Grainger Sales Up 5% in Third Quarter - Modern Distribution Management

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Grainger Sales Up 5% in Third Quarter

U.S. sales increased 7 percent.
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Chicago, IL-based Grainger (NYSE: GWW), No. 2 on MDM's list of top industrial distributors, reported sales for the third quarter of $2.4 billion, an increase of 5 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Profit increased 36 percent to $211 million.

Daily sales for the quarter increased 4 percent on a daily basis, consisting of 4 percentage points from volume and 1 percentage point from acquisitions, partially offset by a 1 percentage point decline from foreign exchange.

"Despite a challenging environment, our U.S. business delivered solid volume growth and earnings that were in line with our expectations," said President and CEO Jim Ryan. "Our businesses outside of the United States remain affected by weaker macroeconomic conditions and unfavorable foreign exchange rates."

Sales for Grainger’s U.S. and Canada business segments, which represented 83 percent of total third-quarter sales, increased by 7 percent and decreased 1 percent, respectively, compared to the prior-year period.

Daily sales in the U.S. grew 6 percent, driven by 5 percentage points from volume and 1 percentage point from acquisitions. The sales increase was led by solid growth primarily to large customers in the light and heavy manufacturing, natural resources and commercial customer end markets.

Daily sales in Canada decreased 2 percent on a daily basis versus the prior year. In local currency, sales increased 4 percent, 2 percent on a daily basis on higher volume. The sales increase was led by solid growth to customers in the oil and gas, forestry, light manufacturing and utilities end markets.

Daily sales for businesses with operations primarily in Asia, Europe and Latin America were flat versus the prior year, consisting of 7 percentage points of growth from volume and price offset by a 7 percentage point decline from unfavorable foreign exchange.

For the first nine months, sales for Grainger were $7.1 billion, an increase of 5 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Profit increased 20 percent to $640 million.

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