快扣 (FAST) 2018 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Fastenal Company's First Quarter 2018 Earnings Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

女士們、先生們，大家好，歡迎參加 Fastenal 公司 2018 年第一季財報業績電話會議。（操作說明）

Now, I'd like to turn the conference over to Ellen Stolts. Please go ahead.

現在，我想把會議交給艾倫·斯托爾茨。請繼續。

Welcome to the Fastenal Company 2018 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. This call will be hosted by Dan Florness, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Holden Lewis, our Chief Financial Officer. The call will last for up to 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 2018 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·弗洛內斯和我們的財務長霍爾頓·劉易斯主持。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.

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。

This call is being audio simulcast on the Internet via the Fastenal Investor Relations homepage, investor.fastenal.com. A replay of the webcast will be available on the website until June 1, 2018, at midnight Central Time.

本次電話會議將透過 Fastenal 投資者關係主頁 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2018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 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。

Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining our first quarter conference call.

各位早安，感謝各位參加我們第一季電話會議。

To sum up the quarter, I believe we had a good quarter in the first quarter of 2018. We had some unusual weather as the quarter laid out and we had the distinction of ending the quarter on Good Friday, which, while a business day, is often a muted business day. Last year, if you recall, Good Friday was in the month of April.

總的來說，我認為我們在2018年第一季表現不錯。本季我們遇到了一些不尋常的天氣，而且我們還特意在耶穌受難日結束了本季度，雖然耶穌受難日是工作日，但通常是一個比較冷清的工作日。如果你還記得的話，去年耶穌受難日是在四月。

Weather hit us hard in the quarter. And probably the best way to convey the impact of weather is to think about it from the standpoint of what my kids endure during the winter and that is days that the school is closed and it's because there's no bus running and to think about it from the context of our semi fleet and the number of routes we run and the impact of those routes.

本季天氣對我們造成了嚴重影響。要了解天氣的影響，最好的方法或許是從我的孩子們在冬天所經歷的困境來思考，那就是學校停課的日子，因為沒有校車運行；還要從我們半掛車隊的規模、我們運營的路線數量以及這些路線的影響來思考。

So we run about 4,800 routes per month. So in the quarter, we ran about 14,500 routes across our branch and Onsite network throughout North America.

因此，我們每月營運約 4800 條線路。因此，本季我們在北美各地的分公司和現場網路中運行了約 14,500 條路線。

In the first quarter of 2017, we had about 200 routes that were canceled, so just under 1.5% of our routes were canceled due to weather impacts. In the first quarter of 2018, the number of canceled routes increased by 65% to 332, so about 2.3% canceled. Much of that product ends up getting to the branch on a different route or maybe through a third party. Unfortunately, that's usually a more expensive trip. Some of that product ends up not being sold because the customer was shut down that day or their business was impacted in some way.

2017 年第一季度，我們約有 200 條航線被取消，因此，由於天氣影響，我們航線的取消率略低於 1.5%。2018 年第一季度，取消的航線數量增加了 65%，達到 332 條，約佔總航線數的 2.3%。許多產品最終都是透過其他途徑或第三方運送到分店的。可惜的是，那樣的旅行通常會比較貴。部分產品最終未能售出，因為客戶當天停業或業務受到某種影響。

Three geographic areas jump out to me when I think of the first quarter. The first one -- this probably doesn't surprise anybody on the call. Scranton, Pennsylvania, which services basically from Pittsburgh up through New England and down into the Maryland, D.C. area. They had a 50% -- excuse me. They represented 50% of our cancellations in the quarter and their cancellation rate was about 3x what it was a year ago. And for those of you who live on the East Coast, you're probably not surprised by that comment.

提到第一季度，我首先想到的是三個地理區域。第一件事——這可能不會讓電話會議上的任何人感到驚訝。賓州斯克蘭頓，其服務範圍基本上從匹茲堡一直延伸到新英格蘭，再到馬裡蘭州和華盛頓特區地區。他們有50%——不好意思。他們佔本季我們取消訂單總數的 50%，他們的取消率大約是去年同期的 3 倍。而對於住在東岸的你們來說，這番話可能不會讓你們感到驚訝。

Interestingly enough, about 7% of our cancellations occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, routes covering down into Florida, west towards Mississippi and Alabama and north into the southern part of the Carolinas. The -- normally, that area has no cancellations. So [about] 7% of our cancellations were there.

有趣的是，我們約 7% 的航班取消發生在喬治亞州亞特蘭大，航線南至佛羅裡達州，西至密西西比州和阿拉巴馬州，北至卡羅來納州南部。通常情況下，該地區不會有取消航班的情況。所以，我們大約有 7% 的取消訂單都來自那裡。

Probably the only area that had improved weather from a year ago was our Seattle, Washington DC or the Pacific Northwest. Their cancellations were 1%. Unfortunately, we do a lot more business in the other areas than we do in the Pacific Northwest. So I feel the 13.2% to be solid growth.

可能只有西雅圖、華盛頓特區或太平洋西北地區的天氣比一年前有所改善。他們的取消率是1%。遺憾的是，我們在其他地區的業務量遠大於在太平洋西北地區的業務量。所以我認為13.2%的成長相當穩健。

Our pretax growth, and I'll break -- I'll talk about pretax a little bit more than net earnings because of the noise of the Tax Reform Act. Pretax earnings grew about 10%. Frankly, not horribly impressive in the context of a 13% sales growth.

我們的稅前成長，而且我會稍微多談談稅前利潤，而不是淨利潤，因為稅收改革法案帶來了一些幹擾。稅前利潤成長約10%。坦白說，在13%的銷售成長背景下，這並不算特別令人印象深刻。

Similar to -- speaking of tax reform, similar to the fourth quarter of 2017, we realized a P&L benefit of the Tax Reform Act. About 85% of our business occurs in the United States, so if anything, it changes the tax rates in the United States, it's incredibly meaningful to our business. That lifted our quarter, provided about a $0.10 benefit to our quarter and our earnings per share grew about 31% on that 10% pretax growth.

說到稅改，與 2017 年第四季類似，我們實現了稅改法案帶來的損益利。我們約 85% 的業務都在美國進行，因此，如果美國的稅率發生變化，對我們的業務來說意義重大。這提振了我們的季度業績，為我們帶來了約 0.10 美元的收益，並且基於 10% 的稅前增長，我們的每股收益增長了約 31%。

Growth drivers. Despite the fact that I'm not overly impressed with our 10% earnings growth, I'm incredibly impressed with our growth drivers in the quarter, but more to that when I get to Slide #4. I'm still on Slide #3.

成長驅動因素。儘管我對我們 10% 的獲利成長並不太滿意，但我對我們本季的成長動力感到非常滿意，更多詳情請見第 4 張投影片。我還在看第三張投影片。

Leverage. It's all about gross profit. I think we're doing a respectful job managing our operating expenses. There's always some things we can improve upon, but it's about gross profit. And this quarter, despite the fact that our gross profit is down roughly 70 basis points from a year ago, I think there's some really good stories within the number and there's some things we need to fix.

槓桿作用。一切都與毛利有關。我認為我們在控制營運費用方面做得相當不錯。總有一些方面我們可以改進，但關鍵在於毛利。儘管本季我們的毛利比去年同期下降了約 70 個基點，但我認為這個數字中仍然有一些非常值得關注的亮點，同時也有一些我們需要改進的地方。

When I think of our growth drivers and I look at Onsite, we're doing a very nice job of managing our gross margin within that business, within Fastenal despite the fact there is inflation going on and despite the fact we're rapidly ramping up that business. So I think we're managing that very well and our gross profit was pretty steady from Q1 to Q1.

當我思考我們的成長動力並審視 Onsite 業務時，儘管存在通貨膨脹，而且我們正在快速擴大該業務規模，但 Fastenal 在管理該業務的毛利率方面做得非常好。所以我覺得我們在這方面做得非常好，第一季到第二季毛利也相當穩定。

Within our vending business, about a 12-year-old business for us, again, similar to the story in Onsite, we're doing a nice job managing our gross margin there. In fact, we saw a slight uptick in our vending in the local business, offset a little bit by the National Accounts, but very nice job there. I think we're doing a nice job managing our gross margin in the National Accounts. Again, I say that in the context. As you all know, there's meaningful inflation going on in our business and if we don't stay ahead of it, we can run into some problems on the gross margin line.

在我們的自動販賣機業務中（這項業務我們已經做了大約 12 年），與 Onsite 的情況類似，我們在毛利率管理方面做得很好。事實上，我們在本地企業的自動售貨量略有上升，雖然被全國性客戶的銷售量略微抵消了一部分，但總體來說做得非常好。我認為我們在國民帳戶的毛利率管理方面做得很好。我再次強調，這是結合上下文而言的。如大家所知，我們產業正經歷嚴重的通貨膨脹，如果我們不能提前應對，毛利率方面可能會遇到一些問題。

But 2 things that stand out for me, which, in my estimation, cost us about $3 million this quarter. I'll center on habits at the local level and that's habits within our fastener business. So as you all know, about 50% of our business is National Account. And if you add large regional accounts on to it, that number moves closer to 60%.

但有兩件事讓我印象深刻，據我估計，這兩件事在本季給我們造成了約 300 萬美元的損失。我將重點放在本地層面的習慣，也就是我們緊固件產業的習慣。如大家所知，我們大約 50% 的業務是全國性客戶。如果把大型區域客戶也算進去，這個數字就接近 60% 了。

Within our local book of business, we do a fair amount of fastener business, about 15% of our revenue that's completely priced and driven locally, and then we have a sizable number in non-fasteners as well. In the non-fasteners, our margin there is treading water. We're doing a nice job managing that component.

在我們的本地業務中，我們做了相當多的緊固件業務，約占我們收入的 15%，這些業務完全由本地定價和驅動；此外，我們還有相當數量的非緊固件業務。在非緊固件領域，我們的利潤空間微乎其微。我們在這個環節的管理上做得很好。

In the local fastener business, we are seeing inflation in that product. Unfortunately, in that business, we're not matching the inflation in our sell price and we gave up about 130 basis points of gross margin, 130 to 140, in that 15% of our revenue. That's disappointing. That's a habit and it's a habit we need to fix.

本地緊固件產業出現了通貨膨脹現象。不幸的是，在這個業務中，我們的售價沒有跟上通貨膨脹的步伐，在這 15% 的收入中，我們損失了大約 130 個基點的毛利率，也就是 130 到 140 個基點。真令人失望。那是一種習慣，我們需要改掉這個習慣。

The good news about it is it's something that's very fixable in our business. It takes our attention. So this morning, I had a call with our leaders throughout the business. I congratulated them on a nice quarter. I also congratulated them on hitting goal for the quarter and 2 out of 3 months in the quarter. The month of January, we're just shy of goal because of weather, but we did a nice job growing the business. I challenged them on our fastener pricing at the local level. I challenged them on our freight that we charge at the local level. Fuel prices, as you all know, are going up and that impacts us like it does everybody else. We're losing a little bit of ground on the freight component. I also challenged them on accounts receivable. Our -- we added about 2 days of accounts receivable during the quarter. It impacted our cash flow, the last point of the -- of Page 3. And -- but all in all, I'm pleased with the results for the quarter except a couple of components within gross margin.

好消息是，在我們這個行業，這個問題很容易解決。它吸引了我們的注意力。今天早上，我與公司各部門的領導階層進行了電話會議。我祝賀他們本季業績不錯。我還祝賀他們實現了季度目標，並且在本季度三個月中有兩個月實現了目標。一月份，由於天氣原因，我們離目標還差一點，但我們在業務成長方面做得很好。我質疑了他們本地的緊固件定價。我質疑了他們在當地收取的運費。正如大家所知，燃油價格正在上漲，這就像對其他人一樣影響著我們。我們在貨運方面略有落後。我還就應收帳款問題對他們提出了質疑。本季我們增加了約 2 天的應收帳款。它影響了我們的現金流，這是第 3 頁的最後一點。而且——但總的來說，除了毛利率中的幾個組成部分外，我對本季的業績感到滿意。

Flipping to Slide 4. If you are an investor in Fastenal, Slide 4 is a pretty darn encouraging page. I think it speaks a lot to the potential that is Fastenal and our strengths as far as being a distributor within our marketplace.

翻到第 4 頁投影片。如果您是 Fastenal 的投資者，那麼第 4 頁投影片絕對會讓您非常鼓舞。我認為這充分體現了 Fastenal 的潛力以及我們作為市場經銷商的優勢。

In the first quarter, we signed 100 Onsites. If I give that context, back in 2015 -- these are rounded numbers -- we signed about 75. 2016, we signed about 175. 2017, we signed 275. In 2018, the number I have in my head is 375. I think Holden's stated range is 360 to 385 to give it some bookends. But I'm pleased to say, with 3 months into the year, our 2,000 goal is intact on our challenge to sign 360 to 385 Onsites in the year and I feel really good about that.

第一季度，我們簽訂了 100 份現場服務合約。如果我給出當時的背景，2015 年——這些都是大概數字——我們簽下了大約 75 人。2016年，我們簽了大約175份合約。2017年，我們簽了275份合約。2018年，我腦海裡的數字是375。我認為霍頓官方公佈的範圍是 360 到 385，這樣就有了首尾兩端。但我很高興地說，今年已經過去了 3 個月，我們 2000 個目標仍然保持完好，我們今年的目標是簽署 360 到 385 個現場服務協議，對此我感到非常滿意。

In-market locations. We just topped above 3,000, 3,007 to be exact. What I like about that is we're growing our capabilities. We're growing our footprint. We had a number of years where we were contacting our footprints and I talked about that in our -- in the President's letter to this year's annual report. I'm very excited in what we're seeing there. And that's really, obviously, being driven by our Onsite expansion.

市場內位置。我們剛剛突破了 3000，確切地說是 3007。我喜歡這一點，因為我們的能力正在不斷提升。我們正在擴大業務版圖。多年來，我們一直在追溯我們的足跡，我在今年的年度報告中，也就是總統致函中談到了這一點。我對我們在那裡看到的情況感到非常興奮。很顯然，這確實是由我們的現場擴張所驅動的。

We signed 5,679 vending devices in the quarter, a nice way to start the year. Equally impressive, the number of our removals is declining. We removed 18% fewer devices in the first quarter than we did in the first quarter of last year. So we're signing more. We're pulling fewer out. It's a nice combination.

本季我們簽約了 5679 台自動販賣機，這是一個不錯的開年方式。同樣令人印象深刻的是，我們的搬家數量正在下降。今年第一季度，我們移除的設備數量比去年第一季減少了 18%。所以我們正在簽約更多球員。我們減少了提取量。這是一個不錯的組合。

Similar to my comments on the Onsite goal, our 2,000 goal is intact. Our goal is to sign 21,000 to 23,000 devices during the calendar year.

與我對現場目標的評論類似，我們的 2,000 目標保持不變。我們的目標是在一年內完成 21,000 至 23,000 台設備的簽名。

Product sales through vending, not surprisingly, grew north of 20% in the quarter driven by improvements in the existing devices out there as well as the new ones we've added. National Account sales grew 17% in the quarter. Well done to the National Account team and growing our relationships with customers around the planet. Well done to our branch and Onsite network to serve that business and everybody else for supporting them in their efforts.

不出所料，本季透過自動販賣機銷售的產品數量增加了 20% 以上，這得益於現有設備的改進以及我們新增設備的推出。本季全國客戶銷售額成長了17%。全國客戶團隊做得很好，我們與全球客戶的關係不斷拓展。感謝我們分公司和現場服務網絡為企業提供的服務，也感謝所有支持他們努力的人。

Speaking of around the globe, if I look outside the United States -- inside the U.S. and in Canada, we had some weather impacts during the quarter, but if I look at rest of world, and this includes Canada, we grew our business 25% in the first quarter of 2018. We leveraged it and grew our earnings even faster. Canada grew its business in the 20s, Mexico grew its business in the 20s and the rest of the world grew even higher, so really impressive performance throughout our international operations.

說到全球範圍，如果我把目光投向美國以外的地方——在美國境內和加拿大，我們本季度受到了一些天氣影響，但如果我把目光投向世界其他地區，包括加拿大，我們在 2018 年第一季度的業務增長了 25%。我們利用了這一點，使獲利成長速度更快。加拿大在 1920 年代實現了業務成長，墨西哥在 1920 年代實現了業務成長，世界其他地區的業務成長更為顯著，因此，我們國際業務的整體表現非常出色。

When I think about the business, as you all know, starting several years ago, we really began to invest heavily in what are now the growth drivers of our business. And there's a price to that. You see it -- and Holden will touch on it when we look at operating expenses. Our labor costs continue to rise, some of that because of adding resources, some of that because of inflation, some of that because of incentive comp expansion.

回想公司的發展歷程，如大家所知，幾年前，我們開始大力投資現在推動公司成長的領域。但這都是要付出代價的。你看，霍爾頓會在我們分析營運費用時提到這一點。我們的勞動成本持續上漲，部分原因是資源增加，部分原因是通貨膨脹，部分原因是激勵性薪資增加。

But what I'm really excited about is the resources we've added into our growth drivers in the last 2 years. So we've added roughly 160 people into our National Account team, half of that dedicated solely to implementing new business, including Onsites. We added 15%. 15% of that number is selling resources, most of that in what we call a TSR, territory sales rep, the quarterback for the National Account business in a given geography. 15% of that increase was for construction-centered personnel. We're seeing double-digit growth in our construction these days. 15% of that in our safety personnel. We're seeing great growth in our safety products.

但我真正感到興奮的是，在過去的兩年裡，我們為成長動力投入了更多資源。因此，我們在全國客戶團隊中增加了約 160 人，其中一半專門負責實施新業務，包括現場服務。我們增加了15%。其中 15% 是銷售資源，大部分銷售資源屬於我們所謂的 TSR（區域銷售代表），他們是特定區域內全國客戶業務的負責人。其中 15% 的成長用於建築業人員。最近我們的建築業務實現了兩位數的成長。其中 15% 是我們的安全人員。我們的安全產品業務正在蓬勃發展。

If I look outside of National Accounts, we added 225 people roughly in the last 2 years to support our vending initiative, most of those in the district business units, but quite a few as we took over hosting operations and continue to expand our footprint into deploying devices.

如果將目光投向全國客戶之外，在過去兩年裡，我們大約增加了 225 人來支持我們的自動售貨機計劃，其中大部分人在地區業務部門，但也有相當一部分人是在我們接管託管業務並繼續擴大我們在設備部署方面的業務範圍時加入的。

We added resources into Onsite, e-com, about 15 into both. We added resources into our government business. E-com, which we'll touch on a bit next week at our Investor Day, we're seeing great -- it's a small piece of our business, but we're really seeing impressive results within that component as well. Because of our local and same-day delivery capabilities, it puts us in a unique spot.

我們在現場服務和電子商務方面都增加了資源，兩方面都增加了約 15 個資源。我們為政府業務增加了資源。電子商務業務（我們將在下週的投資者日上稍作提及）發展勢頭良好——雖然它在我們業務中佔比很小，但我們確實在這個部分看到了令人印象深刻的成果。由於我們具備本地化和當日送達的能力，這使我們處於獨特的地位。

We also added roughly 50 people into IT. Those resources are dedicated to being able to roll out new products for our branch network, our Onsite network and our customers faster, increase the bandwidth and a handful of folks to improve the security within our systems. So I think we're making investments in the right places, really impressed with what the team is doing. They just need to execute a little bit better on our local fastener business and our freight.

我們還增加了約 50 名 IT 人員。這些資源將用於更快地為我們的分公司網路、現場網路和客戶推出新產品，增加頻寬，並投入少量人力來提高我們系統的安全性。所以我認為我們的投資方向是對的，我對團隊的工作成果印象深刻。他們只需要在我們本地的緊固件業務和貨運方面做得更好一些。

With that, I'll turn it over to Holden.

這樣，我就把麥克風交給霍爾頓了。

Great. Thank you, Dan, and good morning to everybody.

偉大的。謝謝你，丹，大家早安。

Jumping over to Slide 5. As Dan stated, total and daily sales were up 13.2% in the first quarter. The deceleration from up 14.8% daily sales growth in the fourth quarter, but it is a third straight quarter of at least low teens growth for the company. We believe that pricing contributed between 50 and 100 basis points in the period. Mansco added another 120 basis points.

跳到投影片 5。正如丹所說，第一季總銷售額和日銷售額成長了 13.2%。雖然成長速度較第四季每日 14.8% 的增幅有所放緩，但這已是該公司連續第三個季度至少兩位數實現的成長。我們認為，在此期間，價格因素貢獻了 50 至 100 個基點。Mansco公司又增加了120個基點。

Bear in mind that this quarter represents the completion of Mansco's first full year as a member of Fastenal's family. In that period, it did achieve the revenue and earnings that we had originally anticipated it would. It plans to build on that performance the next 12 months, but be aware that with the transaction anniversary-ing in the second quarter, we'll no longer be breaking out its contribution specifically.

請注意，本季度標誌著 Mansco 作為 Fastenal 大家庭的一員完成了第一個完整的年度。在此期間，它確實實現了我們最初預期的收入和利潤。該公司計劃在未來 12 個月內在此基礎上繼續發展，但請注意，由於第二季度是該交易的周年紀念日，我們將不再單獨列出其貢獻。

From a macro standpoint, the PMI averaged 59.7 in the first quarter and industrial production continued to expand at a low- to mid-single-digit rate. Manufacturing end markets continued to lead our growth with strength in heavy and general manufacturing as well as manufacturing going into transportation and building verticals. Construction was up 9.6% in the first quarter, but after a weather-impacted January, we saw growth return to the 10% to 11% range. From a product standpoint, we sustained recent quarters' growth levels in both fasteners and non-fasteners. Though in the last 2 quarters, we have seen meaningful acceleration in safety, which grew nearly 20% in the first quarter. From a customer standpoint, National Accounts were up 17.3% with 78 of our top 100 accounts growing. Growth to non-National Accounts was steady with mid- to high single-digit growth and nearly 66% of our branches grew in the first quarter. That's a new high for this cycle.

從宏觀角度來看，第一季採購經理人指數 (PMI) 平均為 59.7，工業生產繼續以個位數低至中等的速度擴張。製造業終端市場繼續引領我們的成長，重型和一般製造業以及向運輸和建築垂直領域的製造業表現強勁。第一季建築業成長了 9.6%，但在 1 月受到天氣影響後，我們看到成長回落到 10% 至 11% 的區間。從產品角度來看，我們在緊固件和非緊固件方面都維持了近幾個季度的成長水準。儘管在過去的兩個季度裡，我們在安全方面看到了顯著的加速發展，第一季安全成長率接近 20%。從客戶角度來看，全國性客戶的銷售額成長了 17.3%，前 100 名客戶中有 78 名實現了成長。非國民帳戶的成長保持穩定，實現了中高個位數的成長，近 66% 的分行在第一季度實現了成長。這是本輪週期以來的新高。

In terms of market tone, the quarter started with weather disruption and finished with Good Friday moving up from April of last year, but in between, conditions remained healthy, sentiment in the field remains constructive and the good demand of the past few quarters appears to be carrying into the second quarter of 2018.

就市場基調而言，本季以天氣幹擾開始，以耶穌受難日結束（比去年 4 月提前），但在此期間，市場狀況保持良好，行業情緒依然樂觀，過去幾個季度的良好需求似乎延續到了 2018 年第二季度。

Now over to Slide 6. Our gross margin was 48.7% in the first quarter. That's down 70 basis points versus the first quarter of last year. The usual factors that we've talked about were present here. Relative growth in National Accounts and non-fasteners certainly affects the mix. Mansco tends to operate at a lower gross margin. And as Dan touched on, freight remains a challenge.

現在來看第 6 張投影片。我們第一季的毛利率為 48.7%。與去年第一季相比下降了70個基點。我們之前討論過的那些常見因素在這裡都存在。國民帳戶和非緊固件的相對增長肯定會影響其組成。Mansco 的毛利率通常較低。正如丹所提到的，貨運仍然是一個挑戰。

We began to realize pricing in the period to offset the inflation we've discussed. And while that effort continued to gain traction through the quarter, it was uneven and not yet where it needs to be to offset the various elements of pressure in the marketplace. However, we would expect additional gains in the second quarter in our pricing actions.

我們開始意識到，在此期間，定價可以抵消我們討論過的通貨膨脹。雖然這項努力在本季度持續取得進展，但進展並不均衡，尚未達到足以抵消市場中各種壓力的程度。不過，我們預期第二季定價策略將帶來更多收益。

Our operating margin was 19.8% in the first quarter. That's down 50 basis points on a year-over-year basis. The 70 basis point decline in gross margin was partially offset by 20 basis points of operating expense leverage.

第一季我們的營業利益率為19.8%。與去年同期相比下降了50個基點。毛利率下降 70 個基點，但營運費用槓桿作用提高了 20 個基點，部分抵消了毛利率的下降。

If I look at those pieces, we achieved 50 basis points of leverage over general corporate expenses and occupancy-related costs. The latter was up 7.7% with the largest variables being growth in vending and non-branch occupancy expenses.

如果我看一下這些項目，我們在一般公司費用和與辦公室相關的成本方面實現了 50 個基點的槓桿效應。後者成長了 7.7%，其中最大的變數是自動販賣機和非分行佔用費用的成長。

Selling and transportation-related expenses were up 12.3, which was equally attributable to higher fuel costs and related to an increase in our branch fleet during the period.

銷售和運輸相關費用增加了 12.3%，這不僅是由於燃油成本上漲，也是由於該期間我們分公司車隊的增加。

Our employee-related costs were up 14.4%. That reduced our leverage by 20 basis points. This continued to reflect Mansco's headcount, an increase in our total and FTE headcount of up 6% and up 7.4%, respectively, and that excludes Mansco and significantly higher incentive compensation across the organization reflecting our better growth.

我們的員工相關成本上升了 14.4%。這使我們的槓桿率降低了 20 個基點。這繼續反映了 Mansco 的員工人數，我們的總員工人數和 FTE 員工人數分別增長了 6% 和 7.4%，這還不包括 Mansco 以及整個組織中大幅提高的激勵性薪酬，這反映了我們更好的增長。

The incremental margin in the first quarter was 16%. While the second quarter incremental margin will likely be challenged by a difficult gross margin comparison, the anniversary-ing in 2Q '18 of the Mansco acquisition and the incentive compensation reset should generate better leverage for us in the second half.

第一季的增量利潤率為 16%。儘管第二季的增量利潤率可能會受到毛利率比較困難的挑戰，但 2018 年第二季 Mansco 收購週年紀念日和激勵薪酬重置應該會在下半年為我們帶來更好的槓桿效應。

Putting it all together, the first quarter earnings were $0.61, up 31% from the first quarter of '17. In the absence of tax reform and the lower rate it provides us, EPS would have been $0.51 and growth would have been 10%.

綜合來看，第一季收益為 0.61 美元，比 2017 年第一季成長了 31%。如果沒有稅收改革及其帶來的較低稅率，每股收益將為 0.51 美元，成長率將為 10%。

To give you a quick update on tax reform. Having had more time to evaluate the impact, we now expect our ongoing tax rate will be between 24.5% and 25%, absent any discrete events that may arise from changes in the application of the law or other ongoing activities.

向您簡單介紹稅制改革的最新進展。經過一段時間的評估，我們現在預計，除非法律適用或其他持續活動發生變化，否則我們的持續稅率將在 24.5% 至 25% 之間。

Flipping over to Page 7 -- Slide 7. We generated $160 million in operating cash in the first quarter, which is 92% of net income. This is a lower conversion rate than we typically see in the first quarter. Part of this is just math as our lower tax rates benefited the P&L in the first quarter, but has not yet flowed to the cash flow statement. The other piece, however, relates primarily to those accounts receivable, which I'll cover in a moment. We continue to anticipate good cash flow in 2018 based on good earnings growth and the cash flow benefits from tax reform that will begin in the second quarter of '18.

翻到第 7 頁——第 7 張投影片。我們第一季產生了 1.6 億美元的經營現金，佔淨收入的 92%。這比我們通常在第一季看到的轉換率要低。部分原因只是數學上的差異，因為較低的稅率在第一季對損益表有利，但尚未反映在現金流量表中。然而，另一部分主要與應收帳款有關，我稍後會詳細介紹。基於良好的獲利成長以及將於 2018 年第二季開始實施的稅收改革帶來的現金流收益，我們繼續預期 2018 年現金流良好。

Net capital spending of $32 million increased in the first quarter of 2017 on expansion and upgrades at our hubs and corporate property. Our 2018 target for total net capital spending is unchanged at $149 million. We increased funds paid out in dividends by 15% to $106 million and reduced our debt by $10 million. We finished the quarter with debt at 15.7% of total capital, consistent with last year and a level that provides ample liquidity to invest in our business and pay our dividend.

2017 年第一季度，我們的樞紐和企業物業的擴建和升級淨資本支出增加了 3,200 萬美元。我們2018年的總淨資本支出目標維持不變，為1.49億美元。我們將股息支付金額增加了 15%，達到 1.06 億美元，同時減少了 1,000 萬美元的債務。本季末，我們的債務佔總資本的 15.7%，與去年同期持平，這一水平為我們提供了充足的流動性，可以投資於我們的業務並支付股息。

The picture of our working capital is mixed. Inventories were up 12.7% in the quarter. Inventory on hand fell 5 days, which we view favorably in light of inflationary pressures and plans for additional inventory investments in the field through 2018. Receivables grew 19.8% in the first quarter and days there expanded by 3.5. Days outstanding nationally expands as we experience relative growth to our National Accounts and international businesses. However, in the last 2 quarters, this has been compounded by customer payments being pushed out past the quarter-end. We have seen no meaningful change in hard to collect balances and so this is an area that we will work to improve upon the balance of the year.

我們的營運資金狀況喜憂參半。本季庫存成長了12.7%。庫存量減少了 5 天，考慮到通膨壓力以及 2018 年在該領域進行額外庫存投資的計劃，我們認為這是一個有利的情況。第一季應收帳款成長了 19.8%，應收帳款週轉天數增加了 3.5 天。隨著我們的國內客戶和國際業務的相對成長，全國應收帳款週轉天數也在增加。然而，在過去的兩個季度裡，由於客戶付款被推遲到季度末之後，情況變得更加嚴重。我們發現難以收回的款項沒有出現任何實質變化，因此，我們將努力改善今年的收支平衡狀況。

That's all for our formal presentation. And with that, operator, we'll take questions.

我們的正式報告就到此為止。好了，操作員，我們開始接受提問。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Robert Barry with Susquehanna.

（操作說明）我們的第一個問題來自薩斯奎哈納的羅伯特·巴里。

So you mentioned price only partially offsetting freight and product cost inflation. Is that dynamic only in the local fastener business? Or is it broader? And when do you think you can get to at least neutral on that price cost dynamic?

所以你提到價格只能部分抵銷運費和產品成本上漲的影響。這種動態變化是否僅限於本地緊固件產業？還是範圍更廣？你認為什麼時候才能在價格成本動態方面至少達到中性水準？

I'll handle that one. In the case of the fastener business, that's local. And keep in mind, when I talk about local, I'm talking about where the pricing decision is made as far as what level of price. And so this is local business. When I talk about freight, that includes both local business and National Account business. So it includes all aspects of our business, but the decision of whether or not to charge freight is typically made locally. There might be some contractual limitations, on certain sales, but generally speaking, that's a local-made decision. So I would put both of them in that bucket.

我會處理這件事。就緊固件行業而言，這是本地化的。請記住，當我談到本地時，我指的是定價決策的製定地點，也就是價格水準的製定地點。所以，這就是本地企業。我所說的貨運，既包括本地業務，也包括全國客戶業務。因此，它涵蓋了我們業務的各個方面，但是否收取運費的決定通常是在當地做出的。某些銷售可能會受到合約限制，但總的來說，這是當地做出的決定。所以我把它們兩個都放進那個桶子裡。

In regards to how quickly we can crack upon it, the freight one's a challenge because in many of our growth drivers, vending is an example of growth driver, Onsite is an example of growth driver, our propensity to charge freight is typically lower. Especially in the case of vending, it's nonexistent for the most part. There are challenges to engage with a customer of doing backhauls of freight.

至於我們能多快解決這個問題，貨運方面是一個挑戰，因為在我們許多成長驅動因素中，自動販賣機是成長驅動因素的一個例子，現場服務是成長驅動因素的一個例子，我們收取貨運費用的傾向通常較低。尤其是在自動販賣機領域，這種情況幾乎不存在。與從事回程貨運的客戶接洽存在一些挑戰。

And I often see examples of that. On a recent trip, I saw, interestingly enough, down in Indianapolis, 3 pallets, large pallets and each had a truck chap -- a truck cab on it from a vintage truck that was being shipped from a scrapyard in Minnesota out to the East Coast. And that's an example of backhaul as we do in our system to offset.

我常常看到這樣的例子。最近一次旅行中，我在印第安納波利斯看到了三個托盤，都是大托盤，每個托盤上都放著一個卡車駕駛室——那是從明尼蘇達州的一個廢車場運往東海岸的老式卡車的駕駛室。這就是我們在系統中利用回程連結進行抵銷的一個例子。

The freight one is going to be challenging in the short-term. The fastener one, that's about habits and we can change habits tomorrow.

短期內，貨運方面將會面臨挑戰。關於緊固件的那個問題，那是關於習慣的，而我們明天就可以改變習慣。

I'll just sort of chip in. To give you a little bit of color, the -- if I think about the RVP commentary that came through to us over the course of the quarter, it improved as the quarter went on from January to February to March. So I think that the confidence in the field grew and the achievement in the field grew as we went along, which is what we would have expected to see.

我來湊個熱鬧。為了讓大家更清楚地了解情況，——如果我回顧一下本季我們收到的RVP評論，就會發現從1月到2月再到3月，情況都在好轉。所以我認為，隨著我們不斷前進，我們在這個領域的信心和成就也隨之增長，這正是我們所期望看到的。

I would also tell you that if I think about the month-to-month contribution of pricing, it also grew as we went through the quarter. So we've talked before about having to rebuild that muscle memory. Obviously, for us, and our model, these conversations are very much sort of customer to employee. And yes, I think there are signs that we -- we're building up that muscle memory through the quarter and we just need to make sure that we continue to bulk up as we go into the second quarter and that's the expectation.

我還要告訴大家，如果我考慮一下定價對每月業績的貢獻，它在本季也隨著季度的推進而成長。我們之前討論過需要重建肌肉記憶的問題。顯然，對我們和我們的模式而言，這些對話很大程度上是客戶與員工之間的對話。是的，我認為有跡象表明，我們正在透過本季度建立這種肌肉記憶，我們只需要確保在進入第二季度時繼續增強實力，這就是我們的期望。

Got it. I guess, just a follow on to that, given there's a lot of talk about tariffs and raising product costs, in particular on some of your products. Just given what sounds like a pretty tough pricing environment, I mean, what's the thought on the ability to pass those through or fully being able to pass those through?

知道了。我想，這只是對之前那件事的補充，因為現在有很多關於關稅和產品成本上漲的討論，特別是針對你們的一些產品。鑑於目前定價環境似乎相當艱難，我的意思是，您認為能否將這些成本轉嫁出去，或能否完全轉嫁出去？

Well, to be clear, I don't think that it's a pretty tough pricing environment. We are getting pricing. It's just the rate at which we're getting it. Again, I think that the sentiment around how the RVPs are feeling about that environment has only gotten better as the quarter has gone on. So I don't think that I would characterize the pricing environment today as tough. It's just a matter of at what pace we're going to be able to put it through.

說實話，我認為目前的定價環境並不算非常困難。我們正在獲取報價。問題只在於我們獲得它的速度。我再次認為，隨著本季的進行，區域副總裁們對當前環境的感受只會越來越好。所以我認為不能用「艱難」來形容目前的定價環境。問題只在於我們能以多快的速度完成這項工作。

As it relates to tariffs, however, if you think about 232, the increase in steel and aluminum, it's -- that would primarily have a direct impact on our manufacturing business which does source that. If I think about the Section 301s...

但就關稅而言，如果你考慮到第 232 條規定，即鋼鐵和鋁的價格上漲，這將主要對我們的製造業產生直接影響，因為我們的製造業正是這些原料的來源。如果我思考一下第301條款…

That's 5% of our revenues.

那占我們收入的5%。

Yes, which is 4% or 5% of our revenue on the manufacturing.

是的，這占我們製造收入的 4% 或 5%。

If I think about the Section 301 tariffs, we looked into what products are captured in that. And there are some. I think we've identified about $11 million or $12 million in annual COGS that would be affected directly by that. There'd no doubt be some others that come through in -- through masters, but we're talking about metal nuts, we're talking about pallet jacks and a few other items. And so there really was no impact on tariffs in Q1 in our business. Most of what would be affected directly seems fairly modest.

如果我考慮第 301 條款關稅，我們會研究哪些產品包含在其中。確實有一些。我認為我們已經確定了每年約有 1100 萬至 1200 萬美元的銷售成本將直接受到影響。毫無疑問，還會有一些其他的東西透過師父傳下來，但我們現在說的是金屬螺帽、托盤搬運車和其他一些物品。因此，第一季關稅對我們的業務並沒有真正產生任何影響。直接受到影響的大部分似乎都相當有限。

I think our bigger question is what impact does it have on our customers at the end of the day. And as I said, in Q1, there really was nothing there. To the extent that it contributes to either a more inflationary environment, we'll have to respond to that as we talked about. To the extent that it creates issues for our customers, I have to respond to that, but no impact yet and I think that the -- it's sort of a wait-and-see kind of situation.

我認為我們更重要的問題是，這最終會對我們的客戶產生什麼影響。正如我所說，第一季真的什麼都沒有。如果它導致通貨膨脹加劇，我們將不得不像我們之前討論的那樣對此做出應對。如果這會給我們的客戶帶來問題，我必須對此作出回應，但目前還沒有造成任何影響，我認為這是一種觀望態度。

I'll just chime in a little bit as well to support Holden's answer and that is, historically, our ability to pass on things like this, a tariff, a duty, et cetera, the marketplace gets that and is able to pass that through.

我也要補充一點，以支持霍爾頓的回答。從歷史上看，我們有能力將關稅、稅收等這類東西轉嫁出去，市場會理解並能夠將其轉嫁出去。

The wild card in all of it is what impact it has not to our ability to price, but to volumes. What impact does it have for the customer? Does it impact their ability to export product? Does it impact the profitability within their business on what products they sell? That's the unanswerable question, but the marketplace gets the fact that price -- the costs are going up.

這一切最大的變數在於它對我們的定價能力，而不是對銷售的影響。這對客戶有什麼影響？這是否會影響他們的產品出口能力？這是否會影響他們所銷售產品的獲利能力？這是一個無法回答的問題，但市場明白價格——成本正在上漲。

Our next question comes from Robert McCarthy with Stifel.

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

I have 2 questions because that's all we're allowed and the time we're allowed. I guess, following up the tariffs, you mentioned 301. Could you just confirm, you just think it's a very limited set of SKU and product that is going to be affected by this? And could you just let us know broadly how much you do source from China in terms of your underlying COGS or general sourcing?

我只有兩個問題，因為我們只被允許問這兩個問題，而且時間只夠問這兩個問題。我想，在談到關稅時，你提到了301。您能否確認一下，您認為只有極少數的 SKU 和產品會受到影響？能否請您大致說明一下，就您的基本銷售成本或一般採購而言，您從中國採購的商品比例是多少？

First off, we touched on that. We have identified what we know so far. Keep in mind that the number Holden cited looks at product we're directly sourcing that we believe is impacted and -- but on top of that is product that we are sourcing from others that would be impacted. That one is a lot more difficult one to quantify because with many of our suppliers, if I think of both branded and some of the non-branded products, many of our suppliers, their source of origin can fluctuate. So they might -- a lot of fasteners come out of Taiwan and China and a lot of that production has moved into China over the last 15, 20 years. No different than 40 and 50 years ago, a lot of that production had moved from Japan into Taiwan and other parts of Southeast China -- or Southeast Asia, excuse me. So there are other sources of supply, but the issue you run into is speed at which you can change, other factors that might be going on in other countries within the Pacific Rim. Most of the fasteners sold in this country are made outside of North America. So it's not an issue that's unique to us. It's an issue that's unique to that product line.

首先，我們稍微談到了這一點。我們已經總結了目前已知的資訊。請記住，霍爾頓引用的數字不僅包括我們認為受到影響的直接採購的產品，還包括我們從其他供應商採購的、也會受到影響的產品。這一點更難量化，因為就我們的許多供應商而言，如果我考慮到品牌產品和一些非品牌產品，我們的許多供應商的原料來源可能會波動。所以他們可能會——很多緊固件產自台灣和中國大陸，而且在過去的 15 到 20 年裡，很多生產都轉移到了中國大陸。與 40 到 50 年前的情況一樣，許多生產活動都從日本轉移到了台灣和中國東南部的其他地區——或者更準確地說，是東南亞其他地區。所以還有其他供應來源，但你遇到的問題是你能以多快的速度做出改變，以及環太平洋其他國家可能正在發生的其他因素。這個國家銷售的緊固件大部分都是在北美以外地區生產的。所以這不是我們獨有的問題。這是該產品線特有的問題。

Within our non-fastener product, the percentage would be lower, but still a sizable piece is made -- but again, I can -- I hesitate to quantify it because there are multiple source of supply and we aren't always privy to upstream those sources of supply when we're in product. But the -- so the -- but the other dynamic is this thing moves rapidly. Sometimes you have to try to follow it by the latest tweet and we prefer not to manage our business that way.

在我們非緊固件產品中，這個比例會更低，但仍然佔相當大的比例——但是，我再次——我猶豫要不要量化它，因為供應來源有很多，而且當我們生產產品時，我們並不總是了解這些供應來源的上游情況。但是——所以——但是另一個動態是，這件事發展得很快。有時候你必須透過最新的推文來關注它，但我們並不想用這種方式來管理我們的業務。

But be aware Robert -- we actually have seen the list of things that we understand to be effective now. So we have something on which to sort of make a judgment, if you will. And if I look at that list, there's probably 25 things on it. Iron or steel nuts is 85% of that. And so there is a list of things out there that are supposedly affected by that. That's what we're able to give some judgment based upon.

但是羅伯特，請注意——我們實際上已經看到了我們認為有效的措施清單。所以我們現在有了一些可以用來做出判斷的依據。如果我看一下那份清單，上面大概有 25 項內容。鐵或鋼製螺帽佔其中的 85%。因此，有一份清單列出了據稱會受到此影響的事物。這就是我們能夠做出一些判斷的依據。

Yes. No, I have the documentation right here in terms of the list. But the answer to the question, I don't want to preclude my second question, so this is a follow-up to the first question is, very briefly, yes, that's the second 301 that was kind of enumerated, but the fact of the matter is it sounds like it could be a greater effect, kind of similar to oil and gas in '14, where you had headline exposure mid-single digits, but the penumbra of the effect could be greater, I guess, is my point.

是的。不，我這裡有相關的清單文件。但是，對於這個問題，我不想排除我的第二個問題，所以這是第一個問題的後續。簡而言之，是的，這是第二個被列舉出來的301條款，但事實是，它的影響似乎更大，有點像2014年的石油和天然氣，當時的新聞曝光率只有個位數，但其影響範圍可能更大，我想，這就是我的觀點。

Yes. Time will tell. There's still plenty of unknowns. What's number 2?

是的。時間會證明一切。仍有許多未知數。第二名是什麼？

Yes. Number 2 is just a very simple question. I mean, obviously, gross margin, you cited and enumerated the various -- listen, growth is good, but the challenge is the mix in gross margin and that structural mix. Given the last couple of years, you've been -- the first quarter gross margin typically is one of the higher gross margins of the year and then typically is above the average gross margin for the year, do you think that's going to continue according to Hoyle here? Or do you think there's opportunity for you to expand sequentially gross margin this year? Or have we put in the high for gross margin for this year or particularly versus the average?

是的。第二題非常簡單。我的意思是，很顯然，毛利率，你列舉了各種因素——聽著，成長是好事，但挑戰在於毛利率的組合以及結構性組合。鑑於過去幾年的情況，第一季的毛利率通常是全年較高的毛利率之一，而且通常高於全年的平均毛利率，你認為根據霍伊爾的說法，這種情況會繼續下去嗎？或者您認為今年有機會實現毛利率環比增長嗎？或者，我們已經設定了今年最高的毛利率，或者特別是與平均值相比？

Well, the question of expanding gross margin, I mean, we build a hole in Q1. Q2, I can tell you is going to be a very difficult comparison based on how we performed last year, but if -- so that would be difficult. If we're talking just sequentially, the -- there is a path to be able to achieve a gross margin that is comparable to slightly below where we are in Q1, right? So I think if you look at the history, it's not uncommon to see 30 basis points or what have you, to sort of down from Q1 or to Q2, et cetera. There's a path to do somewhat better than that, but that path, it does rely significantly on our ability to continue to build up our sort of pricing momentum and that's kind of the wild card that we are going to be playing through in Q2. Again, we like the signals. We've certainly given a clear message as to what we need to do going forward and if we can deliver and execute on that, as we fully expect to do so, there's a path to have margins that are comparable to maybe modestly below where we finished in Q1 and perhaps do a little bit better than the normal seasonal pattern, if you will.

嗯，關於擴大毛利率的問題，我的意思是，我們在第一季造成了缺口。第二季度，我可以告訴你，根據我們去年的表現，這將是一個非常困難的比較，但——所以那會很困難。如果僅從季度來看，那麼——我們有可能實現與第一季略低於目前的毛利率相當的毛利率，對吧？所以我覺得，如果你回顧歷史，你會發現從第一季到第二季下降 30 個基點之類的幅度並不罕見。或許還有一條路可以做得更好，但這條路很大程度上取決於我們能否繼續保持定價勢頭，而這正是我們在第二季度要面對的變數。我們再次表示喜歡這些訊號。我們已經明確傳達了我們未來需要做什麼，如果我們能夠兌現並執行這些承諾（我們完全有信心做到這一點），那麼利潤率有望與第一季末的水平相當，甚至可能略低於正常季節性水平。

Our next question comes from David Manthey with Baird.

下一個問題來自 Baird 公司的 David Manthey。

First question, Dan, you said you were happy with the return on the investment in your growth drivers, but you were disappointed by the profit growth in the first quarter. When you look at the core expense leverage in addition to the changing secular mix of the business and gross margin pressure you just mentioned, are we at an inflection point here where we'll get back to 20% to 25% contribution margin? Or are you happy with faster sales growth and maybe a contribution margin in the teens? It seems like we've been leaning that way in the last couple of quarters.

丹，第一個問題是，你說過你對成長驅動因素的投資回報感到滿意，但對第一季的利潤成長感到失望。當您考慮到核心費用槓桿作用，以及您剛才提到的業務長期結構變化和毛利率壓力時，我們是否正處於一個轉折點，能夠重回 20% 到 25% 的貢獻毛利率？或者，您是否更滿意更快的銷售成長以及十幾個百分點的利潤率？過去幾個季度，我們似乎一直朝著這個方向發展。

When -- as our business was ramping up in 2017, our willingness to invest in our growth drivers expanded. That's why I touched on some of the headcount we've been adding behind the scenes to really support this. And knowing full well that I, frankly, didn't expect coming into the first half of this year -- and I'm talking about operating margin when I talk about this. I'm removing the noise of tax reform. I fully expected our operating -- our incremental margins to drop below 20% and into the upper teens. And if, ironically enough, we had been -- if we wouldn't have this fastener issue in the quarter, the old would have, could have, should have, but we would have been in the low 20s.

2017 年，隨著我們業務的快速發展，我們對成長動力的投資意願也隨之增強。這就是為什麼我提到了我們為了真正支持這項工作而在幕後增加的一些人員。坦白說，我完全沒有預料到今年上半年會出現這種情況——我指的是營業利潤率。我正在排除稅制改革帶來的干擾。我完全預料到我們的營運利潤率（增量利潤率）會降至 20% 以下，甚至跌至十幾個百分點。諷刺的是，如果我們——如果我們本季沒有這個緊固件問題，老款產品本可以、也應該能夠做到，但我們本可以達到 20 出頭的水平。

I still firmly believe when I look at this business over a period of years -- and we are in a transition period of really investing heavily in a fundamentally different growth driver in our business. As we're in that, if you look at it over time, there's no reason why gross margin can't be in that -- the incremental margin within the gross margin line can't be in that lower half of the 40s, so 43 to 45, and our incremental spend can't be closer to 20, which would put us into, optimistically, a 25, pessimistically, lower half of 20s incremental margin. And if we're growing 6, 7, 8 points faster than anybody else out there and we're taking market share and we're doing things that are natural for our business and that create a more defensive of a business from the standpoint of competition from others, I think that's a win for our shareholders.

多年來，我仍然堅信，我們正處於轉型期，要大力投資於業務中截然不同的成長驅動力。既然我們已經處於這種情況，從長遠來看，毛利率沒有理由不能處於這個範圍內——毛利率範圍內的增量利潤率不可能在 40 的下半部分，也就是 43 到 45 之間，而我們的增量支出不可能接近 20，樂觀估計增量利潤率為 25，悲觀估計增量利潤率為 20 的下半部分。如果我們比其他任何公司都快 6、7、8 個百分點，並且我們正在奪取市場份額，我們正在做一些對我們業務而言自然而然的事情，並且從其他競爭者的角度來看，這使得我們的業務更具防禦性，我認為這對我們的股東來說是一種勝利。

Right now, like I say, we're investing heavily in that transition. And unfortunately, we stubbed our toe on local pricing this quarter, but I think that's fixable and that's fixable fast.

正如我所說，我們現在正在大力投資這項轉型。不幸的是，本季度我們在本地定價方面遇到了一些問題，但我認為這是可以解決的，而且可以很快解決。

And, David, just so you know, the gross margin is certainly a part of it, but the other piece, if I look at our operating expenses, bear in mind that through Q1, right, the blending in of Mansco, that obviously has an impact on the incremental margins. The reset of incentive comp. I know it seems like we started talking about that a year ago. We did. The good news is you get into Q2, Q3, Q4 and that reset begins to anniversary as well. I take some encouragement from the fact that we got 50 basis points of leverage over corporate and occupancy. We did not get much over the headcount side, but as we do begin to anniversary that reset in Q2 and beyond, I think that there is potential there to get more leverage out of the SG&A than what you've seen to this point. And so the growth drivers, we'll -- we're going to continue to invest in those, but there are pieces of our P&L that we should leverage at a greater -- to a greater degree, certainly into the second half of this year, than we have to this point as this cycle and as our growth matures.

大衛，你要知道，毛利率當然是其中的一部分，但另一部分，如果我看一下我們的營運費用，請記住，到第一季度，曼斯科的併入顯然會對增量利潤率產生影響。重置激勵薪酬。我知道這聽起來好像我們一年前就開始討論這件事了。我們做到了。好消息是，到了第二季、第三季、第四季，週年慶也開始重置了。令我感到鼓舞的是，我們在企業和入住率方面獲得了 50 個基點的槓桿作用。我們在人員編制方面沒有取得太大進展，但隨著我們在第二季度及以後開始進行週年重置，我認為我們有可能從銷售、管理及行政費用中獲得比目前為止更大的槓桿作用。因此，對於成長動力，我們將繼續投資，但損益表中的某些部分我們應該得到更大程度的利用——尤其是在今年下半年，隨著本輪週期和成長的成熟，我們應該會比現在做得更多。

Okay. That's very helpful. And second question is on the freight impact on gross margin. I went back and looked and this has been an issue for you at least back to the -- the end of 2016 and an irritant here. When does this get fixed? Can you fix it? And can you just describe what the source of the issue is? Is it that you're using third party in not internal logistics? Or what's going on there? And can it be fixed?

好的。那很有幫助。第二個問題是關於運費對毛利率的影響。我回去查看了一下，這個問題至少從 2016 年底就一直困擾著你，也一直困擾著我們。這個問題什麼時候才能解決？你能修好它嗎？你能描述一下問題的根源是什麼嗎？是不是因為你們使用了第三方物流而不是內部物流？或是那裡發生了什麼事？這個問題可以解決嗎？

There's a number of things there. It's not external versus internal. We probably had a little bit of that in the quarter because of the weather, but that's not the fundamental issue, Dave.

那裡有很多東西。這不是外在與內在的問題。由於天氣原因，我們這季度可能確實遇到了一些問題，但這並不是根本問題，戴夫。

The -- if I look at it, we lost about 20 basis points of gross margin strictly on the pricing aspect of where we're charging it. I'd say 1/3 of that is because of our growth drivers pulling it down. The other 2/3 is our propensity to execute. And I think sometimes we fall victim to -- we convince ourselves that the marketplace doesn't allow people to charge freight anymore because that's what you read in the headlines every day. That's not true. The marketplace will allow you to charge freight when you're providing a value. I believe your propensity to charge freight in this environment goes up because every time I turn around, I read an article about folks can't add trucks and drivers and capacity fast enough and so freight's becoming more expensive and we have a structural advantage there and we need to price for that. So I believe it's fixable, but the challenging aspect is our growth drivers aren't our true friend. And so when it comes to this aspect, our great friend when it comes to growing our business, but they do hurt it on the face of it. And there, we need to challenge ourselves of saying, "Okay, we don't charge freight here, but this customer is shipping product out. Can we ship some pallets of product out for them?" And that's why when I go to our big cross top facility down in Indianapolis, I'm always curious what I see when I'm down there because it tells me if we're engaging in doing that because if our customers are having a hard time finding capacity to ship pallets and we have capacity to ship their pallets, I think we can marry that up and fix a piece of the problem there, but it's a component of where Holden's talked about, the gross margin impact of our growth drivers. And the drop -- the natural drop we're going to see each year in our gross profit, that's a component of it.

如果我仔細分析，我們僅僅因為定價策略就損失了大約 20 個基點的毛利率。我認為其中三分之一的原因是我們的成長驅動因素拉低了價格。剩下的 2/3 是我們執行的傾向。而且我認為我們有時會成為受害者——我們說服自己，市場不再允許人們收取運費，因為你每天都能在新聞頭條上看到這樣的報導。那不是真的。平台允許您在提供價值時收取運費。我認為在這種環境下，你們收取運費的傾向會上升，因為我每次看到文章說，人們無法快速增加卡車、司機和運力，因此貨運成本越來越高，而我們在這方面有結構性優勢，我們需要根據這一點來定價。所以我相信這個問題是可以解決的，但具有挑戰性的是，我們的成長動力並不是我們真正的朋友。因此，就這方面而言，它是我們發展業務的好朋友，但從表面上看，它確實會損害我們的業務。因此，我們需要挑戰自己，告訴自己：“好吧，我們這裡不收取運費，但是這個客戶要把產品運出去。”「我們能幫他們發幾托盤產品嗎？」 這就是為什麼每次我去我們在印第安納波利斯的大型交叉頂倉庫時，我都會很好奇在那裡看到了什麼，因為這能告訴我我們是否在做這件事。如果我們的客戶很難找到運輸托盤的能力，而我們有能力為他們運送托盤，我認為我們可以把這兩件事結合起來，解決一部分問題。但這正是霍爾頓所說的，我們成長驅動因素對毛利率的影響。而毛利的自然下降——每年我們都會看到的毛利下降——也是其中的一個組成部分。

Our next question comes from Adam Uhlman with Cleveland Research.

下一個問題來自克里夫蘭研究公司的亞當·烏爾曼。

Can we start with, Dan, you just mentioned 20 basis points of the impact on gross margin. Could you walk through the remainder of that, the decline in gross margin between mix and Mansco and the rest of it?

丹，我們先從你剛才提到的對毛利率20個基點的影響開始。您能否詳細解釋一下剩餘部分，例如 Mix 和 Mansco 之間毛利率下降的情況以及其他相關內容？

Yes. Mansco was probably about 10 to 20 basis points impact, right down the middle there. I would say mix this quarter was also sort of in that 10 to 20 basis point impact. I think the transportation was about 20 basis points of impact. And those would give you the biggest pieces of the sort of the 70 basis point decline year-over-year...

是的。Mansco的影響大概在10到20個基點之間，剛好在中間位置。我認為本季的混合因素也受到了10到20個基點的影響。我認為交通運輸的影響大約是 20 個基點。而這些因素將構成年減70個基點中的最大部分…

And local pricing of fasteners.

以及緊固件的本地定價。

And so -- and then, obviously, local pricing on fasteners and just general product inflation played a role and the fact that we didn't get as much as we needed to, to begin to offset that, right?

因此——然後，很顯然，當地緊固件的價格和一般的產品通貨膨脹都起到了一定作用，而我們得到的貨量又不夠，無法抵消這些影響，對吧？

Adam, I'll add one tidbit there. So I cited when I was talking to Dave the fact that we've given up 20 basis points on our propensity to charge. We got about half of that back in leveraging of our network itself. So the gross margin impact was about 10 basis points for freight. 20 of it in pricing, 10 of it we got back because we still run a great fleet and we continue to utilize that fleet for moving products around the country. Even though our costs are up there, we're moving more tons of product.

亞當，我再補充一點。所以我在和戴夫談話時提到，我們在收費傾向方面已經放棄了 20 個基點。我們利用自身網路收回了大約一半的資金。因此，運費對毛利率的影響約為 10 個基點。其中 20% 是價格上的損失，10% 我們收回了，因為我們仍然擁有一支強大的車隊，並且我們繼續利用這支車隊在全國各地運輸產品。儘管我們的成本很高，但我們的產品銷售量卻更高。

Okay. Got you. And then, just secondly, how should we think about the working capital for the rest of the year? I guess, I was a little confused on exactly what's happening with receivables and why customers are pushing it into the next quarter. Do you have any goals that you can share with us or other process improvements that you're putting into place to get the conversion to improve?

好的。抓到你了。其次，我們該如何考慮今年剩餘時間的營運資金？我有點搞不清楚應收帳款到底發生了什麼，以及為什麼客戶要把款項推遲到下一個季度。您能否與我們分享您的目標，或者您正在實施哪些流程改善措施來提高轉換率？

Yes. And to some extent, you don't want to overreact to something because, again, at the end of the day, what we're looking for is, are we seeing issues with hard to collect product? And the fact is we're simply not. And so in the fourth quarter, we obviously called out receivables being a bit of a challenge. And I may have sort of believed that, that was primarily a function of the calendar and, in truth, it may have simply been our customers deciding to push out beyond the quarter.

是的。在某種程度上，你不想對某些事情反應過度，因為歸根結底，我們想要了解的是，我們是否看到了難以收集的產品的問題？而事實是我們根本沒有。因此，在第四季度，我們顯然指出應收帳款是一個挑戰。我當時可能也這麼認為，這主要是日曆安排的問題，而實際上，這可能只是我們的客戶決定將訂單推遲到季度之後而已。

I don't know what the reason is for what looks to us to be a recent somewhat change in behavior. It's something that we'll have to kind of go back and check on and get our arms around, but I think the important element of it is we don't have an increase in hard to collect receivables out there. Those numbers have remained lean and healthy. And so all we're seeing is we're seeing a pushback which, if it's about being able to report a clean quarter, as many of our customers are public and do so, you could be talking about days.

我不知道最近這種在我們看來有些改變的行為背後的原因是什麼。這件事我們需要回頭再仔細查清楚，但我認為最重要的是，我們並沒有出現難以收回的應收帳款增加的情況。這些數字一直保持著健康且穩健的狀態。因此，我們看到的只是阻力，如果這是為了能夠報告一個乾淨的季度業績（因為我們的許多客戶都是上市公司，而且他們確實這樣做），那麼阻力可能要持續幾天。

At the end of Q4, we saw an inflow of payments at the beginning of January. I haven't had a chance to sort of look at how the beginning of the first quarter has played out yet and look at that statistic. It wouldn't surprise me if it's there. So it's something that's worth calling out because obviously it impacts those numbers, but I don't think that there's anything particularly worrisome there from a -- in terms of a corporate health standpoint, I guess, is how I put it.

第四季末，我們在1月初看到了付款流入。我還沒有機會仔細看看第一季初的情況，也沒有機會查看相關統計數據。如果它在那裡，我一點也不覺得意外。所以這件事值得一提，因為它顯然會影響這些數字，但從企業健康的角度來看，我認為這並沒有什麼特別令人擔憂的地方，我想，這就是我的看法。

I'll throw a little adder onto that and then we're coming up on 45 minutes past the hour so this will be the last question.

我再加一點時間，現在快到整點45分了​​，所以這會是最後一個問題。

When I think of it and putting my old hat on, you have customers that are growing faster than they have experienced in recent years. That growth in their businesses takes working capital. You have interest rates that are rising. It's probably not an unreasonable thing to see of people pushing, especially to do a little window dressing at the end of the quarter to see payment patterns slow down. My challenge to our team is, guys, how about challenging a customer? We're business partners here. And to cut off your payments from the 22nd through the 20th, through 25th of March, creates a lot of pain for us, too. And there's 3 assets on our business. There's fixed capital, of which vending is typically is placed inside their facility. There is inventory, of which with Onsite, we're placing dollars inside their facility. And there's accounts receivable. If I think of the value we bring to their business of those 3 things, the first 2 add value, the third one doesn't. So don't do that to us. Let's push back a little bit using that because every dollar we have there is a dollar we can't have in inventory and fix capital long term and we don't think that's good for our customers. So if they want to push some other suppliers, they can do that, but don't do it with us because we have inventory and fixed capital inside your facilities to support your business. We can't do all 3.

仔細想想，從我的角度來看，你們的客戶群的成長速度比近年來都要快得多。業務成長需要營運資金。你們的利率正在上升。看到有人施壓，尤其是在季度末做一些粉飾業績，讓付款模式放緩，這可能並非不合理。我對我們團隊的挑戰是，夥伴們，你們怎麼能挑戰客戶呢？我們是商業夥伴。而從 3 月 22 日至 3 月 20 日，以及 3 月 25 日期間停止您的付款，也給我們帶來了極大的痛苦。我們公司有3項資產。固定資產，其中自動販賣機通常放置在他們的設施內。我們有庫存，透過 Onsite，我們將資金投入他們的設施。還有應收帳款。如果讓我考慮這三件事能為他們的業務帶來什麼價值，前兩件事確實有價值，第三件事沒有。所以別這樣對我們。讓我們稍微反駁一下，因為我們每花一美元，就意味著我們少了一美元用於庫存和長期固定資本，我們認為這對我們的客戶不利。所以如果他們想推舉其他供應商，他們可以這樣做，但不要推舉我們，因為我們在你們的工廠裡有庫存和固定資金來支持你們的業務。我們不可能同時做到這三件事。

With that, we're at 45 minutes past the hour. Thank you for participating in today's earnings call. We -- Holden is hosting an Investor Day next week. I believe that's being broadcast on the Internet.

就這樣，現在已經過了整點45分鐘了。感謝您參加今天的財報電話會議。我們—霍頓公司將於下週舉辦投資者日活動。我相信那正在網路上播出。

That will be webcast.

屆時將進行網路直播。

Webcast. And again, thank you for your support of Fastenal. Have a good day.

網路直播。再次感謝您對 Fastenal 的支持。祝你有美好的一天。

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's conference. Thank you very much for your participation. You may all disconnect. Have a wonderful day.

女士們、先生們，今天的會議到此結束。非常感謝您的參與。你們可以斷開連結了。祝您有美好的一天。