Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Edward Aaron - RBC Capital Markets.
Edward Aaron - RBC Capital Markets
Can I infer from your prepared remarks that same-store sales were maybe down in the month of October something along the lines of the 50% to 60% range while margins were fairly stable? Would that be a fair characterization?
William H. McGill, Jr.
Yes. It was definitely down worse than the 45% and the range you threw out there is reasonable. What happens when boat sales drop that fast in a month like that and you’re doing winterization and storage activities, you actually have an opportunity for margins to even do a little bit better than they may have the year before at the gross margin line overall consolidated because of the mixed change in business. But yes, the big picture you’re right. Sales were a little tougher than they were in the September quarter.
Edwards Aaron
On the Freddie distribution agreement expiring, I guess I’m just looking for a little more color as to why it wasn’t renewed? Was there maybe some conflict with Azimut that caused them to pull back? And then can you give us a sense of what the sales impact of that’s going to be over the next 12 months maybe by giving us a little bit of a frame of reference for what Freddie sales you did over the last year?
William H. McGill, Jr.
Honestly we could not come to terms with Freddie that we were comfortable with in terms of moving forward. Kind of a neat thing. I don’t know how many of you saw their press release but instead of giving their products to other dealers in the United States, they decided to own it themselves and to go to market themselves.
So what that means for us is we actually have income opportunities. If our customers do want to buy Freddie product, we can still facilitate that through Freddie and be paid a commission without having the store costs, the marketing costs and so forth tied up in the brand. That’s why the dealer agreement was not renewed. Ultimately we couldn’t come to terms that we were comfortable with moving forward.
As for revenue, I don’t have the Freddie revenue right in front of me but in 2008 it must be around $50 million to $60 million I would think, which is what approximately the inventory was. It’s typically a one-time turns product so I’m pretty sure that is pretty close to the impact on ’08. Now keep in mind that that business like all business has been trending south during the year so it’s not like it’s been a big loss in the last six months, if you follow me.
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