July 30, 2009 - Modern Distribution Management

July 30, 2009

Kennametal FY09 Sales Fall 23%

Kennametal Inc., Latrobe, PA, reported fiscal 2009 fourth quarter sales of $386 million, down 47% over the prior year same period. The company posted a loss of $33 million for the quarter, compared to profit of $59.6 million a year ago. Organic sales fell 43%.

For fiscal year 2009, sales were $2.0 billion, down 23% from fiscal year 2008. The fiscal year net loss was $119.7 million, compared to profit of $167.8 million the prior year. Organic sales fell 21%.

“Fiscal 2009 was the most challenging year in our company’s 70-year history," said Carlos Cardoso, president and CEO. The company continued to implement certain restructuring plans to reduce costs and improve efficiencies during the quarter. On June 30, Kennametal completed the sale of its high speed steel drills, related product …

Kennametal FY09 Sales Fall 23% Read More »

Survey: Pricing, Gross Margins Hold Steady in Second Quarter

The second quarter Baird Industrial Distribution Survey indicates that average second quarter year over year revenues were slightly worse than the first quarter, with the third quarter forecast slightly better than current quarter trends. Encouragingly, pricing and gross margins appear to be holding relatively steady while inventory levels continue to decline with no re-stock expected in the near-term.

The bottoming process appears to be underway in most industries," said David Manthey, CFA, Baird’s senior research analyst who leads the firm’s Industrial Distribution sector research. "With conditions stabilizing and inventories at very low levels throughout most supply chains, industrial distributors should continue to see improvement into 2009."

Survey Details
Baird’s …

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Adam Fein’s Midyear Economic Report: Stabilization, But Not Yet Recovering

Adam Fein of Pembroke Consulting has released his Midyear Economic Report, and you can access it on his Distribution Trends blog.

He expects the wholesale distribution industry to return to year-over-year growth in early …

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Rockwell Automation Sales Fall 31% in Third Quarter

Milwaukee, WI-based Rockwell Automation, Inc. reported fiscal 2009 third quarter revenue of $1.1 billion, down 31% compared with the third quarter fiscal 2008.

Third quarter profit was $32.8 million, compared with $152.6 million in the third quarter 2008.

The manufacturer expects "we may be approaching the bottom of the cycle." But it still sees uncertainty in the global economy and has not yet seen evidence of an upturn.

Control Products & Solutions third quarter sales were $611.3 million, a decrease of 28% from the third quarter 2008. Currency translation contributed 5 percentage points to the decline, partially offset by about 1 percentage point of growth …

Rockwell Automation Sales Fall 31% in Third Quarter Read More »

United Rentals Posts Loss of $17M in 2Q

United Rentals, Inc., Greenwich, CT, announced sales for the second quarter 2009 of $615 million, down 26% from second quarter 2008. The company reported a net loss of $17 million, compared with a net loss of $202 million for the prior year same period.
 

During the quarter, 38 branches were closed or consolidated in the quarter, and headcount was reduced by approximately 800.

“Looking forward, we believe that our operating environment will remain very challenging," CEO Michael Kneeland said. "Our best estimate at this time is that non-residential construction activity will continue to decline on a year-over-year basis into 2010, although the rate of decline may moderate. Our infrastructure rentals should see the benefit of stimulus funds, while on a macro level we believe that our …

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Canada Industrial Product Index Rises 0.7% in June

In June, the Canadian Industrial Product Index rose0.7% compared with May, while the Raw Materials Price Index increased6.2%, according to a report today from Statistics Canada.Both gains were due to a strong increase in petroleum prices.

June’s increase in the IPPI followed declines of1.2% in May and0.6% in April. The IPPI was pushed up mainly by the prices for petroleum and coal products and, to a lesser extent, primary metal products. Prices for petroleum and coal products rose10.8%, more than twice the5.2% increase observed in May. However, excluding petroleum and coal products, the IPPI posted a0.3% decline, slower than the1.8% drop recorded in May.

Most of the2.2% increase for …

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PTDA Leader Mary Sue Lyon to Retire

Mary Sue Lyon, who has lead the Power Transmission Distributors Association for 15 years, will retire as executive vice president at the end of 2010.

In a letter to PTDA’s members, past PTDA president John Masek of Bearing Service Inc., Livonia, MI, and current PTDA president Drew Tucci of Eastern Bearings, Inc., Waltham, MA, commended Lyon on her outstanding leadership and commitment to making PTDA into the premiere networking and educational organization in our industry."

Lyon joined PTDA as the executive vice president in August 1994.

Lyon says the decision to retire was tough."My 15 years at PTDA have been a pleasure andthatis largely due to the individuals who have shown great leadership, vision and commitment to the Association and the industry," she said. "It has been …

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Flowserve Second Quarter Sales Down 6%

Flowserve Corp., Dallas, TX, reported sales for the second quarter 2009 were $1.09 billion, down 6% from the prior year period. Profit declined 11.9% to $108.2 million.

For the first six months, sales were $2.12 billion, down 2% from the first half of 2008. Profit decreased 4.9% to $200.5 million.

"While we continue to see our markets impacted by the challenging global economic conditions, we are very pleased with the improvement we saw in sequential quarter over quarter bookings and sales," said Lewis Kling, president and CEO. "The continued realignment improvements we made this quarter to our operating platform should not only drive benefits that we will realize later in 2009, but are expected to strengthen the company for growth opportunities well into the future."

Flowserve …

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Parker Hannifin Sales Fall 15.1% in Fiscal 2009

Cleveland, OH-based Parker Hannifin Corp., manufacturer of motion and control technologies, reported sales for the fiscal year 2009 were $10.3 billion, a decline of 15.1% from the previous year. Profit for the year fell 46.4% to $508.5 million. "We started the year strongly, however, our performance in the second half of the year reflected the impact of the ongoing global recession, which resulted in significantly reduced order rates," said CEO and President Don Washkewicz.

Fiscal 2009 fourth quarter sales were $2.2 billion, a decline of 33.9% from $3.3 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Profit for the fourth quarter declined 80.4% to $49.5 million from $252.6 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008.

Washkewicz added: "Our fourth quarter performance was influenced by …

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United Stationers 2Q Sales Down 7.4%

United Stationers Inc., Deerfield, IL, a North American wholesale distributor of business products, today sales for the second quarter 2009 were $1.16 billion, down 7.4% from the prior year same period. Profit decreased 1.4% to $21.5 million.

Weak macro-economic conditions contributed to revenue declines in furniture, industrial, technology and traditional office supplies. Despite these conditions, the janitorial/breakroom category experienced sales growth.

"United’s results reflected our associates’ excellent efforts to control what we can in the face of difficult market conditions," said Richard W. Gochnauer, president and chief executive officer. "While employment and manufacturing trends continued to weaken in the quarter, the rate of change in our sales improved sequentially …

United Stationers 2Q Sales Down 7.4% Read More »

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