Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Scott Krasik - C.L. King
Scott Krasik - C.L. King
A lot of puts and takes in the department chain store division, you showed a decline. This quarter you had some new things and the Total Solution coming out for later deliveries in the year. How is that real core Maidenform business, is there a core Maidenform business that we can point to at this point and when should we see growth in that division?
Maurice Reznik
If you look at our business in aggregate in the department store and chain channel and again you factor out non-recurring businesses as Chris pointed out the Mervyn’s etc. and you factor out even new businesses like Donna Karan, we’re gaining share. There is a very solid core business within the Maidenform brand specifically bras, panties, and shapewear. Very, very stable and we anticipate that to accelerate for the balance of the year.
Scott Krasik - C.L. King
What was the sales approximately to retailers no longer shipping to?
Chris Vieth
Roughly $3 million in the quarter.
Scott Krasik - C.L. King
For the year how much will it be approximately?
Chris Vieth
About $10 million.
Scott Krasik - C.L. King
That core Maidenform business if you will, you said you were taking share but you were impacted by de-stocking and lower inventory then general so that was still down?
Chris Vieth
That’s correct.
Scott Krasik - C.L. King
When do we start to see that grow again?
Maurice Reznik
Our performance outperformed the category. You’ve got to put it in the context of what’s going on in that channel. The other thing that happened in the first quarter though as we mentioned on the last call was that we were going to offer assistance to our retail partners to improve the quality inventory, to improve turns. EDI activity actually started to accelerate during the quarter and we see that trend stable and our realization on our shipments particularly in department stores and chains evidenced by the margin projections going up for the balance of the year we feel very good about.
Chris Vieth
We ought to see it increase in 2010 and by quarter we’re going to continue to have some variability. It’ll be maybe down slightly, down very modestly in the second quarter, third quarter we’re up against some pretty tough comparisons so it might be down more than that in the third quarter. It ought to be flat or up modestly in the fourth and continue growth after that.
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