Ethan Allen

Let me now discuss with Ethan Allen, Chairman and CEO for Rukh Kathwari. For Rukh, How do you explain the myths t Well, first of all, good to see you and good to be on the call. Well, As you just reported, we did have our first quarter and were impacted by the shutdowns, had an impact on cons Our traffic was down, but interestingly, our sales, written sales in a retail division were up 5. 2% during the quarter, despite all that issues. Where were impacted was the fact that we have a major program with the US government and the shutdowns, stock so having the impact of the shutdown to us was impacted our sales. But overall, as I said, were happy that we had for our written sales in our retail division were up 5. 2%. Were able to make sure that we strengthen our programs. And interestingly also, we had of course made t We increased our marketing spend t 4% from 2. 3%. Having said all of those t We are a vertically integrated company. We manufacture almost close to 80% of our products in our manufacturing in North America. We have retail design centers all over North America. We also, despite the fact that we have been giving strong dividends, we ended up with $194 million of cash, we give a special dividend of $6 million. We are a vertically integrated company. So making many rare, very unusual from making 80%, as I said, as that map shows from Vermont to North Carolina to Mexico to Honduras. We also deliver our products at one price to our clients, anywhere in North America, whether you're living in Seattle or Miami or New York. All of those t So we're looking forward to the fact that we have strengthened our offerings. We have a strong interior design network. We are continuously looking at the impact of tariffs. So it's every day or every week we take a look at what is going to happen. W