text:
Kevin Freeland - Chief Operating Officer
Darren Jackson - Chief Executive Officer and Director
Joshua Moore -
Michael Norona - Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer, Executive Vice President and Assistant Secretary
Jimmie Wade - President
Alan Rifkin - BofA Merrill Lynch
Aram Rubinson
Kate McShane - Citigroup Inc
Anthony Cristello - BB&T Capital Markets
Gary Balter - Crédit Suisse AG
Matthew Fassler - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Daniel Wewer - Raymond James & Associates
Scot Ciccarelli - RBC Capital Markets, LLC
Advance Auto Parts (AAP) Q4 2010 Earnings Call February 10, 2011 10:00 AM ET
Welcome to the Advance Auto Parts Fourth Quarter 2010 Conference Call. Before we begin, Joshua Moore, Director of Finance and Investor Relations, will make a brief statement concerning forward-looking statements that will be made on this call.
Joshua Moore
Good morning, and thank you for joining us on today's call. I'd like to remind you that our comments today contain forward-looking statements we intend to be covered by and we claim the protection under the Safe Harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements address future events, developments or results and typically use words such as believe, anticipate, expect, intend, will, plan, forecast, outlook or estimate, and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause the results to differ materially, including competitive pressures, demand for company's products, the economy in general, consumer debt levels, dependence on foreign suppliers, the weather, business interruptions and other factors disclosed in the company's 10-K for fiscal year ended January 2, 2010, on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company intends these forward-looking statements to speak only as of the time of this conference call and does not undertake to update or revise them as more information becomes available. The reconciliation of any non-GAAP financial measures mentioned on the call with corresponding GAAP measures are described in our earnings release and our SEC filings, which can be found on our website at advanceautoparts.com.
For planning purposes, our first quarter earnings release is scheduled for Wednesday, May 18, 2011, after market close, and our quarterly conference call is scheduled for the morning of Thursday, May 19, 2011. To be notified of future dates of earnings reports, you can sign up through the Investor Relations section of our website. Finally, a replay of this call will be available on our website for one year.
Now let me turn the call over to Darren Jackson, our Chief Executive Officer. Darren?
Darren Jackson
Thanks, Joshua. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fourth quarter conference call. First, I'd like to thank our 51,000 Team Members for their hard work and congratulate them on an outstanding performance in the fourth quarter and for the 2010 fiscal year. Our team reached many record milestones this year, both strategically and financially. A few of the milestones I'm most proud of include our tremendous growth in our Commercial programs, which have generated three consecutive years of double-digit comparable store sales growth. Our year-end customer traction and market share results set new records, and our Team Member calibration and engagement scores also reached all-time highs.
Finally, our overall financial performance on sales and margins, profits and returns exceed expectations. Specific highlights for 2010 include our commitment to serve customers, which continued to fuel our growth and profitability, driving an 8% comp store sales gain and a total sales growth of 9.5% for the year. Our operating income rate rose to 9.9%, driven by our gross profit rate, which reached 50% of sales. Our earnings per share jumped 31.7%, with our return on invested capital climbing to 17.5%. Mike will provide more specific detail on the fourth quarter and full year results in a few minutes.
Our organizational and strategic results were just as gratifying. The revitalizing of our core values, which are to inspire, serve and grow, coupled with the successful execution of our four strategies, stand out as our most important accomplishment that contributed to our 2010 performance. The key highlights include our ability to inspire as reflected in the quality of our Team Members and the number of ASE-certified Team Members, which now is nearly 7,000 and growing. Our commitment to serve our customers better than anyone else is reflected in our new highs and inventory availability and Team Member service factors according to NPD.
Our growth results are reflected in the consistent and profitable execution of our four key strategies, starting with Commercial Acceleration, which generated double-digit comp growth in Commercial each and every quarter over the past three years, resulting in average Commercial programs growing from $414,000 to $593,000 annually for Advance stores.
DIY Transformation resulted in the development of our "Service is our best part" brand promise, while supporting our industry-leading sales per store. Availability Excellence extended our gross profit rate 335 basis points over the past three years, while lowering our own inventory per store by 28%. Superior Experience has driven improvements in our overall customer satisfaction, while our customer-driven labor model and e-commerce site have enhanced our customer shopping experience.
Looking to 2011, the vital signs of our industry continue to be very favorable. The average age of vehicle on the road is over 10 years, with nearly 2/3 of those vehicles greater than seven years old. Miles driven have continued to increase modestly and consumer preference still favors necessity as a result of the sluggish economy and job market. Yet, we do see potential headwinds, such as rising gas prices and rebounding U.S. auto market and the associated increase in seasonally adjusted sales. In addition, the challenging weather conditions in many of our core markets have led to a very tough start to the year. Q1 will be lower than our original plans and vision and as usual, we have adjusted our annual outlook to reflect our start to the year.
History still shows us that weather tends to even out through the course of the year. 2010 was definitely an exception to that rule, as weather favorably impacted us all year. However, there is nothing to lead us to believe that 2011 will be another exception, and we are early enough in the quarter and the year to make adjustments to deliver another successful year.
Turning to a longer-term view, our focus over the last several years was to catch up on mission-critical capabilities including commercial sales, e-commerce, merchandising and field leadership to name a few, while reigniting our focus and commitment to our customers and Team Members. We certainly have closed the gap from that vantage point as indicated in our record-level customer and Team Member satisfaction.
Research concludes that the customers see very little difference between leading players in our industry. As a matter of fact, last month, I received a letter addressed to the Advance AutoZone Parts' CEO. I'm still not sure if I should open it. So when the customers had nothing else to remember their experience, they simply talk about price and location. Our greatest opportunity to differentiate Advance is by providing an experience that is more meaningful and memorable than price and location.
Looking forward, we will focus on a single customer promise: "Service is our best part." "Service is our best part" was the theme of our 2011 Leaders Forum that was held earlier this quarter with 4,500 of our frontline leaders. I've never experienced so much enthusiasm and galvanizing focus from a team. As we shared with the team our strategies that enable "Service is our best part," enable converge from four to two, service leadership and superior availability will simplify our focus and allow us to strengthen our integrated service model for our DIY Commercial and AI customers around the shared commitment.
Our superior availability commitment will be to get the right part to the right place at the right time every time. It compels us to maximize the storage capacity of our stores and warehouses as well as increase our delivery speed to our customers. This strategy will be a multi-year journey to revolutionize availability and lower our supply chain cost, resulting in increased profitability.
Service leadership will leverage on superior availability. Our service leadership commitment is to lead with the right services and the right support at the right time and the right way. Jim and Kevin will provide additional insights regarding service leadership and superior availability in just a few moments. Collectively, "Service is our best part" will seek to separate Advance over the next five years from an industry dominated by a property, parts and price promise. I expect our service leadership and superior availability strategies will allow us to maintain our industry-leading sales per store while growing our operating margins to 12% and return on invested capital to 20%. While we believe our sales per store potential is nearly $2.5 million, our goal over the next several years is to achieve $2 million per store driven by our growth in Commercial as we move towards becoming a fully integrated service model.
Ultimately, my confidence is driven by the quality, passion and track records of the Advance leaders. In January, at our leadership conference, we had the opportunity to recognize a member of our team that brings our value proposition and brand to life every day. That team member was Mike Byrd. Mike was recognized as our Regional Vice President of the year. Mike started working for Advance while he was in college and worked his way up through the company over the past 20 years, holding various leadership roles within our field operation. His region is the leader in all key metrics, and he truly has a passion for service leadership. Leaders like Mike who are driving our business demonstrate how we will win with the customer and differentiate ourselves in 2011 and beyond. Congratulations, Mike, and thanks for all you do.
Now I'd like to turn the call over to Jim Wade, our President, to discuss our service leadership strategy.
Jimmie Wade
Thank you, Darren, and good morning. As always, I want to start by thanking our hard-working and committed team for another record quarter and year. We appreciate our team's passion for providing great service to our DIY and Commercial customers, and earning their business one customer at a time and doing it through our core values. I want to spend my time this morning taking a look back at our results for the fourth quarter and then talking about how we're bringing service leadership to life in 2011.
In the fourth quarter, our team continued to do a great job executing our initiatives as well as leveraging the strong industry fundamentals to produce strong results. Our total comp store sales grew by 8.9% in the fourth quarter compared to 2.4% during the same quarter in 2009. Consistent with the first three quarters of 2010, we are pleased with an increase in both the number of customer transactions as well as the average transaction size. Each of our major geographic areas produced positive comps in DIY and double-digit comps in Commercial, resulting in a very consistent performance across our company.
We reached a few milestones in our Commercial business that we're very proud of. The fourth quarter marked our 12th consecutive quarter or three full years of double-digit Commercial comp in our Advance Auto Parts stores. In those three years, our total Commercial sales have grown by 57%, and now represent 34% of our total sales compared to 27% just three years ago. We now have over 40% more Commercial parts pros, truck drivers and sales force in place since three years ago when we committed the resources to accelerate our Commercial share. Those resources were invested in the customer.
We're very excited that we finished the 2010 year with the highest customer satisfaction scores from our Commercial customers that we've ever achieved. We believe this is a true measure of our future potential in this business. Our DIY business again produced strong growth and achieved our seventh quarter of positive DIY comps in the last eight quarters, with solid positive comp each quarter in 2010. Our DIY customer satisfaction scores continue to increase as well. We continue to generate the highest sales per store in our industry, and we gained market share during the quarter and for the year.
In our stores, we will focus on several key areas in 2011 that will enable us to serve our customers with dependable and fast service consistently in every store, every day by every Advance Team Member. We believe that to provide a great customer experience, we must achieve a new standard of operational service excellence, and that has to be brought to life for the customer by our team.
In order to enable a high level of operational and service commitment, we'll focus on the following: We've increased the number of district leaders and reduced their average store count, so they'll have more time to spend in their stores coaching and developing the team. We'll increase the clarity of what's operationally critical for our district leaders and general managers to focus on to achieve consistent foundational excellence in every store, and we'll continue to measure our progress. We'll continue to build on our customer-driven staffing to ensure we have the right people at the right time to align with our customer traffic. We'll further accelerate our team member training and development in both parts knowledge and selling skills to better enable them to find solutions for their customers.
We'll build stronger relationships with our highest potential Commercial customers through the partnership of our store teams and sales force to visit and support those customers. We'll measure and we'll improve our delivery times and order accuracy to our Commercial customers, which will enable them to be more successful in taking care of their customers. We'll spread our message through our advertising and marketing programs to drive new customers to consider us and to build our brand around our team. And we'll leverage to its fullest potential the increased parts availability that Kevin will describe, along with all the tools his team is providing, so we can find the right part and get it to the customer fast.
As Darren mentioned, we held our Annual Leaders Forum in January where we had the opportunity to spend time with all our general managers, our field team and our sales force and to review our plans for 2011. We're very excited about our teams' commitment, and we know that it will be through their commitment and passion that will bring "Service is our best part" to life for every customer.
Lastly, we continue to reach new customers and grow our sales through successful new store openings. During the fourth quarter, we opened 26 stores including three Autopart International stores and closed three stores. For the year, we opened 148 stores including 38 AI stores, and closed five. As of the end of our fourth quarter, our total store count was 3,563 including 194 Autopart International stores.
In closing, thanks again to our team for another successful year and for remaining committed to leading inspired teams and delivering on our promise that service is our best part.
Now I'd like to turn the call over to Kevin Freeland, our Chief Operating Officer, to discuss our superior availability strategy.
Kevin Freeland
Thanks, Jim, and good morning. I would also like to congratulate the team for a strong fourth quarter and year. I'll take a moment to highlight a few of our accomplishments during the quarter, as well as update you on our initiatives to support our superior availability strategy.
During the fourth quarter, our gross profit rate increased 147 basis points versus the fourth quarter of 2009. The fourth quarter improvement was driven by increases in both front room and back room categories resulting from the rollout of our custom mix and price optimization strategies, the strengthening of our merchandising capabilities and the impact of our rapidly growing global sourcing capabilities. We continue to be pleased with the strides that we've made in improving our gross profit rate, which has increased 335 basis points in the past three years.
Through our custom mix rollouts, we completed 163 upgrades during the quarter. We continue to improve our category sales and margin rate performance in Hard Parts as a result of our increased availability and continued strength in our Commercial business. Our sales and margins in accessories also improved in the quarter and continued to benefit from our new global sourcing capability.
During the fourth quarter, we continued to improve our parts availability through the addition of eight HUB stores. Our delivery HUB network is at 176, providing multiple daily deliveries to 2,300 stores, in addition to our 31 PDQs.
In 2010, our DC productivity improved double-digits over 2009 due to the continued focus on labor standards and productivity initiatives. Our adjusted accounts payable to inventory ratio increased significantly from 61.2% to 71% at the end of fourth quarter. Our increase in AP ratio continues to be driven by more favorable payment terms, supply chain financing and the timing of inventory purchases, while our owned inventory decreased by $94 million versus 2009, while we continue to increase the amount of inventory throughout our system as inventory per store increased 10% over the fourth quarter of last year.
The customer perception of product availability continues to increase and exceeded our internal expectations for the year. Our superior availability strategy is focused on driving industry-leading parts availability. We continue to be thrilled with the progress of our DIY e-commerce platform, with sequential increases in all key metrics: traffic, conversion rates and sales. We're excited about the completion of the rollout of our business-to-business e-commerce capabilities, with the ability to provide our customers with increased convenience and a better experience through our new online capability. Our B2B capability gives us confidence that we continue to drive strong Commercial sales growth by strengthening our competitive position and enabling us to do business with more customers and larger bay garage customers.
In the fourth quarter, AI's revenue grew 33%, driven by the net addition of 38 stores over the past 12 months and a positive comp performance.
Overall, our fourth quarter, as well as 2010, was very successful for our team, and I'm thrilled by the strategic and financial progress we've made as we focus on providing superior availability.
Now let me turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Mike Norona, to review our financial results.
Michael Norona
Thanks, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start by thanking all of our talented and dedicated Team Members for their contributions to the financial progress we made in our fourth quarter and for fiscal 2010. I plan to cover the following topics with you this morning: one, provide some financial highlights from our 2010 fourth quarter; two, put our fourth quarter results into context with both our full year performance and the key financial dimensions of our transformation over the past three years; and three, provide you with our annual financial outlook for 2011.
As a reminder, our fiscal 2009 results included the impact of store divestitures, which decreased diluted earnings per share by $0.03 during the fourth quarter last year and $0.17 for fiscal 2009. I will speak about our year-over-year results versus 2009 on a comparable operating basis, excluding the impact of 2009 store divestitures, to provide a more transparent and relevant comparison. We have provided both GAAP and comparable operating results in our earnings release.
Looking at our fourth quarter, we were very pleased with our strong end to the year, with earnings per diluted share of $0.57 versus $0.39 last year, a 46% increase or a 58% increase on a GAAP basis. For the full year, our earnings per diluted share increased 32% on a comparable basis to $3.95, which was on top of a 14% increase in 2009. On a GAAP basis, our diluted earnings per share increased 40% over 2009.
Our comparable store sales increased 8.9% during the fourth quarter, which was on top of a 2.4% comp increase during the fourth quarter 2009, representing an 11.3% two-year comp store sales increase. Our fourth quarter comps were driven by our 12th consecutive double-digit comp increase in Commercial, our seventh quarter out of the last eight quarters of positive DIY comps and strong online sales.
For the year, our comp store sales increased 8%, with total sales increasing 9.5% to over $5.9 billion. As Kevin mentioned, our gross profit rate increased 147 basis points versus 2009 and continues to be driven by improved merchandising and pricing capabilities, improved parts availability and supply chain efficiencies. The 147 basis point increase was on top of a 78 basis point increase in gross profit last year in the fourth quarter 2009.
For the full year, our gross profit rate increased 113 basis points and now stands at a record high of 50%. This is a significant achievement, given the strong growth of our Commercial business, which now represents 34% of our 2010 sales versus 32% in 2009.
Our SG&A rate of 42.8% increased 20 basis points versus the fourth quarter of 2009, primarily due to higher incentive compensation resulting from our strong 2010 performance compared to our soft fourth quarter of 2009 combined with the deliberate decision to pull forward in 2011 expenses in Commercial and availability into our fourth quarter as we highlighted during our third quarter call. However, these increases were almost entirely offset by expense leverage in our fixed-cost structure as a result of our strong fourth quarter comp sales increase of 8.9%. For the full year, our SG&A rate increased to 40.1%, a 13 basis point increase versus fiscal 2009.
Our operating income increased 38% versus the fourth quarter of 2009, and our operating income rate increased 127 basis points to 6.6%. Our full year operating income increased 22% versus fiscal 2009. Our operating income rate increased to 9.9% of sales for fiscal 2010, which represents 100 basis point increase versus 2009 on a comparable operating basis.
Free cash flow through the year was a record $466.4 million, which represents a $56.5 million increase over last year. This increase was primarily due to our strong growth in net income and reduced owned inventory. Our accounts payable to inventory ratio increased to 71% from 61.2% in 2009 as part of our continued efforts to reduce our net owned inventory, which decreased $94 million versus 2009.
Our consistent and sequential improvements in our operating and financial performance over the past three years, along with our disciplined approach to managing our capital investments, reinforce our commitment to accelerate growth, improve profitably and drive shareholder value. We will continue to measure our financial performance based on these three dimensions. Our commitment to growing our business is reflected by our 8% increase in comp sales in 2010 and industry-leading sales per store, which grew 6.4% to $1.7 million.
Our sales per store have increased $170,000 over the past three years. Our ability to grow profitability is marked by consistent and continued gross profit expansion and an increased operating income rate, which grew 113 basis points and 100 basis points, respectively. Over the past three years, our gross profit rate and operating income rate have expanded by 335 basis points and 130 basis points, respectively.
As we look at our ability to drive shareholder value, we are pleased with our 240 basis point increase in ROIC to 17.5% over 2009, a 44% increase in economic profit added over the past 12 months and our 2010 record free cash flow of $466 million. Over the past three years, our ROIC has grown 380 basis points, and our free cash flow has doubled. Our performance was also recognized externally in 2010, with our uprates by Moody's and S&P bringing us to full investment-grade status.
During the fourth quarter, we repurchased 2.4 million shares for $157.8 million at an average price of $66.71. That brought our total share repurchases for 2010 to 13 million shares for $633.9 million at an average price of $48.67. Additionally, during the first quarter of 2011, we repurchased 1.9 million shares for $121.6 million at an average price of $62.72. These repurchases reflect our views of our low valuation and our internal confidence in our company's ability to grow profitability and to create long-term shareholder value. As we stated in our press release, the company's Board of Directors authorized a new share repurchase program.
Overall, 2010 marked our third year of improved financial and operational performance. While our performance in 2010 was definitely buoyed by favorable weather patterns and strong industry dynamics, the strategic choices we have made through our investments and the superior execution of our team played a significant role and have allowed us to gain market share and position our company for long-term growth and success.
Turning to fiscal 2011, we estimate our EPS will range from $4.60 to $4.80 per share and reflects the share repurchases up to the time of this release. Our outlook estimates an average share count of approximately $82 million of outstanding diluted shares.
Now I'd like to provide you with the key financial assumptions implied in our annual financial outlook. In 2011, we will continue to expand our store base and anticipate new store openings for both Advance and Autopart International brands to be approximately 130 to 140 stores. Our focus on service leadership and superior availability will fuel continued growth in our industry-leading sales per store. We expect comp sales to grow in the low to mid-single-digits driven by strong Commercial growth and the resurgence of DIY. We expect our gross profit rate to continue to expand, however, at a much more moderate pace. We will continue to reap the benefits of our previous investments and merchandising capabilities, supply chain and availability, including areas such as global sourcing. However, we expect some headwinds to margin from supply chain investments to fuel superior availability as well as some potential inflationary headwinds in certain commodities that will constrain gross profit expansion.
Turning to our cost structure. Differentiation will require continued investments in the areas of service leadership and superior availability. We have demonstrated over the past three years that investing in the right initiatives can deliver solid growth and returns as evidenced by our strong operational and financial performance, and we are committed to the same discipline as we embark on differentiation. That said, we expect SG&A dollar growth per store to continue to decelerate in 2011 from 2010, driven by cost savings in areas of labor management, operational efficiencies and variability in store performance. These savings will somewhat offset our 2011 investment spend and will result in our SG&A leveraging at a lower level of comp store sales.
We also expect capital expenditures to increase in 2010 to a range of $275 million to $300 million, principally driven by supply chain investments as part of our superior availability. These investments include new technology such as a new warehouse management system that will take us to the next level of enhanced availability and supply chain productivity and capacity investments including a new distribution center in Remington, Indiana, required to meet our future growth needs.
With our strong fourth quarter, where we accelerated our market share growth and customer scores, we expected our first quarter 2011 to build on that momentum. While we do not provide quarterly outlooks, we have gotten off to a significantly slower start than we anticipated. We know weather has impacted the start, and we continue to monitor other drivers. We now anticipate first quarter comp growth could be flat to low single-digits, which could constrain our first quarter earnings. It is early enough in the year where we can adjust our plans as we learn more. I would also like to remind you that our first and third quarters represent the most challenging comparisons on a two-year basis, and both were significantly benefited by favorable weather patterns in 2010. We continue to believe the long-term industry dynamics are still in place. We have factored all of this into our annual EPS outlook.
In closing, Advance Auto Parts has been focused on becoming more competitive within our industry, and we are pleased with our progress. We are focused on becoming differentiated and a fully integrated service model. Ultimately, we will win with our customers through service leadership and superior availability. We expect to continue to build upon the momentum of the previous three years and we'll continue to be guided by meeting the needs of our customers and measure our financial progress through growth, profitability and value creation. Our talented team will continue to propel us forward and ultimately help us reach our full potential.
Operator, we are now ready for questions.
Question-and-Answer Session
[Operator Instructions] Our first question today is from Gary Balter with Credit Suisse.
Gary Balter - Crédit Suisse AG
On the gross margin, you mentioned in the press release and on the call the gross margin moderation. Can you talk about the drivers that you still have? Because obviously, you still have the supply chain opportunities. You still have some of the price optimization. Where are you if you had to put yourself on 100%, kind of at a 100%? Are you at 50% level, 75% level on some of those?
Kevin Freeland
Yes. Gary, this is Kevin. The gross margin calculation for us, there's over a dozen components that we take a look at. There is, as you mentioned, price optimization, the global sourcing, supply chain efficiency, category management shrink, the mix of front room and back room, DIY Commercial, so a fairly complex interaction. And any one moment over the last three years, some number of them were headwinds and others were tailwinds. As we look out into next year, we are continuing to have tailwinds in areas like price optimization that is moving to our Commercial business, the global sourcing that's expanding. But we're also beginning to make investments in areas like supply chain, which are long-term tailwinds, but short-term, opening up a new distribution center will impact the immediate numbers. So I think long term, we're bullish that we can continue to enhance margins, but we'll have a materially diminished rate in 2011.
Gary Balter - Crédit Suisse AG
Can you talk a bit more about the investments you're making in supply chain and what you envision that will provide for you?
Kevin Freeland
Sure. Two things: one, as Mike mentioned, we're opening a distribution center in Remington, Indiana, which will bring the fleet of full-sized DCs from nine, including AI, to 10, and we're putting into that facility a new warehouse management system, which is a material impact on our IT spend for the year. And essentially, we've not opened a new distribution center a number of years despite the increase in store count and the comp increases that we've had. That new facility will essentially allow us to keep up with the growth of the business.
Our next question is from Matthew Fassler with Goldman Sachs.
Matthew Fassler - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
I want to ask a question about your cost structure. Can you give us a sense, as you look at 2010 retrospectively, the amount of SG&A that you think was discretionary related to performance? You talked about incentive comp for the fourth quarter in general and how that influences your leverage point for 2011. And any color on where that leverage point might be would also be helpful.
Michael Norona
Matt, it's Mike. So turning to 2010, I think what we said is really, 2010 kind of finished three years as we've built up capabilities, and we've been investing in the business and things like Commercial and our availability strategies. And what we said in 2010 is that our SG&A dollar growth and our SG&A per store would start to decelerate. The growth would decelerate. We actually saw that. So if you look at 2009, I think our SG&A per store was roughly 8.1%, and last year, it was 6.7%, if you see where we finished up the year. So we actually did exactly what we said we were going to do. And I would anticipate -- and SG&A in the fourth quarter came in pretty well exactly where we thought it would be. We were anniversary-ing, as I said in the Q3 call, incentive comps from 2009. And then with our strong comp in 2010, that was about an 80 basis points difference in incentive comp. So if you back that out, our SG&A came in roughly where we thought it would be in Q4 2010. Turning to 2011, we anticipate -- first of all, we're still going to have to invest in the business. We're still growing in Commercial. We still are building out availability in some of the areas that Kevin talked about. However, we see opportunities, savings opportunities in areas like goods not for resale, occupancy, improving the variability in our store performance, our being able to leverage some of our labors from some of the initiatives that Tammy has talked about before about our customer-driven labor model. And we anticipate our SG&A growth will again slow from 2010 and 2011. And I anticipate that our SG&A per store will grow in a range of roughly 2% to 4% versus where it grew last year at about 6.7%.
Matthew Fassler - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
And some of the variability between the 2% and the 4% depend on sales as it relates to incentive comp and paying out your Team Members?
Michael Norona
Yes, that's exactly it. I mean, I'd love for it to be at the high end of that range because our sales came in better than we thought. So that picks up our variable. It picks our discretionary, and it picks up our investments. And we don't break that out, but we try not to predict. And I think that gives you a good enough range. But you'll see from that, that will allow us to leverage in a much lower comp level than we did this year.
Matthew Fassler - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
If you think about the cadence of expense growth, last year, was unusually high, I think, in Q1, as you made some investments and obviously, had a very good sales number and then again in Q4, given the incentive comp that you just cited. Should we think about the year-on-year growth in SG&A reflecting those comparisons? In other words, as you cycle very big spending, you might be able to have it up at the low end of that range as opposed to other quarters when it might be middle or high end of that range?
Michael Norona
Yes, this is what I would tell you, Matt. I would expect that our growth, so I gave you kind of that range of 2% to 4%, I would expect a little bit more growth in the first half of the year and a little bit less growth in the second half of the year.
Matthew Fassler - Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
More growth in the first half of the year?
Michael Norona
More growth, higher growth in the first half of the year because you got the annualization of what we did in the back half and less growth in the back half of the year.
Our next question is from Scot Ciccarelli with RBC Capital Markets.
Scot Ciccarelli - RBC Capital Markets, LLC
Intuitively, it makes a lot of sense that rising gas prices, the rising SARs on the headwinds for the company, and frankly, the whole industry. I also know you guys are incredibly analytical, so I was just wondering if you've been able to quantify the kind of impact you're expecting from either those variables, if you've been able to find any kind of correlations that you think you can kind of point to at sizing the impact?
Darren Jackson
Scot, this is Darren. The truth is we look in many different places. If you look out to NPD, they use many of those variables. And if you're just to use what they think the world will be in 2011, they think the market will grow another, and this is total market, another 6%. And so they factor in everything from where unemployment is to revolving credit, to SARs, projected SARs' growth to miles driven. And they all factor in there. But at the end of the day, what you recognize is – theirs too, is just a guess in terms of where it can be. I think if you actually looked across our industry, we all guessed wrong in 2010. It was actually much stronger. And weather did play a part in that, as we look to 2011, the way we're looking at it is the structural pieces of the industry they have not changed. I mean, the cars are getting older. You know what, we may see SARs go to 12.5 million this year. That is a small increase in terms of the overall cars out on the road today. We don't think scrappage rates are going to change a ton in terms of the marketplace. And gas, we do know it's probably -- from a DIY point of view, I think we're up $0.50 a gallon as we sit here today. We know from history, that will cut into pieces of our business today. But I think those are all different types of crosswinds that we have in any one year. The weather that we're experiencing right now is, on the one hand, it is cutting into our business. On the other hand, it is actually building the wear and tear on those cars that should show up in the shops, in our shops later in the year.
Scot Ciccarelli - RBC Capital Markets, LLC
If you kind of look at the comp performance between yourselves and your major competitors, they've been virtual mirrors of one another over the last eight quarters. And when I kind of look at that and then I look at all the investments you guys have made into your own business, how do you evaluate the changes that you've made, I mean, outside the comp? Because obviously, everyone is doing pretty well right now or have been doing pretty well over the last two years.
Darren Jackson
So Scot, let me just say I appreciate that question. It's an excellent one. The things that I pay attention to, and I'll use one example so we can get other questions, is when you look at our focus on the Commercial business, naturally, the headlines get 12 quarters in a row of double-digit comp store growth, which is fantastic. The things we don't publish is that, that I pay attention to, is that our customer satisfaction scores. And if you imagine, the net promoter score over the last two years has risen a full 10 points, and to rise a full 10 points in Commercial customer satisfaction says to me that in a business that, quite frankly, that we were a little late to the party to in terms of having some of the national brands, a little late to the party to in terms of B2B capabilities, online capabilities, a party that we were a little late to in terms of a Commercial sales force investment, to move Commercial customer satisfaction a full 10 points. I don't think you can find other examples in the industry of moving the customer perception that fast in that short period of time. And it's not lost on us that in our SG&A line, if you said what's making up that difference, by and large, it's our investment in people because our hypothesis is over the long term, if we win the customer relationship part of the business and we see those metrics moving in the right place, that will continue to grow, when the market finds its way back to where it used to be in terms of growth trajectory.
Michael Norona
Yes. And Scot, I would just build on Darren's point. Two things, when you pin in on just the SG&A line, that's correct. But when you look at SG&A, it's what you're spending today and the investments you'll get out over the long term. So in some cases, we've invested ahead, i.e., building a dot-com site. That's the gift that we're giving for a long time. And then the other one is others of our competitors have spent dollars, but they're spent it in different buckets. So I would just ask you to go back and look at where others spent capital dollars or acquisitions as well.
Our next question is from Tony Cristello with BB&T Capital.
Anthony Cristello - BB&T Capital Markets
Darren, you talked and referred to getting to the 12% EBIT margins in after several years or a few years down the road, can you maybe bridge the gap between where we are today? And is that totally a function of productivity in getting that to the $2 million level? Or at some point, do you then get to see that SG&A as it decelerates become more of a leveragable or more of a contributor to sort of ultimately get to that EBIT number?
Darren Jackson
Yes, Tony, terrific question. Again, it's both, Tony, that the way that we see the story unfolding as we move towards $2 million a store is that there's so much fixed cost in this business that if you can drive that top line, as you begin to -- I don't know that I love the word optimize, but it is a optimize the operating model. So I think we just finished last quarter rolling out B2B in terms of the Commercial space to all of our stores. So less than 1% of our sales today in the B2B online space, and actually we're just finishing rolling out, is very low. I think if you look across some of the competitors that have been out there in the industry for many years with that online capability, it's probably closer to 20%. So there is a benefit that's ahead of us, both in terms of how we can grow the business and how that will help us leverage and optimize the business going forward. There are other examples in terms of -- we're now past the halfway point in terms of rolling out our Commercial wave program. And we're going back in now that we have two years of understanding in terms of those Commercial models to say, you know, is there a better way, both to increase the service levels to our Commercial customers and optimize the profit formula. Those things will take on the form of as we look at the different transportation models, store-to-store, that are still ahead of us, too. So it's not as if the whole story is about it's just about growing the top line. No, we're very passionate about it. Or it's not a story of just how do we go in and remediate an SG&A line. But if you think about it, what we're trying to balance is that achievement of a service level above anybody else's in terms of who we are and delivering growth through that in translating it into the operating margin growth that's ahead of us.
Anthony Cristello - BB&T Capital Markets
I noticed that the number of new AI units that are going to be opened up this year is down from where you opened last year. Has AI reached sort of a breathing point? And is that less of a contributor to sort of where you see, directionally, the productivity going?
Kevin Freeland
Yes, Tony, this is Kevin. Well, they had a significant expansion last year and expanded into the Florida market. We're going to have that team concentrate this year, integration of a number of back office functions with Advance. We see material profit enhancement from that. So they're, basically, going to go through much of what Advance went through over the last three years, highly concentrated into this year.
Our next question is from Alan Rifkin with Bank of America.
Alan Rifkin - BofA Merrill Lynch
Darren, with incentive comp having such a profound effect in the fourth quarter, could you maybe tell us what the process will be for accruing incentive comp in 2011? And will it differ at all from 2010 so that there is a more, possibly, timely booking of this expense?
Michael Norona
I'll take that question. So first of all, our practices in 2011 will be very consistent with 2010. We pay on growth. That's what we use. So if you remember, we changed our comp programs in 2009, and we started paying on growth. So when you're growing, and we love to pay out more dollars to our Team Members and share that when they're growing our business. What happened in Q4 is that we did an 8%, 9% comp, so we paid for growth. And we were anniversary-ing Q4 of 2009 where we didn't grow as much. Remember, we did a 2%, 4% comp. so we had that impact, so your anniversary-ing large comp with smaller comp, bigger bonus dollars. And the other impact that happened in Q4 of 2009 is we had annual programs. So what happens is you accrue those annual programs. And if you remember, we had a significant fall off in volume in the 2009 Q4, so that was another part that impacted us. So I would say that was more a onetime thing than thinking about how we're accruing going forward.
Alan Rifkin - BofA Merrill Lynch
If I could just follow-up there if you don't mind. But while the comp of 8% and 9% was certainly above your annual number of 8%, the comp dollars in Q4, and please correct me if I'm wrong, are the lowest of any quarter? If that indeed is true, why is there such a disproportionate amount of the compensation booked in Q4?
Michael Norona
Yes, these are annual programs as well. So we have annual programs and we have store programs that pay out monthly.
Alan Rifkin - BofA Merrill Lynch
So SG&A dollar growth per store, you said it's certainly going to accelerate in 2011 versus 2010, But certainly the comp difference that you're forecasting of low to mid singles compared to 8% is a pretty significant difference. If you hit the midpoint of your comp guidance for 2011, can you maybe just shed a little bit more color on what you think the SG&A dollar growth per store may, in fact, come out to be?
Michael Norona
Yes. Hey, Alan, can I correct you? What I said in my remarks and what I said earlier to one of the questions is last year, our SG&A per store grew at 6.7%. And this year, we expect that to decelerate the growth, decelerate in the 2% to 4% range. So actually, our dollar growth will actually decelerate in 2011. It won't increase.
Alan Rifkin - BofA Merrill Lynch
Well, it will still increase but at a lower rate.
Michael Norona
Yes, that's right. It will increase but at a lower rate. So 2% to 4% versus the 6.7% that we saw this year -- or 2010.
Our next question is from Dan Wewer with Raymond James.
Daniel Wewer - Raymond James & Associates
Darren, I just wanted to talk a bit more about AI and how it fits in with the long-term Commercial strategy. As I recall, AI generates about $25,000 in sales per week per location, so a little bit more than twice your Commercial average in your Advance stores. But as I recall, the operating margin is pretty skinny, and perhaps that's what's leading to the consolidation in the back office. But can you talk about long term? Do you view AI just remaining essentially a separate brand? Or do you envision at some point beginning to integrate it into the capabilities of the Advance-branded commercial program?
Darren Jackson
Dan, maybe a little bit of context. So in 2010, we opened 40 AI stores, Kevin?
Kevin Freeland
Darren Jackson
Yes. Part of what we were testing in 2010, we actually went much further away than the whole market, Dan. And what we were testing is does the value proposition work? And some of the hardest work of doing business is to figure out, will the consumer actually buy. We know that business has been very successful in its home markets. And to be candid, we were very pleased in terms of how that business performed outside of its own market. So a lot of the work that we've done over the last couple of years is, do we test -- how do we test it in other type of markets. We tested the store within a store. I'm not confident that that's a winner because it just creates another level of complexity that's hard to run within a box. And as we look at the future, a way to think about it is we still see a world where AI is standing separate in terms of the customer-facing activities. But there are many back-office activities that candidly if we're going to grow it faster, it can grow faster on the rails. So think about supply chain, think about some of the merchandising synergies. Today, we even have separate finance, and by and large, we have been operating it really at arms length, and now we see the opportunity to save. If we were to integrate this -- and some of it is about cost savings for sure, but I would say the majority of it is it allows us to position that business to grow more rapidly in different markets in the future. Do you have anything to add, Kevin?
Kevin Freeland
The only thing I would say is you made a comment, do we envision this as a separate brand or becoming a rebranded as Advance. There's numerous differences in the models. And we're running a model that we hope would be 50-50 DIY Commercial on Advance, and it's 100% Commercial on the AI side. We have a business that is largely branded for Advance, and it's almost entirely private label for AI. And the differences continue. As we look at AI as they went into the Florida market and other markets they've expanded into in the last several years, they're complementary to our business. It's not something that is cannibalistic. So I would concur with Darren, we have had pronounced margin expansion for Advance, and a pronounced margin expansion for AI would have a comparable positive impact. We've been able to significantly reduce owned inventory. A significant reduction in their owned inventory would be positive as well. So I think it's taking a good brand with a truly differentiated model and allowing it to benefit from some of the tail winds that we've been able to create for ourselves on the Advance side.
Daniel Wewer - Raymond James & Associates
Other retailers that have a similar customer profile as yours have been highlighting the elimination of the tax refund, anticipation loans as a headwind in January sales. But as the IRS begins to cut those checks in February, the sales dollars should come back into consumer spending. Do you think that the elimination of those RALs has had any impact on your business thus far in the quarter, and as a result, this quarter might turn out to be back-loaded?
Michael Norona
Here's what I would say, Dan. Jim and myself, we were traveling last couple of weeks to stores. I was Visiting with Commercial customers. And when you listen to the teams out in the field, I mean they're actually so much closer to what's going on, and they would say in January, one of the challenges that they're facing is just that they're just not seeing the level of tax money, both in the Commercial accounts and showing up in our stores. So weather is a big piece of it. If you said to me, tell me what the changes year-over-year, I can't tell you what the changes, anecdotally. That is something we're hearing in the marketplace. But like weather, it will come back. And so we tend to view it as a timing issue at this point versus something that's structurally different.
Our next question is from Kate McShane with Citi Investment Research.
Kate McShane - Citigroup Inc
I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the inflationary headwinds that you had mentioned in your prepared comments and what your view will be on raising prices and what prohibits you maybe from passing it all through?
Kevin Freeland
Essentially, if you just look across all industries, the oil prices are rising, and well-documented price of steel is rising and well-documented. And obviously, we have a number of products that are based on those two commodities. The key question for us is to what extent will we be able to have those cost increases reflected in the marketplace. And that's unknown. Quite frankly, we're pretty early in the cycle. Some of the products that we have have relatively long lead times. And today, we see that as part of the deceleration of margin growth. But it's very difficult to predict at this point just what the nature of it is. And certainly to the extent at which those prices are reflected in the marketplace, it would be margin neutral and would actually enhance sales. And if you only have to look back a few years ago, that was the situation we were in as an industry, that certain amount of our top growth was actually being driven by inflation of the products.
Kate McShane - Citigroup Inc
And if I could go back to a previous question that was asked about some of the external factors that are impacting your business. Do you have a figure for what U.S. SAR has to be in our order to start dragging down the average age of cars? And how do used car sales come into play with this in the calculation of the average age of cars?
Darren Jackson
I think the arithmetic is, I'll get this close, but not perfect, but I think we're scrapping about 14 million cars a year. So I think if we build 14,000,001, we're starting to change some of that age dynamic in the industry, Kate. And you just have to go back, what, four years ago and look at the new cars, I think it's 2002 to 2006, we're traveling at about a 17 million car rate. We're traveling at a rate, still depending on whose estimates you believe this year, anywhere from 12.5 million to 13.5 million. So there's still a pretty precipitous decline in terms of the new cars coming online.
And our final question today comes from Aram Rubinson from Nomura.
Aram Rubinson
One, I guess, on sales, and then, two, on the margin. At least kind of back of the envelope calculations would suggest that the spread between the DIY and the Commercial comp kind of widened out during the fourth quarter. Wondering if you can kind of verify that or put a little bit of a range around the Commercial of the DIY? And then curious into Q1, whether that spread is, in fact, also kind of moving more towards Commercial?
Michael Norona
Yes, maybe I'll start that, it's Mike, and then I'll turn it over to Jim to give you some insights. But we don't break out our Commercial and DIY. What I will tell you is that we enjoyed our 12th consecutive Commercial comp, and we enjoyed strong DIY comps building on I think it's positive seven out of the last eight quarters. But we don't break out because, as we've shared before, we're looking to build an integrated model. And while we have specific initiatives for each of the different customer groups, we think about it as more integrated. Jimmie, do you want to give some color?
Jimmie Wade
Yes. The only thing I would add is that in the fourth quarter and in the first quarter, we really haven't seen any change in the trend between the two businesses in either case. So I don't think what you're seeing there is really showing up in the numbers.
Aram Rubinson
And then just to follow up on the gross margin. There are elements of the gross margins which are, of course, benefits the programs that you're instituting, and then on the other hand, there's always some investing that's inside that line item. As you move your accounts payable up, I'm wondering if that yields any pressure on the gross margins over time as your mix, of course, moves up? We've not seen any of those things affect pressure on the margins over time. But I guess I'm trying to get a sense of the balance of growth. How much is kind of new incremental programs that are benefiting and then whether you're kind of reinvesting that growth in some things that maybe either in price or in getting the payables in terms to where you want? Just trying to understand the balance between the investment and the, call it, the harvesting.
Kevin Freeland
Again, we had a sizable increase in the AP ratio last year, the largest we've ever had, and quite friendly, the largest of any one in our industry. And margins went up over 100 basis points. So we've not seen a correlation between improvement in payment terms and margin. That's essentially not the way the program works. So I don't believe -- I do believe that, that AP ratio will continue to grow over time, and that's a goal of the company. And I don't believe that what we do, in fact, have margin headwinds that doesn't appear to be one of them.
Thank you. And that's all the time we have for questions. I would now like to turn the call back to management for any final comments.
Joshua Moore
Thank you, Wendy, and thanks to our audience for participating in our fourth quarter earnings conference call. If you have any additional questions, please call me, Joshua Moore, at (952) 715-5076. Reporters, please contact Shelly Whitaker at (540) 561-8452. And that concludes our call. Thank you.
Thank you. That concludes our call for today. You may now disconnect. Thank you for joining us.
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It is situated in the valley of the Beli Lom river. It is 67 km far from Rousse and 49km far from Shoumen, 130 km far from Varna and 36km far from Targovishte.
The attractive tourist objects situated on the municipality's territory - the Voden hunting reserve, the Pchelina area, the archaeological complex Sboryanovo and the Sveshtarska Grobnitsa (a sepulchre) in it, the remains of the antique town of Abritus and the Ethnographical Museum in the village of Pobit Kamak - are a potential for attracting investments into tourism, which is not a traditional branch of the region's economy.
Text link: RAZGRAD from VisitToBulgaria.com RAZGRAD from VisitToBulgaria.com
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I thought the interviews with "Mr.Highball" & Vijay Mallya (sp) in the last two issues were fantastic. Straight talk about the state of the industry/marketing and not a hint of being "dumbed down" for the readers. I noticed a crop of new(er) writers such as Ed Bates & Tim Forbes that are coming along really well with topics germaine to here and now. There seem to be less fluff pieces or pieces that could have doubled as advertising. In fact, I haven't seen those in the last 6 issues.
I get the reponses pairing the treatment on the forum with "why should I support this mag"? For me, they are two entirely seperate issues and staying away from the mag due to issues on the forum seems like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I won't finger-wag at folks who take this path - our purchases are our own buisiness. But for me, the mag has improved tremendously starting with the new contributors and a willingness to tackle current issues such as Japanese whisky, campaign for real whisky etc.. Liza P did a very interesting piece on why whisky isn't advertised to women and how this may not last much longer (piece was 2-3 issues ago). I noticed that at my last visit to Spirit of Toronto, about 1/4 to 1/3 of the customers were women - up from 10% 5 years ago. Another example of whiskymag running articles about current issues in the whisky world.


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Motoring through life in his Hupmobiles
Bill Van Dierendonck loves bringing these classic cars back to life
PRINCETON — Bill Van Dierendonck's love of Hupmobiles started early while growing up in Kewanee.
Van Dierendonck worked at a garage in Kewanee cleaning and fixing cars. One day, he was able to drive a Hupmobile and fell in love with the car. He told himself he would like to own one of these cars some day.
That day came many years later when he was living in Princeton and found a 1923 Hupmobile in Lacon that was restored in 1972. He also has spent almost 26 years to restore a 1940 Hupmobile, since he follows strict restoration standards.
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Welcome to the brand new CILIP website
With a clean design, improved structure and straightforward navigation it's now easier than ever to find the information you need and access member benefits. We have been working hard, along with our Branches and Groups, to create the first step in a series of exciting new developments to our website. We hope you enjoy, please do send us your feedback.
Key features of the new website:
- A fresh, clean, new look.
- Clearer more user-friendly navigation.
- New approach to writing content.
- Improved 'my profile' area.
- Greater flexibility to enable the site to meet the needs of future users.
- Built using Drupal, an open source content management system.
Latest News
CILIP welcomes Welsh Minister's statement on the value of public libraries
CILIP Cymru Wales welcomes the statement on public libraries made by Welsh Government Minister for Culture and Sport, John Griffiths which acknowledges the role libraries play in delivering government policy and the contribution they make to local communities through learning opportunities, free access to digital services and as safe public places.
CILIP VLE launched
CILIP's new Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) has now gone live to members.
Reading ranking stagnation spells trouble for UK
The UK has made little progress in global reading tables, ranking 23rd place out of 65 countries.
Latest Events
LMS Suppliers Showcase - Spring
Our annual Library Management Systems (LMS) Suppliers Showcase gives you the opportunity to talk to the experts on how you can get the most out of your library management system.
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This brand new Open Access Executive Briefing will take place on Tuesday 18 March 2014. Full programme details will be annouced soon.
eCopyright Executive Briefing
We are pleased to annouce that the 2014 eCopyright Executive Briefing will take place on Tuesday 1 April. More details to follow.


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CONTEST - A Coin Bridge to History
Date: 11/16/2009
CONTEST - A Coin Bridge to History. A Contest leading your students up to the period of the Constantinian coins they are studying, by using Coin and other images to bring out various famous (and less famous)events in the Ancient Past.
Date: 11/16/2009
1) This coin is called a "Siglos"... a) give the plural of this word, e.g. 4 .......? b)It demonstrates the huge breadth of the ancient Persian Empire, which included a Royal Road which ran from Susa and Persepolis in the East to ....... on the western edges of the Empire. Looking at a map it is not difficult to see the next step westward - In 490 BC the Persian King c) whose name was .......; invaded Greece, but d) was defeated at the battle of .....?
Date: 11/16/2009
2) However in 480 BC, the Persians, who were by then ruled by a) King ......?, defeated the Greeks at b) the battle of ....... The Persians conquered Athens, but were defeated later that year by the Greek fleet at the naval battle c) of ........ ?
Date: 11/16/2009
3)Philip II of Macedon was the father of a very famous son...a) but who was the mother of this son.........? b) In what year did Philip die...? and c) how old was he....?
The Great one
Date: 11/16/2009
4) In a short time, Alexander conquered most of the then known world. amongst the battles he won a) in 333 BC at ......? and b) in 331 BC at .........? This battle meant basically that the whole of the c) ..... Empire fell into his hands. On this coin Alexander is personified as d)......... wearing a lion headdress.
Date: 11/16/2009
5) After the death of Alexander a) which occurred in......? b) His Empire was divided among his close companions and generals, who are known as the .....? c) Give the full name of his general who founded a dynasty ruling Egypt as ......(three part title...for example........ Antiochos IV Epiphanes). d) Who was the famous descendant of this dynasty who fell in love with Julius Caesar and had a child by him.........?
Date: 11/16/2009
6)The change in the balance of power between Greece and Rome is evidenced in this coin. It shows the then King of Macedon and his two sons as captives of the Romans. a) what was the name of this defeated Macedonian King ....? b) What was the name of the battle where the Romans won control over Macedonia......? c) Was this coin minted under the Roman Empire or the Roman Republic?
Date: 11/24/2009
7) A very famous coin known as "Eid Mar" shown here - a) what do those words mean? b) who minted this coin? c) what act does it commemorate?
Date: 11/24/2009
8) This coin is a Legionary Denarius which was minted to pay soldiers during a power struggle/ civil war. a)Which general had these minted? b)Did he win the war or was he defeated? c) Name the decisive sea battle in 31 BC?
Date: 11/24/2009
9) This man founded the Julio-Claudian Dynasty of the Rome Empire.... a) what was the name under which he ruled; b) what was the name he used prior to becoming Emperor; c)who was the 2nd Julio Claudian Emperor; d)( 2 answers = 2 points) what relationship did the 1st Emperor have to the 2nd Emperor - he was his.......? and his.....?
Only in AlexandriaSS
Date: 11/24/2009
10) This Emperor considered himself very creative and musical. As the last Julio Claudian ruler, a) who was he?; b) who was his mother? c) who was his step father? This wonderful coin minted in Alexandria shows him and on the reverse is a personification of Alexandria wearing not a crown but d) ..........? (2 words)
Date: 11/24/2009
11) a) Domitian was the last Emperor of which Dynasty....? b) who was the founder of that Dynasty? c) The amphitheater they built is today called the ...? d) what great natural disaster struck in the reign of Domitian's brother.......(2 words); and e) which ancient city did that brother deliberately destroy in war...?
Date: 11/24/2009
12) a) which Emperor is this...? b) Whom did he succeed? c) he had a wall constructed at Rome's Northern most frontier, in which province....? d) He was succeeded by his adopted son called ........?
Date: 11/24/2009
13) This Emperor wrote a famous work called a) ....?; b) who was he....? c) what was the name of the lifestyle philosophy he practised...? d) Name his son.......?
Date: 11/25/2009
14)This Emperor who founded a new Dynasty. a)he was called.......(2 words) b) when did he die.....? c) Give the name of the province where he died...? d) One of his sons murdered the other, who was the victim.....? e) this coin shows Hercules killing a famous lion from ?....
Date: 11/25/2009
15) Within the Severan family, there were many women called "Julia" a) shown here is Julia.......? She was the sister of which other Julia b) Julia......? c) her grandson became an Emperor named .......? d) who was the last of the Severan dynasty....?
Date: 12/02/2009
16) a) Who is this Emperor...? b) What is he wearing on his head ( 2 words).... ?. c) What happened at the end of his rule, he ......? d)During his reign, there was a Usurper Emperor in Britain called ..... ? e) This usurper was murdered by his chief minister, who then became another Usurper Emperor called ...?
Date: 12/02/2009
17) This is Constantine the Great. a) who was his father...? b)Where did his father die ( give the Roman name of the city)....? c)Who was Constantine the Great's son by his first wife......?
d) How did he die...? e) Constantine the Great had 3 sons by his 2nd wife. for 3 points / 1 each, give the 3 names of these sons..........?
Date: 12/02/2009
Tie Breaker 1 This young Emperor is the third of his name -a) who is he....? b) he was married to .....? He was murdered around 244 AD. This coin ws minted in Viminacium, c) in which province is that city........? d) What do the 2 animals, on either side of the reverse symbolize.....?
Date: 12/02/2009
Tie Breaker 2
The wife of this Emperor was called Salonina but a) what was his name.......? b) who was his father.....? He issued a series of popular bronze coins well known to young coin collectors for featuring what c) ....? on the reverse. d) How did Salonina die.....? e) Her younger son was executed in which city......... f) what was his name.....?
Date: 12/02/2009
Tie Breaker 3
This Usurper of the Gallo Roman Empire was called a) ...... Before he rebelled, he had been appointed Commander of the Rhine Legions by a genuine Emperor called b)....... who was captured and maltreated by the Persian King called c).......
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Fed by Threads Grand Opening
by Carolyn Classen on Nov. 16, 2012, under Health, LifeI first learned about this unique new store from Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik, who had this to say in his email newsletter:
This is a very cool clothes boutique that will be having a grand opening downtown. I wanted to give you the head's up so you can put it on your calendar. Fed by Threads is a unique textile company that uses a full array of eco-friendly materials in the production of their products. They also use fully compostable & biodegradable cellulose-based mailers to ship their apparel.
Each of those has two adhesive strips so that they can be used twice. The hang tags they use are made from recycled paper. Their office paper is 100% recycled andthen recycled when they are done with it. All of this tends to raise their costs – but the point is that we have a chance to support a retailer who is putting thought into the effect of how it does business in terms of long term environmental impact.
With the sale of each piece of clothing, Fed by Thread will feed 12 emergency meals to the less fortunate. Since beginning this back in May of '12, they've fed over 6,500 meals through a network of 201 food banks across the country.
It's not an overstatement to say that these folks are a unique addition to our community and worth a visit.
From their facebook page:
"Join the mayor of Tucson, Congressman Grijalva, and many others when we will be debuting our shift to ALL-USA-Made designs with sustainable fabrics. There will be food trucks, free dance/yoga classes and a concert/dance party with Baba Marimba playing live afterwards!"
More info: www.fedbythreads.com
435 E. 9th Street Tucson AZ 85705 (NW corner of 3rd Avenue and 9th St.)
Tucson Retail Store: 866.888.4652 & 520.445.8533
What motivates us?
In 2011 In America:16.7 million children in America live in poverty in households that lack food security.
50.1 million Americans lived in food insecurity in 2010.
14.9% of households (17.9 million households) were food insecure.


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Fan di Fendi is the fragrance you just adore to adore. A glamorous chunk of sensual gold you cannot resist. Like a hit refrain, Fan di Fendi is insistent, addictive and irresistible. The ultimate must have for the fan of Fendi! A fragrance of roman sun and electric nights, leather and roses, luxury and seduction.
Opulent. Architectural. Luminous. The most iconic codes and the elegance of the house of Fendi are crystallized in the bottle. The design is an echo of the Forever buckle, present on its iconic Baguette bag, the absolute it-bag since 1997. Precious the black cap recalls the lacquered clasp of the Fendi Peekaboo bag. Timeless and so very Fendi!
Fan di Fendi diffuses roman sun and electrc nights, Leather and Rose luxury and seduction. The fragrance opens on vibrant freshness: a juicy Pear and Blackcurrant accord illuminated by essence of Tangerine from Calabria. A feminine, generous heart blooms with subtle and delicate Damascena Rose and radiantly elegant yellow Jasmine. In the base, a bewitching Leather note adds a sensual thrill to sexy and distinctive Patchouli.


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You're watching...
Across America: Conn. woman dies in parasailing accident
28-year-old fell 200-feet into the ocean when her harness
Aug 16, 2012
You're watching...
28-year-old fell 200-feet into the ocean when her harness
Aug 16, 2012
Also in this playlist...
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Florida the 28 year old woman from Connecticut was -- sailing with her husband -- Pompano Beach -- -- Lauderdale.
And they -- in tandem.
Being pulled by the herself and her harness failed brokerage fell.
A city official says the boat captain reeled in her husband then circled back for the woman.
They found her face down in the water and into cardiac arrest.
The captain perform CPR until -- showed up but doctors pronounced her dead at the hospital police are investigating.
Kentucky six black smoke poured out of -- recycling plant as crews battling huge tire fire.
Folks evacuated to nearby schools and daycare while federal monitors check air quality no word of anybody hurt.
The state environmental officials says that -- it has a history of violations including a lack of fire breaks.
New York.
-- -- -- -- -- Made a surprise visit to some police academy cadets during shooting practice some of the recruits are standing back watching courses -- fire.
And this bird came in landed -- top of one -- recruits had.
What instructors at the troopers would keep the -- at the police academy.
We found its owner and it's part of a fox watch across America.
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Question: WHAT CAN I DO IF MY LANDLORD DESTROYED OR DISPOSED OF MY PERSONAL PROPERTY PRIOR TO 21 DAYS AFTER THE WRIT OF RESTITUTION WAS EXECUTED AND I MADE AN ATTEMPT TO RECOVER IT PRIOR TO THE 21 DAYS EXPIRING?
Under Arizona law, a tenant may recover damages as determined by the court. (A.R.S. § 33-1368E)
If a landlord has disposed or destroyed the property that is subject to a writ of restitution before the 21 day holding period expires, the tenant should attempt to resolve the dispute directly with the landlord. If that fails, the next option is to look to the courts to obtain restitution for the disposed or damaged property under A.R.S. § 33-1368E. Depending on the value of the property it may be possible to file a small claims action. Your local courthouse can provide information about the small claims process and it is always a good idea to consult an attorney to discuss your options.
October 17, 2006


text: Design by Philips Forecast Lighting. The Clybourn Collection offers contemporary lighting that can add a new element to your patios and outdoor spaces. The Clybourn F8550 Outdoor Wall Sconce is wet location rated and available in bronze tdl or graphite finish. Features an etched white and clear glass diffuser. Shown in graphite finish. Note: This open bottom fixture cannot be mounted in inverted position. Material(s): Metal, Glass Dimensions: 5.63"W X 12"H X 5.63"extension Lamp Type: INCANDESCENT Bulbs: 1 X 75W 120V E26 (medium base) incandescent lamp (not included) Listing: UL, WET LOCATION Manufacturer Specifications: Click to download specifications. Philips Forecast LightingFrom the very beginning, Philips Forecast Lighting has focused on developing distinctive and contemporary lighting designs, developed with the benefit of continual customer feedback as well as careful analysis of the home decor trends. Free Shipping. Price Guarantee. Easy Returns. It's good to shop at YLighting.At YLighting, we are so confident that the Clybourn F8550 Outdoor Wall Sconce will make you happy that we offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee and our 100% Price Guarantee. What's more, we also offer Free Shipping on orders over $75 . |


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We stayed here for two nights for a convention. The place was HORRIBLE! Our non-smoking room had so much smoke odor that when we got home our suitcases smelled like they'd been clubbing. Loud music blared from some sort of night club whose entrance is within 25 feet of the front desk. We had NO HOT WATER until late in... More
- Also Known As:
- Holiday Inn Shreveport -i-20-Downtown Hotel Shreveport
- Holiday Inn Shreveport -i-20-Downtown Hotel
- Holiday Inn Shreveport
- Shreveport Holiday Inn
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- Take a virtual tour of the hotel.Click on packages to earn 1,000 free Priority Club points, free breakfast, and free cocktail for every night of your visit!!! The Holiday Inn Hotel Downtown Shreveport has 190 recently remodeled rooms (2006), brand new plush lobby, and a beautiful new exterior look that includes a mural painting of the Shreveport Rose. The Holiday Inn Hotel is a full service hotel located in the heart of downtown Shreveport. We are located within walking distance of Sam's Town and Hollywood Casinos, Shreveport Festival Area, Clyde Fant Bike and Walking Trail, Shreveport Science/ Discovery Center, the downtown Riverfront Pier, the Convention Center, the downtown entertainment district, and the Louisiana Boardwalk. Featuring Red River Restaurant and S'port Bar and Grill, full catering services available, outdoor pool, fitness center, complimentary airport and casino shuttle services (shuttle hours run daily from 7 AM-11 PM and is subject to availability). All rooms equipped with irons and ironing boards, hair dryers, 25 in. TVs with cable TV and pay per view movies, free high speed Internet access, alarm clock radios, coffeemakers, electronic locks on guest room doors, 24hr security, express check in and express check out services. We have recently added three 'honeymoon suites' that have Jacuzzi hot tubs. ... more less
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Your Good Neighbor
With over 3,700 locations, your Good Neighbor may be just minutes from your home. Each Good Neighbor Pharmacy is owned independently and is able to offer the quality products and value pricing of chain stores. The staff will give you the personalized service you've come to expect and deserve.
Your Good Neighbor Pharmacist will help you manage your overall wellness from prescriptions, over the counter medications, home health care to weight loss and over all well-being. Visit GoodNeighborPharmacy.com and get to know your neighbor!
How can I find my local Good Neighbor Pharmacy?
Good Neighbor Pharmacies are there when you need them. There are 21 Good Neighbor Pharmacies in Northern Michigan:
Arfstrom Pharmacy-Sault Ste. Marie Arfstrom Pharmacy Store: Cedarville Bay Shore Pharmacy: Suttons Bay Bellaire Pharmacy Inc.: Bellaire Cadillac Family Pharmacy: Cadillac Central Drug Store: Charlevoix Central Lake Pharmacy: Central Lake Cobbs Street Pharmacy: Cadillac Corner Drug: Frankfort Corner Druggist: Elk Rapids Hillman Pharmacy: Hillman Holihans Drug Store: Evart Kingsley Pharmacy: Kingsley Mesick Pharmacy: Mesick Munson community Health Center Pharmacy: Traverse City Pattie Drug: Baldwin Peteryl Drug: traverse City R & R Prescription Services: Petoskey River Pharmacy: Elk Rapids Sault Community Pharmacy: Sault Ste Marie Sixth Street Drug, Inc.: Traverse City
You can also visit our online store locator to find additional locations near you.


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U.S. Companies Reporting Midmorning EPS, June 4
The following table lists the four U.S. companies that reported quarterly earnings today (end date of the quarter is noted in the last column). Companies are sorted alphabetically by ticker symbol.
Earnings estimates provided by Bloomberg.
TICKER EST SYM COMPANY Q12 Q11 % CHG Q12 % CHG Q/E ======================================================================== CHRS CHARMING SHOPPES 0.16 0.17 -5.9 0.19 -15.8 Apr CONN CONN'S INC 0.35 0.15 133.3 0.33 6.1 Apr CVGW CALAVO GROWERS I 0.30 0.16 87.5 0.45 -33.3 Apr NX QUANEX BUILDING -0.34 0.03 NM -0.08 -325.0 Apr Total number of companies reporting earnings today: 4 * - Company in Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
To contact the reporter on this story: Wendy Soong in New York at at firstname.lastname@example.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alex Tanzi at at email@example.com
Bloomberg reserves the right to edit or remove comments but is under no obligation to do so, or to explain individual moderation decisions.


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Putco, with a wide variety of vehicle accessories offering to the automotive consumer earns significance in aftermarket industry. Its products such as chrome trim, LED lighting, step bars, truck accessories, and stainless steel fender trim are some of the most sought-after parts for its unequaled performance and looks.
Vote on helpful content and promote its author.


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Nike is playing with my heart
Sweatshop enthusiasts and Michael Jordan rectum cleaners NIKE have proven that scientists can recreate the technology unfurled in the classic Back II the Future series. Film buffs will recall that Marty traveled to 2015 to impersonate his loser son into declining Griff's invitation to do a robbery; thus disrupting the space-time-continuum.
Now if only they could replicate the flux capacitor, which we all know is what makes time-travel work:
If you are holding heavy, and have about $75,200 beans to drop on a pair of these limited edition kicks, do it. You only live once, and god only knows how long it will take for them to finally release a hoverboard!
Get with it Mattel!


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Moderators: maverick, Hikin Mike, copeg, markskor, giantbrookie, Snow Nymph
markskor wrote:Trying to lose 10 pounds before summer, so I found a 7 - 8 mile hiking loop here in Sacramento.
They call Sacramento the City of Trees - not much elevation change, so do the bridges..
I give you Sacramento today.
ERIC wrote:Probably not helping the ol' heart rate when you're stopping every 100 yards to take a picture, Mark.
lnl wrote:I road/mountain bike ride weekly. I try to do 100 miles a week.
rlown wrote:lnl wrote:I road/mountain bike ride weekly. I try to do 100 miles a week.
Inl, In your experience, how does a mountain bike regimen work for you when you hit the trail? Cardio or what?
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text: Children's Concert Series Children's Concert Series Each year the ETBU Music Department hosts a Children's Concert featuring the ETBU student and faculty performers. The music selected for these events is chosen for its child-friendly programmability, and for its importance in the total musical development of elementary students. For each concert, educational materials are sent to local music teachers who use this information to enhance student learning and further prepare their students for the event. Students are then invited to submit artwork that is created through the process of learning of the related performance selections. The artwork is then displayed during the concert so the students can enjoy both a visual and auditory experience. (Spring, 2008) Pictures at an Exhibition, by Modeste Moussorgsky Pre-program music: ETBU Saxophone Quartet, Flute Trio, and Brass Quintet Featured Performer, Dr. Randall Sulton, Professor of Music Click here to view samples of the students' interpretations of Pictures at an Exhibition. (Fall, 2008) Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint-Saëns Pre-program music: ETBU Flute Trio and Brass Quintet Featured Performers: ETBU Piano Ensemble, Dr. Randall Sulton, Director Click here to view samples of the students' interpretations of Carnival of the Animals (Fall 2009) Shades of Jazz: A collection of jazz tunes from some of the most well known composers and performers in the genre. Pre-program music: ETBU Brass Choir Featured Performers: The ETBU Jazz Band, Dr. Douglas Lockard, director Click here to view pictures of the event and samples of childrens' artwork that was submitted for the performance. Student artwork was later displayed at the Marshall Visual Arts Center during the Jazz Band's annual fall concert. (Fall 2010) Into the Woods: A Musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. Traci Ledford, Director Dr. Virginia Liles-Boaz, Musical Director Featured Performers: Students and faculty from the music and theatre departments Click here to view pictures of the event and samples of children's artwork that was submitted for the performance. For more information about upcoming Children's Concerts, contact Dr. Eric Branscome. Contact Information: Marilyn Johnson Administrative Secretary School of Fine Arts East Texas Baptist University 1209 North Grove Marshall, TX 75670 903-923-2158 firstname.lastname@example.com Departmental email address: Music Department- firstname.lastname@example.com Music Education Home


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We stayed for a week in that very nice flat. Big modern rooms with very nice furniture. Air conditioning in each room. Flowers and fruit in the flat when we arrived. The flat is cleaned every day and you get enough towels. - The only thing we didn't like was the fact that we only saw a tiny bit of... More
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This was a last minute arrangement early in the evening as I was helping a friend move. The owner was very friendly and accommodating, didn't even want to take a deposit when we made the reservation in person. When we returned later the manager was in charge. He was very rude, refused to give a receipt for our deposit and... More
United States >
California >
Los Angeles
Ranked #230 of 312 hotels in Los Angeles
Price range (per night):
₹3,009 - ₹3,623
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- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Booking.com and Priceline so you can book your Starlight Inn Valley Boulevard reservations with confidence. We help millions of travellers each month to find the perfect hotel for both holiday and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.


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Facebook Activity
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Teen Ink
Wow, this is amazing! I normally don't like stories like this, but I just had to keep reading, I was so excited to figure out more about the characters. The emotion was so strong in some places that I felt like I was about to cry, especially in the Prologue when Hope kills her brother, and Chapter 12 when Michelle visits her parents and Sam. The plot is really good too; it kept me guessing- I was sure that Luke was the murderer for a while, and then Chapter 17 made me ... (more »)


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Resources for Pre-Pregnancy CheckupChildbirth Connection ResourcePlanning Pregnancy: Pre-Pregnancy CheckupIn our section called The Stages of Pregnancy, we have outlined the planning of your pregnancy, each stage of pregnancy, giving birth, and the early period after birth. This link is devoted to your pre-pregnancy checkup. Resources for Healthful Planning Related to PregnancyThe Mayo Clinic: Pre-Pregnancy Planning: Take Care Now for a Healthy Baby Later, how to prepare your body for pregnancyPlanned Parenthood: Pre-Pregnany Health, steps to plan for a healthy pregnancy Children's Hospital of Wisconsin: Before Your Next Pregnancy, what to do before (and during) your next pregnancy to lessen the chance for birth defects
Resources for STDs and PregnancyAmerican Social Health Association: STDs/STIs, offers information on specific diseases and links to reliable hotlinesCenters for Disease Control and Prevention: STDs & Pregnancy, CDC fact sheet on STDs and pregnancy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Hotlines
Most recent page update: 9/7/2012
Related Links
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Childbirth Connection is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 1918 as Maternity Center Association. Our mission is to improve the quality and value of maternity care through consumer engagement and health system transformation. Childbirth Connection promotes safe, effective and satisfying evidence-based maternity care and is a voice for the needs and interests of childbearing families. |
News and Features
Listening to MothersSM III: New Mothers Speak Out (June 2013) reports on new national surveys about issues women face in the postpartum period and their views about maternity care.
Access the full report and supplementary materials Listening to MothersSM III (May 2013) is the third national survey exploring women's experiences in pregnancy and childbirth. Commissioned by Childbirth Connection, conducted by Harris Interactive, and funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the survey polled 2,400 women who gave birth in U.S. hospitals from 2011 to 2012. Results show that medically intensive experiences are typical, and evidence-based practices are underutilized. Childbearing women need better support and knowledge to navigate their maternity care. Access the full report and supplementary materials New Report: Maternity Care and Liability Go to report and supporting materials New Report: The Cost of Having a Baby in the United States Go to report and supporting materials New Cesarean Resources: Go to Best Evidence Report Go to web pages and booklet for women
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Cardiology Secrets, 4th Edition
In Stock
Available Formats | Price | |
PDF eBook |
(With Adobe DRM, readable with Adobe Digital Editions for PCs and Macs, and on most mobile devices except Kindle) | ||
ePub eBook |
(With Adobe DRM, readable with Adobe Digital Editions for PCs and Macs, and on most mobile devices except Kindle) |
Get quick answers to the most important clinical questions with Cardiology Secrets! Using the popular and trusted Secret Series® Q&A format, this easy-to-read cardiology book provides rapid access to the practical, "in-the-trenches" know-how you need to succeed both in practice, and on cardiology board and recertification exams.
Table of ContentsNew to This Edition
- Apply all the latest advances in clinical cardiology techniques, technology, and pharmacology.
- Access the complete text and illustrations online at Expert Consult, fully searchable.
Key Features
- Get the evidence-based guidance you need to provide optimal care for your patients with cardiac heart diseases.
- Explore effective solutions to a full range of clinical issues including the general examination, diagnostic procedures, arrhythmias, symptoms and disease states, valvular heart disease, cardiovascular pharmacology, and other medical conditions with associated cardiac involvement.
- Zero in on key information with bulleted lists, mnemonics, practical tips from the leading cardiologists, and "Key Points" boxes that provide a concise overview of important board-relevant content.
- Review essential material efficiently with the "Top 100 Secrets in Cardiology" - perfect for last-minute study or self-assessment.
Published Reviews
"With chapters covering the latest advances in diagnostic and therapeutic areas, this is a very useful update of the previous edition." -- Surya M Artham, MD, MPH (Ochsner Clinic Foundation), Doody's Review
Author Information
By Glenn N. Levine, MD, FACC, FAHA, Professor of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine; Director, Cardiac Care Unit, Michael E. DeBakey Medical Center, Houston, Texas
Customer Reviews
25% off
- Paperback
- 544 Pages
- Trim Size: 5 1/4 X 8 7/16 in
- Imprint: Saunders
- Copyright: 2014


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Arrived at this hotel rather late at night with two friends. We had booked in advance. The man at the front desk recommended a triple room instead of the rooms we had chosen because it would be cheaper for us and just as good. It was a good recommendation, and it saved us some money. Nice start of the stay.... More
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- Hospitality and Kindness in a comfortable house,family owned. Quiet central location. Well suited for families, groups or business sojourns. 30 comfortably appointed rooms. Each with bath, phone, tv color, radio. Many rooms with park view and balcony. ... more less
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Booking.com, Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity, Hotels.com and Tingo so you can book your Hotel Crimea reservations with confidence. We help millions of travelers each month to find the perfect hotel for both vacation and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.