Brady Corporation reports 2Q loss
Brady Corporation reported sales for the fiscal 2013 second quarter were up 1.1 percent to $324.2 million compared to $320.6 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2012.
Organic sales declined 3.1 percent, the impact of foreign currency translation increased sales by 0.2 percent, and acquisitions, net of divestitures added 4.0 percent.
The company had a loss of $8.7 million for the quarter, compared to a loss of $90.0 million in the same quarter last year.
“In the second quarter of fiscal 2013, we experienced slight organic sales growth in the Americas and we experienced a 5.0 percent organic sales decline in EMEA due to a challenging European economy. Our performance in Asia-Pacific was weaker than expected due to challenges in both our Australian business and our Thailand hard-disk drive business,” said president and CEO Frank M. Jaehnert.
Brady also reported that as part of its strategy to improve organic growth and profitability that it will be changing its organizational structure from geographically-based to an organization structured around three global business platforms: Identification Solutions, Workplace Safety and Die-Cut.
The Identification Solutions business will focus on identification solutions for a broad range of applications including wire identification, product identification, safety and facility identification and healthcare identification. It will be headed by Matthew Williamson, a 34-year Brady employee currently serving as vice president of the company and president - Brady Americas.
The Workplace Safety business will expand its multi-channel direct marketing model by providing a broader set of workplace safety products with an increased focus on e-business. It will be headed by Scott Hoffman, who has been with Brady for 27 years and is currently serving as vice president – Corporate and Business Development.
The Die-Cut business will continue to provide precision solutions primarily to the global electronics industry. Stephen Millar will lead the business. He has been with Brady for 14 years and is currently serving as vice president of the company and president – Asia-Pacific.
Peter Sephton, currently president of Brady’s EMEA region, will be retiring effective July 31.
“We believe that our reorganization around global business platforms will create better alignment of resources required to deliver increasing levels of organic sales growth. We will also be able to create a leaner, flatter organization that is closer to the customer, allowing us to reduce costs by approximately $25 million to $30 million annually, some of which will be reinvested into growth initiatives," added Jaehnert.
INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY MAGAZINE
The May/June issue of Industrial Supply magazine features an in-depth cover story about GHX Industrial. Plus, we're featuring articles by contributing writers Dr. Bharani Nagarathnam and Frank Hurtte, as well as interviews with numerous product and distribution industry experts.
