Essendant Inc. sales decline 2 percent
Essendant Inc. reported that its sales decreased 2.0% to $1.39 billion when compared to the third quarter of last year.
Net income was $27.7 million, including $10.0 million of after-tax costs related to the third quarter charges. Earnings per share were 74 cents, including 26 cents of expense related to the third quarter charges. Adjusted net income was $37.7 million, compared to $40.2 million in the prior year quarter.
Sales of industrial supplies increased 37.3% to $223.5 million, including $81.2 million of incremental sales from the MEDCO and Nestor acquisitions made in October of 2014 and August of 2015. Weakness in the energy and industrial sectors drove a $20.5 million sales decline in the organic industrial business. Janitorial and breakroom supplies sales decreased 1.8% to $375.5 million from $382.3 million.
"In the third quarter we achieved solid financial performance, generating strong operating cash flows in the face of challenging market conditions," said Robert B. Aiken, Jr., president and chief executive officer of Essendant. "Our team successfully executed actions we set out to achieve at the beginning of the year, including selling the Mexico business, transitioning the first two of our facilities to a common operating and IT platform, and making solid progress on our restructuring."
"Going forward we will take more aggressive actions to expand earnings by driving profitable sales growth and reducing costs. Among these efforts, we expect to implement additional cost reductions in the fourth quarter. Taken together, these actions will support our goal of achieving high single-digit EPS growth, beginning in 2016," Aiken added.
Sales in the first nine months of 2015 increased 1.8%, driven by acquisitions.
INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY MAGAZINE
The March/April issue of Industrial Supply magazine features an in-depth cover story about Joyce Lansdale and Vallen. Plus, we're featuring articles by contributing writers Dirk Beveridge, Frank Hurtte, and David Kahle, as well as interviews with numerous product and distribution industry experts.
