W.W. GRAINGER, INC. — Call Transcript 2026

...Greetings, and welcome to the W.W. Grainger Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. You may be placing the question queue at any time by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero. It's now my pleasure to introduce our host, Kyle Bland, Vice President, Investor Relations. Kyle, please go ahead. Good morning. Welcome to Grainger's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. With me are D.G. Macpherson, Chairman and CEO, and Dee Merriwether, Senior Vice President and CFO. As a reminder, some up our comments today may include forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Additional information regarding factors that could cause actual results to differ materially is included in the company's most recent Form 8-K and other periodic reports filed with the SEC. This morning's call includes non-GAAP financial measures, which reflect certain adjustments in previous periods, as noted in the presentation. There were no adjusting items in the fourth quarter 2025 period. We have also included organic revenue adjustments in the presentation, which normalize sales growth to reflect our exit from the UK market, including the Cromwell divestiture and the closure of Zoro UK. Definitions and full reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures with their corresponding GAAP measures are found in the tables at the end of this presentation and in our earnings release, both of which are available on our IR website. We will also share results related to MonotaRO. Please remember that MonotaRO is a public company and files Japanese GAAP, which differs from U.S. GAAP and is reported in our results one month in arrears. As a result, the numbers discussed will differ from MonotaRO's public statements. Now I'll turn it over to D.G. Thanks, Kyle. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining. Despite the macroeconomic uncertainty and challenging environment in 2025, the Grainger team continued to execute against our strategy, delivering exceptional service and a best-in-class experience for our customers. During 2025, we made strong progress. We leveraged our technology capabilities and MRO know-how to strengthen our competitive advantage in each segment. We streamlined our portfolio by exiting the UK market. We invested in new supply chain capacity to extend our service leadership. We lived the Grainger Edge each day to foster a workplace environment where team members can build a rewarding career, and we delivered on our financial commitments for the year. Overall, this progress positions us well as we move into 2026. Before I dive into these 2025 accomplishments in more detail, I thought it would be helpful to reiterate our go-to-market strategy and how each of our operating models addresses the needs of MRO customers, providing a flawless experience and delivering tangible value. This context is important as it drives most of the incremental investment we are making across the business and prioritizes the work our team does every day. Over the last several years, we have invested heavily to build market-leading data and technology capabilities. This includes core product and customer information assets, which have taken on even greater importance as AI accelerates and creates new opportunities to unlock additional value. These data assets underpin our five strategic growth engines and fuel our ability to gain share within our High-Touch Solutions segment. In 2025, we made great progress across these five areas. In merchandising, we have consistently gained share through this important initiative that's focused on building a highly curated product assortment. This includes continued work across our category review process and expanded use of the Grainger brand name within our private label offer. Our category reviews focus on improving product search, organization, and content, and have more recently had an increasing emphasis on new product introductions, including expansion into new categories. Recent examples include efforts to build out a relevant offer to support data center customers, as well as an expanded breadth of factory automation products such as sensors, machine controls, and actuators. In total, our merchandising efforts in 2025 resulted in net assortment growth of over 85,000 SKUs, our largest net SKU growth for the High-Touch segment in nearly a decade. In marketing, the team remains focused on delivering strong returns while also finding ways to improve program effectiveness to deliver better outcomes for the dollars we're spending. During 2025, we found new and creative ways to further leverage our advantage information assets to increase personalization and improve our marketing investment strategy. On the latter, we are leveraging our know-how and machine learning to optimize investment at the SKU level based on our knowledge of relative pricing, product availability, and customer lifetime value. The success we continue to see across this space supports further incremental investment in 2026 and beyond. Pivoting to our seller coverage initiative, we continue to leverage our improved customer data to expand our sales force with a focus on underserved business locations. After slowing our pace and adjusting our approach with this initiative in 2023 and 2024, we added around 110 new sellers across two geographies in 2025. This brings our total program expansion to over 300 sellers across six geographies since 2022, more than 10% increase in our U.S.-based sales team. The collective performance to date of these geographies has been in line with expectations, and we have planned to address two more regions in 2026. Our sellers are crucial to providing value for our customers and generating demand, and we remain committed to investing in tools and resources to increase their effectiveness. In 2025, we saw strong usage of our new Seller Insights platform. As you may recall, this platform integrates with existing Grainger data sources to provide sellers with a one-stop shop for customer insights. In 2026, we'll leverage AI on this platform to deliver actionable insights, identify new customer contacts, and strengthen leader coaching opportunities. We're just scratching the surface of our potential in this area, and we are excited about the path ahead. Lastly, we continue to see increased demand for value-added services as labor scarcity and cost savings initiatives become customer imperatives. In KeepStock specifically, this has resulted in new customer installations and product category expansions, driving further embeddedness and deeper share of wallet.... Additionally, the KeepStock team made progress over the past year, further developing customer-facing tools, and we anticipate a broader rollout of these new capabilities to begin in 2026. These tools provide customers access to enhanced data and insights aimed at improving their user experience and driving procurement cost savings. While it's already a critical part of our offer, we expect KeepStock to become even more valuable going forward. We're excited about the progress we've made across these five strategic growth engines and remain confident in our ability to drive share gain as we execute against these important initiatives. Now, given the critical role that technology is playing in our space, I thought it would be helpful to provide a few use cases of how we are leveraging AI and machine learning across the business. While the ramp curves differ by initiatives, as these efforts mature, they can help increase productivity, enhance service, and create revenue opportunities over time. We have broad experience applying AI and machine learning, and when underpinned by our differentiated data assets, we can create tremendous value. I've already touched on how machine learning is optimizing our marketing investment strategy and how AI is helping us improve seller effectiveness. On the slide, you can see several other areas of the business where these new technologies are fueling advancements. The point here is to show how prevalent these powerful tools have become and to highlight how we can leverage our data assets to create solutions that add real value to our customers or to our bottom line. We've learned a great deal in the past two years about AI and feel well positioned to accelerate these efforts moving forward. Moving to Endless Assortment segment, we made great progress propelling both businesses forward in 2025. At Zoro, the team has regained its growth momentum, focusing on driving improved repeat purchase rates through an enhanced customer experience. Their progress during the year included optimizing the assortment to improve delivery times, launching Zoro-branded private label products, improving the quality of customer acquisitions to enable better repeat rates, enhancing direct marketing capabilities through better analytics, and improving the customer experience through more accurate delivery communication. These actions helped reaccelerate sales growth back into the high teens for the full year. At MonotaRO, the team continues to execute well, driving strong results, including 25% growth with enterprise customers. They continue to improve and expand their distribution capabilities by extending the reach of same-day shipping to regions beyond Tokyo and Osaka, while also planning for the future with the groundbreaking of the new Mito DC outside Tokyo. Similar to High-Touch, we have also progressed our AI and ML capabilities across both EA businesses. It's still early innings, but we are using these technologies to drive productivity and accelerate our momentum across the flywheel, and we have included a few examples on the slide. All told, we deliver great results across the Endless Assortment segment in 2025, and are positioned well to continue this momentum into the new year. Turning to slide 9, I'm very pleased with the continued progress we're making across our distribution network as we stay focused on extending our industry-leading ability to deliver next-day complete orders to customers across both segments. Notably, we made meaningful progress on three new facilities across the U.S. and Japan. The Northwest DC, which is located outside of Portland, is set to start full outbound operations later this year. This building will improve our service and reduce transportation costs throughout the Northwest. We also continue to make great progress with our Houston distribution center and expect inbound operations to begin in the second half of 2027, with outbound following a few quarters later. In Japan, MonotaRO is making great progress on their new highly automated DC in Mito, scheduled to open in 2028. This facility, when complete, will nearly double the shipping capacity that MonotaRO has in the country. Outside of new capacity investments, the supply chain team has also worked hard to leverage inventory and transportation solutions to improve service in certain markets, including Florida and Canada. Overall, we continue to invest across our supply chain to make sure that we maintain and extend our leading position in customer fulfillment. Part of our organization remains our people, who work hard every day to fulfill our purpose to keep the world working. As you can see on slide 10, our culture was again recognized externally during 2025. We were recertified as a Great Place to Work in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, affirming our commitment to being an employer of choice and a place where every team member feels valued and empowered. We were honored for the first time as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies, named once again as one of Fortune's Most Admired Companies, and recognized by Glassdoor as the Best Place to Work. These recognitions are a testament to the culture we've built over almost a century in this industry. Grainger will always be a place where every team member can have a fulfilling, meaningful career if they are willing to work hard to serve our customers. Now, turning to our full-year financials, 2025 certainly had its share of challenges between shifting tariff dynamics, soft MRO market demand, and the government shutdown. Despite these challenging macro headwinds, we still delivered total company sales growth of 4.5% on a reported basis, or 4.9% on a daily organic constant currency basis, with total sales finishing the year at $17.9 billion. Growth for the year included continued share gain from our High-Touch Solutions U.S. business, which finished the year with roughly 250 basis points of outgrowth on a volume basis. In Endless Assortment, the segment showed significant top-line improvement, with daily organic constant currency sales up 15.6%. Both Zoro and MonotaRO continue to win with their core B2B customer base and drive improved repeat purchase rates, positioning them well for the future. Alongside the solid top line, the team also did a nice job managing strong margins despite labor headwinds, with operating margin finishing at 15% for the year. We delivered adjusted EPS growth of 1.3%, or $39.48 per share. ROIC finished at 39.1%, and operating cash flow was $2 billion, which allowed us to return $1.5 billion to Grainger shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Overall, I'm proud of what we accomplished in 2025. We continue to focus on improving in core areas of the business to perform well over the long term. With that, I will turn it over to Dee to review our fourth quarter results. Thanks, D.G. I want to echo D.G.'s sentiment on our 2025 performance. Not only did we make progress on a number of strategic initiatives, but the team was also able to drive top and bottom line results within the original 2025 outlook we provided a year ago. A strong outcome despite the challenging macro environment we faced. ... Now turning to our fourth quarter results. We had another solid quarter to finish the year, with results roughly in line with expectations. For the total company, daily sales grew 4.5% or 4.6% on a daily organic constant currency basis, which included growth in both segments. Sales were healthy in the period, despite softness during the start of the quarter from the government shutdown and the lapping of a prior year hurricane-related sales benefit. If you were to normalize these events, sales for the total company would have been up approximately 6.5% for the quarter on a daily organic constant currency basis. Total company gross margins for the quarter were strong, ending at 39.5%, down about 10 basis points over the prior year period, driven by segment mix headwinds from faster growing Endless Assortment. Operating margins were down 70 basis points year-over-year due to increased SG&A expense, which came in higher than expected in the period due to unforeseen healthcare costs above our normal run rate and a softer top line in the High-Touch Solutions segment. Overall, we delivered diluted EPS of $9.44 for the quarter, which was down 2.8% versus the fourth quarter of 2024, but above the midpoint of our implied fourth quarter guide. Moving to segment level results. The High-Touch Solutions segment delivered sales growth of 2.2% on a reported basis, or 2.1% on a daily constant currency basis. Results included nearly three points of price inflation for the segment, showing meaningful sequential improvement as tariff costs continued to be passed. From an end market perspective, our indicators suggest the MRO market gained momentum sequentially, but remained muted in the period. For Grainger specifically, we saw strong performance with contractor and manufacturing customers, which helped to offset slower growth in other areas of the business, including year-over-year softness in the government end market. If you were to normalize government sales for the impact of the shutdown and the prior year hurricane-related sales benefit, sales for the High-Touch segment would have been up roughly 4.5% for the quarter on a daily constant currency basis. On profitability, gross margin finished the quarter at 42.3%, flat versus the prior year. We continued to see tariff-related inflation, which caused further LIFO inventory valuation headwinds, although the magnitude of these charges came in favorable to our expectations. These charges were offset by positive mix and a number of other smaller tailwinds. Price costs on a LIFO basis remains negative, but improved in the quarter as our pricing actions took hold. Similar to last quarter, if we excluded the LIFO headwind and we wanted to compare ourselves to our peer set, which report on FIFO, our implied FIFO gross margin rate would have increased year-over-year, with price costs roughly neutral on this basis. On SG&A, margins delivered in the period as payroll and higher than expected healthcare costs, along with continued marketing investment, were only partially offset by productivity. We also saw a softer top line in the period due to the impact of the government shutdown, which further weighed on margins. Taking all this together, operating margin for the segment finished at 15.8%, down 120 basis points versus the prior year quarter. Before moving on, I want to share a brief update on where we are with tariffs. In the fourth quarter, we remained engaged in active dialogue with our supplier partners and took modest price increases in November to help offset continued cost pressure. These actions were on top of the price increases in May and September, when we began to pass through tariff-related costs. In January of this year, we passed further prices in response to previously delayed tariff inflation and to offset annually negotiated cost increases with our suppliers, which were largely in effect as of February 1st. These actions are net of a partial rollback on certain Chinese tariffs announced at the end of last year. As we look ahead, we've passed the majority of known tariff-related costs to date, but the situation still remains fluid. Importantly, our team is staying agile, and we remain confident in our ability to adhere to our core tenets to reach price cost neutrality over time while maintaining competitive pricing. Turning to slide 16, we wanted to share an update on our volume outgrowth for the High-Touch U.S. business. When we last spoke about outgrowth in detail, it was during the first quarter of 2025, as we observed a meaningful inflection in the underlying single factor IP benchmark that we use to measure MRO market volume. This inflection was misaligned with what we're seeing on the ground with our MRO customers and likely caused by shifting macroeconomic dynamics. These dynamics are driving bifurcation across industries where tariffs are impacting demand in some industries, while others are experiencing a tailwind, notably those tied to aircraft manufacturing and data center build outs. As we've been discussing over the past few years, we built a separate market model back in late 2023 after a sustained period of dislocation between what we were hearing from customers and what the single factor model was implying about market volume growth. This multifactor model was developed after testing over 1,000 publicly available economic indicators to find the best combination of explanatory factors with a high correlation to underlying U.S. economic census data for MRO products. Specifically, the model pulls in several different supply and demand factors, including net core capital goods shipments, import-export dynamics, and end user activity, to formulate a comprehensive view of the MRO landscape. When comparing the two model inputs side by side, while neither model mirrors the exact weight of Grainger's customer end markets, the multifactor model does capture a broader base of end market activities outside of manufacturing, while also eliminating non-MRO product categories. Further, the multifactor model captures a more dynamic view of the economy, relevant trade flows, and shows a stronger correlation to underlying MRO product consumption data. And while the inner workings of the multifactor model are less accessible externally and no model is perfect, the comprehensive nature of the model would suggest it more accurately reflects the performance of our market, specifically in periods of economic disruption or change. With this context in mind, if you turn to slide 17, we charted the historical results for both models, starting with the point at which economic inputs were first published for the multifactor model. As you can see, the two models are highly correlated, and over this 20+ year period, the average annual growth rate is nearly identical. However, the models do experience disconnects during periods of macroeconomic shifts. Typically, when the multifactor model trails a single factor model or vice versa, it eventually catches up, but the duration of these dislocations is unpredictable. As you see, we've experienced a prolonged period of dislocation since the pandemic, including each model moving in opposite directions after new tariffs were enacted in early 2025. It's unclear to us how long this divergence will last. With this, given its comprehensive nature and the fact that we've studied each model exhaustively over the last couple of years, we are more confident in the demand signals from the multifactor model, and we'll use it to measure our outgrowth progress going forward. On this basis, turning to slide 18 and using our multifactor MRO model, we estimate that Grainger finished full year 2025 with roughly 250 basis points of outgrowth on a volume basis, as our High-Touch Solutions U.S. business grew volume by 1.4% compared to our multifactor MRO model, which was down between 1.5% and 0.5% for the year. Albeit short of our 400-500 basis point long-term target, we're continuing to take healthy share. Marketing and merchandising remain our largest contributors to outgrowth, and on a go-forward basis, we're anticipating a more consistent impact from seller coverage and seller effectiveness as new geographies ramp and seller tools mature. Overall, we remain confident in our strategic growth engines and their ability to drive share over the long term and continue to target 400-500 basis points of average annual outgrowth over time. Now, focusing on the Endless Assortment segment. Sales increased 14.3% on a reported basis, or 15.7% on a daily organic constant currency basis, which normalizes for the FX headwinds realized in the period and the closure of our Zoro UK business. Zoro U.S. was up 16%, while MonotaRO achieved 18.4% growth in local days, local constant currency. At a business level, Zoro continues its momentum, driving strong growth from its core B2B customers, along with improving customer retention rates. At MonotaRO, sales remained strong, with continued growth from enterprise customers, coupled with solid acquisition and repeat purchase rates with small and mid-sized businesses. Additionally, MonotaRO experienced increased web traffic stemming from a competitive cyber outage, which provided a tailwind to sales in the period. On profitability, operating margins increased by 200 basis points to 10.6%, with favorability across the segment. MonotaRO margins remained strong at 13.6%, up 100 basis points, and Zoro margins improved to 6.3% of 260 basis points, with both businesses benefiting from gross margin flow, flow-through and healthy top-line leverage. Overall, we're proud of the exceptional performance throughout 2025 within the Endless Assortment segment and look to continue the momentum this year. Moving into our outlook for 2026. At the total company level, we expect revenue to be between $18.7 billion and $19.1 billion, driven by growth in both segments. This translates to daily organic constant currency sales between 6.5% and 9%, which is 230 basis points higher than reported sales growth at the midpoint, after adjusting for FX headwinds and the impact of our exit from the UK market. Within our High-Touch Solutions segment, we expect daily constant currency sales growth between 5% and 7.5%.... In the U.S., we anticipate continued demand pressure as tariff-related price increases weigh on market volumes. While we expect industry-specific tailwinds in certain areas of the economy will persist, many of these green shoots are outside of core MRO product categories. With this, while we acknowledge falling interest rates and other macro factors could reverse the multi-year volume contraction in our industry, we're conservatively modeling the market to be down 1.5% to flat. On share gain, we're assuming outgrowth improves through the year as we ramp investment and gain traction with our growth drivers. We expect this will deliver outgrowth, growth at or below our long-term target range in 2026. Lastly, we expect meaningful price contribution to revenue, which includes the wrap of 2025 actions and incremental price this year to fully catch up on the costs we are seeing from suppliers. This price contribution factors into the partial rollback on certain Chinese tariffs announced in November of last year, but excludes any impact from future unknown tariffs or rollbacks that may or may not occur in 2026. In the Endless Assortment segment, we anticipate daily organic constant currency sales to grow between 12.5% and 15% in the range of their long-term framework. This segment-level growth will be roughly 230 basis points lower on a reported basis when you normalize for the expected foreign currency exchange headwinds and the closure of our Zoro UK business. At the business unit level, Zoro is anticipated to grow in low teens as they continue their momentum and driving higher repeat rates, consistent service, and improved mid-summer marketing. MonotaRO also expected to grow in the low teens in local days and local currency, which normalizes for one less Japanese selling day in 2026 and expected FX headwinds from the yen. This strong performance is fueled by growth with new and enterprise customers, strong repeat rates with core B2B customers, and a carryover benefit from the competitor cyber outage. Moving to our margin expectations, we expect total company operating margins to range between 15.4%-15.9%, up 40-90 basis points compared to 2025. This reflects improvements in both segments, as well as a 45 basis points tailwind from our exit of the UK market, split roughly evenly between gross margin and SG&A leverage. In the High-Touch Solutions segment, we expect operating margins between 16.9%-17.4% of 35 basis points at the midpoint. Gross margin will improve as price cost normalizes and LIFO inventory valuation headwinds subside in the back half of the year. This favorability is partially offset by a modest headwind from our private label portfolio, where tariff dynamics have changed competitiveness on certain SKUs. We expect SG&A leverage to improve as the accelerating top line and our productivity efforts offset ramping investment across our demand generators. In Endless Assortment, we anticipate operating margin will continue to ramp between 10%-10.5% or 20-70 basis points versus 2025. Gross margins are expected to be down slightly at the midpoint, and we expect continued healthy operating leverage improvement in both businesses. Our closure of Zoro UK is also positively contributing to segment-level operating margins. Turning now to capital allocation. Our business is positioned to generate strong cash flow in 2026, with expected operating cash of approximately $2.1 billion-$2.3 billion, reflecting conversion of around 100%. Our capital allocation priorities remain consistent and largely unchanged from prior years. We'll continue to invest in the business with CapEx in the range of $550 million-$650 million, supporting supply chain initiatives, construction of new facilities in the U.S. and Japan, and ongoing technology and data investments. We'll pursue selective inorganic opportunities while maintaining strategic and price discipline, and beyond investment, we'll, we expect to return excess cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. We'll formally set the 2026 dividend in the second quarter, but again anticipate high single-digit to low double-digit annual increases. Share repurchases related to Grainger common stock are expected to be around $1 billion for the year. Overall, our return-focused philosophy gives us flexibility to invest efficiently while delivering strong returns for our shareholders over the long term. In summary, at the total company level, we plan to grow top line by 4.2%-6.7% on a reported basis, or 6.5%-9% on a daily organic constant currency basis, which normalizes for FX headwinds and our exit of the UK market. You can see margin improvement through the P&L, which reflects the previously mentioned tailwinds from the UK exit, High-Touch gross margin recovery, and healthy leverage in both segments. These margin benefits will be partially offset by continued segment mix headwinds as Endless Assortment grows faster than High-Touch. We're expecting the effective tax rate in 2026 to be roughly 25%, about 130 basis points unfavorable versus the prior year adjusted rate. mainly due to the impact of recent federal tax law changes and the lack of one-time tax planning initiatives that won't recur in 2026. Taking all this together, including our share repurchase outlook, we expect EPS of $42.25-$44.75 per share, up over 10% at the midpoint. From a seasonality perspective, we expect year-over-year sales growth to be relatively consistent as we move throughout the year on a daily organic constant currency basis. Growth margin will deviate from its normal seasonality, given LIFO and price cost dynamics as we comp over tariff headwinds in the prior year and reflect the impact of this year's annual Grainger Show meeting. With this, first half gross margins will be at or slightly below our annual guide before rebounding in the back half of the year as the tariff-related impacts subside. Operating margin will follow a similar trajectory, where the first half is at or below our full year guide before rebounding in the back half of the year. The first quarter is off to a strong start, with preliminary January sales up over 10% on a daily organic constant currency basis. This start supports our expectation for the first quarter sales of around $4.5 billion-$4.6 billion, up north of 7.5% on a daily organic constant currency basis, or roughly 200 basis points lower on a reported basis. First quarter gross margins will remain healthy, but decline sequentially versus the fourth quarter of 2025. This differs from our normal seasonal pattern as we continue to face tariff-related pressures and reflect the impact from the Grainger sales meeting, which flips to a gross margin headwind in 2026. This gross margin pressure will be offset by sequential leverage improvement, and we anticipate first quarter operating margins will be just north of 15% for the total company. Lastly, as I've consistently done at the end of the past few years, I've included our long-term earnings framework for reference. The only change from the last time I shared this framework is a modest change to our go-forward tax rate assumption to reflect new federal legislation. Importantly, all the core operating tenets of this framework remain intact, intact, and we are well positioned to deliver great results for our shareholders for years to come. With that, I'll turn it back to D.G. for some closing remarks. Thanks, Dee. Before I open it up for questions, I want to acknowledge our nearly 25,000 Grainger team members who consistently demonstrate our principles and drive strong performance for Grainger. Every day, they show up, start with a customer, and compete with urgency to deliver on our purpose and create an exceptional experience. Looking ahead, I'm excited about how 2026 is shaping up and confident in our ability to extend our advantage for the long term. Regardless of the environment, we will continue to provide a best-in-class MRO offer while investing in the core of our business, an industry-leading distribution network and innovative technology capabilities. By staying focused on what matters most to our customers and creating a great workplace for our team members, we are poised to deliver continued growth, share gain and strong returns for our stakeholders. With that, I will open it up for Q&A. Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to be placed in the question queue, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing star one. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Our first question today is coming from David Manthey from Baird. Your line is now live. Hey, good morning, everyone. My first question is a statement really. 10% growth daily organic constant currency in January looks pretty good. As we're looking at slide 21 and thinking about your guidance for the High-Touch business, it looks like share gain similar to 2025. Pricing is a key delta there at up about 300 basis points. But you also have market growth at minus 1.5% to flat, which is the same backdrop you had in 2025. And given other industry participants and what you're seeing in January, could you just talk about what drives your cautiousness for the year overall? Yeah. So thanks for the question. So, you know, as we plan, we always start planning relatively conservatively. We try to. There's no advantage in planning for growth that we haven't seen yet. What I would say about January, certainly it was strong across the board, but we did get a bit of a tailwind from the competitive outage in Japan. That adds a little bit to that total as well. But as Dee described, we're pretty confident in sort of that 7.5 number for the year. So we feel like we're off to maybe a little bit better start than we expected, and we may be wrong on the market, but that's always a variable that we have. Yeah, sounds good. And then, I wonder if you could give us an update on digital channels. A few years ago, you told us, KeepStock was 16%, website 30, and EDI ePro was 25% of order origination. I don't know if you have those offhand or we could take them. Yeah, sure. So, what I would say is everything, direct connection to customers has, has become more of our share. So actually, EDI ePro is the biggest share we have at this point, closer to 40% at this point. GCOM is still a big part of that, and then KeepStock's grown a little bit as well as a percentage of the total. So, you know, the vast majority of our contract customers now have a combination of ePro and KeepStock on site. And so that's a big part of what we do in terms of creating stickiness and creating value for our customers. All right. Thanks, D.G. Thanks, Dave. Thank you. Next question today is coming from Jacob Levinson from Melius Research. Your line is now live. Hi, good morning, everyone. Good morning. Maybe just thinking about David's question a little bit of a different way, D.G., if you talk to your customers, your large customers, can you just give us a sense of what the tone of those conversations have been like? Because it certainly feels like we've seen some sort of cyclical inflection this quarter. Obviously, ISM, for example, but just trying to get a sense of when you talk to the CEOs, your peers, what the tone of those conversations are like, particularly if we're talking, you know, more of the rate sensitive end markets, not necessarily aerospace or data center. Yeah, yeah, I think the tone hasn't changed too much. There's no—I'd say there's no panic, but there's not really enormous tailwinds that people are seeing from a volume perspective. I think everybody's seeing price, which obviously helps with the revenue numbers. But generally, you know, it's very, very industry specific at this point. So you can run the gamut from very, very high optimism to fairly strong pessimism as well. Overall, I think the mood is okay, but not expecting huge, huge market growth. Okay, that's helpful. And just on the medium customer front, it seems like there's been quite an acceleration there the last couple of quarters, and I'm not sure if that's a structural change in how you're approaching those customers, or maybe there's just some price in there, but maybe you could speak to what, what's really driving that. Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit of acceleration. There were some comps that we had that make it look a little bit favorable. We certainly are focused on growing with mid-sized customers, and a lot of the things we do in marketing and merchandising help those efforts. So, it's good to see a little bit of traction, but it's not a huge inflection point, although we expect to continue to grow mid-size faster than the rest. Fair enough. Thank you, D.G., I'll pass it on. Thank you. Next question is coming from Ryan Merkel from William Blair. Your line is now live. Hey, everyone. Thanks for the question. I wanted to start with gross margins. I guess a two-part question. First, gross margins in 4Q were, you know, a little bit better than we were thinking. And then secondly, can you put a finer point on first quarter gross margins? I think you said down sequentially, and just what was the reason? Thank you. Yeah. Hi. The main headwind that we received in the quarter was really related to LIFO. So we had kind of laid out, you know, that LIFO would be a little bit more negative than what it actually came in, you know, still increased, but softer than that. So that helped us out from a gross margin perspective. And then as we continue to talk about, we did continue to take price. So price helped offset that a little bit in the quarter. So those are the two largest things that impacted Q4 from a gross margin perspective. And then in Q1, we do expect some of those LIFO costs to shift into Q1 as well. Correct. Okay, so it's really LIFO, which is why gross margins are down sequentially into 1Q? Yes. Yeah. Okay. All right, The other piece in the first quarter is related to, as you heard in prepared remarks, we discussed the Grainger sales meeting. And so anytime we have customers attend the Grainger sales meeting, which is every other year, then our supplier rebates, due to our accounting methodologies, allow us to offset a portion of those rebates in SG&A. So therefore, it becomes a headwind on GM. And so that's gonna happen in Q1 of 2026 as well. It's a headwind. Okay. A headwind to GP and a positive to SG&A. Net, net, neutral. Yeah. At operating margin. Okay, that's great. Thanks for that. And then for the 26 margin guide, it doesn't look like there's a lot of organic margin lift ex Cromwell. For example, at the bottom end of the guide, I think margins are flat. So what are some of the key factors in the margin guide? And I think you said gross margins for the year are gonna be flat to down. Yeah. If you look at it year over year, 27-26, don't forget, EA is gonna continue to grow faster than High-Touch, and that's a headwind for us of about 10 basis points. As you noted, the UK market exit is gonna be a tailwind for us. And then when you look at High-Touch, there's a lot of puts and takes there. We talked a little bit about, you know, Grainger sales meeting, price cost, and the LIFO tailwind that we will get mostly in the second half. That's gonna contribute about 20 basis points. So when you add all that together, that's a 30 basis point difference between where we ended in 2025 to where we believe we will end in 2026. All right. Thanks. Pass it on. Thank you. As a reminder, that's star one to be placed into question queue. Our next question is coming from Christopher Glynn from Oppenheimer. Your line is now live. Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Just in terms of the continued outgrowth for HTS, obviously it's been resilient in some very varied macro environments, but just curious what you think is really behind the differential in the current trend line versus the long-term expectation? Yeah, I think that, you know, I would, I would point to a couple of things. Certainly, some factors were out of our control. We have more exposure to government, so the government shutdown hurt the share gain in this year. But we also, if you remember, paused some more seller adds a couple of years ago when we weren't seeing the performance we needed to see and adjusted, and now we are seeing the performance, so we've reaccelerated that. But that's had an impact over the last couple of years as well. You know, I would say that we're seeing good things on that front. We're seeing good things in seller effectiveness. We're seeing good things in on-site performance with KeepStock. We also, along with marketing and merchandising, we're pretty bullish around net contracts that we've been seeing recently, so that's a positive force as well. So we think all that's gonna get us that improvement that we wanna see. Great. And then on the comment on seeing improved Endless Assortment repeat rates, just wondering if you could double-click on that. Yeah. I mean, the business has been super focused on getting consistent purchases from core business customers. You know, they've changed a lot. I won't go into the details as some of that's probably not worth sharing, other than to say the way we're acquiring customers, what we're doing with marketing, the way we're talking about service and communicating service delivery promise to customers, all that has helped, and they've seen significant increases in repeat rates over the last 18 months, so it's good to see. Great. Just a quick housecleaning. Dee, could you remind me what the January or the one first quarter guidance for organic ADS was? Seven. 7.5. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Next question today is coming from Tommy Moll. Your line is now live. Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. Good morning. D.G., I wanted to follow up on your comment a second ago about the trend below your target for long-term outgrowth in recent years. Point taken on the pause that you've communicated previously on the seller adds, but if we just look high level here, you had outperformance versus your target pretty meaningfully during the years 2022 and 2023. So I'd characterize what those had in common as an external stress on the supply chain, just globally, where you had scale, your competitors lacked scale, that nets to your benefit. If we think about a lot of the other years, there's a more normalized environment where you're performing below that 400-500 target. Is the simplest answer here, not just that 400-500 is an average, but you're really gonna punch above that in times of stress in the market and in a, quote-unquote, "more normalized environment," you're probably gonna be a bit below the target? You know, I think that certainly we handled that supply stress well. I would definitely agree with that. It was a smaller portion of... You know, we had 875 basis points of outgrowth two years in a row. It was a small portion of that total. So I do think that that may be a general statement to make. It could be true, but I don't think - I do think we, you know, we've averaged 540 basis points through the last five years of outgrowth, and, you know, we expect to be able to get to that 400-500 mark again. I think that, you know, some of that is just our own execution, and some of it's external factors, as I mentioned before. Okay. On, on that execution point, you mentioned for seller coverage, you're gonna add, I think you added 2 markets last year, add 2 more this year. If you look across the folks you're hiring in these roles, in a, in an increasingly digital environment, are you, are you targeting different types of sellers than you have historically? And if you think about the average tenure of the folks you're hiring in these new geos, does it skew perhaps below the average tenure of the rest of your sales force? You know, I'd say that the process we use when we add sellers hasn't changed all that much. We're looking for general selling skills and some sort of interest in the types of product we sell and the environments we sell in, and that hasn't changed much. I think, you know, there's a broader trend here that has been an important one from our customers, which is generally lack of mechanical talent, I'd say. I'm not sure that's the right word, but sort of say that there are fewer people who are mechanically inclined, and it's actually been good for us in many ways as customers have asked us to do more on site. And so that's a trend that we do see. In terms of who we're hiring, we're still looking for a lot of the same skills we've looked for in the past. Thank you. I appreciate the insight. We'll turn it back. Thank you. Next question is coming from Chris Dankert from Loop Capital Markets. Your line is now live. Good morning, thanks for taking the question. I guess, like you said, we've seen some nice market share gains and some optimization of what's within Grainger's control here the past couple of years. But just looking back at the market share numbers, looks like we're guiding for a fifth consecutive year of contraction in the market. Maybe just, does it imply we're in an impaired or shrinking market? Does that imply that reshoring is a bit of a mirage? Maybe, D.G., what do you see when you see that contraction five years running? What is, what are you pulling out of that? You know, I think if you look over 30-year history, the reality is that manufacturing activity has been pretty stable in the U.S. It hasn't been increasing much, and employment has gone down. I think that sort of gives you a sense that long-term, from a volume basis, our market has never been a fast-growing market. So that's why we have the earnings algorithm we have. Gain share consistently, a little bit of price, and then manage expenses and SG&A. That's what we have to do. I think in all industrial markets, you would see something similar, to be honest. And you studied industrial markets in the past. It's not. Most of them are not fast-growth markets. Fair. Fair. I guess, just shifting gears a bit to the digital investment. I know a lot of your peers look at clicks to success. Maybe just, is that a metric you guys track? Any kind of color you can give us on improvement there? Is there a different KPI that you measure with the digital investment and the AI investment? Just any thoughts there? Well, so, are you asking about, like, online, how we measure success online? Yeah, just how quickly customers can kind of get to what they need digitally online, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we, we look at a whole bunch of, of metrics. We, we track the process, sort of soup to nuts as we look at it. And certainly, conversion rate, which is, I think, what you're talking about, is a big, is a big metric that we do look at, for sure. And, and we also do a lot of surveys to understand competitiveness, and how we do competitively on a bunch of, of digital sort of journey factors. And so I'd say we're, we're super well measured in that space. Yeah. Thanks so much. Thanks. Thank you. Next question is coming from Stephen Volkmann from Jefferies. Your line is now live. Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Most of mine's been answered, but I wanted to go back, Dee, to your slide around tariffs, which is helpful. But is the message that you've now priced for all the tariff increases that you've seen? So, yeah, you know, we, we have essentially passed through all known tariffs and working in this quarter to also correct for some of the Chinese tariffs that were rolled back in November. So based upon our annual cost negotiations that the team went through in the back half of 2025, we feel like we're fairly caught up in passing, you know, costs on to customers at this point in time. Now, anything in the future that is unknown, whether you know, for additional tariffs or further rollbacks, we have not included any estimates of that nature in our outlook. Okay, great. And it seems like, in some of the businesses that we follow, some producers have been pretty slow to pass these price increases through. Do you think your suppliers are kind of where they need to be, or do you think there's a good chance that we'll see additional sort of pass-throughs as the year progresses? So what I would say is, suppliers had choices to make, and their choice was usually, do I pass dollar amount or do I pass percentage? And so I think overall, we're somewhere between dollar and percent, is what I would say, what we've seen from our suppliers. That doesn't mean necessarily that they need to add any more price. I don't think that would drive that necessarily at this point. Okay, great. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Next question today is coming from Guy Hardwick from Barclays. Your line is now live. Hi, good morning. Morning. Good morning. I think last year, the growth in underlying operating expenses was 5%. It looks like the guidance for this year is better than that, like just under 4%. Any particular reason for that? Was that just the benefit of the Cromwell operating expenses dropping away? And I think the OpEx ratios were worse for Cromwell than the overall group. But you also said- Yeah -in the prepared remarks... Sorry, yeah. Maybe I'll let- just leave it at that and let you just mention that before I follow up. It's a lot of Cromwell, and is the answer, and then there's more leverage in EA and in the High-Touch as well, but a lot of it is Cromwell. Okay. And you also said in your prepared remarks that, marketing and merchandising is a big driver to outgrowth. So given that you're guiding to a much greater outgrowth this year than last year, I mean, should, should we assume that your OpEx is factored in that higher merchandising and marketing expense for 2026? Yes. Yes, that's right. That's right. Okay, got it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Christopher Snyder from Morgan Stanley. Your line is now live. Thank you. I hopped on a little late, so, I apologize if this got discussed, but could you provide, you know, the level of price embedded in the 2026 guide, and then specifically, how much is wrapped from the prior actions in 2025? You know, how much is, is new price, and has there been any growing pushback to price in the market from customers? Thank you. Yeah. So generally, we've noted in the prepared remarks that our pricing into 2026 is north of 3%, and then if you look at all the EPS and pricing that and run-rate pricing that we've discussed previously, we believe that amounts to about 2.5%-3% of that. So all of our plan in 2026, we're going to 3% for pricing. We haven't seen tremendous pushback from customers. The elasticity has been what we did generally expect at this point. Thank you. I appreciate that. Then if I could follow up on the earlier point, that gross margin would be down sequentially into Q1. You know, obviously, different than normal seasonality. I'm not sure it's ever been down sequentially into Q1. I guess, can you just maybe help unpack some of the moving parts there? Because it seems like the price cost improved as Q4 went on, following the November price action. So I would have just thought that you would have, you know, a continuation of that into Q1. And I would have also thought maybe Q1 would have, you know, the full realization of the benefit from Cromwell going away, that was probably not fully reflected in the Q4 gross margin. So just any color on some of the moving parts there would be helpful. Thank you. Sure. So again, LIFO, even in Q1 of 2026, will continue to be a headwind because, of course, we are passing and have received new costs from customers. That does subside as the year goes on, but Q4-Q1, that is a headwind. We talked about the Grainger sales meeting. I don't know if you were on for that, but that is a 20 basis points drag as well. This is the year where we have customers at the show and supplier rebates that would normally remain up in gross margin go down to SG&A to offset some of the SG&A costs. So then that becomes a headwind this year, a tailwind in next year when we have no customers. And then you may have heard us talk... We haven't talked about it as much today, but, you know, our private label business, with the tariff impacts and looking to remain competitive based upon where we actually manufacture those products, and being able to pass on the tariff increases, mostly we have done that at rate, like D.G. just noted. So that creates a headwind in gross margins for us, specifically as customers are transitioning to national brands for some of those products. So that's also a drag. And then what you noted was, like, the normal seasonality recovery, you know, price, cost, favorability, things like that, that is accounted for as a positive, but it's only about 10 basis points. So, all those things together take us from 39.5%-39.1% Q4-Q1. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Our next question is coming from Connor Lynagh from Bernstein. Your line is now live. Great, thanks for having me this morning. Just a quick one. On slide 8, you touched on the Zoro-branded private label product. Can you talk a little bit about the progress you've seen so far? Maybe just some customer feedback, repeat rates, et cetera. And then can you speak to the margin impact on the business overall? It's not material enough at this point to have any impact on the margins, but we have seen good early success in repeat rates and that core business customer that Zoro serves really likes the Zoro private brand that we've launched so far. Thank you. We've reached the end of our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further closing comments. Great. Thanks, everyone, for joining today. Really appreciate it, and thanks for the questions. You'll have many opportunities for questions with our IR team after the meeting if we didn't get to you. I just want to reiterate the fact that we feel really good about how things are set up moving forward. We are hearing positive things from our customers. We're providing great service, and we're getting some of the growth drivers accelerated again. So look forward to having a great year and look forward to seeing you out. Thanks so much. Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.

Speaker 11: ...Greetings, and welcome to the W.W. Grainger Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. You may be placing the question queue at any time by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero. It's now my pleasure to introduce our host, Kyle Bland, Vice President, Investor Relations. Kyle, please go ahead. ...Greetings, and welcome to the W.W. ...greetings and welcome to the w.w Grainger Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. grainger fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call and webcast At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. at this time all participants are in listen-only mode A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. a question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation You may be placing the question queue at any time by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. you may be placing the question queue at any time by pressing star one on your telephone keypad As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. as a reminder this conference is being recorded If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero. if anyone should require operator assistance please press star zero It's now my pleasure to introduce our host, Kyle Bland, Vice President, Investor Relations. it's now my pleasure to introduce our host kyle bland vice president investor relations Kyle, please go ahead. kyle please go ahead

Speaker 10: Good morning. Welcome to Grainger's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. With me are D.G. Macpherson, Chairman and CEO, and Dee Merriwether, Senior Vice President and CFO. As a reminder, some up our comments today may include forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Additional information regarding factors that could cause actual results to differ materially is included in the company's most recent Form 8-K and other periodic reports filed with the SEC. This morning's call includes non-GAAP financial measures, which reflect certain adjustments in previous periods, as noted in the presentation. There were no adjusting items in the fourth quarter 2025 period. We have also included organic revenue adjustments in the presentation, which normalize sales growth to reflect our exit from the UK market, including the Cromwell divestiture and the closure of Zoro UK. Good morning. good morning Welcome to Grainger's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. welcome to grainger's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call With me are D.G. with me are d.g Macpherson, Chairman and CEO, and Dee Merriwether, Senior Vice President and CFO. macpherson chairman and ceo and dee merriwether senior vice president and cfo As a reminder, some up our comments today may include forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. as a reminder some up our comments today may include forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties Additional information regarding factors that could cause actual results to differ materially is included in the company's most recent Form 8-K and other periodic reports filed with the SEC. additional information regarding factors that could cause actual results to differ materially is included in the company's most recent form 8-k and other periodic reports filed with the sec This morning's call includes non-GAAP financial measures, which reflect certain adjustments in previous periods, as noted in the presentation. this morning's call includes non-gaap financial measures which reflect certain adjustments in previous periods as noted in the presentation There were no adjusting items in the fourth quarter 2025 period. there were no adjusting items in the fourth quarter 2025 period We have also included organic revenue adjustments in the presentation, which normalize sales growth to reflect our exit from the UK market, including the Cromwell divestiture and the closure of Zoro UK. we have also included organic revenue adjustments in the presentation which normalize sales growth to reflect our exit from the uk market including the cromwell divestiture and the closure of zoro uk Definitions and full reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures with their corresponding GAAP measures are found in the tables at the end of this presentation and in our earnings release, both of which are available on our IR website. We will also share results related to MonotaRO. Please remember that MonotaRO is a public company and files Japanese GAAP, which differs from U.S. GAAP and is reported in our results one month in arrears. As a result, the numbers discussed will differ from MonotaRO's public statements. Now I'll turn it over to D.G. Definitions and full reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures with their corresponding GAAP measures are found in the tables at the end of this presentation and in our earnings release, both of which are available on our IR website. definitions and full reconciliations of our non-gaap financial measures with their corresponding gaap measures are found in the tables at the end of this presentation and in our earnings release both of which are available on our ir website We will also share results related to MonotaRO. we will also share results related to monotaro Please remember that MonotaRO is a public company and files Japanese GAAP, which differs from U.S. please remember that monotaro is a public company and files japanese gaap which differs from u.s GAAP and is reported in our results one month in arrears. gaap and is reported in our results one month in arrears As a result, the numbers discussed will differ from MonotaRO's public statements. as a result the numbers discussed will differ from monotaro's public statements Now I'll turn it over to D.G. now i'll turn it over to d.g

Speaker 5: Thanks, Kyle. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining. Despite the macroeconomic uncertainty and challenging environment in 2025, the Grainger team continued to execute against our strategy, delivering exceptional service and a best-in-class experience for our customers. During 2025, we made strong progress. We leveraged our technology capabilities and MRO know-how to strengthen our competitive advantage in each segment. We streamlined our portfolio by exiting the UK market. We invested in new supply chain capacity to extend our service leadership. We lived the Grainger Edge each day to foster a workplace environment where team members can build a rewarding career, and we delivered on our financial commitments for the year. Overall, this progress positions us well as we move into 2026. Thanks, Kyle. thanks kyle Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining. good morning everyone and thank you for joining Despite the macroeconomic uncertainty and challenging environment in 2025, the Grainger team continued to execute against our strategy, delivering exceptional service and a best-in-class experience for our customers. despite the macroeconomic uncertainty and challenging environment in 2025 the grainger team continued to execute against our strategy delivering exceptional service and a best-in-class experience for our customers During 2025, we made strong progress. during 2025 we made strong progress We leveraged our technology capabilities and MRO know-how to strengthen our competitive advantage in each segment. we leveraged our technology capabilities and mro know-how to strengthen our competitive advantage in each segment We streamlined our portfolio by exiting the UK market. we streamlined our portfolio by exiting the uk market We invested in new supply chain capacity to extend our service leadership. we invested in new supply chain capacity to extend our service leadership We lived the Grainger Edge each day to foster a workplace environment where team members can build a rewarding career, and we delivered on our financial commitments for the year. we lived the grainger edge each day to foster a workplace environment where team members can build a rewarding career and we delivered on our financial commitments for the year Overall, this progress positions us well as we move into 2026. overall this progress positions us well as we move into 2026 Before I dive into these 2025 accomplishments in more detail, I thought it would be helpful to reiterate our go-to-market strategy and how each of our operating models addresses the needs of MRO customers, providing a flawless experience and delivering tangible value. This context is important as it drives most of the incremental investment we are making across the business and prioritizes the work our team does every day. Over the last several years, we have invested heavily to build market-leading data and technology capabilities. This includes core product and customer information assets, which have taken on even greater importance as AI accelerates and creates new opportunities to unlock additional value. These data assets underpin our five strategic growth engines and fuel our ability to gain share within our High-Touch Solutions segment. In 2025, we made great progress across these five areas. Before I dive into these 2025 accomplishments in more detail, I thought it would be helpful to reiterate our go-to-market strategy and how each of our operating models addresses the needs of MRO customers, providing a flawless experience and delivering tangible value. before i dive into these 2025 accomplishments in more detail i thought it would be helpful to reiterate our go-to-market strategy and how each of our operating models addresses the needs of mro customers providing a flawless experience and delivering tangible value This context is important as it drives most of the incremental investment we are making across the business and prioritizes the work our team does every day. this context is important as it drives most of the incremental investment we are making across the business and prioritizes the work our team does every day Over the last several years, we have invested heavily to build market-leading data and technology capabilities. over the last several years we have invested heavily to build market-leading data and technology capabilities This includes core product and customer information assets, which have taken on even greater importance as AI accelerates and creates new opportunities to unlock additional value. this includes core product and customer information assets which have taken on even greater importance as ai accelerates and creates new opportunities to unlock additional value These data assets underpin our five strategic growth engines and fuel our ability to gain share within our High-Touch Solutions segment. these data assets underpin our five strategic growth engines and fuel our ability to gain share within our high-touch solutions segment In 2025, we made great progress across these five areas. in 2025 we made great progress across these five areas In merchandising, we have consistently gained share through this important initiative that's focused on building a highly curated product assortment. This includes continued work across our category review process and expanded use of the Grainger brand name within our private label offer. Our category reviews focus on improving product search, organization, and content, and have more recently had an increasing emphasis on new product introductions, including expansion into new categories. Recent examples include efforts to build out a relevant offer to support data center customers, as well as an expanded breadth of factory automation products such as sensors, machine controls, and actuators. In total, our merchandising efforts in 2025 resulted in net assortment growth of over 85,000 SKUs, our largest net SKU growth for the High-Touch segment in nearly a decade. In merchandising, we have consistently gained share through this important initiative that's focused on building a highly curated product assortment. in merchandising we have consistently gained share through this important initiative that's focused on building a highly curated product assortment This includes continued work across our category review process and expanded use of the Grainger brand name within our private label offer. this includes continued work across our category review process and expanded use of the grainger brand name within our private label offer Our category reviews focus on improving product search, organization, and content, and have more recently had an increasing emphasis on new product introductions, including expansion into new categories. our category reviews focus on improving product search organization and content and have more recently had an increasing emphasis on new product introductions including expansion into new categories Recent examples include efforts to build out a relevant offer to support data center customers, as well as an expanded breadth of factory automation products such as sensors, machine controls, and actuators. recent examples include efforts to build out a relevant offer to support data center customers as well as an expanded breadth of factory automation products such as sensors machine controls and actuators In total, our merchandising efforts in 2025 resulted in net assortment growth of over 85,000 SKUs, our largest net SKU growth for the High-Touch segment in nearly a decade. in total our merchandising efforts in 2025 resulted in net assortment growth of over 85,000 skus our largest net sku growth for the high-touch segment in nearly a decade In marketing, the team remains focused on delivering strong returns while also finding ways to improve program effectiveness to deliver better outcomes for the dollars we're spending. During 2025, we found new and creative ways to further leverage our advantage information assets to increase personalization and improve our marketing investment strategy. On the latter, we are leveraging our know-how and machine learning to optimize investment at the SKU level based on our knowledge of relative pricing, product availability, and customer lifetime value. The success we continue to see across this space supports further incremental investment in 2026 and beyond. Pivoting to our seller coverage initiative, we continue to leverage our improved customer data to expand our sales force with a focus on underserved business locations. In marketing, the team remains focused on delivering strong returns while also finding ways to improve program effectiveness to deliver better outcomes for the dollars we're spending. in marketing the team remains focused on delivering strong returns while also finding ways to improve program effectiveness to deliver better outcomes for the dollars we're spending During 2025, we found new and creative ways to further leverage our advantage information assets to increase personalization and improve our marketing investment strategy. during 2025 we found new and creative ways to further leverage our advantage information assets to increase personalization and improve our marketing investment strategy On the latter, we are leveraging our know-how and machine learning to optimize investment at the SKU level based on our knowledge of relative pricing, product availability, and customer lifetime value. on the latter we are leveraging our know-how and machine learning to optimize investment at the sku level based on our knowledge of relative pricing product availability and customer lifetime value The success we continue to see across this space supports further incremental investment in 2026 and beyond. the success we continue to see across this space supports further incremental investment in 2026 and beyond Pivoting to our seller coverage initiative, we continue to leverage our improved customer data to expand our sales force with a focus on underserved business locations. pivoting to our seller coverage initiative we continue to leverage our improved customer data to expand our sales force with a focus on underserved business locations After slowing our pace and adjusting our approach with this initiative in 2023 and 2024, we added around 110 new sellers across two geographies in 2025. This brings our total program expansion to over 300 sellers across six geographies since 2022, more than 10% increase in our U.S.-based sales team. The collective performance to date of these geographies has been in line with expectations, and we have planned to address two more regions in 2026. Our sellers are crucial to providing value for our customers and generating demand, and we remain committed to investing in tools and resources to increase their effectiveness. In 2025, we saw strong usage of our new Seller Insights platform. As you may recall, this platform integrates with existing Grainger data sources to provide sellers with a one-stop shop for customer insights. After slowing our pace and adjusting our approach with this initiative in 2023 and 2024, we added around 110 new sellers across two geographies in 2025. after slowing our pace and adjusting our approach with this initiative in 2023 and 2024 we added around 110 new sellers across two geographies in 2025 This brings our total program expansion to over 300 sellers across six geographies since 2022, more than 10% increase in our U.S.-based sales team. this brings our total program expansion to over 300 sellers across six geographies since 2022 more than 10% increase in our u.s.-based sales team The collective performance to date of these geographies has been in line with expectations, and we have planned to address two more regions in 2026. the collective performance to date of these geographies has been in line with expectations and we have planned to address two more regions in 2026 Our sellers are crucial to providing value for our customers and generating demand, and we remain committed to investing in tools and resources to increase their effectiveness. our sellers are crucial to providing value for our customers and generating demand and we remain committed to investing in tools and resources to increase their effectiveness In 2025, we saw strong usage of our new Seller Insights platform. in 2025 we saw strong usage of our new seller insights platform As you may recall, this platform integrates with existing Grainger data sources to provide sellers with a one-stop shop for customer insights. as you may recall this platform integrates with existing grainger data sources to provide sellers with a one-stop shop for customer insights In 2026, we'll leverage AI on this platform to deliver actionable insights, identify new customer contacts, and strengthen leader coaching opportunities. We're just scratching the surface of our potential in this area, and we are excited about the path ahead. Lastly, we continue to see increased demand for value-added services as labor scarcity and cost savings initiatives become customer imperatives. In KeepStock specifically, this has resulted in new customer installations and product category expansions, driving further embeddedness and deeper share of wallet.... Additionally, the KeepStock team made progress over the past year, further developing customer-facing tools, and we anticipate a broader rollout of these new capabilities to begin in 2026. These tools provide customers access to enhanced data and insights aimed at improving their user experience and driving procurement cost savings. In 2026, we'll leverage AI on this platform to deliver actionable insights, identify new customer contacts, and strengthen leader coaching opportunities. in 2026 we'll leverage ai on this platform to deliver actionable insights identify new customer contacts and strengthen leader coaching opportunities We're just scratching the surface of our potential in this area, and we are excited about the path ahead. we're just scratching the surface of our potential in this area and we are excited about the path ahead Lastly, we continue to see increased demand for value-added services as labor scarcity and cost savings initiatives become customer imperatives. lastly we continue to see increased demand for value-added services as labor scarcity and cost savings initiatives become customer imperatives In KeepStock specifically, this has resulted in new customer installations and product category expansions, driving further embeddedness and deeper share of wallet.... in keepstock specifically this has resulted in new customer installations and product category expansions driving further embeddedness and deeper share of wallet Additionally, the KeepStock team made progress over the past year, further developing customer-facing tools, and we anticipate a broader rollout of these new capabilities to begin in 2026. additionally the keepstock team made progress over the past year further developing customer-facing tools and we anticipate a broader rollout of these new capabilities to begin in 2026 These tools provide customers access to enhanced data and insights aimed at improving their user experience and driving procurement cost savings. these tools provide customers access to enhanced data and insights aimed at improving their user experience and driving procurement cost savings While it's already a critical part of our offer, we expect KeepStock to become even more valuable going forward. We're excited about the progress we've made across these five strategic growth engines and remain confident in our ability to drive share gain as we execute against these important initiatives. Now, given the critical role that technology is playing in our space, I thought it would be helpful to provide a few use cases of how we are leveraging AI and machine learning across the business. While the ramp curves differ by initiatives, as these efforts mature, they can help increase productivity, enhance service, and create revenue opportunities over time. We have broad experience applying AI and machine learning, and when underpinned by our differentiated data assets, we can create tremendous value. While it's already a critical part of our offer, we expect KeepStock to become even more valuable going forward. while it's already a critical part of our offer we expect keepstock to become even more valuable going forward We're excited about the progress we've made across these five strategic growth engines and remain confident in our ability to drive share gain as we execute against these important initiatives. we're excited about the progress we've made across these five strategic growth engines and remain confident in our ability to drive share gain as we execute against these important initiatives Now, given the critical role that technology is playing in our space, I thought it would be helpful to provide a few use cases of how we are leveraging AI and machine learning across the business. now given the critical role that technology is playing in our space i thought it would be helpful to provide a few use cases of how we are leveraging ai and machine learning across the business While the ramp curves differ by initiatives, as these efforts mature, they can help increase productivity, enhance service, and create revenue opportunities over time. while the ramp curves differ by initiatives as these efforts mature they can help increase productivity enhance service and create revenue opportunities over time We have broad experience applying AI and machine learning, and when underpinned by our differentiated data assets, we can create tremendous value. we have broad experience applying ai and machine learning and when underpinned by our differentiated data assets we can create tremendous value I've already touched on how machine learning is optimizing our marketing investment strategy and how AI is helping us improve seller effectiveness. On the slide, you can see several other areas of the business where these new technologies are fueling advancements. The point here is to show how prevalent these powerful tools have become and to highlight how we can leverage our data assets to create solutions that add real value to our customers or to our bottom line. We've learned a great deal in the past two years about AI and feel well positioned to accelerate these efforts moving forward. Moving to Endless Assortment segment, we made great progress propelling both businesses forward in 2025. At Zoro, the team has regained its growth momentum, focusing on driving improved repeat purchase rates through an enhanced customer experience. I've already touched on how machine learning is optimizing our marketing investment strategy and how AI is helping us improve seller effectiveness. i've already touched on how machine learning is optimizing our marketing investment strategy and how ai is helping us improve seller effectiveness On the slide, you can see several other areas of the business where these new technologies are fueling advancements. on the slide you can see several other areas of the business where these new technologies are fueling advancements The point here is to show how prevalent these powerful tools have become and to highlight how we can leverage our data assets to create solutions that add real value to our customers or to our bottom line. the point here is to show how prevalent these powerful tools have become and to highlight how we can leverage our data assets to create solutions that add real value to our customers or to our bottom line We've learned a great deal in the past two years about AI and feel well positioned to accelerate these efforts moving forward. we've learned a great deal in the past two years about ai and feel well positioned to accelerate these efforts moving forward Moving to Endless Assortment segment, we made great progress propelling both businesses forward in 2025. moving to endless assortment segment we made great progress propelling both businesses forward in 2025 At Zoro, the team has regained its growth momentum, focusing on driving improved repeat purchase rates through an enhanced customer experience. at zoro the team has regained its growth momentum focusing on driving improved repeat purchase rates through an enhanced customer experience Their progress during the year included optimizing the assortment to improve delivery times, launching Zoro-branded private label products, improving the quality of customer acquisitions to enable better repeat rates, enhancing direct marketing capabilities through better analytics, and improving the customer experience through more accurate delivery communication. These actions helped reaccelerate sales growth back into the high teens for the full year. At MonotaRO, the team continues to execute well, driving strong results, including 25% growth with enterprise customers. They continue to improve and expand their distribution capabilities by extending the reach of same-day shipping to regions beyond Tokyo and Osaka, while also planning for the future with the groundbreaking of the new Mito DC outside Tokyo. Similar to High-Touch, we have also progressed our AI and ML capabilities across both EA businesses. Their progress during the year included optimizing the assortment to improve delivery times, launching Zoro-branded private label products, improving the quality of customer acquisitions to enable better repeat rates, enhancing direct marketing capabilities through better analytics, and improving the customer experience through more accurate delivery communication. their progress during the year included optimizing the assortment to improve delivery times launching zoro-branded private label products improving the quality of customer acquisitions to enable better repeat rates enhancing direct marketing capabilities through better analytics and improving the customer experience through more accurate delivery communication These actions helped reaccelerate sales growth back into the high teens for the full year. these actions helped reaccelerate sales growth back into the high teens for the full year At MonotaRO, the team continues to execute well, driving strong results, including 25% growth with enterprise customers. at monotaro the team continues to execute well driving strong results including 25% growth with enterprise customers They continue to improve and expand their distribution capabilities by extending the reach of same-day shipping to regions beyond Tokyo and Osaka, while also planning for the future with the groundbreaking of the new Mito DC outside Tokyo. they continue to improve and expand their distribution capabilities by extending the reach of same-day shipping to regions beyond tokyo and osaka while also planning for the future with the groundbreaking of the new mito dc outside tokyo Similar to High-Touch, we have also progressed our AI and ML capabilities across both EA businesses. similar to high-touch we have also progressed our ai and ml capabilities across both ea businesses It's still early innings, but we are using these technologies to drive productivity and accelerate our momentum across the flywheel, and we have included a few examples on the slide. All told, we deliver great results across the Endless Assortment segment in 2025, and are positioned well to continue this momentum into the new year. Turning to slide 9, I'm very pleased with the continued progress we're making across our distribution network as we stay focused on extending our industry-leading ability to deliver next-day complete orders to customers across both segments. Notably, we made meaningful progress on three new facilities across the U.S. and Japan. The Northwest DC, which is located outside of Portland, is set to start full outbound operations later this year. This building will improve our service and reduce transportation costs throughout the Northwest. It's still early innings, but we are using these technologies to drive productivity and accelerate our momentum across the flywheel, and we have included a few examples on the slide. it's still early innings but we are using these technologies to drive productivity and accelerate our momentum across the flywheel and we have included a few examples on the slide All told, we deliver great results across the Endless Assortment segment in 2025, and are positioned well to continue this momentum into the new year. all told we deliver great results across the endless assortment segment in 2025 and are positioned well to continue this momentum into the new year Turning to slide 9, I'm very pleased with the continued progress we're making across our distribution network as we stay focused on extending our industry-leading ability to deliver next-day complete orders to customers across both segments. turning to slide 9 i'm very pleased with the continued progress we're making across our distribution network as we stay focused on extending our industry-leading ability to deliver next-day complete orders to customers across both segments Notably, we made meaningful progress on three new facilities across the U.S. and Japan. notably we made meaningful progress on three new facilities across the u.s and japan The Northwest DC, which is located outside of Portland, is set to start full outbound operations later this year. the northwest dc which is located outside of portland is set to start full outbound operations later this year This building will improve our service and reduce transportation costs throughout the Northwest. this building will improve our service and reduce transportation costs throughout the northwest We also continue to make great progress with our Houston distribution center and expect inbound operations to begin in the second half of 2027, with outbound following a few quarters later. In Japan, MonotaRO is making great progress on their new highly automated DC in Mito, scheduled to open in 2028. This facility, when complete, will nearly double the shipping capacity that MonotaRO has in the country. Outside of new capacity investments, the supply chain team has also worked hard to leverage inventory and transportation solutions to improve service in certain markets, including Florida and Canada. Overall, we continue to invest across our supply chain to make sure that we maintain and extend our leading position in customer fulfillment. Part of our organization remains our people, who work hard every day to fulfill our purpose to keep the world working. We also continue to make great progress with our Houston distribution center and expect inbound operations to begin in the second half of 2027, with outbound following a few quarters later. we also continue to make great progress with our houston distribution center and expect inbound operations to begin in the second half of 2027 with outbound following a few quarters later In Japan, MonotaRO is making great progress on their new highly automated DC in Mito, scheduled to open in 2028. in japan monotaro is making great progress on their new highly automated dc in mito scheduled to open in 2028 This facility, when complete, will nearly double the shipping capacity that MonotaRO has in the country. this facility when complete will nearly double the shipping capacity that monotaro has in the country Outside of new capacity investments, the supply chain team has also worked hard to leverage inventory and transportation solutions to improve service in certain markets, including Florida and Canada. outside of new capacity investments the supply chain team has also worked hard to leverage inventory and transportation solutions to improve service in certain markets including florida and canada Overall, we continue to invest across our supply chain to make sure that we maintain and extend our leading position in customer fulfillment. overall we continue to invest across our supply chain to make sure that we maintain and extend our leading position in customer fulfillment Part of our organization remains our people, who work hard every day to fulfill our purpose to keep the world working. part of our organization remains our people who work hard every day to fulfill our purpose to keep the world working As you can see on slide 10, our culture was again recognized externally during 2025. We were recertified as a Great Place to Work in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, affirming our commitment to being an employer of choice and a place where every team member feels valued and empowered. We were honored for the first time as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies, named once again as one of Fortune's Most Admired Companies, and recognized by Glassdoor as the Best Place to Work. These recognitions are a testament to the culture we've built over almost a century in this industry. Grainger will always be a place where every team member can have a fulfilling, meaningful career if they are willing to work hard to serve our customers. As you can see on slide 10, our culture was again recognized externally during 2025. as you can see on slide 10 our culture was again recognized externally during 2025 We were recertified as a Great Place to Work in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, affirming our commitment to being an employer of choice and a place where every team member feels valued and empowered. we were recertified as a great place to work in the u.s canada and mexico affirming our commitment to being an employer of choice and a place where every team member feels valued and empowered We were honored for the first time as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies , named once again as one of Fortune's Most Admired Companies , and recognized by Glassdoor as the Best Place to Work . we were honored for the first time as one of the world's most ethical companies named once again as one of fortune's most admired companies and recognized by glassdoor as the best place to work These recognitions are a testament to the culture we've built over almost a century in this industry. these recognitions are a testament to the culture we've built over almost a century in this industry Grainger will always be a place where every team member can have a fulfilling, meaningful career if they are willing to work hard to serve our customers. grainger will always be a place where every team member can have a fulfilling meaningful career if they are willing to work hard to serve our customers Now, turning to our full-year financials, 2025 certainly had its share of challenges between shifting tariff dynamics, soft MRO market demand, and the government shutdown. Despite these challenging macro headwinds, we still delivered total company sales growth of 4.5% on a reported basis, or 4.9% on a daily organic constant currency basis, with total sales finishing the year at $17.9 billion. Growth for the year included continued share gain from our High-Touch Solutions U.S. business, which finished the year with roughly 250 basis points of outgrowth on a volume basis. In Endless Assortment, the segment showed significant top-line improvement, with daily organic constant currency sales up 15.6%. Both Zoro and MonotaRO continue to win with their core B2B customer base and drive improved repeat purchase rates, positioning them well for the future. Now, turning to our full-year financials, 2025 certainly had its share of challenges between shifting tariff dynamics, soft MRO market demand, and the government shutdown. now turning to our full-year financials 2025 certainly had its share of challenges between shifting tariff dynamics soft mro market demand and the government shutdown Despite these challenging macro headwinds, we still delivered total company sales growth of 4.5% on a reported basis, or 4.9% on a daily organic constant currency basis, with total sales finishing the year at $17.9 billion. despite these challenging macro headwinds we still delivered total company sales growth of 4.5% on a reported basis or 4.9% on a daily organic constant currency basis with total sales finishing the year at $17.9 billion Growth for the year included continued share gain from our High-Touch Solutions U.S. business, which finished the year with roughly 250 basis points of outgrowth on a volume basis. growth for the year included continued share gain from our high-touch solutions u.s business which finished the year with roughly 250 basis points of outgrowth on a volume basis In Endless Assortment, the segment showed significant top-line improvement, with daily organic constant currency sales up 15.6%. in endless assortment the segment showed significant top-line improvement with daily organic constant currency sales up 15.6% Both Zoro and MonotaRO continue to win with their core B2B customer base and drive improved repeat purchase rates, positioning them well for the future. both zoro and monotaro continue to win with their core b2b customer base and drive improved repeat purchase rates positioning them well for the future Alongside the solid top line, the team also did a nice job managing strong margins despite labor headwinds, with operating margin finishing at 15% for the year. We delivered adjusted EPS growth of 1.3%, or $39.48 per share. ROIC finished at 39.1%, and operating cash flow was $2 billion, which allowed us to return $1.5 billion to Grainger shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Overall, I'm proud of what we accomplished in 2025. We continue to focus on improving in core areas of the business to perform well over the long term. With that, I will turn it over to Dee to review our fourth quarter results. Alongside the solid top line, the team also did a nice job managing strong margins despite labor headwinds, with operating margin finishing at 15% for the year. alongside the solid top line the team also did a nice job managing strong margins despite labor headwinds with operating margin finishing at 15% for the year We delivered adjusted EPS growth of 1.3%, or $39.48 per share. we delivered adjusted eps growth of 1.3% or $39.48 per share ROIC finished at 39.1%, and operating cash flow was $2 billion, which allowed us to return $1.5 billion to Grainger shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. roic finished at 39.1% and operating cash flow was $2 billion which allowed us to return $1.5 billion to grainger shareholders through dividends and share repurchases Overall, I'm proud of what we accomplished in 2025. overall i'm proud of what we accomplished in 2025 We continue to focus on improving in core areas of the business to perform well over the long term. we continue to focus on improving in core areas of the business to perform well over the long term With that, I will turn it over to Dee to review our fourth quarter results. with that i will turn it over to dee to review our fourth quarter results

Speaker 7: Thanks, D.G. I want to echo D.G.'s sentiment on our 2025 performance. Not only did we make progress on a number of strategic initiatives, but the team was also able to drive top and bottom line results within the original 2025 outlook we provided a year ago. A strong outcome despite the challenging macro environment we faced. ... Now turning to our fourth quarter results. We had another solid quarter to finish the year, with results roughly in line with expectations. For the total company, daily sales grew 4.5% or 4.6% on a daily organic constant currency basis, which included growth in both segments. Sales were healthy in the period, despite softness during the start of the quarter from the government shutdown and the lapping of a prior year hurricane-related sales benefit. Thanks, D.G. thanks d.g I want to echo D.G.'s sentiment on our 2025 performance. i want to echo d.g.'s sentiment on our 2025 performance Not only did we make progress on a number of strategic initiatives, but the team was also able to drive top and bottom line results within the original 2025 outlook we provided a year ago. not only did we make progress on a number of strategic initiatives but the team was also able to drive top and bottom line results within the original 2025 outlook we provided a year ago A strong outcome despite the challenging macro environment we faced. ... a strong outcome despite the challenging macro environment we faced. Now turning to our fourth quarter results. now turning to our fourth quarter results We had another solid quarter to finish the year, with results roughly in line with expectations. we had another solid quarter to finish the year with results roughly in line with expectations For the total company, daily sales grew 4.5% or 4.6% on a daily organic constant currency basis, which included growth in both segments. for the total company daily sales grew 4.5% or 4.6% on a daily organic constant currency basis which included growth in both segments Sales were healthy in the period, despite softness during the start of the quarter from the government shutdown and the lapping of a prior year hurricane-related sales benefit. sales were healthy in the period despite softness during the start of the quarter from the government shutdown and the lapping of a prior year hurricane-related sales benefit If you were to normalize these events, sales for the total company would have been up approximately 6.5% for the quarter on a daily organic constant currency basis. Total company gross margins for the quarter were strong, ending at 39.5%, down about 10 basis points over the prior year period, driven by segment mix headwinds from faster growing Endless Assortment. Operating margins were down 70 basis points year-over-year due to increased SG&A expense, which came in higher than expected in the period due to unforeseen healthcare costs above our normal run rate and a softer top line in the High-Touch Solutions segment. If you were to normalize these events, sales for the total company would have been up approximately 6.5% for the quarter on a daily organic constant currency basis. if you were to normalize these events sales for the total company would have been up approximately 6.5% for the quarter on a daily organic constant currency basis Total company gross margins for the quarter were strong, ending at 39.5%, down about 10 basis points over the prior year period, driven by segment mix headwinds from faster growing Endless Assortment . total company gross margins for the quarter were strong ending at 39.5% down about 10 basis points over the prior year period driven by segment mix headwinds from faster growing endless assortment Operating margins were down 70 basis points year-over-year due to increased SG&A expense, which came in higher than expected in the period due to unforeseen healthcare costs above our normal run rate and a softer top line in the High-Touch Solutions segment. operating margins were down 70 basis points year-over-year due to increased sg&a expense which came in higher than expected in the period due to unforeseen healthcare costs above our normal run rate and a softer top line in the high-touch solutions segment Overall, we delivered diluted EPS of $9.44 for the quarter, which was down 2.8% versus the fourth quarter of 2024, but above the midpoint of our implied fourth quarter guide. Moving to segment level results. The High-Touch Solutions segment delivered sales growth of 2.2% on a reported basis, or 2.1% on a daily constant currency basis. Results included nearly three points of price inflation for the segment, showing meaningful sequential improvement as tariff costs continued to be passed. From an end market perspective, our indicators suggest the MRO market gained momentum sequentially, but remained muted in the period. For Grainger specifically, we saw strong performance with contractor and manufacturing customers, which helped to offset slower growth in other areas of the business, including year-over-year softness in the government end market. Overall, we delivered diluted EPS of $9.44 for the quarter, which was down 2.8% versus the fourth quarter of 2024, but above the midpoint of our implied fourth quarter guide. overall we delivered diluted eps of $9.44 for the quarter which was down 2.8% versus the fourth quarter of 2024 but above the midpoint of our implied fourth quarter guide Moving to segment level results. moving to segment level results The High-Touch Solutions segment delivered sales growth of 2.2% on a reported basis, or 2.1% on a daily constant currency basis. the high-touch solutions segment delivered sales growth of 2.2% on a reported basis or 2.1% on a daily constant currency basis Results included nearly three points of price inflation for the segment, showing meaningful sequential improvement as tariff costs continued to be passed. results included nearly three points of price inflation for the segment showing meaningful sequential improvement as tariff costs continued to be passed From an end market perspective, our indicators suggest the MRO market gained momentum sequentially, but remained muted in the period. from an end market perspective our indicators suggest the mro market gained momentum sequentially but remained muted in the period For Grainger specifically, we saw strong performance with contractor and manufacturing customers, which helped to offset slower growth in other areas of the business, including year-over-year softness in the government end market. for grainger specifically we saw strong performance with contractor and manufacturing customers which helped to offset slower growth in other areas of the business including year-over-year softness in the government end market If you were to normalize government sales for the impact of the shutdown and the prior year hurricane-related sales benefit, sales for the High-Touch segment would have been up roughly 4.5% for the quarter on a daily constant currency basis. On profitability, gross margin finished the quarter at 42.3%, flat versus the prior year. We continued to see tariff-related inflation, which caused further LIFO inventory valuation headwinds, although the magnitude of these charges came in favorable to our expectations. These charges were offset by positive mix and a number of other smaller tailwinds. Price costs on a LIFO basis remains negative, but improved in the quarter as our pricing actions took hold. If you were to normalize government sales for the impact of the shutdown and the prior year hurricane-related sales benefit, sales for the High-Touch segment would have been up roughly 4.5% for the quarter on a daily constant currency basis. if you were to normalize government sales for the impact of the shutdown and the prior year hurricane-related sales benefit sales for the high-touch segment would have been up roughly 4.5% for the quarter on a daily constant currency basis On profitability, gross margin finished the quarter at 42.3%, flat versus the prior year. on profitability gross margin finished the quarter at 42.3% flat versus the prior year We continued to see tariff-related inflation, which caused further LIFO inventory valuation headwinds, although the magnitude of these charges came in favorable to our expectations. we continued to see tariff-related inflation which caused further lifo inventory valuation headwinds although the magnitude of these charges came in favorable to our expectations These charges were offset by positive mix and a number of other smaller tailwinds. these charges were offset by positive mix and a number of other smaller tailwinds Price costs on a LIFO basis remains negative, but improved in the quarter as our pricing actions took hold. price costs on a lifo basis remains negative but improved in the quarter as our pricing actions took hold Similar to last quarter, if we excluded the LIFO headwind and we wanted to compare ourselves to our peer set, which report on FIFO, our implied FIFO gross margin rate would have increased year-over-year, with price costs roughly neutral on this basis. On SG&A, margins delivered in the period as payroll and higher than expected healthcare costs, along with continued marketing investment, were only partially offset by productivity. We also saw a softer top line in the period due to the impact of the government shutdown, which further weighed on margins. Taking all this together, operating margin for the segment finished at 15.8%, down 120 basis points versus the prior year quarter. Before moving on, I want to share a brief update on where we are with tariffs. Similar to last quarter, if we excluded the LIFO headwind and we wanted to compare ourselves to our peer set, which report on FIFO, our implied FIFO gross margin rate would have increased year-over-year, with price costs roughly neutral on this basis. similar to last quarter if we excluded the lifo headwind and we wanted to compare ourselves to our peer set which report on fifo our implied fifo gross margin rate would have increased year-over-year with price costs roughly neutral on this basis On SG&A, margins delivered in the period as payroll and higher than expected healthcare costs, along with continued marketing investment, were only partially offset by productivity. on sg&a margins delivered in the period as payroll and higher than expected healthcare costs along with continued marketing investment were only partially offset by productivity We also saw a softer top line in the period due to the impact of the government shutdown, which further weighed on margins. we also saw a softer top line in the period due to the impact of the government shutdown which further weighed on margins Taking all this together, operating margin for the segment finished at 15.8%, down 120 basis points versus the prior year quarter. taking all this together operating margin for the segment finished at 15.8% down 120 basis points versus the prior year quarter Before moving on, I want to share a brief update on where we are with tariffs. before moving on i want to share a brief update on where we are with tariffs In the fourth quarter, we remained engaged in active dialogue with our supplier partners and took modest price increases in November to help offset continued cost pressure. These actions were on top of the price increases in May and September, when we began to pass through tariff-related costs. In January of this year, we passed further prices in response to previously delayed tariff inflation and to offset annually negotiated cost increases with our suppliers, which were largely in effect as of February 1st. These actions are net of a partial rollback on certain Chinese tariffs announced at the end of last year. As we look ahead, we've passed the majority of known tariff-related costs to date, but the situation still remains fluid. In the fourth quarter, we remained engaged in active dialogue with our supplier partners and took modest price increases in November to help offset continued cost pressure. in the fourth quarter we remained engaged in active dialogue with our supplier partners and took modest price increases in november to help offset continued cost pressure These actions were on top of the price increases in May and September, when we began to pass through tariff-related costs. these actions were on top of the price increases in may and september when we began to pass through tariff-related costs In January of this year, we passed further prices in response to previously delayed tariff inflation and to offset annually negotiated cost increases with our suppliers, which were largely in effect as of February 1st. in january of this year we passed further prices in response to previously delayed tariff inflation and to offset annually negotiated cost increases with our suppliers which were largely in effect as of february 1st These actions are net of a partial rollback on certain Chinese tariffs announced at the end of last year. these actions are net of a partial rollback on certain chinese tariffs announced at the end of last year As we look ahead, we've passed the majority of known tariff-related costs to date, but the situation still remains fluid. as we look ahead we've passed the majority of known tariff-related costs to date but the situation still remains fluid Importantly, our team is staying agile, and we remain confident in our ability to adhere to our core tenets to reach price cost neutrality over time while maintaining competitive pricing. Turning to slide 16, we wanted to share an update on our volume outgrowth for the High-Touch U.S. business. When we last spoke about outgrowth in detail, it was during the first quarter of 2025, as we observed a meaningful inflection in the underlying single factor IP benchmark that we use to measure MRO market volume. This inflection was misaligned with what we're seeing on the ground with our MRO customers and likely caused by shifting macroeconomic dynamics. These dynamics are driving bifurcation across industries where tariffs are impacting demand in some industries, while others are experiencing a tailwind, notably those tied to aircraft manufacturing and data center build outs. Importantly, our team is staying agile, and we remain confident in our ability to adhere to our core tenets to reach price cost neutrality over time while maintaining competitive pricing. importantly our team is staying agile and we remain confident in our ability to adhere to our core tenets to reach price cost neutrality over time while maintaining competitive pricing Turning to slide 16, we wanted to share an update on our volume outgrowth for the High-Touch U.S. business. turning to slide 16 we wanted to share an update on our volume outgrowth for the high-touch u.s business When we last spoke about outgrowth in detail, it was during the first quarter of 2025, as we observed a meaningful inflection in the underlying single factor IP benchmark that we use to measure MRO market volume. when we last spoke about outgrowth in detail it was during the first quarter of 2025 as we observed a meaningful inflection in the underlying single factor ip benchmark that we use to measure mro market volume This inflection was misaligned with what we're seeing on the ground with our MRO customers and likely caused by shifting macroeconomic dynamics. this inflection was misaligned with what we're seeing on the ground with our mro customers and likely caused by shifting macroeconomic dynamics These dynamics are driving bifurcation across industries where tariffs are impacting demand in some industries, while others are experiencing a tailwind, notably those tied to aircraft manufacturing and data center build outs. these dynamics are driving bifurcation across industries where tariffs are impacting demand in some industries while others are experiencing a tailwind notably those tied to aircraft manufacturing and data center build outs As we've been discussing over the past few years, we built a separate market model back in late 2023 after a sustained period of dislocation between what we were hearing from customers and what the single factor model was implying about market volume growth. This multifactor model was developed after testing over 1,000 publicly available economic indicators to find the best combination of explanatory factors with a high correlation to underlying U.S. economic census data for MRO products. Specifically, the model pulls in several different supply and demand factors, including net core capital goods shipments, import-export dynamics, and end user activity, to formulate a comprehensive view of the MRO landscape. As we've been discussing over the past few years, we built a separate market model back in late 2023 after a sustained period of dislocation between what we were hearing from customers and what the single factor model was implying about market volume growth. as we've been discussing over the past few years we built a separate market model back in late 2023 after a sustained period of dislocation between what we were hearing from customers and what the single factor model was implying about market volume growth This multifactor model was developed after testing over 1,000 publicly available economic indicators to find the best combination of explanatory factors with a high correlation to underlying U.S. economic census data for MRO products. this multifactor model was developed after testing over 1,000 publicly available economic indicators to find the best combination of explanatory factors with a high correlation to underlying u.s economic census data for mro products Specifically, the model pulls in several different supply and demand factors, including net core capital goods shipments, import-export dynamics, and end user activity, to formulate a comprehensive view of the MRO landscape. specifically the model pulls in several different supply and demand factors including net core capital goods shipments import-export dynamics and end user activity to formulate a comprehensive view of the mro landscape When comparing the two model inputs side by side, while neither model mirrors the exact weight of Grainger's customer end markets, the multifactor model does capture a broader base of end market activities outside of manufacturing, while also eliminating non-MRO product categories. Further, the multifactor model captures a more dynamic view of the economy, relevant trade flows, and shows a stronger correlation to underlying MRO product consumption data. And while the inner workings of the multifactor model are less accessible externally and no model is perfect, the comprehensive nature of the model would suggest it more accurately reflects the performance of our market, specifically in periods of economic disruption or change. With this context in mind, if you turn to slide 17, we charted the historical results for both models, starting with the point at which economic inputs were first published for the multifactor model. When comparing the two model inputs side by side, while neither model mirrors the exact weight of Grainger's customer end markets, the multifactor model does capture a broader base of end market activities outside of manufacturing, while also eliminating non-MRO product categories. when comparing the two model inputs side by side while neither model mirrors the exact weight of grainger's customer end markets the multifactor model does capture a broader base of end market activities outside of manufacturing while also eliminating non-mro product categories Further, the multifactor model captures a more dynamic view of the economy, relevant trade flows, and shows a stronger correlation to underlying MRO product consumption data. further the multifactor model captures a more dynamic view of the economy relevant trade flows and shows a stronger correlation to underlying mro product consumption data And while the inner workings of the multifactor model are less accessible externally and no model is perfect, the comprehensive nature of the model would suggest it more accurately reflects the performance of our market, specifically in periods of economic disruption or change. and while the inner workings of the multifactor model are less accessible externally and no model is perfect the comprehensive nature of the model would suggest it more accurately reflects the performance of our market specifically in periods of economic disruption or change With this context in mind, if you turn to slide 17, we charted the historical results for both models, starting with the point at which economic inputs were first published for the multifactor model. with this context in mind if you turn to slide 17 we charted the historical results for both models starting with the point at which economic inputs were first published for the multifactor model As you can see, the two models are highly correlated, and over this 20+ year period, the average annual growth rate is nearly identical. However, the models do experience disconnects during periods of macroeconomic shifts. Typically, when the multifactor model trails a single factor model or vice versa, it eventually catches up, but the duration of these dislocations is unpredictable. As you see, we've experienced a prolonged period of dislocation since the pandemic, including each model moving in opposite directions after new tariffs were enacted in early 2025. It's unclear to us how long this divergence will last. With this, given its comprehensive nature and the fact that we've studied each model exhaustively over the last couple of years, we are more confident in the demand signals from the multifactor model, and we'll use it to measure our outgrowth progress going forward. As you can see, the two models are highly correlated, and over this 20+ year period, the average annual growth rate is nearly identical. as you can see the two models are highly correlated and over this 20+ year period the average annual growth rate is nearly identical However, the models do experience disconnects during periods of macroeconomic shifts. however the models do experience disconnects during periods of macroeconomic shifts Typically, when the multifactor model trails a single factor model or vice versa, it eventually catches up, but the duration of these dislocations is unpredictable. typically when the multifactor model trails a single factor model or vice versa it eventually catches up but the duration of these dislocations is unpredictable As you see, we've experienced a prolonged period of dislocation since the pandemic, including each model moving in opposite directions after new tariffs were enacted in early 2025. as you see we've experienced a prolonged period of dislocation since the pandemic including each model moving in opposite directions after new tariffs were enacted in early 2025 It's unclear to us how long this divergence will last. it's unclear to us how long this divergence will last With this, given its comprehensive nature and the fact that we've studied each model exhaustively over the last couple of years, we are more confident in the demand signals from the multifactor model, and we'll use it to measure our outgrowth progress going forward. with this given its comprehensive nature and the fact that we've studied each model exhaustively over the last couple of years we are more confident in the demand signals from the multifactor model and we'll use it to measure our outgrowth progress going forward On this basis, turning to slide 18 and using our multifactor MRO model, we estimate that Grainger finished full year 2025 with roughly 250 basis points of outgrowth on a volume basis, as our High-Touch Solutions U.S. business grew volume by 1.4% compared to our multifactor MRO model, which was down between 1.5% and 0.5% for the year. Albeit short of our 400-500 basis point long-term target, we're continuing to take healthy share. Marketing and merchandising remain our largest contributors to outgrowth, and on a go-forward basis, we're anticipating a more consistent impact from seller coverage and seller effectiveness as new geographies ramp and seller tools mature. On this basis, turning to slide 18 and using our multifactor MRO model, we estimate that Grainger finished full year 2025 with roughly 250 basis points of outgrowth on a volume basis, as our High- Touch Solutions U.S. business grew volume by 1.4% compared to our multifactor MRO model, which was down between 1.5% and 0.5% for the year. on this basis turning to slide 18 and using our multifactor mro model we estimate that grainger finished full year 2025 with roughly 250 basis points of outgrowth on a volume basis as our high- touch solutions u.s business grew volume by 1.4% compared to our multifactor mro model which was down between 1.5% and 0.5% for the year Albeit short of our 400-500 basis point long-term target, we're continuing to take healthy share. albeit short of our 400-500 basis point long-term target we're continuing to take healthy share Marketing and merchandising remain our largest contributors to outgrowth, and on a go-forward basis, we're anticipating a more consistent impact from seller coverage and seller effectiveness as new geographies ramp and seller tools mature. marketing and merchandising remain our largest contributors to outgrowth and on a go-forward basis we're anticipating a more consistent impact from seller coverage and seller effectiveness as new geographies ramp and seller tools mature Overall, we remain confident in our strategic growth engines and their ability to drive share over the long term and continue to target 400-500 basis points of average annual outgrowth over time. Now, focusing on the Endless Assortment segment. Sales increased 14.3% on a reported basis, or 15.7% on a daily organic constant currency basis, which normalizes for the FX headwinds realized in the period and the closure of our Zoro UK business. Zoro U.S. was up 16%, while MonotaRO achieved 18.4% growth in local days, local constant currency. At a business level, Zoro continues its momentum, driving strong growth from its core B2B customers, along with improving customer retention rates. At MonotaRO, sales remained strong, with continued growth from enterprise customers, coupled with solid acquisition and repeat purchase rates with small and mid-sized businesses. Overall, we remain confident in our strategic growth engines and their ability to drive share over the long term and continue to target 400-500 basis points of average annual outgrowth over time. overall we remain confident in our strategic growth engines and their ability to drive share over the long term and continue to target 400-500 basis points of average annual outgrowth over time Now, focusing on the Endless Assortment segment. now focusing on the endless assortment segment Sales increased 14.3% on a reported basis, or 15.7% on a daily organic constant currency basis, which normalizes for the FX headwinds realized in the period and the closure of our Zoro UK business. sales increased 14.3% on a reported basis or 15.7% on a daily organic constant currency basis which normalizes for the fx headwinds realized in the period and the closure of our zoro uk business Zoro U.S. was up 16%, while MonotaRO achieved 18.4% growth in local days, local constant currency. zoro u.s was up 16% while monotaro achieved 18.4% growth in local days local constant currency At a business level, Zoro continues its momentum, driving strong growth from its core B2B customers, along with improving customer retention rates. at a business level zoro continues its momentum driving strong growth from its core b2b customers along with improving customer retention rates At MonotaRO, sales remained strong, with continued growth from enterprise customers, coupled with solid acquisition and repeat purchase rates with small and mid-sized businesses. at monotaro sales remained strong with continued growth from enterprise customers coupled with solid acquisition and repeat purchase rates with small and mid-sized businesses Additionally, MonotaRO experienced increased web traffic stemming from a competitive cyber outage, which provided a tailwind to sales in the period. On profitability, operating margins increased by 200 basis points to 10.6%, with favorability across the segment. MonotaRO margins remained strong at 13.6%, up 100 basis points, and Zoro margins improved to 6.3% of 260 basis points, with both businesses benefiting from gross margin flow, flow-through and healthy top-line leverage. Overall, we're proud of the exceptional performance throughout 2025 within the Endless Assortment segment and look to continue the momentum this year. Moving into our outlook for 2026. At the total company level, we expect revenue to be between $18.7 billion and $19.1 billion, driven by growth in both segments. Additionally, MonotaRO experienced increased web traffic stemming from a competitive cyber outage, which provided a tailwind to sales in the period. additionally monotaro experienced increased web traffic stemming from a competitive cyber outage which provided a tailwind to sales in the period On profitability, operating margins increased by 200 basis points to 10.6%, with favorability across the segment. on profitability operating margins increased by 200 basis points to 10.6% with favorability across the segment MonotaRO margins remained strong at 13.6%, up 100 basis points, and Zoro margins improved to 6.3% of 260 basis points, with both businesses benefiting from gross margin flow, flow-through and healthy top-line leverage. monotaro margins remained strong at 13.6% up 100 basis points and zoro margins improved to 6.3% of 260 basis points with both businesses benefiting from gross margin flow flow-through and healthy top-line leverage Overall, we're proud of the exceptional performance throughout 2025 within the Endless Assortment segment and look to continue the momentum this year. overall we're proud of the exceptional performance throughout 2025 within the endless assortment segment and look to continue the momentum this year Moving into our outlook for 2026. moving into our outlook for 2026 At the total company level, we expect revenue to be between $18.7 billion and $19.1 billion, driven by growth in both segments. at the total company level we expect revenue to be between $18.7 billion and $19.1 billion driven by growth in both segments This translates to daily organic constant currency sales between 6.5% and 9%, which is 230 basis points higher than reported sales growth at the midpoint, after adjusting for FX headwinds and the impact of our exit from the UK market. Within our High-Touch Solutions segment, we expect daily constant currency sales growth between 5% and 7.5%.... In the U.S., we anticipate continued demand pressure as tariff-related price increases weigh on market volumes. While we expect industry-specific tailwinds in certain areas of the economy will persist, many of these green shoots are outside of core MRO product categories. With this, while we acknowledge falling interest rates and other macro factors could reverse the multi-year volume contraction in our industry, we're conservatively modeling the market to be down 1.5% to flat. This translates to daily organic constant currency sales between 6.5% and 9%, which is 230 basis points higher than reported sales growth at the midpoint, after adjusting for FX headwinds and the impact of our exit from the UK market. this translates to daily organic constant currency sales between 6.5% and 9% which is 230 basis points higher than reported sales growth at the midpoint after adjusting for fx headwinds and the impact of our exit from the uk market Within our High-Touch Solutions segment, we expect daily constant currency sales growth between 5% and 7.5%.... within our high-touch solutions segment we expect daily constant currency sales growth between 5% and 7.5% In the U.S., we anticipate continued demand pressure as tariff-related price increases weigh on market volumes. in the u.s we anticipate continued demand pressure as tariff-related price increases weigh on market volumes While we expect industry-specific tailwinds in certain areas of the economy will persist, many of these green shoots are outside of core MRO product categories. while we expect industry-specific tailwinds in certain areas of the economy will persist many of these green shoots are outside of core mro product categories With this, while we acknowledge falling interest rates and other macro factors could reverse the multi-year volume contraction in our industry, we're conservatively modeling the market to be down 1.5% to flat. with this while we acknowledge falling interest rates and other macro factors could reverse the multi-year volume contraction in our industry we're conservatively modeling the market to be down 1.5% to flat On share gain, we're assuming outgrowth improves through the year as we ramp investment and gain traction with our growth drivers. We expect this will deliver outgrowth, growth at or below our long-term target range in 2026. Lastly, we expect meaningful price contribution to revenue, which includes the wrap of 2025 actions and incremental price this year to fully catch up on the costs we are seeing from suppliers. This price contribution factors into the partial rollback on certain Chinese tariffs announced in November of last year, but excludes any impact from future unknown tariffs or rollbacks that may or may not occur in 2026. In the Endless Assortment segment, we anticipate daily organic constant currency sales to grow between 12.5% and 15% in the range of their long-term framework. On share gain, we're assuming outgrowth improves through the year as we ramp investment and gain traction with our growth drivers. on share gain we're assuming outgrowth improves through the year as we ramp investment and gain traction with our growth drivers We expect this will deliver outgrowth, growth at or below our long-term target range in 2026. we expect this will deliver outgrowth growth at or below our long-term target range in 2026 Lastly, we expect meaningful price contribution to revenue, which includes the wrap of 2025 actions and incremental price this year to fully catch up on the costs we are seeing from suppliers. lastly we expect meaningful price contribution to revenue which includes the wrap of 2025 actions and incremental price this year to fully catch up on the costs we are seeing from suppliers This price contribution factors into the partial rollback on certain Chinese tariffs announced in November of last year, but excludes any impact from future unknown tariffs or rollbacks that may or may not occur in 2026. this price contribution factors into the partial rollback on certain chinese tariffs announced in november of last year but excludes any impact from future unknown tariffs or rollbacks that may or may not occur in 2026 In the Endless Assortment segment, we anticipate daily organic constant currency sales to grow between 12.5% and 15% in the range of their long-term framework. in the endless assortment segment we anticipate daily organic constant currency sales to grow between 12.5% and 15% in the range of their long-term framework This segment-level growth will be roughly 230 basis points lower on a reported basis when you normalize for the expected foreign currency exchange headwinds and the closure of our Zoro UK business. At the business unit level, Zoro is anticipated to grow in low teens as they continue their momentum and driving higher repeat rates, consistent service, and improved mid-summer marketing. MonotaRO also expected to grow in the low teens in local days and local currency, which normalizes for one less Japanese selling day in 2026 and expected FX headwinds from the yen. This strong performance is fueled by growth with new and enterprise customers, strong repeat rates with core B2B customers, and a carryover benefit from the competitor cyber outage. This segment-level growth will be roughly 230 basis points lower on a reported basis when you normalize for the expected foreign currency exchange headwinds and the closure of our Zoro UK business. this segment-level growth will be roughly 230 basis points lower on a reported basis when you normalize for the expected foreign currency exchange headwinds and the closure of our zoro uk business At the business unit level, Zoro is anticipated to grow in low teens as they continue their momentum and driving higher repeat rates, consistent service, and improved mid-summer marketing. at the business unit level zoro is anticipated to grow in low teens as they continue their momentum and driving higher repeat rates consistent service and improved mid-summer marketing MonotaRO also expected to grow in the low teens in local days and local currency, which normalizes for one less Japanese selling day in 2026 and expected FX headwinds from the yen. monotaro also expected to grow in the low teens in local days and local currency which normalizes for one less japanese selling day in 2026 and expected fx headwinds from the yen This strong performance is fueled by growth with new and enterprise customers, strong repeat rates with core B2B customers, and a carryover benefit from the competitor cyber outage. this strong performance is fueled by growth with new and enterprise customers strong repeat rates with core b2b customers and a carryover benefit from the competitor cyber outage Moving to our margin expectations, we expect total company operating margins to range between 15.4%-15.9%, up 40-90 basis points compared to 2025. This reflects improvements in both segments, as well as a 45 basis points tailwind from our exit of the UK market, split roughly evenly between gross margin and SG&A leverage. In the High-Touch Solutions segment, we expect operating margins between 16.9%-17.4% of 35 basis points at the midpoint. Gross margin will improve as price cost normalizes and LIFO inventory valuation headwinds subside in the back half of the year. This favorability is partially offset by a modest headwind from our private label portfolio, where tariff dynamics have changed competitiveness on certain SKUs. Moving to our margin expectations, we expect total company operating margins to range between 15.4%-15.9%, up 40-90 basis points compared to 2025. moving to our margin expectations we expect total company operating margins to range between 15.4%-15.9% up 40-90 basis points compared to 2025 This reflects improvements in both segments, as well as a 45 basis points tailwind from our exit of the UK market, split roughly evenly between gross margin and SG&A leverage. this reflects improvements in both segments as well as a 45 basis points tailwind from our exit of the uk market split roughly evenly between gross margin and sg&a leverage In the High-Touch Solutions segment, we expect operating margins between 16.9%-17.4% of 35 basis points at the midpoint. in the high-touch solutions segment we expect operating margins between 16.9%-17.4% of 35 basis points at the midpoint Gross margin will improve as price cost normalizes and LIFO inventory valuation headwinds subside in the back half of the year. gross margin will improve as price cost normalizes and lifo inventory valuation headwinds subside in the back half of the year This favorability is partially offset by a modest headwind from our private label portfolio, where tariff dynamics have changed competitiveness on certain SKUs. this favorability is partially offset by a modest headwind from our private label portfolio where tariff dynamics have changed competitiveness on certain skus We expect SG&A leverage to improve as the accelerating top line and our productivity efforts offset ramping investment across our demand generators. In Endless Assortment, we anticipate operating margin will continue to ramp between 10%-10.5% or 20-70 basis points versus 2025. Gross margins are expected to be down slightly at the midpoint, and we expect continued healthy operating leverage improvement in both businesses. Our closure of Zoro UK is also positively contributing to segment-level operating margins. Turning now to capital allocation. Our business is positioned to generate strong cash flow in 2026, with expected operating cash of approximately $2.1 billion-$2.3 billion, reflecting conversion of around 100%. Our capital allocation priorities remain consistent and largely unchanged from prior years. We expect SG&A leverage to improve as the accelerating top line and our productivity efforts offset ramping investment across our demand generators. we expect sg&a leverage to improve as the accelerating top line and our productivity efforts offset ramping investment across our demand generators In Endless Assortment, we anticipate operating margin will continue to ramp between 10%-10.5% or 20-70 basis points versus 2025. in endless assortment we anticipate operating margin will continue to ramp between 10%-10.5% or 20-70 basis points versus 2025 Gross margins are expected to be down slightly at the midpoint, and we expect continued healthy operating leverage improvement in both businesses. gross margins are expected to be down slightly at the midpoint and we expect continued healthy operating leverage improvement in both businesses Our closure of Zoro UK is also positively contributing to segment-level operating margins. our closure of zoro uk is also positively contributing to segment-level operating margins Turning now to capital allocation. turning now to capital allocation Our business is positioned to generate strong cash flow in 2026, with expected operating cash of approximately $2.1 billion-$2.3 billion, reflecting conversion of around 100%. our business is positioned to generate strong cash flow in 2026 with expected operating cash of approximately $2.1 billion-$2.3 billion reflecting conversion of around 100% Our capital allocation priorities remain consistent and largely unchanged from prior years. our capital allocation priorities remain consistent and largely unchanged from prior years We'll continue to invest in the business with CapEx in the range of $550 million-$650 million, supporting supply chain initiatives, construction of new facilities in the U.S. and Japan, and ongoing technology and data investments. We'll pursue selective inorganic opportunities while maintaining strategic and price discipline, and beyond investment, we'll, we expect to return excess cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. We'll formally set the 2026 dividend in the second quarter, but again anticipate high single-digit to low double-digit annual increases. Share repurchases related to Grainger common stock are expected to be around $1 billion for the year. Overall, our return-focused philosophy gives us flexibility to invest efficiently while delivering strong returns for our shareholders over the long term. We'll continue to invest in the business with CapEx in the range of $550 million-$650 million, supporting supply chain initiatives, construction of new facilities in the U.S. and Japan, and ongoing technology and data investments. we'll continue to invest in the business with capex in the range of $550 million-$650 million supporting supply chain initiatives construction of new facilities in the u.s and japan and ongoing technology and data investments We'll pursue selective inorganic opportunities while maintaining strategic and price discipline, and beyond investment, we'll, we expect to return excess cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. we'll pursue selective inorganic opportunities while maintaining strategic and price discipline and beyond investment we'll we expect to return excess cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases We'll formally set the 2026 dividend in the second quarter, but again anticipate high single-digit to low double-digit annual increases. we'll formally set the 2026 dividend in the second quarter but again anticipate high single-digit to low double-digit annual increases Share repurchases related to Grainger common stock are expected to be around $1 billion for the year. share repurchases related to grainger common stock are expected to be around $1 billion for the year Overall, our return-focused philosophy gives us flexibility to invest efficiently while delivering strong returns for our shareholders over the long term. overall our return-focused philosophy gives us flexibility to invest efficiently while delivering strong returns for our shareholders over the long term In summary, at the total company level, we plan to grow top line by 4.2%-6.7% on a reported basis, or 6.5%-9% on a daily organic constant currency basis, which normalizes for FX headwinds and our exit of the UK market. You can see margin improvement through the P&L, which reflects the previously mentioned tailwinds from the UK exit, High-Touch gross margin recovery, and healthy leverage in both segments. These margin benefits will be partially offset by continued segment mix headwinds as Endless Assortment grows faster than High-Touch. We're expecting the effective tax rate in 2026 to be roughly 25%, about 130 basis points unfavorable versus the prior year adjusted rate. In summary, at the total company level, we plan to grow top line by 4.2%-6.7% on a reported basis, or 6.5%-9% on a daily organic constant currency basis, which normalizes for FX headwinds and our exit of the UK market. in summary at the total company level we plan to grow top line by 4.2%-6.7% on a reported basis or 6.5%-9% on a daily organic constant currency basis which normalizes for fx headwinds and our exit of the uk market You can see margin improvement through the P&L, which reflects the previously mentioned tailwinds from the UK exit, High- Touch gross margin recovery, and healthy leverage in both segments. you can see margin improvement through the p&l which reflects the previously mentioned tailwinds from the uk exit high- touch gross margin recovery and healthy leverage in both segments These margin benefits will be partially offset by continued segment mix headwinds as Endless Assortment grows faster than High- Touch. these margin benefits will be partially offset by continued segment mix headwinds as endless assortment grows faster than high- touch We're expecting the effective tax rate in 2026 to be roughly 25%, about 130 basis points unfavorable versus the prior year adjusted rate. we're expecting the effective tax rate in 2026 to be roughly 25% about 130 basis points unfavorable versus the prior year adjusted rate mainly due to the impact of recent federal tax law changes and the lack of one-time tax planning initiatives that won't recur in 2026. Taking all this together, including our share repurchase outlook, we expect EPS of $42.25-$44.75 per share, up over 10% at the midpoint. From a seasonality perspective, we expect year-over-year sales growth to be relatively consistent as we move throughout the year on a daily organic constant currency basis. Growth margin will deviate from its normal seasonality, given LIFO and price cost dynamics as we comp over tariff headwinds in the prior year and reflect the impact of this year's annual Grainger Show meeting. With this, first half gross margins will be at or slightly below our annual guide before rebounding in the back half of the year as the tariff-related impacts subside. mainly due to the impact of recent federal tax law changes and the lack of one-time tax planning initiatives that won't recur in 2026. mainly due to the impact of recent federal tax law changes and the lack of one-time tax planning initiatives that won't recur in 2026 Taking all this together, including our share repurchase outlook, we expect EPS of $42.25-$44.75 per share, up over 10% at the midpoint. taking all this together including our share repurchase outlook we expect eps of $42.25-$44.75 per share up over 10% at the midpoint From a seasonality perspective, we expect year-over-year sales growth to be relatively consistent as we move throughout the year on a daily organic constant currency basis. from a seasonality perspective we expect year-over-year sales growth to be relatively consistent as we move throughout the year on a daily organic constant currency basis Growth margin will deviate from its normal seasonality, given LIFO and price cost dynamics as we comp over tariff headwinds in the prior year and reflect the impact of this year's annual Grainger Show meeting. growth margin will deviate from its normal seasonality given lifo and price cost dynamics as we comp over tariff headwinds in the prior year and reflect the impact of this year's annual grainger show meeting With this, first half gross margins will be at or slightly below our annual guide before rebounding in the back half of the year as the tariff-related impacts subside. with this first half gross margins will be at or slightly below our annual guide before rebounding in the back half of the year as the tariff-related impacts subside Operating margin will follow a similar trajectory, where the first half is at or below our full year guide before rebounding in the back half of the year. The first quarter is off to a strong start, with preliminary January sales up over 10% on a daily organic constant currency basis. This start supports our expectation for the first quarter sales of around $4.5 billion-$4.6 billion, up north of 7.5% on a daily organic constant currency basis, or roughly 200 basis points lower on a reported basis. First quarter gross margins will remain healthy, but decline sequentially versus the fourth quarter of 2025. This differs from our normal seasonal pattern as we continue to face tariff-related pressures and reflect the impact from the Grainger sales meeting, which flips to a gross margin headwind in 2026. Operating margin will follow a similar trajectory, where the first half is at or below our full year guide before rebounding in the back half of the year. operating margin will follow a similar trajectory where the first half is at or below our full year guide before rebounding in the back half of the year The first quarter is off to a strong start, with preliminary January sales up over 10% on a daily organic constant currency basis. the first quarter is off to a strong start with preliminary january sales up over 10% on a daily organic constant currency basis This start supports our expectation for the first quarter sales of around $4.5 billion-$4.6 billion, up north of 7.5% on a daily organic constant currency basis, or roughly 200 basis points lower on a reported basis. this start supports our expectation for the first quarter sales of around $4.5 billion-$4.6 billion up north of 7.5% on a daily organic constant currency basis or roughly 200 basis points lower on a reported basis First quarter gross margins will remain healthy, but decline sequentially versus the fourth quarter of 2025. first quarter gross margins will remain healthy but decline sequentially versus the fourth quarter of 2025 This differs from our normal seasonal pattern as we continue to face tariff-related pressures and reflect the impact from the Grainger sales meeting, which flips to a gross margin headwind in 2026. this differs from our normal seasonal pattern as we continue to face tariff-related pressures and reflect the impact from the grainger sales meeting which flips to a gross margin headwind in 2026 This gross margin pressure will be offset by sequential leverage improvement, and we anticipate first quarter operating margins will be just north of 15% for the total company. Lastly, as I've consistently done at the end of the past few years, I've included our long-term earnings framework for reference. The only change from the last time I shared this framework is a modest change to our go-forward tax rate assumption to reflect new federal legislation. Importantly, all the core operating tenets of this framework remain intact, intact, and we are well positioned to deliver great results for our shareholders for years to come. With that, I'll turn it back to D.G. for some closing remarks. This gross margin pressure will be offset by sequential leverage improvement, and we anticipate first quarter operating margins will be just north of 15% for the total company. this gross margin pressure will be offset by sequential leverage improvement and we anticipate first quarter operating margins will be just north of 15% for the total company Lastly, as I've consistently done at the end of the past few years, I've included our long-term earnings framework for reference. lastly as i've consistently done at the end of the past few years i've included our long-term earnings framework for reference The only change from the last time I shared this framework is a modest change to our go-forward tax rate assumption to reflect new federal legislation. the only change from the last time i shared this framework is a modest change to our go-forward tax rate assumption to reflect new federal legislation Importantly, all the core operating tenets of this framework remain intact, intact, and we are well positioned to deliver great results for our shareholders for years to come. importantly all the core operating tenets of this framework remain intact intact and we are well positioned to deliver great results for our shareholders for years to come With that, I'll turn it back to D.G. for some closing remarks. with that i'll turn it back to d.g for some closing remarks

Speaker 5: Thanks, Dee. Before I open it up for questions, I want to acknowledge our nearly 25,000 Grainger team members who consistently demonstrate our principles and drive strong performance for Grainger. Every day, they show up, start with a customer, and compete with urgency to deliver on our purpose and create an exceptional experience. Looking ahead, I'm excited about how 2026 is shaping up and confident in our ability to extend our advantage for the long term. Regardless of the environment, we will continue to provide a best-in-class MRO offer while investing in the core of our business, an industry-leading distribution network and innovative technology capabilities. By staying focused on what matters most to our customers and creating a great workplace for our team members, we are poised to deliver continued growth, share gain and strong returns for our stakeholders. With that, I will open it up for Q&A. Thanks, Dee. thanks dee Before I open it up for questions, I want to acknowledge our nearly 25,000 Grainger team members who consistently demonstrate our principles and drive strong performance for Grainger. before i open it up for questions i want to acknowledge our nearly 25,000 grainger team members who consistently demonstrate our principles and drive strong performance for grainger Every day, they show up, start with a customer, and compete with urgency to deliver on our purpose and create an exceptional experience. every day they show up start with a customer and compete with urgency to deliver on our purpose and create an exceptional experience Looking ahead, I'm excited about how 2026 is shaping up and confident in our ability to extend our advantage for the long term. looking ahead i'm excited about how 2026 is shaping up and confident in our ability to extend our advantage for the long term Regardless of the environment, we will continue to provide a best-in-class MRO offer while investing in the core of our business, an industry-leading distribution network and innovative technology capabilities. regardless of the environment we will continue to provide a best-in-class mro offer while investing in the core of our business an industry-leading distribution network and innovative technology capabilities By staying focused on what matters most to our customers and creating a great workplace for our team members, we are poised to deliver continued growth, share gain and strong returns for our stakeholders. by staying focused on what matters most to our customers and creating a great workplace for our team members we are poised to deliver continued growth share gain and strong returns for our stakeholders With that, I will open it up for Q&A. with that i will open it up for q&a

Speaker 11: Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to be placed in the question queue, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing star one. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Our first question today is coming from David Manthey from Baird. Your line is now live. Thank you. thank you We'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. we'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session If you'd like to be placed in the question queue, please press star one on your telephone keypad. if you'd like to be placed in the question queue please press star one on your telephone keypad A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. a confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. you may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing star one. for participants using speaker equipment it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing star one One moment, please, while we pull for questions. one moment please while we pull for questions Our first question today is coming from David Manthey from Baird. our first question today is coming from david manthey from baird Your line is now live. your line is now live

Speaker 6: Hey, good morning, everyone. My first question is a statement really. 10% growth daily organic constant currency in January looks pretty good. As we're looking at slide 21 and thinking about your guidance for the High-Touch business, it looks like share gain similar to 2025. Pricing is a key delta there at up about 300 basis points. But you also have market growth at minus 1.5% to flat, which is the same backdrop you had in 2025. And given other industry participants and what you're seeing in January, could you just talk about what drives your cautiousness for the year overall? Hey, good morning, everyone. hey good morning everyone My first question is a statement really. 10% growth daily organic constant currency in January looks pretty good. my first question is a statement really 10% growth daily organic constant currency in january looks pretty good As we're looking at slide 21 and thinking about your guidance for the High-Touch business, it looks like share gain similar to 2025. as we're looking at slide 21 and thinking about your guidance for the high-touch business it looks like share gain similar to 2025 Pricing is a key delta there at up about 300 basis points. pricing is a key delta there at up about 300 basis points But you also have market growth at minus 1.5% to flat, which is the same backdrop you had in 2025. but you also have market growth at minus 1.5% to flat which is the same backdrop you had in 2025 And given other industry participants and what you're seeing in January, could you just talk about what drives your cautiousness for the year overall? and given other industry participants and what you're seeing in january could you just talk about what drives your cautiousness for the year overall

Speaker 5: Yeah. So thanks for the question. So, you know, as we plan, we always start planning relatively conservatively. We try to. There's no advantage in planning for growth that we haven't seen yet. What I would say about January, certainly it was strong across the board, but we did get a bit of a tailwind from the competitive outage in Japan. That adds a little bit to that total as well. But as Dee described, we're pretty confident in sort of that 7.5 number for the year. So we feel like we're off to maybe a little bit better start than we expected, and we may be wrong on the market, but that's always a variable that we have. Yeah. yeah So thanks for the question. so thanks for the question So, you know, as we plan, we always start planning relatively conservatively. so you know as we plan we always start planning relatively conservatively We try to. we try to There's no advantage in planning for growth that we haven't seen yet. there's no advantage in planning for growth that we haven't seen yet What I would say about January, certainly it was strong across the board, but we did get a bit of a tailwind from the competitive outage in Japan. what i would say about january certainly it was strong across the board but we did get a bit of a tailwind from the competitive outage in japan That adds a little bit to that total as well. that adds a little bit to that total as well But as Dee described, we're pretty confident in sort of that 7.5 number for the year. but as dee described we're pretty confident in sort of that 7.5 number for the year So we feel like we're off to maybe a little bit better start than we expected, and we may be wrong on the market, but that's always a variable that we have. so we feel like we're off to maybe a little bit better start than we expected and we may be wrong on the market but that's always a variable that we have

Speaker 6: Yeah, sounds good. And then, I wonder if you could give us an update on digital channels. A few years ago, you told us, KeepStock was 16%, website 30, and EDI ePro was 25% of order origination. I don't know if you have those offhand or we could take them. Yeah, sounds good. yeah sounds good And then, I wonder if you could give us an update on digital channels. and then i wonder if you could give us an update on digital channels A few years ago, you told us, KeepStock was 16%, website 30, and EDI ePro was 25% of order origination. a few years ago you told us keepstock was 16% website 30 and edi epro was 25% of order origination I don't know if you have those offhand or we could take them. i don't know if you have those offhand or we could take them

Speaker 5: Yeah, sure. So, what I would say is everything, direct connection to customers has, has become more of our share. So actually, EDI ePro is the biggest share we have at this point, closer to 40% at this point. GCOM is still a big part of that, and then KeepStock's grown a little bit as well as a percentage of the total. So, you know, the vast majority of our contract customers now have a combination of ePro and KeepStock on site. And so that's a big part of what we do in terms of creating stickiness and creating value for our customers. Yeah, sure. yeah sure So, what I would say is everything, direct connection to customers has, has become more of our share. so what i would say is everything direct connection to customers has has become more of our share So actually, EDI ePro is the biggest share we have at this point, closer to 40% at this point. so actually edi epro is the biggest share we have at this point closer to 40% at this point GCOM is still a big part of that, and then KeepStock's grown a little bit as well as a percentage of the total. gcom is still a big part of that and then keepstock's grown a little bit as well as a percentage of the total So, you know, the vast majority of our contract customers now have a combination of ePro and KeepStock on site. so you know the vast majority of our contract customers now have a combination of epro and keepstock on site And so that's a big part of what we do in terms of creating stickiness and creating value for our customers. and so that's a big part of what we do in terms of creating stickiness and creating value for our customers

Speaker 6: All right. Thanks, D.G. All right. all right Thanks, D.G. thanks d.g

Speaker 5: Thanks, Dave. Thanks, Dave. thanks dave

Speaker 11: Thank you. Next question today is coming from Jacob Levinson from Melius Research. Your line is now live. Thank you. thank you Next question today is coming from Jacob Levinson from Melius Research. next question today is coming from jacob levinson from melius research Your line is now live. your line is now live

Speaker 9: Hi, good morning, everyone. Hi, good morning, everyone. hi good morning everyone

Speaker 5: Good morning. Good morning. good morning

Speaker 9: Maybe just thinking about David's question a little bit of a different way, D.G., if you talk to your customers, your large customers, can you just give us a sense of what the tone of those conversations have been like? Because it certainly feels like we've seen some sort of cyclical inflection this quarter. Obviously, ISM, for example, but just trying to get a sense of when you talk to the CEOs, your peers, what the tone of those conversations are like, particularly if we're talking, you know, more of the rate sensitive end markets, not necessarily aerospace or data center. Maybe just thinking about David's question a little bit of a different way, D.G., if you talk to your customers, your large customers, can you just give us a sense of what the tone of those conversations have been like? maybe just thinking about david's question a little bit of a different way d.g if you talk to your customers your large customers can you just give us a sense of what the tone of those conversations have been like Because it certainly feels like we've seen some sort of cyclical inflection this quarter. because it certainly feels like we've seen some sort of cyclical inflection this quarter Obviously, ISM, for example, but just trying to get a sense of when you talk to the CEOs, your peers, what the tone of those conversations are like, particularly if we're talking, you know, more of the rate sensitive end markets, not necessarily aerospace or data center. obviously ism for example but just trying to get a sense of when you talk to the ceos your peers what the tone of those conversations are like particularly if we're talking you know more of the rate sensitive end markets not necessarily aerospace or data center

Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I think the tone hasn't changed too much. There's no—I'd say there's no panic, but there's not really enormous tailwinds that people are seeing from a volume perspective. I think everybody's seeing price, which obviously helps with the revenue numbers. But generally, you know, it's very, very industry specific at this point. So you can run the gamut from very, very high optimism to fairly strong pessimism as well. Overall, I think the mood is okay, but not expecting huge, huge market growth. Yeah, yeah, I think the tone hasn't changed too much. yeah yeah i think the tone hasn't changed too much There's no—I'd say there's no panic, but there's not really enormous tailwinds that people are seeing from a volume perspective. there's no—i'd say there's no panic but there's not really enormous tailwinds that people are seeing from a volume perspective I think everybody's seeing price, which obviously helps with the revenue numbers. i think everybody's seeing price which obviously helps with the revenue numbers But generally, you know, it's very, very industry specific at this point. but generally you know it's very very industry specific at this point So you can run the gamut from very, very high optimism to fairly strong pessimism as well. so you can run the gamut from very very high optimism to fairly strong pessimism as well Overall, I think the mood is okay, but not expecting huge, huge market growth. overall i think the mood is okay but not expecting huge huge market growth

Speaker 9: Okay, that's helpful. And just on the medium customer front, it seems like there's been quite an acceleration there the last couple of quarters, and I'm not sure if that's a structural change in how you're approaching those customers, or maybe there's just some price in there, but maybe you could speak to what, what's really driving that. Okay, that's helpful. okay that's helpful And just on the medium customer front, it seems like there's been quite an acceleration there the last couple of quarters, and I'm not sure if that's a structural change in how you're approaching those customers, or maybe there's just some price in there, but maybe you could speak to what, what's really driving that. and just on the medium customer front it seems like there's been quite an acceleration there the last couple of quarters and i'm not sure if that's a structural change in how you're approaching those customers or maybe there's just some price in there but maybe you could speak to what what's really driving that

Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit of acceleration. There were some comps that we had that make it look a little bit favorable. We certainly are focused on growing with mid-sized customers, and a lot of the things we do in marketing and merchandising help those efforts. So, it's good to see a little bit of traction, but it's not a huge inflection point, although we expect to continue to grow mid-size faster than the rest. Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit of acceleration. yeah i mean it's a little bit of acceleration There were some comps that we had that make it look a little bit favorable. there were some comps that we had that make it look a little bit favorable We certainly are focused on growing with mid-sized customers, and a lot of the things we do in marketing and merchandising help those efforts. we certainly are focused on growing with mid-sized customers and a lot of the things we do in marketing and merchandising help those efforts So, it's good to see a little bit of traction, but it's not a huge inflection point, although we expect to continue to grow mid-size faster than the rest. so it's good to see a little bit of traction but it's not a huge inflection point although we expect to continue to grow mid-size faster than the rest

Speaker 9: Fair enough. Thank you, D.G., I'll pass it on. Fair enough. fair enough Thank you, D.G., I'll pass it on. thank you d.g i'll pass it on

Speaker 11: Thank you. Next question is coming from Ryan Merkel from William Blair. Your line is now live. Thank you. thank you Next question is coming from Ryan Merkel from William Blair. next question is coming from ryan merkel from william blair Your line is now live. your line is now live

Speaker 12: Hey, everyone. Thanks for the question. I wanted to start with gross margins. I guess a two-part question. First, gross margins in 4Q were, you know, a little bit better than we were thinking. And then secondly, can you put a finer point on first quarter gross margins? I think you said down sequentially, and just what was the reason? Thank you. Hey, everyone. hey everyone Thanks for the question. thanks for the question I wanted to start with gross margins. i wanted to start with gross margins I guess a two-part question. i guess a two-part question First, gross margins in 4Q were, you know, a little bit better than we were thinking. first gross margins in 4q were you know a little bit better than we were thinking And then secondly, can you put a finer point on first quarter gross margins? and then secondly can you put a finer point on first quarter gross margins I think you said down sequentially, and just what was the reason? i think you said down sequentially and just what was the reason Thank you. thank you

Speaker 7: Yeah. Hi. The main headwind that we received in the quarter was really related to LIFO. So we had kind of laid out, you know, that LIFO would be a little bit more negative than what it actually came in, you know, still increased, but softer than that. So that helped us out from a gross margin perspective. And then as we continue to talk about, we did continue to take price. So price helped offset that a little bit in the quarter. So those are the two largest things that impacted Q4 from a gross margin perspective. Yeah. yeah Hi. hi The main headwind that we received in the quarter was really related to LIFO. the main headwind that we received in the quarter was really related to lifo So we had kind of laid out, you know, that LIFO would be a little bit more negative than what it actually came in, you know, still increased, but softer than that. so we had kind of laid out you know that lifo would be a little bit more negative than what it actually came in you know still increased but softer than that So that helped us out from a gross margin perspective. so that helped us out from a gross margin perspective And then as we continue to talk about, we did continue to take price. and then as we continue to talk about we did continue to take price So price helped offset that a little bit in the quarter. so price helped offset that a little bit in the quarter So those are the two largest things that impacted Q4 from a gross margin perspective. so those are the two largest things that impacted q4 from a gross margin perspective

Speaker 5: And then in Q1, we do expect some of those LIFO costs to shift into Q1 as well. And then in Q1, we do expect some of those LIFO costs to shift into Q1 as well. and then in q1 we do expect some of those lifo costs to shift into q1 as well

Speaker 7: Correct. Correct. correct

Speaker 12: Okay, so it's really LIFO, which is why gross margins are down sequentially into 1Q? Okay, so it's really LIFO, which is why gross margins are down sequentially into 1Q? okay so it's really lifo which is why gross margins are down sequentially into 1q

Speaker 5: Yes. Yes. yes

Speaker 7: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 12: Okay. All right, Okay. okay All right, all right

Speaker 7: The other piece in the first quarter is related to, as you heard in prepared remarks, we discussed the Grainger sales meeting. And so anytime we have customers attend the Grainger sales meeting, which is every other year, then our supplier rebates, due to our accounting methodologies, allow us to offset a portion of those rebates in SG&A. So therefore, it becomes a headwind on GM. And so that's gonna happen in Q1 of 2026 as well. The other piece in the first quarter is related to, as you heard in prepared remarks, we discussed the Grainger sales meeting. the other piece in the first quarter is related to as you heard in prepared remarks we discussed the grainger sales meeting And so anytime we have customers attend the Grainger sales meeting, which is every other year, then our supplier rebates, due to our accounting methodologies, allow us to offset a portion of those rebates in SG&A. and so anytime we have customers attend the grainger sales meeting which is every other year then our supplier rebates due to our accounting methodologies allow us to offset a portion of those rebates in sg&a So therefore, it becomes a headwind on GM. so therefore it becomes a headwind on gm And so that's gonna happen in Q1 of 2026 as well. and so that's gonna happen in q1 of 2026 as well

Speaker 5: It's a headwind. It's a headwind. it's a headwind

Speaker 12: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 5: A headwind to GP and a positive to SG&A. A headwind to GP and a positive to SG&A. a headwind to gp and a positive to sg&a

Speaker 7: Net, net, neutral. Net, net, neutral. net net neutral

Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 7: At operating margin. At operating margin. at operating margin

Speaker 12: Okay, that's great. Thanks for that. And then for the 26 margin guide, it doesn't look like there's a lot of organic margin lift ex Cromwell. For example, at the bottom end of the guide, I think margins are flat. So what are some of the key factors in the margin guide? And I think you said gross margins for the year are gonna be flat to down. Okay, that's great. okay that's great Thanks for that. thanks for that And then for the 26 margin guide, it doesn't look like there's a lot of organic margin lift ex Cromwell. and then for the 26 margin guide it doesn't look like there's a lot of organic margin lift ex cromwell For example, at the bottom end of the guide, I think margins are flat. for example at the bottom end of the guide i think margins are flat So what are some of the key factors in the margin guide? so what are some of the key factors in the margin guide And I think you said gross margins for the year are gonna be flat to down. and i think you said gross margins for the year are gonna be flat to down

Speaker 7: Yeah. If you look at it year over year, 27-26, don't forget, EA is gonna continue to grow faster than High-Touch, and that's a headwind for us of about 10 basis points. As you noted, the UK market exit is gonna be a tailwind for us. And then when you look at High-Touch, there's a lot of puts and takes there. We talked a little bit about, you know, Grainger sales meeting, price cost, and the LIFO tailwind that we will get mostly in the second half. That's gonna contribute about 20 basis points. So when you add all that together, that's a 30 basis point difference between where we ended in 2025 to where we believe we will end in 2026. Yeah. yeah If you look at it year over year, 27 - 26, don't forget, EA is gonna continue to grow faster than High-Touch , and that's a headwind for us of about 10 basis points. if you look at it year over year 27 - 26 don't forget ea is gonna continue to grow faster than high-touch and that's a headwind for us of about 10 basis points As you noted, the UK market exit is gonna be a tailwind for us. as you noted the uk market exit is gonna be a tailwind for us And then when you look at High-Touch , there's a lot of puts and takes there. and then when you look at high-touch there's a lot of puts and takes there We talked a little bit about, you know, Grainger sales meeting, price cost, and the LIFO tailwind that we will get mostly in the second half. we talked a little bit about you know grainger sales meeting price cost and the lifo tailwind that we will get mostly in the second half That's gonna contribute about 20 basis points. that's gonna contribute about 20 basis points So when you add all that together, that's a 30 basis point difference between where we ended in 2025 to where we believe we will end in 2026. so when you add all that together that's a 30 basis point difference between where we ended in 2025 to where we believe we will end in 2026

Speaker 12: All right. Thanks. Pass it on. All right. all right Thanks. thanks Pass it on. pass it on

Speaker 11: Thank you. As a reminder, that's star one to be placed into question queue. Our next question is coming from Christopher Glynn from Oppenheimer. Your line is now live. Thank you. thank you As a reminder, that's star one to be placed into question queue. as a reminder that's star one to be placed into question queue Our next question is coming from Christopher Glynn from Oppenheimer. our next question is coming from christopher glynn from oppenheimer Your line is now live. your line is now live

Speaker 2: Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Just in terms of the continued outgrowth for HTS, obviously it's been resilient in some very varied macro environments, but just curious what you think is really behind the differential in the current trend line versus the long-term expectation? Thanks. thanks Good morning, everyone. good morning everyone Just in terms of the continued outgrowth for HTS, obviously it's been resilient in some very varied macro environments, but just curious what you think is really behind the differential in the current trend line versus the long-term expectation? just in terms of the continued outgrowth for hts obviously it's been resilient in some very varied macro environments but just curious what you think is really behind the differential in the current trend line versus the long-term expectation

Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that, you know, I would, I would point to a couple of things. Certainly, some factors were out of our control. We have more exposure to government, so the government shutdown hurt the share gain in this year. But we also, if you remember, paused some more seller adds a couple of years ago when we weren't seeing the performance we needed to see and adjusted, and now we are seeing the performance, so we've reaccelerated that. But that's had an impact over the last couple of years as well. You know, I would say that we're seeing good things on that front. We're seeing good things in seller effectiveness. We're seeing good things in on-site performance with KeepStock. Yeah, I think that, you know, I would, I would point to a couple of things. yeah i think that you know i would i would point to a couple of things Certainly, some factors were out of our control. certainly some factors were out of our control We have more exposure to government, so the government shutdown hurt the share gain in this year. we have more exposure to government so the government shutdown hurt the share gain in this year But we also, if you remember, paused some more seller adds a couple of years ago when we weren't seeing the performance we needed to see and adjusted, and now we are seeing the performance, so we've reaccelerated that. but we also if you remember paused some more seller adds a couple of years ago when we weren't seeing the performance we needed to see and adjusted and now we are seeing the performance so we've reaccelerated that But that's had an impact over the last couple of years as well. but that's had an impact over the last couple of years as well You know, I would say that we're seeing good things on that front. you know i would say that we're seeing good things on that front We're seeing good things in seller effectiveness. we're seeing good things in seller effectiveness We're seeing good things in on-site performance with KeepStock. we're seeing good things in on-site performance with keepstock We also, along with marketing and merchandising, we're pretty bullish around net contracts that we've been seeing recently, so that's a positive force as well. So we think all that's gonna get us that improvement that we wanna see. We also, along with marketing and merchandising, we're pretty bullish around net contracts that we've been seeing recently, so that's a positive force as well. we also along with marketing and merchandising we're pretty bullish around net contracts that we've been seeing recently so that's a positive force as well So we think all that's gonna get us that improvement that we wanna see. so we think all that's gonna get us that improvement that we wanna see

Speaker 2: Great. And then on the comment on seeing improved Endless Assortment repeat rates, just wondering if you could double-click on that. Great. great And then on the comment on seeing improved Endless Assortment repeat rates, just wondering if you could double-click on that. and then on the comment on seeing improved endless assortment repeat rates just wondering if you could double-click on that

Speaker 5: Yeah. I mean, the business has been super focused on getting consistent purchases from core business customers. You know, they've changed a lot. I won't go into the details as some of that's probably not worth sharing, other than to say the way we're acquiring customers, what we're doing with marketing, the way we're talking about service and communicating service delivery promise to customers, all that has helped, and they've seen significant increases in repeat rates over the last 18 months, so it's good to see. Yeah. yeah I mean, the business has been super focused on getting consistent purchases from core business customers. i mean the business has been super focused on getting consistent purchases from core business customers You know, they've changed a lot. you know they've changed a lot I won't go into the details as some of that's probably not worth sharing, other than to say the way we're acquiring customers, what we're doing with marketing, the way we're talking about service and communicating service delivery promise to customers, all that has helped, and they've seen significant increases in repeat rates over the last 18 months, so it's good to see. i won't go into the details as some of that's probably not worth sharing other than to say the way we're acquiring customers what we're doing with marketing the way we're talking about service and communicating service delivery promise to customers all that has helped and they've seen significant increases in repeat rates over the last 18 months so it's good to see

Speaker 2: Great. Just a quick housecleaning. Dee, could you remind me what the January or the one first quarter guidance for organic ADS was? Great. great Just a quick housecleaning. just a quick housecleaning Dee, could you remind me what the January or the one first quarter guidance for organic ADS was? dee could you remind me what the january or the one first quarter guidance for organic ads was

Speaker 5: Seven. Seven. seven

Speaker 7: 7.5. 7.5. 7.5

Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 2: Great. Thank you. Great. great Thank you. thank you

Speaker 11: Thank you. Next question today is coming from Tommy Moll. Your line is now live. Thank you. thank you Next question today is coming from Tommy Moll. next question today is coming from tommy moll Your line is now live. your line is now live

Speaker 14: Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. good morning and thank you for taking my questions

Speaker 5: Good morning. Good morning. good morning

Speaker 14: D.G., I wanted to follow up on your comment a second ago about the trend below your target for long-term outgrowth in recent years. Point taken on the pause that you've communicated previously on the seller adds, but if we just look high level here, you had outperformance versus your target pretty meaningfully during the years 2022 and 2023. So I'd characterize what those had in common as an external stress on the supply chain, just globally, where you had scale, your competitors lacked scale, that nets to your benefit. If we think about a lot of the other years, there's a more normalized environment where you're performing below that 400-500 target. D.G., I wanted to follow up on your comment a second ago about the trend below your target for long-term outgrowth in recent years. d.g i wanted to follow up on your comment a second ago about the trend below your target for long-term outgrowth in recent years Point taken on the pause that you've communicated previously on the seller adds, but if we just look high level here, you had outperformance versus your target pretty meaningfully during the years 2022 and 2023. point taken on the pause that you've communicated previously on the seller adds but if we just look high level here you had outperformance versus your target pretty meaningfully during the years 2022 and 2023 So I'd characterize what those had in common as an external stress on the supply chain, just globally, where you had scale, your competitors lacked scale, that nets to your benefit. so i'd characterize what those had in common as an external stress on the supply chain just globally where you had scale your competitors lacked scale that nets to your benefit If we think about a lot of the other years, there's a more normalized environment where you're performing below that 400-500 target. if we think about a lot of the other years there's a more normalized environment where you're performing below that 400-500 target Is the simplest answer here, not just that 400-500 is an average, but you're really gonna punch above that in times of stress in the market and in a, quote-unquote, "more normalized environment," you're probably gonna be a bit below the target? Is the simplest answer here, not just that 400-500 is an average, but you're really gonna punch above that in times of stress in the market and in a, quote-unquote, "more normalized environment," you're probably gonna be a bit below the target? is the simplest answer here not just that 400-500 is an average but you're really gonna punch above that in times of stress in the market and in a quote-unquote "more normalized environment," you're probably gonna be a bit below the target

Speaker 5: You know, I think that certainly we handled that supply stress well. I would definitely agree with that. It was a smaller portion of... You know, we had 875 basis points of outgrowth two years in a row. It was a small portion of that total. So I do think that that may be a general statement to make. It could be true, but I don't think - I do think we, you know, we've averaged 540 basis points through the last five years of outgrowth, and, you know, we expect to be able to get to that 400-500 mark again. I think that, you know, some of that is just our own execution, and some of it's external factors, as I mentioned before. You know, I think that certainly we handled that supply stress well. you know i think that certainly we handled that supply stress well I would definitely agree with that. i would definitely agree with that It was a smaller portion of... it was a smaller portion of You know, we had 875 basis points of outgrowth two years in a row. you know we had 875 basis points of outgrowth two years in a row It was a small portion of that total. it was a small portion of that total So I do think that that may be a general statement to make. so i do think that that may be a general statement to make It could be true, but I don't think - I do think we, you know, we've averaged 540 basis points through the last five years of outgrowth, and, you know, we expect to be able to get to that 400-500 mark again. it could be true but i don't think - i do think we you know we've averaged 540 basis points through the last five years of outgrowth and you know we expect to be able to get to that 400-500 mark again I think that, you know, some of that is just our own execution, and some of it's external factors, as I mentioned before. i think that you know some of that is just our own execution and some of it's external factors as i mentioned before

Speaker 14: Okay. On, on that execution point, you mentioned for seller coverage, you're gonna add, I think you added 2 markets last year, add 2 more this year. If you look across the folks you're hiring in these roles, in a, in an increasingly digital environment, are you, are you targeting different types of sellers than you have historically? And if you think about the average tenure of the folks you're hiring in these new geos, does it skew perhaps below the average tenure of the rest of your sales force? Okay. okay On, on that execution point, you mentioned for seller coverage, you're gonna add, I think you added 2 markets last year, add 2 more this year. on on that execution point you mentioned for seller coverage you're gonna add i think you added 2 markets last year add 2 more this year If you look across the folks you're hiring in these roles, in a, in an increasingly digital environment, are you, are you targeting different types of sellers than you have historically? if you look across the folks you're hiring in these roles in a in an increasingly digital environment are you are you targeting different types of sellers than you have historically And if you think about the average tenure of the folks you're hiring in these new geos, does it skew perhaps below the average tenure of the rest of your sales force? and if you think about the average tenure of the folks you're hiring in these new geos does it skew perhaps below the average tenure of the rest of your sales force

Speaker 5: You know, I'd say that the process we use when we add sellers hasn't changed all that much. We're looking for general selling skills and some sort of interest in the types of product we sell and the environments we sell in, and that hasn't changed much. I think, you know, there's a broader trend here that has been an important one from our customers, which is generally lack of mechanical talent, I'd say. I'm not sure that's the right word, but sort of say that there are fewer people who are mechanically inclined, and it's actually been good for us in many ways as customers have asked us to do more on site. And so that's a trend that we do see. In terms of who we're hiring, we're still looking for a lot of the same skills we've looked for in the past. You know, I'd say that the process we use when we add sellers hasn't changed all that much. you know i'd say that the process we use when we add sellers hasn't changed all that much We're looking for general selling skills and some sort of interest in the types of product we sell and the environments we sell in, and that hasn't changed much. we're looking for general selling skills and some sort of interest in the types of product we sell and the environments we sell in and that hasn't changed much I think, you know, there's a broader trend here that has been an important one from our customers, which is generally lack of mechanical talent, I'd say. i think you know there's a broader trend here that has been an important one from our customers which is generally lack of mechanical talent i'd say I'm not sure that's the right word, but sort of say that there are fewer people who are mechanically inclined, and it's actually been good for us in many ways as customers have asked us to do more on site. i'm not sure that's the right word but sort of say that there are fewer people who are mechanically inclined and it's actually been good for us in many ways as customers have asked us to do more on site And so that's a trend that we do see. and so that's a trend that we do see In terms of who we're hiring, we're still looking for a lot of the same skills we've looked for in the past. in terms of who we're hiring we're still looking for a lot of the same skills we've looked for in the past

Speaker 14: Thank you. I appreciate the insight. We'll turn it back. Thank you. thank you I appreciate the insight. i appreciate the insight We'll turn it back. we'll turn it back

Speaker 11: Thank you. Next question is coming from Chris Dankert from Loop Capital Markets. Your line is now live. Thank you. thank you Next question is coming from Chris Dankert from Loop Capital Markets. next question is coming from chris dankert from loop capital markets Your line is now live. your line is now live

Speaker 1: Good morning, thanks for taking the question. I guess, like you said, we've seen some nice market share gains and some optimization of what's within Grainger's control here the past couple of years. But just looking back at the market share numbers, looks like we're guiding for a fifth consecutive year of contraction in the market. Maybe just, does it imply we're in an impaired or shrinking market? Does that imply that reshoring is a bit of a mirage? Maybe, D.G., what do you see when you see that contraction five years running? What is, what are you pulling out of that? Good morning, thanks for taking the question. good morning thanks for taking the question I guess, like you said, we've seen some nice market share gains and some optimization of what's within Grainger's control here the past couple of years. i guess like you said we've seen some nice market share gains and some optimization of what's within grainger's control here the past couple of years But just looking back at the market share numbers, looks like we're guiding for a fifth consecutive year of contraction in the market. but just looking back at the market share numbers looks like we're guiding for a fifth consecutive year of contraction in the market Maybe just, does it imply we're in an impaired or shrinking market? maybe just does it imply we're in an impaired or shrinking market Does that imply that reshoring is a bit of a mirage? does that imply that reshoring is a bit of a mirage Maybe, D.G., what do you see when you see that contraction five years running? maybe d.g what do you see when you see that contraction five years running What is, what are you pulling out of that? what is what are you pulling out of that

Speaker 5: You know, I think if you look over 30-year history, the reality is that manufacturing activity has been pretty stable in the U.S. It hasn't been increasing much, and employment has gone down. I think that sort of gives you a sense that long-term, from a volume basis, our market has never been a fast-growing market. So that's why we have the earnings algorithm we have. Gain share consistently, a little bit of price, and then manage expenses and SG&A. That's what we have to do. I think in all industrial markets, you would see something similar, to be honest. And you studied industrial markets in the past. It's not. Most of them are not fast-growth markets. You know, I think if you look over 30-year history, the reality is that manufacturing activity has been pretty stable in the U.S. you know i think if you look over 30-year history the reality is that manufacturing activity has been pretty stable in the u.s It hasn't been increasing much, and employment has gone down. it hasn't been increasing much and employment has gone down I think that sort of gives you a sense that long-term, from a volume basis, our market has never been a fast-growing market. i think that sort of gives you a sense that long-term from a volume basis our market has never been a fast-growing market So that's why we have the earnings algorithm we have. so that's why we have the earnings algorithm we have Gain share consistently, a little bit of price, and then manage expenses and SG&A. gain share consistently a little bit of price and then manage expenses and sg&a That's what we have to do. that's what we have to do I think in all industrial markets, you would see something similar, to be honest. i think in all industrial markets you would see something similar to be honest And you studied industrial markets in the past. and you studied industrial markets in the past It's not. it's not Most of them are not fast-growth markets. most of them are not fast-growth markets

Speaker 1: Fair. Fair. I guess, just shifting gears a bit to the digital investment. I know a lot of your peers look at clicks to success. Maybe just, is that a metric you guys track? Any kind of color you can give us on improvement there? Is there a different KPI that you measure with the digital investment and the AI investment? Just any thoughts there? Fair. fair Fair. fair I guess, just shifting gears a bit to the digital investment. i guess just shifting gears a bit to the digital investment I know a lot of your peers look at clicks to success. i know a lot of your peers look at clicks to success Maybe just, is that a metric you guys track? maybe just is that a metric you guys track Any kind of color you can give us on improvement there? any kind of color you can give us on improvement there Is there a different KPI that you measure with the digital investment and the AI investment? is there a different kpi that you measure with the digital investment and the ai investment Just any thoughts there? just any thoughts there

Speaker 5: Well, so, are you asking about, like, online, how we measure success online? Well, so, are you asking about, like, online, how we measure success online? well so are you asking about like online how we measure success online

Speaker 1: Yeah, just how quickly customers can kind of get to what they need digitally online, yeah. Yeah, just how quickly customers can kind of get to what they need digitally online, yeah. yeah just how quickly customers can kind of get to what they need digitally online yeah

Speaker 5: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we, we look at a whole bunch of, of metrics. We, we track the process, sort of soup to nuts as we look at it. And certainly, conversion rate, which is, I think, what you're talking about, is a big, is a big metric that we do look at, for sure. And, and we also do a lot of surveys to understand competitiveness, and how we do competitively on a bunch of, of digital sort of journey factors. And so I'd say we're, we're super well measured in that space. Oh, yeah. oh yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah yeah yeah So we, we look at a whole bunch of, of metrics. so we we look at a whole bunch of of metrics We, we track the process, sort of soup to nuts as we look at it. we we track the process sort of soup to nuts as we look at it And certainly, conversion rate, which is, I think, what you're talking about, is a big, is a big metric that we do look at, for sure. and certainly conversion rate which is i think what you're talking about is a big is a big metric that we do look at for sure And, and we also do a lot of surveys to understand competitiveness, and how we do competitively on a bunch of, of digital sort of journey factors. and and we also do a lot of surveys to understand competitiveness and how we do competitively on a bunch of of digital sort of journey factors And so I'd say we're, we're super well measured in that space. and so i'd say we're we're super well measured in that space

Speaker 1: Yeah. Thanks so much. Yeah. yeah Thanks so much. thanks so much

Speaker 5: Thanks. Thanks. thanks

Speaker 11: Thank you. Next question is coming from Stephen Volkmann from Jefferies. Your line is now live. Thank you. thank you Next question is coming from Stephen Volkmann from Jefferies. next question is coming from stephen volkmann from jefferies Your line is now live. your line is now live

Speaker 13: Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Most of mine's been answered, but I wanted to go back, Dee, to your slide around tariffs, which is helpful. But is the message that you've now priced for all the tariff increases that you've seen? Hi. hi Good morning. good morning Thanks for taking the question. thanks for taking the question Most of mine's been answered, but I wanted to go back, Dee, to your slide around tariffs, which is helpful. most of mine's been answered but i wanted to go back dee to your slide around tariffs which is helpful But is the message that you've now priced for all the tariff increases that you've seen? but is the message that you've now priced for all the tariff increases that you've seen

Speaker 7: So, yeah, you know, we, we have essentially passed through all known tariffs and working in this quarter to also correct for some of the Chinese tariffs that were rolled back in November. So based upon our annual cost negotiations that the team went through in the back half of 2025, we feel like we're fairly caught up in passing, you know, costs on to customers at this point in time. Now, anything in the future that is unknown, whether you know, for additional tariffs or further rollbacks, we have not included any estimates of that nature in our outlook. So, yeah, you know, we, we have essentially passed through all known tariffs and working in this quarter to also correct for some of the Chinese tariffs that were rolled back in November. so yeah you know we we have essentially passed through all known tariffs and working in this quarter to also correct for some of the chinese tariffs that were rolled back in november So based upon our annual cost negotiations that the team went through in the back half of 2025, we feel like we're fairly caught up in passing, you know, costs on to customers at this point in time. so based upon our annual cost negotiations that the team went through in the back half of 2025 we feel like we're fairly caught up in passing you know costs on to customers at this point in time Now, anything in the future that is unknown, whether you know, for additional tariffs or further rollbacks, we have not included any estimates of that nature in our outlook. now anything in the future that is unknown whether you know for additional tariffs or further rollbacks we have not included any estimates of that nature in our outlook

Speaker 13: Okay, great. And it seems like, in some of the businesses that we follow, some producers have been pretty slow to pass these price increases through. Do you think your suppliers are kind of where they need to be, or do you think there's a good chance that we'll see additional sort of pass-throughs as the year progresses? Okay, great. okay great And it seems like, in some of the businesses that we follow, some producers have been pretty slow to pass these price increases through. and it seems like in some of the businesses that we follow some producers have been pretty slow to pass these price increases through Do you think your suppliers are kind of where they need to be, or do you think there's a good chance that we'll see additional sort of pass-throughs as the year progresses? do you think your suppliers are kind of where they need to be or do you think there's a good chance that we'll see additional sort of pass-throughs as the year progresses

Speaker 5: So what I would say is, suppliers had choices to make, and their choice was usually, do I pass dollar amount or do I pass percentage? And so I think overall, we're somewhere between dollar and percent, is what I would say, what we've seen from our suppliers. That doesn't mean necessarily that they need to add any more price. I don't think that would drive that necessarily at this point. So what I would say is, suppliers had choices to make, and their choice was usually, do I pass dollar amount or do I pass percentage? so what i would say is suppliers had choices to make and their choice was usually do i pass dollar amount or do i pass percentage And so I think overall, we're somewhere between dollar and percent, is what I would say, what we've seen from our suppliers. and so i think overall we're somewhere between dollar and percent is what i would say what we've seen from our suppliers That doesn't mean necessarily that they need to add any more price. that doesn't mean necessarily that they need to add any more price I don't think that would drive that necessarily at this point. i don't think that would drive that necessarily at this point

Speaker 13: Okay, great. Thank you, guys. Okay, great. okay great Thank you, guys. thank you guys

Speaker 11: Thank you. Next question today is coming from Guy Hardwick from Barclays. Your line is now live. Thank you. thank you Next question today is coming from Guy Hardwick from Barclays. next question today is coming from guy hardwick from barclays Your line is now live. your line is now live

Speaker 8: Hi, good morning. Hi, good morning. hi good morning

Speaker 5: Morning. Morning. morning

Speaker 7: Good morning. Good morning. good morning

Speaker 8: I think last year, the growth in underlying operating expenses was 5%. It looks like the guidance for this year is better than that, like just under 4%. Any particular reason for that? Was that just the benefit of the Cromwell operating expenses dropping away? And I think the OpEx ratios were worse for Cromwell than the overall group. But you also said- I think last year, the growth in underlying operating expenses was 5%. i think last year the growth in underlying operating expenses was 5% It looks like the guidance for this year is better than that, like just under 4%. it looks like the guidance for this year is better than that like just under 4% Any particular reason for that? any particular reason for that Was that just the benefit of the Cromwell operating expenses dropping away? was that just the benefit of the cromwell operating expenses dropping away And I think the OpEx ratios were worse for Cromwell than the overall group. and i think the opex ratios were worse for cromwell than the overall group But you also said- but you also said-

Speaker 5: Yeah Yeah yeah

Speaker 8: -in the prepared remarks... Sorry, yeah. Maybe I'll let- just leave it at that and let you just mention that before I follow up. -in the prepared remarks... -in the prepared remarks Sorry, yeah. sorry yeah Maybe I'll let- just leave it at that and let you just mention that before I follow up. maybe i'll let- just leave it at that and let you just mention that before i follow up

Speaker 5: It's a lot of Cromwell, and is the answer, and then there's more leverage in EA and in the High-Touch as well, but a lot of it is Cromwell. It's a lot of Cromwell, and is the answer, and then there's more leverage in EA and in the High-Touch as well, but a lot of it is Cromwell. it's a lot of cromwell and is the answer and then there's more leverage in ea and in the high-touch as well but a lot of it is cromwell

Speaker 8: Okay. And you also said in your prepared remarks that, marketing and merchandising is a big driver to outgrowth. So given that you're guiding to a much greater outgrowth this year than last year, I mean, should, should we assume that your OpEx is factored in that higher merchandising and marketing expense for 2026? Okay. okay And you also said in your prepared remarks that, marketing and merchandising is a big driver to outgrowth. and you also said in your prepared remarks that marketing and merchandising is a big driver to outgrowth So given that you're guiding to a much greater outgrowth this year than last year, I mean, should, should we assume that your OpEx is factored in that higher merchandising and marketing expense for 2026? so given that you're guiding to a much greater outgrowth this year than last year i mean should should we assume that your opex is factored in that higher merchandising and marketing expense for 2026

Speaker 7: Yes. Yes. yes

Speaker 5: Yes, that's right. That's right. Yes, that's right. yes that's right That's right. that's right

Speaker 8: Okay, got it. Thank you. Okay, got it. okay got it Thank you. thank you

Speaker 5: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 11: Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Christopher Snyder from Morgan Stanley. Your line is now live. Thank you. thank you Our next question today is coming from Christopher Snyder from Morgan Stanley. our next question today is coming from christopher snyder from morgan stanley Your line is now live. your line is now live

Speaker 3: Thank you. I hopped on a little late, so, I apologize if this got discussed, but could you provide, you know, the level of price embedded in the 2026 guide, and then specifically, how much is wrapped from the prior actions in 2025? You know, how much is, is new price, and has there been any growing pushback to price in the market from customers? Thank you. Thank you. thank you I hopped on a little late, so, I apologize if this got discussed, but could you provide, you know, the level of price embedded in the 2026 guide, and then specifically, how much is wrapped from the prior actions in 2025? i hopped on a little late so i apologize if this got discussed but could you provide you know the level of price embedded in the 2026 guide and then specifically how much is wrapped from the prior actions in 2025 You know, how much is, is new price, and has there been any growing pushback to price in the market from customers? you know how much is is new price and has there been any growing pushback to price in the market from customers Thank you. thank you

Speaker 7: Yeah. So generally, we've noted in the prepared remarks that our pricing into 2026 is north of 3%, and then if you look at all the EPS and pricing that and run-rate pricing that we've discussed previously, we believe that amounts to about 2.5%-3% of that. So all of our plan in 2026, we're going to 3% for pricing. Yeah. yeah So generally, we've noted in the prepared remarks that our pricing into 2026 is north of 3%, and then if you look at all the EPS and pricing that and run-rate pricing that we've discussed previously, we believe that amounts to about 2.5%-3% of that. so generally we've noted in the prepared remarks that our pricing into 2026 is north of 3% and then if you look at all the eps and pricing that and run-rate pricing that we've discussed previously we believe that amounts to about 2.5%-3% of that So all of our plan in 2026, we're going to 3% for pricing. so all of our plan in 2026 we're going to 3% for pricing

Speaker 5: We haven't seen tremendous pushback from customers. The elasticity has been what we did generally expect at this point. We haven't seen tremendous pushback from customers. we haven't seen tremendous pushback from customers The elasticity has been what we did generally expect at this point. the elasticity has been what we did generally expect at this point

Speaker 3: Thank you. I appreciate that. Then if I could follow up on the earlier point, that gross margin would be down sequentially into Q1. You know, obviously, different than normal seasonality. I'm not sure it's ever been down sequentially into Q1. I guess, can you just maybe help unpack some of the moving parts there? Because it seems like the price cost improved as Q4 went on, following the November price action. So I would have just thought that you would have, you know, a continuation of that into Q1. And I would have also thought maybe Q1 would have, you know, the full realization of the benefit from Cromwell going away, that was probably not fully reflected in the Q4 gross margin. So just any color on some of the moving parts there would be helpful. Thank you. Thank you. thank you I appreciate that. i appreciate that Then if I could follow up on the earlier point, that gross margin would be down sequentially into Q1. then if i could follow up on the earlier point that gross margin would be down sequentially into q1 You know, obviously, different than normal seasonality. you know obviously different than normal seasonality I'm not sure it's ever been down sequentially into Q1. i'm not sure it's ever been down sequentially into q1 I guess, can you just maybe help unpack some of the moving parts there? i guess can you just maybe help unpack some of the moving parts there Because it seems like the price cost improved as Q4 went on, following the November price action. because it seems like the price cost improved as q4 went on following the november price action So I would have just thought that you would have, you know, a continuation of that into Q1. so i would have just thought that you would have you know a continuation of that into q1 And I would have also thought maybe Q1 would have, you know, the full realization of the benefit from Cromwell going away, that was probably not fully reflected in the Q4 gross margin. and i would have also thought maybe q1 would have you know the full realization of the benefit from cromwell going away that was probably not fully reflected in the q4 gross margin So just any color on some of the moving parts there would be helpful. so just any color on some of the moving parts there would be helpful Thank you. thank you

Speaker 7: Sure. So again, LIFO, even in Q1 of 2026, will continue to be a headwind because, of course, we are passing and have received new costs from customers. That does subside as the year goes on, but Q4-Q1, that is a headwind. We talked about the Grainger sales meeting. I don't know if you were on for that, but that is a 20 basis points drag as well. This is the year where we have customers at the show and supplier rebates that would normally remain up in gross margin go down to SG&A to offset some of the SG&A costs. So then that becomes a headwind this year, a tailwind in next year when we have no customers. And then you may have heard us talk... Sure. sure So again, LIFO, even in Q1 of 2026, will continue to be a headwind because, of course, we are passing and have received new costs from customers. so again lifo even in q1 of 2026 will continue to be a headwind because of course we are passing and have received new costs from customers That does subside as the year goes on, but Q4 - Q1, that is a headwind. that does subside as the year goes on but q4 - q1 that is a headwind We talked about the Grainger sales meeting. we talked about the grainger sales meeting I don't know if you were on for that, but that is a 20 basis points drag as well. i don't know if you were on for that but that is a 20 basis points drag as well This is the year where we have customers at the show and supplier rebates that would normally remain up in gross margin go down to SG&A to offset some of the SG&A costs. this is the year where we have customers at the show and supplier rebates that would normally remain up in gross margin go down to sg&a to offset some of the sg&a costs So then that becomes a headwind this year, a tailwind in next year when we have no customers. so then that becomes a headwind this year a tailwind in next year when we have no customers And then you may have heard us talk... and then you may have heard us talk We haven't talked about it as much today, but, you know, our private label business, with the tariff impacts and looking to remain competitive based upon where we actually manufacture those products, and being able to pass on the tariff increases, mostly we have done that at rate, like D.G. just noted. So that creates a headwind in gross margins for us, specifically as customers are transitioning to national brands for some of those products. So that's also a drag. And then what you noted was, like, the normal seasonality recovery, you know, price, cost, favorability, things like that, that is accounted for as a positive, but it's only about 10 basis points. So, all those things together take us from 39.5%-39.1% Q4-Q1. We haven't talked about it as much today, but, you know, our private label business, with the tariff impacts and looking to remain competitive based upon where we actually manufacture those products, and being able to pass on the tariff increases, mostly we have done that at rate, like D.G. just noted. we haven't talked about it as much today but you know our private label business with the tariff impacts and looking to remain competitive based upon where we actually manufacture those products and being able to pass on the tariff increases mostly we have done that at rate like d.g just noted So that creates a headwind in gross margins for us, specifically as customers are transitioning to national brands for some of those products. so that creates a headwind in gross margins for us specifically as customers are transitioning to national brands for some of those products So that's also a drag. so that's also a drag And then what you noted was, like, the normal seasonality recovery, you know, price, cost, favorability, things like that, that is accounted for as a positive, but it's only about 10 basis points. and then what you noted was like the normal seasonality recovery you know price cost favorability things like that that is accounted for as a positive but it's only about 10 basis points So, all those things together take us from 39.5% - 39.1% Q4 - Q1. so all those things together take us from 39.5% - 39.1% q4 - q1

Speaker 3: Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. thank you I appreciate that. i appreciate that

Speaker 11: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Connor Lynagh from Bernstein. Your line is now live. Thank you. thank you Our next question is coming from Connor Lynagh from Bernstein. our next question is coming from connor lynagh from bernstein Your line is now live. your line is now live

Speaker 4: Great, thanks for having me this morning. Just a quick one. On slide 8, you touched on the Zoro-branded private label product. Can you talk a little bit about the progress you've seen so far? Maybe just some customer feedback, repeat rates, et cetera. And then can you speak to the margin impact on the business overall? Great, thanks for having me this morning. great thanks for having me this morning Just a quick one. just a quick one On slide 8, you touched on the Zoro-branded private label product. on slide 8 you touched on the zoro-branded private label product Can you talk a little bit about the progress you've seen so far? can you talk a little bit about the progress you've seen so far Maybe just some customer feedback, repeat rates, et cetera. maybe just some customer feedback repeat rates et cetera And then can you speak to the margin impact on the business overall? and then can you speak to the margin impact on the business overall

Speaker 5: It's not material enough at this point to have any impact on the margins, but we have seen good early success in repeat rates and that core business customer that Zoro serves really likes the Zoro private brand that we've launched so far. It's not material enough at this point to have any impact on the margins, but we have seen good early success in repeat rates and that core business customer that Zoro serves really likes the Zoro private brand that we've launched so far. it's not material enough at this point to have any impact on the margins but we have seen good early success in repeat rates and that core business customer that zoro serves really likes the zoro private brand that we've launched so far

Speaker 11: Thank you. We've reached the end of our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further closing comments. Thank you. thank you We've reached the end of our question and answer session. we've reached the end of our question and answer session I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further closing comments. i'd like to turn the floor back over for any further closing comments

Speaker 5: Great. Thanks, everyone, for joining today. Really appreciate it, and thanks for the questions. You'll have many opportunities for questions with our IR team after the meeting if we didn't get to you. I just want to reiterate the fact that we feel really good about how things are set up moving forward. We are hearing positive things from our customers. We're providing great service, and we're getting some of the growth drivers accelerated again. So look forward to having a great year and look forward to seeing you out. Thanks so much. Great. great Thanks, everyone, for joining today. thanks everyone for joining today Really appreciate it, and thanks for the questions. really appreciate it and thanks for the questions You'll have many opportunities for questions with our IR team after the meeting if we didn't get to you. you'll have many opportunities for questions with our ir team after the meeting if we didn't get to you I just want to reiterate the fact that we feel really good about how things are set up moving forward. i just want to reiterate the fact that we feel really good about how things are set up moving forward We are hearing positive things from our customers. we are hearing positive things from our customers We're providing great service, and we're getting some of the growth drivers accelerated again. we're providing great service and we're getting some of the growth drivers accelerated again So look forward to having a great year and look forward to seeing you out. so look forward to having a great year and look forward to seeing you out Thanks so much. thanks so much

Speaker 11: Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today. Thank you. thank you That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. that does conclude today's teleconference and webcast You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. you may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day We thank you for your participation today. we thank you for your participation today