Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
You’re welcome. (Operator Instructions) Our first question or comment is from the line of Tom Klamka with Credit Suisse. Your line is open.
Grant Beard
Hi, Tom.
Thomas Klamka – Credit Suisse
Good morning, how are you?
Grant Beard
Good, how are you?
Thomas Klamka – Credit Suisse
Good, could you, excluding sequent for the time being, the other business all did very well in the quarter which is great, you seem to be also very bullish on their prospects for 2009 even though those end markets aren’t doing that well. And I guess maybe you could reconcile that for us, how do you see a bullish revenue outlook in face of what we’re looking at in economy.
Grant Beard
I think, Tom, that bullish is a strong statement. I think that we expect the opportunity to have moderated growth and I think that growth will be more challenged in 09 but I think as we push our product initiatives, our international expansion, as we continue to take our group-like packaging more and more into food and beverage and medical, as we continue the conversion of our specialty cutting tools in the medical as layman’s gasket continues to follow the major oil producers with its service model into Europe and Southeast Asia, we think that those groups have the opportunity to continue to expand even in the market that they’re in. I think bullish would be too strong an adjective.
Thomas Klamka – Credit Suisse
But you still see positive revenue comparisons in those businesses next year?
Grant Beard
We see the opportunity to do that, yes.
Thomas Klamka – Credit Suisse
Okay. And can you talk a minute about energy, the growth there in the last couple quarters has been very strong now that natural gas has come down, some of those buyers are a little more circumspect. What do you see happening there?
Grant Beard
Well, you know, I think that group has certain characteristics to it, Tom. You know the great majority of what we’re selling are MRO or replacement components into a utilization environments, so while commodity prices moving down have impact, you’re running those petro-chemical or those oil refineries really don’t necessarily care what the commodity prices are and we see continued support for those MRO products that we’re selling into Dow and Exxon and the like and we see a great deal of commitment by those companies to take our business, in a sense, outside of North America which is all incremental opportunity for us.
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