The Regal Beloit Corporation is reporting net sales for the first quarter 2013 were $778.2 million compared to $807.9 million for the first quarter of 2012, a decrease of 3.7 percent. Net Income for the first quarter 2013 was $50.7 million compared to $49.9 million for the first quarter of 2012.
"In the first quarter of 2013, Regal's end markets were mixed. While the U.S. residential market grew in line with expectations, the U.S. commercial and industrial markets did not perform as well as we had expected earlier in the year. Our North American HVAC sales were up 3.5% in the quarter and sales in our Unico business remained strong," said Regal Chairman and CEO Mark Gliebe. "In spite of the top line challenges the teams executed well on our synergy and simplification initiatives, allowing us to maintain operating margins," he said.
Electrical segment net sales in the first quarter 2013 included $4.6 million from businesses acquired within the last year. North American residential HVAC net sales increased 3.5% for the first quarter 2013 compared to the first quarter of 2012. Excluding the impact of the acquired businesses, North American commercial and industrial motor net sales decreased 6.7% for the same period.
Mechanical segment net sales for the first quarter 2013 included $3.4 million from the businesses acquired within the last year. Excluding the impact of the acquired and divested businesses, Mechanical segment net sales in North America decreased 6.9%.
First quarter 2013 net sales to regions outside the United States decreased 6.8% compared to first quarter of 2012 and represented 33.6% of total net sales. The impact of foreign currency exchange rates decreased total net sales by 0.8% and international sales by 2.4% for the first quarter 2013 compared to the first quarter of 2012.
In the first quarter, sales of high efficiency products grew 3.5% from the first quarter of 2012 and represented 19.6% of net sales.
“As we look to the second quarter, sluggish demand in our North American commercial and industrial markets is impacting both our electrical and mechanical segments. To a lesser extent, we are anticipating unfavorable market dynamics in the HVAC channel. We expect diluted earnings per share for the second quarter of 2013 to be $1.17 to $1.25. Adding back $0.02 of restructuring charges, adjusted diluted earnings per share are expected to be $1.19 to $1.27," Gliebe said.
During the quarter the company recently celebrated grand openings of two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, one in Suzhou for Regal Beloit (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. and another in Shanghai for Shanghai Marathon Gexin Electric Co. Ltd. These facilities will provide Regal access to high growth markets, but also enable the company to utilize a well-trained workforce – making Regal more globally competitive, the company said.
