Iron Mountain Incorporated Q1 2003 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Thatcher Thompson - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : Morning, guys

Question: Thatcher Thompson - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : 7.9% organic growth in Q1, and you're still talking 9 to 11% projected for full year '03. Give me some of the data points that give you lots of confidence that we see acceleration throughout the year.

Question: Thatcher Thompson - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : Okay.

Question: Thatcher Thompson - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : I'm surprised at the strength of the margin given what's happening in services, which is very profitable business for you guys. Even your adjusted EBITDA margins are well ahead of our expectation. You suggested we shouldn't project an improvement this year, but if you see services come back, I assume it would impact the margin result.

Question: Thatcher Thompson - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : Okay.

Question: Thatcher Thompson - CIBC World Markets - Analyst : Thanks, guys.

Question: Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities - Analyst : Hi. Good morning. You have about a $28m swing in use of cash and working capital. I know you mentioned a few broad observations, John, as to what impacted that. Can you give us more specific information as to what caused the swing? LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies.

Question: Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities - Analyst : a quick question for Richard. Richard, you mentioned 22% of the role of your annual expected was roll on backlog. Can you put 22% in some perspective? On the assumption it is higher than normal, were there any specific factor that is cause td to be higher than normal?

Question: Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities - Analyst : It is not a capacity issue?

Question: Arnie Ursaner - CJS Securities - Analyst : I guess we take for granted your great quarters. Let me congratulate you on another one

Question: David Gold - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : Hi. Good morning. Richard, can you give us -- I'm not sure how to do it. Quantification for the ramp up sales force for the quarter . Would it be easy to give an idea of headcount so we can see how things transition from the beginning towards the end of the quarter to get some idea of how the quarter benefited from lower expense as things progressed there.

Question: David Gold - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : Okay .

Question: David Gold - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : That's helpful. Thanks.

Question: David Gold - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : That is. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies.

Question: David Gold - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : Also , just a little bit of an update on what's going on overseas? The last we heard there was an auction going on by way of Hayes?

Question: David Gold - Sidoti & Company - Analyst : Fair enough. Thank you

Question: Tim Burn - Robert Baird & Company - Analyst : Good Morning and Thank you for taking my call. What was the foreign exchange impact from the top-line revenues? Given the positive foreign currency translation in Europe, do you know what that is?

Question: Tim Burn - Robert Baird & Company - Analyst : So it's baked into your guidance? LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies.

Question: Tim Burn - Robert Baird & Company - Analyst : Okay. And, Richard, just going back to the sales force shift going on, can you talk about , qualitatively, where you stand relative to expectations, not just in terms of the bodies, because it sounds like you haven't been able to ramp up quickly as you would like. In terms of the transition, IE, are you getting people ramped up to sell shredding as quickly as you wanted? How is the relationship between the core sales force and the national sales force working? Some comments on that would be helpful

Question: Tim Burn - Robert Baird & Company - Analyst : Last question going back to the internal growth rates at 7.9% in the quarter. Is it fair to say that you were a bit surprised by the lower service growth rate or, I should say, it was a bit less than you expected but was storage as expected in the quarter?

Question: Tim Burn - Robert Baird & Company - Analyst : On the service large discretionary projects, do you have a backlog specifically for that? Does it look as it did last year, somewhat better, somewhat worse?

Question: Tim Burn - Robert Baird & Company - Analyst : Great. Thank you.

Question: Franco Turrinelli - William Blair & Company - Analyst : Can you talk about the facility outside London and what is happening in Europe from a business and margin point of view?

Question: Franco Turrinelli - William Blair & Company - Analyst : I know a part of this was moving boxes from one facility to another facility. You didn't say much about the cost of doing that.

Question: Franco Turrinelli - William Blair & Company - Analyst : Is that meaningful in terms of expenses in the quarter that we should be aware of on a go-forward basis?

Question: Franco Turrinelli - William Blair & Company - Analyst : Richard, I'm going to push you a minute on the Hayes thing. We're excited about that possibility. It is clear that that business has not been growing very well, presumably, because you're beating them in the marketplace. My question to you is, what is your thinking in terms of the advantage of scale versus the disadvantage of buying a lower growth rate business

Question: Franco Turrinelli - William Blair & Company - Analyst : Okay. We'll push you in the future.

Question: Harry Blount - Lehman Brothers - Analyst : Mostly a couple house keeping issues. John, first question relates to the tax rate. Could you give me a couple data point as to what is influencing the tax rate this quarter? It looks like it is up a little bit?

Question: Harry Blount - Lehman Brothers - Analyst : What were the tax rates in the quarter?

Question: Harry Blount - Lehman Brothers - Analyst : In terms of the breakdown of revenue between CREAP price and units, can you give us more flavor there?

Question: Harry Blount - Lehman Brothers - Analyst : Okay. And then, also, in terms of facility utilization rate? LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies.

Question: Harry Blount - Lehman Brothers - Analyst : Okay. Then the next quick question relates to the roll. Richard indicated in the prepared remarks that roll is slower coming in this quarter than anticipated. Can you quantify how much business was scheduled to land in the first quarter that might have been pushed out to later quarters?

Question: Harry Blount - Lehman Brothers - Analyst : No problem. The last question I had was on the cogs. You did a fantastic job breaking it out between labor and transportation product. Can you give us more flare on the cog side, what those looked like?

Question: Harry Blount - Lehman Brothers - Analyst : Great. Thanks.

Question: Cliff Greenberg - Bear & Capital - Analyst : Can you give us flavor on your products you're selling, which ones are getting the best traction or feel the best? On the shredding business, remind us how many markets are you now selling the service in and how are you going about adding additional markets and what is the long- term potential as far as revenues you see in that business? LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies.

Question: Cliff Greenberg - Bear & Capital - Analyst : Did you discuss how many sales people you have selling those services? Where are you as far as adding bodies to have a bigger force?

Question: Cliff Greenberg - Bear & Capital - Analyst : In time, how many will be much more than that?

Question: Cliff Greenberg - Bear & Capital - Analyst : thanks.

Question: Harry Blount - Lehman Brothers - Analyst : Hey, guys. Can't get enough . A quick question on the breakdown between the internal growth and the reported growth. It looks to me like if we include the foreign exchange in there, the acquisition impact might have been about $4.5m. Am I doing my math right on that?

Question: Harry Blount - Lehman Brothers - Analyst : Just on the split between domestic and international revenues?

Question: Harry Blount - Lehman Brothers - Analyst : Okay. Thanks . LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies.