 
Apogee Reports Slight Drop in Net Sales for Architectural Segment
July 16, 2012
by Penny Stacey, pstacey@glass.com
Apogee Enterprises Inc. has reported a 0.3 percent drop in its
net sales from continuing operations for its architectural business
for the fiscal first quarter, as part of its most recent 10-Q report
filed late last week. The company reports net sales from continuing
operations of approximately $134.9 million, compared with $135.3
million for the same period last year.
“Growth in the installation and storefront businesses from
expanding our domestic geographic footprint was offset by the anticipated
first-quarter gap in architectural glass project timing,”
writes the company. In addition, the company reduced its operating
loss from continuing operations for the architectural business from
last year. For the fiscal first quarter of 2011, the company reported
an operating loss of $7 million for the fiscal first quarter within
the architectural business, compared with $1.9 million in 2012—a
73.2 percent decrease. Apogee attributes the improvement to “improved
architectural glass pricing and the impact of the volume growth
in [its] storefront business, partially offset by lower margin work
in the installation business that we anticipated.”
The architectural business’s backlog is also up 13 percent,
at $267.3 million for the fiscal first quarter and the fourth quarter
of 2011 and company officials are optimistic that this will continue,
according to the report. “We expect approximately $188 million
of the June 2, 2012, backlog to flow during the remainder of fiscal
2013,” writes Apogee.
Apogee’s architectural business includes Viracon Inc.; Harmon
Inc.; Wausau Window and Wall Systems; Linetec; and Tubelite.
As part of the report, Apogee notes that though it completed the
sale of its large domestic curtainwall business and its exit from
international curtainwall operations in several transactions in
fiscal years 1998 through 2000, it saw $776,000 in accounts payable
and accrued liabilities for the second quarter in these areas, and
long-term liabilities of $509,000 during the fiscal first quarter.
“The remaining estimated cash expenditures related to discontinued
operations are recorded as liabilities of discontinued operations
and cover warranty issues relating to domestic and international
construction projects that the company expects will be resolved
over the next five years,” writes Apogee.
"These were both mega-project installation businesses and
we haven’t done projects of that magnitude since we discontinued
those businesses," adds Apogee director of investment relations
Mary Ann Jackson. "Our Harmon business does mid-size installation
projects in the U.S. only, not internationally. Nothing has changed
since we discontinued these businesses more than 10 years ago."
Overall, the company’s net sales are up for the fiscal first
quarter of 2012—listed at $154.1 million, compared with $153.3
million last year, an increase of 0.5 percent.
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