Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Rosemarie Morbelli with Ingalls & Snyder.
Rosemarie Morbelli - Ingalls & Snyder
Frank, could you give us a feel as to what you are seeing in Western Europe? I mean, it is obviously slowing. Spain and the UK are not in good shape. Italy is slowing. France and Germany obviously are going to follow. How do you expect to grow your international business under those conditions? In other words, how much from the businesses you have already there versus acquisitions that you may make?
Frank C. Sullivan
We are seeing still good growth in the European market place. I think you have to keep in mind that by segment our Consumer segment, which is more predominantly North American-based, is suffering from some of the weakness that we see in the economic environment. And our Industrial segment obviously, whether that is in North America or globally, continues to benefit from spending in a lot of the major categories that we talked about.
Additionally, in Europe we are expanding quite nicely in Eastern Europe and Russia. So we anticipate good growth in the European market place, both through expansion in Eastern Europe and Russia, which we don’t see slowing down, as well as the nature of the industrial markets that we serve there, which also seems to be pretty healthy still.
Rosemarie Morbelli - Ingalls & Snyder
And then one other question, if I may. With the lower prices for houses, it looks, at least based on what I read, more houses are changing hands. Are you seeing an increase in the level of products going into remodeling or are people just sitting on the new houses and keeping them the way they are at the moment?
Frank C. Sullivan
We are not yet seeing any improvement in the U.S. housing market, whether it’s turnover or certainly new construction. As I mentioned in my opening comments, the small-project nature of our products is helping us. When you go into the big retailer, to the extent people are in the paint departments, they’re buying our products as opposed to basic wall goods.
And so the renovation and remodeling, which would also benefit us, that are major ticket items, whether it’s repainting a house or redoing a total kitchen, is not happening yet. But the weatherization, the small project maintenance and repair is still holding in there nicely and we expect to see that continue for the balance of the year.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
