Dan Hendrix
Analyst · Macquarie
Thank you, and good morning. Before I get into our quarterly results I want to update you on 2 recent events.
First, I’ve had an update on the fire that occurred on our facility Picton, Australia on July 20. Let me begin by saying that we are thankful there were no injuries as a result of this incident. However, since our announcement last Friday, we have learned the damage to the production facility is such that it is a total loss. Of course, we have business interruption and property damage insurance and we’re working closely with our insurers to prepare the claim.
It’s been less than a week but already we are implementing a plan for shift production to nearby facilities in Thailand and China, with a goal to have a made-to-order business within a 5-week time, supplying product out of Thailand and China. It’s worth noting that our local, regional and corporate teams did an outstanding job implementing a complex business continuity plan in record time.
By Monday morning, our Australian customer service center was at work, taking orders and connecting sales reps to customers with open orders. It’s a credit to the brand that we’ve built in Australia that every customer we contacted agreed to work with us on extended lead times. Drawing capacity from the other 2 plants in the region demonstrates the strength of our global platform that we’ve talked about so much.
It is gratifying to know that in this crisis, we are well positioned to rebound and draw on our regional strengths and efficiencies, compatibilities. We will continue to provide you with updates on the Australian situation as next steps emerge.
The other big piece of news announced yesterday is that we have signed a definitive agreement to sell Bentley Prince Street to Dominus Capital, a private equity investment firm in partnership with members of the Bentley management team, for $35 million in an all-cash transaction.
This is a good opportunity for both Interface and Bentley Prince Street. For us, it will allow us to redeploy our capital and resources into our core Interface modular carpet tile business, creating the opportunity to generate greater returns and value. We are pleased to make this announcement.
Now let’s turn to our financial results for the second quarter of 2012. Overall, we generated good sales levels, recorded nice incremental contribution margins relative to first quarter levels and benefited from the efficiencies that come with many of the restructuring initiatives that we previously discussed.
The Americas continues to be the bright spot with continued strong growth in the quarter. After a tough start to the year, order momentum is building, and while conditions remain challenging in Europe, I’m encouraged by our performance and recent trends that we’re seeing in those markets.
Orders are moving in the right trajectory as well. We finished second quarter with orders of $280 million, down approximately 4% versus the prior year. Factoring in the effect of currencies, orders were flat with our book-to-bill greater than that of the first quarter.
Our backlog increased by $21 million in the quarter and by $35 million since the start of the year. On the sales front, similar to the first quarter, we were up against a tough year-over-year comparison. That said, we grew sales by more than 9% on a sequential basis versus the first quarter. This increase was driven primarily by sales growth in our Americas modular business, including record second quarter sales in both the U.S. and Americas overall.
We see continued demand across most of our major market -- major end-use markets, in the Americas, except for the government business.
We also owe some good news to the continued strong performance of our floor consumer business. For the second quarter, floor generated growth of 21% with same-store sales up 41% year-over-year. We had a slight operating loss in the quarter, which was anticipated as we continue to ramp up the floor retail footprint, several floor stores generated an operating profit.
We expect to open 8 new floor stores over the coming months, bringing our total store count to 19 by the end of the year. We remain on track to open future locations in each of the top 30 markets in North America.
Our investments in floor continue to be an integral part of our strategic investment initiative, and our success to date in the consumer market is proof positive that the consumer likes carpet tile and it’s a growth opportunity for us.
Turning to Europe, challenging conditions in that market continue to reflect the broader economic environment there. Overall, markets in Europe appear to be stabilizing with pockets of uncertainty continuing where they’re expected to be.
While Europe sales declined on a year-over-year basis, they were largely flat relative to the first quarter levels. Breaking down the performance in Europe in the second quarter on a geographical basis. Sales erosion occurred in the Southern European regions, while sales were relatively flat in the U.K. and up in Germany and Holland. A negative currency impact is significant to Europe’s top line. On a local currency basis, sales in Europe declined only 2%, but were down 13% as reported in U.S. dollars.
More recently, specifically in June and July, we have seen improved activity in Europe in local currency terms and we anticipate the full benefits of the Shelf plant closure will begin to be realized in the third quarter. We’re optimistic that we will continue to see improved performance in Europe going forward.
Business in Asia is up sequentially, with mainland China up sequentially as well and July orders in Asia were nicely. So, we anticipate a better second half for the year in that region.
Australia continues to feel the impact of a difficult year-over-year comparison, owing to the construction boom and government stimulus spending that characterized most of 2011. As a result, Australia was sequentially flat from the first quarter to the second quarter and down compared to the second quarter last year.
Efficiencies in price increases are paying off in the form of improved gross margins during the second quarter. Raw material costs remained relatively flat in the first quarter levels, we expect costs to decrease during the course of the year and should see gross margin expansion opportunities as a result. We had a successful quarter in controlling SG&A expenses, which were down approximately 100 basis points as a percentage of sales year-over-year.
Looking ahead, we remain encouraged by Americas’ order trends particularly the United States, with the pipeline of pent-up demand in the corporate office market continues to be good. We are also seeing the benefit of non-office market conversions to tile and particularly in education and hospitality.
Emerging markets are a bright spot as well, particularly in Latin America, with market expansion in eastern Europe, Russia and mainland China continuing. India, also an emerging market for us, is moderating. And the government segment is down significantly almost everywhere, except the U.K.
Because uncertainty continues in Europe, we will continue to balance tight controls and cost reduction efforts in that region, with the strategic investments that are necessary to realize growth opportunities in higher-performing markets
With that I’ll turn it over to Patrick.