Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Simeon Gutman from Goldman Sachs.
Simeon Gutman – Goldman Sachs
Given the macro back drop and some of the economic uncertainty in the face of what already is happening today in the restaurant world. What gives you confidence that you can hit those numbers, I guess specifically to that, is it just continued realization of some of the initiatives you’ve been doing or is it more aggressive on the cost side?
Steve Spinner
Obviously that’s a question we think about all the time. As we talked in prior calls there are a couple things that answer that question specifically. Number one the restaurant industry itself has been soft for a couple years yet we’ve managed to grow our sales to existing customers on the customized side, we’ve managed to attract several new customers as evidenced by the O’Charley's and the Joe’s roll out. The demand for our customized services remains very strong, evidenced of the fact that we are doing a great job.
On the broadline side, as you know we’ve significantly increased our head count on the sales to higher margin street sales. Those sales come roughly 18 to 24 months after the time that we make the original hire and if you recall we made those investments back at the end of ’06 and into ’07. We expect a lot of positive momentum as we see those sales people start to get into that period of significant sales growth.
Also I would comment that even though the industry itself is not growing on the broadline side we still have very few markets where we have more than 10% market share. We’ve got the heads on the street, we don’t necessarily need the industry to grow because we don’t have significant market share we can continue to grow without significant industry growth itself. We are very confident that the numbers we currently have in front of you are attainable.
Simeon Gutman – Goldman Sachs
I guess imposed in that is the sales people will get more productive and yes the industry may not grow but can they still do that if industry growth goes negative?
Steve Spinner
I think its more difficult and challenging because we don’t get the benefits of increasing sales to existing street customers but the primary reason you bring on all the new sales people is to take on new customers. When the industry itself is not growing or even if it’s declining the primary concentration has to be in new customer growth and that’s where they’re focusing their efforts.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
