Industrial distributor MSC Industrial Supply Co. (NYSE: MSM), Melville, New York, reported sales of $835 million for its fiscal third quarter, a 3.6% decrease compared to the year-ago period. Quarterly profit was $77.7 million, a 2.4% decrease compared with the third quarter last year.

For the first nine months the company reported sales of $2.4 billion, down 3% over the same period in 2019. Profit fell 10% to $198.6 million.

“Our company rose to the occasion in the face of the most severe crisis most of us have seen in our lifetimes,” said Erik Gershwind, president and CEO at MSC. “Our fiscal third quarter results reflect strong execution in a tough environment. Weakness in industrial demand was pretty much across the board, with sustained and acute softness in metalworking-centric end markets such as automotive, aerospace, and oil and gas. Our own results for the quarter benefitted from the surge in demand for safety and janitorial products, but this was more than offset by the COVID-19 impacts on the rest of the business. The surge in demand for safety and janitorial supplies subsided in fiscal June, while customer re-openings only provided a modest improvement in underlying sales levels. This reflected continuing softness in end-market fundamentals, as well as customers opening very gradually with reduced hours.”