Lawson Products sales down 5.2%
Lawson Products reported net sales for the third quarter of 2015 decreased 5.2% to $70.2 million from $74.1 million in the third quarter of 2014.
Approximately 70% of the decline was driven by a $1.5 million decrease in sales to direct oil and gas customers and a $1.2 million impact from the decline in the Canadian dollar.
"We continued to realize growth in the Kent Automotive Division as well as many strategic accounts," the company said in a prepared statement.
Lawson generated $2.8 million of operating income, driving diluted EPS to 27 cents from 5 cents a year ago. Net income for the third quarter of 2015 was $2.4 million
“We delivered another quarter of solid operating results,” said Michael DeCata, president and chief executive officer. “Like the rest of the MRO industry and the broader manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy, our sales continue to be affected by challenges in the macro-economic environment, ongoing weakness in the oil and gas sector, and the negative impact of exchange rates. However, we were able to significantly increase our operating income from a year ago driven in large part by our improving gross margins along with our continued expense management and Lean/Six Sigma efforts.”
“With infrastructure already in place to support growth, we continue to focus on growing our sales base through expanding our sales representative count which now totals 925, increasing productivity among existing sales representatives and acquiring companies with similar value propositions,” added DeCata. “On September 30th, we completed a tuck-in acquisition of a small family-owned auto body parts distributor to complement our Kent Automotive business adding a few sales representatives in the process and increasing our presence in Western Canada. This acquisition is a small, but important first step as we continue to explore additional acquisition opportunities that fit our business model and grow our total sales representative count.”
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.
