October 30, 2008

BlueLinx Holdings Inc., Atlanta, GA, a distributor of building products in North America, reported a net loss of $2.6 million for the third quarter ended Sept. 27, 2008, compared with profit of $0.9 million in the year-ago period. Sales declined 28.5% to $727 million.
 
The overall third-quarter unit volume decline of 33% was mainly due to lower unit volumes in both structural and specialty products driven predominately by a 33% decline in housing starts relative to year ago levels.
 
For the nine months ended Sept. 27, 2008, net loss totaled $6.6 million on revenues of $2.28 billion, compared with profit of $6.1 million on revenues of $3.06 billion a year ago. …

Huttig Building Products, Inc., St. Louis, MO, a domestic distributor of millwork, building materials and wood products, reported sales for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2008, declined 22% to $182.8 million in a year-over-year comparison. The company reported a loss of $7.7 million, compared to a loss of $0.1 million in third quarter 2007.
 
Third quarter sales continued to be impacted by the 32% year-over-year decline in average annualized housing starts for the quarter, to approximately 0.88 million, from 1.30 million in the 2007 third quarter. Operating results reflected $2.0 million of branch shut down costs and related inventory write down and liquidation charges associated with the closing of the Springfield, MO and Fredericksburg, VA branches.
 
Despite …