Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Good day, and welcome to the WD-forty Company First Quarter Fiscal Year 2019 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. At the end of the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session.
I would now like to turn the presentation over to the host for today's call, Ms. Wendy Kelly, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Please proceed.
Thank you. Good afternoon and thanks to everyone for joining us today. On our call today are WD-forty Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, Gary Ridge and Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Jay Remboldt. In addition to the financial information presented on today's call, we encourage investors to review our earnings presentation, earnings press release and Form 10 Q for the period ending November 30, 2018. These documents are available on our Investor Relations website at investor.
Wd40company.com. A replay and transcript of today's call will also be made available at that location shortly after this call. On today's call, we will discuss certain non GAAP measures. The descriptions and reconciliations of these non GAAP measures are available in our SEC filings as well as our earnings presentation. As a reminder, today's call includes forward looking statements about our expectations for the company's future performance.
Of course, actual results could differ materially. The company's expectations, beliefs and projections are expressed in good faith that there can be no assurance that they will be achieved or accomplished. Please refer to the risk factors detailed in our SEC filings for further discussion. Finally, for anyone listening to a webcast replay or reviewing a written transcript of this call, please note that all information presented is current only as of today's date, January 9, 2019. The company disclaims any duty or obligation to update any forward information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Gary.
Thanks, Wendy. Good day, everyone, and thanks for joining us for today's conference call. Today, we reported net sales of $101,300,000 for the Q1 of fiscal 2019, which was an increase of 4% from the Q1 of last fiscal year. Net income for the Q1 was $13,300,000 compared to $12,600,000 in the Q1 of last fiscal year, an increase of 5% year over year. Diluted earnings per share for the Q1 were $0.95 compared to $0.90 for the same period last year.
Now let's start with the discussion about our strategic initiatives and the brands that support many of them. Our long term revenue growth targets are aspirational, but we continue to believe that we with enough sweat, determination and hard work, they are achievable. We aspire to drive consolidated net sales to approximately $700,000,000 in revenue by the end of fiscal 2025 and in doing so we'll follow our fifty fivethirtytwenty five business model. We refer to the brands that are going to get us there as our 2025 brands. They are WD-forty Multi Use Product, WD-forty Specialist, 3 in 1 WD-forty Bike, GT85, 1,000 and 1, Spot Shot, Soul Bowl, Lava and Novec.
Our 2025 brands are our core strategic focus for the primary growth engine for the company. Strategic initiative number 1 is to grow WD-forty Multi Use Product. Our goal under this initiative is to make the blue and yellow can with a little red top available to more people in more places who will find more uses more often. In the Q1 of fiscal 2019, sales of WD-forty Multi Use Product was $78,300,000 up 5% compared to the Q1 of last year. This reflects excellent progress towards our most important strategic initiative to grow WD-forty Multi Use product to approximately $530,000,000 in revenue by the end of fiscal year 2025.
Strategic initiative number 2 is grow the WD-forty Specialist product line. In the Q1 of fiscal year 2019, sales of WD-forty Specialist were $8,400,000 up 13% compared to the Q1 of last year. This continues to move the company towards its goal for this initiative growing the product line to approximately $100,000,000 in revenue by the end of fiscal 2025. We're optimistic about the long term opportunities for WD-forty Specialist. However, there may be some volatility in sales levels along the way due to the timing of promotional programs, the building of distribution and various other factors that come with building out a new product line.
Our tribe has delivered some best in class WD-forty Specialist products over the last several years. As a result, we now have an exceptional portfolio of products that we are proud to have wear the WD-forty Shield. It's now time to maximize the pipeline of products we have developed by enhancing their distribution through focused and deliberate geographic expansion. Strategic initiative number 3 is to broaden product and revenue base. Strategic initiative number 3 includes maintenance products like 3 in 1, WD-forty bike and GD-eighty five, but it also includes brands such as Spot Shot, Lava in the Americas, 1,000 and 1 in EMEA and Novak and Solvol in Australia Pacific.
We believe we are on track to reach a combined revenue of approximately $70,000,000 by 2025. These sales under this strategic initiative were $12,000,000 in the Q1, up 1% compared to last year. We've spent the last several years better understanding how each of these brands perform in their own unique channels and geographies, and many of them generate sizable revenues and they all generate meaningful profit contribution and cash flows. Strategic initiative number 4 is to attract, develop and retain outstanding tribe members. Our goal under this initiative is to attract, develop and retain talented tribe members and digital channel strategy.
Our efforts under this initiative were recently acknowledged in the Wall Street Journal article written by Sue Schellenberger. In the article, she writes about how today's employees seek a place of belonging and that companies which excel in engaging their employees posted profit gains through the last recession of 26% compared with a 14% decline at comparable employees. At WD-forty Company, I am certain that our financial success is linked directly to our outstanding tribe members and their exceptional motivation and dedication. Nurturing and growing that engagement will continue to be a top priority for us in fiscal year and the years to come. Strategic initiative number 5 is operational excellence.
WD-forty Company, our cornerstone to operational excellence ties closely to one of our core values at WD-forty Company, which is to make it better than it is today. With this as our guiding mantra, we continuously focus on optimizing resources, systems and processes, while applying a rigorous commitment to quality assurance, regulatory compliance and intellectual property protection. Using our fifty fivethirtytwenty five business model as a framework, we measure ourselves against this operational excellence initiative. I'm really excited to share with you that this month we'll be opening our brand new technology center in Pine Brook, New Jersey. Our technology center will house our New Jersey based tribe members and will provide them with a work environment that to conduct laboratory tested, base tested research and development in house.
Not only does this new facility provide our R and D staff with a modern and functional work environment, it also provides us with the opportunity to bring that work in house as much of the scientific and testing work that was performed in the past was now going to be performed in our new laboratory, which had historically been outsourced. Our new tech center is a shining example of our continued focus on making it better than it is today. That completes the update on our strategic initiatives. So let's move on to the details of our Q1 starting with sales. As I mentioned earlier, consolidated net sales were $101,300,000 in the Q1, up $3,700,000 or 4% versus the Q1 of last year.
Translation of foreign subsidiary results from their functional currencies to the U. S. Dollar had an unfavorable impact on sales in the Q1. On a constant currency basis, net sales would have been $102,400,000 in the Q1, up $4,800,000 or 5% compared to last year. Before I discuss what's happening in each of the individual segments, I'd like to take a moment to remind investors that though we do not consider our business to be a seasonal one, it's common for our sales results to fluctuate 1 period to another due to various factors including the level of promotional activities, specific programs being run at customer locations, the timing of customer orders or the impact of new product launches.
This is all a normal part of our business and we are accustomed to these types of fluctuations and manage them as part of our normal business activities. It is when something a little out of the ordinary happens that we discuss it in much greater detail here with our investors. So let's start with the Americas. Net sales in the Americas, which includes the United States, Latin America and Canada increased to 47 point $8,000,000 in the Q1, up about 4% from last year. Sales of maintenance products increased 7% or $2,700,000 in the Americas, primarily due to higher sales of WD-forty Multi Use Product and WD-forty Specialist in the United States.
Maintenance product sales in the United States increased 9% or $2,800,000 in the Q1, primarily due to strong sales of WD-forty EZ Reach, the timing of promotional programs as well as an expanded distribution in the online industrial and farm channels. In the U. S, W-forty Specialist sales were up 32% in the Q1, primarily due to a successful holiday gift pack promotion we ran in the country. Partially offsetting these increases were declines in sales of maintenance products in both Canada and Latin America. In both Canada and Latin America, maintenance product sales were down 2% during the quarter, primarily due to the timing of customer orders.
As a reminder, our maintenance products exclude our home care and cleaning products. Sales of our home care and cleaning products in the Americas decreased 17% in the Q1 compared to the prior year, largely due to lower sales of 2,000 flushes in carpet fresh in the U. S, which declined 35% and 46%, respectively. We continue to consider our home care and cleaning products except for those listed as 2025 brands as harvest brands that continue to generate meaningful contributions and cash flows, but are generally expected to become a smaller part of the business over time. In total, our Americas segment made up 47% of our global sales.
Over the long term, we anticipate sales within this segment will grow between 2% to 5% annually. Now on to EMEA. Net sales in EMEA, which includes Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India increased to 38 point $7,000,000 in the Q1, up 11% from last year. EMEA's reported results in the Q1 were unfavorably impacted by foreign currency exchange rates. On a constant currency basis, sales in EMEA would have increased to $39,300,000 in the Q1, up 12% from last year.
Transaction related impacts in EMEA were insignificant in this quarter. We sell into EMEA through a combination of direct operations as well as through marketing distributors. Net sales in our EMEA direct markets, which accounted for 64% of the region sales, increased 10% during the Q1 to 24,800,000 dollars This growth was a result of increased sales of W40 multi use product throughout most of the EMEA direct markets due to a higher level of promotional activities, increased distribution and the timing of customer orders. Net sales in EMA are also positively impacted in the quarter by a 40% increase in sales in home care and cleaning products during the quarter, which was due to a successful digital promotion we ran in the United Kingdom for our 1,001 Carpet Fresh product. Net sales in EMEA distributor markets, which accounted for 36% of the region's sales, increased 11% during the quarter to $14,000,000 This increase was primarily due to increased sales of WD-forty multiuse products in Eastern Europe because of the improved economic conditions in the region as well as the timing of customer orders.
Also contributing to the increase in sales were higher sales of multiuse product in India due to the high level of distribution supported by our increased investment in branding activities. The EMEA segment made up 38% of our global business. Over the long term, we expect the segment will grow sales between 8% 10% annually. Now down to Asia Pacific. Consolidated net sales in Asia Pacific, which includes Australia, China and countries in other countries in the Asian region decreased to $14,700,000 in the Q1, down 10% from last year.
Changes in foreign currency exchange rates had an unfavorable impact on sales in the region. On a constant currency basis, sales in Asia Pacific would have decreased to $15,200,000 in the Q1, down 7% from last year. In Australia, net sales were $3,900,000 in the Q1, down 13% compared to last year. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates had a negative impact on sales in the region of Australia. On a constant currency basis, sales in Australia decreased 6% compared to last year.
The decrease in sales during the Q1 was due primarily to the timing of customer orders and decreased promotional activities. In our Asia distributor market, net sales were $7,800,000 in the Q1, down 13% compared to the last year, primarily due to the timing of customer orders. We had a very strong 4th quarter and the first quarter is a reflection of a bit of a hangover from that activity. Our Asian distributor markets are not impacted by currency since we sell our product in U. S.
Dollars in the region. In China, net sales in the U. S. Dollars were $3,000,000 in the Q1, up 4% compared to last year. On a constant currency basis, sales in China increased 9% compared to last year due to successful promotional programs that were conducted in the Q1 of this year.
We remain optimistic about the long term opportunities in China, although we expect a lot of volatility along the way due to the timing of promotional programs, the building of distribution, shifting economic conditions, economic patterns and varying industrial activities. The Asia Pacific segment made up 50% of our global business. Over the long term, we expect sales within the segment will grow between 10% 12% annually. That's it for me for now. I'll turn over to Jay, who will continue with the review of the financials.
Thanks, Gary. First, let's start with a review of our fifty fivethirtytwenty five business model, the long term targets we use to guide our business. As you may recall, the 55 represents gross margin, which we target to be at 55 percent of net sales. The 30 represents our cost of doing business, which is our total operating expenses excluding depreciation and amortization. Our goal is to drive our cost of doing business over time toward 30% of net sales.
And then finally, the 25% represents our target for EBITDA. Well, first, the 55% are our gross margin. In the Q1, our gross margin was 55.1% compared to 55.5% last year. This represents a decline of 40 basis points. Changes in major input costs, which include petroleum based specialty chemicals and aerosol cans were the primary driver of this decline and negatively impacted our gross margin by 200 basis points.
As a reminder, there's often about a 90 to 120 day lag or more before changes in raw material costs impact our cost of goods sold due to production and inventory life cycles. The average cost of raw materials that flowed through our cost of goods in the Q1 was higher this year compared to the Q1 last year, which put pressure on gross margin in all three trading blocks. Petroleum based specialty chemical costs negatively impacted our gross margin by 160 basis points period over period. Also contributing negatively to the gross margin of 40 basis points was the increased cost of aerosol cans. These negative impacts to gross margin were partially offset by the favorable effects of price increases, which we've implemented in all three trading blocks over the last 12 months and which positively impacted gross margin by 120 basis points in the Q1.
Sales mix changes and other miscellaneous costs also positively impacted our gross margin by 40 basis points. This is driven by lower inbound freight costs and favorable sales mix changes as we continue to increase sales of premium products like WD-forty Smart Straw, EZ Reach and WD-forty Specialist. As a reminder, our long term gross margin target of 55% is not contingent upon commodity prices staying at any particular price point. We cannot control global market dynamics, but we can continue to be focused and deliberate in managing the rest of our business so that we can maintain gross margin atoraboveourtargetof55% over the long term. Now I'll look at the 30% or our cost of doing business.
In the Q1, our cost of doing business was approximately 37% compared to 36% last year. The Q1 SG and A increased $1,500,000 and our advertising and promotional investment increased $900,000 which negatively impacted our gross our cost of doing business percentage. Our SG and A increased 5% compared to last year, primarily due to higher employee related costs, increased expenses associated with travel, meetings and professional services. As we've shared with investors, we've increased our investments in advertising and promotion to support both physical and digital brand building initiatives. In support of those initiatives, our A and P investment increased 17% year over year.
As a percentage of sales, our A and P investment was 5.9% in the Q1 compared to 5.2% last year. For the Q1, 75% of our cost of doing business came from 3 areas: people costs or the investments we make in our tribe the investments we make in marketing, advertising and promotion, and finally freight costs to get our products to our customers. While our long term objective is to have our cost of doing business closer to our target of 30% of net sales, we will continue to make necessary investments in support of our brand building activities and our 5th strategic initiative, operational excellence. Ultimately, revenue growth is the most important factor in helping us achieve our long term target of 30%. This will bring us now to EBITDA, the last of our fifty fivethirtytwenty five measures.
EBITDA was 18% of net sales in the Q1 of this year compared to 20% last year. Well, that completes the discussion of our fifty Fivethirtytwenty five business model for the current quarter. Now, we'll look at some other items below EBITDA. The provision for income tax was 17.6% in the 1st quarter compared to 23.7% last year. The decrease in the effective income tax rate was due to the favorable impact from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the U.
S, which became effective for us in the Q2 of fiscal 2018. We expect that our effective tax rate for the full fiscal year 2019 will be in the 21% to 22% range. Net income for the Q1 was $13,300,000 versus $12,600,000 in the prior year, reflecting an increase of 5%. This resulted in diluted earnings per common share of $0.95 in the Q1 compared to $0.90 in the same period last year. And diluted weighted average shares outstanding decreased to 13,900,000 shares from 14,000,000 shares a year ago.
Now a word about capital allocation. Our capital allocation strategy includes a comprehensive approach to balance investing in long term growth while providing strong returns to stockholders. Our maintenance CapEx is usually between 1% 2% of net sales, but we are planning to make additional investments in fiscal 2019. In total, we expect to invest about $22,000,000 in CapEx this fiscal year in support of our 5th strategic initiative, operational excellence. This includes regular maintenance CapEx and costs associated with completing the development of our new facilities in the United Kingdom and New Jersey.
Additionally, this investment will support an innovation that will enhance our end user experience, lower our manufacturing costs and ultimately improve our gross margin. We look forward to updating investors on this exciting innovation in the near future. We understand the importance of regular dividends to our stockholders. We target a dividend payout ratio of about 50% of net income. On December 11, 2018, our Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.61 per share, reflecting an increase of 13% over the previous quarter's dividend of $0.54 a share.
This increase represents the 9th consecutive year the company has raised its dividend, over which time the dividend has increased 144%. Based on today's closing price of $183.78 the annualized dividend yield is 1.3%. During the Q1, we repurchased just over 41,000 shares of our stock at a total cost of $6,900,000 under our current $75,000,000 share repurchase plan, which was approved by the Board in June 2018. At the end of our 1st fiscal quarter, we had $68,100,000 remaining under the plan. So with that, let's turn to fiscal 2019 guidance.
Our guidance remains unchanged from what we issued in October 2018. Uncertainty around foreign exchange rates, particularly the British pound and commodity prices are making it unusually challenging to forecast certain elements of our business. If foreign exchange rates remain close to current levels for the remainder of fiscal 2019, we would expect net sales to be in the lower end of our guidance range. In addition, we have not updated our guidance to reflect today's lower crude oil prices because we have not yet determined if crude oil at less than $65 a barrel is an event or a trend. Additionally, it's important to clarify that even though petroleum based specialty chemicals make up a significant portion, approximately 35% of the input costs associated with a can of the WD-forty multi use product, only a small portion of that is directly tied to the cost of crude oil.
This is because we do not buy crude oil, we buy custom formulated specialty chemicals, which have complex cost drivers, including manufacturing region, fixed production costs and distinctive supply and demand characteristics. So though the current price of crude could be a net positive on our gross margin in future periods, it's too early to determine when and by how much. Therefore, our guidance remains unchanged. Sales growth is projected in our guidance, sales growth is projected to be between 4% 7% with net sales expected to be between 4 $25,000,000 $437,000,000 Gross margin for the full year expected to be near the 55%. Advertising and promotion investment is expected to be between 5.5% 6% of net sales.
The provision for income tax is expected to be between 21% 22% and net income projected to be between $62,200,000 63,200,000 Diluted earnings per share is expected to be between $4.51 $4.58 based on an estimated 13,800,000 weighted average shares outstanding. And note that this guidance does not include any future acquisitions or divestitures. And that completes the financial review. Now I'll turn
it back to Gary. Hey, thanks Jay. So, let's sum up on what you heard from us on the call today. You heard that we had a 4% global sales growth in the Q1. You heard that global sales of WD-forty multi use product grew 5% in the Q1.
You heard the global sales of WD-forty Specialist grew 13% in the Q1. You heard that we continue to make progress towards our long term revenue target, which is to drive consolidated net sales for approximately $700,000,000 in revenues by the end of fiscal year 2025. You heard that we've increased our A and P investment to support additional physical and digital brand building activities. You heard that we're making some additional capital investments to support the development of our new facilities in Milton Keynes and in Pine Brook as well as development of our new initiatives. You heard that our Board of Directors increased our dividend by 13% last month and you heard that we have reiterated our fiscal year 2019 guidance.
However, we acknowledge that there are some global dynamics which are entirely out of our control and may positively or negatively impact that guidance. So in closing, I'd like to share with you a quote from Colin Powell, A dream doesn't become reality through magic. It takes sweat, determination and hard work. Thank you for joining us today. We'd be pleased to now open the conference to your calls for questions.
Operator?
Our first question comes from the line of Linda Volkenweiser from D. A. Davidson. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, happy New Year.
Happy New Year.
Hi, Linda.
Hi. So I guess, first of all, can you just review, because I'm just getting back on board here, so I don't have a recent memory of when was the rough time period when you first started to take price increases? And then when was the most recent price increase taken?
So in the United States, our most recent price increase went into effect around the June July period of last year with the total impact of that increase probably not realizing until well into the Q4. And then in other geographic locations, particularly EMEA and Asia Pacific, they were staged during the year depending on the country. And then prior to that, in the United States, the last price rise we took, I think was 6 years ago.
Okay. So then, I mean, the way things work here, I mean, that's fairly recent then that you took these price increases. So you would expect to hang on to them for a while even as we see this oil price rollover here. We would expect the pricing to hold up a little bit longer I would think. Is that the case?
We're not planning on making any changes to our pricing at this time.
Okay. And what was the rough magnitude of the pricing in the U. S. That you took?
It was about 4%.
Okay. And then, so you did really well in the quarter on the sales line. The U. S. And EMEA looked really good and even though the comparison in the prior year period was quite difficult actually.
So can you just give a little more color on that? And just as a general strength in the business, anything in particular? And then the comparisons actually get easier in the 2nd fiscal quarter. So should we be expecting even stronger growth?
We expect our growth for the year will be in line with our guidance overall. As you know, we don't really forecast quarter to quarter. But in the Q1, as I shared in the U. S, it was a very nice quarter. We saw growth in our core product, WD-forty multi use product, driven particularly around one of our new initiatives, which is easy reach.
And also some growth in our specialist product around a special holiday pack that we trialed in the U. S. That we feel was reasonably successful. In EMEA, it was really across the board, both made up of new distribution and the continual conversion of our classic can to our Smart Straw can in Europe. And as you might remember, Linda, when we convert from Classic to Smart Straw, we get a revenue lift because of pricing.
And then, of course, there was a rebound in Europe around our MD markets in Russia and Eastern Europe. And we're starting also now to see some really nice sustainable growth out of India. We've been investing in India and we're starting to see some traction there. And then overall, Linda, as you might know, we've deliberately taken an investment opportunity in both digital and e commerce and we've been seeing some good growth in our digital areas. In Asia Pac, where we didn't grow that well, it was primarily our distributor markets and it was really a hangover from last quarter.
We had a very, very strong Q4, which was due to the distributors getting back on track after we've made some changes there. So we should see things in Asia Pacific start to normalize over the next three quarters and we anticipate we'll have revenue growth in Asia Pac in line with our expectations for the full year.
Okay. And then can you just I mean, there's been a lot of investor anxiety, I guess, over the potential for a recession in the U. S. At least. Can you just remind me how your business behaves in a recession?
Is it actually a little bit countercyclical? Or can you just give a little color about the nature of your business in that kind of environment?
We're not recession proof, but we have been called recession resistant. And past history, I've been around for 30 years in the business. We've come through. We continue to invest in our business through the recessions. Whether there will and the other thing that it plays even more in our favor now is our geographic diversity.
In 2,008, when we had the financial crisis, our business was actually sideways. We actually grew a little. And if it wasn't for the collapse, if you will, of the pound U. S. Dollar exchange rate, we would have grown.
But that we impact was more in the U. S. Not in Europe. So let's hope that we don't talk ourselves into a recession and let's hope that we continue to make large hotdogs and put them on good buns and don't actually find ourselves in that position. But we feel that our spread across geography and our spread across trade channels gives us the best chance we can possibly have to ride through different economic conditions in different countries at different times around the world.
Great. And then just finally, I know you've kind of alluded to another new product innovation that you're working on. Are you still thinking that that might you might be able to talk about it in March? And then when will the potential launch be?
We will review all and review all in March. So please be with us then because we're really excited.
And when do you think the launch would be of the product?
We'll talk about that in March.
Okay. Okay, that's all for me. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Linda.
Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Russo from Jefferies. Please
When you mentioned that in 2008 your business was sideways or just intact, I guess, are you referring to volumes held in and that it was just really FX? I mean, how did I guess, how did pricing and volumes act during such an environment? When were they down a little bit? Were they flat? Or how does just any color?
In 2,008, it was really the major sideways interest because of exchange rates and it was the exchange of the British pound of the U. S. Dollar. Volumes were reasonably as far as I can remember, now you're asking me to remember details 11 years ago. That's pretty hard for me.
But I do know that the majority of the impact was exchanged.
Do you remember that Jay? Yes. The Sterling collapsed by about 25%. There was a very deep decline from the prior year to the from 2,007 to 2,008. And so a big, big chunk of it came from the currency.
We saw growth in most of the European markets. U. S. Was a little bit U. S.
Was a little sideways, if I remember specifically. A couple of channels had maybe a little bit more disruption than most. But net net, I think volumes across the board were about showed a little growth. Yes. That's what I recall.
Okay. And then you guys are talking about your digitization efforts, which seem to be going fairly well. And I don't know if I've asked this in the past, but are you working with Amazon? I mean, is that a distribution channel of yours Or are you selling
your own? It is, right? Yes. We're very engaged with Amazon. Amazon are a direct customer of ours and I think they're in our top I don't know what they're in the top 20 customer list anyhow, specialists, with specialists particularly.
Okay. And then finally, for free cash flow, is there a seasonality to that just in terms of payments versus gives and takes with working capital?
I'm sure there's a few little tweaks, but for the most part, it isn't. I mean, there are times when you've got some tax payments and some our growth reward program payments, but in the grand scheme of things, it's very minor.
Okay. All right. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Daniel.
Your next question comes from the line of Rosemarie Mortell from G. Research. Please go ahead with your question.
Thank you and good afternoon everyone. Good afternoon. I was wondering if you are seeing any impact from the trade war in China? And if not, is it because you are too small and it is not affecting you or any other reason?
We are really not seeing any impact at all at this time. We don't import much from China. So the tariff side isn't working with us. And it's kind of Jay? Yes.
I mean, there's some indirect impact, but it's hard to measure and it's hard to really pin down. You've got some hesitancy in a market to do something that had a period of time, but it doesn't feel like it's sustained.
Okay. And no impact, I mean, then I think that Indonesia, for example, has put some tariffs on Chinese goods. Is that affecting you or you are not in Indonesia?
No. We have a very large business in Indonesia, but we've seen no impact of any tariff. I'm not sure that it's impacting our product. And in fact, I don't think it is because we would have heard about it and we haven't heard. So maybe it's not in our product categories.
Okay. And then going back to the price of oil coming down, how long will it take? Are you on FIFO, first of all? How long will it take for you to benefit from those costs? I know that the intermediary has to come down as well, but it sounds as though they may be.
And so let's say that you benefit from it in 90 to 120 days as Jay mentioned, will you at that point have to give up price?
Pricing wise, we have a very our current pricing structure is in place and we see no reason to change that current pricing structure. You're right about that. It is about 90 to 120 days. We are on FIFO. What in that time between when it's when the new lower material costs come into our manufacturing facility.
And by the time it gets through to us inventory and then on end, it's 90, 120 days, even a little bit more. So which is why we haven't really made any changes to guidance on the going out.
If we do see any impact of a sustained lower oil price, we wouldn't expect that to be seen until the Q3. Right now, our cost of goods are really reflecting the oil price in what month, Jay, July, August? Yes, July, August, yes. Which we're at their high period. That was when it was in the high 70s.
So, we've got the period of we would not expect to see any impact till the Q3. Yes.
Because and you're right, Gary, even if you were to reflect, we didn't start seeing any real decrease until after the November period. So it was like November that we started seeing it. So yes, we will still have some of these higher costs for a period.
And this is why we have the little uncertainty around oil is that a week ago it was $42 today it's $52 and 3 weeks ago it was $60 and 5 weeks ago it was $75 dollars So as we said, we need to work out whether this is a series of events or whether it is a sustainable trend.
Right. And in this environment, it is hard to know.
That would be a true statement.
Maybe you should take up tweeting.
I'll leave that one alone.
So now I was just wondering if during the quarter you had any surprises whether positive or negative. And then Gary, you talked about seeing growth following your digital optimization. And if you could give us some idea as to how much growth is coming in that category?
Number 1 is no, we didn't see really any surprises. It kind of played out pretty well to the way we thought it was. We haven't yet and I'm not sure whether we will be pulling out and disclosing the digital out on its own. What we can say is that, we are day by day taking a larger and more aggressive presence in the e commerce segment and we are very comfortable and happy with the growth we're getting out of that area.
Okay, great. Thank you. Good luck for the rest of the year. Thank you. And Happy New Year.
And Happy New Year.
Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our allotted time for questions. We thank you for your participation on today's conference call and ask that you please disconnect your lines.