Miller Industries Has Quarterly Nets Sales Up 21.2%

Miller Industries, Inc. Thursday announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30.

For the second quarter of 2013, net sales were $105.8 million, an increase of 21.2 percent compared with $87.3 million for the second quarter of 2012. Net income in the second quarter of 2013 was $2.9 million, or $0.26 per diluted share, an increase of 13.9 percent as compared to net income of $2.5 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, in the prior year period, which included $1.0 million of other income from foreign currency transactions. 

Gross profit for the second quarter of 2013 was $11.7 million, or 11.1 percent of net sales, compared to $10.6 million, or 12.1 percent of net sales, for the second quarter of 2012.  For the second quarter of 2013, selling, general and administrative expenses were $7.2 million, or 6.8 percent of net sales, compared to $7.2 million, or 8.2 percent of net sales, in the prior year period. 

For the six-month period ended June 30, net sales were $190.8 million, an increase of 4.7 percent compared to $182.3 million in the prior year period.  The company reported net income of $4.2 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, for the first half of 2013, compared to net income for the first half of 2012 of $4.6 million, or $0.40 per diluted share.

The company also announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.14 per share, payable Sept. 23, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Sept. 16. 

Jeffrey I. Badgley, CEO of the company, stated, "We are pleased with our performance in the second quarter.  Demand continued to improve within our domestic commercial markets resulting in increased production and sales, a continuation of the trends witnessed in the first quarter.  Orders for our products increased driven by these improved market conditions.  We successfully delivered on these orders due to the initiatives undertaken in the first quarter to increase production levels to account for these changing market conditions.  Meanwhile, we remained mindful of costs as evidenced by the decrease in SG&A as a percentage of sales."

Mr. Badgley added, "During the quarter, we continued to make in-roads from our geographic expansion strategy by securing government-related orders in Europe and other international regions.  While these orders were modest in size, we are pleased with our traction in our international expansion initiatives.  Going forward, we will continue to strategically add distribution channels internationally as we see longer-term opportunity abroad.  Additionally, we began to deliver on our order with a prime contractor to provide towing and recovery equipment to the French military late in the second quarter.  We will deliver on more of these orders in second half of 2013 and throughout 2014." 

Mr. Badgley concluded, "We believe that the market is making an upturn and accordingly we plan to maintain our production levels to account for this increase in activity.  That said, the overall economic environment remains below normalized conditions, particularly in Europe, and visibility is still limited.  Looking ahead to the second half of the year, we will continue to focus on our cost containment efforts in order to expand our profitability, while remaining aggressive on the geographic expansion front and bidding for large orders to build momentum for our revenue."

Miller Industries is the world's largest manufacturer of towing and recovery equipment, and markets its towing and recovery equipment under a number of brands, including Century, Vulcan, Chevron, Holmes, Challenger, Champion, Jige, Boniface and Eagle.