Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Bill Chappell with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
Bill Chappell - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
I wanted to talk a little bit about Branded Consumables, just kind of the trends going on there. You did have a little bit of benefit of an extra month of the fire log business, so surprised that was down a little bit. Maybe you could talk about what you're seeing there and how that should play out over the next couple of quarters?
Martin Franklin
Yes, there are two impacts. Some of it’s weather and some of it’s specific retailers. I think overall that business is fine, but the reality is, we have a slow start to the season. And everyone's been tracking the weather. You can see what it's like in the Northeast. So we're off to a slow start.
If you remember last year, we had a slow start as well. So again, there's nothing sort of outstanding to us in terms of what's going on with that business. It's really just seasonal in nature.
Ian Ashken
I'd also say, Bill, that in terms of some of the customers in that segment, as Martin touched on, there's nothing comping as there was in Q2, different at, for example, Home Depot. But that sector is definitely down year-on-year and we're down with them. It doesn't really change our outlook for the longer term in that business, but we're obviously reasonably excited.
James Lillie
Yes, Bill, I would just add a third component to that is, I think all retailers are just managing their working capital and their inventory closely. And so they're not loading in at levels they have historically loaded in the past, but there's nothing systemically wrong with the category itself.
Bill Chappell - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
Sure. And then also on the K2 business, with the weather in mind, I mean it's surprising that it's off to such a strong start. Is it market share gains?
Martin Franklin
The reality is that's nothing to do with the weather. That's simply the loading in of inventory so that they have the skis in the stores going into the selling season. Because if you ski, what you know is that these people tend to not buy their skis until it starts snowing, and as soon as the snow hits people go out and buy their skis. And so they load up inventory and it's really got nothing to do with the weather.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
