Posted July 28, 2011
Lawson Products sales rise 4.8%
Growth in sales to larger customers and the government helped Lawson Products achieve a second quarter net sales gain of 4.8% year-over-year to $84.2 million.
The $3.8 million net sales increase was primarily due to continued growth in national, government, and automotive sectors combined with a moderate increase in other sectors. The national and government sectors accounted for 17.8% of net sales in the second quarter of 2011, compared to 16.2% in the same quarter last year.
Net income was $1.1 million, or 12 cents per diluted share, compared to $1.7 million, or 20 cents per diluted share in the second quarter of 2010. Excluding the impact of a new enterprise resource planning system scheduled to go live in the third quarter, operating income was $4.0 million, an increase of $0.6 million over 2010.
For the six months of the year, net sales increased to $166.7 million, a 7.4% improvement over the first six months of 2010 driven by increases in national, government and automotive sectors.
"We have been able to grow sales as we continue to invest in our business transformation initiatives," said Thomas Neri, president and chief executive officer. "With a shift toward strategic and larger customers, we expected some pressure on margins. However, we have been able to leverage our recurring cost structure despite our ongoing transformation process. In the second half of 2011, we will continue to implement initiatives to drive sales and gross profit dollars."
