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Columbus McKinnon Corporation (CMCO)

Q4 2008 Earnings Call· Thu, May 22, 2008

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to Columbus McKinnon financial year 2008 fourth quarter earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions). I will now turn the meeting over to Mr. Timothy Tevens, President and CEO. Sir, you may begin.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Thank you, Brenda. Good morning and welcome to the Columbus McKinnon conference call to review the results of our fourth quarter and full fiscal year of '08 results. Earlier this morning, we did issue a press release with some financials, and hopefully you have them with you. With me here today is Karen Howard, our Chief Financial Officer, Derwin Gilbreath, our Chief Operating Officer, and Joe Owen, our Vice President of our Hoist Group. We do want to remind you that the press release and the conference call may contain some forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements contain known and unknown risks and other factors that could cause the actual results to vary. You should, in fact, read the periodic reports that we file with the SEC to be sure you understand these risks. The base business of Columbus McKinnon performed very well over the past quarter and for the full fiscal year, which was offset by the poor results of Univeyor. As we previously reported, we are in the process of divesting this asset. A better view of the quarter and the full fiscal year is to remove Univeyor from Columbus McKinnon and review the remaining business. Less the Univeyor business and some tax benefits that happened in the quarter, you will clearly see that we produced about $0.74 of earnings per share in the quarter and $2.38 for the year or well above the actual reported earnings. In addition, even with Univeyor included, we generated almost $60 million in cash from operations for the year or $3.11 per diluted share. I will update you in a moment on our divestiture process. Overall, our revenue for the fourth quarter was $168.6 million and exceeded the same quarter last year by…

Karen Howard

Management

Thank you, Tim, and good morning, everyone. I am pleased to have the opportunity to review some of the financial highlights of Columbus McKinnon's fiscal 2008 fourth quarter and fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2008. Consolidated sales increased by 7.5% to $168.6 million in the fourth quarter of this year compared with last year's fourth quarter. Products segment sales, which accounted for approximately 90% of total sales in the quarter, increased by $9.4 million or 6.6% with strong double-digit sales increases reported by our Columbus McKinnon Europe and our US crane groups and low single digit growth reported by our US hoist and rigging businesses. Our Larco Canadian crane business, which contributed $1.4 million of revenue to last year's quarter, was divested on March 1, 2007, resulting in 1% reduction in Products segment revenues. Volume contributed a 3.9% increase for this segment over last year, while one fewer day deducted 1.6%. Further, pricing and foreign currency translation favorably impacted the change by 2.6% and 2.7% respectively. Solutions segment sales increased $2.3 million or 16.8% compared with the fourth quarter of fiscal '07, driven by the significant tire shredder shipments, which were scheduled for this quarter. Within the Solutions segment, revenues of our Univeyor business were down $200,000, and as previously reported, we are actively pursuing potential divestiture of that business. On a year-to-date basis, consolidated sales increased $33.5 million or 5.7% over last year. Products segment sales were up 8.1%, while Solutions segment sales were down 15%. The company's quarterly sales pattern, assuming a period of consistent economic conditions, typically shows sales strongest in the fourth quarter and weakest in the third quarter, with such comparisons being impacted throughout fiscal '08 by the March 2007 Larco divestiture. The recent quarter had 63 shipping days, one less than the…

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

Thank you, Karen, and good morning to everyone. Internationally, sales were up 16% in the fourth quarter and 10% for the year. The fourth quarter benefited from two very large orders associated with our tire shredder business totaling $5.7 million. One of these orders was from the customer in Korea and other was a customer in the UK. Excluding Univeyor and previously divested Larco, international growth for the quarter was up 23%, with favorable exchange rates accounting for half of this growth. International growth is expected to remain strong for FY '09 as a result of our continued focus on geographic market expansion, generally strong economics and favorable exchange rates. Domestically sales increased 3.3% in the fourth quarter and 3.6% for the year. Energy and public works infrastructure activities remained strong as evidence by our sales to rigging shops and OEM government customers who were up a combined 17% for the quarter and 11% for the year. These channels account for 17% of our domestic sales. Our CES crane building business represents 15% of the total sales, was up 18% for the quarter and 9% for the year, driven by continued strong energy-related activity in the Gulf Coast. Reflecting the moderation in domestic manufacturing activity, sales to general and industrial distributors, representing 28% of our domestic sales, were down 1% for the quarter. To grow, we increased emphasis on end users to draw a preference for brands. We expect to continue to draw sales through this and other channels. One example of this is a $1 million agreement just signed with a large national end user who had previously been purchasing products primarily from our competitors. Sales to national distributors, representing 9% of total domestic sales, were up 4.4% for the quarter and 3.1% for the year. Columbus McKinnon expects…

Timothy Tevens

Management

Thank you, Derwin. Okay. Brenda, we're ready for questions.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions). Our first question today comes from Amit Daryanani. You may ask your question. He is with RBC Capital Markets.

Amit Daryanani - RBC Capital Markets

Analyst

Thanks. Good morning guys.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Good morning.

Karen Howard

Management

Good morning.

Amit Daryanani - RBC Capital Markets

Analyst

Just a quick question. I may have missed this, I am sorry. The $5.2 million net loss in Univeyor, how much of that was just write-offs and how much of that was just operating losses within the company or whether the division. Secondly, looks likes this is going through to Q2 at least, so have you ever explored maybe putting this as a discontinued operation?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yeah, let me take the first question. This $5.2 million is a combination of all of that, I haven’t broken it all between all the pieces, somewhere accounts receivable write-off, somewhere old projects that we're still, we're wrapping up if you will and getting rid off and somewhere a couple of new projects that we had some over run then as well and the total was 5.2. Relative to discontinued ops, we don't have a contract or are not firmed up yet as to who we are going to negotiate with to sell this asset, so we are not able to account for the discontinued ops, it would have been a lot easier and you're absolutely right just to display it that way but we tried to give you a sense of what it would look like with out it. Hopefully, we were successful in doing that.

Amit Daryanani - RBC Capital Markets

Analyst

No, I mean the color you guys give around definitely helps us get to what the business looks like x or I just feel discontinued would be a simpler way to go about it. I guess the second thing I just had was, (inaudible) you guys were talking about price increases in the sense that these surcharges are sticking pretty well. Is the sense that the price increases are sticking a lot better in North America and Europe versus the rest of international market, so is that across the board we are able to pass them on.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Well, I think the surcharges are predominantly and steel-based products, which is our rigging products, and those are predominantly here in North America, especially the ones that Derwin referenced, the zero to 29% adders if you will. I would say that, so specially North America and they are sticking. We’ve done this in the past, we started this in 2004 when we say steels begin to crazy and have had success in passing that worldwide growth in steel prices and to the channel partners and telling them to pass it on as well. So I think it's probably mostly North American, only because of the type of products we sell and where we sell it.

Amit Daryanani - RBC Capital Markets

Analyst

All right. And it’s my final question. I’ll hop off after that. When you look at all the investments we've made to get better presence in the international market, is this sense that we are pretty much content with the extent of investments we’ve had or are the big cash outlays going forward that we should be cognizant about?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yeah. Great question. Our sales growth strategy includes international growth and I think you know we've been investing in these markets for a while now. And they are bearing fruit as you are seeing that in the numbers in terms of the sales growth. Going forward, Derwin mentioned, we just opened up our offices in Petersburg, Russia and that was April 1, actually and just recently. I would expect that to continue to grow as the revenue grows in markets like Russia, we would continue to make investments, hopefully offset by the revenue, so the margin would begin to see the leverage come through. I will tell you that there is another area that we are studying right now and pursuing with some aggressiveness and that is the Middle East. We do sell and export a lot there, but we don’t have a presence there. And I suspect that most likely that might be a market that we invest in as well as Poland. Today, we export a considerable amount to Poland. We don’t have anybody on the ground selling into that market, so that may be an additional investment. The good news there is we already have a fair amount of revenue to offset that. So I think it is fair to say you will continue to see us invest in these new markets, especially the emerging and growing ones.

Amit Daryanani - RBC Capital Markets

Analyst

Fair enough. Thanks a lot, and congratulations on a good quarter.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Peter Lisnic, Robert Baird.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

Good morning. It’s actually John Haushalter, for Pete.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Well. Hi, John.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

Could you guys just - on the surcharges you are putting through, is that going to be margin neutral or kind of profit dollar neutral?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Our goal was margin neutral.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

Okay. And if that just at this point just limited to rigging so kind of on the actual hoist business there really haven't been increases so far?

Timothy Tevens

Management

There have been more price increases, basic price increase surcharges are the forgings in the chain products, which is the regular product.

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

Right we're monitoring that very closely.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

Okay.

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

Close quarter.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

Okay, but it's not that pricing in the other businesses, as you are getting really as pressured on the hoist business on the cost structure front?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Say that, one more time for me?

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

The cost pressure is more steel, it's definitely more on the regain side, just above…

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

Definitely.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Aluminum is the primary product commodity that we buy for our powered hoist products. There is some steel in the some of the wire rope product as well as some of the manual hoists, but if you look our electric chain hoists, they are mostly aluminum body. The cost is more aluminum in motors.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

Okay, thank you. And then just on the International growth side we are charting it down. It was kind of 23% excluding Univeyor and then currency was about half of that, is that correct?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yes.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

And then just within that, that has the tire shredder business and it is still which was up kind of substantially year-on-year I would assume is that…

Timothy Tevens

Management

That's right.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

The $5.7 million I assume is all kind of incremental internationally?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yes. That tire shredder order, there were actually two orders were both international orders. If you just want to look at the Products segment, the 23% was the total business. You want to look at the Products segment, it was up -- international sales were up 11%.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

Okay and that has the currency number in there obviously?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Currencies; yeah about half of that actually.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

Okay, all right. Then just a final question: with the cash balance kind of continuing to go up, and you guys are kind of looking to deploy a go-through with that international investments and selling resources and potential acquisition activity. Is there any kind of consideration of a cash dividend or anything like that at this point?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yeah, great question, John. I think it's fair to say that we will consider all forms of use of proceeds, use of our cash including cash dividend, their stock buy backs. Right now we are very focused however on acquisitions and we are working diligently in that area as well as investments in the organic business. However, at some point in time you are absolutely right, it may come to a different form of use of those cash share that we have on our balance sheet.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

Okay. However, at the current time you view kind of the internal organic growth potential here is a better use of cash.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Would be a better more value added use of cash. Yes.

John Haushalter - Robert W. Baird

Analyst

Okay, thank you. I'll get back in queue.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Thank you, John.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Holden Lewis, BB&T. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Good morning, thank you.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Hi Holden. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Hi. Can you talk a little bit, I think when you are talking about expectations for fiscal '09 particularly on the SG&A leverage. I think you referenced 11, or I think it was a, was it 17. For the SG&A as a percent of sales, you were looking for something in the 17% to 18% range, I believe for the year. In Q4 it's obviously a fair bit higher than that, and this looks like you had sort of a bubble in the SG&A you kind of had a bubble in the CapEx that really hit Q4, but you seem to suggesting is perhaps a little bit heavier spend than what we might expect to see through fiscal '09. Can you sort of talk about what specific items really sort of were bigger in Q4 than you expect to see going forward or if I'm sort of reading that right?

Timothy Tevens

Management

You know you are reading it perfectly, right on with what we are seeing. A couple of things, one is timing. We saw a fair amount of selling expense come through in the quarter that just hit us all at the same time. For example, we talked about that tire shredder order about $1.5 million was commissioned on that large order. So, that hit us at the same time. We saw some increase in advertising things come through in the quarter, some investments we have made in some of our international markets, all happen about the same time. If you view it as 11% to 12% selling expense on a go-forward, 17% to 18% SG&A on a go forward, that's about the range we would expect to be in for '09. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. You've clearly said that you're going to continue those international investments that are clearly going to continue. Advertising, I assume that you are going to sort of continue on with that as well. I mean, what was sort of unusually bulky in the period?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Well, that commission, some advertising, some programs that we put in place that we don't expect all of that to repeat. So the 11% to 12% is kind of the average run rate that we've been looking at going forward for selling expense. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. So was that advertising and the programs you're talking about, was that sort of promotional stuff that was very short-term in nature that may have had an impact somewhere else on the P&L?

Timothy Tevens

Management

I would say that some of that would be short-term in nature, especially when you run an ad. I also think that we did have some use of consultants to help us in the marketing area that are one-time spends. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. Can you talk also about the CapEx spend? Looks like it was about twice in Q4 what you experienced in any other quarter for the year. What sort of went into that and how sort of ongoing is that kind of rate of spend?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yeah. As you might know, the first three quarters, we under spent capital compared to our target, and then the last quarter was kind of a catch-up where people got things implemented and completed. So, the year was about $13 million and I think our guidance was in that area of $12 million to $13 million or so. Going forward, it's $14 million to $15 million for '09. So, $14 million to $15 million of CapEx would be our expectations. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. Great. Were there any LIFO charges during the quarter?

Karen Howard

Management

Not significant. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. I will jump back in. Thanks.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

The next question from Ted Kundtz of Needham.

Ted Kundtz - Needham

Analyst

Yes. Hello, everyone. One major question I guess for you. Could you talk about the domestic outlook you've got? You talked in your release, I think you mentioned growth was slowing, it was up 3.3% in the quarter, looks to be slowing a little bit. Capacity utilization rates have ticked down a little bit in April, still strong in mining utilities but manufacturing has ticked down. I just wanted to see your current outlook and what are you guys seeing now in the markets domestically?

Timothy Tevens

Management

I think that it's fair to say that slower growth, but still growth, is the feeling we get. In conversations with our customer base and our channel partners, they are seeing similar. Still a lot of activity, a lot of opportunity for work flowing through our distributors, and therefore, us. However, it may be a lower number, more slow single digit as opposed to mid single digit growth. As we look to the future, you heard me talk, Ted, about we typically lag any downturn by maybe a quarter or two.

Ted Kundtz - Needham

Analyst

Right.

Timothy Tevens

Management

We would lag behind people like the Kennametals, the perishable tooling people, people who are out there in front of us may be more industrial production oriented; we're more capacity utilization oriented. So, as they turn down in America, in United States, we would probably feel that a couple of quarters later. They're still seeing low single digit growth, I think. So, as a result, at this point in time we're still looking in that area. Given the dialogues we've had with a number of our channel partners and end users that remains the same. So, it's still fairly positive in the marketplace.

Ted Kundtz - Needham

Analyst

Yeah, okay.

Timothy Tevens

Management

And internationally it's better.

Ted Kundtz - Needham

Analyst

It's much better still.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yeah.

Ted Kundtz - Needham

Analyst

Are you seeing any change in the international tones at all, month-to-month type business or just kind of currently versus what you saw in the last quarter?

Timothy Tevens

Management

No. I would say it's very similar to the last quarter. It's still double-digit, it's lower double-digit. I would think the Western European economies are slowing a bit, but they are being offset by the emerging economies in Europe, which are growing still at a pretty torrid pace and we're feeling that growth as well. Our export business is up nicely out of Germany into the portions of Europe. Latin America seems to be going very well. Brazil is strong. We're seeing a lot of activity now in the Asia Pacific region, where, as you know, we're in our infancy in terms of building out our sales capabilities there.

Ted Kundtz - Needham

Analyst

Right. My last question was what are you plans there in Asia? We talked about China, you're still, I guess, growing internally, but you've also talked about partnering somewhere over there with somebody. I just wanted to see if there is any update on that, progress towards doing something a little bolder, a little quicker.

Timothy Tevens

Management

We'd love to.

Ted Kundtz - Needham

Analyst

Have you identified people or is it just as long-term process--?

Timothy Tevens

Management

There are a number of potential partners in China that we have identified, had conversations with and would love to do something with, whether that's a joint venture or strategic alliance or on straight out acquisition to help boost the revenue growth in the Asia Pacific region. We spend a lot of time there. We had a lot of conversations and a lot of dinners and a lot of drinks and a lot of relationship building. We're not just ready to report anything in terms of a step there. However, that is something we would love to do.

Ted Kundtz - Needham

Analyst

Do you think you could get that done this year?

Timothy Tevens

Management

I would say that would be great if we were able to do something this year. I am not sure we will be able to get something about it. It's a longer process than maybe you and I are used to doing in North America or even Europe.

Ted Kundtz - Needham

Analyst

Great. Okay. Tim, thank you.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Okay, Ted.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Joe Giamichael, Rodman & Renshaw. Joe Giamichael - Rodman & Renshaw: Thank you, guys. All of my questions have been answered at this time.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Thank you, Joe.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from James Bank, Sidoti & Company. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: Hi. Good morning. That's an easy one.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Hi, James. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: Hi. Just if I could jump back to Univeyor, I think you guys did a very good job in terms of stripping it out. I'm just a little bit confused. So going forward, you are not going to report it as discontinued operations even though we've been given a definitive timeframe. So, I was actually anticipating a breakeven here in the fourth quarter of $0.27, literally took me by surprise. Is this the same type of dilution we should see in the first half of fiscal '09 until you ultimately do divest this business?

Timothy Tevens

Management

That is not the plan, but neither was $0.27 in the fourth quarter dilution. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: Right.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Our expectations, and as you've heard us report over the first three quarters of this fiscal year was that Univeyor was improving. We gave you a trend line that was in a positive direction. To be perfect, these were surprises that hit us in the fourth quarter, and we are aggressively managing our way through those. I don't know what the first quarter and second quarter would bring. The only thing I do know is that we are aggressively pursing and speaking with potential buyers of this business that could run it and operate it much more effectively than we can. They are much more aligned with the industry that Univeyor sells into. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: Okay, that's helpful. Ultimately, by the September quarter or after that, it won't be on the P&L anymore?

Timothy Tevens

Management

That is our plan. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: Okay, all right, fantastic. When you file the Q, if you want to throw in a section like a matrix in terms of quarterly historicals, that would also be helpful, because I saw that you've said that it costs you about $0.11 in the March quarter year-over-year. I just had no idea what it cost you in the previous three quarters in fiscal '07. So, that whether or not you do it that would be helpful. Then a clarification on SG&A total. Do you expect it to be in the 16% to 17% as a percentage of sales going forward?

Timothy Tevens

Management

17% to 18% I think was what we've reported. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: Okay.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yes. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: 17% to 18%. Okay, great. Excluding Univeyor, what's the operating margin for solutions going forward, ballpark?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Well, you can back your way into it, because we have pulled out Univeyor and showed you what they were doing. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: Okay.

Timothy Tevens

Management

So, ballpark, it's a little more lumpy business because of the tire shredder could be huge like it was this quarter and could be very little in some quarters. On average, you're looking at high single digit. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: Okay, that's helpful. Right now, I guess in the June quarter here, you're releasing your 1 to 10 ton wire rope hoists?

Timothy Tevens

Management

1 to 3 ton, right? James Bank - Sidoti & Company: Excuse me, 1 to 3 ton, okay. Derwin, I apologize, I don't know if I got this correctly. Are you anticipating some rigging products coming out this year in new products?

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

Yes. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: Okay. Last question. Karen, what's the interest rate on that line of credit, the $11.2 million?

Karen Howard

Management

We've got letters of credit outstanding change. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: Okay.

Karen Howard

Management

Yes, it's not actual data in it. James Bank - Sidoti & Company: I am sorry. Okay, okay. All right, that's all I have. Thank you.

Karen Howard

Management

Thank you.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Thank you, James.

Operator

Operator

The next question from [Tory Koning] of Lehman Brothers.

Dori Konig - Lehman Brothers

Analyst

Hi. This is actually [Dori Konig].

Timothy Tevens

Management

Hi, Dori.

Dori Konig - Lehman Brothers

Analyst

Good morning, guys. Just one quick question. I was wondering if you could comment on what type of discussions you may have had or you plan to have with the rating agencies and what specially they would require from you or what milestone you would need to reach in order to achieve investment grade status.

Karen Howard

Management

Sure, I'll try and calculate that you for you, Dori. We absolutely have ongoing discussions with our rating agencies and talk about our desire to continue to improve our ratings as we aspire to be investment grade, and they acknowledge our improving credit statistics. However, a key factor for us to reach and grasp investment grade is size. We need to be a bigger company, and that really relates to the risk of volatility associated with smaller companies. It's not a definitive number, but it's continued growth that we are working toward to balance that risk.

Dori Konig - Lehman Brothers

Analyst

Okay, great. Thank you. That's very helpful.

Operator

Operator

The next question from Holden Lewis, BB&T. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Thank you again. Can you talk a bit about profitability within the Products business by region? I mean it seems like a lot of the investments you're making obviously in Europe, so I'd imagine that that's where we saw the weakness in the margin. Are we seeing operating margin improvements in the US ops and sort of where are we in Latin America, just give us sort of a geographical breakdown of how we are seeing things profit-wise?

Timothy Tevens

Management

That's not something we disclose, but generally speaking, they're relatively equivalent around the globe. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. However, in terms of directionally, most of the cost were in --?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yes, most of the investments were in outside the US. Holden Lewis - BB&T: So, directionally, your US margins are at least moving in the right direction. Were they flattish?

Timothy Tevens

Management

I think they were in the right direction. We are very pleased with the US operation. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. So, absent those, you were still sort of getting good leverage on that business and that sort of thing?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yes, and I would expect that to continue, especially with the Lean activities that we have ongoing and some of things to offset, like the surcharge to offset the steel increases. That's always helpful. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. You made these other investments obviously everywhere. In Europe, Derwin, can you give us a sense of directionally which way the margins went there too without talking about the numbers? When do you expect to begin farming the investments in Europe? I mean your investments I think are probably are more mature there then elsewhere in the world.

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

We are farming right now. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. So, European margins are also trending higher despite investments at this point?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yes. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. So, all of these, sort of the challenges on the margin side, even products is primarily Asia.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Asia, the challenge, I think that when you open up a new office in like Russia where you have very little export, we might do a $1 million euros or something there now. That is a drag initially, but the demand that we see there right now should increase and offset that very, very quickly. So, we'll get leverage there soon. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Right. I am just looking at the operating margin for the Products business, which obviously fell. And if US was trending upwards and Europe was trending upwards, I assume that includes Russia. Does that suggest that all of the margin challenge was in Asia?

Timothy Tevens

Management

No. If you remove some of the selling expense investment that we made in the Products segments here in the United States, then you see that leverage. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. So, the selling costs that talked about were also in US.

Timothy Tevens

Management

For the US, right. Holden Lewis - BB&T: For the quarter, US margins were down as well?

Timothy Tevens

Management

I think it's more mixed in that regard. I don't have that in front of me, but if you strip out some of the consultants and some of the advertising and some of the very specific market segments that we're addressing, which is specifically construction and energy here in the US, we made some increased investments in the quarter. We also had a bit of mix situation when we saw a lot more cranes, which is a little lower margin product than a hoist would be. That's probably the more of the offset than anything else. If you look at the hoist business in total, it had positive operating leverage. It was very good for example. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. Not to beat up Univeyor too much, but we had kind of news that you had some projects in Univeyor that were lower margins, but you kind of talked about perhaps a new project overrun too. I guess the assumption was that you're going to clean up all those old projects and any new projects that you had built in would without more discipline in terms of the pricing and that sort of thing; it kind of sounds like we kind of had a replay of sort of old habits in that business. Is that accurate, inaccurate?

Timothy Tevens

Management

That's actually reasonably accurate. We had some surprises in some of the new projects. Now, you are right. We put a strategic filter in place there where we don't allow them to take projects that are, let's say, more in the risky category. So, we downsize the revenue. The new revenue that came in, they experienced some additional costs that they didn't originally plan for. So, it's more on the execution side at this point, which is a bit of a concern, but it's something we are working our way through, than historically it's been more on, we are just taking projects that are too risky. That piece is gone. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Do you think it is more execution than just simply something endemic to the market? I’m just sort of curious if that type of thing puts the likelihood of the sale of this business at risk at all.

Timothy Tevens

Management

I will tell you, I don't think so. Let me give you my logic to it. Univeyor has some very valuable assets in it. First one comes to mind about a quarter of the revenue is maintenance contracts and this is servicing, existing installed base which is a very nice piece of business for them. There is another product that we call a layer picker which is a proprietary product that's patented or sold worldwide, very global product and very well established with the very nice margin, that's a great asset. This new one we developed called the [emptycon] machine is in a similar state, although it’s a little earlier in its stage of development and launched to the marketplace, it has only been launched about a year or now or so. Those assets are wonderful, and I think that strategic buyers would love to have them, regardless of how the business operated and regardless of the problems we had in this fourth quarter. By the way, in addition to that, they've got great project management and great technical skills embedded in the business that a strategic person could really avail themselves of in the Scandinavian market. Holden Lewis - BB&T: And then I guess another way to just sort to look at where you are with this Univeyor process. I mean you took the impairment charge I assume, do you kind of feel like you know what you are going to sort of get for this to the point that impairment charge fully accounts for whatever sales price you may ask, we may not have additional hits in that regard?

Timothy Tevens

Management

I don't know. Holden Lewis - BB&T: You don't know, okay

Timothy Tevens

Management

A couple of months from now, very definitively. As we sit here today, we're just in the beginning portion of management presentation. So we don’t have definitive bids yet. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. Fair enough. And then in terms of the operating costs; is there any of that which is just sort of like in order to sell this, we kind of got to throw in the kitchen sink and maybe there is some severance stuff and some other things that maybe just need to gussy it up for sale that you knew ultimately a buyer was going to say, we are up to take these hits before we are going to take this off your hands or was it truly just all operational in nature that way?

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

It was operational in nature through the fourth quarter. However, going forward, I can’t comment until we talk to potential buyers. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. And then lastly, on the pricing, when you talked about these surcharge your pricing product was 2.6%. Does that include the surcharges or not include the surcharges?

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

Includes. Holden Lewis - BB&T: That does include.

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

Yeah. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Because you referenced, obviously, the surcharge in very specific terms when you talked about offsetting raw material cost. You didn’t really talked about sort of true pricing, sustainable pricing. Can you talk about what the pricing element is?

Timothy Tevens

Management

Well, in the fourth quarter, the 2.3%, I think it was, price increase. I would call that, call them predominantly price increase, because the surcharges that Derwin referred to, started March 31, and May 9. So, it's kind of after the end of the fourth quarter. So the bulk of it, by the way was 2.6%, was predominantly price increases. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Okay. So we can kind of expect that pricing piece to go up in upcoming quarters, given the surcharges ticking in. Or are you anniversaring something?

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

I think the price increase was on January.

Timothy Tevens

Management

January the 10th.

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

January 5th what else..

Timothy Tevens

Management

So on a go forward basis will the surcharges affect the price increase in a positive way?

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

[Deadline].

Timothy Tevens

Management

Certainly, that is a logical tradition to have. Holden Lewis - BB&T: Right. Because you are working up and January 5, '08 price increase, so we have a full year of that plus the surcharges will add on top of that too.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Right.

Derwin Gilbreath

Management

It's only a slice of that business, certain rigging and chain product.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yeah, good point, it's not the whole business so you can't apply that to 620 million, you got to apply to a much smaller base. Holden Lewis - BB&T: That 260 goes up to some extent. Okay, alright, thank you.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from [Russ Steifer], Raymond James.

Russ Steifer - Raymond James

Analyst

Good morning guys. Couple of questions for you, on the tire shredder the two large orders that you have had. Were those all completed during the quarter or do they -- are they going to fluctuate in Q1 and Q2 or how long is that going to play out?

Timothy Tevens

Management

No, they were completed in shift and we’ve recognized revenue in the fourth quarter.

Russ Steifer - Raymond James

Analyst

Okay, and that's a non recurring kind of order thing or is it one time.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yes, all of their business is non-recurring to a degree, but they make a variety of tire handling products that are sold globally, and basically they sell products to separate the steel from the chrome rubber of the tire and that demand is huge around the world.

Russ Steifer - Raymond James

Analyst

Okay. Secondly, do you have a breakdown of the gross margin percentage for solutions excluding the Univeyor and what would margins have been in our business, if it wasn't there and how do those compare to last year?

Timothy Tevens

Management

We don't normally break that out, but I think that you can motivate back to that number.

Russ Steifer - Raymond James

Analyst

You gave us the operating income, I don't think you gave us --

Timothy Tevens

Management

Yeah, I am sorry we don't go to that level of detail, we won't disclose that.

Russ Steifer - Raymond James

Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions). There are no other questions.

Timothy Tevens

Management

Thank you, Brenda. In summary, let me tell you that we are poised to grow profitably with the strong balance sheet and very solid at this point in growing markets with the strong market position in North America and excellent cash flows. Our use to free cash flow will continue to be part of reduced debt, and we are still focusing our attention on products oriented both on acquisitions that can add market presence where we have a small or no presence, and to our product portfolio where we can leverage our existing distribution channels and branding strength. Combine with this our lean initiatives cost reduction activities, investments in new products and markets and we are well positioned to have a very solid 2009 fiscal year. The Univeyor divestiture is well under way and our expectations are that we will complete the sale in the near future. I would like to thank all of our Columbus McKinnon associates around the world for their hard work and ultimate success in making this quarter and the fiscal year a very good success. As always, we appreciate your time today, have a great day.

Operator

Operator

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