Mr. Schumm: The company was created in the 1990s through a series of acquisitions. In 1999 the company was acquired in a transaction sponsored by DLJ. In 2001 the company went into bankruptcy. We emerged from bankruptcy in May of 2003 with a new board of directors. Shortly thereafter the CEO was dismissed. The new CEO was named at the end of the year, Paul Melnuk. Paul had joined the company as a board member in May of 2003. Over the succeeding 18 months, or two years thereafter, there was complete turnover of the senior management team and a whole series of other changes. In addition, from 2004 through 2006, quite a number of business units were disposed of because they didn't fit with the long-term plan; they'd been part of the prior management's acquisition strategy. The company went through some difficult times from its emergence through 2006. Then as strategies that Paul was implementing and the management team came together, you see a steady improvement in the financial performance of the company commencing late 2006 and continuing through about the third quarter of 2008. Those improvements arose from a series of initiatives that we can probably come back to. The company, like many, has suffered pretty severely in this economic downturn, with sales in 2009 dropping 35%-plus from the pace we have been at. In 2009 the company was forced to make a lot of severe cost-cutting moves - head-count reductions in particular and other ancillary cost reductions. The firm succeeded in returning to profitability in the second calendar quarter of 2009, was profitable in the third quarter and expects to be profitable in the fourth quarter.
Tickers included in this excerpt: THMD
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.

