Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question will come from the line of Robert Kelly, representing Sidoti & Company. Please proceed.
William Currie
Good morning Robert.
Robert Kelly - Sidoti & Company
Good morning, thanks for taking my question. First, off the sequential improvement in gross margins 1Q versus 4Q, can you quantify that?
William Currie
You mean Q4 versus Q1?
Robert Kelly - Sidoti & Company
Yes, 1Q gross margin was up versus 4Q despite the sales decline. What were the drivers there?
William Currie
Sales mix is certainly a part of that. Continuous improvement, efforts have been a part of that and we have made changes in our cost structure and probably done a better job of aligning our cost structure in the first quarter versus volume. Those are probably the biggest two drivers.
Robert Kelly - Sidoti & Company
Was there any benefit from the closures and idling that you did in 4Q? Did that start to show up?
William Currie
Sure.
Robert Kelly - Sidoti & Company
Okay good.
William Currie
That’s the next part of that answer.
Robert Kelly - Sidoti & Company
And then just secondly on the spring selling season, has that gotten off to a good start, maybe just and so on how you view the market entering April.
William Currie
That was just for March or April?
Robert Kelly - Sidoti & Company
Yeah, sequentially and maybe year-over-year.
William Currie
Robert, it’s --
Michael Cole
A month late --
William Currie
Yeah, like we have mentioned earlier. We typically see the start to the DIY business in late March. Usually what happens is the big boxes start loading up their distribution centers and their plants -- I mean their stores to get ready for the spring buys, but because we believe first of all, because the weather was so severe and because a lot of people are worried about the inventories, they didn’t take that position in early March but took it in early April. So things got pushed back a couple of weeks and weather kind of pushed things back but when the weather is good, we are seeing good sales results. The one area that –- I’ll come to that, we’ll tell you, is just not performing well as Florida.
Robert Kelly - Sidoti & Company
Finally on the SG&A line, the decline year-over-year of about $5 million; what was the offset there? Was it just layoffs?
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