Key questions and answers from the first quarter fiscal 2008 earnings call conducted by Church & Dwight on May 6, 2008.

William Schmitz (Deutsche Bank): What was the volume growth during the quarter for the U.S. business?

James R. Craigie: The volume growth for Q1 for domestic would be around 2%.

William Schmitz (Deutsche Bank): Can you comment on the gross margin drivers and offsets?

Matthew T. Farrell: Our cost reduction programs are the biggest drivers for us every quarter. That's part of the backbone of the company. We are no different to anybody else. We have significant price increases, some single and some double digit increases like for resin, diesel, linerboard and corrugated works. We are able to overcome those. We probably have comparable increases to other companies.

Bill Chappell (SunTrust Robinson Humphrey): Do the slotting fees in diesel represent an upside surprise to you in the quarter or they are the difference between last year and this year in terms of earnings growth?

James R. Craigie: It is the year-over-year comparison. We weren't surprised by the diesel because we put the hedging in January and so we knew it was coming. We hedged at a significantly lower price than what the spot price is right now. That was a wind flow for us in Q1 but obviously that doesn't help in future quarters. With respect to slotting, that's just timing. If you want to think about some of the things that impacts slotting, it's going to be timing of your first ships to the accounts and the shelf resets will vary by account. Mix can affect as well; slotting costs are much higher for household versus personal care etcetera.

Bill Chappell (SunTrust Robinson Humphrey): Does the hedge carryover and give any benefit in the second quarter?

Matthew T. Farrell: Not unless if these got to $5.

Bill Chappell (SunTrust Robinson Humphrey): Do you see any changes in ordering patterns and any trade down from the higher price products to some of the Arm & Hammer products?

James R. Craigie: The quarterly pattern wasn't that unusual. We had a couple of strong months, one little soft month. Q2 outlook is in plan with what we expect. We are noticing across some categories some softness, which reflects that we are in a recession. We are noticing a little bit of growth at private label in some categories. We feel our company is recession resistant in some sense. We do up some premium brands, we worry about OxiClean and SpinBrush, but we also have a fair number of value-oriented brands in our laundry business, which is our biggest business. We have value test kits that are doing very well; we have value toothpaste doing well. We are very conscious of the economy. We think consumer spending will take a hit. That's why we went aggressive as we have in managing overhead costs and cutting costs. We are well positioned to handle the current outlook in the environment given our product portfolio and we have been bunkered down for almost a year on cost as we thought the commodity cost will continue to spiral and it's paying off right now in terms of the ability to grow gross margin while most of our competitors are not.

Bill Chappell (SunTrust Robinson Humphrey): Did you realize a net benefit from compaction in Q1 and what are your estimates for Q2?

James R. Craigie: We did but it wasn't the biggest driver. In fact, last time we put the release together, we tried to give some order to the factors and we had concentration in that as the driver of gross margin. As a result of the rollout timing, the benefit of compaction will grow quarter to quarter. By the third quarter of this year, the whole country will be in compaction. That will help us deliver continued gross margin improvement, as we through across the year.

Joe Altobello (Oppenheimer): How much of the 5 cents to 6 cents boost in Q1 reverses in Q2 and how much in the second half of the year?

Matthew T. Farrell: It's not that academic because the slotting costs are going to be a function of several things but some is going to hurt us in the second quarter but also second half.

Joe Altobello (Oppenheimer): Are you seeing any de-stocking activity in your major categories from retailers?

James R. Craigie: There has been a little bit but not much and that's part of the reasons we are being so careful on our inventories. Our consumption is very strong. Whatever level they lower inventories, they are going to have to buy back though it has been minor.

Connie Maneaty (BMO Capital Markets Corp.): You were going to be expanding Arm & Hammer with OxiClean stain removers. Does that mean you are already adding new SKUs since it just shipped in Q4 or you are getting new distributions?

James R. Craigie: It's not distribution. We launched it in both liquid and powder form and it is driving the growth of both the liquid and powder distribution businesses. It's been helpful in the powder business too and it's getting better distribution as we grow. We don't have the power to get full distribution in a short time period like some bigger companies are. Our distribution growth therefore takes a little longer.

Connie Maneaty (BMO Capital Markets Corp.): Do you think the 10% growth through the mega brand Arm & Hammer in Q1 is impressive and does that apply for the whole year?