Latest Earnings Reports For Manufacturers Continue To Show Steady Improvement

Earnings reports continued to come in, showing some indications of a stronger market. Following is a sample of financial statements from manufacturers.

Encore Wire Corp., McKinney, Texas, reported its annual net income more than doubled in 2003 to $14.4 million from about $6 million, in 2002. Annual sales jumped 34.9 percent to $384.8 million in 2003 from $285.2 million in 2002. The company noted prices for building wire and margins were higher in 2003 than they were the year before.

Encore plans to spend about $15 million to $18 million of capital expenditures this year, to add 162,000 square feet to its distribution center in McKinney and upgrade road and railroad access to the facility. In a press release, the company said the expenditures would be funded from its revolving credit line, which it boosted to $125 million from $65 million last month.

The company said the present distribution center has become crowded over the past two to three years, even with a reconfiguration of storage racks that added about 30 percent capacity to the existing 265,000 square feet of floor space. Encore also plans to add machinery where production bottlenecks have surfaced over the last year.

Littelfuse Inc., Des Plaines, Ill., announced a 47 percent increase in sales for the fourth quarter of 2003. Sales for the fourth quarter were $102 million, up from $69.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2002. Teccor Electronics, which was acquired on July 7, 2003, contributed $21.1 million in sales for the quarter.

Excluding the Teccor acquisition, sales for the fourth quarter were up 17 percent over the prior year period. Each of the company’s three markets contributed to the revenue growth, with electrical up 11 percent.

Howard B. Witt, the company’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, said the computer market in Asia is strong and that the growth has expanded to include telecom and industrial. He added that the company saw positive year-over-year revenue comparisons in both automotive and electrical for the first time in 2003.

For the full year 2003, sales were $339.4 million, a 20 percent increase from sales of $283.3 million in 2002.

The company expects the electrical market to grow in the lower single digits next year.

Rockwell Automation, Milwaukee, said net income increased to $62.2 million from $41.7 million a year earlier. Sales in the quarter rose 3 percent to $1.02 billion from $983.6 million. Control Systems first quarter sales increased 5 percent to $828.8 million from $787.1 million in the first quarter of 2003. Power Systems first quarter sales were $161.5 million compared to $170.8 million in last year’s first quarter, primarily driven by changes in distribution channel inventories at the Mechanical business.