Third-quarter same-store sales for Boyd Group Income Fund, parent company to Gerber Collision & Glass and Glass America, increased $9.74 million USD ($11.0 million CAD) or 8.8 percent in the U.S. “U.S. glass sales were meaningful, but slightly lower than the 8.8-percent same-store growth,” said Brock Bulbuck, president and CEO during a conference call.
On a gross margin basis, Bulbuck noted that the glass business has a “significantly different profile” than the company’s other business segments.
“It has very significantly lower gross margins,” he pointed out.
Moving the network glass call center to Netcost, which the company recently purchased, also translated into some additional expenses for the quarter, he said.
“We did experience lower retail glass margins in the quarter,” he said. “This was somewhat related to parts’ availability; I would expect this to be temporary. We will have a better handle on this going forward. (And the impact was not all that significant).”
When asked if the company is looking for additional glass acquisitions, Bulbuck said it is not high on the priority list.
“We haven’t been focused on acquisition opportunities with the glass business,” he explained. “We acquired the Netcost glass network because it had strategic value. With those integration activities and the continuing integration activities from Glass America, our focus has been limited to realizing our initial business plan.
“We do believe there are acquisition opportunities available at this juncture, but we do not have a timeline as to when we will pursue those,” he added.
Company sales in the U.S. for the three months ended September 30, 2014 came in at $175.5 million USD ($198.2 million CAD), an increase from 2013 of $60.8 million USD ($68.7 million CAD), or 53.0 percent, when compared to $114.8 million USD ($129.6 million CAD) for same period last year.
