Industrial and MRO parts distributor Global Industrial Company reported its 2024 first quarter financial results on April 30, showing a modest deceleration in comparable sales growth, while its 2Q23 acquisition of Indoff Inc. continued to power major year-over-year gains.

Port Washington, NY-based Global Industrial posted total 1Q24 sales of $323 million, up 18.1% year-over-year, with comparable sales up 4.2% (+4.3% on same-day basis). Sequentially, that trailed 4Q23’s 5.1% comparable increase.

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The company’s 1Q24 gross margin of 34.3% fell 160 basis points year-over-year but topped 4Q23’s 33.8%, while comparable gross margin excluding Indoff was 35.8% — down 10 bps year-over-year.

1Q24 operating profit of $17.4 million dipped 2.2% year-over-year ($21M in 4Q23) on margin of 5.4% (6.5% in 4Q23). Excluding Indoff, operating profit of $16 million fell 9.6%.

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Global Industrial’s 1Q24 net profit of $13 million was flat year-over-year, and trailed 4Q23’s $15 million.

“Our performance reflects a continuation of the cautious customer purchasing behavior we have seen for the past several quarters,” Global Industrial CEO Barry Litwin said in the company’s financial release. “eCommerce was once again our leading channel and we are seeing strong growth in our enterprise business as it benefits from new account generation and healthy retention rates. Order and volume trends were solid and partially offset by continued price headwinds. We remain pleased with gross margin performance, which was essentially flat on an organic basis for both the prior year and sequential quarter.”

Global Industrial had 2023 total sales of $1.27 billion, up 9.3% from 2022. Excluding Indoff, 2023 sales fell 0.7%.