Sales up, income down at Beacon
Peabody, Mass.-based Beacon Roofing Supply reported fourth-quarter sales of $683.5 million, up 14.3% compared with the same quarter last year.
In existing markets, residential roofing product sales increased 6.5%, non-residential roofing product sales increased 10.1%, and complementary product sales increased 5.0%.
“We experienced a solid increase in organic demand this quarter, which when combined with our acquisitions drove strong top-line growth of over 14%," said Paul Isabella, president and CEO. "We also completed the opening of seven new branches this quarter, taking us to the total of 10 that we had targeted for 2013. Plus, we are on track to open another 15 to 20 additional new branches in 2014."
Net income for the fourth quarter was $27.4 million compared with $27.9 million in 2012.
Full total sales increased 9.6% to a record $2.24 billion in 2013 from $2.04 billion in 2012. In existing markets, residential and complementary product sales increased 1.3% and 5.2%, respectively, while non-residential roofing product sales declined 0.4%.
Fiscal year 2012 sales were favorably impacted by mild weather in the first half of the year, coupled with significant storm business carryover from 2011. During the first half of fiscal year 2013, the company experienced an unfavorable weather impact from fewer storms and heavy rains in several regions.
Annual net income was $72.6 million in 2013, down 45 from $75.6 million in 2012.
"Top-line growth is one of the cornerstones of our strategy and is very much on track," Isabella said. "We continued to experience a challenging pricing environment, which drove down our gross margins from the prior year. We were able to mitigate some of this negative impact through cost control and leverage of our operating expenses, which were down 80 basis points over the prior year. As we move forward into 2014 our focus will continue to be on growing the top line, while improving our gross margins and continuing to leverage our operating expenses.”