Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Mitch Kummetz – Robert Baird.
Mitch Kummetz – Robert Baird
You made a comment tail end of your prepared remarks about sales tougher in Q3 then either Q2 or Q4. Could you elaborate on that and maybe reconcile that with the comment I think you made on the last call where you’d said that tougher sales in the first half then the back half of the year. Has something changed there?
Don Grimes
The order pattern is very volatile, unpredictable as I’m sure you can appreciate. What we said at the last earnings call which we expected generally across the board easier comparisons, I won’t say easy, but easier comparisons in the back half of the year versus the first half. We’ve seen the order pattern kind of jump around and based on where we stand today it looks like the third quarter is going to be a tougher comparison for us then either Q2 or Q4. The only thing I can attribute it to is just the unpredictability of orders coming in from retailers.
Obviously the backlog of this today doesn’t represent 100% of the revenue we’re going to record over the last three quarters of the year but just to give you guys a little flavor as to how we see the last three quarters of the fiscal year playing out from a comparison to the prior year it looks like Q3 will be a bit tougher then Q2 or Q4.
Mitch Kummetz – Robert Baird
What are you seeing in the backlog to suggest that? You guys didn’t talk about the backlog on the call. Typically you give some sort of a backlog number. I don’t know if you could provide that and is there something in the fall orders that suggest the cadence that you are referring to.
Don Grimes
The backlog is consistent with where it was, its improved compared to where it was at the end of the fiscal year but it’s still down on a reported basis double digits, obviously impacted quite significantly by foreign exchange. When you strip foreign exchange out and look at a constant currency backlog its down in the upper mid single digits. The backlog last year had a significant amount of Bates business in it that given the timing of our Bates business if you adjust the reported backlog for FX and Bates it down in the mid single digits.
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