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[July 2005]
American Standard Achieves Record Sales and Earnings
American Standard (Piscataway, NJ, USA) had record second quarter sales, net income and earnings per diluted share this year. Earnings were 95 cents per diluted share in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), up 30% from 73 cents a year ago.
Sales in Q2 were US$2.76 billion, up 7% on Q2 2004. Net income rose to US$207.9 million, up 30% on a GAAP basis and up 16% excluding tax items and operational expenses in 2004 and 2005.
Sales in the Bath and Kitchen business segment - which includes American Standard's ceramic sanitaryware - rose 2% to stand at US$648.9 million. Segment income was US$35.6 million, down 30% compared with Q2 2004. This reduction resulted from the negative impact of commodity cost increases including energy, foreign exchange, investments in the business and ongoing production issues, although segment income benefited from previously announced operational consolidation actions.
"These factors will continue in the second half of the year," said Chairman and CEO Fred Poses. The negative foreign exchange impact resulted from a change in the value of the Mexican peso and the Brazilian real that increased the company's manufacturing costs for products sold in the USA. Excluding Q2 operational consolidation expenses of US$13.9 million, adjusted segment income was US$49.5 million.
During the quarter, Bath and Kitchen showcased new products at major trade fairs in Las Vegas, London and Moscow. Among its new products in the USA, Bath and Kitchens introduced new models of the popular Champion(r) WC, the FloWise(tm) water-saving WC, a kitchen workstation, various taps and vanity units and Tetsu, a modular furniture and storage solution for the bathroom.
In Europe, five ceramic suites and three wellness shower lines were introduced while in China the business launched a water conservation product line.
ENDS