Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from Steve Schwartz – First Analysis Corp.
Steven Schwartz – First Analysis Corp.
Can you give us a feel for the timing of the benefits from the restructuring? I think under the original plan you were looking for maybe $0.07 to $0.09 a share this year. How much of the additional benefit do you expect to see this year?
Lori A. Walker
Steve, the $0.07 to $0.09 was what we were assuming in terms of the cost for the restructuring previously, and we had said that the savings would be about the same primarily in the back half of the year. And in terms of the increase in the restructuring, that will be completed by the end of the third quarter of the expectations, and the benefits, again, would be in the back half of the year.
Steven Schwartz – First Analysis Corp.
So is it still $0.07 to $0.09 this year because you’re now looking for about $0.08 more.
Lori A. Walker
It’ll be a little bit higher based on the new actions that we’ve taken.
Steven Schwartz – First Analysis Corp.
Then just in taking a look at this gross margin improvement here. You had almost 300 basis points and that just off your current revenue level is worth about $30 million in gross profit. Can you give us an idea of how much of that was from restructuring versus pricing?
William L. Mansfield
Probably not. That’s a level of granularity I don’t think we’re prepared to get into. Clearly, restructuring benefit the gross margin and that was my comment about a substantial increase of manufacturing productivity that we saw during the quarter. We also benefited from an improved mix and, probably for the first time in many quarters, mix truly did contribute to an improvement in the gross margin.
Operator
Your next question comes from David Begleiter – Deutsche Bank.
David Begleiter – Deutsche Bank
Can you talk about further pricing benefits in Q2 and the ability to hold pricing going forward given the very weak macro environment?
William L. Mansfield
David, I think the issue is simply in the first quarter, as I said, our raw material costs were higher in the first quarter of ’09 than they were in ’08. The raw material cost environment today is very difficult to predict. We are aware that most multinational chemical companies have announced substantial plant shutdowns. It’s unclear to us what that will entail. So I really can’t tell you what might happen on a go forward basis.
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