Cleveland, OH-based Lincoln Electric reported its 2015 Q1 financials on Tuesday for the period ended March 31.
The company had Q1 sales of $657.9 million, compared to $685.1 million a year ago, a 4 percent decrease. However, Lincoln's profit jumped 21.1 percent to $68.4 million.
Lincoln attributed the sales decrease primarily to unfavorable currency exchange and lower volumes in the Asia Pacific Segment.
North American Welding, Lincoln's largest sales segment at 16.2 percent, had Q1 net sales of $413 million, a 2.8 percent year-over-year increase.
"Our business demonstrated resilience in a challenging first quarter," said Christopher L. Mapes, Lincoln Electric Chairman, President, and CEO. "We achieved volume growth in Europe Welding and The Harris Products Group on solid execution of their commercial initiatives, and maintained steady volume performance in North America. As anticipated, we experienced weakness in South American end-markets and continued to strategically reposition our business in Asia Pacific for long-term profitable growth."
