Grainger reported sales, including fasteners, increased 2% to $2.6 billion in the second quarter of 2017, driven by an increase of 7 percentage points from volume, partially offset by declines of 3 percentage points in price, 1 percentage point from foreign exchange and 1 percentage point from the timing of the Easter holiday.

Q2 gross profit declined slightly to $1.04 billion, with operating earnings falling 24% to $232.1 million and net earnings down 43% to $98 million.

“The second quarter was in line with our expectations, as we saw continued volume growth from our strategic pricing initiatives in the United States,” stated CEO DG Macpherson. “We remain on schedule to roll out web prices on our entire assortment on Aug. 1.”

“Outside the United States, we took aggressive action to streamline our portfolio and focus on profitable businesses, as we announced the wind-down of the business in Colombia and previously announced the closing of 59 branches in Canada this year.”

Sales for the U.S. segment rose 1% to $1.9 billion in Q2, driven by a 5 percentage point increase from volume and 1 percentage point from intercompany sales, partially offset by a 4 percentage point decline in price and a 1 percentage point decline from the timing of the Easter holiday. 

U.S. operating earnings declined 11% to $312 million, hurt by lower gross profit and higher operating expenses.
Second quarter sales for the Canada segment decreased 3% to $189 million. The business in Canada posted a $28 million operating loss. 

Sales for the Other Businesses segment (Europe, Asia and Latin America) increased 11%, consisting of 14 percentage points of growth from volume and price, partially offset by a 3 percentage point decline from foreign exchange, primarily attributable to weakness in the British pound. The performance was driven by 23% sales growth for the single channel online businesses. Segment operating loss totaled $14 million.

Overall sales during the first six months of 2017 increased 2% to $5.2 billion, while net earnings decreased 24% to $273 million. Web: Grainger.com