快扣 (FAST) 2016 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Fastenal Company first-quarter 2016 earnings results conference call.

女士們、先生們，大家好，歡迎參加 Fastenal 公司 2016 年第一季財報業績電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

I would now like to hand the meeting over to Ellen Trester, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在我將把會議交給投資者關係部的艾倫·特雷斯特主持。請繼續。

Welcome to the Fastenal Company 2016 first-quarter earnings conference call. This call will be hosted by Dan Florness, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Sheryl Lisowski, our Interim Chief Financial Officer, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer. The call will last for up to 45 minutes, and we'll start with a general overview of our quarterly results and operations, with the remainder of the time being open for questions and answers.

歡迎參加 Fastenal 公司 2016 年第一季財報電話會議。本次電話會議將由我們的總裁兼執行長丹·弗洛內斯和我們的臨時財務長、財務總監兼首席會計官謝麗爾·利索夫斯基主持。本次電話會議將持續最多 45 分鐘，我們將首先概述我們的季度業績和營運情況，剩餘時間將用於問答環節。

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 investors homepage, investor.fastenal.com. A replay of the webcast will be available on the website until June 1, 2016 at midnight Central Time.

今天的電話會議是 Fastenal 的專有演示，並由 Fastenal 進行錄音。未經 Fastenal 同意，不得對今天的通話進行任何錄音、複製、傳輸或分發。本次電話會議將透過 Fastenal 投資者主頁 investor.fastenal.com 在網路上進行音訊同步直播。網路直播的回放將在網站上提供，直至2016年6月1日中部時間午夜。

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 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涉及公司未來的計劃和前景。這些聲明是基於我們目前的預期，我們不承擔更新這些聲明的義務。值得注意的是，公司的實際業績可能與預期業績有重大差異。可能導致實際結果與預期結果不同的因素已包含在公司最新的收益報告和定期向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中，我們建議您仔細閱讀這些因素。

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

現在我將把電話交給丹‧弗洛內斯先生。

Thank you, Ellen, and good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining in on the first-quarter 2016 Fastenal Company earnings call.

謝謝你，艾倫，大家早安。感謝您參加 Fastenal 公司 2016 年第一季財報電話會議。

Press release went out first thing this morning. Hopefully you all saw, as well, we put out a press release yesterday evening announcing our second-quarter dividend.

新聞稿今天早上第一時間就發出了。希望大家也都看到了，我們昨晚發布了一份新聞稿，宣布了第二季分紅計畫。

In the quarter, we grew our sales about 3.5%. We had the benefit of an additional business day during the quarter so on a daily base else we grew about 2%. Our earnings per share grew just over 2%, primarily driven by the fact that we had bought a considerable amount of our stock in the last 15 months because our actual earnings were down slightly from a year ago.

本季度，我們的銷售額成長了約 3.5%。本季我們多了一個營業日，因此按日計算，否則我們每天的成長約為 2%。我們的每股盈餘成長略高於 2%，這主要是因為我們在過去 15 個月裡買入了大量股票，因為我們的實際收益比一年前略有下降。

A bit of a noisy quarter in that the calendar had some stuff going on. The daily number, which is what we typically report, can be influenced positively or negatively by the change from year over year and the number of business days in a calendar month.

本季有點熱鬧，因為行程表上有些事情要處理。我們通常報告的每日數字可能會受到同比變化和日曆月中工作日天數的正面或負面影響。

In January, it was a 20-day month versus 21. In February we had an additional day so it was a 21 versus a 20, and in March we had an additional day so it was a 23 versus a 22. And March also had Easter which had been in April in each of the last two years.

一月是20天，而平常是21天。二月我們多出了一天，所以是 21 天而不是 20 天；三月我們多出了一天，所以是 23 天而不是 22 天。三月還有復活節，而過去兩年復活節都在四月。

I throw these in to the equation because they can influence the number. So, if you look at our numbers as reported, in January we grew at 3.3% daily average, February grew at 2.6%, in March we dropped to 0.0 so we basically had no growth in the final month of the quarter.

我把這些因素也考慮進去，因為它們會影響計算結果。所以，如果你看一下我們公佈的數據，1 月份我們日均增長 3.3%，2 月份增長 2.6%，3 月份我們下降到 0.0%，所以我們在季度最後一個月基本上沒有增長。

If I factor in the change in days, I think of the months as being January we grew between 2.5% and 3%, February we probably grew closer to 3%, in March we probably grew just under 1%. If I add Easter into the equation, that March number probably is closer to a 2%.

如果我把天數的變化考慮進去，我認為每個月的增長情況是：一月份增長了 2.5% 到 3%，二月份增長了接近 3%，三月份增長了不到 1%。如果把復活節也考慮進去，那麼三月的數字可能會更接近 2%。

So, I'll start the call by saying I'm very pleased with the fact in January and February we started out with a nice improvement after really struggling through the fourth quarter. And struggling through the fourth quarter in the latter nine months of 2015 is more of a statement of what our customers were enduring as their business weakened, particularly those involved in the oil and gas industry and those involved in export.

首先，我要說的是，我非常高興的是，在經歷了第四季度的艱難時期後，我們在1月和2月取得了不錯的進展。2015 年後九個月的第四季舉步維艱，這更反映了我們的客戶在業務疲軟時所遭受的困境，特別是那些從事石油和天然氣行業以及從事出口業務的客戶。

But when I look at March, we're a little disappointed in the month. The month weakened as we got through it. Easter is part of it, the calendar is part of it, but the month did weaken a little bit, so it was a soft finish to the quarter.

但當我回顧三月的情況時，我們對這個月的表現有點失望。隨著時間推移，這個月的強度逐漸減弱。復活節是其中的一部分，日曆也是其中的一部分，但這個月整體表現略顯疲軟，所以本季以較為平淡的方式收尾。

There's really no other noise in the numbers because the acquisition we did last fall added about 0.8% to our number and FX removed about 0.8%. So, other than the calendar, there wasn't a lot of noise.

數字中真的沒有其他幹擾因素，因為我們去年秋天進行的收購使我們的數字增加了約 0.8%，而匯率變動又減少了約 0.8%。所以，除了日曆之外，並沒有太多其他噪音。

Speaking of FX, really talking about our foreign business in general, one of the items that we touched on in the call centered on Canada. Canada has an economy that's very much influenced by commodities, particularly energy commodities but commodities in general. That business for a lot of distributors had been struggling throughout 2015, ours included.

說到外匯，或者更確切地說，說到我們的海外業務，我們在電話會議中談到的一個主題是關於加拿大的。加拿大的經濟深受大宗商品的影響，尤其是能源大宗商品，但總體而言，大宗商品都對加拿大經濟產生影響。2015 年，包括我們公司在內，許多經銷商的這項業務都舉步維艱。

In the fourth quarter our business in Canada grew. Using local currency -- so, removing the FX impact -- and local days, our business grew about 4%. I'm pleased to say that business improved in the first quarter and grew about 7%. I think that is probably a good teller of some underlying strength that we're seeing in that business, and our execution.

第四季度，我們在加拿大的業務實現了成長。使用當地貨幣（因此消除了匯率影響）和當地天數，我們的業務成長了約 4%。我很高興地告訴大家，第一季業務有所改善，成長了約 7%。我認為這或許能很好地說明我們在該業務中看到的一些潛在優勢以及我們的執行力。

From a P&L perspective, and this is a lot of the comments that I've shared with our folks internally, sometimes you need to take a step back and look at what you've been investing in and what it's translated into to help understand the puts and takes of your P&L. From 10,000 feet, the best way I can think about the P&L is this -- we added about $33 million in additional revenue from the first quarter of last year to the first quarter of this year.

從損益表的角度來看，這也是我經常和內部員工分享的一些觀點，有時你需要退後一步，看看你一直在投資什麼，以及這些投資轉化成了什麼，這有助於理解你的損益表中的利弊。從宏觀角度來看，我認為損益表的最佳解讀是——與去年第一季相比，我們今年第一季增加了約 3,300 萬美元的額外收入。

As you see in our published statements, and you saw this in our fourth quarter and you saw it, quite frankly, throughout 2015, with the growth drivers we have in place, particularly the large account emphasis within our growth drivers, the larger our customer gets typically the lower the gross margin because in many cases you're supplying a concentrated offering into a business. It's a more competitive landscape because it's a more efficient landscape to operate. So, our gross margin in that business is typically lower but, again, it's more efficient so our operating expenses are lower, as well. So, as we've seen great success in that business we've seen some tradeoff in gross margin.

正如您在我們發布的聲明中所看到的，您在我們第四季度也看到了這一點，坦白說，您在 2015 年全年也看到了這一點，隨著我們採取的增長驅動因素，特別是我們增長驅動因素中對大客戶的重視，我們的客戶規模越大，毛利率通常就越低，因為在很多情況下，您向企業提供的集中化的是集中化的產品和服務。這是一個競爭更加激烈的市場環境，因為在這個環境中運作效率更高。因此，我們在該業務中的毛利率通常較低，但同樣，它的效率更高，所以我們的營運費用也更低。因此，雖然我們在該業務領域取得了巨大成功，但也出現了一些毛利率的權衡。

Also, as we went through 2015 our fastener business was particularly hit by the slowdown in the economy. So, we had some product mix as well as customer mix impacts to our margin, and, with the weaker environment, a very competitive landscape. So, we did lose gross margin on a year-over-year basis.

此外，在 2015 年，我們的緊固件業務尤其受到經濟放緩的衝擊。因此，我們的利潤率受到了產品組合和客戶組合的影響，而且由於市場環境疲軟，競爭非常激烈。因此，我們的毛利率比去年同期下降了。

Our gross margin was largely in line with fourth quarter. And that $33 million in additional revenue translated into about $7 million of additional gross profit because of the contraction in gross margin.

我們的毛利率與第四季基本持平。由於毛利率下降，這 3,300 萬美元的額外收入轉化為約 700 萬美元的額外毛利。

We talked a lot in the latter part of 2014 and 2015 about adding people to our store base network. As we got later into the year we also talked about slowing down the growth, and we've continued that discussion of slowing down the growth of people. We think we're to a point where our stores are well staffed and now we need the business to catch up and, quite frankly, get ahead of our headcount growth a bit.

在 2014 年下半年和 2015 年，我們多次討論如何為我們的門市網路增加人手。隨著時間推移，我們也討論了減緩成長速度的問題，並且我們一直在討論減緩人口成長速度的問題。我們認為目前門市人員配備充足，現在我們需要業務部門跟上，坦白說，還需要在人員成長方面略微領先一些。

But in the last 12 months we've added about $12 million in additional payroll expense because of all the people we've added. Because a high percentage of our compensation is incentive based, if I look at incentive compensation at the district, regional, national, local level, as well as profit-sharing contributions, those are down on a year-over-year basis. So, about $7 million of the $12 million was funded by our collective group of employees and our payroll expenses are up about $5 million in total against $7 million of additional gross profit.

但在過去 12 個月裡，由於我們增加了大量員工，薪資支出增加了約 1,200 萬美元。由於我們的薪酬很大一部分是基於激勵的，如果我查看地區、區域、國家、地方各級的激勵性薪酬以及利潤分享貢獻，這些都同比下降了。因此，1,200萬美元中的約700萬美元是由我們全體員工共同出資的，而我們的薪資支出總共增加了約500萬美元，而毛利增加了700萬美元。

We also have been heavily investing in vending, heavily investing in onsite, heavily investing in growth drivers. And our operating expenses outside of payroll were up about $5 million. So, total expenses are up about $10 million year over year and our earnings down about $3 million.

我們也大力投資自動販賣機、現場設施和成長驅動因素。除工資支出外，我們的營運費用增加了約 500 萬美元。因此，總支出比去年同期增加了約 1,000 萬美元，而我們的收入則減少了約 300 萬美元。

We took on some debt in the last year, year and a half to fund the buyback of stock, so our interest expense is up about $1 million. So, our earnings are down just under $4 million a year ago.

在過去一年到一年半的時間裡，我們為了回購股票而承擔了一些債務，因此我們的利息支出增加了約 100 萬美元。所以，我們的收益比一年前減少了近400萬美元。

When I look at the investments we made in people and the investments we made in growth drivers to our business, I believe they're great investments for our business short term and long term. However, we don't have the gross profit dollars in the short term to pay for it and that's why we're holding tight on headcount as we go into the year.

當我審視我們對人才的投資以及對業務成長驅動因素的投資時，我認為這些投資無論從短期或長期來看，對我們的業務都是非常明智的投資。然而，我們短期內沒有足夠的毛利來支付這筆費用，這就是為什麼我們今年年初會嚴格控制員工人數的原因。

And also you'll notice that we softened a bit our store opening expectations for the year. Within the last year we cited a range of 60 to 75. We've pulled that down to a range of 40 to 60. While still a meaningful number of stores were opened we really felt, given all the growth drivers we had in place, it was a wise decision to slow that down a little bit.

此外，您還會注意到，我們稍微降低了今年的店鋪開幕預期。在過去一年中，我們給出的範圍是 60 到 75。我們已經將範圍縮小到 40 到 60。雖然我們仍然開設了相當數量的門市，但考慮到我們已有的所有成長動力，我們真的覺得放慢成長速度是一個明智的決定。

Last November, we had an Investor Day. In that Investor Day, we really talked about four primary things. They centered on vending, our industrial vending deployment. We talked about onsite where we set up a store inside the four walls of our customer.

去年11月，我們舉辦了投資者日活動。在那次投資者日活動中，我們主要討論了四件事。他們主要專注於自動販賣機，以及我們的工業自動販賣機部署。我們討論了現場辦公模式，也就是在客戶的辦公室內設立店家。

We talked about eCommerce, investments we're making to make it easier for our customers to interact with us. And we talked about what we call CSP 2016, and that was expanding the merchandising that we have locally in our store to improve our ability to fulfill on a same-day basis, to improve the spectrum of customers we would appeal to -- frankly, to improve our business. When I look at our progress on those I'm extremely pleased with what we've done not only in the fourth quarter but what we've done in the first quarter.

我們討論了電子商務，以及我們為方便客戶與我們互動而進行的投資。我們討論了所謂的 CSP 2016，即擴大我們店內本地的商品銷售範圍，以提高我們當日發貨的能力，擴大我們吸引的客戶群——坦白說，是為了改善我們的業務。當我審視我們在這些方面取得的進展時，我對我們不僅在第四季度，而且在第一季所取得的成就感到非常滿意。

From a vending perspective, we really talked about the team we were adding. We added about 230 people to drive the optimization of our vending, to drive the signing of our vending, and to drive the efficiency of vending.

從自動販賣機的角度來看，我們認真討論了我們即將加入的團隊。我們增加了約 230 人，以推動自動販賣機的最佳化、自動販賣機的招牌製作和自動販賣機的效率提升。

When I look at where we are at the end of March, about 60% of our machines have now been optimized. When we talked about it last November at the Investor Day we were at about 11, so we've made great progress on that. And, really, what it translates into is a better utilization of our vending platform within our customer business but also a better value proposition for our customer because we know product that goes through a vending machine lowers the consumption, lowers the waste and lowers the expense for our customer, and we think that's a winning combination in our business.

截至三月底，我們大約 60% 的機器已經完成最佳化。去年 11 月的投資者日上我們談到這個問題時，我們當時已經完成了大約 11 項，所以我們在這方面取得了很大的進展。實際上，這意味著我們的客戶業務可以更好地利用我們的自動販賣機平台，同時也能為客戶帶來更好的價值主張，因為我們知道透過自動販賣機銷售的產品可以降低消耗、減少浪費並降低客戶的支出，我們認為這在我們的業務中是一個雙贏的組合。

About 80% of our store locations use the vending tab. And what that is -- and we talked about this on our Investor Day -- that is a better integration of the vending within our own point-of-sale platform. It helps our store personnel be more efficient with the replenishment. It helps streamline the supply chain. And we've made great progress on that and that's going to serve us well as we go into 2016 and beyond.

我們約 80% 的門市使用自動販賣機標籤。而這——我們在投資者日上也討論過——就是將自動販賣機更好地整合到我們自己的銷售點平台中。這有助於我們門市員工更有效率地進行補貨。它有助於簡化供應鏈。我們在這方面取得了巨大進展，這將對我們進入 2016 年及以後大有裨益。

As important to those two pieces, our pace of signings improved. In the first quarter of 2015 and the fourth quarter of 2015, we signed roughly 4,000 vending devices.

與這兩點同樣重要的是，我們的簽約速度有所提高。2015 年第一季和 2015 年第四季度，我們簽訂了約 4,000 套自動販賣機合約。

In the first quarter that number improved. We signed about 4,700. So, I think we're off to a great start and that's an important growth driver to our business.

第一季這數字有所改善。我們簽了大約4700份合約。所以，我認為我們開局良好，這對我們的業務成長是一個重要的驅動力。

In the case of onsite, last year we signed about 82 onsites. Our historical run rate or pace of annual signings was about 9, so we took a big leap forward in 2015. In fall of 2015 at our Investor Day we talked about a lofty goal. We said our goal is 200 signings of onsites in 2016.

就現場施工而言，去年我們簽訂了約 82 個現場施工合約。我們以往的年度簽約量或速度約為 9 人，因此我們在 2015 年取得了巨大的進步。2015 年秋季，在我們的投資者日上，我們談到了一個遠大的目標。我們曾表示，我們的目標是在 2016 年完成 200 項現場簽約。

In the first quarter, we signed 48. Frankly, that's a number that was better than I was expecting. I was very hopeful coming into the year we would have a number that would start with a 4 because I knew that was a big step up from the run rate we had in the latter half of 2015.

第一季度，我們簽了48份合約。坦白說，這個數字比我預期的還要好。年初的時候，我非常希望我們能取得一個以 4 開頭的成績，因為我知道這比我們在 2015 年下半年的成績有了很大的進步。

Our team came through and worked with our customers and signed additional 48. Those will turn on as we go through the year but I'm very optimistic about our onsite program as we go through the balance of the year.

我們的團隊齊心協力，與客戶合作，又簽了 48 份合約。這些計畫會在今年陸續啟動，但我對我們今年剩餘時間的現場培訓計畫非常樂觀。

ECommerce, as I mentioned, is more about the ease of our customer ability to interact with us. There will be more updates in future meetings. That's more of when I think of a late 2016, 2017, 2018 type of item.

正如我之前提到的，電子商務更多的是關於我們的客戶與我們互動時的便利性。未來會議將提供更多最新資訊。我指的是 2016 年底、2017 年、2018 年這類產品。

And then, finally, CSP 2016, we made a hard push late in the year. We've continued that hard push. We currently have just under 1,000 locations converted to the CSP16 format. And I believe when we get to the end of the second quarter that number will be closer to a 1,700 or 1,800 number that are substantially converted, which position us well not only for the efficiency of our business but our ability to appeal to a broader range of customers and fulfill their needs as we go into the summer.

最後，在 2016 年的 CSP 大會上，我們在年底全力衝刺。我們一直在持續努力。目前我們已有近 1,000 個地點轉換為 CSP16 格式。我相信，到第二季末，這個數字將接近 1700 或 1800，這些數字將基本轉化為實際轉換率，這將使我們不僅在業務效率方面處於有利地位，而且在進入夏季時，我們有能力吸引更廣泛的客戶群體並滿足他們的需求。

With that I'm going to turn it over to Sheryl to talk a little bit more in detail about the quarter.

接下來，我將把發言權交給謝麗爾，讓她更詳細地談談本季的情況。

Good morning. I'm going to provide an update on our cash flow. Our operating cash flow for the quarter was 128% of net earnings compared to 141% of net earnings during the first quarter of 2015. The operating cash flow is slightly lower in the first quarter of 2016 due to our current initiative to add additional products into our store inventory under our CSP16 format.

早安.我將向我們報告現金流狀況。本季我們的經營現金流量佔淨利的 128%，而 2015 年第一季的經營現金流佔淨利的 141%。由於我們目前正積極推行 CSP16 模式，在門市庫存中增加更多產品，因此 2016 年第一季的營運現金流略有下降。

The Q1 operating cash flow is also benefited by minimal tax payments occurring in the first quarter. That will reverse itself in the second, third and fourth quarter of the year.

第一季的經營現金流也受惠於第一季極少的稅金支出。這種情況將在今年第二、第三和第四季發生逆轉。

Our operational working capital year-over-year inventory growth was approximately $97 million. The main drivers of the increase in the inventory were driven by the CSP16 initiative which was approximately 35% of the increase. International inventory growth and the acquisition of Fasteners, Inc contributed approximately another 25% of the increase. And then the last main driver was the onsite and large customer impacts which were approximately an increase of 10%.

我們的營運營運資金年增約 9,700 萬美元。庫存增加的主要驅動因素是 CSP16 計劃，該計劃約佔庫存增加的 35%。國際庫存成長和對 Fasteners, Inc 的收購又貢獻了約 25% 的成長。最後一個主要驅動因素是現場和大型客戶的影響，這增加了約 10%。

We also disclosed in our Earnings Release that we had previously indicated our net capital expenditures would be approximately $128 million in 2016. We now believe, given the new vending locker lease agreement and a strong start to vending signings in the first quarter, that we will have total net capital expenditures of approximately $197 million to $200 million in 2016. We do plan to fund this increase as well as some of our previously planned capital expenditures with the proceeds of a proposed private placement of debt.

我們在獲利報告中也揭露，我們先前曾表示，2016 年我們的淨資本支出約為 1.28 億美元。鑑於新的自動販賣櫃租賃協議以及第一季自動販賣機簽約的強勁開局，我們現在相信，2016 年我們的淨資本支出總額將約為 1.97 億美元至 2 億美元。我們計劃利用擬議的私募債務所得資金來資助此次增長以及我們先前計劃的一些資本支出。

During the first quarter of 2016 we purchased approximately 1.6 million shares of our common stock at an average price of $37.15 per share for a total of approximately $59 million. And during the last seven quarters we have purchased 8.7 million shares of our stock or approximately $396 million worth of stock, which represents about 3.3% of our outstanding shares from the start of this time frame.

2016 年第一季度，我們以每股 37.15 美元的平均價格購買了約 160 萬股普通股，總計約 5,900 萬美元。在過去的七個季度裡，我們購買了 870 萬股股票，價值約 3.96 億美元，約佔該時段開始以來我們已發行股票總數的 3.3%。

As Dan mentioned earlier, last night we announced a dividend of $0.30 per share. This will be our second quarter dividend for the year. So we have strong cash flow and we're optimistic about our cash flow potential throughout the year.

正如丹之前提到的，昨晚我們宣布派發每股 0.30 美元的股息。這將是我們今年的第二季分紅。因此，我們擁有強勁的現金流，並且對全年的現金流潛力持樂觀態度。

And with that I will open it up to questions from the group.

接下來，我將開放問答環節，接受大家的提問。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

Our first question comes from David Manthey with Robert W. Baird.

我們的第一個問題來自 David Manthey 和 Robert W. Baird。

Hi, good morning. First of all, in terms of the new onsites that you turned on last year, can you estimate how additive to growth the onsites that were operating in the first quarter of 2016 were?

您好，早安。首先，就去年新開通的站點而言，您能否估算一下 2016 年第一季營運的站點對成長的貢獻有多大？

Probably the way I think about it, Dave, the numbers start getting a little bit double counting when you look at the vending and you look at the onsite. The best way to look at it is, when I think of the districts that are signing onsites, districts that added onsites last year are growing double digit right now. The districts that did not are growing low single digit.

戴夫，我的想法是，當你把自動販賣機和現場銷售都算進去的時候，數字就開始出現重複計算的情況了。最好的理解方式是，當我想到那些正在進行線下教學的學區時，去年新增線下教學的學區現在正以兩位數的速度增長。那些沒有實現成長的地區，成長率僅為個位數。

We really look at the onsite business as being when we go on an onsite, what Chris had talked about last fall in our Investor Day was we really believe that when we exit a 12-month period after rolling out the onsite -- and we have onsites that turned on throughout the year so that's where the numbers start getting a little muddy -- but we really believe, based on our data, that when we exit the 12-month period we'll add close to $80,000 to $120,000 of additional monthly revenue on a per onsite basis.

我們真正看待現場業務的方式是，當我們進行現場活動時，正如克里斯去年秋天在我們的投資者日上談到的那樣，我們真的相信，在推出現場活動後的 12 個月期間結束時——我們有一些現場活動是在一年中陸續啟動的，所以數字開始變得有點混亂——但我們真的相信，根據我們的數據，在 12 個月期間每月結束時，每個現場活動的 12 萬美元。

Okay. And then, second, on pricing and gross margin, you mentioned the fastener pricing being lower, if you could quantify that. And then if you saw anything across the other 60%-plus of your product lines. And as it relates to gross margin, I know there's some timing issues with the FIFO inventory and so forth but typically first-quarter gross margin is the highest of the year and then it declines from there or is lower through the rest of the year. Is that your expectation for this year or are there other factors in 2016?

好的。其次，關於定價和毛利率，您提到緊固件的價格較低，能否量化一下？然後，如果你在其他 60% 以上的產品線中也發現了類似情況。至於毛利率，我知道先進先出法庫存等方面存在一些時間上的問題，但通常第一季的毛利率是一年中最高的，然後就會開始下降，或者在一年中的剩餘時間裡會更低。這是你對今年的預期，還是2016年還有其他因素要考慮？

Our expectations, given where our growth is coming from, is that 50% is probably a good target number for us to have. When I look at the components of our gross margin, a couple things that were going on in the fourth quarter and in the first quarter, it was in a declining mode as we were going through the fourth quarter -- quite frankly, a declining mode throughout 2015. We really saw the stabilization start to occur in the February-March time frame from the standpoint of what was going on with gross margin.

鑑於我們成長的來源，我們預期 50% 可能是一個比較理想的目標數字。當我查看我們毛利率的組成部分時，發現第四季度和第一季出現了一些問題，而且隨著我們進入第四季度，毛利率一直處於下降趨勢——坦白說，2015 年全年毛利率都處於下降趨勢。從毛利率的角度來看，我們確實在二月到三月期間看到了穩定的跡象。

So, I really believe when I look out to the balance of the year, 50% is probably a better target. When I look out long term it's really going to be a function more of how successful we are with the onsite program because that will materially change longer term our customer mix. But it's very attractive in the ability to grow the business long term and the operating leverage long term.

所以，展望今年剩餘時間，我真的認為 50% 可能是更好的目標。從長遠來看，這實際上更多地取決於我們的現場專案是否成功，因為這將從長遠來看實質地改變我們的客戶結構。但它在長期發展業務和長期經營槓桿方面非常有吸引力。

Okay. And on the pricing, Dan, the fastener pricing?

好的。丹，關於價格，緊固件的價格呢？

What we were seeing through most of last year is deflation somewhere in that 1.5% to 2% neighborhood. We are still operating in that zone. As far as the costs coming through, we're starting to see some lower costs now. Our overall inventory turns about twice a year. The fastener piece of our inventory turns slower than that, the non-fastener piece turns faster than that. So, some of the lower costs we're starting to see come through our cost of goods now.

去年大部分時間裡，我們看到的都是通貨緊縮，幅度在 1.5% 到 2% 之間。我們仍在那個區域內運作。至於成本方面，我們現在開始看到一些成本下降了。我們的整體庫存一年大約週轉兩次。我們庫存中的緊固件零件轉速比這慢，非緊固件零件轉速比這快。所以，我們現在看到的一些成本降低體現在我們的商品成本上。

As it relates to the non-fastener product, I would say that area is pretty quiet. Any changes we have in pricing there would be solely related to customer mix and not to what's going on in the underlying product.

至於非緊固件產品，我認為這個領域相當平靜。我們在價格方面的任何變動只會與客戶組合有關，而與產品本身的情況無關。

Got it. Thanks, Dan.

知道了。謝謝你，丹。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Robert McCarthy with Stifel.

謝謝。我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 公司的 Robert McCarthy。

Good morning, Dan, how are you doing today? In terms of April, I think you did take some pains to talk about the noise of the quarter in terms of not only the days and the Easter shift. But how should we think -- without commenting on April in terms of the demand trends because you haven't disclosed it yet -- about the impact of the normalization for Easter? Do we think about a 1 point benefit for April or how do we think about it in terms of the day in the Easter shift?

丹，早安，你今天過得怎麼樣？就四月而言，我認為你確實花了一些心思來談論本季的各種幹擾因素，而不僅僅是工作日和復活節假期。但是，在不評論四月份的需求趨勢（因為您尚未公佈）的情況下，我們應該如何看待復活節期間的正常化趨勢的影響？我們是考慮四月份的 1 分獎勵，還是考慮復活節輪班當天的情況？

That's how I think about it. If you walk through the math I walked through on the March, so here is the ugly part of Easter moving, I think it's 1 point maybe 1.2 points out of March. You should see the flip side of that coin in April.

我也是這麼想的。如果你仔細算算我三月算出來的數字，那麼復活節假期調整的糟糕之處在於，我認為它會比三月少1分，也許1.2分。四月你會看到事情的另一面。

Okay. And remind us of what the days is in April year over year in terms of the difference?

好的。請提醒我們一下，與往年相比，四月的天數分別是多少？

In the second quarter -- Sheryl, you can correct me if I'm wrong -- in April we're at 21 versus 22 a year ago.

第二季度——謝麗爾，如果我說錯了請糾正我——4 月份我們取得了 21 場勝利，而去年同期是 22 場。

That's correct.

沒錯。

May we're at 21 versus 20 a year ago, and June it's a push at 22.

5 月份我們達到 21 例，而去年同期為 20 例；6 月份則接近 22 例。

Got it. Okay. And then as a follow-up in terms of what you're seeing in terms of industrial vending growth, are you still committed to that 16,000 in deployments for the full year? And I think you saw, you highlighted an interesting statistic in association with your vending, which was basically your daily sales to customers to industrial vending grew 3.6% in the first quarter of 2016 and then daily sales of non-fastener products to customers with vending grew 7.4%, but daily sales of fasteners to customers with vending contracted 5.5%. So, the question is, obviously a lot of your business to go with your vending is not fasteners but what do you account for that kind of contraction? And I'm referring to, I think, the final paragraph on the second page of the press release.

知道了。好的。那麼，關於您目前看到的工業自動販賣機成長情況，您是否仍致力於實現全年 16,000 台的部署目標？我想您也看到了，您重點介紹了一個與您的自動售貨機相關的有趣統計數據，基本上，2016 年第一季度，您面向工業自動售貨機客戶的每日銷售額增長了 3.6%，面向擁有自動售貨機客戶的非緊固件產品的每日銷售額增長了 7.4%，但面向擁有自動售貨機銷售客戶的緊固件產品的每日銷售額增長了 7.4%，但面向擁有自動售貨機銷售客戶的緊固件產品的每日銷售額下降了5%。所以問題是，顯然你的自動販賣機業務中有很多不是緊固件，但你如何解釋這種收縮？我想，我指的是新聞稿第二頁的最後一段。

Yes. When I think of vending, you're dead on with your question and comment about vending is really about our non-fastener business. Vending really isn't used for dispensing of fasteners now. There's some extensions of vending that over time, how our bin stocks works and things like that, we'll incorporate potentially some of the vending type technology for replenishment cycle. But vending is about non-fasteners.

是的。說到自動販賣機，你提出的問題和評論非常中肯，自動販賣機實際上指的是我們非緊固件業務。現在自動販賣機真的不再用於銷售緊固件了。隨著時間的推移，自動販賣機的一些擴展功能，例如我們的貨架庫存運作方式等等，我們可能會將一些自動販賣機類型的技術融入補貨週期中。但自動販賣機與緊固件無關。

We've done a great job deploying vending to our existing customers over the last five years. The fastener piece is about their economic activity and our ability to take market share. And I think the story when I look at the fastener piece is about the economic activity.

過去五年，我們在向現有客戶推廣自動販賣機方面做得非常出色。緊固件部分涉及他們的經濟活動以及我們獲取市場份額的能力。我認為，從緊固件這部分來看，它所講述的故事是關於經濟活動的。

The non-fastener piece is about the activity and our ability to grow and deploy vending. So, we can have a customer whose business in the fastener piece is down because we have a great market penetration already and their business is just off. But we can grow the non-fastener piece because of vending because we're deploying a better supply chain to our customer.

非緊固件部分是關於活動以及我們發展和部署自動販賣機的能力。所以，我們可能會遇到這樣的情況：某個客戶在緊固件領域的業務下滑，因為我們已經擁有很高的市場滲透率，而他們的業務卻出現了下滑。但由於我們正在為客戶部署更好的供應鏈，我們可以藉助自動販賣機擴大非緊固件業務。

But when I think about our deal with our customer and what our customer truly needs, put yourself in the shoes of the purchasing manager, the plant manager, they live in a world where there's constant demands on them for improvement. They are working with fewer resources every day. So what they need from their supplier isn't just great fulfillment. I think that's a starting point. They need a better supply chain partner.

但是，當我思考我們與客戶的交易以及客戶真正需要什麼時，設身處地地想想採購經理、工廠經理，他們生活在一個不斷被要求改進的世界。他們每天可用的資源都在減少。所以他們需要的不只是供應商提供的優質服務。我認為這是一個起點。他們需要更好的供應鏈夥伴。

In the case of vending, in the case of bin stock, in the case of our onsite model, we're a better supply chain partner. And we highlight this point because it demonstrates that even in a weak economy, we can grow our business because we're a better supply chain partner for our customer.

無論是自動販賣機、貨架庫存或我們的現場模式，我們都是更優秀的供應鏈合作夥伴。我們強調這一點，是因為它表明，即使在經濟疲軟的情況下，我們也能發展業務，因為我們是客戶更好的供應鏈合作夥伴。

Thanks for your time.

感謝您抽出時間。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Adam Uhlman with Cleveland Research.

謝謝。下一個問題來自克里夫蘭研究公司的亞當·烏爾曼。

Hi, good morning, thank you. If we could just step back and talk about the cash flow outlook for the year. It seems like we have growing demands on cash from the CSP16 rollout as additional stores are added and the vending growth is going to unfold from the year. Can you help me understand better how much debt do you expect to take on to fund these growth investments? And at what point do you start to pull back on other CapEx projects?

您好，早安，謝謝。如果我們能退後一步，談談今年的現金流前景就好了。隨著更多門市的加入，CSP16 的推出似乎對現金的需求越來越大，自動販賣機的成長也將從今年開始展開。您能否幫我更了解一下，您預計需要承擔多少債務來為這些成長投資提供資金？那麼，你會在什麼情況下開始削減其他資本支出項目呢？

I'll answer the last part and then Sheryl can answer the numbers part. But as far as pulling back on other projects, the only thing that we've pulled back on consciously is we slowed down a bit the pace of store openings. But other than that I don't really see us pulling back on the initiatives that we have in place.

我來回答最後一部分，然後謝麗爾可以回答數字部分。但就縮減其他項目而言，我們唯一有意識地縮減的就是放慢了門市開幕的速度。但除此之外，我並不認為我們會放棄我們已經實施的各項措施。

As we talked about in 2015, a lot of the big initiatives we had from a CapEx standpoint are in our rear view mirror. I'm talking about automation of our distribution centers and the initial build of creating and growing a vending business. So, I don't see a lot of other pullback. But, Sheryl, you can touch on exact numbers.

正如我們在 2015 年所討論的那樣，從資本支出角度來看，我們許多重大舉措都已成為過去。我指的是配送中心的自動化，以及創建和發展自動販賣機業務的初期建設。所以，我預計不會有更多回調。但是，謝麗爾，你可以說說具體的數字。

Sure. We're still, as we're projecting our cash flow for the year, we feel very confident that operating cash flow will continue to exceed historical percentages of net earnings. Our total CapEx will be a little bit higher than the historical percentage of net earnings due to the increase in our vending spend for the year. And our free cash flow will continue to fall within the historical percentage of net earnings throughout the year. So, we feel very confident that we have adequate cash flow to continue to support our initiatives throughout the year.

當然。儘管我們對今年的現金流進行了預測，但我們仍然非常有信心，經營現金流將繼續超過淨利潤的歷史百分比。由於今年自動販賣機支出增加，我們的總資本支出將略高於以往淨利的百分比。而且，我們全年的自由現金流將繼續保持在淨利潤的歷史百分比範圍內。因此，我們非常有信心，我們擁有充足的現金流，可以全年繼續支持我們的各項措施。

Sheryl, could I just follow up on the bad debt expense for the quarter? Could you talk through what you guys are seeing there and expectations going forward?

謝麗爾，我可以跟進一下本季的壞帳支出狀況嗎？能否請你們談談你們在那裡看到的情況以及對未來的期望？

We continue to see our bad debt expense trend to historical norms. We are not seeing a significant increase in bankruptcies or anything that causes us great alarm or concern. It's a pretty quiet quarter from that perspective, so really no surprises from our end.

我們的壞帳支出趨勢持續維持在歷史正常水準。我們沒有看到破產數量顯著增加，也沒有看到任何令我們感到極度擔憂或恐慌的事情。從這個角度來看，這是一個相當平靜的季度，所以我們這邊真的沒有什麼意外。

Okay.

好的。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ryan Cieslak with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

謝謝。下一個問題來自 KeyBanc Capital Markets 的 Ryan Cieslak。

Hi, good morning. Dan, sorry if I missed this but do you have an initial view of how April is trending for you right now? I know it's early, only two weeks in. Maybe excluding the benefit you might get from how Easter fell and the extra day or so in the quarter, has it gotten any better from what I think I heard you said the quarter ended off soft? I just would be curious to know the sequential trend so far into April.

您好，早安。丹，如果我錯過了這條消息，請見諒，但你目前對四月份的趨勢有什麼初步看法嗎？我知道現在還早，才過了兩週。或許撇開復活節假期和季度末多出的那幾天帶來的好處不談，情況是否有所好轉，就像我好像聽你說的那樣，季度末表現疲軟？我只是好奇四月至今的趨勢如何。

Whenever I touch on the current month I'm always wrong and the question is how much. I don't know that with basically a week into the month that we've had some chance to look at the data. I don't think it's meaningful enough to even talk intelligently about it so I'm going to defer that until early May when we report it.

每當我談到當月的情況時，我總是出錯，問題是錯多少。我不知道，現在差不多已經過去一周了，我們是否有機會查看數據。我覺得這件事意義不大，不值得深入討論，所以我會等到五月初我們發布報告的時候再做討論。

Okay, fair enough. And then I think last quarter you talked about discretionary spending being down and a head wind, and in the release today you mentioned a slight improvement. I would be curious to maybe get some more color around that, how the discretionary spending looked in the first quarter relative to maybe a normal first quarter, or your expectations coming out of the fourth quarter. And how much of a drag on gross margins was that this quarter relative to the fourth quarter?

好吧，這說得有道理。然後，我想上個季度您談到了可自由支配支出下降和麵臨的不利因素，而在今天的發布會上，您提到情況略有改善。我很想了解更多細節，例如第一季可自由支配支出與正常第一季相比如何，或是您對第四季的預期。與第四季相比，本季毛利率受到的影響有多大？

Sure. The commentary on that, both in the fourth quarter and in the first quarter is as much art as it is science. The team that analyzes all of our sales data, slices and dices it about 18 ways to Sunday. One of the things that jumped out for them was, they looked at frequency of items and stuff that's purchased in a less frequent basis, how that was performing in the fourth quarter, and we did see a drop off in that.

當然。無論是第四季度還是第一季度，對此的評論既是藝術也是科學。負責分析我們所有銷售數據的團隊，會用各種各樣的方式對數據進行分析和切割。他們注意到的一點是，他們查看了購買頻率較低的商品和物品在第四季度的表現，結果發現這類商品的銷售量確實有所下降。

We saw some of that come back as we got into February, didn't see much of it in January. But I'd say it's still tepid. I think there a lot of organizations out there -- similar to comments I started the conversation with about what we're doing with headcount, what we're doing with expenses in general, what we're doing with store openings -- a lot of organizations out there have their belts really tightened down. And I think you're seeing that, coming into the new year, holding pretty firm. To quantify it -- this is a from-the-hip number -- but, I don't know, 10 basis points. That's more of a guess.

到了二月份，我們看到其中一些現象又出現了，一月則很少見到。但我認為它仍然溫吞吞的。我認為有很多組織——就像我一開始談到的我們在人員編制、總體支出、門市開設等方面所做的工作一樣——很多組織都在勒緊褲腰帶過日子。我認為大家也看到了，進入新的一年，這種情況依然非常穩定。量化一下——這只是一個大概的數字——但，我不知道，大概 10 個基點吧。這更像是一種猜測。

Got you. That's helpful. And then just really quick, if I may, I'd just be curious to know, at the Investor Day you'd talked about maybe a greater appetite for M&A this year. Maybe just an update on what you're seeing there with regard to some M&A opportunities for you guys in 2016.

抓到你了。那很有幫助。最後，如果可以的話，我想快速問一下，您在投資者日上談到今年併購活動可能會有更大的需求。或許可以跟你們報告一下，在2016年你們有哪些併購機會？

Sure. Late in 2014 we started to take probably a more serious look -- rather than stumbling upon stuff periodically, let's take a little more serious look at it. We looked at a bunch of companies last year, one of them that we met early in the year in April to be exact, we ended up acquiring later in the year.

當然。2014 年末，我們開始更認真地審視這個問題——與其偶爾偶然發現一些東西，不如認真地研究一下。去年我們考察了許多公司，其中一家是我們年初（確切地說是四月）接觸過的，後來我們在年底收購了它。

There is a few companies we're in discussions with right now. We're constantly looking, both on the distribution side as well as some of the support service side. That might be a manufacturing entity or some type of support service for our stores.

我們目前正在與幾家公司進行洽談。我們一直在尋找合適的合作夥伴，包括分銷管道和一些支援服務管道。那可能是製造業，也可能是為我們門市提供某種支援服務的公司。

Only time will tell how that plays out. I think the biggest thing is that we're open to it and we're actively looking rather than just seeing what jumps up and hits us. But nothing in the works.

時間會證明一切。我認為最重要的是我們持開放態度，並且積極尋找機會，而不是被動地等待機會出現。但目前還沒有任何進展。

Okay, thanks for the time.

好的，謝謝你抽出時間。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ryan Merkel from William Blair.

謝謝。下一個問題來自威廉·布萊爾的瑞安·默克爾。

Hi, guys good morning. Back to March, Dan, is there anything that stood out to drive the softer finish, either by customer or geography?

大家好，早安。丹，回到三月份，有沒有什麼特別的因素導致了收尾階段的疲軟，無論是客戶方面還是地域方面？

Geography -- the only thing that stood out there is that we did continue to see weakening deeper than we probably would have expected, or maybe a better way to say, hoped for when we were looking at it back in the latter part of 2015. But the oil and gas areas did continue to weaken when I look at it on a sequential basis. And time will tell if some of the recent pricing influences that positive in the upcoming months, but it continued to weaken.

地理方面——唯一突出的一點是，我們看到其衰落程度比我們預期的要深，或者更確切地說，比我們在 2015 年下半年觀察時所希望的要深。但從週期來看，石油和天然氣領域確實持續走弱。未來幾個月，近期的一些定價因素是否會對市場產生正面影響，還有待時間檢驗，但目前市場仍在持續走弱。

But, setting that aside, the month finished very poorly. With five days, six days, seven days, eight days left in the month, I felt we would be closer to 2%, and the month really deteriorated late. That probably describes some things that we saw in the patterns of our larger account base because they tend to be somewhat loaded a little bit towards the back end of the month. But, frankly, a weak finish.

但撇開這一點不談，這個月的結局非常糟糕。月底剩下五天、六天、七天、八天的時候，我覺得我們離2%的目標越來越近了，但到了月底情況卻急轉直下。這或許可以解釋我們在較大帳戶群的模式中看到的一些現象，因為他們的消費往往在月底增加。但坦白說，收尾很弱。

Okay. Should this frame our thinking at all as we think about April? Or would you just have us adjust March for Easter and then just use normal sequentials? Is that the best way to think about April at this point?

好的。我們在思考四月的事情時，是否應該考慮這種觀點？或者您希望我們調整三月的復活節日期，然後使用正常的序號？現在看來，這是看待四月的最佳方式嗎？

That's how I'm thinking about it.

我也是這麼想的。

Okay. And then on the macro, in the press release you said you're seeing some improvement but an economy that is still very weak. Where are you seeing the improvements? And then when you talk to customers, are they optimistic that we found a bottom for industrial demand or is that still a little optimistic at this point?

好的。然後，在宏觀經濟方面，您在新聞稿中表示，您看到一些改善，但經濟仍然非常疲軟。你覺得哪些方面有改進？然後，當你和客戶交談時，他們是否樂觀地認為我們已經找到了工業需求的底部，還是目前這種看法仍然有些樂觀？

On the latter part, I don't know. One thing that I will have the benefit of, this week is our national customer show. We'll have a little over 5,000 customers over a three-day period in, meeting with suppliers, meeting with our employees, meeting with our onsite folks, all of our teams, our vending folks, et cetera. So, I'll get more of a chance to get a pulse on that this week because this afternoon I'm leaving for that show myself.

後半部分，我不清楚。本週我將受益匪淺的一件事是參加我們的全國客戶展。在三天的時間裡，我們將接待 5000 多名客戶，與供應商會面，與我們的員工會面，與我們的現場工作人員、所有團隊、自動販賣機工作人員等會面。所以，這週我會有更多機會去了解一下狀況，因為今天下午我就要親自去參加那個節目了。

But when I think of what are some of the positives, in the fourth quarter that was probably as bleak a period as you could see. And I was not hesitant to share my thoughts on it during the fourth quarter. But our fasteners, as an example, were down about 6% in the fourth quarter. In the first quarter they're down around 2%.

但當我想到一些正面的方面時，第四季可能是你能想像到的最黯淡的時期。在第四季度，我毫不猶豫地分享了我對此的看法。但以我們的緊固件為例，第四季銷量下降了約 6%。第一季下降了約 2%。

Our non-fasteners were struggling in the fourth quarter. I don't have the exact stat in front of me, I'm sorry, but they improved to mid single digits, upper single digits, in the first quarter. We saw, generally speaking, an improvement in our business and that's I think what we are really talking about.

我們的非緊固件業務在第四季表現不佳。抱歉，我手頭上沒有確切的統計數據，但他們在第一節比賽中將勝率提高到了個位數中段或個位數高段。總的來說，我們的業務有所改善，我認為這才是我們真正想說的。

I think what we see is the business in January, February -- and I can't quite say that for March -- but in January and February felt more like where we were in October. And I think, if I look at the last five or six months, I really think the outliers was the extreme weakness we saw in November and December. And I think that was a function of companies just shutting down around the holidays more extensively than normal. March -- only April and May will start to answer for us what really happened in March.

我認為我們看到的是一月、二月的業務狀況——我不太確定三月的情況——但一月和二月的狀況感覺更像是我們十月份的狀況。而且我認為，如果我回顧過去五、六個月，真正異常的是我們在 11 月和 12 月看到的極度疲軟。我認為這主要是因為假日期間，公司停工的規模比平常更大。三月——只有四月和五月才能開始告訴我們三月究竟發生了什麼事。

Right, very good. Okay, thank you.

好的，很好。好的，謝謝。

Thank you. Our next question comes from Robert Barry with Susquehanna.

謝謝。下一個問題來自薩斯奎哈納的羅伯特·巴里。

Hi, guys, good morning. I wanted to circle back to the gross margin. The pace of decline last year, 40, 50 basis points a quarter, now we're looking at down 100. Just curious what drove that step change and the pace of decline.

大家好，早安。我想再回到毛利率這個話題上來。去年每季下降 40 到 50 個基點，現在我們看到的是每季下降 100 個基點。只是好奇是什麼導致了這種突變和衰退速度的加快。

You mean down 10 on a sequential when you talk about pace?

你說的節奏是指連續跑落後10桿嗎？

On a year-over-year basis. We had been tracking down 40, 50 and now we're down 100.

與上年同期相比。我們之前追蹤了 40、50 個，現在追蹤了 100 個。

There's a number of things. One, our growth is primarily coming from large accounts. That deepened as we went through the year. It's primarily coming from -- if I think of our sales number and the weakness, we've done a nice job signing new customers, both onsites and traditional national account customers that aren't onsite.

有很多事情。第一，我們的成長主要來自大客戶。隨著時間推移，這種感覺愈發強烈。主要原因在於——如果我考慮到我們的銷售數字和疲軟的狀況，我們在簽約新客戶方面做得很好，包括現場客戶和非現場的傳統全國性客戶。

When you're doing a nice job taking market share, you're turning on a lot of new business and a lot of times when you're turning on a lot of new business you do get some short-term mix issues going on in that a new large customer isn't at average margins for that group on day one because it takes you time, 6, 9 and 12 months, to work through some of the hiccups in the system of finding the best source of supply, finding the best part match for this item when you're turning on new business. Typically you have your existing business that is supporting that because that existing business, you've done a better job of improving your supply chain already.

當你在搶佔市場份額方面做得很好時，你會開拓很多新業務。很多時候，當你開拓很多新業務時，你會遇到一些短期組合問題，因為新大客戶在第一天的利潤率可能達不到該群體的平均值。這是因為你需要時間（6個月、9個月甚至12個月）來解決系統中的一些小問題，例如找到最佳供應來源，找到與該產品最匹配的零件。通常情況下，你現有的業務會為此提供支持，因為在現有業務中，你已經更好地改進了供應鏈。

If you think of what's really hurting us right now from a revenue and revenue growth perspective, we're doing a wonderful job signing new national accounts, we're doing a wonderful job signing onsites, we're doing a wonderful job signing vending, and growing those pieces of business. So, we're taking market share at a very good clip. What's causing us to struggle is our existing book of business. Our existing customers are struggling in a weak environment.

如果你從收入和收入成長的角度來看，現在真正損害我們利益的是什麼，那就是我們在簽約新的全國性客戶、簽約現場服務、簽署自動販賣機以及發展這些業務方面都做得非常出色。所以，我們的市佔率正在快速成長。我們目前面臨的困境在於我們現有的業務。我們現有的客戶在疲軟的市場環境下舉步維艱。

So, the more mature component of our business is going backwards, and that more mature piece has a better gross margin profile, because if I had a customer for two or three years, I've already, in many cases, established a lot of the best parts, a lot of the best sources of supply to serve that customer's needs. That's in my mix and that mix has weakened right now. So, that's a piece of it.

所以，我們業務中比較成熟的部分正在倒退，而這部分比較成熟的部分毛利率更高，因為如果我有一個客戶兩三年，在很多情況下，我已經建立了許多最好的零部件，許多最好的供應來源來滿足該客戶的需求。這本來就在我的考慮範圍內，但現在這個考慮範圍縮小了。所以，這就是其中的一部分。

The other piece of it is on an execution standpoint we slipped a little bit as we went through 2015. We slipped a little bit on the freight, how good we are on our freight expense versus our freight that we charge the customer. Part of that, I think it became more difficult for our stores to operate as effectively given that fuel prices were lower. Fuel prices is an important part of our distribution cost but it's not the only component. But it might make it harder for you to charge freight on this item or that. And the fact that it's a weak environment, it's a competitive marketplace.

另一方面，從執行角度來看，我們在 2015 年的表現略有下滑。我們在運費方面稍微有些疏忽，我們的運費支出與向客戶收取的運費相比如何？我認為部分原因是，由於燃油價格較低，我們的門市難以像以前那樣有效率地運作。燃油價格是我們配送成本的重要組成部分，但並非唯一組成部分。但這可能會使您更難對這件或那件商品收取運費。而且，由於市場環境薄弱，競爭非常激烈。

I feel we're at a point where our gross margins are stable from a sequential standpoint but that still has been a painful process on a year-over-year basis. There's no question about that.

我覺得從環比來看，我們的毛利率已經趨於穩定，但從同比來看，這仍然是一個痛苦的過程。這點毋庸置疑。

Actually I did want to just follow up and clarify that. So, it's your expectation that you can hold the gross margin stable here now at about 50% as we look in the next few quarters?

其實我只是想跟進澄清一下。所以，您預計未來幾季毛利率能夠穩定在50%左右嗎？

Yes.

是的。

And my question would be, what's changing as we move forward, because the pace of decline seems to be accelerating. As you say, onsite's gaining traction, national accounts gaining traction, the product and customer mix issues have been there, they will probably continue to be there. So, what's going to diminish the pace of decline in gross margin? What are the offsets?

我的問題是，隨著我們不斷前進，情況正在發生什麼變化，因為衰退的速度似乎正在加快。正如你所說，現場服務越來越受歡迎，全國性客戶也越來越受歡迎，但產品和客戶組合問題一直存在，而且可能會繼續存在。那麼，什麼因素會減緩毛利率下降的速度呢？偏移量是多少？

I think the biggest one is the offset we've had in the last 12 months. You've had dramatic weakening of our existing customer base and that's hurt our gross margin because that's business where we have a very established, efficient source of supply. That's put a pinch on that.

我認為最大的問題是過去 12 個月我們遇到的資金缺口。我們現有的客戶群急劇減少，這損害了我們的毛利率，因為在這個業務領域，我們擁有非常成熟、高效的供應來源。這給它帶來了不小的阻礙。

I believe the pace of that deterioration is slowing. And I think that shines through in what you're seeing, what's happening in our fastener business, in our non-fastener business from a growth perspective. So, I think that's the wild card.

我認為這種惡化的速度正在放緩。我認為這一點從你們所看到的，從成長的角度來看，從我們的緊固件業務和非緊固件業務的現狀來看，都得到了充分體現。所以，我認為這是個變數。

Just to clarify, Dan, because I think there's some confusion out there, what product lines at this point are accretive to the gross margin? Is it just the maintenance fasteners or is it all fasteners? How would you describe that?

丹，為了澄清一下，因為我覺得大家可能有些誤解，目前哪些產品線可以提高毛利率？是只有維修用的緊固件有問題，還是所有緊固件都有問題？你會如何描述這種情況？

I'd say it probably leans towards the maintenance as well as the construction fasteners, in many cases.

我認為在很多情況下，這可能更側重於維護和施工緊固件。

I think you said the maintenance was 40% of the business. How much of the fastener business is the construction piece?

我想你說過維護費用佔業務的 40%。緊固件業務中，建築業佔多大比重？

That's a relatively small piece. I don't have the exact stat in front of me but relatively small. Single digits.

那是一小塊。我手頭上沒有確切的統計數據，但相對較小。個位數。

Got you. Fair enough. Thank you, Dan.

抓到你了。很公平。謝謝你，丹。

Thank you. With that, I see that we're at 9:44. Hopefully there wasn't anybody else in queue that didn't get to ask a question. I'll finish the call the same way I started the call.

謝謝。這樣看來，現在是9點44分。希望排隊的人中沒有其他人沒機會提問。我會以與開始通話時相同的方式結束通話。

Thank you for taking time this morning to listen to our first-quarter earnings call. I hope you find our Earnings Release today as well as our 10-Q, which I believe will go out later in the week, to be informative of helping to understand the Fastenal story. I also invite anybody that's interested to either make a trip to Winona next Tuesday for our annual meeting or listen to it in our webcast. Thank you very much.

感謝您今天上午抽出時間收聽我們的第一季財報電話會議。我希望您覺得我們今天發布的收益報告以及本週稍後發布的 10-Q 報告能夠幫助您了解 Fastenal 的發展歷程。我也邀請所有有興趣的人下週二前往威諾納參加我們的年會，或透過網路直播收聽會議。非常感謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.

女士們、先生們，感謝各位參加今天的會議。今天的節目到此結束。你們可以斷開連結了。祝大家今天過得愉快。