I will now turn the conference over to our host, Irene Holman, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.
Good morning. Welcome to our call to discuss Grainger's new GAAP reporting segments. With me today is Dee Merriwether, Senior Vice President and CFO. As a reminder, some of our comments today may be forward-looking. Actual results may differ materially as a result of various risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in our SEC filings. Reconciliations of any non-GAAP financial measures with their corresponding GAAP measures are found in the tables at the end of this presentation, which is available on our IR website. This morning's call will focus on recast adjusted results for our new reportable segments using 2020 financials, which exclude restructuring and other items that are outlined in our 8-K, which we published on March 8. The 8-K includes annual results for 2018 through 2020 and quarterly results for 2019 and 2020.
In addition to the filed 8-K, to help you incorporate this information as you prepare your analysis, we have also provided an Excel model with additional details on our IR website. Now I'll turn it over to Dee.
Thanks, Irene. I am excited to be here this morning to discuss the changes to our GAAP reporting structure. Given the size and importance of our Endless Assortment model, which consists of MonotaRO and Zoro, we are now required to disclose this model separately. The changes we're announcing today better align our financial disclosures to our businesses, how we serve our customers, and how we manage the company. Moving forward, starting with our Q1 2021 results on April 30th, all reporting will reflect these changes. Starting on slide four, you'll see our High-Touch Solutions N.A. and Endless Assortment segments. Our High-Touch Solutions segment in North America is comprised of our Grainger branded businesses in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
This further solidifies the work we have done over the last couple years to create a consistent go-to-market approach while merging the commercial functions of these businesses into one single organization. In recast terms, these businesses represent $9.2 billion in 2020 sales and approximately 78% of the business. Given the growing size and importance of our Endless Assortment model, we will now be providing standalone disclosures. Our Endless Assortment segment consists of MonotaRO and Zoro businesses, which operate primarily in Japan, the U.S., and the U.K. We continue to more closely align these businesses. The Endless Assortment segment represents recast sales of $2.2 billion. With these two connected business models, Grainger is able to address all customers in the MRO market.
With these models, we have the ability to work with more customers in the way that they want to do business, and we gain more holistic views of the customer trends that enable us to serve their needs as they evolve. The connection and knowledge sharing between the models is really a unique value creator. Examples of best practice sharing include using our North American supply chain scale and expertise to support Zoro, leveraging MonotaRO's playbook, and supporting MonotaRO's efforts to target enterprise customers. Alongside these changes, we simplified our corporate cost allocation and intercompany sales methodologies. Irene will walk you through that modeling here in a bit. Turning to slide five, we have long been focused on serving industrial customers well by understanding their changing purchasing behaviors and aligning our value proposition to each customer profile.
I want to spend a few minutes laying out how our business models differ and how they serve varying customers. With the High-Touch Solutions segment, we serve customers that are part of large and mid-size entities in North America. They may operate in one location or across many different sites and often have complex procurement purchases and processes. They're looking for a strategic partner with an offer that meets both their product and service needs. They value a partner that brings technical expertise, a knowledgeable sales and services team, inventory management capabilities, and they're looking for ways to reduce their total cost of ownership. Our value proposition for these customers remains consistent. We provide advantaged MRO solutions, which consist of our broad product assortment, deep expertise, and superior digital solutions.
This includes our differentiated sales and services offer built on the foundation of deep personal relationships and solutions like inventory management. In addition, we deliver unparalleled customer service leveraging our fulfillment capabilities. Our value proposition continues to be a differentiating factor in how we serve these customers. Switching gears to our Endless Assortment model. Here we serve businesses with our expansive product offerings. The typical customers are smaller businesses with simpler purchasing processes. They may be your local restaurant or say, your automotive shop down the street. They have more basic ordering systems, and they know what products they need to run their business. Purchasing is more straightforward, and their services needs are more narrow. While the individual customer needs may be simpler, in aggregate, this customer group requires an expansive product assortment. They're looking for a one-stop shop for all their business needs, including items outside of traditional MRO.
Our product assortment at both Zoro and MonotaRO has continued to grow, now at over six and 20 million SKUs respectively. We also provide an innovative B2B customer experience through our e-commerce and delivery platform. Our recent investments in those that enabled us to quickly add SKUs and add DC capacity in Japan help us to serve these customers well. We continue to embed analytics into our processes to help us better understand our customers, their buying behaviors, and ultimately drive repeat purchases. Our comprehensive offer in both models allows us to serve varying sets of customers. We now cover a broader slice of the market. The resulting simplicity and transparency will drive more effective communications with all of our stakeholders. I am extremely excited about our reporting and how it's now better aligned with our strategy. With that, I'll hand it back over to Irene.
Thanks, Dee. The purpose of the next few slides is to walk through the changes and bridge the old segment reporting to the new structure with the intent to show you the ins and outs of all the changes. Total company numbers will remain the same, with differences only in the underlying segments. On the next slide, our previous reporting structure is on the left, the same as we showed in our fourth quarter earnings call. To the right is our new realignment of the businesses. As Dee noted, our High-Touch Solutions businesses in North America include the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. An Endless Assortment brings together MonotaRO, Zoro U.S., and Zoro U.K. The Cromwell business remains in other.
In addition to the resegmentation, we're making a few adjustments to simplify our reporting and bring a more streamlined approach to our corporate cost allocation and our intercompany sales methodologies. Beginning in 2021, our corporate costs will now be fully allocated to the segments. In the past, a large portion of these costs remained in a separate unallocated bucket, which rolled up to the total company. Moving forward, all of our corporate costs are pushed to the segments based upon their relative level of service. This means that nearly all of the corporate costs will fall into the High-Touch Solutions model and specifically to the U.S. Segment revenue will now only include sales to external customers, eliminating the noise of intercompany revenue. Previously, all intercompany transactions, predominantly between the U.S. and Zoro, were included in U.S. segment revenue and were subsequently eliminated to arrive at total company revenue.
In the past, intercompany sales were recorded when external customers would buy products through Zoro that flowed through the U.S. supply chain. Zoro would pay for the inventory at cost, plus a small fee to cover supply chain expenses. This associated fee was included in gross profit dollars for the U.S. and increased product costs for Zoro. Going forward, in addition to showing only external sales within each segment, we're also shifting the fee for these supply chain expenses to SG&A. As a result, this will raise gross profit rate for both models, but will not have an impact on operating earnings dollars or margins. This will come to life on the next few slides. First, let's take a look at revenue on slide eight. You can see our full year 2020 results on the left-hand side, totaling $11.8 billion.
On the right-hand side, we walk from our old reporting structure to our new reporting segments, moving left to right. Starting with the new High-Touch Solutions N.A. segment, we move from prior U.S. segment with sales of about $9.1 billion. We add in Canada, which was previously in its own segment at $476 million, and add our Mexico and Puerto Rico businesses, which in the past were part of other businesses. We removed intercompany sales of about half a billion dollars to get us to sales to external customers of $9.2 billion for High-Touch Solutions N.A. Looking at the bottom waterfall. If we start with the former other businesses and bridge to our new Endless Assortment segment, we remove Cromwell and other divestitures like Fabory and China and move them to other. Mexico moves to the High-Touch segment.
We strip out any other remaining intercompany sales, resulting in our new Endless Assortment segment comprised of MonotaRO, Zoro U.S., and Zoro U.K., with sales of approximately $2.2 billion. The other bucket will consist of Cromwell on an ongoing basis. For previous periods, it will also include both Fabory and China prior to their divestitures. On slide nine, you'll see the same format for operating earnings with our previous 2020 reporting on the left-hand side and recast results on the right. You'll see the same business unit changes as we showed on the previous slide. Again, the big difference shown here is the $124 million of corporate costs that are now hitting High-Touch Solutions N.A., given its size, scale, and use of resources. The other $5 million of corporate costs remain in the restated other bucket, comprised of expenses associated with the divested businesses.
As a result of the recast, the High-Touch Solutions segment generates $1.2 billion in operating earnings, with Endless Assortment at $175 million. Other ended 2020 with a $48 million loss, which includes $35 million in losses at Cromwell. Total company operating earnings remains unchanged at $1.3 billion. Looking at gross profit and operating margins, we again walk from prior segments to the new segmentation. Starting with the High-Touch Solutions segment on the left, new High-Touch Solutions N.A. GP margin of 38.2% is 150 basis points higher compared to the old U.S. segment. You can see that adding Canada and Mexico had a minimal impact on gross profit. The majority of the impact was our reporting changes to remove intercompany transactions. These transactions were at a gross profit margin lower than external customers.
As a result, when removed, our gross profit margin increases in the new segmentation. When looking at operating margin for High-Touch Solutions, the GP rate improvement from the intercompany transactions is more than offset by incremental corporate costs and lower operating margins in Canada. This results in High-Touch Solutions' operating margin of 13%, down 140 basis points compared to the prior U.S. segment. For the Endless Assortment segment on the right, the fee Grainger charges to Zoro for U.S. supply chain expenses has moved from cost of goods sold to SG&A, benefiting gross profit margins by 150 basis points with no impact on operating margin. The stand-alone Endless Assortment segment had 2020 gross profit margins of 27.6% and operating margins of 8%.
While the shift to our new segments, coupled with the reporting methodology changes, has a notable impact on the margins for our go-to-market models, the performance of these businesses remains unchanged. Slide 11 provides a summary of our 2020 results under our new reportable segment structure. Given the size and historical performance of some of the businesses, we thought it would be helpful to provide additional transparency. Specifically, within High-Touch Solutions, we'll continue to highlight U.S. and Canada results as Canada continues to make progress on their transformation. We'll do the same for MonotaRO and Zoro U.S. With that, I'll pass it over to Dee.
Thank you, Irene. With our streamlined reportable segment, the path to long-term growth comes into clearer focus. Our strategy remains unchanged. In fact, how we run the business today capitalize on the strength of the business model, and this resegmentation formalizes this alignment to our financial results. We feel we are well-situated to gain share profitably in our High-Touch Solutions N.A. business. This includes achieving 300-400 basis points of sustainable annual outgrowths in the U.S., improving top-line performance in Canada, and delivering operating margin expansion as GP rates recover and we continue to gain SG&A leverage. In the Endless Assortment business, we expect to continue delivering impressive 20% annual top-line growth while also ramping margins at our Zoro U.S. business into the high single digits.
These strong growth drivers, alongside a business that generates consistent free cash flow with significant capital allocation flexibility, gives us confidence in our ability to deliver strong returns to our shareholders. Our earnings results from these two strong connected business models provide the platform to drive consistent value creation. We continue to be an industry leader, and we are poised to take share in this large, highly fragmented and attractive MRO market. Our diversified end market exposure reduces business risks and allows us to gain market insights and provide a more comprehensive offering to our customers. This unique lens enables us to optimize demand and pricing insights, execute strategic market plans, and leverage functional expertise between these two businesses. We have more levers for organic growth and sustained value creation, which will help to solidify our competitive market position.
We have more levers for organic growth and sustained value creation, which will help to solidify our competitive market position. We expect High-Touch Solutions N.A. will continue to be a leader in the traditional MRO industry, leveraging decades of deep customer, product, and technical expertise. We anticipate Endless Assortment will continue to deliver strong performance through incremental SKU additions, improved marketing and analytics, and an innovative customer experience. Grainger is well positioned for sustained growth and profitability. We feel confident in the opportunity ahead and the long-term success of both models. Underpinning these synergies is our strong financial position as well as our ability to serve customers well and deliver strong returns. We remain committed to ESG principles driven by our culture, with team members focused on living the Grainger Edge principles and achieving our purpose to keep the world working.
With that, we'll open the line for questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. Once again, to queue up for a question, press the star key followed by the one on your telephone keypad. Please limit yourselves to one question and one follow-up per question. You can press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star key. Once again, to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from Ryan Merkel with William Blair. Please state your question.
Hey, everyone. Thanks for all the details. My first question is on the Endless Assortment gross margins. Can you just walk us through why the drop in 2019? What is the outlook for this business in 2021 and beyond?
Yeah. Thanks, Ryan, for the question. You're talking about the drop in Endless Assortment margins from 2019?
Yeah, 2018 to 2019, the gross margin fell from 28.6% to 27.7% in Endless Assortment. I'm just kind of wondering what the real run rate is going forward, you can improve it off the 27.7% or 27.6% in 2020, or is it sort of more just a flat outlook?
I think I would look at it as more of a flatter outlook. There were a lot of moving pieces kind of going back. If you think about it, 2018 and 2019, Zoro was still kind of building up from there. We have changed some processes more recently in 2020, and as a result of that, the GP for Zoro now is fairly consistent. I would count that more as an anomaly than anything that you should build into a model moving forward.
Okay, that's helpful. Switching to the High-Touch business, the 40.8% gross margin in 2019, is that the right metric long term, plus or minus, or might there be some investment in large accounts that you discussed previously?
This is Dee. I would say our goal long term is to try to work our way back to levels like we were in 2019. That is our long-term goal. What's really interesting today, I would say, is when you look at what's going on with a lot of customers, they are continuing to make sure that they're priced competitively and priced right. We continue to respond actively to large customer bids. That could put some pressure on us. As we've talked about our subsequent improvement related to GP coming off of 2020, we want to continue to look forward to expanding our gross margins in High-Touch Solutions North America.
Perfect. Thanks, Dee. Appreciate it.
Our next question comes from David Manthey with Baird. Please state your question.
Hi. Good morning, and thanks for doing the call. Back to the Endless Assortment business. As you referenced in 2019, there were a number of investments you made in products and systems and processes and so forth. Going forward, should we expect to see a sawtooth pattern of investment followed by a rebound on stronger growth in that segment because of Zoro or the investments that you made in 2019? Does that set you up pretty well for the medium term that we won't have to see those periods of investment that hurt profitability?
Yeah. I would say that we've taken the larger investments that we need to make, specifically in Zoro. They're continuing to, of course, expand their customer base. Some of the investments we made related to their product information system and other information and supply chain tools, those investments, at least in the short to midterm, have been made.
Okay. A number of times on this call, you've referenced these two segments, and you've talked about them as being connected, and I think that was intentional. I'm just wondering why that is. Second, and I guess it's a separate question, but I'm wondering about the growth initiatives we might hear about in Endless Assortment. It just feels like it's all about adding products and web search optimization and so forth. Is there anything else beyond that we'll be hearing about in the quarters ahead?
I will say, we continue to talk about the facts, especially when you think about MonotaRO, their expansion of their DC and supply chain capacity as they continue to grow significantly. On the Zoro side, they use the scale that we have already invested in the U.S., primarily, the U.S. supply chain to assist them. I would say DC capacity investments continue specifically related to MonotaRO. I would say both of them, if you think about that model, it is a model that is intuitive to customers. It's simpler purchasing processes, but customers are looking for online tools and insights. I could see the Endless Assortment model continue to invest in its ability to provide insights to customers based upon the products that they're purchasing.
Yeah. Dave, if you think about the fact that we've specifically talked about we hit low single-digit op margins for Zoro and then would expect mid-single digit this year and high single digits in the next three to five years. That's all kind of factored in and takes into account the fact that we would be making some modest investments, but the big investments are behind us.
I appreciate it. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Chris Snyder with UBS. Please state your question.
Thank you. When I look at the 2018, 2019 recast financials for the new other segment, I'm assuming this includes Fabory and China in addition to Cromwell. I think collectively, these businesses were slightly unprofitable in 2018. Could you provide any color as to how Cromwell fared in 2018 on a standalone basis to help us model it out? Is there a pathway to Cromwell becoming a profitable business again? Or is it more viewed as a cost center of sorts to help support the Zoro U.K. ramp?
Yeah. I'll start by talking about 2018. You're right, Chris, that the prior year numbers did include Fabory and China. Essentially, Cromwell in 2018 was closer to breakeven. I think there was a modest loss. We do believe that we can return to profitability, and I'll let Dee comment on that.
Yeah. If you think, Cromwell experienced the same pandemic impacts in the U.K. or similar that we had in the U.S. The main difference is that in markets they serve, some of the sub-segments, specifically aerospace, as you well know, were significantly impacted, and they are weighted towards customers in that segment. Those segments really have not stable. Those customers really have not stabilized. So we expect Cromwell to get back to profitability as we work through the pandemic and as those customers start to return and their businesses start to return to more normal. They are, of course, spending time with other customers and looking to take share in other markets as well that are doing a little bit better in the U.K. through this pandemic.
Again, longer term, we expect them to get back to profitability, but they still have a way to go because some of their larger customers are still struggling through the pandemic.
Appreciate that. The company plans to buy back $600 million-$700 million of shares in 2021, which is a very meaningful amount. I guess my question is, what is the ability or willingness to increase this? I ask because it does not seem like the Grainger equity is getting credit for the MonotaRO position or even a premium valuation for Zoro, and there could be an opportunity to capitalize on this dislocation.
Sure. What I would say is, we aren't really looking to modify our capital allocation strategy at this time. I know we've talked, and I believe you all have asked questions over time related to the implications of the MonotaRO value. I'll let you guys continue to work on that calculation. We are very focused on serving our customers well, making sure that we're investing in the right things with both of these models to ensure long-term outgrowth in the market. Yes, we have cash, and we have deployed our cash to invest back into the business, but also to return our profits back to shareholders, and we continue to do so. We believe the range of $600 million-$700 million is still in our sweet spot right now.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Christopher Glynn with Oppenheimer. Please state your question.
Thank you. Good morning. Was just referring to slide 18, as you point out, recreated from the fourth quarter U.S. segment slide. I'm curious what degree or proportion of improvement you're expecting in terms of mix and the inventory adjustments. So for instance, if we call the difference between 2020 and 2019, 100%, just looking directionally in 2021, does this slide contemplate like maybe half the inventory adjustments attenuate and the balance would normalize in 2022? Similarly for the pandemic and non-pandemic product mixes.
Yeah. Thanks, Chris. I guess, I would start out by saying on slide 18 that essentially it's the same trajectory as we had talked about on the fourth quarter call. To your point, when we talked on the fourth quarter call, we talked about two primary impacts that are going to help us, coming out of the pandemic, from a GP lens. The first of which you mentioned is the mix aspect. We're anticipating, in that trajectory, that we would get back to about 20% pandemic on non-pandemic mix, from the highs of around 28% at the highest point in the pandemic. We're assuming a gradual mix improvement. The other thing that I would point out that you mentioned was around inventory.
We talked about the mark-to-market inventory adjustments that we took in the fourth quarter, and we are expecting to have some impact in Q1 and Q2. We've factored that in to these numbers, by the time we get out of the second quarter and launch into the second half of the year, we should be in a pretty good place from that standpoint.
Okay. Then for the follow-up. As Endless Assortment and Zoro in particular is adding millions of SKUs a year to pursue that 20% growth level that's been so sticky, would product write-downs necessarily become a more frequent part of the conversation around how Endless Assortment is operating through that SKU addition environment?
If I'm understanding you correctly, we are not seeing any product write-downs as the Endless Assortment model continues to take share in the marketplace.
Yeah.
Maybe clarify that a little bit, if you would.
I think you heard it correctly, Dee.
Okay.
Yeah. It seemed like the pandemic product was almost predictable if I had thought of it, which it wasn't, but the shock and environment, getting all these SKUs out to market, and it just struck me that there's kind of a parallel there of sorts in how Zoro is really continuously ramping the volumes.
Yeah. One of the things to remember, too, Chris, is that when we were in the heat of the pandemic, the Grainger supply that we had was really allocated to large contract customers, specifically in government and healthcare. Zoro had a more limited ability to access those products.
Okay. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Nigel Coe with Wolfe Research. Please state your question.
Thanks. Good morning. I wanted to just dig into the mid-single digits margin for Zoro in 2021. I think of mid-single digits as being a 3-handle to a 7-handle, in that range. Just want to make sure that's how you think about it as well. If that's the case, then we're looking at maybe 200 basis points of margin expansion this year for Zoro. Is that reasonable on a three to four year basis, and is it volumes as the key driver of that margin expansion? Thanks.
Yeah, volume is the key driver for the margin expansion we expect to see coming out of Zoro.
Yeah. Nigel, you're talking about kind of how we're talking about low single digits and the operating margin continuing to migrate up, right?
Exactly, yeah. How should we think about mid-single digits in 2021?
Yes.
Right. Then just the change in supply chain fee at, again, at Zoro, moving it from gross margin to SG&A. Obviously at the consolidated level, there's been no change in the way you classify expenses. The gross margin is the same pre and post. Just wondering why the change. Is there a change in incentive structure? Why that change?
Yeah, there is no change in incentive structure. I think, when we had the opportunity because we were going through the resegmentation and wanted to take a look at different accounting methodologies. One of the things that we started looking at was that markup. When you really peel the onion back, it's more reflective of SG&A than it is of GP and COGS. From that lens, we felt like it was probably a more appropriate way to state the numbers and to put that into GP. Again, it has no impact on operating margin.
SG&A, put it into SG&A.
Oh, sorry. Put it into SG&A from GP. Sorry.
Yep.
Okay, great. Thanks, guys.
Our next question comes from Hamzah Mazari with Jefferies. Please state your question.
Hey. Good morning. Thank you. Just a question for Dee. How are you thinking about reestablishing guidance back? Is it a post-vaccine thought process, or any kind of key indicators you're looking at? Just any thoughts there.
Yeah. Thank you for the question. Of course, this is something that we're going to continue to look at. I'd say the barometer for us is really looking at how the pandemic progresses and how we can establish a more consistent outlook. What I would say is to stay tuned. We expect to get back to providing guidance in the next quarter or two, and really it is all about looking at more stability in the marketplace. Don't forget, we will continue to provide transparency and insight into our performance and especially an outlook for the next quarter at the next call at a minimum.
Got you. There's no change to your view that Q1 2021 is still the bottom for gross margins in the U.S. High-Touch business? Is that still valid?
Yes, that is still valid. I think, taking it back to what we disclosed in Q4 is exactly where we are. We were impacted a little bit by some weather here this quarter. However, what we guided to this quarter is still definitely in the mark.
Okay, wonderful. Thank you so much.
Our next question comes from Kevin Marek with Deutsche Bank. Please state your question.
Hi. Good morning. Maybe just taking a step back, a broader question. Has the change in reporting methodology come with any updated thoughts on parts of the business that you'd consider non-core? Or maybe the flip side, right? Where you can identify areas within either segment that you feel are either underserved or in need of greater investment. I guess the question's aimed at the next leg of growth and where you guys are headed.
Really, this change was really an accounting change that reflects the growing size and importance of the Endless Assortment model. We believe in these two models. We believe they have great value because they really serve the varying customer needs that we see out in the market, and we're excited about being able to fully implement the MonotaRO playbook at Zoro. This was really an accounting change. We've been operating, specifically our supply chain, has been supporting the High-Touch Solutions N.A. business in this way for a number of years. We've now recently moved to pulling all the commercial aspects in High-Touch North America together under one leader, Paige Robbins. What that means is that we were already together with the sales and service, but now we've brought our merchandising capability across North America, marketing across North America.
We really feel it will help us serve High-Touch Solutions customers in a more effective way, even more effective way going forward.
Got it. Understood. Maybe as kind of a related follow-up, just thinking about your geographic footprint and some of the changes over the last few years, are there areas where you'd look to expand? If so, does Endless Assortment or High Touch have priority? I guess, in other words, would you need an established High Touch presence in order to stand up another Endless Assortment operation?
I don't believe so. We've gone through a journey here over the last, I would say three to five years, right? I think we're really focused on the geographies that we believe work for us from a High Touch perspective. With that, with those geographies, we're well positioned where we're focusing on Endless Assortment assets as well.
Yeah, if you think about Zoro in the U.K., it's really in its infancy, and we're really starting to ramp that up. We're learning as we're going. The good news with the U.K. is that we do have the supply chain infrastructure there, which is helping us.
With Cromwell.
Yeah.
Great. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.
Our next question comes from Justin Bergner with G.research. Please state your question.
Thank you, Dee. Thank you, Irene, and a very helpful call you're having this morning.
Thank you.
I have a few questions on Zoro. I guess just to start, could you just remind me the comment you made earlier about the number of items available in MonotaRO and Zoro, how many it was for each?
Over 20 million SKUs for MonotaRO and a little bit over 6 million SKUs for Zoro.
Okay. As the Zoro SKUs come up in number towards that MonotaRO number, would you expect the Zoro gross margin to sort of trend downward along with lower SG&A to look more like MonotaRO's gross margins? Are there other reasons for that call it four to 500 basis point difference?
I think the way to look at it is, the MonotaRO business, they operate in different geographies. They serve different customers. Their supply chain operations, while it's DC and things like that, are different than what you see, in Zoro. We have different customer sets. They utilize at least primarily the U.S. supply chain, today. There are inherent differences in the model. I don't think you can just apply the MonotaRO numbers to the Zoro business. I would say over time, I think we talked earlier about a question about gross margins for MonotaRO. For Zoro, they have started to stabilize here. We do expect to see operating margins improve, and we believe that is generated by the volume, which is generated by SKU additions and having customers find the products that they need on the Zoro site.
Don't want to say that we're going to be able to get to the SG&A leverage that you see kind of with the MonotaRO model, because that is a different geography and a slightly different way to operate there, out of Japan.
Okay, thanks. That's very helpful. If I could just slip in one last one on Zoro, which is a clarifying question. The Zoro line that you have in your Excel detail posted online, does that include Zoro UK such that the mid-single digit and high single-digit margins that are reported for the Zoro sub-segment will be slightly weighed down by the inclusion of Zoro U.K.?
The line item that's there on the Excel file is actually Zoro U.S. In the other Endless Assortment is Zoro U.K., but it's also important to note that in 2020 and in the prior years, we also had Zoro Germany. That line item now that we've divested Germany, moving forward, other Endless Assortment will be Zoro U.K.
Thank you for taking all my questions.
Sure.
Our next question comes from Chris Dankert with Longbow Research. Please state your question.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I guess we've talked about Cromwell quite a bit in the past. Now that we've got the new kind of reporting segments, I guess, it is a High-Touch business. Why not report in High-Touch? Conversely, if it is so necessary to kind of support Zoro U.K., why not report it there? It just seems kind of odd to kind of create this reporting island by itself for what is ostensibly going to be part of Grainger long term here.
Yeah. Thank you. As we started off, the resegmentation is really an accounting change. Technically it did not qualify to be combined with the rest of the High-Touch Solutions business, which is primarily North America. As a result, we did not take the stance to try to fill it in. It also is not really being run in the same manner, which we're running the operations across North America. Yes, it is out there by itself now as you can see. We also thought that could be a benefit to everyone, as we continue to make improvements, with the Cromwell business, it will be very clear for you to be able to see the progress that we're making, not only with those customers, but with the overall operation. That was the thought process behind it.
Got it. Thanks for that explanation. Just one last one for me, more of a modeling question, I suppose. Going forward, you've always been quite transparent in terms of providing volume, price effects, et cetera, by segment and geography. Is that going to continue going forward? Is that still the practice?
Yeah. For the High-Touch Solutions, we are going to continue to provide that level of detail, by geography. We'll share for U.S. and Canada. That way of looking at the underlying drivers of revenue doesn't make as much sense for the Endless Assortment model. We're going to probably share color in a different way, and we're thinking through the metrics for the Endless Assortment model. Zoro's information will probably look a little bit closer to what MonotaRO shares than what we do in the U.S. High-Touch .
Got it. Makes sense. Thanks so much.
Our next question comes from Justin Bergner with G.research. Please state your question.
Thanks for the quick follow-up. The question was asked earlier about what does mid-single digit margins mean for Zoro U.S. I guess you exited 2020 at 2.8% operating margins for Zoro. Just to double check, there wouldn't be anything seasonally helping that 2.8% margin in the fourth quarter, would there?
Nothing comes to mind that will be seasonally assisting Zoro's, OM, no.
Okay.
Right.
That's it. Thanks.
Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's question and answer session, and that also concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for your participation. Have a great day.