Rollins Inc (ROL) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Rollins Inc. third-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

您好，歡迎參加羅林斯公司 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於只聽模式。正式演講後將舉行問答環節。（操作員指示）謹此提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Lyndsey Burton, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

現在我很高興向您介紹主持人，投資者關係副總裁林賽伯頓 (Lyndsey Burton)。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. In addition to the earnings release that we issued yesterday, the company has also prepared a supporting slide presentation. The earnings release and presentation are available on our website at www.rollins.com.

謝謝大家，大家早安。除了我們昨天發布的收益報告外，該公司還準備了支援幻燈片簡報。收益發布和演示可在我們的網站 www.rollins.com 上取得。

We have included certain non-GAAP financial measures as part of our discussion this morning. The non-GAAP reconciliations are available in the appendix of today's presentation as well as in our earnings release. The company's earnings release discusses the business outlook and contains certain forward-looking statements. These particular forward-looking statements and all other statements that have been made on this call, excluding historical facts, are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from any statement we make today. Please refer to yesterday's press release and the company's SEC filings, including the Risk Factors section of our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023.

作為今天上午討論的一部分，我們納入了某些非公認會計準則財務指標。非公認會計原則調節表可在今天簡報的附錄以及我們的收益報告中找到。該公司的收益報告討論了業務前景並包含某些前瞻性陳述。這些特定的前瞻性陳述以及本次電話會議中所做的所有其他陳述（不包括歷史事實）都受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，實際結果可能與我們今天所做的任何陳述有重大差異。請參閱昨天的新聞稿和公司向 SEC 提交的文件，包括截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日的年度 10-K 表格的風險因素部分。

On the line with me today and speaking are Jerry Gahlhoff, President and Chief Executive Officer and Ken Krause, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Management will make some opening remarks and then we'll open the line for your questions.

今天與我一起發言的是總裁兼執行長 Jerry Gahlhoff 和執行副總裁兼財務長 Ken Krause。管理層將發表一些開場白，然後我們將開通您的提問熱線。

Jerry, would you like to begin?

傑瑞，你想開始嗎？

Thank you, Lyndsey. Good morning, everyone. We would like to begin our discussion today by offering our support and encouragement to all of those who have been impacted by the recent hurricanes. I'm proud of the way our team has worked together to support our teammates and the communities we serve in the aftermath of these disasters. The Rollins’ relief fund has processed over 250 emergency grants for teammates in need. And we continue to direct truckloads of food, water and other necessities to impacted areas. Our efforts will continue in the days, weeks and months ahead as these communities begin to recover.

謝謝你，林賽。大家早安。我們希望透過向所有受到最近颶風影響的人們提供支持和鼓勵來開始我們今天的討論。我為我們的團隊在災難發生後共同努力支持我們的隊友和我們所服務的社區的方式感到自豪。羅林斯救濟基金已為有需要的隊友提供了超過 250 筆緊急補助金。我們繼續將卡車的食品、水和其他必需品運送到受影響的地區。隨著這些社區開始恢復，我們將在未來幾天、幾週和幾個月繼續努力。

Turning to our financial results, our team delivered another solid quarter, reflecting consistent execution of our operating strategies and continuous improvement in our business. Our team delivered these results despite some operational disruption caused by Hurricane Helene, which occurred during the last week of the quarter.

談到我們的財務業績，我們的團隊再次實現了穩健的季度業績，反映出我們營運策略的持續執行和業務的持續改善。儘管本季最後一周發生的颶風海倫造成了一些營運中斷，但我們的團隊仍取得了這些結果。

Our financial performance for the third quarter was highlighted by an increase in revenue of 9% to $916 million and we delivered healthy organic growth of 7.7% in the quarter. Overall, we continue to see solid revenue growth across all major service lines. We continue to invest in growing our business and adding to our customer base, as the markets we serve remain strong. We invested significantly in incremental sales staffing and marketing activities in Q3 and we're well staffed to convert quality leads and sales efforts into new customer growth, which our results in the quarter reflect.

我們第三季的財務表現突出的是營收成長 9% 至 9.16 億美元，本季實現了 7.7% 的健康有機成長。總體而言，我們繼續看到所有主要服務線的收入穩定成長。由於我們服務的市場依然強勁，我們將繼續投資發展業務並擴大客戶群。第三季度，我們在增量銷售人員配置和行銷活動上投入了大量資金，並且我們有充足的人員配置，可以將優質銷售線索和銷售努力轉化為新客戶的成長，這反映了我們本季度的業績。

On the commercial side of the business, we continue to make long-term investments to capitalize on the growth opportunities in a multi-billion-dollar B2B market. Our commercial division continues to strategically add feet on the street to our sales force and we are leveraging data analytics and training to better enable their success. Investments to drive organic growth are complemented by strategic M&A. We closed 32 tuck-in deals in the first nine months of the year and the M&A pipeline remains healthy. We're actively evaluating acquisition opportunities both domestically and internationally and remain on track to deliver at least 2% of growth from M&A activity in 2024.

在業務的商業方面，我們繼續進行長期投資，以利用數十億美元的 B2B 市場的成長機會。我們的商業部門繼續策略性地增加我們的銷售隊伍，我們正在利用數據分析和培訓來更好地幫助他們取得成功。策略併購是推動有機成長的投資的補充。今年前 9 個月，我們完成了 32 筆臨時交易，併購管道依然健康。我們正在積極評估國內和國際收購機會，並預計在 2024 年實現至少 2% 的併購活動成長。

Beyond growth, our dedication to operational efficiency and continuous improvement is an important part of our strategy and culture. Tim will discuss in more detail, but investments we made to support long-term growth objectives did temper margins a bit in the quarter. But we remain on track to deliver healthy margin improvement and profitability for the year.

除了成長之外，我們對營運效率和持續改善的奉獻也是我們策略和文化的重要組成部分。蒂姆將更詳細地討論，但我們為支持長期成長目標而進行的投資確實在本季度略微削弱了利潤率。但我們仍有望實現今年利潤率和獲利能力的健康改善。

In yesterday's release, we also announced a planned leadership transition at our board of directors. In accordance with the company's long-term leadership succession plan, Gary Rollins will transition from Executive Chairman to Executive Chairman Emeritus and John Wilson will succeed him as Executive Chairman of the Board. Gary was elected to a three-year term during our 2024 annual meeting and will continue to be an active and engaged member of our board.

在昨天的新聞稿中，我們也宣布了董事會計劃的領導過渡。根據公司長期領導層繼任計劃，加里·羅林斯(Gary Rollins)將從執行主席過渡為名譽執行主席，約翰·威爾遜(John Wilson)將接替他擔任董事會執行主席。Gary 在我們 2024 年年會上當選，任期三年，並將繼續成為我們董事會中積極參與的成員。

John has been with our company since 1996 in various positions of increasing responsibility. I've known John for 20 years and his experience and guidance have been invaluable to me as I have transitioned to the role of CEO over the last two years. I look forward to continuing to work with John, Gary and the rest of our Board as we position our company for continued success in the future.

John 自 1996 年起便在我們公司工作，擔任過各種職務，職責不斷增加。我認識約翰已經 20 年了，在我過去兩年擔任執行長的過程中，他的經驗和指導對我來說非常寶貴。我期待著繼續與約翰、加里和董事會其他成員合作，幫助我們的公司在未來持續成功。

In closing, we're excited about where our business stands today. Our markets are solid, staffing levels are healthy and our team is focused on driving continuous improvement and profitable growth. I want to thank each of our 20,000 plus teammates around the world for their ongoing commitment to our customers.

最後，我們對我們今天的業務狀況感到興奮。我們的市場穩固，員工水平健康，我們的團隊專注於推動持續改善和獲利成長。我要感謝我們全球 20,000 多名隊友中的每一位，感謝他們對客戶的持續承諾。

I'll now turn the call over to Ken. Ken?

我現在會把電話轉給肯。肯？

Thank you, Jerry, and good morning, everyone. We are now nine months into 2024, and we've delivered solid financial results. Year-to-date, we've delivered double-digit improvement across all major P&L metrics year-over-year and EBITDA margin improvement of 50 basis points, despite making significant investments in the business here in Q3.

謝謝傑瑞，大家早安。現在距離 2024 年還有九個月了，我們已經交付了穩健的財務表現。年初至今，儘管我們在第三季度對該業務進行了大量投資，但我們的所有主要損益指標均實現了兩位數的同比增長，EBITDA 利潤率提高了 50 個基點。

Cash flow continues to be strong, with free cash flow growing nearly 12% year-to-date, enabling a 10% increase to our dividend which we announced earlier this week. With this increase, we have raised our regular dividend by approximately 65% since the beginning of 2022, while continuing to meaningfully invest in the growth of our business. This is a reflection of our disciplined and balanced approach to capital allocation, our ongoing commitment to return capital to shareholders and the confidence we have in our future.

現金流持續強勁，今年迄今自由現金流成長近 12%，這使得我們本週稍早宣布的股息增加了 10%。隨著這一成長，我們自 2022 年初以來將定期股息提高了約 65%，同時繼續對我們的業務成長進行有意義的投資。這反映了我們嚴格且平衡的資本配置方法、我們對向股東返還資本的持續承諾以及我們對未來的信心。

Looking closer at the third quarter, our team executed exceptionally well and delivered Q3 revenue growth of 9% year-over-year, with organic growth of 7.7% at the high end of the 7% to 8% range we've discussed this year. We delivered good growth across each of our service offerings. In the third quarter, residential revenues increased 6.4%, commercial pest control rose 9.4%, and termite and ancillary increased by 14.5%. Organic growth was also healthy across the portfolio with growth of 4.9% in residential, 8.1% in commercial and 13.7% in the termite and ancillary area of our business.

仔細觀察第三季度，我們的團隊執行得非常好，第三季度營收年增 9%，有機成長 7.7%，處於我們今年討論的 7% 至 8% 範圍的高端。我們的每項服務都實現了良好的成長。第三季住宅收入成長6.4%，商業害蟲防治成長9.4%，白蟻及輔助成長14.5%。整個投資組合的有機成長也很健康，住宅業務成長了 4.9%，商業成長了 8.1%，白蟻及輔助領域成長了 13.7%。

Turning to profitability, our gross margins were 54%, up 20 basis points versus last year. We continue to be positive on the price cost equation. Pressures from incremental people investments were offset by leverage in materials and supplies as well as fleet. Quarterly adjusted SG&A cost as a percentage of revenue increased by 100 basis points versus last year. This was primarily driven by incremental investments in people to support our growth initiatives and the uptick in advertising spend that we expected and previously discussed during our Q2 earnings call.

就獲利能力而言，我們的毛利率為 54%，比去年增長了 20 個基點。我們繼續對價格成本等式持正面態度。人力投資增量帶來的壓力被材料、供應品以及車隊的槓桿作用所抵消。季度調整後的 SG&A 成本佔營收的百分比比去年增加了 100 個基點。這主要是由於為支持我們的成長計劃而對人員進行的增量投資以及我們預期和之前在第二季度財報電話會議中討論的廣告支出的增加所推動的。

Third quarter GAAP operating income was $192 million, up 8.3% year-over-year. Operating margins were 20.9%, down 20 basis points year-over-year. Third quarter adjusted EBITDA was $219 million, up over 5% and representing a 24% margin. Margins were down 80 basis points versus last year. And adjusted incremental EBITDA margins were 15.1% in the quarter, reflecting incremental investments in people and growth programs during the quarter.

第三季 GAAP 營業收入為 1.92 億美元，較去年同期成長 8.3%。營業利益率為 20.9%，較去年同期下降 20 個基點。第三季調整後 EBITDA 為 2.19 億美元，成長超過 5%，利潤率為 24%。利潤率比去年下降了 80 個基點。本季調整後的增量 EBITDA 利潤率為 15.1%，反映了本季對人員和成長計畫的增量投資。

The effective tax rate was approximately 26.1% in the quarter, and we continue to expect an ETR of approximately 26% for the year, which implies a rate that is just over 27% for the fourth quarter.

本季的有效稅率約為 26.1%，我們繼續預計今年的 ETR 約為 26%，這意味著第四季的稅率略高於 27%。

Quarterly GAAP net income was $137 million or $0.28 per share, increasing 7.7% from $0.26 per share in the same period a year ago. Accounting for certain non-GAAP adjustments, adjusted net income for the quarter was $140 million or $0.29 per share, increasing nearly 4% from the same period a year ago, despite a higher level of interest costs and the investments we are making in growth oriented initiatives. We remain on track to deliver healthy profitability for the full year, driven by solid growth and an improving margin profile. We continue to focus on driving further improvements, while investing in our business and capturing growth in our very attractive end markets.

季度 GAAP 淨利潤為 1.37 億美元，即每股 0.28 美元，比去年同期的每股 0.26 美元增長 7.7%。考慮到某些非公認會計準則調整後，儘管利息成本較高且我們正在以成長為導向進行投資，但本季調整後淨利潤為1.4 億美元，即每股0.29 美元，較去年同期增長近4 %倡議。在穩健成長和不斷改善的利潤率的推動下，我們仍有望實現全年健康的獲利能力。我們繼續專注於推動進一步改進，同時投資我們的業務並在極具吸引力的終端市場中實現成長。

Turning to cash flow and the balance sheet. Quarterly cash flow was $139 million, up a very healthy 16% versus last year. Free cash flow conversion was 102% for the quarter and 110% year-to-date. We made acquisitions totaling $24 million and we paid $73 million in dividends in the quarter. Year-to-date, we have made acquisitions of $106 million and returned $218 million to shareholders through our dividend.

轉向現金流和資產負債表。季度現金流為 1.39 億美元，比去年增長了 16%，非常健康。本季自由現金流轉換率為 102%，年初至今為 110%。我們在本季進行了總計 2,400 萬美元的收購，並支付了 7,300 萬美元的股息。今年迄今為止，我們已進行了 1.06 億美元的收購，並透過股息向股東返還了 2.18 億美元。

Additionally, we had just announced a 10% increase to our dividend earlier this week. This represents over two decades of consecutive increases in annual dividend payments. Debt to EBITDA leverage is well below one-time on a gross and net level. Our balance sheet is healthy and we are well positioned and committed to continue to maintain our balanced approach to capital allocation.

此外，本週稍早我們剛剛宣布將股息增加 10%。這代表了二十多年來年度股息支付的連續成長。從總水平和淨水平來看，債務與 EBITDA 的槓桿率遠低於一次性水平。我們的資產負債表健康，我們處於有利地位並致力於繼續保持平衡的資本配置方式。

In closing, we continue to focus on investing for growth, while executing on our continuous improvement and modernization initiatives. We are starting the last quarter of the year with healthy organic demand and we remain committed to investing in our people and providing our customers with the best customer experience.

最後，我們繼續專注於成長投資，同時執行我們的持續改進和現代化舉措。我們從今年最後一個季度開始就擁有健康的有機需求，我們仍然致力於投資我們的員工並為我們的客戶提供最佳的客戶體驗。

With that, I'll turn the call back over to Jerry.

這樣，我會將電話轉回給傑瑞。

Thank you, Ken. We're happy to take any questions at this time.

謝謝你，肯。我們很樂意此時回答任何問題。

We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

我們現在將進行問答環節。（操作員說明）

Tim Mulrooney, William Blair.

提姆·馬爾魯尼，威廉·布萊爾。

So residential organic, I wanted to ask about that. It's I guess, 5% year-to-date, still indicative of a healthy market. I recognize that, but maybe slightly below what we've seen over the last several years. So I'm just curious, how would you characterize the health of the consumer today? And could you maybe break that growth down between your recurring revenue stream and one-time sales?

所以住宅有機，我想問一下。我猜今年迄今為 5%，仍顯示市場健康。我認識到這一點，但可能略低於我們過去幾年所看到的情況。所以我很好奇，您如何描述當今消費者的健康狀況？您能否將這種成長分解為經常性收入流和一次性銷售？

We appreciate that. When we dive in and we look at the overall growth of the business, we continue to remain very optimistic, very confident in our outlook. We talked about 7% to 8%. We delivered 7.7% here in the quarter and 7.7% organic growth year-to-date. When you look closer at the residential business, it's an area that we're also pretty pleased with the performance, especially when we look at the recurring revenue in the business.

我們對此表示讚賞。當我們深入研究業務的整體成長時，我們仍然對我們的前景保持非常樂觀和充滿信心。我們談到了 7% 到 8%。我們本季實現了 7.7% 的成長，今年迄今實現了 7.7% 的有機成長。當你仔細觀察住宅業務時，我們對這個領域的表現也非常滿意，特別是當我們專注於該業務的經常性收入時。

Back in September, we spoke on a public webcast and talked about the fact that we were seeing 6% plus recurring revenue growth coming through the residential sector. And that's where we finished. That's where we've been for the better part of the year. And so, we're pretty pleased with that level of recurring revenue growth, especially in the residential sector.

早在 9 月份，我們就在公共網路廣播中談到了這樣一個事實：我們看到住宅領域的經常性收入增加了 6% 以上。這就是我們完成的地方。這就是我們今年大部分時間都待在那裡的地方。因此，我們對經常性收入的成長水準非常滿意，尤其是在住宅領域。

When I look at the business in the quarter, Jerry pointed out the fact that, unfortunately, we all had to deal with the effects of the hurricane late in the quarter.

當我審視本季的業務時，傑瑞指出，不幸的是，我們都必須在本季結束時應對颶風的影響。

But if you set that aside and you look at what happened as a result of that hurricane, it probably had about a $2 million or so impact on revenue growth. And so we would have probably delivered organic growth that would have been slightly higher than the 7.7%, closer to the high end, the 8% that we have talked about in the business. So overall, we remain very pleased with the performance. The team is doing an exceptional job at delivering yet another quarter.

但如果你把這個放在一邊，看看颶風造成的後果，你會發現它可能對收入成長產生了約 200 萬美元左右的影響。因此，我們可能會實現略高於 7.7% 的有機成長，更接近高端，即我們在業務中討論的 8%。總的來說，我們對錶現仍然非常滿意。該團隊在又一個季度的表現上表現出色。

And the health of the residential consumer does appear still strong to us. We see good growth in termite and ancillary, a good acceptance of our cross-sell campaigns and other things. So if there's anything that's been more inconsistent, it's the onetime piece. And the residential recurring, that's what we're really investing in with marketing, trying to drive quality leads. That's what we invest in with door-to-door and any other type of channel that we go to is to try to create recurring revenue streams. And the investments we made in the third quarter will pay off for us in the fourth quarter and the first quarter of next year as our customer base is bigger as we head into the back end of the year.

在我們看來，住宅消費者的健康狀況確實仍然強勁。我們看到白蟻和輔助產品的良好成長，我們的交叉銷售活動和其他方面的良好接受。因此，如果有什麼更不一致的話，那就是一次性的作品。住宅重複出現，這就是我們真正在行銷上投資的內容，試圖推動高品質的銷售線索。這就是我們透過挨家挨戶進行投資的目的，而我們所採用的任何其他類型的管道都是為了嘗試創造經常性收入流。我們在第三季所做的投資將在第四季和明年第一季為我們帶來回報，因為隨著我們進入年底，我們的客戶群會更大。

That's a lot of helpful color. I'm just going to switch gears really quickly because, Ken, I think I remember having a conversation with you a couple of months ago about really like when you're looking at incremental margins, you're really trying to hit that in that target range, not any particular quarter but more, like, if you look at it on an LTM basis, right? So that's kind of how we're analyzing the business, thinking about it from that standpoint.

這是很多有用的顏色。我會很快改變立場，因為，肯，我想我記得幾個月前和你有過一次談話，當你考慮增量利潤時，你真的很努力在那個方面實現這一點目標範圍，不是任何特定的季度，而是更多，例如，如果你以LTM 為基礎來看待它，對嗎？這就是我們分析業務的方式，從這個角度思考它。

So I guess my question is, if we look at incremental margins on an LTM basis, do you expect them to be essentially in line with your target range for the full year this year? Or might that be different given the incremental investments?

所以我想我的問題是，如果我們以 LTM 為基礎來看待增量利潤，您是否預計它們基本上符合您今年全年的目標範圍？或者考慮到增量投資，情況可能會有所不同？

We continue to remain confident in our outlook on incremental margins. With a business that's generating gross margins of 54%, we feel like the contribution or the incremental margins should be approximating that 30% level. And in fact, when you look at the quarter and you peel back the performance, you unpack the performance a little bit and look at it a little bit closer, what you see is that we spent more in selling and marketing.

我們對增量利潤的前景仍然充滿信心。對於毛利率為 54% 的業務，我們認為貢獻或增量利潤應該接近 30% 的水平。事實上，當你看這個季度並剝離業績時，你稍微解開業績並仔細觀察它，你會發現我們在銷售和營銷方面花費了更多。

We saw an opportunity in a very attractive growth market to invest and grow our businesses, and just alluding to what Jerry just spoke about. So we spent a little bit more there. If you set that aside, along with some of the investments we made on the tech side to accelerate the start rate that we have in our business, you'd see an incremental margin that would be right around 30% here in the quarter. So we continue to remain confident in our ability to deliver 30% plus incremental margins longer term.

我們在一個非常有吸引力的成長市場中看到了投資和發展我們業務的機會，這只是暗示傑瑞剛才所說的。所以我們在那裡多花了一點錢。如果你把這一點放在一邊，再加上我們在技術方面為加快業務啟動率而進行的一些投資，你會看到本季的增量利潤率約為 30%。因此，我們繼續對長期實現 30% 以上增量利潤的能力充滿信心。

Yeah, this quarter is more of a timing issue more than anything as we indicated at the end of Q2.

是的，正如我們在第二季末指出的那樣，本季更多的是一個時間問題。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Toni Kaplan, Morgan Stanley.

東尼卡普蘭，摩根士丹利。

I also wanted to ask about margin. You mentioned the growth investments in hiring more people. Should we expect further investment in future quarters? Or was this more of a catch up to where you want to be? And just if you could talk about which segments you're investing in and most of that would be the best.

我還想問一下關於保證金的問題。您提到了僱用更多員工的成長投資。我們是否應該期待未來幾季的進一步投資？或者這更能趕上你想要達到的目標？如果你能談談你正在投資哪些細分市場，其中大部分將是最好的。

Sure. When we look at the investments, this is a growth business. It's a growth market. We continue to see great growth opportunities. So we're going to continue to invest in the business. When I go back and unpack the investments we made this quarter, I would look at them through two or three lenses. One is on our service side and our service technicians. Because we know the importance of getting out and starting our lead -- getting our leads converted into starts, we have certainly invested in the service side of our business. That's probably about a 30 basis point headwind on gross margins in the quarter.

當然。當我們審視投資時，這是一項成長型業務。這是一個成長的市場。我們繼續看到巨大的成長機會。因此，我們將繼續投資該業務。當我回去分析我們本季所做的投資時，我會透過兩個或三個鏡頭來審視它們。一是我們的服務端和我們的服務技術人員。因為我們知道走出去並開始我們的銷售線索的重要性——將我們的銷售線索轉化為開始，所以我們當然在我們業務的服務方面進行了投資。這可能會導致本季毛利率下降約 30 個基點。

The second area that we made investments here is in our sales and our sales engine and our sales people. We've talked about the fact that our commercial business remains a very important area of our business combined with our residential. And so, we're investing disproportionately in the sales end of our business and you saw that come through along with the increased advertising spend that we had here in the quarter to the tune of about 100 basis points. So you probably don't expect that level of investment every single quarter, but you're going to see us invest in this business following the various strategic initiatives that we talked about back at our Investor Day back in May.

我們在這裡投資的第二個領域是我們的銷售、銷售引擎和銷售人員。我們已經討論過這樣一個事實，即我們的商業業務仍然是我們與住宅業務相結合的非常重要的領域。因此，我們在業務的銷售端進行了不成比例的投資，您可以看到，隨著本季廣告支出的增加，我們的廣告支出增加了約 100 個基點。因此，您可能不會期望每個季度都有這樣的投資水平，但您會看到我們按照我們在五月份投資者日討論的各種策略舉措對該業務進行投資。

And to add a little color to that when I look back at Q3 of 2023 compared to 2024 on our staffing levels, just thinking -- just peeling back, just working itself. You think on the commercial side, we are looking at the data to say, hey, where do we have adequate coverage given the market and we're going to continue to invest where that opportunity is there. If it gets difficult to scale or the data sets that we've got good penetrated -- the penetration that we need and we have the right people in the right places for where the opportunities are that will certainly slow down. But we'll let the data and then how we're doing operationally from a scalability standpoint will help us dictate that.

當我回顧 2023 年第三季與 2024 年的人員配置水準相比時，我會想，只是想——只是剝離，只是工作本身。你認為在商業方面，我們正在研究數據，嘿，考慮到市場，我們在哪裡有足夠的覆蓋範圍，我們將繼續在有機會的地方進行投資。如果擴展變得困難，或者我們已經很好地滲透的數據集變得困難——我們需要的滲透以及我們在合適的地方擁有合適的人來抓住機會，那麼肯定會放緩。但我們會讓數據以及我們從可擴展性角度進行操作的方式將幫助我們決定這一點。

And then on the residential side, selling termite, cross-sell, ancillary business, those kinds of things that staffing is up double-digits just like the commercial side is as we continue to make those investments there. And the opportunities there, the consumer is taking the services and buying the services, as you see in our results. And we find that to be a very worthwhile investment and we'll continue to do that so long as the market holds it.

然後在住宅方面，銷售白蟻、交叉銷售、輔助業務等，人員配備以兩位數增長，就像商業方面一樣，我們繼續在那裡進行這些投資。正如您在我們的結果中看到的那樣，消費者正在接受服務並購買服務。我們發現這是一項非常值得的投資，只要市場保持穩定，我們就會繼續這樣做。

And I wanted to ask about pricing as we approach the end of the year and thinking about your strategy into next year. I think we've been in a little bit of a unique environment in the last couple of years in terms of we had the inflation and then it's been cooling. So I know we've been a little bit on the higher side on price in the past couple of years. Do you see that sort of higher-than-normal price level of increases continuing into 2025 when you're looking at your data and stuff like that? Just how are you thinking about it?

當我們接近年底時，我想詢問定價問題，並考慮你們明年的策略。我認為過去幾年我們一直處於一個獨特的環境中，先是經歷了通貨膨脹，然後又開始降溫。所以我知道過去幾年我們的價格有點偏高。當您查看數據和類似數據時，您是否發現這種高於正常水平的價格上漲會持續到 2025 年？你想得怎麼樣？

So Ken and I just recently spent hours in a room together reviewing those data from our price increase results this year, and there's not been anything in there that -- in the data from what we see and what we understand about the consumer that scares us off of continuing to get a fair price for our service. And if we're doing a good job, we should reward -- be rewarded for that, and our technicians in the field should be rewarded for that as well. So we've not seen anything in the data that would cause us to change course from anything that we've already indicated to you.

因此，肯和我最近在一個房間裡花了幾個小時一起審查今年價格上漲結果中的數據，從我們所看到的和我們對消費者的了解中得到的數據中，沒有任何東西讓我們感到害怕繼續為我們的服務獲得公平的價格。如果我們做得很好，我們應該獎勵——因此而獲得獎勵，我們在該領域的技術人員也應該因此而獲得獎勵。因此，我們在數據中沒有看到任何會導致我們改變我們已經向您指示的任何內容的內容。

Both internally but also externally. When you look at CPI, we've consistently talked about CPI plus level of pricing. And CPI coming back roughly 2.5% recently gives us no reason to step back on the pricing and pare that back. We feel like this is an essential service and we should be able to be rewarded. And we should be able to reward our service technicians with the pricing that we've seen in the last couple of years.

既是內部的，也是外部的。當你看 CPI 時，我們一直在談論 CPI 加上定價水準。CPI 最近回升了約 2.5%，這讓我們沒有理由放棄定價並削減價格。我們覺得這是一項重要的服務，我們應該要能夠獲得獎勵。我們應該能夠以過去幾年的價格來獎勵我們的服務技術人員。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Jason Haas, Wells Fargo.

傑森‧哈斯，富國銀行。

This is [Aude Ashkar] on for Jason Hass. I wanted to ask on the commercial side. Just any update there in terms of the strategy around splitting the brands and adding to the sales force? I think there's eventual plans to create a second division. And can you just remind us there of the margin opportunity being able to capitalize on multiple branches across a single digital media channel?

我是 Jason Hass 的 [Aude Ashkar]。我想問一下商業方面的問題。關於分割品牌和增加銷售團隊的策略有什麼更新嗎？我認為最終計劃創建第二分區。您能否提醒我們能夠透過單一數位媒體管道利用多個分公司的利潤機會？

Yeah. We still continue to have a pretty long runway on the commercial side and how we structure that business, how we open new branches. And to your point about opening another division, those types of things, we're still in -- probably in the first two or three innings of what's possible there on the commercial side, and we're going to continue to invest in those opportunities. And even from a margin standpoint, the commercial side tends to drive some stickier customer base and just -- and a very appealing margin opportunity there as well on that side of the business. So we see nothing but good things from the future on that commercial strategy. And we're just, like I said, still in the early stages.

是的。在商業方面，以及我們如何建立業務、如何開設新分支機構，我們仍然有很長的路要走。至於你關於開設另一個部門的觀點，這些類型的事情，我們仍然處於——可能在商業方面可能發生的前兩到三局中，我們將繼續投資於這些機會。即使從利潤的角度來看，商業方面也往往會帶來一些更黏性的客戶群，而且在業務方面也有一個非常有吸引力的利潤機會。因此，我們在這項商業策略上只看到了未來的美好前景。正如我所說，我們仍處於早期階段。

And then just if you can maybe talk about the trends you're seeing in commercial between the national accounts and the SMEs. And just wondering of your guys take on advertising for SMEs relative to the resi side of the business, maybe differences or similarities that you would call out there?

然後您可以談談您在國民帳戶和中小企業之間的商業中看到的趨勢嗎？只是想知道你們的人員為中小企業做廣告相對於該業務而言，也許您會指出其中的差異或相似之處？

I don't think there's been anything -- any sort of significant shift in that space how -- from a competitive standpoint. I think we've been making a more conservative effort, especially within the Orkin brand to focus on the commercial side and our marketing strategy there. And we've allocated more dollars into the commercial space ourselves to do that. But I don't think there's been any significant shift in the competitive environment or anything along those lines from an advertising standpoint or a go-to-market strategy that we've seen.

從競爭的角度來看，我認為該領域沒有任何重大轉變。我認為我們一直在做出更保守的努力，特別是在 Orkin 品牌內，重點是商業方面和我們的行銷策略。為此，我們自己在商業領域投入了更多資金。但我認為，從廣告的角度或我們所看到的進入市場策略來看，競爭環境或類似的事情沒有任何重大轉變。

The team continues to do well. Scott Weaver is heading up our business in Orkin in the commercial side and we're seeing nice results there. But also I was just talking to our business leader, Rob Quinn yesterday up in Canada, and he's talking about the good performance we're seeing coming out of our Canadian commercial business.

球隊繼續表現出色。斯科特·韋弗 (Scott Weaver) 負責領導我們在奧金的商業業務，我們在那裡看到了不錯的成果。而且我昨天剛在加拿大與我們的商業領袖 Rob Quinn 交談，他正在談論我們看到的加拿大商業業務的良好表現。

Mostly a commercial business.

主要是商業業務。

Substantially all commercial. And so really good results across both of those markets.

基本上都是商業化的。這兩個市場都取得了非常好的結果。

Ashish Sabadra, RBC Capital Markets.

Ashish Sabadra，加拿大皇家銀行資本市場。

This is David Paige on for Ashish. Congrats on the good results. A question on termite and ancillary or just other maybe untapped potential in the residential space that you -- I guess, that the company is looking to capitalize outside of the current operators that you have.

我是阿什什的大衛·佩奇。恭喜取得好成績。關於白蟻和輔助設施或住宅空間中其他可能尚未開發的潛力的問題，我想，該公司正在尋求在現有營運商之外進行資本化。

Yeah. We're always looking for new services and new opportunities in and around the home that we can maybe expand to. And some of those are geographic in nature based on construction type of the house or certain types of pests and things like that. So there haven't been anything -- there's nothing revolutionary that we've seen other than the continuation of adding more sales staff to increase the number of customers with more than one service for us. And that's why we continue to be so successful adding our home sales inspectors to offer those types of ancillary services.

是的。我們一直在尋找我們可以擴展到的家庭內部和周圍的新服務和新機會。其中一些本質上是基於房屋的建築類型或某些類型的害蟲等的地理特徵。因此，除了繼續增加更多的銷售人員以增加為我們提供不只一項服務的客戶數量之外，我們沒有看到任何革命性的事情。這就是為什麼我們繼續如此成功地增加我們的房屋銷售檢查員來提供這些類型的輔助服務。

And another great opportunity is selling more recurring termite. We have a lot of customers that have pest control that don't have termite control that we can continue to offer that service to through cross-marketing, cross-selling campaigns. So we're pretty good at sticking to what works. There's so much opportunity there and we're just continuing to invest and drive that part of the business.

另一個很好的機會是出售更多的白蟻。我們有許多進行了害蟲防治但沒有進行白蟻防治的客戶，我們可以透過交叉行銷、交叉銷售活動繼續向其提供該服務。所以我們非常擅長堅持有效的做法。那裡有很多機會，我們只是繼續投資並推動這部分業務。

And just a follow-up on in terms of inorganic investment, given the robust free cash generation, the low debt leverage. Anything we should keep in mind for there in terms of verticals or geographies that you'd be targeting?

鑑於強勁的自由現金產生和較低的債務槓桿，這只是無機投資的後續行動。就您的目標垂直行業或地理位置而言，我們應該記住什麼？

No, nothing noteworthy there other than we're going to continue to deploy capital and M&A. We continue to have a focus on delivering 2% to 3% of revenue growth from M&A each year. Markets remain very healthy, an incredibly attractive market, so you certainly do have competition from time to time. But we've been able to separate ourselves by how we treat the acquisitions that we bring into the fold and how we treat the teams and the brands. And that's a meaningful difference for us in our markets. But in terms of new markets, we see so much opportunity. It's such a fragmented, such a large and growing market, the pest control market that we're going to continue to remain committed to that area.

不，除了我們將繼續部署資本和併購之外，沒有什麼值得注意的。我們持續致力於每年透過併購實現 2% 至 3% 的營收成長。市場仍然非常健康，是一個極具吸引力的市場，因此確實時不時就會出現競爭。但我們已經能夠透過我們如何對待我們納入的收購以及我們如何對待團隊和品牌來區分自己。這對我們的市場來說是一個有意義的差異。但就新市場而言，我們看到了許多機會。這是一個如此分散、如此龐大且不斷成長的市場，害蟲防治市場我們將繼續致力於這個領域。

Thank you.

謝謝。

George Tong, Goldman Sachs.

喬治唐，高盛。

You mentioned seeing disruptions to operations from Hurricane Helene during the last week of the quarter. Can you discuss which parts of the business this impacted the most and whether you expect any spillover effect in 4Q?

您提到本季最後一週颶風海倫對營運造成了乾擾。您能否討論一下這對業務的哪些部分影響最大？

So it was really the -- obviously, the Southeast United States, the coastal areas of Florida where we have a strong presence, both in the Orkin brands as well as brands like HomeTeam in Northwest, all up the West Coast of Florida and parts of the East Coast of Florida too as that storm had pushed through and had tornadoes in the southeast and central part of the Eastern Coast of Florida. So there was a lot going on there.

因此，顯然，我們在美國東南部、佛羅裡達州沿海地區擁有強大的影響力，無論是 Orkin 品牌還是西北地區的 HomeTeam 等品牌，都位於佛羅裡達州西海岸和部分地區。風暴已經過去，並在佛羅裡達州東海岸的東南部和中部地區產生了龍捲風。所以那裡發生了很多事情。

We had a lot of branch closures for several days. We focus on making sure we are prepared for the storms as they're coming and letting our people prepare. We know that the more people prepare, the faster we can respond and get back to work if people are in a good place themselves. So we had a lot of branch closures for several days. We got back up on our feet after Helene. And then Wham, you get another one that caused significantly more challenges.

我們有很多分行關閉了好幾天。我們專注於確保我們為即將到來的風暴做好準備，並讓我們的員工做好準備。我們知道，準備的人越多，如果人們本身處於良好狀態，我們就能更快地做出反應並恢復工作。因此，我們有很多分支機構關閉了好幾天。在海倫之後我們又重新站了起來。然後威猛，你又得到了另一個帶來更多挑戰的挑戰。

Talking to our people in the field, number one, it happened very early in the quarter, in the fourth quarter. So it gives us plenty of time to respond and recover. I'm sure there will be some customer losses along the coastal -- the immediate coast. But I don't think that's anything too severe that we can't recover from. We've looked at our forecast for October and the future and there's really nothing there, Ken that we've seen in the Southeast U.S. that gives us a lot of pause about the fourth quarter, is there?

與我們在該領域的人員交談，第一，這發生在本季度早些時候，即第四季度。因此，這給了我們充足的時間來應對和恢復。我確信沿海地區（即近海岸）將會有一些客戶流失。但我認為這並不是什麼嚴重到我們無法恢復的事情。我們已經查看了對 10 月和未來的預測，肯，我們在美國東南部看到的情況確實沒有什麼讓我們對第四季度有很多猶豫，是嗎？

No, not the outlook. Not really impacting the outlook all that much. But the quarter, you look at Southeast, it was probably one of the slower growing regions in the quarter because of the hurricane impact late in the quarter. To the earlier question we had on the call, I do think that if we did not have the impact of that hurricane the last couple of days, we probably would have seen organic growth even stronger coming through as opposed to the 7.7%.

不，不是前景。並沒有真正影響前景那麼多。但本季度，你看看東南部，由於本季末的颶風影響，它可能是本季成長較慢的地區之一。對於我們之前在電話會議中提出的問題，我確實認為，如果過去幾天我們沒有受到那場颶風的影響，我們可能會看到比 7.7% 更強勁的有機增長。

So it did impact us. But as we think about the outlook, we feel like, as Jerry said, we have enough time here left in this quarter to make up for what we had in October.

所以它確實影響了我們。但當我們考慮前景時，正如傑瑞所說，我們覺得本季還有足夠的時間來彌補 10 月的情況。

And then as it relates to your growth investments, can you elaborate on what you saw this quarter that prompted you to step up the spend? How would you assess the possibility that growth investments will remain elevated at 3Q levels going forward if market conditions support it?

然後，由於這與您的成長投資有關，您能否詳細說明本季看到的促使您增加支出的原因？如果市場條件支援的話，您如何評估成長型投資在第三季繼續保持較高水準的可能性？

I think the thing that gave us the most hope was the fact that we were seeing 8% organic growth coming through. Leads were strong. Market was very healthy. So we continue to see that, and it's provided Jerry and I and the business leaders, Pat and Stanford, the level of confidence to invest. And it's not that we're investing in every single one of our brands at the same pace, but we did certainly were able to identify certain areas and make more significant investments in certain areas.

我認為最讓我們充滿希望的是我們看到了 8% 的有機成長。領先優勢很強。市場非常健康。因此，我們繼續看到這一點，這為傑瑞和我以及商界領袖帕特和史丹佛提供了投資的信心。這並不是說我們以相同的速度投資於我們的每一個品牌，但我們確實能夠確定某些領域並在某些領域進行更重大的投資。

And so that's really what came through. As far as the outlook and next steps go, yes, we're going to -- we can't say what pace we're going to invest in at this point, but we certainly are going to continue to invest. We firmly believe this is a growth market. This is a growth opportunity. And in order to be most successful, we've got to invest in our people and capturing additional customers.

這就是真正發生的事情。就前景和後續步驟而言，是的，我們將——我們目前無法說出我們將以什麼速度進行投資，但我們肯定會繼續投資。我們堅信這是一個成長的市場。這是一個成長機會。為了取得最大的成功，我們必須投資我們的員工並吸引更多的客戶。

And I think part of the algorithm is that you want to acquire customers in the second and third quarter, build your base. Because the phones aren't ringing near as much in the fourth quarter and the first quarter as they do in peak season. So in Q2, Q3 is where you grow your recurring customer base and that's your bread and butter as you go into the fourth quarter and in the first quarter of 2025, is having a significantly higher customer base in which to serve. That -- and so that makes me very comfortable with the outlook knowing the customer base is healthy and strong.

我認為演算法的一部分是你想在第二季和第三季獲得客戶，建立你的基礎。因為第四季和第一季的電話鈴聲沒有旺季那麼多。因此，在第二季、第三季度，您可以擴大經常性客戶群，這是您進入第四季度和 2025 年第一季時的主要收入來源，需要服務的客戶群明顯更高。這讓我對前景感到非常滿意，因為我知道客戶群是健康且強大的。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Aadit Shrestha, Stifel.

阿迪特·什雷斯塔，斯蒂菲爾。

Just going back to sort of the price. How did price cost spread trend in 3Q '24 versus, let's say, 2Q '24? And on a recurring basis, what sort of margin expansion would you expect from just that spread alone? And would you expect a similar trend in FY'25?

只是回到價格排序。與 2024 年第二季相比，2024 年第三季的價格成本分佈趨勢如何？在經常性的基礎上，您期望僅從該利差中獲得什麼樣的利潤擴張？您預計 25 財年也會出現類似的趨勢嗎？

Hard to say what 2025 will be at this point just yet in terms of margin opportunity and spread. But when you're getting 3% to 4% price increase in this business, you should see margins improve. If I look at the quarter and I unpacked the quarter, we had 20 basis points of improvement in gross margin. But we invested 30 basis points in our service area. So when you set that aside, you had about 50 basis points of leverage coming through in the quarter in gross margin. It was good to see. And we're hopeful that we'll be able to continue to deliver that pace of improvement going forward. But you know as well as I do that from a quarter-to-quarter basis, things can shift.

目前還很難說 2025 年的獲利機會和利差會怎麼樣。但當這項業務的價格上漲 3% 到 4% 時，您應該會看到利潤率提高。如果我查看本季並分析本季度，我們的毛利率提高了 20 個基點。但我們在服務領域投資了 30 個基點。因此，當你拋開這一點時，本季的毛利率大約有 50 個基點的槓桿作用。很高興看到。我們希望未來能夠繼續保持這種改進速度。但你和我一樣知道，每個季度情況都會改變。

And just a follow-up. Commercial growth has been pretty strong because of the investments you've been making. And do you see this sort of as high single-digits growth -- organic growth in 2025 as well, just because of what you've done already. And the sales and sort of ad spend that you've been investing into that business?

只是後續行動。由於您一直以來的投資，商業成長相當強勁。您是否認為 2025 年會出現如此高的個位數增長 - 有機增長，僅僅是因為您已經做了什麼？您對該業務的銷售額和廣告支出是多少？

I think to answer that question, we would look at what we communicated at Investor Day back in May. And really our plan and our hope is to see commercial business grow at a faster rate than our overall business. You might see resi a little bit slower from time to time, but your overall commercial business should be accretive to the overall organic growth profile of the business as we think about the near-term and the investments we're making.

我認為要回答這個問題，我們需要看看我們在五月投資者日所傳達的內容。事實上，我們的計劃和希望是看到商業業務以比我們整體業務更快的速度成長。您可能會不時看到 Resi 速度稍慢一些，但當我們考慮近期和我們正在進行的投資時，您的整體商業業務應該會促進業務的整體有機成長。

Thank you. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝。（操作員說明）

Josh Chan, UBS.

喬許陳，瑞銀。

[Jerry Kanlindsey] here. In terms of your decision to hire people at this juncture of the year, could you just talk about the timing? Were you trying to address a little bit of a shortage? Or are you trying to get people time to ramp up for next season? Just maybe unpack the timing of the hiring that would be great.

[傑瑞·坎林賽]在這裡。就您在今年這個時候決定聘用人員而言，您能談談具體時間嗎？您是否試圖解決一點短缺問題？或者你想讓人們有時間為下個賽季做好準備嗎？也許只是解開招募的時機，那就太好了。

Yeah. So I don't -- when you think about from a sales staffing, are you talking more on the sales staffing or the technician front?

是的。所以我不認為——當你考慮銷售人員配置時，你會更多地談論銷售人員配置還是技術人員配置？

Yeah. It sounds like you invested in both, so would be curious your thoughts on kind of hiring people in the third quarter as opposed to maybe in the spring, something like that.

是的。聽起來你對兩者都進行了投資，所以我很好奇你對在第三季度而不是在春季招聘員工的想法，類似的事情。

Yeah. So if you have the right amount of growth and you have route splits and branch openings and things like that, that were -- and you're trying to maintain the right balance of the number of customers on, say, a service technician's route, things like that, we'll always add. And usually, that's that could occur toward -- more towards the end of season, in the third quarter where we do route splits and things along those lines. And that's the right time to add those customers -- or add those technicians.

是的。因此，如果你有適當的成長，並且你有路線分割和分支機構開設以及類似的事情，那麼你正在努力保持客戶數量的適當平衡，比如說，服務技術人員的路線，諸如此類的事情，我們總是會添加。通常，這可能會發生在賽季結束時，在第三季度，我們會進行路線分割和沿著這些路線進行的事情。現在是增加這些客戶或添加這些技術人員的正確時機。

On the sales side, we have over the last several years taken and hired really year-round and continuing to. What we're cognizant of is one of the things I mentioned, is like how fast can you scale, how fast can you train the right amount. So we're trying to take a balanced approach rather than hiring a bunch of onetime a year, trying to train. Let's say, it's easier to train 20 people in a class that you have four, five classes a year and you're adding 100 than it is to try to add 60 in a quarter and ramp it up and because your success rate of hiring 60 versus hiring 20 and putting the time and attention to them in that you need is a little more challenging.

在銷售方面，我們在過去的幾年裡一直在全年招聘和僱用，並將繼續這樣做。我們所認識到的是我提到的事情之一，例如你能多快擴展，你能多快訓練適量。因此，我們試圖採取一種平衡的方法，而不是每年只僱用一批人來進行培訓。比方說，在一個班級中培訓 20 個人，每年有四、五個班級，並且增加 100 人，這比嘗試在一個季度內增加 60 人並逐步增加要容易得多，因為你僱用 60 人的成功率與僱用20 名員工並投入時間和精力來滿足您的需求相比，這更具挑戰性。

So we've taken a more balanced approach to how we onboard and how we time those hires and add strategically over time. And that means we will be making hires throughout the year. I will say generally speaking, though, when we get into the fourth quarter, we do tend to -- especially on home sales inspectors on the residential side, there's a lot less of that hiring. It will usually begin again in the January, February timeframe before we head in the season. While on the commercial side, it's a little bit more of a year-round type of event.

因此，我們對如何入職、如何安排招募時間以及如何隨著時間的推移進行策略性招募採取了更加平衡的方法。這意味著我們將全年進行招募。不過，我想說的是，一般來說，當我們進入第四季度時，我們確實傾向於——特別是在住宅方面的房屋銷售檢查員方面，招聘量會減少很多。通常會在我們進入季節之前的一月、二月時間範圍內再次開始。從商業角度來看，這更像是一場全年舉辦的活動。

It's interesting you say that and you finish with that, Jerry, because if you just look at the quarter, what we saw was we gained leverage in those areas in September. And so more of our significant -- more significant investments were made in July and August. We didn't see as much investment coming through in September as you did earlier in the third quarter.

有趣的是，你這麼說，然後你就結束了，傑瑞，因為如果你只看這個季度，我們看到的是我們在 9 月在這些領域獲得了影響力。因此，我們在 7 月和 8 月進行了更多重要的投資。我們認為 9 月的投資沒有第三季早些時候那麼多。

That's a good point, Ken, because a lot of that in the quarter was very front-end loaded in the early part of Q3. And then we kind of wind it down, yes.

肯，這是一個很好的觀點，因為本季的許多內容在第三季的早期都是前端加載的。然後我們就結束了，是的。

And then on the advertising spending, do you track kind of the returns on advertising? Some returns metric related to advertising spend? And could you talk about whether those metrics have kind of changed over the last, call it, 6 to 12 months or so?

然後在廣告支出方面，您是否追蹤廣告回報？一些與廣告支出相關的回報指標？您能否談談這些指標在過去 6 到 12 個月左右是否發生了變化？

Yeah. We do measure return on ad spend or roll off. That's a key metric. And that's what makes the -- and particular in the digital channel, so dynamic and where if you look at Q2, when we spent a little less. You're looking at the market, you're looking at the cost to drive the leads in the digital space and you're making adjustments. You may decide to hold off. You may have -- maybe there's some local regional competitors doing some things, and you just say, hey, I'm going to back off for a little while and wait for this to settle down.

是的。我們確實衡量廣告支出的回報或滾動。這是一個關鍵指標。這就是為什麼——特別是在數位管道中，如此充滿活力，如果你看看第二季度，我們的支出會減少一些。你正在關注市場，你正在關注推動數位領域領先地位的成本，並且你正在做出調整。你可能決定推遲。你可能——也許有一些當地的區域競爭對手在做一些事情，你只是說，嘿，我要退出一段時間，等待這件事穩定下來。

And then we're going to -- and then you're going to invest a little bit more a little later in the season and into the third quarter where you can drive lower cost of customer acquisition on a better return on your ad spend. So we're always looking at that. And we have been able to manage those costs pretty well to that point too of -- well, again, I know we've said this like a broken record, but we're still going to continue to be disciplined in our advertising spend such that as a percent of revenue, say, on the Orkin brand, they're going to spend as a percent of revenue a very similar amount as a percent of revenue that we have been committed to for years that amount.

然後我們將在本季稍後和第三季進行更多投資，這樣您就可以降低客戶獲取成本，從而獲得更好的廣告支出回報。所以我們一直在關注這一點。到目前為止，我們也能夠很好地管理這些成本——嗯，再說一次，我知道我們說這就像打破記錄，但我們仍然會繼續嚴格控制我們的廣告支出，例如就收入的百分比而言，例如，在Orkin 品牌上，他們將花費與我們多年來承諾的收入百分比非常相似的金額。

So it's a little more in dollars year-to-year as the business grows. But in order to do that, we've got to do -- we've always got to strive to do more with those dollars, acquire customers at a lower cost. So that's a metric that -- return on that spend is a metric that our team is very focused on and makes decisions behind.

因此，隨著業務的成長，美元的價值每年都會增加一些。但為了做到這一點，我們必須努力用這些錢做更多的事情，以更低的成本獲取客戶。因此，這是一個指標——支出回報是我們團隊非常關注並做出決策的指標。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Stephanie Moore, Jefferies.

史蒂芬妮·摩爾，杰弗里斯。

This is Peter Sullvian calling for Stephanie Moore. I was just curious, I know you guys talked a little bit about modernization of SG&A expenses, specifically M&A expenses in 2Q. I'm curious if you could give a little bit more context on how those cost-cutting initiatives are developing and the progress you guys are making.

我是彼得·蘇爾維安 (Peter Sullvian) 給斯蒂芬妮·摩爾 (Stephanie Moore) 打電話。我只是很好奇，我知道你們談到了 SG&A 費用的現代化，特別是第二季的併購費用。我很好奇您能否提供更多背景信息，說明這些成本削減計劃的進展情況以及您正在取得的進展。

Yeah, we continue to make good progress. When you look at the earnings presentation, you'll see that the administrative side continues to improve. And so as a percentage of sales, we continue to see slight improvements in that area. We're pretty pleased with it in terms of the performance. But we continue to look at ways that we can continue to invest in the modernization of our business. And so -- but overall, we're pretty happy with the returns we've seen on the restructuring dollars we spent a little over a year ago now.

是的，我們繼續取得良好進展。當您查看收益報告時，您會發現管理方面持續改善。因此，從銷售額的百分比來看，我們繼續看到該領域略有改善。我們對它的性能非常滿意。但我們仍在繼續尋找可以繼續投資於業務現代化的方法。所以，但總的來說，我們對一年多前花費的重組資金所獲得的回報感到非常滿意。

Oliver Davies, Redburn Atlantic.

奧利佛戴維斯，《雷德伯恩大西洋》。

Just thinking into next year, and I guess given the investments you've made, would it be fair to assume you'd expect organic growth to kind of accelerate from the 7% to 8% range? Or is it kind of becoming more costly to maintain those above market growth rates?

考慮到明年，我想考慮到您所做的投資，假設您期望有機成長從 7% 加速到 8% 是否公平？或者維持高於市場成長率的成本會變得更高？

It's -- I'm not sure if it's a question or a comment. But from a standpoint of our organic growth of 7% to 8%, we're pretty happy with that level of growth, especially when you look at the quarter and you're trending closer to 8% as opposed to 7%. I'm pretty happy with the returns we're seeing. I'm not sure that we're ready to sign up for increased growth going into next year. But we're pretty happy with the pace of growth we're seeing in the business.

這是——我不確定這是一個問題還是一條評論。但從我們 7% 到 8% 的有機成長的角度來看，我們對這種成長水準非常滿意，尤其是當你查看本季時，你會發現成長趨勢接近 8%，而不是 7%。我對我們所看到的回報非常滿意。我不確定我們是否已準備好迎接明年的成長。但我們對業務的成長速度感到非常滿意。

And I wouldn't think that achieving those levels of growth should cost us more to drive that growth. I don't see that there's some sort of increase in advertising or selling expense that we would anticipate at this point that would need to be invested in the business in order to maintain those rates.

我不認為實現這些成長水準應該讓我們花費更多的成本來推動這種成長。我沒有看到我們目前預計需要對業務進行投資以維持這些利率的廣告或銷售費用會出現某種形式的增加。

And then just following on, you mentioned the kind of investment eased in the back end of the quarter. I guess, is that true on both the sales and sort of digital advertising side?

接下來，您提到了本季末投資的放緩。我想，在銷售和數位廣告方面都是如此嗎？

Yeah, that is true. What we saw, just looking at the numbers here and checking that. But what we saw is generally across the board, you saw in September more leverage come through the model than what you saw in July and August. And that's the big reason why when we were on our public webcast in mid-September, we talked about the fact that we were investing. We might see more investment come through. A big reason why is because of what we saw in July and August.

是的，確實如此。我們所看到的，只是查看這裡的數字並進行檢查。但我們所看到的情況總體上是全面的，您在 9 月看到該模型的槓桿作用比您在 7 月和 8 月看到的要多。這就是為什麼當我們在九月中旬的公共網路廣播中時，我們談論了我們正在投資的事實。我們可能會看到更多的投資。一個重要原因是我們在七月和八月看到的情況。

Thank you. And we have no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back to the management for closing remarks.

謝謝。目前我們沒有進一步的問題。我想請管理階層發表結束語。

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We appreciate your interest in our company and look forward to speaking with you on our fourth quarter earnings call early next year.

謝謝大家今天加入我們。我們感謝您對我們公司的興趣，並期待在明年初的第四季財報電話會議上與您交談。

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與。此時您可以斷開線路。