What were the highlights of fiscal 2003? Was the Company satisfied with its same store sales growth? What is ROIC? Why is it such an important  measure of progress? Will AutoZone continue to buy back its shares? What was the source of the operating margin improvement this past year? What financial guidance are you providing for  fiscal 2004? Are inventories at appropriate levels? What does corporate governance mean to AutoZoners? With the recent change in tax laws, will dividends be established? AutoZone, Inc. 2003 Annual Report 17 Achieving record sales, record margins, record earnings per share and a record 23.4 percent return on invested capital. Not only did we extend the national reach of AutoZone stores, we also built greater market share and achieved 27 percent same store growth  in our AZ Commercial Business. Truly, it was a year of significant achievement. We are never satisfied. We constantly strive to improve perform- ance. For the thirteenth straight year since being a publicly traded company, we reported positive same store results. We are proud  of this accomplishment, but we cannot rest. Our challenge is always to improve. With new advertising, compelling merchandising and  a wider assortment of parts and accessories, we’re poised to do  just that. The company enjoyed improvements at both the gross profit and operating expense levels this year. Our gross profit improvements were the result of continued category management initiatives that have reduced costs over the last two years. At the operating expense line, the company focused on almost one hundred different projects that contributed to our ongoing goal of reducing unnecessary expenditures. The combination of these two areas of focus drove 234 basis points of improvement this year versus last. Yes. In fiscal 2003, we deliberately rolled out the hub program and rounded out our “good-better-best” assortment of product to assure we were offering customers the selection they needed. While this had the effect of boosting gross inventory levels in the short term, it was the right decision for the long-term growth of our business. Inventory, net of payables, however, declined 18%, so we actually lowered our capital invested in inventory. With our strong cash flow, we will continue to reinvest in our busi- ness. With the remaining excess cash flow, we will continue to repurchase shares as long as it is accretive to earnings. As compared with a dividend, we believe that repurchasing shares has provided superior value to shareholders. Simply put, it means AutoZoners should always do the right thing. In any business decision to be made, our employees should follow the Code of Conduct rules established. We also incorporated a rollup certification strategy to have employees at a certain level of man- agement and up sign off on all published financial statements. As a matter of policy, we do not give specific sales and earnings guidance. But we clearly see an abundance of profitable growth opportunities ahead—including opportunities to further expand our reach, to increase our market share, to leverage our distribu- tion strengths, to effectively manage our product costs, and to build greater efficiencies into every aspect of our business. Harnessing these opportunities should allow us to sustain solid, profitable growth well into the future. Working to continually increase our ROIC encourages us to expand our business economically, to use our assets more productively,  and to reduce our overall cost structure, while creating greater  efficiencies in every phase of our operation. Combined, these actions drive long-term cash flows, which in turn, creates incremen- tal shareholder value. Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) is a performance measure depicting the average return achieved on each dollar invested in our business. It is calculated by dividing after-tax operating profit (excluding rent) by our average invested capital, including the value of leased properties. Yes, as long as repurchases are accretive to earnings. Repurchasing shares helps us manage our overall capital structure with the added benefit of enhancing EPS. In fiscal 2003, we repurchased over $891 million of AutoZone stock. Straight Talk on AutoZone’s  2003 Financial Performance and Beyond An interview with AutoZone’s CFO Mike  Archbold