BlueLinx reports flat sales

BlueLinx Holdings Inc., the Atlanta-based building products distributor, reported third quarter 2017 net sales of $479.3 million — a slight increase from net sales of $476 million in third quarter 2016.

The company also reported a net income of $5.7 million for third quarter 2017 which did not include any real estate gains, compared to a net income of $15 million from the prior fiscal third quarter which included $13.9 million in real estate gains.

“We are pleased to report continued improvement in our financial performance from the second quarter of 2017 which resulted in increased net income for the third quarter and our highest third quarter adjusted EBITDA since 2007. These results, coupled with the new five-year revolving credit facility that we closed on October 10, 2017, and the successful completion of our secondary offering last week, provide an inflection point for BlueLinx as we move forward into the next phase of our recovery,” Mitch Lewis, BlueLinx president and CEO, said in a prepared statement.

This past month, BlueLinx offered nearly four million shares of common stock priced at $7.00 per share. The offering closed on Oct. 23.

According to Susan O’Farrell, BlueLinx senior vice president and CFO, the company was also able to “significantly reduce our debt principal” by $49.8 million from the same period a year ago.

BlueLinx said it undertook several operational efficiency initiatives since the second quarter of 2016, resulting in the closing or sale of facilities and rationalizing inventory by discontinuing certain underperforming products. When excluding the effects of the operational efficiency initiatives, adjusted same-center net sales increased by $15.3 million or 3.3% from this period a year ago, the company reported.