Distribution Solutions Group Inc (DSGR) 2014 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Lawson Products third quarter 2014 earnings call. This call will be hosted by Michael DeCata, Lawson Products Chief Executive Officer, and Ron Knutson, Lawson Products Chief Financial Officer. They will open the call with an overview of the third-quarter results. There will then be time for questions and answers.

This call is being audio simulcast on the Internet via the Lawson Products investor relations page on the Company's website lawsonproducts.com. A replay of the webcast will be available on the website through November 21, 2014.

During this call the Company will be providing an update on the business as well as covering relevant financial and operational information. I would like to point out the statements on this call and in the press release contain forward-looking statements concerning goals, beliefs, expectations, strategies, plans, future operating results and underlying assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described.

In addition, statements made during this call are based on the Company's views as of today. The Company anticipates that future developments may cause those views to change. Please consider the information presented in that light.

The Company may at some point elect to update the forward-looking statements made today, but specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. I will now turn the call over to Lawson Products CEO Mike DeCata.

Good morning and thank you for joining the call. First, I would ask you to bear with me. I'm a little bit under the weather today, which you might hear in my voice. We appreciate your interest in Lawson Products and we are excited to share the progress with you today.

As we have done in previous calls, I will first comment on three main areas -- growing topline sales, continued operational improvements and the drive toward improved profitability. Ron Knutson will provide a financial update and then we will take questions.

First, let me say we are very pleased with the progress this quarter. Sales for the quarter at $74.1 million were up 8.6% over a year ago, and ADS was also up 8.6% versus a year ago, and 2.8% over the second quarter. Our sales team continues to drive results.

We ended the third quarter at 894 direct sales reps. With 88 additions through September, we are on track with the previous guidance of 15% to 20% net new reps, but most likely we will end up closer to finishing at 15% increase.

We are focused on the balance between the resources spent on hiring new reps and as well making sure new reps are successful. I'd like to spend a moment discussing our enhanced on-boarding process. All of the new reps go through extensive field-based and headquarters-based training.

They spend time with other sales reps and their district managers in the field, then they come to Chicago for an intense week of product and process training. And they begin the long and systematic process of gaining product knowledge, knowledge of the customers' needs and knowledge of the Lawson managed inventory process. We ask our sales reps to become subject matter experts and anticipate the needs of their customers.

Additionally, we are seeing and improving productivity of our existing base of over 800 sales reps. Excluding reps that joined us in the last 15 months, sales of existing reps were up approximately 7.3%. We anticipate that we will continue to aggressively add sales reps during 2015.

We continue to see improvements in many of our daily metrics. Backorders, line service levels and order service levels are all improving.

Next I'd like to comment on Lean Six Sigma. We're continuing to implement changes brought about by our first five Wave 1 projects. We have seen improvements in all five areas. This approach to systematically improving processes is spreading beyond the confines of the five formal projects.

For example, the folks in our mailroom, working with their colleagues to redesign invoicing, as a result they saved 700,000 printed pages annually and approximately $50,000. This is 700,000 pieces of paper that customers don't need to get. This is an example of Lean Six Sigma becoming part of our culture.

Three weeks ago we began our next five Wave 2 projects. They range from a systematic and quantitative approach to sales rep on-boarding, which I referred to a moment ago to the sales and operations planning process, which targets inventory effectiveness. We have seen great enthusiasm across the Company to participate in Lean Six Sigma projects and on Lean Six Sigma teams.

We are very pleased with our financial results for the quarter. Ron will share more details, but let me point out that our adjusted operating income of $2.2 million was up 25% from a year ago and we consider this a significant accomplishment.

Gross margins have stabilized despite the increase in strategic accounts. This is positive reinforcement that our customers value the service and products that we -- they receive from us.

We're also seeing increased support from our suppliers and a willingness to explore new approaches to improving productivity. Expenses continue to be managed tightly. We continue to make smart investments in our business and allocating our capital to achieve revenue growth.

Additionally, we continue to focus on streamlining our processes across the value chain from suppliers through to customers. This manifests itself in improving customer productivity.

It is important to note that our distribution network is capable of significant volume growth without any additional investments in brick-and-mortar. Now that we have divested our non-core operations, we are able to focus on our core MRO business.

Lastly, we are confident that our value proposition remains strong. We are seeing broad-based growth from large and small customers. Fundamentals of the business are strong, allowing us to make investments to grow the Company.

Looking forward, we have hard work ahead of us. The fourth quarter only has 61 selling days versus a traditional 64 selling day quarter. However, our systematic progress continues with plenty of positive reinforcement along the way.

Now let me turn it over to Ron Knutson for a detailed financial review.

Thank you, Mike, and good morning everyone. As Mike indicated, we are very pleased with our financial performance in the third quarter. We are clearly realizing the benefits of our previous investments and have established a solid platform for growth of the Company.

As you can see from our results, we are beginning to leverage our current infrastructure, which was not in place a few years ago, and are confident that it will help us grow the Company going forward.

Let me review some of the highlights for the quarter. First, our adjusted operating income, taking into consideration nonrecurring items, was $2.2 million for the quarter, up 25% over a year ago. Second, sales finished at $74.1 million for the quarter during which there were 64 selling days.

This represents an increase in our average daily sales of 8.6% over the year ago quarter and an increase of 2.8% over the second quarter of 2014. This is on top of the second quarter increase of 5.5% over the prior year. So, topline growth in 2014 has been strong for us this year, and demonstrates the success of our current strategy.

Third, with our improved operations and our close management of working capital, we ended the quarter with no outstanding debt under our credit facility.

Now let me share some of the details. We finished the quarter with sales of $74.1 million compared to $68.2 million a year ago and $72.1 million from the second quarter. The third quarters of both 2014 and 2013, as well as the second quarter of 2014, included 64 selling days.

For the quarter, average daily sales increased 8.6% over a year ago and were up 2.8% sequentially over the second quarter. This is on top of the sequential 2.6% second-quarter 2014 growth over the first quarter.

This also represents the fifth consecutive quarter that our sales increased versus a year ago. Both the increase over a year ago and over the second quarter was primarily driven by productivity from existing sales representatives and a higher average rep count as we further supported our strategic and Kent Automotive customers.

Our rep count is now increased for six consecutive quarters. New reps will have a positive impact on our average daily sales in 2014 and future years as they develop their respective books of business. However, as you might expect and as we have previously stated, adding new sales reps will temporarily bring down our sales per rep per day productivity measurement, as the newly hired sales reps are in the early stages of developing customer relationships in their territories.

Excluding those reps that joined us over the past five quarters, sales per rep per day increased 7.3% versus a year ago and were also positive over the second quarter. Over the long-term we fully expect that adding additional sales reps will drive topline sales.

We have rebuilt our hiring and on-boarding process, which has allowed us to attract qualified sales candidates with previous selling experience and many with in-depth product knowledge. We continue to invest in them early in their careers with us to ensure that they can ramp up quickly.

As we move through the end of 2014 and into 2015, we plan to continue adding sales reps in underserved territories. From a segment standpoint, strategic accounts now represent approximately 15% of our total volume and increased nearly 13% over the prior year quarter. This increase was driven by an expansion of our existing relationships.

Our Kent Automotive business was also up over 19% as compared to the year ago quarter, primarily driven by new business. Kent Automotive now approximates 16% of our total business. These increases were offset by a slight decline in our government segment as government spending continues to contract.

From a sequential average daily sales basis, July sales finished at $1.136 million. August finished at $1.139 million, and September finished at $1.201 million. Average daily sales have been trending up over the last four quarters.

For the quarter, gross margin finished at 60.1%, which was in line with our expectations. This is down slightly over a year ago primarily due to lower freight recoveries and growth within our lower margin strategic business.

We continue to take advantage of margin opportunities wherever possible. Increasing strategic customers will continue to put a downward pressure on our gross margin percentage. However, we expect this to be partially offset by other procurement opportunities and operating efficiencies.

Selling, general administrative expenses were flat as a percent of sales and were $43.9 million for the third quarter, compared to $40.4 million a year ago and $42.4 million in the second quarter. We continue to tightly manage our ongoing operating costs.

Expenses in the third quarter were positively impacted by proceeds received from a favorable legal settlement and lower severance in the aggregate amount of $1 million, offset by stock-based compensation expense of $2.4 million, which is directly tied to our stock price increase during the quarter.

Adjusted operating income, taking into account stock-based compensation, severance and the favorable legal settlement, was $2.2 million for the quarter compared to $1.7 million a year ago and $2.1 million in the second quarter of 2014. The improvement over a year ago was primarily driven by improved topline sales, enhancing our margin dollars and controlling our operating costs, all while continuing to invest in our sales team.

Net income for the quarter was $460,000 or $0.05 per diluted share compared to net income of $601,000 or $0.07 per diluted share a year ago quarter, reflecting the impact of increased stock price on stock-based compensation expense.

From a balance sheet perspective, we ended the quarter with no outstanding debt under our credit facility. We continue to closely manage our working capital and are now in a position to have more flexibility on how we reinvest back into the business.

Year-to-date CapEx was $1.3 million. We expect our CapEx for the full year of 2014 to be in the range of $2 million to $3 million, primarily in maintenance capital for distribution network and continued re-profiling of the space we are now leasing in our Reno distribution center.

In closing, we are very pleased with our financial results for the quarter. These results, on top of the results over the past few quarters, reemphasizes that our value proposition a strong. We are particularly pleased that we are able to invest heavily in our sales organization while at the same time drive improved operating income.

We're excited about the business, the progress that we have made, and our ability to improve the operations of the Company. As we look into the fourth quarter and into 2015, we feel confident that our initiatives will continue to grow our business. Keep in mind the seasonality of our business around the holiday weeks and that our fourth quarter includes 61 selling days, which is three days fewer than our most recent quarter.

I will now turn it over to the operator for questions.

(Operator Instructions). Jack O'Brien, CJS Securities.

Good morning and congratulations on the quarter. Quickly for Ron, the SG&A was impacted by the non-cash stock-based comp expense reflecting the sharp rise in the share price. How should we think about that expense item going forward, assuming a more moderate rise over the next year?

Yes, great question, Jack. Our stock price increased during the quarter by about $6 from about $16 to $22.

Right.

That resulted in the [$2.2 million] of expense taken in the quarter. You can do the math on that on what that equates to on a go forward basis. But is directly tied to the fact that we have stock performance rights that are outstanding and those require us to mark to market accounting on those.

So, I think going forward increasing stock price will result in additional expense for us that we will need to take. And vice versa, if the stock price goes down a little bit, it will actually result in a slight pickup in income for us.

Okay, and you addressed CapEx for the rest of this year, but I was wondering if you could give any insight on what CapEx for 2015 looks like and what D&A for the remainder of this year in 2015 looks like?

Sure, so, CapEx for -- and let me state that we are right in the middle of our budgeting process for 2015, but typically we roll in about $3 million to $4 million of general or normal type of maintenance capital. So that's what we would anticipate going into 2015 with.

Our annual depreciation rate runs between $8.5 million and $9 million a year. And I would say that we wouldn't see that changing dramatically from the run rate in 2014 to 2015.

Okay, great, thank you. Then for Mike, just taking a step back for a minute, could you discuss the investments Lawson has made and the actions you have taken since being appointed CEO in 2012? And more importantly, discuss the next 12 to 18 months and the plans to continue the very attractive growth track that Lawson is on, as well as investments you may need to incur to accomplish the strategy.

Sure, thanks, Jack, I appreciate that. It's been a busy couple years. First, again, I will apologize to everybody for the voice. It's been a busy couple years. We finished the -- we implemented SAP. And SAP now pays tremendous dividend for us in the form of granularity of the data that we get, and the ability to look at data every single day, all the key metrics for the Company. We are able to make decisions every day based on that data.

As well, we sold off a number of the buildings a couple years ago -- Addison, Illinois; Vernon Hills, Illinois; a number of facilities -- and consolidated all of those activities into our McCook distribution center, which is a state-of-the-art distribution center. McCook is now able to deliver far better labor productivity, better throughput, and everything about McCook a state-of-the-art, and again, paying dividend in that form.

As well, in the past year we sold a Reno distribution center and leased back to half of the building that we were actually using. That resulted in cash proceeds, but also a small operating cost savings on an ongoing basis.

We divested ASMP, a non-core business, so that frees us up to focus on the core business of consumable MRO. As well, very importantly, we brought Lean Six Sigma to the Company. And Lean Six Sigma is a process of systematically solving problems using data and getting at the root causes of inefficient processes.

What that's been able to do is take costs out of the system, improve the quality of work life for our employees by focusing them on value-added activities, and discarding stuff that no one values. It's rework, stuff that wasn't done right the first time, that's now done right and everybody up and down the value chain benefits from it.

Then, when I think about this, I think about it in the context of an umbrella over our culture. As our culture is changing to become more systematic and problem-solving, we become more efficient in all of our activities. We are investing in our people. Lean Six Sigma is an investment.

Their Apex training, which is a supply chain certification process, we have invested in that. There are other process training that we've taken people through. And so, they are able to do their jobs better, but they also feel great about the Company investing in the employees of the Company.

At its core, all of this activity has resulted in a revitalization of our commitment to customer service and customer excellence. A lot has happened over the last couple years.

Now going forward, we will continue to add sales reps in 2015. I mentioned that one of our Wave 2 Lean Six Sigma projects is the process of when the sales rep starts, and then what happens over the next 24 months. How do we make them more productive, more efficient, get them into their greenfield territories more quickly? We will continue to add sales reps in 2015 and likely beyond.

We will continue to optimize the supply chain. And as all these other activities have happened, suppliers are now far more open-minded to working with us around the total cost orientation, so that we can take costs out of the system, starting with our suppliers and acquisition cost right through to the system.

Lastly, so, providing superior customer service. I think we are all driven by the belief that in the end, if we do our job well, going to make our customers more productive and ultimately make our customers more profitable. That's what drives everybody in the Company, especially the sales reps on the front line.

That's some of the activities going forward. It's a long way of saying we are really confident in our value proposition. We don't need any fundamental change to continue on the path that we are on, and we feel great about continued growth.

Okay, great, thank you for that very thorough response. I will hop back in the queue if I have any more questions.

Alex Paris, Barrington Research.

Thanks for taking my question. I have a few, but I think I'm going to focus in on this one, given the thorough response to the previous question.

Looking at this Company from 50,000 feet, you did a great job turning it around, getting it on the right path. We have had five consecutive quarters of improved year-over-year sales. We have had two consecutive quarters of sales growth.

Longer-term, the Company is a mid-single-digit grower on an organic basis, high single-digit grower on an organic basis. I am assuming you are GDP-plus something on an apples-to-apples, but then you are adding people. You are increasing the productivity of the people.

Then I wanted to dive a little in, after responding to that, on potentially the third leg of the stool. If the first leg is organic growth and the second leg is operational improvement, the third leg potentially acquisitions given your under-leveraged balance sheet, so as it is, and the fact that the industry is quite fragmented.

Sure, so, Alex, let me -- this is Ron. I will jump in on the first one and then have Mike probably cover the second piece of that question. I think you are aware our policy is to not provide any formal guidance, but let me just comment on a little bit about the organic growth that we have seen, and as we look forward into the next couple of years, what that can look like.

I think both Mike and I commented in our prepared remarks that we've seen nice growth of our existing sales reps from a productivity standpoint, and then that certainly is complemented by us adding additional sales reps. For us, that -- versus GDP, we should be growing in excess of GDP primarily because of that second piece of that by adding sales reps. And we have been able to, I think, penetrate both new customers as well as gain the benefit of our existing customer growth, especially on the strategic side and the Kent side, the Kent Automotive side of the business. That's an area that we will continue to pursue and hit pretty hard.

To Mike's comments earlier, we plan on adding sales reps certainly throughout the rest of 2014 and certainly into 2015 as well. And there is not -- I would say there is not a magic number that we are trying to get to from a sales rep count. But what I would say is that we operate in a subsegment of a $175 billion to $200 billion market, and we have defined our market at about $25 billion.

There is plenty of opportunities for us to grow out there, and place sales reps in underserved territories today. That's certainly key to our growth going forward. So, Mike, maybe if you want to --.

Absolutely. Regarding the third leg of the stool, we talk about the growth through acquisition. This is an area that we are just beginning to think about. It's at the absolute formative stages.

And the reason it is at the formative stages is we feel great about our ability to add sales reps. We are attracting people. And the better we do on all these dimensions, whether it's operationally or the better we do from a customer service perspective, the more attractive we are as an employer.

Also the processes we are putting in place to drive sales rep productivity -- things like market segmentation, technologies; even as we add route density, there is less windshield time for a sales rep. All of that drives sales rep productivity. Because those two are so attractive to us and working quite nicely, it makes the third leg of the stool that much higher bar. We talk about a DNA match, and it really is a DNA match.

We are beginning to think about it. We certainly see the opportunity ahead of us. But that's one that is a little ways into the future, and again, we are at Ground Zero along those lines. But there is an obvious reason to do it and we understand that reason. We are beginning to think hard about it.

Then, given your response then, I think what we ought to expect is continued organic growth due to the attractive opportunities to increase sales force, increase productivity. Maybe a period of time down the road -- I don't want to use the phrase when it's run its course -- but at some point, external growth makes more sense that it makes sense today.

I'm not sure if I would phrase it exactly that way. I don't see it running its course. With a $20 billion to $25 billion available market, with a highly fragmented competitor base, and our products which are used everywhere, I don't see an end in sight to the model.

Having said that, if it's more profitable or more productive to pick up a nice DNA match acquisition opportunistically, we will do that. But it's not because the current model runs its course. We feel great about our capacity to add very significant amount of business to our physical infrastructure without adding any more brick-and-mortar, so it's the best of both. It's no end in sight to organic growth and opportunistically looking at a nice match where it makes sense.

That sounds great. Then I guess last question, and I will turn it over. As you know, I am newer to the story and I thank you for all the time that you have given me in the recent past. We're very interested.

The margins, I think, last year on an adjusted EBITDA -- maybe it was an EBITDA basis, were in the low 2% range. Where should a business -- without asking you for guidance, but where should a business like this a few years down the road be in terms of margin profile?

Sure, Alex, this is Ron Knutson. If you look at -- and the way we typically measure it is on an adjusted EBITDA basis. And if you work through the numbers for Q3, we ended pretty close to 6%. And that backs out the effect of the favorable legal settlements and adds back the stock-based compensation expense that we took.

If you look at others in our space, they are clearly ahead of the 6%, and I would say that we continue to push that number forward. Again, we don't provide any formal guidance relative to our operating income or our EPS numbers. But I think if you look at that trend line over the last six to eight quarters, you'll see that we continue to move that number up, and certainly that would be our expectation during 2015 as well.

Great, guys. You are doing a super job. Thanks very much and we will be in touch.

Beth Lilly, Gabelli.

I have two questions. One is, Mike, you and Ron have talked about, of course, being very clear about adding sales reps, and I think in the past you have talked about the number being 1,000 and now you're talking about even -- maybe going beyond that.

Can you talk about, as you look the business model maybe three years out, how many sales reps you think Lawson will have?

Yes, there isn't really a magic number. The way we are building the model, and we are building one sales rep territory at a time, we look at untapped territories. We also look at the route density of our sales reps.

Whether you are looking at a place like Macon, Georgia, or Los Angeles, Los Angeles is a huge potential market; northern New York State -- the New Jersey, New York City area, because of the fleet market, both huge opportunities. But even in very small communities, because our product is used so broadly, so we are sort of ratcheting it up one territory at a time.

Now, when you add all of that in our budget planning process, that's how we got to the numbers we are budgeting this year and we're in the process of working through it for next year. But there really doesn't seem like there is an end in sight.

We had a much larger number of sales reps come a number of years ago, albeit the composition of the sales reps was different and the personal profiles of the people was substantially different. But we really don't see an end in sight in our hiring process relative to the number of territories.

Again, when you are chasing a highly fragmented $20 billion to $25 billion market, this is the reason that that Wave 2 Lean Six Sigma project is so important to us. As we can continue to refine the on-boarding process, as we can get them to be more productive more quickly, that really reinforces the desire to continue on the path that we are on.

Unfortunately, I don't really have an answer for when it ends or what it looks like three or four years from now; pretty sure will be a larger number three or four years ago than it is today.

(Operator Instructions). Mitchell Scott, KDI Capital Partners.

Looks like another good quarter here with pretty good progress on the Company growth initiatives. I was wondering if you could just give us a little bit more color around the new reps that you are adding in and some of the processes that you are wrapping around, giving them up to existing rep levels, and what that runway looks like.

Sure, so, we are recruiting people from across the spectrum. Some of them come -- most of them come with some industrial selling experience, but again, across the spectrum. It's interesting, as we do a better job operationally, we just become a more attractive place to work.

We're in the process of -- we have engaged an outside firm now more than a year ago, a resource -- recruitment outsource processing firm, and that's helped us get scale, because we're bringing a large number of people. It is our intention to maintain that process of recruiting people. But also, there are processes before someone gets recruited, so that they know what the nature of the job is.

Our value proposition is somewhat unique. Again, it's a service proposition even more so than a product proposition. And, so, we want to make sure that incoming sales reps know that what we deliver is service, less so than delivering physical product. That, I would see as the differentiation between traditional MRO and consumable MRO.

If you are selling a ladder or a drill, or a compressor, you expect it to last little while. Whereas when you are selling flat washers and electrical fittings, they are consumables and that's a big difference for us. We are feeling good about that now.

We're always looking to refine the on-boarding process. So, one of the challenges I think all companies have in our space is we have tremendous institutional knowledge. We have got employees that have been with us 30 years out selling, so they have an incredible wealth of knowledge.

One of the challenges we are trying to tap is how do we get those people with 10 and 20 years experience as mentors to all the rest of the people that are a little newer in their tenure. All of that pays dividends in getting people more productive more quickly.

Ron, maybe you want to go through some of the numbers.

Yes, so, Mitchell on the run rate view of things, typically when we bring in a sales rep, especially if it's a greenfield territory where they're building it out from scratch, it certainly takes those individuals a little bit longer in barely building out their book of business. Generally the sales reps become accretive to us, accretive to the Company, in that $120,000 sales territory. Given our compensation model and given our gross margins, it's about $120,000.

Typically our reps will -- again, there is some pretty wide variation in this, but typically the new reps coming on board, they will hit that mark somewhere between 12 and 18 months on average. Again, some variation in there, but on average that's really when they hit it.

Okay, thanks guys, very helpful. Last one for me just on the gross margin line, looks like is kind of down a little bit year-over-year, 30 basis points, but up 50 basis points year-to-date, year-over-year. You talked about it a little bit in the prepared remarks, but if you could just give us a little bit more color around some of the puts and takes there and what the outlook is over the next one or two years?

Let me -- a couple of comments on some of the -- and Ron can fill in some more of the details. But as we add more large strategic accounts, that tends to push GP percent down a little bit. Now, on the other side, as we work more closely with our suppliers, which we are now doing in earnest, they are able to -- through process reengineering, as we were growing, that's helping.

So, a number of activities that push GP up, we would say take costs out. As well, some activities like large strategic accounts that come to us and as we increase the penetration, that pushes GP down. The long and short of it is we feel like where it is is about where we expected to be.

Yes, I think that's right, Mike. The 60.1% that we ended for the quarter, that is really in line with our expectations. Previously we have commented that we should be in high 50-ish range, kind of meaning 59-ish range. We are comfortable with where we are at.

There were really no major kind of puts and takes that brought it down or up. And 30 basis points for us, to Mike's point, is really a function of our customer base and our wide range of product mix as well.

Beth Lilly.

I'm sorry. I think my line got dropped accidentally. Mike, I didn't hear your full answer, but I will follow up with you off-line.

The other question I wanted to ask is, you have talked about your adjusted EBITDA margins have come up substantially and in the quarter they were 5.9. Mike, I wanted -- and Ron -- as you look out, the competitive field has EBITDA margins closer to double-digit level. And I want to just reassure -- be reassured that that's the level that you think that Lawson can get to over time?

That's right. If you look at especially some of the larger players in our industry, in our segment, they are certainly double digits. That's our aspiration.

The timing around that depends a little bit around how much we invest back into adding new sales reps into the organization. As we have commented before, certainly that's a net investment for us, in particular in the first year. But clearly we get the benefit in the second and third year and in future years.

Certainly, it's our aspiration to get to that double-digit level. I think we are on the right trends. And again, timing a little bit to be undefined, but that's where we're headed.

So, to the extent that you continue to add sales reps and grow the rep force, then that will impact margins. But I am imagining that if -- not that you're going to do this, but if you stop getting sales reps your margins would expand pretty substantially.

I think that's correct, Beth. But the other thing what you are seeing now is for some years we didn't at any reps. So, now that we are rebuilding starting from scratch, once we build a little momentum it's -- as we're adding new reps, the ones that are two in three years and are paying for the addition of new ones.

A little bit of what you are seeing is a function of the fact that for a number of years we didn't add any reps. Once we get to a steady-state trajectory of adding numbers of reps, I think you'll see things improve.

I would add to that. The effect of -- it's really now in our run rate, so as we think about future years, it's not as though that it's incremental investment for us. It's already and our current run rate from certainly the latter half of 2013 and 2014 as well.

One other question, it just occurred to me as I am looking through your numbers, the industry certainly is not growing at 8.6%. And so, would you say you're gaining share?

Absolutely, and the reason I believe that we are gaining share is our fill rates, our backorders, our operational processes. As all of that improves, I mentioned -- it's a little thing, but taking 700,000 pieces of paper away from the customer, all of that just makes us easier to do business with.

I believe we can now easily demonstrate that we are differentiated out there in the marketplace. And with our focus on driving customer profitability and customer productivity, I think customers recognize that partnering with us enables them to be more profitable. I think it's through operational excellence we are gaining share.

Okay, terrific. Thank you so much. Great job.

Brett Scarbrough, Luther King Capital Management.

Congrats on the quarter. The numbers look great. I wanted to follow up on the new salesman ramp. You guys provide the strategic account growth and the Kent Automotive growth, but I think there is some overlap there in those two categories. Could you maybe help us understand what the growth is excluding those two groups?

Sure. So, if you look at -- I think I have commented the fact that our strategic accounts grew about 13%. And our Kent Automotive business, which is exclusive of the 13% growth in the strategic, grew about 19% in the quarter. Those two numbers are independent of each other.

Now, we do have strategic accounts within our Kent business, and in those strategic accounts grew as well. Actually they were a large driver of the 19%. Excluding those two categories, we did see a decline in our government business; not big dollars, because that's now at a smaller run rate for us and makes up about 4% of our business.

But if you back out the strategic, the government and the Kent side of the business, the core business for us grew about 6% versus a year ago quarter.

Okay. Then, on working capital as a percentage of sales just focusing on AR and inventory, you guys have talked a lot about initiatives to improve operations, but we haven't seen a huge improvement in working capital intensity. Where does that stack up on your initiatives and where do you think you can get that to?

Brett, typically we have run 22% to 24% of our sales in working capital. What I would say is that in particular on the AR side of the working capital piece, our aging continues to improve. Our receivables are better today than what they have been in quite some time.

We are comfortable with where we are there. To Mike's point earlier, as we grow the strategic business, typically we will have to provide some additional terms on the AR side.

On the inventory side, this is an area that we continue to focus on. Having McCook in place now gives us some additional flexibility going forward. But at this point, it's a real balance between our order completeness rates, our backorders and our line service rates, really what our customers expect for us to be able to achieve there.

It's a bit of a balance there, but I think looking forward there are some opportunities in inventory as we refine that process. And on the AP side, we continue to work with our vendors, our suppliers, relative to terms and ability to pay them on a timely basis.

I would add to Mike's comments that we have great relationships with our suppliers, and there is probably a little bit of an opportunity there from a working capital side. But we are also in the midst of negotiating other support from them as well including training and pricing and so forth. It's all -- we look at it on a combined basis versus just the working capital piece.

So, a long way of answering, but there is some opportunity there. I wouldn't say that it's huge opportunity, but there is probably some areas that we -- well, there are areas that we are still going after.

Okay, and maybe just a final question. Now that you guys are debt-free, where do you think -- what is the next step for free cash flow -- dividend, buyback? I know you talked about M&A. What are the priorities of the Board at this point do you think?

I think the priorities are to stay the course. We are continuing to invest in sales reps. There are number of activities yet ahead of us. Growing continued -- and when we think about adding a sales rep, let me say, it's almost analogous to adding a one unit acquisition because the sales reps that we are talking about are greenfield sales reps.

There is an analogy between a greenfield sales rep and doing an acquisition. Primary difference is you're hiring 100 reps at a time versus one at a time. We continue to invest in that way. I think we have articulated that we don't have big investment ahead of us from a brick-and-mortar perspective, but there are opportunities to continue to penetrate markets.

It's kind of stay the course. Board is excited about what we are doing, and absolutely believe in the vision. And so, I think we're on the same track we have been on. We don't really see any big changes.

Sounds good. Thanks, guys.

(Operator Instructions). All right, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back to Mike DeCata for any closing remarks.

Thank you very much. Let me say in closing and reinforce that we have great confidence in our ability to grow. We are on track with our primary growth initiatives, those being adding sales reps and getting more productivity out of our existing base of sales reps.

Lean Six Sigma is changing the Company and changing the culture to become more systematic and problem-solving, and that pays dividends over the long-term. Our operating processes are improving, and as we add more sales reps, we are better able to deliver productivity for our customers, enabling our customers to be more profitable themselves.

Lastly, we are confident that our actions -- the actions that we have taken over the last couple of years will continue to pay dividends for the foreseeable future. Let me again say on a personal note, thanks for hanging in there. I know the voice has been a little bit of a rough sledding this morning. Have a great day and thank you very much.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation.