Essendant Inc. (NASDAQ: ESND), Deerfield, IL, has named Robert B. Aiken Jr. president & CEO. Aiken has been serving as interim president and CEO since May.
Essendant also reported sales for the second quarter of $1.3 billion, up 1.6 percent compared to the prior year. Profit decreased 9.2 percent to $30.3 million.
Second quarter sales in janitorial and breakroom supplies rose 3.1 percent year-over-year to $368.3 million. Industrial supply sales increased 48.1 percent to $215 million, including $86.7 million of incremental sales from the CPO and MEDCO acquisitions made in 2014. Total office products sales declined 7.3 percent to $722 million.
For the first six months, sales increased 3.9 percent to $2.7 billion. Profit fell 52.4 percent to $26.3 million.
"In the second quarter we officially became Essendant, marking another major milestone in our journey to become the fastest and most convenient solution for workplace essentials," said Robert B. Aiken, Jr., president & CEO. "We continue to make solid progress executing our strategy as we strengthen the core business with a common operating platform, grow our e-commerce relationships and offerings, and expand our automotive aftermarket business with the recently announced Nestor Sales LLC acquisition."
