Airgas sales up 6 percent
Airgas said its first quarter sales were $1.05 billion, a sequential increase of 5% in sales per day and 7% in total sales compared to the fourth quarter.
Compared to the prior year, total same-store sales increased 6% in the quarter, with hardgoods up 8% and gas and rent up 5%. Acquisitions contributed 1% sales growth over prior year.
Net earnings were $64.8 million, or 76 cents per diluted share.
"We delivered the second best earnings quarter in company history, which is particularly encouraging given that, at this early stage of the economic recovery, revenues have not yet recovered to pre-recession levels," said Airgas chairman and chief executive officer Peter McCausland. "Our strategy through the downturn was to position Airgas to emerge from the recession as an even stronger company, and our results demonstrate our success, as we are running very close to record earnings and margins."
Conditions continued to improve in most customer segments and geographies this quarter, led by manufacturing, and with the greatest strength in the Great Lakes region, McCausland added. "The strengthening in our business and our robust results give us the confidence to raise our fiscal 2011 guidance. Further, the increasing momentum we are seeing reinforces our confidence in our calendar 2012 earnings goal of at least $4.20 per share, and with continued modest improvement in the economy, we could very well outperform that objective."
Adjusted operating margin for the quarter improved year-over-year to 12.3% from 11.0% and sequentially from 10.7%, driven by operating leverage on sales growth and continued cost discipline.
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.
