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Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (MTD)

Q3 2016 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 3, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our Third Quarter 2016 Mettler-Toledo International Earnings Conference Call. My name is Jennifer, and I will be your audio coordinator for today. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn our presentation over to your hostess for today's call, Ms. Mary Finnegan. Please proceed, ma'am.

Mary T. Finnegan - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Jennifer, and good evening, everyone. I am Mary Finnegan. I'm the Treasurer and responsible for Investor Relations at Mettler-Toledo. I'm happy that you're joining us tonight. I am joined by Olivier Filliol, our CEO, and Bill Donnelly, our Executive Vice President. I need to cover just a couple of administrative matters. The call is being webcast and is available for replay on our website. A copy of the press release and the presentation that we will refer to on today's call is also available on the website. Let me summarize the Safe Harbor language, which we have on page two of the presentation. Statements in this presentation which are not historical facts constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see our Form 8-K. All of the forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by reference to the factors discussed under caption, Factors Affecting our Future Operating Results and in the Management's Discussion & Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in our Form 10-K. Just one other thing, on today's call, we may use non-GAAP financial measures. More detailed information with respect to the use of and the differences between non-GAAP financial measures and the most directly comparable GAAP measure is provided in our Form 8-K. I will now turn the call over to Olivier.

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Mary, and welcome to everyone on the call. I will start with a summary of the quarter and then Bill will provide details on our financial results and guidance. I will then have some additional comments before we open the lines for Q&A. The highlights for the quarter are on page three of the presentation. Let me start by saying it was a very good quarter and it reflected strong strategy execution by our teams around the globe. Local currency sales growth was 9% in the quarter with broad-based growth in all regions and most product lines. Demand in the Americas and Europe was very good. Asia, rest of the world did particularly well with good growth in China and strong growth in most other countries in this region. We are very happy with these results, which reflects solid market conditions and as already mentioned, continued strong execution of our strategies. With the benefit of our margin and cost initiatives, we had good growth in margins which contributed to excellent growth in earnings per share. Cash flow was also quite good in the quarter. We are very happy with our performance as well our outlook for the remainder of the year and 2017. Before I turn it to Bill to cover the numbers, let me comment on the management changes that we announced today. Many of you have met Shawn Vadala most recently at our Investor Meeting in California in July. He has worked with Bill for almost 20 years and was promoted to CFO three years ago. Shawn is highly respected within our organization for his knowledge of our business and its processes as well as his business acumen. Shawn has been a key contributor to many of our margin enhancement programs. For example, pricing has been…

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Olivier, and hello everybody. Let me reiterate or reinforce Olivier's last point. I'm pleased about the transition that we've put in place, and proud that we have developed these two strongly highly capable leaders in Shawn and Oliver. Further I'm happy to continue to serve this great company and help drive its development for the coming two years, and of course, I also look forward to working with all of you. Now, let me come back to the quarter and cover the financials. Sales were $650.6 million in the quarter. That's an increase of 9% in local currency. The Troemner acquisition contributed about 1% to that growth. On a dollar basis our sales grew by 8% as currencies reduced sales by about 1% in the quarter. On slide number four, you have local currency sales growth for the third quarter. Our sales grew 7% in the Americas, 8% in Europe, and 11% in Asia/rest of world. America's growth excluding Troemner was about 6%. In the next slide we provide year-to-date local currency sales growth which was 6%. By region, Americas had a growth of 7%. Europe is 4% and Asia/rest of world has increased 8% on a year-to-date basis. Now on to slide number six. We outline sales growth by product area for the quarter. Lab had good growth with local currency sales growth of 9%, of which approximately 2% was from Troemner. Industrial increased by 8% and food retailing increased by 13%. All these comparisons are versus the prior year. The next slide summarizes year-to-date sales by product line. Lab had a local currency sales growth of 8%, industrial, 5% and food retailing 6%. Now to slide number eight. Let me walk you through the key items in our P&L for the quarter. Our gross margins were 56.8%,…

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Bill. Let me start with summary comments on business conditions. Lab had a very good growth in the quarter. All product lines performed well. Our strong product pipeline, benefit of Field Turbo investments and continued strong sales and marketing programs are all contributing to favorable results. Spending by our biopharma customers continues to be favorable. While government and academia was not strong in the West, it's not a big segment for us. Industrial was stronger-than-expected in the quarter, including core industrial which increased mid-single digits. Core industrial was particularly strong in Asia/rest of the world, but was up in China as well. In the Americas and Europe, we benefited from some projects in transportation and logistics, but the core industrial markets remain difficult. Product inspection was up strongly in the quarter, with particularly good growth in Americas and Europe. We continue to penetrate large multi-national food companies as the supply of choice as they seek to standardize the product inspection equipment. We have made some good inroads over the last 12 months to 24 months and we expect good results in the fourth quarter as well. Finally, retail increased 13% in the quarter, much better than we had expected as some projects moved forward for Q4. We had good growth in all regions. We would expect retail to be down in the fourth quarter. Now let me make some additional comments by geography. Sales growth in the Americas continues to be very solid. Biopharma and food were our strongest segments. Lab had growth against strong comparisons in the prior year. Product inspection and retail did very well in the quarter with a number of large projects. Core industrial also had growth and benefited from some project activity in transportation and logistics, but as expected, many industrial segments remained weak.…

Operator

Operator

Our first question comes from the line of Tim Evans with Wells Fargo Securities.

Tim C. Evans - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities

Thank you so much. On the strength in industrial, it sounded like the growth there was driven primarily – or the surprise I should say – was driven primarily by a couple transportation and logistics items. If you stripped those out, would the underlying growth have kind of been that low single-digit territory where it's been running? And secondarily, I was wondering if those two projects were pulled forward from Q4. Thanks.

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

So maybe, so first, for our industrial business in total, the key good performer was actually product inspection. Product inspection grew by low double-digits in the quarter. We did do mid single-digit kind of growth in our, what we would refer to as our core industrial business. That business would have been maybe – trying to do the math here in my head – maybe 1.5 less without the T&L projects. The T&L projects maybe weren't as close on our radar screen, and frankly they are a little bit smaller. The retail projects did move from Q4 into Q3, and that's the one that was we more had in mind with that reference to coming a little earlier than we expected. The T&L project I think largely came in maybe in total a little better than we expected, but wasn't so much different than we expected from a timing point of view.

Tim C. Evans - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Richard Eastman with Robert W. Baird. Richard Eastman - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Hi. Just a couple quick things. Good afternoon, by the way. Could you just dig into pricing here a little bit? Not just on this quarter, but also Bill, what kind of price? Did we trendline price out into 2017 when we talk about guidance?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Yeah. We did. We run a couple different scenarios. So I think the good news on pricing is that the tools we have, the strategies we have, the products we get to apply pricing to continue to get better. But it is a lower inflation environment globally. That represents some different challenges, so I think kind of at a baseline level, I could imagine we maybe only do 150 bps next year. But I also see some upside in terms of Shawn and the team are putting together some new things in the area, for example of services, where I think we have some opportunity and also reaching out to some other countries. So I hope that there is a little bit of upside to that number too. Richard Eastman - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Okay. And then I also just had a question, Olivier, when we talk about the 5% growth for 2017, would you just kind of handicap the risk to that number, either geographically or by product segments? I'm curious, where might you see the biggest risk, and conversely, maybe the one area or two areas where you see the best possibility of upside?

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Okay. In terms of risk, if I look to Asia, it's particularly China, and how will industry do in China? And that's rather difficult to predict and as we described before, for industry China, their segments that do well, chemical, food and so on and the others still difficult. But forecasting and anticipating how the Chinese economy do overall is difficult and the industrial business is particularly exposed to the cycles in China. And of course we have also comparison topics. We have, for example, a very strong performance in biopharma, I would here highlight, including also in Europe. And we going to feel that next year. How will this evolve is, in that sense a certain risk in it. Now, on the upside, I would say China industry could actually clearly come stronger in than we expect. As I mentioned before, there is a high volatility on that one, so that's one. If biopharma continues to be that strong, we would benefit across many businesses. That would be really nice. And then there is a certain pent-up demand that we had always seen when a overall economy strengthen, pent-up demand in CapEx where core industrial would benefit in particular. So that's another upside that I could see. Richard Eastman - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): One thing strengthened. Okay. And just maybe one last question, promise; just kind of open ended question here a little bit. I think – Olivier, I think you and Bill, if I'm not mistaken kind of do your annual budget – global tour of your regions in September/October period. And I'm just curious if there's any next level observations either politically or from a business perspective that – if I'm right on the timing of your tour – that you brought back with you from, in particular China?

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Particular China. Actually...

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

China, I think the one thing the guys told us about was that at the beginning of next year the Chinese Politburo will do their changes. The two top guys will stay in place. If we look back at that historically, this has typically been a time where you maybe see a little bit is – like, people kind of wait-and-see. But the guys are a little bit more optimistic this year, because with the two top guys staying in place and a lot of people frankly worried about the Chinese economy that there will be more emphasis to kind of keep growing. And so, I don't think – the five-year plan's in place and I think it's just – they are optimistic that we won't see a slowdown there.

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Actually, in that context the change takes place early in the year and everybody feels by Chinese New Year the uncertainty should be gone. This is different to past changes. And past changes where really the whole team, and this time it's a few people that will retire, age wise, and so there is continuity in the political leadership. One other highlight that we saw during this business review in China was our strengthening position in lab and in particular, Pipettes and pH. I was very pleased to hear that we are winning market positioning and becoming leaders in Pipettes and pH in China which is – typically takes a couple of years and is very attractive, because of course these are businesses with great profitability, great consumable streams. So this is our examples. We had certainly many more from other countries too. One that for example just to share with, in India we are so pleased to see how the growth goes there. We talked a lot about this Made in India that how this is helping. I mentioned that I love it, because for us we always depend also that the industrial manufacturing is important, drives quality, drives to export industry and that's for example something that I could feel very strongly when I met the Indian team. We see it in our good numbers. They one thing, next year they are moving to a VAT tax structure and that could in the short-term impact a little bit our numbers. But, so every country has something specific. And it was good to sense it. All in all, we came back from the tour in a very positive way. Extremely pleased by the plans, but also – and I think you referred to that a little bit, the macroeconomic and the government environment, we feel good about that. Richard Eastman - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Okay, great. Thanks for the color.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ross Muken with Evercore ISI.

Ross Muken - Evercore Group LLC

Analyst · Ross Muken with Evercore ISI

I'm curious, on the biopharma side, whether by any of this sort of distinct customer sub-segments you saw notable changes in demand or whether there was any bias between higher-priced instrumentation, lower price instrumentation, because we've definitely seen some choppiness from, maybe not peers, but others who address the customer base. So we're just trying to discern if it was a price point question or really it's maybe more specific to certain sub-segments.

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Was actually really broad based, and important to say, it's certainly not particular the big pharma. Actually we even saw a few ones in big pharma that slow down some of their purchasings due to internal things like new procurement initiatives and so on. Now, it was in essence broad based. We see good activities with CMOs. We see good activities with CTOs. And we have many businesses that serve this market. So from production to research, we benefited. And I didn't see any particular patterns between the more sophisticated or the more value instruments. It was broad based.

Ross Muken - Evercore Group LLC

Analyst · Ross Muken with Evercore ISI

Thanks, Olivier. And maybe, Bill, just quickly on the tax line for next year, I would have thought you guys – maybe you mentioned it and I missed it but – have gotten a little bit of a benefit from the stock comp tax shield. I'm just curious what the assumption is there.

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

So, we assumed a 24% rate now. We are working through the models. As you guys know, we've been hitting this 24% tax rate for a while, but running a cash tax rate lower than that, in part explained by stock options. So we're – got to go through and see with the accountants where we come out, but I would assume that that could benefit us a couple percentage points when things get final. I think what – I'm not sure how much you've studied it yourself, Ross, but one of the things that I think is awkward about it is, it's got to mean people could have quite different tax rates by quarter. So, one of the things we would be dealing with is, we could maybe estimate what the full year impact was, but the nature of it would make our tax rate jump around quite a bit in the quarters, and I think it will take an increased level of investor communication to predict that. And in part, that's why I think we'll wait until maybe February to elaborate on what it will precisely mean for us. But you're right, it's positive.

Ross Muken - Evercore Group LLC

Analyst · Ross Muken with Evercore ISI

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Steve Beuchaw with Morgan Stanley. Steve C. Beuchaw - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hi. Good afternoon. Just a couple of clarifications for me. (35:54)

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Hey, Steve. If you are still talking, I think we lost you. It's gotten very quiet.

Operator

Operator

And Steve, your line is open. Steve C. Beuchaw - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hello?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Steve?

Operator

Operator

And I believe we've lost Steve. And our next question is from the line of Isaac Ro from Goldman Sachs. Isaac Ro - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Hey, Good afternoon, guys. Thank you. I want to spend a minute on Europe. You had a big quarter there and I know you called out the pull forward effect in the retail business. Hoping you could maybe quantify how much that contributed to the local currency growth and wondering if maybe there was a – secondary effects where maybe your market share gains that you referenced were concentrated in the region and that also helped. Just trying to reconcile the fact that you grew so well there versus what we're seeing everywhere else.

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Bill will talk about the quarter effect. Let me just say, overall, it was a great quarter for Europe. Lab and product inspection was particularly strong, really. And also for Q4, in general, good, but we will have declined in retail. But for example, product inspection, that did very well in Q3, will continue to do also Q4 well. So maybe, Bill, just on this effect between the two quarters?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

So our retail business in Europe was – sorry, lost my spot – was up about 14% and I think it will be down probably double-digits in the fourth quarter. So it's just kind of a timing topic. As you know, our retail business at the gross and operating margin line's a little less than the other businesses. So, not such a material impact in terms of operating margin and profitability flow through, but yes, timing wise that was the impact. Isaac Ro - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Got it. And then just a clarification question on China. Appreciate your comments on the political backdrop. I just want to clarify that that's the reason why you guys kind of called out the potential for a little bit of risk next year in that region as opposed to any fundamental changes in key end markets. Just want to make sure I understood the sources of risk that you guys are keeping an eye on?

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Hey, I would say on China, we have seen that predicting China is little bit more difficult and I think particularly for the industrial business. And it's difficult to say when certain industry will pick up again and start to really invest in capacity expansion and all these things. And it could also turn in the other direction. So we are cautious about particular the industrial business. On the lab business I feel much more comfortable that we will have a steady growth. Isaac Ro - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Understood. Thanks so much, guys.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Derik de Bruin of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Derik de Bruin - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Derik de Bruin of Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Hi. Good afternoon.

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Hey, Derik.

Derik de Bruin - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Derik de Bruin of Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Just a few questions. So, Bill, can you quantify or just give us some guidance on what you are looking for in terms of gross margin expansion year-over-year 2016 to 2017? What's embedded in your guidance?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

40 basis points, 45 basis points, something in that range up to 50 basis points depending kind of on how currency plays out, and also of course the comments on our pricing initiatives as well, whether we do a little bit better than the 150 bps.

Derik de Bruin - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Derik de Bruin of Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Great. At your Analyst Day you mentioned, and you just mentioned on the call here your initiative to sort of target and discover where you installed base is and sort of targeting upgrades and replacements in that. I guess, how far into that initiative are you and I guess when we really start seeing some incremental benefits of that? And the question is like, how much of your installed base do you think is amenable to that sort of activity?

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

So, we have two big data initiatives that we talked about at the Investor Day. One was these old product replacement initiatives where we have today a very good transparency on all our products installed around the world. And we data mine this to, and associate specific marketing programs to bring these products either under the service contract or upgrade/replace the product. This is ongoing and in that sense we have already benefit. But it's a long journey. This installed base is so huge, and of course our customers don't instantly replace it just because we send the marketing materials or we send over a salesperson with a dedicated value proposition. So I see that as one of many initiatives that we have in Spinnaker that help us drive further growth. We see already the benefit. It will continue to benefit us for many more years. And the same is true actually for the second initiative where we generate sales force targets based on big data analytics and this is something we started to pilot early in the year and we have been scaling it up in Q2. We start to see the benefits, but we have many more years to go until we see saturation in the upside of that.

Derik de Bruin - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Derik de Bruin of Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Great. And then just wanted a clarification. For 2017, what's embedded in terms of the interest income expense line?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

So on interest expense we've got $32.6 million built in.

Derik de Bruin - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Derik de Bruin of Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Great. Thank you. Very helpful.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Tycho Peterson with JPMorgan.

Tycho W. Peterson - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Tycho Peterson with JPMorgan

Hey, thanks. Can you maybe talk on expectations by segment for 2017, what's embedded in guidance for each of the divisions? And then can you quantify what you are expecting for growth in China as well?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Sure. So let me start with the product areas. So I think something in the mid single-digits for the lab business makes sense, 5%, 6%. I kind of it use now the midpoint of our overall range. In terms of our industrial business, something in the 5% range as well, mid single-digits, but maybe the mix there would be our product inspection business growing faster than our core industrial business. And then a flat or maybe low single-digit growth in retail would kind of get you to the overall picture. And then if you look at it geographically, we're thinking Europe could be low to mid depending on best case/worst case. The Americas probably mid single-digits and then both Asia and China overall, we think mid single-digits probably anyway and could be into the high single-digits.

Tycho W. Peterson - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Tycho Peterson with JPMorgan

Okay. And then can you comment on linearity in the quarter? I know you had the question before about kind of your global tour, but I'm actually just wondering how things progressed throughout the quarter and then any commentary on October trends in particular, if things were off trend relative to what you saw? Thank you.

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

I mean, we finished with good order entry, which would be an early indicator for us in terms of September. I think the combination of October and November, which is the piece we have the most visibility on remains pretty solid. I think, as you know Tycho, many of us in the peer group have a certain amount of budget flush. I think we made a reasonable assumption in terms of it being a typical year with budget flush. But December is always the hardest one to predict. Things just come that you didn't have on your radar at all and you just hope you got at least as many as last year.

Tycho W. Peterson - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Tycho Peterson with JPMorgan

Okay. And then just lastly on food retail. I know you talked about that being down in 4Q, but just a visibility on kind of orders there. Are there some bigger tenders coming through? Obviously you saw some pull forward in 3Q. Just wondering what the outlook for that business is.

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Hey, if you're okay, Tycho, I think we might have a little bit. It tends to be that after Thanksgiving, and people tend to avoid in the holiday season delivering on many big projects. But there is a lot of work done by our customers in terms of thinking about the next year. So maybe when we see it or when we talk again in February, we'd have a bigger or a better way to answer that. At this point, there are a number of big jobs and that are in play, but the way those work out, what percentage of the big job you get, we won't know for a little while, much less the timing on them.

Tycho W. Peterson - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · Tycho Peterson with JPMorgan

Okay. Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dan Arias with Citigroup.

Daniel Arias - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Dan Arias with Citigroup

Good afternoon, guys. Thanks. Bill, you touched on service. Do you think service growth outstrips product growth again next year? And if so, how wide do you sort of envision that spread being?

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Actually, this is our strategy. We feel like we can grow service. We want to grow service more than the product growth. And yes, this is part of our plan for next year. If we grow as we guide you, this should actually be possible. We have very good programs in place. And we have seen, actually, different regions with very strong growth year-to-date in service. I would highlight, for example, Asia. So, yeah, I have that expectation for next year.

Daniel Arias - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Dan Arias with Citigroup

Okay. And then maybe just on the margin opportunity next year, if you look at indirect spend, which I think is something that you guys have been targeting, how much of what you see there in percentage terms is what you might call effectively managed or sort of where you want it, versus what's still open for improvement, and do you think that can be a meaningful source of savings next year as we look to 2017? Thanks.

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Sure. So, our indirect spend number is actually the base of it, it's a number in excess of our material spend or direct material spend. I think it's the amount we have under control is in the $500 million range. We have – sorry, the amount of it's in the $500 million range and I think we have more than 50% now being under what we would refer to as category management. So I think that number will climb a little bit, but I think the way we look at it is we're always trying to come up with new programs that can drive further savings in there. I think we, this year, will save a number in the high single-digit million range and I think we should be able to deliver a number in that range again next year.

Daniel Arias - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Dan Arias with Citigroup

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Groberg with UBS.

Jonathan Groberg - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · Jonathan Groberg with UBS

Congratulations for the quarter. Although, I have to say, Bill, it's a sad day to get the press release that we got today that you're leaving although. I've been talking with a few clients, we say only you guys could blow out a quarter and leave yourselves two years for the transition, so I appreciate that.

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Sure.

Jonathan Groberg - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · Jonathan Groberg with UBS

And I guess just a couple of follow-ups here. Around the quarter itself, it looks like maybe about $0.05 of the quarter you didn't pass on to the full-year. Is that just conservatism, is that some of the pull forward, maybe talk a little bit about that?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Yeah, a little bit – yeah, the movement on the retail is probably the retail projects is probably the biggest piece.

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

I think Mary maybe told me currency got worse by a $0.01 or $0.02 I think as well.

Jonathan Groberg - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · Jonathan Groberg with UBS

Okay. And then, Olivier, on the Field Turbo update, I think you said you were going to add 200 people in 2017. Any particular geography or customer segmentation standout in terms of where those are going?

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Yeah. Hey. Lab gets quite some attention, and we will add a couple of people for example for our automated chemistry business that we presented to you also in July. We are adding a couple of people for our pH lab business that has a high profitability. And from a geographic standpoint, we have for example Southeast Asia, where we're adding again quite a significant number of people in the context of building up Philippines, Indonesia. But it's relatively broad-based. I had presented today to the board the annual plan where we're adding turbos and we had a geographic map on it. It was nice to see how well spread it is and that's actually the strength of the program that we are working on many projects in parallel and you have many managers that are also supervising and managing these.

Jonathan Groberg - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst · Jonathan Groberg with UBS

Okay. Thanks a lot.

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Steve Beuchaw of Morgan Stanley. Steve C. Beuchaw - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Hi. Can you guys hear me this time?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

We can, Steve. Steve C. Beuchaw - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Okay. Well, thanks for giving me a second crack at it here. So I'm going to ask just one question, but it's a three part or so that's why I'm going to limit myself to just one. The basic topic is are there any items you might want to flag in terms of the progression over the next year or so from quarter-to-quarter? Specifically, I'm wondering and this is I guess a follow-up to Tim's question, is there any impact from timing items in the third quarter that might actually impact 2017 given you mentioned some of those were actually items that were further out? The second piece would be selling days. Any selling day abnormalities, either actually in the third quarter or looking forward? And then the third part of my three-parter is, anything next year aside from the tough comp that we should consider as you think about the progression of incremental margins?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Okay. Good questions. I have answers to at least some of them. Let me start with those and I will have Mary flipping me some lines as well as Shawn. So progression for quarter-to-quarter, I think we kind of mentioned in the conference call script that I think Q3 is got to be a tough comp a year from now. I think you can kind of play it out that way. Not all of it will. If you look at incremental margins it won't be as big an issue there because of the high retail content. You can also assume that we get about a percent or so of sales growth from Troemner in the first two quarters and that stops in Q3 and Q4. In terms of working days, I think the – it's flat in Q3 of this year and Q4, it's minus 2 working days. And for 2017, I think there is a day difference, that we have a day more in Q1 of 2017 and we catch it back up in Q2. And then it looks like there is one less day in Q3. But I don't think those should be so material. In terms of other things to think about, I can't think. Another one might be timing of some of our Blue Ocean Go-lives. I – those don't jump out to me right now in terms of being particularly large units, so I think that that shouldn't be so much of an issue. Yeah, I think all of us are kind of nodding that those would be the key items. I think the one other item would be in response to like a follow-up to make sure it resonated with people. Ross asked earlier about this new accounting regulations surrounding accounting for the income tax benefits of stock options in excess of actual value and I think that we are working on trying to estimate that impact now for the full-year. But I do think the way the accounting rules are written, it will lead to quite a bit of volatility by quarter, and that's something that I think we're going to almost have to guide you quarter by quarter at this stage. And so, I would maybe suggest people just leave it typical Mettler flat 24% for now, and that's what we've given you in terms of guidance. But it will probably be an improved number when we talk to you in February, but we're still estimating what that will be. Did I get all the parts to your questions, Steve? Steve C. Beuchaw - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Sorry. Any impact of timing items in the third quarter on revenues in the first half? It sounded like some of the timing items in the third quarter impacted the events that you actually thought would go further out?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

I think it's mostly a retail topic and it's mostly – will work itself out Q3 to Q4. So, at this stage I don't see anything – but we'll let you know. I don't see anything happening in the fourth quarter that would push things out to Q1 in particular. Steve C. Beuchaw - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Thanks so much.

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And your next question comes from the line of Brandon Couillard with Jefferies.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Brandon Couillard with Jefferies

Thanks. Good afternoon.

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Hi, Brandon.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Brandon Couillard with Jefferies

Bill, you may have just answered my question in the context of the number of days in the fourth-quarter. But even if we strip out the pull-forward of the food retail surge in the third quarter, on the two, three, four year stacked comp basis, you still accelerated on each of those metrics pretty materially in the third quarter, which your guidance seems to suggest a step backward in the fourth, is that simply the days' effect?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Yeah. It's – hey, I think the – if you look kind of the impact of the retail moving between the two quarters is 2%. So if you start by reconciling we grew 9%, 8% organically. You kind of get 2 points off to compare the two quarters and then there is 1 point or 1.5 point left. And some of that could be working days. Some of it's the – just the forecast of how we see things. Some of it might be we're just underestimating a budget flush. I think it – I would acknowledge that it's the quarter for us that we find most difficult to forecast, Brendon. But we had done the same stack analysis you did along with a series of other internal forecasting measures to kind of come up with this number and we think it's realistic, but I guess we'll see when the numbers come through.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Brandon Couillard with Jefferies

Okay. And then two more. Do you actually give the China growth rate in the third quarter? And then secondly, you've pointed to I think a 1% headwind on EPS next year from currency. Does that include the heads roll-off affect?

William P. Donnelly - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Yes. That includes the heads roll-off affect and our growth in China in the quarter was 8% and it's 8% for the full – year-to-date.

Brandon Couillard - Jefferies LLC

Analyst · Brandon Couillard with Jefferies

Super. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And our next question comes from the line of Steve Willoughby with Cleveland Research.

Steve Barr Willoughby - Cleveland Research Co. LLC

Analyst · Steve Willoughby with Cleveland Research

Good afternoon, guys. Two quick things for you. Wondering if you could comment at all about what you're seeing in the U.K. over the last few months post-Brexit? And then secondly just on Field Turbo, now that you're in the third wave of adding people if you could provide any color on how quickly these head count additions are ramping up and how quickly they basically start paying for themselves?

Olivier A. Filliol - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Good to hear on the first one. So just to put in perspective, the U.K. is about 3% of our revenue. And, yes, our business has slowed down and it certainly also associated with the Brexit discussions that we have. Of course, our customer base is faced with uncertainty and we see it in our business. What we also did, we had significant price increases that we implemented in the U.K. to offset, of course, the weakening of the pound. Now, just talking about the pound I wanted you to be aware that we have a net short position towards the pound because we have two major manufacturing plants of our product inspection. So, that's at least on the positive side for us. And we will see how it further develops. Typically, when these things happen in a country you have in the short-term an effect and then things rebalance. The second question about the Field Turbo, so we have different ways. There are so many different projects as I described before, so not all of them have the same payback time, I would for example, Asia-Pac, the investments that we do in Southeast Asia that will have a faster paybacks than for to the investments that I referred to in automated chemistry. But all in all, we say, we want to have them reach a breakeven after a year and kind of after two years they should cover their initial investments, and that's also the beauty when we do these in ways. But on a regular basis, the older ways also helped fund the new ways. Okay?

Operator

Operator

And we have no other questions in queue at this time. And I would like to turn the call back over to our presenters.

Mary T. Finnegan - Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Jennifer. And, hey, thanks everyone for joining the call tonight. Of course, if you have any questions, as always, don't hesitate to send us an email or give us a call. Take care. Thanks. Bye-bye.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your participation and this does conclude today's conference call. And you may now disconnect.