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PetSmart, Inc. F2Q08 (Qtr End 08/03/08) Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-08-28 18:38:10.0

Tags: Petsmart

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Matt Nemer - Thomas Weisel Partners.

Matt Nemer - Thomas Weisel Partners

My first question is can you comment on the reaction from consumers to inflation in the consumables category? Are you seeing people trade down in brand or buy smaller bags? What sort of consumer behavior have you noticed?

Philip L. Francis

We are not seeing that sort of behavior. We have dog food divided up a lot of ways including Rx at the very, very top and we are seeing the best growth still at the high end of the spectrum. Our grocery standard is growing but it is our weakest category and I’d say we see the trading up continuing. It has not been damaged to date by the rising prices.

Matt Nemer - Thomas Weisel Partners

My next question is given the inflation in hard goods categories, have you thought about making a deeper push into store brands or private label in some of those categories? Can you give us an update on the percentage of your mix that is private label right now?

Robert F. Moran

About 20% of our products, mostly in hard goods, are private label. Obviously there’s always more work you can do to improve on that and obviously the focus on price value is even more important today and it will probably be more important tomorrow. I think we have strategy initiatives to address that and we also have initiatives to improve on that in the future.

Matt Nemer - Thomas Weisel Partners

Lastly, can you comment on the change in CapEx guidance? I’m really looking at 09 CapEx guidance versus 08. What are the major components there? Can you give us any detail on detail on what you’re assuming in dollars per store and per hotel? Are there any other one time items in there?

Lawrence P. Molloy

$180 million to $200 million is what we said for next year. We are not assuming a change in the actual cost per unit. There is fewer units that are driving that. In addition to that we don’t have a new DC coming on line next year so that’s part of the come down in cap and then the third piece of that is we were renting some space here in Phoenix. We’ve relocated that space to new buildings here at our corporate headquarters and we won’t have that cost next year either.

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