3M's Safety & Industrial Sales Surge in November

Safety and Industrial segment sales growth was far higher than in October or Q3.

3 Ma
iStock

Manufacturing conglomerate 3M reported its November sales figures on Monday, showing a significant jump in its Safety and Industrial segment following a modest year-over-year gain in October.

The St. Paul, MN-based maker of adhesives, PPE, safety products and Post-It notes said its November Safety and Industrial segments sales were up 16 percent year-over-year, with organic local-currency sales up by that same amount. That followed a 4 percent Safety and Industrial segment gain in October and a 6.9 percent gain in the July-September third quarter. On an organic local-currency basis, November Safety and Industrial segment sales improved 15 percent year-over-year.

Company-wide, 3M's total November sales were $2.9 billion, identical to October. November sales were up 7 percent YoY, with organic sales up by that same amount.

In 3M's other segments during November:

  • Health Care sales increased 5 percent year-over-year, with organic sales up 7 percent
  • Consumer sales increased 16 percent year-over-year, with organic sales up 15 percent
  • Transportation and Electronics increased 3 percent year-over-year, with organic sales up 1 percent

Geographically, 3M's total sales increased 10 percent in EMEA, 9 percent in the Americas and 5 percent in Asia Pacific. Organic sales increased 11 percent in the Americas (13 percent in US), 7 percent in EMEA and were flat in Asia Pacific (up 13 percent in China, down 5 percent in Japan).

3M said that its fourth quarter sales were $5.7 billion covering October-November, adding that, "Although significant macroeconomic uncertainty remains, with one month left in the quarter the company estimates its sales to be in the range of $8.2 to $8.4 billion for the fourth quarter."

The November sales report came 11 days after 3M announced that it is accelerating previously-announced reorganizational actions that will impact 2,900 jobs.


The St. Paul, MN-based company posted total Q3 sales of $8.35 billion, up 4.5 percent year-over-year (YoY) and up sequentially from $7.2 billion in Q2 sales that were down 12.2 percent. Q3 organic local-currency sales improved 0.9 percent, far better than the 13.1 percent decline it had in Q2 and the 2 percent decline it had in the month of August.

3M’s total Q3 operating profit of $1.91 billion was down from $2.01 of a year earlier, while total profit of $1.41 billion was down from $1.58 billion of a year earlier. Adjusted operating profit of $1.9 billion ticked up 0.2 percent, while adjusted net profit of $1.4 billion was down 6.1 percent.

More in Earnings