Laura Brown - SVP, Communications and IR Bill Chapman - Senior Director, IR.

Analysts:.

Operator:.

the United States, and Canada. Our remaining operations located primarily in Asia, Europe and Latin America are reported under a grouping titled “Other Businesses”. Sales in the U.S. segment which accounted for 78% of total company revenues in the quarter were flat.

This comprised of one percentage point from inter-company sales to Zoro, and a one percentage point decline from price. Daily sales increased 1% in July, were flat in August and declined 2% in September. Let’s review U.S. sales performance by customer and market for the quarter.

Commercial, light manufacturing, retail and government were up in the low single digits. Contractor was down in the low single digits. Heavy manufacturing and reseller were down in the mid-single digits and natural resources were down in the high teens. Low oil prices continue to affect our natural resources and heavy manufacturing customers.

Based on our analysis of relevant SIC codes, oil represented about a 1% drag on U.S. sales in the quarter. Now, let's turn our attention to the Canadian business. Sales in Canada represented 8% of total company revenues in the quarter and decreased 23% down 8% in local currency.

The 8% sales decrease consisted of 17 percentage point decline from volume, partially offset by 4 percentage points from acquisitions and 5 percentage points from price. Sales performance in Canada was driven by declines in the construction, oil and gas, retail, commercial, transportation, government and heavy and light manufacturing end markets.

By month, daily sales in local currency declined 4% in July, 7% in August and 13% in September. We also lapped the acquisition of WFS Enterprises Incorporated on September 2. Let’s wrap up our discussion of sales for the quarter by looking at the other businesses. The other businesses represented 14% of total company sales in the quarter.

Sales for these groups were up 18% and consisted of 12 percentage points of growth from the Cromwell acquisition and 22 percentage points from volume and price partially offset by a 16 percentage point decline from unfavourable foreign exchange.

The organic sales increase was primarily driven by the single channel online businesses in Japan and in the United States. Earlier in the quarter, reported sales results for July and August, and shared some information regarding performance in those months. Let's now take a look at September.

There were 21 selling days in September 2015, the same as the prior year. Company sales were flat in September of 2015 versus September of 2014. The sales performance included 4 percentage points from acquisitions and a 3 percentage point reduction from foreign exchange.

September was the first month to include sales from Cromwell and we left the WFS acquisition. Excluding acquisitions and foreign exchange organic sales declined 1% primarily driven by lower volume.

In the United States, September sales declined 2% which included a 2 percentage point decline from volume and a 1 percentage point decline from price partially offset by 1 percentage point from intercompany sales to Zoro. Let’s review sales performance by customer end market in the United States for the month of September.

Government was up in the mid-single digits, light manufacturing and commercial were up in the low single digits, retail was down in the low-single digits, contractor re-seller and heavy manufacturing was down in the mid single digits, natural resources was down in the low 20s.

In the government end market, we saw strong performance from state customers as we focussed on two large departments of state budgets. The department of corrections and the department of transportation. For the month of September the direct and indirect effect of the energy sector accelerated to a 2% drag on sales.

Sales in Canada for September declined 28% in U.S. dollars and were down 13% in local currency. The 13% decrease consisted of an 18 percentage point decrease from volume partially offset by 5 percentage points from price.

On an organic basis sales performance was driven by declines in the construction, oil and gas, commercial, light and heavy manufacturing, retail and transportation end markets partially offset by growth in the utilities, government, mining and forestry end markets.

Sales for our other businesses increased 40% in September consisting of 36 percentage points from the Cromwell acquisition and 18 percentage points from volume and price partially offset by a 14 percentage point drag from unfavourable foreign exchange from the other businesses.

Similar to the quarter, organic sales growth in September was driven by the single channel online businesses in Japan and the United States. Daily sales in the month of October are currently down in the low single digits including the benefit from Cromwell. Excluding Cromwell sales performance is currently down in the mid single digits.

As a reminder, October 2014 included 1% of sales from Ebola-related products. Now, I'd like to turn the discussion over to Bill Chapman..

Industrial Distribution Forum in New York City. Thank you for your interest in Grainger. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Laura Brown at 847-535-0409, Casey Darby at 847-535-0099 or me Bill Chapman, at 847-535-0881. Thank you..