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[February 2004]
Annual Results for Libbey
Libbey Inc (Toledo, OH, USA) - the parent company of Syracuse China and World Tableware - increased its annual sales by 18.4% in 2003 to US$513.6 million from US$433.8 million in 2002. The increase in sales was attributable to the Royal Leerdam (glass stemware) and Traex (plastics) acquisitions and strong second half sales to Libbey's glassware customers. For the full year, despite a sluggish first half, sales excluding these acquisitions were within 0.3 per cent of the prior year.
Income from operations was US$42.7 million compared with US$53.7 million in 2002. In addition to the slightly lower pre-acquisition sales, other factors that contributed to the decline included higher natural gas costs of over US$6.2 million and additional costs (mostly non-cash) for pension and post-retirement medical costs of US$5.4 million.
EBIT was US$47.6 million, an increase of US$2.7 million or 6% compared with US$44.9 million in 2002. The 2002 figures, however, included US$13.6 million of expenses related to an abandoned acquisition. Equity earnings from Vitrocrisa (glass tableware) were US$4.4 million on a pre-tax basis as compared with US$6.4 million pre-tax in 2002 as the result of higher natural gas costs and lower activity levels in the first half of 2003.
ENDS