Bob Leasure: That was the release we made, I think, last week. And this is something that we think is important to service. And there will also be another way to pay an expense. But the importance of service is our drivers are the face of our business. Many times they interact with our customers. They deliver the product. They get feedback. And we would like to drive a closer relationship between our drivers, our customer service, and our salespeople and our customers to enhance the service and the feedback. So we know what we can do to do better and become closer to that experience. Second of all, I do think that there’s some duplication of costs between the two companies and the supplier we are using was doing a nice job for us.
I don’t have anything naked to say about it, but I think there are some duplication of cost that we could eliminate as we do this transition. And I’m very pleased that they’re willing to help us and work with us to transition this service back to us in-house. But things such as insurance and audits, professional fees and some of the qualities, some of the things that there’s some duplicate costs that will probably come out. So, ultimately, it could save us a few million dollars, $2 million or $3 million more as we get that implemented. I’m very, very pleased with their ability to work with us. We went to all of their sites on Friday. We have 11 distribution facilities where our people went to all 11. We interviewed the people. We interviewed the drivers.
They have a lot of very good people. Within 48 hours we had a majority of their team have already applied for jobs with us and we were moving forward quickly and hope to be able to transition all those people with over the next two weeks. So very pleased working with how this is working out and with their cooperation and I think we’d like to make this as seamless as possible as we go through this process and really again want to appreciate people at Vanguard for understanding this is the direction we want to go and willing to work with us to make sure that this can happen seamlessly and take care of all the people and the suppliers along the way.
Matt Hewitt: Got it. All right. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Dave Windley with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.
Dave Windley: Thank you for taking my questions. [Technical Difficulty]
Operator: Mr. Windley, your line is cutting in and out. We can’t hear you.
Dave Windley: Little better?
Operator: A little.
Dave Windley: [Technical Difficulty]
Bob Leasure: You’re asking something about 2023?
Dave Windley: Yes, I apologize. [Technical Difficulty]
Bob Leasure: Are you asking what the average price was increase over 2023? I’m sorry, I was trying to—
Operator: We’re losing you, Mr. Windley.
Bob Leasure: David, was the question what is the average price increase we saw in 2023 for NHPs? I can’t hear him. Doug, can you hear him?
Operator: No, I can’t hear him either.
Bob Leasure: Doug, maybe we can just re-pole for questions, see if there’s any other questions on the line. And maybe David could dial back in.
Operator: [Operator Instructions]
Bob Yedid: Now, I think we should just wrap up and then turn it over to Bob Leasor.
Operator: Mr. Leasure, the call is yours to conclude.
Bob Leasure: Okay, thank you everyone for joining today’s call. I’m going to just quickly, did Dave call back in? No, okay. We believe we’ve laid out critical groundwork for Inotiv’s success going into 2024. As we continue to effectively execute across our planned initiatives, we hope to see a continued increase in awards for discovery services and reduction in cancellations for the New Year, as well as closing contracts related to the final asset sales as part of our optimization plan. In NHP, we will continue our efforts to qualify new NHP sources and seek to reduce costs in the small animal and diet businesses. We will also continue our efforts to expand our quotes and awards in the DSA business where we have added capacity.
We’ll validate the new facilities and equipment and seek efficiencies across SG&A. We have improved our operating model significantly and the ability to leverage our current scale and a broad range of products and services. In completing — as competing as a leading mid-size pre-clinical CRO, we currently operate 24 sites across the US and Europe, serving over 3,000 customers. We support these efforts with over 2,000 professionals worldwide, including industry-recognized experts across a wide range of scientific disciplines, and it is our aspiration to grow our reputation and become a leading CRO provider of choice. As the majority of our capital investment program has largely been completed, we believe we are well positioned to achieve this through increased sales volume driven by greater cross-selling to our existing customers in addition to our enhanced commercial teams capturing new customer relationships.
Thank you once again for your support as Inotiv enters this new stage of growth possibilities. Have a good afternoon. We look forward to speaking with everyone on our next call. Thank you.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this does include today’s teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.
