的答案。感謝那。我的後續行動是現場表現，現場材​​料看起來成熟的現場銷售可能會下降到低個位數，僅此而已。顯然，我們在上個季度看到了這種趨勢的發展，並且您圍繞這一趨勢進行了一些管理變革。只是想知道您在這些成熟的現場中看到的內容以及提高性能的途徑的更多細節？

That's production. Dan said it I think in his preamble, right, when you have one customer, the defeat of your business hinges on what the experience of that one customer is and as a business were 75% manufacturing within our onsite world, I bet you it's substantially above that level. And so if there's a manufacturing environment that's challenging.

這就是生產。丹說，我認為在他的序言中，對，當你有一個客戶時，你的業務的失敗取決於該客戶的體驗，並且作為一家企業，75% 的製造是在我們的現場世界中進行的，我敢打賭，這基本上是高於該水平。因此，如果製造環境具有挑戰性。

The Onsites are going to feel that to a greater degree, the Onsites are going to be more heavily oriented towards production. That's why you're seeing our OEM Fastenal grow in the mix, along with Onsites growing in our sales mix and so, I think you have a combination of the impact of macro on that particular customer category combined with the fact that again, it does take a little while for the signings success that we're having today to translate into revenues tomorrow.

Onsites 將在更大程度上感受到，Onsites 將更加重視生產。這就是為什麼您會看到我們的OEM Fastenal 在組合中不斷增長，同時Onsites 在我們的銷售組合中不斷增長，因此，我認為您會看到宏觀對特定客戶類別的影響，再加上事實，它確實我們需要一些時間才能將今天的簽約成功轉化為明天的收入。

So I think you're bearing a disproportionate burden of the macro in the first half of this year doesn't appear in the second half of the macro's going to be a lot better. But I do think that some of the signings that we've enjoyed in the first half were going to begin to grow in that environment. And that side probably characterizes.

所以我認為今年上半年你承受了不成比例的宏觀負擔，下半年宏觀的情況似乎不會好很多。但我確實認為，我們在上半場享受到的一些簽約將在這種環境下開始成長。這方面可能就是特徵。

I'll comment on the mature on-site. I'll just throw a little nugget, and that is our Eastern and Western United States business units have been separate business units since 2007 a year ago. We pulled them together back into one and Casey Miller overseas that $6 billion business in the US. Casey was a regional vice president in the Kentucky Tennessee area originally from Kentucky lives in Nashville now.

我會現場評論成熟的。我只想拋出一個小問題，那就是我們的美國東部和西部業務部門自一年前的 2007 年以來一直是獨立的業務部門。我們將他們重新整合到凱西·米勒 (Casey Miller) 在美國的海外業務中，該業務價值 60 億美元。凱西是肯塔基州田納西州地區的地區副總裁，來自肯塔基州，現在住在納許維爾。

And our Casey's business and by extension Eastern US, which he led for the last eight years, is great at customer acquisition, great at it. One observation you made as you've gotten into the Western business unit because the Western business unit wasn't as great at customer acquisition, but they were great at maturing and farming those relationships.

我們凱西的業務以及他在過去八年中領導的美國東部業務在客戶獲取方面非常出色，非常擅長。當您進入西方業務部門時，您進行了一項觀察，因為西方業務部門在獲取客戶方面並不那麼出色，但他們非常擅長成熟和培養這些關係。

And so the one benefit of combining the US into one business unit, I think the Eastern Western halves of our business, you can really learn a lot from each other. And I think that's a positive and a win for our customers, our employees, and our shareholders.

因此，將美國業務合併為一個業務部門的好處之一是，我認為我們業務的東西部門可以從彼此身上學到很多東西。我認為這對我們的客戶、員工和股東來說都是積極的、雙贏的。

Great. Thanks, Dan.

偉大的。謝謝，丹。

Thank you.

謝謝。

David Manthey, Baird.

大衛曼蒂，貝爾德。

Good morning and congratulations to Jeff on the new title. Just one question this morning. I'd like to zoom out and maybe ask you about some secular factors here. Could you refresh us and how you think about outgrowth versus industrial production and your contribution margin expectations. Here I'm thinking not about the next year, but long term over the cycle? Thanks.

早安，恭喜傑夫獲得新頭銜。今天早上只有一個問題。我想把目光放遠一點，或許可以問你一些世俗因素。您能否向我們介紹一下您如何看待產出與工業生產以及您的邊際貢獻預期。我在這裡考慮的不是明年，而是整個週期的長期？謝謝。

I would say historically, I'll say recent history last decade or so, we have typically found that our outgrowth against industrial production has been in the 5 percentage-point to 6 percentage-point range. One of the reasons that we have made -- that we made, the changes that we made 12, 15, 18 months ago was because, frankly, we had slipped in that regard and it's probably been running in the 3% to 4% range, which is below what we are typically accustomed to.

我會說，從歷史上看，我會說最近十年左右的歷史，我們通常發現我們的工業生產增長在 5 個百分點到 6 個百分點的範圍內。我們在 12、15、18 個月前做出的改變的原因之一是，坦白說，我們在這方面有所下滑，而且可能一直在 3% 到 4% 的範圍內運行。通常習慣的值。

The changes that we've made, we're very confident will move us back to that 5% to 6% range. But quite frankly, I think our objective over time and look we have to prove to everybody that we can do this. But I think our objective over time is increase that five to six or something greater than that. Because we think that the value we bring to the market warrants or the ability to grow faster.

我們非常有信心所做的改變將使我們回到 5% 到 6% 的範圍。但坦白說，我認為隨著時間的推移，我們的目標是，我們必須向所有人證明我們可以做到這一點。但我認為隨著時間的推移，我們的目標是增加五個到六個或更多。因為我們認為我們為市場帶來的價值或更快成長的能力是值得的。

And so what you're seeing in terms of the changes in personnel, the changes in approaches. It's really just the first step to kind of correcting something that maybe we weren't doing as well a year and a half ago. And then we're going to build on that. And I think from a secular standpoint, we'd like to do better than that 5% to 6%, you know, in excess of IP in future from a incremental margin standpoint, a contribution margin standpoint, I think we've always said 21%, 22% type operating margin is the business that's where we think we can operate effectively, while still growing and significantly and gaining market share.

所以你看到的是人員的變化、方法的改變。這實際上只是糾正一年半前我們可能做得不好的事情的第一步。然後我們將在此基礎上繼續發展。我認為從長期的角度來看，我們希望做得比 5% 到 6% 更好，你知道，從增量利潤的角度、貢獻利潤的角度來看，未來超過智慧財產權，我想我們一直說21 %、22% 類型的營業利潤率是我們認為可以有效運作的業務，同時仍能顯著成長並獲得市場份額。

And in this environment of 2% growth, we've given up some of that margin. But I do believe that as the business gets better when the business gets better, I think we still have the capacity to leverage the P&L and return to that 21%, 22% range.

在這種 2% 成長的環境下，我們放棄了部分利潤。但我確實相信，隨著業務變得更好，我認為我們仍然有能力利用損益表並回到 21%、22% 的範圍。

Appreciate it all. And thanks for the update.

欣賞這一切。感謝您的更新。

Thanks, Dave.

謝謝，戴夫。

Ryan Merkel, William Blair.

瑞恩·梅克爾、威廉·布萊爾。

Hey, guys. Thanks. Thanks for taking the question. I just have one as well, and it's on the macro. So can you just level set us on the macro? Is it fair that the industrial economy has just slowed sort of slightly versus 1Q or is it more pronounced? That's the first part of the question. And then I'm hearing that it could stay a little weak until after the election. I know that's crystal ball stuff, but what do you think about that?

大家好。謝謝。感謝您提出問題。我也只有一個，而且是宏觀的。那你能從宏觀給我們一個層次嗎？工業經濟與第一季相比略有放緩，或更明顯，公平嗎？這是問題的第一部分。然後我聽說它可能會保持有點疲軟，直到選舉之後。我知道那是水晶球的東西，但你對此有何看法？

I will say that in terms of regional feedback, I've probably got a few more comments about extended shutdowns, layoffs, things like that. It doesn't feel to me that the overall level of activity has changed. It does feel to me like our customers have decided to some extent, throw in the towel on the near term and make some adjustments to their cost structures in light of what has been a fairly lengthy downturn.

我想說的是，就地區回饋而言，我可能也收到了一些關於延長停工、裁員之類的評論。我並不覺得整體活動水準改變了。在我看來，我們的客戶在某種程度上確實已經決定在短期內認輸，並根據相當長的低迷時期對其成本結構進行一些調整。

So I don't feel like the floor has fallen any further, but I feel like customers are saying this could last longer than we expected and making cost adjustments to react to it. That's how I'd probably characterize it.

因此，我不覺得底線進一步下降，但我覺得客戶說這種情況可能會比我們預期的持續時間更長，並做出成本調整來應對。我可能就是這樣描述它的。

In terms of the crystal ball, I don't know. It's I don't have a good answer for you. I'm afraid, as you know, we don't have a lot of forward visibility. You know that and I'm going to choose not to express an opinion about the elections. Dan, can feel free to. I'm not touching that one with a ten foot.

至於水晶球，我不知道。是我沒有一個好的答案給你。恐怕，正如你所知，我們沒有太多的前瞻性。你知道這一點，我會選擇不對選舉發表意見。丹，可以隨意。我不會用十英尺去碰那個人。

Yeah, I get that. I was just sort of hearing that from some of the feedback and was just curious. Yes, RVPs, we're hearing that. Yes. I can tell you that Lowe's is from the election, I think his history.

是的，我明白了。我只是從一些回饋中聽到這一點，只是很好奇。是的，RVP，我們聽到了。是的。我可以告訴你，Lowe's是從選舉開始的，我認為他的歷史。

I can tell you that people say it goes up. And yes, I can tell you, Ryan, that we are getting a lot of feedback from the regionals that people are holding their powder until something gets resolved on the election, I'll leave it to the listeners to determine how much they think that is true, not true valid, not valid impact will not impact.

我可以告訴你，人們說它會上漲。是的，我可以告訴你，瑞安，我們從各地區得到了很多反饋，人們在選舉問題得到解決之前一直保留著自己的立場，我將留給聽眾來決定他們在多大程度上認為這一點為真，不為真有效，無效影響不會影響。

No, I meant the election, but I won't because of the 10 political, I suspect there aren't too many customers out. There are players in the market that are expecting anything to wrap up for you. And so I think it will be fairly subdued reputation for predicting things. So I thought maybe you are good at that. But no, I can't predict that.

不，我指的是選舉，但我不會，因為有 10 個政治因素，我懷疑沒有太多顧客出去。市場上有些玩家期待為你帶來任何結果。所以我認為預測事物的聲譽將會相當低。所以我想也許你很擅長這一點。但不，我無法預測這一點。

Somebody's going to win the elections I suspect.

我懷疑有人會贏得選舉。

Well, thanks, guys. I appreciate the color.

嗯，謝謝，夥計們。我很欣賞它的顏色。

It is the performance on the hour. Again, thank you for joining us on the call today. I want to extend to Jeff, his wife, Susan, and there are two children. Congratulations on the new role that new opportunity. And thanks, everybody. Have a good day.

這是整點的表演。再次感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。我想向傑夫、他的妻子蘇珊以及兩個孩子致意。恭喜你獲得新的角色和新的機會。謝謝大家。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and enjoy the rest of your day.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與。此時您可以斷開線路並享受剩下的一天。