Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). The first question is from Ralph Giacobbe - Credit Suisse.
Ralph Giacobbe - Credit Suisse
Just a couple questions on the volume side; Bob, I know you mentioned sort of normalizing, looks like the number was up 1.1% last quarter, was up sort of mid 2%, could you just go through, I missed some of the comments, you said August was softer simply because of seasonality through the summer months and that’s kind of unpredictable, and September picked up again, is that what you said?
Robert A. Hagemann
That’s right, Ralph. As I mentioned, August is a pretty variable month, sometimes it’s affected by the timing of vacations in schools and the like; and while there’s not a direct correlation, we also saw a similar pattern with scripts that were written in the month August, they were down, but as I said earlier, our volumes did rebound in the month of September, and when we look at September and the month of July, those volumes were pretty consistent with what we’ve seen year-to-date. So, we don’t think that there is any thing in the underlying performance that affected August.
Ralph Giacobbe - Credit Suisse
So, in terms of your opinion, what’s the underlying growth rate in the volume number sort of excluding some of the one-timers?
Robert A. Hagemann
Again, as you look at the table that we have in the footnote 7, you’ll see that adjusted is 1.1% for the quarter, but we’re not attempting to adjust for the month of August in there.
Ralph Giacobbe - Credit Suisse
And then on the volume, can you talk about if there is typically any difficulties you may face on the volume side in the face of everything you’re doing on the cost side of the business. I’m assuming some of the cost savings is coming from down-sizing to some degree, so, should we think of that as once that stabilizes you would expect it to be easier to may be accelerate volume trends?
Robert A. Hagemann
I wouldn’t say that there was any connection at all; in fact, what we’re doing on the cost side we believe is also improving service levels. we’re making things more efficient, we’re actually improving service levels, and if anything, I think it’s going to help us grow faster in the future.
Ralph Giacobbe - Credit Suisse
My last one, can you talk about any potential flu impact in the quarter and maybe comment on whether you’ve seen any meaningful uptake this month just given all the news out there on swine flu?
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
