Apr 30, 2008
Operator
Good day, and welcome to the RSC Holdings first quarter conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode.
We will be facilitating a question-and-answer session towards the end of this conference. The slides of the accompany, the earnings call, are located at www.rscrental.com.
My name is Carmen. I will be your coordinator today.
As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. The webcast and the first quarter earnings slide presentation including any non-GAAP reconciliation tables that are warranted, can be accessed on the RSC Holdings website at www.rscrental.com, under the About Us tab.
A replay also will be available shortly after the conclusion of the call and posted on the RSC website. Before the presentation begins, RSC would like to alert you that some of the comments such as company's outlook and responses to your questions may include forward-looking statements.
That are based on certain assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual future results may vary materially. In addition, the factors underlying the company's outlook are dynamic and subject to change, and therefore, this outlook and all other information mentioned today speaks only as of today, and RSC does not intend to update this information to reflect future events or circumstances.
RSC encourages you to read this risks and uncertainties discussed in the company's annual report on form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007. Speaking today for the company are Erik Olsson, President and Chief Executive Officer, and David Mathieson, Chief Financial Officer.
I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Erik Olsson.
Please go ahead.
Erik Olsson
Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and welcome, everyone to RSC's first quarter 2008 earnings call.
I will go over some highlights of the quarter, and David will then talk in more detail about our financials. I will also talk about our outlook for 2008, and we will end with Q&A.
We have put together a number of slides to accompany our comments, which you can find on our website. We delivered another quarter of profitable revenue growth by leveraging our business model and executing on our strategy, in spite of slower market growth.
Our rental revenues are up a strong 7% on essentially flat pricing, and we are seeing a very strong underlying free cash flow generation for the year. Our commitment to providing customers reliable access to one of the youngest and most diverse fleets in the industry, superior customer service, and our extensive national footprint, are supporting our ability to increase rental revenues, which now make up 88% of our total revenues.
The first quarter is typically the toughest quarter of our calendar year. That notwithstanding, if you turn to slide number three, you can see that rental revenues grew 7% year-over-year, despite difficult comps versus a year ago, and our same store growth was 4.6%.
Our growth was achieved despite the fact that the environment was less than hospitable. We don't particularly like to talk about the weather, but there is no doubt that the long and hard winter this year delayed projects and lowered overall activity levels, primarily in the Central, Midwest and Northeast areas.
We also continued with our warm start expansion strategy and opened five new branches in the first quarter, bringing the total to 478 branches. We grew our adjusted EBITDA to $183 million, or 43.3% of total revenues, and return on operating capital employed was 23%, well above our cost of capital.
The underlying free cash flow characteristics of the company are very strong. The free cash flow in the quarter was greater than $70 million, if we exclude planned reduction in accounts payable of $114 million, as we reduce our CapEx this year and pay for the fleet we bought in the second half of 2007.
As you can see on slide number four, our adjusted EBITDA reached $183 million for the quarter, up from $179 million in a year ago, and a record $827 million on a trailing 12-month basis. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 43.3% in the quarter, and an impressive 46.3% over the last 12 months.
Turning to slide number five, you can see that our business is focused on the non-residential market, which makes up slightly less than 60% of our revenues, and the industrial market, which now makes up over 35% of our revenues, with only 5% coming from residential. We believe this provides us attractive end market diversity that complements our strong national footprint.
Our core rental business continued to see strong growth in the quarter with the industrial business showing the highest level of growth. The industrial or non-construction, business provides different cyclicality and seasonality from the traditional construction markets, and our plan is to keep growing this segment faster than the construction segment, and gradually further increase the overall weighting of industrial in our revenue mix to further diversify the end markets we serve.
In fact, we have been able to continue to build our leadership position in this market. RSC continues to see above company average growth from this market, as we are serving growing industries within the industrial sector, such as petrochemical, mining and power plants.
We are closely monitoring the late 2008/2009 macroeconomic forecasts, which are pointing to further softening in the non-residential construction markets, and I will come back to how we are addressing this later in this call. Overall market demand varies across geographies.
Markets like Texas, Midwest, Gulf Coast and Canada are showing healthy demand, while housing related markets like Florida, California and Arizona are down sharply. All this suggests that RSC's geographic diversity across North America, along with our large and expanding industrial presence, our limited exposure to residential markets, and our banner fleet makes are significant benefits to us at this time.
Slide number six shows, our rate and volume trends for rental revenues, following a long string of quarters with positive rate improvements we saw rates slip marginally into the negative in Q1 with a 0.4% year-over-year decline. This small decline should be seen against solid volume increase of 7.4% including currency, which is the balancing act we perform on a daily basis.
We could grow faster, but it would put more pressure on rates. On the other hand, if we can grow volumes 7.4% and generate 43.3% adjusted EBITDA in the seasonally slowest quarter, that is a great result in itself.
Our objective is to continue to manage rates very tightly value selling and service, as opposed to price competition. Of course, we are not completely insulated from the competitive environments around us, and we will have to continue to monitor pricing on a daily basis, and continue to manage rates versus volume growth very carefully in this environment to protect profit margins.
Turning now to slide number seven, you see strong utilization of our fleet during our seasonally toughest quarter. Utilization was 68.6% in the quarter, slightly lower than what we normally would like, but this was the result of conscious action we took to hold on to more fleet than we previously would have, by reducing used equipment sales and replacement CapEx to take advantage of our young and well-maintained fleets.
In our view, it would not have been the best use of capital to sell off good quality fleets in Q1 to achieve a certain percentage of utilization, only to reinvest it in new fleet in Q2 or Q3. The prudent thing to do, in our opinion, was to hold on to the fleet during the quarter, even if it marginally affected our utilization.
The used market itself remains healthy, and we have had no problems in disposing of equipment at very good prices, primarily through direct sales to end users. You will also note that our fleet CapEx is down 21% on a year-over-year basis, while we still achieve the 7% year-over-year rental revenue growth.
Furthermore, we continue to make improvement in shop efficiencies, and reached a new low of non-available fleet in the quarter of 7.9%. Time utilization is a key measure of fleet efficiency, and a key driver of daily activity in our company.
The active movement of fleet is critical to maintaining a high level of availability to our customers, while at the same time generating high level of capital efficiency. To give you an idea of the magnitude of fleet movement we do, in the first quarter we moved on average $25 million of fleet at original cost per month between regions.
And, we moved on average $118 million of fleet per month between districts. This means that on an annualized basis, over 60% of our fleet is transferred from one area to another.
Note that these numbers do not include store-to-store movements, which is where the majority of fleet is moved on a daily basis. As I already mentioned, the fleet is in excellent condition thanks to our high standards for preventive maintenance, where we were 99% current on the manufacturers' recommended steps at the end of the quarter.
Our fleet at original cost amounted to $2.7 billion and the average age was 28 months. We believe this age provides us with tremendous cash flow flexibility on a go forward basis, because as already noted, we can reduce CapEx and comfortably age this well-maintained fleet.
With that, I would like to turn the call over to David for a few words on our financial statements.
David Mathieson
Thank you, Erik, and good afternoon, everyone. I would like to spend the next few minutes going over some additional detail on our first quarter financial statements beginning with slide nine.
As Erik just said, rental revenues are up a solid 7% for the quarter, despite a very tough winter. Merchandise revenues were down 10.9%, and we believe we are now running at a sales level we can maintain.
Used equipment sales are down, as planned, as we want to preserve fleet in order to minimize capital expenditures going forward. This has the effect of aging our fleet, and at the end of the quarter it was 28 months.
Margins on rentals are down due to the lower utilization we elected for this quarter, higher depreciation on rental equipment and higher fuel costs, the latter being up year-over-year by $5 million. We are maintaining historically good margins on both merchandise and on used equipment sales.
Continuing to slide ten, SG&A is up at 9.4%. This reflects sales force expansion and the additional costs associated with being a public company.
We would normally expect the first quarter to have the highest rate, as this quarter is most impacted by the seasonal slow down. The company expects the margin impact from these costs to lessen as the year progresses and utilization increases seasonally.
Depreciation on non-rental tends to track the fleet spend, as we buy trucks and automobiles for our sales force in line with the expanding fleet. Interest expense is down, as we have lower debt and better rates than this time last year.
Diluted earnings per share, is $0.22, the same as last year. Net income is up, but our share count is also up as last year's financials did not reflect the IPO.
In slide 11, our free cash flow slide, we have for the first time split rental fleet CapEx between replacement and growth. Replacement we define as CapEx required to replace fleet that we have sold, and growth CapEx is where we buy assets to expand or grow our fleet.
You can see from the slide that in line with the outlook for our markets, we have reduced all the CapEx lines. We are slowing down the sales of used equipment, as we aim to reduce capital expenditures.
We can do this as our fleet is young with an average of 28 months, and well maintained. Our cash flow in the first quarter was reduced by $114 million as we paid down our accounts payable by that amount in the quarter for capital expenditures made last year.
So, the underlying free cash flow is much stronger. As the year progresses, you will see that the growth CapEx we spend in 2008 will be significantly less than the growth CapEx in 2007.
For the year, we are increasing our guidance for free cash flow to $130 million to $180 million incorporating $30 million more as we take advantage of the bonus depreciation for cash taxes included in the Economic Stimulus package passed recently. On slide12 is the balance sheet for the last six quarters.
You can see that we have brought down net rental equipment from a peak in the third quarter in 2007, as in the last two quarters our depreciation has exceeded our net capital expenditures. Our debt has gone up $39 million, as we reduced the accounts payable by $114 million as previously mentioned.
If you look at the accounts payable line, last year's accounts payable went from a balance at the end of 2006 of $296 million, to the end of 2007 with a balance of $264 million. That is a reduction of $32 million.
This year, we expect a reduction of approximately $175 million from the end of 2007 [viable] of $264 million. We are very comfortable with our debt levels as we have a highly liquid pool of assets.
Our leverage ratio went up a tick this quarter to 3.4 as expected as we reduced accounts payable. This should improve as we expect strong cash flows for the rest of the year.
Slide 13 details our debt at the end of the quarter. You can see that we have 52% of our debt variable and 48% fixed at the end of March.
However, in April we made another swap effective $250 million bringing our variable debt down to 43% and fixed up to 57%. The earliest maturity of the company's debt is towards the end of 2011.
And, we have adequate available borrowings of $400 million plus. Now, I would like to turn the call back to Erik.
Erik Olsson
Thank you, David. Before we go to Q&A, I want to give you our outlook for 2008.
Please advance to slide number 15. Our full year guidance remains unchanged, with exception of free cash flow, that as we have noted.
We now expect to increase to $130 million to $180 million thanks to the bonus depreciation included in the Economic Stimulus package. We are very pleased with this level of free cash flow generation, considering the fact that we are down shifting from a period of high expansion, and therefore are reducing our accounts payable, which have very favorable terms by $175 million this year.
This means that the underlying run rate of free cash flow in 2008 is around $305 million to $355 million. The outlook for the overall economy, and specifically the construction end market, has progressively weakened for the second half of 2008 and 2009 and visibility is more limited.
Research firms are projecting that RSC's major end-markets will increase at a low single-digit rate for the year. This is consistent with the assumptions we used for determining our guidance.
Within this environment, we are adhering to our strategy of reducing both replacement and growth CapEx in order to maximize cash flow and profit margins. Our CapEx process is very flexible, and allows us to make very near term decisions on CapEx spending, and quickly respond to changes in the marketplace.
For example, at this time basically the only fleet we have on order is for the month of May. This is not unusual or an indication of business demand, but a true reflection of how our model works.
Also, as the year progresses, we may choose to be slightly more cautious with the timing on new store openings, pushing some further out, and we may as in the normal course of our business choose to close or consolidate some marginal stores in order to be well-positioned ahead of potentially slower demand. So, in the event of a shift in business conditions, we believe we are very well positioned to quickly adjust and take advantage of our flexible business model and short planning cycle, and continue to operate at the high level of profitability and efficiency.
I also like to point out that if the market proves to deteriorate more than is expected, we will be generating even more free cash flow than in our outlook, as we would pare back our CapEx spending even further. RSC is continuing to evaluate a variety of uses for our free cash flow including paying down debt, tuck-in acquisitions and the repurchasing of common stock or debt securities.
The company's credit agreements limit repurchases our common stock or debt securities to $50 million this year. In short, we believe that our highly flexible business model, combined with our geographic reach and particularly strong position in an attractive market segment, positions us well as we head into what I expect to be more challenging times.
Accordingly, we feel good about the remainder of the year and our ability to deliver solid growth and performance moving forward. With that, I would like to turn the call over to the operator for the instructions on the Q&A.
(Operator Instructions). And the first question comes from the line of Mike Schneider from Robert Baird.
Please proceed.
Mike Schneider
Good afternoon, guys.
Erik Olsson
Good afternoon.
Mike Schneider
Guys, could you maybe just address the CapEx budgeted? It sounds like you are being more cautious on the CapEx, but if I look back to the guidance; you have not reduced the actual range.
It still ranges from $200 million to $250 million. Is it likely that that range heads lower, or had you just set the bar low enough in your guidance that it does not need to be adjusted at this point?
David Mathieson
Yes, we feel that the range is good enough to keep -- we are sticking with all our guidance except improving our cash flow make.
Mike Schneider
Okay, but it does sound like you did pull back on the sale of equipment during the quarter and held on to more than you maybe ordinarily would have, which would imply that CapEx for the year then to replace that should have come down. Is it just because you guys were going from the high end to the low end, or they're other dynamics at work?
David Mathieson
I think, Mike, that pare back was part of our plan and part of the guidance that we gave. You know we were already well into the first quarter when that guidance was put together.
So, we believe it is still very consistent with what we are seeing.
Mike Schneider
Okay. Then on the sales force, given the lower projections that seem to be unfolding for commercial construction, what have you done in terms of growing the sales force, or indeed, even plans to shrink it as the cycle begins to fade?
Erik Olsson
In the first quarter, it is typically not the quarter where we have big expansion of the sales force. In fact, in the first quarter we had a slight reduction of 12 people -- 12 sales people from the beginning of the year.
We will continue to add and adjust as is fit on the local market levels, and we still believe that the there is room for our sales force to expand in many areas, [at least] on the industrial side.
Mike Schneider
And that sales force can track to 12 people even adjusting -- or even including the store expansions.
Erik Olsson
Right.
Mike Schneider
Okay. And, a final question just on the growth rate, and I apologize if I missed it.
Within the industrial sector, are you able to determine what your industrial account base grew in the quarter versus the non-res?
David Mathieson
Yes, we can tell it grew faster than non-residential, but we do not have it to precision that we would like to get to. But, it is growing faster than non-residential construction, which also grew in the quarter too.
Mike Schneider
Can you ballpark the range or is it too imprecise?
David Mathieson
Yes, [it grew] as much as 50% more than non-res.
Mike Schneider
Okay. Thank you again.
Operator
And the next question comes from the line of Brandt Sakakeeny. Please proceed.
Brandt Sakakeeny
Thanks, Brandt Sakakeeny. Good evening.
Question on the timing of the cash flow for this year, the $130 million to $150 million. Can you just give us a sense of how that is going to flow through the year, and the use of proceeds given the covenant restrictions?
Thanks.
David Mathieson
Yes, we expect the cash flows to be positive going forward. So the second, the third and fourth quarters, we should have positive free cash flow.
Brandt Sakakeeny
And, how quickly do you plan on pulling that free cash flow into either debt pay down or share repurchase?
David Mathieson
Well, we're continuing to look at that, Brandt. The first priority is on business development, and tuck-in acquisitions.
We are looking at some things and if that happens, we will be doing that first.
Brandt Sakakeeny
Okay. And, in light of the AVI numbers and your commentary, and I guess specifically to the acquisition outlook, do you think there is an opportunity to consolidate here in advance of some deterioration in the back half, or just give us your thinking around that aspect.
Thanks.
Erik Olsson
I think there is always opportunity to consolidate or acquire companies. There is never a bad time, or never a really good time.
It is always -- we think it always makes sense if the numbers play out. So, we are not trying to time anything ahead or behind the changes in the marketplace.
Brandt Sakakeeny
Okay. Perfect.
Thank you.
Operator
And the next question comes from the line of Scott Schneeberger. Please proceed.
Scott Schneeberger
Hi, thanks. Hoping back to the industrial market, where do you guys anticipate taking that as a percentage of mix, or is that not the way to think about it?
Just your thoughts on where you want to take that especially in this part of the cycle.
Erik Olsson
Over time, we would like to keep increasing it as we said. We want to grow it faster so that the mix grows.
And, without putting a specific time line, I would like to see it be relatively balanced between non-res and the industrial or non-construction business. So, I would like to take it up to 50% plus.
Scott Schneeberger
Great, thanks. Could you speak to also, within industrial how each end market is holding up?
I think you mentioned petro manufacturing, a few others. Just if you could speak on those how the best ones are holding up, where you might see some deterioration, just a little bit more color one level deeper.
Thanks.
David Mathieson
Well, estimates for industrial in 2008, the market that we are in will continue to grow. Petrochem, mining markets are doing very well, oil and gas.
We want to really diversify our business not to get stuck in any one particular market in industrial. But, really diversify the business we have.
Scott Schneeberger
Sure, and are you increasingly more active in government projects, with state, local, federal?
Erik Olsson
To a very small extent. We are starting to build up in relative to those markets, but it is nothing major.
Scott Schneeberger
Okay, thanks. Switching gears here a little bit, a little bit of negative pricing growth but you alluded to the seasonally soft quarter, pretty impressive EBITDA margin and still some nice volume growth.
It sounds like you are opening up the door for a little bit more flexibility on the price volume balance. Could you just speak to that a little bit more?
Erik Olsson
I did not mean to imply that. Our ambition is still to keep pricing, try to move it back into positive territory if possible.
But, if it remains at this level, right around a zero [mark], and we grow our business by 7% we think that is a great result in itself. But, we are certainly not shifting any gears or shifting any strategy here or trying to -- we're not going to lower rates to get volume.
David Mathieson
We are doing everything we can to keep positive.
Scott Schneeberger
Okay, thanks. And then, just one final one if I could sneak it in.
Going back to the acquisitions question, I think you said in your comments or in the press release, specifically tuck-ins. But, would you do anything of great magnitude or would you do anything that introduces a new leg to your business.
Thanks.
Erik Olsson
I don't think we are looking at new legs for our business. We think there is still a lot to do in our core business.
So, at this time we are only looking at tuck-in acquisitions. That is all we can say, comment upon.
Scott Schneeberger
Okay, thanks very much.
Operator
And the next question comes from the line of Christina Woo. Please proceed.
Christina Woo
Thanks. Good afternoon.
Last time you talked about an example of Florida, some of your weaker markets, giving us examples of how you were able to achieve company averaged EBITDA margins. I was hoping you could update us on some of those tougher markets like Florida and California.
And, how they did during the quarter.
Erik Olsson
We obviously continue to deploy those strategies, as we talked about last quarter, and I think in Florida we are still maintaining those kinds of utilization levels that we talked about last time. California is also more or less on the same level as they were in the fourth quarter, so none of those markets show any sign of recovery at this point, nor do they show any further deterioration.
I would say they're sort of look like flattening out at this very, very low levels.
Christina Woo
Okay, because in the past you said that even in the worst of circumstances, because of all the safeguards you have in place and your processes, you couldn't run the models such that you could get lower than a 40% corporate EBITDA margin. Is that still true, and is that proving out within the different markets that you serve?
David Mathieson
Yes, we wouldn't change that, then of course, in the individual quarter and in the seasonally toughest quarter those numbers can vary a little bit around that 40% mark, but we still stick to that, yes.
Christina Woo
Okay. And then, switching a bit to the rates, with pricing being fourth in importance to customers, perhaps you could walk us through how it is that the rates have come down.
Is it from customers coming to you and demanding that the rates are lower? Or, do you go out to different channel checks and see that the competitor environment has intensified so you proactively reduce the rates?
How does that work?
Erik Olsson
Well, we are not proactively reducing rates. I think what we are seeing is a combination of some customers saying that you can't keep raising your rates as you have in the past.
But, mostly it is responding to competitive pressure where competition is attacking our customers and coming in with significantly lower rates. While we can certainly achieve a premium, that premium can't be -- too big so to speak.
Christina Woo
Right. Was pricing down in the industrial market, as well as in non-residential?
Erik Olsson
We don't really separate those two. It is two different markets, but pricing was better on the industrial side.
Christina Woo
Okay. And then finally, you have talked about tuck-in acquisitions opportunities.
Has anything -- are you seeing with the slowing economy and weakening environment that there are more opportunities out there that you are vetting? Maybe you can give us an update on that.
Erik Olsson
I think we see lots of different opportunities, and I think it is still too soon to say that we we've seen any influx from any distressed companies or people that want to sell out. I think it is too early in the cycle.
But, there are a lot of opportunities out there.
Christina Woo
Okay. Thanks, great.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of [Chris McCray]. Please proceed.
Chris McCray
Hi. I'm just trying to understand the move in accounts payable in '08, versus '07 and '06.
It's a pretty dramatic drop. Can you give us some color on why that happened?
David Mathieson
We have very good terms with the suppliers. So, effectively what we are doing in 2008 is paying approximately $175 million for CapEx we made in 2007.
Chris McCray
So, I understand that you essentially made the CapEx then, but what other terms that come into play when it comes to the actual payment of it now?
David Mathieson
Well, they are very favorable to us. I don't want to disclose the exact terms, but they are favorable to us.
It is notable that it's a big number, and we want to call it out to show the underlying strength of our cash flow in 2008.
Chris McCray
So am I to understand, because I just am not as close to the industry as you guys, but is it simply a matter of you get a better price in exchange for paying faster? Is that the simple way to look at it?
David Mathieson
No, it is the other way around. We pay slower, or we have longer terms with our suppliers.
So what we bought in the second half of 2007, we only have to pay for in the first half of 2008. And, if you look at our CapEx in 2007, and compare that to our CapEx in 2008, it is roughly half.
We're going to spend half the CapEx this year as we did in 2007. So, that reduction in CapEx and those terms, you get this dramatic shift in accounts payable.
Chris McCray
Okay, I got it. On the result, I'm just trying to resolve the minor disconnect between what the analysts were looking for in the quarter, and the maintenance of overall guidance within the range of sales and earnings which is encouraging.
Is it safe to assume that you feel that analysts didn't build enough seasonality into their models, or what else might be going on there?
David Mathieson
I think it is more the seasonality -- guidance.
Chris McCray
From your perspective did you --
David Mathieson
-- because we don't give quarterly guidance.
Chris McCray
So form your perspective you are sort of in line with what you were expecting in the quarter, and folks just didn't match up there.
David Mathieson
Yes, that is correct.
Chris McCray
All right. I'll leave it to others.
Thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of Ana Recinos from UBS. Please proceed.
Ana Recinos
Hi, good evening. First, I just had a quick question.
The original equipment cost in your press release the [2694]. Is that an average number in the quarter, or is that a quarter-end number?
David Mathieson
That is a quarter end number, I believe. Yes, it is quarter end.
Ana Recinos
Okay, thank you. And, you also mentioned to an earlier question that you were seeing competition attacking rates.
Is that coming from either national competitors, or is that more from regional or rental stores?
Erik Olsson
It differs on the local markets. We would certainly sometimes see national players; other times regional, sometimes local players.
But, usually it's the regional and national players.
Ana Recinos
Okay, and my last question, could you give us a little more color on what types of equipment you were still able to get positive pricing for?
Erik Olsson
On rental rates, you mean?
Ana Recinos
On rental rates, right. Where are you seeing better utilization that you are still able to get positive pricing?
David Mathieson
It is more on geography, but (inaudible) equipment.
Erik Olsson
It is -- exactly, it is more the local geographic competitive situation.
Ana Recinos
What geographies are you able to get better pricing from?
Erik Olsson
In certain areas we can see that rates on all types of equipment are down. Whereas in other areas, it is still up.
If we look across, we have ten regions. Three regions have negative year-over-year pricing.
Seven regions have positive year-over-year pricing. So, it is a very mixed picture out there.
Ana Recinos
Okay, thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of [Rafe Lehman] from [E-Invance]. Please proceed.
Rafe Lehman
Hi. More on rates, I guess.
Are you seeing any mixed change leading to rate changes, or are we basically talking about billed rates?
Erik Olsson
This is billed rates.
Rafe Lehman
Okay. And then, on used equipment pricing and demand, what are you seeing there in terms of your sale of used equipment?
Erik Olsson
It remains strong. We're very pleased.
Rafe Lehman
Okay, great. And then, just a couple questions on industrial.
Are you seeing any increase in competitive activity there from others also? We have heard from some competitors they're trying to get into that business.
And, I guess maybe a follow-up on that is, how much of your business is under long-term contracts, and what your renewal rate might be for those contracts?
Erik Olsson
I think the industrial business is competitive as it always has been. We have been going up against these other guys for many years, so it is nothing new there.
We don't feel any change in the competitive pressure. We have not disclosed how much of our business is under contractual rates, but we are renewing contracts at a very good rate without any real hiccups.
And, for the most part, we are also seeing rate increases in those contract renewals.
Rafe Lehman
I guess my sense is that there are greater barriers to entry in that business because you had a presence within companies' locations.
Erik Olsson
That is correct. We have -- not only do we have onsite locations with many of these -- with the majority of our revenues in the industrial business, but we also provide software solutions and other type of ancillary services that provides great value to the customers and where we are.
We believe we are relatively unique with that combination of offering.
David Mathieson
And those customers really value that service, availability and reliability.
Rafe Lehman
Terrific. Thank you very much.
Operator
And the next question comes from the line of Emily Shanks of Lehman Brothers. Please proceed.
Emily Shanks
Good evening. Thank you for taking the questions.
Just on the follow up around the industrial customers. Do you have -- what is your largest customer within that sub-segment?
What would they represent as a percent of sales?
Erik Olsson
Without calling up any names, the largest customer, I think, make up 1.4% of our total revenues.
Emily Shanks
Okay, great.
David Mathieson
We are tremendously diversified.
Emily Shanks
Okay. Terrific.
And then, I know you have gotten a lot of questions around pricing, but I'm just curious. I think you used the words competitors coming in using significantly lower rates.
Are you seeing any competitors come in and actually offer up pieces of equipment for free?
Erik Olsson
Yes, that happens. I wouldn't say it happens very often, but we do hear about it from time to time.
Emily Shanks
Okay. In any specific regions, or does it vary?
Erik Olsson
No, it varies.
Emily Shanks
Okay, great. And then if I could, with just one last question.
If we look at the additional ABL draw that happened on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Was that in line with what your expectations were?
Erik Olsson
Yes, it was, because we [resist] our payables by $114 million. We expect positive cash flows from now on.
Emily Shanks
Great, thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of Lionel Jolivot from Banc of America. Please proceed.
Lionel Jolivot
Can you just elaborate a little bit more on the fuel cost, on the additional fuel cost? If I have the right number, I think you said an additional $5 million during the quarter.
What is your present exposure to fuel cost? And I would have guessed that you would have some ability to pass it to customers in terms of the way you charge it.
So how should we think about it, because fuel costs are probably going to stay up for quite a while from now on? So, would you have any ability to recover part of it?
David Mathieson
Yes, we are addressing that, Lionel. Although, I would say approximately half of the fuel cost increase is actually due to volume.
We have been moving our fleet around tremendously. Erik talked about all the moves, so I would say half of it is volume the other half is price.
We are addressing that. We are trying to get more.
We are increasing our pick up and delivery. We are trying to get more on (inaudible) revenue.
So, really, watch this space. We're doing all we can to recover that.
Lionel Jolivot
So when I look at gross margin in the second quarter and going forward, you would expect gross margin to become more comparable on a year-over-year basis, or should we still have a --?
David Mathieson
Yes, we would.
Lionel Jolivot
And then, going back to the payable, the reduction in payable and the free cash flow, you still have $60 million that you expect to reduce in terms of payables. When is it going to happen?
Is it coming basically in the second quarter?
David Mathieson
Yes, the second quarter.
Lionel Jolivot
Okay, and the last thing, when you started the second quarter, I think your volumes were still in the low 80s. Have you done any buy back activity on the debt or on the stock side since the first quarter?
Erik Olsson
No, we haven't.
Lionel Jolivot
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of Philip Volpicelli from Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.
Philip Volpicelli
Thank you very much. Could you talk a little bit about the trajectory of the business during the quarter?
Was there better business in March than there was in January? And, anything along those lines maybe regionally or by product line, earth moving versus aerial.
Erik Olsson
We saw our model seasonal pick up during the course of the quarter. It was -- as we said we faced some very tough weather and so forth.
But if we sort through all those things, we really saw the normal seasonal pick up coming. And just to give you some color, those trends continue here into April as well.
Philip Volpicelli
So, by taking that each of the months you met your internal budgets?
David Mathieson
Yes, we don't give quarterly or monthly guidance, but the results for the first quarter was in line with our expectations.
Philip Volpicelli
Okay. That's great.
In terms of the fleet age, it went from 26 at the end of the fourth quarter to 28. What level are you comfortable letting that age out to, and should we, as we go forward, continue to see roughly a two-month increase of average age as we go through the year?
Erik Olsson
We are comfortable to age this to the mid-30s, 35 or 36 months, we think is no issue as long as we have our focus on the maintenance and the condition of the fleet. And, we will see our fleet age gradually over the year.
We will buy some more fleets here in the quarters ahead, and therefore our age -- it will not age as fast as it did in the first quarter.
Philip Volpicelli
Great, okay that is helpful. And then, in terms of the new stores, you opened five.
What are the targets for 2008, and what would be the things that would cause you to either postpone or cancel some of those openings?
Erik Olsson
We have said before that we are looking to open more than 20 stores in 2008. And, having said that, each individual store -- we take a look at each individual project when the time comes around to sign a lease contract for a building, or before we hire the people, etc.
I think we just meant to say the obvious. We are not married to any one of our plans.
We will take a close and hard look at it when the time comes around, and if it doesn't make sense, if the local market is softer than we thought when we made the original plans, we may postpone it, and if not, we are going to go ahead.
Philip Volpicelli
And, in terms of the irrational pricing, is that one major competitor that we are seeing that from, or are you seeing that broad based from several different people?
Erik Olsson
You know, Philip, I don't think any one of our competitors have the strategy to be irrational in its pricing, so we don't see that from anyone. I think everybody is trying to manage price as best as they can.
What we see more is on local levels that -- can be either one of them so to speak, on a local level that acts not as rational as we would like. But it is really no one specific.
Philip Volpicelli
Got you. And last question, the dollar utilization number for the quarter.
Could you give us that?
Erik Olsson
No, we don't. We have never given that, and we don't calculate it the same way as all the other guys do, so it creates confusion, I think, out there.
Philip Volpicelli
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Phil Gresh of JPMorgan. Please proceed.
Phil Gresh
Hey, guys. A similar question to the last one about the progression through the quarter, and more specifically on rates.
Where I am going with this is, you kind of talked about our last update in mid-February that you thought pricing would be flat to slightly higher. But with the decline of 0.4% in the first quarter, it kind of seemed to imply that maybe March and April weakened more than that.
So, maybe down 1% or more. I'm trying to understand is that true -- is that right to imply?
Erik Olsson
The sequential pricing improved as we progressed through the quarter. So as we said, our ambition is still to move this above the zero line, and we'll just have to see what the market gets.
Phil Gresh
Okay. And then, on the used equipment sales, do you expect it to be kind of in this low $30 million type of range quarterly for the rest of the year?
Is that what we should think of as a run rate or --?
Erik Olsson
Yes, I believe so, give or take. Again, we don't give specific quarterly guidance here, but --
David Mathieson
--Yes.
Phil Gresh
It's a pretty big step down from last year, so.
David Mathieson
That is correct. We think that's right, yes.
Phil Gresh
Okay, just one other question, you talked about the costs having a lessening impact on the margin as we progressed through the year. I just want to make sure I understand that right, that you do expect the cost to still increase, it is just that they are going to have less of an impact because sales volume will go up, or do you actually expect cost cuts?
David Mathieson
That is correct, yes. We are going to get more sales.
Just seasonally, the second and third quarters are our biggest quarters.
Phil Gresh
Okay, but you don't expect to be cutting costs on the cost of equipment rental line.
David Mathieson
No, we won't
Phil Gresh
Okay. Thanks.
Operator
And the next question comes from the line of Art Weiss of Group G Capital. Please proceed.
Art Weiss
Good afternoon. I just wanted to know how much equipment you acquire under capital lease during the quarter.
Erik Olsson
No rental equipment.
Art Weiss
The equipment under capital lease, is it generally not rental equipment?
Erik Olsson
Yes, it is just delivery vehicles, and some sales vehicles.
Art Weiss
I didn't quite understand. The equipment you have acquired in the past under capital lease is not rental equipment.
Is that right?
Erik Olsson
That is correct.
Art Weiss
Got it, okay. Thanks.
Operator
(Operator Instructions). And the next question comes from the line of Chris Doherty from Oppenheimer Company.
Please proceed.
Erik Olsson
Hello.
Operator
(Operator Instructions).
Erik Olsson
Okay.
Operator
We have no questions at this time. I will turn the call back over to management.
Please proceed.
Erik Olsson
I would like to thank you all for joining us today on our first quarter 2008 earnings call. We have put another strong quarter behind us with rental revenue growth of 7% for organic growth and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 43.3%.
The business environment was challenging in the first quarter, but we have grown our company over and above the underlying market while producing solid results. Our underlying free cash flow generating capabilities are very strong, and will be realized progressively through the year.
We believe that delivering industry leading results and continuing our strategy of growing profitably with superior costs and capital efficiency while focusing on cash flow generation are the best ways to shareholder value over the long-term. Finally, we are pleased to welcome Gerald Gould as our new Vice President of Investor Relations beginning May 1, 2008.
Gerry brings tremendous experience with 15 years devoted to Investor Relations. We look forward to reporting back to you next quarter with our business results.
Operator
Pardon Erik Olsson. You have the final question comes from the line of Chris Doherty from Oppenheimer Company.
Please proceed.
Chris Doherty
Hi Erik and David, sorry about that. I was just wondering in terms of your mix.
Did that have any effect on what the street would call dollar utilization? I know you calculate it differently, but I am just wondering if that might have affected it too.
Erik Olsson
I'm sorry -- on what?
Chris Doherty
Just in terms of mix. I know in the past you said that you sort of reduced earth moving and stuff.
I am just wondering if that has actually changed sort of your revenue in terms of mix.
Erik Olsson
No, not really. We haven't seen any exchange.
David Mathieson
Earth moving went from one year, 12 months ago; from 19% of our mix to I think it's now 18%.
Erik Olsson
18%.
Chris Doherty
Can you also talk about your target time utilization? I know you said in the quarter it was down seasonality, due to seasonality.
But if I look at sort of '07 versus '06, your time utilization increased. Should we think maybe you are going back to '06 levels, or do you expect to maintain '07 levels?
David Mathieson
Our ambition is to maintain '07 levels, so we should be about 70%.
Chris Doherty
And just lastly, I noticed your SG&A quarter-over-quarter was down about $4 million. Can you talk about your variability there, and whether you have any cost cutting initiatives?
I know you have talked a lot about the top line and growing the top line, but are there any big projects that you might be able save on the cost side?
David Mathieson
No, there's no big projects. The variability is we have salesmen.
If they don't make their target, they don't get their commission, basically. Again, a self-correcting cost.
Chris Doherty
Okay, thank you Erik and David. I appreciate you taking the call late.
Erik Olsson
Okay, operator, I think that would conclude the call. Thank you very much, everyone.
Operator
This concludes today's presentation -- RSC Holdings first quarter Earnings Call. You may now disconnect.
Have a wonderful day.