Chicago-based Lawson Products Inc. (NASDAQ: LAWS), No. 27 on MDM’s list of the top 40 industrial distributors, reported sales for the full year 2012 of $290.5 million, a 7.8 percent decrease from 2011. Lawson reported a loss of $62.6 million, compared to a year-ago loss of $4.6 million.
Fourth-quarter sales were $68.2 million, a 6.4 percent decline compared to the same period year earlier. Fourth-quarter profit was $1.7 million, compared to a year-ago loss of $5.5 million.
“In the fourth quarter, we continued to realize benefits from our ongoing initiatives to enhance efficiencies and lower costs which led to an improvement in our operating performance on a year-over-year basis as well as from the third quarter," said Michael DeCata, president and CEO.
"While there is still more to do, we have made significant progress consolidating our distribution network, relaunching our website and transitioning our sales force to employees,” DeCata said.
