WSO
#<UNK>.
You want to take a shot at that.
Sure.
Well, for the quarter, and Canada, by the way, is the largest market, obviously, of discussion.
We did see unit growth.
We did see some Canadian dollar growth but not the US dollar basis.
It's not enough for us to get to use a lot of explanation and press releases about with or without currency because of the materiality.
I would say also that the fourth quarter was better than the rest of the year in that market.
In our Latin American markets, we sell in US dollars.
We sell and collect in US dollars.
There's not a currency play per se.
The US dollar becomes stronger.
It's more of a demand play where can they afford to buy US product.
That's correct
That's correct.
A.
J.
.
Just to clarify that $23 million run rate is annualized.
Our approach to that is ---+ first, I should say that much ---+ many of the platforms we developed are now maturing, they are in place.
Our focus is on getting them adopted through the several hundred thousand contractors and technicians and internally.
If and when there are great opportunities that arise that we can deploy or that we can take advantage of and make investments and have strong returns on investments, we won't shy away from that.
Right now the focus is on driving home and maximizing return on what we have invested.
I don't want to be held to a number in terms of spend because it could be opportunistic.
Well, it's hard to say exactly because these continue to develop on top of these platforms.
We continue to tweak and iterate.
That's been our approach since the launch, an iterate approach.
We don't have any current plans for major new platforms, but this is a way of doing business for us now.
You know, this is moving away from being a technology program at Watsco.
It's just being Watsco and being encompassed in what all we do.
Good morning, <UNK>.
Where are you, <UNK>.
I don't know that we can tell you definitely but we like to look ---+ this is such a seasonal business, we like the look through the first half and then talk about what we think is going to happen.
Sometimes, like last year we were not able to do that till the third quarter, but let's say our traditional is we like to look at the first half.
A.
J.
, here's your opportunity to talk about your approach to the salesforce.
That's exactly the point.
I visited probably about a dozen contractors this year so far, and when you sit with them and you explain to them the intent and the context and the spirit of these investments, which is to help make them more efficient in the field and make it easier for them to do business without us.
In turn, as a byproduct of that makes our salesforce more efficient, which is helpful for the customer because then the salesforce can help with more value added type requests; expedite orders, check on orders, bring new business, or go hunt for more business.
So that is exactly the intent of these investments, and it's starting to play out.
Of course, we want to accelerate how quickly we can realize the value of that.
That's a great question because since we are the innovator of this technology strategy, the OEMs had to be part of this because if you look at our 500,000 SKUs that information had to come from them, in some cases at the beginning they were reluctant but as they got more involved with us they cooperated.
I think, A.
J.
, you can confirm this, if we had full cooperation at least in the majority of what we do and others we think that aren't cooperating will cooperate because of such a great opportunity for them.
A.
you can improve that.
Yes.
I would say absolutely.
We have spent time with the senior leaders of our OEM partners and other parts and supplies vendors, and their technical teams and finding ways to collaborate where really it's one plus one equals three opportunities where our investments alone ---+ our investments plus their investments can really create some unique things that can be done independently.
Now we have the talent and the resources to bring that ---+ to make that play out in a tactful way.
Something else is on my mind about that question.
Because we have this 500,000 SKUs, which we believe could eventually double, it's a lot of talk in the press about technology companies like Amazon displacing the traditional businesses.
I don't think it's very easy for anybody to come along and duplicate the product information and the digitation of what we have and the knowledge of the industry that we have.
I think that sort of advantage will accelerate and improve our competitiveness not only against our normal competitors but also against people that might come into the industry.
So to us that's not only an offensive play but it's also a defensive play to develop this technology.
We didn't pay 14 times.
We did not pay double digits.
I'm not sure I understand entirely, but I can tell you that I believe it's important when we visit with wonderful companies that we want to be part of our family, we bring them the technology, we show them.
We think it is an advantage for them to be part of us, to take advantage of that technology, and by the way, it takes a lot of money.
You've heard us talk about that to get this technology.
I think it's an advantage in the M&A world.
Plus, our culture of decentralization plus the fact that when we buy a great company, we respect the sellers and we follow him and we invest in him.
When I say him, it could be a company, it could be an individual.
Our reputation, we've done over 60 of these acquisitions, is very good in what happens post acquisition.
The new thing is this technology that we spend so much money and that we are continuing to spend, we provide to them for them to use against their own competitors.
So, yes, very positive.
Anytime there is a distributor that deals with contractors to an end market, like the one we are in, we have a great asset, we believe.
We have an advantage over others that haven't developed this sort of technology.
Morning <UNK>.
I like that last question the best.
If there is 7 times out performance why isn't everybody using it to outperform.
Again, it goes back to the culture change question.
There are early adopters and then there is the laggers and then there is the 70% between.
I think at this point, we've done a pretty good job getting the early adopters on board.
We are focused now on the 70%.
That's both internally and among our customers, which a lot of the stuff is customer basing.
The internal stuff, which is the supply chain technologies and the order fulfillment, and usage of BI; that's all within our control.
So our leaders know exactly what our targets are and we have big goals in terms of adoption and what kind of value that's going to create when they are adopted.
The customer base, again, we set very aggressive goals in terms of getting our companies to help drive this through their customers and their customers businesses.
I don't think yet we want to share exactly what those numbers are, but they are aggressive.
While we hope that we can accelerate the pace, we are still careful to say we are still in the early innings of all of this as well.
First, let me just a general speaking, that's what we reduce with the branches we've opened over a year.
We have been adding branches.
That's not in that number.
The reduction square footage is not for the sake of reducing square feet.
It's because we are taking math and science and a data first approach to the business.
The facilities, our prophecies and so forth, and optimizing the space requirements and optimizing the prophecies and the branches all for the sake of creating a better customer experience for the 90,000 customers we do business with, or 88,000 customers we do business with.
So these are not ---+ these are all about being a better company.
So I don't believe there should be any disruption to how we serve customers.
I think it's the exact opposite.
We should be able to be better with our customers with a smaller footprint or more efficiently whatever that requires based on the situation, hopefully.
By the way, we had a conference late last year on the topic of technology, which was conducted by Watsco in Miami.
It is on our website.
You can get a much more in-depth understanding of what we are doing technology wise.
Well, thanks for attending.
This is a longer conference than we normally have, and I really like that.
Give us a chance to answer your questions and to deal with whatever issues are out there.
But we are very optimistic.
We feel good about what we are doing and we want to remain as the leader in the distribution of HVAC products.
Thanks again.
See you next quarter.
