快扣 (FAST) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to the Fastenal 2024 Q3 earnings results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. (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 年第三季財報電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於只聽模式。（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 third quarter earnings conference call. This call will be hosted by Dan Florness, our Chief Executive Officer; Jeff Watts, President and Chief Sales Officer; and Holden Lewis, our Chief Financial Officer.

歡迎參加 Fastenal 公司 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。本次電話會議將由我們的執行長 Dan Florness 主持； Jeff Watts，總裁兼首席銷售官；和我們的財務長霍爾頓劉易斯。

The call will last for up to one hour, and we'll start with a general overview of our quarterly results and operations with the remainder of the time being open for questions and answers.

電話會議將持續長達一小時，我們將首先概述我們的季度業績和營運情況，剩下的時間將開放供大家提問和解答。

Today's conference call is a proprietary Fastenal presentation and is being recorded by Fastenal. No recording, reproduction, transmission or distribution of today's call is permitted without Fastenal's consent. This call is being audio simulcast on the Internet via the Fastenal Investor Relations homepage, investor.fastenal.com.

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。

A replay of the webcast will be available on the website until December 1, 2024 at midnight central time. 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.

網路廣播的重播將在 2024 年 12 月 1 日中部時間午夜之前在網站上提供。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 those 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 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。

Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everybody, and welcome to the Q3 2024 earnings call for Fastenal. Before I start, I just thought I'd share a couple of things. First off, as everybody is painfully aware of, there's been a -- several hurricanes that have hit the Southeastern United States in recent weeks and our hearts go out to all those affected.

謝謝比爾，大家早上好，歡迎參加 Fastenal 的 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。在開始之前，我只是想分享一些事情。首先，正如每個人都痛苦地意識到的那樣，最近幾週美國東南部發生了幾場颶風，我們的心與所有受影響的人同在。

And each month when we put out our sales release, either I send out a video to our organization or Jeff Watts, our President, sends one out -- by the way, in addition to hold and me being in the call today, Jeff Watts is sitting in and just to get a feel for what it feels like the call on this end. And I told them if we get a really tough question, I'll send it his way.

每個月，當我們發布銷售新聞稿時，要么我向我們的組織發送一段視頻，要么我們的總裁傑夫·瓦茨(Jeff Watts) 發送一個視頻- 順便說一句，除了保留和我今天參加電話會議之外，傑夫·瓦茨(Jeff Watts)坐在裡面只是為了感受一下這端通話的感覺。我告訴他們，如果我們遇到一個非常棘手的問題，我會把它轉給他。

But all kidding aside, when a hurricane is coming, or any type of weather event or catastrophic situation occurs, we create a Teams page internally and it's really meant to be a very agile way of communicating. We honed this skill incredibly during COVID.

但不開玩笑了，當颶風來臨時，或發生任何類型的天氣事件或災難性情況時，我們會在內部創建一個 Teams 頁面，這確實是一種非常敏捷的溝通方式。在新冠疫情期間，我們大大磨練了這項技能。

But it's a way of providing information to our team in the field who can get a lot of requests from customers that need help, maybe employees that need help, but people that need help. And sometimes locating things when it's little chaotic, it's nice to have one point to go to.

但這是向我們的現場團隊提供資訊的一種方式，他們可以從需要幫助的客戶那裡得到很多請求，也許是需要幫助的員工，但也可以是需要幫助的人。有時，當環境有點混亂時，有一個可以去的地方是件好事。

There's two individuals that I mentioned on the video this month, [Zach Weiss and Dave Barens], who have, in my mind, have gone above and beyond the call in keeping things updated on our system. And I recognize them on the video and Bob Hopper, who leads our business down in Florida, lives in Orlando personally and has been spending the last few days, making sure his family is okay, his Fastenal family is okay, and our customers are okay.

我在本月的影片中提到了兩個人，[扎克·韋斯(Zach Weiss) 和戴夫·巴倫斯(Dave Barens)]，在我看來，他們在保持我們系統上的更新方面已經超越了號召。我在影片中認出了他們，鮑勃·霍珀(Bob Hopper) 負責我們在佛羅裡達州的業務，他本人住在奧蘭多，過去幾天一直在確保他的家人安然無恙，他的Fastenal 家人安然無恙，我們的客戶安然無恙。

He sent me an e-mail this morning thanking me for mentioning those two and echoing the sentiment that they've been crucial in our ability to react in this event. So my thanks to them.

今天早上他給我發了一封電子郵件，感謝我提到這兩個人，並回應了我的觀點，即他們對我們在這一事件中的反應能力至關重要。所以我要感謝他們。

I'd also like to announce that there will be an 8-K that gets filed or something that goes out on this. I'm not sure the details. But yesterday, our Board elected a new officer to Fastenal, [Donnelley Papanpus]. She joined us back in July of 1999. So she just hit 25 years with Fastenal. In February of 2014, she became our VP of Contract Development. I've worked with her quite a bit over the years and her role has been slowly expanding.

我還想宣布，將會有一個 8-K 提交或就此發布一些內容。我不確定細節。但昨天，我們的董事會為 Fastenal 選舉了一位新官員，[唐納利·帕潘普斯]。她於 1999 年 7 月加入我們。她剛與 Fastenal 合作 25 週年。2014 年 2 月，她成為我們的合約開發副總裁。多年來我和她一起工作過很多次，她的角色也慢慢擴大。

As Jeff has stepped into the Chief Sales Officer role, we really took a hard look at our strategy as an organization defining who we are and where we think the business is going and what does that mean for priorities in the future and getting everybody aligned to that. Donnelley has been an incredible asset in that. And one of our recent things she worked on was our -- sharing with the world our approach to ESG and my congratulations to Donnelley and to everybody that helped Donnelley develop her skillset over the last 25 years into the team as she leads.

隨著傑夫（Jeff）擔任首席銷售官，我們認真審視了我們作為一個組織的策略，定義了我們是誰，我們認為業務的發展方向，以及這對未來的優先事項意味著什麼，並讓每個人都協調一致那。唐納利在這方面是一筆令人難以置信的財富。她最近所做的一件事就是與世界分享我們的 ESG 方法，並向 Donnelley 以及過去 25 年在她領導的團隊中幫助 Donnelley 發展技能的所有人表示祝賀。

Getting to the quarter. Third quarter net sales, plus 3.5%. Produce earnings per share of $0.52, up about 1% over a year ago. If you take out the fact that we had an extra business day, our daily sales rate grew 1.9%.

進入季度。第三季淨銷售額成長3.5%。每股收益0.52美元，比去年同期成長約1%。如果除去我們多了一個工作日的事實，我們的每日銷售額增長了 1.9%。

Things that standout on the quarter for me, and one of them is a welcome sign. The quarter finished stronger than it started, especially considering that the hurricane impacted the last few days of the month.

對我來說，本季最引人注目的事情之一就是一個受歡迎的跡象。該季度的結束比開始時要強勁，特別是考慮到颶風影響了本月的最後幾天。

And I called out a couple of individuals for communicating, I also want to call out our transportation and distribution groups. The amount of flexibility they exhibited in that Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday period. The last four five days of September, of changing truck routes. Running truck routes on Friday evening, Saturday evening to get the product moved for our customers' needs was nothing but incredible to witness and so my compliments to them.

我召集了幾個人進行溝通，我還想召集我們的運輸和配送小組。他們在周四、週五、週六、週日、週一期間表現出的靈活性。九月的最後四、五天，卡車路線不斷變化。在周五晚上和周六晚上運行卡車路線，以滿足客戶的需求運送產品，這真是令人難以置信，所以我對他們表示讚揚。

But the quarter -- I thought September would weaken and we were impacted by it. But we finished the quarter stronger than we started it. Our September -- when I look at the daily sales rate for September, it really, I believe, points to some very good changes and alignment and some personnel moves that we've made in the last 12 to 18 months and I credit Jeff Watts and his team for some really smart moves and I believe it's starting to show through in our numbers.

但這個季度——我認為 9 月會走弱，我們受到了影響。但我們本季結束時的表現比開始時要好。我們的9 月——當我查看9 月份的日銷售額時，我相信，這確實表明我們在過去12 到18 個月中做出了一些非常好的變化和調整以及一些人事變動，我相信Jeff Watts和他的團隊採取了一些非常明智的舉措，我相信這已經開始在我們的數據中體現出來。

We continue to manage both current conditions and future growth. The way we thought about it in the July call, we talked about -- in a period like this, we manage expenses very tightly, but we still build for the future because we don't think our shareholders want us to be focused on managing sales growth in the low single digit and the expenses around it. They want us to be thoughtful about it.

我們將繼續管理當前狀況和未來成長。我們在 7 月的電話會議中談到了這個問題——在這樣的時期，我們非常嚴格地管理開支，但我們仍然為未來而建設，因為我們認為股東不希望我們專注於管理銷售成長處於較低的個位數以及與之相關的費用。他們希望我們深思熟慮。

But the real goal is to not be growing in the lower single digits and I think we're doing a nice job balancing things. If you look at the headcount that we added, it's really about the fact that we're signing Onsites, which really means we're engaging with customers. Onsite's just one way of measuring that.

但真正的目標是不要以較低的個位數成長，我認為我們在平衡方面做得很好。如果你看看我們增加的員工人數，你會發現我們正在與 Onsites 簽約，這實際上意味著我們正在與客戶互動。現場只是衡量這一點的一種方法。

Our IT group continues to build and our business analytics continues to build. We're doing millions of transactions now through our FMI platform. It provides incredible data to be thoughtfully analyzed to provide insight for our customers and for our business. The asset efficiency improvements we made in the last few years allow us to be very flexible and strategic in what we're doing.

我們的 IT 團隊不斷發展，我們的業務分析不斷發展。我們現在透過 FMI 平台進行數百萬筆交易。它提供了令人難以置信的數據，可供仔細分析，為我們的客戶和我們的業務提供洞察力。我們在過去幾年中取得的資產效率改進使我們能夠在所做的事情上變得非常靈活和具有策略性。

During the quarter, and Holden will touch on this a bit in his part of the talk, we added inventory into our distribution network and we'll continue to add inventory in Q4 and Q1 into distribution to make -- to remove some sourcing activity that occurs at the branch, to improve our cost on that because sometimes that could be lower margin business, and to improve our efficiency of supply chain for our customers.

在本季度，霍頓將在他的演講部分談到這一點，我們在分銷網絡中增加了庫存，我們將繼續在第四季度和第一季度向分銷中添加庫存，以消除一些採購活動發生在分支機構，以提高我們的成本，因為有時這可能是利潤率較低的業務，並提高我們為客戶提供供應鏈的效率。

The real way of paying for it is we believe we're more efficient and we believe we can lower our costs and realize that in margin and it pays for a return on inventory. I also believe that will help us grow a little bit faster because that inventory will be more readily available and we can say, yeah, more often and say it easily.

真正的支付方式是我們相信我們的效率更高，我們相信我們可以降低成本，並在利潤中實現這一點，並支付庫存回報。我還相信，這將幫助我們成長得更快一些，因為庫存將更容易獲得，我們可以更頻繁地說，是的，而且更容易說。

Flipping to page 4. Onsites, we signed 93 in the quarter. Active sites are up about 12% from the end of third quarter '23. Our goal remains to be in that 375 to 400. Based on where we are right now, probably at the lower end of that range. And we've had that range for a number of years. We've struggled to make it.

翻到第4頁。本季我們在現場簽署了 93 份合約。活躍網站較 2023 年第三季末成長了約 12%。我們的目標仍然是 375 到 400。根據我們現在的情況，可能處於該範圍的下限。我們已經擁有這個範圍很多年了。我們一直在努力做到這一點。

And it's not about the range, it's about the mindset of the organization that I joined back in 1996. The mantra was always about we're adding Actives and we're adding dollars per Active. And it was really about we're adding account numbers, we're adding customers with accounts and how much do we -- are those customer spending? And we are opening 25%, 30% more branches a year.

這與範圍無關，而是與我 1996 年加入的組織的理念有關。我們的口號始終是我們要增加活躍度，並且我們要為每個活躍度增加美元。這實際上是關於我們添加帳號，我們添加有帳戶的客戶，以及這些客戶的支出是多少？我們每年開設 25%、30% 的分公司。

Over time, that math started to change. And I was talking to a group of RV -- excuse me, district managers. So our leaders in our -- what we call, our Winona-based region. And I was talking to them earlier in the week and I shared some perspective with them that I shared with the -- with our Board back in April. And I talked to this Onsite FMI key account acquisition strategy and what drives our growth overtime.

隨著時間的推移，數學開始改變。我正在和一群房車交談——對不起，地區經理。所以我們的——我們所說的——威諾納地區的領導人。本週早些時候我與他們交談，我與他們分享了我在四月與我們的董事會分享的一些觀點。我談到了 Onsite FMI 大客戶收購策略以及推動我們長期成長的因素。

And I said to them, I said, you know, we've added a lower $5 billion since -- in the last 16 years. 2007, we came out and said, we're going to -- we're going to stop opening 14% more branches a year, we're going to 7%. Six years later, we -- that 7% has slowly trickled down to 1% or 2% and we actually said, we're going to start consolidating some of our branches because we don't know that that's the right strategy going forward.

我對他們說，我說，你知道，我們在過去 16 年增加了 50 億美元。 2007 年，我們出來說，我們將停止每年開設 14% 的分支機構，我們將增加 7%。六年後，我們的 7% 慢慢下降到 1% 或 2%，我們實際上說過，我們將開始整合我們的一些分支機構，因為我們不知道這是否是正確的未來策略。

And as we've shared in previous calls, we closed about 1,000 locations in that decade. But in that whole timeframe that we were slowing the openings and eventually stopping the openings, we had, back in 2007, roughly 2,500, 2,600 customer sites that we supplied to where the customer was sourcing more than $10,000 a month from us.

正如我們在之前的電話會議中所分享的那樣，我們在那十年中關閉了大約 1,000 個門市。但在我們放慢開放並最終停止開放的整個時間範圍內，早在 2007 年，我們就向大約 2,500、2,600 個客戶站點提供了這些站點，客戶每月從我們這裡採購的金額超過 10,000 美元。

Between 2007 and 2023, we added about 9,400, 9,500 sites, that's on the map where we're doing more than $10,000 a month. That was 93% of our growth in that 16-year period. The other 7% came from customers doing between $5,000 and $10,000 a month. And all the buckets below that, we keep pulling people up into those additional groups and that's what really drives.

2007 年至 2023 年間，我們增加了約 9,400 個、9,500 個網站，從地圖上看，我們每月的收入超過 10,000 美元。這是我們 16 年期間成長的 93%。另外 7% 來自每月收入在 5,000 美元至 10,000 美元之間的客戶。在此之下的所有類別，我們不斷將人們拉入這些額外的組，這才是真正的驅動力。

Now we put it on hyperdrive in the last decade with the Onsite expansion that you see here. Because today, about 78% of our sales go to those customer sites doing more than $10,000 a month. Half that business is in an Onsite. But it's about -- we're not adding account numbers, we're adding customer sites and then what's our wallet share. One real effective way to add wallet share is a great OEM fastener program. Reason fasteners are still 30% of our sales is because two-thirds of that is an OEM fastener.

現在，我們在過去十年中透過您在此處看到的現場擴展將其置於超光速驅動器上。因為如今，我們約 78% 的銷售額都流向了每月銷售額超過 10,000 美元的客戶網站。其中一半的業務是在現場進行的。但這是關於——我們不是添加帳號，而是添加客戶站點，然後是我們的錢包份額。增加錢包份額的一種真正有效的方法是優秀的 OEM 緊固件計劃。緊固件仍占我們銷售額 30% 的原因是因為其中三分之二是 OEM 緊固件。

Then we have FMI Technology. We signed 7,281 weighted devices in the third quarter, that's 114 a day. I remember when we were doing two a day, and then 10 a day, and 20 a day. And we always talked about, hey, could we get that -- we should build the infrastructure to do 100 a day. The Blue Team, when it comes to FMI Technology, I believe, were crushing it.

然後我們有 FMI 技術。第三季我們簽署了 7,281 台加權設備，即每天 114 台。我記得當時我們每天做兩次，然後每天10次，然後每天20次。我們總是談論，嘿，我們能不能做到這一點——我們應該建立一個每天完成 100 件事的基礎設施。我相信，當談到 FMI 技術時，藍隊正在碾壓它。

There's some challenging aspects. If we're established in a customer location and their business is off, we feel it directly because we are their supply chain partner. And so that's created some challenges for us in the current environment. But we're taking market share at a faster pace as I've ever seen in this organization. And I think the FMI Technology is a great proxy for that. And to Jeff Hicks and the team within our Solutions group, my compliments for you for supporting this great Blue Team organization.

有一些具有挑戰性的方面。如果我們在客戶所在地建立了分支機構，而他們的業務中斷了，我們會直接感受到這一點，因為我們是他們的供應鏈合作夥伴。因此，這在當前環境下給我們帶來了一些挑戰。但我們正在以我在這個組織中見過的更快的速度奪取市場份額。我認為 FMI 技術是一個很好的代表。對於傑夫·希克斯 (Jeff Hicks) 和我們解決方案小組的團隊，我對你們對這個偉大的藍隊組織的支持表示讚賞。

One realignment we made during the quarter is all of our digital strategy, whether it be the e-commerce, our FMI or what we call FASTCrib, which is essentially a software program that we've created, a couple of hundred customers use it today, but a software program that we've created for managing the tool crib that's customer facing. And those three pieces are under the umbrella now of our FMI digital solutions within Fastenal and Jeff Hicks along -- a 30-plus year employee leads that charge.

我們在本季進行的一項調整是我們所有的數位策略，無論是電子商務、我們的FMI 還是我們所說的FASTCrib，它本質上是我們創建的一個軟體程序，今天有幾百個客戶在使用它，而是我們創建的一個軟體程序，用於管理面向客戶的工具庫。現在，這三部分都在我們 Fastenal 和 Jeff Hicks 內部的 FMI 數位解決方案的保護下 - 一位擁有 30 多年經驗的員工負責領導這項工作。

Speaking of eBusiness, so e-commerce grew about 25.5%. It's a good news/bad news. Our e-procurement, where supply chain customers are using technology to tell us what they need, that continues to grow 30%-some.

說到電子商務，電子商務成長了約 25.5%。這是一個好消息/壞消息。我們的電子採購（供應鏈客戶使用技術告訴我們他們的需求）持續成長 30% 左右。

Our e-commerce, which is much more web-centric, that was single digits. And those trends are part of the reason for realigning that umbrella because when we really study how customers use our web, it's a very fastener-centered proposition. And we're trying to get that -- we're really trying to get that better and better aligned to the business.

我們的電子商務更加以網路為中心，只有個位數。這些趨勢是重新調整保護傘的部分原因，因為當我們真正研究客戶如何使用我們的網路時，這是一個非常以緊固件為中心的主張。我們正在努力實現這一目標——我們確實在努力使其更好、更好地與業務保持一致。

Finally, our digital footprint. 61.1% of our sales went through a digital footprint this quarter, and that was 57% a year ago. 49% the year before that.

最後是我們的數位足跡。本季我們 61.1% 的銷售額來自數位化足跡，而一年前這一比例為 57%。前年為 49%。

With that, I'll shut up and let Holden take a spin.

說完，我就閉嘴，讓霍爾頓旋轉一下。

Great. Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everyone. I will begin on slide 5. As Dan indicated, our daily sales rate in the third quarter of 2024 was up 1.9%. Hurricane Helene -- Helene, pronounced, which hit several Southeastern regions late in the quarter, reduced our daily sales rate in the quarter by 5 to 25 basis points. Pricing was still slightly negative, though targeted pricing actions moderated the drag relative to the second quarter of 2024.

偉大的。謝謝丹，大家早安。我將從幻燈片 5 開始。正如 Dan 所說，我們 2024 年第三季的每日銷售額成長了 1.9%。颶風海倫（Helene）——發音為海倫（Helene），在本季度末襲擊了幾個東南部地區，使我們本季度的每日銷售額下降了 5 至 25 個基點。儘管有針對性的定價行動緩解了相對 2024 年第二季的拖累，但定價仍然略有負值。

But the primary challenge remains sluggish end markets. The Purchasing Managers' Index has been sub-50, indicating manufacturing contraction for 22 of the last 23 months. Industrial production might be best characterized as flattish, but key components for Fastenal such as machinery and fabricated metal remain weaker than the overall index and have posted long strings of monthly declines of their own. We continue to navigate a long and grinding, albeit shallow contraction in the third quarter of 2024.

但主要挑戰仍是終端市場低迷。採購經理指數一直低於 50，顯示過去 23 個月中有 22 個月製造業出現收縮。工業生產的最佳描述可能是持平，但 Fastenal 的關鍵零件（例如機械和金屬製品）仍然弱於整體指數，並且本身也出現了長期的月度下降。2024 年第三季度，我們將繼續經歷漫長而痛苦的收縮，儘管收縮幅度較小。

In an otherwise unchanged environment, a couple of elements of the quarter worth highlighting. First, our reseller end market weakened markedly with daily sales declining 11.3% in the quarter versus declining 6.4% in the second quarter of 2024. It's not a large segment for Fastenal at roughly 5% of sales in the third quarter of 2024, still, these customers tend to be wholesalers, dealers, rental firms that sit between producers and OEMs and the weakness suggest that there was channel destocking in the period.

在其他方面沒有變化的環境中，本季有幾個要素值得強調。首先，我們的經銷商終端市場明顯疲軟，本季日銷售額下降 11.3%，而 2024 年第二季則下降 6.4%。對Fastenal 來說，這並不是一個很大的細分市場，約佔2024 年第三季銷售額的5%，不過，這些客戶往往是介於生產商和OEM 之間的批發商、經銷商、租賃公司，這一疲軟表明該領域存在渠道庫存縮減。

Second, our September daily sales rate improved to up 3.2% despite a 35 to 55 basis point negative impact from the hurricane in the month and moderating growth in our warehousing end market, where mid-teens September growth was roughly half the July and August growth rate as we begin to hit tougher comparisons. This is accompanied by what I would call a mixed tone from regional leadership, which is an improvement on the universal pessimism of preceding months.

其次，儘管本月颶風造成了35 至55 個基點的負面影響，而且我們的倉儲終端市場增長放緩，但9 月份的日銷售額仍提高至3.2%，其中9 月份的增長約為7 月和8 月增長的一半當我們開始進行更嚴格的比較時。隨之而來的是我所說的地區領導層的混合基調，這比前幾個月的普遍悲觀情緒有所改善。

Now one month does not make a trend, still, coming against another strong quarter for contract, FMI and Onsite signings, momentum does seem to be building around changes aimed at improving customer acquisition.

現在一個月並沒有形成一種趨勢，儘管如此，與合約、FMI 和現場簽約又一個強勁的季度相比，旨在改善客戶獲取的變革似乎正在形成勢頭。

The improved tone from regional leadership seems to reflect a willingness on the part of the marketplace to look past the November elections and into the first half of 2025. Still, in the immediate term, many markets remain weak, the PMI continues to flash pessimism and there is uncertainty over what plant shutdowns might look like during the November and December holiday seasons. We aren't expecting much change from underlying business activity in the fourth quarter of 2024. However, we do believe the strong year-to-date signings should benefit sales trends in the fourth quarter of 2024 and into 2025.

地區領導層的態度有所改善似乎反映出市場願意將目光從 11 月的選舉之後轉向 2025 年上半年。儘管如此，短期內許多市場依然疲軟，PMI 繼續呈現悲觀情緒，並且 11 月和 12 月假期期間工廠停工情況存在不確定性。我們預計 2024 年第四季的基本業務活動不會發生太大變化。然而，我們確實相信，年初至今的強勁簽約應該有利於 2024 年第四季和 2025 年的銷售趨勢。

Now to slide 6. Operating margin in the third quarter of 2024 was 20.3%, down 70 basis points year-to-year. Gross margin in the third quarter of 2024 was 44.9%, down 100 basis points from the year ago period. Product and customer mix played its customary role.

現在轉到投影片 6。2024年第三季營業利益率為20.3%，較去年同期下降70個基點。2024年第三季毛利率為44.9%，較去年同期下降100個基點。產品和客戶組合發揮了其慣有的作用。

Two elements of our logistical operations also weighed on the margin. First, certain countries have raised import duties, lifting the cost to us of moving product across borders. Second, we received a shipper rebate in the third quarter of 2023, which did not recur in the current quarter. And then finally, we are experiencing lower supplier rebates as sustained slow demand has reduced our purchasing activity relative to last year. Price/cost did not materially impact the third quarter of 2024.

我們物流業務的兩個因素也影響了利潤率。首先，某些國家提高了進口關稅，提高了我們跨境運輸產品的成本。其次，我們在 2023 年第三季收到了托運人回扣，該回扣在本季沒有重複發生。最後，我們的供應商回扣較低，因為需求持續緩慢減少了我們的採購活動（相對於去年）。價格/成本並未對 2024 年第三季產生重大影響。

Moving to operating costs. SG&A was 24.6% of sales in the third quarter of 2024, improved from 25% in the year ago period. The most notable contributor to the leverage was an increase in supplier marketing credits. Otherwise, it was an accumulation of modest leverage in many areas, including selling related transportation from lower fuel costs, IT spending, bad debt expense and general insurance costs. Year-to-date, our SG&A is up 2.8%, which is above our DSR of up 1.9% over the same period, which contributes to the 60 basis points of margin compression over the period.

轉向營運成本。SG&A 佔 2024 年第三季銷售額的 24.6%，高於去年同期的 25%。對槓桿最顯著的貢獻是供應商行銷信用的增加。除此之外，這是許多領域適度槓桿的積累，包括透過較低的燃料成本出售相關運輸、IT支出、壞帳費用和一般保險成本。年初至今，我們的 SG&A 成長了 2.8%，高於同期 DSR 成長 1.9%，導致同期利潤率壓縮了 60 個基點。

Our goal remains to prioritize balancing cost management with growth investments. For example, in the third quarter of 2024, our FTE was up 2.8%, above our daily sales rate of up 1.9%. However, we've invested, as Dan indicated, in Onsite personnel to support our strong signings momentum as well as in IT and business analytics, all areas we think are critical to future growth. If we remove these additions, our FTE growth was 1%, which trails our DSR growth.

我們的目標仍然是優先考慮平衡成本管理與成長投資。例如，2024 年第三季度，我們的 FTE 成長了 2.8%，高於每日銷售額 1.9% 的成長。然而，正如丹指出的那樣，我們已經投資於現場人員以支持我們強勁的簽約勢頭，並投資於 IT 和業務分析，我們認為所有領域對未來的成長至關重要。如果我們刪除這些新增內容，我們的 FTE 成長為 1%，落後於我們的 DSR 成長。

Similarly, our total discretionary cost category was up 3.7% in the third quarter of 2024, again, above our daily sales rate. But if you remove sales-related travel, which I believe is contributing to the improved signings we've experienced in 2024, then remaining spending on non-sales travel, meals and supplies was down 8.7%.

同樣，我們的可自由支配成本類別總額在 2024 年第三季增加了 3.7%，再次高於我們的每日銷售額。但如果剔除與銷售相關的旅行（我認為這有助於我們在 2024 年實現簽約量的改善），那麼非銷售旅遊、餐飲和用品的剩餘支出將下降 8.7%。

Viewed in this context, we believe we are effectively managing expenses and expect to leverage when growth accelerates. We intend to remain tight with costs in the fourth quarter of 2024, given continued sluggish end market demand. Putting everything together, we reported third quarter 2024 EPS of $0.52, which matches the $0.52 from the third quarter of 2023.

在這種背景下，我們相信我們正在有效地管理費用，並期望在成長加速時發揮槓桿作用。鑑於終端市場需求持續低迷，我們打算在 2024 年第四季繼續控製成本。綜合考慮，我們報告 2024 年第三季每股收益為 0.52 美元，與 2023 年第三季的 0.52 美元相符。

Now turning to slide 7. We generated $297 million in operating cash in the third quarter of 2024, which was 100% of net income. 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 7% of total capital at the end of the third quarter of 2023. Accounts receivable were up 2.5%, reflecting sales growth and a shift towards larger customers, which tend to have longer terms. Inventories were up 3%, it's the first annual increase since the first quarter of 2023.

現在轉到投影片 7。2024 年第三季度，我們產生了 2.97 億美元的營運現金，佔淨利的 100%。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 年第三季末佔總資本的 7%。應收帳款成長 2.5%，反映出銷售成長以及向大客戶（這些客戶的期限往往較長）的轉變。庫存成長 3%，這是自 2023 年第一季以來的首次年度增長。

Two things are playing out here. First, the third quarter of 2024 is the first quarter since the supply chain crisis where we are no longer comparing to elevated levels of inventory. Second, we began adding incremental inventory, primarily of fasteners, to improve availability to our in-market locations and reduce sourcing through less cost-effective channels.

這裡正在發生兩件事。首先，2024 年第三季度是供應鏈危機以來的第一個季度，我們不再與庫存水準上升進行比較。其次，我們開始增加增量庫存（主要是緊固件），以提高市場地點的可用性，並減少透過成本效益較低的管道進行採購。

This is also intended to support picking efficiency programs in our distribution centers. We added roughly $25 million in new inventory for these purposes in the third quarter of 2024 and anticipating adding another $5 million to $10 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.

這也是為了支持我們配送中心的揀選效率計畫。我們在 2024 年第三季為此目的增加了約 2,500 萬美元的新庫存，並預計在 2024 年第四季再增加 500 萬至 1,000 萬美元。

Net capital spending in the third quarter of 2024 was $55.8 million, up from $42.9 million in the third quarter of 2023. Our full year anticipated net capital spending range remains $235 million to $255 million that we currently are trending towards the bottom of this range.

2024 年第三季的淨資本支出為 5,580 萬美元，高於 2023 年第三季的 4,290 萬美元。我們全年預期淨資本支出範圍仍為 2.35 億美元至 2.55 億美元，目前我們正趨向於該範圍的底部。

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 an increase in FMI spend to support increased signings.

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 支出增加以支持簽約增加。

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

這樣，操作員，我們將把它移交給開始問答。

(Operator Instructions) Ryan Merkel, William Blair.

（操作員指示）瑞安·默克爾、威廉·布萊爾。

I wanted to start with September. I know it's one month, but finished stronger. You feel like some of the moves you've made are starting to lead to more new customer adds. Do you feel like you've turned a corner here and we should expect that we'll see outgrowth improve going forward?

我想從九月開始。我知道這只是一個月，但結束時更強壯。您感覺您所做的一些舉措開始帶來更多新客戶的增加。您是否覺得您已經度過了一個轉折點，我們應該期待未來的成長會有所改善？

Thanks for the question. I personally believe we've turned a corner. When you make -- we made a lot of changes in 2023 and early part of 2024. And like in any organization, changes are distracting. And when I look at the tools we've put in place and more importantly, the leaders we've put in place to get everybody lined down the same path, I feel good that we're focused and I do expect outgrowth as we move into 2025.

謝謝你的提問。我個人相信我們已經度過了難關。當你做的時候——我們在 2023 年和 2024 年初做了很多改變。就像在任何組織中一樣，變化會分散注意力。當我看到我們已經到位的工具，更重要的是，我們已經到位的領導者，讓每個人都走在同一條路上時，我對我們的專注感到高興，並且我確實期望隨著我們的前進而取得成果到2025年。

Okay. Great to hear. And then maybe the second one for Holden. Just on gross margin, how should we think about 4Q? Usually, seasonality is down 30 basis points, but there was a bit of noise in 3Q. So just curious if you can provide any help there.

好的。很高興聽到。然後也許是霍頓的第二個。就毛利率而言，我們該如何看待第四季？通常，季節性因素會下降 30 個基點，但第三季出現了一些噪音。所以只是好奇你是否可以在那裡提供任何幫助。

Yeah. As you said, the seasonality typically is about 30 basis points. I actually think we'll do a little bit better than traditional seasonality in the fourth quarter. I do believe that we'll still see some decline in gross margin from where we were in the third.

是的。正如您所說，季節性通常約為 30 個基點。事實上，我認為我們第四季的表現會比傳統的季節性好。我確實相信，與第三季相比，我們的毛利率仍會下降。

But there's a number of things, I think, particularly when I look at the impact of the lower rebates on gross margin in Q3, when you -- when -- I don't believe that the impact of that is going to be as significant in Q4 as we saw in Q3.

但我認為，有很多事情，特別是當我考慮較低的回扣對第三季毛利率的影響時，當你——當——我不認為這種影響會那麼重大正如我們在第三季度看到的那樣，在第四季。

And so there's probably a couple of million dollars swing that plays out that benefits the gross margin in Q4. So yeah, you're right about the seasonality. I think there'll be a little seasonality that asserts itself, but I think that we will have some offsets to that that moderates it.

因此，可能會出現數百萬美元的波動，這有利於第四季的毛利率。是的，你對季節性的看法是正確的。我認為會有一點季節性的影響，但我認為我們會採取一些抵消措施來緩和它。

Ken Newman, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

肯紐曼，KeyBanc 資本市場。

Holden, just thinking about the margins here and obviously, you've got some impact you called out from negative mix and rebates and then you just answered the question on seasonality here. As you think about some of the cost actions you've taken here recently over the last 12 or 18 months, what do you think is now the minimum level of sales growth to kind of get you back to that historical low 20% incremental margin?

霍頓，只要考慮一下這裡的利潤率，顯然，您從負面組合和回扣中獲得了一些影響，然後您剛剛在這裡回答了有關季節性的問題。當您思考過去 12 或 18 個月中您最近採取的一些成本行動時，您認為現在的銷售成長最低水準是多少，才能讓您回到 20% 增量利潤率的歷史低點？

Well, hopefully, the message you've received is that, whereas we have been tight with certain expenses, we've also invested in other expenses. And if you get to or when we get to a period where you have strong growth again, then obviously, some of those expenses we've been tightly controlling, we'll still tightly control, but they'll clearly move upwards, right?

好吧，希望您收到的訊息是，雖然我們對某些費用一直很緊張，但我們也在其他費用上進行了投資。如果你到達或當我們到達一個再次強勁增長的時期，那麼顯然，我們一直嚴格控制的一些費用，我們仍然會嚴格控制，但它們顯然會上升，對吧？

I don't know that our overall profile has changed, right? We've reacted to the cycle. But I still believe that as we get revenue north of -- revenue growth north of mid-single digits, that's where I think we begin to leverage again. I don't think that, that level has necessarily changed.

我不知道我們的整體形象發生了變化，對嗎？我們已經對這個週期做出了反應。但我仍然相信，當我們的收入成長超過中個位數時，我認為我們將再次開始發揮槓桿作用。我不認為這個水平一定會改變。

Where that level would change is if we began to rethink how we invest in our business. That, we have not done. So as long as we continue to take the approach of investing in our business, investing in growth, I think the overall profile is similar. If you're below mid-single-digit growth, it's going to be difficult to leverage. If you're above mid-single-digit growth, we should be -- expect ourselves to leverage the P&L and grow our margins. That hasn't changed.

如果我們開始重新思考如何投資我們的業務，那麼這個水平就會改變。那，我們還沒有做到。因此，只要我們繼續採取投資業務、投資成長的方式，我認為整體情況是相似的。如果成長率低於中個位數，那麼就很難發揮槓桿作用。如果您的成長率高於中個位數，我們應該預期自己能夠利用損益表並提高利潤率。這一點沒有改變。

One element that comes into play, if growth improves, one of the things that would drive that is our fastener performance improves, particularly the MRO. That tends to be a friend when it comes to gross margin. And it tends to be a friend when it comes to what the efficiencies we've introduced and I believe some of the recent efficiencies that we're introducing with the expanded fastener inventory and distribution. It allows us to also not just get the gross margin friendship, but the -- it's more operating efficient if we have it on the shelf.

發揮作用的一個因素是，如果成長改善，推動這一成長的因素之一就是我們的緊固件效能改善，特別是 MRO。當談到毛利率時，這往往是一個朋友。當涉及到我們所引入的效率時，它往往是一個朋友，我相信我們最近透過擴大緊固件庫存和分銷而引入的一些效率。它不僅使我們能夠獲得毛利率友誼，而且——如果我們把它放在貨架上，它的運作效率會更高。

Right. No, that makes sense. Maybe just for my follow-up, just as a kind of say, tagging on to the end of your comment there, Dan. I know the visibility into the channel can be difficult to track from end market to end market just given the nature of fastener inventories.

正確的。不，這是有道理的。也許只是為了我的後續行動，就像一種說法，標記到你評論的末尾，丹。我知道，考慮到緊固件庫存的性質，從終端市場到終端市場的通路可見性可能很難追蹤。

But I'm curious if you could -- or if you have any color on some of the other moving pieces from a heavy manufacturing perspective, whether it's automotive or OE aerospace with the Boeing strike going on and if there's any way to kind of parse out what impacts or how you view those moves in coming quarters?

但我很好奇你是否可以——或者從重型製造的角度來看，你是否對其他一些移動部件有任何看法，無論是汽車還是原始設備航空航天，波音罷工正在進行，以及是否有任何方法可以解析您如何看待未來幾季的這些舉措？

Well, our visibility, we've always joked that it's about 8 hours. But we do have one indicator of visibility, and that's ISM. And it's not -- that's not giving us any help. The one thing that does come into play that makes me a little bit more bullish when I look out into 2025, and time will tell if I'm a naive fool or if I'm accurate on it, and that is, since November '22, our customers' business took a step down.

嗯，我們的能見度，我們一直開玩笑說是8個小時左右。但我們確實有一個可見性指標，那就是 ISM。但這並沒有給我們任何幫助。有一件事確實發揮了作用，讓我在展望 2025 年時更加樂觀，時間會證明我是一個天真的傻瓜，還是我的判斷是否準確，那就是，自 11 月以來。下降了。

So you go -- you take a step down from '22 to '23, you take a step down from '23 to '24, then you start asking yourself from '24 to '25, we don't need the business to go back to what it was in '22 or even what it was in '23. But you ask yourself, what's the probability of it taking another step down and creating a whole bunch of headwinds for us or the probability of it being -- staying the same, a weaker environment, but staying the same or marginally improving. Again, not going back, but just marginally improving.

所以你從 22 下降到 23，從 23 下降到 24，然後你開始問自己從 24 到 25，我們不需要業務繼續發展回到22年甚至23年的情況。但你問自己，它再退一步並給我們帶來一大堆逆風的可能性有多大，或者保持不變、環境較弱，但保持不變或略有改善的可能性有多大。再說一遍，不會回去，只是略有改善。

Of those three scenarios, personally, I think the second and third have a greater probability, one or the other, than the first. That's our friend when we go into 2025 because in our growth signs through -- I often cite some stats, we do millions of transactions now through FMI. So I'll use what we call FASTStock. That's what we're going out with our scanning device and our scanning bins.

在這三種情況中，我個人認為第二和第三種情況比第一種可能性更大。當我們進入 2025 年時，這是我們的朋友，因為在我們的成長跡像中——我經常引用一些統計數據，我們現在透過 FMI 進行數百萬筆交易。所以我將使用我們所說的 FASTStock。這就是我們的掃描設備和掃描箱的用途。

In January, we did 16,387 orders every day and our average order was $224. So we go out with scan for bins, $224 we bring out a day or two later. By May, that $224 had dropped to $214. That's the bad news. And the -- from May to September, that $214 has risen to $216.

1 月份，我們每天完成 16,387 個訂單，平均訂單金額為 224 美元。所以我們出去掃描垃圾箱，一兩天後我們拿出 224 美元。到了 5 月份，這個數字從 224 美元下降到了 214 美元。這是壞消息。從 5 月到 9 月，這個數字從 214 美元上升到 216 美元。

Now I don't know what it's going to be in October, what's going to be in January. But right now, from January to September, it's down about 11.5%, which means we have -- today, we have 18,290 scans a day. So we're doing an 11.5% more scan. So we either -- we have more customers where we're providing the service, 11.5% more. But the contraction in spend per customer is wiping out 31% of our growth.

現在我不知道十月會怎樣，一月會怎樣。但現在，從 1 月到 9 月，下降了約 11.5%，這意味著我們今天每天有 18,290 次掃描。因此，我們的掃描量增加了 11.5%。所以我們要么 - 我們在提供服務的地方擁有更多的客戶，增加了 11.5%。但每位客戶支出的收縮抹去了我們 31% 的成長。

If we don't wipe out 31% of our growth because $216 goes to $210 or $208, that's a different number. And if I do the math on next year, we're doing 20,000 a day in the first quarter, just a number, that's -- based on the $216, that's $91 million a month, 420,000 scans in a 21-day month.

如果我們沒有因為 216 美元變成 210 美元或 208 美元而抹掉 31% 的增長，那是一個不同的數字。如果我算明年，我們第一季每天要做 20,000 次掃描，這只是一個數字——基於 216 美元，每月 9100 萬美元，每個月 21 天進行 420,000 次掃描。

If that $216 stays there, it's $91 million. If it drops 3.5% or 3%, 11%, whatever, you know the math there. If it goes back to $224, that adds $3 million a month to our revenue. That's like, for the year, getting another calendar day because we do $31 million a day, and that's $36 million.

如果這 216 美元保持不變，那就是 9,100 萬美元。如果它下跌 3.5% 或 3%、11%，無論什麼，你都知道其中的數學原理。如果回到 224 美元，我們每個月的收入將增加 300 萬美元。這就像這一年又多了一個日曆日，因為我們每天的營業額為 3,100 萬美元，那就是 3,600 萬美元。

Sorry to get really wonky on you there, but it really changes the math quite dramatically if things just stabilize or tick up slightly because we're adding customers. We're taking market share. Just -- it would be nice to have more than 70% of it shining through or 60% or 40% of it shining through because of contraction.

很抱歉讓你感到非常奇怪，但如果由於我們增加客戶而導致情況穩定或略有上升，這確實會極大地改變數學。我們正在搶佔市場份額。只是——由於收縮，如果能有超過 70% 的光透過，或者 60% 或 40% 的光透過，那就太好了。

And I will say, to follow up on that, there were a couple of markets that stood out in regional leadership's commentary. Ag is very weak. And I think our expectation is there's going to be extended shutdowns in ag over the course of the fourth quarter.

我想說的是，為了跟進這一點，有幾個市場在地區領導層的評論中脫穎而出。Ag很弱。我認為我們的預期是第四季農業部門的停工時間將會延長。

Consumer durable categories are fairly weak, were called out in a number of cases. And then pulp, paper and lumber, was also called out. We are seeing some effects of Boeing in the aerospace side as well. So those are four areas that were called out.

耐用消費品類別相當薄弱，在許多情況下都受到了批評。然後紙漿、紙張和木材也被提出來。我們也看到了波音公司在航空航太方面的一些影響。這就是被指出的四個領域。

Nothing -- oil and gas is still fairly stable and doing decently, and those are probably the callouts. So not comprehensive by any means, but a few things that were mentioned by the field.

沒有什麼——石油和天然氣仍然相當穩定並且表現良好，這些可能是亮點。無論如何，這並不全面，但該領域提到了一些事情。

Tommy Moll, Stephens.

湯米·莫爾，史蒂芬斯。

I wanted to touch on September. Do you sense that there was any help from the macro there? Or would you attribute all or substantially all of the benefit from market share? And on the market share point, were there some big things that fell your way? Or does it feel more like an accumulation of a bunch of little things that have been in process for some time?

我想談談九月。您是否感覺到宏有任何幫助？或者您會將全部或大部分收益歸因於市場佔有率嗎？在市場佔有率方面，是否有一些重大事情對您不利？或者感覺更像是一堆已經進行了一段時間的小事情的累積？

Yeah. On the markets, again, I think mix is the right expression for it. If I think, for instance, about our Midwestern markets in particular, a couple of them actually said, if anything, it was a little bit weaker in September than what we had seen proceeding. But then there are a whole bunch of markets that kind of said, no, it was kind of stable. A couple said that maybe there was a little bit of improvement. So when we say that that was mixed, that was the feeling.

是的。在市場上，我認為混合是正確的表達方式。例如，如果我特別考慮我們的中西部市場，他們中的一些人實際上說過，如果有的話，那就是 9 月的情況比我們看到的情況要弱一些。但隨後有許多市場表示，不，它是穩定的。一對夫婦說也許有一點進步。所以當我們說這是混合的，那就是感覺。

Now I would say the last few quarters have been more universally pessimistic. So it does represent an uptick of sentiment, if you will. But I do believe that the feedback from the field, though, was that overwhelmingly, the degree to which we're seeing improvement has to do with the new customers that we have added and the process of implementing them, bringing them on and getting to revenue.

現在我想說的是，過去幾季普遍更加悲觀。因此，如果你願意的話，它確實代表了情緒的上升。但我確實相信，來自現場的反饋絕大多數是，我們所看到的改進程度與我們添加的新客戶以及實施這些客戶、吸引他們並獲得客戶的過程有關。

And so yeah, end markets, mixed. The benefits we're seeing have a lot more to do with the things that we're doing and the traction we're gaining there. I don't have a reason to believe that September was unusual in that regard for any reason. I think we spent the balance of this year seeing our contracts grow. That's not only at the national account level, but I think the work that's being done in the field just to sign contracts at that level, that's also been growing quite nicely.

是的，終端市場好壞參半。我們所看到的好處與我們正在做的事情以及我們在那裡獲得的吸引力有很大關係。無論出於何種原因，我沒有理由相信九月在這方面是不尋常的。我想我們在今年餘下的時間裡看到了合約的成長。這不僅是在國民帳戶層面，而且我認為在該領域為簽署該層面的合約所做的工作也成長得相當不錯。

That's manifest in Onsite signings, FMI signings. I just think you're seeing, as you said, the accumulated impact of those things playing through. And that's why, as Dan indicated, we're excited about what's coming down the pike. Again, fourth quarter can always be tricky. But I think that the trend line going out of fourth quarter into 2025 is a really solid trend line in those areas.

這在現場簽約、FMI 簽約中得到了體現。我只是認為，正如您所說，您正在看到這些事情所產生的累積影響。正如丹所言，這就是為什麼我們對即將發生的事情感到興奮。同樣，第四季總是很棘手。但我認為從第四季到 2025 年的趨勢線在這些領域是一條非常堅實的趨勢線。

The only thing I'll add to that, one -- some things that stood up for me when I was looking at September. And these are relatively small pieces, but they're ones where I'm probably more dialled into it because I'm sensitive to it. And that is we made some changes to our branch, how we operate at the branch location. And as a result, we have some fall off in different customer groups, some of our smaller customer groups because our -- we changed how we stock the front room.

我唯一要補充的一點是，當我關註九月時，一些對我來說是站得住腳的事情。這些都是相對較小的部分，但我可能更喜歡它們，因為我對它們很敏感。那就是我們對我們的分支機構以及我們在分支機構地點的運作方式進行了一些更改。結果，我們在不同的客戶群中出現了一些下降，其中一些較小的客戶群是因為我們改變了前廳的庫存方式。

This is in recent years, not just in --

這是近幾年的事，不只是最近幾年的事--

Recent years. Recent years. But as a result, our construction business has been negative for quite a few quarters. And in September, it grew 1% -- 0.9%, to be exact. And is that a moral victory? Well, the fact that there isn't a bracket around it is a moral victory. And I believe that means that change has anniversaried itself. And now the question is, what is that industry doing? Again, that's a relatively small piece of our business. But you know what, I want growth with every customer segment we have.

近年來。近年來。但結果是，我們的建築業務連續幾季都是負成長。9月份，確切地說，成長了1%——0.9%。這是道德上的勝利嗎？嗯，事實上，它沒有括號，這是道德上的勝利。我相信這意味著改變已經是週年紀念日了。現在的問題是，這個行業在做什麼？同樣，這只是我們業務中相對較小的一部分。但你知道嗎，我希望我們擁有的每個客戶群都能成長。

Another one that stood out, our government accounts grew quite a bit in September. Sometimes government business can do that because of the federal government and when their year-end is and budgets and all that kind of stuff. We don't have much federal business to speak of. Ours are state and local. We had a very strong September. Time will tell if that has legs to it.

另一件引人注目的事情是，我們的政府帳戶在九月增長了不少。有時，政府業務可以這樣做，因為聯邦政府以及他們的年終和預算以及諸如此類的事情。我們沒有太多聯邦事務可言。我們的是州和地方的。我們度過了一個非常充實的九月。時間會證明這是否有效。

When I dug into the numbers, it was about our Onsite signings. It was about that chunk of the business that really gave it a lift because it's -- again, it's about 4% of our sales is government. And in the US, it's about 5% of our business. So -- but there was something that stood out there, but it didn't change the fact that we ended the quarter stronger than how we started the quarter.

當我深入研究這些數字時，發現這是關於我們的現場簽約。正是這塊業務真正給了它提振，因為我們的銷售額中約有 4% 來自政府。在美國，這約占我們業務的 5%。所以，但有一些事情很突出，但這並沒有改變我們本季結束時比本季開始時更強勁的事實。

And just sticking with the theme of Onsites and market share. Dan, you've been very explicit in recent quarters about some of the personnel changes that were made and the redoubling of efforts to drive those Onsite signings higher. You touched on it a little bit today, but any more detail you can give us about the maturity of those initiatives and in particular, any regional insight would be helpful as well.

並堅持現場和市場份額的主題。丹，最近幾季你非常明確地談到了一些人事變動，以及加倍努力推動現場簽約的情況。您今天稍微談到了這一點，但是您可以向我們提供有關這些舉措成熟度的更多詳細信息，特別是任何區域見解也會有所幫助。

Yeah. Well, the maturity of both Onsite and our FMI is quite strong. There's incredible -- our average district manager has 58 dots on the map in their geography that we believe is sufficient to warrant an Onsite, and for us, that means $100,000-plus of revenue a month, is kind of that guiding figure.

是的。嗯，Onsite 和我們的 FMI 都非常成熟。令人難以置信的是，我們的地區經理在其所在地區的地圖上平均有58 個點，我們認為這些點足以保證進行Onsite，對我們來說，這意味著每月100,000 美元以上的收入，這是一個指導數字。

One of the things that we've talked a lot about, and as we move into 2025, we'll talk to this -- to our shareholders and the investment community, analyst community, a lot about is what's the best way to tell our story. One thing that we've done for years is we started as -- and I was CFO prior to my current job, so I have a good recollection of some of the steps and changes how we told the story over time.

我們已經談論了很多的事情之一，當我們進入 2025 年時，我們將與我們的股東、投資界、分析師界談論這一點，很多關於什麼是告訴我們的最好方式故事。我們多年來所做的一件事是，我們一開始是——在擔任目前的工作之前，我是首席財務官，所以我對一些步驟和隨著時間的推移我們講述故事的方式的變化有著很好的回憶。

In 2007, we started talking about pathway to profit. 2011, we started to actually talk about something we've been doing for three, four years, and that was vending. And we felt it's big enough to talk about because in all honestly, the first seven or eight years that we had vending, we didn't know the h*** we were doing.

2007年，我們開始談論獲利之路。 2011年，我們開始真正談論我們已經做了三、四年的事情，那就是自動販賣機。我們覺得這件事夠大，值得討論，因為老實說，在我們經營自動販賣機的頭七八年裡，我們並不知道自己在做什麼。

We get to the end of the year, and we knew that of the vending devices we had deployed that year, 25% to 30% of them we're going to pull out because they were just -- they were dumb mistakes. And it was learning mistakes. And I'm glad we went through it.

到了年底，我們知道，在我們當年部署的自動販賣設備中，有 25% 到 30% 我們將撤掉，因為它們只是——它們是愚蠢的錯誤。這是學習錯誤。我很高興我們經歷了這一切。

Today, when we put a vending machine out, not only do I feel really good, it's a good signing. I feel good that we put in the right number of devices, that this customer should have 10 machines, and we don't find out six months later, well, it should be six and we pull four out. Does that still happen? Sure. But we've really gotten good at it. And so over time, we've changed how we tell the story a number of years ago, we started talking about our digital footprint because it was really talking about our service model and how we go to market.

今天，當我們推出自動販賣機時，我不僅感覺非常好，而且這是一個很好的簽約。我感覺很好，我們放入了正確數量的設備，該客戶應該有 10 台機器，六個月後我們沒有發現，嗯，應該是 6 台，而我們取出了 4 台。這種情況還會發生嗎？當然。但我們確實已經做得很好了。隨著時間的推移，我們改變了幾年前講述故事的方式，我們開始談論我們的數位足跡，因為它​​實際上是在談論我們的服務模式以及我們如何進入市場。

In the last two years, we've been building internally, the capability to not look at our business account number by account number, but customer by customer. We've done that for years with our national accounts, but it takes a small army of people to take our computer systems that weren't designed for that type of business and link all these account numbers and tell the story of what's going on with our national accounts.

在過去的兩年裡，我們一直在內部建立一種能力，即不再逐一查看我們的企業帳號，而是逐一查看。多年來，我們一直在國民帳戶上這樣做，但需要一小群人來使用我們的電腦系統，這些系統不是為此類業務設計的，並將所有這些帳號聯繫起來，並講述正在發生的事情我們的國民帳。

But it doesn't allow us to do it for that customer in a district that has 10 account numbers because they have 2 manufacturing plants in Southern Indiana. And so the district manager knows it, but we can't support the DM in the way we want to do that.

但它不允許我們為擁有 10 個帳號的地區的客戶這樣做，因為他們在印第安納州南部有 2 個製造工廠。地區經理知道這一點，但我們無法以我們想要的方式支援 DM。

So one of the challenges that really laid out is that's build infrastructure to do that. We've been doing that for the last two years. And so when I started -- when I talked about where our growth comes from in a number of customer sites, and that's not Onsite, that's just a building, a dot on the map where we're selling to one customer, whether we have 1 account number or 10 account numbers, we think about it to how we serve that customer. That's really what we should be telling our story about. And how do we craft that?

因此，真正面臨的挑戰之一是建立基礎設施來做到這一點。過去兩年我們一直在做這件事。因此，當我開始時，當我談到我們的成長來自於許多客戶站點時，那不是現場，那隻是一棟建築，地圖上的一個點，我們在其中向一個客戶銷售產品，無論我們是否有1 個帳號或10 個帳號，我們會考慮如何為該客戶提供服務。這確實是我們應該講述的故事。我們如何製作它？

In other words, telling you, here's how many customers we've added. Here's how many of those customers do less than $5,000 a month. Here's how many of those customers do $5,000 to $10,000, $10,000 to $50,000, $50,000-plus, a $100,000-plus. And what's our strategy for going after each of those customers to be a great supply chain partner for that customer's needs.

換句話說，告訴您，這是我們新增的客戶數量。以下是這些客戶中有多少人每月的收入低於 5,000 美元。以下是這些客戶中有多少人的消費金額為 5,000 美元至 10,000 美元、10,000 美元至 50,000 美元、50,000 美元以上、100,000 美元以上。我們針對每位客戶的策略是什麼，成為滿足該客戶需求的優秀供應鏈夥伴。

And I think as we go into 2025, frankly, I think it won't be too distant in the future. And I'd be careful how I say this because I don't want to send a message internally to confuse people, but I think we'll talk more about customer acquisition and customer maturity and how we're growing the business and less about, hey, we've signed 104 Onsites this quarter.

我認為，當我們進入 2025 年時，坦白說，我認為未來不會太遙遠。我會很小心地說這個，因為我不想在內部發送信息來迷惑人們，但我認為我們會更多地談論客戶獲取和客戶成熟度以及我們如何發展業務，而不是談論，嘿，本季度我們已經簽署了104 個Onsites。

Because I think that's a better story to tell because it's easier to understand and, frankly, it's probably easier for this group to model the business and understand what's driving success, what's creating headwinds either for ourselves or the economy is delivering to us. Because sometimes you don't do yourself any favors. And sometimes it's a case of you're executing under the hood, but the headwinds are too strong. And I think it's a better story.

因為我認為這是一個更好的故事，因為它更容易理解，而且坦率地說，這個團隊可能更容易對業務進行建模並理解推動成功的因素，是什麼給我們自己或經濟給我們帶來了阻力。因為有時候你並沒有為自己帶來任何好處。有時，你正在幕後執行任務，但逆風太大了。我認為這是一個更好的故事。

Even some of the stuff and maybe it's a little wonky, we talk about, hey, when we're up scanning bins, every time we scan a bin, it's $8 more or it's $8 less. That tells a lot about what's going on in the economy because those bins are at 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 dots across the planet. I don't think there's a better indicator of economic activity than that. I still think the PMI is a great forward-looking indicator. We're a great real-time indicator.

即使有些東西可能有點奇怪，我們也會談論，嘿，當我們掃描垃圾箱時，每次我們掃描垃圾箱，就會多 8 美元或少 8 美元。這很大程度上說明了經濟狀況，因為這些垃圾箱在全球範圍內有 5,000、10,000、15,000 個點。我認為沒有比這更好的經濟活動指標了。我仍然認為PMI是一個很好的前瞻性指標。我們是一個很棒的即時指標。

And just to make sure, I mean, I address a little bit of the nuance of the question. The changes that were made and the investments that are being made were not about driving Onsite to 375 to 400, just to be clear. It was about driving customer acquisition.

我的意思是，為了確保這一點，我解決了這個問題的一些細微差別。需要澄清的是，所做的改變和正在進行的投資並不是為了將 Onsite 數量提高到 375 到 400。這是為了推動客戶獲取。

We need to recognize that Onsite growth is a byproduct of winning new customers. Not every new customer has an Onsite. Many of them do because it's such an incredibly valuable tool and that' where the signings come from. But it's the wins that we're having in our national account contract signings, in our regional account contract signings, our government account contract signing, it's wins there that the investments were intended to drive and it's the effectiveness that we're seeing there that's better Onsite signings, better FMI signings. So just make sure you understand what the real driver is.

我們需要認識到，現場成長是贏得新客戶的副產品。並非每個新客戶都有 Onsite。他們中的許多人這樣做是因為這是一個非常有價值的工具，也是簽約的來源。但這是我們在國民帳戶合約簽署、地區帳戶合約簽署、政府帳戶合約簽署中取得的勝利，這是投資旨在推動的勝利，也是我們在那裡看到的有效性。好的FMI 簽。因此，請確保您了解真正的驅動程式是什麼。

Stephen Volkmann, Jefferies.

史蒂芬‧福克曼，傑弗里斯。

I had a couple of quick follow-ups. Dan, you mentioned that you've kind of anniversaried the headwinds in the branches, but I know you guys were really focused on trying to get those branches growing again. Has that happened yet or could it happen maybe in '25? What's the outlook for that?

我進行了幾次快速跟進。丹，你提到你已經度過了樹枝上的逆風週年紀念日，但我知道你們真的專注於努力讓這些樹枝再次生長。這已經發生了嗎，或者可能會在 25 年發生嗎？前景如何？

I expect it to happen in '25. And there's a couple of things. We're very crisp about measuring when there's cannibalization because of an Onsite signing. But I expect it to happen because once you get to the point you've kind of anniversary the change, and we still have -- there's two stories going on inside of Fastenal when I think of the US-based business. And I touched on it this morning with our RVPs and VPs on the call. And that is, this transition has started faster.

我預計這會在 25 年發生。還有一些事情。我們非常清楚地衡量何時會因為現場簽約而出現蠶食情況。但我預計這會發生，因為一旦你達到了這一點，你就已經經歷了周年紀念日的變化，而且我們仍然——當我想到這家位於美國的業務時，Fastenal 內部正在發生兩個故事。今天早上我在電話會議上與我們的 RVP 和 VP 談到了這個問題。也就是說，這種轉變開始得更快。

During COVID, the transition has started a little bit faster in our Eastern business unit. And when you look at September, for example, our business in the United States grew 2.5%, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but 2 and change.

在新冠疫情期間，我們東部業務部門的轉型開始得更快一些。例如，當你看看 9 月時，我們在美國的業務成長了 2.5%，我面前沒有數字，而是 2 和變化。

In the Eastern United States, we grew almost 5%. We grew 4.9%. In the Western United States, and our definition of West is draw a line from the east -- from Detroit down to just the Western tip of Texas. And so Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, down to New Mexico. That's all in what we call the West and everything else would be in the East. So that's just the way we've defined it internally. It's a lot better than it used to be. Southern Cal was in the East, but that's kind of like the big 10.

在美國東部，我們成長了近 5%。我們成長了 4.9%。在美國西部，我們對西部的定義是從東部劃一條線－從底特律一直到德州的西端。威斯康辛州、明尼蘇達州、愛荷華州、密蘇裡州，一直到新墨西哥州。這就是我們所說的西方，其他一切都在東方。這就是我們內部定義的方式。比以前好多了。南加州位於東部，但有點像十大。

But all kidding aside, the business in the Eastern US has grown about 5% right now. And the business in the Western US is slightly negative, and it's been slightly negative for a number of quarters. That's just -- that's really about who's anniversaried it and who hasn't.

但別開玩笑了，美國東部的業務目前成長了約 5%。美國西部地區的業務略有下滑，而且已經連續幾季輕微下滑。這只是——這實際上是關於誰慶祝了周年紀念日，誰沒有慶祝週年紀念日。

So we still have a little -- we still have a little bit of a lingering effect in the Western US, and we have a lot of revenue in the Western US. But I feel good about what that means for the branch side of our business as we move forward.

所以我們在美國西部仍然有一點揮之不去的影響，而且我們在美國西部有很多收入。但隨著我們的前進，我對這對我們業務的分支機構意味著什麼感到滿意。

We've also gotten really dialled in -- if I think of some of the changes that our sales leadership has made, we're better aligned with our national accounts group, region by region than we've been in years. We're better aligned with the role we call our CSC. It's a customer service consultant -- sales consultant, excuse me.

我們也真正投入了工作——如果我想到我們的銷售領導層所做的一些改變，我們與我們的國民帳戶小組、各個地區的配合比多年來都更好。我們更好地適應我們稱為 CSC 的角色。這是一位客戶服務顧問——銷售顧問，對不起。

And we have those now in large, large piece of our district manager group. And where we don't, we're weeks and months away. And that really allows us to be very, very focused locally to go after the market. And that's going to help our Onsite signings, but frankly, it's probably going to help the branches more because it's going to allow us to be more aggressive going after that customer -- that building there that could be a $25,000 a month customer. But sometimes when you're really busy, maybe we're not being consistently calling on that the way we should, and it really dials you in.

現在我們的地區經理團隊中已經有很多這樣的人了。如果我們不這樣做，我們還需要幾週甚至幾個月的時間。這確實讓我們能夠非常非常專注於本地市場。這將有助於我們的現場簽約，但坦白說，這可能會對分公司有更多幫助，因為這將使我們能夠更積極地追逐該客戶——那裡的大樓可能是每月25,000 美元的客戶。但有時當你真的很忙時，也許我們並沒有按照我們應該的方式持續呼籲，這確實讓你陷入困境。

I also want to say what makes me feel better about the both the branch and the Onsite side of the business. Bill Drazkowski was Head of National Accounts starting about 2014, I believe that's what it was. Prior to that, he was our Regional Vice President in what we call the Winona region.

我還想說說是什麼讓我對分行和現場業務感覺更好。Bill Drazkowski 大約從 2014 年開始擔任國民帳戶主管，我相信事實就是如此。在此之前，他是我們所謂的威諾納地區的區域副總裁。

He took over national accounts. Yours truly, who's speaking right now, pulled him out of that role and put him in a different role in 2019. And Jeff Watts, in 2023, asked if we could put him back -- actually suggested, he's Canadian, so I always [give the] time he's asking. He suggested that Bill go back into the role. Great move on Jeff's part. Bill is naturally talented in that area. And his team responds to him -- incredible talent there. They're responding really well, makes me feel really good because we're -- the contract signings that Holden talked about, big chunk of that is related to what our national accounts team is doing, and they're really executing well right now.

他接管了國民帳戶。現在正在發言的您，真的把他從這個角色中拉了出來，並在 2019 年讓他擔任了一個不同的角色。傑夫·瓦茨 (Jeff Watts) 在 2023 年問我們是否可以讓他回來——實際上是建議，他是加拿大人，所以我總是[給予]他要求的時間。他建議比爾重新擔任這個角色。傑夫方面的偉大舉動。比爾在這方面自然有天賦。他的團隊對他做出了回應——那裡有令人難以置信的才華。他們的反應非常好，讓我感覺非常好，因為我們——霍頓談到的合約簽署，其中很大一部分與我們的國民帳戶團隊正在做的事情有關，而且他們現在確實執行得很好。

Okay. Great. And just a quick follow-up. You mentioned, Holden, adding some inventory, maybe giving you a little bit of cost benefit. I'm just curious if it's enough that we should be thinking about gross margin tailwind from that? Or is that more of a rounding error?

好的。偉大的。只是快速跟進。你提到，霍頓，增加一些庫存，也許會為你帶來一點成本效益。我只是好奇我們是否應該考慮由此帶來的毛利率提升？或者這更像是一個捨入誤差？

The -- there should be a gross margin tailwind from that, but we'll have several quarters to discuss it. The reality is importing fasteners is a multi-quarter process. And by the time that begins -- we're actually adding the inventory currently from local suppliers to make sure that the availability is high because that's a big part of why we're doing this. Just to make it easier, as Dan indicated, for the branches to get product faster, helps customer service, helps us grow.

這應該會帶來毛利率的提升，但我們將有幾個季度的時間來討論它。現實情況是，進口緊固件是一個涉及多個季度的過程。到開始時，我們實際上正在添加當前來自本地供應商的庫存，以確保可用性很高，因為這是我們這樣做的一個重要原因。正如丹所指出的那樣，只是為了讓分店更快獲得產品，幫助客戶服務，幫助我們成長。

So we're -- currently, we're adding that through domestic sources. There's not a lot of cost benefit to that. We are currently placing orders with our import partners to send that product overseas. That's going to take several quarters. So I don't think you're going to start to see the benefits or the tailwinds of that until you probably get into maybe Q2 next year, but probably more like Q3 next year.

所以我們目前正在透過國內來源添加這一點。這樣做並沒有太多的成本效益。我們目前正在向進口合作夥伴下訂單，將該產品送到海外。這將需要幾個季度的時間。因此，我認為直到您可能進入明年第二季度，但可能更像明年第三季度，您才會開始看到它的好處或順風。

Nigel Coe, Wolfe Research.

奈傑爾·科，沃爾夫研究中心。

We've covered a lot of ground, but I did want to, Holden, maybe go back to some of the gross margin dynamics. And you called out in the PR, Mexico duties -- high Mexican duties. And I'm not quite sure what that means. Just curious in terms of what's driving that? Is that something that's going to recur going forward?

我們已經討論了很多內容，但霍頓，我確實想回到一些毛利率動態。你在公關中呼籲墨西哥徵收關稅——墨西哥的關稅很高。我不太確定這意味著什麼。只是好奇是什麼推動了這一點？這樣的事情會在未來再次發生嗎？

Mexico really over the past 12 months, but they've even done some in the -- I think, the past three to six months, they've been very much more active in charging duties on product that moves across the border. Now if you understand our logistics, we ship a lot of product from the US to Canada to Mexico to Europe, et cetera. And so the current Mexico system has a significantly higher charge for those movements than was the case 12 months ago. And so we're feeling the effect of that.

墨西哥確實在過去 12 個月裡做了一些工作，但他們甚至在過去三到六個月裡做了一些事情，他們在對跨境運輸的產品徵收關稅方面更加積極。現在，如果您了解我們的物流，我們將大量產品從美國運送到加拿大、墨西哥、歐洲等地。因此，目前墨西哥系統對這些移動的費用比 12 個月前高得多。所以我們正在感受到它的影響。

Canada has some as well, specifically on gloves that are up meaningfully. And so just really in the last, call it, 6 to 12 months, you've seen a number of federal authorities in other countries simply raise the cost of moving product across borders. And that was a meaningful impact on the quarter.

加拿大也有一些，特別是有意義的手套。因此，在過去 6 到 12 個月裡，您會看到其他國家的許多聯邦當局只是提高了產品跨境運輸的成本。這對本季產生了重大影響。

The planet is more provincial than it was 10 years ago.

與十年前相比，這個星球更加狹隘。

Okay. I thought we had a free trade agreement, but maybe I'm wrong there. So this is because duty rates are increasing, not because there's more product coming across the border?

好的。我以為我們有自由貿易協定，但也許我錯了。那麼這是因為關稅在增加，而不是因為有更多的產品跨境？

Yeah. Keep in mind that the free trade agreement, we're not necessarily talking about product that's going from country to country, we're talking product that's not maybe natively from North America.

是的。請記住，在自由貿易協定中，我們不一定談論從一個國家到另一個國家的產品，我們談論的產品可能不是來自北美。

Okay. Got it. Okay. That's interesting. And then just a quick one on sort of like -- I know 2025 is next year, but how do we think about the working capital sort of investments and maybe CapEx into '25? Do you think that $250 million or so is a good run rate for CapEx? And what do you expect working capital to be use of funds?

好的。知道了。好的。那很有意思。然後簡單說一下——我知道明年就是 2025 年，但我們如何考慮營運資本類投資，也許還有 25 年的資本支出？您認為 2.5 億美元左右的資本支出運作率是否合適？您預計營運資金的資金用途是什麼？

We haven't had those conversations to budget the CapEx. But I mean, CapEx, generally speaking, is volatile related to whatever investments you're making in the hub. And the reality is a significant proportion, probably half of the investment we're making in our hub category of CapEx this year is related to the construction of our Utah hub.

我們還沒有進行這些對話來預算資本支出。但我的意思是，一般來說，資本支出與您在中心進行的任何投資有關，是不穩定的。現實情況是，我們今年在資本支出的樞紐類別中進行的投資有很大一部分，可能有一半與猶他州樞紐的建設有關。

We have a hub in Utah today, smaller lease, not automated. That business has gotten big enough that we can invest in a larger, more automated facility. That's what we're doing this year. There'll be a little bit more expense falling into next year related to that. But I think most of it falls into this year. And so I think you would expect that to step back.

今天我們在猶他州有一個樞紐，租賃面積較小，不是自動化的。這項業務已經足夠大，我們可以投資更大、更自動化的設施。這就是我們今年要做的事。明年與此相關的費用將會增加一些。但我認為大部分都發生在今年。所以我想你會期望這種情況會退一步。

So I would expect that $250 million is probably a little bit higher than I would expect for next year. But again, we haven't had those conversations yet with the various departments. So I'll have more detail when we convene three months from now.

因此，我預計 2.5 億美元可能會比我明年的預期略高一些。但同樣，我們還沒有與各部門進行過這些對話。因此，當我們三個月後召開會議時，我將提供更多細節。

When that question came up with the Board yesterday, the only added twist I put in there, as I said to the Board. When I think of the number, and Holden has done a wonderful job of really challenging us of where we -- or on the investment where it makes sense, but also challenging us on where it doesn't. And for me, the guidepost has been, we would spend about 3% of sales, I think, over time, and our cash flow really supports that. And about a third of that is because of FMI. And the nice thing about that is that's a great business for us.

昨天，當董事會向董事會提出這個問題時，正如我對董事會所說的那樣，這是我添加的唯一的補充內容。當我想到這個數字時，霍頓做得非常出色，它確實向我們提出了挑戰，即在有意義的投資方面，但也在不合理的地方挑戰了我們。對我來說，指導方針是，我認為，隨著時間的推移，我們將花費銷售額的 3% 左右，而我們的現金流確實支持這一點。其中大約三分之一是 FMI 造成的。這樣做的好處是這對我們來說是一項偉大的業務。

A decade ago, when we were still trying to figure out up and down of what the h*** vending meant, it was a drag to our P&L. It was a drag to our returns. The fact that inventory turns a lot faster than a vending machine, you can make that capital investment. And so the cost of the shelf, whether it's a vending machine shelf or a shelf on an Onsite or shelf in the branch, the cost of that vending shelf as a percentage of sales is as good, if not better, than the company. So it's a great business because it's a great tool for our customer. They like that as part of the supply chain.

十年前，當我們仍在試圖弄清楚 h*** 自動販賣機的含義時，這對我們的損益造成了拖累。這對我們的回報造成了拖累。事實上，庫存週轉速度比自動販賣機快得多，您可以進行資本投資。因此，貨架的成本，無論是自動販賣機貨架還是現場貨架或分支機構的貨架，自動販賣機貨架的成本佔銷售額的百分比與公司一樣好，甚至更好。所以這是一項很棒的業務，因為它對我們的客戶來說是一個很好的工具。他們喜歡將其作為供應鏈的一部分。

For customers that have vending, usually about a third of the revenue goes through the vending machines and 2/3 is outside of vending machine. So it's a tool in that supply chain. Some stuff's in the tool crib, some stuff's in a bin stock, some stuff's in a vending machine. So it's a great way with our Blue Team in the field to be an incredibly, strong supply chain partner to our customers.

對於擁有自動販賣機的客戶來說，通常大約三分之一的收入來自自動販賣機，2/3 則來自自動販賣機以外。所以它是供應鏈中的一個工具。有些東西在工具庫裡，有些東西在垃圾桶裡，有些東西在自動販賣機裡。因此，我們的藍隊在該領域成為客戶難以置信的、強大的供應鏈合作夥伴，這是一個很好的方式。

So a third of the -- of CapEx goes into FMI. About 40% goes into distribution and transportation. And then the remaining chunk is really about what we're spending on IT. We have an incredible team there. We're going to continue to pour love and investment into that group, and that was some of our headcount growth during the year, and it's on all the other stuff that goes on in life.

因此，三分之一的資本支出投入 FMI。大約 40% 用於分銷和運輸。剩下的部分實際上是我們在 IT 上的支出。我們那裡有一支令人難以置信的團隊。我們將繼續向該團隊注入愛和投資，這是我們今年員工人數成長的一部分，也是生活中發生的所有其他事情的一部分。

But that's really what breaks out. But 3% is a number to me and fortunately, we have a better CFO today than we did 10 years ago. And that number is sub-3% because he challenges us to get rid of stuff we don't need and to really optimize.

但這確實是爆發的原因。但 3% 對我來說只是一個數字，幸運的是，我們今天的財務長比 10 年前更好。這個數字低於 3%，因為他要求我們擺脫不需要的東西並真正優化。

And if you want to plug something, Nigel, I would tell you, it's probably -- probably between $200 million and $225 million is a better number. And congratulations, you just kicked off our internal conversations.

如果你想插入一些東西，奈傑爾，我會告訴你，這可能是 - 可能在 2 億美元到 2.25 億美元之間是一個更好的數字。恭喜你，你剛開始了我們的內在對話。

Chris Snyder, Morgan Stanley.

克里斯‧史奈德，摩根士丹利。

I wanted to follow up on the bifurcation between Onsite signings, flat in Q3 and then FMI signings up 20%. Is this more so driven by increasing penetration at existing customers? Or when you guys are adding customers, they're larger? Or is it that the customers you're adding are just not -- it's not coming through via the Onsite? Just kind of more color on that 20% spread would be helpful.

我想跟進 Onsite 簽約量之間的分歧，第三季度持平，然後 FMI 簽約量增加了 20%。這是否更多是由於現有客戶滲透率的提高所驅動的？或者當你們增加客戶時，客戶規模就更大了？或者您新增的客戶不是透過現場獲得的？只要在 20% 的傳播範圍上多加一些顏色就會有所幫助。

A couple of things from me. One, Onsites are inherently more lumpy. The amount of investment that goes into getting an Onsite from signing through implementation to revenue generation, it's not an enormous amount of cost, it is a fair bit of energy that goes into that on our part as well as the customer's part, right? And that's not the same degree as FMI.

我有幾件事。第一，現場本質上更加不穩定。從簽約到實施再到創收，Onsite 的投資金額並不是很大的成本，而是我們和客戶方面投入的相當多的精力，對嗎？這與 FMI 的程度不同。

So in many cases, customers who are not in an Onsite still want to deploy FMI, right? And I think that's the broader point. There -- we deploy a lot of FMI hardware at locations that are not Onsites. And so I would point out, again, what you're seeing, and I would focus on the installed base, you're seeing a better than 10% growth in our national contracts, you're seeing better than 10% growth in our Onsite installed base, and you're seeing better than 10% growth in your FMI installed base. I would tell you those things feel like they're fairly consistent to me. The month-to-month orders in Onsite, that can be lumpy. And I guess I'm not seeing the disconnect that you're asking about.

因此，在許多情況下，不在現場的客戶仍然希望部署 FMI，對吧？我認為這是更廣泛的觀點。在那裡，我們在非現場地點部署了大量 FMI 硬體。因此，我想再次指出，您所看到的情況，我將重點關注安裝基礎，您將看到我們的國家合約成長超過 10%，您會看到我們的合約成長超過 10%。您會看到FMI 安裝基礎成長超過10%。我會告訴你，這些事情對我來說是相當一致的。Onsite 中的每月訂單可能會很不穩定。我想我沒有看到你所問的脫節。

The -- a couple of things I'll point out. I think the delta is more a statement about FMI and the success we're seeing. So our FMI team will probably cringe because I'm shooting from the hip with some numbers here, and I don't know if I'm 100% accurate. But we have a couple of thousand Onsites. Probably 80% of those have FMI or have vending, probably 95% have FMI, if not 100%. But we have Onsites where it's just OEM fasteners, and we're not doing the safety vending, for example.

我要指出幾件事。我認為 Delta 更多是對 FMI 和我們所看到的成功的陳述。因此，我們的 FMI 團隊可能會感到畏縮，因為我只是憑空說出一些數字，而且我不知道我是否 100% 準確。但我們有幾千個現場。其中可能 80% 有 FMI 或有自動販賣機，即使不是 100%，也可能有 95% 有 FMI。但我們的現場只提供 OEM 緊固件，例如，我們不進行安全販賣。

But I think we have FMI now, vending at about 20,000 locations -- between 19,000 and 21,000. So that tells me 90% of the locations where we have vending is not an Onsite. And so -- and the one thing nice about FMI growing faster than Onsite, the speed to revenue in FMI is incredible. The speed to revenue in an Onsite, it's a gift that keeps giving into the future. But it -- the speed of revenue is different because you're doing a massive lift as opposed to dropping in five vending machines, and they're producing revenue this month as opposed to over the next 6 to 18 months of ramping up. So selfishly, I like the fact that our FMI is incredibly strong because it's great speed to revenue.

但我認為我們現在有 FMI，在大約 20,000 個地點（19,000 到 21,000 個之間）出售。這告訴我，我們 90% 的自動販賣地點都不是現場販賣。因此，FMI 比 Onsite 成長得更快的好處之一是，FMI 的創收速度令人難以置信。Onsite 的創收速度是一份持續奉獻給未來的禮物。但收入的速度是不同的，因為你正在做大規模的提升，而不是減少五台自動販賣機，而且他們本月會產生收入，而不是在接下來的 6 到 18 個月內增加收入。出於自私，我喜歡我們的 FMI 非常強大，因為它的創收速度非常快。

And a good platform as well to sort of move customers into more value-added areas such as Onsites because the vending machines pulls us into those facilities on a regular basis, engaging with those employees. So it's a good system.

這也是一個很好的平台，可以將客戶轉移到現場等更具附加價值的區域，因為自動販賣機定期將我們拉到這些設施中，與這些員工互動。所以這是一個很好的系統。

I see we're about two minutes for the hour, and I'm just going to share a quick thought here and partly to put a little pressure on Jeff, probably put a little pressure on Donnelley in her new role.

我看到我們這一個小時大約有兩分鐘，我只是想在這裡分享一個快速的想法，部分是為了給傑夫施加一點壓力，也可能給唐納利在她的新角色上施加一點壓力。

A decade ago, I stepped into this role, and I remember at the time, we had a lot of discussions about what do we have to do as an organization? We were about $4 billion back then. What do we have to do as an organization to add $0.5 billion a year in revenue? And that's our strategy. That's our guidepost.

十年前，我擔任這個角色，我記得當時，我們進行了很多討論，關於作為一個組織我們必須做什麼？當時我們的資產約為 40 億美元。作為一個組織，我們必須做些什麼才能每年增加 5 億美元的收入？這就是我們的策略。那是我們的路標。

And if I look at it over time, we were $4.4 billion in 2017. If we had $0.5 million every year, and forget the fact that the base changes every year, just do simple math, $0.5 million -- $0.5 billion every year, that would imply in 2023 we should be $7.4 billion. So we're adding $1 billion every two years. We did $7.3 billion last year.

如果我看一下時間，我們 2017 年的營收為 44 億美元。如果我們每年有 50 萬美元，並且忘記基數每年都會變化這一事實，只需做簡單的數學計算，每年 50 萬美元 - 5 億美元，這意味著到 2023 年我們應該是 74 億美元。所以我們每兩年增加 10 億美元。去年我們賺了 73 億美元。

Our challenge today is in a few years, we're going to be a $10 billion organization. What strategy do we need to add $1 billion a year in revenue. And that's what -- one of the reasons for putting Donnelley in the role is to help us -- help her to cast a little bit of really having a great strategy for how we're going to do that. It allows us to be really focused on why we're making IT investments and why. Some of the realignments that Jeff's making with our digital strategy is really focused on that.

我們今天面臨的挑戰是，幾年後，我們將成為一個價值 100 億美元的組織。我們需要採取什麼策略才能每年增加 10 億美元的收入。這就是——讓唐納利擔任這個角色的原因之一是幫助我們——幫助她為我們如何做到這一點制定一些真正的偉大策略。它使我們能夠真正專注於我們進行 IT 投資的原因和原因。傑夫對我們的數位策略所做的一些調整確實集中在這一點上。

To that regard, and Holden's probably going to kick me because I don't know that he was ready to announce it yet. In April, we plan on having an Analyst Day in connection with our employee -- excuse me, our customer expo that we hold in April of each year.

在這方面，霍爾頓可能會踢我，因為我不知道他是否準備好宣布這一點。四月份，我們計劃與我們的員工一起舉辦分析師日——對不起，我們每年四月份舉辦的客戶博覽會。

So for the analyst community, you can bug Holden with the exact date. I don't know if he's nailed it down yet, but we'll be getting that information out shortly. But really, we want to be able to tell the story about how do we add $1 billion a year in revenue over the -- in the years to come and what's our guidepost. And what's our KPIs to do it.

因此，對於分析師群體來說，您可以向霍頓提供確切的日期。我不知道他是否已經確定下來，但我們很快就會公佈這些資訊。但實際上，我們希望能夠講述如何在未來幾年內增加每年 10 億美元的收入以及我們的指導方針是什麼。我們的 KPI 是什麼？

Thanks, everybody. Thanks for joining our call today and for the folks in harm's way -- and I did receive a message from Bob Hopper during the call, all of our employees are accounted for in the state of Florida from the latest Hurricane. Thanks, everybody. Have a good day.

謝謝大家。感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議，也感謝那些受到傷害的人們——我在電話會議期間確實收到了鮑勃·霍珀的一條消息，我們所有的員工都在最近一次颶風襲擊的佛羅裡達州。謝謝大家。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you.

謝謝。

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

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