Global Industrial Co. started its 2024 fiscal year on a positive note, growing net sales year over year.
Global Industrial revenue was $323.4 million for the first quarter ended March 31. That’s an 18.1% increase over $237.8 million in Q1 2023.
Ecommerce sales were particularly strong, the distributor said, even as the industry faced continued economic challenges.
“Our performance reflects a continuation of the cautious customer purchasing behavior we have seen for the past several quarters,” CEO Barry Litwin said in a written statement. “E-commerce was once again our leading channel and we are seeing strong growth in our enterprise business as it benefits from new account generation and healthy retention rates,” he continued.
The maintenance, repair and industrial (MRO) distributor is based in Port Washington, New York. The company says it has a catalog of hundreds of thousands of products shipped from five distribution centers across the U.S.
Global Industrial Q1 results
The distributor acquired business solutions provider and distributor Indoff in May 2023 for $69.2 million. Global Industrial credited much of its revenue growth to the acquisition. However, excluding Indoff’s additions, revenue still grew 4.2% in Q1, the company said. That makes Q1 2024 the third consecutive quarter of organic growth.
“Order and volume trends were solid and partially offset by continued price headwinds,” Litwin said. “We remain pleased with gross margin performance, which was essentially flat on an organic basis for both the prior year and sequential quarter.”
Global Industrial reported gross profit of $110.9 million in Q1. That’s up from $98.4 million in Q1 2023. At the end of March, it had total working capital of $160.8 million.
Executives were optimistic about growth potential going forward. “The industrial distribution market remains highly fragmented, and we have numerous opportunities for growth as we drive sales enablement across our channels, expand current relationships and acquire new customers,” Litwin told investors.
Global Industrial ecommerce
The company noted ecommerce as a particular area of growth in Q1. More than 60% of sales take place online, it said, continuing trends from fiscal 2023. B2B customers tend to use the ecommerce channels heavily, it said.
“We usually don’t call out the e-commerce channel separately, but it has been a solid channel for us,” Litwin said in the call. “As you know, we’ve made some improvements over the last couple of years, some changes in the navigation experience. And I think that’s having a positive effect relative to overall conversion rates and the overall customer experience that people have moving through the site. So that has certainly helped us going forward.”
Going forward, Global Distribution plans to introduce ecommerce capabilities to Indoff’s business. That should improve margins in upcoming quarters, Litwin added.
Global Industrial earnings
For its fiscal Q1 ended March 31, Global Industrial Co. reported:
- Revenue increased 18.1% to 323.4 million.
- Gross profit increased to $110.9 million from $98.4 million in the year-ago period.
- More than 60% of sales took place online.
Check back for more earnings reports. For reference, here’s last quarter’s update on Global Industrial sales.
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