Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question today will come from Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray.
Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray
Congratulations on another good quarter. My first question is on the rebate issue here. I was wondering if you could provide a little bit more color if you can regarding this discrepancy. I was under the impression that these were a little bit more black and white. And then also, the timing of recouping the rebate through the course of the year, should we expect that to be fairly evenly split through the remaining three quarters?
Mary Patricia Thompson
Rebates, as you said, were $1 million less than expected and we had a very recent disagreement with a key vendor over the amount of rebate dollars that we expected. While the timing of rebates can influence our quarters, we are confident of our guidance and reconfirm the $1.62, and of course we do expect to recoup that money. I would not say it will be in one particular quarter but it will be recouped by September 30, 2008.
Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray
In terms of within the business segments, I was wondering if you could comment on the companion animal business, given some of the recent softness we’ve seen in the overall economy. I know there are investor concerns around the recession resiliency of the companion segment. I wonder if you could comment on that?
James F. Cleary
Yes, our companion animal business continues to be very good. During this December quarter in the companion animals segment, we had double digit growth in every geographic area, including our most mature geographic areas, and we continue to see very good growth overall in the companion animal business in the December quarter.
And of course when we look at 26% growth for the company during the quarter, a lot of that was driven by the price increases and buy-ins before the price increases in the production animal market.
But those price increases really don’t impact the companion animal business nearly as much. And so we were very pleased to see growth that was at or above our guidance in the companion animal market, and double digit and above market in every region.
Michael Cox - Piper Jaffray
Then my last question is on the VetOne company branded product. I was wondering if you could give us an update on the number of SKUs there as well as sales in the quarter.
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