Question-and-Answer Session
Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. We'll take our first question from Robert Cornell with Lehman Brothers. Please go ahead.
Robert Cornell - Lehman Brothers
Hi. Good morning, everybody.
David G. Nord - Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Good morning, Rob.
Robert Cornell - Lehman Brothers
I was interested in the comment you just made about the improvement in orders as you went through the quarter in power, could you just maybe expand on that point, please?
Timothy H. Powers - Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer
We started the year with kind of a weak opening to the year and the order rate per day increased throughout the quarter and our backlogs grew $7 million by the end of the quarter. And...
Robert Cornell - Lehman Brothers
Are these blanket contracts these utilities letting or what type of order you're seeing here?
Timothy H. Powers - Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, Bob there's always a combination of discrete orders and releases against blankets, but I believe utilities themselves just got off to a slow start, they may have been watching inventories. But I don't think it's really going to affect our power business for the year. We're pretty comfortable that it's going to be up mid-single digits and we're looking for some small margin improvement on it. And the orders have continued into the second quarter at a strong rate. So we are pretty comfortable where we are.
Robert Cornell - Lehman Brothers
Yes, I guess the other comment you made was in lighting, you started to just talk about some of this... some of the evolving trends in non-res and some weakness in C&I, maybe you could expand on that point too?
Timothy H. Powers - Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. Like everyone is reporting, fluorescent continues to be the technology of the day and the retrofits and energy upgrades are becoming an increasingly important part of the business and this type of lighting is becoming a substitute for high intensity discharge, HID lighting. So we're seeing a growth in fluorescent and some softness in some of the other types of lighting.
Robert Cornell - Lehman Brothers
Hey, just a general comment. I'll give up the phone here. I mean, it seems like the company is pushing price and margins at the expense of volume. I mean, is that a way? right way to look at it, may be you could expand on that point?
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