Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions)
And our first question comes from the line of Scott Krasik from CL King. Please go ahead.
Scott Krasik - CL King
I was looking at the backlog. Obviously the business has deteriorated, at least the forward order outlook from the fourth quarter. I guess my question is that as you've been so judicious in terms of not buying shares back while your visibility has been cloudy and no turnaround in sight, what has caused you to buy stock back considering the business keeps getting worse?
Steven Nichols
We felt the stock moved to an attractive price and the quantities we bought back were not huge and significant. So we got our pinky toes wet. That was it.
George Powlick
If you look at the price, the average price we paid was done early in the quarter, and it was?
Steven Nichols
14 and a nickel
George Powlick
$14.19 a share
Scott Krasik - CL King
Let's look at this year being a breakeven year on an operating basis. Would we expect to see you continue to use cash at those levels to buy stock back?
Steven Nichols
If we bought stock back as we did, it indicates that we believe at some point in the future the stock will be selling at a higher price. That was a pinkies' worth, the teaspoons' worth is our belief.
Scott Krasik - CL King
Sure.
Steven Nichols
We will get more aggressive in some areas, and still stand on the sideline. It really depends on how our product is received and how our marketing is perceived? We think we are making good progress there, but that is only inside the building. We are not making good progress in the marketplace as yet.
We have shoes that we will be showing to our sales management this afternoon. Then our sales force at the end of the month of May and that will be shoes that will be deliverable for Q1 '09. We think they are better at this point. But it will be more important what the retailers and eventually the consumers think. And that will nine months away.
Scott Krasik - CL King
Yeah. So then, naturally, your third quarter international backlog seems down. What category of product is really driving that decrease year-over-year internationally?
Steven Nichols
We in the United States experienced a lack of an exciting product a little over two years ago and we started to correct it. We have changed management and product design and development and Europe had tremendous momentum and kept going longer than the United States. Eventually, however, the uninspiring product caught up with them as soon as we could get better product back into the marketplace, by better product I mean more relevant and product that our core consumer believes is desirable and really wants. Then we think their business will turn around even faster than the United States.
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