Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Derek Leckow with Barrington Research.
Derek Leckow - Barrington Research
Just looking at the seasonally strongest period for spirits here coming up I want to make sure I understand the comments around the distribution and being in balance. Does that mean that, earlier in the year I thought we were going to expect to see some headwind from the distribution inventory levels and it sounds like that is not the case any more.
Craig Omtvedt
Well no, as we discussed last year we took distributor inventories down in coordination with our distributors as part of the new program in the fourth quarter and so it as an impact fourth quarter last year against fourth quarter of ’07, but over the course of this year the movements, the ebb and flows, were a function of the first three quarters. So, as things currently stand our expectation is we are comping normally against last year’s fourth quarter.
Derek Leckow - Barrington Research
Okay that’s good to hear and then I wonder if you could provide a little bit of an update on your acquisition of the EFFEN brand. I mean you gave us some case volume numbers for the new Jim Beam product, but I am wondering if you could talk about that one; that sounds like a pretty exciting opportunity.
Bruce Carbonari
It is an exciting opportunity. It is a small brand though. It is really focused here in Southern California and Chicago. We are just going through the transition of that acquisition and we have realigned, as I mentioned in my comments, the advertising and position in the marketplace. So, we really haven’t seen much movement at all in the brand, it is really too early. I think basically by mid-September we were done with the transition of the acquisition and moving it into our distributors and so forth and so on. It takes a little while to get a new acquisition settled and we are still in the early stages of that, but we do think there is a nice upside for that business.
Derek Leckow - Barrington Research
Would you anticipate adding additional brand to that category, or would you expect to perhaps see some proliferation of products under the EFFEN brand?
Bruce Carbonari
Well again we have a great portfolio of brands and we are first going to focus on delivering performance on all of our brands. If we have select opportunities here and there like EFFEN was we will look hard at it and if it makes sense we will execute behind it. EFFEN is again a really targeted brand. It is a brand that we think we can leverage well inside of our national network now. So, we can take it from the Chicago/ Southern California regions and expand it selectively across the country. So, if we can get good leverage and expand a brand like that we will favorably look at the opportunity.
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