Question-and-Answer Session
Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. We'll take our first question from Jon Groberg with Merrill Lynch.
Jonathan Groberg - Merrill Lynch
Hi guys, congratulations on a solid quarter.
G. Edward McClammy - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Thank you.
Jonathan Groberg - Merrill Lynch
A few questions, maybe just a follow-up. One, can you quantify, I know you always say it's difficult to quantify, but maybe help quantify the FX benefit that you think that you got at the top line in this quarter?
G. Edward McClammy - Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Yes I still have the same feeling that I talked about all along and so don't want to quantify that number. Yes, we'll point it out as I pointed out before that for our... every 1% that you believe that there is an impact on the top line mathematically, it comes out if there's about a 10 basis points headwind to the operating margins.
Jonathan Groberg - Merrill Lynch
Okay. I think they're kind of 10 to 12 basis points before, okay. And then why is it, first of all that operating margins are higher in Vacuum Technologies rather than Scientific Technologies? And then two, can you maybe discuss why... was it just a fact that your revenue base was so much higher off of a more of a fixed cost base last year in Vacuum Technologies or was there something else going on why Vacuum Technologies' adjusted operating margins were lower this year than last year?
Garry W. Rogerson, Ph.D. - President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, margins were exceptionally high last year. And we said we think they should be trending at about 20%. So they were exceptionally high last year and they come down to a more normal margin. There are mix considerations there, turbo pumps to diffusion pumps that may have some effect on the margin. But we expect our margins in vacuum to be about 20%. And what we are looking for is growth of the vacuum business. So, a lot of investment is going into R&D new products to get the growth, because we are actually quite happy with the margin. We will prefer to grow it. As I mentioned, it was good so we can get out of this good, is that vacuum orders were higher than vacuum shipments in the quarter, so we had a good vacuum order in the quarter. So we want to continue that and we are investing to grow it.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
