Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions)
Your first question comes from the line of Casey Flavin – CJS Securities
Casey Flavin – CJS Securities
In looking at the revenue in the quarter, you’ve been impacted by the timing of order shipments in the past, can you just give us a better sense of how much this shortfall during this quarter was related to timing versus a more global slowdown in demand for personal care items and also has your view of core growth in ’09 changed at all based on the results?
Frank Gerace
I don’t have any evidence that the slowdown in sales specifically in the homecare area only was related to any move-away from the brands that we support as a result of any macroeconomic slowdown that has been talked about every single day in the news media. And we’re very, very confident – it really involved two specific customers that had gone through a significant inventory build in our second and third quarter and they just decided to stop ordering in the fourth quarter and start working off of those inventories. As I stated earlier as a matter of fact, one of them now recently within the last couple of weeks have returned to normal order patterns and the other one we expect will return to normal order patterns over the next 30 to 60 days.
Now relative to our organic growth rate for 2009 as we’ve stated repeatedly our target growth rate is in the 7% and 8% range. Given what we’ve experienced in the fourth quarter and so far a little bit into our first quarter, there’s no question that it’s going to be a challenge for us to achieve the 7% to 8% target but here we are again, it’s too early to predict for sure. I don’t have a crystal ball on that. As we’ve stated again in the past we really only get at best a four-week view into the future as far as orders are concerned. We’re not going to change our target. We’re not going to change our expectations as far as sales growth is with our sales force, but there’s no question that I think we’re starting a little bit behind here and it will be challenging as we move through the year to make that up.
Casey Flavin – CJS Securities
In terms of the two customers that reduced some of their orders, you mentioned one is already back up to normal levels, can you just touch on or would you be willing to speak to which one is your larger customer, are they currently resumed or is this the one that you expect to resume in a couple of weeks?
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