Earnings Call Excerpt
Houston Wire & Cable Co. (HWCC)
Q4 2008 Earnings Call
March 16, 2009; 11:00 am ET
Executives
Chuck Sorrentino - President & Chief Executive Officer
Nick Graham - Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Analysts
Sam Darkatsh - Raymond James
David Manthey - Robert W. Baird
Bill Dezellem - Tieton Capital Management
George Gaspar - Robert W. Baird
Holden Lewis - BB&T
Presentation
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Houston Wire & Cable Company’s fourth quarter and year end 2008 earnings conference call. My name is Matt and I will be your operator for today. This call is being recorded for replay purposes. (Operator Instructions)
If you did not receive a copy of the earnings press release that was distributed earlier this morning, a copy can be found under the Investor Relations page of the company’s website at www.houwire.com.
Comments during today’s call may include forward-looking statements relating to sales, earnings, financial condition, plans and goals of the company. These statements are not guarantees and actual results could differ materially from what is indicated in such statements.
A complete description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from statements made during this call can be found under the risk factors in the MD&A section of the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008, filed with the SEC earlier today.
At this time I’d like to turn the call over to Mr. Nick Graham, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Graham, please go ahead sir.
Nick Graham
Thank Matt and good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thanks to all our investors on the call today for your interest and support as we review the fourth quarter and full year 2008 results. I’m going to focus most of my comments this morning on the financial position of the company.
As you can see from our numbers, our business was impacted as were most companies by the dramatic curtailment in demand from the economic downturn. We saw this demand change occur in the latter part of September 2008 and demand has continued to deteriorate.
Our results were also impacted by the unprecedented fall in the price of copper, a varying component of the wiring cable that we sale. As each time we see in the service business, we hold stock in our distribution centers and the pricing in certain Wire & Cable items has come under pressure compared to current costs.
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