Anixter International Inc. (NYSE: AXE) reported sales of $1.58 billion for the quarter ended June 28, 2013, a 0.2 percent increase compared to the same period in 2012. The company’s organic sales growth, which excludes the impact of the following items, declined by 0.6 percent year-over-year: $26.6 million from the second quarter 2012 acquisition of Jorvex; $8.8 million from the unfavorable effect of copper pricing; and $5 million from the unfavorable effect of foreign exchange.
“As we expected, growth in the first half of the year was muted by the global macroeconomic climate,” said Bob Eck, president and CEO, in a press release. “Our people delivered very sound performance despite these challenging conditions. We were encouraged by improving market conditions in our core ECS business, which led to strong sales and margin performance in that segment’s North America region.”
Anixter’s operating income of $85.8 million decreased by 4.6 percent during the second quarter compared to 2012, when income was $89.9 million. The company attributes the year-over-year decrease to weaker copper pricing and fewer large industrial projects in the electrical and electronic wire and cable segment. Weaker manufacturing levels affecting OEM supply volume and offsetting the improvement in the enterprise cabling and security solutions segment also played a role in the decrease, according to the firm.
During the quarter, the company generated $59 million of cash from operations bringing the year-to-date cash flow from operations to $112 million. This compares to $59 million of cash from operations in the first half of 2012.
“As we enter the third quarter we remain cautiously optimistic about the second half of 2013 and expect to deliver low single digit organic sales growth for the full year,” said Eck. “While global markets are difficult to predict, we took aggressive measures in 2012 that position us to expand our leadership position within each of our segments, further leveraging our global supply chain platform to better serve our customers.”
Tagged with tED