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| Client Id: 77 Gary Prestopino - Barrington Research Associates, Inc. - Analyst A couple of questions just in terms of the expenses in Q1, particularly sales and marketing in G&A. You know, absolute declines year over year. Just for our purposes, should we be looking at that -- what happened in Q1 as something we can apply the rest of the year, or is that just an anomaly there? Jim Rallo - Liquidity Services, Inc. - CFO and President, Supply Chain Group Yes. So I'll take that, Gary. So I would expect a little bit of pickup in sales and marketing. To be frank, most of the decline in sales and marketing has to do with the fact that we have not been growing at our stated growth rates, which is -- obviously, it's no secret; we've been discussing that for a couple of calls. And although the performance has been strong, it's, frankly, only been consistent with prior year. And we compensate folks at this Company, from the senior level all the way down, to grow the business. So on the sales side, what you have seen there is a reduction in performance-based compensation. On the G&A side of the business -- and again, as we talked about, we do expect growth to start to accelerate the back half of the year. So along with that, we would expect to pay people for that performance. On the G&A side, which you've really seen is the benefits from our restructuring globally with GoIndustry. And again, that restructuring is complete. We have taken costs out of the business. And you won't see a significant change in G&A going forward. There could be movement here or there of a few hundred thousand dollars, obviously, Gary, but no significant changes. Gary Prestopino - Barrington Research Associates, Inc. - Analyst And then was what you saw in retail, particularly with the organic -- on the organic growth side, was that really driven by a rebound in consumer electronics business? Or was that other property that you won in the programs and started selling? Jim Rallo - Liquidity Services, Inc. - CFO and President, Supply Chain Group Sure. Well, I mean, it's a combination of both. Let me be clear: we are not seeing a rebound in the consumer electronics industry or consumer behavior. What we're seeing is an increase of flow of consumer electronics into our marketplaces, as, again, we've extended programs with existing clients and added new client programs in that vertical. We also continue to add new programs around general merchandise, whether it's household effects, small appliances, clothing and apparel. So we're winning in the marketplace right now, Gary, because people are looking for a company that is trusted, that is leading in the industry, that's got the technology to provide all the services our clients need -- and frankly, the different channels that we can move the product on. So it's a combination of everything right now. I wouldn't say the growth is being driven just by consumer electronics. Bill Angrick - Liquidity Services, Inc. - Chairman & CEO Let me also add that another catalyst for the business development wins and some of the program results we've seen in the past quarter is the expansion of our service offering. It is true: we were a marketplace business, primarily, up until the last 18, 24 months. And we've added additional value-added services in the areas of returns management, refurbishing; in some cases, advising clients on how their brand is perceived in a secondary marketplace. And all of the services have given us a great embrace by our new clients. And that's driving a lot of the new success we're having. |