Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Paul Clegg Jefferies.
Paul Clegg Jefferies
Can you comment on the visibility into demand for reserve power in your sales channel? Motive, obviously has been weak, but typically reserve moves in kind of an unrelated manner. Were you still seeing that in the month of October?
John Craig
The month of October, since the credit crisis has taken place, we have seen a slowup. I think it's been a pause, if you will, and it's been a slight pause. We think it's going to come back very strong. What we're hearing from customers and what we've heard from a major customer just yesterday in a conference call, they're still projecting their business to be very strong in both telecom and the UPS area.
It's really hard to tell on a fewweek basis, but if you look at our reserve power business in the quarter, the volume was up 5%. We may see a quarter here that's going to slow-up a little bit, but I think it's going to in the text three, four, to six months, I think it's going to pop right back to where it was.
Paul Clegg Jefferies
Could you comment at all on the type of volume declines associated with your December quarter forecast?
John Craig
As you know, we give a guidance on earnings per share only. We come out with a midpoint of $0.42. That does have included in it, I think the uncertainty with the economic environment that we're seeing today. We're comfortable with the $0.42. We think there may be some upsiding into that number, but we're going to be conservative and we're going to keep a close eye on things. There's a lot of uncertainty as you well know taking place, I think, in the global economy today.
Paul Clegg Jefferies
Maybe if you could comment, then, on just kind of, I am assuming it involves both sequential declines in volumes for both motive and reserve? I was wondering if you could just talk about them relative to each other, the relative strength of the two in the December quarter.
John Craig
You're right. Both of the segments we're projecting are going to be down, as reflected in our $0.42. I really think what we're seeing right now is a waitandsee attitude by a lot of companies today. Within our $0.42, we have taken it down. We think we have it well covered. But we anticipate that once the credit crisis get as little bit further behind us, that we're going to see things pop back very strong.
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