A. M. Castle & Co., Franklin Park, IL, a global distributor of specialty metal and plastic products, reported sales for 2014 of $979.8 million, down 7 percent from 2013. The company reported a net loss of $134.7 million, compared to a loss of $34 million a year ago.
The net earnings loss and revenue decline forced A. M. Castle to hire Jeffrey Zappone of the third-party consulting and financial advisory firm Conway MacKenzie as its COO.
"2014 was a year of significant change for the company," said Scott Dolan, CEO of A. M. Castle. "We continued our restructuring and cost improvement efforts which included consolidation of certain facilities and strategic de-layering through headcount reductions. In light of the currently challenging market conditions, especially in the oil and gas sector, we have engaged Conway MacKenzie to expand and accelerate these efforts."
The company reported fourth-quarter sales of $231.5 million, down 0.8 percent from the same period a year ago. The company posted a loss of $39.1 million for the quarter, compared to net loss of $12.6 million fourth-quarter 2013.
Metals segment sales were $197.8 million in the third quarter, a decline of 1.3 percent from the prior year same period. In the plastics segment, fourth-quarter sales of $33.6 million were up 2.7 percent from the prior year same period.
