From the American Supply Association’s Insights enewsletter, ASA member wholesaler-distributors reported median sales growth of 1.8% for the month ending Feb. 28, 2014 compared to the same month last year.

While the PHCP segment saw 5.0% growth, the industrial PVF segment declined 6.3%. Calendar year-to-date, all ASA member respondents reported a median sales increase of 0.4% with a 5.0% increase in the PHCP segment and a 6.2% decline in the industrial PVF segment. For the trailing 12 months ending Feb. 28, 2014, all respondents reported a median sales increase of 4.6%. While the responding PHCP distributors saw 6.0% growth, industrial PVF distributors declined 3.0%.

Overall, the median increase in inventories was 3.0% for February 2014 vs. 2013 (3.5% for PHCP and 0.0% for PVF). The median three-month average days sales outstanding were 44.9 days for PHCP members and 42.7 for PVF. Better than half of all participating members reported having more full-time equivalent employees compared to a year ago.

The company gross margin percentage for the month compared to one year ago was up for 47.2% and 46.2% of PHCP and PVF respondents, respectively. While the company YTD gross margin percentage was even or down for 52.8% of PHCP respondents and down for 53.9% of PVF respondents, YTD profit-before-tax decreased for more than one-third of PHCP respondents and nearly two-thirds of PVF respondents.
 

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