MWI Veterinary Supply, Inc. Q2 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-05-19 11:13:09.0

Tags: MWI Veterinary Supply Inc.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator instructions) And our first question comes from July Johnson, Piper Jaffray.

July Johnson – Piper Jaffray

Hi, thanks for taking my question and congratulations on the quarter. My first question, just kind of on a broad basis – after VCA has noted that they're seeing a slowdown in spending at the clinic level for companion animal, can you discuss a little bit more about what you're seeing on the companion animal side of your business?

Jim Cleary

Sure. I'd be happy to do so. As we said during the call, we expect that the U.S. animal health products market will continue to grow this year, but we expect the rate of growth to be slower than it has been in recent years. If we look at our March quarter, the three months ended March, and if we look at the companion animal part of the business, the companion animal part of the business grew faster this quarter than did the food animal part of the business. And we saw growth rates in all of our regions north of 5% in the companion animal market. And so we do expect, based on what we've seen, that the market is going to grow at a slower rate this year. But we still feel that it's a good market and we feel very good about the long-term prospects for the market, July.

July Johnson – Piper Jaffray

Thank you, that's helpful. That just segues nicely into my next question. Can you talk a little bit about the performance of your new territories, maybe specifically, the Midwest, the new Kansas City Distribution Center?

Jim Cleary

Sure. We're seeing growth rates in the Midwestern portion of the United States, which are significantly higher than our overall company growth rates. And so, we feel good about the expansion. But of course, it all doesn't come at once. And so, it's really going to be a multi-year process of trying to build market share in the Midwestern United States, but it's off to a good start.

July Johnson – Piper Jaffray

That's great to hear, thank you. And then more of a housekeeping level. What are your expectations for full-year cash flow from operations and CapEx?

Mary Pat Thompson

Yes, as I said earlier, we'll spend about $2.5 million annually on CapEx. And I think we're still definitely in line for that. Our growth rate for the March quarter slowed down, so of course we generated positive cash flow this quarter of $2.1 million. As I said earlier, I'm anticipating break-even or slightly negative cash flow for June. And really what we do is when we're growing at 20%, it's [ph] negative cash flow, when your growth slows down to 15%, it becomes break-even or slightly positive. So, you can do some modeling from that.

 

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