Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Andrea Wirth – Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.
Andrea Wirth – Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.
I'm wondering if you could first just talk a little bit about your '09 assumptions, just in terms of what you're looking for, the core rental business in terms of growth rates. It looks like from your guidance that it assumes that growth is to come down pretty hard, but will probably still stay positive, probably around 2% to 3%. Does that seem to make sense to you?
Ronald Croatti
That's correct, Andrea.
Steven Sintros
I think the range, kind of assuming the reduction related to the extra week, as well as the impact on Canada of the exchange rate, I think the range assumes about a 2% to 4% core organic growth excluding all those factors.
Andrea Wirth – Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.
And then I'm just wondering if you could address a little bit what you've seen essentially since the end of your quarter end in August? And obviously, a little bit before we started seeing things fall apart in mid-September. Just wondering given the growth rate you're expecting now to come down to 2% to 4%, are you seeing a significant payoff already? I mean, will you probably start getting down to into that range of 2% to 4% already in the fiscal first quarter, or are things holding up still fairly well? We only see a kind of a slight deceleration in the first quarter.
Ronald Croatti
Andrea, we've seen a continuation of the shrinkage of our wearer base. Last year it was over 5.5% of our wearer base. That has continued. Our new business for the first eight weeks has slowed and we're down about 5% in new business. And the outer businesses and small businesses has continued pretty much at the same pace that it was in the fourth quarter. We are cautiously optimistic here.
John L. Bartlett
And just to add to that a little bit, Andrea, we've gotten our September numbers. Next week we'll get out October numbers, and quite frankly they were pretty good. So we're cautiously optimistic. And then I think the recent changes in the financial markets and so forth don't seem to have affected out business as yet. That isn't suggesting that they won't and I think we're seeing some favorable things in the energy costs. I mean everyone knows the cost of gasoline has come down dramatically and natural gas has come down since the last few months. So we actually have seen a couple of positive things.
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