L&W Supply, the No. 8 company on the ProSales 100, saw its operating profit drop to $5 million in 2015’s fourth quarter from $7 million a year before despite a 2.9% increase in sales to $352 million, L&W’s parent, USG reported today.
“Improved volumes were more than offset by higher costs,” USG said in its earnings announcement. It noted that L&W’s same-store sales rose 3%. (See below for slide from earnings statement.)
For all of 2015, L&W Supply’s operating profit leaped 68.8% to $27 million on a 6.2% rise in net sales to $1.43 billion.
USG’s adjusted operating profit–an internal metric it uses that excludes items such as property sales gains, litigation charges, impairment, and pension settlements–showed L&W recording a $2 million loss for the quarter and an $11 million profit for the year.
L&W had $1.35 billion in sales in 2014. Its 2015 ProSales 100 report showed it had 146 branches and roughly 2,200 employees as of the start of last year.
