Jeff Taylor: Yes. Well, I mean, I would say, first of all, that, we maintain our guidance. We feel confident with the guidance range that we have out there. One quarter under our belt, slightly below our expectations, but I would still say generally in line with our expectations. So, from that perspective, not a major change. I’ve already talked about a couple of the things that impacted us were, a little bit wetter weather and some of the commodities pricings. But we certainly expected that 2024 was really going to start much like 2023 ended. And I think we, signaled that when we thought that the business was going to, come into the year and then build as we move through the year. And I think we still see that happening. Overall, we don’t predict the economy.
We’re not economists, but, we’ve said no recession. I think we still don’t see a recession coming. I do believe that, we expect interest rates to stay higher for longer now. That will have a little impact on our housing market. In areas like water treatment will be a little more impacted, are a little more impacted by housing. But overall, I think our view there is pretty much intact for the full year guidance. There was a question last quarter about, first half and second half. I think that I think we’re still generally in line with how the business has performed over time in that regard. And so, we feel good about the guidance that we have out there through the end of the year.
Walter Liptak: Okay, great. Thanks. And then thinking about second quarter, are you — you talked about how the destocking in fueling seems to be behind you. Are you seeing more sell-through now going into the construction season?
Jeff Taylor: Yes, I would say we’re right at the beginning of the groundwater drilling season, and so I think we are seeing a pickup in activity. But we’re on the front end of it at this point in time, and so there’s still a ways to go. As we said, first quarter was impacted by weather in some key areas, the West Coast, Texas, other parts of the U.S. We’ve started to see some improvement there, but it’s hard to predict the weather, and so, we’ll just — I mean, we take what we get when we talk about the weather impact on the business overall. But we expect a normal seasonal pickup in the second quarter, so our business is pretty consistent from that regard.
Walter Liptak: Okay. And how about related to the fueling part of the business? Are you seeing better sell-through at the — for fueling equipment now that the destock is over?
Jeff Taylor: Yeah, I think the conversations that we have with our customers in fueling are indicative that they expect to have a more normal year this year. And so I think we’re also on the front end of that curve as well. And so the indication at this point is that we’ll see fueling pickup as we move through the middle part of the year. And like I said, those customer conversations are positive at this point, but reflective of really a more normal level, not an increase in stocking, not a destocking environment. And so that’s where we are in fueling.
Walter Liptak: Okay. Great. Okay. Thanks much.
Jeff Taylor: You’re welcome. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. One moment, please, for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Mike Halloran with Baird.
Mike Halloran: Hi. Good morning, everyone.
Jeff Taylor: Hi, Mike.
Mike Halloran: Good morning, everyone. So, just a couple here. One, when you think about the pricing dynamics in the marketplace on the water side, anything of note I know the commodity pricing was mentioned in the prepared remarks just more thinking competitively and similarly any thoughts on the inventory level?
Gregg Sengstack: Michael, the last part of your question broke up. Could you please repeat that?
Mike Halloran: Yes. Similarly, any thoughts on the inventory levels on the water side of the channel?
Gregg Sengstack: Jeff can get a little more detail. I’d say that pricing, it’s more kind of pre-COVID where you’re seeing a little more promotional activity in groundwater. The RSS channel, the residential pricing is again kind of flattish. As we comment on dewatering it. I remember at our conference, video conference back in November we talked about durability of Franklin’s business across the globe and the fact that there were multiple channels. And the one that we still see the challenges is the cyclicality of that dewatering business with the overall company. And so that – when you start seeing a slowdown some pricing action there it gets a little competitive. But we’ve been able to maintain margins as you saw in our results.
And then on the – and outside the United States we’re getting price interestingly enough with respect to inflation. So, we’re getting a little price in EMEA. And in the hyperinflation markets of Turkey and Argentina, we price in dollars or price in euros. So, that’s – they just are at spot pricing. So, that kind of helps insulate us. And with respect to inventory levels in the channel we look at headwaters being kind of an indicator of the groundwater channel. And they’re bringing inventory levels down compared to last year which we commented on our overall inventory are down, I think about $70 million. And part of that is distribution because the supply chains are better and lead times are coming down. And I think that all of the distributors in the channel are probably doing similar things.
