Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from the line of Tycho Peterson with J.P. Morgan.
Tycho Peterson - J.P. Morgan
Jost, may be just starting with some of the efficiency initiatives you were just commenting on, are you doing anything with regards to the manufacturing footprint? You’ve obviously got some manufacturing out at China, are you doing anything that potentially consolidates facilities?
Jost Fischer
We have no plans to consolidate facilities, but what we are willing to do and have already started in the last year, we will combine the opportunities that we have in both of our facilities, Bensheim and China, and that means, producing parts in China for our Bensheim facility and beefing-up of the Chinese facility, which we largely did in order to be competitive additionally to our Bensheim plant, but we have no plans to consolidate.
Tycho Peterson - J.P. Morgan
Simone mentioned a few times in her comments of pricing, can you just talk about the pricing dynamic in the market now, I guess with regards to both 2D and panoramic and what you’re assuming for next year.
Jost Fischer
Let me just take that question on the market and Jeffrey might add for the US side of it. You know the imaging market has always been a competitive market, and we have seen pricing pressures throughout last year, and we expect that to continue in both areas, the panoramic as well as the 3D world. We have reacted to that by segmenting our offers as you see with the Galileos Compact which is offered at a lower price than our Comfort direct to these pricing issues.
Jeffrey T. Slovin
I think, Tycho, you know we’ve talked about the 2D side of that, that we’ve had some pricing wars. They continued relatively stable, but we’re talking about a few percentage points that could continue in promotions throughout ’09 and certainly given the environment. With the Compact, I think that takes care of a lot of the pricing pressure that we were seeing in the overall 3D, but certainly around the world, we have seen 3D prices come down on the top-hand significantly.
Tycho Peterson - J.P. Morgan
Could you just comment a little bit more on the customer base. You’ve seen it, the option of the Compact, is it new users or..?
Jost Fischer
Yes, absolutely new users and I think we feel very good about the offering to the general practitioner, and the orthodontist is certainly getting involved as well in that offering. So, I have to tell you that in the US, I’m very pleased with how we’re moving that product along with our distribution partners.
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