快扣 (FAST) 2026 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Fastenal Q2 2026 earnings results conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

各位好，歡迎參加 Fastenal 2026 年第二季財報結果電話會議。(接線員指示) 提醒各位，本次會議將被錄音。(接線員指示)

It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Dray Schreiber. Please go ahead, Dray.

現在很榮幸把電話會議交給 Dray Schreiber。Dray，請開始。

Welcome to the Fastenal Company 2026 second-quarter earnings conference call. This call will be hosted by Dan Florness, our Chief Executive Officer; Jeff Watts, our President and Chief Sales Officer; and Max Tunnicliff, our Chief Financial Officer.

歡迎參加 Fastenal Company 2026 年第二季財報電話會議。本次會議將由我們的執行長 Dan Florness、總裁兼首席銷售長 Jeff Watts，以及財務長 Max Tunnicliff 主持。

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 for questions and answers. 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. A replay of the webcast will be available on the website until September 1, 2026, at midnight Central Time.

本次會議最長約一小時，我們將先對本季業績與營運進行概述，其餘時間用於問答。今天的電話會議為 Fastenal 專有簡報內容，並由 Fastenal 進行錄音。未經 Fastenal 同意，不得錄製、複製、傳輸或散布今日會議內容。本次會議亦將透過網際網路在 Fastenal 投資人關係首頁 investor.fastenal.com 進行音訊同步直播。網路直播重播將於 2026 年 9 月 1 日（中部時間）午夜前於網站提供。

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

提醒各位，今天的電話會議可能包含有關公司未來計畫與前景的陳述。這些陳述係基於我們目前的預期，我們不承擔更新之義務。請注意，公司實際結果可能與預期存在重大差異。可能導致實際結果與預期不同的因素載於公司最新的財報新聞稿及向美國證券交易委員會提交的定期申報文件中，我們建議您仔細閱讀這些因素。

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Jeff Watts.

接下來我想把電話會議交給 Jeff Watts 先生。

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Fastenal's second-quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm Jeff Watts, Fastenal's President and Chief Sales Officer, and I appreciate you joining us all today.

謝謝。各位早安。歡迎參加 Fastenal 2026 年第二季財報電話會議。我是 Fastenal 的總裁兼首席銷售長 Jeff Watts，感謝各位今天一同參與。

Before I turn to the results, I would like to take a moment on something that I think matters to everyone on the line, and that is that today will be Dan Florness' final earnings call as our CEO. And Dan joined Fastenal, joined the Blue Team, back in June of 1996, and he's been the steady voice explaining our business to this community for the past three decades: first as our Chief Financial Officer, and then as our President and CEO.

在我談到業績之前，我想先花一點時間談一件我認為對線上每一位都很重要的事：今天將是 Dan Florness 以我們執行長身分主持的最後一場財報電話會議。Dan 於 1996 年 6 月加入 Fastenal、加入藍隊，過去三十年來一直是向這個社群解釋我們業務的穩健聲音：先擔任財務長，之後擔任總裁與執行長。

Through multiple cycles, multiple recessions, a pandemic, trade shift, stock splits through all of it, Dan's always had the same candor, the same humility and the same unwavering respect for our people and for our shareholders. So to Dan, on behalf of every employee at Fastenal and every shareholder on the line, thank you for the leadership. Thank you for the discipline, and thank you for handing us a business that's stronger today than it's ever been.

歷經多次景氣循環、多次衰退、疫情、貿易轉變、股票分割等種種事件，Dan 始終保持同樣的坦率、同樣的謙遜，以及對我們員工與股東始終如一的尊重。因此，Dan，我謹代表 Fastenal 的每一位員工，以及線上每一位股東，感謝你的領導。感謝你的紀律，也感謝你交給我們一個比以往任何時候都更強健的事業。

Now with that said, today isn't a farewell speech. It's an earnings call. And the best way I know how to honor Dan's last call is to walk you through a business that's executing. So moving to our results, Q2 was a very strong high-quality quarter for the company. Solid double-digit daily sales growth, operating margin expansion, return on invested capital at a decade-plus high and strong cash generation, deployed with the discipline that defines this company.

不過話說回來，今天不是告別致詞。這是一場財報電話會議。我所知道能夠致敬 Dan 最後一場電話會議的最佳方式，就是帶各位走過一個正在落實執行的事業。因此回到我們的業績，第二季對公司而言是一個非常強勁且高品質的季度。每日銷售額（DSR）穩健的雙位數成長、營業利益率擴張、投入資本報酬率（ROIC）創十多年新高，以及強勁的現金創造能力，並以本公司一貫的紀律加以運用。

Our strategy is working, and it's showing in the numbers. So, turning to Slide 3 now, on the top line, daily sales grew 14.7% in the quarter, extending the path we built in Q1. Market conditions improved at a pace similar to last quarter, but what's important to point out is that our outperformance continues to be driven by share gains and not by the market backdrop. And that share gain is showing right up across all 3 of the pillars you see on the slide.

我們的策略正在奏效，並反映在數字上。因此現在請看投影片第 3 頁，在營收端，本季每日銷售額成長 14.7%，延續我們在第一季建立的軌跡。市場狀況改善的速度與上季相近，但重要的是要指出，我們的超額表現仍主要來自市占提升，而非市場環境帶動。而這些市占提升，正清楚地呈現在投影片上你所看到的三大支柱之中。

First, increasing sales effectiveness, share gains driven by our key account strategy and by continued new contract wins; second, enhancing our services, expanding our FMI device base and our digital footprint, improving the customer experience, driving retention and creating operating efficiencies in the process. And then third, expanding our addressable market, growth driven by new customer site wins and deeper penetration across every one of our end market segments.

第一，提升銷售效能：市占提升來自我們的關鍵客戶策略，以及持續贏得新合約；第二，強化我們的服務：擴大 FMI 設備基礎與數位觸及範圍，改善客戶體驗、提升留存率，並在過程中創造營運效率；第三，擴大我們的可服務市場：成長來自新增客戶據點的勝出，以及在各終端市場區隔的更深度滲透。

Now on pricing, we realized approximately 2.9% in the quarter or about 4.5% on a stack basis versus roughly 3.5% in Q1. Now the sequential step down, it's not a change in posture. It's simply lapping the onset of pricing actions we took in Q2 of last year. Our pricing actions to mitigate cost and tariff inflation continue, and our pricing discipline continues right alongside them. I know Max is going to touch a little deeper on this later in the deck.

在定價方面，本季我們實現約 2.9% 的貢獻，或以堆疊（stack）基礎計算約 4.5%，相較第一季約 3.5%。這個連續季度的下滑並非立場改變。只是因為去年第二季我們啟動的調價措施已進入比較基期（lapping）。我們為了緩解成本與關稅通膨所採取的定價行動仍在持續，而我們的定價紀律也同樣持續。我知道 Max 稍後會在簡報中更深入談這一點。

So now one number I want you to focus on this quarter, and it's the customer site data on the right side of the slide. Our contract count in Q2 is up over 7% year-over-year and the number of customer sites spending $50,000 or more per month grew 16.5% over last year, with revenues growing over 26% -- now that's the shape of durable, high-quality revenue, larger customers, deeper contracts and higher productivity per site. It's exactly what our key account strategy is designed to produce, and it's the foundation of the momentum we're using to carry into the second half of this year.

因此，本季我希望各位聚焦的一個數字，是投影片右側的客戶據點數據。第二季合約數較去年同期成長超過 7%，而每月支出達 50,000 美元或以上的客戶據點數較去年成長 16.5%，其營收成長超過 26%——這正是耐久且高品質營收的樣貌：更大的客戶、更深的合約，以及每個據點更高的生產力。這正是我們關鍵客戶策略所要產出的結果，也是我們用以延續動能、帶入今年下半年的基礎。

And that momentum is being reinforced and scaled by our technology platform. So moving to Slide 4, which is our technology update, and this is where the enhancing our services pillar comes to life in the numbers. Starting with digital footprint. Digital footprint DSR grew 16.2% in Q2, outpacing total company DSR and now represents 61.6% of total sales, up 60 basis points from last year.

而這股動能也正由我們的技術平台加以強化並擴大規模。因此請看投影片第 4 頁，也就是我們的技術更新，這也是「強化我們的服務」支柱在數字上具體呈現之處。先從數位觸及範圍開始。第二季數位觸及範圍的每日銷售額（DSR）成長 16.2%，超越公司整體 DSR，且目前占總銷售額的 61.6%，較去年提升 60 個基點。

Our estimate for '26 is 63% to 64%, modestly below our original target of 66%. And I want to be clear, though, on what this reflects. We're not slowing down on digital adoption. We're still driving customers to digital at a very strong pace. It's really the denominator is simply moving faster because our non-digital sales are growing right alongside digital as we take share and add larger and larger customer sites.

我們對 2026 年的估計為 63% 至 64%，略低於原先 66% 的目標。不過我想說清楚，這反映的是什麼。我們並沒有放慢數位採用的腳步。我們仍以非常強勁的速度推動客戶轉向數位。真正的原因是分母成長更快：因為在我們提升市占、並新增越來越多大型客戶據點的同時，非數位銷售也與數位銷售一起成長。

And to me, I guess that's a healthy problem to have.

而對我來說，我想這算是一個健康的煩惱。

Inside that, though, eBusiness DSR grew 12.6%, steady and disciplined digital engagement that continues to broaden our reach with both new and existing customers. Now turning to FMI, the engine of our services strategy. FMI technology signings were up 8.3% at 109 weighted devices signed per day in Q2, just under 7,000 total for the quarter versus 101 per day or just under 6,500 in total same time period last year.

不過在其中，eBusiness DSR 成長 12.6%，穩健且自律的數位互動持續擴大我們對新舊客戶的觸及。接著談到 FMI，也就是我們服務策略的引擎。FMI 技術簽約量成長 8.3%，第二季每日簽約 109 台（加權）設備，單季總計略低於 7,000 台，相較去年同期每日 101 台或總計略低於 6,500 台。

FMI sales now represents 44.6% of total sales, up roughly 60 basis points from a year ago. When I think about this, every one of these technology metrics, it's really a leading indicator. Devices installed today are deposits into next quarter's sales into next year's retention and into the operational rigor and efficiency that show up in our margin structure. Now Fastenal has never had more contract customers, more large customer sites, more devices in the field or more digital engagement than we do today. This is what durable, scalable growth looks like, and why we're so confident in our pathway forward.

FMI 銷售目前占總銷售額的 44.6%，較一年前約提升 60 個基點。當我思考這點時，這些技術指標其實都是領先指標。今天安裝的設備，是對下一季銷售、對明年留存率，以及對體現在我們毛利結構中的營運嚴謹度與效率的投入。如今，Fastenal 的合約客戶數、大型客戶據點數、現場設備數與數位互動程度，都創下歷史新高。這就是耐久、可擴展的成長樣貌，也是我們對前進路徑充滿信心的原因。

And with that, I'll turn it over to Max.

接下來，我把時間交給 Max。

Thank you, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. As in the past, I'll review 3 areas with you this morning: the business trends we saw in the quarter, the key drivers of margin performance and how those results translate into cash flow and capital allocation. Overall, the quarter showed continued progress against our strategy, improving demand trends, solid execution across the business and strong cash generation, even with continued uncertainty in the broader economy.

謝謝你，Jeff，各位早安。如同以往，今天早上我會與各位回顧三個面向：本季我們看到的業務趨勢、毛利表現的關鍵驅動因素，以及這些結果如何轉化為現金流與資本配置。整體而言，本季顯示我們的策略持續取得進展，需求趨勢改善、全公司執行穩健，且即使在整體經濟仍具不確定性的情況下，現金創造能力依然強勁。

I'll start on the business trends and market driver slide. During the second quarter, the industrial environment remained stable and modestly positive, consistent with the trend we saw in the first quarter. U.S. PMI averaged slightly above 53 for the quarter, up from 52 last quarter, and industrial production was slightly positive year-over-year in April and May. This lines up with the gradual improvement that started late last year.

我先從業務趨勢與市場驅動因素這張投影片開始。第二季期間，工業環境維持穩定且略為正向，與第一季所見趨勢一致。本季美國 PMI 平均略高於 53，高於上季的 52；而工業生產在 4 月與 5 月的年增率略為正向。這與去年底開始的逐步改善相吻合。

Our daily sales growth improved to 14.7% for the quarter, up from 12.4% in the first quarter, reflecting continued market outperformance. Growth was supported by new customer wins, increased share of wallet with existing customers, pricing and improved industrial production. Importantly, the improvement was not concentrated in any one area. It showed up across customer types and markets.

本季日均銷售成長提升至 14.7%，高於第一季的 12.4%，反映我們持續優於市場表現。成長動能來自新客戶得標、既有客戶錢包份額提升、定價，以及工業生產改善。重要的是，改善並未集中在單一領域。它在各類客戶與各個市場中都有所呈現。

Customer sentiment remained favorable throughout the quarter. While trade and tariff uncertainty stayed in the picture, its impact this quarter showed up through cost planning and pricing discussions rather than demand. As a result, activity levels remain healthy, and our teams continue to see strong customer engagement. From an end market perspective, this slide shows the breadth of that improvement. Manufacturing activity remained solid, led by heavy manufacturing, where our faster expansion in key account momentum continued to pay off.

整個季度客戶情緒維持正向。雖然貿易與關稅不確定性仍在，但本季其影響主要體現在成本規劃與定價討論上，而非需求面。因此，活動水準仍然健康，我們的團隊持續看到強勁的客戶互動。從終端市場角度來看，這張投影片顯示改善的廣度。製造業活動維持穩健，其中以重工製造為主，我們在關鍵客戶動能上的更快擴張持續帶來成效。

Heavy manufacturing represented 44% of total sales and average daily sales growth in that segment was 18%, continuing the upward trend that began last year. Construction grew approximately 17% for the second quarter in a row, representing a meaningful improvement from weaker trends we saw in prior periods. Within construction, electrical, utility, infrastructure and data center-related activity were among the strongest areas of demand during the quarter.

重工製造占總銷售額的 44%，該分部日均銷售成長為 18%，延續去年開始的上升趨勢。建築業連續第二季成長約 17%，相較先前期間較疲弱的趨勢，呈現顯著改善。在建築領域中，電氣、公用事業、基礎建設以及資料中心相關活動，是本季需求最強的幾個面向。

Nonmanufacturing end markets also contributed with gains across transportation, warehousing, and other industrial services as demand improved across customer types. Across materials, both direct and indirect categories grew in the mid-teens, with direct materials slightly outpacing indirect. That mix reinforces that growth was tied to customer production activity and supported by higher fastener penetration, improved product availability and pricing actions.

非製造業終端市場也有所貢獻，運輸、倉儲及其他工業服務均有成長，反映各類客戶的需求改善。在材料方面，直接與間接類別皆呈現約中十位數的成長，其中直接材料略快於間接材料。這樣的組合進一步印證成長與客戶生產活動相關，並受惠於更高的緊固件滲透率、產品供應改善以及定價措施。

The common thread across the strongest areas was larger customer engagement and project-related activity, which continues to support our key account strategy. That said, conditions were not perfectly uniform across all markets. While manufacturing and construction remained healthy, certain other end markets, particularly those tied to discretionary consumer spending, continued to lag.

在表現最強的領域中，共通主軸是更大型的客戶互動與專案相關活動，持續支撐我們的關鍵客戶策略。不過，各市場狀況並非完全一致。雖然製造與建築維持健康，但其他某些終端市場，特別是與可選擇性消費支出相關者，仍持續落後。

Overall, demand conditions were stable to modestly positive, while cost inflation remained less predictable. In that environment, our diverse customer base, key account focus and strategic initiatives helped us convert market stability into stronger growth and continued share gains.

整體而言，需求狀況穩定至略為正向，而成本通膨仍較難以預測。在此環境下，我們多元的客戶基礎、對關鍵客戶的聚焦以及策略性計畫，協助我們將市場穩定轉化為更強的成長與持續的市占提升。

Turning now to margin performance and drivers. The key margin story this quarter is that we maintained operating margin, including a 5 basis point improvement despite inflation-driven pressures. Strong sales growth, SG&A leverage and disciplined cost control more than offset net price/cost headwinds. At the gross margin line, we contracted approximately 75 basis points year-over-year, with price/cost representing roughly 40 basis points headwind.

接著談毛利表現與驅動因素。本季毛利的重點在於：即便面臨通膨帶來的壓力，我們仍維持營業利益率，且改善 5 個基點。強勁的銷售成長、SG&A 槓桿效益與自律的成本控管，足以抵銷淨價格/成本的不利因素。在毛利率方面，年對年約收縮 75 個基點，其中價格/成本約帶來 40 個基點的不利影響。

On price/cost, we improved approximately 10 basis points from the first quarter. Our pricing actions helped offset the ongoing impacts of tariffs and other inflation. We remain focused on pricing discipline and we'll continue managing toward price/cost neutrality over time. Beyond price/cost, we also experienced smaller gross margin headwinds from customer mix, transportation costs and customer rebates during the quarter.

在價格/成本方面，我們較第一季改善約 10 個基點。我們的定價措施有助於抵銷關稅與其他通膨的持續影響。我們仍專注於定價紀律，並將持續朝長期價格/成本中性進行管理。除價格/成本外，本季我們也受到客戶組合、運輸成本與客戶回饋（rebates）等因素帶來較小的毛利不利影響。

Customer mix impacts are important to emphasize. As we've discussed previously, our customer mix continues to shift toward larger customers by design as this is part of our strategy. While these customers typically carry lower gross margins, they generate attractive incremental profit dollars and remain accretive to operating margin. The higher volumes associated with these relationships drive fixed cost leverage, improve asset utilization and create operating efficiencies across our network.

客戶組合的影響值得特別強調。如同我們先前討論過的，我們的客戶組合依策略設計持續朝向更大型客戶移動，這是我們策略的一部分。雖然這些客戶通常帶來較低的毛利率，但能創造具吸引力的增量毛利金額，且對營業利益率仍具正向貢獻。與這些關係相關的更高出貨量，帶動固定成本槓桿、提升資產使用效率，並在我們的網路中創造營運效率。

As a result, although the mix shift can moderate gross margin percentage, it supports our broader objective of growing absolute profitability and expanding operating margins over time. At the operating margin line, SG&A improved to 23.5% of sales compared to 24.4% in the same quarter last year, reflecting disciplined cost control and operating leverage. That leverage was more than -- that leverage more than offset the gross margin headwinds and drove margin consistency year-over-year, even with continued investment in tech, analytics and sales support.

因此，儘管組合轉移可能使毛利率百分比趨於溫和，但它支持我們更廣泛的目標：提升絕對獲利能力，並在時間推進中擴大營業利益率。在營業利益率方面，SG&A 降至銷售額的 23.5%，相較去年同季的 24.4%，反映自律的成本控管與營運槓桿。該槓桿效益不僅——該槓桿效益更是足以抵銷毛利的不利因素，推動年對年毛利率維持一致，即使我們仍持續投資於科技、分析與銷售支援。

In addition to strong sales growth and cost management, return on invested capital increased 180 basis points on a trailing 12-month basis, reflecting strong sales growth, good cost control and disciplined capital allocation. In total, our P&L performance shows that we can invest for growth while staying focused on profitability even as our mix strategically shifts toward larger and more complex accounts.

除強勁的銷售成長與成本管理外，投入資本報酬率（ROIC）以過去 12 個月為基礎提升 180 個基點，反映強勁的銷售成長、良好的成本控管與自律的資本配置。整體而言，我們的損益表表現顯示：即使我們的組合策略性地轉向更大型且更複雜的客戶，我們仍能在投資成長的同時，持續聚焦獲利能力。

Turning to the cash flow and capital allocation slide. Operating cash flow was $266 million, representing approximately 70% of net income. While the second quarter conversion rate was lower than last year, year-to-date cash generation remains strong as inventory efficiency helped offset the working capital needs associated with growth.

接著看現金流與資本配置這張投影片。營運現金流為 2.66 億美元，約占淨利的 70%。雖然第二季的轉換率低於去年，但年初至今的現金創造仍然強勁，因為庫存效率提升有助於抵銷成長所帶來的營運資金需求。

Our second quarter conversion rate was driven specifically by higher accounts receivable, primarily driven by our strong June sales improvement of 20% year-over-year. Additionally, we continue to run inventory more efficiently, finding ways to optimize inventory levels while keeping availability high for our customers.

我們第二季的轉換率主要是受到應收帳款增加所帶動，而這主要來自我們 6 月銷售年增 20% 的強勁改善。此外，我們持續以更有效率的方式管理庫存，在維持對客戶高可得性的同時，尋找優化庫存水位的方法。

The increase in accounts payable outpaced inventory this quarter, largely a function of payment timing. Net capital spending this quarter was approximately $60 million, with investments focusing on strengthening our hub or distribution center and automation capacity, advancing our IT infrastructure and investing in Fastenal managed inventory hardware capabilities.

本季應付帳款的增加幅度超過庫存，主要是付款時點所致。本季淨資本支出約為 6,000 萬美元，投資重點在於強化我們的樞紐（hub）或配送中心與自動化產能、推進 IT 基礎建設，以及投資於 Fastenal 管理式庫存（FMI）硬體能力。

For full year '26, we continue to expect net capital expenditures of approximately $320 million as we invest in hub capacity, FMI devices, automation and technology. These investments are made to drive efficiency, scalability and customer value. Based on current consensus revenue estimates for full year '26, our expected CapEx range represents approximately 3.5% of sales, reflecting our continued focus on investing to grow the business.

就 2026 全年而言，我們仍預期淨資本支出約為 3.2 億美元，將投資於樞紐產能、FMI 裝置、自動化與科技。這些投資旨在提升效率、可擴展性與客戶價值。以目前市場對 2026 全年營收的一致預估為基礎，我們預期的資本支出區間約占銷售額的 3.5%，反映我們持續專注於投資以推動業務成長。

To put this in context, our average capital spend relative to sales over the past 5 years was approximately 2.5 percentage points compared to roughly 4% in the preceding 10-year period, meaning that we go through periods of different investment run rates. '26 is a year in which we will invest a little bit toward the higher end of that investment range.

為了提供背景，我們過去 5 年資本支出相對於銷售額的平均比率約為 2.5 個百分點，相較於此前 10 年期間約為 4%，這表示我們會經歷不同投資節奏的時期。2026 年將是我們在該投資區間偏高端投入的一年。

We returned $305 million to shareholders during the quarter, mostly through dividends alongside modest share repurchases. Together, these returns represented approximately 80% of net income, reflecting our confidence in cash generation and our commitment to returning value to shareholders. Our capital allocation approach remains unchanged. We prioritize investing in the business where we see strong returns, returning excess cash to shareholders and maintaining a conservatively capitalized balance sheet.

本季我們向股東回饋 3.05 億美元，主要透過股利發放，並搭配少量庫藏股回購。合計回饋約占淨利的 80%，反映我們對現金創造能力的信心，以及回饋股東價值的承諾。我們的資本配置方針維持不變。我們優先在看到強勁報酬的領域投資於業務、將多餘現金回饋股東，並維持保守資本結構的資產負債表。

I'll summarize as I close my section. The second quarter showed strong top line execution, continued share gains and disciplined cost management. And importantly, operating margin was consistent year-over-year as SG&A leverage and cost discipline offset gross margin pressures. That performance, together with ROIC expansion and strong capital allocation demonstrates the durability of our business model.

在結束我這部分之前，我做個總結。第二季展現了強勁的營收端執行力、持續的市占提升，以及嚴謹的成本管理。更重要的是，營業利益率與去年同期一致，因為 SG&A 槓桿效益與成本紀律抵銷了毛利率壓力。這樣的表現，加上 ROIC 的擴張與強健的資本配置，展現了我們商業模式的韌性。

Thank you to everyone, and I'll turn it over to Dan.

謝謝大家，接下來交給 Dan。

Thanks, Max, and good morning, everybody. My page is page 8 on the flip book, so I'll touch on a few points as we look through that. From a market outlook perspective, the broader market conditions continue to improve similar to the first quarter. We've now had 6 months of 50-plus PMI. That, combined with some key leadership changes that we made back in 2023 and 2024 are really key to what you're seeing shine through.

謝謝你，Max，各位早安。我的頁面是簡報翻頁本的第 8 頁，我會在我們看這一頁時提幾個重點。就市場展望而言，整體市場狀況持續改善，與第一季相似。我們現在已經連續 6 個月 PMI 高於 50。再加上我們在 2023 與 2024 年所做的一些關鍵領導層變動，正是你們現在看到成果顯現的關鍵。

So the inherent growth of Fastenal is shining through because of the market not giving us headwinds. But what you're really seeing is Jeff stepped into the Chief Sales Officer role, I believe it was 2023, and I hope he doesn't change -- shake his head and say, "No, Daniel, it's a different year." But he made some other -- he made some changes in personnel at that time, and you're really seeing the outcome of those changes and incredibly powerful as we've moved into 2026.

因此，Fastenal 的內生成長正在顯現，因為市場沒有給我們逆風。但你們真正看到的是 Jeff 進入首席銷售長（Chief Sales Officer）職位，我記得是在 2023 年，我希望他不要搖頭說：「不，Daniel，是不同的年份。」但他當時做了一些其他——他在那時做了一些人事調整，而你們正看到這些調整的成果，隨著我們進入 2026 年，效果非常強大。

There is an ongoing focus on price neutrality. And it's no secret to anybody listening to this call that if I was being 100% candid and you know that I'm always 100% candid, I would have felt a hell of a lot better about the quarter if our incremental margin would have been 24%. Coming into the quarter, we had a gross margin trend that was challenging. And one of the things I told Jeff, the hardest -- when you have a trend that you're -- that's your friend, you love that trend. You cherish that trend.

我們持續聚焦於價格中性（price neutrality）。而對於所有正在收聽這通電話的人來說，這並不是秘密：如果我 100% 坦白——你們也知道我一向 100% 坦白——如果我們的增量利潤率能達到 24%，我會對這一季感覺好得多。進入本季時，我們的毛利率趨勢相當具挑戰性。我跟 Jeff 說過，其中一件最難的事——當你有一個對你有利的趨勢時，你會喜歡那個趨勢。你會珍惜那個趨勢。

You convince everybody to do the things necessary to keep that trend going and you don't sit there and enjoy what's happening right now, you focus on where the hell you're going and making that trend better. And if the trend gets disturbed by the economy, that's life. If the trend gets disturbed because you took your eye off the ball, that's us. And so really focused on cherishing a good trend and changing a bad trend.

你會說服所有人去做必要的事情以維持那個趨勢延續，你不會坐在那裡享受眼前正在發生的事，而是專注於你要往哪裡去，並讓那個趨勢變得更好。如果趨勢因為經濟而被打亂，那就是人生。如果趨勢被打亂是因為你分心、沒有盯緊重點，那就是我們的問題。所以我們真的很專注於珍惜好的趨勢，並改變不好的趨勢。

Coming into the quarter, we had a bad trend with gross margin. That ultimately prevented us from being at that 24% incremental margin that I thought was achievable. With that said, the group changed the trend and our gross margin sequentially improved despite the fact that there's more gross margin headwinds during the quarter than there was before, we just are fighting and clawing our way back, and that's how you saw the quarter play out.

進入本季時，我們在毛利率上有一個不好的趨勢。這最終使我們無法達到我認為可實現的 24% 增量利潤率。話雖如此，團隊改變了趨勢，我們的毛利率較前一季改善；儘管本季毛利率逆風比之前更大，我們仍一路奮戰、一步步把表現拉回來，而這就是你們看到本季結果的方式。

From a financial discipline perspective, we touched on ROIC. And when I think about ROIC, 20 years ago, our ROIC was in the mid-20s. Actually, if you go back far enough, and I'm going to take you back far enough for a second. When we went public in the late '80s, our ROIC was in the low 30s. What changed as we went through the '90s and into the 2000s is we were selling more than just fasteners.

從財務紀律的角度，我們提到了 ROIC。當我想到 ROIC，20 年前，我們的 ROIC 大約在 20% 中段。其實，如果你回溯得更久——我先帶你回溯一下。我們在 80 年代末上市時，ROIC 大約在 30% 初段。在 90 年代到 2000 年代期間發生的變化是：我們銷售的不再只是緊固件。

We need to stock more product. We started importing directly. We had to stock a lot more product.

我們需要備更多產品庫存。我們開始直接進口。我們必須備大量更多的產品。

And our ROIC went down into the mid-20s, and it was still there a decade ago. And I'm really pleased to say over the last decade between some really strong discipline on the part of the team Holden Lewis, our prior CFO, did a wonderful job of really showing us what we could do from an ROIC standpoint. But the group made it happen. And today, we're in the low 30s. So incredible financial discipline.

而我們的 ROIC 下降到 20% 中段，十年前仍是如此。我很高興地說，在過去十年，團隊展現了非常強的紀律；我們前任 CFO Holden Lewis 在向我們展示 ROIC 方面我們能做到什麼，做得非常出色。但真正讓它發生的是整個團隊。而今天，我們在 30% 初段。所以這是令人驚豔的財務紀律。

There's one item that I don't know that everybody appreciates how good the performance is. But if I -- if you read our proxy, you will quickly see how we get paid. And what you read in the proxy about we get a piece of pretax growth is true very deep into the organization. So in the second quarter of 2025, our operating earnings grew -- and I calculated these this morning. So if I'm wrong by $1 million or $2 million, I apologize.

有一個項目，我不確定大家是否都充分體會到這個表現有多好。但如果你閱讀我們的委託書（proxy statement），你會很快看到我們的薪酬如何計算。而你在委託書中讀到的——我們會分到稅前成長的一部分——這件事在組織內部很深的層級也同樣適用。因此在 2025 年第二季，我們的營業獲利成長——而我今天早上算過這些數字。所以如果我差了 100 萬或 200 萬美元，我先道歉。

It's how good my skills are with my phone calculator.

這就看我用手機計算機的功力有多好。

But I think we grew $49.2 million in operating income. In the second quarter of 2026, we grew $65.7 million. That's a 33% increase in our pretax dollar growth. Forget percentages for a second, just the dollar growth. In the first quarter of this year, our operating earnings grew $45.3 million.

但我認為我們的營業利益增加了 4,920 萬美元。在 2026 年第二季，我們增加了 6,570 萬美元。這代表我們稅前美元成長增加了 33%。先別談百分比，只看美元成長。在今年第一季，我們的營業獲利增加了 4,530 萬美元。

In the second quarter, again, we grew $65.7 million. That's a 45% increase in the dollar growth.

在第二季，我們再次成長了6,570萬美元。這相當於以美元計的成長增加了45%。

We all get a piece of that action. You know what, there's a lot of folks in Fastenal that had a nice second quarter bonus. They had what they thought was a pretty darn good first quarter bonus, and we just crushed that number because the bonuses in the second quarter, if I did my math right, are probably about 45% higher than they were in the first quarter. When I look at all that and I look at our SG&A and how we managed SG&A, the number that just impresses the heck out of me is our headcount growth and how we're managing -- and it's because we're not squeezing it to death. We're investing for where we're going, just like we always have.

我們大家都能分到這份成果。你知道嗎，Fastenal 有很多同仁在第二季拿到一筆不錯的獎金。他們原本覺得第一季的獎金已經相當不錯了，而我們又把那個數字遠遠甩開，因為第二季的獎金——如果我算得沒錯——大概比第一季高出約45%。當我看著這一切，再看我們的SG&A以及我們如何管理SG&A時，最讓我印象深刻的是我們的人頭數成長，以及我們如何在管理——而這是因為我們並沒有把它壓榨到極限。我們是在為未來要去的方向投資，就像我們一直以來做的那樣。

We're just getting progressively better. And some of that is the team is better today than they were 2 and 5 and 10 years ago. Some of that is some of the AI tools. We're implementing large account business faster today than we would have 1, 2 and 3 years ago because we can do quotes faster. We're just really good.

我們只是在持續變得更好。其中一部分原因是，團隊今天比2年、5年、10年前更強。其中一部分原因是一些AI工具。我們現在導入大型客戶業務的速度，比1、2、3年前更快，因為我們能更快做出報價。我們真的做得很好。

And so I'm really impressed with the SG&A leverage because I know how much bonuses grew Q1 to Q2 and Q2 to Q2.

所以我對SG&A的槓桿效益印象非常深刻，因為我知道獎金從第一季到第二季、以及第二季同比第二季成長了多少。

That's really hard to get that kind of leverage on SG&A, my kudos to the group. Strong cash generation. Our capital allocation continues to be very focused on growth, technology and a thoughtful look at shareholder returns as measured in ROIC. To that end, I want to thank Max. Earlier in the year, I said to Max, our stock price is approaching $50 a share.

要在SG&A上取得這種程度的槓桿效益真的很難，我要向團隊致敬。現金創造力強勁。我們的資本配置仍然非常聚焦於成長、科技，以及以ROIC衡量、對股東報酬的審慎考量。為此，我想感謝Max。今年稍早，我跟Max說，我們的股價正接近每股50美元。

We've been maintaining a 2% yield for quite some time. It'd really be nice to do a $1 a share in dividend.

我們維持2%的殖利率已經有一段時間了。如果能做到每股1美元的股利會很不錯。

He started out a little bit less than that because he wanted to dedicate some dollars to buying back some shares and consistently do that to cover things like dilution. I took another swing at the pitch in here in a few weeks ago, and I said, raising it to $0.26 would get us to $1 for the year. If you wouldn't mind considering that, I appreciate it. Maybe 2x is the charm, but -- the thought process there is simply this. $1 dividend for the year will allow us whatever the Street does, it allows us to have a decent return -- dividend yield.

他一開始提出的金額比那個略低一些，因為他想撥一些資金用於回購股票，並且持續這麼做，以因應像稀釋這類情況。幾週前我又再提了一次，我說，把股利提高到0.26美元就能讓我們全年達到1美元。如果你不介意考慮一下，我會很感激。也許第二次就能成事，但——那背後的思考其實很簡單：今年全年1美元的股利，無論華爾街怎麼看，都能讓我們有一個不錯的回報——股息殖利率。

So that's the thinking behind that. Don't read anything more into it than that. And when you think about the dollar this year, think about where that perhaps goes in the future, but that's a different group that we're making that decision. From an organizational priorities, from a capital allocation, we talked about it, but continued investment in tools, technology and analytics to support and scale growth. And a lot of companies are talking about AI.

所以這就是背後的想法。不要從中解讀出更多含意。而當你想到今年這1美元時，也可以想想它未來可能走向哪裡，但那是另一個團隊要做的決策。就組織優先事項、資本配置而言，我們談過了：持續投資工具、科技與分析，以支援並擴大成長。很多公司都在談AI。

We don't talk a lot about it. We just do a bunch of things behind the scenes to have better tools to support our people and ultimately, our customers and how we deliver a business.

我們不太談這個。我們只是私底下做了很多事情，打造更好的工具來支援我們的同仁，最終也支援我們的客戶，以及我們如何交付一門生意。

But we're being very thoughtful from a financial fiscal discipline and what we're spending in AI relative to what kind of return is it generating for us? And what kind of productivity is it giving us? Because we spent about -- if you add up all of our labor costs and Max is going to give me a dirty look for sharing this number. But if you add up all of our labor costs in the second quarter, base, bonus, social taxes, health insurance, our school of business, you add all that up, we spent about $400 million. So we spent about $1.6 billion a year in people costs.

但我們在財務與預算紀律上非常審慎：我們在AI上的支出，相對於它為我們帶來什麼樣的回報？它帶給我們什麼樣的生產力？因為我們大約花了——如果把我們所有的人力成本加總起來，Max 可能會因為我分享這個數字而瞪我一眼。但如果把第二季所有人力成本加總：底薪、獎金、社會稅、健康保險、我們的商學院，把這些都加起來，我們大約花了4億美元。所以我們一年在人員成本上大約花16億美元。

And the question we will ultimately need to ask ourselves is, how much are you willing to spend for that group to be 5%, 10% more productive. And that's how we'll gauge what we do or don't do in the future. At least I believe that's how the group will do it. From a strategic progress standpoint, I'm not going to list out all the things other than to say, wow, I think the team is executing at an incredible level, and I'm really proud of the group.

而我們最終需要問自己的問題是：你願意花多少，讓這個團隊的生產力提高5%、10%？我們將以此來衡量未來要做或不做什麼。至少我相信團隊會這樣做。就策略進展而言，我不打算把所有事項一一列出，只想說：哇，我認為團隊的執行力達到令人難以置信的水準，我也為這個團隊感到非常自豪。

Finally, and it's not on the bullet list, but I'll add, I think you've come to know that I probably tell stories that are too long. And -- but I'm also pretty transparent in how we share the business. And I thought I'd share some internal messaging I had for the group this morning, both in our video that goes 25,000 employees as well as our conversation with our regionals and folks I've been talking to. And when I think about the pieces, we always talk about year-to-date sales versus goal, what quarter 2 2026 and June sales details tell me.

最後，雖然不在重點條列裡，但我補充一下：我想你們已經知道，我可能會講一些太長的故事。而且——但我在分享業務狀況時也相當透明。我想分享我今天早上給團隊的一些內部訊息，包含我們發給25,000名員工的影片，以及我與各區域主管和我一直在交流的同仁之間的對話。當我思考這些要點時，我們總是談年初至今的銷售相對於目標，以及2026年第二季與6月銷售細節告訴了我什麼。

One thing that really stands out when I look at the June set of percentages is everything, whether it's geographic or its end market or its customer use, everything is double digit. We haven't been in that situation for quite some time. And the only thing on that page that isn't double digit is our noncontract customer sales growth of that group.

當我看6月那組百分比時，有一件事特別突出：不論是地理區域、終端市場或客戶用途，所有項目都是雙位數成長。我們已經有一段時間沒有出現這種情況了。而那一頁唯一不是雙位數的，是我們非合約客戶群的銷售成長。

And that isn't our priority of going to market. However, we love that customer group, too, and we want to grow that customer group. And I'm pleased to say that the growth in that group is double what it was 12 months ago because we're building a better mousetrap. We're building a better machine to serve the market, a better machine to serve the market grows, whether you're putting people energy behind it or not to drive it. And you're seeing that come into fruition.

而那並不是我們的主要市場推進優先事項。不過，我們也很喜歡那個客戶群，我們也希望那個客戶群能成長。我很高興地說，該客戶群的成長率是12個月前的兩倍，因為我們正在打造更好的捕鼠器。我們正在打造一台更好的機器來服務市場；一台更好的服務市場機器會帶來成長，不管你是否投入人力與能量去推動它。而你正在看到這些開始開花結果。

The other things talked about on it, and this is -- I'm a milestone person. And I always highlight milestones. And we -- in the second quarter, we have 4 districts now that are averaging more than $8 million a month. That's 4 districts that are either north of $100 million a year or they're on the verge of being there, they're close. That was 0 a decade ago.

另外一些在那上面提到的事情——而這是——我是個重視里程碑的人。我總是強調里程碑。而我們——在第二季，我們現在有4個營運區（district）平均每月超過800萬美元。這4個營運區要麼年營收已超過1億美元，要麼已經接近、就在門檻邊緣。十年前這個數字是0。

That was 0, 5 years ago. There's 59 district managers. So 25% of our district managers in the second quarter were doing more than $4 million a month. That's a $50 million a year business.

5年前這個數字也是0。我們有59位營運區經理（district managers）。所以在第二季，我們有25%的營運區經理每月業績超過400萬美元。那相當於一年5,000萬美元的生意。

For folks that have owned Fastenal a long time, you remember $100 million Fastenal or a $50 million Fastenal. We have -- 25% of our districts are that big now. And that's an incredibly talented group of people. At the end of the day, it was really nice for the group for my final month as CEO to grow north of 20%. So to the sales team, thank you for that.

對於長期持有 Fastenal 的朋友，你們還記得那個年營收 1 億美元的 Fastenal，或是 5,000 萬美元的 Fastenal。我們現在——有 25% 的營運區已經達到那樣的規模。而那是一群極其有才華的人。說到底，作為我擔任 CEO 的最後一個月，能夠成長超過 20%，對這個團隊來說真的很棒。所以，對銷售團隊，謝謝你們。

And if you take that $844 million, because we're over $833 million, our run rate on a 30-day basis is a $10 billion company. Nice touch.

而如果你把那 8.44 億美元拿來看，因為我們已經超過 8.33 億美元，以 30 天為基礎的運行速度（run rate）來算，我們是一家年營收 100 億美元的公司。很漂亮的一筆。

With that, I'm going to stop talking at you and see what questions you have. Thank you.

那麼，我就不再一直對各位講了，看看你們有什麼問題。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) David Manthey, Baird.

(接線員指示) David Manthey，Baird。

Dan, what do you say? It was an absolutely stellar run. Congratulations, and thanks for everything. We all appreciate it. So I guess that means that Jeff and Max get the tough questions here.

Dan，你怎麼說？這段歷程真的非常出色。恭喜你，也謝謝你所做的一切。我們都很感激。所以我想這表示接下來 Jeff 和 Max 要面對比較棘手的問題了。

Sales growth, obviously terrific at 15%. And the team has recently been signaling kind of 25% plus incrementals at this level of growth. And I know that Dan went through a couple of the items that affected that. But I'm wondering if you can crystallize that for us and talk about the puts and takes that sort of drove that contribution margin this quarter. And more importantly, as you're looking out to the second half, which of those do you think persist and which of those may alleviate as we get to the back half of the year and lead to stronger contribution margins?

銷售成長顯然非常亮眼，達到 15%。而團隊最近也一直在暗示，在這樣的成長水準下，增量（incrementals）大概是 25% 以上。我知道 Dan 已經談過幾個影響因素。但我想請你們幫我們把它更具體地說清楚，談談本季是哪些拉抬與拉低（puts and takes）的因素，推動了這個季度的貢獻毛利率（contribution margin）。更重要的是，展望下半年，你們認為哪些因素會持續、哪些可能會緩解，從而在今年後半帶來更強的貢獻毛利率？

Sure, Dave. This is Max. I'll take that one to start. So if we think back to the first quarter of this year, where we were disappointed in our net price/cost position of 50 basis points. It's important to keep that component into context with the rest of my comments.

當然可以，Dave。我是 Max。我先回答這題。如果回想今年第一季，我們對淨售價/成本（net price/cost）落後 50 個基點感到失望。把這個部分放在我接下來評論的脈絡中理解很重要。

And the reason I say that is because as we moved forward, as we said in our prepared remarks and as Dan reiterated, we did eat into that 50 by 10 basis points. And so we're focused there at the same time, growing at significantly fast levels. So balancing and optimizing both of those, we feel was a success mark on the quarter for us.

我之所以這麼說，是因為隨著我們往前推進，正如我們在事先準備的發言中提到、Dan 也再次強調，我們已經把那 50 個基點縮小了 10 個基點。因此我們一方面持續聚焦在那裡，同時又在非常快的速度下成長。我們覺得在兩者之間取得平衡並加以最佳化，對我們而言是本季的一個成功指標。

With that being said, it doesn't mean that we dismiss the 50 and now negative 40 basis points. But that negative 40 basis points that we still sit with today, if you think about that from an incremental perspective, is going to be 3 or 4 percentage points on the incremental. So you get to the mid-20s when that net negative goes away, number one. And then number two, we did, as Dan iterated, paid some bonuses on that growth, and that also has -- that is a contributing factor.

話雖如此，並不代表我們就忽視那 50、以及現在仍為負的 40 個基點。但如果從增量的角度來看，今天仍存在的那負 40 個基點，會在增量上造成大約 3 到 4 個百分點的影響。所以當那個淨負值消失時，你就會回到 20% 中段（mid-20s），這是第一點。第二點，如 Dan 所說，我們針對這樣的成長支付了一些獎金，而那也是——也是一個貢獻因素。

Now those are -- the way you think about those is if we continue to grow like we want to, and we're always going to have some bonus paid. So that one, you could dismiss out of the incremental walk. But that gross margin, our position is to maintain price/cost neutrality. And so the second part of your question was when do you get there? At this moment, we're going to keep chipping away fighting as fast as we can.

至於那些——你可以這樣看：如果我們持續以我們想要的速度成長，我們就總會支付一些獎金。所以這一項，你可以在增量的拆解（incremental walk）中先不特別納入。但在毛利率方面，我們的立場是維持售價/成本中性（price/cost neutrality）。所以你問題的第二部分是何時能達成？就目前而言，我們會持續以最快速度一點一點把它磨回來。

But the trajectory is -- it's not something that we're expecting to be completely closed in the second half.

但這個趨勢——我們並不預期在下半年就能完全補回。

We're going to continue to look at a lot of things we're doing from a growth perspective, and we're going to continue to chip away at that net negative price/cost position. And as we move through the year and chip that away, our incrementals will naturally improve back to where -- like we say, if we're growing this fast, we should be mid-single digits. We are not backing off of that statement, I guess, we'd say. I don't want to say commitment, maybe that's a little too strong, but that we believe this business is set to drive the mid-20s when we're growing this fast. And so we'll get back to that over time.

我們會持續檢視許多我們在成長面所做的事情，也會持續一點一點改善那個淨負的售價/成本位置。隨著我們在一年中逐步把它磨掉，我們的增量自然會改善，回到——就像我們說的，如果我們成長這麼快，應該在 20% 中段。我們不會收回那個說法。我不想說是承諾（commitment），也許那有點太強，但我們相信在這樣的高速成長下，這門生意有能力帶來 20% 中段的增量。所以我們會隨時間回到那裡。

Got it. And then, Jeff, I dislike the question, what will you do differently? Because I don't think that, that's really applicable here at Fastenal anyway. But when I think about the past couple of CEO eras, I mean, the Oberton era of store growth and the Florness era, I don't know, FMI and national accounts, et cetera. When you think about the range of tools that Fastenal has today, what are the strategic growth engines that you plan on leaning on to start the Jeff Watts era?

了解。接著，Jeff，我不太喜歡那種「你會做哪些不同？」的問題，因為我覺得在 Fastenal 這裡其實不太適用。但當我回想過去幾個 CEO 時代，例如 Oberton 時代的門市成長，以及 Florness 時代——我不知道，FMI 與全國性客戶等。當你看 Fastenal 今天擁有的工具組合，你計畫倚重哪些策略性成長引擎，來開啟 Jeff Watts 時代？

It's a good question. First, I'd say that this isn't a transition. We're sticking with the strategy and the strategy that we've been dealt with for the last 2 years. The 3 strategic pillars, they're going to be unchanged, increasing sales effectiveness, enhancing our service, expanding markets. But I think what changes is every day, it seems like the AI portion and the tools that we're developing are helping us increase speed.

這是個好問題。首先我會說，這不是一個轉換期。我們會延續這個策略，也就是過去兩年我們一直在執行的策略。三大策略支柱將維持不變：提升銷售效能、強化我們的服務、擴大市場。但我認為改變的是，每一天看起來 AI 的部分以及我們正在開發的工具，都在幫助我們提升速度。

And I think one thing that's important to us, you saw it in June, June kind of shocked us a little bit in our revenue as far as our sequentials go and really digging in, there was some one-off orders that we were able to get that we wouldn't normally have gotten just from new business signing some one-off type orders.

而我覺得有一件事對我們很重要，你們在 6 月看到了，6 月在營收上、就環比（sequential）而言有點讓我們吃驚；深入追查後，裡面有一些一次性訂單（one-off orders），我們能拿到那些訂單，是因為新業務簽下來後帶來的一些一次性類型訂單，平常我們不一定拿得到。

But a lot of the business that we're turning on, we're turning it on faster now because of the tools that we've built. And I think that is -- it's part of our strategic planning, but it's happening a lot faster than I thought it would. And like I said, June was a little bit of a surprise to us. I think the sequentials are still in place. But moving forward in the direction, I don't see a lot of change with what Fastenal -- who Fastenal is as a whole, Blue Team first decentralized decision-making, P&L accountability, promoting from within.

但我們正在啟動的很多業務，現在因為我們打造的工具而能更快上線。我認為那——它是我們策略規劃的一部分，但發生的速度比我原本以為的快很多。就像我說的，6 月對我們來說有點意外。我認為環比的趨勢仍然存在。但往前看，我不覺得 Fastenal——作為一個整體的 Fastenal 會有太多改變：藍隊優先（Blue Team first）、分散式決策、損益（P&L）責任制、內部晉升。

That's all cultures have built over the last 30, 40, 50 years, that's not going to change. What I do think is going to -- we're going to look at harder and faster is the speed in which we go out and attain new business, grab new contracts and expand our markets globally.

這些都是過去 30、40、50 年建立起來的文化，不會改變。我確實認為我們會——更用力、更快速去看的，是我們走出去取得新業務、拿下新合約，以及在全球擴張市場的速度。

Dave, I'll throw in one little tidbit there. You characterized an era as the Florness era. That was actually -- Jeff had an incredibly big voice as did Casey, as did Bill, when I think of from what we were doing from a revenue, from a sales growth standpoint. And you might characterize the last decade with a different name than Florness. You might say it was a blue team effort, and I think that Blue Team effort continues.

Dave，我在這裡補充一個小細節。你把某個時期形容為 Florness 時代。其實——當我回想我們在營收、銷售成長面向所做的事情時，Jeff 的聲音非常大，Casey 也是，Bill 也是。而你也許會用不同於 Florness 的名稱來形容過去十年。你可能會說那是一個藍隊的共同努力，我認為這個藍隊的努力仍在延續。

Ryan Merkel, William Blair.

Ryan Merkel，William Blair。

Dan, I want to echo Dave's comments. I can't believe this is your last call. It's been a great run my friend, and I wish you all the best.

Dan，我想呼應 Dave 的評論。我真不敢相信這是你最後一次電話會議。一路走來很精彩，我的朋友，祝你一切順利。

Well, Ryan, isn't 121 calls enough?

嗯，Ryan，121 次電話會議還不夠嗎？

Yes, 20 years, Dan, we've been doing this. I can't believe it, but it's been a great run. I appreciate all your help. So I want to start on price/cost. You made progress, but more to go.

是的，Dan，20 年了，我們一直在做這件事。我真不敢相信，但這段旅程很精彩。感謝你所有的協助。所以我想先從價格/成本談起。你們已經有進展，但還有更多要做。

When do you think you'll get to neutral? I know that's kind of a hard question. And then also comment on gross margins in the third quarter, should we be thinking flat sequentially from the second quarter?

你認為什麼時候能達到中性？我知道這有點難回答。另外也請評論一下第三季的毛利率，我們是否應該把它視為相較第二季大致持平？

Yes, Ryan, I'll take that question to start, at least. The chipping away at the net negative 40 will continue. It has to for our business. But as I said, we need to continue to grow. At our ROIC level, growth is first and foremost, but I want to reiterate, it's healthy growth.

是的，Ryan，我先回答這個問題。我們會持續一點一滴地縮小淨負 40 的差距。這對我們的業務是必須的。但如我所說，我們需要持續成長。以我們目前的 ROIC 水準來看，成長是首要之務，但我想重申，這是健康的成長。

It's operating margin accretive growth. So it's all those healthy things that you would expect us to push on as we have the past decades.

這是能提升營業利益率的成長。所以這些都是你會期待我們推動的健康要素，就像過去幾十年我們一直在做的一樣。

But this chipping away is an important term because we might come into Q4 and be there, but it's not something that we are predicting. So give us some time, we're going to make some progress, but it will be small on this net price/cost position. Importantly, there continues to be cost increases in the marketplace. And it's -- everyone knows that it's the headline. And so keeping up with the new inflow of cost and chipping away at the old is a lot of effort.

但「一點一滴地縮小」是個重要的說法，因為我們可能在第四季就達到那個水準，但這不是我們正在預測的事情。所以請給我們一些時間，我們會取得一些進展，但在這個淨價格/成本的狀態上，進展會是小幅的。重要的是，市場上仍持續出現成本上升。而且——大家都知道，這是新聞標題。因此，要跟上新一波成本流入，同時再一點一滴消化舊的差距，需要很大的努力。

As I said, we're pleased with our 10 bps of chipping away. And so we'll continue to do that. Our commitment is to continue to offset cost to the best extent possible while growing this business very, very fast. As we think about gross margin profile because at the end of the day, those questions just modeling the gross margin. And so your point, you're spot on with the gross margin question as well.

如我所說，我們對於縮小 10 個基點的差距感到滿意。所以我們會持續這麼做。我們的承諾是在讓業務非常、非常快速成長的同時，盡最大可能去抵銷成本。當我們思考毛利率輪廓時，因為說到底，這些問題就是在建模毛利率。所以你提到的點，你對毛利率的問題也非常到位。

At this moment, we don't forecast or -- sorry, I shouldn't say forecast, we do not provide guidance on gross margin unless there's some big up or down movement, we don't want to surprise you.

就目前而言，我們不會預測或——抱歉，我不該說預測——我們不提供毛利率指引，除非有很大的上升或下降變動，我們不希望讓你們感到意外。

At this moment, we don't see a big up or down movement. So the gross margin profile should be fairly consistent with historical trends. And as you probably know, and I'll just remind the audience, because of our -- I should say, primarily because of our focus on growing large strategic accounts for all the reasons that probably make sense, efficiencies and leverage and those types of things, those accounts carry less gross margin as a percentage than our weighted average.

就目前而言，我們沒有看到很大的上升或下降變動。因此毛利率輪廓應該會與歷史趨勢相當一致。而且你可能也知道，我也提醒一下各位聽眾，因為我們——我應該說，主要是因為我們專注於成長大型策略性客戶，基於各種你們可能覺得合理的原因：效率、槓桿等因素，這些客戶的毛利率百分比會低於我們的加權平均。

This is nothing different than has happened in the past 10 to 20 years. And so we will continue -- if you look at that 10-year pattern, you see about a 60 basis point contraction in gross margin, albeit maintaining to improving operating margin, which is our focus area. And so that 60 basis points improvement, as you know from your modeling, it's roughly 15 bps of sequential decline every quarter.

這與過去 10 到 20 年發生的情況沒有不同。因此我們會持續——如果你看那個 10 年的走勢，你會看到毛利率大約收縮 60 個基點，同時維持到提升營業利益率，這是我們的重點。所以那 60 個基點的變化，如你從模型中所知，大約等於每季依序下滑約 15 個基點。

And so if you look back between Q2 and Q3, you get roughly that. You get between 10 and 20 bps drop just on a normal year when Fastenal is performing well and when Fastenal is maintaining or growing operating margins. So our commitment to ourselves and our shareholders is grow fast and continue to maintain and grow operating margins. And so that's what we see for -- as we move through the rest of this year.

所以如果你回頭看第二季到第三季，大致就是那樣。在正常年份、Fastenal 表現良好且維持或提升營業利益率時，你會看到大約 10 到 20 個基點的下滑。因此我們對自己與股東的承諾是：快速成長，並持續維持與提升營業利益率。所以這就是我們對——在今年剩餘時間推進時所看到的情況。

Got it. Okay. No, that's all fair. I appreciate that. Just a follow-up maybe to Dave's questions on incremental margins.

了解。好。不，這都很合理。謝謝你的說明。我再追問一下，可能延續 Dave 對增量利潤率的問題。

Should we be calibrating to maybe low 20s incremental margins for 2026 at this point and if you make faster progress on the price/cost, then maybe you get into the mid-20s?

以目前來看，我們是否應該把 2026 年的增量利潤率校準在 20% 出頭？如果你們在價格/成本上進展更快，那麼是否可能到 20% 中段？

Q2 is -- this is hope, but we -- seeing 21.5% on our P&L with this much growth is not -- I would just say we hope that's our low point, but it's hard to predict with the cost inflation coming through. I think that's a safe bet. I think it's safe to do it that way. But as we chip away, we should be able to expand. I mean, we have a low point, and we'd be heading toward the normal run rate business of mid-20s.

第二季——這是希望，但我們——在成長這麼多的情況下，損益表上看到 21.5% 並不是——我只能說我們希望那是低點，但在成本通膨持續傳導下很難預測。我認為那樣估是安全的。我覺得用那種方式處理是合理的。但隨著我們一點一滴縮小差距，我們應該能夠擴張。我的意思是，我們有一個低點，然後會朝向正常的中段 20% 的營運水準前進。

It's just -- it's tough to predict whether that's the end of Q3, if that's Q4. But in that ballpark, expect improvement as we move throughout. But yes, it's not going to -- I wouldn't necessarily expect a Q3 jump all the way up to the mid-20s. It's your model.

只是——很難預測那會是在第三季末，還是第四季。但大致在那個範圍內，隨著時間推進，預期會改善。但對，是不會——我不一定會期待第三季就一下子跳到 20% 中段。這取決於你的模型。

Tommy Moll, Stephens.

Tommy Moll，Stephens。

First question on SG&A point taken, you paid some pretty healthy bonuses and commissions this quarter given the strong top line performance. At the same time, I would think you might still expect to see some leverage, just thinking about those items as a percentage of sales rather than deleverage. And so could you help us unpack some of the items that delevered this quarter? I wouldn't think that at this rate of sales growth, we should expect those to continue to delever, but any context would help.

第一個問題關於 SG&A，我理解你的觀點；鑑於本季營收表現強勁，你們支付了相當可觀的獎金與佣金。同時，我會認為你們可能仍應該看到一些槓桿效益，因為若把這些項目視為銷售額的百分比來看，應該是槓桿而不是去槓桿。所以你能否協助我們拆解一下，本季有哪些項目出現去槓桿？我不認為在這樣的銷售成長率下，我們應該預期它們會持續去槓桿，但任何背景說明都會有幫助。

Keep in mind, SG&A did lever about 90 basis points.

請記住，SG&A 大約槓桿了 90 個基點。

Yes. Yes. Point taken.

是的。是的。了解。

Yes, sorry, go ahead.

是的，抱歉，請繼續。

Yes, I was more specifically talking about the items you referenced that did delever this quarter. I think it was fuel, transportation, travel, bonuses, commissions. There were a number of things mentioned on the call and in your materials that did delever. That's specifically what I was curious about.

是的，我更具體是在談你提到本季出現去槓桿的那些項目。我想是燃料、運輸、差旅、獎金、佣金。電話會議以及你們的資料裡提到了不少出現去槓桿的事項。我特別好奇的是這些。

Yes, sure. So -- and I'll speak a little bit about -- but we started just on fuel, as you can imagine, it's extremely volatile. If you would have asked me 2 weeks ago what I thought the future would hold, I would give you a different answer, of course. First of all, the fuel component in our SG&A, we don't talk about the amount, but it sits in that remaining 30%, Dan.

是的，當然。所以——我也稍微談一下——我們先從燃料開始，如你所想，它極度波動。如果你兩週前問我我認為未來會如何，我當然會給你不同的答案。首先，我們SG&A中的燃料部分，我們不談金額，但它在剩下的30%裡面，Dan。

We've historically in the past referenced 70% of our SG&A are people-related costs. So you do have a component of fuel in there that we started to see in Q1 as the conflict escalated, we experienced about a month of that headwind, and now we have 3 months of that headwind. And that's one of those areas where even from the question of incrementals, I mean, if those fuel costs and associated oil-related costs dive more towards the second half of this year, we're going to start to see even some improvement in incrementals there.

過去我們一向提到，我們的SG&A有70%是與人員相關的成本。因此其中確實有一部分是燃料；隨著衝突升級，我們在第一季開始看到它，當時大約承受了一個月的逆風，而現在我們承受了三個月的逆風。而這也是其中一個領域，即使從增量成本的問題來看，我是說，如果這些燃料成本以及相關的油品成本在今年下半年更多地下滑，我們在增量成本上也會開始看到一些改善。

But fuel is one of those that we're actually -- given the amount of volatility, we're managing very well on the fuel side. It's still a headwind. And then we mentioned the bonus. And the bonus is just a pure -- we grew profit dollars extremely fast. And we like the fact that, that's a headwind is a good thing for us, but it's in -- it's part of our business modeling as well.

但燃料是其中一項——鑑於波動幅度，我們在燃料端其實管理得非常好。它仍然是逆風。然後我們提到了獎金。獎金純粹是——我們的利潤金額成長非常快。我們喜歡這件事；那個逆風對我們來說是好事，但它也在——它也是我們商業模型的一部分。

So aside from that, there's not anything else that would be delevered in our SG&A is very small, and we keep a very keen eye. I think you know us well, Tommy. We are frugal operators, and we don't see -- we don't intend to change that frugality approach in our business because it does well for our business.

除此之外，我們的SG&A裡沒有其他會去槓桿的項目，幅度非常小，而且我們會非常密切地關注。我想你很了解我們，Tommy。我們是節儉的經營者，我們不認為——也不打算改變這種節儉的經營方式，因為它對我們的業務很有幫助。

For instance, I'll give you, I was talking to Barry McGrath. Barry runs our distribution center here in Winona a few days ago. And I said to Barry, "I know when I look out my window, how many trucks I see, but how many routes do we have that go out of Winona on a given day?" And he said, "depending on the date, anywhere from 25 to 30, depending on what day of the week it is."

例如，我舉個例子，我幾天前在跟Barry McGrath談。Barry負責我們在Winona的配送中心。我對Barry說：「我從窗外看得到有多少卡車，但在某一天，從Winona出發的路線有多少條？」他說：「視日期而定，大概25到30條，取決於是一週中的哪一天。」

And that's how many trucks. And so we have Winona routes, there's probably about 470 routes when you start looking at all the different places the trucks go and -- and we drive about 95,000 miles a week just in this one service area in the Midwest out of Winona, Minnesota. And so the reality of it is, is a semi-tractor gets a little over 7 miles to the gallon, you're going to spend -- if the price is up 10%, 20%, 30%, you pick the number.

那就是卡車的數量。所以我們有Winona的路線；當你開始看卡車去往的所有不同地點時——大概有470條路線——而且僅在這個從明尼蘇達州Winona出發、涵蓋中西部的一個服務區域，我們每週就行駛約95,000英里。所以現實是，一輛半掛牽引車每加侖大概跑7英里多一點，你將會多花——如果價格上漲10%、20%、30%，你自己選個數字。

We're going to spend that much more. That's the bad news. The good news is that burden falls a lot heavier on competitors we have in this space. And quite frankly, it sells pretty high on our customers. And so we become a better value proposition because even though our costs have gone up, our costs are at a discount to any other option that's out there because so much of our industry ships small parcel.

我們就會多花那麼多。這是壞消息。好消息是，這個負擔落在我們這個領域的競爭對手身上要重得多。而且坦白說，這也相當程度會轉嫁到我們的客戶身上。因此我們成為更好的價值主張，因為即使我們的成本上升，我們的成本相較於市場上任何其他選項仍然有折扣，因為我們這個產業有很大一部分是用小包裹運輸。

And so it actually -- chaotic times like this, yes, we have to manage through the SG&A of it. And most of that diesel that I'm talking about is actually in gross margin, not in SG&A, whereas our small fleet is in SG&A. But it positions us to be more successful and bring a better value proposition to the customer. And I was in a customer meeting yesterday, a really productive meeting, and it's a typical national account meeting when I'm talking to a large customer of ours and find out that our business could be 2 or 3x larger as we turn on more opportunities. But we had a lot of discussion about how we go to market, how our network works, how our trucking network works.

所以實際上——像這樣的混亂時期，是的，我們必須管理其中的SG&A。而我剛才談到的大部分柴油其實是在毛利裡，不在SG&A裡；我們的小型車隊才是在SG&A裡。但這讓我們更有條件取得成功，並為客戶帶來更好的價值主張。我昨天也參加了一場客戶會議，是一場非常有成效的會議；這是一場典型的全國性客戶會議，我在跟我們的一個大客戶談，並發現隨著我們啟動更多機會，我們的業務規模可能會是現在的2到3倍。但我們也花了很多時間討論我們如何進入市場、我們的網路如何運作、我們的卡車運輸網路如何運作。

It's a really compelling advantage when you're having that discussion.

在進行那樣的討論時，這是一個非常有說服力的優勢。

As a follow-up, Jeff, I wanted to circle back to a comment you made regarding your priorities ahead here. One item you mentioned specifically was expanding markets globally. You've obviously got a lot of experience ex U.S. with the Fastenal business. And linking that to the comment you made today, I'm just curious for whatever thoughts you can share there.

作為追問，Jeff，我想回到你剛才提到你接下來的優先事項的一段話。你特別提到的一項是全球市場的擴張。你在Fastenal業務上顯然有很多美國以外的經驗。把這點連結到你今天的評論，我只是好奇你能分享哪些想法。

On the future of outside of North America?

關於北美以外的未來？

That's right.

沒錯。

Yes. I mean I was just -- actually, I was just in our Italian business last month. I mean, right now, I would say we're just in the beginning stages of exponential growth. We have such a talented team. I think the focus we need to look at as a company is speeding up the transition of certain tools that we need.

是的。我的意思是——其實我上個月才剛去我們義大利的業務。我的意思是，就目前而言，我會說我們才剛進入指數型成長的初期階段。我們有一支非常有才華的團隊。我認為公司需要聚焦的是，加快我們所需某些工具的轉換。

We were lucky with Canada and Mexico. We kind of got to piggyback on the supply chain of the United States business unit when we first got going. When we look at international, one thing when we talk about M&A or acquisitions in the future, trying to take that time frame from -- we could build it in 10 years, we could buy it and have that supply chain built in 2 to 3, 4 maybe is really a focus for us moving forward.

我們在加拿大和墨西哥很幸運。我們剛起步時，某種程度上可以搭著美國事業單位的供應鏈順風車。當我們看國際市場時，有一件事是我們在談未來的併購或收購時會考量的：把時間框架從——我們可以用10年建起來——變成我們可以買下來，並在2到3年、也許4年內把供應鏈建好，這將是我們未來前進的一個重點。

We have such a huge opportunity when we look at the tools on a global scale. I always use the example of, if you have a manufacturing facility in Chicago, you have one in Romania, Italy, China, we have the same tools, the same solutions in all of the countries that we're in today, all on the same platform. In our industry today, that doesn't exist. It's just us today. Our customers want it.

當我們以全球尺度來看工具時，機會非常巨大。我總是用這個例子：如果你在芝加哥有一座製造工廠，在羅馬尼亞、義大利、中國也各有一座，我們在今天所進入的所有國家，都能在同一個平台上提供相同的工具、相同的解決方案。在我們這個產業裡，現在並不存在這種情況。目前只有我們做得到。我們的客戶想要這個。

They want it fast, and we just need to be able to keep up with the demand. And I think that's where we're at right now. We're trying to keep up with the demand from our customer base internationally. It's a good problem to have.

他們想要得快，而我們只需要能夠跟上需求。我想這就是我們目前所處的位置。我們正努力跟上國際客戶群的需求。這是一個好問題。

Christopher Snyder, Morgan Stanley.

Christopher Snyder，摩根士丹利。

I wanted to ask about just the strategy and approach to pricing. Has there been any change there? And maybe do you guys think at this point in time or even maybe going forward, it's better to prioritize volumes over price cost? Because it just seems that you guys would be able to drive higher price if you need it. Demand is improving.

我想問一下你們在定價方面的策略與做法。這方面有任何改變嗎？另外，你們是否認為在目前這個時間點，甚至往後，應該優先考量出貨量而非價格／成本？因為看起來如果你們需要，其實有能力把價格拉得更高。需求正在改善。

I think the cost of the inflation out there, I think it's very clear to everybody. You mentioned advantages on the cost to deliver. So is it a matter of like hard to get it? Or you just think that, no, it's better to prioritize volumes?

我想外部的通膨成本，大家都很清楚。你提到在交付成本上有優勢。所以這是因為像是很難取得（供應）嗎？還是你只是認為，不，優先考量出貨量比較好？

I have 5 things I was going to close with on this call. I think I'll use them in answering this question. And these are -- if Jeff asked my opinion on something, these are the 5 things that always guide me. The first one is love the people that are part of this team, because it's your chosen family. And that means you challenge the heck, I won't say the hell out of, the heck out of everybody to grow their skill set.

我原本打算在這通電話最後用 5 點作結。我想我會用它們來回答這個問題。而且這些是——如果 Jeff 問我對某件事的看法，這 5 點總是指引我的原則。第一點是，愛這個團隊裡的人，因為這是你選擇的家人。這也代表你要非常用力地——我不會說「狠狠地」，但要非常用力地——挑戰每一個人，讓他們的技能組成長。

The second one is love growth. And this is an accountant saying this to a sales guy, but love growth because it's -- every problem can be addressed in a simpler way if you're growing. The third one is, incrementals matter, and it should frustrate the heck out of you if you're not getting incrementals, especially when you're growing double digits.

第二點是，熱愛成長。而且這是一個會計對一個業務說的，但要熱愛成長，因為——只要你在成長，每個問題都能用更簡單的方式被解決。第三點是，增量（效益）很重要；如果你拿不到增量，應該會讓你非常挫折，尤其是在你以兩位數成長的時候。

The fourth one is be really special, figure out how to be special to your customers. And then finally, getting back to your chosen family, Go Blue. But Christopher, my point of running through all that is we love growth, but right behind it is incrementals. So you got to find the balance in that every day because that balance gives you discipline throughout your organization that you're not sacrificing one for the other.

第四點是，要非常特別，想辦法對你的客戶而言很特別。最後，再回到你選擇的家人：Go Blue。但 Christopher，我把這些都講一遍的重點是：我們熱愛成長，但緊跟在後的是增量。所以你每天都得在兩者之間找到平衡，因為這個平衡會讓整個組織保持紀律，不會為了其中一個而犧牲另一個。

Does that mean if a district manager had a customer call up right now and they had a $100,000 sale at 20% or 25%, would they take that -- and you're basically pushing paper, would they take that sale? I know I would. And even if that meant that hurt my incremental margin a little bit in my district and absolutely hurt my gross margin in my district, because you take those opportunities to serve your market, and your market came to you because you're special.

這是否代表，如果某位區域經理現在接到客戶來電，有一筆 10 萬美元、毛利 20% 或 25% 的訂單——而你基本上只是處理文件——他們會接嗎？我知道我會。即使那代表在我的區域裡會讓我的增量毛利率稍微受影響，並且絕對會傷到我區域的毛利率，因為你要把握這些機會去服務你的市場；而市場會找上你，是因為你很特別。

But long term, we have incredible discipline because we want to support a great business that will have great growth prospects and ROIC deep into the future. And as we grow, especially the international piece that from a standpoint of outside North America, we'd be really disciplined in North America of what we're doing, because it's going to take some financial capital to support that business in the years to come. Just like 20 years ago, it took financial capital to support the coast lines in the United States. I remember when California was losing money, and we were supporting it because we saw what the future was when we were losing money in the Southeast, up in Canada because we saw what the future was. And you need discipline to do that wherever you go.

但長期來看，我們有非常強的紀律，因為我們想要支撐一個優質的企業，讓它在很長的未來都具備很好的成長前景與 ROIC。而且隨著我們成長，尤其是國際業務這一塊——從北美以外的角度來看——我們在北美會非常有紀律地做我們正在做的事，因為未來幾年要支撐那個業務，會需要一些財務資本。就像 20 年前一樣，當時要支撐美國的沿海地區也需要財務資本。我記得加州曾經在虧錢，而我們仍然支持它，因為我們看到了未來；當我們在東南部虧錢、在加拿大虧錢時，我們也支持，因為我們看到了未來。而無論你走到哪裡，你都需要那樣的紀律。

I really appreciate all that perspective. If I could follow up with another margin question on SG&A. Is there any way to think about or maybe separate the drivers in Q2 year-on-year SG&A expansion from the variable comp reset in general -- or sorry, variable comp and general inflation, which should remain in the model versus fuel and freight, which could potentially ease depending on some of the Middle East resolution? I'm just trying to get a sense for how we could see that line item shift as the year goes on.

我非常感謝你分享這些觀點。如果我可以追問一個關於 SG&A 的毛利率問題。有沒有什麼方式可以思考，或把第二季同比 SG&A 擴張的驅動因素拆開來看：例如可變薪酬重設——或抱歉，可變薪酬與一般通膨，這些應該會留在模型裡——相對於燃料與運輸費，後者可能會因為中東局勢的某些解決而緩解？我只是想了解，隨著今年進行，我們可能會看到這個科目如何變動。

Yes. Christopher, we don't historically break down into that level of detail. I don't want us to think that these are massive impacts on SG&A. They're sizable. But if you think about combined, if you take bonuses and transportation headwinds on the incrementals, it's a couple of points.

是的。Christopher，我們過去並不會拆到那麼細的層級。我不希望大家以為這些對 SG&A 是非常巨大的影響。它們是顯著的。但如果你把獎金與運輸方面對增量的逆風合在一起看，大概是幾個百分點。

So it's not nothing for sure. It's a couple of points. But I won't break out further than that because these things are moving parts and the bonus, although it's primarily heavily weighted on pretax, the bonus is a bit more complicated when you look across our business because, of course, some individuals and teams are a little bit more balanced between top line and pretax and some are ROIC. So there's not a real precise way to model it. But I'll just give you that for context.

所以當然不是沒有影響。大概是幾個百分點。但我不會再進一步拆分，因為這些因素都在變動；而獎金雖然主要高度偏重稅前（表現），但當你放到我們整個業務來看，獎金其實更複雜，因為當然有些個人與團隊在營收與稅前之間的權重比較平均，有些則是看 ROIC。所以沒有一個非常精準的方式可以建模。但我提供這些作為背景。

You're looking at if you didn't have the incremental bonus or the higher bonus as a percent year-over-year of growth. And if you didn't have the inflation, you'd be looking at a couple of points of incrementals.

你可以這樣看：如果沒有增量獎金，或是相較去年因成長而使獎金占比更高。再加上如果沒有通膨，你看到的增量大概會多出幾個百分點。

Chris Dankert, D.A. Davidson.

Chris Dankert，D.A. Davidson。

And Dan, speaking of milestones, congratulations. I mean, 30 years, it's really, really impressive. I just -- I would echo the congratulations of everyone else here. So thank you very much for everything. I guess the biggest question I've got walking away from the call today, the FTE growth has been, I mean, really, really impressively constrained.

Dan，說到里程碑，恭喜你。我是說，30 年，真的非常非常令人印象深刻。我只是——我也想呼應在座各位的恭喜。所以非常感謝你所做的一切。我想我今天聽完電話會議後最大的問題是，FTE 的成長一直——我是說，真的真的被控制得非常好。

I guess, has the formula really changed here? What kind of headcount growth do we need sort of long term? Is this an aberration? Is this kind of the new normal? Maybe just any kind of comments on what sort of energy is required to keep driving double-digit growth here?

我想問，這裡的公式真的改變了嗎？長期來看，我們需要什麼樣的人力（headcount）成長？這是異常現象嗎？這算是一種新常態嗎？也許請你們評論一下，要持續推動兩位數成長，大概需要投入什麼樣的能量？

Jeff and I are still trying to figure out who's taking what questions on this call. And what I'll say is, I don't know if I'd use the word constrained because I don't know that we constrained it. Our district leaders add people because they need to support business that's turning on today and in the future. Our distribution personnel do the same thing. And throughout the organization, that's true.

Jeff 和我還在試著搞清楚這通電話裡誰要回答哪些問題。我想說的是，我不確定我會用「受限」這個詞，因為我不覺得我們是刻意去限制它。我們的區域主管會在需要支撐今天正在運轉、以及未來將要運轉的業務時增補人員。我們的配送人員也是同樣的做法。而且整個組織都是如此。

What you're seeing is this is the natural number that's falling out based on executing in 240 business units across the planet.

你看到的是：這是在全球 240 個事業單位執行之後，自然得出的數字。

And I'm surprised at the number because I figure if you can get 10% productivity gains, -- that's pretty good. And so I would have seen it closer to 4% or 5% at the field level, just based on that logic. Now keep in mind, that doesn't translate into 4% or 5% more cost because the entry level coming in, they're coming in a different -- they're coming in for what they're building for the future. So it's 4% or 5% there would be a different number.

我對這個數字感到驚訝，因為我想如果你能拿到 10% 的生產力提升——那已經相當不錯了。所以依照這個邏輯，我原本會預期在前線層級更接近 4% 或 5%。但請記住，那不會等同於 4% 或 5% 更多的成本，因為新進的入門級人員，他們進來的層級不同——他們進來是為了打造未來。所以那個 4% 或 5% 會對應到不同的數字。

The other thing that's happening is -- and this has been going on for a couple of years, but we're reloading the portion of our field population, especially that is part time. And we do that not for a lower cost labor. We do that to build a pipeline of talent for the future. And one of the reasons we can add at a slower pace right now is because if 20% of your headcount is part time and you need to add some folks, you're adding a lot of external folks and you're spending a lot more to make those ads and they're not as productive right away.

另一件正在發生的事是——而且這已經持續了好幾年，但我們正在重新補強我們的現場人力配置，特別是兼職人員的那一部分。我們這麼做並不是為了使用更低成本的勞動力。我們這麼做是為了為未來建立人才管道。而我們之所以現在可以用較慢的速度增員，其中一個原因是：如果你的人頭數有 20% 是兼職，而你需要再增加一些人手，你就得增加很多外部招募的人員，並且要花更多錢去投放那些招募廣告，而且他們不會立刻就有那麼高的生產力。

So you actually need to add people faster, and you need to add full FTEs, one, faster. If you have folks that are working for you when they're a full-time student and they're working part time, when they come on board, and if that's closer to 30% of your workforce versus closer to 20%, when they're coming on board, there's just a lot more productive. So we talk about some stuff on AI here.

所以你其實需要更快地增員，而且需要更快地增加全職 FTE，人數要更快補上。如果有些人在你這裡工作時是全職學生、以兼職方式工作，當他們正式加入（轉為全職）時——而且如果這樣的人力占比更接近你整體人力的 30%，而不是更接近 20%——那麼他們在加入時的生產力就會高出很多。所以我們在這裡也談到一些 AI 的事情。

And some of the tools we're coming up with are really stunning as far as productivity on some of the quoting aspects of what we're able to do today versus even a year ago. But a lot of it is, as we reloaded our part-time ranks, we have a more productive group out of the chute when they come full-time. And you're seeing that. So I don't know if we can grow 15% and be in low single digits forever, but I think we can do it for a little while.

而我們正在推出的一些工具，在報價相關工作的生產力方面真的非常驚人，跟今天能做到的相比，甚至比一年前都有很大差異。但其中很大一部分是：當我們重新補強兼職人員的隊伍後，他們一旦轉為全職，起步時就是一個更具生產力的群體。而你也看到了這一點。所以我不知道我們是否能在成長 15% 的同時，永遠都維持在低個位數，但我認為我們可以維持一段時間。

Yes. I appreciate the color there, Dan, and it really is impressive leverage. So thanks for the kind of the breakdown. I guess just my follow-up, really simply: any change in kind of expectations for pricing into the back half of the year? Should we assume it's still kind of low singles, maybe even as high as mid-single?

是的。Dan，謝謝你提供這些補充說明，這樣的槓桿效益確實令人印象深刻。所以也謝謝你做了這樣的拆解。我想我的追問很簡單：對於今年下半年定價的預期，有沒有任何變化？我們是否仍應假設大概是低個位數，甚至可能高到中個位數？

Just any color on pricing would be great.

如果能提供一些關於定價的補充說明就太好了。

I think, Chris, your -- what you suggested is in the realm, I would say, of what we would expect. So you can also look back at stacked pricing, and you can see that we added roughly 1 percentage point stacked coming across Q1 to Q2. So yes, we're going to keep pushing. A lot of this is -- and we said this before, we're customer-centric. And so we don't -- especially with our strategic accounts, we don't just push the button and ramp pricing through.

Chris，我認為你——你提出的範圍，我會說大致落在我們的預期之內。你也可以回頭看累計（堆疊）定價，你會看到我們從第一季到第二季，累計大約增加了 1 個百分點。所以是的，我們會持續推進。其中很大一部分是——我們之前也說過——我們以客戶為中心。因此我們不會——尤其是對我們的策略性客戶——不會只是按下按鈕就一路把價格拉上去。

So it's also a little bit harder to predict and commit to where we might land, but we're going to look at this strategically through the continued conversations as we move forward. But anyway, your estimates are not too far off from where we probably would land.

所以這也使得要預測並承諾我們最終可能落在哪個水準變得更困難一些，但我們會在持續的對話中，以策略性的方式來看待並推進。不過總之，你的估計與我們可能落點的水準相差不遠。

So there were 2 things that Jeff accented on the call this morning with the regional leadership. Traditionally, Max has a call, our CFO has a call with all of our regional and VP group to just kind of explain what -- a little bit about the earnings release and some of the things we're going to talk about. And Jeff closed with a couple of things, and he pushed hard on what are you doing with your EB percentage? And EB is exclusive brands. And it's really where we have some of our branded partners that have gotten maybe too aggressive at just pushing that button and jamming a price increase in.

所以今天早上 Jeff 在與區域領導的電話會議上強調了兩件事。傳統上，Max 會開一通電話會議——我們的 CFO 會與所有區域團隊及副總裁群組通話——大致說明一下財報新聞稿，以及我們將要談的一些重點。Jeff 在結尾提了幾點，他很用力地追問：你們在 EB 比例上做了什麼？EB 指的是獨家品牌（exclusive brands）。這其實是指我們的一些品牌合作夥伴，可能在按下按鈕、硬塞一個漲價上，做得有點太激進了。

You push too hard and you give somebody a reason to look at something else. And so continue to look at the exclusive brands as a percentage of our mix. We're better at that today than we were 5 and 10 years ago, and we'll be better 5 and 10 years into the future. And the other one was continuing to drive FMI because FMI, as we continue to drive that, especially in the production world, is driving a lot of our labor efficiencies to the last question.

你推得太用力，就會給對方一個理由去看別的選項。因此要持續關注獨家品牌在我們產品組合中的占比。我們今天在這方面做得比 5 年、10 年前更好，而在未來 5 年、10 年我們也會做得更好。另一件事是持續推動 FMI，因為當我們持續推動 FMI 時，尤其是在生產領域，這會帶動很多勞動效率的提升，呼應上一題。

With that, I see we're at 2 minutes to the hour. We're a minute to the hour. Thanks for joining the Fastenal earnings call today, and thanks for allowing me to share the story over the years. And I'm excited to see where Jeff and the team take this business in the future. Thanks, everybody.

說到這裡，我看到距離整點還有 2 分鐘。距離整點還有 1 分鐘。感謝各位今天參加 Fastenal 的財報電話會議，也謝謝各位讓我多年來能分享這段故事。我也很期待看到 Jeff 和團隊未來會把這門生意帶到哪裡。謝謝大家。

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

謝謝。今天的電話會議網路直播到此結束。您現在可以掛斷電話線，祝您有美好的一天。感謝您今天的參與。