Black & Decker Fastener Sales Fall
Black & Decker Fastener Sales Fall
Jason Sandefur
Black & Decker Corp. announced net earnings for the third quarter of 2003 increased 35% to $74.4 million on sales of $1.14 billion, a 5% increase.
“Our performance this quarter reflected both sales growth and operating margin improvement,” noted CEO Nolan Archibald. “As economic conditions improved, sales exceeded our expectations, particularly in our North American power tools and accessories business.”
Q3 sales in the Fastening and Assembly Systems segment dropped 3% to $122.4 million, due largely to weakness in the North American industrial and automotive markets. Strong sales in Europe and Asia helped to mitigate the North American decline. Operating profit in this segment decreased 16% to $16.2 million primarily because of lower sales and production volumes.
For the first nine months of 2003, fastener segment sales dipped 1.2% to $379.6 million, while profit fell 3.3% to $53 million.
Black & Decker cut Q3 inventory 3% to $765 million. �This sequential decrease is a noteworthy accomplishment, since we generally increase inventory in the third quarter to prepare for the holiday season,� Archibald stated. �We are pleased that we could deliver excellent earnings despite significantly decreasing production levels to reduce inventory.�
Overall sales for the first nine months dropped 1.9% to $3.14 billion, but profit increased 6.9% to $350.9 million.
“Looking forward, we are optimistic that, with the help of a recovering U.S. economy, we can deliver sales growth in the fourth quarter,� Archibald predicted. Web: bdk.com �2003 FastenerNews.com
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