純正零件 (GPC) 2008 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, my name is Matt and I will be your conferences operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the Genuine Parts company conference call. (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS). I would now like to introduce Carol Yancey, Senior VP, Finance and Corporation Secretary. Thank you, Ms. Yancey, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, good morning and thank you for joining us today for the Genuine Parts second quarter earnings conference call to discuss our results and the 2008 outlook. Before we begin this morning, please be advised that this call may involve forward-looking statements such as projections of revenue, earnings, capital structure and other financial items, statements on the plans and objectives of the company or its management, statements on future economic performance and assumptions, underlying the statements regarding the company and its business. The company's actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to several important factors described in the company's latest SEC filings. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call. We will begin this morning with remarks from Tom Gallagher, our Chairman, President and CEO. Tom?

Thank you, Carol. I would like to add my welcome to each of you on the call today and to say that we appreciate you taking the time to be with us this morning. As we customarily do, Jerry Nix, our Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer and I will split the duties on this call, and once we have concluded our remarks we will look forward to answering any questions that you may have. Earlier this morning we released our second quarter results, and hopefully you've had an opportunity to see them but for those who may not have, as yet, seen the numbers a quick recap shows that sales for the quarter were $2.873 billion which was up 4%. Net income was $133.1 million, which was up 2%, and EPS were $0.81 this year compared to $0.76 in the second quarter of 2007, and EPS increase was 7%. The 4% sales increase was a slight improvement from the 3% increase in the first quarter this year, which we were pleased to see, and while the increase in net income, at plus 2%, was not as much as the revenue increase it also is an improvement over the first quarter results. Operating profit was up 4%, which is in line with the sales increase, with the difference in operating profit and net income being attributable to lower interest income and a slightly higher tax rate in the quarter, and Jerry will comment on these in a moment. And then on earnings per share, we were pleased to show a 7% increase for the quarter.

Looking at the results by segment, our strongest revenue increases continue to be generated by the industrial and electrical operations. Industrial sales were up 7% for the quarter, which follows a 6% increase in the first quarter, so we saw some improvement in the industrial growth rates in the quarter, and we continue to feel good about the progress being made in this segment. Our strongest areas geographically remain the western, southwest and Canadian operations, but we are pleased to see positive growth in all parts of the country. In looking at it by customer segment, our best increases continue to come from customers in the iron and steel, pulp and paper, and food industries, and these helped offset softer results in automotive, lumber and wood products, and other housing related segments. When we put it all together, we are pleased with the industrial group's performance for the quarter and year to date, and based upon the continued strength in the most recent industrial production and capacity utilization figures, as well as their internal growth initiatives, we feel that the industrial operations are well positioned to continue to generate solid results over the remainder of the year.

The electrical operations had a terrific quarter. They were up 11% in revenue, following their 7% increase in the first quarter, so as with industrial, we saw some strengthening in the results over the past three months. And with the ISM purchasing managers index moving back above 50 in June, we are optimistic that the good results from the electrical segment will continue on through the second half of the year.

Moving on to office products, this team continues to encounter a challenging environment, but we were pleased to see them end the quarter even with the prior year. You will recall that the office products revenues were down 2% in the first quarter, so the second quarter results do show some sequential improvement, and they were in line with our expectations for the quarter. Sales to the independently owned office products resellers were up 1% for the quarter, and they are now even year to date, while sales to the mega channel were down 4% for the quarter, a slight improvement from the 6% decrease that we experienced in the first quarter. Not where we want to be in either case, but an improving trend which is encouraging.

On the product side, we did have increases in the quarter in the categories of general office supplies and cleaning and break room supplies, but these were offset by low to mid-single digit increase - - or decreases in technology products and furniture. Despite the challenging conditions in the industry, we do look for modest improvements in our office products results in the second half. Several internal growth initiatives are beginning to generate positive results. And during the second quarter we completed the acquisition and integration of the $20 million regional distributor that we mentioned on our last call, which will certainly add to our results in the second half. Additionally, later today we will be finalizing another small acquisition that will add approximately $20 million in annual revenue, and this one should close by the end of the third quarter. So, these two acquisitions will give us some additional sales volume in the second half, and they will have a nice impact in 2009 as well.

Moving on to automotive, sales for this group were up 2% for the quarter. Now this is down from the 4% increase in the first quarter, due to the sale of the remaining Johnson Industries locations in the first quarter. Ongoing automotive operations were up 3.4% for the quarter, and they were up 3.6% year to date, so a fairly consistent picture in our continuing operations. As far as additional insight into our NAPA results, we opened 11 net new stores in the quarter, giving us a total of 48 net new stores year to date. Commercial sales in our company store group were up 3% in the quarter. which is similar to our first quarter results and our cash, or DIY business, was up 1% in the quarter, showing some improvement over the 2% decrease in cash sales in the first quarter. Major account sales were up 6% in the quarter, and we continue to feel good about our progress as well as our opportunities in the major accounts segment.

Our NAPA Auto Care business is not yet quite performing as well. We were even in the quarter, and although this is an improvement from the 2% decrease in the first quarter, we are still down 1% year to date, which we feel is largely caused by the deferral of maintenance that we see in the after-market right now. This is our largest wholesale program however, and our folks recognize the importance of showing positive growth in auto care over the second half of the year.

So that's a quick overview of the sales results for the quarter and year to date and at this point Jerry will take a few minutes to discuss the financials. Jerry.

Thank you, Tom. Good morning. We appreciate you joining us on the call today. We'll first review the income statement and segment information, and we'll touch on a few key balance sheet and other financial items. I will be brief and then will open the call up to your questions.

A view of the income statements shows the following. Total sales for the quarter were up 4%, to $2.9 billion, and our year to date sales of $5.6 billion also up 4% from last year. The second quarter revenue trend was slightly favorable to our growth rate over the last few quarters, and we are encouraged about the opportunities for more growth over the last half of 2008. Gross profit in the quarter, 29.66% to sales, compared to 29.77% in the second quarter last year, a decrease of 11 basis points. For the year, gross profit is consistent with last year 29.78 and we look to show more progress on this line going forward. We will continue to focus on the best product and customer mix, as well as expanding global sourcing opportunities to drive this progress. For the year through June, cumulative pricing which represents the prior increases to us, is up 1.7% in automotive plus 3.4% in industrial, plus 1.4% in office products, and plus 4.6% in electrical.

Now let's take a look at SG&A. For the second quarter, SG&A as a percent of sales at 22.15 was slightly favorable to the second quarter of '07. For the six months in 2008, SG&A stands at 22.52% of sales, up approximately 21 basis points from '07. As you may recall, the increase is partly the result of certain non-recurring costs recorded in the first quarter for the sale of Johnson Industries and the consolidation efforts in our re-manufacturing operations. In addition, we find it challenging to improve our operating leverage at our current level of sales growth. Regardless, we plan to see some improvement on this line in the second quarter, and we look for the same in quarters ahead as we make progress toward a fifth consecutive year of improved SG&A costs as a percent to sales.

For the quarter, tax rate was approximately 38.3%, which compares to 35.6% last year, and 38.0% for the second quarter in '07. The first quarter rate was down due to the favorable impact of the sale of Johnson Industries during the quarter and our tax rate through June is 37.0 compared to 38.0 last year. We should have a full year tax rate of 38.0, the same as in 2007. Net income for the quarter is $133.1 million. It was up 2% in earnings per share of $0.81, compared to $0.76 last year, up 7%. For the year net income, $256.6 million, up 2%, earnings per share of $1.56, compared to $1.47 in '07, up 6%.

Now let's discuss the results by segment. The automotive sector had revenue for the quarter of $1.4285 billion, 50% of the total, that was up 2% and they had operating profit of $115.5 million, up 1%. So a slight margin down from 8.2 to 8.1%. The industrial group had revenue in the quarter of $898.1 million, 31% of the total. That's up 7%, operating profit of $76.6 million, that's up 9%, so margin enhancement and expansion there of 8.3 to 8.5%.

Office products for the quarter, $430.8 million, 15% of the total. That revenue was flat in the quarter. Operating profit of $37.4 million, down 1%, but due to the rounding, their operating profit margin stayed the same at 8.7%. The electrical group, $122.6 million, 4% of the total, just had an outstanding quarter, up 11% in revenue, operating profit of $9.9 million, up 19%. Their operating margin expanded from a 7.5% to an outstanding 8.1% of sales. We are not going to review the six months segment information for you. It was in the press release and we will be happy to address any questions that you have during Q&A.

So in summary, operating profit for the second quarter grew 4%, on a 4% sales, increase resulting in an operating margin of 8.3% for the total company, which is consistent with the second quarter of 2007. Through June, our 8.1% operating margin is down ten basis points from last year, and this reflects continued progress in industrial and electrical, offset by the one time cost in automotive in the first quarter discussed earlier, and the deleveraging of expenses in automotive and office products due to their sales volumes. We are pleased with the overall progress in margin for the quarter and have plans to show more improvement over the balance of the year. As you can see, our greatest opportunities is in automotive and office products.

We had a net interest expense of $7.3 million for the quarter, and for the six months net interest is $14.5 million. Our interest is up this year, due to decreased interest income thus far in '08, and we currently expect our net interest to be $28 million to $30 million in 2008. Another category which includes corporate expense, amortization of intangibles, and minority interest was $16.3 million in the second quarter and is $30 million through June. These costs are slightly higher than in their respective periods in 2007, due mainly to the amortization of intangibles associated with acquisitions. We currently expect this line to be approximately $50 million for the full year, which would be up slightly from our expense in this category in 2007.

Now let's touch base on a few key balance sheet items. Cash at June 30 of $136 million, is down $139 million from June 30 last year. For the six months through June we spent $151 million for share repurchases, compared to $52 million in the same period of 2007. We spent another $67 million for acquisitions. These investments account for the decrease in cash from last year, but our cash position remains strong due to increased income and improvements in working capital. Accounts receivable increased approximately 1% from last year on a 4% sales increase for the quarter, so we remain very pleased with our level of receivables and feel good about the quality of our receivables. Our goal at GPC remains to grow receivables at rates less than sales growth, which we've been able to do for several consecutive quarters now.

Inventory was up approximately 4% from June last year, but is down 1% from December 31, '07. A component of the increase from last year is related to acquisitions and expansion initiatives, but as in the accounts receivable our, goal is to grow inventory at a lower rate than sales growth, and although we made some progress relative to the first quarter, we still have work to do in this area. We will continue to focus on our inventory management initiatives, and show more improvement on this line as the year progresses. Accounts payable also increased 4% from last year, reflecting increased purchases related to sales growth, as well as extended terms and other payables initiatives established with our vendors. We are pleased with our ongoing improvement on this line and will continue to work for more progress in the periods ahead.

Working capital is $2.5 billion at June 30, down 10% from June 30 last year. Most of this decrease accounts for the re-classification of $250 million in debt, to current liabilities in December of 2007. Although excluded in the re-class, working capital is still down 1% from '07. So we are pleased with our continued progress in managing working capital. We've improved our working capital as a percent of sales by at least $0.01 in each of the last four years, and expect to continue this positive trend again this year.

We also emphasize here that our balance sheet remains in excellent condition. We have continued to generate consistent and strong cash flows, our strong cash position provides the company many opportunities. For 2008 we would expect to generate cash flow in line with '07, which was an especially strong year. We continue to project cash from operations in excess of $600 million in free cash flow, which deducts capital expenditures and dividends, should be greater than $250 million. Looking ahead, our priorities for the cash remain first the dividend, which we've increased for 52 consecutive years. We are proud of this record of consistent growth and the dependability of an above-average dividend year, which is currently at approximately 4%. Other priorities include the ongoing reinvestment in each of the businesses, share repurchases to where appropriate, strategic types of acquisitions in each of our business segments.

Capital expenditures, $22.6 million in the second quarter, compared to $29.1 million in the second quarter last year. And through June, CapEx of $44.3 million compared to $52.8 million in '07. We do expect our CapEx investments to pick up slightly from the first half of the year, and remain comfortable with the guidance of $110 million to $120 million in Capex spending for the full year. We feel good about our level of reinvestment in our businesses. Depreciation and amortization of $22.0 million in the quarter, $44.7 million for the six months. So this is slightly higher than our expense on this line last year, and we expect to continue this trend with appreciation and amortization in the range of $90 million to $100 million for the full year.

Another priority for us has been opportunistic share repurchases, and as part of our repurchase program we purchased approximately 4.2 million shares of our companies stock thus far in 2008. This follows a purchase of 5.0 million shares for all of 2007. Today we have an additional 6.1 million shares authorized for repurchase. We have no set pattern for these repurchases, but will remain active in the program, as we continue to believe that investment in GPC stock, along with a dividend, provides the best return to our shareholders.

As we mentioned, the strategic acquisitions continue to be an important use of cash, and are integral to our growth plans for the company. After closing two acquisitions in the first quarter, we closed another three this quarter, and now have completed at least one acquisition in each of our businesses thus far in 2008. We covered these in our last call except for one, which was a small company acquired by a heavy-duty parts group in May. Most important we remain disciplined in our approach to acquisitions, and believe we've added quality companies to our operations which we expect to be accretive to our returns. Through six months in 2008, acquisitions have accounted for approximately 1% of total sales growth, so you can see these businesses are important to us, and we look forward to more success with this element of our growth strategy. Currently we are planning for a similar pattern of strategic acquisitions in our various business segments over the balance of the year. We continue to believe these are the proper priorities for cash as we move forward. We believe that the use of cash in these areas serves to maximize total return to shareholders.

Finally, we add that our total debt remains unchanged at $500 million. The first $250 million credit facility matures in November of this year, and we have a new signed agreement extending this debt for another five years. The second $250 million is due in 2011, and a prepayment of this debt is cost prohibitive, due to the make whole provisions included in the debt agreements. Total debt to total capitalization at June 30, '08, 15.6%, consistent with June 30 of last year, and we are comfortable with our capital structure at this time.

We consider the second quarter to be improved from the first quarter of the year, and although we have more room for improvement, our management teams overcame a challenging macroeconomic environment through hard work and proper execution of their well laid growth plans. We certainly want to thank and express our appreciation to the entire GPC team for their efforts under difficult circumstances. At the midpoint of the year our challenges remain to show continued improvement in growing sales, controlling costs, and improving our operating margins, despite uncertain economic conditions. As always, we will support these efforts with a strong and healthy balance sheet, continued strong cash flows, further maximizing our return to shareholders. We feel very positive about our businesses, our strategic plans, and their prospects for long-term growth. Tom, I'll to turn it back to you.

Thank you, Jerry. So that recaps our second quarter and first half results. Despite the challenging external environment, we do feel that we came through the first six months in reasonably good shape, and that we are in a position to report another good year for Genuine Parts Company. Back in February, we said that we expected full year revenue increases of 2% to 5% for automotive, and being up 3% year to date they are in the range. For industrial we said 5% to 8%. We are currently running up 6%, so here again, within range. On the electrical side, we said 5% to 8% and at plus 9% year to date they are slightly above. And for office products we said 1% to 4%, and being down 1% year to date, we are just below. So putting them all together we continue to feel that a full year overall GPC revenue expectation of 3% to 5% is reasonable at this time.

On the earnings side, our prior guidance was 3.12 to 3.22 but anticipating the current external conditions to continue to last at least through the end of '08 we think a more appropriate would be 3.12 to 3.18 which would be up 5% to 7% for the year. So that will conclude our remarks at this time and we would like to address any questions that you may have, and we will turn the call back over to Matt. Matt?

(OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS). Your first question comes from the line of Michael Ward with Soleil.

Good morning everyone. Do you have how much you spend, or approximately what kind of an impact there is from fuel costs, whether it's from driving the trucks or distribution, or whatever it is?

No, Mike, we don't. We know it's a significant expense for us. We have inbound freight, and we share that with some of our suppliers and we have outbounds freight each night going to the NAPA stores, as well as the office products dealers within the S.P. Richards group. We have a local delivery expense out of the company on stores, so that's in a lot of different categories, but it is a major expense for us, and we have got a number of initiatives in place to minimize the costs in that in each of the cases. But, no, we don't have the number in total of what it is at this point.

How have you been able to offset it? Because if it had an impact on your costs, and doesn't seem like it's had a significant impact on margins, it seems like you're doing a pretty good job of offsetting it.

Mike, I will try to address that. We are seeing increases, obviously, like everyone is but among the things we've done is that we've reconfigured the fleet to try to use more energy-efficient vehicles. We are using some fairly sophisticated delivery management software to try to reduce the miles that we are driving. We've got other programs where we reduce idle time, and we are just trying to pull all of the levers that we know can to try to keep the costs down.

On the automotive side, your sales are still holding up, despite the fall off in vehicle miles driven?

They are. We were up on - - ongoing business was up 3.4, as I mentioned, and we are up 3.6 year to date.

This second quarter looks like vehicle miles driven are going to end up being down somewhere around 3% or 4% which is a huge drop. But none of it's being reflected yet and weakening in demand, or are you just picking up [shares]?

Well, we see evidence of reduced miles driven in things like the deferral of maintenance, which is partly attributable to reduced miles and also the cost of fuel. We see people looking to migrate toward the lower priced product in order to try to control the cost, but I think our folks have done a pretty good job in some key areas. I mentioned our major account business was up 6% in the quarter and is up 6% year to date. I think there we would be perhaps outperforming the overall market growth. And our auto care business, even in the quarter, we were pleased with that frankly. That puts us down 1% for the year but we are looking for that to turn positive for us as we work our way through the course of the year. So I think our folks are just trying to execute as best as they can in a challenging environment.

Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Fassler, Goldman Sachs.

Thanks a lot and good morning. A couple questions. First of all, it was a nice surprise to see the office products business stabilize, given that the tone of business there seems to have deteriorated, broadly speaking. Can you give us some insight as to why you think your business recovered in the second quarter?

Matt, I think a couple of things. One, we did not have the best of years last year, so the comps are not as challenging as they are in some of the other businesses, but with that said, I think our folks, here again, are doing a mighty good job of executing on their internal initiatives, and we were pleased to see the growth in the independent re-seller business that I referenced earlier. And the size of the decrease that we had with the megas was less in the quarter than what it was in the second quarter. So I just think again maybe it's some internal initiatives and some good execution from our folks.

My second question relates to pricing in automotive. It looks like you are up 1.7% in the first half of the year, I believe that's the number you gave. That's, that exceeds what you were up all last year, equals what you are up all of '04, that you were up all of '06. I realize that there's a little more inflation evident in a number of your businesses, but here it seems to be meaningful, relative to the growth rate. Can you talk about where that comes from, and what the success has been passing through raw materials increases?

Matt, I will try to answer that. It's across abroad product categories. Anything that is steel-based, obviously, we are seeing significant price increases, things like brake rotors would be an example there. Bearings would be another example. And then anything that's petroleum based, we are also seeing sizeable increases. Anything that's being sourced in Asia, we've seen significant increases there, for specific reasons having to do with China sourcing. As far as our ability to pass them along, I think we've said in the past, and it continues to be true today, and that is that we don't take a price increase in our automotive business unless we can pass it along and remain competitive in the marketplace, so when a vendor needs a price increase we will work with them, because we know they need it as well. And we will review the competitive landscape and then hopefully we are in agreement that we can take the price increase and pass it along at the appropriate time.

Appreciate it. My last question relates to margins in the automotive business. There's been some distortion over the past number of quarters, depending on what the performance of Johnson Industries and its position and charges related to that. Can you talk to us about what kind of impact, if any, Johnson Industries or any other extraneous factors had on the margins in Q2 of this year and just remind us what the comparable figures were for Q2 of last year?

We did not really have any significant impact from Johnson or from the restructuring in our remanufacturing business in the second quarter. So, I think the comparisons are pretty clean and we were at 8.1 as Jerry said, down ten basis points. And part of that is that we just couldn't get enough leverage on the sales increase, and also some of the product mix that we saw in the quarter. But we think that we'll show margin improvement as we work our way through the course of the year.

And truly the last question, I know you talked in the first quarter about some volatility in the automotive business through that quarter. Was the trends a steady one through the second quarter.

Well, no, not really. What we saw, which we thought was interesting, is we saw the April and May results on a per-day basis were pretty consistent and pretty encouraging, and then we saw moderation in June. Now we have seen through mid-month in July that the average daily sales have gone back to the levels of April and May. But we did see some moderation in the final month of the quarter.

That's very helpful. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Matt.

Your next question comes from Keith Hughes with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

You had talked in prepared comments on an acquisition and some other initiatives in office products for the second half of the year, helping revenues. Will those help margins as well, or do you expect to see margin pressure for the rest of the year?

Specifically we think these will be accretive not dilutive, but as far as pressures in the channel we don't expect them to abate any, and we expect that's true for all of the businesses. We just have to find ways to offset those pressures.

Is the, specifically in office, is the pressure just primarily discounting, or desire for discounting of customers or is it mix or both?

It's a combination.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Josh Pechter with Cacti.

Just two quick thoughts. The first is maybe you can update us a little on how the Mexican market looks. No one ever seems to talk about it. And second conceptually, and it might be my inexperience with the industry, but I'm always confused that in a distribution-related business in a highly inflationary environment, I always believe that that should produce outside operating margins, in that, as long as you're raising your prices more than your costs, this would be the moment in which we would see Genuine Parts come up with a 12%, maybe 13% operating margin. And I wondered why not now, and if not now, when could an environment produce that kind of result from your businesses?

Josh, I'll try to answer them in the order you posed them, as far as the Mexican operations, we are pleased with the progress we make there. We have presence there in our automotive, our industrial, and our electrical businesses. Small components of the total in each case, but in all cases making nice progress, so we continue to feel good about our presence there. As far as the inflationary impact, I think what you're seeing in the case of industrial and electrical, you are seeing some of what you've described in your question, we are showing nice margin improvement in both of those businesses. And we are getting the benefit of the larger price increases in each of those businesses. We are not quite there yet in automotive or in office products, but I think in general we would agree with your statement that as inflation becomes more of a factor it should, in fact, have a beneficial impact on our operating margins.

Josh, while I would agree with what Tom just told you, your last comment there about getting margins back up to 12% or so in automotive, I don't want anybody to think that's going to happen.

Come on, Jerry.

It's certainly not going to, but we can see some improvement.

We don't write, so we won't put anything in print , but looking at your businesses and running some of the numbers over the decades that we have data, why we couldn't see 200 or 300 basis points over time, especially given how rampant inflation is. As long as you are pushing prices up faster than costs or fuel surcharges we should see good operating margins. If it's not now, Jerry, when would it come? This is it,

Keep in mind that our number 1.7 still not even up to the cost of living index numbers, so we have not passed that point yet. And your theoretical situation there, if we were to have price increases 6% to 7% and the other costs go up 3%, then the answer to your question would be yes. But I'm not sure that those days are coming back. But any way, Josh, we appreciate your comments. We understand what you are saying, but it's just not realistic to think we are going back to anything double-digit margin. We think nine to 9.5 over the next three or four years would be realistic in the automotive.

Thanks so much.

(OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS). Your next question comes from the line of Walter Schenker, with Titan Capital.

Thank you. Hello Tom, hi Jerry.

Good morning, Walter.

Two questions, one I know you have looked to do some direct sourcing in the automotive business in China for some items, with the change in the dollar and the inflationary pressures there, has that become somewhat less attractive to you?

Not less attractive but we are finding that some product that might have been a candidate to be sourced in a country like China, now we look at other countries and see equally attractive opportunities, up to and including some of this product now coming back to Mexico in the [Macia Dores] and sourcing some of the product there.

Okay, second question, you indicated that there is some, there appears to be some deferral on the automotive side. I know going way back when, when there were fuel issues, there was a fairly decent variance among product lines, which would help further identify that that was going on amongst auto parts which are deferral versus none. Are you seeing material differences across product lines more than you would normally see?

We are. What we see is anything that affects driveability, our results are really pretty good, and examples would be categories like batteries, brakes, chassis. If we look at other things that ay be more discretionary, things like tools and equipment, for instance, sales there are not as strong as they are in the other product categories that I mentioned. So, what we are seeing more is, anything that is discretionary, we are finding that demand is not as strong as it is for those critical items.

And something which is a big ticket item which might be discretionary would also, I'm thinking air conditioning compressors or something like that, that would probably be a little weaker?

Well, air conditioners - -

Depending on where you are, I guess.

Air conditioning compressors in the south right now wouldn't be considered discretionary I don't think. People are replacing those. If one has a choice, and if they don't have to make the repair, then we are seeing people question whether or not they will make the repair. Just further, another thing we are seeing is that folks are asking whether or not there is a lower priced alternative, and we do sell two different levels of product, one more higher priced and one a little lower priced, and we are seeing unit sales of the lower priced products exceed unit sales of the higher priced products.

And your gross margin across the multiple lines tend to be the same? I realize there's different gross dollars, but the margins are pretty much the same?

No, not across the product category. We've got quite a variance among the different product categories.

I'm sorry, I meant among the same product, different lines?

Same product, different lines, yes, yes.

Okay. Thanks a lot.

Your next question comes from the line of Tony Cristello with BB&T Capital Markets.

Thanks, and good morning gentlemen. A couple questions, one, for the auto segment, I'm just wondering, when you look at your company-owned businesses versus some of the independents that you're providing parts for, is there a difference on how those stores are performing?

Across a store base of 5900, almost 6,000 stores, yes, certainly, there is a difference. Across our company store base we see a difference within the 1,000 or so company-owned stores that we have. I would say if we are trying to group them and see what's the performance of the independent, as it compares to the company store group, they are about comparable right now.

So not too material. Do you have any thought on the sequential improvement you've seen in the DIY business? It was pretty week in the first quarter and then you saw a nice pick-up in the second. Obviously price is some of that, but there has to be a more conscious effort on the consumer. Is that related to perhaps new car sales being down so much, or is there something else you are seeing, either in traffic or spending there might be a reason for that?

We don't have anything that we can point to specifically. It may be what you just said, and that is that with people keeping their cars longer they may be willing to put a little money into them. But we don't have anything that we would say is absolutely categorical.

Was your business impacted with weather? I know there was a lot of flooding in the Midwest and certain regions there. Can you speak on any geographic strength or weaknesses that might not have been consistent with what we've seen in the past?

Geographically it's pretty much the same. We were impacted, as everybody was, with the Midwest weather situation. But our business overall in the Midwest, the southwest, the mountain states, up east, our business remains pretty good. Our toughest areas continue to be in the southeast, and then out west in the states of California and Arizona primarily. That's where we find the biggest challenges and that's consistent across all four of our businesses.

Okay, and maybe this is a big picture question here for you, Tom, but there's obviously emphasis on smaller cars and fuel economy and those type of things. How do you view your operations in the industry? What might change over the next two or three or four years with that emphasis and that focus, and thinking about trucks becoming less of an option, or I guess sort of diminished in terms of how the consumer is viewing those on a purchase basis?

A couple of things. One, any change that happens whether it be in size of vehicle or the power plant in a vehicle, it's going to be a gradual change, because as you know there are 249 million vehicles on the road today, and every year we sell, we used to say 16 million to 17 million, we're going to adjust that to 14 million to 16 million based on current times, but any change is going to happen over a multiple year period. As far as the implications of smaller vehicles or alternate power plants, certainly they will have an impact. There are some positive and some potentially negative, but we view most of them in a positive sense.

One thing that will happen is there will be more parts proliferation because of the introduction of these vehicles, and we think that plays to one of our core capabilities. We think that we do have fairly sophisticated inventory management forecasting models and inventory management systems. We've got the balance sheet and the distribution network to support that, so we think that that might play to an advantage for us.

Second thing we think that vehicles, regardless of size, are going to become even more complex which probably says that the DIY business, or the DiFM business, the professional install business, is going to continue to grow in terms of the overall, which we think again plays to an area of relative strength for us. So we do think that we are going to go through a period of change. It will be gradual. I think we are reasonably positioned to do handle tha, and hopefully with our strategies, we will be in a position to be beneficiaries of the changes.

That's great. One last question, on just the acquisitions, do you feel like, in this environment, you are getting better pricing in terms of what you have to pay for things. and are there more available out there given what the current status of what the macro is?

The answer to that is yes and no. We are seeing a number of opportunities. We are seeing a number of opportunities at reasonable pricing, pricing that we think makes sense. And occasionally we see some that appear to be reasonably good opportunities, but the pricing is not yet come down into a range that we would think makes sense for Genuine Parts Company and our shareholders, but on balance we think the answer would be more yes than be no.

Okay, great. Thank you, guys.

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Ashton Partners leadership.

Matthew, I will take the call. We want to thank those of you for joining us today. We appreciate your continued interest in and support of Genuine Parts Company, and we look forward to talking to you on future calls.

This concludes today's Ashton Partners conference call.