And as you can see, from the numbers that we reported, we are still market leaders. So it’s something that is part of doing business within Brazil and in Chile, and we maintaining a market share. And we had a product issue in Chile, which have now been sorted, we bring in product from Mexico, we now are able to produce locally in Chile. But the market has taken somewhat of slowing growth. And, we’ve been as a market leader, we’ve been part of that as well.
Operator: The next question comes from Filippo Falorni with Citi.
Filippo Falorni: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Two clarifications on the Bang acquisition. So first, can you provide us with like, the last 12 months sales for the brand? And then bigger picture like how are you guys planning to position the brand in the US? What consumers are you going after? And then internationally, you mentioned the transition to the coke system in the US, you plan that also to transition international? And if you can give us any timeline on that. Thank you.
Hilton Schlosberg: Maybe I just comment a little bit just, pretty much Hilton, I think covered most of in his last answer. But we are able to look at the brands if you’ve seen what how the Bank brand has, in fact developed. It was originally in the black can focused, sort of focus on competing with Monster and it then went to a color can and then more recently it went to a white can. And then that white cat has gone through a transition as well. So you then got Reign which is in a black can, and you’ve got Rainstorm, which is in a 12 ounce white can. And so we see a different way of separating the brands, marketing them differently, and positioning and we think they can all basically fit within our broader portfolio completely separate to NOS which is very much a Motors sort of brand Full Throttle and Monster.
So if you look at that packaging, that’s how we do it, we’re going to probably change the packaging slightly of the Bang brand, but it will remain principally a white can and in a 16 ounce. And so we feel that there is a way which we do — all these brands can play quite with each other within our portfolio.
Operator: The next question comes from Peter Galbo with Bank of America.
Peter Galbo: Hey, guys, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. I guess if I can just to follow back up on Peter Grom’s question and understanding you don’t give guidance around gross margin. I guess as we looked at it on a gross profit per case basis. You were actually kind of flattish sequentially. So ignoring the percentage but looking at the dollars, is that at all a better way to think about the go forward as just as you’re managing gross profit per case on dollar basis relative to the margin. Thanks very much.
Hilton Schlosberg: So we always look at gross profit per case. When we launch a product that’s very much part of the way that this company has always examined new product introductions. So know your costs that phrase has been something that we preached for any number of years. So as we go forward with new products with new innovation, even for example, with a Bang acquisition, knowing the cost is vital to really being able to position a product within our portfolio. Now, obviously, some products have lower gross profits per case, like, for example, the coffee products, but they are an important part of our portfolio. So as we examine products, and we examine where we are, we always have to look at what we are delivering to consumers to meet to their needs, within the overall ambit of a product portfolio.
Now, when we went into energy, into alcohol, I’m sorry, we went into alcohol with our eyes wide open, we knew the margins that were in alcohol would be lower than the margins in the energy drink category. So we look at margin, I’ve always said this on calls, I say we bank dollars, we don’t bank percentages. And I’ve always encouraged analysts to just think, likewise, that we don’t bank percentages, we bank dollars.
Operator: The next question comes from Chris Carey with Wells Fargo Securities.
Chris Carey: Hey, good afternoon. How you doing? So just one quick follow up there. And then just kind of like a capital allocation question. But would you mind providing the Latin America gross margin on the quarter? I probably missed it or I’m not sure you gave it. But that would be helpful, and just a Latin America in general. So is there a temporary disruption that we’re working through? Or is what we’re seeing underlying demand? So just those two follow ups? And then I realized this is a multi-part question, I’m probably going to get in trouble. But just from a capital allocation standpoint, when can you start buying back stock again, so thanks so much.
Hilton Schlosberg: So let’s talk a little bit about Latin America, remember, we sell to the distributors, and the distributors sell to the retailers. And as the demand is somewhat reduced at retail, the distributors cut back their inventory. So they over inventorize, they cut back. And, unfortunately, we are the recipient of what happens in the distribution channel. So as I said, all of these issues will resolve themselves, because you have these cutbacks, but then we go to a more orderly situation, where we should go to more lean situation in future quarters. And that’s where we are in Latin America. The brand is so as I said, very strong. We market leaders in Argentina, we market leaders in Brazil, we market leaders in Chile as very big markets and market leaders in other countries as well.
