Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from John Diffendal – BB&T Capital Markets.
John Diffendal – BB&T Capital Markets
In the commercial/military am I to assume that most of the business that was booked, it sounded like it was primarily military and less commercial. Can you talk about how that sort of lays out in front of you?
Larry Keener
It was about 60% military and about 40% commercial.
John Diffendal – BB&T Capital Markets
Is that true of your pipeline going forward as well?
Larry Keener
Yes, it’s about the same, John.
John Diffendal – BB&T Capital Markets
You talk about the tone of the industry a bit, but I’m just curious if you’ve noted any real change as you came to the end of the quarter and as we’ve moved into July. I mean, the May shipping number was down 15% in terms of HUD code. Anything that you can kind of add to just the tone of what you’re hearing either from dealers or sort of seeing at the margin right now.
Larry Keener
Overall what we’re seeing is business is tougher. There are fewer consumers in everybody’s sales centres. People are worried about their jobs and the cost of living. I think it’s keeping some people off the sales centres. As it relates to independents versus company stores, our company stores seem to be doing significantly better than our independents. Their close ratios on the, traffic’s down about 15% with close rate yields are up about 20%. I think the primary reason for that are the two things I mentioned earlier: the expanded product lines and the fact that we’re getting so many more qualified internet leads to our stores that we’ve had internet conversations with for a month to six months before they get there.
So we have seen some deterioration. I don’t want to sound pessimistic because I like some of the things we’re doing, but it does seem to be impacting the independents more than it’s impacting our company stores.
John Diffendal – BB&T Capital Markets
You mentioned the troubled states of California, Arizona, and Florida. Anything to note? I mean, it seemed like we were seeing a little better action out of Florida relative to the other two. Anything you can note about that given your position down there?
Larry Keener
Sure, kind of in a microcosm, we saw business improving just as you said, albeit from very low levels, some in the spring. But in the last couple of months it has weakened again. The difference there between what our independents are doing and what our company stores are doing is pretty dramatic. Our company stores continue to make money down there and I know that’s probably not something a lot of our independents can say right now.
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