Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from William Chappell - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
William Chappell - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
Maybe just kind of help us understand a little more color around the cryogenic side for this quarter. I know you knew the price cut going into the quarter so that shouldn’t have been a huge surprise. Did you just see no pickup in volume with the lower price point? Is it not really spurring any growth for that category? How should we look at that?
Mark Pettie
Bill I think the important takeaway is on the cryogenic products in our portfolio and in particular the Freeze Off product. The reflection of those price reductions that I spoke of didn’t occur across our major customers until late July. Essentially it took longer to get those reflected in the market place than we originally anticipated so as I mentioned earlier for the quarter it was primarily a price gap issue versus our major competitor that caused the performance we experienced. As I also mentioned at the end of July the pricing is now fully reflected at our major customers and we’re starting to see the benefits of that in improved cryogenic unit off-take going forward.
William Chappell - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
I understand that. I guess I was more just trying to focus on is it having its intending effect? Is it boosting the overall category back now that we have a lower price point or is it too early to tell?
Mark Pettie
It’s a little too early to tell because the dynamics as I mentioned up until the end of July remain unsettled relative to what we expect the new norm equilibrium to be. For the first quarter the total category was basically flat to modestly down but we’re going to have to wait and see how this plays out now that the new paradigm is effectively in place. I’ll have a better read on that certainly when we talk t o you at the end of the second quarter.
William Chappell - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
With regards to the new Allergen Block products, can you give us any color on ACV at this point, what the retail reception would be, and are the price points and margins at or above your current company average?
Mark Pettie
The price points and margins are definitely above average for our company and our OTC portfolio so that’s one of the attractive features of the product. With respect to authorizations and distributions so far, all the accounts that we expected to pick the products up have picked it up and we’re very pleased with where the distribution progress is relative to our original expectations. We clearly feel like we’re tracking our original expectations in that regard.
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