Kevin Barry: Yes. We, you know, we got off to a good start here in Q1 with both of our business units expanding both their gross margins and their operating margins. And so we’re seeing that momentum at the business unit level. You alluded to the corporate segment just a reminder, this is a dynamic that we have related to our equipment financing portfolio, whereas the forward interest rate curve changes, we have to mark that portfolio to market, which does create some noise in our corporate segment and our overall margins, which is offset with the hedge we have in our other income line below operating profit. This quarter, it was a bit of a headwind as the forward rate curve increased in that portfolio. And so and that’s why we try to give you guys, kind of, the adjusted number, so you can see kind of what that noise taken out of it, how we’re performing underneath it.
So, you know, we are not going to guess where interest rates are going to go from here, but we’ll continue to kind of have that dynamic as interest rates change. But, again, I think you can strip that out and see the underlying momentum there. And then the other thing on phasing, I’d say is that, you know, I think we expect similar cadence where we typically see some leverage as we go through the year, you know, Q1 is typically our lowest op margin level for the year, but as we have higher sales quarters, we typically see leverage on the op margin line for the rest of the year.
Don Zurbay: I think, I just, you know, maybe want to reiterate, when you take out the dynamics of the accounting that Kevin mentioned, which you need to do, and look at our margin. I mean, our gross margin was up 20 basis points in the quarter. Like, Kevin mentioned and operating margin up 60 basis points, which I think was notable and I — you know, want to make sure people understand that dynamic. It’s kind of confusing.
Nathan Rich: Great, that’s helpful. And then, I wanted to ask on the U.S. companion animal business, I know you said overall companion was up 5.1, but I think Kevin, you kind of called out NVS is maybe the main driver of that. Could you comment on how the U.S. companion animal business did? And, you know, any change to your outlook for that business, you know, just giving kind of the overall kind of traffic and level of demand that you’re seeing in the market?
Kevin Barry: Sure. I can jump in and Don can add — that we saw growth in both segments. We saw particularly the strong growth in our NVS business, which is, we want to, you know, call them out, they’re performing really well in that market. And this is in advance of some of the investments Don mentioned, what you think are even going to accelerate that business further. But the U.S. companion business also did grow in the quarter. Now we’re going to — as you’d expect, we’re not seeing the same level of growth as we have over the past couple of years as that market has, you know, kind of moderated a bit from the heights of the pet, pandemic bloom. But — and in the overall market, we still see spending up, even as visits have come down a bit. So pet teams are executing really well and are — and they are growing, you know, in the market, so…
Don Zurbay: Yes. I think, you know, the 5% is off a fairly tough comp, as Kevin mentioned, with some of the dynamics in the market that were in place last year.
Nathan Rich: Great. Thanks very much.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Johnson from Baird. Your line is open.
