Graybar’s first-half sales rise 6 percent

Industrial Distribution staff -- Industrial Distribution, 8/27/2008 5:55:00 AM

Sales for Graybar Electric Co. Inc. rose 5.5 percent to $2.7 billion during the first six months of the year, compared with $2.56 billion during the same period last year.

Net income for the St. Louis-based electrical and MRO distributor rose 19.4 percent to $47.4 billion, compared with $39.7 billion during the first six months of 2007.

Graybar, which ranked seventh on INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION’s 2008 Top 10 List of Electrical Distributors with 2007 sales of $5.25 billion, attributed the growth to strong sales of networking and communications products.

“While the construction sector showed signs of weakness, good performance in networking-related product sales, coupled with continued growth in the overall communications and data market, helped offset the construction market's impact on growth.,” the company said in a statement.

The company's profits were driven in part by increases in productivity and lower interest expense.

“While we expect challenging economic conditions over the coming quarters, we believe we have positioned ourselves financially to generate consistent performance in spite of uncertain market conditions,” chairman, president and CEO Robert Reynolds Jr. said.