Mettler-Toledo International Inc (MTD) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to the Mettler-Toledo third quarter 2024 earnings call. (Operator Instructions)

您好，歡迎參加梅特勒-托利多 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the conference over to Adam Uhlman, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

我現在想將會議交給投資者關係主管 Adam Uhlman。你可以開始了。

Thanks, Sarah, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. On the call with me today is Patrick Kaltenbach, our Chief Executive Officer; and Shawn Vadala, our Chief Financial Officer. Let me cover some administrative matters. This call is being webcast and is available for replay on our website at mt.com. A copy of the press release and the presentation that we will refer to on today's call is available on our website.

謝謝莎拉，大家早安。感謝您加入我們。今天與我通話的是我們的執行長 Patrick Kaltenbach；以及我們的財務長肖恩·瓦達拉 (Shawn Vadala)。讓我談談一些行政事務。該電話會議正在進行網路直播，並可在我們的網站 mt.com 上重播。我們將在今天的電話會議上參考的新聞稿和簡報的副本可在我們的網站上找到。

This call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the US Securities Act of 1933 and the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

本次電話會議將包括《1933 年美國證券法》和《1934 年美國證券交易法》含義內的前瞻性陳述。

These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, financial condition, performance and achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statement. For discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see our recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly and current reports filed with the SEC. The company disclaims any obligation or undertaking to provide any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

這些陳述涉及風險、不確定性和其他因素，可能導致我們的實際結果、財務狀況、績效和成就與任何前瞻性陳述明示或暗示的結果有重大差異。有關這些風險和不確定性的討論，請參閱我們最近的 10-K 表格年度報告以及向 SEC 提交的季度和當前報告。除法律要求外，該公司不承擔任何對任何前瞻性陳述進行更新或修訂的義務或承諾。

On today's call, we may use non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable measures is provided in the 8-K and is available on our website. Let me now turn the call over to Patrick.

在今天的電話會議上，我們可能會使用非公認會計準則財務指標。8-K 中提供了這些非 GAAP 財務指標與最直接可比較指標的對賬，並且可以在我們的網站上找到。現在讓我把電話轉給派崔克。

Thanks, Adam, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining our call today. Last night, we reported our third quarter financial results, the details of which are outlined for you on Page 3 of our presentation.

謝謝亞當，大家早安。我們感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。昨晚，我們報告了第三季度的財務業績，其詳細資訊已在我們簡報的第 3 頁上為您概述。

We experienced good growth during the third quarter in our Laboratory business and had particularly strong growth in service. While China grew modestly this quarter, market conditions remain challenging, particularly in the industrial sector. We are very pleased with our team's strong execution of our growth and margin expansion initiatives, which supported good earnings growth in the quarter. We continue to execute very well and will benefit from the prior-year shipping delays in the fourth quarter. However, global market conditions remain soft. We have introduced many exciting innovations as well as next generations of our Spinnaker sales and marketing and SternDrive productivity programs over the past year.

第三季我們的實驗室業務成長良好，服務成長尤其強勁。儘管中國本季溫和成長，但市場狀況仍充滿挑戰，特別是在工業領域。我們對我們的團隊對成長和利潤擴張計劃的強有力執行感到非常滿意，這支持了本季度的良好盈利增長。我們繼續執行得很好，並將受益於去年第四季的運輸延誤。然而，全球市場狀況依然疲軟。在過去的一年裡，我們推出了許多令人興奮的創新以及下一代 Spinnaker 銷售和行銷以及 SternDrive 生產力計劃。

We also continue to leverage our business diversity and ability to provide value throughout our customers' value chain to identify and capture growth opportunities and believe we are very well positioned to gain market share and deliver good earnings growth in the future.

我們也繼續利用我們的業務多樣性和在整個客戶價值鏈中提供價值的能力來識別和捕捉成長機會，並相信我們處於非常有利的位置，可以在未來獲得市場份額並實現良好的獲利成長。

Let me now turn the call over to Shawn to cover the financial results and our guidance, and then I will come back with some additional commentary on the business and our outlook. Shawn?

現在讓我將電話轉給肖恩，介紹財務業績和我們的指導，然後我將對業務和我們的前景發表一些補充評論。肖恩？

Thanks, Patrick, and good morning, everyone. Sales in the quarter were $954.5 million, which represented an increase in local currency and in US dollars of 1%. On slide number 4, we show sales growth by region. Local currency sales grew 1% in Europe, declined 1% in the Americas and grew 4% in Asia Rest of the World. Local currency sales increased 1% in China in the quarter.

謝謝派崔克，大家早安。本季銷售額為 9.545 億美元，以當地貨幣和美元計算成長了 1%。在第 4 投影片中，我們顯示了按地區劃分的銷售成長。以當地貨幣計算的銷售額在歐洲成長了 1%，在美洲下降了 1%，在亞洲其他地區成長了 4%。本季中國的以當地貨幣計算的銷售額成長了 1%。

On slide number 5, we show sales growth by region for the first nine months of the year. Local currency sales were flat for the first nine months with 4% growth in Europe, 1% growth in the Americas and a 6% decline in Asia Rest of the World. Local currency sales decreased 15% in China on a year-to-date basis. As a reminder, our first quarter sales benefited by 6% from recovering delayed product shipments, which is a 2% benefit to our year-to-date results. Excluding this, our local currency sales declined 2% on a year-to-date basis.

在第 5 張投影片上，我們顯示了今年前 9 個月按地區劃分的銷售成長。以當地貨幣計算的銷售額前 9 個月持平，其中歐洲成長 4%，美洲成長 1%，亞洲其他地區下降 6%。今年迄今，中國的本地貨幣銷售量下降了 15%。提醒一下，我們第一季的銷售額因恢復延遲的產品出貨而成長了 6%，比我們今年迄今的業績成長了 2%。排除這一點，我們的本地貨幣銷售額今年迄今下降了 2%。

On slide number 6, we summarize local currency sales growth by product area. For the quarter, Laboratory sales increased 5% and Industrial was flat with core Industrial down 1% and product inspection up 1%. Food retail declined 20% in the quarter against significant project activity last year.

在第 6 投影片中，我們按產品領域總結了以當地貨幣計算的銷售額成長。本季，實驗室銷售額成長 5%，工業銷售額持平，其中核心工業銷售額下降 1%，產品檢驗銷售額成長 1%。與去年的重大項目活動相比，本季食品零售下降了 20%。

The next slide shows local currency sales growth by product area for the first nine months. Laboratory sales increased 2% and Industrial decreased 2%, with core Industrial down 4% and product inspection up 1%. Food Retail decreased 14% on a year-to-date basis. Let me now move to the rest of the P&L, which is summarized on slide number 8. Gross margin was 60%, an increase of 60 basis points as positive price realization and benefits from our SternDrive program were partially offset by lower volume. R&D amounted to $47.1 million in the quarter, which is a 1% increase in local currency over the prior period.

下一張投影片顯示了前九個月按產品領域以當地貨幣計算的銷售額成長。實驗室銷售額成長 2%，工業銷售額下降 2%，其中核心工業銷售額下降 4%，產品檢驗銷售額成長 1%。食品零售年減 14%。現在讓我談談損益表的其餘部分，第 8 號投影片對此進行了總結。毛利率為 60%，成長了 60 個基點，因為我們的 SternDrive 計劃的積極價格實現和收益被銷量下降部分抵消。本季研發費用達 4,710 萬美元，以當地貨幣計算較上一期成長 1%。

SG&A amounted to $228.8 million, a 5% increase in local currency over the prior year and includes higher variable compensation. Adjusted operating profit amounted to $296.6 million in the quarter, unchanged from the prior year. Adjusted operating margin was 31.1%, which represents a decrease of 30 basis points over the prior year. A couple of final comments on the P&L.

SG&A 達 2.288 億美元，以當地貨幣計算比前一年增長 5%，其中包括更高的可變薪酬。本季調整後營業利潤為 2.966 億美元，與去年同期持平。調整後營業利益率為31.1%，較上年下降30個基點。關於損益表的一些最終評論。

Amortization amounted to $18.2 million in the quarter. Interest expense was $18.6 million and other income amounted to $1.9 million. Our effective tax rate was 19% in the quarter. This rate is before discrete items and is adjusted for the timing of stock option exercises. Fully diluted shares amounted to $21.2 million, which is approximately a 3% decline from the prior year. Adjusted EPS for the quarter was $10.21, a 4% increase over the prior year. On a reported basis in the quarter, EPS was $9.96 as compared to $9.21 in the prior year.

本季攤銷額為 1,820 萬美元。利息支出為 1,860 萬美元，其他收入為 190 萬美元。本季我們的有效稅率為 19%。此比率是在離散項目之前的比率，並根據股票選擇權行使的時間進行調整。完全稀釋後的股票總額為 2,120 萬美元，較上年下降約 3%。該季度調整後每股收益為 10.21 美元，比上年同期增長 4%。根據本季報告，每股收益為 9.96 美元，而去年同期為 9.21 美元。

Reported EPS in the quarter included $0.23 of purchased intangible amortization, $0.10 of restructuring costs and an $0.08 tax benefit from the timing of option exercises. The next slide illustrates our year-to-date results. Local currency sales were flat for the nine month period. Adjusted operating income decreased 3% or declined 1%, excluding unfavorable foreign currency, and our adjusted operating margin contracted 50 basis points. Adjusted EPS was flat on a year-to-date basis and grew 2%, excluding unfavorable currency.

本季度報告的每股收益包括 0.23 美元的無形資產攤銷、0.10 美元的重組成本和 0.08 美元的選擇權行使時間帶來的稅收優惠。下一張幻燈片展示了我們今年迄今為止的業績。以當地貨幣計算的銷售額在這九個月內持平。調整後營業收入下降 3%，或下降 1%（不包括不利的外幣），調整後營業利潤率收縮 50 個基點。調整後每股盈餘與年初至今持平，成長 2%（排除不利貨幣因素）。

That covers the P&L, and let me now comment on adjusted free cash flow, which amounted to $671 million for the first nine months, a 7% increase on a per share basis from the prior-year levels due to favorable working capital. DSO was 36 days, while ITO was 4 times. Let me now turn to our guidance for the remainder of this year and our initial thoughts on next year.

這涵蓋了損益表，現在讓我評論一下調整後的自由現金流，前 9 個月的自由現金流達到 6.71 億美元，由於良好的營運資本，每股比去年同期增長 7%。DSO是36天，而ITO是4倍。現在讓我談談我們對今年剩餘時間的指導以及我們對明年的初步想法。

As you review our guidance, please keep in mind the following factors. Market conditions remain soft, especially in China. While we are not seeing a negative change in market conditions, we are also not seeing a significant improvement. Secondly, while there is uncertainty in our core markets, the global economy and geopolitics, we expect market conditions to gradually improve throughout 2025. We also expect to continue to benefit from customer trends in automation, digitalization and on and nearshoring.

當您查看我們的指南時，請記住以下因素。市場狀況依然疲軟，尤其是在中國。雖然我們沒有看到市場狀況出現負面變化，但也沒有看到顯著改善。其次，雖然我們的核心市場、全球經濟和地緣政治存在不確定性，但我們預期2025年市場狀況將逐步改善。我們也期望繼續受益於自動化、數位化以及岸上和近岸外包的客戶趨勢。

Third, we assume foreign currency at current rates. And finally, please keep in mind that our third-party logistics provider delays negatively impacted our Q4 results last year by $58 million, nearly all of which was recovered in our first quarter sales results this year. This will benefit our Q4 2024 sales growth by approximately 6% and will reduce our sales growth in 2025 by 1.5%. This also negatively impacts our margin expansion in 2025.

第三，我們假設外幣是按現行匯率計算。最後，請記住，我們的第三方物流提供商的延誤對我們去年第四季度的業績產生了5800 萬美元的負面影響，幾乎所有這些影響都在我們今年第一季的銷售業績中得到了彌補。這將有利於我們 2024 年第四季的銷售成長約 6%，並將使我們 2025 年的銷售成長減少 1.5%。這也對我們 2025 年的利潤率擴張產生負面影響。

Now turning to our guidance for the fourth quarter of 2024, we expect local currency sales to grow by approximately 8%. This includes an expected benefit of approximately 6% from the prior-year shipping delays. We expect adjusted EPS to be in the range of $11.63 to $11.78. Currency for the quarter at recent spot rates would be neutral to fourth quarter sales and adjusted EPS. For the full year 2024, our local currency sales growth forecast is unchanged at approximately 2% or down 1%, excluding the previously mentioned shipping delays.

現在轉向我們對 2024 年第四季的指導，我們預計本幣銷售額將成長約 8%。這包括上一年運輸延誤帶來的約 6% 的預期效益。我們預計調整後每股收益將在 11.63 美元至 11.78 美元之間。以最近的即期匯率計算，本季的貨幣對第四季的銷售額和調整後的每股盈餘來說是中性的。對於 2024 年全年，我們的本幣銷售成長預測保持在約 2% 不變，或下降 1%，不包括前面提到的運輸延誤。

We expect full year adjusted EPS to be in the range of $40.35 to $40.50, up $0.15 on the low end of our prior guidance range. Free cash flow and share repurchases for 2024 are expected to be approximately $850 million. We have also provided our initial guidance for 2025. And based on our assessment of market conditions today, we would expect local currency sales to increase approximately 3%, which includes the previously mentioned headwind to full year sales growth of 1.5% from the shipping delays that benefited 2024.

我們預計全年調整後每股收益將在 40.35 美元至 40.50 美元之間，比我們先前指導範圍的下限上漲 0.15 美元。2024 年的自由現金流和股票回購預計約為 8.5 億美元。我們也提供了 2025 年的初步指導。根據我們今天對市場狀況的評估，我們預計以當地貨幣計算的銷售額將增長約 3%，其中包括前面提到的 2024 年受益於運輸延誤而導致全年銷售額增長 1.5% 的不利因素。

Adjusted EPS is forecast to be in the range of $41.85 to $42.50, which represents a growth rate of 4% to 5%. At recent spot rates, foreign exchange is estimated to be a slight headwind to adjusted EPS growth.

調整後每股收益預計在 41.85 美元至 42.50 美元之間，成長率為 4% 至 5%。以近期即期匯率計算，外匯匯率預期對調整後每股盈餘成長構成輕微阻力。

Lastly, I would like to share a few other details on our 2025 guidance to help you as you update your models. We expect total amortization, including purchased intangible amortization to be approximately $75 million. Purchased intangible amortization is excluded from adjusted EPS and is estimated at $24.8 million on a pretax basis or $0.92 per share. Interest expense is forecast at $82 million for the year and other income is estimated at approximately $2 million. We expect our tax rate before discrete items will remain at 19% in 2025.

最後，我想分享有關 2025 年指南的一些其他詳細信息，以幫助您更新模型。我們預計攤銷總額（包括購買的無形攤銷）約為 7,500 萬美元。購買的無形攤銷不包括在調整後每股收益中，稅前估計為 2,480 萬美元，即每股 0.92 美元。今年利息支出預計為 8,200 萬美元，其他收入預計約 200 萬美元。我們預計 2025 年不計離散項目的稅率將維持在 19%。

Free cash flow is forecast at approximately $860 million in 2025 and share repurchases are expected to be approximately $875 million.

預計 2025 年自由現金流約 8.6 億美元，股票回購預計約 8.75 億美元。

That's it from my side, and I'll now turn it back to Patrick.

這就是我的觀點，現在我將把它轉回給派崔克。

Thanks, Shawn. Let me start with some comments on our operating businesses, starting with lab, which grew approximately 5% compared to last year.

謝謝，肖恩。讓我先對我們的營運業務進行一些評論，首先是實驗室，與去年相比成長了約 5%。

We had good growth across most of the portfolio and regions and continue to benefit from our robust offering and recent innovations as well as our initiatives to accelerate growth in service and consumables. Pharma customer activity has been mixed but improving at a low pace. Our process analytics business returned to solid growth this quarter as our bioproduction customers have finished destocking excess inventories.

我們在大多數產品組合和地區都取得了良好的成長，並繼續受益於我們強大的產品和最近的創新以及我們加速服務和消費品成長的舉措。製藥客戶活動參差不齊，但改善速度緩慢。隨著我們的生物生產客戶完成了多餘庫存的去庫存，我們的流程分析業務本季恢復了穩健成長。

To expand our already broad portfolio of instruments we offer to our laboratory customers, we recently launched a new stain-free automated cell counter and a new microplate reader to help our customers in R&D and QA/QC labs.

為了擴展我們為實驗室客戶提供的廣泛儀器產品組合，我們最近推出了新型免染自動細胞計數器和新型酶標儀，以幫助研發和 QA/QC 實驗室的客戶。

These new products add further to the long list of innovations we have brought to the market in recent years and expand our technology leadership. Shifting now to our Industrial business. Sales for the quarter were flat and slightly lower than expected, primarily due to market headwinds in China. Product inspection sales growth of 1% benefited from our growth initiatives targeting the mid-market, but the food manufacturing industry remains challenged overall.

這些新產品進一步豐富了我們近年來推向市場的眾多創新產品，並擴大了我們的技術領先地位。現在轉向我們的工業業務。該季度的銷售額持平，略低於預期，主要是由於中國市場的不利因素。產品檢驗銷售額成長 1% 得益於我們針對中端市場的成長舉措，但食品製造業整體仍面臨挑戰。

Our core Industrial sales declined 1%, reflecting sluggish market conditions across most industries. Our team remains active in leveraging Spinnaker to identify and capture the most attractive market opportunities in core Industrial, which has reduced our sensitivity to the economy, although we are not immune. Additionally, we have further enhanced our portfolio and have expanded our line of weighing terminals that feature integrated software solutions, leveraging advanced algorithms.

我們的核心工業銷售額下降了 1%，反映出大多數產業的市場狀況低迷。我們的團隊仍然積極利用 Spinnaker 來識別和捕捉核心產業中最具吸引力的市場機會，這降低了我們對經濟的敏感度，儘管我們也不能倖免。此外，我們還進一步增強了我們的產品組合，並擴展了我們的稱重終端產品線，這些稱重終端採用整合軟體解決方案，利用先進的演算法。

These new terminals provide process automation control for many different filling and dosing workflows, seamlessly integrating into customer systems. Lastly, shifting to our Food Retail business. As I mentioned earlier, our Food Retail sales declined against a very significant project-related growth in the prior year. Now let me make some additional comments by geography.

這些新終端為許多不同的填充和配料工作流程提供流程自動化控制，無縫整合到客戶系統中。最後，轉向我們的食品零售業務。正如我之前提到的，我們的食品零售銷售額下降了，而前一年與專案相關的成長卻非常顯著。現在讓我按地理位置補充一些評論。

Starting in the Americas, our sales declined 1% in the quarter. We had good growth across our Lab portfolio with pharma customers, while Food Retail declined against very significant growth in the prior year. Core Industrial sales declined slightly as demand for our automation-related solutions was offset by lower demand in other areas.

從美洲開始，本季我們的銷售額下降了 1%。我們與製藥客戶的實驗室產品組合取得了良好的成長，而食品零售與上一年的非常顯著的成長相比有所下降。由於對我們的自動化相關解決方案的需求被其他領域需求的下降所抵消，核心工業銷售額略有下降。

Sales in Europe grew 1% in the quarter and included growth both from laboratory and core industrial, benefiting from modest growth from pharma customers, while food manufacturing remained soft. Our teams in Europe continue to execute well despite challenging economic conditions across the region. And finally, our Asia Rest of the World results this quarter were in line with our expectations.

本季歐洲銷售額成長 1%，其中包括實驗室和核心工業的成長，受益於製藥客戶的溫和成長，而食品製造業仍疲軟。儘管整個地區的經濟狀況充滿挑戰，我們在歐洲的團隊仍然表現出色。最後，我們本季亞洲和世界其他地區的業績符合我們的預期。

Our China operations returned to sales growth in the quarter due to easier comparisons and strong execution of our sales team, but underlying demand remained soft due to weak economic growth and excess capacity in certain industries. Our teams across Asia continue to execute very well on driving sales and market share growth. Targeting growth in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and India remain an important element of our long-term growth strategy.

由於更容易比較和銷售團隊的強勁執行力，我們的中國業務在本季度恢復了銷售成長，但由於經濟成長疲軟和某些行業產能過剩，潛在需求仍然疲軟。我們在亞洲的團隊在推動銷售和市場份額成長方面繼續表現出色。以東南亞和印度等新興市場為目標的成長仍然是我們長期成長策略的重要組成部分。

In summary, market conditions overall have remained challenged, but our team is executing very well. We have continued to fund important growth investments in areas like innovation and field sales and service, while we have reinforced our unique go-to-market strategies with the launch of the next wave of Spinnaker.

總而言之，市場狀況總體上仍然充滿挑戰，但我們的團隊執行得非常好。我們持續為創新、現場銷售和服務等領域的重要成長投資提供資金，同時透過推出下一波 Spinnaker 來強化我們獨特的市場策略。

In 2025, we will make additional targeted investment in these areas to further extend our market leadership and strengthen our competitive advantages. An important element of our growth algorithm is gaining market share in our highly fragmented markets and pursuing growth opportunities in faster-growing market segments. Spinnaker helps us identify these new growth opportunities and guides our sales force to ensure we maximize our potential.

2025年，我們將在這些領域進行額外的有針對性的投資，以進一步擴大我們的市場領先地位並增強我們的競爭優勢。我們成長演算法的一個重要要素是在高度分散的市場中獲得市場份額，並在成長更快的細分市場中尋求成長機會。Spinnaker 幫助我們發現這些新的成長機會，並指導我們的銷售人員確保我們最大限度地發揮潛力。

We continue to see significant market trends and opportunities related to the localization of strategically important technologies, investments to develop new energy solutions for the future and efforts to increase resilience in supply chains around the world. At the same time, customers continue to seek productivity and insights through automation and digitalization. Spinnaker encompasses our lead generation programs with existing customers, and it houses our Top K program to identify growth opportunities with potential new customers.

我們繼續看到與戰略重要技術在地化、開發未來新能源解決方案的投資以及提高全球供應鏈彈性的努力相關的重大市場趨勢和機會。同時，客戶不斷透過自動化和數位化尋求生產力和洞察力。Spinnaker 涵蓋了我們與現有客戶的潛在客戶開發計劃，並包含了我們的 Top K 計劃，旨在發現潛在新客戶的成長機會。

Top K uses proprietary data analytics on our internal big data warehouse and external data sources to identify and pursue opportunities. Our teams are expanding our capabilities in this area to automate more of the qualification processes and accelerating the rate that we can generate tailored and actionable investment alerts for our field sales force.

Top K 在我們的內部大資料倉儲和外部資料來源上使用專有資料分析來識別和尋求機會。我們的團隊正在擴展我們在這一領域的能力，以實現更多資格流程的自動化，並加快為我們的現場銷售人員產生客製化且可操作的投資警報的速度。

This program has been very important in driving lead growth with new customers this year, and our team remains focused on expanding our data sets and adding sophisticated analytics and automation to enhance this program in 2025. Another important driver for our long-term growth is to accelerate the growth of our service business. As a reminder, Service represents approximately 25% of our sales and has grown 7% on a year-to-date basis in local currencies, which includes very strong growth of 9% in the third quarter.

該計劃對於推動今年新客戶的潛在客戶成長非常重要，我們的團隊仍致力於擴展我們的數據集並添加複雜的分析和自動化，以在 2025 年增強該計劃。我們長期成長的另一個重要驅動力是加快服務業務的成長。需要提醒的是，服務約占我們銷售額的 25%，以當地貨幣計算，今年迄今成長了 7%，其中第三季成長了 9%，非常強勁。

Service will continue to be an important growth driver in the future. Service is a key part of our solutions offering and is a very important competitive advantage as we support our customers' ability to maintain uptime, improve productivity and comply with regulatory requirements. We believe we have the largest service network amongst our direct competitors with over 3,000 technicians, delivering a very professional and consistent service experience to customers throughout the world.

服務將繼續成為未來重要的成長動力。服務是我們解決方案的關鍵部分，也是非常重要的競爭優勢，因為我們支援客戶維持正常運作時間、提高生產力和遵守法規要求的能力。我們相信，我們擁有直接競爭對手中最大的服務網絡，擁有 3,000 多名技術人員，為世界各地的客戶提供非常專業且一致的服務體驗。

Our customer satisfaction ratings for our service business and our Net Promoter Scores are excellent and are at record high levels. We aim to grow our service business faster than the company average over the medium term and are making dedicated investments in field technicians, in telesales and data analytics resources to support our growth aspirations.

我們的服務業務的客戶滿意度和淨推薦值非常出色，並且處於創紀錄的高水準。我們的目標是在中期以高於公司平均的速度成長我們的服務業務，並正在對現場技術人員、電話銷售和數據分析資源進行專門投資，以支持我們的成長願望。

Additionally, we continue to benefit from our actions to improve the productivity of our service organization and increase its capacity to serve customers, including leveraging new software capabilities to estimate service durations, semi-automated scheduling of service visits and utilizing expanded core triage capabilities to resolve service requests remotely and reduce trips to our customer locations.

此外，我們繼續受益於提高服務組織生產力和增強服務客戶能力的行動，包括利用新的軟體功能來估計服務持續時間、半自動安排服務訪問以及利用擴展的核心分類功能來解決問題遠端服務請求並減少前往客戶所在地的次數。

We are also expanding the use of sophisticated data analytics and automation technologies to increase the effectiveness of our dedicated service sales team. Our largest opportunity is servicing a greater proportion of our installed base, which approximates $3 billion of potential service revenue. Today, we have penetrated about quarter one-third of this opportunity. And given the vast amount of data we possess about it, like when an instrument was sold, who's using it, in what application it's being used, we can create targeted sales campaigns to service them specifically tailored to their needs based on our data.

我們還擴大了複雜數據分析和自動化技術的使用，以提高我們專業服務銷售團隊的效率。我們最大的機會是為更大比例的安裝基礎提供服務，這大約是 30 億美元的潛在服務收入。今天，我們已經滲透了這個機會的大約三分之一。鑑於我們擁有大量相關數據，例如儀器何時出售、誰在使用它、在什麼應用程式中使用，我們可以創建有針對性的銷售活動，根據我們的數據根據他們的需求專門定制服務。

This will help further expand our coverage. Service contracts help ensure that the measurements from our precision instruments are reliable and also helps prevent costly downtime. We have maintained our focus on selling more service packages at the point of new product sale. Over the years, we have made important enhancements and differentiation to service levels of prepaid contracts to meet the varying needs of our customers.

這將有助於進一步擴大我們的覆蓋範圍。服務合約有助於確保我們精密儀器的測量結果可靠，並有助於防止代價高昂的停機。我們一直致力於在新產品銷售時銷售更多服務包。多年來，我們對預付費合約的服務水準進行了重大改進和差異化，以滿足客戶的不同需求。

We have also enhanced our portfolio of services over the years with solutions like our RapidCal Tank Scale Calibration service. Regular calibration of tank scales is required across industries such as pharma and chemical to ensure measurements are accurate and reliable. Our RapidCal service can calibrate these scales 3 times faster than traditional methods and also does not require the tank to be emptied, cleaned and filled with expensive ultra-pure water that would need to be discharged afterwards.

多年來，我們也透過 RapidCal 罐秤校準服務等解決方案增強了我們的服務組合。製藥和化學等行業需要定期校準罐秤，以確保測量準確可靠。我們的 RapidCal 服務校準這些秤的速度比傳統方法快 3 倍，而且不需要清空、清潔水箱並填充隨後需要排放的昂貴的超純水。

So it is not only faster, but also much more efficient and environmentally friendly. We have also enhanced our offering of certified calibration certificates to ensure compliance with regulations and avoid cost of inaccurate measurements. Our calibration services are highly differentiated from the competition and include our comprehensive and audit-proof electronic documentation that adheres to the highest standards -- to the highest industry standards.

因此它不僅更快，而且更有效率、更環保。我們也增強了認證校準證書的提供，以確保符合法規並避免因測量不準確而造成的成本。我們的校準服務在競爭中脫穎而出，包括符合最高標準（最高行業標準）的全面且經過審計的電子文件。

So that is a brief overview of the efforts we have underway to accelerate our growth by reinforcing our unique go-to-market approaches with Spinnaker, identifying and capturing growth opportunities with new customers and growth industries and accelerating the growth rate of our service business. We expect our focused execution on these initiatives will continue to deliver very tangible benefits over the next year and beyond.

以上是我們為加速成長所做的努力的簡要概述，包括透過 Spinnaker 加強我們獨特的市場進入方法、識別和抓住新客戶和成長產業的成長機會以及加快我們服務業務的成長率。我們預計，我們對這些措施的重點執行將在明年及以後繼續帶來非常切實的效益。

Now this concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, I'd now like to open the line to questions.

現在我們準備好的發言就到此結束。接線員，我現在想開始提問。

(Operator Instructions) Vijay Kumar, Evercore ISI.

（操作員說明）Vijay Kumar，Evercore ISI。

Hi guys. Good morning and thanks for taking my question. Patrick, maybe my first one for you on the fiscal '25 assumptions here. I think ex the 150 basis points headwind, the underlying mid-singles, it's in line with the peers. What are you assuming for Labs versus Industrials? And I think your comments on Services was helpful. Is Services still expected to grow in the mid-singles plus high singles in fiscal '25?

嗨，大家好。早安，感謝您提出我的問題。派崔克，也許是我為您介紹的第一個關於 25 財年假設的問題。我認為，除去 150 個基點的逆風，潛在的中單股，它與同行一致。您對實驗室與產業的假設是什麼？我認為您對服務的評論很有幫助。25 財年，服務業是否仍有望在中單打和高單打中成長？

Yeah. So let me start with the last part of the question, and I'll let Shawn walk you through the details on the growth expectations of the different segments. So services, yes, we expect to continue to grow above company average. So we expect it to continue to mid- to high single digits next year.

是的。那麼，讓我從問題的最後一部分開始，我將讓 Shawn 向您詳細介紹不同細分市場的成長預期。因此，是的，我們預計服務業務的成長將繼續高於公司平均水平。因此，我們預計明年將繼續保持中高個位數。

As I said in my prepared remarks here, we're investing quite heavily in our service business, not only in expanding our service portfolio, but also strengthening our telesales team, leveraging more data to reach the installed base and tapping into that installed base that we don't cover yet today is a significant growth opportunity for us in the future.

正如我在準備好的演講中所說，我們在服務業務上投入了大量資金，不僅是為了擴大我們的服務組合，而且還加強我們的電話銷售團隊，利用更多數據來覆蓋客戶群並利用該客戶群我們今天還沒有談到未來對我們來說是一個重要的成長機會。

So Shawn, will you walk Vijay through the details of the segments assumptions?

Shawn，你能向 Vijay 介紹一下細分假設的細節嗎？

Hi Vijay, maybe I'll just walk you through the different assumptions for 2025. And I'll do it on a reported basis, but I'll also do it adjusting for the headwinds on the shipping delays, just so that's clear. So our lab business, we're assuming will grow low to mid-single digit on a reported basis, but will grow mid to high single digit, excluding the headwind of the shipping delays.

嗨，Vijay，也許我會向您介紹 2025 年的不同假設。我會在報告的基礎上進行調整，但我也會根據運輸延誤的不利因素進行調整，這樣就很清楚了。因此，我們假設我們的實驗室業務在報告的基礎上將成長低至中個位數，但將成長中至高個位數，不包括運輸延誤的不利因素。

Our core industrial business and our product inspection businesses are both estimated to grow low single digit on both the reported and an adjusted basis, and that would be the same for our -- obviously, our total Industrial business. And then our retail business is expected to be flat next year or up low single digit adjusted for the shipping delays. And then I'll give you the regions, too, since we're doing it.

根據報告和調整後的數據，我們的核心工業業務和產品檢驗業務預計都將實現低個位數成長，顯然，我們的整個工業業務也是如此。然後，我們的零售業務預計明年將持平或因運輸延誤調整後出現低個位數成長。然後我也會給你區域，因為我們正在這樣做。

Americas on a reported basis is expected to grow low to mid-single digit. And on an adjusted basis for the shipping delays, it would grow mid-single digit. Our European business is expected to grow low single digit on a reported basis and adjusted for the shipping delays, it would grow mid-single digit. And then China is expected to grow low single digit on both a reported and adjusted basis.

據報道，美洲地區預計將出現低至中個位數的增長。在根據運輸延誤的調整後，這一數字將增長到中個位數。根據報告，我們的歐洲業務預計將實現低個位數成長，並根據運輸延誤進行調整，預計將實現中個位數成長。然後，根據報告和調整後的數據，中國預計將出現低個位數成長。

That's helpful, Shawn. And maybe one on margins here. EPS guidance. I know you guys start typically conservative. What are you assuming for operating margin expansion for fiscal '25? And are Service margins above corporate?

這很有幫助，肖恩。也許這裡有一個邊緣。每股收益指引。我知道你們一開始都是典型的保守派。您對 25 財年營業利潤率擴張有何假設？服務利潤率是否高於企業利潤率？

Yeah. So our operating margin for next year is expected to be flattish to this year, maybe up slightly. Our service business, yeah, it does have a margin above the corporate average. But hey, maybe I use this as an opportunity to talk about maybe some of the optics about the shipping delays on earnings because I can imagine that's a challenge to try to understand the guidance.

是的。因此，我們明年的營業利潤率預計將與今年持平，甚至可能略有上升。是的，我們的服務業務的利潤率確實高於企業平均。但是，嘿，也許我會利用這個機會來談論一些有關收入運輸延遲的觀點，因為我可以想像，試圖理解該指導意見是一個挑戰。

So we talked about the first optic, which is on sales. And then from a sales perspective, it's a 1.5% headwind. I think that's pretty well understood. So our organic sales growth for 2025 is expected to be 4.5% adjusted for the timing of the shipping delays. But there's also a very meaningful impact on our EPS growth as well and our margin expansion.

所以我們討論了第一個光學器件，它正在銷售。從銷售角度來看，這是 1.5% 的逆風。我認為這很好理解。因此，根據運輸延誤的時間調整後，我們 2025 年的有機銷售額預計將成長 4.5%。但這也對我們的每股盈餘成長和利潤率擴張產生了非常有意義的影響。

And since -- especially since most of our products are -- that were affected are in our Lab business, which are at above average margins. And you can kind of see this like if you think about the operating profit margin compression in Q4 of last year and the operating margin expansion in our Q4 guidance of this year. If you look at our Q4 guidance of this year, it implies an operating margin expansion over last year of about 320 basis points or so.

因為——尤其是我們的大多數產品——受到影響的是我們的實驗室業務，該業務的利潤率高於平均水平。如果您考慮去年第四季的營業利潤率壓縮和今年第四季度指引中的營業利潤率擴張，您就可以看到這一點。如果你看我們今年第四季的指導，你會發現營業利潤率比去年增加了約 320 個基點左右。

And directionally, we're going to see something -- we're not going to give out details at this time for Q1, but directionally, you're going to see something similar in terms of margin compression in Q1 of 2025. And then after that, we should get back to a more normal cadence.

從方向上看，我們將看到一些東西——我們目前不會透露第一季的細節，但從方向上看，你將在 2025 年第一季的利潤壓縮方面看到類似的情況。之後，我們應該回到更正常的節奏。

And if you think about it kind of makes sense if you think about our overall gross margin percentage and the related incrementals associated with timing shifts because they're going to be a little bit higher because of the nature of our fixed cost structure. But we also wanted to communicate if we didn't have this effect of these shipping delays, our EPS growth guidance would be more in line with our typical relationship between sales growth and EPS growth.

如果你考慮一下我們的整體毛利率百分比以及與時間變化相關的相關增量，這是有道理的，因為由於我們固定成本結構的性質，它們會稍微高一點。但我們還想傳達的是，如果我們沒有受到這些運輸延誤的影響，我們的每股盈餘成長指引將更符合我們銷售成長和每股盈餘成長之間的典型關係。

And we'd estimate it'd probably be about 4% higher to our EPS guidance. And then we also have a couple of other additional items. The first is our variable compensation in 2024 is not back to target levels. So we'll have a little bit of a headwind for that in 2025. And then currencies are slightly unfavorable to EPS at the moment, too, and we mentioned that in the script.

我們估計它可能比我們的 EPS 指導高出 4% 左右。然後我們還有其他一些附加項目。首先是我們 2024 年的可變薪酬沒有回到目標水準。因此，到 2025 年，我們將面臨一些阻力。目前貨幣對每股收益也略有不利，我們在腳本中提到了這一點。

But when we step back from all that, the other message we wanted to make sure we could communicate today, too, is that we still have a lot of very exciting opportunities to invest in the business, and we're not going to slow down these investments just because of the optics of the shipping delay to our sales growth. And I think that's important because I think we have a lot of good things in the pipeline that we're investing in.

但當我們從這一切中退一步時，我們想確保我們今天也能傳達的另一個訊息是，我們仍然有很多非常令人興奮的業務投資機會，而且我們不會放慢腳步這些投資只是因為運輸延遲影響了我們的銷售成長。我認為這很重要，因為我認為我們正在投資很多好的東西。

And also just to remain -- the other thing we want to communicate is that we do remain very confident about our ability to grow earnings and expand margins going forward in accordance with our medium to long-term guidance.

我們想要傳達的另一件事是，我們仍然對根據我們的中長期指導來增加收入和擴大利潤率的能力充滿信心。

Matt Sykes, Goldman Sachs.

馬特·賽克斯，高盛。

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Patrick, maybe just first on services. You guys gave a lot of great color in your prepared comments. One thing I'm just curious about and understanding that the margins are already above corporate average. But just curious about the level of operating leverage you can extract from services, understanding the 3,000 technicians you already have, it sounds like you're willing to make more investments in that.

嗨，早安。感謝您回答我的問題。派崔克，也許首先是服務。你們在準備好的評論中給了很多精彩的內容。我只是好奇並理解的一件事是，利潤率已經高於公司平均。但只是對您可以從服務中獲得的營運槓桿水平感到好奇，了解您已有的 3,000 名技術人員，聽起來您願意在這方面進行更多投資。

I'm just wondering on the technology and automation side, how much of that can offset maybe increased hiring to create operating leverage in the services business margin?

我只是想知道在技術和自動化方面，其中有多少可以抵消可能增加的招聘以在服務業務利潤中創造營運槓桿？

Yeah. Thanks, Matt. It's a great question. And of course, we continuously also going to improve the effectiveness of our service team. I mentioned a little bit in the call that we're using special software capabilities, including deep learning algorithms to understand how we can most effectively schedule services and also with that drive up efficiency of our technicians in the field. And we make continuous improvements along this.

是的。謝謝，馬特。這是一個很好的問題。當然，我們也會持續提升我們服務團隊的效率。我在電話中提到，我們正在使用特殊的軟體功能，包括深度學習演算法來了解我們如何最有效地安排服務，並以此提高我們現場技術人員的效率。我們沿著這個方向不斷進步。

We -- on our platform, we just recently also launched a new service template that takes care of that to make sure that we most effectively use our service technicians. We are, of course, also changing more and more of our future product portfolio with more remote service capabilities and with that driving more efficiency of the service team as well.

在我們的平台上，我們最近也推出了一個新的服務模板，可以解決這個問題，以確保我們最有效地使用我們的服務技術人員。當然，我們也會透過更多的遠端服務功能來改變越來越多的未來產品組合，進而提高服務團隊的效率。

But that said, I mean, we still will expand probably headcount in service as well, not only on the technician side, but also making sure that we have enough support to drive marketing campaigns and lead generation for service out there. I talked a little bit about this untapped opportunity of instruments that we have in the field that we don't service today.

但話雖如此，我的意思是，我們仍然可能會擴大服務人員數量，不僅是在技術人員方面，而且還要確保我們有足夠的支援來推動行銷活動和潛在客戶開發服務。我談到了我們在該領域擁有的儀器的尚未開發的機會，但我們今天不提供服務。

We have information, again, as I said, when they have been bought, where they are, what application they are used for. And we are now getting back to these customers, reaching out to them and offering new and broader service portfolio. And to service these instruments and these solutions will require also more technicians in the future. I think it's a great growth opportunity. I think it's something also that leads to strong customer satisfaction.

正如我所說，我們再次掌握了這些信息，包括它們何時購買、它們在哪裡、它們用於什麼用途。我們現在正在回饋這些客戶，與他們接觸並提供新的、更廣泛的服務組合。未來，維護這些儀器和解決方案還需要更多的技術人員。我認為這是一個很好的成長機會。我認為這也能帶來強烈的客戶滿意度。

Our Net Promoter Scores in services are outstanding. Customers love our service, not only because of the proficiency, but also again helping them with compliance, et cetera. So it's -- again, it's a strong growth driver for us moving forward and also helping us on the margin expansion. But it will require also investments in headcount.

我們的服務淨推薦值非常優異。客戶喜歡我們的服務，不僅因為我們的熟練程度，還因為我們再次幫助他們遵守法規等等。因此，它再次成為我們前進的強大成長動力，也幫助我們擴大利潤率。但這還需要對員工人數進行投資。

Besides all the efforts we do, and we continue to do this in driving efficiency with smarter software solutions, again, deep learning algorithms, and we have data scientists in the group as well using in the future also more knowledge management tools to understand really how we can more efficiently drive the information to service engineers that we can reduce dual visits to customers, et cetera, making sure that they have all the right information when they get to customers, et cetera, to make sure they can increase and maximize first-time fix, et cetera.

除了我們所做的所有努力之外，我們還將繼續透過更聰明的軟體解決方案提高效率，再次強調，深度學習演算法，我們團隊中有資料科學家，未來還會使用更多的知識管理工具來真正了解如何我們可以更有效地將訊息傳遞給服務工程師，我們可以減少對客戶的雙重訪問等，確保他們在接觸客戶時擁有所有正確的資訊等，以確保他們能夠增加和最大化第一-時間修復等等。

So there's a lot of opportunities. And that's why we are continuing to invest in this, and we'll see in the next years to come also nice growth from this business.

所以有很多機會。這就是我們繼續投資於此的原因，我們將在未來幾年看到這項業務的良好成長。

Great, Patrick. And then just on China, understanding your guidance for next year for low single-digit growth. Just curious how much stimulus impact are you kind of assuming in that growth rate? And then just more longer term, have you changed your assumptions on longer-term China growth as it faces your business?

太棒了，帕特里克。然後就中國而言，了解您對明年低個位數成長的指導。只是好奇您認為該增長率會產生多大的刺激影響？然後，從更長遠的角度來看，當您的業務面臨中國長期成長時，您是否改變了對中國長期成長的假設？

Just curious to see if that's been adjusted. I know there's a lot of different potential headwinds that could come in, but just curious about how your framing of that growth has changed?

只是好奇是否已進行調整。我知道可能會出現很多不同的潛在阻力，但只是好奇您對成長的框架發生了怎樣的變化？

Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. Look, for next year and your question regarding the stimulus, we have not factored anything regarding the stimulus in our forecast of low single digit for next year. As you probably also have heard from some of our competitors, it's pretty unclear yet when the stimulus will really gain traction. So we take a more cautious approach here when we forecast the growth for next year.

是的。出色的。是的。看，對於明年以及您關於刺激計劃的問題，我們在明年的低個位數預測中沒有考慮到任何有關刺激計劃的因素。正如您可能也從我們的一些競爭對手那裡聽說的那樣，目前尚不清楚刺激計劃何時真正獲得關注。因此，當我們預測明年的成長時，我們會採取更謹慎的態度。

With the last stimulus that came out, our team is still actively working with our customers, making sure that they can bundle solutions in the right way, so they basically can apply for the stimulus that is out there. But I don't think it will have a meaningful impact this year, and we also have not factored anything yet in for next year.

隨著最後一項刺激措施的出台，我們的團隊仍在積極與客戶合作，確保他們能夠以正確的方式捆綁解決方案，這樣他們基本上就可以申請現有的刺激措施。但我認為今年不會產生有意義的影響，我們還沒有考慮明年的任何因素。

And that basically brings us then to the low single-digit growth model for next year. Mid and long term, we think there's still a very good potential for us in China. We have not changed our long-term outlook of high single-digit growth in China. Yes, it will have to come back into growth in many areas. But I think the fundamentals in China, investing into health care, into safer, clean environment and safer food, investing in important technologies like semiconductors, et cetera, are all areas where we serve our customers with dedicated solutions.

這基本上讓我們看到明年的低個位數成長模式。從中長期來看，我們認為我們在中國仍然有很大的潛力。我們沒有改變對中國高個位數成長的長期展望。是的，它必須在許多領域恢復成長。但我認為中國的基本面，投資醫療保健，投資更安全、乾淨的環境和更安全的食品，投資半導體等重要技術，都是我們為客戶提供專門解決方案的領域。

We have a great team in China that works very closely in China with our customers to develop solutions for the Chinese market. And that also makes us compete very effectively against local players. So I think we have a great opportunity to continue also there to drive market share and participate in the underlying growth, but on top of that, gain market share. That's why we have not changed the long-term model for China.

我們在中國擁有一支優秀的團隊，他們與我們的客戶密切合作，為中國市場開發解決方案。這也使我們能夠非常有效地與本地企業競爭。因此，我認為我們有很好的機會繼續推動市場份額並參與潛在的成長，但最重要的是，獲得市場份額。這就是為什麼我們沒有改變中國的長期模式。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

Dan Arias, Stifel.

丹·阿里亞斯，斯蒂菲爾。

Morning guys. Thanks for the questions here. Shawn or Patrick, maybe just another one on the outlook for '25. Obviously, a lot of moving parts out there. Where as you sit today, do you see the biggest sources of variability when it comes to what could have you better or worse than the initial outlook? Obviously, China is a big one. So I get that. But if there's more to add there, then by all means.

早安各位。感謝您在這裡提出的問題。肖恩或派崔克，也許只是另一個關於 25 年前景的人。顯然，那裡有很多活動部件。當您今天坐在哪裡，當談到什麼可能比最初的前景更好或更差時，您是否看到最大的可變性來源？顯然，中國是一個大國。所以我明白了。但如果還有更多要增加的地方，那就無論如何。

But beyond China, I'm just kind of interested in where you see the error bars as being the widest when it comes to just the businesses or the key regions that you have?

但在中國之外，我只是對您認為在涉及您擁有的業務或關鍵區域時誤差線最大的地方感興趣？

Yeah. Dan, this is Shawn. I'll take that. I mean I think you said it. I mean, China, we've always said in the past, things can move relatively fast and quickly in either direction. And I'm sure we'll continue to have zigs and zags along the way. So we certainly see upside to the guidance in China. But who knows how things develop here over the next year.

是的。丹，這是肖恩。我會接受的。我的意思是我認為你已經說過了。我的意思是，中國，我們過去總是說，事情可以相對快速地朝任一方向發展。我確信我們一路走來會繼續曲折。因此，我們當然看到了中國指導方針的好處。但誰知道明年這裡的情況會如何發展。

Other swing factors, I mean, of course, our end markets are a big part of that. When do companies really get back to moving forward with a lot of projects that have been on the sidelines recently. I think you guys all know what our core secular exposures are. But you kind of quickly just get into things outside of our control, whether it's market conditions, macro, geopolitics, those types of things.

當然，我的意思是，其他波動因素，我們的終端市場是其中的重要組成部分。公司什麼時候才能真正重新開始推進最近擱置的許多專案。我想你們都知道我們的核心長期風險是什麼。但你很快就會陷入我們無法控制的事情，無論是市場狀況、宏觀經濟、地緣政治等等。

But in terms of what we can control, we feel very good about that. The teams just continue to execute really well. Patrick and I were just on our world trip recently, and it's always really engaging and energizing for the two of us to be with all of our teams around the world.

但就我們可以控制的事情而言，我們對此感覺非常好。團隊繼續表現出色。派翠克和我最近剛剛進行了世界旅行，與世界各地的所有團隊在一起對我們兩個人來說總是非常有吸引力和充滿活力。

Yeah. Okay. And then maybe on margins, a good portion of the Lab portfolio has been refreshed, I believe, at this point. And I think the idea for you is to replace products with those that have better margins. So is that something that you think can be meaningful when it comes to overall profitability next year?

是的。好的。然後，也許在邊際上，我相信，此時實驗室投資組合的很大一部分已經更新。我認為您的想法是用利潤更高的產品替換產品。那麼，您認為這對明年的整體獲利能力有意義嗎？

I think -- I mean, no individual product launch moves the needle for us, but we have had a very good cadence recently. It definitely helps. I think you see it in our margin expansion this year. And -- but I just kind of view that as part of the overall one of the ingredients of any that drives our overall margin expansion, but definitely something we're mindful of for sure.

我認為——我的意思是，沒有任何單獨的產品發布能夠為我們帶來推動，但我們最近的節奏非常好。這絕對有幫助。我想你可以從我們今年的利潤擴張中看到這一點。而且 - 但我只是認為這是推動我們整體利潤率擴張的整體因素之一，但絕對是我們肯定要注意的事情。

And I think even more importantly, the new products are very well received in the marketplace, and that drives our value proposition and ultimately, a customer's willingness to pay. So it certainly helps us with our pricing in the market as well, too.

我認為更重要的是，新產品在市場上很受歡迎，這推動了我們的價值主張，並最終提高了客戶的支付意願。因此，它當然也有助於我們在市場上的定價。

Okay, thanks very much.

好的，非常感謝。

Dan Leonard, UBS.

丹‧倫納德，瑞銀集團。

Thanks for the time. I have a question about a potential change in the tariff environment. How are you preparing for any change? And is there anything different about your business today versus the 2018, 2019 time frame when tariffs were a topic?

謝謝你的時間。我對關稅環境的潛在變化有疑問。您準備如何應對任何改變？與 2018 年、2019 年關稅成為話題的時期相比，您現在的業務有什麼不同嗎？

Yeah. Good question. And yes, as you also point back to 2018, '19, we definitely had really successfully navigated tariffs in the past as well. I mean what has changed since then for us, number one is we, of course, have also continued to really expand our production footprint worldwide and expand, for example, our Mexico production to supply to the US and providing us also with more manufacturing flexibility.

是的。好問題。是的，正如您也提到的 2018 年、19 年，我們過去確實也確實成功地應對了關稅問題。我的意思是，從那時起對我們來說發生了什麼變化，第一個當然是我們繼續真正擴大我們在全球的生產足跡，並擴大我們在墨西哥的生產，以向美國供貨，並為我們提供了更多的製造彈性。

So we have also started already over the last two years, building some redundant manufacturing lines that we had initially only in China, now also in Mexico. But we going to have more flexibility as we have really global manufacturing footprint.

因此，我們在過去兩年中也已經開始建造一些多餘的生產線，這些生產線最初只在中國擁有，現在也在墨西哥。但我們將擁有更大的靈活性，因為我們擁有真正的全球製造足跡。

China, Mexico are not the only footprints we have. If there is more headwinds or changes out there, which we continuously monitor, we will, of course, tap into that opportunity to, as needed, then adjust our manufacturing footprint if that is needed.

中國、墨西哥並不是我們唯一的足跡。如果出現更多的阻力或變化，我們會持續監控，當然，我們會根據需要利用這個機會，然後在需要時調整我們的製造足跡。

I think we have a unique advantage of our global supply chain, and we definitely continue to fully leverage that. I think we have definitely made the right steps to start early on de-risking the setup that we had with the bigger footprint in China and making sure we have enough redundancies that we will continue to do so.

我認為我們的全球供應鏈擁有獨特的優勢，我們肯定會繼續充分利用這一優勢。我認為我們肯定已經採取了正確的步驟，儘早開始降低我們在中國擁有更大足蹟的設置的風險，並確保我們有足夠的裁員，以便我們繼續這樣做。

And I think it will -- actually, in that regard, I think we are still, of course, exposed to tariffs, but we are pretty -- I think we're pretty good prepared to react on those.

我認為它會 - 實際上，在這方面，我認為我們當然仍然面臨關稅，但我們相當 - 我認為我們已經做好了對這些反應的準備。

Appreciate that. And then a quick follow-up, Patrick. You mentioned that in speaking to your process analytics business that destocking is fully behind you at this point. What does the growth rate of that business then look like in the absence of destocking? Is it back to traditional long-term growth rates? Or is it something different?

很欣賞這一點。然後是快速跟進，帕特里克。您在與流程分析業務交談時提到，目前您已完全支援去庫存。在不去庫存的情況下，該業務的成長率是多少？是否回到了傳統的長期成長率？或有什麼不同嗎？

Yeah. Actually, we are extremely happy to see that the momentum in our product and mix business really has picked up. It's a clear sign that destocking is behind us. It's not only the size of the orders we receive, it's also the frequency of the orders we received that really tells us that customers are back to normal operation. I think also with the launches of new products that we had over the last years, we are well positioned to maintain our strong market position there.

是的。事實上，我們非常高興看到我們的產品和組合業務的勢頭確實有所回升。這是一個明顯的跡象，表明去庫存已經過去。真正告訴我們客戶已恢復正常運作的不僅是我們收到的訂單規模，還有我們收到的訂單的頻率。我認為，隨著過去幾年我們推出的新產品，我們有能力維持我們強大的市場地位。

And in terms of the growth rate, Shawn, do we have the growth rate for the last quarter for Product Inspection? -- For product (inaudible) basically, within our lab number and...

就成長率而言，肖恩，我們有上季產品檢驗的成長率嗎？ -- 對於產品（聽不清楚），基本上，在我們的實驗室編號內...

Yeah. We don't give out specific numbers, but I would say within our lab portfolio, we had good growth throughout the portfolio, but we had very strong growth. I think it was double digit in product - process analytics. And by the way, we also had really good growth in analytical instruments.

是的。我們沒有給出具體數字，但我想說，在我們的實驗室投資組合中，我們整個投資組合都有良好的成長，但我們的成長非常強勁。我認為產品流程分析中的數字是兩位數。順便說一句，我們在分析儀器方面也取得了非常好的成長。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Jack Meehan, Nephron Research.

傑克·米漢，腎單位研究。

Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to ask a little bit about the assumptions on the fourth quarter guide. I was just doing some simple math. I think the revenue forecast implies something like 6% growth sequentially. I was just benchmarking looking back, I think it was more -- something more like a little over 10%. So I was just curious, like if you look sequentially, like why you were building in a little bit more conservatism than we've seen previously?

謝謝。早安.我想問一些關於第四季指南的假設。我只是做了一些簡單的數學計算。我認為收入預測暗示著 6% 的環比增長。我只是回顧一下基準，我認為它更多——更像是 10% 多一點。所以我只是很好奇，如果你按順序看，為什麼你會比我們以前看到的更保守一點？

I'm sorry, Jack, can you repeat it? I didn't pick it up.

對不起，傑克，你能再說一次嗎？我沒有撿起來。

Just looking at the ramp from the third quarter to the fourth quarter on total sales, I think it's about 6% sequential growth is what your guide implies? In the past, it's been a little bit over 10%. Just why you're embedding a little bit more conservatism?

只要看看第三季到第四季總銷售額的成長情況，我認為您的指南暗示的環比成長約為 6%？過去，這個比例略高於10%。為什麼你要多一些保守主義呢？

Yeah, sorry, thanks, yeah. So yeah, I think, I understand the question. Yeah, I think it might be even closer to 7% sequential, but I understand it. Yes, we're a little bit more cautious right now. I think China is a big part of it on market conditions in general, but particularly China.

是的，對不起，謝謝，是的。所以，是的，我想，我理解這個問題。是的，我認為它可能更接近 7%，但我理解這一點。是的，我們現在比較謹慎。我認為，總體而言，中國是市場狀況的重要組成部分，尤其是中國。

I think if you kind of dig into the sequentials, you'll see China is the one that is more affirm to standout there. And yes, I was a little distracted because I was just looking at the notes on this process analytics thing. We grew double digit in Europe and in the US, but we grew high single digit globally.

我認為，如果你深入研究序列，你會發現中國是更肯定在那裡脫穎而出的國家。是的，我有點心煩意亂，因為我只是在看流程分析的筆記。我們在歐洲和美國實現了兩位數成長，但在全球範圍內實現了高個位數成長。

And then maybe just a follow-up on, again, like kind of this third quarter to fourth quarter dynamic. Can you just remind us like what you've historically seen as it pertains to a budget flush? Like I know some companies have more -- it's a little bit more dynamic. But if you could just talk about what you're expecting in that regard and just (multiple speakers).

然後也許只是後續行動，再一次，就像第三季到第四季的動態一樣。您能提醒我們一下您過去所看到的與預算充裕有關的情況嗎？據我所知，有些公司擁有更多——更有活力。但如果你能談談你在這方面的期望並且只是（多個發言者）。

I think there's going to be some. We're not counting on a full flush. I mean -- and I think you can see it with your first question, right? I think a typical like 5 or 10year average of sequentials from Q3 to Q4 is more in the 10% kind of a range. So you can tell we're not counting on a full flush.

我想會有一些。我們不指望完全同花。我的意思是——我想你可以從第一個問題中看出這一點，對吧？我認為從第三季到第四季的連續序列的典型 5 或 10 年平均值更多在 10% 的範圍內。所以你可以看出我們並不指望完全同花。

But I think part of that is also related to China. I mean we hear mixed things when talking to our teams. I mean there's definitely a lot of activity. We definitely see some positive things out there, but there's also things that are still delayed. And so it's a little bit on which customer you're talking to sometimes.

但我認為部分原因也與中國有關。我的意思是，當我們與我們的團隊交談時，我們聽到的事情很複雜。我的意思是肯定有很多活動。我們確實看到了一些積極的事情，但也有一些事情仍然被推遲。因此，有時取決於您正在與哪個客戶交談。

Sounds good. Thank you, Shawn.

聽起來不錯。謝謝你，肖恩。

Rachel Vatnsdal, JP Morgan.

雷切爾·瓦特斯達爾，摩根大通。

Great. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to follow up on some of the China comments, but really more focused on the near-term trends. So you mentioned that China returned to growth this quarter.

偉大的。早安.感謝您提出問題。我想跟進一些有關中國的評論，但實際上更關注近期趨勢。所以你提到中國本季恢復了成長。

You also highlighted that there's some excess capacity in some of the markets and pressures in Industrial as well. So can you just unpack that for us a little bit more? And then, Shawn, you just mentioned on Jack's question that in terms of that 3Q to 4Q sequential ramp, some of that is pressured by China. So can you just walk us through what are your China assumptions into 4Q as well?

您也強調，有些市場有產能過剩，工業領域也存在壓力。那你能為我們再解釋一下嗎？然後，肖恩，您剛才在傑克的問題中提到，就第三季度到第四季度的連續增長而言，其中一些是受到中國的壓力。那麼您能否向我們介紹一下您對第四季中國的假設是什麼？

Yeah, sure. Maybe I'll start, and I'll let Patrick kind of pick it up. So a couple of positives. One, overall, we did return to growth. I mean we've been going through a period in China now of very significant decreases. There's been kind of this resetting, if you will, over the last 4 quarters.

是的，當然。也許我會開始，然後讓派崔克來接手。有幾個正面的方面。第一，總體而言，我們確實恢復了成長。我的意思是，我們現在在中國正在經歷一段非常顯著下降的時期。如果你願意的話，在過去的四個季度裡，這種重置已經出現了。

So it was nice to see modest growth in the quarter. We did have low single-digit growth in the lab business, and then we had a low single-digit decline on the Industrial business. In fairness to the industrial business, the lab had an easier comparison. I mean our lab business kind of started to downturn a lot more than on the industrial side. And you could argue the industrial has been held up pretty resiliently in spite of a very challenging market situation overall. So low single digit is relative to market conditions, I think, shows how well the team still continues to execute there. And Patrick and I were just there recently and the industrial team was sharing with us a lot of the innovations that they've come out with also on the laboratory side. And it's just -- it's really kind of neat to see the breadth of the things that they're doing locally and bringing to the market.

因此很高興看到本季度的適度增長。我們的實驗室業務確實實現了低個位數成長，然後我們的工業業務出現了低個位數下降。公平地對待工業企業，實驗室進行了更容易的比較。我的意思是，我們的實驗室業務開始下滑的程度比工業方面嚴重得多。你可能會說，儘管整體市場情況非常具有挑戰性，但該行業仍然保持著相當強的彈性。我認為，相對於市場狀況而言，如此低的個位數表明團隊仍然繼續執行得多好。派崔克和我最近剛在那裡，工業團隊正在與我們分享他們在實驗室方面推出的許多創新。看到他們在本地所做的事情以及將其推向市場的事情的廣度，真是太棒了。

In terms of in terms of how we're thinking about China for the fourth quarter, because of some of these comps, we're going to start seeing a little bit more divergent in terms of lab and Industrial. We mentioned that the comp overall -- well, I don't know do we give guidance for Q4 or not yet, I can't remember. I think -- so just to be clear, our guidance for Q4 for China is mid-single-digit growth. And if you exclude the impact of this shipping delay benefit, it's going to be more like low single-digit growth in the fourth quarter.

就我們如何看待第四季度的中國而言，由於其中一些比較，我們將開始看到實驗室和工業方面的分歧更大。我們提到了總體情況——嗯，我不知道我們是否為第四季度提供指導，我不記得了。我認為，需要明確的是，我們對中國第四季的指導是中個位數成長。如果排除運輸延遲收益的影響，第四季的成長將更像是個位數的低成長。

And on a reported basis, that will kind of translate into more like low double-digit growth on the laboratory side, acknowledging they're lapping still an easy comparison there. And then on the Industrial side, it would -- we're expecting it to be down high single digit, maybe on the higher end of high single digit might even round to a 10%. We'll see how it plays out.

根據報告，這將轉化為實驗室方面的低兩位數增長，承認他們在那裡仍然是一個簡單的比較。然後在工業方面，我們預計它會下降高個位數，也許在高個位數的高端甚至可能會四捨五入到 10%。我們將看看結果如何。

Yeah. Excellent. Thanks, Shawn. If I may add, in terms of the question regarding unpacking the growth areas in China, I think where we're seeing better recoveries in pharma and in process analytics, also in some of the special chemical spaces in China that's recovering well. Again, also there, we have destocking behind us. The area where we still are not yet in the same recovery mode is in industrial automation.

是的。出色的。謝謝，肖恩。如果我可以補充一點，就有關中國成長領域的問題而言，我認為我們在製藥和製程分析方面看到了更好的復甦，在中國的一些特殊化學領域也恢復得很好。同樣，我們也在去庫存。我們尚未處於相同復甦模式的領域是工業自動化。

Part of that is also linked to areas that have seen exceptional growth over the last two years, like, for example, the battery segment in China. And that's -- truly, that's a capacity issue. I mean they are sitting on a lot of overcapacity. So they are not, at the moment, not investing in additional capacity expansion and automation solution, and that's pulling some of our growth rates in China down on industrial automation.

部分原因也與過去兩年出現異常成長的領域有關，例如中國的電池領域。這確實是能力問題。我的意思是他們的產能嚴重過剩。因此，目前他們並沒有不投資於額外的產能擴張和自動化解決方案，這拉低了我們在中國工業自動化方面的成長率。

Great. That's all helpful. And then just as my follow-up, could you walk us through those 4Q assumptions by segment and geography in terms of what you're assuming, including and excluding the comp? Thanks guys.

偉大的。這都是有幫助的。然後，正如我的後續行動，您能否根據您的假設（包括和排除比較）向我們介紹一下按細分市場和地理位置劃分的 4Q 假設？謝謝你們。

Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to start with the top with lab. So on a -- like I did before for 2025, I'll give you the reported number, and then I'll give you the adjusted number for the shipping delay from last year. So on a reported basis, we expect lab to be up low double digit and on an adjusted basis for the shipping delay up mid-single digit.

是的，絕對是。我將從頂部實驗室開始。因此，就像我之前在 2025 年所做的那樣，我會給您報告的數字，然後我會給您去年以來運輸延誤的調整後數字。因此，根據報告，我們預計實驗室的成長率將達到低兩位數，而調整後的運輸延遲將達到中位數。

The core industrial business, we expect to be up low single digit on a reported basis and down slightly low single digit on an adjusted basis for the shipping delay.

我們預期核心工業業務的報告基礎上將出現低個位數成長，而根據運輸延誤調整後的基礎上，我們預計將小幅下降個位數。

For product inspection, we expect both to be up high single digit. So that would translate into a total Industrial growth of mid-single digit on a reported basis and up low single digit on an adjusted basis. And then retail would be down about 10% on a reported basis and down high-teens on an adjusted basis. And then as we look at the geographies, we estimate Americas will be up low to mid-single digit on a reported basis and flattish on an adjusted basis.

對於產品檢驗，我們預期兩者都將成長高個位數。因此，這將意味著按報告計算的工業總成長為中個位數，而調整後的計算為低個位數成長。然後，按報告計算，零售業將下降約 10%，而按調整後計算，零售業將下降高雙位數。然後，當我們觀察各個地區時，我們估計美洲的報告數據將上升到中個位數，調整後將持平。

Europe would be up low double digit on a reported basis and up low single digit on an adjusted basis. And then China, we already mentioned, would be up mid-single digit on a reported basis and then up low single digit on an adjusted basis for the shipping delay.

歐洲在報告的基礎上將成長低兩位數，在調整後的基礎上將成長低個位數。然後，我們已經提到過，根據報告，中國的產量將上漲中個位數，然後根據運輸延誤的調整後，將上漲低個位數。

Josh Waldman, Cleveland Research.

喬許‧沃爾德曼，克利夫蘭研究中心。

Hey morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Patrick, it seems like you've made more of a point to talk on share gains over the last couple of quarters. Do you think you're seeing improvement in momentum here? And if so, is it more a function of a change in the competitive landscape or maybe the environment from, say, a customer preference or anything like that? Or is it more just building momentum on some of the internal service and sales efforts?

嘿早安。感謝您回答我的問題。帕特里克，在過去的幾個季度中，您似乎更注重談論股票收益。您認為這裡的勢頭有改善嗎？如果是這樣，這更多的是競爭格局變化的結果，還是環境變化的結果，例如顧客偏好或類似因素？或只是為一些內部服務和銷售工作積蓄動力？

Yeah. I think it's a bit of both, Josh. Thanks for the question. I mean what we're seeing is that the products that we have launched in the different categories compete extremely well. Of course, we are also looking also at growth numbers of our competitors in the same -- in the last couple of quarters and see that we are doing really well.

是的。我認為兩者兼而有之，喬許。謝謝你的提問。我的意思是，我們所看到的是，我們在不同類別中推出的產品競爭非常激烈。當然，我們也在關注競爭對手在過去幾季的成長數據，發現我們做得非常好。

Despite the low growth environment, we are still outgrowing these competitors in many areas. We see also that our win-loss ratios in the markets that we serve are very stable, that our products are being well received by our customers that our teams -- our sales teams are really able to compete with this portfolio very effectively.

儘管成長環境低迷，但我們在許多領域的發展速度仍然超過了這些競爭對手。我們也看到，我們在所服務的市場中的盈虧比非常穩定，我們的產品受到客戶的好評，我們的團隊 - 我們的銷售團隊確實能夠非常有效地與該產品組合競爭。

And that's also part of the feedback Shawn and I got when we did our budget to and talk to the market organizations worldwide. Actually, they are very happy with the products, the latest releases that we have in the different categories, whether it's lab, whether it's, for example, also product inspection. They can compete effectively with these new products that we have launched.

這也是肖恩和我在向全球市場組織制定預算並與之交談時得到的回饋的一部分。事實上，他們對我們的產品、不同類別的最新版本非常滿意，無論是實驗室的，還是產品檢驗的。他們可以與我們推出的這些新產品進行有效競爭。

And in some areas, we even went into market segments that we didn't serve before. If you think about the product inspection business, where we have launched a number of mid-range products we call them. So at a more mid-range product level. We historically have been always the market leader and still are the market leader in high-end segment, but with this new portfolio, we can really also tap deeper into the mid-range product portfolio, and that's going very nicely for us.

在某些領域，我們甚至進入了以前沒有服務過的細分市場。如果您考慮一下產品檢驗業務，我們已經推出了許多我們稱為中檔的產品。所以在更中檔的產品水準上。我們一直是市場領導者，現在仍然是高端市場的市場領導者，但透過這個新的產品組合，我們確實還可以更深入地開發中端產品組合，這對我們來說非常好。

We have launched several X-ray products that is helping us winning in the mid-range, but also opening more doors and helping us to upsell some of this product portfolio. So it's -- again, it's a blend together with the strong go-to-market strategies that we have.

我們推出了多種 X 光產品，這些產品幫助我們在中端市場獲勝，同時也打開了更多大門，幫助我們追加銷售部分產品組合。因此，它再次與我們擁有的強大的市場進入策略相結合。

Whenever we see new market segments, new hot segments using our Top K and Spinnaker portfolio to identify these customers to prepare the right materials for our sales team and get them in touch with these accounts and qualify the accounts and bring our portfolio top of mind of these new customers.

每當我們看到新的細分市場、新的熱門細分市場時，我們都會使用我們的Top K 和Spinnaker 產品組合來識別這些客戶，為我們的銷售團隊準備合適的材料，讓他們與這些客戶取得聯繫，對客戶進行資格認證，並將我們的產品組合放在首位這些新客戶。

I think that's a differentiation. And that's really the combination of a strong innovative product portfolio with the right sales tools to also get it in front of the customers, also new customers that we don't serve today is the winning recipe also moving forward.

我認為這是一個差異化。這實際上是強大的創新產品組合與正確的銷售工具的結合，將其呈現在客戶面前，而我們今天不服務的新客戶也是前進的致勝秘訣。

Got it. And then, Patrick, can you talk a bit more on the trends you're seeing within the pharma end market? I think you commented strength -- on strength in the US and Europe. Was that more a benefit to process analytics and pipettes? Or are you seeing improvement in Instruments?

知道了。然後，帕特里克，您能多談談您在製藥終端市場看到的趨勢嗎？我認為你評論了美國和歐洲的實力。這對於製程分析和移液器來說是否更有好處？或是您看到儀器方面的改良？

And then based on what you're seeing from these accounts kind of real time and where do you expect to end the year, do you think we're on a path back to kind of normalized longer-term growth in '25 from these accounts?

然後，根據您從這些帳戶中即時看到的情況以及您預計今年結束的情況，您認為我們是否正在從這些帳戶中恢復到 25 年正常化的長期增長？

Yeah. Good question. I mean I talked a bit about process analytics in the pharma space and also the biopharma space that is definitely back to good growth for us. And again, both in terms of order frequency and order volumes, we are very happy with that.

是的。好問題。我的意思是，我談到了製藥領域以及生物製藥領域的流程分析，這肯定會為我們帶來良好的成長。再說一次，無論是在訂單頻率還是訂單量方面，我們都對此感到非常滿意。

On the analytical instrument side, across the pharma business, I would also say we're seeing better sales engagement, better momentum and some accounts still prolonged sales cycles, to be honest. I mean there are customers out there who want to upgrade their portfolio, we see the benefit of our new products, but it still takes them longer to get them through the internal approval cycles. But I'm quite optimistic that also that will in the, let's say, quarters to come, we will get back to more normal levels.

在分析儀器方面，在整個製藥行業，我還想說，說實話，我們看到了更好的銷售參與度、更好的勢頭，而且一些客戶的銷售週期仍然延長。我的意思是，有些客戶想要升級他們的產品組合，我們看到了新產品的好處，但他們仍然需要更長的時間才能通過內部審批週期。但我非常樂觀地認為，在未來幾個季度，我們將恢復到更正常的水平。

Look, I mean, 70% to 80% of our business is replacement business and that had been tuned down for almost two years now. That also means moving forward, there is at one point in time when the budgets will be released, there is a catch-up that we can capture.

你看，我的意思是，我們 70% 到 80% 的業務是替換業務，而且這項業務已經調整了近兩年了。這也意味著向前邁進，在預算發布的某個時間點，我們可以抓住機會。

And that's why we are also really focusing so much on innovation and getting -- having the best updated portfolio out there to capture this wave when these budgets are released.

這就是為什麼我們也非常關注創新和獲得——擁有最好的更新產品組合，以便在這些預算發佈時抓住這一浪潮。

Patrick Donnelly, Citi.

派崔克唐納利，花旗銀行。

Hey guys, thank you for taking the questions. Shawn, I wanted to drill a little more into the margins. Certainly get the moving pieces on '25. It sounds like flat for '25, mainly due to the kind of the logistics catch-up.

嘿夥計們，謝謝你們提出問題。肖恩，我想在邊緣再鑽一點。當然要在 25 年獲得令人感動的作品。25 年的情況聽起來似乎持平，主要是因為物流方面的追趕。

But I guess when you look at '24, that was boosted by the logistics catch-up. I mean, would '24 have been down on margins without that logistics catch-up? Again, just trying to feel out the margin algorithm here, just given if we look at over a two, three year period, you just haven't seen much expansion.

但我想當你看看 24 年時，你會發現這是由於物流的追趕而推動的。我的意思是，如果沒有物流方面的趕上，'24 的利潤率會下降嗎？再次，只是想嘗試這裡的保證金演算法，如果我們看一下兩三年的時間，你只是沒有看到太多的擴張。

I guess what are the key levers going forward off of this? Are the China headwinds maybe weighing on things a little bit? Can you talk about the China margins? Just trying to dive into the margin piece ex some of that logistics, if you can.

我想推動這項進程的關鍵槓桿是什麼？中國的逆風可能會對事情造成一些壓力嗎？能談談中國的利潤率嗎？如果可以的話，只是試著深入了解一些物流以外的利潤部分。

Yeah, sure. I understand the question, Patrick. I mean -- so if you look at '24, our operating profit margin is expected to expand in the 50 basis point kind of range. You're right. If you exclude the shipping delay, that probably would have been down a little bit. It's kind of the same as you kind of like look at the sales growth, right? The sales would have been -- I mean, we need to acknowledge volumes are still down if you adjust for the shipping delay.

是的，當然。我理解這個問題，派崔克。我的意思是，如果你看看 24 年，我們的營業利潤率預計將擴大到 50 個基點的範圍內。你說得對。如果排除運輸延遲的影響，這個數字可能會下降一點。這有點像你看銷售成長，對吧？我的意思是，如果你根據運輸延遲進行調整，銷量仍然會下降。

So our -- what's our guidance, 2%. And if you exclude the 3% we're minus 1%. And then if you exclude pricing, volumes down 3%. So there's a reality there. But I think if you kind of look back, if you're just like looking at the last couple of years, I think you're looking at a period where there hasn't been volume growth. And -- but that's after a period where there was exceptional volume growth.

那我們的指導是多少，2%。如果排除 3%，我們就是負 1%。如果排除定價因素，銷售量會下降 3%。所以這是有現實的。但我認為，如果你回顧過去，如果你只是看看過去幾年，我認為你看到的是一個銷售沒有成長的時期。而且──但那是在銷量出現異常成長的時期之後。

And so I think you need to go back, if you really want to do a look back, I'd go back to like 2019 pre-COVID and our margins have expanded at that time, they were under 26%. So we've had tremendous margin expansion still over this time. It just wasn't quite a straight line. Now as we kind of look forward, we still remain very confident, as I mentioned earlier in the Q&A and why do we remain confident? Like all the things that we have at our disposal to increase margins are still very -- have a lot of runway to them.

所以我認為你需要回顧一下，如果你真的想回顧一下，我會回到 2019 年新冠疫情之前，當時我們的利潤率已經擴大，低於 26%。因此，這段時間我們的利潤率仍然大幅成長。它只是不完全是一條直線。現在，當我們展望未來時，我們仍然非常有信心，正如我之前在問答中提到的，為什麼我們仍然充滿信心？就像我們可以用來增加利潤的所有東西一樣，它們仍然有很多跑道。

It starts with growing the business. We have a lot of opportunities there. We still serve very highly fragmented markets. We've been investing a lot on innovation. We just launched a new generation of Spinnaker 6. So we have plenty of opportunities to expand sales going forward, and then we talked about Service today.

首先是發展業務。我們在那裡有很多機會。我們仍然服務於高度分散的市場。我們在創新方面投入了大量資金。我們剛剛推出了新一代 Spinnaker 6。所以我們未來有很多機會擴大銷售，然後我們今天談到了服務。

Second is pricing. Pricing has been and will continue to be a key lever. We have a lot of very innovative things within the program. We have very sophisticated analytics. We have very sophisticated tools. We have teams all around the world working together with our market organizations and as well as our product organizations to optimize price. We have some pretty sophisticated things also in terms of our ability to provide pricing recommendations. And all this has been also supported well by our R&D pipeline, which is continuing to increase the value propositions of our products.

其次是定價。定價已經並將繼續是關鍵槓桿。我們的計劃中有很多非常創新的東西。我們有非常複雜的分析。我們有非常先進的工具。我們在世界各地都有團隊與我們的市場組織和產品組織合作，以優化價格。在提供定價建議的能力方面，我們也有一些相當複雜的東西。所有這一切也得到了我們研發管道的良好支持，該管道正在不斷提高我們產品的價值主張。

And then SternDrive, we talked about it earlier this year about launching the latest generation and wave of SternDrive, which is about how do we improve efficiencies in the organization, primarily targeting our supply chain as well as reducing costs. Lots of very interesting things in that program, still have many innings to go in terms of the runway there. Also a lot of new technologies that we're able to take advantage of in our manufacturing setup to be more productive.

然後是 SternDrive，我們今年早些時候談到了推出最新一代和浪潮的 SternDrive，這是關於我們如何提高組織的效率，主要針對我們的供應鏈以及降低成本。該節目中有很多非常有趣的事情，就那裡的跑道而言，還有很多局要進行。此外，我們還可以在製造設備中利用許多新技術來提高生產效率。

And then on the last call, we talked about Blue Ocean, and that was also a little intentional to remind people of the power of Blue Ocean. And there's a lot of things that Blue Ocean gives us in terms of a foundation and an enabler for a lot of the programs we do, but it also helps us drive productivity, whether it's through the ability to automate processes and leverage shared service centers and -- but also providing better insights to make better decisions in the business through more advanced analytics.

然後在最後一次通話中，我們談到了藍海，這也是有意提醒人們藍海的力量。藍海為我們提供了很多東西，為我們所做的許多計劃奠定了基礎和推動力，但它也幫助我們提高了生產力，無論是透過自動化流程的能力和利用共享服務中心以及——而且還可以通過更高階的分析提供更好的見解，以便在業務中做出更好的決策。

That's really helpful. Anything on the China margins quickly, if you don't mind?

這真的很有幫助。如果您不介意的話，可以快速在中國邊緣進行任何活動嗎？

China, I think China is at above corporate average margin. So it's been a bit of a headwind to our overall margin over the last year. But it's nice to see that we're starting to turn the corner there on growth and going forward. So -- but nothing particular.

中國，我認為中國的利潤率高於企業平均。因此，這對我們去年的整體利潤率來說有點不利。但很高興看到我們開始扭轉成長和前進的局面。所以——但沒什麼特別的。

Within China, we've addressed productivity issues there with the volume decrease. The team has been very focused on acknowledging that. And -- but we also feel like we have a very strong organization that executes well and is prepared for the future. And I'd say our Chinese team is certainly one of the leaders in our company when it comes to areas like SternDrive and driving productivity and they're a very innovative organization.

在中國，我們已經解決了產量下降所帶來的生產力問題。團隊一直非常重視承認這一點。而且，我們也覺得我們擁有一個非常強大的組織，執行力良好，並為未來做好了準備。我想說，在 SternDrive 和提高生產力等領域，我們的中國團隊無疑是我們公司的領導者之一，他們是一個非常創新的組織。

That's really helpful. And then, Patrick, just quickly on the Industrial side. It sounds like China, obviously weighing on things. Can you just talk Industrial broadly? Is it mainly China that's the issue? And what the -- kind of what you're seeing on that front from customers would be helpful.

這真的很有幫助。然後，帕特里克，很快就工業方面。聽起來像中國，顯然在給事情帶來壓力。您能籠統地談談工業嗎？問題主要出在中國嗎？您從客戶那裡看到的這方面的資訊將會有所幫助。

Yeah. Good question. Look, I mean, China is definitely a factor, as I said, but it's also in the US and Europe where we have seen a slower market in the last quarter. Some of the areas, I would say it wouldn't take a pause, but also there, the decision cycle is taking a bit longer. If you compare -- if you also look at the earnings reports of some of our competitors in the industrial space, you can see that some of the automation growth has been slowing down quite a bit.

是的。好問題。聽著，我的意思是，正如我所說，中國絕對是一個因素，但在美國和歐洲，我們上個季度也看到市場放緩。我想說，在某些領域，它不會需要暫停，但在某些領域，決策週期需要更長的時間。如果你比較一下——如果你也看看我們在工業領域的一些競爭對手的收益報告，你會發現一些自動化的成長已經放緩了很多。

I think we're still competing very effectively, but we are not totally immune to these changes out there. I mean, PMIs, while I don't want to always link it to PMIs, but has been down now for many quarters. And with that, there has been a subdued, I would say, investment in some of the industrial automation. That I'm sure that will come back because there is a need for productivity gains. There is also a shrinking workforce if you look into Europe and US. And that will require also investment in automation and digitalization.

我認為我們仍然在非常有效地競爭，但我們並不能完全免受這些變化的影響。我的意思是，採購經理人指數，雖然我不想總是將其與採購經理人指數連結起來，但現在已經連續多個季度下降。我想說，隨之而來的是，對某些工業自動化的投資受到抑制。我確信這種情況會回來，因為需要提高生產力。如果你看看歐洲和美國，勞動力也在萎縮。這還需要對自動化和數位化進行投資。

And our solutions are front and center here. They are empowering our customers to drive the needed productivity gains and also compliance when it comes to data handling, et cetera. So mid-term, I'm not concerned about that, to be honest. So again, we have a strong product portfolio. I think the trend for automation and digitalization will stay intact.

我們的解決方案是這裡的首要和中心。他們幫助我們的客戶在數據處理等方面提高所需的生產力和合規性。因此，老實說，從中期來看，我並不擔心這一點。再說一遍，我們擁有強大的產品組合。我認為自動化和數位化的趨勢將保持不變。

But yes, we had a slower quarter this last quarter, and it was not only China. China was probably more prominent, but also the US and Europe are somewhat smaller.

但是，是的，我們上個季度的成長速度較慢，而且不僅僅是中國。中國可能更為突出，但美國和歐洲的規模也較小。

Yeah. And as a reminder, too, our Industrial business, while it has more exposure to the general economy than our other businesses, about 60% of it still is anchored in our core segments of a combination of pharma, biopharma, food manufacturing and chemical. And -- but we also see a lot of these delays and things taking a little bit longer in our core segments as well, too. It's not just the general economy.

是的。也要提醒大家的是，我們的工業業務雖然比我們的其他業務更能接觸到整體經濟，但其中約60% 的業務仍然紮根於我們的製藥、生物製藥、食品製造和化學組合的核心領域。而且 - 但我們也看到很多這樣的延遲，並且在我們的核心領域也花費了更長的時間。這不僅僅是一般經濟。

Tycho Peterson, Jefferies.

第谷·彼得森，杰弗里斯。

Hey, thanks. Actually, I just want to follow up on some of the Industrial stuff. So product inspection, you're guiding to high single digit in the fourth quarter. I assume that's easy comp because you're talking about low single digit next year. But can you maybe just touch on food manufacturing? That's been a challenging business for a while. And any risks, I guess, with the new administration on deregulation for either that or broader parts of the portfolio? I know it's early days.

嘿，謝謝。其實我只是想跟進一些工業方面的事情。因此，產品檢驗預計第四季將達到高個位數。我認為這很容易計算，因為你談論的是明年的低個位數。但您能談談食品製造嗎？一段時間以來，這一直是一項充滿挑戰的業務。我猜想，新政府放鬆對這一領域或更廣泛的投資組合的監管會帶來什麼風險？我知道現在還為時過早。

Shawn.

肖恩.

Yes, you want to...

是的，你想...

Yeah, I can start and you can chime in, Shawn. Look, I mean, as I said in the beginning, the good news here is we are competing really well with product inspection with our upgraded portfolio also with the new mid-range products. Yes, the market is still slow. Customers are under pressure. If you look at the big packaged food customers out there, they all, of course, are also under pressure when it comes to their margins.

是的，我可以開始，你也可以插話，肖恩。聽著，我的意思是，正如我一開始所說的，好消息是我們在產品檢測方面的競爭非常好，我們升級的產品組合以及新的中檔產品。是的，市場仍然緩慢。客戶面臨壓力。如果你看看那裡的大型包裝食品客戶，當然也都面臨著利潤壓力。

That's why what we're seeing is good engagement, but prolonged sales cycles. Still, Q4, I think, is a bit an easier comp compared to last year. That's right. But mid-term, I think we will stay in that low to mid-single-digit range that we have forecasted for next year for PI. There's not a fundamental change, I would expect from the current administration. when it comes to the impact of packaged food companies, which is a large part of our customer base.

這就是為什麼我們看到的是良好的參與度，但銷售週期延長。儘管如此，我認為第四季的比賽比去年要容易一些。這是正確的。但從中期來看，我認為我們明年的 PI 將保持在低個位數到中個位數的範圍內。我預計現任政府不會發生根本性的改變。談到包裝食品公司的影響，包裝食品公司是我們客戶群的很大一部分。

Yeah. I mean I think we need to see what they come out with. But I think what we find is every time there's a concern about are people still going to buy whatever. There's new brands, there's new sizes. There's new shapes. There's like -- and so people are still going to eat. And so there tends to be always opportunities even if there's risks with change.

是的。我的意思是，我認為我們需要看看他們會帶來什麼。但我認為我們發現每次人們都會擔心人們是否還會購買任何東西。有新品牌，有新尺寸。有新的形狀了。就像——所以人們仍然會吃飯。因此，即使變革存在風險，機會也總是存在。

And then Patrick, I'm trying to reconcile your comments in the opening about just more onshoring, but then automation was soft in the Americas. I mean, just when do you think automation actually turns here, do you think, you know, you could actually overshoot next year, given some of the onshoring initiatives.

然後帕特里克，我試圖協調你在開場時關於更多外包的評論，但隨後美洲的自動化程度較低。我的意思是，就你認為自動化何時真正轉向這裡，你是否認為，你知道，考慮到一些外包舉措，明年你實際上可能會超額完成。

Yeah. And there's -- again, there's different modalities we serve from check weighing, making sure that it's the right amount and customers are as concerned that they package enough into the packaged food, but also not too much. So they want to have check weighing at the end of the line. And then the other controller when it comes to physical contamination, it's a brand protection for these companies.

是的。再說一次，我們透過檢查稱重提供不同的方式，確保其數量正確，並且客戶擔心他們在包裝食品中包裝了足夠的量，但也不是太多。因此他們希望在生產線末端進行檢重。然後，當涉及到物理污染時，另一個控制器是對這些公司的品牌保護。

And it's -- we make food safe. and our customers, they're definitely are the big part of their brand protection. Nobody wants to find physical contamination in their food.

我們確保食品安全。和我們的客戶，他們絕對是品牌保護的重要組成部分。沒有人願意在食物中發現物理污染。

Exactly.

確切地。

And then, Patrick, I'm trying to reconcile your comments in the opening about just more onshoring, but then automation was soft in the Americas. I mean just when do you think automation actually turns here? Do you think you could actually overshoot next year given some of the onshoring initiatives?

然後，帕特里克，我試圖協調你在開場時關於更多外包的評論，但後來美洲的自動化程度較低。我的意思是，您認為自動化何時真正轉變？鑑於一些外包舉措，您認為明年實際上可能會超出預期嗎？

We'd love to overshoot, of course. But, again, I can tell you, I mean, that onshoring reshoring process is something that we monitor very closely. But I mean, this takes also time, right? It's not like you shut down somewhere or you slow down your business in China and then move it within six months to the US or to Europe, it takes time.

當然，我們很樂意超越。但是，我可以再次告訴你，我的意思是，我們非常密切地監控外包流程。但我的意思是，這也需要時間，對吧？這並不像你關閉某個地方或放慢在中國的業務，然後在六個月內將其轉移到美國或歐洲，這需要時間。

I think you have not seen, I would say, the material part of the reshoring activities worldwide. There's still to come. When it really will gain momentum, probably more of that next year in the years to come, but the exact timing is difficult to forecast, to be honest.

我認為你還沒有看到全球範圍內回流活動的實質部分。還有未來。當它真正獲得動力時，可能會在未來幾年更多，但說實話，確切的時間很難預測。

Okay. And the last one, Shawn, just pricing assumptions in the fourth quarter and then thinking about next year, obviously, with inflation coming down, what's your pricing power? Has the algorithm changed at all?

好的。最後一個，肖恩，只是第四季度的定價假設，然後考慮明年，顯然，隨著通貨膨脹的下降，你的定價能力是多少？演算法有改變嗎？

No. Thanks, Tycho. We're still thinking 2% for Q4, and we're also thinking 2% for next year.

不。謝謝，第谷。我們仍然認為第四季的成長率為 2%，我們也認為明年的成長率為 2%。

Michael Ryskin, Bank of America.

麥可‧萊斯金，美國銀行。

Great. Thanks. Excuse me guys, I'll be quick. First, Shawn, I want to confirm some comments you made earlier. I thought I heard you say that margins flat in 2025? I just want to make sure I heard that correctly, and that's not sort of an adjusted number. Just a little bit hard to reconcile the EPS with guide with that. Is that kind of like flattish, maybe down a little bit? Or is that a hard flat?

偉大的。謝謝。對不起，夥計們，我會很快的。首先，肖恩，我想確認你之前發表的一些評論。我想我聽到你說 2025 年利潤率持平？我只是想確保我聽到的是正確的，而且這不是一個調整後的數字。只是有點難以將 EPS 與指南相一致。是不是有點平坦，甚至有點下降？或者說這是一個硬公寓？

So operating margin is flattish. Yes, maybe...

因此營業利潤率持平。是的，也許...

Flattish?

扁平化？

Yes, and then -- but the gross profit margin would be up like 30 to 40 bps.

是的，然後——但毛利率會上升 30 到 40 個基點。

Okay. Yes. All right. Exactly. That makes sense. And then sort of a follow-up on that. On the shipping component, I just want to make sure we back it out correctly, the way you kind of described it for 2024. Is it fair to say that ex shipping margins would be up something like 50, 75 bps range, 50, 70 bps next year, and that's the swing. I'm just trying to (technical difficulty).

好的。是的。好的。確切地。這是有道理的。然後是對此的後續行動。在運輸部分，我只是想確保我們正確地支持它，就像你在 2024 年所描述的那樣。可以公平地說，明年除運輸利潤率將上漲 50、75 個基點，50、70 個基點，這就是波動。我只是想（技術難度）。

Yes. I mean I -- yes, I don't know the exact math, but that sounds like a reasonable range to me.

是的。我的意思是我——是的，我不知道確切的數學，但這對我來說聽起來是一個合理的範圍。

Okay. And then last one for me. I think Tycho was just asking about Product Inspection. I want to ask a little bit about Food Retail. I know it's not a critical part of your business, not something you talk about a lot, but that's just sort of been declining pretty consistently for a while.

好的。然後是我的最後一張。我認為第谷只是詢問有關產品檢驗的問題。我想問一些有關食品零售的問題。我知道這不是您業務的關鍵部分，也不是您經常談論的事情，但它只是在一段時間內一直在持續下降。

I mean you often have tough comps, onetime customer issues, things like that. It's just gone from like 15% of revenues back in the day down to, I think, 5% and continues to face some challenges. Just taking a step back, what are your thoughts on that? I mean is that something you continue to think can be a core part of the business? Or could there be some strategic solutions there?

我的意思是，你經常會遇到困難的競爭，一次性的客戶問題，諸如此類的事情。它只是從當時佔收入的 15% 左右下降到了我認為的 5%，並且繼續面臨一些挑戰。退一步來說，你對此有何看法？我的意思是，您仍然認為這可以成為業務的核心部分？或者那裡有一些戰略解決方案嗎？

Well, good question. I mean, look, food retail, as you said, is a very lumpy business. We do a lot of key account management there. So a lot of the major customers or retail chains that they're buying from us, but they come in project ways. And the decline you see this year is really on back of a very strong year last year. Last year, we had a lot of good projects out there.

嗯，好問題。我的意思是，正如你所說，食品零售業是一個非常不穩定的行業。我們在那裡進行很多大客戶管理。許多主要客戶或零售連鎖店都從我們這裡購買產品，但他們是以專案的方式來的。今年的下降實際上是在去年非常強勁的基礎上發生的。去年，我們有很多好的項目。

It's -- overall, it's still about 5% of our total revenues. We don't expect that to significantly increase. It's really a strong technology platform leverage that we have. It's a weighing solution. And with that regard, we think it's still a valid part of our portfolio. We have invested actually a bit in the last couple of years updating the products. We came out with very new really interesting solutions for customers, also using AI-based features to automatically detect what you put on the scale, simplifying the workflow, not only for the customer but also for the checkout service.

總的來說，它仍然占我們總收入的 5% 左右。我們預計這一數字不會顯著增加。這確實是我們擁有的強大的技術平台槓桿。這是一種稱重解決方案。從這方面來說，我們認為它仍然是我們投資組合的有效組成部分。在過去的幾年裡，我們實際上投入了一些資金來更新產品。我們為客戶推出了非常有趣的新解決方案，還使用基於人工智慧的功能來自動偵測您放在秤上的物品，簡化了工作流程，不僅為客戶，也為結帳服務。

And that's been received very well. So we see also, again, good number of projects in the pipeline. But strategically, again, we don't think about any immediate change there other than having this part of the platform leverage and technology leveraging of our portfolio.

這受到了很好的歡迎。因此，我們再次看到大量項目正在醞釀中。但從策略上講，除了利用我們產品組合的這部分平台槓桿和技術槓桿之外，我們不會考慮立即進行任何變更。

Okay. Makes sense. I'll leave it there. Thanks.

好的。有道理。我會把它留在那裡。謝謝。

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I'll turn the call to Adam for closing remarks.

問答環節到此結束。我會把電話轉給 Adam 做結束語。

Great. Hey, thanks, everybody, for joining us this morning. If you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out, and I hope you all have a great weekend. Take care.

偉大的。嘿，謝謝大家今天早上加入我們。如果您有任何後續問題，請隨時與我們聯繫，並祝大家週末愉快。小心。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。您現在可以斷開連線。