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[April 2004]
American Standard Announces Record First Quarter Sales
American Standard Companies Inc (Piscataway, NJ, USA) achieved record first quarter sales, net income and diluted earnings per share. Sales were US$2.185 billion, up 12% from a year ago, while net income rose to US$84.6 million, up 33%.
The Bath and Kitchen business, which includes the ceramic sanitaryware production under American Standard(r) and Ideal Standard(r) brands, increased its sales by 11% to US$601.4 million for the quarter. Segment income was US$50.3 million, up 43% compared with last year. Segment income benefitted from productivity gains, increased volume and improved mix primarily from growing sales of the Champion(tm) toilet, favourable foreign exchange and the absence of operating issues that affected results during the first half of 2003. Operating margin was 8.4%, up 1.9 percentage points from the prior year and on track to reach the 9% goal for 2004.
The Champion toilet with America's Best(tm) Flushing System continued its strong US retail and wholesale launch, with the introduction of two new models and multi-channel promotional support. During the first quarter, Bath and Kitchen also launched new total bathroom suites and expanded well received ranges in France, Germany, Holland, the UK and Scandinavia.
Looking forward to group-wide prospects for this year, Chairman and CEO Fred Poses said: "For the second quarter, we expect sales to be up about 8-10 percent and earnings in the range of $2.02-$2.16 per diluted share, up 10-18 percent from the second quarter last year. Based on what we achieved in the first quarter and what we see for the second quarter, we're raising the low end of our earnings estimate for the year to $6.25 per diluted share, up from the $6.10 we announced in January. We're maintaining the high end of our estimate at 6.60%, for an earnings range that's 14-20 percent higher than 2003".
ENDS