Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE: AIT), Cleveland, OH, reported sales for the first quarter ended Sept. 30, 2009, were $437.7 million, down 19.5% from the year-ago period. Profit declined 50.4% to $11.2 million.
“Our sales, while significantly lower than those of the same period in the prior year, were slightly ahead of our fourth quarter 2009 results. We feel this shows a stabilization in what had been a steadily declining pace,” CEO David L. Pugh said. “While a portion of this might be attributed to federal stimulus spending, we are hopeful we have found a bottom to the recession. The rate of recovery is still undefined.”
Applied Industrial Technologies is an industrial distributor with 460 facilities in North America.