Sales rise 3.3% at BlueLinx
BlueLinx Holdings, the Atlanta-based building materials distributor, reported sales of $517 million for its second fiscal quarter, a 3.3% gain over sales of $500.8 million in the same quarter of 2011. The increase in revenue was attributed to increased underlying product prices for both specialty and structural product categories. Overall unit volume declined 1.3% compared with the same period a year ago as seasonal demand was pulled forward by favorable weather experienced during the first quarter of fiscal 2012, the company said.
BlueLinx reported a net loss of $ 3.7 million for the second quarter, compared with $9.8 million in the same quarter a year ago. Gross margins increased to 12.2% from the 11.5% generated in the year-ago period. These increases reflect the company's continued focus on margin expansion and rising product prices for many of the products distributed, including key grades of wood-based products, and a shift to the warehouse channel from the direct and reload channels.
Year-to-date, BlueLinx posted revenues of $891.4 million for 2011 and $970.7 million for 2012.
"For the second quarter we grew our revenue, increased our margins and kept our operating expenses flat as we expanded our out-of-warehouse business, producing an improved operating profit of $3.9 million,” said president and CEO George Judd. “This is our first quarterly operating profit since the second quarter of 2010. We expect our operating results to continue to improve as we continue to execute our strategy in a recovering housing market."
