Helios Technologies Inc (HLIO) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Helios Technologies' Second Quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Tania Almond, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Thank you. You may begin.

您好，歡迎參加 Helios Technologies 2023 年第二季度財務業績電話會議。 （操作員指示）謹此提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。現在我很高興向您介紹主持人，投資者關係和企業傳播副總裁塔尼亞·阿爾蒙德 (Tania Almond)。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator, and good day, everyone. Welcome to the Helios Technologies' Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. We issued a press release announcing our results yesterday afternoon. If you do not have that release, it is available on our website at hlio.com. You will also find slides there that will accompany our conversation today.

謝謝您，接線員，大家好。歡迎參加 Helios Technologies 第二季度財務業績電話會議。我們昨天下午發布了一份新聞稿，宣布了我們的結果。如果您沒有該版本，可以在我們的網站 hlio.com 上獲取。您還可以在那裡找到伴隨我們今天談話的幻燈片。

On the line with me are Josef Matosevic, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tricia Fulton, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. They will spend the next several minutes reviewing our second quarter results, discussing our progress with our augmented strategy, reviewing our updated outlook for the second half of 2023, and then we will open the call to your questions.

和我一起在線的是我們的總裁兼首席執行官約瑟夫·馬托舍維奇 (Josef Matosevic)；執行副總裁兼首席財務官特里西婭·富爾頓 (Tricia Fulton)。他們將在接下來的幾分鐘內回顧我們第二季度的業績，討論我們的增強戰略的進展，回顧我們對 2023 年下半年的最新展望，然後我們將開始回答您的問題。

If you turn to Slide 2, you will find our Safe harbor statement. As you may be aware, we will make some forward-looking statements during this presentation and the Q&A session. These statements apply to future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties, as well as other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from where we are today. These risks and uncertainties and other factors have been provided in our latest 10-K filing, as well as our upcoming 10-Q to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You can find these documents on our website or at sec.gov.

如果您翻到幻燈片 2，您會找到我們的安全港聲明。如您所知，我們將在本次演示和問答環節中做出一些前瞻性陳述。這些陳述適用於受風險和不確定性以及可能導致實際結果與我們今天的情況產生重大差異的其他因素影響的未來事件。這些風險和不確定性以及其他因素已在我們最新的 10-K 文件以及即將向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-Q 文件中提供。您可以在我們的網站或 sec.gov 上找到這些文件。

I'll also point out that, during today's call, we will discuss some non-GAAP financial measures which we believe are useful in evaluating our performance. You should not consider the presentation of this additional information in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. We have provided reconciliations of comparable GAAP with non-GAAP measures in the tables that accompany today's Slides. Please reference Slide 3, 4 and 5 now. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Josef.

我還要指出，在今天的電話會議中，我們將討論一些非公認會計準則財務指標，我們認為這些指標有助於評估我們的業績。您不應孤立地考慮此附加信息的呈現，也不應將其視為根據 GAAP 準備的結果的替代品。我們在今天的幻燈片隨附的表格中提供了可比 GAAP 與非 GAAP 指標的調節表。現在請參考幻燈片 3、4 和 5。至此，我很高興將電話轉給約瑟夫。

Tania, thank you, and thanks to everyone joining us. Our global team has stepped up to the plate and delivered. We had strong sequential growth in the quarter with revenue up 7%, including 6% organic growth over Q1. Operating margin increased 140 basis points while we continued investing to integrate our acquisitions and expand our capacity to meet growing customer demand. This translated to our bottom line increasing 21%. Thank you once again to our global team for their great performance.

塔尼亞，謝謝你，也感謝所有加入我們的人。我們的全球團隊已經開始行動並交付成果。本季度我們實現了強勁的環比增長，收入增長了 7%，其中有機增長比第一季度增長了 6%。營業利潤率增加了 140 個基點，同時我們繼續投資整合收購併擴大產能以滿足不斷增長的客戶需求。這意味著我們的利潤增長了 21%。再次感謝我們的全球團隊的出色表現。

We have methodically invested over the last 3 years to develop or acquire new technologies, close product gaps, filling geographic white spaces and drive opportunities for growth by expanding our addressable end markets. All this work is on the verge of bearing fruit.

在過去的三年裡，我們有條不紊地投資開發或獲取新技術、縮小產品差距、填補地理空白並通過擴大我們的潛在終端市場來推動增長機會。所有這些工作都即將取得成果。

Currently, we are in our next phase preparing for another growth cycle, and we are accelerating this transition. Our customers' appetite for our new offerings is rapidly building. We want to be ready to address the indicated interest. As such, we are pulling forward investments and project timelines to enable this new capacity to take on step change growth starting in 2024.

目前，我們正處於下一階段，為另一個增長周期做準備，並且我們正在加速這一轉變。客戶對我們新產品的興趣正在迅速增強。我們希望準備好解決所表明的興趣。因此，我們正在推遲投資和項目時間表，以使這一新產能能夠從 2024 年開始實現階躍變革增長。

Our innovation and engineering excellence is the lifeblood of this organization. In the quarter, we closed our acquisition of i3, and we are already far along with the integration of i3 remote field service platform into the Helios solution. As a result, recurring revenue could start to show up in our P&L as early as next year.

我們的創新和卓越的工程是這個組織的命脈。本季度，我們完成了對 i3 的收購，並且我們已經將 i3 遠程現場服務平台集成到 Helios 解決方案中。因此，經常性收入最早可能會在明年開始出現在我們的損益表中。

Helios continues driving technological breakthroughs, and we are well-positioned to capitalize on many megatrends with our solution. This includes electrification, reducing emissions and creating more energy-efficient solutions while continuously improving our user interface.

Helios 不斷推動技術突破，我們已做好充分準備，通過我們的解決方案充分利用許多大趨勢。這包括電氣化、減少排放和創建更節能的解決方案，同時不斷改進我們的用戶界面。

Our long-term outlook at Helios is very bright. In the short-term, we are faced with some near-term challenges for the second half of '23. We are seeing a slower-than-expected recovery in APAC. About 40% of our CVT hydraulics volume goes through APAC, with 2 of our largest distributors located there.

我們對 Helios 的長期前景非常光明。短期來看，23 年下半年我們面臨一些近期挑戰。我們看到亞太地區的複蘇慢於預期。我們約 40% 的 CVT 液壓銷量通過亞太地區，我們最大的兩家經銷商都位於該地區。

In North America, the distributor inventory levels have been trending in the right direction since the end of last year, but also a bit lower than expected. Additionally, our hydraulics colleagues in Europe dealt with a plant fire in the second quarter. Then in July, they had to endure a tornado, hail storm and flooding. I am grateful to report all of our teammates are safe, which is most important. These macro issues combined with the natural disasters is pressurizing our top line for the second half.

在北美，自去年底以來，經銷商庫存水平一直朝著正確的方向發展，但也略低於預期。此外，我們在歐洲的液壓同事在第二季度處理了一場工廠火災。然後到了七月，他們不得不忍受龍捲風、冰雹和洪水。我很高興地報告我們所有的隊友都很安全，這是最重要的。這些宏觀問題與自然災害相結合，給我們下半年的營收帶來壓力。

As a result, our near-term visibility is, in fact, less clear than our long-term outlook. We are adjusting to current conditions while continuing to prepare for what we believe will be a very healthy 2024.

因此，我們的近期前景實際上不如長期前景那麼清晰。我們正在適應當前形勢，同時繼續為我們認為非常健康的 2024 年做好準備。

Before I turn the call over to Tricia to review the financials, I would like to wish her well on her retirement. Tricia has been a cornerstone of our company during her 26 years of service, 17 of which she served as the CFO. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire company, I would like to express our gratitude for her significant contributions. We wish you the best in your next chapter of life.

在我將電話轉給特里西婭查看財務狀況之前，我謹祝她退休一切順利。 Tricia 在 26 年的服務生涯中一直是我們公司的基石，其中 17 年擔任首席財務官。我謹代表董事會和整個公司對她的重大貢獻表示感謝。我們祝愿您在人生的下一個篇章中一切順利。

Starting tomorrow, Tricia passes the baton off to our new CFO, Sean Bagan. Sean joins us most recently from a 23-year career with Polaris. He has a proven track record of building, growing and transforming global businesses into highly productive and profitable operations. We are excited to welcome Sean to the Helios family.

從明天開始，Tricia 將接力棒交給我們的新任首席財務官 Sean Bagan。 Sean 最近加入我們，在 Polaris 工作了 23 年。他在建立、發展全球業務並將其轉變為高生產力和高利潤業務方面有著良好的記錄。我們很高興歡迎 Sean 加入 Helios 大家庭。

I will now turn the call over to Tricia to review our financial results for a final time. She will then hand it back to me for some closing color. Tricia, please?

我現在將把電話轉給特里西婭，最後一次審查我們的財務業績。然後她會把它交還給我一些結束顏色。特里西婭，請嗎？

Thank you, Josef, and hello, everyone. On Slides 6 through 10, I will review our second quarter 2023 consolidated results.

謝謝你，約瑟夫，大家好。在幻燈片 6 至 10 中，我將回顧我們 2023 年第二季度的合併業績。

We continued to deliver solid sequential improvement, with revenue up 7%. Profitability also improved sequentially, with operating income and net income up 19% and 21%, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA expanded 170 basis points, and free cash flow was up $15 million, or 475%. We were able to deliver these results even as we drive investments in our future.

我們繼續實現穩健的環比改善，收入增長了 7%。盈利能力也環比改善，營業收入和淨利潤分別增長 19% 和 21%。調整後 EBITDA 擴大 170 個基點，自由現金流增加 1500 萬美元，即 475%。即使我們推動對未來的投資，我們也能夠實現這些成果。

By market, Australian mining began a recovery and grew significantly in the quarter both sequentially and year-over-year. Encouragingly, health and wellness increased more than 20% over the first quarter, continuing to build off the floor we hit in the fourth quarter last year. Agriculture, a large end market for Helios, saw robust growth in the quarter over the year-ago period and modestly improved sequentially. Recreational sales had a solid quarter, with high single-digit annual growth and double-digit sequential growth. There were mixed results within the mobile market, with specialty vehicles and construction being the top performer sequentially. As you might imagine, we can have variability from quarter-to-quarter within our markets.

從市場來看，澳大利亞礦業開始復蘇，本季度環比和同比均大幅增長。令人鼓舞的是，健康和保健比第一季度增長了 20% 以上，繼續在去年第四季度的基礎上繼續發展。農業是 Helios 的一個大型終端市場，本季度較去年同期強勁增長，並環比略有改善。娛樂銷售季度表現強勁，年增長率為高個位數，環比增長率為兩位數。移動市場的結果好壞參半，特種車輛和建築依次表現最佳。正如您可能想像的那樣，我們的市場每個季度都會出現變化。

Our strong revenue growth over Q1 '23 was driven by the electronics segment, which was up 15%, while the hydraulics segment was up 3%. Year-over-year, hydraulics was up 7%. And if you exclude health and wellness, electronics increased 5% over last year's second quarter.

我們在 23 年第一季度的強勁收入增長是由電子部門推動的，該部門增長了 15%，而液壓部門增長了 3%。液壓技術同比增長 7%。如果排除健康和保健因素，電子產品比去年第二季度增長了 5%。

Geographically, we saw growth across all regions sequentially led by the Americas at 10%, EMEA was 4% growth, and APAC at 3%. Compared with last year, revenue decreased both in EMEA and in the Americas by 5% each and by 10% in APAC, reflecting macroeconomic conditions. Overall, we had nominal unfavorable FX impact on revenue of $0.3 million in the quarter.

從地域上看，我們看到所有地區的增長率依次為：美洲增長 10%，歐洲、中東和非洲增長 4%，亞太地區增長 3%。與去年相比，歐洲、中東和非洲地區和美洲地區的收入均下降了 5%，亞太地區的收入下降了 10%，這反映了宏觀經濟狀況。總體而言，匯率對本季度收入產生了 30 萬美元的名義不利影響。

Sequentially, gross profit grew 7% and gross margin was unchanged over the first quarter. As we would expect, on a year-over-year basis, the lower volumes impacted our gross profit. The benefits of pricing net of material cost increases, acquisitions and improved direct labor efficiency on gross profit were offset primarily by lower volume.

隨後，毛利潤增長 7%，毛利率與第一季度持平。正如我們所預期的那樣，與去年同期相比，銷量下降影響了我們的毛利潤。扣除材料成本增加、收購和直接勞動效率提高後的定價對毛利潤的影響主要被銷量下降所抵消。

Our SEA expenses sequentially were down slightly but up $5.5 million, or 17% compared with the second quarter of 2022. As we have discussed, we are investing heavily in our growth plans and incremental SEA related to acquisitions, integration, growth and new product development, which are driving the year-over-year increases.

我們的SEA 支出環比略有下降，但與2022 年第二季度相比增加了550 萬美元，即17%。正如我們所討論的，我們正在大力投資於我們的增長計劃以及與收購、整合、增長和新產品開發相關的增量SEA ，這推動了同比增長。

As I mentioned, adjusted EBITDA increased 16% sequentially, and adjusted EBITDA margin of 22% was up 170 basis points over the first quarter level. Even as we make growth investments, we delivered top-tier EBITDA margins as an industrial technology company.

正如我提到的，調整後 EBITDA 環比增長 16%，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 22%，比第一季度水平增長 170 個基點。即使我們進行增長投資，作為一家工業技術公司，我們也實現了頂級的 EBITDA 利潤率。

Our effective tax rate in the second quarter was 22.9%, up slightly from the prior year based on the mix of earnings in various jurisdictions. Diluted non-GAAP cash EPS of $0.81 in the quarter reflects the impacts I've discussed as well as a $0.09 impact from higher interest expenses compared to last year.

根據各個司法管轄區的收入組合，我們第二季度的有效稅率為 22.9%，比上年略有上升。本季度攤薄後非 GAAP 現金每股收益為 0.81 美元，反映了我所討論的影響以及與去年相比較高的利息支出帶來的 0.09 美元的影響。

Slides 9 and 10 provide visual trends on overall key metrics for the past several quarters. We estimate that supply chain constraints delayed $14.2 million in sales at quarter-end, up sequentially from $12.4 million and down from $15.1 million in the year ago period.

幻燈片 9 和 10 提供了過去幾個季度總體關鍵指標的直觀趨勢。我們估計，供應鏈限制導致季末銷售額延遲了 1,420 萬美元，比上一季度的 1,240 萬美元有所增加，比去年同期的 1,510 萬美元有所下降。

On Slide 11, you will find the highlights for our second quarter hydraulics segment. Sales grew 7% over the prior year period. Acquisitions added $15.2 million. Sequentially, the segment grew 3% over Q1 '23. Gross profit increased modestly, driven by price, efficiency and acquisitions, partially offset by rising material costs. Gross margin this quarter decreased 210 basis points compared with Q2 '22 primarily due to rising material costs in the margin profile of acquisitions. SEA expenses increased by $4.3 million or 23% year-over-year. The increases were driven by acquisitions as well as growth investments.

在幻燈片 11 上，您將看到我們第二季度液壓部分的亮點。銷售額較上年同期增長 7%。收購增加了 1520 萬美元。隨後，該細分市場比 2023 年第一季度增長了 3%。在價格、效率和收購的推動下，毛利潤小幅增長，​​但部分被材料成本上漲所抵消。與 2022 年第二季度相比，本季度的毛利率下降了 210 個基點，主要是由於收購利潤率中材料成本的上升。 SEA 費用同比增加 430 萬美元，即 23%。這些增長是由收購和增長投資推動的。

Please turn to Slide 12 for a review of our electronics segment. This segment is more concentrated in the U.S., so foreign currency usually does not have much of an impact. Sequentially, as mentioned, we had 15% growth in this segment. Annually, electronics sales decreased by 24% to $75.2 million as demand across all regions declined primarily related to the softness in the health and wellness market. Excluding health and wellness, electronics grew 5% over last year, driven by recreational mobile and agriculture market.

請參閱幻燈片 12，回顧我們的電子部門。該細分市場更集中在美國，因此外幣通常不會產生太大影響。隨後，如前所述，我們在這一領域實現了 15% 的增長。電子產品銷售額每年下降 24% 至 7,520 萬美元，因為所有地區的需求下降主要與健康和保健市場的疲軟有關。不包括健康和保健在內，在娛樂移動和農業市場的推動下，電子產品比去年增長了 5%。

The electronics gross profit of $26 million grew 24% sequentially and gross margin expanded 260 basis points. Year-over-year, lower gross profit reflects the slowdown in the health and wellness market. Gross margin increased 150 basis points over Q2 '22 due to favorable sales mix and material costs. SEA expenses increased sequentially 4% over the Q1 '23 level.

電子產品毛利潤為 2600 萬美元，環比增長 24%，毛利率擴大 260 個基點。毛利潤同比下降反映了健康和保健市場的放緩。由於有利的銷售組合和材料成本，毛利率比 2022 年第二季度增長了 150 個基點。 SEA 支出比 2023 年第一季度的水平連續增長 4%。

Please turn to Slide 13 for a review of our cash flow. We had strong cash generation in the quarter with $28.8 million in adjusted cash from operations. Cash and cash equivalents were $37.5 million, providing us sufficient liquidity. CapEx of $10.5 million was 5% of sales for the quarter, at the upper end of our expected range to support our growth and expansion plans. Adjusted free cash flow was $58.8 million on a trailing 12-month basis with a conversion rate of 100% compared with 79% for the full year 2022.

請參閱幻燈片 13 來回顧我們的現金流。本季度我們的現金生成能力強勁，調整後的運營現金為 2,880 萬美元。現金及現金等價物為3750萬美元，為我們提供了充足的流動性。資本支出為 1,050 萬美元，佔本季度銷售額的 5%，處於我們支持增長和擴張計劃的預期範圍的上限。過去 12 個月的調整後自由現金流為 5,880 萬美元，轉換率為 100%，而 2022 年全年為 79%。

You can see on Slide 14 that we have a solid balance sheet and financial flexibility to execute our strategy for growth. Total liquidity at the end of the quarter was $221 million. Our net debt to adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio was 2.7x ending the quarter.

您可以在幻燈片 14 中看到，我們擁有穩健的資產負債表和財務靈活性來執行我們的增長戰略。本季度末的流動資金總額為 2.21 億美元。本季度末，我們的淨債務與調整後 EBITDA 槓桿率為 2.7 倍。

As you know, we have a well-established track record of managing our leverage ratio as we execute on our acquisition strategy. As we increased above our target level for recent acquisitions, we have been able to quickly de-lever back to or below our target leverage ratio of 2x based on our cash generation.

如您所知，在執行收購策略時，我們在管理槓桿率方面擁有良好的記錄。隨著我們近期收購的目標水平之上，我們能夠根據我們的現金生成能力，迅速將槓桿率降低至或低於 2 倍的目標槓桿率。

Before I hand it back over to Josef for a review of the outlook and closing comments, I would like to express my gratitude to each and every member of Helios, past and present, for their role in what has been a rewarding career for me. I have had the honor and privilege to work with so many exceptionally talented and brilliant people throughout the years. I also want to thank all of you on this call as well for being with me on this great journey. Importantly, I have great confidence in the future of Helios, the power of our strategy and the capabilities of the team to execute on them.

在我將其交還給 Josef 進行展望和結束語之前，我想對 Helios 的每一位成員（過去和現在）表示感謝，感謝他們在我的職業生涯中所扮演的角色。多年來，我有幸與這麼多才華橫溢、才華橫溢的人一起工作。我還要感謝參加這次電話會議的所有人，感謝你們與我一起度過了這段偉大的旅程。重要的是，我對 Helios 的未來、我們戰略的力量以及團隊執行這些戰略的能力充滿信心。

Please reference Slides 15 to 17 as I hand it back to Josef.

當我將其交還給約瑟夫時，請參考幻燈片 15 至 17。

Thank you much, Tricia. Again, we truly appreciate your dedicated service first to Sun hydraulics and then Helios over so many years.

非常感謝你，特里西婭。再次，我們衷心感謝您多年來對 Sun Hydraulics 和 Helios 的竭誠服務。

We are moderating our outlook for the second half of the year, given the factors I mentioned that have reduced near-term visibility. We now expect revenue in the range of $880 million to $900 million, implying the second half will be similar to the first half. We expect more weighting in the fourth quarter versus the third. As a result of the accelerated capacity expansion, we are investing over $10 million.

鑑於我提到的降低近期能見度的因素，我們正在調整對下半年的展望。我們目前預計收入在 8.8 億美元至 9 億美元之間，這意味著下半年將與上半年相似。我們預計第四季度的權重將高於第三季度。由於產能擴張加速，我們投資超過 1000 萬美元。

With these revenues and investment expectations, we are moderating our adjusted EBITDA target for this year to $187 million to $196 million, still a healthy 21% to 22%. We intend to get to the mid-20s and beyond and adjusted EBITDA margin over time, but we are down-shifting our gears in the short term to absorb the one-time macro factors and build momentum to climb our next growth slope.

考慮到這些收入和投資預期，我們將今年調整後的 EBITDA 目標下調至 1.87 億至 1.96 億美元，仍然保持在 21% 至 22% 的健康水平。我們的目標是達到 20 多歲及以上，並隨著時間的推移調整 EBITDA 利潤率，但我們將在短期內放慢速度，以吸收一次性宏觀因素，並為攀登下一個增長坡度積蓄動力。

There are clearly a lot of great things coming together at Helios. We are executing against the pillars of our business system. The second quarter demonstrates our ability to protect our business and margins while investing for the future. As we think and act globally, we efficiently leverage our expanding footprint through our new regional centers of excellence. We are diversifying our end markets and revenue through our new innovations and solutions to grow wallet share. While our team continuously demonstrate the dedication and tenacity to our shared purpose, we develop our talent by fostering a diverse and customer-centric learning organization.

顯然，Helios 匯聚了許多偉大的事物。我們正在針對我們業務系統的支柱執行任務。第二季度展示了我們在投資未來的同時保護業務和利潤的能力。當我們在全球範圍內思考和行動時，我們通過新的區域卓越中心有效地利用我們不斷擴大的足跡。我們正在通過新的創新和解決方案來實現終端市場和收入的多元化，以增加錢包份額。在我們的團隊不斷展現對我們共同目標的奉獻和堅韌的同時，我們通過培育多元化和以客戶為中心的學習型組織來發展我們的人才。

We have our sights set on driving shareholder value far into the future. As I said earlier, our future is very bright. With that, let's open up the lines for Q&A, please.

我們的目標是在未來推動股東價值。正如我之前所說，我們的未來非常光明。現在，讓我們開始問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Chris Moore with CJS Securities.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 CJS 證券的 Chris Moore。

Maybe I'll start with Josef. Josef, just hoping you could talk a little bit more about what's transpiring this year, what have you seen so far, kind of what you expect for the rest of the year into '24 and beyond with the investments that you're making.

也許我會從約瑟夫開始。約瑟夫，只是希望您能多談談今年發生的事情，到目前為止您所看到的情況，以及您對 24 年剩餘時間及以後的投資的期望。

Chris, certainly. Let me break this down into maybe 2 parts. So the first part of it, just addressing the current state and the headwinds we are seeing and have been seeing going into 2023, and then switching over to the more exciting part, 2024 and beyond.

克里斯，當然。讓我把它分成兩部分。因此，第一部分只是解決當前的狀況以及我們在 2023 年之前看到和一直看到的不利因素，然後轉向更令人興奮的部分，即 2024 年及以後。

So when we entered this year, on the OEM side we usually have pretty good visibility, and that is panning out to be exactly what we expected. On the distributor side, which is very heavily weighted on our Sun Hydraulics CVT business, in North America we saw elevated inventory levels, but has started to come down pretty nicely. So the trend clearly showed month-over-month that the inventories are coming down into what will be a reorder pattern back to somewhat of a normal.

因此，當我們進入今年時，在 OEM 方面，我們通常具有相當好的知名度，而這正是我們所期望的。在分銷商方面，我們的 SunHydraulics CVT 業務佔有很大比重，在北美，我們看到庫存水平有所上升，但已經開始大幅下降。因此，這一趨勢清楚地表明，逐月庫存正在下降，重新訂購模式將恢復到正常水平。

And then we had substantial conversations with our distributors in Asia, specifically in China. And there was a pretty good sentiment that the recovery will start taking shape in Q1, ramping up into Q2 and continuing into Q3. So we obviously bake this in the forecast. And clearly, we have eye on this. So having gotten that customer feedback, we anticipated strong orders coming out of Asia since 40% of our hydraulic CVT revenue goes into Asia, specifically into China. That didn't pan out. That's on us beyond that, following by our marine demand has been very stable, but tempering off slightly. Not falling off the cliff, but tempering off. And the Balboa business in the health and wellness showed very strong sense of recovery in Q1 going into Q2 and now kind of plateauing off at levels we saw in Q1 and Q2.

然後我們與亞洲（特別是中國）的經銷商進行了實質性對話。人們普遍認為複蘇將在第一季度開始形成，並在第二季度加速並持續到第三季度。所以我們顯然在預測中考慮了這一點。顯然，我們正在關注這一點。因此，在獲得客戶反饋後，我們預計來自亞洲的訂單量將很大，因為我們 40% 的液壓 CVT 收入將流向亞洲，特別是中國。但這並沒有成功。除此之外，我們的海洋需求一直非常穩定，但略有放緩。不是從懸崖上掉下來，而是磨練下來。巴爾博亞的健康和保健業務在第一季度和第二季度表現出非常強烈的複蘇意識，現在趨於穩定在我們在第一季度和第二季度看到的水平。

So, all in, that's what drove us to kind of be a little bit more conservative on the forecast, just by not having enough visibility in the second half and not knowing if China will really recover this year or not recover this year. So naturally, when you add those 3 factors, between 40% of volume going into China, distributor inventories still slightly higher than expected, we lose leverage on the top line.

因此，總而言之，這就是促使我們對預測更加保守的原因，只是因為下半年沒有足夠的可見性，並且不知道中國今年是否會真正復甦或不會復蘇。因此，自然地，當你添加這 3 個因素時，40% 的銷量進入中國，分銷商庫存仍略高於預期，我們就失去了營收槓桿。

And then to add a little bit more flavor to that story to our current state, we had a very unfortunate situation in Europe where we literally lost 10 production days of manufacturing, following by Mother Nature kicking in and adding a few more days of loss. So, all in, that's what drove our pullback in terms of top line, so to kind of summarize, Chris, I hope your first question of the current state.

然後，為了給我們目前的狀況增添一點趣味，我們在歐洲遇到了非常不幸的情況，我們實際上損失了 10 個生產天數，隨後大自然的介入又增加了幾天的損失。所以，總而言之，這就是導致我們營收下滑的原因，所以總結一下，克里斯，我希望你提出關於當前狀態的第一個問題。

Now going into 2024 and beyond, we have been saying now for 1.5 years or a couple of years, we have methodically worked with some customers. One is a current customer, 2 are new customer to us, but, more importantly, they're also very new markets to us. And we went through the initial RFQ stage to an RFP stage, and the appetite got much stronger as the customer needs to make certain strategic decisions before year-end, and that accelerated, obviously, our investment portfolio.

現在進入 2024 年及以後，我們已經說過 1.5 年或幾年了，我們已經與一些客戶有條不紊地合作。一位是我們的現有客戶，兩位是我們的新客戶，但更重要的是，他們對我們來說也是非常新的市場。我們經歷了最初的 RFQ 階段到 RFP 階段，隨著客戶需要在年底前做出某些戰略決策，興趣變得更加強烈，這顯然加速了我們的投資組合。

And as part of the process is, they want to see and review our operations and the lines and the equipment in place before we can hit the ground running. So that was the main reason why we are adding over 200,000 square feet of capacity to be able to absorb that new incoming business.

作為流程的一部分，他們希望在我們開始運行之前查看並審查我們的運營以及到位的生產線和設備。這就是我們增加超過 200,000 平方英尺產能以吸收新業務的主要原因。

That has been in play for the last 1.5 years. It's finally around the corner, and we're gearing up for that journey. And we have invested year-to-date over $10 million additional dollars into that because we truly feel that is the right thing for Helios and that is the right thing for our shareholders. So that's kind of the 2 answers to your question, Chris.

這在過去 1.5 年裡一直在發揮作用。它終於來臨了，我們正在為這一旅程做好準備。今年迄今為止，我們已為此額外投資了超過 1000 萬美元，因為我們確實認為這對 Helios 來說是正確的事情，對我們的股東來說也是正確的事情。這就是你問題的兩個答案，克里斯。

And what's the timing on the additional capacity? Is that first half of '24? Or what do you see at this stage?

新增產能的時間是什麼時候？這是24年上半年嗎？或者說你在這個階段看到了什麼？

Yes. Our revised plans indicate that we will be completed by around Q1 of 2024. It's broken down into different geographic territories, Chris. Obviously, a lot of them is in North America between Daman and CVT. There is significant expansion going on in Europe at the Faster location. There's 2 different phases. Phase 1, we're adding an additional 35,000 to 40,000 square feet, and then there is another phase coming in 2024, where we will add another 100,000 square feet. So Faster will go from 300,000 square feet to 600,000 square feet over time. And then we are standing up a brand-new facility next door to our current one in Mexico, adding another 75,000 square feet.

是的。我們修訂後的計劃表明我們將在 2024 年第一季度左右完成。克里斯，它分為不同的地理區域。顯然，其中很多都在北美達曼和 CVT 之間。 Faster 地點正在歐洲進行重大擴張。有兩個不同的階段。第一階段，我們將額外增加 35,000 至 40,000 平方英尺，然後在 2024 年進行另一階段，我們將再增加 100,000 平方英尺。隨著時間的推移，Faster 的面積將從 300,000 平方英尺增加到 600,000 平方英尺。然後，我們在墨西哥現有工廠的旁邊建立了一個全新的工廠，面積又增加了 75,000 平方英尺。

So if you extrapolate this into potential future orders, we would never add capacity if we wouldn't feel comfortable the demand is coming. So the answer to your question is we should be complete with Phase 1 in Q1 2024.

因此，如果你將其推斷為未來潛在的訂單，如果我們對需求的到來感到不安，我們永遠不會增加產能。因此，您問題的答案是我們應該在 2024 年第一季度完成第一階段。

Our next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Hammond with KeyBanc.

我們的下一個問題來自 KeyBanc 的杰弗裡·哈蒙德 (Jeffrey Hammond)。

Best of luck to you, Tricia.

祝你好運，特里西婭。

Thank you.

謝謝。

So I wanted to make sure I understand these accelerated costs. So it looks like you had $2 million in 1Q. I want to know what the accelerated costs were in 2Q, and I think you said $10 million in the second half. And just want to verify these. One, what do they entail in terms of pulling forward expansion? And just to be clear that these are all kind of one-time and go away next year?

所以我想確保我了解這些加速成本。所以看起來你在第一季度有 200 萬美元。我想知道第二季度的加速成本是多少，我想你說下半年是 1000 萬美元。只是想驗證這些。第一，它們對於推動擴張意味著什麼？需要澄清的是，這些都是一次性的，明年就會消失？

Yes, Jeff, certainly. So year-to-date, we accelerated cost around $10 million and those OpEx costs, meaning certain equipment expediting costs, freight, extra contract, those extra people, setting up the manufacturing sales based on the agreement we have with our customers, where we have visual work aids where we have work instructions, ergonomic addressable items. Those type of cost is what drives a lot of dollars.

是的，傑夫，當然。因此，今年迄今為止，我們加速了約1000 萬美元的成本和那些運營支出成本，這意味著某些設備加速成本、運費、額外合同、那些額外的人員、根據我們與客戶達成的協議建立製造銷售，其中我們有視覺工作輔助工具，其中有工作說明、符合人體工程學的可尋址物品。這些類型的成本驅動了大量的美元。

And in many cases, when we order the material, the lead times in terms of equipment was much, much longer than we could have waited, so we had to pay premium to get the equipment in. But once that is fully paid, Jeff, the answer to your question is, yes, those will be one-time costs, and we certainly expect that to pay back with accelerated and better margins, going forward.

在許多情況下，當我們訂購材料時，設備的交貨時間比我們等待的時間要長得多，因此我們必須支付額外費用才能獲得設備。但是一旦全額付款，傑夫，你的問題的答案是，是的，這些將是一次性成本，我們當然希望未來能以更快和更好的利潤率獲得回報。

So it's $10 million in first half, $10 million in second half?

那麼上半年是1000萬美元，下半年是1000萬美元嗎？

$10 million in first half that's in the books. I'm not sure the $10 million will be exactly in the second half because we're going to watch it very closely here, Jeff. We had a couple of forecasting boo-boos here when we anticipated strong orders from the international markets, and we obviously own that. So we want to be a little bit careful how much do we spend and still protect the margins. But there clearly will be additional one-time dollars in the second half in the area of $4 million to $6 million, $4 million to $8 million. Tricia, does this sound right?

上半年賬面收入為 1000 萬美元。我不確定 1000 萬美元是否會在下半年發生，因為我們將在這裡密切關注，傑夫。當我們預計來自國際市場的強勁訂單時，我們有一些預測上的噓聲，顯然我們也承認這一點。因此，我們希望在花多少錢的同時仍能保護利潤。但下半年顯然還會有額外的一次性資金，金額為 400 萬至 600 萬美元、400 萬至 800 萬美元。特里西婭，這聽起來對嗎？

Yes. And we still have a pretty big range on the top line of our guidance that reflects some of the uncertainty that we have in the top line. So at the lower revenue levels, we understand that we can lose a little bit of leverage, so we baked that into the assumptions, as well.

是的。我們的指導的頂線仍然有相當大的範圍，這反映了我們頂線的一些不確定性。因此，在收入水平較低的情況下，我們知道我們可能會失去一點槓​​桿作用，因此我們也將其納入假設中。

And then you've been talking about this. Obviously, you're pulling forward $15 million of costs. So I think you mentioned in the prepared remarks kind of step-change opportunity. So I just want you to better frame the opportunity around the '24 and kind of the pull-forward and all the capacity expansions.

然後你們就一直在談論這個。顯然，您將預支 1500 萬美元的成本。所以我認為你在準備好的發言中提到了一種逐步改變的機會。因此，我只是希望你們能夠更好地圍繞 24 世紀的機遇，以及各種拉動和所有產能擴張。

Yes, Jeff. So what we'll be talking about here is an integrated systems package that 2 of our customers have been working with us for north of 1.5 years now. And one customer had that product, or many different elements of the product in-sourced, and now they have decided to outsource this as an integrated package. And we are due to submit final prototypes next Thursday, and the feedback has been very strong and very complimentary.

是的，傑夫。因此，我們在這裡要討論的是一個集成系統包，我們的 2 位客戶已經與我們合作超過 1.5 年了。一位客戶擁有該產品或該產品的許多不同元素，現在他們決定將其作為集成包外包。我們將於下週四提交最終原型，反饋非常強烈且非常讚揚。

The other customer is more on the commercial food service side, where we have worked very closely together and feel comfortable now that we are far along that the step change will start to occur in 2024. From a monetary standpoint, or dollars, so to say, look, when you add 200,000 square feet globally, you're talking about a pretty nice size business starting in 2024 through 2027, and we feel pretty good that this is going to happen.

另一個客戶更多地在商業食品服務方面，我們在這方面合作非常密切，現在我們感到很放心，因為我們已經在2024 年開始發生階躍變化。從貨幣的角度來看，或者說從美元的角度來看，看，當你在全球範圍內增加 200,000 平方英尺時，你談論的是從 2024 年到 2027 年開始的規模相當大的業務，我們對這將會發生感到非常高興。

Our next question comes from the line of Mig Dobre with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Mig Dobre 和 Baird 的對話。

Tricia, all the best to you, working with you for the last 13, 14 years. I've always really appreciated your help and insight. So good luck.

Tricia，祝你一切順利，在過去的 13、14 年裡與你一起工作。我一直非常感謝您的幫助和洞察力。祝你好運。

Thank you, Mig, I appreciate that. It's been a pleasure.

謝謝你，米格，我很感激。這是我的榮幸。

I guess where I would like to start, I'm a little bit confused about on what's going on with capacity. There are a lot of numbers that are flying around there, Faster going from 300,000 square feet to 600,000, Balboa, or the facility in Mexico, adding 75,000 square feet. Maybe we can sort of take a 30,000-foot view here. And have you outlined for us what percentage increase in your square footage or capacity are you currently undergoing versus maybe where we were a year ago? And what exactly does that mean for the company's ability to support revenue? Or, essentially, what are you scaling your business up to?

我想我想從哪裡開始，我對容量的情況有點困惑。有很多數字在那裡飛來飛去，Faster 的面積從 300,000 平方英尺增加到 600,000 平方英尺，巴爾博亞或墨西哥的工廠增加了 75,000 平方英尺。或許我們可以從三萬英尺的高度俯瞰這裡。您是否向我們概述了您目前的面積或容量與一年前相比增加了多少百分比？這對於公司支持收入的能力到底意味著什麼？或者，本質上，您要將業務擴展至什麼程度？

I heard the first part of your question. I don't know if we had a technical issue here, but I apologize, I didn't hear the second part.

我聽到了你問題的第一部分。我不知道我們是否遇到了技術問題，但我很抱歉，我沒有聽到第二部分。

I'm trying to understand the changes in capacity here because there's been a lot of numbers that were kind of like floating around between Faster and Balboa so on. So can you maybe talk about what percentage of your existing capacity, relative to your existing capacity, are you adding? And what are you scaling this business up to? What sort of annual revenue run rate will this capacity be able to support?

我試圖了解這裡容量的變化，因為有很多數字有點像在 Faster 和 Balboa 之間浮動。那麼，您能否談談相對於現有容量，您要增加的現有容量的百分比是多少？您打算將這項業務擴展到什麼程度？該產能能夠支持什麼樣的年收入運行率？

So for an example, In Indiana, we are going in Mishawaka here in terms of now becoming a center of excellence for our manifolds. We are going from 40% to pretty much 70% of capacity. Everywhere we're adding capacity, Mig, is based on percentage of volume increase and also our strategy of center of excellence, regional structure coming to play and in the region, for the region.

舉個例子，在印第安納州，我們要去米沙沃卡，現在這裡已成為我們流形的卓越中心。我們的產能利用率將從 40% 提高到近 70%。無論我們在哪裡增加產能，Mig，都是基於銷量增長的百分比以及我們的卓越中心戰略、正在發揮作用的區域結構，以及在該地區、為該地區。

So as we look at the new incoming business with the step change we are talking about in the integrated package, when we extrapolated our overall opportunity for the next 3 years to come and the volume associated with that and how much we need per square foot, that's what drove the investments globally. So in so many words, with the one particular customer we are working on, they will be absorbing or purchasing an integrated package that has different sizes of manifolds, some cartridge valves, Faster couplings, wire harnesses and Enovation controls. So every business has a piece of the square footage assigned to that volume, and that's how we came up with the capacity and the hours needed to manufacture that product.

因此，當我們通過我們在集成包中討論的逐步變化來看待新的傳入業務時，當我們推斷出未來 3 年的總體機會以及與之相關的數量以及我們每平方英尺需要多少時，這就是推動全球投資的原因。因此，總而言之，對於我們正在合作的一個特定客戶，他們將吸收或購買一個集成套件，其中包含不同尺寸的歧管、一些插裝閥、更快的接頭、線束和 Enovation 控制裝置。因此，每個企業都有一塊分配給該體積的平方英尺，這就是我們如何得出製造該產品所需的產能和時間的方法。

So capacity is going up, what, 20%, 30%?

那麼產能正在增加，20%、30%？

It's around 25% globally.

全球約為25%。

From a pure square footage perspective, but I think the opportunity really is how we can better utilize all of the square footage that we have with this additional space and the way we're laying out the plants with the additional space, hopefully getting more out of the 25% than 25% for top line.

從純粹的平方英尺角度來看，但我認為真正的機會是我們如何更好地利用這些額外空間所擁有的所有平方英尺，以及我們用額外空間佈置植物的方式，希望能獲得更多收益25%的人比收入的25% 人多。

And what exactly is your guess here in terms of, or your goals in terms of what the business will be able to support as far as total revenues are concerned? Are we talking $1.2 billion, $1.3 billion or more?

就總收入而言，您對業務將能夠支持什麼方面的猜測或您的目標到底是什麼？我們談論的是 12 億美元、13 億美元還是更多？

I knew this question will come, so I'm going to learn a little bit here from the previous forecasting assumptions we have made in particular to my opening comments in Asia. But I would say it's around $300 million in addition to our current guidance.

我知道這個問題將會出現，所以我將從我們之前所做的預測假設中學習一些知識，特別是我在亞洲的開場評論。但我想說，除了我們當前的指導之外，還需要大約 3 億美元。

You're adding the capacity now. The revenue's coming in the future. Are we to infer then that, at least until this revenue starts to really materialize and reach kind of like the full rate capacity, we should be thinking that there is going to be an under-absorption element from a cost standpoint, which is going to pressure margins into 2024.

您現在正在添加容量。收入將在未來到來。那麼我們是否可以推斷，至少在這種收入開始真正實現並達到類似全速率容量之前，我們應該認為從成本的角度來看將會存在吸收不足的因素，這將導致2024 年的壓力裕度。

Well, I think our manufacturing strategy that we have laid out and you guys understand really well offset a significant piece of that, Mig. And we also have other levers that we are pulling, as we speak, to really minimize that risk.

嗯，我認為我們已經制定的製造策略，你們也很理解，這很好地抵消了其中的重要部分，米格。正如我們所說，我們還有其他槓桿來真正最大限度地降低這種風險。

At the same time, what we don't want to do is start cutting in the SEA structure and SEA people because we're going to need those people as the capacity is finished. Those are all good, trained folks. So I think we have de-risk that offering based on our new revised guidance here and feel we can maintain that.

與此同時，我們不想做的是開始削減 SEA 結構和 SEA 人員，因為當產能完成時我們將需要這些人員。這些都是受過訓練的好人。因此，我認為我們已經根據新修訂的指南降低了該產品的風險，並認為我們可以維持這一點。

And with a little bit of a little bit of uptick in the recovery in Asia, and when you look at the distribution inventories, they are coming down. They are now around $64 million. And traditionally, when they drop down to $61 million, $60 million, you see a stronger reorder pattern. So we feel, if the volume comes back just a little bit, we can absorb that those investments and hold down margins.

隨著亞洲復甦的一點點上升，當你看看分銷庫存時，它們正在下降。現在的價值約為 6400 萬美元。傳統上，當它們下降到 6100 萬美元、6000 萬美元時，您會看到更強勁的重新訂購模式。因此，我們認為，如果銷量稍微回升，我們就可以吸收這些投資並壓低利潤率。

And Mig, this goes back to the comments that we made the last few quarters about step-level investments. This really is step-level investment, and it will take a little bit of time to absorb it. But when Josef talks about these new system opportunities and diversified market opportunities, we recognize that they could come in in big chunks. So we need to be able to have the capacity available to be able to take on those orders and to fulfill that demand in those markets spaces.

米格，這可以追溯到我們過去幾個季度關於階梯投資的評論。這確實是階梯級的投入，需要一點時間來消化。但當約瑟夫談到這些新系統機會和多元化市場機會時，我們認識到它們可能會帶來很大的好處。因此，我們需要能夠擁有足夠的能力來接受這些訂單並滿足這些市場空間的需求。

Want to ask a question about the guidance. So you reduced revenue $35 million at the midpoint, if my math is right. I'm curious to understand how your outlook has changed in hydraulics relative to electronics. So what's the moving pieces to that $35 million? And then on EBITDA, you cut EBITDA by about $30 million. And here, I guess I can understand about $10 million of it, right, coming from the lower revenue and volume. Are we to infer that the remainder is all of it associated with these investments? So I guess, maybe I'm asking Jeff's question in a different way here. Or is there something else other than the investments that's kind of contributing to this EBITDA cut? So a lot there, both revenue and EBITDA, so I'd appreciate that.

想請教一個關於指導的問題。因此，如果我的計算正確的話，您的收入中點減少了 3500 萬美元。我很想知道您對液壓技術相對於電子技術的看法發生了怎樣的變化。那麼這 3500 萬美元的動因是什麼？然後，在 EBITDA 上，您將 EBITDA 削減了約 3000 萬美元。在這裡，我想我可以理解其中大約 1000 萬美元，對吧，來自較低的收入和銷量。我們是否可以推斷其餘部分都與這些投資相關？所以我想，也許我在這里以不同的方式問傑夫的問題。或者除了投資之外還有其他因素導致了 EBITDA 的削減嗎？收入和 EBITDA 都有很多，所以我很感激。

So I'll start, Mig, and then, Josef, you can add on. We were pretty specific in our guidance at the $925 million midpoint. I don't really think we see a whole lot of difference on the electronics side. Balboa is still about where we thought it was going to be for the year. On the Enovation side, we're still up high single digits in our forecasting.

那麼我先開始，米格，然後約瑟夫，你可以補充。我們的指導非常具體，即 9.25 億美元的中點。我真的不認為我們在電子方面看到了很大的差異。巴爾博亞仍處於我們今年預期的水平。在創新方面，我們的預測仍然高個位數。

The downside, or the constraints really are coming more on the hydraulics side. We're seeing it in the Sun business related to inventory that we've already talked about as well as a little bit of a slowdown in the acquisition companies for Daman and Schultes from our original estimates, which both are in the hydraulics segment. So that's really what's driving the majority of what you're seeing in the change in guidances coming from the hydraulics side.

不利的一面，或者說限制確實更多地出現在液壓方面。我們在 Sun 與庫存相關的業務中看到了這一點，我們已經討論過這一點，並且根據我們最初的估計，Daman 和 Schultes 的收購公司略有放緩，這兩家公司都屬於液壓領域。因此，這確實是您在液壓方面的指導變化中看到的大部分內容的推動因素。

If you look at the EBITDA, certainly we have the investments. We originally thought they were going to curtail a little bit more in the back half of the year, but we expect to continue now, so that's taking into the EBITDA a bit. But at the lower revenue levels, we're also losing leverage. We recognize that we're going to have to possibly adjust the cost basis as we go forward if we're at the lower end of that range, but certainly it is cutting, at least on a short-term basis into profitability, recognizing that we need to make the investments so that we have 2024 set up well to take on this additional potential revenue that we're seeing from the system sale and diversified markets.

如果你看看 EBITDA，我們當然有投資。我們最初認為他們會在今年下半年進一步削減一些開支，但我們預計現在會繼續削減，所以這會考慮到 EBITDA 中。但在收入水平較低的情況下，我們也失去了槓桿作用。我們認識到，如果我們處於該範圍的下限，我們可能必須在前進時調整成本基礎，但肯定會削減盈利能力，至少在短期內如此，認識到這一點我們需要進行投資，以便在2024 年做好準備，從系統銷售和多元化市場中獲得額外的潛在收入。

My final question, it sounds to me like you're saying that, in the Americas business, the primary headwind seems to be destocking. And if I understand you correctly, you're to the level of channel inventory now where that suggest that destocking runs its course. But please correct me if I'm wrong about that. Are we to think then that revenues in the Americas improved sequentially in the back half relative to where you were in Q1? And also in Asia-Pacific, how are things trending as we're looking at the month of July, August? I mean, have things changed either for the good or bad relative to what you've observed in Q2?

我的最後一個問題，在我看來，您是在說，在美洲業務中，主要的阻力似乎是去庫存。如果我理解正確的話，現在的渠道庫存水平表明去庫存已經完成。但如果我的說法有誤，請糾正我。那麼我們是否認為美洲地區的收入在下半年相對於第一季度有所改善？同樣在亞太地區，七月、八月的趨勢如何？我的意思是，與您在第二季度觀察到的情況相比，情況發生了好壞變化嗎？

Yes. So in terms of channel inventory, Mig, the data points have been trending in the right direction over the last 3 months. So it started off at $78 million, dropped down to $74 million. Now it's in the 6s. So if we would play that data point and put an assumption on it, you will come in around could there be an improvement in the back half. Yes, there could, as long as the trend goes and continues in the right direction. But we are baking in certainly risk, just learning from our first half and learning from the feedback we have gotten last year versus where we are here on our actual basis.

是的。因此，就渠道庫存而言，Mig，過去 3 個月的數據點一直朝著正確的方向發展。所以它一開始是 7800 萬美元，後來下降到 7400 萬美元。現在已經是6s了。因此，如果我們播放該數據點並對其進行假設，您就會發現後半部分是否會有改進。是的，只要趨勢繼續朝著正確的方向發展，就有可能。但我們肯定會面臨風險，只是從上半年的情況中學習，從去年得到的反饋中學習，而不是根據我們的實際情況進行學習。

In Asia, it's how are the orders trending right now, pretty much the same that we have seen in the first half. There hasn't been any improvement yet. But look, I mean, we are looking at this as a near-term, short-term impact. That market will turn and the inventories are coming down; and eventually, this will work itself out of the system, and we're going to get back to the leverage we usually get with the [volume].

在亞洲，目前的訂單趨勢與我們上半年看到的幾乎相同。目前還沒有任何改善。但是，我的意思是，我們將其視為近期的、短期的影響。市場將會轉向，庫存將會下降；最終，這將在系統之外自行發揮作用，我們將回到我們通常通過[交易量]獲得的槓桿作用。

Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Jones with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Nathan Jones 和 Stifel 的對話。

Maybe I'll ask a question about the margin profile here. Typically, you guys will see new products come in at better margins. Is that the case with these large contract awards that you're looking at hopefully to get awarded here in the back half and ramp up into next year? Are you anticipating those to be accretive to the gross margin profile, and any color you could give us on how accretive they might be?

也許我會在這裡問一個關於保證金概況的問題。通常，你們會看到新產品的利潤更高。您希望在下半年獲得這些大額合同，並在明年繼續增加，情況是否就是這種情況？您是否預計這些會增加毛利率，您能否給我們提供一些顏色來說明它們的增加程度？

The answer to your question is the way we have quoted this business, and we spend a lot of time on the pricing of the offering and, quite honestly, didn't know exactly how to price it considering where the supply chain was, is, and in some cases will probably maintain for a longer period of time.

你的問題的答案是我們對這項業務的報價方式，我們花了很多時間在產品定價上，老實說，考慮到供應鏈在哪裡，我們不知道如何準確定價。在某些情況下可能會維持較長一段時間。

So the answer to your question is, yes, it will be a healthy margin profile. At the same time, we have, as you saw, the i3 acquisition brought significant value to our offering with a service system component that's actually patented and patent-protected. And the adoption rate has started, and that's kind of part of our journey as well, they will further improve our margin profile starting in 2024 as i3 will contribute to the journey pretty nicely, and they will extrapolate over the next 2, 3 years into something obviously much larger. As we have said in the past, we want to create a recurring revenue arm for our offering.

所以你的問題的答案是，是的，這將是一個健康的利潤狀況。與此同時，正如您所看到的，我們對 i3 的收購為我們的產品帶來了巨大的價值，其服務系統組件實際上已獲得專利並受到專利保護。採用率已經開始，這也是我們旅程的一部分，他們將從 2024 年開始進一步改善我們的利潤狀況，因為 i3 將為這一旅程做出相當大的貢獻，他們將在未來 2、3 年推斷顯然更大的東西。正如我們過去所說，我們希望為我們的產品創建一個經常性收入部門。

Maybe a follow-up on these potential new contracts and your awards here. I mean, (inaudible) is talking about very significant numbers. And, I mean, the word you used in the prepared remarks were a step function change in growth. Are these contracts something that go from 0 to 100 fairly quickly? Or do they ramp up over a period of quarters? Just any more kind of color you can give us on your expectation for how those layering over the next year or 2.

也許是這些潛在的新合同和您的獎項的後續行動。我的意思是，（聽不清）正在談論非常重要的數字。我的意思是，您在準備好的評論中使用的詞是增長的階躍函數變化。這些合約從 0 到 100 的速度是否相當快？或者它們會在幾個季度內上升嗎？您可以向我們提供更多類型的顏色，以表達您對未來一兩年的分層效果的期望。

Yes. So look, when you look at our customer base, Nathan, no customer is really larger than 4% to 5% in our offering currently. One of those wins, one of those customer wins will drive that to be our largest customer with one of the wins that we are targeting. So we certainly really look forward to that step-up journey starting in 2024. And once again, this is one customer we're talking about.

是的。所以，當你看看我們的客戶群時，Nathan，目前在我們的產品中沒有客戶真正超過 4% 到 5%。其中一項勝利，其中一項客戶勝利將推動其成為我們最大的客戶，並成為我們目標的勝利之一。因此，我們當然非常期待 2024 年開始的升級之旅。這也是我們正在談論的一位客戶。

And I mean, the question is how would that kind of ramp up? Is it something where you would be expecting production to go from -- you've talked about this being a new customer, or at least a couple of them being new customers. Are they something that would ramp up to 10% of the contract value in the first year or 20% in the second year? Or does it ramp up more quickly than that? How are you expecting that contract, or those contracts, to ramp up?

我的意思是，問題是這種情況會如何增加？這是您期望生產的地方嗎？您已經談到這是一個新客戶，或者至少其中有幾個是新客戶。它們是否會在第一年增加到合同價值的 10%，或者在第二年增加到合同價值的 20%？或者它的上升速度比這更快？您預計該合同或那些合同將如何增加？

Yes. This is exactly why we are pulling this capacity ahead. To be able to answer this question, Nathan, with factual data, we need a little bit more time, but it's not going to start with $50 million in 2024. We've got to finish our capacity. That is so vital to what we can commit to our customers, as they want to go faster that we can actually absorb right now. So if you wouldn't mind, just allow us a little bit more time to be able to answer that question once we get our capacity closer to where it needs to be.

是的。這正是我們推動這一產能的原因。 Nathan，為了用事實數據回答這個問題，我們需要更多一點時間，但 2024 年不會有 5000 萬美元啟動。我們必須完成我們的產能。這對於我們向客戶做出的承諾至關重要，因為他們希望速度更快，而我們現在就可以實際吸收。因此，如果您不介意的話，請允許我們多一點時間，以便在我們的產能接近所需水平後能夠回答這個問題。

Nathan, I was just going to add a little color there, too. We would expect, to your question, just about how that comes into the P&L; typically, it will phase over a period of time. It's not like it all comes in on day 1. So once you get that customer signed and in the door, it will build over potentially a multi-year period. And as you get multiple customers in the door, you start having that layering effect. So that could help add to that step-level function that we're talking about for '24.

內森，我也想在那裡添加一點顏色。對於您的問題，我們希望了解其如何計入損益表；通常，它會在一段時間內分階段進行。這並不是說所有的事情都是在第一天就完成的。因此，一旦您與該客戶簽約並進入，它可能會在多年的時間內建立起來。當你有多個顧客進門時，你就會開始產生分層效果。因此，這可能有助於添加我們正在討論的 24 世紀的階梯功能。

And if you're talking about customers having to make strategic decisions for 2024, these are things that you should be able to announce to us, or the customer should have to move on before the end of the year. Is that right?

如果您談論的是客戶必須為 2024 年做出戰略決策，那麼您應該能夠向我們宣布這些事情，否則客戶應該必須在年底之前繼續前進。是對的嗎？

Yes. One particular customer has to make a decision in September of this year for production years 2024 through 2027 and beyond.

是的。一位特定客戶必須在今年 9 月就 2024 年至 2027 年及以後的生產年份做出決定。

We look forward to hearing some announcements in the near-term then. And Tricia, just add my best wishes for the future.

我們期待在近期聽到一些公告。還有特里西婭，請添加我對未來的最美好的祝愿。

Thank you, Nathan. I appreciate it.

謝謝你，內森。我很感激。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Jon Braatz with Kansas City Capital.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自堪薩斯城資本公司的 Jon Braatz。

And Tricia, I too want to wish you the best of luck in your retirement. I enjoyed working with you, and congratulations.

特里西婭，我也祝愿你退休後一切順利。我很高興和你一起工作，祝賀你。

Thank you very much, Jon. I appreciate it.

非常感謝你，喬恩。我很感激。

Just I want to change the pace a little bit. The fire and the tornado at the Faster operation, how is that impacting the second half of the year?

只是我想稍微改變一下節奏。 Faster 工廠的火災和龍捲風對下半年有何影響？

The second half there should not be in terms of Faster in specific, and their expectations we have in place will stay intact as we were able to get some help with our integrated supply chain, but we are back up and running now. We originally planned for Faster actually to manufacture more product within the hydraulic segment to offset some of the headwinds we have seen with the CVT business in particular to Asia, or to China, and still some elevated inventory levels in North America. So they were not able to do that to CVT, but certainly met all the expectations that we had on the Faster side, so no impact to the second half.

下半年不應該具體而言更快，他們對我們的期望將保持不變，因為我們能夠在集成供應鏈方面獲得一些幫助，但我們現在已經恢復並運行。我們最初計劃 Faster 實際上在液壓領域生產更多產品，以抵消我們在 CVT 業務中看到的一些不利因素，特別是在亞洲或中國，以及北美的庫存水平仍然較高。所以他們無法對 CVT 做到這一點，但肯定滿足了我們對 Faster 方面的所有期望，因此對下半場沒有影響。

And then secondly, I think in response to one of the earlier questions about the accelerated investments, I think I heard you use the term Phase 1 to describe some of this. Is there a Phase 2? Are there additional investments? Of course, there's always additional investments, but is there an additional heavy investment program following these investment decisions?

其次，我認為在回答之前有關加速投資的問題之一時，我想我聽到您使用“第一階段”一詞來描述其中的一些內容。有第二階段嗎？有額外投資嗎？當然，總會有額外的投資，但在這些投資決策之後是否還有額外的重磅投資計劃？

So the comment about Phase 1 and Phase 2, Jon, was related to Faster. There's a Phase 1 that is adding around 35,000, 40,000 square feet, and then there will be a Phase 2 that will add around 100,000 square feet, and it's all driven based on upcoming demand organically generated through this product offering, system sales, and also a data science piece that we have been working with the Faster and hydraulics team to integrate with our customers.

所以關於第一階段和第二階段的評論，喬恩，與更快有關。第一階段將增加約 35,000、40,000 平方英尺，第二階段將增加約 100,000 平方英尺，這一切都是基於通過該產品供應、系統銷售以及有機產生的即將到來的需求來驅動的。我們一直在與Faster 和液壓團隊合作，與我們的客戶集成一個數據科學部分。

And then one final question. After all this investment is completed and the new programs begin and so on, is there a sense that your profitability will be elevated because of the investments, and more so than maybe what you were thinking 6 months ago, a year ago? What kind of return are we going to get on that investment?

然後是最後一個問題。當所有這些投資完成並且新項目開始等等之後，是否有一種感覺，您的盈利能力會因為這些投資而提高，並且可能比您 6 個月前、一年前的想法更高？我們將從這項投資中獲得什麼樣的回報？

Yes, certainly. Look, I mean, our horizon hasn't changed, Jon. I know this is a bold statement, but we truly, as a team, believe in that. When you couple all the manufacturing investments we have made prior to the capacity expansion here, creating the center of excellence, creating the regional structure, investing in new equipment, investing in supply chain, investing into new products and breakthrough technology, our horizon of being a 40% gross margin company and a 30% EBITDA company is not changing.

是的，當然了。聽著，我的意思是，我們的視野沒有改變，喬恩。我知道這是一個大膽的聲明，但作為一個團隊，我們確實相信這一點。當你把我們在產能擴張之前所做的所有製造投資結合起來時，創建卓越中心，創建區域結構，投資新設備，投資供應鏈，投資新產品和突破性技術，我們的視野毛利率為40%的公司和EBITDA 為30% 的公司沒有變化。

Ms. Almond, there are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back over to you for closing comments.

阿爾蒙德女士，目前沒有其他問題。現在我想把發言權交還給您以供結束評論。

Great. Thank you very much, operator, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We appreciate your interest in Helios and look forward to updating all of you on our third quarter results in November. Please feel free to reach out to me with any follow-up questions that you have. Have a great day.

偉大的。非常感謝您，接線員，也感謝大家今天加入我們。我們感謝您對 Helios 的興趣，並期待在 11 月份向大家通報我們第三季度的最新業績。如果您有任何後續問題，請隨時與我聯繫。祝你有美好的一天。

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.

女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與，祝您度過美好的一天。