Quest Resource Holding Corp (QRHC) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Quest Resource Holding Corporation Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) And this conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝你的支持。這是會議接線員。歡迎來到 Quest Resource Holding Corporation 2022 年第四季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）正在錄製此會議。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the conference over to Dave Mossberg, Investor Relations representative. Please go ahead.

我現在想將會議轉交給投資者關係代表 Dave Mossberg。請繼續。

Thank you, Brenda, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call.

謝謝布倫達，也謝謝大家加入我們的電話會議。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this conference call may contain predictions, estimates and other forward-looking statements regarding future events or future performance of Quest. Use of words like anticipate, project, estimate, expect, intend, believe and other similar expressions are intended to identify those forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on Quest's current expectations, estimates, projections, beliefs and assumptions and involve significant risks and uncertainties. Actual events or Quest's results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, which are discussed in greater detail in Quest's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements and to consult our SEC filings for additional risks and uncertainties. Quest's forward-looking statements are presented as of the date made, and we disclaim any duty to update such statements unless required to do so by law.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒大家，本次電話會議可能包含有關 Quest 未來事件或未來表現的預測、估計和其他前瞻性陳述。使用諸如預期、項目、估計、預期、打算、相信和其他類似表達的詞語旨在識別這些前瞻性陳述。此類前瞻性陳述基於 Quest 當前的預期、估計、預測、信念和假設，並涉及重大風險和不確定性。由於各種因素，實際事件或 Quest 的結果可能與前瞻性陳述中討論的結果存在重大差異，這些因素在 Quest 提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中有更詳細的討論。請注意不要過分依賴此類聲明，並請查閱我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件以了解更多風險和不確定性。 Quest 的前瞻性陳述是在發表之日提交的，除非法律要求，否則我們不承擔任何更新此類陳述的義務。

In addition, in this call, we may include industry and market data and other statistical information as well as Quest's observations and views about industry conditions and developments. The data and information are based on Quest's estimates, independent publications, government publications and reports by market research firms and other sources. Although Quest believes these sources are reliable and the data and other information are accurate, we caution that Quest has not independently verified the reliability of the sources or the accuracy of the information.

此外，在此次電話會議中，我們可能會包括行業和市場數據及其他統計信息，以及 Quest 對行業狀況和發展的觀察和看法。數據和信息基於 Quest 的估計、獨立出版物、政府出版物以及市場研究公司和其他來源的報告。儘管 Quest 認為這些來源是可靠的並且數據和其他信息是準確的，但我們警告說，Quest 尚未獨立驗證來源的可靠性或信息的準確性。

Certain non-GAAP financial measures will also be discussed during this call. These non-GAAP measures are used by management to make strategic decisions, forecast future results and evaluate the company's current performance. Management believes the presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investors understanding the assessment of the company's ongoing core operations and prospects for the future. Unless it is otherwise stated, it should be assumed that any financials discussed in this call will be on a non-GAAP basis. Full reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures are included in today's earnings release.

本次電話會議還將討論某些非 GAAP 財務措施。這些非 GAAP 指標被管理層用於製定戰略決策、預測未來結果和評估公司當前業績。管理層認為，這些非 GAAP 財務措施的介紹有助於投資者了解對公司持續核心業務和未來前景的評估。除非另有說明，否則應假定本次電話會議中討論的任何財務數據都將基於非公認會計原則。非 GAAP 與 GAAP 財務指標的全面對賬包含在今天的收益發布中。

With all that said, I'll now turn the call over to Ray Hatch, President and Chief Executive Officer.

話雖如此，我現在將把電話轉給總裁兼首席執行官雷哈奇 (Ray Hatch)。

Thank you, Dave, and thanks, everyone, for your interest in Quest. Overall, we had a strong year in 2022 with 70% growth in gross profit dollars. We managed through tremendous growth during the year, expanding relationships with existing customers and a significant ramp from new customers. Growth also came from integrating 4 acquisitions during 2022.

謝謝 Dave，也謝謝大家對 Quest 的關注。總體而言，我們在 2022 年表現強勁，毛利潤增長了 70%。我們在這一年取得了巨大的增長，擴大了與現有客戶的關係，並顯著增加了新客戶。增長還來自於 2022 年期間對 4 項收購的整合。

Three of these acquisitions have gone according to plan, but the fourth, RWS, caused challenges for us during this past year. It is a good business with a strong customer base, but process issues hampered the performance. The good news is that we've addressed the RWS issues, and we've already begun to see substantial improvements from that acquisition thus far in the first quarter and expect to fully realize the planned contribution through 2023.

其中三項收購已按計劃進行，但第四項收購 RWS 在過去一年中給我們帶來了挑戰。這是一家擁有強大客戶群的好企業，但流程問題阻礙了業績。好消息是，我們已經解決了 RWS 問題，我們已經開始看到第一季度迄今為止的收購取得了實質性進展，並預計到 2023 年將完全實現計劃的貢獻。

Outside of RWS, our business performed well. We are executing well on all of our strategies, we continue to move new opportunities through our pipeline. We continue to build our operating platform, investing in capabilities, which will enable us to drive operating efficiencies, integrate acquisitions more quickly and to continually enhance our customer service. Importantly, our outlook for profitable growth in 2023 and beyond remains unchanged.

在 RWS 之外，我們的業務表現良好。我們在所有戰略上都執行得很好，我們繼續通過我們的管道轉移新的機會。我們繼續構建我們的運營平台，投資於能力，這將使我們能夠提高運營效率，更快地整合收購併不斷增強我們的客戶服務。重要的是，我們對 2023 年及以後的盈利增長前景保持不變。

Because RWS has such a large impact on the fourth quarter and the year, before I turn the call over to Brett to review financials, I'm going to give you an update on what's going on there and an overview of the corrective actions we've taken.

由於 RWS 對第四季度和全年的影響如此之大，在我將電話轉給布雷特審查財務之前，我將向您介紹那裡發生的情況的最新情況以及我們糾正措施的概述。已經採取了。

To give you a little background, we made the RWS acquisition at the end of 2021. This was the largest acquisition that we have made to date, and we decided to integrate the business over a longer time period. The plan was to pursue cross-selling opportunities and implement Quest business processes at RWS, then wait to fully integrate until we have more time to operate the business. The thinking was that this would allow us to achieve the highest contribution of the acquisition while, at the same time, to avoid disrupting the business.

為了給您一些背景知識，我們在 2021 年底進行了 RWS 收購。這是迄今為止我們進行的最大的一次收購，我們決定在更長的時間內整合業務。計劃是尋求交叉銷售機會並在 RWS 實施 Quest 業務流程，然後等待完全整合，直到我們有更多時間運營業務。當時的想法是，這將使我們能夠實現收購的最大貢獻，同時避免中斷業務。

In retrospect, waiting to fully integrate RWS quickly was a mistake which caused 2 major issues. First, because of the information gaps in RWS, it was challenging to implement our vendor optimization processes there, which entails working with vendors in areas such as volume pricing, rightsizing and route optimization. Second, our normal process of passing through contracted cost increases and fuel surcharges was not being done with a subset of the RWS customers. We estimate these factors combined to reduce gross profit dollars by approximately $1.5 million for 2022.

回想起來，等待快速完全集成 RWS 是一個錯誤，它導致了 2 個主要問題。首先，由於 RWS 中的信息差距，在那裡實施我們的供應商優化流程具有挑戰性，這需要與供應商在批量定價、規模調整和路線優化等領域合作。其次，我們通過合同成本增加和燃油附加費的正常流程並未與部分 RWS 客戶一起完成。我們估計這些因素加起來會使 2022 年的毛利潤減少約 150 萬美元。

We've implemented Quest best practice across RWS business and have realigned management reporting structure for each department. Our accounting, operation, sales and marketing groups are now fully integrated as of the end of the year, and we expect systems integrations to be completed during the third quarter.

我們在 RWS 業務中實施了 Quest 最佳實踐，並重新調整了每個部門的管理報告結構。我們的會計、運營、銷售和營銷部門現已在年底前完全整合，我們預計系統整合將在第三季度完成。

We've corrected the process to pass through costs and fuel surcharges that are part of the contractual agreements at RWS. While we can't bill and catch up for past periods, we started to see benefits of implementing pass-through costs and fuel surcharges to RWS customers starting in January.

我們已經更正了轉嫁成本和燃油附加費的流程，這些費用和燃油附加費是 RWS 合同協議的一部分。雖然我們無法為過去的時期開具賬單並趕上進度，但我們開始看到從 1 月份開始對 RWS 客戶實施轉嫁成本和燃油附加費的好處。

We've addressed information gaps and implemented vendor management improvements. We are seeing the benefits in the first quarter and expect to see improvements in gross profit throughout the year.

我們解決了信息差距並實施了供應商管理改進。我們在第一季度看到了收益，並預計全年毛利都會有所改善。

Along with the continued strength of our core business, the corrective actions we have taken have already begun to result in incremental improvement during the first quarter.

隨著我們核心業務的持續發展，我們採取的糾正措施已經開始在第一季度帶來逐步改善。

As we said in the press release, the trajectory is positive. Preliminary results for January and February showed gross profits averaging approximately $4.25 million per month and revenue averaging $24 million per month, with further improvement expected across the remainder of the year.

正如我們在新聞稿中所說，軌跡是積極的。 1 月和 2 月的初步結果顯示，毛利潤平均約為每月 425 萬美元，收入平均為每月 2400 萬美元，預計今年剩餘時間將進一步改善。

While expected contribution from RWS was delayed, I want to reiterate that our view of the potential of the business and our original financial expectations remain intact. It's important to note that customer relationships remain strong. And in fact, we've been able to successfully cross-sell RWS services to existing Quest clients. Equally important, we've also maintained or improved relationships with RWS vendors.

雖然 RWS 的預期貢獻被推遲，但我想重申，我們對業務潛力的看法和我們最初的財務預期保持不變。重要的是要注意客戶關係仍然牢固。事實上，我們已經能夠成功地將 RWS 服務交叉銷售給現有的 Quest 客戶。同樣重要的是，我們還保持或改善了與 RWS 供應商的關係。

I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Brett Johnston, for our financial overview, and I'll be back to discuss tranches. Brett?

我現在將電話轉給我們的首席財務官布雷特約翰斯頓，了解我們的財務概覽，然後我會回來討論分期付款。布雷特？

Thanks, Ray, and good afternoon, everyone. We had mixed results during the fourth quarter, with solid performance in our core business being offset by integration challenges at RWS.

謝謝，雷，大家下午好。我們在第四季度的業績喜憂參半，我們核心業務的穩健表現被 RWS 的整合挑戰所抵消。

A quick note about the sequential decrease in revenue, it was primarily related to commodity price fluctuations and normal fourth quarter seasonality. As discussed on previous calls, commodity price fluctuations have not historically had material effects on gross profit dollars. Our customer agreements produce consistent gross profit dollars based on volumes that are not tied to commodity price fluctuations. The value of the commodities we recycle on behalf of our clients simply passes through to our P&L.

關於收入連續下降的快速說明，這主要與大宗商品價格波動和正常的第四季度季節性有關。正如在之前的電話會議上所討論的那樣，大宗商品價格波動在歷史上並未對美元毛利產生實質性影響。我們的客戶協議根據與商品價格波動無關的數量產生一致的毛利潤美元。我們代表客戶回收的商品價值直接傳遞到我們的損益表中。

During the fourth quarter, gross profit dollars increased 25% year-over-year to $10.8 million. And for the year 2022, gross profit dollars increased 70% to $48.9 million. For the quarter, we estimate that approximately 1/3 of the increase in gross profit dollars came from acquisitions and the remaining 2/3 from organic growth. Of the organic growth for the quarter, the bulk was driven by new customer growth. For the year, we estimate that approximately 2/3 of the increase in gross profit dollars came from acquisitions and the remaining 1/3 from organic growth. Of the organic growth for the year, the bulk was also driven by new customer growth.

第四季度，毛利潤同比增長 25% 至 1080 萬美元。 2022 年毛利潤增長 70% 至 4890 萬美元。對於本季度，我們估計毛利潤增長的大約 1/3 來自收購，其餘 2/3 來自有機增長。在本季度的有機增長中，大部分是由新客戶增長推動的。今年，我們估計毛利潤增長的大約 2/3 來自收購，其餘 1/3 來自有機增長。在今年的有機增長中，大部分還受到新客戶增長的推動。

As we have previously stated, due to the ongoing integration work and resulting accounting adjustments, it was difficult to make sequential comparison in gross profit dollars from quarter-to-quarter during 2022. However, as Ray mentioned earlier, we feel significant progress has been made with the acquisition of RWS, and these accounting adjustments were finalized during 2022.

正如我們之前所說，由於正在進行的整合工作和由此產生的會計調整，很難對 2022 年每個季度的毛利潤美元進行順序比較。但是，正如 Ray 之前提到的，我們認為已經取得了重大進展收購 RWS 時做出的，這些會計調整在 2022 年完成。

As Ray said earlier, we estimate that the issues with RWS reduced gross profit dollars during 2022 by approximately $1.5 million. As a reminder, this was related to slower-than-expected implementation of contract optimization processes and missing price adjustments with certain RWS customers that we normally take as part of our contracted agreements.

正如 Ray 早些時候所說，我們估計 RWS 的問題使 2022 年的毛利潤減少了約 150 萬美元。提醒一下，這與合同優化流程的實施速度慢於預期以及我們通常將某些 RWS 客戶作為合同協議的一部分進行的價格調整缺失有關。

Outside of RWS, I want to note that sequential gross profit dollar comparisons were not affected by inflationary cost pressures. We were able to offset inflationary cost pressure with flexible pricing and cost recovery fees. We have implemented changes at RWS and expect these changes will be in full effect by the end of the second quarter.

在 RWS 之外，我想指出連續毛利潤美元比較不受通脹成本壓力的影響。我們能夠通過靈活的定價和成本回收費用來抵消通脹成本壓力。我們已在 RWS 實施變更，預計這些變更將在第二季度末全面生效。

Looking forward, our outlook for gross profit dollars for the year is robust, and we remain confident in our ability to deliver double-digit growth in gross profit dollars during 2023. Gross profit dollars should benefit from continued momentum in organic growth and continued improvement from our integration efforts.

展望未來，我們對今年毛利美元的前景是強勁的，我們仍然相信我們有能力在 2023 年實現毛利美元的兩位數增長。毛利美元應受益於有機增長的持續勢頭和持續改善我們的整合努力。

Moving on to SG&A expenses, which were $9.8 million during the fourth quarter compared to $7.1 million during the same period last year. The increase in the comparison was mostly related to overhead from acquired businesses. For the quarter, SG&A was a little higher than our expectations of $9.1 million to $9.5 million, which was mostly related to additional bad debt reserves and increased integration costs. During the first quarter of 2023, we expect SG&A costs will be about $9.5 million to $10 million, which reflects the ongoing run rate of our business, along with the ongoing acquisition and integration costs, and increased investment in systems, processes and people to continuously improve our efficiency and the scalability of our platform.

接下來是 SG&A 費用，第四季度為 980 萬美元，而去年同期為 710 萬美元。比較的增加主要與收購業務的間接費用有關。本季度，SG&A 略高於我們預期的 910 萬至 950 萬美元，這主要與額外的壞賬準備金和增加的整合成本有關。在 2023 年第一季度，我們預計 SG&A 成本約為 950 萬至 1000 萬美元，這反映了我們業務的持續運行率、持續的收購和整合成本，以及對系統、流程和人員的持續投資增加提高我們的效率和平台的可擴展性。

During the fourth quarter, depreciation and amortization increased to $2.4 million versus $1.2 million a year ago. The increase was primarily related to amortization of acquisition of intangibles. We expect depreciation and amortization to be approximately $10 million for 2023.

第四季度，折舊和攤銷增加到 240 萬美元，而一年前為 120 萬美元。增加主要與收購無形資產的攤銷有關。我們預計 2023 年的折舊和攤銷約為 1000 萬美元。

Moving on to a review of the cash flow and balance sheet. We are in good shape liquidity-wise. Our cash balance was $9.6 million, which increased from $8.4 million at the beginning of the year. In December, we enhanced our liquidity by increasing the size of the operating borrowing line from $15 million to $25 million. We generated approximately $1.1 million in operating cash flow during the fourth quarter. For the year, we used $2.3 million in operating cash flow. The use of cash was primarily related to investment in working capital to support nearly doubling the size of our company year-over-year.

繼續審查現金流量和資產負債表。我們在流動性方面處於良好狀態。我們的現金餘額為 960 萬美元，比年初的 840 萬美元有所增加。 12 月，我們通過將運營借款額度從 1500 萬美元增加到 2500 萬美元來增強我們的流動性。我們在第四季度產生了大約 110 萬美元的運營現金流。這一年，我們使用了 230 萬美元的運營現金流。現金的使用主要與營運資金投資有關，以支持我們公司規模同比增長近一倍。

During 2022, CapEx was $1.7 million, and we utilized approximately $2.6 million in cash to purchase a smaller acquisition during the first quarter. We expect a slight increase in CapEx to approximately $2 million during 2023, which includes increased investment in our operating platform. At the end of the quarter, we had $74.9 million in notes payable versus $67.9 million at the beginning of the year. That increase reflects the investments in growth we made during 2022.

2022 年，資本支出為 170 萬美元，我們在第一季度使用約 260 萬美元現金購買了較小的收購。我們預計 2023 年資本支出將略有增加，達到約 200 萬美元，其中包括增加對我們運營平台的投資。本季度末，我們的應付票據為 7,490 萬美元，而年初為 6,790 萬美元。這一增長反映了我們在 2022 年期間對增長的投資。

At this time, I'll turn the call back to Ray.

這時候，我會把電話轉回給雷。

Thank you, Brett. While we're not happy with the integration process of RWS, I want to reiterate that this 1 quarter does not affect our overall outlook for the company and it does not reflect on the tremendous growth progress that the company has made during the last several years and our opportunity for continued double-digit growth.

謝謝你，布雷特。雖然我們對 RWS 的整合過程不滿意，但我想重申，這 1 個季度不會影響我們對公司的整體前景，也不會反映公司在過去幾年中取得的巨大增長進步以及我們持續兩位數增長的機會。

I'm very proud of the track record that our team has produced, nearly doubling the size of the company in 2022, but this past year marking 6 consecutive years of double-digit growth in EBITDA. I want to reiterate that the issues we have with RWS were very specific in nature. And they've been addressed and we are beginning to realize the strategic benefit of this acquisition.

我為我們團隊創造的業績記錄感到非常自豪，到 2022 年公司規模幾乎翻了一番，但在過去的一年中，EBITDA 連續 6 年實現兩位數增長。我想重申，我們與 RWS 的問題本質上非常具體。這些問題已經得到解決，我們開始意識到此次收購的戰略利益。

At the time we announced the acquisition of RWS and InStream in December of 21, we expected to add a combined adjusted EBITDA of approximately $5.5 million annually. While RWS was behind our expectations in '22, it still delivered positive incremental EBITDA during the year, and InStream is performing in line with our expectations.

在我們於 21 日 12 月宣布收購 RWS 和 InStream 時，我們預計每年將增加約 550 萬美元的合併調整後 EBITDA。雖然 RWS 在 22 年落後於我們的預期，但它在這一年中仍然實現了正增量 EBITDA，並且 InStream 的表現符合我們的預期。

Our business is strong, and we're well positioned to continue to weather challenging economic conditions and execute our growth strategies.

我們的業務強勁，我們有能力繼續應對充滿挑戰的經濟形勢並執行我們的增長戰略。

In a market that continues to see inflationary pressure and significant fall of commodity values and certain recycled materials, our business model held up well. As Brett mentioned earlier, we structured our agreements so that the gross profit dollars are not affected by swings in commodity prices. But despite the significant decrease in prices for scrap metal and other commodities during the second half of '22, gross profit dollars generated were not significantly affected by those swings.

在一個繼續看到通貨膨脹壓力以及商品價值和某些回收材料大幅下跌的市場中，我們的商業模式保持良好。正如 Brett 之前提到的，我們構建了我們的協議，以便毛利美元不受商品價格波動的影響。但是，儘管 22 世紀下半年廢金屬和其他商品的價格大幅下跌，但所產生的毛利潤並未受到這些波動的顯著影響。

In an inflationary environment, we're able to offset cost pressures for flexible contracts that allow us to pass through increasing cost as fuel surcharges. While these costs were not being passed on during 2022 at RWS, in the core business, we continue to successfully pass through costs for our contracts and offset inflationary pressures. Again, going forward, we've corrected this issue at RWS.

在通貨膨脹的環境中，我們能夠通過靈活的合同來抵消成本壓力，從而使我們能夠將增加的成本作為燃油附加費轉嫁。雖然這些成本在 2022 年期間沒有在 RWS 轉嫁，但在核心業務中，我們繼續成功轉嫁合同成本並抵消通脹壓力。同樣，展望未來，我們已經在 RWS 糾正了這個問題。

Regarding the economic environment in general, we continue to see stable activity levels across all of our end markets, and our value proposition is resonating with both existing and with new customers.

關於總體經濟環境，我們繼續看到我們所有終端市場的活動水平穩定，我們的價值主張與現有客戶和新客戶產生共鳴。

Moving on to a discussion about growth. I feel very good about the organic growth we have in front of us. Within our installed base of customers, we continue to use the land-and-expand strategy to deliver growth. This strategy has consistently delivered a base of organic growth for the last 5 years.

繼續討論增長。我對我們面前的有機增長感到非常滿意。在我們已安裝的客戶群中，我們繼續使用土地擴張戰略來實現增長。這一戰略在過去 5 年中始終如一地提供了有機增長的基礎。

We recently made a slight tweak to our compensation structure of our client service managers, offering them a chance to earn incentive pay based on growing the contribution from existing customers. We made this change in the first quarter of '23, and it's been rewarding to see all the excitement level with the entire team. This small investment in incentive compensation will go a long way to increase growth. In addition, we expect these changes to help us retain and attract the best talent and to further align us with our clients' growth goals, diverting more waste from the landfill.

我們最近對客戶服務經理的薪酬結構進行了微調，讓他們有機會根據現有客戶貢獻的增加獲得獎勵薪酬。我們在 23 年第一季度做出了這一改變，看到整個團隊的興奮程度是值得的。這種對激勵性薪酬的小額投資將大大促進增長。此外，我們希望這些變化能夠幫助我們留住和吸引最優秀的人才，並進一步使我們與客戶的增長目標保持一致，從而從垃圾填埋場轉移更多垃圾。

Another key to organic growth from existing customers is adding new services. We added several new service capabilities with our recent acquisitions, and we're actively introducing these new services to existing clients. By adding new services and geographies, we feel confident that the existing customers will continue to provide a major contribution to organic growth for the years to come.

現有客戶有機增長的另一個關鍵是增加新服務。我們通過最近的收購增加了幾項新的服務能力，並且我們正在積極向現有客戶介紹這些新服務。通過增加新的服務和地域，我們相信現有客戶將繼續為未來幾年的有機增長做出重大貢獻。

On top of growth for existing customers, during the last couple of years, we've improved new client targeting and are closing on the right new targets. During the fourth quarter, we continued to add new prospects, and several large opportunities across multiple end markets are working their way through our pipeline. Last quarter, we spoke about 2 new 7-figure wins, one in industrial market and one in the automotive service market. We're in the early stages of onboarding these customers and expect them to ramp over the course of the next 12 to 18 months.

除了現有客戶的增長之外，在過去幾年中，我們還改進了新客戶定位並正在接近正確的新目標。在第四季度，我們繼續增加新的前景，多個終端市場的幾個重大機會正在通過我們的渠道運作。上個季度，我們談到了 2 個新的 7 位數勝利，一個在工業市場，一個在汽車服務市場。我們正處於吸引這些客戶的早期階段，預計他們會在接下來的 12 到 18 個月內逐漸增加。

Our data platform, with its ability to provide uniform and supported data sets across multiple waste streams, continues to play a key role in securing new wins and growing within our existing customer base. A good illustration of our value proposition is how quickly we're able to ramp and provide value for a large new industrial customer during '22. The Fortune 50 customer was fully onboarded by the end of the fourth quarter and became a 8-figure revenue customer during '22. We're now delivering 8,000 lines of service to this customer across all their locations in the U.S.

我們的數據平台能夠跨多個廢物流提供統一且受支持的數據集，繼續在確保新勝利和在我們現有客戶群中發展方面發揮關鍵作用。我們的價值主張的一個很好的例證是，我們能夠在 22 世紀為大型新工業客戶提供多快的增長和提供價值。這位財富 50 強客戶在第四季度末完全入職，並在 22 世紀成為了 8 位數收入的客戶。我們現在為該客戶在美國所有地點提供 8,000 條服務線。

We have a direct feed from our portal to their systems and are providing them not only with important operation data but also data for the sustainability portion of their ESG reports. To date, we have helped them divert more than 135,000 tons from landfill, and we've brought them cost savings. I'm so impressed with the capabilities of our platform and appreciative and proud of the dedication of our team had that was able to ramp this customer so quickly and provide such a strong value proposition.

我們從我們的門戶直接向他們的系統提供信息，不僅為他們提供重要的運營數據，還為他們的 ESG 報告的可持續性部分提供數據。迄今為止，我們已幫助他們從垃圾填埋場轉移了超過 135,000 噸垃圾，並為他們節省了成本。我對我們平台的功能印象深刻，對我們團隊的奉獻精神表示讚賞和自豪，他們能夠如此迅速地吸引這個客戶並提供如此強大的價值主張。

Moving on to a discussion about M&A. We continue to evaluate opportunities, and M&A will continue to be an important part of our growth plans going forward. I want to reiterate that we'll continue to maintain discipline in making acquisitions. We'll only execute those that fit our criteria. We've made 6 acquisitions since 2020. Other than RWS, all have performed at or above our expectations. And I will reiterate that we expect RWS to be back on track during '23.

繼續討論併購。我們繼續評估機會，併購將繼續成為我們未來增長計劃的重要組成部分。我想重申，我們將繼續在進行收購時保持紀律。我們只會執行那些符合我們標準的。自 2020 年以來，我們進行了 6 次收購。除 RWS 外，所有收購均達到或超出我們的預期。我要重申，我們希望 RWS 在 23 年期間重回正軌。

Moving to operating efficiencies. We've grown rapidly over the last 3 years, with the size of the business nearly tripling since 2020. We've achieved this scale through growth in existing customers, organic growth and by completing 6 acquisitions. We've grown into new waste streams and into new end markets, diversifying our customer base and improving our financial strength. Growth has not been linear, but we've been driven to continually improve our ability to drive scale and operating efficiencies, more rapidly integrate acquisitions and drive efficiencies throughout the organization, converting gross profit to cash flow and earnings. We'll continue to invest in the organization and build capabilities to do so.

轉向運營效率。我們在過去 3 年裡發展迅速，業務規模自 2020 年以來增長了近兩倍。我們通過現有客戶的增長、有機增長和完成 6 次收購實現了這一規模。我們已經發展到新的廢物流和新的終端市場，使我們的客戶群多樣化並提高了我們的財務實力。增長不是線性的，但我們一直在不斷提高我們推動規模和運營效率的能力，更快地整合收購併推動整個組織的效率，將毛利潤轉化為現金流和收益。我們將繼續投資於該組織並為此建立能力。

Regarding our outlook, overall, our positive outlook for profitable growth has not changed. We've addressed the issues with RWS and we expect to see continued improvement in the months and quarters to come and expect to achieve our original plan for contribution from RWS during 2023. We expect the acquisition and integration to provide incremental contribution from both increased efficiencies and from cross-selling. We expect continued positive momentum in the core of our business during 2023.

關於我們的前景，總體而言，我們對盈利增長的積極展望沒有改變。我們已經解決了 RWS 的問題，我們希望在未來幾個月和幾個季度看到持續改進，並期望在 2023 年實現我們最初的 RWS 貢獻計劃。我們預計收購和整合將從提高效率中提供增量貢獻和交叉銷售。我們預計 2023 年我們的核心業務將繼續保持積極勢頭。

Pressure to improve sustainability, increasing regulation, increasing cost of landfills are lowering the bar for adaptation of recycling services. The contribution from new client wins will continue to provide incremental gross profit dollars as we onboard these programs. And we will continue to drive operating efficiencies, investing in capabilities and driving growth in gross profit, cash flow and earnings.

提高可持續性、加強監管、增加垃圾填埋場成本的壓力正在降低適應回收服務的門檻。隨著我們開展這些計劃，贏得新客戶的貢獻將繼續提供增量毛利潤。我們將繼續提高運營效率，投資於能力並推動毛利潤、現金流和收益的增長。

We are optimistic we'll continue with positive momentum for '23 and the next several years. I look forward to keeping you updated on our progress.

我們樂觀地認為，我們將在 23 年和未來幾年繼續保持積極勢頭。我期待著讓您了解我們的最新進展。

We now like the operator to provide instructions on how listeners can queue up for questions. Operator?

我們現在希望接線員提供有關聽眾如何排隊提問的說明。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Aaron Spychalla from Craig-Hallum.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自 Craig-Hallum 的 Aaron Spychalla。

First, maybe on just kind of the sales funnel, sales cycle. Can you talk about how the sales cycle has been trending given the macro and just your value proposition resonating in the market? And then on onboarding, can you talk a little bit about how that's gone with some of the recent wins? And what are some of the key drivers that you're focused on there to shorten that process?

首先，也許只是一種銷售渠道，銷售週期。你能談談銷售週期如何在宏觀和你的價值主張在市場上產生共鳴的趨勢下發展嗎？然後在入職時，你能談談最近的一些勝利是如何消失的嗎？為了縮短這個過程，你關注的一些關鍵驅動因素是什麼？

Yes. Shorten the process is the key phrase, Aaron, thank you for the question. Our pipeline represents a bit of a dichotomy to me. On the one hand, I'm very impressed with the quality of prospects and the moving along the pipeline. On the other hand, I will tell you that I don't know if the macro is the cause or not, Aaron, but it's been slow to get them pushed across. I want to reiterate, we've got good customers and prospects in there, the type we're looking for. And we don't have prospects falling out. Our frustration is that it's not moving as quickly as we would like. But the good news is we know they will, it's just taking a little longer to do it.

是的。縮短流程是關鍵詞，亞倫，謝謝你的提問。我們的管道對我來說有點二分法。一方面，我對前景的質量和沿管道的移動印象深刻。另一方面，我會告訴你，我不知道宏是否是原因，Aaron，但推動它們的速度很慢。我想重申，我們有很好的客戶和潛在客戶，我們正在尋找的類型。而且我們沒有失敗的前景。我們感到沮喪的是它沒有像我們希望的那樣快速移動。但好消息是我們知道他們會的，只是需要更長的時間。

And as far as onboarding goes, that process is something we always push to accelerate. It's usually driven by the customers' ability to digest, putting new locations on. I will say, and I think we mentioned in the prepared remarks, that last large industrial customer we had took a year really to ramp in. And I think in the past, it might have taken 18 months. So I think our ability to digest and move forward is accelerated. The question is how fast can the customers move on, getting new locations up to date on the transition.

就入職而言，這個過程是我們一直推動加速的過程。它通常是由客戶的消化能力驅動的，將新位置放在上面。我會說，我想我們在準備好的發言中提到，最後一個大型工業客戶我們花了一年時間才真正投入使用。我認為在過去，可能需要 18 個月。所以我認為我們消化和前進的能力得到了加速。問題是客戶能以多快的速度繼續前進，讓新地點在過渡時保持最新。

All right. And then maybe on just food waste, we've seen numerous states regulating food waste and kind of corporate initiatives around that. Can you just give an update there and kind of what that opportunity might look like for you over time?

好的。然後也許僅就食物浪費而言，我們已經看到許多州都在規範食物浪費以及圍繞此採取的各種企業舉措。您能否在那裡提供更新以及隨著時間的推移，您可能會遇到什麼樣的機會？

Yes. Thanks for that, and that's a good observation. Food waste is getting a lot of, I guess, attention, and rightfully so. One of the largest, if not the largest, group of the type of materials that are going into landfills is organic waste. So it's a major culprit in filling those things up. So luckily, that area has got a lot of growth. We're excited about it. Regulation is one of the things that's feeding it, to your point. And so it's making our -- I guess maybe it helps somebody answer then call sometimes that they may not have taken before from our sales group.

是的。謝謝你，這是一個很好的觀察。我想，食物浪費正在引起很多關注，這是理所當然的。進入垃圾填埋場的最大（如果不是最大）一組材料是有機廢物。所以這是填滿這些東西的罪魁禍首。幸運的是，該領域已經有了很大的增長。我們對此感到興奮。就您的觀點而言，監管是推動它發展的因素之一。因此，這讓我們 - 我想也許它可以幫助某人接聽然後有時打電話給他們，他們以前可能沒有從我們的銷售團隊接過電話。

So we've really gotten some exciting leads and some nice brand names in there that have a lot of active conversations going with us. And a big part of that is educating them as to what the possibilities are for diverting. But it's helping us. I'll be honest with you, I really think the regulation and the press is helping move that forward. And so we've added a lot of new prospects. We're moving down the path. And I'm really excited for this year. I think we're going to see an accelerated growth in our food waste program adaptation.

因此，我們確實獲得了一些令人興奮的線索和一些不錯的品牌名稱，它們與我們進行了很多積極的對話。其中很大一部分是教育他們轉移的可能性。但它正在幫助我們。老實說，我真的認為監管和媒體正在幫助推動這一進程。所以我們增加了很多新的前景。我們正在沿著這條路前進。今年我真的很興奮。我認為我們將看到食物垃圾計劃適應性的加速增長。

Good, good. We'll stay tuned for that. That's it for me. I'll turn it over.

好好。我們將繼續關注。對我來說就是這樣。我會把它翻過來。

The next question comes from Gerard Sweeney from ROTH Capital.

下一個問題來自 ROTH Capital 的 Gerard Sweeney。

On the fourth quarter, you described some seasonality, also commodity pricing impacting, I guess, the revenue line. Would you be able to break out how much was seasonality and how much was commodity pricing, by chance?

在第四季度，你描述了一些季節性因素，我猜商品定價也會影響收入線。您能否偶然地指出季節性因素和商品定價因素？

This is Brett. I'll take that question. So I think the first thing we'd like to talk about just related to the Q4 revenues, there was no lost customers there. So base core customers, very solid. Again, most of it was related, if you take the commodity value decreases and the seasonality, you'd get mostly there if you want to split that in half, that's fine. But that will get you most of the way there.

這是布雷特。我會回答這個問題。所以我認為我們想談的第一件事與第四季度的收入有關，那裡沒有客戶流失。所以基礎核心客戶，非常紮實。同樣，大部分是相關的，如果你考慮商品價值下降和季節性，如果你想將其分成兩半，你會得到大部分，這很好。但這將幫助您完成大部分工作。

Got you. And I apologize if I said lost customers, I didn't mean that, I meant seasonality.

明白了如果我說失去客戶，我深表歉意，我不是這個意思，我的意思是季節性。

No, no, I was just reaffirming, I think it's important.

不，不，我只是重申，我認為這很重要。

Sorry, there was noise in my background. But got it. Perfect. So fair to say 50-50 part commodity, part seasonality?

抱歉，我的背景有噪音。但是明白了。完美的。可以說 50-50 部分是商品，部分是季節性？

Yes.

是的。

Got it. Got it. Okay. And then on the RWS side, that $1.5 million that you sort of broke out maybe impacted gross margin. Was that spread out across the course of the year? Or did that sort of become more second half loaded or even loaded in the fourth quarter? Because we saw some pricing pressures, inflation or lack of pass-through, it maybe became more cumulative later in the year. How do we look at that?

知道了。知道了。好的。然後在 RWS 方面，你爆發的那 150 萬美元可能會影響毛利率。那是在一年中傳播的嗎？或者這種情況在第四節變得更加下半場甚至負荷更多？因為我們看到了一些定價壓力、通貨膨脹或缺乏傳遞，所以它可能在今年晚些時候變得更加累積。我們怎麼看？

No, you're thinking about it right. I definitely think of that as more back half of the year related.

不，你想的沒錯。我絕對認為這與今年的後半年有關。

Got it. So I mean you sort of gave I don't want to say guidance, but January, February this year, you're running at, I think, $4.25 million gross profit. That equates to $12.75 million gross profit. So things are bouncing back. But also on that front, is February better than January? Or were they sort of even on that metric?

知道了。所以我的意思是你有點給出了我不想說的指導，但今年 1 月、2 月，我認為你的毛利潤為 425 萬美元。這相當於 1275 萬美元的毛利潤。所以事情正在反彈。但在這方面，2 月是否比 1 月好？還是他們甚至在那個指標上？

I'd say mostly even. February certainly has fewer business days. So there's different factors that go into those. But yes, I'd take it as an average.

我會說大部分甚至。 2 月的工作日肯定更少。因此，其中有不同的因素。但是，是的，我會把它作為一個平均值。

Gerard, this is Ray. I agree with Brett. And I think I just want to reiterate -- it's not the right word, but to clarify. We did put January and February out there, at least some key numbers around that. And yes, we started implementing sadly just in January, but we started fixing this thing. We got it fixed in January, but there's a cycle through. So our expectation is that as the months go by, we'll get more and more benefit from that. That's what we were trying to kind of verbally put in there.

杰拉德，這是雷。我同意布雷特。我想我只想重申——這不是正確的詞，但要澄清一下。我們確實把 1 月和 2 月放在那裡，至少有一些關鍵數字。是的，我們在 1 月份才開始實施，但我們開始修復這件事。我們在 1 月份修復了它，但有一個循環。所以我們的期望是，隨著時間的推移，我們將從中獲得越來越多的好處。這就是我們試圖口頭表達的內容。

Okay. I got you. I mean I was kind of looking at it, there's probably some seasonality in fourth quarter that, exiting January and February, looked good. And then when you say cycle through, I imagine there's price increases, it takes a little bit of time to get through the system.

好的。我接到你了。我的意思是我有點在看它，第四季度可能有一些季節性，從一月和二月開始，看起來不錯。然後當你說循環時，我想價格會上漲，通過系統需要一點時間。

Yes, just the billing cycle itself has a bit of a lag effect. So I guess what I'm trying to illustrate is that that's the beginning. We expect continued improvement.

是的，只是計費周期本身有一點滯後效應。所以我想我想說明的是，這就是開始。我們期待持續改進。

Got it. Perfect. And then one final question, I'll jump in line. Just cash flow from operations, obviously, a big increase year-over-year. When does that sort of get digested, maybe working capital decreased a little bit, cash flow accelerates? How do we think about that?

知道了。完美的。最後一個問題，我會插隊。顯然，僅來自運營的現金流量同比大幅增長。那種什麼時候消化掉，說不定流動資金會減少一點，現金流會加速？我們如何看待這一點？

Yes. Overall, we're very positive on operating cash flow going into 2023. There's some momentum. But of course, we also expect growth. So the timing of that growth, where it falls out in the year, that could temp things down a bit from that, but we're certainly optimistic.

是的。總體而言，我們對進入 2023 年的運營現金流非常樂觀。有一些勢頭。但當然，我們也期待增長。所以這種增長的時間，它在一年中下降的時間，可能會使事情有所緩和，但我們當然是樂觀的。

Got it. We'll take growth and then cash flow. Okay. Perfect. Got it. All right. I'll jump back in line.

知道了。我們先看增長，然後看現金流。好的。完美的。知道了。好的。我會跳回去排隊。

The next question comes from Chip Moore from EF Hutton.

下一個問題來自 EF Hutton 的 Chip Moore。

I wanted to follow up on that last one on the actions underway at RWS, sort of that billing lag. Do you think you'd get through that fully in Q2? Is that the right way to think about that?

我想跟進關於 RWS 正在進行的行動的最後一個，有點像計費滯後。你認為你會在第二季度完全解決這個問題嗎？這是思考這個問題的正確方法嗎？

Yes, I think it is, Chip. That cycle would have run out during the second quarter.

是的，我想是的，奇普。該週期將在第二季度結束。

Yes. Okay. Perfect. And then on the organic growth side, it sounds like the pipeline is quite strong, and you feel good. I think you mentioned maybe changing the comp structure. Maybe elaborate on that and early feedback and what you've seen and traction there.

是的。好的。完美的。然後在有機增長方面，聽起來管道很強大，你感覺很好。我想你提到過可能會改變補償結構。也許詳細說明那個和早期反饋以及你所看到的和那裡的牽引力。

Yes. I'm glad you brought that up. It gives me a chance to speak about that a little more. What we did was we added to the comp structure on the client services side. And those guys are the ones that work on with existing customers. And their job is to take care of those customers and retain those customers and grow with them. So what we've added is a bit of an incentive package as they expand locations, sell new services lines in.

是的。很高興你提出來。這讓我有機會多談一點。我們所做的是將我們添加到客戶服務端的補償結構中。這些人是與現有客戶合作的人。他們的工作是照顧這些客戶並留住這些客戶並與他們一起成長。所以我們添加的是一些激勵方案，因為他們擴大了地點，銷售新的服務線。

I mentioned Chip that we've added new lines through acquisition and otherwise. And these are the folks that use their skill sets and relationships to sell up -- upsell, I guess, maybe is the term you'd want to use -- to add these lines into existing customers. And existing customers has been such a huge and wonderful source of growth for us for many years, and it will continue to be. And we just want to make sure and keep that momentum going and give these folks some goals to shoot for. So that's really what that's focused on, Chip.

我提到 Chip，我們通過收購和其他方式增加了新的產品線。這些人利用他們的技能組合和關係來銷售——我猜，也許是你想要使用的術語——將這些產品線添加到現有客戶中。多年來，現有客戶一直是我們增長的巨大而美妙的源泉，並將繼續如此。我們只是想確保並保持這種勢頭，並為這些人提供一些目標。所以這才是真正關注的重點，Chip。

Perfect. And maybe just the last one, I guess, on the M&A side. It sounds like you're still seeing things, opportunities emerge. With the deals you've integrated and what you've learned maybe more so on RWS, just talk about your capabilities now that you might layer in some of the investments you made on the data side and some other places, how you feel about future integration.

完美的。我想也許只是最後一個，在併購方面。聽起來你還在看事情，機會出現了。通過您整合的交易以及您在 RWS 上學到的東西可能更多，現在就談談您的能力，您可能會在數據方面和其他一些地方進行一些投資，您對未來的看法一體化。

Yes, a couple of things. I'm really excited about where we are, frankly, as I look ahead. And the progress that we're making internally, I think, on our own internal systems here at Quest or the investments we've been making, will do nothing but enable us to be even more effective and quicker in the integrations as we go forward. So I'm very optimistic and plus, we obviously have some learnings, obviously.

是的，有幾件事。坦率地說，當我展望未來時，我對我們所處的位置感到非常興奮。我認為，我們在內部取得的進展，在我們自己的 Quest 內部系統上或我們一直在進行的投資，只會讓我們在前進的過程中更加有效和更快地進行整合.所以我非常樂觀，而且，我們顯然學到了一些東西。

I'm really excited about our ability to integrate when we do make acquisitions. I guess we use the word opportunistic a lot, Chip, but I think it's the right one. Market goes up and down, and we keep our eyes open all the time for really complementary, immediately accretive, good strategic businesses. And I know that as we move forward and we do make those acquisitions, I'm really excited about our improved ability to be able to onboard. And keep in mind, we only had really one with an issue. The rest had performed quite well. So I really think it's going to be a nice part of our business going forward. But we don't have a definitive target relative to what we're doing from acquisitions and that type of thing right now.

當我們進行收購時，我對我們的整合能力感到非常興奮。我想我們經常使用機會主義這個詞，Chip，但我認為它是正確的。市場起伏不定，我們始終關注真正互補的、立即增值的、好的戰略業務。而且我知道，隨著我們前進並進行這些收購，我對我們提高的入職能力感到非常興奮。請記住，我們只有一個有問題。其餘的表現相當不錯。所以我真的認為這將是我們未來業務的一個很好的部分。但是，相對於我們目前通過收購和此類事情所做的事情，我們沒有明確的目標。

Understood. Understood. That's fair. Appreciate it.

明白了。明白了。這還算公平。欣賞它。

The next question comes from George Melas from MKH Management.

下一個問題來自 MKH Management 的 George Melas。

Just wanted to dig a little bit deeper if we can on RWS. I believe that it was sort of 2 businesses. You bought it from a private equity firm that had made a recent acquisition, and those 2 businesses were totally different and not integrated. It's almost like if you bought 2 separate businesses. Were they both problematic? Or was it just one of them?

如果可以的話，我只是想在 RWS 上更深入地挖掘一下。我相信這是兩種業務。你是從一家最近進行收購的私募股權公司那裡買的，而這兩家公司完全不同，沒有整合。這幾乎就像您購買了 2 家獨立的企業。他們都有問題嗎？或者只是其中之一？

Yes, I'm trying to figure out how best to answer that. First of all, your assessment is extremely accurate. The firm that had it before us was operating them totally separately. We've combined the sales force, the accounting. We've combined a lot of those aspects that they didn't do, and we've already done that. As a matter of fact, I think we, from both sides of that business, have everybody aligned with the departments here at the core from a management standpoint or a process standpoint. But I would say that the side of the business that wasn't really commodity related, it's the side that does a lot of REITs in retail, that's where most of the issues came from.

是的，我正在嘗試弄清楚如何最好地回答這個問題。首先，您的評估非常準確。在我們之前擁有它的公司完全獨立地運營它們。我們合併了銷售人員和會計人員。我們結合了很多他們沒有做的方面，我們已經做到了。事實上，我認為我們從管理的角度或流程的角度來看，從業務的兩方面來看，每個人都與這裡的核心部門保持一致。但我要說的是，與商品無關的業務方面，是在零售領域進行大量房地產投資信託基金的方面，這是大多數問題的來源。

Okay. And then I think you mentioned, Ray, that RWS was EBITDA positive for the full year. Was this [not the reason] over the slight loss in the second half?

好的。然後我想你提到過，Ray，RWS 全年的 EBITDA 為正。這是下半場小失利的[原因]嗎？

No, no. I can't remember how to explain exactly, but we definitely have an EBITDA positive. I don't think it was negative. Was it, Brett, that quarter?

不，不。我不記得如何準確解釋，但我們的 EBITDA 肯定是正的。我不認為這是消極的。布雷特，是那個季度嗎？

No.

不。

So it's EBITDA positive every quarter?

所以每個季度的 EBITDA 都是正數？

I don't know, George, specifically.

我不知道，喬治，具體來說。

Yes, we wouldn't break that down to that level. But again, we're going to get back to where we originally thought that business would be by the end of this year. I think that's the main takeaway, is we're very positive on the acquisition overall with what we've been able to accomplish over the last quarter or so.

是的，我們不會將其分解到那個級別。但同樣，我們將回到我們最初認為業務將在今年年底前達到的水平。我認為這是主要的收穫，我們對整個收購非常積極，因為我們在上個季度左右能夠完成。

Okay. And then maybe just one final one. I think like midyear, you guys had said that the first half of the year, from an EBITDA perspective, were sort of a run rate, to expect sort of something similar in the second half? Has there been a meaningful drop? And does RWS explain all that drop? Or were there some other factors that came in that sort of slightly lowered the forecast, I'd say?

好的。然後也許只是最後一個。我想就像年中一樣，你們曾說過，從 EBITDA 的角度來看，今年上半年是一種運行率，下半年會出現類似的情況嗎？有沒有有意義的下降？ RWS 是否解釋了所有這些下降？還是有其他一些因素導致預測略微降低，我會說？

Yes. RWS gets you most of the way there. Certainly, the seasonality that came in with Q4 makes up a large core of the rest of the business.

是的。 RWS 可以幫助您完成大部分工作。當然，第四季度帶來的季節性構成了其餘業務的重要核心。

The next question comes from Gregg Kitt from Pinnacle Fund.

下一個問題來自 Pinnacle Fund 的 Gregg Kitt。

I was a little bit unclear about RWS. You talked about that $1.5 million impact over the course of the year. But there was that positive benefit in Q2 and a negative impact in Q3. And so net-net, if I just looked at Q2 and Q3, that was a net positive surprise. And so when I think about the $1.5 million negative impact for the year, was a lot of that in Q4, like maybe $2 million, $2 million plus?

我對 RWS 有點不清楚。你談到了這一年中 150 萬美元的影響。但是在第二季度有積極的好處，而在第三季度有負面影響。所以淨淨，如果我只看第二季度和第三季度，那是一個淨積極的驚喜。因此，當我考慮今年 150 萬美元的負面影響時，第四季度的負面影響很大，比如 200 萬美元、200 萬美元以上？

No, I would characterize back to the $1.5 million. Those items in Q2 and Q3 were really just adjustments, reconciling some item from previous quarters. So the $1.5 million is largely just the upside that we missed out on in the business and certainly would look at that as being more related to the second half of the year.

不，我會回溯到 150 萬美元。第二季度和第三季度的那些項目實際上只是調整，協調了前幾個季度的一些項目。因此，150 萬美元在很大程度上只是我們在業務中錯過的好處，當然會認為這與下半年更相關。

Okay. And then on the commentary for January and February, and I heard that you're expecting to get a little bit better as you cycle through some of the adjustments that you made to fuel surcharges, being able to pass those on. Absent any additional improvements, it sounded like what I heard was $12.75 million of gross profit on a run rate basis. And $9.75 million of SG&A, or non-GAAP OpEx is like $3 million plus whatever additional stock-based comp and adjustments gets you kind of to like the $4-ish million of EBITDA for the first quarter. Am I kind of like reading those pieces correctly?

好的。然後在 1 月和 2 月的評論中，我聽說當你循環通過你對燃油附加費所做的一些調整時，你期望會變得更好一些，能夠將這些調整傳遞下去。在沒有任何額外改進的情況下，聽起來我聽到的按運行率計算的毛利潤是 1275 萬美元。 975 萬美元的 SG&A 或非 GAAP 運營支出相當於 300 萬美元加上任何額外的基於股票的補償和調整，讓你有點喜歡第一季度 4 萬美元左右的 EBITDA。我有點喜歡正確閱讀這些作品嗎？

I think that's a fair assessment. Yes, certainly, January and February, it's not meant to be guidance for the quarter, but really just to point out that the business has really stabilized coming out of Q4.

我認為這是一個公平的評估。是的，當然，1 月和 2 月，這並不意味著該季度的指導，但實際上只是為了指出該業務在第四季度已經真正穩定下來。

Okay. And my last question was around free cash flow. You had a good cash flow quarter and you guys had guided to that. And so I was excited to see you generate positive free cash flow. As we look forward to this year, is there some reason that you wouldn't be generating positive free cash flow if you did kind of high teens to $20 million of EBITDA this year?

好的。我的最後一個問題是關於自由現金流的。你有一個很好的現金流季度，你們已經指導了這一點。所以我很高興看到你產生正的自由現金流。正如我們對今年的期待，如果你今年的 EBITDA 達到 2000 萬美元，你是否有理由不產生正的自由現金流？

Yes. We're certainly optimistic about where we're at in building on the positive operating cash flow from Q4. We'll have some integration costs that fell off as well. So certainly, there's a lot of optimism that, that's going to continue and increase.

是的。我們當然對我們在第四季度的正經營現金流的基礎上所處的位置感到樂觀。我們也會有一些集成成本下降。所以當然，有很多樂觀情緒，這將繼續並增加。

The next question comes from George Melas from MKH Management. Please go ahead.

下一個問題來自 MKH Management 的 George Melas。請繼續。

I just want to follow up on Gregg's question on SG&A. This quarter, it was $9.8 million. But if you take out stock-based comp, the transaction-related expenses and some other adjustments, it was roughly $8.5 million. Is that $8.5 million on a sort of normalized SG&A? Is that a good number to use? Or are there some investments that will that will bump that up during 2023?

我只想跟進 Gregg 關於 SG&A 的問題。本季度為 980 萬美元。但如果你剔除股票薪酬、交易相關費用和其他一些調整，它大約是 850 萬美元。那是一種標準化的 SG&A 上的 850 萬美元嗎？這個號碼好用嗎？或者是否有一些投資會在 2023 年期間提高它？

George, it's Brett. I'll take that again. Yes, so the integration expenses are going to continue as we integrate through -- we mentioned earlier in the call that we expect those to be completed by Q3. So I would expect there to be some continued integration expenses there that would taper off. But the other piece is certainly our -- sorry, go ahead.

喬治，我是布雷特。我會再拿那個。是的，所以整合費用將隨著我們的整合而繼續——我們在電話會議之前提到過，我們希望這些費用能在第三季度完成。所以我預計那裡會有一些持續的整合費用會逐漸減少。但另一部分肯定是我們的——抱歉，請繼續。

No, you go ahead, I'm sorry.

不，你繼續，對不起。

No, I was just going to say, I think you're thinking about it right. The other pieces that you called out would be related to SG&A, the add-backs.

不，我只是想說，我認為你考慮的是對的。您提到的其他部分與 SG&A 相關，即附加費用。

Okay. So in a way, we could have a run rate, sort of like that normalized SG&A could be $8.5 million. There will be some transaction-related expense or integration-related expenses in the first half or maybe all the way to the third quarter, but then I guess they stopped.

好的。所以在某種程度上，我們可以有一個運行率，有點像標準化的 SG&A 可能是 850 萬美元。上半年或可能一直到第三季度會有一些與交易相關的費用或與整合相關的費用，但我猜他們停止了。

Yes, that's fair.

是的，這很公平。

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ray Hatch for any closing remarks.

問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回 Ray Hatch 的閉幕詞。

Thank you, operator. I appreciate it. I think I want to go back and just mention again something that hopefully we mentioned throughout the call, how positive we feel about 2023. We did go to maybe an unusual circumstance of putting January and February numbers in the press release. And the reason why is it illustrates some of the reason why we feel so positive.

謝謝你，運營商。我很感激。我想我想回過頭來再次提一下我們希望在整個電話會議中提到的事情，即我們對 2023 年的看法是多麼積極。我們確實可能是在一種不尋常的情況下將 1 月和 2 月的數據放在新聞稿中。它的原因說明了我們感到如此積極的一些原因。

We learned a lot. We've adjusted the issues that caused it back in Q4. We have a lot of growth possibilities ahead of us. We have a lot of positive things going on. We've got great customers and we're building on top of them and expanding within them. Our value proposition, whether it's our data or the breadth of services we're offering, is ringing pretty clearly through the marketplace. We'll continue to capitalize on that throughout the year. So I'm excited about that.

我們學到了很多。我們已經調整了在第 4 季度導致它的問題。我們面前有很多增長的可能性。我們有很多積極的事情正在發生。我們有很棒的客戶，我們正在他們之上建立並在他們內部擴展。我們的價值主張，無論是我們的數據還是我們提供的服務範圍，都在市場上響起。我們將在全年繼續利用這一點。所以我對此很興奮。

I want to thank everybody for their interest in Quest. We greatly appreciate that. And also importantly, I want to thank the Quest team for the ongoing efforts to deliver the value that they've been doing and, more importantly, what they're doing on a go-forward basis. All our initiatives are working well right now. I'm very optimistic and excited to see how they turn out. And I look forward to keeping all of you up to date in the quarters to come. So thank you very much.

我要感謝大家對 Quest 的興趣。我們非常感謝。同樣重要的是，我要感謝 Quest 團隊為實現他們一直在做的價值所做的持續努力，更重要的是，他們在前進的基礎上正在做的事情。我們所有的舉措現在都運作良好。我非常樂觀和興奮地看到他們的結果如何。我期待著在接下來的幾個季度讓你們所有人了解最新情況。非常感謝。

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與，祝您度過愉快的一天。