Global Fastener News

Barnes Distribution Sales Rise

Jason Sandefur

Barnes Group Inc. reported sales for its distribution segment, including fasteners, rose 3% to $107 million for the third quarter of 2004. Sales from the segment’s strategic growth initiatives, which include new national accounts, e-commerce platforms and Tier 2 relationships with other distributors, jumped 70% to $8.8 million. However, Q3 operating profit slid 26% to $5.5 million. The year-ago period included a gain of $1.3 million on a distribution center sale.
“Sales, particularly those within our strategic initiatives, improved solidly from a year ago. Fastener availability remains challenging, however, so there is some additional work to be done,” stated CEO Edmund Carpenter.
Distribution sales for the first nine months of 2004 increased 6% to $320.6 million, while operating profit declined 4.4% to $14.8 million.
Company-wide Q3 sales rose 10% to a record $244 million, while net income gained 3% to $9.2 million. Nine-month sales for Barnes increased 10.8% to $670.5 million, and net income jumped 15.6% to $30.1 million. Web: barnesgroupinc.com �2004 FastenerNews.com