Masco delivers modest growth in Q4 and 2015
Masco Corporation reported net sales growth in the single digits for both the fourth quarter and full-year fiscal period, performance that was largely impacted by strong improvement in the cabinet category, which returned to profitability.
“Our fourth quarter results illustrate our ability to deliver consistent and profitable growth,” said Masco president and CEO Keith Allman. “Exceptional improvement in our U.S. cabinet business drove increased revenue and profit. Our industry-leading plumbing businesses continued their excellent performance trend and delivered another quarter of outstanding results. In our Decorative Architectural Products segment, the ongoing momentum of Behr Pro and Liberty Hardware was masked by challenging year-over-year comparisons, while our windows businesses benefitted from increased demand in the U.S. and U.K.”
Net sales for the fourth quarter increased 3% to $1.7 billion, though net income of $75 million was down from the previous year's $100 million.
That's thanks to 5% growth in both Plumbing Products and Cabinets and Related Products, as well as 8% growth in Other Specialty Products (with the North American Windows business a major contributing factor).
For the full-year 2015 period, sales were up 2% to $7.1 billion. However, net income of $355 million was down substantially from 2014's $856 million income.
Allman added that the year was largely impacted by the spinoff of Masco's services businesses.
“2015 was a transformative year for Masco,” said Allman. “On June 30, 2015, we successfully completed the spinoff of our services businesses, transforming Masco into a branded home improvement and building products company. Our clear strategy and focused execution enabled us to reach a number of milestones. We achieved record sales at Delta, Hansgrohe and Watkins and returned our U.S. cabinet business to profitability by improving adjusted operating profit over $80 million. We also strengthened our balance sheet by generating nearly half a billion dollars in free cash flow and we ended the year with $1.7 billion of liquidity. Furthermore, we demonstrated our continued commitment to return capital to shareholders by increasing our dividend and repurchasing over 17 million shares.”