Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Kathryn Thompson of Avondale Partners.
Kathryn Thompson - Avondale Partners LLC
First on your manufactured housing operating margins: in the previous quarter they benefited from product eliminations and messages on a nice job year over year with margin improvement in that segment again. Did you see a similar impact in the first quarter or and to what do you attribute the overall year-over-year improvement in margins in that segment?
Leigh Abrams
I think it was largely, as we mentioned in prior quarters, due to the drafting of some of the lower margin business. I think we were able to improve some margins on some other products. It was product mix. We have obviously different margins on various different product categories. You put those three together and I think that’s what helped this year, on top of?
Kathryn Thompson - Avondale Partners LLC
Then previously you said it had about a $1 to $2 million impact. Would it be similar in this quarter or would you say it was a bigger impact?
Leigh Abrams
$1 to $2 million impact on what?
Kathryn Thompson - Avondale Partners LLC
Positive impact in the previous quarter: just the whole product elimination that was just your own estimation.
Leigh Abrams
I don’t remember making that estimation. I’m sure you’re right, but I would say in that order, maybe that’s a little high.
Kathryn Thompson - Avondale Partners LLC
I assume that on the commodity pricing pressure, this has and you have to forgive me, this has been a constant thing since 2004, but do you feel incrementally that prices have been more severe in increases today versus say February or March when you last reported the numbers?
Leigh Abrams
Well you know price increases have continued to go up. The biggest price increase is probably coming in April or May, but they’ve been going up all year just about every month and again, I look back to ’04 when price increases doubled and tripled and again, David and Jason were very successful in doing what they had to do.
Jason, do you want to add anything to that and I’m going to ask David the same?
Jason Lippert
No, I think Kathryn said that has been studied since ’04 and it’s just one of those situations where you have to evaluate everything and do what we’ve done: in the past I think we’ve had to do it twice, twice or three times since then and it’s just another one of those times we’ve got to evaluate everything and get back out to the market and educate the customers.
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