Houston Wire & Cable Company today reported record fourth quarter sales of $104.4 million, a 19.3% increase for the same quarter last year. Company executives said the sales growth was due to increased MRO activity and in electrical markets.
In presenting the results, Jim Pokluda, president and chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement, “I was extremely pleased with our team’s strong year-end sales performance. Activity was solid for the entire quarter. Our 19.3% year-over-year sales increase was the result of steady MRO demand and an increase in project business in both electrical and steel wire rope end markets. I was also pleased with the sequential sales increase of 8.6%.
“Similar to prior quarter experiences, we continued to benefit from resurgence in demand in several major markets. Nevertheless, there remained regions that performed below our expectations as we believe industrial activity has not fully returned to pre-recession levels in all areas of the United States. Despite inconsistent market conditions and customer activity, several strategic markets including Oil & Gas, Power Generation and Industrials performed well. We added 88 new customers during the quarter, and sales of recently introduced new products such as specialty oil and gas cables and aluminum cables exceeded our internal expectations.”
The company said for the quarter it recorded net income of $4.4 million, an increase of 43.2% from 3.1 million.
For 2012, Houston Wire & Cable had sales of $393 million, a decrease of 1% from $396.6 million in 2012. The company declared a dividend of 0.36 percent per share.