Garry Ridge Quotations

While we continue to face significant competition in the household products categories, we were able to achieve success in this area due to increased distribution, increases in promotions and the launch of new products.

We are pleased with the sales and profit growth we have generated across all of our trading blocs. We have also started to see success from our commitment to innovation and the recent introduction of new products that have resulted from that strategy.

We did well in both our European and Asia/Pacific regions during the quarter, but some of this growth was offset by changes in foreign currency exchange rates. If we were still seeing the same rates we had last year, we would have seen an additional $1.7 million in sales and $0.2 million in net income.

We are still challenged by the continuing increases in cost of goods. As a result, we plan to implement price increases on certain products during the third quarter of this year.

During the quarter we had solid growth in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, with strong sales in the lubricant and household products business.

Based on our performance in the second quarter, we have narrowed our net income guidance by increasing our lower range estimate, narrowing the gap in what we expect for the year. While our marketing expenses for the first six months are down from last year due to timing, we expect to increase our investment through the remainder of the year.