Quest Resource Holding Corp (QRHC) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Quest Resource Holding Corporation second-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) This call is being recorded on Thursday, August 8, 2024.

女士們、先生們，下午好，歡迎參加 Quest Resource Holding Corporation 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。（操作員說明）此通話錄音時間為 2024 年 8 月 8 日星期四。

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

我現在想將會議交給投資者關係代表戴夫·莫斯伯格 (Dave Mossberg)。請繼續。

Thank you, John, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on this call.

謝謝約翰，也謝謝大家加入我們的這次電話會議。

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 and future performance of Quest using 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.

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 未來事件和未來業績的預測、估計和其他前瞻性陳述，使用諸如“預期”、“項目”、“估計”、“期望” 、「打算」、「相信」等字眼，和其他類似的表述旨在識別這些前瞻性陳述。此類前瞻性陳述是基於 Quest 目前的預期估計、預測、信念和假設，涉及重大風險和不確定性。

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. If you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements and to consult our SEC filings for additional risks and uncertainties.

由於各種因素的影響，實際事件或 Quest 的結果可能與前瞻性聲明中討論的結果有重大差異，這些因素在 Quest 向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中進行了更詳細的討論。如果您被警告不要過度依賴此類聲明，請查閱我們向 SEC 提交的文件以了解其他風險和不確定性。

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. In addition, in this call, we make we may include industry and market data and other statistical information as well as quest for observations and views about industry conditions and developments. The data and the information are based on Quest's estimates, independent publications, government publications and reports by market research firms and other sources.

Quest 的前瞻性聲明截至作出之日提供，我們不承擔更新此類陳述的義務，除非法律要求這樣做。此外，在本次電話會議中，我們可能會納入行業和市場數據以及其他統計信息，以及尋求有關行業狀況和發展的觀察和看法。這些數據和資訊是基於 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。

Although Quest believes these sources are reliable and that the data and other information are accurate. We caution that Quest has not independently verified the reliability and sources of the information for the accuracy of the information. Certain non-GAAP financial measures will 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.

儘管 Quest 相信這些來源是可靠的，並且數據和其他資訊是準確的。我們提醒您，Quest 尚未獨立驗證資訊的可靠性和來源的準確性。本次電話會議將討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。管理階層使用這些非公認會計原則衡量標準來制定策略決策、預測未來績效並評估公司目前績效。

Management believes the presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investors' understanding and 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 for reconciliations of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures are included in today's earnings release.

管理層認為，這些非公認會計準則財務指標的呈現有助於投資者了解和評估公司正在進行的核心業務和未來前景。除非另有說明，否則應假設本次電話會議中討論的任何財務數據都將基於非 GAAP 基礎，以便將非 GAAP 與 GAAP 財務指標的調整包含在今天的收益發布中。

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

儘管如此，我現在將把電話轉給總裁兼執行長雷·哈奇 (Ray Hatch)。

Thanks, Dave, and thanks to all of you for joining us on today’s call. During the second quarter, we delivered strong results. We earned more than $5 million in EBITDA for the second quarter in a row, and we continue to gain momentum with our efficiency programs and our organic growth initiatives. Our pipeline of new customers continues to grow, and our land and expand strategy has provided us with strong incremental customer growth.

謝謝戴夫，也謝謝大家參加今天的電話會議。第二季度，我們取得了強勁的業績。我們連續第二季的 EBITDA 收入超過 500 萬美元，我們繼續透過效率計劃和有機成長計劃獲得動力。我們的新客戶管道持續成長，我們的土地和擴張策略為我們提供了強勁的增量客戶成長。

In the second quarter, we added three seven-figure expansions with existing clients. Revenue grew slower sequentially during the second quarter than expected for two reasons. First, we’ve signed more new business in the first and second quarters than we have in our history as we’ve been onboarding this record number of new customers, we’ve experienced some customer-related delays, which caused slower-than-expected ramp. All of these implementations with new customers are now well underway and will increasingly contribute to sequential growth in the coming quarters. In addition, this strong growth with existing and new clients was offset by lower-than-expected volumes from one of our largest clients. This client is in the industrial vertical and is lower production levels due to end market-related reasons.

在第二季度，我們對現有客戶增加了三筆七位數的擴張。第二季營收成長速度低於預期，原因有二。首先，我們在第一季和第二季簽署的新業務比歷史上還要多，因為我們已經吸引了創紀錄數量的新客戶，我們經歷了一些與客戶相關的延遲，這導致了速度的放緩- 超出預期的坡道。所有這些與新客戶的實施目前都在順利進行，並將越來越多地促進未來幾季的連續成長。此外，現有和新客戶的強勁成長被我們最大客戶之一低於預期的銷售所抵消。該客戶屬於垂直行業，由於終端市場相關原因，生產水平較低。

Given the nature of this customer’s business, the slowdown has primarily affected revenue and to a lesser extent, the gross profit line. While we will likely have lower volumes from this client in the coming quarters, we have a strong relationship with them and expect to somewhat offset lower volumes with new services.

考慮到該客戶業務的性質，經濟放緩主要影響了收入，並在較小程度上影響了毛利線。雖然未來幾季我們來自該客戶的交易量可能會減少，但我們與他們有著牢固的關係，並預計透過新服務在一定程度上抵消交易量的下降。

Our efficiency initiatives continue to show gains. As of today, about three quarters of our vendors are being processed through our new AP automation platform, half of which require no human interaction at all. These improvements are helping us to increase our ability to service our customers and over time, will enable us to lower cost per transaction. I’ve been speaking to most of the investors on this call for many years, some as long as eight years. And I think you all know that I don’t make strong statements lightly. We’re in a great place, and it’s exciting.

我們的效率措施持續取得成效。截至今天，我們大約四分之三的供應商正在透過我們新的 AP 自動化平台進行處理，其中一半根本不需要手動互動。這些改進正在幫助我們提高為客戶服務的能力，隨著時間的推移，將使我們能夠降低每筆交易的成本。多年來，我一直在這次電話會議上與大多數投資者交談，有些人長達八年。我想你們都知道我不會輕易發表強硬的言論。我們處於一個偉大的地方，這令人興奮。

This is about the technology that is coming to fruition. This is about the value proposition we’re delivering. New account growth and tremendous growth of our people and customer service execution. Our ability to execute has grown so much and the market has grown increasingly receptive to that. I’m going to take this opportunity to reiterate that we are extremely optimistic about where we are today and especially about where we’re going tomorrow.

這是關於即將實現的技術。這與我們正在提供的價值主張有關。新客戶的成長以及我們的人員和客戶服務執行力的巨大成長。我們的執行能力已經大大增強，市場也越來越接受這一點。我想藉此機會重申，我們對今天的處境，特別是對明天的目標感到非常樂觀。

I’ll turn the call over to our CFO, Brett Johnston.

我會將電話轉給我們的財務長 Brett Johnston。

Thanks, Ray, and good afternoon, everyone. Revenue was $73.1 million, a 2% decrease year-over-year and a 1% increase sequentially from the first quarter. Newly added customers and strong overall demand from the remaining business contributed approximately $10 million of incremental revenue during the second quarter. This was offset by the decline in volumes from one of our large industrial clients and three other large clients that we have referenced previously.

謝謝，雷，大家下午好。營收為 7,310 萬美元，年減 2%，季增 1%。新增加的客戶和剩餘業務的強勁整體需求在第二季度貢獻了約 1000 萬美元的增量收入。我們的一個大型工業客戶和我們之前提到的其他三個大型客戶的銷售下降抵消了這種影響。

As Ray commented, the relationship with the large industrial customer continues to be strong, and there are opportunities to continue to add services with them, but they are slowing production, which is likely to temporarily affect volumes for the next 12 months.

正如 Ray 評論的那樣，與大型工業客戶的關係仍然牢固，並且有機會繼續與他們增加服務，但他們正在放慢生產速度，這可能會暫時影響未來 12 個月的產量。

In the second half of the year, excluding commodity price fluctuations, we expect revenue growth will accelerate as recent and new wins increasingly contribute to revenues. During the second quarter, gross profit dollars were $13.5 million, flat in comparison with last year. Year-over-year comparisons for the second quarter were flat, mostly due to the same factors that affected revenue comparisons.

下半年，排除大宗商品價格波動，我們預期營收成長將加速，因為近期和新的勝利對營收的貢獻越來越大。第二季毛利為 1,350 萬美元，與去年同期持平。第二季的年比比較持平，主要是由於影響收入比較的相同因素。

On a sequential basis, we had anticipated an increase in gross profit dollars. However, due to client-related delays with several new clients and lower-than-anticipated volumes from the large industrial customer mentioned previously, comparisons were flat sequentially. We did see some incremental contribution in gross profit dollars from new customers. But due to customer delays, the ramp in onboarding activity within the quarter was simply later than we had originally anticipated.

從環比來看，我們預期毛利會增加。然而，由於幾個新客戶的客戶相關延誤以及前面提到的大型工業客戶的銷售低於預期，環比持平。我們確實看到新客戶對毛利的貢獻增加。但由於客戶延遲，本季新用戶註冊活動的成長晚於我們最初的預期。

All of the new customers we discussed in previous calls are being implemented now, and will contribute an increasing amount of gross profit in the coming quarters. Looking at gross profit dollars for the remainder of 2024, we are encouraged by new and existing customer wins and continue to expect double-digit growth in gross profit dollars for the year.

我們在先前的電話會議中討論的所有新客戶現已投入使用，並將在未來幾季貢獻越來越多的毛利。看看 2024 年剩餘時間的毛利，我們對新客戶和現有客戶的贏得感到鼓舞，並繼續預計今年毛利將實現兩位數成長。

Moving on to SG&A, which was $9.4 million during the second quarter, an increase of $200,000 from a year ago and down $400,000 sequentially from the first quarter. This was lower than we had anticipated. The sequential decrease was primarily related to quarterly fluctuations in bad debt expense. We had posted a larger-than-average accrual during the first quarter for bad debt expense, and we’re able to collect more than what we had anticipated in the second. While this did affect sequential comparisons, if you look on a year-to-date basis, bad debt expense was roughly flat year-over-year, and the rate was consistent with what it has been in the past.

接下來是SG&A，第二季的SG&A為940萬美元，比去年同期增加了20萬美元，比第一季連續減少了40萬美元。這低於我們的預期。環比下降主要與壞帳費用的季度波動有關。我們在第一季的應計壞帳費用高於平均水平，而且我們在第二季收到的壞帳費用也超出了我們的預期。雖然這確實影響了連續比較，但如果你從年初至今的角度來看，壞帳費用同比大致持平，而且比率與過去一致。

Looking forward, we expect to gain efficiencies from the investments we made in our platform and through process improvements. We expect the savings from efficiency gains to be partially offset by continued investments in growth and other initiatives. And we expect SG&A will grow at a slower pace than gross profit dollars. As a result, we expect SG&A will be about $10 million in the third quarter.

展望未來，我們希望透過平台投資和流程改善來提高效率。我們預計，效率提升帶來的節省將被對成長和其他措施的持續投資所部分抵消。我們預計 SG&A 的成長速度將低於毛利的成長速度。因此，我們預計第三季的 SG&A 約為 1000 萬美元。

Moving on to a review of the cash flows and balance sheet. Our liquidity is in good shape, and we’ve increased our borrowing capacity and availability. As we previously commented, we have extended the maturities on our debt with Monroe until October of 2026 and extended the maturity of our credit line with PNC until April of 2026, which gives us added runway to continue our process of evaluating alternative long-term debt financing structures that will help us lower borrowing costs and preserve the ability to maximize growth.

接下來檢視現金流量和資產負債表。我們的流動性狀況良好，並且我們提高了借貸能力和可用性。正如我們之前評論的那樣，我們已將Monroe 的債務期限延長至2026 年10 月，並將PNC 的信貸額度期限延長至2026 年4 月，這為我們繼續評估替代長期債務的流程提供了更多的途徑融資結構將幫助我們降低借貸成本並維持最大限度成長的能力。

Based on the momentum we have had to date and how we expect to finish this year, we expect to attract lenders with competitive pricing in attractive terms. We continue to hear from prospective lenders and advisers that lenders are more willing to sacrifice margin to submit more competitively priced lending options.

根據我們迄今為止的勢頭以及我們預計今年的完成情況，我們預計將以具有競爭力的價格和有吸引力的條款吸引貸方。我們不斷從潛在的貸方和顧問那裡聽到，貸方更願意犧牲保證金來提供價格更具競爭力的貸款選擇。

Regarding the increase in our borrowing capacity. We also announced that we have increased the size of the borrowing line with PNC to $35 million from $25 million and added an incremental equipment term loan facility to finance up to $5 million of equipment purchases.

關於我們借貸能力的增加。我們也宣布，我們已將 PNC 的借款額度從 2,500 萬美元增加到 3,500 萬美元，並增加了增量設備定期貸款額度，為最多 500 萬美元的設備採購提供資金。

At the end of the quarter, we had $17.7 million of available borrowing capacity on our $35 million operating borrowing line, and $2.5 million available on our $5 million term loan facility. In this interest rate environment, we continue to actively look to reduce interest expense by optimizing cash management, carrying less cash and minimize borrowings on the line of credit. Thus, our cash balance was $958,000 at the end of the second quarter.

截至本季末，我們 3,500 萬美元的營運借款額度有 1,770 萬美元的可用借款能力，500 萬美元的定期貸款額度有 250 萬美元的可用借款能力。在這種利率環境下，我們繼續積極尋求透過優化現金管理、減少現金持有和盡量減少信用額度借款來降低利息支出。因此，第二季末我們的現金餘額為 958,000 美元。

For the second quarter, we generated $807,000 in cash from operations. At the end of the quarter, receivables remained elevated, which was partially related to the ramp of new customer activity late in the quarter. We continued to make progress with shortening the cash cycle times from some of our large customers, but we still have some room to make improvements.

第二季度，我們從營運中產生了 807,000 美元的現金。截至本季末，應收帳款仍維持較高水平，部分原因在於本季末新客戶活動的增加。我們在縮短一些大客戶的現金週期時間方面繼續取得進展，但我們仍然有一些改進的空間。

I will note that the increased DSOs are temporary. We have great relationships with these customers and slower-than-expected payment is not related to collectability. Also, I want to reiterate that our targeted DSOs are in the mid-60s. But due to the timing of onboarding new large clients, it is possible that we will see fluctuations in the DSOs from quarter-to-quarter like we did in the second quarter.

我要指出的是，增加的 DSO 是暫時的。我們與這些客戶有著良好的關係，付款速度比預期慢與可收回性無關。另外，我想重申，我們的目標 DSO 是在 60 年代中期。但由於新大客戶加入的時間安排，我們可能會看到 DSO 出現季度波動，就像第二季度一樣。

CapEx for the quarter was $2.2 million and was $4.2 million year to date. $3.1 million of the CapEx was related to compactors that we were able to opportunistically purchase at an attractive place. We will be looking to purchase additional compactors from time to time, but do not anticipate significant spending in the next few quarters unless we run across another attractive opportunity.

該季度的資本支出為 220 萬美元，年初至今為 420 萬美元。 310 萬美元的資本支出與壓實機有關，我們能夠在一個有吸引力的地方趁機購買這些壓實機。我們將不時尋求購買額外的壓實機，但預計未來幾季不會有大量支出，除非我們遇到另一個有吸引力的機會。

From a financial and strategic standpoint, it makes more sense to own these contractors instead of running them. Going forward, we expect CapEx to run $300,000 to $400,000 per quarter without considering any opportunistic compactor purchases. At the end of the quarter, we had $73.8 million in notes payable versus $67.8 million at the beginning of the year. The increase reflects growth in borrowing on our line with PNC to fund working capital and the assets purchase that I described earlier.

從財務和策略的角度來看，擁有這些承包商比經營它們更有意義。展望未來，在不考慮任何機會主義壓實機採購的情況下，我們預計每季資本支出將達到 30 萬美元至 40 萬美元。截至本季末，我們的應付票據為 7,380 萬美元，而年初為 6,780 萬美元。這一增長反映了我們與 PNC 的借款成長，為我之前描述的營運資金和資產購買提供資金。

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

此時，我會將電話轉回給雷。

Thank you, Brett. Before I review new business wins and strategies, I want to take a minute to share some anecdotes and unsolicited positive feedback that we’ve received from both new and existing customers as it directly highlights why I believe we’re winning new business and becoming the provider of choice. We clearly have built a differentiated service platform, and we have the right tools and processes in place to deliver for our clients.

謝謝你，布雷特。在回顧新的業務勝利和策略之前，我想花一點時間分享一些軼事以及我們從新客戶和現有客戶那裡收到的主動反饋，因為它直接強調了為什麼我相信我們正在贏得新業務並贏得新業務。顯然，我們已經建立了一個差異化的服務平台，並且擁有正確的工具和流程來為客戶提供服務。

Equally important to providing outstanding customer service, you have the right people and culture that really care about customer outcomes. Here’s the feedback we got from one of our largest and long-standing retail clients. We recently were awarded a five-year extension in our agreement with this customer. The length of this agreement in and of itself speaks to the strength of our relationship.

對於提供卓越的客戶服務同樣重要的是，您擁有真正關心客戶成果的合適人員和文化。以下是我們從最大且長期的零售客戶之一獲得的回饋。最近，我們與該客戶的協議被延長五年。協議的長度本身就說明了我們關係的強度。

This is what the client told us. They said, Quest is a customer service company that happens to take care of waste your assets are your people and your customer service. The five-year contract that we signed says a lot about the partnership between our two companies. The customer further commented that they were not aware of any other five-year agreements with any other vendor ever that they have made.

這是客戶告訴我們的。他們說，Quest 是一家客戶服務公司，恰好負責處理浪費的資產，也就是您的員工和客戶服務。我們簽署的五年合約充分體現了我們兩家公司之間的合作關係。該客戶進一步評論說，他們不知道他們曾與任何其他供應商簽訂任何其他五年協議。

For comparison, while the tenure of our client relationships is much longer, our average contract is three years. We had another instance of positive feedback from a new client within just seven days of going live on our platform the customer said that the implementation went so well that they volunteered to be a strong, referenceable client for us. As a market leader in what is a new end market for us, their reference will go a long way in helping us penetrate and acquire more customers in this area.

相較之下，雖然我們的客戶關係的期限要長得多，但我們的平均合約期限為三年。我們的平台上線僅 7 天內，我們就收到了一位新客戶的正面回饋，該客戶表示實施進展順利，以至於他們自願成為我們強大的、可參考的客戶。作為我們新終端市場的市場領導者，他們的參考將有助於我們滲透並獲得該領域的更多客戶。

I’ll also show the feedback we received from a new retail customer that we secured and recently began onboarding during the first half of the year. This was the second seven-figure competitive win for us to provide services to a portion of the states in which they operate. The client’s leadership told us that they are very excited about our ability to launch so successfully, and they’re already looking to adding additional states to our program.

我還將展示我們從今年上半年獲得並最近開始入職的新零售客戶那裡收到的回饋。這是我們為他們開展業務的部分州提供服務而獲得的第二個七位數的競爭勝利。客戶的領導告訴我們，他們對我們能夠如此成功地啟動感到非常興奮，並且他們已經在考慮在我們的計劃中添加更多的州。

We’ve not yet signed an extension with this client, but based on the feedback I expect we will in short order. I am very proud of our team. They really care about client outcomes, and they are the key to the success in creating a long-term client relationships. We constantly hear feedback from our customers like this, and it gives me great confidence that the new clients and existing clients are well taken care of.

我們尚未與該客戶簽署延期協議，但根據回饋，我預計我們會在短期內簽署。我為我們的團隊感到非常自豪。他們真正關心客戶的成果，並且是成功建立長期客戶關係的關鍵。我們不斷聽到客戶的這樣的回饋，這讓我非常有信心新客戶和現有客戶都得到了很好的照顧。

Moving on, I’ll now cover some of the wins we had during the second quarter. In our last earnings call in early May, I covered the eight-figure win that we have with the market leader in the grocery sector. We won the client at a competitive process, and we were chosen based on our reputation, cost effectiveness, customer alignment with sustainability goals, and the ability for us to provide added visibility from our data portal and platform.

接下來，我現在將介紹我們在第二季度取得的一些勝利。在五月初的最後一次財報電話會議上，我報道了我們與雜貨業市場領導者的八位數利潤。我們在競爭過程中贏得了客戶，我們被選中是基於我們的聲譽、成本效益、客戶與永續發展目標的一致性，以及我們透過資料入口網站和平台提供更高視覺性的能力。

A key reason for our success over the last few years has been our ability to expand our relationships with existing customers across geographies and by adding value-added services. Since our last earnings call, we’ve had three new expansion wins with existing clients. As we demonstrate our capabilities, provide differentiated service, and deliver value customer service, it’s rewarding that our largest clients are coming to us and asking us to do more.

我們過去幾年取得成功的關鍵原因是我們能夠擴大與跨地區現有客戶的關係並增加增值服務。自上次財報電話會議以來，我們已經與現有客戶取得了三項新的擴張勝利。當我們展示我們的能力、提供差異化的服務並提供有價值的客戶服務時，我們最大的客戶來找我們並要求我們做更多的事情，這是值得的。

I’ll now provide a little more detail on the three client expansions we’ve recently secured. We have a seven-figure expansion win with the existing automotive client that has an opportunity to grow into eight figures annually. This is an existing service that we will be expanding to all of their locations.

現在，我將提供有關我們最近獲得的三個客戶端擴充功能的更多詳細資訊。我們與現有汽車客戶取得了七位數的擴張勝利，並且有機會每年增長到八位數。這是一項現有服務，我們將擴展到他們的所有地點。

In addition, we had a seven-figure expansion win with an existing retail client. We’ve been servicing all of the retail locations of this national company. But with this win, we’ll also be servicing all of their distribution centers.

此外，我們也贏得了現有零售客戶七位數的擴張。我們一直為這家全國性公司的所有零售點提供服務。但隨著這場勝利，我們也將為他們的所有配送中心提供服務。

And finally, we had a seven-figure expansion win with the new client that we just secured earlier this year. They were so impressed with their implementation they’ve asked us to handle additional waste streams for them.

最後，我們在今年早些時候剛獲得的新客戶中贏得了七位數的擴張。他們對我們的實施印象深刻，要求我們為他們處理額外的廢物流。

In addition to these client expansions, we’ve continued to see a noticeable uptick in not only the number but also the size of the opportunities in our pipeline. Given the success we’re having with new client wins, we plan to accelerate our investment in organic growth initiatives, including investments in marketing and sales during 2024, reinvesting some of the profit gains we expect to generate in the business.

除了這些客戶擴張之外，我們還發現我們管道中的機會數量和規模都在持續顯著增加。鑑於我們在新客戶方面的成功，我們計劃加快對有機成長計畫的投資，包括 2024 年對行銷和銷售的投資，並將我們預計在業務中產生的部分利潤收益進行再投資。

In talking with investors during this past quarter, there seems to be some confusion over the strategic and financial rationale behind our investment in compactors. Even though we expect this to be a relatively small portion of our overall business, I thought I would take a minute to reiterate and hopefully clarify.

在上個季度與投資者交談時，我們對壓實機投資背後的策略和財務理由似乎有些困惑。儘管我們預計這僅占我們整體業務的一小部分，但我想我會花一點時間重申並希望澄清。

First, I want to reiterate that we very much intend to remain an asset-light business. We don’t plan on owning trucks, landfills, and similar hard assets. We will be looking at increasing the number of compactors that we own when it makes sense. In fact, prior to this recent acquisition, we already owned about 200 compactors, and we regularly buy them in lower quantities to meet customer needs.

首先，我想重申，我們非常願意繼續做輕資產業務。我們不打算擁有卡車、垃圾掩埋場和類似的硬資產。我們將考慮在合理的情況下增加我們擁有的壓實機的數量。事實上，在最近的收購之前，我們已經擁有約 200 台壓實機，我們經常少量購買它們以滿足客戶需求。

Providing compact to rental services provides three key strategic advantages for us. First, compactors help with customer retention. It’s typical for compact or rental agreements to have five-year terms than they historically have very high renewal rates. This compares to an average three-year contract term for our traditional services that I mentioned earlier, and it is consistent with the rest of the industry.

提供緊湊型租賃服務為我們提供了三個關鍵的策略優勢。首先，壓實機有助於保留客戶。緊湊型或租賃協議的期限通常為五年，而歷史上的續約率非常高。這與我之前提到的傳統服務的平均三年合約期限相比，並且與行業其他公司一致。

The second strategic reason is that it helps us to secure new business with existing and new clients. We’re selling compact or rental services to existing ways to recycling clients, and we’re selling our waste and recycling services to our new compact rental clients.

第二個策略原因是它有助於我們與現有和新客戶獲得新業務。我們向現有的回收方式客戶銷售緊湊型或租賃服務，並且我們向新的緊湊型租賃客戶銷售廢棄物和回收服務。

Finally, this opportunistic purchase of compactors gave us enough scale to build an internal capability as well as a network of vendors to maintain and repair compactors on a national basis. We’re beginning to leverage suspender network and have just started to offer compact repair and maintenance services as a separate offering to our existing as well as prospective customers.

最後，這種對壓實機的機會主義購買使我們有足夠的規模來建立內部能力以及供應商網絡，以便在全國範圍內維護和修理壓實機。我們開始利用吊架網絡，並剛開始向現有和潛在客戶提供緊湊的維修和保養服務，作為單獨的服務。

From a financial standpoint, compactor rentals produced a recurring revenue stream with an attractive margin and a high return on capital. Overall, we’re targeting greater than 20% return when we invest in these contractors. The business is relatively simple to manage its scale, low risk and provides highly predictable and recurring returns over a long period of time. Once in place at a customer location, contractors are seldom moved, they require limited maintenance and their utilization is typically in the high-90% range.

從財務角度來看，壓實機租賃產生了經常性收入流，具有有吸引力的利潤和高資本回報率。總體而言，當我們投資這些承包商時，我們的目標是獲得超過 20% 的回報。該業務規模管理相對簡單，風險較低，並能在很長一段時間內提供高度可預測的經常性回報。一旦到達客戶所在地，承包商就很少移動，他們只需要有限的維護，其利用率通常在 90% 左右。

I’ll now review the investments we’re making in technology. Over the years, we’ve built a technology platform that will be able to scale to the size of a much larger enterprise. The technology platform has been a key deciding factor for several competitive wins and helped us maintain enduring client relationships due to the incremental value we provide. We’re actively introducing additional technology improvements in 2024.

我現在將回顧我們在技術方面的投資。多年來，我們已經建立了一個能夠擴展到更大企業規模的技術平台。這個技術平台一直是多次競爭勝利的關鍵決定因素，並由於我們提供的增量價值而幫助我們維持持久的客戶關係。我們將在 2024 年積極引入更多技術改進。

As we discussed on our last call, during the first half of the year, we’ve begun to rollout our AP automation solution that utilizes artificial intelligence to further automate the processing of vendor invoices. We continue to make progress. And as of today, approximately three quarters of our vendors are being processed through our new AP automation platform.

正如我們在上次電話會議中所討論的那樣，今年上半年，我們已經開始推出 AP 自動化解決方案，該解決方案利用人工智慧進一步自動化供應商發票的處理。我們不斷進步。截至今天，我們大約四分之三的供應商正在透過我們新的 AP 自動化平台進行處理。

Half of the invoice is generated by these vendors require no human interaction and are what we call zero touch. We process hundreds of thousands of invoices every year, and this is part of our goal to reach 100% zero-touch invoice processing. Automating invoice processing helps us to ensure payments are only made for services delivered and helps us to eliminate exceptions that typically add cost and add touches across multiple departments. By automating invoice processing, along with our other technology enhancements, we’re lowering costs, continuously improving client and vendor value, and providing major enhancements in our ability to scale along with expanding our margins.

一半的發票是由這些供應商產生的，不需要人工交互，這就是我們所說的零接觸。我們每年處理數十萬張發票，這是我們實現 100% 零接觸發票處理目標的一部分。自動化發票處理有助於我們確保僅針對所提供的服務進行付款，並幫助我們消除通常會增加成本並增加跨多個部門的接觸的例外情況。透過自動化發票處理以及我們的其他技術改進，我們正在降低成本，不斷提高客戶和供應商的價值，並在擴大利潤的同時大幅增強我們的擴展能力。

Regarding our outlook, I want to emphasize my conviction on our trajectory and the overall outlook for the company in 2024 and beyond. We’ve made tremendous progress during our last several years and have never been more confident about our outlook for continued double-digit growth. I feel very good about the organic growth we have in front of us, pressure to improve sustainability, expanding regulation, increasing cost of landfills, they all continue to lower the bar for adoption of recycling services. We have multiple sources of organic growth from expanding our existing clients to ramping up recent wins and growing pipeline of new business.

關於我們的前景，我想強調我對我們的發展軌跡以及公司 2024 年及以後的整體前景的信念。在過去的幾年裡，我們取得了巨大的進步，並且對持續兩位數成長的前景充滿信心。我對我們面前的有機成長感到非常滿意，提高永續性的壓力，擴大監管，增加垃圾掩埋場的成本，它們都在繼續降低採用回收服務的門檻。我們擁有多種有機成長來源，從擴大現有客戶到增加最近的勝利和不斷增長的新業務管道。

I also want to reiterate that we have a large opportunity to drive gross profit dollar growth on the cost side by optimizing the business we have in hand. As we bring revenue under our platform, we’ve proven our ability to optimize cost of services through vendor relations and procurement management that drives our continued growth in gross profit dollars.

我還想重申，我們有很大的機會透過優化我們手頭上的業務來推動成本方面毛利的成長。當我們在平台上帶來收入時，我們已經證明了我們有能力透過供應商關係和採購管理來優化服務成本，從而推動我們毛利的持續成長。

In the same way, we have multiple ways of improving efficiency by utilizing the technology investments that we’ve made over the last several years, driving improved operating performance and expanding our EBITDA margins.

同樣，我們有多種方法可以利用過去幾年進行的技術投資來提高效率，從而提高營運績效並擴大 EBITDA 利潤率。

The work we have done is centered on building a consistent and sustainable business focused on providing valued services to our clients. The foundation is set for continued success and to build value for our shareholders. We expect our momentum to carry through this year and beyond. I couldn’t be more excited about what’s to come.

我們所做的工作集中在建立一致且可持續的業務，專注於為客戶提供有價值的服務。為持續成功並為股東創造價值奠定了基礎。我們預計我們的勢頭將持續到今年及以後。我對即將發生的事情感到非常興奮。

I really look forward to keeping you updated on our progress, and I’d like now for the operator to provide instructions on how listeners can queue up. Operator?

我真的很期待向您通報我們的最新進展，並且我現在希望接線員能夠提供有關聽眾如何排隊的說明。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Aaron Spychalla, Craig-Hallum.

（操作員說明）Aaron Spychalla，Craig-Hallum。

Yes. HI, Ray. Hi, Brett. Thanks for taking the questions. First for me on the land and expand with the existing clients this quarter. I just want to confirm, you highlighted a couple of last quarter. So, I just want to confirm these are kind of new in the quarter. And then can you maybe just talk about how many other opportunities like this you see across the rest of your existing client base?

是的。嗨，雷。嗨，布雷特。感謝您提出問題。對我來說，首先是在這片土地上，並在本季與現有客戶一起擴展。我只是想確認一下，您在上個季度強調了一些。所以，我只是想確認這些是本季的新內容。然後您能否談談您在現有客戶群的其餘部分中看到了多少類似的機會？

Hi, Aaron. Thanks. This is Ray. Yes, these three we just mentioned, we were pretty specific on those because they’re incremental to the previous quarter. And we did talk about some growth opportunities that we had taken there as well. So yes, these are new. And again, as we kind of quantified them, and we’re quite excited by them.

嗨，亞倫。謝謝。這是雷。是的，我們剛剛提到的這三個，我們對它們非常具體，因為它們是比上一季增量的。我們確實也談到了我們在那裡抓住的一些成長機會。所以是的，這些都是新的。再次，當我們對它們進行量化時，我們對它們感到非常興奮。

And as far as your second part of your question on future opportunities, there are so many -- I mean, as we continue to add these high-quality, high-profile customers that have large businesses with many needs, and at the same time, our team continues to expand the capabilities that they can meet. So I anticipate seeing more and more continuous type of opportunities just like this here going forward.

至於你關於未來機會的問題的第二部分，有很多——我的意思是，隨著我們不斷增加這些高品質、知名的客戶，他們擁有具有多種需求的大型企業，同時，我們的團隊不斷擴展他們可以滿足的能力。因此，我預計未來會看到越來越多的連續類型的機會，就像這樣。

Great. That’s good to hear. And then maybe on the technology improvements. It sounds like the implementation is going well. Are you still targeting 80% zero touch by the end of this year? I thought I heard you say 100%. And just any notable improvements that you’ve seen to date with the rollout.

偉大的。很高興聽到這個消息。然後也許是技術改進。聽起來實施進展順利。您的目標仍然是在今年年底實現 80% 的零接觸嗎？我以為我聽到你說 100%。以及迄今為止您在推出過程中看到的任何顯著改進。

And then as you get that finalized, just how are you thinking that can benefit incremental margins?

然後，當您最終確定這一點時，您認為這將如何有利於增量利潤？

Hey, Aaron. This is Brett. I’ll take that one. We continue to be increasingly excited about our technology rollout. As you mentioned, our ultimate target is 100% zero touch.

嘿，亞倫。這是布雷特。我要那個。我們對科技的推出越來越感到興奮。正如您所提到的，我們的最終目標是 100% 零接觸。

Near-term, we’ve got pretty good visibility to still get to that 80% zero touch, maybe even up to 90% that last 10% to 20%. It will be a little bit harder. So we’re still on pace. We’ve got a couple of kinks to work out, but still continue to make good progress.

短期內，我們有相當好的可見性，仍然可以達到 80% 的零接觸，甚至可能達到 90%（最後 10% 到 20%）。會有點困難。所以我們仍然保持著前進的步伐。我們還有一些問題需要解決，但仍在繼續取得良好進展。

As we mentioned, we do have all of our solid waste vendors on our platform right now. So excited to get them going. We just brought a new batch online this month. So we’ll see how that plays out.

正如我們所提到的，我們的平台上現在確實有所有固體廢棄物供應商。很高興能讓他們繼續前進。我們本月剛上線了一批新產品。所以我們將看看結果如何。

But in terms of just overall performance, we do continue to expect some significant efficiencies out of these. Hopeful we’ll get those by Q4, start seeing some of those come in. And then certainly, by the time we get into next year, early on we’ll be ramping up and hopefully fully realizing those.

但就整體性能而言，我們確實繼續期望這些能帶來一些顯著的效率。希望我們能在第四季度之前得到這些，並開始看到其中一些進來。當然，到明年年初時，我們將加強並希望完全實現這些目標。

Alright. And then just on the volume front, I mean, I know you called out the larger customer that’s seen some softening conditions. Maybe just broadly, across the rest of your customer base, are you seeing overall waste volumes hold steady, grow a little bit given the macro, I mean, outside of landing and expanding with them?

好吧。然後，就銷售而言，我的意思是，我知道您召集了較大的客戶，他們看到了一些疲軟的情況。也許從廣義上講，在您的其他客戶群中，您是否看到整體廢物量保持穩定，考慮到宏觀因素，我的意思是，除了著陸和擴大廢物量之外，還有一點增長？

Yeah, I’ll take that, Aaron. From a macro standpoint, I will tell you that we aren’t seeing any significant type of changes outside of the one we referenced. And this gives me a chance maybe to reiterate the strength of our position is we’re so diversified now in our revenue streams and the end markets that we serve.

是的，我會接受的，亞倫。從宏觀角度來看，我會告訴您，除了我們提到的變化之外，我們沒有看到任何重大類型的變化。這讓我有機會重申我們的優勢地位，因為我們現在的收入來源和我們服務的終端市場如此多元化。

When one thing goes down, another one has a tendency to go up. We saw that maybe like during COVID times. So no, we’re really not seeing any changes. But I have pretty high confidence, Aaron, that we’ll be fine regardless based on that diversified revenue streams that we have today. So it’s pretty isolated right now the situation we discussed.

當一種事物下跌時，另一種事物就有上漲的趨勢。我們可能在新冠疫情時期就看到了這一點。所以不，我們確實沒有看到任何變化。但我非常有信心，亞倫，無論基於我們今天擁有的多元化收入來源，我們都會沒事的。所以現在我們討論的情況相當孤立。

Okay. And then maybe if I can just sneak in one more on pro-organics kind of nine states look like they’ve implemented laws to divert food waste from landfills and others are looking to implement something as well. Can you just give us an update on the pipeline and interest there and how big of an opportunity you see this for you going forward?

好的。然後，如果我能再偷偷介紹一下支持有機食品的情況，那麼九個州似乎已經實施了將食物垃圾從垃圾掩埋場轉移的法律，而其他州也正在尋求實施一些措施。您能否向我們介紹一下該領域的最新進展和興趣，以及您認為這對您未來有多大的機會？

I see the opportunity continuing to grow as the demand and the need regulation. You’re dead on, on your observation there continues to go in our favor and it creates a more favorable environment. We have some really great food clients, and we have some really great fruit prospects. And we think that pro-organics along with our general, just overall food waste programs are becoming more and more in demand. And I think they’re really going to help us in future quarters.

我認為隨著需求和監管的需要，機會將繼續增長。您完全正確，根據您的觀察，情況繼續對我們有利，並且它創造了一個更有利的環境。我們有一些非常好的食品客戶，我們也有一些非常好的水果前景。我們認為，對有機食品以及我們的整體食物垃圾計劃的需求正在變得越來越大。我認為他們確實會在未來幾季為我們提供幫助。

All right. Thanks for the color. I will turn it over.

好的。謝謝你的顏色。我會把它翻過來。

(Operator Instructions) Greg Kitt, Pinnacle Fund.

（操作員指示）Greg Kitt，Pinnacle 基金。

Hi, Ray and Brett. How are you doing?

嗨，雷和布雷特。你好嗎？

Good.

好的。

Thanks for taking my questions. First on new wins. Can you give us a little bit of color on how many of those started contributing in Q2? And how many of those do you think will start contributing in Q3? I think you had seven wins that you announced year to date.

感謝您回答我的問題。首先是新的勝利。您能給我們透露一下有多少人在第二季開始做出貢獻嗎？您認為其中有多少人會在第三季開始做出貢獻？我認為您今年迄今為止已經宣布了七場勝利。

Hi, Greg. It’s Brett. I’ll take that one. So, we had, I would say, all but two contributed in Q2 to some extent, two large ones we will go live or went live in July 1, and then we had another one to live August.

嗨，格雷格。這是布雷特。我要那個。所以，我想說，除了兩個之外，我們在第二季度都做出了一定程度的貢獻，兩個大的我們將在7 月1 日上線或上線，然後我們還有另一個將在8月上線。

Great. Thank you very much. I think that you talked about UNFI, because you were able to disclose that customer going live in the middle of Q3. So I guess, was that the August 1 go live?

偉大的。非常感謝。我認為您談到了 UNFI，因為您能夠透露該客戶在第三季中期上線。所以我猜，是 8 月 1 日上線嗎？

No. We already talked about that. It was going on in Q2.

不。我們已經討論過這一點。這發生在第二季。

Yeah, that was in Q2.

是的，那是在第二季。

My fault. Okay, thank you very much. On the expansions that you talked about – actually, can I start in a different place? You talked about that new retail customer that you started onboarding earlier this year that you’re working with in six states. And there is an opportunity to expand into additional states.

我的錯。好的，非常感謝。關於你談到的擴展——實際上，我可以從不同的地方開始嗎？您談到了您今年早些時候開始在六個州與您合作的新零售客戶。並且有機會擴展到其他州。

What’s the current footprint that you’re servicing? I don’t know how big this retailer is? Is it national so 50 states? And what is the opportunity?

您目前正在維修的足跡是多少？我不知道這家零售商有多大？全國有50個州嗎？機會是什麼？

Yeah. It’s a significant opportunity. And actually, I think we have three states, which a lot of locations. So that gives you an idea. So let’s do our math, Greg, that leaves us 47% to go.

是的。這是一個重要的機會。實際上，我認為我們有三個州，有很多地點。這給了你一個想法。格雷格，讓我們算一下，我們還剩下 47% 的時間。

Okay, great. Thank you. And if you do get an expansion, because it sounded like you were excited about the opportunity to get into additional states. Do you think that that continues to be iterative a couple of states at a time? Or do you think that there’s an opportunity to be a national replacement win?

好的，太好了。謝謝。如果你確實獲得了擴展，因為聽起來你對進入其他州的機會感到興奮。您認為這會繼續一次迭代幾個狀態嗎？或者你認為有機會成為全國替補勝利嗎？

Well, I think there’s an opportunity there always was to be a national replacement. Whatever process they have as far as awarding us new states is going to be earned by us and their ability to make operational changes. So it’s hard to predict that.

嗯，我認為成為國家替補的機會總是存在的。無論他們採取什麼程序授予我們新的州權，都將由我們和他們進行營運變革的能力來贏得。所以很難預測這一點。

So my comment was really based on the fact that they’ve made tremendous comments about Dave’s team’s ability to implement and how well they executed, and the fact that they have a lot of other states to go and we’re a better supplier. So we’re pretty confident that we’re going to get more opportunities. We just don’t know how much and when. That’s all.

因此，我的評論實際上是基於這樣一個事實：他們對戴夫團隊的實施能力和執行情況做出了巨大的評論，而且他們還有很多其他州需要去，而我們… ¤ 成為更好的供應商。因此，我們非常有信心我們將獲得更多機會。我們只是不知道有多少以及何時。僅此而已。

Thank you. On the expansions that you announced, congratulations on those and I’m excited about those. I think last quarter, you talked about – you gave an example of identifying 50 potential projects with a large customer that had like tens of thousands of dollars to eight-figure dollar opportunities with recurring work. And I was wondering if that one customer was one of the customers that you signed an expansion with or not?

謝謝。對於您宣布的擴充包，我表示祝賀，我對此感到非常興奮。我想上個季度，您談到了 — 您舉了一個例子，與一個大客戶一起確定了 50 個潛在項目，該客戶擁有數萬美元到八位數美元的經常性工作機會。我想知道該客戶是否是與您簽署擴展的客戶之一？

No, this is incremental to that. The three that we very specifically called out in the remarks or incremental to that. These are all brand new and they are contractually signed, not just, hey, guys, we’ll call you more business. There are contractual expansions that are really exciting and sizable.

不，這是增量。我們在評論中特別提到了這三個內容，或對此進行了補充。這些都是全新的，並且是簽訂合約的，不僅僅是，嘿，夥計們，我們會打電話給你們更多的生意。有一些合約擴展確實令人興奮且規模巨大。

Thank you. And when you sign those deals, do those programs start immediately? Or what kind of a lead time does that have?

謝謝。當您簽署這些協議時，這些計劃會立即啟動嗎？或是有什麼樣的交貨時間？

Yeah, they’re all different, Greg. First of all, they’re all different types of projects and different types of customers, different industries. So there’s a lot of variances. There are some starts right away, some tail end over time.

是的，他們都是不同的，格雷格。首先，它們都是不同類型的專案、不同類型的客戶、不同的行業。所以存在著很多差異。有些是立即開始的，有些是隨著時間的推移而結束的。

Thank you. And did any of those have the opportunity to start contributing in Q2 or not yet?

謝謝。其中有人有機會在第二季開始做出貢獻嗎？

No, these are all Q3 opportunities. So they’re all incremental to what we got. That’s what I’m trying to describe.

不，這些都是第三季的機會。所以它們都是我們所得到的增量。這就是我想要描述的。

Perfect. And I was wondering if you can give us some color on the new client, that within seven days, you said that they would volunteer to be a strong reference client. What industry is that client in?

完美的。我想知道您能否給我們一些關於新客戶的信息，您說在 7 天內，他們將自願成為一個強有力的參考客戶。該客戶屬於什麼產業？

Food distribution.

食品分發。

That’s great. And for AR days, Brett, I heard what you said about some of the new customers pulling up the AR days as they ramped into the end of the quarter, and I think that makes sense.

那太好了。至於 AR 日，布雷特，我聽到你說一些新客戶在季度末增加了 AR 日，我認為這是有道理的。

Do you think that there’s an opportunity to get those days? It seems like it will be hard to get those days back down to 65, as you have a lot of customers ramping right now, do you think that there’s an opportunity to do that in Q3 or Q4 or unlikely this year with so many customers ramping?

您認為有機會獲得那些日子嗎？似乎很難將這些天數降到 65 天，因為現在有很多客戶在增​​加，您認為在第三季度或第四季度有機會做到這一點嗎？ ？

Hey, Craig, yeah. I think in the script specifically targeted getting back to where we had been historically, which is in the mid-60s for DSO. So, we’re not backing away from that. As we said, we did have a couple of things pushed. Obviously, that has impact on DSOs when they ramp later in the quarter. We’ve made some really good progress on our existing customers. We had some large payments come in that just crossed over past the quarter.

嘿，克雷格，是的。我認為劇本中的目標是回到我們歷史上的狀態，即 DSO 的 60 年代中期。因此，我們不會放棄這一點。正如我們所說，我們確實推動了一些事情。顯然，這會對 DSO 在本季稍後的成長產生影響。我們在現有客戶方面取得了一些非常好的進展。我們收到了一些大額付款，這些付款剛剛跨越本季。

So, if we can pull those in, and I’m confident we’ll be able to do so sooner rather than later and that will have a meaningful impact on DSOs as well. So, we remain confident. Obviously, that’s going to drive some operating cash flow as well.

因此，如果我們能夠將這些納入其中，我相信我們將能夠盡快做到這一點，這也將對 DSO 產生有意義的影響。所以，我們依然充滿信心。顯然，這也將推動一些營運現金流。

Absolutely. If you got to 65 days next quarter, it looks like that frees up like $7 million to $8 million of cash, which is really meaningful when you can pay down your debt with that. So hopeful that you can make progress towards that.

絕對地。如果下個季度達到 65 天，看起來可以釋放 700 萬至 800 萬美元的現金，當你可以用它來償還債務時，這確實很有意義。非常希望您能朝此方向取得進展。

My last one for me right now, I think, is on zero touch. I think what’s so exciting to me about that opportunity. And Ray, I think you touched on it in your opening remarks, was on reducing your cost to serve or enable a lower cost per transaction, I think, is what you said.

我想，我現在的最後一個目標是零接觸。我想這個機會讓我如此興奮的是什麼。雷，我想您在開場白中談到了這一點，即降低服務成本或降低每筆交易的成本，我認為，這就是您所說的。

And when you’re operating in a competitive market and you can lower your cost to serve customers or lower your cost per transaction, you have the ability to go win business a lot more easily if you so choose because you can price more aggressively. I would like to hear how investors should be thinking about the impact from Quest ability to lower its cost-of-service customers?

當您在競爭激烈的市場中運作時，您可以降低服務客戶的成本或每筆交易的成本，如果您選擇這樣做，您就有能力更輕鬆地贏得業務，因為您可以更積極地定價。我想聽聽投資人應該如何考慮 Quest 降低客戶服務成本的能力所產生的影響？

Well, the first impact, I could just jump in, Brett, if I missed something, is we should have lower cost or transaction, which ultimately falls down and translates into EBITDA margins. We can do more with less kind of thing. But I like the fact you picked up on the competitive side of it because the ability to grow this business is really why we’re here. And if we can go to market with a more efficient, better mousetrap, we’re able to win more and more competitive situations and increase market share and accelerated rate.

好吧，第一個影響，我可以插話，布雷特，如果我錯過了什麼，那就是我們應該降低成本或交易，這最終會下降並轉化為 EBITDA 利潤率。我們可以用更少的事情做更多的事情。但我喜歡你對競爭方面的看法，因為發展這項業務的能力才是我們在這裡的真正原因。如果我們能夠以更有效率、更好的捕鼠器進入市場，我們就能夠贏得越來越多的競爭局面，並提高市場份額和加速速度。

So I think from an investor perspective, you should look at a steadily improving enhancement to EBITDA margin as we implement. And then we should also be able to even accelerate in already what I think is an excellent pace in prospects and opportunities to win more business.

因此，我認為從投資者的角度來看，隨著我們的實施，您應該專注於 EBITDA 利潤率的穩定提高。然後，我們還應該能夠以我認為在前景和機會方面已經非常出色的速度加快步伐，以贏得更多業務。

Greg, I’ll just add in real quick queue other than just that piece. But coming from a manual process can be fraught with errors at times and the exceptions that, that creates and drives throughout the organization. So being able to free up people’s times that are spent on non-value add and get to work on enhancing customer relationships and driving new services and all that good stuff gets freed up as well. So that will be a contributing factor to as we move forward.

格雷格，我將添加真正的快速隊列，而不僅僅是那一部分。但手動流程有時可能會充滿錯誤，並且會在整個組織中產生和驅動例外。因此，能夠解放人們花在非增值上的時間，並致力於加強客戶關係和推動新服務，所有這些好東西也得到了釋放。因此，這將成為我們前進的一個促成因素。

Yes. Thank you very much, and thank you for your hard work.

是的。非常感謝你們，也感謝你們的辛勤工作。

Thanks, Greg.

謝謝，格雷格。

George Melas, MKH Management.

喬治·梅拉斯，MKH 管理公司。

Hi, guys. Hi, Ray. Hi, Brett. How are you?

嗨，大家好。嗨，雷。嗨，布雷特。你好嗎？

Great. Hi, George.

偉大的。嗨，喬治。

Great. Can you talk a little bit about the pipeline? It seems the pipeline is healthy. And what is leading to the growth in the pipeline? Is it that you have better references? Is that you have a more targeted [business]? Is it the technology that enables you to respond to more RFPs? What is leading to this good situation with the pipeline?

偉大的。能談談管道嗎？看來管道很健康。是什麼導致了管道的成長？是不是你有更好的參考資料？是不是你更有針對性[商業]？該技術是否使您能夠響應更多 RFP？是什麼原因導致管道出現如此良好的狀況？

Yeah. I always like saying that. All of the above. Good job, George. But seriously, we’ve got such a maturation and improved process on prospecting in of itself. The references piece is invaluable, as you know. I mean, it’s almost like another quality customers. Our business has done due diligence on us, so people can just take that.

是的。我總是喜歡這麼說。上述所有的。幹得好，喬治。但說真的，我們本身就已經有了這樣一個成熟且改進的勘探流程。如您所知，參考文獻是無價的。我的意思是，這幾乎就像另一個優質客戶。我們的企業已經對我們進行了盡職調查，所以人們可以接受。

So the references help, the process helps. I think we’ve accelerated our offerings that we have for clients to make us more and more of a problem to solve perform at a time when they have these issues. And we’ve actually added to and adjusted our sales structure a little bit. And we’ve added some different roles and kind of going to market a little bit differently to enhance what we’re doing before.

所以參考文獻有幫助，過程也有幫助。我認為我們已經加快了為客戶提供的產品，使我們在他們遇到這些問題時能夠解決越來越多的問題。我們實際上對我們的銷售結構進行了一些補充和調整。我們添加了一些不同的角色，並以稍微不同的方式進入市場，以增強我們之前所做的事情。

So I think it’s all of the above, George. And I appreciate the excitement. We’re very excited about the quality of our pipeline today.

所以我認為這就是以上的全部原因，喬治。我很欣賞這種興奮。我們對今天管道的品質感到非常興奮。

Yeah. Wonderful. Great. Thanks so much.

是的。精彩的。偉大的。非常感謝。

You bet. Thank you, George.

你打賭。謝謝你，喬治。

There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand over to management for closing remarks.

目前沒有其他問題。我現在將請管理層致閉幕詞。

Thank you, operator. I’ll wrap this. I just want to, again, thank everybody for their interest in Quest. I’m always amazed and thankful for that. I want to reiterate our positive outlook. I know I said it at least twice during the remarks, but I don’t want to close this call without reiterating that.

謝謝你，接線生。我會把它包起來。我只想再次感謝大家對 Quest 的興趣。我對此總是感到驚訝和感激。我想重申我們的積極前景。我知道我在發言中至少說過兩次，但我不想在不重申這一點的情況下結束這次電話會議。

This ’24 is going to be a great year for us. It is a great year for us. ‘25 will be as well. I want to thank the Quest team and a number of you are on this call.

今年 24 小時對我們來說將是偉大的一年。對我們來說，這是偉大的一年。 Ø25 也可以。我要感謝 Quest 團隊以及許多參加這次電話會議的人。

We’ve gone through so much as an organization. We’ve grown so much. We’ve enhanced our ability to serve customers. Our customer service level as evidenced by some of these wonderful and holistic comments that come from you guys, and the work that you’re doing, and we’re greatly appreciative of this.

作為一個組織，我們經歷了很多事情。我們已經成長很多了。我們增強了為客戶服務的能力。你們的一些精彩而全面的評論以及你們正在做的工作證明了我們的客戶服務水平，我們對此非常感激。

We have a number of initiatives that we have constantly going. The whole team is executing on. They’re working well and helping create some great positive momentum. So with that momentum, I’m really looking forward to what the next quarter looks like. And I look forward to the opportunity to keep you all updated. And again, thanks for your interest in Quest. Appreciate it.

我們有許多不斷實施的措施。整個團隊都在執行。他們運作良好，並幫助創造了一些巨大的積極勢頭。因此，憑藉這種勢頭，我真的很期待下一季的情況。我期待有機會向大家通報最新情況。再次感謝您對 Quest 的關注。欣賞它。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

謝謝。女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。