J.T. Harrison: So maritime shipping is still the biggest bottleneck that we face. Our freight procurement strategies executed for domestic trucking for rail, for North American intermodal shipping are all driving great successes to prevent or alleviate any bottlenecks. The maritime market is still a difficult one for us, and most shippers. The global vessels schedule reliability is continuing to hover around 40%, which is a huge challenge. And despite that, we have unlocked some successes by our internal metrics. We are outperforming the market by 30%. And some of that success is the inventory we have built that was mentioned earlier, not just having that inventory, but also positioning it closer to the key export ports that we utilize to give us agility to meet the constantly changing vessel schedules of the ocean carriers.
Daniel Jaffee: Awesome, thank you, JT. We have one question that actually came into me, which is ironic, but I got it. And the question is, we’ve talked in the past about how Canada has gone all lightweight for Nestle Purina and how I think what about 55% of the market is now lightweight. And the question is, if the U.S. replicated that lightweight percentage, what would the growth be potentially in the United States?
J.T. Harrison: Yes, so Dan, I’m doing a little back of the envelope math here, but we’ve obviously looked at this, and you’re right, the number one player in Canada, we’re benefiting significantly in that market. If the same thing were to happen in the U.S. by way today is around a $400 million at retail category it would more than double that. So I’m sorry, the growth would be more than double that. So the growth would be, about $800 million. So the lightweight category, if really if heavyweight and lightweight were roughly split would grow to over a $1 billion, so $800 million or so growth.
Daniel Jaffee: Fantastic. Yes, so great opportunity. And there’s no reason to believe that U.S. cats are that different from Canadian cats.
JT Harrison: Having lived in Canada, I can tell you they look pretty much the same. Consumer might be even more enlightened up there — trickle down.
Daniel Jaffee: So we’re very, very bullish. Like, I’m going to summarize, we’re out questions and out of time, but you can see all of our business units are thriving and doing very well. Even, our industrial and sports business, which is sort of the Granddaddy of the divisions is doing well. And then some of our strategic initiatives are all starting to hit at the same time. You’ve got renewable diesel, our ag business is booming. You’ve got a lightweight cat litter. And again, we’ve talked about in the past, but it’s very much an ESG effort. I mean, if the whole country adopted lightweight cat litter like they did with detergent, with concentrated detergent, they forced the shelves to go concentrated for carbon footprint reasons and logistical reasons.
If the whole country went lightweight, it would reduce the carbon footprint of cat litter by about 40%. And so that Genie’s not going back in the bottle. I don’t see people in the future saying, I want heavier. I want to have a bigger impact on the environment. I see the exact opposite where I want lighter and I want to do things that are good from the environment, especially if they don’t cost me money and don’t suffer from performance. So I’ve always said all things being equal, if the, when lightweight and we believe it is, is at the right price and the right performance, the whole category’s going. And so I’m very excited about the animal health business. Again, Genie is not going back into bottle. They’re not going to reverse fields and say, okay, you guys, you can all start pumping antibiotics back into food production for humans.
It’s not happening. So we’re in the right place in the right time, and we believe, again, we have the best non-antibiotic, all natural solution to a lot of these issues, which is why the — you’ve seen the team, these folks with 20 plus years experience in this industry are all joining us at the same time because they believe and we believe we have the best answer. And nothing sells like confidence and they’re very confident in our product line. So I’m very confident in the future of the business. You’ll see, and I always get chastised for selling shares to pay taxes on my restricted shares the best. And I always say, well, sort of an idiot test because if I didn’t pay my taxes, I’d go to jail. But this year I actually wrote a big check and paid all the taxes out of cash, which my financial advisor would say was not a great idea, but my heart gut, and brain all tell me.
And you can decide I’m either insane or I actually know something. Tell me that the future of Oil-Dri is very bright and so that’s why I did it, and so that I’m very, was happy to keep all my restricted shares this year and I’m very bullish on the future. So thank you for your attention, your loyalty, your support, and we’ll be back at you after the next quarter finishes, but I wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season.
Operator: That concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for joining and have a pleasant day.
