Anthony Lebiedzinski: Got it. Yes. Thanks for that. And then last question before I pass it on to others. I guess maybe for John. So the tax rate was higher here in the first quarter. How do we think about the tax rate for the balance of the year?
John Witek: Yes. So thanks for the question. The tax rate in the quarter was really affected by a couple of things, really tax-only permanent tax items, really was due to the unfavorable mix between U.S. and foreign income. The tax on – the U.S. tax on foreign income and some permanent disallowances of deductions. So that’s what we would expect aligned right now. And there’s an opportunity to take a better look at that.
Anthony Lebiedzinski: Understood. Okay. Thank you. And best of luck.
Jason Dies: Thanks, Anthony.
John Witek: Thank you.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Next, we’ll go to the line of Matt Swope from Baird. Please go ahead.
Matthew Swope: Good morning, Jason and John. Jason, you’ve done a fantastic job in the interim role, but it’s gone on for a long time. We’ve got an interim CFO now as well feels like the Board is up in the air with all the changes that have gone on and an impending vote. Can you help us feel more comfortable about – and it’s something a little more permanent in terms of management here, both on the Board side. And maybe you could remind us when the next Board vote is and then with the CEO and CFO positions?
Jason Dies: Yes, I’ll take that in two parts. So we do have our shareholder annual meeting on Monday, May 6. So that will be the time when we see this new constitution or new iteration of the Board take effect. Look, what I would say is the Board has undergone significant change over the past year, right? I mean, there’s no doubt about that. Even back before the proxy over a year ago, we had changes to the Board. The Board has been working through that. I will tell you they’ve been very effective at helping us to create the mandate and the strategic direction going forward. If you look back over the past six to nine months, there’s been absolute clarity from the Board on what we need to get done and how we need to progress against our strategic objectives.
So from a Board dynamics perspective, I personally don’t have any issue at all. And I don’t think there’s been any hesitation with the Board on what we need to do, how we need to progress the business and kind of what the priorities are for PB as we go forward. So there’s been tremendous stability from that respect despite board members for sure coming on and off the board. I look forward to working with the new board as of May 6, many of them have been around for a bit. And so I do know them and have a comfort level with them and think we’ll be able to work together effectively to progress our goals. On the CEO search, we’re kind of in the same spot that we’ve been in for a while. And we have had no updates, obviously, on that today to announce.
We are in a similar place this quarter as we were last quarter with the Board considering internal and external candidates for the role. I will say the additional point I want to make on this is that the Board continues to give me a very active mandate to execute on that strategic set of priorities that I talked about before. And they’ve supported me soup to nuts on the decisions that I’ve made as we’ve progressed the business over the past couple of quarters. So we’ve made a lot of progress over the last six months, especially on driving better execution and improving our cost base. And I remain very optimistic about what we continue to do as we look forward over the second half of the year.
Matthew Swope: That’s all helpful, Jason. Thank you. And would it be right to assume that post the shareholder meeting next week, something could happen before May is out to get a little more permanent on some of those?
Jason Dies: Look, I’m not going to prejudge or preannounce anything that the Board may or may not do. You can understand that making a decision around a CEO, for sure, and a CFO in particular, are the most important decisions the Board can make, and I respect them for taking the time and effort that they need to make sure that we have the right person in place to take Pitney Bowes forward.
Matthew Swope: That’s fair enough. Thank you. And then on SendTech and Presort really good numbers in both. But obviously, both businesses that are under some secular pressure. Can you highlight – you guys mentioned in your comments, both the continued reduction in the meter base in SendTech and then the decline in volumes in Presort. As we model forward, how do you think about just sort of an average secular decline in both of those things, both in postage meters and in volumes in Presort?
Jason Dies: Yes. Look, I’ll take them one at a time. And I would say the market headwinds have not changed substantively in any business in either of the two businesses from what we’ve seen. So as you think about the market decline in Presort on first-class letters, it’s been pretty steady. Off the top of my head, it’s been in the 6% to 8% decline range if memory serves. The good news is, as I’ve said, we’ve been able to continue to grow revenue, not just the past couple of quarters, but the past few years in that business. And again, as you well know, Presort is a little countercyclical. As those first-class volumes go down, our opportunity to in-source volumes from other parties goes up. And so I do like the opportunity that Presort has ahead of it going forward to continue to do that, to continue to bring volumes in.
And as we’ve demonstrated, we can make those volumes accretive very quickly and can do it in a very productive way that drives both topline and bottom line growth. On the SendTech side, again, no change in the mail trajectory on that either. What I will say on the SendTech side is we’ve done a tremendous job on two fronts over the past couple of years. One is with our new product portfolio, which is now a refreshed from the top of the line all the way down to the bottom of the line. Over the past couple of years, we’ve been able to outrun the market headwinds just by bringing new products with new value into the market. And that’s the key point. We keep finding ways to deliver value to clients on those products. The thing that’s particularly interesting on SendTech is the shift we’ve been able to make in to an adjacent space and shipping, which gives us tremendous opportunity going forward.
