Greetings and welcome to the Nature's Sunshine Product's Second Quarter 2016 Earnings Conference Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode and this conference is being recorded. Due to time constraint, there will be no opportunity for a question-and-answer period today. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Richard Strulson, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Nature's Sunshine Products. Thank you, Mr. Strulson. You now have the floor.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. And thanks to all of you for joining our conference call to discuss our second quarter 2016 financial results. This call is available for replay in a live webcast that we posted on our website at www.naturessunshine.com in the Investors section. The press release which was issued this afternoon at approximately 4:05 pm Eastern Time and the information on this call contains certain forward-looking statements, which are based on a number of assumptions that are subject to change and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors which may not be within the Company's control. These statements are often characterized by terminologies such as believe, hope, may, anticipate, expect, will, and other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and the actual results, performance or achievement of the Company may be materially different from the results, performance or other expectations implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to those factors disclosed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, under the caption Risk Factors and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The press release and the information on this call speak only as of today's date and the Company disclaims any duty to update the information provided herein and therein. I'll now turn the call over to Greg Probert, Chairman and CEO of Nature's Sunshine Products.

Thanks, Rich. Good afternoon everybody and thank you for your participation in today's call. Joining me today is Steve Bunker, our Executive Vice President, CFO and Treasurer. I'm pleased to report our second quarter results which reflect our eight consecutive quarter of year-over-year local currency growth in NSP, U.S. and Canada, along with accelerated growth rate across the Synergy global business. Net sales of $89.4 million were up 10% year-over-year or 11.5% on a local currency basis, an improvement from the 1.3% local currency growth during Q1. The results illustrate the continued progress we have made towards returning Nature’s Sunshine to sustainable long-term growth and building upon our opportunities in new market. Global developments included sustained strong execution in NSP United States and NSP Canada, which continue to be driven by our stable foundation in retail, practitioners and informed coaches. Robust growth at Synergy WorldWide including further acceleration in Asia, improvement to roughly flat growth in Europe, both reflecting, our recent business model and process improvement, and $4.4 million of incremental pre-opening product sales through Hong Kong as we prepare our broader Greater China business initiatives. Now turning to our segment results. NSP America's second quarter sales of $44.7 million increased by 0.7% year-over-year in local currencies and represented 50% of total company sales. NSP U.S. and NSP Canada both achieved their eight consecutive quarters of year-over-year local currency growth of 2.1% and 0.8% respectively. Our IN.FORM business model which is focused on both weight management and building a daily habit of health continues to be the primary driver of growth in the region. With all key metrics we measure, to support the growth of IN.FORM performing well. We achieved record IN.FORM certifications during the quarter. Through the end of the second quarter, we had a total of 1876 coaches…

Thanks, Greg, and good afternoon everyone. Net sales in the quarter were $89.4 million up 10% from $81.2 million in the same quarter last year. On a local currency basis, net sales grew by 11.5% year-over-year. As Greg noted, the growth was driven by Synergy Asia, $4.4 million of incremental pre-opening product sales to Hong Kong and NSP North America. This more than overcame a $1.2 million unfavorable impact from foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations and a $500,000 decline in the NSP Russia, Central and Eastern Europe segment. Gross margin rose 10 basis points to 74.2% from 74.1% in the year ago period. Favorable country and product mix offset the pressure from the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the local currencies in many of our foreign markets. Volume incentives accounted for 34.5% of net sales in the second quarter compared to 36.4% of net sales in the same period last year. In dollars, volume incentives increased $1.2 million to $30.8 million as a result of the higher sales volume. Decline in volume incentives as a percentage of sales was driven by changes in segment market mix, primarily the pre-opening products to Hong Kong for which no volume incentives are paid. Selling general and administrative expenses were $31.2 million up $3.9 million compared to $27.4 million in the same period a year ago. As a percentage of net sales, selling general and administrative expenses were 35% in the second quarter up from 33.7% in the prior year quarter. The increase in SG&A was primarily due to $2 million of independent service fees related to pre-opening product sales through Hong Kong, $1.8 million off increased investment in China and the reduced capitalization of 800,000 o internal labor cost related to our ERP implementation project. These increases were partially offset by $2.1…

Thank you again for your support and for participating in today's call. If you have any follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We will be presenting at B. Riley & Company's Conference in New York Citi on September 13. Hope to see, many of you there. Have a great day.

Ladies and gentlemen. That does conclude our teleconference for today. We thank you for your time and participation and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Have a wonderful rest of the day.