American Vanguard Corp (AVD) 2008 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day everyone and welcome to the American Vanguard second-quarter 2008 financial results conference call. At this time I would like to inform you that this conference is being recorded and that all participants are currently in a listen-only mode. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Bill Kuser, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead sir.

Thank you very much Dennis and welcome everyone to the second quarter 2008 American Vanguard earnings review. Our principal speaker today will be Mr. Eric Wintemute, President and CEO of the Company; and Mr. David Johnson, our CFO will contribute on financial matters. Before beginning, we should touch on our usual cautionary reminder.

In today's call the Company may discuss forward-looking information. Such information and statements are estimates by the Company's management and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that may cause the results to differ from management's current expectations. Such factors can include weather conditions, changes in regulatory policy and other risks as detailed in the Company's SEC reports and filings. All forward-looking statements represent the Company's best judgment as of the date of this call. With that said, we will turn it over to Eric.

Thank you Bill. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss American Vanguard's second quarter performance. In today's call in addition to covering financial matters, we want to highlight the following points.

First, our second-quarter results reflect the balance that our business model possesses with international sales, new product performance, and non-crop specialty expansion joining our mainstream crop business lines to generate improved year-over-year results. Secondly, while our initiatives in the US corn market have yet to deliver step change results, we are highly confident that our efforts to promote the use of Impact herbicides and the beneficial uses of our corn soil insecticide SmartBox system will in fact succeed and be a significant part of our business in the years ahead.

Finally, I want to talk about some exciting projects we're working on to better exploit our North American manufacturing capability producing products that are complex to manufacture and in which we have a demonstrated track record. Let me begin with the first two of these topics and then our Chief Financial Officer, David Johnson, will review the key financial measures of the quarter and first half of 2008. Then I will include with comments about our manufacturing, pricing and organizational efforts.

As I mentioned, this quarter is an excellent example of the diversity of our business model where international sales, new product sales and non-crop applications boosted steady performance in most of our main agricultural product lines. International sales have increased over the last several years from roughly 7% of the Company's revenues total to slightly over 15% for the full year 2007. While we do not explicitly breakout international sales performance on a quarterly basis, I can tell you that the year-over-year improvement was significant and we expect this trend to continue throughout 2008.

Our international sales and marketing team is doing an excellent job in securing business throughout the Americas in Mexican corn with our insecticides Thimet and Counter, in Central America banana crops with Counter and in Canada with Avenge primarily on [weeds]. We are reaffirming our commitment this this effort with the establishment of a new subsidiary in Costa Rica and believe this action will enhance the growth potential and success in the region over the next several years.

Recent product acquisitions are proving to be highly successful. Our purchase of the Chemtura [PCMB] fungicide business late last year and our purchase of the Orthene Insecticide line from Valent earlier this year are both turning out well. We have managed to expand our penetration of market segments where we previously held only small portions.

We have found opportunities where we have gained product differentiation benefits. Both of these product lines contributed meaningfully in the quarterly results.

Our non-crop businesses has tended to receive limited attention in our earnings review with most of our past comments placed on Dibrom for its use as a mosquito adulticide. Importantly, this portion of our business also includes the turf and ornamental segment as well as our products for the professional and home pest management sector.

Dibrom which has significant technical superiority to other adulticides is being marketed aggressively this year. However, of our product lines, Dibrom's performance depends on weather in the Southeast United States. In turf and ornamental applications as mentioned we're benefiting from the Chemtura [PCMB] acquisition in the entire (inaudible) region.

Finally the introduction of an EPA approved new product containing the active ingredient DDVP allows us to provide a new offering in the professional pest management category that should be significantly incremental to prior year sales. Our launch of Nuvan [pro strips] which began last month will provide pest control operators with an effective economical and residual pest deterrent as a follow-up procedure to their primary treatment of commercial buildings.

We have also applied for registration of a bedbug label which will allow hotel operators to address a growing difficulty in the hospitality business. We will keep you updated on these developments.

Now let's talk corn. As you know we believe that AVD has an excellent opportunity to expand its scope in corn through a series of initiatives that we have discussed over the last several quarters. In the effort to inhibit the development of soil insect resistance, we offer a ready-made solution for the management of refuge acres.

In areas of moderate to high soil insect pressure, we have demonstrated that applying granular insecticides with efficient SmartBox equipment in conjunction with genetically modified seeds can result in substantially enhanced yields. And to combat (inaudible) resistant weeds and grasses, we have an outstanding solution with our Impact herbicide.

In our first quarter call, we indicated that unfavorable weather interfered with the normal corn planting regime in that with a compressed planting timeframe, farmers may not have the opportunity to try our yield enhancement approach to improve insect control or to apply a pre-emergence herbicide. Our feeling at the time was that light pre-emergence usage would give rise to greater post-emergence demand and that our impact sales in the second quarter could benefit.

As the spring and summer have unfolded, we have seen that despite the heavy rainfall and flooding in many Midwest areas, pre-emergence products where applied performed relatively well. Some pre-emergence (inaudible) was used with [deferred] to become an early post-emergence treatment and that the demand for supplemental herbicides while somewhat higher was not significantly accentuated.

Consequently while actual application demand, the number of acres treated on the farm for Impact was greater than the prior year, sales did not meet our internal targets. We continue to witness superior infield performance and growing product recognition. However we still have a ways to go to fulfill what we believe will be the full product potential for Impact.

Now let me turn the call over to David for a summary of financials and then I will return for more on other efforts we're making to improve our [efforts].

Thank you Eric. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone. As detailed in our press announcement, net sales for the three months ended June 2008 at $57.9 million which is 16% increase compared to the same period last year. Eric has already briefed you on some of the drivers of our sales performance in the period.

Our gross margin ended at 41% for Q2 2008. This compares with 44% in the same period last year. There are two main factors driving this performance.

Sales for the quarter included strong performances for some product lines that have lower gross profit levels driving a reduced reported gross profit percentage although this benefits our absolute gross profit level. Secondly, we have seen significant cost increases in our key volume raw materials.

Where possible, we have made savings in-house to offset these rising costs but we have also had to make selected price increases where appropriate. This gross profit performance is in line with our historical results which demonstrates over the long haul that our quarterly performance swings between 40 and 50% depending on the specific mix of sales.

Operating expenses which include distribution costs for Q2 2008 ended at $15.4 million which is a 6% increase compared to Q2 of 2007. In comparison to sales this represents 27% of sales for 2008 compared to 29% for the same period of the prior year. Selling expenses increased by $287,000 to end at $4.8 million for the three months to June 2008.

There are two main drivers. We have increased our advertising and promotional spending to support our new product lines and our corn initiatives. We have spent more this year improving the service we offer in the field to support our proprietary delivery systems, SmartBox and Lock n Load.

Our general and administrative costs have increased by $99,000 to end at $4.6 million. This is driven by increased intangible amortization following product line acquisitions. Offsetting this cost increase we have lower tax, legal and general consulting costs.

Our research, product development and regulatory costs have increased by $403,000 to end at $2 million for the three-month period ending June 30, 2008. The main driver is increased regulatory defense costs in the US and in Europe.

Freight delivery and warehousing costs have increased in absolute terms by $170,000 and near $4.1 million for Q2 2008. In proportion to sales, our costs have improved from 7.8% in 2007 to 7% in 2008. There are two main factors.

Our warehouse network across the US is relatively fixed expense in the short-term. In fact the cost between the two comparative quarters is almost identical. This is the result of efforts to control or reduce costs in this area. Accordingly, more sales this quarter equals a 0.3% reduction in the percentage to sales.

Finally we have freight delivery costs from the warehouse network to our customers. This is driven by mix and the relative efficiency of the distribution of our inventory in the network. This is a further example of the cost savings and the efficiency gains mentioned earlier in this statement. The result is a year-on-year reduction as a ratio to sales of 0.4%.

As also detailed in our press announcement, net sales for the first six months of the year ended at $98.8 million which is a 9% increase compared to the same period last year. Eric has covered the main sales performance drivers in his comments.

Year-to-date gross gross profit is at 42% compared to 45% for the same period of last year. Again, this is impacted as was the quarter by strong seasonal sales of some lower gross profit products and by increases in some of our key raw materials.

Year-to-date, our manufacturing costs overall have been well controlled. Although direct labor increased by 4.9%, total manufacturing costs are only up 1.6%. Operating costs for the six months ended June 2008 ended at $29.4 million which is $1.9 million or 7% increase compared to the same period of 2007. In proportion to sales however, these costs are flat at 30%.

Selling expenses increased by 6% driven by high promotional advertising activity plus improving our service to growers using our proprietary delivery systems. Our general and administrative costs are essentially flat. Our research, product development and regulatory costs increased by 20% compared to the same period in 2007. This was mainly product [defense] costs again in US and Europe.

Freight delivery and warehousing costs ended the first six months at 7.7% of sales compared to 7.5% for the comparative period. This is mainly driven by mix of products sold.

Interest charge and indebtedness. The Company's financial performance for the second quarter of 2008 has been improved as a result of lower interest costs. This has been caused by a lower effective interest rate of 5% in Q2 2008 versus 7.4% in 2007. This is a result of Federal Reserve action to bring down the US prime interest rate. A good performance on cash forecasting also enabled us to minimize our indebtedness.

Indebtednesses is higher at the end of the second quarter 2008 ending at $88 million which is a $27 million increase compared to the same period in 2007. This is driven by product line acquisitions, higher capital spending and increased inventory.

Despite the higher ending position, our average indebtedness did not change and is only up $1 million year-on-year. Interest charge for Q2 2008 was $1.2 million as compared to $1.8 million. This results from a lower interest rate savings $600,000 offset by a small increase in the average debt costing $24,000.

The Company's financial performance the first half of 2008 has been similarly improved as a result of lower interest costs and good cash management. The lower effective rate has resulted in the saving of $1.1 million and the lower average indebtedness (inaudible) saving of $315,000.

Accordingly, net income ended at $4.3 million for the quarter to June 30, 2008 versus $3.6 million for the same period in 2007. This is a 21% year-on-year improvement.

For the first six months of 2008, our net income ended at $6.1 million compared to $5.7 million for the same period in 2007. This is 7% year-on-year improvement.

We plan to release the 10-Q on Friday, tomorrow. And in that document you'll see some new disclosures related to the use of derivative instruments. This is because the Company has decided to utilize financial derivatives to further stabilize one small aspect of our trading performance.

Because of the nature of the raw materials we use we purchase from suppliers across the globe, as much as possible we negotiate purchasing in our own functional currency. However, from time to time we reach agreement to trade in foreign currency.

Accordingly we've decided to implement a foreign currency hedging program. In June we took out our first hedging contract. You'll read in the 10-Q that the difference between the rate we took the contract out at and the rate at 6-30-08 has been recorded to other comprehensive income. We will watch how this contract (inaudible) conclusion before expanding (inaudible).

During these first six months of 2008 we've spent a total of $15.7 million on investing activities. This includes spending on fixed assets of $6.6 million and $9.1 million on product line acquisitions. Since December 2007, our working capital has increased by $21.4 million to end at $96 million. At 6-30-2007 our working capital was at approximately $74 million.

As reported in Q1, inventory increased by $27.5 million and it's the driver of our working capital position. Some of this increase relates to taking on new product lines and other parts of the increase relate to strategically putting in place larger inventories because our market position has broadened.

However, following our sales performance in corn at the start the year we do have some increased inventory in [affected] product lines. Finally raw material cost increases have impacted the carrying value of some of our higher volume products. Despite this increase, our trailing 12-month inventory turns remains flat with Q2 2007. With that, I will now hand back to Eric. Thank you.

Thank you David. In light of our corn market potential and the challenges it experienced in 2008 campaign as I discussed earlier, we're increasing our efforts to promote our corn initiatives to further encourage the use of our insecticides and our Impact herbicide.

We're engaged in another round of university and field trials to substantiate and validate the very positive yield enhancement data we saw in the 2007 season. We expect this'll further support our advocacy of the use of granular insecticides to boost the benefits of genetically modified seeds, particularly in medium-high pest pressure areas. We will intensify our 2009 promotions to broadcast advertising, incentive programs and an aggressive sales campaign targeting both our distributors and their retail channels.

As you know from recent comments by many chemical, agricultural and general manufacturing companies in the United States, rising commodity raw material prices, utility rates and feel costs have taken a toll on profit margins. In response, we're focused first on internal cost savings and efficiency improvements across various parts of our business. Additionally we have where necessary applied selective price increases.

One of the most exciting things I want to talk to you about is the North American manufacturing capability. We now have in place a range of different facilities that both complement each other and provide excellent security of production across a complex range of chemical processes. We are identifying more opportunities to extend our in-house manufacturing to cover greater proportion of our own product lines. In the last 12 months we've expanded the percentage of our products manufactured in-house to 60%.

Furthermore, we have been approached by a number of agricultural companies who want to reduce logistical risk by engaging with a North American based supplier who can offer high-quality and reliable delivery as a second source to their current often overseas supplier. Finally we're seeing rapid movement increases in environmental compliance cost being incurred in some of the traditionally low-cost economies and as long distance transportation costs continue to rise, the positioning of our North American manufacturing capability is looking very appealing.

To conclude, I want to reiterate the confidence that our management team has in growing the scope of American Vanguard's business and achieving even greater financial success. As you can see from the variety of initiatives that we pursue, we intend to participate in a wide variety of markets with a solid portfolio of products on an increasingly international scale.

Additionally I would like to add a very high percentage of our employees, approximately 50%, have chosen to own and continue to purchase shares in American Vanguard expressing their beliefs in the Company's products, service and financial success. At this point, I would be happy to answer any questions. Dennis?

(OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) Jay Harris, Goldsmith and Harris.

Can you share with us where you would like to see your inventory levels by the end of the year?

Well the seasonal -- as you know, quarter to quarter, we have different flows. But I think more importantly we are looking to increase our turnover. I think we would target to try to go north of two turnovers, is what we're trying to reach towards. I think we're at about ranging between 1.4 to 1.8. So that's a target that we have internally.

You had I think at the end of last year -- you have the numbers here in the press release. Bear with me for a second while I turn the page. You had inventories of $63 million at the end of last year and roughly the same level of inventories at June 30 last year. Are we going to come down significantly from the current level of inventories?

Well we acquired inventories during couple of the last purchases. We seem to be moving through those at a pretty good factor. So our hope would be to decrease inventories by the end of the year.

That being said, we are at a very unique period of time in the chemical world where we are seeing price increases scheduled out that are dramatic and we're not talking about 10, 15; we're talking 100% type price increases. So we also are aware that if we have got an opportunity to buy right and manufacture ahead of the curve, that is a positive thing for us.

Thank you.

Sal Kamalodine, B. Riley & Co., Inc.

Can you clarify whether the cotton business benefited from the acquisition of Orthene? And if when you're talking about the cotton business being up year-over-year but still possibly being down for the full year, does that comparison include the incremental revenue from Orthene or is that just for Bidrin on a stand-alone basis?

There is Bidrin, there's Folex and Orthene. So overall obviously acres are down but we have two of the main insecticides that we're selling now. And in addition our defoliant, Folex, was up year-over-year.

So is that a yes or a no? Is that on a combined basis or just for the Bidrin product line?

On a combined basis.

On a combined basis for Orthene. Okay. Moving on to the soil fumigant product line, I had in my notes that the (inaudible) product line was more of a back half or second half of the year product for you guys.

I'm just a little surprised. It looks like you benefited from that in Q2. Can you just talk about what the drivers for that were and if your expectations have changed for the second half of the year?

No, you're correct. The majority is driven particularly by potatoes in the third and fourth quarter. But I think also we're pleased we've finally at the end of the quarter saw price increases that we were able to put through on this product.

As I think you are aware in our discussions raw materials in that product line have increased dramatically and continue to increase. The potassium version obviously is tied towards potassium. The sodium version has increases in caustic in the sulfur and the fuel relating to methanol. So we have had fairly significant increase in cost which we feel we were able to pass through a good portion of those at the tail end of June.

So going forward, part of what our projection here -- I think volumes should be strong. But also with increased costs and increased sales price, we should see an increase in revenue.

Understood. So you are saying that Q2 had the benefit of price increases but the volume shipments will still take place in Q3 and Q4. So there wasn't any (inaudible) volume that was pulled into Q2 that won't happen in Q3?

Except that the price increases were just in the last week of the quarter, so it really did not reflect to any large degree.

Okay. And then just finally, can you share with us what kind of early indications you may have gotten for the corn soil insecticide business, whether it's from anticipated root [worm] pressure for next year or just anecdotal evidence of what kind of interest there is in your corn soil insecticide business and how it is shaping up for the '09 planting season?

Sure. We've talked about that in '06 we had heard some of our SmartBox users that were doing this practice and launched the studies in '07 which substantiated a significant increase. We have moved forward and promoted this activity. But again we are AMVAC in a world of giants.

Part of it was, okay -- the strong results in these trials we should see second year before we really look behind promoting this. So we are repeating the trials. What we do know is that a greater number of our current customers are SmartBox users.

We're doing small plots this year in the two to five acre range and we're monitoring those and hope to have some what I wouldn't qualify as absolute scientific data because they're not necessarily done under complete control conditions as the university trials. It's basically a process of winning over our current customers that are utilizing our corn soil insecticides. I think if assuming we see university results which last year were at the tail end of the year that show similar results, I think the step-up for '09 will be much more dramatic than we saw in '08.

So in the event where those studies would come back favorably and if [on-the-fielders] demand for those products, when would it start to show in your P&L? Are these insecticides that go into the channel in Q3 and Q4 or does it really start to show early next year?

Well, making the assumption that we have not moved the market needle in a great fashion for the '08, other than our existing people who would see the results in their harvest time and might place orders in fourth quarter, really we're probably looking at more first-quarter '09 sales as we substantiate -- here is the university trials, here is the second year of strong results.

We do know that there are other tests being done not just by us but other testing being done. And if that substantiates as well, the seed companies and growers themselves are looking for certainly the ease that is offered with (inaudible) and that convenience is a big factor. But ultimately they're looking to drive yields. And if there is a practice that can increase the yield, they are going to use it.

That's helpful, thanks. And actually just one last question on the corn business. With respect to Impact, can you share with us what the growth rate was in that product line in the second quarter and what are your expectations to what kind of revenue you can generate from this product just in light of the other product lines that are out in the market and various other factors?

So rather than be specific on numbers, which I know you would like, what I would say is that Impact is the best herbicide in its class. It has superior performance, it's got superior safety. And as such we believe it should be dominant in the market share.

That being said, we're going up against large companies that even though we have put a lot more resources and promotion and advertising in Impact than we ever have on any product, we have to recognize the fact that we have big companies that we are going up against and they have probably more significant pullthrough effort than we do. But certainly over time the best product is winning out and we are experiencing personally no complaints.

We have the ability to spray -- this product can be airily applied which other products cannot and we have the ability to utilize this product late in the season. It has superior safety and performance and as such, every year we gain more and more strength.

We increased in sales. We did not meet the targets that we wanted. Part of the reason why I'm hedging on quantifying the number is this is a moving target market. So this market is with the roundup (inaudible) ready traits that are basically taking complete control of the corn market, a big portion of this market is going to be a complement to that chemistry and that technology.

And as such, then it will be a function of any hard to control weeds that develop which (inaudible) each year there seems to be a couple of new varieties and it becomes a bigger and bigger issue. So that will be growing at the same time that essentially (inaudible) resistant traits will be virtually on all corn crops.

Thank you very much.

(OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) Jim Bartlett, Bartlett Investors.

Yes, could you share with us the organic growth for the second quarter and for the half?

I am looking for the organic which would be our (multiple speakers). So if you exclude -- do you have a follow-up question while I kind of calculate that so we don't have a lot of dead air space? Is that okay if we -- we will answer that (multiple speakers) in another moment?

Also just a follow-up on Impact. You said there was growth but it was less than your expectation. Was that because you had increased your expectations because you thought the wet corn season (inaudible) less pre and therefore more post? Or was that versus your original expectation? Because I remember at one point you had some pretty high -- I believe in some cases 40% market share estimate numbers for Impact.

So to answer that second part, we had expectations going into the year of where we thought we would wind up. As we got into the season, I think we did expect that we would have significant sales in the second quarter that did not occur.

And as far as that 40% market share, we have a system that tracks retail sales quarter to quarter. And in one of the quarters, and I forget which quarter it was, we had increased to 40%. But as -- we are a long way away from that kind of percentage in the marketplace.

As I mentioned, we will focus -- although we will have translate it into volume -- we will focus on market share because that is probably a more measurable goal than trying to forecast -- which of course we still have to do -- where we think the market will be. But the market each year is moving for a variety of reasons.

What do you think the total market was this year?

We haven't gotten all the calculations. Part of this is we have to see what the returns from retailers are. So, there is material that comes back and once that occurs then you can kind of measure what actually got moved onto the ground.

So we're probably 30 to 60 days away from knowing where it actually trails out. And then there will be reports that we will have to read as far as we'll know within our own product, Impact, but we will have a look and see through some reports that will estimate what they think the actual post-emergence market was for the 2008 year.

And and your estimate for more significant sales in the second quarter that was not met, is that it was not met totally because of the wet pre/post-emergence issue or was there other factors?

Well, the so the pre-emergence market that did go down that people expected to completely fail didn't. And so the weed pressure was not as strong. I think also at some point farmers looked at it and said okay, this is enough. So there are probably fields that maybe weren't as clean as maybe they could have been.

But overall I think the crop looks reasonably healthy and I think there have been a lot of concerns that it would be very poor crop. But it does seem to be holding up reasonably well. I think we're looking at what we expected and a number of people thought was just going to be just a huge post-emergence market that didn't materialize again for the reasons I said.

And is there any sales of Impact in the third quarter?

Anything what?

Are there any sales of Impact in the third quarter?

We have had sales of Impact. I think we talked I think last year the tail end of the year about corn growers that are looking to buy inputs for the next year; did have a little bit of that last year and we will probably have some in this year as well. David are you there yet?

It's about 3.5%.

3.5% organic growth (multiple speakers)

For what? For the half or (multiple speakers)

(multiple speakers) for the half or the quarter? (multiple speakers) for the quarter.

For the quarter. And what was it for the year?

Just give me a few more minutes (multiple speakers) focus on the quarter.

Well that will take another (multiple speakers)

Basically that's Orthene, that's Chemtura and then there's little of the phorate insecticide from (inaudible)?

I missed the very last part. You said the Orthene, and the --?

Chemtura and then the acquisition you did in May of the phorate insecticide line.

The acquisition of the what insecticide?

You completed the phorate acquisition or was that (multiple speakers)

I don't know that we had really much of -- I don't know that we would call -- well, whether we call that organic or not because that was acquiring a label of someone's and I don't know that we experienced (multiple speakers) had otherwise.

Yes, okay.

So let me move on to another question and then if Dave can answer -- if he gets the number before, if not we will put it on the transcript. Thanks.

(OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) Bruce Winter, Private Investor.

Did I hear you right that you're seeking approval from the government for Pest Strips with Nuvan as the active ingredient for bedbugs?

That's correct. What we have -- the basic use is there but we've submitted -- we have some efficacy that we have to show along with adding bedbugs. But we have our historical Pest Strip label which we -- been questioned about companies building product lines or uses around this in an aggressive manner while EPA was going through its review. And as mentioned earlier, this review turned out to be an 18 year process.

So when it finally concluded, we than went out promoting this use and we have identified an interest and market in the professional pest management, so these are pest control operators, PCO's. So as they go through their buildings and are spraying, the advantage of Pest Strips that they leave behind that can offer four months of control. And in addition, bedbugs has been a strong interest of the pest control operators.

They've had a very difficult time trying to deal with this. It is becoming a much bigger issue across hotels, hotel beds and hospital beds and residential beds across the US and really world. But from the United States standpoint, there's not an easy way to deal with this. And with the Pest Strip, they can actually remove the bed or if the bed -- if the room is not inhabited they can just put the Pest Strip with the bed for three to four days and then remove the strip and then they've got a bedbug free bed.

So this is a specific use that the pest control operators have asked us to add to the label that we already had approved last month. So this is in addition to supplement to the existing label.

We are also -- one of the things that we had envisioned before was a Pest Strip that would mount on your trash can lid that would have perfume or a scent in the cage along with the Pest Strip. So we would hope over the 2009 year to commercial up that usage so that again if you mount on your trash can lid you get approximately four months of control and a four month fragrance as well.

Didn't you have a Pest Strip product that was sold at Home Depot?

I still do.

That used a different active ingredient?

No, all of the Pest Strips have been DDVP and the difference is that either there's really no other active ingredient that has the volatility that DDVP does so that it can release in this gradual four month release and be effective at these ultra, ultra low air concentrations.

So these Pest Strips in a hotel or even in private residences, are they going to hang there? (multiple speakers) for months at a time?

The Pest Strip is approved for use in nonliving areas, places where people would not spend more than four hours a day on a long-term basis. So for bedbugs use for instance, it would be with the bed for a period of time and then removed.

For pest control operators, they can spray attics and crawl spaces, underneath structures and then you can put the Pest Strip there to leave behind so that it provides long-term results after they have come in and sprayed. Utility boxes is another area where you can leave a pest strip in a utility box and prevent any spiders from -- what they typically do is they like the warmth. They come in and they'll clog up the connections in the boxes.

There are a myriad of uses that people I think after seeing EPA's final decision are more excited about developing going through. I think we've got another line that is going to be used in hunting (inaudible) where people would come in, maybe they're vacant for three or four months or six months out of the year, they put a Pest Strip in and then when they come back, they're free from all of those creepy crawlers and flying insects.

Okay. Your Alabama plant, is that to save money on manufacturing and transportation costs or is this about market growth? And how is this plant coming along?

You're talking about the metam manufacturing there at Axis. We're due to start October 1. There is a couple of reasons. Certainly one is we see the market growing in that sector. We have a fairly strong percentage of that market and you're correct about logistics.

It will be our lowest cost of raw materials of the three plants where we manufacture largely because one of the key raw materials suppliers is about four miles away. Another one is about 100 miles away and then our caustic can come from the Gulf. So those are probably -- from moving material around for the idea of shipping this material out to Los Angeles, (inaudible) out to Los Angeles, making it and shipping it at all the way back when we're talking about millions of gallons; we can easily justify the cost of putting this facility together.

Are you going to have increased market penetration say in Florida winter vegetables and fruits?

We have -- I mean, we have what I would say of the metam market we have a significant share where there is increased potential for the fruits and veggies that you're talking about is with the decrease of methylbromide. There are a couple of compounds that we will be competing with for those markets but I think from a cost position we will probably be at the lower end so that should give us some advantage.

Sounds good, great presentations so far this year. I enjoyed them. Thank you.

Jay Harris, Goldsmith and Harris.

Sorry to bring up Impact again but last year if I remember correctly, your shipping season started almost at the beginning of May and ended shortly after the annual meeting. And this year you indicated at the annual meeting that your shipping season started at the beginning of June. Was it compressed all into one month, the month of June, or is there farmer use of Impact in July this year?

You're talking about our sales or use?

Answer it both ways.

Our sales, we had enough material in the channels to service the market. So our sales in the quarter were minimal. As far as use, I read reports yesterday that were saying there were still some limited spraying going on. And where Impact has an advantage, you can actually spray up to 45 days prior to harvest.

And there was an out outbreak of sunflowers and weeds and there really was nothing else to spray. But again overall my thought is we did not get the market share penetration that we wanted. As I said when we know where the actual market wound up which we should know in the next 30 to 60 days, I think we can -- and we know exactly what ours -- we will know what our percentage was. But I am fairly certain we did not have the penetration I think that we expected.

If the weather is normal in the corn belt, when would it be reasonable to expect the shipping season to start?

Well shipping is different. So that is a function of a variety of factors with farmers -- how much they want to pay in advance, what programs other competitors -- or what you offer as far as stocking fees or anything along those lines.

But from a use standpoint, use is really a second quarter position. And really it is a -- you're talking from a few days after the time corn is planted and then if you really want to say post-emergence once that corn is up and in our case it can spray up until 45 days.

Most products -- most herbicides have a 36 inch to maybe 48 inch restriction. They can't go beyond that. We don't have that height restriction. (inaudible) does not have that restriction as well. In fact they can spray up to seven days before harvest. So predominate post-emergence market is second quarter usage. On a normal basis you're talking May, maybe late April to mid-June.

Let's switch over international sales. I have the impression from your comments from last year and this year that they will continue to grow much faster than the Company. Can you share with us some idea of how large the international business could be relative to the total size of the Company looking out a number of years?

It's going to be a function too of what we acquire. You know looking (inaudible) we have done this model where we say okay, if you do nothing else where does it go and then what do you buy. Well, so knowing that we will continue to make acquisitions, it is hard to forecast.

I will say that some of our products that we have seem to be increasing market share, maybe -- Counter in the Central and South American market. There is -- we have some generic competition in these international markets. Our costs are because of our manufacturing here in the US are improving versus the world market; as I mentioned some of the environmental and raw material increases that the Far East are seeing are much higher cost increases than what we're seeing. So I think our investment in North American manufacturing where we have not traditionally been involved with that for a position internationally, we're having the benefit of a weakened dollar and other factors that we mentioned give us a stronger position in international market.

I guess I'm not going to get a number or a percentage out of you today.

(multiple speakers)

Sal Kamalodine, B. Riley & Co., Inc.

Can we get some guidance on what you expect your capital expenditures to be in Q3 and Q4 directionally?

We will have -- just kind of going through them, I think we will have -- and you're looking for specific numbers so let me just mention them and then I will see if we can quantify. The SmartBox will be similar to last year. I think we commit to volume and I think we're committing to similar to what we did last year. And maybe the metcam capital expenditure which we began -- I think some of that was in second quarter -- we will hopefully come close to finishing up in the second quarter.

I don't know -- we've talked about a couple of expansions, expansion in lab but I don't think that's going to occur in the second quarter -- maybe -- I mean the third quarter (inaudible) make (inaudible) fourth quarter. So I'm just trying to list all -- anything unusual that would be different than last year. So having said -- do you have last year's? (multiple speakers) No, for the second half (multiple speakers) because you're referring to second half capital expenditures versus last year's second half? Would that be --?

Yes or if you want to comp that against what it was in the first half of the year, either way would be helpful because you had almost $4 million in CapEx in Q4 of '07 so that might (multiple speakers) analysis.

In Q3 and Q4 last year we said we had what? 4.5?

In Q4 of '07 you had $4 million in capital expenditures that were booked in Q4. So that might skew the analysis. So if you want to comp that against what it was in the first half of this year or what a normalized number might be, that would be helpful.

So we've got -- you're saying we spent 10.7 in the second half last year (multiple speakers)

(multiple speakers) capital expenditure (multiple speakers)

Of course he's doing this rapidly. So we will have to confirm (multiple speakers)

$4.6 million in the second half last year.

$4.6 million in the second half, okay. And what did we spend in the first half this year?

This year we spent $6.6 million.

Okay. So we are probably -- so just ballpark -- and we will take a look at it and post an answer -- make a correction on the transcript if we're different but I -- just thinking this through, I don't see -- I'm just trying to think. We did have our new project that we're going to be doing. Yes, so maybe flat to up maybe $1 million in the second half. That's what I'm going to say right now. We will bear down on that this afternoon and put the transcript out and we will make any correction to that.

Okay and that is relative to the first half of this year or the second half of last year.

The second half of last year.

Got it. Okay thanks. And then final question relating to Dibrom, do you expect there to be any boost to that business from the floods in the Midwest?

We have had some spring. We have not seen FEMA come in and do massive aerial spraying. They have talked about -- but part of it is they don't seem that concerned about nuisance mosquitoes.

So they're saying okay, we're teed up. If we see disease outbreak then we will spray. But we of course tried to push a more proactive approach. But currently I think what they have seen so far mostly is nuisance mosquitoes as opposed to an outbreak of disease. As such they're reluctant to spend the money on nuisance mosquitoes.

There are no further questions. I will now turn the conference back to management.

Okay. Well I would like to thank everybody for joining us today and look forward to addressing you next quarter. And as always, if we have any interim news that we would like to share with you, we will arrange another conference call. but thank you again very much for supporting our Company and good day to you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our conference for today. Thank you all for participating and have a nice day. All parties may now disconnect.