Interline Brands Inc., Jacksonville, FL, No. 15 on MDM's list of top industrial distributors, reported sales for the first quarter were $380.8 million, an increase of 21.4 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. Interline reported a loss of $1.5 million for the quarter, compared to a year-ago profit of $7.5 million.
Michael J. Grebe, chairman and CEO, said, "Momentum behind our strategic growth initiatives continued during the quarter, which helped us achieve solid organic growth, particularly from sales to our institutional facilities customers. Inclusive of our recently completed acquisition of JanPak, growth within this end-market was over 50 percent for the quarter.
“As we continue to integrate JanPak, we look forward to realizing additional synergies and growth opportunities. While our end-markets remain relatively healthy, cold weather conditions that persisted into March affected our performance in the month as purchasing decisions on certain seasonal products like HVAC equipment were deferred."
